“The Israeli navy fired on the ships five minutes before commandos descended from ropes that dangled from helicopters. “Freegaza - Survivor testimonies - Haneen Zuaby - Minister Israeli Knesset
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Sunday, June 06, 2010
According to video released by the IDF...
There were two attempts by Israeli troops to board the Mavi Marmara. The first a water assault, was repelled by the passengers.
This video record of the failed assault establishes certain facts:
1) The passengers intended to keep the IDF commandos off the ship.
2) The passengers had sticks and metal rods which they shook in the universal warning, "Come here and I got something fo' yo' ass!"
3) The IDF was not prepared for the resistance they met.
4) At this point, no one has gotten hurt.
There is now a lull in the action and the IDF has lots of choices including:
a) Ask to inspect the ship's cargo at sea
b) Try to negotiate a non-violent helicopter boarding.
c) Warn the folks on the deck to drop their sticks and pipes and kitchen knives and announce that if they impede the troops' landing the IDF intends to use deadly force.
d) Wait until the ship is closer to Gaza and in shallow water then disable it thus reducing the danger to passengers should the ship itself be damaged and sink.
As always, there were lots non-violent alternatives and then there was:
z) Use more force.
Having chosen a hostile helicopter landing the chopper hovered above the Mavi Marmara and according to the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, The boarding party had real-time photographs of the ships from IDF helicopters hovering overhead,
So they could see (if they could not figure out) that the folks waving the sticks and bars who had repelled the first boarding attempt had not gone away.
After the first paratrooper was captured and disarmed the commanders were able to break off the attack and begin negotiations for the captured soldier. But they chose to continue and send more young Israeli soldiers into a gauntlet of angry people violently defending their boat.
This video record of the failed assault establishes certain facts:
1) The passengers intended to keep the IDF commandos off the ship.
2) The passengers had sticks and metal rods which they shook in the universal warning, "Come here and I got something fo' yo' ass!"
3) The IDF was not prepared for the resistance they met.
4) At this point, no one has gotten hurt.
There is now a lull in the action and the IDF has lots of choices including:
a) Ask to inspect the ship's cargo at sea
b) Try to negotiate a non-violent helicopter boarding.
c) Warn the folks on the deck to drop their sticks and pipes and kitchen knives and announce that if they impede the troops' landing the IDF intends to use deadly force.
d) Wait until the ship is closer to Gaza and in shallow water then disable it thus reducing the danger to passengers should the ship itself be damaged and sink.
As always, there were lots non-violent alternatives and then there was:
z) Use more force.
Having chosen a hostile helicopter landing the chopper hovered above the Mavi Marmara and according to the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, The boarding party had real-time photographs of the ships from IDF helicopters hovering overhead,
So they could see (if they could not figure out) that the folks waving the sticks and bars who had repelled the first boarding attempt had not gone away.
The IDF still had all the nonviolent options available to them. They could have postponed, cancelled, rethought the attack. They could again have warned the folks on the deck that resistance would be met with deadly force. But, again according to the Haaretz report.
a decision was made to board the Marmara with 14 commandos, some of whom rappelled from a helicopter. They carried rifles loaded with paint balls for crowd control, as well as loaded pistols, but the latter were not supposed to be used.
Former Israeli Navy chief Ami Ayalon said in Highland Park last week, "Professional soldiers know that anytime you send warriors into an operation among civilians you are sentencing a certain number of civilians will die. Whatever politicians may say, professionals know that civilians will die."
Knowing all this some IDF commander gave the order, "go!"
As the video shows,
a decision was made to board the Marmara with 14 commandos, some of whom rappelled from a helicopter. They carried rifles loaded with paint balls for crowd control, as well as loaded pistols, but the latter were not supposed to be used.
Former Israeli Navy chief Ami Ayalon said in Highland Park last week, "Professional soldiers know that anytime you send warriors into an operation among civilians you are sentencing a certain number of civilians will die. Whatever politicians may say, professionals know that civilians will die."
Knowing all this some IDF commander gave the order, "go!"
As the video shows,
After the first paratrooper was captured and disarmed the commanders were able to break off the attack and begin negotiations for the captured soldier. But they chose to continue and send more young Israeli soldiers into a gauntlet of angry people violently defending their boat.
The Torah warns against placing a stumbling block before the blind, which the rabbis interpret to mean that you may not take an action that would tempt a normal person to sin.
At every point in the confrontation and despite clear warnings from the passengers, decisions to escalate force were made by IDF commanders with easily predictable results and tragic results for the victims and for Israel.
"War is the remedy my enemy has chosen, I say let him have as much of it as he wants." - Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Monday, June 01, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Friday, January 09, 2009
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Young Osama
Osama bin Laden’s old school—the Al Thagher Model School—sits on several dozen arid acres lined by eucalyptus trees, whose branches have been twisted by winds from the Red Sea. The campus spreads north from the Old Mecca Road, near downtown Jedda, the Saudi Arabian port city where bin Laden spent most of his childhood and teen-age years. The school’s main building is a two-story rectangle constructed from concrete and fieldstone in a featureless modern style. Inside, dim hallways connect two wings of classrooms. In bin Laden’s day—he graduated in 1976—there was a wing for middle-school students, and another for the high school. more
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Lugar-Obama: New Initiatives in Cooperation Threat Reduction
Lugar-Obama: New Initiatives in Cooperation Threat Reduction
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar chaired a hearing on “New Initiatives in Cooperative Threat Reduction” on Thursday, February 9, 2006. The Honorable Robert Joseph, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, testified at the hearing that discussed the Lugar-Obama bill.
Introduced on November 1, 2005, by Sens. Lugar and Barack Obama (D-IL), Lugar-Obama is comprehensive legislation that would expand the cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons. It is patterned after the Nunn-Lugar program that focuses on weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union and would expand the detection and interdiction of weapons and materials of mass destruction.
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar chaired a hearing on “New Initiatives in Cooperative Threat Reduction” on Thursday, February 9, 2006. The Honorable Robert Joseph, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, testified at the hearing that discussed the Lugar-Obama bill.
Introduced on November 1, 2005, by Sens. Lugar and Barack Obama (D-IL), Lugar-Obama is comprehensive legislation that would expand the cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons. It is patterned after the Nunn-Lugar program that focuses on weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union and would expand the detection and interdiction of weapons and materials of mass destruction.
Senate Passes Coburn-Obama Bill to Create Internet Database of Federal Spending
September 8, 2006
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama (D-IL) today hailed the Senate’s passage of the “Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act,” a bill that will create a Google-like search engine and database to track approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans.
“Every American has the right to know how their government spends their money, and then to hold elected officials accountable for those decisions. I applaud my colleagues for unanimously supporting a bill that will aid the American people in that effort,” Dr. Coburn said. “This bill is a small but significant step toward changing the culture in Washington. Only by fostering a culture of openness, transparency and accountability will Congress come together to address the mounting fiscal challenges that threaten our future prosperity.” more
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Seven Questions: The World According to Hamas
"He's been called a terrorist, an extremist, and the mastermind behind the recent chaos in Gaza. The state of Israel has even tried to assassinate him. But Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, insists he is a moderate man in search of peace for the Palestinian people."****
FP: Should the American people, who remember what Hamas did in the 1990s with suicide bombers and who read reports about the Qassam rockets, be scared of Hamas?
KM: Hamas is a moderate movement. It is not religiously dogmatic. We are Muslims because we are from a Muslim environment, just as you and others are from a Christian environment. We accept religious pluralism and, likewise, political pluralism. And we have open relations with Christians. And third, the martyrdom operations are part of the response to the Israeli massacres. So why do the people in America, or the West, or the world in general, criticize what is being done by Hamas, or the Palestinian people, but they do not criticize Israel’s behavior? Israel is extremely heavily armed and the strongest state in the region, while we are isolated. Our rockets are extremely primitive, while Israel has American rockets, Apache [helicopter gunships], and laser-guided missiles. more
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Elevator Prayer in Cairo
I've ridden in many, many Chicago and New York elevators where this would have been very useful... and I LOVE Current.com!
Waving Goodbye to Hegemony - NYTimes
By PARAG KHANNA - Turn on the TV today, and you could be forgiven for thinking it’s 1999. Democrats and Republicans are bickering about where and how to intervene, whether to do it alone or with allies and what kind of world America should lead. Democrats believe they can hit a reset button, and Republicans believe muscular moralism is the way to go. It’s as if the first decade of the 21st century didn’t happen — and almost as if history itself doesn’t happen. But the distribution of power in the world has fundamentally altered over the two presidential terms of George W. Bush, both because of his policies and, more significant, despite them. Maybe the best way to understand how quickly history happens is to look just a bit ahead. more
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
"Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War"
One more nail in the coffin of plausible deniability, Iraq: The War Card - The Center for Public Integrity
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Heath Ledger, Actor, Is Found Dead at 28 - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog
Heathcliff Ledger died young and will make a fine looking corpse, two outa three ain't bad. I predict there will someday be an urban myth that he did not die but faked his suicide so he could live the wild, underground gay life we all presumably want.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Politics, not military force helps US in Al Anbar
Political missteps by Islamists and buckets of cash staunched US bleeding in western Iraq Maj General John F. Kelly, incoming commander of MNF in Iraq tells NPR.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
tehran times : Columbia professors plan to visit Iran to apologize to Ahmadinejad
NEW YORK (MNA) – An academic delegation of Columbia University professors and deans of faculties plans to visit Tehran to officially apologize to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.
The delegation plans to express regret for the insulting remarks Columbia University President Lee Bollinger directed at Ahmadinejad on September 24 in his introductory speech, the Mehr News Agency correspondent in New York reported.
Since the incident, the deans and professors from the faculties of history, anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, philosophy and Islamic studies have criticized Bollinger’s behavior toward Ahmadinejad. more
The delegation plans to express regret for the insulting remarks Columbia University President Lee Bollinger directed at Ahmadinejad on September 24 in his introductory speech, the Mehr News Agency correspondent in New York reported.
Since the incident, the deans and professors from the faculties of history, anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, philosophy and Islamic studies have criticized Bollinger’s behavior toward Ahmadinejad. more
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
2003 Memo Says Iranian Leaders Backed Talks - washingtonpost.com
The Swiss ambassador to Iran informed U.S. officials in 2003 that an Iranian proposal for comprehensive talks with the United States had been reviewed and approved by Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; then-President Mohammad Khatami; and then-Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, according to a copy of the cover letter to the Iranian document.
"I got the clear impression that there is a strong will of the regime to tackle the problem with the U.S. now and to try it with this initiative," Tim Guldimann, the ambassador, wrote in a cover letter that was faxed to the State Department on May 4, 2003. Guldimann attached a one-page Iranian document labeled "Roadmap" that listed U.S. and Iranian aims for potential negotiations, putting on the table such issues as an end to Iran's support for anti-Israeli militants, action against terrorist groups on Iranian soil and acceptance of Israel's right to exist. more
"I got the clear impression that there is a strong will of the regime to tackle the problem with the U.S. now and to try it with this initiative," Tim Guldimann, the ambassador, wrote in a cover letter that was faxed to the State Department on May 4, 2003. Guldimann attached a one-page Iranian document labeled "Roadmap" that listed U.S. and Iranian aims for potential negotiations, putting on the table such issues as an end to Iran's support for anti-Israeli militants, action against terrorist groups on Iranian soil and acceptance of Israel's right to exist. more
"Book Reveals Details of Iran’s Diplomatic Outreach to Israel - Forward.com"
A soon to be released book details previously unknown backroom contacts between Iran and Israel in 2003, when Tehran was pushing the Bush administration into entering comprehensive diplomatic negotiations. more
Saudi King Condemns "Illegal" Occupation of Iraq - New York Times
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told Arab leaders on Wednesday that the American occupation of Iraq is “illegal,” and he warned that unless Arab governments settle their differences, foreign powers like the United States would continue to dictate the region’s politics. more
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Thursday, January 03, 2008
The Israel Lobby
The amazing thing about the book is that it made me much more sympathetic to George Bush! This vid is not as shocking as the book but in its own way just as important. For one thing, it's an example of what we never see in the US, a serious, thoughtful examination of the workings of the Lobby. Vive la France!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Snack Torture - Palestinians forced to eat Israeli Junk Food
Soldiers indicted on charges of abusing Palestinian prisonersAt the conclusion of an investigation lasting more than a year, the Military Advocate General has charged five soldiers from the Nahshon Battalion with three counts of aggravated assault.
Three of the soldiers have already been discharged from the army and one was transferred to another unit. Only one soldier remains in active duty in the battalion.
According to the indictment, the soldiers were responsible for transferring 13 Palestinian detainees from the Tulkarm Regional Brigade to an IDF military court in northern Israel in April 2006.
During the journey, the soldiers grabbed the prisoners by their hair, struck their chests and necks and demanded they repeat the number soldiers had previously assigned them with. When a prisoner would say the correct number, the soldiers would fall upon him in a beating frenzy.
The indictment also charges the soldiers with forced the prisoners to eat Bamba, an Israel snack food made of peanut butter. The soldiers reportedly ridiculed the prisoners while they ate. The soldiers also stopped along the way to buy French fries and force-fed them to the Palestinians. more
Martyr Mom
A friend of mine is an Ethiopian Jew. As a child, the first word she was taught, before "mommy" and "daddy," was "Jerusalem." Looks like Palestinians have that same kind of commitment.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Pres. Ronald Reagan & The "Afghan Freedom Fighters"
By the President of the United States of America, 21 March 1983 The tragedy of Afghanistan continues as the valiant and courageous Afghan freedom fighters [The Taliban] persevere in standing up against the brutal power of the Soviet invasion and occupation. The Afghan people are struggling to reclaim their freedom, which was taken from them when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December of 1979.
In this three-year period the Soviet Union has been unable to subjugate Afghanistan. The Soviet forces are pitted against an extraordinary people who, in their determination to preserve the character of their ancient land, have organized an effective and still spreading country-wide resistance. The resistance of the Afghan freedom fighters is an example to all the world of the invincibility of the ideals we in this country hold most dear, the ideals of freedom and independence. more
Blogged with Flock
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Go Al Gore!
The media savvy climate gang has a convenient idea: simple numbers to shape climate concersations: 2, 445 and 25 - 40,
Steel strike of 1919 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Turns out that back in the old days Republicans loved illegal Mexican immigrants, and Negroes too!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Israel is World's Fourth Largest Arms Exporter - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Arutz Sheva
OK, so maybe the IDF lost to Hassan Nasrallah and Hizbollah, maybe it's a major destination for the slave trade, the country may be committing war crimes in Gaza but Israel is still arms dealer to the planet.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
What is treason?
My buddy Jay Friedheim, an admiralty attorney in Honolulu is not mentioned in this story but he made it happen. - aWASHINGTON, Nov. 10 — As the insurgency in Iraq escalated in the spring of 2004, American officials entrusted an Iraqi businessman with issuing weapons to Iraqi police cadets training to help quell the violence.
By all accounts, the businessman, Kassim al-Saffar, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, did well at distributing the Pentagon-supplied weapons from the Baghdad Police Academy armory he managed for a military contractor. But, co-workers say, he also turned the armory into his own private arms bazaar with the seeming approval of some American officials and executives, selling AK-47 assault rifles, Glock pistols and heavy machine guns to anyone with cash in hand — Iraqi militias, South African security guards and even American contractors. more
Pentagon doves behind the latest NIE?
Is this Washington or the Kremlin?
The latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran was the final factor in a military equation that now appears to guarantee that there will be no war with Iran during the Bush administration. It meshes with the views of the operational types at the Pentagon, who have steadfastly resisted the march to war led by some Administration hawks. The anti-war group was composed of Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and Admiral William Fallon, who oversees the U.S. forces that would have had to wage that war. In recent months, all have pushed back privately and publicly, on the wisdom of going to war with Tehran. Indeed, the Pentagon's intelligence units were instrumental in forming the NIE's conclusions. more
Thursday, November 29, 2007
One third of Israelis "Strictly observant."
It may be bad for Middle East peace but it's great for the Rabbi business, a recent survey claims 80 % of Israelis say they observe "religious traditions."
Sunday, November 25, 2007
CNN - Hamas founder sets Israel truce terms - October 7, 1997
Israel calls offer 'a positive change'October 7, 1997
Web posted at: 10:43 a.m. EDT (1443 GMT) In this story:
* Offer to end suicide bombings
* Palestinian-Israeli peace talks resume
* Related stories and sites
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (CNN) -- Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the Islamic fundamentalist movement Hamas, said Tuesday he would forge a truce with Israel that would end suicide bombings if Israel withdrew completely from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and removed all of its Jewish settlements.
"If Israel withdraws completely from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and it removes all of its settlements, I will make a truce with it. You have my word for it," he said.
David Bar-Illan, a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the peace overture was "a positive change" despite the "unacceptable conditions."
In the past, militants within Hamas have never indicated a willingness to negotiate. Instead, they have spoken of a "holy war" to establish an Islamic state in all of what is now Israel. more
Friday, November 23, 2007
Are suicide bombers kamikazes?
By Marylou BarryJapan's former ambassador to Lebanon, Naoto Amaki, had a telling conversation with Hezbollah's Sheik Hassan Nasrallah shortly following al-Qaida's September 2001 attack on America.
"He told me, 'We learned how to do suicide missions from the kamikazes,'" Amaki recounted. "Nasrallah said the Shiites all commend the Japanese 'samurai spirit.'" But the ambassador rejected Nasrallah's twisted tribute.
Are shahids kamikazes? No way, say the real kamikazes. Now octogenarian veterans, Japanese kamikaze survivors deeply resent being compared to terrorists and don't hesitate to explain why. more
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Hamas: Ceasefire for return to 1967 border - Israel News, Ynetnews
Come on, how can ya not love a jihadi with a comb over? more
Mashaal okays state with 1967 borders | Jerusalem Post
Hamas politburo leader Khaled Mashaal reiterated Wednesday that his group would not recognize Israel. In an interview published Thursday in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat and cited by Maariv, Mashaal said he was willing to accept a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, as well as a hudna [truce] with Israel but not to recognize the "occupation." More
Greenpeace Strippers Disrupt Peres
Protestors led away from conference on nuclear Middle East at Tel Aviv UniversityGreenpeace activists who arrived Thursday morning at a conference on the nuclear issue at Tel Aviv University stripped in protest a few moments before the start of a speech by President Shimon Peres.
The protestors carried leaflets bearing the messages "strip the Middle East of nuclear programs" and "a new Middle East = clean from nuclear programs." They were briskly removed from the hall by security guards. more
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
The Green Bomb
Russia test world's most powerful non-nuclear weapon.
MOSCOW - The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia’s state television reported Tuesday.
MOSCOW - The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia’s state television reported Tuesday.
It was the latest show of Russia’s military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States.
Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the “dad of all bombs,” is four times more powerful than the U.S. “mother of all bombs.” More
Friday, October 19, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Al Qaeda - To black Americans
Say what you want about their methods but this mashup of Ayman al Zawahiri and Malcolm X makes a whole lot more sense than anything Obama or Al Sharpton are saying.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Al Jazeera English - News - Israel And Hezbollah Agree Exchange
(Hassan Nasrallah said in September 2005 he wanted negotiate deals for the release of Lebanese citizens held by Israel. Looks like he is, slowly but surely, getting his wish. - a)
Lebanon's Hezbollah movement has agreed to hand over the remains of an Israeli in exchange for a Lebanese prisoner and the bodies of two of the group's fighters.
"An exchange of bodies and a prisoner swap could take place this afternoon at the Naqoura crossing between Israel and Lebanon," a Lebanese security source said on Monday.
The two dead Hezbollah fighters went missing last summer during the 34 day war between the Shia Muslim group and Israel in southern Lebanon.
The conflict began in July 2006 after the Lebanese movement captured Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, two Israeli soldiers, in a cross-border raid.
An army report released last December said that the two soldiers were wounded, one seriously and the other only moderately, during their capture.more
Friday, October 12, 2007
Why Al Gore got the Nobel Peace Prize
Al Gore reacts to his win
From the Nobel Committee award announcement
"Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind. They may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states." more
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Desmond Tutu, anti-Jew?
Critics claim this speech is anti-Semitic and compares Jews to Hitler. You decide. - aApartheid in the Holy Land
Desmond Tutu
Monday April 29, 2002 The Guardian
In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am patron of a Holocaust centre in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders.
What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about.
On one of my visits to the Holy Land I drove to a church with the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem. I could hear tears in his voice as he pointed to Jewish settlements. I thought of the desire of Israelis for security. But what of the Palestinians who have lost their land and homes? more
Monday, October 08, 2007
Pieces Emerge in Blackwater Shooting
BAGHDAD - Three black GMC Suburbans - each fitted with armored plates and bulletproof windows - made up the heart of the convoy. The front and rear were protected by Blackwater USA gun trucks, known as Mambas, each mounted with two belt-fed 7.62 caliber heavy guns.
The vehicles snaked through the checkpoints and blast walls of the Green Zone on another scorching morning. The temperature that day - Sept. 16 - would rise again above 100 degrees.
Kerry Pelzman, a USAID specialist on helping rebuild Iraqi businesses, schools and other infrastructure, rode in one of the Suburbans. Her appointment was about two miles from the nearest Green Zone entrance in a neighborhood of opulent homes once occupied by members of the Saddam Hussein regime.
Within a few minutes, Pelzman was again in a secure compound for a planning session on Izdihar - a U.S.-Iraqi joint venture company that was working to rebuild Iraq's badly damaged services and funded by USAID on a three-year contract. More
Sunday, September 30, 2007
David Bromwich: Hillary Clinton Votes for War Again - Politics on The Huffington Post
Yesterday, by a vote of 76-22, the Senate passed the Kyl-Lieberman amendment in support of military actions against Iran. This is the second such endorsement of the president by a senate majority in just three months. In July, the Lieberman amendment to "confront Iran" passed with the far stronger majority of 97-0.
The original draft of Kyl-Lieberman had asked U.S. forces to "combat, contain, and roll back" the Iranian menace within Iraq. But the words "roll back" were all too plainly a coded endorsement of hot pursuit into Iran; and the senators did not want to go quite so far. To assure a larger majority the language was accordingly trimmed and blurred to say "that it should be the policy of the United States to stop inside Iraq the violent activities and destabilizing influence of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies."
The inclusion of Hezbollah deserves some notice. It is part of a larger attempt, already apparent in the Lebanon war of 2006, to manufacture an "amalgam" of all the enemies of Israel and the United States throughout the region, and to treat them all as one enemy. Those who believe in the amalgam will come to agree that many more wars by the United States and Israel are needed to crush this enemy.
More provocative is a secondary detail of the amendment, which received less notice from the mainstream media. Kyl-Lieberman approves the listing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran as a "foreign terrorist organization." Now, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard is the largest branch of the Iranian military. By granting Vice President Cheney's wish (a distant dream in 2005) to put the Iranian guard on the U.S. terrorist list, the Senate has classified the army of Iran as an army of terrorists. The president, therefore, as he follows out the Cheney plan has all the support he requires for asserting in his next speech to an army or veterans group that Iran is a nation of terrorists.
It was said during the Vietnam War that "a dead Vietnamese is a Viet Cong." It will assuage the conscience for U.S. bombers of Iran to know that a dead Iranian is a terrorist. The Senate, by this classification, has absolved the bombers in advance. more
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Miliband: We have alienated millions of Muslims over Iraq
David Miliband, the foreign secretary, yesterday attempted a break with a decade of Blairite foreign policy, admitting a scarred government needed to stop and think why its well-intentioned interventions had alienated millions of Muslims.
In a frank speech, he also admitted there could be no military solutions in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the government had found it hard to win peace in such countries. He repeatedly said the government needed to learn lessons as it launched a second wave of foreign policy in which there would be greater reliance on stronger multilateral institutions. More
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Pope 'refused audience for Rice'
Pope Benedict XVI refused a recent request by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the Middle East and Iraq, Vatican sources say.
The Pope refused a request for an audience during the August holidays.
Senior Vatican sources told the BBC the Pope does not normally receive politicians on his annual holiday at the Castelgandolfo residence near Rome.
But one leading Italian newspaper said it was an evident snub by the Vatican towards the Bush administration.
Christian rights
There are at least two reasons why Pope Benedict may have decided peremptorily against a private meeting with Ms Rice.
First, it was Ms Rice who just before the outbreak of the Iraq war in March 2003 made it clear to a special papal envoy sent from Rome, Cardinal Pio Laghi, that the Bush administration was not interested in the views of the late Pope on the immorality of launching its planned military offensive.
Secondly, the US has responded in a manner considered unacceptable at the Vatican to the protection of the rights of Iraqi Christians under the new Iraqi constitution.
The Bush administration has told the Vatican that as coalition forces have not succeeded in securing the whole territory of Iraq, they are unable to protect non-Muslims.
Instead of meeting the Pope, Ms Rice had to make do with a telephone conversation with the Vatican's number two, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was visiting the US during August on other business.
The Pope refused a request for an audience during the August holidays.
Senior Vatican sources told the BBC the Pope does not normally receive politicians on his annual holiday at the Castelgandolfo residence near Rome.
But one leading Italian newspaper said it was an evident snub by the Vatican towards the Bush administration.
Christian rights
There are at least two reasons why Pope Benedict may have decided peremptorily against a private meeting with Ms Rice.
First, it was Ms Rice who just before the outbreak of the Iraq war in March 2003 made it clear to a special papal envoy sent from Rome, Cardinal Pio Laghi, that the Bush administration was not interested in the views of the late Pope on the immorality of launching its planned military offensive.
Secondly, the US has responded in a manner considered unacceptable at the Vatican to the protection of the rights of Iraqi Christians under the new Iraqi constitution.
The Bush administration has told the Vatican that as coalition forces have not succeeded in securing the whole territory of Iraq, they are unable to protect non-Muslims.
Instead of meeting the Pope, Ms Rice had to make do with a telephone conversation with the Vatican's number two, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was visiting the US during August on other business.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
U.S. seeks pact with Shiite militia
BAGHDAD -- -- U.S. diplomats and military officers have been in talks with members of the armed movement loyal to Muqtada Sadr, a sharp reversal of policy and a grudging recognition that the radical Shiite cleric holds a dominant position in much of Baghdad and other parts of Iraq.
The secret dialogue has been going on since at least early 2006, but appeared to yield a tangible result only in the last week -- with relative calm in an area of west Baghdad that has been among the capital's most dangerous sections.
The discussions have been complicated by divisions within Sadr's movement as well as the cleric's public vow never to meet with Iraq's occupiers. Underlying the issue's sensitivity, Sadrists publicly deny any contact with the Americans or British -- fully aware the price of acknowledging such meetings would be banishment from the movement or worse.
The dialogue represents a drastic turnaround in the U.S. approach to Sadr and his militia, the Mahdi Army. The military hopes to negotiate the same kind of marriage of convenience it has reached in other parts of Iraq with former insurgent groups, many Saddam Hussein loyalists, and the Sunni tribes that supported them. Both efforts are examples of how U.S. officials have sought to end violence by cooperating with groups they once considered intractable enemies. more
Poll: Bin Laden tops Musharraf in Pakistan - CNN.com
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf -- a key U.S. ally -- is less popular in his own country than al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to a poll of Pakistanis conducted last month by an anti-terrorism organization.
Additionally, nearly three-fourths of poll respondents said they oppose U.S. military action against al Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan, according to results from the poll conducted by the independent polling organization Terror Free Tomorrow.
"We have conducted 23 polls all over the Muslim world, and this is the most disturbing one we have conducted," said Ken Ballen, the group's head. "Pakistan is the one Muslim nation that has nuclear weapons, and the people who want to use them against us -- like the Taliban and al Qaeda -- are more popular there than our allies like Musharraf."
The poll was conducted for Terror Free Tomorrow by D3 Systems of Vienna, Virginia., and the Pakistan Institute for Public Opinion. Interviews were conducted August 18-29, face-to-face with 1,044 Pakistanis across 105 urban and rural sampling points in all four provinces across the nation. Households were randomly selected.
According to poll results, bin Laden has a 46 percent approval rating. Musharraf's support is 38 percent. U.S. President George W. Bush's approval: 9 percent.
Asked their opinion on the real purpose of the U.S.-led war on terror, 66 percent of poll respondents said they believe the United States is acting against Islam or has anti-Muslim motivation. Others refused to answer the question or said they did not know.
"We failed in winning hearts and minds in Pakistan," Ballen told CNN. "In fact, only 4 percent said we had a good motivation in the war on terrorism." more
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Russia Tests Powerful 'Dad of All Bombs'
(CBS/AP) Back in 2003, the U.S. proudly trotted out the so-called "mother of all bombs," a device described as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in history.
Now, Russia claims it has built the "dad of all bombs," claiming that it is four times more powerful, has an epicenter temperature that is twice as high and covers double the area with its destructive force.
Russian state television says the military has successfully tested what it describes as the world's most powerful non-nuclear, air-delivered bomb.
Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian armed forces staff told the Channel One television station that the bomb is comparable to a nuclear weapon in efficiency and capability, but unlike a nuclear weapon, it doesn't hurt the environment. He described the mechanism of the bomb's destructive capabilities, saying that it is based on the detonation of a fine spray of combustible substance resulting in a shockwave and a high temperature explosion. more
Monday, September 10, 2007
Japanese Schoolgirls Go for Over-Engineered Lashes
Standard schoolgirl uniform it's not. Hip teens are hitting the Tokyo Lash Bar in the city's Omotesando district for eye-poppingly over-engineered fake lashes. Using a unique applicator and a special latex adhesive, makeup pros install a set of these architectonic master pieces, like the high-end Velvet Feather for about $43 and Yellow Flash or Dazzling Diamante for less than $20. A bit steep, but the lashes can be reused as many as 10 times. Plus, the falsies often have unexpected features. Take Lucent Sky and Lucent Sun: When light hits these translucent lashes, they cast colored patterns on a gal's face. If only they made a pair that blinked when her keitai rang ... - WIRED
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Tarred, feathered and tied to a lamppost: Justice for a drug dealer on the streets of Ulster | the Daily Mail
Tied to a lamppost, he stands with his head and upper body covered in tar and feathers. A makeshift placard hung around his neck with a piece of string announces the reason for his treatment.
It is a very public humiliation, and a medieval one. Almost ten years since Northern Ireland's Troubles officially ended, this remains the crude face of justice on the streets of south Belfast.
This man was subjected to the painful tarring and feathering on the Taughmonagh estate, a loyalist stronghold in the city.
Locals had accused the victim, who is in his thirties, of being a drug dealer. And when police allegedly did not act, they took the law into their own hands.
Two masked men tied up the accused victim, poured tar over his head and then covered him in white feathers, apparently from a pillow case.
A small crowd including women and children looked on as the men then adorned their victim with a placard reading: "I'm a drug dealing scumbag".
Pictures of the punishment were sent to a local newspaper more
Sunday, September 02, 2007
A Time for Grace - WSJ.com
By PEGGY NOONAN
What will be needed this autumn is a new bipartisan forbearance, a kind of patriotic grace. This is a great deal to hope for. The president should ask for it, and show it.
Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, will report to Congress on Sept. 11. From the latest metrics, it's clear the surge has gained some ground. It is generally supposed that Gen. Petraeus will paint a picture of recent decreases in violent incidents and increases in safety. In another world, that might be decisive: It's working, hang on.
At the same time, it's clear that what we call Iraq does not wholly share U.S. objectives. We speak of it as a unitary country, but the Kurds are understandably thinking about Kurdistan, the Sunnis see an Iraq they once controlled but that no longer exists, and the Shia -- who knows? An Iraq they theocratically and governmentally control, an Iraq given over to Iran? This division is reflected in what we call Iraq's government in Baghdad. Seen in this way, the non-latest-metrics way, the situation is bleak.more
Thursday, August 30, 2007
British believe Bush is more dangerous than Kim Jong-il
America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest neighbours and allies, according to an international survey of public opinion published today that reveals just how far the country's reputation has fallen among former supporters since the invasion of Iraq.
Carried out as US voters prepare to go to the polls next week in an election dominated by the war, the research also shows that British voters see George Bush as a greater danger to world peace than either the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, or the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Both countries were once cited by the US president as part of an "axis of evil", but it is Mr Bush who now alarms voters in countries with traditionally strong links to the US. MORE
Thursday, August 02, 2007
IraqSlogger: When the Saudi FM Becomes "Unintelligible"
"'This is a relationship that allows us to discuss the most difficult and most sensitive issues in a way that is respectful and friendly,' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the media gathered at a joint press conference with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal on Tuesday.
But the Secretary must not have found some of the foreign minister's comments to the press very respectful or friendly, since they were labeled 'unintelligible' in a State Department transcript of the event.
According to the State Department, al-Faisal said in his opening statement:
The Kingdom is keen on achieving peace in Iraq and maintaining its unity and stability. However, the success of these efforts are tied to achieving social stability, equality, and representation for all of Iraq’s people and all of the ethnic and religious groups there. Iraq bears a responsibility to (unintelligible)." more":
PERRspectives Blog: Bush Admits Failure of "No Safe Havens" Policy
News of an aborted 2005 U.S. raid against Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan confirmed the failure of a key tenet of the Bush Doctrine, "no safe havens for terrorists." Now, it would appear, President Bush himself agrees with that assessment. In his Saturday radio address, President Bush tried to spin the new National Intelligence Estimate and its warnings regarding a dangerously resurgent Al Qaeda in Pakistan. But buried among cherry-picked quotes about successes against Bin Laden's organization and his comical claim of willingness to work with Congress to "modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act" was a startling admission. President Bush acknowledged that his post 9/11 mantra of "no safe havens for terrorists" was a dismal failure:
"One of the most troubling [points in the NIE] is its assessment that al Qaeda has managed to establish a safe haven in the tribal areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. Last September, President Musharraf of Pakistan reached an agreement that gave tribal leaders more responsibility for policing their own areas. Unfortunately, tribal leaders were unwilling and unable to go after al Qaeda or the Taliban." (more)
Monday, July 16, 2007
Al Jazeera - The Neo Taliban
Excerpt from a TV documentary on the "Neo-Talibans", which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on July 5, 2007:Al-Jazeera TV reporter Ahmad Zeidan: Opium is known as "the petroleum of the Afghans." The abundance of water in this region has been invested in a remarkable way. When America built these conduits in the days of Afghan king Zahir Shah, it did no know they would be irrigating the poppy fields behind me. These fields, which account for half of Afghanistan's GNP, were destroyed by the Afghan Taliban movement, but they appeared again after its fall. Now, Taliban says it will not interfere in the daily affairs and livelihood of the Afghans. What was prohibited yesterday is permitted today. Watch the Al Jazeera Report
FOXNews.com - Pilotless Robot Bomber Squadron Heads for Afghanistan, Iraq - Technology News | News On Technology
"BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq — The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada.
The arrival of these outsized U.S. 'hunter-killer' drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.
That moment, one the Air Force will likely low-key, is expected 'soon,' says the regional U.S. air commander. How soon? 'We're still working that,' Lt. Gen. Gary North said in an interview.
The Reaper's first combat deployment is expected in Afghanistan, and senior Air Force officers estimate it will land in Iraq sometime between this fall and next spring. They look forward to it" (more)
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Iranian Jews blast offer of cash for immigrating to Israel
Iranian Jews blast offer of cash for immigrating to Israel
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent
An Iranian Jewish organization announced over the weekend that it rejected an initiative to promote Iran's Jewish community to immigrate to Israel using cash incentives.
Iranian Jews in Tehran synagogue
"[The money is]inappropriate and politically immature," the group said in a statement that was carried by Western and Iranian news outlets. It added Iran's Jewish community has remained loyal to the Islamic Republic and that their "Jewish Iranian identity is not a commodity that passes from the hands of one merchant to another in return for money."
The statment addressed an offer by expatriate Iranian Jews offering a sum of $10,000 to each individual to immigrate to Israel.
The $10,000 offer doubled the existing $5,000 allocated each Jewish Iranian upon arrival to Israel by the Ministry of Absorption and the Jewish Agency.
Iran's Jewish community has decreased from 80,000 before the Islamic revolution, to about 20,000 today.
It is represented in parliament by a Jewish lawmaker and is the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside of Israel. (more)
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Hamas Boycotts Meeting of Palestinian Legislature - New York Times
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: July 11, 2007
JERUSALEM, July 11 — The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, convened the Palestinian legislature today, but a boycott by the Hamas party meant there was no quorum, which was precisely what Mr. Abbas wanted. With parliament unable to transact business, he can extend the life of the emergency cabinet that he appointed after Hamas fighters took control of the Gaza Strip. Fatha politicians in PA parlaiment.
Fatah members of the Palestinian legislature convened in Ramallah, but Hamas boycotted the session.
Hamas legislators, who won a majority of seats in the most recent parliamentary election in January 2006, stayed away from today’s session and said it was illegal. Salah al-Bardawil, a Hamas legislator, said in Gaza that convening the legislature “without arrangements with the biggest bloc, and with the Israeli arrest of Hamas legislators, was an attack on Palestinian legitimacy.” (more)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Green Zone Is Hit By Barrage of Shells - washingtonpost.com
BAGHDAD, July 10 -- More than two dozen mortar shells pounded the Green Zone on Tuesday, killing three people, including a U.S. military member, and injuring 18, among them five Americans, U.S. officials said.
The dead also included an Iraqi and a person of unknown nationality. Two of the wounded Americans were service members and three were contract employees, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.
The attack, around 4 p.m., was the latest in a series of mortar and rocket strikes in recent months against the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and other Western missions along with Iraqi government buildings. In April, a suicide bomber attacked inside Iraq's parliament building.
A U.S. official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that "around 30" mortar shells had hit the Green Zone. "They got hammered," the official said
(more)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)