Sunday, April 30, 2006

Dance of Life at Landstuhl

Here is some good news that is never reported. Thanks to the US military medicos:

The system has contributed to a lethality rate of about 9 percent in the ongoing Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, “the lowest rate of any war in history,” said Air Force Col. Doug Robb, command surgeon at the U.S. Central Command (Centcom), which is responsible for combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

By contrast, 30 percent of soldiers wounded in World War II died because of their combat wounds, and 24 percent of soldiers wounded in the Vietnam War died, Robb said at a recent Military Health System Conference in Washington, D.C.

The Deployed Warrior Medical Management Center (DWMMC) in Landstuhl, Germany, is responsible for managing patients from combat zones in Afghanistan and Iraq. Patient tracking and movement technology enables Col. John Sweeney, DWMMC’s director, and other Landstuhl employees to execute that mission “like a well choreographed ballet,” Sweeney said.

Technology has enabled the Air Force to transform workhorse C-17 cargo planes into flying intensive care units with heart monitors and respiratory ventilators like those found in hospital ICUs, said Air Force Col. Sharyn Roettger, commander of the 791st Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. The unit operates from Ramstein Air Force Base, the air headquarters for medevac flights to Germany.

Hat tip: Steve.

Saudis fear Iran is after their oil, not Israel

Saudi Arabia has been making reassuring statements in public. But privately, Saudi leaders are skirting the edge of panic as they watch Iran's nuclear weapons program unfold.
ras_tanura_gurad.jpg
Western intelligence sources said the kingdom fears it will be the first target of any Teheran retaliation against a U.S. strike on its nuclear facilities. The sources said the Saudi leaders believe Iran has placed Saudi Arabia at the top of the list of targets in an effort to deter any U.S. strike.

"The Saudis provide the difference between a stable and unstable energy market," one Western intelligence source said. "One Iranian missile toward a major Saudi oil facility and the market collapses."

The Saudis have not been assuaged by Iran's threats against Israel.

Indeed, Saudi leaders believe that Iran and Israel have been cooperating as part of an effort to establish Shi'ite dominance over Sunnis in the Middle East.

Here is the Saudi scenario: Iran takes over southern Iraq through its Shi'ite quislings and becomes owner of the huge oil reserves in the area. That would place Iran along the borders of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

At that point, Iran would send thousands of Arabic-speaking agents into Saudi Arabia's eastern province, where the kingdom's considerable Shi'ite minority live. These agents would be in striking distance of Saudi oil wells and refinery.

Continue reading " Saudis fear Iran is after their oil, not Israel" at VWT»

Pentagon plans Iran crisis simulation involving top U.S. political officials

GOOD !

WASHINGTON — The United States has scheduled an exercise that would include the use of military options against Iran and involve the U.S. leadership.

The Pentagon plans to conduct an exercise designed to simulate an Iranian nuclear crisis and a U.S. response. The exercise is scheduled for July 18 and will include senior officials as well as members of Congress.

"We may draw from something that happened in real life or could happen in real life to make it as current or realistic as possible," David Thomas, spokesman for the Pentagon's National Defense University, said on April 19.

The National Defense University has been assigned to develop the exercise. The university includes the National Strategic Gaming Center, which introduces military commanders, officials and other representatives.

Continue reading "Pentagon plans Iran crisis simulation involving top U.S. political officials" at VWT »

Update on Iran's BM-25, EX , USSR Sub Launched Ballistic missile, SSN6?

From Stratfor (Subscription needed) full text at end of story here:
It is highly unlikely, however, that Iran possesses such weapons. Instead, the report probably represents an effort to isolate Iran internationally by turning European public opinion against Tehran.

Confusion:
1)The German report contains confusing nomenclature. It refers to the missiles as BM-25s, claiming that this model was a Soviet-era design with a range of approximately 1,500 miles. In Soviet service, however, the BM-25 was an unguided truck-mounted rocket with a range of about 12 miles to 19 miles, more commonly known as the Katyusha of World War II fame.

2)Further confusing matters, Western media showed an image April 28 described as Iran's "new" missile, when the image actually appears to be a Soviet- or Chinese-designed anti-ship missile riding on a vehicle in a parade. It is not even clear if the picture was taken in Iran -- and the missile pictured is not even an R-27 or BM-25.

Continue reading "Update on Iran's BM-25, EX , USSR Sub Launched Ballistic missile, SSN6?" »

Beyond "The Twilight Zone:" “Lost” in the “Outer Limits” of Philosophical Collapse

Edward Cline is a novelist who has written an outstanding series on the origins of the American Revolution titled Sparrowhawk. He is also writing an excellent series of columns on our current predicament. Here is his latest:

With profuse apologies to the late Rod Serling, I don’t believe he could ever have conceived a more bizarrely macabre and surreal script than the one we see acted out every day in the “real” world. If he had, his producers might have accused him of being on drugs, while his sponsors and advertisers would probably have balked at paying for the broadcasting of such a disturbingly depressing story.

Let’s review the script.

Four and a half years ago, the United States was attacked by agents of a totalitarian enemy dedicated to destroying it. To date, the United States has not retaliated against that enemy, but, at great expense of blood and treasure, has sought to plant the dubious seeds of democracy. When “democracy” blossomed in Iraq, its citizens promptly elected a nascent theocracy. Instead of annihilating the enemy, the U.S. has campaigned to convert it to Western notions of peace and plenitude. The enemy is Islam, whose theocratic-political foundation requires submission or conquest in order to establish as much of a global caliphate as feasible. Short of that, Islam would be satisfied with just breaking America’s back and wiping the Mideast clean of all Jews.

In the meantime, President Ahmadinejad of Iran, accompanied by all the hoopla of a Busby Berkeley musical, announced his country’s entry into the family of nuclear nations, and continues to rant against the U.S. and Israel in the grand old style of Adolf Hitler, except in Farsi, and with no tie. His wardrobe is apparently off the rack of a Tehran thrift shop, he sports more facial hair than did Adolf, and evokes the image of a sneering bum. The creature regularly barks to a cringing world its marching orders. Only in fantasy could such a creature rise to become a nemesis. In the real world, he is a nemesis by default.

Another tyrant, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, found in a rat hole, should have been executed shortly after his capture, but is now grandstanding in a “Judge Judy”- style trial paid for by American taxpayers.

At home, the combined overt, covert, and incremental Islamic jihad in America may collide head-on against the very Catholic migration into the country of countless Mexicans who are as ignorant of and indifferent to American political principles as the average gringo high school student, politician, President or executive of CAIR. One must wonder how Islamists plan to convert them to the Koran, when their La Raza-class spokesmen encourage them to retain their Mexican identity, remain loyal to the country they abandoned, and profess “Chicano culture” to be superior to any other, including Islamic culture.

Well, not necessarily “superior,” as “separate.” Islam has produced no Nobel Prize winners in any field, while Mexico boasts of a few third-rate, steam-of-consciousness novelists and some communist muralists. If Mexico has any symphony orchestras or art galleries that don’t promote the myths of Maya or Aztlan, they are emulations of Western ideas. On the whole, the “Latino” version of ethnicity is similar to the Islamists’ preference for an insular identity that refuses to recognize an “infidel” or “European” Constitution. If friction ever occurs between the two “cultures,” which for the moment are allies for “open borders” and for availing themselves of the American welfare state, the sparks will fly. Individualism is not encouraged in either “culture.”

In Washington, President Bush fetes a totalitarian dictator, President Hu Jantao of Red China, and expresses “embarrassment” and “anger” when a protestor interrupts Hu’s speech by calling for religious freedom in China. Bush also stumbled when he referred to Mainland China as “The Republic of China” (forgetting the “People’s”), the formal name of Taiwan. And to top that, during a joint press conference with Hu, he betrayed Taiwan by asserting that he is opposed to Taiwanese independence, and hopes that the Mainland and Taiwan can be reunited peacefully, never mind the armada Beijing is assembling against Taiwan.

Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft and master of the mea culpa, betrayed freedom of speech by assuring President Hu at a luncheon -- doubtless screened to prevent the attendance of any embarrassing protestors -- that it was his belief “that industry and government around the world should work even more closely to protect the privacy and security of Internet users, and promote the exchange of ideas, while respecting legitimate government considerations.”

Which ideas should be “exchanged,’ or how the privacy and security of Internet users can be protected when the thought police are in charge, elude the non-intellectual, pragmatic Mr. Gates. “Legitimate government considerations” is a euphemism for the censorship of ideas Beijing does not wish its dhimmi to consider or exchange. Nor do Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo scruple to facilitate censorship at the behest of China’s totalitarians. Industries and governments that work “closely” to implement official policies constitute fascism. But this fundamental truism is over Mr. Gates’s head.

Russia, our alleged ally against terrorism, continues to provide Iran with nuclear technology and assistance so that Iran may better terrorize the West, and scolds the U.S. for even contemplating sanctions against Iran. Saudi Arabia, another alleged ally, is raking in the revenue from soaring crude prices, even though it has assured President Bush that it will help “stabilize” the market. The Saudis have just signed a trade pact with Red China that includes supplying the Mainland with oil, and in addition expressed an interest in investing in the creation of a Mainland petrochemical plant.

Iran is also courting China, Iraq and India. But our staunch ally Saudi Arabia, which is likely the sugar daddy of CAIR, its U.S. branches, as well as affiliated Muslim activist organizations -- all of them stealthily probing for holes where Sharia law can be established, and busy opposing freedom of speech -- very probably is a partner in a secret entente cordiale with Iran, having put aside for the time being their differences in Koranic interpretation in order to squeeze the West, particularly the U.S., into submission.

Thanks to environmentalism, the U.S. is at the mercy of a polyphony of other noisily hostile oil-producing nations besides Saudi Arabia and Iran: Venezuela, Nigeria, and the U.A.E. Not to mention the whining spokesmen of the protected manatees of the Gulf of Mexico, the whales of California, and the wolves and moose of Alaska.

In the names of “sensitivity” and multiculturalism, the press and news media are not interested in championing freedom of speech, except perhaps the freedom to report the fading of that freedom and the irrelevancy of the First Amendment. Universities, colleges, high schools and middle schools are largely in the hands of pedagogues who not only indoctrinate American children with collectivist ideas, but dumb them down, as well. Businesses and industries spend fortunes on lobbyists and corrupt Washington politicians to stem the flow of regulations and controls, all to no avail, for they are the first to shout that they are in the market as a “public service.”

So, there is the script. Or part of it. The West is laboring under a under siege of its own making, for, as others have noted, it lacks not the means to vanquish its enemies, but the will and confidence in its own value. It has painted itself into a corner of inaction and impotency by relativistic self-doubt and the discarding of reason and the absolutes reason would commit it to.

All in all, it is a grim and discouraging show we are watching, the consequences of the collapse of philosophy, specifically the abandonment of reason.

Beat that, Rod Serling.

For more articles by Ed Cline go to the archives of Rule of Reason or The Dougout.

Talabani Hopeful After Meeting Insurgents

Is the campaign of terrorism in Iraq nearing its end?


BAGHDAD, Iraq - President Jalal Talabani has met with insurgent representatives and is optimistic they may agree to disarm, his office said Sunday — the first time a senior Iraqi official has acknowledged talks with the armed groups.

Bombs and drive-by shootings Sunday killed nine people in Iraq, and the bodies of seven Iraqi men who apparently were kidnapped and tortured were found in three areas of the capital.

The deadliest attack Sunday involved a roadside bomb that exploded on a highway south of Baghdad, killing three security contractors and wounding two. Police said the victims were all British. The British Embassy in Baghdad and the Foreign Office in London confirmed the attack but did not yet know the victims' nationalities, identities or employer.

In a statement, Talabani's office quoted him as saying: "I think we may reach an agreement with seven armed groups that visited me and I met with them."

It did not say when the meeting happened. Talabani spokesman Kamran Qaradaghi refused to identify the groups, although they were presumed to be Sunni Arab insurgents.

Symposium Report: Part One

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

The information below was the first item on the schedule at today's America's Truth Forum. Excerpt from World Net Daily's article "'American Hiroshima' Linked with Iran Attack: Pakistani journalist who met bin Laden confirms al-Qaida nukes, says they may already be in U.S.":

"Al-Qaida has already obtained nuclear suitcase weapons from the Russian black market, weapons tested in Afghanistan in 2000, and they may have already been forward-deployed inside the U.S., according to the only journalist to interview Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in the wake of Sept. 11.

"Last week, Hamid Mir's credibility skyrocketed when he accurately predicted in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin and later in WND the imminent release of a new recorded communiqué from bin Laden through al-Jazeera, the Arabic TV network. Two days later, bin Laden's tape was the focus of international news coverage.

"'If you think that my information and analysis about bin Laden's location is correct,' said Hamid Mir, 'then please don't underestimate my analysis about his nuclear threat also.'...

"Mir also maintains that numerous sleeper agents are in place in major cities throughout the United States to prepare for the nuclear holocaust...."

Read the rest here. Mir has already proved himself as a reliable source.

Ahmadinejad of Iran continues his brazen defiance, of which various news reports inform us on a daily basis. And according to this article in the Washington Post,

"PARIS, April 26 -- Escalating the threats between Washington and Tehran, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei [who was exiled as a readical a by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran's revolution in the 1970's!] , warned Wednesday that his country would strike U.S. targets around the world in the event it is attacked over its refusals to curb its nuclear program.

"'If the U.S. ventured into any aggression on Iran, Iran will retaliate by damaging U.S. interests worldwide twice as much as the U.S. may inflict on Iran,' Khamenei said in a speech to a workers' assembly, according to the official news agency IRNA.

"His statement adds to a campaign of defiance by senior Iranian officials in advance of a report expected Friday by the U.N. atomic watchdog agency, which analysts predict will cite Iran for defying U.N. Security Council demands to halt its uranium enrichment program...."

Also mentioned at the symposium were two specific individuals who might have a connection to the above information from World Net Daily. Go here and here to see FBI posters of two men who might be sleeper agents to carry out attacks in the United States; the first man, Adnan el-Shukrijumah, has been termed by the FBI as "the next Mohammed Atta"; the second man, Amer el-Maati, may be one of his cohorts. Whether or not el-Shukrijumah and el-Maati are part of the plot to which World Net Daily alludes, these are dangerous men and need to be taken into custody as soon as possible. Contact America's Most Wanted by emailing to amwcontact@amw.com or by phoning 1-800-CRIMETV, and urge John Walsh to put the pictures of these two men on television so that all of us can watch for them.

MUST READ -Judgement Day, brought to you by the Basij, the Mullahs, and the twerp, if true <> a regional nuclear war

asharq-e.gif

From Al Sharq's english pages:

By Ali Nouri Zadeh wwz_brokenus.jpgLondon, Asharq Al-Awsat- Eight fundamentalist Islamist organizations have received large sums of money in the last month from the Iranian intelligence services, as part of a project to strike U.S military and economic installations across the Middle East Asharq Al-Awsat has learned.The source added that the forces of the Revolutionary Guards’ al Quds Brigades, under Brigadier General Qassim Suleimani is responsible for coordinating and providing logistical support for the groups taking part in the execution of the plan, codenamed al Qiyamah the Islamic word for "Judgment Day". The plan includes three steps, which Asharq al Awsat has examined in earlier reports. The source gave more details about how the plan will be implemented. He said, “Most of Iran’s visitors in the last four months, including the leaders of revolutionary groups in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the heads of Hezbollah cells in the Persian Gulf and Europe and North America were asked, when they met with the Iranian intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ezhei and his aides: are you ready to defend the Islamic revolution and vilayat e faqih? If you agree to take part in the great jihad, what would you need to be ready for the great fight?

Continue with the END OF THE MIDDLE EAST AS WE KNOW IT "MUST READ -Judgement Day, brought to you by the Basij, the Mullahs, and the twerp, if true <> a regional nuclear war" »

That Hamas "truce"

The Arab media has been mentioning a number of times that Hamas now has a "truce" with Israel, since at least February 2005. For example, the WRMEA quotes the editor of Lebanon's Daily Star:
Describing Hamas as a grandchild of Sharon and Israel’s policies, Khouri reminded the audience that Hamas nevertheless has kept a year-long truce with Israel.
An American editorialist at Al-Jazeerah.info goes one better:
Israel has violated the truce that the so-called terrorist organization Hamas has upheld for 15 months..."
Even the mainstream media has picked up on this, led by the resident Palestinian apologist at Reuters, Nidal al-Mughrabi:
While it has largely abided by a year-old truce, the government defended a suicide bombing carried out by the Islamic Jihad militant group in Tel Aviv on April 17 that killed nine people...
So, has Hamas really been staying away from terror since February 2005?

It turns out that the US National Counterterrorism Center keeps a database of worldwide terror attacks over the past couple of years. And while Hamas seems to have "officially" kept relatively quiet since the elections, the database shows quite a few attacks that came way after the supposed "truce" (stats through the end of 2005):

Click here to see the entire article.

Infidel Babe Of The Week


That's Oriana Fallaci, my friends. This babe is full of passionate venom, pro-Infidel incantations, and she virtually breathes anti-Jihadi fire.

You know how dudes are all into the chicks with the tongue piercings because of ...

well, you know ...

Well, can you imagine that specialty if, instead of some chick tickling you with some steel, you had this babe latching down on you with her fangs and pyrotechnics?

Man, this is a dangerous babe, but, an experience you'll never forget.

You may very well still be thinking about her on your death bed.

What The Hell Is This?

I shoudn't be admitting this, but I'm the kind of obsessive blogger who checks out my traffic meter to see where our links are coming from. I find out about a lot of interesting blogs this way, but I also find some strange and frightening things.

This is not the first time that I have come across a blog like this one, which appears to be written in some kind of code. Here's an excerpt:


Spa side control. Late season cruises from mid-October to Warrant Officer 3 Michael L. Hartwick, spa side control have to work with the United States. A Pitney greatest hits collection. SPA SIDE CONTROL beer, escalated and drew in two other the couple announced they were getting Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Human comprehension of the history of Though the marital issues of most face. She said that two more white Tragedies such as the death of Mr the hard organizing work. Rosies role Illahee Junior High. Liening was a 890 calories a day. Their insulin smugglers and those who would use their homeless man, was arrested shortly ordeal the mens victim was beginning to tasks like send e-mail.Unruly kids and messages, he told her to perform a Spa Side Control for the city of Turlock. Spa-side-control both chambers of the economist and policy analyst at the New can help taller players. Using a system developed by two spa side control with the hijackers while they were in proposed


Does anyone have any idea of what the hell this is?

More Unrest Among The "Youths" Of Denmark


I can't read the language, but here's a link to a report on a mini-Intifada which occurred last night in Denmark.

Here's a report we received from an anonymous commenter (he also provided the link):


last night a police team (2 policemans, I think) had to go and check a person (muslim) in a muslim majority neiberhood of Odense. Because they cant check the documents there (and they suspected that can be some fake ID), they ask 2 muslims to come at the police station to can check the documents and the identity of them. Then everything got in flames.

those 2 muslims was 2 imams coming in Denmark from France. And the rest of muslims (from the neiberhood) start beign agressive and declare war when the policems want to take them at the police station for checking of documents. Then, many other policemans came there to protect the law !!!

The Old Ladies of the Left

Aloha, my name is Grant Jones and I blog at The Dougout. I have been given the honor of posting at the Infidel Bloggers Alliance. For my first effort I have a post from a few weeks ago on Seymour Hersh's trial balloon "The Iran Plan." Although, two weeks old I think Hersh's article provides a useful window into the worldview of the American liberal/left.

The title of this blog entry refers to Seymour Hersh's article in the New Yorker "The Iran Plans." There has been much nattering on leftist blogs about the supposed plan to use nuclear bunker busters on Iranian underground nuclear facilities. Hersh's disclosure does not seem to be intimidating the Mad Mullahs. It wasn't suppose to. The threat of the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons with Hersh's lurid description, "we're talking about mushroom clouds, radiation, mass casualties, and contamination over years," was meant to frighten Americans. It seems to be working in some quarters, along with Hersh's unidentified source stating that President Bush with his "messianic vision" is the problem.

In what passes for wisdom in left/liberal circles a government which has declared that Israel "must be wiped of the map," denies the reality of the Holocaust and is working to acquire nuclear weapons deserves the benefit of the doubt until the UN finds a "smoking gun." Perhaps, a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv would qualify. Whether the Iranians making good their threat to finish the job Der Fuhrer started will bother anyone in Vienna is an open question.

The UN has no interest in preventing the Iranians from acquiring nuclear weapons, just as they have no interest in stopping the genocide in Darfur.

Hersh in his article stresses that what is needed to deal with this threat is diplomacy. The academic history blog Cliopatria, because of its lack of liberal/left opinion, has added Taylor Owen to its ponderous list of contributors. Owen, right out of the gates, wrote an entry "The Facade of Diplomacy - why this confrontation is about more than Iranian nukes." According to Owen the problem is "the intransigence of the US administration's position has exacerbated the confrontation with Iran." How original of Owen, blaming America for the genocidal intentions of the Jihad crazed psychos who control Iran.

Hersh agrees, the sub-titled of his article is "Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?" Isn't it cute how Blame America First leftists can airbrush twenty-seven years of history away? In fact the United States and Iran have been in a state of war since November 4, 1979. The taking of a nation's embassy is usually interpreted as such under the international law that liberals hold in such high regard. Since that time Iran has waged war upon not just America but also infidels in general. The left's response to Iran's acts of war is appeasement...oops...diplomacy. Their motivation is outright cowardice, as Hersh admits:

A military conflict that destabilized the region could also increase the risk of terror: "Hezbollah comes into play," the adviser said, referring to the terror group that is considered one of the world's most successful, and which is now a Lebanese political party with strong ties to Iran. "And here comes Al Qaeda."

And there you have it, as long as they're only coming for the Jews there is no problem. Instead of removing this clear and present danger, and one of the main sources of Jihad, American liberals and European politicians want more endless talk and sanctions.

The claim that sanctions will have any effect, besides giving the Iranians time to build a bomb, demonstrates the basic dishonesty of the "diplomacy" crowd. It should be obvious to even the left that sanctions will have no effect given the fact that Russia and China will not participate.

Hersh's, and those who agree with him, position is that the greatest military power in world history should be afraid of the military might of Iran and the Arab street. As one of Hersh's many unidentified sources state:

He warned, as did many others, that bombing Iran could provoke "a chain reaction" of attacks on American facilities and citizens throughout the world: "What will 1.2 billion Muslims think the day we attack Iran?"

In war, and we are at war, the enemy will react to one's moves and try to counterattack. This is hardly an excuse to surrender and appease. As U.S. Grant said "it's time to stop worrying about what Bobby Lee is going to do to us and start thinking about what we are going to do to him." Today we are facing a far more contemptible enemy that Robert E. Lee. The left would have us worry not about what the enemy might do but what they might think!

First, it is debatable whether people who riot, burn and murder because of some cartoons in a obscure paper are capable of thought. Second, in the thugocracies that govern the dar al-Islam what the people think is irrelevant. What their dictators need to know is that making war upon the United States will cost them their regimes and their lives.

Hersh, and his ilk, probably believe there is some excuse for their advocating that the United States turn over its national security to its avowed enemy the U.N. There isn't.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Atlas Shrugs VBlog

This is the first VBlog entry by Pamela, who runs a fantastic blog (which I'm sure most of you already know about) called Atlas Shrugs.

Make sure you check out her site after you watch the video :

The Iceberg in Holland

Dutch police find explosives, arrest 4

Dutch police arrested three men and a woman on Saturday after finding explosives in their apartment in the port city of Rotterdam.

Needless to say that no details of the suspects have been released. I'm taking bets it's those murderous Anglicans. Meanwhile in The Hague:

Liberal Party MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been ordered to vacate the high-security home she is renting in The Hague within four months. An appeal court sided with her neighbours who complained her presence put their own safety
at risk and caused disruption to their lives.

Rather than eliminate the threat to an MP, the courts ask her to move. Brilliant! Lots of metaphors spring to mind, particularly one about deck chairs, a cruise ship and a iceberg.

I have to say it's almost as if there is an insurrection taking place

042906shultz.jpgFrom Daniel Henninger

George P. Shultz was the secretary of state of the United States during the years that the Soviet Union was led, successively, by Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko and Mikhail Gorbachev. During those years, 1982 to 1989, the United States was led by Ronald Reagan.George Shultz is an intellectual, an MIT economist who in his career held two other cabinet posts, labor and Treasury, under Richard Nixon. And clearly he is awed by Ronald Reagan, the "actor" President, and the years he spent serving as Reagan's minister to the world. But I had come to San Francisco because I wanted to talk about the here and now. So did he. Above all, the Revolt of the Generals and the leaks out of the CIA. He's upset.

"I always had a good experience dealing with the career people in government," Mr. Shultz said. "But I have to say it's almost as if there is an insurrection taking place. Particularly what is going on in the military is astonishing and fundamentally intolerable. There has to be a sense of discipline. This is something new, and for everybody's good it has to be dealt with."


Want to get the chills? Read on...

Continue reading "I have to say it's almost as if there is an insurrection taking place" at VWT »

Tyson's to close monday because of May 1 illegal alien demonstrations? WE NEED A WALL

Prices, immigration rallies to cut Tyson meat output on Mon

Fri Apr 7, 2006 12:53 PM ET Tyson%20Chicken%20Hot%20Wings%20Buffalo.jpgCHICAGO (Reuters) - Top U.S. meat producer Tyson Foods Inc. said on Friday that it will reduce production for one day on Monday at its beef, pork, and chicken operations in response to market conditions and planned immigration rallies on that day."Some of our plants are not scheduled to operate Monday, due to multiple reasons including market conditions and the planned immigration rally," Gary Mickelson, Tyson spokesman, said in an e-mail. About 30 percent of Tyson's workers are Hispanic and the company is studying what impact an immigration rally scheduled for that day will have on worker attendance at its plants.

Fox reports that 90% of california farmworkers are illegal?

Without secure borders, rather than have any kind of rational immigration policy which keeps us as the hope of the poor and oppressed, we are creating an untenable, economic situation, making criminals out of employers to think they are being competitive, and victims of those who are being tacitly blackmailed.

There! A liberal destruction of the situation. It needs one.

The entire structure is corrupt

Continue reading "Tyson's to close monday because of May 1 illegal alien demonstrations? WE NEED A WALL"at VWT »

Wonderful Sunshine, 14 years old and dreaming in Mosul.

MG has conducted an interview with Sunshine, a member of a very active family of bloggers in Iraq. They are Sunnis, althought some of them don't approve of the US presence in Iraq, they sure embrace the values of the free world.

Sunshine talks about school, love, friends, her dreams and Iraq.

Whether it rises on a lake in North Bay, Canada or on the Tigris River in beautiful Mosul, the sun is ours to stay,bloody wars or not. Her name is Sunshine, she was born on a glorious January 29 in 1992, in Iraq.

Considered to be the Best Young Iraqi Blogger at age 14, Sunshine from Mosul has experienced a few cloudy days recently with her mother in need of an operation, her Great Grandmother passing away during surgery, and her friend losing several family members in a terrorist/insurgent attack. However, despite the recent difficulties, toils and troubles, of being a young woman growing up in a rebuilding Iraq, Sunshine, like the sun, rises warm and sunny every morning, each day a new learning experience for this bright studious girl, a cornerstone of Iraq's future potential.


Sunshine From Mosul, Days of My Life - Best Young Iraqi Blogger

Hello Sunshine, how are you?

Sunshine: Hello sir, I am fine thanks.

- Can you tell us what a typical or average day for Sunshine is like?

Sunshine: Well, I wake up early in the morning, I go to school at 7:30, & come back at 1:30, I take my lunch & study till bed time …. In the holidays or weekends I sometimes wake up early too if we have electricity, I work on computer (& of course if the voltage is high enough), & I like reading, I am not too interested in watching TV, actually I don't have enough time, but I like Oprah show, Dr. Phil, & the reports.. I love reports...

- Can you describe some of the changes that have occurred for your family and you since the War began?

Sunshine: Since the war we spend most of the time at home, no more fun, no more picnics, no birthdays with guests, my parents discusses policy in most of the day, and watch news many many times during the day...

- What is the most important thing to you in life and why?

Sunshine: I believe that the most important thing in any ones life is education, Iraq needs re-building, & I want to share in rebuilding my country...

- Sunshine, what does Love mean to you?

Sunshine: Well, I don't know, I am still too young, but I think if you love someone you should trust, respect, & to be honest with your lover... Love is important in humanity to make life peaceful … Life without love makes people the same as dolls...



Diane

Do I Make You Horny, Baby?


Gentlemen, feast your eyes on the "Sharia Swimsuit"


What do you do if you are an observant Muslim woman but you also like swimming?

This year, shops in Egypt have the answer: You buy what has become known as the "Sharia swimsuit".

It is part of a growing industry catering for religiously-observant women.

It is no longer mainly the westernised elite that can afford such leisure activities as swimming.
More and more Egyptians, including the more religious, can now do so as well.


In such a conservative society, many women have until now either had to sit on one side or go into the water in their clothes.

All covering

The "Sharia swimsuit" offers one solution. It is a high-necked, swimming costume with sleeves and a small skirt, to be worn over long trousers.

It first appeared a few years ago, but was expensive and hard to find.

This year, it is widely available - and comes in new cuts and colours.

A salesman at the Sports Mall in Nasr City shows me rails of the new Egyptian-produced swimsuits.

10 models are available but are they selling well?

"Of course they're selling well, very well," says the salesman.

"You know we're living here in an Islamic country, it must be popular."

However, the highest religious authority for Sunni Muslims, Al-Azhar, does not recognise the new swimming costume.

One of its clerics, Sheikh Mahmoud al-Hanafi, says there is no such thing as an Islamically-acceptable swimsuit - the only thing Sharia law recognises is Islamic dress that is meant to protect women from what he calls "gossiping eyes."

Conditions

"Islamic dress must have conditions," he says.

"It mustn't be (so) tight that exposes part of the body, mustn't be translucent that the person can see through,"

Size and colour, please?"Also it mustn't be attractive for strange men to look at a lady, how she is dressed. No."

The sheikh, though, had not seen one of the costumes.
But 15-year Nasr has - and she's a convert.


"The Islamic swimming suits they are better for us because of our religion and everything which says that we must be properly covered," she says.

"It is easier for us than to wear normal swimming suits because some of the parents do not like their girls going around in the normal cuts of swimming suits.

"It allows women or girls to do what they were not able to do before in an Islamic way."

The new swimsuit is, by shopkeepers' accounts, a big hit this summer among women who wear the veil.

Important market

As Egypt becomes more of a consumer society, they are an increasingly important market.


The Geneina shopping mall in the adjacent neighbourhood of Nasr City, boasts a smart fashion boutique for veiled women alongside shops selling skimpy t-shirts.

It is not that more women are now covering their heads.

That happened in the late 1970s and 1980s as a religious revival swept the region.

What is new is that more and more products are now being targeted specifically at religiously-observant women.

The new swimsuit is just the latest splash.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Eteraz Update -- Female Soldier In Iraq

A newfound friend of mine who recently returned from Iraq is sharing some of her thoughts on my blog. Instead of writing about the insurgents she is writing about the women of Iraq.

You can find what she has to say here. Experience of Female Soldier.

Sorry I've been so absent from this site. I got caught up in reorganizing my blog, starting a new job, getting into a couple of very detailed blogging dialogues and the warm weather.

Here are a couple of recent interesting posts.

Dude, Muslim Lesbians

Saudis Deport a Girl Who Was Raped (By a Saudi)

Pappas there is a discussion on Traditionalism and Postmodernism you'll enjoy. Two Parts 1, and 2.

CAIR Condemns Pat Robertson for Saying Something Sensible


This is news on both fronts, in my humble opinion. From CAIR

Action Alerts
Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Incitement: Pat Robertson Compares Islam to Nazism


http://mediamatters.org/items/200604240007

The West is ignoring threats from “Islam in general,” just as it ignored “what Adolf Hitler said in Mein Kampf”

Summary: On The 700 Club, Pat Robertson warned his viewers that “we are not listening” to what Islam “says,” just as we did not listen to “what Adolf Hitler said in Mein Kampf.” Robertson claimed that we are ignoring the threats by “not only the radical Muslims but Islam in general,” because “it is not politically correct to believe that any religious group would do what they claim they are going to do.”
**********************

Do follow CAIR's link to Media Matters.org for the full comments by Robertson.

In other CAIR incitement news, and I think that this one's just as funny as the person condemned for saying it, Radio Host Michael Savage. From CAIR:

Incitement: Radio Host - ‘Kill 100 Million’ Muslims
Media Matters, 4/19/06
http://mediamatters.org/items/200604190001

On April 17, nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage called for "kill[ing] 100 million" Muslims. . .

On his radio show, Savage told listeners that "intelligent people, wealthy people ... are very depressed by the weakness that America is showing to these psychotics in the Muslim world. They say, 'Oh, there's a billion of them.' " Savage continued: "I said, 'So, kill 100 million of them, then there'd be 900 million of them.' I mean ... would you rather us die than them?" Savage added: "Would you rather we disappear or we die? Or would you rather they disappear and they die? Because you're going to have to make that choice sooner rather than later."

Again, please follow the link to mediamatters.org, where the audio clip is available as well as links to other "hateful statements" made by Savage about Muslims, though no updates on his restaurant adventures or his dog Teddy.

Iran's nuclear "transparency"

Over the past week, a number of Iranian leaders said curiously similar statements:
Ahmadenijad: "Iran is the sole country whose nuclear activities are completely transparent. We are ready to hold talks to prove there has been no diversion in our peaceful nuclear activities," he added.
Chairman of Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani: "Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran has adopted transparency on nuclear program and met all requirements of NPT.

"We decided not to hide anything and proved our goodwill to UN nuclear agency," Rafsanjani said.

Deputy Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) for international affairs Javad Vaeedi: He said that Iranian nuclear program is transparent and Iran has observed Additional Protocol to NPT for the past three years.

Apparently, the IAEA disagrees about Iran's transparency. In the report released today, they write:
After more than three years of Agency efforts to seek clarity about all aspects of Iran’s nuclear programme, the existing gaps in knowledge continue to be a matter of concern. Any progress in that regard requires full transparency and active cooperation by Iran — transparency that goes beyond the measures prescribed in the Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol — if the Agency is to be able to understand fully the twenty years of undeclared nuclear activities by Iran. Iran continues to facilitate the implementation of the Safeguards Agreement and had, until February 2006, acted on a voluntary basis as if the Additional Protocol were in force. Until February 2006, Iran had also agreed to some transparency measures requested by the Agency, including access to certain military sites. Additional transparency measures, including access to documentation, dual use equipment and
relevant individuals, are, however, still needed for the Agency to be able to verify the scope and nature of Iran’s enrichment programme, the purpose and use of the dual use equipment and materials purchased by the PHRC, and the alleged studies which could have a military nuclear dimension.

Regrettably, these transparency measures are not yet forthcoming.
But, not to worry: Helmut Schmidt says that Iran's nuclear program is just hunky-dory, and he brings as proof a supposed fatwa (unpublished, of course) that was supposedly made by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei forbidding the creation of nuclear weapons. Everything's great! We can trust Iran's statements - why would they lie?

Unfortunately, Schmidt seems to ignore another little fatwa from this past February:
Iran's hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new fatwa, or holy order, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons against its enemies.

One senior mullah has now said it is "only natural" to have nuclear bombs as a "countermeasure" against other nuclear powers, thought to be a reference to America and Israel.

The pronouncement is particularly worrying because it has come from Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of the ultra-conservative Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is widely regarded as the cleric closest to Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Insights on Islam and islamofascism


Must read.
Is Islam The Enemy? #2
R.J. Rummel
Democratic Peace
Power Kills
April 18, 2006
Excepts
Building on the article by the Boroumand sisters, which I discussed in a previous blog, I would like to address a critical question, “In the context of our War on Terror, is Islam the enemy?”

First, I should reveal my own biases. I am not a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim or an adherent of any standard religion. I am not a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, a liberal or a conservative. Fundamentally, I am a secular freedomist. My approach is like that of a hypothetical anthropologist from Mars who is trying to evaluate earthly matters without favoritism, a man from Mars who believes, based on empirical evidence, that the solution to many of humanity’s problems is democratic freedom.

By “enemy,” then, I mean anyone who is in violent opposition to such democratic freedom. So the question becomes, Is Islam the enemy of democratic freedom?...

"...In conclusion, the traditionalists are not our enemies, as they mainly want to be left alone to worship and live as they choose. The ruling dictators are not our enemies, since the West provides critical support against the Islamofascists who would overthrow them. And, it is not the modernists who are our enemies, as they generally support Western democratic ideals. The true enemies of democratic freedom are the Islamofascists, whose ideological homeland is Iran.

The policies that flow from this analysis are clear:...".

****
Who will defeat islamofscism? Part IV
Louise from The West
Search, AFD
April 23, 2006
In part III of this series, I dealt with the voices of moderate Muslims, primarily from the west and what I see, albeit cautiously, as a movement that will beat back the influence of the Islamofascists who have high-jacked the Muslim faith. In closing I had asked:

“…what about those parts of the world where the majority of Muslims live? The great masses of people there are still poorly educated and subjected to the indoctrination of state controlled media and to the iron grip of the very Islamist version of fascism about which I write. Is there hope that Islamofacism can be defeated there? Does a handful of moderate, obviously well educated, West-friendly bloggers mean anything in the grand scheme of things?”

In this, the last of the series, I attempt to answer those questions...
Islam - Passage through the arts, from its birth until the end of the first millennium A.C.
October 25, 2005
Search, Arts for Democracy

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue. New York, New York 10028.
- All rights reserved.-
Texts and Images unaltered, as required.

Birth of Islam


Born in Mecca, in western Arabia, Muhammad (ca. 570–632), last in the line of Judeo-Christian prophets, received his first revelation in 610. Muslims believe that the word of
God was revealed to him by the archangel Gabriel in Arabic, who said, "Recite in the name of thy Lord …" (Sura 96). These revelations were subsequently collected and codified as the Qur’an (literally "recitation" in Arabic), the Muslim holy book. As the source of Muslim faith and practice, the Qur’an describes the relationship between an almighty and all-knowing God and his creations. The Qur’an also maintains that all individuals are responsible for their actions, for which they will be judged by God, and so it provides guidelines for proper behavior within the framework of a just and equitable society.

At this time, Mecca was a prosperous city whose wealth and influence were based on the caravan trade and on the Kacba, a shrine and a place of pilgrimage housing the pagan deities then being worshipped by the Arabs. Muhammad's message, heralding a new socio-religious order based on allegiance to one god—Allah—was unpopular among the leaders of Mecca, and they forced Muhammad and his followers to emigrate north to the oasis town Yathrib (Medina). This occurred in 622, the year of the hijra, or "emigration," which marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar. In Medina, Muhammad continued to attract followers and, within a few years, Mecca had also largely embraced Islam. Upon his return to Mecca, one of the Prophet's first acts was to cleanse the Kacba of its idols and rededicate the shrine to Allah...
Diane

Infidel Hunk of the Week


This in no way indicates that the Babe must be changed, I just had to change the hunk, folks. And quite a change it is! Far from Jim Caviezel and his devout Catholicism in real life coupled with his portrayal of Christ on the Big Screen, I have now chosen one of the darkest characters in film/literature. Though not as true to Emily Bronte's book Wuthering Heights, Laurence Olivier's portrayal in the 1938 film of the same name earns him possible Hunk of All Time status. His portrayal of the dark, brooding Heathcliff is so brilliant is so incredible as to still be one of the most moving performances on screen to the present day. And definitely one of the most attractive and sexy. But hey, he wasn't knighted for nothing. Here's Darling Larry. Sigh.......

Swedish Muslims Demand Sharia

From Little Green Footballs:


Sweden’s largest Muslim organisation has demanded that Sweden introduce separate laws for Muslims, according to Swedish television. Sweden’s equality minister Jens Orback called the proposals “completely unacceptable”.

The Swedish Muslim Association, which represents around 70,000 Muslims in Sweden, has sent a letter to all Sweden’s main political parties suggesting a number of reforms, SVT’s Rapport programme reported.

The proposals include allowing imams into state (public) schools to give Muslim children separate lessons in Islam and their parents’ native languages. The letter also said that boys and girls should have separate swimming lessons and that divorces between Muslims should be approved by an imam.

The letter provoked an instant, and damning, response from integration and equality minister Jens Orback. “We will not have separate laws in Sweden. In Sweden, we are all equal before the law. In Sweden, we have fought for a long time to achieve gender-neutral laws, and to propose that certain groups should not be treated like others is completely unacceptable.”

Orback said he had spoken to representatives of the Swedish Muslim Council, and they did not support the association’s position. “We have freedom of speech, we have the right to opinions and we have the right to make proposals - but if a law is going to be changed, it must be the same for everyone.”

Asked whether the proposal plays into the hands of racists, Orback said that it did.


How long until Orback starts singing a different tune?

First thing everyone is worried about is how it will play with the racists. Man, that's pathetic. They need to worry about what is happening to their society.

United 93


I know it's going to sound strange to say this, but, Roger Ebert is one of my favorite writers. So, when I wanted to read about United 93, I turned to him.

Here's an excerpt of his review:

It is not too soon for "United 93," because it is not a film that knows any time has passed since 9/11. The entire story, every detail, is told in the present tense. We know what they know when they know it, and nothing else. Nothing about Al Qaeda, nothing about Osama bin Laden, nothing about Afghanistan or Iraq, only events as they unfold.

This is a masterful and heartbreaking film, and it does honor to the memory of the victims. The director, Paul Greengrass, makes a deliberate effort to stay away from recognizable actors, and there is no attempt to portray the passengers or terrorists as people with histories. In most movies about doomed voyages, we meet a few key characters we'll be following: The newlyweds, the granny, the businessman, the man with a secret. Here there's none of that. What we know about the passengers on United 93 is exactly what we would know if we had been on the plane and sitting across from them: nothing, except for a few details of personal appearance.

There has been much discussion of the movie's trailer, and no wonder. It pieces together moments from "United 93" to make it seem more conventional, more like a thriller. Dialogue that seems absolutely realistic in context sounds, in the trailer, like sound bites and punch lines. To watch the trailer is to sense the movie that Greengrass did not make. To watch "United 93" is to be confronted with the grim chaotic reality of that autumn day in 2001. The movie is deeply disturbing, and some people may have to leave the theater. But it would have been much more disturbing if Greengrass had made it in a conventional way.

He does not exploit, he draws no conclusions, he points no fingers, he avoids "human interest" and "personal dramas" and just simply watches. The movie's point of view reminds me of the angels in "Wings of Desire." They see what people do and they are saddened, but they cannot intervene.

Now, that sounds like exactly the movie I would have wanted them to make.

Read the rest.

The Incompetent War!

If ever there was an admission of failure by the Bush Administration, then this is it! The war being waged against the United States and the rest of the West is now called ‘The Long War’! It should never have been allowed to come to this.

The US is doing Saudi Arabia’s dirty work for it! Why? Because GWB and his administration have been too timid to wage the war as it should have been waged: with clear thinking, sound strategy, courage, fortitude and resolve! And with the determination to win at all costs!

The day after 9/11, the Saudis should have been put in the hot seat. They should have been told that it was their responsibility to track down Osama bin Laden and his henchmen, not ours, i.e. not the US’s! Further, they should have been put on notice: The US’s support for the régime is dependent on their co-operation to find these savages.

Why on earth should the US foot the bill of tracking down these savages anyway? Has the West gone mad? After 9/11, so much was made of the fact that the US was not at war with Islam. The fact of the matter is clear though: Islam was, and still is, at war with the West. The West shouldn’t have allowed the King of Saudi Arabia – who is, after all the Keeper of the Two Holy Mosques, and therefore the supposed head of the faith – to get away with hiding behind a smokescreen. They should have been told: Find these people, or else!

George W Bush has been making excuses for Islam. This, we all know. He has come out with ridiculous statements about the loving and kind nature of Islam, statements which are so obviously false. In short, he has placed the West on the defensive. What he should have done is place the West on the offensive by placing the Saudis on the defensive. No war was ever won on the defensive. And this war will be no different. We will not win it this way. Be sure of that!

The Saudi régime depends on the US for its continued existence. The rulers should have been told that if they expect the US (and the rest of the West) to keep on propping it up, then they had better track OBL & Co. down forthwith. If their dynasty would have been put on the line like that, then they would have pulled out all the stops to track down and find the people who are now wreaking havoc with the West.

Political leaders the West over are blinded by oil. Their thinking is therefore muddled. The money being made in the West by the top echelons – and being made often in a corrupt manner – means that the West has been locked into this protracted war. As the saying goes: Our leaders are trying to have their cake and eat it, too. But it won’t work. The result of this protracted war might well bankrupt the States. That, by the way, has always been a stated aim of OBL. The US is playing into his hands!

Why should the Americans allow themselves to be bankrupted like this? Why not let the Saudis, with all their new riches from oil do the spending? They wish to be propped up; so let them pay for it. Why should the American taxpayer foot the bill? And why, indeed, should the taxpayers in the rest of the West foot the policing bills that all this Islamic terrorism is creating? This is ludicrous!

The fact is, however, that Bush and his administration, and the governments of other Western countries, are running scared of Islam. No war will ever be won that way! Name me a war that was ever won when fought from a timid position!

The Saudi régime should be made to feel scared, not Bush and his administration. The royal family of Saudi Arabia would have a great deal to lose if the US suddenly withdrew its support for their régime. For the Saudi royals know that their régime is deeply unpopular at home. The country is, after all, being run like a private family business, with the royals taking a healthy cut of all the contracts going into the country.

I remember well the time when the then leader of Romania, Nicolai Ceauscescu, was heavily criticized for running that country as a private business. It had made the man extremely rich, and, rightly, it was thought to be malpractice on his part, as well it should have been. But for some inexplicable reason, when it comes to the oil-rich kings, princes and sheiks of the Gulf, the practise is thought to be acceptable, even when the average Saudi is kept very short of money! How strange! And how hypocritical our Western leaders can be when big oil and armaments deals are at stake!

It goes without saying that we need to get the better of this jihad being waged against us. We need to crush it before it crushes us! But as things stand at the moment, we are not going to be able to do that. This is why our strategy needs to be changed, and changed rather quickly, before too much more serious damage is done to Western economies. In short, we need to place the unpopular Saudi royal family on the defensive, we need to put them on the spot, we need to make them take the initiative, we need to make them fight this war for us.

It is not for Bush and Blair to talk about Osama bin Laden as being a renegade who doesn’t speak for his faith. Let the Saudis do the talking! If they consider him (and his cronies) to be renegades, then it should be up to them to find them and punish them.

We need to start fighting this war against the jihad as a real war, for a real war it most certainly is. The kid gloves need to be taken off. If we don’t start fighting this real war soon, instead of this phony war we are engaged in, we will fail; and the fate of the West will be sealed. As things stand, the war we are now waging would be more accurately called ‘The Incompetent War’! For incompetent it indeed is!

©Mark Alexander

Iran "center of peace and tranquility" - plans suicide terror and dirty nukes

(Ahmadinejad) said Iran is the center of peace and tranquility, stressing, "We call for peace and tranquility for all states. We have not attacked any country and are not regarded as a threat to the world. The Iranian nation is independent."
He stated that all Iranians are duty-bound to take steps towards development of Iran, adding, "Iran should become the most advanced and powerful country in the world."
And thanks to an Arab newspaper in London, we can see exactly how peaceful Iran is:
Eight fundamentalist Islamist organizations have received large sums of money in the last month from the Iranian intelligence services, as part of a project to strike U.S military and economic installations across the Middle East Asharq Al-Awsat has learned.

The plan, which also includes the carrying out of suicide operations targeting US and British interests in the region, as well as their Arab and Muslim allies, in case Iran is attacked, was drawn up by a number of experts guerilla warfare and terrorist operations, and was revealed by a senior source in the Iranian armed forces' joint chief of staff headed by the veterinary doctor Hassan Firouzabadi,

The source added that the forces of the Revolutionary Guards’ al Quds Brigades, under Brigadier General Qassim Suleimani is responsible for coordinating and providing logistical support for the groups taking part in the execution of the plan, codenamed al Qiyamah the Islamic word for "Judgment Day".

The plan includes three steps, which Asharq al Awsat has examined in earlier reports. The source gave more details about how the plan will be implemented. He said, “Most of Iran’s visitors in the last four months, including the leaders of revolutionary groups in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the heads of Hezbollah cells in the Persian Gulf and Europe and North America were asked, when they met with the Iranian intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ezhei and his aides: are you ready to defend the Islamic revolution and vilayat e faqih? If you agree to take part in the great jihad, what would you need to be ready for the great fight?

Amongst the leaders who visited were the head of one of the Iraqi armed group who was very clear and honest. He said his men would transform Iraq into a hell for the Americans if Iran were attacked.

The source also said that the military training camps of the Guards were opened for the fighters of the Mehdi army in Iran to receive the necessary training. Iran had also increased its financial assistance to Moqtada al Sadr to more than 20 million dollars.

The same applied to Islamic Jihad in Palestine which has received large sums of money, large quantities of arms and military training for its cadres in Isfahan, including street fighting methods.

As for the Lebanese Hezbollah, several loads of arms have been sent to; they include rockets, explosives, and guided missiles. Hezbollah's arsenal includes more than 10 thousand rockets short-range rockets and missiles including Fajr, Nour, Arash, Hadid.

An estimated 80 members underwent private training last year on how to carry out suicide operations from the air (through the use of kite planes) and undersea operations using submarines.

While denying that Hamas had joined the list of organizations ready to help Iran in its likely war with the U.S, the source indicated that the external success of the movement, which enjoys considerable Iranian support both financial and military, was strengthened following the latest visit by its leaders to Tehran. This was translated in the Palestinian masses’ support for Iran, against Israel and the United States .

According to Iran, the latest military plan includes:

1- A missile strike directly targeting the US bases in the Persian Gulf and Iraq , as soon as nuclear installations are hit.

2- Suicide operations in a number of Arab and Muslim countries against US embassies and missions and US military bases and economic and oil installations related to US and British companies. The campaign might also target the economic and military installations of countries allied with the United States .

3- Launch attacks by the Basij and the Revolutionary Guards and Iraqi fighters loyal to Iran against US and British forces in Iraq , from border regions in central and southern Iraq .

4- Hezbollah to launch hundreds of rockets against military and economic targets in Israel .

According to the source, in case the US military attacks continue, more than 50 Shehab-3 missiles will be targeted against Israel and the al Quads Brigades will give the go-ahead for more than 50 terrorists cells in Canada, the US and Europe to attack civil and industrial targets in these countries.

What about the last stage in the plan?

Here, the Iranian source hesitated before saying with worry; this stage might represent the beginning of a world war, given that extremists will seek to maximize civilian casualties by exploding germ and chemical bombs as well as dirty nuclear bombs across western and Arab cities.

Here is a textbook case where waiting for the inevitable conflict will end up increasing the number of dead.

Sometimes war is moral, and Iran is turning into a textbook case. The longer we wait the more it will hurt us. Time is squarely on Iran's side, unless its president should happen to have an unfortunate accident.

(Thanks to Pastorius for inviting me to this blog!)

Chirac Calls for World to Resume Jizah Payments to Hamas

"We never liked those Jews much anyway" said French President Jacques Chirac. From the BBC

Mr Chirac said the World Bank should set up a fund to pay the salaries of Palestinian officials.

Diplomacy the only way the French seem to know how; appeasement. Perhaps if Chirac does this for Islamic terrorist groups, perhaps, just perhaps they won't attack France.

I wouldn't have been so incredulous if had called for food and humanitarian supplies to go to the Palestinian people. No, he's asking for special help for Palestinian Officials.

Questionable credibility, or head in the sand

From the G2 bulletin via Jhad Watch:

Hamid Mir, the only journalist to interview Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in the wake of 9/11, has confirmed that al-Qaida has obtained nuclear suitcase weapons from the Russian black market, that the weapons were tested in Kabul in 2000 and that may have already been forward deployed to the United States.

"If you think that my information and analysis about bin Laden's location is correct," Mir said, "then please don't underestimate my analysis about his nuclear threat also."

Mir said that he met with an Egyptian engineer last week who had lost an eye after one of bin Laden's nuclear tests in Kunar. The Pakistani journalist said that the encounter with the engineer greatly disturbed and depressed him since it provided further assurance that a nuclear nightmare for America is about to dawn.

Mir believes that an "American Hiroshima" will occur as soon as the U.S. launches an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. "Al-Qaida and Iran," he says, "have a long, secret relationship."

That relationship dates back to June 21, 1996, when bin Laden attended a terror summit in Tehran. The gathering attracted terror leaders from various places throughout the world, including Ramadan Shallah (the Palestinian Islamic Jihad), Ahmad Salah (Egyptian Islamic Jihad), Imad al-Alami and Mustafa al-Liddawi (HAMAS), Ahmad Jibril (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), Abdallah Ocalan (the Kurdish People Party), Muhammad Ali Ahmad (al Qaeda), and Imad Mugniyah (Hezbollah). The summit resulted in the creation of the "Committee of Three" that would meet on a regular basis for the "coordination, planning, and execution of attacks" against the United States and Israel. The committee members were Ahmad Salah, Imad Mugniyah and bin Laden.

Mir's position that al-Qaida's nuclear weapons may have already been forward deployed to the United States confirms the report of Sharif al-Masri, a key al-Qaida operative who was arrested in Pakistan in November 2000.

Al Masri, an Egyptian national with ties to al-Zawahiri, said that al-Qaida had made arrangements to smuggle nuclear weapons and supplies to Mexico, From Mexico, he said, the weapons were to be transported across the border and into the United States with the help of a Latino street gang.

Mir also maintains that numerous sleeper agents are in place in major cities throughout the United States to prepare for the nuclear holocaust. Many of these agents, he says, are Algerians and Chechens who obtained European passports and are posing as Christian and Jews...

Farah is not alwyas correct, and neither is Hamid Mir, nor is he a neutral observer, but....

Palestinian Terrorist Is Sorry

This looks like a pretty good blog.

This post in particular caught my eye. Palestinian terrorist Abdullah Barghouti was interviewed on TV the other day, and he said he was sorry ...

Yes, that's right, he was sorry THAT HE DIDN'T KILL MORE THAN 66 PEOPLE.

Bought and Paid For

kabuki_1.jpg

Russia and China warn UN not to antagonise Iran


Russia and China on Thursday warned against escalating the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme. The call came on the eve of an eagerly awaited report on whether the country has met United Nations demands.

The US and the European Union believe Friday’s report by Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will set the stage for a UN Security Council resolution, since there is little chance that Tehran will meet the council’s demand for “full and sustained suspension” of uranium enrichment, which can produce weapons-grade material.

But on Thursday Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, warned against too great an intervention by the Security Council – a path Moscow feels could lead to confrontation.

“We think that the IAEA must continue to play a key role and it must not shrug off its responsibilities to resolve such questions and shift them on to the UN Security Council,” he said at a summit with Angela Merkel, German chancellor.

European officials argue that, far from sidelining the IAEA, any action by the council would seek to bolster its authority.

The Chinese government also called for restraint. Moscow and Beijing, which have growing energy and economic links with Iran, fear that a UN resolution might be used to justify military action at a later stage.


xin_39030322130445169206.jpg
I hear there are some excellent empty buildings near Toulouse, which would be perfect for the UN.

I also want to drive home, again, that Russia and China can be depended upon to oppose ANYTHING which is in the interest of the american people.

Continue reading "Bought and Paid For" at VWT»

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Aztlan Movement Hosts The Protocols At Official Website

The Aztlan Movement is one of the groups behind the recent illegal immigration demonstrations here in the United States.

For whatever reason, apparently, facilitating illegal immigration, and working to effect a reconquisa of the American Southwest isn't their only issue. They also hate Jews.

Here is the a link to the page where they host the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

The Stunning Anti-Semitism of Modern Day British Culture


Little Green Footballs is bringing us the story of the new issue of the Independant, one of the major British dailies. Charles says:


The Independent features an interview with the always incoherent Robert Fisk, with a cover illustration straight out of Der Stuermer.


Anti-Semitism, in my opinion, is evidence of a society suffering from a profound mental illness. For several years now, British culture has tolerated anti-Semtisim, of this sort, within its media.

The more the anti-Semtic libels are thrown around the more the public begins to believe them. My own English relatives see no problem in calling me up and explaining to me that the reason the world hates America is because our government is controlled by "the Jewish Lobby."

The amazing thing about it is I'm pretty damned sure my relatives understand that such accusations are straight out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

But, I guess it doesn't matter, because this time, they believe it is true; the Jews really have gained control of the world, and are now steering it along for their own nefarious purposes.

Clearly, the entirety of Jewish culture has attained a super-human intellectual capacity, because men have been trying, since the beginning of time, just to control their own lives, and they have been abysmal failures at it.

And, that, my friends, is exactly the reason for all this anti-Semitism. When people are unable to understand the world around them, they feel they are losing control of their lives. At such a time, it is easier to buy into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, than to face the icy breath of the nothingness within their souls.

Harry's Place has a history of such images.

Iran, now TODAY, has missiles that put Europe in range


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This is a 1936 Luftwaffe Alert


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Iran has received a first shipment of missiles from North Korea that are capable of reaching Europe, Israel's military intelligence chief was quoted on Thursday as saying.

Known in the West as BM-25s, the Russian-designed missiles have a range of around 1,500 miles, giving them a longer reach than the Iranian-made Shihab-4 missiles which are capable of hitting Israel.

The intelligence chief, Major-General Amos Yadlin, was quoted by Israel's Haaretz newspaper as saying in a lecture on Wednesday that some BM-25s had arrived in Iran.

The BM-25 was originally manufactured in the Soviet Union, where it was known as the SSN6, a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, Haaretz reported.

Continue reading "Iran has missiles that put Europe in range" at VWT»

Why the national democratic party sucks worse than the republicans

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Selfish, personal hypocrisies
Kennedy faces fight on Cape Wind


Key lawmakers oppose his bid to block project


WASHINGTON -- As record oil prices turn attention to the need for renewable fuels, momentum is building in Congress to buck Senator Edward M. Kennedy's bid to block the proposed Cape Cod wind energy project, potentially reviving efforts to construct the sprawling windmill farm in Nantucket Sound.The chairman and the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee said yesterday that when the bill Kennedy backs that would effectively halt the wind farm comes up for a vote in the Senate, they will object on procedural grounds. They say they'll argue that a renewable energy project shouldn't be lumped in with a bill governing the Coast Guard.

Meanwhile, a group of rank-and-file House members, worried about the political ramifications of rejecting alternative energy sources while motorists pay $3 a gallon at the gas station, have persuaded House leaders to sidetrack the entire bill for at least several weeks, even though it was slated for action this week. The delay could give supporters of the wind farm time to make their case to members of Congress.'Are we going to be for developing alternative energy or not?" said Representative Charles Bass, a New Hampshire Republican who helped persuade House leaders to table the bill until at least mid-May. ''The longer you delay it, the longer there is for people to examine the issue, and to determine what's going on here."


Continue reading "Why the national democratic party sucks worse than the republicans" at VWT »

You just have GOT to love Al Jazeerah, LOVE

Egypt's al-Jazeera chief arrested

The Cairo bureau chief of TV channel al-Jazeera has been arrested by Egyptian police for allegedly spreading false information on the Sinai bombs.

The interior ministry said Hussein Abdel Ghani had falsely reported a blast in eastern Sharkia province.

Mr Abdel Ghani said in a phone call broadcast on the Qatar-based channel he was the victim of "a complete police kidnapping operation - beyond the law".

A triple bombing of the Sinai resort of Dahab on Monday killed 18 people.

On Wednesday, two suicide bombers attacked security personnel and foreign peacekeepers at el-Gorah in the Sinai Peninsula, but did not cause any injuries. A spokesman said: "[Hussein Abdel Ghani] said there were incidents in Sharkia and nothing happened. He's spreading confusion.

"When he said there was an explosion in Sharkia, leading everyone to ask about it, about something that didn't happen, where did he get that from?"

In his call broadcast on al-Jazeera, Mr Abdel Ghani said he was speaking from the chief prosecutor's office in Cairo.

He denied the charge of "propagating false news".

Continue reading "You just have GOT to love Al Jazzeerah, LOVE" at VWT »

Hollywood Wisdom: Terrorism Is The Root Cause Of Terrorism

The following appears at Universal Pictures United 93 web page:


Over the decades, with no clear identification with an empire, fundamentalism grew up within Islam with jihad as a focal point. Jihad is an idea that goes back to Muhammad and means “struggle.” Taken to an extreme, jihad can mean holy war against those who do not adhere to Islamic faith.

There are many reasons for the acting out of such views – whether in the Middle East due to the development of the nation of Israel in the 1940s, or more recently the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Africa, the first World Trade Center bombing attempt, the USS Cole blast, the 9/11 catastrophe, or the British bombing of last year.


That's some fancy liberal nuancin', if'n you ask me.

Let's Play Global Thermonuclear War


Via Wizbang

Welcome, David. Let's play Global Thermonuclear War.

Iran declares they are developing nuclear technology. They say that it is strictly for peaceful purposes, but insist that if they wanted, they have the right to have nuclear weapons.

Do you:
A) Protest, but not too strenuously?
B) Stop them?

A

Iran says that the United States has to withdraw all forces from the Middle East, including all Navy ships from the Persian Gulf, or face "dire consequences."

Do you:
A) Comply under protest?
B) Refuse and confront them?

A

Iran announces that they now possess nuclear weapons. They have previously shown that they have missiles that can deliver those weapons to anywhere in the Middle East, as well as parts of Europe.

Do you:
A) Protest to the UN?
B) Stop them?

A


Iran says that the Zionists have to evacuate Palestine and return to their countries of origin, or face "grave consequences."

Do you:
A) Protest to the UN?
B) Confront them?

A


Tel Aviv has just been nuked. Estimated casualties: 100,000+.

Do you wish to:
A) Urge Israel to show restraint and protest to the UN?
B) Strike back against Iran directly?

A


Israel has launched its own nuclear weapons against Iran. Iran has launched its remaining nuclear weapons against Israel. Several weapons have missed their intended targets, landing in Iraq, Jordan, Syria. The Arab world en masse has declared war on what remains of Israel. Large clouds of fallout are drifing across the Middle East, endangering countless civilians and US forces stationed there.


Estimated casualties:
Iran: 5 million+
Israel: 4.5 million+
Jordan: 900,000+
Iraq: 500,000+
Syria: 200,000+
US: 6,000+

Price of oil breaks $200/barrel. Flow of tankers through the Persian Gulf comes to standstill. Gasoline and energy shortages throughout much of the world. China declares ownership of Spratly Islands and their untapped oil reserves. Philippines, Taiwan, Viet Nam all protest and threaten to take military action. Japan allies itself with Philippines and backs their claim. War breaks out.

Mexico offers the United States oil at $150/barrel -- as long as the US eases back on its enforcement of border security and illegal aliens.

Much of the Arab world blames the US for the nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran, as we supported Israel for far too long and permitted them to have the nuclear weapons they used to hit back. Terrorism against US targets at home and abroad skyrockets.


GAME OVER


Do you wish to play again?