Just a fair and balanced survey question:
Who does Usama bin Laden want to be the next president? More people think the terrorist leader wants Obama to win (30 percent) than think he wants Clinton (22 percent) or McCain (10 percent). Another 18 percent says it doesn’t matter to bin Laden and 20 percent are unsure
Yep, our Waronterra has officially jumped the shark while getting it's head shaved in public:
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. - An 18-year-old Elizabethtown man is charged with possessing a weapon of mass destruction and other offenses over a plastic egg explosion.Police say he ignited a plastic egg filled with plastic air-gun pellets in a flea market, hitting at least five people and causing alarm. It happened Saturday afternoon at a Saturday's Market in Londonderry Township, Dauphin County.
Peggy Beckley, the vendor manager, says market employees chased the man into the parking lot and held him for police.
In addition to the weapon of mass destruction charge, the teen was charged with risking a catastrophe, recklessly endangering another person, disorderly conduct and simple assault.
Congress' approval Wednesday of $70 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mean the twin conflicts are now more costly to American taxpayers than the war in Vietnam.According to a study by the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Congress has now approved nearly $700 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Using inflation-adjusted dollars, the total cost of those wars has now surpassed the total cost of the Vietnam war (which ran to $670 billion)," the group's Travis Sharp told OneWorld. "It's also more than seven times larger than the Persian Gulf War ($94 billion) and more than twice the cost of the Korean war ($295 billion)."
As a result of Wednesday's vote, Sharp said, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will become the second costliest conflict in American history, trailing only World War II.
Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Turkey bombed units of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq and sent troops across the border in pursuit of the militants, a lawmaker of Turkey's governing party said today.Turkish military jets and artillery pounded rebel positions inside the Kurdish-controlled region intermittently, said the lawmaker, who attended a briefing on the hostilities by government spokesman Cemil Cicek late yesterday in Ankara.
The army sent troops across the border with Iraq to hunt down PKK militants after 12 Turkish soldiers were killed by the group on Oct. 21 in Turkey, the official said. They later returned to the Turkish side of the border, he added.
Turkey's parliament on Oct. 17 passed a resolution authorizing the government to send troops into northern Iraq to attack PKK bases there. The U.S. opposes such action on concern it would destabilize the calmest part of Iraq.
Once again, the Israelis attacked Lebanon with U.S. backing for lesser reasons than this, and the U.S. attacked Eye-Rack for even less.
BAGHDAD - Turkey’s foreign minister rejected any cease-fire by Kurdish rebels Tuesday as he met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to press them to crack down on the guerrillas. Turkish forces massed on the border and tensions rose over a threatened military incursion.Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, himself a Kurd, said Iraq’s central government and authorities in its Kurdish autonomous region in the north would work together to deny the rebels freedom of movement, funds and representative offices. He said a high-level political and military delegation would travel soon to Turkey.
Iraqi officials have been saying that guerrillas with the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is known by its Kurdish acronym PKK, were based in inaccessible mountainous areas of northern Iraq.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said there are several ways to fight terrorism and Ankara would use them when appropriate. The buildup of troops along Turkey’s border with Iraq, meanwhile, continued with military helicopters airlifting commando units into the area overnight.
The mix of diplomatic and military activity followed Sunday’s rebel ambush near the Iraqi border that left 12 Turkish soldiers dead, 16 wounded and eight missing.
"We also don’t wish our historical and friendly ties with Iraq to be ruined because of a terrorist organization," Babacan said at a joint news conference after meeting with Zebari. "On the other hand, we are expecting support from international community and our neighbors in struggle against terrorism."
Babacan said rebel attacks this month alone left 42 people dead.
The Turkish government on Tuesday asked television and radio stations to curb broadcasts about Sunday’s ambush, saying they "have a negative impact on public order and people’s morale, spreading a flawed image of security forces," according to an official at the media watchdog. The official asked not to be named because she was not allowed to speak to the media.
Babacan, meanwhile, rejected any offer of a cease-fire by the PKK.
Cease-fires are "possible between states and regular forces," a stern-faced Babacan said. "The problem here is that we’re dealing with a terrorist organization."
The PKK has called on Turkey not to attack Iraq, claiming that a unilateral rebel cease-fire declared in June was still in place although it did not halt fighting.
"The position of the PKK is that we have agreed to a cease-fire but when we are attacked by the Turkish troops we will hit back," rebel spokesman Abdul-Rahman al-Chadarchi told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
He also confirmed that the rebels were holding eight Turkish soldiers captive and promised to treat them with respect, although he said it was "premature" to discuss conditions for their release.
"When they were attacking us, they were our enemies but now they are helpless captives whom we will take care of," al-Chadarchi said. "When the Turkish government asks for them, we can talk about conditions."
Needless to say, Katherine Grahm must be doing cartwheels in her grave:
If Pakistani forces cannot -- or will not -- eliminate the sanctuary, President Bush must order targeted strikes or covert actions by American forces, as he has done several times in recent years. Such actions run the risk of further destabilizing Pakistan. Yet those risks must be weighed against the consequences of another large-scale attack on U.S. soil. "Direct intervention against the sanctuary in Afghanistan apparently must have seemed . . . disproportionate to the threat," the Sept. 11 commission noted. The United States must not repeat that tragic misjudgment.
And here, folks, are my favorite remarks from the WP's own comment thread:
Once again. the Post reveals its warmongering point-of-view, and a childish understanding of foreign policy. Someone needs to give the Post an "Olmert Award" for pseudo-macho stupidity. With our recored of inept military action in the area, the most likely result will be a nuclear-armed Islamic state. That will have unthinkable effects on India and the region. Will US troops go in to try to grab the nukes? And if that fails? I suspect American aircraft carriers and other military assets are within range. Attacking ANOTHER Islamic state is probably the stupidest thing possible, although one can never underestimate the neocons.
I’m not really surprised that the Post’s editors are stupid enough, after everything we've seen, to suggest attacking a country armed with nuclear weapons.I just cannot believe that that so many readers are falling for the same old tricks all over again.
Actually, scratch that. I do believe it. I never believed that most of my fellow commentators here really opposed the Iraq war in 2003. They just turned against it when they finally realised they were losing.
Now, Cheney is pushing for war against Iran, but others in the Administration resist. Yet they all agree it would be politically smart to stimulate a bit of US jingoism in time for the election campaign. They feel the urge to double down…why not compromise on Waziristan?
Given the time necessary to place troops and pump up the war fever, the drumbeat would have to start about now. Let the word go forth to the neoconservative outlets that sold the Iraq war. Just do what you did in 2002-3. The lemmings will follow...trust us.
It is incredible that the Post can run this editorial and not once mention the impact the war in Iraq has had on our ability to conduct military operations in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Not only is it incredible, it is hypocritical for your editorial to run this editorial while backing Bush on Iraq. Sometimes I wonder if the editorial board reads the news stories that the Post runs.
What kind of nuts are you guys at the Post? Attack a nuclear nation? Overturn an unstable Pakistani government and perhaps turn it over to the supporters of al Qaeda? That's what's likely to happen if we start attacking inside Pakistan. My, wouldn't Qaeda love to have nukes for its terror operations! What is it about the Post and Bush that lead them into moves that empower our worst enemies?Of course, if Pakistani terrorists nuked us, we'd nuke them back to the stone age. But is that a process we want to go through?
(via Kevin Drum)
Seems that Al Qaeda has completely reconstituted itself thanx to its Musharraf-approved safe haven in Northern Waziristan.
U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the 2001 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned.The conclusion suggests that the group that launched the most devastating terror attack on the United States has been able to rebuild despite nearly six years of bombings, war and other tactics aimed at crippling it.
Still, numerous government officials say they know of no specific, credible threat of a new attack.
A counterterrorism official familiar with a five-page summary of the new government threat assessment called it a stark appraisal that will be discussed at the White House on Thursday as part of a broader meeting on an upcoming National Intelligence Estimate.
The official and others spoke on condition of anonymity because the secret report remains classified.
Counterterrorism analysts produced the document, titled "Al-Qaida better positioned to strike the West." The document pays special heed to the terror group's safe haven in Pakistan and makes a range of observations about the threat posed to the United States and its allies, officials said.
Al-Qaida is "considerably operationally stronger than a year ago" and has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001," the official said, paraphrasing the report's conclusions. "They are showing greater and greater ability to plan attacks in Europe and the United States."
The group also has created "the most robust training program since 2001, with an interest in using European operatives," the official quoted the report as saying.
At the same time, this official said, the report speaks of "significant gaps in intelligence" so U.S. authorities may be ignorant of potential or planned attacks.
And the question du jour is: who do you trust more to wage a war between this country and Islamofascists, those Democrats or Republicans (because you know how all wars are partisan efforts):
If there is an all-out war between the United States and various radical Muslim groups worldwide, who would you rather have in charge — Democrats or Republicans?Democrats 41%
Republicans 38%
Both the same(not listed) 9%
Don't know (not listed) 12%
Well, if Eye-Rack was any indication, what would you expect.
Update: WorstPresidentEver also falls to a new low of 31% in the same poll.
Because, just like the "Al-Qaeda types" who blew up the Mansour Hotel in Baghdad this week, they really wanted to go after "high value targets":
NEW YORK - The U.S. special operations forces attack June 17 that resulted in the death of seven Afghan children likely missed its primary target, U.S. officials tell NBC News.Abu Laith al Libi — one of al-Qaida's top commanders — was the primary target of the attack against a compound in the Paktika province of eastern Afghanistan. According to several officials, and contrary to previous statements, the U.S. military knew there were children at the compound but considered Abu Laith of such high value it was worth the risk of potential collateral damage.
Those same officials now tell NBC News that although six sets of remains besides those of the seven children were recovered, it's not clear whether Abu Laith is among those killed.
I'm sure we'll just blame the kids for being "human shields".
Digby watched Hardball with Ann Coulter so I don't have to, and really what she has to say about A-rabs is no different than what Bin Laden and his allies has to say about their chosen enemies:
"We need to be less concerned about civilian casualties...we bombed more people in Hamburg in two days ... I'd rather have their civilians die than our civilians... we should kill their people."
And why is she on Chis Matthew's show again? It's because she wrote some books.
Jackholes.
This is part of the reason why I don't trust the public NOT to turn against Democrats if and when they pull the plug on the war:
Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, as many as four in ten Americans (41 percent) still believe Saddam Hussein’s regime was directly involved in financing, planning or carrying out the terrorist attacks on 9/11, even though no evidence has surfaced to support a connection. A majority of Americans were similarly unable to pick Saudi Arabia in a multiple-choice question about the country where most of the 9/11 hijackers were born. Just 43 percent got it right — and a full 20 percent thought most came from Iraq.
As Steve Benen says, the number of people who thought Saddam was directly involved in the September 11 attacks has actually gone up in three years. So even though now most of the people think the war is wrong and unwinnable, how long do you think they are going to change their minds and blame the assortments of Democrats, liberals and dirty, fucking hippies for denying this great nation victory over the Arab scum?
A lot of people seemed excited over the speculation that the Bushies will close down the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp - I mean prison. Any veteran watcher of the Worst Administration Ever would figure out their angle instead of granting kudos. Sadly, here they do not fail to disappoint. It turns out that if they do indeed close down that prison, they will simply expand their extrajudicial archipelago of prisons so that their actions will be more spread out and obscured:
(AP) WASHINGTON The United States is helping build a prison in Afghanistan to take some prisoners now at Guantanamo Bay, but the White House said Friday it is not meant as an alternative to the detainee facility in Cuba.The Bush administration wants to close Guantanamo Bay and move its terror suspects to prisons elsewhere and senior officials have told The Associated Press a consensus is building among the president's top advisers on how to do it.
However, a scheduled high-level Friday meeting on the matter was canceled after AP reported on it and the White House said no decision is imminent -- while repeating President Bush's stated desire to shutter Guantanamo Bay.
"America does not have any intention of being the world's jailer," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino told reporters. She noted that the United States has announced plans to release about 80 of some 375 detainees, and hopes to transfer several dozen Afghans back to Afghanistan in the near future.
Bush is right, life would be a lot easier if you were a dictator. You can declare someone guilty without having to mess around with bullshit such as evidence, judicial review, due process, etc:
An Army officer with a key role in the U.S. military hearings at Guantanamo Bay says they relied on vague and incomplete intelligence and were pressured to declare detainees ``enemy combatants,'' often without any specific evidence.His affidavit, released Friday, is the first criticism by a member of the military panels that determine whether detainees will continue to be held.
Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, a 26-year veteran of military intelligence who is an Army reserve officer and a California lawyer, said military prosecutors were provided with only ``generic'' material that didn't hold up to the most basic legal challenges.
Despite repeated requests, intelligence agencies arbitrarily refused to provide specific information that could have helped either side in the tribunals, according to Abraham, who said he served as a main liaison between the Combat Status Review Tribunals and those intelligence agencies.
``What were purported to be specific statements of fact lacked even the most fundamental earmarks of objectively credible evidence,'' Abraham said in the affidavit, filed in a Washington appeals court on behalf of a Kuwaiti detainee, Fawzi al-Odah, who is challenging his classification as an ``enemy combatant.''
The Pentagon had no immediate comment, but a spokesman said Defense Department officials were preparing a response to the affidavit.
(via ThinkProgess)
That's the workings of the Great Legal Mind currently sitting on the Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia. Apparently, we now look to completely fictional and over-the top TV dramas that have lost audience share this season because of it's nonsensical story arcs in order to establish enduring constitutional principles:
Senior judges from North America and Europe were in the midst of a panel discussion about torture and terrorism law, when a Canadian judge's passing remark - "Thankfully, security agencies in all our countries do not subscribe to the mantra 'What would Jack Bauer do?' " - got the legal bulldog in Judge Scalia barking.The conservative jurist stuck up for Agent Bauer, arguing that fictional or not, federal agents require latitude in times of great crisis. "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. ... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives," Judge Scalia said. Then, recalling Season 2, where the agent's rough interrogation tactics saved California from a terrorist nuke, the Supreme Court judge etched a line in the sand.
"Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" Judge Scalia challenged his fellow judges. "Say that criminal law is against him? 'You have the right to a jury trial?' Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so.
"So the question is really whether we believe in these absolutes. And ought we believe in these absolutes."
The other Canadian judges, in their own high-minded academic manner, told Scalia to go to hell, as they should. But why the hell is Scalia free to spout such nonsense in the first place? He and his kind can ever point to real-world situations where torture has saved people from an imminent threat, and since we are dealing with Islamic radicals, they would welcome such abuses - seeing it as the most holy martyrdom at the hands of their enemies. For the last time: torture doesn't work. The Abu Ghraib torture never helped us in Eye-Rack, torture is not helping us in Afghanistan, nor did it help in Vietnam or any other conflict. Our LACK of committing torure actually helped us defeat the Germans, whose squads would readily surrender to the Americans instead of to the Soviets whose prison camps they feared. So if Scalia thinks he's being a patriot, then he's dead wrong. He's just another man-child wanking off to cowboy movies.
I wonder how you can disbar a Supreme Court Justice?
We're in Eye-Rack so we can fight them over there so they won't fight us over here.
Apparently that's good enough for the bushbots, so the war without end or meaning continues. Yet ABC News learns that terrorists are still sending suicide bomb teams to several international locations, even to this country:
Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com.Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9.
A Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures as some 300 recruits, including boys as young as 12, were supposedly sent off on their suicide missions.
And take two guesses on how they are getting all these recruits:
The tape shows Taliban military commander Mansoor Dadullah, whose brother was killed by the U.S. last month, introducing and congratulating each team as they stood."These Americans, Canadians, British and Germans come here to Afghanistan from faraway places," Dadullah says on the tape. "Why shouldn't we go after them?"
Clash of civilizations indeed.
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba, June 4 — The government’s new system for trying Guantánamo detainees was thrown into turmoil Monday, when military judges in separate decisions dismissed war crimes charges against two of the detainees.The rulings, the latest legal setbacks for the government’s effort to bring war crimes charges against detainees, could stall the military’s prosecutions here.
The decisions did not turn on the guilt or innocence of the detainees, but rather made essentially the same determination that the military had not followed procedures to declare the detainees “unlawful enemy combatants,” which is required for the military commission to hear the cases.
Pentagon officials described the rulings as raising technical and semantic issues, and said that they were considering appeals. If appeals failed, they said, they could go through the process of redesignating the detainees.
But military lawyers said the rulings exposed a flaw that would affect every other potential war-crimes case here. And the rulings brought immediate calls, including from some on Capitol Hill, for Congress to re-examine the system it set up last year for military commission trials and, perhaps, to consider other changes in the legal treatment of Guantánamo detainees.
. . .The military judges said Congress authorized the bringing of war-crimes charges against detainees who had been declared by military tribunals to be “unlawful enemy combatants.” But they said the tribunals held at Guantánamo, known as combatant status review tribunals, or C.S.R.T.’s, had determined only that the detainees were enemy combatants, without making the added determination that their participation was “unlawful.”
The international law of war defines unlawful combatants as fighters who, for example, do not wear military uniforms and conceal their weapons.
Monday’s rulings came in the cases of the only Canadian detainee, Omar Ahmed Khadr, and a Yemeni detainee, Salim Ahmed Hamdan. Mr. Hamdan’s appeal of a prior effort to prosecute him led to a Supreme Court decision last June in which the justices struck down the administration’s first system for war-crimes trials.
The military judge in Mr. Hamdan’s case, Capt. Keith Allred of the Navy, said the Pentagon had failed to obtain the necessary enemy combatant classification of Mr. Hamdan, who is accused of being the Qaeda driver for Osama bin Laden.
Mr. Hamdan’s longtime military lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift said that, though his client was unlikely to obtain freedom because of the decision, “It was once again a victory for the rule of law.”
The judge in Mr. Khadr’s case, Peter E. Brownback III, an Army colonel, said since the detainee had not been declared an unlawful enemy combatant, the military court did not have jurisdiction over the case and the proceedings could not continue. “A person has a right to be tried only by a court which he knows has jurisdiction over him,” Judge Brownback said from the bench in the military courtroom here.
Mr. Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan, is charged with killing an American soldier, spying, supporting terrorism and other charges.
An Iowa business owner shows his disapproval of the Department of Homeland Security Division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a raid.
Shocker o' the day: The Department of Homeland Security is more concerned about putting brown folks in cattle cars - I mean deporting them - than actually going after terra-ists:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Claims of terrorism represented less than 0.01 percent of charges filed in recent years in immigration courts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to a report issued Sunday by an independent research group.This comes despite the fact the Bush administration has repeatedly asserted that fighting terrorism is the central mission of DHS.
The Transactional Records Action Clearinghouse said it analyzed millions of previously undisclosed records obtained from the immigration courts under the Freedom of Information Act.
Of the 814,073 people charged by DHS in immigration courts during the past three years, 12 faced charges of terrorism, TRAC said.
Those 12 cases represent 0.0015 percent of the total number of cases filed.
"The DHS claims it is focused on terrorism. Well that's just not true," said David Burnham, a TRAC spokesman. "Either there's no terrorism, or they're terrible at catching them. Either way it's bad for all of us."
The TRAC analysis also found that DHS filed a minuscule number of what are called "national security" charges against people in the immigration courts. The report stated that 114, or 0.014 percent of the total of roughly 800,000 individuals charged were charged with national security violations.
TRAC reported more than 85 percent of the charges involved more common immigration violations such as not having a valid immigrant visa, overstaying a student visa or entering the United States without an inspection.
If Bin Laden was such a danger to us that we must continue wasting our resources babysitting a civil war in Eye-Rack, how come the chimp-in-chief ordered the CIA's Bin Laden Unit closed down around the time that original piece of intelligence was received?
WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.
The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."
The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Yep, the exact opposite sentiment of Bin Laden still being a mastermind being peddled by the Bushies. Once again, WorstPresidentEver gets away with his lies because we have no liberal media with a sense of hisory.
Can someone make sense of this latest scare-us-straight propaganda campaign brought to us by WorstPresidentEver?:
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush, trying to defend his war strategy, declassified intelligence Tuesday that asserts Osama bin Laden ordered a top lieutenant in early 2005 to form a terror cell to conduct attacks outside Iraq. The United States was to have been the top target.Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said the intelligence bolsters the Bush administration's contention that al-Qaida wants to use Iraq as a staging area to launch terror attacks around the world, including the United States.
In January 2005, bin Laden tasked al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was in Iraq, to organize the cell, Townsend said. Al-Zarqawi, former leader of al-Qaida's Iraq operations, was killed there in June 2006 by a U.S. airstrike. "We know from the intelligence community that al-Zarqawi welcomed the tasking and claimed he already had some good proposals," Townsend said.
She said that in the spring of 2005, bin Laden instructed Hamza Rabia, a senior operative, to brief al-Zarqawi on al-Qaida planning to attack sites outside Iraq, including in the United States. She did not disclose where in the United States attacks were being plotted. Around the same time, Abu Fajah al-Libi, a senior al-Qaida manager, suggested that bin Laden send Rabia to Iraq to help al-Zarqawi plan the external operations, Townsend said.
It is unclear whether Rabia went to Iraq, she said.
And the next part is almost adorable:
She said the information was declassified because intelligence agencies have tracked all leads from the information.
Nope, it has nothing to do to boost Commander Guy's approval ratings above freezing point.
Folks, meet your new fall guy:
After a frustrating search for a new "war czar" to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ABC News has learned that President Bush has chosen the Pentagon's director of operations, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, for the role.In the newly created position of assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan policy and implementation, Lute would have the power to direct the Pentagon, State Department and other agencies involved in the two conflicts.
Lute would report directly to the president and to National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Annual report on worldwide terrorism says that it has increased by 25 percent. Let's go to the tape:
WASHINGTON — A State Department report on terrorism due out next week will show a more than 25 percent increase in terror attacks worldwide in 2006 to over 14,000 -- almost all of it due to incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Friday.Based on data compiled by the U.S. intelligence community’s National Counterterrorism Center, the reports says there were 14,338 terror attacks last year, up 29 percent from 11,111 attacks in 2005. Forty-five percent of the attacks took place in Iraq.
Five U.S. officials with knowledge of the report agreed to discuss it on the condition they not be identified.
Worldwide, about 5,800 people were killed in terrorist attacks, also up from 2005. The figures for Iraq and elsewhere are limited to attacks on noncombatants, and do not include strikes against U.S. troops in Iraq. The annual report’s release comes in the midst of a bitter feud between the White House and Congress over funding for U.S. troops in Iraq, in which Democrats controlling both houses favor a deadline to begin a U.S. troop withdrawal.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top aides had considered postponing or downplaying the release of this year’s edition, due to the extreme political sensitivities, several officials said. But ultimately, they decided to issue the report on or about the congressionally mandated deadline of Tuesday, the officials said.
More evidence of Bush's fuckups before the 9-11 attack gave him a four-year shot in the arm:
PARIS (AP) - A French intelligence service learned as early as January 2001 that al-Qaida was working on a plot to hijack U.S. airliners, and it passed the information on to the CIA, a news report said Monday.France's Le Monde newspaper said it had obtained 328 pages of classified documents on Osama bin Laden's terror network that were drawn up by the French foreign intelligence service, the DGSE, between July 2000 and October 2001.
The Defense Ministry didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
Le Monde reported that the documents included a note dated Jan. 5, 2001, which said al-Qaida had been working on a hijacking plot for months. The intelligence note reported that bin Laden had attended a meeting in Afghanistan in October 2000, where a final decision to carry out the plot was taken, the newspaper said.
French intelligence officials apparently had no idea that al-Qaida was plotting to crash hijacked planes into buildings, as happened in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Ezra Klein points us to a WSJ article (sub. required) in which Arab actors are a high commodity in this new era where them Mud-slims are the bad guys and we need the Jack Bauers in order to put some boots up their asses. I'll predict that someone in the reich-wing fever swamp will suggest that librul Hollywood is financing terra-ists, or something.
Looks like our efforts in that country has produced another totalitarian Muslim state that rejects the press freedoms represented by that news station:
"The Afghan government ordered a TV station in the country to suspend broadcasts of all Al-Jazeera English language programs, the station's director said Tuesday."A statement from Lemar TV said the Ministry of Information and Culture, which oversees media in Afghanistan, did not provide reasons for the order. The station complied, but contested the order before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
"The director of the station said the ministry told the attorney general's office that Al-Jazeera is 'inflicting a killer blow to the cultural order and the legal authority of the government.' Ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment."
Jesus, even Saddam Hussein allowed Al-Jazeera. Christ.
(via Brian Ulrich of American Footprints)
A federal judge says evidence that is obtained through torture are now admissable in trying Jose Padilla:
MIAMI (Reuters) - Evidence from alleged al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla can be used against him at trial despite defense claims the American's arrest was based on information obtained through torture, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday..U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke refused to reconsider a magistrate's ruling in
September to admit Padilla's statements to the FBI as evidence in his trial
starting on April 16 on charges of conspiring to aid Islamist extremists overseas.Cooke said the defense failed to raise any new arguments.
The warrant the FBI used to arrest Padilla at Chicago's O'Hare airport in May 2002
was based in part on information provided by two prisoners held at the U.S. military
jail at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Abu Zubaydah and Binyam Muhammad, prosecutors
acknowledged in November
And you wonder why the Iranians went wild with the Brits before releasing them today. We just have no standing when pleading human rights with the rest of the world.
April 3, 2007 — - A middle school student who allegedly confronted a girl with a knife has become one of the youngest Americans ever charged with terrorism.Late Monday, Maricopa County attorney Andrew Thomas officially charged the 14-year-old boy from Mesa, Ariz., with terrorism, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and carrying weapons on a school campus.
The alleged crimes took place two weeks ago when police say the boy, who is an eighth grader at Powell Junior High School, approached a girl with a knife as she walked home from school. The girl escaped and called police. When the boy failed to show up at school the next day, police visited his home.
They found a backpack full of weapons including a handgun and ammo, chains, and rope. Police said they want the boy to be tried as an adult.
The charge of terrorism includes "substantial interruption of a public facility or establishment with a deadly weapon," according to the county attorney's office.
Mesa Police say the youth admitted to planning to take his class hostage. The boy told police that he intended to kill the girl, whom he singled out at random, police spokeswoman Holly Hosac said.
Yes, what the kid did and was allegedly planning to do is serious, but it is not terrorism since it's a political tool used to achieve specific political ends. Unless this kid was planning on not releasing his hostages until the proletariat is fully represented in the parliament - or until this country worships Allah - this just doesn't qualify.
John McCain just said this yesterday:
"The consequences of failure are catastrophic because if we come home, bin Laden and Zarqawi, they are going to follow us."
Jesus, even when we do kill the terra-ists they are still a threat. Not a nice endorsement to either wars, you blockhead.
Jimmy Carter's former National Security Advisor is dumping on us Americans for being so scared of our own shadows over 19 madmen with boxcutters. I say "so what"? Us dirty fucking hippies have been saying the exact same thing almost immediately after the planes hit. I remember during that time that my biggest fear was not of an invading A-rab mob out to kill us all, but that this country would respond in the way we did respond - by making this much, much larger than a criminal act that should be prosecuted.
But let us not forget that Mr. Brzezinski was among those that first empowered those jihadists that targeted this country in the first place. Of course Bush and Clinton neglected to clean up Afghanistan after the Soviets left, leaving a broken country wracked in civil war until Islamic fundamentalists took over. It would be nice if his role was acknowledged.
More on the "success" of the U.S. backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia:
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Insurgents dragged the corpses of two soldiers through the streets of the Somali capital and set the bodies on fire Wednesday after a fierce street battle killed at least seven people, witnesses and medical officials said.An Associated Press photographer saw insurgents drag the bodies of one Ethiopian soldier and one Somali government soldier through the streets of northeastern Mogadishu and then set them on fire.
As one of the bodies was still burning, women wearing head scarves and long, loose dresses picked up stones and pounded it as a handful of young men looked on.
Ethiopia sent soldiers into Somalia in December to help defeat an Islamic movement that threatened to destroy Somalia's internationally recognized government. While the Islamic forces no longer hold territory, they have started an insurgency to overthrow the government and drive out the Ethiopian troops.
Well, to be honest, I kinda doubted that this was to be coming, since they signed a sham peace agreement and all.
Oh yeah, in case you are wondering, sahel is an Iraqi word, meaning literally "dragging a body through the streets." That's what the Americans did to Saddam's statue, that's what the Iraqis in Fallujah did to those contractors the month when everything went to hell (April 2004), and that's what the Somalians did to those that invade their country, American or otherwise.
Eric Martin of American Footprints provides a much needed update on the "success" enjoyed by the Ethiopian Army last year in routing the Islamic Courts government that was set up in Somalia. In short, despite all the rhetoric saying otherwise, an insurgency has taken hold that is giving the Ethiopians a headache. Any moron with a fifth-grade education can make that prediction. That the "peace treaty" was a delaying tactic so the militants can organize against the invaders. But of course we are not dealing with morons.
We are dealing with conservatives.
I'm going to shamelessly copy Attaturk's post entirely because, in light of this story, it's just too goddamn funny:
(sung in the tune of "We Do" from the The Simpsons episode "Homer the Great")
Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
I do! I do!Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
I do! I do!Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star?
I do! I do!Who robs cavefish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
I do! I do!
Bwaahahahaa, ahem, oh yeah. Because of the fact that we tortured Khalid Sheik Muhammed, I'm inclined to believe any such "confessions" are bullshit and further demonstrate the need for uncoerced testimony in open court.
The Pentagon just happened to "lose" a videotape showing Jose Padilla's interrogation, the contents which might prove why Padilla is mistrustful of authority figures like his lawyers. Who else wants to call "bullshit" on this?
A videotape showing Pentagon officials' final interrogation of al-Qaida suspect Jose Padilla is missing, raising questions about whether federal prosecutors have lost other recordings and evidence in the case.The tape is classified, but Padilla's attorneys said they believe something happened
during that interrogation that could explain why Padilla does not trust them and
suspects they are government agents.Padilla attorney Anthony Natale said in court papers that the March 2, 2004,
interrogation at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., could contain information the
government conveyed to Padilla that "directly impacts upon his relationship with
his attorneys."Prosecutors and the Pentagon have said they cannot find the tape despite an
intensive search.
I'm not sure why a potentially new scandal involving the abuse of Patriot Act provisions by the FBI is even making the news just now. The third season of the critically acclaimed HBO show, "The Wire" already had that in their storyline when the local police were frustrated in tracking phone calls of a drug dealer:
Lieutenant Cedric Daniels: (to FBI Agent Terrence Fitzhugh) How did you get around the wiretap laws? Agent Fitzhugh: What's Stringer's given name? Lieutenant Daniels: Uh, Russel Bell, why? Agent Fitzhugh: Well, for the time being, his momma named him "Ahmed".
The Center for American Progress has a new report out that states that seventy-two percent of Army divisions have been deployed to Eye-Rack or Afghanistan more than once. In total, 420,000 out of 1.4 million military personnel have been deployed to Eye-Rack/Afghanistan more than once. People like to pretend they can keep this up, but with the equipment shortages, the lack of training, and the strain being put on military families, they are just dreaming.
Kevin Drum points us to another mea culpa by a former war supporter, i.e. warblogger. Sure, some of us bleeding heart types might be inclined to forgive him, The Grand Moff Texan has been so embittered by the devastation and carnage caused by such blinding imperialist arrogance to give these pant-pissing mushheads any kind of pass. His cynical takedown of that apology is pretty long, but this comment struck me as the ultimate truth in this so-called Clash of Civilizations:
You were alienated from the people who maintained the same standards of civilization that you pretend to be defending. You were dragged along by the same kind of religious zealots and ideological absolutists you see as a threat, but only when they're Muslims.You think you are confronting a fundamentalist threat from outside your civilization, but I've been confronted with a fundamentalist threat inside my civilization since I was born. That's why I know better than to fear the former and serve the latter.
Our fundamentalists differ from their fundamentalists only in that ours have killed more people.
Indeed.
A suicide bomber attacked the entrance to the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan Tuesday during a visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, killing up to 23 people and wounding 20 more.The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney was the target.
Talking to reporters later, Cheney said he heard "a loud boom" and was informed by Secret Service agents that there had been an explosion.
Apparently there was an underground bunker where Cheney was kept snug after the terra-ists tried getting to him.
Mother Jones has a major new issue out where they examine the Eye-Rack war, it's factions and it's effects. If there's one thing anyone should take out of it, it is that the Eye-Rack war did nothing about worldwide terrorism. In fact, if anything, it only made it much, much worse.
Of course, Eye-Rack and Afghanistan are both jihadistans of terrorism, a militant's practice ground for waging war on crusaders, Jews and apostates, so they don't count. The rest of the world, however, still experienced a 35 percent rise in attacks and a 12 percent rise in fatalities from those attacks.
If that weren't enough, it turns out the Bushies are lying about their effectiveness in waging their waronterra (PDF):
Nearly all of the terrorism-related statistics reported by the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI from the September 11 attacks until early 2005 had some inaccuracies, the department's inspector general said on Tuesday.. . .The report found that only two out of 26 statistics were accurate after reviewing the number of terrorism convictions in the 2003 and 2004 financial years, the number of convictions or guilty pleas from September 11, 2001, through February 3, 2005, and the number of terrorist threats tracked by the FBI in 2003 and 2004.
"We found many cases involving offenses such as immigration violations, marriage fraud, or drug trafficking where department officials provided no evidence to link the subject of the case to terrorist activity," the report said.
Keeping us safe from terra-ists? Hell, they can't even tell the goddamn truth about it.
The New York Times has a feature about Bush's failed Waronterra:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Until recently, the Bush administration had described Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri as detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of Al Qaeda.
The United States has also identified several new Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan, including one that officials said might be training operatives for strikes against targets beyond Afghanistan.
American analysts said recent intelligence showed that the compounds functioned under a loose command structure and were operated by groups of Arab, Pakistani and Afghan militants allied with Al Qaeda. They receive guidance from their commanders and Mr. Zawahri, the analysts said. Mr. bin Laden, who has long played less of an operational role, appears to have little direct involvement.
Officials said the training camps had yet to reach the size and level of sophistication of the Qaeda camps established in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. But groups of 10 to 20 men are being trained at the camps, the officials said, and the Qaeda infrastructure in the region is gradually becoming more mature.
. . .Since 2001, members of various militant groups in Pakistan have increased their cooperation with one another in the tribal areas, according to American analysts.
The analysts said that North Waziristan became a hub of militant activity last year, after President Musharraf negotiated a treaty with tribal leaders in the area. He pledged to pull troops back to barracks in the area in exchange for tribal leaders’ ending support for cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, but officials in Washington and Islamabad conceded that the agreement had been a failure.
During a news conference days before last November’s elections, President Bush said of the campaign against Al Qaeda: “Absolutely, we’re winning. Al Qaeda is on the run.”
But in a speech several days ago, Mr. Bush painted a more sober picture of Al Qaeda’s current strength, especially inside Pakistan.
“Taliban and Al Qaeda figures do hide in remote regions of Pakistan,” Mr. Bush said. “This is wild country; this is wilder than the Wild West. And these folks hide and recruit and launch attacks.”
Officials said that both American and foreign intelligence services had collected evidence leading them to conclude that at least one of the camps in Pakistan might be training operatives capable of striking Western targets. A particular concern is that the camps are frequented by British citizens of Pakistani descent who travel to Pakistan on British passports.
In a speech in November, the director general of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, said that terrorist plots in Britain “often have links back to Al Qaeda in Pakistan.” She said that “through those links, Al Qaeda gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers here on an extensive and growing scale.”
If only we took this operation as seriously as Bosnia. . .
Apparently anticipating a recent report that says that torture doesn't work and interrogators are too influenced by torture scenes presented in the popular media (i.e. 24) Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan and four others went to meet with the producers of 24 in November in order to tell them to quit using that fanciful shortcut that never works in real life to resolve crises, or if they have to, show the consequences of such actions:
"People watch the shows, and then walk into the interrogation booths and do the same things they've just seen," said Tony Lagouranis, who was a U.S. Army interrogator in Iraq and attended the meeting."The kids see it, and say, 'If torture is wrong, what about '24'?" Finnegan said.
. . .Joe Navarro, an FBI interrogation expert who was at the meeting, said he wouldn't want anyone like Bauer on his team. "Only a psychopath can torture and be unaffected," he said. "You don't want people like that in your organization. They are untrustworthy, and tend to have grotesque other problems."
Welp, Joel Surnow, the series right-wing producer, remains unconvinced that torture is a failed policy whose only end is to create republics of fear ruled by depraved maniacs:
The show's co-creator and executive director, Joel Surnow, 52, a self-described "right-wing nut," seemed stunned by the complaints, but gave no hint that the torture scenes would be toned down - or shown not to work. "We've had all of these torture experts come by recently, and they say, 'You don't realize how many people are affected by this. Be careful,'" Surnow conceded. "But I don't believe that."
Eh, who can blame him. Apparently he only giving the people what they want.
Hundreds of Taliban militants overran a southern Afghan town that British troops left after a contentious peace agreement in October, destroying the government center and temporarily holding elders hostage, officials and residents said Friday.The assault, days after a Taliban commander was killed outside the town of Musa Qala, raises doubts about the future of the peace deal, which has been criticized by some Western officials as a NATO retreat in hostile Taliban territory.
Two residents of Musa Qala estimated that between 200 and 300 Taliban fighters had overtaken the town. They said the fighters took weapons from the police on Wednesday and destroyed the town's government center late Thursday.
Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said an "unknown number" of militants had entered Musa Qala. He said late Friday that no NATO-led forces were in the town.
Imagine that, a reporter that compares Bush's public statements with actual facts on the ground:
In his State of the Union address last night, President Bush presented an arguably misleading and often flawed description of "the enemy" that the United States faces overseas, lumping together disparate groups with opposing ideologies to suggest that they have a single-minded focus in attacking the United States.Under Bush's rubric, a country such as Iran -- which enjoys diplomatic representation and billions of dollars in trade with major European countries -- is lumped together with al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat," Bush said, referring to the different branches of the Muslim religion.
Similarly, Bush asserted that Shia Hezbollah, which has won seats in the Lebanese government, is a terrorist group "second only to al-Qaeda in the American lives it has taken." Bush is referring to attacks nearly a quarter-century ago on a U.S. embassy and a Marine barracks when the United States intervened in Lebanon's civil war by shelling Hezbollah strongholds. Hezbollah has evolved into primarily an anti-Israeli militant organization -- it fought a war with Israel last summer -- but the European Union does not list it as a terrorist organization.
At one point, Bush catalogued what he described as advances in the quest for freedom in the Middle East during 2005 -- such as the departure of Syrian troops from Lebanon and elections in Iraq. Then, Bush asserted, "a thinking enemy watched all of these scenes, adjusted their tactics and in 2006 they struck back." But his description of the actions of "the enemy" tried to tie together a series of diplomatic and military setbacks that had virtually no connection to one another, from an attack on a Sunni mosque in Iraq to the assassination of Maronite Lebanese political figure.
Read the whole thing, including the debunking of Bush's upbeat claims about job performances and budget deficits. But the real crime is his lumping together Shiite extremists with Al Qaeda, and it is doing nothing but pissing off the people we are supposed to be supporting:
Iraqi Shi'ite officials on Wednesday dismissed as "ridiculous" U.S. President George W. Bush's comment that Shi'ite militants were as big a danger to the United States as Sunni al Qaeda.. . .An official from a top Shi'ite party in Iraq said Washington would lose focus in fighting terrorism if it decided to open up a new front against Shi'ite militias.
"Comparing Shi'ite militias to al Qaeda is ridiculous. They are protecting their own communities after a three-year onslaught by terrorists and only a few outlaws take revenge. How are the militias a threat to the United States?" he said.
"The only solution is to give the government control of its own forces," said the official, who declined to be identified.
That's the Uniter, uniting everybody against us.
Remember the infantry batallion that was pulled from Afghanistan in order to support WorstPresidentEver's Surge? Well guess how they are going to cover their ass on that. That's right, screwing over more soldiers looking to come home:
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has decided to extend the combat tour of 3,200 soldiers from a 10th Mountain Division brigade in Afghanistan for four months in hopes of quelling the violence.The decision comes a week after Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with commanders in Afghanistan and heard a request for more troops.
Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, at first asked for about 1,200 troops. Gates said he was "strongly inclined" to meet the commander's request but wanted to consider other options before deciding how many to hold over.
Ben Abel, a spokesman for Fort Drum, N.Y., where the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division is based, confirmed that Gates had decided to extend the brigade's tour.
Arthur Silber highlights a new study by the Intelligence Science Board telling us that there is no evidence that the "controversial interrogation approaches" (aka torture) used by the WorstPresidentEver's fight against the terra-ists actually work, and that some of the techniques have actually hindered our efforts.
Even worse, the "painful and coersive techinques" that are used were not founded on experience or knowledge that it would get results, but were either made up on the fly with the interrogators using their captives as human guinea pigs, or they were influenced by the examples presented by popular culture, especially the FOX show 24. Silber of course uses this as further evidence of the corrosive effect that show has had on our nation:
You need not wonder any longer why I have written about the great evil conveyed by 24, although I admit that even I was not prepared to find confirmation on this point in precisely this form.. . .So there you have it: a series like 24, with its genuinely monstrous messages, serves as the basis for national policy, and as the "justification" for the systematic use of torture.
I honestly do not know how to express my profound revulsion in response to this latest story. So I will simply say that I am truly at a loss for words, and end this entry here.
But for some perverted reason, I still watch it and get a kick out of the show. Just last week a suitcase nuclear bomb exploded in an LA suburb, a situation which is at the height of absurdity. We can only see how this season will turn out. Hell, even the producers don't have a clue how the season will end, which just lends to the general craziness of the show and its utter unpredictability. Will it top the arrest and prosecution of the President of the United States last season? We'll see.
Guess the Bushelvikis decided that spying on Americans without warrants isn't a good idea after all:
The Justice Department announced today that the National Security Agency's controversial warrantless surveillance program has been placed under the authority of a secret surveillance court, marking an abrupt change in approach by the Bush administration after more than a year of heated debate.In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said that orders issued on Jan. 10 by an unidentified judge puts the NSA program under the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secret panel that oversees most intelligence surveillance in the United States.
Gonzales also wrote that the current NSA program will effectively be abandoned after its current authorization expires in favor of the new approach.
The change marks a dramatic turn of events for the Justice Department, which has strenuously argued for more than a year that the NSA spying program was legal and that the foreign intelligence court was poorly suited to oversee the program, as many lawmakers had advocated.
Of course, we can't be confident that they are sincere about their changes until we know all the details, but I hope the Conventional Wisdom doesn't ignore the fact that they've announced this change only after the Democrats took control of Congress.
It's not enough that Bush has to fuck up Eye-Rack beyond all recognition, now he has to toom Afghanistan to distaster as well. The Baltimore Sun reports that even though the troop level in Afghanistan is too small to effectively combat the resurgent Taliban rebels, and the commanders on the ground there saying they need additional troops, the War President who listens and responds to his generals decides to pull one Army battalion in order to provide enough troops for his Eye-Rack escalation:
The accelerating war here and the critical need for troops vastly complicate the crumbling security picture across the region - from Afghanistan, where the United States chose to strike back after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, to Iraq, where American troops have been unable in almost four years of fighting to establish basic security and quell a bloody sectarian war.As a last-ditch effort, President Bush is expected to announce this week the dispatch of thousands of additional troops to Iraq as a stopgap measure, an order that Pentagon officials say would strain the Army and Marine Corps as they struggle to man both wars.
Already, a U.S. Army infantry battalion fighting in a critical area of eastern Afghanistan is due to be withdrawn within weeks in order to deploy to Iraq.
According to Army Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Tata and other senior U.S. commanders here, that will happen just as the Taliban is expected to unleash a major campaign to cut the vital road between Kabul and Kandahar. The official said the Taliban intend to seize Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city and the place where the group was organized in the 1990s.
"We anticipate significant events there next spring," said Tata.
As Atrios would say, thanks Oh Wise Men of Washington.
So Jose Padilla has been declared an enemy combatant and forced into abuses and isolation that has resulted in mental damage and all for what? Seven wiretapped phone calls, none of which involved any terra-ist plots:
Tens of thousands of conversations were recorded. Some 230 phone calls form the core of the government’s case, including 21 that make reference to Mr. Padilla, prosecutors said. But Mr. Padilla’s voice is heard on only seven calls. And on those seven, which The Times obtained from a participant in the case, Mr. Padilla does not discuss violent plots.
That's the hallmark of the Bush administration, a national disgrace.
Keith Ellison is making new waves by using the Koran previously owned by Thomas Jefferson himself in the private swearing-in ceremony, thereby unleashing new symbolisms into this Republican-manufactured "controversy". But don't worry, the wingnuts have a new answer to counter the fact that one of our founding fathers do not mind having the terra-ist handbook in his own personal library:
The Bashaw of Tripoli’s justification for war on American trading ships in the Mediterranean two hundred years ago, according to Thomas Jefferson, was that “it was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners.” By all means let Keith Ellison swear in using Jefferson's Koran, maybe afterwards he can look up the passages that discuss smiting the infidels at the neck and make great slaughter among them. Probably underlined.
These lizard brains have no compunction, do they?
You got your revenge on the A-rabs, any A-rabs, and we've paid double. Once again, I hope all the morans are fucking satisfied.
U.S. Deaths in Iraq Exceed 9-11 CountBAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. military death toll in Iraq has reached 2,974, one more than the number of deaths in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, according to an Associated Press count on Tuesday.
I just can't stand it.
I'd comment on this, but for the bile forming in the back of my throat:
Rumsfeld: ‘It Is Not A War on Terror’ In a new interview posted on Townhall.com, conservative columnist Cal Thomas asks outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, “With what you know now, what might you have done differently in Iraq?” Rumsfeld offers a remarkable response:I don’t think I would have called it the war on terror. I don’t mean to be critical of those who have. Certainly, I have used the phrase frequently. Why do I say that? Because the word ‘war’ conjures up World War II more than it does the Cold War. It creates a level of expectation of victory and an ending within 30 or 60 minutes of a soap opera. It isn’t going to happen that way. Furthermore, it is not a ‘war on terror.’ Terror is a weapon of choice for extremists who are trying to destabilize regimes and (through) a small group of clerics, impose their dark vision on all the people they can control. So ‘war on terror’ is a problem for me.
I think we made a movie in the late 80's about this celebrating this type of quagmire happening - although back then the islamofashishehshes were the freedom fighters and the Soviets were the infidels deserving their costly disaster:
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — The conflict in Afghanistan has entered a dangerous phase, and the next three to six months could prove crucial in determining whether the United States and its NATO partners can suppress a revitalized enemy — or will be dragged into another drawn-out and costly fight with an Islamic insurgency, according to senior military and security officials and diplomats."I think we are approaching a tipping point, perhaps early in the new year," said a Western diplomat in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly.
Popular support for the central government is faltering, and Western military allies are deeply divided over how best to combat the insurgency.
On the other side of the fight, the Taliban has regained the strength to dominate large swaths of Afghanistan; government control is tenuous at best in at least 20% of the country, according to several Western diplomats and Afghan officials.
Militants have built a network of bases in the tribal hinterlands that straddle the frontier with Pakistan. Over the last year, a growing number of mobile encampments on the Afghan side of the border have given the insurgents greater self-sufficiency, military officials say, although the guerrillas still draw heavily on logistical support and weaponry funneled from the Pakistani side.
"They can come and go pretty much undetected," acknowledged U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Michael T. Harrison Sr., who is overseeing the training and equipping of the struggling Afghan national army.
Observers point to an inexorable upward trend in violence that includes suicide attacks, roadside bombs and border clashes. "We have a bona fide war going on," Harrison said.
A widely cited recent report by the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, a panel of Afghan and foreign officials, said such attacks had increased fourfold from last year, killing at least 3,700 people so far in 2006.
What? You mean spending 25 times less per capita on Afghanistan than in Bosnia WON'T defeat the Taliban? And deploying 1/50th of the troops sent to Bosnia doesn't help either? And creating an Afghan military whose soldiers gets paid less than a Taliban is ass-ignorant at best? Well shit on me and call me a sundae!