OT 07-38
Open threat: "If you don't comment, the terrorists will win ..."
Posted by b on May 31, 2007 at 8:44 UTC | Permalink
« previous pageChris Floyd with an important catch: Extremist Clerics Justify Killing Non-Combatants
"If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand," said Shmuel Eliyahu. "And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don't stop we must kill 100,000, even a million."
@ b real
OK. I finally found time to see documentary. What can I say? First I lived through similarly dramatic times in Serbia ( all though not to the end of Milosevic) and being very much politically naive at the time on few occasions I was almost ready to give my life and risked it to free (just as an example) some opposition leaders. And I can honestly tell you that after those crooks finally found their way to the government if I knew what they are going to stand for and do I wouldn’t give a fuck to free them. Power is horrifying…
I was born and raised after one “people’s revolution” in a country where everything was nationalized and where we were told that it’s for our own good so that we can all benefit, not only rich.. Bullshit! It’s simply all bullshit and it’s not going to be different with Chavez .I learned not to trust politicians anywhere even and especially when they are “bringing gifts”…
I believe in social justice but the one that used to be applied in Sweden not in USSR or Cuba or North Korea. It’s simply bullshit.
But I suppose it’s useless to try to explain to leftists that live in western countries so I give up.
As about media , yes they have a crucial role in times like that and that’s why Milosevic would rather let us take Parliament (and we did at some point) then TV…
But even that wouldn’t be a good reason for me to agree to shut them up. It’s usually counterproductive…All politicians dream to shut up opposition and do not have to bother.
I will not argue with you guys any more but we’ll have our eyes on Chavez…I do not expect much good to come from Venezuela or for poor Venezuelans. Let’s just wait and see.
Posted by: vbo | Jun 4 2007 13:13 utc | 103
oh don't worry vbo, chavez will be taken care of long before he might even get a chance to prove you wrong or right for that matter
Posted by: jcairo | Jun 4 2007 14:34 utc | 104
vbo - spend some time reading up on the social programs in venezuela & economic situation for the majority under chavez. look into the communal councils. this knowledge may help dispel some of your cynicism. again, the act of not renewing RCTV's license was not a move to shut down the opposition, as the wilpert link i've provided clearly shows. get past this hangup & maybe you'll get a better understanding of what's going on in venezuela.
Posted by: b real | Jun 4 2007 14:39 utc | 105
The Secret Air Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
A relentless attack from the air against Iraq and Afghanistan has been going on for years, with the United States conducting an average of 75 to 100 airstrikes in the 2 countries every day. The death toll from these attacks is unknown, but a reasonable estimate is in the range of 100,000 to 150,000 in Iraq, with the number in Afghanistan as yet unexplored. Yet the story of these air wars is almost unknown in the United States. Without access to Iraqi or Afghani sources, it is not possible to offer firsthand accounts of the consequences of the air wars, but it is possible to go to some available sources to get a glimpse of what is happening.Every day the U.S. Central Command Air Forces (CENTAF) posts on the Internet a public report of their activities. Who knows if these reports are true or accurate, but let’s say they are. They’re pretty horrifying, despite the heroic self-serving language.
For example, a headline from the summary of March 13: “Air Controllers Direct Airpower Symphony over Iraq” and “Air Force Continues Giving 100 Percent.” These are standard puff pieces that one would expect from a public relations office and, presumably, they are produced to maintain morale among active and retired military personnel who seem to be the primary audience. Unfortunately, these stories become the grist for the “news stories” on Iraq and Afghanistan that we see in the daily press.
Leaving aside the blatant propaganda, the daily CENTAF “airpower summaries,” as they are called, bring a few things into focus about the secret air component of U.S. operations. Here’s a sample from the week of March 3-9: “In Afghanistan this week 330 close-air-support missions were flown in support of the International Security Assistance Force and Afghan troops....” Meanwhile, “In Iraq this week, coalition aircraft flew 327 close-air-support missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom.” A “Close-Air-Support” mission, or CAS, is the term used for “Dropping bombs in support of ground troops—also known as an airstrike.”
In other words, according to the Air Force’s own numbers, the U.S. during that particular week conducted an average of 93 airstrikes per day in the two countries. For the following week the total was 614 strikes or 87 per day. The week of March 17-23 saw 753 strikes or 107 per day. In the only substantial report to be found in this country in the past year on the air war—“Bombs over Baghdad; The Pentagon’s Secret Air War in Iraq” at the online news source TomDispatch—author Nick Turse reminds us that these numbers include only the air assaults conducted by the Air Force. They “do not include guided missiles and unguided rockets fired, or cannon rounds expended; nor, according to a CENTAF spokesperson, do they take into account the munitions used by some Marine Corps and other coalition aircraft or any of the Army’s helicopter gunships. Moreover, they do not include munitions used by the armed helicopters of the many private security contractors flying their own missions in Iraq.” “Private security contractors” is the current euphemism for mercenary soldiers.
Posted by: b real | Jun 4 2007 14:43 utc | 106
@vbo - I for one am certainly interested in your position and would like to learn more.
Just for starters. This lefty for one is not for nationalizing everything. For monopol infrastructure (electricity, gas, water networks etc. - not electricity generation/sales) I do see it justified. Otherwise, a controlled market-system is certainly better than anything politicians can design.
How did Serbia develop into the Milosevic mania? I never followed/understood that. Please let us know (you can send me a piece to post if you like.)
headlines create the initial impression of a story used to form a reader's opinion. for skimmers, who may not read any further, they provide the only details they will get. so consider the value of the two following headlines.
telegraph: Islamic terrorist killed in Somalia was British
mcclatch newspapers: American among those killed by U.S. attack in Somalia
reading further into first story, one find out
A spokesman for the British High Commission in Nairobi, which monitors Somalia, said, "We are aware of the report of foreign fighters killed in Somalia, but at this stage we have no information concerning them."Persistent reports from Somalia's transitional government and its Ethiopian backers that foreigners including British citizens have fought alongside Somali jihadists have yet to be proved.
the mcclatchy report doesn't even mention that no proof has yet been presented by puntland officials other than their claims. an article i linked to in #96, however, states that
[Puntland VP] Afqura said Puntland security forces had recovered U.S., Swedish and British passports among others from the dead men. The vice president did not produce any evidence to that effect, however.
in the mcclatchy article though, we read
The American was not identified, but Hassan Dahir Mohamoud, the vice president of Puntland, the northern Somali region that declared itself semiautonomous in 1998, said that the American's passport had been recovered.Five other foreigners were also killed in the strike, Mohamoud said, including citizens of Great Britain, Sweden, Morocco, Pakistan and Yemen. Two Somali nationals reportedly survived the U.S. missile strike.
"We have found an American, British, Swedish and some Middle Eastern passports on the corpses," Mohamoud said.
having followed the somali situation & reporting on it all year, i'm naturally suspicious of claims like this. of course there are citizens of many different nations in somalia, as we've seen in the reports of those renditioned while attempting to flee into kenya in january. the last i read, kenya still has its border closed. and w/ the current state of mogadishu, why try to get to the airport in that city to get out? fleeing into ethiopia doesn't sound like a good option, as that's where people are being renditioned to, including large numbers from puntland. i still think that these people are tied into those attempting to flee to yemen. but it's also easy to put passports on bodies to provide more "evidence" for building a case of international terrorists infiltrating somalia. since other reports since friday have acknowledged that special forces have been on the ground in northern somalia, it's not inconceivable that planting passports is possible. in any case, it should be easy for puntland officials to present some evidence to back up their claims, provided they actually have it. it sounds very fishy that only the somali nationals survived the attack, while all others killed were foreigners.
Posted by: b real | Jun 4 2007 15:21 utc | 108
latest from mogadishu
Blast occurs near an Ethiopian base in Mogadishu
Mogadishu 04, June.07 ( Sh.M.Network) A huge explosion rocked Mogadishu, the Somali capital, on Monday afternoon. The explosion occurred around former US embassy in south of the capital.Residents said they could see thick smoke coming out near former political science university, an Ethiopian military base.
Witnesses said that it was a suicide car bomb that blew up closer the Ethiopian base.
...
This is the third explosion that occurred in the capital on Monday alone. Dual grenade attacks have been targeted at a Somali military convoy passing around SOS hospital in north Mogadishu early in the morning
Somalia: Seven killed including two policemen in Mogadishu
Mogadishu 04, June.07 ( Sh.M.Network) At least seven people were killed and five were wounded after unknown gunmen ambushed two Somali policemen inside Mogadishu’s largest Bakara market.Witnesses told Shabelle that unknown gunmen shot dead two policemen, while the two were marching in Bakara bazaar.
A large number of police force soon arrived in the area firing all the directions. Five civilians were killed while another five were wounded by the stray bullets, according to witnesses.The incident comes hours after dual grenade explosions were targeted at a Somali military convoy in north of the volatile city. No casualties have been reported.
Somali premier asks for international help to combat terrorism
Mogadishu 04, June.07 ( Sh.M.Network) Somalia Prime Minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi, who has held a news conference in the capital Mogadishu on Monday, said that terrorists were responsible for the suicide car bomb blast that heavily damaged his house and killed at least seven of his bodyguards yesterday.He said international terrorist elements in Somalia tempting a few number of Somalis were behind the suicide attack, sending condolence messages to the relatives whose family members were killed in the incident.
“Several of my bodyguards and a few civilians around the house were killed by the explosion,” he said.
He called on the international community to help Somalia to combat terrorists in the horn of African nation. “And the Somali troops supported by the Ethiopian and AMISOM troops will wipe out the terrorists. Terrorists will have no heaven in our country,” he said.
-- -- --
opinion: Demstifying Somalia's TFG and the Expected Reconciliation Conference
The argument of those who fully support the current leadership of Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and its disastrous policies goes: the TFG is the only entity recognized by the International community as the legitimate government of Somalia, and the Ethiopian troops are there, because they are provoked by the Union of Islamic courts (UIC) or/and they are guest of TGF to help improve security, disarm the insurgents, implement the rule of law, and then, the end of TFG's term approximately two years time, there will be a free and democratic elections that will but Somalia back to its lost status as a full member in United Nations (UN), and the accompanying privileges (such as international aid, world bank loans and development grants). However the weakness of this observation is that it is very biased, and fails to take into account the major events of 2006 that weakened the dominant clan paradigm.
...
The TFG has many problems, but the biggest challenge it has been facing since its conception in 2004 is the lack of legitimacy, and the unwillingness of its leaders to present them selves as a credible leaders by wining the hearts and minds through genuine national reconciliation, listening the people they claim to represent, and reliance of the soft power of democratic forces (such as civil society groups, credible clan leaders, women's groups, Islamic leaders, Diaspora and academics/intellectuals), instead of relying self serving Ethiopian military, through evasion and the expected outcome of popular resistance against occupying enemy, and the war crimes against unarmed civilians.It's astounding to hear diplomats, commentators, and the media portray the renewed Somali Conflict and the carnage in Mogadishu as inevitable and African Union effort to save a democratically elected government, from Muslim terrorists, as if it is a "war to end all wars in Somalia."
Posted by: b real | Jun 4 2007 15:36 utc | 109
democracynow finally interviews mahmood mamdani today on darfur, etc. very good/informative interview & recommended for those who swallow the "save darfur" storyline. the interview was recorded last friday. no transcript is up at the time i am posting this.
mamdani also makes the case that bush's announcement of sanctions was timed to torpedo the progress that was being made diplomatically between khartoum & the u.n./others in order to keep the conflict going.
Posted by: b real | Jun 4 2007 17:05 utc | 110
#100
Looking a little farther into the thermal grenade thing -- it seems http://rofasix.blogspot.com/2007/06/attacks-on-humvees-using-rkg-3em.html>this is the likely suspect:
......................
While the description of the video below claims the terrorists are using 'Russian-made thermal bombs' what we are really seeing are attacks using RKG-3EM grenades. These have been seen in Iraq for over a year. Each grenade weighs about 2.4 pounds and depending on the angle of contact can penetrate 5-6 1/2 inches of armor.
......................
Also in the description is the mechanical "parachute' feature, something I noticed in the video (having never seen anything like this before). The last attack in the video shows the humvee literally exploding on impact with the grenade, something a molotov would not do.
Posted by: anna missed | Jun 4 2007 17:53 utc | 111
Guantanamo Bay case thrown out
The US military's system of tribunals at Guantánamo Bay was thrown into chaos today after a military judge threw out all charges against a young Canadian detainee.One senior military official said the ruling in the case of Omar Khadr could have a "huge impact" on the controversial tribunals at the US navy's detention centre in Cuba, the Associated Press reported.
The judge said Mr Khadr - who was captured in Afghanistan as a suspected Taliban fighter in 2002 when he was aged 15 - did not meet the definition of those subject to trial under the new laws in effect at the tribunals.
Army Colonel Peter Brownback, the tribunal judge, said a military review board had labelled Mr Khadr an "enemy combatant" during a 2004 hearing in Guantánamo.
However, the Military Commissions Act adopted by the US Congress in 2006 said only "unlawful enemy combatants" could be tried in the Guantánamo tribunals.
Today Col Brownback said Khadr did not meet that strict definition. "The charges are dismissed without prejudice," the military judge said before adjourning the proceedings.
Shortly afterwards, the chief of military defence lawyers at Guantánamo Bay, Marine Colonel Dwight Sullivan, said the ruling had "huge" impact, because none of the remaining some 380 Guantánamo detainees has been found to be an "unlawful" enemy combatant.
Col Sullivan said the ruling was further evidence the tribunal system was a failed experiment. "We don't need any more evidence that it's a failure," he said. "This system should just stop."
Today's turn of events at the tribunal is the latest legal setback for the Bush administration over the detainees at the prison camp on the southern tip of Cuba.
The current tribunal system was devised after the US supreme court struck down a previous system as unconstitutional last June.
The administration has long been criticised for the legal scenario surrounding the hundreds of suspected terror suspects it has detained there. For years, the detainees were in a legal limbo without apparent prospect of being charged or tried, and the Bush administration has pushed the new tribunals as an antidote to criticism on that front.
It was immediately unclear how US officials would react to this latest legal setback.
Col Brownback gave prosecutors 72 hours to appeal his ruling, though it was not immediately clear whom they could appeal to.
AT LEAST SOMETHING GOOD HAS HAPPENED IN THIS NEVERENDING NIGHTMARE.
Posted by: Bea | Jun 4 2007 18:28 utc | 112
so what does it mean , all charges dropped? can he go free? or does it mean he is denied a military tribunal and/or a regular trial? if he is a military combatant instead of illegal military combatant, does it mean he has prisoner of war status?
Col Brownback gave prosecutors 72 hours to appeal his ruling, though it was not immediately clear whom they could appeal to.
i guess we we all know soon enough.
Posted by: annie | Jun 4 2007 19:34 utc | 114
history">http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6440/">history matters
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 4 2007 23:15 utc | 117
LOL!. that's cloned poster's olympic joke.. say it isn't so, no mr bill no! hot pink? reminds me of the kiss logo.
Posted by: annie | Jun 4 2007 23:35 utc | 118
buffy sainte-marie my country tis of thy people you're dying
Posted by: b real | Jun 5 2007 3:40 utc | 121
The Pinky Show! or Left Wing Propaganda for Lil Tots...
The Pinky Show : concept & purposeQ: What is The Pinky Show?
A: The Pinky Show is the original super lo-tech hand-drawn educational TV show. The Pinky Show focuses on information and ideas that have, for various reasons, been misrepresented, distorted, suppressed, ignored, or otherwise excluded from mainstream discussion. The creator and main character of the show, a cat named Pinky, presents and analyzes the material in an informal, easy-to-understand way, with helpful illustrations that she draws herself.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 5 2007 4:53 utc | 123
The ant's perspective on light pollution is illuminating
In 2003 when the east coast of North America was blacked-out, I was outside on a cloudless night marveling at the Milky Way when two kids came down the street entranced by the play of their flashlights on the road, completely oblivious - and entirely unimpressed by the symphony in the sky...
Posted by: jcairo | Jun 5 2007 12:25 utc | 124
The comments to this entry are closed.
The Ugly Canadian: Embracing the American
EmpireIncompetentsWhen NAFTA was forced on Canada, the people were well aware of the regulatory differences and asked about this. The answer was "of course in cases like this the HIGHER regulations will 'win'".
Which is why, in compliance with NAFTA, Canada will LOWER the regulations on the use of pesticides to those of the US.
And you know the reason there still is malaria, is due to the chicken little hype about DDT...
Posted by: jcairo | Jun 4 2007 10:28 utc | 101