September 08, 2004

I'm shaking in my boots...

....over the fact that the UN is angry with us.

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Russia's New Foreign Policy: Preemptive Attacks

The Bush-Rumsfield Neocon cabal has obviously infiltrated Russia to the highest levels. Like I've been saying since 9/11, this is a civilizational war. The events in Beslan have clarified things for the Russians. 9/11 was not a declaration of war, it simply woke us up from our slumbering false insecurity. War had been declared on us years before. Yahoo News:

Russia is prepared to make pre-emptive strikes on "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world, the Interfax news agency cited the country's chief of staff as saying.

"With regard to preventive strikes on terrorist bases, we will take any action to eliminate terrorist bases in any region of the world. But this does not mean we will carry out nuclear strikes," General Yuri Baluyevsky said Wednesday.

Baluyevsky added that Russia's choice of action "will be determined by the concrete situation where ever it may be in the world.

"Military action is the last resort in the fight agaisnt terrorism."

Hat tip: Prof. Chaos who e-mailed me about this.

For an abbreviated history of recent events in Chechnya, see McQ's A short primer on Chechnya

UPDATE: Chechens respond (via Jeff Quinton):

A London-based Chechen rebel representative said Wednesday that Russia's threats to attack terrorists around the world amount to a warning to European countries that Russian forces could carry out assassinations on their soil.

Akhmed Zakayev, an envoy for rebel leader and former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, said such a strike by Russian forces would create a dangerous precedent.

"It is a warning to other European countries that Russia may come and carry out an assassination on your soil at any moment," he said....

[...]"It is a very disturbing signal they are sending for all civilized countries," Zakayev said. He added that it's especially worrying for Chechens who speak freely about their dissatisfaction with Russian President Vladimir Putin's policies.

"To Putin, that makes them international terrorists," he said.

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Three Muslim 'Informants' Beheaded by the Religion of Irony

What was that line again about Islam and peace and only a few and all that stuff? The borders of Islam are indeed bloody. Russia and India are our new natural allies in this war. Hindustan Times:

Three Muslims were dragged out of their homes and beheaded amid rising civilian deaths in Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Wednesday.

Police suspect that the three were killed because they were informants of Indian security forces. There was no way to independently verify the police claim.

Terrorists stormed into the village of Mara Doria in the Rajouri region, 180 kilometres northwest of Jammu, according to the duty officer at the Rajouri police station.

Kalu Din, 25, and Mishri Gujjar, 35, were taken from their homes to a nearby forest and beheaded, he said.

In the adjoining Fabri Dhok village, the attackers took Ghulam Shah, 50, and also decapitated him, the officer said on customary condition of anonymity.

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Beheading Video for Sale In Baghdad

This is just sick. Absolutely sick. I post pics of these things to wake readers up from the sleep America drifted into after 9/11. But these people? They make Ogrish look like a saint. Swiss Info:

The hottest selling item at Baghdad's video CD market is not a movie or a music video.

It's an ordinary Egyptian whose beheading was filmed by his Muslim militant captors and distributed as a gruesome message to
anyone who cooperates with U.S. troops in Iraq.

"The CD is in big demand. We sell about 300 to 400 clips a week," said Abu Muhammad, a shop owner who said he didn't have
the stomach to watch the decapitation by knife.

"We have all kinds of customers, both old and young."

The video shows a terrified Mohammed Abdel Aal kneeling in front of masked militants with AK-47 assault rifles as he confesses to planting electronic devices in houses that guided bombs dropped from U.S. warplanes. more...

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Wictory Wednesday, Witch (except Rick James)

Today is Wictory Wednesday, witch. John Hawkins' interview with John O'Neil pretty much sums up this weeks argument for why you should vote Bush. Now let's win this thing and go home. more...

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Russia Offers $10 Million for Chechen Rebels

Now you're talking baby. Carrot and stick, carrot and stick. Anyone know what they mean by neutralization?Channel News Asia

Russia put a 10-million-dollar price tag on the heads of two Chechen rebel leaders accused of masterminding the hostage-taking which ended in a bloodbath at a Beslan school.

The FSB security service, in a statement quoted by Interfax news agency, said Wednesday that it would pay 300 million rubles "for reliable information on their whereabouts leading to the neutralization" of former Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov and of warlord Shamil Basayev.

It said the two were responsible for "inhuman" acts of terrorism carried out in Russia.

Jeff Quinton also on the case, of course.

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September 07, 2004

Arab World Reacts to Beslan Massacre

MEMRI has the full report on the Arab reaction, some of full condemnation and some of it a kind of half-hearted argument that this is bad because it hurts Islam. But here are the hightlights along with my thoughts:

is a group of criminal murderers, and everyone responsible for this crime must be hunted down and brought to trial in an international court. The time has come for everyone to accept as a first principle the sanctity of life and [the obligation] to avoid harming civiliansÂ…"
An international court? Am I being paranoid or is this a swipe at the US? If it is not, then the premise is still wrong. This is war, not some global court of law where we send out the Army to serve subpoenas. more...

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Russian School Hostage Video

For latest news, information, images, and links to other hostage videos please go to MAIN PAGE HERE.

UPDATE: 9/13 Video here. (in German)

Chad over at In the Bullpen alerted me to the fact that the Chechen terrorists made a video tape of themselves while they were busy massacring children. The Chechen terrorists in Beslan, North Ossetia seem to be following the lead of the Chechens who held a Moscow theater hostage last year--they also shot a video. Chad noticed Yahoo News was running some vidcaps from the terrorist's video. I did some checking around and found these posted at NTV.RU. None are too graphic. NTV is the station that has a copy of the tape, but they have not posted the video and I presume the whole thing is much too graphic to air on Russian television (which is saying a lot). The pics are in the extended entry below. The NTV video can be viewed here, it's not very graphic and it's narrated in Russian.

UPDATE: On closer inspection the last few seconds of the video are disturbing. Vidcap #3 below is taken from a shot where you hear a voice in the background. The voice is talking to someone on a cell-phone. He is not speaking Russian. He is either speaking Turkic or Arabic, but he distinctly can be heard speaking the Arabic phrase "Allahu-Akhbar". The next scene is disturbing if brief. The camera looks down at blood on the ground and pans past what look to be the legs and arms of dead children. You cannot see their full bodies, just a brief glimpse as the camera pans past to focus on the blood. Horrible.

Update II: Allah also has some of the same images as does Charles Johnson, and of course Chad Evans where I first got tipped of this. Petrified Truth also has some links to NTV. Jay Tea at Wizbang ponders the question: what next? Captain Ed on the horror's that the media don't want you to see.

Update III: More pics found. Also below.

Update IV: Via Dale Franks and Chad Evans this news:

While despairing soldiers and rescue workers moved among the growing pile of body bags, it was revealed that an 18-month-old baby had been repeatedly stabbed by a black-clad terrorist who had run out of ammunition.

Other survivors told how screaming teenage girls were dragged into rooms adjoining the gymnasium where they were being held and raped by their Chechen captors who chillingly made a video film of their appalling exploits

UPDATE V: More pics below.

UPDATE VI: Via Michael J. Totten at Suicide Girls this Telegraph piece:

An extremist Islamic cleric based in Britain said yesterday that he would support hostage-taking at British schools if carried out by terrorists with a just cause.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, the spiritual leader of the extremist sect al-Muhajiroun, said that holding women and children hostage would be a reasonable course of action for a Muslim who has suffered under British rule....

"The Mujahideen [Chechen rebels] would not have wanted to kill those people, because it is strictly forbidden as a Muslim to deliberately kill women and children. It is the fault of the Russians," he said.

UPDATE VII: Click here for the BBC version of the video. Very close to original. more...

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Two Italian Women Taken Hostage In Iraq


Their names are Simona Pari and Simona Torretta (the latter pictured right). They were in Baghdad working for a humanitarian organization. The question of the day: will the Arab world rise up and demand their safe release? Reuters:

Gunmen have abducted two Italian aid workers and two Iraqis in central Baghdad in a brazen attack that will alarm foreigners who are already on edge from widespread kidnappings.

Witnesses told Reuters about 20 men with AK-47 assault rifles and pistols with silencers stopped their vehicles in a busy commercial area of Baghdad and raided a building housing humanitarian organisation Bridge to Baghdad.

They left with Italian staffers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta and two Iraqis, a women who worked for another Italian organisation Intersos and a male engineer who worked for Bridge to Baghdad.

The abductions raised the stakes in kidnappings that have gripped Iraq for months, with more than 100 foreigners and Iraqis seized since April mostly outside of the capital.

The latest abductions are likely to fuel uncertainty over the fate of two French journalists whose kidnappings have triggered intense diplomatic efforts to free them.

Insurgents kidnapped and killed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni last month as he travelled to the southern city of Najaf. In April, kidnappers killed Italian security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi.

In the Bullpen notes that "A Bridge to Baghdad is an organization attempting to end sanctions to Iraq and provide more international support for the nation." Nice. Next thing you know they will be grabbing Mother Theresa's corpse and threatening to behead it.

Others: The Command Post, Jeff Quinton, In the Bullpen, James Joyner

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Who is Kitty Kelley?

Kitty Kelley's new book The Family is causing quite a storm. Perhaps the biggest revelation in the book is that George W. "Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was President, and not just once either." Quite a shocking revelation, if true, and sure to reinforce the convictions of those who believe that George W. Bush is an overgrown frat boy who never really grew up. But who is Kitty Kelley and can her work be trusted? Is this, as she claims, a family biography or does her work represent nothing more than the National Enquirer in book length form?

Kitty Kelley's books include the 'biographies' of Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, and Jackie Kennedy. Kelley once coined herself 'the Queen of sleeze' and if the subject matter of her books doesn't warn you of the type of reading material she supplies than this might: her book which 'researches' dirt on the House of Windsor has been banned in Brittain for it's libelous accusations.

Kitty Kelley has a penchant for ascribing inflamatory quotes to famous people, often relying on scorned lovers or others who have a bone to pick with her biographical subjects. For instance, in her unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan she claims Nancy said that President Reagan:

orders killings like he orders linguine.
Kelley also accused President Reagan of abandoning a girlfriend after impregnating her. According to Kelley, Reagan denied the child was his and walked away from the relationship.

If that wasn't bizarre enough, Kelley also accused the President of being a rapist:

He pushed his way inside and said he just had to see me. He forced me on the couch . . . and said, 'Let's just get to know each other.' It was the most pitched battle I've ever had, and suddenly in a matter of seconds I lost. . . . They call it date rape today.
Kelley also accused Nancy Reagan of having an affair with Frank Sinatra, and that the two had sex in the Governor's Mansion while Reagan was Governor.

As you can see, Kitty Kelley is no stranger to using unreliable sources to make her point: she has never met a celebrity without a sordid past. Kelley herself has been the subject of at least one unauthorized biography Poison Pen, written by former Reagan aid George Carpozi, Jr. The book is not one I can heartily recommend, as it uses Kelley's own libelous tactics against her, but it does debunk much of the myth that Kelley does her homework. This book documents case after case where Kelley uses unreliable sources to put her subjects in the most unflattering light.

And what kind of sources does Kitty Kelley use? Kelly claims that Bush used coke at Camp David based on Neil Bush's scorned ex-wife's word. Professor Bainbridge quotes the Mirror article cited above as naming the source:

She quotes his former sister-in-law Sharon Bush who claims: "Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was President, and not just once either."
And Talk Left exposes the relationship Sharon Bush has with George:
The former President Bush refused Sharon's request for a $467,000 loan to keep her Houston mansion, telling her to find something cheaper. "The divorce is final," the elder Bush wrote, "[and] the best thing for you to do is get on with your life. Close the unhappy chapter with Neil, find a job, and look to the future, not the past."
Sharon is also not the most stable person:
After Sharon pulled some hair out of Neil's head, his lawyers accused her of practicing voodoo. But Sharon shot back: "I pulled Neil's hair out because I wanted to get it tested for cocaine, not because of voodoo."
Kitty Kelley has a history of using unreliable sources to make her subjects look bad. Her books are inflammatory and filled with half-truths, lies, and inuendos. Kelley's work represents the worst of the worst in writing, a cross between the fiction of the Weekly World News and the gossip of the National Enquirer. If ever there was an author worthy of contempt, Kitty Kelly is it.

Update: The source for the cocaine allegation is publicly saying she never made the statement. Kitty Kelley just makes things up.

Others ripping this book apart: Prof. Bainbridge, Talk Left, Say Anything, Jeff Goldstein, Tac Jammer, Everything I know is Wrong, Captain Ed

Others who say inane and stupid things: Wonkette (right, who cares if the accusation is true....In that spirit my 'sources' tell me that Kerry of kills puppies for fun.)

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Kerry Lied While Good Men Died Campaign

Just when John Kerry thought his Vietnam troubles were over, another group emerges. I wonder if he really meant it when he said "Bring it on"? From kerrylied.com:

KERRY LIED . . . while good men died
A gathering of Vietnam veterans from across America

Where: Upper Senate Park, Washington, D.C. It is easy to get to, shady and pretty, with a great view of the Capitol dome in back of the speaker's platform. THIS IS A NEW LOCATION AS OF 7/17/04

When: Sunday, Sept 12, 2004 2:00-4:00 PM (EDT)

Why: To tell the truth about Vietnam veterans.
To counter the lies told about Vietnam veterans by John Kerry

All Vietnam veterans and their families and supporters are asked to attend.Other veterans are invited as honored guests.

Thanks to Jane for e-mailing me about this.

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Light, with rasberry marmalade please

The toast-o-meter is up.

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Turkish Hostage Freed

Via the early to rise Jeff Quinton good news, but there are dozens of others still held hostage:

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul reported Monday that kidnapped truck driver Mithat Civi, a Turkish national, had been freed by his captors.
Right On Red also has a good take on it.

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September 06, 2004

China Cracks Down on Porn

Ok, I'm not a big fan of porn but if liberty means anything it is that one ought to be able to choose, even when such choices are wrong. Morality is meaningless without the option of choosing the bad. Anyway, now I know why the Dalai Lama is so pissed about Chinese oppression. I mean, what else are a bunch of celibates going to do for fun? From Xinhuanet:

Those who are engaged in the profit-oriented production and dissemination of pornographic materials through the Internet, mobile communication terminals and"phone-sex" services in China are subject to punishment as severe as life imprisonment, according to the latest legal interpretations. more...

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Abu Bakar Ba'asyir Indictment Sparks Riots in Indonesia

Religious right or Muslims, it's all the same. You remember the great Oklahoma City Riots of '96 when Christans in that city rampaged the streets over the Tim McVeigh indictment, right? Read the whole story. Notice that one rioter yelled "You are American puppets" at the police. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir has been accused of involvement in the Bali nightclub bombing which killed 202, including 88 Australians. Jakarta Post:

Supporters of terror suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir fought a running battle with police officers and hurled shoes and other debris inside a courtroom, shortly after a judge dismissed on Monday the lawsuit against the arrest of the elderly cleric.

Judge Syamsul Ali announced at the South Jakarta District Court that police had valid grounds to detain Ba'asyir on terror charges. more...

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More Letter Bombs Found in London

Wow, here's some news I totally overlooked. Possible terror connections written all over this. That, or the Brits have their own Unabomber running amok. Scotsman:

Four more letter bombs were recovered by police from homes and a sorting office this morning in an area where 10 of the mystery packages were found at the weekend....

Officers have so far been unable to determine a motive or a connection between the recipients of the brown A4 envelopes, but they have issued a warning to the public to exercise caution.

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Safety Dance in Fallujah

An unmanned US spy plane has crashed in Fallujah. Sources say residents danced in the streets with glee. Unofficial reports indicate they were doing the 'safety dance', more evidence that Iraq's path to development might take years longer than expected. The surviving members of Men Without Hats could be reached for comment.

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Chechnya and the Jihadi Connection

Dan Darling does a great job of supplying the background info necessary to understand the Chechen conflict. He also delves into the connections between the jihadists and the Chechen nationalists. They run deep. It is possible that Chechens have a legitimate bone to pick with their Russian masters and I don't find it hard to believe that the Russian military is guilty of war crimes in Chechnya. However, the Chechens have chosen our enemies as allies. They chose unwisely. Now is the time to back the Russians in their efforts to annhialate the jihadi movement in Chechnya and surrounding provinces. It will be an ugly campaign, but no uglier than the campaign that wiped National Socialism off the map.

The country [Chechnya] was taken over by a mixture of international terrorist organizations, Wahhabi theocrats, drug cartels, and other criminal organizations that subsided more or less on generous funding from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

This funding helped the Wahhabis to finalize control over the institutional infrastructure of the de facto independent state and led for calls for the imposition of sha'riah even though most Chechens (and Caucasus Muslims in general) are Sufis. The al-Qaeda presence in Chechnya was headed up by bin Laden's protege Amir ibn al-Khattab, a Saudi national who had previously assisted Islamic fighters in the Tajik Civil War and the Armenia-Azerbaijan War over Nagorno-Karabakh.

There's more, read the rest.

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WAPO Editors Forget Basic Mathematics

I blame the public schools.

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Kerry Camp Accuses Swift Boaters of War Crimes

It's pretty odd when Atrios starts defending Kerry by accusing the Swift Boaters of being guilty of war crimes. I guess the logic is, "Kerry is telling the truth that he was a war criminal, but since the Swift Boaters deny that they are war criminals they are a liars and can't be trusted about all that other stuff." Right? Via Eschaton this story (subscription):

Now the right had seized upon the Vietnam War, too -- specifically the role, in uniform and out, of Sen. John Kerry. And to Means, it seemed just as wrong.

Means, a 55-year-old investigator for several Bakersfield law firms, was particularly annoyed by the words of one retired admiral. Roy F. "Latch" Hoffman, one of the co-founders of the pro-George W. Bush group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, had publicly criticized Kerry, a former Swift boat commander, for having brought back stories about alleged war crimes by U.S. forces -- often carried out, Kerry said in 1971, "with the full awareness of officers at all levels."

Seemed to him, Means said, his own Swift boat crew had come close to committing a war crime themselves one day. A senior officer, hitching a ride up the coast aboard their Swift boat, had ordered the crew to fire on a small group of unarmed Vietnamese fishermen working their nets in unrestricted waters, Means said. The boat's commanding officer had refused to comply.

Was that the way the boat's commander remembered the incident too, all these years later? Means had to know.

So he got on the Internet and hunted down Thomas W.L. "Tad" McCall, the retired Navy captain who'd commanded Means' boat, PCF 88, as a newly minted ensign. Means called him.

Not only did McCall remember the day in question, and that confrontation off the coast of South Vietnam, he remembered the name of the officer who had given the command to shoot: "Latch" Hoffman himself, then a Navy captain in charge of the entire Swift boat task force in Vietnam.

The next morning Means told me the whole story. Then I called McCall myself.

McCall, now 60, remembers March 14, 1969, because it was his 25th birthday. He'd only been running a Swift boat for a few weeks, having arrived in Vietnam in January 1969, the same month as Means.

McQ over at QandO does an excellent follow up on why this matters so much to so many. It's because John Kerry meant the things he said in 1971.

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