January 06, 2005
The Americans by contrast came in to liberate us and asked for nothing in return. I love this country for the freedom it provides and for rescuing KuwaitÂ’s liberty in the first Gulf War. 12 Years later, America once again has selflessly protected my country and my people by removing Saddam Hussein.This kind of hate speach really offended her instructor at an American Community College in Los Altos (Near San Jose), California.
Professor Woolcock didn’t grade my essay. Instead he told me to come to see him in his office the following morning. I was surprised the next morning when instead of giving me a grade, Professor Woolcock verbally attacked me and my essay. He told me, “Your views are irrational.” He called me naïve for believing in the greatness of this country, and told me "America is not God's gift to the world."
The best news in this piece is that the good professor teaches in a community college. That is one rung above wearing a paper hat and asking, "do you want to Supersize it?"
IMPORTANT UPDATE! Addressing the comments -
1. Gordon the Cranky Neocon (me) wrote this, not Chad.
2. I grew up 20 miles from this community college. I felt that gave me special bashing rights. Look, I went to San Jose State University just across town and I considered it a four-year community college. I am not an elitist.
3. I MEAN NO OFFENSE to CC students or generally, their faculty.
4. If I had a point it would have been that this "professor" is dime-store Chomsky. He probably gets turned away at the door of U.C. Berkeley Celebration-Of-Socialism-In-Interpretive-Dance seminars. As he heads back to his '74 Volvo, he can hear them whispering and tittering. He chokes back the sobs.
5. I am used to ranting on my own site, which usually reaches 22 people. As such, my ranting usually doesn't provoke reaction.
6. I specifically apology to Cindy and ccwbass.
Gordon
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A YOUNG British Muslim arrested in Iraq by US Marines was caught red-handed running guns in one of the most violent cities in the country, the US military said yesterday.He was identified by the US marines as Mobeen Muneef, 25, born in London but with Pakistani nationality.
He had been held at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, but has since been transferred to the Bucca Detention Facility in the Iraqi capital.
The US military insisted that he was part of a group of foreign fighters “participating in suspicious activities” when he was apprehended by a patrol. The Times revealed on Thursday that two British citizens are currently being held in Iraq on suspicion of helping the insurgency. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has confirmed their detention.
One, a dual British-Iraqi national, was captured by British troops in November in southern Iraq and is being held in a detention centre at the main Shaibah military base on suspicion of involvement in terrorism.
Mr Muneef, the second man, was captured by a US Marines patrol on December 7 in Ramadi, one of the main centres for the insurgency against the US-backed Iraqi Government. “The gentleman was detained after Marines spotted men passing a weapon over a wall in Ramadi,” Captain Brad Gordon, of the US Marines in area, said. “When Marines approached the house, two men began to flee the house and were subsequently detained when they were found hiding in a shack near by.
“According to one report, in their possession was an Iraqi pistol and four AK-47s. When he was detained he was found to have an Iraqi ID card which he admitted was fake.
I can't say this shocks me. While England has been less of a recruitment center for terrorists groups as some in their European brotherhood, there have been terrorists from England.
Of course there have been jihadis from the United States, however there are many more from European nations other than England. All of them are indoctrinated with the message that the United States is fighting a war against Islam, which sadly is the same argument some on the Left have spread.
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
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08:26 PM
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PARIS - A French reporter and her Iraqi interpreter have gone missing from Baghdad, prompting searches for her in hospitals and elsewhere, French officials said Thursday.The French daily Liberation said it has not heard from Florence Aubenas for more than 24 hours. French, Iraqi and U.S. authorities have been alerted, it added.
[snip]
Aubenas, 43, and her interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi "haven't been seen since they left their hotel in Baghdad Wednesday morning," Liberation said on its Web site.
[snip]
Aubenas was working on stories about women candidates in Iraq's Jan. 30 elections and was seeking to meet refugees from Fallujah, the restive city that U.S.-Iraqi forces invaded in November, Liberation's chairman, Serge July said.
Sad news and hopefully both the French journalist and the interpreter will be found. It is a bit uncommon these days for journalists to roam freely throughout Iraq however without armed guards, therefore it strikes me as odd that Aubenas and her interpreter left the Baghdad hotel.
This is not the first time a Frech journalist has disappeared inside of Iraq. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot disappeared while covering a story and later appeared in a video made by the Islamic Army of Iraq. The two were released however and are safe in France.
There is no news on the fate of Aubenas and there is still the chance she just forgot to phone in, however there have been numerous attempts at locating Aubenas and her interpreter therefore there is a higher liklihood that she has been abducted by a group in Iraq. If she was abducted, she will probably end up as a cog in the hostage trade that thrives in Iraq.
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
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04:43 PM
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The earthquake that struck the Indian Ocean on December 26, triggering a series of huge waves called tsunami, "was possibly" caused by an Indian nuclear experiment in which "Israeli and American nuclear experts participated," an Egyptian weekly magazine reported Thursday.According to Al-Osboa', India, in its heated nuclear race with Pakistan, has lately received sophisticated nuclear know-how from the United States and Israel, both of which "showed readiness to cooperate with India in experiments to exterminate humankind."
I seriously pity those people who come up with wild conspiracy theories on a natural disaster. While those detractors of the United States often blame our capitalism as the primary cause for our "heresey," they don't seem to understand that in a capitalistic society busineses need people to buy their products. Why then would the United States, a capitalist nation, want to exterminate humankind?
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 - The Bush administration is considering imposing new sanctions on Syria to prod it to crack down on Iraqis there who are providing financial and logistical support to insurgents in Iraq, senior American counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.The Syrian government has not taken action against the network of Iraqis, the officials said, despite months of quiet protests from the United States. Among the steps being considered is a Treasury Department action that could essentially isolate the Syrian banking system.
The network includes former officials of Saddam Hussein's government, American officials have said, adding that intelligence gathered in recent months from informants, captives and intercepted communications suggested that the network's role in providing support to insurgents in Iraq was more extensive than previously suspected.
About time.
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January 05, 2005
Today was supposed to be the first step in the judiciary process for desertion charges against Hassoun. Big shock! He didn't show up.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun (search), the Marine who was once thought kidnapped in Iraq only to be charged later with desertion, has disappeared, Marine officials announced Wednesday.Hassoun had been on leave with his family in West Jordan, Utah, when he was scheduled to return to Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Tuesday, military officials told FOX News. As of 3 p.m. EST, Hassoun's command "officially declared him a deserter and issued authorization for civil authorities to apprehend Hassoun and return him to military control," a military statement said.
Sources told FOX News Hassoun had been allowed to go on leave to visit his family for New Year's. He was due back at noon on Tuesday.
But Hassoun's brother said the family did not know his whereabouts, and had not heard from him since Dec. 28, when they took him to the Salt Lake City airport for a flight to North Carolina.
Why would the military let someone they are trying to convict on desertion charges on leave? The U.S. military could not have possibly believed he would actually return for the court hearing. Maybe Hassoun will wind up in Canada and will have a statue erected in his honor.
In an effort to help out our good friend Hassoun, I've come up with a short list of excuses Hassoun can make as to why he missed his court hearing.
Hat tip: Michelle Malkin
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
Posted by: Chad at
08:23 PM
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - The number of insurgent attacks in Baghdad has dropped in recent weeks, and American forces are getting better at finding car bombs before they go off, a top U.S. general in Iraq said Wednesday.[snip]
Chiarelli said that on average, for every car bomb that explodes in the capital, his troops find another one and defuse it. He refused to give details, but said his troops were getting better at finding insurgents' explosives.
[snip]
In the capital, Chiarelli said attacks were down since the U.S.-led invasion of Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold, that began on Nov. 8. He said he was pleased that Iraqis have been calling a tip line and paying attention to billboards around the city asking them to report weapons caches or suspicious activity.
"All I can tell you is that we've got billboards all over the city, and I take great joy in the fact that I see the insurgents trying to tear them down, and we put them back up," he said.
This is the first I've heard of the billboards the military has put up for a tip hotline. Whether or not terrorist attacks have gone down in recent weeks is hard to tell, however who is there better to trust than a Major General on the ground.
A one to one ratio for finding car bombs to car bombs detonating is not ideal, however it is remarkably better than the 1:5 ratio the military claimed close to two months ago in a press conference. There is still room for improvement, but I have no doubt the U.S. military and Coallition forces are doing their best to protect the Iraqi citizens.
Terrorists have changed directions within the past month to two months from targeting U.S. soldiers to targeting Iraqi military and Iraqi police. All along they have targeted Iraqi civilians however. Whether or not the fact terrorists have changed targets factored into Maj. Gen. Chiarelli's statement that attacks have gone down is not known.
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
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07:58 PM
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CAIRO, Egypt - As many as 30,000 well-trained terrorists are actively operating throughout Iraq at the behest of former regime leaders based in Syria, Iraq's intelligence chief said in Wednesday edition of a pan-Arab newspaper.Maj. Gen. Mohammed Abdullah al-Shahwani told the daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that the men, who are well-organized and trained, include former Baath party members, Islamic militant groups and unemployed former army members.
"We officially call them terrorists," he told the London-based newspaper. "They are between 20,000 and 30,000 armed men operating all over Iraq, mainly in the Sunni areas where they receive moral support from about 200,000 people."
al Shahwani threw in the standard Syria plug as well which begs the question, will the Iraqis ever do anything about the Syrian border and the influx of terrorists that are killing them? Allawi has recently pledged retribution to countries bordering Iraq who have assisted the terrorists, but even Allawi stated it could take years before the Iraqis could defend themselves.
There was a report yesterday (I cannot find it now) that concluded terrorists outnumbered Coallition soldiers in Iraq. So just how many terrorists are inside of Iraq?
Frankly, who cares. The more emboldened the terrorists get the better chance they will meet their 72 virgins that much faster. The Coallition forces are literally wiping out the terrorists that have the 'marbles' to fight instead of the now-famous hit and run tactics they have been using on a more steady basis.
This is part of the reason why terrorists have increased targeting of Iraqis and Iraqi government leaders. They know the Iraqis at this time cannot defend themselves. Terrorists are in a struggle against the clock to derail the elections and they do not look like they will stop at anything.
The United States announced today they will have 35,000 soldiers (via Outside the Beltway) patrolling the streets of Baghdad on January 30. In a message to those terrorists who will try to derail the elections, Major General Peter Chiarelli said the following:
"We will find you, we will watch where you move, we will listen to you speaking to each other, we will fight and we will defeat you," he warned. "You cannot sleep, eat, move or meet without the clear understanding that you may be killed or captured at any moment. Cease your operations now and you will be choosing to live."
Nuts!
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
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03:58 PM
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KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait said on Wednesday two soldiers would stand trial in a military court on charges of plotting attacks against U.S. forces in the pro-Western Gulf Arab state.Army Chief of Staff Yousef Abdelrazzak al-Mulla told state news agency KUNA that the two soldiers had been charged while an unspecified number of other detained military personnel were released after it was proved they had no links in a plot to attack "coalition forces."
"The two accused soldiers will be transferred to military courts to continue the legal procedures," Mulla said, without identifying the soldiers.
It still amazes me there are some Kuwaitis who hate the United States following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. After all, it was a coallition put together by President George H.W. Bush that freed the nation from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. At the time, infants were taken off of incubators, women raped, towns pillaged and Iraqi soldiers ran amok in the cities of Kuwait.
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
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03:07 PM
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BAGHDAD (AFP) - A member of Iraq's main Sunni Muslim party was kidnapped and later killed in Mosul, the party said in a statement."Yesterday Omar Mahmoud Abdullah, a senior leader in the Iraqi Islamic Party was kidnapped from his pharmacy and hours later was killed," it said Wednesday.
Another party official said Abdullah's bullet-riddled body was found seven hours after he was kidnapped dumped in the Al-Wihda neighbourhood on the eastern side of the city.
The party, which had recently announced its withdrawal from January's legislative elections, has also cast doubt over the legitimacy of the whole process.
A party that has withdrawn from the election questioning it's legitimacy is not a shock at all. In fact, every party that has dropped out already has said they do not believe the election will be valid. Unfortunately they cannot see this single statement helps the people who killed their leader, nor will any other group who will drop out prior to January 30.
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
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11:16 AM
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BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi insisted that holding elections on time on January 30 was crucial to defeating the insurgency and quelling the unrelenting violence."The violence, terrorists and the outlaws will not be allowed to stop the political process and destroy the country," he told reporters in Baghdad.
"The Iraqi government and myself personally urge Iraqis to vote and participate in the political process," he said Wednesday.
While Allawi believes if the elections go through as planned violence in Iraq will be lessened, I do not believe it will have much of an effect. Some Iraqis will stop waging war because they will realize Democracy exists in Iraq, however other Iraqis will see whatever result as being forced upon them and will rebel.
Terrorist groups inside of Iraq will presumably change their course of action of targeting Iraqi government and Iraqi personnel to U.S. and Coallition targets. They will spread propoganda that the U.S. rigged the election and that it is invalid. Some outside governments will do the same aiding the terrorists whether that is intentional or not.
Having the elections on January 30 as promised is needed, however it is not the fix all that Allawi believes it will be. More problems will arise due to number of terrorists operating inside of Iraq. I hope I'm wrong, but only time will tell.
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
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11:13 AM
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JERUSALEM - A group calling itself "The Free People of the Galilee" claimed Wednesday that it abducted an Israeli-American woman in 2003 and demanded that Israel release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about her fate.The group, through a leaflet and a militant spokesman, said it kidnapped U.S.-born Dana Bennet, who was 18 at the time of her disappearance in the summer of 2003.
The leaflet, sent to The Associated Press, contained no proof that the group was involved in the kidnapping or knew anything about Bennet's whereabouts. The group is not previously known.
A top Arab militant said on condition of anonymity in a telephone call that Bennet was abducted in 2003. He reiterated the demand made in the leaflet that Israel release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about her fate.
When I read this article, I immediatly though of the movie The Vanishing. "Drink this and you shall know."
On a more serious note however, this is just an odd story for a group to approach the AP around two years later wanting a release of prisoners for information about someone's fate. The Israeli woman is already dead, though the group wants to use her "death story" as a bargaining chip. The Israelis haven't given in for live people, what makes this group think they would trade 1,000 prisoners for a story on how someone died?
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
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Companion post at Interested-Participant.
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January 04, 2005
Two Israeli Defense Force soldiers are feared kidnapped by Fatah, the terror organization likely to prevail in the upcoming Palestinian elections, an IDF source told WorldNetDaily.Fatah claimed to the IDF to have abducted the soldiers hours ago from Maale Adumim, a large West Bank Israeli settlement about 8 miles north of Jerusalem that borders several Arab villages. They made the same claim on official Palestinian radio. Within minutes of the reported abduction, the IDF called all soldiers to determine their whereabouts and placed reserves on high alert, warning of intelligence indicating possible further abductions, the source said.
Check points in the West Bank and Gaza were immediately tightened, and army commanders just ended a meeting where it was decided if the abductions are confirmed, the IDF will enter Palestinian villages.
"The army is hoping it doesn't have to go into Palestinian areas because it will disrupt the elections next week," said the source.
I plan on keeping a watch of this story and hopefully the report is inaccurate.
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
Posted by: Chad at
09:17 PM
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There is an interesting article that appears in the Asia Times Online that is a must-read for those interested in terrorism, Al Qaeda specifically. It discusses the transgression of the terrorist group to a certain extent, however it addresses many topics that are not exactly known to the public including but not limited to:
By the time the Taliban had emerged as a force in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, the Egyptian camp had settled on its strategies, the most important being:
To speak out against corrupt and despotic Muslim governments and make them targets, as this would destroy their image in the eyes of the common people, who interrelate state, rulers and nation.
Focus on the US role, which is to support Israel and tyrant Middle Eastern countries, and make everyone understand this.
The Egyptian camp in question is one of two sides of the Afghanistan War fighting the Soviet Union, often refered in general as the mujahadeen. There were two distinct camps that compromised the mujahadeen and two distinct after-war trangressions by the two camps.
The article also goes into depth as to why Al Qaeda is now targeting Arab regimes, however based upon several transcripts of communiques and tapes, both audio and video, I'm not sure the real reason is retribution against actions supporting the United States as the article suggests.
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
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08:22 PM
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Again there are strong indications from the Kurdish sources about the news of the arrest of Abo-Mosaab Al-Zarqawi in Baqoba. Whether or not this terrorist was arrested and awaiting the DNA analysis we will get it live as soon as we know more.We have to mention that the same Kurdish sources were the first to announce the arrest of Saddam and his deputy even before the US forces did so.
While the U.S. government still denies they have Zarqawi in custody, it is interesting to note that local Iraqi media have not dismissed the claim.
Cross-posted at In the Bullpen
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05:23 PM
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