January 10, 2006

Mosque Raided, Cleric Detained in Baghdad as Troops Search for Jill Carroll

Wait, you mean a mosque might be connected to the abduction by al Qaeda of American journalist Jill Carroll? We at The Jawa Report are shocked, SHOCKED, SHOCKED! And how do certain segments of the Sunni population react? Why, they are indignent that the insurgent supporting Association of Muslim Scholars would be implicated or that any infidel Shia, Christian, or Jew would dare enter a mosque (which we all know are never used to hide insurgents or weapons).

Christian Science Monitor:

Several hundred Sunni Arabs protested Tuesday the raid on a Baghdad mosque Saturday by US and Iraqi soldiers looking for Jill Carroll, a kidnapped freelance journalist on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor....

The US military told AFP that the raid was linked to the hunt for Carroll. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a US military spokesman, said the raid was ordered "as a direct result of a tip by an Iraqi civilian that activities related to the kidnapping were being carried out inside the mosque." ...

"Both Iraqi and coalition forces raided the mosque in the early morning hours in order to minimize the impact on worshipers and the surrounding neighborhood," Johnson told AFP Tuesday.

Six people were detained for questioning, he added.

The Association of Muslim Scholars, which is based at the mosque, confirmed that one of its members, Yunis Aikali, and five mosque guards were arrested in the raid.

More in The Jawa Report's Hostage Archive and the newly created Jill Carroll Archive.

UPDATE: Just as I was posting this Traderrob saw the same story and posted on it here along with satellite images of the mosque and neighborhood in question.

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U.S. Forces Raid Umm al-Qura Mosque

U.S. forces raided Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque Sunday after receiving a tip that activities related to Jill Carroll's kidnapping were going on inside:

ABC Online—Sunni Arabs in Iraq have branded a US raid on a mosque complex a "sinful assault" and say it will worsen their relations with the US military.

The United Nations (UN) has also criticised Sunday's military operation.

Sunni Arab political parties say the raid on the Baghdad offices of the influential Muslim Clerics Association targeted the clergy and violated a place of worship.

Witnesses say US soldiers slid down ropes from helicopters as troops on the ground burst into the mosque complex, blowing doors off hinges and ransacking offices.

It came two days before the major religious holiday of Eid al-Adha.

A UN statement from the office of special envoy Ashraf Qazi says he "noted with regret the incident at the Umm al-Qora mosque" and that it "underlined the importance of all parties respecting the sanctity of holy sites and places of worship".

A UN spokeswoman, amplifying the statement, says Mr Qazi was referring specifically to the US and Iraqi military operation. ...

The United Nations criticized the raid. I say leave no stone unturned ...

Resources:

These images show that the Umm al-Qura mosque is very near the Al-Adel district where Jill Carroll was kidnapped:

Satellite image: Umm al-Qura mosque
Satellite image: Umm al-Qura mosque/Al-Adel district in west Baghdad
Google maps: Al-Adel district in west Baghdad

Cross-posted at OpinionBug.com

Related at Rocket's Brain Trust

Update (1/10/2006 9:37pm):

Here is a story about SRSG Ashraf Qazi's reaction to the Umm al-Qura raid:

UN—Reacting to an incident at the Umm al-Qura mosque in Iraq, the senior United Nations envoy to the country today stressed that all parties must honour the sanctity of holy sites.

In a statement released in Baghdad, Ashraf Qazi voiced regret at the event yesterday, when some security forces entered the mosque.

Mr. Qazi called on the responsible authorities to ensure that the issue is investigated as quickly and transparently as possible.

This incident, following others in recent weeks involving places of worship, should serve as a reminder of the need to eschew violence and build mutual trust and confidence, Mr. Qazi said, calling on all concerned to support a fully inclusive political process that would increase stability and a peaceful future for the people of Iraq. ...

Before I blow a gasket I want to respond to Mr. Qazi's outrageous remarks.

Mr. Qazi, a "holy" site becomes unholy when it allows terrorists to defile it.

Mr. Qazi, the raid on the Umm al-Qura mosque was the direct result of intelligence that indicated activities related to Jill Carroll's kidnapping were going on inside.

Mr. Qazi, a young woman was kidnapped and her companion murdered in cold-blood and you express regret and call for an investigation into a raid whose sole purpose was to possibly rescue her? How dare you Sir!

And Mr. Qazi, you say the raid on Umm al-Qura should be a reminder of the need to eschew violence and build mutual trust and confidence? Eschew violence? How dare you Sir! What about the senseless violence directed at Jill Carroll? What about the blood of Alan John Ghazi spilled on an al-Adel street!

With all due respect Sir, your remarks are about as asinine as any I've ever read. And by them, you make yourself a part of the problem rather than a part of its solution.

"Leave no stone unturned."

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Australians Send More Troops to Afghanistan, Iraq

I love Australia. From their hot-hot sheilas to their blokes' commitment to kill the bad guys, wherever they may be and however tough the fight. Herald Sun:

AUSTRALIA will send helicopters and more troops to Afghanistan as part of the fight against a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaida.

efence Minister Robert Hill confirmed yesterday Australia would send two Chinook helicopters and 110 support personnel to Afghanistan, bringing the total number of Australian military in the country to 300.

Australia is also expected to send a 200-strong team of soldiers and engineers as part of a NATO force this year.

And it looks like Australia has it's share of whiney biyatches, too.
The troop boost comes as Labor steps up calls for Australian soldiers to pull out of Iraq.
What is the government's response for the Labor call to reduce troops?
But while Labor is hardening its troop pull-out line, the Government instead looks likely to add to the 1350 Australian military personnel in and around Iraq.
Thank you friends in Australia. Australia, f*ck yeah! Coming to save the mother-f****** world again!

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All I Wanna Do Is Wear a Tin-Foil Hat: Crow spouts lunacy

I'm thinking that maybe she was just drinking beer at noon again. Sheryl Crow's time would be much better spent peeling labels off of beer bottles than entering a philisophical discussion on neo-imperialism. Here she is via Michelle Malkin:

Like his father, the President has sought to turn America into "an imperial power and create strongholds over oil-heavy countries in order for us to control and manipulate them," she told us. "Now, if we pull out [of Iraq] we are going to leave a complete and total mess. We don't even know who we're fighting over there
Typical nonsense often heard down on Santa Monica Blvd.

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Arab Women Praise Ethnic Cleansing, Mass Rape, in Sudan

Sick. Disgusting. Disheartening.

While African women in Darfur were being raped by the Janjaweed militiamen, Arab women stood nearby and sang for joy, according to an Amnesty International report published yesterday. The songs of the Hakama, or the "Janjaweed women" as the refugees call them, encouraged the atrocities committed by the militiamen. The women singers stirred up racial hatred against black civilians during attacks on villages in Darfur and celebrated the humiliation of their enemies, the human rights group said....

During an attack on the village of Disa in June last year, Arab women accompanied the attackers and sang songs praising the government and scorning the black villagers.

According to an African chief quoted in the report, the singers said: "The blood of the blacks runs like water, we take their goods and we chase them from our area and our cattle will be in their land. The power of [Sudanese president Omer Hassan] al-Bashir belongs to the Arabs and we will kill you until the end, you blacks, we have killed your God." ...

The Janjaweed have abducted women for use as sex slaves, in some cases breaking their limbs to prevent them escaping, as well as carrying out rapes in their home villages, the report said.

Hat tip: Ace's biyatch and future Jawapundit, Allah, with more commentary from Ace here.

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Eleven Military Personnel Killed in Iranian Crash

Our ace reporter, Scott Baio, has the list of those on board. That is an awful lot of military brass to be on one plane, but stranger things have happened.

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More on Propaganda in a State of War

As most regular readers know, a lot of space in this blog has been devoted to arguing for the need for pro-American propaganda under war-time conditions. Those who object to American 'propaganda' neither have a firm grasp of the definition of propaganda (which is a morally neutral term) nor are familiar with our use of propaganda in the past (which has always been widespread, especially during war-time). Even more troubling are the moral implications given that some who are against the use of propaganda in war are not against killing in war! An odd moral hierarchy, to say the least.

An editorial at The Washington Post agrees. Via Glenn Reynolds this article by Reuel Marc Gerecht:

Once again we are confronted with stories about how the Pentagon and its ubiquitous private contractors are undermining free inquiry in Iraq. "Muslim Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda," reports the New York Times. Journalists, intellectuals or clerics taking money from Uncle Sam or, in this case, a Washington-based public relations company, is seen as morally troubling and counterproductive. Sensible Muslims obviously would not want to listen to the advice of an American-paid consultant; anti-insurgent Sunni clerics can now all be slurred as corrupt stooges.

There is one big problem with this baleful version of events. Historically, it doesn't make much sense. The United States ran enormous covert and not-so-covert operations known as "CA" activities throughout the Cold War. With the CIA usually in the lead, Washington spent hundreds of millions of dollars on book publishing, magazines, newspapers, radios, union organizing, women's and youth groups, scholarships, academic foundations, intellectual salons and societies, and direct cash payments to individuals (usually scholars, public intellectuals and journalists) who believed in ideas that America thought worthy of support....

Why did the United States spend so much covert-action money in Western Europe after World War II? Washington was unsure of Western Europe's commitment to democracy and its resolve to oppose the Soviet Union and its proxy European communist parties. The programs had to be clandestine: The foreigners involved usually could not have operated with open U.S. funding without jeopardizing their lives, their families or their reputations. Did these CA projects retard or damage the growth of a free press and free inquiry in Western Europe after World War II? I think an honest historical assessment would conclude that U.S. covert aid advanced both.

Surely democracy in Iraq is at least as shaky as it was in Western Europe after the defeat of Hitler. The real complaint that ought to be made against the Bush administration is that it has allowed such important work to be contracted to a public relations firm (in the case cited above, the Lincoln Group) that has done a poor job of protecting anonymity. Nevertheless, one has to give the Pentagon credit: It seems to be the only government agency that is at least trying to develop Iraqi cadres to wage the "hearts and minds" campaign. The CIA seems to have all but abandoned its historical mission in this area.

The Bush administration shouldn't flinch from increasing its covert "propaganda" efforts in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. The history in the last great war of ideas is firmly on its side.

Amen to that!

UPDATE from Joyner:

"Propaganda" has come to carry a pejorative connotation but it does not have to be a bad thing. Delivering information to persuade a target audience of your viewpoint is value neutral.
Indeed. Goldstein, in top form:
The battle over ideas is essential to a peaceful world; and to insist that the process of disseminating ideas be fair and balanced—that because we are a hyperpower, our use of propaganda is unseemly, whereas the use of propaganda by, say, al-Qaeda is a natural part of asymetrical warfare—is to engage not in self-righteous idealism, but rather to devolve into a moral relativism that disguises itself as high-mindedness. It is the CNN view of the world, one in which the purveyor of information forgets that s/he is supposed to be “objective” and not neutral, particularly where neutrality means resisting taking the side that is objectively pressing for freedom rather than, say, theocratic tyranny and medieval law.
Heh.

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Sandcrawler PSA

We have been in the process of hiring a new pilot for the Sandcrawler. The old one hits too many bumps and makes it hard to type. Sandcrawlers are actually quite complex so we are accepting applications from airline pilots.

Rusty, I reckon we should call this one back for a second interview. From his resume I think he may be just the guy were looking for.

You are now free to move about the Sandcrawler.


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Freed Hostages We'd Like to Meet: Bernard Planche Freed by Troops, Helps them Hunt Down Captors

He's French and he tried to help U.S. troops hunt down his captors! It just goes to show that while France generally sucks, there is a large minority that I'd love in my corner when fit hits the shan. Army News Service:

Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division and Task Force Ironhorse Soldiers liberated a French hostage Jan. 7 in the Abu Ghraib area of western Baghdad.

The Iraqi Army Soldiers were searching farm houses for weapons caches while U.S. Soldiers from Task Force Ironhorse manned a checkpoint as part of an outer cordon. As the Iraqi Army closed in on their location, the kidnappers fled from a nearby farmhouse and left the French hostage.

After the kidnappers fled, the hostage, Bernard Planche, a 52-year-old employee of a French non-governmental Organization, ran up to a checkpoint manned by Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 22 Infantry.

It's in Le Monde that we learn Planche tried to help U.S. soldiers hunt his captors down. No Pasaran has this:
Even though his kidnappers allowed him to listen to the radio and keep a personal journal — how thoughtful of the dears — Bernard Planche is one Western hostage who did not give in to the Stockholm Syndrome, helping in turn the United States army troops who freed him.
Great News!

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Professor Chaos is a Traitor (on dual citizenship)

Professor Leopold Stotch has jumped the shark and claimed Irish citizenship as is his right. After calling him a traitor, he responded to me by saying that if the U.S. and Ireland ever got into a war that he'd be the first to volunteer to push the button turning Belfast into 'The Forbidden Zone' of any number of Mad Max films.

Although I don't doubt his loyalty, I say it again: traitor. Or, if not a traitor, something really really icky.

One of the main problems with mass-immigration is that it leads to mixed loyalty. Soccer games between the U.S. and Mexico bring crowds of Mexican immigrants who root for Mexico. That's just a little example of the mixed loyalty of immigrants who fail to assimilate fully. In the conflict between the I.R.A. (allied with the Soviets) and the Brits (allied with us), pro-republican sentiments were often expressed by Irish-Americans who backed their sentiments up with aid to the terror organization.

So, how can having dual citizenship ever be a good thing?

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France in Oakland? Muslims on a Rampage in Bay City

KKK or Nation of Islam? Six of One, Half Dozen of Another. The main difference being, of course, that the Nation of Islam is a bunch of American nutballs who only seem out of place because their actions are being done in the U.S. and not in Muslim countries where such thuggery is par for the course. The Klan-nuts no longer have a single country devoted to Aryan supremacy. Not even South Carolina or West Virginia.

Via Dhimmi Watch.

They weren't your ordinary thugs. Dressed in bow ties and dark suits, nearly a dozen men carrying metal pipes entered a corner store, shattered refrigerator cases and smashed bottles of liquor, wine and beer, terrifying the clerk but stealing nothing.

The just wanted to leave a message: Stop selling alcohol to fellow Muslims.

While the Left screams about the similarities between the Republicans and the Taliban because some R's want to pray at football games, they overlook the real threat from the Islamic fifth column.

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Morning Cup-O-Peas (Religion of Peace Update)

Rape victim to be hanged in Iran.

IED at Starbucks. Is terrorism the new black? All the nuts are now following the lead of al Qaeda in Iraq, it seems.

17 terrorist scumbags arrested in Spain.

British Muslims declare jihad on Britain. Can you say treason?

Prediction: Pat Robertson opens big fat yap and declares that Iranian plane crash retribution for nuke development.

Scary (via Ace via Karol via Scott):

A suitcase found Thursday morning in Brooklyn — chock-full of photos of Big Apple landmarks and subway stations — provoked a massive mobilization of antiterror units when it was finally opened two days later, police said.
Chanting Kill the Jews & Christians.

And apparently the Left wants to join the Haj, too.

Zarqawi's reveals real goals: Sharia law all across the globe. Sunnis reject Zarqawi's lunacy (sort of).

Is Ali Fadhil lying about his treatment by U.S. troops? I wouldn't put it past him.

Federal agents explain why Patriot Act is working to protect you from the Tusken Raider scum bent on making you submit to the will of their moon god.

Bush had that reporteer killed!

Forget Spanish, teach them Arabic.

Q: What 'Progressive Morality'?
A: Er, what was the question again?

First the Swedes ruined pop-music, and now they're ruining the German socialist welfare state.

Linked because he uses the word 'epistemology', but fails to use the term 'epistemic community'.

Congrats to college grad Dean Esmay.

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January 09, 2006

Toledo - Recruiting Hub for Teen Prostitutes

(Toledo, Ohio) Police and social service workers are stunned.

From ToledoBlade.com:

[A] two-year U.S. Justice Department probe of underage prostitution revealed a nationwide problem of such magnitude that it took many police and social-service agencies by surprise.

"Innocence Lost," the cooperative investigation by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies so far has saved 200 minors from the sex trade and led to more than 500 arrests.

The federal probe also revealed a "loose confederacy" of Toledo men who, according to investigators, have recruited local girls as young as 12 years old - shuttling them across the country and forcing them into the sex trade.

The perpetrators are alleged to have lured young girls in troubled circumstances into running away with promises of glamour and travel. Once taken, the girls are forced into prostitution at locations throughout the U.S.

It would be nice to know how long the "loose confederacy" has been operating and how many of the girls disappeared, never to be heard from again. And, in my opinion, the dismal circumstances of some foster care programs are at least partially responsible for the teen girls being easily lured away.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

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Not Nice

My blog, but not my post.

As much as I love the military, it doesn't change the fact that DOD is just as inept a bureaucracy as any of the others.

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Belafonte Diatribe Shaking Up UNICEF

An anonymous source tells me that since Harry Belafonte's ill-considered and ignorant diatribe against President Bush, UNICEF's public relations people are frantic. Belafonte has been an official UNICEF goodwill ambassador for many years.

The source says that this time Belafonte's foot-in-mouth disease is viewed with much more consternation because he was stupid enough to make the statements while on foreign soil (Venezuela). UNICEF's communications people are trying to assess the damage that Belafonte may have done to their carefully crafted public image, and there have been calls to strip Belafonte of his ambassadorship.

It's too early to tell whether the mainstream media will give this any play, but members of the MSM are privy to the same source.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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Hostage Susanne Osthoff Was German Intelligence Agent

From United Press International (via The Reid Report):

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Susanne Osthoff, the German archeologist kidnapped by Iraqi gunmen on Nov. 25 and released before Christmas was connected with her country's intelligence service, the BND, and had helped arrange a meeting with a top member of the terrorist organization al-Qaida, possibly Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi himself, according to well informed German sources Sunday.

The sources confirmed German press reports that the 43-year-old woman had worked for the BND in Iraq on a freelance basis, and had for some time even stayed in a German intelligence safe house in Baghdad.

A convert to Islam and a fluent Arabic speaker, Osthoff had lived in Iraq for over a decade, and was at one time married to an Iraqi. Archeology is a classic intelligence cover: T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) posed as an archeologist in the Middle East in the early part of the last century. But archeology is Osthoff's real profession. One Washington-based German source said Osthoff had been working on arranging a rendezvous with an al-Qaida member on behalf of a German intelligence agent in Iraq. Whether the meeting ever took place has not been revealed, but another source in Berlin, reached by telephone, said experts believed that the kidnapping may have been the work of a rival group, possibly within the same organization.

A day after Osthoff's release, the Germans had quietly freed and sent home to his native Lebanon Mohammed Ali Hamadi, a Hezbollah militant serving a sentence for killing a U.S. Navy diver in a hijacked TWA jetliner in 1985.

The UPI story also says that new German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a ransom for Osthoff in addition to releasing Hamadi. Supposedly German intelligence is "cooperating with U.S. counterparts", but, given German duplicity in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal, and near total intransigence in the GWOT, it begs the question how much cooperation is actually taking place.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

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Spam, Spam, Beautiful Spam!

You know, the one really cool thing about fatwas is that if a prominent religious leader issued one against spammers they'd mess their pants, which would be just plain joyous to contemplate. Sometimes all this whiggish tolerance for individual deviance is just too tedious to be tolerated.

I'm just sayin'...

(Cross-posted to Demosophia)

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American Reporter Jill Carroll Held Hostage by al Qaeda in Iraq

UPDATE Jan 17th: Jill Carroll hostage video emerges. For more background on Jill Carroll visit the Jill Carroll archives.

As posted on The Jawa Report on January 7th, an American reporter named Jill Carroll has been kidnapped by Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq. The Jawa Report was the first American media to report the hostage's name. Today, the Christian Science Monitor confirmed that Jill Carroll had been kidnapped.

After Tim's first post on Jill Carroll, we had an e-mail conversation about whether it was appropriate to name hostages before the U.S. State Department or other official sources released her name. The long standing policy of The Jawa Report has been that the more publicity given to hostages while they are still alive, the greater the chances of their survival. The U.S. State Department's policy of not-naming hostages publicly is borderline insanity and serves no rational purpose.

Let us keep Ms. Carroll in our prayers. Christian Science Monitor:

Jill Carroll, a freelance journalist currently on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor, was abducted by unknown gunmen in Baghdad Saturday morning. Her Iraqi interpreter was killed during the kidnapping.

"I saw a group of people coming as if they had come from the sky," recalled Ms. Carroll's driver, who survived the attack. "One guy attracted my attention. He jumped in front of me screaming, 'Stop! Stop! Stop!' with his left hand up and a pistol in his right hand."

One of the kidnappers pulled the driver from the car, jumped in, and drove away with several others huddled around Carroll and her interpreter, said the driver, who asked not to be identified. "They didn't give me any time to even put the car in neutral," he recounted.

The body of the interpreter, Allan Enwiyah, 32, was later found in the same neighborhood. He had been shot twice in the head, law enforcement officials said. There has been no word yet on Carroll's whereabouts.

The kidnapping occurred within 300 yards of the office of Adnan al-Dulaimi, a prominent Sunni politician, whom Carroll had been intending to interview at 10 a.m. Saturday local time, the driver said.

Mr. Dulaimi, however, turned out not to be at his office, and after 25 minutes, Carroll and her interpreter left. Their car was stopped as she drove away. "It was very obvious this was by design," said the driver. "The whole operation took no more than a quarter of a minute. It was very highly organized. It was a setup, a perfect ambush."

The Christian Science Monitor article states that no group has claimed responsibility for Jill Carroll's kidnapping, but other sources claim that al Qaeda was behind it. Times Online:
Attempts were being made last night to locate an American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad yesterday after a meeting with a senior Sunni politician. Her Iraqi translator was killed, writes Ali Rifat.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in a statement posted on the internet.

The Left's 'Freedom Fighter's' at work........

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Bin Laden Reported Dead (Again)

Is bin Laden dead? I've no idea. Let us pray that this time the reports turn out to be true. Michael Ladeen reports over at NRO (hat tip: Ron):

And, according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Iranians who reported this note that this year's message in conjunction with the Muslim Haj came from his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for the first time.
What sources, I wonder, does Ladeen have that, say, the CIA doesn't have? Personally I'm not impressed by the unidentified sources. However, a fair amount of circumstantial evidence exists that bin Laden is dead. Evidence, though, is not proof. Until we have a body I will assume otherwise and if bin Laden is still alive I believe we are looking on the wrong continent all together. Try Africa and start with Somalia.

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Sandcrawler PSA.

Filthy has moved from thefiltyone.blogspot.com to www.thefilthyreport.blogspot.com.

Also Mr. Right has another great satire piece here. He is so funny!

The Right Place has managed to obtain a faculty only answer-keyed copy of a final examination that is regularly administered to the students in the prestigious journalism program at a major American university! The contents of this exam may shock and horrify you! Then again, they may go a long way towards explaining the sad state of journalism in this country these days.


And Rusty is back!!

Macktastic Rusty Wicked : Scroll through the site. I'll be posting three weeks worth of stuff today. Yes, I'm that good.

And yes he is that good.

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