This is why Russia is our natural ally. AP:

Hundreds of security forces stormed an apartment building today in southern Russia, killing seven suspected Islamic extremists linked to Chechen rebels and ending a two-day standoff.

Black smoke billowed from the building in Nalchik, the regional capital of the province of Kabardino-Balkariya, near Chechnya, as police and Interior Ministry troops fired automatic weapons and hurled grenades. The gunmen returned fire, wounding two police officers, the Interior Ministry said.

After a five-hour shootout, authorities found seven bodies, Interior Ministry spokesman Alexei Polyansky said.

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Friends of Democracy is blogging the Iraqi election from Iraq. The next few days should be very interesting.

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Did you notice this CNN I linked in yesterday's Religion of Peace Roundup?

"The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) will lend its name to a controversial report on freedom and governance in the Arab world despite U.S. objections to parts of the text".
...
"The dispute reflects differences between the U.S. view that the Arab world's problems are mainly internal and the Arab consensus that external factors such as foreign intervention and Israel's treatment of the Palestinians have contributed significantly to oppression and poor governance in the region".

The Watcher over at Indymedia wonders if this is another case of payola going to higher ups in the UN to change the reports conclusion. Who better to blame than the Jews?

On the other hand, since when has blaming the Jew menace needed a payoff? The U.N. does it all the time with hundreds of resolutions condemning Israel for the very same acts other countries routinely engage in. The question is not why the U.N. is blaming the Jews now. The real question is why they didn't blame the Jews earlier?

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A guy walks into his house after returning from Mecca. "Honey, I'm home," he yells. Then slits his 14 year old daughters throat for being a 'filthy filthy Jew slut'.

Turns out she was a virgin. "Oops, my bad."

HT: Tim at Opinion Bug

(PS-what kind of society runs medical tests to see if the father was justified in murdering his daughter?)

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Flight school catering to foreigners....terrror alert....why does this all sound so familiar? Michelle Malkin is on the case from top to bottom.

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Spc. Charles Graner Jr.'s fate has gone to the jury. He has been accused of 'torturing' inmates in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. In the spirit of solidarity with human rights activists around the world outraged at American abuses, I present to you 'torture' vs. 'torture', an old but oft overlooked post.
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Three British nationals recently released from Guantanamo Bay have claimed they were tortured. The ICRC goes so far as to say that what is going on at Gitmo may be a war crime. Many involved in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal now stand trial for their crimes. In fact, Islamist websites routinely use pictures of 'torture' at Abu Ghraib to justify their jihad against the US.

But what exactly does 'torture' mean? Is what was done at Abu Ghraib torture? Laying aside the fact that most of what is being said by the released Gitmo prisoners is rubbish--also, suspend for a second your knowlege that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to non-uniformed enemy combatants---what about the more credible claims of 'torture'?

I offer the following photo essay. Us vs. Them. Our 'torture' vs. their torture.

WARNING: Extremely graphic. You must be an adult to see this!! The images below are extremely violent and ought to make you sick. more...

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And I thought American actors were idiots....Maybe they belong to a British chapter of F.A.G?? BBC News:

Actors Corin and Vanessa Redgrave want a British detainee at Guantanamo Bay to stand for a Parliamentary seat.
Moazzam Begg, 36, from Birmingham, was arrested in Pakistan and has been held as a terror suspect at the US military base in Cuba since January 2002.

The Redgraves want Mr Begg to stand for their Peace and Progress Party

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Notice how the person thinks that airing the beheading video believes it would galvanize public opinion against the war. I should think it would do just the opposite. Which victim was shown is unknown. Cambridge Chronicle:

Cambridge Community Television broadcast the beheading of a hostage in Iraq, sparking a fresh round of complaints about cable access standards.

A tape of the execution ran on Channel 10 at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 31, immediately after a family-friendly scene of a pumpkin-carving festival....

Foley said the beheading could play a role similar to searing photos from the Vietnam War. He cited the photos of the point-blank execution of a Viet Cong prisoner and a napalm-burned Vietnamese girl as helping the anti-war movement.

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via Charles Johnson

PS-Can you name that hand?

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Parousing Internet Hagganah today to see what I had missed I found this message from the Islamic Army in Iraq, first published at an Islamist BB in French. Freeper Penguino's original translation can be found here:

"The year 2005 will be one of misfortune for America," affirms this group in an official statement sent on-line from an Islamic site published Monday, whose authenticity couldn't be immediately verified.

"The next days of this new year will see the biggest surprises that the Mujahideen have prepared for your children outside and inside America," he writes, adding that the fighters "will carry the battle from inside our country (Iraq) to inside yours."

"We address you after your New Year's celebration hoping that you have sobered up...We are going to make you American civilians taste that which our civilians endure," continues the group in "a message to the American people," who behave "uncivilized" and "very ignorantly."

"The entire world hates America and hates the American people... Did you know that the number of them who support the idea of attacks against America on her own soil has increased enormously this year?," also says the group.

"Last year was a walk in the park for your soldiers in Iraq. The year 2005 will see a quantitative and qualitative change in the operations against your soldiers, who will enter the annuals of history," he adds.

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File under 'no sh*t, Sherlock'. Of course, al Jazeera spins the obvious into a Zionist conspiracy.

The United States and Israel are perpetuating the military gap between Israel and Syria by controlling the balance of power, a Syrian analyst has said.

Following reports the US and Israel were trying to prevent Russia from selling SS-26 Iskander missiles with the ability to hit any target in Israel to Syria, Imad Fawzi al-Shuaybi, a Syrian political analyst, told Aljazeera on Thursday, "This is not the first time Israel and the United States, individually or jointly, have interfered to halt Syrian defence plans.

"Imbalance of powers deprives Syria from its right to possess defensive weapons."

Al-Shuaybi added: "What the US and Israeli want is to maintain a big military gap between Israel and Syria in order to create an illusion of a possibility of imposing a peace settlement."

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SF Gate:

German police stepped up their crackdown on Islamic extremism Wednesday, detaining 22 people during raids of apartments and mosques allegedly used by a network that provided financing and other support to terrorists.

About 700 officers searched dozens of apartments, mosques and call centers in five German states, discovering militant Islamic propaganda and forged passports and visas, authorities said....

The suspects included German citizens and nationals of Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Bulgaria, Bavarian state police investigator Gerhard Zintl said. Their ages ranged from 17 to 46, and five of the suspects were female.

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It seems like a daily posting concering an Iraqi official, National Guardsman or police officer being assassinated in Iraq. Unfortunately today is no exception.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The deputy police chief of Baghdad and his son, also a police officer, were assassinated Monday, an interior ministry official said.

Brig. Amer Ali Nayef and his son, Lt. Khalid Amer, were gunned down in Baghdad's south Dora district while traveling in a car on their way to work, said a spokesman for the ministry, Capt. Ahmed Ismail.

- Associated Press

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

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- Associated Press

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Mahmoud Abbas was elected Palestinian Authority president by a wide margin Sunday, exit polls showed, giving him a decisive mandate to renew peace talks with Israel, rein in militants and try to end more than four years of Mideast bloodshed.

The victory of the staid and pragmatic Abbas, who has spoken out against violence and has the backing of the international community, was expected to usher in a new era, after four decades of chaotic and corruption-riddled rule by Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) who died Nov. 11.

"We, the Palestinians, are drawing our future with our own hands. We will be the symbol of democracy and freedom," said Aya Abdel Kader, 45, a lawyer voting at a Gaza City school.

Abbas, popularly known as Abu Mazen, has promised to reform the Palestinian Authority, overhaul the unwieldy Palestinian security services and quickly resume negotiations with Israel, stalled for four years.

However, his political objectives are the same as Arafat's: a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, and a solution for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

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- Novnite

US-led multinational forces have detained a key leader in the Muslim militant network in Iraq headed by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the U.S. military said Saturday. Abdul Aziz Sa'dun Ahmed Hamduni, also known as Abu Ahmed, had also served as the deputy of the top Mosul militant leader identified as Abu Talha, the statement said. "Abu Ahmed admitted to receiving money and weapons from Abu Talha as well as coordinating and conducting terrorist attacks in Mosul, the statement said. It said Hamduni was detained on December 22. "The capture of Abu Ahmed, and the subsequent capture of Abu Marwan on 23 December, show significant progress in the inevitable destruction of the Abu Talha-led Al-Qaeda-Zarqawi terrorist network in Mosul," said U.S. Brig. Gen. Erwin Lessel, spokesman for Multi-National Forces-Iraq, in the statement. Earlier in the week the Emirate newspaper al-Bayane reported that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared "target number one in Iraq" by the US authorities, has been arrested in the city of Baakuba.

Perhaps the greatest terrorist arrest in the past year was that of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a computer and communications expert operating inside of Pakistan. Following the arrest of Khan, the CIA found and broke Al Qaida's code, arrested several other Al Qaida operatives, found out Al Qaida was contacting sleeper cells in the United States and England arrested more than eight connected to a plot inside of England. Clearly the arrest of only one terrorist led to a treasure trove of information.

While the arrest of Zarqawi would presumably lead to the arrest of Abu Ahmed. If Zarqawi has not been captured, it could very well work in reverse. Each time a terrorist is arrested rather than killed, it is a far greater accomplishment based upon the intelligence that can be gathered from the captured terrorist. The intelligence can save lives as well as help the U.S. and Coallition forces find and capture more terrorists.

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

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- FoxNews

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's Interior Ministry has launched a search operation for a missing French journalist and her translator, a ministry official said, amid a possible witness account that they were abducted in downtown Baghdad.

Florence Aubenas, a reporter for the daily newspaper Liberation, and translator Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi were last seen Wednesday morning leaving Aubenas' hotel in the Iraqi capital.

The Interior Ministry official said that so far they have no information or leads on their whereabouts.

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

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- Boston.com

BERLIN -- Islamic extremists accused of plotting to kill Iraq's prime minister in Germany are smuggling battle-hardened fighters from Iraq to Europe, raising a potential new terrorist threat on the continent, according to German officials.

More than 20 alleged supporters of Ansar al-Islam have been arrested in Europe in the past year as authorities move against the group that has links with al-Qaida and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who's been leading bloody attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq.

Ansar al-Islam is suspected of spiriting dozens of fired-up young Muslims to Iraq to join the insurgency, but the latest raids in Germany -- the most spectacular yet against the group -- heightened concerns that the organization also could pose a menace outside Iraq, too.

Whether Europe realizes it or not, and I would presume they do not as of yet, Europe is fast-becomming a radical islamic breeding ground and hotspot. We all know of the brutal attack on Dutch filmaker Theo Van Gough in the Netherlands. What is next? Could the recent upswing in anti-semetic grafiti and vandalism in France be a signal the islmofacists have already taken root in France as well?

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

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- Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants abducted three senior Iraqi officials, beheaded a man who worked for the U.S. military and killed at least four others, officials said Saturday, a day after a U.S. general warned that insurgents may be planning "horrific" attacks ahead of Jan. 30 elections.

[snip]

Authorities in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit said Saturday that gunmen abducted a deputy governor of a central Iraqi province and two other senior officials as they traveled to meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most prominent Shiite leader, in the holy city of Najaf to discuss national elections.

The delegation was stopped and the members kidnapped about 40 miles south of Baghdad on Friday. The area is in the so-called "triangle of death," a string of Sunni-controlled towns that have been the scene of frequent attacks.

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

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- Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi militant suspected of involvement in beheadings and other bloody attacks told Iraqi authorities that his group has links with Iran and Syria, according to a tape aired Friday by an Arabic TV station funded by the U.S. government.

Moayad Ahmed Yasseen, leader of Jaish Muhammad, which is Arabic for Muhammad's Army, was captured nearly two months ago in Fallujah, the former guerrilla stronghold west of Baghdad.

Open to discussion:
What can we do other than sanctions? Assuming we have the military capability to strike Iran or Syria, could this country sustain another war that many will see as an ongoing Iraqi war? Translation, will the anti-war Left rebel too much and cause too much instability within our own nation even if the evidence is insurmountable?

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

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Five embedded broadcasters have been sent packing from Iraq due to a breech in security, most likely involving showing something the enemy could use against the United States and Coallition forces.

NEW YORK As Iraq moves closer to its first democratic elections later this month, the number of news organizations requesting embedded slots with military units there is on the rise, according to officials. But those new embeds better watch their step. E&P has learned that five journalists have been kicked out of embed slots in the past three months for reporting secure information.

"They were all for operational security reasons, (revealing) something that would have been of use to the enemy," Maj. Kris Meyle, who runs the embed program, told E&P from Baghdad this morning. "Generally, it gets done very quickly. Usually it was something that was not done intentionally by the reporter."

With the five covering the Baghdad area, there should have been plenty of action and plenty of stories any one of them could cover that would not comprimise security. What about covering the hopes and dreams of the Iraqis? There has still yet to be a solid news story on how the lives of Iraqis have changed since the topple of Saddam Hussein other than the normal lack of electricity and anti-occupation route. I would be willing to bet even those who haven't had electricity in days and hate American soldiers have new found hopes for their own lives they would love to share.

As I've stated before on this site, one journalistic staple is that interviewees, just like everyone else, love to talk about themselves. A reporter interviewing an Iraqi citizen to find out what new hopes and dreams that he or she has now would in no way be a security concern or breech.

One of the more famous cases of an embedded reporter jeopardizing U.S. soldiers during the war in Iraq was that of Fox News anchor Geraldo Rivera who drew a diagram of sorts in the sand with exact troop positions. Rivera was not asked to leave the country or the embedded program therefore what these five did might have been worse.

I would still maintain whatever these five did was better than this reporter, who just "happened" to be at the scene of an execution.

Hat tip: Captain's Quarters

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

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