April 03, 2004

Female followers of Shiite radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr parade in Sadr city.

I don't know about you, but I didn't support the liberation of Iraq so that the women there would be re-oppressed by their IslamoNazi men who make them wear these head-to-toe coffee filters!
US tanks deploy in Baghdad as Shiite radicals take to streets
Closure of Iraq Paper Spurs Opposition

The U.S. closure of the weekly newspaper of a zealously anti-American Shiite cleric has invigorated the movement and its opposition to the American-led occupation.

With the United States planning to surrender political power to Iraqis by the end of June, Washington can little afford a new front in the increasingly violent battle to pacify the country. But closing the newspaper, Al-Hawza, seems to have opened one.

Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's supporters are well-organized and led by young, motivated clerics whose respect for their 30-year-old leader arises largely from the reverence accorded his late father, a senior cleric gunned down in 1999 by suspected agents of Saddam Hussein's regime.
[Can you believe it? Saddam just offed the guy! Typical.--Jen]
[...]
Al-Hawza was closed March 28 for allegedly inciting violence against coalition troops. Al-Sadr's supporters then held huge demonstrations outside the Baghdad headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition Wednesday and Friday.
[Yep. They come out of the mosques after Friday's "prayer" sessions all fired up and ready to kill kuffir.--j.t.]

Movement leaders say if the decision is not rescinded soon, they will disrupt life in Baghdad with an indefinite citywide strike. On Saturday, thousands of black-clad militiamen loyal to al-Sadr marched in military step in Baghdad.

Also Saturday, about 3,000 people demonstrated in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, to protest the earlier detention of Mustafa al-Yacoubi, a senior al-Sadr aide. Other movement officials reported the arrest, but the U.S. military could not confirm his detention.

Later, a report circulated in Baghdad that al-Sadr's Najaf home was surrounded by coalition troops, prompting thousands of supporters to march on coalition headquarters. U.S. soldiers backed by tanks blocked their path, witnesses said.

The U.S.-led occupation authorities would be stretched thin if faced with a prolonged campaign of agitation by al-Sadr supporters.
The coalition counts on the goodwill of Shiites,
[Given the Liberal and lying bent of our partisan media today, I don't know whether AP is stating the facts or editorializing again. I tend to think the latter. While it may be true that the Coalition forces are stretched a bit, I'm sure that they're prepared to deal with an uprising or two.
And I doubt very much that we depend on "Shi'ite goodwill!" That's something we haven't seen much of since we got there a year ago.--J.T.] who comprise about 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people, to counterbalance a tenuous security situation stemming from a deadly insurgency by Sunni Muslims north and west of the capital.
[Again, this is more editorializing with the "tenuous" and the "deadly." As bad as the Falluja atrocities were, it was the fact that these civilians bodies were mutilated and abused that was horrifying, more than the killing of contracted workers itself, as sad and tragic as that was.]
[...]
Al-Sadr and his top aides have refrained from condoning or calling for armed attacks against U.S. soldiers, although frequent hints have been made in recent days.

Ostensibly, Saturday's parade was staged as a prelude to the militia's expected role in maintaining law and order when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flock to holy Shrines in Baghdad and the southern city of Karbala on a major Shiite feast next week.
[Do these Muslims ever stop having "holy" days and feasts?! It feels as if we just got over their "celebration" of the Whatsits Day!]

But the timing suggests it was meant to remind the coalition of the movement's strength. The parade, held at the mainly Shiite district of Sadr City, followed al-Sadr's expression of solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a Friday sermon.

"Let (Hamas) consider me their striking arm in Iraq because the fate of Iraq and Palestine is the same," said the charismatic, politically savvy cleric.

Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings.
[Admitting this may be a first for the AP.]

Many of the parade's participants wore ski masks inscribed with the word "al-Shahadah," or "martyrdom." Some chanted "No, no America!," while others carried swords used by Shiites to perform rituals of self-flagellation.

Always keep the Al Queda strategist al-Zawahi's intercepted letter in mind about Islamist jihadis in Iraq having until June 30, when the U.S. hands over the political administration of the country to the IPC, to wage their terror war and gain control.
The evildoers are testing our limits.
They don't want democracy and in fact, think of democracy as a "heresy."
The Shiite cleric al-Sadr is doing his best to make Iraq into Iran or its adjunct.
Read this Financial Times story detailing how a gang of Shiites doing Al-Sadr's bidding flattened an entire Iraqi village because it was "debauched."
Although Shiites loathe Sunnis, they will make common cause to wage jihad for all Islam and against a common enemy as they're doing now in Iraq;
I believe that the attack in Fallujah and the demonstrations in Shiite Iraq urging "martyrdom"
and the violent overthrow of the U.S. "occupation" (that word being used in the same bogus way it's used by the "Palestinians" on Israeli land) are coordinated.
We must stand strong, not only to preserve our victory but because all of this IslamoFascist agitation is proof that here is the current heart of their death cult which we must stop from beating.
The alternative is to let these killers have their way and watch things blow up all over the world.
(Although it feels to me as if that's happening right now.
Sorry it's been a bad week for the planet.)
Keep Paul Bremer, Gen.s Abizaid & Kimmit and all of our Coalition troops in your prayers.
These are tough times and bad situations and it's vital that the new Iraq be formed with wisdom, courage and STRENGTH.
We've never done this before, that is, "broken" a region of its dependence on the poisonous ideology of Islamofascism.
While closing a newspaper is not the ideal solution for a budding democracy, Iraq has now over 100 papers, all of which, I assume, state political opinions freely.
This is many more papers than the Iraqis had under Saddam and all of them carried the straight "Praise Saddam" line.
Al-Hazwa must have truly preached out and out murder of America "infidels" and violent jihad.
I dare say that the Falluja attackers might have read it.
The "true believers" of the death cult are testing our limits right now and we mustn't let them do it!
One of the main reasons given for the Falluja attack was that the 82nd (Army) was rotating out and the 1st Marines were coming in to take over and the enemy took advantage of the attendant newness, confusion and change.
This testing, in the form of demonstrations, attacks and, of course, killings will probably get worse before it gets better so hold firm and pray that our people over there all stand tall, too.
This may be the hardest part of the Iraqi campaign, much harder than toppling Saddam.
However, if we do this and do it right (which in my heart and soul I believe we will!), the hard part will be over and the other countries and régimes of the Arab Middle East will fall in behind Iraq sooner or later.
(Conversely, if we lose this, the Arab street, inflamed by the red hot rage of envy, anger and resentment engendered by their shame culture, will rise up and try to set the world on fire, making this hell on earth.)
USA: Stand tall, stand proud!
We can do it, as my Rosie logo says, but we will have to get each other through some dark days ahead.
Pray for our troops and send them mail and gifts.
They're fighting to keep us safe and free and I'm grateful that on the homefront, we are.
God bless us all--we're doing the Lord's work over there. Big time.

Three Madrid Suspects Killed in Blast

At least three suspects in the Madrid railway bombings blew themselves up Saturday as police prepared to storm their apartment. One special forces agent was killed in the explosion and 15 police officers were wounded. The blast in Leganes, a southern suburb of Madrid, blew out part of the exterior walls on the first and second floors of the brick apartment building.

Police had approached the building at around 7 p.m. to make arrests as part of an escalating manhunt for those responsible for the March 11 bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.

The suspects spotted the police from a window and shot at them, chanting loudly in Arabic, the Interior Ministry said. No police officers were hurt by the gunfire.

Over the next two hours, police evacuated as many people as they could from the building and surrounding area and prepared for an assault on the apartment.
[...]

The investigation into the March 11 attacks have focused on the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which has links to Al Qaeda.

Judge Juan del Olmo, the investigating magistrate, has issued international arrest warrants for five Moroccans and a Tunisian, identified as Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet and described as the leader of the bombers.

Another 15 suspects are already in custody. Six have been charged with mass murder and nine with collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist organization. Eleven of the 15 charged are Moroccan.

Earlier Saturday, Acebes said a bomb found under the tracks of a high-speed train line on Friday was made of the same brand of explosive, Goma 2 Eco, that was used in the Madrid train attacks.
[Making today's incident the second in 2 days for Spain and terrorist bombs. Someone bad definitely has Spain's number!--Jen]
[...]
"It's the same type of explosive and it's the same brand," Acebes said of the 26-pound bomb. The bomb was planted about 40 miles south of Madrid, and its discovery stopped six bullet trains using the Madrid-Seville line.
[...]
The Spanish government's main suspect in the March 11 attacks, the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, is related to a group suspected in last year's Casablanca bombings, which killed 45 people including 12 suicide bombers.

Spain has been a major U.S. ally in Iraq and has been warned previously by Al Qaeda that it would be the target of terrorism for its support.
[And it withdraws that support and still is bombed.
Appeasement and giving in to terrorists never works.--j.t.]

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported Saturday that the Spanish Embassy in Egypt received a letter from an Islamic militant group threatening new attacks if Spain did not withdraw its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
[And Spain just pledged more troops to the Afghan front.]

In the letter, the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, a group that also claimed responsibility for the March 11 attacks, threatened to strike against Spanish diplomatic missions in North Africa and the Mediterranean regionunless Spanish troops are withdrawn in four weeks.
[Interesting that they give them a deadline.--Jen]

A Spanish diplomat in Cairo, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the embassy received a threatening letter signed by Abu Hafs after the commuter train attacks last month.

The United States believes the Abu Hafs group lacks credibility and has only tenuous ties to Al Qaeda. In the past, the group has claimed responsibility for events to which they were not connected — such as last summer's blackouts in North America and Britain.

Hmmm. Are they sure that Islamist terrorists weren't responsible for the blackouts?
And it wasn't just the USA and the UK: there were blackouts in Australia, Italy and Scandinavia, too.
If they were capable of hacking the power plants computer systems, they could have pulled it off.

Back to Spain's problem, though.
Zapatero has 2 ways he can go: he can try to appease the bad guys even more and step up the troops withdrawal and end the pursuit of the Madrid bombers at home OR he can see that he's been played for the fool and do a "180," recommitting his government to both fighting Islamist terrorists at home and overseas with troops in either Iraq or Afghanistan or both.
We shall see which choice he makes.

April 02, 2004

Bomb Found on Rail Line in Spai

Police found a bomb Friday on a high-speed rail line between Madrid and Seville, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.

Bomb-disposal experts alerted by a railway employee found 22-24 pounds of dynamite under the rail line about 40 miles south of Madrid on the rail line running to Seville, Acebes said.

The explosives were connected to a detonator with a 430-foot cable, the minister told a news conference.
He said it was not immediately known who placed the bomb.

We tried to tell them and we did tell them after their craven cave to terrorists that it wouldn't work and that the evildoers would be back.

At least, this time they found the bomb before it went off!
Maybe God looks after drunks, little children and the Spanish.

Bush Signs Fetus Rights Legislation
[Note the way Liberal Yahoo calls the baby a "fetus" also, even in the present context!]

President Bush invoked the case of pregnant murder victim Laci Peterson on Thursday as he signed legislation expanding legal rights of the unborn. "The suffering of two victims can never equal only one offense," Bush said.

Bush was joined on an East Room stage by Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, and her stepfather, Ron Grantski. Peterson was eight months pregnant when she disappeared in December 2002 in the highly publicized case. Supporters of the bill have cited her and the son who was to have been named Connor.

"This little soul never saw light, but he is loved and he is remembered," the president said. "All who knew Laci Peterson have mourned two deaths and the law cannot look away and pretend there was just one."

Bush gave the bill, an important one to many in his conservative base[Gosh! ...as if it weren't important to all Americans or God or the rights of "fetal" men and women everywhere. Nope. Just "conservatives."--Jen], the first elaborate signing ceremony of the year. The law makes it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman.

"As of today, the law of our nation will acknowledge the plain fact that crimes of violence against a pregnant woman often have two victims," Bush said. "Therefore, in those cases, there are two offenses to be punished."

The bill passed by a 245-163 vote in the House and by a 61-38 margin in the Senate.

People on both sides of the fetal rights and abortion issue have said the new law will have far-reaching consequences.

Abortion opponents welcome it as a step toward more sweeping protections for the unborn, while abortion-rights proponents say the measure represents the first recognition in federal law of an embryo or fetus as a separate person.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Bush's presumptive opponent in this fall's election, voted against the bill.

Remember this vote come November.
And not just Kerry's "No" either.
Check out who else voted against it at the
Senate site, all because they thought it threatened their oh-so-precious universal abortion.
My heart goes out to Laci Peterson's parents and Conner's grandparents, whose hearts are broken, and I thought it was so dear that President Bush invited them to the White House for the signing of this bill.
It's hard to believe that our unborn babies had to have a new law to acknowledge that they're persons at the moment they're killed; since modern technology has allowed us to see our babies on sonograms from a very early time of pregnancy and we've discovered that "fetuses" can do things like smile in the womb, how can anyone doubt that they're not already persons who are alive?
(I kept thinking about the lovely actress Sharon Tate today, who with her last breath, begged the Manson family to spare her life for the sake of her 8-month-old "fetus" when they murdered her in 1969.)
America did a good thing today and while most of the media focused on death in Iraq, it makes me feel good that in our nation's capital, they were affirming Life!

April 01, 2004

US Promises Overwhelming Response to Iraq Killings

U.S. troops on Thursday promised an "overwhelming" response to brutal killings in the Iraqi town of Falluja and vowed to hunt down those who shot, burned and mutilated four American contractors.

Marines took positions[That's 25,000 Marines who just rotated in.--Jen] on the outskirts of the restive town west of Baghdad where insurgents ambushed the contractors on Wednesday.

"Coalition forces will respond," the U.S. army's deputy director of operations Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a news conference. "They are coming back and they are going to hunt down the people responsible for this bestial act.

"It will be at a time and a place of our choosing. It will be methodical, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming."

[...]
A leaflet distributed in Falluja on Thursday claimed that the previously unknown "group of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin" had killed the Americans in response to the Israeli assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Yassin last month. It was not immediately possible to verify the claim.

Falluja was relatively quiet on Thursday, but residents said more bloody killings should be expected.

"The Americans may think it is unusual but this is what they should expect. They show up in places and shoot civilians so why can't they be killed?" Falluja shop worker Amir said.
[Notice their craven lies. The "Yassin group" acts as if the atrocious murders were payback for Israel's assassination of Yassin and some of the townspeople talk about our soldiers in the same way that John F'in Kerry did when he was head of VVAW alleging that they kill civilians. Liars all.--j.t.]
[...]
The U.S governor of Iraq Paul Bremer vowed to hunt down those responsible for ambushing the contractors, and those who then torched the corpses and dragged them through the streets before hanging them from a bridge.

"The acts we have seen were despicable and inexcusable," he said. "They violate the tenets of all religions, Islam included, as well as the foundations of civilized society. Their deaths will not go unpunished."

As the violence sparked renewed concern among foreign organizations working in Iraq, a high-profile U.S.-sponsored trade fair for companies rebuilding Iraq was postponed.

This is only fitting, since a place that kills civilians and committs atrocities on their remains isn't ready or fit for civilized trade and commerce.

Before you try and stage another "Mogadishu," you should check to see if the President of the United States is still an appeaser of terrorists and someone who doesn't know how to use the miliary...
Oops. You mean he's not? Bush isn't Clinton.
(A fact for which I thank God every day!)
GWB will bring the fight to the Enemy "at the day and the hour of our choosing!"
Tick, tick, tick....
Iraq and America now wait for the barbarians to meet their punishment.
One of the latest reports notes that an eerie calm has settled over the town tonight.
The Marines must be sweating them out.
Good move.
Semper Fi and Let's Roll.
IslamoFascism Delendo Est.

March 31, 2004

Iraqis Drag Bodies Through Streets After Attack

A crowd of cheering Iraqis dragged charred and mutilated bodies through the streets of the town of Falluja Wednesday after an ambush on two vehicles that witnesses said killed at least three foreigners.
[...]
The Falluja violence began when two four-wheel-drive vehicles were attacked by guerrillas on a main road in the town, 32 miles west of Baghdad. A crowd then set the vehicles ablaze and hurled stones into the burning wreckage.

Television pictures showed one incinerated body being kicked and stamped on by a member of the jubilant crowd, while others dragged a blackened body down the road by its feet.
[...]
As one body lay burning on the ground, an Iraqi came and doused it with petrol, sending flames soaring. At least two bodies were tied to cars and pulled through the streets, witnesses said.

"This is the fate of all Americans who come to Falluja," said Mohammad Nafik, one of the crowd surrounding the bodies.

Some body parts were pulled off and left hanging from a pole, while two incinerated bodies were later strung from a bridge over the road and left dangling there.

It was unclear who was traveling in the vehicles, both four-wheel drives of the type used by foreign contractors, journalists, civilian members of the U.S.-led coalition and some military personnel. Witnesses said they saw anywhere between four and eight people in the cars before they were attacked.

As the victims lay burning, a crowd of around 150 men chanted "Long live Islam" and "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Greatest") while flashing victory signs.

Falluja has been one of the most violent, restive towns in Iraq since the U.S.-led occupation began. There are almost daily attacks on U.S. military convoys in the area.

[Note: Don't let it escape your attention that the Leftist media (AFP and Al-Reuters) was *right there* to take the pictures of these atrocities.
How convenient.
I certainly won't post them here. Check Drudge if you have the stomach for it.]

It is so hard to speak about the unspeakably awful.
This is the face of pure Evil and one that we're now only too familiar with from our "relationship" with the death cult that calls itself the Religion of Peace™.
We are supposed to be outraged and repulsed...and afraid.
Well, I'm revolted and I'm pretty damn mad, but I'm not afraid and I pray that the Marines who've just taken charge in Fallujah aren't either!
I don't know what's more obscene--the sight of the defiled and mutilated bodies of the poor dead civilians or that of little children cheering murder and mayhem and regarding mutilation of human bodies as "play."
Looks like the Civilized World still has a lot of missionary work to do (and by missionary, I don't just mean the spread of God's Word).
But before we do that, the Coalition forces in Fallujah may need to get medieval on the a$ses of these killers and let them know exactly who the "strong horse" in Iraq is.
U.S. forces under President Bush as Commander-in-Chief aren't going to "cut and run" the way Bill Crinton made our soldiers do in Somalia!
[Remember: even though 18 of our men were killed in the ambush in Mogadishu-- which was planned by Osama Bin Laden, who also provided the arms to the Somalis--they held their own bravely for over a day and killed 1,000 of their attackers. It was Bubba who cut and run from the attack, not our guys!]
It wouldn't surprise me if OBL or his lieutenant Zarqawi was behind this little massacre and I'm virtually certain it was a jihadi Islamofascist!

May God rest the souls of those who were killed in Iraq today (including 5 of our military) and may He give us the strength and courage to finish our mission in Iraq and carry us forward to complete Victory over our IslamoNazi enemies.
I personally cannot stand to see the earth subdued by these death-worshipping murderers.
We must and will prevail.

Update: At least one of the foreign contractors killed and whose body was mutilated was a woman and at least one was an American.

Jewish Settlers Move Into East Jerusalem

[...]
A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews - assault rifles slung over their shoulders - lugged boxes, chairs, tables and potted plants into buildings in the Silwan neighborhood of east Jerusalem. A van packed with sofas and couches arrived, and settlers hauled a water tank onto the roof of one building and set up a generator.
[...]
East Jerusalem is claimed by the Palestinians as the capital of a future state, but Israel says it will never relinquish the sector it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. In recent years, hardline Jewish groups have bought several properties in east Jerusalem, including in the walled Old City, to strengthen Israel's hold there.

I don't think I have to explain the importance of having control of the city of Jerusalem to anyone.
This is Israel's capital. Period.
You'll know that the "Palestinians" are truly working peacefully for an independent state to exist side-by-side with Israel when they give up terror and also when they no longer insist on (all or part of) Jerusalem and the "right of return."

The settlers said they were members of the Committee for the Renewal of the Yemenite Village in Shiloah - Shiloah is Hebrew for Silwan - and that their aim was to re-establish a Jewish presence in the neighborhood.

Daniel Luria, a spokesman for the committee, said a Jewish Yemenite community had been established in the area 122 years ago. In 1938, the last of the families were forced to leave during Arab riots, he said.
[Note the "coincidental" timing of anti-Jewish Arab riots in the City of God at the same time that Kristallnach was going on in Germany, as well as the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws, with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in close consultation with Hitler.]

"Sixty-six years later we have returned Jewish families to the area with the idea of living side-by-side with the Arabs," Luria said, adding that three of the eight families are of Yemenite heritage so "it's really closing a circle."
[...]
Netzer said the two buildings were bought by private investors interested in reviving a Yemenite village and buying homes near Jerusalem's most hotly disputed holy site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound.

Of course, the Hebrew king Solomon built his temple on that mount hundreds, if not thousands, of years before the Muslim "prophet" Mohammed was even born.
And the Muslim claims that Al Aqsa is the "far mosque," as mentioned in the Koran, are dubious, at best.
Still they fight over whose it is...I think, because the Muslims just want to fight and kill.

Mazeltov to these Yemenite Jews and best of luck in your new home!
(I'm moving myself next week and hope to be just as happy in my new house.)
I also hope to see a lot more Jews take up residence in East Jerusalem in the future!

There are few thinkers on the GWOIT today who are astute or perceptive than David Warren.
Read his latest analysis of this week's events:
An Arab split

Warren focuses on former Sec. of State George Schultz's fine defense of the Bush Doctrine which appeared in Monday's WSJ with the title "An Essential War: Ousting Saddam was the only option."
Needless to say, Sec. Schlutz's arguments made a fine counterpoint to the poisonous partisan ramblings of Richard Clarke in the Dim witchhunt known as the 9/11 hearings.

Opec heavyweights back production cut

Most of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting countries on Tuesday favoured a cut of 1m barrels a day in oil output, despite increased concern in consuming countries that high crude prices threaten the world economy.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest exporter of oil and Opec's most influential member, on Tuesday confirmed it wanted the group to reduce output to stem the rise in oil inventories in consuming countries and hinder a fall in prices as demand declines this spring.

Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, said on Tuesday:"More oil now will make a glut in the market and force prices to collapse, something we don't want. "Throwing more oil on the market because of high prices where they are today, would be destructive."

Saudi Arabia - backed by Venezuela, Libya, probably Iran and many of the smaller Opec members, wants the group to implement its decision of last month to cut its quota by 1m b/d to 23.5m b/d.

As of Tuesday, only Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates appeared to be in favour of postponing the cuts.
[...]

Washington officials have already begun pressing producers not to make the cuts. Meanwhile, investment banks have begun to predict that oil will this year have an increasing impact on the world's economic recovery.

Goldman Sachs estimates that growth in the Group of Seven industrial countries will be 0.3 per cent lower in the next 9-12 months because of the rise in oil prices. In the US, the bank believes the fading effect of the tax cuts will bring the pinch to real incomes to the fore.

As the U.S. leads the world in virtually all way, so it leads the globe economically.
The Sauds are using their biggest weapon to hurt our economy and more specifically, to weaken President Bush's economic recovery.
B*stards.

[...]
Oil inventories usually increase in the spring as the northern hemisphere no longer requires winter heating oil and the summer driving season has not yet kicked into gear in the US. Saudi Arabia and Opec are keen to keep inventories as low as possible because it gives them more control over the market.
[...]
Non-Opec countries that in the past have co-operated with the cartel, on Tuesday did not appear as eager to join the cuts.

Russia criticised Opec, saying prices were too high, but Mexico said it wanted market stability, adding that the cartel had not yet reached a formal decision. Mexico said it was co-operating with Opec by meeting with Saudi Arabia, but has so far decided not to join the cuts.

Of course, the House of Saudi princes are not only trying to hurt President Bush's reelection chances with their oil weapon, but they're making more moolah at the same time, which they need desperately both to support their lavish, decadent lifestyles and to fund their international Waahab jihad movement.
It remains to be seen whether they can keep this price/supply war up, given the pressure from other oil-producing countries (OPEC members and non-members) who just want to sell their crude and also the fact that by using this financial weapon, they're driving down the value of their own investments in American capital instruments.
Since the Saudis were outed as our Enemy by the 9/11 attacks, their deviousness is transparent and they are unable to project an image of amorphous Western bafflement like that that went with their previous manipulations of the oil market (like the oil "shortage" of 1974, which was nothing but Saudi revenge for American support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War.)
My fellow Americans, we can afford to pay a little more for gas!
Quit your whining and suck it up--we have to ride out the latest Saudi extortion scheme.
And don't forget to vote to reelect President Bush in November, either!

In Uzbekistan:
Clashes Bring Uzbekistan Death Toll to 42

Gunfire and explosions resounded in the capital Tuesday as Uzbek forces battled for hours with suspected Islamic militants[There's that "militant" word again.--Jen] after two more suicide attacks. Officials claimed 20 terrorists and three police died in the fighting.

The bloodshed brought the death toll to 42 in three days of violence, the government said - the most serious unrest in the country since Uzbekistan let hundreds of U.S. troops use a base near the Afghan border after the Sept. 11 attacks. All of this week's attacks appeared to target Uzbek authorities.
[...]
Down the road, a woman detonated explosives after refusing to heed police orders to stop approaching a bus, according to witnesses who said she set off the blast after officers shot her in the legs.

The suicide bomber was decapitated in the blast, said Hairniso Supiyeva, 64, whose front gate was pitted with shrapnel from the explosion. Three black-clad women who had been in a car with the bomber fled to a nearby apartment building, where police then began a nearly five-hour standoff with them and other suspects.

An Interior Ministry officer said 16 suspected terrorists - 11 men and five women - were killed in the apartment building.
[...]
Five men escaped, said a building resident who refused to give her name. She said the women in the car wore veils revealing only their eyes, rare attire in secular Uzbekistan. She said they were speaking another Central Asian language she could not understand.

How curious that so many of the terrorists were women.
You see this femininization of terrorism alot in that part of the world, like Chechnya, which is one of the places on earth where women seem to be the most oppressed!
As to them speaking a "foreign" tongue, I wonder which one...Saudi? Afghani? Pakistani?

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States had no information on who was responsible for the current attacks but noted the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has been the dominant threat in the country.

The group was believed to have been decimated in the U.S.-led anti-terror operations in Afghanistan, and Pakistani forces this month hunting al-Qaida fugitives on the Afghan border said they wounded the IMU's political leader.

Karimov has blamed the violence on Islamic extremists, and said several arrests had been made. He said Monday that backing for the attacks might have come from a banned radical group that has never before been linked to terrorism - Hizb ut-Tahrir. The group denied involvement.

Uzbek authorities claim Hizb ut-Tahrir is a breeding ground for terrorists and have sought unsuccessfully to have Washington label it a terrorist group.

Karimov said the attacks were planned six to eight months ago and maintained the organization and funding required to carry out such attacks indicated they had outside support.

Then, in addition to Britain, a major bomb ("Madrid-level") plot was foiled today in the Philippines:
Philippines Says Foils Planned Terror Attack

Philippine security forces have arrested several militants and seized a large amount of explosives, foiling a plan to bomb civilian targets in the capital Manila, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on Tuesday. "We have pre-empted a Madrid-level attack on the metropolis by capturing an explosive cache of 80 pounds (36 kg) of TNT which was intended to be used for bombing malls and trains in Metro Manila," she said on national television.

As per always in that part of the world, members of Islamist jihadi groups Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Ismaliah were the perps.
In Chechnya, "rebels" blew up 3 oil wells:
Bombs hit Chechen oil fields

A series of bombs set three oil wells ablaze in Russia's rebel Chechnya region, officials said yesterday, and one was quoted as saying the damage could reach 500 million roubles ($A24.2 million).

In Israel, another "Palestinian" under-age bomber was caught before he could detonate his bomb.
It seems that Islamic Jihad had promised him money, cigarettes, clothes and cell phone to do their bidding.
Apparently, the promise of 72 virgins and the universal triumph of Islam are good motivators when they're that young.

Tamer Khawireh is the fourth boy of his age to be arrested in Nablus in recent weeks for planning to carry out a suicide attack. Last week, Husam Abdu, 16, was detained at the Huwara checkpoint south of the city with an explosive belt strapped to his body.

On March 16, another boy, Abdallah Quran, 11, was caught at the same checkpoint as he was carrying a bomb in a backpack. The boy was later released after it turned out that he was unaware that he was carrying a bomb given to him by two Fatah activists. In February, the IDF arrested another Nablus boy and his father, who were contracted by Hizbullah.

Here at home, Northwest Airlines and Amtrak took precautions against the threat of a terrorist attack tonight:
Threats Prompt Searches of U.S. Planes and Trains
All in all, a busy day for the terrorists, but also a busy and fairly successful day for law enforcement and the military who hindered or stopped attacks in London, Manila, the Holy Land and across our fruited plains!
Clearly, the evildoers are looking for "soft targets" the world over and by working together and taking a hard line, the U.S. and her friends and allies are making that harder and harder to do!

March 30, 2004

Rice to Testify in Public Under Oath
I don't think Dr. Rice is doing this because Dickie Clarke and his pals in the Liberal media has truly put the heat on her or for any other reason other than to assure the American people that the Bush Administration did everything that could be done to deal with the 9/11 attacks and to take the fight to the enemy Al Queda in the aftermath of those attacks.
[The Lib Dims are picking on Condi and trying to make this a "show trial" where she's exposed as a fraud because they want to run Hitlery for Prez in 2008 and are worried that Her Heinous Sen. Pork would fare very poorly against the smart and composed Dr. Rice, should she run for higher office (who is also a black woman, of course, so Condi's got that going for her).
But Condi's "crime" in the Dims' eyes is that she's a black woman Conservative Republican.]

Stand tall and firm, Dr. Condi!
We love you, support you and believe in your expertise, capabilities and professionalism.
Don't let those Dim stooges (like Clarke & Co.) get you down!

Do NOT mess with this lady!

Here's Al-Reuters:
Explosive Ingredients Found in UK Terror Raids

British anti-terror police seized a large amount of explosive materials and arrested eight men in raids across London and southeast England on Tuesday.

Peter Clarke, head of London's Metropolitan police anti-terror branch, told a news conference more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which can be used in the manufacture of explosives, was recovered in west London.

"Part of the investigation will focus on the purchase, storage and intended use of that material," Clarke said.

An anti-terror source said the ammonium nitrate was similar to explosive materials used in bombings in Turkey and Saudi Arabia in recent months. The source also said it was enough to launch an attack on the same scale as the huge 1996 bombing of Canary Wharf in London's financial district.

Clarke said the eight men, all British and aged between 17 and 32, were arrested during a series of 24 raids carried out under the Terrorism Act 2000 by 700 officers from five police forces.

He stressed the operation was not linked to investigations into the coordinated train bombings in Madrid on March 11, which killed nearly 200 people.
The Telegraph's version reveals even more details about the raids:
Eight held as police seize explosives

[...]
Peter Clarke, Scotland Yard's deputy assistant commissioner, said detectives carried out 24 raids across London and the Home Counties.

Two men were arrested in Uxbridge, one in Ilford, one in Horley, one in Slough and three in Crawley. All the suspects are believed to be Muslims and British citizens of Pakistani descent. They are now being interviewed by anti-terrorist detectives.

Police found the fertiliser at a house in Hanwell, west London. The find would have been enough to cause an explosion the size of the blast which rocked Manchester in 1996 when the IRA detonated a truck filled with explosives near a shopping centre.

Ammonium nitrate fertiliser was recently used by terrorists in bombings against British targets in Turkey and the bombing of a western residential compound in Saudi Arabia.

It was also used in the Oklahoma bombing in 1995, is believed to have been used by al-Qa'eda in the attack on the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998, and was the major ingredient in the biggest of the bombs used by Islamic terrorists in Bali which killed 202 people in 2002.
[So, would we be safe in surmising that the British police will find a copy of the AQ bombmaking manual, too?--Jen]
[...]
"We know the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community are law-abiding and completely reject all forms of violence," he said.
[From your mouth to Allah's ear, Peter Clarke...]

Excellent work, chaps!
Looks as if Britain has not only adopted a "get tough" policy about homeland terrorists, but dodged a huge bullet by launching the raids!
Britons, tending to be more Liberal and "touchy feely" are taking a more sensitive and huggy attitude to their Muslims, which is fine because they have many more than the U.S. and tend to take the Old School noblesse oblige approach by default, but they'll soon find that it doesn't take many radical, jihad-bent Muslims to stage a big, bad attack.
Glad they caught these evildoers before they pulled off their big boom!

Police warn iPod users after spate of thefts

Owners of the iPod, the fashionable music player, are being urged by police to use cheaper headphones to prevent muggings.

The distinctive white headphones that come with the Apple MP3 player are a magnet for thieves, who know exactly what is being carried.
[...]
A spokesman for Apple, which has sold two million iPods worldwide, said some fans of the gadget would "rather be robbed" than use less trendy headphones.

He said: "We will not be changing the colour. It's up to the consumer if they want to use black or grey headphones instead. Some users really like the coolness of being seen wearing an iPod."

The iPod is the most popular portable digital music player in the world.

Gary Parkinson, deputy editor of the gadget magazine Stuff, said: "You are an obvious target. The other problem is that the iPod is so shiny and lovely you want to get it out and show people. This attracts criminals like magpies."

Woohoo!
I don't have an iPod yet, but I'd like to get one of the new pink minis for my birthday!
Lest we forget, part of the beauty of iPod is iTunes also, which allows for seamless downloading and burning of some of the best music around!
If you haven't checked it out, here's the linkey-poo to show you what you've been missing (Downloadable programs available for both Mac and Windows):
iTunes

French PM's job in the balance after poll rout

President Jacques Chirac locked himself into the Elysee Palace with a trusted band of advisers yesterday arguing over the fate of his prime minister following the Right's electoral drubbing.

The French head of state failed to emerge or to offer a clear statement to an expectant nation during a day of frantic consultations on whether to fire his prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
[...]
The Left, led by the Socialist Party, won 50.1 per cent of the vote, the first time since President Mitterrand's re-election in 1988 that it has claimed more than half the ballots cast.

The Left now controls 20 of the 22 regions in mainland France and Corsica. Before Sunday, the Right controlled 14. All it has now is Alsace.
[...]

Sunday's result was interpreted as punishment for M Raffarin's ambitious reform programme. The prime minister has tried to do M Chirac's bidding, reforming pensions, very slightly trimming civil service and teaching posts, and cutting income tax.
[As we all know, you can't cut social programs and taxes, not with the welfare state France has on its hands!--Jen]
[...]
The real decision may be whether to sack M Raffarin now or to wait until the European elections in June when the Right is expected to fare badly again.

But he has been beaten back by repeated strikes and denunciations by everyone from teachers to self-styled intellectuals, 40,000 of whom signed a petition recently calling the government "anti-intellectual".
[Ooh, that hurts bad! LOL--J.T.]
[...]
The business daily Les Echos said: "Here we have the situation of a country that must reform and a public opinion that refuses to do so. A country that has always pushed back the deadlines, always juggled with financial constraints without ever accepting [the need] to look reality in the face."

[...]
Despite M Chirac's efforts to shift the blame, Sunday's vote was clearly a rejection of him as much as of his beleaguered prime minister.

The traditional shape of French politics is still recovering from the 2002 elections when many on the Left were forced to contribute to M Chirac's overwhelming re-election simply to show their hostility to M Le Pen.
[Le Pen, despite his right ideas about immigration, is a nightmare because he's a rabid anti-Semite!]

In Sunday's election, they took their revenge and corrected any false impressions given by the 82 per cent won by the president two years ago.
[...]
Dominique de Villepin, the colourful foreign minister, has been discounted on the grounds that he has never run for elected office. But his closeness to M Chirac may yet catapult him into the job.

Oh, Gawd!
All the world needs is Daffy Dominique at the helm in France!
The French just get stranger and stranger; I don't know which is worse: the fact that Chirac is considered to be on the "Right" or that France went Socialist without a Madrid-like AQ attack.
These folks are clearly lost, with no sign of a sane leader in sight.
(Chirac and Raffarin will fight for their jobs like crazy, not only to stay in power, but because the minute they leave office, both face major corruption trials, too.)

Chicago, L.A. towers were next targets --

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported operations chief, has told U.S. interrogators that the group had been planning attacks on the Library Tower in Los Angeles and the Sears Tower in Chicago on the heels of the September 11, 2001, terror strikes.
    
Those plans were aborted mainly because of the decisive U.S. response to the New York and Washington attacks, which disrupted the terrorist organization's plans so thoroughly that it could not proceed, according to transcripts of his conversations with interrogators.
[The rapid response of the federal government combined with that of our air traffic controllers got the planes out of the sky and on the ground in record time on 9/11. Thank God!--Jen]

Mohammed told interrogators that he and Ramzi Yousuf, his nephew who was behind an earlier attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, had leafed through almanacs of American skyscrapers when planning the first operation.

"We were looking for symbols of economic might," he told his captors.
   
 He specifically mentioned as potential targets the Library Tower in Los Angeles, which was "blown up" in the film "Independence Day," and the Sears Tower in Chicago.
[...]

According to the transcript, Mohammed has maintained that Zacarias Moussaoui, the French-Moroccan facing trial in the United States as the "20th hijacker," had been sent to a flight school in Minnesota to train for a West Coast attack.

That would buttress Moussaoui's contention that he is improperly charged with participation in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, because he was preparing for a different al Qaeda operation.
[So, Moussaoui's not really lying and he's not really telling the truth, either. He swears on the Koran!--J.T.]
    
The new transcripts confirm an earlier report by the Associated Press that al Qaeda originally had planned to crash hijacked airliners into targets on both coasts.
[...]
The confessions reveal that planning for the September 11 attacks started much earlier and was more elaborate than previously thought.
   
 "The original plan was for a two-pronged attack with five targets on the East Coast of America and five on the West Coast," he told interrogators, according to the transcript.
    
"We talked about hitting California as it was America's richest state, and [al Qaeda leader Osama] bin Laden had talked about economic targets."
    
He is reported to have said that bin Laden, who like Mohammed had studied engineering, vetoed simultaneous coast-to-coast attacks, arguing that "it would be too difficult to synchronize."
[Note: This may be some of the stuff that KSM is making up; because we did respond quickly to the attacks on the East Coast, Mohammed would want to downplay their failure to pull off all the attacks they had planned and so he falsely would claim that OBL vetoed it.--Jen]
   
 Mohammed then decided to conduct two waves of attacks, hitting the East Coast first and following up with a second series of attacks.

"Osama had said the second wave should focus on the West Coast," he reportedly said.
    
But the terrorists seem to have been surprised by the strength of the American reaction to the September 11 attacks.
[Hurray for the Red, White and Blue!]
   
 "Afterwards, we never got time to catch our breath, we were immediately on the run," Mohammed is quoted as saying.
    
Al Qaeda's communications network was severely disrupted, he said. Operatives could no longer use satellite phones and had to rely on couriers, although they continued to use Internet chat rooms.

"Before September 11, we could dispatch operatives with the expectation of follow-up contact, but after October 7 [when U.S. bombing started in Afghanistan], that changed 180 degrees. There was no longer a war room ... and operatives had more autonomy."
[This is precisely what President Bush had in mind when he made our aggressive, muscular response to 9/11! He told his War Cabinet that day, " I don't want to send a $10 million missile through a tent to hit a camel's butt again."
Guess who was the guy who executed that old plan under the Clinton Administration? That's right. RICHARD CLARKE.]
[...]
The interrogation reports also indicate that Mohammed had introduced bin Laden to Hambali, the Indonesian militant accused in the terror attack that killed more than 200 people in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2002.

Certainly, it must be said that 9/11 did happen and we lost 3,000 innocent American citizens and civilians that day, but what these admissions of KSM point out is that this country led by the Bush Administration has been doing a lot of things right since that dark day.
And Khalid doesn't know about all of it, either.
It shouldn't be forgotten that bagging him was a good thing, too!
The GWOIT isn't over, however, and I fear that AQ still has sleeper cells both abroad and in our country, so neither the West Coast, East Coast or Chicago should stand down on watch altogether.
Once these killers get a target on their minds, they seem to keep after it with some degree of persistence.
We can only hope and pray that our efforts to foil the terrorists continue to be as successful in the future and also we need to keep the Patriot Act in place, support the efforts of Homeland Security and our fine military and look to the CIA and the FBI to continue working the problem(s) vigorously!

Bush welcomes new NATO members

Seven former communist states were welcomed as NATO's newest members in Washington Monday and were hailed for their contributions in efforts to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan and Iraq.

The new members, all Eastern European countries that were once satellites of the former Soviet Union, make the North Atlantic Treaty Organization stronger and bring it "moral clarity" in facing the new century's challenge of terrorism, President George W. Bush said in a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.

As witness to some of the great crimes of the last century, our new members bring moral clarity to the purposes of our alliance," he said. "They understand our cause in Afghanistan and in Iraq because tyranny for them is still a fresh memory.

"These nations know that when great democracies fail to confront danger, far worse peril can follow."

Admitted to full membership to the military alliance were Bulgaria, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

Membership in NATO has given rise to concern in Russia, which is leery of the alliance's eastward expansion since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Poland is already a member of NATO, as are Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Inclusion of the new members, which had to institute reforms such as civilian control of their militaries and establishment of democracy and also had to prove they could financially and materially contribute to the military bloc, brings NATO's total membership to 26. A total of 12 countries formed the organization in 1949 as a counter to Soviet military threats.
[...]
n the immediate aftermath of the al-Qaida attacks on New York and Washington, NATO pitched in by helping fly surveillance aircraft over the United States to deter further aircraft hijackings.

Leaders of the seven countries had met with Bush earlier in the day and handed over their papers of ascension. The prime ministers then joined Bush in the ceremony, where people in the audience cheered loudly as the names of their home countries or the nations of their ancestors were called.

Also in attendance were the prime ministers of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia, who are also seeking NATO membership, which is seen as a path to greater integration with Western Europe.

"The core mission remains the same: the defense of members against any aggression," Bush said. "Today our alliance faces a new enemy, which has brought death to innocent people from New York to Madrid.

"They fear our unity. They seek to divide us. They will fail. We will not be divided. We will never bow to the violence of the few."

NATO is in charge of peacekeeping in Kabul, the Afghan capital, and each of the ascending countries is contributing resources in Afghanistan or Iraq. Bush said the seven were "friends before they were allies, and they were allies in action before becoming allies by treaty."

NATO as an alliance did not join in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year. Members Germany, France and Belgium effectively blocked such action. A number of states, however, individually supported the effort, either politically or through more tangible means, such as allowing refueling of U.S. aircraft on their territory.

Britain not only diplomatically supported the war, it sent thousands of troops to aid in the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

NATO as a bloc is not involved in Iraq stabilization efforts. On Monday, it's new secretary general said in Washington he believed continued troop presence in Iraq by individual NATO members after July 1 may depend on the United States obtaining a U.N. resolution for peacekeeping efforts.

Spain, a member of NATO and one of 34 nations in the U.S.-led Iraq coalition, may pull out after July 1 without such a cover. Its new socialist leader was firmly opposed to the war and has said a troop withdrawal is on the table.
[...]
The Netherlands' prime minister said last month whether Dutch troops in Iraq will remain after July 1 was still to be decided.

Welcome to the new 7 Eastern European members!
And Russia should relax and work on those reforms so that perhaps one day it could qualify for membership.
This would be the ultimate irony, given that NATO was formed to counter the military might of the Soviet Union, but then perhaps a 21st Century NATO may be needed to counter potential rogue state Weasel powers!