Dec 14 2005
Fly By 12/14/05
Meetings today, so light blogging and delays in authorizing comments to go through.
The big ‘dud’ in the news so far has been the discovery of detention centers for insurgents in Iraq. There has been rumors of mistreatment. Of course, when the Iraqis are trying to stop the next slaughter of women and children at the nearby mosque, police station or school, they might sometimes have to push these dead-enders a bit. There is the possibility that these are locals gone too far.
BAGHDAD, Iraq – At least 120 abused prisoners have been found in two detention facilities run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry, the U.S. ambassador said Tuesday. Iraqi officials say allegations of mistreatment have been exaggerated.
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Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters that “over 100” of the 173 prisoners found last month in an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad’s Jadriyah district had suffered abuse.
U.S. and Iraqi authorities visited a separate ministry lockup Thursday and found another 21 to 26 prisoners who had been abused, Khalilzad said.
“I want to let the Iraqi people know that we are very committed to looking at all of the facilities,” Khalilzad said. “This is unacceptable for this kind of abuse to take place.”
We shall see how this pans out. But when we handed over the country back to the Iraqis and told them to protect themselves so we could leave, why are we surprised? And why would any terrorist be surprised? Let the terrorists take their complaints to the UN and the World Court.
I am never sure how to feel about the news media tipping our enemies to our efforts to defend ourselves. Either it is a despicable act to garner journalistic brownie points for that all important ‘scoop’, or it is something the government wants out so as to put the enemy on notice. So I have mixed feelings about the news ‘Air Marshals’ (better known as US Marshals) are expanding out to other forms of public transportation:
Teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers will fan out to bus and train stations, ferries, and mass transit facilities across the country this week in a new test program to conduct surveillance and “counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation,” according to internal federal documents.
According to internal Transportation Security Administration documents, the program calls for newly created “Visible Intermodal Protection and Response” teams — called “Viper” teams — to take positions in public areas along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and Los Angeles rail lines; ferries in Washington state; and mass transit systems in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Viper teams will also patrol the Washington Metro system.
I hope this was a deliberate leak and not another journalist out to make themselves famous using our safety as a career launching pad.
The big news is we are on the brink of a historic day for the world.
He said a good turnout would give the new government the legitimacy it needs to deflate the insurgency and allow it to build up Iraq’s armed forces to the point where foreign troops could begin withdrawing.
“We will bid them farewell after we build our military as soon as possible. As I call on you to take part in the elections, I express my strong confidence in your awareness of the importance of this elections and its results,” Talabani said.
Iraq’s election commission said that it had registered 6,655 candidates running on 996 lists and had certified 307 political groups – either in the form of single candidates or parties – and 19 coalitions.
Baghdad is Iraq’s biggest electoral district with 2,161 candidates running for 59 of the 275 seats in Iraq’s parliament, according to commission’s executive director, Adel Ali al-Lami. There are 33,000 polling stations around Iraq.
Rarely do people get to see the kind of change for the better as we will see tomorrow in the Iraqi elections. The glide path to victory is attitude. If we celebrate the Iraqi results from their hard won battle, we all will be lifted up with the confidence of achievement. The nit-pickers should go in the corner and mumble their derisions quietly to themselves. This is not their day. There is no end but victory.
But Ed Morrissey has found that not only can the naysayer stay silent, they must come out with lies and deceipt!
The Confederate Yankee catches the New York Times with its pants down, reprinting rumor as fact and getting caught on a single-sourced story that attempts to discredit the upcoming Iraqi elections.
Anybody still reading the NY Times is sadly being duped.
In the “I told you so” category on stem cell research my contention that embryonic research is all snake oil is coming true, while adult stem cell research is helping the injured walk again.
In the “oh, how sad (who cares)” category we learn some people think we have abducted terrorists before they could do us or anyone else harm…
crickets chirping
Michelle Malkin has been following serial liar Jimmy Massey, who duped many news organizations with his tales of brutality by US forces in Iraq. While some yahoo looking for fame by making up stories about how great he is not something that peaks my interest usually, Michelle has been covering the stunningly slow response by the news media to fix their reputations the record. Which begs the question. Were the news organizations duped in the first place?
In a pathetic example of how not make friends and influence people the ACLU has demanded towns stop plowing snow for places of worship (from Stop The ACLU).
In an age when local governments are consistently cash strapped, a local government has been carrying on a long standing tradition of plowing snow from parking lots for the town’s houses of worship. A practice which has been going on for as long as anyone in the community of Bellingham, Rhode Island can remember; until now.
The ACLU has a strange way of saying “Merry Christmas neighor”!
Anyway, I will end it with this Iraqi woman’s comments yesterday when she participated in her country’s election here in the US [Hat Tip Lorie Byrd at Polipundit]
Anybody who doesn’t appreciate what America has done, and President Bush, let them go to hell!â€
Hopefully the UN and EU heard that!
Have a great day folks.
Iran Stuffing Ballots, Or Are They?
I’ll report, and you decide.
AJ–Here is an article that frets about Pentagon spying
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316/
This military analyst named Bill Arkin says the Pentagon is going too far. I don’t trust that guy. I think that he doesn’t want us to be able to protect ourselves.
Here is a snip that gives the gist:
“The Department of Defense declined repeated requests by NBC News for an interview. A spokesman said that all domestic intelligence information is “properly collected†and involves “protection of Defense Department installations, interests and personnel.†The military has always had a legitimate “force protection†mission inside the U.S. to protect its personnel and facilities from potential violence. But the Pentagon now collects domestic intelligence that goes beyond legitimate concerns about terrorism or protecting U.S. military installations, say critics. “
Notice that a news organization accepted secret Pentagon documents during a war and are telling what they say.
I guess I will not feel too bad if NBC, which is collecting information on Pentagon programs, gets in a lot of trouble.
What they are doing is giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
When you publish this stuff in the paper, the enemy can read it.
I think some of these groups are more than dissidents. I think they are terrorist cells. These terrorists are lying when they pretend to be injured innocents.
What NBC is doing is like what Aljazeera does. Aljazeera spies for the terrorists.
I think we should blame NBC if we are attacked by terrorist again. They are telling our secrets. Isn’t that called collaboration with the enemy??
AJ–sometimes you bash the CIA, but notice how they have been doing the dirty and thankless work of gettting these terrorists quietly out of circulation. Our government says that capturing these guys has made Europe safer.
I think this “human rights” Swis guy named Marty is not on our side in the WOT. He doesn’t care about the people who might be killed by the terrorists.
What does it mean when you say “crickets chirping.”
AJ–the FBI has arrested a bunch of eco-terrorists.
One is a woman named Chelsea Gerlach. You can google her and all the indy sites will give their perspective.
Here is an AP article on her. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051214/D8EFVJ1G0.html
“A woman charged with damaging a transmission tower also is suspected in half a dozen other ecoterror crimes, including a firebombing at a Colorado ski resort, one of the costliest such crimes in the U.S…..The prosecutor also said Gerlach is suspected in the 1998 firebombing of the ski resort at Vail, Colo. Four buildings and four chairlifts at the top of the mountain were damaged or destroyed, and damages were set at $12 million…she is suspected as well in a 1998 attempted arson at Bureau of Land Management wild horse corrals in Rock Springs, Wyo.; a 1999 the arson at a Boise Cascade office in Monmouth, Ore.; and a 2001 firebombing of a University of Washington horticultural research center in Seattle.”
AJ–on FOX they are saying that a person who wanted to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon has been arrested in the Czech Republic. We want to extradite him.
Here is a CNN SNIP, but there are several stories on the Internet.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/14/terror.camp/
“NEW YORK (CNN) — Federal prosecutors in New York have announced the arrest in the Czech Republic of another man wanted in the Oregon terror camp case.
The suspect, Oussam Kassir, was arrested Sunday in Prague, said Michael Garcia, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Kassir is charged in a criminal complaint with providing material support to terrorists for allegedly conspiring with others to establish an Islamic jihad, or holy war, training camp in rural Bly, Oregon, six years ago.
Kassir, 39, a Lebanese-born Swedish national, allegedly traveled to the United States in late 1999 to scout the land and find potential recruits for the camp, which was never built.
The arrest stems from a case initially brought against American James Ujaama, who pleaded guilty in 2003 and is now cooperating with the government.”
A lot of terrorists are being scooped up this week.
http://www.radio.cz/print/en/73723
“The Oregonian newspaper wrote that he arrived in the village of Bly carrying money, poisons and computer disks with instructions on how to make bombs…..Alongside the Oregon terror camp allegations, the British secret services claim [Kassir is] closely associated with Haroon Rashid Aswat, accused of being the mastermind behind the July 7th bombings in London, and the U.S. have dubbed him “Osama bin Laden’s man in Sweden”. “
Here a blogger writes a lot about this. This was some gang of anarchists http://brianoconnor.typepad.com/animal_crackers/
It might be interesting to look at this gang of anarchists/ecoterrorists
Boy, they arrested a lot of people.
Snapple,
“Crickets Chirping” means dead silence. Like in a movie when someone says something that is supposed to create some sort of massive response (anger, applause, laughter) but all you hear is silence, with a few crickets chirping in the background.
Thanks for all the new links to read!