www.coxandforkum.com

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US MUSLIMS BRISTLE AT BUSH TERM "ISLAMIC FASCISTS"

The President has come close to calling the jihadists what they are, and CAIR is upset. From the Hizballah News Agency, aka Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Muslim groups criticized President George W. Bush on Thursday for calling a foiled plot to blow up airplanes part of a "war with Islamic fascists," saying the term could inflame anti-Muslim tensions.

U.S. officials have said the plot, thwarted by Britain, to blow up several aircraft over the Atlantic bore many of the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

"We believe this is an ill-advised term and we believe that it is counter-productive to associate Islam or Muslims with fascism," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group.

I don't use such terms myself, but here again Awad is playing the old deflection game. He completely ignores the many acts of violence and intimidation that Muslims have committed in the name of Islam in order to draw the sobriquet "Islamofascists," and acts as if it is a gratuitous association by the President. Similarly, jihad terrorists, as we have documented at Jihad Watch ad infinitum, routinely ignore their own aggressive acts and act as if any response to them is an unprovoked attack.

"We ought to take advantage of these incidents to make sure that we do not start a religious war against Islam and Muslims," he told a news conference in Washington.

All right, Awad. If you really don't want a religious war, you know the problem is not Bush's rhetoric. It is those who are working to make that war real and hot. Please detail what you are doing within the American Muslim community in order to combat the spread of jihadism among American Muslims.

"We urge him (Bush) and we urge other public officials to restrain themselves."

Awad said U.S. officials should take the lead from their British counterparts who had steered clear of using what he considered inflammatory terms when they announced the arrest of more than 20 suspects in the reported plot.

In other words, Awad wants us not to call the enemy by the name he calls himself. How can we defeat a foe we are afraid to name?

Hours after the news broke, Bush said it was "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation."

Bush and other administration officials have used variations of the term "Islamo-fascism" on several occasions in the past to describe militant groups including al Qaeda, its allies in Iraq and Hizbollah in Lebanon.

Many American Muslims, who say they have felt singled out for discrimination since the September 11 attacks, reject the term and say it unfairly links their faith to notions of dictatorship, oppression and racism.

"The problem with the phrase is it attaches the religion of Islam to tyranny and fascism, rather than isolating the threat to a specific group of individuals," said Edina Lekovic, spokeswoman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles.

She said the terms cast suspicions on all Muslims, even the vast majority who want to live in safety like other Americans.

Let that vast majority stand up and begin comprehensive and organized efforts to fight the jihad ideology, and they will begin seeing these suspicions evanescing.

"When the people we need most in the fight against terrorism, American Muslims, feel alienated by the president's characterization of these supposed terrorists, that does more damage than good," Lekovic said.

Bush upset many Muslims after the September 11 attacks by referring to the global war against terrorism early on as a "crusade," a term which for many Muslims connotes a Christian battle against Islam. The White House quickly stopped using the expression, expressing regrets if it had caused offense.

Mohamed Elibiary, a Texas-based Muslim activist, said he was upset by the president's latest comments because he was concerned they would stir up resentment of Muslims in America.

"We've got Osama bin Laden hijacking the religion in order to define it one way. ... We feel the president and anyone who's using these kinds of terminologies is hijacking it too from a different side," he said.

"The president's use of the language is going to ratchet up the hate meter, but I think it would have caused much more damage if he had done this after 9/11," Elibiary said, adding that tensions were not running as high as they had been in the immediate aftermath of the 2001 attacks.

Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called on Muslims to step up security at mosques and community centers to counter any negative backlash to news of the plot.

But you'll notice that he didn't call upon Muslims to step up cooperation with law enforcement officials to root jihadists out of their ranks.  Thursday, August 10, 2006

http://jihadwatch.org

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SOME PERSPECTIVE ON PREVENTING TERROR PLOT

One of the benefits of spending most of the day unable to post -- besides actually getting work done at the office -- is that I can spend a little time gaining perspective on the events of the day. Today that means reviewing the coverage of the foiled plot by Islamists in the UK to bomb a series of commercial flights, an operation that could have killed almost as many people as al-Qaeda did on 9/11. The discovery of the plot and the arrests of the terrorists should have been a cause for celebration -- but instead, people decided to spend the day taking partisan swipes at each other.

Almost no one appeared immune from this impulse. George Bush gave a short and to-the-point statement regarding the necessity of fighting terrorism and managed to avoid partisanship, instead focusing on working together to achieve security. Even before that, though, it seemed like politicos could not wait to use the event to score political points. Joe Lieberman used it to attack Ned Lamont. Harry Reid, John Kerry, and Ted Kennedy all leaped at the chance to bash the Bush administration for diverting efforts against terrorism into Iraq -- and bear in mind that the UK and US stopped the terrorist attack.

And don't even get me started on the media, which couldn't even wait for Heathrow to reopen before trying to figure all the political angles.

Do you want to know what the big story of the day really was? We beat the terrorists -- again -- and saved lives. Perhaps we could have spent the day reflecting on that and the need for continuing vigilance. The politics could have, and should have, waited for another day.  Thursday, August 10, 2006

www.captainsquartersblog.com

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DAY BY DAY

Zombie has, I think, the most comprehensive analysis so far of Reuters photo fraud. Zombie proposes a taxonomy according to which there are four separate varieties of photo fraud, with examples of each:

1. Digitally manipulating images after the photographs have been taken.

2. Photographing scenes staged by Hezbollah and presenting the images as if they were of authentic spontaneous news events.

3. Photographers themselves staging scenes or moving objects, and presenting photos of the set-ups as if they were naturally occurring.

4. Giving false or misleading captions to otherwise real photos that were taken at a different time or place.  Thursday, August 10, 2006

www.powerlineblog.com

NBC NEWSMAN SAYS DON'T BELIEVE WAR REPORTING

Many of us in the blogosphere have argued that the coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict has shown bias, and in the case of Reuters, outright fraud. The media has not defended itself much in the wake of the wire-service scandal, and now a veteran correspondent from NBC tells Florida residents that the media has indeed stopped providing rational coverage:

As a veteran journalist who has been in countless war zones around the world (especially the Middle East) as an NBC network correspondent, it pains me to see what passes for accurate coverage in the early stages of a conflict like the one between Israel and Hezbollah.

Because almost none of the American television networks have a vast stable of experienced reporters any longer who understand the region, they employ the old "parachute them in" philosophy, i.e. dispatching perfectly good -- and frequently very young -- journalists, few of whom have any experience in covering this story and don’t stand a snowball's chance in Gaza of getting it right initially. They engage in what I call "nerve end journalism." reporting what they think they see in one of the most confusing places on earth, with very little context. Their movements are also very restricted by both sides.

In the case of Beirut and other parts of Lebanon under the control of terrorists, Hezbollah usually runs daily press tours, making sure reporters and photographers see the worse that Israel has inflicted -- killing civilians, etc. -- in order to slate the coverage, but never reveals that Hezbollah uses private homes, mosques, schools, hospitals and other public buildings for their headquarters or to launch their lethal missiles.

As Ike Seamans explains, the bald propaganda efforts hardly provide the worst-case scenario with Hezbollah. The terrorists keep copis of the passports of all journalists in the area, making them very nervous about reporting anything remotely critical of Hezbollah. Michael Totten had the same problem during a period of relative peace in Beirut, and one can deduce that Hezbollah takes message discipline much more seriously lately.

Seamans points out a problem that has afflicted news organizations for decades: turnover and financial performance. Seamans, who has the experience and context necessary to even hope for an objective assessment on the ground, sits in Florida. Meanwhile, brave but inexperienced journalists get thrown into a conflict that they do not understand well enough to report correctly, and have too little context to read between the lines Hezbollah hands them -- even if they want to defy the terrorists to report honestly from Lebanon.

Meanwhile, news services increasingly rely on stringers for their reports, and usually this means publishing pictures or reports from people who may have other loyalties. As the meltdown of Reuters shows, when media outlets rely on people like Adnan Hajj with little or no editorial control, they turn themselves into propaganda providers, not news organizations. One would think that an editor would understand the pitfalls of relying on locals in a war for objective reporting, but not only do they fail to consider it, the editors pass along their product without any serious review.

This results in a distorted and dangerously biased view of the situation. In one day, we heard that an Israeli strike killed 40 civilians, which then got corrected to one. The editors love sensational headlines, and the Hezbollah terrorists and their apologists deliver them in spades. Reporters in Israel get less handling and have freedom of movement in the civilian centers of Israel, but the more accurate reporting originating in Israel's north doesn't have the "grab" of Fuad Saniora's sobs.

Seamans gives interesting advice to news customers who want the truth:

Reporting has been so inconsistent, if you really want to know what is going on, check out all the networks -- broadcast and cable -- as well as print sources and the Internet. Otherwise, you will never know if you are getting the straight scoop on the confusing Israeli-Hezbolla imbroglio.

It's good advice. Check out all the links, and make up your mind about credibility. Most importantly, don't rely on sources that are all but held hostage to terrorists to give you any truthful information at all. (via Democracy Project)  Wednesday, August 9, 2006

www.captainsquartersblog.com

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MORE DEATH CULT PROPAGANDA

This AP photograph from Gaza, published yesterday, claims to show a little Palestinian girl killed by an Israeli airstrike being carried into a hospital, surrounded by armed men (probably Hamas).

A Relative carries the body of Rajaa Abu Shaban, into Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2006. An Israel air strike against Islamic militants in Gaza City on Wednesday killed three people, including 5-year-old Rajaa Abu Shaban, and wounded two more, Palestinian officials and witnesses said. The Israeli army said its forces attacked a ‘terrorist training camp’ in Gaza, but gave no further details. (AP photo/Adel Hana)

Another photo, this one from Reuters, shows the dead girl lying in the morgue, again with a caption claiming she was killed by Israel.

The body of three-year-old Palestinian girl Raja Abu Shaban lies in the morgue after she was killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza August 9, 2006. An Israeli helicopter gunship fired at least one missile into a Palestinian militant training camp in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing two gunmen and a three-year-old girl, witnesses said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES)

Today the truth came out. But the damage, of course, is already done—and you can bet the photos will soon show up in anti-Israel demonstrations.

EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT ** A Relative carries the body of Rajaa Abu Shaban, 5, into Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2006. On Thursday, doctors said that the 5-year-old Palestinian girl initially believed to have been killed by an Israeli military strike Wednesday apparently died after sustaining head injuries during a fall from a swing in the same area shortly before the strike.(AP Photo/Adel Hana)  Thursday, August 10, 2006

SECOND WORST EXCUSE OF THE DECADE

This photo from yesterday, showing a Palestinian “freedom fighter” firing at Israelis right next to several children and an unarmed adult...

A Palestinian militant fires toward Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the West Bank village of Qabatiyeh near Jenin, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006. Four Palestinians were wounded when the army arrested an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades militant, Palestinians sources said. The army said two Islamic Jihad militants were arrested during the operation. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

...has been retransmitted over the AP wire without cropping, with a clarification that qualifies as our second worst excuse of the decade:

RETRANSMITTING ORIGINAL FULL FRAME FOR CONTEXT TO SHOW THAT PEOPLE IN BACKGROUND ARE NOT DIRECTLY IN THE LINE OF FIRE — A Palestinian militant fires toward Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the West Bank village of Qabatiyeh near Jenin, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006. Four Palestinians were wounded when the army arrested an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades militant, Palestinians sources said. The army said two Islamic Jihad militants were arrested during the operation. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

Notice that there are several more children visible in the uncropped version. Hey, but at least they are not directly in the line of fire.

ARAB MEDIA HEADLINE OF THE DAY

The article itself is a pretty factual paste-up job of several wire service reports about the Hizballah War, but the headline is a classic from our friends in Kuwait: Israel on baby-killing spree. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)  Wednesday, August 9, 2006

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog

LEBANON GETTING CHOOSY

Efforts to reach a compromise in the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict hit a snag when Lebanon rejected French forces as a component of any peacekeeping contingent in the south. Even with the French backpedaling furiously to placate the Arab League, the Siniora government refused to allow France to exercise its mandate:

A new obstacle was raised in the approval of the proposed cease-fire agreement between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday night, when the latter was refusing to allow French forces to enforce its mandate by force, if necessary, as allowed by the UN's chapter VII regulations.

Israel Radio reported that attempts were being made to convince Lebanon to agree to the proposal.

If both Lebanon and Israel agree to the proposal, it is expected to brought before the UN Security Council for ratification within 24 hours.

The irony comes in layers with this development. The Arab League wanted an immediate cease-fire and pressed France to shift its position on its own proposal. The French did so in order to placate the Arabs, but now Lebanon won't allow France into its territory. France originally insisted on the creation of a peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon and offered 5,000 troops -- the largest such commitment -- and now they may not want to go at all.

As the Jerusalem Post notes, Chirac has seen the difficulty Israel has had with the terrorists and now has second thoughts about getting between the two. France sees the mission of disarming Hezbollah and keeping them out of the DMZ as increasingly impossible. They could have just asked Israel about this from the beginning; they have understood that all along, which is why they have resisted the idea of pulling out without a robust military force in place.

Meanwhile, Siniora appears to have revealed himself as somewhat dishonest in his tearful pleas for rescue from the Israelis. While his reluctance to have the troops of Lebanon's one-time colonial masters in his country, the alternative appears to be more war. Siniora may worry that the French would really take its new mandate to disarm Hezbollah seriously, although he may well be the only one worried that they would be effective. In any event, Siniora's sudden pickiness about his protectors shows that he hardly sees an Israeli offensive against Hezbollah as his worst possible scenario.

France and Lebanon have both achieved incoherence.  Thursday, August 10, 2006

RUSSIAN FINGERPRINTS ON IRANIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Der Spiegel reports on the assistance given to Iran by the Russians in developing a uranium-enrichment program despite Moscow's public opposition to its development. The introduction of Russian laser technology allows the Iranians to enrich uranium more efficiently and with less energy, moving them that much closer to production of weapons-grade material:

Despite claims to the contrary, leaders in Tehran are apparently still pushing forward with research into uranium enrichment with the aid of laser technology. A Russian engineer recently told SPIEGEL that Iran has received help from his countrymen with a program that uses a laser system to divide heavy isotopes. The engineer, who works for an institute near Moscow and helps develop nucleaar reactors, claims that Iranians have since 2004 sought and secured technical aid from Russia for their domestic "laser system for the division of heavy isotopes" program.

The laser technique would have important advantages for Iran. Uranium is often enriched using gas centrifuges, but the laser technique uses less energy, requires less space and yields more of the crucial materials -- Uranium 235 and Plutonium 239. Until now, though, the technology has been elusive for Iran.

Supposedly Iran stopped working on this technology three years ago. At least that's what Teheran told the IAEA and Mohammed ElBaradei in August 2003, three years after first requesting technological assistance from the Russians. The expatriate group National Council of Resistance, which has provided critical intelligence on Iranian nuclear research in the past, has claimed that the demurral was nothing more than a ruse, and that the Iranians have never stopped their efforts on laser technology. Der Spiegel's Russian source now corroborates that claim.

The increasingly unstable behavior of the Iranian government has made them a great danger. If the Russians and Chinese continue to provide them technological assistance and diplomatic cover, then the West will have some decisions to make about their commitment to the international institutions that these three nations leverage to stymie the West. We cannot pretend any longer that our diplomatic engagement with Russia and China over Iran will ever result in the steps necessary to rein in the mullahcracy before it does something very, very crazy.  Wednesday, August 9, 2006

www.captainsquartersblog.com

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AHMADINEJAD THREATENS BUSH

When Iran's Thug-In-Chief sent his letter to President Bush, I pointed out that it had the form of invitations to accept Islam that preceded jihad attacks all the way back to Muhammad's day. The prophet of Islam himself wrote to the Byzantine emperor Heraclius and other rulers, telling them, "Accept Islam and your lives and property will be safe" -- with the clear implication that their lives and property would not be safe if they did not accept Islam. Muhammad directed his followers to call unbelievers to accept Islam or dhimmitude, and to go to war if they rejected both (cf. Sahih Muslim 4294). Ahmadinejad here makes clear that that is exactly what he is doing with Bush: telling him to accept Islam, or face the consequences.

"Iranian Leader Speaks To Mike Wallace," from CBS News, with thanks to Toosmoky:

(CBS) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat down with Mike Wallace in Tehran on Tuesday in a rare, exclusive interview with a Western reporter....

Speaking about President Bush's failure to answer his 18-page letter that criticized U.S. foreign policy, Ahmadinejad said, "Well, (with the letter) I wanted to open a window towards the light for the president so that he can see that one can look on the world through a different perspective. … We are all free to choose. But please give him this message, sir: Those who refuse to accept an invitation will not have a good ending or fate...."   Wednesday, August 9, 2006

http://jihadwatch.org

MULLAH JUSTICE

This cartoon was originally posted on August 23, 2004 and is in our book Black & White World II.

The case of Atefah Sahaaleh depicted in the cartoon has received new attention on the release of an excellent BBC documentary, which can now be viewed at Google Video: Execution of a Teenage Girl. (hat tip Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi)

Here's Michelle Malkin recent post on the topic:

Many readers across the pond are sending good reviews of a BBC program that aired this week about Atefah Sahaaleh, a 16-year-old girl hanged in a public square in the Iranian city of Neka. Her death sentence was imposed by Islamic mullahs for "crimes against chastity." I hope there's an American station out there that will air the program here. I'm sure that feminists will join me in pressuring our media to help spread the word about this sharia-mandated barbarism.  Wednesday, August 9, 2006

www.coxandforkum.com

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ISRAELI CABINET VOTES TO PUSH DEEPER INTO SOUTHERN LEBANON

By Bill Roggio

The Israeli Cabinet vote on the authorization for the Israeli Defense Force to expand ground operations in southern Lebanon highlights the government's lack of a cohesive plan at the war's outset and the hesitation to take the fight directly to Hezbollah on the ground. At the start of the war, the initial plan was to establish a 1-2 kilometer buffer zone and patrol southern Lebanon via air. This morphed into a 6-8 kilometer buffer, which was basically the posture of the Israeli Defense Force up to the withdrawal from Lebanon in 2002. Hezbollah's continuous shelling of northern Israel has shown the limitations of these limited incursions.

Haaretz reports the plan authorizes "troops to push at least up to the Litani River some 30 kilometers from the Israel-Lebanon border," and in some cases to operate beyond the river boundary. The Israeli government is looking for relief from the short range Katyusha rockets. The Israelis have learned there are limitations with using an air campaign to defeat a well trained, entrenched and motivated enemy. Israeli forces are having difficulties with Hezbollah missile teams just a few kilometers from the border after 4 weeks of fighting.

But the proposed expanded ground offensive in southern Lebanon is still on hold. The Israeli government is signaling it is seeking a diplomatic solution, and is delaying back the ground offensive to allow diplomacy to run its course. "The offensive would not begin for two or three days so as not interfere with ongoing efforts to broker a cease-fire at the United Nations, said one minister in the meeting," according to Haaretz.

DAY BY DAY

By Chris Muir

THE LATEST HUDNA

Tashbih Sayyed offers some hard-won words of wisdom about The Cease-fire. (Hat tip: EE.)

The latest flare-up in a 59 years long war to wipe the Jewish state off the map of the world is fast approaching its expected closure. Israel is once again being forced to leave the job of eliminating the Islamist threat unfinished. The world’s powers, blinded by their anti-Semitism, politico-commercial considerations, and regional agendas, want Israel to stop pursuing its legitimate campaign to secure itself by eradicating the Islamist threat from its door steps: they want an immediate cease-fire.

They are not ready to accept that in the case of political Islam, cease-fires are nothing but tactical pauses which are used as tools to gain time in order to recoup losses, re-arm forces, and rebuild terrorist infrastructure. For example, the world thought that the Oslo Accord was a step in the right direction - peace. But for Yasser Arafat who signed it on September 13, 1993, it was just a tactical cease-fire “Hudna” that could be broken at any time.

Political Islam finds a number of examples in the life of Prophet Muhammad that sanction the use of treaties as a tactical necessity. In explaining why he signed the Oslo Accord, Yasser Arafat cited a truce signed by Prophet Muhammad with the Meccan tribe Quraish at Hudaybiyah in 628 C.E. According to the PLO leader, Prophet Muhammad had signed the truce when he was not strong enough to win a war and it was to last for ten years. But when, within two years of the signing, the Muslims felt that they have gained enough strength to defeat the Quraish, they broke the truce, attacked the Quraish and captured Mecca.

A prominent Saudi sheikh, ’Abd Al-Muhsin Al-’Obikan, also referred to the same treaty while condemning Hezbollah’s actions in Lebanon. He issued the edict against Hezbollah’s actions not because he considered them wrong but because in his view Muslims, at the moment, are not strong enough to defeat Israel. He said that since the Muslims have no chance of winning this campaign against the Jews, a temporary solution is necessary - a truce similar to the temporary truce of Hudaybiyya.

According to the Saudi Sheikh, Islamic laws (Shari’a) also “place preconditions and constraints on the declaring of jihad, which must be considered in order to ensure the greatest gain for the nation and spare it loss - [that is,] in order to ensure the minimum possible damage and avoid greater damage.

One of the preconditions regarding jihad [states] that the [the jihad fighters] must have [sufficient] capability to inflict harm on the enemy and to repulse its evil, so as to ensure the lives, the property, and the honor of the Muslims and to safeguard them from aggression or harm, that is, [from] destruction of property, from violation of honor, and from bloodshed.”

Those who understand the Islamist ethos know that for political Islam, disengagement, a cease-fire, or a pull back on the part of the “enemy” is a sign of its weakness. No one has more experience with this treacherous mindset than the Israelis. It was Israel’s unwillingness to escalate a raid into a full scale battle in 1968 that helped the Palestinian terrorists to win the support of the masses.

HEZBOLLAH SUPPORTERS RALLY IN DEARBORN

Daily pro-Hizballah rallies are taking place in Dearborn, Michigan: ‘Americans’ for Hezbollah.

DEARBORN TERROR ARRESTS

Two Muslims from Dearborn Michigan charged with supporting terrorism had airplane passenger lists and security information in their possession when arrested—and 12 untraceable disposable cell phones, out of 600 they had purchased recently: Michigan Men Charged In Ohio With Supporting Terrorism. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

MARIETTA, Ohio — Investigators in southeast Ohio said they were working to unravel how two Michigan men charged with supporting terrorism came to have airplane passenger lists and airport security information.

Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, 20, and Ali Houssaiky, 20, both of the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, were being held at the Washington County Jail on $200,000 bond each, which could be raised at a Thursday afternoon court hearing. Each was charged Wednesday with money laundering in support of terrorism.

Deputies stopped the two on a traffic violation Tuesday and found the flight documents along with $11,000 cash and 12 phones in their car, Sheriff Larry Mincks said.

It wasn’t clear what significance the airline information might have. Assistant County Prosecutor Susan Vessels declined to comment on whether the manifests were for upcoming flights or those that already had flown. She also would not give the origin or destination of the flight or flights.

FBI spokesman Mike Brooks in Cincinnati said his office was investigating.

Abulhassan and Houssaiky admitted buying about 600 phones in recent months at stores in southeast Ohio, said sheriff’s Maj. John Winstanley. They sold the phones to someone in Dearborn, Winstanley said. Vessels declined to say how the phones, cash or flight information involved terrorism.  Thursday, August 10, 2006

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog

JIHADISTS TAKE CONTROL OF KEY TOWN IN CENTRAL SOMALIA

Beledweyne falls. Somali Jihad Update from AFP: "Islamists take control of key central Somali town"

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Islamic militia has seized control of a strategic township near the Ethiopian border from Somalia's transitional government, further expanding their territory.

There were no reported casualties in the clash, which saw only a brief exchange of fire around 7:00 am (0400 GMT) Wednesday.

Islamic militia commander Yusuf Makaraan said his fighters took control of Beledweyne, the capital of Hiraan region 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of Mogadishu, after the Ethiopia-backed, government-appointed governor Yusuf Ahmed Hagar allegedly fled to Ethiopia.

"We have full control of Beledweyne," Makarran told AFP by telephone.

"The governor fled and we captured one battlewagon -- a pickup truck mounted (with) a machine gun -- from his fleeing forces," he added.

"People closed their business centers and are very much concerned that likely renewed clashes between Islamists and Yusuf Hagar clan members" might resume, said resident Mumin Derow.

The growing influence of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), which controls much of southern Somalia including the capital Mogadishu, has threatened the authority of the transitional government based in Baidoa, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of the capital.

[...]

The brief clashes in Beledweyne, which links southern Somalia to the agriculturally-rich central regions, came after Hagar refused to formally hand over control to the Islamists.

Local cleric Sheikh Farah Moalim formed Islamic tribunals in Beledweyne after the Islamists took much of southern Somalia from US-backed warlords in June, attracting several civilians but Hagar refused to join them, officials said.  Thursday, August 10, 2006

SHIITES PRESS FOR A PARTITION OF IRAQ

They were the most enthusiastic supporters of the democracy project, but now that it is clear that it isn't getting them what they want, they're singing a different tune. From the LA Times, with thanks to Arjun:

BAGHDAD — They have a new constitution, a new government and a new military. But faced with incessant sectarian bloodshed, Iraqis for the first time have begun openly discussing whether the only way to stop the violence is to remake the country they have just built.

Leaders of Iraq's powerful Shiite Muslim political bloc have begun aggressively promoting a radical plan to partition the country as a way of separating the warring sects. Some Iraqis are even talking about dividing the capital, with the Tigris River as a kind of Berlin Wall.

Shiites have long advocated some sort of autonomy in the south, similar to the Kurds' 15-year-old enclave in the north, with its own defense forces and control over oil exploration. And the new constitution does allow provinces to team up into federal regions. But the latest effort, promulgated by Cabinet ministers, clerics and columnists, marks the first time they have advocated regional partition as a way of stemming violence.

"Federalism will cut off all parts of the country that are incubating terrorism from those that are upgrading and improving," said Khudair Khuzai, the Shiite education minister. "We will do it just like Kurdistan. We will put soldiers along the frontiers."  Wednesday, August 9, 2006

http://jihadwatch.org

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BERSERK NARCISSISTS

No one looks dopier today than the collection of self-righteous fuddy-duddies who voted for Ned Lamont in Tuesday's Democratic Primary in Connecticut. In the darkness of his soul Lamont himself must be wondering how to react to the news that another ten jets filled with innocent human beings were about to explode over the Atlantic. Not good for his campaign. It reminds me of the old LA Weekly cartoon: "Nuclear War? There goes my career!"

The problem with Lamont and his ilk is that they are unable to wrap their minds around the fact that Islamic Fascsim is a deeply real and pervasive phenomenon with hundreds of millions of adherents and fellow travelers. Surely, these soi-disant liberals think, these people can be reasoned with. But it couldn't be more obvious that they can't . They are imbued with a fanatical religious culture vastly different from and in complete opposition to ours. However, for these "liberals" to face this uncomfortable reality would vastly disrupt their weltanschauung and cost them power, money, position, prestige, etc. It might even cause personality disintegration. This is the Culture of Narcissism gone berserk.

Unfortunately, I think today's episode will not be enough. Fortunately, for many innocent people, the religious madmen were stopped before they acted. Maybe after one or ten finally slip through these "liberals" will wake up. But even then I wonder.  Thursday, August 10, 2006

www.rogerlsimon.com

WILL LIEBERMAN'S INDEPENDENT RUN STRENGTHEN CT REPUBLICANS?

The New York Times reports that some Democrats fear they will lose the chance to unseat three House Republicans in Connecticut if Lieberman insists on his independent bid for re-election. The internecine war breaking out among Nutmeg State Democrats may bring out enough moderates to keep the seats in the hands of the GOP:

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman’s defeat on Tuesday in the Connecticut Democratic primary quickly spilled over into the battle for the House on Wednesday. Leaders of both parties said the Senate fight could influence three races in Connecticut considered crucial in controlling the House.

Republicans said a general election matchup in which Mr. Lieberman ran as an independent against Ned Lamont, the winner of the primary, could hinder Democrats in their efforts to unseat three incumbent representatives who are top Democratic targets.

Democrats disputed that and said the high-intensity Senate fight could help the Democratic challengers for the House seats by drawing Democratic voters to the polls.

The new focus on the Connecticut races developed as each party lost a House incumbent in primaries elsewhere. Those results reinforced recent polls and other analyses that found a level of deep voter unrest that spells trouble for officeholders of both parties but may be a particular problem for Republicans, who control the House and the Senate.

Democratic strategy for reclaiming the House depended on this voter disaffection in November, a not unusual impulse especially in second-term midterms. The Republicans occupying the three seats are not doctrinaire conservatives by any means; Christopher Shays not only sponsored the House version of McCain-Feingold (called Shays-Meehan in the House), he sued the Federal Elections Commission to get the legislation applied to the Internet.

Nevertheless, the Democrats saw them as highly vulnerable, given George Bush's low approval numbers and the even lower numbers for Congress. A two-way election between Ned Lamont and Alan Schlesinger would probably not entice moderates to the polls, the same moderates responsible for putting the three Republicans in office earlier. However, now that Lieberman has declared himself for his independent run, moderates who want his presence and seniority in the Senate know they cannot expect to achieve that unless they turn out in droves.

There is also another dynamic in play, one tha guaranteed Lieberman's continuance as well as a potential problem for the Connecticut Democratic Party. In the primary campaign's final weeks, the Lamont contingent made the race very ugly. Offering such epithets as "rape gurney Joe" and picturing Lieberman in blackface and in suggestive homosexual poses in doctored photographs gave the incumbent plenty of personal motivation to defeat these forces, regardless of any other considerations. They turned this election into a crusade for Lieberman, an opportunity to beat extremism.

That same dynamic may help Lieberman as well as the Republican candidates with the voters. No one who saw the end result of this race will go out of their way to endorse the campaign that generated the hatefulness. Lamont's sudden drop in support started too late to lose him an election that he appeared to have sewed up by a wide margin just days before may demonstrate the disgust of Connecticut voters with the Lamont campaign. That will play against Democratic challengers in the districts that have Republican incumbents, and if the Lieberman race generates a high turnout, then the extra voters will be more likely to support other moderates as well.

MS. ME BLAMES EVERYONE ELSE FOR LOSS

You know, we're going to miss Cynthia McKinney when she finally leaves the national stage. Her self-absorption and paranoid conspiracy theories entertained us as often as they appalled us. Fortunately, the soon-to-be former Congresswoman has generously bestowed large measures of both after her constituents firmly gave her the boot in a runoff election on Tuesday. For a woman who regularly makes herself the center of attention, she certainly knows how to spread blame everywhere else:

Ms. McKinney and her supporters contend that Republicans mounted a campaign to vote her out of office, as they did four years ago when crossover voting helped elect her Democratic challenger, Denise Majette.

“We aren’t going to tolerate any more stolen elections,” Ms. McKinney said in her concession speech, though crossover voting is legal in Georgia.

“This is just like 2002,” said Nina Winfrey, 62, a resident of Rockdale County and a “die-hard Cynthia fan” who has been volunteering for Ms. McKinney’s campaign for 15 years. “We don’t need anybody down here telling us what to do who don’t live in south DeKalb County.”

Several Republican strategists acknowledged that widespread crossover voting was organized and encouraged on Tuesday.

So what? Republicans who don't vote in their own primary have eligibility to vote in the Democratic primary, and since this district has as much potential to elect a GOP candidate as one has to win the Powerball, the primary usually functions as the general election. Georgia law allows for this, and if this surprised McKinney, then she has even less connection to reality than previously thought. No one stole the election -- no one but McKinney herself.

Conspiracy theories often arise as a means to provide a rationalization to slough responsibility onto others. This is exactly the dynamic at work here with McKinney. She has embarrassed her constituents on a number of occasions, reaching her nadir for assaulting a police officer assigned to protect her and other members of Congress. Instead of accepting responsibility for the disenchantment with her representation, she refuses to acknowledge her faults at all.

The truth that McKinney cannot face is that she has turned into a strange, twisted person ready to feed on and amplify rumors, gossip, and hearsay in order to inflate her public image. When that doesn't work, she attempts to martyr herself over the silliest issues. The constituents of her district, including the Republicans she has represented, have tired of her neurotic behavior and opted for a candidate they can respect. The voters have rendered their judgment, and her inability to accept it shows that they made the correct decision.  Thursday, August 10, 2006

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