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You are here: Home / Archives for 2004

Archives for 2004

Progress

by John Cole|  August 5, 20047:15 am| 1 Comment

This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®

Looks like we got a few more:

Al-Hindi was among 13 men, ages 19 to 32, arrested in raids late Tuesday in London, the nearby towns of Watford and Luton, and Blackburn in northwestern England. One man was freed Wednesday without charge. The others were being questioned at a London police station “on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism,” police said, according to the Associated Press.

The arrests in Pakistan that led investigators to al-Hindi began in June with the apprehension by Pakistani paramilitary forces of Mussad Aruchi, an al Qaeda operative. The operation was supervised by the CIA, officials said. Aruchi, described as a nephew of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the architect of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, told interrogators he “was sure that al Qaeda would hit New York or Washington pretty soon.” He is also a cousin of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who was convicted of planning and carrying out an attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.

Aruchi’s capture led to the arrest of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a Pakistani, in the city of Lahore on July 13, and to the apprehension last week of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Bush administration officials said the terror alert for financial sectors in Washington, New York and Newark was based in part on the contents of a laptop computer, disks and other materials seized during an arrest of an al Qaeda fugitive in Pakistan in late July showing that al Qaeda operatives had conducted detailed surveillance of the five buildings. U.S. officials did not make clear until Tuesday that the surveillance was conducted three to four years ago and that authorities were not sure whether it had continued.

I wonder if someone has told the wingnuts, who as recently as yesterday were stating that the terror warnings were elevated only for political reasons.

ProgressPost + Comments (1)

Loose Lips

by John Cole|  August 5, 20047:08 am| 5 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity

Damnit, Shelby:

Federal investigators concluded that Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) divulged classified intercepted messages to the media when he was on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, according to sources familiar with the probe.

Specifically, Fox News chief political correspondent Carl Cameron confirmed to FBI investigators that Shelby verbally divulged the information to him during a June 19, 2002, interview, minutes after Shelby’s committee had been given the information in a classified briefing, according to the sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the case.

Cameron did not air the material. Moments after Shelby spoke with Cameron, he met with CNN reporter Dana Bash, and about half an hour after that, CNN broadcast the material, the sources said. CNN cited “two congressional sources” in its report.

Just so irresponsible.

Loose LipsPost + Comments (5)

Blogads

by John Cole|  August 5, 20047:01 am| Leave a Comment

This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance

There is room for two blogads on the left, and Iam working on a temlate for one premium blogad on the left. Just so you know.

BlogadsPost + Comments

The Nerve

by John Cole|  August 5, 200412:19 am| Leave a Comment

This post is in: Media

The balls on these people:

The administration was obviously right to warn the country that Al Qaeda had apparently studied financial institutions in three cities with the idea of a possible attack. But the delivery of the message was confusing. The color-coded threat chart doesn’t serve the purpose for which it was invented, and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is hopeless as a public spokesman on this issue. The Bush administration needs to come up with a method of communication that informs the public in a calm, clear way. Perhaps most important, people need to be made totally confident that this critical matter is not being tangled up in the presidential campaign.

Gee- I wonder who was leading the charge in making the ‘delivery’ of this information ‘confusing.’ Oh, yeah- it was the NY TIMES EDITORIAL STAFF AND PROMINENT DEMOCRATS. Insert the obligatory POGO reference here.

If the editorial were written honestly, it would state:

This administration has had three years to learn what idiots and partisan hacks the NY Times staff and the DNC have become, and it is their fault they have not yet learned what morons we are. In the future, when they issue terror alerts, they should speak slowly and use small words so we can comprehend we know. The color system with five colors is difficult to understand hard, so we propose turning it in to a two color system.

Green would mean “all clear.”

Red would mean “be vewwy vewwy afwaid.”

We think this would help immensely lots.

Sincearlee,

Gail Collins

Of course, that would be honest, so you will never see anything like that.

Tom Maguire has more on the NYT’s pointless and self-serving sedition and malfeasance.

The NervePost + Comments

Swift Boats For Kerry

by John Cole|  August 4, 20047:50 pm| 42 Comments

This post is in: Politics

I am curious what the reaction to this commercial will be– after all, it was Kerry who made this the center-piece of his campaign.

I understand that John O’Neill hates Kerry, but there is no way the Democrats can get away with tarring all of these men as VRWC members and brownshirts:

Vets_after.jpg

The Kerry campaign featured the photograph in an advertisement released in May titled Lifetime. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has contacted surviving members of this group to find out how many actually support John Kerry, and discovered that of 19 Swift boat skippers pictured other than Kerry, 12 consider him unfit, 4 are neutral, two have died, and 1 is working with the Kerry campaign. Four other officers were not present for the photo session; all oppose Kerry.

It will be interesting to see the Democrat response to this- I am almost willing to bet it will be nothing more than character assassination of the 16 men who dared to speak out.

For the record-

On June 1, 2004, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth sent a cease and desist letter to John Kerry for President, Inc. on behalf of 11 officers shown in the photograph, pointing out that using their images in a campaign advertisement “wrongfully and incorrectly suggests their present endorsement of his candidacy.”

The video is still up on his website. Anyone know what happened?

(via the Back Country Conservative)

*** Update ***

Others agree that this is a simply devestating ad.

Swift Boats For KerryPost + Comments (42)

Factesque

by John Cole|  August 4, 20043:21 pm| 4 Comments

This post is in: Democratic Stupidity

Jesse goes 2 for 2:

Today, in Davenport, IA, George W. Bush lauded Iowa’s 4.3% unemployment rate as proof of the success of his policies. In November of 2000, Iowa’s unemployment rate was 2.5%.

We’re turning the corner…

2.5% was before the Clinton recession. The unemployment rate rose to close to 5%, and is now dropping.

CFT0804_132322AB.png

The unemployment rate in Iowa during the miracle economy of the Clinton years? 3.8% (and that figure, unlike the 4.3% current figure and the 4.0% figure from last month and the figures in the graph, is seasonally adjusted).

*** Update ***

Jesse, with typical grace and wit, responds, and is wrong again. I give up on him. It must be hard work to so consistently miss other people’s points and behave like a pompous fool. But then- he is learning from the master.

Dear Jesse:

We understandthat 4.3% unemployment is higher than 2.5%- we will credit you with being clever and witty for noticing. Really, though- there are reasons for why this is the case, and why Bush’s statement is accurate. I am sure they have all bounced off your bitter, thick skull.

Media Matters.

Jesse Taylor- reason enough to vote for George Bush.

FactesquePost + Comments (4)

Thanks

by John Cole|  August 4, 20043:06 pm| Leave a Comment

This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance

Just got a package from Amazon which contained a brand spanking new copy of Altered Carbon. Thanks, T.S.

Amazon wish lists were a genius idea, and I appreciate those of you who have used it. I have received some great books this year, and I really am grateful.

Thanks again.


ThanksPost + Comments

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