Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by John Cole| 4 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
The New York Times, doing their best to revive the meme that will not quit, spends an extraordinary 1,770 words describing the trials and tribulations of being a Holy Warrior in Guantanamo Bay:
Afghans and Pakistanis who were detained for many months by the American military at Guant
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
I was checking google news to see if there was anything new in regards to the Asia Times story last week about our government getting in contact with the Taliban to set up a provisional government in Afghanistan (I didn’t blog about it because the report seemed untrustworthy, but Tacitus, Jesse, Oliver, Jim Henley and many others all wrote extensive condemnations), and I found this letter from a Lt. Col describing the scene in Afghanistan:
The area we’re in is surrounded by land mines planted by the Russians and the Taliban. The Romanians are here, assisting the U.S. forces with the perimeter and the area. Some of the locals work inside the perimeter to do grass-cutting, sweeping, etc. They have to boost the economy any way possible. The old PFCs guarding them were complaining they had to get off these details. They call themselves the “Afghanistan SWAT team: s**t, water and trash.”
We are in an Islamic country, so no alcohol for the soldiers. Drugs are everywhere. The Russian soldiers had lots of problems, as they found the opium fields in the spring and marijuana fields in the fall. (The “fall” temperature is about 90 degrees.)
Go read the whole thing– if you are weary about reporters and government officials telling the truth, I can assure you, there is nothing more brutally honest and non-partisan than a deployed soldier. They are usually too busy too lie, too pissed off to sugarcoat, and they tell it like it is.
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
Federal authorities said today that they planned to use stricter standards for identifying and locking up terrorist suspects in light of concerns raised in a recent report that hundreds of illegal immigrants were mistreated after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Law enforcement officials plan to make at least 12 structural changes that were recommended in a report issued last week by the Justice Department inspector general, according to interviews with officials at the agencies affected by the report. Nine other recommendations are being actively considered, they said.
They had an investigation into previous occurences and problems, they published it, and now they intend to make changes. Isn’t this how it is supposed to work? This does not excuse them for the past mistakes, but this is how government is supposed to work. I am assuming TalkLeft will keep us up-to-date on whether they follow through.
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
I take back everything bad I have ever said about John McCain:
“If anyone came to my hometown in Phoenix, AZ and set off a bomb on a bus and killed 18 people and injured 100 of them, my citizens would expect us to respond,” US Senator John McCain, R-Ariz, told reporters in answer to a question about whether he approved of Bush’s condemnation of Israel’s attempt on Hamas leader Rantisi’s life.
“Do you want to call that a cycle of violence? You can call it what you want, but these acts of terror, these organizations, funded by the Saudis, at least encouraged by Yasser Arafat, are inexcusable in their tactics
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
Sounds like a good plan:
The Bush administration has decided to place teams of American inspectors at major seaports in Muslim nations and other smaller, strategically located foreign ports to prevent terrorists from using cargo containers to smuggle chemical, biological or nuclear weapons into the United States, senior administration officials said.
The inspectors, they said, will be provided with radiation monitors, chemical detectors and other equipment to inspect “high risk” metal cargo containers before they are placed on ships bound for the United States.
Port security should not be a partisan issue, but the Democrats have tried. At any rate, this is a good start, and it should be applauded. By the way- it should be recognized that no matter what steps we take, I am convinced there will be another attack on the United States- we are just too big to defend everything. Regardless, we are making progress and learning as we go. Security is not an overnight goal- it is something we will have to work on for years.
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
This is the first thing I have seen Tom Ridge say in two years that provides hope that he is more than a brain-dead automaton:
After raising the terror alert to its second-highest level three times over the past four months because of fears of potential terror attacks, Ridge said the system needs refining.
“We worry about the credibility of the system,” he told a small group of reporters. “We want to continue to refine it because we realize it has caused some anxiety.”
Ridge said the system, based on information from various intelligence agencies, relies heavily on the intelligence that is “fairly generic.”
Thanks, Tom.
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
Apparently the chatter was real and terrorists have struck in Saudi Arabia. I will post more details when I can sift through them and make some sense. This quote from the news story is interesting:
On May 7 police said they were hunting 19 suspected militants, mainly Saudis, believed to be hiding in Riyadh after a shoot-out with security forces the previous day.
The Interior Ministry said police had also found a huge cache of explosives, hand grenades, ammunition and machineguns after storming what they said was the “terrorists’ lair.”
I don’t remember where I saw it (it was somewhere in the blogosphere), but I remember someone asking what the significance of the number 19 was to the terrorists (19 terrorists committed the 9/11 atrocities). Last night, while reading the Age of Sacred Terror, I came across this Sura from the Quran:
Over it are Nineteen.
And We have set none but angels as Guardians of the Fire; and We have fixed their number only as a trial for Unbelievers,- in order that the People of the Book may arrive at certainty, and the Believers may increase in Faith,- and that no doubts may be left for the People of the Book and the Believers, and that those in whose hearts is a disease and the Unbelievers may say, “What symbol doth Allah intend by this ?” Thus doth Allah leave to stray whom He pleaseth, and guide whom He pleaseth: and none can know the forces of thy Lord, except He and this is no other than a warning to mankind.
The translation I have posted is slightly different from the one in The Age of Sacred Terror, so here is another translation:
Above it are nineteen.
We have appointed only angels to be wardens of the Fire, and their number have We made to be a stumbling-block for those who disbelieve; that those to whom the Scripture hath been given may have certainty, and that believers may increase in faith; and that those to whom the Scripture hath been given and believers may not doubt; and that those in whose hearts there is disease, and disbelievers, may say: What meaneth Allah by this similitude ? Thus Allah sendeth astray whom He will, and whom He will He guideth. None knoweth the hosts of thy Lord save Him. This is naught else than a Reminder unto mortals.
You have to read the whole Sura to really get the gist of it- essentially it is a threat to unbelievers. They will be thrown into the ‘burning’ or what is alternately called the ‘Hell-Fire,’ and the nineteen are there to be the “Wardens of the Fire.” At anyrate, that is the only significance of the number nineteen that I have stumbled across.