COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, November 09, 2006

THREE Christian high school girls were beheaded as a Ramadan "trophy" by Indonesian

Beheaded girls were Ramadan 'trophies'
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent
November 09, 2006 (hattip Doug)

THREE Christian high school girls were beheaded as a Ramadan "trophy" by Indonesian militants who conceived the idea after a visit to Philippines jihadists, a court heard yesterday.
The girls' severed heads were dumped in plastic bags in their village in Indonesia's strife-torn Central Sulawesi province, along with a handwritten note threatening more such attacks.

The note read: "Wanted: 100 more Christian heads, teenaged or adult, male or female; blood shall be answered with blood, soul with soul, head with head."

Javanese trader Hasanuddin appeared in Jakarta Central Court yesterday charged with planning and directing the murders in October last year. He faces a death sentence if found guilty under anti-terrorism legislation.

Hasanuddin allegedly returned from a visit to members of Philippines Islamist group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front with tales of how that organisation regularly staged bombings to coincide with Lebaran, the festival that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He later spoke with a preacher in Poso, Central Sulawesi, about whether such a plan could work in Indonesia, but expressed doubt about whether it was appropriate.

However, after further discussion with friends, he decided that beheading Christians could qualify as an act of Muslim charity.

Conscripting several accomplices at a local pesantren, or Islamic school, he directed one of them, Lilik Purnomo, to seek out "the head of a Christian", prosecutors alleged.

"It would be a great Lebaran trophy if we got a Christian. Go search for the best place for us to find one," Hasanuddin allegedly ordered his companion.

Lilik returned to say he had found an "excellent" target - a group of schoolgirls who travelled to and from class by foot in the Central Sulawesi village of Gebong Rejo. The village is in the district of Poso, where hundreds of people have died in sectarian violence in recent years.

Many observers worry that Central Sulawesi has become the latest battleground in a deadly jihad.

Three Christian men were executed there last month for their role in a massacre of Muslims in 2000 and there have been a series of deadly attacks in the province in recent months.

Prosecutors yesterday detailed how Hasanuddin, Lilik and co-accused Irwanto Irano planned the schoolgirl beheadings with six other men. They prepared six machetes and black plastic bags for carrying off the severed heads and spent several days surveying the area where the students regularly passed by.

The operation was called off on one occasion, when a woman spotted the attackers hiding by the roadside, waiting for their victims. On the night before the attack, Lilik told Hasanuddin: "I hope you are ready to receive your Lebaran gift."

The attack was launched the following morning, but only four of the six targeted girls appeared.

Lilik, directing the attack from a nearby hill, told his accomplices to act quickly so that the remaining two girls could still be killed should they appear behind their friends.

The attackers cleanly beheaded three of the students but a fourth, Noviana Malewa, escaped after a struggle and ran away screaming. Her attackers gave chase but were unable to catch her.

The bodies, dressed in school uniform, were left by the roadside near the execution site, but the heads were carried in a backpack to Hasanuddin.The trial of his two co-accomplices was adjourned until Wednesday, when Hasanuddin will also reappear.

The Australian News

15 comments:

  1. Hey, where's my Hat Tip?
    I posted that at BC earlier today!

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  2. THREE young students deprived of life by an Illegal Mexican
    ---
    Another drunk illegal kills 3 more Americans
    Suspect had pleaded guilty last yearto count of driving without a license
    ---
    Three people – two North Carolina State University students and a 16-year-old – have been killed by an illegal alien, who allegedly was driving drunk, and already had a record of crime in the United States.
    ---
    Luckily, I *like* innocent students, so I will continue to Rail against Illegal Criminals in our midst.
    Much to the chagrin of Bush and Buddy.

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  3. "I've always wondered why Republicans insist on acting like Democrats in hopes of retaining political power, while Democrats act like us in order to win. "
    ---
    Yeah Dick, but I want to kick another Texas Skunk a few more times:
    The more I think about Bush Crowing About Double Crossing the Republican House after the Democrat House that rode his Shit Trails to victory takes office, the more I think he's about the lowest form of scumbag I've ever voted for twice in my life.

    Started by wheeling and dealing with Kennedy, then passed on an Unconstitutional Bill By McCain Feingold, and now looks forward to screwing the country by way of the Democrat House that he delivered.

    A great, honest, and honorable Republican, not to mention outstanding conservative is George Walker Bush.
    Not.

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  4. Beheaded girls were Ramadan 'trophies'
    Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent
    November 09, 2006 (hattip Doug).

    About Bush. Think Lyndon Johnson.

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  5. Actually that may be harsh and unfair to LBJ.

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  6. Republicans need to be alert; our discredited leadership is preparing to divide such leadership spoils as still exist.

    Tapscott (H/T Captain’s Quarters) offers a brief autopsy report;

    Tapscottian View of the Elections

    “{Hugh Hewitt is surprised and angry that the House GOP leadership is calling the caucus back to D.C. next week to elect a Minority leader and other new leadership, noting that ‘the rush to engineer a succession communicates an unwillingness to recognize the significance of the set-back yesterday.’"

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  7. I was at 18 & 4, doug.
    Thought that good ole' get out the vote machine had a couple of pistons still firing.

    The dissatisfaction with Mr Bush ran deeper and wider than I had surmised.

    Harry Mitchell, that fellow is akin to a dogs leg, I'm afraid.
    But so many folks in AZ are new comers, with no memories of the past actions of the new and improved versions of our old timers. The newspaper is a Gannentt product, like the Army Times. Losing subscribers at about 8% per annum. We've decided to help them along on that path, but won't have the hard copy product for another year or so.

    Heard on FOX that the vote totals went 35 to 27 in favor of the Dems, over all. The Blue are ever more bluer and Georgia did not get any Redder.

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  8. Trish,
    Liking TR and the Libertarians as a conflict. I suppose you could say that, however the times are completely different.
    TR busted Trusts. See anyone out there do'in that kinda work?

    I also admire the hell out of George Washington but I'm not a Whig revivalist either..once again different times.

    I like to collect knives but I wouldn't take one to a firefight..different times.

    It's the qualities,purpose,goals etc that animate me.
    I can't herd up with either of the major parties 'cause they both stand for HUGE Government and are working on the amalgamation of the US with Canada and Mexico. I can't support that. The EU is failing and the North American Union will do the same.
    Times do change, TR ran as a Bull Moose, might as well have called him a Libertarian (too bad they don't have a Dewey somewhere, boy could we have fun with that)
    Anyway I don't see the conflict. What I see is a central government all out of proportion to what was outlined, and it's also out of control.
    We haven't eeven touched on computer aided redistricting..we have a ruling class, not a representative one.
    IRS ..take the money
    Congress..redistribute the money
    SCOTUS..judicial review encroaching and making a mockery of three independent branches of government
    KELO- take your property
    etc
    etc
    etc...Yul Brenner

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  9. “It was essential for the Rove strategy to create the appearance of sufficient progress on key issues in order to ‘get the GOP base stirred up.’ But the ‘progress’ was little more than smoke and mirrors and everybody in Washington knew it, as did millions of conservative voters who had heard the same broken record over and over again in the past.”

    The Republican leadership and pundits attempted and are still attempting to stand-up straw men in order to feed disinformation to the base. This was seen at the BC yesterday when Wretchard let stand his statement holding the Democrats accountable for the reduction of the Army from 18 divisions to 10.

    During the Presidency of George H. W. Bush, Army divisions were reduced by 6.

    During the Presidency of William Jefferson Clinton, Army divisions were reduced by 2.

    Prevarication did not aid the Republicans in the mid-term election, and it will not help in the 2008 contest.

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  10. The Gateway Pundit is a little bitter this morning, essentially blaming Libertarians for Republican losses, especially the Senate races in Missouri and Montana. He gives a quote from the Libertarian Glenn Reynolds, not finding there the real cause of Libertarian rejection of the Bush administration.

    "Libertarians are a generally Republican-leaning constituency, but over the last few years, their discontent has grown plain. It isn't just the war, which some libertarians supported, but the corruption and insider dealing, and particularly the massive expansion of spending. Mr Bush's much-vaunted prescription drug benefit for seniors, they fume, has opened up another gaping hole in America's fiscal situation, while the only issue that really seemed to energise congress was passing special laws to keep a brain-damaged woman on life support."

    When the conservative blogmeisters finally snap out of the grief, they will discover the real cause of the “thumping” – the corruption of the leadership of the Republican Party. When these so-called opinion leaders come to their senses, they will find a Republican Party in need of restoration.

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  11. Do read Tiger this morning at Observanda.

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  12. You got me all wrong, doug--I'm "against" crime, drunk-driving, illegality, beheading school girls, killing college students on the highway. I don't where you got me so wrong--must be back on that other thread where I congratulated your deposing of the Bush. But now you're all riled again. Should he resign now? Maybe hang hisself?

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  13. My point, and I guess I should stay away from anything that doug could interpret as an "I told you so" (unless I want to be the subject of a few weeks worth of hyperventilating), was never that GWB was the perfect savior of the western world, but that the other party was likely to be a western-world trainwreck.

    That, if the current crew is a trainwreck, the replacement crew is a far worse one.

    That at least the current trainwreck crew has helped the economy more than it has hurt the economy.

    That sneering at "the economy" as being unimportant compared to one's principles is to make the rather idiotic assumption that the two are "either/or".

    That, all-else-equal, a good economy allows more problem-solving than a bad one.

    That, to deny the realworld principle of elections, that a lesser-of-two-evils that can get elected and that can at least be worked with and--crucially--that can keep the out-and-out left-wing out of office, is, if not worthy of affection, at least worthy of support as the lesser-evil.

    That, all-else-equal, better to have *your* bastard in office than to have the oppo's bastard in office.

    But it's an old argument, isn't it. Un-resolvable, probably.

    But I will say, as an olive branch, the other bush-bashers here have a good point in the "clean-house" idea. If so, you have achieved step one, as of Nov 7.

    Now for step two.

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