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, December 27, 2007

Bhutto Murdered



Islamic democracy, yea right. My scepticism about the crusade for democracy on the recent previous post stands.

Blast hits Benazir Bhutto rally
BBC

Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a presumed suicide attack, a spokesman for the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) says.

There has been an explosion at an election rally in Pakistan shortly after former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had addressed it.
At least eight people have been killed in the suspected suicide blast in the city of Rawalpindi. Ms Bhutto is reported to be unhurt.

Earlier on Thursday at least four people were killed in election violence close to the city.

Ms Bhutto returned from self-imposed exile in October.

Exit gate

"The blast took place after she had left the rally," a spokesman for Ms Bhutto, Jameel Soomro, said. "She is safe."

At least eight people were killed by the explosion, reporters on the scene say. Some police officials say 15 people were killed.

Ms Bhutto had been addressing supporters of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in a park in the garrison city.

Police say a suspected suicide attacker detonated the bomb at one of the exits to the park as people were leaving.

When Ms Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October, her cavalcade was hit by a double suicide attack that left some 130 dead.

The PPP has the largest support in the country.

Pakistan has been beset by violence in recent months.

Earlier on Thursday at least four people were killed ahead of an election rally that Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was preparing to attend close to Rawalpindi.



61 comments:

  1. RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected suicide bomber killed about 15 people on Thursday outside a rally by Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in the city of Rawalpindi, police said.

    Bhutto, who was leaving the park where she had just finished her rally, was safe, her party said.

    Police at the scene said about 15 people had been killed.

    (Reporting by Augustine Anthony; writing by Robert Birsel; editing by David Fogarty)

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  2. Reuters reporting the injuries are serious.

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  3. Reports: Benazir Bhutto dies
    Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has died, according to media reports. Bhutto's husband was quoted by Pakistan's GEO TV as saying she suffered a bullet wound to her neck after a suicide bombing that killed at least 14 supporters at a rally today.

    CNN

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  4. We've got contradictory reports, how about we wait an hour and then see what the story is.

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  5. The Islamic crazies would never accept a woman running pakistan again. Now let us wait for the Islamic outrage over this and mass shooting of AQ and radical mullahs. No, not likely? Not a whimper?

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  6. There is no contradiction. She was shot in neck and chest.

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  7. Last I heard, her remains were being spirited off to Honda, where she will be merged with ASIMO technology and become the first cybernetic female muslim PM of Pakistan.

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  8. An animatronic.

    Alderman speaks like an Illuminati or a Last Days prophet.

    Pining for a machine to speak to the word to the World.

    Fear not, the nuclear weapons are secure in the hands of the Pakistani Army, which is secure in the hands of ....

    An animatronic?

    The troubles just beginning, not drawing to a close.

    And in the US:
    Dianna B. Johnston, a lawyer for the commission, said many employers and labor unions had told it that �if they had to provide identical benefits for retirees under 65 and over 65, they would just drop retiree health benefits altogether for both groups.�

    Next it'll be workers, themselves, of all ages left without corporate healthcare. Incrementalism advancing before our eyes.

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  9. No, duece, the Mosques and mandrassas are secured, by the para-militaries.
    The President and the ISI making sure of that.

    That is evident by this story, which is buried by the killing of Ms Bhutto:

    Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- At least four supporters of Pakistan's former premier Nawaz Sharif were killed and another 12 wounded in the capital, Islamabad, when gunshots were fired on an election rally.

    People ``fired on our workers who were gathering for an election public rally,'' Siddique-ul-Farooq, a spokesman for Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
    ...
    Sharif, who was barred this month from running in the ballot, was headed to the neighboring garrison town of Rawalpindi for a public rally. Pakistan's parliamentary elections are scheduled for Jan. 8, as international calls including by the U.S. and human rights groups for free and fair voting mount.


    An assualt on the all the Pakistani Democratic forces, hand in hand with those that declared the State of Emergency. Which targeted the civil political forces, not the madrassas or the non-reconcilable Mussulmen.

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  10. Well this should put the final nail in the coffin for those wishing for an attack on Iran.

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  11. As the civil force were beginning to work together to defeat the Dictators supporters, they took action ...

    Bhutto and Sharif, who were Prime Ministers from 1988 to 1999, have agreed to cooperate in some constituencies by not fielding candidates against each other, in a bid to defeat contenders from the Musharraf-backed party. Both leaders said their parties are contesting the elections under protest to ensure the field isn't left open to the pro-Musharraf group.

    Couldn't let the forces of freedom combine to defeat the non-reconcilables funders and supporters.

    An easy stroyline to carry forward in the face of Pakistani Government failures to control the non-reconcilable factions.

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  12. chaos is what the islamic world needs...

    it needs to have civil strife...

    as DR say, it's their problem...

    what better thing then the normals (not radicals, fore radical islam preaches tolerance, whereas "normals" preach death to america) being murdered?

    maybe after the pakis let loose a few nukes on the indians we will see some fun faraway action....

    look to revolution in iran, look to counter revolution in lebanon, look to all out killfests in all major moslems population centers...

    today, germany said there were 180,000 moslems WILLING to do violence for islam within germany...

    Just hope those crazed black rock lovers are well armed in AZ...

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  13. Karachi, 27 Dec. (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - A spokesperson for the al-Qaeda terrorist network has claimed responsibility for the death on Thursday of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

    “We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,” Al-Qaeda’s commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English. Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan.

    It is believed that the decision to kill Bhutto, who is the leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was made by al-Qaeda No. 2, the Egyptian doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri in October.

    Death squads were allegedly constituted for the mission and ultimately one cell comprising a defunct Lashkar-i-Jhangvi’s Punjabi volunteer succeeded in killing Bhutto.

    Bhutto had just addressed a pre-election rally on Thursday in the garrison town of Rawalpindi when the bomb went off.

    She had come to Rawalpindi after finishing a rapid election campaign, ahead of the January polls, in Pakistan's volatile North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where she had talked about a war against terrorism and al-Qaeda.

    Reports say at least 15 other people were killed in the attack and several others injured.

    As news of Bhutto's death spread throughout the country, there are reports that people have taken to the streets to protest the death of the leader of the PPP, which has the largest support of any party in Pakistan.

    In the southern port city of Karachi, Bhutto's hometown, residents reportedly threw stones at cars and burnt tyres.

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  14. 100% correct, it is their problem, in their countries.

    As the Newt has explained only 7 or 8% of the Muslims are irreconcilable, a small minority.

    That they account for 100 million or so bodies across the World, a problem for those that live nearest them. The mussulmen in AZ, they use US courts to advance their agenda.
    Operating well within the US Law.

    The US supports the reconciable Muslims, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria and Lebanon, to name but few locales.

    Mr Olmert meeting with that reconcilable Mussulman, Senor Abbas, today or tomorrow.

    We shall see, after the meeting, if Israel continues to take property for ever more "settlement" homes, or if they stop their expansion.

    It is a decision for Mr Olmert to make, will he reconcile or not?
    Peace or War, with the reconcilable Mussulmen, the decision is in the hands of an Israeli politician.

    Doubt that the mussulmen in AZ will opt for suicide, wi"o", but if they do, there are plenty around here to help them on their way to Paradise. But if they stay home with their guns, off the streets, our problems are with a different ethnic group entirely.

    Peace be with them.

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  15. alQ is claiming responsibility for the hit on Bhutto.

    ...

    “We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,” Al-Qaeda’s commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English. Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan.

    It is believed that the decision to kill Bhutto, who is the leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was made by al-Qaeda No. 2, the Egyptian doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri in October.


    ...

    Well at least it's not a complicated situation.

    An Egyptian doctor and his arab buddies holed up in Pashtun caves disrupt the political process of their Indus Valley and Punjabbi host country.

    America and NATO are in Afghanistan ceding the SE of that country to the resurgent Taliban.

    alQ taunts America with the hit.

    Not a word from Mush.

    I'll bet the DC / Islamabad batphone has been hot all morning.

    An offer Mush can't refuse in the making or do we send candy bombers and millions to the NW frontier to win hearts and minds?

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  16. Doc Z, the reciprient of Pakistani sanctuary since 2002/03.
    With the full moral support of the Pakistani Government, when the violence was an export item.
    Cross border attacks in Afghanistan, down by ovr 40%. The non-reconcilable now deciding to work closer to home. Now that the violence is directed within Pakistan, does the ISI still bake the cake?


    The Mexican Mafia and MS-13 much greater threats to public safety, in AZ, wi"o" than all the Muslims
    in the State.
    On a variety of different levels of public security.

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  17. 2164th: Well this should put the final nail in the coffin for those wishing for an attack on Iran.

    How's that "Democracy In The Middle East" idea working out for the neo-cons?

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  18. Musharraf could have picked up bin Laden at any time, but he was making billions of dollars from the US in the "Looking for bin Laden" business. Now the only thing he's looking at is the barrel of a gun with bin Laden on the other side of it.

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  19. Some people will say Musharraf is behind it but I think they will be wrong. Zawahiri sounds like the guy to me.

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  20. Peas in a pod, bob.

    One hand that washes the other.

    Doc Z could not have survived in Pakistan, since 2002 without the Dictator's acquiescence.

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  21. And our rulers and masters are worried about waterboarding these people?

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  22. Pakistani history did not start with Ms Bhuttto's death.
    Nor Mr Bhutto's for that matter.

    4 April, 1979
    Pakistan's former Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, has been hanged in spite of international calls for clemency.
    Mr Bhutto, 51, who had been Pakistan's leader since 1973, was deposed in an army coup 18 months ago.

    He was sentenced to death for the murder of a political opponent following a trial which was widely condemned as unfair.

    The appeal process was also tainted by allegations of bias on the part of some judges.

    No advance warning of the execution had been given.

    Mr Bhutto's wife and daughter, Benazir, who are both under house arrest, visited him on the morning before his death.

    They had been told it would be their last meeting but the military regime, led by General Zia ul-Haq


    History did not start, nor end, with "Goodtime" Charlie Wilson, either.

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  23. I'm not sure about that, Rat. Musharraf isn't a magician. Because he gives an order doesn't mean it's followed. He can't just hike up in the hills and get the boys himself. He's riding a rough horse there.

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  24. The decisions has been made.
    The Taliban are considered reconcilable. No worries.

    No immediate independent confirmation of the deployment was available in Islamabad. But the US reports coincided with the disclosure of an ambitious 15-year "anti-terror investment plan" for Pakistan that has been high on the agenda of US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in recent visits to Islamabad.

    According to reports in Pakistan, areas in the North West Frontier Province, the federally administered tribal areas, Baluchistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir were earmarked for investment that would boost education and employment in an effort to wean local tribesmen away from their support for the jihadi movement.


    Not sure how a planned 15 year program could be considered ambitious, but there you have it.

    The candy is enroute.

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  25. How many assassination attempts has Musharraf survived, sponsored by the boys in the hills. It's not like they are exactly friends.

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  26. Well, I'm sure, bob.

    That you are not yet convinced, that'll just take more evidence. It'll be forth coming.

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  27. How many times was he actually hurt?

    None.

    Stage management is one of their specialties, when billions USD is on the line.

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  28. The Taliban was founded and funded by the Pakistani ISI. That continues through today and there is now an ambitious 15-year "anti-terror investment plan" for Pakistan that has been high on the agenda of US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in recent visits to Islamabad.


    To support the folk in the hotbeds of the non-reconcilable mussulmen:

    North West Frontier Province, the federally administered tribal areas, Baluchistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir

    Which are controlled and the monies sent through the ISI and it's military agents, to the Tribal leaders that are now Taliban. The previous, old school, leaders having been eliminated by those "New Schoolers" that were ISI supported.

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  29. The Pakistani Military using those locals and the threat of radical irreconcilables to gain further funding from US and strengthen their hold on Pakistani civil society.

    They are succeeding on both counts.

    The General-President firmly in charge of that Pakistani Military, or he'd have not taken the title of General-President since he deposed the elected government in 1999.

    Just as the Taliban in Afghanistan, supported by the ISI were consolidating their position, supporting aQ in the process
    The General not a political impotent prior to his siezing civil power.

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  30. One of our posters linking to a site that graphed aid to Palistinians and the corresponding levels of terrorism originating from those areas the Palistians controlled.

    Seemed that there was a direct correlation. Same holds true in Pakistan, I'd venture to guess.

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  31. Fun night at the embassy: "Well, shit. That didn't work."

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  32. Someone's gotta run out and get a new can of veneer.

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  33. Ron Paul looks better and better. Anyone sure if he is nuts or not? Does it matter?

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  34. Saw Charlie Wilson's War last night.

    Best line: "Me and three other guys."

    Most questionable takeaway: If only we had poured funds and assets into a humanitarian (re)construction effort...

    Iraq.

    Enough said.

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  35. "Me and three other guys" (plus a shitload of duct tape and baling wire) is truer to everyday life than anyone cares to know.

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  36. Francine, could we settle upon a single nick, hm?

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  37. Your "voice" is unmistakably yours. That's a good thing. No need to change names.

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  38. Pakistani Politics by any other means.

    The nuke thing does make it kind of special, though.

    Going to have to start acknowledging that dadburn Wahhab sect again.

    No where does that come from again?

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  39. Trish: Your "voice" is unmistakably yours. That's a good thing. No need to change names.

    You don't have enough information to discuss it.

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  40. The death of Bhutto is evolution in action. You need a ruthless but trusted set of people around you to wield power for long in countries ruled by the Religion of Peace.

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  41. A sexual orientation, and a name.

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  42. IS BUSH NEXT?

    Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to 'protect' Bush visit to Ramallah

    When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert announced three weeks ago that President Bush was going to visit Israel and the 'Palestinian Authority' in January, I asked whether Bush would lay a wreath at Yasser Arafat's mausoleum (pictured, top left). I asked the question a bit facetiously - I didn't really believe that President Bush would actually go to Ramallah and it certainly never occurred to me that he would allow a group of terrorists to protect him. I guess I underestimated the dhimmitude of the current American administration.

    WorldNetDaily is reporting that not only is Bush planning to visit Ramallah, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the 'armed wing' of 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's Fatah group of 'good terrorists' is going to 'protect' him. We can only hope and pray that today's murder of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto will convince the President to reconsider. I cannot imagine a more attractive target for Hamas and other 'bad terrorists' than the President of the United States being protected by Fatah.

    According to Israeli security officials coordinating deployments of forces with the PA for Bush's Ramallah visit, members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's declared military wing, have been called upon by the PA to participate in the protection of Bush's convoy and in securing the parameter during the meeting with Abbas.

    The Brigades is listed as a terror organization by the U.S. State Department. The group took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror organization for every suicide bombing in Israel between 2005 and 2006, and is responsible for thousands of shootings and rocket firings. Statistically, the Al Aqsa Brigades perpetuated more terrorism from the West Bank than Hamas, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.

    Many Brigades members, including the group's chiefs, serve openly in Fatah's Force 17 presidential guard units and the Palestinian Preventative Security Services; thousands of Force 17 and Preventative officers are slated to secure Ramallah during Bush's visit there.

    A chief of the Al Aqsa Brigades in Ramallah who also serves as a senior officer in Force 17 confirmed to WND he has been tapped to participate in Bush's security. The chief, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, said he is slated to patrol the road outside Abbas' compound during the Palestinian leader's meeting with Bush.

    The Israeli Defense Forces will protect the main West Bank highway Bush's convoy will use to approach Ramallah. Security for Bush will be largely turned over to the Palestinians once he enters Ramallah, although security plans are being heavily coordinated with the U.S.

    According to Israeli security officials, over 6,000 Fatah forces will be deployed in three rings in central Ramallah to secure the area during Bush's brief stay, including Palestinian security officers who also serve in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

    About 40 Ramallah-based Brigades leaders, including the Brigades chief scheduled to participate in Bush's security, were granted amnesty by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in June as a gesture to Abbas, but many Brigades members, including the Ramallah-based leadership, are accused of violating the agreement by failing to disarm and by carrying out a spate of terror attacks.
    What moron thought of this stunt? The only thing I can recall a President doing that was nearly as stupid was Richard Nixon's ride through Egypt standing in an open car in June 1974 and then waded into the crowd in Cairo with phlebitis in his leg (described in Woodward and Bernstein's The Final Days on page 218). Nixon had an excuse - he was six weeks from being forced to resign because of Watergate.

    I'm still wondering whether Bush will lay a wreath for Arafat. Anyone want to take bets?

    Israel Matzav

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  43. What moron thought of this stunt?

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  44. I cannot imagine a more attractive target for Hamas and other 'bad terrorists' than the President of the United States being protected by Fatah.

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  45. Meanwhile, Huckabee can think of nothing else but to apologize---?---

    ORLANDO, FLA. -- With about 150 supporters crowded around a podium set up on the tarmac of Orlando Executive airport (and about 20 Ron Paul supporters waving signs outside) Mike Huckabee strode out to the strains of “Right Now” by Van Halen and immediately addressed the Bhutto situation, expressing “our sincere concern and apologies for what has happened in Pakistan.”

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  46. I'm breathlessly waiting for Hillary's take.

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  47. Those fellows have reconciled, bob.
    No worries.

    The Republic will survive less than a year of President Cheney, though it could be a tad nerve racking.

    But if the visit is a success, he does not get killed or even attacked, it proves the President's strategic point.

    Reconciliation is the way forward, not being tied down by old prejudices.

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  48. It'll put more than the usual strain on the Secret Service men, having to not only watch the crowd, but the other security details as well.

    But I suppose you're right, would look good from the PR point of view, I quess, if he runs the gauntlet unharmed.
    xxx
    We at the bar really should send the Pakistani people an apology, you know. The least we should do.

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  49. Priests brawl at Bethlehem birthplace of Jesus

    Broom-Wielding Priests Fight Over Territory In Bethlehem Church

    Seven people were injured on Thursday when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over how to clean the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
    Following the Christmas celebrations, Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church, which is built over the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.

    But the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests, according to photographers who said angry words ensued and blows quickly followed.

    For a quarter of an hour bearded and robed priests laid into each other with fists, brooms and iron rods while the photographers who had come to take pictures of the annual cleaning ceremony recorded the whole event.

    A dozen unarmed Palestinian policemen were sent to try to separate the priests, but two of them were also injured in the unholy melee.

    "As usual the cleaning of the church afer Christmas is a cause of problems," Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh told AFP, adding that he has offered to help ease tensions.

    "For the two years that I have been here everything went more or less calmly," he said. "It's all finished now."

    The Church of the Nativity, like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, is shared by various branches of Christianity, each of which controls and jealously guards a part of the holy site.

    The Church of the Nativity is built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born in a stable more than 2,000 years ago after Mary and Joseph were turned away by an inn.

    And he wasn't even born there:( at least, most most likely.

    A dozen Palestinian policemen couldn't keep 'em apart. This would be something to see! Maybe we'll luck out and find a good video somewhere.

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  50. And all this shit comes from misreading old scrolls.

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  51. Christian values at work, in the Holy Land, itself.

    Tis the reason, for the Season.

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  52. You don't have enough information to discuss it.

    Thu Dec 27, 03:37:00 PM EST

    Discussion doesn't require information. You've been here long enough to know that.

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  53. I don't know where you dug that one up, bob, but the president doesn't outsource his security. Ever.



    Here's a prediction: In six months' time Bhutto's death will have been confirmed as thoroughly without import for everyone save the US Congress, for whom she was hastily ushered back in as window dressing.

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  54. Bobal, Jesus always struck me as a very humble man, he would probably blush to see fancy priests getting into a donnybrook over how to clean the fancy building that was built to mark the humble place where he was born.

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