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."

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Terrorist Sons - "They blow up so fast"

Israel kills terror chief with headrest bomb
Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv, Hala Jaber in Beirut and Jon Swain

NOTHING seemed very remarkable about the short, bearded man who mingled with other guests on Tuesday evening at a reception in Damascus, the Syrian capital, to mark the 29th anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iranian revolution.

Yet before the night was over he was dead in the twisted wreckage of his car and the inevitable assumption was that Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, had killed him with an ingeniously planted bomb.

The news spread rapidly that the dead man was Imad Mughniyeh, an elusive figure known as “the Fox” who had been one of the world’s most feared terrorist masterminds.

Robert Baer, a former CIA agent who spent years on his trail, said Mughniyeh was “probably the most intelligent, most capable operative we’ve ever run across”.

As the Israelis rejoiced, Iran and Hezbollah, the militant Shi’ite group, which together had harnessed Mugniyeh’s expertise, mourned his death at a huge funeral in Beirut, where he established his terrorist network.

Mughniyeh’s mother, Um Imad, sat amid a sea of black chadors, a lonely, sombre figure as mourners held their hero’s picture aloft.

“If only I had more boys to carry on in his footsteps,” she sighed, confessing that she did not have any pictures of him, even from his childhood, as he had taken them away. He was the third of her sons to die in a car bombing.

With a price of $25m (£12.7m) on his head, he was always vigilant. Some say he had had plastic surgery to alter his face in an effort to elude the Americans and Israelis who blamed him for plane hijackings and other bloody attacks which killed hundreds of their citizens in the Middle East and as far away as South America.

He had grown accustomed to living dangerously and there was no reason he should have feared for his safety last Tuesday as he sipped fruit juice at the party at the Iranian cultural centre. Mughniyeh was on fairly good terms with everybody present – almost all the leaders of the Damascus-based militant groups were represented.

At 10.35pm he decided to go home. Having exchanged customary kisses with his host, Hojatoleslam Ahmad Musavi, the newly appointed Iranian ambassador, Mughniyeh stepped into the night.

Minutes later he was seated in his silver Mitsubishi Pajero in a nearby street when a deafening blast ripped the car apart and killed him instantly.

According to Israeli intelligence sources, someone had replaced the headrest of the driver’s seat with another containing a small high-explosive charge. Israel welcomed his death but the prime minister’s office denied responsibility. Hezbollah accused the “Zionist Israelis” of killing its “brother commander” but believed the explosive had been detonated in another car by satellite.

One witness said: “I held his head in my hands, kissed him farewell. His face was burnt but intact and he had received serious injuries to his abdomen.”

Whatever the truth about the bomb, Mughniyeh, 45, died as he had lived – violently. He was a product of the Lebanese civil war that transfixed western governments 25 years ago.

Born in a south Lebanon village, the son of a vegetable seller, Mughniyeh joined Force 17, Yasser Arafat’s personal bodyguard, when scarcely out of his teens. After the Palestine Liberation Organisation was forced to leave Lebanon in 1982, he stayed behind and joined Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite Islamic group that emerged in 1985 as a militant force resisting Israeli occupation.

He came to the attention of Sheikh Mohammed Fadlallah, Hezbollah’s spiritual leader, and rose quickly up the ranks. He was shaped into a remarkably effective terrorist as, under the auspices of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the organisation grew into one of the deadliest forces fighting Israel and America.

Western terrorism experts say he was the dynamo behind some of Hezbollah’s most lethal operations. These included the bombing of the American embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people and the attacks on the US marine and French paratrooper barracks that left more than 200 dead. It was Mughniyeh’s decision to kidnap Terry Waite, the Church of England envoy, as he tried to broker the release of other captives.

Another notorious act attributed to him was the hijacking of a TWA flight when an American passenger, a US navy diver, was shot and his body thrown onto the runway.

In the 1990s Israel made him a priority target for his involvement in two attacks in Buenos Aires – the 1992 Israeli embassy bombing, which killed 29, and a 1994 suicide bomb attack on a Jewish community centre, in which 85 died. Then he went to ground. The FBI placed him on its most-wanted list but had to use a 20-year-old photograph for its reward posters.

Despite these difficulties, the CIA came close to capturing him. The Israelis were also hot on his trail. “We tried to knock him down several times in the late 1980s,” revealed David Barkay, a former major in unit 504 of Israeli military intelligence who was in charge of Mughniyeh’s file.

“We accumulated intelligence on him, but the closer we got, the less information we gleaned – no weak points, no women, money, drugs – nothing.”

Mughniyeh lost two brothers, Jihad and Fuad, in car bomb explosions in Beirut. In 2000 he was targeted by an Israeli sniper in southern Lebanon. But in Meir Dagan, who became head of Mossad in 2002, he faced a committed opponent under whose leadership the organisation built a strong record in assassinating Israel’s enemies.

Israel fought a bitter 34-day war against Hezbollah in 2006 to eradicate it in southern Lebanon. It believes that Mughniyeh was instrumental in rebuilding the group after the war, rearming it with Iranian-made Fateh 110 rockets which are capable of hitting Tel Aviv and which it fears could be equipped with chemical weapons.

Informed Israeli sources said that at the time of his death Mughniyeh was working for the Syrians on a terrorist attack against Israeli targets. This was to avenge Israel’s airstrike on what was believed to be a secret nuclear site in Syria last year.

Since Mughniyeh’s death, Israeli embassies and Jewish institutions around the world have been on high alert. “I’ve no doubt the Syrians and Iranians will retaliate,” said Barkay.

Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s general secretary, warned in a fiery oration at Mughniyeh’s funeral that Israel had committed a “major stupid mistake”. It was now “open war”, he said.

In Lebanon, a close friend of Mughniyeh was certain that he would be avenged by Hezbollah in an attack that, ironically, he had prepared himself before his death. “Most likely the retaliation when it comes will be one that had been planned and masterminded by Imad himself,” said Anis Al-Nackash, a Lebanese expert on Hezbollah.

He said Mughniyeh had prepared a variety of “spectacular” attacks to be executed by Hezbollah if one of its top leaders was assassinated. These were now being dusted off and updated.

On the day Mughniyeh was buried, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, summoned Dagan from his cottage in Galilee to Jerusalem.

“It was a one-on-one meeting,” said a source. But it is believed that Dagan was complimented by his boss and told that he would stay as head of Mossad until the end of 2009.

Time will tell whether, as Israel fervently hopes, Mughniyeh’s death has gravely weakened his organisation or if the effect has merely been to harden Hezbollah’s resolve.

Taken out

The Israeli security service, Mossad, is thought to have killed six other militants abroad since Meir Dagan became director in August 2002:

December 2002 Ramzi Nahara, Israeli agent who defected to Hezbollah and planned attacks against Israel. Dagan knew him personally. Killed in Lebanon by car bomb

March 2003 Abu Mohammed Al-Masri, Al-Qaeda member building cell to target Israeli border with Lebanon. Killed by car bomb in Lebanon

August 2003 Ali Hussein Saleh, Hezbollah explosives expert. Killed by car bomb in Beirut

July 2004 Ghaleb Awali, Hezbollah official with links to activists in Gaza Strip. Killed by car bomb in Beirut

September 2004 Izz el-Deen al-Sheikh Khalil, Hamas official liaising between headquarters in Syria and members in Gaza and West Bank. Killed by car bomb in Damascus

May 2006 Mahmoud Majzoub, Islamic Jihad official liaising with Hezbollah. Killed by car bomb blast in Lebanon
_____________________

This is a fascinating story. Although most money seems to be on the Israelis, even the Iranians have been credited with the assassination of Mugniyeh. Some say Mugniyeh was planning a major attack, others say that Iran "offed him" because he could implicate them in 9/11. Some day we may find out who did it, for now though, we'll have to be satisfied that it was done.

Stratfor says that due to logistics, we can expect "spectacular" retribution no earlier than mid-March. They point to the two 1992 and 1994 Buenos Aires bombings as well as two "less impressive" 1994 bombings in London. Stratfor says Hezbollah will most likely pull some plans "off-the-shelf", are most likely surveilling several targets right now and will most likely strike softer targets in Asia, Latin America or Africa.

Hezbollah's standard MO has been to claim "...its attacks using pseudonyms, such as Islamic Jihad Organization or Organization for the Oppressed of the Earth." It will be interesting to see how accurate Stratfor's advice and information is.

66 comments:

  1. I'm so proud, my sons have all grown up and blown away, making a big impact on the community. They were set to explode at home, when I turned them out. In the world, they really got fired up, and made a big bang.

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  2. Cornyn says enough Blue Dogs would vote for security if Pelosi would let it come to a vote, but her masters, the trial lawyers, don't want to lose-out on business with Telecom immunity.

    Simply Amazing, but w/Obama on deck,
    we ain't seen nothin yet!

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  3. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem yesterday said that Israeli forces have imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the northern West Bank in response to the suicide bombing in Dimona on Feb. 4 in which an Israeli woman was killed.

    B’Tselem said in a press statement that in the districts of Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm, all Palestinian men between the ages of 16-35 are prevented from leaving the area without special permits, which are rarely granted. Testimonies taken by B’Tselem indicated that during the past two weeks, these restrictions have also been imposed on women of this age group.

    In the past few days, similar restrictions have been introduced in the city of Qalqilyah.


    West Bank

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  4. A thing of beauty is a Joy forever, Edgar Al-Poe.

    ReplyDelete
  5. On the GOP side, Huckabee is still putting up a fight, even though he trails heavily in delegates.

    He’s looking ahead to Texas, but urged conservatives in Wisconsin Monday to shake up the race.

    “Tomorrow, give the conservatives not only of Wisconsin but also of America a chance to be heard,” he said told 100 supporters who braved a snowstorm to hear him speak.


    Huckabee Putting up Fight

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  6. Ah Wisconsin, birthplace of the presidential primary (yes, nearly a century ago) and a state where so many candidacies have come to ruin (Hubert Humphrey in 1960, Mo Udall in 1976, John Edwards and Howard Dean in 2004, among many others). For the 2008 Democratic finalists, Wisconsin might ultimately prove to be a mere pit stop, but at the moment it looks like a potential fork in the long and winding road.

    ...

    If Obama wins tonight in cheesehead territory (along with a victory in his native Hawaii), he heads toward Texas and Ohio with a 10-game victory streak and the aura of a winner - which matters in politics, because voters torn between two candidates often are tempted to go with a perceived winner.

    ...

    To gauge his appeal, I plan to check out these demographics, some of which overlap:


    White working-class Democrats

    They have been loyal to Hillary in most contests thus far, and they're numerous in Wisconsin (in the 2004 Democratic primary, 50 percent of the voters earned less than $50,000 a year), particularly in the old manufacturing towns on the east side of the state. The potential problem for Hillary, however, is that they've suffered heavy job losses and they blame NAFTA for accelerating the exodus of jobs overseas...the same NAFTA that Hillary's husband signed into law.

    Cheesehead Primary

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  7. A Lay A Day Keeps The Devil Away I'm not sure what the Biblical warrant for this activity may be, searching the New Testament in my mind. From the Jewish Scriptures, one might cite The Song of Songs, but were they married?

    Ron Paul is on Lars, staying in the fight, claiming 40+ delegates, made the questionable statement that 'something might happen to the other candidates.'

    ReplyDelete
  8. Church member Tim Jones and his fiancee agreed to take on the challenge, though he acknowledges it'll be a tough month.

    Whooaa, here.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Unlike the Democratic race, McCain was assured of the Republican nomination and concentrated on turning his primary campaign into a general election candidacy.

    Huckabee parried occasional suggestions — none of them by McCain — that he quit the race. In a move that was unorthodox if not unprecedented for a presidential contender, he left the country in recent days to make a paid speech in the Grand Cayman Islands.

    McCain picked up endorsements from former President George H.W. Bush and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a campaign dropout who urged his 280 delegates to swing behind the party's nominee-to-be.


    McCain Assured

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  10. Al-Poe is a dog's favorite food, but A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy Forever--

    A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
    Its loveliness increases; it will never
    Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
    A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
    Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
    Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
    A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
    Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
    Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
    Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
    Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
    Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
    From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
    Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
    For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
    With the green world they live in; and clear rills
    That for themselves a cooling covert make
    'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
    Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
    And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
    We have imagined for the mighty dead;
    All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
    An endless fountain of immortal drink,
    Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

    Nor do we merely feel these essences
    For one short hour; no, even as the trees
    That whisper round a temple become soon
    Dear as the temple's self, so does the moon,
    The passion poesy, glories infinite,
    Haunt us till they become a cheering light
    Unto our souls, and bound to us so fast
    That, whether there be shine or gloom o'ercast,
    They always must be with us, or we die.

    Therefore, 'tis with full happiness that I
    Will trace the story of Endymion.
    The very music of the name has gone
    Into my being, and each pleasant scene
    Is growing fresh before me as the green
    Of our own valleys: so I will begin
    Now while I cannot hear the city's din;
    Now while the early budders are just new,
    And run in mazes of the youngest hue
    About old forests; while the willow trails
    Its delicate amber; and the dairy pails
    Bring home increase of milk. And, as the year
    Grows lush in juicy stalks, I'll smoothly steer
    My little boat, for many quiet hours,
    With streams that deepen freshly into bowers.
    Many and many a verse I hope to write,
    Before the daisies, vermeil rimmed and white,
    Hide in deep herbage; and ere yet the bees
    Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas,
    I must be near the middle of my story.
    O may no wintry season, bare and hoary,
    See it half finished: but let Autumn bold,
    With universal tinge of sober gold,
    Be all about me when I make an end!
    And now at once, adventuresome, I send
    My herald thought into a wilderness:
    There let its trumpet blow, and quickly dress
    My uncertain path with green, that I may speed
    Easily onward, thorough flowers and weed.

    Al-Keats

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  11. B’Tselem is not Israeli. B’Tselem gets its funding from Europe.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It's not clear how long Huckabee will remain in the race or whether tonight's results will have any impact on his decision. Heading into the Wisconsin vote, McCain had 851 delegates to 242 for Huckabee.

    Former governor Mitt Romney (Mass.), who dropped out of the contest earlier this month, retained 277 delegates.

    When asked about the mathematical impossibility of beating McCain, behind whom the entire party establishment has largely coalesced, Huckabee is prone to answer: "I didn't major in math. I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them."


    How Long will Huckabee Stay?

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  13. What's our position going to be when Albania, Kosovo and all the other muzzies in the area want to form one big muzzie nation?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ask Obama. He's got the answers.

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  15. We had a big meteor streak through here this morning and impact in Adams County, Washington. Made quite a stir, but missed a cousin of mine who lives in the area.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Few people may have heard about "Hizb ut-Tahrir" (HuT) or "Party of Liberation." Although it has its roots in the Middle East, Hizb ut-Tahrir is one the fastest growing Islamist movements in Europe.

    ...

    Hizb ut-Tahrir Al-Islami ("Islamic Party of Liberation") was founded in Jordan in 1952 (some claim it was in 1953) by Taqi Al-Din Al-Nabhani, a Palestinian born in the village of Ijzim in Northern Palestine in 1909.
    Al-Nabhani studied Islamic Law at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, the most important Islamic institution in Egypt and the intellectual bulwark of Islam.

    ...

    Yet, the party continued grow and together with other opposition groups, was involved in organizing disturbances. The leadership of the party was situated outside the country and could not be arrested.


    Hizb ut-Tahrir

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  17. Huck tries for a chuckle--

    ABC News' Kevin Chupka reports: While campaigning in Wisconsin today, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told a crowd, gathered at the University of Wisconsin, at Eau Claire, "I may be killing my political career, but I know this -- if we don't start thinking in terms of solving some of America's problems, we're killing all of your careers."

    During a press conference immediately following the rally, Huckabee was asked to clarify his remarks.

    "What I mean by that, I'm just saying there are a lot of people who say I'm staying and creating problems for the party, and there are obviously people in the party who are unhappy that I've stayed. Now, keep in mind, they're all supporting John McCain, but this sense that it's just his turn, let's just all step aside -- I find that insulting as a Republican, and as a candidate," Huckabee said.

    ReplyDelete
  18. 9:00PM - CNN and Fox make quick calls for McCain. Too close on the Dem side, although Wolf Blitzer hinted that a call could be close, as exits show Obama with a lead. - BLAKE DVORAK

    ReplyDelete
  19. Musharraf's party was a distant third with 38 seats. A raft of party stalwarts and former Cabinet ministers lost in their constituencies.

    Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, told AP Television News that "we accept the results with an open heart" and "will sit on opposition benches" in the new parliament.

    While Musharraf has promised to work with any new government, he is hugely unpopular and his rivals are unlikely to be in any hurry to work with him. At best, he faces the prospect of remaining president with sharply diminished powers and facing a public hostile to him.


    New Coalition

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  20. Vincente Fox calls about once a week from what I hear, Al-Poe.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Obama wins. Closing the gap in Ohio, polls say. Looks like he's gonna be the guy.

    ReplyDelete
  22. “The investment in this ethylene plant, which will be undertaken by the private sector, is $1bn for the plant and another $700m more in derivatives,” said Calderon.

    The structure announced by Calderon bears some similarity to a plan described as under discussion by Jose Luis Zepada Pena, president of Mexican chemical industry body ANIQ in October. ANIQ proposed linking natural gas prices to the petrochemical market cycle.

    “When margins are good the government could charge a premium, when the market is bad the government would charge less. Sharing the wealth when times are good and the risk when times are bad," he said.


    Petrochemical Industry

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  23. Obama mentor identified as communist
    Frank Marshall Davis 'discussed American imperialism, colonialism, exploitation'

    Posted: February 19, 2008
    9:27 pm Eastern

    © 2008 WorldNetDaily

    The mysterious "Frank" cited as a friend and adviser by Democratic president contender Barack Obama while he was growing up in Hawaii has been identified as Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the old Moscow-controlled Communist Party USA.

    The identification comes from Cliff Kincaid in his column, "Obama's Communist Mentor," which was made available on the Accuracy in Media website.

    "Let's challenge the liberal media to report on this," he wrote in his column. "Will they have the honesty and integrity to do so?"

    Kincaid, who earlier reported on Obama's pending plan to ship $845 billion overseas to battle "global poverty" as evidence of his socialist leanings, said the newly revealed connection is even more worrisome.

    "Obama's communist connection adds to mounting public concern about a candidate who has come out of virtually nowhere, with a brief U.S. Senate legislative record, to become the Democratic Party frontrunner for the U.S. presidency," he wrote.

    In Obama's book, "Dreams From My Father," he repeatedly refers to his friend and adviser as "Frank."

    "The reason is apparent: Davis was a known communist who belonged to a party subservient to the Soviet Union. In fact, the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii identified him as a CPUSA member. What's more, anti-communist congressional committees, including the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), accused Davis of involvement in several Communist front organizations," Kincaid said.

    Kincaid noted Obama has admitted attending "social conferences" and seeing Marxist literature. "But he ridicules the charge of being a 'hard-core academic Marxist,' which was made by his colorful and outspoken 2004 U.S. Senate opponent, Republican Alan Keyes."

    He described the link as "ominous."

    "Decades ago, the CPUSA had tens of thousands of members, some of them covert agents who had penetrated the U.S. government. It received secret subsidies from the old Soviet Union," Kincaid wrote.

    He noted even Obama describes "Frank" has having "some modest notoriety once."

    Kincaid notes that a history professor in Houston reported that Davis "befriended" a family whose son was named Barack Obama, "who retracing the steps of Davis eventually decamped to Chicago."

    "It was in Chicago that Obama became a 'community organizer' and came into contact with more far-left political forces, including the Democratic Socialists of America…," Kincaid wrote. "The SDS laid siege to college campuses across America in the 1960s, mostly in order to protest the Vietnam War, and spawned the terrorist Weather Underground organization."

    He also reported Kathryn Takara, a professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, confirmed that Davis is the "Frank" in Obama's book.

    She did her dissertation on Davis, and wrote that he brought, "an acute sense of race relations and class struggle throughout America and the world" and that he openly discussed subjects such as American imperialism, colonialism and exploitation, according to AIM.

    Obama's campaign also, for the third straight day, declined to respond to WND requests for comment on the report of a Minnesota man who alleges he shared cocaine with Obama when Obama was a state lawmaker in Illinois.

    WND has reported on claims made by Larry Sinclair, who claims he took cocaine in 1999 with Obama, and participated in homosexual acts with him.

    Sinclair said his story was ignored by the news media, so he made his case last month in a YouTube video, which has now been viewed about 350,000 times.

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  24. Back in October, Robert Novak reported:

    “Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party’s presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it. The nature of the alleged scandal was not disclosed.”


    Obama Allegations

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  25. One can only hope Larry Sinclair gets a good reputable polygraph firm and passes with flying colors.

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  26. Mentored by a commie, smokes crack, gets bjs, belongs to a racist church, sympathetic to muzzies--real Mt. Rushmore material.

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  27. Susan Shirk, author of China: Fragile Superpower, is an ideal candidate to write a book for the popular audience on modern China’s development and China’s relationships with the outside world. Ms. Shirk is a professor at the University of California, a Mandarin Chinese speaker, and has focused her academic career on China and its political and economic development.

    She first visited China in 1971. Ms. Shirk was a deputy assistant secretary of state in the East Asian bureau during the second Clinton term; she possesses a massive Rolodex of government officials, academics, analysts, and military officers from China, Japan, Korea, and the United States.

    Ms. Shirk’s thesis is alarming. China’s political leadership is held hostage by both a Chinese society spinning out of its control and by a nationalistic and reactionary populace angry at old grievances and increasingly intoxicated with China’s rising power.


    Westhawk

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  28. In this sense, Ms. Shirk seems to be channeling Tolstoy. According to the great Russian author, the future is not in the hands of a few elite statesmen. Instead, like the movement of tectonic plates, the impersonal forces of culture, history, mass emotionalism, and memory will cause the earthquakes and volcanoes of history. The Politburo’s Standing Committee and the U.S. president’s National Security Council will be little more than spectators to the eruptions to come.

    Ms. Shirk’s description of politics in northeast Asia is eerily reminiscent of the social and cultural history of Europe between 1880 and 1914. Rapidly expanding but volatile economies, long memories of historical grievances, eager nationalism, rising confidence in national “destiny”, and elites losing control over events portray both circumstances. Ms. Shirk describes an immature state of politics in northeast Asia, both within the countries in the region and with respect to their relations with each other. Like a wise grandfather, the U.S. is there to supervise the squabbling teenagers. America’s presence in the region is preventing a crisis from blowing open but is also preventing the countries there from maturing politically.....

    ....Perhaps the most revealing lesson in Ms. Shirk’s book is its reminder to Western audiences about the fundamental differences between cultures. In the West, when university students protest against their governments’ foreign policies, such protests arise from feelings of guilt and seek to restrain the perceived aggressive actions of their governments. In China, when students revolt against the government, it is out of shame that their government is not aggressive enough. Such vast cultural differences must lead to miscalculation and then regret. Ms. Shirk pleads for better comprehension on all sides, but senses that time is slipping away.

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  29. The aviation industry was astounded at the Paris Air Show in June 2005, when three privately owned Indian carriers announced orders for over 150 new aircraft from Airbus and Boeing, costing more than $13 billion. Legacy carriers followed suit with Indian Airlines purchasing aircraft worth $2.2 billion from Airbus, and Air India entering into a deal with Boeing for $7.1 billion in new orders.

    Indian carriers have a stupendous 480 aircraft on order for delivery through to around 2012, against a fleet size of 310 aircraft at present. The recent increase in the number of orders reflects the future potential for airborne traffic equipment in the country, in turn increasing the growth potential of the Asia Pacific ATC equipment market.

    However, the Asia Pacific ATC equipment market is not without its share of challenges. These include inadequate infrastructure, constant terrorist threats, and continued fears over outbreak of SARS or Avian Flu and lack of quality employees and each of them can have a huge impact on the profitability of the ATC equipment market.


    Air Traffic Control Equipment

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  30. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  31. I've been ignoring that story as fishy, al-poe, but I must say it's heatin up!


    YouTube video, which has now been viewed more than a quarter-million times.


    And when it was still ignored by the media, Sinclair filed a suit in Minnesota

    District Court
    , alleging threats and intimidation by Obama's staff.

    Sinclair, who says he is willing to submit to a polygraph test to validate his
    claims, will now get his chance – thanks to
    a website offering $10,000 for the right to record it and $100,000 to Sinclair
    if he passes.
    "My motivation for making this public is my desire for a presidential candidate to be honest," Sinclair told WND by telephone. "I didn't want the sex thing to come out. But I think it is important for the candidate to be honest about his drug use as late as 1999."

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  32. Incompetent Democratic leadership coupled with their MoveOn.org-like attitude toward national security may prove a deadly combination for Americans at home and our soldiers abroad.

    The Democrats are saying that they didn’t have enough time to act. Since last April?

    Sen. Bond pointed out that, “The House spent the past week investigating baseball players…If only al-Queda were on steroids, perhaps the House leadership would be more interested in acting on FISA.”


    Gamble on FISA

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  33. I posted this at BC:
    ---
    "I kinda think a Republican would get noticed with a story that puts Larry Craig to shame, but that's the way it is, as Walter says.
    ---
    Maybe you notice you sometimes do it yourself?
    (apply a double standard)
    I do.
    The power of the propaganda machine."

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  34. Anybody with a name like Mugniyeh shoulda been dead a long time ago.

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  35. The truth will set you free they say, but the truth plus $100,000 will set you even freer. That's the conclusion our good friend Larry Sinclair has come to after considering the offer we made him yesterday: $10,000 to take a polygraph test over his Barack Obama sex and drugs claims, and $100,000 if he passes it.

    After communicating via email to work out the logistics of the challenge, we were able to reach an agreement. Now, the plan is to get together with Sinclair and one of the best polygraph experts in the country, and ask him some questions – with the camera rolling, of course. As more details are made available we will post it here.

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  36. Larry Craig ain't gonna take no stinkin' lie detector test!

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  37. The truth can sometimes get your ass in jail.

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  38. Fidel Castro's announcement that he will step down as president of Cuba is somewhat anti-climactic as it merely formalizes the country's political reality in which Raul Castro has run Cuba with Fidel's blessing. It represents not quite the end of an era - Raul will still be faithful to Fidel as long as his brother is alive - but it points to the coming end of an era.

    The beginning of change will occur after Fidel Castro dies. Dissatisfaction with domestic conditions in Cuba is so widespread and includes high levels of the communist party and government, that whoever is in charge of the post-Fidel regime will have a difficult time avoiding the political pressure and economic need for reforms, however limited those might at first be.


    Castro's Resignation

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  39. Excellent. Before the Ohio and Texas primaries :) This smells like Hillary to me.

    We're not ready to share all the details about our upcoming evening lie-detecting with Obama accuser Larry Sinclair, but there are a few things that we want to tell you – namely that we've agreed on a time and place to carry out our wager with Mr. Sinclair.

    We're going to meet him on Tuesday, February 26th at an undisclosed location in New York City. We've picked a polygraph expert, too: a renowned expert who has been involved in quite a few high-profile cases who we're not going to name until the results are not only in, but have been verified by a second renowned expert.

    Then, we'll post the results, the names of both polygraph experts, and other relevant information, along with video and pictures, here on Whitehouse.com. Since the outcome of the test will be vital interest to the voting public, our findings will be made available before the presidential primaries in Texas and Ohio slated for March 4. That's all for now, but check back for updates.

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  40. But will Sinclair live to take the test? His lawsuit says he has been threatened.

    Possible headline: Obama Accuser Found in Chicago Dumpster

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  41. Nah, Clinton goonies will protect him.

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  42. The guy next door, Chuck, had this comment on the Obama BJ Post:

    Posted by Chuck on 2/19/2008 11:45:33 PM

    "Some of them do care.
    I have many gay friends.
    My girlfriend is bisexual.
    I'm transgendered.
    We both care about issues in the GLBT community.
    I can marry my girlfriend because I'm legally a male now.

    My gay friends don't have the luxury of marrying their partners.

    Those who feel Obama is a hypocrite for doing one thing (getting a bj from a guy if it is true)
    and saying another
    (opposing some gay rights)
    will care.
    Unfortunately, many don't know because the
    mainstream media is avoiding this story like the plague. "
    ---
    If I can't keep that straight, does that mean I'm Gay?

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  43. :)

    It might.
    Then again, it might not.
    In the human zoo, you can be anything you choose to be.

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  44. I am replaying my President’s Day show today, an extended interview with Richard Norton Smith where we march through all 43 of the presidents (some get a lot more time than others.) I hope you listen throughout with the choice ahead of the country fixed firmly in your mind.

    The conservatives who wanted someone else have to get over it, quickly. This isn’t 1992 or 1996 (and 1992 and 1996 weren’t really the time of peace they appeared to be.)

    The U.S. isn’t guaranteed the ability to recover from four years of disasters in the war. The war’s got to be conducted by a president committed to victory, and that means supporting McCain.


    Hewitt

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  45. Good thing Mugniyeh ain't around to sneak in some Soccer BOMBS.

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  46. Hewitt had a bunch of Obama's wife at UCLA, which he said was really wild stuff.
    Haven't heard it yet.

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  47. Also had Regnery on:
    Grew up around the likes of Whittaker Chambers and Russel Kirk.

    Book out called "Upstream"

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  48. RUSH: Let's go back to the archives, the audio sound bites. This program yesterday, I said this.

    RUSH ARCHIVE: What if she actually loses? What if that happens?

    ...

    RUSH: I said that yesterday on this program. Now, we added some EQ there, ladies and gentlemen, to make it distinguishable from a live broadcast. From the Boston Globe today, and, by the way, this is written by Susan Milligan, obviously a female reporterette. The headline of the story: "Clinton's Struggle Vexes Feminists." (laughing) Folks, do I know these people or do I know them?


    Rush

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  49. "One last thing, this aide to Deval Patrick that was charged in Dec with sexually assaulting the 15-yr old boy in Florida - why has this not gained ground in the MSM, at least at the blogosphere level?

    I mean, he's the top aide to a good friend and SURROGATE for Obama, isn't he?

    Doesn't judgment and transparency matter?
    Could Obama be enroute to
    being a Clinton? "

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  50. Choosing between Hillary and Obama is giving this voter fits.

    Today, Hillary, speaking of people working in the financial markets and such, said people should do "real work."

    This resonates with me, yet I'm so conflicted.

    What to do, who to vote for....

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  51. Charles Gitout said...
    His chin proudly skyward, with a mere flick of his svelte aristocratic wrists, Obama will part this surly gauntlet of moralists, extortionists, homosexual traitors, anti-sharia muslims, the self-serving employed and the tyranny of the centrist extremists who'd sooner let historians judge us as coarse and crude than take the higher moral road. Michelle Obama was proud to see us look to that road and we should be proud of who showed us the way. And behind Michelle and Barack we shall walk to untold progress in the 21st century.

    Gone are the days when Negroponte and Hadley and Poindexter would haunt our dreams, gnashing their teeth as they slinked about, more creatures than men, swiping and clawing at the innocent vanguard, who've only the constitution, bill of rights and the UN charter to defend themselves. But still they kept charging, hurling explosive pyramids of TIA like impossible 8 bit monsters...

    When Obama road into town, its doubtful Americans care whether he strode atop a limousine blaring triumphal house music. They were happy to be rescued.

    2/19/2008 08:56:00 PM

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  52. Mr Gitout scores again:

    Elroy Jetson said...
    My first comment on this blog goes first to Mr. Gitout: you should try writing a novel. You do have a talent in painting a picture with words. It's too bad that picture is a nightmare.
    The truth is Charles that by the end of a first Obama term, we will be pining for the likes of Negroponte and company. Our enemies will sense that we have elected someone with no spine and they will show no mercy. Taiwan, Kosovo, Lebanon and the Iran-Iraq border will fire up almost simultaneously. Obama will get laughed out of the UN when he goes for the ultimate talk-a-thon in response. The first lady will say it is all because we have lost our souls.

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  53. Richard Hoagland, Enterprise Mission, says, unsurprisingly, that we are being buffaloed by this shoot down of the errant satellite. We are testing some new missile, or technology, and the rooskies know it. There is always a story behind the story. Why, he asks, was there no big to do about thorazine when the Shuttle broke up? It had plenty of thorazine aboard he says. This satellite is no spy satellite, but a skeet. We're just practicing our skills. The truth according to Hoagland, which will set you free, or get you in jail, if you act on it.

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  54. It's a dummy, a plant, we are flexing our muscles in the face of the chinaman. Telling us they are using a heat seeking missile to shoot down a bird without a big heat source. Sheesh, expecting us to believe that.

    And, it may well be, a caller says, that this thing going down on the night of the full moon of the eclipse of Columbus, is no coincidence, but rather a cover-up of possible well anticipated UFO activity on such a night. Hoagland allows he won't go quite that far, but it is true the government lies like hell, he says. You cannot trust what these government agencies tell you anymore, he states, and that is a terrible thing to have to say, he adds. Sign off.

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  55. Hey, that Embalming Fluid Comment was waay Outta Line, Al-Poe!
    ___

    Fiesta or Siesta: Does Obama Know the Difference?

    ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: Barack Obama is not a Spanish speaker, but regularly throws out Spanish phrases out of the campaign trail.

    "Si Se Puede" and "Mucho Gusto" are common phrases he feels comfortable saying.

    But today in San Antonio, Texas, his limited Spanish might have gotten the best of him as a small difference in words had a huge difference in meaning.

    A few people were leaving at the end of his town hall event while Obama was still speaking. Obama chalked that up, unknowingly, to them just wanting to beat traffic so he said goodbye in front of the 3,000 person crowd.

    But then said, "We're having a little siesta out here - a little party," as a way to coax them to come back.
    ---
    While Obama gave the 2005 State of the Union Spanish Democratic response in Spanish, the campaign admits it was with much coaching.

    Obama also has spoken in Spanish in a few of his campaign TV ads, intended to appeal to Hispanic voters in Nevada and California.
    ---
    Guy can give State of the Union Address in a Language he doesn't know, give voice to other politicians words as though they were his own!
    Whatta Guy!

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  56. Thorazine is what Al-Obama shoots up, Al-Poe!
    Hydrazine is what RWE and the Big Boys Play with.

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    ReplyDelete