Month: March 2008

3 Democrat House Members Trips to Iraq Paid for by Sadaam

As predicted above spokespersons are denying all knowledge, and saying they were making the trip “for the children.” This even though highly controversial remarks were made by McDermott live from Baghdad at the time about the potential of war and UN Resolutions having nothing to do with the purported reason for the trip.

From a Fox news article in 2002:

The remarks were blasted by Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., who said, “both sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government.”

This is just breaking, but intel reports just released shows that 3 members of the US House of Representatives traveled to Iraq financed by Sadaam Hussein’s intelligence agency in 2002, just before the Iraq war started. The trip appears to have been financed by yet another “Oil for food” Scam. From AP:

An indictment in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam’s regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary.

In exchange, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

The lawmakers are not mentioned but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. There was no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.

I’m sure that there will be forthcoming denials from all three, and please, whatever you do, just don’t question their patriotism…

Continue reading “3 Democrat House Members Trips to Iraq Paid for by Sadaam”

Pakistan’s New Prime Minister

President Pervez Musharraf has sworn in Yousef Raza Gilani as new Prime Minister of Pakistan, and it appears that the new coalition government has firmed up the factions and set a course. I’m still betting on Zardari to eventually move into the position, and will look at Gilani as the seat warmer until I see clear indicators of independence. 

Over the weekend yet another charge was cleared in courts against Zardari, and there have been articles on clearing up his educational bonafides, both indicators to me that he’s still jockeying for the position or at minimum a seat in Parliament. Yet to come is election to office in a bye-election as a precursor, but we should see that soon now that parliament and national assembly are seated. 

The new Prime Minister, Gilani, has said that he will not be a “yes-man” in reference to Musharraf, so the impact to US-Pakistan relations will have to be seen. In a parliamentary country where you have both a prime minister and a president things can get confusing when it comes to divvying up executive powers, so things will get interesting.

Continue reading “Pakistan’s New Prime Minister”

Faux Fitna Sites Propagate

After Network  Solutions suspended Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilder’s Fitnathemovie.com site the swirl of controversy has created a flock of imitators hoping to cash in or opportunistically leverage the sudden interest. (Yes, you could even call this article opportunistic, but I have a point to make here separate from Geert’s initiative.)

There have now been several “faux fitna” sites, and people are capitalizing on the buzz. What we do know is that the film has not yet been released, but Geert has said now that it will be released by April 1st. 

The last statement I can find in print from Geert Wilders after the suspension of the Fitnathemovie.com site by Network solutions states that he will “go hand out DVD’s on the dam if necessary.”

Continue reading “Faux Fitna Sites Propagate”

You Know Al Qaeda’s Gone When Children Come Outside to Play

Michael Totten has a great write up on his visit to Karmah in Iraq,  please go read it.

This one is particularly important — it shows several lessons that the government in Pakistan should learn. When the terrorists are the people’s only security then the army has no hope of combatting the Taliban in the frontiers.

For years frontier police in Pakistan have let criminal and Taliban gangs run rampant, and so now the extremists have taken on the role of law enforcement in the frontiers as Taliban now patrol the bazaars in Bajaur. That’s a clear sign of failure. 

Pakistan Frontier Fatwa Declares the Taliban Takfir

AJ at Stratasphere has important news that appeared, and then disappeared from The Nation today.  If you follow the link in Google now, you get a different story.

The story said that a cleric in the frontiers had issued an edict declaring the Taliban “un-islamic”. This is a turn of the tables on the Taliban, for it’s the Taliban who are used to declaring other Muslims Takfir when they disagree with the Taliban tactics, intimidation and murder of other Muslims.

UPDATE: Jawa Report was able to dig up the story here.

I’ve said in the past that important news in the frontiers doesn’t always make it from the Urdu-language papers to the online dailies, and here is a case where perhaps some did. Luckily AJ cut and pasted part of the story: 

The alleged militant group familiarly known as “Taliban” was declared “out of Islam” by 73 different sects of Muslims through an edict (Fatwa) circulated in parts of the narrow tribal strip of Darra Adamkhel.

The edict in Urdu language was circulated on behalf of Mufti Zainul Aabideen on Friday night. The one page edict focuses on Talibans’s terrorists’ acts in the area, particularly slaughtering of human beings and suicide attacks.

…

It is for the first time that a religious scholar declared “Taliban” as being “out of Islam.” The edict said that all the acts of Taliban are against the basic norms of Islam and humanity. “Even the Taliban leaders are considering themselves and their directives as superior to true Islamic principles and directives as ordained by Almighty Allah,” the edict said.

Here’s the important part:

Elaborating his point of view, the author of the edict states that the Taliban declare those infidel who oppose their ideas and interpret Islam according to their own needs and ideas, which is contrary to the all-embracing ideas of Islam.
In this respect, the author of the edict invited the attention of Taliban Mufti Khalid Shah’s edicts against internationally recognized Islamic scholars like late Maulana Hassan Jan, Allama Taqi Usmani, Maulana Tariq Jameel and others. He said that such edicts of Mufti Khalid Shah against such highly credible and respectable religious scholars were available on Tliban-made CDs. 
Mufti Zainul Aabideen further states that Taliban, despite chanting slogan of “Allah’s rule on Allah’s land” are ignoring this slogan in the areas under their control. They not only impose the system of their choice in these areas, but also forcibly collect the so-called taxes and fines from the people. They justify their terrorist acts discussing in mosques, schools and other public places and claim, “There is no sin in killing 100 innocent persons for one guilty person.” Islam prohibits killing of innocent people whereas the Taliban are killing innocent Muslims. Even they congratulate the terrorists and suicide bombers on, what they claim, “entrance into the heaven for killing the innocent people.”
The author of the edict further states that Taliban give preference to the directives of their amirs (heads or commanders) instead of following the directives of Allah Almighty and sayings of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Even Taliban affiliated to different groups are reluctant to recognize each other’s amirs (heads or commanders).
The author of the edict has in particular denounced slaughtering and beheading of the innocent people at hands of the Taliban. 
In the light of this edict, the author has requested Ulema and religious scholars to come forward to denounce such inhuman and immoral acts on the part of the Taliban.

More at The Post from a letter writer who pleads with the Ulema to speak out as well.

Barrack and Hillary are Born Losers

We have a guest post from Wildbeggar today

After listening to the politicos venting their spleens on Bush’s war on terrorism and how he stole the election in 2000, it irks me that we have so many of the people who want to be president but yet surrender to the terrorists.

This is not a nation of losers. We have fought for our independence and our survival for over 200 years and I have never read nor heard of any war we fought where the idea was go go in and give up. In all the wars we have fought, there have been set backs, we have suffered defeats, we have lost lives, ships, territory – but even through the darkest days, we have still managed to pull together whether by luck, good planning or God’s help we have defeated every foe we have faced.

Now, we have two people who are running for the highest office of this nation who have the idea that we cannot win. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have a defeatist mentality. They are born losers to think they can win the Presidency then surrender to the war on radical Islam and make this country a great nation as it always has been. We do not play football, baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey or any other sport with the express intention of going out on the field to lose regardless of how good the other team is.

The very idea that pulling out of Iraq and using the money we are spending on the war would be better used to help the “little guy” is completely insane. A lot of the “little guys” that Sen Ted Kennedy describes are sitting in an alley somewhere with a bottle of wine in his mouth or a needle in his arm and won’t vote anyway. Giving a check to everyone because of the subprime mortgage screwup is another mistake by Congress, next they’ll send you a check to
help you make your car payments. If they think the “little guy” is in trouble now, wait until the radical Islamists take over the Middle East and control most of the world’s oil production.

Every nation in the world will suffer, not only the U.S., Japan, or Europe. The prices of growing, transporting and storing food will rise so high that no one can afford it. It will take a wheelbarrow full of money to buy gasoline for your vehicle if you can find any gasoline to begin with.

Hillary Clinton or Obama will start sending out government checks that will be worthless and only good to light a fire to keep warm. The war against the radical Islamists is not only in Iraq, it is worldwide, from Britain to Austrailia, from South Africa to China, Russian, Moracco, Spain, Indonesia, The Philippines and nearly every country on earth. They can and must be defeated by leaders who are not afraid to face them. Hillary and Obama are not the leaders who will take charge to go for a victory over this threat.

— Wildbeggar

Number 1 With a Bullet: Pakistan Tops the Terror Charts

When you shelter vipers for ten or more years, you should expect to get bit. Especially if all your neighbors chase them home to you. After large-scale failures in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Al Qaeda and the affiliated terror groups that shelter under their umbrella have no place better than Pakistan to run or hide.

Pakistan will continue to bear the brunt of the war on terror in the forseeable future due to their ambivalence. From the Post:

LAHORE: Pakistan is not only among the countries with the highest incidence of terrorism but it also tops the list of suicide bombings, leaving Afghanistan and Iraq behind during the first three months of 2008.During this period, Pakistan experienced eighteen suicide attacks in which more than 250 people died. Whereas in both war-ridden countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, had a fewer number of suicide attacks.Iraq experienced thirteen suicide bombings which claimed 274 lives while 15 people died in three suicide attacks in Afghanistan during the first three months of 2008.In 2007, Iraq topped the list of bombings and fatalities among these three countries with more than 150 suicide attacks. Afghanistan had more than 100 suicide attacks and Pakistan came third with 56 attacks but had more fatalities than that of Afghanistan.

In America the vile Reverend Wright talks of chickens home to roost, but since late 2006 I’ve been predicting that Pakistan’s crows would come back to haunt them forevermore.

Continue reading “Number 1 With a Bullet: Pakistan Tops the Terror Charts”

No Fitna, but Plenty of Fools

UPDATE: Ok, now it’s being stated that the UK site linked below is a hoax itself, and that it’s not owned by Geert Wilders. Sorry you missed all that ad cash Geert… I’m unlinking until I get to the bottom of this.  I guess that makes me the fool. I should know better than to jump on something before I”ve had my am coffee.

There’s been a ton of controversy about Geert Wilders movie “Fitna” which was supposed to criticize Islam in a short fifteen minute feature. Well here’s Fitna, hosted at the UK site since the US host, Network Solutions, pre-emptively blocked it.

That’s right, there isn’t a movie. Geert’s criticism of Islam consists entirely of the reaction to the idea that someone would make a movie critical of Islam.

If you are wondering about the strikeout above, originally it was thought there were two sites, one in the UK to mirror the US site, but it turns out that the UK site is a fraud, either a Muslim trying to counter, a deranged leftist, or possibly just an opportunistic ad spammer capitalizing on the controversy and buzz. Continue reading “No Fitna, but Plenty of Fools”