New Hampshire Health News Digest

Military Jokes Military Humor - If the historic victory against the Japanese navy at Midway was described by contemporary media, what would they say? Midway Island Demolished. Yorktown, destroyer sunk. Many US planes lost June 7, 1942 The United States Navy suffered another blow in its attempt to stem the Japanese juggernaut ravaging the Pacific Ocean. Midway Island, perhaps the most vital U.S. outpost, was pummeled by Japanese Naval aviators. The defending U.S. forces, consisting primarily of antique Buffalo fighters, were competely wiped out while the Japanese attackers suffered few, if any, losses. In a nearby naval confrontation, the Japanese successfully attacked the Yorktown which was later sunk by a Japanese submarine. A destroyer lashed to the Yorktown was also sunk. American forces claim to have sunk four Japanese carriers and the cruiser Mogami but those claims were vehemently denied by the Emporer's spokeman. The American carriers lost an entire squadro...

Why Moslem Countries Cooperate Against al Qaeda Why Moslem Countries Cooperate Against al Qaeda by James Dunnigan October 23, 2005 Discussion Board on this DLS topic Yemen, despite having an ongoing civil war with Islamic conservative Shia tribes on the Saudi border, plus many Sunni Arab Yemenis being big fans of al Qaeda, has made progress crippling terrorist operations in their territory. The recent arrest of al Qaedas senior man in Yemen, Mubkhit Salih al Kuabi was a major operation. More attacks on American ships were planned by al Qaeda, and al Kuabi was sent to make it happen. Apparently, the intelligence efforts of several Arab countries, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia, were used to identify and locate al Kuabi (who was working for Iraqi al Qaeda leader al-Zarqawi.) Al Kuabi turned out to be a very senior guy, very well connected, and very useful once interrogators got to work on him. Yemen plays down this cooperation with other Arab countries, mainly because the...

Iraq: Sunni Arab Nightmare Sunni Arab Nightmare October 30, 2005: After two years of fighting, the Iraqi Sunni Arabs are seeing their worst nightmare come true. And that is an Iraqi army and police force that can do the job, and is not led by Sunni Arabs. For generations, Iraq was dominated by Sunni Arabs, because Sunni Arabs held most of the leadership posts in the army and police. Kurds and Shia Arabs were often the majority of the troops and beat cops, but they nearly always took orders from a hierarchy of Sunni Arab supervisors and officers. The Sunni Arabs knew that the management and leadership skills necessary to run an army or police force were not easily acquired. It took years of training and experience. There was no way the Kurds and Shia Arabs could quickly replace those Sunni Arab officers and NCOs. Thus Sunni Arab terrorists would drive out the foreign troops, especially the deadly Americans, and, then the Sunni Arabs would take over again. But then something very,...

Commandos and Special Operations : "Can't Get Enough Little Birds October 31, 2005: The “commando Olympics” going on in Afghanistan has brought commando units from over a dozen countries together to pursue Islamic terrorists. In addition to all the cooperation, there’s also a lot comparing notes. One thing everyone has noted is the large number of useful gadgets American Special Forces troops have. The most envied item is the American Raven UAV. What makes this little (4.2 pounds) bird so popular is its low cost ($25,000 each) and performance (can stay in the air for 80 minutes at a time). The Raven is battery powered, and carries a color day vidcam, or a two color infrared night camera. Both cameras broadcast real time video back to the operator, who controls the Raven via a laptop computer. The Raven can go as fast as 90 kilometers an hour, but usually cruises between 40 and 50. It can go as far as 15 kilometers from its controller on the ground, and usually flies a prepr...

Submarines : "The American Nightmare Undergoes Sea Trials October 30, 2005: Germany has commissioned its first Type 212 submarines. The first one, U-31, is now undergoing sea trials. Three more are under construction. These are special boats, as they possess fuel cells (for AIP, or Air Independent Propulsion) , which enable them to quietly operate underwater for weeks at a time. They still have diesel propulsion, but this is only used for surface travel. The 212’s are also very quiet, quieter than most nuclear boats in service. This makes them an even match for a current nuclear boat equipped with better sensors. The 1,500 ton 212’s are much smaller than nuclear boats (188 feet long, compared to 360 feet and 6,200 tons for the new U.S. Virginia class SSNs). The nuclear boats are used for a lot more than hunting other ships, and subs, while the 212’s are mainly attack boats, and well designed and equipped for it. While Germany is an American ally, their development of fuel cell ...

Attrition : "To deal with the demands of Iraq and Afghanistan, the army is doing some long-overdue housecleaning. So far, about 40,000 troops have been shifted from support to combat jobs. This has caused some ill-will among some of the troops transferred, especially among female soldiers, who are not as keen on the “field army” life as are most male troops. But the army has not experienced any fall in re-enlistments because of this. Troops know, far better than Congress or the folks-back-home, that there is a war on, and that the army is winning it. While under orders to keep quiet about the “when will the troops return from Iraq” subject, planners can track the growth in Iraqi police and army strength, against the decline in terrorist attacks, and support. U.S. Army troops strength in Iraq will be declining soon, and the risks of being in Iraq are already declining. Thus by the time the army got any new troops, as demanded by Congress, it would have nothing for them to do....

Al Qaeda Takes a Big PR Hit by James Dunnigan A new poll by the Pew Research Organization, revealed that support for al Qaeda, in Moslem nations, was declining. In only one Moslem country, Jordan, was support for Islamic terrorism increasing (from 55 percent in 2002, to 60 percent now.) More typical was Morocco, where support for al Qaeda dropped from 49 to 26 percent. In Lebanon, only two percent of the population supported al Qaeda. Jordan’s attitudes are influenced by the fact that most of the population considers themselves Palestinian (or at least descended from Palestinian refugees). Jordan has also seen very few al Qaeda attacks. This is mostly due to the efficient police force, who are dominated by the Bedouin minority that runs the kingdom. One aspect of that control is to allow people to say, and believe, what they want. While the Palestinian majority may not like the monarchy, they know that the Bedouins would respond violently to any uprising. That has happened of...

BREITBART.COM - Russia's Putin Won't Seek Third Term Russia's Putin Won't Seek Third Term By STEVE GUTTERMAN Associated Press Writer MOSCOW President Vladimir Putin said Monday he won't seek a third term in but vowed not to allow "destabilization" in Russia following the vote, leaving the door open for drastic action in the event of a crisis. In an interview with Dutch media on the eve of a visit to the Netherlands, Putin reiterated that he opposes changing the constitution to prolong his time in power _ a possibility that has been widely discussed because his popularity and control over parliament. But Putin said that the 2008 presidential election will be a "serious, difficult test for Russia" and stressed that full power and responsibility for the fate of the country will remain in his hands until the new president is sworn in. "I will not allow any destabilization in Russia, in the interests of the ... peoples of the R...

US cedes some control in Iraq - The Boston Globe Authority shifts at 27 of nation's 109 military bases By Solomon Moore, Los Angeles Times | October 29, 2005 TIKRIT, Iraq -- Seeking to lower the visibility of US troops and grant more authority to Iraqi government forces, the American military has ceded control of 27 of the nation's 109 bases, US and Iraqi officials said. Thousands of US troops have been redeployed in recent months from bases in Najaf, Karbala, Tikrit, and other cities, and Iraqis are in charge of patrol areas that include four districts of Baghdad and the town of Taiji, northeast of the capital. American officials announced yesterday that the next major military installation expected to be transferred to Iraqi control was former president Saddam Hussein's palace complex in Tikrit. The site, renamed Forward Operating Base Danger, houses more than 6,000 US troops. Iraqi and US officials said they had quickened the pace of such security tr...

Iraq election to offer voters legions of candidates : "Washington, which has some 160,000 troops in Iraq more than two and a half years after the invasion, hopes the participation of more Sunni parties in the December vote will undermine the insurgency and bring more Sunnis into the political fold. Sunni Arabs, who represent about 20 percent of the population, have lost influence and they voted overwhelmingly against the constitution, narrowly failing to veto it. The barometer of the election may be the ethnically and religiously mixed capital city, Baghdad, where the parties will contest 59 of the 230 seats allocated to the provinces. Parliament will have 275 seats, of which 45 will be distributed nationally as 'compensatory seats' to parties that do not win seats in the provinces yet do score enough votes for at least one seat at a national level. 'This election law, which is special for countries with religious and ethnic minorities, aims for a f...

Allawi touts his vote list as non-ethnic and non-secular - Yahoo! News BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi deputy Iyad Allawi has set up his own list to fight the December general elections, touting it as non-ethnic and non-secular and so better able to preserve the country's unity. ADVERTISEMENT Appearing at a televised news conference alongside him were communist leader Hamid Mejid Mussa and Adnan Pashashi, a Sunni Arab leader and former foreign minister who have joined the National Iraqi list. "Growing ethnic polarization risks causing endless conflit in Iraq which could also split along sectarian lines," Allawi warned on Saturday. The former prime minister said that only his own alliance would offer a better deal for all. Three powerful national lists have been established along communal lines by Iraqi Shiites, Kurds and Sunni Arabs to run in the December 15 vote. "The facts prove that Iraq is in need of a powerful independent government," Allawi also...

Military Testing Infrared Gunfire Detector Military Testing Infrared Gunfire Detector By JEFFREY McMURRAY, Associated Press Writer A sniper fires on American troops in Iraq. In the milliseconds before the bullet hits — in fact, before the shot is even heard — a computer screen reveals the gun's model and exact location. That's the kind of intelligence that can save soldiers' lives. The Army is currently testing the technology in combat. The devices are made by Radiance Technologies, a small Alabama company, and differ in their approach to gunfire detection from systems already deployed in Iraq that rely on acoustics. Radiance's invention, WeaponWatch, is powered by infrared sensors that detect missiles or gunfire at the speed of light. "Obviously when the first shot is fired, you can't do anything about it," said George Clark, president of the company founded in 1999. "But what it does do is it allows you to not have a second fired....

Brother of one of Iraq’s VPs gunned down - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com : "In an interview Saturday with FOX News, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani complained that American commanders were stalling on giving Iraqi forces a bigger role in battling the insurgents. “We ask them for things to change, they agree, and then nothing happens,” Talabani said. He said the Iraqis would prefer for coalition forces to concentrate on protecting oil pipelines and other key infrastructure."

Herald Sun: Police told to respect traditions [ 25oct05 ] Police told to respect traditions Liam Houlihan, religious affairs reporter 25oct05 POLICE are being advised to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits. Officers are also being urged to work with Muslim leaders, who will try to keep the families together. Women's groups are concerned the politically correct policing could give comfort to wife bashers and keep their victims in a cycle of violence. The instructions come in a religious diversity handbook given to Victorian police officers that also recommends special treatment for suspects of Aboriginal, Hindu and Buddhist background. Some police officers have claimed the directives hinder enforcing the law equally. Police are told: "In incidents such as domestic violence, police need to have an understanding of the traditions, ways of life and habits of Muslims." They are told it wo...

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2005 BROOKS: WHY ARE DEMS SO OVERHEATED? : Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald did not find evidence to prove that there was a 'broad conspiracy to out a covert agent for political gain. He did not find evidence of wide-ranging criminal behavior. He did not even indict the media's ordained villain, Karl Rove,' writes David Brooks in Sunday's NY TIMES. 'Leading Democratic politicians filled the air with grand conspiracy theories that would be at home in the John Birch Society.' 'Why are these people so compulsively overheated?.. Why do they have to slather on wild, unsupported charges that do little more than make them look unhinged? Brooks quotes from an essay written 40 years ago by Richard Hofstadter called 'The Paranoid Style in American Politics.' Hofstadter argued that sometimes people who are dispossessed, who feel their country has been taken away from them and their kind, develop an angry, suspicious and ...

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Three Indonesian girls beheaded Three girls have been beheaded and another badly injured as they walked to a Christian school in Indonesia. They were walking through a cocoa plantation near the city of Poso in central Sulawesi province when they were attacked. This is an area that has a long history of religious violence between Muslims and Christians. A government-brokered truce has only partially succeeded in reducing the number of incidents in recent years. Police say the heads were found some distance from the bodies. It is unclear what was behind the attack, but the girls attended a private Christian school and one of the heads was left outside a church leading to speculation that it might have had a religious motive. Islamic state Central Sulawesi and Poso in particular was the scene of bitter fighting between Muslims and Christians in 2001 and 2002. Muslim gang members carry makeshift rifles as Christian h...

Next Generation - Spend The Night : "A game in which adults are encouraged to indulge their sexual fantasies is bound to attract the media's attention but, so far, Republik's Spend the Night has been keeping a low profile. Come the middle of next year, when it launches online, that'll all change. Details are scant at present, and Coshland doesn't want to give too much away, but the basics are simple. Players go online, choose a graphical identity, mooch around with other players, find someone they like, and find a room. Graphics claimed to be 'cinematic' are promised, and a simple interface allows the action to proceed. 'This is a fantasy multiplayer dating game,' says Coshland. 'It's not like the dating games that we've seen coming out of Japan where you try to win the favor of someone of the opposite sex. We're providing more of a game where two people can go on a date and interact in a 3D space.' Target market ...

Wired News: Coming Soon: Online Sex Games "I'm on a perpetual hunt for a sex game targeting women," says Brenda Brathwaite, a game industry veteran and featured speaker at this week's Women's Game Conference in Austin, Texas. One of the questions I get asked most frequently is "where can I find good cybersex?" And one of my answers is games, with the caveat that you shouldn't join a MMPORG just for sex. Rather, games are places to meet other people who share at least one interest with you, and sometimes the relationships that arise lead to flirting and cybersex. Sometimes they don't. Yet we're finally glimpsing games on the horizon that support relationship building and sexual interaction as part of the game play. What's more, these game developers recognize that a crucial part of attracting gamers is to appeal to all gamers -- not just the half of the population with penises. "The Sims is hardly the 'No. 1 sex game,...

The first advertisement appeared in USA Today a week ago, right on schedule. People from around the world had stayed up all night waiting for it, talking in chat rooms and online forums. It had to be a clue, they thought. Everything before it had been a clue. "LOST. The Cube," read the ad, posted at the top of the paper's "Notices" section. "Reward Offered. Not only an object of great significance to the city but also a technological wonder." News.context The cryptic notice, along with several subsequent ads in The New York Sun, The Times of London and Monday's Sydney Daily Telegraph, are the first tangible signs of a mystery called "Perplex City" beginning to unfold online. It is the latest well-funded entry in a young medium called "alternate-reality gaming"--an obsession-inspiring genre that blends real-life treasure hunting, interactive storytelling, video games and online community and may, incidentally, be o...

Lebanon army tightens siege of Palestinian militants - Yahoo! News : SULTAN YACOUB, Lebanon (AFP) - The Lebanese army tightened the noose around seven Palestinian militant bases close to the Syrian border after a militant leader said his men were holding six soldiers captive and the UN envoy called for action to disarm the fighters. Officers said some 500 soldiers backed by 50 armoured cars were now deployed around the camps in the foothills of the Anti-Lebanon range that marks the border -- two operated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and five by Fatah-Intifada. Troops were seen manning checkpoints on all access roads to the bases and operating armoured patrols on the tracks linking PFLP-GC bases in Sultan Yacoub and Kfarazabad to those of Fatah-Intifada around Halwa, 15 kilometres (10 miles) away. 'We have cut off all the Palestinian bases' supply routes and the land links between them,' one Lebanese officer told...

Telegraph | News | Best-seller urges Chinese to release their inner wolf : "But these are not the only reasons why the book has prompted debate in newspapers and the internet. Littered through the text are numerous psychological and political commentaries, culminating in a 50,000-character appendix. Jiang's theory is that China's farming culture created a desire for peace secured by a strong ruler. As a result, Confucianism and an authoritarian education system created a nation of sheep, weak in the face of aggression. Among the predators were wolf-like nations such as the Mongolians, which subjugated China under Genghis Khan. Now, he says, the danger is reversed as the sheep take over, crushing the free spirits of its own minorities, like the Chinese Mongolians with whom he once lived, and destroying the environment. Individualism, a way of looking at life that many Chinese insist is western and alien to their culture, has been exercising the country a lot...

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraqi parties form election blocs The main Sunni parties that boycotted the vote in January have set up a coalition, the Iraqi Accord Front. The US hopes Sunni participation will sap support from the insurgency. Iraq's political process received a boost this week with the announcement that voters had backed the new constitution in the 15 October referendum. The result came despite strong opposition from the minority Sunni community. The new Sunni alliance, announced on Tuesday, called on Iraqis to take part in the December's poll and to reject any calls for a boycott. They want to increase Sunni representation in the national assembly, which is dominated by Shia and Kurd parties partly because of the Sunni boycott in January. Clashes The ruling Shia Islamist parties only agreed to register as a united bloc after a last-minute agreement on Thursday evening. "The United Iraqi Alliance will be maintained," said Jawad M...

Telegraph | News | Sunnis and radical Shias enter Iraq poll : " Sunnis and radical Shias enter Iraq poll By Oliver Poole in Baghdad (Filed: 29/10/2005) Two groups at the forefront of the violent resistance to the American presence in Iraq - the country's Sunni community and followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shia cleric - yesterday put forward candidates for December's national election. The move is a notable success for the US, which has been trying to draw both factions into the political process after they officially boycotted January's vote."

Sistani ends Shia party backing Ayatollah Sistani, one of Iraq's most senior Shia clerics, will not endorse any political groups for December's election, his spokesman has said. The grand ayatollah wants Iraqis to vote according to their beliefs, Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai said in a sermon on Friday. The ayatollah's statement may worry the ruling Shia-led coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance. His support before the January election helped them win over many Iraqi Shia. Delivering a Friday sermon in the holy city of Karbala, Sheikh Karbalai revealed that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, a marja, or source of emulation for his followers, would not back any party. "The marja enjoins Iraqis to participate massively in the forthcoming elections, but does not support any political group in particular," he said. "It's up to Iraqis to make their choice based on their beliefs."

Economy Grows at an Energetic Rate in 3Q By JEANNINE AVERSA WASHINGTON (AP) - Economic activity expanded at an energetic 3.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter, providing vivid evidence of the economy's stamina even as it coped with the destructive forces of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The latest snapshot of the country's economic performance, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, even marked an improvement from the solid 3.3 percent pace of growth registered in the second quarter. Growth in the third quarter was broad-based, reflecting brisk spending by consumers, businesses and government. "Holy Katrina! The economy weathered two major hurricanes and in spite of that showed accelerated growth," said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. "I think what this shows is that fundamentally the economy was and is in really good shape." [...]

WASHINGTON - Cuba has unexpectedly agreed to a quiet U.S. offer of emergency aid following Hurricane Wilma, and three Americans will travel to Cuba to assess needs there, the State Department said Thursday. Washington has routinely offered humanitarian relief for hurricanes and other disasters in Cuba, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro himself has routinely turned the offers down. After Hurricane Dennis pummeled the island in July, Castro expressed gratitude for Washington’s offer of $50,000 in aid but rejected it. “This was the first time they have accepted an offer of assistance,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, at least based on the “collective memory” of diplomats at the department. I love how the lefties are always crowing about how Cuba's hurricane preparation far exceeds ours. Too bad there's no free press in Cuba so we can see how things really are on the island. I hope Castro dies soon so Cuba can be free.

Iran lets senior al Qaeda suspects roam free: report - Yahoo! News BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran is permitting around 25 high-ranking al Qaeda members to roam free in the country's capital, including three sons of Osama bin Laden, a German monthly magazine reported on Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT Citing information from unnamed Western intelligence sources, the magazine Cicero said in a preview of an article appearing in its November edition that the individuals in question are from Egypt, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Europe. They are living in houses belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the report said. "This is not incarceration or house arrest," a Western intelligence agent was quoted as saying. "They can move around as they please." The three sons of Osama bin Laden in Iran are Saeed, Mohammad and Othman, Cicero reported. Another person enjoying the support of the Revolutionary Guards is al Qaeda spokesman Abu Ghaib, the report said. Ira...

The American Enterprise: Not a Sunni Day for the Left Two leading writers on the Left, Sam Rosenfeld and Matthew Yglesias, recently garnered significant attention with a piece they wrote in The American Prospect entitled “The Incompetency Dodge.” In short, they argue that liberals who supported U.S. entry into Iraq—but have since qualified their support by contending that there weren’t enough forces and/or the post-war planning was abysmal—are engaging in a “fool’s endeavor.” Rosenfeld and Yglesias contend that “using force to build a pluralistic liberal democracy where none existed before could count as a moral justification for war if we had any sense of how to feasibly engage in such an endeavor, but the evidence from Iraq and elsewhere indicates that we do not.” Moreover, they reason that “injustice exists in the world that is beyond America’s capacity to remedy. Refusal to see this—which is part and parcel of the incompetence dodge—may be the liberal hawks’ most danger...

Democratic Revolutions Slow, Painfully Incremental Miracles - On Point Commentary by Austin Bay StrategyPage.com Democratic Revolutions Slow, Painfully Incremental Miracles by Austin Bay October 26, 2005 Discussion Board on this On Point topic The Iraqi constitution -- now ratified by the Iraqi people -- is another signal that the democratic revolts of 2004 and 2005 won't be defeated by murderous tyrants and autocrats. The democratic revolts began with Afghanistan's October 2004 presidential election. Ukraine's Orange Revolution added momentum. Palestinians and Iraqis went to the polls in January 2005. Lebanon's pro-democracy street rallies, following the murder of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, continued the surge. Democratic revolutions, however, are slow, painfully incremental miracles. Take Iraq's constitutional process as the au courant example. Prior to the election, Iraqi Sunni negotiators insisted on an amendment procedure, and they ...

Telegraph | News | Agent behind fake uranium documents worked for France The Italian businessman at the centre of a furious row between France and Italy over whose intelligence service was to blame for bogus documents suggesting Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy material for nuclear bombs has admitted that he was in the pay of France. The man, identified by an Italian news agency as Rocco Martino, was the subject of a Telegraph article earlier this month in which he was referred to by his intelligence codename, “Giacomo”. His admission to investigating magistrates in Rome on Friday apparently confirms suggestions that - by commissioning “Giacomo” to procure and circulate documents - France was responsible for some of the information later used by Britain and the United States to promote the case for war with Iraq. Italian diplomats have claimed that, by disseminating bogus documents stating that Iraq was trying to buy low-grade “yellowcake” uranium from Nig...

Why Ask Why? - Terrorist attacks aren't caused by any policy except that of the bombers themselves. By Christopher Hitchens Do not forget that on Aug. 19, 2003, a gigantic explosion leveled the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, which then served as the Iraq headquarters of the United Nations. The materials used to do this were of a high military grade not available to any random "insurgent" and certainly came from the arsenals of the fallen regime. The main target—and principal victim—was Sergio Vieira de Mello, the dashing Brazilian who had been sent by Kofi Annan to reanimate the U.N. presence in Iraq. De Mello had been the most devoted and humane of the world body's civil servants and had won himself golden opinions in Cambodia, Lebanon, Sudan, and the Balkans. But it was his role as U.N. supervisor of the transition in East Timor that marked him for death. A communiqué from al-Qaida gloated over the end of "the personal representative of America's criminal slav...

Rebellion Creeping Through Caucasus By Kim Murphy Times Staff Writer Sun Oct 23, 7:55 AM ET GHIMRI, Russia — A dripping and cavernous tunnel, three miles through the belly of the mountain and lighted only by a spindly strand of dim bulbs, marks the entrance to the land of deep gorges and outlaw villages of the Caucasus range. ADVERTISEMENT [-71724] Emerging in the bright daylight on the other side is like entering another world, a Russia that is not Russia. Road signs every few feet are bright green with Arabic script: "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet." Several dozen signs bear the words of a legendary Caucasian warrior: "He who thinks about consequences is not a hero." Since the 19th century, Russia has tried to tame the 650 miles of snowy peaks and fertile lowland slopes between the Caspian and Black seas. Today, the Caucasus wars seeping out of Chechnya through the surrounding, predominantly Muslim republics are increasingly b...

Independent Online Edition > Homer becomes Omar for Arab makeover of Simpsons : With Omar as Homer, and Badr substituted for Bart, The Simpsons is now playing on Arab television. But in order not to risk offending an Arab audience, the characters in Al Shamshoon, as the show is now called, have modified some of their most distinguishable traits. Omar may look the same as in the series that debuted in 1987, but he has swapped Duff beer for soft drinks; no longer hangs out at "seedy bars with bums and lowlifes" - Moe no longer owns a bar - and eats barbequed Egyptian beef sausages instead of non-Halal hotdogs. He even grazes on Arab kahk cookies in place of doughnuts. The dysfunctional family, that continues to live in Springfield, have not wholly reformed. Omar is still lazy and Badr continues to bate his teachers and parents. The adaptation, which began in time for Ramadam when television viewing figures peak, uses the original Simpsons animation. High profile Egyptian ac...

VDH's Private Papers::With a Whimper With a Whimper How the violence in Iraq will end. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The Western media was relatively quiet about the quite amazing news from the recent trifecta in Iraq: very little violence on election day, Sunni participation, and approval of the constitution. Those who forecasted that either the Sunnis would boycott, or that the constitution would be — and should be — rejected, stayed mum. But how odd that in the face of threats, a higher percentage of Iraqis in this nascent democracy voted in a referendum than did we Americans during our most recent presidential election — we who have grown so weary of Iraq’s experiment. Something must be going on when the cable-news outlets could not whet their appetite for carnival-like violence and pyrotechnics in Iraq, and so diverted their attention to Toledo, where live streams of American looting and arson seemed to be more like Iraq than Iraq. [...] I...

UN office doctored report on murder of Hariri - World - Times Online THE United Nations withheld some of the most damaging allegations against Syria in its report on the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, it emerged yesterday. The names of the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle, were dropped from the report that was sent to the Security Council. The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes. The mistaken release of the unedited report added further support to the published conclusion that Syria was behind Mr Hariri’s assassination in a bomb blast on Valentine’s Day in Beirut. The murder of Mr Hariri touched off an international outcry and hastened Syria’s departure from Lebanon in April after a 29-year pervasive military presence. ...

Stench Prompted U.S. Troops to Burn Corpses The desecration of Taliban dead prompts outrage in Afghanistan There simply wasn't enough room on the rocky hilltop above Gonbaz village in southern Afghanistan for the U.S. platoon and the corpses of the two Taliban fighters. The Taliban men had been killed in a firefight 24 hours earlier, and in the 90 degree heat, their bodies had become an unbearable presence, soldiers who were present have told TIME. Nor was the U.S. Army unit about to leave — the hilltop commanded a strategic view of the village below where other Taliban were suspected to be hiding. Earlier, Lt. Eric Nelson, the leader of B Company, I-508 platoon leader had sent word down to Gonbaz asking the villagers to pick up the bodies and bury them according to Muslim ritual. But the villagers refused — probably because the dead fighters weren't locals but Pakistanis, surmised one U.S. army officer. It was then that Lt. Nelson took the decision that could jeopar...

UN report rocks ruling elites in Syria, Lebanon A United Nations investigation headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis has identified political and military leaders as suspects in the Hariri assassination, Western diplomatic sources said. The report, relayed on Thursday to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, determined that leading Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officers lied to UN investigators and could be subject to prosecution. The UN investigation would also examine the purported suicide of Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, a major suspect in the Hariri killing, Middle East Newsline reported. Kanaan's family was said to have accused the Assad regime of killing Kanaan to prevent him from cooperating with the Mehlis probe. [...] The report concluded that four Lebanese generals, now in detention in Beirut, helped plan the Hariri assassination. The Lebanese generals were also said to have coordinated with Gen. Rustom Ghazaleh, then head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon. ...

British Muslim group declares new jihad A Ynetnews investigation has uncovered online recruitment of British Muslims for participation in terror attacks; 'We should give them another magnificent day in history' threatens one man Yaakov Lappin A declaration of war on Britain and the West is continuing to be issued by British Muslims in the United Kingdom, as the pro-jihad message of Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, recently banned from Britain, is echoed by his followers who have remained behind. Bakri, who is now based in Beirut, once headed the al-Muhajiroun group, linked to the 2003 terror attack on the Mike’s Place Bar in Tel Aviv. The suicide bomber behind that attack was a British Muslim. Using internet sermons, recordings, videos and documents, followers of Bakri, who say they are in touch with the Lebanon-based preacher, call on British Muslims to join al-Qaeda and to carry out acts of terrorism. [...] Mizaan, who told listeners “that is my real name,” s...

Film rolls as troops burn dead - World - smh.com.au Film rolls as troops burn dead By Tom Allard October 19, 2005 Page Tools * Email to a friend * Printer format * * US soldiers in Afghanistan burnt the bodies of dead Taliban and taunted their opponents about the corpses, in an act deeply offensive to Muslims and in breach of the Geneva conventions. An investigation by SBS's Dateline program, to be aired tonight, filmed the burning of the bodies. It also filmed a US Army psychological operations unit broadcasting a message boasting of the burnt corpses into a village believed to be harbouring Taliban. According to an SBS translation of the message, delivered in the local language, the soldiers accused Taliban fighters near Kandahar of being "cowardly dogs". "You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you...

Security Consulting Intelligence Agency - Strategic Forecasting Nalchik: The 9/11 That Wasn't By Fred Burton Russian military forces are continuing mop-up operations in Nalchik, a city in the Caucasus region where Islamist militants last week staged a series of coordinated attacks -- signaling attempts to widen the Chechen conflict to other parts of Russia. The incident, which burst into the international news Oct. 13, is significant on several levels -- not least of which was the much-improved counterterrorism response by Russian forces, without which the raids conceivably might have expanded into something approaching the Sept. 11 attacks in terms of geopolitical impact. As it happens, the events that took place involved some 100 to 150 armed militants, who attempted to seize control of the airport at Nalchik while also assaulting police stations, government offices and the regional headquarters of the Russian prison system, among other targets. All told, about 100 peo...

TorontoSun.com - Salim Mansur - Islam's worst enemies Following the Bali bombing, U.S. President George Bush delivered a major speech in Washington to the membership of the National Endowment for Democracy. He expressed most clearly and specifically -- for the first time on record -- who and what is the enemy the U.S. and its allies are fighting in the war on terror. "Some call this Islamic radicalism; others, militant jihadism; still others Islamo-fascism," Bush said. "Whatever it's called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam. This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision: The establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom." With these remarks, Bush clarified what many of us Muslims know by our experience and the history of our faith tradition -- that is, how greatly Muslims themselves have been terrorized throu...