Say Anything Blog

Those wacky Iraqis! Trying to run their own country and whatnot.  This “A dispute between central government and autonomous Kurdistan over control of the oil has delayed its submission.” sounds vaguely like a democratically elected government functioning. We’ll have to wait a year or more to see if it works.

Damned selfish assed people, wanting to govern themselves!

BBC slipped this one by me.

Gul has in past done things I heartily approve, and he has made statements against Radical Islamic Terrorists. And yet the people of Turkey are less than enthusiastic about him as President.

A bit of the row,
Mr Gul has steered Turkey’s European Union accession talks as foreign minister and is seen as less confrontational than Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development (AK) party.

“The president must be loyal to secular principles. If I am elected, I will act accordingly,” he said after his nomination for the presidency.

But some analysts say he is closer to his religious roots, and his wife would be the first First Lady to wear a headscarf, a deeply divisive statement in Turkey.

In past he has been a man of his word, even when it cost him politically. Yet this is a conundrum. Without the support of the populace his Presidency can have far reaching and damaging effects.

A sticky wicket, as our brothers across the pond would say.

It is often disheartening to read news articles about Islam and the spread of fundamentalist Islam is an ongoing concern for all humans. And yet there are signs of hope, such as this, and this op-ed. Funny, you have to go to China and Lebanon to find such as this reported.

A couple of tastes,
ANKARA, April 29 (Xinhua)—Rallies supported by 600 non-governmental organizations were held in Turkish capital Ankara and largest city of Istanbul on Sunday to show their support for the country’s secular system.

  Carrying Turkish flags, the demonstrators shouted slogans to protect the country’s secularism and principles of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

And,
There is something impressive about a city - Istanbul - that once ruled much of the heart of the Islamic world struggling today to define that same landscape in political and ideological terms. The events unfolding in Turkey, culminating to date in the pro-secularism demonstration of nearly a million people Sunday, will have much more impact regionally and globally than other similar demonstrations of flag-waving citizens in nearby lands in recent years, including Lebanon., Ukraine and Georgia. This is because Turkey is situated geographically, culturally and ideologically at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and its trajectory is linked with, and impacts on, all three areas.

Amazing what you find when you don’t depend on MSM and pre-digested pap for your news.

Here is an interesting article that will doubtless receive wide attention from our patroons in media.

Here is a bit to tantalize.
It’s hard for people to understand Lee’s legacy unless they understand the political philosophy that he held and that informed him as to why he was fighting,” says Mr. DiLorenzo, a professor of economics at Baltimore’s Loyola College. “Lee was a military man, so he very seldom said anything about politics. But after the war, he did.”
  Lee saw the war as “a continuation of the battle between the Hamiltonian consolidationists and the Jeffersonian decentralists,” says Mr. DiLorenzo, referring to the “remarkable correspondence” between Lee and British statesman Lord John Acton in 1866.
  In a letter to Acton, Lee referred to the writings of Jefferson and Washington and warned that “the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded.”

Please go read the rest.

This is an example of BBC showing its better qualities.

Once again, privacy rears itself ugly head. This bit shows how subtly mainstream attempting to protect personal data from government/law enforcement and employers.

So what do you do if you want to escape detection from authorities who might not like your work as much as you do?

The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents is pretty technical but it also contains some simple tips, so you can say what you think without having to worry the censors or cyber-police too much.

And to think, Al&Jesse are upset about radio and TV free speech. Wonder where the would come down on this?

You just got to love this crap.

U.N. official ducks query on wasted funds

By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 11, 2007

NEW YORK—A U.N. conference opened on a note of discord yesterday when the director of a U.N. division responsible for “good governance” refused to discuss charges leveled at his agency of mismanagement, intimidation of staff and wasted money.
  Guido Bertucci, director of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM), was addressing a conference of public administration specialists when one participant asked about an investigation of a $5 million center for public administration in Thessaloniki, Greece.
  The United Nations has opened multiple investigations into the project, which Greece claims has turned into a white elephant.

Read the entire thing. And this is not even one of their “bad” scandals.

Proof, yet again, that it is all about the money.

Funds spat threatens Crawford Peace House

By Angela K. Brown
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 8, 2007

CRAWFORD, Texas—With charges of money mismanagement, threats of court action and some members leaving, a group that has sponsored war protests in President Bush’s adopted hometown has been anything but peaceful.
  The Crawford Peace House recently lost its corporate charter with the state, and a former member who now has rights to the name is threatening legal action because the group continues operating.

Please, go read the whole thing.

Hubris, thy name is Peace Movement.

I almost skipped over this, read several pieces about Saddam’s VP getting streched, all rather clone-like. Except for this line, “amid worrying reports that Iraqi insurgents used children in a suicide atack”, that grabbed my eye! What do you news junkies think of this article, overall and in particulars.

Saddam’s deputy hanged on anniversary of US-led invasion

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Saddam Hussein’s former vice president was hanged for crimes against humanity early Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion, amid worrying reports that Iraqi insurgents used children in a suicide attack this weekend. US Major General Michael Barbero, deputy director for regional operations in the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, said adults in a vehicle with two children in the backseat were allowed through a Baghdad checkpoint. The adults then abandoned the vehicle and detonated it with the children still inside, he said, raising worries that the insurgency has adopted a new tactic to get through security checkpoints with bombs.

“Children in the back seat, lower suspicion, we let it move through,” he said. “They parked the vehicle, the adults run out and detonate it with the children in the back.”

“The brutality and ruthless nature of this enemy hasn’t changed,” Barbero said.

The general called that incident a new tactic, but noted US forces had only seen one such occurrence involving children.

Former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was buried on Tuesday in Saddam’s home village of Awja in northern Iraq outside a hall in which the dictator himself is laid to rest.

Ramadan, aged almost 70, was the fourth regime official to be executed for his role in the killings of Shiites from the village of Dujail after an attempt on Saddam’s life there in 1982.

Government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said the execution of Ramadan, carried out at 3:05 a.m., went according to plan and measures were taken to ensure there was no repeat of controveries surrounding the earlier hangings of Saddam and his half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti.

Shortly after Ramadan was hanged, a car bomb near a Baghdad police station killed at least five people and wounded 17 and another bomb in Baghdad killed three. Mortar bombs later killed seven in southern Baghdad. At least 32 corpses of men killed execution-style were found in the capital, security officials said.

In western Anbar Province, tribal fighters and police clashed with Al-Qaeda linked militants near Fallujah. A provincial official in Ramadi said 39 militants were killed, along with nine tribal fighters and eight policemen.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb

In Amman, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani described Iraq’s situation as disastrous and predicted it would worsen if US troops suddenly withdrew.

“The security situation was better in Iraq in 2003 ... But in other cases, of course Iraq 2007 is better,” Barazani said.

He said he wanted US troops out of Iraq, but stressed that could only happen once “Iraqi forces and the Iraqi government control Iraq and guarantee [its] security and stability.”

“If the civil and sectarian war continues in Iraq and the country is divided, the Kurds will have their own position and take their own decisions,” he added.

US President George W. Bush warned skeptical Americans Monday of the dire consequences of a swift troop withdrawal. Bush appealed for more time for his plan to send in nearly 30,000 additional troops, mostly to stabilize Baghdad.

In his news conference, Barbero said the use of chemical bombings has increased and become a tool of the insurgency, as the three chlorine bombs detonated this past weekend brought the total to six such bombings since January.

“High-profile” suicide and car-bomb attacks by Sunnis against Shiites also have not abated, Barbero said.

But he said increased force in Baghdad had yielded some success, such as a reduction in murders and executions of civilians.

Asked about the Shiite militia led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Barbero declined to say whether US forces were in negotiations with the group.

“I think where we are with the leaders of his movement is at a pretty delicate point and I probably don’t want to talk any more about his followers, where we are in our relationship with them,” Barbero said. “That’s probably best left unsaid.”

But the general said US and Iraqi forces were operating freely in Baghdad’s Sadr City, a Shiite militia stronghold, and that he believed the cleric was still in Iran. - Agencies

I scan the headlines and summary in the Daily Star everyday, usually read at least one article and I just got to ask. Is this an oddly assembled article or what?

Not a single word from NOW or any of the Ladies of Congress, either Party, on this ongoing problem.

Iran police stop women’s protest
Police in the Iranian capital Tehran have prevented protesters from taking part in a rally outside parliament to mark International Women’s Day.

The authorities deployed large numbers of riot police and plain clothes officers in front of the parliament.

A few people tried to gather but were dispersed. One women was seen lifted up and carried away by female officers.

The police action follows the arrest of leading women’s rights activists taking part in protests outside a courthouse.

Two of the activists and their lawyer are still in jail but the rest of the 33 women who were arrested on Sunday were freed in the middle of Tuesday night.

They were warned not to take part in any protests to mark International Women’s Day later on Wednesday.

The BBC’s Frances Harrison in Tehran says the decision to arrest so many prominent women brought the Iranian government much negative publicity internationally.

Women activists say they have been subject to increasing intimidation since they launched a petition to change discriminatory laws on polygamy and child custody.

The women have launched a campaign to collect one million signatures for their petition.

American feminists show their true colors by their continued silence.

Again h/t to BBC.

I am sure Jesse is on the way.

Cherokees eject slave descendants
Ruth Adair Nash (right), a freedman descendant, with family members
Descendancy stems from the 19th Century Dawes Commission lists
Members of the Cherokee Nation of native Americans have voted to revoke tribal citizenship for descendants of black slaves the Cherokees once owned.

A total of 76.6% voted to amend the tribal constitution to limit citizenship to “blood” tribe members.

Supporters said only the Cherokees had the right to determine tribal members.

Opponents said the amendment was racist and aimed at preventing those with African-American heritage from gaining tribal revenue and government funding.

The Cherokee Nation has 250,000 to 270,000 members, second only to the Navajo.

Read the whole thing. So much for desegregation.

Amazing how this gets no airtime in American media, or from NOW.
ran women arrested over protest
Iranian women hold banners calling for equal rights - June 2006 photo
Seventy people were arrested at last June’s demonstration
Iran’s authorities have arrested more than 32 women activists protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran.

The protesters were showing solidarity with five women on trial for organising a protest last June against laws they say discriminate against women.

The five have been charged with endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering.

US pressure group, Human Rights Watch, has urged an end to the prosecution.

It said the women had been exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

The five are organisers of a demonstration last June which was violently broken up by the police and led to the arrest of 70 people, many of them innocent bystanders.

‘Intimidation’

The BBC’s Frances Harrison, reporting from the demonstration, says almost all the leaders of Iran’s women’s movement were arrested.

The women held up banners outside the revolutionary court, saying: “We have the right to hold peaceful protests”.

The aim of the women is to draw attention to discriminatory Islamic laws on polygamy and child custody that often cause great suffering to women, our correspondent says.

When the five women on trial left the court building they were arrested again, along with their lawyer.

Parveen Adalan, one of those on trial, said her lawyer had not yet seen any of the evidence against her, although she has been questioned five times by the intelligence agencies.

“They didn’t give them our documents to read, so we don’t know what’s happening,” she told the BBC.

One of the women demonstrators, Nahid Mirhaj, accused the police of trying to intimidate them.

She said the police chief was “using obscene words and describing us as ‘misfits’”.

Our correspondent says police and plain-clothes security men chased away journalists and onlookers and then loaded the women onto a curtained minibus and drove them away.

The women believe the authorities are trying to intimidate them to prevent any kind of protest during International Women’s Day on 8 March.

The Progressive and forward looking religion of peace. No wonder leftards support Islam over America, they wish to do the same to those who disagree with them in America.

Wonder if this is how the media in America will characterize this story.

UK to withdraw troops from Bosnia
British jeep in Skopje
British troops had been supporting the Dayton Peace Accord
Most of the UK’s remaining troops in Bosnia-Hercegovina are to be withdrawn, defence minister Adam Ingram has said.

More than 600 troops, mostly Welsh Guards, will come home due to the improved security situation, he said.

A small number of staff officers will remain in Sarajevo, and Britain will contribute to the pan-Balkans Operational Reserve Force.

The troop withdrawal is part of a larger reduction of international forces from 6,000 to 2,500 troops.

In a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Ingram admitted there were high levels of small arms and light weapons in the country, but there were international initiatives to reduce these.

‘Approaching normality’

He added: “It is clear that the Bosnia-Hercegovina is becoming increasingly safe. In recent years there have been increasing indications of a security situation approaching normality.”

But he said military operations had not been without significant loss.

A series of commemorative events are to be held to honour the 55 British personnel who died and the thousands who served there.

 
If Bosnia are incapable of taking more control of their own affairs at a political level, how confident are you that they can do it on a military level?
Liam Fox
Shadow defence secretary

End of a long road in Bosnia

Although the EU peacekeeping force Eufor is being reduced, the international community overseeing the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord said it was retaining the office of the High Representative until June 2008.

It said the reforms it wanted had not yet been fully implemented.

Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said: “If Bosnia are incapable of taking more control of their own affairs at a political level, how confident are you that they can do it on a military level?”

‘Job well done’

He said neighbouring Serbia was still unstable and that there was a suspicion that more troops were being freed up for Afghanistan.

But Mr Ingram said that charge did “not add up” and said he was surprised Dr Fox had not recognised that there had been “marked progress”.

For the Liberal Democrats, Nick Harvey added: “The House should be celebrating the statement today as a sign of success and a job well done.”

Around 250,000 people died in the inter-ethnic war of 1992-95.

Initially British troops served with the United Nations, and then under Nato command until Eufor took responsibility for safeguarding peace in 2004.

The chairman of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, Nebojsa Radmanovic, said the country could now ensure stability and reform by itself.

On Wednesday the EU said Eufor would be reduced but a “robust military presence” would remain and troop levels would be increased “if needed” over the next six months.

Conservative MP Tory Tobias, who served in Bosnia, welcomed the statement but there were “lessons to be learned”.

He said in Bosnia, there was one Nato soldier for every square kilometre while in Afghanistan, there was one for every 600 sq km.

That was why the UK faced “so many challenges” in the country, he said.

h/t BBC.  And here is a link to see where Brits are operating.

After reading this, tell me gang, am I the only one that believes Mr Sutter should be sitting in a cell wearing an orange jumpsuit.

Ex-CIA official urges silence after spy ‘sting’

By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 27, 2007

A former high-ranking CIA official refused FBI appeals for help in tracking Chinese spies and urged others via e-mail not to cooperate because of the recent prosecution of former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ron Montaperto.
  Robert G. Sutter, a former national intelligence officer for East Asia and holder of a security clearance, told a mailing list of current and former government officials that a 2003 FBI “sting” operation against Montaperto, who was convicted in June of mishandling classified documents, raised fears that he and other officials could be damaged for discussing their contacts with Chinese officials.
  The FBI and other U.S. counterintelligence agencies are stepping up efforts, including outreach to academics, to counter Chinese intelligence efforts after a string of damaging spy cases over the past five years, U.S. officials said.
  Mr. Sutter, a Georgetown University professor, stated in the e-mail sent two weeks ago that he had met then with two “relatively young” FBI agents who asked for his help “regarding activities of Chinese officials that I judged might be deemed matters of espionage.”
  “They also seemed to want and need some educating on policies and priorities of the Chinese administration, and the state of play in U.S.-Chinese relations,” he stated.
  Mr. Sutter has specialized in Asian affairs for 33 years at CIA, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress and State Department intelligence bureau. He did not return telephone calls or e-mails seeking comment.
  FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman declined to comment on the FBI’s outreach on Chinese intelligence, but she said generally “we do contact a number of people ... to better know our domain.”
  Mr. Sutter’s e-mail was sent to an exclusive list of some 30 current and former officials, including Lonnie Henley, acting national intelligence officer for East Asia, and Dennis Wilder, White House National Security Council staff Asia director.
  The Washington Times obtained a copy of the e-mail from a member of the group.
  Mr. Sutter stated that his recent meeting with FBI agents was similar to debriefings in the 1970s and 1980s, when he volunteered to share intelligence on meetings with European and Chinese officials.
  “My reaction this time was very different than my reaction in the 1970s and 1980s,” he stated. “I still have a security clearance, but this time I said almost nothing about China.”
  “What I did talk about was the credibility of the FBI ” Mr. Sutter said. “I referred at some length to the Ron Montaperto ‘sting.’ I told the agents that while they seemed like nice people, and I tried to be cooperative with the U.S. government, I could not trust them or have any assurance that they would not use any information I provided in some way that would hurt me or others.”
  Mr. Sutter wrote that the agents then told him that they were “well-versed” on the Montaperto case and said that “the Montaperto sting had indeed closed doors and cut off contacts for the FBI.”
  “They went on at some length that the sting had seriously damaged the FBI’s ability to tap U.S. expertise as it sought to deal with Chinese espionage,” Mr. Sutter’s e-mail said.
  Montaperto in 2003 disclosed to the FBI and Navy counterintelligence agents during a sting operation that he provided both “secret” and “top secret” intelligence to two Chinese intelligence officers during more than 60 meetings, according to court documents in the case. He pleaded guilty to lesser charges of illegally retaining classified documents, but he admitted as part of a plea bargain to passing the secrets to Chinese intelligence.
  The prosecution was a setback for a network of pro-China specialists in government and academia who have sought to play down China’s growing military capabilities and intelligence operations in a coordinated effort they claim is aimed at improving U.S. ties to China.
  Mr. Sutter said he wrote the e-mail as a warning to other China specialists, implying that they too should refuse to help the FBI.
  “I pass along this account because I believe others will be contacted—the two agents that talked to me said that the FBI is trying to broaden its contacts among China specialists,” Mr. Sutter said.
  Former U.S. intelligence officials and academics in the past privately supported U.S. government counterintelligence efforts, and Mr. Sutter’s refusal to help is a sign that the FBI is lacking in its expertise and knowledge about Chinese spying.
  Paul D. Moore, a former FBI counterintelligence analyst and specialist on China, said Mr. Sutter’s e-mail highlights one of China’s intelligence-gathering methods.
  Chinese agents are “extremely comfortable working in ambiguous situations, [like] ‘I help you, you help me,’ ” Mr. Moore said.
  China has successfully “wormed” classified information out of U.S. nuclear-weapons scientists in meetings in China by showing them secret Chinese designs for warheads and then asking if the United States uses similar designs, he said.
  “By saying ‘no,’ a scientist is revealing classified information,” Mr. Moore said, and thus risks later prosecution when reporting the encounters.
  “Smart people then wonder if they talk to these [FBI] guys they might slice and dice what is said and send it over to the Justice Department for an espionage prosecution,” he said. “When you’re dealing with counterespionage, it will suck you in.”

The man will protect his contacts among Chinese Intel, and refuses to assist US CounterIntel to stop Chinese espionage. Got to wonder how much he is being paid, and by whom.

Will you find this quote “The security plan has given a kind of new hope and new optimism,” Rice said after her meeting with al-Maliki.

  “People may now have a little bit of a spur to do the other things that need doing,” she said, adding “we’ve got to be sure not just to concentrate on the security plan. The political side does need to keep pace.”

Not at any other media outlet did I find this quoted. Lets put the money shot in caps. THE POLITICAL SIDE DOES NEED TO KEEP PACE.

Why do no US papers or network news show any of the work or progress on the civic infrastructure? Outside the major urban areas of the Sunni Triangle our media does not care what happens.

So why is an article in the Chinese newsservice Xinhua the only place you can find the US Sec of State once again pushing the Admin’s position that political advances are as important as 21,000 additional MPs,Civil Affairs, and Engineers? Does anyone at the Big 3 even know Condi is in the Mid-East?

Just a note to keep everyone up to speed on the “getting warmer” thingy.

That is the Alleghany River, at East Brady, PA. Looks all toasty and warm, don’t it?
You can see the new bridge in the first one. It is going to open in spring, 2005. PennDOT says so, it must be true!