Friday, September 30, 2005

America - More Bail From Sinking Air America

Seems no one's listenting to the left's radio outlet.

And they can't get any respect, even in Philly.

Al Franken and Randi Rhodes are getting the boot from Philadelphia airwaves, as WHAT-AM (1340) is pulling off programming from Air America, the liberal talk-radio network.

Friday will be the last day, and a new WHAT lineup will begin Monday, said general manager Kernie Anderson, adding that "things were not working out" with Air America after about a year.

WHAT aired Air America's programming from noon to 7 p.m. weekdays, sandwiched between the rest of its lineup. The juxtaposition of liberal talk and WHAT's African America-targeted talk programming seemed an odd fit from the start.

Ratings were abysmal.


How long before some of them get indicted?
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Britain - BBC Parody Site

Not only is this funny, in some respects, it's also true.
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France - Muslim Terror Attacks planned in Paris

We are constantly being told that the Muslim terror attacks on London on 7/7 and the failed attacks on 7/21, were in response to Britain's policy in Iraq. Since France vehemently opposed the war in Iraq, can those that make that argument please explain why it is then that Muslims want to blow up France?

Or, why Muslim terrorists tried to fly a plane into Parliament on 9/11 2001 - before Afghanistan and Iraq?

UPDATE

A reader questioned the plot to fly a plane into Parliament on 9/11 2001 and so I went back and found the link.

Here is my original post about the plot with links to the sources. Remember it next time an anti-war type uses the Iraq is the reason for attacks on Britain. The Iraq war, or the Afghanistan war, had not even started on 9/11 2001.

France is more proof that the Iraq excuse is a red herring. France aided Iraq and vetoed any resolution for war and yet they are still being targeted. Now that the UN oil for food scandal is out, we know why.
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Bird flu may kill 150m, warns U.N.

Now this is bad.

And, it doesn't look like governments are stocking enough vaccine.
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Wednesday, September 28, 2005

America - Fox News: highest quarterly viewer total in its history

More and more people are turning to Fox News for the truth.

CNN scored the biggest increase, but Fox News Channel remained dominant as hurricanes Katrina and Rita blew in big third-quarter ratings for the cable news outlets.

Fox finished the quarter averaging 1.2 million daily viewers, up 31% from last year, followed by CNN with 693,000 viewers (a 39% increase) and MSNBC with 300,000 viewers (up 11%). [...]


In primetime, Fox reasserted its dominance by recording 2.3 million viewers, the highest quarterly viewer total in its history. Fox primetime tentpole "The O'Reilly Factor" remained the most-watched cable news program with 2.8 million viewers.

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Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Iraq - Zarqawi's Top Deputy Killed

After a tip off.

Azzam is the latest in a series of top Zarqawi deputies that have been killed or captured by coalition forces in recent months. Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq (search) group has taken responsibility for some of the country's most horrific acts of terror including car bombings, kidnappings and beheadings of Iraqi civilians and westerners.

Earlier this month Zarqawi, a Sunni Muslim, pledged war on Iraqi Shiites in response to the U.S. and Iraqi military offensive on the town of Tal Afar near the Syrian border.

The U.S. military said it is continuing to make progress dismantling Zarqawi's operations. Officials credit much of the success to the increasing number of tips coming from Iraqi civilians. A top U.S. commander in northwestern region of the country said that 80 percent the terror network has been affected by coalition operations in his region.


How long before someone gives up Zarqawi?

The Fourth Rail has more background on Azzam.
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Britain - BBC Employees Watch Sky News

This is priceless!

Scroll down to this: Thompson spooked by Sky News

Someone tell the producers on BBC1 drama Spooks they aren't helping director general Mark Thompson's crusade to boost News 24. Mark says he's tired of turning up in newsrooms and studios to find Sky News on the monitors, rather than News 24. You might want to have a chat with Peter Fincham then, Mark. Despite protestations a couple of years ago from ex-controller Lorraine Heggessey that Spooks doesn't plug Sky News, last night's episode of the latest series of the hit MI5 drama featured no less than five - count 'em - Sky News presenters. If even MI5 tunes into Sky to find out the latest news then what hope does News 24 have?


None.

How bad is that when the BBC's own employees watch Sky News rather than the BBC's?

You might also remember that the sailors on HMS Ark Royal turned to Fox News and turned off BBC news in protest over the BBC's anti-war reporting.
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Britain - Hate preacher exposed

And had his benefits stopped.

HATE preacher Abu Izzadeen has had his benefits stopped after being exposed by The Sun.

Izzadeen, 30 — who praised the 7/7 bombers — refuses to work but was claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance.

A probe was launched after The Sun revealed the father of three’s scrounging.


I suspect there is a lot more of this.
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Monday, September 26, 2005

America - New York Times Refuses to Correct Lie

No wonder their cutting hundreds of jobs.

Caught red handed with video tape, you'd think the Times would correct their error. But you'd be wrong.

The Times public editor has the story and notes the Times is not even enforcing their own standards.
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Katrina: Rapes & Murders Didn't Happen

By and large, as Michelle reports, the rapes and murders didn't happen.

More here.

"I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalls the doctor saying.

The real total was six, Beron said.

Of those, four died of natural causes, one overdosed and another jumped to his death in an apparent suicide, said Beron, who personally oversaw the turning over of bodies from a Dome freezer, where they lay atop melting bags of ice. State health department officials in charge of body recovery put the official death count at the Dome at 10, but Beron said the other four bodies were found in the street near the Dome, not inside it. Both sources said no one had been killed inside.


And MSM have done nothing to correct the story.
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Britain - BBC's Anti-Americanism Exposed

Biased BBC has two articles that demonstrate that more people are starting to take note and speak out against the BBC's anti-American attacks.

The BBC's almost gloating reporting of Katrina and Rita exposed just how vicious the BBC's attacks have become as noted here and here.

UPDATE

Instapundit has more. I've been trying for almost two years to get Instapundit to report on the BBC's anti-Americanism. Glad to see he's finally reporting it as he is one of the most widely read American blogs and he links to some other big blogs who note the BBC's bias.
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America - Anti-war Protest Fizzles

Instapundit has a round up of links and photographs.

These protests are more a hodge podge gathering for anyone with a gripe about anything than a real protest against the war in Iraq. Not one Democrat and I don't think anyone from Hollywood attended any of the protests.

Jihad Jane Fonda cancelled her anti-war protest tour and bowed out of her appearances with George Galloway.
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Britain - BBC - Lying in the Streets of London

That's what Sortapundit calls it and I agree.

Note this tidbit:

The BBC included a short quote from Brierley:

"I am totally overwhelmed. Now Tony Blair has to listen and bring the troops home.

"Looking at what happened in Iraq through this last week it is obvious that Iraq does not want the troops there and if they don't bring them out there will be more families like us."

while the Independent prints a much more direct version:

"My son was betrayed by Blair. If the Government do not bring them out, there will be more families like us."
(emphasis mine)

Of course we all feel sympathy for Mr Brierley. No parent should have to outlive his child. But it appears that Mr Brierley has been used dishonestly by the protest organisers to attack the Prime Minister. You see, Shaun Brierley didn't die in Iraq. Shaun Brierley never even went to Iraq.

Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley died on March 30th 2003 in a road traffic accident while stationed in Kuwait with the 212 Signals Squadron.


There's lots more with photos.
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Iraq - Sunnis Turning on Zarqawi

Good news for Iraq and bad news for Zarqawi.

Instead, renewed apparent threats from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to massacre both Shiite and Sunni "collaborators" have been warily received by many Iraqi Sunnis, leading the respected Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars to issue a statement strongly admonishing Zarqawi:

"There is no religious basis allowing you to take your revenge on the innocent while ignoring the true criminals, nor are there rules stating that the innocent should bear the consequences for the acts of criminals… it is impossible for someone who claims to rely on the laws of Allah to make his decisions based on emotions and personal grudges.

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Britain - More Muslim Appeasement

Where does it end?

London — The Tate Britain museum has removed a work made up of sacred texts from Christianity, Judaism and Islam torn and mounted on glass to avoid offending religious sensibilities following the July transit bombings in London, the museum said Sunday.

The museum said it was particularly concerned that John Latham's piece “God Is Great” could upset Muslims. It pulled the work from an exhibition of Latham's art despite his objection.


And nobody says anything when Muslims attack other religions.

When will the world wake up?
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Sunday, September 25, 2005

Britain - BBC refuses to hand over Terrorist tape

Ah, The BBC always eager to help Muslim terrorists.
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Islam - Call For Muslims to leave Europe

By none other than Omar Bakri Mohammed. You may remember him. He is the radical cleric banned from Britain. No, he wasn't expelled as Blair has yet to follow up on his promise to rid Britain of radical clerics. Bakri was banned from re-entering Britain when he left on "holiday". Sadly, so far none of the other radical clerics has obliged the government and taken a "holiday".
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Britain - Muslim convicted of terror charges

And he got 15 years. That's a lot of time to build up a lot more hate unless the authorities do something about radical clerics in prison.
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Islam - Things that Offend Islam

Chron Watch has a long list as well as a list of some interesting things that don't offend Muslims.
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Britain - Anti-War Protest Fizzles

The BBC doesn't even headline the march. You have to scroll down the page and then all you get is about ten photographs with captions. Notice how the photographs are all close ups so you can't tell how big the crowd is? Compare that to the last anti-war march with the wide angle shots.

How deluded are these people? Just listen.

The turnout was lower than some earlier anti-war marches, but many said the opposition to the Iraq conflict was stronger than ever. "The demonstrations in the past may have been bigger but then only about half the country was opposed to the war," said heritage officer Raj Pal, 47, from Birmingham. "Now about two-thirds of people are opposed."


Uh, then how come so few turned out to protest? It was a sunny and fine day after all.

By the way, what the heck is a "heritage officer"? Do they arrest you if you have the wrong heritage or something?
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Saturday, September 24, 2005

America - Democrats Desert Anti-War Movement

Jihad Jane Fonda cancelled her anti-war bus tour and her planned appearances with communist George Galloway. Now top Democrats, including John Kerry, shun anti-war protests.
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Afghanistan - The Return of Golf

Another small sign of freedom in Afghanistan.

Despite the anti-war crowd's attempts to deny Afghanistan its freedom, free elections have just been held and now golf returns. And there is a whole lot more inbetween. But you wouldn't know that from MSM. For the true story of Afghanistan, you have to rely on blogs such as this one.

Watch as the Communists led an anti-war protest march in London today and see if there is any mention of Afghanistan. Freedom has no place in their agenda.
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Britain - Communists To Lead Anti-War Protest

The BBC reports on today's planned anti-war march in London and as usual fail to inform the public that the march is being led by Communists.

The organisers of the march said Basra had highlighted the need to pull British troops out of Iraq immediately.

Lindsey German, of Stop the War Coalition, said: "The Lib Dems have this week called for our withdrawal.


Lindsey German, of Stop the War Coalition, is a Communist.

Not everyone who is against the war is a Communist, at least I don't think so. But the public have the right, indeed the need, to know that this protest march is being led by Communists.
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Friday, September 23, 2005

America - Air America Sinking Faster

The sooner the better.

Check out how desperate they are for cash.
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America - BBC: Poverty and Race

American Expat notes the upcoming BBC Newsnight's surprising and not so surprising take on poverty and race in America.

The surprising, or at least to the BBC and because of them, many in Britain.

The simple fact is that most Americans in poverty are not black - whites make up most of the population, and most of the poor.

And, whatever the pictures from New Orleans seem to suggest, most black Americans do not live in poverty. There is a healthy black middle class, and of course many outstandingly successful African American citizens, from Colin Powell and Condi Rice to black business-people all over the US.

He also reveals that:

On Newsnight, we will also hear from a black community worker who says the fast-track to poverty is dropping out of high school, taking drugs, and getting pregnant as a teenager.

Avoid all that, and at least you have a chance of the American Dream.


For the not surprising, you can guess, it's the BBC after all. But Scott gives you a reminder if you need one.
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Iraq - Iraq’s good news chronicle

After nearly a year, a year in which the Wall Street Journal ran the series, MSM is finally noticing that someone is reporting on the good news from Iraq - that someone being a blogger natch.

The Boston Globe reports on what the blogsphere has been reporting on for almost a year.

Oddly, after having done a good job reporting on Chrenkoff's efforts and his reasons for leaving the blogsphere, the reporter fails to inform his readers of Chrenkoff's replacement. You can find Good News from Iraq here. And Good News from Afghanistan here. Bookmark them both.

Instapundit has more.
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America - Democrats in Identity Theft Scandal

The Democrats were caught red handed committing massive voter fraud in the last Presidential elections. Now they've been caught committing identity theft in the run up to the 2006 elections. Michelle has a great round up with links.

If the Republicans had been caught doing this, MSM would be all over it. But, since it's the Democrats they remain silent.
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Thursday, September 22, 2005

UK 'sleepwalking' to segregation

Boy, and Brits say Americans are dumb about Britain! Take a look at this nonsense from Trevor Phillips, head of the Commission for Racial equality.

He will voice his fears of a "New Orleans-style Britain of passively coexisting ethnic and religious communities, eyeing each other over the fences of our differences".


Mr. Phillips appears to need some edification about New Orleans and indeed America overall. He seems not to know that the Mayor of New Orleans is black, as is the Chief of Police. And the man overseeing the disaster relief efforts, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, is black.

On the national level the woman co-ordinating relief from overseas, the Secretary of State for America Condi Rice, is black.

Phillips sinks lower in using the worst natural disaster to befall America to further is political agenda.

He will admit that his message is "bleak", but sees Hurricane Katrina as a warning to Britain to avoid complacently believing that it has an integrated society.


In other words, America fell into such complacency.

New Orleans is 80% black. So far donations from across America have surpassed 9/11 and are rising. All across America strangers have opened their doors to take in evacuees - mostly blacks. Volunteers from all across America have flooded the area offering everything from medical and IT expertise to just physical labor. Schools and Universities across America have offered to educate displaced evacuees.

Immediately after the disaster, bloggers started a fundraiser over the internet and raised over $1.25 million. I participated in that blog a thon and my blog raised over $700. I'm an American living in Scotland - and I'm white.

Yes, Mr. Phillips, Britain would do well to learn the lessons of America's Katrina. So as to learn how a truly integrated society works as opposed to Britain's multicultrual failure - 7/7 proved that.
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

America - "Don't get stuck on stupid"

A new phrase to put leftist in their place.

Lt. Gen. Russel Honore shows how to handle the media and the politicians.
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America - NY Times Cutting 500 Jobs

This is on top of 200 jobs already lost.

Powerline has more and notes "...if they were motivated mainly be economics...". That's the problem, they're motivated by supporting the far left and not economics. Air America is proof of that.

If the Times was smart they'd fire Krugman and Dowd straight away.
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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Afghanistan - Toothless Taliban

Al Qaeda has criticized Afghanistan's elections, but they and the Taleban were powerless to stop them. Worse, for al Qaeda and the Taleban, they had virtualy no impact on the elections which saw hundreds of women candidates and thousands of women vote.

It is not as if a robust target environment did not exist. There were almost 6,000 candidates running for office. There were 28,157 polling stations in 6,000 locations throughout Afghanistan, manned by about 200,000 poll workers. The combined Coalition and Afghan security forces could not realistically secure each and every polling station or provide for security for each candidate and poll worker. Yet the Taliban was essentially silent during Afghanistan’s election.

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Katrina - Bloggers Bust Myth

Or was it a lie to make Bush look bad?

Here again, maybe the bigger story is why is it that bloggers are able to uncover the truth while "real jounalists" are unable to? Or is it because MSM are in on the scam?

I'm betting on the latter.
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Europe - Compare Katrina to Europe's Disaster Response

From Instapundit.

CLIFF MAY:

579. That’s the current death toll in Louisiana from the hurricane and catastrophic flooding. Terrible for the victims, their family, their friends.

But also much less than the 10,000 widely predicted.

And, BTW, much less than the more than 35,000 killed by a heat wave in Europe two summers ago.

You recall the debate that set off about European heartlessness, racism and discrimination? No, neither do I.

Me neither.

UPDATE: More on that here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Some history for Bill Clinton.


As I recall, France's death toll in that heat wave was in the tens of thousands while Chirac was on holiday.
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Britain - BBC Aiding Muslim Extremists

Adloyada has the story.
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Britain - Muslim Council of Britain Fights Extremists?

You would hope after the 7/7 Muslim terror attack on London and the failed Muslim terror attack on 7/21, that the MCB would help root out Muslim terrorists in Britain. Hope in vain.

First, secretary general, Sacranie, claims that there is no such thing as a Muslim terrorist and wants to make it a crime to say so. More on the MCB here.

Second, instead of encouraging British Muslims to help root out Muslim terrorists (the ones they say don't exist), the MCB has set up a website where British Muslims can report "any incidents of concern". Since it's a website and you can complain via email, any Muslim in the world could write in and claim to be in Britain.

No doubt the statistics generated by the MCB will be used to claim how Muslim bias has risen in Britain in the wake of the London terror attacks.

Third, the MCB will be marching with the Communists this Saturday in London in an attempt to get you to forget the London Muslim terror attacks.

Now you know whose side the MCB is on.
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Britain - Communists and Muslims March Together

In an anti-war protest march this Saturday in London. The same London that saw over 50 innocent people murdered by Muslim terrorists only two months ago. How soon they forget, or rather, how soon they want you to forget.

No mention if they'll will protest the recent elections in Afghanistan, which seems to have fallen off their radar scopes.

The Stop The War Coalition, CND and the Muslim Association of Britain expect thousands of people to join the latest demonstration on Saturday in London.

Kate Hudson, chairwoman of CND, said: "The march for peace and liberty will show Tony Blair that we are united in rejecting his warmongering policies abroad and attacks on civil liberties at home.


Interestingly they are already downplaying the expected turnout. Notice it says they expect "thousands" to join the protest, instead of the million we heard before?

In case you weren't aware, Kate Hudson is vice chair of the Communist University here in Britain.

As for the MCB, you might recall that its secretary general, Sacranie, claims that there is no such thing as a Muslim terrorist and wants to make it a crime to say so. More on the MCB here.

Communists and Islamofacists marching together - now you know who the enemy are.

I wonder if Ms. Hudson would care to explain to the British public why al Qaeda tried to fly an airplane into Parliament on 9/11 - before the wars in Afganistan or Iraq?
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Britain - Al-Qaeda claims London bombings

The BBC reports "Osama Bin Laden's lieutenant had previously praised the bombings and blamed them on the UK's foreign policy."

What policy was al Qaeda blaming when they tried to fly an airplane into Parliament on 9/11 2001?
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Monday, September 19, 2005

Afghanistan - al Qaeda's Failure

Now that Afghanistan has held their parliamentary elections with little bloodshed, it can be said al Qaeda and the Taleban have completely failed in that country. To rub salt into the wound women voted and there were even women candidates on the ballot.

Any Muslim going to Afghanistan to fight now, isn't fighting against America, they are fighting against democracy - just as in Iraq.

Note the way CNN downplay the Taleban's treatment of women.

In a demonstration of how much the country has changed since the Taliban were toppled nearly four years ago, many of the early voters at the Eid Gah mosque in Kabul were women, who, under the Taliban, had been barred from participating in national political life.


Women under the Taleban were pretty much barred from life as they could not have jobs or attend school.
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Sunday, September 18, 2005

America - Louisiana Officials Indicted Before Katrina Hit

Remember how I kept telling you that as time progressed we would find out that failures in disaster relief were mostly the fault of state and local officials?

Louisiana Officials Indicted Before Katrina Hit

WASHINGTON — Senior officials in Louisiana's emergency planning agency already were awaiting trial over allegations stemming from a federal investigation into waste, mismanagement and missing funds when Hurricane Katrina struck.

And federal auditors are still trying to track as much as $60 million in unaccounted for funds that were funneled to the state from the Federal Emergency Management Agency dating back to 1998.

In March, FEMA demanded that Louisiana repay $30.4 million to the federal government.

The problems are particularly worrisome, federal officials said, because they involve the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the agency that will administer much of the billions in federal aid anticipated for victims of Katrina.

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UK Muslims back Blair's bid to throw out fanatics

This headline is blared (pun intended) all over the news today. Here is what Scotland on Sunday reports.

THE majority of British Muslims back Tony Blair's plans to throw religious fanatics out of the country, a poll has revealed.

Almost two-thirds of Muslims said they supported moves to deport extremists who preach messages of hate.


And there is even more startling results.

Nine out of 10 of those questioned also said they would inform police if they suspected a fellow Muslim was planning a terror attack. But 5% said they would not tell anyone.

The poll also revealed that most Muslims believe they must play a key role in rooting out Islamic extremists.

Around two-thirds said their community bore "a lot" of responsibility in stamping out religious fanaticism. But 19% said they should only shoulder "a little" of the responsibility, while 9% denied they had any duty to stop extremism.


I was stunned when I read these statistics because they run counter to almost everything I've read to date. They just didn't make sense to me. Then I read this:

The poll of 500 Muslims was carried out at the start of the month by telephone.


I'm not a big fan of polls in the first place, but 500 out of the many millions of Muslims in Britain just doesn't sound like a good poll to me.

I hope it's true but I don't put much faith in this poll.

Watch for the Muslim Council of Britain to denounce this poll.
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Britain - Blair: BBC Hates America

Nice to see he's finally awoken to what we've been exposing for almost two years now and Biased BBC has been reporting on for over three years.

From AFP.

"Tony Blair -- perhaps I shouldn't repeat this conversation -- told me yesterday that he was in Delhi last week. And he turned on the BBC world service to see what was happening in New Orleans," Murdoch was quoted as saying in a transcript posted on the Clinton Global Initiative website.

"And he said it was just full of hate of America and gloating about our troubles. And that was his government. Well, his government-owned thing," he said of the publicly owned broadcaster.

Murdoch went on to say that anti-American bias was prevalent throughout Europe.

"I think we've got to do a better job at answering it. And there's a big job to do. But you're not going to ever turn it around totally," said Murdoch, one of three media magnates who spoke at Clinton's "Global Initiative" forum on peace and development.

The former US president, who held his conference to coincide with the United Nations summit in New York, agreed that the BBC's coverage was lacking.

While the BBC's reports on the hurricane were factually accurate, its presentation was "stacked up" to criticize President George W Bush's handling of the disaster, Clinton said.


Clinton may want to read our blogs and learn that the BBC's reports were in fact not factually accurate.

From the Guardian.

Tony Blair has denounced the BBC's coverage of Hurricane Katrina as 'full of hatred of America' and 'gloating' at the country's plight, it was reported yesterday.

Blair allegedly made the remarks privately to Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, which owns the rival Sky News.

The comments threatened a new rift between the government and the BBC following the Andrew Gilligan affair over events leading to the Iraq war and recent criticisms of ministers Today presenter John Humphrys, which were controversially leaked to the press.
[...]

Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony Corporation and a former head of CBS News, said he had been 'nervous about the slight level of gloating' by the corporation.


There was nothing slight about it!

The disapproval will come as a blow to BBC executives, who had declared themselves delighted with the hurricane coverage, led by Matt Frei. They believed they had learnt the lessons from the Boxing Day tsunami in Asia, when the BBC was regarded as being slow off the mark.


They weren't slow off the mark in criticizing America then either.

The Telegraph reports.

Last week we were subjected to one of the most extraordinary examples of one-sided news management of modern times, as most of our media, led by the BBC, studiously ignored what was by far the most effective and dramatic response to Asia's tsunami disaster. A mighty task force of more than 20 US Navy ships, led by a vast nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Abraham Lincoln, and equipped with nearly 90 helicopters, landing craft and hovercraft, were carrying out a round-the-clock relief operation, providing food, water and medical supplies to hundreds of thousands of survivors.

The BBC went out of its way not to report this. Only when one BBC reporter, Ben Brown, hitched a lift from one of the Abraham Lincoln's Sea Hawk helicopters to report from the Sumatran coast was there the faintest hint of the part that the Americans, aided by the Australian navy, were playing.
[...]

But because, to the BBC, it is a case of "UN and EU good, US and military bad", the story is suppressed. The BBC's performance has become a national scandal.


The BBC didn't just downplay America's role in the tsunami relief efforts, they denegrated it.

Seen on BBC’s Newsnight programme yesterday, a report on the UN "Oil for Food" scandal. In what was supposed to be a critical piece, we heard Peter Marshall, the Beebie reporter state, with not a hint of a blush:

The Asian tsunami has provided a perfect example of the need for an effective UN under an activist Secretary General. This time Kofi Annan was quick off the mark and America's independent efforts soon looked superfluous.


From Scotland on Sunday.

But it is the BBC that deserves to have a red face, because Blair's strictures are quite right. The corporation's coverage of New Orleans was an anti-American hatefest. The tone was gloating: distrust of the Bush administration in particular now colours BBC reports to the point of caricature.

During recent decades the BBC has drifted into political bias to a degree that makes its licence-supported status as a "public-service broadcaster" a mockery. Alongside some excellent programming exists a mind-set almost always slanted leftwards. It needs much more pluralism in its output if it is to survive.

The BBC should take care: it has made too many enemies. Both main political parties now regard it as bloated and in need of radical reform.


All this just goes to show that the BBC learned nothing from the Gilligan affair.

Personally, I think it has more to do with arrogance than anything else. The BBC is tax funded and answerable to no one - they simply just don't care and say and do what they damn well please.

The BBC takes millions of pounds from us every year and we're suppose to like it because the BBC is advertising free. We are told that it makes for better viewing, but more importantly, it lets the BBC remain impartial. This may come as a shock to those of you not familiar with the depth of corruption at the BBC, or to those that are still in denial, but the BBC has been engaging in illegal advertising for some time now.

Here are two reports from the Times (UK).

How to get ahead in advertising at the BBC

COMPANIES are paying fees of up to £40,000 to advertise their products covertly on BBC programmes, often in breach of the corporation’s rules.

At least 50 cases have been identified where top brands have bought favourable exposure on BBC television by paying specialist agents.

The practice, known as product placement, is so widespread that some leading BBC dramas and lifestyle programmes depend on free gifts. [In other words the programs would fail without this advertising]

Examples range from eight different brands on the current series of Spooks, the hit BBC1 drama, to a Volkswagen Sharan driven by James Nesbitt in Murphy’s Law. An agent boasted that the value of the car’s appearance was equal to a £30,800 commercial break.


And as for remaining impartial, "Some product placement agencies influence editorial content."

The article concludes, "The BBC said that it would investigate the allegations"

Fact chance of that.

Just how bad and how widespread is advertising on the BBC? The Times (UK) went undercover to find out and what they found out may surprise you, but only if you have not been reading my blog or Biased BBC.

Watch closely: how BBC shows connive in 'stealth' advertising

THE BBC might have to do a lot of investigating. The Sunday Times investigation found that product placement is no longer something that happens in “rare cases”. It has become a multi-million-pound industry.

Our reporters approached a series of agents who charge up to £40,000 a year to get clients on to the top television shows.

Companies such as Rogers & Cowan and Brand Exposure claimed they could get “our” product — this time a vodka mixer — on to top BBC dramas as well as soaps.

Over coffee in the Savoy hotel, London, Steve Read, managing director of 1st Place, explained that he could get up to 10 placements of the product on television a month.

Although he places products with films, theatre and ITV, he claimed that 50% of his business was with the BBC.


If you're new to this site and want to learn more about the institutionalized anti-American and anti-Israeli bias at the BBC, read my Case Against the BBC.
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Saturday, September 17, 2005

America - Who's Behind Cindy Sheehan

Yeah, I know, Cindy who? Powerline has the background on who is behind Sheehan. If her son knew, he'd be spinning in his grave.

It's also interesting to note that Jihad Jane Fonda cancelled her bus tour and all but two of her planned appearances with terrorist sympathizer George Galloway.
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America - Is Anyone in Charge of the New York Times?

Apparently not.

Columnist Correction Policy Isn't Being Applied to Krugman

An Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times who makes an error "is expected to promptly correct it in the column." That's the established policy of Gail Collins, editor of the editorial page. Her written policy encourages "a uniform approach, with the correction made at the bottom of the piece."

Two weeks have passed since my previous post spelled out the errors made by columnist Paul Krugman in writing about news media recounts of the 2000 Florida vote for president. Mr. Krugman still hasn't been required to comply with the policy by publishing a formal correction. Ms. Collins hasn't offered any explanation.
[...]

All Mr. Krugman has offered so far is a faux correction. Each Op-Ed columnist has a page in nytimes.com that includes his or her past columns and biographical information. Mr. Krugman has been allowed to post a note on his page that acknowledges his initial error, but doesn't explain that his initial correction of that error was also wrong. Since it hasn't been officially published, that posting doesn't cause the correction to be appended to any of the relevant columns.
[...]

A bottom-line question: Does a corrections policy not enforced damage The Times's credibility more than having no policy at all?


No. The bottom-line question is why does Krugman and Dowd still work at the New York Times. Their employment is hurting what little credibility the Times still has.
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Britain - Media Unit for Muslims

The Guardian reports.

A royal commission to investigate how and why the London bombings happened and a media unit to rebut negative stories about Muslims and counter propaganda from Islamist extremists should be set up, according to proposals to be sent to Tony Blair by government-appointed taskforces on tackling Islamist extremism.


OK, then, how about one to rebut negative stories about Americans? Or, Israelis? These two groups are far more maligned than Muslims ever are.

Britain is in full Muslim appeasement mode and is reminiscent of the days prior to World War II.

Note the "government-appointed taskforces"? That would be the one composed of Muslim extremists. See my earlier post Muslim voices at Number 10.
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Islam - Women's Rights Movement Not For Muslims

Why is the women's movement completely silent over issues surrounding Muslim women?

Kolkata: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza will receive extra security at the Sunfeast Open, commencing here on Monday, following threats by some Islamic clerics of stopping her from playing in the city unless ''she is properly dressed''.

Kolkata's Jamaet-e-Ulema-e-Hind has allegedly threatened to stop Sania from playing here if she wears dresses which are against ''Islamic traditions''.

Additional Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, Gautam Mohan Chakraborty said here today that police personnel would always guard Sania Mirza in view of a threat issued by an Islamic body over her skimpy attire.

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Britain - Blair ‘shocked’ over BBC Katrina coverage

That's according to the Financial Times quoting Rupert Murdoch.

Tony Blair was shocked by the BBC's coverage of Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans, describing it as “full of hatred of America”, Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, revealed on Friday night.

Mr Murdoch, a long-time critic of the BBC who controls rival Sky News, said the prime minister had recounted his feelings in a private conversation earlier this week in New York.


Welcome to our world Mr. Blair. Perhaps you should have someone on your staff read the proof of the BBC's anti-American bias on the blogs.

I'll see if I can find a free copy of the entire article and update this post.
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Friday, September 16, 2005

Israel - BBC: "Exploding Population"

A slip of the tongue? You decide.

Much of Gaza is a great mass of apartment blocks - flung up to house the exploding population.


What do you think?
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America - Missile smuggler Lakhani jailed for 47 years

How come this isn't getting more media coverage? After all, the leftist media keep claiming that there have been few successful prosecutions in America against suspected terrorists. I think it was Michelle who once had a good round up of all the successful prosecutions so far. I'll email her and see if she can find it, seeing as how Blogger seems to have totally screwed up the search your own blog facility.

In the report, we get the usual he was a nice man and no way could he be a terrorists. We hear it all the time. But the evidence seems pretty damning.

The case centred on the evidence of the US government's key witness, Mohammed Habib Rehman, an informant posing as a representative of the Somali-based Ogaden National Liberation Front interested in buying missiles.

The court in Newark, New Jersey, heard tape-recorded telephone conversations and viewed video surveillance of meetings between Lakhani and Mr Rehman.

One video, filmed secretly at a hotel, shows Lakhani and Mr Rehman standing by a window overlooking the airport with a disabled Russian-made Igla shoulder-fired missile in a box, discussing how missiles could be used to bring down airplanes in several locations simultaneously.

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

Katrina - Governor Caught on Camera Admitting Troop Mistake

Here is a video clip in which Louisiana Governor Blanco admits she did not ask for US troops to help with Katrina relief efforts.
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Katrina - Governor Still Clueless

Just in case anyone still has doubts who is most responsible for the fiasco in disaster response to Katrina, read this:

The updated Louisiana death toll was released as Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at the federal government, accusing it of moving too slowly in recovering the bodies. The dead "deserve more respect than they have received," she said.

However, Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman David Passey said the state asked to take over body recovery last week. "The collection of bodies is not normally a FEMA responsibility," he said.

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Islam - Ban on Women's Tennis Outfits

I always wondered why there weren't more Muslim women tennis players. Now I know.

Christian women activists have joined some Muslim leaders in lambasting a religious edict by a Muslim cleric demanding that Sania Mirza - India's teenage tennis sensation - who reached the fourth round of the US Open last week wear "Islamic dress".

The 18-year old Muslim player made international headlines when she became the first Indian woman to reach the US Open's fourth round before going down to top-seeded Maria Sharapova of Russia.

"The dress she wears on the tennis courts not only doesn't cover large parts of her body, but it leaves nothing to the imagination," Haseeb-ul-hasan Siddiqui, a senior cleric of the Sunni Ulema Board said in issuing a fatwa last week. He accused the teenager of "indecent dressing" at tennis courts and in advertisements, and said that "Islam does not permit a woman to wear skirts, shorts and sleeveless tops".


If you think that's bad, check out what they want Muslim women to wear to the beach.

Britain - Blair throws down gauntlet to UN

Or so the BBC would have you believe.

Buried toward the end is this nugget.

Mr Blair did not directly refer to the genocide in Rwanda, often cited by critics of the UN as one of its worst failures, or the situation in Darfur or Sudan.

But he said it was now recognised that states' sovereignty could be overridden by the UN when people were suffering.


Recognised by whom? And if that's true why is nothing being done in Darfur or Sudan?

I also heard on the news that the UN dropped from its definition of terrorism, the phrase that went something like, "the deliberate targeting of civilians anywhere", at the request of Arab states.

And Roger Simon quotes the Washington Post:

The negotiators were forced to put off action on some of the thorniest and most ambitious goals, including proposals to expand the U.N. Security Council, to create an independent auditing board to scrutinize U.N. spending, and to impose basic membership standards for a new Human Rights Council so that chronic rights abusers will not be able to join.


Now do you see why the BBC is slapping Mr. Blair on the back? Nothings changed at the UN and for that the BBC heartly thanks Mr. Blair.

Something else that hasn't changed, at least since the Muslim terrorist bombings in London on 7/7, not one radical Muslim cleric has been expelled as we were promised - "swiftly".

Life goes on unchanged in Londonistan.

UPDATE

I posted that this morning while getting the kids ready for school and missed something important.

The summit has failed to agree a definition of terrorism.

But the UN Security Council backed a resolution brought forward by the UK calling on all states to outlaw incitement to terrorism.


Say what? The BBC wrote that without batting an eye. How can you outlaw incitement to something that is not defined? Typical UN double speak and that's fine with the BBC.

Did you notice what is missing from this article? Where is the gauntlet Blair threw down? Maybe the BBC confused Bush with Blair.

Irish rocker Bob Geldof, who organized the Live Aid concerts and campaigns against poverty, said he was sitting in the General Assembly chamber with U.N. anti-poverty chief Jeffrey Sachs and they couldn't believe what they heard.

``I think he's really throwing down the gauntlet. It's a very bold move,'' Geldof said of Bush's trade tariff proposal, adding that he was impressed with the president's acknowledgment that terrorism ``comes from despair and lack of hope.''


Or maybe Guardian reporters moonlight at the BBC or vice versa.

Or maybe since the gauntlet quote was reported by, EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer, the BBC merely switched the names.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Iraq - Good News Iraq - Part 35

It's a shame the latest bombing in Iraq will get all the attention from the media. Still, the struggle goes on and there is still lots of good news that isn't being reported. Except, by Chrenkoff that is.

He has also gathered up all the previous Good News Iraq and Good News Afghanistan series into one post. An amazing amount of work and good news you probably never heard about.

This is his last in the series as he leaves to take up a new job. But he has passed to torch to Good News Central, so be sure to blog roll them.
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America - Say Goodbye to the UN

That's what Roger Simon says and with good reason.

He quotes from the Washington Post:

The Washington Post sums up:

The negotiators were forced to put off action on some of the thorniest and most ambitious goals, including proposals to expand the U.N. Security Council, to create an independent auditing board to scrutinize U.N. spending, and to impose basic membership standards for a new Human Rights Council so that chronic rights abusers will not be able to join.


I hope the US severely cuts its funding of this corrupt organization.
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Katrina - Mayor Failed to Use Buses for Evacuation

Despite the Left's desperate attempts to spin away the mayor's failing to follow his own evacuation plan, which called for using the ctiy's buses, the facts prove the mayor failed.

The Left never learn, when in a hole don't dig.
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Islam - Let the Fencing Begin

Israel is buildng one and so far it has been tremendously effective at stopping suicide bombers.

Europe has them.

America wants them.

And Pakistan is offering to build one.

Fences, I mean.

Where will it end? Is the world turning into the 5th century landscape that Islam wants? They wall in their communities while we wall out the world? Better to tear down their wall than to build ours. But, sadly ours may be needed in the "short" term for security - until we can tear down theirs. And we better start soon.

As Frost wrote:

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.'


The burqa is a wall - tear it down.
Sharia law is a wall - tear it down.
Muslim schools (all religious schools) are a wall - tear them down.
The Muslim Parliament of Britain is a wall - tear it down.
The Muslim Council of Britain is a wall - tear it down.
The Muslim Association of Britain is a wall - tear it down.
Muslim appeasement is a wall - tear it down.
Islamic racism is a wall - tear it down.

The reform of Islam is 1400 years overdue and is a wall - tear it down and rebuild Islam.

Tear down these walls or we'll be building lots more of our own.
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Pakistan - 'Major al Qaeda base' destroyed

CNN reports.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan has destroyed a major suspected al Qaeda hideout and arrested 21 alleged militants in an operation involving helicopter gunships and thousands of troops in a remote northwestern tribal region near Afghanistan, officials said.

Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, the top army commander responsible for anti-terrorism operations in northwestern Pakistan, told reporters Tuesday that foreigners and "some important men are included among the captured people," although he refused to reveal their identities or nationalities.

The hideout appeared to be a fairly sophisticated outpost, Hussain said, with communications equipment to contact militants in Afghanistan, a cache of bombs, detonators and rockets, and a tiny Chinese-made drone aircraft used for surveillance.

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Britain - 'Hundreds' kept on terror watch

But not a single radical Muslim cleric has been expelled yet as promised - "swiftly".

Yesterday London's mad mayor, Red Ken Livingstone, told us this.

Holding London up as a beacon of how racism could be taken on and how different races could live in harmony, he said: "You have to have mutual respect."


Today he tells us:

"London Mayor Ken Livingstone later told the MPs: "Over four years we've been incredibly good at actually stopping people getting through and we eventually knew we would fail," he said.

"I suspect we will catch many others before we fail again."


And we are told this:

Hundreds of people are being kept under surveillance as part of the battle against terrorism, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has told MPs.


Some beacon of harmony, Mr. Mayor.
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Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Katrina - Bush kept his head

Mark Steyn's thoughts on Katrina.
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Britain - Bush 'promoted West-Muslim clash'

That's according to London's mad mayor Red Ken Livingstone.

Could the mayor explain to us then, how Bush "promoted" al Qaeda to blow up two American embassies and the USS Cole when he wasn't even in office?

Could he also explain how Bush "promoted" al Qaeda to set up terrorists training camps in Afghanistan, when Clinton, not Bush, was in office?

Can he explain what he thinks bin Laden planned to do with the thousands of trained terrorists; the ones trained under Clinton's watch and not Bush's, that is?

And could he further explain how Bush "promoted" al Qaeda to attempt to fly a plane into Parliament on 9/11 when, Bush was in office only a few months, he and Blair had not met and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had not taken place yet?

The mad mayor's last statement is priceless.

Holding London up as a beacon of how racism could be taken on and how different races could live in harmony, he said: "You have to have mutual respect."


Yeah, we saw how well that's working out for the mad mayor on 7/7.

Tony Blair promised Britain after 7/7 that he would tackle Muslim terrorism head on and act swiftly to expell radical Muslim clerics. What's he done so far? Nothing. Actually, worse than nothing as you can see from the Muslim voices at Number 10.

Al Qaeda is still out there and plotting further attacks while London remains Londonistan. There are indications that al Qaeda may be planning an attack as early as next month and if it's as big as some think, heaven help London.
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Monday, September 12, 2005

Britain - This Is “Tackling Extremism”?

They don't call it Londonistan for nothing.

After the 7/7 bombing attacks by Islamo-fascists that killed scores of Londoners, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced with great fanfare that he would create a Home Office task force of committees to "tackle extremism." The purpose, he asserted, was to confront "head on" the rise of radicalism among young Muslims.

How is it working out so far?


Not too well from the looks of things.

Be sure to read Muslim voices at number 10, as well.
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Al Qaeda Planning October Offensive?

Maybe.

Al Qaeda's plans for a series of spectacular terrorist strikes in October, targeting American interests as well as U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East and said to be coordinated by Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant in Iraq - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- are the subject of a non-public report issued by terrorism experts this week.

The attacks, planned to coincide with the Muslim observance of Ramadan and dubbed the "Great Ramadan Offensive," are designed to create a "fateful confrontation" with the U.S. and Israeli forces in the Middle East, according to a May 30 letter from Zarqawi to bin Laden. The contents of the letter are referenced in the report written by Yossef Bodansky, the former director of the U.S. Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.

The Sept. 2 report is accessible only to government officials on the Global Information System (GIS) database. Cybercast News Service obtained the report on the same day as its release. It warns of planned attacks in Western Europe, Russia and perhaps the continental U.S. The specific targets are believed to include airports at Schiphol in the Netherlands and Fiumicino in Italy.


Italy is singled out and has yet to be hit.

An associate of Zarqawi named Abu Abdul Rahman al-Jazaeri, was said to be in Italy, but could not be located by authorities, according to Bodansky, who added that Jazeiri was believed to have recently received from a Zarqawi messenger "the definitive mandate to plan and carry out a major terrorist operation in Italy."


And it seems the plot is well advanced.

Details of the planned attacks were pieced together from intercepted communications between top al Qaeda leaders in the latter part of August, analysis of what counter- terrorism experts described as a dramatic increase in the volume of communication among jihad forces and the observation of an unprecedented movement of jihadists and messengers around the world apparently delivering instructions.

Zarqawi, linked to numerous bombings and the beheadings of several Western hostages in Iraq, reportedly titled his letter to bin Laden, "A Message from a Soldier to His Commander." According to the GIS report, Zarqawi's letter to bin Laden alluded to "the forthcoming grand offensive comprised of escalation in the Middle East and a series of spectacular terrorist strikes" meant to overshadow the impact of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist strikes in New York City and Washington, D.C.

The letter also indicated Zarqawi was expecting bin Laden to approve and authorize the escalation: "I think that the plan for the next stage that was drawn up has reached you or is on its way to you. O God. Make the expedition of Osama proceed toward its goal ... We await your orders as to the next stage of the plan," Zarqawi wrote.

An Aug. 8 televised message from bin Laden's overall second-in-command -- Ayman al-Zawahiri - is now viewed as the approval Zarqawi was anticipating. "What you have seen, O Americans, in New York and Washington and the losses you are having in Afghanistan and Iraq, in spite of all the media blackout, are only the losses of the initial clashes ... You will see the horror that will make you forget what you had seen in Vietnam," Zawahiri said.


Could yesterdays videotape message from Adam Yahiye Gadahn be a signal to terrorists cells in the US?

"Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing," the masked man says on the tape that ABC said it received Saturday. The man — believed to be an American — speaks in unaccented English.


All the cities mentioned have large airports.

Widespread anticipation throughout the Muslim world of the Great Ramadan Offensive was being picked up by intelligence analysts in August and then was reinforced by a slew of theological statements -- all buttressing what the GIS report calls "a forthcoming, well-coordinated global onslaught."

The marked increase in the volume of communication, both encrypted and open, exceeded that of the months prior to September 2001, the report states.


And Katrina is seen by the terrorists as a sign and an opprotunity. They no doubt are following the media's pounding of Bush and the latest poll numbers and see this too as a sign that now is the time to strike.

"It's clear the jihadists regarded Katrina as a sign from God they're doing the right thing," said Gregory R. Copley, president of The International Strategic Studies Association in Washington, D.C.

In a separate analysis, Christopher Brown, research associate with the Hudson Institute's Transitions to Democracy project, warned of the strategic opening that the hurricane aftermath offers jihadists.

"If this attack is launched soon, the devastation to the American economy alone could easily far exceed that of the September 11th attacks and could be equivalent in terms of economic impact to the detonation of a small nuclear device on American soil," Brown said.


And just recently in Iraq Zarqawi referred to an upcoming final battle.

The man on the audio recording urged his fighters to be ready for a "final" battle and show no kindness to the Americans, whom he called "cowards who always seek to run away."


I hope intelligence services around the world are paying attention.
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Katrina - Federal Response Was Swift

How swift? A picture is worth a thousand words they say.



050830-N-8154G-037 Gulf of Mexico (Aug. 30, 2005) – An MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter, assigned to Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Fifteen (HM-15), takes off from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in the New Orleans area. Bataan is currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 100 miles South of New Orleans. The ship’s involvement in the humanitarian assistance operations led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in conjunction with the Department of Defense. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate Airman Jeremy L. Grisham (RELEASED)

Note the date, Aug 30? The day after Katrina struck and the day the levee broke in New Orleans.



050831-N-0000B-010 Jefferson, La. (Aug. 31, 2005)U.S. Navy air crewmen load Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) and bottles of water into the back of a U.S. Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter, assigned to Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Fifteen (HM-15), on an access road about 5 miles from New Orleans. HM-15 is currently embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5). Bataan is participating in humanitarian assistance operations led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in conjunction with the Department of Defense. U.S. Navy photo by Lt.j.g Sammy Brake (RELEASED)

Again, notice the date, Aug 31 - one day after the levee broke.

Photographs are courtesy of the US Navy.




050831-N-1467R-080 Gulf of Mexico (Aug. 31, 2005) - The second of two Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCACs) assigned to Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City, Fla., loaded with water and Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) approaches the stern gate of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) as part of the disaster relief efforts along the Gulf Coast.



050831-N-1467R-030 Gulf of Mexico (Aug. 31, 2005) - A Landing Craft, Utility (LCU) assigned Assault Craft Unit Two (ACU-2), departs the well deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD-5) bound for New Orleans. The LCU is loaded with sandbags, water, a small flat bottom boat, 300 lifejackets, a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) and enough supplies to last ten days as part of the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina hit the Southern Gulf Coast States.



050830-N-0553R-002 Gulfport, Miss. (Aug. 30, 2005) - U.S. Navy Seabees vehicles from Construction Battalion Center, Gulfport, Miss., form a convoy along U.S. Highway 90 in Gulfport, Miss., as they prepare to remove debris left by Hurricane Katrina.

If Bush and his administration are guilty of anything, it's not handling the press properly.
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Iraq - The New Iraqi Army Takes Over

This is a good report considering it's from Reuters.

TAL AFAR, Iraq (Reuters) - The Iraqi army has killed up to 200 insurgents in the northern town of Tal Afar, commanders said on Monday.

The major assault is causing dismay among some of the country's Sunni Arab minority and comes just a month ahead of a vote on a constitution which is already dividing the country.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari defied a $100,000 bounty placed on his head by a militant Islamic group to visit the scene of the insurgency, while a senior officer in Tal Afar said he expected the fighting to be over by Thursday.

The Iraqi army, backed by U.S. troops, launched an assault early on Saturday against an estimated 350-500 insurgents in the town near the Syrian border.

Iraq's Third Army Brigade launched a fresh offensive on Monday, killing 40 insurgents and arresting 21 "terrorist emirs," or senior insurgent leaders, the brigade's media officer said, in an operation ending at around 5.15 p.m. (1415 BST).

"We also seized a cache of heavy weaponry, including mortars, artillery, explosives, TNT, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades," he told Reuters.

Abdelaziz Jasim, the defence ministry official in charge of operations in Tal Afar, said his forces were nearly in control of western areas of the city.

"Overall 157 terrorists have been killed and 291 arrested since the beginning of the operations," he told a news briefing in Baghdad before the new offensive in Tal Afar.
[...]

But Jaafari had given orders to take special care to protect civilian lives, Jabor added, saying: "This is the first clean military operation that has ever happened in Iraq."

Jaafari himself went to Tal Afar on Monday, disregarding a bounty of $100,000 (54,000 pounds) placed on his head by Iraqi militant group The Islamic Army in Iraq for ordering the assault.

The government has made much of the fact that for the first time since the U.S. invasion the Iraqi army is playing the lead role in the fighting, while U.S. troops play a support role.

President Jalal Talabani said in Washington on Sunday that Iraq had enough troops to take over frontline duties from the United States.


This is too much good news from Iraq for big media to cover it.

And the US has handed over security in Najaf to the Iraqi army.

Day by day the Iraqi army grows stronger while the terrorists grow weaker.
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Iraq - Why the Terrorists are Failing

The Belmont Club has some thoughts.

In retrospect, the insurgency's greatest failing was its inability to create a "national united front" against United States "occupation". To the end it remained a sectarian movement; and the narrowness of this focus was probably the price of its alliance with Syrian intelligence and Al Qaeda, whose tent was never large enough to admit the Shia or the Kurds. The moment of greatest danger to OIF probably came in April of 2004, when the towns west of Baghdad -- Falluja in particular -- erupted along with Moqtada Al Sadr's Mahdi Army in the south. Then, if ever, was the time to realize a "national united front". The American decision to go on the defensive on the Sunni front by aborting the Marine assault on Falluja and turning to crush the Sadr's Shi'a threat -- objectively the main threat because the Shi'as are the majority -- may have been fortuitous. Falluja never became a national symbol of resistance; and America gained time to build up effective Iraqi forces. By the time US forces returned to Falluja in November, it had acquired an evil reputation as the locus of slaughterhouses for Sunni insurgents. And the operation was carried out against a town largely deserted by its civilians and held by an enemy too vainglorious to run, with embryonic Iraqi forces in tentative attendance. Although the balance of opinion is that the aborting the First Battle of Falluja was a mistake, historians will have an interesting time examining whether in retrospect the seeds of victory were planted then. But if the failure to create a "national united front" constituted its principal strategic mistake, it was the insurgency's reliance on terror which ultimately poisoned its bloodstream. Terror is a Frankenstein monster which can destroy its creator unless it is carefully controlled. The myriad and decentralized killers, whose decentralization was accounted a military asset by some analysts -- turned their car bombs, mortars and knives on ordinary Sunnis, Shi'as and Kurds. While attacks on the Shi'a pilgrims, for example, may have brought the insurgency momentary recognition in the Western media, no one but a fool could believe it would buy them anything but enmity among its victims. Decentralization turned out to be another term for 'no command and control'. For terror to succeed it must succeed; against an immoveable object like the US Armed Forces it gradually became a public menace and another species of crime.


And yet the Left still want to make the Vietnam comparison.

More from the Belmont Club here.

It has been the presumption by some writers that if the Iraqi insurgency was not losing, it was automatically winning. But there is an argument to made for asserting the alternative: that if the insurgency wasn't winning then it was losing. If it failed to stop the gradual formation of organs of governance in the Kurdish and Shi'ite areas it would find itself further and further away from its goal to restore the status quo ante. The insurgents may have entertained hopes of driving US forces from Najaf; the Left may have believed that they could: but what chance do they have of driving the largely Shi'ite security forces from Najaf now? As United States forces begin to withdraw from Iraq the process in Najaf will be repeated in other Shi'ite and Kurdish localities. At some point the new Iraq, the Iraq irretrievably severed from its Ba'athist past will acquire a momentum too great to reverse.

The forthcoming trial of Saddam Hussein at the hands of a government which his own ethnic base has largely refused to join underscores this emerging reality. Saddam Hussein is the former President of Iraq. Jalal Talabani is the current President of that country. Neither Saddam nor the insurgency may like it; but there it is.

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Katrina - Governor Defends Bush

If the governor of Louisiana, a Democrat, doesn't blame Bush for a slow response to the disaster, why is everybody else blaming the President?

As she has before, Blanco, a Democrat, refused to blame President Bush, a Republican.

"Help in those critical moments was slow in coming, not through any fault of the president," she said.

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Katrina - Disaster Response Was Fast

In fact the response may be the fastest on record.

"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."

For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 2002 [When Clinton was President]. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.

So they libel as a "national disgrace" the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history.


And

And federal troops and Guardsmen from other states cannot be sent to a disaster area until their presence has been requested by the governors of the afflicted states.

Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.

The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.

A better question -- which few journalists ask -- is why weren't the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?


Because the mayor failed to use them to evacuate those without transport and they wound up flooded.


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Britain - Aslam Affair II?

Maybe not exactly, but this is disturbing.

The first story in the Independent on Sunday reveals that the extremist group Hizb ut Tahrir, which Tony Blair has said should be banned, has members in some of Britain's most important institutions including the NHS and blue-chip companies such as IBM and Reuters:

‘The IoS has now learned that at least two members of Hizb, which seeks to form a global Islamic state regulated by sharia law, work for the computer giant IBM, and that Reuters, the international news and financial information agency, has at least one member among its employees… Several members of Hizb are medical practitioners, including its spokesman, Dr Imran Waheed, a psychiatrist practising in London. Its women's representative, Nazreen Nawaz, is a qualified doctor who worked in cancer research. Another member is a manager at University College Hospital, London. The group is also strong in the education sector, where a former member of the executive board lectures in IT in an east London college. The former headmistress of a prominent Islamic primary school in the same area is also a member of Hizb, as is the landlord of the building.’


Read the rest of Mellanie's article and read my post
"Muslim Voices at Number 10".
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Britain - BBC Self Reflects

American Expat plays the witch in the mirror and bursts the BBC's bubble using just one BBC reporter to do it. Imagine if he had used more, like John Simpson and Matt Wells, to name but a few. It's a pretty ugly reflection.

Wake up call to the BBC - you're not the fairest in the land - not by a long shot.
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Blogroll

I've added Right for Scotland to the blogroll under Scottish Blogs. Pay them a visit if you've the time.
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Britain - London Terrorist Unmasked

After terrorist bombers are identified, the media descend on their relatives for comments on the terrorist's upbringing. The family are shocked, saddened, horrified and ask how their darling, peace loving child could be driven to such maddness. We are assured that it wasn't the child they knew and it must have been some evil forces the suddenly took over their mind.

So it was with Shehzad Tanweer, one of the Muslim terrorists who murdered innocent people in London on 7/7.

The uncle of one of the London bombers has spoken of his family's devastation.

Bashir Ahmed, 65, said the family of Shehzad Tanweer had been "left shattered" by the news that the 22-year-old was a suicide bomber.

Speaking at the family home in Beeston, Leeds, he said: "The family is shattered. This is a terrible thing."

Mr Ahmed said it was hard for the family to accept their son had caused such loss of life, adding: "It wasn't him. It must have been forces behind him."

He said his nephew was intelligent, adding: "He was a very kind and calm person. He was respected by everyone."


Now read this.

Young men usually play cricket in Chak's main street but Tanweer - a talented batsman - had no interest. Instead, he wanted to pursue several of the groups who were expounding the jihadi cause. According to Tahir Pervaiz, his uncle, the family was so concerned that attempts were made to keep him inside the house. "Osama bin Laden was Shahzad's idol and he used to discuss the man with his cousins and friends in the village," said Mr Pervaiz.


Well, Mr. Ahmed, your family isn't nearly as "shattered" as the families your nephew murdered. If the family was so concerned that they tried to keep him in doors and he idolized bin Laden, why didn't you alert the police? If you had maybe 7/7 could have been prevented.
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Britain - New Evidence in London Terror Attack

From the Telegraph (UK).

One of the four London suicide bombers made numerous calls to a stolen mobile phone in Pakistan up to three days before the July 7 attacks.

Pakistani officials say they have traced the stolen phone after receiving requests from Britain's MI5 to investigate. They suspect that it was used by terrorists linked to the bombers, and then discarded after the London attacks.

The phone number was rung several times - as late as July 4 - by Shehzad Tanweer, one of the bombers who visited Pakistan more than six months ago along with Mohammad Sidique Khan, the cells's suspected ringleader. The disclosure has deepened suspicions that a "mastermind" based abroad was guiding the gang.


And

It emerged on Friday that seven terrorist suspects wanted over possible involvement with the London bombings are facing extradition from Pakistan to Britain under a new agreement. One is thought to have met one or more of the suicide bombers.

Whitehall officials refused to confirm details of the MI5 request to Pakistan for "operational reasons", but conceded that mobile phone calls, including some made abroad, were now central to the investigation.

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America - Cindy Sheehan: Media Darling

There's no doubting who Mae Gentry is behind in this article.

Hundreds of people packed a Stone Mountain church Saturday night to hear Cindy Sheehan, the woman who spent most of August in Crawford, Texas, trying speak to President Bush about her son's death.


It must have been a small chruch. But then again, maybe not.



She did say "packed" right?

Ah, what ever happened to the good old anti-war days, eh? In those days the crowds were in the thousands.

Gentry, like most in the media, fails to inform her readers that Sheehan has already met with the President.

Gentry is also happy to build up Sheehan's image for her.

Her solitary effort has sparked a national anti-war movement that will culminate Sept. 24 in Washington, when peace advocates will gather there.


Really? Someone ought to alert the press as they seem to be missing this national movement. How big is the "national" movement?

Four veterans of Iraq also said they want the war to end.


As for "solitary effort" I think Moveon.org and CodePink will be upset at that snub.

Listen to this insight into the mind of a moonbat.

"I had given up on my country, but we remembered what we had forgotten after almost five years of a virtual dictatorship — that we the people have the power," she said.


Yes, the people have the power and they re-elected, not only Bush, but more republicans in both houses of Congress and more governors. Some dictatorship, eh Cindy? Interesting that Gentry made no comment about Cindy's rant.

And some of Sheehan's moonbats want to overthrow the government.

Phil and Linda Waste of Hinesville have three sons and two grandchildren who have served in Iraq. "We're going on to Washington and take our country back," Phil Waste said.


Catchy last name there Phil - Waste. And just whom are you going to take it back from? The democratically elected representatives of the people?
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Iraq - al Qaeda Leaders Captured

They seem to be getting quite good at this.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Multi-National Forces captured Ammar ‘Abd-Al-Hafiz ‘Abd Muhummad (aka Ammar Amam Wakhtif or Sheik Ammar), an admitted terrorist and leader of the Nu’man Brigade, in a raid earlier in September in the Ramadi area.

Sheik Ammar oversaw and directed the day-to-day operations of the organization. He ordered numerous vehicle borne improvised explosive device and improvised explosive device bombings and other direct attacks against Iraqi Security and Coalition Forces.

Sheik Ammar took over as leader the brigade when Muhammad Daham was captured in May.

Sayf-al-Din Yahya 'Anad (aka Sheik Sayf or Abu Hamza), a Nu’man Brigade cell leader, was also captured during the raid. He was responsible for organizing and directing attacks against Iraqi Security and Coalition Forces.


No wonder Zarqawi is moaning.
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Brain Bliss