Kuwait - Women to vote and stand for election

Some of the credit for these new freedoms is given to the success in Iraq.

SOME OF this new interest in holding elections is due to the impact of Iraq on the broader Arab imagination. Many within the Arab ruling elites saw, with a mixture of admiration and terror, how Saddam Hussein's regime, regarded as the strongest of the Arab despotic structures in recent memory, collapsed within three weeks.

The message was clear: An Arab regime without some mandate from the people is never more than a house of cards. Next, the Arab masses began to see millions of Iraqis queuing to cast their ballots in several municipal elections, a referendum, and two general elections, all in a couple of years.

And these freedoms are spreading.

One reason is that the exercise will help consolidate the idea of holding elections as a means of securing access to power, something new and still fragile in most Arab states. Days before the Kuwaitis were due to go to the polls, the United Arab Emirates announced that it, too, would opt for a parliamentary system based on elections. This means all but five of the Arab states are now committed to holding reasonably clean elections at the municipal and/or national level.

Progress is slow and Democracy is a process not an event. Still, progress is being made.
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Iraq - Kerry coined "cut and run"

While the Democrats moan and complain about the Republicans label of cut and run Democrats, John Kerry used that phrase back in 2003 to attack Bush. Compare this to what flipper says today and his just defeated Senate bill.

"In fact, I fear that in the run-up to the 2004 election, the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy. Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal dates, without adequate stability, is an invitation to failure. The hard work of rebuilding Iraq must not be dictated by the schedule of the next American election."

Isn't that exactly what the Democrats are doing now?

Yes, Senator, cutting and running is an invitation to failure and the rebuilding of Iraq shouldn't be dependent on the next American election. So why have you flipped, flipper?
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US - Why does the media support terrorists?

The New York Times does it through their leaks and fabricated stories. The BBC does it through bias, overtly and by ommission, and lying. There are others.

Take the case of John Walker Lindh, dubbed the American Taleban. In a plea bargain "Walker Lindh pleaded guilty to serving in the Taliban army and carrying weapons in doing so". As part of the deal the government dopped charges related to the death of a CIA agent and this:

"The dropped charges against Walker Lindh included conspiring to kill Americans overseas, providing support to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, and using firearms and other destructive devices during crimes of violence."

But none of that seems to matter to some in the media. For instance, read this bleeding heart story about Lindh. The title of the piece? "Innocent".
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US - 7 Muslims arrested in terror probe

CNN reports the Sears Tower was a target.

This comes just after 17 Muslims were arrested in Canada on terror charges and the revelation that al Qaeda is still trying to use planes as missiles.

All of which shows terrorist are still planning attacks around the world.

Michelle has lots more with several links and photographs. Contrast her "reporting" with the BBC's.
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US - New York Times is leaking

Again!

Michelle has a long post on the New York Times putting headlines above our security.

When the Times isn't leaking national security information, they're busy fabricating stories.

No wonder the Times is down 27 percent in one year.
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US - Senate Votes Against Iraq Deadline

Again!

I think this brings the total to 6. Six times now the Republicans have called the Democrats bluff and six times the Democrats have voted to keep our troops in Iraq.

WASHINGTON, June 22 — The Senate voted today, after a long and emotional debate, against measures calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

The votes, 87 to 13 on one measure and 60 to 39 on the second, reflected not only deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats but within the Democratic ranks as well.

The first measure was an amendment to a military-spending bill offered by Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, both Democrats. It would have set a July 2007 withdrawal date. But with a majority of Democrats voting "no," its lopsided defeat was assured.

And

The second, more generally worded measure was also intended to scale down the American commitment in Iraq. It declared that it was "the sense of the Senate" that redeployment of United States troops from Iraq begin by the end of this year.

The votes on both measures were preceded by hours of debate that blended high emotion and the courtly courtesy that is a Senate tradition.

We've now had 6 votes with many hours of debate and everytime the Democrats lose with many of them voting to keep our troops in Iraq. The last Senate vote was 96-3 in favor.

Debate and voting, that's what Democracy is about but the Democrats need to stop saying they haven't had a chance to debate or vote on the issue - they've had six bites of the apple.

I guess they feel if they keep trying eventually they'll win but by then the troops will already be home.
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Iraqis take lead in northern Baghdad

Here's a report on more transfer of power to the Iraqis.

CAMP TAJI, Iraq (Army News Service, June 22, 2006) – In a show of continued confidence in the skills of its Iraqi counterparts, Multi-National Division – Baghdad transferred authority for a major portion of the northern Baghdad region to the 9th Iraqi Army Division during an “Iraqis in the Lead” ceremony June 19.

Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman, the commanding general of MND-B, spoke about the preparedness and skills of the 9th IA Div. before transferring responsibility for an area of more than 615 square kilometers to Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Bashar, the commander of the 9th IA Div.

It's interesting to note that the BBC reported on the transfer of control to the Iraqis in the "peaceful" south but not on the "violent" north.
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Iraq - "Where's the outrage"?

That's what ED Hill of Fox news asks and she's right.

Warning! Graphic account of what happened and may not be safe for work.


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US - The problem with Murtha

Powerline has two posts that show just how much trouble the Democrats are in. See here and here.

Just as John Kerry was and is a millstone around the Democrats neck, so too is Murtha proving to be. And that's a good thing.
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US - New York Times continues steep decline

CNN reports on the steep decline of the New York Times.

"But shares of the New York Times (Charts) have underperformed its peers, falling 11.5 percent this year and 27 percent in the past 12 months, compared to a 3.5 percent drop in 2006 for the S&P Publishing index and 8 percent decline during the past 12 months."

Not surprising given the New York Times credibility problems.
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Afghanistan - BBC still siding with terrorists

The BBC are less than honest in this report and even appear to put words into President Karzai's mouth.

From the BBC:

"Karzai criticises foreign tactics"

The above headline has this accompaning photograph.



And here are the first 3 paragrahps of the story that surround the photograph.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has urged the international community to reassess how it is fighting the Taleban and their allies.

He said he was not surprised that so many people were being killed in southern Afghanistan.

His comments came as the US military said four more of its soldiers had been killed in north-eastern Afghanistan.

I haven't been able to find a transcript of Karazi's speech and notice the BBC doesn't quote Karazi as saying he was not suprised that so many have been killed in southern Afghanistan. But Karzai is quoted extensively here and what is reported here differs widely from the BBC's report. No surprise there. None of the quotes here has Karzai making any such statement. Besides, if Karzai did make the statement we are not given any context. Karzai could have been saying that given the amount of firepower mounted against the Taleban, he wasn't surprised that many taleban have been killed. The BBC in supporting the terrorists, simply say that "many people were being killed."

Not content with merely putting words into President Karzai's mouth, the BBC go on to report the opposite of what he did say. From the BBC:

"The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says President Karzai's careful criticism is a sign of his growing frustration at the worsening security situation in Afghanistan."

Really, Alastair? Let's let Karzai speak for himself and let us decide.

“On the change of strategy, I believe the progress in Afghanistan towards stability and peace, and the participation of the Afghan people, has taken us many, many steps forward," Karzai said. "The nature of the war on terrorism in Afghanistan has changed now. Therefore, we do not think that there is a serious terrorist challenge emanating from Afghanistan. Rather, we believe that we should now concentrate on where terrorists are trained, on their bases, on the supply to them, on the money coming to them. That’s what we need. A stronger political approach now.”

And

“I don’t think there is a big need for military activity in Afghanistan anymore," Karzai said. "The use of air power is something that may not be very effective now because we have moved forward.

So, what tactics exactly does Karzai want changed?

And similarly, going into the Afghan homes -- searching Afghan homes without the authorization of the Afghan government -- is something that should stop now. No coalition forces should go into Afghan homes without the authorization of the Afghan government. The Afghan government is now capable of doing that. The Afghan society is now better organized [and] can handle things like that better than it could a year or two years ago. That’s what I mean by a change of strategy.”

President Karzai talks of so much "progress" in his country that he doesn't see "a big need for military activity in Afghanistan anymore" and that the government is "now capable" and "Afghan society is now better orgazinized" to police themselves. But the BBC know better and to them "President Karzai's careful criticism is a sign of his growing frustration at the worsening security situation in Afghanistan." Does that sound like what Karzai said to you?

The BBC aren't done trying to fool you yet. Listen to this:

The American soldiers were killed after US-led coalition forces attacked "enemy extremists" in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan Province, a coalition statement said.

Fighting has intensified in Afghanistan in recent months. Hundreds of suspected Taleban militants have been killed.

Attacks blamed on the Taleban and their allies, including suicide bombings, have also targeted US and other foreign troops.

Your impression? The Taleban have regrouped, are stronger and are on the attack again. The BBC needs you to have that impression as it backs up their claim that Karzai's comments mean things are getting worse.

The reality is, the coalition has mounted a huge operation using 10,000 of thousands of troops. The stated goal of the operation is to extend Karzai's control over the remainder of his country. That's why the fighting has intensified and hundreds of Taleban have been killed. We are on the offensive - hunting down and driving out the Taleban - not the defensive.

Lastly the BBC give us this death toll.



No mention of the tens maybe hundreds of thousands of terrorists killed.

Just more proof that the BBC are rooting for the terrorists to win.

UPDATE

I found this AP report at MSNBC.

The AP, like the BBC, still have the wrong end of the stick.

In recent weeks, Afghan and coalition forces have launched a massive anti-Taliban operation across four southern provinces aimed at killing or capturing fighters blamed for an upsurge in violence.

More than 600 people, mostly militants, have been killed in recent weeks as insurgents have launched their deadliest campaign of violence in years. At least 14 coalition soldiers have been killed in combat since mid-May.

Here again, the operation wasn't launched as a response to an "upsurge in violence". It's the other way around.

Strangely, the BBC didn't report on this interesting comment by Karzai.

“It is not acceptable for us that in all this fighting, Afghans are dying. In the last three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans were killed. (Even) if they are Taliban, they are sons of this land,” he said.

I'd like to see a video clip of the speech. If Karzai did say that it will raise a few eyebrows.

UPDATE

The Times (UK) has more and says Karzai is talking more about the broader war on terror. Here's the Times headline: "Karzai calls for War on Terror rethink"

And his complaints seem to be directed at Pakistan. But here again, as with the BBC, the Times seems to be injecting their own opinion into the story. Speaking of the current violence, the Times fails to mention that it is us who are taking the fight to the Taleban and not the other way around. This is stated in the current operations mission plan.

More than 1,000 people, including at least 40 foreign soldiers, have been killed in Afghanistan since the turn of the year during the worst period of sustained unrest since the fall of the Taleban in November 2001. The violence is expected to worsen this summer as Nato prepares to take over the military mission to the country.

Yes, it is as we will be increasing our attacks to root out the Taleban.

Now listen as the Times puts words in Karzai's mouth.

"We know the causes," said Mr Karzai of the deteriorating security situation. "There are shortcomings and inabilities in our system, that weakness is present all over the country. But there is no doubt it is largely because of foreign factors, terrorism and planned and co-ordinated attacks."

Without the full quote we don't know the context or exactly what Karzai was speaking of. The Times simply claims Karzai was talking about "the deteriorating security situation". Without a transcript how do we know what he actually said.

Here is what he has to say about what's going on in his country.

Asked whether he thought the US-led fight against the Taleban in Afghanistan was failing, Mr Karzai recommended a "thorough look" at the strategy of the War on Terror.

"I strongly believe... that we must engage strategically in disarming terrorism by stopping their sources of supply of money, training, equipment and motivation," he said. "This ’War on Terror’ has been limited to Afghanistan soil. We can’t tolerate it forever... in the past three weeks five, six hundred people have died in the country. We want an end to this, a basic end to this."

It sounds to me as if Karzai wants other countries to do more to stop terrorists before they get to Afghanistan. And he's right.

What this shows is that we need a complete transcript of Karzai's speech.
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US - CAIR and Muslim youth

The terrorist connected Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), is busy training Muslim youth for jihad. LGF has two reports here and here.
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North Korea - "Strike and Destroy"

That's what the Washington Post says we should do to North Korea.

"Therefore, if North Korea persists in its launch preparations, the United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched. This could be accomplished, for example, by a cruise missile launched from a submarine carrying a high-explosive warhead. The blast would be similar to the one that killed terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. But the effect on the Taepodong would be devastating. The multi-story, thin-skinned missile filled with high-energy fuel is itself explosive -- the U.S. airstrike would puncture the missile and probably cause it to explode. The carefully engineered test bed for North Korea's nascent nuclear missile force would be destroyed, and its attempt to retrogress to Cold War threats thwarted. There would be no damage to North Korea outside the immediate vicinity of the missile gantry."

So that makes it ok then? Just pre-emptively launch a missile attack, without warning, on a fellow member of the UN and destroy state property?

Evidently the Post doesn't think North Korea and China would consider this an act of war. Strange coming from a newspaper that is anti-war, no?

What ever happened to the left wing media's demand that all such actions must be santioned by the UN?

And what of South Korea?

"We should not conceal our determination to strike the Taepodong if North Korea refuses to drain the fuel out and take it back to the warehouse. When they learn of it, our South Korean allies will surely not support this ultimatum -- indeed they will vigorously oppose it. The United States should accordingly make clear to the North that the South will play no role in the attack, which can be carried out entirely with U.S. forces and without use of South Korean territory."

Well that's ok then, isn't it? I'm sure the North Koreans are resonable people and will listen to the country that just attacked them.

So how did we get to this stage anyway?

Creative diplomacy might have avoided the need to choose between these two unattractive alternatives. Indeed, in earlier years the two of us were directly involved in negotiations with North Korea, coupled with military planning, to prevent just such an outcome. We believe diplomacy might have precluded the current situation. But diplomacy has failed, and we cannot sit by and let this deadly threat mature.

That would be Clinton's failed diplomacy of demand but don't verify while North Korea developed nukes on his watch.

The Post also says Bush should have gone after North Korea instead of Saddam. There are a few not unimportant differences. Saddam had WMD and had used them on the Iranians and Kurds. We didn't know then and we may not know today if North Korea has nukes for sure. What we do know is they haven't used any - yet.

While Saddam may not be linked directly to 9/11, it has been proven that he supported terrorists including al Qaeda.

One thing that has stopped - for now - countries launching nuclear attacks on each other, is the idea of mutually assured destruction. I'm not sure terrorists care much if they die with us so long as us infidels die.

I find it interesting to hear the Washington Post sounding so hawkish and unilaterlist, the very things they constantly criticize Bush for.

It's true something must be done, but what? The Post is calling for another Cuban missle crisis. Are we ready for that? North Korea might not be so easily isolated and Cuba wasn't divided north and south with two large armies facing each other.

And why isn't the Post calling for Iran's nuclear facilities to be attacked?

The players are gathering around the poker table and let's hope North Korea blinks.
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US - “America Says Thank You” to our troops

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UK - Guardian likes Kos

No surprise there. But in their rush to praise "screw them" Kos, the Guardian leave out some important details.

Gateway Pundit takes a look at "screw them" Kos.

Here is the important part.

Daily Kos raised more than $500,000 to assist the campaigns of fifteen candidates. None were elected.

That's worth repeating. Of the 15 candidates that Kos endorsed and raised over $500,000 for, not a single one was elected.

And the Guardian swings and misses at the right of the blogsphere with this:

"Rightwing bloggers are ploughing the same furrow and consequently having less of an impact."

Oh, I think Dan Rather and Eason Jordan would disagree with that statement. If rightwing bloggers hadn't exposed Rather's attempts to smear Bush with forged documents, John Kerry might be president today and Rather would still be at CBS.
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Iraq - Hundreds of pre-1991 WMDs Found

As this Fox News report points out "This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991," the official said, adding the munitions "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war."

Those WMD's are believed to have been sent to Syria.

The report continues.

The weapons are thought to be manufactured before 1991 so they would not be proof of an ongoing WMD program in the 1990s. But they do show that Saddam Hussein was lying when he said all weapons had been destroyed, and it shows that years of on-again, off-again weapons inspections did not uncover these munitions.

So, how many have been found so far?

Reading from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, Santorum said: "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."

Glenn has a huge roundup with lots of links on this story. He also notes this is but a fragment of the classified document and the Senators are calling for more to be declassified.

More information here.

UPDATE

Here's a Fox News show discussing the recenlty declassified memo.

UPDATE

CQ has more with tons of links.
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UK - US confirms Heathrow hijack plot

This BBC report confirms that al Qaeda is still determined to hijack planes and fly them into buildings.

What the BBC continute to fail to report is that Big Ben 'was September 11 target'.

The terrorist was caught and sentenced to 7 years in prison. Which means he should be out of prison soon.
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Iraq Views Improve

We will see this poll on the BBC?

Americans are now more positive about the way things are going in Iraq than in the past few months, following the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and President Bush's brief visit to the country. Optimism about the U.S. achieving its goals in Iraq, which sagged in the spring, has rebounded. But this has resulted in only a slight boost in President Bush's overall approval ratings, and last week's congressional debate failed to engage the public or improve the GOP's standing on the issue.

A 53% majority now says the military effort in Iraq is going at least fairly well, up from 47% in April and an all-time low of 43% in March. The share who believe that the U.S. is making progress in training Iraqi forces, defeating the insurgents, and establishing a democracy has also risen from recent lows.

[...]

The uptick in optimism about Iraq is seen in several areas, aside from a better view of the overall military effort. More Americans believe that the U.S. will succeed in establishing a stable democracy than did so in March (55% now, 49% in March).

An increasing number also believe the effort in Iraq has helped the war on terrorism (44%, up from 38% in April). Moreover, the public sees progress on specific objectives in the war, including defeating the insurgents militarily and training Iraqi security forces.

Nearly half of Americans (48%) now say that the U.S. is making progress in defeating the insurgents militarily, compared with 36% who say we are losing ground. In March, the public's views were nearly reversed ­ 36% said we were making progress defeating the insurgents while 51% said we were losing ground. Along the same lines, there has been a modest increase in the percentage who says the U.S. is making progress in preventing terrorists from using Iraq as a base for attacks on the U.S. and its allies.

And these numbers would be much higher if it weren't for the left wing media.
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Iraq - Terrorists targeting the elderly

A Biased BBC commenter noted this at the end of this BBC report.

Elsewhere, at least one elderly woman was killed along with a suicide bomber who blew himself up inside a home for the elderly in the southern city of Basra.

These are Michael Moore's Minutemen.
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UK - Financial Times:"The BBC's failing journalism"

Nice to see even some in MSM agree the BBC is failing.

"Some time soon the government will announce the BBC's new licence fee settlement. The funding increase will not be as extravagant as the corporation would like but probably not quite as miserly as the Treasury would prefer. This will be the last such deal. The present model of public service broadcasting is destined to struggle against the rising tide of digital technology. The BBC's failing journalism may well set the seal on its demise."

Yes, I think it will.
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Iraq - Senior al Qaeda terrorists captured and killed

CQ has the details on this unfolding story.

It looks like they killed one of the terrorists who could have succeeded Zarqawi and they caputred some other senior AQ terrorists.

This comes on top of the operation in Ramadi which has the terrorists on the run.
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UK - Four men arrested in terror raid

Let's hope they get it right this time.

This raid is a result of earlier arrests.
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Iraq - Targeting terrorists in Ramadi

Coalition forces are surrounding Ramadi and the terrorists are trying to escape.

And note this:

Baghdad, 20 June (AKI) - Sources in Ramadi in the restive al-Anbar province report that large groups of armed foreign militants are fleeing towards the Syrian border, as US and Iraqi forces tighten their siege on the city. Ramadi, some 100 kilometres west of Baghdad, is a stronghold of the insurgency and there are reports of many residents also fleeing in fear of an assault. Sources told Adnkronos International (AKI) that local tribes were also pursuing foreign terrorists "because of the immense damage they have done to infrastructure and the bad name they have given the insurgency by terror attacks against innocent civilians."

And this...

This episode, the sources said, "will make the border area where the tribe of the victim lives an unsafe area for these militants." What's more, "there is close collaboration between the members of this tribe and the US and Iraqi forces regarding the elimination of terrorists and the liberation of the zone from this tragic presence."

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US - Dan Rather Signs Off

and we're all better off for it.

CBS: "Of all the famous names associated with CBS News, the biggest and brightest on the marquee are Murrow, Cronkite and Rather," McManus said. "With the utmost respect, we mark the extraordinary and singular role Dan has played in writing the script of not only CBS News, but of broadcast journalism."

Really? Then why didn't CBS renew his contract which isn't due to expire until November anyway?

Rather's contract with the network was scheduled to expire in November, but he was unable to reach agreement with CBS on a new pact. He had worked as a correspondent for 60 Minutes since stepping down as anchor of the CBS Evening News last year.

As I understand it, Rather wasn't even offered a new agreement.

Rather will best be remembered for "Rathergate". In that scandal Rather tried to steal the 2004 Presidential election for John Kerry by using forged documents in an attempt to smear Bush.

UPDATE

CBS and Rather both confirm he was not offered an agreement.

Asked why the network is dropping the 74-year-old Rather, McManus said: "We just couldn't come up with an arrangement that had enough work to satisfy both him and CBS. If there had been a scenario that would have provided a workload that made sense for both CBS and Dan, we would have pursued that, but unfortunately that was not the case."

So much for the Murrow comparison then, eh?
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US - Kerry extends troop withdrawal date

The Boston Globe reports.

WASHINGTON -- Senator John F. Kerry is pushing back by six months the deadline he wants to set for removing combat troops from Iraq, as he seeks to build support in the Senate for his plan for troop withdrawal.

The proposal to be offered by Kerry today would require President Bush to remove nearly all US troops from Iraq by July 1, 2007. The Massachusetts Democrat's initial plan -- to remove troops by the end of 2006 -- received just six votes in the Senate last week, and the later date is intended to build support for the proposal, said April Boyd, a Kerry spokeswoman.

That's flipper for you, changing his position with the political wind.

Hell, at this rate, the troops will have been home by six months before we reach Kerry's politically motivated timeline.
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Iraq - Number 5 al Qaeda killed

That's from a coalition briefing I just saw on Fox news.
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US - Democrat Mayor Admits Cocaine Use

This comes on the heels of Kennedy's admission of driving under the influence of drugs.

STAMFORD, Conn. — Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi admitted he used cocaine after taking office in 2003 and told the Connecticut Post in an interview published Tuesday that he feels ashamed and humiliated.

Fabrizi sought a meeting with the newspaper's editorial board after an FBI report surfaced in which an alleged drug dealer claimed an associate had a videotape of the mayor using cocaine.

"I'm ashamed. I'm humiliated for myself. I never meant to let the world know. I didn't want my family to know," Fabrizi told the newspaper.

Fabrizi, a Democrat who took over leadership of the state's largest city after his predecessor was convicted of corruption, would not say how he obtained cocaine but said he occasionally spent $20 or $40 to purchase it.

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Denmark caving in to Muslims

Despite pictures and paintings of Muhammad throughout history, Muslims today profess outrage at his depiction. Thier lates ire is directed at a Danish textbook.

HYDERABAD: Weeks after the Danish cartoons of Prophet Mohammed receded from newspaper headlines, the Muslim quarter of Hyderabad has been set aflutter with the discovery of a Class IV text-book that bears a sketch of the founder of Islam.

And what was the sketch about?

The sketch, illustrating a parable of the Prophet's kindness and tolerance for even his opponents, appears in a book titled Moral Values, which is used by many primary schools in the Old City to teach moral science, a compulsory subject for Class IV students under the state syllabus.

The irony appears to have been lost on the Danish Muslims.

What was the publishers response to the Muslim ire?

The illustration accompanying this story shows the Prophet standing beside the old woman lying on her bed.

MIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi sees in this episode a conspiracy to hurt Muslims. "An international agency has been working to provoke and disturb Muslims. After the caricature of the Prophet in Danish newspapers rocked the entire world, how come the writer and publisher of this book did not realise the implications?

We want the publisher and the author arrested immediately and an apology tendered to Muslims," Owaisi demanded. After the issue became public, Arkbird Publications withdrew the books, not just in Hyderabad, but also from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu where they had been desptached.

Its director for AP, K B Prasad said, "Our intention was not to hurt but to tell a good story to children. All the remaining books will be destroyed.''

Repeat after me, appeasement never works.
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Iraq - Media Matters blows it

Media Matters cites a cable approved by Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, to Condi Rice describing what Media Matters calls "deteriorating situation in Iraq". I'll get to Media Matters assertions in a minute. But first I want to point out a factual error in their report.

Media Matters has this to say about the cable:

"...was dated June 6, the day before the killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and one week before President Bush's surprise six-hour visit to the country, during which Bush touted the progress there."

In fact as you can clearly see the cable is dated 12 June at 1430Z (Zulu Time). I was a cryptologist in the Navy for 20 years and unless things have changed date time stamps are formatted this way: day/time (z)/month/year. Media Matters seems to have thought Jun 06 meant the sixth of June when it means Jun 2006.



I think that would make it about 5:30 pm local time in Baghdad on the 12th of June - 5 days after the Zarqawi killing and the evening before Bush's surprise visit to Iraq. In fact, Bush may have already been in the air by this time.

Media Matters goes further and missquotes the cable:

Indeed, the document painted a dire picture of daily life in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country, at one point citing an Iraqi newspaper editor's assertion that "ethnic cleansing ... is taking place in almost every Iraqi province."

Actually, it is an unidentifed Arab editor who said he was making a survey of what he claimed was ethnic cleansing.

As for the cable itself, here's the subject line:



This cable isn't about, as Media Matters puts it, "deteriorating situation in Iraq". The cable is about one department feeling the strain of social discord and details dress code harrasment by some female members, favoritism in electrical supplies and complaints about long fuel lines.

The dress code complaints seem to revolve around conservative elements within the community adopting stricter codes.

In fact the cable cites improvements Media Matters ignores.



And some people are getting electricity from 8 to 24 hours a day.

Note also that in many of the complaints it's one person who is complaining. I don't mean to belittle the problems these people are facing as they do have legitimate complaints that need to be addressed. But it's hardly proof of Media Matters assertion of the "deteriorating situation in Iraq".

Here's the cable itself in PDF form.

UPDATE

True to from the BBC jump on the bandwagon. Media Matters, unlike the BBC, has at least corrected the date of the cable. Here from the BBC:

The document was signed by US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and sent to the State Department in Washington on 6 June.

But like Media Matters, the BBC fail to point out the improvements the cable cites.

Media Matters put a correction to the date of the cable at the end of their report. Watch and see if the BBC merely stealth edit theirs. Here's a snapshot.


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US - PR Week helps Kennedy dig faster

Despite the debunking of Kennedy's ludicrus cliam that Republicans stole the last Presidential election via voter fraud in Ohio, PR Week continues to schill for him.

Take this for example:

PRWeek: Why didn't the Democrats themselves pursue this?

Kennedy: Well, there was a lot of complaining; there were a lot of lawsuits. But it got very little traction in the media. But you know, the Democrats on this issue have been abysmal as well.

Just as Kennedy left out of his article, so too PR Week fails to mention the Democrats own investigation which concluded:

"Somehow he never gets around to quoting the DNC investigative team’s conclusion that ‘The statistical study of precinct-level data does not suggest the occurrence of widespread fraud that systemically misallocated votes from Kerry to Bush.”

And this:

The newspaper also notes: "Kennedy saw conspiracy in a Franklin County foul-up that resulted in far too few voting machines at a polling place in a heavily black area that would presumably vote mainly for Kerry.

"But he didn’t tell his readers that the chairman of the Franklin County elections board, who oversaw the county’s voting machine allocation, was a black man who also chairs the county Democratic Party. Not a likely candidate to steal votes for Bush.”

Source

Not only is Kennedy in a hole and still digging, PR Week has jumped in with a shovel to help.

All of which helps explain why major media didn't cover this non story.
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US - Leaving the Left and the reasons for it

Another liberal sees the light.
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US - Madeleine Albright rewrites history

That's what Democrats due in order to make it fit their agenda.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright criticized the U.S. invasion of Iraq, saying Monday it had encouraged Iran and North Korea to push ahead with their nuclear programs.

She means the nuclear weapons developed on her watch.

Albright, who served under President Clinton, said "the message out of Iraq is the wrong one."

Lybia seemed to have got the right message and immediately gave up their WMD projects. Ms. Albright seems to have overlooked that one.
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US - Leopold outed

by the Columbia Jounalism Review.

At the end of the piece the CJR ask:

But we wonder when editors will finally figure out his game, save themselves the trouble, and just stop publishing him.

Well at least this time MSM seemed to have been reserved in reporting anything Leopold had to say.

But Truthout is standing by their man. As they say, when in a hole....

So much for "standing down" and deferring "instead to the nation's leading publications" eh Mr. Ash?
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Israel - Gaza deaths not Israeli shelling:HRW

Human Rights Watch now says the deaths of a Palestinian family on a Gaza beach was not due to Israeli shelling. They now agree the most likely cause was...

"We came to an agreement with General Klifi that the most likely cause [of the blast] was unexploded Israeli ordinance," Garlasco told The Jerusalem Post following the meeting.

Adloyada has the story.

It is not unusual for Palestinians to be killed trying to recover unexploded ordinance to be used against the Israelis or children playing with the devices. In fact, as noted in Wikipedia,

Another cause of injury has been unexploded ordinance (UXO). Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, at least 11 Palestinians under the age of 17 have been injured by Israeli security forces' munitions' remnants. The large majority of incidents involving unexploded ordinance occurred in the Gaza Strip.

The German Newspaper Sued Deutsche was one of the first to cast serious doubt on the Palestinian version of events.

Since the BBC uses Human Rights Watch extensively in thier reporting, it will be interesting to see if they report HRW's u-turn. As of this writing there is nothing on the BBC's website about it.

Interestingly, there is this damning report on the Palestinian's relentless rocket attack on Israel.

Last weekend, this small Israeli town close to the Gaza border was pounded by more than 50 Qassams - a crude home-made rocket - severely injuring a 61-year-old school caretaker.

The step-up in attacks came after the militant group Hamas broke its 16-month ceasefire after accusing Israeli forces of firing a shell onto a beach that killed eight Palestinian civilians.

But in the last few months the rockets have been falling in greater numbers.

According to the mayor of Sderot, Eli Moyal, an average of 80 rockets a month have landed in the town's municipal borders since September.

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US - Kennedy's 2004 Voter Theft Theory Debunked

Just like all the other Democrats voter theft "theories".

"In his online footnotes, Kennedy refers no less than a half-dozen times to a five-month-long post-election investigation commissioned by the Democratic National Committee called ‘Democracy at Risk.’

"Somehow he never gets around to quoting the DNC investigative team’s conclusion that ‘The statistical study of precinct-level data does not suggest the occurrence of widespread fraud that systemically misallocated votes from Kerry to Bush.”

The newspaper also notes: "Kennedy saw conspiracy in a Franklin County foul-up that resulted in far too few voting machines at a polling place in a heavily black area that would presumably vote mainly for Kerry.

"But he didn’t tell his readers that the chairman of the Franklin County elections board, who oversaw the county’s voting machine allocation, was a black man who also chairs the county Democratic Party. Not a likely candidate to steal votes for Bush.”

The Plain Dealer isn't the only ones who debunk Kenndey's absurd claims.

And a story by Farhad Manjoo on the Web site Salon.com – another news source that’s far from conservative – states: "If you do read Kennedy’s article, be prepared to machete your way through numerous errors of interpretations and his deliberate omission of key bits of data.”

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UK warned two years before 7/7 Muslim terror attack

The media and blogsphere is abuzz over Suskind's revelation that al Qaeda planned to use posion gas on New Yorks's subways. But his book also reveals that Britain was warned about Mohammad Sidique Khan two years before he and others attacked London's underground on 7/7. The Scotsman reports.

UPDATE

The Times (UK) has much more.

The intelligence "turf war" in America is no excuse for Britain to have dropped the ball on Khan. Khan was a British citizen living here in Britain and the authorities were made aware of what he was up to.

UPDATE

CQ notes ABC is reporting Luskind may have his terrorists mixed up but says Luskind is sticking by his story.

The Times (UK) has more.
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Iraq - Iraqis taking control

The Telegraph reports.

Iraq's prime minister has announced that Iraqi forces will next month take over security in the southern province of Muthanna, where British troops currently oversee multinational forces.

Muthanna will be the first of Iraq's 15 provinces outside of the relatively peaceful Kurdish north to come under full Iraqi control, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he hoped most of the 19 provinces would soon be under local control.

"Muthanna is the first Iraqi province that will have the honour of being transferred from multinational forces to Iraqi forces," Mr Maliki said.

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Islam - The New Al Qaeda

The Sepctator reports on the new al Qaeda and notes this:

In 1996 a British gent named Babar Ahmad pioneered al Qaeda Online (a lovely site that showed beheadings, kidnapped victims' pleas and served as a fundraising mechanism for terror groups) from his comfy office at Imperial College in London. (My, terrorists do seem to have a strong affinity for Western universities.) U.S. prosecutors say they can link Ahmad to the Taliban and Shamil Basayev, the Chechen terrorist behind the Beslan school attack. He has since run for a seat in the British parliament, and, from behind the walls of a British prison, established another website to spread his anti-American tosh, while he fights extradition to the U.S.

Meanwhile, CQ reports on the caputre of AQ's blogger in chief.
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Afghanistan - Coalition forces on the offensive

The Telegraph and USA Today have reports.
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UK - Imam backs terror attack against Blair

Will Blair deport him?

A RADICAL Muslim who ousted a leading moderate cleric from his mosque on the south coast with a campaign of violence has said he believes Tony Blair is a “legitimate target” for terrorists.

Abubaker Deghayes, who now runs the mosque in Brighton and whose brother Omar is a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, told an undercover reporter that he endorsed the views of George Galloway, the Respect MP, who said an attack on the prime minister by a suicide bomber could be morally justified. Deghayes said he prayed for Allah to support anyone who attacked Blair.

And this is interesting:

The Charity Commission, which has jurisdiction over the mosque because it is run as a charity, said it did not know how the mosque was receiving and spending money and added that it was operating “in breach of legal requirements”.

So why not remove those in charge?
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US - Platic turkeys can't die

And seemingly neither can reporting non-existing plastic turkeys.

Despite the New York Times retraction, many reporters still erroneously report that Bush used a plastic turkey during his visit to Iraq.

The New York Times:

"An article last Sunday about surprises in politics referred incorrectly to the turkey carried by President Bush during his unannounced visit to American troops in Baghdad over Thanksgiving. It was real, not fake."

From Bloomberg:

"(Corrects to delete reference to fake turkey in third paragraph.)"

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Iraq - Burning the Koran: Where are the riots?

That's what Tammy Bruce wants to know.

Remember how the Muslim world erupted in riots and killings over the bogus Newsweek story alleging US troops desecrated a Koran? Where's the outrage and riots over Muslims buring the Koran? What's the difference here?

We're infidels.

Here's a bloodied and burnt Koran from a recent Muslim terrorist attack on a Mosque.


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US - Another stolen election

Have you noticed that every time the Democrats lose an election, they claim it was stolen from them?

That tired old excuse is starting to wear thin. It never occurs to the Democrats that their candidate was rejected by the voters.

After the last Presidential election the Democrats claimed Ohio was stolen from them and they paid for an independent investigation to prove it. Their own investigation found that there was indeed massive voter fraud - by Democrats.
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US - "Unwitting Role in the Rove 'Scoop'"

That's what Joe Lauria claims in his Washington Post article. Before I go any further, let me say that I don't recall seeing Lauria reporting on Jason Leopold's "Rove scoop" which turned out to be false. And while Lauria may have been unwittingly caught up in the scandal, that doesn't absolve him completely as he tries to make out. Here's what Lauria has to say about Leopold:

In his nine-year reporting career, Leopold has managed, despite his drug abuse and a run-in with the law, to work with such big-time news organizations as the Los Angeles Times, Dow Jones Newswire and Salon. He broke some bona fide stories on the Enron scandal and the CIA leak investigation. But in every job, something always went wrong, and he got the sack. Finally, he landed at Truthout, a left-leaning Web site. [Despite all this left wing media kept hiring him. That should tell you a lot about the left wing media]

Notice how Lauria even now tries to give some credibility to Leopold over the Enron scandal? But look what Lauria has to say about Leopold's tactics in the Enron scandal on page two.

Except that he has done things like that. His memoir is full of examples. He did break big stories, but he lied to get many of them. He admits lying to the lawyers for Enron executives Jeffrey Skilling and Andrew Fastow, making up stories to get them to spill more beans. "I was hoping to get both sides so paranoid that one was going to implicate the other," he wrote.

Lauria continues:

I met Leopold once, three days before his Rove story ran, to discuss his recently published memoir, "News Junkie." It seems to be an honest record of neglect and abuse by his parents, felony conviction, cocaine addiction -- and deception in the practice of journalism.

Leopold says he gets the same rush from breaking a news story that he did from snorting cocaine. To get coke, he lied, cheated and stole. To get his scoops, he has done much the same. As long as it isn't illegal, he told me, he'll do whatever it takes to get a story, especially to nail a corrupt politician or businessman. "A scoop is a scoop," he trumpets in his memoir. "Other journalists all whine about ethics, but that's a load of crap."

So, Lauria admits he knew before Leopold's "Rove scoop" that Leopold was a convicted drug felon who had lost every reporting job due to journalistic deceptions. What did Laruia do when the disgraced Leopold broke his "Rove scoop"?

I disagree, but I felt some sympathy for the affable, seemingly vulnerable 36-year-old. Before we parted, I told him a bit about myself -- that I freelance for numerous newspapers, including the Sunday Times of London. His publicist had earlier given him my cellphone number.

Three days later, Leopold's Rove story appeared. I wrote him a congratulatory e-mail, wondering how long it would be before the establishment media caught up.

Lauria, knowing full well Leopold's track record sent him a congratulatory email and wondered how long it would take MSM to catch up. They never did and it would seem Lauria isn't so much unwitting as he was lucky.

Lauria continues the story detailing how, AFTER MSM failed to pick up the story, he tried to verify Leopold's "Rove scoop". This gives you an insight into how the left wing media think. Despite Leopold's proven track record of deception, Lauria wanted so bad for the story that Rove had been indicted to be true, that he sent Leopold a congratulatory email as soon as his "scoop" broke - without checking any of it.

Lauria ends with this and in so doing misses his own irony:

"These days it is about the reporter, not the story; the actor, not the play; the athlete, not the game."

Sadly, Mr. Lauria proved his own point.
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US - Dixie Chicks in hole; continue to dig

They just don't get it, do they?
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US - Cut and run Democrats inspire terrorists

Iraq isn't the first time cut and run Democrats have inspired terrorists to continue to fight or mount new attacks. Jack Murtha, one of the leading cut and run Democrats over Iraq, did the same thing in Somalia. The 9/11 commission directly cited the US pull out from Somalia, at the urging of Murtha, as an inspiration for bin Laden.

The Democrats disasterous cut and run policy goes even further back than that, back to Vietnam in fact.

Here's the history from 30 years ago that the Democrats would like to repeat.

As leaders of the anti-war movement you can thank John Kerry and Hanoi Jane Fonda. The North Vietnamese did.

Even Giap admitted in his memoirs that news media reporting of the war and the anti-war demonstrations that ensued in America surprised him. Instead of negotiating what he called a conditional surrender, Giap said they would now go the limit because America's resolve was weakening and the possibility of complete victory was within Hanoi's grasp.

And the North used the anti-war movement in its war strategy.

Bui Tin, who served on the general staff of the North Vietnamese army, received South Vietnam's unconditional surrender on April 30, 1975. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal after his retirement, he made clear the anti-war movement in the United States, which led to the collapse of political will in Washington, was "essential to our strategy."

The Times article continues...

In 1974-75, the United States snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Hundreds of thousands of our Vietnamese allies were incarcerated, and more than a million driven into exile. The awesome image of the United States was diminished, and its enemies were thereby emboldened, drawing the United States into new conflicts by proxy in Afghanistan, Africa and Latin America.

Which is exactly what happened.

The cut and run Democrats did it in Vietnam, Somalia and now they want to repeat it in Iraq. The thing is, when you call the Democrats bluff and give them a chance to vote on cut and running, they vote to, as Bush puts it, "stay the course". In fact, the Democrats have voted 5 times to "stay the course".
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UK - Police may let Muslims see terrorism intelligence

This is sure to raise some eyebrows.

The police are considering a proposal to let selected British Muslims examine the intelligence used to mount anti-terrorism raids before they take place, the Guardian has learned.

So who are some of these "selected British Muslims"?

The review includes members of the Muslim Safety Forum, which aims to improve relations between police and British Muslim communities.

Azad Ali, its chairman, said fresh measures, such as British Muslims being able to advise the police on their intelligence and how to act on it before any raid, must be found.

I haven't had time to do much research yet but this caught my eye.

The MSF is an umbrella organisation made up of national and regional Islamic organisations including: Al-Khoei Foundation, Al Ikhlas Foundation, Al-Muntada Al-Islami, Amal Trust, Association of Muslim Police, Bangla 2000, BanglaMedia, Ershad Centre, FAIR, FOSIS, IFE, Iqra Trust, ISB, London Muslim Centre, MAB, MCB London Affairs Committee, MPAC, Muslim College, Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre, Muslim Directory, Muslim Line, Muslim Parliament, Muslim Welfare House, Muslimaat UK, Somali Muslim Community, Stop Political Terror, The Avenue School, The London Central Mosque, UKIM, UMO Women's Relief, YMO UK.

Just search my blog for MAB and MCB and more eyebrows will be raised.
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Israel - 'One dead' in Gaza missile strike

But as is their usual want in supporting Palestinian terrorists, the BBC fail to tell you who the 'One dead' is.

At least one Palestinian has been killed and two others injured in an Israeli missile strike on their car in Gaza, Palestinian sources say.

The Israeli army confirmed it targeted a vehicle near Gaza City, which it said was carrying militants.

So, who was this "one Palestinian" who was killed? Was he some dirt farmer, innocent bystander or a child playing in a field? And who are the "Palestinain sources" reporting his death? For the important information that the BBC censor from their report we have to turn to the AFP.

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Two Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants were killed and three other people were wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting a car near Gaza City.

A Jihad official told AFP that a chief of the Al-Quds Brigades in the Gaza Strip, Imad Yassin, tasked with firing rockets at Israel, was killed.

A second militant, Habib Ashur, died of his wounds shortly after the air strike, a medical source told AFP.

A missile hit the car in Wadi Gaza village on the southern outskirts of Gaza City, witnesses said.

In fact, the BBC even quote this AFP report but censor out this important information.

AFP news agency quoted witnesses as saying a missile hit the car in the village of Wadi Gaza, on the southern outskirts of Gaza City.

But both the BBC and the AFP try and minimize the effects of Palestinian terrorist rocket attacks on Israel. From the BBC:

Scores of rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel over the past week, causing some injuries and damage.

From the AFP:

Islamic Jihad has fired dozens of makeshift rockets into neighbouring areas in Israel, causing little damage. According to the Israeli military, some 120 rockets have struck southern Israel over the past week.

While not exactly a V type rocket, yet, these rockets are deadly. Not to mention the fear and panic they create.

By intentionally leaving out these important details, the BBC once again demonstrate their support of Palestinian terrorists and portray Israel as the bad guys. What a discraceful organization the BBC has become.
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US - 2006: One hell of a year

That's what I wrote back on 31 January this year. Just one month into the new year and the Democrats were imploding with more of them convicted of vote fraud, some were linked to the Abramoff scandal and the DNC was broke.

Since then, so many more Democrats were linked to scandals, including two high ranking committee members (one stepped down and the other refuses to so even though he's been asked to by his own leader), that the Democrats have now abondoned their "culture of corruption" slogan. Heh, the shoe fits and all that.

And in just the last few days there has been a tidal wave of good news for the US which is more bad news for the Democrats. MICHAEL BARONE writes.

"It has been a tough 10 days for those who see current events through the prisms of Vietnam and Watergate. First, the Democrats failed to win a breakthrough victory in the California 50th District special election--a breakthrough that would have summoned up memories of Democrats winning Gerald Ford's old congressional district in a special election in 1974. Instead the Democratic nominee got 45% of the vote, just 1% more than John Kerry did in the district in 2004.

Second, U.S. forces with a precision air strike killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, on the same day that Iraqis finished forming a government. Zarqawi will not be available to gloat over American setbacks or our allies' defeat, as the leaders of the Viet Cong and North Vietnam did.

Third, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald announced that he would not seek an indictment of Karl Rove. The leftward blogosphere had Mr. Rove pegged for the role of Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Theories were spun about plea bargains that would implicate Vice President Dick Cheney. Talk of impeachment was in the air. But it turns out that history doesn't repeat itself. George W. Bush, whether you like it or not, is not a second Richard Nixon."

On top of that, Republicans called the Democrats bluff and Congress just voted for the fifth time to keep our troops in Iraq with many Democrats voting in favor of the measures. In fact the most recent Senate vote was 96-3 in favor!

All this and more in just the first 6 months of this year. Yep, 2006 is turning out to be one hell of a year.

UPDATE

Here's how they voted in the Senate. Keep it handy the next time one of the Democrats who voted to keep our troops in Iraq calls for us to cut and run.
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Iraq - Chemical bomb found

The Kuwaiti News Agency reports.

IRBIL, June 17 (KUNA) -- An Iraqi citizen from Kurdistan found a chemical bomb Saturday in Seirawan area near Gatha Halabja in northern Iraq as he was reconstructing his house that had been torn down in the eighties.

A security source, quoted by the Kurdish National Union Media, said the bomb was a leftover from mass-destruction weapons of the former Iraqi regime. Halabja was bombarded on March 16, 1988 by chemical bombs. In 1988, 500 citizens were killed and 10,000 more were blinded, maimed, disfigured, or otherwise severely and irreversibly debilitated. Thousands died of horrific complications, debilitating diseases, and birth defects in the years after.

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Iraq - House Rejects Timetable for Iraq Pullout

And 42 Democrats, the ones who keep calling for just such a timetable, voted against their leader Pelosi, the AP reports.

A day after the Senate took the same position against troop withdrawal, the GOP-led House voted 256-153 to approve a nonbinding resolution that says an "arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment" of American forces is not in the national interest.

This is the third time the House, including Democrats, have voted to keep troops in Iraq.

It would be nice if MSM would start asking Democrats when they appear on TV calling for the troops to be withdrawn, why they keep voting to keep the troops there.
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Afghanistan - 'Forty Taleban' killed in attack

Why the scare quotes around 'Forty Taleban' in this BBC report? Maybe it was a plumbers convention.

US-led coalition forces say they have killed about 40 Taleban fighters in an attack on a compound in southern Afghanistan.

Some 50 Taleban fighters were said to have been holding a meeting in the compound in Uruzgan province which was being monitored by the US-led forces.

Separately, two coalition soldiers were killed when their vehicle was blown up in the eastern Kunar province.

Fighting has intensified in Afghanistan in the past two months.

Hundreds of suspected Taleban fighters and militants have been killed, mainly in the south and east.

What the BBC doesn't tell you is why the fighting has intensified. As more and more of the country is secured, coalition forces are now cleaning out remaining areas where the Taleban were mainly in control.
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Terrorism - How the media supports it

Here's something I've been saying for a long time.

And the BBC is at the top of the list.
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Iraq - Senate Rejects U.S. Troop Pullout

The Democrats keep saying pull the troops out of Iraq now. But what happens when they're asked to put up or shut up? They vote to keep the troops in Iraq - 93 - 6.

Last year the Democrats complained they weren't given a vote on keeping the troops in Iraq or bringing them home. The Republicans then held two votes in the House and the Democrats voted to keep the troops in Iraq.

This makes 3 votes now and every time the Democrats have voted to keep the troops in. The next time you hear one of their leaders saying it's time to bring the troops home, ask them why then, do they keep voting to keep the troops there?

Those on the Left that want the US to cut and run need to be asking their leaders why they keep voting to stay the course as Bush says we should.
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UK - BBC: Bombing Manchester was a good thing

That's what this BBC article seems to imply.

"Manchester changed the day a white transit van, packed with 3,300lb of explosives, blew up on Corporation Street on 15 June 1996.

The IRA blast left a deep crater in the heart of the city as it tore apart Marks and Spencer, the Arndale Centre and the Corn Exchange.

But ten years on, Manchester bursts with civic pride.

What was once a bombsite is now a stylish hub of ultra modern glass buildings and designer shops.

The regeneration has attracted big names such as Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Heals and Louis Vuitton.

Without the bomb, Manchester may not have had such a dramatic opportunity for rebirth, funded by private investors and government cash."

Without the bomb over 200 people, seven of them seriously, wouldn't have been wounded by flying glass.

The BBC make the same argument in a sidebar to this article.

The immense damage done to buildings in the city centre led to a total regeneration - it could be argued that without the bomb, Manchester may not have had such a dramatic opportunity for rebirth, funded by private investors and the government.

Well, there's no aruging that those 200 people wouldn't have suffered horrific injuries without the bomb. Maybe the BBC should ask the victims.
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Iraq - Al-Qaeda 'coming to end in Iraq'

That's the BBC's headline for a breaking story on documents captured as a result of Zarqawi's death. The report gives few details so far but here is what others are reporting.

From CNN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's national security adviser said al Qaeda in Iraq documents confiscated in recent days provide a wealth of information to security forces fighting the terror network.

"We believe that this is the beginning of the end of al Qaeda in Iraq," said Mowaffaq al-Rubaie at a news conference Thursday in Baghdad. "This is a very good day for Iraq."

He said "thumb drives or flash disks," a laptop and other documents have been seized in various hideouts. He said the data will help authorities determine the whereabouts of the network, its leaders, weapons, meetings and how it operates.

From Reuters

Rubaie said the documents showed that al Qaeda's central strategy was to "divide, destroy and rule".

He added: "These documents have given us the edge over al Qaeda and (they) also gave us the whereabouts of their network, of their leaders, of their weapons and the way they lead the organisation and the whereabouts of their meetings."

No doubt al Qaeda will be changing much of that by now and the violence will not end soon. But, let's hope this provides a breakthrough and will mark the end of al Qaeda in Iraq.

UPDATE

Just saw a briefing by US commanders on Fox News reporting that as a result of the information gained over 700 terrorists have been arrested, 140 killed and 28 weapons dumps discovered. Hopefully there will be more to come.
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US - Every day is a "New direction"

for the Democrats.
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UK - Moazzam Begg: Jihadist or Victim?

For the much of the UK, thanks to the BBC who devote 20 webpages and numberous interviews to him, Begg is a victim. The New York Times, a sharp critic of Bush and Gitmo, "begs" to differ.

But then, according to this Gateway Pundit post, the Times has its own problems with who is a Jihadist or victim.
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Afghanistan - BBC glass half empty

Compare and contrast this BBC report with this Daily Times report.

Here's what the BBC report:

"There has been a surge in violence in southern Afghanistan, coinciding with the arrival of thousands of international troops trying to help the government bring security to areas where it has little control.

As well as fighting between coalition forces and Taleban rebels, there have been many roadside bombings, suicide attacks and assassinations of local government officials.

Thursday's blast came two days after two US troops were killed in clashes with the Taleban, and less than a week after the death of UK soldier.

More than 30 foreign soldiers have been killed in action in Afghanistan this year, most of them American."

Using the BBC's figures that equates to 30 soldiers killed in six months or about 5 a month. Tragic to be sure but what's missing?

Here's what the BBC don't tell as reported by the Daily Times:

KHOST: "At least 30 Taliban were killed in violence across Afghanistan on Wednesday, while four civilians died in rocket attacks on the same day."

30 in one day vs 30 in six months kind of puts it in perspective.

Also note how the BBC portray the "surge" in violence as "coinciding" with the arrival of coalition forces. In fact, what's really going on is coalition forces are going after the terrorists. Here again from the Times:

Colonel Tom Collins, a coalition spokesman in Kabul, said that US, British and Canadian troops were launching Operation Mountain Thrust in the volatile and largely lawless south to combat the Taliban and extend the control of the government of President Hamid Karzai. “Operation Mountain Thrust is not about just killing and capturing extremists and militants threatening the security of the Afghan people,” he told a news conference. “It is very much about establishing the condition for the government of Afghanistan that can extend authority in the areas where it currently does not have a presence.”

In other words, the coalition didn't just show up and the Taliban started attacking, coalition forces are aggressively attacking the Taliban to extend government control over more of the country. And from the numbers the Taliban are losing.
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UK - Terror charge pair due in court

That's the headline for this BBC report. Yes "the" BBC.

See this comment for some background.

Here's a screen shot of the BBC webpage in case they stealth edit out the "T" word.


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US - Yearly Kos a success?

That's what the New York Times thinks.

Here's the Time's opening paragraph:

Daily Kos's convention — the in-person gathering of the nation's most-read online political blog — was practically carpeted with presidential candidates.

And thier conclusion...

As successful as YearlyKos was this year, in 2007 it should be even bigger and more influential.

Well gee, how many turned up at the Left's "most-read" blog convention which was "practically carpeted with presidential candidates"?

Only about 1000.

Compare that number to those Tim found:

* Western States Roofing Contractors Association: 4,000
* Las Vegas Hair & Nail: 12,000
* Electrical Apparatus Service Association: 4,000
* Intl Esthetics Cosmetics & Spa Conference: 33,000
* Coffee Fest: 8,000
* Casino Chips & Gaming Token Collectors: 5,000
* Truck Show: 30,000

If that's the best "screw them" Kos can do, the Democrats are in more trouble than I thought.
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Iraq - The Left admitting they're wrong

Now, this is how the Left should admit they are wrong on just about everything concerning Iraq.
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France jails 25 for Muslim terror plot

Of course the BBC fail to mention that they are Muslims. The only time Muslims are mentioned in the BBC article is when their lawyer portrays them as victims - natch.

Benhamed's lawyer Isabelle Coutant claimed the verdicts were political and "profit the United States, Algeria and Russia".

"They have been convicted because they are Muslims," she said.

Really?

When it was raided in December 2002, the court heard, the group was "close to action".

Police found gas canisters, fuses and a chemical protection suit in the northern Paris suburbs of La Corneuve and Romainville.

In a second wave of arrests about a year later in Venissieux, in south-east France, chemical products including ricin were discovered.

Notice how the BBC portray these convicted Muslims.

A French court has jailed 25 alleged Islamist militants for planning attacks in France in support of Chechen rebels.

Heh, maybe they were plumbers.

Canada recently broke up a 17 man Muslim terrorist cell.

TORONTO, June 3 -- Canadian intelligence agents and police have arrested 17 people who had amassed a huge cache of explosives and were ready to bomb public targets, authorities said Saturday.

The 12 men and five juveniles were seized in raids Friday night in the suburbs of Toronto. Police said the suspects, most of whom were believed to be Canadian citizens, had assembled three tons of ammonium nitrate and fashioned a cellphone into a detonator.

All of which is probably making British police a bit jumpy.
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UK - Pair charged after terror probe

Let's hope this get this one right.

A youth, 16, and a man, 21, have been charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiring to cause public nuisance by using poisons or explosives.

The man, from Bradford, was arrested at Manchester airport. He is also accused of possessing a computer hard drive for a purpose connected with terrorism.

He and the 16-year-old, from Dewsbury, will appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in central London on Thursday.

The man and the youth were arrested under terrorism laws last week.

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Broadband is back

Thankfully!

The installation for the desktop went fine but I'm still having problems with the wireless laptop. The status for the wireless connection says "no or limited connectivity". BT support were no help.

The signal strenth is fine and I was able to connect to the router by setting the tcp/ip properties address directly to the router. But I was unable to get DNS and surf the net.

I checked on the web and found several people with the same problem. I tried one of their suggestions, a netfix program, but it didn't work. The problem seems to be with geting DHCP.

When I run ipconfig I get an ip of 169.254.36.249

I did an ipconfig/release and then a renew but I get an error saying unable to renew.

I did a restart and the ip was back as before.

I think there might be some setting in the router to change but I'm not sure which.

The laptop is an ACER Travelmate 2420 and the router is a BT voyager 2091.

If you've any ideas let me know.

Thanks, Marc

Broadband update

One more day!

What a pain this has been. It's not just the blogging, it's the kids homework as well. You don't realize how easy the internet makes it till you don't have it. Still, it's good to know you can still get things done the old fashion way.

Some have commented that this problem shouldn't exist in this day and age. Well, I'm always reminded that no how bad things seem for you, they can be a lot worse for others. Case in point.

A friend of mine runs his own business and does all his banking online. He called me the other day in a panic because he couldn't access his online accounts. Long story short, Internet Explorer would no longer work with his online bank. I kid you not. This is a major UK bank. Their solution from their IT help line? Install a different browser. The help line said they had been having this problem for a couple of weeks now with lots of business customers and were sending people to a website where they could download the new browser. I did as they suggested and it works.

I use the same bank and IE works fine. The problem seems to be with certain business clients.

Anyway, I hope to be up and blogging tomorrow.

cheers, Marc

Broadband update - progress!!

I've been able to sign up with my new ISP and should be back online by next week.

Once again, I want to thank everyone for their support.

Thank you all!

Cheers, Marc

Broadband update

Still waiting for the old marker to be removed.

This is pure agony.

I'm very limited to time and ability to post from here in the library.

Thanks for waiting and your support.

Cheers, marc

Broadband update

Still down and I'm told maybe another week or so.

I'm having to blog from my local library for now. Which is a pain as you have to book time on a computer and even then you are time limited depending on how many people are waiting. And they don't have wifi. Bummer.

I won't go into all the details of the problems I was having but I did learn something important from the experience. If you want to switch broadband ISPs don't cancel one and then try and join a new one. Your old ISP leaves a "marker" on your line and your new ISP can't activate your new broadband until that marker is removed. Seemingly you have to ask for a code word or something from your old ISP to give to your new ISP before you switch. I was having so much trouble with my old ISP that I just cancelled the account. Now I have to wait till the marker is removed and then wait for my new account to activate. Bummer!

At least the wife's happy as I've done a massive spring cleaning of the house.

Thanks for your patience and continued support.

Cheers, Marc

Lite blogging

Sorry for the lite blogging but my broad band is down and I'm switching ISP's. I'm told it could take up to a week. Bummer. On the bright side, I'm told the upgrade will be 3 times faster.

I'll blog when I can and hopefully be back to normal soon.

Cheers, Marc