I keep hearing by email from my old troll, Ken, about how Israel is intentionally attacking innocent civilians and that it is a lie that Hezbollah is attacking from within civilian neighborhoods.

I'm willing to bet that photographic evidence to the contrary won't convince him, but it may have an effect on rational people.

THIS is the picture that damns Hezbollah. It is one of several, smuggled from behind Lebanon's battle lines, showing that Hezbollah is waging war amid suburbia.

The images, obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun, show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons.

Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon.

The photographs, from the Christian area of Wadi Chahrour in the east of Beirut, were taken by a visiting journalist and smuggled out by a friend.

The article also mentions additional photos not available from the website at this time. I'll keep checking to see if I can get them elsewhere.

Another depicts the remnants of a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket in the middle of a residential block blown up in an Israeli air attack.

The Melbourne man who smuggled the shots out of Beirut and did not wish to be named said he was less than 400m from the block when it was obliterated.

"Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets," he said.

"Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then it was totally devastated.

"It was carnage. Two innocent people died in that incident, but it was so lucky it was not more."

The release of the images comes as Hezbollah faces criticism for allegedly using innocent civilians as "human shields".

What's more, even officials from the UN -- an organization which rarely has anything good to say about Israel and which rarely speaks out against the jihadis who attack it -- have spoken out against the Hezbollah practice of hiding among civilians.

Mr Egeland [Jan Egeland, United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator] blasted Hezbollah as "cowards" for operating among civilians.

"When I was in Lebanon, in the Hezbollah heartland, I said Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending in among women and children," he said.

So let's make it clear -- these allegations against Hezbollah are not "Zionist lies and propaganda to justify the murder of civilians by Israel", but are instead documented facts that clearly lay the responsibility for civilian casualties at the feet of the cowardly jihadi terrorists.

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Posted by: Greg at 11:02 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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A number of interesting facts -- some of them quite disturbing -- have emerged about the lone jihadi coward who killed one woman and wounded five others (two of them pregnant) at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle on Friday.

When it comes right down to it, though, I've got to fisk this article on the subject from the New York Times. Elements of it are beyond belief.

A day after a gunman killed one woman and wounded five others in the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, the police identified a Muslim man on Saturday as the suspect and said he used the Internet to select the federation as a random target for his anger toward Jews.

I guess I'm confused by this -- if he spent time on the internet looking for a Jewish organization to shoot-up, how can this be described as a random target? It seems he carefully calculated what target would get teh most exsposure and cause the biggest bang. If it were trulyy random, he would have hit the nearest synagogue or Goldberg's Deli, not a major Jewish organization some distance from his home. Or he might have hit the office of the Israeli Consul General or the El-Al counter at Sea-Tac Airport -- though I'm sure he realized that at either of those locations he would likely end up in a puddle of blood on the floor. No, this seems to have been the typical sort of high-profile, low-risk attack that cowardly jihadi swine are known to attack.

As Jewish groups across the Puget Sound region moved to increase security on Saturday, the police identified the suspect as Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, whose family lives in Pasco, in southeast Washington, about 180 miles from Seattle.

At a court hearing on Saturday, a judge ordered Mr. Haq held on $50 million bail at the King County Jail pending formal charges of murder and attempted murder, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Haq entered the courtroom in handcuffs, chains and leg shackles, and a white jail shirt that labeled him an “ultra security inmate.”

The police are treating the shooting as a hate crime based on what they say Mr. Haq told a 911 dispatcher shortly before surrendering.

“He said he wanted the United States to leave Iraq, that his people were being mistreated and that the United States was harming his people,” Chief R. Gil Kerlikowske of the Seattle Police said Saturday at a news conference. “And he pointedly blamed the Jewish people for all of these problems. He stated he didn’t care if he lived.”

Well, at least they are willing to call it a hate crime -- but that they won't call it a terrorist attack is disturbing. The political motive itself should be sufficient to get it that label. I guess someone in authority wants to be "sensitive" to the Muslims rather than the Jewish community which was victimized here.

The chief said the gunman apparently selected the federation as a target by randomly searching the Internet for Jewish organizations in the area. The police confiscated at least three computers, he said.

Chief Kerlikowske described an intense and violent scene inside the federation, with some of the 18 people present jumping out of second-story windows and one young pregnant woman crawling to call 911 after being shot in the arm as she covered her abdomen. When the gunman later encountered her on the phone with emergency dispatchers, she refused to hang up.

“She was able to get him to take the telephone,” the chief said, calling her “a hero.”

Notice how it was that this woman was shot in the arm -- she was trying to protect her unborn child (for you pro-aborts out there, that is a child, not the "product of conception" or "blob of tissue") from a jihadi who was hoping for a "two-fer Jew-fer" by aiming for her abdomen. That shows you how low on the food-chain this guy is -- he's not just a terrorist, but a would-be abortionist as well.

A neighbor of Mr. HaqÂ’s family in Pasco said Mr. Haq had spoken of Jews as recently as 10 days ago, sometimes using stereotypes about Jewish influence in the United States.

“He was saying he wasn’t trying to be racial about it but how they had control over a lot of the newscasts and things, ownership and stuff,” said the neighbor, Caleb Hales, 21.

Colleagues of the victims said the gunman had identified himself as “a Muslim-American” who was “angry at Israel.”

The A.P., citing a statement of probable cause, reported that Mr. Haq had told a 911 dispatcher, “These are Jews and I’m tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East."

I wonder where such a member of the "Religion of Peace" would get such horrible anti-Semitic stereotypes? Would it be the mosque, or the mainstream media, both of which portray Jews (and Israel in particular) as the bad actor in every situation.

The Seattle Times reported Saturday that Mr. Haq was also facing a charge of lewd conduct in Benton County, in southeast Washington, accused of exposing himself in public.

So, not only is he a jihadi terrorist, he is also a weenie-wagger. Probably trying to attract a couple of those 72 virgins on earth, since he was unwilling to try to shoot up a place where he was likely to be injured or killed.

The police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have said they believe Mr. Haq was acting alone.

The chief said the Mr. Haq “was so enraged at first” but later calmed down and followed the emergency dispatchers’ instructions to leave the building with his hands up. He surrendered to the police at the federation offices near downtown 12 minutes after the shootings were first reported to 911.

Gee -- he was enraged at first. What was your first clue? Could it be that he went on a murderous rampage against unarmed women?

The police have not released the names of the victims, all women. Three of the survivors were in serious condition on Saturday and two were in satisfactory condition, according to the media relations office at the Harborview Medical Center. They range in age from their early 20Â’s to 40Â’s and had gunshot wounds in the knee, groin, abdomen and arm. Federation officials said the woman who was killed was Pam Waechter, 58, its director of annual giving.

Federation officials identified the wounded women as Dayna Klein, 37; Cheryl Stumbo, 43; Layla Bush, 23; and Carol Goldman, 35; and Christina Rexroad, whose age was not known.

Remember those names, and keep all of them and their families in your prayers. And given that the one fatality, Ms. Waechter, was the director of annual giving, I think a donation to the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle would be even more appropriate than when I suggested it on Friday.

Asked to describe her group’s general relations with area Muslim groups, Amy Wasser-Simpson, the federation’s vice president, said, “We have had no negative interactions with the Muslim community whatsoever.”

Robert S. Jacobs, regional director for the Pacific Northwest Region of the Anti-Defamation League, who knew several of the victims, said that the three with serious injuries are not Jewish, including Cheryl Stumbo, the federationÂ’s marketing director.

“These were really good, hard-working people who cared about the community and cared about their jobs,” he said.

At least the group hadn't had negative interactions with that portion of the Muslim community that rejects the extremist rhetoric that appears so common in Islam worldwide. But you have to ask how many mosques and other Muslim groups refused to ahve any interaction at all with the local Jewish community.

The gunman apparently hid behind a plant at the federationÂ’s offices and waited for someone to enter the building, and then forced his way inside at gunpoint when a teenager opened a locked door, Chief Kerlikowske said. The gunman had two semiautomatic pistols.

A half-hour before the shooting, Mr. Haq was ticketed for a minor traffic infraction on Third Avenue, the same street where the federation has its offices, the chief said.

So he had been hanging out, caing the site for some time. This wasn't an act of passion -- it was a premeditated assault on the most visible Jewish institution in Seattle. Again, that makes this more than a mere hate crime -- it makes it an act of terrorism.

Mr. Hales, the neighbor of Mr. Haq’s family, said he spoke with Mr. Haq on July 20,. Mr. Hales, whose family is Mormon, said Mr. Haq had talked about finding a job, perhaps in engineering. The conversation wandered, Mr. Hales said, with Mr. Haq expressing curiosity about Mr. Hales’s religion. “He told me he would stay up late up at night reading about people’s religions and cultural backgrounds,” Mr. Hales said.

I guess this was a case of "know your infidels."

His mother, Maureen Hales, said she believed that the Haqs were originally from Pakistan and that Mr. HaqÂ’s father, Mian Haq, was an engineer who worked at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Let's see -- a Pakistani engineer working at a US nuclear weapons facility. Anyone else troubled by that -- especially in light of the Pakistani development of nuclear weapons and continuing nuclear program? You have to ask how closely daddy was scruinized following the first Pakistani nuclear test. Or would giving him a closer look have been insensitive, and a case of ethnic profiling?

Also, I understand (but note that this article leaves the information out) that daddy was instrumental in founding the Seattle-area mosque the family attends (Sick Irony Alert -- the mosque is located on Bombing Range Road). In light of this act of terrorism, will this place receive appropriate scrutiny for other terrorist activity?

UPDATE: Apparently the cowardly jihadi not only targetted women, but he gained entrance to the building by holding a gun to the head of a thirteen-year-old girl. Makes you wish they would dump this pig into the general population for a few hours, doesn't it?

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And another one's gone! And another one's gone!

Another one bites the dust!

Israeli troops killed a top leader of the radical Islamic Jihad in a West Bank raid Saturday, the group said, and the Israelis pressed ahead with their offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Islamic Jihad said the leader of its militant wing in Nablus, Hani Awijan, 29, was killed by Israeli undercover troops. They came to arrest him while he was playing soccer with friends and relatives, the group said. Another Islamic Jihad militant was also killed.

The army confirmed soldiers operated in Nablus and said a militant was killed in an exchange of fire.

Israel Radio said Awijan was responsible for a series of attacks on Israelis. Over the past 17 months, Islamic Jihad has been responsible for all 12 suicide bombing attacks in Israel, killing 71 people.

The Palestinians treated the death of this cowardly jihadi swine as an outrage, and protested in the streets. If you want evidence that the Palestinian people lack a sufficient level of civilization to be permitted their own state, this is it.

Just as an aside, I have to note that I've yet to see a single commentator from the Left -- especially the anti-Israel Left -- call Awijan a chickenhawk for his failure to strap on one of his homicide-bomb belts and detonate himself in a crowd of civilians. Maybe it the pressing importance of his weekly soccer game seemed more important to him. I guess that term is reserved for those who dare to oppose terrorism as the murder of innocents, but the terrorists themselves get a free pass from those who whose political beliefs, in their heart of hearts, really support the violent jihad of the terrorist murderers.

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Posted by: Greg at 08:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So when you hear that Israelis are attacking mosques, you will have an understanding of why.

At least 13 Israeli soldiers have been injured in an ongoing gun battle that broke out Wednesday in Bint Jbeil, the Hezbollah capital in Lebanon.

The latest wave of fighting broke out when Hezbollah militants fired on Golani Brigade soldiers and then fell back into a nearby mosque and opened fire from within the building, ynetnews.com reported.

Got that, folks? The jihadis are using mosques as fortified positions to attack the Israelis. That makes any such mosque a legitimate military target, which may be razed to the ground if necessary to wipe out the enemy position.

Posted by: Greg at 03:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Certainly a hate crime, given that the murderer targetted the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle because he was upset about events in Israel.

One person was killed and at least five other people were wounded by gunshots Friday afternoon at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and one person was arrested, police said.

A SWAT team was searching the building, looking for any other victims, anyone hiding or any other possible shooters, police spokesman Rich Pruitt said.

Seattle Fire Department medics told The Seattle Times that the victims include two women. One woman was shot in the abdomen. The other woman is described as 17 weeks pregnant and was shot in an arm. They were taken to Harborview Medical Center. Three other victims have also been seen arriving Harborview. Police say there could be as many as seven wounded in all.

Police say they've arrested one person and were looking for another alleged suspect, but now believe there was just one shooter.

Police blocked off several city blocks to investigate.

Several witnesses said they saw a man walk up and shoot a woman in the leg on a sidewalk near the building. One witness, who refused to give his name, said that shooting was just outside a nearby Starbucks. There was a small pool of blood outside that coffee shop.

Another witness says the gunman then walked into the Jewish Center and said he was upset about what was going on in Israel. He then pulled out a gun and started shooting, the witnesses said.

Police say the gunman then called 911 from inside the building to say what he had done and where to find him. When police arrived, the gunman surrendered, police say.

The perp's name has not yet been released to the public. Who wants to wager that he is either Arab or Muslim?

To contribute to help this fine organization, click here or send donations to:

The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle
2031 Third Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121

UPDATE: And the answer is --

Sources told KING 5 the suspect is a 31-year-old Pakistani man with a criminal background. He is from the Pasco but his citizenship status or how long he has lived in the United States is unknown. Also unknown is what sort of criminal record he has. Officials are on the way to the Pasco to interview his family.

FBI spokesman David Gomez said officials believe the suspect acted alone and is not affiliated with a foreign organization.

According to the Seattle Times, a man got through security at the Jewish Federation and told staff members, "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel," then began shooting, according to Amy Wasser-Simpson, the vice president for planning and community services for the Jewish Federation.

The perp also indicated he was acting because he wanted American-made weapons out of Lebanon.

So it seems we have a lone jihadi of Pakistani heritage out murdering Jews because he is angry at Israel. What did I tell you above?

Unfortunately, the FBI is clueless on the matter.

"We believe it's a lone individual acting out his antagonism," said David Gomez, who heads the FBI's counterterrorism efforts in Seattle.

Authorities did not release any details about the alleged gunman and would not discuss possible motives.

"There's nothing to indicate that it's terrorism related," Gomez said. "But we're monitoring the entire situation."

Not terrorism related? This is an act of terrorism, whether it was committed by a member of a terrorist organization or was the work of a free-range jihadi acting alone.

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Posted by: Greg at 12:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And since this story is coming out of the New York Times, which has never met an anti-Israel group it didn't adore, I think it has that much more credibility. And as such, it more or less confirms points I've been making about Hezbollah tactics -- and shoots down my former troll's claims that Lebanese Christians just love Hezbollah.

The refugees from southern Lebanon spilled out of packed cars into the dark street here Thursday evening, gulping bottles of water and squinting in the glare of the headlights to find family members and friends. Many had not eaten in days. Most had not had clean drinking water for some time. There were wounded swathed in makeshift dressings, and a baby just 16 days old.

But for some of the Christians who had made it out in this convoy, it was not just privations they wanted to talk about, but their ordeal at the hands of Hezbollah — a contrast to the Shiites, who make up a vast majority of the population in southern Lebanon and broadly support the militia.

“Hezbollah came to Ain Ebel to shoot its rockets,” said Fayad Hanna Amar, a young Christian man, referring to his village. “They are shooting from between our houses.”

“Please,’’ he added, “write that in your newspaper.”

And since they are launching rockets from the middle of civilian neighborhoods -- and Christian neighborhoods in particular -- where do the Israelis have to attack in order to defend themselves? Those same neighborhoods. And what are teh targets of hezbollah? The civilian population of Israel. As a result, Hezbollah bears responsibility for ALL civilian casualties, regardless of whose munitions cause those casualties.

And please consider that some of the casualties among the Lebanese Christians are directly inflicted by hezbollah.

Many Christians from Ramesh and Ain Ebel considered HezbollahÂ’s fighting methods as much of an outrage as the Israeli strikes. Mr. Amar said Hezbollah fighters in groups of two and three had come into Ain Ebel, less than a mile from Bint Jbail, where most of the fighting has occurred. They were using it as a base to shoot rockets, he said, and the Israelis fired back.

One woman, who would not give her name because she had a government job and feared retribution, said Hezbollah fighters had killed a man who was trying to leave Bint Jbail.

“This is what’s happening, but no one wants to say it” for fear of Hezbollah, she said.

QUite right -- expecially the United Nations and the "international community", which wants to have this all play out by the same old script. You know the one.

Act I Jihadi terrorists murder Israelis.
Act II Israelis engage in a defensive response.
Act III Jihadis claim victim status.
Act IV Israel condemned as unjust aggressor.
Act V Israel gives in to international pressure to be nice.

But the reality is that the conflict and the casualties are not instigated by the Israelis, who have shown an incredible desire to seek peace with their neighbors and a serious willingness to compromise to achiev that end. Rather, it is those who hide behind civilians to launch cowardly attacks -- to the point of preventing civilian evacuations -- whose actions must be condemned. Sadly, the UN lacks the stomach to do so.

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Posted by: Greg at 10:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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But then again, what else do you expect from a group that hides behind women and children -- and UN facilities? Why not use ambulances for propaganda purposes?

A CNN reporter has exposed tactics used by Hizbullah terrorists to stage media events in order to give the impression of a large number of civilian casualties caused by Israeli bombing attacks on terrorist position, according to a report issued by the Honest Reporting organization.

Rich Noyes said he was assigned to photograph buildings damaged in the bombings. "After letting us take pictures of a few damaged buildings, they take us to another location, where there are ambulances waiting. This is a heavily orchestrated Hezbollah media event. When we got here, all the ambulances were lined up," and the drivers turned on their sirens and sped away for photographers. "These ambulances aren't responding to any new bombings. The sirens are strictly for effect," Noyes said.

It sort of makes you wonder how many civilian casualties there really are -- and what was really in these ambulances. It also may help understand allegations of Israeli attacks on ambulances.

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There has been a serious controversy over one of the pictures below, sparking cries of outrage around the world. Can you decide which one has people upset?

Israeli children write on munitions which are intended to kill terrorists.

Muslim children strap on munitions which are intended to kill civilians.

Which one outrages you? Which one should?

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Posted by: Greg at 08:55 AM | Comments (24) | Add Comment
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It may be, if this report is accurate.

TEAMS of Iranian suicide bombers were heading for LebanonÂ’s war zone last night in a terrifying bid to spark meltdown in the Middle East.

Twenty-seven martyrdom-seekers have been sent to Syria on their way to front line positions.

The mad fanatics, belonging to the Iranian Martyrs of Islam World Movement, have been training for months to wreak maximum havoc on military and soft civilian targets. Their aim is to spark terror which will detonate all-out war and suck Western nations into a final bloody showdown.

A spokesman for the martyrs group said yesterday: “Two teams of 18 and nine have gone to Syria separately.

“They have been deployed on a voluntary basis in order to get to the areas of conflict in any way they can.”

The man, named only as Mohammadi, claimed the 27 were picked from 55,000 who registered in Iran. They were briefed and have completed the “relevant courses” so that they could perform both military services and helping the wounded.

Mohammadi added: “If Israel would decide to occupy Lebanon again, they will carry out martyrdom-seeking operations.”

The would-be bombers are also trained to recruit local volunteers and create new cells of suicide attackers.

But of course, the whole situation is Israel's fault -- that is what the "international community" tells us. After all, who are they to demand that terrorist incursions and missle attacks into their territory stop?

Posted by: Greg at 08:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Like Tom over at Real Clear Politics, I wish I knew who to credit.

'Nuff said.

Posted by: Greg at 09:49 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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In light of the current situation in the Middle East, I feel like I should bring this piece back for consideration.

HereÂ’s a neat idea for dealing with Osama and every other terrorist on the planet. They are hostis humani generis -- the enemies of all mankind.

TO UNDERSTAND THE POTENTIAL OF DEFINING TERRORISM as a species of piracy, consider the words of the 16th-century jurist Alberico Gentili's De jure belli: "Pirates are common enemies, and they are attacked with impunity by all, because they are without the pale of the law. They are scorners of the law of nations; hence they find no protection in that law." Gentili, and many people who came after him, recognized piracy as a threat, not merely to the state but to the idea of statehood itself. All states were equally obligated to stamp out this menace, whether or not they had been a victim of piracy. This was codified explicitly in the 1856 Declaration of Paris, and it has been reiterated as a guiding principle of piracy law ever since. Ironically, it is the very effectiveness of this criminalization that has marginalized piracy and made it seem an arcane and almost romantic offense. Pirates no longer terrorize the seas because a concerted effort among the European states in the 19th century almost eradicated them. It is just such a concerted effort that all states must now undertake against terrorists, until the crime of terrorism becomes as remote and obsolete as piracy.

What would be the impact of classifying terrorism along with piracy?

If the war on terror becomes akin to war against the pirates, however, the situation would change. First, the crime of terrorism would be defined and proscribed internationally, and terrorists would be properly understood as enemies of all states. This legal status carries significant advantages, chief among them the possibility of universal jurisdiction. Terrorists, as hostis humani generis, could be captured wherever they were found, by anyone who found them. Pirates are currently the only form of criminals subject to this special jurisdiction.

Second, this definition would deter states from harboring terrorists on the grounds that they are "freedom fighters" by providing an objective distinction in law between legitimate insurgency and outright terrorism. This same objective definition could, conversely, also deter states from cracking down on political dissidents as "terrorists," as both Russia and China have done against their dissidents.

Recall the U.N. definition of piracy as acts of "depredation [committed] for private ends." Just as international piracy is viewed as transcending domestic criminal law, so too must the crime of international terrorism be defined as distinct from domestic homicide or, alternately, revolutionary activities. If a group directs its attacks on military or civilian targets within its own state, it may still fall within domestic criminal law. Yet once it directs those attacks on property or civilians belonging to another state, it exceeds both domestic law and the traditional right of self-determination, and becomes akin to a pirate band.

Third, and perhaps most important, nations that now balk at assisting the United States in the war on terror might have fewer reservations if terrorism were defined as an international crime that could be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court.

I encourage you to read the article by Douglas R. Burgess Jr., “The Dread Pirate Bin Laden”. It may come out of the Legal Affairs, but it is incredibly approachable.

Posted by: Greg at 04:40 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Did Spain "balk at assisting in the wot"
or did Bush by leaving Afghanistan for Iraq
put the world on notice ur foreign policy
creates terrorists.

Posted by: Ken Hoop at Wed Jul 19 09:11:46 2006 (DZbll)

2 Stay on topic, Ken.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Wed Jul 19 09:14:20 2006 (qwNsF)

3 Oh, I had just believed that accomplishing what you suggest might necessitate agreement from the world at large on the causes of as well as general solutions for terrorism .

Posted by: Ken Hoop at Wed Jul 19 10:40:51 2006 (DZbll)

4 Oh...I had just believed that accomplishing what you suggest might involve more trust and respect for America in certain quarters. Soldana quoted today as uncertain whether Hezbollah is terrorist.

Posted by: Ken Hoop at Wed Jul 19 10:44:31 2006 (DZbll)

5 Proof positive that he is an idiot.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Wed Jul 19 11:13:46 2006 (czVoS)

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Using civilians as human shields.

The IDF has found that Hizbullah is preventing civilians from leaving villages in southern Lebanon. Roadblocks have been set up outside some of the villages to prevent residents from leaving, while in other villages Hizbullah is preventing UN representatives from entering, who are trying to help residents leave. In two villages, exchanges of fire between residents and Hizbullah have broken out.

But Israel is, of course, the bad guy -- the French, Russians, and Iranians tell us so.

Posted by: Greg at 03:56 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Which certainly indicates to me that Hezbollah acts on behalf of Iran.

Iran's parliament speaker warned Tuesday that no part of Israel is safe during Hizbullah's battle with Lebanon - a statement made despite Iran's claim that it is not aiding the guerrillas in their fight.

Speaking to thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators in Palestine Square, Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel told Israelis: "The towns you have built in northern Palestine (Israel) are within the range of the brave Lebanese children. No part of Israel will be safe."

Haddad Adel is not among the most influential officials in Iran. Nevertheless, his comments call into question the Teheran government's official position that it is not involved in the conflict between Israel and Hizbullah in Lebanon.

After all, how would he know if there was not a connection?

Posted by: Greg at 02:53 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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How else can you describe this column calling upon Israel to "hunker down" and live with ongoing terrorist assaults? Rather than engage in self defense, Cohen wants Israel to play the passive victim -- much like moral midgets used to suggest women do in case of sexual assault.

I mean, consider this bit of finely crafted moral reasoning.

There is no point in condemning Hezbollah. Zealots are not amenable to reason. And there's not much point, either, in condemning Hamas. It is a fetid, anti-Semitic outfit whose organizing principle is hatred of Israel. There is, though, a point in cautioning Israel to exercise restraint -- not for the sake of its enemies but for itself. Whatever happens, Israel must not use its military might to win back what it has already chosen to lose: the buffer zone in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip itself.

Yeah, you read that right -- don't condemn the aggressors, because they are aggressive. Blame the victim for fighting back!

And while Cohen concedes that the current conflict illustrates that those who opposed the Israeli pull-back from Gaza and south Lebanon -- which was supposed to help bring "peace in our time" -- were absolutely correct in their prediction that it would embolden israels enemy, you will not guss what Cohen's solution is.

All that the critics warned has come true. But worse than what is happening now would be a retaking of those territories. That would put Israel smack back to where it was, subjugating a restless, angry population and having the world look on as it committed the inevitable sins of an occupying power. The smart choice is to pull back to defensible -- but hardly impervious -- borders. That includes getting out of most of the West Bank -- and waiting (and hoping) that history will get distracted and move on to something else. This will take some time, and in the meantime terrorism and rocket attacks will continue.

Yeah, that's right -- SHOW MORE WEAKNESS BY GIVING UP MORE TERRITORY TO APPEASE THE UNAPPEASIBLE!

Anyone with so much as an ounce of moral decency would never make such a suggestion. But then again, Cohen's starting premise makes it clear that he is severely lacking in that department -- for he begins with the premise that "Israel itself is a mistake."

And no doubt Richard Cohen believes that his female family members and friends, after enjoying their rape, should offer their attacker a blow job as well -- because after all, it was a mistake for them to even take their vagina into that part of town.

For that is the posture he suggests for Israel -- despite the fact that there has been a continuous Jewish presence between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan for at least 3000 years -- twice as long as there has been either an Arab or Muslim presence.

Perhaps it is time for the civilized world to quit telling the Jews to get off the Arab street, and instead act to ensure that the Arab are scoured from the Jewish street.

UPDATE: Over at American Thinker, James Lewis argues that Cohen should be fired for the position he takes in this morally reprehensible column.

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While I disagree with the hand-wringing in this column, I can't help but be struck by this little nugget of moral clarity about the nature of jihadi terrorists.

What can be seen time and again on various sites is that Islam, a great religion, has as some of its most devoted followers people whose fantasy is the mass murder of innocents -- women, children, non-combatants. I can't think of any other ideology or religion whose believers -- even the most perverted -- consider themselves martyrs for committing suicide in order to kill random shoppers or commuters. Japan's notorious kamikaze pilots in the Second World War targeted battleships, which is not to defend their actions, but simply to note the huge moral difference between targeting a battleship and a subway car.

And yet that is precisely the difference. In war, military forces attack military forces. As such, the kamikaze attacks are justifiable, even if they repulse Westerners as antithetical to our values. But the jihadis are much more interested in causing terror through mass casualties -- and generally target cvilians, not soldiers, because they are an easier target to reach and kill.

Those who seek to draw a moral equivalence between soldiers seeking to kill soldiers (and, unfortunately, unintended civilian victims) and terrorists looking to kill civilians have lost their moral compass.

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I wish that diplomatic niceties allowed President Bush to make such a statement publicly, rather than confining it to a private conversation.

President Bush cursed Hezbollah's attacks against Israel in private conversations with foreign leaders Monday that were picked up by a microphone.

Bush expressed his frustration with the United Nations and his disgust with the militant Islamic group and its backers in Syria as he talked to British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the closing lunch at the Group of Eight summit.

"See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive) and it's over," Bush told Blair as he chewed on a buttered roll.

He told Blair he felt like telling U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who visited the gathered leaders "to get on the phone with (Syrian President Bashar) Assad, make something happen."

That will not, of course happen. Diplomacy is a formal dance with specific rules of etiquette. And the UN, rife with anti-Semitism for many years, will keep on trying to condemn Israel rather than the terrorists who have triggered the crisis in the Middle East.

Hube points us to the video.

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This is unusual

In the face of the fierce Israeli assault on Hezbollah -- the Party of Allah -- in Lebanon, A number of Arab governments have condemned. . . Hezbollah.

With the battle between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah raging, key Arab governments have taken the rare step of blaming Hezbollah, underscoring in part their growing fear of influence by the groupÂ’s main sponsor, Iran.

Saudi Arabia, with Jordan, Egypt and several Persian Gulf states, chastised Hezbollah for “unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts” at an emergency Arab League summit meeting in Cairo on Saturday.

The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel, “These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them.” Prince Faisal spoke at the closed-door meeting but his words were reported to journalists by other delegates.

The meeting ended with participants asserting that the Middle East peace process had failed and requesting help from the United Nations Security Council.

Such a condemnation is virtually unprecedented. Israel is always accused of being the bad actor by Arab nations. Is this a tactical move by these Arab leaders, or are we seeing a strategic shift in the Middle East -- one in which Iran, not Israel, is seen as the greater threat to regional stability?

Posted by: Greg at 01:30 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Thanks to Steven Sanders of American Thinker for the reminder.

Here’s an interesting question in light of current world events, “What terrorist organization was responsible for the most number of American deaths prior to the 9/11 attacks?” A tough question and the answer might surprise you.

J. Cofer Black, the U.S Department of State Coordinator for Counterterrorism from 2002-2004, gives the answer. He was at a press conference in 2004 when asked by an A.P. reporter about the greatest international terror threat. His answer

Thank you very much. The answer to your question is in particular from the American perspective, if I can be allowed that. Before 9/11 the terrorist group that had killed more Americans actually was Hezbollah and with the catastrophic attacks of 9/11 Al-Qaeda moved up in that deplorable category as having killed more Americans.

Lest we forget, the folks fought by the Israelis today are the same folks who gave us 241 dead Marines in Beirut and who also killed 63 destroying our embassy there in 1983. They killed 2 U.S. servicemen in another attack on the embassy there in 1984. This is the same Hezbollah that killed Colonel William Higgins and CIA Station Chief William Buckley and other Americans in Lebanon during the 1980s, and who kidnapped many more. And these are the same folks who hijacked TWA flight 847 in 1985, and dumped Navy diver Robert Stetham's dead body on the airport runway.

There is only one proper position for American patriots to take on Israel's actions against Hezbollah today -- unequivocal support as it seeks to root out and destroy the terrorists of the "Party of Allah".

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Posted by: Greg at 06:14 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Of all the audacity!

Fawaz Damra admits to having raised money in this country for terrorist activities here and abroad. But the AP and UPI (and, by extension, many newspapers around the country) choose to depict him as a sympathetic character.

An Islamic religious leader convicted of concealing ties to terrorist groups remains jailed in Michigan seven months after he reached a deal with the U.S. government to be deported.

The agreement called for Fawaz Damra's deportation to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Egypt or the Palestinian territories. But so far, no one has been willing to take the former imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, officials said.

There is no definitive rule on how long Damra can be held in jail, according to his attorney, Robert Birach.

I've got a suggestion -- how about until his stinking jihadi corpse rots and disintigrates into dust?

But the article gets even worse, if you can imagine that.

Damra is having a difficult time in jail and misses his wife and three children, who still live in the Cleveland area, friend Haider Alawan said.

"He's a man without a country," Alawan said.

Tough shit -- I'm sure that the families who died as a result of operations he supported miss their dead loved ones. And I'm sure those who survived the attacks have had a difficult time, too. The sympathy belongs with them, not with this jihadi pig.

Seems to me that now would be a great time to return him to his native Philistine Authority in Gaza -- where I'm sure he would get the opportunity to participate in the jihad for which he raised cash, at least until the Children of Israel send him on to his infernal reward.

H/T Debbie Schlussel, Ace of Spades HQ)

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So how far must one go before getting charged with a terrorist conspiracy? the Washington Post's Dahlia Lithwick is concerned about the federal government prosecuting "thought crimes".

The government claims to have foiled two major terrorism plots in the past month -- both in early planning stages that had not crossed the line from talk to action. In late June, seven men were arrested in Miami on suspicion of concocting a plan to blow up, among other places, the Sears Tower in Chicago. Then, several men were arrested in the Middle East in connection with plotting suicide bombings of transit tunnels between New Jersey and Manhattan.

This shift -- toward disrupting attacks long before explosives are stockpiled or targets scoped out -- makes some sense, given what we know about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and last year's mass-transit bombings in London. The difference between grandiose gym talk and a lethal terrorist strike can be bridged in a nanosecond, with a box cutter and a phone call.

But it's also a shift from prosecuting tangible terrorism conspiracies to prosecuting bad thoughts. And we need to think carefully before we go further down that road.

While Lithwick's piece is full of hand-wringing liberalism, she does raise some valid points. What is the line between line between the fantasies and boasts of a few oddballs and an actual terrorist conspiracy?

But unfortunately, Lithwick seems unwilling to recognize that stopping terrorism before the terrorists have acted is the only way to head off the conspirators. In particular, she appears to think that the arrest of teh Miami plotters (seeking to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago) might have been an over-reaction by the feds.

But I wonder -- if my buddies and I were to take similar actions while discussing the possiblility of blowing up the Washington Post offices where Lithwick works, would Dahlia be as willing to give us the benefit of the doubt as she is the accused terrorist plotters?

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The entire purpose of the Geneva Conventions was to ensure that the laws of war were followed by all combattants. By acting in a certain manner, they acquired certain rights and protections -- and failing to act in that manner (uniforms, organization, refraining from intentional attacks on civilians) put one outside those protections.

We've just taken away our enemy's incentive for following the laws of war with this decision.

The Bush administration has agreed to apply the Geneva Conventions to all terrorism suspects in U.S. custody, bowing to the Supreme Court's recent rejection of policies that have imprisoned hundreds for years without trials.

The Pentagon announced yesterday that it has called on military officials to adhere to the conventions in dealing with al-Qaeda detainees. The administration also has decided that even prisoners held by the CIA in secret prisons abroad must be treated in accordance with international standards, an interpretation that would prohibit prisoners from being subjected to harsh treatment in interrogations, several U.S. officials said.

The developments underscored how the administration has been forced to retreat from its long-standing position that President Bush be given extensive leeway to determine how to interrogate and prosecute terrorism suspects captured in Iraq, in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Until recently, the White House and Defense Department have pursued such anti-terrorism policies with little interference from Congress and the courts, but that has begun to change.

Since 2002, the administration has contended that the Geneva Conventions would be respected as a matter of policy but that they did not apply by law to terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or in U.S. military custody elsewhere. Administration officials have voiced concern that the conventions are too vague and could expose the military to second-guessing about appropriate treatment.

Now why would anyone follow rules if there is no penalty for breaking them? our terrorist enemies have now been tols that there are no consequences for engaging in terrorism rather than civilized military conduct -- so we can expect that terrorism will continue unabated.

What really needs to happen is on-the-spot executions of terrorists -- or detention followed by hearing-less executions for those who we believe have useful intelligence.

At least until the terrorists begin to follow Geneva.

WILLisms has an interesting look at the issue of Geneva and terrorists.

Posted by: Greg at 10:11 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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It appears that the jihadis have attacked another non-Muslim democracy in an attempt to impose their backwards system upon its people.

A series of seven explosions killed at least 174 people on crowded commuter trains and stations Tuesday evening in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, police said.

Officials said at least 464 people were injured in the blasts in the city's western suburbs as commuters made their way home. All seven blasts came within an 11-minute span, between 6:24 and 6:35 p.m. (12:54 and 1:05 p.m. GMT).

Analysts are comparing the attack with the mass transit bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London last year, saying they all involved a series of mutiple blasts and were well-coordinated.

There was some confusion about the number of dead and injured as information was compiled from hospitals and explosion sites in Mumbai, the west Indian seaport previously called Bombay.

"There still are bodies being recovered," said Pooja Saxena, with the International Federation of the Red Cross, speaking early Wednesday.

The Indian governemnt attributes the attack to Indian Muslim radical Dawood Ibrahim, who has connections to several al-Qaeda affiliated groups.

This is not the first such attack in India. It has a long history of violence by Muslims against Hindus, dating back to before its independence from Britain. Indeed, at one time the Mughals ruled most of the Indian sub-continent with the iron fist of Islam. Thirteen years ago, the Indian stock exchange was the site of a bloody attack.

I join with my Indian brothers and sisters in mourning the deaths of innocent, and urge them to resolve to root out the jihadis among them, showing no mercy at all to those responsible for this unspeakable horror.

Interesting coverage at Captain's Quarters.

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And the world is a cleaner place for it.

Shamil Basayev, the ruthless Chechen rebel leader responsible for terror attacks that led to the deaths of more than 800 people, was killed Monday when a dynamite-laden truck in his convoy exploded in this village of red brick houses next to a muddy field.

This was teh bastard responsible for the Beslan massacre of school children two years ago. I'm sure there is a special corner of Hell reserved for him. I hope he has already received his 72 virgins -- only to discover that a penis is denied him in the afterlife.

Posted by: Greg at 10:44 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This isn't comforting -- because many of the planes from Hobby Airport fly right over my part of town.

Houston police and the federal Transportation Security Administration disagree over who is responsible for allowing a man with what appeared to be bomb components board an aircraft at Hobby Airport last week.

Although the FBI eventually cleared the man of wrongdoing, police officials have transferred the officer involved and are investigating the incident while insisting that the TSA, not police, has the authority to keep a suspicious person from boarding a flight.

"Our job is not to be the gatekeepers," police Capt. Dwayne Ready said. "That burden falls squarely on the airline and TSA to make that final decision.

"We are looking at our role in the situation to make sure our policies were adhered to," he said. "During follow-up, we are finding that there simply was not a material threat."

TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said screeners have the authority to stop people from going beyond the checkpoint to the boarding areas, but they rely heavily on local police.

"It's just agencies talking with each other," Ready said, downplaying the disagreement.

This article is really distressing, the further you read. Sounds like there are turf battles in all this.

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Corporal Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Palestinians two weeks ago.

His cousin, Jonathan Shalit (who discoverd singer Charlotte Church), writes to remind us all that those who target Israelis in such ways are not "militants" but terrorists, just like those who committed murder on 9/11 and 7/7.

It is now a fortnight since Palestinian terrorists tunnelled under the Gaza border and crossed into sovereign Israeli territory, bringing fear and bloodshed to an ordinary Sunday tea time.

They killed two soldiers who were guarding an army post and, infamously, kidnapped a 19-year-old boy, Corporal Gilad Shalit.

He has not been seen since.

The only news of him for his grieving parents and an anxious Israeli nation comes in the form of repeated ransom demands from the Hamas terrorists believed to be holding him hostage on the direct orders of their Syrian-based leader, Khaled Meshaal.

I have a personal connection to these terrible events: Cpl Shalit is a relative of mine.

I do not want to claim that Gilad is more than a distant cousin. He is not.

He is less than half my age and, although I am told we have met, I cannot recall it.

But he represents the sort of direct connection to the land of Israel shared by many, if not most, British Jews.

To me, and to them, this abduction is not just another episode in this long-running conflict, happening in a place far away.

This is not just another anonymous Israeli. It is personal.

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The New York Daily News is reporting on a plot to blow up the Holland Tunnel in New York City, which was hoped to cause the flooding of Lower Manhattan and the incredible economic disruption that would entail, along with massive loss of life.

The FBI has uncovered what officials consider a serious plot by jihadists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in hopes of causing a torrent of water to deluge lower Manhattan, the Daily News has learned.

The terrorists sought to drown the Financial District as New Orleans was by Hurricane Katrina, sources said. They also wanted to attack subways and other tunnels.

Counterterrorism officials are alarmed by the "lone wolf" terror plot because they allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of top terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed in Iraq, a counterterrorism source told The News.

It's not clear, however, if any cash or assistance was delivered.

The News has learned that at the request of U.S. officials, authorities in Beirut arrested one of the alleged conspirators, identified as Amir Andalousli, in recent months. Agents were scrambling yesterday to try to nab other suspects, sources said.

This is a plan that could have actually worked, according to some experts.

It was uncovered by monitoring Internet chat-rooms, and there are additional individuals being sought besides Andalousli.

The New York Times indicates that Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Peter King are confirming the report. So are law enforcement sources -- but with a possible twist.

Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York Representative Peter T. King of Long Island confirmed a report in The Daily News today, which said that the man arrested in Lebanon and an unknown number of other people had discussed exploding a bomb to disrupt the system.

The News said the plot focused on the Holland Tunnel, and said the plotters hoped that a bomb detonated under the Hudson River would crack the tunnel and flood Lower Manhattan.

But a law enforcement official said today that the tunnel was not the target of the plot, and Mr. King said in an interview that he "would agree" with that assessment. In a televised interview, Mr. Schumer referred to the Lincoln Tunnel, rather than the Holland.

Mr. King and Mr. Schumer both said that the plot had been caught in its early stages. Mr. King said that he had been informed on an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City Police Department nine months ago.

I just overheard a report on the television that the plan may have been directed at the subway system and not the roadway system -- which would make more sense, given the widespread system of tunnels underneath Manhattan.

I certainly hope that the investigation did not involve monitoring phone calls or financial transactions -- the Times will becalling for this mutt's release from jail and the prosecution of those who saved New York from another terrorist attack.

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I cannot believe that this treasonous, terrorist-aiding bitch has the audacity to make a request like this!

Attorneys for civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart have asked a judge to spare her a prison sentence for her conviction in a terrorism case despite a recommendation by the federal probation department that she serve 30 years.

The attorneys filed papers Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan asking that the judge take into consideration Stewart's bout with breast cancer, her age, 66, and three decades of selfless service as a lawyer in sentencing her on Sept. 25.

One lawyer, Elizabeth Fink, called a U.S. Probation Department pre-sentencing report that recommended Stewart serve the maximum possible sentence of 30 years "draconian, inhumane and ludicrous."

Good God! The woman used her position as a lawyer to aid a terrorist in setting up terrorist attacks. To claim that her legal work is a basis for leniency is like a doctor who intentionally gave drugs intended to murder a patient seeking a lesser sentence because of his work as a physician.

Put her away -- all thirty years -- and let her rot. She deserves to die in prison.

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Unfortunately, the ceremony did not involve dropping strips of bacon in the grave.

Slain terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been buried in a ''secret location'' in Baghdad, Iraq's national security adviser said.

Mouwafak al-Rubaie would not say when the Jordanian-born militant, who was killed June 7 in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad, was buried, or give any specifics on the location of the grave.

The U.S. military confirmed the burial but declined to give details.

''The remains of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi were turned over to the appropriate government of Iraq officials and buried in accordance with Muslim customs and traditions,'' the military said in an e-mailed statement. ''Anything further than that would be addressed by the Iraqi government.''

But the families of the murderous jihadi leader express doubts.

Al-Zarqawi's older brother demanded that his body be transferred to Jordan, and accused the United States of lying.

''Bush took his body to the United States,'' Sayel al-Khalayleh, 50, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home in the Jordanian city of Zarqa.

''Even if he is buried in Iraq, we will continue to ask for the body to be transferred and buried in Jordan,'' al-Khalayleh said. ''He should be buried in his own country.''

Jordan's government had refused to let al-Zarqawi's body back for burial because of the triple suicide bombing his al-Qaida in Iraq organization carried out in the capital, Amman, last year.

How about we send these family a bill for the bombs used to take out this murderous beast?

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I don't like it, but accept that there is probably a need for some sort of amnesty for at least a portion of the Sunni insurgents in Iraq -- even if they killed American troops.

Charles Krauthammer sums up my position nicely.

Our objective in any war is not revenge but success. Confederate soldiers who swore allegiance to the United States were pardoned after the Civil War, even those who had killed Union soldiers. We gave amnesty to legions of Japanese and Germans who'd killed thousands of Americans in World War II.

And those amnesties were granted after total victory. In conflicts in which there is no unconditional surrender -- civil strife that ends far more ambiguously, as in El Salvador and Chile, for example -- amnesty and reconciliation are the essential elements for the establishment of a stable, democratic peace.

In Iraq, amnesty will necessarily be part of any co-optation strategy in which insurgents lay down their arms. And it would not apply to the foreign jihadists, who, unlike the Sunni insurgents who would join the new Iraq, dream of an Islamic state built on the ruins of the current order. There is nothing to discuss with such people. The only way to defeat them is to kill them, as we did Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

But killing them requires depriving them of their sanctuary. Reconciliation-cum-amnesty gets disaffected Iraqi Sunni tribes to come over to the government's side, drying up the sea in which the jihadists swim. After all, we found Zarqawi in heavily Sunni territory by means of intelligence given to us by local Iraqis.

Protests in America over the amnesty suggestion have caused both the administration and the Maliki government to backtrack. But don't believe it. Amnesty will be an essential element in any reconciliation policy. Which, in turn, is the only route to victory -- defined today just as it was on the first day of the war: leaving behind a self-sustaining post-Hussein government, both democratic and friendly to our interests. It is attainable. The posturing over amnesty can only make it more difficult.

There is a part of me that rebels against such clear and irrefutable logic. It is an angry, vengeful part of my psyche that wants every dead or wounded soldier avenged with the blood of those who did them harm. But I set that aside when I remember a statement my father, a career officer in the Navy, once made to me when I went through an adolescent peacenik phase that I know frustrated him -- "The ultimate goal of a war is a peace that everyone can live with."

If amnesty for those who killed Americans is an essential element of such a peace, then so be it.

Posted by: Greg at 12:21 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Good News/Bad News.

First the Good news.

An Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile at the Gaza City office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh early on Sunday, setting it alight, witnesses said.

Now the bad.

They said Haniyeh, a top official of the ruling Islamist militant party Hamas, was not believed to be in the office at the time.

The terrorstinians have time and again proven themselves incapable of living in peace. Kill their leaders, crush their armed units, and make every last Arab aware that Israel is done playing their game.

Sic Semper Terrorists.

UPDATE: Excellent analysis of the situation at Captain's Quarters.

MS-NBC's report shows that the Israelis have correctly deduced the nature of the abduction. The Palestinian Authority knows how to find Shalit and knows who committed an act of war on their behalf. Instead of arresting them and returning Shalit to the Israelis, the Palestinian Authority has decided to allow these terrorists to conduct negotiations with a sovereign state to resolve the crisis. Even if the terrorists did not have the imprimatur of the PA when they raided Israel from unoccupied Gaza, which is highly unlikely, the PA's actions in the aftermath means that they have taken responsibility for those acts.

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