Pakistan and the Taliban have decided that they will fight together if India starts a war with Pakistan due to the aforementioned Islamic country’s imcompetence over the Mumbai attacks. Apparently, the Pakistan Army and the blood sucking thrillers of the Taliban no longer see a problem fighting together against the evil Indian empire.
In what could be construed as the most disingenous position ever stated by Pakistan AND the Taliban:
A senior Pakistani military official called Baitullah and Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah “patriots” and said the military and the Taliban are clashing due to “some misunderstandings.”
“We have no big issues with the militants in FATA [the Federally Administered Tribal Areas],” the official said. “We have only some misunderstandings with Baitullah and Fazlullah. These misunderstandings could be removed through dialogue.”
Well, that’s a relief. It’s only a “misunderstanding” - by “patriots”. Thank goodness there’s that obambi model dialogue thingy working.
If that wasn’t so scary it would be funny.
Pakistan. What a pathetic excuse for a country. If there’s any kind of contest being held for the most idiotic insecurity in the world, I’d tender the name “Pakistan”.
And don’t forget - they have nuclear weapons. Somehow I feel uncomfortable.
Bill Roggio has a breakdown of the latest buffoonery in our GWOT “ally”.
Tom
December 24th, 2008
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That has been bugging me ever since this story broke. The HMS Cornwall wasn’t so far away that it did not know this was happening - the British sailors, after all, were in rubber boats! So what’s the deal?
In From the Cold points to a post by Real Clear Politics - that, while making sense, infuriates me. The British Commodore, Nick Lambert, did nothing as his sailors were seized. As RCP points out, Lord Nelson - the greatest Admiral a seafaring nation has ever produced - must turning in his grave over the British assessment:
British rules of engagement “are very much de-escalatory, because we don’t want wars starting,” the former First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West, told the BBC.
“Rather than roaring into action and sinking everything in sight we try to step back and that, of course, is why our chaps were, in effect, able to be captured and taken away,” he said.
“We don’t want wars starting”? So if one starts and you’re the other side, do you even recognize it? The US commander was vexed:
U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Erik Horner, executive officer of the USS Underwood, which shares patrol duty in the Shatt al Arab with the HMS Cornwall, expressed surprise that the British let their sailors and marines be taken without a fight.
“U.S. Navy rules of engagement say we not only have a right to self defense, but also an obligation to self defense,” LtCdr Horner told the British newspaper the Independent. “Our reaction was ‘Why didn’t your guys defend themselves?’”
Read the post. RCP makes points that others have made about Iran’s real intentions - notably the bargaining for the Quds force members captured in Iraq by a raid earlier this month.
But really, if this is Britains’s best response, why wouldn’t Iran try this - a medium risk, high reward gamble. Has the bloviating by the Islamic’s in Britain warped the strategic wartime thinking of such a great seafaring nation?
UPDATE:
Fox is now reporting that the UK’s claim of being in the terretorial waters of Iraq were actually substantiated by Iran:
Britain’s military said Wednesday that British boarding vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi territorial waters when a Royal Navy crew was captured by Iran.
Vice Admiral Charles Style told reporters that the Iranians had provided a position on Sunday — a location that he said was in Iraqi waters.
By Tuesday, Iranian officials had given a revised position 2 miles east, placing the British inside Iranian waters — a claim he said was not verified by GPS coordinates.
“It is hard to understand a legit reason for this change of coordinates,” Style said.
Since the position was in Iraq’s waters, it would seem more likely that the UK would have responded with force. However, I think it’s humorous that Iran claimed the position in Iranian waters and promptly gave the GPS coordinates - from the British captures - to the UK without checking to see that they needed modification to support the Iranians lie.
March 27th, 2007
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Adjusting America to the demands of Sharia Law and living as a parallel society - the objectives of Islam in America. Espoused by the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), these two goals are continually pursued by these two groups. In today’s Wall Street Journal Editorial Page, Katherine Kersten discusses the dhimmitude that MAS and CAIR are trying to envelope this country in.
Here in Minneapolis, one of the nation’s most livable cities, hard-line Muslim activists are injecting an element that is anything but nice.
Troubling incidents began several years ago, when taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport–about three-quarters of whom are Muslim–started refusing to transport passengers carrying alcohol.
In September 2006, the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) proposed a two color top-light pilot project to indicate which drivers would accept passengers with alcohol. The proposal, later dropped, would apparently have marked the first time that a government agency in the U.S. officially recognized Shariah law, and distinguished individuals who follow it from those who don’t.
In November 2006, the six “flying imams” bumped the taxi drivers from the headlines. The imams denounced the incident as racial and religious profiling. “If up to now, [Americans] don’t know about prayers, this is a real problem,” said Omar Shahin, one of the detained men and head of the North American Imams Federation. Twin Cities imams demanded a separate Muslim prayer room at the airport.
What’s going on? It appears that both local circumstances and activists with a big-picture agenda play a role. Take the taxi drivers. Minnesota is home to tens of thousands of Somalis, most recent immigrants. Behind the scenes, moderate local Somali leaders are engaged in a power struggle with national Muslim organizations that seek to exploit this vulnerable population. Islam prohibits the consumption of alcohol but not its transportation, say Somalis who reject the taxi drivers’ stance. Yet in June 2006, the Muslim American Society’s (MAS) Minnesota chapter issued a “fatwa” forbidding drivers here from carrying alcohol to avoid “cooperating in sin.”
This is a good example of dhimmitude - forming a parallel Islamic society and accomodating Sharia Law. Target, as Kirsten noted, had to do the same with it’s Muslim checkout clerks - they claimed they couldn’t handle pork. They finally just reassigned them. Why not just fire them? It isn’t that the clerk couldn’t do the work - they refused to do it. That’s a huge bit of difference.
And how are we, as a country, approaching this issue? Thanks to the dumocrats, we may not have much choice:
In Washington, the Democratic leadership is likely to seek passage of the End Racial Profiling Act, of which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called herself, in 2004, a “proud” cosponsor. Both MAS and CAIR are stumping for the bill, which would bar airport security personnel from disproportionately questioning Muslims or people of Middle Eastern descent. Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, the nation’s first Muslim Congressman, told me that the imams’ situation reflects a misunderstanding of Muslim prayer and will be sorted out in court, while the other matters stem from the normal process of immigrant adjustment.
And Kirsten comments pretty much sum it up:
The events here suggest a larger strategy: By piggy-backing on our civil rights laws, Islamist activists aim to equate airport security with racial bigotry and to move slowly toward a two-tier legal system. Intimidation is a crucial tool. The “flying imams” lawsuit ups the ante by indicating that passengers who alerted airport authorities will be included as defendants. Activists are also perfecting their skills at manipulating the media. After a “pray-in” at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., one credulous MSNBC anchor likened the flying imams to civil rights icon Rosa Parks.
This is not something that will go away. CAIR and MAS are very vocal organizations who both think that as long as we are willing to listen to them, they are willing to press for change by forcing us to comply with their beliefs. As Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs notes:
As we’ve written many times at LGF (and never been proven wrong yet): they always come back. The Muslim Brotherhood and their “activists” in the US are in this for the long haul, and they’re slowly increasing the pressure.
I will start carrying this sign on the sidebar:
March 26th, 2007
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In a New York Times report today, the Waziristan Accord is finally put to rest as a failure and al-Qaeda is now considered “back”:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.
The United States has also identified several new Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan, including one that officials said might be training operatives for strikes against targets beyond Afghanistan.
American analysts said recent intelligence showed that the compounds functioned under a loose command structure and were operated by groups of Arab, Pakistani and Afghan militants allied with Al Qaeda. They receive guidance from their commanders and Mr. Zawahri, the analysts said. Mr. bin Laden, who has long played less of an operational role, appears to have little direct involvement.
So we pretty much have it “officially” - though calling the New York Times “official” is a reach bordering on treasonous. But Daveed Gartenstein-Ross comments on this article at the Counterterrorism Blog and points out the failure of the Waziristan Accord - signed by Musharref in September of 2006 - was entirely predictable:
Several factors have allowed al-Qaeda’s core leadership to regain its strength, including “[t]he emergence of a relative haven in North Waziristan and the surrounding area.” To that extent, the Times reports that officials in Washington and Islamabad are conceding that the Waziristan Accord — which was signed on September 5, and was designed as a treaty between Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf and tribal leaders — “had been a failure.” This should come as no shock.
Gartenstein-Ross and Bill Roggio from The Fourth Rail wrote an analysis that was posted on The Weekly Standard of the Waziristan Accord and its predictable failure on October 2, 2006. A few of the key elements:
The agreement is, to put it mildly, a boon to the terrorists and a humiliation for the Pakistani government. . . . The accord provides that the Pakistani army will abandon outposts and border crossings throughout Waziristan. Pakistan’s military agreed that it will no longer operate in North Waziristan or monitor actions in the region. Pakistan will return weapons and other equipment seized during Pakistani army operations. And the Pakistani government essentially paid a tribute to end the fighting when it agreed to pay compensation for property destroyed during combat — an unusual move since most of the property that was destroyed belonged to factions that had consciously decided to harbor terrorists. Of particular concern is the provision allowing non-Pakistani militants to continue to reside in Waziristan as long as they promise to “keep the peace.” Keeping the peace will, in practice, be defined as refraining from attacks on the Pakistani military. Meanwhile, since the military won’t be monitoring the militants’ activities, they can plan and train for terrorist attacks or work to bolster the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan without being seen to violate the treaty.
While a UN combined presence in Afghanistan - including a large contigent of Canadians - works to keep the peace, Pakistan does incredibly stupid things with treaties and then, somehow, we are supposed to be surprised when this house of cards falls down.
And just to add to the flavor of al-Qaeda’s expansion, major international headlines today report terrorists actions in India and Thailand, killing nearly 70 in very coordinated and well-planned attacks - particularly on a train from Lahore to New Delhi which was stashed with flammatory material to exacerbate the explosions. Bill Roggio also reports more “treaty violations” in Pakistan.
The left wing nutroots would love us to believe that Bush has been barking aimlessly about the threat to Americans since 9/11. With these revelations (and no doubt we’ve been keeping our heads in the sand) a near duplicate of the elements leading to 9/11 is occuring in Pakistan. And as Gartenstein-Ross points out there’s no obvious solution:
There are three areas of particular concern to note. First, the gathering of al-Qaeda forces in Waziristan and other parts of Pakistan makes the terrorist group increasingly look very similar to how it looked prior to 9/11. Much of the progress that the U.S. and other Western countries have made over the past five years will be lost if al-Qaeda is able to regenerate in this manner. Second, a number of British citizens of Pakistani descent have been to training camps in Pakistan. This is of great concern because people traveling with Commonwealth passports come under less suspicion when entering other Commonwealth countries. This includes Canada — which may, in turn, make it easier for graduates of the training camps in Pakistan to attack the U.S. And a third point of concern is that, although analysts now concede that the Waziristan Accord has failed, they aren’t discussing what should be done now. Indeed, I have spoken with nobody in policymaking or intelligence circles with a good answer to that question.
We have set up a recipe for disaster - and the State Department hasn’t even noticed.
Who said Jack Bauer’s story was fiction?
Buy more ammo.
February 19th, 2007
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If Pakistan is fighting terrorists, it’s hard to tell. In fact, since giving the Waziristan provinces to the Taliban, it seems that Pakistan is simply a turtle pulling itself into a shell. The latest terrorist support scheme seems to be to indemnify anyone accused of terrorism and make the prosecution of those acts benign. To wit, from the Daily Times, a Pakistani newspaper:
RAWALPINDI: Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Kaleem Khan on Friday adjourned the hearing of a case against Rashid Rauf, a Briton who is a “key suspect” in an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners, till January 5, because the investigation officer presented an incomplete record in court.
The court directed the investigation officer to complete the record by the next hearing. It is likely that Rauf, who was produced in court for the hearing, would be indicted on the charges levelled against him in the next hearing.
His lawyer, Hashmat Habib, claimed that the investigation officer was delaying the finalisation of the investigation to make his client stay in jail for a long time. He told the court that he had not been given a copy of the charge sheet against his client and statements by witnesses, most whom he claimed were policemen.
Rauf filed an application with the court, seeking permission for meeting his relatives. The court accepted his application. Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Safder Hussain Malik dropped the terrorism charges against Rauf earlier. Rauf now faces charges of forgery, impersonation and possessing explosives.
Note the bold type - that’s mine. One line embedded at the end of a short article - “dropped the terrorism charges”. Yet he is a Briton and a “key suspect”.
Just wondering how long it will be before we cross the Pakistan border into Waziristan. Lot of cleaning up to do. Maybe that will happen sooner than later depending on the outcome of Pakistan reacting to international pressure to review the give-away in Waziristan.
Bill Roggio at The Fourth Rail has this information on his website. He has just returned from an embed there.
December 24th, 2006
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Bill Roggio at The Fourth Rail has a great story on the Marines efforts to get school supplies and backpacks to kids in Anbar province. Bill is embedded with Iraqi Army troops.
While walking a patrol with the Iraqi Army in Fallujah last week, I ran across a group of young children heading to school. Many of them had backpacks, and all of the backpacks were identical. This immediately made me think of Spirit of America’s school backpack program, so I contacted Jim Hake and Michele Redmond. Michele is confident that these backpacks are indeed part of the Marines “Benefit Day” outreach program in Al Anbar province. The Marines Benefit Day program was conceived by LtCol Jeff Nagel and sought to put 60,000 backpacks in the hands of Iraqi children in western Iraq. Spirit of America contributed over 10,000 backpacks filled with school supplies, along with a gift and an Arabic-language book for children.
Good job Bill - we don’t see that kind of stuff on the Antique Media. And good luck with the embed.
Bill has photos at his website. Take a look.
December 21st, 2006
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This is a worthwhile link to follow. Michelle Malkin has the story of three fallen warriors in Iraq, all due to an IED explosion. All were recently in the news, either on Patterico’s site or Michael Fumento’s blog, which has an excellent memorial piece.
These were good people, soldiers who did their job above and beyond the call of duty.
There are multiple links to follow at Michelle’s site. They are all worth taking.
Major Megan McClung was the highest ranking female officer to fall in Iraq.
Capt. Travis Patriquin will leave a void in cultivating the relationships with Iraqi’s that we desperately need.
Blackfive also has a post on Capt. Patriquin.
Share this with your friends.
Capt. Travis Patriquin
Major Megan McClung
December 15th, 2006
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Hug your kids and buy more ammo.
A You Tube link via Rantings of a Sandmonkey.
You can get to the video on either of the above links. The website for Rantings of a Sandmonkey also has some very interesting commenters.
Somehow America is evil to some people. And all I really want to do about it is play a little golf. Sheesh.
December 11th, 2006
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Just thought I’d add a little to the dumbass moonbat antique media event log ticker. Michael doesn’t really criticize. He just states the facts - which speaks volumes.
The al-Washington Post has to upchuck. Again.
Michael Fumento.com - Weblog
The real Ramadi HAS stood up
By Michael Fumento
In a Nov. 29 blog, “Will the real Ramadi please stand up?” I observed that three articles on conditions in Ramadi and al Anbar Province had appeared within a week of each other giving entirely different points of view. Mine and one in the Times of London said we’re winning the war in Ramadi; a Washington Post A1 story co-authored by “Fiasco” author Thomas Ricks claimed exactly the opposite. The difference, I said, could be explained simply. I and the Times writer reported from Ramadi. Ricks and his co-author have not only never been to Ramadi, they wrote their piece from Washington. Well now the WashPost has printed another article on the city, this time an upbeat one. What gives? You guessed it.The second one was reported from Ramadi. Case closed, thank you very much. Unfortunately, it’s little solace knowing how few journalists ever leave their safe little hovels in Baghdad hotels or Washington, D.C.
December 10, 2006 07:59 PM
December 11th, 2006
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You need to go read this story. It’s not something you’ll find on antique media - AP and Reuters will probably ignore it or say it was our fault she was hurt.
This will make you feel good.
From Blackfive
December 4th, 2006
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And right after that happens we’re supposed to accept Islam as the one true religion and embrace sharia law.
Jihad Watch carries the letter Ahmanutjob sent to America and some commentary. The political issues Ahmanut raises sound just like Dumocratic talking points - and some of the same points raised during the last elections. Keep reminding your friends of this.
Via LGF, Keith Timmerman has an analysis of what the letter really means.
Media commentators in the U.S. are likely to pick up on the “public relations” side of the letter. Ahmadinejad calls on the U.S. to bring the troops home from Iraq, to cut off support for Israel, and to stop “kidnapping presumed opponents from across the globe” and holding them in secret prisons.
He even has some advice for the new Democrat majority in Congress: Bend to the Muslim agenda, or you will be tossed out of power.
Ahmadinejad repeatedly tries to appeal to Americans as people of faith, who share Islamic values. “We, like you, are aggrieved by the ever-worsening pain and misery of the Palestinian people,” he drones. “Persistent aggressions by the Zionists are making life more and more difficult for the rightful owners of the land of Palestine.
……..
Citing from the Quran at the close of his letter, he says that if Americans “repent” of their “injustice,” they will be blessed with many gifts. “We should all heed the divine Word of the Holy Qur’an,” he says.
The context of this particular verse (28:67-28, Sura “Al-Qasas,” or The Narration), is very clear. It follows a graphic description of destruction and devastation that will befall those who fail to repent of their injustice.
It also sets out the terms of the tradition Muslim warning to the enemies of Allah. “And never will your Lord destroy the towns until He sends to their mother town a Messenger reciting to them Our Verses.” This is precisely what Ahmadinejad is doing in his letter.
Dump Bush, allow the Muslims to destroy Israel, and adopt Islam — or else you will be destroyed. This is Ahmadinejad’s message.
So now the dumocrats and Ahmanutjob are dancing partners and drink from the same glass. I would guess that right after we haul ass from Iraq, the dumocrats will start the Constitutional movement of accepting sharia law in the US. Unless, as a post in LGF notes, Tennessee gets there first.
December 1st, 2006
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I know - first things first. Just who the hell is Victor Bout? I’m posting this because it’s one of those “I can’t believe this” moments. Victor Bout is probably the most influential international weapons financier in the world. All over the world. He seems to be a man without a country - or perhaps a man with many countries. Though he lives, not surprisingly, as a well as a free roaming chicken. Right in the middle of Moscow.
This is an article I’ve linked to from Douglas Farah’s website on an expose he wrote with Stephen Braun in the latest issue (Nov/Dec) of Foreign Policy Magazine called “Merchant of Death”. It is a pdf file so if you don’t have Adobe Acrobat reader, get it here. After you read through Merchant of Death - which reads like a spy thriller - check out Douglas Farah’s latest comments on Vladimir Putin and his connection to Mr. Bout. Just a snip:
The Russian weapons used by Hezbollah in the July fighting with Israel were new and routed through Syria. Intelligence sources say Bout was spotted in Beirut during the fighting, shortly before the sophisticated armor-piercing Fagot and Kornet anti-tank missiles were discovered. Interesting coincidence. When the Israelis presented the Russians with overwhelming evidence of the armament, it was publicly dismissed, but a senior official in the Russian arms export enterprise was reportedly dismissed to placate the outside world.
This is good stuff. Victor Bout is bad news. And we have been snookered.
November 28th, 2006
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