Input: The Al-Bu Nimr in Ramadi and Al-Qaim rose in arms against Saddam in the mid-nineties following the execution of Thamir Madhlum Al-Dulaymi, an Air Force general belonging to their tribe.

Al-Bu Nimr

Saddam

Thamir Madhlum Al-Dulaymi

Ramadi

Al-Qaim

Air Force


Input: The revolt took two weeks to be suppressed by the Republican Guard.

Republican Guard


Input: Another bad step was the recent arrest of Sheikh Hassan Al-Lihabi, of the Lihaib tribe which is scattered between the governorates of Al-Anbar, Mosul and Salah Al-Din.

Sheikh Hassan Al-Lihabi

Lihaib

Al-Anbar

Mosul

Salah Al-Din


Input: Al-Lihaibi was running in elections and is now said to have withdrawn following this incident.

Al-Lihaibi


Input: I believe national reconciliation to be the only path forward to a new Iraq.

Iraq


Input: The Shia can not live without the Sunnis, and vice versa.


Input: Both have shared this country for the last 14 centuries and there is no possible way that one can live without the other.


Input: Even partition is not a possibility, there are no clear borders between the two.


Input: Remember Luis Posada Carriles ?

Luis Posada Carriles


Input: Here 's a Miami Herald interview with the relaxed terrorist and former CIA operative in a luxury condo, published yesterday.

Miami Herald

CIA


Input: ("At first I hid a lot.


Input: I thought the US government was looking for me.

US


Input: Now I hide a lot less.")


Input: Because of such talk, Posada has been taken into custody by Immigration officials.

Posada


Input: I ca n't imagine they wanted to do this.


Input: Authorities would likely have been happy answering questions about Posada 's whereabouts with an indefinite shrug.

Posada


Input: As recently as last week the official line stated they had no knowledge he had entered the country.


Input: But comfortable among the thugs, Posada overplayed his hand and embarrassed his old patron, the US government.

Posada

US


Input: And though he 'd been a faithful servant, he was not such a player that he could get away with that.


Input: He should have taken a cue from another bomber some pesky dark-skinned foreigners want extradited, CIA operative Michael Meiring.

CIA

Michael Meiring


Input: Posada should have told any inquisitive journalist at his doorstep something like Meiring told the single American reporter who bothered following his bloody trail from the Philippines, that "If this harms me in any way, you will find my power then, and you 'll find out who I am."

Posada

Meiring

Philippines


Input: But then, maybe that would n't have saved him either, because Posada is not Meiring.

Posada

Meiring


Input: Posada can be given up, but Meiring ca n't .

Posada

Meiring


Input: Meiring 's crimes are fresh, and wave the false flag which is the "War on Terror."

Meiring


Input: They happened in the Philippines which, like Pakistan, is an important and vulnerable node for the business which intelligence agencies and terrorist organizations conduct with each other.

Philippines

Pakistan


Input: (Ask Terry Nichols about the Philippines.)

Terry Nichols

Philippines


Input: The bombings implicated Muslims, and exacerbated regional tensions which the Bush regime and its friends wearing the brass in the Philippine military sought to exploit.

Bush


Input: Posada 's crimes, on the other hand, must seem like ancient history, especially to a people who do n't know their history.

Posada


Input: And to those who do n't even know their crimes, not even that.


Input: But will Posada be given up?

Posada


Input: I doubt he will be extradited to Venezuela, which is the only way that question could be answered with a Yes.

Venezuela


Input: I expect it will be determined that, under "Strong Man" Hugo Chavez, Posada could not be guaranteed a fair trial.

Hugo Chavez

Posada


Input: The hope may be that Posada can soon be offered to a post-Chavez Allawi-like puppet in Caracas.

Posada

post-Chavez

Allawi

Caracas


Input: Whether such an offer were accepted or declined would make no difference; justice would not be served then.


Input: But Posada 's nearly 80 years old, and the Venezuelan people will ensure that 's a vain hope.

Posada


Input: So instead Posada may be held indefinitely, in comfortable custody.

Posada


Input: An embarrassment to the US still, just not as embarrassing as having the old killer strut about Miami, gloating in his freedom.

US


Input: Meiring is more than an embarrassment.

Meiring


Input: His case threatens the consensus fiction of the "War on Terror."


Input: So his name will remain unspoken.


Input: Another connection to Philippine terror and weapons smuggling- dating from the 1980s- is alleged in the book Disposable Patriot, by Jack Terrell.

Jack Terrell


Input: Terrell, a CIA asset originally recruited for the Contra effort, identifies the man attempting to recruit him into the Philippine scheme as Oliver North...

Terrell

Oliver North

CIA


Input: I seem to recall the object was to smuggle explosives.


Input: I 've read the book- it 's a first person memoir with the ring of truth, especially since so much of the wider context has confirmed the allegations of Contra drug connections that led to Terrell becoming a target for discrediting by the TWIG counterintelligence group that ran interference for the Contra effort, staffed by covert ops types including Ollie North, Robert Owen, Vince Cannistaro and Buck Revell.

Terrell

Ollie North

Robert Owen

Vince Cannistaro

Buck Revell


Input: Peter Dale Scott includes an account of how Terrell 's whistleblowing was stifled by them in his book Cocaine Politics.

Peter Dale Scott

Terrell


Input: ... same ole, same ole...


Input: Due to the Judge in the 1983 case ruling that a CIA agent could not testify using a pseudonym, therefore opening him to cross-examination by Wilson, the prosecution had a problem.

CIA

Wilson


Input: They needed someone that could convince the jury they had been able to see all relevant documents in CIA files on Wilson.

CIA

Wilson


Input: Wilson was claiming that he had been working for the CIA when he sold the C-4 to Quaddaffi.

Wilson

CIA


Input: The prosecution was charging he was a rogue using his contacts from former service in both CIA and the 'Office of Naval Intelligence'.

CIA


Input: Wilson had been able to show that he 'd had more than 80 "non-social contacts" with the CIA since his retirement in 1971, leaving the prosecution 's case in turmoil.

Wilson

CIA


Input: Then Charles A. Briggs came to the rescue.

Charles A. Briggs


Input: Third ranking CIA officer, Briggs signed a declaration on February 3rd, 1983, that on November 8th, 1982, he had authorized a search of CIA records "for any material that in any way pertains to Edwin P. Wilson, or the various allegations concerning his activities after February 28th, 1971, when he retired from the CIA."

CIA

CIA

CIA

Briggs

Edwin P. Wilson


Input: The Briggs Declaration states that with one exception in 1972, Wilson did not work "directly or indirectly" for the CIA since retiring.

Briggs

Wilson

CIA


Input: Last week, Federal District Judge Lynn Hughes in Huston, Texas, threw out Wilson 's two-decades old conviction.

Lynn Hughes

Wilson

Huston

Texas


Input: Judge Hughes wrote: `government knowingly used false evidence against him,' concluding `honesty comes hard to government.'

Hughes


Input: looks like it is rearing its head again in Louisianna..

Louisianna


Input: Former Pastor, Deputy Implicated In Church Child Sex Abuse


Input: PONCHATOULA, La. --

PONCHATOULA

La.


Input: Sheriff 's deputies in Louisiana made a third arrest Wednesday in the ongoing investigation of a case involving allegations of sexual abuse of children and animals at a Ponchatoula, La., church.

Louisiana

Ponchatoula

La.


Input: Austin Aaron Bernard III, 36, was arrested on a charge of aggravated rape of a child under the age of 13.

Austin Aaron Bernard III


Input: Police said Bernard confessed to detectives that he had sex with a young girl in November 2002 and admitted to knowing about sexual acts involving children and a dog that occurred at Hosanna Church.

Bernard

Hosanna Church


Input: Tangipahoa Parish sheriff 's deputy Christopher Blair Labat, 24, was booked Tuesday on one count of aggravated rape and one count of crime against nature.

Tangipahoa Parish

Christopher Blair Labat


Input: On Monday, Louis Lamonica, 45, the former pastor of Hosanna Church, was booked with two counts of aggravated rape and one count of crime against nature after he walked in to the Livingston Parish Sheriff 's Office and said he could implicate others in a situation at the church that reportedly occurred two years ago.

Louis Lamonica

Hosanna Church

Livingston Parish


Input: We have a similar case unravelling up here in the northwest with a murder of a family and missing children taken for some purpose.


Input: If I was Rummy I 'd send Posada to Iraq to blow things up there.

Rummy

Posada

Iraq


Input: yeah, "things"...


Input: Yesterday evening, the Posada story was featured in the public television news show in Germany (ARD, Tagesthemen).

Posada

Germany

ARD

Tagesthemen


Input: The newly released papers, showing him complicit in the airliner bombing, were mentioned


Input: gandalf


Input: Now that 's a post I can relate to.


Input: You really got me thinking, I enjoy reading this blog.


Input: I do n't know how others feel, but I 'm definitely looking into immigration to Canada as an option.

Canada


Input: The good Ã³l US of A ai nt what it used to be.

US of A


Input: I like yuor blog.


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Input: I mostly deals with dating advice


Input: Please come and check it out if you get the time!


Input: I was searching for dog food info and found this post.


Input: I agree totally!


Input: Paul


Input: How Would You Like To Know How YOU Can Live In A Beautiful NEW House That Is Custom-Designed To YOUR Specifications.........And At NO COST To You?


Input: You CAN Do It.


Input: And It 's Not Hard To Do.... IF You Know HOW.


Input: Do n't Let This Pass You By Without At Least Taking A Look.


Input: The Only Catch Is That You HAVE To Have An Income ABOVE $21,000...... And......You HAVE To Follow The Easy Instructions Provided To You.


Input: Get-A-Free-House.com


Input: When the cities are on fire with the burning flesh of men


Input: Just remember that death is not the end


Input: And you search in vain to find just one law abiding citizen


Input: Just remember that death is not the end - Bob Dylan


Input: Afraid I do n't have time today to discuss these, but some stories need attention:


Input: From Wednesday 's Mirror the headline, "Have 200,000 AK47s Fallen Into the Hands of Iraq Terrorists?"

Iraq


Input: (also see this thread on the RI discussion board):


Input: Some 200,000 guns the US sent to Iraqi security forces may have been smuggled to terrorists, it was feared yesterday.

US


Input: The 99-tonne cache of AK47s was to have been secretly flown out from a US base in Bosnia.

US

Bosnia


Input: But the four planeloads of arms have vanished.


Input: Orders for the deal to go ahead were given by the US Department of Defense.

US

Department of Defense


Input: But the work was contracted out via a complex web of private arms traders .


Input: And the Moldovan airline used to transport the shipment was blasted by the UN in 2003 for smuggling arms to Liberia, human rights group Amnesty has discovered.

UN

Amnesty


Input: It follows a separate probe claiming that thousands of guns meant for Iraq 's police and army instead went to al-Qaeda .

Iraq

al-Qaeda


Input: Amnesty chief spokesman Mike Blakemore said: "It 's unbelievable that no one can account for 200,000 assault rifles.

Amnesty

Mike Blakemore


Input: If these weapons have gone missing it 's a terrifying prospect."


Input: American defence chiefs hired a US firm to take the guns, from the 90s Bosnian war, to Iraq.

US

Iraq


Input: But air traffic controllers in Baghdad have no record of the flights, which supposedly took off between July 2004 and July 2005.

Baghdad


Input: A coalition forces spokesman confirmed they had not received "any weapons from Bosnia" and added they were "not aware of any purchases for Iraq from Bosnia".

Bosnia

Iraq

Bosnia


Input: Nato and US officials have already voiced fears that Bosnian arms - sold by US, British and Swiss firms - are being passed to insurgents.

Nato

US

US


Input: A NATO spokesman said: "There 's no tracking mechanism to ensure they do n't fall into the wrong hands.

NATO


Input: There are concerns that some may have been siphoned off."


Input: This year a newspaper claimed two UK firms were involved in a deal in which thousands of guns for Iraqi forces were re-routed to al-Qaeda.

UK

al-Qaeda


Input: The Moldovan airline is Aerocom, and yes , it 's one of Victor Bout 's .

Aerocom

Victor Bout


Input: It 's always a bang-your-head-against-the-wall moment, reading again the play the incompetence theory receives, even from some of the Administration 's harshest mainstream critics.


Input: But then, even to talk of an "administration" may be misdirection at this point, given how little representative government means in the United States these days, and how much of "national security" has been privatized into a global gangland of drugs and guns.

United States


Input: Like the tens of billions of dollars that have been "lost" in Iraq, planeloads of arms do n't just "vanish"; not when the Pentagon contracts the work to an international criminal of Bout 's untouchable stature.

Iraq

Pentagon

Bout


Input: But Bout 's name is n't likely to be mentioned in whatever coverage this story receives, before it sinks like so many others beneath the media 's frothing triviality.

Bout


Input: Meanwhile, a decision 's been reached in the trial of Toledo priest Gerald Robinson.

Toledo

Gerald Robinson


Input: And it 's guilty :


Input: The Rev. Gerald Robinson appeared stony-faced as the jury 's guilty verdict was read, and he blinked repeatedly and glanced at his lawyers before being led away in handcuffs.

Gerald Robinson


Input: The crime occurred in the sacristy adjoining the hospital chapel in downtown Toledo on the Saturday before Easter in 1980.

Toledo


Input: Investigators said the nun, Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, was strangled and then stabbed, with nine wounds on her chest forming the shape of an inverted cross, a well-recognized Satanic symbol.

Margaret Ann Pahl


Input: An altar cloth was draped over her half-naked body, which was posed as if she had been sexually assaulted.


Input: "It was about how he could humiliate her the most," prosecutor Dean Mandros said in closing arguments.

Dean Mandros


Input: "He left a message for everyone to see ... maybe to God himself."

God


Input: After the sentencing one of Robinson 's tearful supporters "turned to Claudia Vercellotti, a local leader of the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests [SNAP], who had helped reopen the case, and told her, 'I hope you rot in hell!'"

Robinson

Claudia Vercellotti

Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests

SNAP


Input: From SNAP 's statement on the Robinson conviction:

SNAP

Robinson


Input: More than ever, police and prosecutors have the tools and the will to go after horrific crimes, even when the defendants are seemingly powerful individuals or institutions .


Input: When victims and witnesses stay silent, nothing changes.


Input: When victims and witnesses speak up, at least sometimes a child is protected, the truth is exposed, and justice is done.


Input: The murder weapon, Robinson 's letter opener:

Robinson


Input: Finally, from an email, a follow-up on the reopening of the investigation into the Atlanta Child Murders :

Atlanta


Input: Dekalb County Police Chief Louis Graham...the man who reopened the investigations last year, is mysteriously stepping down.

Dekalb County

Louis Graham


Input: And of all the people who the county is getting to find a replacement...is none other than Lee Brown, the original supervisor of the Atlanta PD, who was in office during the murders and the subsequent investigation.

Lee Brown

Atlanta PD


Input: SNAP is right in part.

SNAP


Input: Police and prosecutors have the tools.


Input: The will is another matter.


Input: Some do, individually.


Input: But institutionally?


Input: That 's still the domain of those who do n't .


Input: lots of important stories out there today jeff....thank god and a few good souls for that conviction.

jeff

god


Input: Have you sent this to congress yet?


Input: talk about law enforcement not having the will...


Input: CRACKDOWN ON POLYGAMY GROUP


Input: Small polygamous groups have existed in the southwestern US under the watchful yet fairly benign eye of authorities ever since a sect known as the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) separated itself from mainstream Mormonism in 1890.

US

Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints

FLDS


Input: Now, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs has been added to the FBI 's list of "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives," a move that caps law enforcement 's dramatic change of approach toward the polygamous group in recent years...[because of] the impact that the group 's practices, law enforcement officials say, are having on the most vulnerable within the sect, particularly children and women.

FLDS

FBI

Warren Jeffs


Input: When the FLDS under Mr. Jeffs (and his father before him) grew to some 10,000 followers in several southwestern communities with estimated assets of $110 million; when it became clear that government officials, school authorities, and police in those communities had become intertwined with the sect; when ex-members increasingly reported child and sexual abuse charges (mainly involving underage girls forced to marry older men); and when the sect began to use secluded compounds, state and federal authorities started to crack down more vigorously.

FLDS

Jeffs


Input: Specifically, Jeffs is charged in Utah and Arizona with sexual assault of underage girls and with arranging "spiritual" marriages for girls and older men.

Jeffs

Utah

Arizona


Input: At weekend press conferences in Salt Lake City and Phoenix, FBI and state officials said Jeffs "is considered armed and dangerous and may be traveling with armed bodyguards."

Salt Lake City

Phoenix

FBI

Jeffs


Input: In the past, he has talked in apocalyptic terms about a violent end to the world, according to former members.


Input: As with Christian Identity and other hate-related philosophies tied to the Aryan Nations and the neo-Nazi Creativity Movement, Jeffs has preached racism as well.

Aryan Nations

Jeffs


Input: "The black race is the people through which the devil has always been able to bring evil unto the earth," Jeffs has said as cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center 's "Intelligence Report."

Jeffs

Southern Poverty Law Center


Input: An editorial in the church-owned Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City earlier this year acknowledged that "the state 's history, a conservative belief in free choice, and an unwillingness to stir up a hornet 's nest in the national media have likely all contributed to the kid-glove approach lawmakers and law-enforcement officers have taken when dealing with polygamous communities."

Deseret Morning News

Salt Lake City


Input: Maybe I 'm missing something here, but how, exactly, does one 'Loose' 200,000 AK47's?


Input: "There 's no tracking mechanism in place"?!?!?


Input: Never mind.


Input: No need to worry.


Input: I 'm sure this kind of thing goes on all the time.


Input: We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming....


Input: just go here, it s simply amazing


Input: The Raw Story


Input: i count like 14 explosive headlines.


Input: Then, of course, there is the evidence the jury did not hear about in the Robinson case...

Robinson


Input: Funny how some things are squirelled away by well-meaning prosecutors...


Input: Maybe because they hint at a larger conspiracy/network of abusers/satanic underground?


Input: I read of a case not long ago when some people were trying to get a polygamous judge taken off the bench for not obeying state law.


Input: Of course law enforcement has dragged it's feet when members are taking part in the activity themselves.


Input: Personally I do n't give a damn what adults do to one another as long as there is no abuse invovled.


Input: It is the marrying off of young girls to older men often close relatives that enfurates me.


Input: Also these cults have multimillions yet the women and kids live in poverty so the leaders can live the high life.


Input: In the Warren Jeffs cult he reassigns wives if the husband displeases him or to reward the new husband.

Warren Jeffs


Input: Husbands marry mothers and teen daughters at the same time.


Input: a rare form of retardation is showing up in that group more than anywhere else in the world.


Input: It is genetic and the child needs to get the gene from both parents to turn into a vegetable instead of a thinking child.


Input: The doctor begs them to stop intermarrying but they say they have to keep the blood pure.


Input: look up fumarase deficiency for more info.


Input: Also look up the kingston family.


Input: One member actually was convicted of beating his teen daughter unconcious when she ran away from 'marriage' to her father 's own brother.


Input: no one was charged for forced marriage, only the beating.


Input: So we "lost" some weapon?


Input: It 's a good thing too.


Input: We would n't want those terrorists to run out of shit to shoot at us.


Input: Then the war might stop & all those juicy profits would just evaporate.


Input: What 's a few dead soldiers in comparison to keeping all those defense contractors awash in all that tax cash?


Input: They really are milking the incompetence angle though, are n't they?


Input: Just another big Iraq whoopsie daisy, huh?

Iraq


Input: Christ, you 'd think America would get a bit tired of these guys treating her like she was populated with nothing but gullible idiots.

America


Input: I suppose that it 's damn lucky for the GOP that she is populated with gullible idiots.

GOP


Input: US outsourcing special ops, intelligence to Iraq terror group, intelligence officials say

US

Iraq


Input: The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and current intelligence officials say...

Pentagon

US


Input: A country deserves the leaders it has, my friends...


Input: And MEK -- the Iranian (not Iraqi) terror group in question -- is itself unquestionably a cult:

MEK


Input: As the leaders like to boast, the Mujahedeen is a family affair.


Input: (''We have three generations of martyrs: grandmothers, mothers, daughters.'')


Input: Most of the girls I was meeting had grown up in Mujahedeen schools in Ashraf, where they lived separated from their parents.

Ashraf


Input: Family visits were allowed on Thursday nights and Fridays.


Input: When Iraq invaded Kuwait, many of these girls were transported to Jordan and then smuggled to various countries -- Germany, France, Canada, Denmark, England, the United States -- where they were raised by guardians who were usually Mujahedeen supporters.

Iraq

Kuwait

Germany

France

Canada

Denmark

England

United States


Input: When they were 18 or 19, many of them decided to come back to Iraq and fill the ranks of the youngest Mujahedeen generation.

Iraq


Input: Though ''decided'' is probably not the right word, since from the day they were born, these girls and boys were not taught to think for themselves but to blindly follow their leaders.


Input: ''Every morning and night, the kids, beginning as young as 1 and 2, had to stand before a poster of Massoud and Maryam, salute them and shout praises to them,'' Nadereh Afshari, a former Mujahedeen deep-believer, told me.

Massoud

Maryam

Nadereh Afshari


Input: Afshari, who was posted in Germany and was responsible for receiving Mujahedeen children during the gulf war, said that when the German government tried to absorb Mujahedeen children into their education system, the Mujahedeen refused.

Afshari

Germany

German


Input: Many of the children were sent to Mujahedeen schools, particularly in France.

France


Input: The Rajavis, Afshari went on to say, ''saw these kids as the next generation 's soldiers.

Afshari


Input: They wanted to brainwash them and control them.''


Input: Which may explain the pattern to their stories: a journey to self-empowerment and the enlightenment of self-sacrifice inspired by the light and wisdom of Maryam and Massoud.

Maryam

Massoud


Input: Link


Input: One has to wonder whether the bright fellows in our government and military who set up the deals with these people do n't know what they are, do n't care, or know perfectly well.


Input: Jeff,

Jeff


Input: SPLOID.com cited you on the topic of that priest conviction: http://www.sploid.com/news/2006/05/evil_priest_gui.php


Input: Umm...


Input: Question Mark


Input: Jimmy Plant, Blogshares is a fantasy blogosphere trading game with pretend money.

Jimmy Plant


Input: That 's all I know; I 've had nothing to do with it.


Input: Bush successfully makes Satan look good in comparison.

Bush

Satan


Input: Or something like that.


Input: "Another generation of heavy metal has taken over, and -- sorry -- it ai n't just about strippers and dope.


Input: Okay, it 's partly about strippers and dope.


Input: And we 'll get around to that.


Input: But more and more, as metal evolves into a huge international music that belongs to everyone, it has gotten to be something weirder.


Input: It 's become a guardian of morality -- not church morality; real morality.


Input: Praise be: Given the void in responsible behavior among governments, police, educational establishments and religions, the task of guiding our youth down the path of righteousness has fallen to... Satan"

Satan


Input: Hmmmmmm....................


Input: The people who carry out these underground arms/drugs/sex trafficking deals are trauma based mind controlled slaves.


Input: The Moldovan airline is Aerocom, and yes, it 's one of Victor Bout 's .

Aerocom

Victor Bout


Input: The wikipedia entry for Aerocom is just a stub .. waiting for someone to put some information into it....

Aerocom


Input: So... put some information in there.


Input: You know, nature hates a void. :)


Input: Richard,

Richard


Input: i agree, Hmmmmmm.


Input: How are chants of death and suicide ... morality.


Input: What about Manson 's tees bearing the message, "Kill your parents".

Manson


Input: And were the Columbine killers acting out this "real morality" when they indescriminately murdered their classmates.


Input: They were death metal brainwashed fans, literally fulfilling the death metal paradigm, er ... morality.


Input: (not church morality, no that is phoney, love thy neighbor ... hell no, kill thy neighbor - now that is REAL MORALITY ?????)


Input: So, hmmmm indeed.


Input: I detect the hissing lisp of the lying serpent in this article.


Input: The deathly inversion of truth, ala satanism.


Input: I think the jury 's still out on exactly who did the brainwashing when in regard to the Columbine killers.


Input: Perhaps we should look at the death metal phenomenon less as an invitation to violence than as a couter-cultural response to the over hypocrisy of a large percentage of the 'Church-Morality' crowd, which gives a lot of lip service to loving thy neighbor, but does n't apply that love very far beyond their own congregation.


Input: The last I checked, the Satanists have a long way to go to catch up with the death and destruction dealt out by self-proclaimed (though false) Christians.


Input: Irony is dead...Long live Irony!


Input: That 's it.


Input: I 'm firing my editor.


Input: Well, it 's not as simple and clear cut as all that.


Input: We 're entering into some interesting and perhaps previously unexplored socio-political-spiritual territory here that may require further examination and serious introspection.


Input: The Kevin Coogan publication posted on the previous thread might serve as a good launching point for further discussion.

Kevin Coogan


Input: The following quote is from that Coogan article:

Coogan


Input: Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring.


Input: Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.


Input: - Simone Weil


Input: Starroute:


Input: I would n't wonder too hard.


Input: The answer is likely D: all of the above, due to this being a complex reality we live in.


Input: But to me, without question, they often know perfectly well.


Input: Here is a thought: When the appartently cognitively functional take actions that seem senseless and incompetent, it is a most certain sign that they have ulterior or hidden motives.


Input: They trust you and me to be befuddled by their actions, while they "do as they wilt".


Input: To not buying the BS


Input: & here I am thinking that I really must be getting old.


Input: Since the article was specifically about "death metal" I guess the author missed this little tidbit or we just have waaaaaaaaaaaaay different definitions of morality:


Input: One man 's relentless search for his missing son led him to uncover one of the most shocking crimes in post-war Italy - a tale of satanism and violence that has gripped the country for more than a year.


Input: In January 1998 Fabio Tollis and Chiara Marino, both just 16, disappeared.

Fabio Tollis

Chiara Marino


Input: They had been drinking at a pub called the Midnight - the centre of the heavy metal scene in Milan - and they never came home.

Milan


Input: The police and many of their friends just thought they had run off together.


Input: But their parents refused to accept this.


Input: Michele Tollis, Fabio 's father, began to attend metal concerts and festivals across Europe, handing out leaflets and quizzing Fabio 's friends.

Michele Tollis

Fabio

Fabio

Europe


Input: Fabio and his friends were into the most extreme forms of heavy metal music - death metal and black metal, music obsessed with images of murder and satanism - and the role of this music is central to the story.

Fabio


Input: No one can contradict me when I say that heavy metal and satanism are closely linked


Input: Michele Tollis


Input: It emerged that Chiara, the girl who disappeared with Fabio, had a collection of satanic literature and paraphernalia in her bedroom.

Chiara

Fabio


Input: During this search, Michele Tollis became convinced that satanism had something to do with his son 's disappearance.

Michele Tollis


Input: "No one can contradict me when I say that heavy metal and satanism are closely linked.


Input: They 're inseparable," he says.


Input: Yeah, I think Jeff wrote on one of his posts here in the past several months: "To hell with death".

Jeff


Input: I wholly agree, and would expand that statement to include: "To hell with death metal".


Input: The freaky thing here is that these bozos are seriously claiming the moral high ground ? ? ? ? ?


Input: Talk about a beat-your-head-against-the-wall moment!


Input: And for 'Smartwolf' above, think about the inversion principle being employed.


Input: They are doing it deliberately.


Input: Do you really think GWB, and neocons in general are representative of true followers of Jesus of Nazareth?

GWB

Jesus of Nazareth


Input: (I know, ignorant question) Then why call them, or any other phonies 'Christians', even if they themselves claim the appellation.


Input: They are merely imposters.


Input: Everything they claim is a lie, and this above all.


Input: So why even credit their claims?


Input: This only serves their purposes.


Input: They want to be identified as 'Christians', and I fully suspect that for some of them, the motivation behind their subterfuge is more than mere political advantage, and has a lot more to do with the black magician 's practice of the inversion principle.


Input: We need to be more 'rigorous' about how we perceive these people.


Input: See them as they are, not for what they claim to be.


Input: ... the most extreme forms of heavy metal music - death metal and black metal, music obsessed with images of murder and satanism - and the role of this music is central to the story.


Input: Almost all of the avant guard art movements of the early 20th Century (except for Italian Futurism) were labeled 'degenerate' by the National Socialists.

National Socialists


Input: Adolf Hitler even held an exhibition of 'degenerate art' in 1937, while curating a parallel show of 'Aryan' art across the street.

Adolf Hitler


Input: The German Expressionist movement was destroyed as a result.

German


Input: Here 's a quick overview of the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibit of 1937:


Input: Ironically (or perhaps not), the notion of the 'degenerate' and 'degenerate art' was appropriated by the Nazis and its origins can be traced back to Jewish 'intellectual' Max Nordau and a 1892 book he authored called Degeneration. .

Max Nordau


Input: Nordau was also the co founder of the World Zionist Organization.

World Zionist Organization


Input: When the apparently cognitively functional take actions that seem senseless and incompetent, it is a most certain sign that they have ulterior or hidden motives.


Input: They trust you and me to be befuddled by their actions, while they "do as they wilt."


Input: A question:


Input: Are the adherent of 'Crowleyan Thelema' and others of similar ilk appropriating or appropriating from the appropriators to redirect 'energy?'


Input: Does this reappropriation lead to or originate from the same place?


Input: Seems as if there is a clear distinction being made between the 'imaginary' Whore of Babalon and the actually Whore of Babylon, which is this global system.

Babalon

Babylon


Input: Is the distinction accurate and valid?


Input: Does the distinction actually exist?


Input: This is where the socio- political aspect of this conundrum comes into play.


Input: Confused?


Input: Good.


Input: so, enemy, what 's your point?


Input: Why do n't you state it?


Input: My point is that these are all just questions and I am undecided as to the answers.


Input: Here 's another interesting example:


Input: John Balance from Coil.

John Balance


Input: (Do n't wish to use Wikipedia again, it 's just easier than spending time looking up more obscure and detailed information.)


Input: Balance died in 2004 after a 'fall.'

Balance


Input: He blended belief systems such as Shamanism, Christianity, Buddhism, Paganism, Hermeticism and Gnosticism and imbued Coil 's vast output with a magickal current designed to have a functionally transcendent effect on listeners.


Input: Not 200,000 guns - the numbers do nt work:


Input: 5kg per gun, 200,000 guns means 1000 tonnes, impossible for 4 containers.


Input: If the load was 99 tonnes there were probably less than 20,000.


Input: E@tG:


Input: Maybe if you formulate your questions a little more specifically it will help you in acquiring the answers.


Input: "I am, therefore I think" :)


Input: Reporting from the town where Susan Polk 's trial is going on.

Susan Polk


Input: I went across the bay last night to attend a farmer 's market and music event.


Input: Lo and behold, the Mormons were there with a booth.


Input: Two young men delivering information about the Mormon genealogy program.


Input: Just give your email and/or phone number to these guys and they 'll track down your family.


Input: I was amazed at the spiel they delivered.


Input: Kindly young men, but utterly programmed and brain-dead.


Input: I resisted asking any questions that would have required either of them to think.


Input: It would have been too painful to watch.


Input: Has anyone read the letter purportedly from Ahmadinejad to George Bush?

Ahmadinejad

George Bush


Input: I do n't know if this has been verified.


Input: But succintly making point after succint point, the text of the letter stands on its own merit, regardless.


Input: I like to imagine the thought processes going on in W 's head if he were to actually read the letter, but it is hard to picture him actually reading this letter.

W


Input: As I read the letter, I considered the vast contrast between mind and morality of whoever wrote it, vs. that of the mind of the man who once said "Bring it on!"


Input: America, your condition is dire, dark and deep.

America


Input: Of the metal music farce, Ministry has definately made in-road into 'Loose Change"-"Alex Jones" territory with their new record, Rio Grande Blood.

Alex Jones


Input: Important Kos Diary about bush 's response to the gathering storm of scandals:

bush


Input: =Executive Orders -


Input: very creepy, very scary


Input: They have been accumulating for years, and basically give the president to sieze the government whenever he feels like it.


Input: But who would do a thing like that.... hey wait a minute


Input: ==Why did Bush revoke Executive Order 13011 today?

Bush


Input: by exmearden


Input: Fri May 12, 2006 at 08:27:46 PM PDT


Input: In scanning the whitehouse.gov site today, I noticed the following Executive Order:


Input: Executive Order: Amendments to Executive Orders 11030, 13279, 13339, 13381, and 13389, and ***Revocation*** of Executive Order 13011....


Input: I ca n't believe there are no serious metal fans who frequent RI.


Input: I 'm wary of jumping into this fray without backup, that 's for damn sure. :)


Input: I 'm a regular poster but for some reason blogger wo n't let me in today...but sign me TroubleFunk.


Input: Tronicus:

Tronicus


Input: Simply, the questions permeate the entire 'Western (Mystery) Tradition' and perhaps 'Eastern' as well, as they relate to the confluence of politics and spirituality.


Input: For example, is the system of Crowleyan Thelema a failed alchemical process?


Input: Or was it supposed to initially be a process of alchemical appropriation?


Input: Similarly, is invoking ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses a reaffirmation of an oppressive and hierarchical system?


Input: In my opinion, people can no longer afford to partition out and compartmentalize personal spiritual and political systems.


Input: The 'high weirdness' and more hardcore political 'factions' must perhaps integrate and arrive at a synthesis.


Input: In regards to death metal, the problem is, once again, a question of education, history and the vacuous lack of perspective in American culture.


Input: Shall we censor the works of poet Charles Baudelaire as well?

Charles Baudelaire


Input: Baudelaire was perhaps one of the first 'death metal' artists.

Baudelaire


Input: Tronicus, if you 're still checking this thread:

Tronicus


Input: A bit of a knee-jerk reaction from me there, and I apologize for my over-generalizations.


Input: My real problem is with literalist fundamentalists, of any religion.


Input: True believers are dangerous animals.


Input: I just get hung up on 'Christians', as they 're the dominant form where I come from.


Input: Also, I 'm quite clear on the fact that those in power now (and, in general, most anyone at the top of a pyrimidal power structure) tend to use the dominant religion as a cloak to hide their true motivations and as a tool to control the masses.


Input: It boggles the mind that ANYONE can take at face value Bush 's claims to be a christian, yet many seem to do just that.

Bush


Input: I seem to remember something about 'by their works shall ye know them."


Input: I do get my hackles up a bit when people haul out the old 'Rock-N-Roll made them do it' argument.


Input: Whie I do n't subscribe to the notion that the things we watch or listen to have no effect on our behavior (which I think is patently rediculous), it does bother me when people single out a specific group of people to pin the blame on.


Input: Sub-cultures (as the lable implies) do not develope in a vacuum.


Input: Again, I think the problem is people who sink to far into their own egos, and begin to take their personal metaphors a bit too literaly.


Input: These people are dangerous wether they 're head-banging to 'Canibal Corpse' or humming along to 'Onward Christian Soldiers'.


Input: (The mixing of religion and militarism is a whole other topic....)


Input: I have nothing but respect for people who adhear to non-violence, forgiveness, and charity, but it 's important to remember that Christians (or 'Smartwolves') do not have a monopoly on that particular lifestyle.


Input: Peace.


Input: The fact that the US government and media are having a hissy fit over Venezuela wanting to buy guns, and then 200,000 of the guns Chavez wants to buy go missing on their way to Iraq is definitely sus.

US

Venezuela

Iraq

Chavez


Input: I guess those guns will be located enroute to Venezuela or found in storage there by one of the US 's local stooges and they then have a pretext to ramp the spin up a notch or two.

Venezuela

US


Input: What do the new al-Qaeda videotape and audio speeches of Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri tell us about the hopes of the remaining top leadership of the organization?

al-Qaeda

Bin Laden

Ayman al-Zawahiri


Input: Because the US and Pakistan have managed to capture or kill about 2/3s of the top 25 al-Qaeda commanders, the middle managers are not in close contact with al-Zawahiri and Bin Laden.

US

Pakistan

al-Qaeda

al-Zawahiri

Bin Laden


Input: The tape was a way to signal priorities.


Input: These are 1) Assassinate or overthrow Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani military "president" who had made a coup in 1999 and has thrown in his lot with the United States against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Pervez Musharraf

United States

Taliban

al-Qaeda


Input: Musharraf has been trying to purge his officer corps of the substantial number of al-Qaeda sympathizers.

Musharraf

al-Qaeda


Input: His military intelligence has captured major figures like Abu Zubayda and Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, as well as nearly 500 other al-Qaeda operatives, over 400 of whom the Pakistanis have turned over to the US.

Abu Zubayda

Khalid Shaykh Muhammad

al-Qaeda

US


Input: Musharraf held elections in October of 2002, in which center-right parties did well, but in which nearly 20 percent of parliament seats went to the fundamentalist religious party coalition, MMA.

Musharraf

MMA


Input: MMA also captured the Northwest Frontier Province, which probably shelters Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, and is in a joint government of Baluchistan Province, also on the Afghanistan border.

MMA

Northwest Frontier Province

Baluchistan Province

Afghanistan

Bin Laden

al-Zawahiri


Input: If al-Qaeda can kill Musharraf or instigate a military coup against him by Islamist junior officers, they can hope to catapult the MMA to power as political allies and hosts.

al-Qaeda

MMA

Musharraf


Input: They would thereby gain control of a major base for terrorist operations, which is also a nuclear power.


Input: All this is highly unlikely, as with most al-Qaeda crackpot schemes.

al-Qaeda


Input: But so was it unlikely that a small group of Arab mujahidin would virtually take over Afghanistan.

Afghanistan


Input: Response: The US must do whatever it can to strengthen the legitimacy of the Pakistani government.

US


Input: On the one hand, it should pressure Musharraf to take off his uniform and run for president in a fair election, and to repeal the contentious "Legal Framework Order" that essentially perpetuates his dictatorship.

Musharraf


Input: On the other, restrictions should be lifted on the mainstream Muslim League-N and Pakistan People 's Party, who can defeat the MMA in fair elections if not hogtied by the secret police.

Muslim League-N

Pakistan People 's Party

MMA


Input: On the other hand, the US should strong-arm India and Pakistan into a final settlement of the Kashmir issue.

US

India

Pakistan

Kashmir


Input: Al-Zawahiri attempted to use Musharraf 's lack of progress in helping the Muslims of that Indian state as a justification for his overthrow.

Al-Zawahiri

Musharraf


Input: The Kashmir issue generates far more terrorism, and even the threat of nuclear war, than Iraq ever did.

Kashmir

Iraq


Input: 2) Target Israel and encourage the worst elements of the Palestinians by playing on the iron fist policies of the Sharon government.

Israel

Sharon


Input: Response: The US has succeeded in politically isolating Hamas, and started the process of cutting off its funding.

US

Hamas


Input: This terrorist organization can now only pull off far less sophisticated bombings and attacks.


Input: It should continue to be defanged.


Input: But Sharon 's iron fist is simply not working as a means of establishing general peace, and the Bush administration will have to finally apply effective pressure on Sharon to stop his outrages in and colonization of the West Bank and Gaza.

Sharon

Bush

Sharon

West Bank

Gaza


Input: Sharon 's hard line has worked in tandem with Hamas 's terrorism to ratchet up tensions further and further, which spill over into the Muslim world and serve as a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda in its search for agents willing to hit the United States.

Sharon

Hamas

al-Qaeda

United States


Input: Israel owes the United States at least this much, in this crisis, to cease militarily unnecessary provocations and establish genuine peace.

Israel

United States


Input: 3) Make Iraq another Afghanistan, using the Republican Right 's own tactics against them.

Iraq

Afghanistan


Input: Response: Iraq is actually hostile territory for al-Qaeda, and without Iraqi sympathizers it can not succeed there.

Iraq

al-Qaeda


Input: By moving quickly to Iraqi sovereignty and improvement of Iraqi lives, the US may be able to get Iraqis on its side, so that they turn in the foreigners.

US


Input: Certainly, the Shiites already hate al-Qaeda and would help; likewise the Kurds.

al-Qaeda


Input: The problem of mollifying the Sunnis, though, has to be solved to avoid giving al-Qaeda an entrée.

al-Qaeda


Input: The Americans have to put away their free-market fetishism for a while and find ways of creating jobs and pumping money into Iraqi households.


Input: We need an FDR in Iraq, not a Ronald Reagan.

FDR

Ronald Reagan

Iraq


Input: Of course, the sooner the US soldiers can be withdrawn in favor of less-provocative local or international forces, the better.

US


Input: Getting the Spanish out of Iraq is n't nearly as good a rallying cry for al-Qaeda in the Arab world as getting the Americans and British out.

Iraq

al-Qaeda


Input: The thing to keep in mind is that Sunni Arab nationalists and Baathists and local Sunni radicals are likely to remain far more dangerous to the US in Iraq than al-Qaeda infiltrators, and it would be dangerous to take one 's eyes off the former ball.

US

Iraq

al-Qaeda


Input: From Friday 's Daily Star


Input: By Juan Cole


Input: Friday, June 04, 2004


Input: As the American public gradually wearies of the Iraq crisis, some have begun worrying that the war could blow back on the US by creating the conditions for anti-American terrorism.

Iraq

US


Input: Israel, however, is much closer to Iraq and is likely to suffer from Iraqi instability much more acutely than will the United States.

Israel

Iraq

United States


Input: Ironically, among the strongest proponents of war in Iraq were Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his neoconservative supporters in the US.

Iraq

US

Ariel Sharon


Input: Have they, however, actually weakened Israeli security?


Input: The biggest threat Israel faces is not from conventional armies but from the asymmetrical tactics of Palestinian national liberation movements.

Israel


Input: The derailing of the Oslo peace process by the hard-line policies of Sharon and the Palestinian intifada has encouraged suicide bombings.

Oslo

Sharon


Input: This, in turn, has discouraged international investment in Israel and has made it less likely that immigrants to the country will actually remain there.

Israel


Input: Although Israel withdrew from Lebanese territory in May 2000, the radical Lebanese Shiite party, Hizbullah, has not been mollified.

Israel

Hizbullah


Input: It is estimated to have some 5,000 armed fighters, and they have pursued attacks against Israeli forces to compel them to withdraw from the Shebaa Farms, a sliver of Syrian territory that Israel annexed after the 1967 war.

Shebaa Farms

Israel


Input: Any thorough assessment of the impact of the Iraq war and its aftermath on Israel 's security environment must, therefore, closely examine its likely effect on the conduct of asymmetrical warfare.

Iraq

Israel


Input: Although it is often alleged (without much evidence) that Saddam Hussein gave money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and so encouraged asymmetrical warfare, it is not clear that he actually posed a danger to Israel.

Saddam Hussein

Israel


Input: The Palestinians who have been willing to kill themselves to end the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were not driven by economic considerations.

Gaza Strip

West Bank


Input: Saddam never did anything practical to help the Palestinians.

Saddam


Input: At some points, as in the late 1980s, he reportedly made behind-the-scenes overtures to the Israelis to arrive at some sort of a deal.


Input: He did not allow Palestinian radicals to launch operations against Israel from Iraq.

Israel

Iraq


Input: By the late 1990s, Iraq had no nuclear or biological weapons program, and had destroyed its chemical weapons stockpiles.

Iraq


Input: Its ramshackle army had virtually collapsed before the American invasion in 2003.


Input: If it is hard to see how Baathist Iraq posed any real threat to Israel, it is not so difficult to see a menace in the current instability.

Iraq

Israel


Input: The bungling of post-war Iraq by the Bush administration created a weak and failed state.

Iraq

Bush


Input: Armed militias, many staffed by former Iraqi military men with substantial training and experience, have proliferated.


Input: The US chose to ally itself with such groups as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose 15,000-strong Badr Corps paramilitary was trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

US

Iraq

Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution

Badr Corps

Iranian Revolutionary Guards


Input: Anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian feeling is strong among several major Iraqi ideological groups and currents.


Input: The more radical Shiites, who generally follow the theocratic notions of Iran 's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, routinely chant and demonstrate against Israel.

Iran

Israel

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini


Input: They vehemently protested the Israeli assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas, last March.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

Hamas


Input: Worse for Israel, the assassination drew a denunciation even from the moderate and cautious Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who wields enormous moral authority over Iraqi Shiites.

Israel

Ali Sistani


Input: These Shiite movements had been suppressed by Saddam Hussein 's regime, but have now organized and armed themselves.

Saddam Hussein


Input: They have also reestablished their historical links with Lebanese and Iranian Shiites.


Input: It is inevitable that most Iraqi Shiites will side with their Hizbullah coreligionists against Israel, and it seems likely that Iraqi Shiites will get rich enough from Iraqi petroleum sales in the future that they will be in a good position to bankroll Lebanese Shiite radicals.

Hizbullah

Israel


Input: Sunni Arab fundamentalists deeply sympathize with the Palestinians and with Hamas, and those in Iraq have deep historical inks with fundamentalists in Jordan and Palestine.

Hamas

Iraq

Jordan

Palestine


Input: Iraqi cities such as Fallujah and Ramadi were on the truck route from Amman to Baghdad, and so came under the influence of the Salafi movement, which is popular in Jordan.

Fallujah

Ramadi

Amman

Baghdad

Jordan


Input: Secular Arab nationalist groups also universally sympathize with the Palestinians, and those in post-Saddam Iraq are no exception.

Iraq


Input: Whereas Saddam Hussein 's dictatorship ensured that such populist currents were kept firmly under control, they are now free to organize.

Saddam Hussein


Input: An Iraq in which armed fundamentalist and nationalist militias proliferate is inevitably a security worry for Israel.

Iraq

Israel


Input: If even a modicum of normality and security can be returned to Iraq, its citizens will be able to benefit from the country 's petroleum reserves.

Iraq


Input: That private wealth can easily be funneled into aid for the Palestinians and for Lebanese Shiites.


Input: Israel 's security interests are best served by peace with its neighbors, which can only be achieved by trading land for peace with the Palestinians.

Israel


Input: Ariel Sharon 's aggressive near annexation of almost half of the occupied West Bank and his indefinite postponement of any Palestinian state have created unprecedented rage and violence.

Ariel Sharon

West Bank


Input: The anger has spread throughout the Muslim world, including Iraq.

Iraq


Input: The promotion by the pro-Zionist right of twin occupations - in the West Bank and in Iraq - has profoundly weakened, not strengthened, Israeli security.

West Bank

Iraq


Input: Juan Cole (www.juancole.com) is a professor of modern Middle East history at the University of Michigan and author of "Sacred Space and Holy War" (I.B. Tauris, 2002).

Juan Cole

Middle East

University of Michigan


Input: THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in agreement with Agence Global

THE DAILY STAR


Input: George W. Bush alleged Thursday that John Edwards lacks the experience necessary to be president.

George W. Bush

John Edwards


Input: The problem with this argument is that Bush lacked the experience necessary to be president when he ran in 2000, so this sort of cheap shot just hoists him by his own petard.

Bush


Input: Let 's just remember a seminal Bush moment in 1999:

Bush


Input: ' Bush fails reporter 's pop quiz on international leaders

Bush


Input: November 5, 1999


Input: Web posted at: 3:29 p.m. EST (2029 GMT)


Input: WASHINGTON (CNN) --

WASHINGTON

CNN


Input: Texas Gov. George W. Bush is enduring sharp criticism for being unable to name the leaders of four current world hot spots, but President Bill Clinton says Bush "should, and probably will, pick up" those names.

Texas

George W. Bush

Bill Clinton

Bush


Input: The front-runner for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination faltered Thursday in an international affairs pop quiz posed by Andy Hiller, a political reporter for WHDH-TV in Boston.

Andy Hiller

WHDH-TV

Boston


Input: Bush


Input: Hiller asked Bush to name the leaders of Chechnya, Taiwan, India and Pakistan.

Hiller

Bush

Chechnya

Taiwan

India

Pakistan


Input: Bush was only able to give a partial response to the query on the leader of Taiwan, referring to Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui simply as "Lee."

Bush

Lee Teng-hui

Lee

Taiwan


Input: He could not name the others.


Input: "Can you name the general who is in charge of Pakistan?"

Pakistan


Input: Hiller asked, inquiring about Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, who seized control of the country October 12.

Hiller

Pervaiz Musharraf


Input: "Wait, wait, is this 50 questions?" asked Bush.

Bush


Input: Hiller replied: "No, it 's four questions of four leaders in four hot spots." . . .

Hiller


Input: Bush, in answering the question about the leader of Pakistan, also said: "The new Pakistani general, he 's just been elected -- not elected, this guy took over office.

Bush

Pakistan


Input: It appears this guy is going to bring stability to the country and I think that 's good news for the subcontinent."


Input: Gore released a statement Friday taking Bush to task for his comments on Pakistan 's recent coup.

Gore

Bush

Pakistan


Input: "I find it troubling that a candidate for president in our country -- the world 's oldest democracy -- would characterize the military takeover as "good news," Gore said.

Gore


Input: "Further, I find it even more disturbing that he made these comments about a nation that just last year tested nuclear weapons -- shortly after voicing his public opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.


Input: A spokesman for President Clinton also criticized Bush 's comments.

Clinton

Bush


Input: "It is very dangerous for this country to condone the overthrow of democratically elected governments," said David Leavy, spokesman for the National Security Council.

David Leavy

National Security Council


Input: Not only did Bush not know who General Pervez Musharraf was, he seems to have confused coup-making with "taking office," and moreover went on to suggest that the overthrow of an elected prime minister and the installation in power of the Pakistan military, then the world 's strongest supporter of the Taliban, would bring "stability!"

Bush

Pervez Musharraf

Pakistan

Taliban


Input: Musharraf made his coup in part because of the military 's anger over Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif 's willingness to back down from confronting India over Kashmir, so that he explicitly came to power as a warmonger.

Musharraf

Nawaz Sharif

India


Input: I ca n't tell you how ominous I found Bush 's performance in that interview.

Bush


Input: I still remember him stuttering about "the General," unable to remember Musharraf 's name.

Musharraf


Input: He obviously had no idea what he was talking about, though he demonstrated a number of ill-fated instincts.


Input: He obviously liked authoritarian rule better than democracy, equating dictatorship with "stability."


Input: And, he did n't think he needed to know anything about South Asia, with its nuclear giants and radical religious politics--the latter a dire security threat to the US.

South Asia

US


Input: He could n't tell when things were becoming more unstable as opposed to less.


Input: Musharraf went on to play nuclear brinkmanship with India in 2002, risking war twice that year.

Musharraf

India


Input: Although Musharraf did turn against the Taliban after September 11, under extreme duress from the US, elements of his military continued to support radical Islamism and have recently been implicated in assassination attempts on Musharraf himself.

Musharraf

Musharraf

Taliban

US


Input: This was the body that Bush proclaimed was bringing "stability" to the region in fall of 1999.

Bush


Input: So, one answer to Bush 's charge about Edwards is that if it had any merit, Bush should have declined to run himself.

Bush

Edwards

Bush


Input: Another answer is that Edwards certainly knows far more about foreign affairs now than Bush did then.

Edwards

Bush


Input: Indeed, given how Bush has rampaged around the world alienating allies and ignoring vital conflicts with the potential to blow back on the US, one might well argue that Edwards knows more now than Bush does.

Bush

Edwards

Bush

US


Input: This is what Edwards ' campaign literature said about his positions: "Edwards believes that the U.S. must be an active leader to help resolve conflicts, from reducing tensions between India and Pakistan to the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Edwards

Edwards

U.S.

India

Pakistan


Input: Edwards is a strong supporter of Israel, and believes that the U.S. has a vital role in promoting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians."

Edwards

Israel

U.S.


Input: I do n't see Bush doing any of this.

Bush


Input: The debate that a handful of Texas multi-millionnaires close to the Bush family have cleverly manufactured over John Kerry 's war record is absurd in every way.

Texas

Bush

John Kerry


Input: The charges that they have put some vets up to making against Kerry are false and can be demonstrated by the historical record to be false .

Kerry


Input: Most of those making the charges have even flip-flopped, contradicting themselves.


Input: Or they were n't eyewitnesses and are just lying.


Input: But to address the substance of this Big Lie is to risk falling into its logic.


Input: The true absurdity of the entire situation is easily appreciated when we consider that George W. Bush never showed any bravery at all at any point in his life.

George W. Bush


Input: He has never lived in a war zone.


Input: If some of John Kerry 's wounds were superficial, Bush received no wounds.

John Kerry

Bush


Input: (And, a piece of shrapnel in the forearm that caused only a minor wound would have killed had it hit an eye and gone into the brain; the shrapnel being in your body demonstrates you were in mortal danger and did n't absent yourself from it.


Input: That is the logic of the medal).


Input: Kerry saved a man 's life while under fire.

Kerry


Input: Bush did no such thing.

Bush


Input: What was Bush doing with his youth?

Bush


Input: He was drinking.


Input: He was drinking like a fish, every night, into the wee hours.


Input: For decades.


Input: He gave no service to anyone, risked nothing, and did not even slack off efficiently.


Input: The history of alcoholism and possibly other drug use is a key issue because it not only speaks to Bush 's character as an addictive personality, but may tell us something about his erratic and alarming actions as president.

Bush


Input: His explosive temper probably provoked the disastrous siege of Fallujah last spring, killing 600 Iraqis, most of them women and children, in revenge for the deaths of 4 civilian mercenaries, one of them a South African.

Fallujah


Input: (Newsweek reported that Bush commanded his cabinet, "Let heads roll!")

Newsweek

Bush


Input: That temper is only one problem.


Input: Bush has a sadistic streak.

Bush


Input: He clearly enjoyed, as governor, watching executions.


Input: His delight in killing people became a campaign issue in 2000 when he seemed, in one debate, to enjoy the prospect of executing wrong-doers a little too much.


Input: He has clearly gone on enjoying killing people on a large scale in Iraq.

Iraq


Input: Drug abuse can affect the ability of the person to feel deep emotions like empathy.


Input: Two decades of pickling his nervous system in various highly toxic substances have left Bush damaged goods.

Bush


Input: Even for those who later abstain, "visual-spatial abilities, abstraction, problem solving , and short-term memory, are the slowest to recover."


Input: That he managed to get on the wagon (though with that pretzel incident, you wonder how firmly) is laudable.


Input: But he suffers the severe effects of the aftermath, and we are all suffering along with him now, since he is the most powerful man in the world.


Input: We all know by now that Bush did not even do his full service with the Texas Air National Guard, absenting himself to work on the Alabama senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount.

Bush

Winton "Red" Blount

Texas Air National Guard

Alabama


Input: Whether he was actually AWOL during this stint is unclear.


Input: But it is clear that not only did Bush slack off on his National Guard service, but he slacked off from his campaign work.

Bush

National Guard


Input: This little-noted interview with Blount 's nephew Murph Archibald, which appeared on National Public Radio 's "All Things Considered on March 30, 2004, gives a devastating insight into what it was like to have to suffer through Bush in that period.

Blount

Murph Archibald

Bush

National Public Radio


Input: "All Things Considered (8:00 PM ET) - NPR March 30, 2004 Tuesday

NPR


Input: This campaign season, there have been questions about whether George W. Bush fulfilled his obligations to the National Guard as a young lieutenant in the early 1970s.

George W. Bush

National Guard


Input: For weeks, reporters scoured Alabama in search of pilots or anyone who might have remembered seeing Mr. Bush at the time he was serving in the National Guard there.

Alabama

Bush

National Guard


Input: There is one place in Alabama where Mr. Bush was present nearly every day: the headquarters in Montgomery of US Senate candidate Winton "Red" Blount.

Alabama

Montgomery

Bush

Winton "Red" Blount

US Senate


Input: President Bush has always said that working for Blount was the reason he transferred to the Alabama Air National Guard.

Bush

Blount

Alabama Air National Guard


Input: NPR 's Wade Goodwyn has this report about Mr. Bush 's time on that campaign.

NPR

Wade Goodwyn

Bush


Input: WADE GOODWYN reporting:

WADE GOODWYN


Input: In 1972, Baba Groom was a smart, funny young woman smack-dab in the middle of an exciting US Senate campaign.

Baba Groom

US Senate


Input: Groom was Republican Red Blount 's scheduler, and in that job, she was the hub in the campaign wheel.

Groom

Red Blount


Input: Ask her about the handsome young man from Texas, and she remembers him 32 years later like it was yesterday.

Texas


Input: Ms. BABA GROOM (Former Campaign Worker):

BABA GROOM


Input: He would wear khaki trousers and some old jacket.


Input: He was always ready to go out on the road.


Input: On the phone, you could hear his accent.


Input: It was a Texas accent.

Texas


Input: But he just melded with everybody.


Input: GOODWYN: The candidate Mr. Bush was working for, Red Blount, had gotten rich in Alabama in the construction business.

GOODWYN

Bush

Red Blount

Alabama


Input: Prominent Southern Republicans were something of a rare breed in those days.


Input: Blount 's support of the party led him to be appointed Richard Nixon 's postmaster general.

Blount

Richard Nixon


Input: In Washington, Blount became friends and tennis partners with Mr. Bush 's father, then Congressman Bush.

Washington

Blount

Bush

Bush


Input: That was how 26-year-old Lieutenant Bush came to Montgomery, at his father 's urging . . .

Bush

Montgomery


Input: It was Mr. Bush 's job to organize the Republican county chairpersons in the 67 Alabama counties.

Bush

Alabama


Input: Back in 1972 in the Deep South, many rural counties did n't have much in the way of official Republican Party apparatus.

Republican Party


Input: But throughout Alabama, there were Republicans and Democrats who wanted to help Red Blount.

Alabama

Red Blount


Input: It was the young Texan 's job to find out what each county leader needed in the way of campaign supplies and get those supplies to them.


Input: Groom says this job helped Mr. Bush understand how even in a statewide Senate campaign, politics are local.

Groom

Bush


Input: . . . Murph Archibald is Red Blount 's nephew by marriage, and in 1972, he was coming off a 15-month tour in Vietnam in the infantry.

Murph Archibald

Red Blount

Vietnam


Input: Archibald says that in a campaign full of dedicated workers, Mr. Bush was not one of them.

Archibald

Bush


Input: Mr. MURPH ARCHIBALD (Nephew of Red Blount): Well, I was coming in early in the morning and leaving in mid-evenings.

MURPH ARCHIBALD

Red Blount


Input: Ordinarily, George would come in around noon; he would ordinarily leave around 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening.

George


Input: GOODWYN: Archibald says that two months before the election, in September of '72, Red Blount 's campaign manager came to him and asked that he quietly take over Mr. Bush 's job because the campaign materials were not getting out to the counties.

GOODWYN

Archibald

Red Blount

Bush


Input: Mr. ARCHIBALD: George certainly did n't seem to have any concerns about my taking over this work with the campaign workers there.

ARCHIBALD

George


Input: My overall impression was that he did n't seem as interested in the campaign as the other people who were working at the state headquarters.


Input: GOODWYN: Murph Archibald says that at first, he did n't know that Mr. Bush was serving in the Air National Guard.

GOODWYN

Murph Archibald

Bush

National Guard


Input: After he found out from somebody else, Archibald attempted to talk to Mr. Bush about it.

Archibald

Bush


Input: The president was a lieutenant and Archibald had been a lieutenant, too; he figured they had something to talk about.

Archibald


Input: Mr. ARCHIBALD: George did n't have any interest at all in talking about the military.

ARCHIBALD

George


Input: In fact, when I broached the subject with him, he simply changed the subject.


Input: He was n't unpleasant about it, but he just changed the subject and would n't talk about it.


Input: GOODWYN: Far from Texas and Washington, DC, Mr. Bush enjoyed his freedom.

GOODWYN

Bush

Texas

Washington

DC


Input: He dated a beautiful young woman working on the campaign.


Input: He went out in the evenings and had a good time.


Input: In fact, he left the house he rented in such disrepair--with damage to the walls and a chandelier destroyed--that the Montgomery family who owned it still grumble about the unpaid repair bill.

Montgomery


Input: Archibald says Mr. Bush would come into the office and, in a friendly way, offer up stories about the drinking he 'd done the night before, kind of as a conversation starter.

Archibald

Bush


Input: Mr. ARCHIBALD: People have different ways of starting the days in any office.

ARCHIBALD


Input: They 're going to talk about their kids, they 're going to talk about football, they 're going to talk about the weather.


Input: And this was simply his opening gambit; he would start talking about that he had been out late the night before drinking.


Input: GOODWYN: Archibald says the frequency with which Mr. Bush discussed the subject was off-putting to him.

GOODWYN

Archibald

Bush


Input: Mr. ARCHIBALD: I mean, at that time, I was 28; George would have been 25 or 26.

ARCHIBALD

George


Input: And I thought it was really unusual that someone in their mid-20s would initiate conversations, particularly in the context of something as serious as a US senatorial campaign, by talking about their drinking the night before.

US


Input: I thought it unusual and, frankly, inappropriate.


Input: GOODWYN: According to Archibald, Mr. Bush would also sometimes tell stories about his days at Yale in New Haven, and how whenever he got pulled over for erratic driving, he was let go after the officers discovered he was the grandson of a Connecticut US senator.

GOODWYN

Archibald

Bush

Yale

New Haven

Connecticut

US


Input: Archibald, a middle-class Alabama boy--who, by the way, is now a registered Democrat--did n't like that story.

Archibald

Alabama


Input: Mr. ARCHIBALD: He told us whenever he was stopped, as soon as the law enforcement found out that he was the grandson of Prescott Bush, they would let him go.

ARCHIBALD

Bush

us


Input: And he would always laugh about that. "


Input: Goodwyn dutifully notes that Baba Groom did n't remember George telling drunk stories.

Goodwyn

Baba Groom

George


Input: But that means nothing, since they were n't the sort of things guys like Bush told the "girls".

Bush


Input: He was trying to buddy with Archibald and impress him.

Archibald


Input: Again, decades of this sort of behavior do not leave a person untouched.


Input: Our world is in crisis and our Republic is in danger.


Input: It should not be left in the hands of a man who spent his life like this.


Input: Al-Zaman : American forces killed Shaikh Abdullah al-Ani, the preacher at the mosque in the town of Qaim, near the Syrian border.

Al-Zaman

Shaikh Abdullah al-Ani

Qaim


Input: [This killing of a respected cleric will be causing us trouble for years to come.]


Input: DPA: Iraqi authorities announced that they had busted up 3 terrorist cells operating in Baghdad.

DPA

Baghdad


Input: Two of them were being run by 2 officials of the Ministry of the Interior!


Input: The MoI in Iraq is equivalent to the US FBI, so this would be like having J. Edgar Hoover unwittingly employ at a high level members of the Weathermen bombers back in the 1960s.

The MoI

FBI

Iraq

US

J. Edgar Hoover


Input: The third was being run by the head of an investment firm.


Input: You wonder if he was manipulating the market with his bombing targets.


Input: The cells were operating in the Ghazaliyah and al-Jihad districts of the capital.

Ghazaliyah

al-Jihad


Input: Although the announcement was probably made to show progress in identifying and breaking up terror cells, I do n't find the news that the Baathists continue to penetrate the Iraqi government very hopeful.


Input: It reminds me too much of the ARVN officers who were secretly working for the other side in Vietnam.

ARVN

Vietnam


Input: Al-Zaman : Guerrillas killed a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party after kidnapping him in Mosul.

Al-Zaman

Kurdistan Democratic Party

Mosul


Input: The police commander of Ninevah Province announced that bombings had declined 80 percent in Mosul, whereas there had been a big jump in the number of kidnappings.

Ninevah Province

Mosul


Input: On Wednesday guerrillas had kidnapped a cosmetic surgeon and his wife while they were on their way home.


Input: In Suwayrah, Kut Province, two car bombs were discovered before they could be detonated.

Suwayrah

Kut Province


Input: (Kut is in southeastern Iraq and has an overwhelmingly Shiite population, who are on the lookout for Baathist saboteurs and willingly turn them in.

Kut

Iraq


Input: This willingness is the main difference in the number of bombings in the south as opposed to the center-north of the country.)


Input: In Baghdad Kadhim Talal Husain, assistant dean at the School of Education at Mustansiriyah University, was assassinated with his driver in the Salikh district.

Baghdad

Salikh district

Kadhim Talal Husain

School of Education

Mustansiriyah University


Input: Guerrillas killed an engineer, Asi Ali, from Tikrit.

Asi Ali

Tikrit


Input: They also killed Shaikh Hamid 'Akkab, a clan elder of a branch of the Dulaim tribe in Tikrit.

Shaikh Hamid 'Akkab

Tikrit


Input: His mother was also killed in the attack.


Input: Two other Dulaim leaders have been killed in the past week and a half.


Input: Guerrillas near Hawijah launched an attack that left 6 dead, including 4 Iraqi soldiers.

Hawijah


Input: One of them was from the Jubur tribe and was deputy commander of the Hawijah garrison.

Hawijah


Input: Two hundred members of the Batawi clan of the Dulaim demonstrated in Baghdad on Friday, protesting the killing of their clan elder, Shaikh Kadhim Sarhid and 4 of his sons, by gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms.

Baghdad

Shaikh Kadhim Sarhid


Input: (This is a largely Sunni Arab clan, and some Sunni observers have accused Shiite elements in the government of being behind the assassination; it is more likely the work of Sunni Arab guerrillas punishing the Batawi leaders for cooperating with the Dec. 15 elections.)


Input: Al-Zaman : The Iraqi High Electoral Commission on Friday denied a request of the Debaathification Commission to exclude 51 individuals from running on party lists in the Dec. 15 elections on grounds of having been sufficiently involved in Baath activities to warrant their being excluded from civil office.

Al-Zaman

Iraqi High Electoral Commission

Debaathification Commission


Input: The Commission said it had no legal grounds for such an exclusion.

Commission


Input: This item is a small one and easily missed.


Input: But in my view it is highly significant.


Input: The Debaathification Commission had been pushed by Ahmad Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress very hard, and had pushed many Sunni Arabs into the arms of the guerrillas.

Debaathification Commission

Iraqi National Congress

Ahmad Chalabi


Input: Chalabi has been increasingly marginalized within Iraq, however, despite his ties of clientelage with Washington and Tehran.

Chalabi

Iraq

Washington

Tehran


Input: He is no longer in the dominant Shiite list, the United Iraqi Alliance, and wo n't have many seats in the new parliament.


Input: Some 2,000 junior officers of the old Baath army have been recalled to duty in recent months, something Chalabi would have blocked if he could have.

Chalabi


Input: Now the Electoral Commission is refusing to punish people for mere past Baath Party membership.

Electoral Commission

Baath Party


Input: The situation in Iraq is only going to get better this way.

Iraq


Input: If someone committed a crime against humanity, prosecute the person.


Input: If he or she did not, then they should have all the same rights as other Iraqis.


Input: Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that a key eyewitness in the trial of Saddam Hussein for a 1982 massacre at Dujail has died.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat

Saddam Hussein

Dujail


Input: A team from the court managed to take his deposition before he died.


Input: The trial begins again Nov.28.


Input: Elena 's motorcycle tour through the region around Chernobyl has revived interest in one of the most serious nuclear disasters in history.

Elena

Chernobyl


Input: We all know what happened, but even to this day, there are many different versions and opinions on how it happened and what effect Chernobyl will have on the health of people affected by the fallout.

Chernobyl


Input: UPDATE:


Input: Now you can tour Chernobyl and write your own story.

Chernobyl


Input: This is not a post about fault-finding or assigning blame.


Input: It is a time to learn what happened and how it may affect the future.


Input: There was a soothing authoritative UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation ) report in 2000 on the health effects of Chernobyl confirming that there was no scientific evidence of any significant radiation-related health effects to most people exposed.

UNSCEAR

United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation

Chernobyl


Input: This was heavily promoted by the Australasian Radiation Protection Society in a press release titled THE MYTHS OF CHERNOBYL which contained the following:

Australasian Radiation Protection Society

CHERNOBYL


Input: One of the most widespread myths of recent times is that the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in 1986 caused many thousands of extra cancer deaths in neighbouring regions, and that public health has been severely affected by exposure to radiation.

Chernobyl


Input: Many people still believe that to be true, even though the Ministry of Russian Federation on Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Conseguences of Natural Disasters (EMERCOM of Russia) reported this in 1996:

Ministry of Russian Federation on Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Conseguences of Natural Disasters

EMERCOM

Russia


Input: CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT: TEN YEARS ON

CHERNOBYL


Input: In the last decade, there has been a real and significant increase in childhood and, to a certain extent, adult carcinoma of the thyroid in contaminated regions of the former Soviet Union (Wi940) which should be attributed to the Chernobyl accident until proven otherwise.

Soviet Union

Chernobyl


Input: The prestigious IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) published an early report on Chernobyl which was based on information from Russian sources and stated that there was no significant health effects.

IAEA

International Atomic Energy Agency

Chernobyl


Input: However, in April 2001, the IAEA published Fifteen Years after the Chernobyl Accident - Lessons learned. which contradict the earlier reports.

IAEA

Chernobyl


Input: Here are some excerpts:


Input: The dramatic increase in radiation-induced thyroid cancers in children and adolescents in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, which have been observed since 1991, continues to this day.

Belarus

Russia

Ukraine


Input: ...a drop in the birth rate, a deterioration in women 's reproductive health, an increase in complications during pregnancy and birth, and a deterioration in neonatal health....


Input: The dynamics of change in the state of health of children affected by the Chernobyl accident in all three countries - Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine - in the post-accident period is characterized by persistent negative tendencies: the morbidity rate is going up, the number of really healthy children is dropping, and disability is increasing .

Chernobyl

Belarus

Russia

Ukraine


Input: As a parent, I can well imagine how painful it must be for those families whose children are succumbing to radiation poisoning.


Input: There is a lot to learn about Chernobyl.

Chernobyl


Input: Being well-informed will give you certainty and that is desirable in a world of conflicting reports.


Input: There are a wealth of references on Chernobyl.

Chernobyl


Input: Read some of the following links and draw your own conclusions.


Input: These links present the many viewpoints that existed and still exist about the disaster called Chernobyl:

Chernobyl


Input: IAEA Report Lessons learned

IAEA


Input: I would be interested in hearing what conclusions you reached and what you found that was most convincing.


Input: radiation:


Input: As a child in the 50's I had a lot of glandular problems and they treated it with radiation therapy (primitive at best!) and stopped when a lesion on my neck started enlarging--they said it was not CA but stopped the treatments....


Input: Remember the old shoe sizing machines that was a form of radiation xray?


Input: That too was stopped.


Input: Do n't have to mention what radiation has done and is still doing to Hirsohima & Nagaski folks--there can be no doubts about the effects of radiation in Chernobyl.......

Hirsohima

Nagaski

Chernobyl


Input: The Chernobyl Children 's Project (http://www.adiccp.org/home/default.asp) offers several ways to help the children of that region.

Chernobyl


Input: One of them is the Rest and Recuperation Program, wherein a child can come to the US for a few weeks in the summer.

US


Input: Even a little time spent receiving wholesome, uncontaminated food, good medical care, etc. can add years to their lives.


Input: S. and I have an acquaintance who has hosted several of these children for many years; to see these little ones breaks the heart.

S.


Input: The urge to protect and gather them all in is almost overwhelming, and makes me more grateful for the blessings I have.


Input: Take care, my friend, Linda


Input: I 'm sorry to say Elena 's story has been revealed to be a fake.

Elena