mypetjawa v. 2.0 (beta)

Blogroll

So many people have added me to their blogroll as of late, that I haven't been able to keep up. If you've added me to your blogroll, and you don't see your site listed in mine, please drop me an e-mail at mypetjawa-at-yahoo-dot-com.

Al Qaeda Downed Flight 587?

Bizarre if untrue. Holy fu**ing sh*t if true!!! Story below.

Group Claims Russian Airliner Responsibility

It looks like the original source for this story was posted at an Islamic bulletin board. We'll see if it pans out. This group or another, though, Islamists are behind it. Newsday:

A claim of responsibility for the downing of two Russian planes appeared on a Web site known for militant Muslim comment Friday.....

"We in the Islambouli Brigades announce that our holy warriors managed to hijack two Russian planes and were crowned with success though they faced problems at the beginning," the statement said without elaborating on the problems.

Friday's statement said five mujahedeen (Islamic fighters) were on board each plane and their wills will be published soon.

Al Sadr's Justice, 10 25 Bodies Found

Hooray! We let this guy go. Nice freaking work. Update: A more recent report has the number at 25.

Xposed:

Iraqi police discovered on Friday at least 10 bodies in a building housing a maverick religious court run by rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's followers here Friday.

Police said they were victims of the court's summary brand of justice, but al-Sadr's followers said they had died in the three weeks of fighting in Najaf between al-Sadr's militiamen and U.S.-Iraqi forces.

An Associated Press reporter saw about 10 charred and bloated bodies covered in blankets, including one of an elderly woman. It was not immediately clear how they died, but they appeared to have been killed by shrapnel, with large gaping wounds.

The stench of the corpses led police, who were deployed Friday in Najaf's Old City, to the bodies, said Brig. Gen. Amer al-Daami, Najaf's deputy police chief.

We found bodies, burnt and rotten," he said.

Al-Daami said some of the bodies were those of police officers, and others belonged to civilians. Before the fighting began Aug. 5, authorities accused the militants of taking police hostage in the city and of killing and mutilating some of them.

Al-Sadr's office in Najaf had set up the court, which ordered arrests and meted out punishments outside of religious and legal authorities. Local Iraqi officials have in the past demanded it be shut down and all its prisoners freed.

Police said the bodies belonged to the victims of the court. But a court official, who identified himself only as Hashim, said the corpses belonged to militants killed in the recent fighting in the city.

The two-story courthouse is made up of 15 rooms filled with desks, computers and books. The bodies were located in an open air area within the courthouse compound.

Half the skull of one of the dead men was missing and another man appeared to have suffered massive wounds to his stomach. None of the bodies was dismembered, save one, which had been beheaded, though it was unclear how.

During the fighting, the militants had set up their own informal health clinics and morgues. The U.S. military has said it killed hundreds of militants in the fighting, though the militants say their casualty figure was far lower.

The courts have arrested and interrogated hundreds of people on charges including selling alcohol and peddling music deemed immoral. Punishments included flagellation.

Al-Sadr's followers have been accused of using the court to settle scores with opponents or to threaten people.

Vote Norm Coleman!!

Click for bigger pics.

Mrs. Norm Coleman (R-MN)

In Class and No Class

I'm in class. Deal with it. In the meantime here's some linkage that should keep you occupied. Call it homework....

News Junkies: Russia, News fit for Jews, Bush will win, The skinny on the Skinnies
Science: 2001 A Space Odyssey revisited
Bloggage: Military Crackdown on Bloggers, Blog Buddies (not gay), (good) Advice to new bloggers, and old
Theology: Sabbath Declared, Could it be...Satan?, J-O-Os
Poetry: JFK Sonnets
Food: Man does not live by...
Social Studies: The Sociology of Retards
Just funny: One man race, Gay pride

Murdered Hostages Count: 17

One more for the count. May God bless you and bring swift justice to those that murdered you.

Italian Hostage Enzo Baldoni Murdered

Bastards. Fu**ing bastards. Can't they let one freaking day go by without murdering another hostage??? To make it worse, Enzo Baldoni was there with the Red Cross trying to help Iraq heal. I let my class out early for what? This story via M.H. King:

The hostage takers who grabbed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni on the road between Baghdad and Najaf in Iraq have killed him, the Italian government confirmed Thursday.

"We can confirm it was him, unfortunately," a spokesman for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said.

Arabic language television channel Al Jazeera said Baldoni's kidnappers killed him because Italy refused to heed their earlier deadline to withdraw troops from Iraq.

"The group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq said they executed the Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni because Italy did not respond to their demand to withdraw troops from Iraq within 48 hours," the Arabic language channel Al Jazeera said.

Al Jazeera showed a video of Baldoni, 56, speaking to the camera in front of the group's banner, but no audio could be heard. The television said it would not air footage showing Baldoni's dead body out of respect for his family.

Berlusconi responded quickly with a statement reiterating his determination to keep Italian forces in the U.S.-led coalition and condemning Baldoni's killing.

"There are no words for an act lacking any humanity and which at a stroke cancels out centuries of civilization and takes us back to the dark ages of barbarity," he said.

Italian newspapers said Baldoni and his driver-interpreter were caught in an ambush between Baghdad and Najaf, scene of a Shi'ite rebellion. His driver was found dead Saturday.

Tuesday, the Islamic Army in Iraq gave Italy 48 hours to withdraw its 2,700 troops from Iraq or Baldoni would be killed.

Italy, which has the third-largest foreign military contingent in the country, refused to bow to the kidnappers' demands.

As well as a reporter for the Milan-based weekly "Diario," Baldoni was volunteering for the Red Cross while in Iraq, his daughter, Gabriella Baldoni, told Italian television on Wednesday.

"He was trying to save human lives in Najaf by helping a Red Cross convoy in a spirit of solidarity which has always underscored his thinking and his actions," she told RAI television.
Four other Italians have been taken hostage in Iraq since militants began employing the technique in April to pressure U.S. allies and businesses to leave the country.

One of them, civilian security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi, was shot dead. The three others were released unharmed.

The Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility for the death of an Iranian diplomat in Iraq earlier this month and showed the man in a videotape. It also was reported to have killed two Pakistani hostages in July.

Others Blogging: M.H. King, Jane, Diggers Realm, Jeff Quinton

Gandhi proposes new Palestinian resistance

Advice taken, now pass the ammunition.

POWs: John Kerry's Anti-War Rhetoric Used to Justify Torture

A new documentary is coming out. Needless to say, buy your tickets early. Some of the clips show what are clearly political judgments by Vietnam Veterans--that the anti-war movement had prolonged the war needlessly, that John Kerry was only in Vietnam four months and thereby could not claim war hero status, or that John Kerry's voting record is anti-military. However, the most striking clip was from a POW who claimed his interrogator used John Kerry's testimony as justification for not giving the prisoners the rights accorded to POWs under the Geneva Conventions.

UPDATE: Via Glenn Reynolds I learn that Kerry's 1971 Testimony Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be on C-Span. If it is already 8:05 PM EST when you read this, you can click here to view the video over the internet. His own words will condemn him.

Here is a transcript of a clip found at the Stolen Honor website.

James Warner, POW

After we had talked for quite sometime the interrogator showed me a transcript of testimony that my mother had given at something called the winter soldier hearings...which I had no idea what these were. I read her testimony, and it wasn't damning, but then I saw some of the other stuff that had gone on at this winter soldier hearing and I wondered how did somebody get my mother persuaded to come, uh, appear at something like this.

And then shortly thereafter he [his interrogator showed] showed my some statements from John Kerry. He said that John Kerry had helped to organize the winter soldier hearings because he was so motivated because he had been an American officer served in the US Navy...and...then he started reading some of the statements that John Kerry made.

I'm sorry I can't quote them, but essentially he accused all of us in Vietnam of being criminals. That everything we had done was criminal. Therefore, of course, the North Vietnamese had told us from the time they got their hands on us that we were criminals, we're not covered by the Geneva Conventions, so it was ok for them to do whatever they wanted to us.

And they told us that they were going to put us on trial, and some of us would be executed....

The interrogator went through all of these statements from John Kerry. And he starts pounding on the table, "Well see here is this Naval officer, he [John Kerry] admits that you are a criminal and that you deserve punishment."

Well, look they told us this was a camp for punishment. We're in solitary confinement. The last time I had been tortured was, started on the 5th of May and lasted until the 2nd of September, in '69. And after it ended they kept me in this box until November the 10th. I was in the box from June the 1st to November the 10th.

When a guy starts pounding a table and you can spot this in them when they start...the voice starts to rise, their face gets red, that's usually a sign that something bad is about to happen. So it made me very uneasy as this interrogator is pounding on the table, looking at me, saying, "These words [John Kerry's] prove that you deserve punishment." I didn't know what was gonna come next and I was, for the rest of the time we were in that camp, I was very ill at ease.....

Here's a Naval Officer who comes home and leaves active duty and reports seeing events that he clearly did not see. And reports participating in actions that he clearly did not participate in. And he says them in criticism, not just of the government of the United States, but of the men he left behind when he came home. And of us who were being held prisoner in North Vietnam, he was criticizing us. He was saying we had done these things, and he was saying things that he knew to be false. And knew would harm us, that means he abandoned his comrades. He burned up his broth-...his band of brother’s membership card when he did that.

Yes, I'm al Qaeda. So what?

Yemeni Poet Says He Is al-Qaida Member. I am told the confession was written in iambic pentameter.

Update: a poem by Dr. Chaos, with revisions by Keith:

There once was a man from Yemen
Whose breath always smelled of semen
a sign on the door
said, "Come back after 4:00...
I’m out giving head to bin Laden."

Although our man love
Is condemned by the Koran
Osama mounts me.

The al Qaeda poet was sodden
He rhymed to inspire the downtrodden
But a sign on his door
Said come come here no more
It’s my duty to die for bin Laden

Idiocy on Display in Media

Headline: Attack Ads May Be Hurting Kerry, LA Times Poll Shows

Problem: Has anyone actually seen one of these ads on TV? The people in this poll who claimed to have seen the ad are either lying or are recalling news clips of the ad---usually with the most damning parts being left out. Unless of course the sample was skewed towards the internet savvy--the only place I've ever seen the ad. Unlike Ace, I just don't think these ads have been viewed widely enough to have impacted the polls. People know of the ad, but have not seen it.

Freaking brilliant analysis.

Adam Sandler, Republican?

Oxymoron: Popular Jewish Actor in Hollywood is Republican.
(via Llama Butchers)

Bloggers in WSJ

The Wall Street Journal Online has a profile of all the accredited bloggers at the RNC. Included in the list are blogging comrades Bill from INDC, Scott from Slant Point, and Kevin of Wizbang. Bill gets the money quote:

What's the biggest gap in convention coverage by mainstream media in prior election years?

The "wakefulness gap."

PS-I'm in class all day. Blogging will be light.

Double-lizzle PS-If you saw my pic you would think less sardonic college professor and more lame ass DNC photo op of Timmy and Lords of the Underworld.

Take me back 'Blogger'...

....I'll change. I swear. All that time I spent with those mu.nu whores, I was thinking about you. I love you baby. Take me back!!

(speaking of whores: whorishly linked to the Traffic Jam)

Kerry Needs Mojo the Helper Monkey

Please Dana, tell us what you really think of John Kerry's performance on The Daily Show:

Kerry's charisma was less than zero: It was negative. He was a charm vacuum, forced to actually borrow mojo from audience members. He was a dessicated husk, a tin man who really didn't have a heart. His lack of vibrancy, his utter dearth of sex appeal made Al Gore look like Charo.

Best of the Worst or Worst of the Best?

This weeks Bonfire of the Vanities is up. I will be hosting next weeks, so start writing your worst post of the upcoming week now!

Might I suggest this post over at Beautiful Attrocities for next weeks Bonfire? Jeff is hereby elevated to Sith Master and required to read this post before he goes accusing me of being a Star Wars fanatic again--and instead think more along the lines of South Park! (the Natalie Portman thing, though, is correct)

I also nominate Gordon the Cranky Neocon for not kissing but and not trying to score with blog-sista Jane (she's married dude). Jane, of course, doesn't qualify for the Bonfire because her recently published op-ed in the Lebanon Daily Star is brilliant.

Alleged CIA Agent Beheaded

Reuters:

An Islamic militant group posted pictures on its Web site Wednesday of what it said was the beheading of a man it called a Central Intelligence Agency spy in Iraq.

Army of Ansar al-Sunna's site showed five sequential photographs of the apparent beheading and threatened the same fate for other people who it caught spying.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the pictures.

The group said in an accompanying statement that Jamal Tewefic Salman, who became an U.S. citizen in 1980, confessed to be masquerading as a journalist in Iraq to spy on Islamic fighters for the CIA.

"A group of mujahideen were able to kidnap a spy called Jamal Tewefic Salman, who got U.S. citizenship in 1980. He changed his name to Khaled Abdul Messih," it said.

"We have implemented God's judgment on him and the accompanying pictures show his beheading. We call on those living off the blood of the mujahideen to repent to God and stop what they are doing ... or else the mujahideen's and God's hands will reach their necks one by one," it added.

Ansar al-Sunna has claimed many attacks since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year, but no official link has been made between the group and the attacks it has claimed.

The group Sunday showed individual pictures of 12 Nepalis it said it was holding in Iraq.

Militants in the country have waged a campaign of kidnapping aimed at driving out individuals, companies and troops supporting U.S.-led forces and the new Iraqi interim administration.

Scores of hostages have been taken. Some have been released but at least nine have been killed.

(Hat tip: Chad Evans who first noticed a spike in Google searches)

UPDATE: I have the photos. Do not proceed. They are very graphic. They depict the victim, who's name is alleged to be 'Jamal Tewefic Salman' or 'Khaled Abdul Messih', being executed by a knife to the neck. His head is sawed off. Do not proceed further.

War Imminent Between Georgia and Russia

I've been warning my readers about this for weeks. Background in these posts: War Looms Between Russia and Georgia, Ossetia: Impending War, Georgia vs. Russia, Ossetia Ceasefire Broken, Ossetia Rebels on the Run

411 on Russian 9/11

****Exclusive Analysis****

After careful research (meaning me looking at a map and slapping forehead) Dr. Rusty Shackleford retracts his earlier statement that the bombing at a bus station two days ago in Moscow was probably unrelated to yestereday's downing of two Russian Airliners. My Pet Jawa has learned that the two are probably connected.

From the Moscow Times:

An explosion went off at a bus stop at 30 Kashirskoye Shosse on Tuesday, injuring four people, a Federal Security Service spokesman said.

So, we have two planes going down from the same airport. The day before, a bus bomb went off on a bus line that leads to that airport. Is it a coincidence? Not likely. Further, more recent reports reveal that the bus stop was located across the street from a police station and went off at a time when police shifts were changing, hence a motive for this particular location.

Further, this is not the first act of terrorism on Kashirskoye Shosse. On September 13, 1999 a bomb went off in a residential apartment building located on Kashirskoye killing 19 people.

Added together, we have a strong case that the bus bombing was related to airplane attrocities committed the next day. It is even possible that the same person/persons committed both acts given the close proximity of the airport.

Updates are being kept by Jeff Quinton, Michelle Cantalano, and Blogs of War

Two More to go and Bush wins

Two words: Florida, Ohio.

Boo-hooo-hoooo!!!! (Hat tip: Dr. Chaos)

Berlesconi to Terrorists: Vaffanculo! (India to supply own KY, sadistic Kenya lookng to make it a gang rape)

Eastday:

The Italian government said Tuesday it would maintain its 3,000 troops in Iraq despite an ultimatum from a radical Muslim group holding an Italian journalist and demanding that Rome withdraw its forces within 48 hours.

A statement from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office said the government is prepared to make every effort to secure the release of Enzo Baldoni, a 56-year-old journalist who disappeared last week, but insisted Italian troops would remain in Iraq to help maintain order and security.

The statement said Baldoni was in Iraq in "a private capacity as a journalist and was absolutely not connected to the Italian government."

It said Italy "would abide by its commitments toward the provisional Iraqi government which was legitimized by a United Nations resolution approved unanimously in June."

Italy did not participate in the war on Iraq but now has some 3, 000 troops serving there, mainly as part of a British-led multinational stabilization force in the southern part of the country.

Earlier, Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera broadcast a video of the journalist with a statement from a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, which gave Rome 48 hours to announce a troop pullout from Iraq.

Vaffanculo, jawas!

Oh, and what is the Hindi phrase for I'm the Bitch? And are the terrorists really aware of the AIDS problem in Africa and how the HIV is spread?

12 More Face Beheading

ABC News:

Twelve Nepalese workers were confirmed kidnapped on Monday, August 23, by the Nepalese Foreign Ministry. They were in Iraq working for a Jordan-based construction company. The workers were traveling in two cars on August 19, when they disappeared after crossing the border from Jordan. The following day, an Iraqi militant group posted a statement on its Web site claiming to have kidnapped the Nepalese workers. On Sunday, the site showed photos of 12 men it claimed were the hostages. The group has been linked to past unfounded claims of kidnappings.

Russian Airliner Down, Another Missing (Update: Hijack Signal Sent)

My regular readers know I follow Russian politics fairly closely. This just in from Jeff Quinton, news of two airplanes:

Air controllers on Tuesday lost contact with the second airplane with 44 passengers on board, Interfax news agency reported.

It quoted Emergencies ministry as saying contacts with Tu-154 flying from Moscow to the Black Sea resort of Sochi were lost at 3 p.m. EDT when it was expected to be 90 miles from the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.

Earlier Russian news agencies said that around the same time one more Russian passenger plane with more than 40 people on board went missing near the town of Tula south of Moscow.

One Russian airplane going down would not surprise me. Two, and I'm thinking terrorism. Remember, the Russians are fighting a hot war in Chechnya and a cold war against Georgia over South Ossetia. Updates in extended entry.

Update: A few thoughts

1) Chechnya. There is an election in Chechnya Sunday. While Spain continues to deny that the Madrid bombing affected elections, terrorist organizations assuredly read the elections that way. They bomb, Spain elects a government wishing to pull out of Iraq--no brainer. For liberals making their way to this blog for the first time and who have been led to believe that war in Chechnya is a simple war of liberation unrelated to the War on Terror, I would ask them to look at this pic of what Chechens 'freedom fighters' do to Russian soldiers they capture (Warning: Very Graphic!!!). There is a vast army of jihadis in the world stretching from the Phillipines to the Balkaans and connected by common ideology, tactics, and goals.

2) While I suspect Chechens are behind this, let's not forget that Russia is involved in another war in Georgia's South Ossetia. Ossetians are ethnically Russian and have been fighting a low intensity war of independence for the past decade. In the past two-weeks, the new Georgian Prime Minister vowed to take South Ossetia back and the shooting began again. The Georgian government has accused Russia of supporting the rebels (--probably true) and both governments have warned that there could be international consequences for the escalating violence. It is not likely that these planes were brought down by Georgians, but it remains a remote possibility. Background on the fighting in Ossetia can be found in this post.

3) A bomb went off at a bus stop in Moscow yesterday. Allah in public and Jeff Quinton in a private correspondence wondered if there was a connection since the Moscow Police have stated they think the bomb was the work of terrorists. While not ruling out the possibility, it should be noted that the bus stop where this bomb went off is on the outskirts of town--or at least, not in the central district in Moscow. It would be an odd location for a terrorist to set off a bomb. Moscow is not set up like New York of Los Angeles. There are no real 'suburbs' as we think of them and the farther you get from the center the farther you get from everything. Unless the Chechens are adopting Hamas style bus bombing tactics, it seems an odd location. My experience is that the Moscow Police are quick to shoot off their mouths and to blame anything out of the ordinary on Chechens or other 'undesirables'. Think Sherrif Roscoe P. Coletrain, only a heavy drinker, slightly corrupt, and a whole lot more of a biggot--that's your average cop in Russia.

Also blogging: Command Post, In the Bull Pen, Allah, Blogs of War, Jane, Athena, Chris Short, Michelle Malkin, Freedom of Thought, M.H. King, LGF, Wizbang, James Joyner, Juliette

Bush Twin Powers, Activate

I got this e-mail this morning from the Bush campaign.

Students, blah-blah-blah!

Stupid students....coming between me and my blogging!! If it weren't for this stupid job I could actually get some work done. I'll be over advising incoming freshman if you need to find me.

Persians vs. Trolls

Let's compare the level of class and clear thinking between a Persian reader and a troll.

Persian reader on Another Egyptian 'CIA Agent' Beheading Video:

I am a muslem from Iran. Sitting here cold and horrorstricken after seeing these horrified pictures of beheading a Egyptian man! I apologise to human race regardless of their religion, color or their nationality in the name of Millions of true and decent Muslems around the world.

What you haven't included are the pictures of American soldiers gloating over the body of an Iraqi detainee that they had beaten to death. Let's compare that to Berg's death: Both men are unarmed and handcuffed, one is beaten to death, the other had his head cut off with a knife. I think the only main point for arguing in this case is which is worse:
getting beaten to death or having your head cut off with a knife. I don't think either should be accepted.

Efforts Based Grading

Jeff Quinton alerted me to this alarming not surprising news:

Benedict College has fired two professors who refused to go along with a policy that says freshmen are awarded 60 percent of their grades based on effort and the rest on their work's academic quality.

Benedict President David Swinton says the Success Equals Effort policy gives struggling freshmen a chance to adapt to college academics. He expects students to improve - the formula drops to 50-50 in the sophomore year and isn't used in the junior or senior year. But he says he's "interested in where they are at when they graduate, not where they are when they get here."

Students "have to get an A in effort to guarantee that if they fail the subject matter, they can get the minimum passing grade," Swinton said. "I don't think that's a bad thing."

Kill Baby Kitties

Come on you wimps. You know you want to kill cats. And not just the annoying ones in the alley that keep you up all night. The newborn kittiess too. One week old, eyes not open, suckling their mommy kitty's teet--you want to grab them and throw them down on the ground, then step on them and watch their brains ooze out. Cowards. Admit it, you love to kill kittens!

And while you're looking down at their brains on your jackboots, ask yourself this question--Can a kitty killer really love America?

Sith Mind Trick

Using an old Sith mind trick, I was able to convince the powers that be to put me on the Academic Appeals Committee. Students with weak minds and lame excuses beware! Blogging will be light.

Zarqawi Website Back Up (Updated)!!

UPDATE: It appears that the hosting company has taken down the site for good! Less than half an hour after this post went up, the URLs for at least half a dozen terrorist sites hosted by Hosting Anime were shut down. As of this writing, the internet addresses are not valid. Apparantly, the notoriety caused by my previous post forced the host to yank the sites. Thanks to Michelle Malkin and the dozen others (see their referring TrackBacks in my previous post) for getting the word out. Way to go!!

UPDATE II: Nope, up again. Wishful thinking on my part? Well it was completely down for awhile. Did I mention the name of the company that hosts at least a dozen terrorist websites is called Hosting Anime and is an American company? I might have failed to mention that abuse of their servers can be reported to them here. Terrorism is abuse, right?
_______________________________________

An internet website with ties to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is back up. The site was hacked over the weekend, as first reported here. The site is used by Zarqawi for propaganda purposes, most notably to release images and video of beheading victims.

Yesterday, the site featured images of an American flag and a crossed-out picture of Ossama bin Laden. A captured image of the webpage can be found in my earlier post. The hacked page featured a warning from the internet hacking group, calling themselves "TeaMz UsA", which read "HoSt Em?....Watch out...wE B ...Cominz 4 U", an apparent message to the company providing hosting to the terrorist web site. The company, Hosting Anime, is reported to rent space on servers owned by Everyone's Internet (EV1), a Houston based company.

Today, surfers reaching Zarqawi's site find downloads of religious fatwas issued against the United States and images of Kim Sun-il and Georgi Lazov, both beheaded by the group. The video of several executions is also available on the site today along with an explanation in English of why Kim Sun-il's execution was justified:

Kim's parents had urged the Seoul government to do
everything to save their son, who had a degree in theology as well as Arabic and had hoped to be Christian missionary in the Arab world.

Yonhap said the president was a devout Christian and the name of the company, which donated 10 percent of its profit for missionary work, was a biblical reference.

Micah Garen Released

One down, thank goodness...but there are at least three other Westerners and dozens of others still in Iraq with the threat of beheading looming over them. They are: Christian Chesnot, Georges Malbrunot, and Enzo Baldoni. (Hat tip: Wizbang)

Al Zarqawi's Website Hacked!!

*******My Pet Jawa Exclusive*************

UPDATE 8/23: The site is back up. See this post for details.

Making the rounds today I was checking out Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's (you may know him from such beheadings as Paul Johnson and Kim Sun-Il) website. Guess what...it was hacked!!! GOOD RIDDANCE!!

The CIA/FBI are making a major mistake allowing these sites to be kept up. The reason? This is war. In a war you take away propaganda outlets from the enemy. Yes, they may help us track down al Qaeda elements, but that is just the point. Tracking down and arresting al Qaeda is a police function. Treating the War on Terror as a police matter is Clintonesque and is what got us 9/11. We need to shut all these sites down. They are valuable tools for the enemy.

Here is what Zarqawi's site looked like as of a few minutes after midnight. The hackers left a tag, but their site http://hostinganime.com/teamusa/ only displays the hacker tag 'TeaMz UsA'. Praise Allah for hackers!!! Click the image for larger pic.

I didn't link to the site intentionally, for fear that it might come back online at some point in the future. E-mail me if you want the URL. It's not a big secret, but we don't need to be giving an al Qaeda linked website any more traffic than necessary.

UPDATE: Thanks to Michell Malkin for linking this post. I am now getting the most vile e-mails by people who think they are mailing her. A) It shows what morons they are B) I feel very sorry for her. I knew there was a lot of hate out there, but some of this is just psycho. PS-The trolls are also out...don't feed them after midnight.

Olympic Blog Ban

When the left starts talking about corporate censorship, and I read this story, I start thinking they have a point. USA Today:

Athletes may be the center of attention at the Olympic Games, but don't expect to hear directly from them online — or see snapshots or video they've taken.
The International Olympic Committee is barring competitors, as well as coaches, support personnel and other officials, from writing firsthand accounts for news and other Web sites.

An exception is if an athlete has a personal Web site that they did not set up specifically for the Games.

The IOC's rationale for the restrictions is that athletes and their coaches should not serve as journalists — and that the interests of broadcast rightsholders and accredited media come first.

Participants in the games may respond to written questions from reporters or participate in online chat sessions — akin to a face-to-face or telephone interview — but they may not post journals or online diaries, blogs in Internet parlance, until the Games end Aug. 29.

FASCISTS Pigs

Bush to Attend Iraqi Soccer Game at Olympics?

That's Drudge's story and he's sticking to it:

PRESIDENT BUSH PLANS TRIP TO OLYMPICS, SOURCES TELL DRUDGE. MAY ATTEND IRAQI SOCCER GAME. 'TRIP BEING PLANNED IN SECRET'... SECURITY CONCERNS AND 'DISRUPTION' OF GAMES AT ISSUE... 'THE PRESIDENT WILL NOT GO, IF IT BECOMES TOO MUCH OF A DISTRACTION,' TOP SOURCE REVEALED LATE SATURDAY AFTERNOON... TOP BUSH SOURCE CAUTIONS PLANNING FOR TRIP IS BEING RESEARCHED AND IS IN PRELIMINARY STAGE. TRIP WOULD BE FOR FINALS AUG 28 [SATURDAY]... DEVELOPING...

PS-The all caps thing IS annoying.

Zanzabar bans gay sex....AS blames fascist Bush regime

Ok, well, AS is still silent, but silence is consent under the law (or so I am told). I guess his Club Med vacation was not in Zanzabar. Either that, or it was in Zanzabar and AS is in a whole lotta trouble and may not be returning any time soon---say, 25 years. This Guardian story via Robert Spencer:

A law banning gay sex has come into effect in Zanzibar, with homosexual men threatened with 25-year jail terms and lesbians facing seven-year sentences.

"This is what we have been aspiring for. If the government takes such steps, the country will really move ahead," said Sheikh Muhammed Said, a local Islamic leader.

Women's Lib, Islamic Style

Did I say Islamic? I meant Llama Style.

It's the connections, man

Blogs for Bush is turning out to be a better assett than I had foreseen. Where did the dark-side fail me?

I don't go in for this conspiracy stuff, but it is fun to see how connected individuals and groups tend to be. Remember the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon theory you learned in Sociology? Surely Kerry's own camp is no less 'connected' to MoveOn.org than Bush is to the Swifties.

John Kerry Announces Al Gore Strategery

John Kerry assumes the Al Gore Florida strategery. When you look like you're going to lose, hire a lawyer. Via Blogs for Bush this CNN story:

John Kerry has hired an Internet-savvy Democrat to run his presidential campaign's online communications, a move that raises new questions about the link between his campaign and the independent groups that run TV ads on his behalf.
Zach Exley, the director of special projects for the MoveOn PAC, is going to the Kerry campaign to become its director of online communications and organization.

Exley also worked during the Democratic presidential primary for Howard Dean, helping Dean set up his web-based organization.

Since Kerry became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in early March, the MoveOn PAC has spent more than $2.5 million on TV ads that attack President Bush.

But under the new campaign-finance law, those efforts cannot be coordinated with the Kerry campaign.

A MoveOn statement said Exley and the staff of all MoveOn entities have agreed that they will not be in contact through the election period to avoid the appearance of coordination, "even though federal election rules permit some forms of communication."

Via James Joyner news that Kerry is also calling on book retailers to recall Unfit for Command. The Al Gorization of the Kerry campaign thus being completed since there was no call for book retailers to witdthdraw Kerry's official bio Tour of Duty. This doesn't smack of Gore's strategery of demanding vote recounts only where beneficial to him---no, this is the same strategy.

Beck, over at INCITE, has this to say about the dueling ads of MoveOn and SBVT:"there's so much shit on TV these days that scientists are on the brink of a massive breakthrough of using radio waves to fertilize crops." Hip-boots for me, but I think John Kerry needs some mouthwash.

Beth Donovan really makes the most thorough case as to why JFK-lite is full of crap on this issue: "He does not respond to the accusations in the ads - he simply attacks the Veterans as liars." Would I sound too geeky if I quoted Gandalf here? "You seem to be very comfortable using the word liar."

Kate believes this is such a massive mistake as to accuse JFK-lite of being a Rove operative. DU theory noted, and duly approved!!

Jeff Soyer goes so far as to call Kerry a traitor for pissing on the 1st Amendment. I wouldn't go that far, and let's remember the it was Bush who signed McCain/Feingold and is also condemning independent organizations right to free speech.

Finally, In the Bullpen notes that a quick visit to the local bookstore shows that retailers are already burying Unfit for Command on the backshelves....not the usual place for bestsellers which are promulently displayed up front. Of course, I can't check out the theory...Arlen has no real bookstores, unlessing you count the "Grace and Blessings Books and Gifts" on third street, or the "Christian Science Reading Room" as a bookstore.

These and other links stolen borrowed from Jeff Quinton.

PS-"You are not seeing this post. This post is not happening."--says John Kerry's new spokesman.

PSS-QandO reminds me that Media Matters is behind the campaign to have the Swifties book pulled from shelves. Need I remind you, dear readers, that Olliver Willis works for Media Matters?

Congrats to Simon!!

Blog buddy and Imperial Undersecretary of Asian Affairs (Hong Kong Bureau), Simon, has had a new baby!! Congratulations!!

In Meetings...

I'd pull an INDC best of, but the premise is all wrong for this site. Can you believe I'm going to a 'retreat' but not actually leaving town? If they ask us to start doing trust exercises I'm bolting.

PS-In case I bolt the meeting, I'm going Bigfoot Hunting. I'm serious. I really have gone Bigfoot Hunting. (read, snipe hunt)

Al Sadr to recieve Nobel Peace Prize; Turkish Company Caves to Terrorist's Demands

Buried deep in a story about how Franco-American journalist Micah Garen was to be freed because of the relentless efforts of the peace-loving Muqtada al Sadr (future Nobel Laureate), I found a single paragraph about a Turkish company caving to demands that it leave Iraq or one of their employees would be beheaded.

The only good I can see coming out of this is that at least this poor guy won't die. And, at least it was a private corporation--not a government (I'm looking in your direction Spain and Phllippines). Record-Journal:

Also Thursday, a Turkish company announced it was withdrawing its employees from Iraq in an effort to save the life of a worker taken hostage by Iraqi militants. Turkish media said the kidnappers have threatened to kill the hostage if the company didn't leave within three days.

Turkish Hostage Threatened with Death

Another one. Murat Yuce was the name of the Turkish hostage executed last month. He was shot, rather than beheaded.

Al Jazeera:

A Turkish television channel aired footage of a Turkish hostage in Iraq who said that his captors had given two Turkish companies 72 hours to quit the country in exchange for his life.

The NTV news channel identified the man as Aytullah Gezmen, who went missing in Iraq last month together with another Turk, Murat Yuce.

The 'Retreat' Post

I'm going to a 'retreat' tomorrow. Worse than a regular retreat, this one doesn't even have the charm of going out of town. Instead, the powers that be rented out a bed and breakfast in town. Charming, they say. I say bah-humbug!! Posting will be light or non-existent. Stupid meetings.....

I'm bigger than Chomsky!!

Did you know Noam Chomsky has a blog? Ghost of a Flea is in an all out race to beat Chomsky in the TTLB Ecosystem, begging for linkage. I just checked my own TTLB rating, and I beat Chomsky by a full 192 blogs!!! Just two days ago I was another 20 blogs ahead (see what happens when you don't post for two days).

Since I'm sure Chomsky will begin to climb as soon as word gets out about his blog, here are my two goals:

a) never link Chomsky again. The TTLB Ecosystem is based on number of unique incoming links. NEVER link Chomsky. If you want to say something about his blog, don't link it. Why? This post explains it with a follow up post here.

b) get banned at Zmag, where Chomsky's blog has a home. You can wear that as a badge of honor. "I was banned at Zmag!" No, I take this one back. Zmag wants you to front $3 bucks for the honor of comenting. No wonder Chomsky has zero comments to his posts. You think any of his readers even has a job?

Those are my goals, and should be yours too!!!

UPDATE: Tuning Spork more thoroughly fisks Chomsky and doesn't drop a link!

Also, kudos to Mark and Comrade Rusty (wink) for also taking the pledge!

Pakistan's Most Wanted

Pakistan released it's list of most wanted terrorists today. Below is a picture. In the top center slot is Amjad Hussain 'Farooqi', wanted for the grizzly beheading execution of Daniel Pearl. Not shown is center square, Whoopi Goldberg.

PS-'Beheading is un-Islamic'

Last Call

Yawn. I've heard this one before. Will somebody wake me up when Sadr is dead please?

Got One

Is it better to be loved or feared? Remember, John Kerry thinks the former, G.W. Bush the latter. Pakistan helps us because they fear us. VOA:

Pakistani police say they have arrested a suspected Arab al-Qaida member following a shootout in the western city of Peshawar.

PS-(OT)Llamma Butchers (that ought to put you back onto the TTLB Ecosystem)

Ironical

The Australian:

A PUSH by South Korea's accident-prone President Roh Moo-hyun to identify aged former collaborators with the Japanese occupation forces has netted its first victim -- the leader of his own party. Uri Party chairman Shin Ki-nam was forced to resign yesterday after admitting his father collaborated with the Japanese as a military policeman.

Ossetia Rebels on the Run

Once again, this is not looking good. I have no bone to pick with Georgia, I just worry this could lead to a regional conflict. Background here. More below.

Why I am Basically Pro-Life

This. That is more than mere potential life--it is a human being.

I'm a neolibertarian

Kenneth Silber has an interesting piece over at TCS in which he proposes a new word to describe libertarian leaning conservatives--fusionists:

Fusionism is the idea, named and developed decades ago by Frank Meyer of National Review, that conservatism and libertarianism share a common agenda. Thus, the fusionist believes that conservatives and libertarians ought to be allies -- and indeed that their respective philosophies are largely or essentially combinable into a coherent body of thought.

Might I second the motion for neolibertarian? The term flows better than fusionist, which makes me think of the music of Kenny-G or Chuck Mangione more than any thing else.

Where to start?

You don't post for two days and the whole world falls apart. First, you get the Swifties being fisked all over the mainstream media while they let Kerry get away with murder (and I mean that literally, if you take Kerry at his word that he was a war criminal). This is what Noam Chomsky calls the 'selection bias' or something to that effect (yes, I'm too lazy to pop open my copy of Manufaturing Consent!)

On another front you have a (yet another--what is the plural form of truce?? tuces? truci?) truce with al Sadr being brokered and broken twice since my last post. Didn't any one at State ever read The Boy Who Cried Wolf?

So, I'm going to just ignore everything that has happened in the last 72 hours. Tuesday and Wednesday didn't happen. Ah, this is what it feels like to be a Democrat! It's not as bad as I expected.

Wictory Wednesday...er, Thursday

I wasn't in yesterday, but I better follow through on my commitment. The blogroll is in the extended entry.

I'm back

Went fishing yesterday. Sorry, a guy has to have his priorities.