Theodore's World

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Court issues fatwa on cartoonists

An Islamic court in India has issued a fatwa, or religious decree, condemning to death the 12 artists who drew the controversial images of the prophet Mohammed.
The decree was issued on behalf of the Idar-e-Sharia Darul Kaza Islamic court in northern Uttar Pradesh state by its religious head in the state capital, Lucknow.
“Death is the only penalty for the cartoonists who had drawn sacrilegious cartoons of the prophet,” Maulana Mufti Abul Irfan, the religious head of the court, said overnight.
The court’s ruling is binding on Muslims, but can be challenged under Indian law.
Mr Irfan said it was clearly written in the Muslim holy book, the Koran, that anyone who insulted the prophet deserved to be punished.
He said the fatwa was applicable wherever Muslims live.
Jaffaryab Zilany, a member of the authoritative national body of Muslim clerics, the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, said however that although the fatwa was legitimate under Islamic law, it had no legal binding in India.
The sentence comes days after a minister in the state government, Mohammed Yaqoob Qureshi, offered a reward of $US11.5 million ($15.6 million) for the beheading of any of the cartoonists.
The cartoons, drawn by 12 artists, were first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September and later reprinted in other mainly European dailies. They have sparked protests worldwide, some of them deadly.
On Saturday, a cleric in Pakistan offered a $US1-million ($1.35 million) reward and a car for the death of any of the cartoonists responsible for the drawings, one of which portrayed the prophet with a bomb in his turban.
Muslims consider any depiction of the prophet to be blasphemous.
Muslims make up about 130 million of mainly Hindu India’s billion-plus population. While there have been large demonstrations against the cartoons in India, they have been mainly peaceful.

Protesters threaten to join al-Qaeda
HUNDREDS of Afghans shouted support for Osama bin Laden and threatened to join al-Qaeda during a protest today against cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.
Today, students gathered in the campus of the university in Jalalabad chanting death to Denmark, America and France, a witness said.
They also chanted death to Mr Karzai and demanded President Hamid Karzai close the embassies of Denmark, the United States and France and expel their forces from Afghanistan.
“If they abuse the Prophet of Islam again we will all become al-Qaeda,” the students shouted.
Wild Thing’s comment…..
So much for members of the death cult and their frenzy.
Has anyone heard one single Muslim sound off about how horrible all this protesting is and the killings and threats? Me either!

* Ranting Right Wing Howler thanks for the graphic
* Six Meat Buffet has more on this.

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Wild Thing’s comment……
Up till now I have not posted about Cheney. The main reason is because I am sooooo angry at how the media and the left are reacting to this. Traitor Al Gore goes and IMO commits treason by what he said in Saudi Arabia and there is no one in the media that is upset, no two weeks spent in print on his trip and what he said and how awful he is.
But let a Republican fire off a shot accidentally and WHAM POW ZAP it is all over the place. All the press, all the talk shows, all the comedians on TV. Goodbye America where are you! The world is upside down!

SUSPECTED suicide bomber blew himself up prematurely near a main road routinely used by government officials and foreign troops in eastern Afghanistan, police said today.
The man was blown to bits and only his leg and hat were found at the scene after the blast in eastern Nangarhar province yesterday, provincial police spokesman Ghafor Khan said.
“Our investigations show that a suicide bomber wanted to get to the main road and, just before that, explosives strapped to his body went off due to some malfunction ahead of time and tore him into pieces,” Mr Khan said.
In a separate attack on the same day in the province, a civilian was killed and five were wounded in a bomb blast.
It was not clear who was behind the bombing.
Police, however, blamed both incidents on “enemies of Afghanistan who want to create tension to undermine security”.

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Wild Thing’s comment….
I hate it when that happens. NOT!

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* Soldier’s Angel – Holly Aho

Combat Engineers from Company A, 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, an a member of the explosive ordinance disposal, examiname an improvised explosive device pot hole. (U.S. Army Photo By: Spc. Barbara Ospina, 1st BCT Public Affairs)

Forward Operating Base (FOB) Warrior, Iraq — The Combat Engineers of Company A, 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, travel the roads of Iraq to try and prevent life threatening explosions by finding and detonating improvised explosive devices (IED).
“Our primary mission is route clearance,” commented Sgt. John Nickolaides, a team leader for 1st Platoon, Company A.
With unique training on specialized equipment before deployment, the combat engineers use their eyes, instincts and technology in support of the fight against terrorism.
Driving ahead of another convoy in support of their IED hunting mission may seem dangerous to some, but to the combat engineers they are confident in their abilities and are watchful in their job.

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A Soldier from Company A, 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, searches an Iraqi man while another Soldier searches the man’s vehicle. (U.S. Army Photo By: Spc. Barbara Ospina, 1st BCT Public Affairs)

We definitely find more IEDs than actually blow up,” said Pvt. 1st Class Heath Crawford, a Soldier in 1st Platoon, Company A.
Crawford commented that during their training to be a combat engineer, they were taught about demolition, breaching, and many other special skill sets. Route clearance may not be in their job title, but it is what they know.
Combat engineers learn many different jobs and specialties during their advanced individual training following basic combat training, but in Iraq their job is to clear the path for fellow Soldiers traveling the roads in the Kirkuk Province.
According to Nickolaides, they are not specifically tasked for 1st BCT convoys only; they will clear for any unit requesting their assistance.
Some route clearance missions last only a few hours, but the engineers always prepare for long days and nights.
“The length of our mission is dependent on what we find while we are out,” Crawford said.
Long missions are tiring for both the Soldiers and their vehicles.
“Driving for 12 or more hours at times is hard on a vehicle,” Nickolaides commented. “But our vehicles do pretty well; we have good mechanics.”
With their up-armored vehicles running well, the combat engineers are able to support convoys rolling down the roads. They will lead the convoy out on their mission, and lead them back to where the Soldiers call home…for now.
By: Spc. Barbara Ospina – 1st BCT Public Affairs

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Bin Laden: I Won’t Be Taken Alive
AP)

Osama bin Laden promised never to be captured alive and declared the U.S. had resorted to the same “repressive” tactics used by Saddam Hussein, according to an audiotape purportedly by the al Qaeda leader that was posted Monday on a militant Web site.
The tape appeared to be a complete version of one that was first broadcast Jan. 19 on Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channel, in which bin Laden offered the United States a long-term truce but also said his al Qaeda terror network would soon launch a fresh attack on American soil.
“I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don’t want to die humiliated or deceived,” bin Laden said.
In drawing the comparison to American military behavior in Iraq to that of Saddam, the speaker said:
“The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American Army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam.”
With the implied criticism of Saddam, bin Laden appeared to be denying assertions by the Bush administration that the former Iraqi leader had ties to al Qaeda — ties that were given as one rationale for invading Iraq.
The tape’s release in January came days after a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan that was targeting bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, and reportedly killed four leading al Qaeda figures, including possibly al-Zawahri’s son-in-law. There was no mention of the attack on the segments that were broadcast.
In the full tape that was posted Monday, bin Laden engaged in renewed propaganda, mocking President Bush’s aircraft carrier declaration in April 2003 that major conflict in Iraq had ended.
Speaking directly to the American people, the speaker said:
“You can rescue whatever you can from this hell. The solution is in your hands, if their (U.S. troops’) situation matters to you at all.”
The initial excerpts had been the first tape from the al Qaeda leader in more than a year — the longest period without a message since the Sept. 11 2001 suicide hijackings in the United States.
The CIA last month authenticated the voice on the initial recording as that of bin Laden, an agency official told The Associated Press at the time. The al Qaeda leader is believed to be hiding in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Wild Thing’s comment…..
Hey Osama, do you really think most of us want you taken alive? Dream on turbin head. Hahahaha
Besides Ramsey Clark is busy being a traitor defending Saddam anyway.

Arab-owned American ports?
http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060214-102147-5104r.htm

Some of the country’s busiest ports — New York, New Jersey, Baltimore and three others — are about to become the property of the United Arab Emirates. Do we really want our major ports in the hands of an Arab country where al Qaeda recruits, travels and wires money?
The Bush administration calls the United Arab Emirates an ally in the war on terror. But the UAE plays the same game Saudi Arabia does of quelching terrorists at home and turning a blind eye everywhere else.
We should be improving port security in an age of terrorism, not outsourcing decisions to the highest bidder. The ports are thought to be the country’s weakest homeland-security link, with good reason. Only a fraction of the nation’s maritime cargoes are inspected.
The root question is this: Why should the United States have to gamble its port security on whether a subsidiary of the government of the United Arab Emirates happens to remain an antiterrorism ally?
The Committee on Foreign Investment is the wrong place for this decision to be made; it appears to be little more than a rubber stamp.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, among others, is asking tough questions about this deal. For once, we agree with him: President Bush should overrule the committee to reject this deal. If that doesn’t happen, Congress should take action. The country’s ports should not be owned by foreign governments; much less governments whose territories are favored by al Qaeda.

AP

Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff on Sunday defended the government’s security review of an Arab company given permission to take over operations at six major U.S. ports.
“We make sure there are assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint,” Chertoff said on ABC’s “This Week.”
London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., was bought last week by Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business from the United Arab Emirates. Peninsular and Oriental runs major commercial operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
U.S. lawmakers from both parties are questioning the sale, approved by the Bush administration, as a possible risk to national security.
“It’s unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history,” Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C. said on “Fox News Sunday.”
United Arab Emirates track record — it was the transfer point for nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Libya, and the UAE’s history as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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Take a look at this:
The Al Qaeda Training Manual discovered in the UK describes recruiting seaport workers as making good recruits:

And look at this, in the 9/11 Commission report: ( thank you to the Captain’s Quarters for this)

Page 138: “Even after Bin Ladin’s departure from the area, CIA officers hoped he might return, seeing the camp as a magnet that could draw him for as long as it was still set up.The military maintained readiness for another strike opportunity.160 On March 7, 1999, [Richard] Clarke called a UAE official to express his concerns about possible associations between Emirati officials and Bin Ladin.Clarke later wrote in a memorandum of this conversation that the call had been approved at an interagency meeting and cleared with the CIA.” [This involved Clarke blowing a cover on a covert operation.]
Page 167: “In early 2000,Atta, Jarrah, and Binalshibh returned to Hamburg. Jarrah arrived first, on January 31, 2000.97 According to Binalshibh, he and Atta left Kandahar together and proceeded first to Karachi, where they met KSM and were instructed by him on security and on living in the United States. Shehhi apparently had already met with KSM before returning to the UAE.Atta returned to Hamburg in late February, and Binalshibh arrived shortly thereafter. Shehhi’s travels took him to the UAE (where he acquired a new passport and a U.S. visa), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and one or more other destinations.”
Page 171: “Bin Ladin relied on the established hawala networks operating in Pakistan, in Dubai, and throughout the Middle East to transfer funds efficiently.”
Page 216: “On June 20, Hanjour returned home to Saudi Arabia. He obtained a U.S. student visa on September 25 and told his family he was returning to his job in the UAE. Hanjour did go to the UAE, but to meet facilitator Ali Abdul
Aziz Ali.62”
Page 224: “The Hamburg operatives paid for their flight training primarily with funds wired from Dubai by KSM’s nephew,Ali Abdul Aziz Ali. Between June 29 and September 17, 2000,Ali sent Shehhi and Atta a total of $114,500 in five transfers ranging from $5,000 to $70,000.”
Page 236: “After training in Afghanistan, the operatives went to a safehouse maintained by KSM in Karachi and stayed there temporarily before being deployed to the United States via the UAE. … Ali apparently assisted nine
future hijackers between April and June 2001 as they came through Dubai. He helped them with plane tickets, traveler’s checks, and hotel reservations; he also taught them about everyday aspects of life in the West, such as purchasing clothes and ordering food. Dubai, a modern city with easy access to a major airport, travel agencies, hotels, and Western commercial establishments,was an ideal transit point.”

Wild Thing’s comment…..
This just does not make sense to me. It is a huge security risk. Remember when Clinton tried to sell the Communist Chinese a port in California? This should be stopped as well. This is not about owning a 7-11 and that is bad enough. This is about our security, our safety. I do not agree with this happening at all, not at all!!

* Captains Quarters

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Austin Bay Blog has an interesting post about Al Qaeda, drawn from captured documents released by the U.S. Army’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

…the Department of Defense’s Harmony Database, this report provides an analysis of al-Qa’ida’s organizational vulnerabilities. These documents, captured in the course of operations supporting the GWOT, have never before been made available to the academic and policy community.

GWOT= Global War On Terror
Go HERE and read of :
~ Al Qaeda is for socialized medicine
~ vacation time
And this……Al Qaeda’s Decision Executive Branch is tasked with torture:
Second: Decision Execution Branch (issued from the Security Committee):
This branch is divided into the following sections:
A- Investigations
B- Imprisonment & torture
C- Coordination & relations: This section is responsible for coordination with
security entities outside the organization after approval from the leadership
(Emirate).
D- Documents.
Wild Thing’s comment…..
Amazing isn’t it? hahaha Now see they have socialized Medicine just what ole Hillary would love.

* Austin Bay Blog
* Michelle Malkin

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An Iranian student, fills in the papers of a registration form indicating his readiness for martyrdom, or to carry out suicide attacks, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2006. A gathering of Iranians who claim they are dedicated to becoming suicide bombers warned the United States and Britain on Saturday of attacks on coalition military bases in Iraq if there were a strike against Tehran’s nuclear facilities. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)

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Iran group stages new suicide bomber recruitment drive

TEHRAN (AFP) – A small hardline Iranian group launched a fresh suicide bomber recruitment drive, hoping to lure volunteers ready to die in the fight against Israel, Salman Rushdie or foreign invaders.
“The most important martyrdom-seeking operations that we call on people to register for is to defend the country in case of an attack,” explained Mohammad Samadi, spokesman for the “Committee for the Glorification of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement.”
“We feel a serious threat by America,” he told AFP at the event, held in a Tehran university building and attended by around 100 people.
After some three hours of speeches and films on Palestinian bombers, just a few dozen people stuck around to sign a form with three options: target the “occupiers of Qods (Jerusalem)”, the “apostate Salman Rushdie” or “invaders.”
Samadi said that over the past year, 1,000 people have registered to die and 300 of them had entered training courses including “theory and practice.”
Iran’s previous reformist government had distanced itself from the group. It asserted that this was merely a symbolic way for people to express their anger against Israel or Rushdie — sentenced to death by Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 over his book “The Satanic Verses.”
But radicals have been given a new lease of life with last June’s election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has labelled Israel a “tumour” that “must be wiped off the map” and branded the Holocaust a “myth.”
“The average age range of participants is between 18 and 25, but we also get 80-year-old applicants,” Samadi said. “This is a way to give chance to people who have potential to show their capability to fight against invaders.”
One of those signing up was Hamidreza Shahnazari, a bearded 24-year-old electrical student.
“I registered to prove that Iranian youth are not only those on the street with the latest fashions. There are many young people that dream about martyrdom every night,” he said.
“It does not matter where or when; if there is a possibility for me to fight I will definitely dedicate my life to it.
Arezou, a 21-year-old Spanish language student, added: “I think the only choice is martyrdom. Israel is the main and biggest problem that we have to fight against it by martyrdom-seeking actions.”
Iran insists it only gives “moral support” to militant groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad, but is accused by the United States as being the leading sponsor of international terrorism.

Wild Thing’s comment…..
Hey fellas you might not have the promised virgins!

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