On June 26, three Kurdish men in Harrisonburg, Virginia (Rasheed Qambari, Ahmed Abdullah, and Amir Rashid) will be sentenced for sending money to Iraqi Kurdistan without a license to their families and those of fellow members of their community via the traditional hawala system (a fourth man, Fadhil Noroly, will be tried on July 11). This is a felony offense under amendments to the Patriot Act introduced after 9/11. Prior to 1996 these men, and most of the 70 Kurdish families now living in Harrisonburg in the Shenandoah Valley, were involved with aiding US and UK aid organizations. In that year Saddam Hussein attempted to have them arrested and killed (he succeeded with many who did not get out). The US government airlifted about 6500 of them out to Turkey as part of Operation Pacific Haven. After extensive security vetting in Guam, many were allowed to immigrate as refugees into the US, with this group ending up in Harrisonburg. These people were anti-Saddam and anti-terrorism, literally dancing in the streets at his overthrow.

Spin & Spend

But let's just say for the sake of argument...it's true! That will sure put the hurt on how most of you lefties have perceived things won't it?

In these particular circumstances, when we say that missile defense is "on," maybe it's that the troops at the deployment sites are on full alert. Maybe it's that we have ships in-theater monitoring the situation. Or maybe it's that, like with much of missile defense, we're relying on smoke, mirrors, and vaguely worded statements to mask what we can't do.

Instead of resolutions that honor those who are trying to kill us, these senators, these congressmen should devote their efforts, their words, their very lives to try and figure out how we can extricate ourselves from this war.

Pedant? Please quit talking about Dark Avenger.

Todayy eye havve sum timee too kil, whil wating four mi bel pepppers too gett doone inn thee dehidrator. eyell' bee sendinng themm too mi cousin in Quinlin, Txs., shee tolded mi yesterrdayy thee pricce four them is outrageos, soo I doo watt eye cann too helpp hher outt inn thiss arrea. Gladd eye couldd gett u gigglingg againn, PPJay, u were awfullyy grumpyy yesterrday, didd sumeone putt meann pils inn ur Postumm orr sumthing?

DA - That's quite a lisp you have developed there. Have you sought medical attention, or are you just trying to avoid being called on spelling, grammar and typing errors?

Deneuve walked out, saying of Haider "I want nothing to do with this person" and that she would not appear in public in the same place as Haider, let alone stand for a photo with him. She also noted she does the same for Jean-Marie Le Pen, the French right-winger.

YES, PAT ROBERTS WILL INDEED SUCCEED IN DEEP-SIXING PROBE INTO MANIPULATION OF IRAQ WAR INTEL. A couple months back I wrote that Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had failed to live up to a promise made in his own press release to deliver a draft of the controversial "public statements" part of the probe into prewar intel failures to other members of the committee by April 5.

Maybe he even read it this time.

pendantic

A comment in an open thread at TalkLeft reminded me of this poem by Siegfried Sassoon, who fought for Britain in World War I and was one of the most famous of the war poets:

Colbert takes a shot at some Republican nuts who draw on ridiculous analogies to attack gay marriage.

The chairman and CEO of this imaginary Zionist cabal is Israeli premier and Likud leader Ariel Sharon, whom Cole despises--so much so that he cannot bring himself to refer to Sharon without resorting to the vilest invectives. He is the butcher of Beirut, a mafia don, war criminal, land grabber, starver of children, and so on. "Couldn't he shut his enormous pie hole[?]" Cole wonders of Sharon. "Apparently [Bush] has fallen for a line from the neo-cons in his administration that they can deliver the Jewish vote to him in 2004 if only he kisses Sharon's ass," he writes in another post. And all this comes from a historian priding himself on his dispassionate and evenhanded approach.

Cole's discussion of U.S. foreign policy frequently veers toward conspiratorial anti-Semitism. This is hardly the "informed" commentary Cole claims it to be.

but I merely linked to the article

Published: 09/10/2003 The USA Patriot Act and its Impact on Nonprofit Organizations The Department of Justice has dismissed concerns of librarians that this represents an affront to the Constitution. Mark Corallo, a DOJ spokesman, said -- in spite of facts to the contrary -- that, "This is limited only to foreign intelligence, and U.S. citizens cannot be investigated under this act," according to Florida Today (9/23/02). He also described librarians' opposition as "absurd," wrongly stating that the Patriot Act "doesn't apply to the average American." (Journal News, 4/13/03) To further downplay the matter, another DOJ official cited an "informal" survey of field offices, which found that "libraries have been contacted approximately 50 times, based on articulable suspicion or voluntary calls from librarians regarding suspicious activity." Of course, this was later contradicted by the Library Research Center.

Mark Corallo, a DOJ spokesman, said -

Civil war, death squads, kidnaping, car bombs, rape, each and every day ... Iraq has become the most dangerous place on earth. American soldiers and private security companies regularly kill people and leave the bodies lying in the street; US-trained Iraqi military and police forces kill even more, as does the insurgency. An entire new generation is growing up on violence and sectarian ethics; this will poison the Iraqi psyche for many years to come.

And the other thing I find strange is how many sycophants of Cole hate the idea of democracies in the ME

And yes Squeaky I have read Prof. Cole's screeds.

Fifty years after Hungary's revolt against communism, President Bush said Thursday that war-weary Iraqis can learn from this country's long and bloody struggle against tyranny. "Liberty can be delayed but it cannot be denied," the president said.

Westerners and Muslims around the world have radically different views of world events, and each group tends to view the other as violent, intolerant, and lacking respect for women, according to a new international survey of more than 14,000 people in 13 nations. In what the Pew Global Attitudes Project called one of the survey's most striking findings, majorities in Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, and Turkey - Muslims countries with fairly strong ties to the United States - said, for example, that they did not believe that Arabs carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. ... "Whenever the Israelis strike the Palestinians, the international community and the UN turn a blind eye or keep quiet," said Saleh Bayeri, a politician and Muslim community leader in Jos, Nigeria. "But when the Palestinians launch a counterattack, it is condemned by America, the U.K. and other friends of Israel as a terror attack. That is the problem. It shows that the West is biased in dealing with Muslims." ... In the follow-up interviews, the U.S.- led war in Iraq, now in its fourth year, was cited by Muslims and Westerners alike as another primary cause of bad relations. Muslims, in comments reflecting historic tensions with Christianity, described Iraq and the Bush administration's war on terrorism as a "crusade" against Islam, while in the West people said that terrorist attacks by Muslims had undermined trust.

"We looked at security through three prisms, certainly security," Ridge said of his tenure as Homeland Security chief. "But you can't ignore the economic (impact) and you can't ignore the Constitution and he rule of law."

Historians can have opinions.

I have no interest in discussing your yellow journalism links. They are not worthy of any consideration.

Shorter - I can't answer your question.

Posted by Squeaky at September 19, 2005 11:19 PM Rove never needed proof for his smear machine, why should I.

The real Zarwaqi, if he actually existed at all, has been paid off by his US military producers, and is now living a life of luxury, much like a retired movie star, in Dubai or some other luxuriously cosy corner of the planet.

If I go back to college, can I interview you for a study??