Target Centermass

Category: Europe

  • 14 Terror Suspects Detained In Belgium

    The war in Iraq continues, and Europe continues to be a front despite the distance.

    Belgian police raided homes in four cities Wednesday and detained 14 people suspected of involvement in a terrorist network that sent fighters to Iraq, including a Belgian woman reported to have carried out a suicide bombing in Baghdad.

    Belgian authorities “want to dismantle this network, which we knew was on our territory and which aimed to send volunteers” to fight in Iraq, Glenn Audenaert, the federal police director, told reporters.

    More than 200 police officers took part in raids at dawn in Brussels and three other cities following media reports that a Belgian woman had blown herself up in a Nov. 9 attack in Baghdad. The woman reportedly carried out a car bombing against an American patrol. U.S. officials said she was the only person killed.

    The woman was 38, her first name was Mireille and she came from a middle-class background in Charleroi, about 30 miles south of Brussels, an official close to the investigation said on condition of anonymity.

    The woman converted to Islam after she married a man from Morocco, officials said. “This is how she came into contact with the organization which allowed her to become a fighter,” Audenaert said.

    Her husband was killed in Iraq in a separate incident, officials said.

    Nine of the 14 suspects detained Wednesday were Belgian. Three were Moroccan and two were Tunisian.

    Europe’s longstanding immigration policies, poisonously too generous to the north of Africa and its included radical elements, and its willingness for years to overlook a growing militant threat are now bearing fruit. Unfortunately, the Euro nations, while seemingly willing to play hardball and police up the symptoms after the fact, refuse to address the disease of the radical and growing Islamist elements in their societies.

  • Robitussin-based Link Dump

    I’m a little under the weather, but here’s a little bit of what I’ve been reading.

    Zarqawi’s family disown him after bombings

    Iraq’s most-wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been disowned by members of his family in Jordan who have pledged to “sever links with him until doomsday” and proclaimed their loyalty to Jordan’s king, Abdullah II.

    The statement, which also removed “protection” from Zarqawi, came amid further protests in Jordan at the suicide bombings at three hotels on November 9 in Amman , the capital, that killed 59 people, including revellers at a wedding party.

    Zarqawi’s organisation al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the blasts and subsequently threatened to kill the king. But yesterday, 57 members of his al-Khalayleh clan, including his brother and first cousin, took half-page advertisements in Jordan’s leading newspapers to revile the militant leader.

    “We denounce in the clearest terms all the terrorist actions claimed by the so-called Ahmed Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, who calls himself Abu Musab al-Zarqawi”, wrote the family members who proclaimed “homage” to the Hashemite throne and “to our precious Jordan”.

    “We announce, and all the people are our witnesses, that we – the sons of the al-Khalayleh tribe – are innocent of him and all that emanates from him, whether action, assertion or decision.”

    The statement effectively declared open season on Zarqawi, saying that anyone who carried out acts of terrorism in the kingdom would not be protected.

    Al-Zarqawi May Be Among Dead in Iraq Fight

    U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a gunfight some by their own hand to avoid capture. A U.S. official said Sunday that efforts were under way to determine if terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among the dead.

    Interesting timing between those two stories. Meanwhile, the U.S. is playing down stories that Zarqawi is taking the dirtnap. Chad and Mac at In the Bullpen have been posting updates.

    UK will embrace ‘voluntary’ Kyoto targets

    Interest groups on both sides of the Kyoto divide are calling remarks by Margaret Beckett, Prime Minster Tony Blair’s Environment Secretary, the death of the protocol.

    Ms Beckett told The Observer that future work on climate change could involve “voluntary” targets rather than the compulsory targets that are Kyoto’s engine.

    Like Mr Blair before her, she said that achieving consensus on compulsory targets would be impossible in the present political environment.

    But where Mr Blair appears ready to embrace the approach advanced by the US-led Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, Ms Beckett appears to be engaged in seasoning an apparently unpalatable stew in order to help reluctant international partners consume what’s really on their plates.

    And that dish is, essentially, the end of Kyoto.

    Davids Medienkritik takes a look at why Kyoto is failing.

    One of the few causes behind which the Left still can unite is the Kyoto treaty on the reduction of greenhouse gases. After all, the refusal of the U.S. to sign “Kyoto” makes a good reason to kick off anti-American campaigns.

    […]

    Anyway, casual observation tells me that the front line of the “Sign Kyoto” movement is beginning to fall apart, in Europe as well as in the U.S.. The “consensus science” approach comes under increasing fire[.]

    Meanwhile, Protein Wisdom‘s Jeff Goldstein points out the beneficial irony of any failure of the treaty.

  • Minister: Minorities Key to France Terror Fight

    At least one member of the French government is wide awake to the danger his country faces.

    France must better integrate its minorities and combat religious extremism if it is to foil the threat of terrorist attacks by Islamist militants, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday.

    France must fight the root cause of frustrations which Islamist fundamentalists have already exploited to recruit French nationals, he told a conference on “France and Terrorism”.

    […]

    “The threat that weighs on us comes from movements or groups based abroad … but we must not hide from the fact that it also comes from people living here, recruited by Salafist groups, trained in schools in the Middle and Far East and who, when they return here, pose a threat,” Sarkozy said.

    He pointed out Salafists.

    International cooperation was important, but robust action at home was also essential, he said.

    “Communities turning inwards, problems integrating into society and religious excesses must be tackled,” he said. “Our immediate operational priority remains the administrative and judicial neutralisation of Islamist networks and activists.”

    He pointed out Islamists. Look, this man, a French politician, is speaking more bluntly than our media is generally willing to report. Sarkozy is making a list and checking it twice, and we’re talking about the naughty here.

    French intelligence says six French nationals have been killed fighting in Iraq since 2003 and around 10 others are believed to be currently fighting alongside rebels.

    Officials say Iraq veterans would pose a real threat to domestic security if they returned to France.

    Okay, the problem is legitimate, it’s gone abroad and will almost certainly try to bring the bloodshed home to France. Sarkozy knows and is willing to name the threat within his own society — good, one Frenchie down, 60.5 million to go.

    Still, does Sarkozy know the solution?

    Sarkozy has led a lone fight for a measure of positive discrimination in favour of France’s ethnic minorities, arguing their exclusion from mainstream society only feeds extremism and the frustrations that helped spark recent rioting.

    But he has coupled that with a tough law and order message.

    Yeah, the tough law and order part is right, but that’s easy. That’s like being given eleven bunnies, being told to count them and then teach them to run the wishbone. Well, the counting part’s pretty easy. A precisely-executed triple option … well … not so much.

    I’m not willing to say that governmentally-enforced reverse discrimination is a good long-term policy. Though it may have a healthy effect in the short run, a government social program is a rather insidious beast, once in place. As a D.C. saying goes, there’s nothing so permanent as a temporary government agency. In this case, we’re also talking about one that could have a popular backlash that could actually impair assimilation. Other less-intrusive ideas might include regulations enforcing non-discrimination, which the libertarian in me would still chafe at, and a stab at assimilating the youth with forced bussing to integrated public schools, but one must note that militant Islamists and busses aren’t always a good mix unless one is fond of twisted, smoking, bloody wreckage.

    Yes, France has allowed itself to manuever into quite a conundrum. Besides the law and order aspect, the steps that are absolutely obvious and long overdue to be addressed are the nation’s immigration policies and labor policies, long perverted by a willingness to knuckle under to French unions and French society’s demands for the easy life. Well, life can be rough and this is war, folks.

    In related news, the French are saying that, after three weeks of Moslem rioting, violence has fallen to “normal” levels.

  • The Commonwealth Preps for Afghan Burden

    They are the scum of the earth. English soldiers are fellows who have enlisted for drink, that is the plain fact; they have all enlisted for drink.

    —Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington

    Well, that may have once been the case, but it looks like they’re headed for a dry and dangerous place.

    After NATO refused to participate in an plan to engage the alliance in counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan, Britain is preparing to step up to the plate.

    Questions the Army must ask before going into Afghanistan

    Small Army reconnaissance teams have already deployed to Helmand, Afghanistan’s most dangerous province in the south to study the situation before a major deployment of an estimated 2,000 British troops takes place there in the spring. Another 1,500-2,000 troops will be deployed elsewhere.

    Although the British deployment is fraught with risks, it is deemed necessary to stem a growing Taliban insurgency now spreading to urban areas and to deal with a burgeoning drugs trade that is providing new funds and resources to al-Qa’eda and the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, before any deployment, it is essential that the British high command demand and receive certain binding assurances from Whitehall and the Afghan government.

    Next spring, more than 1,000 British troops, backed by civilian engineers and other experts and diplomats, will form a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) under Nato command to speed up reconstruction efforts and combat the opium trade from a base in Lashkagarh, capital of Helmand.

    Another 1,000 troops, backed by Apache helicopters, will deploy at a separate base in Helmand as a fighting force under the American-led coalition to combat the Taliban insurgency in the south. Another 500-800 troops will deploy at Kandahar to beef up the main command centre of coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, while roughly the same number will deploy to Kabul as Britain takes over command of the Nato lead peacekeeping force in the capital.

    The British deployment has now become much more serious and critical to stability in Afghanistan, after the US Defence Department announced that it would be withdrawing 4,000 troops from southern Afghanistan next spring. The 20,000-strong US force that does the bulk of the fighting against the Taliban is preparing more withdrawals later in the year and Washington is insisting that Nato take over more responsibility for fighting the Taliban – something few countries are prepared to do.

    The American withdrawal has now forced London to seek a wider coalition with other Commonwealth countries to plug the gap left by the Americans, after European countries refused to join either the British-led PRT or the fighting force in Helmand.

    Britain is the first country since the American deployment after the defeat of the Taliban to be both providing a PRT as well as a fighting force in the same region. Britain will also have the single largest PRT in the country. Almost all of the 22 PRTs scattered around the country are 100-150 strong and their effectiveness has been seriously questioned: each country sets its own rules.

    No PRT is combating the drugs trade or doing large scale reconstruction work. Other caveats set by individual governments have been crippling. The Spanish PRT has not left its compound after six months in the country, while the German PRT allows only German troops to travel in its helicopters.

    An ambitious Britain is trying to kill two birds with stone. Establish a PRT large enough to provide real security for aid agencies and the Afghan government to do long-term reconstruction projects and provide alternative crops to farmers to help eradicate opium, while also providing a fighting force to take on the Taliban and glean better intelligence about al-Qa’eda leadership.

    Heading into the deployment, the Telegraph is properly asking for clear lines in what is expected of British troops. Tranparent rules of conduct and engagement are indeed reasonable ground to cover.

    However British troops must have an unequivocal mandate for what they will do and not do. Downing Street is adamant that the Army help Kabul interdict drug convoys and traffickers, even if British troops do not actually get involved in eradication of the poppy crop on the ground.

    The Army has been resisting, saying even interdiction could create enormous resentment among the Afghan population. A similar battle is being waged in Washington, where the US army has been resisting the State Department’s overtures to carry out interdiction. Helmand is the centre of the opium trade in Afghanistan. Helmand’s drug mafia exports farmers, poppy seed and expertise to warlords in other Afghan provinces.

    It is also vital that Britain establish clear ground rules with President Hamid Karzai’s government. The British PRT is expected to work with the local governor, police chief, administration and militia forces in Helmand, but they are deeply corrupt and also involved in the drugs trade. Karzai has to be forcefully told to get rid of several leading Afghan figures in Helmand who are drugs-tainted.

    A major role for the PRT would be to train local Afghan security forces and help build a local bureaucracy that could sustain reconstruction in the future. It would be an exercise in futility if British troops captured drugs traffickers and then handed them over to Afghan officials who were themselves drug traffickers.

    British troops also have to be clear as to how far they can operate. Helmand is the gateway for Taliban and al-Qa’eda leaders travelling between Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, and is also the main exit point for the new line of communication with Iraq. Several Taliban commanders have trained with Iraqi insurgents and have brought their new skills home.

    It is expected that the Brits will turn to the Commonwealth to assist where NATO feared to tread, and at least Australia is readying for the mission.

    Aussie troops in line for Afghanistan

    Britain is expected to hold talks with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other countries early next month about forming a force to replace the reducing United States presence early next year.

    A commitment by Australia would put Australian troops amidst a volatile situation in Afghanistan as it seeks to stabilise the nation in the post-Taliban period.

    “The debate is not whether, but to what extent these troops will get into counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics,” a British military source was quoted to say in The Guardian.

    “We are not talking war fighting.

    “But there is potential for armed conflict in some areas.

    “The reality is that there are warlords, drug traffickers, al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda wannabes and Taliban.

    “It could take longer to crack than Iraq. It could take ten years.”

    Australia was already involved in talks with Britain about committing some troops to southern Afghanistan, pending cabinet approval.

    Are there any doubts that America’s strongest allies in the war against radical Islamist terror and, to be honest, just about any other threat, are the Brits and Aussies? Oh, don’t get me wrong, other countries are extremely deserving of consideration, especially Poland. It’s also long past due that we realize that Russia is facing the same foe, radical and expansionist Islamic scum, that we are currently squaring off against.

    Oh yeah, maybe, just maybe, the need for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has run its course. If France can militarily bow out during the heart of the Cold War and the remaining bulk of its membership is happily willing to duck any serious danger in the one country the U.S. supposedly went into non-unilaterally post-9/11, does the alliance really serve any current purpose other than sustaining a rotating presence in Bosnia? Bosnia — talk about your previously-checked countries on the needing-an-exit-strategy list.

  • War on Terror Update, 14 NOV 05

    Jordanians turning against terrorism

    Less than a week ago – before suicide bombers killed 57 people at Amman hotels – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was seen by many Jordanians as a homegrown holy warrior battling U.S. troops in occupied Iraq.

    After the bombings, claimed by al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaida in Iraq, thousands of Jordanians took to the streets throughout the kingdom, shouting: “Burn in hell, al-Zarqawi.”

    “All Jordanians – even fanatic Muslims – are changing their minds (toward Islamic extremist attacks) because of what they saw happen to innocent people” in Amman, said Ibrahim Hreish, a jeweler in the Jordanian capital.

    In Jordan, a close U.S. ally heralded in the West for its moderation, there has been strong support for militant attacks against what Islamist and independent newspapers described as legitimate targets – Israeli soldiers or U.S. troops in Iraq.

    […]

    But amid a spiraling of violence in neighboring Iraq and numerous foiled terror plots here in Jordan before Wednesday’s strikes, views toward terrorism have started to change.

    Most of those killed in the triple hotel bombings were Arabs and Muslims – and the targets included a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding reception.

    TV talk shows and newspaper columnists have been focussing on the suicide attacks and whether Muslims should condone them in part or total.

    “There has (long) been empathy among Jordanians for insurgent strikes against military targets in Iraq, particularly against U.S. forces,” said Mustafa Hamarneh, a researcher who has conducted surveys on domestic attitudes toward suicide bombings.

    “I believe we will now begin to see a change in how the country’s press reports events in Iraq, such as suicide bombings and in public attitudes,” he said.

    Jordanians, along with the rest of the world, need to realize that the Islamists terrorists have already sorted humanity into two classifications: in one category, those who will help them destroy and then reign in a bloody and fascist fury of extremist Islam; in the other, potential victims. It’s that simple for the radical Islamists. It should be that simple for us.

    No escape from al-Qaeda for Jordan

    Jordan is one of the United States’ staunchest allies in the region, and it is also the “new” Iraq’s closest Arab ally, having done more than any other Arab state to help facilitate Iraq’s transition in the post-Saddam Hussein era.

    This and the global “war on terror” have left Jordan in a precarious position, highlighted by last week’s bombing of three hotels in Amman, the capital, in which nearly 60 people died.

    Such generous use of quotation marks. The “article” goes on to “detail” Jordan’s efforts so far against the Islamist threat and to “question” the Jordanian mindset.

    U.S. Widens Offensive In Far Western Iraq

    The U.S. military broadened its offensive in western Iraq on Monday, launching a major attack on insurgent positions in the town of Ubaydi near the Syrian border and killing about 50 insurgents in precision airstrikes and house-to-house street fighting, according to news reports and the U.S. military.

    U.S. and Iraqi troops reportedly faced stiff resistance from machine-gun and small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

    […]

    “This is a fight all the way through the city,” said Col. Stephen Davis, commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team 2, describing the fighting, according to CNN, which had a producer embedded with U.S. troops. Davis said that his forces were encountering “significant resistance” and that they had found three buildings wired with explosives and numerous roadside bombs and car bombs. U.S. officials said about two dozen insurgents had been captured.

    “Insurgent fighters have been battling with Iraqi and Coalition Forces since the operation began at dawn,” a military statement said. “A suspected car bomb placed in the advance of Iraqi Forces was engaged with a round from an M1A1 tank. The blast from the tank initiated a secondary explosion powerful enough to throw the car onto the roof of a nearby building.”

    Happy hunting, troops, and best wishes.

    By the way, it must have been fun to have been in that gunner’s seat, squeeze the cadillacs, and then put a round into a bomb-laden car and watch the fireworks through the thermals. Most of you folks wouldn’t understand the feeling of staring into a scope, firing a 120mm and having the awesome machinery rock and roll about a foot to the left of your head as your powerful effort screams destructively exactly where you wish to put it. Eric could tell you more about it.

    Blair Says a Troop Cut in Iraq Is a ‘Possibility’ Next Year

    British officials have begun to talk, however gingerly, about withdrawing their troops from Iraq.

    On Monday, Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was “entirely reasonable” to “talk about the possibility” that the troops could begin leaving by the end of next year. The discussion, he added, “has got to be always conditioned by the fact that we withdraw when the job is done.”

    His comments came a day after the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, said in a television interview that Iraqi soldiers could replace British troops in southern Iraq by the end of 2006. “We don’t want British forces forever in Iraq,” Mr. Talabani said on ITV1. “Within one year, I think at the end of 2006, Iraqi troops will be ready to replace British forces in the south.”

    Let’s not be so hasty. Please see the next story.

    Iraq wants pull-out even later

    Talks on the withdrawal of United States-led foreign troops from Iraq can begin at the end of next year, said Iraq’s president on Monday.

    President Jalal Talabani, in Austria to attend a three-day conference on Islam, gave no timetable for the full pull-out of troops, but said Britain probably could start a “step by step” exit in 2007.

    […]

    On Friday, Iraqi deputy prime minister Ahmad Chalabi said US troops could begin leaving in significant numbers some time next year.

    But US President George W Bush has refused to set a timetable, saying that would play into the hands of insurgents.

    See my thoughts on exit strategies and time tables here. In short, they bring a short-term political gain with the danger of an actual loss in true national goals. No war effort has ever been successfully carried out with the foolishness of an exit strategy or a timetable for withdrawal. Oh yeah, exactly when are we leaving Bosnia?

    To counter Iraq war critics, Bush quotes Democrats

    U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday sought to counter Democratic critics of the Iraq war by turning their own past words of warning about Saddam Hussein against them.

    “Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war — but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people,” Bush said in a campaign-style speech accusing Democrats of playing politics with the issue and trying to rewrite the past.

    He spoke to U.S. troops in an air base hangar in Alaska, a refueling spot for Air Force One carrying him on a week-long Asia trip that Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said would be long on conversations about top priorities but not likely to include any breakthrough agreements on simmering trade issues.

    […]

    He quoted statements made in 2001 and 2002 by three Senate Democrats, though he did not quote them by name.

    While I may not agree with the decision for the prez to come out swinging (mildly) on Veterans Day, the swinging had to be done sooner rather than later. The Democrats have played nothing but obstruction on every domestic effort put forth by the administration — and make no mistake, the administration and the Republicans have been the only ones trying to move anything forward — but also have viciously savaged the administration over the prelude to the Iraqi campaign, falsely twisting the Scooter Libby indictments as a statement againt pre-invasion intelligence manipulation and utilizing an all-too-willing and gullible press to curtail public support for our military efforts.

    Did I say Bush had to start fighting back sooner rather than later? I meant that it is well past time that the public hear more of the duplicity of those who have been oh-so-freakin’-publicly undermining our efforts, hoping to grab defeat from the jaws of victory in the Viet Nam mode, only for their personal and party gain at the expense of the possible future security of our republic.

  • Chirac Admits Riots Reveal French Malaise

    I don’t necessarily agree with the ol’ saying that there’ s nothing new under the sun, but I will admit history has a great tendency to repeat itself — tyrants will rise up and oppress again and again, hero after hero will stand forth and face adversity, and a spineless one can always be found presenting meekness as leadership.

    Jacques Chirac acknowledged last night that France’s 18 nights of urban violence had revealed a “profound malaise” in society and launched an appeal to combat the “poison” of racial discrimination.

    In his first formal address to the nation since the unrest started on October 27, the French president said the problem had to be tackled firmly but justly. “Those who attack … must know that in a republic, one cannot break the law without being caught, judged and punished,” he said.

    Mr Chirac said the rioting reflected a “crisis of … identity”, but added that “we can accomplish nothing if we do not respect the rules”. Parental authority was critical, and parents who did not “accept their responsibilities” would be punished. The president confirmed that the government would today put a bill before parliament recommending that the state of emergency be extended for three months until mid-February if necessary.

    Everyone should have the chance to share in the benefits of French society, Mr Chirac said, but “discrimination saps the foundations of the republic”. The French media and political class must “better reflect the reality of French society today”, he insisted. At present, the ethnic minority faces on French television can be counted on the fingers of one hand and mainland France has not a single MP of north African or black African origin.

    Companies and trades unions must actively encourage diversity and support employment for immigrant youths from depressed suburbs, he said. He also announced the formation of a national volunteer corps that would offer training for 50,000 youths by 2007 and help them to get jobs. “Everyone must commit themselves, companies too – how many applications end up in the bin because of the applicant’s name or address?” he asked. But he ruled out positive discrimination or quotas, saying the country must remain true to its republican values.

    Jacques presents little, pointing a finger more at French society than at the Islamic radicals refusing to assimilate into that same society. Ah, Jacques, more than two weeks after the levees figuratively gave way and your country found itself awash with flame and violence, you come sallying forth with wooden sword and stage-prop shield.

    Where have heard such words before, why do they sound so familiar? Ah yes, the echoes of inept, defeatist history.

  • Islamic Troubles Link Dump, 8 NOV 05

    Sorry, folks, busy with other things tonight. I did want to leave you with some stories that caught my eye, though.

    Second Saddam trial defence lawyer murdered

    Gunmen killed a second defence lawyer in the trial of Saddam Hussein and his aides on Tuesday and the former Iraqi president’s own counsel demanded the court be moved abroad, out of reach of the U.S.-backed government.

    The sectarian anger dividing Iraq pervades the proceedings but ministers refused to consider a move abroad after a lawyer for another of Saddam’s co-accused was killed three weeks ago and the government spokesman declined fresh comment.

    The defence renewed a threat to boycott the court, which is next due to sit at the end of the month.

    Another defence lawyer was slightly wounded in the attack on their car in Baghdad; three weeks ago a colleague was abducted and shot the day after the start of proceedings in the trial for crimes against humanity on October 19. Both dead men made vocal, televised contributions on what has so far been the only day of hearings.

    In Tuesday’s attack, Adil al-Zubeidi was killed and his colleague Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie wounded when their car came under fire in the western Baghdad district of Hay al-Adil, police and defence team sources said. Both were working for Saddam’s brother and his former vice president[.]

    Tell the defense team to shut up and button up, move ’em into the Green Zone and let the wheels of Iraqi justice proceed. Just my two bits.

    UN Extends Mandate of U.S.-Led Forces in Iraq Through 2006

    The United Nations Security Council voted 15 to 0 to authorize U.S.-led forces to remain in Iraq until Dec. 31, 2006, to give Iraqi troops time to prepare for assuming responsibility for the nation’s security.

    The resolution, drafted by the U.S. and co-sponsored by Denmark, Japan, Romania and the U.K., asks the Security Council to review the mandate of the multinational force no later than June 15, 2006, or to terminate it at the request of Iraq’s government. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari requested the extension in an Oct. 27 letter to the UN.

    The U.S. asked for an early extension of the mandate, which wasn’t due to expire until Dec. 31, to avoid making the authorization an issue in the election of an Iraqi government on Dec. 15, U.K. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said.

    Smart move there, timing-wise.

    17 arrests in Australia terror raid

    Two Islamic terror cells were rushing to become the first to stage a major “jihad” terror bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said after armed police arrested 17 suspects in a string of co-ordinated pre-dawn raids in two cities.

    “Thankfully, the police forces of this country might just have prevented a catastrophic act of terrorism … either in Melbourne or in Sydney,” said New South Wales state Police Minister Carl Scully.

    […]

    About 500 armed police arrested nine men in the southern city of Melbourne and eight in Sydney, including one man critically injured in a gun fight with police.

    Police said they expected more arrests in coming days and weeks. Federal police have raided another Sydney home, but there were no immediate reports of arrests.

    As per the norm, there was the usual admonition that the Aussies’ participation in the Iraqi theater is the main driver behind the threats. I find that rather laughable, considering that a) the U.S. supposedly acted unilaterally in Iraq, and b) radical Islamic terror should rightly be considered a global threat — there are no safe havens, and flimsy excuses for expansionist Islamic militancy are merely pathetic aids to the danger our civilization must squarely face.

    Restive France Declares State of Emergency

    The French government declared a state of emergency Tuesday after nearly two weeks of rioting, and the prime minister said the nation faced a “moment of truth.”

    The extraordinary security measures, to begin Wednesday and valid for 12 days, clear the way for curfews to try to halt the country’s worst civil unrest since the student uprisings of 1968.

    Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, tacitly acknowledging that France has failed to live up to its egalitarian ideals, reached out to the heavily immigrant suburbs where the rioting began. He said France must make a priority of working against the discrimination that feeds the frustration of youths made to feel that they do not belong in France.

    “The effectiveness of our integration model is in question,” the prime minister told parliament. He called the riots “a warning” and “an appeal.”

    The riots are not a warning.

    They are not an appeal.

    They are an unchecked, at least as of yet, uprising against both French and Western society by an isolated and radical immigration block that has no reason to care for those same societies. Those involved are the violent children of an immigrant culture of bloody disdain for Western values, solidified and strengthened by a failed mindset of non-assimilation.

    Iraqi insurgent toll rises as offensive continues

    U.S. and Iraqi forces searched house-to-house for the third day of a major offensive near Iraq’s border with Syria on Monday, with at least 17 insurgents and one Marine killed, the military said.

    Operation Steel Curtain continued its cautious progress through areas in and around Qusayba, a dusty, low-lying town in western Iraq, most of whose 30,000 residents appeared to have already fled.

    U.S. Marines and Iraqi scouts, supported by tanks and air strikes, have met what they describe as sporadic resistance from Sunni Arab insurgents and foreign fighters armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and improvised bombs.

    […]

    Several U.S. offensives this year in the Euphrates valley, a green belt running from the border toward the capital, have been aimed at stemming the flow of Islamist militants into Iraq.

    My best wishes to the boots on the ground and their families. The spice must flow, but the Islamist militant flow must be halted.

  • French Islamic Riots Link Dump, 7 NOV 05

    I’ve long said that Europe is a tinderbox, with its increasing Islamic pockets serving as the fuel waiting to ignite. I had thought that the Paris riots would have settled by now, and still think they will, but that has yet to be the case. In fact, the situation is worsening as blood has been drawn and the mayhem has crossed borders.

    French integration model fails, no back-up in sight

    With every night of violent rioting that scars France’s rundown suburbs, more and more French say their distinctive model of integration, based on the revolutionary ideal of equality for all, has failed.

    But President Jacques Chirac and his conservative allies are unlikely to join the critics, as that would mean accepting the approach France considers superior is no better than integration policies abroad.

    Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is the only top politician saying France’s “republican model” falls short and that the U.S. or British “melting pot” approach could help break the cycle of minority exclusion, unemployment and revolt.

    […]

    Michel Wieviorka, a leading sociologist, said the recent riots indicated “the decline — perhaps historic — of the so-called French model of republican integration”.

    “This is a total crisis,” he said at the weekend. “They (the riots) tell us we cannot continue with politicians who tell us to carry on with an exhausted model.”

    Take note, multiculturalists, stability of liberty and society lies not in steadfast maintenence and seperation of individual cultures. Rather, a solid future lies in the old American integration model — accepting the strengths (and selective delicious dishes) of immigrant cultures into the overall society while that members of that said immigrant culture adapt to the overall nature of the pre-existing society.

    Leaders fiddle as France burns

    France was struggling to overcome one of its gravest post-war crises last night as every major city faced the threat of fierce rioting that began 12 nights ago and now seems to have spun out of control.

    Despite an assurance from Philippe Douste Blazy, the foreign minister, that France was “not a dangerous country”, the spread of violence prompted the Foreign Office in London to warn travellers that trouble could break out “almost anywhere”.

    […]

    Although the disorder began on the intimidating sink estates of Paris’s northern suburbs, trouble had been reported yesterday in the early hours from most regions of the country. Even areas such as Brittany, the Loire and Bordeaux, favoured by British holidaymakers and second- home hunters, have now been drawn into the worst wave of unrest in France since the spring revolt of 1968 set in motion the downfall of Gen Charles de Gaulle.

    Yesterday the violence also claimed its first life. A 61-year-old man died in hospital three days after being beaten unconscious when he left his home in a northern Paris suburb intending to stop rubbish bins being set on fire.

    Blood, and yet the French leadership dither. Yet again, and within only months, Chirac faces the ghost of de Gaulle’s downfall.

    France set to use curfews to halt riots

    France will impose curfews “wherever it is necessary” and call up police reservists to stop rioting that has spread out of its suburbs, the prime minister said today, calling a return to order “our No. 1 responsibility”.

    […]

    Asked on TF1 television whether the army should be brought in, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said “we are not at that point”.

    But “at each step, we will take the necessary measures to re-establish order very quickly throughout France,” he said. “That is our prime duty: ensuring everyone’s protection.”

    The new measures followed the worst overnight violence so far on Sunday-Monday. Foreign governments warned their citizens to be careful in France.

    Apparent copycat attacks also spread outside France, with five cars torched outside the main train station in Brussels, Belgium. German police were investigating the burning of five cars in Berlin.

    Belgium? Possibly Germany? Looks like that is the case. Heck, in case you haven’t heard, and Lex doubts you have, Islamic riots have even reached Denmark.

    Hey, Doll, how ’bout we scratch Europe off the list of possible honeymoon sites?

  • French Rioters Fire on Police, Wounding 10

    While I was away travelling, the Islamic riots in the Paris suburbs expanded to the city’s interior and other parts of the country. Now, it seems that expansion is giving way to escalation.

    In what has grown into a national crisis and continues to escalate, rioters in France fired on police officers during an 11th night of destruction, wounding 10 officers.

    About 200 youths were throwing stones and other projectiles at police in Grigny, south of Paris, on Sunday, police said.

    Some of the rioters then fired at officers with shotguns. Two of the 10 injured officers were seriously hurt.

    The incident came just hours after French President Jacques Chirac made his first public address since the riots began. He said restoring order was “an absolute priority” as the violence reached central Paris for the first time.

    “The law must have the last word,” Chirac said Sunday, pledging that security measures would be reinforced. Those sowing “violence or fear” will be “arrested, judged and punished.”

    Chirac made the statement after a security meeting of his top ministers. He has come under pressure by opposition politicians who accuse him of failing to intervene publicly.

    But police have already made hundreds of arrests, and rioters continue to ignore Chirac’s warnings as gangs of youths rampage the city.

    On Sunday some business owners called on Chirac to summon the military to stamp out the riots and calm the city, before arsonists begin to attack buildings as well.

    […]

    While the riots began in the suburbs outside Paris, Sunday was the first time the destruction reached into the heart of the city. Nationwide, police made 349 arrests.

    The violence was originally concentrated in neighbourhoods with large immigrant populations.

    However, the violence has spread out across the country to include Normandy in the west and southern cities on the Mediterranean such as Nice and Cannes.

    “All these hoodlums see others setting fires and say they can do it, too,” said national police spokesman Patrick Hamon.

    According to the article, an announcement of further security measures are expected in the next day or two from Chirac. True to his character to date, Chirac has been one for neither quick nor decisive reaction to the obvious expansionist Islamic problem. I guess points could be awarded for consistency.

    I’m not necessarily trying to be smug about the matter — the growing problem of radicalism in the pockets of Islamic populations in many European countries is no secret. For the future of the continent, someone has to put their foot down, and that foot is not Jacques.

    Meanwhile, just to plug a couple of members from my blogroll, I’ll be catching up on the weekend’s developments in France by perusing the coverage of the wonderfully, rationally hard-edged Ace of Spades and the link-heavy Gateway Pundit. I’d recommend y’all keep up with those two on a daily basis.

  • News Link Dump, 3 NOV 05

    Okay, I’m busy packing for a weekend journey to “scenic” Lubbock, Texas, to watch my Aggies square off on the gridiron against my fiancee’s Tech Red Raiders. I’m not expecting a good game, but it has become an annual trip for us, be it Lubbock or dear ol’ College Station.

    And now the news and views.

    The good news from Iraq is not fit to print

    No question: If you think that defeating Islamofascism, extending liberty, and transforming the Middle East are important, it’s safe to say you saw the ratification of the new constitution as the Iraqi news story of the week [emphasis in original].

    But that isn’t how the mainstream media saw it.

    Consider The Washington Post. On the morning after the results of the Iraqi referendum were announced, the Post’s front page was dominated by a photograph, stretched across four columns, of three daughters at the funeral of their father, Lieutenant Colonel Leon James II, who had died from injuries suffered during a Sept. 26 bombing in Baghdad. Two accompanying stories, both above the fold, were headlined ”Military Has Lost 2,000 in Iraq” and ”Bigger, Stronger, Homemade Bombs Now to Blame for Half of US Deaths.” A nearby graphic — ”The Toll” — divided the 2,000 deaths by type of military service — active duty, National Guard, and Reserves.

    I’ve said it before and, unfortunately, I’m quite certain I’ll have to say it again — our media’s handling of this war absolutely disgusts me. Oh, I’m not just talking about the Iraqi theater, though that has certainly been the lowlight of their performance, but also their coverage dating back to the opening of the Afghan campaign (a theater now seemingly all but forgotten in their eyes). I’ll again quote Power Line‘s Paul Mirengoff, who blogged the following:

    Have you ever read a history of war that focused almost entirely on casualty figures (with an occasional torture story and grieving parent thrown in), to the exclusion of any real discussion of tactics, operations, and actual battles? I haven’t. But that’s what our self-proclaimed “rough drafters” of history are serving up with respect to Iraq.

    It’s almost become a cliche, but I honestly feel we could not have successfully prosecuted World War II with today’s media.

    Chertoff says US wants to “gain control” of borders

    President George W. Bush’s domestic security chief vowed on Wednesday to “gain control” of U.S. borders, prompting ridicule from immigration control activists who have taken the matter into their own hands.

    Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the administration aims to improve ways to keep illegal migrants out and to deport those already in the United States.

    “Simply stated, our goal is to gain control of our borders,” Chertoff said in a speech organized by the Houston Forum, a nonprofit educational group.

    “I define control to mean that we will have an extremely high probability of detecting, responding to and interdicting illegal crossings of our borders.”

    I’ll wait until I actually see something of substance. Our borders have been far too freakin’ porous for far, far too long.

    Crisis as Paris burns for another night

    France’s government was under mounting pressure yesterday to regain control of the situation around Paris as youths opened fire on police and set 300 cars ablaze in overnight rioting in what is now a week of serious disorder.

    Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, held a series of crisis meetings yesterday amid increasing criticism of the government for its failure to control the escalating violence which began last Thursday in the northern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois after two teenagers of North African origin were electrocuted in an electricity sub-station. The violence has since spread to at least 20 impoverished suburbs around the capital.

    I expect this matter to calm soon. That said, I don’t expect the actual problem to go away. This story is an excellent example of why: note the subdued description of the rioters and the troublesome neighborhoods. It isn’t until the 21st of 24 paragraphs until one can find the only mention of the religion involved. Of course, I’m talking about Islam.

    Al-Qaida Claims Downing of U.S. Helicopter

    Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Thursday it shot down a U.S. attack helicopter that crashed, killing two Marines, and a U.S. general said witnesses saw the aircraft take ground fire and break up in the air.

    The AH-1W Super Cobra crashed Wednesday near Ramadi during daylong fighting in the insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad. In addition to the two crewmen, an American lieutenant died when a bomb exploded as he was rushing to the crash site.

    Another U.S. soldier died Thursday in a roadside bombing northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

    My best wishes to the families of the troops involved.

    A nuclear surge to follow Iran’s diplomatic purge

    Iran announced yesterday that it was removing 40 ambassadors from their posts abroad and indicated a further hardening of the regime’s policies by preparing a new phase in its nuclear programme.

    A day after The Times revealed that senior envoys were being purged from Iran’s diplomatic service, Manoucher Mottaki, the Foreign Minister, told the parliament in Tehran that “the missions of more than 40 ambassadors and heads of Iranian diplomatic missions abroad will expire” by March 20. He described the drastic changes, affecting nearly half of Iran’s foreign posts, as normal and insisted that many envoys were close to retirement.

    His assurances failed to silence critics, both in Iran and abroad, who insisted that key envoys were being dismissed because they were moderates closely identified with the reformist policies of previous administrations.

    As Iran shifts back towards the hard line in its efforts to thrust itself into the leadership of the Islamic world, they run the risk of solidifying opposition other than the U.S. and Israel. After seeing trouble within their own borders and hearing the all-too-familiar threats, threats that ring out in an echo of the 1930s, some eyes in continental Europe seem to be opening to a growing danger.

    Assassination probe finds a trail of suspects

    It reads like a spy novel, laying out an elaborate web of phone calls, surveillance and even a fake assassin intended to throw investigators off the trail.

    The United Nations report on the Feb. 14 assassination of former Leba-nese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri details months of plotting by top Syrian and Lebanese security officials.

    The report, which was released Oct. 20, implicates about a dozen men who are now the focus of the U.N. investigation.

    In the coming weeks, the fate of these men could provoke a showdown between Syria and the international community. Armed with the chilling 54-page report, the United States, France and Britain lobbied for a U.N. resolution that threatened Syria with sanctions unless it cooperates fully with the U.N. probe.

    The resolution, which was unanimously approved by the Security Council on Monday, requires Syria to detain any Syrian official or civilian deemed by U.N. investigators as a suspect in Hariri’s killing.

    This story could be dangerous. Still, it could also be grab-the-popcorn entertaining as Syria finds itself suddenly struggling like a fish on a hook.