Category: Networks

— The most important piece of news from the Middle East in a long time is discussed on Rantburg:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet on Sunday approved a U.S. proposal aimed at ending the month-old siege outside Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s compound in Ramallah. The U.S. plan calls for U.S. and British personnel to guard six Palestinians wanted by Israel, and in turn Arafat would be allowed to leave his compound and move freely in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

It looks to me like a step toward de-escalation of the conflict, but Fred’s got a different take.

— The Times of London has more evidence of IRA involvement with Colombian drug lords:

Three suspected IRA men, Martin McCauley, James Monaghan and Niall Connolly, were arrested last August in Colombia for allegedly helping guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) develop expertise in mortars, bombs, missiles and intelligence. McCauley and Monaghan have firearm and explosives convictions. Connolly was identified as Sinn Fein’s representative in Cuba.

The Super Bowl commercials about drugs and terrorism weren’t as far off the mark as was previously believed.

— PE.com | Local News

RIVERSIDE – Forget an apple a day. If you want to stay out of the cardiologist’s office, drink five glasses of water a day.

Drink up. And drink up again.

— Irish terrorist Gerry Adams refused to answer questions about the IRA and Sinn Fein’s role in training terrorists in Columbia and Cuba at a Congressional hearing Tuesday (FT.com):

The Irish Republican Army has formed part of a global terror network based in Colombia, training Marxist guerrillas alongside Iranian and Cuban officials as well as Basque terrorists, according to a nine-month congressional investigation…

On Tuesday Gerry Adams, the Sinn F?in leader, declined a request by the committee to explain the IRA’s involvement in Colombian terrorism at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday. But he predicted the party’s US support would be unaffected by his refusal to explain the arrest of three leading republicans in Colombia. He said the party was just back from one its most extensive fundraising tours in the US.

A spokesman for the Republican-controlled committee said its invitation to Sinn F?in “was an opportunity for Mr Adams to offer some explanation about why two IRA explosives experts and the Sinn F?in political officer stationed in Cuba were arrested in August following a visit to a safe haven controlled by the Farc, a designated foreign terrorist organisation.

“Terrorism imperils Colombian democracy, and the alleged IRA role in helping groups like the Farc perpetuate the violence poses a direct threat to US national interests.”

I really don’t see how we can make headway in the war on terror as long as people like Gerry Adams are allowed to freely raise money in the United States to support his heinous activities. Not only is he allowed to raise money for terror, they named a street after him in Oakland. The double standard has to go – this man has bombed and murdered school children and other innocent people in the UK, and still he walks around free as a bird.

Update: here’s another link on the IRA/Columbia connection, gleaned from Instapundit during a rare moment of Blogspot uptime. I won’t link Insty since Blogspot will probably be down if you try and go there.

— Doc Searls wants an end to ideological labels, and toward that end he quotes this unfortunate statement of Photo Dude’s:

And on the other side of the coin, there are indeed people who may not have been First Wavers like Jason but were veteran bloggers long before 9-11, who consider themselves generally left of center, yet fully support the war on terrorism.

And don’t care if they are published in a book or not.

So build me my own cubbyhole. No label, please.

Labels like “First-Waver” are good, even when applied to late adopters, but labels like “fuzzy-headed pacifist” or “warblogger” are bad. I see now, sorry I missed the memo.

— Sgt. Stryker addresses the bumper-sticker slogan of Searls’ idol in this brilliant essay:

Let’s take the phrase “Killing does not justify killing”. What does it mean? More importantly, what are the consequences of this belief and is it morally acceptable?

Dr. Frank was impressed by this as well.

— “Most people are reasonable, most of the time; for the rest, you need Master Bomb.” — me.

— In the interest of starting a constructive dialog between war blogers and the anti-life HTML technician bloggers allied with the Prince of Darkness, I dropped the following note on the Doc (of what?) Searls Weblog

I’ve got a real dilemma on my hands – jeneane talks about the warbloggers [sic] unwillingness to see the other side, and Doc says that being pro-war is being pro-killing and death. My dilemma, of course, is that I can’t decide which of these remarks is more stupid, vapid, self-serving, and asinine.

In favor of “seeing the other side,” it would help me if jeneane or someone else who feels that way would kindly explain the side that believes that bombing the WTC and the Pentagon on Sept. 11 was a Good Thing. I haven’t heard a persuasive argument for that point of view, but I don’t deny that there might be one in some parallel universe. Factually, even people who have a hard-on against Western Civilization admit that the attack created backlash and didn’t help their cause.

In favor of “pro-war is pro-death” we have the fact that war is seen by its proponents as appropriate in some circumstances and inappropriate in others, where the ultimate goal is bringing peace and protecting life. Being pro-war because you think the just war brings peace and security is certainly no more contradictory than selling a magazine promoting free software; it’s a means to an end. And don’t talk to me about Gandhi, because he was very clear about the fact that his tactics only worked because the British were fundamentally moral and decent. You can’t shame somebody who has no conscience.

Since I’ve been logging my thoughts on the Web since 1994, I’ve enjoyed seeing the work of newbie bloggers who’ve come online in the last 5 years; but let’s not get too arrogant about our points of view or pedigrees, OK?

See the next article for the links to what I was commenting on.

— People who are cluck-clucking over the brutality of the Israelis in the Jenin Refugee Camp and Breeding Ground for Suicide Bombers should read Sgt. Stryker’s Daily Briefing for a different (and more plausible) take on what really happend in Jenin:

Omar and other “engineers” made hundreds of explosive devices and carefully chose their locations.

“We had more than 50 houses booby-trapped around the camp. We chose old and empty buildings and the houses of men who were wanted by Israel because we knew the soldiers would search for them,” he said.

“We cut off lengths of mains water pipes and packed them with explosives and nails. Then we placed them about four metres apart throughout the houses — in cupboards, under sinks, in sofas.”

The fighters hoped to disable the Israeli army’s tanks with much more powerful bombs placed inside rubbish bins on the street. More explosives were hidden inside the cars of Jenin’s most wanted men.

Connected by wires, the bombs were set off remotely, triggered by the current from a car battery.

According to Omar, everyone in the camp, including the children, knew where the explosives were located so that there was no danger of civilians being injured. It was the one weakness in the plan.

“We were betrayed by the spies among us,” he says. The wires to more than a third of the bombs were cut by soldiers accompanied by collaborators. “If it hadn’t been for the spies, the soldiers would never have been able to enter the camp. Once they penetrated the camp, it was much harder to defend.”

It was a setup, in other words.

— Mass hysteria comes to Washington, DC this weekend, with an old-fashioned little peace march:

The main demands at the White House demonstration will be “FREE PALESTINE! No new war on Iraq!”, “Stop the attacks on Arab and Muslim people! Defend civil liberties!”, and “Money for Jobs, Education, Healthcare and Housing, Not Racist War!”

Top speakers will include convicted cop-killer and hardcore racist Free Mumia (with purchase of equal or greater value) and pro-terrorist Fadia Rafeedi. Like Juan Gato, I wish I’d a got a ticket to DC for all the fun and games. I’ve been dying to hear all about the connection between Arafat-hunting and AIDS, for example. But they explain it all:

Bush and the global corporations he represents are busy bombing Afghanistan, supporting Israeli war against the Palestinians and planning to bomb Iraq, Colombia, the Philippines, Peru, Indonesia, Iran, and elsewhere while millions of people are dying from the preventable disease of HIV/AIDS. Greedy corporations like Merck, GlaxoWellcome, and Dupont are racking up billions of dollars in profits from AIDS while 8,000 people from developing countries die each day!

So there you have it – Bush spreads AIDS in the Third World. I’m shocked, but not surprised; but how did Sullivan catch it?