Gitmo Inmate Pleads for U.S. to Keep Him in Custody

An inmate of Guantanamo Bay who spends 22 hours each day in an isolation cell is fighting for the right to stay in the notorious internment camp.

Ahmed Belbacha fears that he will be tortured or killed if the United States goes ahead with plans to return him to his native Algeria.

The London Times reported that Belbacha, who lived in Britain for three years, has filed an emergency motion at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., asking for his transfer out of Guantanamo to be halted. He was cleared for release from Camp Delta in February and his lawyers believe that his return to Algerian custody is imminent.

Read the original report in the London Times.

Belbacha says that if he returns to Algeria, he faces the threat of torture by security services and murder by Islamist terrorists.

Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel with the human rights lawyers Reprieve and Belbacha’s lawyer, has asked the US courts to block any transfer.

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Two Journalists Sentenced to Death in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran — The Iranian judiciary confirmed that two journalist from the country's Kurdish minority have been sentenced to death, a rare verdict against media people here, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Tuesday.

"Adnan Hassanpour and Hiva Boutimar have been sentenced to execution on the charge of Moharebeh," the agency quoted Ali Reza Jamshidi, spokesman of judiciary, as saying. Moharebeh, which literally means "fighting" in classical Arabic, is used in Iran's Sharia law to describe a major crime against the religion and the Islamic state.

The official new agency did not specify what crime the two Kurdish journalists were precisely accused of.

The journalists were also seen as activists in Sanandaj, the capital of the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, bordering Iraq.

They have been detained after Kurds protested in Sanandaj in 2005.

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Do As I Say, Not As I Do Man is Back.

ONLY one week after Live Earth, Al Gore's green credentials slipped while hosting his daughter's wedding in Beverly Hills.

Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass - arguably one of the world's most threatened fish species.

Also known as Patagonian toothfish, the species is under pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the sustainability of remaining stocks.

The species is currently managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources, the body which introduced a catch and trade documentation scheme as an attempt to tackle illegal poaching of this species.

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I wonder if they had frickin' laser beams on their heads?

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Browsing thru some yahoo news photos, I ran into the next few images. Alone, they tell a story, the Reuters story. But if you bundle them together, you see another story. Read the AP captions below.
An Iraqi weeps as he walks next to the vehicle carrying the coffin of Namir Noor-Eldeen, an Iraqi photographer working with Reuters, as the car passenger holds out a photograph of the deceased, during a funeral procession outside a Baghdad hospital morgue, 13 July 2007. Global news and information company Reuters on Monday demanded from the US military a full and objective investigation into the killing last week of two of its Iraqi employees.(AFP/File/Ahmad al-Rubaye)



Now the next set of Reuters photos clearly show this "stringer" seems to be imbeded with a Shi'ite militant group. Do they honeslty believe the coalition trrops should have to worry about a "stringer" that choses to run with the enemy during these bouts?



A gunman takes up position as he and his comrades engage British troops in central Basra, Iraq, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Monday, July 16, 2007. The clash began before sunset when the Provincial Joint Coordination Center was subjected to small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, said a British military spokesman. (AP Photo/ Nabil al-Jurani)












Gunmen take up position behind a garbage bin as they engage British troops in central Basra, Iraq, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Monday, July 16, 2007. The clash began before sunset when the Provincial Joint Coordination Center was subjected to small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, said a British military spokesman. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)




The bottom line is. Sure fine, run with these jihaders. But don't come compaling to the Coalition when one of your "stingers" gets hit. Like the old saying goes, you lie down with dogs, you're going to wake up with fleas.

Name that Bullet

AFP picture published on Yahoo news. The caption reads:

An Iraqi elderly woman inspects a bullet which she says hit her bed during an alleged overnight raid by US and Iraqi troops in Baghdad's impoverished district of Sadr City. Residents said two people were killed and four wounded during the raid.(AFP/Wissam al-Okaili)

A couple of bloggers Snapped Shot and Confederate Yankee are trying to figure out the type of bullet she's holding. A few guesses have been:

M903/M962 SLAP









This might be a bit too big. Also the SLAP isns't as round as the bullet pictured in the womans hand.









Others siad 7.62mm









This also is close.







How about .408 Chey Tac



















M48?



















Here's some more information on military ammo:

http://www.65grendel.com/65g_arammo.htm

If you ask me, I think its never been fired from a weapon. It looks like some sort of .50 black powder bullet. I doubt black powder weapons are that common over there. But it's just a guess. Maybe the photographer had it in his pocket and handed it to her.















Here's a closeup of the bullet in question:

Oh Boy..

Iranian soldiers gather around an anti-aircraft machinegun inside the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, 300 kms south of Tehran, March 2006. Commercial satellite imagery indicates Iran is tunneling into a mountain near its Natanz uranium enrichment complex, possibly to protect nuclear equipment against air attack, a US think tank reported Monday. Photo:Behrouz Mehri/AFP

CCRKBA TELLS GUN OWNERS TO CIRCLE AUG. 28 FOR COUNTER PROTEST EFFORT

NEWS RELEASE

Citizens Committee for the
Right to Keep and Bear Arms
12500 N.E. Tenth Place
Bellevue, WA 98005


CCRKBA TELLS GUN OWNERS TO CIRCLE AUG. 28 FOR COUNTER PROTEST EFFORT

For Immediate Release: July 9, 2007

BELLEVUE, WA – While Rev. Jesse Jackson is feverishly organizing a 25-city anti-gun protest on Tuesday, Aug. 28, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) wants gun owners to visit gun shops and shooting ranges, and contact their state and federal lawmakers on that date to demand that they support our Second Amendment rights.

Jackson’s day of national protest is timed on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington, D.C.

“The great hypocrisy here,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb, “is that Dr. King’s historic march was to promote and defend civil rights. What Jesse Jackson is planning is designed to crush America’s most important civil right. A right that Dr. King exercised by owning a handgun.”

Jackson wants to limit the number of firearms a person may purchase in a calendar year, place new restrictions on who is allowed to legally own a handgun, and mandate longer waiting periods.

“While Jackson and his gun-grabbing cronies want to make it more difficult, if not impossible, for average Americans to keep and bear arms,” Gottlieb said, “gun owners can exercise their Constitutional rights, and tell their lawmakers to defend the Second Amendment. They can visit a gun shop, buy a gun or ammunition, or visit a range and exercise their rights.

“Being from Chicago,” Gottlieb said, “it is astonishing that Jackson has failed to see the correlation between that city’s Draconian handgun ban and Chicago’s violent crime rate, yet he wants to lead a nationwide protest against a constitutionally-protected civil right. Rev. Jackson evidently has forgotten the question raised in Luke, Chapter 6: ‘Can the blind lead the blind’?”

“Holding law-abiding gun owners responsible for crimes they did not commit, which is what restrictive gun laws do, is like bearing false witness against thy neighbor,” Gottlieb said. “I might suggest that anybody joining in this protest remember the words of Matthew, who said ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”


With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is one of the nation's premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States. The Citizens Committee can be reached by phone at (425) 454-4911, on the internet at www.ccrkba.org or by email to InformationRequest@ccrkba.org.

Hijab hides iPod

Woman Juror Arrested After Allegedly Listening to MP3 Player During Murder Trial


LONDON — A woman juror has been arrested after she was allegedly caught listening to an MP3 player hidden beneath her hijab during a murder trial in London.

The Muslim woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of concealing the device beneath her headscarf so that she could listen to music during the testimony of a man who bludgeoned his disabled wife to death.

Judge Roger Chapple, presiding, said that he thought he could hear “tinny music” in the courtroom at Blackfriars Crown Court in Central London, but dismissed it as a figment of his imagination until another juror sent him a note.

The woman was arrested for contempt of court on the direction of the judge on June 27 and is bailed to appear at the court before Judge Aidan Marron on July 23. The arrest can only be reported now after Alan Wicks, 72, the defendant at the trial, was convicted yesterday.

The juror, who is in her early twenties, was discharged by Judge Chapple and given warning that her behavior, if proved, would amount to contempt of court. Outside the court she was searched by a police officer and an MP3 player was confiscated.

It is thought to be the first time that a juror has been accused of listening to music during a trial. John Cooper, a criminal barrister, said that people found guilty of contempt received an average of three years in prison. “It follows a long pedigree of contempt cases including jurors falling asleep and, in one case, jurors who used a Ouija board before they found a defendant guilty,” he said.

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Okay....WTF?

Atheists applaud Ellison's views on Cheney, Libby, 9/11

Freshman Congressman Keith Ellison was among friends Sunday -- in this case, a gathering of atheists -- so his support for a fistful of hot-button opinions, including the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, brought enthusiastic nods of approval and standing ovations.
As he was introduced to the eclectic gathering, which included one man wearing a black T-shirt that read "Investigate 9/11," Ellison was told that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Muslims had joined atheists at the bottom of popular opinion polls.

"You'll always find this Muslim standing up for your right to be atheists all you want," Ellison, the first Muslim to serve in Congress, said in a speech to more than 100 atheists at the Southdale Library in Edina. As Minnesota's first black member of the U.S. House ends his first six months in office, Ellison did not disappoint a crowd that seemed energized the more pointed he made his opinions.

On impeaching Cheney, which the Minneapolis DFLer supports: "[It is] beneath his dignity in order for him to answer any questions from the citizens of the United States. That is the very definition of totalitarianism, authoritarianism and dictatorship."

On calling the war in Iraq an "occupation": "It's not controversial to call it an occupation -- it is an occupation."

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Pandering to the nut-ballz. Keith hasn't been studying his Quran.

Ron Paul is geting pwned in the polls

USAT/Gallup Poll: Steady leads for Giuliani & Clinton

Fresh results from the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, parts of which are being released this hour:

• In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has a 10 percentage point lead nationally over former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., maintains his place in third.

• In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has a 16-point lead over second-place Sen. Barack Obama. Former vice president Al Gore, who has repeatedly said he has no plans to run for the White House in 2008, comes in third.

The breakdowns:

Republicans.

Giuliani has the support of 30% of "Republicans and Republican leaners," vs. 28% a month ago; Thompson comes in with 20%, vs. 19% in June; McCain has 16%, vs. 18% a month earlier.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney remains in fourth, at 9% vs. 7% in June.

The current numbers for the rest of the Republicans included in the survey: Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, 6%; former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, 2%; Rep. Duncan Hunter, 2%; Rep. Tom Tancredo, 2%; Sen. Sam Brownback, 1%; Sen. Chuck Hagel, 1%; former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, 1%. Neither former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore nor Rep. Ron Paul registered any support.

lolz-



I'd vote for RuPaul before I voted for this turd.

Straight from the RoP Playbook

Fears children are mosque shields

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Fears are growing that women and children are being used as human shields at a mosque besieged for two days by Pakistani government troops, as hundreds of militant students ignored a plea from their captured leader to surrender.

Pakistan's Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan said the few students who had quit the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque on Thursday said those inside the mosque believed security forces would try to keep casualties to a minimum.

"A large number of women and children are being held hostage by armed men in a room," Khan told a news conference, adding that the brother of the captured cleric was hiding in a basement with 25 "women hostages."

"Yes, they're using them as human shields, because the people who have come out, they told us that they're telling women and children not to worry because as long you're here forces will not attack us," he said according to Reuters.

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My plea to fellow Muslims: you must renounce terror

As the bombers return to Britain, Hassan Butt, who was once a member of radical group Al-Muhajiroun, raising funds for extremists and calling for attacks on British citizens, explains why he was wrong

Sunday July 1, 2007
The Observer

When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network, a series of semi-autonomous British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology, I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.

By blaming the government for our actions, those who pushed the 'Blair's bombs' line did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.
Friday's attempt to cause mass destruction in London with strategically placed car bombs is so reminiscent of other recent British Islamic extremist plots that it is likely to have been carried out by my former peers.

And as with previous terror attacks, people are again articulating the line that violence carried out by Muslims is all to do with foreign policy. For example, yesterday on Radio 4's Today programme, the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said: 'What all our intelligence shows about the opinions of disaffected young Muslims is the main driving force is not Afghanistan, it is mainly Iraq.'

He then refused to acknowledge the role of Islamist ideology in terrorism and said that the Muslim Brotherhood and those who give a religious mandate to suicide bombings in Palestine were genuinely representative of Islam.

I left the BJN in February 2006, but if I were still fighting for their cause, I'd be laughing once again. Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the 7 July bombings, and I were both part of the BJN - I met him on two occasions - and though many British extremists are angered by the deaths of fellow Muslim across the world, what drove me and many of my peers to plot acts of extreme terror within Britain, our own homeland and abroad, was a sense that we were fighting for the creation of a revolutionary state that would eventually bring Islamic justice to the world.

How did this continuing violence come to be the means of promoting this (flawed) utopian goal? How do Islamic radicals justify such terror in the name of their religion? There isn't enough room to outline everything here, but the foundation of extremist reasoning rests upon a dualistic model of the world. Many Muslims may or may not agree with secularism but at the moment, formal Islamic theology, unlike Christian theology, does not allow for the separation of state and religion. There is no 'rendering unto Caesar' in Islamic theology because state and religion are considered to be one and the same. The centuries-old reasoning of Islamic jurists also extends to the world stage where the rules of interaction between Dar ul-Islam (the Land of Islam) and Dar ul-Kufr (the Land of Unbelief) have been set down to cover almost every matter of trade, peace and war.

What radicals and extremists do is to take these premises two steps further. Their first step has been to reason that since there is no Islamic state in existence, the whole world must be Dar ul-Kufr. Step two: since Islam must declare war on unbelief, they have declared war upon the whole world. Many of my former peers, myself included, were taught by Pakistani and British radical preachers that this reclassification of the globe as a Land of War (Dar ul-Harb) allows any Muslim to destroy the sanctity of the five rights that every human is granted under Islam: life, wealth, land, mind and belief. In Dar ul-Harb, anything goes, including the treachery and cowardice of attacking civilians.

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