daily doses of whats on my mind :: from sites i like to view :: to viewable sites :: local news that alters my heart rate and international news that might alter yours ...
:: getting ready for the 'un' ... palestinians are adding bodies from cemetery to jenin mass grave ... residents have been instructed to erase any militant symbols and hide weapons ... and refrain from taking any militant action while the 'un' teams are present ...
:: back down, slow down ... you may be wondering [i hope not wandering] why there have been so few posts over the past few days ...
i have injured my spine ... quite severely ... and as such, have been forced to spend most of my time lying flat on the floor ... and it is extremely boring, to say the least.
three weeks ago, the chair i was sitting in collapsed ... the two back legs gave way and ... 'kadoonk' i hit the stone floor ... still in the chair. it didn't hurt. i went to work, but was uncomfortable, with a slight 'twist' in the back. i also noticed, and felt, a discomfort in my left leg ... the thigh and the calf ... stiff and very sore, as well as a 'numbness' in my foot. i went to the doctor. he said that there was definitely some form of bruising in the lower back and a 'swelling' of the nerves [siatic?] ... hence the pain in the leg. i found it difficult to stand for more than 10 minutes or to sit in a chair for more than 20 minutes. i can't even walk to the store 100 m down the road. the doc ordered a set of x-rays ... they showed a forward movement of the vertebra l-5 over s-1 ... the medical term they used is 'spondylolithesis'.
and so he ordered a 'ct' scan. this shows the l-5 vertebra forward movement. it also shows a herniation of the anulis around the disk, between l-4 and l-5. these two conditions have caused pressure to be exerted on the epidural sack, which in turn has given me this great discomfort and pain. i now have to go and see an 'orthopod' to see and find out what can be done ...
meantime, i remain on my back on the floor!!! i will gladly read any email you send ...
:: note to self ... send email to scott david herman :: at random [not really] i choose the name ‘david’ [my sons’ name], and did a search at the mirror project ... and found this pic ... and followed the link to this page ... and then followed the sdh link ...
:: saudi suicide support ... documents found in the west bank show the saudi arabian government paid more than $5,000 each to families of suicide bombers and other palestinians killed in the terror campaign against israel ...
:: at 11am this morning, i went for a massage ... i injured my spine pretty badly three weeks ago, but that's another story. qalqilyah [kalkiliya], the town where arafat was born and grew up, is just 1.6 km [1 mile] to the east. at noon, when the massage was over, i went to sit in the sun and relax ... all i could hear was the sound of helicopters ...
:: the jews took no one's land writes joseph farah ... as the most visible arab-american critic of yasser arafat and the phony 'palestinian' agenda, he gets a lot of hate mail. he's even received death threats.
he has taken upon himself the task of setting the facts straight regarding islamic and arab claims to
israel ...
:: powell to congress: no evidence of jenin massacre ... while trying to clear the way for 'un' fact-finders, us secretary of state colin powell told congress yesterday he has no evidence of an israeli massacre of palestinians at the jenin refugee camp ... 'i have no evidence of mass graves. i see no evidence that would support a massacre took place'.
:: article 15 of the pa charter still calls for the ... 'elimination of zionism' ... the text is the english version published officially by the plo, unabridged and unedited.
note ... the plo's translation sometimes deviates from the original arabic so as to be more palatable to western readers. the arabic is translated as 'the elimination of zionism', whereas the correct translation is 'the liquidation of the zionist presence'.'the zionist presence' is a common arabic euphemism for the 'state of israel', so this clause in fact calls for the destruction of israel, not just the end of zionism.
:: a jenin engineer... before the 'un' starts accusing israel of 'creating a humanitarian crisis', perhaps it is time they investigated how 'un'-run refugee camps have turned into havens for terrorists and bombmakers?
much of the damage in jenin was perpetrated by the terrorists themselves, who booby trapped buildings in the hope of destroying them on the heads of israeli forces. in one incident, this tactic succeeded in killing 13 soldiers at once.
one of the terrorists from jenin described these tactics at some length, including the use of civilians as human shields, in an interview in egypt's 'al ahram' daily newspaper ... it makes chilling reading ...
:: jenin 'justice' ... a man suspected of collaborating with israel was shot monday afternoon [april 22] a short distance from where I stood in the jenin refugee camp ...
:: captured fighters version of jenin similar to israeli version ... a senior member of islamic jihad who surrendered to israeli forces in jenin described the battle as 'a very hard fight' in which both sides took on casualties ... but he said he didn't see 'tens of people' killed by the israeli army.
:: on sunday, april 21, 2002, ‘fox news’ interviewed dennis ross [former middle east envoy and negotiator under the clinton administration] who was present in the crucial camp david and follow-up meetings in 2000.
as many of you know, former israeli pm barak was pushed by pres. clinton to make major concessions in order to try to get a peace treaty these concessions went far beyond anything previously offered. in the face of the best chance for peace ever, arafat said no and turned to violence with the intifada that started in september 2000. the talks collapsed after taba in january 2001.
since then the palestinians have attempted to spin what happened, to rewrite the history to say that the deal offered to arafat was not so favorable or to say that the israelis, not the palestinians, walked out of the meetings. another story is that the talks ended because of sharon's election in february 2001, not because of palestinian intransigence.
:: jenin devastation? ... i knew that much would be written about shchem [jenin] ... but here are some detailed photos, showing that it was a small area of the ‘camp’ [there are no tents anywhere to be seen]. take a look at these and these ... [tx :: letter from gotham]
:: hebron street court ... three bound palestinians, apparently suspected informers, were found shot to death this morning in the same spot where hours earlier israel killed marwan zalloum, commander of the fatah-tanzim aksa martyrs brigade militia in a missile attack ... a large crowd quickly gathered around the bodies lying in salam street in hebron. some of the bystanders kicked and spit at the corpses. the three men had been shot in the head, with their hands tied behind their backs ...
:: 'live' on-camera court case ... in this video clip, masked al-aqsa militiamen shoot three suspected collaborators in downtown ramallah ... a large crowd gathered to watch the men writhing on the ground in pain. [tx :: littlegreenfootballs]
:: absurd beyond the word ... in this article, producer steven tanner, of a pbs documentary states: israel might be behind suicide bombings. tanner stated in an online chat on march 29th that suicide bombings may have been 'allowed' to happen by israel, since the bombings allegedly 'served' the interests of israel rather than the palestinians ...
:: oriana fallaci on antisemitism ... many of you have heard of her, one of europe's best known journalists and authors. an article published [april 17, 2002] in the italian magazine 'panorama' [as well as picked up by the daily 'corriera della sera'] is starting to make lots of noise. fallaci, now aged 71, broke onto the scene in the late 60's when she covered vietnam, the greek colonels' coup, the the middle east. she was then ultra-trendy and a strong supporter of the palestinian cause. [tx :: isrealinsider]
:: the blue marble ... true-color global imagery at 1 km resolution ... the spectacular 'blue marble' images are the most detailed true-color images of the entire earth to date. using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. preview images and links to full resolution versions ... up to 21,600 pixels across ...
:: palestinian chemical weapons ... the idf finds 12 liters of poisonous bromine hidden in arafat's ramallah compound ... evidence that the palestinians are preparing to carry out chemical attacks on israel !
:: jeffrey zeldman, humble narrator is in his booth, ready to moderate today’s 'photoshop tennis' match ... pixelsurgeon vs surfstation ... pregame analysis is up now ... live match begins at 11 am [est.]
:: and so we have started pulling out of the some of the areas in the ongoing ‘operation defensive shield’ ... and within hours there are reports of suicide bombings and attacks ...
... and all of these occurred before 11am this morning!
:: on another note, i must express my opinion on ‘un’ envoy terje larsen ... maybe that should read ‘terrorist larsen’ ... i find it rather pathetic that he is quick to visit jenin and pass accusatory remarks against israel ... why the hell didn’t you come and visit netanya after the pesach seder suicide bombing and express your disgust and horror? and where were you after the haifa bombing? wake up! or are you afraid of arafat ...
:: former pm bibi netanyahu tells pm ariel sharon, ‘it is more difficult to explain to the us why israel is not acting to remove arafat than to justify the current military operation’.
:: the big lie ... never before has a complete lie, on such a large scale, been so successful ... so writes sharon nader sloan, a lebanese-american. this is a must read ...
:: 'do you think it is acceptable for me not to be able to go out of this door?', blurted an enraged arafat after his last meeting with powell, on wednesday, april 17.
well, now you know how it feels for us ... especially our children.
:: every now-and-then we get good news ... late this afternoon, an elite idf unit captured and arrested marwan barghouti, secretary general of arafat's fatah organization and commander of its tanzim military wing. he was arrested along with his brother, ahmad barghouti, one of the leaders of the al-aqsa martyrs' brigade.
barghouti, sometimes mentioned as a possible arafat successor, is on israel's wanted list for allegedly masterminding a number of terror attacks against israeli targets. he is an outspoken advocate of attacks on israelis. barghouti, who picked up fluent hebrew in israeli jails, is a leading figure ... some say the leader ... in the al-aqsa martyrs brigades. the militia has claimed dozens of shooting attacks against israelis and, in recent months, has begun staging suicide bombings as well.
:: idf now estimates 45 palestinians died in jenin fighting ... 'most of the palestinians that were killed were armed terrorists; many had explosive devices strapped to their bodies', said col. gal hirsh, head of operations in the central command at a briefing on friday. 'i regret that some palestinian civilians were injured and some were killed. we were fighting against armed terrorists. we asked the palestinian civilians to evacuate their homes so they would not get hurt; some chose not to.'
'we uncovered large quantities of arms, ammunition, explosives, and bombs, as well as dozens of laboratories where bombs were made', said brig.-gen. eyal shlein, head of army operations in the jenin camp.
:: from sunset tuesday, april 17, until sunset wednesday, april 18, marks israels' 54th year of independence. to give your support on the internet, head over to we are with you israel and show that you're a friend ...
this is the biggest flag i have seen. 70m x 35m [230ft x 115ft]. it covers all 10 floors of the 'holmes place' building in raanana, and is easily seen from 'tzomet tzafon raanana [raanana north junction] on 'kvish ghea' [highway 4]. pic taken thursday night april 11 ...
:: arafat never fails to fool us all ... and what's worse, is that it was read by an aid. here is the full text of arafat's statement. maybe the nytimes should split their screen, and alongside print this, this, this and this!
:: in this factual article in the nytimes, refugee camp is a scene of vast devastation, journalist james bennet fails to tell the truth. the scenes he describes may well be true, however, he makes little mention, and gives no details, of the gross disrespect for human life by the terror groups them selves. no mention that apartment blocks, full of civilians, many of which had arms 'labs' in their basements, were booby trapped and detonated by the terrorists, thus causing most of the devastation.
come on nytimes, get a grip. tell the truth as well as the facts!
:: powell refocuses on tehran-baghdad-beirut-damascus-ramallah axis ahead of arafat issue
two events on friday, april 12, reshaped colin powell’s conception of his peace mission: his tour of israel’s tense northern border region, which he termed "an eye opener"; and the suicide bombing attack in jerusalem -- just as his helicopter lifted off from the knesset helipad only a quarter of a mile away, killing six sabbath eve market shoppers and injuring 89.
landing in the israel-lebanese border sector, he was greeted by a group of generals past and present like himself: defense minister binyamin ben eliezer, the designated (currently deputy) chief of staff maj.-gen. moshe yaalon and oc northern command maj.-gen gaby ashkenazi.
debkafile’s military sources report that the briefings the visitor from washington received covered the following developments:
1. the iranian missile and ammo airlift to the hizballah, which is running from bandar abbas via damascus military airport. tehran is keeping the lebanese shiite group amply re-supplied with the means to keep up the almost daily cross-border barrage into israel. the offensive was launched two weeks ago, with the 8,000 rockets the hizballah received from iran. the iranian transports are allowed to cross iraqi airspace and refuel at iraqi bases.
2. iran has stuffed hizballah accounts in syrian banks with millions of dollars to fund operations.
3. iranian revolutionary guards, several hundred of whom are posted in lebanon, have helped hizballah mortar and rocket crews improve their accuracy manifold.
4. iraq and iran are bound by secret military pacts, as are iraq and syria. both have been activated to coordinate the operations of their air and missile forces.
5. despite their public denials, both syria and iran continue their active and direct sponsorship of terrorist organizations, including al qaeda. ahmed jibril’s hardline palestinian front for the liberation of palestinian – general command, which is controlled by syrian military intelligence, has been given free rein to launch katyusha attacks against and terrorist incursions into israel from syrian soil, in unison with hizballah assaults. syrian intelligence used terrorist elements in lebanon last month for a deadly ambush on a main highway in north galilee, in which seven israelis were shot dead.
syria has also become a back door for smuggling hizballah and al qaeda fighters into the west bank through the golan heights - as well as weapons and explosives.
in lebanon, agents run by the senior al qaeda operations officer, the iranian-lebanese terror master imad mughniyeh, are busy plotting terrorist strikes against us and israel targets around he gulf and middle east, as part of the overall campaign. al qaeda militants transferring from iraq, iran and the gulf to lebanon are granted free passage through damascus. they are limited to a 12-hour stay and forbidden to use the syrian capital’s hotels.
6. some of the al qaeda groups, including kurdish tribesmen, have joined the ranks of the hizballah and the palestinian units based in palestinian refugee camps in south lebanon.
7. baghdad regards the palestinian confrontation with israel in the west bank and gaza strip as iraq’s first line of defense against a us assault; iran views lebanon in similar terms.
arafat is kept in the picture by his allies - syria, lebanon, iraq and the hizballah.
when the secretary of state said he had been given an eye opener, yasser arafat, understood his allies had been handed a grave caution. from his place of siege in ramallah, the palestinian leader therefore produced a lukewarm, equivocal condemnation of terror – not in his voice and without mention of suicide bombers. while the white house spokesman emphasized its condemnation by referring to those terrorists as "homicide bombers", in the sense of murderers, arafat regards them as martyrs.
the homicidal-suicidal bombing attacks will therefore go on. israeli security is back on high alert, especially in jerusalem, after the few days’ respite granted by israel’s military operation against palestinian cities, on guard for trouble as israel’s independence day approaches on tuesday april 16.
with the same sort of double standard, the syrian and iranian governments insist that they are not involved in terror.
debkafile’s sources report that for the first time powell may have realized that the rapid war escalation in the middle east has gone too far to be stopped by words and diplomacy. this acceptance will affect the bush administration’s determination to avoid its global war on terror bringing washington into collision with the arab world, whose leaders told powell they did not consider arafat’s suicidal killers to be terrorists and murderers.
it is too soon to tell if powell’s change of perception is fundamental or subject to the bush administration’s policy vacillations. for now, washington appears to have pulled away from the arab-european efforts to rescue arafat and his shrinking clique. in the view of debkafile’s middle east experts, therefore, whether or not the powell-arafat encounter in ramallah comes off or not is of diminishing consequence given the large picture of events marching forward in the region. washington has reshuffled its agenda and placed high up the goal of breaking – or at least fracturing – the iran-iraq-syria-palestinian alignment ranging itself as a forward bulwark against an american attack on baghdad.
the palestinian military line was cracked in the middle when jenin fell to the idf this week. now the hizballah line in lebanon comes into us focus.
:: palestinian attack on powell motorcade foiled ...israeli security foiled a palestinian terrorist attempt to hit the motorcade driving us secretary of state colin powell from ben gurion airport to jerusalem thursday night, april 11, shortly after he landed. the secretary was accompanied by israeli foreign minister shimon peres and heads of the us embassy.
just before 9 pm, two hours before the us secretary arrived, a palestinian red crescent ambulance was stopped by a hidden israeli security patrol near the gas station on the modi’in-jerusalem highway 443. the driver and his mate had all the necessary permits for transporting a dead palestinian policeman to the gaza strip. however, since yasser arafat’s confinement in ramallah, security has been intensified on all traffic coming from the direction of the palestinian town, in case of an attempt to smuggle him out. in any case, in a war situation, in which passage from the west bank to the gaza strip has been suspended, all permits are checked for forgeries.
the ambulance was therefore opened up and searched carefully. hidden under the corpse was a large supply of explosives and a suicider’s bomb belt.
according to some of debkafile’s sources, the two palestinians admitted under questioning that they had planned to pull the ambulance up on the jerusalem-tel aviv expressway, the route taken later by the powell motorcade. one of the men was to stay in the vehicle, while the other strapped on the bomb belt and hid in some roadside bushes. when the secretary’s car drove by, the ambulance was rigged to explode. the second bomber was then supposed to leap into the milling crowd of officials and security men and blow himself up.
at 22:07pm, the booby-trapped red crescent ambulance was blown up in a controlled explosion, creating a bang loud enough to frighten dwellers in a broad radius and start the rumor of a rocket attack. israel security is now investigating the provenance of the red crescent ambulance and the official permits.
:: hezbollah offers captured israeli for palestinians in jenin ... [in beirut, lebanon] the leader of the militant lebanese-based hezbollah terrorist organization has offered to trade an israeli businessman captured by the group in exchange for a guarantee that israel would spare the lives of about 100 palestinian guerrillas still holding out in jenin ...
:: happy birthday tosh ... and many, many more. yup, my older brother, arthur, celebrates his birthday today. may your day be happy, joyful, fun and above all special! we love and miss you lots ...
:: today was 'yom hashoah'. no news on tv or radio. at about 10am word came through the 'reshet' [network] that a lot of soldiers had been killed in an ambush in jenin. also, that the rescue unit that followed, were ambushed by the same terrorists. nothing more. no numbers. silence all day ...
... except for the sirens a t 10am this morning. 2 minutes. everyone stops what they are doing. you stand up to attention and remember those that perished in the ‘shoah’.
fighting continues in jenin tonight [tuesday] ... eight more israeli troops are injured. earlier, thirteen israeli soldiers were killed and nine injured, three seriously, by multi-bomb trap, during house-to-house search for terrorists. still holed up, is remnant of jihad islami, hamas and fatah ... hard core of suicide squads. their commander is jamal abu heija, senior jihad islami officer in jenin. the fatal bomb trap was rigged in an explosives factory under a block of buildings ... dozens of palestinian also died in blast. this jenin battle is one of the most savage taht the idf has ever faced. palestinians are fighting behind civilian shields
when we finally started getting news, just after sunset, it was worse than we could have thought. these terrorists took dead soldiers as hostages ... how sick. large quantities of rockets and launchers were found hidden in a mosque in jenin. a ‘laboratory’ for making bombs, suicide belts, grenades and rpgs was discovered in another building. the idf exploded the entire building, including this deathly cache
from early this evening, hizballah lebanese positions are again ‘raining’ shells and rockets down on israeli targets on mt. hermon, the golan and the shaaba farms.
:: something is going down in jenin, but news is very sketchy. it seems that palestinian gunmen ambushed an israeli patrol. when israeli first aid units arrived to tend to the injured and wounded, they were ambushed again. will up-date as soon as info comes through ...
up-date 4:29pm israeli helicopters rocket jenin enclave in which hundreds of jihad islami fighters battle with
israeli forces in heaviest fighting in 18 months. high casualties on both sides. israeli troops caught in bomb ambush. israeli leaders delay official statement on casualty figures until battle ends.
a 14 y/o hacker figures out a way to display online news headlines on apple's ipod digital music player ... or ... ipod, music to hackers' ears ... read on ...
:: mortar and missile fire from lebanon ... seven idf soldiers - five of them women - were wounded by mortar and missile fire from lebanon yesterday evening [5pm, sunday, april 7], in the heaviest and most widespread bombardments by hizbullah and palestinian terrorist groups since the idf's withdrawal from south lebanon nearly two years ago. the bombardments were covered live on lebanese television, indicating that camera crews had been told in advance of the planned action, a hizbullah practice.
ok, let's see how long it takes the media to blame this on israel!!!
:: some time ago i saw what looked like an interesting project called ‘the peer-to-peer review project’. i’m reviewing tricky pup ...
overall impression visually the site looks good. the graphics are simple, which is good. however, i get the feeling that this is not the work of an experienced designer.
writing style yes, ‘tricky pup’ likes to write. so do i. i think that each person develops a style over time. we are all instant journalists and can learn from each other. going through the archives and reading previous blogs, i found her style fun and straight.
design nav on the left with content on the right ... a safe 2-column layout. the nav is made up of graphics and descriptive text. the typography lacks finesse. but then i noticed a repeat of the nav at the top of the second column in html. after going into a few of the links, i realized that the html nav is the main nav. a bit confusing. on the inner pages, i feel the graphics on the left almost serve no purpose, besides giving the name of the section you’re in. again, the typography is not that of a mature designer. it would also be nice to have ‘permalinks’ at the end of each entry, enabling others to link to specific entries.
special features none ...
i’m not purposefully being mean in reviewing this site. i like to criticize in a positive and constructive way.
overall, the site gets done what it intended to do ... a simple personal blog that gives one a glimpse into another’s realm. by the way, where does the name ‘tricky pup’ come from?
:: a couple of interesting and frightening bits of info on debka today. it's long, but you should read it ...
"... military sources show that arafat anticipated the crippling effect israel’s counter-offensive would have on his suicide campaign. he made standby arrangements that he can activate notwithstanding israel’s military presence in all the west bank cities.
his determination to do so was stiffened by the words he heard from president bush saturday, april 6, at his joint news conference with british prime minister tony blair. the president accused arafat of failing in leadership, not performing and never living up to the promises he made in oslo. bush added he expects israel to quit palestinian cities "without delay", following which ariel sharon called the president to assure him israel means to complete its operation as quickly as possible. however, powell made it clear he has no plans to call on the palestinian leader in the course of his mission.
arafat will now go all-out to prove to bush, as well as to the israelis, that he cannot be pushed aside.
his tools for achieving this were assembled in good time.
israeli military intelligence, the cia and other israeli and us counter-terrorism agencies have discovered, according to debkafile’s military sources, that the six major terrorist attacks rocking israeli mediterranean coastal cities in march (tel aviv, haifa, netanya and ashdod) had a hidden purpose, besides killing a large number of israelis. they diverted attention from the rubber dinghies dropping al qaeda and hizballah terror squads, interspersed with palestinians, along israeli beaches.
the discovery was confirmed in the final reports of the investigations into the two last netanya attacks: the assault at the jeremy hotel on march 9 and the passover seder massacre at the seaside resort’s park hotel, 18 days later.
after both attacks, black dinghies were found buried on the sandy beach, prompting wide-scale searches up and down the israeli coast from rosh hanikra in the north to ashkelon in the south.
ten dinghies turned up in at least three locations: five in netanya; the rest in nearby michmoret and caesarea. each dinghy can carry eight to 10 commandos with their weapons and gear. tracks in the sand showed that each toted a heavy pack weighing 40 to 70 kilos (90 to 155 lb), suggesting large explosive charges or heavy weapons, such as missiles.
the last landing appears to have taken place under cover of the suicide attack on the allenby street café in tel aviv saturday night, march 30.
for most of sunday, march 31, israeli security forces closed the old tel aviv-haifa highway along a 70-mile (110-km) stretch - from the petach tikva junction just north of tel aviv to the southern entrances of haifa. the public notice to frustrated motorists and commuters explained the measure as due to the incursion of palestinian suicide bombers from the west bank. the al qaeda-hizballah infiltration from the opposite direction, the mediterranean, was not released.
intelligence agencies and israeli troops operating in palestinian areas this week are actively seeking these intruders before they can be activated."
:: i linked to junkyardblog a few entries back. but this is on a different note. and i quote ... "hubble space telescope fans are probably aware that as of the astronaut service call to it last month, it has a new camera on board called the 'advanced camera for surveys. i work for hubble and I've just seen some *preliminary* and not fully processed images from it -- and I'm speechless." and then went on to say, "and no, I can't post them here. they're way to big, the data processing on them isn't finished, and i'd get fired for pre-empting the release date, which is set for early to mid may. i like blogging, but i like getting paid to keep my day job even more."
:: got an email a short while ago and quickly found myself reading this article; which had a link to this blog; and then followed a link to this blog.
i'm not the only one who finds the media lies offensive. i am actually convinced and certain, that the media themselves, have created this war. why? better readership i suppose. that's what journalism is about, isn't it?
:: hi ... it's now late friday afternoon. and it's been a hot day. so different from yesterdays' cold misty stuff. and the war continues ...
bush has been mouthing it off ... "it's about time!", i say. maybe, just maybe, the world might get to know and understand that arafat is a terrorist. period. didn't i once hear someone say, "... either you are with us or you are with the terrorists!", or something like that?
pardon, what was that? sorry, don't think i heard you properly. too much noise from all those bullets, shells, rockets, and jets. you want me to stop fighting the terrorists. but you just said that he is a terrorist! that he's done nothing for his people. that he's betrayed his people ... i just don't understand you.
anyway, the eradication of all these terrorists is what we are doing now. let's talk again when we've accomplished that.
terrorism = evil. and that's that !!!
podhoretz: bush must face truth about arab terror against Israel ... more than half a century ago, the british writer george orwell made a famous statement that can still serve as the beginning of wisdom for anyone trying to unravel the tangled relation between the war against terrorism being waged by the united states and the attitude of the bush administration toward the war against terrorism being waged by israel. What orwell said was that "political speech and writing had largely turned into the defense of the indefensible". [note: the 'printed' version in the jpost newspaper is much longer. i'll try and find an online version]
:: on a much lighter note, i received this yesterday. it made me laugh hard and loud.
mahatma gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. he also ate very little which made him rather frail. and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath.
this made him ...
a super callused fragile mystic, hexed by halitosis
:: in ramallah, israel finds a document directly linking the 'pa' to 'al aqsa' terror attacks
a document was seized during a raid on the ramallah office of fuad shubeiki, who heads the pa's financial apparatus. the document, which was sent to shubeiki by the al aqsa martyrs brigade, which is directly linked to arafat's fatah faction, lists the organization's demands from the pa for suicide bombings that had already been carried out.
the document lists financial demands for ceremonies honoring suicide bombers as well as money to support families of the suicide bombers.
the fifth article of the document lists demands for producing explosive devices: "the cost of supplying electronic and chemical components for explosive devices and bombs - this was our largest expense. the cost of preparing a bomb is at least nis 700 [all prices are quoted in israeli sheqels]. we need to equip five to nine bombs each week for our cells in various locations. nis 5000 times four weeks equals nis 20,000."
article seven of the document details the "cost of 3,000 bullets for kalachnikov rifles at a cost of nis 7.5 per bullet, and 30,000 bullets for m-16 rifles at a cost of nis 2 per bullet. we need the immediate transfer of funds so as to make the purchase - nis 22,500 for kalachnikov bullets and nis 60,000 for m-16 bullets."
alongside the document were comments and calculations carried out by shubeiki's office.
colonel miri eisen, a senior idf intelligence officer who presented the document, said that since the letter was sent, several days after september 11, 2001, eight members of the al aqsa martyrs brigade had carried out suicide bombings in israel.
eisen estimated arafat never signed documents tying him to the terrorist activities of various organizations, but that shubeiki's signature, who is part of arafat's inner circle, testifies to the pa's involvement in acts of terror.
shubeiki was the individual who financed the purchase of the karine-a weapons ship from iran in december 2001. shubeiki had visited baghdad in august 2001 so as to coordinate positions with the iraqi government, and that in may 2001 he was present at a meeting in moscow during which the draft for joint activities between iran and the pa was agreed upon.
also seized in shubeiki's office during the raid were hundreds of thousands of counterfeit sheqels, which according to military estimates, were to be used to purchase the explosives and weapons.
:: found magazine ... they collect 'found' stuff ... love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles ... anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life. anything goes ...
:: the facts taking advantage of the turmoil of the haifa restaurant suicide bombing on sunday afternoon, march 31, 2002, a group of foreign pro-palestinian campaigners – most from europe – managed to get past israeli forces in ramallah and reach arafat’s office. with them were some foreign correspondents.
:: the truth when the group left the office, planted among them were several palestinian terror chiefs wanted by israel. the moment the campaigners were outside, they were surrounded by heavy israeli forces and most of the palestinian fugitives captured.
but the protesters performed a more important clandestine service for the palestinians, as it later emerged:
while holed up in ramallah, palestinian strategists had devised a plan for deploying a unit of suicides for the first time in battle against israeli troops. the unit’s mission was to fight the israeli siege force and inflict heavy casualties, after which the survivors were to head for arafat’s compound, break the israeli encirclement and release their leader and his men.
palestinian recovery of control of ramallah’s center – even for a few hours - would have been a major victory, enabling arafat to declare he had broken out of the israeli siege in 2002, unlike the one in beirut 1982.
to carry out this operation, required intelligence and a means of sending orders out of the besieged quarters to the unit. the european protesters were more than willing to oblige. as they advanced on foot through ramallah to arafat’s compound, they noted the positions of israeli troops and tanks and made their report to the imprisoned palestinian leaders. while the news cameras recorded the foreign supporters hugging and kissing the palestinian leader, tirawi took a group aside and briefed a small group on the orders to be conveyed to the suicide unit. when they left, they carried orders to the suicide unit waiting outside in central ramallah.
that night, a contingent of 40-50 suicide combatants – some armed with explosive belts - went into action. as they advanced on the government compound, they were quickly surrounded by elite idf troops, who fought their first hand- to-hand battle with a large contingent of suicides trained in military combat.
the battle lasted six hours. palestinians with explosive belts strapped to their bodies attempted from time to time to approach israeli soldiers and blow themselves up together – and were thrown back. the battle ended with the palestinian unit destroyed or captured. six were killed and four seriously injured. There were no israeli casualties.
the defeat of tirawi’s crack suicide unit ended arafat’s hopes of fighting his way out of his corner.
the defeat of the suicide unit has wider repercussions. until sunday night, the suicides were considered invincible, capable of bringing governments and armies low by terrorizing civilians.
the ramallah battle proved that suicides can be disarmed and vanquished when deprived of their primary weapon: their ability to instill fear.
... and that's the truth. a very different story from the one we have been seeing on cnn's pathetic one-sided view of reality!
:: sit. speak. good photon! ... researchers have trapped a laser pulse inside a glass chamber. and released it again intact. such command of light could lead to mind-boggling new technologies ...
:: waterlogged camera turns magic ... want to teach old technology new tricks? pray for a random disaster. farrell eaves' camera was a perfectly ordinary nikon coolpix 990 until he accidentally knocked it into a pond last summer. now it's a magic camera ...
:: the women of enron ... for those who said that all the enron scandal lacked was sex, the wait is almost over ... "we're looking at this as something fun for them to do while they're looking for another job. this might even turn into a modeling career for them," said playboy spokeswoman elizabeth norris ...
:: 'peace in the middle east' senate floor statement by u.s. senator james m. inhofe -- march 4, 2002 this is long but an interesting perspective dealing with peace in the middle east. senator inhofe is serving his 2nd term in the senate from the state of oklahoma. he is a republican, a presbyterian and a very 'clear thinker'. it's a little long, but worth reading every word ...
:: suicidal lies [thomas friedman, nytimes] have you ever heard arafat talk about what sort of education system or economy he would prefer, what sort of constitution he wants? no, because he is not interested in the content of a palestinian state, only the contours. [tx rafe colburn rc3.org daily]
:: rc3.org daily by rafe colburn is a great place for finding views and reviews on many current and topical events. great writing and journalistic skills. a 'must read' site that's worth a bookmark.
