Iranians Again Threaten Trials For Captured 15

We're in day eight of this crisis with no sign that the release of the 15 British service members is going to end anytime soon. The Iranians are once again suggesting that they're going to put the 15 on trial.

Does anyone have any questions what the outcome of that would be? A show trial with bogus information and confessions by Britons who have been confined and coerced? That outcome would never be in doubt.

What is in doubt is the resolve of the British government to free their service members.

Iran's ambassador to Russia renewed a threat Iranian officials made earlier this week, saying 15 British sailors held by Iran could be tried for violating international law, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported Saturday.

Gholam-Reza Ansari told Russian television Vesti-24 on Friday that Iran had launched a legal investigation of the British sailors. "They will be tried if there is enough evidence of guilt," Ansari was quoted by IRNA as saying.

Britain's Foreign Office said it was checking the claim that the sailors were facing trial, but noted that the ambassador's comments didn't alter their view of what was needed to resolve the standoff.

"This doesn't change our position, we have made it perfectly clear that our personnel were in Iraqi waters and we continue to request immediate consular access to them and their immediate release," said a spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office, speaking on customary condition of anonymity in line with government rules.

Ansari's talk of the sailors and marines possibly being tried echoes comments made earlier this week by Ali Larijani, the main negotiator in Iran's foreign dealings.

Let's see all the international laws that the Iranians ignored in their pursuit of a confrontation. The laws and conventions broken include: invading Iraqi sovereign waters; capturing British forces in violation of the laws of the seas; threatening uniformed soldiers with espionage in contravention of the Geneva Convention; the display of the soldiers on media sources for propaganda purposes; and withholding access to those soldiers.

The Iranians claim that the British have escalated the matter by taking it to the sewing circle known as the United Nations. Heh. Iran scoffs at the UN demands on a daily basis and yet this limited British response is provocative? Right.

The only provocative acts were those taken by the Iranians when they illegally captured, and continue to hold, the 15 Britons. If they don't release the 15 now, Britain is well within its rights to not only go to the UN, but to take more aggressive actions. The problem is that the British appear to have tabled military action and that restraint is seen as weakness by the Iranians, which only further deepens the crisis.

Allah has more analysis, including potential US responses to the ongoing crisis.

Fighting Continues in Mogadishu For Third Day

The Somali Islamists didn't go quietly into the night. They're still around and they're causing mayhem in the Somali capital.

Fighting raged for a third day in the Somali capital Saturday as government troops and their Ethiopian allies continued a major offensive to quash a growing insurgency by Islamic militants.

Artillery fire and mortar shells rained down on the capital, sending residents fleeing some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since the early 1990s.

On Friday, insurgents shot an Ethiopian helicopter gunship out of the sky and mortar shells slammed into a hospital, leaving corpses piled in the streets and wounding hundreds of civilians.

According to an official count, 30 people have been killed since the offensive started Thursday. But the fighting was so severe and widespread in Mogadishu that bodies were not being picked up or even tallied, and residents said hundreds more were believed dead across the city of 1 million people.

The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by U.S. special forces.

Insurgents were firing mortars from residential areas of the city, and Ethiopian troops responded with barrages of heavy artillery. The attacks occurred across the flat seaside capital, and huge plumes of smoke rose into the air.

Something Doesn't Add Up

David Hicks, aka Muhammad Dawood, was sentenced to up to seven years under the plea deal arranged with prosecutors, and yet he's actually only going to serve nine months?

He was tried by a military tribunal under a system created by President Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks that has been widely criticized as a violation of the prisoners' right to challenge their confinement in U.S. courts.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the verdict vindicated what his government had said _ that Hicks was a dangerous terrorist. But his father, Terry Hicks, called the light sentence "amazing" given that "the Americans have been touting David as the worst of the worst."

"Something's not right. It shows how weak the evidence is in this charade," he said.

Hicks had faced a maximum sentence of life in prison. He entered a guilty plea Monday night, but he was not formally convicted until the judge accepted his plea at Friday's session.

A panel of officers flown to Guantanamo for the sentencing Hicks deliberated for two hours before approving a sentence of seven years, the maximum allowed under the plea deal. After they left the courtroom, the judge, Marine Corps Col. Ralph Kohlmann, revealed all but nine months would be suspended.

Asked if the outcome was what he was told to expect, Hicks said, "Yes, it was."

The plea deal will send Hicks to a prison in Australia within 60 days. His sentence begins immediately, but Guantanamo commanders said there would be no change in his detention conditions before his departure.

Hicks' father is right that there is something wrong when prosecutors claim that he was the worst of the worst and yet receives only nine months in addition to the five years already served at GitMo.

This means that Hicks, who is 31, will be able to resume his deadly business of jihad within the year. How is this justice? Has he been rehabilitated? He might have cleaned up for his appearances before the tribunal but does he still hold to the precepts of jihad? Let's not forget why he was at GitMo in the first place - he fought with the Taliban and was alleged to have attended al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. He was picked up along with foreign fighters in Afghanistan when the Taliban were routed in October 2001.

And yet, he receives only nine months? What was the sentencing judges thinking when they handed this down? I understand that they have more information available than what the papers and media are privy to, but this simply doesn't add up.

Photo of the Day

 

This is the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. This photo doesn't quite capture the gaudiness and extravagance of the room, in part because the Hall is currently being renovated. The company behind the restoration is keeping the room open at all times and uses a mirrored partition to give the effect that the room is at its full length. The restoration includes reguilding the gold leaf throughout, work on the windows and the glazed mirrors.

Fighting Continues Along Pakistani-Afghan Border

The AP story notes that fighting between various factions has left more than 50 dead, but it doesn't exactly help with providing a scoresheet. There are foreign and local factions involved, but the fighting actually involves various tribal and ethnic groups that include alleigances to al Qaeda or the Taliban.

Some analysts, however, say militants with links to Taliban and al-Qaida are involved on both sides of the current conflict, which also pits local tribes against each other, and that blood feuds could deepen insecurity in a region viewed as a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri.

Hundreds of Central Asian and Arab militants linked to al-Qaida fled to the semiautonomous region after the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and forged alliances with local tribes. Other Uzbeks opposed to the regime of President Islam Karimov have reportedly since joined them.

As part of its support of the U.S.-led war on terror, Pakistan launched military operations in 2004 to wipe out the foreign militants. They succeeded in busting camps used by al-Qaida, but suffered hundreds of casualties and failed to expel the foreign fighters.

That Pakistan continues to allow these groups to operate in the region by cutting deals undermines the security for both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bill Roggio has a far more in depth analysis of the situation.

Another Former NJ Politician Arrested

This time, the politician was arrested for being involved in a major gambling operation:

Former mayor due in court this afternoon in sports bet probe
Former Union City Mayor and state Assemblyman Rudy Garcia is to make his first appearance in Freehold this afternoon on charges stemming from a crackdown on a huge Internet sports betting ring earlier this week, officials told The Jersey Journal this morning.

Garcia is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court Judge Paul Shaiet’s courtroom in the Monmouth County Court House at 1:30 p.m. today.

No additional information on Garcia’s surrender has been released.

Officials went to Garcia’s Union City home Wednesday to arrest him but he was away on business, his lawyer told the paper that day.

Law enforcement officials had fanned out across the state to execute 58 arrest warrants in connection to Operation Thunderbird. Among those arrested are eight Hudson County residents.

Investigators say thousands of people placed 1.6 million bets worth more than $500 million between August 2005 and February of this year.

Corruption and New Jersey. Perfect together. Again.

PoliticsNJ has more, and it's interesting that he's currently working for one the largest lobby firms in the state. Meanwhile, it's also important to note how Garcia left elected office: he was recalled from office after passing a property tax hike of 26% in Union City. Where did all that money go? Perhaps to hiring cronies?

Union City, which is solidly blue collar and 80 percent Hispanic, has also been plagued by governmental problems. Mayor Stack took office in October after leading a petition drive that forced his predecessor, Raul Garcia, to resign after raising the real estate tax rate by a whopping 26 percent in the last year. Officials say the property taxes in Union City are by far the highest in Hudson County relative to the market value of the property. The city is currently awaiting a vote by the New Jersey Legislature on a proposal by former Gov. Christie Whitman for $11 million in Distressed Cities Aid to help close a $15 million gap in its $71 million budget for the year 2001. The state Division of Municipal Finance is now auditing the city's books at the mayor's request.

''The former administration was giving away the store -- including a lot of jobs -- to its supporters,'' Mayor Stack said. ''If we want to attract investors, increase our ratables and reduce taxes, we must send out a clear signal that we now have clean, efficient government.''

AMONG his first acts in office, the new mayor dismissed the city's business administrator and its chief financial officer, both of whom had been appointed by Mr. Garcia. He eliminated 10 percent of the city's 500 jobs, instituted a hiring freeze, cracked down on overtime and shifted 30 police officers from desk jobs onto the streets.

Seven Years For Aussie Terrorist

David Hicks has agreed to a prison sentence of seven years for his role in aiding terrorists in Afghanistan.

The tribunal judge accepted Hicks' guilty plea as part of an agreement that limits his sentence to seven years in prison, in addition to the five years he has been held at Guantanamo in Cuba. But the deal allows for at least part of that sentence to be suspended.

The 31-year-old former kangaroo skinner from Adelaide is the first person to be convicted in revised military tribunals created by the U.S. Congress after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier version that President George W. Bush authorized to try foreign captives on terrorism charges.

Hicks acknowledged that he trained with al Qaeda, fought with its forces against U.S. allies in Afghanistan in late 2001 for two hours, and then sold his gun to raise cab fare and tried to flee to Pakistan.

He denied having any advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks, which he watched on television from a friend's home in Pakistan.

Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 and was among the first group of prisoners brought to Guantanamo as ''enemy combatants'' a month later. He had previously claimed he was abused by the U.S. military but said in his plea agreement that he has ``never been illegally treated while in U.S. custody.''

One has to wonder what Hicks will do when he's finally released from prison. Somehow, I doubt he'll become a productive member of society and will instead pick up where he left off in Afghanistan. I'd like to be wrong about that, but sadly all too many of the jihadis picked up around the world and later released return to their business of jihad when given the opportunity.

Kermit Joins the War Effort

And for you NIN fans, here's another video with Kermit for your amusement.

Via Hot Air.

No .XXX Domain For Now

ICANN, the international organization that governs Internet domains, has decided to table the issue of whether to create a new .xxx domain that would shuffle all those millions of porn sites over to the red light district.

Many in the adult-entertainment industry and religious groups alike had criticized the plan. The Canadian government also warned this week that it could put the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in the tricky business of content regulation, having to decide which sites are pornographic and which are not.

Porn sites opposed to ".xxx" were largely concerned that the domain name, while billed as voluntary, would eventually lead to governments mandating its use and pushing them into a so-called online ghetto.

Religious groups worried that ".xxx" would legitimize and expand the number of adult sites, which more than a third of U.S. Internet users visit each month, according to comScore Media Metrix. The Web site measurement firm said 4 percent of all Web traffic and 2 percent of all time spent Web surfing involved an adult site.

The issue really is just what exactly is a porn site and how you would define it for purposes of registration and management. You know it when you see it, but opinions vary around the world as to what is considered pornographic and what isn't.

On the one hand, putting a .xxx domain and requiring all such sites to use those domains instead of the current .com domain would make content watch software far more effective - you simply prohibit the entire domain instead of having to watch for individual sites. However, this also has the potential of interfering with the free speech rights of those entities running the sites.

More Agitprop Released By Iran

Day Seven.

Iran continues to release video of various sailors and Royal Marines captured inside Iraqi waters. They repeat the Iranian party line - that the British had crossed into Iranian waters and that they call for the British government to apologize.

Funny thing is that the actual evidence shows that the Iranians are the ones who not only crossed the border between Iran and Iraq, but captured the British sailors and Marines inside Iraqi waters.

The British continue to stand by their evidence and assertions that their forces were inside Iraqi waters when the incident occurred, and the Iranians continue to trot out the sailors and Marines who are under duress and were likely coerced to make statements against British interests.

Verum Serum makes some interesting observations about the incident and video released by the Iranians. Hot Air has more as well.

UPDATE:
EU Referendum wonders at how the British got themselves into this mess in the first place given the video released supposedly showing lightly armed Iranian forces overtaking the British. What exactly were the British rules of engagement and where was the British supporting forces when this was happening?

[A]s more details emerge of the snatch, it has emerged that only two boats were initially used by the Iranians. Video footage has been released by Iranian television showing close-ups of one of the vessels, a small speedboat with a crew of three, armed with what appears to be a single 12.7mm machine gun.

This was hardly a formidable force and one which, with the right assets in place and an alert overwatch, could easily have been seen off. Given the enormous repercussions of the kidnapping – to say nothing of the national humiliation – questions as to how the British service personnel were so easily ambushed now become increasingly urgent.

UPDATE:
Was the HMS Cornwall ordered not to interfere and engage the Iranian forces that captured 15 British servicemembers? That's the implication of this report.

The latest report is that the Britons were ready to fight off their abductors. Certainly their escorting ship, HMS Cornwall, could have blown the Iranian naval vessel out of the water. However, at the last minute the British Ministry of Defense ordered the Cornwall not to fire, and her captain and crew were forced to watch their shipmates led away into captivity.

There was a question whether the Blair government would end up leaving Britain with a navy too small to protect its shores. Now it seems to want a navy that can't even protect its own sailors.

Heads should be rolling at the Royal Navy headquarters for this debacle. Who gave the order preventing the ship from engaging mortal threats to its boarding parties? This is micromanagement of a conflict thousands of miles away, and this is the kind of nonsense that Democrats are trying to foist upon President Bush and the military through their imposition of deadlines, timetables, and other such blather in appropriation bills. This is what a conflict looks like when you have lawyers trying to determine rules of engagement from afar when the very real threat moves inside the decision making cycle.

Instead of taking on the Iranian force when it was possible to do so, the Royal Navy ceded the field of battle and instead saw its own captured and paraded on television as propaganda.

UPDATE:
Those questions about the legitimacy of the the letters released by Iran purporting to be from the captive Britons are now being raised by the AP. Hot Air has more, including reports that US forces apparently killed an Iranian soldier inside Iraq while the Iranian was in the process of firing RPGs.

Others blogging: Heavy Handed Politics and Blue Star Chronicles.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, The Random Yak, Adam's Blog, basil's blog, Stuck On Stupid, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Phastidio.net, Leaning Straight Up, , Conservative Cat, LaTogaStrappata®, Rightlinx, sissunchi, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, , stikNstein... has no mercy, The World According to Carl, The Right Nation, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Photo of the Day

 

The Eiffel Tower in all its daylight splendor.

This post will serve as your repository for posting your best and brightest.

Inside Hizbullah's Illegal Bunkers

The busy bees at Hizbullah have been building a network of bunkers throughout South Lebanon ever since the 2000 withdrawal of Israel from the area. Hizbullah has used the time to build this network, despite UN SCR 1701, 1559 and other resolutions because it continues to show that Hizbullah has no inclination to disarm.

The bunkers were built in and among the Lebanese villages and are quite difficult to detect, even with knowing the GPS coordinates:

We almost missed the manhole cover beneath its layer of dirt, dead leaves and twigs. Using metal footholds, I climbed down into the gloom below and saw with some relief that the tunnel at the bottom was larger than we had feared. We would have to crouch, but not crawl. It was still a tight squeeze as we inched cautiously along the dank silent passageway which ran for about 20 feet before turning left and descending in a gradual slant. The rock sides of the tunnel were lined with a mesh of steel bars and girders. Huge brown spiders clinging to the walls watched the human intruders impassively.

A side tunnel was shielded with white steel plates and girders, which led into a small steel-walled chamber. The room, which was bare apart from two empty five-gallon water containers, must have been at least 100 feet underground, and could probably have withstood a direct hit by a heavy bomb. A power cable along the walls linked several bare bulbs, while a black plastic bag hanging from a hook contained the remnants of what last summer could have been fresh oranges or apples.

A few hundred yards away we found two rocket firing positions, one of them located in a 15-foot deep pit with reinforced concrete walls. A tunnel at the rear wall doglegged after a few feet into a small chamber lined with panels from wooden ammunition boxes where the rockets would have been stored. The second post consisted of a foot-thick reinforced concrete frame smothered with sandbags and camouflage netting and bolstered by Hesco blast protection walls. Even from a few yards up the hill, the position was all but invisible. And during the war, Hizballah gunners had tossed fire-retardant blankets over the launchers immediately after unleashing their rockets to hide the lingering heat signature from prowling Israeli aircraft.

Well, we do learn one tactic that Hizbullah used to reduce the effectiveness of Israeli aircraft to acquire and target Hizbullah launchers, and the Israelis will be sure to take this into account when the next round gets underway.

Hizbullah is planning a next round - that's for certain. Their masters in Tehran are pushing the situation with Britain to see how far they can go - and then some.

When One Derailment Is Insufficient

Why have one, when two are twice as nice. PATH suffered the second derailment of a subway train in the span of a week last night. It appears to have occurred in the same general area as the first one that happened on Sunday.

The track was fixed for the morning commute, but it appears that speed limits were reduced in the area as I came into New York City this morning.

Sadly, there is no additional information available from the Port Authority website about the derailments, their cause or what is being done to prevent the problem from reoccurring (other than slowing traffic to a crawl in the vicinity of the derailments).

UPDATE:
It would appear that my impression was correct. They are running the trains slower. Instead of 15mph through a section of track where the derailments occurred, they are running at 5mph.

The PANY-NJ isn't sure whether age of the subway cars played a role or whether there was some other factor. The average age of the PATH cars is 33 years old, though help is on the way as new cars are set to enter the fleet beginning in 2008. In the meantime, engineers are trying to figure out how to prevent a repeat.

Wayne Bryant Expects Indictment

State Sen. Wayne Bryant is expecting to be indicted today, his attorney said only moments ago.

Speaking at a forum in New Brunswick, prominent South Jersey defense attorney Carl Poplar said he expects a federal grand jury to return an indictment, but declined to comment further.

The U.S. Attorney's office earlier today issued an advisory saying only that a "significant announcement" relating to a "high level public official" was likely this afternoon.

Officials there would not comment.

New Jersey and corruption. Perfect together.

UPDATE:
The indictment has been handed down. Bryant, one of the most powerful political figures in Trenton, was indicted on charges of corruption and fraud. He wasn't alone in the indictment:

State Sen. Wayne Bryant was indicted by a federal grand jury in Trenton today on federal charges of corruption and fraud.

The influential Camden County Democrat was charged with using his position as a state senator to funnel millions of dollars in public funds to the state's medical university, after he was essentially given an no-show job to pad his pension.

He was also charged with defrauding the state's pension system.

Indicted with Bryant was a former dean at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, who helped put Bryant on the UMDNJ payroll in 2003 after Bryant helped lobby for his appointment as dean.

R. Michael Gallagher, who headed UMDNJ's School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, was reportedly looking to take advantage of Bryant's his political clout in an effort to obtain more state funding.

UMDNJ is an ongoing mess of corruption and just hired a new President who is charged with cleaning it up. Good luck in that mess as there's a pervasive culture of corruption extending from Trenton all the way through the school.

UPDATE:
Here's a copy of the 40 page indictment. It's a doozy. Among the lovely tidbits, we learn that Bryant supplemented his $49,000 salary. By nearly $600,000 per year for each of the years in question. That's right. He found a way to boost his salary to $649,000 through various schemes that come out of taxpayers' pockets, including a no-show job at UMDNJ.

The indictment is also interesting in that there is room for still others to be indicted. For example, on page 7, it notes that Bryant and Gallagher and others knowingly and willingly devised a scheme to defraud the state. I'd expect more indictments to be handed down as the investigation and legal process progresses.

WaPo's Voter Fraud Myth Needs Some Facts

But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud. Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch. Where fraud exists, of course, it should be prosecuted and punished. (And politicians have been stuffing ballot boxes and buying votes since senators wore togas; Lyndon Johnson won a 1948 Senate race after his partisans famously "found" a box of votes well after the election.) Yet evidence of actual fraud by individual voters is painfully skimpy.

Before and after every close election, politicians and pundits proclaim: The dead are voting, foreigners are voting, people are voting twice. On closer examination, though, most such allegations don't pan out. Consider a list of supposedly dead voters in Upstate New York that was much touted last October. Where reporters looked into names on the list, it turned out that the voters were, to quote Monty Python, "not dead yet."

Or consider Washington state, where McKay closely watched the photo-finish gubernatorial election of 2004. A challenge to ostensibly noncitizen voters was lodged in April 2005 on the questionable basis of "foreign-sounding names." After an election there last year in which more than 2 million votes were cast, following much controversy, only one ballot ended up under suspicion for double-voting. That makes sense. A person casting two votes risks jail time and a fine for minimal gain. Proven voter fraud, statistically, happens about as often as death by lightning strike.

Sorry, but this is just flat out wrong. The facts actually do support instances of voter fraud discovered. Waldman and Levitt need to go back and do more research.

They should try in their own backyard of the New York City metro region. They can look at the New York Times. The Record. The fact that voter rolls contained thousands of folks who died, and yet voted in elections after their deaths do not count?

How about the fact that thousands of people voted in New Jersey but also happened to vote in other jurisdictions on election day, whether by write-in vote or by going between the two jurisdictions? Those instances occurred in New Jersey's Hudson County. Do they not count?

This Washington Post story minimizes the risks and danger of voter fraud, which when extrapolated to the entire voting population can mean significant numbers of people involved. Recall that the Florida election in 2000 came down to several hundred votes. The incident in Hudson county involved thousands of votes.

Local elections often have very narrow margins, and yet Waldman and Levitt discounts the threat posed by election fraud? What purpose is served by this except to support those who think that no one should be denied a vote regardless of whether the person is actually eligible to vote. Illegal aliens? No problem. Registered in a different jurisdiction? No problem. No identification or proof of eligibility? No problem.

Something's fishy here, and it isn't just the story. It's Waldman and Levitt's agenda.

Senate Passes Deadline and Defeat Bill

How long will it be before President Bush announces a veto and makes a very public spectacle of the Congressional efforts to not only undermine US national security and strategic interests by setting deadlines and pushing the military to accept timetables that have no basis in the facts inside Iraq, but was so laden with pork that the bills could have been mistaken for a salad bar menu or the guide to a state fair midway.

As I noted the other day, while the veto is the most likely way that Bush will deal with this feckless measure, he could take another route - employ a signing statement that enables the funding to continue while ignoring the timetable provisions because they violate the US Constitution's separation of powers clause.

Others commenting: Michelle Malkin, Bill's Bites, and Victory Caucus.

Readying for Paper Cuts

The British don't appear to have a military resolution to securing the release of the 15 sailors and Royal Marines being held by Iran, so they're going to the UN to secure a dreaded resolution.

The Iranians are adamant that the British must admit that they were in Iranian waters, despite having no proof other than the coerced statements made by the sailors and Marines under duress, before the 15 could be released.

Iran farts in the UN's general direction. They couldn't care less what the UN says, since they've routinely ignored everything coming from the UN relating to their nuclear program. They ignore international law, including the Geneva Convention.

And yet, this is the big hope for the British government?

Iran knows this and is seeing just how far they can push on this matter, and will apply the same kind of logic and pressure to the more important issue of nuclear weapons development. The Iranians are pushing the envelope and are seeing just how much they can get away with, and are jumping over those boundaries at will.

No one in the West seems willing or capable of mounting a response. The British don't have the military assets in place to mount a raid, though they could probably put a hurting on an Iranian oil refinery or two with missile strikes, but that wouldn't get their forces back any sooner. A rescue operation is far more difficult than simply lobbing missiles at a stationary target.

The US has the forces in theater, but lacks the willpower because of the persistent ankle biting by the Left - both here in the US and around the world.

The Iranians are right on one point. The British have miscalculated. They miscalculated by not taking military action right at the outset to stop the Iranians from taking the 15 back into Iranian waters, and then on to Tehran. The British response at this point is reactive, not proactive. They must do more to shape events instead of reacting to Iranian demands.

Meanwhile, this ploy may still be the work of the mad mullahs to secure the release of five Iranians captured by US forces in Irbil, Iraq who were providing support to insurgents/terrorists inside Iraq.

The Russians seem to think that the US is ready to strike Iran at any moment, but consider the source. The Russians are in cahoots with the Iranians - having provided them with military assets, not to mention technical and equipment assistance on the Iranian nuclear program. They want to try and publicly engage the US media and chattering class to stop another one of their client states from ending up on the ash heap of history (and losing another source of hard currency to boot).

Confederate Yankee has more on this aspect.

UPDATE:
So, we are now treated to another piece of agitprop courtesy of the Iranians. They're claiming to have produced another letter by Turney, which purports to question why the British are still operating inside Iraq. And the latest garbage from Iran is just that. A new letter claims that Turney is calling for the Brits to get out of Iraq.

The Iranian embassy in London has released a second letter it says is from British captive Faye Turney in which she calls on Britain to start withdrawing troops from Iraq. "Isn't it time for us to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future?" said the letter, addressed to the British parliament.

That's right, a captured soldier in Iranian custody is questioning why other British troops in Iraq are still there when Iran is an interested party in ensuring chaos in Iraq that inures benefit to the Iranian mullahs. No, there's no Iranian agenda in this whatsoever. None.

As if this has anything to do with the reason that Iran invaded Iraqi water to capture the 15 British servicemembers? The Iranians are playing this for all its worth and no one is calling them on this nonsense. The British government has responded quite inadequately, and every day this drags on puts the British in a worse position.

Sen. Feinstein's Troubles Mount

SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.

As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.

Perhaps she resigned from MILCON because she could not take the heat generated by Metro's expose of her ethics (which was partially funded by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute). Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?

The MILCON subcommittee is not only in charge of supervising military construction, it also oversees "quality of life" issues for veterans, which includes building housing for military families and operating hospitals and clinics for wounded soldiers. Perhaps Feinstein is trying to disassociate herself from MILCON's incredible failure to provide decent medical care for wounded soldiers.

Her family has profitted nicely from her work on the MILCON subcommittee, and she's been privy to the knowledge that the situation at the military's medical institutions has been going from bad to worse for years. Yet, she did nothing. Her husband's firm was providing medical equipment to the military without competitive bidding.

Others commenting on Dianne Feinstein's situation: The Jawa Report, Don Surber, and Instapundit.

UPDATE:
Ed Morrissey notes that Democrats had no trouble complaining about Halliburton's no-bid contracts, but also had no troble ignoring the no-bid contracts of her husband's companies.

During the 2006 election, Feinstein's party made a lot of hay out of non-competitve contracting by the government. Democrats railed especially about Halliburton, even though Halliburton won 95% of its contract dollars by full and open competition. Now we see that Feinstein herself had no problem with non-competitive practices, as long as it meant stuffing her own pockets with taxpayer money. Take a look at the percentages in the above. In 2005, CB Richard Ellis made $100 million in federal contracts, only half of which had been part of full and open competitive bidding.

Double standards - that's the DC shuffle for you.

Photo of the Day

 

The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. If the cathedral looks particularly luminous in the late afternoon light, your eyes aren't deceiving you. The French government has recently completed a restoration and cleaning of the exterior, which has revealed the true color of the stone used in building it.

Palestinians Prefer Guns To Butter

Just a day after a cesspool collapsed killing at least six people and flooded a village with polluted waters that will likely cause disease and misery for a good time to come, the Palestinians once again show that they are more interested in guns than butter.

The Palestinian terrorists launched eight kassams into Israel. Israel responded by firing back at one of the groups firing the rockets, wounding three. The three belong to the terrorist group Islamic Jihad.

Oh, and if you think that the unity government has ended the violence between Hamas and Fatah, you couldn't be more hopelessly wrong. Five were injured in the latest clash.

Unidentified gunmen shot at a Hamas leader and his family during a car chase through Gaza City on Wednesday, injuring five people, including bystanders and a child, Hamas and hospital officials said.

A sports utility vehicle filled with gunmen chased the car carrying Abu Salah Shinbari, a Hamas leader from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, and his wife and two young children, witnesses said. The gunmen jammed Shinbari's sedan against a parked car and then riddled it with at least 10 bullets, they said.

In a separate incident, a girl belong to Hamas was shot near a tent set up by journalists protesting the kidnapping of a colleague, BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza. That incident was initially reported as a thwarted kidnapping.

Anarchy continues to dominate Gaza. Infrastructure failures are common. Yet, the Palestinian terrorists running the PA continue to put all their effort into obtaining weapons.

This Cox and Forkum cartoon speaks volumes over the way the Palestinian terrorists prioritize:



UPDATE:
Apparently, the Palestinians like using Israeli pipes as parts for their rockets fired into Israel for the purpose of killing and injuring Israelis. Those pipes were originally meant for Palestinian sewage projects. HT: Best of the Web.

UPDATE:
Others blogging on the subject of Palestinian priorities: Dry Bones (via JoeM at Discarded Lies), Carl in Jerusalem, Dave Bender, and Joshua Pundit.

UPDATE:
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, The Virtuous Republic, The Random Yak, basil's blog, Stuck On Stupid, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Jo's Cafe, Pursuing Holiness, LaTogaStrappata®, third world county, stikNstein... has no mercy, Blue Star Chronicles, Overtaken by Events, The Pink Flamingo, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 222

The deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank building is finally getting underway, this despite the fact that still more remains have been discovered in areas that were previously searched.

Last week, a huge crane began removing steel beams and heavy equipment including heating units and elevator motors from the top of the building, said Bob Harvey, who oversees the project for the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center.

It should take several weeks to remove the top floor, making the building a smaller part of the skyline for the first time, Harvey said last week. After that, "it speeds up as you go down,'' he said.

Workers are moving through the building's upper floors to remove toxic dust and other materials, and the city medical examiner's office is continuing a search for human remains.

More than 760 bones have been found in the building since fall 2005. On Monday, construction workers found 19 bone fragments on the ledge of the 37th floor, which had first been cleared of remains several months ago.

Medical examiner's office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said the workers had been charged with recovering any remains on the ledge. "The medical examiner's office is not equipped to search ledges for safety reasons,'' she said.

There's still no word on the disposition of Fiterman Hall, which sits to the north of Ground Zero and was heavily damaged and contaminated by the collapsing towers on 9/11.

Meanwhile, the Signature Theater Company will not be housed at the Frank Gehry designed performing arts center at Ground Zero. That leaves the Joyce Theater as the sole occupant.

Video of Gare du Nord Riots

Via No Pasaran:



It's French television, but the scenes of mayhem inside the station are easily understood.

UPDATE:
Seems that some media outlets are making connections between the thugs involved at the train station rioting and the 2005 Paris riots.

The rampage by youths, many apparently of African or North African descent, at a major rail hub Tuesday became an instant campaign issue in the French presidential race. It was a jarring reminder of the social tensions France's new leader will contend with when he or she takes power in May.

Front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy of the governing right called the violence at the Gare du Nord unacceptable. His main rival, Socialist Segolene Royal, blamed Sarkozy's camp, saying the right's policing policies were an utter failure.

Anger erupted after a 32-year-old man without a Metro ticket punched two inspectors during a routine check, police said. The man, an illegal alien from Congo who has challenged France's efforts to expel him, had been convicted in 2004 for insulting a magistrate, police unions said.

Dozens of youths gathered to defend the man from ticket agents, and the group swelled to 300 people and grew more and more aggressive, police said.

The youths wielded metal bars, smashed windows, looted stores and injured eight train agents and a police officer, police authorities said.

Rail lines connect Gare du Nord to the same troubled suburbs north of Paris that were gripped by rioting in October and November 2005. That violence was born of pent-up anger -- especially among youths of Arab and African origin -- over years of high unemployment, racial discrimination and economic inequality.

Since then, sporadic incidents have broken out in suburbs that many middle-class French people avoid. The violence at Gare du Nord was unusual because it is in the heart of Paris, the terminal for Eurostar trains linking France to Britain.

Far-right presidential candidate Philippe de Villiers, who wants to stop immigration to France, said the violence shows "there are ethnic gangs installed on our territory and who now feel that even the Gare du Nord is theirs."

The check "got out of hand and transformed into urban guerrilla warfare, into unacceptable, intolerable violence," new Interior Minister Francois Baroin told Europe 1 radio. "Nothing can justify what happened."

The check didn't get out of hand. The person being checked got out of hand and the banlieu thugs used it as an excuse to rampage again.

Also, the issue relating to the riots has been a part of the French political scene since the Chirac government was a complete failure to not only contain the rioting, but failed to institute changes to its economic and social policies. Those failures continue to plague the French economy and society, but those behind the rioting must be held accountable for their actions as well.

UPDATE:
Fausta has a much more extensive posting on the rioting, which never really ended. The media's coverage of the rioting did.

Congressional Democrats Playing With National Security

So, Congressional Democrats believe that they've laid down the gauntlet with President Bush over the appropriation for the Iraqi mission. They've larded the House and Senate bills with so much pork that it's closer to being a farm bill than a bill for military expenditures. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer money going to stuff completely unrelated to the mission in Iraq all to secure just enough votes to get these venomous bills passed.

So, what is the President to do. Congress is about to go on a three week vacation with the President threatening a veto. He hasn't exactly wielded a veto pen during his administration, but if there's bills deserving of this treatment, these are the ones. If that happens, the mission could potentially run out of money and the troops and their equipment, reinforcements, supply lines, and logistics could be thrown out of whack. How does this improve national security? It does not.

What if the President signed this monstrosity, and then proceeded to completely ignore the part about the timetable for withdrawal/defeat in Iraq via a signing statement claiming it was illegal for Congress to set timetables on a military mission because it was up to the Commander in Chief pursuant to the US Constitution to carry out the mission, and to bring about victory.

I know it would probably lead to a constitutional crisis - and Democrats in Congress have been itching for a constitutional crisis since they regained power in November - but with Congress looking to go on its spring break (not like there aren't pressing issues to attend to) before they could pass a clean bill without the pork or timetables - and given that the DoD needs the appropriations before then, this might be the only option as a veto would put everything back to square one.

This might be the least bad option available to the President while ensuring that the troops are properly supplied and the mission can proceed. It also gives the President yet another opportunity to show that he's putting the mission above partisan domestic political games.

President Bush should veto the bill on the general principle of slamming Congress for larding up a military appropriation bill with so much pork that it would be mistaken for a state fair agenda, let alone because it includes the timetable for defeat. The Democrats in Congress have overstepped rational thought with their inclusion of these provisions, and the President must stand up against this.

Don Surber also takes Congress to task for going on vacation without getting its job done.

Al Qaeda's Chemical Weapons Campaign

These aren't the kind of chemical weapons that the West was most worried about when the 2003 invasion of Iraq took place, but the use of very common and easily accessible chemicals that, when inhaled, cause suffocation, burns, and death. The latest attack using chlorine gas killed 15. Bill Roggio has more:

“The attack began at 6:33 a.m. with mortar fire, followed by two truck bombs and small arms fire. Iraqi Police identified the first suicide attacker and fired on the truck, causing it to detonate before reaching the compound,” according to the Multinational Forces West press release. “Iraqi Army soldiers spotted the second suicide truck approaching the gate and engaged it with small arms fire, causing it to also detonate near the entrance of the compound.”

Fifteen Iraqi soldiers, police and U.S. advisers stationed at the government center were injured in the blast, while “numerous Iraqi Soldiers and Policemen are being treated for symptoms such as labored breathing, nausea, skin irritation and vomiting that are synonymous with chlorine inhalation.”

This is the sixth successful chlorine gas suicide attack in Anbar province this year. Two other trucks laden with explosives and chlorine gas were seized in Ramadi, one just last evening. It is possible last evening's captured chlorine bomb was to be used in a coordinated attack, as al Qaeda conducted a near simultaneous chlorine attack in Ramadi, Fallujah and Amiriya on March 17.

The terrorists are using chlorine as a way to expand the effects of their bombing and the results are that such attacks are proving to be far more deadly and injurious than if they simply used just explosives.

It is a worrisome trend, and the jihadis don't seem to have a problem using chemical weapons on other Muslims - who happen to be the vast majority of those injured or killed in these incidents. The terrorists are using the chemical weapons as part of an offensive against the local government in an attempt to roll back the gains made by coalition forces and the Iraqi government in the area since last year.

So, how does the US and Iraqi forces stop these attacks? Interdicting the source of the gas may be the best manner, but many chemical and industrial processes require chlorine, so it is a huge job. Going after the terrorists is the other way, but it is just as difficult. In the meantime, US forces are being told to carry around their chemical weapons gear just in case of an attack so that they do not suffer the effects of chlorine gas inhalation.

Holding Britain Hostage

The British government is making good on providing proof that the Iranians violated international law, invaded Iraqi waters to take hostage 15 Royal Marines and sailors, and continues to violate the Geneva Convention by holding them and threatening to put them on trial for espionage.

The Royal Navy took the highly unusual step of making public charts, photographs and previously secret navigational coordinates purportedly proving that the sailors were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were seized.

The Navy’s disclosure was only the beginning of a coordinated response by some of the most senior British officials, including Mr. Blair and Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, who told parliament that Britain would “be imposing a freeze on all official bilateral business with Iran until the situation is resolved.”

While the impact of that prohibition was unclear, it seemed to reflect the first formal reprisal by Britain in response to the seizure of its personnel.

Iran responded by insisting that the British sailors were inside Iranian waters when they were seized. At the same time, though, a Turkish television station, CNN-Turk, quoted the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as saying that Iran may allow Turkish diplomats to visit the captured Britons.

The Royal Navy rejected two sets of coordinates provided by Iran as evidence of its claim that the British sailors had strayed into Iranian territorial waters.

The British government provides charts and other detailed information proving their forces were inside Iraqi waters at the time. Iran simply insists they were in Iranian waters. The Times discounts the British claims and gives equal weight to the Iranians who have provided absolutely no evidence to support their contention.

I'm sure the Iranians are quivering in their boots when hearing about the freezing of bilateral business with Iran. Oh, I'm sure that will hurt. Like a papercut perhaps, but it wont get the sailors released, and it certainly wont instill any fear in the mad mullahs who see nothing but weakness from the Brits. I've said it before, but restraint is often confused with weakness - and that's a bad place to be in. The Iranians are taking the British reluctance to put force on the table to be a sign of weakness, which will further embolden the Iranians to taking more reckless and dangerous acts.

The US, meanwhile, is continuing to conduct naval exercises in the Gulf with two carrier battle groups. While the British may not have the naval or ground forces in place to mount a raid on Iran, the US certainly does. Iran is playing an extremely dangerous game and the mad mullahs are betting the West caves. To date, they've been right. The Iranians can wait out the US as they watch Congressional Democrats set timetables that give everyone in the region a deadline by which they simply have to survive in order to thrive and expand their operations.

UPDATE:
Seems that Iran may be ready to release the sole female British sailor being held. The Iranians are also set to release video confessions, as though confessions through coersion mean anything not to mention that they too are prohibited by the Geneva Convention (Prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity).

UPDATE:
The Iranians have released their agitprop, including a video that shows Faye Turney wearing Iranian clothes and a head wrap. She recites a note that claims that the Brits entered Iranian waters. These people are being held against their will and are being used as propaganda by the Iranian mullahs.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has the video and screencaps.

UPDATE:
Iran is pressing matters, claiming that Britain must admit the Royal Navy crossed into Iranian waters to get its sailors and Royal Marines back. The supposed release of Turney may be scuttled by the Iranians.

Photo of the Day

 

The stillness of the Fountain of Apollo on the grounds of Versailles. This magnificient fountain is thunderous when it is turned on, but exudes power and grandeur even without water running.

This post will serve as your repository for posting your best and brightest.

Accept Our Peace Plan Or Else

The Arab peace plan could be Israel's last chance to live in a "sea of peace" and should not be squandered, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday.

"This initiative simply says to Israel 'leave the occupied territories and you will live in a sea of peace that begins in Nouakchott and ends in Indonesia'," he said, referring to the Mauritanian capital in West Africa and the southeast Asian country that is the world's most populous Muslim country.

"If this initiative is destroyed, I don't believe there will be another opportunity in the future like this," he said in an interview with Reuters and two other news outlets.

So, what do we have here? Since when as the Islamic world been a sea of peace? It's blood soaked at every turn, and Abu Mazen has the audacity to claim that the violence will end throughout the world if Israel gives in. Maybe audacity is not the right word since he can make any claim he wants and it goes unchallenged by the media.

Of course, there's the repeated use of the term sea of peace. It doesn't mean what you think it means. Arab legions have long sought to throw the Israelis into the sea. That's the kind of peace that Abu Mazen is hoping for, and this latest diplomatic endeavor is a step in that direction. Abu Mazen is simply recycling the old rhetorical devices that other Arabs have used against Israel.

Then, there's the veiled threats against Israel if it doesn't agree to the terms laid out by the Palestinians.

Meryl Yourish has more on the latest diplomatic efforts by the Islamists and Arabs to throw Israel into the sea. Of course, the media is complicit in this mess, by distorting the reality of the Saudi Plan proposal and that there has been absolutely no change in the stance by the Palestinians or Islamists on Israel's existence.

Lovely stuff.

Parisian Teen Thugs Riot Again

About 100 youths clashed Tuesday with subway inspectors and police at Paris' Gare du Nord metro station, which was closed to traffic following the altercation, transportation officials said.

A standoff between police officers and about 100 youths was still under way early Tuesday evening, said officials from Paris' RATP public transport authority.

The incident began when one of the youths punched two subway inspectors during a routine ticket check at the Gare du Nord, in northeastern Paris, officials said. Youths also attacked the inspectors and later turned on police officers patrolling the station, officials said.

The Gare du Nord is one access point into Paris from the banlieus that were set alight last year (and continue to regularly turn cars into rotisseries). It seems that the thugs are spoiling for attacks.

This was not one of the areas we visited in Paris while there last week.

Five Years After McCain-Feingold Became Law

I came across this piece by Ed Morrissey and it sums up much of what I think about this abomination - McCain Feingold Campaign Finance Reform. The legislation was not so much about campaign finance reform as a direct assault on free speech - particularly political speech.

It limits who can say what and when in the run up to elections, which is precisely what the First Amendment is designed to protect. The law prohibits certain forms of political speech about incumbent congressmen for 30 days prior to a primary election and 60 days prior to a general election. Congress passed this mess (in part because it helps incumbents), the President signed it (a huge mistake - arguably the most devastating of his tenure), and the Supreme Court even botched its analysis (on par with Dred Scott) to find that political speech could be limited in the way sought by the law.

The fact that the Bill of Rights is explicitly clear as to the nature of speech was lost on all three braches of the government.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

What part of "Congress shall make no law..." did Congress, the President and Supreme Court not understand? The three branches of the US federal government chose to ignore 220+ years of precedent, tradition, and law to find that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech" was not nearly as absolute as anyone should expect. This wasn't about limiting fighting words or hate speech, but the very cornerstone of our nation's existence - the right to speak out against elected officials - political speech.

The rationale for passing this legislation was that it would reduce the reliance on money in campaigning, but no one with a functioning neuron can make that claim knowing that it will likely cost $500 million to become President in 2008 or that each campaign since the law was passed has broken records for spending.

The biggest spenders are now 527s, which funnel money into opposition ads and has done nothing to slow the funneling of money into the political process. Instead of knowing who is funding an individual campaign, 527s make things less transparent. 527s fund each other and money gets shifted around in huge sums.

Mark Tapscott also weighs in with a solid piece about McCain-Feingold.

So, not only has the legislation proved to be a failure at controlling the influx of money, but the limitations on free speech are there.

Cesspool Collapses Killing Gazans

A cesspool near Umm Naser in Gaza collapsed, killing at least six people and displaced thousands more. The structure had been cited previously as being unstable and needed to be replaced. The Palestinians have known for at least two years that they needed to take action to prevent this very event from occurring.

A 2004 United Nations report warned that the sewage facility was at its maximum capacity and flooding was inevitable unless a new waste treatment plant was constructed. It said that even without overflowing, the effluent lake posed a serious health hazard, providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes and waterborne diseases.

Stuart Shepard, of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the wave of waste released Tuesday sent the health risks even higher.

"It is an extremely serious situation," he said.

Shepard said that since the report was published, international funding for a new plant had been secured but construction had not been able to go ahead because of the high security risks in the area.

The money was even made available to fix it, and yet it mysteriously vanished. The Palestinians blame Israel for the inaction, yet the security situation was such precisely because Hamas and Fatah decided to spend its energies fighting a terror war against Israel instead of focusing on Palestinian infrastructure and development.

Gazans are mobbing the Palestinian government offices - as they should. Their so-called elected leaders have failed them for generations and it is coming back to hurt them in every way conceivable.

Hamas can wail all it wants about how it was the Zionists or the US to blame for the cesspool collapsing and causing such damage, but the fact is that it was responsible for the upkeep and it chose to kill Israelis than fund basic infrastructure. The same goes for Fatah before that.

Neither could care less about basic infrastructure. Both have more interest in building rocket factories, bomb factories, and tunnels to smuggle stuff into Gaza than make sure that sewage is properly treated.

It's also interesting that they want to blame the Israelis or US for the failure to get something done about this, but what about the Palestinians themselves making and spending the money to build the damned treatment facility themselves?

The Palestinians, particularly Hamas, are doing everything imagineable to alienate the Palestinians from the rest of the world.

The Israeli Army reports that they were not asked by the Palestinians to provide assistance in Gaza, but Peretz ordered the Israeli military to provide assistance.

Oh, and all those talks about a Palestinian unity government - well the Palestinian Interior Minister's convoy came under fire.


LGF has more.

The Force Was With Them

This is a mini movie by a couple of guys who did another take on light saber duels and rivals some of those done by ILM. Thanks to The Jawa Report for finding it.

Tony Snow Faces New Cancer Bout

White House Spokesman Tony Snow has suffered a recurrence of cancer, which has spread to his liver. This is an extremely serious situation and I wish him and his family all the best.

Snow, 51, had his colon removed in 2005 and underwent six months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with colon cancer. A small growth was discovered last year in his lower right pelvic area, and it was removed on Monday. Doctors determined that it was cancerous, and that his cancer had metastized, or spread, to his liver, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

She said Snow is resting comfortably after his surgery and has pledged to aggressively fight the disease with an as-yet-to-be-determined treatment course.

It remains to be seen how the White House will deal with this situation - whether they will find someone else to assist or replace Snow in this very demanding job.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has more, including video of President Bush speaking about Tony Snow's condition.

Show of Force

The US has gathered the largest armada of naval forces in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The U.S. Navy on Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by a pair of aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran.

The maneuvers bring together two strike groups of U.S. warships and more than 100 U.S. warplanes to conduct simulated air warfare in the crowded Gulf shipping lanes.

The U.S. exercises come just four days after Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines who Iran said had strayed into Iranian waters near the Gulf. Britain and the U.S. Navy have insisted the British sailors were operating in Iraqi waters. (Full story)

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl said the U.S. maneuvers were not organized in response to the capture of the British sailors -- nor were they meant to threaten the Islamic Republic, whose navy operates in the same waters.

He declined to specify when the Navy planned the exercises.

This comes at a time when Iran still illegally holds 15 British sailors and Royal Marines who were captured from their small watercraft while patrolling within Iraqi waters.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is warning Iran that things are about to get interesting.

The US naval exercise is usually planned well in advance and it may simply be serendipity that it comes at a time when the Iranians decided to get frisky and seek to engage in encounters with the US or British forces in the region. However, unlike the Iranian military exercises, which have repeatedly been used by the Iranians for propaganda purposes to purportedly show off new weapons systems (and since shown to be exaggerated, bogus, or fall short of expectations), the US Navy has two aircraft carriers and hundreds of aircraft at its disposal. Such a military force is more than sufficient to ruin the the mad mullahs' day.

UPDATE:
EU Referendum asks the question that needs to be asked of the British Navy. Where was the vessel, the HMS Cornwall, from which the 15 Royal Marines and sailors were based when the Iranians launched their operation and captured them?

Not least, there needs to be an examination of the truth behind the story in The Sunday Telegraph, which alleges that British Intelligence chiefs were warned in January to expect reprisal attacks from Iran after America detained five suspected Iranian intelligence officers in Iraq. According to this newspaper, although the CIA alert led to the United States raising its official security threat level throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, Britain did not follow suit.

What has been exercising us, however – and we are far from being alone in this – is how a reported six Iranian vessels had managed to sneak up on the British craft, and why HMS Cornwall did not intervene.

Such a response was triggered by the classic boarding scenario, where the warship stands off but a short distance from the intercepted vessel – illustrated here with HMCS Vancouver (photo Canadian DND). A small boat is then detached, and the warship stays close, throughout the boarding, protecting the away team.

Clearly, this was not the case in this instance. HMS Cornwall may have been many miles away, acting more as a depot/command post than a guard ship, running several patrols from its location. Similarly, while its Lynx helicopter was available, it too seems not to have been covering the abducted boarding party. Yet, we see other pictures of the "classic scenario", this one (left) showing US personnel aboard a tanker with an Aegis class destroyer in the background, standing guard.

Was the success by the Iranian navy at capturing the British servicemembers the result of British forces cutting corners, lax rules of engagement, or a combination of factors? How could six Iranian vessels sneak up on the British force and was this a trap purposefully sprung on the British navy knowing that the rules of engagement favored the Iranians? There are more questions than answers - and no one appears willing to ask them of the British government.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has more background on the IRGN - the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy, which should not necessarily be confused with the regular Iranian navy. It seems that the IRGN is spoiling to act like the thugs they are as they're not above commiting piracy or being unleashed to throttle Iraqi oil exports through the Shat'al Arab.

Photo of the Day

 

This post will serve as my call for the best and brightest articles from around the 'net today.

Which Report Is Correct?

ABC News: David Hicks Pleads Guilty. That's followed by quite a few other outlets. Yet Bloomberg reports that Hicks Declines to Enter Plea

We've got dueling reports? VOA reports he entered a guilty plea to providing material support to terrorists. Apparently, the US agreed to let Hicks serve his term in an Australian prison.

Why the discrepancy?

Who is David Hicks? He's an Australian Muslim convert who was captured and is currently being held at Guantanamo Bay and was accused of fighting alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan when he was captured.

Grading the Restaurants

In New Jersey, there are regular health inspections of eateries and there is a very public grading formula. Inspection results are published in state newspapers, including the Record. The grades are as follows:

The ratings explained: Conditional -- first violation of the state Sanitary Code. Conditional on reinspection -- second violation. Satisfactory on reinspection -- violation repaired. Unsatisfactory -- gross violations that are an imminent threat to public health. An unsatisfactory establishment should be shut down either voluntarily or through a court order.

. The state sanitary health code (8:24-10.8) covers the same kind of ground as the New York code, but it requires that the inspection results be publicly displayed.

This is more than sufficient to deal with violations. Restaurants and eateries are required to post the inspection results publicly (usually in their front windows or other similarly open area).

New York may eventually catch up to New Jersey in this respect. There's a proposal to grade the health inspections and to require that the inspection reports be placed in visible location.

Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) revealed the city's top 10 filthiest restaurants yesterday - and appealed to the city Health Department to rate restaurants' cleanliness with letter grades from A to F that are visible to the public.

"I don't think the system we have in place is sufficient," said Klein as he stood outside what he called the city's grimiest eatery, Café La Fonduta, on E. 57th St. "What we need is a grading system."

The Health Department slapped Café La Fonduta - a two-story, moderately priced Italian eatery - with 14 violations, including evidence that rodents may have had the run of the place.

"I'm really shocked. I have trouble believing it," said Katherine Prince, 63, who orders Caesar salad at the restaurant three times a week. "It's the best around."

The owner of Café La Fonduta could not be reached for comment.

A failing grade under the current system occurs when a restaurant receives 28 or more violation points. Café La Fonduta racked up 160.

The Health Department, which does not rank restaurants according to cleanliness, argued that a letter-grading system would not reflect long-term conditions at restaurants.

I don't think that the letter grading system is necessary - but the public display of inspection results that shows the last time the facility was inspected is. The public display will inform patrons of the sanitary conditions without having to go online to search for the restaurant. The need to publicly display the results of inspections must also be followed by more frequent inspections to ensure that sanitary conditions are maintained.

UPDATE:
The New York Post makes an interesting observation about the recent crackdown on restaurants for health code violations:

The Health Department insists none of the 90-plus closures relate to the Taco Bell-rat debacle.

(But it would, wouldn't it?)

Instead, the department insists, it is simply enforcing rules it had no role in creating - much like the policeman who tickets each jaywalker he sees.

That's disquieting, because the closure rate since the appears to roughly three times pre-Taco Bell levels - up to nine a day compared to three a day or fewer before the incident.

There are a couple of possibilities here.

The department is in fact thrashing about in embarrassment, shutting down restaurants that don't deserve it.

Or the inspectors simply weren't doing their jobs properly before the Taco Bell rat riot.

These are no minor matters - given the department's distressingly long history of corrupt restaurant-inspection practices.

Was the Health Department doing its job before the crackdown or are they now going overboard to rectify a bad situation and bad publicity? Either way, it doesn't look good for Frieden, who has championed the food police efforts to change eating habits. Sorry, but I'm more concerned about whether restaurants are sanitary than wondering which kind of oil is being used in the cooking. Somewhere along the lines, the Health Department got its priorities all wrong, and the rat incident very publicly exposed the problem.

Accidental Overdose Blamed In Anna Nicole Smith Death

The Seminole County police chief said that Anna Nicole Smith died of an accidental drug overdose.
The weeks after Anna Nicole Smith's death were filled with public courtroom drama and private whispers about what might have killed the former Playboy Playmate.

Smith's autopsy results had been delayed to give officials time to review additional evidence, still not publicly released, about what had left the model unresponsive Feb. 8 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood.

Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper's initial examination revealed no serious injuries. There also was no evidence, either in Smith's stomach or her bloodstream, that she had taken large amounts of prescription medication.

Perper said prescription drugs, but no illegal drugs, were found in Smith's hotel room. He wouldn't identify them.

The initial examination also found signs of inflammation in Smith's heart. Perper said it was "something which looks a little bit unusual" but "may be nothing."

And One Cop Shot Them All

The New York Post is reporting that the forensic tests have revealed that one cop was responsible for hitting all three victims in the Sean Bell incident.

The disclosure that NYPD Detective Gescard Isnora's 11 bullets apparently missed their mark means the victims - Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield - were hit only by Detective Michael Oliver's shots, according to the indictments and sources close to the case.

Oliver, who, like Isnora, was charged with two counts of manslaughter, already faces the legal hurdle of explaining why he reloaded his gun, firing a total of 31 times during the perceived life-and-death shooting.

Ballistics linking Oliver to all three victims could be another burden for him at trial - although cops are instructed to fire until they believe a threat has ended.

Bell and Benefield were each hit three times. Guzman was hit 16 times. "Five or six bullets" remain in his body, said his lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein.

The fact that Isnora's shots seemingly hit nothing but air raises questions about the legal gymnastics employed by the grand jury that indicted him, Oliver and Detective Marc Cooper but allowed two others to go free.

At the heart of the issue is how the grand jury charged Isnora with manslaughter when it turns out that none of the traceable bullets removed from the victims came from his gun.

This raises questions that the grand jury didn't appear to address adequately. Isnora was charged with manslaughter despite the fact that none of his bullets struck anyone. You can be assured that his defense attorney will work that angle to the fullest. Oliver is in serious trouble as his bullets found the mark, including the fatal shots to Sean Bell, who was out celebrating his bachelor party on the night before he was supposed to get married.

Oliver will also have to explain his rationale for reloading his weapon and firing off 31 shots. That's going to be a tough task, and that also helps explain why Detective Marc Cooper has been pushing for a separate trial.

Iran Continues Standoff With Brits

Is the British government simply not dignifying the Iranian casus belli with what most folks think would be a completely justified response because the Brits have concluded that a military response would only serve to unify the Iranian people behind their government and that by pursuing the diplomatic route they're providing yet more opportunities for the Iranian opposition to put the breaks on Ahmadinejad and the mad mullahs.

I don't think that such a strategy would work since it relies mostly on hope and prayers, and you can't base a foreign and military policy on hope. Iranian opposition isn't really in a position to put the brakes to Ahmadinejad and the mad mullahs but at this point, so the Brits are probably looking at the alternatives and finding the best among a bunch of bad ones. That means pursuing the diplomatic route.

Of course, the fact that the Brits are pursing this diplomatically is also a tacit recognition that they aren't in a position to take military action, despite the fact that the Iranians engaged in acts of war not only against the Brits but against the Iraqis by invading Iraqi sovereign waters.

All of this continues to play into the hands of the mad mullahs, who are pushing for confrontations with the West, both on the nuclear program front, and in order to free its resources inside Iraq. After the US pinched five Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Iraq earlier in the year, the US has rolled up hundreds of folks involved in insurgent activities and who were providing logistical and tactical support to terrorists and insurgents inside Iraq. That puts a hurt on Iran's capabilities and strategic goals, so the Iranians have been pursuing asymmetrical operations in order to further those goals. That's why the Iranians were suggesting a possible swap of the 5 IRG for the British Royal Marines and sailors.

The mullahs also know that the British government isn't in the best position to respond militarily because they're stretched thin and the public support for Blair is thin. This too could be a misreading by the Iranians since nothing gets the public behind its government quicker than attacks on its military that most folks recognize are acts of war.

The mullahs also sought to precipitate incidents - purposefully seeking out engagements. This was no accident. There was no accidental misreading of maps or accidentally crossing the border.

Ed Morrissey further comments that a low key economic pushback by the US and the West is putting the serious hurt on the Iranian economy.

The Bush administration has successfully conducted an indirect war on Iranian interests, and it is a progressive war. The effects of these efforts will be cumulative, and the Iranians have not much time left before their economy begins to completely collapse under the weight of them. Oil production accounts for 80% of their exports, and once those facilities start to fail, they will have nothing left with which to bargain -- and it will take years to repair the damage. When they reach that stage, Iranians will find plenty of motivation to shake off the disastrous reign of the mullahcracy, and even the Revolutionary Guard will not find much motivation to protect them.

UPDATE:
Was the capture of the Brits in retaliation for the defection of a high level Iranian official? Speculation over the rationale for this gross violation of the Geneva Convention - especially as the Iranians claim that they're going to put the uniformed sailors and Royal Marines on trial for espionage and are busy interrogating them - detracts from the fact that the Iranians have crossed a line that they should not have crossed and may not prepared to deal with.

The mad mullahs may think that the British are showing weakness by not taking action against Iran, but they may simply be confusing restraint with weakness/incapacity, and that's a potentially fatal flaw in their handling of the situation.

UPDATE:
Is Iran softening its stance? I doubt it although the reports indicate that the Iranians are looking at charging the British sailors and Marines with illegally crossing into Iranian waters and not espionage.

The reality is that the facts don't matter to the Iranians, regardless of the proof offered by the British government that their Royal Marines and sailors were inside Iraqi waters at the time of the incident. I wonder why the British are not more emphatic with this information because the delay only harms their posture.