A blog for all seasons; A blog for one; A blog for all. As the 11th most informative blog on the planet, I have a seared memory of throwing my Time 2006 Man of the Year Award over the railing at Time Warner Center.
Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue
Rome's police chief says all embassies have been informed about a pair of package bombs that exploded at the Swiss and Chilean embassies, injuring two people who opened them.
Chief Francesco Tagliente said a suspicious package found at the Ukrainian embassy turned out to be a false alarm. He spoke to reporters as he arrived Thursday at the Chilean embassy, where witnesses say an explosion was heard shortly after 3 p.m. One person was injured.
Three hours earlier, a package bomb exploded inside an office in the Swiss Embassy, wounding the staffer who opened it. He was taken to the hospital with serious hand injuries but his life is not in danger, the Swiss ambassador Bernardino Regazzoni said.
Swiss officials aren't sure why they were targeted and law enforcement doesn't have any idea either although there have been violent student demonstrations in Italy. One of those injured was a Swiss worker who was injured when he opened the package and sustained injuries to both his hands.
These bombs came two days after Roman authorities found a bomb under a subway seat that was defective, and it comes less than a month after a dozen bombs were sent to various embassies in Greece - with several detonating in the Russian and Swiss embassies and a third detonated before it could reach the Mexican embassy.
It is quite possibly the work of anarchists or student groups, but no one has claimed responsibility. Someone or some group seems to have a problem with diplomats and the diplomatic services, regardless of the nationality, and they don't seem willing to stop until they kill someone.
Here's some incredible footage of the volcano erupting, which includes multiple lightning strikes and lava bombs erupting out of the gaping maw of the volcano:
The British Navy has come to the rescue of some Britons who were stranded in Europe and couldn't return home to the UK by air:
But he said the microscopic ash was potentially dangerous for people if it starts to "settle" on the earth because inhaled particles can reach the lungs and cause respiratory problems.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here
There is a heightened danger for those suffering from asthma and respiratory diseases.
Epstein said the cloud mostly remained high in the atmosphere on Friday but the U.N. health agency was monitoring the situation closely. Some ash blanketed the ground in parts of rural southern Iceland.
Meanwhile the European air navigation agency said air traffic disruptions because of the volcanic ash cloud would last at least another day. The cloud's impact, it said, "will continue for at least the next 24 hours."
Eurocontrol said in a statement that it expected only about 11,000 flights in European airspace Friday, compared with about 28,000 normally. On Thursday, there were 20,334 flights, it said.
German authorities halted flights to 11 of the nation's 16 international airports, including Frankfurt, which is Europe's second busiest, and Duesseldorf. Traffic to airports in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne was also stopped.
In Poland, an official in the presidential administration said the ash cloud may delay Sunday's funeral for Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, though the couple's family later said the services would go ahead. U.S. President Barack Obama and dozens of other world leaders are due to attend the funeral at Krakow's Wawel cathedral in southern Poland. On Friday Krakow airport was one of only two in Poland still open.
British civil aviation authorities said there would be no flights over England until Saturday morning at the earliest.
Flight delays and cancellations may continue through the weekend (or beyond). It all depends on what the volcano does and whether the wind patterns change to allow some flights to resume to the UK. Experts believe that the ash cloud will dissipate within the next few days because it is relatively diffuse at this point. That's good news for those traveling around Europe by air or who have plans to do so in the near term.
An eruption of a volcano in Iceland is causing major headaches for airlines and passengers attempting to fly across the Atlantic Ocean or in parts of Europe because the ash poses a safety hazard to aircraft. Plane engines could shut down if sufficient quantities of the fine particulates get ingested by the engines and can otherwise affect performance of these aircraft. The photo at right shows the ash cloud hanging over the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland (via Daylife). The ash can be razor sharp, and can melt in the heat of engine compressors only to resolidify causing major damage or shutdown of the engine.
Authorities said it was not even clear when it would be safe enough to fly again. In one sobering prediction, a scientist in Iceland said the ejection of volcanic ash — and therefore the disruptions in air travel — could continue for days or even weeks.
Britain's Civil Aviation Authority said non-emergency flights would be banned in all airports until at least 6 p.m. Irish authorities also closed their air space for at least eight hours, as did aviation authorities in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
The move shut down London's five major airports including Heathrow, a major trans-Atlantic hub that handles upwards of 1,200 flights and 180,000 passengers per day. Shutdowns and cancellations spread to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland.
In Iceland, hundreds of people have fled rising floodwaters since the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted Wednesday for the second time in less than a month. As water gushed down the mountainside, rivers rose up to 10 feet (3 meters) by Wednesday night, slicing the island nation's main road in half.
The volcano still spewed ash and steam today, but the floods had subsided. Some ash was falling on uninhabited areas, but most was being blown by westerly winds toward northern Europe, including Britain, about 1,200 milesaway.
The volcano's smoke and ash poses a threat to aircraft because it can affect visibility, and microscopic debris can get sucked into airplane engines and can cause them to shut down.
At the moment all air traffic into Heathrow Airport in London is shut down for the rest of the day, but there's no indication that the situation may change. It all depends on the continuing eruption and the wind direction of the ash cloud.
[l]ess than 24 hours after the satellite's first observation, the JPL team confirmed the volcano was emitting more than one billion watts of energy -- enough to power 40,000 passenger cars at the same time -- and discharging more than six tons of lava per second.
That sounds like a pretty impressive amount of power, but I'm still looking to see what kind of chemical emissions are being pumped out and in what quantities. Large volcanic eruptions can have climatic effects regionally and globally, so if this eruption continues it could have repercussions beyond that which has already been seen in air travel disruptions. This page provides some historical context and more technical data, but not a measure of emissions.
When you get up close and personal with fascism, you're not inclined to see it again. Lebanon has seen how Hizbullah has tried to take over the country by force and intimidation, circumventing the electoral process.
They voted and the results are in. Hizbullah didn't win. In fact, while most experts thought it would be a tight race, the March 14 parties look like they're heading to a major win. Out of the 128 seats in the Legislature, they're on the verge of winning 70. That's a major win no matter how you cut it.
Lebanon's ruling pro-Western coalition appeared headed for a decisive political victory over its Iranian-backed Hezbollah rivals early Monday in the Middle East nation's most fiercely contested parliamentary election in decades.
Fireworks echoed through Beirut neighborhoods as unofficial results indicated that Hezbollah and its Christian allies were dealt a surprising setback at the polls.
With soldiers looking on, jubilant supporters of the ruling coalition poured into the streets, waving flags, honking car horns and chanting political slogans.
We "will return as the majority," Samir Geagea , head of the powerful Lebanese Forces party that is part of the pro-Western ruling coalition known as March 14 , told LBC television.
Both sides had predicted no more than a narrow victory. But unofficial results, which were expected to be made final later Monday, showed March 14 politicians winning most of the close races. Analysts projected that they would secure at least 70 seats in the 128-seat parliament. The coalition held 70 seats in the outgoing parliament while Hezbollah and its allies had 58.
Unofficial results showed March 14 politicians winning most of the close races. Local analysts projected that they would secure at least 70 seats in the 128-seat parliament. The coalition held 70 seats in the outgoing parliament while Hezbollah and its allies had 58.
Charles Johnson at LGF has done tremendous work showing just how insidious the BNP and its allied parties are in hiding their true intentions from the public. They are not the saviors for Europe and while they may claim that they're trying to stem the tide of Islamists in Europe, they're substituting their own fascism for that of the Islamists.
That's a bargain that Europeans should want no part of.
On this day 65 years ago, the Allies opened a Western front against Nazi Germany. set the United States on a course with destiny as the defender of freedom. It wasn't guaranteed, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had written two versions of a statement on what happened this fateful day 63 years ago - one if the landings succeeded and another if the landings failed. The version for if the landings failed read:
Our landings have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops.
"My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available.
"The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do.
"If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
Thankfully for all involved, Eisenhower would never have to give that version.
That's the view that many young men saw as they waded ashore under murderous German gunfire. For many, it was the last thing they saw. For the survivors, it was just the first step of many such steps into freeing Western Europe from the murderous grip of the Germans.
63 years ago, elements of the American, British and Canadian forces landed in France, opening up the Western Front against Nazi Germany. It was D-Day for Operation Overlord - the invasion to liberate Europe from the Nazis:
A great invasion force stood off the Normandy coast of France as dawn broke on 6 June 1944: 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, and 71 large landing craft of various descriptions as well as troop transports, mine sweepers, and merchantmen—in all, nearly 5,000 ships of every type, the largest armada ever assembled. The naval bombardment that began at 0550 that morning detonated large minefields along the shoreline and destroyed a number of the enemy’s defensive positions. To one correspondent, reporting from the deck of the cruiser HMS Hillary, it sounded like “the rhythmic beating of a gigantic drum” all along the coast. In the hours following the bombardment, more than 100,000 fighting men swept ashore to begin one of the epic assaults of history, a “mighty endeavor,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt described it to the American people, “to preserve … our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity.”
The attack had been long in coming. From the moment British forces had been forced to withdraw from France in 1940 in the face of an overwhelming German onslaught, planners had plotted a return to the Continent. Only in that way would the Allies be able to confront the enemy’s power on the ground, liberate northwestern Europe, and put an end to the Nazi regime.
The outcome of the landings was in doubt until the beachheads were able to be established and reinforcements could be landed.
While the landings at Sword, Juno, Utah, and Gold beaches were largely successful, Omaha Beach nearly became a fiasco of monumental proportions that could threaten the landings at the other beaches. The Sherman DD tanks were launched too far out in the choppy waters and 27 of the 32 tanks sank, leaving the infantry without the needed support. German forces were able to pin the troops that did make it ashore in a killing field that turned the ocean red.
The military briefly considered shifting assets from Omaha Beach to Utah in order to exploit the landing there, but the survivors at Omaha managed to open up pathways to behind the German lines, where they could be attacked, cut off and destroyed by follow up attacks.
In the hours and days after the landings, tens of thousands of Allied troops would come ashore and link up with the remnants of the Airborne units that landed inland to help prevent reinforcements from heading to the beaches. Those units suffered serious casualties for several reasons including being dropped immediately on top of St. Mere Egliese, flooded fields, and were dispersed over such a wide area that it made it difficult to link up the individual Airborne units.
The following is a special video that includes footage recreating the events of the fateful hours of D-Day:
Today, President Barack Obama, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and other national leaders will pay their respects to the bravery of the US, Canadian, British, and Free French forces that came ashore to liberate the European continent from Nazi tyranny. In addition to paying his respects to those forces, Obama also used the opportunity to criticize another odious regime of today - North Korea.
Also present will be one of the last living members of the only African-American batallion to come ashore in the invasion, Cpl. William G. Dabney, who was a member of the 320th Antiaircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion, whose job was to come ashore and then unfurl helium balloons to prevent Nazi planes from strafing the beachhead.
Meanwhile, in its coverage of the D-Day events MSNBC couldn't help but take a swipe at President Bush, claiming that Obama and Sarkozy have improved relations between France and the US, which ignores the fact that Sarkozy was pro-American and overcame the anti-American sentiment that swept Europe after the Iraq invasion (and who wasn't alone as the Italians also elected a pro-American leader). Facts are a stubborn thing, and it was a fact that it took the stubborn determination of those forces on D-Day to liberate the continent and to show that the Americans carried the mantle of freedom and liberty wherever they went.
That's true, even to this day, despite what MSNBC may claim. Liberating 50 million people from the yoke of tyranny in Iraq and Afghanistan was not the easy thing to do, but it was the right thing.
UPDATE: Ed Morissey has a post commemorating D-Day, and includes video of President Reagan's speech on the 40th anniversary. I will add President Obama's speech when it is available.
We were told that President Obama would "repair" the damage done by President Bush to US relations with the rest of the world. So, why is President Obama in a snit with French President Sarkozy? France is a part of the world last time I checked, and yet President Obama snubbed Sarkozy several times and has thus far not committed to attending the 65th anniversary of D-Day in June. Obama skipped the opportunity to visit Normandy and pay his respects to the US troops interred there who gave their lives to liberate Europe from the Nazis during his current trip.
But perhaps most damaging for the Administration domestically is President Obama's failure to visit the American Cemetery in Normandy. During the campaign, Obama was heavily criticized for cancelling a planned visit to the U.S. military hospital in Ramstein, Germany, for a meeting with wounded troops. Skipping a visit to the cemetery could spark similar criticism. Moreover, the White House would not comment on whether President Obama will attend the ceremonies for the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in June, although a Sarkozy aide said Obama has agreed to the trip. So it remains unclear whether President Obama will get another chance to honor the 9,387 American soldiers buried there.
It is becoming clear, however, that there is tension between Obama and Sarkozy, despite French denials. Sarkozy has been critical of Obama's foreign policy ideas, especially with respect to Iran's nuclear programs. White House officials are not commenting, but they are also not going out of their way to quell the rumors. President Obama campaigned on a promise to reestablish relationships with American allies. So far, though, the relationship with France, and his personal relationship with Sarkozy, appears to be deteriorating with each new report.
Never mind that this wasn't about France or hurt feelings, but about honoring US servicemembers who died to liberate Europe from the Nazis. Obama and his team apparently didn't find the time to make that trip at this time, but their actions suggest a smug arrogance that they can do whatever they feel like.
Throw in the fact that the President is more than willing to kowtow to the Saudis, push for dialogue with rogue nations that repeatedly test the Administration knowing that they can get away with everything from missile tests to detaining, charging, or convicting American citizens on trumped up charges, and I'd say that the US relations with our allies is falling apart, and our stature among our enemies remains unchanged.
This is an Administration that is showing weakness in the face of renewed and existing threats. The world is watching and studying the President's actions intently.
But according to a Pakistani newspaper, regional envoy Richard Holbrooke and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen came up empty handed and received a “rude shock” when a proposal for joint operations against Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the volatile tribal regions was rejected.
Dawn newspaper reported that Pakistan also asked the U.S. to turn over the unmanned drone missions over the territory to them, saying that the drone strikes were fueling extremism.
And The Independent published an interview with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday in which he said Pakistan would go after high-value targets on their own if the U.S. would hand over its drone technology and intelligence.
Zardari's reluctance to take on the Islamists, preceded by Musharraf's inability to do the same, has fueled the Islamists growing power in Pakistan since they sense the weakness of resolve to stop them. The missile strikes have nothing to do with fueling the extremists, but are an American attempt to go after the terrorists who threaten the US who are operating from Pakistani soil, both inside the frontier provinces and within Pakistan proper.
You would have thought that Obama would be greeted with open arms and that America's image would improve considerably. I guess the Pakistanis weren't impressed either. In fact, they're busy making demands of their own on the Administration.
"The Zionists brought Obama to power to help America pass through its current challenges," said the representative to the Revolutionary Guards in northwestern Zanjan province, cleric Hojjatoleslam Ali Maboudi.
"Any government has 'red lines' and our 'red lines' are rejecting the arrogant policies of America and the Zionist regime."
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate authority over policy in the Islamic Republic, has yet to comment on Obama's presidency or his offer to extend a hand of peace if the Islamic Republic would only "unclench its fist."
The leader has representatives to many institutions and regions whose comments can give an indication of views prevalent among Iran's leadership.
"Opposing the Zionist regime and defending oppressed people are among the pillars of the Islamic revolution and Iran and America's relationship will not change because of Obama taking office," Maboudi said.
I guess they're waiting for Obama to grovel a bit more, or perhaps throw Israel under the bus before acting. Iran continues to support Hamas and continues its genocidal rhetoric directed at Israel, so if they can get the US to alter its support for Israel, they'll see that signal as one that supports the Iranian regime in Tehran that has been hellbent on Israel's destruction.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's thuggish leader, wants the world powers to be more humble; which is to say grovel at Iran's feet and submit to Iran's worldview or else. It's yet another da'wa - a threat and a promise. Iran has no interest in negotiating away its nuclear program, not when it continues to work towards a working missile system and its enrichment program continues churning out enriched nuclear materials that with enough time can result in weapons grade uranium.
I expect Obama to do just that - not only signal that he's throwing Israel under the bus, but will make statements that will show Obama's willingness to throw US national security under the bus in the name of "diplomacy". Let us just ignore the decades of Iranian-backed terrorism against the US, the acts of war by Iran against the US beginning in 1979 that remain unanswered to this day, and the backing of proxy armies throughout the Middle East that seek to attack our allies and our strategic interests.
It comes even as Russian officials say that the Bushehr reactor is going to be online before 2010 - in other words: this year. The Europeans, who are already within range of Iran's longest range missiles, are feeding the problem, by cozying up with Iran with trade deals that provide the cashflow Tehran needs to complete its plans.
Obama has no plan to deal with that outcome either, and talking without preconditions isn't going to avert Iran becoming a nuclear power.
Russia has already threatened Poland with nuclear weapons targeting, but the fact is that Russia's actions have spurred NATO into acting and former Republics have realized that the resurgent Red menace on their border isn't content to simply live and let live.
They want to maintain control and dominion over their former holdings, and will use whatever tactics are available, up to and including brutal military force.
To be clear, this missile defense system is designed to protect Europe from missiles fired against it. It's defensive in nature, not an offensive weapons system to be fired first against enemies.
It would be extremely useful against rogue nations that may attempt to fire missiles against Europe, including Iran. It's an insurance policy, and yet Russia treats it as an offensive threat. Then again, everything that the West does is portrayed as an offensive threat, even though it was the Russians who instigated matters in Georgia and whose peacekeepers have been doing anything but - raping and pillaging the Georgian countryside and who haven't withdrawn out of Georgian territory despite the ceasefire.
Don Surber gives Obama's speech the once over, and finds more than a few faults with the history and facts.
Tigerhawk takes Obama to task for lying about his global warming and climate change portion, and supports his assertions with charts and graphs showing that Obama lied and exaggerated to great effect.
It would be nice to see the media do this, but they're frankly too engrossed in the halo to notice that it's nothing but a strategically positioned kleig light that is supposed to blind the clueless and incurious.
UPDATE: Stop the ACLU points out a factual problem with another part of Obama's speech:
Obama claims that the walls built to separate Protestant from Catholic have come down in Belfast. Well, in fact, they have not. In reality MORE ARE BEING BUILT all the time.
As a May 5th USA Today story chronicles, “Ten years after peace was declared in Northern Ireland, one might have expected that Belfast’s barriers would be torn down by now. But reality, as usual, is far messier. Not one has been dismantled. Instead they’ve grown in both size and number.”
Obama got the story of the Berlin Airlift all wrong too. You would think that a prepared speech on the world stage would be checked for blatant misrepresentations and lies? Perhaps Obama's own staff believes its own hype.
June 6, 1944 - a day that changed the course of the war in Europe, and set the United States on a course with destiny as the defender of freedom. It wasn't guaranteed, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had written two versions of a statement on what happened this fateful day 63 years ago - one if the landings succeeded and another if the landings failed. The version for if the landings failed read:
Our landings have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops.
"My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available.
"The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do.
"If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
Thankfully for all involved, Eisenhower would never have to give that version.
That's the view that many young men saw as they waded ashore under murderous German gunfire. For many, it was the last thing they saw. For the survivors, it was just the first step of many such steps into freeing Western Europe from the murderous grip of the Germans.
63 years ago, elements of the American, British and Canadian forces landed in France, opening up the Western Front against Nazi Germany. It was D-Day for Operation Overlord - the invasion to liberate Europe from the Nazis:
A great invasion force stood off the Normandy coast of France as dawn broke on 6 June 1944: 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, and 71 large landing craft of various descriptions as well as troop transports, mine sweepers, and merchantmen—in all, nearly 5,000 ships of every type, the largest armada ever assembled. The naval bombardment that began at 0550 that morning detonated large minefields along the shoreline and destroyed a number of the enemy’s defensive positions. To one correspondent, reporting from the deck of the cruiser HMS Hillary, it sounded like “the rhythmic beating of a gigantic drum” all along the coast. In the hours following the bombardment, more than 100,000 fighting men swept ashore to begin one of the epic assaults of history, a “mighty endeavor,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt described it to the American people, “to preserve … our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity.”
The attack had been long in coming. From the moment British forces had been forced to withdraw from France in 1940 in the face of an overwhelming German onslaught, planners had plotted a return to the Continent. Only in that way would the Allies be able to confront the enemy’s power on the ground, liberate northwestern Europe, and put an end to the Nazi regime.
The outcome of the landings was in doubt until the beachheads were able to be established and reinforcements could be landed.
While the landings at Sword, Juno, Utah, and Gold beaches were largely successful, Omaha Beach nearly became a fiasco of monumental proportions that could threaten the landings at the other beaches. The Sherman DD tanks were launched too far out in the choppy waters and 27 of the 32 tanks sank, leaving the infantry without the needed support. German forces were able to pin the troops that did make it ashore in a killing field that turned the ocean red.
The military briefly considered shifting assets from Omaha Beach to Utah in order to exploit the landing there, but the survivors at Omaha managed to open up pathways to behind the German lines, where they could be attacked, cut off and destroyed by follow up attacks.
In the hours and days after the landings, tens of thousands of Allied troops would come ashore and link up with the remnants of the Airborne units that landed inland to help prevent reinforcements from heading to the beaches. Those units suffered serious casualties for several reasons including being dropped immediately on top of St. Mere Egliese, flooded fields, and were dispersed over such a wide area that it made it difficult to link up the individual Airborne units.
The following is a special video that includes footage recreating the events of the fateful hours of D-Day:
Slublog posting at Ace in 2007 had a good posting on the events of D-Day, including a link to the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan (very violent). As violent as that scene was, the reality was so many times worse. Dave in Texas also had a very thoughtful posting.
Also, recall last year's spoof of how the modern media would cover the invasion had it occurred today:
For all the talk of the naysayers about the costs and the handwringing of Russia over the deployment of a missile defense system to Eastern Europe, the fact is that there are very good reasons for the US to deploy the system.
Today's news that Iran has indeed been working on a long range missile system capable of hitting targets in Europe, throughout the Middle East, and South Asia with a range of 6,000km, should be taken in conjunction with the fact that the North Koreans possess long range missiles of their own. The similarities between the Iranian program and the North Koreans should not be underestimated:
But four days after the launch another intriguing feature of the test became apparent: analysis of photographs taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite indicated that the launch site of Kavoshgar 1, as the Shihab missile was dubbed by the Iranians, is also the site where Iran is busy developing ballistic missiles with a range of about 6,000 km.
The site, about 230 km southeast of Teheran, was previously unknown and its link with the Iranian weapons program was revealed by Jane's Intelligence Review after the images were studied by a former Iraq weapons inspector.
Using a space program as a façade for a weapons program was the path chosen by Korea until it declared it had passed the nuclear weapon threshold.
Geoffrey Forden, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that there was a recently constructed building on the site, about 40 metres in length, which was similar in form and size to the Taepodong long-range missile assembly facility in North Korea.
Jane's Proliferation editor Avital Johanan said analysis of the Iranian site indicated that Teheran may be about five years away from developing a 6,000 km ballistic missile. This would tie in with American intelligence estimates and underlines why President Bush wants the Polish and Czech components of the US missile defence system to be up and running by 2013.
It is with this in mind that the US sought to deploy missile defense systems, which would be capable of protecting US strategic interests around the world.
The cost of doing nothing in the face of these threats is staggering, especially when such regimes may act irrationally under convention deterrence doctrines in the hopes of furthering religious/ideological goals even if it means catastrophic loss of life in the process.
Mating those weapons with the new missiles would put tens of millions of people at risk of annihilation at the hands of ideological and genocidal leadership in Tehran.
Last week, an African model was found floating in the Seine River. Paris police found no foul play and suspect the model, Katoucha Niane, died after accidentally falling into the river. Niane had become a prominent spokeswoman against the brutal practice of female genital mutilation.
Now, we learn that another African model has disappeared, this time from the streets of Belgium. Waris Dirie was an outspoken critic of female genital mutilation, had written a book on the subject, and was scheduled to speak at a conference in Brussels, which will also feature Sec. State Rice:
Dirie was due to speak to two conferences on women's rights organized by the European Union in Brussels this week, including one Thursday attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Dirie's disappearance comes a week after French police said they'd found the body of another former model of African origin who had campaigned against female genital mutilation.
Guinean-born Katoucha Niane's body was found floating in the Seine River in Paris. French police said an autopsy showed no signs of foul play, pointing to the possibility that the 47-year-old Niane may have fallen accidentally into the river.
On Friday, Belgian police launched an official missing persons appeal for Dirie, asking the public for information. The police said they also were looking for the taxi driver that took her from the area between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.
Lutschinger said Dirie had been involved in an altercation at a hotel reception after a taxi driver had taken her to the wrong branch of the Sofitel hotel chain after a visit to a night club. The police were called and drove Dirie around Brussels looking for the correct hotel, after she had apparently forgotten where she was staying.
At one hotel, while staff and police were checking for her name on a computer, Dirie walked out and climbed into a taxi that drove away, Lutschinger said police told him.
While, it may be nothing more than coincidence, I hope that the authorities do look closely at both situations to ensure that it is nothing more than a coincidence.
UPDATE: Jihad Watch wonders about what happened to these two women - both strident opponents to FGM.
UPDATE: Reports are coming in that authorities in Brussels have found Dirie alive and are questioning her over what transpired.
The Serbs are once again showing themselves unworthy of support. Even if you agree that the US gave them a bum rap in supporting independence for Kosovo, rioting and torching US diplomatic facilities isn't the way to make friends and influence people, unless you want to influence them and make them enemies.
Hundreds of protesters tried to attack the United States consulate in Bosnia’s Serb Republic on Tuesday, smashing shops in the city centre after they were pushed away by riot police.
About 10,000 people protested in the region’s capital Banja Luka in a largely peaceful march against the secession of Kosovo from Serbia. The Albanian-majority breakaway province declared independence on February 17 with Western backing.
But despite a heavy police presence, the protest turned violent when several hundred set off towards the U.S. consulate, throwing stones and firecrackers at the building.
They also smashed the windows of Croat-owned shops in the centre of town. Three people were injured, including two police officers, the emergency services said.
The photo was taken by Milan Radulovic of AFP and carried on Getty Images.
63 years ago, elements of the American, British and Canadian forces landed in France, opening up the Western Front against Nazi Germany. It was D-Day for Operation Overlord - the invasion to liberate Europe from the Nazis:
A great invasion force stood off the Normandy coast of France as dawn broke on 6 June 1944: 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, and 71 large landing craft of various descriptions as well as troop transports, mine sweepers, and merchantmen—in all, nearly 5,000 ships of every type, the largest armada ever assembled. The naval bombardment that began at 0550 that morning detonated large minefields along the shoreline and destroyed a number of the enemy’s defensive positions. To one correspondent, reporting from the deck of the cruiser HMS Hillary, it sounded like “the rhythmic beating of a gigantic drum” all along the coast. In the hours following the bombardment, more than 100,000 fighting men swept ashore to begin one of the epic assaults of history, a “mighty endeavor,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt described it to the American people, “to preserve … our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity.”
The attack had been long in coming. From the moment British forces had been forced to withdraw from France in 1940 in the face of an overwhelming German onslaught, planners had plotted a return to the Continent. Only in that way would the Allies be able to confront the enemy’s power on the ground, liberate northwestern Europe, and put an end to the Nazi regime.
The outcome of the landings was in doubt until the beachheads were able to be established and reinforcements could be landed.
While the landings at Sword, Juno, Utah, and Gold beaches were largely successful, Omaha Beach nearly became a fiasco of monumental proportions that could threaten the landings at the other beaches. The Sherman DD tanks were launched too far out in the choppy waters and 27 of the 32 tanks sank, leaving the infantry without the needed support. German forces were able to pin the troops that did make it ashore in a killing field that turned the ocean red.
The military briefly considered shifting assets from Omaha Beach to Utah in order to exploit the landing there, but the survivors at Omaha managed to open up pathways to behind the German lines, where they could be attacked, cut off and destroyed by follow up attacks.
Our landings have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops.
"My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available.
"The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do.
"If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
Thankfully for all involved, Eisenhower would never have to give that version.
In the hours and days after the landings, tens of thousands of Allied troops would come ashore and link up with the remnants of the Airborne units that landed inland to help prevent reinforcements from heading to the beaches. Those units suffered serious casualties for several reasons including being dropped immediately on top of St. Mere Egliese, flooded fields, and were dispersed over such a wide area that it made it difficult to link up the individual Airborne units.
The following is a special video that includes footage recreating the events of the fateful hours of D-Day:
UPDATE: Slublog posting at Ace has a good posting on the events of D-Day, including a link to the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan (very violent). As violent as that scene was, the reality was so many times worse. Dave in Texas also has a very thoughtful posting.
Anthony Lorenzo looked out at the freshly-painted USS Intrepid docked at a Staten Island pier this morning and was transported to 1961.
"I'm thinking about when I was 19 years old, carefree," said the 65-year-old Staten Island resident who served on the Intrepid from 1961 to 1963. "It brings back the youth in you."
Lorenzo was one of dozens of former Intrepid crew members who welcomed the aircraft carrier to Staten Island from Bayonne, where it had undergone a $5 million facelift, at a ceremony planned to coincide with the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, when Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy.
They talked of old times and admired the new paint on the 41,000-ton ship.
"She finished her drydock extreme makeover," said Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
The Intrepid hosted a ceremony marking the D-Day landings. The ship had been undergoing repairs, painting, and will now be fitted with new exhibits. The ship will be towed back to Manhattan and reopened on Veterans Day 2008.
UPDATE 6/7/2007: This is simply brilliant - it's exactly how the media would cover the invasion had it occurred today:
Al-Qaeda has rapidly extended its influence across North Africa by aiding and organizing local groups that are demonstrating a renewed ability to launch terrorist attacks in the region, such as the triple suicide bombings that killed 33 people here last month, according to counterterrorism officials and analysts.
The bombers who struck the Government Palace and a police station in Algiers, the capital, are believed to have been local residents. But Algerian authorities are examining evidence that the bombers were siphoned from recruiting pipelines that have sent hundreds of North African fighters to Iraq and perhaps were trained by veterans of the Iraqi insurgency, U.S. and European intelligence officials said.
I think the article misses out on what has happened over the past 20 years.
Al Qaeda got its start in Africa. The USS Cole was hit in Yemen and the dual bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania showed that al Qaeda had a potent capability in Africa. Porous borders and failed states on the continent enable al Qaeda to spread without being detected. The jihadi ideology further enables al Qaeda to spread its message.
The Iraq conflict, combined with the Afghanistan campaign put al Qaeda on the defensive. They had to respond to both campaigns. Infidels in the heart of the Islamic world could not be tolerated, and yet al Qaeda has been decimated there. They need to take the pressure off their remaining al Qaeda thugs, so have attempted to do so by launching attacks elsewhere in the world. Algeria is a good launching point from which to go after Europe and other parts of Africa because of its central location and proximity to unstable failed states in Africa from which al Qaeda can grow its manpower relatively undetected.
And with the porous European borders, the concern is that once inside Algeria, it is a quick hop into Europe to launch attacks.
The article makes the leap that the Iraq campaign has spread the jihadi war to Africa and into Europe, and ignores the recent past to do so. Al Qaeda has had a presence in Africa for more than a decade.
The passport used by notorious Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann to enter Argentina in 1950 has been found by accident in an archive in Buenos Aires.
The passport, still in good condition, was issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.
Eichmann was one of the main executors of Adolf Hitler’s ‘final solution’, the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War II.
The ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross has a long and distinguished history of flacking for the Nazis. They refused to lift a finger to the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II, especially the slaughter and genocide of millions of Jews, gays, Gypsies, and others deemed undesirable by the Nazi leadership.
That Eichmann was able to secure a passport via the Red Cross and escape to Argentina suggests that the group had no problem supporting mass murderers escape justice.
Eichmann was captured in Argentina by an Israeli raid and it took the diligent efforts of Simon Wiesenthal, Peter Malkin, and others to bring this mass murderer to justice.
It should never have come to that. Justice was delayed because of the ICRC's actions that aided and abetted a Nazi. Shameful doesn't begin to cover this.
For the record, the American Red Cross is not associated with the ICRC. They are separate organizations.
Israeli forces have continued operations inside Gaza, but haven't confined their military operations to Gaza. They have also gone after terror cells in the West Bank, including the hotbed of Nablus.
Abbas sees the writing on the wall and knows that Israel's crackdown on Hamas only improves his own survival, though there are those who will call him a collaborator:
The militants have said there could be no truce if Israel keeps up its attacks and refuses to extend any Gaza cease-fire to the West Bank, site of frequent Israeli swoops on militants. In an interview Monday with Associated Press Television News, Abbas said Palestinians should take the first step.
“The truce project means all acts by all parties stop, the Palestinians first and the Israelis, so we can move after to the West Bank,” Abbas said. “Israel ... can do what it wants, whenever it wants, but we say we should do our duties and put the ball in the Israeli court.”
The Palestinians have been losing the media and leftist support around the world because they've been busy fighting among each other. Hamas has been killing Fatah and Fatah has been killing Hamas. Abbas would like to get back to a time when the Palestinians were too busy to kill Israelis to be concerned with killing each other.
The fact is that Hamas recognizes Israel - it seeks its destruction. The terrorist group's very existence is predicated upon the destruction of Israel. Israel recognizes Hamas as well. It sees it as an existential threat. Peace between Hamas and Israel is impossible unless one side or the other is willing to concede on those basic points. Hamas will not do so because its goal is tied not only to a political belief, but to religious beliefs and you're not going to get Hamas to change their religious beliefs.
Recognizing Hamas as a part of the PA will not increase the likelyhood of peace; it only bolster's Hamas' position and will result in more money siphoned from civil administrative projects for the fight with Israel.
John Dugard, the UN Human Rights Council's investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the Mideast Quartet has to treat both sides equally if it wants to broker a successful peace agreement.
Israel has consistently rejected Dugard's reports and statements as one-sided. In March he compared the Jewish state's treatment of Palestinians to apartheid - comments that drew strong criticism from Israeli officials, who called them "inflammatory and inciteful."
"In order to prevent another season of violence and to protect human rights in the region, the Quartet must intervene immediately in a fair and evenhanded manner," said Dugard, a South African lawyer. "This means the recognition of both Hamas and non-Hamas members of the Palestinian Government of National Unity."
They want to have the world treat both sides equally as though that is the key stumbling block to peace? Hamas seeks to annihilate a sovereign state and wipe it from the map. Fatah also seeks that goal, and yet Dugard and the UN organization thinks increased recognition is the solution?
The situation in Gaza is of the Palestinians own choosing. They are the ones who have taken the 2005 Israeli withdrawal in 2005 and turned the area into a rocket launching bazaar. Sderot and border areas were being hit with Palestinian rockets for years and that situation hasn't changed. The Palestinians could have chosen to build Gaza peacefully, but instead chose the radical Islamists in Hamas to conduct a war against Israel.
Firstly, the rocket fire on Sderot began long before withdrawal from Gaza. Secondly, anyone with any sense knew even then, prior to withdrawal, that Palestinian fire would continue - with the pullout possibly granting legitimacy and freedom for effective response against the acts of terror originating from the Strip.
As each of us understands, and also according to the position taken by legal advisors at the time, our exit from Gaza has freed us of responsibility for the lives of Gaza residents and enables us to better protect ourselves.
Unfortunately, our leadership doesn't understand this - it is flaccid. Instead of using our freedom to operate we are behaving as though we are responsible for the residents of the Gaza Strip. Please wake up. We are no longer responsible for them and don't owe them a thing. This is one of the achievements of exiting Gaza - and it's a shame it is being wasted.
If you want to fire at us - we don't want to sell you electricity. Go find work in Egypt, in the Gulf States or Europe, and in addition we'll also fire back.
And now let's imagine what it would be like if we were still in the Gaza Strip. Besides the rocket fire on Sderot and the outlaying communities, the bloodbath of soldiers and civilians in Gush Katif, Kfar Darom and Nitzanim would also have continued.
Without going into the subject, it is our right to settle anywhere we like; the Israeli public is simply not prepared to pay the casualty toll of remaining in the Strip. Whether this is justified or not, the majority amongst us is prepared to fight for Sderot at any cost, but it is unwilling to pay the cost of settling in Gaza.
Of course, any attempt to cut off electricity or water to the PA would result in immediate calls from the usual suspects in the media and NGOs that Israel was engaging in collective punishment.
However, since when has any nation at war with another nation continued to provide basic services to the people they're at war with? The Palestinians seek to destroy Israel and regularly seek to kill Israelis with rocket attacks, and yet if Israel cuts off the electricity (some of which goes to producing those rockets), they'd be cast as the bad guys?
With gasoline prices setting new records every day, the only place in the country where gas is still under $3 a gallon is New Jersey.
Oddly, it's one of only two states that require all its service stations to pump the gas for you.
New Jersey boasts the cheapest gasoline in the nation; it is also one of only two states that requires full service at every pump. Gasoline in-depth Get ready for $4 gasoline
With prices at record high, demand and refining problems could push them much higher. Any relief in sight? (more) The refinery crunch When gasoline prices surge, a lack of refining capacity is often blamed. What's being done, and is it enough? (more) 6 ways to cut gas prices From a big fat tax to more efficiency to boosting production, there are ways to do it - but which really stand a chance? (more) Fuel economy wimps Instead of ensuring that we use less gas, politicians and consumers take the easy way out, says Fortune's Alex Taylor. (more)
Video More video
Why are gas prices so high? CNN's Allan Chernoff looks at some possible reasons. (May 22) Play video
"It shows you how little cost has to do with the price of gas," said Doug MacIntyre, senior oil and gasoline analyst at the Energy Information Administration. "This is local supply and demand conditions."
6 ways to lower gas prices While refinery outages continue to plague the Midwest - Chicago now has higher gasoline prices than notoriously pricey San Francisco - New Jersey is benefiting from its four in-state refineries, all of which appear to be running just fine.
Plus, New York Harbor gas facilities, which are actually in New Jersey, is the delivery area for all futures gasoline contracts traded on NYMEX. It's also the main port for gasoline imports from Europe, which account for 30 percent of the gas used in the Northeast.
Then there's the taxes. At just 14 cents a gallon, New Jersey has one of the smallest state gas taxes in the country. The national average is about 21 cents, according to gaspricewatch.com. The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon.
In Pennsylvania, which sits just next door to New Jersey and has several refineries of its own, the average price is $3.073 a gallon, according to the motorist organization AAA. That's about 13 cents higher than New Jersey's $2.947.
It's there if you look hard enough. Taxes.
Lots of taxes.
In an article that notes that New Jersey has the lowest average price for gasoline in the country, it takes until the sixth paragraph to note the taxes. The author of the story had to find a hook for the piece that no one else thought of, and succeeded in burying the real reason for why New Jersey has lower gas prices than elsewhere. The author thought it important to note the "connection" between low gas prices and the fact that the state prohibits self-service stations.
I use connection in quotes because there is no connection there. One has nothing to do with the other. The price of gasoline is tied to a combination of wholesale prices in the market plus taxes and supply and demand.
States and the federal government tack on all manner of taxes such that when they speak of windfall taxes, they should look at their coffers every time the gas prices spike because their revenues increase, especially when the taxes are a percentage of the price as opposed to a set dollar figure. New Jersey imposes the lowest taxes in the country, and New Jersey drivers benefit from the lower prices.
Iran's ability to enrich uranium continues to progress on a daily basis. The IAEA has found that the Iranians have been able to overcome problems with their centrifuge cascades, which enrich uranium and allow Iran the ability to process uranium to weapons grade if given sufficient time.
Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is now beginning to enrich uranium on a far larger scale than before, according to the agency’s top officials.
The findings may change the calculus of diplomacy in Europe and in Washington, which aimed to force a suspension of Iran’s enrichment activities in large part to prevent it from learning how to produce weapons-grade material.
In a short-notice inspection of Iran’s operations in the main nuclear facility at Natanz on Sunday, conducted in advance of a report to the United Nations Security Council due early next week, the inspectors found that Iranian engineers were already using roughly 1,300 centrifuges and were producing fuel suitable for nuclear reactors, according to diplomats and nuclear experts here.
Until recently, the Iranians were having difficulty keeping the delicate centrifuges spinning at the tremendous speeds necessary to make nuclear fuel and were often running them empty or not at all.
If we're hoping that Iran is slowed by technological hurdles or that saboteurs are able to thwart the enrichment program, then you're not facing reality. There is little to suggest that anyone is doing anything other than talking and wishing the situation go away. Yet, the Iranians are moving closer to their holy grail every day.
There is absolutely no reason to believe that the Iranians would suspend enrichment activities, and there is nothing that the US or anyone else would do short of military action that would alter Iran's ambitions. Sanctions will not work. Iran already has the centrifuges and the uranium ore. They've got the oil, and they have the willpower to see this through. And every week means they're able to move that much closer:
“They are at the stage where they are doing one cascade a week,” said one diplomat familiar with the analysis of Iran’s activities, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information. A “cascade” has 164 centrifuges, and experts say that at this pace, Iran could have 3,000 centrifuges operating by June — enough to make one bomb’s worth of material every year. Tehran may, the diplomat said, be able to build an additional 5,000 centrifuges by the end of the year, for a total of 8,000.
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