Saturday - October 11, 2008

Stop sharia law in Britain.  USA SHOULD ALSO TAKE SERIOUS NOTE.  PAT CONDELL VIDEO

Good Sat. afternoon to all who fall by here.

Here’s latest (far as I know) from Pat Condell.  He doesn’t need me to add anything.

The trouble with Wikipedia

WorldNetDaily is promoting a video about the Feast of Tabernacles. This piqued my curiosity and I turned to, where else, Wikipedia’s entry for Feast of Tabernacles. This is some of the info I found:

Many of the laws of melcha (forbidden activity) that apply on Shabbat also apply on Sukkot, such as the prohibition against engaging in commerce, lighting a fire, or completing an electrical circuit. Other Shabbat prohibitions, however, are relaxed. With various differences based on one’s religious orientation, one is permitted to cook (so long as the fire is pre-existing), and carry material things from domain to domain. One is not allow to touch cold sea water nor engage in activities involving power tools or hammers weighing more than 2 ounces (biblical weight). One can observe the building or repairing of structures but must limit ones self to strictly observation and criticism when involved with the construction or repair of ones own home. Based n Leviticus 2:3 “Lo! and Moses Smote Leordecheia sharply with a scroll of thine days news.” saying"Vat dah chell are you doink hire someone will you!! vat do you know about this stuff vat are you a carpenter!!!?”

That’s not in my translation of Leviticus. What thinkest thou? Hacked?

   Friday - October 10, 2008

spread it around like peanut butter

BMEWS .... helping good videos go viral for over ... well, at least a couple weeks now.

via Rusty’s, via Liberty Zone, via Mischa’s, via Rachel’s comments, Pal2Pal, etc.

for your daily dose of campaign videos, high thee hence to Pal2Pal.

Another Half Solution

NATO Troops to target Afghan Drug Operations

NATO defense ministers Friday authorized their troops in Afghanistan to attack drug barons blamed for pumping up to $100 million a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.

“With regard to counter-narcotics ... ISAF can act in concert with the Afghans against facilities and facilitators supporting the insurgency,” said NATO spokesman James Appathurai, referring to the NATO force.

The United States had been pushing for NATO’s 50,000 troops to take on a counter-narcotics role to hit back at the Taliban, whose increasing attacks have cast doubt on the prospects of a Western military victory in Afghanistan.

However, Germany, Spain and others were wary and their doubts led to NATO imposing conditions on the anti-drug mandate for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Troops will only be able to act against drug facilities if authorized by their own governments; only drug producers deemed to be supporting the insurgency will be targeted; and the operation must be designed to be temporary — lasting only until the Afghan security forces are deemed able to take on the task.

Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world’s heroin, a trade worth billions of dollars.

Until now, responsibility for dealing with the problem has lain with the Afghan police, but NATO commanders believe the fledgling force cannot cope with the problem. They say the time has come for NATO to move against the drug barons.
...
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Thursday stressed the need for action.
“Our guys are killed by the weapons bought by the Taliban, financed by drugs money,” de Hoop Scheffer said.

The War On Terror is inextricably linked to the War On Drugs. Not just in Afghanistan, but all across Central and South America, in Africa and Southern Asia too. The connections are blatant and are very easy to find with just the slightest bit of looking. And while drugs may be against pisslam, selling them to us infidels is A-Ok. If they can split hairs that fine, then so can we. All drug producers and carriers are therefore terrorists. Kill them.

Burn down every field you find. Every. Single. One. Arrest the farmers. Or just shoot them. And raze the villages if they give you any lip. Salt the ground; take the oldest of Old School approaches. That’s what primitives understand after all. Possession of opium plants or paste or even poppy seeds is an instant hanging offense. Jumping through velvet lined golden hoops to prove that some particular drug producer is involved with the Taliban is a waste of time. They are ALL involved, or at most one step away.

Let them grow wheat instead. Or potatoes. Or even saffron. You find one special farmer, and make him the only authorized grower, because the world needs some opium for medicine. 100 acres worth is probably enough. Put up a big fence and a few machine gun towers and add some really unclean vicious guard dogs. Better yet, just grow it at home. The damn flowers grow anywhere, even in the UK. Why buy it from foreigners in the first place?

Eliminating the Taliban’s source of income is the same as sinking Japanese shipping during WWII. Destroy their support infrastructure and they can’t fight nearly as well. This is a war. Start fighting it fully.

BARBED-WIRE GARDEN FALLS FOUL OF RED TAPE.  a story so dumb is HAS to be posted!

BUT FIRST…
HELLO BRISTOL,VA./TN.  BET THE PLACE HAS GROWN SOME SINCE I WORK ALL THREE STATIONS THERE. IS ZAP STILL ON THE AIR? AND KYE?

Ok everyone, this is a bit of work for me because I have to copy out the whole damn story.  No, there is no link as yet. In fact, I had to call the paper and ask about this and they sent the story by email. BUT ... I can’t do a cut or copy and paste. So, I have to copy the damn thing word for word.
The one place it does show up, is on Google but NOT so that I could capture it.  I really don’t understand how they do these things but for sure nothing makes sense to me and they don’t make it easy.  It doesn’t even have a reporters by line so that makes it harder to find.
Going into the paper itself and doing a search has brought up zero.  RCOB ... so frustrating. Well here goes.  Be interesting to know if any of you can top this for stupidity.

BARBED -WIRE GARDEN FALLS FOUL OF RED TAPE
by Daily Telegraph Reporter

A GARDENER who fenced off his patch with a single strand of barbed wire to protect it from thieves has been ordered to take it down in case intruders hurt themselves.

Bill Malcolm, 61, was told to “remove it on health and safety grounds” by his local council, which owns the allotments.

He erected the deterrent after thieves struck three times in four months, stealing more then $600 worth od spades, forks, hoes and wrecking his potato patch in the process.

Officials instructed Mr. Malcolm to remove the waist high wire from his plot.
He said:  “It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation, all I wanted was to protect my property but the wire had to go in case a thief scratched himself.  The council said they were unhappy about the precautions I had made but my response was to tell them that only someone climbing over on to my allotment could possibly hurt themselves.  They shouldn’t be trespassing in the first place but the council apologized and said they didn’t want to be sued by a wounded thief.”

“I told them to let the thief sue me so at least that way I’d know who was breaking into my allotment but everything I said fell on deaf ears.  It seems as though they are so wrapped up in red tape, they are unable to help me.”

The council responds that with regard to barbed wire, they are obliged to request removal on health and safety grounds to the general public.
-30-

Well hell ... if the general public and thieves don’t try and climb over waist high barbed wire .... where’s the health and safety issue? DUH!

Convicted paedophile found strangled and dumped in woods.  (no great loss and good!)

Nice to start the morning with a good story of justice done.
You don’t generally find “Justice” in the criminal system anymore. I think child abuse is about the lowest form of behavior imaginable.
I’ve nothing else to add except, kudos, bravo to whoever finally brought justice about. 

Convicted paedophile found strangled and dumped in woods after suspected vigilante attack

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:05 AM on 10th October 2008

A convicted paedophile has been found strangled and dumped in remote woodland.

Gordon Boon, 73, may have been murdered by a vigilante in revenge for his crimes while he was on licence from prison, police fear.

The former cider factory worker was found with his body partly covered by old fencing panels in an area used by fly-tippers.
Crime scene

Crime scene: Officers search the woodland in Norfolk where the body of convicted paedophile Gordon Boon was found

Boon, who lived in Norwich, had blood around his nose and mouth and one of his shoes and a sock was missing.

He was jailed for six years in December 2001 for indecent assaults on a girl aged eight and two others aged 13. 
The married pensioner plied one girl with alcohol and played strip poker with her.
He took snaps of the youngster when she was naked and sexually abused her.

Boon admitted indecent assault and two serious sex offences against the youngster, two assaults on the second girl and one on the third.

As well as being jailed, he was placed on the sex offenders register for life and ordered to serve an extended licence of five years on his release.

Judge Paul Downes told him that he had ‘failed to accept’ responsibility for his actions. 

Boon’s body was discovered by walkers in Great Witchingham, just yards from the Norfolk headquarters of turkey tycoon Bernard Matthews.

Detectives at first looked into the possibility that the victim could have been a worker at the poultry factory before realising the dead man was Boon.

It is believed that Boon’s son alerted police last Saturday after he failed to meet him for a drink.

Det Chief Insp Steve Strong of Norfolk Police said: ‘The investigation into the death continues and officers are following up a number of lines of inquiry.

‘We would appeal for anyone that may have seen anything suspicious in the Rabbit Lane and Porters Lane areas of Great Witchingham to come forward with information that might prove useful to our investigation. 

‘We are also very keen to trace the final movements of Mr Boon and would like to hear from anyone that may have seen him since October 2.’

A former neighbour of Boon in Attleborough who did not want to be named, said: ‘He lived here with his wife and their children.

‘I used to say hello to him and he was always friendly. I believe he worked at Gaymer’s cider making business in Attleborough, but that is closed now.

‘He used to drink at The Cock pub in Attleborough and he would take part in their fund-raising for old people’s homes.’

http://tinyurl.com/4cv43f

   Thursday - October 09, 2008

Next Squeegee Project

I knew this was going to happen. I’ve got to run up to Chester tomorrow afternoon to give an estimate. That’s a long drive. Lady wants her windows washed. Only on the outside, thanks. Oh, and do the screens too. Can you give me a written estimate?

So now I have to figure out a per window cost. Heck, I need to figure out a per side of window cost. Plus screens. And I should make up a sales blurb. And have it all done tonight.

The way I figure it, her house, which has 40 windows, ought to make me about $320 for both sides. Plus a couple bucks per storm, both sides. The 37 screens should run another $125. But just doing the outside is hard part, especially if I’m coming in after the painters. That usually means a lot of scraping. And the outside is always the dirtiest side. So I want to set my prices so that just the outside costs about 70% of doing the whole thing. $350 for the whole job, get done in a day and a half? Sounds right to me. No, must remember to not sell myself short. I do premium work with premium tools. Let’s add another $75. Yup, $425 sounds better. I gotta make $30 an hour or else it isn’t worth the hour to drive up there.

I guess I have no time to be having this damn cold.

AND ALL IN THE HOLY NAME OF RELIGION. THAT MAKES IT RIGHT TO THESE ANIMALS.

I don’t think I should demean animals. This is pretty damn bad. What the hell is it with these folks?  Wonder why it is the ppl in this part of the world, and not ALL of them to be sure but far too many, seem so insecure in their faith.  They outnumber Christians to a point where they, Christians, would never be a threat. But they somehow get it in their collective minds that they are a threat.

On the other hand, while not condoning what’s happened in any way, too many fundamentalist Christians don’t want to understand that going into a place where folks are happy with they already have, is not going to endear them when they talk conversation and a better way.

Whatever, it’s seems a damn shame in today’s you’d think more enlightened period, that humans don’t find it pointless to kill in the name of their religion.  ?  Maybe it makes em feel better.  These folks are surely stone age backward people.  And the civilized world has to deal with them as though they are normal everyday folks and heaven forbid, Do Not Offend.

I had thought the Hindus had gotten above that grade, but apparently not.

India terrorised by holy war
A holy war in India has left tens of thousands of Christians crammed into relief camps, too scared to return home following weeks of clashes with Hindu mobs in which at least 35 people have died.

By Rahul Bedi in New Delhi
Last Updated: 5:00PM BST 09 Oct 2008

More than 40,000 Christians have had to flee their homes in Kandhamal district, one of India’s poorest, in the eastern state of Orissa. Their homes have been systematically attacked, looted and burned down by Hindu mobs since the end of August as the local police have looked on helplessly.

“Villagers have threatened to kill me because I am a Christian. They have said I will be welcome back only if I change my religion and become a Hindu,” said Jibit Kumar Digal, 30, who has spent over a month in a relief camp at Baliguda, 200 south west of the provincial capital Bhubaneswar.

Aligned to the radical Hindu Opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the marauding mobs supported by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or World Hindu Council, are alleged to have killed Christians by burnign them alive, gang-raped a nun and destroyed over 140 churches and orphanages across Kandhamal.

Following growing criticism of the provincial government for failing to curb the violence, police on Monday claimed to have arrested the man accused of the nun’s rape, but he is yet to be charged. Several human rights and non-governmental organisations have accused the predominantly Hindu police of conniving in the attacks, a charge the authorities reject.

Violence in Kandhamal erupted on Aug 23 following the killing of a local Hindu leader, who was heading a campaign to reconvert the Christian tribal people back to Hinduism.

Over 20 per cent of the mainly 650,000 tribal inhabitants in the Kandhamal area had converted over decades to Christianity under the influence of missionaries.

Police blamed the Hindu leader’s murder on local Maoist rebels, some of who even confessed to the crime on a local television news network, but Hindu organisations blamed the Christians and began attacking them.

Christians and their organisations have been periodically attacked in other parts of Orissa and across India by Hindu mobs particularly during the six-year rule of the BJP that ended in 2004.

They accused missionaries of using coercion and bribery to produce conversions, a charge they deny.

In 1999, a Hindu mob killed an Australian missionary, Graham Staines, and his two children by burning them alive as they slept in their car in Orissa, allegedly for his proselytising activity. The crime shocked India.

Christians constitute around 2.5 per cent of India’s population of over 1.2 billion, the majority of whom are Hindu.

http://tinyurl.com/3zol6t

Barack Obama looks the part .  (I HATE to post this but, as it’s seen from here.)

This is the editorial that appeared in today’s paper over here.  I’m hearing this from American friends who are conservative, and frankly I am worried.
Not that there’s anything I can do about it.  Maybe I’ll go live in Lyndon’s house in Canada. Claim it as a human right.  Why am I joking about this?
Taint funny McGee!  Cause if I don’t laugh I might cry. 

Should O. carry it off and win, I guess the most consv. can do is try and block supreme nominations of the left.  What a mess.

Singapore’s lookin pretty good right now.

Barack Obama looks the part

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 09/10/2008

There will be many victims of the financial crisis, and one of the most prominent could be John McCain. However much he tries to distance himself from the Bush administration, the Republican candidate in America’s presidential election is finding it increasingly hard to make up ground on Barack Obama, his Democrat opponent.

But it was less their policies for dealing with economic calamity than their demeanour that provided the most noticeable difference between the two men during their second televised debate on Tuesday night. Mr Obama appeared calm and confident; Mr McCain seemed uncertain, tired and tetchy.

It felt, admittedly from afar, like the modern-day equivalent of the famous clash between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960, when those who listened to the debate on the radio believed Nixon had won while those watching on television felt that the more youthful and assured Kennedy triumphed.

With just 27 days to the election, Mr McCain must make his experience and more astute grasp of foreign policy tell, though even on this, his supposed strong suit, he found Mr Obama able to brush off the charge of being wet behind the ears. Polls taken after the debate in Tennessee handed a clear win to Mr Obama, who is now forging ahead in the so-called ‘’battleground” states that will determine who will occupy the White House.

This was supposed to resemble an old-fashioned town hall meeting, of the sort we used to have in this country; and while there was something almost comical about the exercise as the two men prowled around the stage, the cut and thrust of American politics is refreshing to those who lament the absence of similar clashes between party leaders during general elections here.

http://tinyurl.com/3l3vdu

WELCOME COMRADES …. THE WEEK THAT WAS PREDICTS THE FUTURE …. YA NEVER KNOW.

IT’S REALLY CLEVER AND THE VERY END IS MOST TELLING.

NOT VERY LONG.

HAVE FUN. 

lets see what Drew will do with this.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1378314933/bclid1399216957/bctid1845378317

Not so fast Agent Powers

Basil Exposition: Austin, the Cold War is over!
Austin Powers: Finally those capitalist pigs will pay for their crimes, eh? Eh comrades? Eh?
Basil Exposition: Austin… we won.
Austin Powers: Oh, smashing, groovy, yay capitalism!

Um, sorry Basil. It appears that you may have lost after all.

Financial crisis: We’re all socialists now, comrade

A quarter of a century ago, in the era of the Labour manifesto that was dubbed (by a member of the Labour shadow cabinet) “the longest suicide note in history”, when one wanted to depict the absurdity of the view of the world advanced by Tony Benn and Michael Foot one simply had to say: “They want to nationalise the banks!” People fell about laughing.

Today, it is all considerably less funny. We are all socialists now.

For the Government to take stakes in our leading banks in order to re-capitalise them is not quite the sovietisation of Britain, but it is a pretty good start. Given the instinctively socialistic leanings of our Prime Minister, it may well have been a move he undertook calmly and, quite possibly, with a little excitement.

Perhaps the consequences of his not having socialised our financial system in this way could have been catastrophic - a view taken not just by his closest Cabinet colleagues but also by the main opposition parties. Equally, the consequences of his having done so could be catastrophic, too, because the socialist experiment rarely ends up with people feeling happier, richer and more free until it has ended.

Anyone over the age of 40 will recall the abiding result of the days when we had a socialist economy in this country: poverty.

Well, fine. Do you think it’s any different over here? In a million years, you’d never guess what our government wants to do with our banks. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, Free Markets and Caveat Emptor:

US Treasury May Capitalize Banks by End of Month
The U.S. Treasury Department plans to start directly injecting capital in U.S. banks as soon as the end of October in exchange for passive investment stakes, according to a financial policy source familiar with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s thinking.

Under authority granted to it by last week’s $700 billion market rescue legislation, Treasury would get common or preferred shares from the banks it capitalizes, the source told Reuters Thursday. The government does not intend to seek board seats in the voluntary capitalization program.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said later Thursday that Paulson is “actively considering” capital injections into troubled U.S. banks.
“Secretary Paulson is looking at all the different tools to figure out which ones should be used at what time and how robustly and how much money to put into each,” she said.

Treasury’s plan to inject capital would follow action by the British government Wednesday in which it pledged billions of dollars to shore up banks’ capital in exchange for preference shares. The source familiar with Paulson’s thinking said Treasury was working “extremely fast” to put together a capital injection plan. The injections would get at the credit crisis by giving banks more capacity to lend, complementing the bailout bill’s objective of removing soured mortgage-backed assets weighing down banks’ balance sheets.

This will be the perfect opportunity for our new Socialist Overlord Messiah to come to power. Handed to him on a silver platter. Give it two years and we’ll be part of the North American Union. Then part of the One. World. Order. With one currency, just like fwance is already pushing for. And we’ll go to it eagerly. Because Change is Good!

The very best chains are the ones the slaves make themselves and willingly put on.

Novus Ordo Seclorum, my ass.

Tiny mouse turned the tables on a deadly snake and turned from hunted to hunter.

WELL GIVE THREE CHEERS AND THREE CHEERS MORE ..............

DANGER MOUSE

http://tinyurl.com/46pd7e

Pictured: The moment a tiny mouse turned the tables on a deadly snake and turned from hunted to hunterBy Eddie Wrenn
Last updated at 1:38 PM on 09th October 2008

A plucky little mouse turned the tables on a venomous snake after it was served up as lunch and bit the reptile to death.
The rodent was thrown into the snake’s cage but proceeded to fight for its life.

It went on the offensive and, after an epic half-hour scrap, got the upper hand with the serpent.

Face-off: The snake and mouse stare each other down as battle commences.
Open wide: The mouse served up as lunch makes a counter-attack on the viper, leading to a 30 minute fight to the death.

The snake had been found in a home in Nantoun, Taiwan, and firefighters took it back to the station before deciding to serve it a light lunch. But they weren’t expecting the prey to become the killer.
A spokesman for the station said: ‘It attacked the snake continuously, biting and scratching it. Perhaps the snake used up all its venom.’

Nebraska parents abandon teens in backfire of newborn drop-off policy .  WhooHoo. news from the USA

I guess most have seen this right?
If not .... what a hoot.  Woody Allen used to joke about his parents hiring kidnappers to remove him.  But that was a gag. I think.
Anyway ... seems these folks are really serious about getting rid of troubling teens.

A scheme in Nebraska intended to allow desperate young mothers to abandon their newborn child without facing prosecution has backfired after a string of parents delivered their troublesome teenagers to the authorities.


By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 8:53PM BST 08 Oct 2008

Seventeen children - many of them in their teens - have been abandoned since a new law in July allowed parents and guardians to leave their children at drop-off points at hospitals.

The rash of older children deposited has left state authorities struggling to cope. In the latest case this week - and the first involving a child from outside the state - a 14-year-old girl from Iowa was dropped off at a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday.

State officials said the person who abandoned her could be prosecuted in the girl’s home state but authorities have so far been unable to do anything about the other cases because of the loose wording of its safe haven law.

Nebraska was the last state to introduce such legislation but it went much further than others. Instead of restricting those who could be abandoned to infants, as is the case elsewhere in the US, Nebraska effectively allowed it to apply to anyone up to the age of 18.

In the most serious case to date, a single father handed over nine of his 10 children - aged between 20 months and 17 - saying that he could no longer cope.

Other parents and guardians have brought in children, citing issues such as violence and disobedience as reasons for their abandonment.

The law stipulates that the child must be left in a state-approved hospital. A mother who tried to offload her 14-year-old son in September was foiled after she mistakenly tried to drop him off at a police station instead.

Dave Heineman, the state’s governor, has now pledged to tighten up the law so that it only applies to infants.

He appealed to fellow Nebraskans to take less drastic measures than abandonment if they were having trouble with children.

While conceding that raising a child can be “challenging at times”, he said: “Abandonment of an older child is potentially very devastating ... Nebraskans believe strongly in parental responsibility. The essential element defining any family is the knowledge that parents provide unconditional love for their children.”

http://tinyurl.com/4y9zjz

US intelligence: Afghanistan in ‘downward spiral’ under Hamid Karzai’s government.

There are those here who are saying we (USA) is wrong to believe that the war against the Taliscum can be won.  Who knows? I sure don’t have any sort of great insight into this thing.  I just want us to get it over with. And if that means NUKES, that’s okay with me. Why is our side so afraid to use them?
Look, like it or not and sooner or later, those folks are gonna find a way to get em too.  Isn’t it better we kill em all now, before they get that chance?

I am reminded of an old expression.  Crap or get off the pot.  Well, we need to crap on these life forms before they do it to us. And they surely will in time.

I heard a very interesting program on the BBC last week on the failure (possibly) of us “winning hearts and minds” over there.  It was not I want you to know, an anti American rant. Anyway, some administration spokesman said that we (Americans) invented public relations and now here we are being beaten at our own game by a guy in a cave.

There was an interview with some old guy over there who said (and honestly believed what he heard) that after 9/11 hundreds of thousands of Americans converted to Islam and that more were doing so every day. And he really did believe that because AlQueda told him so. It was being broadcast on their radio and spoken about in their mosques.

America’s intelligence agencies believe that Afghanistan is in a “downward spiral” and President Hamid Karzai’s government may be incapable of containing the Taliban’s challenge, according to an assessment now being drafted.

By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor
Last Updated: 5:16PM BST 09 Oct 2008

Facing a spreading Taliban insurgency, the White House has begun a comprehensive review of policy towards Afghanistan. A National Intelligence Estimate, representing the considered view of America’s 16 spy agencies, is now being prepared.

Its conclusions are thought to be deeply pessimistic, stressing the systemic weakness of Afghanistan’s central government and the damage caused by the burgeoning narcotics trade, which may account for about half of the country’s entire economy.

This assessment is expected to be completed after next month’s presidential election – and may remain classified. But officials told yesterday’s New York Times that its conclusion was that Afghanistan was in a “downward spiral”.

The assessment stresses two key trends: the increasingly sophisticated nature of the Taliban insurgency and the structural weakness of Mr Karzai’s government. Taliban fighters are now thought to have a permanent presence in 17 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

As well as conducting a classic insurgency – notably by killing 10 French troops in an ambush outside Kabul in August – they have also branched into urban terrorism against high profile targets. This year, attacks have been launched against the Serena Hotel and the Indian Embassy in the capital, Kabul.

But Mr Karzai’s government, mired in corruption, has little control over large areas of the country. The Afghan National Army (ANA) will have 86,000 troops by next summer and should eventually deploy 134,000 soldiers.

Yet foreign troops still bear the brunt of counter-insurgency efforts. In Iraq, US forces managed to pacify large areas by arming local militias. They may decide to do the same in Afghanistan, despite the danger that this will simply undermine the ANA and further weaken the central government.

Moreover, Afghanistan’s security is inextricably linked with the situation in neighbouring Pakistan. At present, Taliban fighters enjoy a haven in the Tribal Areas on Pakistan’s north-west frontier, where they are able to rearm and regroup before launching cross-border attacks. Pakistan’s lawless enclaves may also host al-Qaeda’s core leadership, possibly including Osama bin Laden.

American officials believe that Pakistan’s authorities have failed to cope with this threat and some elements of their security services, notably the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, may be covertly helping the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen in the last six months is the Taliban getting more organised and to some extent having more co-operation with al-Qaeda,” said a senior US official.

He added that the “dangerous elements are very entrenched” and Pakistan’s security agencies were not fully engaged in the struggle, despite assurances from President Asif Ali Zardari.

“Getting all the people and all the instruments of government to line up in that direction is not as simple as giving a speech,” said the official. “We are not at the point where every instrument of national power in Pakistan is lined up to fight terrorism.”

http://tinyurl.com/4l8qjn

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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