Saturday - October 07, 2006

French Intifada?

As you can see from the story below (and especially the picture of Fwench “gendarmes” under attack by a Muslim of African origin), the Fwench are reaping what they have sown. The radical Muslim youth are engaging in a modern-day European version of the Intifada against Fwench police. Look for the government of Jacques Chirac to cave in to the dipweeds any day now. You know they’re going to do it. The only question is ... when.

Muslims Are Waging Civil War
Against Us, Claims Police Union
_{(TELEGRAPH-UK) - October 5, 2006}

Radical Muslims in France’s housing estates are waging an undeclared “intifada” against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day.

As the interior ministry said that nearly 2,500 officers had been wounded this year, a police union declared that its members were “in a state of civil war” with Muslims in the most depressed “banlieue” estates which are heavily populated by unemployed youths of north African origin.

It said the situation was so grave that it had asked the government to provide police with armoured cars to protect officers in the estates, which are becoming no-go zones. The number of attacks has risen by a third in two years. Police representatives told the newspaper Le Figaro that the “taboo” of attacking officers on patrol has been broken.

Instead, officers – especially those patrolling in pairs or small groups – faced attacks as soon as they tried to arrest locals. Senior officers insisted that the problem was essentially criminal in nature, with crime bosses on the estates fighting back against tough tactics. The interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also the leading centre-Right candidate for the presidency, has sent heavily equipped units into areas with orders to regain control from drug smuggling gangs and other organised crime rings. Such aggressive raids were “disrupting the underground economy in the estates”, one senior official told Le Figaro.

However, not all officers on the ground accept that essentially secular interpretation. Michel Thoomis, the secretary general of the hardline Action Police trade union, has written to Mr Sarkozy warning of an “intifada” on the estates and demanding that officers be given armoured cars in the most dangerous areas.

He said yesterday: “We are in a state of civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists. This is not a question of urban violence any more, it is an intifada, with stones and Molotov cocktails. You no longer see two or three youths confronting police, you see whole tower blocks emptying into the streets to set their ‘comrades’ free when they are arrested.”

He added: “We need armoured vehicles and water cannon. They are the only things that can disperse crowds of hundreds of people who are trying to kill police and burn their vehicles.” However, Gerard Demarcq, of the largest police unions, Alliance, dismissed talk of an “intifada” as representing the views of only a minority. Mr Demarcq said that the increased attacks on officers were proof that the policy of “retaking territory” from criminal gangs was working.

Mayors in the worst affected suburbs, which saw weeks of riots and car-burning a year ago, have expressed fears of a vicious circle, as attacks by locals lead the police to harden their tactics, further increasing resentment.

As if to prove that point, there were angry reactions in the western Paris suburb of Les Mureaux following dawn raids in search of youths who attacked a police unit on Sunday. The raids led to one arrest. They followed clashes on Sunday night when scores of youths attacked seven officers who had tried to arrest a man for not wearing his seat belt while driving.

That driver refused to stop, and later rammed a police car trying to block his path. The mayor of Les Mureaux, Francois Garay, criticised aggressive police tactics that afterwards left “the people on the ground to pick up the pieces”.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/07/2006 at 03:12 PM   
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   Thursday - October 05, 2006

Rules Of Engagement

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/05/2006 at 01:55 PM   
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   Wednesday - October 04, 2006

Muslims Harassing Wounded British Soldiers

The latest scandal in Britain involves injured troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq and being put into public wards beloning to the NHS (socialized medicine for you Yanks). What this means is that our brave troops wounded in action are being treated in open wards and the Muslim trash who are getting free medical care at the same hospitals are starting to harass the paras lying sick in bed. It has gotten so bad that British troops say they would rather suffer a severe wound so they can be treated at the American hospital at Ramstein AFB in Germany. Does that truly suck or what ... ?

Muslim Accosts Injured Para In Hospital
(TELEGRAPH - UK) - October 2, 2006

A paratrooper wounded in Afghanistan was threatened by a Muslim visitor to the British hospital where he is recovering. Seriously wounded soldiers have complained that they are worried about their safety after being left on wards that are open to the public at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham.

On one occasion a member of the Parachute Regiment, still dressed in his combat uniform after being evacuated from Afghanistan, was accosted by a Muslim over the British involvement in the country.

“You have been killing my Muslim brothers in Afghanistan,” the man said during a tirade.

Because the soldier was badly injured and could not defend himself, he was very worried for his safety, sources told The Daily Telegraph. A relative of the Para said the man had twice walked on to the ward where two other soldiers and four civilians were being treated without once being challenged by staff.

“It’s not the best way to treat our returning men,” he said. “They are nervous that these guys might attack them and, despite being paratroopers, they cannot defend themselves because of their injuries.” The Ministry of Defence, which said that it had no record of threatening incidents, indicated that there was a military security presence at the hospital and it co-operated closely with local police.

A MoD spokesman said there was “appropriate security” at Selly Oak for the 11 servicemen currently being treated. But Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, called the treatment of wounded troops “an absolute disgrace”.

“They should be in completely separate wings even if this means shutting down entire NHS wards. It is a betrayal of our troops having them treated in mixed and open wards. Those who have been injured on operations must be with those who understand their predicament in a secure environment. The Defence Secretary should be having urgent talks with the Health Secretary to do this otherwise this Government’s commitment to our Armed Forces is nothing but talk.”

There is also resentment among serving troops unhappy about being treated in a NHS hospital that they believe is unsuitable for military patients. Soldiers on operations say they would rather receive a more serious injury and go to the top American military hospital in Ramstein, Germany, than end up in a NHS hospital.

They now half jokingly refer to getting “a Boche rather than a Blighty” in reference to the wounds that would send them home. Ramstein has an outstanding unit for brain surgery, and neurological intensive care beds in Britain are in short supply. “The blokes see it that if you are unlucky you get wounded and go to the UK at the mercy of the NHS, but if you get a head wound you get sent to Ramstein in Germany where the US has an outstanding medical facility,” said an officer serving in Afghanistan.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/04/2006 at 12:22 PM   
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Collaborators

We haven’t picked on the Fwench in a while. It’s time to pay a visit to Lebanon and Iran and see what the Frogs are up to. Not surprisingly, Robert Tracinski finds the Fwench up to their usual tricks ...

It’s Not a World War Until…
-by Robert Tracinski, The Intellectual Activist

The joke going around the Internet is that it’s not a World War until France surrenders. But I disagree. I think it’s not really a World War until the French become collaborators—a moment that has now fully arrived.

TIA Daily reader Jonathan Cargan sent me a story about an Iranian attempt to draft the French into a scheme in which French technicians would help enrich uranium inside Iran for use by the Iranians—a scheme that, sadly, sounds like one the French might embrace.

Meanwhile, TIA Daily reader Erik Driessens sent me the link below (from DEBKAfile, a site run by folks with lots of contacts within Israeli intelligence), which provides photos of French “peacekeepers” in Lebanon blocking Israeli tanks to keep them from attacking Hezbollah fighters who had just raided an Israeli armory. The French are now acting as allies of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“French Tanks Obstruct Israeli Tanks over Suspected Hizballah Robbery of Israeli Weapons Store,” DEBKAfile, October 3

The south Lebanese village of Merwahin was the stage Thursday, Sept, 28 of the first near-showdown between UN and Israeli forces. DEBKAfile publishes here the first photo of an encounter between 4 French Leclerc and at least 5 Israeli Merkava tanks in that Lebanese village.

Despite the photographic evidence, Israel officially denies the incident. DEBKAfile reports the French force sought to prevent the Israeli unit from combing through the Hizballah-dominated village in search of the raiders who crossed into Israel and broke into the IDF’s Kibbutz Shomera arms store last week. They made off with a large quantity of side-arms, anti-tank weapons, LAU rockets, and hundreds of combat grenades, which the Israeli force was determined to recover.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/04/2006 at 12:05 PM   
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   Tuesday - October 03, 2006

Hiding Out

This post originated with Robert Tracinski at The Intellectual Activist and today’s TIA Daily report. Tracinski notes:

He goes on to point out an excellent editorial on the subject by Victor Davis Hanson at NRO Online entitled “Traitors To The Enlightenment”:

_{“Critical Mass” -by- Cox & Forkum}

French Philosophy Teacher Forced Into Hiding After Op-Ed on Islam
_{Paris (CNSNews.com) - October 02, 2006}

A French philosophy teacher has been forced to leave his home and go into hiding after publishing an op-ed piece in the French daily Le Figaro that criticized Islam and the prophet Muhammed. Robert Redeker, a published author, wrote on September 19 that “the Koran is a book of extraordinary violence” and Islam is a religion that “exalts violence.” Comparing Islam to Chritianity, he wrote: “Jesus is a master of love, Muhammed is a master of hatred.”

That day’s issue of the newspaper was banned in Tunisia, and a commentator on Al Jazeera television criticized Redeker. An Islamic website linked to al Qaeda published Redeker’s photo, phone number and address, with directions. Last Friday, interviewed on Europe 1 radio, Redeker said that he and his family had received numerous death threats by e-mail and phone. He said he has been forced to leave his high school teaching job near the southern French city of Toulouse.

In his commentary, Redeker wrote that the Koran revealed the prophet Mohammed as a “warlord without pity, a pillager, someone who massacres Jews and a polygamist. Hatred and violence reside in the book by which all Muslims are educated, the Koran,” he wrote. Redeker said that Islam was trying “to impose its rules on Europe” by - for example—asking swimming pools to have special hours for women only and forbidding caricatures of Islam.

“Islam is trying to force Europe to bend to its vision of mankind. As in the past with communism, the West finds itself under ideological surveillance,” he wrote. A research specialist on Islam told Cybercast News Service that while the vast majority of Muslims condemned the death threats, the piece was insulting and had elicited a radical reaction because it hurt sensibilities.

“Does speaking of the prophet as a pillager and as an exterminator of Jews enrich the debate? I don’t think so,” said Khadija Moshen-Finan, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) in Paris. “Even for us Muslims, who say repeatedly that we must debate about the contents of Islam and its evolution in relation to today’s international context, these types of articles are not helpful, because they are injurious and are not open to debate.”

Moshen-Finan said that when she read the commentary, she concluded that it was just a bad article. “But bad articles should not be censored. I don’t think so,” she added. Redeker has been placed under police protection, but he said during the radio interview that he was forced to make his own arrangements in finding safe houses each night.

He said he is no longer able to move around freely and that the Islamic radicals who had threatened him had “succeeded in punishing” him. He felt that he was a victim of the things he’s denounced, and he complained that he felt abandoned by the government. The education minister, Gilles de Robien, said he felt “solidarity” with Redeker but warned that “government employees must show prudence and moderation.” Redeker said his piece was not meant to attack Islam but only certain violent aspects of the religion.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/03/2006 at 04:12 AM   
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   Tuesday - September 12, 2006

Sinking Britannia, Episode #42

I am an American currently residing in England and have seen enough madness and lunacy here to rival anything you see back home. Please let me know if in the past year you’ve read anything dumber. Wait, there was the govt. decree that national parks were being used by too many white, middle aged, middle class people and they were gonna shut parts down. That was pretty dumb. But this could be dumber. See what you think ....

Mother Fined For Swearing At Gang Of Trouble-makers
_{YORKSHIRE (TELEGRAPH-UK) - September 10, 2006}

A mother of two has been fined for swearing at yobs who terrorised her neighbourhood. Donna Appleyard, 32, finally snapped after months of misery in which the youths jumped over fences, trampled through gardens and shouted and swore at residents.

Ms Appleyard said she had made several complaints to police about the gang outside her home in Knottingley, West Yorkshire, but no officers had been to visit her to take the issue further.

Instead, she found herself under investigation when officers received a complaint from a 13-year-old girl, after Ms Appleyard finally lost her temper and pleaded with her tormenters: “Please, just f*** off”. Two weeks later, officers called at her house and issued her with the fine.

Ms Appleyard said: “I was at the end of my tether and I admit I swore at one of them. But that’s nothing compared to what my neighbours and I have suffered. “When the police came I thought it was because I had complained. I never dreamed they had come to arrest me. I’m really angry that we’ve had to put up with this behaviour for almost a year, and then you can be taken to court and fined for shouting back at them.”

Ms Appleyard was given an £80 fixed penalty notice following the incident on March 30. However, she refused to pay and was taken to court last month, when magistrates raised the sum to £120, which she must now pay or face a jail term. Ms Appleyard said: “I had called police and spoken to our beat officer about six times. Not once had they been round to see me.”

Her neighbours have been so enraged by the treatment meted out to Ms Appleyard that they have offered to pay half the fine. Shirley Wardle, 69, said: “It is deplorable. The kids’ behaviour is enough to make you commit murder, not just swear at them.” Sergeant Neil Haley, from West Yorkshire police, defended the force’s actions. He said: “We appreciate that anti-social behaviour can be frustrating for people but they should not take the law into their own hands.”

The case is the latest in which a householder has ended up in court after finally losing patience with yobs. James Leahy, 54, a civil servant from Rutherglen, Glasgow, whose flowerbeds were regularly trampled by school pupils using his garden as a shortcut, was fined £500 for assault this month after he grabbed two teenage girls by the hair and threatened to take them to a police station.

Linda Walker, 48, of Urmston, Greater Manchester, last year served five weeks in jail and lost her job as a special needs teacher after she fired an airgun at the feet of a vandal who had plagued her home for months.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/12/2006 at 07:16 AM   
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   Thursday - September 07, 2006

Blair Departing

If you think things are getting confusing in Washington then you need to go take a look across the pond. Things are getting a mite messy at Number 10 Downing Street. Tony Blair has been hinting that he will step down next year and the mad scramble over who will lead Labour and take over as Prime Minister is already underway

Gordon Brown looks like the likely successor at this point but things got really silly in the last few days as several government aides resigned in a huff after Blair refused to step down as PM immediately. Now Blair is going to have to make an announcement today to settle the mess.

It remains to be seen how this will affect the war on terror. Blair has been Bush’s staunchest ally so far but the next PM in Britain may not be as accomodating. With the mid-term elections coming up over here and the confusion over there, things are probably going to look a lot different this time next year. We’re all about to embark on a six-month long political roller coaster. Hang on tight ...

_{Brian Adcock - The Scotland on Sunday}

---

Britain’s Tony Blair To Respond
To Clamor Over Him Leaving Office
_{LONDON (FOX NEWS) - Thursday, September 07, 2006}

British Prime Minister Tony Blair planned Thursday to respond to the clamor of protest calling for him step down after eight government aides resigned — demanding he set a date to leave office.

Key officials sent strong signals that Blair intended to leave office within a year, as a senior minister urged the party to focus on the likely “energizing, refreshing transition” of the Labour leadership to Treasury chief Gordon Brown.

Pressure for the prime minister to announce a departure date has intensified in recent weeks, fueled by widespread anger at Blair’s handling of last month’s fighting between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants.

Many within Blair’s governing Labour party were furious at his refusal to call for an early cease-fire, a stance critics saw as tacitly allowing Israel to bomb Lebanon for weeks. Blair’s Downing Street office on Wednesday declined to immediately confirm reports that the prime minister intended to make a public statement on his future on Thursday.

But officials acknowledged Blair had decided to use a planned visit to a London school to set out his intentions, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. Environment Secretary David Miliband — a key Blair ally — said on Thursday that Brown was the only person who should succeed Blair and claimed the party was excited about the prospect of his premiership.

“I would say the transition...the energizing, refreshing transition to Gordon Brown — not to anyone else — is a transition that is about ideas and values more than about dates,” he said in an interview with the leftist New Statesman magazine, published Thursday. Miliband, often mentioned as a potential rival to Brown, said he would not be “a runner nor a rider” in leadership and deputy leadership elections following Blair’s departure.

Eight junior officials said Wednesday they had quit rather than remove their names from a letter demanding that the prime minister step aside. They were among 15 Labour lawmakers who signed the letter, writing that while they supported the centrist direction Blair had taken the party, he was no longer the right man to lead it.

Tom Watson, the most senior of those to resign, quit his post as minister for veterans in the Ministry of Defense. Blair smacked back after receiving Watson’s resignation letter, saying he would have fired Watson if he had not quit himself, and calling his decision to sign the lawmakers’ letter “disloyal, discourteous and wrong.”

While the revolt of low-level officials was unlikely to dislodge Blair from office, it could help force him to speed up his departure, and raised fears that the eventual change of command would be rancorous and messy.

- More on the story at FOX NEWS ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/07/2006 at 04:24 AM   
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   Saturday - September 02, 2006

Mad Dogs And Englishmen

As if Britain didn’t have enough problems with Muslim immigrants, now the Bulgarians are upset. No, really. Our Brit friends have a solution to all this silliness though - stay drunk and act strange. This seems to have worked in the case of the Bulgarians. They’re running back to Bulgaria. I wonder why the Muslims haven’t left yet? Maybe living among drunk psychos seems perfectly normal to the Muzzies. Ya think ... ?

Move to Britain? They’re All Drunks And Psychos
_{(GUARDIAN-UK) - Saturday September 2, 2006}

Standing outside the British embassy in Sofia yesterday, Rozalina Boeva admits she wants a better life. After three years she has had enough - of Britain. She is coming home to Bulgaria. “I’m fed up. I don’t like it in Britain much,” Ms Boeva, a 37-year-old care assistant, said. “I find it very discriminating against foreigners. The government seems to tell ordinary people that foreigners living in the UK are dangerous to British people. I don’t know why.”

Ms Boeva has spent the past three years living and working in Swansea. But she dislikes Britain’s culture of binge drinking and the fact that her teenage daughter has been bullied at school. “Some British people are nice. But on Friday and Saturday night everybody gets drunk. Many girls get pregnant at 16 or 17. The general level of education is low. I’m going back for a couple of months to collect our things. Then we’ll start a new life in Bulgaria.”

Ms Boeva was one of around 50 Bulgarians trying to get or renew visas at the embassy yesterday. Earlier this week the Sun ran a front-page photograph showing what it said was a vast queue of Bulgarians who had “laid siege” to the building. The Bulgarians intended to work in the UK when Bulgaria - together with Romania - joined the EU on January 1, the paper suggested.

In fact, most of those queuing up yesterday were visiting Britain for a holiday. Others already lived in the UK and were renewing visas. But the vigorous tabloid campaign against Bulgarians and Romanians appears to have worked.

On Wednesday ministers indicated that the government intends to introduce a work permit system requiring them to prove that they can fill specific skill shortages. Having earlier promised to open the UK labour market to workers from both countries, the British government, the biggest supporter of the EU’s enlargement to include the countries of former eastern Europe, now appears to have performed an embarrassing volte face.

The move has left ministers in Bulgaria’s socialist-led coalition government fuming. “It’s absolute nonsense,” Evgeniya Koldanova, Bulgaria’s deputy foreign minister, said yesterday. “I’m disappointed.”

Ms Koldanova takes issue with Home Office predictions that, given the chance, 60,000 to 140,000 Bulgarians and Romanians are likely to move to Britain next year. The Bulgarian government says the total number of migrants going abroad will be more like 10,000 to 15,000.

A Gallup poll in February suggested the number of Bulgarians wanting to leave the country has gone down to 7%. Of those, most wanted to go to the US, Spain, Greece, Italy and Germany. Only 0.2% to 0.4% mentioned Britain.

- More from Britain at the Gwardian ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/02/2006 at 12:37 PM   
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   Thursday - August 31, 2006

French Labor

With the Labor Day weekend coming up, Tom Purcell ponders the absolute joy of being Fwench for just a little while, namely the two months each year that people are required by law to dash to the south of Fwance and escape work temporarily. After all, those Fwench laws that mandate a 35-hour work week can really wear a person down, n’est ce pas?

There are times when I too wish I were Fwench so I wouldn’t be forced to work 50-hour work weeks and take vacation without pay (one of the joys of being a self-employed contractor). If I were Fwench, I could rely on my country to avoid war and any other disagreeable international alliances. I could be rude to tourists from (sniff) America. I could enjoy great food and decent wine.

I could also spend my spare time preparing to surrender to the Muslims who are taking over my country bit by bit. I might even take time out to enjoy my monthly bath. Mon Dieu! Who moved my soap ... ?

Labor Day - Why I Wish I Were French
By Tom Purcell

It’s Labor Day weekend, and that got me to thinking: I wish I were French. The French are a wonderful people. Their food is excellent. Their cities are filled with remarkable architecture and an abundance of culture. And, boy, do they have the free time to enjoy it all.

Back in 2000, French politicians, trying to bring the high unemployment rate down, decided to try something bold. Did they cut taxes to spur the economy the way Americans would? Nope. Did they reduce regulations that make it virtually impossible for employers to fire bad workers? Of course not.

They wrote a new law that requires everybody to work less – no more than 35 hours a week, and certainly no overtime. The strategy didn’t work of course – it has since unraveled and the government is still working it out – but one thing is clear: The French sure know how to enjoy the good life.

According to CBS News, the French government also mandates that employees receive at least five weeks of paid vacation. On top of that employees enjoy 22 paid holidays. During July and August, as a result, much of the country shuts down.

People kick back and relax. They travel to exotic places. They enjoy lots of stress-free days without a care in the world – while we Americans are chained to our desks.

There are no laws in America that make vacation time mandatory. The average American enjoys only a few weeks of paid vacation. And when we go away for a break – IF we go away – too many of us keep on working anyway. We check e-mail, participate in phone meetings, and keep on top of projects.

That’s why I’d like to be French just for a little while. Sure, I know that the socialist ways of the grand old country are completely unsustainable. Their unemployment rate stands at just under 10 percent. And every time the government tries to take a holiday away or make it easier for an employer to fire a bad employee, a million people riot in the streets.

I know that in a global economy, as trade barriers come down and competition with emerging nations grows fierce, that only the strong will survive. Life and the world have always been competitive. Pretending that competition doesn’t exist is no longer an option.

I know, too, that the American economy is booming because our government interferes with employers less and because Americans are willing to work so hard. There are lots of opportunities for any American who is willing to go after them.

In my own case, I’ve been able to contract my skills to large, profitable companies for a decent rate. I can work long hours when I want to bring in cash or, as I’ve been doing for a while now, I can cut back to part time, so I can devote more time to personal goals, such as completing a book. I’m as successful as I want to be and if I fail I have nobody to blame but myself.

That’s why, just for a while, I wish I were French. I’d spend July and August basking in the waters of some exotic location, maybe the French Riviera. I’d while away the evenings sipping good wine and swapping stories of vacations past. I’d immerse myself fully in the moment, not giving a care about the next week or month or even the next 20 years.

I’d finally be able to relax fully knowing that if anybody tried to take my vacation away – if anyone attempted to tinker with any of my government-mandated benefits – that a million people would pour into the streets in my defense.

Alas, such are the wistful thoughts that kick around the noggin of a self-employed American now that Labor Day weekend is upon us.

---

_{Tom Purcell’s weekly political humor column runs in newspapers and Web sites across America. Contact him at TomPurcell@aol.com. Distributed by Cagle Cartoons syndicate, call Cari Dawson Bartley at 800 696 7561 for reprint info.}

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/31/2006 at 08:53 AM   
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   Friday - August 25, 2006

Barking Moonbat Of The Week

This was a tough choice this week. It was either Chirac for waffling back and forth or the Washington Post for calling 2,000 men a “Big Force”, especially when you consider the fact that those 2,000 troops are Fwench. To be precise, 2,000 Fwench troops is roughly the fighting equivalent of an American squad (10 real warrriors).

Chirac and the Fwench pressured Israel to accept this crummy cease-fire deal and promised troops to enforce it. Then Chirac decided Fwance would only send a few engineers to “asssist”. Then Chirac said he would not send troops unless the Fwench were placed in charge and clear rules of engagement were defined by the UN. This is probably because the Fwench have never really engaged in any real fighting and needed a tutorial ... sort of a “Warfare For Fwench Dummies” book was called for.

Now finally Fwance and Chirac have decided to send 2,000 of Fwance’s finest, under Fwench control, to manage the situation. Of course, Chirac also pleaded with the US and Britain to cover their back with more of our troops - possibly to lay down suppressing fire while the Fwench retreat? Fortunately, Tony Blair and George Bush decided to take a pass on this one so it is now up to the mighty Fwench forces to maintain peace between two opposing forces. I’m sure a substantial supply of white flags have already been ordered ...

France Sets Big Force for Lebanon
2,000 to Serve As Peacekeepers; ‘Clarifications’ Set
_{PARIS (WASHINGTON POST)
Friday, August 25, 2006}

French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that France would commit 2,000 troops to a new international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. The decision breaks a stalemate that has held up the dispatch of soldiers seen by diplomats as crucial to maintaining the 11-day-old cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel.

Chirac’s announcement in a nationally televised address followed days of intense negotiations with the United Nations, Lebanon and Israel over European concerns that the force would have no clear mandate and inadequate rights to open fire in defense of itself or civilians.

“We obtained the necessary clarifications from the U.N. on the chain of command, which needs to be simple, coherent and reactive,” he said, “and the rules of engagement, which must guarantee the freedom of movement of the force and its ability to operate when confronted with hostile conditions.”

France helped broker the U.N. cease-fire and initially indicated it would commit 2,000 troops to help maintain the truce. But Chirac was chastised at home and abroad when he later said he would dispatch only 200 engineers to augment the 200 French troops serving in an existing U.N. monitoring force on the Lebanon-Israel border.

Chirac said he hoped France’s decision Thursday would spur other countries to join the force, including the United States and Britain. Both have said they are too taxed in Iraq and Afghanistan to take part. In a statement issued in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he is vacationing, President Bush gave no sign of reversing that decision. But he called Chirac’s move “an important step towards finalizing preparations to deploy the United Nations Interim Force of Lebanon” and called on other countries to join in.

So far, Italy is the only other European country to make a major commitment, offering to send as many as 3,000 troops and to command the force. But the direction of the expanded force appears to be in French hands. French and U.N. officials said French Maj. Gen. Alain Pelligrini will retain command of the U.N. mission until his term ends next February. U.N. officials said an Italian general will head a new military command center at U.N. headquarters to map out strategy for the operation.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/25/2006 at 11:50 AM   
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   Friday - August 18, 2006

Frogs On A Plane

3,500 Troops Pledged For Expanded UN Lebanon Force
_{(IRISH EXAMINER) - August 18, 2006}

The United Nations has received pledges of 3,500 troops for an expanded peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but it is unclear whether the soldiers represent the right mix of countries and units that could deploy quickly. Bangladesh made the largest offer of up to 2,000 troops, but France offered just 200 new troops, a disappointment to some who expected more from the country likely to lead the force.

Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown told a meeting of nearly 50 potential troop-contributing countries that at least 3,500 new troops were needed in south Lebanon within 10 days to expand the 2,000-strong UN force trying to help maintain an uneasy truce between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

Before the meeting, French President Jacques Chirac announced that France would immediately double its 200-strong contingent already in the UN force to 400. Chirac also told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a phone call that France was prepared to command the strengthened force until February, and was also prepared to keep 1,700 troops mobilised in the region. “Well, we were disappointed, yes,” Malloch Brown said of the French announcement, adding that he feared it would “cast a shadow” over the meeting but other countries came forward.

Britain’s UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry announced a “quite substantial” maritime and aviation commitment of six Jaguar aircraft, two AWACS surveillance planes, and one naval frigate. Britain also offered one of its bases in Cyprus at Akrotiri as a staging point, he said.

Germany’s UN Ambassador Thomas Matussek said he offered “a rather substantive maritime component which is so encompassing that it could patrol and secure the whole of the Lebanese coast to make sure that weapons or other related materials don’t get into Lebanon”. Germany also offered customs agents, police and border protection agents to patrol the Syrian border, he said.

The United States is providing planning and logistical support and has experts at UN headquarters determining what is needed, said US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff.

Denmark pledged two ships for maritime patrol and many other countries said they would study the operational plans for the force and the draft rules of engagement before making any decisions.

- More Frog FUBAR here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/18/2006 at 10:34 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • Terrorists • United-Nations •  
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   Wednesday - August 02, 2006

Frog Nuts

_{Mike Lester - Rome News-Tribune (GA)}

Landis Had Synthetic Testosterone
(WASHINGTON POST) - Monday, July 31, 2006 9:47 PM

NEW YORK—Tests show that some of the testosterone in Floyd Landis’ system at the Tour de France was synthetic and not naturally produced by his body as he claimed, according to a newspaper report.

The French antidoping lab testing the American cyclist’s samples determined that some of the hormone came from an external source, The New York Times reported on its Web site Monday night, citing a person at the International Cycling Union with knowledge of the result.

The finding undermines the defense that Landis has stood behind since he tested positive for an elevated ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone following the 17th stage of the Tour de France, where he staged a stirring comeback in the Alps to make up for a poor performance the day before.

Looking and sounding defiant, Landis said Friday that his body’s natural metabolism _ not doping of any kind _ caused the result, and that he would undergo tests to prove it.

“We will explain to the world why this is not a doping case but a natural occurrence,” Landis said at a news conference in Madrid, Spain.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/02/2006 at 08:55 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • Sports •  
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   Tuesday - August 01, 2006

Quote Of The Day

“Iran is a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region.”

-- French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, August 1, 2006

The Frenchmen met with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut yesterday. Tehran’s mission in the Lebanese capital has been a key channel for Iran’s support for Hizballah, and last week Iran denied reports that Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah had taken refuge inside the building.

The French minister’s praise for the Islamic regime came on the day Hizballah’s representative in Iran told a gathering in Tehran that his organization would put into effect the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s call for the “cancerous tumor” (Israel) to be eliminated.

Before his departure to Lebanon, the French minister told Le Figaro that there was no need to forbid contacts with the Iranian authorities, although he said President Jacques Chirac had ruled out contacts with the Syrians, Hizballah’s other major sponsor.

- More on this crap from France at CNS News ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/01/2006 at 09:01 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons •  
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   Friday - July 28, 2006

Glowball Warming: The Good News

Just to prove there is good news inside the evil Glowball Warming Conspiracy, the UK’s GUARDIAN is pleased to announce that due to the high heat expected along the Mediterranean shore of Europe, more Euro-Weenies will be coming to Britain for the cooler weather. The bad news: Blackpool will now be completely covered with obnoxious Frogs. The invasion is coming ....

Climate Change Could Bring Tourists To UK
_{(GUARDIAN-UK) - Friday, July 28, 2006}

Climate change could “dramatically” change the face of British tourism in the next 20 years, with European tourists flocking to the UK to escape unbearably hot continental summers, experts say. Research shows that European tourists may choose to holiday in Britain as resorts nearer to home become too hot.

Weather changes may provide revival opportunities for northern seaside towns such as Blackpool and put new strains on roads and development in southern coastal resorts, a study in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism said. Academic David Viner, a researcher at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit in Norwich, produced the report after analysing the work of experts around the globe.

“The likelihood [is] that Mediterranean summers may be too hot for tourists after 2020, as a result of too much heat and water shortages,” the study said. There were “opportunities for the revival of northern European resorts, including Blackpool, in the next 20 years, as climate change and rising transport costs offer new holiday opportunities,” it said.

The study added: “Climate change will impact on many holiday destinations. For many this will be problematic, for others it will produce benefits.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/28/2006 at 01:20 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • EUro-peons •  
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