pakistan marriot bombing

marriot hotel bomb crater

September 23, 2008

The Deadly Blast in Islamabad
Why was the Marriott Targeted?
By TARIQ ALI

The deadly blast in Islamabad was a revenge attack for what has been going on over the past few weeks in the badlands of the North-West Frontier. It highlighted the crisis confronting the new government in the wake of intensified US strikes in the tribal areas on the Afghan border.

Hellfire missiles, drones, special operation raids inside Pakistan and the resulting deaths of innocents have fuelled Pashtun nationalism. It is this spillage from the war in Afghanistan that is now destabilizing Pakistan.

The de facto prime minister of the country, an unelected crony of President Zardari and now his chief adviser, Rehman Malik, said, "our enemies don't want to see democracy flourishing in the country". This was rich coming from him, but in reality it has little to do with all that. It is the consequence of a supposedly "good war" in Afghanistan that has now gone badly wrong. The director of US National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, admits as much, saying the Afghan leadership must deal with the "endemic corruption and pervasive poppy cultivation and drug trafficking" that is to blame for the rise of the neo-Taliban.

The majority of Pakistanis are opposed to the US presence in the region, viewing it as the most serious threat to peace. Why, then, has the US decided to destabilize a crucial ally? Within Pakistan, some analysts argue this is a carefully coordinated move to weaken the Pakistani state by creating a crisis that extends way beyond the frontier with Afghanistan. Its ultimate aim, they claim, would be the extraction of the Pakistani military's nuclear fangs. If this were the case, it would imply Washington was determined to break up Pakistan, since the country would not survive a disaster on that scale.

In my view, however, the expansion of the war relates far more to the Bush administration's disastrous occupation in Afghanistan. It is hardly a secret that President Karzai's regime is becoming more isolated each passing day, as Taliban guerrillas move ever closer to Kabul.
When in doubt, escalate the war, is an old imperial motto. The strikes against Pakistan represent - like the decisions of President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, to bomb and then invade Cambodia - a desperate bid to salvage a war that was never good, but has now gone badly wrong.

It is true that those resisting the Nato occupation cross the Pakistan-Afghan border with ease. However, the US has often engaged in quiet negotiations with them. Several feelers have been put out to the Taliban in Pakistan, while US intelligence experts regularly check into the Serena hotel in Swat to meet Maulana Fazlullah, a local pro-Taliban leader.

Pashtuns in Peshawar, hitherto regarded as secular liberals, told the BBC only last week that they had lost all faith in the west. The decision to violate the country's sovereignty at will had sent them in the direction of the insurgents.

While there is much grieving for the Marriott hotel casualties, some ask why the lives of those killed by Predator drones or missile attacks are considered to be of less value. In recent weeks almost 100 innocent people have died in this fashion. No outrage and global media coverage for them.

Why was the Marriot targeted? Two explanations have surfaced in the media. The first is that there was a planned dinner for the president and his cabinet there that night, which was cancelled at the last moment.

The second, reported in the respected Pakistani English-language newspaper, Dawn, is that "a top secret operation of the US Marines [was] going on inside the Marriott when it was attacked". According to the paper: "Well-equipped security officers from the US embassy were seen on the spot soon after the explosions. However, they left the scene shortly afterwards."

The country's largest newspaper, the News, also reported on Sunday that witnesses had seen US embassy steel boxes being carried into the Marriott at night on September 17. According to the paper, the steel boxes were permitted to circumvent security scanners stationed at the hotel entrance.

Mumtaz Alam, a member of parliament, witnessed this. He wanted to leave the hotel but, owing to the heavy security, he was not permitted to leave at the time and is threatening to raise the issue in parliament.

These may be the motivations for this particular attack, but behind it all is the shadow of an expanding war.

Tariq Ali's latest book is 'The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power.'




Because You'll Believe Anything: Unknown Terrorist Group Claims Responsibility For Marriot Bombing
Winter Patriot




September 23, 2008

In a phone call to an Islamabad TV station, "a group calling itself Fedayeen-i-Islam" has claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad, according to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

Fedayeen-i-Islam is "a little-known group" according to Bloomberg. But just how little-known?

Dawn's report quotes "a senior [Pakistani] government official" as saying:


"We have not heard the name of the organisation but we are trying to locate its network."

Amazing.

Ever since Saturday night's bombing the media have been wrestling with the big question: "Why did al Qaeda do this?"

But now they have to deal with a different question: "How is Fedayeen-i-Islam related to al Qaeda?"

It goes without saying that Fedayeen-i-Islam must be a violent radical Islamofascist group and that they must have bombed the hotel. And they must have been assisted, if not directed, by al Qaeda, and probably the Taliban as well. After all, who else but the world's most violent Islamic terrorists could make an anonymous phone call to a TV station?

It's nice to know the big questions are looked after. That gives us leeway -- here in the frozen corners of the blogosphere -- to ask meaningless little insignificant questions, like:

What were US Marines doing in the Marriot Hotel just before the attack?

According to Pakistan Daily, after the blast, a fire broke out on the fourth and fifth floors of the hotel.

Why these floors and not the others? The official explanation didn't make much sense. On the other hand, according to an eyewitness report from a member of Pakistan's Parliament, a group of US Marines had recently visited the hotel, while Admiral Mike Mullen was there.

According to the eyewitness, all access to the hotel was closed off while the Marines unloaded steel boxes from a white US Embassy truck, bypassed both Pakistani and hotel security, and took these boxes directly to the fourth and fifth floors of the hotel -- just where the fires mysteriously broke out.

Were the Marines loading the building with incendiaries? It certainly wouldn't be the first time a building was primed by insiders for a subsequent "terrorist attack".

I wasn't kidding in my prior post when I called the Marriot bombing "Pakistan's 9/11". But I didn't explain myself particularly well, either.

There's a long list of similarities between the two attacks, including the rush by both politicians and the media to cast the event as "an attack on democracy", when in both cases the attacks came at critical times for governments which falsely claimed to have been legitimately elected.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari can now claim to be in an all-out war against radical Islamic terrorists, and he may even be able to build up enough "political capital" to drag his nation in a direction in which it doesn't wish to go.

As usual, the attack has been followed by a barrage of media nonsense, such as a report from the Financial Times which says men with ties to al Qaeda have been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the Marriot bombing.

Pakistani investigators yesterday said they had found new evidence of al-Qaeda's involvement in the suicide truck bombing of Islamabad's Marriott hotel. Intelligence officials also reported the arrest of up to five militants in connection with planning attacks [...]

According to an intelligence official, two of the five arrested men "came with conclusive evidence of close links to al-Qaeda. Their connection to the militant group is beyond any doubt."

Let's see now: The police are arresting members of one group while another group claims responsibility. Does this not undermine the claims of the police?

If you were tripped up by this little bit of logic, you must be a Democrat, since according to the Republicans, the Democrats have failed to learn the lessons of September 11th, 2001.

And the primary lesson from September 11th, of course, is that logic, evidence, and science are all past their prime.

Therefore, we don't use forensic evidence to solve crimes anymore; we label the crimes acts of war, destroy the forensic evidence, and attack defenseless countries instead. For revenge. Or something.

If you believe that this massive bombing attack was perpetrated by a Pakistani terrorist group that the Pakistani government has never even heard of, then it's not much of a stretch to believe that this hitherto-unknown group must have hitherto-unknown ties to al Qaeda, as well.

As the AP reported (via the Toronto Star):

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said "all roads lead to FATA" in major Pakistani suicide attacks – referring to Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where U.S. officials fear Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda No.2 Ayman al-Zawahri are hiding.


And there you have it; it doesn't matter who did it; it doesn't matter who claimed responsibility; it doesn't matter why Marines were acting mysteriously (and evading security) in the building shortly before it was attacked; it doesn't matter what evidence is collected during the investigation; it doesn't even matter whether there is an investigation.

What matters is that the media and the politicians have already decided who's going to be blamed, and who's going to pay the price. And once again -- just like 9/11 -- it won't be the perpetrators.

September 24, 2008, 15:21 Russia Today

NATO accused of sheltering Afghan heroin trade

Since NATO forces invaded Afghanistan, the production of heroin in the country increased by 2.5 times and Afghanistan has become the world leader in heroin production. Eighteen tonnes of heroin from Afghanistan ends up in Russia each year.

Russia at war with heroin

As a result of this war Russia has become one of the main markets for Afghan opiates, involuntary acknowledged Russian Federal Drugs Control Service, and drug traffickers are financing terrorist organizations worldwide, says the Interfax news agency.

The Director of FDCS, Viktor Ivanov, tolds journalists that a drug addict's life is limited to 5-7 years from the moment he becomes one.

He also said that those 400,000 drug addicts officially registered in Russia in 2001 are already dead and the number of new ones is growing by 30% every year. That is why the losses should be regarded as Russia's direct casualties in the war that NATO wages on Afghanistan.

"The problem of Afghan opiates has a geopolitical character," stressed Ivanov.

While in Russia up to 90% of drug addicts depend on Afghan opiates, in Europe this volume is up to 10%.

Strategic drug trafficking

The head of the FDCS insists that it is not just the Taliban that manages the heroin traffic but the Afghan governmental and security services' officials known by name.

The fact that dozens of high-ranking Afghan officials are known to be involved in the drug industry means that corrupted authorities work hand in hand with the Taliban terrorist movement, which in turn means that NATO military forces support the current Afghan regime.

Within the framework of the Russia-NATO Council Russia is financing and conducting special training for Afghan police squads dealing with drug trafficking. Unfortunately, for more than a year not a single Afghan policeman came to Russia for training which is no wonder considering the fact that all actions of Afghanistan's security services should be sanctioned by the U.S.

What Was Mysterious Activity Going on in the Marriott Hotel Islamabad by United States Marines

Sunday, 21 September 2008 12:18 www.daily.pk

Marriott Hotel has now become a ghost house which was yesterday the most beautiful and prestigious hotels in the Islamabad. While the condemnation of the blasts and the deaths and the loss of property is going on from all the quarters, some intriguing news is also pouring in.

After the blast, mysteriously fire was started at the fourth and fifth floors. It was said that this fire was the result of gas pipeline burst running through the hotel. The million dollar question is that was the gas pipeline not running through the other floors? Why the fire broke out from the fourth and fifth flours? That is the question which perhaps holds the key to the mystery as why the hotel was targeted yesterday, in which more than 60 people died including many foreigners.

Though it would never get confirmed but the fire on the fifth and fourth floor of the hotel broke out because those flours were housing the mysterious steel boxes under the heavy guard of United States marines and no one including the Pakistani security forces and the security men of the hotel were allowed to go near with the them. These boxes were shifted inside the hotel when the Admiral Mike Mullen met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad.

It is said that one member of parliament Mumtaz Alam who belongs to the PPP, the ruling party was there eye witnessed the whole scene when the white truck of US embassy came to the gate of Marriot Hotel and US marines themselves unloaded the steel boxes from the trucks and shifted them to the fourth and fifth floors without passing through them the scanners at the entrance of the hotels. When the truck was there, all the entrance and the exit passage way to the hotels were closed.

And now this blast has occurred at the Marriott, while that mysterious activity was going on.

Was Marriott Hotel Islamabad an attack on US Marines and What Was Stored On Floors 4 And 5 U.S. military equipment?

Sunday, 21 September 2008 11:32 www.daily.pk

Was there a top secret and mysterious operation of the US Marines going on inside the Marriott when it was attacked on Saturday evening? No one will confirm it but circumstantial evidence is in abundance.

Witnessed by many, including a PPP MNA and his friends, a US embassy truckload of steel boxes was unloaded and shifted inside the Marriott Hotel on the same night when Admiral Mike Mullen met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad.

Both the main gates (the entrance and the exit) of the hotel were closed while no one except the US Marines were either allowed to go near the truck or get the steel boxes unloaded or shift them inside the hotel. These steel boxes were not passed through the scanners installed at the entrance of the hotel lobby and were reportedly shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the Marriott.

Besides several others, PPP MNA Mumtaz Alam Gilani and his two friends, Sajjad Chaudhry, a PPP leader, and one Bashir Nadeem, witnessed this mysterious activity to which no one other than the PPP MNA objected and protested.

A source present there told that after entertaining them with refreshments at the Nadia restaurant at midnight when Mumtaz Alam, along with his friends, was to leave the hotel, he found a white US embassy truck standing right in front of the hotel's main entrance.

Both the In-gate and the Out-gate of the hotel were closed while almost a dozen well-built US Marines in their usual fatigues were unloading the steel boxes from the truck. No one, including the hotel security men, was either allowed to go near the truck or touch the steel boxes, which were being shifted inside the hotel but without passing through the scanners.

Upon inquiry, one of the three PPP friends who was waiting for the main gates of the hotel to open to get his car in, was informed that the suspicious boxes were shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the hotel. Mumtaz Alam was furious both at the US Marines and the hotel security not only for the delay caused to them but also for the security lapse he was witnessing.

On his protest, there was absolutely no response from the Marines and the security men he approached were found helpless. Mumtaz Alam told the hotel security official that they were going to endanger the hotel and its security. He was also heard telling his friends that he would never visit the hotel again. He also threatened to raise the issue in parliament.

One does not know whether the PPP MNA revisited the hotel after that mysterious midnight but his brother Imtiaz Alam, who is a senior journalist, was in the same hotel when the truck exploded at the main gate of the hotel. Imtiaz Alam had a lucky escape and found his way out of the hotel with great difficulty in pitch darkness.

One of the lifts he was using fell to the ground floor just after he forced the door open on the 4th floor and got out of it.

Pakistan leaders escaped Marriott bomb at last minute

Pakistan's president and prime minister were scheduled to eat at the Islamabad Marriott the night it was bombed, but changed plans at the last minute, a top official has said.

By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad
Last Updated: 3:04PM BST 22 Sep 2008

President Asif Ali Zardari (right) and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani (left) had both intended to be at the Marriott hotel Photo: EPA

A suicide bomber rammed a truck packed with over half a tonne of explosives into the outer security gates of the luxury hotel on Saturday night, killing at least 53 people and wounding more than 260.

"The national assembly speaker had arranged a dinner for the entire leadership, for the president, prime minister and armed services chiefs at the Marriott that day," interior ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters.

"The president and the prime minister changed the venue to the prime minister's house. The function was not held at the Marriott, thus the whole leadership was saved," Mr Malik added.

President Asif Ali Zardari only took office earlier this month after forcing out his predecessor Pervez Musharraf, who was himself subjected to several assassination attempts.

Mr Zardari's wife Benazir Bhutto was killed in a bombing last December that some of her supporters blamed on elements close to the country's secret service.

The car of prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani was shot at in early September on a road near Rawalpindi.

Speculation has mounted over how the highly powerful RDX and TNT explosives were procured. Some analysts pointed to the disappearance last month of a truck of explosives manufactured at the military munitions factory at Wah.

Investigators are trying to track down an Islamabad-based al-Qaeda cell believed to have carried out the devastating bombing of the Marriott Hotel, according to security officials.

Amir Mir, a Pakistani terrorism expert, said that suspicion had fallen on a leading jihadi, Qari Saifullah Akhtar, who has strong links to the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan's military intelligence establishment.

The hunt came as British Airways announced that it was suspending all flights to the beleaguered country amid security fears sparked by Saturday's attack.

Investigators said they believed the attackers constructed the massive truck bomb at a safe house in the capital, since all lorries entering the heavily-guarded city are searched at checkpoints.

Pakistan's army is in the midst of an offensive against militants in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border, while the United States has intensified attacks on militants on the Pakistani side of the border, infuriating the Pakistani army.

A security official said troops had fired at two US helicopters that intruded into Pakistani air space on Sunday night, forcing them back to Afghanistan.

Elsewhere, troops were attacking militant hideouts, a military spokesman said.

"Our security forces are engaging militants with artillery fire and targeting their hideouts," said the spokesman, Major Murad Khan.

Tensions flared in other areas of the country, as Pakistani and Indian troops exchanged fire across a de facto border dividing the disputed Kashmir region, wounding a Pakistani woman, police and security officials said.

The exchange was the latest in a spate of recent small clashes along the border, known as Line of Control, after a period of calm since a ceasefire in late 2003 and a peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals was launched in 2004.

"It was a brief exchange. Maybe a few rounds but unfortunately, a woman received a bullet in her leg," a security official, who asked not to be identified, said of the exchange in the Madarpur sector in the south of Kashmir.

Unidentified gunmen also kidnapped an Afghan diplomat after shooting dead his driver in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, police said.

Taliban denies role in hotel attack
AlJazeera.net



Sdeptember 22, 2008

A senior commander of the Taliban in Pakistan has denied that his group was responsible for a bomb attack at Islamabad's Marriott hotel, in which at least 53 people died and 270 were injured.

Baitullah Mehsud said on Monday that the Taliban had no role in Saturday's attack, Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, reported.

"Mehsud said that their group does not believe in killing so many locals in the attack," Hyder said.

"RDX was used in the attack, which is a very volatile substance. The big question is: Where did such a large amount of RDX come from? In previous attacks, militants have not used this substance."

In addition to the dozens killed, at least 270 people were injured in the attack on the hotel, a favoured place for foreigners and the wealthy elite.

British Airways announced on Monday that it was temporarily suspending flights to and from Pakistan, citing security concerns after the hotel bombing.

The airline, which offers six flights to Pakistan each week, did not face a direct security threat, but took the step out of caution, Suhail Rehman, a BA spokesman, said.

Foreign diplomatic missions and non-governmental organisations operating in Pakistan have also reviewed their security status.

Question over bomb

One of the lines of inquiry taken by Pakistani investigators is that the bomb attack was carried by an al-Qaeda cell operating in Islamabad.

They said that the attackers constructed the 600kg truck bomb at a safe house in the capital because vehicles entering the city are subject to routine searches.

"Our focus at the moment is to track down the network in Islamabad which must have facilitated the movement and construction of the bomb," a senior official said.

Video footage of the attack showed the truck failing to break down a security barrier at the entrance to the Marriott hotel.

Security guards at the five-star hotel tried to put the resulting fire with extinguishers before the full bomb detonated, devastating the complex.

Two Americans, the Czech ambassador to Pakistan and a Vietnamese woman were among those killed in Saturday's attack.

A Danish intelligence agent is still missing after the blast.

"Carrying 600 kilos of explosives over long distances and through checkpoints is not possible, so our immediate suspicion is that the bomb was loaded in Islamabad," the official said.

It is possible that the explosives used in the bomb could have been sneaked into Islamabad in small quantities from the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, he said.

Military operation

A senior Pakistani security official said on Monday that the explosives used in the bombing were like those used in two recent deadly attacks.

"We are collecting evidence. The explosives were similar to those used in the Danish embassy, which was claimed by al-Qaeda, and the attack on the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) camp in Rawalpindi last year," the official said.

An al-Qaeda leader claimed responsibility for the attack on the Danish embassy, but no group said it had targeted the ISI facility.

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, said after the Marriott attack that the government will take a tough line against fighters linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Pakistan's military is currently trying to bring under control of the country's tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an area long considered to be a safe haven for opposition fighters.

mom, you are missed --nov 1931 --sept 11, 2004-- rest in peace

almost all of my life you were always here. that one day you would be gone ---it never entered my mind ...

sarah palin strongly supports aerial hunting of wolves

aerial wolf hunting


"Palin has also drawn heat from conservationists for pushing to let citizens shoot wolves from the air, and for supporting looser bear-hunting rules aimed at reducing bear populations in order to inflate numbers of moose and caribou, which draw big-game hunters to the state. She opposed a ballot initiative to change the law so that only Department of Fish and Game personnel could shoot wolves or bears from the air. She drew even more criticism for using $400,000 of taxpayer money to "educate Alaskans" about "predator control." The ballot initiative was voted down last week.

"Decimating them with ongoing perpetual programs is in no way in line with environmentally responsible predator management," said Toppenberg of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance. "The ecosystems up here are intact, but they certainly won't be if we decimate the population in order to artificially inflate the population of moose and caribou."

sarah who? sarah now? sarah ever? sarah in wonderland-- the smell of victory, smells

So america's all a flutter over sarah . the alaska governor who failed . in a state at the top of the list for providing funding for contraceptives sarah failed to successfully guide her own daughter past the dangers of teen pregnancy . now she is asking for a chance to help guide a nation of 300 million people.

yes, we know kids don't listen and they make mistakes , but every parent of every kid knows from day one that the teen pregnancy thing is one of the crucial life-limiting obstacles that every parent must help their child avoid as part of the successful transition from teen to adult . team palin failed to get the job done.

it's good that the republicans --long time self-appointed champions of "individual responsibility" --can find it in their hearts to embrace unwed teen mothers --well , at least , embrace the unwed teen mothers from white republican families .

i'm sure they'll eventually find that the best way to help these unwed teen mothers is to further cut taxes on the wealthy and increase the military budget. of course, in an ideal republican world, the job of helping unwed teen mothers would likely be outsourced to haliburton .

now , we must ask, if news came out that an obama daughter was 17 , pregnant and unwed , wouldn't his campaign for president be floating facedown and lifeless in the water?

republican attack dogs would be screaming from every headline and tv screen , " if he couldn't lead his own daughter past the pitfalls of teen pregnancy --something every parent is responsible for --then how can the nation have confidence that he can successfully lead us anywhere? "

if mcCain wins the election , at 72 he'd be 2 years older than reagan when "the raygun" took office. a vice president able to step up and lead the nation if events require , would be an even more crucial necessity if mcCain managed to win the oval office.

if sarah , as a parent--as a female-- couldn't successfully lead her own daughter past the dangers of early pregnancy --a responsibility shared by every parent-- is she the one , AT THIS TIME--especially as the mother of another very young child with very special needs , requiring significant amounts of parental care--is sarah palin the one to be potentially next in line --a heartbeat from the big chair?

and if , as mcCain said , he knew all this before choosing her as his Vp , then what does this decision to pick her --said to have been a snap judgement , made quickly like a fighter pilot, on gut instinct , say about mcCain's leadership abilities?

mc Cain --maybe right for a dogfight-- but wrong for the white house.

the oval office is a place where more deliberative thinking --like a chessplayer rather than a kneejerk -- is often needed.



republican Vp nominee sarah palin believes in creationism and believes it should be taught to children in schools. in other words, she believes the earth is 6000 years old and all the scientific data on evolution and global warming is false.

palin told high school students to support Us troops in iraq because they were carrying out "god's mission". she's definitely another right wing-nut, bible-fascist fundamentalist .

she let it be announced her daughter WILL marry the boy who got her pregnant. shotgun marriages don't work. at 17, her daughter is about as ready to be a wife as she is ready to be a mother and parent to an infant child. one mistake doesn't correct another. why force a scared , confused kid into marriage? who at 17, is mature enough and able to choose their primary companion , business partner and soulmate for the next 50 years?

palin does not believe in a woman's right to choose whether to continue, or end a pregnancy-- even in cases of rape or incest . she said in 2006 that if her own daughter was raped and became pregnant, she would not support an abortion.

in her state of alaska the number of rapes was twice the national rate and pregnancy from rape was 25 % higher than the national average.

whether you believe HUMAN life begins at conception, or only the POTENTIAL for human life begins at conception, no one has the right to force their belief in this matter on every woman--especially if you are a man.

each woman has the right to make her own decision without being coerced by religion , government , men , or other women --it's her body not theirs.

palin's state of alaska pays bounties for hunters who shoot animals from helicoptors --palin herself strongly supports and apparently participates in aerial wolf hunts. she says bears should be included as the objects in those hunts because they, like wolves, are natural checks on moose and caribou populations.

in her reasoning , less wolves and bears would mean more moose and caribou for big game hunters to bag in alaska and at the same time drop more traveling sportsmen's dollars into the state coffers.

as touted , palin "took on big oil" , she increased their taxes by about 6 billion in alaska and then gave out about $1000 each in energy rebates to alaskans to help offset rising oil costs--but that sounds like she adopted obama's plan to tax windfall oil profits and then rebate the public. why are the republicans hiding the fact that sarah palin raised taxes?

from an article titled : Alaskan Greens Say McCain's VP Pick Has Anti-Environmental Record

"Gov. Palin will simply continue the failed policies of the Bush-Cheney administration and their Big Oil friends -- policies that could make us even more dependent on foreign oil," said League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski. "Gov. Palin characterizes McCain's flip-flop on drilling offshore as a positive step in his transformation from maverick to Big Oil's best friend."

the environmentalists in her own state distrust sarah palin.

"Most people in the Alaskan environmental community see her as an ally of Big Oil, willing to set aside both science and the public good to benefit the industry."

"Palin has also opposed efforts to protect Cook Inlet beluga whales, a genetically distinct population of whales located only in this Alaskan inlet. Scientists estimate that they numbered 1,300 in the '80s; now they're down to just 375. Environmental groups have been pressing for a listing to protect the whales, but Palin has urged the federal government not to list, again citing threats to the oil and gas industry. 'I am especially concerned that an unnecessary federal listing and designation of critical habitat would do serious long-term damage to the vibrant economy of the Cook Inlet area,' said Palin in a statement last year."

"Another major concern for enviros is Palin's stance on endangered species in the state. After the Bush administration's Department of Interior listed the polar bear as a threatened species in May, the governor sued the department. 'We believe that the ... decision to list the polar bear was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available,' said Palin, who also penned an op-ed in The New York Times on the subject. "

"Palin and other state officials expressed concern that listing polar bears as threatened would impair oil and gas development in the state. Palin argued that the listing decision was based on 'the unproven long-term impact of any future climate change on the species' and that a 'comprehensive review' of the federal science by state wildlife officials found no reason to support listing the bears as endangered."

"But emails released via a public-records request later showed that Alaskan state scientists agreed with federal researchers that polar bears are threatened by shrinking ice. 'Overall, we believe that the methods and analytical approaches used to examine the currently available information supports the primary conclusions and inferences stated' in federal reports, wrote Robert Small, head of the marine mammals program for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game."

" 'This was the Bush administration Fish and Wildlife [Service]. It's not like these people are bear-huggers,' said Van Tuyn. "State scientists looked at it and said that's the best science, and Palin said, 'Keep your mouths shut,' and she turned around to the public and said, 'I do not support listing the polar bear, the science doesn't support it.'"

and finally , on foreign policy , palin and mcCain and all the right wing-nut, neo-press talk about the success of the surge and STILL talk about victory in iraq . either they are idiots, liars , or completely in denial .

do a google for the arabic word "jizyah" if you think the "decrease" in violence in iraq is some kind of Us victory.

since they had done nothing to the Us to warrant an invasion , the sunnis in iraq were obligated by quran to fight the invaders , the aggressors, the oppressors .

"slaughter is better than oppression ...oppression is worse than slaughter...allah loves not the oppressor ...allah loves not the aggressor " .

once the invasion took place, iraqi resistance had to begin. once begun, it had to continue as a matter of religious , national and personal honor.

how does it end? the aggressor leaves , or accepts islam --under which, hostilities are "supposed" to cease, or the aggressor ceases to attack and pays the jizyah as a sign of being vanquished .

the "surge" is paying 70,000 sunni insurgents in iraq $10 each man, per day, NOT to kill americans.

the Us is paying iraqi sunnis the "jizyah" --the tax , or in old roman empire terms , the "tribute" monies a defeated subject people pays to their vanquishers and masters, not to kill them.

"The tax that is taken from the free non—Muslim subjects of a Muslim government whereby they ratify the compact that assures them protection, as though it were compensation for not being slain ." --e.w. lane



"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book (Christians and Jews), until they pay the jizyah (tribute, tax) with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." --Holy Quran (Al-Tawbah 9:29)

victory in iraq ?

victory by whom?

the smell of victory smells like de-feet

recent polytricks

Surprising everyone , john mcCain picks a female running mate !



a failed mediation involving henry kissinger , jimmy carter and a cantankerous john mcCain takes place--but no room for henry in the campaign...


and then, only days after her selection as john mcCain's VP, sarah palin's 17 yr old daughter confides...


"mama, i'm pregnant !"

To rebut rumors, Palin says daughter, 17, pregnant

By Steve Holland
Mon Sep 1, 12:03 PM ET



The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us," the Palins' statement said.

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support," the Palins said.

The Palins asked the news media to respect the young couple's privacy.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media, respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates," the statement concluded.

MCCAIN KNEW

Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter's pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.

In the short period since she was announced last Friday, Palin has helped to energize the Republican Party's conservative base, giving the McCain camp fresh energy going into the campaign for the November 4 election against Democrat Barack Obama.

McCain officials said the news of the daughter's pregnancy was being released to rebut what one aide called "mud-slinging and lies" circulating on liberal blog sites.

According to these rumors, Sarah Palin had faked a pregnancy and pretended to have given birth in May to her fifth child, a son named Trig who has Down syndrome. The rumor was that Trig was actually Bristol Palin's child and that Sarah Palin was the grandmother.

A senior McCain campaign official said the McCain camp was appalled that these rumors had not only been spread around liberal blog sites and partisan Democrats, but also were the subject of heightened interest from mainstream news media.

"The despicable rumors that have been spread by liberal blogs, some even with Barack Obama's name in them, is a real anchor around the Democratic ticket, pulling them down in the mud in a way that certainly juxtaposes themselves against their 'campaign of change,"' a senior aide said.