"All sheltered behind concrete walls, electronic detectors and automatic sensors, their two or three gates guarded by armed men who opened cement road barriers only to vehicles whose drivers presented keys with the correct coded electronic signal. Drivers of unidentified cars had to step out and approach the guards who searched them and their vehicles.

The terrorists overcame this formidable security system by having several small teams strike at different points in each estate with ferocious fire and explosive power. While one group killed the guards and smashed the gates, one or more Mercedes packed with explosives and suicide terrorists drove round the other side and rammed the estates’ perimeter walls. The next team drove into the estates through the hole. Once in, vehicles loaded with cans of gasoline as well as explosives blasted high-rise buildings, killing many of their residents and leveling entire streets. Another group of terrorists rode into the damaged compounds and massacred survivors by spraying the interiors of still standing buildings with automatic fire, hand grenades and fuel bombs. Some witnesses heard the firing going on 10 minutes after the explosions. When their ammunition ran out, the killers detonated bomb belts.

...Riyadh was teeming with many hundreds of al Qaeda operatives preparing for a fresh offensive against US and Saudi targets."

1020 Also posted to: Home page .  At: 11:55:35 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Bin Laden Strikes again - in Riyadh

Watching the news last night, hearing that 9 suicide bombers also died, it struck me, that these people have been brain washed from an early age, (obviously) but why are these people not being taught about the stars, to look up at night, and not wonder why a god built it all, but to wonder how it is, to question, to learn. Allah, didn't make M83. So why think there's 27 virgins awaiting your martyr's death?

1017 Also posted to: Home page .  At: 10:50:56 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: M83: The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy from VLT

"...extremely valuable Iraqi intelligence archives discovered at Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad and at sub-departments of Saddam's clandestine machine never before known to exist. The only data released are a few leaks to the British media calculated to help prime minister Tony Blair stand up to anti-war campaigners at home and around Europe.
I wonder. The US had over a year to plan the after effects of war, gaming the scenarios, the political situations. It would be very, very easy to slip in a few pages. I do wonder if the Scottish MP did accept money from Saddam. I'd hate that to be true.

From this treasure trove, America has distributed to its war allies some materials relevant to their national security.... The US has secretly handed over to various Middle East and Persian Gulf governments the names of ministers and public figures who were handsomely rewarded by Saddam Hussein for supporting his case... In Qatar and Jordan expect overnight resignations of senior cabinet members. "
Resignations in Jordan?

Some sources say that the ties linking the two families (Chirac/Hussain) were deep and ramified. Their exposure is likely to raise a storm.
Saddam did visit only one Western country 30 years ago, France, and met Chirac. This is the rouble when you have one President, King or Tyrant in office for too long -- nepotism.

US officials believe they have sufficient grounds for demanding Dr. ElBaradaiÕs removal... their preferred candidate for his replacement in Vienna is Prince Hassan of Jordan, brother and former crown prince of King Hussein and uncle of King Abdullah.
Some go out and others come in, what a strange soap opera.

Rice Says France, Germany Took NATO 'Hostage': It was very unsettling that Germany and France tried to prevent NATO from reinforcing the security of Turkey. There were many unsettling things in that process.
That was a bit odd. I remember the Scottish Secretary of NATO, after he sidestepped by a procedural trick, France's objection, sounding very pissed off with France. And the ensuing debate over the schisms within the European Union and NATO which would reverberate long after a probable war. Well, here we are, and it's payback time.

The United States did not divide the Europeans...It wasn't us that threatened smaller countries with reprisals nor tried to shut up the countries of Eastern Europe
France used a heavy stick, and seemed to me at the time, to stick their neck out. Mind the US used bribary and strong arm methods too, no doubt, and Blair made it plain how far he was sticking his neck out. Could it really be true, that France took the 'peace' route just because his family was friends with Saddam's family?

France helped Iraqis escape: The French government secretly supplied fleeing Iraqi officials with passports in Syria that allowed them to escape to Europe.
Boy! It gets worse. Why on earth would France do such? Knowing there would be come-back.

America's weapons evidence flawed, say spies: One former CIA official told Mr Hersh, the veteran New Yorker investigative reporter, "One of the reasons I left was my sense that they, the PentagonÕs Office of Special Plans (OSP) were using the intelligence from the CIA and other agencies only when it fits their agenda. They were so crazed and so far out and so difficult to reason with . . . as if they were on a mission from God. If it doesnÕt fit their theory, they don't want to accept it."
There's terrible confusion and counter-confusion going on here. This is black arts looking up their own arse. The whole geo-power/geo-political situation is haywire. To find the missing WMD is paramount. To forget that Iraqi nuclear plants would have valuable materials to a terrorist, just isn't possible. Somebody decided to let that one go. Or, to let the idea out that there still are bogey men, even if there aren't WMD in Iraq.

Chalabi threatens to lift lid on Saddam links: Ahmad Chalabi, the exiled financier promoted by the Pentagon as a leader of postwar Iraq, claims to have obtained 25 tonnes of intelligence documents detailing Saddam Hussein's relationship with foreign governments and Arab leaders... Chalabi has already threatened to use the papers to damage the Jordanian royal family... worried about what'll come out in his relationship with Saddam and the satellite television service al-Jazeera... working for Iraqi intelligence.
I bet France as was as Jordan are really fucked up about the forth coming 'secrets.'

998 Also posted to: Home page .  At: 8:17:51 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Washington Targets Chirac and ElBaradai

"So here are what should have been 15 entries to the blog, for whatever it is worth."

He's back! I know he's a man, but I always minds-eye him as a her. He seems to speak in a woman's voice. Lots to read and catch up on.

997 Also posted to: Home page .  At: 7:58:45 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Where is Raed ?

"...witness ex-Reagan Pentagon adviser Michael Ledeen, who, while puffing on a fat cigar the other day, said: "Americans believe that peace is normal, but that's not true. Life isn't like that. Peace is abnormal.""

981 Also posted to: Home page .  At: 11:41:00 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Neoconservatives

""The Memory Hole website alleges the Standard intended to deceive readers by inflating the size of the crowd. Wrong. It also claims we put together two different still-frames. Wrong again ... the Standard stands by its use of this page one picture." "

Then they should say in some small print down the side. "Photo digitally enhanced."

980 Also posted to: Home page , cyberSaps business ,  At: 11:20:47 AM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Faking it, The Standard's front page

"Doctored Photo from the London Evening Standard" "On 9 April 2003, the front page of the London Evening Standard (circulation: 400,000) contained a blurry image supposedly showing a throng of Iraqis in Baghdad celebrating the toppling of Saddam Hussein. What we are really looking at is an incredibly ham-fisted attempt at photo manipulation." And they say blogs, aren't the truth.

976 Also posted to: Home page , cyberSaps business ,  At: 11:57:13 PM  . .
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Other title(s) for this story: Doctored Photo from London Evening Standard