Bloodthirsty Liberal

Maybe poverty does cause terrorism: her student loans alone must be a “daily humiliation”:

After two days of deliberations, a jury yesterday found Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman with MIT and Brandeis degrees, guilty of attempted murder and assault of Americans in Afghanistan.

Following the verdict, Siddiqui, a 37-year-old former Roxbury resident, calmly addressed the spectators in the courtroom.

“This is a verdict coming from Israel, not from America,’’ she said, speaking through a white scarf that covered her face. “Your anger should be directed where it belongs.’’

I’m sorry, did she say Israel?

“This is a verdict coming from Israel, not from America.”

And you went to Brandeis, honey?

Maybe you can use that MIT degree to explain how Israel was responsible for this:

Insisting she had been framed by the US government, Siddiqui said she had been tortured and held for years in a secret US prison.

Oh gee, sweetie, that’s awful. I wonder why they treated you so bad?

The verdict ends a two-week trial in which prosecutors used eyewitnesses - but little forensic evidence - to prove that Siddiqui grabbed a machine gun from an American soldier, who had come to interrogate her, and fired it toward his colleagues but missed. Another soldier testified he barely escaped with his life, and an Afghan interpreter said he tried to wrestle the gun from her. She was subdued when a US soldier shot her in the abdomen.

The jury also heard from an employee of the Braintree Rifle and Pistol Club, who said Siddiqui had taken a 12-hour pistol training course in the 1990s.

Defense lawyers, backed by expert witnesses, countered that her fingerprints were not found on the gun and that there was no evidence it had been fired.

Reasonable objections, I suppose, but the jury didn’t buy them.

I just want to point out that this Pakistani woman who has advanced degrees from America, (allegedly) shot at American troops in Afghanistan—and blames Israel.

So I guess education isn’t the answer to terrorism either.

Jail is one answer, but I have to ask why an assault on US servicemen in Afghanistan is a criminal offense, not a military one.

Not often you see a headline like that.

Can you guess who she blames for the verdict?

A Pakistani neuroscientist was convicted on Wednesday of attempted murder for trying to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan.

Federal prosecutors said the neuroscientist, Aafia Siddiqui, 37, grabbed an M4 rifle in a police station in the city of Ghazni, Afghanistan, on July 18, 2008, and fired on American officers and federal agents.

After slightly more than two days of deliberations, a jury in Federal District Court in Manhattan found her guilty.

As the jurors began leaving the courtroom, Ms. Siddiqui, who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, turned in her chair to face them.

“This is a verdict coming from Israel and not from America,” she said, holding her right index finger in the air. “That’s where the anger belongs. I can testify to this, and I have proof.”

Ms. Siddiqui was then led out of the courtroom while the judge and lawyers for both sides discussed a sentencing date.

Ms. Siddiqui peppered her trial with colorful outbursts that caused her to be removed from the courtroom on several occasions. Her competency — first to stand trial, and then to take the stand — were also major points of contention in the case.

But Ms. Siddiqui was allowed to testify last week, and she claimed that the prosecutors’ assertions that she fired a weapon at officers was “the biggest lie.”

The weapon was never in her hands, said Ms. Siddiqui, who explained that she was merely trying to escape from the station because she feared being tortured. She had been arrested the day before and was found to be carrying documents on how to make explosives and a list of New York targets, officials said.

We’re feeling kind of proud here in Boston.

- Aggie

This never interested the media much when it only happened to Israelis

Nawaz Kot, Pakistan (CNN) — “When we got to this compound it was shocking for us,” Lt. Col. Yusuf tells us, standing in the middle of what the Pakistani military says was a brainwashing center — for children.

It was here, according to the Pakistani military, that children aged 12 to 18 were turned from innocent youngsters into cold-blooded killers, willing to blow themselves to bits as suicide bombers.

The discovery of the compound was first reported in Pakistani media last month. Yusuf says his unit took it over after a three day battle with militants.

Part of the compound consists of four rooms — each wall adorned with brightly colored paintings in clear contrast to the barren and harsh landscape surrounding it. The children were told that this was what awaited them in heaven.

Each of the images has a river flowing through it. Some have people playing in the water. Others have women lining the banks.

The military says that the children are told that these are rivers of milk and honey, that the women are the virgins that await them in heaven. That the children were told that they will live in the company of the holy prophet and be served feasts.

Go to the link to view the pictures.

To get a sense of Palestinian child abuse you can watch this 2007 kindergarten graduation celebration.

I’m not sure why this is more horrifying in Pakistan than in Gaza, but I can guess.

- Aggie

Terror in Pakistan

Ok, too harsh. Not everyone in that mosque supports terrorism and perhaps none of them do. But isn’t it fascinating that this technique, which was designed to kill the “other” - Jews, Hindus, Christians, etc. has ended up killing more Muslims than members of any other group?

The CNN coverage is unintentionally humorous:

Militants [When terrorists kill westerners, they are terrorists, but when they kill Muslims or Israelis, they are militants. Go figure. -Aggie]armed with guns and grenades attacked a mosque during midday prayers in Rawalpindi on Friday, killing at least 40 people and wounding 83, authorities said.

Several explosions followed by gunfire were heard inside the mosque around 1:30 p.m. local time, according to Gen. Athar Abbas, a Pakistani military spokesman. It was not immediately clear what caused the explosions or who fired the gunshots.

The militants entered the compound by climbing over a wall, said Aslam Tareen, Rawalpindi police chief. Several children and elderly worshipers are among the dead.

The mosque — frequented by retired and serving military officials — is in a residential area near national army headquarters. A witness told GEO TV that there were up to 300 worshipers at the mosque at the time of the attack.

This is the first attack in Rawalpindi since a suicide bomber targeted a bank on November 2. [Oh, well that’s not so bad then. I mean, its been over a month. - Aggie]

I’m in a cynical mood this morning. Let’s take the video posted below, the attractive young woman assuring us all that abortion is a beautiful choice and that 45 million women can’t be wrong. Let’s pretend she’s discussing jihad. Every time she utters abortion, just mentally switch it up with jihad. That is close to the message that jihadis receive daily from group members that they respect. It is a good and honorable choice. The decision is shared by family members and loved ones. Write a poem to commemorate your martyrdom, and by all means, do make a martyr video, something we can remember you by.

Let me add that almost every single person I know supports abortion. They don’t support it because they want to kill babies; they support it because of pragmatic reasons having to do with cost, control of one’s body, social reasons, etc. I have mixed feelings, but I am merely pointing out here that the message that young terrorists receive is pro-social in their own peer group. And it is as powerful and as twisted as the message on the video below.

- Aggie

Why didn’t anyone tell me this was on? I was doing laundry.

Fine. What’s the plan?

Can more U.S. troops in Afghanistan really convert Afghans into an effective fighting force? Will allies answer the call to do more? Is Pakistan truly prepared to take on the extremists who pose the greatest threat?

President Barack Obama said yes in his speech Tuesday laying out his plan to pour 30,000 more troops into the Afghan war, then begin pulling out in 18 months.
The prospects, though, at least judging by recent history, are mixed.

A look at some of his claims and how they compare with the reality on the ground:

OBAMA: The extra U.S. forces for Afghanistan “will increase our ability to train competent Afghan security forces and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight. And they will help create the conditions for the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans. ”

THE FACTS: The problem with Afghan forces is not just their lack of numbers. And it’s not an unwillingness to fight. The problem too often is their effectiveness, once trained for combat. Too many get into the fight but don’t remain or don’t perform.

Oh, but they’ll perform for Obama, won’t they? And if they won’t NATO will, right?

Right?

OBAMA: “Because this is an international effort, I have asked that our commitment be joined by contributions from our allies. Some have already provided additional troops, and we are confident that there will be further contributions in the days and weeks ahead.”

THE FACTS: Obama’s confidence skirts years of mostly empty-handed American efforts to get others, including allies in NATO, to deepen their commitment to combat in Afghanistan.

…

Obama is technically correct in anticipating that some allies will offer more assistance, possibly as early as the coming week during a series of NATO consultations about how the troop requirements of commanders in Afghanistan might be met. But history has shown that these troop contributions often are incremental, sometimes slow in materializing and frequently with conditions attached.

You’ve never seen so many soldiers lined up for KP duty as among the NATO forces in As-stan. And who can blame them? When Europe said “We are all America now” they didn’t mean they wanted to fight like American GIs. They import our young men to defeat their genocidal monsters.

Any other objections, AP (you sniping racists)?

OBAMA: “In the past, there have been those in Pakistan who have argued that the struggle against extremism is not their fight, and that Pakistan is better off doing little or seeking accommodation with those who use violence. But in recent years, as innocents have been killed from Karachi to Islamabad, it has become clear that it is the Pakistani people who are the most endangered by extremism. Public opinion has turned. The Pakistani Army has waged an offensive in Swat and South Waziristan. And there is no doubt that the United States and Pakistan share a common enemy.”

THE FACTS: It’s true the Pakistani army this year has launched offensives against extremist elements in the areas cited by Obama. What he did not mention, however, is that the groups being targeted by the Pakistanis are those that threaten the Pakistani government — not those, also based in Pakistan, that are focused on attacking U.S. and Afghan forces on the other side of the porous border.

And speaking of Pakistan, which candidate Obama wanted to bomb into the Stone Age, Pervez Musharraf has the ultimate objection:

We now have to deal with a complex situation. Casualties suffered by our soldiers in the line of duty will not go wasted only if we are able to fully secure our next generations from the menace of terrorism. The exit strategy from Afghanistan must not and cannot be time related. It has to ask, “What effect do we want to create on the ground?” We must eliminate al Qaeda, dominate the Taliban militarily, and establish a representative, legitimate government in Afghanistan.

Exactly. President Obama wants out before he’s gone in. What kind of sense does that make?

You know what? It makes perfect sense. Who wants to make an open ended commitment to a human septic tank like Afghanistan? I don’t. I have no faith that they’ll ever amount to a nation in the sense that we envision. “A representative, legitimate government in Afghanistan”? Surely he had to be laughing his ass off as he wrote that.

I’ll leave it to the AP to bitch about Obama incessantly. Today, I sympathize with my president. It took him three months to realize there is no good answer.

PS: Is it wrong of me to want the doctors to patch up Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan so we can send him over there to complete the mission to which he was assigned? The Taliban will do the job that American justice is too squeamish to do.

What a wide and terrible chasm exists between people like Moshe’s nanny and the terrorists that took his parents. It is hard to imagine that we are all the same species.

- Aggie

I love prison escape movies: the anticipation, the edge-of-your-seat tension.

Who would have ever guessed that a Taliban leader would escape from confinement in Pakistan?

The head of the Taliban in Pakistan’s Swat valley says he has escaped the army and is now in Afghanistan.

Maulana Fazlullah, who was said to be critically wounded by top Pakistani officials in July, was speaking exclusively to the BBC by telephone.

The cleric founded the Taliban in Swat which sought to enforce a hardline version of Sharia law in the region.

Pakistan’s government accepted his demands, but later sent in troops after the militants reneged on a peace deal.

“I have reached Afghanistan safely,” Maulana Fazlullah told BBC Urdu.

…

Maulana Fazlullah has been incommunicado for several months.

During this time a number of reports had circulated about his death and/or capture by the military.

These had gained credence after Pakistani authorities said he was mortally wounded in the army operation.

The Taliban denied reports that he had been injured or was close to death.

News that he is alive and well is likely to be a big boost for the Taliban in Pakistan.

So that’s how he did it: he was never in custody to begin with.

If Pakistan and Afghanistan are our partners in the war on ter—… man-made catastrophe, do we need any foes?

Leaving Pakistan over one suicide bombing?

ISLAMABAD – A suicide bomber who killed five staffers at the U.N. food agency’s headquarters in Pakistan on Monday was dressed as a security officer and allowed to enter the heavily guarded building after he asked to use the bathroom.

The United Nations announced it was temporarily closing all its offices in Pakistan after the noontime bombing, which blew out windows and left victims lying in pools of blood in the lobby of the three-story World Food Program compound.

“This is a heinous crime committed against those who have been working tirelessly to assist the poor and vulnerable on the front lines of hunger and other human suffering in Pakistan,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Geneva.

Secretary General Bank Ki-moon almost gets it right. If he had stopped with “This is a heinous crime”, if he had put a period at the end of that phrase, he would have been right. You see, it really doesn’t matter what you do or who you are; if you are a victim of a terror attack, you are the victim. So whether you mean well, work in a soup kitchen, or never do a nice thing, aspire to become a grinch, you are still the victim and the terrorist is still evil. When we can all agree on that principle, the world will be a much better place.

- Aggie

BTL has taken this on already, but where oh where is the peace crowd? They’ve gone missing.

The Obama administration has decided not to seek new legislation from Congress authorizing the indefinite detention of about 50 terrorism suspects being held without charges at at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, officials said Wednesday.

Instead, the administration will continue to hold the detainees without bringing them to trial based on the power it says it has under the Congressional resolution passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, authorizing the president to use force against forces of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

In concluding that it does not need specific permission from Congress to hold detainees without charges, the Obama administration is adopting one of the arguments advanced by the Bush administration in years of debates about detention policies.

Reading deeper into the very depressing morning papers, we learn that Obama made idiotic remarks at the UN yesterday and that the Taliban are strengthening their ties and outreach into Pakistan. What’s that all about? I thought this guy was threatening to invade Pakistan. It is like we have a bunch of 10 year olds with a summer clubhouse running the country.

- Aggie

You go, girl

Cindy Sheehan is going to be protesting on Martha’s Vineyard. I am just so proud of her. At least she is honest and has the courage of her convictions.

First of all, no good social or economic change will come about with the continuation or escalation of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We simply can’t afford to continue this tragically expensive foreign policy.

Secondly, we as a movement need to continue calling for an immediate end to the occupations even when there is a Democrat in the Oval Office. There is still no Noble Cause no matter how we examine the policies.

Thirdly, the body bags aren’t taking a vacation and as the U.S.-led violence surges in Afghanistan and Pakistan, so are the needless deaths on every side.

And, finally, if the right-wing can force the government to drop any kind of public option or government supported health care, then we need to exert the same kind of pressure to force a speedy end to the occupations.

I’ve been wondering where the anti-war protesters have been. It is summer; the weather is beautiful, and Barack Obama is either continuing or intensifying the policies of George W Bush. We need to see some lively protests. I want to see Obama/Hitler signs, Obama with bloody fangs, Obama devouring children. I can help them find and recycle old Bush posters.

I’ll bring the popcorn.

See ‘ya on the Vineyard!

- Aggie