Iraqis Increasingly Side With Coalition, Colonel Says

The Iraqi people increasingly are siding with the coalition against extremists in their country, a unit commander there said. [snip] “They’re starting to realize that we’re here to make their life better, and because of that they’re starting to take our side,” he said in a teleconference with online journalists and “bloggers” Dec. 20.

“So, they’ve really taken our side against al Qaeda over here. And I think it’s something we can be proud of as an Army, and we can be proud of as a nation.”

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48521

Northern Iraq Operations Expose Enemy’s Grim Nature

[snip] coalition forces found an execution site and a torture facility where al Qaeda had operated. “At that execution site, there were 26 remains found. Their arms were tied behind their back, and most of them were shot in the back of the head,” Bacon said.

Inside the three-room torture facility, tools for carrying out various forms of torment were found, including blood-caked knives, whips, metal beds wired to electrical outlets and chains hung from the ceiling, he said.

Bacon added that this is the fifth al Qaeda-operated torture house he’s become aware of since arriving in Iraq in May.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48498

Tortured Democrats

It didn't get much attention, but last May U.S. troops unearthed an even grislier site, an al Qaeda torture chamber in Baghdad itself. When they entered, the soldiers found [redacted: truly gruesome] and many more. It's useful to be reminded of what real torture looks like when the Democrats in Washington are working themselves into a froth about CIA interrogation tapes.
[snip]
So now we will have an inquiry into whether the CIA has violated the law by destroying tapes it was under no obligation to make in the first place; concerning an interrogation technique that at the very worst involved making three notorious terrorists think, for a few seconds, that they were drowning.
[snip]
I have severe doubts as to whether waterboarding constitutes torture. But I am certain the unceasing attention it receives and the eagerness of many Democrats to indict the Bush administration damaged America's image more than anything the CIA has done. [well, until the insane NIE report] I say this for two reasons:[...]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071226/COMMENTARY/485798050

Egyptians caught out in arms video

Jerusalem - Israel and Egypt traded accusations over the smuggling of weapons from the Egyptian Sinai into Gaza, a day before Israel's Minister of Defence, Ehud Barak, was scheduled to meet the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, in the Sinai resort of Sharm el Sheikh. (Snip) individuals from the Israeli defence establishment had sent a videotape, or tapes, to colleagues in the Israeli embassy in Washington showing Egyptian border guards not only turning a blind eye to the cross-border smuggling but in at least one case helping it.

[another of Israel's 'peace partners']

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/egyptians-caught-out-in-arms-video-israel/2007/12/26/1198345081176.html

Muslim call to prayer on loudspeaker in Oxford

Muslim plans to broadcast a loudspeaker call to prayer from a city centre mosque have been attacked by local residents who expressed their concerns over the plans for a two-minute long call to prayer to be issued three times a day, saying that it could drown out the traditional sound of church bells.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=504373&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

Afghanistan kicks out EU/UN officials

Kabul - Afghanistan has ordered a top European Union official and a United Nations staffer to leave the country for threatening national security, government and diplomatic officials said on Tuesday. The two were declared persona non grata, apparently after allegations they had met with Taliban insurgents, a European diplomat said.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2243332,00.html

Drilling a Hole in the Lifeboat

What would you do if your foreign policy agenda had these priorities:

1. Get Arab and European support for solving the Iraq crisis.
2. Mobilize Arab and European forces against a threat led by Iran and its allies, Syria, Hamas, and Hizballah.
3. Get Iran to stop its campaign to get nuclear weapons.
4. Reestablish American credibility toward friends and deterrence toward enemies.
5. Reduce the level of Israel-Palestinian conflict.

That pretty much describes the U.S. framework for dealing with the Middle East nowadays. The Annapolis conference is did not contribute to any of these goals. The outcome is a failure or at least a non-event portrayed as a victory because it took place at all. And yet, nobody is saying: 'We are so grateful at the United States becoming more active on Arab-Israeli issues that we are going to back its policy on other issues.'

On the contrary,...

http://www.globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3829&cid=1&sid=27

$cience Mag Jumps on Global Moneywagon

Big Science is a Big Business, supporting nearly half the budgets of our major universities. [snip] So the professional scientist union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has ads headed AAA$. They aren't shy about it.

The trouble is that money means politics, and politics means shading the truth. As a result, we get politicized science, which corrupts real science. Any kind of Politically Incorrect science therefore becomes very hard to publish. So the cult of PC has invaded the pristine halls of science.
[snip]
In the last issue of Science Donald Kennedy has an editorial endorsing the Democrat candidate for president. Not exactly in so many words, but it's unmistakable:

"The United States could ... mitigate carbon dioxide emissions: The root cause of global warming and the reef problem. Experience suggests that for this, we might have to await an election."

This is like the union boss telling his members how to vote in a general election if they want to get more money. But global warming is a popular hypothesis, Dr. Kennedy. It's not established. You do remember the difference, don't you?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/12/cience_mag_jumps_on_global_mon.html

Iran to Get Russian Anti-Missile Defense

Russia is preparing to equip Iran with a powerful new air defense system that would dramatically increase its ability to repel an attack, Iran's defense minister said Wednesday. The S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense system is capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile warheads at ranges of over 90 miles and at altitudes of about 90,000 feet. Russian military officials boast that its capabilities outstrip the U.S. Patriot missile system.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8TPC0V00&show_article=1

NHS definition of 'customer'

Figures obtained by The Scotsman under Freedom of Information legislation show at least 1,390 hospital appointments are missed every day in Scotland. However, the figure is likely to be much higher, as many health boards were unable to supply numbers for missed inpatient appointments, while others do not collect data on clinics with staff such as physiotherapists and dieticians.
[snip]
She added: "Part of the problem is appointments are made so far in advance that pat-ients simply forget. We need some kind of system to remind people of their appointments nearer the time." [you know, like the private sector has had for a decade. The NHS response? ...

practices (68 per cent) said they would support charging people £10 for missed appointments. ... of course. It's government run.]

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/1390-Scots-don39t-turn-up.3619753.jp

Study on Illegal Immigration to Be Released Tomorrow

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, issued a press release announcing that their cost study on immigration will be released tomorrow the subtitle of which is:
“Previous state and private studies over-estimated tax receipts and under-estimated costs.”

The details of this study are sure to be controversial, and the Des Moines Register reported last week that “immigrant-rights groups” are already critical and calling for the upcoming radio event to be scuttled.

[scuttled. is that anything like censored?]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071226/aqw018.html?.v=39

Plan Would Let Seniors Work to Pay Taxes

GREENBURGH, N.Y. - Audrey Davison lives alone, gets a $620 Social Security check each month and worries about the sharply rising taxes on her four-bedroom house. Davison, 76, raised her family there and after 43 years, she really doesn't want to leave Greenburgh. Greenburgh doesn't want her to leave, either. The town is pushing a program that would let seniors work part-time, for $7 an hour, to help pay off some of their property taxes.

[is it just me or is it shameful that 'telling the government to f-off' evidently hasn't even be considered as a fix to this deplorable situation? we are rapidly losing control of our government, becoming sheeple]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071225/D8TOKT9G1.html