Who’s surprised that it was food poisoning that landed pudgy cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the hospital? From The Memri Blog (h/t Little Green Football’s Link Viewer);
Shi’ite cleric and leader Muqtada Al-Sadr was secretly transferred a few days ago from Iraq to Iran for hospitalization as he was comatose.
It was reported that his illness resulted from food poisoning.
Photo from AP/Ramon Espinosa
Colombian President Uribe in Santo Domingo
Still chewing his daily coca leaves, apparently, Chavez has decided that the best way to come out of the situation into which he’s cornered himself is to make up stuff according to the Associated Press (Washington Examiner link);
On his arrival in Santo Domingo, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made jibes at Colombia and the United States, which has supported the Andean nation with more than $4 billion in counterinsurgency and anti-drug aid since 2000.
“The U.S. empire has taken over Colombia,” Chavez said.
Chavez claimed the strike that killed Raul Reyes, a top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was “planned and directed” by the U.S. Later, he said he had information that “gringo soldiers” participated in the attack, but provided no evidence to back the claim.
I can’t imagine the Defense Department taking the chance on losing US troops in a potential battle in a country where they’re not invited – I know that’s the stuff of Hollywood drama, but that’s not how it works.
The Miami Herald reports that this dust-up is hurting Venezuelans more than it’s affecting Colombia;
Before the restrictions, about 30,000 Colombians crossed the border in San Antonio every day to work in Venezuela, and Venezuelans went the other direction to shop.
”The situation is very grave on the border,” City Councilman Alejandro García said. “For a problem that’s between Ecuador and Colombia, we Venezuelans are paying the price.”
He added that the fuel restrictions had forced a local jeans factory to close after it didn’t receive enough diesel oil to keep production going.
And many Venezuelans suspect that Chavez has ulterior motives for throwing his troops into the frontier gaps;
Many in San Antonio speculated that Chávez had sent troops to the region to protect guerrillas taking shelter there from Colombian attack. Many in the region said that extortion, kidnappings and executions at the hands of Colombian as well as Venezuelan guerrillas were regular occurrences.
”Of course there are Colombian guerrillas here, and the government knows where they are,” García said.
Manuel at The Devil’s Excrement writes that the Venezuelan Army tried to block Argentine reporters from recording and interviewing protesters outside of Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas;
And today a group of Argentinean reporters were detained and clashed with the Military Police as they deviated from the program and attempted to go and tape and interview protesters right outside the Miraflores Presidential Palace. According to the reports, the police got violent with them and actually blocked their path so that they could not get to the protesters. They also attempted to take away their equipment but were helped by other reporters.
The Washington Times reports that the DEA aided Thai police in the capture of Victor Bout, international gun dealer buying weapons for FARC. I wondered yesterday if his arrest isn’t the result of the Colombian raid against Raul Reyes last weekend and some of the electronic evidence the Colombians gleaned from the equipment found among the pieces of Reyes.
The Real Cuba writes that my ruminations about Victor Bout might prove to be correct;
Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer dubbed the “Merchant of Death,” was arrested in Thailand and charged in New York on Thursday with trying to sell weapons to Colombian rebels, officials said.
According to a report in Spanish newspaper El Pais, Bout was found thanks to information contained in the computer of Raul Reyes, the FARC leader who was killed by the Colombian army last week.
Gateway Pundit writes that it was a phone call from Chavez that enabled Colombians to pinpoint assembled pieces of Raul Reyes right before they disassembled him;
That was a big mistake.
NOTE TO TERROR LEADERS: When Chavez calls- Don’t pick up.
Jim also shows remarkably good taste by linking to my story yesterday – thanks.
There’s more on the phone call at El Universal.
UPDATE: After nearly a week of drama queen over-reaction, Hugo Chavez calls for calm (AP link);
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Friday for a cooling of tensions with Colombia and predicted a summit of Latin American presidents in this seaside capital “is going to be positive.”
[…]
“People should go cool off a bit, chill out their nerves,” Chavez told journalists at his hotel before leaving for the summit at the foreign ministry of the Dominican Republic. “I think the meeting today is going to be positive, because it is going to help the debate. We have to debate, talk, and this is the first step toward finding the road.”
That’s hilarious. After mobilizing his army, navy and air force to the Colombian frontier, even though the attack against Raul Reyes happened all the way across Colombia from Venezuela, Chavez is trying to act like the great peacemaker. Porque Chavez no se calla?
An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings says it before I thought of it;
It’s possible the loony toon figured out his mouth was writing checks his ass couldn’t cash?
But maybe the reason Chavez is calling for calm is this from Gaius at Blue Crab Boulevard about a Washington Post article on those documents Colombian officials found on Reyes’ computers;
The correspondence appears to show that Venezuelan officials are eager to work with rebel commanders to isolate Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, an ally of the Bush administration. The documents also include letters to Chávez from FARC leader Manuel Marulanda.
The Post article goes on to claim that Colombia is willing to allow external police organizations verify the origins of the documents;
The chief of Colombia’s National Police, Brig. Gen. Óscar Naranjo, said the government has asked a team from Interpol to examine the laptops and hard drives to confirm that they belonged to FARC commanders. That multinational team is to work in Bogota on Tuesday.
“We have nothing to hide,” Naranjo said by phone Thursday afternoon. “We’re entirely open to any technical review.”
But back to the AP article; Danny Ortega of Nicaragua decided to break off relations with Colombia and no one noticed. I suppose that’s one less truckload of bananas for Colombians. But Colombia has at least one ally at the conference;
One of the rare regional voices offering support for Colombia was Salvadoran President Tony Saca, who said the Colombian government should be able to defend its citizens.
“We need to understand Colombia has the legitimate right to go after terrorists … wherever they may be, of course without harming the sovereignty of another country,” Saca said on arrival in Santo Domingo.
Salvadorans probably remember their own struggle with communist guerillas who hid out in Guatemala and were supplied by Cuba and Nicaragua.
In Ecuador, Security Minister Gustavo Larrea said the army captured five suspected FARC rebels on Thursday. The suspects were nabbed “a few meters from the Colombian border,” in the general area where the raid took place, Larrea said.
Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it.
Photo from Associated Press
The US military’s busiest recruiting station was bombed early this morning by…well, your guess is as good as mine. Laughing Wolf at Blackfive writes;
Well, Berekeley upped the ante; and, now it appears someone has met them and raised again….
AP tells why the Times Square was chosen;
The recruiting station was renovated in 1999 to better fit into the flashy ambiance of Times Square, using neon tubing to give the glass and steel office a patriotic American flag motif. For a half century, the station was the armed forces’ busiest recruiting center. It has set national records for enlistment, averaging about 10,000 volunteers a year.
Big Dog explains why he thinks it’s domestic terrorists and not one of our more traditional enemies;
The bomb in Times Square elevates the resistance to our military to a new level. Certainly, this could have been an act of terror but I dismiss this idea because a terrorist would have wanted a detonation when people were around so as to maximize death and destruction. The person who did this in the early morning hours is a coward who was making some sort of statement. The bomber chose this particular time because he lacked the testicular fortitude to confront the recruiters with his violence, and act that would have allowed them to dispatch him in short order.
Gateway Pundit has some pictures of the damage and some likely suspects;
Michele Malkin rounds up the news so far. Ed Morrisey at Hot Air writes;
Now the movement has decided to morph into domestic terrorism. Of course, the people responsible will claim that they bombed the office during the night to keep anyone from being hurt. That’s exactly the same kind of rationalization that people like the Weather Underground and the SLA used at first, anyway — that terrorism was justified by their politics. In fact, a few like William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn still claim that.
When an unoccupied aborton clinic is bombed (I think that’s wrong and evil, too, by the way) the media and activists are all over it condemning the act, I wonder if this will get the same exposure. Probably not. Since no one was hurt, it’ll be ignored – until next time when someone is injured or killed. But if this was indeed intentional the FBI and local cops should track these felons and goof balls to the ends of the earth and then deal them harsh sentences to prevent the next little weasel coward from killing himself or others.
UPDATE: The best I’ve read today comes from Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs;
The left is already in a tizzy over the event worried that it’s going to cause a backlash against them. In the words of Kos Diarist Cool Blue Reason.
“Inevitably, we’re going to start hearing about “left-wing terrorism” from the usual suspects in the media. And I’m guessing the drumbeat is going to be especially loud in this political environment.”
And you know what CBR, you are absolutely correct. Do you want to know why, the reason is because you are more than happy to surround your self and associate with those who openly hate and attack those who defend us. You support groups like Code Pink and MoveOn.org who call our soldier’s baby killers and murderers. You clap when “students” swarm and destroy recruiting stations and you support world leaders who actively call for the destruction of the very country that defends your right to do so.
Chuckie Schumer announced that he has a letter to the White House with 23 Senators’ signature urging sanctions against an Iranian bank (WSJ Online link);
A letter urging President Bush to take action is expected to be sent to the White House today by Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who said yesterday that 26 Democrats have signed the letter, including Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois.
The letter is an attempt to influence internal deliberations within the Treasury and State departments about whether to levy the new sanctions, Mr. Schumer said in an interview. “We are trying to weigh in on what we think is the right side,” Mr. Schumer said.
“The one really effective thing we have done against Iran is the sanctions on the banks,” he added. “And now what the banks have done is that the central bank is handling their business for them, so unless you sanction the central bank, you are not going to get anywhere.”
The letter contends that the bank “is heavily involved in the funding of terrorism and the financing of Iran’s proliferation activities,” according to a draft, which cites statements on the matter made in recent years by both the Treasury and State departments.
Now, see, the Senate Democrats have admitted, on the record, that they’re aware of the Iranian government’s involvement in worldwide terrorism, yet they’re reluctant to come right out and urge the use of force against Iran. Even though there’s abundant evidence that Iran is funding and training resistance against US forces in Iraq (World Tribune link);
The U.S.-led coalition has captured a senior Iranian operative who helped finance and equip Shi’ite militias.
U.S. Army paratroopers detained the suspected senior leader of the Iranian-sponsored Special Groups network during an operation in Baghdad’s Beida neighborhood on Feb. 27, Middle East Newsline reported.
Officials said the Special Groups was trained and equipped by Iran. They said the organization, believed to comprise a series of cells, introduced the Explosively-Formed Penetrator, designed to destroy U.S. — and other Western origin main battle tanks.
The UN voted for additional sanctions yesterday (AFP/Yahoo link)
Fourteen of the council’s 15 members voted in favor of Resolution 1803, sponsored by Britain, France and Germany, which slapped a third set of economic and trade sanctions on Iran in 15 months.
Indonesia abstained during the vote which was presided over by Russia, the council chair for March.
But Libya, South Africa and Vietnam, which joined Indonesia in expressing reservations about the need for fresh sanctions at a time when Iran is cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), voted in favor in the end.
After the vote, the six powers trying to scale back Iran’s nuclear ambitions issued a statement calling for new talks between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran’s nuclear negotiator.
But Ahmadinijad announced today that sanctions are “worthless” (ABC News/AP link)
Iran vowed to push ahead with uranium enrichment Tuesday, a day after the U.N. Security Council passed a third round of sanctions that Tehran called “worthless” and politically biased.
Now, I remember L’il Chuckie Schumer, when he was in the House, called sanctions against Serbia worthless and urged the (Democrat) Administration to use military force against Serbia – Serbia, which posed no military or economic threat to the United States at all.
The Washington Times (and Atlas Shrugs) reports that Qatar is funding Hamas – does Chuckie want us to freeze Qatar’s assets, too? After all, his reasoning for freezing Iran’s assets is their funding of terrorists, but then, Chuckie, the senior self-hating Jew in Congress, probably doesn’t think Hamas is a terrorist organization.
The same folks who organized the “No Mas FARC” protest last month sent me an email yesterday asking that I get the word out that they ask everyone to step outside their homes tonight at 6 PM (Colombian time – apparently it’s also Eastern Time) and light a candle for “a Latin America without FARC” then post a picture if you can on your blog, in Facebook or some other electronic medium.
UPDATE: There’s a spontaneous rally at 17th and Constitution (in front of the Organization of American States) in DC at 5:30 pm today.
UPDATE: Kate sends a link to pictures of the rally at the OAS, 3-4-08, and a narrative at her blog.
Kate at A Colombo-Americana’s Perspective has posted the Spanish language email, I just translated the gist of it for you, though.
Speaking of FARC, Gateway Pundit writes that the computer that Colombia liberated from the pieces of Raul Reyes this last weekend shows evidence that FARC is in the process of making “dirty bomb”;
Colombian officials on Tuesday said that FARC rebels are working on a radioactive bomb and that they had purchased 50 kilograms of uranium this month. The information was discovered after Colombian forces ambushed a FARC base and captured a top terrorist’s computer this weekend.
Reuters reported:Colombia said on Tuesday that FARC rebels had been planning to make a “dirty bomb” with radioactive material, threatening the entire Latin American region.
The charges by Vice-President Francisco Santos, at the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, marked a dramatic turn in a regional crisis that has seen Venezuela and Ecuador cut diplomatic ties with Colombia.
Bogota has already accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of funding the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, after Colombian forces crossed into Ecuador and killed a senior rebel commander on Saturday, sparking troop movements and warnings of war.
I find it hard to believe that FARC can continue this facade of being an Army of Liberation when the news of this dirty bomb gets around. A dirty bomb is purely a weapon of mass casualties, there is virtually no strategic use for it – except to deny an enemy use of a couple of city blocks for a few hundred years.
When the evidence of this gets out, Ortiz, Chavez and Correa have some explaining to do. I’ve noticed that Evo Morales, the Moe character of Los Tres Chiflados of South America, has kept out of it so far.
UPDATE: Babalu Blog writes that Colombia’s President Uribe has decided to take Chavez to The Hague on charges of genocide. But OAS, weak sisters that they are, are busy deciding what to do about Colombia violating Ecuador’s sovereignty.
Former Colombian Senator Luis Eladio Pérez reports that he was held along with the 3 Americans being detained by the Colombian Armed Revolutionary Front (FARC) and confirms that they are still alive, but injured from their plane crash five years ago(Miami Herald link);
Pérez provided the first solid news on the health of the three American contractors. He said that Thomas Howes, 54, suffered a blow to the head during the crash “that gives him very strong recurring headaches. He’s got a problem with high blood pressure with very little medical treatment, almost none, and it’s very difficult to get drugs for high blood pressure.”
Marc Gonsalves, 35, and Keith Stansell, 43, suffer from spine and knee problems from the accident, he added. He said Gonsalves recently contracted hepatitis.
Perez claims that the Americans had tried to pass messages to him, but the messages were confiscated by FARC;
Pérez also said that their captors, the FARC guerrillas, confiscated letters that the three Americans had given to Pérez to pass along to President Bush, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
But let’s be more concerned about the treatment of Islamist terrorists in Guantanamo.
A crazy homeless guy on the street is one thing, a crazy man with thousands of troops and weapons at his command is a whole different ballgame.
“Everybody has understood that Iran is the number one power in the world,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech to families who lost loved ones in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
While, Ahmadinejad is clearly insane, his personal brand of insanity is far more dangerous than that of the kooks in Hollywood, at the DU, or even our own homegrown elected wingnuts like Ron Paul and Dennis (the menace) Kuchinich. Why? Because he has Iran’s sizable military at his command…
You can’t help but giggle whenever you read the Washington Post opinion section these days. Today is no different. John Podesta, Ray Takeyh and Lawrence J. Korb all take turns revising history to make their vacant point that it takes a Democrat to end our wars.
Even a cursory examination of American history reveals the complexity of concluding a war that has taken on such a stark partisan tint. The shadow of Vietnam looms, as it has become standard Republican narrative that back then it was the Democrats in Congress who stabbed America in the back by cutting off funding for a winning cause. The fact that the war was lost in Southeast Asia, as opposed to the halls of Congress, is no matter. The Republican machine will press this same theme should it lose the White House in November. A Democratic administration would be accused of surrendering to evildoers, as once more the dovish successors of George McGovern are wrongly said to have pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory.
Um, guys, have you forgotten that it was a Democrat administration that manufactured the Gulf of Tonkin incident that put Marines on the ground in 1965 in the first place? That three years later that administration had to withdraw from the election because they’d managed the war so poorly that they couldn’t win an election. That they’d deceived the American people so badly, Democrats had lost all credibility as well as the next two elections (and five out of the next six elections)?
In fact, a reasonable person can make a rational argument that Democrats have been responsible for all of our wars from 1860 until 1965 (with the possible exception of the Spanish American War).
Can you buffoons name ONE American defeat on the field of battle in Southeast Asia? Just ONE. The war was lost on the streets of America and in the halls of the politically-motivated Democrats. Nothing you pinheads can tag-team write will ever change history.
Just like your mischaracterization of the situation in the Middle East today;
In today’s Middle East, America is neither liked nor respected. Iran flaunts its nuclear ambitions, confident that a bogged-down Washington has limited options but to concede to its mounting infractions. Afghanistan is rapidly descending into a Taliban-dominated state as the Bush administration responds only with plaintive complaints about NATO’s lack of resolution. And the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is nowhere near resolution. America’s occupation of Iraq is estranging an entire generation of Arab youths, creating a reservoir of antagonism that will take decades to overcome. A Democratic president who may enjoy a modest honeymoon in the Middle East simply by virtue of not being George W. Bush can take a giant step toward reclaiming America’s practical interests and moral standing by leaving Iraq.
Ya know why we’re not liked nor respected in the Middle East? It’s because of pseudo-intellectuals like you three who are constantly preaching about American hegemony and how we need to understand and talk with leaders in the Middle East. here’s all you need to understand – leaders in the Middle East only respect strength. That’s why Arafat almost broke his neck getting to the negotiation table after the first Gulf War, it’s the reason Jordan is our strongest ally in the Middle East, it’s the reason Gaddafi surrendered his chemical and nuclear weapons programs without a shot being fired.
Iran is a thorn in our side because they don’t think we have the will to attack them – they get that idea from nimnils like you three.
Yeah, Democrats can end wars – but the way they end wars brings us to the next war much more quickly. But since Leftists and Democrats have the world view and attention of a fruit fly, that part doesn’t bother them.
There’ll always be a Republican administration to clean up Democrats’ messes – and Democrats can blame the Republicans for screwing it up like these three imbeciles are doing in this vacuous brain fart on the pages of the Washington Post.