Factions of the Pakistanis. Today's ambush may help things in our direction, but there is still a considerable element within the official Pakistani government that is working against us.

Factionalization is good, in this case, though.

I didn't know they also had democrats.

SNAP!
 

The Pakistani's are a confused bunch as a whole. A part of their brain tells them their future lies in aligning with the US and the western world, the other part of their brain is screaming to shut the world out as we represent a major threat to their islamic religion/isolationism. They can not quite reach out far enough to do it on their own, they need our help reaching out to them to pull them into the first world.

Pakistan's demographics shows that they will struggle with this problem until their people are exposed to education, and positive western influences that will loosen the mulah's fist of control that entraps the majority of the under- educated, western-phobic, extremist islamic man on the street.

As an example. I was having a conversation with a young Pakistani the other day, who is a barrister/lawyer for a national corporation, that has recently become a private/non-government company. He is well educated, UK, and travels to the western countries on business. He and I were talking about mis-conceptions on both sides of this issue of mis-trust and fear of each other's religion/culture. I said that it seemed that it will take the human touch in order to break the walls the exist today. I explained that the media has done both countries a great dis-service in that extreme images, what these news organizations use to generate their revenue, separate our cultures by constructing destructive barriers of fear and mis-trust. Bombings, mobs burning our US flag, Christians being targeted by their extremist organizations, our images of immoral lifestyle, crime in the streets, lack of any spiritual control, and the media's portrayal of the US as a power mad country attacking the Islamic world for our greed and need for oil/power. The media displays these images for ratings and profit.

He admitted that I was one of the few Americans that took the time to talk with him, not just look at him like a potential terrorist. I told him I look at everyone as a potential terrorist...just kidding I didn't say that...maybe thought it but... :-)

Maya

I like the term "extremist Islam". Terrorism is obviously an extreme means, but is the stated purpose extremist or mainstream?

LMAO! I wish they did. Then we could just stand back and watch the country implode.

That is going to be INCREDIBLE!
 

I got a look at that project months ago...INCREDIBLE!

They put entirely to much money, time and effort...promoting that event for it to fail. :munchin

Don't be hijacking my thread with that fag car racing crap.

lol...
 

Just watch...evertime a Muslim/Islamic country or its leaders, begins to understand and try to embrace the future for the betterment of its people and followers...

Some radical ass Islamic/Muslim leader goes against the NORM! These so-called "clerics"...don't give a fuck about the majority of its people or diversity. Yet AL will quote, these leaders as if they know what they are doing is right.

AL, believes these "terrorist" are highly educated. I believe they are "indoctrinated" into a religion that still believe...the strict ways of the past, is the best way.

rant off for now...cable is being installed tomorrow...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German President Johannes Rau has canceled a planned visit to Djibouti Wednesday following urgent warnings from German security services of a planned attack against him, the president's office said in a statement Tuesday.

The statement said German security services had received information that an Islamic group planned an assassination attempt on the president, who was due to visit German troops stationed in Djibouti at the end of an eight day visit to east Africa.

Re: That is going to be INCREDIBLE!
 

EVERY single hotel room in the country is booked. People are renting out rooms in their houses. Gulf Air (sponsor of the event) has set up extra flight from Dubai. Schools are shut down for the race, hundreds of palm trees have been planted. Heck, they might even scrub the graffiti off the Tree of Life.

Got to walk the track with one of the engineers a little while ago. Pretty impressive.

I would not be at all shocked to find that incidents like the one mentioned above increase as the race approaches, or that the above incident was in part a reaction to the upcoming events.

Re: Here they come!
 

I think I have now identified my favorite Gulf state.:D

Listen to the Arab Reformers


By Jackson Diehl

Monday, March 29, 2004; Page A23


A much-anticipated summit of the Arab League, scheduled to begin today in Tunis, was abruptly put off Saturday, and for a remarkable reason: The kings, emirs and presidents-for-life of the Arab Middle East are unable to agree on a common response to the Bush administration's new policy of promoting democracy in their region. The younger and brighter rulers, knowing the stagnant status quo is unsustainable, are pushing a strategy of co-option, offering halfway, half-baked "reform" programs they have hastily drawn up. The less enlightened insist on sticking to the excuses that Arab dictators have offered the world for the past half-century: a) the first priority must be Israel, and b) foreign tutelage is wrong, except when applied to Israel.

The summit may now never happen; if it does, it will probably settle on a murky mix of these two responses. Either way, critics of the pro-democracy policy -- in Europe, in Washington and inside the Bush administration itself -- will again proclaim that a neocon attempt to "impose" democracy on the Middle East "from the outside" has foundered. That this resistance to elected government comes from a group of kings, emirs and presidents-for-life doesn't seem to trouble the critics. The assumption seems to be that the autocrats' objections are those of their own people.

Yet, they are not. The most underreported and encouraging story in the Middle East in the past year has been the emergence in public of homegrown civic movements demanding political change. Two years ago they were nonexistent or in jail. Now they are out in the open even in the most politically backward places in the region: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria. They are made up not only of intellectuals but of businessmen, women, students, teachers and journalists. Unlike their governments -- and the old school of U.S. and European Arabists -- they don't believe that change should be gradual, and they reject the dictators' claim that democracy would only empower Islamic extremists. It is the delay of change, they say, that is increasingly dangerous.

These people weren't created by George W. Bush. They are the homegrown answer to a decadent political order, and they ride a powerful historical current. But they will tell you frankly: The new U.S. democratization policy, far from being an unwanted imposition, has given them a voice, an audience and at least a partial shield against repression -- three things they didn't have one year ago.

"In the Middle East today, you talk about food, you talk about football -- and you talk about democracy," says Mohammed Kamal, a young political scientist from Egypt. "Some people condemn the Americans, others say, 'Look at the other side, these are universal values.' The point is that for the first time in many years, there is a serious debate going on in the Arab world about their own societies. The United States has triggered this debate, it keeps the debate going, and this is a very healthy development."

Kamal and another prominent Egyptian political scientist, Osama Ghazali Harb, were in Washington last week; both attended a groundbreaking meeting of civic organizations at Egypt's Alexandria Library earlier this month. The conference, unthinkable a year ago, produced a clarion call for democratic change -- one that was all but ignored by Western media.

So here is what the Alexandria statement said: "Reform is necessary and urgently needed." That means: an "elected legislative body, an independent judiciary, and a government that is subject to popular and constitutional oversight, in addition to political parties with their different ideologies." Also, "the freedom of all forms of expression, especially the freedom of the press . . . and the support of human rights in accordance with international charters, especially the rights of women, children and minorities."

How to get there? The document offers a clear path: reform constitutions so they provide for periodic free elections and term limits on officeholders; free all political prisoners and repeal all laws that provide for punishment of free expression; abolish all the emergency laws and special courts on which Arab rulers depend.

That's not what the Arab League will say -- but it means more. "There is a growing consensus in Egypt that there is a dire need for reform, not because of foreign pressure but because of internal demands," said Harb, who drafted the political section of the declaration. "It is still a minority view within the political elite. But it is growing."

The White House, at least, took note of the Alexandria declaration. There is talk of promoting its formal endorsement by the Western democracies at the upcoming G-8 summit. Arab officials and the diplomatic old school whisper that such support would only taint and undermine the reformers. Better, they say, to respond to the Arab League.

Wrong again, says Harb. "If your governments refer to the Alexandria declaration it will strengthen and promote this trend for reform," he said. The very idea of it made him grin. "I like this," he added. "This would be very good."



© 2004 The Washington Post Company

A Glance at Democracy in Arab World

The Associated Press

State of democracy in Arab world:

___

ALGERIA: Multiparty state with elected parliament and president.
National Liberation Front, dominant party since independence from France
40 years ago, won 2002 parliamentary elections marred by violence. In
1991, fearing fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front would be elected,
army aborted final round of election and sparked bloody insurgency.

___

BAHRAIN: Declared constitutional monarchy in 2002 as part of reforms
that paved way for first legislative elections in 30 years. Women voted
and ran in October election, which secularists narrowly won. Final
authority on all matters still resides with king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al
Khalifa.

___

EGYPT: President Hosni Mubarak took over from assassinated President
Anwar Sadat in 1981. His security apparatus and National Democratic
Party have almost absolute control over elected parliament. Mubarak
stands every five years as only presidential candidate in yes-no
referendums that always produce yes vote of more than 90 percent.
Speculation persists Mubarak is grooming his son to replace him.

___

IRAQ: U.S.-led coalition to run country through June 30, when new
Iraqi-run government replaces Saddam Hussein's 35-year dictatorship.
Washington promises Iraq will be democracy, but history of repression
and deep divisions in society will make that difficult.

___

JORDAN: King Abdullah II, who succeeded late father, King Hussein, has
virtually absolute power but has pledged to transform kingdom into the
``model of a democratic Arab Islamic state'' that can serve as an
example to other Middle East nations. He has abolished the Information
Ministry that enforced censorship and put more women into government,
but broader public freedoms are lacking. Political elite, conservative
tribal leaders, would-be reformers and Islamic fundamentalists argue
over direction of reform.

___

KUWAIT: Politics controlled by emir, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, and
family. Kuwait pioneer among Arabs in electing parliament, in 1963, but
emir regularly dismisses national assemblies. Women barred from voting
or running for office.

___

LEBANON: Elections regular and lively, but not open because of
power-sharing agreement meant to prevent resurgence of 1975-90 sectarian
civil war. Legislative seats apportioned equally to Christians and
Muslims; prime minister must be Sunni Muslim, president Christian.
Syria, dictatorship, wields great influence over Lebanese politics.

___

LIBYA: Moammar Gadhafi in absolute power since 1969 military coup.

___

MOROCCO: King Mohammed VI appoints prime minister and members of
government following legislative elections; can fire any minister,
dissolve parliament, call for new elections, or rule by decree.
Incumbent socialist party won September 2002 parliamentary elections
praised as clean and fair. Conservative Islamic parties did well.

___

OMAN: Sultan Qaboos became ruler by overthrowing father in 1970. Family
has ruled for about 250 years. In October, 2003, the country held its
first elections open to all citizens for an advisory council. No
political parties or elected legislature.

___

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: Yasser Arafat, under growing pressure to share
power, appointed a prime minister in 2003 but Mahmoud Abbas' government
collapsed in a dispute with Arafat over security control. The same
disagreement nearly sank Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia's government,
appointed in September, until Qureia gave in. Arafat essentially retains
indirect control in many areas, including security.

___

QATAR: Promising parliamentary elections after holding first municipal
elections in 1999, with women fully participating. Famous as home of
al-Jazeera satellite TV station, lambasted by Arab and Western
governments for shows critical of governments. Qataris overwhelmingly
voted in April 2003 for a new constitution that guarantees freedom of
expression, religion, assembly and association. It also provides for a
45-member parliament, two-thirds of which will be elected and the rest
appointed by the emir.

___

SAUDI ARABIA: Crown Prince Abdullah rules on behalf of ailing King Fahd;
no elected legislature. In sign royal family feeling pressure to reform,
the Cabinet announced in October that Saudis will be able to vote in
municipal elections. Government also recently set up a national human
rights commission and let international rights monitors visit for first
time.

___

SYRIA: President Bashar Assad wields near-absolute power, disappointing
those who expected the young, Western-educated doctor to open up
politics. Succeeded father, longtime dictator Hafez Assad, who died in
2000.

___

SUDAN: President Omar el-Bashir in power since 1989 coup. Recently moved
to lessen influence of fundamentalist Islamic leaders, but democratic
reform not on agenda.

___

TUNISIA: Republic dominated by single party, Constitutional Democratic
Assembly, since independence from France in 1956. Opposition parties
allowed since 1981.

___

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Federation of states, each controlled by own emir
and family.

___

YEMEN: President Ali Abdullah Saleh presides over largely feudal
society. Despite constitution, elected parliament and lively press,
power rests with military and tribes.

AP-NY-03-28-04 1107EST

Copyright 2004, The Associated Press. The information contained in the
AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed
without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Does what happened in Falleujah change anyone's mind about the question here?

NO! They have declared war on US! I believe it was in the 13th or 14th century.