al jazeera

From the HuffPo:

In a video obtained by Al Jazeera and broadcast Monday, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him."

"The special forces guys - they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says.

"Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business."

Here’s the video of this idiot saying idiotic things in a dangerous place during a dangerous war:

Remember the thing when Bush said “we are going to conduct a crusade”? Most people brushed it off as some silly bushism. Well guess what? It wasn’t…

Now this is really interesting. Last night, this appeared on Brian Ross' Blotter:

A new Osama bin Laden audio is expected to be released within three days. On the tape, bin Laden will talk about the death of Abu Musab Zarqawi. More details to come.

The audio is about 5 minutes in length. This is the fourth time we have heard an audio message from bin Laden this year. The last time we heard from him was following the sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui for the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden claimed that he had not assigned Moussaoui to be a part of the attacks.

That tape came 19 days after the sentencing of Moussaoui and was considered a quick turnaround for one of his tapes, which are believed to pass through numerous couriers on their way to Al Jazeera network.

The news of Zarqawi's death came three weeks ago on June 8.

Now we got a breaking news story, that is just coming in:

A 19-minute videotaped message purportedly by Osama bin Laden paying tribute to slain al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was posted on a Web site Thursday.

The video, released by al-Qaida’s as-Sahab Institute for Media Production, is entitled “Elegizing the martyr of the nation and the Emir of the martyrs, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi (God bless his soul).”

The taping shows an old still image of bin Laden next to video of al-Zarqawi while the audio of bin Laden's statement is played. The video did not contain any English subtitles, but an Arabic transcript of bin Laden's statement was released.

Al Jazeera magazine (not affiliated with Al Jazeera television) raises the
question of the authenticity of the latest Osama tape.

The audiotapes of OSAMA BIN LADEN have become an important medium between
AL-QAEDA network and the outside world. If authentic, these tapes could
enable BIN LADEN to convey his opinions to his enemies and followers, issue
threats and even claim responsibility for terror attacks carried out by his
group. It is obvious that the usefulness of such tapes cannot be questioned,
but how can people be sure of their origin and authenticity? Little time is
dedicated to such examinations. But an analysis can really influence the way
we judge similar evidence in the future.

There is no reason whatsoever to believe that these audiotapes are
authentic. While they are always followed by reports of scientific voice
analyses, these studies have been invariably done by CIA experts. In fact,
only one occasion was an independent analysis done. And while American
officials were certain of the tape’s authenticity, Swedish scientists were
convinced that it was fake.

To give my readers a better example of how the Republicans feel about your
civil liberties, you just need to look at what was said in Senate today:

“None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead,” said
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a former judge and close ally of the president
who sits on the Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who has led a bipartisan filibuster against
a reauthorization of the Patriot Act, quoted Patrick Henry, an icon of the
American Revolution, in response: “Give me liberty or give me death.”

He called Cornyn’s comments “a retreat from who we are and who we should
be.”

Article

link

Thank you Senator Cornyn for showing us how much you hate America and
everything it stands for. You hate our freedoms so you attack them. That makes
you the same as Osama Bin Laden. Actually you are worse. He has the nerve to
attack us, you hide in Senate and make such ludicrous statements about our very
liberties.

I bet al Jazeera will play that comment over and over again while they laugh
at how America is not the land of the free anymore. What a nice Christmas
present from the Senator - giving aid to our enemies.

John Bolton is met with even more opposition in the U.N. now. This time he
has lost support for the U.N. reform he has been pushing and the loss this time
is a big one - Great Britain. This from today's

Telegraph:

Britain has angered John Bolton, America's combative ambassador to the
United Nations, by breaking ranks with him over the need for reform.

The rare public disagreement between the two close allies comes as the
showdown over reforms at the UN's New York headquarters becomes increasingly
acrimonious.

Britain has rebuffed a Bolton move to join him in refusing to pass the
organisation's 2006 budget until member states approve wide-ranging
management reforms.

To the irritation of Mr Bolton, many developing nations are bitterly
opposed to changes that they claim are driven by American political
pressure. He suggested last week that talks on the 2006 and 2007 budgets
could be postponed as a means to overcome the trenchant resistance from the
"G77" bloc of developing countries. He also threatened that the United
States could seek an alternative to the UN for solving international
problems in future.

Article continues

here

This of course is not the only strain right now from our number one war ally.
The memo last week that was released in a British newspaper which said Bush
wanted to bomb al Jazeera has sparked a controversial fire storm. The memo lead
to a gag order by the British Attorney General and has since sparked even more
outrage, some coming from Parliament.

FOX is known as a right wing propaganda machine. You can even go as far to
say that they deliver a message of hate towards liberals and those with
differing points of view. They have been promoters of the Iraq war and was a
very useful tool of the administration when it came to selling the war. So if al
Qaeda bombed them would it be a justification of war?

If not then take a look at this from the

AFP:

US President George W. Bush planned to bomb pan-Arab television
broadcaster al-Jazeera, British newspaper the Daily Mirror said, citing a
Downing Street memo marked "Top Secret".

The five-page transcript of a conversation between Bush and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair reveals that Blair talked Bush out of launching a
military strike on the station, unnamed sources told the daily which is
against the war in Iraq.

The transcript of the pair's talks during Blair's April 16, 2004 visit to
Washington allegedly shows Bush wanted to attack the satellite channel's
headquarters.

Blair allegedly feared such a strike, in the business district of Doha,
the capital of Qatar, a key western ally in the Persian Gulf, would spark
revenge attacks.

article continues

here

In this report lies further reasons for Bush to answer to Congress. al-Jazeera
is not a military target or al-Qaeda ran. They are located in a sovereign nation
in the Middle East. Such an attack would spark all kinds of outrage at the U.N.
Thankfully Blair had the common sense to talk our idiotic cowboy out of this
bombing.

The
Associated Press is reporting that al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Al-Zarqawi, 
may be amongst the dead from a gun fight that erupted between our forces and
insurgents held up in a house in Mosul. This of course would be an expected
victory for Bush.

There is a problem though. We have heard these rumors many times in the past.
As matter of fact, Zarqawi is coined as a rumor through much of the Arab world.
Al Jazeera magazine even had a big article about him a couple months ago and
labeled him as a myth conjured up by the United States.

I guess we will have to wait a couple days to find out if this was the so
called "Zarqawi" that was killed. Even if it was it still doesn't change
anything - after all, how many second in commands have we captured or killed
since the war started? The answer is numerous.

A little over a year ago, this headline appeared in

Israel Insider:

Report: Israel ready for pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facility

At the time it was not thought much of and things got better for awhile with
Iran. Now they have removed the seals from their nuclear facility and today we
are back to where we were when this headline appeared.

The Israeli Air Force has completed military preparations for a pre-emptive
strike at Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility and will attack if Russia supplies
Iran with rods for enriching uranium, Israeli officials said, according to a
report in the London Sunday Times. Military sources said the raid would be
carried out by long-range F-15I jets, overflying Turkey, with simultaneous
operations by commandos on the ground.

With the reports coming out almost daily of not only Iran's nuclear
facilities, but more so their alleged supplying of supplies to the insurgents,
you can almost be certain we will jump right into this fight. You can read the
entire article

here.

Now it is no secret that during the late 90's when Dick Cheney was head of
Halliburton, he was opposing sanctions against Iran because his company was
doing business with them.

Al Jazeera magazine has reported today