I, for one, would be interested in hearing on what evidence exactly the secretary bases that assessment.
I think I found whre Con-doofus gets her "evidence"...
Posted on 11/14/2005 2:33:23 PM PST by Esther Ruth
If you'll notice, US advocacy of Chechen autonomy ended shortly after 9/11. When was the last time you heard a US official press the Russians to be nice to the Chechens?
Blair has been in office since 1997 and has always been interested in a two-state plan. Clinton was always supportive of it, too. Bush made a bit of turn away from Blair's and Clinton's views until we needed the UK's military support. It's been widely reported that Blair wants Bush's backing on certain issues he cares about in exchange for Blair's backing on issues Bush cares about. Bush preferred in the beginning to basicly be disengaged from the Israeli-Palestinian issue altogether.
Given the person at issue here, do you care to rephrase that?
The former exactly the image you want to conjure when you throw the latter term around.
No, that connection is in your brain, not mine. The French are plenty anti-Semitic in their own way but they were not Nazis - they simply cooperated with the Nazis. Similarly, Rice is leading a cooperation with the Nazis of today - genocidal Islamists, as embodied by the Palestinians more than any other population on the planet. You don't have to be a Nazi to ease their way through Czechoslovakia.
Go ahead, keep digging.
No not particularly. I don't see why I should avoid an appropriate phrase just because of someone's skin color. It is just a colloquialism and not a racial reference. Hypersensitivity about race is unbecoming in you.
How does it feel?
I guess snide substanceless comments are your way of admitting that you are wrong.
Ha! If it's wrong, why do you base your argument on it? You are being a hypocrite by your own standard.
Just keep doing what you're doing. It's OK, it doesn't cheapen the term at all. Why, I was anti-Semitic just this afternoon for not walking an extra quarter-mile to the falafel place, instead settling for a burrito.
US Neo-Cons: Kremlin is ‘Morally’ to Blame for the School Massacre
by Neil Mackay
WHY would a group of leading American neo-conservatives, dedicated to fighting Islamic terror, have climbed into bed with Chechen rebels linked to al-Qaeda? The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC), which includes Pentagon supremo Richard Perle, says the conflict between Russia and Chechnya is about Chechen nationalism, not terrorism.
The ACPC savaged Russia for the atrocities its forces have committed in the Caucuses, said President Vladimir Putin was "ridiculous", claimed Russia was more "morally" to blame for the bloodshed than Chechen separatists and played down links between al-Qaeda and the "Chechen resistance".
The ACPC's support for the Chechen cause seems bizarre, as many of its members are among the most outspoken US policymakers who have made it clear that Islamist terror must be wiped out. But the organisation has tried to broker peace talks between Russia and Chechen separatists.
The ACPC includes many leaders of the neo-conservative think-tank, Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which advocates American domination of the world.
ACPC members who are also in the pro-Israeli PNAC include Elliott Abrams, head of Middle East affairs at the National Security Council; Elliot Cohen of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board; Frank Gaffney, president of the conservative Centre for Security Policy; Robert Kagan and William Kristol of The Weekly Standard, the house journal of Washington neo-cons, and former CIA director James Woolsey. Former Reagan defence secretary Caspar Weinberger is also in the ACPC.
ACPC executive director Glen Howard said the continuation of the "brutalising tactics" of Russian forces would only lead to "the resistance employing more brutal tactics" like the assault on School Number One in Beslan. He claimed one of the so-called "Black Widows" decided to become a suicide bomber after being forced to watch Russian troops "boil her three-year-old child alive".
"This is a very brutal war," he said. "There have been knocks in the night, people have disappeared. It's an endless cycle of violence in which everyone has lost their sanity. It is not surprising the Chechens have resorted to the same level of violence."
Howard said Putin comparing Osama bin Laden to the leaders of the Chechen resistance was "ridiculous". Moscow has put a $10 million bounty on the heads of two Chechen leaders - the extremist and al-Qaeda connected commander Shamil Basayev, and the more moderate, one-time democratically elected Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov.
Basayev, according to the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, directed the hostage-taking raid in Beslan. As a young Islamist extremist Basayev was trained in Jihadist tactics by fundamentalists in Afghanistan. Many Chechens have fought in Afghanistan and many fundamentalist Arabs have fought in Chechnya.
The nurturing of Chechen fighters against Russia recalls America's support for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan - an act that went on to spawn al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
"What would have happened if Bosnia had been ignored five years ago by the rest of the world in the way Chechnya has been ignored?" asked Howard. "They might have taken to taking over schools as well.
"Everyone is ignoring the nationalist aspirations of the Chechens. This is not about terrorism but about ethnic nationalism." Howard said Russia was more "morally culpable" than Chechen fighters because of the atrocities its forces have committed.
Howard said hardliners like Richard Perle were backing Chechnya as they "understood what it feels like to be under the Russian yolk". Some critics believe the support for the Chechens may be a cold war hangover or part of a policy to keep Russia weak through bloodletting in the Caucuses.
"The al-Qaeda link [to the Chechen conflict] is overstated," said Howard. "Russia plays that up to show that it is part of the war on terror. There are some Arabs there but only a handful - this is a 400-year national struggle between the Russians and the Chechens."
According to Howard, due to the vast energy resources in the Caucuses, the West, which is heavily dependent on foreign energy, has strategic interests in the area to which it cannot afford to turn a blind eye.
Howard said Russia should be told by the West to talk to Chechen leaders to bring about peace. He claimed there was also a "moral case" to invoke sanctions against Russia for its activities in Chechnya, but added that any such attempt would be "totally unrealistic".
Published on Sunday, September 12, 2004 by the Sunday Herald (Scotland)
So in your book actively working to secure terrorist supply lines and to create opportunities for terrorists to kill civilians is the same as not patronizing a business? Interesting.
Private individuals, not government policy. Reprehensible nevertheless.
The reason why Chechnya is off the front page and has been for some time is that Putin agreed some time ago to a plan to give the region more autonomy.
Putin Says Dialogue With Chechen Terrorists No More Likely Than U.S.-Bin Laden Talks
Created: 07.09.2004 13:05 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:05 MSK
MosNews
Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted U.S. government officials Monday, accusing them of supporting Chechen separatists and undermining his war on terror by calling on Russia to seek dialogue with people whom Putin called “bastards”.
Speaking to western policy experts and journalists just days after hundreds of children died in the Beslan school siege, the Russian president said mid-level officials in the U.S. government were supporting Chechen separatists, whom he compared to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, CNN reported.
“You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child-killers?” Reuters quoted Putin as saying.
The president said that each time Russia complained to the Bush administration about meetings held between U.S. officials and Chechen separatist representatives, the U.S. response has been “we’ll get back to you” or “we reserve the right to talk with anyone we want,” CNN quoted him as saying.
Putin blamed what he called a “Cold War mentality” on the part of some U.S. officials, but likened their demands that Russia negotiate with the Chechen separatists to the U.S. talking to al Qaeda.
Putin also defended his government’s decision to storm the school and said the hostage holders had begun shooting children out of boredom.
He added that Chechen separatists are trying to ignite ethnic tensions in the former Soviet Union and it could have severe repercussions.
Putin’s comments came a few weeks after the U.S. granted asylum to Ilias Akhmadov, the “foreign minister” of the Chechen separatist movement.
The Russian president also justified the rescue operation in Beslan, conceding that it took time to mobilize the operation. He said Russian special forces stormed the school knowing they themselves were likely to be killed.
Putin said the terrorists’ goal was to ignite conflict between two local ethnic groups, the Ingush and the Ossetians.
Don't you see that everytime you make these idiotic comments like "actively working to secure terrorist supply lines", you're just making an ass of yourself?
I, for one, would be interested in hearing on what evidence exactly the secretary bases that assessment.
I think I found whre Con-doofus gets her "evidence"...
Brain-dead, galactically stupid statement.
Are you kidding me? Are you in total denial? Are you totally unaware that opening up supply lines to Palis has time and time again resulted in weaponry being shipped into the disputed territories to make war against Israel? Have you never heard of Karina A?
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