Free Republic

For good or for bad, Luftwaffe suffered 2/3 of its losses at the Eastern Front... some 65,000 out of 95,000. It amazes me why so many Me-109 are still around. May be abandoned due to gas shortage?

Cill Blinton may proclaim himself citizen of... say Antarctida. This will solve a legal issues - but I doubt that anybody but pinguins or Kosovolbanians will vote in his support.

Looks like majority is falling for a twisted logis. No evidence is the strongest evidence. Elimination of terrorist Aby Nidal is a smoke screen... why American 'allies' Saudis or Turks did not do this?

America does NOTHING with this Al Jazzirra media outlet allowing ObL to spread his ideas and instructions. TV station in Belgrade was bombed for much lesser sins.

Later, Hussaini moved to Boston and got a job at Logan Airport. But he quit his job in 1997, four years before planes from there were hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001. He reportedly said, "If anything happens there, I'll be a suspect."
May be he just figured out how LOOSE the security is. It does not take a rocket scientist to add piles of open Islamic threats (transmitted by all Islamic media outlets). Who wants to be a suspect?

Oklahoma City connection does not appear strong also. Investigative reporters are mostly of sensationalist ilk. No wonder that some of them are not welcome on serious media outlets. Timothy McVeigh was 'war syndrome' guy... This is a common thing - back in 1980's I met few Russian vets from Afghanistan, and some of them carried an unreleased load of aggression. War breaks weak minds. No matter how brief and victorious (or prolonged and messy) it is.

Terror (oh, it is counter-terror) adviser to Saudi royal family called CIA and framed Iraqi infiltrators?! Oh my... If he is that good and friendly, how he could miss 911 croud - mostly Saudis his fellow compatriots? Love of Saudi towards Iraq is well known. Why not to use such an info to kill two ducks:

• give a wrong lead to smoke cover own terrorist gang;
• increase heat under your foe;

  So far, there were no convictions of Iraqis on terrorism. Can't say so about Saudis. Plus... ObL wants Iraqi scientists (Iraq is known to be the the most educated nation in the region) for his plans and Iraqis plain folks as a martyrs. Good or bad, Saddam did not let it happen. Will he do so in the future? Field of hypothesis.

  Call me devil's lawyer - I would prefer America acting by law not by impulse or emotion. Overreacting on questionable clues drain resources from defusing real danger.

Quality people? Pure nordic rase you mean? Or Communist Party Comrades made of steel from the toes to the tip of the nose? Cheerleaders like Monica Levinski? Natural allies like Kosovo Liberation Army?

Quality [whatever you mean by this] people will not help if your goals and means are rotten. Domination is a rotten goal.

oh yeh... see my #13

You set the rules so you dominate to maintain or better position yourself for continued dominance over others.
Quoting "Mein Kampf"? Some people never learn on mistakes made by OTHERS.
In economy, companies achieving market domination grow ineffective and die. Same thing always happened to political and military "world dominators".

A week or so ago CNN used term "Indian controlled Kashnir". Sounds awfuly close to "Serb controlled Kosovo". Following the media logics, next will be "Indian occupied Kashmir" and calls for humanitarian action. Plus... India is not a NATO member.

What takes more: to warm up a miniature tube or reboot Windows from BSoD state?

System is an active laser jammer. Once missile launch is detected a lidar (optical equivalent of the radar) aims a modulated laser beam on the missile. This blinds and/or confuses the missile sensors and aiming system.

Back to tubes: tube-based device will have less bugs and glitches than Windows-based supercomp.

to 10
More evidence of a tie between Iraq and al Qaeda?

Whatever evil this Sadam man is, he will not give helping hand to Saudi AlQuaeda. During Gulf War I, Saudis were closest (among arabs) allies - they needed USA protection from Sadam. This will not be easily excused by Iraqis.

to #5
Which came first? The Chechens or the Islamist Eggstremists.

First of all, the Chechen Islam never was a radical Islam. Chechens are people of a highland style - independent, easy on friendship and conflict. During Gorbachev/Yeltin clash era, all borders were open for intrusion of 'non-traditional' ideologies from liberal democratism to radical islamism. Combined with economical decline, radical teachings found good ground to grow, while well-paid media got its PC-BS style.

I would not blame CHECHENS as a nationality for this mess. But many of them failed to extremist ideology - and I think that ethnic profiling is a necessity - shall one suspect and check old woman from Yakutia if it is KNOWN where terrorists are coming from and how they may look like?

Once radical groups based in Chechnya are eliminated and border is sealed against intuding 'coaches' (or cockroaches) - combined with economical improvements - all will come back to normal.

And there will be no questions like yours "Which came first? The Chechens or the Eggslamists". This is apples and crabs, not even apples and oranges.

I suggest you take the time to look at the overwhelming majority of news stories by all reporters except for PRAVDA propaganda coming out of Chechnya a few years ago.

So, you are a regular PRAVDA reader? That's a nice addition to profile for freeper pretending to "Free the USA".

Unfortunately, NONE of so called Western countries is in the same position as Russia is now - direct aggression (or intrusion if you like) of radical groups with massive foreign support. It is easy to be an armchair warrior and criticise how OTHERS do at war.

Russian free media is YOUNG and makes its style AFTER western outlets (mostly pink and rosy, living in comfort and safety). But even publications critical to some aspects of Chechen war do not make blatant statements like yours.

Enjoy your PRAVDA and kavkaz.org!

(#9)
It seems that you have completely ignored the terrorist tactics of the Russian’s, which was the point of my of my prior reply, not that terrorism on the part of the Chechen people is justified.

Facts please. Grozny was bombed? There was a war, man. You know what happens during wars? Yes, cities turned into fortress are bombed. Looking back to 1945, some even are nuked. Together with their civilinas. And as it was said many times - those bomber raids (brutal by themselves) are usually considered life-savers since save lives of infantry grunts AND lives of other civilians. Just by making the war shorter.

May be you have something else to say except accusing Russia with blank statements?

Are you sure?

... but there maybe a seed of reality in this story: despite of continuing verbal support of PLA, the incidents of Brezhnev-style kissing with Arafat were almost gone under Andropov.

Everything I hear from Kalugin causes tons of doubts. Sorry, I prefer other sources than this person.

Ones like him wound themselves not compatible with new situation in Russia. They lost their jobs due to poor performance (or elimination of their positions) - and found nothing better to run around with so called exposures... Who can ever figure what is a true story and what is a fantasy-for-sale in his writings?

Times calls handling of this crisis a debacle. Well... may be they preferred to see the old theatre bulding blown up and all BUT 117 hostages dead.

Their UNDERSTANDING towards hostage takers is amazing:
"...Because while al-Qaeda is waging a global 'jihad' against all things Western, the Chechens are fighting a war for national survival and independence..."

Since Stalin, no one ever threatened national survival, and they had de-facto independence in 1996-1999. Chechen leaders choose to team with radical islam and expand their land by means of war. Unfortunately for them, Kosovo scenario does not work on Russia - so far.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newly independent Central Asian states -- Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan -- have dealt with a legacy of abandoned nuclear materials...

Sorry, but this is a legacy B$. What does it mean "abandoned"? And if abandoned - than by who? By Russia/Moscow? New independent local authorities simply took over everything, including storages, recearch facilities, factories - name it. The West cheered for this takeover 10 years ago. Once it turned a bit ugly - it is Russia's fault?! Asian states took it over. There is no legacy. Period.

... and of facilities left poorly staffed after Russian specialists went home.

Those republics were a home for those specialists. Most of them were born there in Asia, and came back to Asia after getting a degree. But when the USSR broke, they got status of "occupants" and "foreingers". And they did not went HOME (as author says), they were forced to emigrate. In many cases - simply thrown away.

<SARCASM>

No! No! No!

There shall be "NATO to the resque" humanitarian intervention. On the Mexican side, sure. Situation is very similar to one at Kosovo, so NATO shall act ASAP to prevent humanitarian disaster. And I know what shall be the last drop: street gangs shall call themselves KLA, ALA, NMLA and TLA (Liberation Armies of corresponding states).

Kalifornia is misspelled a bit? Who cares! So was Kosovo (Kosova in Albaneze lingo).

I will not be surprised to find aircraft from DMAFB (Tucson AZ) bombing local 790 KNST radio for broadcasting Rush Lumbaugh and Michael Savage! This right-wing outlet is clearly a tool of aggression against Mexico and makes a legitimate target for NATO (USA included) strike!

</SARCASM>

"To my knowledge, it's the first time we've had an airplane stolen from the airport," he said.

Too much things occured recently for the first time... mostly nasty.