As if the charges relating to dog-fighting weren't bad enough for Michael Vick. Now he's facing a lawsuit for $63 billion, filed by South Carolina convict Jonathan Lee Riches.

Riches alleges that Vick stole two white mixed pit bull dogs from his home in Holiday, Fla., and used them for dogfighting operations in Richmond, Va. The complaint goes on to allege that Vick sold the dogs on eBay and "used the proceeds to purchase missiles from the Iran government."

The complaint also alleges that Vick would need those missiles because he pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in February of this year.

Who knew Al-Queda was purchasing weapons from Iran, through NFL stars with funding coming from underground dog-fighting operations? Perhaps this is a case of 'too strange to be true'.

Labels: etc, Iran, sports, Terrorism

The hunt for Saddam's WMD isn't over yet. From The Spectator:

'Apparently Saddam had the last laugh and donated his secret stockpile to benefit Iran's nuclear weapons programme. With a little technical advice from Beijing, Syria is now enriching the uranium, Iran is making the missiles, North Korea is testing the warheads, and the White House is hiding its head in the sand.'

Weapons inspector Dave Gaubatz is claiming to have found Saddam's stockpiles of chemical weapons, and evidence of nuclear activity in Iraq.

It's not a secret that Saddam had a nuclear program. Will these revelations quite all those who call George W. Bush a liar? Probably not, but it should take a bit of wind out of their sails.

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Republican Party

Jeff Nyquist writes of another impending war on the horizon (h/t New Zeal).

People living a hundred years from now will be puzzled by today’s America. The signs of impending destructive war are everywhere. We do not see the signs because we do not want to see them. This is true in the White House, at the CIA, in the major newspapers and within major corporations. Russia and China are maneuvering against the United States on all fronts. Russia and China are supporting Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, Syria, etc. All the worst regimes, led by criminals and butchers, are supported by Moscow and Beijing. The objective is to arm as many rogue states as possible. And the reason for doing so is transparent.
A researcher and former news editor wrote the following note to me last week: "Russia has been conducting war in Chechnya for years, slaughtering, raping, imprisoning and displacing Muslims. Russia slaughtered Muslims for ten years in Afghanistan. Russia is 'right next door' [to the terrorists]. Yet bin Laden, allegedly tired of what has been done to Muslim peoples, chose to attack... the United States. Bin Laden ignores the enemy who has been slaughtering Muslims in his backyard for two decades and instead targets a nation thousands of miles away..."

The tie that binds is pure unbiased anti-Americanism.

Labels: Afghanistan, China, democracy, Iran, politics, Russia, United Nations

More trouble brewing with Iran.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has asked Iran for "a full explanation" for the detention of 15 British servicemen seized at gunpoint by Iranian forces.

The Government has demanded the "immediate and safe return" of the sailors and Marines who were taken hostage in Iraqi territorial waters.

They were taking part in a routine operation boarding merchant ships when they were taken captive by Iranian naval vessels.

h/t

Labels: Iran, Iraq

A petition is up to get the UN to indict Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on charges of inciting genocide. Click the link, watch the video, and sign the petition to have Ahmadinejad indicted. (h/t)

Labels: democracy, Iran, United Nations, Wish You Were Dead

Iranian State media is predicting the Apocalypse, possibly as soon as Spring! "Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will appear all of a sudden on the world scene with a voice from the skies announcing his reappearance at the holy Ka'ba in Mecca."

Imam Mahdi, also known as The Twelfth Imam, is supposed to return to Mecca when the world is in a state of total chaos. His return will mark the beginning of a massive global jihad, resulting in a perfect Muslim state covering the entire globe.

Now this poses two problems. The first being that the world is not in chaos. Sure, there are some "hot spots", but chaos would be a massive overstatement.

This makes one wonder what Ahmadinejad and Khamenei know that the rest of us aren't privy to. Could Iran be planning a Spring attack on Israel? Or possibly a large attack on Israel via their Lebanese proxy Hezbollah? Maybe they've made greater technological breakthroughs in their nuke technology than the West actaully knows.

Ahmadinejad has stated publicly in the past that he believes the main reason for the Islamic Revolution is to pave the way for Imam Mahdi. In fact, Mahmoud also said in 2004 that he believed the Twelfth Imam was due to return in 2007.

Now, problem number two makes things REALLY interesting. It seems Imam Mahdi will be bringing backup with him:

We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, 'the Mahdi will come with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him.' ... Imam Mahdi will be the leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus had himself given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger and will see Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi.

Thats right, Jesus will be the #2 man in the New Global Jihad, according to Iranian television.

Was the whole mild-mannered peace-mongering carpenter persona just a cover? Were Jesus and his desciples really just a Sleeper Cell? Will Jesus be firing RPG's at Iraqi troops in four months time? And the biggest question of all: would George W. Bush sell American nukes to Jesus, even if he was in cahoots with Mohamed?

If Iran is right, you'd better prepare yourself for a long nuclear winter.

Labels: democracy, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, politics

Finally, protesters are doing some good in the world:
On Wednesday, thousands of students demonstrated on the campus of Tehran University, chanting "death to despotism," and "death to the dictator."

The protest seems to be gaining traction:

Three days ago, Iran's dictator, Supreme Leader Ayatollah ali Khamenei, was rushed to the vast medical facility traditionally known as "Vanak" hospital, a 1200-room facility that saves half of its beds for the leadership.

Khamenei is known to be suffering from cancer, and taking considerable quantities of an opium-based pain killer. He has lost more than 17 pounds in the past ten months, and was told last spring that he was unlikely to see another New Year.

The sooner the bastard bites it, the better.

Labels: Dead Dictators, Iran, Wish You Were Dead

RP left a comment to my last post that touched a nerve, so here we go.

RP first argues that the Taliban are winning the war in Southern Afghanistan. While the CBC paints that picture pretty nicely, I disagree. Schools have been built, women now have rights, and they have a semi-democratic government, and most importantly they have hope. The war might not yet be won, but it's not being lost.

There is one aspect of the war that the Taliban is winning by miles, and thats the war of wills. The Taliban will not just go away, they've made that very clear. But everytime they kill one of our guys, Jack Layton is the first to call for withdrawl. I agree with RP that we need to win the hearts and minds of Afghani's, but how can we do that if they constantly see us questioning our beliefs?

On the same day as NATO calls for more troops, Jack Layton was calling for complete withdrawl. What kind of message does that send to the Afghani's we're trying to help, or the Taliban who wants do end our way of life? When Bin Laden says the West has a vulnerability that he intends to exploit, this is exactly what he's talking about.

The debate about Afghanistan seems to have changed since 9/11 as well. We seem to forget that we didn't go into Afghanistan under any pretense of helping free the people from a terrorist regime, that was Iraq. We went to Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban, not just unseat them from power. It's about making the world safer for us. These people want to end our way of life, and they've proven they have the will and the means to attack us. Once the Taliban has been exterminated, then Afghani's will have a chance to really build something out of their country.

The rage of the 3,000 dead seems to have passed, and we've become complacent. When our soldiers die, rather than seeking vengence, and fighting with renewed vigor, Candians talk about cutting-and-running. Thank God for the leadership of Stephen Harper. I shiver when I think about what it might take for Canadians to wake up and realize that this is, as George W. Bush put it, "the great ideological struggle of the twenty-first century".

What Bush means by that, is that this war isn't about force and might. There is no question that if the West decided to, we could scorch every inch of the ground in Afghanistan, and leave nothing behind. However, that would be inconsistant with our values.

The importance of this war shouldn't be lost on anybody either. Just as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor got the United States into World War 2, the attacks of 9/11 got the West involved in the Arab-Israeli war that has been going on since the beginning of time. Imagine what Europe, and the world, would be like now if the US had not responded with absolute resolve back then? Back then the West had the guts to stand up to facism, and it took two nuclear bombs to prove that we were up to the fight.

This war is entirely about wills. Does the West have the guts to actually fight for what's right - or will we let the attacks continue, with little or no reprecussions? If we run from this fight, what happens when Iran gets a nuke? Would they have any reason not to nuke Israel? They would wield that threat over the entire region, there is no doubt about that. The entire middle-east would basically be under the control of the Mullah's in Iran. Considering their love for the West, it would only be a matter of time until they used that threat against us.

The common denominator with every fight in the middle-east, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, soon to be in Iran and Syria: these people are very certain that we don't have the will to stop ANYTHING. They think our societies are weak, and we can't muster up the guts to actually put a stop to anything. And right now they're right.

World War 2 was the same way. The world tried to contain Hitler, ignore him hoping he'd go away, and appease him. If Hitler would have been dealt with early, the whole damn war could have been prevented. We are repeating exactly the same mistakes today. People like Mohammed Ahmadinejad, Sayed Hassan Nesrallah, Bashar Assad, Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, and countless others openly call for the destruction of Israel and America. Not only is this allowed, people in the west defend their "right" to say it, even though these people would NEVER give their citizens the same right to speak out.

The true winner of a war can only truly be judged many years down the road. What really counts, is which side your on right now. When George W. Bush says "your either with us, or against us", he's bang-on the money. If you don't support the war and what it stands for, you are by proxy defending the attrocities that psychotics like Bin Laden and Ahmadinejad have - and would like to - perpatrate across the globe.

RP asks "In the meantime, do we just keep throwing our soldiers into the fire and hope for a miracle?". We are only "throwing our soldiers into the fire" if we send them over there and don't back them up. I do believe we should continue giving NATO, and our soldiers every resource they require to get the job done. I wouldn't call that "throwing our soldiers into the fire". Fuck the Taliban, God Bless Canada. Go get 'em boys!

Now, I'm off to my first day of classes.

Labels: Iran, Israel

Qatar has joined Iran as a radical international force by offering the Palestinian Authority $50M.... Boneheads.

Labels: Iran

Iran is preparing to cut a check Palesitian Authority. Of this flies in the face of Western countries, who have been cutting aid in the last couple of weeks. Very dangerous games.

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Gay Christian Peace Activist James Loney wrote a piece about his ordeal as a hostage in Iraq. It was in The Toronto Rag.

He details how he sold his soul while in captivity by cooperating with his hostage takers. He also explains that he has a new found appreciation for the troops who saved him.

I think it would make a lovely Easter story if he enlisted in the army, and started dating GIRLS again. Crazy hippy.

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Google Calendar is now available. Its another very simple, but very powerful Google tool. They just never cease to amaze. I just hope they don't turn into The New Thought Police.

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Turns out you can buy sensative US military data just outside of Bagram airforce base. Which leads me into why Harper is Muzzling his top military officers.

While I don't completely agree with Harper's gagging of cabinet members, MP's, and other government officials (though I completely understand WHY), the military is a different story. When the military releases too much information, it causes deaths. These generals talk too much about strategies and details, and its valuable information to the enemy. I'm sure taliban fighters all over Afghanistan were super-stoked to read in the paper that they could walk up to a US airbase and buy discarded hard drives with sensative info on them. A problem like that should be dealt with, not discussed publicly.

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Beers on Corydon this afternoon is the plan. Its a friggin' beautiful day today. Follow those beers with wings at Carlos this evening, and this is shaping up to be a beautiful day indeed.

Labels: Iran

I've been busy as a bastard, hense the brutal blogging. My last two days of self-employment have been pretty good to me though. I could go back to it. Today was just plain euphoric. Had an amazing breakfast, got a pile of work done, and had a wicked evening (Trivia Night is back on at the Toad on Tuesdays). Oh, and I smoked dope on the steps of the Legislative building.... haha fuckers.

So to bring my thinking back to the real world, I think I'd like to talk about the new pending world war. This "culture war" has crossed the line, and doom is all that any of us have for a future.

For the last two weeks, Iran has been playing posture games. They 'revealed' the existence of a pretty wicked sonar-evading new torpedo. Also, they test fired a recently aquired radar evading missile.

The claims Iran makes are large, very large. Over at Big Lizards they make a pretty good case for the Irinian weapons buildup... being a big joke.

Relatively speaking, even if Iran's claims were true, they've got shit. And they realize it's not about the weapons either. If Iran gets attacked in the US-lead "War on Terror", it will incite a world war. And Iran's leaders knows it.

So, we're left in a world where the US has plans to attack Iran, and Iran is posturing for war.

Theres also strategic reasons to attack Iran. If you look at a local map you see that Iran is the only thing seperating two very critical battle areas. Its the only country between Iraq and Afghanistan, where they've already got a fuckload of troops.

Combinging the two into one large war theatre wouldn't be hard. It would make things simpler. If there is, in fact, a "culture war" on our hands - Pakistan won't be far behind, and the Saudi Arabian Royalty will be forced into a postion where they have to choose between the cash, and the people. Then there's Syria, and Yemen to deal with.

Anyway, back to the wonderful land of Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is one of my favorite politicians in the world right now, is being very open about Iran's ambitions. So open, that they might be making shit up. All this talk about nuclear this-and-that does prove one thing, that Iran is up to something.

The whole deal does stink of 2003 however. I've been wondering if there was just some horrible typo in all of Bush's intel reports back then. Maybe the 'q' was supposed to be an 'n'. Or maybe I'm just suffering from a twisted case of deja vu.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does understand that he's holding a pretty good hand right now. If Iran were attacked, the middle east would light up like a guy named Omar with a bomb strapped to his chest candle.

Another interesting aspect of the Iran conflict, is what kind of pretense the US will use to attack. In Iraq (with a 'q'), the initial reason was weapons of mass destruction, but quickly switched to 'freedom and democracy'. Iran has made is pretty clear that they want The Bomb. But at the same time, they're the most democratic country in the Middle East.

Iran has good cause to want The Bomb too. Self-defense. Israel has The Bomb, has not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. They've also made it pretty fucking clear that those Nukes are pointed straight at Iran. You can't blame Ahmadinejad for trying to look after Iranians.

My personal belief, is that Iran should have The Bomb. It gives them security, which in turn will make them act more rationally. It could also be a proving ground for Middle Eastern content. It's not far off from dealing with a child. You basically have to give them responsibility slowly, and pray to god, allah, buddah, The Sun, or whoever/whatever, that the kid doesn't go fuck everything over. Pardon my nihilism.

At some point, "solving the problem" becomes a bigger task than dealing with the problem itself. I say fuck it, lets see what they do with it. Anything, whatever it takes, to stop the poor bastards from blowing themselves up in the streets.

My chair just broke. I should say, Foy's 24-chair just broke. It was only slight however, so we'll survive.

Labels: Iran

There are two developing crises in the middle east right now. The first is Iran's nuclear programme. The second is Hamas being democratically elected to take over the Palistinian Authority.

The Wests position on both situations is rather predictable. Iran should not be able to persue nuclear technology at all, since it's leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for the destruction of Israel.

An interesting point to note about Ahmadinejad: although Iran has had democratic elections for some years now, Ahmadinejad was the first elected President that wasn't backed (read: selected) by the religious clerics who ACTUALLY rule the country. His election platforms were to have less relations with the West, the destruction of Israel, and wider distribution of Iran's oil wealth amongst the lower class. It was a fairly centrist platform (relatively speaking, of course). Once elected however, he found out quickly that his ideas were deeply divisive amongst the population, and he couldn't gather any "political capital" for his agenda. Until the nuclear programme controversy. Ahmadinejad is a strong believer in Irans right, as a sovereign nation, to nuclear energy. This has been a strong belief of the Muslim clerics in Iran for many years, so they started to love him for it. He coupled this stance with a bunch of anti-Israeli rhetoric, and almost over-night, he had won the support back of the populace.

Similarly, the west is none to happy with the election of Hamas in Palestine, a group who been a major supporter of terror attacks in Israel, and throughout the middle east. They also included the destruction of Israel, as one of the key points in their election campaign. The concern with Hamas is that their legions of suicide bombers, who previously were viewed as terrorist extermists, may now gain international credibility, and the fact that the Palistinians have given the group a pretty clear "mandate". And just as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election had added legitimacy, not being supported by the clerics; Hamas' election also was given added credibility since it was the first time the uber-corrupt Fatah group had been defeated, and by a wide margain to boot.

The way that the west deals with these two situations, will have serious implications for the future. The West is finally seeing its "dream" of democracy in the middle east come to fruition, but the results are less than ideal. Realistically the prospect of any country in the middle east electing a pro-west government, democratically, is highly unlikely. The Wests ability to maintain peaceful relations with these new governments', is and will continue to be, tested regularly. Even the infallible George W. Bush is having his doubts about the situation. Remarkably, rather than denouncing the legitimacy of the terrorist organization, he's given them the option of disarming, and having diplomatic relations! This is an unusually weak position for ol' W. He's even defended the Palistinian people for electing Hamas, using the corruption of Fatah as the basis for that argument. It goes to show that for once in the idiots life, he's walking the walk AND talking the talk (for the time being, anyway).

The next several weeks should be very interesting to see how this plays out. If there is a workaround to get Iran its nuclear energy, while at the same time keeping nuclear weapons technology out of their hands, I think it would be a victory for both sides. Likewise in Palestine. If the West does try to issolate Hamas, I can see nothing but bad things happening. The Palestinians are not accustomed to the PA doing any good for them. For many years under Fatah, the PA was about as corrupt a group as there is in politics. This was a major reason why Hamas was elected. However, if Western aid is cut off, and the people's needs are not being met, its unlikely they would revolt against their own government, but much more likely attack Israel.

The manner in which western nations handle these two incidents could have implications for years to come, in regards to middle eastern countries adopting democratic forms of government. If these two governments end up being internationally isolated from the rest of the world, many middle eastern nations will see democracy to be incompatible with their way of life. It could also have nasty implications in countries that are just begining to adopt democracy, like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, amongst others.

All good democracies have growing pains. Its a matter of fact. The United States had their Revolution. We in Canada were consumed with rebellions in the early years of confederation. First in Lower Canada, then Upper Canada, and the final rebellion with Louis Riel out in Manitoba. I could go on and on. Canada to this day, almost 140 years into our existance, have still not quite got it down. Quebec still wants to fuck off into the sunset, and we, as a nation, are becoming more polarized politcally by region. Not to mention that Queen fucking Lizzy still has a goddamn veto over us (damn those colonial shackles)!

My point is, democracies aren't easy. They take a long time to fully flourish. But its this growing period that defines a nations character, and as such, its future. If Iranians continue to elect leaders who are hell-bent on the destruction of their neighbours, their future will not be not bright. If, however, Iranians realize that with the right to vote comes responsibility, their destiny will be their own to control. Same goes for the Palastinians keeping Hamas in check. I'm done.

Labels: Iran, Israel