US Warning India About Blaming Pakistan

The US has apparently cautioned India to be sure they have hard evidence implicating Pakistan before laying blame there the Times of India reports.

WASHINGTON: A key Bush administration official on Monday advised India to rely on hard evidence before drawing conclusions in the Mumbai terror attacks, while obliquely criticizing New Delhi for implicating Islamabad in the blasts and calling off talks.
 
"I know there's a lot of speculation out there now. That happens in these cases. But I think we need to be led by the evidence before we start trying to draw conclusions and make policy pronouncements on it," US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher told foreign correspondents at a news conference on Monday.
 
"So that will be our attitude, and I think that should be the attitude of others as well," Boucher, a mid-level functionary of the Bush administration recommended, even as the G8 summit of leaders issued a statement condemning state sponsorship of terrorism in reference to the Mumbai blasts.
 
Boucher hoped that progress in India-Pakistan relations is not lost because of developments relating to the blasts, "and that they find opportunities to cooperate… against terrorist groups, to cooperate in stabilizing the region."
 
"It's up to them to decide how to proceed. We realize that they felt it wasn't possible to have the foreign secretaries meetings this week," Boucher conceded, before launching into more homilies that disregarded New Delhi's strong diplomatic response to a terror attack that killed nearly 200 people and the international community's support for such response.
 
"But I think our outlook remains that India-Pakistan cooperation is important for the region, and we hope they will find ways to continue it in the future," Boucher said. 

I've maintained that the Indian government has to be very careful about pointing fingers in this. The evidence they have said they have so far is pretty weak and wouldn't stand up in court. I'd like to see both India and Pakistan take a step back and resume talking. Hopefully the Bush administration has it's various carrots and sticks ready to calm the situation. The world does not need these two countries at each other's throats right now. 

Java Tsunami Update

AFP is reporting at least 340 dead so far in the aftermath of the tsunami that hit Java yesterday with search operations ongoing. The count is likely to rise.

In a harrowing reminder of the 2004 disaster that left 220,000 dead across Asia, walls of water up to three metres (10 feet) high smashed ashore Monday, toppling buildings and sending thousands of terrified residents fleeing.

The tsunami was triggered by a 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake off the south coast of Java island, where no early warning system had yet been put in place and many residents had no inkling of the tragedy to come.

Saudi national Hamed Abukhamiss was among the survivors struggling to come to terms with losing loved ones, as he mourned his wife and three-year-old son.

Abukhamiss had been enjoying a drink at a beachside cafe in Pangandaran, one of Java's most beautiful and popular beaches, with his wife and two of his children, when they saw the tsunami approaching and tried to flee.

"My wife said, 'You take the girl, I'll take the boy!' Suddenly they were swept away by powerful water," he told AFP, choking back tears.

"At one point when I was underwater I told myself, that's it for me — but I didn't give up."

After combing through the wreckage of the pulverised beachfront, he found the lifeless body of his 30-year-old wife Sahar, smashed against a wall by their hire car as she still clutched the body of their three-year-old son.

"I don't know how I'm alive — it's a miracle," he said.

Agam, a blogger from Thailand has reports from closer to the scene:

This afternoon I'm seeing aerial video of the affected area, and the devastation (of what I presume is Pangandaran town) is just terrible. It's clear now that the choice of the word "tsunami" was not simply out of recent familiar use. It looks just like Aceh did, only on a smaller scale. A true tsunami wave it surely was, and as of this afternoon, it has claimed at least 339 lives. Tsunami warnings were actually issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, but there was no local system in place to transmit the warning to the affected area. The first wave struck land about one hour after the first quake. The yet unfinished nation-wide warning system is expected to be completed in 2009.

Besides the hundreds of local victims, foreign casualties include Pakistani, Dutch and American citizens staying at the resort area, according to MetroTV this evening. I am not impressed with Vice President Yusuf Kalla, as quoted by AP in the linked report.

Answering questions from reporters as to why no warning was issued, Vice President Jusuf Kalla claimed there was no need for one because most people fled inland after they felt the earthquake, fearing a tsunami.

"After the quake occurred, people ran to the hills so that is the reason the number of victims is not as great as in Aceh," he said in Jakarta. "So in actual fact there was a kind of natural early warning system."

The Indonesian government is playing Russian Roulette with the lives of it's citizens. Having no local system in place is inexcusable.

40-50% Destroyed

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that IDF estimates that 40-50% of Hezbollah's military capability has been destroyed so far. They are estimating another week will effectively finish Hezbollah as a military threat.

Forty to fifty percent of Hizbullah's military capability has been destroyed in the six days of the IDF counter-attack following last Wednesday's Hizbullah raid in northern Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The IDF, it is understood, believes it needs another week or so minimum to achieve its military goals in terms of alleviating Hizbullah's capacity to threaten Israel.

The IDF further believes, it is understood, that it will be given at least that long to continue its actions, in light of the G8 nations' essential support for Israel and those nations' branding Hizbullah and Hamas as being responsible for the current escalation.

While estimates of this kind can be somewhat optimistic, it is also quite probable that Israel had a lot of advance intelligence on targets.

UN Proposes Ceasefire

Ha'aretz is reporting that UN envoys have presented a ceasefire proposal to the Israeli government. It may include European peacekeepers under UN control. (Which I believe would be a complete waste of time, the UN's track record on peacekeeping being one of running rather than fighting when necessary).

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni hinted Tuesday that Israel would not object to a temporary international force in south Lebanon, despite earlier an outright Israeli rejection of such a plan.

Speaking after a meeting with a United Nations delegation headed by special envoy Vijay Nambiar, Livni said that while Israel would prefer the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south of the country, "we will consider other solutions put forward."

"If there is a need to strengthen the Lebanese army somehow, so that the military in south Lebanon is effective, and prevents Hezbollah from returning, we will consider ways to do achieve this," Livni said.

She stressed, however, that any solution would have to take into consideration Israel's ability to respond to any incidents in the future.

During the meeting with the UN delegates Tuesday, Livni stressed that the current UNIFIL force "is ineffective and irrelevant." The UN envoys put forward to Livni a package aimed at ending the fighting, based on an outline drawn up by the G8 leaders during their meeting in Russia on Monday.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also met with the UN team, despite saying previously that he would not do so.

The Israeli and UN teams disagreed over the order in which the steps should be implemented. According to the plan, the three soldiers abducted by Hezbollah and Hamas would be freed, rocket fire on Israel would end, Israel would halt its Air Force strikes on Lebanon and withdraw its troops from Gaza and the Hamas lawmakers.

Israel is demanding that the three soldiers be returned first, before the attacks on Lebanon stop.

That the Israelis did not reject the proposal out of hand should prove to it's critics that Israel is a civilized nation doing it's best against barbarians and cowards. You know, people who use human shields and rocket civilians. It will be interesting to see how Hezbollah reacts to this.

Thank You Sears

I know I've seen this information before, but my wife just sent me this email, so it gives me a chance to post about it. Many employers don't treat Reservists or National Guard members very well when they get called to active duty. Oh, they'll try to meet the minimum requirements that law calls for, but not one bit more. There is a glaring exception to that. Sears. Here's the email I just got:

Let's all shop at Sears!!!
I assume you have all seen the reports about how Sears is treating its
reservist employees who are called up? By law, they are required to hold
their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a
big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up… Sears is
voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all
benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called
up reservist employees for up to two years. I submit that Sears is an
exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its
contribution.

Suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them
why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement it well
deserves.

Pass it on.

So I decided to check it out before I sent it forward. I sent the
following email to the Sears Customer Service Department:

I received this email and I would like to know if it is true. If it is,
the Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement
for your store. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from
Sears instead of another store for a like item even if it was cheaper at
the other store.

Here is their answer to my email…………………

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting Sears

The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback. Sears
regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young
men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden
they bear at this time.

Bill Thorn
Sears Customer Care
webcenter@sears.com   
1-800-349-4358

Please pass this on to all your friends, Sears needs to be recognized
for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them, as
Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our
military!!!!!!!!!!!     It's Verified By Snope.com
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp

So I thought I'd pass that along for those who do not already know about it. Thank you, Sears.

Too Bad He’s Clueproofâ„¢

If Juan Cole wasn't an anti-Semite and a thoroughly Clueproof™ individual, Alexandra von Maltzan's post would leave a mark. But since his clue resistance is so high, he'll never notice. On the other hand, if he keeps writing, maybe enough people will catch on to his real agenda. That is hatred of Israel.

UPDATE: Tigerhawk is NOT impressed with Cole's post. At all.

Shrinking Into Oblivion

The New York Times just announced that it will shrink the amount of space they devote to anti-administration disinformation news by 5% by 2008. This is their way of cutting costs. Reduce the news content.

The New York Times is planning to reduce the size of the newspaper, making it narrower by one and a half inches, and to close its printing operation in Edison, N.J., company officials said yesterday.

….

The company said the changes would save about $42 million a year — $30 million by consolidating printing at College Point and $12 million by reducing the size of the paper. Leaving the Edison plant means the company can avoid about $50 million in capital improvements there, although it will spend about $150 million to combine the facilities in College Point and buy a new press.

The reduction in the size of The Times will mean a loss of 5 percent of the space the paper devotes to news. If the paper only reduced the size of its pages, it would lose 11 percent of that space, but Bill Keller, the paper’s executive editor, said such a loss would be too drastic, so the paper will add pages to make up for some of the loss.

“That’s a number that I think we can live with quite comfortably,” Mr. Keller said of the 5 percent reduction, adding that the smaller news space would require tighter editing and putting some news in digest form.

Keep shrinking the paper and soon it will disappear! What a great move for a news paper, cut the news. You know, the reason for your existence. It's leadership like this that helps confirm my confidence in my predictions about the Times.

Once again, Keller gone by the end of summer, Pinch gone at the next stockholder's meeting.

Talk About Dissonance

In a really bizarre case of cognitive dissonance, the student who wins a contest in Hungary about the history of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising will win a trip. To Russia.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - It may not seem an appropriate prize but schoolchildren with the best knowledge of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, which was crushed by Soviet tanks, will win a trip to Moscow, Hungary's education ministry said on Monday.

The school quiz called Freedom Fighter 1956, run by the ministry, will culminate in a final round on October 23 to coincide with the uprising's 50th anniversary.

"The winners will spend some of the trip in Moscow archives, where they will hear lectures on the history of 1956 based on original documents that can only be found there," ministry spokesman Bela Szabo said.

The runners-up will receive palm-top computers.

I'd be very interested to hear what one of my regular commenters who lives in Hungary, Roland, has to say about this.

More Monkey Business

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard remain firmly committed to bringing you all the latest news we can make up find on the Animal Uprising. Today is no exception. Once again, there is a report of monkeys doing recon on residential areas. This time it is in Wisconsin, an area not noted for it's large native monkey population.

PEWAUKEE, Wis. - A small monkey made its way into a woman's home but disappeared into a nearby marsh when an officer tried to corral it, authorities said Monday.

The monkey remained on the loose, said Det. Jake Bernotas of the Pewaukee Police Department.

Police were investigating a burglary when a woman in the same condominium complex reported that she saw a monkey in the rear of her residence.

She said she first heard a commotion around 3 a.m. Monday and thought it was a raccoon. Later that morning she heard a screeching so she pulled out binoculars and spotted the monkey.

I've got news for you, Ma'am. That monkey was looking at you. It's a peeping monkey! No word on whether the monkey might be this escapee. But we have our suspicions.

(Non) Equality

Jonathan Chait will, I suspect, be getting a huge dose of Lefty Love™ over this little piece in TNR's The Plank:

At Tapped, Matt Yglesias writes that Hezbollah's rocket strikes, as compared with Israel's bombing of Lebanon, are "equally indefensible." Equally? Hezbollah began the crisis with an act of war that included a cross-border incursion and a kidnapping. Israel retaliated by attacking the parts of Lebanon's infrastructure that could be used to spirit the kidnapped soldiers out of the country, and followed it up by trying to destroy Hezbollah's artillery. In so doing they made every effort to minimize civilian casualties, including dropping leaflets warning residents to leave the targetted areas. Hezbollah has been lobbing rockets in the general direction of Israeli cities with no intent other than to kill civilians.

Which is the point I have been making all along. However, Mr. Chait, as I can attest from some of my commenters here, you are dealing with the Clue Proof™ among those who cannot, or will not, see Israel's actions as anything but unacceptable.

Hezbollah hides it's rockets inside civilian homes, using the residents as human shields. That is a war crime. Hezbollah launches rockets against civilian targets. That is a war crime. When Israel hits the rocket stores, the places they are hidden are legitimate targets because the Hezbollah war crime made them so.

But that will not make a bit of difference to the amount of abuse Mr. Chait is in for.

Powerline Blog Of The Week

Many thanks to the folks over at Powerline for naming the humble Crabitat their Blog of the Week. Visitors, please do take a look around.

Calling Reserves

Israel is calling up three reserve battalions, infantry and engineers, to take the place of regular troops in several areas. The regulars will then move to assist in operations against Hezbollah.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz approved Monday night the draft of three reserve battalions – infantry and engineers. The forces will be drafted starting Tuesday morning and will replace regular forces in Judea and Samaria. The regular forces will help in the northern array.

As of today, infantry and engineer corps are operating to destroy Hizbullah outposts in the line of fire. Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky, revealed, in a Monday press conference at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, that in recent days, forces were operating in a ground offensive against Hizbullah outposts in Rajar village.

There were several exchanges of fire during the operation, which took place east of the Lebanese border. The forces entered the village and destroyed two of the organization's outposts. The outposts, in the northern part of Rajar (in Lebanese sovereign territory), constituted a constant threat to IDF forces in the southern part of Rajar, which is in sovereign Israeli territory. Rajar is a weak point in terms of security and has been the focus of many difficult confrontations. For example, in November 2005, a kidnapping attempt took place, which was foiled at the last minute by an Israeli sniper.

In the press conference, Kaplinsky also mentioned the IDF's hits on Hizbullah strongholds in the Dahiya neighborhood in Beirut. "This stroke was a destructive one, and this region, which was a symbol of Hizbullah, turned into an island of abandoned swords. Very few terrorists are still in the neighborhood."

This sounds like Israel is planning to hit Hezbollah even harder than they have been. Sending in Infantry is usually a sign that ground is to be held.

Culture Of Corruption

Perfidy, politics and projection. This one has it all, folks. Dirty election officials committing voter fraud and even going so far as to try to have a witness killed. It's that whole set of talking points (actually more like screaming and wailing points) from the Democrats.

Only it involves Missouri Democrats.

Sixteen, count 'em, sixteen, St. Louis, Missouri area Democrats have been convicted of election law violations since 2004. Whereupon, the squeaky-clean Democrats team up with the ACLU to block a requirement for photo ID's to vote.

I've said it repeatedly, anyone who is in favor of blocking requirements for positive ID when voting is in favor of vote fraud. Period. You can dress that particular duck up in anything you like, try to make it sound all high-minded and very self-righteous. At the end of the day it is still a duck. Requiring an ID to vote is common sense. Forbidding the use of IDs is voter fraud.

My thanks to Jim over at Gateway Pundit for his coverage on this. This is a local/statewide story that needs to be seen nationally.