Lending A Hand - Part Two

Yesterday we brought you the heartwarming tale of Freddy, a severed human hand kept in a jar of formaldehyde on a dresser in a bedroom. Said bedroom belonged to an exotic dancer who also kept six human skulls scattered about the house. Well, the tale just keeps going.

After being released on $100,000 bail, Linda Kay failed to show up in court for her arraignment. The judge has revoked bail and issued a warrant for Ms. Kay's arrest. (Don't miss the mugshot picture. She looks like a barrel of laughs in it.)

Linda Kay, 31, faces charges of improperly disposing of human remains.

She was arrested Friday and freed on $100,000 bail pending her Wednesday morning arraignment. When she didn't show up for court, the judge revoked her bail and issued an arrest warrant.

Friends say the hand, whom Kay nicknamed "Freddy," was a gift from a medical student who frequented the all-nude juice bar where Kay dances. Kay's mother told The Star-Ledger of Newark she believed the skulls were bought from a mail-order catalog.

Here's an update from the Newark Star-Ledger as well. It would appear that Ms. Kay has not had a lawyer filing papers or anything, either. This would appear to be getting a bit murky. Or murkier, as the case may be.

100+ Rockets Fall

Ha'aretz is reporting that more than 100 rockets have landed inside Israel today.

Four people were wounded Wednesday, one seriously and the rest lightly, as more than 100 rockets slammed into northern Israel. Another 14 people were treated for shock.

Two people were wounded by shrapnel while driving in a Haifa suburb, one of them seriously. Another two were hurt Wednesday afternoon in Ma'alot.

The Israel Defense Forces said that 119 rockets had been launched at Israel on Wednesday.

A barrage of rockets was fired at the Galilee and Kiryat Shmona. Dozens more struck the Haifa suburbs, Tiberias, Safed, Carmiel, the village of Jish and the Hula Valley during the day.

In the Haifa suburbs, one of the rockets started a small fire.

90 rockets fired Tuesday
On Tuesday, a teenage girl was killed and 20 others were wounded as Hezbollah renewed its bombardment of communities across northern Israel, launching an estimated 90 rockets.

One wonders how long it takes for counter-battery fire to land once the terrorists launch a rocket. I would guess it is not healthy to stay in the vicinity of a launch point after lighting off the rocket. One also wonders if the intensity of the rocket barrage right now indicates strength or desperation? Given that Hezbollah has seen fit to try to get the Washington Post to act as a mouthpiece for their "peace" proposals, I'm guessing the latter and not the former.

UPDATE: The count is now over 120 for the day.

Al Jazeera.Info Endorses Democrats!

Here's an endorsement I'll bet the Democrats really don't want. Al Jazeera, serial apologist for Jihadis everywhere, A site called al Jazeera.info* comes out strongly urging people to vote Democrat.  

Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) remarks at the National Press Club on Wednesday July 19th 2006 calling for regime change in Iran and described "Islamic fascism" as the "great test" of this generation, as threatening to the United States as last century's German Nazism and Soviet communism was inappropriate. These prejudicial remarks were derogatory, and highly unbecoming for a member of US senate. The Senator rhetoric in a public forum demeans both himself and the party he represents, particularly at a time when entire Middle East is in turmoil. Muslim of Lehigh Valley strongly condemned Senator remarks outrageous, inflammatory and un-American.

The Senator should know that extremists come in all faiths, and do not reflect the values and beliefs of the vast majority of the members of the religious groups to which they belong. The Senator's inflammatory comments do nothing to advance America's role in the world as the leading voice for tolerance and religious freedom and should be soundly condemned as election rhetoric and appeasing the neo-conservatives and American extremism ("millennial" or end-time Christians and Zionist zealots).

True to form, Senator Santorum has crossed the line and shows his clear hatred of Muslims. It is irresponsible that such comments are coming from someone who self-righteously claims to be holier than thou. Elected officials should be a voice of moderation and peace, not a voice of hatred and violence. America's image is damaged by such inciting and irresponsible rhetoric, at a time when we are trying to demand that other countries challenge their own religious extremists. All religious and political leaders should project true American values of tolerance and pluralism by condemning Senators remarks and his hate speech at National Press club.

Except, of course, that Santorum clearly did differentiate and singled out Islamic fascism, not all Muslims. So the author of this piece chooses to interpret that remark as pertaining to all Muslims? Who is the extremist here? But the part that I'm sure has Democratic strategists tickled pink:

By associating the words "Fascism" with the Islam is to instill fear and by not acknowledging that a political agenda is not the same thing as a belief system, Senator Santorum invoked the oldest and the strongest kind of human fear — fear of the unknown. Zionist and the pro-Israel lobby continue to instill fear in Americans by escalating unsubstantiated threats against them and fabricating a vast web of lies to justify their actions against Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. By instilling fear of orange and red alerts we Americans have witnessed increased government intrusion into our daily lives and the erosion of our basic rights and freedoms.

Don’t ask Santorum to “apologize,” folks. Vote Democratic.

Santorum did not hang the tag on all Muslims. The author of this piece did, though. I personally wouldn't want the endorsement of al Jazeera if I were running for elected office. I wonder how happy Santorum's opponent is right now?

Not very, I bet.

UPDATE: Sorry, I jumped to a conclusion there, the site is not the al Jazeera television network, but another site altogether. Still not an endorsement I'd crave judging by their other content.

Some Background On UN Peacekeepers

Wretchard at the Belmont Club has a very detailed account of the activities of the UN peacekeepers in Souther Lebanon. Using the UN's own reports he shows what is going on there right now.

All the incidents of IDF fire reported in the press releases are clearly related to some kind of nearby combat with the Hezbollah. In one case the IDF fired on a village into which the UNIFIL had gone, but rockets had originated from the vicinity of the village prior. In another case, an Israeli aerial bombardment detonated mines all around a UNIFIL position. Those mines were presumably not planted by UNIFIL, but they were so close to it that the UN position caught fire. The UN observation post in Maroun al-Ras was hit by artillery, but we know from press reports that Maroun al-Ras was the epicenter of heavy fighting and the location of a Hezbollah bunker complex. The UN even ran a convoy from the Hezbollah "capital" of  Bint Jubayl to another area. Bint Jubayl is well known to be the target of an IDF attack. Yet the UN felt that it was possible to move convoys through such areas, albeit at considerable danger.

One reason that they could was that UNIFIL was evidently in contact with the IDF. In a sentence which speaks volumes we learn that "One unarmed UN military observer, a member of the Observer Group Lebanon (OGL), was seriously wounded by small arms fire in the patrol base in the Marun Al Ras area yesterday afternoon. According to preliminary reports, the fire originated from the Hezbollah side during an exchange with the IDF. He was evacuated by the UN to the Israeli side, from where he was taken by an IDF ambulance helicopter to a hospital in Haifa." This strongly implies that UNFIL was able to coordinate their movements with the IDF and that the IDF was willing to risk men and aircraft to help UNFIL.

Read the whole thing. It is important to understand the situation over there right now before the head of the UN makes irresponsible charges.

More On UN Peacekeepers

Ha'aretz is reporting that Israel has committed itself to a full investigation into the deaths of four UN peacekeepers. They have also registered official protests to Kofi Annan's irresponsible remarks.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday that he has instructed the military to carry out a thorough investigation into an Israel Air Force strike on a UN base in southern Lebanon, in which four peacekeepers were killed.

He told Annan that the results would be shared with him.

Israel said Wednesday that it regrets the "tragic" deaths of the observers and will thoroughly investigate the circumstances that led to their deaths.

"Israel sincerely regrets the tragic deaths of the UN personnel in south Lebanon," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.

Annan had earlier called for an inquiry into what he called Israel's "apparently deliberate targeting" of the UN observer force.

Olmert expressed dismay over Annan's comments. "It's inconceivable for the UN to define an error as an apparently deliberate action," the statement said.

Dan Ayalon, Israel's Ambassador to Washington, demanded that Annan apologize for the remarks, which he called "baseless."

Olmert said he had spoken to Annan to express "deep sorrow" over the deaths.

The victims included observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, UN and Lebanese military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media.

The four observers were killed after a bomb directly struck the building and shelter of an Indian patrol base from an observer force in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL.

"There are casualties among the observers. UNIFIL immediately dispatched a rescue and medical team and they're currently on the location but unable to clear the rubble," Struger said.

At UN headquarters in New York, Annan said he was "trying to get the details" of the attack.

Annan said there were 14 other incidents of Israeli gunfire directed at the targeted area Tuesday afternoon. "The firing continued even during the rescue operation," he said.

Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman expressed his "deep regret" for the deaths and denied Israel hit the post intentionally.

Gillerman said he was "shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement of the secretary-general, insinuating that Israel has deliberately targeted the UN post," calling the assertions "premature and erroneous."

He said Olmert's assurances to the secretary-general are "a clear indication" of Israel's commitment to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel.

Gillerman said "Israel is carrying out a thorough inquiry into this tragic incident and will inform the UN of its results as soon as possible."

The UN Security Council was expected to receive a briefing on the bombing on Wednesday.

As I said earlier, Annan's remarks are completely out of line unless he has irrefutable proof in hand. Which he frankly cannot have until an investigation is completed.

UPDATE: The Jerusalem Post reports that a UN source is alleging that the Israelis used a precision guided missile to hit the bunker.

 UN military personnel on the ground along the Israel-Lebanon border say the munitions that hit the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) position early Wednesday were precision-guided, a UN source told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

Furthermore, the source added, the strike came after repeated requests by UNTSO commanders to the IDF not to strike that specific position.
The IDF spokesman told The Jerusalem Post that the army was looking into the allegations and that it deeply regretted the "tragic death" of the UN personnel.

UNTSO was the first peacekeeping mission established by the UN.

"Very senior and experienced military personnel report that the UN position was hit by a precision-guided missile. This attack comes at a time when the international community is in discussions with countries about donating troops to form a new force [to send to south Lebanon]. This attack plays very badly into that. At the same time as donor countries have to justify to their electorate the idea of sending their sons to this region to put their lives on the line, Israel blows up a UN observation position and kills four of its personnel," the source said, adding that Israel was "shooting itself in the foot, and sending a very bad signal" to the international community.

"At a time when [United Nations humanitarian chief Jan] Egeland is trying to establish a humanitarian aid corridor to Lebanon, the situation on the ground could turn catastrophic if soldiers on the ground are not clearly instructed not to do things like this. The UN is delighted that the Israeli government has launched an investigation into this incident and awaits the findings of the probe," the source said.

This is a situation where it will be necessary to wait for investigations to be completed before rushing to judgement.

This is a situation where it will be necessary to wait for investigations to be completed before rushing to judgement.

UPDATE: See also The Real Ugly American and Flopping Aces.

AP Morning Lebanon Roundup

The AP provides a sort of an omnibus morning roundup of a number of different developments in Lebanon. They are reporting that 12 Israel soldiers have died in ground fighting and on a number of other events since yesterday.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli troops as they battled for a key hilltop town in southern Lebanon for a fourth day Wednesday, with at least 12 soldiers reported killed. Israel has faced fiercer resistance than expected as it advances across the border in its campaign against the Islamic militant group.

Meanwhile, Lebanese officials confirmed that four U.N. observers were killed when an Israeli airstrike struck their post the night before.

Also Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the country is seeking to establish a 1.2-mile-wide strip in southern Lebanon that will be free of Hezbollah guerrillas. It was the first time Israel had given the dimensions of its new "security zone."

The fighting came a day after Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel plans to maintain a security zone in the south until either a multinational force is deployed or Hezbollah is pushed back in a cease-fire agreement that also cuts off the supply of its weapons.

Peretz indicated that troops would try to control such a zone from a distance, by artillery fire and airstrikes, rather than patrolling south Lebanon. The remarks were the first indication of the possibility of a longer Israeli involvement than previously had been raised by officials wary of public anger over its 18-year occupation of the area that ended in 2000.

Olmert told a parliament committee Wednesday that Israel will not reoccupy any part of southern Lebanon, participants said, apparently to reassure lawmakers and the public that troops will not return to Lebanon permanently.

I'm still looking for more morning detailed reports, but this is a good general overview.

Isn’t It Time?

Isn't it about time for the left to kick Joe Wilson to the curb? Hasn't he caused them enough embarrassment yet? Christopher Hitchens has what has to be the final nail in the coffin in an article at Slate that quotes two international experts with credentials Wilson can't even begin to approach. Both are saying quite clearly that Wilson is either a fool or a liar. Or both.

I shall quote here, with his permission, from a letter I have received from Ambassador Rolf Ekeus. Ambassador Ekeus, currently high commissioner for national minority questions for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, is a founder of the renowned Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, has been Sweden's envoy both to the United Nations and the United States, and won great acclaim for his effective defanging of Iraq when he was the first chairman of UNSCOM after the first Gulf War in 1992. (When it was proposed 10 years later that the U.N. inspectors be sent back to Iraq, Kofi Annan actually renominated Ekeus for the job but was overruled by France and Russia, who wanted the more conciliatory Hans Blix.) Ekeus writes to me as follows, having known Zahawie in a professional capacity and having read the, apparently from him, in Slate's "Fray":

One of my colleagues remembers Zahawie as Iraq's delegate to the IAEA General Conference during the years 1982-84. One item on the agenda was the diplomatic and political fall-out of Israel's destruction of the Osirak reactor (a centerpiece of Iraq's nuclear weapons ambitions). Zahawie in his response [to Slate] appears to confirm that he was Iraq's delegate, though not the Permanent delegate, to the IAEA (the General Conference) and therefore clearly not foreign to the nuclear issues, especially as he was the under-secretary of the foreign ministry selected by Baghdad to represent Iraq on the most sensitive issue, the question of Iraq's nuclear weapons ambitions. His participation as leader of the Iraqi delegation to the 1995 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference merely confirms his standing as Iraq's top negotiator on nuclear weapons issues. [italics mine]

And then another expert:

Let me now introduce a second corroborative witness, whose acknowledged expertise in the field is hardly less than that of Ekeus. Thérèse Delpech is the director for strategic studies at the French Atomic Energy Commission and also a senior research fellow at CERI, the Center for International Studies and Research, at Sciences-Po, the national political-science university in Paris. Until fairly recently, she was also a board member of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission chaired by Hans Blix. She has since resigned from this body. According to a letter from her to me, at a meeting of the WMDC in Cairo in February 2005, Wissam Zahawie attended one closed session of the commission. Delpech:

asked the Chair [Blix] to get him out of the room in the following ten minutes if he wanted me to stay. This was done in writing (a note). Since this was not done, I left the room myself. The intervention of another member was then necessary to have him out at the coffee break. In my letter of resignation, I have indicated to Hans Blix that this incident was one of the three reasons for my resignation.

When I asked her on the telephone why she reacted so strongly to Zahawie's presence, Delpech told me that she had been the adviser to the French envoy to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty "extension conference" at the United Nations in New York in 1995 and had recognized Saddam's ambassador to the Vatican. She commented dryly that "the French ambassador to the Holy See does not go on official visits to West Africa." When I told her of Zahawie's claim that he didn't know Niger made and exported uranium yellowcake and described this claim as "unlikely to be true," she responded that " 'unlikely to be true' is a very British understatement."

Read the whole thing. Then decide if it's time for Wilson to just go away.

The Saga Of The Digital Brownshirts

George over at Seixon has been getting a whole bunch of really bad experiences all having to do the Jason Leopold and Larry Johnson. (I did a little bit of humor about it here). But I don't think George is laughing right now. Frankly, I'd be looking to get a lawyer right now and be looking into suing heck out of Johnson and Leopold. Both have crossed lines, I think, but Johnson is particularly wrong here.

Johnson laced the email, to a personal account of mine which I do not usually give out and which is not available through Google, with personal details about my family and me. Just like Leopold had done, Johnson repeated my mother’s name, my parents’ address, and even my birth month and year. Obviously Johnson thought this would freak me out and scare me into retracting everything. He concluded the email with:

I am willing to accept a written apology and move on. If you refuse to retract your statements about me I am prepared to ratchet this up several levels. I have not spent the last twenty years working with the U.S. military and the intelligence community to accept this kind of nonsense from a wet-nosed 24 year old coward, who is an armchair warrior but does not have the courage to enlist in the military when his country is at war.

Is that a threat, Mr. Johnson? After I responded, he fired back with this:

I know where you are living. You forget that I do work for the European Union and friends in Interpol. I've offered you a mature way to deal with this situation. You're obviously too immature and inexperienced to recognize the offer for what it is. Too bad.

Is Larry Johnson using his law enforcement contacts to dig up information on me to intimidate me into retracting uncomfortable facts about his involvement with peddling false allegations against a commenter at my blog? Sheesh. So who was the one who dug up everything? Was it John Dean? Was it Leopold? Was it Johnson? Obviously Johnson has the most resources to do such things, as he so aptly says himself.

Trying to scare someone by lacing an email filled with personal details about them and their family is a “mature” way of handling business?

About the time someone starts making veiled threats like Johnson has is about the time to get the authorities and the lawyers involved. Those who can, do. Those who are dangerous windbags, threaten.

UPDATE: Allah has the links. Seixon received a death threat overnight.

UPDATE: Typos corrected, Seixon spelled properly now. Thanks Crosspatch.