Thousands rally against U.S. in Pakistan

[Roon]

INAYAT QALA, Pakistan - Thousands of angry Pakistanis protested Sunday against a U.S. airstrike that killed civilians, chanting "Long live Osama bin Laden!" as anti-American rallies in the country entered their second week.

About 5,000 demonstrators assembled on a dry riverbed in a mountain market town near the site of the Jan. 13 attack. Shouting pro-bin Laden, anti-American slogans, they burned effigies of U.S. President George W. Bush.

The rally was the latest in a series of protests over the missile strike on the village of Damadola, near the border, which was believed to have targeted but missed al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10972951/

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. I'll bet they left their flowers and candy at home.... nt.

[VegasWolf]

2. Having your children blown into little itty bitty bits tends to heat up

people's emotions.

[rodeodance]

4. classic example of Rouge State--it is what what we 'do' to them--not that

they hate our freedoma--that simple minded mantra mantraed by Jr almost every time he opens his mouth.

[ellenfl]

6. rouge state! that means 'red state'. i think you meant 'rogue'. eom

[uppityperson]

5. but but but what about all those soccer balls they gave out?

Mr.bush is doing more to hurt our country than anyone has

[thefloyd]

3. Wolf Blitzer spoke with Pakistan PM on Late Edition

Stated United States reportedly killing Terroist operatives "Bizzare". No evidence any terrorist was there whatsoever

http://tinyurl.com/7hpxq

[rodeodance]

7. Sympathy for al-Qaida Surges in Pakistan (air strike)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060122/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_al_qaida_attack&printer=1;_ylt=Al_wOCzjJ7a6M6DvyPzWHvn9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Sympathy for al-Qaida Surges in Pakistan

By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press WriterSun Jan 22, 3:37 PM ET

Sympathy for al-Qaida has surged after a U.S. airstrike devastated this remote mountain hamlet in a region sometimes as hostile toward the Pakistani government as it is to the United States.

A week after the attack, villagers insist no members of the terror network were anywhere near the border village when it was hit. But thousands of protesters flooded a nearby town chanting, "Long live Osama bin Laden!"

Pakistan's army, in charge of hunting militants, was nowhere to be seen.
........


"This attack has increased our hatred for Americans because they are killing innocent women and children," said Zakir Ullah, one of 5,000 demonstrators in Inayat Qala, a market town about three miles from Damadola.

[Bluzmann57]

8. Boy now there's some great news!

The very terrorists who we want to wipe out are gaining popularity throughout the Arab world because of some insane bombings which did not net the guy we were looking for, but instead killed innocent people. Way to go bushies. Thanks for making the world "safer".

[jobycom]

9. How to win enemies and piss off friends. The Bush method.

[msatty99]

10. No doubt this is true... and I like the fact that Cheney's first reply to

the OBL statement was to shoot off his mouth ...the tough guy..
'we don't negotiate with terrorists..we put them out of business.'

What a moron. Assuming that is true (it isn't ...witness the release of
iraqui women prisoners as a coincidence to the effort to free Jill Carroll.)..any way, even if our answer was "HELL NO" to the 'Truce' offer, what in the F is Cheney out in public with it immediately?

OBL says he is gonna attack us in the USA in response to Bush's statement, "we are fight'n terra over there and that's better than
figt'n terra over here' JEESH. More "bring it on" machismo.

But shouldn't Cheney just shut the f up? Then at least he deprives
OBL the political capitol of saying to the irate islam world "see, I
told you those heathen yankee satans won't listen to reason.'

If tough guy (five deferrments) Dick could just keep his mouth shut.

[saigon68]

21. He'll always be DRAFT DODGER CHENEY to all of us who went

The fact he wants to kill our children in his "Oily Halliburton War for Profit"---Pisses us all off greatly

[uppityperson]

11. He's a Uniter, not a divider alright.

heck of a job

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

12. but but

It's hard work! :sarcasm:

[rodeodance]

13. "Taliban-style radicals are gaining strength along Pakistan's border" --

......Many of Sunday's protesters called for Musharraf's resignation.

"As a president he has failed to protect the people and as chief of the army staff he has failed to protect the frontiers," said Maulana Mohammed Sadiq, a lawmaker in the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, which helped organize the rallies.

In a show of solidarity, the opposition Jamaat Islami, or Islamic Party, marshaled 50 volunteers Sunday to help the village rebuild.

Taliban-style radicals are gaining strength along Pakistan's border partly because they intimidate anyone who disagrees, said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general.

[Igel]

14. This is a stronghold of pashtunwali and the MMA

reigns supreme here. It's the FATA, and all that usually entails.

It's MMA territory, the group that believes that the worse examples of shari'a and pushtunwali are the Word of Allah, and have no problem leveraging that for political gain. After all, their Islam is triumphalist, narrow-minded, and medieval, so that's expected. Deobandism and Wahhabism have many overlapping traits. The MMA--which is to say, their clerics--says "jump" and most of the men submissively ask "how high" only after they've left the ground. Their petty idols say somebody's good, and that's the end of the dispute; anything Islamist (the founders of Deobandism and Wahhabism would have fought like tigers, since they were so similar) is good, and anything Muslim is always better than anything non-Muslims. Think honor-based society, with honor invested in Islam. After all, they have little else going for them.

It's also strongly xenophobic territory. A family member is first loyal to family, then to clan, then to tribe, then to ethnicity, then to other relevant grouping. Outsiders, unless taken in as guests, are trash, and then they're treated as family. Those killed were Pashtun, and probably Bajuri, like those in this town. Those who killed them are blood enemies, by default. It doesn't matter *why* they were killed, even if pashtunwali and shari'a were to say they're guilty and deserve death: it's humiliating to have an outsider enforce the provision without tribal elder permission, and that humiliation has to be redeemed, by whatever means are licensed by pushtunwali and shari'a. Having your 10-year-old daughter raped by a group of 60-somethings because she trivially transgressed the traditional code of honor--or even because her brother or male cousin transgressed the code of honor--is ok there, if the elders say so. Blood is cheap, the death penalty is a way of life, and holds not just for the guilty, but communally, for any random member of the offending group. The Pakistani army, after 40 years, finally tried to establish a presence there: it's Pakistani in name only, since Pakistani authority and law only marginally extends to the FATA. They had the same success the US army's had in Anbar province in Iraq.

[Moderator]

15. kick

[54anickel]

16. Sympathy for al-Qaeda rises after airstrike

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/01/24/2003290499

Sympathy for al-Qaeda has surged after a US airstrike devastated a remote mountain hamlet in a border region sometimes as hostile toward the Pakistani government as it is to the US.

A week after the attack in Damadola, near the Afghan border, villagers insist no members of the terror network were anywhere near the border village when it was hit. But thousands of protesters flooded a nearby town chanting, "Long live Osama bin Laden!"

Pakistan's army, in charge of hunting militants, was nowhere to be seen.

The rally was the latest in a series of demonstrations across Pakistan against the Jan. 13 attack, which apparently targeted but missed al-Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri.

The military still mans numerous checkpoints in the area, but it appears to be keeping a low profile so it will not inflame villagers still seething over the deaths of 13 civilians, including women and children, in the attack.

more...


Pakistanis Stopped From Protesting U.S.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1532298

YUKKA GHUND, Pakistan Jan 23, 2006 — Pakistani security forces on Monday stopped hundreds of hard-line Islamists from heading to northwestern Pakistan to protest against a fatal U.S. missile attack, the first time authorities have tried to quell mounting anti-American sentiments.

The convoy of 2,000 protesters, led by senior politicians from an opposition religious coalition, was heading to Damadola to protest the Jan. 13 attack that targeted top al-Qaida leaders but also killed 13 civilians outraging many in this Islamic nation.

Hundreds of armed local police erected barricades at Yukka Ghund, a town about 20 miles from Damadola, and blocked the convoy which had set off earlier from the capital Islamabad, gathering strength along the way.

snip>

Also Monday, lawmakers in northwestern Pakistan demanded the government expel U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker in response to the airstrike. But the unanimous resolution by the provincial assembly was unlikely to sway the federal government.

more...

[UpInArms]

17. The Great Hearts and Minds Campaign blunders onward ... eom

[Lori Price CLG]

18. Kicked, and recommended for 'Greatest' page. n/t

[HuffleClaw]

19. GW is CREATING new 'enemies' daily with this crap

and yet STILL spouts his rhetoric. it boggles the mind. does he not get it? 3000 americans were killed on 911 and the public cried for blood. THEY'VE killed tens of thousands over there. does it not occur to them that for every dead iraqi (and now, pakistani) that there are dozens who will be just as outraged as americans were on 911?

[lovuian]

20. Well I have NO SYMPATHY for them and Bush either

cause he's making it harder for our soldiers riling up the natives ...