Heartbreaking: Taliban 'Mad' Over Airstrike

I figure if they're upset, we ought to really give them something to get mad about. This is a good sign, as it likely means a big fish has been vaporized.

The Taliban are unusually angry about the latest suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan, a sign a top militant may have died in the attack, officials and residents said Sunday amid reports the death toll rose by two to 24.

Elsewhere in Pakistan's northwest, an official said some 15,000 Afghans had left a tribal region the military is trying to wrest from insurgents, but that tens of thousands more had yet to meet a government ultimatum to get out by Sunday.

The U.S. has ramped up cross-border strikes on alleged al-Qaida and Taliban targets along Pakistan's side of the border with Afghanistan, straining the two nations' anti-terror alliance.

The U.S. says pockets of Pakistan's border region, especially in its semi-autonomous tribal areas, are bases for militants attacking American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. It has pushed nuclear-armed Pakistan to eliminate the safe havens.

The frontier region is believed to be a possible hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, and several Arab militants were said to be among the dead in Friday's strike in North Waziristan tribal region.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials said that over the weekend two people wounded in the attack died at a hospital in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. The officials sought anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

Based on information from informants and agents in the field, the intelligence officials said the Taliban appeared extra-perturbed over the latest strike. The anger was a signal that a senior militant may have been killed, but that has yet to be confirmed, the officials said.

The insurgents were moving aggressively in the area while using harsh language against locals, including calling them "saleable commodities" — a reference to people serving as government spies, the officials said.

Two local residents said Taliban fighters had warned people not to discuss the strike, including with the media, or to try inspecting the rubble at the site. The residents asked not to be named for fear of Taliban retaliation.

More here.

Are You Ready for the Second World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance?

I had completely forgotten the original farce that took place back in early September 2001, as events that followed shortly thereafter obviously overshadowed the travesty that took place in Durban, South Africa.

Well, a second seethefest is on the horizon.

The U.N. 2001 anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa, provoked a walkout by the United States and Israel, with both nations saying it had been overtaken by anti-Semitism and some in Congress claiming it had cemented the world body's shame in the eyes of America.

The mandate for a Durban II conference early next year now worries organizers and diplomats at the United Nations, who fear the event will be a reprise.

Canada plans to boycott the event, and the United States and Israel have one foot out the door. Even the 27-nation European Union, which made it through the last conference, said it is worried.

"We did contemplate not participating," said a French diplomat, whose country presides over the European Union the second half of this year.

"But we will go and fight for the agenda and the resolution that will be passed," said the diplomat, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak for attribution.

Concern stems not only from the 2001 event, which concluded days before the Sept. 11 attacks, but also because a Libyan diplomat now chairs the U.N. Human Rights Council, which will play a prominent role in the conference.

Check out the IRNA account. All Zionist, all the time.

The most contentious deliberations by far were among the nongovernmental organizations (NGO), whose delegates met separately from diplomats to hammer out their own declarations.

The NGO document, which was never formally released by the United Nations, declared that Zionism equals racism and condemned Israel for committing a "holocaust" against its Palestinian neighbors.

Now just who is on the esteemed advisory panel?

The advisory panel includes Iran, Pakistan, Libya and Cuba.

No doubt the United States and Israel will get a fair hearing there.

We should have our heads examined if we even consider attending this charade a second time.