Author: R J Adams

It’s hardly news to announce two cars bombs were found on London streets today. Virtually everyone in the western hemisphere must be aware of it by now. Neither exploded, no-one was injured, though motorists were “inconvenienced” by road closures as police searched for evidence of the perpetrators.

The ‘car bombs story’ was led by the BBC; twenty of its allotted thirty minutes were spent dissecting the event and its potential consequences. NBC News also led with the story and covered it in depth. CNN spent much of the day analyzing and theorizing about it.

No-one was killed. No-one was injured. Motorists were “inconvenienced”.

In Iraq today:

1. a mortar attack killed four civilians and injured ten in Baghdad.
2. the US military killed a civilian in Baghdad.
3. gunmen executed one man and three women, one of whom was pregnant.
4. a further seven dead bodies were found in Baghdad.
5. in the Askari district of Diyala Province, gunmen bombed the Khalil al-Saleh mosque, which totally collapsed.
6. in Haswa, a bomb exploded under a pipeline causing a huge oil fire.
7. in Kut, a woman was injured by a roadside bomb.
8. in Kut, the body of a university lecturer was found, one day after he was kidnapped.
9. in Kut, a roadside bomb went off near the al-Zahraa public hospital.
10. in Basra, all British bases came under attack from mortars and rockets.
11. in Balad, three unidentified bodies were found with gunshot wounds.
12. in Tikrit, a roadside bomb was detonated injuring three civilians.
13. in Mishada, a suicide car bomber blew himself up destroying an Iraqi army post. Casualties unknown.
14. in Kirkuk, an Iraqi policeman was killed by an unknown gunman.
15. in Kirkuk, in a separate incident, another Iraqi policeman was seriously injured by an unknown gunman.
16. in Kirkuk, a civilian Iraqi was shot and seriously injured by a group of unknown gunmen in a car.
17. in Kirkuk, gunmen kidnapped four Iraqi civilians and took them to an unknown place.

Today was a quiet day in Iraq, which is probably why the western media decided nothing was newsworthy.

Or, is it that we consider our safety and our “inconvenience” a damned sight more important than the suffering of a load of Arab foreigners?

Filed under: Priorities

Once again blogging pal Al Devito at Vineyard Views has come up trumps with a short item revealing that Amnesty International claims the CIA is holding the sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Yousef al-Khalid and Abed al-Khalid were nine and seven years old respectively when they were initially captured by Pakistani forces in 2002, but were flown to a secret address in the US in September 2003, according to a report of the time in the British newspaper, Daily Telegraph.

According to Amnesty International:

“In September 2002, Yusuf al-Khalid (then nine years old) and Abed al-Khalid (then seven years old) were reportedly apprehended by Pakistani security forces during an attempted capture of their father, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was successfully apprehended several months later, and the U.S. government has acknowledged that he was in the U.S. Secret Detention Program. He is presently held at Guantánamo Bay. In an April 16, 2007 statement, Ali Khan (father of Majid Khan, a detainee who the U.S. government has acknowledged was in the U.S. Secret Detention Program and is presently held at Guantánamo Bay) indicated that Yusef and Abed al-Khalid had been held in the same location in which Majid Khan and Majid’s brother Mohammed were detained in March/April 2003. Mohammed was detained by Pakistani officials for approximately one month after his apprehension on March 5, 2003 ………. Ali Khan’s statement indicates that:

Also according to Mohammed, he and Majid were detained in the same place where two of Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s young children, ages about 6 and 8, were held. The Pakistani guards told my son that the boys were kept in a separate area upstairs, and were denied food and water by other guards. They were also mentally tortured by having ants or other creatures put on their legs to scare them and get them to say where their father was hiding.

After Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s arrest in March 2003, Yusuf and Abed Al Khalid were reportedly transferred out of Pakistan in U.S. custody. The children were allegedly being sent for questioning about their father’s activities and to be used by the United States as leverage to force their father to co-operate with the United States. A press report on March 10, 2003 confirmed that CIA interrogators had detained the children and that one official explained that:

“We are handling them with kid gloves. After all, they are only little children…but we need to know as much about their father’s recent activities as possible. We have child psychologists on hand at all times and they are given the best of care.”

Yusef and Abed are now fourteen and twelve years respectively. Where are they? Are they still being held by the CIA? Have they been returned to their mother in Pakistan?

No-one seems to have answers to those questions. Or, if they have, they’re choosing not to reveal them.

In a so-called “civilized society”, it is unacceptable to use and abuse young children to obtain information about a parent.

In the case of Yusef and Abed Al Khalid it would seem America is happy to conform to Exodus 20:v5 and visit the iniquities of the father upon the children.

Filed under: Child abuse

Unlike many bloggers today, Sparrow Chat refuses to be drawn into the petty furor surrounding Ann Coulter and the Edwards family. This blog is concerned with real issues that should matter to everyone, Americans and non-Americans alike.

The spoiled brats of this world, most of whom appear to originate in this nation, such as Coulter and Limbaugh, have no interest in intellectual discussion. Their sole raison d’etre is to publicize themselves. They are egos desperate for the limelight. Their deepest fear is of being ignored.

Of far greater interest is the case of Mary Lou Robles, an Arizona lady who works in the snack bar of a Californian prison. Last week, Mary Lou Robles sliced a watermelon in two and discovered the Virgin Mary hiding inside.

Mary’s family (not the Virgin’s) immediately recognized who it was when they were shown the watermelon. Her co-workers, however, skeptics to the core, laughed and told her to throw it away.

Close scrutiny of the fruit definitely indicates a figure of some sort embedded in the flesh, although it’s somewhat difficult to recognize the Virgin Mary. Of course, no photographs of the lady being available means her appearance is open to speculation.

But wait! With the help of a magnifying glass and…..yes, I do believe……no, Mary Lou I’m afraid you’re wrong. It’s not the Virgin Mary at all. What threw me was the lack of halo, but it’s definitely no virgin.

If I’m not mistaken, the woman in the watermelon is none other than……Ann Coulter!”

Anyone else out there see the resemblance?

Well, hey! Come on! I have it on good authority that cow’s no virgin either.

For the story of Mary Lou Robles click HERE.

Anyone wishing a reference link to Ann Coulter won’t find it on this blog, but for those who need it, a tale of some other Americans with similarly bad taste is available HERE.

Filed under: Melted assets