The Skeptic الشكاك

501 Terrorism, Counterterrorism

Too important not to note:

The blasts in Algeria yesterday, blasts which caught a school bus, killed at least 77 people, and destroyed a UN compound. Adding insult to injury (and death), these murderous dogs sound like parodies of themselves:

In a detailed Internet statement, the group identified two “martyrs” who detonated vehicles loaded with explosives outside the court building and “the headquarters of the international infidels’ den,” a reference to the U.N. offices. [WaPo. Domestic, Algerian coverage here.]

François al-Hajj, the Lebanese Army’s chief of operations, was killed, along with three other people, in a bomb attack outside of Beirut today. He was tipped to have been chief of the armed forces if Gen. Michel Suleiman becomes president.

A triple car bombing in the southern Iraqi city of Amara killed at least 40 people today.

Human Rights Watch yesterday released a damning report casting serious doubt on the 2006 “Victorious Sect” arrests here in Egypt. “Beyond coerced confessions, there appears to be no compelling evidence to support the government’s dramatic claims,” HRW said.

On the eve of peace talks, Israeli tanks attacked Gaza yesterday, killing at least six Palestinians. The Palestinians said the attacks, and new Israeli settlements planned for East Jerusalem, were an attempt to disrupt the peace talks. The Israelis said the attacks were routine, as if that were somehow better.

Lastly, and much less importantly, I must confess I’m still thinking about robots. The product of too much time and too little sleep, no doubt. At the risk of further damaging my credibility, I can’t resist passing along this 75-year-old editorial about an inventor shot by his robot, which appeared on one of my favorite blogs, Paleo-Future, today.

1 Comment »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

1. I want to comment on the “Israeli part” of your post.
   As a Blogger, you are not committed to ethical journalism.
   Dont get the wrong impression, I’m not saying you’re unethical, since you are in my opinion. But you certainly have a bias toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
   -Why is that?
   You’ve mentioned that the IDF attacked terrorists in Gaza, but you didnt mentioned why.
   You certainly know (if you follow middile-eastren news) that Israeli towns and villages near gaza are being bombed by Qassam rockets on a daily basis. Just for example, an article from today: (14.12.07)
   http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3482749,00.html
   The reason you’ve mentioned in your post for the raid, at least as I figured it, was a that it was “routine” raid. With no apparent reason. Which is untrue.
   For next time, I think that if you’re going to report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you should get to the buttom of your items before posting about them.
   -Shavit69.
   (Sorry for not commenting earlier, the 58 days teacher’s strike in Israel have ended and I’m back in high school. So I’m going to have a hard time commenting on your posts due lack of time, sorry :<)

   Comment by Shavit69 — December 14, 2007 #

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

I'm Reading: