Osama's Message to America!

[AgingYoung]

That's the problem. That "intel" was what the White House wanted Congress to see.

The exact precise intel that was available to the President was available to Congress (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, etc.). The idea that the congress was told what they needed to be told is false.

Gene

[ken_behrendt]

Gene wrote:

I hate to nitpick but they're breaking the law being here and they're also taking quite a booty home with them.

Technically, yes, but, on the other hand, the United States of America is a nation of immigrants and, as immigrants, whether legal or not, the people entering the USA along our southern borders deserve some respect. Mexico has something like a 40% unemployment rate. That's the "official" figure which means that the real figure could be up to 50% higher! When a man's children and wife are hungry, he's not going to be that worried about our laws if coming over here will feed them. I'd propably be doing the same thing in his shoes.

However, while I am sympathetic to the plight of the undocumented aliens in the USA, I am also concerned about security in the wake of 9/11. Right now the borders and ports of our country are, more or less, "open" and something serious needs to be done about that situation. But, I think extremist draconian measures being proposed by ultra-conservative types in the Republican Party are not the answer. We've got about 12 million of these people here now and turning them into felons is not going to solve the problem in the long run. Currently, I support Bush's plan for a "guest worker" program. Once that is in place, we can concentrate on closing up the gaping holes in our border and seaport security.



There's an interesting CBS "60 Minutes" show that is supposed to be on this evening across the USA. They are going to interview a former bodyguard of Osama bin Ladin.

This thread started because I wanted to alert everybody here to Osama's latest threat against the USA. At the time, I had predicted that last February 22nd would, numerologically, be the ideal time for the attack. That attack did not take place as I predicted.

The bodyguard for Osama whose interview will be aired tonight is going to discuss this attack. From the preview I saw of the show, the bodyguard claims that when Osama makes a threat like this, he always follows through on it! If that is the case, then the next attack on America is probably imminent enough to take place this year. According to that "message" I posted links to, the only reason it has not taken place yet is because it is still in the preparatory stage. Exactly where, when, and how it will occur is, unfortunately, impossible to tell. The only thing we can do is try to tighten up security as much as possible and hope that something goes wrong with the attack...


ken

[AgingYoung]

Technically, yes, but, on the other hand, the United States of America is a nation of immigrants and, as immigrants, whether legal or not, the people entering the USA along our southern borders deserve some respect.

Why? I don't think they deserve any respect. They come to America and are a burden on our tax system. Why should you respect thieves? I don't have any respect for them nor do I see why I should have to. If I give you that absurd point, 'you have to respect them.' Then I have to ask why does my respect for them (just for the sake of argument) have to do with allowing them to come to America and robbing the American taxpayer? That's insane. I respect you too but don't show up to my door expecting me to feed you and give you a place to sleep. You can eat worms and sleep in the park.

Mexico has something like a 40% unemployment rate.

How is that my problem? I think it's canada's problem, not mine. Maybe australia's problem.

In the past mexican officials made deals with oil companies to develop their oil. Then they 'nationalized' the oil production. Basically they took it from the oil companies that invested in developing it; that's what 'nationalized' means. All thru the industrial revolution mexico just sat back and watched. For what ever reason Mexico has failed to develop. Like a failure to launch for some reason.

Now their pregnant women come to America to give birth and have the American taxpayer pay for that health care. Workers come to America to be able to collect American social security then go home to retire (very comfortably). The American tax payer pays that bill. I don't have any respect for that sort of behavior. Most workers in America from south of the border send most of their money 'south of the border'. They're robbing the kitty.

osama might be up to something. I know that although there are a lot of folks complaining about the invasion of privacy with homeland security with that invasion they collect vital information keeping tabs on what's being planned. I've noticed on public tv (curtesy of the bbc) they've explained to people how to pass messages without detection. Maybe terrorists have watched that and have learned how to communicate very discretely. I would never have considered the matter if I didn't see the show. If you communicate using the internet you're going to have your communications monitored.

If the saudis wanted to declare war on America we would level their country (or any other arab nation for that matter). The way they wage a war against America without actually claiming to be the source is to fund terrorists. Terrorists are warriors without out a country. They do have a country but they're not wanting to say what that is. It's also a multinational (arabic) effort. They're not a defined target. We need to give the target some definition. To hell with diplomatic 'saving face.' We need to remove some face.

Gene

[scott]

I don't think they deserve any respect.

You can eat worms and sleep in the park.

How is that my problem?

To hell with diplomatic 'saving face.' We need to remove some face.

Uh oh Gene, looks like your rabies is acting up again. Don't forget to wipe your chin after foaming at the mouth like that. Have you tried antibiotics?

[AgingYoung]

Uh oh Scott, you'd actually have to address a point or make one as opposed to trying to change the topic to me with an ad hominem ploy. I have no problem with charity. I do have a problem with thieves and pansies dancing around the point.

There is a difference between charity and people actually stealing from you. Out of curiosity how much do you give to charity annually?

Gene

ps: be sure and put that plug back in your ear before your entire brain falls out.

[jim_mich]

Gene, I see last night you posted in the wee hours of the morning, your brain was out of gear, and you had little inhibition or respect. What were you imbibing?

[AgingYoung]

Jim,
I'm often up in the wee hours. I see you'd rather avoid the questions also:

• Why should you have any respect for people that flagrantly violate the law?
• How do you feel about subsidizing illegal aliens?
• What are the long term fiscal effects of including people in a ponsi scheme (social security) that they've barely payed into?
• Isn't it insane?

If you must know what I was into in the wee hours I have computer parts all over the place. I'm using a friends machine now. My power supply bit the dust and in the process it took out the hard drive. I thought I did a good check of the motherboard and cpu but it's possible I didn't. I need to recheck those but it's very likely they're toast also. If you have what's seeming to be a power supply problem throw that box away and get another one. You can get the power supply on line rather cheaply and it wouldn't hurt to have a couple on hand. I have another machine built but well the hard drive is gone. Did I have a backup? Do you? lol.

My plan is to eventually have no wage (hence no antisocial security tax) and develop cash flow from long/short term capital gains. I think it's a sinking boat.

Gene

[james kelly]

GENE, I had the same thing happen to my outfit.{twice in one month} IT got my power supply and my hard drive, on two different puters. It happened to Ralph too. What gives? jim kelly

[AgingYoung]

James,

It would probably be a very good habit to hit your computer with some compressed air about once a month. I have a new machine but I'm going to put a couple of extra fans in it and I'm really thinking about putting filters on them. If you have to try a couple of times before your computer turns on then don't even try. Go buy a new power supply (10-15 bucks) or an entire new case. I bought a case at fryes for around $40. I also plan on doing a regular backup. That's how I feel now that my hard drive is toast. Maybe in a few weeks I'll be back to my lazy ways.

Gene

[rlortie]

Gene,

where are you buying power transformers for 10 or 15 bucks?

I purchased a 450 watt replacing a 400 watt and toasted it and then went to a 500 watt. Both cost me $59.95 and came with installed fan/motors.

Frankly, I do not believe that these things are blowing due to eccess heat but rather piss poor quality of transformers. When the 450 watt blew it sounded like shooting a 22 long rifle under my desk. It did not wipe out anything on either of my two hard drives.

Ralph

[AgingYoung]

Ralph,

I haven't bought any in that range but I've seen ads online for switching power supplies. One ad (buying 10) they were around 10 bucks each. I bought a box with power supply (450w) from fry's for $37.88.

The explosion you heard might have been a capacitor exploding. I think inductive explosions are more violent. I opened the power supply and saw a chared thermistor. I think when my power supply went it discharged some extreme voltages and everything bit the dust.

Just recently I've had problems with 2 machines. It's giving me a lot to think about. If I had a better option for a replacement (time) I could have bought the parts online and put together a better machine. I'm thinking I'm going to look around and build another machine then use this one I just put together for a backup. You can never have too many computers.

Gene

[ken_behrendt]

Sorry that I gave the wrong day for that CBS "60 Minutes" interview with Osama's body guard. It was not on Saturday April 1st, but rather on Sunday April 2nd at 7 p.m. EST.


Well, the arguments, pro and con, about the undocumented aliens in the USA can evoke some powerful emotions in people. Nobody wants to pay for them when they are unemployed, but, happily, about 95% do find employment in the USA and pay their own way. If they retire back to Mexico or Central America with Social Security benefits that they earned while working here, then that's fine with me (I even once comtemplated such a move since I do speak some Spanish).

Now let's imagine what could happen if the extremists in the Repulbican Party hold sway and the 12 million illegal aliens currently residing somewhere in the USA are rounded up and deported back to their countries.

Most will go back to Mexico and further increase the enormous unemployment rate there. The increased hardship of the urban populations there will create more discontent and sow the seeds of rebellion. Rioting and starvation could result in the deaths of thousands with most of them being children. In the end, the present democratic Mexican goverment could be overthrown and a socialist or communist dictatorship installed.

This dictatorship would be very hostile to the USA that had purposely created this situation and Mexico could become a breeding ground for terrorists that could then infiltrate the USA to inflict casualties on our citizens.

Straightening out that mess in our own hemispheric backyard could have a price tag on it that would make our current expenditures in the Middle East look like pocket change by comparison...not to mention the additional loss of lives of our troops when some future President decides to send them in to "stabilize" the situation.

Don't think it can happen? I wouldn't want to run the risk of finding out!



As far as that CBS "60 Minutes" interview with Osama's bodyguard is concerned, it was most illuminating. Here's some of what I learned:

In 1999, Osama and his bodyguard were in Afghanistan and left their safe house on a road traveling north. They reached a fork in the road and had to decide whether to go toward one of the al-Qaeda training camps or to take the other branch and visit the city of Kabul.

Osama decided to visit Kabul for a day or two before proceeding on to the training camp. About 24 hours later, 75 cruise missiles leveled the training camp and killed practically everyone in it. Osama's cook had betrayed him to the CIA. When Osama found out that the cook was responsible, rather than shooting him on the spot, he forgave him, gave him some money, and told him to go home and take care of this children.


There is some speculation that Osama has serious health problems and that these will eventually kill him. Rumors persist that he has bad kidneys and must have weekly dialysis treatments. According to the bodyguard, this is nonsense. In the several years that he was with Osama, the only problem he noticed and that Osama complained about was that he sometimes had trouble speaking. Apparently, while fighting the Soviets during the '80's, Osama inhaled some chemical gas from a Soviet launched missile during a chemical attack that damaged his vocal chords.


Where is Osama now? According to the bodyguard he is, most likely, now in Afghanistan. The al-Qaeda terrorists decided not to move him to Pakistan because the tribal leaders there are known to betray the terrorists for bribes by the government.


Most importantly, the bodyguard claims that he had never known Osama to fail to carry through on a threat. Osama offered Europe a truce in 2005 if they would withdraw all of their forces from the Middle East. When they refused to do this, al-Qaeda lauched deadly attacks on Madrid and London. The result of this was the collapse of the Spanish government and the installation of one that immediately withdrew their forces from Iraq. Britain has not yet done that and is still a target for the terrorists.

In Osama's "message to America" that started this thread back in January of this year, he made the same offer to the USA. That offer, obviously, was rejected and, according to the bodyguard, we can expect an attack.

The attacks in Madrid and London, although terrible, did not produce anywhere near the fatalities of 9/11. I fear that when this next attack comes on America that the terrorists will try to out do 9/11 with an even bigger body count in an effort to finally make the American public, like the Spanish public, demand an end to our involvement in the Middle East.

If that happens, then Osama may actually have a chance of achieving this vision of a worldwide Taliban style Islamic "Caliphate" that spans from Morrocco in the west to Indonesia in the East...



ken

[AgingYoung]

Now let's imagine what could happen if the extremists in the Repulbican Party hold sway and the 12 million illegal aliens currently residing somewhere in the USA are rounded up and deported back to their countries.

First let me point out that you're imagining and you don't have too good of a record there. None the less it is most interesting to consider it an extreme view to have people obey the law. What next?? Anarchy? lol.

Gene

next installment: When pigs fly.
edit: I do like the idea of considering illegal aliens to be 'undocumented aliens'. I wonder when they're going to start calling them 'future american citizens'? The children of some of these future american citizens were having a walk out in some houston schools and they were parading around with mexican't flags. Warms a veterans heart, it does. Yea, that's what I risked my red neck for.

[terry5732]

Bird flu comin'

[ken_behrendt]

Gene wrote:

I do like the idea of considering illegal aliens to be 'undocumented aliens'. I wonder when they're going to start calling them 'future american citizens'?

Well, what can I say? In a sense, the entire nation of the United States of America (and several others I can think of) was founded by illegal aliens...at least as far as the indigenous Indian population in North America at the time was concerned!

No, I can not prove that deporting all illegals from the USA will absolutely lead to the collapse of democracies in Mexico and Central America, but the extra strain placed upon their already very shaky economies certainly wouldn't be a stabilizing force. I think one should keep an eye on what is presently going on down in South America. The trend there is that socialist popularist leaders are being elected by democratic governments and when the new government is formed it tends to be anti-USA. The existence of a single communist government in the Carribean in the '60's almost led to WWIII...what could happen if most of the countries south of the Rio Grande decided to follow suit?




On another topic, has anybody noticed what is happening over in the Persian Gulf?

Apparently, of late, there has been a massive build up of Iranian naval vessels...particularly around the Strait of Hormuz. Most naval experts in our country consider this a major choke point of world commerce because about a quarter of the world's oil travels through it in super tankers. Any disruption in this traffic could have catastrophic consequences for the economy of the globe and particularly the West.

Armed Iranian naval vessels are increasing their presence in the region and beginning to display some very interesting and alarming weaponry.

The other day I saw a video the Iranian government released showing a new underwater "rocket" that they just developed and are in the process of deploying. It is launched from a small speed boat and, like a torpedo, travels underwater at high velocity. Actually, it is so fast that it makes our regular propeller driven torpedos almost look like they are standing still by comparison! Such a device, if used in naval warfare, would make any modern navy's torpedo evasion maneuvers obsolete and ineffective.

Why did the Iranian government release this information on something that one might expect to be top secret? Obviously, it is a warning to the Western powers whose naval vessels are now in the Persian Gulf. Start something with Iran and you can expect to lose a lot of your ships!

I suspect that this new development is being viewed with a jaundiced eye by high ranking personnel in our Pentagon...



ken