Clearly there is an international effort to meet the terrorist threat to the Sochi Olympics. ABC online reports http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-31/links-between-deadly-russia-bomb-attacks-as-us-offers-help/5179284 :

"The US offer for closer cooperation with Russia comes after tensions were raised between US and Russian security agencies following the involvement of two Chechen brothers in the Boston Marathon bombing and Russia's granting temporary asylum to former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Despite these points of contention a US official said security cooperation between the US and Russia regarding the Games had improved in the run-up to the Olympics.

In November, Matthew Olsen, director of the government's [mainly CIA run] US National Counter-terrorism Centre, said his agency was "coordinating and integrating the intelligence community's support ... to the Winter Olympics in Sochi".

According to some estimates over the last 1400 years the world has only had 12 years without an Islamic Jihad occurring somewhere, Russia in particular has suffered horribly because of Islam, millions of her people have been killed and enslaved in the last thousand years.
http://www.historyofjihad.org/russia.html

Also during Soviet times millions of Muslim people of the North Caucasus and other areas invaded by Russians were deported to isolated settlements and camps in Siberia. Up to 43% died of diseases and malnutrition.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_transfer_in_the_Soviet_Union#Ethnic_operations.

come on Jay the religion of 'peace'

Perhaps people are beginning to understand that there is an ongoing
war since around 500AD and that it is about time to refuse entry to
enemy aliens.
Nothing new about that of course, it has always been done by all countries.
Under those rules human rights do not apply, only the rules of war apply.
Rather that sorting people by nationality, this time it will be better
to sort them by religion and nationality.

The camps that were previously used to intern enemy aliens can remain
in Manus and Nauru, but those countries may not want to continue to
hold enemy aliens, so under Red Cross, as normal in wartime, they
could be repatriated to their home countries.
Combat age males are sometimes repatriated provided they do take part
in hostile operations.
If they are caught again they would be imprisoned for the duration.
If not in uniform or having a serial number
they could be shot as a spy.

Enemy aliens already in the country are arrested and confined in
secure locations for the duration if not repatriated.

It is all a well worn procedure and well covered by international law.
It seems to me that we are fast approaching the declaration of war.

ASHES JOKES

Not to diminish the seriousness of the article or the astounding skill of the author. In this holiday thread suffering from too few Comments the following is Off Topic but an essential List of Anti-Pom Ashes Jokes. After years of losing to the Poms we can now rub their noses in it. Enjoy :)

1) What do you call an English cricketer with 100 by his name? A bowler.

2) Why can't the English open bottles? Because they don't have any openers.

3) What do you call an Englishman with a bottle of champagne in his hand? A waiter.

4) What do you call a world class Englishman? Retired.

5) What is the main function of the English coach? To transport the team from the hotel to the ground.

6) Why are English fielders always healthy? Because they never catch anything.

7) What did the spectator miss when he went to the toilet? The entire English innings.

8) What's the English version of a hat-trick? Three runs in three balls.

9) What is the most impressive footwork displayed by an English batsman? The walk back to the pavilion.

10) Why are the English demanding increased match payments? Someone has let on that the matches go to a fourth day.

11) What do you get if you cross the English cricket team with an OXO cube? A laughing stock.

12) What’s the height of optimism? English batsman putting on sunscreen.

13) What’s the difference between an English batsman and a Formula 1 car? Nothing! If you blink you’ll miss them both.

14) What do English batsmen and drug addicts have in common? Both spend most of their time wondering where their next score will come from.

15) What's the difference between the Pommies and a funeral director? A funeral director isn't going to lose the ashes.

16) What is the difference between Cinderella and the Pommies? Cinderella knew when to leave the ball.

Happy New Year

Pete

I really don't see the social strife and terrorism in the Caucasus region as a "complex problem" at all, Peter Coates. I see it as another spectacular failure of multiculturalism and another (how many do you need) object lesson in why it is utterly stupid to create societies composed of different ethnicities with wildly differing values, beliefs, cultures and behaviour.

You hardly need to be hit over the head with a 4x2 to figure out that the higher the proportion of Muslims that any society has the greater the civil strife and the worse the terrorism. Whatever population proportions that the Caucasus region has between Christians and Muslims you can bet that Australia will experience the same levels of Muslim terrorism when Australia reaches the same proportion.

I notice that peter seems to be suggesting that this is al the Russian's fault because the Muslim areas are so poor and the Christian Russian areas are well off. Memo to Peter. Every Muslim country on Earth that is not floating on a sea of oil or does not have a bunch of Chinese running the economy is poverty stricken. Has it ever occurred to you that there is a clear connection between Islam, poverty, repression, terrorism, ignorance, and female subjugation?

It the Islam, stupid.

My advice to Putin would be to forcibly deport to other regions of Russia every Muslim in the place and scatter them around in small groups where they are such a tiny minority that they can cause no trouble and where they can be integrated with time. Do what the Muslims do and give them financial incentives to leave Islam and become Russians instead of Muslims.

Problem solved.

Pullyourlego has started 2014 with an inspired comment. In it, he is offering advice to Putin no less. Mr Y. take note!

It seems that PYL is against Islam/Muslims wherever they occur and wants to see them broken up into small groups. PYL didn't actually say that the Cages in Guantanamo would be ideal as long as the cages didn't allow any form of communication. But he implied it!

It seems that PYL is also very much against multi-culturalism even though humans have been interacting with different races for ten thousand years. It's a bit late to start segregating now, PYL, kind of like unscrambling eggs!

What PYL doesn't know is that, for a long period of time, the Islamic Empire was the only civilized nation on Earth and their advances in the arts, science, architecture, etc, contrasted strongly with the barbaric Western nations that they conquered.

Anyway, keep up your good work, Pullyourlego! I'm sure Obama would like to have you as one of his advisers although exactly how well he would respond to your racist views given that he is a colored person is unknown!

P.S. There might be a drone missile with your name on it or Obama's assassination squad might be planning a suicide mission (yours)!

Cheers to all for 2014!

David G said with a mouthful of multiculturalism;
the Islamic Empire was the only civilized nation on Earth

No they were not !
There were several other civilisations in that period, not the least the Chinese.
There were a number of active trading countries especially from
Scandinavia to the Middle East.
Britain had formally organised "Kingdoms" which was all an agrarian
country needed after Rome departed.

Sure they had a golden period in the few centuries before Ferdinand
and Isabella shoved the moslem invaders out of Spain.
The sad part is their religion got the better of them.

They kicked off their history by invading the area between Egypt and Lebanon.
The object being to kill or remove the Christians and Jews who at that time were the majority religions.
Does that ring any bells ?
Their intolerance of others cannot be changed.

Their objectives are written into the Koran and cannot be interpreted differently under pain of death.
The upshot is, driven by their religion, they have been waging war on
all the rest of us ever since their founding.
It is the Moslems that are the racists or infidel haters.

Oh and while I think of it, you are confusing racism with religious
discrimination. Not to worry that is a mistake many others make.

"It is the Moslems that are the racists or infidel haters," says our Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzz!

You can't even spell MUSLIM correctly, you intellectual weed. And your knowledge of World History matches your white-supremacy racism.

Ask your primary school teacher to recommend some simple history texts that might bring some enlightenment to your tiny, narrow mind.

You and LEGO can go to the top of the class: the simpleton's class!

@LEGO

How's it going in your home outside moderate Australia?

Your belief that Muslim immigration to a Christian North Caucasus caused a multicultural problem ignores the facts.

It was the Christian ethnic Russians who moved south invading the Muslim majority North Caucasus between 1763 to 1864. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_War

The Russian occupation force stayed on to commit many massacres of North Circassians by the Russian Army and then KGB paramilitaries through to the 1940s. Massacres of Chechens have since occurred during Putin's rule.

Extreme ideologies converge.

The Russian's also committed LEGOs Final Solution of mass deportation from the 1860s to 1940s during Tsarist and then Soviet Communist times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechnya#Soviet_rule

It is no coincidence that LEGOs extreme right-wing ideology and mindset is very similar to the extreme left-wing Soviet Communist model of Stalin.

Hi David G

We might differ in our attitude to the US but we share a humanitarian approach. Thanks for your comments.

Pete

Well, well, it is a well known tactic to abuse your opponent when you
are losing a debate. I understand both moslem & muslem are correct.

And yes Plantagenet it is a pity the Islamists do not share your
humanitarian leanings.

Is there a country that has not had trouble with moslems ? (muslems to make him happy)

Hi Bazza

Fear not, lil LEGO is an abuser par excellance.

Over generalised characterizations of Muslims are no help in counter-terrorism.

Up to the 1960s White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) Australia discriminated against many "suspect groups" including women, Catholics, Jews, those to the left of Bob Menzies, any ethnic group whose first language wasn't English (Greeks, Italians, "Balts" etc) and the Aborigines who we whites invaded from 1788.

Since 9/11 all Muslims (including Ghans who've been in Australia since the 1860s) and some Sikhs (who wear turbans) have been held under suspicion by the ignorant.

Only a tiny percentage of any population are would-be terrorists.

The problem is who is known to be a terrorist threat. HUMINT, cyber surveillance and experienced analysis help determine who.

Racial or religious profiling is unhelpful. For example Norway's most infamous, murderous, terrorist is Anders Behring Breivik, who was not a Muslim but a right-wing, Norwegian whose anti-Muslim views may be in agreement with many who troll OLO.

Its difficult holding a discussion about terrorism and Russia with some who don't even attempt to read up about conditions in Russia :)

Pete

Hi Plantagenet.

Did you take any notice of your history lessons went you went to school? If you had, you would have realised that Islam was created by Mohammad in Arabia in the sixth century. Mohammad was a genocidal, ethnic cleansing war lord who conducted 82 successful military campaigns to spread Islam throughout the world. His armies created an Empire of five million square miles in 100 years which spread from India to Europe.

Most of what his Muslim armies conquered was Christian land, and that included the all of North Africa, the Middle east, the Caucasus region and Georgia (AD715) The reason why the Muslims went North into the Caucasus was to cut off all European trade with China and India. That was why Columbus sailed West into the setting sun, and why Vasco de Gama sailed south around Africa, to circumvent the Muslim blockade.

Other Muslim invasions of Christendom occurred in Persia, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Bulgaria (AD750) Armenia and Egypt (AD639) Cyprus and North Africa (AD 634) Spain (AD717) France (AD830) and Constantinople (AD718). Italy (AD 745)

Hindu India was invaded in AD 712.

If the Russians have taken back some of the land which the Muslims previously stole from them, why would you think there was anything wrong with that? You seem to be pushing the line that the poor oppressed Muslim minority in the Caucasus's are just hitting back at their persecutors. Get real. Being a minority in any Muslim land even today is not conducive to health and longevity. Better to be a Muslim living in a Christian land, than a Christian living in a Muslim one.

Get it through your overly thick cranium that Islam is a failed civilisation that can not hope to compete in the modern world. THAT is why its people live in poverty and why they are so susceptible to any ideology which promises them an eternity in paradise in exchange for religious terrorism. Islam is a fascist religion which even Hitler admired and all you an do with your ignorance of history is to make poor excuses for it.

In reply to Plantagenet's second sneery post to me.

Of course Australians did not want any foreign immigrants displacing their own people in their own land. Do you think that this makes Aussies unique? Now it is the turn of the Greeks, the Italians, and the East Europeans to complain about their lands being invaded by foreigners. Pakistani illegal immigrants are even turning up in Poland, and the Poles are incensed about it.

It is a cultural universal that all human beings prefer to live amongst their own people. People with whom they feel kinship, who share their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours, and with whom they feel safe. There is nothing wrong with that. Most people can be very accommodating to foreigners, it all depends upon the degree of cultural tolerance, the rate of demographic change, the differences in cultures between the minority and the host populations, the acceptance by the minority to integrate into the mainstream, and most importantly, the behaviour of the minority towards the majority.

I am sure that you do not like Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen. The reason you do not like them is because of their values, beliefs and behaviours which you find objectionable. But by some application of doublethink, you insist that Muslims be judged to a different standard to what you hold Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen. With Muslims, you must not make a general assessment of their character from what their holy book tells them to do, or what they collectively believe, or how they collectively behave.

All you care about is your humanitarian ideology, which preaches that everybody is equal. All cultures are equal, all races are equal, and all religions and belief systems are equal. As long as they are not Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen. Your logic is bankrupt.

The USA has suffered over twenty terrorist incidents in the past twenty years and every one of them was committed by a Muslim. Plain common sense says that being suspicious of Muslims is not "racial profiling", it is a description of the suspect.

Hi LEGO

Thanks for your information about the original Muslim invasions of the Caucasus and ethnic relations in Australia.

I accept your North American (US citizen?) knowledge of terrorist incidents in the US. Australia's most recent terrorist bombing, in 1978, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Hilton_bombing was not seen as Muslim caused.

Concerning events in Russia over the last three days Peter's article stated http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=15876 :

"Given the terrorist threat to the Sochi Olympics that has revealed itself over the last 48 hours all these security preparations may be necessary. As a Russian and former KGB and FSB operative Putin would be torn between his natural urge to put strict counter-terrorism measures in place and his wish that Russia appear relaxed and democratic. In order to appear efficient and in control Putin is likely to launch a “successful operation” over the terrorists within the next few days to weeks – arrests at least"

Re "Putin is likely to launch a “successful operation” over the terrorists within the next few days to weeks – arrests at least". CBS has now reported the predicted arrests http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-police-round-up-dozens-after-suicide-bombings-in-volgograd/

"Police detained dozens of people on Tuesday in sweeps through Volgograd..."

Current intelligence is an interesting area.

Cheers

Pete

.

LEGO

Well said --spot on.

(Pete) plantagenet is usually pretty cluey but he's a bit wide of the mark on this one --however, David G is his usual clueless hate-everything-American self.

Plantagenet.

You sent me two posts, and I responded in full to all of the points you raised (within the boundaries of the 350 word rule), even giving you history and sociology lessons as homework. Your response was so poor that I can only conclude that you are unable to formulate an argument to defend what you so passionately believe in.

You ignored the aim of my two posts, which was to correct your misconceptions about Muslims as victims, as well as trying to make you understand that Australians have a right to be concerned about the direction in which our immigration policies are heading. Rather than address these points, you cherry picked an item which you could get some mileage out of. You garbled something about the Sydney Hilton bombings and about Anders Breivik, which appeared to imply that you are opposed to ethnic profiling. It would be more useful to your own cause if you had said something like "I am opposed to ethnic profiling because..."

It just so happens to be a fact that certain ethnicities are very disproportionately represented in terrorism and serious criminal behaviour and it simply common sense to consider them more closely when looking for suspects. You mentioned that there was a terrorist bombing incident in Sydney that did not involve Muslims, therefore you implied that it is unfair to consider Muslims as terrorists. It is not unfair. It is simply a recognition that the growing terrorist threat in European societies is much more likely to involve Muslims than any other group. There have been at least four foiled attempted terrorist plots in Australia involving Muslims in the last twenty years and thirty Muslims in jail for terrorism related offences in Australia.

There are just as many Buddhists in Australia as Muslims, but there have been no Buddhist terrorism incidents in Australia and no Buddhists jailed for terrorism related offences.

Then you went completely fuzzy and started writing about the Russian arrests of suspected Muslim terrorists, although what point you were trying to make is beyond me. Try and stay on topic.

Many are reporting that Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia threatened Putin with terrorists attacks if he did not let the attack on Syria go ahead. The Saudis were financing the rebel cause against Assad.

Not all terrorist attacks are done by extreme or oppressed groups, they are often done by our own Govts to bring in more oppressive laws.

Plantagenet you just don't see it.
All Muslems, are under suspicion. What is unreasonable about that ?
Tens of thousands in the last few years have been murdered by them for
no reason other than not being a follower of Islam or speaking against
Islam, and having the presumption to oppose Islamic invasion of their countries.

There is no way to tell the activists from the nonactive and further
more why should we bother ?
Just get rid of the lot !
We owe them exactly nothing, in fact they owe us big time.
What you have said is mild enough if it was applied to other national
or religious groups, but Islam's basic principles are akin to the
German National Socialist Party (Nazi).
In case you have not noticed we are now in a new form of warfare.
Moslems are avoiding outright warfare because they know ultimately they would lose.

At some time in the future a state of war will be declared.
At that time you would be judged with aiding the enemy and would be gaoled.
I consider that what you are saying is seditious and you are only
innocent because the UN and Australia do not yet recognise a state of war.

No one has answered the question;
"Is there a country that has not had problems with Moslems ?"

@LEGO

You chose to write so much.

Seeing the whole world as under threat by Muslims is your own demon, mate. You work it out.

OLO used to be a meeting place for anti-Muslim views.

Perhaps write your own article.

Pete

The reason why I can write so much, Plantagenet, is because I have studied my subject and I know what I am talking about. The reason why you are fumbling along, is because you have not bothered to do your homework.

If I had to guess, I would say that you are another young person who thinks that defending Muslims is what "intelligent" people do. Your compulsive need to appear to be one of the intelligent ones leads you to simply follow the script set out for you by left wing academics who are using you as useful fool. I can understand that, because I was once as you are now. But I was smart enough to eventually figure out that I was being conned.

If you do consider yourself to be intelligent, then turn on your objective reasoning circuits and think about what I am going to say to you. You will have to perform a physical act to do it, it is called "concentrating."

Now objectively examine this premise. There are two belief systems, Nazis and Muslims, and I want you to judge them with exactly the same standard.

Nazis believe what their Fuhrer said that blond, blue eyed people are Ubermenschen and anyone who has brown eyes, dark skin and black hair is an untermenschen, unworthy of life. Muslims believe what their prophet said that Christians and Jews are "the vilest form of life" and that pagans are so low they should be immediately murdered if they do not submit to Islam. Any significant difference in ideology? Both identify outgroup human beings as being "unworthy of life."

Now, you say that most Muslims are nice people and it is only a minority of fundamentalist "Islamists" who give the majority of Muslims a bad name because they do exactly what the Koran tells them to do. Do you therefore say that most Nazis are nice people and it is only a minority of fundamentalist Nazi-ists who give the majority of Nazis a bad name because they do exactly what "Mein Kampf" tells them to do?

Putin will get them http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/putin-travels-east-comments-on-terror-attacks/2013/12/31/1f6dace0-7243-11e3-8def-a33011492df2_story.html:

"MOSCOW [New Year's Eve] — President Vladimir Putin made a surprise New Year’s Eve visit to Khabarovsk, about 3,800 miles east of Moscow, diverting attention from the misery of suicide bombings in Russia’s heartland and casting himself as the leader of a resilient country capable of overcoming all misfortune. The Winter Olympics were clearly on his mind.

The bombings in Volgograd Sunday and Monday killed 34 people and injured 72, a blood-stained reminder of Russia’s enduring vulnerability to extremist violence and a grim challenge to Putin’s promises of staging carefree Olympic Games in the southern city of Sochi in February."

You have rally spluttered to a stop now, Plantagenet. After failing to address anything in my replies, which I had politely submitted to you in response to your challenges to me, you have now gone off on a tangent.

You have submitted dome nonsense about Putin kicking the crap out of the Muslims. And your point is......?

Has it ever occurred to you that if you are unable to defend your position, it is because your opponents are right and you are wrong?

Latest reports about Russia's reaction to the Volgograd bombings are surprising The arrests envisaged in Peter Coates article are taking place on a large scale. The BBC at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25580380 January 2, 2014, reports.

"Russian security forces in the city of Volgograd have detained more than 700 people in a crackdown following two bomb blasts which killed 34. Officials have not yet linked any of those detained directly to the bombings in Volgograd on 29 and 30 December."

"Russian investigators believe that both suicide bombers were men [NOT WOMEN - so not Black Widows] who had arrived in Volgograd from the North Caucasus, a security source told Interfax news agency."

If Russian authorities are now saying their initial instant conclusion that the bombers were women was wrong are other conclusions questionable?

For example - Where the bombers non-Muslims totally unrelated to the North Caucasus?

You are right, Planagenet. They could have been other religious fundamentalists like the Amish.

Trying to read between the lines, if the Russians first thought the
bombers were women, but have since changed their minds does that imply
they were wearing burkas but when they got to examine the bits they
found that in fact they were men.

Hmmm

@LEGO

Nope

Hi Bazz

The burka idea might have something to it. Or perhaps in the train station there was a male suicide bomber along with a woman who was a known terrorist-"black widow"

see http://www.smh.com.au/world/russia-steps-up-security-after-second-volgograd-blast-kills-at-least-10-20131230-hv754.html "The Siberian Times named the bomber as so-called ''black widow'' Oksana Aslanova, 26. She was reported as having been married to two Islamic militant leaders killed by Russian forces in the North Caucasus."

Regards

Pete

Video released of the purported suicide bombers.

Males rather than "black widows" http://www.wgowam.com/common/more.php?m=58&ts=1390204219&article=A5D2FEE3812711E3B51EFEFDADE6840A&mode=2

Also on http://www.news.com.au/world/terror-video-threatens-tourists-at-sochi-winter-olympics-in-russia/story-fndir2ev-1226805736289

The article predicted:

"Putin is likely to launch a “successful operation” over the terrorists within the next few days to weeks"

The following may be part of this:

"A terrorist who may have masterminded two suicide bombings in the Russian city of Volgograd in December has been killed, officials say.

Officials say Dzamaltin Mirzayev may have sent two men from Dagestan in the Caucasus region to carry out the bombings at a train station and on a trolleybus, killing 34 people."

see http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-06/russian-officials-kills-terrorist-accused-of-masterminding-two-/5241482