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29. september 2005
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Osama  Bin Laden wanted to move to Britain ten years ago:
He claims to hate everything the West stands for. But yesterday it emerged that Osama bin Laden sought asylum in Britain even as he was planning the September 11 attacks on the US.
The al-Qaeda leader wanted to abandon his base in Sudan at the end of 1995 and asked some of his followers in London to sound out whether he would be able to move to Britain.
At the time, hardly anyone had heard of Bin Laden. Still, the Home Office knew enough to recommend him being banned from Britain, so the deal fell through.
Amusing anecdote for football (soccer) fans:
The teenage bin Laden had reportedly toured Europe with his family and became an Arsenal fan, though there is no record of his ever having been to a match at Highbury.
When you see Arsenal's badge (picture right), you understand why he liked them. The club's nickname is "the gunners" (there are, as you can surely imagine, more derogatory names).
I would never include the symbol of an 'enemy' in this blog, except adding Bin Laden to Arsenal's fan club pleases a Liverpool fan like myself.
1:57:32 PM 
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Things you have to do for your country:
Treasurer Peter Costello urged Australians to “do their patriotic duty” and have more children but it seems they were doing it anyway, just for fun. A new study shows the birthrate hitting its highest level in seven years.
A study by Australian National University demographer Peter McDonald showed the country’s birthrate at 1.77 per woman in 2004, its highest level since 1997. McDonald believes the rate will stay around 1.8 for the next 5-10 years.
Harry Hansen, legendary mayor of Bergen between 1963 til 1969 was so concerned about declining birth rates that he told the city "lie down together and do something!" ("Ligg dokkar sammen og gjørr nokke!"). The statement was not really his; it came from a humorous drawing by Audun Hetland, but it followed Hansen until his death in 2003.
Apparently, it had some effect back then. Yours truly was born on this day in 1968.
1:40:50 PM
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It's become something of a running joke that the coalition shoots "al-Zarqawi's deputy" once a month or so. Earlier this week it was Abu Azzam that met a timely end. Was he really al-Qaeda's number two in Iraq? Very unlikely, says Evan Kohlmann. "Abu Azzam" was, however, a senior commander in al-Qaeda's Baghdad cells. Al-Qaeda itself admits as much.
1:21:26 PM
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The most desperate legal defence ever?
The lawyer for a man accused of murdering his 14-month-old son then quickly cooking up a story before medics arrived told a Clackamas County jury that the scenario is beyond her client's mental capacities.
"You have heard Chris Parris," attorney Jenny Cooke said of her client. "And you know he doesn't think that fast."
Via Fark.
5:58:17 AM
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A public service announcement for Belgians:
Erotic talk with a virtual partner in chatrooms on the Internet are enough grounds for a spouse to file for divorce, a legal magazine said Wednesday, citing a recent ruling in Belgium.
Belgian legal publication De Juristenkrant said the Brussels Appeals Court ruled that although transcripts of the erotic chatroom conversation do not prove adultery, they do constitute proof of "grossly insulting behavior" which is sufficient grounds to file for divorce.
You have been warned!
PS: Across the border, in Holland, they always take a more positive view of things. Congratulations to the witch Margarita Roland for being allowed to deduct the cost of her one-year course in witchcraft from her taxes. If there is one thing the world needs more of, it is women with broomsticks and pointed hats. As long as they don't engage in online sex chats with married men from Belgium [I was wondering how you would manage to tie those two stories together --ed].
4:34:53 AM
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Tom DeLay has been indicted for violating Texas campaign state law, as everybody on the planet has probably heard about by now. DeLay steps down from the House majority chair, as Congress rules require, but stays in Congress and is certainly not taking this laying down:
"This morning, in an act of blatant political partisanship, a rogue district attorney in Travis County, Texas, named Ronnie Earle charged me with one count of criminal conspiracy: a reckless charge wholly unsupported by the facts," DeLay said, reading from a prepared statement. "This is one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history. It's a sham and Mr. Earle knows it."
He went on to call Earle a "partisan fanatic" who was conducting a "vengeful investigation" as part of a "coordinated, premeditated campaign of political retribution."
The pundits are of course coming out along partisan lines. This is the Clinton impeachment story in a light version, without the sex, and I am already bored with it. As much as I dislike DeLay politically, I can't help thinking there is some merit to his accusation that the indictment is politically motivated.
GOP politicians don't even have the sense to make their scandals juicy and interesting.
2:17:05 AM
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Women's liberation, jihadi style:
A woman strapped with explosives and disguised as a man blew herself up outside an Iraqi army recruiting center in a northern town Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding 30 in the first known attack by a female suicide bomber in the country's bloody insurgency.
Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the blast, saying in an Internet posting that it was carried out by "a blessed sister."
Apparently there are some career paths open for women in the salafist movement, too.
1:12:33 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.10.2005; 12:26:20.
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