Think he's gone
Archie Bunker said:
Turbinehead,
Have you ever heard the expression: "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight?" Obviously not, because in terms of intellect, Netjetwife is armed with a Heckler and Koch MP-5, and you're holding a butter knife. She has been pumping rounds into your sophmoric, half wit posts at will. Why don't you just take a minute, and actually read some of the things she has written. She provides some real insight to what the NJA pilots have been through, and even you could possibly learn some things about the labor relations process, and how it has affected the pilots there.
Saudi Government Says 345 Killed in Hajj Stampede
Thursday, January 12, 2006
MINA, Saudi Arabia — Thousands of Muslim pilgrims rushing to complete a symbolic stoning ritual during the
hajj tripped over luggage Thursday, causing a crush in which at least 345 people were killed, the Interior Ministry said.
The stampede occurred as tens of thousands of pilgrims headed toward
al-Jamarat, a series of three pillars representing the devil that the faithful pelt with stones to purge themselves of sin.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said 345 people were killed. Dr. Abbasi, a
Red Crecent doctor at the scene, put the number of injured at 1,000.
Footage from the scene showed lines of bodies laid out on stretchers on the pavement and covered with sheets. Ahmed Mustafa, an Egyptian pilgrim, said he saw bodies taken away in refrigerator trucks.
"There must be dozens of people dead," he said.
An Egyptian pilgrim, Suad Abu Hamada, heard screaming and "saw people jumping over each other.
"The bodies were piled up. I couldn't count them, they were too many," he said.
The site is a notorious bottleneck for the massive crowds that attend the hajj pilgrimage and has seen deadly stampedes in the past, including one in 1990 that killed 1,426 people and another in February 2004 that killed 244.
This year's hajj was marred by the Jan. 5 collapse of a building being used as a pilgrims' hotel that killed 76 people in
Mecca.
A ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, said the stampede happened as pilgrims were rushing to complete the last of three days of the stoning ritual before sunset. Some of the pilgrims began to trip over dropped luggage, causing a large pileup, al-Turki said.
Many pilgrims carry their personal effects with them as they move between the various stages of the hajj. The pillars are located on a large pedestrian bridge, the width of an eight-lane highway over the desert plain of Mina outside the holy city of Mecca.
A number of ramps lead up the bridge to give pilgrims access to the site, and the stampede occurred at the base of one ramp.
Ambulances and police cars streamed into the area, and security forces tried to move pilgrims away from part of the site, though thousands continued with the ritual.
The stampede took place despite Saudi efforts to improve traffic at the site, where all 2.5 million pilgrims participating in the annual hajj move from pillar to pillar to throw their stones, then exit.
Saudi authorities replaced the small round pillars with short walls to allow more people to throw their stones without jostling for position. They also recently widened the bridge, built extra ramps and increased the time pilgrims can carry out the rite — which on the second and final days traditionally takes place from midday until sunset.
Shiite Muslim clerics have issued religious edicts allowing pilgrims to start the ritual in the morning, and many Shiites from Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Lebanon and Pakistan took advantage to go early in the day.
"This is much better. We are now done with the stoning before the crowd gets larger," an Iranian pilgrim, Azghar Meshadi, said hours before the stampede.
But Saudi Arabia's Sunni Muslim clerics, who follow the fundamentalist
Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, encouraged pilgrims to stick to the midday rule.
The stoning ritual is one of the last events of the hajj pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites, which able-bodied Muslims with the financial means are required by their faith to do at least once.
Many pilgrims had already finished the stoning ritual Thursday and had gone back to Mecca to carry out a farewell circuit around the
Kaaba, the black stone cube that Muslims face when they do their daily prayers
Let's not disappoint him by ignoring his farewell post. Read both meanings carefully and cast your vote according to your convictions!
