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Iraqi cops take down Kirkuk "hostage house"
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Quick note on posting duplicates
For those who post frequently, please check to see if the article you're posting has already been done earlier in the day or yesterday. We're getting quite a few duplicate posts. That just slows everything down. I'm deleting them as I find them but it takes time.

Mark Espinola: this means you too.

And remember, we don't need the date, author's name, and all the fluff. Short 'n' sweet, please.

Thanks to all: I thought the commentary over the weekend was particularly good.
What Steve said, plus I'd like to request that you choose a headline that is short and accurately reflects the main point of your post. Thanks, Emily.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/18/2004 12:44:45 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is a chance for me to bring up the number one item on my RB wish list. Namely, can we identify the source of an article. It's a pain to have to click on the link to find out. Just put it in the first line and most of us are familiar with contracted identifiers, NYT, JPost, SMH, etc. Unless Fred wants to add it as a feature :-)
Posted by: phil_b || 10/18/2004 1:40 Comments || Top||

#2  phil:

there's an easier way to see where the article is from. If you're using Internet Explorer, make sure your STATUS BAR is visible on the bottom of your window. (click view, status bar). Then, all you do is move your mouse over the link to see where it will link to.

I don't know about Netscape or other browsers.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 10/18/2004 6:43 Comments || Top||

#3  PD - that works for Mozilla, too. Mozillla's Firefox a fantastic, user friendly browser, btw, for anyone who hasn't tried it before.

Back to the topic: Duplicate posting shows, if anything, that you don't bother reading what else is on Rantburg. If you ain't reading, why are you here?!

Off to Peshawar again: Does anyone have suggestions as to how non-Americans can celebrate Bush's re-election on November 3rd, in an American-style fashion? (Or drown the sorrows, if it comes to that?) Burgers 'n' Buds' a bit unoriginal.
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/18/2004 7:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Crystal Meth 'n' firearms ?
Posted by: Howard UK || 10/18/2004 7:51 Comments || Top||

#5  I have seen and contributed to this problem. It seems to be worst at the end of the day, when there are a lot oop postings in the title section at the top of the page. A suggestion that might help is to sort the headlines into File Under order with File Under headings. That way there would be a smaller population to check under.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/18/2004 8:00 Comments || Top||

#6  LOL Howard!
Posted by: Shipman || 10/18/2004 8:06 Comments || Top||

#7  Bulldog -- some options:

tacos and margharitas

chili con carne and riojo/chianti

brownies, of course, for dessert.

Drop me a note if you're interested, and I'll send you recipes.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/18/2004 8:18 Comments || Top||

#8  "Does anyone have suggestions as to how non-Americans can celebrate Bush's re-election on November 3rd, in an American-style fashion?"

Just breathe a deep sigh of relief. That's what I'll be doing.
Posted by: Dave D. || 10/18/2004 8:38 Comments || Top||

#9  Just breathe a deep sigh of relief. That's what I'll be doing.

I'll have a bottle of wine within reach. Bush win or lose, it is gone by 3 Nov. 2004. But, like you, I will breathe a sigh of relief as well.
Posted by: badanov || 10/18/2004 8:42 Comments || Top||

#10  "Does anyone have suggestions as to how non-Americans can celebrate Bush's re-election on November 3rd, in an American-style fashion?"

Think Globally, Act Locally. November 3? Collect pennies for the guy and make two. One with a Kerry mask and one with a Chiraq mask. Burn on the fifth while waving Stars and Stripes along with Union Jack or English Flag.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/18/2004 9:17 Comments || Top||

#11  Good thinking - I'll substitute the Pope for a Kerry/Chirac combo this year.
Posted by: Howard UK || 10/18/2004 9:20 Comments || Top||

#12  I have a suggestion, Fred. Somewhere in the title or opening lines of the article, refer to which country you're discussing, especially in the Middle East. I sometimes have to read the entire article before I can determine which country's being discussed. There are too many names that are the same, or sound and/or spelled alike. It's especially bad when I've had a really ROTTEN day, my head is killing me, and I want to know exactly who to impose a most vicious Voodoo curse upon. Wouldn't want to hit any innocent victims - if they exist.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 10/18/2004 13:31 Comments || Top||

#13  tw - thanks for the tip! Especially the riojo/chianti brownies...

Mrs Davis - will consider the effigy plan. Might make for good sport on November 5th.
Posted by: Bulldog || 10/18/2004 13:44 Comments || Top||

#14  Newer browsers can also use the TITLE attribute to give more info when you mouse over a link. Lessee if that works here: Rantburg... seems to work with Mozilla, have to enclose the text in single quotes.
(Actually posting by Old Grouch, but "Chinese Unomoger1553" works for me!)
Posted by: Chinese Unomoger1553 || 10/18/2004 15:30 Comments || Top||

#15  Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Best beer this side of Belgium.
Posted by: lex || 10/18/2004 15:35 Comments || Top||

#16 

...which means (see #14) that you can do things like this, which helps if the original link goes bad:

African Leaders Discuss Sudanese Conflict.

[If your browser doesn't show it (hover mouse pointer over the link), title text is "Associated Press story by KHALED AL-DEEB, October 17, 2004" Neat, huh?]

Posted by: Old Grouch || 10/18/2004 15:43 Comments || Top||

#17  A hat-tip and a gentle clash of the symbols followed by due applause..
Posted by: Howard UK || 10/18/2004 15:52 Comments || Top||

#18  /Grammar Nanny mode on

Which symbols, Howard UK?

Or did you mean cymbals?

/Grammar Nanny mode off

;-p *Ducks and runs for cover*
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/18/2004 16:01 Comments || Top||

#19  how much to be editor for a day? my meglomanier is acting up
Posted by: half || 10/18/2004 17:01 Comments || Top||

#20  Bulldog, you are a silly, silly man. Which of course is part of your charm!
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/18/2004 17:22 Comments || Top||

#21  I always wanted a sex cymbal but then I couldn't figure out how to play it...

She said I was a crashing bore too...

Thank you, don't forget to tip your waitress...
Arrrggh! The fiendish chinese pseudonyms again!
Posted by: Chinese Spomoger1553 || 10/18/2004 19:38 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Expat Workers Left High & Dry in Jeddah Compound
JEDDAH, 18 October 2004 — Expat workers located in a compound near Jeddah are living in fear for their lives because of inadequate security. They say that due to their company's failure to pay the rent on their compound, security levels are very low. Electricity and water have been switched off, leaving pregnant women and the chronically ill in very unpleasant circumstances. Many who have decided to leave cannot because they have not been paid their wages and are concerned about their end of service benefits. The workers — citizens of the United States, Canada and South Africa among others — have been contracted by DIFA (an English rendering of the Arabic word for "defense") to provide training and maintenance services for Lockheed C-130 aircraft.
I'm sure this will do wonders for their job performance.
Security inside the compound has all but disappeared because guards have not been paid. Electronic security cameras are infrequently, or no longer, functioning because electricity has been cut.
Why don't you just give their address to the boomers?
Living conditions have deteriorated recently because the compound has not paid many of its outstanding debts. "The Saudi Electricity Company terminated power on Oct. 13 for non-payment," a note issued to the compound residents on Saturday said. "Water has been rationed because Al-Safyah Water Company has reduced our allocation of water from 18 truckloads per day to only 10 truckloads per day. We have not been able to pay the company for three months."
One of the tenants, who declined to be named, explained that DIFA had been paid by the government but had not paid rent or salaries. "The rent payable by DIFA for our housing is SR5,000,000 annually and it hasn't been paid for 18 months." The result is that families are currently living without air-conditioning and running water. The note also stated, "The last of our money has been used to rent generators for one week. If we do not receive any funds from DIFA by Tuesday, Oct. 20, we will lose the generators and the entire compound will be without power or water."
Company took the money and ran, leaving the workers to fend for themselves?
The loss of power will also affect the sewage disposal system on the compound and consequently increase the health risks to the occupants. "My wife is pregnant and has asthma and I'm worried because without air-conditioning she's more likely to have an asthma attack," said another resident. Over the last few months DIFA has increasingly delayed payments of salaries to Western expatriates and has not paid some employees, such as Pakistanis and Filipinos, at all for months. Last evening, Pakistanis and Filipinos were chopping up wooden garden fences to use as fuel for cooking.
"Unless this money is forthcoming, we will be unable to maintain services to the villas," said the notice to residents. "It is very unlikely that the villas will be available to DIFA for housing their employees at the end of the current contract." For the South Africans working for DIFA, this is a particularly serious problem. South Africans are subject to hefty fines if any of their bills are paid late. "The whole situation has made it no longer worth living here," said one South African. "All it has done is increase my debt and I cannot leave because I have not been paid either salary or end of service benefit." Arab News telephoned the director of operations of the company responsible for the compound but at the time of publication, no response had been received.
A Google search gives the following information on DIFA:
Durango Human Resource Management Services (DHRMS) is a U.S. company which recruits and assists in the administrative processing of qualified personnel to fill positions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. DIFA Operation and Maintenance is a Saudi company which employs and administers those personnel on behalf of the Royal Saudi Air Force.
DIFA O&M is a subsidiary of ZAN Trading Co. Ltd., a renowned company in the international defense community for over twenty years. DIFA was specifically founded to support the world's third largest C-130 aircraft maintenance program for the Royal Saudi Air Force. The substantial experience gained in the defense sector (hence the name DIFA, which translates into "defense") over the past years by the ZAN Group of Companies, contributes to the overall success of the operation.

So, it's a Saudi company who's stiffing the infidel maintenance troops and their families. Guess they're not too concerned about those planes being able to fly much longer.
Posted by: Steve || 10/18/2004 2:10:34 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the planes they will fly
god willing if not they not
rust wins yet again

i call this herkykoo
Posted by: half || 10/18/2004 17:08 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Karachay-Cherkess deputy prime minister assassinated
A top government leader of a republic in the volatile North Caucasus region that includes Chechnya was gunned down in broad daylight in the center of the republic's capital, Cherkessk, on Monday morning. Ansar Tebuyev, the deputy prime minister of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, was shot dead around 8 a.m. just steps away from the republic's Interior Ministry building, the Itar-Tass news agency reported, citing local police. Earlier reports said he was shot in his car as he was driving to work in the morning. Local police say they have found the car that Tebuyev's assailants were in when they shot at him. The two assailants, who were said to have used AK-47's and a grenade, reportedly drove off immediately after the shooting, witnesses say, and police are still searching for them.

The Karachay-Cherkess parliament will hold an extraordinary session on Octo. 19 to discuss crime in the region, the republic's authorities told the news agency. Seven people have gone missing in the republic over the last week. Their families have sent a telegram to the Russian authorities requesting help in finding them. Murders and attacks on business executives and state officials have continued non-stop in the republic over the last few months. Recently, local parliamentarian and forestry head Khakim Shidakov was attacked. Shidakov is currently in hospital in a grave condition.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/18/2004 6:09:36 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
Willie Brigitte and the Al-Qaeda school of terror
Willie Brigitte has told French investigators of his extraordinary journey from failed butcher to linchpin in an al-Qaida plan to launch a terror attack on Australia to prison canary. He has detailed the high-altitude paramilitary training he undertook in a vast camp overlooking the Himalayas in which he and thousands of jihad warriors were schooled in terrorism. He has told of how Osama bin Laden's allies have penetrated the Pakistani Army to thwart US efforts to crack terrorist training operations in the remote Pakistani mountain regions that border Afghanistan. A year after the French national was captured in a western Sydney apartment with documents indicating he was planning to launch an attack on Australian targets, his interrogation transcripts can be revealed in detail for the first time.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/18/2004 3:35:15 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Willie Brigitte. Isn't he the one with the lesbian wife?
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 10/18/2004 12:29 Comments || Top||

#2  the hillllls are alive....with the sound of music.....with soungs they have heard, for 1,000 years......
Posted by: goolkjdk0tlkj; || 10/18/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||


Europe
Spain Arrests 7 in Suspected Terror Plan
Police arrested seven people Monday in nationwide raids targeting a suspected Islamic terror ring that was reportedly preparing for an attack. Police described the detainees as suspected members of an active Islamic militant group, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. "The ring is composed of Muslims that are residents in Spain," the statement said. It added that the suspects allegedly were in contact with people elsewhere in Europe, the United States and Australia.
It'll be nice to roll them up, too...
The private news agency Europa Press, citing police in charge of the case, reported that the arrests were made after police detected conversations in which the suspects referred to preparations for an attack with explosives. In the conversations, it was unclear whether the suspects already had the explosives, according to Europa Press. Those arrested included at least four Algerians and one Moroccan in Madrid, El Ejido, Gandia, Malaga and Almeria. They were identified as Smail Latrech, Ali Omar "Jelloul", Djamel Merabet, Mourat Yala "Abu Anas," Ahmed Mohamed and Magid Mchmacha. One remained unidentified. Monday's operation was ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzon of Spain's National Court, which handles terrorism cases.
Fox News sez the court was the intended target. Garzon's been pretty active in chasing the thugs down and they wanted to bump him off...
Police said the operation was still open and that they don't rule out more arrests or home searches. Separately, the El Pais newspaper reported that Spanish intelligence agents warned police in November 2003 that an Algerian now identified as a ringleader of the Madrid train bombings was preparing an attack in Spain. The agents asked the Interior Ministry for urgent help in locating the suspect, Allekema Lamari, who had served jail time in Spain on terrorism charges and was considered dangerous. But the ministry did not heed the warning, the newspaper said, quoting sources close to the National Intelligence Center.
Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2004 8:26:36 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But Spain has got all it troops out of Iraq so they should be safe. SNORK

Spain will continue to be the target of attacks because they are now known cowards. Cowards get pushed around.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/18/2004 20:46 Comments || Top||

#2  I suggest Spaniards look up hotels called Al Andalus in various Arab/Moslem countries (e.g. check the one in Marrakech).

Then ponder what it means to the Moslems (e.g. check Bin Laden's whining).

Stopping a few terror cells is fine. But it's probably the least of their worries, if millions of Moslems intend to destroy Spain so as to turn it back to Al Andelus.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 10/18/2004 23:44 Comments || Top||


2 Macedonian Hostages Said Killed in Iraq
Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2004 1:02:21 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought we couldn't say Macedonian because it would set off the powder puff of Europe.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/18/2004 18:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Aris doesn't come here any more.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/18/2004 18:14 Comments || Top||


France finds big Eta arms dumps
French police have discovered two big caches of arms thought to belong to the Basque separatists Eta. The weapons found in Urrunge and Saint-Pierre d'Irrube in southwestern France included dynamite, rocket launchers, assault weapons and fake documents. The discovery on Sunday follows recent key arrests of alleged Eta leaders in raids in France and Spain. Eleven people, including suspected Eta leader Mikel Albizu, have been indicted by a Paris judge. Spanish authorities consider the arrests made during the raids on 3 October and the discovery of arms caches as possibly the most significant blow against Eta in years.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told El Pais newspaper on Sunday: "I think we are closer to the end of the violence". Sunday's operation uncovered an impressive arsenal of weapons. In Urrunge, police are said to have found 30 mortars, about 30 machine pistols, 20 assault rifles, 30 handguns, 48 anti-tank rocket launchers and 70,000 bullets. In Saint-Pierre d'Irrube, they discovered 25 kilograms of dynamite and 30 detonators, an anti-tank rocket launcher, about 60 pistols and 20 assault rifles and around 23,000 bullets.
That's one impressive gun collection.
Eta has been fighting for more than 30 years for an independent Basque state.
Posted by: Steve || 10/18/2004 9:46:37 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Funny how the frogs can find this stuff now that Zappy has gone supine.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/18/2004 9:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Why do they have all this crap? They never use it. All ETA seems to do is booby-trap a car to blow up some poor traffic cop on his way to work in the morning.

Maybe they just pile it up in the "secret hideout" and take their girlfriends to see it on Saturday night to impress them.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 10/18/2004 10:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Why do they have all this crap?

Weapons stash is for the day they rise up to seize power after they get the Spanish government to agree to a seperate Basque state. Can't take the chance they might not get elected to run that state.
Posted by: Steve || 10/18/2004 10:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Funny how the frogs can find this stuff now that Zappy has gone supine.

It's one of the many member benefits you get when you join the French Club.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/18/2004 12:14 Comments || Top||


Germany waiting to extradite Darkazanli
German authorities on Saturday said they were awaiting a formal request from Spain to extradite a Syrian-German businessman suspected of being a key al-Qaeda figure. Mamoun Darkazanli, 46, was taken into custody in Hamburg on Friday under a Spanish warrant. Spanish authorities allege that Darkazanli, who can be seen in a 1999 video at a wedding with some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, was "the permanent contact person and assistant of Osama bin Laden in Germany," according to a statement from Hamburg authorities. He is accused of having given logistical and financial support to the network in Spain, Germany and Britain since 1997. Hamburg judicial spokeswoman Sabine Westphalen said authorities are awaiting a formal extradition request from Spain. That would be followed by a court decision on whether to allow the extradition, which the German government would have to endorse. "The government sees no obstacles to an extradition at present, assuming all legal requirements are met," Justice Ministry spokeswoman Eva Schmierer said.
"Please, just come and get him. We want him gone."
Darkazanli's lawyer refused to comment on the accusations against his client, complaining that Spanish authorities have yet to present him with the indictment. "So long as we are not familiar with the files and the accusations, we are not going to say anything," lawyer Andreas Beurskens said by telephone. He did say Darkazanli has said "he has done nothing criminal or worthy of reproach."
Depending, of course, on how one defines one's terms.
Darkazanli faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted of membership in a terrorist organization. German authorities said Friday they arrested Darkazanli because he was a flight risk. The weekly Der Spiegel reported that Darkazanli's wife had left for his native Syria before his arrest, but Beurskens denied that.
"She's, um, washing her hair right now..."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/18/2004 3:11:00 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  who can be seen in a 1999 video at a wedding with some of the Sept. 11 hijackers

Another islamic weding, another al-Qaeda get-togther. This is why they developed the "Wedding Seeker" guidance software.
Posted by: Steve || 10/18/2004 8:26 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Looks like there's another Canuck in Chechnya
The mystery surrounding the reported death last week of a Canadian in warn-torn Chechyna deepened today with word that another B.C. man with him apparently is missing. A Foreign Affairs spokesman confirmed the department has been asked to look into the second man's whereabouts. "The information has been brought to our attention and the Canadian embassy in Moscow has been instructed to run the information by the relevant Russian authorities," Reynald Doiron said from Ottawa. News reports have identified the man as Kamal Elbahja of suburban Maple Ridge. He was reportedly travelling with Rudwan Khalil Abubaker of Vancouver, whom Russian authorities said last today was killed in strife-torn Chechnya.
That's a heck of a wrong turn from Kamloops.
Russian officials said the man they identified as Rudwan Khalil was killed along with three gunmen by special forces in a mountainous region of the southern republic. A Russian television report included video of a Canadian passport and B.C. driver's licence in the name of Rudwan Khalil. Foreign Affairs had no explanation for the discrepancy in the names.
Duh. Abubaker is his "Lion of Islam (TM)" nom de mujahid. But why should the vaunted Cdn Department of Foreign Affairs be expected to know that?
But lawyer Phil Rankin, representing Abubaker's family, said it may have originated in documents when Abubaker and his older siblings came to Canada as refugees in the 1980s. Rankin has been hired to help the family retrieve Abubaker's body from Chechnya. "They would like to see if he's dead or not," Rankin said in an interview. "They're not sure because they've never seen the picture of his body."
Insert your own Monty Python joke ---> Here.
Doiron said Russian authorities have not yet confirmed Abubaker's identity or provided details on how he died.
Painfully, we hope.
Russian officials claimed the man they called Khalil was an explosives expert working with militant insurgents fighting to split Chechnya from the Russian federation. A spokesman at the Russian embassy in Ottawa said today he had no new information about the case. Rankin said Abubaker's family reported he and Elbahja went to Dubai for a holiday and visited Abubaker's father in Saudi Arabia.
Soddy Arabia, you say? Hmmmmmmm...yes, it's all very mysterious.
The family got a call from a cousin in Dubai in late August saying he and Elbahja had decided to go to Azerbaijan, which borders on Chechnya, to attend the wedding of friend Azar Tagiev. The trip would have required travelling to Russia to get a connecting flight to Baku, capital of the former Soviet republic.
Azerbaijani weddings usually require a pit stop for automatic weapons and ammo too...
Tagiev, 31, was an immigrant to Canada living in the Vancouver area before returning to his homeland last May, according to his former boss. "This was a man that decided to go and immerse himself in religion," said Percy von Lipinski, president of Visa Connection Ltd., which helps travellers to arrange visas to many foreign countries.
Gotta love a name like Percy von Lipinski.
Abubaker, 26, was born in the Sudanese city of Kassala but grew up in Vancouver. He completed a computer software program at Vancouver Community College but worked as a salesman in a clothing store and as a sometime model and movie extra. A spokeswoman for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service would not comment on the family's report they were visited by CSIS agents last Saturday.
Born in Sudan, studying computers in Canada, friends with employees of Percy the visa fixer, father in Soddiland, found dead in Chechnya. A quiet boy, kept to himself.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/18/2004 3:29:57 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I was just up in Toronto. Lots of south asians and "halal" signs in restaurants. Watch out Canucks, or those immigration policies will come back to bite you.
Posted by: Spot || 10/18/2004 8:56 Comments || Top||

#2  And they're about to break ground for one of those wahhab Mega-Mosques in T.O. as well...
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/18/2004 9:28 Comments || Top||

#3  ohfergawdsakes!
Posted by: Rafael || 10/18/2004 13:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Why is it that the Canadians we hear about in these reports never seem to have names like "Ian McCormick" or "John Westminster"? Am I the only one who notices a distinct pattern in their names?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste || 10/18/2004 15:49 Comments || Top||

#5  That's not very tolerant of you, SBB. Polite people are raised not to notice such things, and certainly not to raise the issue in public.
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/18/2004 16:05 Comments || Top||

#6  If they once had names like that, Steven, they abandoned them in favor of muslim names when they converted. Either that, or they used Canada as a transit point in their life-long odessy for jihad and Islam.

"Aye, I be Ian McCormick unt I be gangin' tuh Chechnya tuh tak oot the Infidel Roosians, Inshallah!"

And that's the last we saw or heard from our boyhood chum Ian......***sigh***
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2004 16:07 Comments || Top||

#7  they sound like Esquimeaux to me... is that what SDB's referring to?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2004 16:11 Comments || Top||

#8  "Aye, I be Ian McCormick unt I be gangin' tuh Chechnya tuh tak oot the Infidel Roosians, Inshallah!"

Thanks a lot, AP; that made me fall out of my chair onto the floor, now I think I've broke something.
Posted by: Dave D. || 10/18/2004 16:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Dave D.---Normally I would put a coffee or floor alert before my posting, but it would ruin the spontaniety of the little ditty. Please accept my humble apologies to the accelerated depreciation of your frame.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2004 17:05 Comments || Top||

#10  It is amazing how narrow-minded and full of hate all of you are. You do not even now the man and you are willing to malign Mr. Khalil in a sadistic fashion. That is why we have wars and pain and suffering; there are too many hateful people who jump to conclusions. The end result is they act on their stupid assumptions, and we have chaos and strife. Do me a favor; get some reading done on the history of that region and the man before you post such cocksure comments. Civil discourse!!! Yeah, right.
Posted by: Ulique Clavise4987 || 10/21/2004 16:41 Comments || Top||

#11  You know what, I personally knew Rudwan, and none of that bullshit about him being a "bomb expert" is true. The dude was a model, and not a terrorist.
Posted by: Jennifer || 10/23/2004 11:49 Comments || Top||

#12  a dead model in Chechnya, huh, Jennifer?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/23/2004 11:54 Comments || Top||

#13  Can you describe for us the modelling gig he had in Chechnya? Are AK47s and explosives fashion accessories in Vancouver?
Posted by: ed || 10/23/2004 11:55 Comments || Top||

#14  Thats not fucking funny. He was a good friend of mine, and he was taking a connecting flight in Chechnya to go to one of his friends weddings. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
Posted by: Jennifer || 10/23/2004 16:17 Comments || Top||

#15  Hmmmm - Jennifer and Ibraheem/CandyMan 2001 sound soooooo much alike I could almost hear both lies at once.
Posted by: Frank G || 10/23/2004 16:28 Comments || Top||

#16  Even if legit - coming to Rantburg is idiocy. Mourn your friend in private. All else is JERKING OFF IN PUBLIC.
Posted by: .com || 10/23/2004 16:30 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Brave Mujahideen Attack Five Christian Churches in Baghdad
From Jihad Unspun
Mujahideen rocked five Christian churches in four Baghdad neighborhoods early Saturday detonating bombs at five churches in a series of explosions from 4:20 a.m. to 6 a.m. [no date]. No casualties were reported in what is said to be have been a final warning to Iraq's Christian community.

Sources close to the Mujahideen have communicated their reasons for the attacks to be that in the Christians have aligned themselves with the US-backed government and the US, rather than rejecting the occupation of the country. Iraq is a Muslim country made up of approximately 26 million Muslims and Christian's number about 700,000. While the Christian ordinarily enjoy the protection of the Mujahideen Iraq is now at war and the Christians have enjoined the coalition by working for Iraqi government ministries and groups set up by coalition authorities.

Iraq's Christians have been warned in the past by the Mujahideen, along with all Muslim in Iraq, not to support the puppet regime headed by the former CIA operative and apostate Iyaad Allawi but rather to voice support for the people of Iraq who are resisting the Crusader occupation. As the Christian communities have declared their support to both the current US-backed government, the previous Iraqi government and the USA publicly, they are now considered legitimate targets. Indeed it appears that Saturday blasts at multiple locations were to be a final warning. While mainstream media are slyly linking the bombings to the start of the month of Ramadan, it's unlikely that anyone disputes the fact that this is a war on Islam.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 10/18/2004 8:47:23 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My advice would be to swap the 700,000 christians in Iraq for the 2.8 million muslims in America!
Posted by: smn || 10/18/2004 22:43 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Nepal govt accepts Maoist rebel truce offer
KATHMANDU: Nepal accepted on Monday a nine-day truce declared by Maoist insurgents to allow the troubled country celebrate a Hindu festival and said government troops would not launch military action during the period. The government's announcement came three days after the Maoists, fighting to replace constitutional monarchy with communist rule, said they would suspend "all armed operations" from Oct. 20 to 28 to mark the Dasain festival. "There will be no offensive (action) from our side," Mohammed Mohsin, Nepal's information and communication minister, told reporters. "If there is any sabotage against us and if anyone tries to disturb peace the government will be on high alert to maintain peace," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2004 8:23:47 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Two more Hizbut Tehrir activists arrested
Police arrested two members of the banned Hizbut Tehrir (HT) group in Karachi on Monday for distributing leaflets which denounced the government's pro-US policies. The two men, both in their 20s, were arrested from two separate neighbourhoods in eastern Karachi, police said. "They have been booked under the anti-terrorism law," said Ahmed Yar Chohan, a superintendent of police. "They could face a jail term of up to five years if convicted," he said. The group, formed in Jerusalem in 1953, started operations in Pakistan only three years ago. But the government, a staunch ally of Washington in the war on terror, banned it last year. Hizbut Tehrir wants to remove the pro-US government of President Pervez Musharraf and establish a pan-Islamic state. The small, secretive group has a following among educated and professional Pakistanis, many with British and US passports. Some militant groups have carried out attacks on government officials, Westerners and religious minorities, but Hizb says militancy was not on its agenda.
Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2004 8:22:30 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Chinese suspend work on Gomal Zam Dam
Could have something to do with the dead guy, I guess...
Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2004 8:12:30 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “At the moment we are not pushing them to resume work because of the trauma at losing a colleague,” said the WAPDA official. “As soon as they are over the trauma, they will start working.”

Ok, you guys, I know that it has been traumatic to lose one of your mates, but we also have problems, too. We have a dam to build. Do you think that you will be over your trauma by, say, Wednesday at 0800? Thanks very much, and may we offer our condolances. Have a nice day.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2004 21:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Your right on Alaska Paul, The chinese caring about one man in an industrial accident is like a mile long line of fire ants being concerned over the last one being stepped on by one of us! I suspect the work stoppage is related to the shifting of payrole funds to the behemoth of their military, at crunch times!
Posted by: smn || 10/18/2004 23:08 Comments || Top||


India's Most Wanted Bandit Killed in Shootout
Police have shot dead India's most wanted bandit Koose Muniswamy Veerappan, accused of chopping up many of the more than 100 people he killed, officials said on Tuesday. Veerappan, who operated from southern jungles and was believed to have ties with Tamil militants that officials said extended to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, hit world headlines in 2000 when he held film star Rajkumar hostage for 108 days. The bandit -- who was in his 50s, sported a long twirling mustache, wore military camouflage and had bloodshot eyes -- was dubbed the "Jungle Cat" for his deep knowledge of the forests and his ability to imitate wild animal sounds. Government officials hailed his killing as a major law and order success, having offered a five million rupee ($109,000) bounty -- a high reward by Indian standards.

"It is with a sense of pride and fulfilment that I wish to announce ... the good news that the notorious forest brigand, bandit, murderer and dacoit Veerappan, along with his entire gang, has been shot dead," said the chief minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Jayaram Jayalalithaa. Veerappan was once seen by local people as a modern day Robin Hood and eluded troops and police in the vast jungles straddling the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for more than a decade. Indian media reports said he chopped rivals into several pieces before throwing them into rivers, shot and killed policemen as they slept and once beheaded a senior forest official. The shootout took place in a Tamil Nadu village 6 miles from the town of Dharmapuri, about 75 miles southeast of Bangalore, capital of Karnataka, when Veerappan's gang was traveling in a vehicle, Jayalalithaa said. He said Veerappan did not respond to a call to surrender and fired instead, leading to the shootout.

In December 2002, a regional politician was found dead after three months as a captive of Veerappan. Veerappan was also accused of killing thousands of elephants for their tusks and smuggling sandalwood and ivory worth millions of dollars. The gang staged ambushes, made bombs and planted land-mines that blew up buses carrying police. A special police force set up by the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states and the federal Border Security Force hunted for Veerappan for years. A photograph of the Tamil-speaking Veerappan emerged in 1993 when he gave his first newspaper interview to a Tamil language bi-weekly. The black and white photograph had been shot when Veerappan was arrested in 1986 on suspicion of smuggling. On that occasion he managed to escape by slipping out of handcuffs.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/18/2004 7:30:37 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  http://www.webulagam.com/news/regional/images/2000_08/0802_veerappan.jpg
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/18/2004 19:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Koose Muniswamy
Well, what can ya say?
Was he one of ours?
Posted by: Shipman || 10/18/2004 19:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Now, those are some moustachios!
Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2004 20:29 Comments || Top||

#4  ***wags index finger*** He was a veddy veddy veddy bahd mon!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2004 20:36 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Iraq: Aussie hostage released
Posted by: tipper || 10/18/2004 17:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi police take down 'hostage house' in Kirkuk
Iraqi Police Service officers from the Meghdad Police Department in Kirkuk in Northern Iraq seized seven suspected kidnappers, Tuesday, from a believed hostage house after intercepting two kidnap victims fleeing from four armed men in the city. Officers moved to the home in the Wahid Huzayray area after questioning the victims and calling for backup. A single individual was detained in the initial search and interrogated, leading officers to a second suspect in the Arafa neighborhood of Kirkuk. Officers watched over the home and nabbed five additional individuals later returning to the home. In the operation police also seized five AK-47s with ammunition, one Egyptian grenade, various knives, Iraqi National Guard and U.S. Army desert combat uniforms, multiple currencies and bank checks, and two bottles of Ketamine — a rapid acting disassociative anesthetic similar to phencyclidine (PCP) used to subdue victims.
Zowie.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/18/2004 4:40:00 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred---that is one picture of some MEAN hand tools! ****shudders****
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2004 17:08 Comments || Top||

#2  five AK-47s with ammunition, one Egyptian grenade, various knives, Iraqi National Guard and U.S. Army desert combat uniforms, multiple currencies and bank checks, and two bottles of Ketamine

Shoot a fella could have a purdy good time in Cairo with this stuff....

/Kong
Posted by: Shipman || 10/18/2004 17:32 Comments || Top||

#3  The lacy underwear is a nice touch. ;)
Posted by: BH || 10/18/2004 17:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Good eye BH, I didn't catch the lacy panties. But please no tampons - we do have our standards to maintain....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/18/2004 17:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Well done, IP. Welcome to the ranks of the big boys!
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/18/2004 17:46 Comments || Top||

#6  Are you Emily?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/18/2004 18:03 Comments || Top||

#7  Now some other-than-innocent heads need to roll!

Off with their heads, butter-knife style please!
Posted by: Atropanthe || 10/18/2004 18:09 Comments || Top||

#8  Iraqi National Guard and U.S. Army desert combat uniforms

That would explain how they got around with the captives. Who's going to question the "good guys" about kidnappings?
Posted by: Charles || 10/18/2004 18:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Ketamine! That is nothing but torture on top of torture. It is a tranquilizer, but not nothing like what you would associate with tranquil.

Ketamine + torture + jihadi maniacs + dull knives. Your worst vision of Natural Born Killers psycho nightmare is nothing compared to what they are obviously putting these poor "infidels" through.

Off with their fucking worthless piece of pig shit jihadi heads, wrap them in bacon and bury them in the latrine.
Posted by: Atropanthe || 10/18/2004 18:59 Comments || Top||

#10  Ketamine + torture + jihadi maniacs + dull knives.

Actually, I've been thinking that the reason you don't see more Italian-style resistance is that they dope the poor bastards up before hacking off their heads. Maybe this theory falls under the category of "bloody obvious", but I don't believe I've seen it mentioned in the media.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 10/18/2004 19:40 Comments || Top||

#11  Do you mean me, Mrs. D? No, I'm not Emily. I think that's Seafarious.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/18/2004 19:53 Comments || Top||

#12  Yes, I meant you. Well, happy birthday Emily, whomever you are.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/18/2004 20:11 Comments || Top||

#13  I've been thinking that the reason you don't see more Italian-style resistance is that they dope the poor bastards up before hacking off their heads.

Perhaps this is true, but they definitely aren't doping them up with Ketamine when they shoot the actual snuff film. A person doped with ketamine is in no condition to do anything, much less read a statement to the camera before the Zarqawi butter-knife is applied.

Perhaps they use the ketamine when trasnporting their victims between what hopefully appears to be becoming not-so-safe houses.
Posted by: Atropanthe || 10/18/2004 20:30 Comments || Top||

#14  Well done, Iraqi friends.
Posted by: Mike || 10/18/2004 20:40 Comments || Top||

#15  Mrs. D, I am Emily, and thanks for the birthday wishes. Just had a delightful tapas dinner with 20 friends. Give my best to Mr. Davis, we haven't seen him in a while. :-)
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/18/2004 23:45 Comments || Top||


Firepower Demonstration For Iraqi Locals
FORWARD OPERATING BASE CALDWELL, Iraq — Iraqi Security Force's 30th Brigade Combat Team conducted a joint firepower demonstration with Multi-National Forces at the Kirkush Military Training Base on Oct. 14. The joint firepower demonstration was to show key Iraqi leaders and the local population the ability and resolve of Multi-National Forces to support the Iraqi Security Forces. Multi-National Forces synchronized the effects of artillery, aviation, and Iraqi Army ground maneuver forces, demonstrating Multi-National Force's and Iraqi Security Force's precision ability to eliminate threats while minimizing collateral damage and preventing civilian causalities. Local mayors, sheiks, and military leaders saw how accurate information on terrorists can lead to precise strikes reducing the danger to innocent people.
Message sent, "This could be you".
Posted by: Steve || 10/18/2004 2:57:55 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "And that there is called a 'can of whupass'. Would you like some? No? Then you know what to do..."
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2004 15:22 Comments || Top||

#2  LOL.
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/18/2004 15:23 Comments || Top||

#3  That there is a can of Whupass.....
We got a 55 gallon unopened drum at camp.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/18/2004 17:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Message sent: "tell us where the bad guys are, and we'll take care of them with no collateral damage -- trust us, just watch this..."
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 10/18/2004 23:52 Comments || Top||


SECURITY OPERATIONS CONTINUE IN FALLUJAH
FALLUJAH, Iraq - Multi-National Force-Iraq continued increased security operations Oct. 17 to isolate anti-Iraqi forces in order to disrupt their capabilities to plan, coordinate and execute criminal acts against the Iraqi people and government. Iraqi security forces and Marines with the I Marine Expeditionary Force continue to man positions outside the city and have established vehicle checkpoints. Since Oct. 14, the combined force has conducted coordinated actions to locate, isolate and defeat terrorist groups. The effort is part of an operation to stop terrorists from conducting attacks throughout Iraq.
During operations Oct. 17, Marines returned insurgent small arms fire, sniper fire, mortar fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The Marines engaged with small arms fire, crew-served weapons, main tank guns, and artilery. The attack originated from positions and buildings in eastern and southern Fallujah. Insurgents then fired accurate and sustained small arms fire that escalated to heavy machine gun and indirect fire during a firefight lasting just over nine hours.
After close air support was requested and several precision-guided munitions were dropped, insurgents were seen putting their mortar tubes into a taxi and pickup trucks then driving to a mosque. They were witnessed entering a mosque. Marines did not fire upon the mosque.
That'll be cleared by Iraqi forces at a later date.

The strikes successfully took out the buildings from which insurgents were located. Other strikes interdicted mortar teams and anti-Iraqi forces. Multiple fighter aircraft, expending various types of precision munitions, were used on more than 10 AIF positions. The air strikes began late morning and continued into the afternoon.
Posted by: Steve || 10/18/2004 2:48:02 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  kick butt.
forget the names.
collect the body parts.
send them home to mama in soddie, syria, gaza, yemen, iran, chechnya and any place else that fosters these sub humans.
Posted by: anymouse || 10/18/2004 18:05 Comments || Top||


Fallujans flee en masse, Zarqawi's gonna fight
The collapse of peace talks between Fallujah representatives and the Iraqi government signaled an end of hope for Ahmad Salim last Thursday. The generator mechanic loaded his tearful family into a car and escaped the embattled city of Fallujah by way of dusty farm tracks.

Already 80 percent of the city's population of 300,000 has made the same decision, he estimates, even as the intense US bombardments over the weekend gave way to relative quiet Monday.

"We were happy when the negotiations started, but were shocked when they arrested [chief Fallujah representative Sheikh Khaled] al-Jumaili," says Mr. Salim, speaking at a relative's home in Baghdad, where he has brought his wife and three children to wait out the conflict. "I think the Americans will wipe Fallujah from the map."

Salim's thinking provides a glimpse into the world view of ordinary Fallujans, who say they are torn between their wish for peace, their opposition to the US presence, and their disgust for the tactics of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which include suicide bombings, attacks, and kidnappings of foreigners that have ended in gruesome videotaped beheadings.

Iraq's interim government has vowed to "smash" all resistance before January elections. After months of ignoring Sunni strongholds like Fallujah - virtual no-go zones - US forces earlier this month began a major, rolling offensive to reclaim insurgent territory.

The US push now is to conquer Fallujah, root out the local resistance, and eject Zarqawi and his band of foreign militants. But the release Monday of Mr. Jumaili, after three days, illustrates the delicate nature of the cold-then-hot US approach. Fallujans were "surprised" at his detention, and upon release, Jumaili declared that talks would not resume.

"I think the residents of Fallujah don't want this sort of peace," the bearded cleric said after his release. "They want a real peace, not a peace that stabs in the back and strikes and destroys homes and kills women."

On Monday, Allawi told Iraq's National Council that an "olive branch" is still being offered to Fallujah representatives, but he said, "We shall not be lenient in regard to the question of maintaining security and granting security to every Iraqi."

Complicating the picture is the interim government's demand that Fallujans hand over Mr. Zarqawi. City negotiators say that task is "impossible," and claim that the Jordanian militant is not in the city.

In a declaration issued on the Internet - surprising for its timing, if not its substance - Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group on Sunday pledged its allegiance to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda's strategy of battling the "enemies of Islam." Some analysts say that the announcement was an attempt by Zarqawi to entice new recruits.

As the Americans step up aggressive tactics against the city and prospects for a negotiated settlement appear to dim, civilians tired of the conflict are fleeing.

"Violence begets violence," says Salim. "Of course we are against these terrorist operations. No Muslim would allow himself to cut someone's throat. Our holy book says: 'If you capture someone, you must feed them, even with your own food.' "

But just as Salim rejects Zarqawi's methods, he also believes that Fallujah has been unfairly singled out for attack.

"We hate anyone who comes to [occupy] our city. Most people refuse to allow foreign [fighters] to go there," says Salim. "There are many operations across Iraq - car bombs, mortars, everything - not just in Fallujah. Why do they insist [on targeting] Fallujah, and one man?"

Salim says his experience is common to many Fallujans, who have been rattled by weeks of nightly airstrikes and fearful expectations of an imminent US-led military siege and push on the city that promises heavy casualties on both sides.

When the US Marines engaged the Fallujah resistance for three weeks last April - in the aftermath of the killing and mutilation of four American contractors - more than 100 marines and 600 Iraqis died. US forces have since ceded the city to the resistance.

The result is new fear that is tearing at family social fabric, which Iraqis say has only hardened attitudes against American efforts.

Throughout the conversation, Salim's young face lights up only once: when describing the purchase of new clothes and schoolbooks for his two oldest children.

Classes began Oct. 1, and lasted just two days. Since then, the children have hardly slept, their parents say, kept awake by the constant crash and vibrations of explosions.

"I'm afraid because the planes bomb our district and we can't go to school," says Salim's 10-year-old son Ala. "We can't go to school for fear of attack."

Salim turns up the volume of the television, as the Al Jazeera channel shows headlines of several wounded children in a Fallujah hospital, and reports that the US bombing intensified on Sunday.

Media reports cited witnesses, who said that during a nine-hour battle Sunday, US forces fired on a family trying to escape, killing all five. News agencies reported Fallujah doctors saying that four civilians were killed, including a child.

"We are just concerned with living in safety," says Salim's wife, who wears a conservative white head wrap over a black shawl. "Sure, when you leave your city you are sad. We've left a father and mother and a house and more family. We are always thinking about them."

Personal experience with civilian casualties during the latest surge of fighting, and the battles last April, convinced the Salim family to go.

"What did this teach us about the Americans?" asks Mrs. Salim. "First we thought the Americans came to liberate our country, but now our conclusion is the opposite. We know they came to destroy our country."

Reversing that perception will not be easy, in a city where US and Iraqi forces are erring on the side of striking first and asking questions later.

One source close to the Iraqi leadership says that US airstrikes are "hitting a lot of people, [and] not that every one is a target. The intelligence isn't great - but there comes a point when you just go."

Though the US asserts that nearly every attack is a "precision strike" on a target related to Zarqawi's network, civilians have inevitably died is the urban environment.

Some were killed two weeks ago, when a huge air-dropped bomb landed a few hundred yards from Salim's house at 2 a.m. - a wake-up call that shook the family to their core. The children came running to their father's bed, looking for sanctuary.

"I held all my family together and said: 'We die just once in this life, not twice. Thank God, [the bombing] was far from us.'" Salim recalls. Within 30 minutes - after waiting, in case of a second US strike - Salim made his way in the dark down to the two-family house that was targeted.

He will never forget the image that greeted him, and never forgive.

"Most of them were children, all of them dead," Salim says, of the families he helped dig out of the rubble with bare hands. "When something happens, everybody runs there to help rescue, like an ambulance - maybe a friend will be [the victim] there."

Salim says he gave blood twice that day. And there are other shortages - especially of anesthetics. The targeted house often hosts weddings and other gatherings. "Maybe the Americans thought: Why are there so many cars there? The father had a trucking business."

Whatever the reasons, the lesson for the Salim family was that their survival was at risk in Fallujah, regardless of their political views.

"I can't describe the feelings of that day," says Mrs. Salim, recalling her husband's vivid description of the bomb scene. "It's not just fear for your family - maybe your neighbor or a relative can be killed, by a misfired rocket, maybe randomly. Even walking in the street."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/18/2004 2:54:45 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Salim’s thinking provides a glimpse into the world view of ordinary Fallujans, who say they are torn between their wish for peace, their opposition to the US presence, and their disgust for the tactics of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which include suicide bombings, attacks, and kidnappings of foreigners that have ended in gruesome videotaped beheadings.

This sentence sums up the problems and tough choices of the civilians in Fallujah. Nobody wants an occupying power in their land, even if it is us lovable cuddly Merkins. However, due to circumstances beyond their control, Fallujah has become one of those points of focus and conflict in the WoT, just like innumerable other towns in WW2, Korea, Viet Nam, etc.

Because of the nature of the conflict, civilians wanting to be left alone and hoping to be left out of the conflict will realize that they will not get what they want. They will have 4 choices:
1. Flee Fallujah for a while until the conflict ends and hope that their homes were not trashed or destroyed during the conflict.
2. Throw their lot in with Zarqawi in hopes that he will win.
3. Assist the Coalition in ratting out Zarqawi and his minions so these thugs and their heinous activities are forever gone from Fallujah.
4. Straddle the fence and play both sides.

The head of the household will pick No. 1 if he values the safety and existance of his family.

Picking No. 2 means that he is an idiot, as it is only a matter of time before the terrorists are exterminated.

Picking No. 3 would be a couragous thing to do, but it is fraught with danger, esp. to his family.

Picking No. 4 means that he is a total moron.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2004 15:34 Comments || Top||

#2  We may or may not bag Zaraqawi personally, but there is no doubt at all that his cannon-fodder will be slaughtered in a sniper-fest of unprecented proportions. In making a 19th century technology, the sniper rifle, our most feared weapon, US forces have directly confronted and destroyed one of the left's favorite strawmen, that American forces are cowards who rely solely much on high technology.
I seriously think that we should further defy international propaganda by displaying Zaraqawi's severed head on television, thereby exposing the craven hypocrisy of those who would react with horror and outrage to this after doing everything possible to justify Zarqawi's own, much worse, outrages.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/18/2004 15:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Er, "unprecedented"
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/18/2004 15:57 Comments || Top||

#4  I second that notion, Atomic Conspiracy; either show his head on TV, or prod him in public with his genitals removed!
Posted by: smn || 10/18/2004 16:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Do you think that Al-Jazz would play the pic of Zarqawi's head on a stick, or would that be too in-sennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn-sitive?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2004 16:11 Comments || Top||

#6  oh! the humiliation! the Arab Street™ would seethe!
Posted by: Frank G || 10/18/2004 16:12 Comments || Top||

#7  the "Ultimate Humiliation" for Zarqawi's "Ultimate Jihad" -

Through him in a vat full of of pig guts, heads and feet, used sanitary napkins, piss, and brown trout. Make him wallow around in that for a while and then parade him down the street nude, in chains with panties on his head, and on 2 leashes that are led by a dog and monkey while people spit on him.

I'd execute him by suffocation by stuffing pages from Allan's Korn down his throat.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 10/18/2004 16:21 Comments || Top||

#8  This sentence sums up the problems and tough choices of the civilians in Fallujah.

It's not rocket science, and the seeming inability of the typical Fallujan to comprehend the matter is rather pathetic. The problem is the presence of Zarqawi and people of his mindset, and when these types are finally tossed out, peace will surely follow. The only question is whether Iraqis or the U.S. will do it. And a U.S. presence is going to be unavoidable, so these idiots are going to have to get used to it. They could help themselves a lot more if they decided to wise up and straighten their act out.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/18/2004 16:29 Comments || Top||

#9  "Violence begets violence," says Salim

Heh! Got that right, Salim. Fallujans allowed the "insurgents" to beget violence on our troops and now the Fallujans are going to beget'n it back in a very big way.

Since 9/11, the only wha-wha-wha that Americans are interested in is that from our victims here at home.
Posted by: 2b || 10/18/2004 16:32 Comments || Top||

#10  someone explain too me why we keep having peace talks with a bunch of killers who are against peace?
Posted by: smokeysinse || 10/18/2004 17:07 Comments || Top||

#11  Number 4 is the arab way AP and we must be senstive to their nuances.

Or shoot them, whichever is cheaper.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/18/2004 17:37 Comments || Top||

#12  Number 4 is what the ME keeps trying. We must show them a better way, be it JDAM, Barrett, etc., or sitting down and reasoning together in the spirit of brotherly love and the fellowship of man. (Backed by JDAM, Barrett, etc.)
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/18/2004 17:47 Comments || Top||

#13  someone explain too me why we keep having peace talks with a bunch of killers who are against peace?

So we have time to lay out all the best lines of fire?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/18/2004 18:17 Comments || Top||

#14  Seems like the prudent thing to do is get Zarquawi and his thugs ASAP. This should straighten out a lot of problems both here and there.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 10/18/2004 18:39 Comments || Top||

#15  I'd play a tune on my nanoviolin, but I sneezed and have no idea where it is now on my desk...
Posted by: Ptah || 10/18/2004 19:10 Comments || Top||

#16  "I think the Americans will wipe Fallujah from the map." Ok who leaked our Super Secret plan? I hope this is the plan, if not it ought to be!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/18/2004 19:15 Comments || Top||

#17  dont mean get offn subject and mebe you guys are already discuss this but ima see this lefty blogs today http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7077.htm. any truth you guys are know to this? is china have osama?
Posted by: muck4doo || 10/18/2004 21:02 Comments || Top||

#18  Mucky that is some wacked out moonbatery.
If China had Ossama they would be publicizing it.
They have nothing to gain by hiding him and trading him to "Bush"
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/18/2004 21:15 Comments || Top||

#19  Well, Mucky, you've provided a link. That's evidence. Incontrovertible. I'm Sold.
Posted by: Mickey Silvester || 10/18/2004 21:16 Comments || Top||

#20  yeah thatn what im figure. just wanted know ifn anyone else was heard somthin like this. theres lotsa peples out there right now who are believe it. figured i was ask you guys first.
Posted by: muck4doo || 10/18/2004 21:19 Comments || Top||

#21  Personally, I think the 21st century world needs an "example" city - something like Dresden in World War II - to represent the idea that local communities who side with arch-terrorists - or even tolerate their presence - lose their rights to persist as recognizable human habitations.

As far as I am concerned, if educated people all over the world - the next 100 - or even 1,000 years - whisper the name "Fallujah"in referring to the ultimate destruction that can befall a small town that sponsors terrorist assholes - the the people of Fallujah will have fulfilled their destinies.

Cry me a river ....

Forever more: "This shattered landscape is what is left of the site that was once known as the town of Fallujah - before the inhabitants allowed foreign terrorists to take over"
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 10/18/2004 21:26 Comments || Top||

#22  Which should we sue, MOAB plus or MOAB Pro?
Posted by: Mickey Silvester || 10/18/2004 21:32 Comments || Top||

#23  After they get him...Can I buy Zarqawi's balls? I would like to hang them over my fireplace for christmas, along with two little bells!
Posted by: smn || 10/18/2004 23:22 Comments || Top||

#24  Raze Fallujah and salt the ground. Film it. Distribute DVDs. Make sure it becomes a legend told thousands of years from now, as the destruction of Carthage is still told.

I am very serious.

That town must be made an example. It doesn't matter how many people die there (or rather it does, as it did in Hiroshima, Dresden, Tokyo, and Berlin). If we are going to WIN this WAR we must be willing to DESTROY the ENEMY no matter how many INNOCENTS die BECAUSE of the enemy's EVIL actions.

If we shrink from destroying the enemy's nest, the West is doomed.

And by the way, the enemy's true nests are in Mecca and Tehran.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 10/19/2004 0:03 Comments || Top||


Militant Site Announces Fighter's Death
A statement posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Sunday made a rare announcement of the death of a member of the terror group Tawhid and Jihad, said to have been killed fighting the Americans in Fallujah. The announcement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, said Sheik Abu Hafs al-Libi "fell as a martyr on the field of battle while he was fighting the American forces and their traitorous agents," meaning Iraqi government forces. He was identified as the head of a commission of Tawhid and Jihad, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Commission? Or shura?
It was unclear when al-Libi, which may be a pseudonym, was killed, but U.S. and Iraqi government forces have been attacking targets around Fallujah for the past four days. Tawhid and Jihad, as well as other insurgent groups in Iraq, rarely announce the deaths of members. It also was unusual to declare that he was killed in Fallujah since leaders of the Sunni Triangle city have disputed U.S. and Iraqi government statements that members of the terror organization are fighting there. The announcement was posted on the Web site of Ansar al-Sunnah, said to be a separate insurgent group active in Sunni Muslim areas of the country. The statement vowed to avenge the death of the official.
Ansar al-Sunnah is a "breakaway" from Ansar al-Islam, but it doesn't look like the fracture runs very deep.

Even though I don't know who he is — and it sounds like we should know the name, though that might be because of all the Abu Hafs' running around in the Wonderful World of Terror — because they saw fit to announce it specially, and on the assumption AP's translating "shura" as "commission," I'm giving him a Fat Lady. Let the ululation begin!
Posted by: Fred || 10/18/2004 1:15:32 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He's changed his name to Abu Gatta Bubu
Posted by: BH || 10/18/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Did they give an address where we can send JDAMs flowers?
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/18/2004 14:51 Comments || Top||

#3  sorry. sympathy meter ot registering anything.
Posted by: anymouse || 10/18/2004 15:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Here's some possibles:
ANAS AL-LIBY, AKA: Anas Al-Sabai, Anas Al-Libi, Nazih Al-Raghie, Nazih Abdul Hamed Al-Raghie. Anas Al-Liby is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.

Mafouz Ould Walid, a Mauritanian also known as "Abu Hafs" whom U-S officials had reported killed in Afghanistan in January. A U-S official who spoke to V-O-A acknowledged there were "indications" that the Mauritanian, Abu Hafs, survived the military assault and may have fled into Iranian territory.

Lot's of guys whose names are close, it's a bitch trying to keep them straight.
Posted by: Steve || 10/18/2004 15:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Daffy duck, pliers, the rack, metres of all varieties just can't compete with the original illustration of illustrations.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/18/2004 17:39 Comments || Top||

#6  probably announced his name as a recuiting tool. And I have it on personal authority the 72 virgins thing is true. its just that they all look like Jane Hathaway from the Beverly Hillbillies
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 10/18/2004 17:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Fred, is Ansar al-Sunnah just a different spelling for Ansar al-Sunni? BTW, I thought they and Ansar-al-Islam were more or less one and the same. Was I mistaken?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 10/18/2004 17:56 Comments || Top||

#8  Phil, How can you keep track. These guys change spelings faster than an NFL team changes cities.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/18/2004 18:08 Comments || Top||

#9  I can't really keep track, Mrs. Davis. Although reading Rantburg helps :-)
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 10/18/2004 19:45 Comments || Top||

#10  Cheap shot infidel Davis. Call your lawyers.
Posted by: Abu Davis || 10/18/2004 19:54 Comments || Top||

#11  Akubar Oakland!
(unless I get a better deal)
Peace and money upon me.
Posted by: Abu Davis || 10/18/2004 19:55 Comments || Top||

#12  Would have been better if I could have remembered for 20 seconds Mrs. Davis' last name. Made it damn sorry.

Posted by: Abu Davis || 10/18/2004 19:57 Comments || Top||

#13  Is that you Mr. Davis? You really have gone over the the dark side. And I don't care if you have changed your first name to Abu, just be sure to sign the alimony checks every month.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/18/2004 20:09 Comments || Top||


The War-Winning Weapon
As vicious as the struggle for power in Iraq is, the new government has a war-winning weapon that could, at a stroke, undercut the insurgency, enrich the Iraqi people and create a powerful, long-term force for democracy, national unity and economic development. That weapon is oil.

To deploy it, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government should announce that as of a date certain, a new national investment fund -- call it The Iraqi People's Freedom Trust -- will be credited with a major share of all future Iraqi oil earnings. Revenues directed to the Trust would be invested in government bonds, with a small cash reserve to cover withdrawals by individual Iraqis.

All 27 million Iraqis -- men, women and children -- would to eligible to claim an equal, personal investment account in the Freedom Trust. All they need do is prove Iraqi birth and pledge allegiance to the government. Registration for shares in the Trust could go hand in hand with voter registration for the upcoming national elections. Adult citizens should be free, at any time, to ask for a calculation of their account's value and withdraw up to their full balance -- no questions asked.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper || 10/18/2004 11:27:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The good part of this idea is that it builds on the idea of establishing an "ownership" society rather than an "entitlement" society.

Biggest problem: The islamic idea that the daddy owns the family outright, and thus I would hear calls for enabling "daddy" to cash in on the trusts of wives and children. I forsee future hubby demanding wifey's trust as condition of marriage. Forbidding pre-adults and their parents from cashing in would probably benefit the sons, but I don't see daughters benefitting
Posted by: Ptah || 10/18/2004 11:44 Comments || Top||

#2  In Iraq, it would end up being more a tribal ownership than an individual one. Then again, with fewer 'owners' to deal with, that might prove better and more effective for the Iragi government.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/18/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#3  This is brilliant on so many levels. I love it!
Posted by: Anonymous6599 || 10/18/2004 14:27 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Biography of the late Mufti Mohammad Jamil Khan
The mufti was from the Binori Town madrassa complex in Karachi, which is the theological center for all the Deobandi political and Jihadi groups. He and his peers are the ones who give religious legitimacy to the Jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmir, as well as the apostisation of heretics within Pakistan.
Mufti Mohammad Jamil Khan's murder was the most high-profile in the recent spate of sectarian killings. The life of Mufti Mohammad Jamil Khan was a classic model of a Deobandi aalim, to be emulated by other Deobandi ulema. Hence, a high value target for the assassins. His death has deprived the Deobandi community of a leading aalim. He was born in 1953 in Karachi and did Daura-i-Hadith (course in the science of hadith) at the Jamia Uloom Islamia at Binori Town in Karachi in 1974. He also did a special two-year course to become a mufti. He was the spokesman and a member of the Almi Majlis Khatme Nabuwat of which he became a member in 1974. He fully participated in the anti-Ahmediya agitation in 1974 and was arrested during the movement. He also served as the central Information Secretary of the Jamiat Ulamae Islam (Fazlur Rehman) for some time.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/18/2004 1:36:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The SCIENCE of hadith!?!?!?
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/18/2004 8:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Art, science, totally making sh*t up; it's all the same to Allan.
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/18/2004 9:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Blast near Australian embassy
SEVEN people were killed in a car bombing at a cafe near the Australian embassy in Baghdad today. At least 20 other people were wounded, a US officer at the scene of the blast said. It was not clear how many of the casualties were Iraqi police. Australian military spokesman Brigadier Peter Hutchinson said the bomb went off a few hundred metres from the Australian embassy and no troops in the security detachment were hurt. The blast shook the cafe frequented by the Iraqi police throwing metal, glass and body parts across the area. The car bomb was possibly a suicide attack, the US officer said. "Based on preliminary reports from locals on the scene, a vehicle arrived and detonated itself, so I'm assuming it was (a suicide attack)," he said. The US military was also concerned that there might be a second bomb, possibly hidden in a nearby rubbish dump.
SOP for the jihadis.
Police officers appeared to be having a late evening meal at a local cafe during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan when the explosion went off.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/18/2004 12:34:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks & Islam
Zarqawi Movement Vows al-Qaida Allegiance
Follow-up from yesterday with more details.
The most feared militant group in Iraq, the movement of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared its allegiance to Osama bin Laden on Sunday, saying it had agreed with al-Qaida over strategy and the need for unity against "the enemies of Islam." The declaration, which appeared on a Web site often used as a clearinghouse for statements by militant groups, began with a Quranic verse encouraging Muslim unity and said al-Zarqawi considered bin Laden "the best leader for Islam's armies against all infidels and apostates." The statement, whose authenticity could not be independently confirmed, said the two had been in communication eight months ago and "viewpoints were exchanged" before the dialogue was interrupted. "God soon blessed us with a resumption in communication, and the dignified brothers in al-Qaida understood the strategy of Tawhid and Jihad," the statement said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 10/18/2004 12:32:06 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why do they need to make a public statement to affirm something everybody already assumed? are they claiming OBL is alive and communicating? are they sending a signal to someone else?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 10/18/2004 1:35 Comments || Top||

#2  I suspect he is doing this because his life is in danger and terrornetwork is in danger of being exterminated. In fact some of his minions may be losing heart as well as arms, limbs and other body parts. I think Bush wants to clean up Fallujah so there aren't any more hostage takers and fewer dead GIS.
Posted by: kyrieleandra || 10/18/2004 8:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Perhaps he got wind that the Learnered Elders Of al-Qaida were beginning to consider him as a contender for the jeweled turban rather than a underling. Had to prostrate himself before the master to keep his hide intact and the funding coming.
Posted by: Steve || 10/18/2004 8:57 Comments || Top||

#4  US hammers Fallujah and then pulls back. Bad guys move into Fallujah in force, proclaiming victory. More pour in, more pour in. Fundamentalists take over the town and show by example to the Fallujah tribes the kind of wacked medievil world they are fighting for.

US returns with Iraqi help and suddenly has good targetting infomation. Iraqi tribes make statements to differentiate themselves from terrorists. Iraqi tribes delay peace settlements while US continues bombing (not the tribal positions but terrorist positions).

As the great leader Hannibal once said. "I love it when a plan comes together."
Posted by: RJ Schwarz || 10/18/2004 11:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Sounds like a plea for reenforcements. Must be getting pounded pretty badly to call daddy to send lawyers cannonfodder, guns and money.
Posted by: ed || 10/18/2004 11:34 Comments || Top||

#6  The best way I can parse al-Zarqawi considered bin Laden "the best leader for Islam’s armies against all infidels and apostates." The statement, whose authenticity could not be independently confirmed, said the two had been in communication eight months ago is that

1. The "best leader" for Islamofascists is a corpse feeding worms in an Afghan cave

2. Zarqawi had a near-death experience 8 months ago.

3. Apostates are worrying the Islamofascists as much as infidels do.

All in all, sounds like pretty good news.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 10/18/2004 15:07 Comments || Top||

#7  The Afghan elections didn't help much, either.
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/18/2004 15:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Dispatch this little pissant, already.
Posted by: lex || 10/18/2004 15:26 Comments || Top||



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Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2004-10-18
  Iraqi cops take down Kirkuk "hostage house"
Sun 2004-10-17
  Soddies wax AQ shura member
Sat 2004-10-16
  Fallujah Seeks Peace Talks if Attacks End
Fri 2004-10-15
  Alamoudi gets 23 years
Thu 2004-10-14
  Caliph of Cologne Charged With Treason
Wed 2004-10-13
  Soddies bang three Bad Guyz
Tue 2004-10-12
  Caliph of Cologne extradited to Turkey
Mon 2004-10-11
  Security HQ and militiamen attacked in NW Iran
Sun 2004-10-10
  Libya Arrests 17 Alleged al-Qaida Members
Sat 2004-10-09
  Afghanistan: Boom-free election
Fri 2004-10-08
  al-Qaeda behind Taba booms
Thu 2004-10-07
  39 Sunnis toes up in Multan festivities
Wed 2004-10-06
  Boom misses Masood's brother
Tue 2004-10-05
  Sadr City targeted by US forces
Mon 2004-10-04
  ETA head snagged in La Belle France

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