Local militia leaders said they were preparing to renew their assault on the Al-Qaeda at Tora Bora after attempts to persuade them to give up failed. "The Al-Qaeda fighters firmly refused to surrender before the Nangarhar provincial administration," said Amin, spokesman for local militia commander Hazrat Ali. At least two helicopters landed in what could be the start of a raid against the gunmen, a few hours after the fighters rejected the surrender deadline. At least one, and perhaps as many as three, "daisy cutters'' were dropped before dawn on a mountainside canyon where many al-Qaida men have been hemmed in since they were flushed out of their cave shelters during combat on Monday. Christian Science Monitor claimed that Osama bin Laden escaped Tora Bora to Pakistan 10 days ago with the help of Ghilzai tribesmen. Our guess is that he beat it while the "surrender" negotiations were occupying attention.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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Ayman al-Zawahri, who isn't dead, dammit, said al Qaeda would fight on, using suicide attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the London-based al-Majallah magazine said. It said Zawahri made the comments in a telephone interview organised through a mediator. "The real war has now started and we are now waging attack and retreat operations. It will be a long one. We will exact a high toll on the Americans and suicide attacks will be one of our effective methods," he said. "We do not hide in caves and do not run away from the confrontation. Suicide is our desire and our victory," he added, insisting that he and other al Qaeda leaders including bin Laden, spokesman Sulaiman bu Ghaith and Abu Hafs (Mohammed Atef, previously reported as dead) were still fighting. "We will not run away from Afghanistan," Zawahri said. There are many people who are hoping a.) this isn't a made-up interview and b.) that he's not lying about staying where he is. Being al-Qaeda, though, he's probably lying. For that matter, he's probably dead and lying about being alive.
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12/13/2001 ||
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Islamabad plausibly denied a report that all of the top 22 Taliban leaders - apart from Mulla Mohammad Omar - of the Taliban regime had escaped to Pakistan. "This is totally baseless. We have no evidence to that effect," Interior Secretary Tanseem Noorani said.
Translation: They shot any witnesses.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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The United States believes opposition fighters and U.S. troops have surrounded Osama bin Laden in a cave complex near Tora Bora, a senior military official told CNN.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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The head of Afghanistan's interim government, Hamid Karzai, met with outgoing president Burhanuddin Rabbani and key ministers after arriving in Kabul to prepare the transfer of power on December 22.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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Orange Coast College officials have reinstated a professor placed on paid leave after a heated classroom discussion with Muslim students who said he called them Nazis, terrorists and murderers. Ken Hearlson will return to the classroom with the beginning of the new semester on Jan. 18. Hearlson was cleared by an independent counsel who concluded that charges he called students Nazis, terrorists and murderers shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks were "unsubstantiated."
The "stained blue dress" was supplied by other students who had taped the class. Sometimes the Good Guys do win.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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An amateur videotape procured by the US government reveals that Osama bin Laden anticipated the terrorist attack. He waited for the news, and was surprised and pleased at the death and destruction it caused.
We knew that. But they should show it over and over and over, so we don't forget. They should stitch them all together into "Osama: The Movie" and run it continuously.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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Suspicion fell on Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat. At a press conference in Srinagar yesterday he began, "December 12 will be an important event not only in Kashmir but in the US too. How? Wait for just 12 hours, you will know how. I trust the events will not disappoint either me or you". On November 20, the leader of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, Qazi Mohammad Saeed, told an Urdu newspaper that 'the Kashmir issue will be revived through 'Red Fort-type' attacks in India soon. By imposing a ban on militant outfits, US and India cannot stop the jehad in Kashmir".
Yup. We guessed that. Bet they'll also fish out some plausibly deniable ISI and Taliban involvement, too.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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India's Parliament was attacked by five and possibly six gunmen in a commando-style raid that included a suicide bomber. Six police personnel, including a women constable, a parliament staffer, and four of the terrorists were killed in a half-hour shoot-out. A fifth terrorist blew himself up on the steps of Parliament. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Lashkar-i-Taiba terrorists carried out a similar attack on the Red Fort in December last year.
Can this be the start of al-Qaeda's Ramadan Surprise? Is Australia next?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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Mumbai Police Commissioner M N Singh said there was advance information about a possible attack and the government had already been alerted. Early indications point to the role of Kashmiri groups. The bodies of the members of the fidayeen group had unmistakably foreign characteristics: light complexion, slim noses and long limbs. Home Minister L K Advani ventured to add, "I saw all five bodies. To me, they did not seem Indian faces though I cannot vouchsafe for it".
Chechens? Betcha. Chechens are really bad guys, and Russia is perfectly justified in killing as many of them as it can lay hands on. Question now becomes: Does it tie to al-Qaeda? They're busy at the moment, so our guess would be not. Does it coordinate with al-Qaeda's aims? Answer to that would be yes, which means that Saudi claims that Osama bin Laden's not at the top of the pyramid are likely true. Making that even more probable is the fact that we now have a three-front terror offensive: Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan, and India. Fish out some coordination among them besides timing and "probably" becomes "certainly." Dead Chechen mercenaries might do that, with a bit of investigation. So instead of Osama bin Laden, the puppetmaster becomes X (Dr. Fu Manchu? Ernst Stavro Blofeld? Boskone?) and rather than being directed at Iraq or Somalia our efforts -- and those of our allies, to include the Indians -- have to be directed at finding the next link up. And another guess is that at least one of those links up, and probably the top one, will be found in Arabia.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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Indian government has been put on the highest state of alert. Rajasthan police busted a two-man cell of the Pakistani ISI with the arrest of two agents. Both the Pakistani nationals had been living in India for the last 18 months and possessed false documents.
Would not want to be either of those guys at the moment.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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A staunch critic of the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, termed the terrorist attack on Parliament as an assault on the country's swabhiman (self-respect), and asked the government to destroy terrorist training camps.
"Quick! Bar the door! The horse is gone!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
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Israel has banned Arafat from leaving Ramallah after a government decision to cut contacts with the Palestinian leader. "Israel will not attack him personally but he will stay where he is," a spokesman said after the cabinet decision was endorsed. FoxNews showed footage of the destruction of Voice of Palestine radio.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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Palestinian Chairman-for-LifeYasser Arafat has gone into hiding after an Israeli missile attack damaged his headquarters. Israel's military launched a major offensive meant to destroy the Palestinian Authority security and weapons infrastructure in the wake of an attack on the West Bank. Arafat has prepared an underground bunker in the Ramallah area to survive an Israeli attack.
Yasser is ceasing to be newsworthy. Next step is for him to be in hiding and nobody bothering to look for him. But to Ernst Stavro Blofeld/Dr Fu Manchu/Boskone he's an easily expendable lower-level henchman. Perhaps he's outlived his usefulness to them, too.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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Israeli Apache helicopters and F-16s blasted a mosque compound and security targets in Gaza City. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the radical Hamas movement, was praying inside a Gaza City mosque, but escaped unscathed when two missiles hit the compound's front, Palestinian security sources said. Israeli troops also reoccupied a section of the Khan Yunis camp in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said the incursion was only temporary. In Ramallah, rocket strikes sent clouds of flames and smoke in the air over a ruined police station close to the centre of the town, which has been partly re-occupied by Israeli tanks. Large parts of Ramallah were plunged into darkness after the raid. In Jenin to the north, US-made Apaches blasted a building of Arafat's Fatah movement. The IDF confirmed it hit a Palestinian police post and a Force 17 unit -- Arafat's elite guard -- in Gaza as well as a police post in Ramallah and an office of Arafat's Fatah movement in Jenin.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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The father of Mohammed Atta dismissed as a "forgery" a videotape in which Osama bin Laden calls his son the leader of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers. The father, Mohamed al-Amir al-Sayed Awad Atta, said that he had not seen the tape, but declared it a "farce. All this is a forgery, a fabrication!" He has said his son might have been kidnapped and his papers stolen to implicate him in the attacks. He has also claimed to have spoken to his son by telephone after Sept. 11. "America is the land of aberration and forgery," the father said, shouting "damn America!" before abruptly hanging up.
Even ruthless henchmen have parents. What's he gonna say -- "Yup, that's my boy, the crazed killer of thousands?" I'd lie, too.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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Corsican bombers have used a remote-controlled toy car to attack a police barracks. The assailants packed a small amount of explosives into the car and sent it to the gates of the barracks. The blast late damaged the gates and an entrance guard was sent to hospital to be treated for shock.
Shucks, I'da been shocked, too.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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Indonesia's defense minister vowed an all-out assault on terrorism after the government claimed for the first time that Osama bin Laden's terror network had operations in Indonesia. The bases were set up byal-Qaida on Sulawesi island, which has been torn by sectarian violence, intelligence chief Abdullah Hendropriyono said Wednesday. He believed the camps were not used by terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Until this week, the government has repeatedly denied that al-Qaida or other foreign terrorist groups were working in Indonesia.
That's because in true Boskonian fashion they try to keep under the radar until they're established. Then when they feel they're strong enough the "coincidental" sectarian violence erupts.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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The supreme commander of the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami, Gulzar Ahmed Tantrey alias Hashim, and his deputy commander were killed in an ambush near Banihal in Jammu.
Nice shootin', Mukkerjee!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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The possibility is "very real" that terrorist cells linked to Al-Qaeda are present in Somalia the US said. "The possibility of terrorist cells in Somalia is very real," Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Walter Kansteiner said at the end of an 11-day visit to Africa which included Ethiopia, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Kansteiner said he believed the Somali hardline group Al-Ittihad al Islami had links with Al-Qaeda.
"You may expect a visit from 10,000 helpful United States troops within the near future. Please extend them every cooperation or they will kill you."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/13/2001 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
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.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
