The US death toll in a major US air and ground operation in eastern Afghanistan rose to nine. US officials previously indicated that there were eight US deaths in the latest fighting. SecDef Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that six of the US deaths came in a crash of helicopter hit in the region. Rumsfeld added that "several" Afghans fighting alongside US forces had also been killed, and that the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters had suffered a number of casualties.
"The enemy forces have sustained much larger numbers of killed and wounded, and there will be many more," he said. "We intend to continue to the operation until those al-Qaeda and Taliban who remain are either surrendered or killed...
Substantial pockets of resistance remain. They're determined, they're dangerous, they will not give up without a fight, they are hiding in the villages and in the mountains and just across the borders in a number of directions from Afghanistan, and they're waiting for their opportunities."
According to the press reports I've read [the Sydney Morn. Hrld. was the best] the US commander seems to have bungled both the approach to contact and maneuvers to isolate and encircle the town. The use of transport helicopters within light AA range or small arms range is indicative of US overconfidence. The SMH report indicated also some miscommunications between the US and Afghan forces.
This situation can be compared to the operations of the SF forces which used ground pounding Afghans as the front line infantry, and stressed proper preparation of the battlefield and tactical movements. In a sense, such mistakes were to be anticipated, given that the US Army is not staffed by supermen. On the other hand, its obvious from the SMH report that the US was lucky in this case that it was fighting with overwhelming military power to focus on an entrenched, immobile defending force. Posted by Tom Roberts 3/4/2002 5:45:15 PM
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Having gained Russia's grudging acceptance of the deployment of US military advisors to Georgia, officials in both Washington and Tbilisi are finalizing details of the training arrangement. Military officials and diplomats stress that the number of US military personnel deployed in Georgia will be relatively small, and have attempted to cast the development as part of long-standing security cooperation efforts.
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03/04/2002 ||
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Intelligence Online editor-in-chief Guillaume Dasquie told AFP the investigators were concerned by indications that some of the spies had been based in the same US cities as people suspected of having helped in the logistics of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. US authorities have arrested another dozen people âsuspected of being tasked with the logistics of preparing the Sept 11 attacksâ. Sounds like a really credible source. Can't wait until they tackle the Kennedy assassination. And the Illuminati - they've worried me for a long time. And the Bilderburger conspiracy...
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A passenger was arrested for attempting to carry a dangerous item onto a plane at Los Angeles International Airport, sparking the evacuation of thousands of passengers. Local news reports said the suspicious item detected in the hand luggage of the passenger by security officials was a hand grenade, but no confirmation was available. The bomb squad, police dog units and fire engines and ambulances were rushed to the scene.
Turned out to be a fake. Very funny joke. Ha ha. Hope the guy "fell down the stairs" at the cop shop. That'd be just about as funny. Posted by Fred 3/4/2002 8:04:11 PM
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Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said that government is taking strict measures against those involved in terrorism. âWe are not against any religious group, but now we have to send strong messages to such persons, who are killing innocent people in the name of sectarianism.â He could probably start by shutting down the "legit" fundo organizations and putting the "holy men" in jug for extended periods. Instead, they let Qazi Hussein out to recruit gunnies to help found his "Islamic Empire." Every time there's a demonstrated tie-in between a "legit party" and a terrorist organization - such as Jaish-e-Mohammad or Lashkar-e-Taiba - the head cheeses of the front organization should be rounded up and tried.
To another question about sectarian violence in India, Moin said that it has exposed India so-called secular face. âBurning of people alive in 21st century and then boasting of being the champion of Ahansa is something, which has brought mockery to India, and the world community should take notice of it.â He's got a point there. Injah should be wiping the egg off its face and shutting down its "Hindu fundamentalists" right alongside its Muslim fundos.
He said that as far as Pakistan is concerned, there is complete communal harmony. The concerned authorities have been told to be on guard to ensure the protection of temples here, as anyone playing as agent of enemy can play mischief. What harmony? The harmony of the graveyard? Pakland's non-Muslim population has been dropping to very low levels, and not because Islam is "neat." Christians and Shiites have been shot up in the past three months or so, and the hard boys are working hard to "ethnically cleanse" Kashmir.
Replying to a question in the context of kidnapping of Daniel Pearl, the Minister pointed out that some 3,000 foreign journalists visited various areas of the country before and after war in Afghanistan against terrorism, but none of them encountered any such thing as occurred to the Wall Street Journal journalist. Hmm. He's right. Only one's gotten kidnapped and had his head cut off religious lunatics. How many does it take?
He said it was not an easy decision to put a ban on certain parties involved in promoting sectarian violence and for this, he had to pay the blood of his brother. However, he pointed out the people who do matter in the society did not come out so vociferously to express their views on this issue. He'd better spend a bit less time among the sahib class and a bit more time listening to the fundos rant. Hopefully he's not taking the death of his brother as the signal to drop the crackdown - even though that's what it was - but maybe has the idea to hunt the vicious bastards down and kill them. That way his kids might grow up to be properous upper-class gents and not have to wear turbans and marry close relatives.
He said he met a number of top leaders to discuss how to overcome the menace of sectarian violence but none of them played their expected role. He pointed out that today, there are some 600 sectarian killers in jails, waiting for trial, but the court asked for eye-witnesses. Maybe you need another kind of court system - but more likely just a new set of judges, maybe some that aren't for sale.
âOn the other side, certain quarters do not like the setting up of military courts or inclusion of army officers on the bench for speedy trial of such sectarian killers. We will have to find out a solution to this problem, as there will be no other way out to check sectarianism.â Well, there. You've solved your problem, haven't you? Go with the military courts, and haul the bastards trying to undermine them up in front of them as soon as they do something subversive. Like start a riot or send a few hundred jihadis west or east.
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An Indian Air Force AN-32 transport aircraft carrying Air Marshal V K Bhatia, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Air Command was hit by a volley of fire in the Kargil sector in the last week of February. Though, defence sources here claimed that the fire came from Pakistani gunners when the Air Marshal was ispecting the Drass-Kargil sector, it is still not known why the VVIP aircraft was flying so close to the Line of Control. The incident has caused ripples in the Defence Ministry in Delhi, with the Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy taking a serious note of it and ordering a court of inquiry. The Paks might want to give a little thought to how aggressive they want to be on the Line of Control. Seems like they came close enough to open war a couple months ago.
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Former Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen (Retd) Hamid Gul has underlined the need for an alliance of former communists and the Islamists from within the country against what he termed the "global imperialist coalition". Commies and fundos. Yep. That's a natural alliance. Wonder why it didn't work in Afghanistan? I'll have to ask Najibullah... Oh. The fundos hanged him, didn't they? After they castrated him.
He also expressed his reservations about the events of Basant and Valentine Day celebrated by Lahorites during the proceeding month. Hell, yeah. That Valentine's Day is definitely subversive to a good Islamic way of life. Allah forbid you should ever like somebody and telling them so's even worse.
Hamid Gul was of the view that the imperialists led by the US are all set to eliminate the Islamists and the remnants of communists to establish their hegemony in the world. "The imperialist forces are spreading their tentacles through their agents in various countries to engulf the entire world", he added. Yup. We've been subverting everybody we could find for years. Why, just look what we've done to Russia. Poor commies never had a chance. Oh, and the Germans - boy, didn't we do them in? You oughta get the Nazis in that alliance you've got going... Oh. You already have.
The Islamists and the socialists, therefore, should make a common cause against them, at least in Pakistan, to contain their influence, Gul stressed, adding global imperialism, based on exploitation, was the greatest danger to humanity. When asked about the impossibility of formation of such an alliance, he said that nothing is impossible in this world, saying if the forces opposed to imperialism do not get united now, they would have to live under terms and conditions dictated by the imperialist world. "Global imperialism" is a much greater danger to humanity than beating women for showing an ankle. And cutting people's heads off, and their hands and feet. And killing people for sharing bodily fluids. Oh, and let us not forget the homely practice of slaughtering large numbers of people who don't wear the right style turbans. Yeah, that's much better than living under some sort of Global Imperialism. Just ask Noam.
Talking about security threats to the country, Hamid Gul said that many fronts have been opened against Pakistan at the moment as certain powers are not happy with us due to our nuclear programme and Islamic ideology of the country. He said that Pakistan has the distinction of being the only Islamic country with nuclear capability. And that nuclear capability's done wonders for the country, hasn't it? It's put groceries on the table, lowered infant mortality, increased literacy, and made Pakland beloved and respected throughout the world. Pakland has made the leap from a pissant third-world hellhole to prosperity and respectability.
Gul apprehended that presently ideology of Pakistan is in danger as foreign powers are bent upon to divide the nation on sectarian and ethnic grounds. They are also exerting pressure on the military government to secularise the society . A negative campaign is being launched against our ideology which must be nipped in the bud. Secularism will flat kill a society. Everybody knows that. Give people individual liberty and next thing you know they're not wearing turbans. They shave. They send each other valentines. They buy their wives flowers and stop beating them. Next thing you know, they only pray when they feel like it, and they stop giving their money to "holy men" and piss it away on beer.
He said that foreign powers would first divide us and then strike as they did in case of Afghanistan where they divided Afghans and then attacked them with the help of Northern Alliance. Seems the Afghans did a fine job of dividing themselves, though they did have a little help from General Gul and the ISI.
About the current political situation in the country, Hamid Gul said that the idea of restoring real democracy in the country would not be materialised unless the Parliament is made powerful. "Empowerment of people is not possible without empowerment of the Parliament", he categorically said, adding it (the Parliament) must not be under the shadow of any 'troika' as is being talked about in government circles. That's right. Only a parliament full of pious, god-fearing holy men, with turbans, mind you, will enable real democracy in Pakland.
The former general stressed the need of streamlining election rules which, he said, should be applied uniformally [sic] to make way for the right people to come and contest elections. Right. If you have a turban, you can stand for office and get elected. If you don't, you won't. That's pretty streamlined.
Commenting on the defeat of Bhartia Janta Party (BJP) in state elections, he said that the ruling party lost elections owing to the alliance of its Brahman leadership with imperialist forces led by the US. Only those parties in Indian state elections have emerged victorious which represent the oppressed classes, he maintained. He said that the same would happen in the forthcoming elections in Pakistan if they are transparent. The people of Pakistan hate America and they would vote for those who resented the US intervention in Afghanistan after September 11 incident, he added. Y'know, I've been getting the feeling for some time that the people of Pakistan hate America. Kinda came to a head, so to speak, when Daniel Pearl lost his. And y'know what? I'm not feeling real fond of a Pakistan that has people like General Gul anywhere close to positions of power. So if a Pak Taliban comes to power and the USA decides to root them out and kill them, I'm all for it.
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Israeli troops swept back into Palestinian refugee camps in a new crackdown in which at least 16 Palestinians including women, children and a doctor as well as militants were killed. The operations followed a security cabinet decision to step up the military pressure after 22 Israelis were killed at the weekend.
In the deadliest operation, the wife of a Hamas official and five children were killed when Israeli tanks fired at two cars in Al-Amari in Ramallah. Officials of Hamas alleged a botched assassination bid against Hussein Abu Qweik and swore revenge. The cars were fired on from an army base in Psagot, killing Abu Qweik's 32-year-old wife Bushra, as well as his three children. Two people in the other car also died. "The Palestinian people and Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, will avenge my slain family," Qweik said as he headed a march of some 500 Hamas supporters.
The army later offered an apology, saying it was aiming at a carload of Palestinian policeman and missed, and denying an assassination attempt. Oops. Sorry. My fault.
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Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a building inside Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat's headquarters compound in Ramallah, but he was unhurt. The missiles hit a military intelligence building some 10 to 15 yards from Arafat's office. Israeli F-16 planes destroyed a Palestinian security headquarters in Bethlehem hours before the Ramallah raid. There wasn't anybody home at the time - it was at night. Yasser was never in danger.
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Bahrain has reaffirmed its commitment to blocking bank accounts tied to suspected terrorists. Bahrain had temporarily frozen two bank accounts early this year tied to terrorist suspects that the United States targeted after the Sept. 11 attacks. But officials had sought more information from the United States before making the freeze permanent. The Bahraini finance minister said his country recently set up a law enforcement unit at Bahrain Monetary Agency, the equivalent of the central bank, to monitor transactions that could be linked to money laundering.
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Five men with suspected links to al-Qaida will go on trial next month in Frankfurt on charges they plotted to bomb a crowded gift market during the Christmas season. The men are charged with being members of a terrorist organization and plotting an attack on the market in Strasbourg, seat of the European Parliament, in December 2000. Four of the thugs were arrested after raids on two Frankfurt apartments turned up more than 44 pounds of explosives, fake documents and a videotape of the Christmas market. An off-camera voice referred to the "symbol of the heathens." The fifth man was arrested last April. Nasty little beasts, aren't they?
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Saudi authorities have detained scores of people who entered the kingdom on forged passports for the hajj pilgrimage and may belong to terrorist groups. Most of the arrests took place at the international airport in Jiddah during the hajj, which ended last week. Preliminary investigations showed none of the detainees were planning to carry out terrorist activities during the pilgrimage, but they had falsified passports and were suspected members of terrorist organizations.
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Russia, the United States and ex-Soviet Georgia worked to bury their differences after an embarrassing feud over a decision to send U.S. training troops to Georgia exposed cracks in the anti-terror alliance. The announcement that Washington would send up to 200 elite troops to train and equip Georgia's rag-tag army, to rein in Islamic militants, sparked a storm of outrage in Moscow. But President Vladimir Putin abruptly withdrew Russia's objections on Friday, saying the hostile reaction had been prompted only because Moscow was late to be informed.
On Saturday, top Putin security adviser Vladimir Rushailo flew to Georgia to attend the funeral of a close adviser of President Eduard Shevardnadze, a clear offer of friendship between two countries which have one of the stormiest relationships among former Soviet states. In Moscow, U.S. ambassador Alexander Vershbow went on a media charm offensive, giving newspaper, radio and television interviews to assure Russians that Washington had no secret agenda. What's really surprising is how light the resistance to the idea has been. There were the predictable eruptions from the Russian military, but Putin took charge right away and they shut up. I'd guess this was something that was discussed when Putin was in Texas as a "Phase II" and that he's just as aware of the benefit to Russia as we are of the benefit to the US.
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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.
