Hi there, !
Today Mon 05/27/2002 Sun 05/26/2002 Sat 05/25/2002 Fri 05/24/2002 Thu 05/23/2002 Wed 05/22/2002 Tue 05/21/2002 Archives
Rantburg
531691 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 24 articles and 7 comments as of 12:09.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area:                    
Sami bitches about Hafiz Saeed arrest...
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
2 00:00 Fred [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Emmanuel Goldstein [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [1] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Tom Roberts [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Grumpy surveyor [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 BarCodeKing [1] 
My country, Tizathee, Part 562...
A man is ready to sue President Bush for failing to prevent the 9-11 attacks! San Francisco area attorney Stanley Hilton this week filed a $7 billion lawsuit on behalf of a handful of ghouls attack victims' relatives claiming that America's leader failed to carry out his constitutional duties. Hilton also named top members of the Administration for failing to carry out their duties to protect the United States. The suit claims the President 'allowed' September 11th to happen. The attorney says he is representing several greedheads people who lost loved ones on September 11th however, they wish to remain 'anonymous.'
Inspiring. Makes me proud to be a Merkin. Did you know that it's considered a libel to call a lawyer a shyster? Lawyers wrote that law.

Follow up: Curmudgeonly & Skeptical has some info on Mr Lawyer. Thanks to Dawson for the link.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 07:56 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


#2  Why don't sharks bite lawyers? Professional courtesy.

What do you call a busload of lawyers going off a cliff? A good start...
Posted by: BarCodeKing || 05/24/2002 13:29 Comments || Top||


What we'd like, versus what is...
Airstrip One has a few comments on the EU's political correctitude regarding our Muslim brothers and sisters. Well, cousins, anyway.
This should send a shiver up our spines. British media promotes Islamophobia, says EU. They what? There have been lies about Islam spread by our newspapers, but that usually involves claiming that a religion spread almost entirely by the force of arms is somehow "peaceful"...

The really worrying piece is that this is not from some sort of "worthy" pressure group, but from the European Union. Further European integration won't just mean innapropriate interest rates or identity cards, but muzzling the press as well.
Lenny Bruce once said that "What is, is what is. What should be is a dirty lie."

Followup: Emily Jones picks up the same item:
A high ranking EU official urged members of the media and community at large to render their complicit xenophobia to more traditional forms of bigotry, like anti-semitism. "Why attack or castigate a Muslim when you can burn down an entire synagogue?", the gentleman was heard to comment.*

*I made that up. But that doesn't mean it's not true.
And Christopher Johnson has it at MCJ... And Bill Quick takes two whacks at the pinata of dumb...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 07:51 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably too late to be noticed, but I'll say it anyway. The anti-semitic incidents are coming almost entirely from Muslim immigrants and not the indiginous Europeans. Its rather unfair to blame them for this problem except in so far as they've been soft on the immigrants.
Posted by: Emmanuel Goldstein || 05/25/2002 14:31 Comments || Top||


The world according to Suman...
"When the UN practically spits on your face, you know you're in deep, deep turkey-doo."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 04:33 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


I think I like this guy...
Global Newswatch: Kinda like Rantburg, but without the smartassery. Well laid out and comprehensive.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 07:34 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  However... o/~ Thereee could never ever be anoooother you! o/~

You're priceless. Happy Memorial Day,
Mary Lu
Posted by: Mary Wehmeier || 05/25/2002 3:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Egad! I'm blushing!
Posted by: Fred || 05/25/2002 7:47 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Dostum releases more riff-raff
Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, who controls the prison in Shibergan, put 512 men on buses to Kabul, said Faiz Zaki, Gen. Dostum's spokesman. All were Afghans, mostly ethnic Pashtuns from the south, he said.
That freed up almost a whole shipping container...
Another northern Afghan commander, Atta Mohammed, released eight ethnic Uzbeks — one Afghan and seven citizens of Uzbekistan — who had been held for six months in a jail in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif after being captured by forces battling the Taliban. The eight were handed over to Uzbek officials at the Hairaton border crossing, Mr. Mohammed said. An Uzbek Interior Ministry official confirmed the handover.
While they were happy to be let out of their shipping container after six months, they weren't happy when the Uzbek coppers began beating them with truncheons...
Yesterday's prisoner release left 600 Afghans and 600 Pakistanis still incarcerated in the Shibergan prison, infamous for its poor conditions and lack of food, Mr. Zaki said.
On the other hand, they're not dead, are they? Most of them, anyway.
Gen. Dostum, who is also a deputy defense minister in the interim Afghan administration, freed more than 200 inmates earlier this month and 800 more earlier this week after an appeal by interim leader Hamid Karzai. More than 200 were returned to their native Pakistan while 600 went home to southern Afghanistan.
Wonder how many of them are back in the tough guy business by now?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 11:56 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Raid on compound in Afghanistan
U.S. and coalition special operations troops raided a compound in southern Afghanistan on Friday after receiving intelligence that it was a sanctuary for senior Taliban and al-Qaida figures. One person was killed, two were wounded and 50 others were detained.
Well, that's good to hear. They didn't get the tip-off in time...
The troops were fired on when they entered the compound west of the city of Kandahar around 1 a.m. Friday, said Capt. Steven O'Connor, a spokesman at Bagram base north of Kabul. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington that no American or coalition soldiers were hurt.
Afghan Islamic Press will report that they barged in on a wedding or something...
Officials were trying to determine the identities of the detainees. "We don't yet know exactly who we have," O'Connor said.
They're all wearing false moustaches and glasses...
He said intelligence indicated that the compound was providing sanctuary to "senior Taliban and/or al-Qaida leadership." The raid involved 150 coalition troops, including U.S. special forces and members of the 101st Airborne.
My guess would be that they're mid-level thugs, since most of the head cheeses are in Pakistan...
"Items of intelligence value were found," as were weapons and a large amount of cash, O'Connor said.
Any antiaircraft missiles?
In addition to the 50 men taken into custody, there may have been women staying at the compound as well, O'Connor said.
"May have been"? You couldn't tell? They dumped the babes before you got there? You missed out on the Yemeni chicks? Damn.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 11:56 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Axis of Evil
Rafsanjani calls on Iranians to unite
Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called on Iranians to "unite" and "deliver blows to the United States."
You might want to think twice about doing that, Akbar...
"The entire Iranian people should show unity and solidarity in the face of current threats from the United States," Rafsanjani said, speaking as Friday prayer leader in Tehran.
Sure. That means supporting your party, of course...
"Iranians should set aside their differences, and be united to deliver blows to the United States, as they have done for the past 23 years," said the conservative cleric, who heads the powerful Expediency Council, the Islamic republic's top arbitration body.
Who was dumped when he ran for election, so they gave him a sinecure position...
Iran's volatile politics, marked by rivalry between conservatives who dominate most institutions and President Mohammad Khatami's reformist camp, which controls parliament, have been shaken again recently by rumours of secret talks with the United States, involving Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani hit back at US accusations that Iran was "sponsoring terrorism", by charging the White House was the "axis of disorder in the world", a reference to US President George W. Bush's January speech describing Iran as forming part of an "axis of evil".
Yeah. Damn that Pepsi stuff. Damn that Gap, and Abercrombie — Fitch is okay, though. Down with Nike! Up the Revolution! Zzzzzz...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 04:27 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Maybe that's why they're not united...
Howard at Kesher Talk has another piece of the Persian puzzle.
"Rumors are sweeping Tehran of a failed assassination attempt against Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supposedly plotted by four Republican Guard commanders. The rumors add the four men were captured, but their execution was stopped by guard colleagues who insisted their death sentences be commuted to exile in Afghanistan. The other popular rumor says the elected but powerless President Mohammed Khatami, dispirited and exhausted at the prolonged frustration of his reform plans by the Mullahs, has submitted his resignation to Khamenei. Certainly he threatened to resign, in a speech to teachers last week, but Khatami was in fighting form Thursday in a speech at Khorramshah, celebrating the port's recapture in the 1980s war."
Near as I can figure, they've got guys in turbans lined up for fifteen blocks, waiting to take their turn giving orders. When their turn comes, each steps up to the podium and snaps 'em out. None of the orders has any relationship to any of the orders any of the other guys gives. There's probably a Greek word that can be glued to "ocracy" that translates as "rule by opinionated know-it-alls in turbans."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 04:28 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front
Chandra Levy update...
Police resumed searching Friday for evidence about what caused Chandra Levy's death. They were using a device normally employed at car accidents to try to determine how Levy's remains wound up where they were found. The partial remains of Levy, 24, of Modesto, Calif., were scattered on a steep embankment in a thickly wooded area of sprawling Rock Creek Park in northwest Washington. Investigators used a device called a "total station" to create a computer grid of the search area. The device normally is used at traffic accidents to measure skid marks and other evidence to determine how crashes occurred.
I know this is going to make me seem unsympathetic and cold-hearted, but... Chandra Levy seems to have been a nice enough young woman, not particularly bright, at least when it came to her love life. Condit is a dirty, small-souled little man, whether he dunnit or not. But I'm glad they didn't find the body on September 12th; I suspect the Talibs would still be running things in Afghanistan if they had.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 11:56 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A total station is a surveying gizmo that electronically measures both angles and distances, useful in making maps. Its presence at traffic accidents and murder scenes is just a microscopic percentage of what it 'normally is used for'.
Posted by: Grumpy surveyor || 05/24/2002 12:57 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan envoy foresees more terrorist attacks
The U.S. ambassador to Pakistan on Thursday predicted another terrorist attack in the country, saying President Pervez Musharraf has "stirred up a hornet's nest" with his crackdown on Islamic extremists.
That's probably a pretty accurate assessment...
Since Musharraf banned five radical Islamic groups in January, there have been three attacks on foreigners, all blamed on Muslim militants.
Even though the Bad Guys haven't gone out of business...
"I expect there will be another attack here," Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin said in an interview with The Associated Press a week before ending her assignment in Pakistan. She noted that two of the attacks - one in the heavily defended capital of Islamabad and the other against French engineers working for Pakistan's navy — were a direct assault on Musharraf's authority.
Is there an echo in here? Is there an echo in here?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 11:56 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India prepares for military strikes
India has prepared for military strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir unless Pakistan moves aggressively to dismantle the extremist organisations but would give President Pervez Musharraf a few weeks to do so, the Washington Post quoting unidentified senior officials reported today.
Unless Pak believes there might be consequences to its actions, it's not ever going to change them...
The paper said according to an official present at the Unified Command meeting in Srinagar attended by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, participants decided that India had "crossed the threshold of tolerance" with regard to terrorism. "India," said the official, "is in a vicious cycle of violence. Only war can break it for us."
Another echo! Another echo!
Although Indian leaders foresee a short conflict limited to anti-Indian militants active in Kashmir, said the paper, there is a widespread fear that fighting could lead to a wider war, possibly involving both nations' nuclear arsenals.
That's because national armies tend to respond to attacks on their soil instead of standing by doing nothing.
Indian officials, the paper said, suggested that a military strike might not be imminent, noting they have not set a deadline for Pakistan to put the militants out of business.
You might want to do that, if you don't want to be sitting on your collective thumb waiting a hundred years from now...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 12:46 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Australia directs its citizens to leave Pak
The Australian government has urged its citizens to defer all holiday and business travel to Pakistan, and suggested those already there to consider leaving. In a travel warning the Department of Foreign Affairs said, "Australians who choose to remain in Pakistan should exercise very high levels of personal security awareness and understand that foreigners may be the target of terrorist acts.'' The department has not advised citizens against travel to India, but has suggested avoiding travelling to areas bordering Pakistan.
"Where'd you like to go on holiday this year, Shiela?"
"Oh, Ned! Take me to Romantic Karachi! The explosions are lovely this time of year, and I'd so love to have my head cut off!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 12:58 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Hizb claims killing 25 Indian soldiers
Hizbul Mujahideen in a series of attack at the headquarters of Indian security forces with rockets destroyed an army check post near Palwama airport while the Indian security forces martyred six Kashmiris. Reports have been provided that Hizbul Mujahideen in South Kashmir resorted to shelling and firing in the headquarters of Indian border security force killing 25 Indian soldiers. The freedom fighters of Hizb-ul- Mujahideen fired mortar shells, grenades and rockets resulting in severe damage to headquarters of BSF.
That'll really help the peace process along...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 01:11 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Sami bitches about Hafiz Saeed arrest...
Chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (S) Maulana Samiul Haq on Wednesday while strongly condemning the re-arrest of Amir Jammat ud Dawa, Prof Hafiz Muhammad Saeed said that move would damage the Kashmir cause.
Presumably that's what it's supposed to do — something about restraining the loons from pushing the two countries into nuclear war...
Talking to a leader of Jamat-ud-Dawa, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed Walid here, Maulana Samiul Haq criticised that on one hand government was initiating the process of consultations with political leadership in the wake of possible Indian attack, but on the other hand government was demoralising the Kashmir freedom fighters by taking such steps.
Dunno who Walid is. One of Hafiz' sons?
He maintained that arrest of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed had exposed the government Kashmir policy. It was unfortunate that at a time when India massed its troops on borders, Pakistan army was busy in helping the United States forces on its western borders to harass the masses under the pretext of operation against Al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives, he added.
The government's policy is probably to try and avoid having large numbers of people vaporized. But that wouldn't make sense to a jihadi...
Maulana Samiul Haq urged the political and religious parties of the country to raise their voice against the arrest of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and put pressure of military government to release him.
Oh, yes, for goodness' sake! Don't jug the leader of a major terrorist organization!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 01:23 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Frenchies may jump ship, too...
France said on Thursday it was studying the possibility of emulating Britain and evacuating its diplomatic personnel from Pakistan, but that for the moment no decision hads been taken. A foreign ministry spokesman suggested it may be a good thing that French diplomatic personnel remain in Pakistan, for, he affirms, "during several weeks, our diplomatic representations in Pakistan have been relaying instructions to French citizens and companies in Pakistan recommending greater prudence. This advice has been renewed recently, following the Karachi attack." The spokesman also noted that the Quai d'Orsay (foreign ministry) had received no information as to any future terrorist attacks on its nationals in Pakistan, but given the "risk of future terrorist attacks," was advising French subjects or economic interests to undertake only those trips (to Pakistan) that were "absolutely necessary." Also, he warned, "increased vigilance is recommended with regard to any deplacement (within Pakistan)."
"Don't leave yet, but make sure you have your bags packed..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 01:54 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


U.S. acknowledges Musharraf allows guerrilla camps in Kashmir
Charles at LGF points to this:
In sharp defiance of his promise to the U.S., Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has allowed guerrillas to run camps in Kashmir and to infiltrate into India, U.S. intelligence officials say.
You noticed that, did you?
A Washington Post report quoting official sources says after internal debate, the "U.S. intelligence community now accepts that Musharraf allowed 50-60 guerrilla camps in Kashmir that harbour some 3,000 fighters to come back to life in mid-March after two months of quiescence."
Been reading Rantburg, huh? Good move.
The Post's columnist Jim Hoagland says by misreading Musharraf, the Bush administration has contributed to a dangerous confrontation between South Asia's two nuclear-armed rivals.
Being decisive means making a decision and then following it up, not just hoping for the best...
The report reveals the rate of infiltration into Indian Kashmir is "above the rate a year ago." It says: "Two other Musharraf promises -- to prevent cross-border terrorism from Pakistan or Pakistan-controlled territory, and to dismantle permanently Pakistan's Islamic fundamentalist organisations that preach violence -- have also withered as American attention has been focused on the Middle East."
And that may have been by design...
"The debate about what is going on has been settled," one U.S. official was quoted as saying. He was commenting on Musharraf's abandoned pledge to cut off help and training that his intelligence services and military give to terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir and India.
Kinda hard to argue with facts, isn't it? Unless you're an Muslim, I mean...
"What is still being debated, it points out, is Musharraf's intention. Is he unable or unwilling to prevent what is happening? And what do we do about either case?"
The answer is yes to both. As to what we do, we can either bully him into acting or we can step away and watch him collapse one way or the other — done in by the Indos or by the Fundos. His range of options is now so constricted by his own mistakes and stoopid "tactics" that he may have nowhere to go.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 06:53 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


International
Gunmen attack home of Somalia's interior minister
Hundreds of gunmen opposed to Somalia's transitional government attacked the home of Interior Minister Dahir Dayah on Friday, trapping him inside and forcing neighbors to flee. Several people were killed in the fighting that followed the 8 a.m. attack on Dayah's house by gunmen loyal to militia leader Mohamed Dhereh. Police chief Abdi Hassan Awaleh Qeybdid said police loyal to the government had been deployed to protect Dayah and his house. He gave no further details.
This is the Somali national sport...
The reason for the attack was not clear, but Dayah said he believed it was related to a clan dispute. "All I know is that I'm being attacked by uniformed militiamen," Dayah told The Associated Press in telephone interview from his besieged house.
In Somalia, you don't even need a reason for an attack...
Dhereh, who is from the same Abgal sub-clan as Dayah, is a former legislator in the transitional government who defected a year ago to an alliance of Ethiopian-backed faction leaders known as the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council. Dhereh is based in Jowhar, a SRRC-controlled town 55 miles north of Mogadishu. He and his men entered Mogadishu late Thursday. The two main towns along the road from Jowhar to Mogadishu are controlled by the SRRC, and the region is predominantly inhabited by members of the Abgal sub-clan.
So there you have it. If that's not a reason, I don't know what is...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 11:56 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Sudan kills 11 in bombing raid
A leading aid group said yesterday that Sudan had bombed a village in the nation's war-torn south, killing 11 persons and injuring 40. If confirmed, the attack would mark a setback for Bush administration efforts to broker an end to Sudan's civil war between the Islamic government in Khartoum and rebels fighting for autonomy in the mainly Christian and animist south.
I thought the setback came when the rebels broke the agreement they'd made with the gummint?
There was no independent comment from Sudan's National Islamic Front (NIF) government in Khartoum. The Organization of International Christian Concern said the Sudanese government has repeatedly violated confidence-building measures that were presented by former Sen. John Danforth, the U.S. special envoy to the region. Mr. Danforth had recently negotiated a cease-fire and other measures to permit humanitarian aid, immunization programs for children and an end to slave trading.
Well, it's hard to build confidence in the other side if they keep violating their agreements, isn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 11:57 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Venezuelan coup figurehead seeks asylum
The businessman who become Venezuela's interim president during the short-lived overthrow of Hugo Chavez escaped from house arrest Thursday and took refuge in the Colombian embassy, where he has asked for political asylum. Pedro Carmona, 60, disappeared after going for a walk outside his home in a western Caracas neighborhood Thursday morning, a day after an appeals court ordered him transferred from house arrest to jail, his lawyer said. Carmona faces up to 20 years in prison for rebellion and conspiracy for the April 12 coup, which was reversed two days later, bringing Chavez back to power and landing Carmona in custody.
"I coulda been a contender..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 11:57 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bush urges Europe to deal with terrorism
Bush came face to face with European opposition when three lawmakers from the ex-Communist party of Democratic Socialism, seated about 20 feet away, held up a banner reading, "Bush. Schroeder. Stop your wars."
How very original. I wonder how many days it took them to come up with that?
"Wishful thinking might bring comfort, but not security. Call this a strategic challenge. Call it, as I do, axis of evil. Call it by any name you choose, but let us speak the truth: If we ignore this threat, we invite certain blackmail and place millions of our citizens in grave danger," Bush said to polite applause from lawmakers. Terrorists are "familiar with the map of Europe" and could strike the continent next, he said.
It takes two sides to end a war. You can surrender, you can achieve victory, or you can negotiate something in between. Ending a war unilaterally leaves out the third option, so you can pick which of the first two are preferable. Euros seem to like the first, Americans the second. I hope we never change our preference.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 12:05 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
Arafat adviser: elections in winter, but only after IDF pullback
Palestinian general elections will be held this winter, but only after Israeli troops have withdrawn to positions they held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, a senior Palestinian official said Friday.
Oh? Is it Friday? This is the Friday position, as opposed to the Thursday position, which is different from the Wednesday position...
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was quoted on Thursday as saying the elections would be held regardless of an Israeli pullback, but his media adviser, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said Friday that the linkage between elections and a partial Israeli withdrawal remained in place. Abu Rudeineh said Arafat's statement was due to a misunderstanding.
Y'see, if you keep saying one thing after another, even if they don't make any sense, if you do eventually do something then nobody can accuse you of not doing what you said you were going to do. I think.
Arafat is under growing pressure from abroad and at home to reform the corruption-ridden PA, and to unify the Palestinian security services into one agency. He has promised to hold presidential and parliamentary elections, but has yet to set a date.
"The sweet by and by" is not a date. "Over my dead body" is not a date. "When hell freezes over" is not a date.
Rudeineh said Friday that general elections would be held "this winter," on condition that Israeli troops withdraw to positions held before Sept. 28, 2002 [sic], and that the Palestinian residents of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem are allowed to participate - as they did in the first general elections in 1996.
And Yasser gets a pony...
He also said that Arafat would appoint a new, smaller Cabinet for the interim period leading up to the elections. Rudeineh would not say when the appointments will be made. The Palestinian parliament has demanded that Arafat disband the current Cabinet, targeting especially ministers suspected of corruption.
But they'd have to get jobs if he did that, so that'll probably be a week before the elections, which are scheduled for see above.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 12:27 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Al-Aqsa takes responsibility, Fatah denies responsibility
The al-Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah organization, on Friday took responsibility for the attempted attack on a Tel Aviv night club in the early hours of Friday morning, in which five people were lightly injured. A suicide bomber attempted to blow up a booby-trapped car at the entrance to a night club, and was shot and killed by the establishment's security guard. "It is our sole weapon to end the occupation of Palestine, and we will not give up our strength and resistance until victory," the al-Aqsa Brigades' statement said.
The boomer was 16 years old...
However, a pamphlet circulated by Fatah on Friday negated these claims, Israel Radio reported. The statements claiming the al-Aqsa Brigades were responsible for Friday morning's attack, as well as others, were misleading and in defiance of the orders of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, the organization's only spokesman, it said.
Well, in that case it musta been somebody else...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 12:34 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Fatah distances itself from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Palestinian Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat's Fatah group distanced itself from its radical offshoot, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which said it carried out the latest two suicide attacks in Israel. "Fatah has no link with the statement published by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, nor with the parties and individuals who claim to belong to it," the party said in a statement issued in Gaza City.
"Nope. Wudn't us."
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility through statements for the two latest anti-Israeli kamikaze attacks in which two people were killed, effectively ignoring an order by Arafat for an end to "terrorist operations against Israeli civilians."
"Who died and left him dictator?"
In its statement Friday, Fatah called on its "officials and its grass roots members to respect the leadership's decisions," adding that only "documents signed by Yasser Arafat or published by its central committee can be considered as the movement's official statements."
"Yeah. You guys better listen, or you're gonna get it..."
Fatah added that "none of the political or military statements published over the last two days and attributed to Fatah or to movements which have links with it reflect its positions."
"Whatever the hell they are."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 01:39 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
Car bomb linked to ETA injures 2 in Spain
A car bomb exploded Thursday in the northern city of Pamplona, injuring two people and sending a huge cloud of smoke billowing over the city, Spanish media reported. The national TVE channel said a Ford Escort blew up in the parking lot behind the main administration building of the University of Navarra in Pamplona, 240 miles north of Madrid. The Spanish news agency Efe said two people were treated on the scene by paramedics, but their injuries did not appear to be critical.
It ain't a culture, it ain't a religion. It's a mindset.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/24/2002 12:06 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The ETA is a mindset. They are the prime example of a group of thugs without support from 80% of all Basques and no sympathy whatsoever from the rest of Spain and France. Spain has given the Basques everything but independence, and the response is simply unending violence, lately against both Basques and Spaniards. The lack of ability of Europe to see ETA as an in-house example of what happens when you give until there is no more to give is positively astounding. The ETA also shows that thuggery isn't peculiar to the Moslem religion.
Posted by: Tom Roberts || 05/24/2002 13:36 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
24[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2002-05-24
  Sami bitches about Hafiz Saeed arrest...
Thu 2002-05-23
  New Orleans: Loon shoots up airport 'cuz somebody made fun of his turban
Wed 2002-05-22
  Paks warn India against cross-border action...
Tue 2002-05-21
  Abdul Ghani Lone assassinated
Mon 2002-05-20
  India, Pakistan Trade Heavy Fire as Tensions Mount
Sun 2002-05-19
  Jammu attack aimed at triggering Indo-Pak conflict: JKNAC
Sat 2002-05-18
  Hafiz Saeed jugged. Again.
Fri 2002-05-17
  Israeli army occupies Jenin again
Thu 2002-05-16
  Pakistan steps up al-Qaeda search
Wed 2002-05-15
  Yasser promises elections
Tue 2002-05-14
  Riaz Basra, dead again
Mon 2002-05-13
  Yasser calls for 'millions of martyrs'
Sun 2002-05-12
  Yasser prepared to accept Jewish state. Really.
Sat 2002-05-11
  Frenchies say Karachi bombing was directed at them
Fri 2002-05-10
  Siege of Bethlehem church ends after 38 days

Better than the average link...



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.
54.210.224.114
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
(0)    (0)    (0)    (0)    (0)