Nepal's Maoists, fighting a bloody six-year insurgency to topple the monarchy, have hit a new target: fish. State media said on Friday the leftist guerrillas made off with 200 kgs of fish when they attacked government-run ponds at Ganeshsthan village in Nuwakot, some 90 kms north of Kathmandu. "About 100 rebels forcibly opened the sluice gate of the fishpond and drained the water before making off with the fish from two ponds," said the official RSS news agency, quoting a fishery employee who witnessed Wednesday's attack. "All the Maoists were wearing masks," it added. The massacres, the gun battles, the intimidation and extortion — all those were bad enough. But this... This goes beyond the pale, goddammit!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 12:37 pm ||
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In a mud-brick barn used to dry grapes into raisins, U.S. and British troops uncovered a cache of weapons and explosives during a raid on a farming village that soldiers said al-Qaida had turned into a site for planning attacks. About 120 U.S. special forces and British marines swept into Atalay, in southern Afghanistan, in the pre-dawn dark Thursday. They seized four compounds and took 17 people into custody, British Lt. Com. Gary Lydiate said. All but five of the prisoners were later released, U.S. spokesman Roger King said Friday. Those five were thought to have "intelligence value," he said, though they were still being questioned to determine if they were linked to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
Troops found weapons, plastic explosives and bomb-making equipment, as well as documents that were being analyzed, King said. Inside the barn several hours after the assault, a pillow and blanket lay on the dirt floor, a kerosene lamp still flickering nearby. "Someone made a hasty escape," said British 2nd Lt. David Spink, one of the first soldiers to enter the barn, standing over the abandoned bedding. "This is not your average farmer with a weapon. We're quite used to farmers with AK-47s. But these explosives are far from the norm." "Well, y'see, we wuz gonna set up as a huntin' lodge, an' start a business as guides, huntin' elk..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 11:54 am ||
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Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said on Friday he had resigned from his post on health grounds. "I have offered resignation on medical grounds. My health does not permit me to fulfil the responsibilities," English-language daily The Nation quoted him as saying. Sattar confirmed the report. The Nation quoted Sattar as saying it was up to President Pervez Musharraf to accept or reject his resignation. "However as soon as the President accepts the resignation, I will quit my job," he was quoted as saying. Poor guy quit for health reasons. He was sick of it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 12:16 pm ||
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Maybe true. There are plenty of bad precedents contrarywise however, of how a head of state kicks out a likeable fellow and replaces him with his wartime Foreign Minister. Stalin replacing Maxim Litvinov with Vyacheslav Molotov is perhaps the most famous of these sequences.
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
06/07/2002 14:00 Comments ||
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Pakistan has sought Indonesia's help in defusing tensions with India, a visiting Pakistani envoy said on Friday. Najmuddin Sheikh, who is in the region to provide Pakistan's perspective of the confrontation between India and Pakistan, said Pakistan wanted Indonesia and other friendly countries to "take steps to assist in the de-escalation of the tension and the resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan." He was speaking to reporters after meeting Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. "Megawati informed me that she had been very concerned with the situation and Indonesia would do whatever it could to help," Sheikh said. He gave no other details. Sheikh, a former Pakistan foreign secretary, said he had delivered a letter from Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on the crisis and Pakistan's perspective to Megawati. Maybe Indonesia could kick in a few thousand jihadis when the festivities begin...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 12:20 pm ||
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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will visit Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on June 10-12, the Foreign Affairs Ministry announced on Friday. Musharraf hopes to "further strengthen Pakistan's relations with these brotherly countries," the statement said. That's where the money is. You can't buy guns without money. Snuggling real close with the Wahhabis is also a way to show the USA that the Paks aren't beholden to them...
On Sunday, Musharraf dispatched five envoys on a diplomatic offensive to relay Islamabad's position and policy on the crisis with India. Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, who was dispatched to Germany and Egypt, asked the Cairo-based Arab League on Thursday to intervene in defusing tensions with India. Leghari urged the 22-member league to use its good relations with Pakistan and India to help resolve the crisis. Saudi Arabia is a founding member of the Arab League and the United Arab Emirates is a member. "Ummm... Those are our chestnuts in the fire. Would you mind pulling them out, just as a fraternal Islamic gesture, please?"
Leghari said the danger of war between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours could spill into other states in the region and possibly start a bigger war. If war broke out "neither side will be the winner, we will both be the losers," Leghari said after giving a speech at the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs. So why'd you let a bunch of crazed killers pull you to the brink of war? If your spit's pulled from the street, what's to say it's not going to end up there again in six months? In fact, it was less than six months ago that Pak and India were last on the verge of war. Did Perv sleep through that?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 12:33 pm ||
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An arms dump was unearthed by a joint party of Army and Special Operations Group of local police in Lashtiyal forest in Kupwara district on Friday. Besides 10 kgs of RDX and five kgs of other explosives, the seizure included ten AK assault rifles, a rocket projectile gun, eight rockets, 50 rifle grenades, five mortar bombs and 1000 rounds of AK ammunition.
Two snuffies of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were killed in a gunbattle with security forces at Malwa-Gundna in Doda district.
The Army severely ventilated a gunny belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad in Baramulla district.
Crazed killers shot dead a Special Police Officer, Nissar Ahmad Bhat, near his house at Mothalhama in Anantnag district on Thursday night.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 12:44 pm ||
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French Ambassador to the United States Francois Bujon de l'Estang canceled a meeting this week with non-governmental organizations, among them many Jewish NGOs, that was meant to be a discussion of anti-Semitism in Europe and other issues on the US-Europe agenda. The meeting had been scheduled to take place yesterday. Had to wash his hair, did he...?
Bujon de l'Estang had accepted an invitation from Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the formal organization of the 49 Republican senators. Santorum, along with the Foreign Policy Working Group, a group of Republican senators, their staff, and NGOs interested in foreign policy were to host the event jointly. "The ambassador agreed to speak on the issue of anti-Semitism in Europe and suggested four separate dates," said an organizer of the forum. "He was later notified who was coming and got cold feet. He bailed out." Who'd he think was going to be deeply concerned about anti-Semitism? Ba'hais or Buddhists?
A large number of groups that signed up were Jewish, including the Anti-Defamation League, B'nai B'rith, the Zionist Organization of America, and the American Jewish Committee. A spokesman for the French Embassy in Washington said the ambassador did not cancel because of the Jewish groups, but because of the forum's format. "Basically this kind of forum is not the best for discussing anti-Semitism in Europe," spokesman Remi Marechaux said. "The ambassador prefers separate meetings with NGOs." He can stand being beaten up one on one, but a whole bunch at once is something else.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 11:54 am ||
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The Qatari Cabinet approved an anti-money laundering law, becoming the third Gulf state to take such a step since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The law stipulates that money launderers will receive prison terms of between five and seven years and hefty fines. "The law will give authorities the necessary tools to track and combat money laundering operations in Qatar," central bank governor Abdullah bin Khaled al-Attiyah told The Associated Press.
The clampdown follows U.S. pressure on Persian Gulf states to squeeze the financial resources of terrorists in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Some Islamic banking practices were suspected of being used by Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization to finance its activities. The new law gives Qatar's central bank more authority to inspect local bank accounts it deems suspicious. It will also force Qatari banks to act with more transparency and report suspicious transactions or activities to the central bank. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have taken similar steps and Oman is set to issue its own law on money laundering. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia haven't announced plans for anti money-laundering laws. The Soddies, being about 12 miles past the point of no return, have replaced any pretence at cooperation with vitriol. The Kuwaitis, specifically the al-Sabahs, are stuck in the middle between the U.S. as guarantor of their existence, and the Soddies as the guys holding the strings on their own internal wahhabi loons.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 11:54 am ||
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Israeli tanks entered the West Bank town of Jenin on Friday morning and patrolled the outskirts of Bethlehem before daybreak, witnesses said, underlining Israel's intention to maintain a high-profile military presence after a string of Palestinian attacks. About 20 tanks rolled into Jenin, at the northern edge of the West Bank, the witnesses said. Soldiers declared a curfew, confining residents to their homes. The Israeli military called the operation a "routine patrol." Israeli forces also declared curfews in five villages near Jenin, residents said. A teenage bomber who blew up an Israeli bus with an explosives-laded car on Wednesday set out on his mission from Jenin. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, but Israel blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, charging that he has done nothing to stop the attacks. Poor old Yasser, having trouble remembering people's names and what day of the week it is, is no more capable of stopping the attacks than is some guy named Gus in Akron. They're totally out of his control. Israel can't control the boomers either; all they can do is punish them.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 11:54 am ||
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The unrelenting wave of terror attacks is causing a growing clamor in Israel for the expulsion of Yasser Arafat, but key security advisers caution against such a gambit and officials say it's not on the agenda for now. Arafat condemned and disavowed the attack, but his words fell on deaf ears among Israelis after 20 months of violence in which many suicide bombings and other attacks came from groups associated with the Palestinian leader. "Don't fear expelling Arafat," wrote the mass-circulation Maariv daily in an unprecedented editorial, and a front-page commentary by respected analyst Zeev Schiff in the liberal Haaretz daily predicted the idea would receive renewed government consideration. It's a tough decision. Dumping him into a clean, comfortable Alzheimer's clinic somewhere would be best, but even then the Arabs will deny the fact of his dotage. And who's gonna bell the cat?
Killing him will arouse international sympathy for him, at least if it's done obviously â say, a rocket from a helicopter or even a car bomb. Best thing for all concerned would be an overdose of insulin with expressions of innocence all around, but then the problem is getting somebody close enough to him to administer it. Second best would be to turn Barghouti, spring him, and then let him do the dirty deed, at which point the whole thing can be leaked and somebody can shoot him, thereby solving two problems at once. Almost as good would be to convince Saadat that Yasser's going to have him bumped off and maybe he should act fast before it happens. An alternative approach would be to convince one of the teen tough guys in PFLP that Saadat's on the list and maybe he should protect his Fearless Leader.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 11:54 am ||
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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is calling on President Bush with an urgent appeal to set a timeline for ending Israel's hold on the West Bank and Gaza and for establishing a Palestinian state. We knew that...
Bush intends to listen closely and assure Mubarak he intends to set guidelines for Mideast peacemaking, U.S. officials said. Mubarak's visit Friday is part of an ongoing review. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will see Bush on Monday, and the administration plans further consultations with Mideast leaders. At this point, a senior U.S. official said, the focus of U.S. diplomacy is on instilling democracy in the Palestinian Authority while helping to build the state Bush has already endorsed. "Instill democracy in the Palestinian Authority"? I went to the Moscow Circus once. Besides the guy who juggled cannon balls they had a guy who'd trained housecats to do handstands. It happened, but the cats didn't look happy...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 11:54 am ||
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Foreign Minister Shimon Peres yesterday lashed out at the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying it shares in the blame for Wednesday's Megiddo bus bombing, because Damascus is harboring terrorist organizations. Peres made the accusation during a series of media interviews, including one with Qatar-based al-Jazeera television, in which he noted that the orders for the deadly attack were given by Islamic Jihad leader Abdallah Ramadan Shalah from his base in Damascus. Peres? Making faces at somebody? And at Syria, of all somebodies?
Peres, speaking to reporters at the Israel Export Institute Conference in Tel Aviv, said Syria plays host to no fewer than 10 terror organizations headquartered in Damascus, including Islamic Jihad. "I said that Ramadan Shalah, who is the commander of the Jihad forces and who lives and operates in Syria, said that he had given the order. I place responsibility on Syria, which hosts 10 terrorist headquarters in Damascus," Peres said. Y'mean Syria is driving one of the major terror organizations within Israel? Who'da thunkit? Wotta surprise!
Ambassador to the UN Yehuda Lancry sent a letter yesterday detailing Syria's responsibility for Wednesday's attack near Megiddo to Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe of Syria, current president of the Security Council. "Israel is appalled that a member of the Security Council continues to lend its support to organizations committed to deliberate murder of civilians," Lancry wrote. Noting that Syria assumed leadership of the 15-member body at a time when Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the council have made fighting international terrorism a top priority, Lancry wrote, "It is astounding that Syria is brazenly supporting attempts to subvert anti-terrorist objectives of an international body of which it itself is president. Oh. It's just a political whack, for form's sake. Nothing is expected to come of it. Syria will "reject the charge" and we'll move on to the next accusation by one side against the other. Truth or falsity has no bearing, as long as there are charges and rejections.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 12:01 pm ||
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Parallel to the Israeli survey conducted by Smith Research on public opinion concerning the peace process, Independent Media Review and Analysis also commissioned a survey of public opinion in the West Bank and Gaza strip on May 22-28, 2002 of a representative sample of 1,181 adults. It was conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion. The fundamental question asked was the following: "Would you support the Saudi peace plan calling for the establishment of full normal relations and full peace between Israel and the Arab states, if the plan does not include the right of return to refugees within the borders of Israel?" The answer was that only 24.1% of those questioned agreed to this proposition, while 62.4% opposed it, with the remaining 12.3% not expressing an opinion. Not only hatred, but blind hatred...
The key element of the proposal was to test the extent to which Palestinians were ready to accept a peace which specifically did not include the right of return of refugees. This was decisively turned down by the Palestinian sample, though a certain minority was ready to accept it. It should be noted that in the Israeli Jewish sample, a detailed list of specific conditions which included the right of return for Palestinian refugees was turned down almost unanimously. This demonstrates the enormous differences between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs, especially regarding the rights of Palestinian refugees. Why would anyone want a massive influx of hostile people prone to explosion into their country? That simply wouldn't make any sense...
Another question asked of the Palestinian Arab sample was: "If the Palestinian Authority orders Fatah Tanzim and other organizations indirectly linked to the PA's authority to hand over their weapons for confiscation or destruction, what would you believe the Fatah Tanzim and other organizations should do?" In all, 37.8% thought they should do nothing, 50.1% that they should hide their weapons, and only 12.1 % that they should hand in their weapons. That's cultural. In Islamist culture, "you ain't a man without a gun in yore hand." It's understandable: a society that denigrates women leaves no other way to demonstrate one's manhood, does it? A classic case of form versus substance.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 12:07 pm ||
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A top Palestinian diplomat said 72-year-old Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat (1929-2002?), who made a weary show of defiance after touring his wrecked living quarters, was considering retirement once he has secured a state for his people. Yasser didn't say it himself. Wonder if he knows the "top Palestinian diplomat" said it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 12:50 pm ||
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Construction of the long-awaited security fence between Palestinians and Israelis along the Green Line is slated to begin within a month, with preliminary work starting within days, a senior Defense Ministry official said yesterday. But while most Israelis distraught by the ease with which Palestinians infiltrate the country support the building of the fence, defense officials and analysts caution that it is no panacea. They also warn that, at least until the fence is completed, it will at best limit the number, frequency, and possibly the severity of terror attacks. More than anything, they say, the sophisticated fence will bolster Israel's ability to quickly detect infiltrators.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's 110 km. fence from near Megiddo (the site of Wednesday's deadly bombing) to Kafr Kasim is the latest version of a security fence to be proposed. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has in recent months initialed several such plans, none of which has come to fruition. One of the first of such proposals was drafted by Yitzhak Rabin's internal security minister Moshe Shahal in 1994.
According to the Defense Ministry source, the fence will combine sensitive electronic fences, barbed wire, certain obstacles, and a patrol road. The fence, which will hug the Green Line, will resemble both in structure and technology the 70-kilometer fence along Israel's border with Lebanon. According to Ben-Eliezer, it will cost about $1 million per kilometer to build.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 07:28 am ||
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U.S.-trained troops raided a Philippine hideout on Friday to end a year-long hostage crisis, freeing one American but triggering a gunfight that killed her husband. A third captive also was reported shot, but soldiers on the scene said they had not found her body. Ouch. That's too bad... Martin Burnham, a missionary from Wichita, Kan., was killed by a gunshot during the raid near the town of Siraway, said Gen. Narciso Abaya, the Philippine deputy military chief of staff. Gracia Burnham was being operated on in a military hospital in the southern city of Zamboanga, said Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, commander of Philippine forces in the south. "She's here already," Carolina told reporters. "She is being operated on. It's a gunshot wound. She's talking. She's out of danger." There will be a predictable amount of bitching about the hostages being killed. Since they've tried negotiating, and even paid a ransom and got gypped, they had no other alternative except for ignoring the whole thing and letting the Islamists cut their heads off. Had they done that, there would have been further kidnappings as well. Anyway, seems to me, if you're a kidnapper, it's your responsibility to make sure your victim is kept safe, not the rescuers'.
Abaya said Deborah Yap, a Filipino nurse kidnapped shortly after the Burnhams, was shot in the rescue operation and died of her wounds. However, troops at the site said they had not found her body. Four of the kidnappers were killed and several soldiers were wounded, Abaya said. Hope this is the end of Abu Sayyaf and all its remaining goons...
Philippine officers said U.S. helicopters, part of a 1,000-strong contingent of U.S. troops advising Filipinos fighting the Abu Sayyaf, were retrieving more wounded from the clash scene. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said no U.S. troops were directly involved in the raid and that the American counterterrorism training program in the Philippines would continue. I hope they're taking their time about retrieving the wounded. And that it's very painful for them.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/07/2002 11:54 am ||
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The only unclear thing here is how a military operation could lose a body. Did they have to run out afterwards and couldn't keep control over the real estate? I'd doubt if a large animal ate it without somebody noticing.
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
06/07/2002 14:07 Comments ||
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I don't know but this makes me profoundly sad. I've traveled the back country areas of much of the world and it was understood that our state department could not be counted on for serious support in times of crisis. I knew that but did it anyway. But this not rescuing this couple just doesn't seem right.
Posted by: bob ||
06/07/2002 17:38 Comments ||
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In the first reports of the rescue, I read that the assault was done in the dark using US-supplied night vision devices (and suppressed weapons). If so, it is easier to slip away under cover of darkness, and it is still hard to see properly even with the devices; they aren't perfect.
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.
