U.S. special forces and Afghan troops hunting al Qaeda and Taliban remnants have detained at least 27 suspects in southern Afghanistan and seized a large quantity of weapons. U.S. and Afghan troops are carrying out a joint operation in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar and nearby districts to hunt down pockets of resistance from hard-line Islamic groups blamed for carrying out sporadic attacks on coalition forces. I was wondering whatever happened to The Secret Army of Doom...
Afghan Commander Mohammed Hasan, who took part in the operation, said the arrests were made in Jay Khawaja, a central neighborhood in Kandahar city, in the nearby district of Arghandab and in the border town of Spin Boldak. Haji Payo Khan, deputy commissioner of Spin Boldak, told Reuters by telephone that U.S. forces launched the crackdown three days ago and had arrested a number of people. Sounds like they picked up the lead in the city, then followed it to Arghandab, and from there to Spin Boldak, on the border. International politix prevents them from following it to Quetta, and from there to Lahore, to Karachi, and from there to Riyadh...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/09/2002 10:44 am ||
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"I was wondering whatever happened to The Secret Army of Doom..."
Well obviously, they aren't so secret anymore :-)
But seriously folks, there's a recent report in the news that we're going to draw down our presence in Afghanistan, and move to more construction projects, nation building and the like. Wondering if that's such a good idea when we're still finding cells of Taliban fighters and weapons caches. Anybody really think that the new Afghani army can handle this?
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2002 13:29 Comments ||
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Import the Truncheons and bring it on!
Posted by: Brian ||
12/09/2002 18:45 Comments ||
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Where is Hekmatyar? It looks like Hek-the-Hizbi is fighting to the last Pashto. He spent the last two wars in Iran. What a brave jehadi!
The United States will soon have enough heavy tanks, warships, aircraft, bombs and troops in the Persian Gulf region to enable it to begin an attack against Iraq sometime in January, senior military officials say. About 60,000 soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen, as well as about 200 warplanes, are in or near the region. The Army alone has 9,000 soldiers, 24 Apache helicopter gunships and heavy equipment for two armored brigades in Kuwait. Equipment for a third brigade is steadily arriving on ships usually based in the Indian Ocean, and some materiel will be stored at a new $200 million logistics base, Camp Arifjan, south of Kuwait City.
By late next week, four aircraft carriers will be poised to strike Iraq on short notice, with a fifth in Southeast Asia ready to steam to the gulf in a crisis. Two of the carriers, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, are heading home, but the Navy will keep their crews together about two weeks longer than the usual 30 days after arrival in case they are ordered back to the gulf. Special Operations forces in the region are refining plans to hunt for Scud missiles and clandestine weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. About 1,000 military planners, led by Gen. Tommy R. Franks, have assembled in Qatar and other gulf states for a computer-assisted exercise that begins Monday and is intended as a model for an offensive against Iraq, officials said. General Franks met today with 200 members of his senior battle staff for a detailed rehearsal.
Taken together, those are unmistakable signs that before long, President Bush will be in a position to order an attack to disarm Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein, and have it carried out within days, senior military officials said. Pentagon officials say the armed forces could attack now, if required, but several diplomatic and military steps would need to be completed before the United States could go to war on its own terms, officials said.
The administration wants to use Turkey as a major staging base for American ground troops, who would swoop into northern Iraq to protect the vast oil fields of Kurdistan and combine with allied forces pushing up from Kuwait to put the government in Baghdad in a vise. But Turkey has balked at permitting ground forces, prompting the White House to invite Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the largest party in Turkey's new governing coalition, to meet with President Bush on Tuesday.
"We're quite comfortable with what we can do from the south," Mr. Wolfowitz said this week. "Obviously, if we are going to have significant ground forces in the north, this is the country they have to come through. There is no other option."
Britain, another vital ally, is expected to contribute several thousand armored forces, but has not yet begun to send them.
American active-duty troops could be flown in quickly aboard chartered airliners to join their equipment. But any major campaign would require activating tens of thousands of reservists, largely to help defend American military bases, power plants and transportation hubs at home against possible terrorist reprisals. Mobilizing reserve units typically takes about 30 days, but a senior defense official said the Pentagon was looking at ways to speed up the process.
Throughout the gulf region these days, there is a constant hum of military preparations. Army forces are conducting exercises in desert ranges in Kuwait that simulate territory they would roll across in Iraq. Carrier-based jets patrolling the no-flight zone in southern Iraq carry out mock bombing runs against Iraqi airfields and military bases. Air Force engineers at Diego Garcia, a British base in the Indian Ocean, are erecting portable hangars to protect the sensitive radar-evading skin of the B-2 bombers that will soon be stationed there. Planners are readying the heavy equipment and supplies now aboard ships at Diego Garcia that would sustain more than 17,000 marines for up to 30 days. Navy Seabees based in Spain have been dispatched to Kuwait for construction duties at two bases.
Military logistics and supply experts have been in the region for months preparing for incoming materiel. Tugboats, forklifts and other cargo-handling equipment needed to prepare ports for the arrival of tanks and other armored equipment are coming in.
In Kuwait, the Army has two brigades' worth of heavy equipment in place. A typical armored brigade set includes 88 M1A1 Abrams tanks, 88 M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and 16 120-millimeter mortars, an Army spokeswoman said. Equipment from a third brigade stored on ships at Diego Garcia is flowing in. One of the Navy's giant roll-on/roll-off cargo ships, the Watkins, disgorged a load of heavy Army equipment in July, and a sister vessel, the Watson, is on the way with equipment for an armored battalion task force, Army officials said.
Special Operations forces are planning covert missions that would be pivotal in the opening hours and days of any campaign. Those operations would include destroying Scud missiles that Iraq could launch at Israel. "We're doing everything prudent and proactive that we can without starting a war in the process," said one military official. Those people who haven't been paying atention are going to be surprised at just how fast things are going to happen when the ball drops.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 11:01 am ||
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Steven Den Beste at USS Clueless was fretting the other day about how he was afraid the delay in releasing the Iraqi document meant that the US effort had been thrown off track. As it turns out, though, he read the reports wrong; the permanent members of the UNSC - including the United States - are getting the full report right away. The report is actually being redacted before public release in order to avoid the release of sensitive information on WMD's to rogue states and terrorists. As it is, anyway, we already know that the Iraqi report has a key deficiency in that it presents no evidence to back up Baghdad's claims that it's destroyed its existing stocks of WMD's since 1998.
Judging from the above, we probably won't be really ready to move until at least after Christmas, since the incoming carriers need time to work up for operations in the area and, as with the upcoming Qatar exercise, the command element needs to do the military equivalent of stretching exercises before it can get to work. It sounds like the Army is just about ready to complete the deployment of at least one heavy division on the Kuwaiti front, though I'm not sure exactly whether this will be an existing division or an ad hoc formation.
Posted by: Joe ||
12/09/2002 17:39 Comments ||
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I've been thinking dark of the moon in January, just like last time, for a while now. This may sound callous, but besides the logistics problem, no way would Bush start a war during the Christmas shopping season in an economy this nervous.
The question is, the early January new moon, or the late January new moon?
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According to the USNO, the first new moon is on Jan 2, the next is Feb 1. 2 Jan 2003 seems a little soon, still need the callup of reserves to cover the U.S. homeland and the Brits have not started shipping armor to the gulf yet. My guess is 1 Feb thereabouts. Of course, that may be what they want us to think.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 19:26 Comments ||
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In addition to all the preparations noted above, we need to get a heavy task force to jump off points in Turkey. That needs a logistics train. The Brits have to get mobilized, and it'd be nice to get a few Iraqi scientists out of there to get the latest poop on WMD. February looks about right.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2002 22:03 Comments ||
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After the Gulf War, the Iraqis admitted to using converted school buses to transport Scuds. That admission must alter the current rules of engagement. The Saddamites are solely to blame if civilians become collateral victims.
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Joe, actually he was right. Blix and Kofi were not going to give anyone un-edited materials, the US bitched, and five members are going to get the whole thing.
Not that we should not trust Blix to look at places and things not in the Iraqi documentation... Not after his "good manners" in telling them where inspections were going to be held a day or more in advance... Perish the thought!
Posted by: John Anderson ||
12/10/2002 3:12 Comments ||
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Hundreds of Iranian student activists forced their way past the gates of Tehran university, defying attempts by authorities to limit access to a pro-reform rally. Guards posted at the entrance to Amir Kabir university had tried Monday to prevent students from other campuses joining the latest in a series of political demonstrations directed against Iran's religious hardliners. According to AFP, about 1,500 students then gathered in a university lecture hall, but the atmosphere was tense due to the presence of about 150 members of the hardline Islamist Basij militia. In the past several weeks, Basij members have attacked pro-reform student gatherings. Bet it was tense for the Basij, they prefer the odds to be 10 to 1 in their favor, not the other way around.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 11:52 am ||
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You know, I was just reading the latest reports about the Iranian situation today, and it occurs to me that the mullahs may have missed their best chance already to do a Chinese-type (Tienanmen Square emulation) response to put down this revolution in gestation. To my observation, the best time for them to have done this would have been in July or earlier. However, they didn't take all-out action then, and it strikes me, though some may disagree, that for all the bellicose rhetoric coming out of the Guardians' Council, their actual action in response to the democrats has been, well, somewhat on the halfhearted side, as one counts the usual tactics of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. In particular, their backdown on the Aghajeri matter was a -huge- ceding of the psychological advantage to the democratic movement. If these reports I'm reading are right, and the mullahs can't even be 100% sure of the allegiance of the regular Army anymore (and why should they? The lower ranks are composed of exactly the same sort of young people who are jamming the streets of Teheran with demonstrations), then they really and truly are in more trouble than you can shake a stick at.
Posted by: Joe ||
12/09/2002 17:32 Comments ||
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I like Joe's comments. Makes me wonder how many of the top mullahs have kids currently attending Tehran University.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2002 21:57 Comments ||
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Japanese coast guard officials now believe that a North Korean spy ship they sank off Kagoshima's Amami Oshima Island last year was the same one used in a drug deal with Japanese gangsters in 1998. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has admitted the ship belonged to his country's special forces. Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chikage Ogi confirmed that a mobile phone retrieved from the sunken spy ship showed several calls had been made to Japanese gangsters. There's one of those phones again. They seem to be a gold mine of information whenever they are found, but after being underwater? Now that's a commercial!
Ministry officials said photograph analysis of the ship showed it was nearly identical to one that was used in a smuggling operation off Kochi in August 1988, during which members of the Sumiyoshi-kai gang planned to trade 661 pounds of drugs with a North Korean ship in the East China Sea. Court records show that a U.S. plane spotted the suspicious ship moving toward another fishing vessel operated by gang members waiting for it. The vessel under surveillance carried the Japanese name "Shojin Maru," and flew the Japanese flag. But when the aircraft tracked the vessel the next day, the name of the ship had changed to Korean characters and the Japanese flag had disappeared. Gang members who were later arrested in connection with the operation testified in court that North Korea was involved in the drug deal. North Korea needs all the hard currency they can get. I would not be suprised if they had been growing poppies instead of food in order to raise funds.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 01:38 pm ||
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The senior investigator for special affairs in the Prosecutorâs Office of Moscow, Viktor Kolchuk, informed on the live TV program âSpecial Reportâ on December 8 that the majority of the terrorists who seized the theater arrived in Moscow via Dagestan. They had to come from somewhere other than Chechnya.
The terrorists traveled in chartered buses from Makhachkala and Khasavyurt under the guise of small merchants, without arms and explosives. The people had wonderfully forged passports, and they themselves had never been involved into anything criminal before. Of course they had wonderfully forged passports! They were Chechnyans fer Gawd's sake!
It took terrorists half a year to deliver the needed weapons and explosives from Chechnya to Moscow; they were brought to the capital of Russia via cars and lorries. I guess "brown" doesn't deliver there.
Three young men in a camouflage were in charge of the terrorists. A certain Abu-Bakar (he is also known by the names Khunov â Aliyev â Elmurzayev). Yasir (who is also known by the name Idris Alkhazurov) was the mastermind of the terrorist act. This man was allegedly trained in Saudi Arabia; ... Duh.
... he has been in Lebanon, Afghanistan, the Pankissi Gorge, and Chechnya. And he got his ticket punched in all the right places.
Yasir spoke the Turkish and Arab languages; he was unlikely a Chechen. He spoke Russian with the terrorists. Alikhan â Movsar Barayev â passed himself off as a Turkish businessman who came from Istanbul to Moscow on a business trip. Somebody's got some explaining to do at the Border Patrol.
Zura, the widow of terrorist leader Arbi Barayev, commanded the female kamikazes. She loved him, she loved him not, she loved him ...
All if these people in command of the terrorists were in their turn dependent as well: they received instructions over the telephone from Chechnya and from abroad (from Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries). Yet another big surprise.
According to the operative data, the terrorist organization headed by Movsar Barayev was paid about 500 thousand dollars as an advance in July 2002. The terrorists also received two minibuses, a Volkswagen Caravella and a Ford Transit (at a cost of 20-40 thousand dollars) and a Dodge. The terrorists used these vehicles to travel to the theater building in Moscow. Someone explain to me how you drive a Dodge Durango in Russia without being challenged.
"Hey Boris, nice car."
"Thanks, my controller just bought it for me."
"Sweet. Does it have A/C?"
"Da, and three, I tell you without joking, THREE hidden compartments for documents."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2002 10:10 pm ||
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President of the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmonov should receive compliments on his conquering of America. Today, the Tajik president started his visit to the USA, which is the first over the entire history of bipartite relations between the countries. Emomali Rakhmonov will be received on a highest level; as is planned, he will meet with US President George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld. Moreover, meetings of the Tajik president with US congressmen and World Bank President James Wolfensohn are also on the agenda. There are very few politicians who receive such a reception. Reading this article, you get the sense that the folks at Pravda are just a tad peeved. Wonder what has their bloomies in such a knot?
And the key advantage Washington gets from cooperation with Tajikistan is an opportunity to create two military bases on the territory of the former Soviet republic. These bases will be further used for attacks against Iraq. Dushanbe expressed its readiness to support this operation long ago, and quite naturally expected that he would be paid for the consent to let Americans use Tajik military bases. To all appearances, the White House appreciates Emomali Rakhmonovâs compliance. Ah, now I get it. :-)
Wonder if Saddam understands just how nicely we're tying the noose, all for him?
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2002 10:42 pm ||
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Police on Monday released computer-generated images of two men believed to have taken part in the Nov. 28 attacks on two Israeli targets in Kenya. The images of the unidentified men â one bearded with a receding hairline, the other with a clean-shaven face and head â are based on information from witnesses, said Deputy Commissioner of Police William Langat. He said Kenyan police believed the men are in their 30s. Homely, aren't they?
The men were described as "Arab-looking" by witnesses, Langat said. But many Kenyans living on the country's Indian Ocean coast are of Arab descent, and the suspects could be Kenyans or foreigners, he said. Langat refused to say which of the attacks â the suicide car-bombing of a hotel or the firing missiles at an airliner â the men are thought to have taken part in, saying only that "they were seen at one of the two locations around the time of the attacks." Police do not know whether the men are still in Kenya but are "seeking support of the public in finding the men," Langat said. It depends on their position in the chain of command whether they're in the country or not. If they were visiting firemen from, say, Yemen, they're back in Yemen by now. If they're the local controllers, then they're probably sticking around, like Mukhlas did in Indonesia.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/09/2002 10:30 am ||
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Nice uni-brow too!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2002 16:24 Comments ||
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The two missiles fired at the Israeli passenger jet as it took off from Mombasa have been recovered more than 50 kilometres away in Kilifi. 50 Kilometers? That sounds too far away for a shoulder fired SAM, someone has got their distances wrong.
The casing of one of the shoulder-launched weapons was found yesterday at Chiseri Village, while the other missile, which failed to explode, was found intact two kilometres away at Ngindo Village. It was partly buried in soil in the middle of a maize and cassava plantation. Didn't go off, huh? Old missles that have not been maintained tend to do that.
At Chiseri, villagers said they saw a burning flame in the sky on the day of the attack - Thursday last week - before something landed with a thud at a place they could not immediately identify.In Ngindo, a villager said the owner of the farm in which the unexploded missile was found was going about his daily routine when he came across the missile. It was buried more than two feet in the ground, although its warhead was still visible. Bomb experts will remove the missiles today, said deputy police commissioner William Langat who is leading the investigation. The find could provide more vital clues in the hunt for the terrorists who fired at the charter jet - and their accomplices who organised the suicide bombing of the Paradise Hotel at Kikambala minutes later which left 16 people dead.
Meanwhile, police have arrested a scrap metal dealer, a business associate of two brothers held on Wednesday in connection with the Mombasa missile attack. Police have also found two witnesses who described two key suspects in the attacks. Deputy Commissioner Langat said police now had the description of a man seen driving the Mitsubishi Pajero which was spotted speeding away after the missile attack.
"We also have a description of a man who was spotted at Paradise Hotel photographing the hotel three months before the terrorist attacks," he said. Mr Langat also confirmed that one of three brothers arrested in connection with the attacks had been released, but that the other two were still being questioned.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 01:05 pm ||
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A quick check of mapquest shows the kilifi is in fact north of mombasa by about 50 Kilometers.
Theres no way a shoulder launched missle would have enough thrust to go 50 kilomteres. I believe the maximum range of these guys is about 5 miles.
#3
That was my thought, but the mapquest info sort of blew that theory. I think theres some mistranslation going on in this story. My guess was the story was posted from kilifi, and that the missles wee found a short distance from the airport. 5 kilomteres seems like a right number to me.
update: an overseas pilot friend tell me that the IFR air routes for Mombasa dont go anywhere near Kilifi, so my second thought that they were close to a VFR beacon at kilifi as their launch point was also grossly incorrect. he also states "Kilifi is 25 miles outbound, youd be up pretty high anyway, so the sa-7 would again be pretty useless. "
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/09/2002 16:21 Comments ||
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Police are questioning a Sudanese man they suspect delivered a tape-recorded message last month from Osama bin Laden to an Arab television network reporter in Islamabad. The man worked for the World Assembly for Muslim Youth, a Saudi Arabian-based charity. The office of the charity was raided last week by Pakistani intelligence officials and American FBI agents, he said. WAMY keeps showing up, not on the edges, but as one of the threads of the terror machine. They're intricately involved in the financing of terrorist organizations in Jammu & Kashmir. Their secretary-general, Mane'a bin Hammad Al-Juhani, died in an Unfortunate Accident⢠in Riyadh in August.
In the tape, broadcast by the Arab television network on Nov. 12, bin Laden praised the nightclub bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed nearly 200 people and the takeover of a Moscow theater by Chechen rebels that ended in the deaths of 129 hostages and 41 attackers. "Yup. Good work boyz! I like corpses. Huh huh."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/09/2002 10:31 am ||
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Grieving families flew Muslim black flags and offered prayers for the dead Monday after Prime Minister Khaleda Zia vowed to hunt down the bombers of four crowded cinemas. "Yar! We're gonna getchoo!"
No suspects have been identified and no one claimed responsibility for Saturday night's blasts, which killed 18 people and injured 200. Authorities said an unidentified "organized group" set off the bombs in Mymensingh, a small town 70 miles north of the capital, Dhaka. But they denied speculation that Osama bin Laden's terror network might be involved. "I ... would like to categorically state here that there is no al-Qaida network on the soil of Bangladesh," Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury told a news conference. "I would also like to categorically state that I believe in fairies, pixies, elves, and easter bunnies..."
Zia ordered heightened security at mosques, temples, churches, shopping malls and theaters across Bangladesh. "They ain't here, but be careful! They might do it again!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/09/2002 10:55 am ||
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Palestinians warned Monday of a "dangerous escalation" of tensions if Israel stops Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem for a second straight year. Hey, guys? You've been jumping up and down, turning red in the face, and exploding in all directions for the past year. How can tensions be "dangerously escalated" when the meter's pegged?
The warnings came after an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Raanan Gissin, said Arafat should not try to attend the Midnight Mass. But Raanan stopped short of saying Israel would bar him from the city. Shoulda just gone ahead and done it, got it out of the way...
Arafat was barred from attending last year â punishment for a wave of deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis. Arafat, a Muslim, says it's his duty to be there. But an Israeli official countered, "Peace is the message of Christmas; but Arafat is not a man of peace." If I went to church, and Yasser showed up, it'd make me an atheist if the building didn't crumble around us or erupt in flames.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/09/2002 10:30 am ||
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Fuck him and "he just has to be there". Why? He's a MUSLIM. What is Christmas to him? About as much as the Church of the Nativity was to his gunnies last year - you know, the ones who were pissing in the corners after using the church to hide from the IDF.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat charged Sunday Israel with using accusations of Palestinian links to al-Qaeda and the US threats of war on Iraq as cover for stepping up its military campaign against the Palestinians. Damn, he noticed.
In an interview with Reuters, Arafat said that Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon had no intention of achieving peace.
The Palestinian leader declared a general election set for January 20 would have to be delayed, unless Israeli forces withdraw from all Palestinian cities and towns. Which will happen right after a free and open Palestinian election, which will happen after an Israeli withdrawl, which will happen, get the idea?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 11:58 am ||
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A senior Palestinian Authority official on Monday called for putting an end to the continued fighting between Hamas and Fatah gunmen in the Gaza Strip and warned that the clashes, which are occurring almost on a daily basis, could spark off a civil war. We can only hope.
Hasan al Kashef, director-general of the Palestinian Ministry of Information, condemned the use of firearms in the street clashes, particularly in Gaza City, where a father and his son were fatally shot last week. Several other people have been killed and injured in a series of violent clashes that have plagued the Gaza Strip over the past few months. Most were victims of gun battles fought between activists belonging to Hamas and Fatah. "The use of firearms in personal disputes and factional clashes has become widespread and can no longer be ignored," said Kashef. Guess the local branch of Gun Control, Inc isn't working.
"Following every incident there are armed clashes that keep the different factions, organizations and security forces busy with trying to extinguish the fire and calm the situation. But all these efforts remain insufficient because they haven't produced a comprehensive solution. Nor have they succeeded in wiping out the phenomenon," he said. If you just try harder maybe you can wipe each other out.
"How many times do we have to warn against the danger of firing the first shot and the killing of the first Palestinian in the civil war," Kashef added in a rare criticism of the state of lawlessness in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. I think the first shot was fired a long time ago.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 01:18 pm ||
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Now the goof formerly know as Yassir is on the way out, the turf war to see which next little snuffie gets to lose the family homestead.
Posted by: john ||
12/09/2002 19:02 Comments ||
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Three Saudi Arabians suspected of leading an al-Qaida plot to attack U.S. and British warships appeared in court on Monday along with seven alleged Moroccan accomplices. The trial initially opened on Oct. 28 but was quickly adjourned in response to a request by defense attorneys for additional time to prepare their cases. The trial reopened Monday morning under tight security. The Saudi defendants appeared with their Moroccan wives. Moroccan officials believe the three Saudis took orders from another Saudi in U.S. custody since November, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, also known as Mullah Billal. He is considered by U.S. authorities to be a chief of Persian Gulf operations for al-Qaida, the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden. 'Scuse me, but Morocco's not in the Persian Gulf, unless they moved it...
The three Saudi defendants Hilal Jaber El-Assiri, Zouhair Hilal Tabiti and Abdellah Msafer El Ghamidi planned to sail a dinghy loaded with explosives from Morocco into the Strait of Gibraltar to attack the U.S. and British warships, prosecutors say. They were arrested in May. The Saudis are also accused of having planned to blow up a cafe in Marrakech, a major tourism city, and to attack tourist buses in the North African kingdom. Mighty nice of them to go to somebody else's country and try to blow people up. Guess it seemed a Saudi thing to do...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/09/2002 10:38 am ||
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Six soldiers and six suspected Islamic militants were killed during fighting in a forest in western Algeria, a newspaper reported Saturday. Several other soldiers were injured in the Tuesday clash in the Stamboul forest, El Watan newspaper reported, without giving a number. Another paper, Al Fadjr, said the military forces had been hunting down an armed Islamic group suspected of killing three security agents. The clash was the latest bloodshed in a 10-year Islamic insurgency that has taken more than 120,000 lives in Algeria. The insurgency started after the army canceled legislative elections that an Islamic party was poised to win. Trying to restore order, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika offered amnesty to rebels willing to turn in their guns. Many accepted, but some hid out in the mountains and continued the campaign of violence. The Islamic radicals are trying to topple the military-backed government.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 02:07 pm ||
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Indonesia and rebels in Aceh signed an accord Monday to end one of the world's longest-running insurgencies, but the guerrillas almost immediately said the campaign for freedom would switch to the ballot box. In the bloodthirsty staunchly Islamic, oil-rich province of Aceh, many kissed the ground in joy after news spread of the signing of the peace deal, although caution was predominant and there was abundant skepticism. "GAM (Free Aceh Movement) was formed to fight for the independence of Aceh. That is the aim of GAM and it will remain so," said Malik Mahmud, a negotiator whom the rebels call the "prime minister" of Aceh, hours after the signing, adding that Acehnese must now choose their future through elections. Like, ummmm... East Timor did.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/09/2002 10:48 am ||
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All those who think that the Indonesian gummint would allow Aceh to succede peacefully, please raise your hand.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2002 13:37 Comments ||
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The Bali blast probe has netted at least half of the bomb-plotters, its chief investigator said yesterday as the alleged mastermind and five co-accused were held separately on the resort island, ahead of further questioning. Mr I Made Mangku Pastika said 'at least 90 per cent' of the plot had been uncovered since the Oct 12 attack that killed more than 190 people. He said the arrest of key suspect Amrozi on Nov 5 was the investigation's most important breakthrough. He described alleged mastermind Imam Samudra as 'a subordinate' of Amrozi's brother Mukhlas - the alleged operations chief of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) regional terror network who was arrested on Tuesday - in the group, but said that Samudra had ' more advanced bomb-making skills' than Mukhlas. Being a more pious and devote person.
Yesterday, Samudra and four co-accused - Amin, Yudi, Abdul Rauf and Agus - awaited further questioning after being flown to the resort under heavy guard, late on Friday. Police investigation spokesman Edward Aritonang said Samudra, who has reportedly confessed to planning the attack on Westerners in order to avenge injustice to Muslims worldwide, and the four other prisoners, were being held separately to 'prevent any personal contact with each other'. Keeps them from coordinating their stories.
Samudra is in a detention cell at a police military post inside Bali police headquarters, a police source close to the investigation said. Agus and Amin were in different cells in a regular detention building, the source said. Hope they are on suicide watch.
On Friday, Mr Pastika said Samudra would be taken to the crime scene of the blast 'if a reconstruction (of the crime scene) is needed'. He disclosed that the bombing, which caused millions of dollars in losses, cost just US$30,000 (S$54,000) to finance.
He said Mukhlas has admitted accepting the cash in two instalments from a Malaysian called Wan Min. He said the money was 'all spent and gone' and Wan Min is now under detention.
Police are still investigating who gave the money to the Malaysian. Follow the money all the way to...Saudi?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 11:30 am ||
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I got this via Tim Blair's excellent site:(http://timblair.blogspot.com/)
Prime Minister John Howard has won his first statement of support from an Asian nation over his pre-emptive strike comments, with Japan's counter-terrorism ambassador declaring he was "comfortable" with Australia's position.
And a rather important statement of support it is, too...
In an interview with The Age, Hiroshi Shigeta said he had looked at the full transcript of Mr Howard's comments and heard the subsequent explanations.
"What Prime Minister Howard said and what has been explained in order to assure the South-East Asian countries taken together, I consider Australia is in favour of respecting international law," he said. "With that statement, I am comfortable."
Shigeta's hedging a bit here. Still, the tone is very different than what I would have expected.
The controversy began when Mr Howard declared his support for pre-emptive military strikes against suspected terrorists in neighbouring countries, as a last resort.
The comments were discussed when Japanese officials dealing with counter-terrorism met their Australian counterparts in Tokyo last week. The meeting was the first following an agreement by Australia and Japan last month to work closely together to combat terrorism following the Bali bombings.
Mr Shigeta's comments are in stark contrast to the hostile reaction in South-East Asia and his position may rankle countries that remain wary of Japan because of its brutal march across the region in World War Two.
Fair enough. But the Japanese aren't the ones "brutally marching" right now, are they?
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
12/09/2002 12:10 pm ||
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The Japanese don't have much to be a-quiver about. They track down their own Bad Guys with a fair amount of diligence. Arabs stand out like sore thumbs in downtown Kagoshima, so they're easy to track down. And they don't have what you might call a large Muslim community. So Howard authorizing an incursion into some country that doesn't bother chasing down Bad Guys, or even actively gives them shelter, is no skin of the Japanese fore.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2002 14:58 Comments ||
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It's very important; the number 2 military power in Asia ex-USA is Japan (qualitatively) so what the Japanese say is important to the strategic calculus.
Posted by: Brian ||
12/09/2002 18:53 Comments ||
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Police in the world's most populous Muslim country appear to have made big strides in the Bali case in recent weeks, linking the two key suspects with al Qaeda and Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah, reporting the major suspects have confessed, and piecing together how the attack was allegedly carried out. "We will coordinate with the prosecutor to have the case ready by Thursday," the chief investigator in the Bali case, I Made Mangku Pastika, told reporters on Monday. "According to the law, police have six months to present the case. We plan to present the case before the limit expires." In Indonesia, once the case has been presented to them, the prosecutors decide whether to take it to court, drop it, or ask police to investigate further -- a process that can take weeks. This will be the point at which we find out how serious they are about prosecuting Islamic terrorists in a Muslim country.
Police have so far arrested more than 20 people over the October 12 Bali nightclub bombings that killed at least 191. It is not clear how many of those arrested are directly implicated. Key suspect Imam Samudra was transferred from Jakarta police headquarters to the resort island late on Friday for further questioning, handcuffed and wearing a prison uniform, and yelling "God is Great!" and "Crush America!" Proving how devote he is.
Pastika said the trial location would be decided by the justice minister and said there was no reason it could not be Bali even though some fear that could hit tourism. And it could be worse how?
Pastika reiterated on Monday that no direct link had been found between the Bali blasts and two bombs that exploded in the southern Sulawesi port city of Makassar late on Thursday, killing three people and seriously wounding 11. Other than people being dead.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 02:11 pm ||
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The suspected spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Bashir, preached of establishing an Islamic state in Australia in his sermons to Sydney Muslims. In an audio-recording believed to feature his voice, and obtained by the Herald, the hardline cleric gives his broad support to jihad - the term for struggle - to bring Islamic law to the world, particularly Indonesia. He backs conflict and war in defence of the faith and says it is an "abasement" for Muslims to live in a "non-believing nation". But the speaker does not directly refer to the violent overthrow of the then Soeharto government or make any reference to terrorist actions. Not "directly".
"The Islamic faithful in Australia must endeavour to bring about an Islamic state in Australia, even if it is 100 years from now," he told the gathering. Abu Bakar's message is on an audio-tape allegedly recorded at an evening prayer meeting at an unknown Sydney location in 1993. The al-Qaeda terrorist group and Jemaah Islamiah aspire to create an Islamic superstate in South-East Asia, called Daulah Islamiyah, which would embrace Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and Cambodia. Last month, the Philippines' national security adviser, Roilo Golez, told ABC's Four Corners that Abu Bakar, with al-Qaeda backing, was trying to include northern Australia in its plans. As secretary-general of the Mujahideen League, the cleric is alleged to have established four territorial groups, called mantiqis, to serve the aim of a pan-Islamic Asian state. One of those covered Irian Jaya and northern Australia. Thinking big, isn't he?
Videotapes of Abu Bakar's sermons have been seized from some of the Indonesian-Australians raided by ASIO but the audio-recording, if genuine as believed, represents the first credible evidence of his Australian statements. The scratchy recording contains background noise including babies crying, planes taking off and landing, sirens, trucks and traffic noise. The sermon lasts about 40 minutes and is preceded by recitation of extracts from the Koran. Abu Bakar has been in detention in Indonesia since October 20 as a suspect in a series of church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000 and a plot to assassinate Megawati Sukarnoputri before she became president. He is suspected of links to Jemaah Islamiah, the Asian offshoot of al-Qaeda, which shares JI's aim of a pan-Islamic state.
The recording date tallies with a statement by Moshen Thalib, an Indonesian national raided by ASIO, who said Abu Bakar visited Australia up to twice a year between 1993 and 1996.
Greg Fealy, research fellow and lecturer in Indonesian politics at the Australian National University, reviewed the transcript for the Herald and concluded that many of the statements rang true, including references to "Satan's Party" and "ravines of hostility and hate". As Abu Bakar came to public notice, Mr Fealy said, he had played down the notion of an Islamic state and emphasised an "Islamising of society". "It could mean the same thing but the distinction is you would create more devout Muslims as a pre-condition for a more Islamic country. In 1993 it was quite plausible he was talking of an Islamic state because at that stage he was more open." Once we started listening, he toned down his remarks. At least those in public.
The speech is full of religious imagery. The world is divided between God's Party and Satan's Party. Political systems such as capitalism and communism were more "dangerous than death". Those not committed to the teachings of Islam, and who were dabbling in Christianity, Buddhism or their "culture and ancestors", were "followers of Satan's Party". Satan throws the best parties, don't you know.
"Meaning if, in the defence of our faith, conflict or war must occur, or if human life must be lost, this is still better than the deception of such systems."
At the conclusion, he invites the devout to uphold the faith in Australia and create an Islamic state in Indonesia "in accordance with your individual capacity, and at the very least in your hearts". "A noble life is one that is regulated 100 per cent by God's law; namely, life in an Islamic state. How can we bring this into being? By working hard to undertake jihad to uphold the rule of God's law. There is no other way apart from this." He ends: "May God bless the struggle of our brethren in Australia who have demonstrated such loyalty, despite being surrounded by non-believers." I'm thinking those non-believers in Australia may have something to say about it.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 03:34 pm ||
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A senior al Qaeda leader captured last month is disclosing valuable information that has enabled interrogators to link him to more than a dozen terrorist operations against U.S. and Western targets, U.S. intelligence officials say. After weeks of questioning Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, counterterrorism officials at the Central Intelligence Agency and other agencies believe they have disrupted his network of supporters in Persian Gulf countries, his main area of operations. Several terrorist attacks may have been prevented due to recent arrests of Mr. Nashiri's associates in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, according to the officials. A U.S. intelligence report on Mr. Nashiri's interrogation concludes that it has enabled antiterrorism investigators to "significantly disrupt terrorist planning around the Arabian Peninsula." Saudi Arabian security officials have been involved in helping to round up Mr. Nashiri's supporters, officials said. Why do I not have a lot of faith in Saudi security officials?
The officials wouldn't describe the attacks that Mr. Nashiri, who is a Saudi in his mid-30s, and his supporters were believed to have been planning. But they said almost all involved attacks on ships or ports or other maritime targets. "He is talking about his maritime operations," said a U.S. intelligence official. Pentagon officials are particularly pleased about the intelligence haul as they prepare for the possibility of military action in Iraq. That would require a significantly expanded U.S. naval presence in the Persian Gulf, and the disruption of Mr. Nashiri's cells significantly lessens the chance of terrorist attacks against U.S. military targets. Mr. Nashiri also is linked to plans to bomb the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, a plot revealed in January by another top al Qaeda operative captured by Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan, officials said. This guy specialized in maritime targets.
U.S. officials have been surprised at Mr. Nashiri's willingness to talk, although they wouldn't say whether he was providing information willingly, if the disclosures have been coaxed out of him, or whether he had made them inadvertently. 100 proof giggle juice.
But one official said interrogators had gained a good picture of "the current operations he had in the works, his tactics, and procedures." Among the more than a dozen plots now linked to Mr. Nashiri, investigators have uncovered evidence that he was responsible for coordinating the suicide attack on a French-owned oil tanker off Yemen's coast in October. They also say they now are confident he played a role in a plot to infiltrate several Saudis into Morocco for the purpose of mounting similar operations against U.S. warships and other ships passing through the Strait of Gibraltar. Before his interrogation, there was no firm evidence of his involvement in either plot, officials said. This will help in the Moroccan trials.
In addition to disclosures by Mr. Nashiri himself, the officials said they had uncovered leads from a computer hard drive and a cellphone in his possession when he was arrested in an undisclosed foreign country earlier last month. We never did find out where they bagged him. Nice that they are so fond of cell phones and laptops. I would of thought they might of learned that lesson by now.
He initially was held by the U.S. in Afghanistan, then transferred to an undisclosed location for interrogation, U.S. officials said. "Welcome to Truncheon Island!"
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 11:12 am ||
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"Welcome to Truncheon Island!"
I just got a visual of Ricardo Montalban with an eyepatch standing on the dock, tapping a truncheon on his palm. Next to him is a grinning Tatoo, holding a pair of vice-grips and a blowtorch...
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 14:25 Comments ||
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So, I wonder where they pin the little id button made with a picture of the 'penny farthing' bicycle ,and the inmates number in the middle.
Number 6, we hardly new ye.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/09/2002 15:23 Comments ||
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I gotta think that the undisclosed location is Turkey, or (long shot) Jordan.
Our guys want to insulate themselves from any chance of prosecution in the US or UK, so any of our military bases are out as is Diego Garcia. As the electrodes are allpied, our guy turns the tape on and says "No, that's wrong. I suggest you don't do that." Then he leaves the tape on and goes over into the corner as the juice is cranked up. Done in Turkey, with American protests on record...
Kol Israel Reshet Bet reports that a Fatah man got instruction to kill someone urgently ( some political considerations?) and the girl Paz was martyred for the sake of making the point.
Posted by: Anonymous ||
12/09/2002 11:18 am ||
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Here are the details from Ha'aretz:
Security sources said that Amrou, 26, a known Tanzim activist, had confessed that on the day of the murder, Marwan Zaloum, the Tanzim head in Hebron until his death in April 2002, came to his house and ordered him to carry out a terrorist attack as soon as possible. Amrou found a weapon, and took up a position in the afternoon overlooking the Jewish enclave of Avraham Avinu in Hebron. After several hours, Amrou spotted Pas and her father, and opened fire at them. Pas was killed, and her father was wounded in the leg.
A short time after the murder, the Palestinian Authority arrested Amrou for several hours, but subsequently released him. Security sources said that Amrou also confessed to planting an explosive device south of Hebron, on November 29, 2000, and to several shooting attacks on IDF outposts inside the West Bank city. Yesha, the Council of Jewish Settlements of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District, demanded the death penalty Monday for the suspected killer of Shalhevet Pas. "The murder of a baby, which shocked the entire country, demands a harsh punishment that goes beyond the standard life sentence," the council announced.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/09/2002 13:00 Comments ||
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Which, by the way, is the title of the article in Pravda. Don't ever say these guys at Pravda don't have a sense of humor. Ha-ha.
The Lordâs Resistance Army is ruled by a man called Joseph Kony, a modern-day Pol Pot, who kidnaps children and forces them to fight the Ugandan government forces and takes nuns from convents and turns them into sex slaves. I realize that there are greater evils in the world right now, but by George W. we ought to be helping the Ugandans somehow.
The Ugandan Army is now being offered a 16,000 Euro bounty for the capture of this man who is worshipped as a God by his followers. I'd be happy to contribute. Can we set up a PayPal account for this?
Kony and his murderous band of criminals operates from southern Sudan, striking deep into Uganda. His activities have caused the internal displacement of one and a half million persons. Konyâs Lordâs Resistance Army has a peculiar set of rules. Based on the Ten Commandments, one of which is Thou shalt not kill, he then forces new members to murder family members to prove their loyalty and commitment to him. Kony basks in the adoration of his followers, claiming to have visitations from the Holy Ghost. I'm not a psychiatrist, but I think we can make a diagnosis here.
The Ugandan government has signed a treaty with the Sudanese government which will allow the Ugandan army to cross the border to try to flush Kony out of his hideout before he can murder many more innocent victims. In the past two months, 4,000 people have disappeared during raids by his followers, who wear crucifixes and other religious insignia, which Kony tells them will protect them from bullets. Yep, we got a diagnosis all right.
Kony has perpetrated horrific acts of torture, beating people to death with rifle butts, cutting people to pieces with machetes and boiling people alive before forcing the close relatives to eat the bodies. He intends to overthrow the Ugandan government and install his regime in Kampala, setting up a theocracy based on the Ten Commandments. These guys are worse than the Taliban. Perhaps some of the EU countries, since they don't want to help us with Iraq, could lend a hand here. I'll go so far as to suggest that the Poles and/or the Romanians could help out and consider this part of paying their dues to be a part of NATO. It'd be good training for their paratroop units and logistics guys.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2002 10:29 pm ||
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The Ugs have been chasing these horrors through Uganda and Sudan since, I believe, March. At one point they claimed to have effectively wiped them out - guess they missed some. Sudan recently declined to renew its permission to the Ugs to chase them on its territory. This isn't because Sudan has any kind of sympathy for them, but because the Ugs have shown no sign of being able to actually finish the job they've set out to do.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2002 23:24 Comments ||
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And there are some unfortunate ties between the Army of God and the southern Sudanese rebels, I think.
Uganda's recent foray into the Congo has to give Sudan pause. They tend to go and stay, and Sudan wants southern Sudan for themselves, Moslem and oil rich. While they'd like the Christians beat up on, the Ugandans might not go away like good little boys.
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.
