Hours after a top American commander warned that coalition troops in Afghanistan face the threat of increased attacks, a U.S. soldier was killed in a firefight Saturday while another was injured by rocket fire in a separate incident. The slain soldier was shot while on a nighttime operation in the eastern province of Paktika, near the border of Pakistan. An army statement from Fort Bragg, N.C. identified him as an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper. His name was not released until his family could be notified. He was the first U.S. soldier killed in combat in Afghanistan since August, when a soldier died of wounds suffered in a July ambush. Jihad Unspun says our guys are dropping like flies. I put a little more faith in the AP...
Also Saturday, a German military helicopter crashed near the Kabul airport, killing at least six peacekeepers aboard and two children on the ground, officials said. There was no immediate information about the cause. British Maj. Gordon MacKenzie, spokesman for the peacekeepers, said the helicopter had not been fired upon. I always disliked helicopters. It always felt like the crate was falling...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 03:06 pm ||
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Yemen police arrested nine relatives of alleged al-Qaida terrorists accused of killing two police officers in a shootout, authorities said Saturday. "C'mon, grandmaw. It's the calaboose for you!"
Four other police officers were injured in Friday's shooting after Yemeni security forces moved on a tip that al-Qaida members lived in a three-story building in the port city of al-Mukalla. The two suspected al-Qaida members believed to have escaped were identified as Shaker bin Hamel and Abdel Hakem Abduo, wanted by the government as suspects in the Oct. 6 attack on the French tanker Limburg. If they'd used those No Dongs, they wouldn't have gotten away...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 03:20 pm ||
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Tehran Times
Radio Pushtu has quoted the Arabic-language journal Al-Ettehad as saying that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is hiring local residents to safeguard U.S. interests in the Middle East. Can't get more authoitative than that, by gum!
According to the report, offices called American Cultural Centers, which are libraries and English language institutes on the surface but are actually espionage centres run by Washington, have been opened in areas under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. The report added that 300 similar centres run by the CIA and the Pentagon have begun activities in the Middle East. "They are infidel spies! We must kill them all to safeguard our... ummm... whatever it is!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:02 pm ||
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President Mohammad Khatami heads to Pakistan Monday, with Tehran and Islamabad hoping to kick off a new era in ties following the collapse of Afghanistan's Taliban militia. "There is no doubt that there was a divergence between the two countries, notably over the Taliban, but the events of September 11, 2001 have changed the situation everywhere in the world," Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said. The two countries are now technically on the same side in Afghanistan, officially supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai. Oooh. Strange bedfellows...
Iran, however, remains concerned about the growth of Sunni Muslim lunatics fundamentalist groups in Pakistan, which are violently opposed to its Shiite brand of Islam. "I thought we had a patent on lunacy. Can we sue the Paks for infringing it?"
Iran is also tipped as a possible mediator between Pakistan and India, especially over the Kashmir issue on which Iran has never played the Muslim solidarity card. Khatami is also due to visit New Delhi on January 26. This is the coherent half of the Iranian government, conducting relations just like they were a normal nation. Any agreements reached can be arbitrarily reversed by the other half of the gummint without warning.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:02 pm ||
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The United States' material backing for groups opposed to President Saddam Hussein amounts to supporting terrorists, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said in a letter of protest to the United Nations. US President George W. Bush's decision to provide 92 million dollars in military equipment and training to Iraqi dissident factions is tantamount to "backing groups of mercenaries and terrorists," said Sabri in the message to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Sabri also pointed out that the US move constitutes a "material breach" of clauses in the UN Charter and UN resolutions prohibiting interference in other countries' internal affairs. We'll be reporting further dispatches from Lalaland as they're available...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:02 pm ||
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Opposition activists in Jordan have launched a campaign aimed at enlisting tens of thousands of Jordanians to defend Iraq against a US attack. A group of Islamist and nationalist leaders, calling itself the National Mobilisation Committee in Defence of Iraq, said it planned to transport 100,000 Jordanian civilians to Iraq before January 17 to form human shields around key installations. Good idea. That should stop the Merkins in their tracks, by golly.
The Jordanian government, which maintains a military alliance with the US, said it had no objection to people travelling to Iraq or expressing their opinions. "We cannot prevent people from choosing to commit suicide," said Mohammed Adwan, information minister. "No skin off my fore."
The authorities are struggling to narrow the widening gulf between official policy and popular sympathies. King Abdullah has launched a nationwide poster campaign, entitled "Jordan First", to encourage Jordanians to focus on domestic concerns, but an official from the Committee for the Defence of Iraq claimed - somewhat implausibly - that within a few hours of registration opening on Wednesday some 17,000 Jordanians had registered to go to Iraq. They're gonna enlist in the al-Quds army, too, no doubt about it. A pity they don't have anything to do with their lives...
A trade union official close to the committee - which is based in the Amman headquarters of the socialist Arab Ba'ath party, the Jordanian wing of Saddam Hussein's political organisation - questioned how many would make the 650-mile journey to Baghdad. Wotta coincidence! Must be convenient, being right next door to the Baath Party offices like that...
Volunteers are required to pay for their own accommodation and travel. You've gotta buy your own bus ticket to get killed? Wotta gyp!
The initiative is the latest attempt by the opposition to mobilise widespread pro-Iraqi sympathies. Last month the Muslim Brotherhood gathered Jordanian religious leaders to declare Washington an "enemy of God" and threaten a holy war against US targets in the kingdom if Washington went to war with Iraq. Is there anybody, anywhere, who hasn't threatened a holy war against us? Since we ignore such things at our own peril, I sure hope lots of those holy warriors show up in Iraq. Wouldn't want to have them kicking around in later stages of the war on terror, would we?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:02 pm ||
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We cannot prevent people from choosing to commit suicide," said Mohammed Adwan, information minister.
"In fact, we'd appreciate a daisy cutter or two to remove the remote chance these eye-rollin', turban-wearing, economy-sucking fools made only one-way trips...yasss"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2002 16:07 Comments ||
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Voluntary Human sheilds is an act of confession; It says "The Islamic system I live under is the most futile, economically unsound way to live, and in fact is not a life style, but a death-style, so I am going to complete the picture. There's no point in adapting to something better, and the imams are the only ones with any rights or powers anyway, and until their gone, its hopeless". So there is your answer: Rise up and slaughter your imams, a la (French) Revelucion.
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I'll bet the King of Jordan won't lose too much sleep over the nuttiest 100 Grand of his subjects voluntarily taking a powder next door. He ought to do what Castro did in the late '70's Mariella Boat Lift and send all his lunatics and convicted felons along with one way bus tickets.
The United States will plan an attack against Iran after it has dealt with Iraq, a top Iranian conservative official was quoted as saying Saturday. "A major event is coming in this region, and sooner or later, after Iraq, the United States will be looking to do the same in Iran," said Mohsen Rezai, a former head of the Revolutionary Guards and now a senior member of the Expediency Council, the Islamic Republic's top political arbitration body. Only if necessary. If all the members of the Expediency Council have been hung by then, we won't have to, will we?
"But we can prove that with reason and power, Iran is neither Iraq, the Taliban or North Korea," he told the Hayat-e-No newspaper. Iraq — written off. Taliban — dustbin of history. North Korea — hopeless, even if the situation doesn't change a bit in the next ten years. Iran's the most complex of the nut cases to crack...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:02 pm ||
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North Korea disabled U.N. surveillance equipment installed at one of its reactors Saturday, prompting the U.N. nuclear agency to express "deep regret" over the action and issue a new call for restraint. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said he urged the reclusive nation not to take further actions to restart its nuclear program. ElBaradei said North Korea "cut most of the seals and impeded the functioning of surveillance equipment" at one of its 5-megawatt reactors at Nyongbyong. "These actions were taken in spite of repeated IAEA appeals that they take no unilateral action ... until the IAEA had the necessary measures in place to ensure the continuity of safeguards" at North Korean nuclear facilities, ElBaradei said. The appeals certainly did a lot of good, didn't they?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 03:15 pm ||
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Inside the Mother of All Battles mosque, the prayer leader counseled Iraqis to be patient and sought God's help Friday against U.S. forces massing in the Persian Gulf. "Destroy their planes. Burn their tanks. Turn their cannons back upon them," implored Imam Thaer Ibrahim Al-Shomari, a day after the Bush administration declared Iraq in material breach of U.N. resolutions. Ummm... Don't hold your breath, Imam.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri was at the mosque when 30-year-old Al-Shomari appeared to address the deity on behalf of Saddam Hussein's government. "God, keep our country from the evils of the Americans... Take revenge on them, God. Protect our country from the evils of the British and Jews," the imam prayed. "Oh, especially the Jews!"
Leaving the women's section of the Mother of All Battles mosque, Sondos Khaled, a 29-year-old mother of two, voiced support for Saddam. "We are not worried about our children. We worry about President Saddam Hussein. As long as he exists, we exist. If he goes, Iraq will never be the same Iraq," she said. She didn't mention whether that would be a bad thing or a good thing...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 03:30 pm ||
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Agreed. Although...divine intervention on the Iraqi's side in the battle may necessitate a call-up of reservists, and while impressive for many reasons, still won't save Saddam's ass
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2002 15:57 Comments ||
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If you read her comment slightly differently, it could almost be a plea; 'As long as he exists, we exist'. Implying that if he ceases to exist, they won't exist either.
If you take the viewpoint that he is like Hitler, then losing the war means the Iraqi(German) people let him down, so why shouldn't they perish as being undeserving of him? This then leads to the possibility of using whatever WMDs he has in some orgiastic display of destruction rained down on his own people.
I hope not - I don't think the Iraqi people deserve that.
Posted by: Tony ||
12/21/2002 17:50 Comments ||
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The Ugandan army says it has defeated the lunatics rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Africas version of the Taliban
Army spokesman, Major Shaban Bantariza, said that the operation launched earlier this year had been successful and that more than half of the 3,000 rebel troops had been killed.
He dismissed suggestions that the timing of the announcement had anything to do with the fact that the commander of the army, Major-General James Kazini, said he would resign if the LRA was not wiped out by the end of the year. Nothing at all..
Major Bantariza said that Operation Iron Fist, design to flush out the rebels from their bases in southern Sudan, was now in its third phase and that it would soon be over. Until phase 4 begins
He said that a majority of areas in the north had been made safe, and that there were "only a few skirmishes" which he described as "mop-up operations". Major Bantariza said that there was no reason why Major-General Kazini should resign. "More than 90% of his mission has been achieved... Is 90% a failure, or not?" he asked. If you don't want to resign then it is certainly a success
Posted by: Paul ||
12/21/2002 06:31 pm ||
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Pakistan has strongly rejected the report published in The Times of London on Friday alleging that a Pakistani scientist had offered Iraq nuclear weapons designs in 1990. Reacting to the report foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar said on Friday that the latest allegation was a part of the ongoing "campaign of inspired leaks based on pure fiction following on the baseless allegations regarding Pakistan's cooperation with North Korea." "Lies! All lies! Base calumny and propaganda!"
He indicated Pakistan's intention to take up the matter in the UN Security Council when it takes up its seat in January. "We shall speak to the management about this!"
Pakistan would call for an investigation to reveal the sources of "such mischievous allegations" and their true motivation, Mr Khokhar stated. "To put the record straight, Pakistan may also ask for full access to the Iraqi documents," he said. "Yeah! Who talked? I mean, who made up these lies?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 02:46 pm ||
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Family of Asif Ramzi visited Edhi morgue on Friday to identify his body but refused to own it. Ramzi was thought to have been killed, along with three others , when a powerful explosion razed a building on Thursday. Ramzi's family saw all the four bodies, recovered from the rubble of the building, and disclosed that none of them was of Asif Ramzi. "No, no. It's not him. His spleen looked different than that..."
His wife revealed that Ramzi had met her only a couple of days before the explosion and that he was clean-shaved. However, she added, all the four dead she saw at the morgue were bearded, according to well-placed police sources. "Ramzi! I didn't recognize you without your turban, beard and automatic weapons!"
Two of the four victims, recovered from the rubble, were identified by police as Nadeem Abbas, a constable in the Anti-corruption Establishment and an activist of Sipah-i-Sehaba Pakistan (SSP), ... even though the two seem like they should be mutually exclusive...
and Sarwar alias Zulfiqar alias Zulfi, alias Bob, despite the fact that their bodies were mutilated. "Yep. That's Bob all right. I recognize the elbow."
Relatives of a missing religious activist, Amir Memon, a resident of Kharadar, are also desperately seeking a glance of the four bodies pretending that one of them might have been of Amir. "He was very devout. He devoted his entire life to explosives!"
The sources said that the police, who had found the NIC in the name of Babar Sultan at the site of the blast, insisted that Asif Ramzi was among the four dead. Ramzi was the most wanted in several bomb attacks and sectarian killings. He carried Rs3 million-head money. "It's gotta be him. There's a price on his head — that's it, over there — and we need the money."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 02:54 pm ||
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I'll feel better when the DNA confirms it. If it's only been a couple days, she' probably still his DNA on her...ugh
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2002 16:24 Comments ||
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You mean IN her, right?......unless he was saving himself for his martyrdom reward.....
A bomb ripped through a passenger bus in southern Pakistan on Saturday, killing two people and injuring 18 just hours after police announced they had quashed a terror plot by arresting four Islamic militants armed with grenades. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion aboard a local bus in Hyderabad, about 60 miles north of Karachi. It was the second bus bombing in as many months in Hyderabad, where attacks are largely fueled by ethnic and religious conflict. As opposed to Balochistan, where it's all in good fun?
In Karachi, the capital of Sindh province and the site of frequent violence against foreigners, police announced earlier Saturday that four suspects arrested late Friday had been planning to carry out suicide attacks. Pakistan has already been hit by at least 12 such attacks or plots this year. The men told police they had been recruited by two members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. All four suspects belonged to the outlawed Islamic group Jaish-e-Mohammed, and were looking to buy high-powered explosives. We went through a spate of attacks world-wide for awhile, and then things quieted down in the terror machine as the cops chased down the Bad Guys who'd stuck their beturbanned little heads up. But now that the head of Jaish is out of jug, he'll want to get back into the swing of things, so we can expect to see the level of violence in Pakland pick up as they practice their techniques for the next wave of attacks.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 03:13 pm ||
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In the West Bank city of Jenin, a German United Nations official escaped uninjured when a Palestinian gunman opened fire on his vehicle as he drove to a meeting with local Fatah leader Kadura Moussa. The masked gunman sprayed the German diplomat's armored jeep, which had diplomatic markings, with bullets from his Kalashnikov rifle before fleeing. "It's an infidel! I must kill him!"
Moussa condemned the attack, saying that the gunman had shot at the wheels of the German's vehicle. But missed them...
The IDF said the diplomat had arrived at a checkpoint near Jenin with bullet marks on his vehicle and had told soldiers about the incident. Local EU officials were not immediately available for comment. "You'll never guess what happened to me on the way to the checkpoint..."
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman in Berlin said: "An incident took place [in Jenin] involving a German member of an EU group of observers. An unknown assailant fired shots at the German. No one [was] injured." "So no harm done..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:02 pm ||
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"Abu! You ee-dee-yot! Before shoo-teeng, look at the license plates first! THE LICENSE PLATES!!!"
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said the diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East - comprising the UN, European Union, Russian Federation and United States - was "very close" to finalizing a roadmap for resolving the regions crisis, which it will soon present to the Israelis and Palestinians. "Okay! The peace processor's all ready to go. Ready to plug it in? Okay, all you Zionists and Paleos, hop in!"
Speaking to reporters before the Quartets meeting in Washington, D.C., with US President George W. Bush, the Secretary-General said that the group believes the roadmap "can help bring about the vision of two States, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side." Powell no doubt said that with a straight face. Somehow, various parties have been "making progress toward peace" in the Middle East since 1973. Nobody ever seems to get there, except for all the corpses, and that's just because they don't care anymore.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:03 pm ||
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The most consistently hoaky comment always comes after some Paleo outrage when "the world" asks Israel not to retalite for fear of "derailing the peace process"! I think the tracks were ripped up and sold for scrap long ago.
Citing an increase in attacks and warnings of attacks, the IDF divided the Gaza Strip into three parts Saturday morning, using a series of roadblocks. "The troops cut the strip into three parts in the Gush Katif junction and Netzarim junction in order to prevent the flow of terrorists and weapons," an IDF spokesman said. "The army will allow humanitarian cases to pass." "Got a humanitarian shipment of arms and ammunition here for Shiekh Yassin. Lemme through!"
The move follows Friday's killing of a rabbi from a Gaza Strip settlement. Rabbi Yitzhak Arameh was killed in a shooting attack near the Gush Katif block of settlements. The rabbi was a member of the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Netzer Hazani. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the shooting. Their Moms are so proud!
Arameh was travelling with his wife and all six of his children when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle from a roadside ambush, critically wounding him. A Magen David Adom emergency team rushed to the scene, but was unable to save the man's life. None of the other members of the family were injured. Security forces were scouring the area for the gunmen, who fled the into Palestinian controlled area immediately after attacking the vehicle. "Hi, Mom! I'm home!"
"And what did you do today, Mahmoud?"
"Oh, I shot a rabbi."
"That's mother's gooooood boy!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:06 pm ||
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the IDF's letting the Paleos feel the pinch. Gaza's no longer a safe home base....The IDF's intel rewards seems to be picking up the pace too
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2002 16:29 Comments ||
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Two Islamic Jihad militants were arrested by Border Police early Saturday morning, close to Dir al-Balah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Army Radio reported. The homes of the two men were later destroyed by IDF troops, the radio said. The two are suspected of planning the attack on the Jewish settlement of Kissufim, near Gaza, a few months ago. The attack was thwarted by IDF soldiers. Eight other wanted Palestinians were arrested overnight by the IDF in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They seem to be cracking down on Islamic Jihad lately...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:08 pm ||
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A group of Palestinians arrived in Gaza on Saturday morning after being expelled by the U.S., Army Radio reported. The group had been arrested in the United States after the attacks on New York's Twin Towers over a year ago, and was apparently not welcome in any other country. The members of the group had been in the U.S. illegally, and are not suspected in connection with the September 11 attacks. "Get the hell out and don't come back..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:10 pm ||
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By Peter Graff
LONDON (Reuters) - The United States and Britain are planning a massive seaborne invasion of Iraq from the Gulf as the first stage in any ground war, a British defense ministry source said on Saturday.
"Discussions on future amphibious operations are at an advanced stage," the source said, adding that Britain would commit its elite 3 Commando Brigade of Royal Marines to the proposed invasion.
In the 1991 Gulf War, U.S.-led forces assembled a large amphibious task force in the Gulf, but never mounted an assault by sea. Instead, infantry poured into parts of Iraq and Kuwait from Saudi Arabia by land.
The British defense ministry source said planners were this time leaning toward an amphibious assault in the case of a war with Iraq in part because of the difficulties of protecting a large ground-based army from chemical or biological attack.
"Would you really put 200,000 troops in one place and let them be targets for an attack?" the source said.
The amphibious option also reduces the diplomatic and political sensitivity of moving large land forces into countries in the region which have not yet publicly given consent for their territory to be used as a launch-pad for an invasion.
Other ground forces could deploy later, after amphibious forces had already opened up a front, the British source said.
CONTROL OF MAIN SEA LANES
The United States, Britain and any other allies that join them would have an easier time launching a seaborne attack this time than in 1991 because they already control the main sea lanes into Iraq and have made sure they are free from mines.
Over the past year, Australian, U.S. and British warships patrolling the Gulf to enforce U.N. sanctions on Iraq have moved their operations from international waters into Iraqi territory, Reuters reported from aboard warships in the region last week.
The allied navies now operate freely up to the mouths of the Khor Abd Allah and Shaat Al Arab estuaries, where Iraq's great rivers spill over salt marshes into the Gulf. The Shaat Al Arab gives access to Iraq's main port of Basra on the Euphrates.
Three British mine-clearing ships are in the Gulf helping make sure the waterways are clear.
Britain's 3 Commando Brigade, the elite force that made up the main British contribution to fighting in Afghanistan last year, would send about 3,000 men to the amphibious operation to join a much larger contingent of Americans.
A large British naval task force is due to sail from Britain at the end of January, and would presumably include the amphibious units.
Britain and the United States both say that Iraq has failed to supply a complete account of its missiles and nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, as required by a tough-worded U.N. Security Council resolution.
Washington and London indicated that the prospect of a war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in early 2003 was now increasingly likely.
So, is this FORTITUDE or OVERLORD?
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/21/2002 05:42 pm ||
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50-50 chance something like this will come off. Last time through we had a "massive amphibious landing" all rarin' to go, and it ended up as all tanks, all the time. So we'll either do the same thing this time, or while they're looking for the tanks we'll stage the amphib landing.
Or we'll do something else. I think Bush is maneuvering Sammy to a spot where there aren't any moves left for the Iraqi commanders. It isn't "either Sammy will comply or we'll take him out," but "either you guys take him out or we will." If his commanders take him out, they have a say in what the follow-on regime looks like: the old military junta, building a "government of national reconciliation," setting elections in 18 months routine. If we take him out, it's military government and tribunals.
If you were an Iraqi commander and you had a tank division, which would look more palatable to you?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2002 9:32 Comments ||
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Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, a spokesman for the Bali bombing investigative team, said here on Thursday that there were strong indications that Amrozi and his accomplices had been planning to bomb other places besides Bali. "After conducting the bombing in Kuta, Bali, last Oct. 12, they planned to carry out similar actions in other parts of the country," Edward was quoted as saying by Antara. Anybody surprised?
Last Monday, one ton of bomb-making materials was seized by police from the house of Arifah, a friend of Amrozi's, in Lamongan, East Java. Amrozi is believed to have acted as the field coordinator for the Bali bombings. The bombings in other parts of the country did not materialize as Amrozi and his accomplices were arrested in connection with the Bali bombings, Edward said. "Whoever thought the gummint would take blowing up a bunch of infidels so seriously?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:19 pm ||
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A group of clerics linked to Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on Thursday formally reported the International Crisis Group to local police for allegedly defaming the group, El Shinta radio reported. The Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) filed the report alleging that the Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group (ICG) had defamed the group through its publication entitled "Indonesia's Terrorist Network: How Jamaah Islamiyah Operates." "Just because it's true doesn't mean we ain't defamed..."
The MMI claimed that the ICG report, which accuses a number of Muslim clerics of possible involvement with the outlawed regional group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), was completely inaccurate. "Couldn't be true. Nope. Nope. Not us."
The group also reported Indonesia's Project Director for ICG Sidney Jones to the police on similar charges. Jones earlier said that ICG was ready to face any legal moves. "We have the documents..."
A day before, Indonesia Military (TNI) spokesman Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Syamsoeddin said he was considering a lawsuit against ICG if they failed to change, by Friday,which documents links between the military and JI. Sjafrie said ICG had misled the Indonesian public as it linked him to Fauzi Hasbi of Aceh province, with whom he maintains regular communication. Sjafrie denied the link. ICG in a statement said that the report had not accused Sjafrie of being involved in JI. If he maintains regular communication, how's that not a link?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:26 pm ||
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Prosecutors demanded Thursday the East Jakarta District Court to sentence now-defunct Laskar Jihad commander to one year in jail for inciting hatred. Notice there's no sentence for having people killed?
Defendant Jafar Umar Thalib was accused of inciting hatred against the government in a speech he delivered early this year in Maluku islands, some 2,300 km east of Jakarta, which has been riven by Mulsim-Christian violence. The former commander of Laskar Jihad militia has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. It sent thousands of fighters to Maluku in 2000 to join the Muslim-Christian conflict in the region. "Ain't nothin' wrong with killin' infidels, is there?"
After the oct 12 Bali bombing, the group disbanded itself. "Oh, cheese! Ditch the guns! It just hit the fan!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 01:41 pm ||
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Prosecutors Thursday sought a five-year prison term for two leaders of the Maluku Sovereignty Front, AFP reported. The defendants, Alex Manuputty and Samuel "Sammy" Waileruny, were charged with subversion for setting up an illegal organisation and raising the banned flag of the Republic of South Maluku. Both men carried out "an act of subversion with the intention of dividing the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia," chief prosecutor Herman Kudubun told the North Jakarta district court. Independence supporters declared a republic in the Malukus in 1950 and staged a revolt against newly-independent Indonesia. The rebellion was suppressed but activists, mainly in the Netherlands, launched a failed campaign for international recognition. Five years for these guys, who never amounted to squat, and a year for Thalib, who's a first-class bad guy. Couldn't be because he's an Islamist bad guy...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 02:37 pm ||
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Police on Thursday said they had begun examining a computer belonging to alleged Bali bombing key suspect Imam Samudra, AFP reported. Insp. gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, who heads the investigation, said computer files belonging to Imam had been copied and its contents were being examined by an expert from Indonesian police headquarters in Jakarta. The expert can determine when each file was downloaded and who made it, he said. "This investigative process also will reopen documents that were already erased," said Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, spokesman for the investigative team. "Hmmm... That's quite a few dirty pictures you used to have on that hard drive, Mr Holy Man..."
Pastika said a prosecutor and one of Imam's lawyers are among witnesses to the police computer analysis.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 02:42 pm ||
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A militia commander connected to the al-Qaida-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah took part in planning meetings for the Bali bombings, police said Saturday, the latest evidence tying the radical Islamic terror network to the deadly blasts. Goes well with their admission that they did it, huh?
Police staged a re-enactment of those meetings Saturday after flying eight Islamic militant suspects in handcuffs and ski masks from Bali to the central Indonesian town Solo. The re-enactments at two houses the bombing suspects rented were an effort to uncover more about their alleged roles in plotting the Oct. 12 explosions. "Now let's walk through this one more time..."
Police identified their latest suspect — still at large — as an Indonesian using one name, Zulkarnaen, who leads the little-known Laskar Askari Islamiyah Indonesia militia. "He participated in the discussions and now is wanted," Maj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said. Yep. That's a new one on me. Sounds like a false nose and glasses deal. So the net widens a little more...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2002 03:26 pm ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
