U.S. soldiers detained nine men after locating a site apparently used for rocket attacks on American bases in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. command at Bagram Air Base said Friday.
Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division made the discovery while on patrol near Khost, a city near the Pakistan border, the military said in a statement. The statement did not say when the arrests took place. Rockets - usually crude, Chinese-made weapons - have been fired at a several small U.S. bases in the area, usually without doing much damage. "The patrol pursued and detained four individuals, two of whom were armed," the statement said. "In a follow-up search operation, five more suspects were detained, and weapons and munitions were confiscated." Fell into a pattern of attacks and got caught. Enjoy your vacation in sunny Gitmo, guys.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 10:37 am ||
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And maybe airborne is learning not to telegraph its moves by taking two days to ramp up for an assault.
The Muslim World League yesterday condemned a media campaign in the United States against Islam, particularly against the Prophet Muhammad, and expressed the strong displeasure of the entire Muslim community at such vilification and insinuations. League Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Turki was reacting to the publication of a caricature by Doug Marlette in the Tallahassee Democrat, showing an Arab driving a lorry resembling the truck used by the Oklahoma bomber Thomas McVeigh in his attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building. The cartoon showed the truck carrying a nuclear warhead under the title: "What would Mohammed drive?" Pretty witty, huh?
Commenting on the extremely objectionable cartoon, Turki said: "Some enemies of Islam have been trying to tarnish the image of Muhammad just as they publish misleading information about and wrong interpretation of the Holy Quran." Some practitioners of Islam have declared war on us, using their religion as justification. They are supported in this endeavor by many in the Muslim world, and in particular by Soddy money, some of it originating with the World Muslim League.
Turki demanded that the Tallahassee Democrat apologize to the 1.5 billion Muslims and give an undertaking that it will not publish such disparaging material again. Rantburg demands that the World Muslim League apologize to the citizens of the Free World for the unprovoked attack by Muslims on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon, for assassinations, church bombings, desecrations, military operations against civilians, torture and mutilation, murder, rape, kidnapping, lies, deceit and thievery committed in the name of Islam. Rantburg also demands the perpetrators of those acts be brought to justice. Once that's been done, we'll talk. Until then â piss off.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 11:49 am ||
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1.5 billion??? Good grief, just a few months ago it was 1.2 billion. Do these critters multiply that fast?
And as for "extremely objectional" cartoons, what about the ones featured in arabnews.com?
Oh, those are caricatures of Jews. Nevermind...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/27/2002 12:07 Comments ||
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Oops. Forgot to mention it's the 12/21 cartoon...
Posted by: kat ||
12/28/2002 9:03 Comments ||
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FYI. Muslims are required to believe that: Solomon's Temple never resided on Temple Mount; Abraham was the first Muslim, and a member of the "hanaf" tribe, but that the Jewish tribe under Shaytanic (Satanic) influence, distorted the original covenant with "Ishmael" (not Isaac); Mohammed ascended to Heaven from "al-Quds" (Temple Mount)during a "Night Journey," after his conversion drive to Taif failed to attract any new prostrators.
Of course, none of the above beliefs explains why: Caliph Uthman burned all of the original "recitations (Koran of the Arab tribal god entity)" because they contained "satanic verse;" Mohammed sent emissaries to the Jewish village of Yethrib, to announce his conversion to Judaism as one of the line of "prophets" but when he was rejected, he ceased the prostrations to Jerusalem, claimed to be the "last prophet," prohibited references to Jerusalem in the Koran, exterminated male members of one Jewish tribe - Banu Quraizay - and renamed Yethrib, as Medina (city of submissives).
A court in Iran has sentenced 47 people to lashes and closed down their videoclub for selling "indecent and obscene films", the Afarinesh newspaper reported Thursday. The prosecutor general of Khuzestan province, Amir Abbas Sohrab, said the conviction followed a massive sweep by 1,000 police and Revolutionary Guards of 102 videoclubs in the southwestern city of Ahvaz. They wasted the time of a thousand coppers, looking for skin flicks?
He added that during the crackdown, young protestors angered over the operation clashed with police. He said some 100 people had been arrested and were still being detained. It was not clear how many lashes the convicted porn dealers would be subjected to. The sale and rental of films is severely restricted in Islamic Iran, with movies subject to strict censorship procedures. When the ayatollahs have all been hung, the Medes and the Persians can watch all the teletitties they want.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 10:17 am ||
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Real porn dealers or are these like those Saudi "alky bootleggers"?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 10:36 Comments ||
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latest news sez the Iranians have stopped using stoning to death as a penalty for a while to try and calm EU criticism...some progress, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2002 10:36 Comments ||
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It was not clear how many lashes the convicted porn dealers would be subjected to.
If it was Rob Halford dealing these flicks, he'd definitely be into the lashes part of the punishment...
Yun Ki Jin, chairman of the south headquarters of the National Alliance of Youth and Students for the Country's Reunification (Pomchonghakryon), in an appeal on Dec. 22 reportedly called upon the South Korean youth and students to turn out in an all-out anti-U.S. struggle. Recalling that what the U.S. troops have done in South Korea is nothing but killing, plunder and rape, the appeal noted that the people are turning out in the anti-U.S. struggle to put an end to the disgraceful colonial history. The "disgraceful colonial history" has made SKor a world economic power. Somehow the "plunder" left a lot of money there...
If all Koreans are to escape a nuclear disaster it is necessary for the youth and students to exert all efforts to shatter the U.S. moves to unleash a nuclear war against the north and increase their role in encouraging all the people to turn out in the struggle to force the U.S. troops to withdraw from South Korea, said the appeal. Good idea. Pull the U.S. troops out. The SKors have a perfectly good army of their own â a fact we sometimes tend to forget back here in the U.S. of A. Unless South Korea's military has degraded in quality over the past few year, in the event of conventional war with the North, the U.S. troops would be nothing more than a magic feather.
The appeal called upon the youth and students to devote their patriotic enthusiasm to the joint struggle of Pomchonghakryon, the all-out anti-U.S. struggle under the uplifted banner of the anti-U.S., anti-war and anti-nuke struggle and thus bring about a bright future of the nation in 2003. Saying "anti-U.S., anti-war and anti-nuke" is twice redundant, isn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 10:28 am ||
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so....why do we care about the SKors? They have the capability to defend themselves. They're getting to sound as ungrateful as the Germans, and of course, the French. Pull the 37,000 GI's out and let these bastards stew in their own kimchi
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2002 10:34 Comments ||
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The SKors have a mind boggling reality to deal with:
if NK collapses and wants to join SK, it is an economic nightmare
if NK invades, it is a military and economic nightmare
if US takes out troops, it is an economic setback and encourages an NK invasion
if SK politicians stop blaming the US, they will have to deal with their own problems
bummer
#3
SKor having to absorb a primitive and (self-)devastated NKor brings to mind Miss Piggy's admonition never to eat anything bigger than your head. Germany's had a pretty large case of indigestion for the past ten years, and East Germany was modernity itself next to NKor.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2002 11:03 Comments ||
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Its unfortunate that leaving Skorea now would look like appeasement to the Nkoreans. Otherwise I'd be all for it.
#6
Don't you realize that the 10 warranty on your neighbor's Kia would be worthless if SKor fell? Not to mention your LG TV or Samsung appliances. What would we do?
Posted by: Bob ||
12/27/2002 20:48 Comments ||
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Pyongyang, December 25 (KCNA) -- The international community is becoming increasingly critical of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and warning it of its adverse consequences. Foreign policy analysts and personages in different countries are unanimous in their views that the U.S. loud-mouthed fiction of North Korea's "nuclear program" and its assertion that dialogue with Pyongyang is possible only after it scraps its "nuclear program" are aimed to put the Korean Peninsula under its control and create a favorable atmosphere and conditions for carrying out its strategy to dominate Asia. Regime change... Regime change... Regime change...
The Finnish Kominform News Agency in an article posted on its internet homepage dismissed North Korea's "nuclear suspicion" as a pretext invented by the Bush administration to mount a military attack on it. It called on the international community to closely follow the moves taken by the U.S. after groundlessly kicking up a nuclear racket. Now that we've heard from the Finnish Communists, who are central to the formation of world opinion...
Harising Khang, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in a statement said that what the U.S. truly seeks in raising a hue and cry over North Korea's "nuclear issue" is to destroy the economy of the DPRK and stifle its socialism. NKor's already destroyed its own economy and wallows in its socialism. "Would you like some of these stones? They're really tasty!" The per capita income in South Korea was 13 times higher than that in North Korea last year. If the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ever managed to come to power, they could reverse India's growth, too, and we'd be back to sending food to the "starving children in India," too.
The Dec. 13 issue of the British newspaper Guardian in an article on the situation on the Korean Peninsula said that such world-stunning announcements made by North Korea as its declaration on resuming the operation of its nuclear facilities and its statement accusing the U.S. of its operation to seize a DPRK ship carrying missile parts that ended in failure convinced the world how difficult it is to deal with the North Korean Government. I think they might have misinterpreted al-Guardian's position. The fact that it's "difficult" to deal with NKor doesn't make NKor's position correct. Even the Guardian, except for the far left side of the press room, accepts that.
North Korea is stunning its rivals stronger than itself in a do-or-die spirit, far from yielding to them, and winning victory by employing strategies and tactics more skillful than theirs. It also said that the U.S. and its allies might have miscalculated, quoting a military expert as saying that the outside world does not understand the psychology of North Korea and it will not bend its knees. Mmmm... Yeah. The stupidity and clumsiness of NKor's moves has indeed been stunning...
Many other countries are warning Bush, accustomed to superpower behaviour and seized with war fever, to behave with discretion, well aware of North Korea's attitude toward the U.S. Which appears to be influenced by the phases of the moon...
Even the most conservative diplomats of the U.S. are criticizing Bush's policy, saying that a war with the DPRK is unimaginable and horrible consequences to be entailed in case North Korea burning with revengeful thought takes military actions compels the U.S. to reconsider the war option. Even a limited military attack on a nuclear power plant arouses apprehensions as the DPRK may regard it as a declaration of war, it added. I enjoyed the statement the other day from some predictable source â and I don't remember which one it was â that the reason NKor is acting the way it does is because Bush included it in the Axis of Evil. Takes us back to elementary laws of cause and effect, doesn't it? I don't suppose there's any remote chance that he included it in the Axis of Evil because it acts the way it does?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 10:47 am ||
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I enjoyed the statement the other day from some predictable source â and I don't remember which one it was â that the reason NKor is acting the way it does is because Bush included it in the Axis of Evil.
That predictable source must be an idiot. NKor's saber rattling is, what, a few weeks old, but Bush made his "Axis of EEEEevil" speech over a year ago. How does the 'predictable source' explain that lag, or does he bother to? Can't help but notice the timing of these rants to our military buildup in Iraq, making Bush 100% right in his claim.
#2
Ah, the good old KCNA. The Korean Central News Agencies is a pretty hilarious read, except that people are actually forced to listen to this propaganda there, and nothing else.
Posted by: John Thacker ||
12/27/2002 18:34 Comments ||
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North Korea today ordered the expulsion of UN nuclear inspectors and announced it will reactivate a laboratory that the United States claims can produce enough weapons-grade plutonium for several atomic bombs. Despite IAEA warnings, the North removed monitoring seals and surveillance cameras from the nuclear complex at Yongbyon earlier this week. Pyongyang said it was reopening the lab to give "safe storage" to spent fuel rods that will come from the reactor it plans to restart. The lab can be used to extract weapons grade plutonium from spent fuel rods. North Korea already has 8,000 spent fuel rods in storage that experts say could yield four or five nuclear weapons within months. Except for Finnish commies, I don't think anybody's buying any of this...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 10:51 am ||
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It seems that Kim Jong-il is somewhat jealous of Saddam Husseinâs universal âpopularity.â At least, within the past two months Pyongyang did everything possible to draw attention of the world. At first, North Korea admitted that it worked on nuclear weapons development. Then it started launching reactors at a nuclear power station. And now, North Korea expels IAEA inspectors.
Posted by: Richard ||
12/27/2002 23:39 Comments ||
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Iraq's top liaison with UN weapons inspectors said Thursday that scientists tapped for private questioning outside of Iraq were free to leave the country--although Iraq saw "no need" for secretive interviews. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin said for the first time that Iraq would not forbid scientists from meeting UN officials outside the country for interviews regarding nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs now under scrutiny. He made equally clear, however, that Iraq would not encourage such cooperation. Sounds like a threat to me
Amin repeatedly emphasized that he, as a scientist, would not leave Iraq for such interviews. "If there's an important question to be addressed, let them address to me here in Iraq," he said during a weekly briefing. "Why this complicated procedure? I don't believe in this process," the general added. Of course you don't, you want to live
Iraq's grudging approval for out-of-country interviews came at the end of the first month since the resumption of inspections and as UN monitors await a list of Iraqi scientists linked to weapons programs. Amin said Thursday that the list would be ready within three days and would contain hundreds of names for possible UN investigation. The questioning of Iraqi scientists has become a critical barometer in the UN effort to verify whether Baghdad still harbors weapons of mass destruction more than a decade after losing in the Persian Gulf war. The UN teams have the authority to talk with scientists outside Iraq, apparently in search of a whistle-blower, but there are significant complications. Most notably, UN officials are unsure whether they can offer asylum to someone willing to talk but fearing reprisal from the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The U.S. has offered to do just that, but of course the U.N. might not recognise that as legit.
Although the Bush administration had apparently been pressing UN officials to speed up the assessment--particularly the questioning of scientists--Iraqi officials said last week that UN monitors had not yet asked for any private interviews.
That changed this week when inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, went to confer with professor Sabah Abdulnoor, a former materials engineer for the Iraqi nuclear program now teaching at the University of Technology in Baghdad.
Two IAEA investigators met with Abdulnoor at the Applied Science College and asked to speak to him privately. He refused, agreeing to talk only when an Iraqi official was brought into the meeting. Within a couple of hours after the inspectors left, Abdulnoor called a press conference to publicize his cooperation with the UN and his loyalty to the Iraqi government. "I know nothing. I said nothing, nothing!"
Abdulnoor, in a lengthy private interview later that afternoon, said he had no interest in talking to the inspectors without a government representative even though he referred to one inspector, whom he had known since the early 1990s, as an "old mate." Scared to talk without his "minder" present
The university teacher said the inspectors were keen, in their questions, on finding other members of the Iraqi nuclear team. Most of those people were no longer alive or working in weapons programs, he said. Note the "no longer alive" statement. There have been unconfirmed reports of Saddam having scientists who had worked on his WMD programs killed, along with their families. This may indicate that those reports are true.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 10:44 am ||
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When North Korean leader Kim Jong Il visited a factory where none of the workers was wearing an overcoat, he took off his own before having his picture taken with them. The gesture from their Great Leader deeply touched the workers, state-run media said. It was cheaper than buying them coats, wasn't it?
Such tales abound these days from the communist state's Korean Central News Agency as the isolated regime tries desperately to boost the morale of people in one of the world's poorest countries. This year, North Koreans face the prospect of their coldest, hungriest winter in years. The United States and its allies have stopped supplying fuel oil ever since the North revealed that it has been running a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 accord with Washington. And the World Food Program said it will not be able to reach 2.9 million vulnerable North Koreans - barring immediate contributions from major donors such as the United States and Japan, which are increasingly unhappy about helping the recalcitrant Pyongyang regime. If the U.S. contributes, I'm gonna bitch. If we have to contribute to someone, pick a country that's not run by lunatics. Of course, the countries that aren't run by lunatics or infested by lunatics usually don't need so much aid, do they?
The immediate victims will be the North's children and elderly - including 760,000 children in nurseries - who depend on outside relief, says the WFP, the Rome-based U.N. relief agency that coordinates aid shipments to North Korea. I'd call them the responsibility of the NKor government, not ours. When they've hung their Dear Leader and his henchmen, then we should send them lots of groceries until they're on their feet.
North Korea advocates ``juche,'' or self-reliance, as a national philosophy. But it was reduced to begging for outside aid starting in the mid-1990s when its house of economic cards started collapsing floods devastated its already inefficient, Soviet-style economy, and triggered widespread hunger. Ethel! My violin, please!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 10:59 am ||
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Trouble is, the NKor military takes a large portion of any aid that's distributed. I understood they were not allowing NGO's to do the distribution of food to the starving rural areas.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2002 11:06 Comments ||
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We also gave food to the Taliban...we feed our enemies, rather then prosletyze. Therein lies part of the problem. The solution is convert NK to Islam and then when they become martyrs they can have their 72 raisins...
Posted by: Brian ||
12/27/2002 12:54 Comments ||
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Taking all things in good measure, we have begun our new "Cheese Ramen For Defectors Program". The first 10,000 arrivals will also receive a limited edition Kimche Pot and a Dear Leader Bobble-Head Doll.
Scud missiles seized two weeks ago in the Arabian Sea were destined for Iraq, not Yemen, it was reported yesterday. Israeli analysts say Yemen has no need for Scuds, and the cargo's arrival there was only temporary. A top Israeli defense official told The Post the ground-to-ground missiles were meant for another undisclosed country. The newspaper Haaretz went further and identified Iraq as the Scuds' ultimate destination. U.S. authorities turned a blind eye to the shipment and released the cargo in order to ensure Yemen's support in the ongoing war against al Qaeda, the newspaper said yesterday. Now that they've got them, they'll probably keep them, rather than jump in the poop by sending them on to Sammy. If we'd been sure they were on the way there, though, I'd think we'd have let them be delivered and then had the inspectors pop in and "discover" them. My guess would be that it didn't happen that way either because we weren't sure, or because the administration doesn't trust Blix. Once these things are identified in the pipeline, they can be tracked to their destinations by a variety of means...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 01:57 pm ||
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The US wanted to send a clear message to any future buyers of North Korean weapons that we can and will grab them enroute so you might as well not try.
We gave the missles to Yemen as cover so as not to further freak out North Korea and as a way to say thanks for the help so far to Yemen. I doubt the missiles have the accuracy to hit anything in the region.
I think Saddam probably cancelled the check and that's one reason North Korea is extra crazy lately. They need the cash.
The Defense Department has placed the USS George Washington, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, on alert for a possible return to the Gulf region only days after it came back from a six-month deployment, a U.S. official said on Friday.
The development came as the United States continues to build up its forces in the Gulf region ahead of a possible war against Iraq. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the redeployment of the George Washington could come with 96 hours notice. CNN is reporting a second carrier on the west coast was also going to be notified, no name yet. Just as I thought, a quick turn around after the holidays.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 02:12 pm ||
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Update: "Either the USS Abraham Lincoln or the USS Kitty Hawk battle group would be sent from the Pacific fleets. The Abraham Lincoln is in Perth, Australia, having just left the Persian Gulf region. The Kitty Hawk is in port in Japan."
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 14:48 Comments ||
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Someone at Rantburg said the other day that the thing to watch for is the hospital ships leaving port. The USNS Comfort has been told to be ready to sail on Monday. Here's the story:
#4
Here in San Diego, my office window looks out to North Island and down the bay to the 32nd st Pac Fleet wharfs.....it's never been so empty. Only one carrier out of 3 is in port, there's been a couple ships going in/out daily...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/28/2002 11:02 Comments ||
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Friday, December 27, 2002 Posted: 3:02 PM EST (2002 GMT)
The U.N. Command Friday released a photo it said showed North Korean troops in the DMZ with machine guns.
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- The North Korean army has brought light machine guns into the Demilitarized Zone, the United Nations Command on the Korean Peninsula said Friday -- a violation of agreements signed in 1953 at the end of the Korean War.
A U.N.C. Military Armistice Commission investigation revealed that the North Koreans had brought into the DMZ automatic weapons, the kind that can be operated by crews.
They were observed transporting, setting up and manning Type-73 light machine guns on six days between December 13 and December 20.
The South Korean army spotted the weapons while providing security for workers building the reconnection of the Gyeongui railroad and adjacent highway between the two Koreas.
The South Koreans reported that their northern counterparts set up the weapons from 100 to 400 meters (100 to 400 yards) north of the line and removed them at the end of each day.
U.N.C. said that it sent a message on December 23 to North Korea requesting a meeting on the issue, to be held December 26, but the North Koreans would not accept the message.
The United Nations command was set up after the June, 1950, North Korean invasion of the South to oversee troops from U.N. member nations that had volunteered to defend South Korea. Sixteen nations -- including the United States -- joined in the fight to repel the North.
The Demilitarized Zone extends 2,000 meters from each side of the Military Demarcation Line, as agreed to in an armistice to the Korean War signed on July 27, 1953.
According to U.S. and South Korean officials, two-thirds of North Korea's 1.1-million-member military are currently deployed close to the border with South Korea.
South Korea has a 650,000-member military, assisted by 37,000 U.S. troops. Washington has repeatedly ignored demands by the North that it withdraw its forces from the South.
In his January State of the Union speech, U.S. President George W. Bush called North Korea part of an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and Iran.
The U.N.C. report came on the same day that Pyongyang ordered International Atomic Energy Agency monitors to leave the country and began to restart dormant energy plants that the United States says could easily make nuclear weapons.
It also told the IAEA that it will resume operations at its plant for reprocessing spent fuel rods -- a facility capable of making weapons-grade plutonium.
In response, the IAEA said the inspectors were still needed and asked North Korea to reconsider.
An official Chinese newspaper blasted the United States over its stance regarding North Korea's nuclear program.
"This is a hawkish and dangerous warning," the English-language publication said. "It will poison the warming relations between the two sides of the Korean Peninsula." Warming Relations with North Korea? When did that happen?
The editorial went on to say the United States was irritated at having to shift its focus toward North Korea while it planned a war in Iraq.
It occurs to me that everytime we get set to take decisive action somewhere, something all of sudden pops up out of the woodwork with the clear intent to do nothing but distract us from the job at hand. Last year it was all the arab leaders saying "you've got to do something about the palastinian situation first". This year its North Korea with a freakin death wish.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/27/2002 03:12 pm ||
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The warming relations was the feeling Carter and SKorea got from having their heads up their arses during the past five years.
#2
Sadly, the ROK elected another peacenik, Roh Mog-hyun from the MDP, who promised to continue the "sunshine policy" of sucking up to N. Korea. (He added in a bit of blaming the US for good measure, as politics.)
Posted by: John Thacker ||
12/27/2002 18:30 Comments ||
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Ah yes, they moved the machine guns in, but that isn't a real violation...you see, if they fired that would be grounds for consternation!
This shouldn't derail us, I mean, now that Neville Chamberlain was elected to the SK Presidency...I almost hope NK SOF troops manage to bump the guy off this time.
Posted by: Brian ||
12/27/2002 23:26 Comments ||
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Chechen capital rocked by blasts
Two powerful explosions have caused devastation in the Chechen capital Grozny. At least 25 people are dead, Chechen officials say, but the death toll is expected to rise. Correspondents say the blasts appear to be the work of Chechen separatist rebels. One blast was inside the main Moscow-backed Chechen Government building. FoxNews was reporting it was two car bombs. Maybe they drove one inside before booming...
If confirmed, this would be the biggest operation by the rebels since they took more than 800 people hostage in a Moscow theatre last October. Vanessa must be so proud!
The blast inside the government building occurred at about 1430 (1130 GMT). The second explosion occurred nearby. "There are many dead and injured, as it was a working day and many people were having lunch in the canteen," one of the officials said. That certainly explains why Islamists would want to kill them...
Russia's NTV television said the building was almost completely devastated by the blast. The BBC's Stephen Dalziel in Moscow says that it appears that the explosions were caused by bombs planted in trucks, stationed near the building. Footage broadcast by NTV showed bleeding people stumbling out of the rubble. Maskhadov must have been glued to his telly...
Russian news agencies said neither the head of the Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, nor his deputy Mikhail Babich were in the building.
MORE from IslamOnLine:
Some 43 people were killed in a bombing attack on the headquarters of the pro-Russian government in the capital Grozny, said the Russian TV Channel 2 Friday, December 27. The Russian ITAR-TASS news agency, however, quoted Interior Ministry sources as saying that 32 people, including civilians and military personnel, were killed in the attack which also left more than 60 others wounded. The Kavkaz Center Internet website quoted an unnamed Chechen leader as saying that the attack was carried out by two fighters from âUnit 29 Martyr Operationsâ, which operates from southern Chechnya. Expended a bit of cannon fodder for the hit, did they?
An independent Russian website quoted eyewitnesses as saying that a vehicle loaded with more than one tone of explosives rammed into the building while another vehicle hit the building from the opposite direction. The blast sent five cars parking in front of the building into the air. The Russian independent NTV channel broadcast footage of the scene, adding that the building also came under aerial bombing. That seems unlikely, unless they're referring to mortars...
The attackers in a truck and a jeep drove through fencing around the building and went on to strike the building itself, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Tsakayev as saying.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 10:05 am ||
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UPI says: "Chechen militants claimed responsibility Friday for two suicide bombs that leveled offices of Chechnya's pro-Moscow government and killed at least three dozen people. In a telephone call to the Chechen news agency Kavkaz, a spokesman for the militants said "martyrs" drove the two vehicles, packed with an estimated 1 ton of explosives, and rammed them through the building's defense perimeter to its entrance, according to the Italian daily newspaper La Rupubblica."
OK, Vlad, they're all yours.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 14:08 Comments ||
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Sudan's rebel leader John Garang, head of the main southern faction battling Khartoum's troops, arrived in Nigeria on Wednesday for talks with President Olusegun Obasanjo, officials said. Garang, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader, arrived accompanied by his wife and by Nigeria's former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida, said an official here who declined to be named. I think I got some e-mails from some of Ibrahim's relatives recently...
The leaders's talk focussed on the crisis in Sudan, the official said without giving details. Peace talks in Kenya last August between Garang's SPLA and representatives of Sudanese leader Omar al-Beshir led to a groundbreaking agreement to grant the mainly Christian and animist south a six-year period of self-rule. A referendum would then be held to determine whether the region is to secede or stay united with the Muslim north. If they're going to have six years of self-rule, it's going to be hard for the northerners to fix that election, unless southern society collapses — which is probably what they're counting on, in fact.
Babangida has already held prior talks with Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, as well as with al-Beshir, before heading to Abuja for the talks, the official said. Following the meeting, held at Abuja airport, Garanj and his wife left in the company of Obasanjo to the Nigerian leader's country home in the southwestern Nigeria town of Oca, where they were to celebrate Christmas. That's interesting. Nigeria, because of its oil and e-mail industries, represents — what's for Africa — an economic and military center of power. Garang seems to be making his most important alliances first, with the strongest state he can find, one that has a similar "Islam's bloody border" problem.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 11:13 am ||
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Twelve people were killed and some 80 others wounded in an attack by unidentified armed robbers on a number of villages in western Sudan, a news report said Wednesday. The independent Al-Watan daily said the raid was launched by around 50 armed camel-riders on groups of the Fur and Bergu tribes living 45 kilometers (72 miles) from Nyala, the capital of southern Darfur state. The raiders ran away with some 1,000 cattle, but are being pursued by police. "Maw! Hide the cattle! It's commancheros!... No! It's the Abu Dalton gang!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 11:16 am ||
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It was Sitting Camel and Crazy Camel and the rest of the Injuns.
French troops clashed with rebels in western Ivory Coast on Friday, their second serious engagement in a three-month war that has crippled the former French colony. "A French patrol was set upon by a group of around 30 to 40 rebels on foot. They fired on the French soldiers, who responded," said Lt. Col. Ange-Antoine Leccia, a spokesman for the French army. "Eat lead, Frenchy! Ouch! Hey, how cum they ain't surrendering?"
No French soldiers were injured. Leccia said the French used 80mm mortars to repel the rebels. About 15 French soldiers, who were patrolling in jeeps, were involved in the clash. The attack took place near the town of Duekoue, some 55 miles south of the rebel-held town of Man. Elite French Legionnaires and paratroopers are posted in the town, to prevent the rebels from advancing south. Friday's clash came less than a week after French soldiers fired on a rebel convoy that was speeding toward them northeast of Duekoue. The rebels ignored warning shots and fired on the French soldiers before the order to return fire was given. Three rebel cars were destroyed by tank-mounted cannon, and six rebels were killed. You rebels wanted a war. Ok, you got one.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 01:43 pm ||
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And the Security Council resolution that authorized the French to use force was passed when, exactly? What is this? A brash act of unilateralism? Vechehomme diplomacy? How simplisme!
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
12/28/2002 4:57 Comments ||
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A man detained this week has been identified as the brother of an al-Qaida suspect imprisoned by the United States and is suspected of being the leader of a cell planning terror attacks in France, judicial officials said Friday. Menad Benchellali, who had been sought by France's intelligence agency DST, was one of four alleged Islamic militants apprehended in a suburb of Paris this week. The DST believes Benchellali trained at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and Chechnya, said judicial officials speaking on condition of anonymity. Let's just pick up anyone who has been to both places
The officials said he was the brother of 21-year-old Mourad Benchellali, who was arrested in January in Pakistan and transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding detainees in the global war on terror. Another family terror group.
Investigators said the four suspects arrested Tuesday in the northern Paris suburb of Romainville were part of a terror cell that included four others apprehended last week in the nearby suburb of La Courneuve. In both sweeps, police found evidence of possible bomb-making materials. The arrests came as part of an investigation by French anti-terrorism judges into networks that filter extremists into Chechnya, the officials said.
In the raid in Romainville, which police announced Thursday, counterterrorism agents found electronic components, a motorcycle battery, a remote control that could operate via mobile phone and an unidentified substance hidden in hair treatment bottles, justice officials said. The equipment and substances were being analyzed by government experts. The raid in La Courneuve turned up a suit to protect against chemical and biological attacks and radiation, a video camera, two empty gas canisters and false identity papers. Also found were diagrams of formulas that could be used for a chemical attack, judicial officials said. The suspects from La Courneuve also had liquids in small vials that the Interior Ministry later said was a mixture used to connect electronic components, and ferric chloride, which is commonly used for soldering electronic circuits. A ninth man believed to have ties to the group, Nourredine Merbet, was put under investigation Tuesday for alleged association with terror groups. Say what you will about the French, their secert service does a good job when you turn them loose.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 10:27 am ||
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Yassss, just ask the Jews who were under the Vichy regime how well the French Secret Agencies work. . .
Posted by: Brian ||
12/27/2002 13:05 Comments ||
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Not to mention Greenpeace.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 13:51 Comments ||
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The French Interior Ministry says terrorism suspects arrested near Paris recently planned to attack Russian targets, particularly that country's embassy. The arrests stemmed from a French investigation into networks that infiltrate extremists into Chechnya. The French news agency AFP quotes the Ministry as saying the networks have been dismantled and its plans thwarted. I think the last thing the Chechens need right about now is more attacks on Russian targets
French authorities say one of four men arrested Tuesday has been identified as the brother of an al-Qaida suspect held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They believe the man, Menad Benchellali, is the brother of Mourad Benchellali, who was arrested nearly a year ago in Pakistan. The latest arrests were announced Thursday. Police seized the four men in Romainville, a northern suburb of Paris. Officials said they belonged the same terror cell as four other men who were arrested last week in another Paris suburb, La Courneuve. Police say they are analyzing possible bomb-making materials and equipment seized in both raids. The Associated Press reports the family of the Benchellali brothers has accused the United States of holding Mourad Benchellali illegally. The report says U.S. authorities rejected the family's request to visit him at Guantanamo Bay.
Meanwhile, Spain's Interior Ministry says Spanish police have arrested an Algerian terror suspect, Abdelkrim Hammad, who was allegedly trained at Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan.
And, British officials have charged an eighth Algerian man, Karim Ziem, this week under the country's anti-terrorist laws. Algerians seem to be moving into first place in the voting for terrorist MVP. All you Yemenis and Saudis need to try harder.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 11:51 am ||
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The Saudis are making their money do their working for them.
Police said Friday they were hunting for five more suspects in the Christmas Day grenade attack on a church in this mainly Islamic nation. "Investigators are questioning some suspects and police are chasing the footprints of those terrorists who carried out the attack," Javed Iqbal Cheema, a senior Interior Ministry official, said. Six men were arrested Thursday in the attack on about 40 Pakistani worshippers in Chianwala. Chief among them was a Muslim cleric who allegedly told his followers to kill Christians. The suspects are believed to be affiliated with Jaish-e-Mohammed. Based on leads from the arrested cleric and Pakistani intelligence agencies, police spokesman Malik Iqbal said officials were looking for five more men who may have been involved in the attack. "Yes! It is holy to kill Christians! Matter o' fact, it's holy to kill just about anybody, ain't it?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 12:45 pm ||
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Suspected Islamic murderers guerrillas killed a teacher and his two sons in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Thursday, the latest in a wave of attacks on civilians, police said. They're less likely to be armed...
Shortly before dawn, three men with automatic weapons hidden inside their flowing Kashmiri gowns entered the victims' house in the village of Gopalpora, forced the men into a room and shot them, said police superintendent Mukesh Kumar. Schoolteacher Mohammad Shafi Wani and his elder son Noor Mohammad died immediately. Jehangir Wani, the younger son, died hours later in a hospital, officers said. Gopalpora is seven miles southeast of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state. No motive for the killings was immediately known. It being Kashmir, none was needed...
Police blamed the killings on separatist thugs rebels fighting for Kashmir's independence from India and its subjection to merger with Pakistan. Hundreds of angry villagers marched alongside the three coffins in a funeral procession to the local cemetery. Several youth burned tires and smashed car windows. That did a lot of good, didn't it?
Civilians have been targeted in several grisly attacks this month in Indian-controlled Kashmir, including the beheading of three women and the shooting of a ruling party lawmaker as he emerged from a mosque after prayers.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 12:56 pm ||
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Jamaat-ul-Dawa, Pakistan Thursday condemned the terrorist attack on Church in a village of Sialkot last night that claimed deaths of four young girls and left 18 injured. "Islam teaches the Muslims to provide full protection to the minorities and the attack is against the bright teachings of Islam," Amir Hamza, central leader of the Jamaat stated in a release issued here. The Jamaat ad-Dawa is the parent organization of Lashkar e-Taiba. If Amir Hamza is the same as Sheikh Mir Hamza, he's one of the signatories of Binny's declaration of war against us...
He said the attack on peaceful Christians on Church "is an act of the enemies of Islam and State of Pakistan as such acts of terrorism serve nothing to Islam and our beloved Pakistan." Islam he said teaches "us" to protect life and property of the minorities and does not permit to attack peaceful people, especially belonging to minorities. Gotta take care of those dhimmis, so they can pay their taxes to the Muslims...
He further said that presence of the US intelligence agents in Pakistan could be a source of such attacks but the act took place in a village of Sialkot has no linkage with the hate against foreign interference in the country. "Yeah! Them infidels prob'ly did it!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 02:10 pm ||
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Israel is torpedoing Cairo's efforts to get Palestinian resistance groups to calm their 27-month uprising, Egypt said Thursday, December 26, after the Israeli occupation army killed 9 Palestinians in the occupied territories, as the Israeli defense minister ordered his army to "turn up the heat" on the Palestinians. "At a time when the Palestinians are trying with Egypt's help to reach an agreement for a calming down, Israel is fueling the cycle of violence," Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters after receiving a phone call from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. "If those damned Zionists would just stop shooting back, we could get somewhere!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 10:07 am ||
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The leader of Hamas told 30,000 supporters Friday that the group will keep carrying out suicide bombings and shootings in Israel, despite talks between the Islamic militant group and Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction on suspending such attacks. A pledge by Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin that "the march of martyrs will move forward" drew cheers from the crowd packed into a soccer stadium in Gaza City's Sheik Radwan neighborhood, a Hamas stronghold. With the rally, Hamas was marking the 15th anniversary of its founding. Since 1987, the group has carried out scores of bombings, killing hundreds of Israelis. You don't get much holier than Sheikh Yassin...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 12:42 pm ||
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If Islamist holiness is determined by who can yell Death to Israel the loudest, may I suggest Sheik Nasrallah be added to the list?
Posted by: Brian ||
12/27/2002 13:07 Comments ||
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I suggest that we simply add a few xtra holes that'l make them holy.
One or more Palestinians broke into a Jewish West Bank settlement Friday, after the start of the Sabbath, and killed three people in a shooting attack, the Israeli army said. Eight people were wounded in the shooting at Otniel, a settlement near the Palestinian town of Hebron, the army said. An attacker was also killed. The shooting came a day after Israeli troops killed eight Palestinians in raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including six wanted men and two unarmed bystanders. In the past, Palestinian militias have carried out revenge attacks for such Israeli strikes. FoxNews teevee version says that one of the gunnies was snuffed and another heroically ran away.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 01:47 pm ||
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WASHINGTON â Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ordered a number of military units put on alert for deployment to the Persian Gulf, Fox News learned Friday.
Some are being told to be ready to deploy, if needed, within 96 hours' notice.
"A lot of things will start moving in the next week or so," a defense official told Fox News.
The units are from several services and include two Navy carrier battle groups and two Marine amphibious assault groups.
One battle group is attached to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which returned to port in Norfolk, Va., on Dec. 20 following a six-month deployment in the Gulf. check....
Rumsfeld has also ordered the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship based in Baltimore, to be activated and readied for possible deployment. check...
About 230 personnel will be told to get the ship ready to sail, but at this point its full medical staff will not be ordered aboard.
Some units in the Air Force's Air Combat Command have also received "prepare to deploy" orders from the defense secretary, with planes due to leave the U.S. within the next 12 days. check....
They include F-15E Strike Eagles from Seymour-Johnson AFB in North Carolina, F-15C fighter-bombers, B-1 and B-52 bombers and AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) planes. check.....
The B-52s will be deployed to Diego Garcia, a British airbase in the Indian Ocean, but all the other planes will be based in the Gulf. check....
B-2 bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, which flew to Afghanistan and back again on missions, are not currently scheduled for deployment. uhhh, say again.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/27/2002 02:20 pm ||
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B-2s have a special security classification. They won't be mentioned until after they drop their bombs. The AF has been building portable shelters on Diego Garcia to house them, reports suggest that up to a dozen may be "busy" on the first night of action. They are always ready to deploy.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 14:45 Comments ||
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With precision weapons constituting a much larger percentage of the arsenal, there probably isn't any real reason to use the B-2.
#3
More detail coming in from another source ( komo tv in seattle)
"Either the USS Abraham Lincoln or the USS Kitty Hawk battle group would be sent from the Pacific fleets. The Abraham Lincoln is in Perth, Australia, having just left the Persian Gulf region. The Kitty Hawk is in port in Japan"
and
"Already in the region is the carrier USS Constellation and the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau, officials said."
Kitty Hawk and contellation are of the same class of carries, non nuclear, early 1960's carrier used primarily as training carriers. During the Afghanistan takeover last year, the Kitty Hawk serverd as a floating Special OPS platform.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/27/2002 15:03 Comments ||
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Bomb-a-rama, the B-2 carries precision munitions. Currently configured, it carries up to 16 2000lb JDAMs. That's 16 targets it can destroy during one mission. I looked through all the press reports and saw another glaring ommission. The F-117 Stealth fighter. Just as I thought, it carries the same special security classification as the B-2. We never mention it until after.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 15:09 Comments ||
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Picture the Sixty Minutes watch...
tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...
Say, maybe on the way home they could take a swipe at North Korea?
" The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, surrounded by French tugboats, leaves the harbor of Marseille on Friday. The carrier will be on standby in case of a strike on Iraq"
site shows a picture of her very low in the water.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/27/2002 16:16 Comments ||
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BINA
Chief negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Al Haj Murad Ebrahim told the Bangsamoro Islamic News Agency (BINA) in an exclusive today that the MILF negotiating panel is ready to resume the peace negotiation with its counterpart in the government. Soddy Arabia owns a piece of the Philippines government, too?
Murad said it is high time that the peace talks, after it has been stalled for several months, should resume soon to tackle the unfinished agenda, the Ancestral Domain Aspect of the 2001 Tripoli Agreement. The other two aspects, Security and Rehabilitation and Development, were already hurdled by the MILF and government negotiators. Y'know, the Philippines should talk to the U.S. about this "ancestral domain" thing. We've got experience in that area. Why, something like the American Indian reservations seems like just what MILF needs...
Early last month, Secretary Norberto Gonzales left for Kuala Lumpur to talk to Al Haj Murad for the early resumption of the peace talks. Murad told Gonzales that the MILF is willing to resume the talks immediately after the end of the fasting month of Ramadhan provided that Malaysia, which has been hosting the peace talks since last year, will be amenable to the proposal. "Now that we've got our Christmas bombing out of the way, we're feeling kind of lazy, so we can chat for awhile.".
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 10:05 am ||
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You know, the Moros were a real pain in the ass to us in the early 1900's. Maybe the Phillipines should just let them go? Another Bangladesh or two is no biggie.
Islam Online/Agencies
Australian Prime Minister John Howard unveiled Friday, December 27, a controversial government advertising campaign informing the public how to spot and report on who they think are terror suspects. Howard said the campaign âLook Out for Australiaâ urged people to report suspicious behavior that was "clearly out of phase, out of sync" to a telephone hotline, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). The sense behind that seems remarkably common...
But he was quick to dismiss criticism of undercover work by saying, "I don't think Australians are going to be amateur spies." "I mean, it's not like most of us are nitwits or something..."
Opposition Leader Simon Crean said he had no problem with an anti-terrorist information campaign, but he criticized the government for failing to consult the community about the content of the advertisements. "We are concerned that the ads should be informative and don't seek to in any way politicize or add to community fears about terrorism," he said, quoted by AFP. Critics of the unprecedented campaign have warned it must avoid whipping up public hysteria and racial stereotyping, with Muslim groups expressing strong reservations about the plan, AFP added. "Though, I'll admit, some of us are."
They said that since the October 12 Bali car bombing, which killed about 190 people, almost half of them Australian, racist attacks on Muslims in Australia had increased. That's good quantitative analysis. With a percentage rise like the one cited, you can see that... Oh. There isn't one. No doubt the incidence of making faces and smartass remarks has gone up, though.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 10:05 am ||
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"With a percentage rise like the one cited..."
Not taking the chance someone would look further, Like when US stats were cited as showing a 400% increase - from 60 to 240, wasn't it? And fewer violent: faces and remarks.
But Howard should have learned from our discarded Operation TIPs. There are places to report suspicious things already, why start up another agen$$y - oh.
Posted by: John Anderson ||
12/28/2002 5:18 Comments ||
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The national school system has been hijacked by people obsessed with Islamic practices that emphasise form over substance, says Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. As a result, greater importance has been placed on things like the banning of shorts and skirts than getting pupils of all races to study together.
In an exclusive interview with the New Straits Times and Berita Harian at his office at the Ministry of Finance on Monday, Dr Mahathir lamented that even though the system had alienated non-Muslims, some Malays said it was still not Islamic enough and enrolled their children in Islamic schools.
'The idea was to set up a school system that would cater to all races in Malaysia,' he said, citing the lack of facilities for language classes for Chinese and Indian children as an example of how this aim had been ignored. 'But we find that the people who run the schools have other ideas.'
Dr Mahathir said Islamic practices had been introduced into the school system to the extent that non-Muslims had been alienated.
'So many Islamic teachers are added. 'For example, before we had no problems with girls wearing skirts and boys wearing shorts, especially for games. 'Now boys are forbidden from wearing shorts, even for playing games, and even games are discouraged.' Playing games wastes time better spent learning to hate others
Dr Mahathir, who heads a committee to overhaul the national education system, said it was unfortunate that some Malays themselves had rejected the national school system, preferring to go to Islamic schools that were badly staffed with unqualified people. 'They do not learn religion, they learn politics, the politics of a certain party,' he said.
He said that was why 'almost everyone' who went to an Islamic school came out hating the government, 'simply because that is what is taught in the school'. 'They say this government is not Islamic, and they can make up anything about how the government is not Islamic,' he added.
The Prime Minister reiterated that he was set on retiring despite calls from certain quarters to stay on. Dr Mahathir, who had announced his plans to step down during the Umno general assembly in June, had said that his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would take over as Prime Minister next October. Sorry to see him go, seems like he has a firm grasp of the proble.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/27/2002 11:40 am ||
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'They do not learn religion, they learn politics, the politics of a certain party,' he said.
Hmmm: Wahabi?
Posted by: John Anderson ||
12/28/2002 5:10 Comments ||
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Police in Indonesia have detained an Islamic militant said to be central to the terrorist network accused of the Bali bombings.
Police said Abdul Wahid Kadungga, 62, was detained on Tuesday at an airport in Balikpapan in East Kalimantan on Borneo island, and was flown to Jakarta on Thursday, where he is being questioned about his knowledge of the October 12 bombings and a bombing in Makassar earlier this month. Kadungga is known to have close links to Abu Bakar Bashir, the militant Islamic cleric detained by police in Jakarta over a series of bombings at Christmas in 2000.
Kadungga is reported to have first met Abu Bakar in Malaysia after Abu Bakar fled Indonesia in the mid-1980s to escape arrest for anti-government activities. Kadungga was forced to flee Indonesia in the 1960s because of his connections to an Islamic group. He studied and worked in Germany and the Netherlands.
According to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group,Abu Bakar came under the influence of Kadungga, who encouraged the cleric to broaden his vision of an Islamic state to include all of South-East Asia.
In a report released in August this year, the crisis group said that, through Kadungga, Abu Bakar and his so-called "Ngruki network" (named after the Islamic school Abu Bakar established in East Java) came in contact with international networks in Germany, Afghanistan and Egypt.
"The Ngruki network became radicalised in the mid-1990s, largely through one of of its main international links, Abdul Wahid Kadungga," the report said.
He allegedly developed a close relationship with members of Gama Islami, a breakaway faction of an extremist Egyptian-based group led by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was later convicted in the United States for plotting to blow up US landmarks.
The ICG report said Kadungga was believed to have had "direct communication" with Osama bin Laden's terrorist group, al-Qaeda, through his ties with Gama Islami.
Kadungga has a mysterious image. Suara Hidayatullah, an Indonesian Islamic magazine, reported in October that he was constantly on the move, with no fixed address.
"He's in the Netherlands, then he's talking with top officials of [the Malaysian Islamic opposition party] PAS ... and not long after, he's conversing with Osama bin Laden in the depths of Afghanistan," it reported
Posted by: Paul ||
12/27/2002 07:33 pm ||
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This is excerpted from a much longer article on Taliban On-Line, which has moved to a subdomain of MuslimThai.com. It's part of a much longer article originally published in Sydney Morning Herald. I've stashed the complete article on WOT Week.
"Life was hopeless - even this prison is better. There was no TV, no radio, no newspapers. All I was allowed to do was to stand in the rain, holding my Kalashnikov; and to listen to religious instruction," Didar Khalid Khedr says. "They wouldn't let me see girls, not even a picture on the wrapping of a bar of soap. But they promised me virgins in paradise when I exploded the bomb."
Khedr is a mechanic, but he lost his job in the city of Irbil because of a bad back. He was heading for the valley and the Ansar-controlled village of Biyara because of a chance meeting at a mosque in Irbil. He explains: "I met a man named Annis. He told me about Ansar and we decided to join as fighters. I was in Biyara for six or seven months - they put me on guard duty in Gulup village."
He says the villagers see little of the Afghan Arabs who have made their homes in a network of inaccessible caves in the mountains, as a result of which the area has been dubbed Tora Bora - the same as the frontier cave network in which bin Laden and hundreds of his al-Qaeda fighters made their last stand in the east of Afghanistan last year.
Life for the valley communities is in retreat. Women are fined for going without their veil and some have been subjected to acid attacks. The villagers are made to watch video-recordings of torture sessions as a warning not to stray from Ansar's narrow social and religious dictates. Girls are not allowed to go to school after age 12; teachers may not teach children of the opposite sex. Music, pictures and advertising are forbidden. Villagers are ordered to the mosque and must live by the ancient tenets of Sharia law.
Khedr tells the story of how he was selected as a suicide bomber. "In Biyara village I made another friend - Hisham," he says. "He encouraged me to volunteer to be a suicide bomber. The bomb had 5 kilograms of TNT in it and it was made by Ali Wali, who told me he became an expert in explosives in Afghanistan, fighting first against the Russians, and then with the Taliban."
Khedr has just started describing the bomb in detail when the jailer returns and drops the bomb vest on the floor between us, in such a way that the blocks of explosive spill onto the carpet. It is the work of a true professional and Khedr proceeds to model it. It has eyelets for a corset-like lace to ensure a snug fit on his body, and all the wiring is carefully wound in black insulation tape. And Wali the bomb maker takes no risks. A separate belt, worn around the waist, is fitted with its own explosives - four lumps of TNT, each about the size of a cigarette packet - and its own detonator, so that if the main bomb fails, the bomber will still be able to detonate an explosion. "The men who coached me on how to use it were Abu Shafa, Ansar's deputy leader, and Abu Bahkir," says Khedr. "They told me they were representatives of Osama bin Laden. My instructions were to blow the body bomb, and if that didn't work to press the second switch for the belt bomb. They tried to make me scared of the PUK so that I would kill myself rather than be captured, by saying that if they took me alive they would cut away bits of my skin every day. The Arab Afghans drove me about 25km to the town of Sayid Sadiq - I was to blow myself up in front of the peshmerga headquarters. The plan was that Ansar would attack the town and I would blow up during the battle."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/27/2002 02:41 pm ||
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I love the admiration with which the writer describes the design of the boom suit. The string, the tape, how exquisite!
Clearly, it represents the epitome of Arab engineering and craftmanship. Still, a backup detonation system just in case it doesn't work the one freaking time it needs to.
At least we don't have to worry about these guys building a stealth bomber, aircraft carrier or Kia-class subcompact anytime soon.
Posted by: John ||
12/27/2002 15:10 Comments ||
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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.
