Source: NNI
Governor of west Afghanistan's Kandahar province has acted on the central government's decree to leave his control over local military affairs. According to local Radio Liberty, Kandahar governor Gul Agha Sherzai's spokesman Khalid Pushtun said that the governor had limited his power only to the governorship in accordance with the decree. Afghan transitional president Hamid Karzai earlier this month decreed that anyone who had a civilian position in provincial governments could not handle local military affairs. In the past, Sherzai also controlled four neighboring provinces,including Helmand, Oruzgan, Zabul and Nemroz, with his command of local military forces, although he was only governor of Kandahar. He was a warlord before he became governor. He brought his gunnies with him, from Quetta, when the Pashtuns were putting together their "southern alliance."
The military troops in Kandahar province are now under command of a separate authority in the province, Radio Liberty said. That would probably be Gul Agha's cousin, Bob, but it's a start...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 09:56 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Source: NNI
Deputy Defence Minister of Afghanistan Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum ordered release of seven Pakistani prisoners who were seriously ill. "Gonna die, are they? Well, send 'em home, so we don't have to pay for the funeral..."
These prisoners were released at such time when Pakistani Ambassador to Afghanistan Rustam Shah Momand held talks with officials in Mazar-e-Sharif on various issues including opening of a consulate there, BBC reported. The ambassador said he had a plan to open the consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif, which remained closed since the fall of Taliban regime. The released Pakistani prisoners were expected to arrive in Peshawar Thursday. Where they'll kick off on Friday afternoon, unless they're faking it, in which case they'll explode next to a couple Frenchies in Rawalpindi next Tuesday...
The ambassador said Afghan officials had promised to release all Pakistani prisoners from Shiberghan prison after talks with President Hamid Karzai. He also referred to the Afghan prisoners in Pakistani jails. "Release 'em? Sure. We were almost done with 'em, anyway."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 09:50 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Source: AFP
A previously unknown organisation has distributed pamphlets in eastern Afghanistan vowing to bring to justice Osama bin Laden, Taliban leader Mullah Omar and former premier Gulbaddin Hikmatyar, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported Wednesday. Y'mean the "previously unknown organization" isn't the gummint? Or does that mean that Afghans haven't previously known what a gummint is?
The pamphlets carrying pictures of the trio wanted by the US forces, urged people to ârecognise the black faces of Afghanistan history,â the AIP said. Saudi dissident âOsama fled his country. He is a traitor, who plunges into anarchy any country he visits,â the leaflets quoted by the agency said. AIP said the single sheet pamphlets published in Pushto by the so-called Ittehad-e-Islami Mujahideen and Muhajereen Afghanistan (Islamic Unity of Afghan holy warriors and refugees) asked people to beware of the âsinisterâ designs of the trio. The grabbed the name of Rasool Sayyaf's old party? What a nice slap in the face — unless Rasool's decided his bread's buttered on the government side and decided to clean up in Dodge...
âThey are upset over the process of peace and reconstruction initiated in Afghanistan. Once again they want bloodshed in Afghanistan.â It asked former Afghan commanders, religious leaders and mujahideen not to be misled by the propaganda of these âmurderers.â People will very soon see with their own eyes that the trio would face trial and be brought to justice, the leaflet said. The AIP said the leaflets have been distributed in Kunar province where troops are engaged in the hunt for Taliban and Al Qaeda fugitives. It also followed reports that radical anti-US leader Hikmatyar was in the regionâs Shigal district, the agency said, without giving details. It also coincides with the Bad Guys handing out their own leaflets and pamphlets...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 09:45 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
*imagines Bad Guys hopping up and down, bug eyed, livid, frowning at every pore at the sheer AFFRONTRY of someone ELSE handing out leaflets and pamphlets denouncing THEM*
Can't help it: I got this image when the liberal bloggers started complaining that the conservative bloggers have "taken the medium WE pioneered!"
IRNA, and the Voice of America correspondent that anti-American leaflets were circulated on Tuesday and Thursday, December 30-31, in the nearby Paktia province. The leaflets lashed out at the American military presence in Afghanistan and threatened new attacks on the American troops. The leaflets, which carried no signature and were claimed by no group, pressed the American and foreign forces to leave the country and warned any soldiers who stay in Afghanistan of being killed in the countryâs valleys and mountains. The publications also exhorted the Afghan people not to cooperate with the foreign troops and the government of President Hamid Karzai. Lemme see, here. They carry the latest Hekmatyar line, so I guess nobody has to claim them. If you get a pamphlet telling you the Pope's neat, you assume it's Catholic in origin. The last bunch was printed by the JUI-F, across the border in Waziristan. No great mystery, is it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 09:45 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Husbanullah Mutawakel for IslamOnline
American forces stormed a mosque in the Khost province in southeast Afghanistan, beat the worshippers and abducted two of them, said the Pakistani NNT news network Thursday, January 2. The American soldiers desecrated the mosque with their shoes, smashed the doors and windows infuriating the residents, said the agency. Just another item on the long list of atrocities we commit every day. Is it true that the words for "speak" and "lie" are the same in Pashto?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 09:45 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yeah, and I bet they peaked through a couple of burqas too.
In another development, an American radio station, broadcasting in Pashtun language, said Thursday that seven people were killed and twenty others wounded when a hand grenade exploded during a marriage ceremony in Pakita on Wednesday, January 1. The bomb exploded when an Afghan young man mistakenly dropped the bomb, said the broadcast. "Goddammit, Mahmoud! I told you: the ring in the left pocket, the grenade in the right! But do you listen? NO! You never listen!"
FOLLOWUP: And here's some more on that. Don't drink any coffee while reading...
Five people were killed and six wounded when guests at an Afghan wedding party fired a rocket propelled grenade into the air, only to have it land nearby and explode, an official said Wednesday. Rule number one: When having gun sex shooting your gun in the air, don't use a grenade launcher...
"One of the grenades landed back on the ground near the wedding party, but it hadn't gone off," said Abdul Matin Hasankhiel, a senior military commander in the area. "A commander attending the wedding went to see why it didn't explode. When he touched it, it went off." Rule number two: If you do, and the grenade doesn't explode right away, don't ask it why...
The blast occurred Friday in Gardez province, about 77 miles south of Kabul, but the casualties were not reported for several days. Even the Pashtuns were embarrassed about it. It was reported by a guy with a bucket over his head...
Hasankhiel said revelers fired assault rifles and seven rocket-propelled grenades to celebrate the wedding. Guns are often fired into the air to celebrate marriages in Afghanistan, but that tradition does not often include firing heavier munitions, such as grenades or rockets. Rocket-propelled grenades are normally designed to explode on impact. The grenade in the Friday accident may have been defective. Doesn't sound like it was, though...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 09:45 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The guy who went and checked out why the grenade didn't explode was a COMMANDER? This begins to explain a lot about the combat effectiveness of the local jihadis.
Commander: "Dang, the grenade didn't explode. Hey Achmed, go check it out."
Achmed: "Cripes, boss, you always send me to do your scut work. Aren't commanders supposed to lead from the front?"
Commander: "Hokay, you gotta point. [walks over] See, there's nothing to ... [BOOM!]
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/03/2003 10:08 Comments ||
Top||
Scores of Yemeni soldiers lined up outside barber shops in Sanaa and other towns Friday in response to a new order from the military high command that beards are no longer allowed in the Yemeni armed forces. No explanation was given officially, but an informed Yemeni source said the order was the latest move in Yemini government crackdown on Islamic fundamentalists following the killing of three U.S. Baptist missionaries earlier this week, and -- in a separate action -- the assassination of the leftist leader of the oppposition.
In recent months, there has been a sharp increase in the number of military personnel who have grown beards as a sign that the wearer is a Muslim fundamentalist, or a sympathizer, the source said. Friday's order said that any soldier reporting to his barracks still wearing a beard would not be allowed to report for duty. "I was forbidden from entering my barracks near Sanaa International Airport until I shaved my beard," one soldier told United Press International. "Such measure didn't exist before." Now this is very interesting. Going after a symbol like this is a direct challenge to the fundamentalists. Its not something we would have asked them to do, they had to have come up with it on their own. Maybe the Yemeni government is serious.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 03:03 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It's progress. Now if we can get them to stop marrying their cousins...
#3
But... Weren't those murderous bastards who carried out the atrocities of 9/11 clean shaven? So I think this will only weed out the non-psycho maniac Islamofascist.
A long but excellent piece in the Asia Times on Saudi Arabia and Wahhabi Islam. I expect that the author, Syed Saleem Shahzad, will not be invited to Riyadh anytime soon.
With a constant increase in the deployment of US forces in the Persian Gulf , the war against Iraq looks set for February. However, the paradigms of the military build-up so far suggest that the goal of the West in the Gulf region is by no means limited to the borders of Iraq. Indeed, the concentration of forces is also well suited to undermining the resurgent fundamentalist branches of Islam and their bases in the Muslim world.
The fact is, whether or not the US overthrows Saddam Hussein, its armed forces will remain face to face with the country at the ideological center of fundamentalist Islam. That country is not Iraq; it is Saudi Arabia. And it is this divide - between Western-style democracy and Saudi-style Wahhabi Islam - that remains at the heart of the coming conflict. The majority of Saudi citizens are Sunni Muslims predominantly adhering to the strict interpretation of Islam taught by the Salafi or Wahhabi school that is the official state religion.
At present, US troops and bases are spread across the Middle East from Oman to Saudi Arabia. At the same time, the continuous deployment of US forces in the Persian Gulf has virtually established de facto US hegemony over the region. With this force, the US has not only ensured a successful strike in case of a war in Iraq, but it has also severely damaged the prospects and attractions of those Islamist ideologies that have emerged as its natural rival.
"There is a deep realization among the US policy makers that in fact there are two concepts of Islam that prevail in the Muslim world. One emerged from Najad [Saudi Arabia], and the other very recently when the Turks ruled an Ottoman empire stretching from Turkey to Morocco," a US diplomat said recently. "The Islam that emerged from the deserts of Najad, called the Salafi branch of Islam, purely finds its sources in the holy book [Koran] and the teachings of Prophet [Sunnah]. The concept of Islam that evolved during the days of Turkish rule are also based on Koran and Sunnah, but instead of taking direct instructions from the book and the teachings, this concept relies on the interpretations of different scholars and Islamic jurists. The Islamic concepts which emerged from the deserts of Najad have always been extremist, whereas the concepts that evolved during Turkish empire are very moderate."
There is no geographical divide between the two concepts, both exist in all Muslim societies. Islamist organizations such as al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world, the Jamaat-i-Islami in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, the Jamaat-i-Islami Afghanistan, the Islamic political parties of Indonesia, Malaysia and Algeria, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines, Hamas in Palestine, Chechen fighters etc - all belong to the Salafi branch and all are, or have been, the recipients of Saudi aid in one form or another. It is a fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the vanguard of this Salafi branch of Islam.
"Interestingly, in societies where these groups exist, there are other Islamic groups which do not follow Salafism, but instead believe in Sufism, an interpretation of Islamic scholarship in light of the Koran and Sunnah which teaches not quarrel but love. This concept evolved during Turkish rule," the diplomat says.
The US and Saudi Arabia have a 50-year history of friendship. The US turned a blind eye on anti-Western aspects of Saudi ideologies as long as the Saudis allowed the US to operate in their countries and gave the Americans a free hand in oil exploration and other fields. Egypt, for its part, oppressed the Muslim Brotherhood and hanged many of its leaders. This situation forced the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood to take refuge in Saudi Arabia.
These leaders apparently laid the foundation of many peaceful social groups, like the Islamic Circle of North America and the Islamic Society of North America. These organizations are welfare organizations, but they are the source to spread a "resurgent" Salafi branch of Islam.
"Not only are these political Islamic groups sympathetic to organizations like al-Qaeda, but for many al-Qaeda leaders these organizations were the nurseries where they learnt the concepts of resurgent Islam which deviated into militancy against the US," the diplomat said.
Sources said that after September 11, the US started giving heavy-handed suggestions to Saudi Arabia for the reform of its religious schools - suggestions aimed at changing the syllabi of universities, such as the Islamic University in Medina and the Umul Qura in Mecca. The Saudi rulers agreed to make these changes but, considering the influence of religious forces in the shaping of Islamic study, the rulers have found that even the suggestion of such fundamental reforms are creating frictions not only between religious forces and the royal family, but also within the House of Saud itself.
A majority of the House of Saud is still an ardent believer of the Salafi branch of Islam and its strict practice as this ideology is the foundation of Saudi rule and, indeed, the country of Saudi Arabia itself.
In the presence of these realities, laying the foundation stone of Western democracy and civil society in a country like Saudi Arabia under the shadow of US guns would jolt the foundation of the House of Saud, its patron religious forces and their ideologies. And it can't happen too soon.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 11:21 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
--virtually established de facto US hegemony over the region.--
When I can order pork ribs while wearing shorts and sandals and no cover-up, there will be US hegemony.
#2
When you eat those pork ribs in a Cathedral in Mecca I'll buy the US hegemony bit. Until then its mutual toleration.
Posted by: Different Anonymous ||
01/03/2003 13:19 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The Islamic Circle of North America, and its ISNA counterparts are subsidiaries of the Jamaat-i-Islami of Pakistan. The JI deputy, Khurshid Ahmad, attended every JI convention over a "twenty year" period, in his own words. The JI is leading the campaign for complete and final shariazation of Pakland. They also invited Osama bin Laden to attend their 1998 convention. Unfortunately, jehad obligations kept ObL away, however, HAMAS, Lashkar, Hizbollah, Hizb ut-Tahrir were able to enjoy the festivities. ICNA/ISNA khutbah is available at: www.khutbah.com
A Tallahassee Democrat reporter was suspended Thursday for using strong language in an e-mail criticizing Arab nations for the way they've reacted to Israel. Political writer and columnist Bill Cotterell, in an e-mail exchange, wrote "Except for Jordan and Egypt, no Arab nation has a peace treaty with Israel. They've had 54 years to get over it. They choose not to." The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations sent an alert to its members calling the remarks anti-Muslim and anti-Arab. CAIR seems to think truth is anti-Muslim. Now that I think about it.....
Council spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the e-mail's recipient had previously complained about a political cartoon that briefly appeared on the newspaper's Web site, asking "What would Mohammed drive?" and depicting a Ryder truck carrying a missile. The cartoon was not published in the paper.
The complaint started an exchange with Cotterell, who also wrote, "I don't give a damn if Israel kills a few in collateral damage while defending itself. So be it." Works for me. Guess I should suspend myself. Nah.
Cotterell was suspended a week without pay. Democrat Executive Editor John Winn Miller apologized for the remarks.
"They absolutely do not represent the views and sensitivities of this newspaper. Worse, they run counter to many of the values we hold dearest, among them tolerance, diversity and inclusiveness," Miller said in a written statement issued by the newspaper and carried in a story for Friday editions telling of Cotterell's suspension. Mr. Miller, just how much tolerance, diversity and inclusiveness do you find in Arab Muslim countries?
The cartoon was drawn by Doug Marlette, who draws from his home in Hillsborough, N.C. Miller said Cotterell immediately regretted the remarks after sending the message on his company e-mail account and apologized to his colleagues "for the hurt and embarrassment he knows he caused." "I was wrong and I am sorry," Cotterell said. "My remarks were grossly inappropriate and do not reflect my views toward Muslim people."
Hooper said the punishment was fair. "It will send a positive message to the Muslim community in Florida that this kind of bigotry will not be tolerated and I appreciate the swift action of the Tallahassee Democrat in resolving this issue," he said. "We don't want to be vindictive in this. We just want to make sure bigoted views don't color the news related to Muslim and American-Arab issues." So much for the concept of a free press, oh sorry, that's anti-Muslim too.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 02:29 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Ok, for these comments:
"Except for Jordan and Egypt, no Arab nation has a peace treaty with Israel. They've had 54 years to get over it. They choose not to." Which are all truths which are easily verifiable, Mr Cotterell has to apologize for inappropriate remarks to the Muslim people. How on earth can his comments be interpreted as bigotry?
If I lived in Tallahassee, I'd cancel my subscription to the 'Democrat'.
Miller sounds like a spineless wimp as well.
Oh, and to get some background on Mr Hooper, check this out:
http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/206
Posted by: Tony ||
01/03/2003 16:35 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Where the hell are the liberals who scream censorship! censorship! now that SOME ACTUAL CENSORSHIP is going on?
Posted by: Ryan Waxx ||
01/03/2003 22:35 Comments ||
Top||
#5
According to CAIR, the article stated: "Except for Jordan and Egypt, no Arab nation has a peace treaty with Israel. They've had 54 years to get over it. They choose not to. OK, they can squat around the camel-dung fire and grumble about it, or they can put their bottoms in the air five times a day and pray for deliverance; that's their businessâ¦And I don't give a damn if Israel kills a few in collateral damage while defending itself. So be it."
Posted by: Paul ||
01/03/2003 22:37 Comments ||
Top||
#6
alert readers will note that the reporter was responding to someone bitching about the "What would Mohammed drive?" cartoon.
Now, far be it from me to suggest that people writing to complain about things they think is offensive might get snitty, but we *do* know that we are missing one half of the conversation here.
People do tend to return rudeness for rudeness, you know. Even reporters.
Posted by: Ryan Waxx ||
01/04/2003 9:05 Comments ||
Top||
According to Nawa-e-Waqt leader of Jamaat Daawa (formerly Lashkar Tayba), Amir Hamza, said in the partyâs annual function (attended by ex-ISI chef Hameed Gul among others) that once in power the party will rename the planets (Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, etc) by giving them names like Abu Bakr, Usman, Umar, Ali, etc. He said that kafirs had filled the earth and the skies with shirk.
Posted by: Paul ||
01/03/2003 09:14 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
I thought the ancient Arab/Muslim astronomers had given the planets Arab names centuries ago. The commonly used symbols for the planets are labels original applied by these astronomers. Nawa-e-Waqt's statement seems kind of ignorant.
Shirk, or shirq, is some kind of technical term in Islam, it is to attribute Allah's qualities to someone or something else. Googling the term will generate commentary such as "shirk is the ultimate crime"
Anyway, it's the main function of us kafirs in this world.
Members of Pakistan's Islamic parties demonstrated Friday against possible U.S. military action against Iraq, but turnout was much smaller than organizers had hoped, officials said.
In Islamabad Friday, 400-500 people turned out for a demonstration by the Muttahida Majlis-e Amal, a coalition of Pakistan's religious parties that controls two provincial legislatures. The largest turnout was in the MMA stronghold of Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier province, where about 8,000 people listened to speeches by leaders of the coalition's two largest parties. "An attack on Iraq by the United States would not only be an attack on the Iraqi people, it would be an attack on all Muslims of the world," said Maulana Fazl-ur Rahman, the leader of Pakistan's Jamiat-Ulema-Islam party. Pakistan's cooperation in the U.S.-led war on terrorism has angered the country's Islamic leaders, who want U.S. troops and investigators to leave. But attendance at Friday's demonstrations was much lower than for protests during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in late 2001. So much for the feared Arab, er, Pakistan street
In Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, about 2,000 people showed up, officials said. In Rawalpindi, fewer than 1,000 people turned out. Get a bigger mob than that for a good old-fashioned stoning
Anti-American sentiment in Pakistan has been aggravated by an incident along the Afghanistan border last weekend that left a U.S. soldier wounded. During that incident, a U.S. warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb on a building where the soldier's attacker -- who wore the uniform of Pakistan's border scouts -- was holed up. U.S. and Pakistani officials said the airstrike occurred inside Afghanistan, but Islamic parties in North-West Frontier's provincial assembly said the target struck was a religious school on the Pakistani side of the border. Lawmakers passed a resolution demanding Pakistan's federal government file a protest with U.S. officials over the incident. The man who shot the soldier was captured and is in Pakistani custody. He'll be held for a while and quietly released, or shot, depending on who he is and what he knows.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 12:00 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The reallyl gung-ho Jihadists were bussed into Afghanistan to fight beside the Taliban. Wonder what happened to them?
Posted by: Bin Luddite ||
01/03/2003 13:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
They're that sticky stuff that keeps getting stuck to the bottom of our guys boots.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 13:25 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Wonder whether it was raining...some of these folks are "fair weather Islamo-nutjobs"..."Khalil, skip it! We'll stay in and watch bootleg copies of 'Baywatch'!"
#4
The gung-ho jihadists that were bussed in to fight next to the Taliban were slaughtered in large numbers by our bombing campaign, then in the siege of Konduz. In the aftermath of the fall of Konduz they were shot like dogs in the street. Survivors were jugged and, in a quaint local custom - now, don't disapprove, because who are we to say that one set of customs is inferior to our own? - they were held for ransom. The ones Mom and Pop, back in Waziristan, couldn't bail out are still there, those that haven't kicked off because of the crowded conditions in the local calaboose. Very sad, really. Mary Robinson got quite worked up about it for a while, before having lunch.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2003 0:39 Comments ||
Top||
Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said yesterday his country was committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms and expressed a desire for closer ties with China and Southeast Asian nations. Probably good people to be friends with...
Announcing six major objectives of the country's foreign policy for 2003, Khan said a desire to diversify diplomatic contacts did not mean that Bangladesh wanted to distance itself from more immediate neighbours. Without India, it'd still be East Pakistan, wouldn't it? Is there a word for "gratitude" in Bengali?
The policy focus, he said, will be on ensuring national security while strengthening ties with immediate neighbours on the basis of promoting mutual interests. "We want to ensure national security in a stable regional context to project the image of Bangladesh as a responsible, peace-loving country," he said. "There have been nasty efforts to project Bangladesh as a land of fundamentalists... but I firmly assert that Bangladesh remains a land of democracy and communal harmony." That was actually somewhat so, until the fundos started moving in...
The minister maintained that Bangladesh had been able to overcome all such suggestions and would "expand our efforts in the year 2003 to improve our country's image among friends and business partners." When they start tossing the al-Qaeda guys and jugging their local fundos, then we'll see if they're serious.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 10:28 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"your country's image"
Let's see. A creation of India, all of six inches above sea level, poorer than dirt poor, Bengalis hated by all other tribes surrounding you. OK, I give up.
Algerian Ahmed Zaoui, who has been held in Paremoremo Prison since arriving in New Zealand a month ago, could wait another six weeks for a decision on alleged terrorist links. Zaoui appeared briefly in the Manukau District Court for an extension of the 28-day warrant under which he is being held. Two guards searched bags and swept detection devices over anybody entering the main courtroom. Wearing handcuffs and a blue prison boiler suit with a letter D stitched to his back, Zaoui looked nervously around the half-full courtroom while bending to keep one ear on an Arabic interpreter. Judge Semi Epati accepted there were no objections to extending Zaoui's warrant to stay in New Zealand while his application for refugee status was considered. He remanded Zaoui back to Paremoremo for seven more days. Lawyer Roger Chambers said Zaoui had already appeared before an interviewing officer with the Refugee Status Branch and a decision was expected about the middle of February. Routine immigration stuff, rules applied to an international terrorist. Why the hell is he in New Zealand, fergawdsake?..
Zaoui arrived at Auckland Airport from Malaysia on December 4 with false South African documents, some destroyed on the flight. He is a member of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) which in December 1991 was democratically elected to rule Algeria, but the secular army took power by coup in January 1992. He fled to Europe where he was accused of belonging to or helping the FIS' alleged paramilitary wing Islamic Armed Group (GIA). The GIA led a civil war in Algeria and was blamed for the Paris metro bombing which killed eight people. Among other atrocities. They're the group that's so fond of slitting people's throats and wiping out entire families. Favorite quote: "neither truce, nor dialogue, nor reconciliation, nor security, but blood, blood, destruction, destruction."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 10:48 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Wearing handcuffs and a blue prison boiler suit with a letter D stitched to his back
#4
You guys need to check your facts: Ahmed Zaoui was DEMOCRATICALLY elected. The ALLEGED links to the GIA are extremely tenious at best. The allegations against him come mainly from the the very army that violently grabbed power after the 1991 elecions.
read the following link to get at least the basics before you leap blindly to faulty conclusions.
And for the record: NZ is only leftist in the sense that if you turn up to a hospital bleeding, they'll still patch you up, no matter who you are. Leftist in the sense that if you can't find a job, you're not left begging on the streets. Leftist in the sense that everyone can get an education if they want one.
What I am ashamed of is that we are looking at deporting a man to certain death, without stating the charges. The secret trial stuff is out of place in an open society like ours.
Army troops on Friday captured an alleged Abu Sayyaf member suspected in the killings of eight fishermen last year, a day after arresting a senior member of the extremist Muslim group, the military said. Two in one week, way to go!
Maid Sampang was seized after a brief chase on Balukbaluk islet, west of the southern island of Basilan, by troops who raided his home there, which was used as a hideout for guerrillas fleeing military operations on Basilan, said Col. Bonifacio Ramos. Troops recovered an M-16 assault rifle and were pursuing other gunmen who escaped, he said. Fishermen had alerted the troops that seven armed men were staying at the house of Sampang, who is secretary of the local village council. You knew where he lived, but didn't go to pick him up until you heard seven gunnies were visiting?
Ramos claimed that Sampang was involved in the killings of eight fishermen who were shot in their boat off Basilan in late October. Authorities initially blamed pirates for that attack.
On Thursday, army intelligence agents and police in Zamboanga city on the main southern island of Mindanao captured Merang Abante, a senior Abu Sayyaf member who carried a 1 million peso (US$18,800) bounty on his head. Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, spokesman for the military's Southern Command, said Abante was nabbed near the city's busy port, but gave no other details.
The Abu Sayyaf has earned notoriety for kidnappings, including of three Americans and 17 Filipinos from a resort in May 2001.
The group is currently holding four female members of the Christian sect Jehovah's Witnesses and three Indonesia tugboat sailors kidnapped last year. The United States has included the Abu Sayyaf on its list of foreign terrorists and has indicted 10 of its top leaders and members, but Abante is not among them. - AP Tag um and bag um
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 10:15 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Colonel "Prettyface" Ramos, huh?
I'd bet large amounts that he's not someone you want seriously pissed at you...
#4
They killed the man that was with them, and - if I remember correctly - cut his head off. The ladies are likely getting large doses of proselytization when the good Muslims aren't dragging them back into the bushes.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2003 0:30 Comments ||
Top||
Details from Stars and Stripes on the upcoming exercise.
The top ground commanders of what will likely form the Armyâs spearhead into Iraq will gather in Germany for face-to-face planning meetings and war plan rehearsals, according to senior Army officials. âV Corps is planning a command and control exercise within the next 30 days,â said Lt. Col. Joe Richard, a V Corps spokesman. âItâs part of our ongoing effort to stay ready and ensure that V Corps and its units are fully prepared to undertake any mission it is required to do.â
Although Richard declined to elaborate, several senior military officials told Stars and Stripes that the exercises will bring together many of the top commanders of any ground invasion should the White House give the green light for an attack on Iraq. Dubbed Victory Scrimmage, the war games will gather the key leaders of the United States-based 101st Airborne Division and 1st Cavalry Division as well as the Germany-based 1st Armored Division and 1st Infantry Division. It will involve hundreds of staff officers, war planners and support troops, officials said.
âItâs a command and control exercise with pucksters â guys who move the puck around for computer simulations,â said Maj. Hugh Cate, spokesman for the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, Ky.
âThese guys tell the computer whatâs going on; itâs a simulated battlefield with replicated units.â Cate said that more than 100 personnel would be involved in the exercise, which would last âa week to 10 days.â
All four divisions will fall under Lt. Gen. William Wallaceâs V Corps for the exercises, which will be conducted at the Armyâs sprawling training center at Grafenwöhr, Germany. Wallace and his staff just returned from the deserts of Kuwait where â along with the Marine Corpsâ 1st Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters â it hashed out top-level planning for an invasion of Iraq with U.S. Central Command. Now itâs time to work out the details of those plans, officials say. The exercises are slated to begin in mid-January and will run one to two weeks. Looks like my timetable is coming along nicely
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is finalizing orders for the first wave of Germany-based forces into the Middle East. Several thousand soldiers â mostly from V Corpsâ support brigades â engineers, military intelligence and communications units among them â are expected to receive their official deployment orders any day now. The mobilization is part of a much larger mustering of forces in the Middle East. According to U.S. Central Command officials, there are currently about 60,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines already in the region. Those numbers are expected to balloon to as many 250,000 if an invasion is ordered. From Websters: Scrimmage = practice play. Yup, playoffs coming up. Time to get ready for the real Super Bowl.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 01:59 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I still don't get it. My suspicion has always been that first Iraq gives the UN the full declaration of their WMD program, then the U.S. provides inspectors with real intelligence (!!) catching Iraq at a lie, and then the playoffs begin. Now it looks like the inspectors won't find anything, and their report might even be favorable to Iraq (no WMD). Do the boys & girls in Washington have an ace up their sleeve, or what? I see the chess pieces on the board, but just can't see the next move.
#2
If you look at the way the administration has been handling many events over the last year, you'll find that they seem to always have an ace up their sleeve. Case in point: the refusal to talk to the Paleostinians until 'the leadership has changed'. That's put Arafat and co. in complete disarray.
I guess people are getting edgy because they want things to happen - all over the middle east, all at the same time, and perhaps get back to some level of normalcy.
But the international scene doesn't work like that.
You can see the chess pieces on the board, so can I. Thing is, this administration doesn't play by those rules - they have new pieces off the board, ready to play, when they're ready. And they sure as hell don't have any resemblance to horses, queens and bishops.
The new pieces are a combination of military units (lots of them and the willingness to use them), dialogue with other leaders (Putin is a classic example) and a whole host more I could only guess at.
The next year is going to be very interesting, and the show starts sometime In February.
Posted by: Tony ||
01/04/2003 3:57 Comments ||
Top||
The Pentagon has ordered some units of the 45,000-member U.S. 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based in Camp Pendleton to deploy to the Gulf region to join thousands of other American troops preparing for a possible war with Iraq, defense officials said today. Spokesmen at 1st Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters confirmed that an order to deploy "elements" of the big force was received this week, but would not say how many or exactly when and where they would go. But other defense officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters that troops, aircraft and equipment from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force would begin moving to the Gulf region soon.
The Army is already preparing to deploy more than 11,000 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division in the state of Georgia as well as hundreds of engineers and intelligence specialists from Germany to the Gulf in a new year surge of troops, warplanes and ships in case President Bush orders an invasion of Iraq. Nearly 60,000 U.S. military personnel are in the Gulf and that number could double in coming weeks. Tick...tick...tick..
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 01:44 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's "the Big Red One" rolling out, isn't it?
I think I can alreay hear the Republican Guards shaking in their boots!
Posted by: Jimmy Dolan ||
01/03/2003 13:59 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Nope, you're thinking of the 1st Infantry Division, U.S. Army, that's the Big Red One. Don't get the two mixed up, they won't like it.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 14:19 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The "Big Red 1" is the Army's 1st Infantry Division.
#5
And, just ignore the reports from a couple of weeks ago from England about amphibious landings. Stupid idea given the terrain, and from all I hear, the Marines are delighted with how their air assault in Afghanistan went.
US President George W Bush rallied US troops on Friday, telling them that a war in Iraq would be "not to conquer but to liberate". He urged Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to "end his defiance" of UN resolutions and avoid US-led military action.
President Bush told cheering soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas - the largest US Army base - that America was winning its war on terror around the world.
He said terrorists were "nothing but a bunch of cold blooded killers and that's the way we are going to treat them".
"Terrorists will not be stopped by mercy or by conscience, but they will be stopped," he said. "They will be stopped by the will and might of the United States." He said America was confronting the threat of "outlaw regimes" that sought weapons of mass destruction. Referring to North Korea, which has threatened to restart its nuclear programme, he said the world had to speak with one voice to "turn it away from its nuclear ambitions". Mr Bush said the world had already spoken with one voice on Iraq, but President Saddam Hussein had "chosen the path of defiance".
He described the Iraqi regime as a threat to America and to its friends. "Saddam Hussein was given a path to peace, thus far he has chosen the path of defiance. "He knows what he must do to avoid conflict. Even now he could end his defiance - he has that choice to make. "We prefer voluntary compliance from Iraq. Force is our last choice but if force becomes necessary to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction... to secure our country and to keep the peace, America will act deliberately, America will act decisively, and America will prevail because we've got the finest military in the world."
He added: "Should Saddam seal his fate by refusing to disarm, by ignoring the opinion of the world, you will be fighting not to conquer anybody but to liberate people." Let's Roll!
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 01:31 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The Army said Thursday it is sending 800 engineering and intelligence specialists and about 300 air defense troops to the Persian Gulf over the next several weeks. The engineering and intelligence specialists, based in Germany, are from the 130th Engineer Brigade, the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, the 22nd Signal Brigade and the 3rd Corps Support Command. The Army said they would deploy before mid-February but was not more specific. Engineers - Check
Intel - Check
At Fort Bliss, Texas, spokeswoman Jean Offutt said that about 300 soldiers from two Patriot air defense units -- the 108th air defense artillery brigade and the 35th air defense artillery brigade -- will head to the Persian Gulf region in the next few weeks. Their equipment was being shipped from Fort Bliss on Thursday. Between 800 and 900 soldiers from Fort Bliss-based Patriot units are in Kuwait, including some who were scheduled to return home shortly but instead have been ordered to remain in Kuwait, Offutt said. If Bush orders a U.S. attack on Iraq, Patriot air defense forces would be expected to play an important role in defending U.S. and allied forces in Kuwait and elsewhere from attack by Iraqi Scud missiles.
Already there are more than 50,000 American forces in the Gulf region, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld last week signed orders for the deployment of tens of thousands more troops in the next few weeks. The U.S. forces are operating from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and other countries near Iraq. Air Defense - check
Meanwhile, U.S. warplanes dropped nearly a half-million leaflets Thursday on southern Iraq asking Iraqis to tune in to American propaganda radio broadcasts. The U.S. planes dropped about 480,000 leaflets over Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, and An Nasiriyah at about 5:15 a.m. EST, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The leaflets tell readers the radio frequencies on which they can hear U.S. broadcasts from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. each evening. The broadcasts, part of the U.S. military's psychological operations in preparation for a possible war with Iraq, come from EC-130E Commando Solo airplanes flying over Kuwait. The Arabic-language broadcasts urge Iraqi soldiers to turn against Saddam's regime, accusing him of using soldiers as puppets for his own nefarious purposes. The broadcasts say Saddam builds luxurious palaces for himself while Iraqi people are sick and starving.
The leaflets dropped Thursday were in the southern no-fly zone patrolled by American warplanes to keep Saddam from attacking Shiite Muslims. Psych War - check
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 10:37 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Can anyone tell me how you drop leaflets? Are they loose in a big bin, or what?
#2
The "drop" consists of tossing a box full of leaflets, connected to the C-130 Hercules by a static line, out the opened rear door of the aircraft. The static line causes the box to literally explode open, creating a leaflet "cloud" that drifts onto the desired population of ground troops. I think they also have a pod that fits under a fighter for dropping leaflets over places you wouldn't want to take a 130. And Napolean Solo was the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/03/2003 11:51 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Probably a given but wind has to be taken into consideration as well.
About a dozen Arab intellectuals said they planned to publish an appeal in Arab newspapers later this week in an attempt to persuade Saddam to step down in return for asylum abroad and guarantees for his safety. And we all know how much Arab guarantees are worth...
That idea was recently expounded in an open letter to Saddam by Ghassan Tueni, a former Lebanese statesman and publisher of Beirut's An Nahar daily. "The immediate resignation of Saddam, whose rule over three decades have been a nightmare for Iraq and the Arab world, is the only way around further violence," said a copy of the appeal obtained by Reuters on Thursday. If they'd said the same thing at, say, the ten year point in his bloody-handed autocracy the appeal would carry a bit more moral verve, wouldn't it?
The Iranian newspaper said the United States, which is amassing troops and armour near Iraq, also preferred a non-violent solution. We'd be reasonably happy if he just dropped dead. But it's the successor state that's important... Hope the Bush team doesn't lose sight of that fact. Otherwise, we're going to have to go through all this again in ten years.
Entekhab said the U.S. scheme for a post-Saddam government involved a federal system that would include the ruling Baath party. That's a bad move, too. It's kind of like post-Nazi Germany, only with the Nazis still in good standing...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 10:22 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Heck, even Saddam knows how much Arab Guarantees are worth. That's why he won't bite this one.
#5
Big deal. France's anti-jihad portal - www.aipj.net reports that "200" Muslimaniacs, including Qaradawi and al-Awdah, posted a manifesto in the Wahabi financed, al-Quds al-Arabi (London). Apparently, an attack on the Iraq tyranny will "open the doors of jihad." Frankly, I wouldn't mind a much larger salient. Qaradawi and al-Awdah would look good in a couple of body bags.
The United States wants to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussain from power without the bloodshed or the billions of dollars of a new Gulf war, an Iranian newspaper said yesterday. But the German Foreign Ministry denied the daily Entekhab's report that Germany's foreign minister told his Iranian counterpart by telephone that Washington sought a bloodless coup with the help of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "...it's been heard that Joschka Fischer, German Foreign Minister, has told Kamal Kharrazi in a phone conversation that America is set to overthrow Saddam Hussain without a war, bloodshed and heavy military expenditure," Entekhab said. You read it here first...
The German Foreign Ministry confirmed the two ministers spoke by telephone, but denied Fischer had said the United States was trying to topple the Iraqi leader without a war. "This content of the conversation is completely made up," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said in Berlin. It could be made up out of whole cloth, too. But can Sammy afford to take a chance that it is? Or even that there's only some truth to it?
The newspaper, believed to be close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Washington had harmonised its policy with Russia. It underlined recent remarks by former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov about the possibility that Putin might visit Baghdad in order to persuade Saddam to relinquish power and depart for Moscow. Normally, heads of state don't really like it when the President of Russia drops by to tell them they should consider another line of work. It doesn't look good on the old resume...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 10:17 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Weren't the Germans recently complaining that the US isn't bringing them in on the big policy discussions?
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should either disarm or accept any offer he might get to go into exile if he wishes to avoid a crushing military defeat, the United States said. He won't do that, because he can't take his arms and ammunition with him into exile...
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said he was not aware of any activity now under way to negotiate a exile option for Saddam but maintained the Iraqi leader should either "change his ways or change his venue." That's diplotalks for "get out of Dodge"...
"I'm not aware of any active efforts to promote such proposals," he told reporters on Wednesday when asked about speculation that the United States and other nations may be trying to arrange a face-saving method for Saddam to step down and thus perhaps avert a war. "But at this point, if it's an option he has, he ought to be smart enough to take it." Scaring him out of town will be a lot cheaper than fighting a war, but it'll also leave the Arab states with some influence in the successor state. But it definitely looks like Bush is going to try the cheaper alternative — first. Dan Quayle made similar suggestions in the run-up to the first Gulf War, and in fact I think he was still mentioning the idea all the way through it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 10:03 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Putin invites Saddam to a quiet exile in Siberia and Lukoil is back in business again? Intra-arab diplomacy suddenly resolves the Gulf War and OPEC survives?
Why not let Kofi Annan run for the Dems in 2004?
Posted by: john ||
01/03/2003 10:52 Comments ||
Top||
Middle East Online
A US war against Iraq would hurt the Arabs as much as the creation of Israel in 1948 did, Palestinian leader-for-life Yasser Arafat (1929-2003?) said in an interview published in Egypt today. In his remarks to the Egyptian government newspaper Al-Ahram, Arafat also said an upcoming meeting of Palestinian factions in Egypt was aimed at forging unity rather than ending the uprising against Israeli occupation. We guessed that...
A war in Iraq "will not just have repercussions for Iraq, but the entire region will be affected as it was affected by the events in Palestine in 1948," Arafat warned. Known as the Nakba (catastrophe), the proclamation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the defeat of hostile Arab armies by the new Jewish state led to a massive exodus of Palestinian refugees to neighbouring Arab states. "It should not be ruled out that one might see a new Sykes-Picot," Arafat warned. Signed in 1916, the secret French-British Sykes-Picot carved up the non-Turkish provinces of the Ottoman Empire ahead of its collapse two years later. Hmmm... Curious, he should bring that up, so soon after Galloway did. Must be on the official Learned Elders of Islam talking points. We'll probably hear about it again.
The Arabs blame the Sykes-Picot accord for all the conflicts which have ravaged the region since then. And not their own brutality and ineptitude...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 09:45 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
very interesting to see Yasser coming it out in public against the US war in Iraq. On the one hand he has to be at least as hostile as states like egypt, syria, pakistan to retain cred with the Pal street - especially the more rejectionist elements has been cultivating of late - on the other hand this not only wont endear him to the Bush admin (or for that matter to Blair) it will not endear him to the Iraqi opposition either. The odds on an a post-Saddam Iraq recognizing Israel just increased, I think.
#5
Any successful resolution of the Iraq situation by "arab diplomacy/Russian deviousness" would put tremendous pressure on the US to deal with the Palestinian problem with similar "diplomatic" approach. That would put Arafat back in the driver's seat.
Posted by: john ||
01/03/2003 11:25 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I don't see the substance to John's point at all. What happens to the leader of nation state who subsidizes terrorism as a national policy shouldn't be confused with what happens to a bunch of terrorist thugs who frequently pretend that they are leaders of an unrecognized nation state.
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
01/03/2003 18:12 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I think TR's point is entirely correct. But on the other hand, Arafat has no longer any influence with the US (not that deserves any) so what he thinks about Iraq is irrelevant in Washington. Any resolution of the Iraq situation that is accomplished by a combination of Egypt/Syria/Saudi/Russian diplomacy/duplicity reduces US effectiveness on overall mid-east policy, even if the current military effort is the pressure point that makes it all happen. The potential reduction in influence is what Arafat thinks he needs to allow his arab and european buddies to come to his aide. Or maybe his meds are running low.
Posted by: john ||
01/03/2003 21:47 Comments ||
Top||
Chechen Times
Elected President-for-Life of Chechnya Aslan Maskhadov has said attacks in which martyrs are used will continue until Russian forces are withdrawn from Chechnya. At the same time Maskhadov emphasized that he denounces terror as a means of fighting against Russiaâs aggression. âWe denounced and denounce terrorism,â he is reported to have said. "But we'll keep using it... Logical contortions? Pshaw! That's nothin'! Wanna see me bite myself in the back of the head?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/03/2003 09:45 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Can't build a technologically advanced civilization if ya can't think straight worth a damn...
#2
Doesn't appear that the President-for-Life has any plans to be strapping on a martyr belt and taking one for the team. I believe he'll leave that opportunity for participating in the political process to the common folk.
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.
