KABUL: At least three Afghans were killed when a bomb exploded in the vehicle they were travelling in. The explosion ripped through a vehicle in the Panjwaye district of Kandahar province, the Arman-e-Millie newspaper reported without saying when the blast occurred. The government mouthpiece described the situation in Panjwaye area as âinsecureâ. Kandahar has been rocked by a series of attacks and explosions since the start of the year, which the government has blamed on remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and the Al Qaeda network.
"Mahmoud! This road's pretty bumpy! What if this thing goes off?"
"Don't worry, Ahmed. I've got another one in the trunk!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 03:58 pm ||
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Insurgents in eastern Afghanistan opened fire Tuesday on patrolling U.S. forces, setting off a firefight that left four attackers dead, a military spokesman said. No U.S. casualties were reported. The U.S. troops came under attack before dawn near Shkin, a volatile town in Paktika province near the Pakistan border, the spokesman, Col. Rodney Davis, said from Bagram Air Base. U.S. soldiers fired four artillery shells along with several illumination rounds during a three-hour exchange, Davis said. "Take that,infidel! Hey, who turned on the lights?" KABOOM!
After an initial gunfight, "coalition forces then conducted a search of the contact site and a nearby compound," Davis said. "They found three enemy killed in action and engaged a fourth who attempted to throw a hand-grenade at coalition forces, killing him." It was not known how large the group of insurgents was. They were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, Davis said.
Hope they made that bastard eat his grenade...
In a separate incident on Monday, also near Shkin, unidentified attackers fired four rocket-propelled grenades at an Afghan military checkpoint on the Pakistan border. No casualties or damage were reported, Davis said.
No matter how much practice they get, Hek's boyz can't seem to get that down...
Meanwhile, near Asadabad, another town to the northwest in eastern Kunar province, U.S. special operations forces recovered three Blowpipe optically guided, shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile systems. It was not clear who it had belonged to or where exactly it was found. Blowpipe is a older model British SAM replaced by the Javelin.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2003 12:04 pm ||
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The more I read about incidents like these in Afghanistan and Iraq, the more I thank God that these idiots can't shoot worth a damn.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/10/2003 12:55 Comments ||
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They learned how to shoot from old "A-Team" reruns.
Posted by: Kathy K ||
06/10/2003 18:17 Comments ||
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Sorry, Kathy, I can't agree. If that were so, instead of humanitarian supplies we'd be shipping over boatloads of Humvee tires!
Posted by: Dar ||
06/10/2003 21:52 Comments ||
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KUWAIT CITY: The National Committee for Missing and POWs Affairs (NCMPA) Monday telephoned 149 Kuwaiti families of POWs to inform them of the death of their children who were captured by Iraqi forces during the 1990-1991 occupation of Kuwait. Sources said NCMPA reached this decision after going over Iraqi documents which indicate these POWs have been martyred. A number of POWs families gathered in front of the Civil Defence Department in South Surra late Monday to express their dismay over NCMPA's incompetence in dealing with the POWs issue and obstructing the search efforts of the team.
Deputy chairman of a society representing the families of POWs and member of a team in charge of searching POWs in Iraq, Medweh Al-Mutairi strongly criticised the manner NCMPA has been dealing with the issue. He added NCMPA should not have relied on a mere document bearing the names of some Kuwaiti POWs who have been executed by the Iraqi regime in Iraq. "Informing the families of POWs of the martyrdom of their children in this manner without relying on DNA results was not right because it instigated anger among the families and aggravated their suffering," Al-Mutairi told the Arab Times Monday. Al-Mutairi called on NCMPA to apologise to POW families because they informed them of the death of their children without relying on material proof. Al-Mutairi revealed the NCMPA has signed a protocol with the Tripartite Committee, which includes representatives from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the Red Cross and allied forces. He added the protocol prohibits any side from exhuming any grave without prior approval of NCMPA. Al-Mutairi said this protocol obstructs the search for POWs and stops the team from continuing its duties at a fast pace, which lead to the finding of the remains of martyr Saad Al-Enezi. Al-Mutairi said Dr Ibrahim Al-Aqeedi, who represents the Iraqi side on the Tripartite Committee, possesses information on the fate of Kuwaiti POWs but he refuses to give out this information until a new Iraqi government is formed, "which is the reason Al-Aqeedi was appointed as a member of the Tripartite Committee."
Seems thin ground for recrimination to me. If the names of the poor guys are on the lists of those slaughtered, presumably they were slaughtered. Next step should be finding where they were buried. Any that got on the lists through mistake, who might still be alive (where?) and show up later will be gifts from God. I don't think there will be any.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 12:15 pm ||
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Well, this'll rattle a few cages...
The method of animal slaughter used by Jews and Muslims should be banned immediately, according to an independent advisory group. The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), which advises the government on how to avoid cruelty to livestock, says the way Kosher and Halal meat is produced causes severe suffering to animals. Both the Jewish and Muslim religions demand that slaughter is carried out with a single cut to the throat, rather than the more widespread method of stunning with a bolt into the head before slaughter. Kosher and Halal butchers deny their method of killing animals is cruel and have expressed anger over the recommendation. One worshipper at the Central London Mosque told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Everything about the Islamic way of life is under attack so it makes you wonder if this is actually about humanity to animals." "These damn infidels won't allow sharia, jihad, Jew-lynching..." Peter Jinman, president of the British Veterinary Association said vets respected people's religious beliefs, but urged Muslims to be respectful of animals too. "We're looking at what is acceptable in the moral and ethical society we live in," he told Today. FAWC said it wanted an end to the exemption currently allowed for Kosher and Halal meat from the legal requirement to stun animals first. It says cattle can take up to two minutes to bleed to death - amounting to an abuse of the animals. "This is a major incision into the animal and to say that it doesn't suffer is quite ridiculous," said FAWC chairwoman, Dr Judy MacArthur Clark. Compassion in World Farming backed the call, saying: "We believe that the law must be changed to require all animals to be stunned before slaughter."
Muslims and Jews argue that their long established method of slaughter results in a sudden loss of blood from the head, causing animals to feel virtually nothing. They say they will fight any attempt to prevent a practice required by their religion and central to their way of life. One rabbi, who had been practicing the Jewish method of animal slaughter for around 40 years, told BBC News: "The process takes a fraction of a second. "With a very, very sharp knife all the vessels in the neck are severed and that means there's no blood going to the brain and the animal loses consciousness very rapidly and dies soon after that." The Muslim Council of Britain says animals are not distressed when they are slaughtered. "It's a sudden and quick haemorrhage. A quick loss of blood pressure and the brain is instantaneously starved of blood and there is no time to start feeling any pain," said spokesman Dr Majid Katme.
The Humanists movement, which has previously called for the abolition of ritual slaughter, said ethical values should be put above religious ones. "There is no imperative for Muslims or Judaists to eat meat produced in this manner," said spokesman Roy Saich. "There is no reason why they should not simply abstain from eating meat altogether if they do not wish to eat the same meat as the rest of us."
That's a pretty good indication of who he thinks is in charge. Obviously these busybodies don't have anything better to do with their time...
Posted by: Bulldog ||
06/10/2003 11:12 am ||
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it would be nice to see obervant jews and muslims rallying together against this stupidity, but the timing's not real good. Too bad they didnt wait till the road map was further along.
#2
Well, a test could be rigged up. You know, brain electrodes to register any pain at the point-in-time of the cutting. The tough question is, which "busybody" could we get to volunteer for the test?
JPost - reg req'd - A Belgian court ruled on Tuesday that a case against an Israeli general for alleged crimes against humanity could proceed.
A Brussels court decided that an appeal by a group of Palestinians to try former Israeli army commander Amos Yaron over a 1982 massacre in Lebanese refugee camps was admissible.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court threw out a similar appeal to try Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon even though it left the door open for a new investigation to be opened once Sharon leaves office and loses diplomatic immunity.
The appeals filed under Belgium's universal jurisdiction law have cooled relations with Israel and Jerusalem and led to Israel briefly recalling its ambassador from Brussels for consultations in February. Universal Jurisdiction? Let's see you Belgians try and take him from Israel by force you cowardly pompous asshats. Better yet, let the case against Tommy Franks go forward. Can you say delusional?
The government recently approved amendments to its universal jurisdiction law making it easier for claims which it deems to be politically motivated to be dismissed or sent on.
The government used that right last month to pass on a complaint against US Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of US-led forces in Iraq, on to the United States. It can do so if the country of the accused has a democratic and fair legal system.
The government could take a similar decision on Yaron.
Belgian prosecutors opened an inquiry in July 2001 following a complaint filed by 23 survivors of the massacres. The investigation was suspended in September 2001 while Sharon's lawyers challenged the Belgian jurisdiction.
If a judge decides to press charges, Yaron could technically be arrested to stand trial if he enters Belgium. Sounds like NATO's over boys - time to withdraw
So far, four Rwandans have been sentenced up to 20 years under the war crimes law for their role in the 1994 genocide of the country's Tutsi ethnic minority.
But complaints have been filed against a range of international figures, including Saddam Hussein, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 03:55 pm ||
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#1
I'm waiting for someone to use the court to kill the court.
Basically, file suit in the court against the founders of the court for violating "national sovereignty" (or something like that - probably find it in the UN Charter) - and nice thing is, if you win the case, the Belgians are right there to go to prison.
It would be funny to see the court used against itself.
#3
Why don't the Belgians just S.T.F.U.? I mean, a tiny country noted only for chocolate, pastry, and pedophiles, where do they get off? I think they have been too close to France for too long, they are sounding more and more like Jacques all the time.
DRESDEN - A suitcase left at a railway station in an eastern German city last week contained a bomb. Police found explosives and a detonator in the black case, which was abandoned Friday evening on platform 14 in Dresden's main station. It was unclear if the bomb was activated. "Many travelers would have been killed or injured if it had exploded," said Rico Mueller, a spokesman for state police in Dresden. Police had no leads in the incident and appealed for witnesses. The station, which was busy with travelers ahead of a three-day holiday weekend, was evacuated and closed for several hours Friday while police used a trained dog to check the case for explosives and a robot to open it and remove the contents.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 01:42 pm ||
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...and the German press will promptly drop the story...nothing to see here, move along.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/11/2003 1:51 Comments ||
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MADRID - A prosecutor sought terrorism indictments Monday against 13 suspected members of al-Qaeda, including a suspect allegedly linked to the Sept. 11 attackers. Prosecutor Pedro Rubira filed the request to a magistrate of the National Court who is expected to take at least several weeks to decide whether to indict the suspects. The lead suspect, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, was one of eight men arrested on November 18, 2001, two months after the Sept. 11 attacks. Monday's request said Yarkas had close ties with Sept. 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta and other purported planners of the attack. When Yarkas was arrested in 2001, officials said his Madrid telephone number was included in an address book found in a Hamburg apartment where Atta once lived. Yarkas was the only one of the 13 suspects accused specifically of taking part in Sept. 11. Rubira said he also recruited members for al-Qaeda, inviting young men to his home for meals and showing them videos of rebels fighting Russian troops in breakaway Chechnya.
How pleasant. An evening of snuff videos...
The other 12 suspects are accused of belonging to or collaborating with a terrorist organization, illegal weapons possession and forgery.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 01:33 pm ||
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EFL, Chirac: Apres Moi, Le Deluge; Continuation of yesterday's posts
PARIS - French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin presented a politically sensitive pension reform bill to parliament Tuesday, as striking public sector workers gridlocked much of the country in protest. Tens of thousands marched through Paris and other cities calling for unions to have a say in any reform, as the third nationwide strike in a month slashed public transport services and caused huge traffic jams.
Holding a sign and hollering is a lot easier than working...
Unions are seething at plans to make people pay into the pension system for longer to counter a financing crunch as the postwar "baby boom" generation retires. "With the demographic changes, there are fewer and fewer paying into the system and more and more taking money out of it. This is a necessary reform and everybody knows it," Raffarin told the National Assembly lower house of parliament. "Without reform we will need 43 billion euros in 2020 and more than double that in 2040 to save our pension system. This reform will already produce 18 billion euros."
Tuesday's strike — joined by postal, bank, port and telecoms workers, hospital staff and police — caps a week of sporadic transport chaos in the capital. A fifth of the country's teachers also walked out.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 01:17 pm ||
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Reganize 'em: Pick one public service union, and fire them all. Hire new workers. Watch the others start posessing Clue(tm)...
#3
2 questions for you Aris.
1)How does France's economy look to you know?
2)What do you think of the EU coming up with 43bill.Euros to pay for French pensions?
#5
If you havent read the articles in FrontPage Magazine the past few days about the "death of france" part 1 and 2, go to their site (sorry I dont have the link) and check it out..It is a startling look a a society in decline....one things for sure...the French need to stop worrying about the US and take care of their own backyard.....
Also, some advice to Tony Blair...Re; the EU and Euro.....RUN!!!!!!Dont look back!!!!!!!!!!!France and Belguim are on their way OUT...Dont hitch Britains future to dying cultures..
1) Umm, about the same as it always did?
2) The *EU* coming up with 43 billion Euros? As far as I know the pension system isn't a part of EU competences, so why should EU pay the bill?
#8
Aris: I thought you were the guy who said if "New York is attacked, Texas fights" as a way of describing the direction that the EU was taking, i.e., nations becoming states in a federal system. If that's so, you damn well better believe that whoever happens to be the "sick man" of the EU in years to come is going to put the arm on everyone else. You can count on it, my friend. In fact, the French ARE counting on it. There is no way, given their poor work ethic, lousy productivity, unbalanced demographics and retirement policies that the French can create the funds they need for pensions and social services on their own. ZERO.
The French aren't stupid, they've known for decades where the demographics are going. Why the hell do you think they've been the EU's biggest promoters? Because they want Greeks to have a better life? Hah.
Sure, it's true that the EU doesn't have to cover French pensions now. But how about five-ten-15 years from now as the EU moves inexhorably towards becoming a single nation-state?
Don't think that's going to happen? Then why the unified currency? Why all the talk of an independent EU military? Why a proposed EU constitution that cuts national governments out of the decisions on foreign policy? Why the giant bureaucracy?
All the elements are in place my friend, and you're going to get exactly what you want: a United States of Europe. And when that happens you're going to find that you can't have the benefits of a federation of states without the costs. You can't say every man for himself when times get tough. Well, you can, but Europeans wouldn't do that to each other would they? With their history of getting along oh these many centuries?
Perhaps Greeks will have no problem at all paying higher taxes to cover the enormous deficits run up in France, and probably, Germany as well. After all, it's all for one and one for all, ain't it?
Solidarity, brother!
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/11/2003 2:27 Comments ||
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Russian security forces have detained at least 55 members of a banned Islamic group, a spokesman for the FSB security service has said. Security officers also seized 500 grams of plastic explosive, several hand grenades and leaflets for the organisation, Hizb ut-Tahrir. "These are terrorists who want to overthrow the existing regime by military means," FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko told Russia's NTV television. The FSB said the suspects were Central Asians living illegally in Russia. Some reports said as many as 121 people were arrested in the raids, which took place on Friday but were announced only on Monday. Fifty-five of the people detained at a Moscow factory where they had reportedly been hiding were branded "terrorists" by the FSB. The FSB named two of the men as Alisher Musayev of Kyrgyzstan - allegedly the leader of the cell - and Akram Dzhalolov of Tajikistan.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/10/2003 08:28 am ||
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KARACHI: A judge on Monday said three suspects confessed before him that they wanted to kill President Pervez Musharraf as they considered him âa murderer of (a) Muslim nationâ because he sold out Pakistan to America and bargained on Kashmir with India and US.
Well, that makes it okay, then, I guess...
Judicial magistrate Fareed Anwer Kazi told the anti-terrorism court during the trial against five militants in a plot to kill Musharraf, that he had recorded the statements of three of them, who confessed before him about the plot. âAccused Mohammad Imran Bhai, Hanif Ayub and Mohammad Ashraf confessed that they wanted to kill Musharraf. âI am chief of Harkatul Mujahideen al-Aalmi. I, along with Sharaib and Hanif arranged the plan to murder President Musharraf due to three reasons. Firstly, he is the murderer of Muslim nation,â Kazi quoted Bhai saying as he submitted a copy of the confession. Secondly, he had sold out Pakistan to America, and thirdly, he had bargained with America and India on Kashmir,â Bhai said in the document, according to Kazi. âI arranged the money for the vehicle, which was supposed to be used for the bomb blast. Sharaib loaded the explosives, weighing 400 to 500 kilograms and an inspector of the Rangers provided us voluntarily assistance regarding the movement of the President. Kamran offered to become the suicide attacker on Musharraf, but I stopped him and decided to use a remote (detonator) for the attack,â Bhai said. Kamran switched the remote detonator on but it did not work, Bhai said. All three statements by suspects were given âvoluntarilyâ and there was no pressure on them, Kazi said. âThe prosecution will produce one more witness on Wednesday, and the case is expected to be completed this week,â public prosecutor Habib Ahmed told reporters.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 04:28 pm ||
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LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad on Monday said Gen Musharrafâs address to lawyers in Lahore had proved that democratic system in Pakistan was under threat.
Yep. Yep. No doubt about it...
He said Gen Musharraf was spending state resources to buy lawyers loyalties but honest lawyers had resisted all the temptations. He said Musharrafâs insistence to visit the USA in military uniform was making the matter suspicious. Qazi Sahib said the Legal Framework Order (LFO) was not a minor issue, but a matter of national importance. âGen Musharrafâs period as chief executive granted to him by the Supreme Court has passed and now he is an illegal president,â he said, urging parliamentarians to unite to save democratic system in the country and force Musharraf to honour the sovereignty of the parliament. The ailing JI ameer denied that he refused to meet with Chaudhry Shujaat at the Doctorsâ Hospital on Sunday. He said when Mr Shujaat came, he was sleeping and no one woke him up. He said Mr Shujaat was a friend despite political differences.
Damn. Qazi isn't dead yet...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 04:16 pm ||
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Is Qazi still in the cardiac unit? Perhaps we could hack the hospital TV system to send him the Playboy channel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/10/2003 18:27 Comments ||
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LAHORE: Zionists have drawn up a plan to divide Kashmir and their nefarious designs could be foiled only through Jihad. This was a consensus among speakers at the All Parties Kashmir Conference organized by the Pasban-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwat here on Monday. Motamar Alam-e-Islami (Kashmir Forum) Chairman Murtaza Hassan Rabani preside over the meeting and former Azad Kashmir president General Muhammad Hayat Khan was the chief guest. Engineer Saleemullah Khan said the USA wanted to divide Kashmir in three parts to establish a mini Israel in the region.
"Zionists, is it? In Kashmir? Hatching nefarious schemes? Fatimah! Where's my jihad gun? Where's my turban? They won't get away with it, by Gad!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 04:10 pm ||
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Nefarious schemes? Curses! This sounds like a job for ....Jihad Man!
(Brought to you by Jihad Man LLC)
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/10/2003 17:41 Comments ||
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What do you mean RW? There are at least two Jews still living in Kashmir this very minute! They want a Zionist state I tell ya, a "mini-Israel," right there in the middle of the dang country. Then, they'll want to occupy all of Kashmir with an illegal house for both them!
Only a fool could fail to see this...
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/11/2003 2:31 Comments ||
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Yar, we be scheeming zionists, we want to anex Kashmir first, Pakland later, and after that Berlin !!!!! HarharHar.......
As long as the islamo-nitwits use their brains as an excretory organ (asshole) there is no hope for anyone.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
06/11/2003 3:48 Comments ||
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MULTAN: Police said on Monday they had detained seven Islamic activists suspected of vandalising billboards featuring women in the central city of Multan last week. Around 200 members of the Shabab-i-Milli, youth gang wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, smeared black paint over billboards featuring women in Multan last Friday, while police stood by and watched. Multan District Police Officer Hamid Mukhtar Gondal has suspended the services of a sub-inspector from New Multan on the charge of negligence of duty. Inspector Police Saifullah Gujar said seven activists had been detained at the weekend and two more were being sought by police in Multan. âStrict instructions have also been given to all the police stations in the region that they must ensure the safety of the signboards,â he added. Police have registered cases against 16 activists of Shabab-i-Milli.
Register all the cases you want. Chances are they all walk, with no penalty at all. Don't worry, Perv. Advani's in the U.S. at the moment, talking to Bush, Cheney and Rice, but we're sure you'll still be our friend, too. You can count on it, just like we count on your support...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 04:06 pm ||
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Gadzooks, what would they have done about that religious sect in Canada, the one where the women used to strip naked and march through the center of town every time they got upset about something the government did? Big, strapping Russian women, Ukranian, I think.
ISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on Monday took on President Pervez Musharraf and said the party had not violated the Constitution or acted against national integrity by adopting the Sharia Bill. âPresident General Pervez Musharraf has a responsible portfolio and he should not pass derogatory statements on Talibanisation vis a vis the Sharia Bill,â MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman said at a press conference. âThe NWFP Assembly has passed the Sharia Bill with the authority given to it under the Constitution,â he said. He said the MMA was the representative of the people of the NWFP who had elected them with a huge majority. âWe are doing everything according to the Constitution and western democracy,â he said.
"Even though it's our intent to dismantle both..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 04:02 pm ||
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(edited by me for brevity)
India's Deputy Prime Minister, Lal Krishna Advani, begins three days of talks in Washington with the Bush administration that will touch on a project, which if realized, would shift the geostrategic tectonic plates of Asia. The importance the administration has given to Advani's visit, which begins on Monday, is indicated by whom he will see. They are Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who he has already met, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. When Advani sees Rice, President Bush is expected to drop by. The dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, and its attendant Islamist terrorism, will certainly figure in the talks. The administration wants to see an end to this source of instability in South Asia, the cause of two wars between India and Pakistan and that has come close more than once to starting a third.
Important as Kashmir is, Advani and his American interlocutors will also be talking about something much grander. Rice gave a vague hint of what was in the air when she told the media early this month the talks would reflect the fact that India is the world's biggest democracy "and we share a lot in value." As well as sharing a lot in value, the United States and India share a lot in interests. These include instability in Pakistan where, in Indian eyes at least, President Pervez Musharraf is a spent force and Islamist violence is threatening the country. But more important still is a shared uneasiness, if not downright fear, of China, seen as aspiring to become the regional hegemon.
#1
India should look at everything the US imports from China and start producing the stuff itself. Combine that with a free-trade deal with the US and India could become a great power by the end of the decade, mostly at the expense of China.
#3
hopefully the GOVERNMENT of India will do no such thing. India has done as well as it has lately, by letting entrepreneurs make whatever is profitable.
#4
With a free-trade zone, I think that the entrepreneurs would take care of the issue.
Posted by: Ralph ||
06/10/2003 16:17 Comments ||
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Finally, someone is identifying the real enemy. I had heard we might be talking about a south asia form of NATO to contain China. That would br progress. Of course, we would have to have the foresight to disband the alliance once the Chinese communists are defeated.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
06/10/2003 16:33 Comments ||
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#6
Why we have been involved in a 50 pissing match with the Indian government is something I for one have never understood. Of course the Indians will have their own opinions as they should but policies in Washington have repeatedly driven them to the oppisite side of issues. One thing we could do is promote India as a new permement member of the UN Security Council. Of course that would tick off the IslamoFascists. But they already hate us anyway.......
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
06/10/2003 17:03 Comments ||
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#7
Boot the French from the UN, nominate India to take their place.
Worlds largest democracy should have a seat at the big table, not some irrelevant country like France.
Other than that I find it very amusing, how half the time France is called the all-powerful dominating country in a union of nations greater in population than the United States, and the rest of time it's called "irrelevant"... :-D
Anyway, once EU has a common foreign policy, France and UK can give up their seats to the EU, and the vacant space be given to India... :-)
He was among the Pakistan establishment's most trusted jehadi leaders, one of those who walked the credibility tightrope gingerly. One season he would be mouthing impassioned anti-India rhetoric, sending his boys across the LoC; the next would see him lying low and smouldering, at Islamabad's direction. In return, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar received state patronage. But all this could be changingâand not entirely because of the diplomatic pressure India has mounted over the months.
But first a glimpse of the clout Azhar enjoyed till recently. Nothing illustrates this more vividly than the Pakistan government's decision to decline a request by Interpol for taking Azhar into custody. Ordinarily, the reprieve in March should have emboldened Azhar to brazenly espouse the jehadi cause. Instead, he now finds himself, at least temporarily, out of favour with the establishment. Sources say this is because Washington is convinced about his Al Qaeda links and believes he, along with other recalcitrant Islamist leaders, have been providing logistical support to fugitive Taliban and Arab followers of Osama bin Laden.
But it isn't only Azhar who is lying low. On June 1, Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin was denied permission to convene a meeting of the United Jehad Council in Rawalpindi. The following day, the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan was ordered to ask Salahuddin to shift the Hizb offices from the Jamaat premises. The Hizb has been operating from here since 1990. Azhar and Salahuddin's temporary fall from grace is also closely linked to the nature of the ties between the ISI and jehadi outfits. Sources say the ISI has now decided to bolster support for Prof Hafiz Mohammad Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). They say should the Indo-Pak peace initiative fail, the Lashkar would be the frontline jehadi group in the Valley and Hafiz Saeed the new public face of militants.
The reason for Azhar and Salahuddin's fall from grace is twofold. For one, the ISI has become wary of Azhar, what with Washington's allegations that he is linked to Al Qaeda. The other reason is the bitter internecine struggles within the Hizb. Intelligence sources say the Hizb has been disabled to the extent it can now provide little more than guides and logistical support to cadres from other jehadi outfits. It looks like Azhar, Salahuddin and Hafiz Saeed are at the crossroads. Who among them will become the establishment's favourite jehadi is to be seen.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/10/2003 04:11 am ||
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Edited for the good bits. Read the whole thing, as they say.
IF THE insularity of a police state breeds weakness, it can, however, also foster a peculiar kind of ephemeral strengthâalbeit one whose destructive force is more often turned inward in the guise of terror than outward in the form of real power. In the first Gulf war, a third of a million Iraqi soldiers either surrendered with little fighting or deserted before the shooting started. But the more startling fact may be that at least another quarter-million survived the war and returned home to train their rifles on their own unhappy people. Republican Guardsmen who had romped into Kuwait in the summer of 1990 to loot, rape, and murder, and who in late February 1991 were mauled in a few minutes by the 1st Armored Division at the Medina Ridge, had recouped sufficiently only days later to slaughter mostly unarmed Kurds and Shiites by the tens of thousands. (Twelve years later, some of these same Guardsmen or their younger brothers and cousins would themselves be annihilated in less than two weeks by American airpower, Marines, and the 3rd Mechanized Division.)
This dual tendencyâto run before competent enemies and to murder innocents at homeâis another reflection of a broader military and indeed societal pathology. As Pollack stresses, Arab societies do not produce indigenous sophisticated weaponry. Indeed, their militaries are almost entirely parasitic on Western or westernized arms industries. The need to import weaponry means that their systems are always a generation behind, and this institutionalized obsolescence inevitably portends defeat when fighting is not intramural but rather cross-cultural, against the societies that design and make such arms in the first place.
#1
Makes sense to me.
As has been pointed out many times before: The Arab societies are not coming from the same place as the western world. They have NEVER had a real democracy, and as tribal societies, don't even have a sense of nationhood. They are culturally (and for the most part, intellectually) in what western society went through during the dark ages or medieval times. They need at least one generation and probably two generations to obtain the education and infrastructure to even attempt a democratic society, and they are not going to get it. What they will get is another man with a moustache, like uncle saddam. Damn shame. Just a damn shame.
#2
I hate to disagree but the military capabilities of a nation depend on its political, economic and military institutions. Men seldom fight hard as they might if an option other than a police state beckons. One should recall a million Russians fought for the Germans in WWII. Further. the Vietnamese fought well, because their military institutions were well thought out and developed. The Jordanians have performed consistently well, while the Iraqis have performed in a manner that made the Italians look like Prussians. Technology is a misleading indicator of a nations military capabilities.
Posted by: TJ Jackson ||
06/11/2003 3:12 Comments ||
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#3
The Italians didn't fight that badly in WWI (cf Vittorio Venetto) but in WWII they found that they had no weapon able to deal with the Matilda tank and that second line units still had guns without hydraulic brakes (BTW such guns were invented around 1890). To undestand what that means look at a Secession War or Napoleonic movie: each time a gun is fired the recoil moves it backwards by several yards: this not only slows fire but it also makes fire correction impossible: the British would observe where the shell had gone and shorten or lenghten their fire until it was right on target. Italian units who had those jukyard guns couldn't. Having a bad government, a bad cause, bad officers, bad training are moral destroyers, but nothing worse than having equipment who doesn't keep you alive (by killing the ennemy).
About the Jordanians: they stood aside from Kippour so the only reference against Israel is 1967 where the Israelis exerced some restraint for political reasons. The American military attache could observe them during the 1970 war agsint Palestinians and told they were lousy fighters.
For the Prussians: are you referring to those 6000 Prussians manning a fortress who surrendered to tiny force of Napoleon's cavalry?
#4
This is all interwoven. Good technology comes from the freedom to pursue good ideas. Political, economic and military institutions are all reflective of the values the population of a state holds dear, believes in. From those come come the technical skills required on the battlefield.
Or to put it another way, the old saw is backwards. Right makes Might. Having an accurate idea of how reality works, instead of dreams and idealistic fantasies of how it "should" work, results in success on the battlefield. The side with the more accurate intel on the opponents capabilities, morale, intentions, as well as his own, and has a better understanding of physics and such, has an edge.
Posted by: Ben ||
06/11/2003 4:54 Comments ||
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FALLUJAH - A young man said he just happened to be walking by a store that hundreds of people were looting.
"I wuz jus' walkin' down the street, mindin' my own bidnid, see?..."
A middle-aged man said he'd never seen the assault rifle police found in his car.
"Gun? What gun? Oh, that gun! Uhhh... Somebody left it there."
And an old fisherman said his grenades were a new, more efficient way of doing his job.
"And the antiaircraft gun? Well, y'see, duck season starts soon..."
In a sweltering courthouse, an Iraqi judge on Tuesday conducted the first criminal hearings in Fallujah since the war began when U.S. military police brought him the three suspects — one of several ways U.S. forces are trying to improve relations with resentful residents. All three men pleaded innocent.
"Yep. That's us. Pure as the driven snow..."
Judge Jamal Khleif Rejab listened carefully to the statements, scrutinized the police reports — translated into Arabic — and decided there should be trials. He ordered U.S. Army attorneys to arrange for the arresting officers to appear in person with the suspects again within 10 days. Maj. Robert Resnick, the chief of justice for the 3rd Infantry Division, couldn't have been happier. Within 72 hours of his arrival, he'd tracked down the judges, arranged for the payment of their salaries and organized the first hearings. The criminals may have been small time, but Resnick said this first step in building U.S.-Iraqi cooperation in a town known for anti-American sentiment was hugely important. "I don't get into politics, I don't know if they like us, but they are willing to work with the coalition to get things started," said Resnick, of Newton, Massachusetts.
Good deal. But I still hope Judge Dread throws the book at 'em...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 12:59 pm ||
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U.S. forces have captured two more of the 55 most wanted Iraqis, including a former member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle. Latif Nusayyif al-Jasim al-Dulaymi, No. 18 on the top 55 list, was the most senior man captured. He's a former member of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council, the small committee of the former dictator's top advisers, and a former deputy secretary of the Baath Party's military bureau. The second man captured was a top official in the chemical weapons corps of the Iraqi military. Brig. Gen. Husayn al-Awadi, No. 53 on the most-wanted list, also was a regional Baath Party leader in the Ninawa region of northern Iraq. American officials hope that captured Iraqi officials like al-Awadi can give them information leading to the stocks of chemical and biological weapons President Bush said Iraq had before the war. More than half of the top 55 wanted Iraqis are now in U.S. custody.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 12:40 pm ||
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BAGHDAD - Three Iraqis were killed when munitions exploded at a depot in the southern city of Diwaniyah, US Central Command said Tuesday, highlighting the dangers of the sea of ordnance which washed over Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's armed forces. Two Iraqis were also wounded in Monday's blast but there were no US or British casualties, Centcom said.
"Mahmoud! This is an ammunition dump! Don't light [KABOOM!] that..."
Later Monday, a series of explosions ripped through another ammunitions depot in the central Shiite Muslim pilgrimage city of Karbala. No casualties were reported but US forces established a four-kilometre buffer zone around the dump to protect residents. Centcom said the Diwaniyah blast was in an Iraqi depot but the Karbala blasts were in a US one. It said the multiple explosions at the American depot were not believed to be the result of hostile action but added that investigations were under way into both incidents.
"Alright, Bob. What happened?"
"I dunno, sir. I wuz just lightin' up a smoke..."
US commanders have repeatedly warned of the dangers of the huge arsenals of military materiel that Saddam's forces, both regular and irregular, stashed in clandestine dumps in towns and cities across Iraq.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 12:34 pm ||
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#1
Nah, we'd never booby-trap the ammo dumps we suspect of being the source of arms used against us. Never happen - you paranoid fools. (BWAHAHAhahahaha!)
Via Drudge; EFL - just the Despair and Quagmire left so you capture the Times coverage flavor
BASRA â Standing under the merciless sun outside his office, surrounded by employees shouting angrily about pay, Jabbar Ali al-Leaby, the director general of the South Oil Company, lost the little patience he had left. "Be satisfied with what you got," he told the men. "Do you know what I went through to get even this money for you?" "Ya buncha whining idjits!"
It was only three hours into the workday, but Mr. Leaby's frustrations started, as they do every morning, when he arrived around 8 to the lone refurbished office in a complex of buildings so thoroughly ransacked that birds dart through the upper stories. Employees of South Oil, Iraq's leading oil producer before the war, are now idle because looting has brought most of the company to a standstill. Instead of standing around demanding pay for work not done, why aren't these fools out protecting their work infrastructure...oh, I forgot. It's all the fault of the Merkins
"The other day, there was looting and sabotage at the North Rumaila field," Mr. Leaby said. "The day before that, at the Zubayr field. For three months, I've been talking, talking, talking about this, and I'm sick of it." This is now the state of the Iraqi oil industry, custodian of the world's third largest oil reserves â an estimated 112 billion barrels â and the repository of hope for the United States-led alliance and the Iraqi people themselves. Money from oil, the Bush administration has said repeatedly, will drive Iraq's economic revival, which in turn will foster the country's political stability. Many Iraqis agree. Yet from the vast Kirkuk oil field in the north to the patchwork of rich southern fields around Basra, Iraq's oil industry, once among the best-run and most smartly equipped in the world, is in tatters. Looting, sabotage and the continued lack of security at oil facilities are the most recent problems the industry and its American overseers must address in order to get petroleum flowing again, especially for export. Quagmire! I tell ya!
"Overseers." I like that. Makes me feel kinda like Simon Legree. Pumps me up with cheap power, which isn't the same thing as cheap energy. I think I'll step out and flog Uncle Ali. Topsy! Bring me my blacksnake whip!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 11:27 am ||
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#1
well the museum story is gone - the powers back up everywhere but Baghdad, and some progress there - waters back in most places - food supplies doing well - main utility problems are phones and sanitation - and progress on sanitation. Looted ministries recovering. They (NYT) have got to complain about SOMETHING. right?
#4
Jeez, Hitler had to pay Goebbels good money to write this sort of thing. Now the NYT does it for free. I predict that soon Uday will sue the US in Belgian court for allowing looters to strip his palaces bare. Hilary will then take up the cause of unemployed Iraqi civil servants.
Sounds like we're getting serious about snuffing this stuff out
BAGHDAD - U.S. troops have staged a series of raids to crack down on guerrilla fighters north of Baghdad, detaining 384 people and suffering four casualties from Iraqi resistance. A military spokesman said 30 of the Iraqis detained in the raids around the towns of Balad and Baquba Monday had been confirmed as supporters of Saddam Hussein. Twelve of those detained had tried to escape by boat down the Tigris river but were captured by U.S. military engineers in a patrol boat. nice try
The spokesman said of the four wounded U.S. soldiers, three were evacuated to Germany for medical treatment and one later resumed active duty. Several U.S. soldiers have been killed or wounded in the last two weeks in ambushes concentrated in two main areas — to the west of Baghdad around Falluja and Ramadi, and to the north around Balad, Baquba and Tikrit, Saddam's home town. The U.S. military blames members of Saddam's Baath party for the attacks. It says the ambushes are not being centrally coordinated but are organized on a local level. that's why there's only one or two snuffies at a time
The spokesman said while Baath party members were the main suspects, the military was not ruling out other groups, including Muslim militants. But many residents in the tense areas around Baghdad say local anger is fueled by U.S. troops frisking women and bursting into houses.
Those are rumors fostered by some of the local newspapers...
A U.S. army statement said looters traveling in seven vehicles fired on a U.S. patrol in Beiji, north of Baghdad. "The patrol returned fire, and captured one vehicle, while the other six vehicles attempted to escape," it said. run away! run away!
"The fleeing vehicles were located by an AH-64 Apache helicopter and a flash checkpoint was established which captured the remaining vehicles, detaining nine individuals and seizing anti-tank mines in their possession." should've let the hellfire welcome happen....must've wanted info
The statement said U.S. soldiers were also fired on while traveling in a two-vehicle convoy at a traffic circle in the northern city of Mosul. One soldier was slightly wounded, and two men with AK-47 assault rifles were later arrested.
In Baghdad, shots were fired from a crowd of around 300 people when U.S. troops detained looters at a warehouse believed to contain munitions, the military said. "Although the situation was volatile, there were no reported injuries," it said. keep up the good work boys and watch your backs
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 10:19 am ||
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#1
Iraqis are angered by American troops frisking women? Right. How about Saddam's security forces raping, torturing and only then, killing women when he was in power? Of course, these are Saddam's henchmen, who did unto others - they're not too thrilled when somebody else is in charge.
#2
But many residents in the tense areas around Baghdad say local anger is fueled by U.S. troops frisking women and bursting into houses.
But, of course, Saddam's supporters tend to lie about things like this happening (ref Iraqi/Sunni press reports yesterday that "18 soldiers raped, then murdered a couple of girls" -- later denied by Centcom).
In Baghdad, shots were fired from a crowd of around 300 people when U.S. troops detained looters at a warehouse believed to contain munitions, the military said.
Have we sent all of our snipers home? It seems like a couple of them, in good positions, could make firing an AK in a crowd a terminal situation...
#4
The 4th Infantry Division continued in its efforts to locate remaining pockets of paramilitary forces and Baâath party loyalists to create a secure and stable environment north of Baghdad. Three hundred eighty-four people have been detained for interrogation, 30 are confirmed as pro-regime. Twelve individuals attempted to escape by boat, but were captured. Four soldiers were wounded, though none of their injuries were life-threatening.
Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division (ID) conducted a raid on a house believed to hold the individuals responsible for an attack on Coalition Forces on June 7. They detained two individuals and were informed four more were at a local hospital. Upon inspection of the hospital, soldiers detained two other individuals. The 4th ID also conducted a raid in at a weapons market in Tayji, detaining three individuals selling detonation cord and explosives. They also conducted a raid on a suspected arms cache in Baqubah, where they detained 31 individuals, and confiscated 13 rocket-propelled grenades and various small arms. Finally, they raided a site in Taji, detaining six people, seizing 40 grenades, 90 rocket-propelled grenades, four boxes of anti-tank mines, and associated small arms.
Looters traveling in seven vehicles fired at a 4th Infantry Division patrol in Bayji. The patrol returned fire, and captured one vehicle, while the other six vehicles attempted to escape. The fleeing vehicles were located by an AH-64 Apache helicopter, and a flash checkpoint was established which captured the remaining vehicles, detaining nine individuals, and seizing anti-tank mines in their possession.
Forty Seersucker anti-ship missiles were discovered and confiscated by 1st Armored Division (AD) forces in a Baghdad suburb. Coalition personnel will destroy the missiles.
101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division soldiers investigated possible mortar fire in Mosul, and subsequently discovered and seized a 120mm mortar with 39 rounds, and a number of enemy fortifications. Soldiers also received small arms direct fire while traveling in a two-vehicle convoy passing through a Mosul traffic circle, slightly injuring one soldier. A patrol searched the site, and detained two Iraqi gunmen armed with five AK-47s, and two rocket-propelled grenades.
101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division soldiers conducted a cordon and search of a suspect weapons market in Mosul, where they detained five personnel and confiscated two 9mm Sub-machine guns, approximately 6,000 rounds of ammunition, numerous magazines, and approximately 1,434,400 Dinar.
If you just kill them then you hinder your own efforts to find what the extent of the resisitance or organization is. If you capture them, they can be interrogated and the intel gained used to roll-up more enemy fighters.
#7
"But many residents in the tense areas around Baghdad say local anger is fueled by U.S. troops frisking women and bursting into houses."
It's a bit hard to read, English is his third language, but new blogger
*G. in Baghdad*
pretty much debunks this.
"they divided themselves into squads of 30 men with one translator for every squad or at least the peopel i was with had one -we will speak about him later-they would go into the street start with the first house, knock at the door politely telling the peopel of the house that they r here to search for weapons asking them if they have any, and trying to explain for them that its allowed to keep only 2 pieces of arms ( a klashnikove and a pistol ),
then they would wait for a few moments while the women move to a different part of the house, the soldiers would go into the house usually two or three working there way very gently through the chickens, pots, boxes, children and bundles of blankets. they would ask the family member accompanying them to open the bedroom wardrops or any locked boxes shying away from the women and making sure they dont look at them.
to cut the story short they were professionals genteel and culturally sensitive."
Posted by: John Anderson ||
06/10/2003 19:22 Comments ||
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EFL - At least they're being realistic and in for the long haul
BAGHDAD - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday he expected remnants of Saddam Hussein's forces to go on attacking U.S.-led troops in Iraq for months but they would ultimately be rooted out. Since Baghdad fell to the Americans on April 9, 39 U.S. soldiers have been killed by assailants. In the latest fatal incident, an American soldier was shot dead at a checkpoint near the Syrian border late Sunday. "Do I think that's going to disappear in the next month or two or three? No. Will it disappear when some two or three divisions of coalition forces arrive in the country? No," Rumsfeld told a news conference in Lisbon. "It will take time to root out the remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime and we intend to do it." Rumsfeld clearly hasn't learned diplospeak - that's why he's the right guy in the right place, time
The U.S. military said Tuesday that U.S. troops had staged raids Monday to crack down on guerrilla fighters north of Baghdad, detaining 384 people and suffering four wounded. With Iraq's political future still in question, a scion of Arabia's Hashemite dynasty, Sharif Ali bin Hussein, returned to Iraq Tuesday, 45 years after a revolution toppled the British-backed monarchy and killed his cousin, King Faisal II. A multinational force that will seek to keep the peace in the devastated country is beginning to take shape. An advance unit of 35 Italian troops flew into the southern city of Basra Tuesday, the advance guard of a 1,700-strong Italian peacekeeping contingent due by the end of June. It will come under British control. An advance party of Dutch troops was due in Basra Thursday. The Netherlands is to send 1,100 marines to the British-controlled zone in southern Iraq. More than 10 countries have also pledged troops for a 7,500-strong Polish-led force to be deployed in south-central Iraq. There are currently 146,000 U.S. troops and about 14,000 international troops in Iraq, according to Rumsfeld. A Qatari plane with relief supplies also arrived there on what was billed as the first commercial flight to postwar Iraq.
The United States has said its failure to find Saddam Hussein may be emboldening the fallen leader's Baath party supporters to attack U.S. forces in Iraq. "It might give heart to the Baathists who may want to hope that they can take back that country, which they are not going to succeed in doing," Rumsfeld said late Monday. "We'll just keep looking for him. We'll find him," he told reporters on the flight to Portugal at the start of a four-day European tour. Rumsfeld said the string of attacks on U.S. forces was due to Saddam sympathizers in the north of the country. "There is no one who thinks that it's a well-organized nationally directed campaign," he said. At Tuesday's news conference, Rumsfeld said Iraqis were being recruited in large numbers to help foil the attackers. "We are bringing on board continuously hundreds and most recently thousands of Iraqis who are participating in joint patrols," he said. "So the idea that there won't be any help until coalition countries arrive in the fall is exactly false, because the security situation in the country is improving as we proceed." Fallujah still standing? why?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 10:07 am ||
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#1
Further allied activity:
UMM QASR
⢠Provided emergency medical treatment to 12-year-old child and her mother, who were burned by a propane stove in Khor Zubayr, and also coordinated transportation of the child to the Spanish Hospital ship.
#2
I don't have a whole lot of tolerance with the crap. Just take the local clan leaders and mullahs in Fallujah to the side and tell them - either clean it up or we'll move a couple of Kurd units down to assist. You know the Kurds. The people who were butchered for a generation by your people. I'm sure there are some blood feuds and paybacks they have on the book they want to clear.
I personally doubt that Al-Qaeda had anything more than low level contacts with the Iraqi regime, and certainly less than what they have had with other governments like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and even Iran. The Mukhabarat did supposedly have an agent inside the Ansar ul-Islam leadership, which in turn had plenty of links to Al-Qaeda, although strictly speaking it was a seperate organisation. There is also Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi allegedly receiving medical assistance somewhere in Iraq after fleeing Afghanistan, but no context was given as to who gave him this assistance and where, so we might have to wait until he has been captured and interrogated before we find out. I also find it interesting that there were no major terrorist attacks anywhere during the 6 weeks or so of war, and the only Iraqi connected attacks before the war were some minor and mostly ineffective attempts in places like Romania and the Philippines. There were the documents that the Telegraph found that showed connections between Iraq and Bin Ladin in early 1998, although this was before the East Africa bombings. Al-Qaeda did not work with Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime, two of the terrorist network's senior leaders have told the CIA, intelligence officials say. Abu Zubaydah, an al-Qaeda planner and recruiter who was captured in March 2002, told interrogators last year that such co-operation had been discussed among the group's leaders, but was rejected by Osama bin Laden. The al-Qaeda chief had vetoed the idea because he did not want to be beholden to Saddam, Zubaydah said. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaeda's chief of operations who was captured in Pakistan on March 1, has also said in a debriefing that the group did not work with Saddam. The Bush Administration has not made these statements public, although it has frequently highlighted intelligence reports supporting its claims of links between Iraq and al-Qaeda as it made its case for war. A CIA spokesman, Bill Harlow, declined to comment on what the two al-Qaeda leaders said. Another senior intelligence official played down their debriefings, saying statements by captured al-Qaeda operatives must be regarded with scepticism. That's true enough, Zubaydah has certainly lied plenty of times. I would expect that in the coming months the CIA, DIA etc. will be busy translating documents and interviewing former Mukhabarat agents
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/10/2003 02:59 am ||
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#1
It makes sense that the emissaries would be low-level, to maintain plausible deniability. But the contacts are likely to be high level - simply because Muslim governments can use al Qaeda as a cat's paw for their policy ends. Muslim countries have been turning a blind eye to al Qaeda fund raising because it was their way of striking at us without being openly at war with us. In fact, having public face-to-face meetings between al Qaeda leaders and Muslim heads of state would defeat the point of what they're doing - bushwhacking us while disowning responsibility.
#3
Keep in mind that Zarqawi was only in Baghdad in August 2002, which would put Zubaydah out of loop as far as al-Qaeda's leadership is concerned. The claim by Khalid only comes from one debriefing, and if Iraq was their state sponsor he would be certain to deny that like the plague in hopes of protecting an ally. Notice the article doesn't say what Khalid said about confirmed state sponsors like Iran.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/10/2003 20:17 Comments ||
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KUALA LUMPUR â The three Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat will be made âspecial administrative zonesâ and given a new administrative name supervised by the Interior Ministry in a bid to end years of instability and separatism. Thailandâs most senior minister after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha will single-handedly âsuperviseâ the region and will report directly to the Prime Minister.
They've finally gotten tired of it, have they?
The Muslim Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO), one of the oldest separatist movement in the country, said the naming of a Muslim minister to take control of the region signals the government failure in the Muslim South. In an email written in Malay language, which is the language the Muslims of Malay origin use in the south of Thailand, the PULO said it was expecting the interior minister to issue a series of new orders and regulations to curb the activities of the separatists. The email also said the Malays in the region should expect more tight control of the streets and the activities of Muslims who openly express themselves against the âcolonizationâ of the area. Anti-U.S. campaigns, pro-Osama bin Laden rallies and attacks against the police and the military as well as tourist targets in the South of Thailand sparked more violence in the region after a few years of relative calm following a major crackdown on Muslim separatism in the mid 1990âs.
All the things guaranteed to endear them to the central government...
The PULO said the new response by the âThaiâ administration indicated that the worst is not over for the Muslims, adding that âa military invasion of the region is to be expected after the complete failure of the Thaiâs to rein terror in the region.â It said that the statement by Deputy Premier Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh that Prime Minister Thaksin was considering the idea of putting the South under a new administration to resolve problems in the area was an indication of that failure. The PULO also added that the governmentâs reshaping of the security structure in the south to strengthen unity among security agencies was also indicative that major activities will be taking place there soon, warning Muslims to prepare for fresh crackdown against Islam and the Malays.
Actually, more against the thugs and agents provocateurs â though, granted, they're Islamists and Malays.
The separatist movement also expressed fears in the email forwarded to IslamOnline.net on Tuesday that the military is ready to resume a policy used against separatists and communists in the early 1980âs. The policy pushed by former Fourth Army commander Gen Harn Leelanont, a senator from Satun, was adopted in 1980-1982 to curb violence amid threats from communists and separatists, wrote the Bangkok Post on Monday, June 9. In those days, military operations were needed to suppress crimes in the region and restore weakening community relations. The policy consists of âsearch and destroyâ of terror cells and separatist military and soft targets in order to avert attacks against the police and other officials.
That's pretty much the pattern now: if it's Islamist, it's separatist. They can't live under laws that apply to everyone. So we have these yahoos in Thailand, which is a perfectly nice country. We have them in the Philippines, trying to gnaw off Mindanao. We have the seeds being planted in Cambodia. We even have Aceh, where the Indonesians aren't Muslim enough.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 08:06 pm ||
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It is not a religion, it is a disease that will destroy the host, and then itself after the host is dead. The Thais need to follow the money and see where all the mad dogs in mufti get their silver.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/10/2003 20:13 Comments ||
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#2
Status: Toast
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/10/2003 20:20 Comments ||
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The alleged terrorist who police believe recruited the suicide bombers responsible for the deaths of 202 people in Bali last October is also thought to be a pivotal member of Abu Bakar Bashir's outlawed Jemaah Islamiah group. Heri Hafidin, an Indonesian national, has a long association with three alleged senior regional terrorists whom he studied with in Malaysia.
They are Bali commander Imam Samudra, another JI figure detained in Malaysia, Zulkifli Marzuki, and a third man known as Faiz Bafana, who is thought to be the mastermind behind a plot to destroy Western targets in Singapore.
Hafidin was arrested on April 26, but his arrest was kept secret until Monday as police attempted to milk his knowledge of JI and its reach throughout southeast Asia. Truncheon alert!
He is believed to have offered several crucial insights into the shadowy structure of JI and its elusive membership. "Ouch!"
Police are hopeful the information he has provided will lead them to the three at-large bomb-makers, Dr Azahari, Dulmatin and Idris. Hafidin was a childhood friend of Imam Samudra and studied with him at the Lukmanil Hakim Islamic School in southern Malaysia. It was there he met Bashir, Bafana and Marzuki. Bafana is the brother-in-law of Samudra, and the trio, including Hafidin, are believed to be especially close. "He waz my boyfriend!"
As well as recruiting the two suicide bombers, Feri and Arnasa, Hafidin is also alleged to have rented a house in the West Java city of Banten, in which Samudra hid during his six weeks on the run from the Bali investigators. He is also alleged to have recruited three other suicide bombers, who were not required for the Bali operation. Farm team, waiting to be called up to the majors
Bali chief of detectives Colonel Boy Salamuddin confirmed yesterday that police had recently uncovered a lot about Jemaah Islamiah, but said it was premature to disclose what they had learned. "Previously JI was just a name," Colonel Boy said. "It was an unstructured organisation. But from October 12 we have been processing information about their backgrounds.
"Afterwards, step by step, and when Ali Imron told us more detailed information, we have begun to see a more clear structure of this organisation."
Meanwhile, the rift that emerged last week between Ali Imron and his elder brother, Amrozi, appeared to have deepened after Ali Imron yesterday sacked the lawyers who also represent Amrozi and the other key suspects. Instead, he hired his former counsel, Suyanto. Excellent, a falling out. Pit one against the other and you'll get more intel on them.
Amrozi last week took Ali Imron to task when his younger sibling accused him of being a key participant in a planning meeting called to assign tasks for the Bali attacks. That death penalty is beginning to sink in.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2003 04:15 pm ||
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MANILA - A suspected rebel commander told investigators that the regional extremist group Jemaah Islamiah helped Philippine rebels carry out a series of deadly bombings in Manila that killed 22 people in 2000. The chiefs of the Philippines' anti-terror police said the disclosure proves links between the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Jemaah Islamiah. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has consistently said it condemns terrorism and denies links to Jemaah Islamiah. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and police officials presented the alleged MILF commander, Saifulla Yunos [aka Muklis Yunos and probably several dozen others], at a press conference at a press conference in Manila on Monday. Handcuffed and dressed in an orange prison shirt, Yunos stared blankly and was not allowed to talk.
Yunos, who uses the alias Mukhlis and allegedly heads the MILF's special operations group, was arrested May 25 with an Egyptian man at southern Cagayan de Oro airport. Based on interrogations of Yunos and Fathur Roman al Ghozi â an Indonesian convicted last year for possessing explosives and suspected of being a Jemaah Islamiah leader â "there is a link between the Jemaah Islamiah and the MILF," said Philippine police intelligence director Chief Supt. Jesus Verzosa. Yunos and al Ghozi plotted bombings on Dec. 30, 2000, that killed 22 people and injured more than 100 people in Manila with funding from Jemaah Islamiah. The bombings were retaliation for a military offensive that led to the capture of more than 40 MILF camps in the southern Philippines earlier that year, Verzosa said. A police intelligence dossier described Yunos as "a fanatic of the extreme Islamic fundamentalist movement" who received training in explosives in an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan. Authorities in the United States, Australia and Singapore have submitted questions to be asked during the ongoing interrogation of Yunos in the Philippines.
He's such a popular fellow...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 01:22 pm ||
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Thai authorities have arrested three Thai Muslims on charges of threatening national security. The men were arrested in southern Narathiwat province bordering Malaysia and have been linked with regional terrorism network Jemaah Islamiah (JI). One report said the men were plotting to attack Western embassies and a tourist spot in Bangkok. Australia and New Zealand last month advised against non-essential travel to Thailand, warning that the country was at risk of attack by Islamic militants.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/10/2003 08:31 am ||
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BANGKOK (Reuters) - Police in Thailand have broken up a cell of Jemaah Islamiah militants suspected of planning to bomb embassies and beach resorts in the country, officials in Bangkok and Singapore said Tuesday.
Four members of the cell have been arrested -- a 42-year-old Singaporean and three Thai Muslims -- based on information supplied by Singapore, they said. More suspects are being hunted.
Regional officials say Jemaah is an Islamic militant group with tentacles across Southeast Asia and believed responsible for the Bali bomb attack last October and violence in the Philippines.
The three Thai Muslims were arrested in the south of the country Tuesday, while the Singaporean was taken into custody in Bangkok on May 16 and sent to Singapore the next day.
That suspect, Arifin bin Ali, is believed to be the leader of a group of Jemaah Islamiah operatives who had also planned to hijack a plane and crash it into Changi airport in the city state, the Singapore government said in a statement.
A senior Thai police official told Reuters in Bangkok: "These three are linked to the previous arrest of a Singaporean in
Thailand. Both that arrest and the ones today were on tips from Singapore.
"They were planning to carry out attacks on foreign embassies, tourist attractions, including Pattaya and Phuket."
Pattaya and Phuket are hugely popular beach destinations frequented throughout the year by thousands of tourists, mainly Westerners.
Another officer said: "These three are part of a cell of at least five and we are looking for the others."
OK - now you can start your jokes about Phuket
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 10:13 Comments ||
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#2
It's to easy Frank. All I'm going to say is this. That is the greatest name ever for a vacation destination. Hands down.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/10/2003 10:40 Comments ||
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"start your jokes about Phuket "
Phuket is pronounced P-hoo-ket. The 'h' is aspirated, not making the 'ph' into an 'f'. And the 'u' is long, 'oo' rather than 'uh'.
Anyone who makes jokes about Phuket will have my pedantry to deal with! (It's all the fault of the Brits and their pathetic attempts to transliterate from Sanskrit. )
Posted by: Bellicose Kat ||
06/10/2003 19:34 Comments ||
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#9
well fine then B Kat F&*K it
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 20:15 Comments ||
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#10
"Gee, thanks Aris"
Glad to have been of assistance. Will definitely remember your kind words.
At least seven Indonesian soldiers have been killed in the troubled province of Aceh in some of the fiercest fighting since a military offensive began last month. The latest clashes started late on Monday in Bireun district and lasted until the early hours of Tuesday morning, said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Firdaus Komarno. Seven soldiers were also injured during the fighting.
An Indonesian Government delegation is due in Sweden later on Tuesday to present what it said was new evidence of terrorist activities by Swedish-based Gam members. Officials in Stockholm have said that exiled Gam leaders living in their country are Swedish citizens who have broken no laws, so no action can be taken against them. But the Indonesian delegation - the third to make representations to Stockholm - has said it would provide evidence that the exiles have broken international law and should be prosecuted in Sweden.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/10/2003 04:01 am ||
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Here is some good news at least
UN envoy to Burma Razali Ismail met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today and said she was "in good spirits" and had not been injured. International concern had intensified over the health and whereabouts of the Nobel peace prize winner since the violence on May 30 as she was touring a provincial town in the north. She has been in detention since then. Razali had an hour-long meeting with Suu Kyi at the junta's headquarters in Rangoon. Asked by reporters at Rangoon airport, as he was about to leave for Kuala Lumpur, about Suu Kyi's condition, he said: "No injuries. She's in good spirits."
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/10/2003 03:51 am ||
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#1
I thought she was dead or badly injured. This is good news. What a graceful and courageous lady!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 10:05 Comments ||
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That is good news. I suspected the same as Frank did.
Posted by: Bellicose Kat ||
06/10/2003 19:39 Comments ||
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Via The Corner
By Inigo Gilmore in Hebron
(Filed: 08/06/2003)
Eight Palestinian footballers who played for a team from their local mosque in Hebron have killed 34 Israelis and injured scores of others in a series of suicide attacks during the past two months.
In the deadliest incident, a bus-bombing in Haifa in March, a midfield player, Mahmoud Hamdan Qawasmeh, killed 16 Israelis. Last month eight people died in the most recent attack carried out by a member of the Jihad Mosque XI, who blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem.
The three remaining players have been arrested by the Israeli authorities.
Details of how Hamas, the Islamic militant group, secretly recruited young men from the mosque team are only now emerging.
The story of the team - six of whom lived in the same Hebron neighbourhood - illustrates the uphill task facing the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, as he tries to rein in militant groups and stop suicide attacks against Israeli targets.
Last night Mr Abbas - also known as Abu Mazen - was facing his most serious challenge so far, after Hamas rejected his call for a ceasefire which he made at last week's Aqaba summit in Jordan.
For months after the Hebron footballers were recruited by Hamas, they aroused little suspicion. They were renowned as fierce opponents, but no one anticipated just how deadly they would prove off the field. Only after the eighth player blew himself up in Jerusalem did Israeli intelligence officers wake up to the fact that the Jihad Mosque XI was no ordinary side.
At his apartment in Hebron, Ziad Al Fakhouri proudly displayed the shirt worn by his son Fadi, a striker. The front of the shirt bore a hand wielding an axe, ringed by an inscription which read: "Prepare for the enemy and to fight the occupation."
Fadi, 21, died in March in an attack on an Israeli settlement on the edge of Hebron, during which he and a team-mate shot dead four people before being gunned down themselves. Within 24 hours, two of the team's defenders were killed while carrying out another shooting attack. "Maybe they talked about these operations during football practice," Mr Al Fakhouri said. "My son was in the first group of shahids [martyrs] and I would have stopped him if I had known. I think the others in the team wanted to follow them to paradise."
Mr Al Fakhouri only discovered that Hamas was behind the operation a few days after the attack, when he received an envelope containing a photograph and a farewell note from his son.
At the top of the street near the Jihad Mosque, a group of young men were hanging around by the concrete football area where the team had trained. They told how the team would chant their motto before every match: "Jihad, Jihad, Jihad. Allahu Akbar [God is Great]." Graffiti scribbled across the walls read: "We will avenge the killing of every Hamas follower."
David Wilder, a spokesman for the Jewish settlement in the centre of Hebron, said the football team's activities revealed the deep-rooted culture of hatred within the local Palestinian population. "The question is whether this team was created as a cover for a suicide squad, or whether it first existed as a 'friendly' football team whose players were then recruited," he said. "Ultimately, though, it amounts to the same thing - we are dealing with people who are very sick and very dangerous."
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 08:26 pm ||
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#1
"Ultimately, though, it amounts to the same thing - we are dealing with people who are very sick and very dangerous."
Can't add much to that. When an animal gets sick and dangerous, you put them down, right? What's to question? "Old Yeller" with Arafat, Rantissi, Yassin et al
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 20:39 Comments ||
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#2
This is a warning to Soccer Moms!
Get some pants on those young ones and get them signed up for Little League NOW!!!
Posted by: The Kid ||
06/10/2003 21:45 Comments ||
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I gotta go back to making Washington Times a daily read...
An Iranian government official with ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Tehran sides with the Americans on one big issue â Saddam Hussein's weapons. "Yes, we agree with the Americans. Our intelligence indicated that Iraq did possess weapons of mass destruction and was hiding them from the U.N.," the official said.
Ummm... Careful where you're stepping there. That's my jaw on the floor...
The official, from the top ranks of Iran's cleric-led government, asked to remain anonymous amid escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran. He went on to say that the big question is, "What did the Iraqis do with these weapons?"
I give up. Where?
Although Tehran does not know where these weapons may be today, there is a strong suspicion that some may have filtered onto local black markets. "We know other items, once under military control [such as broadcast transmission equipment], have found their way onto the black market," the official said. "We have people coming to Tehran from Baghdad with catalogs of items [stolen from the Iraqi government] offering them for sale." So far, the official said, no chemical, biological or related weapons have turned up.
I think I'll check e-Bay tonight...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 07:49 pm ||
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By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A top al Qaeda associate in Iraq has fled to neighboring Iran, where he and several senior al-Qaeda leaders apparently remain under the protection of the Iranian government, U.S. intelligence officials say. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi fled Iraq within the past several weeks and is in Iran, the officials told The Washington Times. Al-Zarqawi was identified in a U.N. briefing given in February by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell as an "associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda lieutenants." That link was a key element in the U.S. case that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was tied to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, a stance repeated yesterday by President Bush in response to a New York Times report that said two al Qaeda captives had said the group did not cooperate with Saddam.
But Ansar al-Islam did, forming a second front against the Kurds. Abu Zubaydah, one of the two Qaeda Bigs claiming there was no cooperation, was Ansar's controller...
"I guess the people that wrote that article forgot about al-Zarqawi's network inside of Baghdad that ordered the killing of a U.S. citizen named [Laurence] Foley," Mr. Bush said. "And history in time will prove that the United States made the absolute right decision in freeing the people of Iraq from the clutches of Saddam Hussein." U.S. intelligence officials believe that al-Zarqawi helped the terrorists who killed Mr. Foley, a U.S. diplomat, in Amman, Jordan, in October.
Because Ansar was once-removed from al-Qaeda, and Zarqawi's organizations were sub-cells of Ansar, there's a bit of arguing space available for the Times and the Guardian. Not an awful lot, if you've been paying attention, but most people haven't...
Iran's government have denied Bush administration assertions that Tehran was harboring al Qaeda terrorists. But the Iranian government has recently stated that it had detained several al Qaeda members, although it has not identified any. American intelligence officials said Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and the Qods Division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a unit of hard-line Islamist shock troops, are deeply involved in supporting terrorists, including al Qaeda. A U.S. official said the Bush administration wants Iran to turn over al-Zarqawi to the United States because of his connection to the Foley killing. The U.S. official said any approach is likely to be carried out through a friendly third party, such as Jordan or Saudi Arabia.
Iran would lose Islamic "face" by turning them over, even through a third party. They could possibly end up with the Soddies, but even that's not too likely. Too many eyes watching now, too much chance of somebody among the princes taking the antiterror line too seriously. That would mean Zarqawi would go to Jordan, where they have a noose with his name on it, even without delving into the Foley murder.
The official said al-Zarqawi is not a member of al Qaeda but "worked with them when it was convenient."
More like an affiliate, the same way Egyptian Islamic Jihad's an affiliate. Qaeda, remember, is made up of autonomous groups working toward the same end.
"He's a real bad actor," said the official, who cautioned that al-Zarqawi's presence in Iran is not a certainty. "There are reports he's washed up in Iran." Another intelligence official said al-Zarqawi might be among the al Qaeda members that the government of Iran said it had detained, although other officials doubted this. Other officials said recent intelligence reports circulated within the U.S. government stated that al-Zarqawi moved to Iran from Iraq after Mr. Powell identified him in the Feb. 5 briefing to the Security Council.
I'd guess there's a safe haven they had set up in the Iranian side of the border, where it'd be just about as easy to dislodge them as it was for the Kurds to dislodge Ansar, which wasn't very. After their Kurdish haven was clobbered, there were reports that the Ansar gunnies were turned back from the border when they tried to beat it. They were headed someplace at the time, and I doubt if it was just "east."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said last month that he is convinced that senior al Qaeda leaders are in Iran. Asked whether the United States would go to war with Iran if Tehran is sheltering al Qaeda, Mr. Rumsfeld said: "Well, those are decisions not for me. Those are decisions for the president."
And not for public consumption yet...
"It is worrisome that that country clearly is not being helpful in Iraq today," Mr. Rumsfeld said on May 29. "It is also clear that they have permitted senior al Qaeda to operate in their country, and that is something that creates a danger to the world, because we know what the al Qaeda can do in terms of killing innocent men, women and children." Defense and intelligence officials said the senior al Qaeda members the secretary has mentioned include at least two hiding in Iran â including Saif al-Adel, who is believed to be the official in charge of al Qaeda's military operations and has been linked to the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. Al-Adel has been in Iran since 2002 and is on the FBI's list of most-wanted international terrorists. A second top al Qaeda leader in Iran is Osama bin Laden's oldest son, Saad bin Laden, who also arrived in Iran in 2002. Many U.S. intelligence analysts say they believe he took over al Qaeda's leadership after the U.S. military's destruction of al Qaeda strongholds in Afghanistan in October 2001.
My guess is that Saad is running a part of the family business, assuming Binny himself isn't dead. Because of its structure, Qaeda's broken into chunks, each of which will have to be broken up individually...
Al-Zarqawi is the leader of the Islamist terror group Jund al-Shams, which is linked to al Qaeda and has operated in Syria and Jordan.
Jund al-Shams is an alias of Jund al-Islam, which was one of the components of Ansar al-Islam. It was formed by Zarqawi's al-Tawhid mob merging with some breakaway nut groups from Islamic Unity Movement in Kurdistan. Tawhid retained its autonomy, though, keeping its emphasis on the Levant and Europe, while the Kurdish yokels contented themselves with tormenting their immediate neighbords.
After U.S. forces disrupted al Qaeda's operations in Afghanistan, al-Zarqawi fled that country and ended up with the Ansar al-Islam, which operated a terrorist camp in northern Iraq. The camp was bombed by U.S. warplanes and attacked on the ground by Special Forces troops during the Iraq war. Mr. Powell said in his presentation to the U.N. Security Council that the Ansar al-Islam camp was run by al-Zarqawi agents. He said the camp was operated with the help of a top Iraqi agent "in the most senior levels of the radical organization."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 07:32 pm ||
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Edited For Mockery
The document says: "The operation in Bunia is politicaly [sic] and military [sic] high risk; very sensitive and complex. France has no specific interest in the area except solidarity with the international community." The end of the intervention, it says, has been "firmly established at Sept 1st 2003", by which time a contingent of Bangladeshi peacekeepers is expected in Bunia. The Bangladeshis are to relieve 700 Uruguayan peacekeepers, who have been repeatedly humiliated by their failure to prevent a string of massacres. Uruguayans and Bangladeshis and Frogs, OH MY!
During a 10-day battle for control of the town last month they remained in their barracks, without the numbers or a mandate to stop the slaughter of hundreds of civilians. Still filling out the (quadruplicate) request forms for ammo...
Two unarmed UN military observers were murdered, and seven peacekeepers taken to hospital after having nervous breakdowns. The PEACEKEEPERS are having nervous breakdowns?
They probably heard how the two military observers died. And the part about their livers and hearts being eaten...
Posted by: Michael ||
06/10/2003 16:16 Comments ||
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Another foreign policy success for the UN. What a bunch of losers.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
06/10/2003 16:29 Comments ||
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#3
"After meeting with French President Jacques Chirac Tuesday afternoon, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder told reporters that there would be no German soldiers on Congolese soil. Other commitments in Afghanistan, the Balkans and on the Horn of Africa will limit Germany's military involvement to plans to send a mobile surgical hospital, officers for the operation headquarters in Paris as well as transport planes." (Deutsche Welle)
Of course Rantburgers will know the reason Schroeder didn't mention...
A mission with such an unclear mandate is going to create a new Srebrenica.
And how on earth can "military observers" be "unarmed"???
#4
"And how on earth can "military observers" be "unarmed"?"
Simple, in a more civilized place, they would just be there to observe. Geneva convention, standard military courtesy, etc, means they would be above the fray and observe the fighting and send reports back. That don't work in places like Africa.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2003 16:55 Comments ||
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#5
That's my point: It really doesn't work in places like Africa.
#6
This story makes me more angry everyday.....BLOODY USELESS UN!!!!!Sending in a pathetic amount of troops with no mandate is IMMORAL!!! these troops are being set up to fail and be humiliated. Look at the high morale of the US troops after a decisive victory..Learn from the coalition,Kofi...Send in 100,000 troops to take out the trash or DONT BOTHER!!!!!!!!!!
#7
God! They just keep proving the point over and over and over again!!! We're useless and can do nothing! We don't have the balls, the capability, or the inclination to do a damn thing! Why don't they just stay home and have a parade for all the good they'll do!
Israel: Sheik Yassin Also In The Crosshairs
Israel Television Channel 2 correspondent Udi Segal reported this evening that Israeli officials say that in addition to Hamas leader Rantissi, Israel has been decided to kill the top man in the Hamas, Sheik Yassin.
Hurrah! Is he dead yet?
Speaking earlier on Channel 2, MK Yuval Steinitz, the head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that the Government of Israel would be shirking its duty and obligation to the citizens of Israel if it stood by with its arms folded just because the Palestinians are thinking about talking about having some kind of time out. (See ya, wouldn't want to be ya...)
#4
Of course the Pallys and their apologists will scream "Israel is killing the Road Map" without acknowledging that Arafat and Co. did that a week ago or more.
At least Italy refused to meet the old #$%^- now if only our own State Department would get similar cojones...
Posted by: John Anderson ||
06/10/2003 19:34 Comments ||
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Caput in rectum usque ad faeces
*blinks* "Getting killed up the rectum scatters the shit"??
Interview with Bernard-Henri Levy in Cinderellabloggerfellow. Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan. Two excerpts. Read the whole thing. Q: But the war with Iraq was aimed at Saudi Arabia. According to some experts the alliance between the USA and Saudi Arabia died on September 11, when it turned out that the majority of the terrorists were its subjects. Americans then understood that those they had considered their closest friends in the Persian Gulf were the greatest threat to them. Seizing control of Iraqi oil diminishes their influence. A: Yes, that makes sense too. And it's the only real and coherent argument for this war. However I don't believe it and I don't believe this strategy can be effective. The deadly threat, I repeat, is Pakistan, whose secret services have links with Al-Qaeda. Real ones. There is no need, as in Iraq, to look for bombs, to put together theories about Iraqi intelligence's eventual purchase of nuclear materials from, for example, Ukraine, their processing in Kazakhstan and their export to Afghanistan. In Pakistan everything is already in place: 70-80 warheads, the technology, and scientists who are spiritually close to Islamic fundamentalism, the creators of its nuclear programme. And what's more, there is an ideology which promotes the wider proliferation of this deadly weapon. It was precisely on the trail of the links between these people and Al-Qaeda that I think Daniel Pearl had stumbled.
Q: What in your opinion should now happen in the war with international terrorism? A: Without a doubt we must ensure control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, introduce some form of joint key.
#1
Joint key. Right.
I do think we have fairly effective control, though.
One of the first deals we worked with Perv, post-911, was what to do in case the Islamists took over or tried to (rumors only but I hope we aren't stupid enough not to have done so).
Btw, anyone heard anything about where our subs have been lately? Thought not...
Posted by: Kathy K ||
06/10/2003 19:19 Comments ||
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TBILISI, Georgia - Kidnappers freed four members of a U.N. military observation team Tuesday after holding them five days in the disputed Kodori region of Georgia. The Georgian official in charge of negotiations with the kidnappers could not confirm the report, but German Defense Minister Peter Struck said in Berlin that the four observers, including the two from Germany, were freed. "They are doing well considering the circumstances," Struck said.
Many people who've been snatched in Bandidoland haven't done as well...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 12:47 pm ||
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GAZA CITY - Three Palestinians were killed and 17 wounded Tuesday when two Israeli helicopters fired missiles on a car east of the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabalya, Palestinian security sources said. The three victims, all members of the same family, were killed when the first missile missed its target and hit a building, the sources said.
Ooops. Hate it when that happens...
The second missile destroyed a vehicle, causing only injuries. It was not immediately clear who was targeted by the raid, which came only a few hours after a helicopter attack on Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Rantissi, who escaped with injuries. Meanwhile Hamas demanded the Palestinian Authority freeze all contacts with Israel. "Hamas is asking Abu Mazen to take the only responsible decision and stop all contacts with the Zionist enemy, abandon the roadmap and confirm the right of our people to resist occupation," Hamas said in a statement.
"Which is why we started this current round of killings and managed to get our leadership on the hit list..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 12:29 pm ||
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#1
Hope they nailed a big one. Question: If they froze all contacts with Israel, would that be bad for Israel? Discuss
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 12:40 Comments ||
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#3
Hope this means the gloves are off the IDF and it's "Hamas Season" with no bag limit. Good luck and good hunting.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/10/2003 13:01 Comments ||
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#4
No way Franky, that works out best for Israel.
I gives them the "They aren't willing to negotiate" card. Mazen knows better. And, more importantly, Arafat knows better.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/10/2003 13:02 Comments ||
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#5
Rantissi is part of the political arm of Hamas. Israel claims (almost certainly correctly) that he helps choose targets as well as helping develop public affairs releases. Israel does not claim that Rantissi does any logistical or weapons design or terrorist training work (it seems likely Rantissi is in the terrorist funding biz but probably there isn't any documents on this). The US Govt. has criticized Israel's attack on Rantissi but using language which says that Israel "should defend itself but.." Abbas has made the assertion that targeting Rantissi is itself terrorist. It seems to me that the practical way to handle this is to have the Egyptians move in and give Rantissi the same love and attention they've given to the Moslem brotherhood in Egypt, but this requires the Egyptians to agree to it.
#6
The best outcome, of course, is peace. However, it could possibly be that Hamas and their allies will be immolated in the coming weeks as the IDF rolls up Hamas and Hezabollah.
This is speculation: It is altogether possible that Abu Mazen is providing the intel for these Israeli missile strikes, and explains why settlements are still being dismantled even amidst talk of continueing war.
#7
To badanov: I doubt that the Abu Mazen (M Abbas)has much useful Intel to provide the IDF. He probably does help thwart the terrorist financial capacity - which is at least something. However Hamas, at least in Gaza, is a very deep pocket group with funds (and in kind goods) contributed weekly by thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of the followers of Yassin.
#8
mhw - but gaza is Dahlan's area of relative strength too, so it doesnt seem impossible that dahlan fed them something. after all, he apparently knows hes high up on both hamas' and arafats list of enemies.
if sharon was trying to undermine the road map, he would likely have at least suspended the dismantling of outposts. Theres more going on here than meets the eye, i think
#9
Yes liberalhawk, Dahlan would have known where Rantissi was going and when. but if Dahlan really wanted Rantissi killed, Rantissi would be dead. I doubt Dahlan cares much about Rantissi at all really. The people Dahlan cares about are the anti Dahlan part of Hamas, Islamic J, etc.
GAZA - Wounded Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi vowed from his hospital bed that Israel and its "pig" leader Ariel Sharon would never be safe, after he survived an Israeli attempt to kill him Tuesday. "This pig Sharon will not enjoy security (because) the Palestine is a land of jihad (holy struggle)," Rantissi was shown saying on al-Jazeera television following the helicopter missile attack on his car in Gaza. "The gun will reach every inch of Palestine if they (Israelis) don't stop targeting Palestinian children, women and old people, destroying homes, blockading and detaining people," Rantissi said. Actually I think they were just targetting you. Doesn't that make you feel "special"?
The term "pig" is deeply insulting to both Jews and Muslims who consider the animal unclean. The extent of Rantissi's injuries was not apparent in the footage. Rantissi said earlier he had jumped out of the car after the first missile strike. He said he was wounded in the leg and chest. Rantissi, 56, is a senior political aide to Hamas founder and leader and blind druidSheikh Ahmed Yassin and has taken the informal role of spokesman for the Islamic group.
He's a member of Hamas' politburo, probably the real head of the organization, at least in Paleostine.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 12:14 pm ||
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#1
The term "pig" is deeply insulting to both Jews and Muslims who consider the animal unclean.
My god, they actually agree on something? How did that ever happen?
#4
I dunno. To this midwestern Jew, there's nothing wrong with pigs, they make fine eatin'! Bacon, pork chops, honey cured ham... Mmmmm! Keeping Kosher isn't worth the effort.
Mauritanian President Maaouiya Sid Ahmed Ould Taya took to the airwaves on Monday to praise loyal army units for seeing off a coup attempt which led to two days of heavy fighting in the capital. "The patriotic forces beat this plot that aimed to end the process of development and emancipation", he said in a radio broadcast after two days of heavy fighting in the capital Nouakchott. Less than 24 hours earlier, Ould Taya appeared to have been ousted as rebel forces took over the presidential palace after launching a coup early on Sunday morning. France and the United States both issued strong denials that he had taken refuge in their embassies.
"We'll return to our usual programming as soon as we're done shooting them..."
The government of this Islamic desert state of less than three million people appeared to have been caught badly off-guard by the coup plot. Rebel soldiers moved onto the streets in the early hours of Sunday morning, targeting the presidential palace and military headquarters. Residents contacted by telephone from Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire said there was heavy machine gun and tank fire in the city centre. There were also reports of fighting around the airport and the southern districts of the city.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 11:58 am ||
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#1
Note, Islamic but not Islamist.
*Coup Stopped* "Mauritania is an Islamic republic that gained independence from France in 1960. The government has been cracking down on Islamic militants and political opposition activists over the past month, according to recent media reports."
Posted by: John Anderson ||
06/10/2003 17:21 Comments ||
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FOUR mosques, and three churches yesterday were razed in Numan, Adamawa State of Nigeria during a riot sparked off by the killing of a woman preacher, Pastor Zinkai Ethan by a water hawker, the state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Hafiz Abubakar Ringim has confirmed. Hafiz said in Yola that trouble broke out Sunday in Numan following a disagreement over the price of water between the water hawker, Mohammed Salisu and Pastor Zinkai Ethan during which Ethan was stabbed and killed by Salisu. He said that the murder provoked Ethan's colleagues who subsequently went on rampage destroying places of worships, houses, vehicles and other belongings. The Commissioner of Police said that two persons had so far been ascertained killed in the riot. He added that the suspected assailant (Mohammed Salisu) escaped to the Numan Divisional Police Station and the protesters marched to the station and attempted to burn it before they were chased away.
Cheeze. You kill a Christian preacher, that's extra virgins. If she's a lady preacher, that's all the better, since she probably won't fight back very hard. They were just trying to help the poor guy collect.
"The Adamawa State Police Command in conjunction with other security agents have mobilised their men to curb the escalation of the crises which has been brought under control," he said. The police boss disclosed that the water hawker that sparked off the riot had been arrested and detained while scores of people are taking refuge at the Numan Police Station.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 11:54 am ||
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Hello Numan
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 15:11 Comments ||
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#2
Salam, Frankie..........
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/10/2003 20:55 Comments ||
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#3
Damn water hawkers! Ya just can't trust them! Is this their equivalent of a "bench clearing brawl"?
The crash of mortars and crackling gunfire ripped through central Bunia yesterday as a vicious tribal war for the town re-ignited just one day after the arrival of 100 French special force troops, deployed in advance of a joint European peacekeeping force to pacify the Democratic Republic Congo's war-ravaged north eastern capital. In a virtual re-run of the battle for Bunia last month - when 700 UN peacekeepers stood by as hundreds of civilians were massacred, and 25,000 fled - the French troops remained at their airport barracks, without orders or capacity to intervene.
"We'll get around to it. We've got a memo in to Kofi. We're expecting a reply any time now..."
Thousands of Bunia's terrified residents poured back to the main UN compound they had only recently vacated, lugging their groaning wounded and hundreds of terrified, wailing children with them. But as the storm of bullets and grenades swept across the compound from all sides, this was a fragile refuge. Sprawling on the concrete floors, over 50 Western journalists cowered as bullets thudded into the walls and mortars exploded outside. Having flocked to Bunia in the expectation of seeing a triumphant French intervention, they found themselves depending on Bunia's humiliated Uruguayan UN peacekeepers, who fired not a round in return yesterday.
Their memo came back. It was in the wrong format, and they forgot to include an assistant deputy undersecretary on the routing...
Yesterday's death toll was impossible to estimate. Even as the fighting cooled in the afternoon, only five civilians and a handful of fighters were reported killed. With few of the losing side's kinspeople - the Lendu tribe - remaining in Bunia yesterday, a celebratory massacre by the victorious Hema fighters looked unlikely. Charged with explaining the UN's latest failure to quell the bitter war in Congo's Ituri province, French commander Col Daniel Vollot said: 'Our mandate has not changed. We are trying to impede the fighting through negotiations. We went between the lines, we spoke to the soldiers, to the leaders, but no one wants to talk, they want to fight.'
Then you should give them a fight, dammit! Goddamn bureaucrats with berets...
The battles began shortly after dawn. A rabble of Lendu attacked the main Hema militia, the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), which had driven them from Bunia last month. This battle was different: a rival Hema militia was reported to be fighting alongside the Lendus, turning the usual portrayal of Ituri's war as age-old and ethnic on its head. As over 1,000 Lendu fighters swept into the south-eastern suburb of Kinja, the UPC's fighters panicked and ran. Bullets zipped through Kinja's empty streets as one UPC commander berated his men: 'Turn and fight, you women! Kill the Lendus, kill them.' The Hema fighters were unconvinced. 'There are dead, there are wounded, the enemy is too numerous, the fighting is too hot,' one cried.
"Run away! Bravely run away!"
Briefly the fleeing militiamen threatened to run through the UN compound, spurring the Uruguayans to advance and level their guns. But the peacekeepers allowed fleeing civilians to pour through their ranks and huddle against the compound's razor-wire perimeter. 'We're fleeing because the Lendus are close,' said Maeve Wivine, 32. 'We don't know who's shooting.'
"Don't care, either. All bullets taste the same..."
As the Lendus advanced on the compound, the UPC counter-attacked, firing over the cowering fugitives, journalists and peacekeepers in thunderous hour-long bursts studded by inexplicable moments of calm. 'Where are the French?' asked one blue-helmeted Uruguayan.
Posted by: Secret Master ||
06/10/2003 11:45 am ||
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O how my fellow Rantsburgians could I not post an article called "Where are the French?"
#2
It probably turns the stomachs of the French military personel on these missions that they aren't allowed to do anything without clearance fron either Paris, New York, Genevea or all three. As much as I would like to see the EU peace keeping mission succeed I have the feeling that they are going to about as successful as Task Force Smith was in Korea except without the resultant casualities. If the EU was serious about this peacekeeping mission the Foch or Clemencaeu would be off West Africa right now. And Bush would most likely be encouraging them as much as possible. Or the Spanish carrier if they still have it in servie after selling the Sea Harriers to Singapore. Or the Indian carrier they ot from the Brits after the Falklands. Or they could buy the former HMS Vengance from the Brazilians and refurbish it as a helicopter/VTOL aircaft carrier just for use in missions as this. The EU quick reaction force is never going to be a creditable force for some of these types operations until they have their own organic air support and transport.
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
06/10/2003 12:34 Comments ||
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#3
I still say that the U.S. should offer to help the French.
That way the Marines can humilate the paper pushin' pussies on the battlefield, then leave the nation building, and the resulting failure, to the French.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/10/2003 12:44 Comments ||
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This is cold, but my view is that it's not our war. Let somebody else resolve it. Either way, it will resolve itself - the strong will prevail, and the weak will submit, flee or die.
If our forces were readily available, fine, but they're way stretched as it is. The only we have the forces to do so is by mobilizing the National Guard. Calling up the National Guard so we can rescue Congolese? I don't think so. (This will kill both re-enlistment rates and combat readiness among NG troopers, for sure).
I think the correct term is Rantburgers--if we stick with that perhaps PETA will pay us to change it, and that can help pay for Fred's bandwidth charges.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/10/2003 16:11 Comments ||
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Not to be too picky, but where the hell are the Uruguayan soldiers? Cowering beside the journalists, that's where.
It's time for the French + Uruguayan troops on the scene to take charge. This whole thing aches for a local commander with some stones and a bad attitude, someone who can chomp a cigar butt and say, "Goddammit, I am SICK and TIRED of sitting here getting shot at (or towards)!" And to take some initiative. This might give the UN weenies in New York a case of the vapors (no Ethel, don't get the pills), but that just might be what the situation needs.
I read that the Foreign Legion is tough as all get out. Good. Time to stand up and be counted, or as Raptor notes, why even bother?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/10/2003 18:21 Comments ||
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Uruguayans, like most of the military contingents from Latin America, are mainly useful for internal security - i.e. facing down unarmed demonstrators. Against people with guns - I just can't see it. And they call themselves soldiers? In most places, a uniform and a rifle is all it takes...
Given an ultimatum by rebels to voluntarily step down from office or be ousted by force, Liberian President Charles Taylor is believed to have abandoned the presidential palace on Monday for a compound in the Monrovia suburb of Congotown near Liberia's international airport. Taylor has made no public statement since last Friday when he gathered reporters in the capital Monrovia to talk about what he called a "failed" coup backed by foreign powers. "The attempt was foiled because the generals of the army refused," he said.
"There are no Americans in Baghdad!"
Taylor made the statement just 24 hours after the United Nations-backed Sierra Leone Special Court announced his indictment for war crimes and issued an international warrant for his arrest.
It's the Big House for you, Chuck!
When the indictment was announced, Taylor was in Ghana participating in peace talks with Liberian rebels that had been arranged by the 15-nation Economic Community for West Africa (Ecowas). Almost immediately after news of the indictment was release, the rebel drive into Monrovia intensified, with shells dropping in suburban Monrovian neighborhoods by Sunday night. That same night, the country's largest rebel organization, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) gave Taylor until Wednesday to resign or face a offensive aimed at capturing the capital and removing him militarily.
"This town ain't big enough fer the two of us!"
"We want the international community to ask him to step down so as to avoid bloodshed," LURD chairman Sehon Damate Conneh Jr. told the Associated Press Sunday in Rome. Conneh said the Lurd thrust was pausing on the edge of Monrovia to give the Liberian leader the opportunity to get out of the way. "If Taylor doesn't step down [in three days], we would go in," Conneh said.
The clock's ticking, the meter's running...
Taylor's family was reportedly evacuated by air from Monrovia to Ghana Saturday night. But Taylor plans to stay in Monrovia, according to the charge d'affaires in Liberia's Washington, D.C. embassy, Aaron B. Kollie. "He will resist any attempt by these armed guerillas and terrorists to overrun the city," Kollie told AllAfrica.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/10/2003 11:44 am ||
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"abandoned the presidential palace on Monday for a compound in the Monrovia suburb of Congotown near Liberia's international airport."
You know there's a plane ready to lift off.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2003 11:57 Comments ||
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MANAMA - The United States Navy said on Tuesday it had bolstered its military presence in waters around the Horn of Africa as part of "on-going counter-terrorism operations" in the region. The Navy's Bahrain-based Maritime Liaison Office said it had increased coalition naval strength in the area to assist operations on land, sea and air. "Coalition forces are alert to potential air and maritime threats and are currently on patrol in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman and Arabian Gulf," it said in a statement to merchant shipping. "Anyone suspected of assisting or transporting terrorists should expect to be boarded, and will risk the sinking or seizure of (the) vessel, and will be detained and jailed," it said. run and you'll be sunk
The Navy warned commercial shippers to be aware of the increased presence and to cooperate fully with queries from sea or air. The waters around the Horn of Africa are some of the most dangerous and pirate-infested in the world, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). The IMB has warned that any vessels straying too close to Somalia's coastline would almost certainly be attacked by armed militia. IIRC the warning said to stay at least 100 miles (!) off the coast
So far, however, the IMB has not linked terror groups to increasing acts of maritime piracy and hijackings off the Gulf of Aden and Somalian waters. Somalia? That garden of eden?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 10:14 am ||
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Aren't there any waters off Thailand and indonesia that are just as bad?
#5
Yar! We be Islamist-Narco-Pirates! Arrrr! Pieces of 10^6! Aye! That is our culture...Arrrr...diversity........yar!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/10/2003 13:38 Comments ||
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Nurse Ratchet, Alaska Paul is off his meds again.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/10/2003 16:29 Comments ||
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#7
Paul, buddy, it's okay, put down the parrot and the cutlass and nobody'll get hurt . . .
(Actually, speaking just for myself, I thought it was a hilarious comment.)
Posted by: Mike ||
06/10/2003 16:35 Comments ||
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Will someone please explain to me why with the exception of Columbia and Sri Lanka every place on this planet that is having problems with violence and terrorism seems to have an islamic population group in the heart of the problem
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
06/10/2003 17:06 Comments ||
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#9
except Northern Ireland, Basque country... but being an Islamic nutbag certainly helps...
He was initially reported to be killed, but even though it seems to be the luckiest day of his life, this still represents the first time, that I am aware of, the Israelis have tried to kill a member of the Hamas politburo. Yassin better be careful.
Hamas leader Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi has reportedly survived an assassination attempt by an Israeli helicopter raid in Gaza city. Palestinian medical sources earlier reported three Palestinians, including a baby duck girl, were killed when Israeli gunships fired several missiles on a building in central Gaza. Reports from the scene said a car was destroyed and it appeared Rantissi was among those killed. But doctors say Rantissi, one of the best-known public faces of the Islamic militant momvement, is in "good" condition.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/10/2003 04:52 am ||
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The strike jeopardized efforts to persuade militant groups, including Hamas, to halt attacks on Israelis. It also appeared to violate the spirit of a U.S.-backed peace plan, as part of which Israel promised to refrain from actions that undermine trust.
Of course,
Rantisi, a leader of the Hamas political wing, is considered a hardliner in the Islamic militant group. He has been among the most vocal in opposing a halt to attacks on Israelis.
but no one should think that Rantisi violates the spirit of the peace plan. That's Israel's job.
Posted by: Brian ||
06/10/2003 5:22 Comments ||
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The AP also took pains to say [t]he missile strike came just hours after Hamas leaders said they were considering resuming truce talks with Abbas. Anyone with a brain knew that the Israelis would retaliate after those IDF soldiers were killed. What's there to get excited about...
#3
Damn shame this piece of shit is still alive - better luck next time guys....and make sure there is a next time...soon
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 10:03 Comments ||
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Man, the Israelis need to get a hold of one of our Predator drones. Why the heck are they doing this with helicopters? I thought Israel had a pretty good unmanned aerial vehicle program going. I guess it wasn't as advanced as I thought it was.
Still, missed or not, good things will come out of this - (1) the Israeli cabinet has decided that Hamas's top leadership are no longer off limits and (2) Hamas's reaction, if dramatic enough (i.e. dozens of Israelis dead), will give the Israelis even more political elbow room to wipe out the rest of the Palestinian leadership, in addition to Rantisi. Without its leadership, the Palestinian terror apparatus will fall apart, due to funding and other issues. Sometimes, things have to get worse before they get better.
"We will continue with our holy war and resistance until every last criminal Zionist is evicted from this land," Rantisi told the Arab TV satellite station Al Jazeera.
He shouldn't say things like that, it might damage the peace process.
It would damage the peace process even more if a bunch of Mossad guys got into his hospital room tonight and gutted him like a fresh-caught bass. Yes. That would be terrible. We couldn't let that happen. If it did, we'd feel very bad afterward.
Have a nice night, Doc.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/10/2003 10:40 Comments ||
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"Man, the Israelis need to get a hold of one of our Predator drones."
Predators can't back up, turn at right angles, hover, or move at VERY slow speeds - walking speeds. Helicopters can. While Predators have very good low-light capability, it's still a radio-controlled vehicle. A two- or three-man helicopter crew has a better chance of keeping track of things on the ground, especially in a place like th Gaza, better than a Predator. Israel knows exactly what they're doing. I would hope for even stronger action if Hamas DOES try "Dire Revenge"
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/10/2003 11:22 Comments ||
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Now that hes in the hospital, why don't they go after him there? Excellent point rg117 - I've wondered about that for a while too.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
06/10/2003 11:33 Comments ||
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OP, you're right - tracking a target in the desert wastes is very different from doing so in an urban environment - the only thing moving vs one of hundreds. Well, we know now that the gloves are at least partially off.
#10
This should do wonders for the
"Roadmap to Nowhere"
The Paleos are going to get as much press out of this as possible.
Next time, the Israelis need to make sure they eleminate their targets.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/10/2003 12:34 Comments ||
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Missing their target is nothing new for the IDF. It would be interesting to compute their hit rate as well as the rate of collateral damage per successful hit. Either the IDF cannot hit the broad side of a barn, or automobiles provide fantastic protection. In either case, Israel should seriously reconsider both their strategy and their tactics.
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
06/10/2003 13:04 Comments ||
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Ya know Curt, I was thinking the same thing. The IDF and Mossad had reputations for excellence, but they seem to have fallen in quality in the last couple years. Seems like a 50-50 rate on their helo missile shots from my recollection of news reports. Shouldn't be reservists making these shots either
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2003 13:16 Comments ||
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question what was the motivation for going after rantissi, at this time?
A. Undermine the road map, which sharon was (by this theory) pressured into
B. Undermine Abbas's talks with Hamas and press him back towards his road map obligations to disarm them
C. Give Abbas more leverage in his negotiations with Hamas
#14
D. All of the above.
If Hamas goes hyper-active for revenge, (everybody knows they will) it makes them-and the PA-look bad, and it forces Mazen to do something about them. If he doesn't, it's proof that the Paleos ain't (I love that word) serious about peace, and undermines the Paleos position in the Roadmap, and by default the Roadmap itself. If Mazen does do something about them, it saves a lot of Israeli citizens, and save the Israeli military from having to do it themselves. And, the strike itself gives Mazen a little weight, through fear, over Hamas.
Now, if Hamas does nothing, it makes them look impotent, and takes away any weight they did have.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/10/2003 14:24 Comments ||
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I think the hit rate and the collateral damage is a function of the kinds of risks you're willing to take. Our guys have done practically none of the kinds of things the Israelis have done - i.e. targeting people in dense urban environments. We deliberately targeted no more than a handful of specific people with aerial weaponry during the entire Iraq war. Everything else was targeted at troop concentrations or strategic sites. Israel has gone after hundreds of targets in its missile attacks. We only go after the extremely high probability targets - the Israeli threshold is lower, as it must be, given their cities are under attack on a daily basis (most Palestinian attacks fail, but some succeed - these are the ones that generate headlines abroad).
GAZA CITY - Israeli helicopter gunships struck a car in Gaza City with missiles Tuesday, injuring a Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, and killing another person, doctors and witnesses said. Two dozen people were hurt. If it's true, one wonders if the Israelis got a nod from a certain Palestinian Prime Minister
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/10/2003 04:51 am ||
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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.
