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Iraq: Blast at Mosque in Fallujah Kills Five
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Japan: Deepest-diving submarine vanishes
OT, but hopefully of interest to this crowd. Edited for brevity.
The world’s deepest-diving submarine has disappeared in the choppy Pacific Ocean off Japan, dealing a setback to deep-sea research on everything from earthquakes to rare bacteria. Kaiko, a bright yellow submarine which entered the record books in 1995 by diving 36,008 feet (10,975 meters) to the bottom of the Challenger Deep — the ocean’s deepest point — snapped its tether as a typhoon approached in late May and has been missing since then, officials said Monday. Daniel J. Fornari, chief scientist for deep submergence at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, called the disappearance of the 10-foot-long (3-meter-long) unmanned submersible “an enormous loss” for science. Equipped with two robot arms and four television cameras, the $15 million Kaiko is the world’s only probe that can go deeper than 4.34 miles (7 kilometers). On May 29, Kaiko was conducting earthquake research on the sea floor 2.9 miles (4.6 kilometers) below the surface, off southern Japan, when a typhoon approached. Operators on the mother ship decided to reel in the probe before the storm struck and discovered that the 5.6-ton Kaiko had broken free, Kanai said. Kaiko is designed to float to the surface and emit a tracking signal if its tether is broken. Although searchers briefly detected the beacon, they were unable to locate the probe and suspected it has either drifted off site or sunk to the bottom.
Lost: Yellow submarine, 5+ tons, last seen off Kagoshima, answers to "Kaiko". Reward.
Among the world’s other deep diving submersibles are the center’s own Shinkai 6500, which can carry three researchers to a depth of 4.1 miles (6.5 kilometers); France’s Nautile, which holds a crew of three and can dive to about 3.75 miles (6 kilometers); and Russia’s unmanned MIR vehicles, also capable of reaching that depth. The deepest point ever reached by a manned probe was 35,810 feet (10,900 meters) by the U.S. Navy’s Trieste 1 in 1960, at a site about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away from the Challenger Deep in the Pacific’s Mariana Trench. The Trieste 1 has since been decommissioned.
Posted by: Dar || 07/01/2003 12:54:10 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bloggers Gain Libel Protection (smile Fred, you’re covered)
Hat Tip: Jeff Jarvis' BuzzMachine
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can't be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers.
Uh oh... 9th Circuit - isn't that the SF looneybin that has the highest percentage of reversals?
Online free speech advocates praised the decision as a victory. The ruling effectively differentiates conventional news media, which can be sued relatively easily for libel, from certain forms of online communication such as moderated e-mail lists. One implication is that DIY publishers like bloggers cannot be sued as easily.
Yeah, Judge, we be different. Fer Shure.
"One-way news publications have editors and fact-checkers, and they're not just selling information — they're selling reliability," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "But on blogs or e-mail lists, people aren't necessarily selling anything, they're just engaging in speech. That freedom of speech wouldn't exist if you were held liable for every piece of information you cut, paste and forward."
Well, SOME have fact-checkers. I wonder if the NYT or al-Guardian have considered hiring someone? Recently, the bloggers have been the ones who've kept the commercial press semi-honest.
The court based its decision on a section of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, or the CDA. That section states, "... no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." Three cases since then — Zeran v. AOL, Gentry v. eBay and Schneider v. Amazon — have granted immunity to commercial online service providers.
Mebbe your PayPal deal will put Rantburg in this category...
Tuesday's court ruling clarifies the reach of the immunity granted by the CDA to cover noncommercial publishers like list-server operators and others who take a personal role in deleting or approving messages for online publication. "Here, the court basically said that when it comes to Internet publication, you can edit, pick and choose, and still be protected," said Cohn.
So there it is, Fred. Sit back, kick your shoes off, and take a deep breath. The Fibbies won't be knocking down your door if this ruling sticks.
The case traces back to a North Carolina town in 1999, where handyman Robert Smith was repairing a truck owned by attorney and art collector Ellen Batzel. Smith claimed to have overheard Batzel say she was related to Nazi Gestapo head Heinrich Himmler. He said he concluded that the European paintings he saw in her home must be stolen goods, and shared this in an e-mail he sent to the editor of the Museum Security Network, an organization that publishes information about stolen art.
I think there's an active imagination at work here. Smith might want to try his hand at the Ludlum genre...
Either that, or Prozac. Or gin...
Without telling Smith the e-mail would be published, Ton Cremers — the sole operator of Amsterdam-based Museum Security Network — made minor edits, then posted Smith's e-mail to a list of about 1,000 museum directors, journalists, auction houses, gallery owners and Interpol and FBI agents.
The SIGs are everywhere, eh?
Three months later, Batzel learned of the post. She contacted Cremers to deny both the stolen art and Nazi ancestry allegations. She also said Smith's claims were motivated by financial disputes over contracting work.
"You're a moron - not to mention eavesdropper!"
"Bitch! You owe me."

Smith said he had no idea Cremers would publish a private e-mail on the list or on the Web.
I'd have to say that this certainly sounds plausible.
Batzel sued Smith, Cremers and the Museum Security Network for defamation and won. Cremers appealed.
Should've tried Court-TV or Judge Wopner, first.
The appeals court questioned whether Cremers' minor edits to Smith's e-mail altered it so much that the post became a new piece of expression, and decided it had not. But because Smith claims he didn't know the e-mail would be published, the court also questioned whether the immunity provision of the Act applied, and passed the case back to the district court. The lower court will reconsider whether Cremers had reasonable belief that Smith's e-mail was intended for publication.
Re: email, stay tuned.
"Some weblogs are interesting mixes of original and forwarded content, so this issue may come up again in the courts," EFF's Cohn said. "Where that legal line is drawn may become a point of contention."
An interesting mix, indeed!
Ellen Batzel says the case changed her life. "This was a small, North Carolina mountain town — I talked to the (district attorney) and he said 'Get a dog, get a gun, get a security system or better yet get out of town.' I sold my house and moved. I've been hurt in my professional reputation and in my private life.
And that means $$$, sniff sniff. Everyone knows that only time money can heal a broken heart.
"I know what free speech is, and I support it, but this is about invasion of privacy and my civil liberty. Every time I meet someone now, I have to say, 'Hi, I'm not Himmler's granddaughter."
Aw c'mon, you're not THAT famous...yet. But keep talking to the press and it'll be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Attorney Howard Fredman, who represented Batzel in the case, said the next legal steps could include a rehearing before the appeals court, or petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court.
I've got kids in school — and college is just around the corner, not to mention the trip we're planning to Monaco. She has to keep this going! I'm sure there's a book in here, too. Know any good agents?
Posted by: PD || 07/01/2003 12:53:09 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Hek Releases First Video
In his first video message, Afghan rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar urged his people to rally together and drive all U.S. and foreign troops from the country. He also mocked the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai as full of unscrupulous opportunists who are "fighting their own people under the command of foreigners."
If Hek can release a video, what's holding Binny back? I mean, besides being dead and all.
The message, on a compact disc received Tuesday by The Associated Press, shows the stubbornness of resistance facing U.S. troops still trying to bring order to Afghanistan nearly two years after the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies collapsed. There have been audio tapes of Hekmatyar, but this was the first time his image has been circulated. He has not been seen publicly since he slipped back into Afghanistan from Iran last year. Western intelligence agencies have long suspected Hekmatyar, a former prime minister, was trying to recruit members of the Taliban and al-Qaida into his Hezb-i-Islami, or Party of Islam, organization.
He's trying to be the new Mr Big.
"I invite all Afghan factions to come and forget our differences ... and oust the foreign troops, cut the hands of the foreign meddlers," the gray-bearded Hekmatyar said. Hekmatyar, wearing thick glasses and appearing haggard, said that if attacks against the Americans and their international partners continue, "it will be difficult for the American forces to move out of their bases. Neither their convoys will be safe nor their bases."
Just keep thinking that way, Hek. Oh, and don't look up.
It was unclear when the recording was made. Hekmatyar and his guards were wearing warm clothing. He is believed hiding in the cold, high mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border, where U.S. special operations troops have been hunting him for months.
Hek is too important to be on the Afghan side of the border, that's for the cannon fodder types.
On the disc, provided by a senior intelligence officer in Hekmatyar's organization, Hekmatyar denied forming alliances with the Taliban or al-Qaida but praised attacks against U.S. and international forces. He also displayed contempt for Karzai's government, saying it was a "sin to waste our time" opposing the Kabul administration when "it is the Americans who are keeping the transitional government secure."
That and the new Afghan army.
"Those standing with the Americans are like the former Communists," he said. "They have sold their religion, faith and country for a few dollars. The Afghan people believe that they cannot have a government of their choice until they all rise up."
"I know if the Americans will just leave, the people will choose me to lead them."
Hekmatyar accused Afghan authorities of using the Americans to kill fellow Afghans in a desperate attempt to cling to power. "They want the Americans to increase their troops," he said. "They call this `American crusade' as a just war against terrorism."
As a matter of fact, yes, we do.
Posted by: Steve || 07/01/2003 11:53:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan: Jalalabad hit by rockets
Three rockets have hit the eastern city of Jalalabad in Afghanistan causing damage to homes and land, but no casualties. A local official says one rocket hit a house in front of the UN childrens' fund office in Jalalabad's city centre, but did not explode. Another rocket knocked a hole in the roof of a house close to a military base, while a third landed on cultivated land. He says the rockets were fired from a site about 10 kilometres east of Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, just before dawn, local time.
"Okay, Mahmoud! I'm all set up! What's the target?"
"Over that-away!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 12:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Yemen: Hatat Bigs no longer ticklish
Abyan, June 28 - The leader of a Yemeni Islamist cell believed to be behind an attack on army medics was among those killed in a government offensive against suspected militants, a security source said on Friday.
Hurrah! Nice shootin', Mahmoud!
At least 12 people, including two soldiers, were killed on Wednesday after forces shelled and raided hideouts in southern Abyan province, where members of the Yemeni group Islamic Jihad were said to be hiding. “It has been confirmed that Ahmed Abdulnabi was among those killed,” the source told Reuters. Government sources say Abdulnabi is the leader of the group that attacked the army medics in Abyan last on June 21. They believe his group is a cell of Islamic Jihad — also known as Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, and that he may have ties to al Qaeda.
Yeah. It's lunchtime. I might be hungry.
Abdulnabi had previously been in Afghanistan but returned before the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities. The battle between security forces and the Islamic militants ended last Friday with the defeat of the militant group after its leader, Khaled Abdulnabi, was killed during a massive assault by the military forces against the few dozen militants, who were hiding in the Hatat mountainous area in the southern province of Abyan. The confrontation between the two sides has hence reached its end at least in the time being until the militants start regrouping again.
Yeah. We know they'll be back. For now, I'm content to ululate for awhile...
Military forces are still, however, chasing several militants still hiding in the vast mountains of Abyan. The forces were able on Thursday to reach the hideouts of the leaders of the group and were able to collect the artillery left behind by the escaped militants, who are expected to be moving from one place to another in the Makr mountain in Hatat valley in the district of Sarar of Abyan province. The forces realized they have taken control of the region after concluding that there was no more resistance in response to their fire.
"Mission accomplished, sir. They're all worm food!"
The area where the escapees are at is quite vast with mountains extending from Sirar district, which is connected to the Yaramis region in the east with the Bana and Radfan valleys of Lahj province in the west. The military forces that surrounded the area from the north and south at Makram found a vehicle belonging to the escapees. The vehicle had Rocket Propelled Grenade equipment along with live ammunition and several light machineguns plus first aid and medical equipment. A military source said that the assault on the militants led to killing and injuring 20 of them and arresting more than 25. The attacking military units also suffered a few deaths and injuries. Major General Abdullah Alewa, Minister of Defense along with the southern region’s commander and commanders of other participating military units led the operations that took place on Thursday and Friday at Makr Mountain region. The search for bodies or injured is continuing throughout the area in an effort to control all areas and prevent the militants from escaping.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 12:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Yemen: Calls to extradite Abu Hamza renewed
Yemen has renewed its request to the British authorities to extradite Abu Hamza Al-Masri to face charges related to several terrorist activities in Yemen. According to ITV, the written request came as Abu Hamza’s solicitors vowed to fight a bid by British Home Secretary David Blunkett to strip him of his British citizenship as a prelude to deportation to Egypt, where he was born. Yemen’s request includes documents alleging that the north London cleric was involved in a 1998 kidnap of tourists by the so-called Islamic Jihad, which was then known as the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army of Aden. A rescue attempt by government forces then resulted in the death of four westerners, including three Britons. However, nothing was mentioned about assurances that Abu Hamza will not be tried and executed if found guilty. British officials said that “It is standard practice never to confirm whether a request has been received.” As a general rule, requests linked to charges which might lead to capital punishment are accepted only if a written assurance is given by the country involved that the death penalty will not be imposed. It is believed that the Yemeni paperwork issued yesterday in the capital Sana’a has not yet been received in the UK.
Oh, c'mon. Make an exception. Maybe they'll lop his head off, and he can get another hook to replace it...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 12:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Saudi chopper down in Qaeda chase; 11 hurt
Eleven Saudi policemen were hurt when their helicopter crashed while chasing a terror suspect who on Saturday shot and seriously injured a security man. Al-Eqtissadia quoted security sources as saying the helicopter was damaged when it made an emergency landing in the mountains of Assir province, near the borders with Yemen, at sunset on Sunday. The pilot made the landing because of a defect in the engine and not as a result of shooting. The casualties included Brigadier-General Mohammad Braiq, preventive security chief of Assir. Most of the injuries were light. The security men were chasing a suspect wanted by authorities over a "security case" who on Saturday resisted arrest, shot a policeman and fled. The paper named the suspect as Dhafer Abdulrahman al-Shehri, 27, but did not say on what grounds he was being sought by authorities. The area along the Saudi-Yemeni border is rife with arms smuggling.
Al Shehri... Where've I heard that name before?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 12:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Kuwait won't cut Hamas, lauds Yassin hudna
Kuwait has denied it will sever its ties with the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas, and welcomed the stand of its founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin to suspend attacks against Israel. The Cabinet welcomed, in its weekly session Sunday, "ongoing efforts to reach a truce between a number of Palestinian groups and Israel." The Council of Ministers lauded positive efforts by these groups to stop bloodshed of innocent people from all sides. State Minister for Foreign Affairs and Acting Minister of Finance Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sabah welcomed, in a statement to Al-Rai Al-Aam, the declaration of Hamas and other Palestinian factions to cease fire. He stressed Kuwait's keenness to ensure the success of the internationally backed "Road Map," and Kuwait's support for Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen)'s government, "which is a unanimous stand of Gulf and Arab states." Foreign Ministry's Undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah said, meanwhile, Kuwait's stand on Hamas "had not changed, but Hamas' stand had changed in a positive way." He stressed, however, Kuwait does not officially support Hamas, saying it is important to differentiate between ties and support "because they are two different concepts."
A fine distinction, indeed, so fine it can't be seen with the naked eye...
In response to a question on the government stand if some Kuwaiti charity societies and Islamic movements provided support to Hamas, Al-Jarallah said, "Funding and other forms of financial aid have been rationalised for Hamas and other movements similar to it." He added charity societies are under government control in the interest of the country and its reputation abroad.
I think that means they're continuing to give them money, 'cuz one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 12:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
France: American symbols removed at Normandy Battle Museum
From the blog The Dissident Frogman":


I'm just coming back from Normandy and still have to unpack, but I wanted to offer you a new game to play, particularly if you're in for a D-Day tour this summer.

If you planned it, you may want to cancel your visit to the Musée Mémorial de la Bataille de Normandie (Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy) in Bayeux.

Unless you would like to play this game, I told you about.

It's called: "Guess what's missing at a museum dedicated to the Battle of Normandy, 1944?"

Let's see if you're as good at this game as the dissident frogman:

1) Guess what's missing on an empty pole, around a monument to the liberators in the Museum's park up front?

2) Guess what's missing in an empty space in the lapel pin's display case at the Museum's shop?

3) Guess what's missing on an empty pedestal on top of the Museum shop's checkout, at the exit?

[The answer to all is the American flag. Go to the web site and see the photographic evidence.]


That game is piece of cake right?

I could fire up a ferocious comment but I'm still disgusted by these three "coincidences". What's more, I couldn't get any lucid and convincing explanation for this "fortuitous" accrual.
Posted by: ColoradoConservative || 07/01/2003 12:35:39 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Pak: Government holds militant for attacks on Christians
LAHORE: Government authorities have arrested a militant leader suspected of masterminding two attacks on Christians last year in which 11 people were killed, intelligence officials said today. The police arrested Abdul Jabbar, a military commander of Jaish-e-Mohammad group, in a raid near the central town of Sargodha. Jabbar is believed to have organised an attack on a Christian missionary school in the hilltop resort of Murree in last August that killed six people, and another attack on a missionary hospital in the town of Taxila the same month that killed four nurses and one attacker. "We suspect he masterminded these two attacks," an intelligence official said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 15:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Pak: Three killed in Lasbela blast
QUETTA: Three people were killed and two injured when a bomb exploded in the Bareeda camp, near Winder, Labela district here on Monday. According to reports from Lasbella, some workers were busy in collecting scrap in a sensitive area of Pakistan Army near Winder. The workers found a bomb and when they touched the bomb, it went off. Resultantly, Muhammad Akram, 22, Muhammad Farooq, 22, and Muhammad Saleem, 18, were killed on the spot.
"Hey, Muhammad! Lookee here!"
"Well, dang me, Muhammad! It's a bomb! Lookitdat, Muhammad!"
"Hey, y'all! Look what happens when I do this!"
"Muhammad! Don't..."
[BOOM!]
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 11:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Pak: Three sentenced to death for killing French engineers
KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court awarded three death sentences to three of the four accused, Asif Zaheer, Rizwan Ahmed and an absconder, Mohammad Sohail, in the suicide bombing case of May 8, 2002 here at Sheraton hotel in which 11 Frenchmen and two Pakistanis were killed. One of the absconders, Adnan Qamar alias Noni, was acquitted in the case. “The judgment has been given under local and foreign pressure,” Rizwan Ahmed told journalists while police tried to whisk him out from the courtroom. “The government is a hostage and indicting innocent people in serious crimes,” said Asif Zaheer.
"Yeah. They wuz just a bunch of infidels! There ain't no penalty for that!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 11:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Leaders of Major Islamist Groups in Pakistan
The link above contains a brief look at the major Islamists active in Pakistan. The bios are mostly small or incomplete, but it still represents a nice collection of the Turbans belonging to one of te following categories:

1)The leaders of the established political formations: These leaders are the public face of Islamist politics in Pakistan. Most of them came to prominence in the early years of General Zia’s reign when they were accorded state support. Today they claim to represent a sizeable portion of the Pakistan’s religiously minded population.

2)The leaders of the Tanzeems: Islamist organizations (Tanzeems) tend to be somewhat removed from the mainstream polity. Unlike the political parties the Tanzeems are dedicated to achievement of a specific goal. These are a somewhat camera shy lot and their personal histories are equally elusive.

3)The spiritual leaders: These persons represent the leaders of the major spiritual movements in Pakistani Islam. Their influence is difficult to characterize however given Pakistan’s emphasis on Islamist piety, there is little to undermine their influence.

4)The Military Islamists: These represent serving and retired military officers who do not seem to shy from associating with Islamist political groups.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 07/01/2003 2:30:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraq: Video shows torture overseen by Saddam's half brother
A graphic video to be broadcast today shows Saddam Hussein's half brother, ousted Interior Minister Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, exhorting his police officers as they beat and torture prisoners. "Go on, go on," Hasan tells his khaki-clad ministry police as they repeatedly slash prisoners with sticks, electric cables and metal bars at a Baghdad detention center. The police kick the prisoners again and again. At one point, one of Hasan's own security guards is beaten with wooden poles, sticks and cables after pleading for mercy. Hasan was captured April 13 as he apparently attempted to flee to Syria and is being held in a coalition prison for "high-value detainees." A Baath Party official who has the same mother as Saddam and is one of Saddam's three half brothers, Hasan was the five of spades in the deck of 55 cards distributed to coalition soldiers in the search for the most-wanted Iraqi officials. A reporter for The Washington Times has seen the video pictures in their entirety. Excerpts will be shown today by the Al Arabiya satellite television channel, which obtained them from an undisclosed Iraqi source. The gruesome pictures, with testimony by one of the beaten prisoners, are expected to be of value in building a criminal prosecution against Hasan. The U.S.-led coalition or its successor will seek to prove that the interior minister ran a systematic reign of terror, coalition legal experts said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 15:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq: RPG attack injures reporter
Insurgents fired a rocket propelled grenade at a military vehicle in the restive town of Fallujah, injuring an "embedded" reporter with NBC News. The grenade hit an Avenger air defense vehicle — a Humvee equipped with a missile launcher — injuring the reporter who was traveling in the vehicle but leaving the soldiers unscathed. The reporter was evacuated to a combat support hospital and was listed in stable condition.
The more reason to scour Fallujah with Brillo...
"Shortly after the attack, while soldiers were securing the area and treating the civilian reporter, a white pickup truck with its headlights off was spotted traveling along the highway toward the Avenger," the statement said. The pickup truck slammed into an armored personnel carrier that was on the scene of the ambush to help evacuate any casualties. Two of the pickup truck's civilian occupants died immediately. The other died later from his wounds. The soldiers — all with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division — were unhurt.
That's the usual result of that kind of encounter, isn't it?
Compton said he could not say whether the people in the pickup truck were attackers or accident victims. But a photographer at a hospital in Fallujah spoke to a man, Zoheir Ali, who said his son-in-law was among the three killed in the pickup truck. He said his son-in-law, Qahtan Hashem, was driving two neighbors — a son and his sick father — to the hospital and was rushing to beat an 11 p.m. curfew. Ali said he believed Hashem did not notice the vehicles on the road.
That could be because Hashem didn't have his headlights on. It could also have something to do with his turban slipping down over his eyes, or maybe Pop poking him in the eye with the barrel of his AK.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 13:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Rumsfeld: This is no quagmire or guerrilla war.
(Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday remnants of toppled President Saddam Hussein's government have coalesced into a "terrorist network" in Iraq, but rejected the notion that U.S. and British forces are facing a guerrilla war or are stuck in a quagmire. During a Pentagon briefing, Rumsfeld compared the postwar situation in Iraq to the difficult path taken by the United States after declaring its independence from Britain and before establishing a new Constitution and electing a president. Rumsfeld also accused some members of the news media, who he did not identify, of hoping Iraq becomes another Vietnam.
You tell them! But I don't think the beauzeaux want to listen.
Posted by: RiNeref || 07/01/2003 9:15:23 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi details harsh treatment by U.S. interrogators
An Iraqi businessman detained during a raid on his home says U.S. interrogators deprived him of sleep, forced him to kneel naked and kept him bound hand and foot with a bag over his head for eight days.
Boo friggin' hoo, as somebody once said
Khraisan al-Abally's story, told to an Associated Press correspondent, comes as an Amnesty International report released Monday harshly criticizes American interrogation techniques. A U.S. Army officer confirmed receiving a complaint from al-Abally, but coalition officials declined to discuss his account. The activist group Human Rights Watch said it was trying to corroborate his story. Seeking to quell a burgeoning uprising, U.S. soldiers have detained hundreds of Iraqis some of whom have endured days of strenuous interrogations, rights groups say. AP journalists have observed prisoners wearing only underwear and blindfolds, handcuffed and lying in the dirt 24 hours after their capture.
The same folks who are firing grenade launchers at us. Yaaawwwn.
Had we taken the Baathist approach and put a bullet their tiny little heads, they'd have been lying in the dirt for a lot longer, wouldn't they?
Interviewed June 20 and Monday, Al-Abally said U.S. troops stormed his home April 30, shooting his brother and taking al-Abally and his 80-year-old father into custody apparently believing they had information on the whereabouts of a top official in Saddam Hussein's regime, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.
And we believe everything he says. Sure.
The three men were all low-level members of Saddam's Baath Party, but al-Douri was not a family acquaintance, Al-Abally said.
All-rightee then. Thanks for your input.
Guess they just picked him at random, huh? Or maybe because Pop's 80 years old...
The brother, Dureid, shot at the troops breaking in, apparently mistaking them for looters, the family said. Al-Abally said he was told during his interrogation at Baghdad International Airport that his brother had died. Al-Abally, 39, said that while he was bound and blindfolded, he was kicked, forced to stare at a strobe light and blasted with ''very loud rubbish music.''
And what would Saddam's folks have done to you if THEY thought you were a bad guy???
''I thought I was going to lose my mind,'' said al-Abally, a burly man whose wrists are still scarred from plastic cuffs more than a month after his release. ''They said, 'I want you on your knees.' After three or four days it's very painful. My knees were bleeding and swollen.''
Waaah.
The U.S. military said it could not comment on the raid or its methods of interrogation, saying only that its soldiers adhere to the rule of law. Military and intelligence officials have said sleep deprivation, shackling prisoners in uncomfortable positions and noise abuse are considered legal methods.
Thank you.
''This is democracy?'' asked al-Abally, whose family operates a shipping business in Lebanon. ''No Iraqi would have thought the Americans were capable of this.''
When people kill us, shit happens.
His interrogation came before a June 26 pledge by the Bush administration that U.S. officials would not use cruel treatment to gain information from detainees. Several human rights groups including London-based Amnesty International and New York-based Human Rights Watch argue that current U.S. interrogation methods violate the pledge. ''When you talk of up to eight days' sleep deprivation, especially with hands and feet bound, that's already entering the realm of ill treatment,'' said Johanna Bjorken, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Iraq. ''When you combine it with loud music, strobe lights and hooding, it's very possible you've inflicted cruel treatment, which is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.'' She said her group is investigating al-Abally's allegations to see if the interrogation techniques he described can be corroborated. A U.S. Army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. interrogators routinely used strobe lights. Bjorken said a U.S. military criminal investigator in Baghdad told her that loud music and sleep deprivation were acceptable interrogation techniques.
What else do they want us to do—give them milk and cookies so maybe they'll talk? sheesh
Amnesty International's report said the U.S. military appeared to subject Iraqi detainees to treatment that violates international law. The group said it was investigating the U.S. military's three-week detention of an 11-year-old boy and an incident in which U.S. shooting during a riot by detainees killed one and wounded seven.
Sorry, but I don't buy the "victim" story. I'll start feeling sorry for them when we begin pulling off their fingernails.
Personally, I'm all in favor of much wider use of giggle juice — and the stubborn refusal to admit that we use it...
Posted by: TJ || 07/01/2003 8:43:09 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq: Head of Saddam’s Tribe Gunned Down
Attackers gunned down the head of Saddam Hussein's tribe while he was riding in a car in the ousted dictator's hometown of Tikrit, the regional governor said Tuesday. Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khattab, leader of Saddam's Bani al-Nasiri tribe, was killed in the attack Sunday. His son was wounded, said the governor, Hussein al-Jubouri. Saddam appointed Al-Khattab as tribal chief, who remained close to the dictator during his 35-year rule. However, several weeks ago, after the U.S.-led invasion, he publicly disavowed Saddam in the presence of local leaders and American troops, residents said.
Not that he meant it.
The governor said al-Khattab "had many enemies and he had confiscated a lot of properties and killed many people."
Translation: "So many suspects, so little time".
"Jones!"
"Yessir!"
"This must be investigated!"
"Yessir! I'll put it on the list. What priority?"
"What's the top?"
"One."
"And the bottom?"
"Ten."
"This one's an eleven."
Posted by: Steve || 07/01/2003 8:52:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq: Blast at Mosque in Fallujah Kills Five
Fallujah: A massive explosion rocked a mosque in this restive Iraqi town, killing at least five Iraqi civilians and injuring four others. Iraqi civilians said the blast was caused by a missile or bomb strike, but American soldiers at the scene disputed that account, saying it was likely caused when explosives hidden at the site went off.
Better put a call in to OSHA.
The incident was likely to increase tension in the town, already the scene of several confrontations between U.S. soldiers and anti-American insurgents. Witnesses said the blast took place just before 11 p.m. Monday in a small cinderblock building in the courtyard of the mosque. The explosion blew out the walls and took down the ceiling of the structure.
Big work accident!
About a dozen Iraqis were gathered around the blast Tuesday morning, sifting through the rubble for pieces of metal they said proved the damage was caused by an American attack. ``These are pieces of a missile,'' said Aqeel Ibrahim Ali, 26, who was standing on a concrete slab overlooking the destruction, holding out a box filled with metal shards. ``An airplane shot a missile.''
Sure, Aqeel, you're a properly trained evidence technician now, I take it.
But Sgt. Thomas McMurtry, a reservist with the 346th Tactical Psychological Operations Company, said there was no evidence the explosion was caused by a U.S. attack. ``They did it to themselves. Clearly, the physical evidence does not support that (a missile strike) in any way,'' he told The Associated Press. ``Whatever blew up was just sitting inside there. There is no evidence that it was anything else but a ground based explosive.'' McMurtry, a schoolteacher based in Dayton, Ohio said he is a former special forces engineer with munitions training, said that if the explosion had been caused by a bomb or missile, there would be evidence of shrapnel. He said U.S. army ordnance disposal personnel had scanned the wreckage and saw no evidence of a missile strike.
No, don't believe the SF munitions engineer, believe Aqeel!
It was unclear who the Iraqi victims were, or what they were doing at the mosque late Monday.
Maybe Aqeel can call his cousin, the expert in forensic remains reconstruction.
"Yes! See how the infidels cleverly disguise their missile to look like an old beer can!"
Posted by: Steve White || 07/01/2003 2:06:49 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


U.S. Troops Arrest Najaf Mayor, Top Aides
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - American troops moved in force Monday to arrest the U.S.-appointed mayor of this holy Shiite town, removing him on kidnapping and corruption charges and detaining 62 of his top aides, officials said.
"Dammit Achmed, couldn't you keep your hand out of the box of explosives cookie jar?"
[Snipped. Rerun from yesterday...]
Posted by: Steve White || 07/01/2003 1:58:40 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
S’pore JI chief gets 18 months’ jail
A man accused by Singapore of plotting to crash a plane into Changi Airport has been jailed for 18 months in Indonesia for immigration offences, the state Antara news agency reported on Tuesday. A court in the town of Dumai on Sumatra island on Monday ruled that Mas Selamat Kastari, 42, was guilty of falsifying immigration documents and Indonesian ID cards, Antara reported. The court could not immediately be reached for confirmation. Police arrested Kastari, a Singaporean aviation technician, on Indonesia's Bintan island south of Singapore in January. Police said he was the chief in Singapore of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) extremist network. The Government says Kastari had plotted to crash a plane into Changi airport there.
18 months is a start, gives you time to dig up more evidence on him.
Posted by: Steve || 07/01/2003 2:51:30 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Indonesia: Soldiers face Aceh rape charges
Three Indonesian soldiers have been arrested for raping four women in war-torn Aceh province, the military says.
I thought that was part of the Indon army's benefits package? Or were these guys enlisted?
Military operations spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Yani Basuki says the soldiers are being detained at military police headquarters in North Aceh. The rapes took place separately between June 20 and 22. The troops could face 12 years in jail if found guilty at a later hearing. It is the second time rapes have been reported since the military and police on May 19 launched an all-out assault to crush Free Aceh Movement separatist guerrillas. Earlier this month, police said a police paramilitary soldier had been detained for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl. The military, which has a record of gross rights abuses during earlier campaigns in Aceh, has said it will try to ensure its troops behave better this time.
Not doing a very good job of it, are they?
Six soldiers have been jailed for between four and five months for beating up civilians during a hunt for rebels.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 12:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Indonesia: Prosecutors say Amrozi should die
Indonesian prosecutors have asked judges to impose the death sentence on Bali bombings suspect Amrozi. The 40-year-old mechanic from Java has been charged with plotting, organising and carrying out crimes of terror and causing mass casualties in the October 12 nightclub blasts. Amrozi has admitted to participating in the attacks. Prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan has told the five judges that evidence and witness testimony proves Amrozi helped plan and carry out the bombings. Amrozi read and sat apparently bored for much of the hearing and did not react to the call for his execution. As he left court, the father of an Australian man killed by the Kuta bombing called out in Indonesian "Amrozi you're dead".
That's Indonesia you're talking about, and the guy owns a turban. Don't count on it.
The five judges do not have to follow the prosecutors' sentence recommendation if they find Amrozi guilty. A verdict is expected later this month. The prosecutors' request is the first sentencing demand for any of the suspects standing trial over the attacks.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 12:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Thailand: Attack fear sparks embassy security boost
Police in Thailand are increasing security patrols around the Australian embassy in Bangkok, citing fresh intelligence reports of an increased risk of a terrorist attack. Checkpoints are being set up at the Australian, British and US embassies in the Thai capital. Extra patrols have been ordered in beach resorts including Pattaya, Phuket and Koh Samui. Reuters news agency says additional security is also being put in place at unspecified international schools. Police have also been told to monitor imports of explosives by local firms. Thai security forces have been on the alert for Muslim militancy, but have also been warned by neighbouring Burma of possible attacks by exiles angry with Rangoon's detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
I think the turbans are the more likely perps...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 11:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Suu Kyi removed from Insein Jail, but still not free
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from Burma's notorious Insein Central Jail to a new location 40 km northeast of the capital, informed sources in Rangoon said yesterday. The secret shifting of Asia's most famous political prisoner took place on Saturday amid worldwide outrage over the harsh and filthy conditions she was reported to have endured for the past month. The location of her new place of confinement was believed to be on the Rangoon-Bago Road, but further details of the place were unknown. Suu Kyi, 48, was arrested following a violent clash in northern Burma between supporters of her National League for Democracy and an armed mob backed by the ruling junta on the night of May 30. Since then she has been held in a small two-room hut within the grounds of Insein Jail, and has not even been allowed a change of clothing. The only outsider allowed to visit her during the past month was United Nations special envoy Razali Ismail, who reported she appeared to be uninjured and in good spirits. After his visit, Razali described the conditions under which Suu Kyi was being held as "absolutely deplorable". Suu Kyi's supporters and friends said they feared the harsh conditions at Insein Jail, which has been the military rulers' main political prison and torture chamber for decades, may have aggravated Suu Kyi's chronic stomach ailment.
She may have a stomach ailment, but it's not lack of guts.
Her hut at Insein Jail reportedly was located between the prison's gallows and the facility's woman's prison, with the gallows in clear view.
Hint, hint.
Posted by: Steve || 07/01/2003 10:51:46 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arroyo: Sison accountable for NPA attacks
Jose Maria Sison and other leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF) should be held accountable for the series of attacks launched by its military arm, President Arroyo said Tuesday. “The NDF leadership should be held accountable for the terrorist acts of the NPA [New People's Army]... [there should be] a review of the GRP-NDF joint agreement on security and immunity,” Arroyo said. She ordered the Cabinet oversight committee on internal security to recommend charges against CPP-NDF leaders.
Better late than never.
She also asked the committee to consider the redeployment of troops to counter terrorist attacks. Arroyo said the committee should draft "political and diplomatic" measures that would link the NPA with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which the government had accused for recent terror attacks in Mindanao. The President expressed alarm over the series of NPA attacks that resulted in the deaths of soldiers. She cited the attack by 70 suspected communist rebels against a military outpost in Oras, Eastern Samar province, where five Army soldiers, 11 militiamen and a woman were killed. Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, CPP spokesman, praised the NPA offensives in an interview with Radio dzMM on Tuesday. "I would like to congratulate our comrades in Occidental Mindoro, Eastern Samar and Compostela Valley for their successful offensives. I am calling on the rest of the 128 guerilla groups nationwide to launch similar offensives," Rosal said.
Thanks for your input, Greg. We'll put you down as pleading guilty, it'll save time later.
NPA rebels killed 13 soldiers and wounded 10 others in Compostela Valley on Monday.
Posted by: Steve || 07/01/2003 9:22:25 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


International
US cuts foreign aid over ICC immunity refusals
The United States has cut military aid to 35 countries over their refusal to exempt US troops from prosecution by the new International Criminal Court (ICC).
YES! 'bout Frigging time there were cause/effect lessons worldwide
The US, which is not a signatory to the ICC, has asked nations that recognise the court to exempt Americans from its provisions over fears they could be subject to politically-motivated prosecution by the court.

US officials says the suspension affects US allies like Brazil, Colombia and South Africa, the Baltic states as well as NATO hopefuls such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says the US government will never accept the court.

"It's important to protect American service men and women and others in government," Mr Fleischer said.

Our Washington correspondent John Shovelan says the decision to punish countries that have refused to exempt US troops from prosecution is the latest in a series of attacks on the court by the Bush administration.

The US initially signed on to the court but later rescinded the agreement.

Actually I don't think it was ever put to a vote as it was unconstitutional in fact/principle
Posted by: Frank G || 07/01/2003 10:22:53 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Latin America
War Crime Case Against Castro May Stand
EFL:
Changes to Belgium's war crime laws to prevent complaints against President Bush and other U.S. officials shouldn't derail a case against Fidel Castro, an American group that filed charges against the Cuban leader said Tuesday.
This could be fun, just to watch Fidel rant. He could always stroke out in the middle of one of his 6 hour speeches.
Under pressure from the United States, the Belgian government has proposed altering the law that allows its courts to try crimes against humanity anywhere in the world. The government's proposal would change the law so that a charge could be filed only if the victim is a citizen or resident of Belgium or there is some other direct link to the country.
Judicial Watch, a Washington-based conservative legal group said the changes would not stop its case filed on behalf of exiled Cubans against Castro. The complaint accuses the leader of false imprisonment, torture and persecution. Because some of the plaintiffs live in Belgium, or have Belgian citizenship, the complaint can proceed, said Larry Klayman, chairman of Judicial Watch.
Another proposed change that would grant immunity to leaders while in office also does not apply because Castro was not elected and is not likely to be prosecuted at home.
Gee, someone noticed.
"Castro will never leave office ... as a consequence he should be subject to prosecution," said Klayman, who was in Brussels as part of a European tour to lobby governments to take a harder line against the Cuban leader. He was accompanied by Alina Fernandez, Castro's exiled daughter, and Blanca Rosa Gonzalez, whose son was recently jailed in a crackdown on critics of the government.
Klayman expressed satisfaction that the European Union had criticized Castro following the sentencing of 75 dissidents to long prison terms and the firing-squad executions of three men who hijacked a ferry. "I believe the European Union is sincere and they want to help us end the wave of repression," Klayman said. "There has been a marked shift."
About Fidel, at least.
He hoped European nations, which have large investments and trade ties with Cuba, would use their influence on Castro.
"Europe has a lot of leverage that the United States does not have," he said.
"I can't name any at the moment, but I'm sure they do."
Posted by: Steve || 07/01/2003 4:18:03 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


East/Subsaharan Africa
Liberia: Chuck Turns Down Safe Haven
Embattled Liberian President Charles Taylor has turned down a secret deal to give the indicted leader safe haven in Nigeria, senior U.N. diplomats told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Taylor rejected the offer for several reasons, including uncertainty over whether the offer would shield him from a U.N. indictment he is facing on war crimes charges. "There are a lot of unanswered questioned here and so Taylor isn't willing to entertain the issue right now," said one Security Council diplomat at U.N. headquarters in New York.
Good. I'd rather see him killed. Dead men don't stage comebacks...
The exile offer was negotiated with the help of a Security Council mission that is visiting the region and met with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo over the weekend. As part of the deal, Nigeria wouldn't turn Taylor over to the U.N.-Sierra Leone court even if the indictment stands, diplomats in the region said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 15:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Mauritanian Places Mosques Under State Control
From Islam Online:
The Mauritanian cabinet ratified Monday, June 30, a bill turning mosques into state-run public facilities. The decision follows a sweeping arrest campaign that netted some 60 Imams and preachers for allegedly "plotting against the state security" and led to the closure of six religious institutes, associations and Islamic-oriented newspapers. Minister of Communications and Relations with Parliament Hammoud Ould Mohammad told reporters the new law would make turn mosques to "public facilities."
"All your base belong to us!"
He argued this aimed at "securing for such sacred places legal guarantees and provide them with necessary legal protection and support, so that they could undertake their noble tasks properly." The new move "will protect mosques from any conduct violating its sanctity and the country's Malik school of jurisprudence," said the minister. He added that the law also addresses "the pivotal role played by mosques Imams and their assistants, who do make every effort to deliver the mosque message.
Meaning "We are going to protect you from yourself."
The new legislation outlines financial and moral assistance given to Imams and their assistants, said Ould Mohammad.
The former minister of culture and Islamic orientation had threatened three months ago to change "the mosques which change its course into bakeries."
"Or parking lots, we haven't decided yet"
The police campaign also coincided with an intense media campaign spearheaded by the government that enlisted employees from the ministry of Waqf (endowments) and the "appointed " supreme Islamic council. Although the media campaign was brought to a halt following the foiled coup d' etat earlier in June, the country's "Islamists' file" has not yet showed any sign of breakthrough.
Kind of like "The X-Files".
On Monday, a court judge suspended, in a surprising move, investigations with arrested Imams, though only three of them have not been questioned. The Imams are facing charges of "plotting against the state security and the country's constitutional system and working through unauthorized organizations."
Got enough evidence, did you?
Last month, Mauritanian political sources familiar with the foiled putsch strenuously denied that the incident was Islamic-oriented, noting that it came in response to the latest wave of arrests of Muslim scholars in the Islamic country.
Huh? The putsch wasn't islamic related, it was caused by arresting islamic scholars? Must be the translation, or the heat, or something.
On May 24, the Mauritanian Center for Human Rights, the Public Mauritanian Front, the Afro-Arab Committee for Salvation and the Mauritanian Movement for Democracy and Citizenship called in Paris (where else?) for protesting against the escalation of the detention campaign against Islamic activists, especially (opposition) Muslim Brotherhood.
Is there anybody who doesn't want to arrest the Muslim Brotherhood?
Posted by: Steve || 07/01/2003 12:57:12 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Ecowas Chairman Urges UN to Lift Taylor Indictment
The chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President John Kufuor of Ghana, has urged the United Nations to consider setting aside the indictment of Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes in order to facilitate a negotiated settlement to Liberia's civil war.
How do you spell "pusillanimous"?
"I am not demeaning the role of the UN tribunal, although the indictment almost torpedoed the mediation process," Kufuor told a Security Council mission in the capital, Accra, on Monday.
And we certainly wouldn't want that...
On Jun 4 Taylor was publicly indicted by a UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone for his part in fuelling that country's 10-year civil war. The charges were announced as the Liberian leader flew to Accra to begin peace talks with two rebel movements. "While we rightly seek to use the rule of law to punish human rights offenders, I urge the UN Security Council to agree with us that we need to tackle immediately Liberia's humanitarian problems first," Kufuor said.
That'll be a lot easier when Chuck's neck is three feet long...
The Security Council team, led by Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, is touring West Africa to promote peace and stability in the region, where civil wars in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire threaten to destabilise neighbouring states. Greenstock said in reply to Kufuor's comments that while the Security Council respected the desires of West African leaders to address the needs of the region, it also respected the decision of the war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone. "There is no immunity against those who go against human rights," he stressed.
Good for Jerry!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 13:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


East Asia
Hong Kong Protests Anti-Subversion Law
HONG KONG - Hundreds of thousands of angry and worried Hong Kong residents marched peacefully Tuesday to protest an anti-subversion law they fear will undermine freedoms of speech, press and assembly.
D'ya think?
"This will push Hong Kong toward an era of tyranny," said W.C. Mak, a 74-year-old retired nurse. Mak said the last time she demonstrated was June 1989, after Chinese troops crushed a student pro-democracy movement in Beijing and 1 million stunned people in Hong Kong, then a British colony, took to the streets.
Gonna smash this one too, Chicoms?
An organizer of Tuesday's protest, Richard Tsoi, said more than 500,000 people had turned out. Police said 350,000 people were on the streets during the peak of the demonstration — and the total would have been higher. They acknowledged it was the biggest protest here since the June 4, 1989, crackdown in Tiananmen Square shocked Hong Kong. Hong Kong's national security law, expected to pass in a few days, will ban subversion, treason, sedition and other crimes against the state, giving police more powers and carrying life prison sentences for some offenses.
Like practicing Falun Gong, or Christianity or...
Critics worry about possible mainland-style suppression of dissent in Hong Kong, although the government insists is not a concern and that constitutionally protected liberties will not be harmed. The black-clad protesters waved signs as they formed a long corridor as wide as two dozen people. The demonstration route extended across a wide stretch of Hong Kong island, from an urban park to government headquarters. Lines to join the march were so long that some people had to wait about four hours to get going. To commemorate the 1997 return of Chinese sovereignty, a uniformed band played patriotic music earlier in the morning and helicopters dragged the Chinese and Hong Kong flags through the sky as government leaders, including Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, stood at silent attention. Activists outside torched the flag of the Chinese Communist Party, demanding an end to its monopoly on power in the mainland and scuffling with police. Wen told an audience of political and business elites that Beijing would honor its pledge to allow Hong Kong considerable autonomy to preserve its "unique position and irreplaceable role" within China and the global economy. Wen was later asked about the anti-subversion bill and said it "absolutely will not affect the different rights and freedoms Hong Kong people — including reporters — enjoy under the law."
Riiiiggghhhttt
Wen left Hong Kong before the protest march.
heh heh got outta Dodge while he could?
Vincent Lui, a 35-year-old engineer who said he had never protested before, turned out with his wife and two children, holding a black flag that said: "We are angry." In Taiwan, the ruling party urged Hong Kong's leaders to respect the wishes of protesters against the planned anti-subversion law. "We give our support to the Hong Kong citizens who stand up to protect their freedoms and human rights," the Democratic Progressive Party said in a statement. When Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, an arrangement dubbed "one country, two systems" guaranteed the territory could maintain its liberties. But its mini-constitution also required that it pass an anti-subversion law. Critics accuse officials of going too far. Many critics believe Hong Kong will use the law to ban Falun Gong, the meditation group outlawed in mainland China as an "evil cult." Beijing is trying to eradicate Falun Gong in the mainland, but the group remains legal in Hong Kong and frequently demonstrates here.
That's one reason why they're passing it. Nothing shows how fragile the Politburo's hold on the country is than how desperately they've cracked down on Falun Gong - a religious exercise group
Religious groups, human rights activists and journalists fear their activities will be curtailed. Some business executives also worry about the free flow of information — viewed as crucial in this leading financial and market center. Tung last week called the anti-subversion law necessary now that Hong Kong is part of China. "We have to make sure that we are patriotic. We have to maintain the fundamental interests of our nation," Tung said. "National security is something we cannot trifle with."
The message to Taiwan — Don't get Fooled Again©
Posted by: Frank G || 07/01/2003 12:35:27 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Korea
North Korea threatens to withdraw from Korean War armistice
JPost - Reg Req'd
More spittle and jumping up and down from Kimmy's tools

North Korea threatened Tuesday to abandon the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, and warned that it will take "strong and merciless retaliatory measures" in response to any economic blockade.

The North's Korean People's Army said that "Korea is at the crossroads of war or peace" because of US efforts to stifle the communist state.
Stifle It, Edith!
North Korea has recently stepped up its anti-US rhetoric in an apparent attempt to force the United States to negotiate a dispute over the North's nuclear ambitions.
that's working real well for ya isn't it?
"It is, in fact, hardly possible to preserve the cease-fire in Korea by the unilateral efforts of the Korean People's Army side," said the North Korean military's representative at Panmunjom, a truce village where the US-led UN Command and the North Korean military meet to oversee the armistice.

His statement was carried by the North's state-run KCNA news agency.

North Korea has often threatened to scrap the armistice, the key legal document that keeps an uneasy peace on the divided Korean Peninsula. It has called the armistice a "dead document" or a "useless piece of paper."
pretty much describes it, hmmm?
The United States and its allies are pressuring North Korea to abandon its suspected development of nuclear weapons. In recent weeks, they began cracking down on alleged North Korean trading in illicit drugs, counterfeit money and weapons.

North Korea calls the moves part of a US plan to impose an international siege on the isolated state and says they violate the armistice.

"If the US side applies sanctions against [North Korea] and conducts sea and air blockade against it anywhere and starts bolstering up troops in and around the Korean Peninsula, the KPA side will promptly regard it as a complete breach of the armistice agreement by the US side and will immediately take strong and merciless retaliatory measures," the North said.
"Sea of Fire™", yadda yadda
Also Tuesday, North Korea accused the United States of conducting some 200 spy flights over its country in June.
good - got the GPS coords on the artillery and nuke shacks?
KCNA said the United States used various reconnaissance planes to conduct aerial espionage last month.
Sounds like they're gonna try and intercept/down one of our 135's operating off the coast. Saw a clip on Fox this week - NK had sent fighters to within 50' of a RC-135's wingtips as a scare tactic. Target acquisition radar locked on for heatseekers...better have escorts now
This "proves that the US imperialists are becoming more undisguised in their moves to make a surprise pre-emptive attack (on North Korea) over its nuclear issue," KCNA said.

The nuclear standoff began in October when US officials said North Korea admitted having a covert nuclear program in violation of a 1994 pact.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not with a peace treaty.

Posted by: Frank G || 07/01/2003 12:19:57 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iran
Iran talking to Brits on Qaeda detainees
Iran said Monday it was holding talks with foreign intelligence services, including Britain's over the fate of its detained members of the al-Qaeda terror group. Government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh reiterated Iran would not identify the detainees. "We are holding talks with the secret services of all countries active in the field of fighting terrorism with which we have contacts," Ramezanzadeh told reporters. "For instance, we don't have contacts with American secret agencies, but we do have such contacts with British secret services." He declined to comment on media reports that Iran is holding al-Qaeda's No 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, the group's spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith and its security chief Saif al-Adil.
It'd be easy enough to just deny it's them. I think they might be haggling over price now...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 12:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon
Syria: US hands back detained Syrian border guards
The United States has handed back five Syrian border guards wounded in a coalition attack on a convoy on the border with Iraq last month. The guards were detained following a raid by Task Force 20, a unit set up to hunt down senior members of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime. US defence officials have said the convoy of six or seven vehicles was believed to be carrying regime figures when it was struck. They have also said it is not clear if the fighting strayed into Syrian territory. Mr Rumsfeld says the guards' return was delayed because the Pentagon had wanted to question them further. "I don't think that would be helpful from our standpoint beyond saying that we had good intelligence and it indicated that there were people moving during a curfew close to the border in a convoy of sports utility vehicles. Our forces went in and stopped them."
"And these saps tried to stop us from stopping them...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 12:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
MidEast: Sharon, Abu Mazen to discuss security
The Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers are due to meet later tonight to discuss further moves on the international peace plan known as the road map. The transfer of security responsibilities is the key item on the agenda. The meeting comes one day before security responsibilities in Bethlehem are due to be turned over to Palestinian forces, following Monday's partial withdrawal from Gaza. The two leaders are working towards restoring Palestinian control in areas now occupied by Israeli troops within two months. But Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will tell his Palestinian counterpart, Abu Mazen, he expects the Palestinian Authority to take tangible steps to dismantle terrorism. He will tell Abu Mazen Israel will not be content with a mere cease-fire. Mr Sharon is also expected to make more goodwill gestures such as the release of Palestinians in administrative detention.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 07/01/2003 11:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel Wrecks Disputed Nazareth Mosque Foundations
Israel demolished the foundations of a planned mosque near Nazareth's main Christian shrine on Tuesday, ending a project that had angered the Vatican and raised religious tensions in the city where Jesus grew up.
It's the Jews fault, I mean, Jesus was a Jew, right?
Dozens of Muslim protesters scuffled with police protecting mechanical wreckers carrying out a court demolition order at the site in the shadow of the Roman Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation. The basilica is built on the spot where Christian faithful believe the angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary she would bear God's son. Israel granted the national Islamic Trust permission in 1999 to build a mosque at a nearby site that houses the tomb of Shehab el-Din, nephew of the Muslim leader Saladin who ousted the Crusaders from the Holy Land eight centuries ago. The prospect of a mosque rising near the basilica alarmed the minority Christian population of Nazareth, disturbing a delicate religious balance in Israel's leading Arab city, where riots between the two communities erupted in April 1999.
They know they are next, no matter how much the christian leadership sucks up to the paleostinians.
The Vatican and U.S. churches voiced concern, leading to an Israeli ministerial review of the project and a cabinet decision in March 2002 to end construction of the mosque on grounds the Islamic Trust failed to obtain proper building permits. Israeli courts upheld the decision.
"Permits? We don't need no stinking permits!"
Posted by: Steve || 07/01/2003 9:29:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Palestinians arrest ceasefire violators
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said on Tuesday Palestinian security forces arrested militants who killed a Bulgarian road worker in a West Bank shooting on Monday that violated a ceasefire. ''Those who did it were arrested,'' Arafat told reporters.
What about those who ordered it, Yasser?
And how long were they detained?
He did not say how many members of a cell of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the attack near the West Bank city of Jenin, were detained.
Detained until nobody's looking.
The brigades belong to Arafat's Fatah faction but lack a central command and are divided over suspending attacks on Israelis in a 33-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood. In a separate attack on Tuesday, a Palestinian armed with a pistol opened fire at a military roadblock near the West Bank city of Tulkarm and was shot dead by soldiers, an army spokesman said.
BANG "Die, zionist dog!" BANGBANGBANGBANG "Ouch!"
There were no other casualties or any immediate claim of responsibility.
On Sunday, Fatah, along with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, declared a temporary truce amid heavy U.S. diplomatic pressure on the Palestinian Authority to rein in militants under a new Middle East peace plan.
Posted by: Steve || 07/01/2003 9:02:55 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


East/Subsaharan Africa
US debates Liberia peace force
Top US officials are meeting on Tuesday to discuss whether to join international peacekeepers in Liberia.
Nooooooooooooooo!
The move follows calls by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, welcoming US participation in a multilateral force in the war-torn west African country. In a television interview, US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, outlined "deep concerns" about the worsening situation in the nation. "We are looking at a variety of options and plans," he said. "But no decisions have been made yet except that we are concerned with the situation in Liberia and concerned as well with the safety of our people in Liberia, but really for the suffering that the Liberian people are going through right now."

The UN is actively seeking to build the peacekeeping team on the ground with action being led by the British ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock. Mr Greenstock said there were "big obstacles on the way to peace" for the war-torn Liberia. His proposal would have West African nations give 3,000 troops for what would be a 5,000-strong force to separate forces of Liberian President Charles Taylor and rebels. West African leaders have in turn asked the United States to contribute 2,000 troops to the peace force and want US President George Bush to decide before he makes his first African visit next month.
Just say no.
Posted by: Steve || 07/01/2003 8:43:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Korea
China Wants Nuclear Weapons-Free Koreas
Hat Tip: Res Ipsa Loquitur
China called Monday for a Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons and urged a diplomatic settlement to the North Korean nuclear crisis. "China hopes to see a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula which enjoys lasting peace and stability," Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told reporters after meeting European Union officials and the bloc's outgoing president Greece. "It is important to address the security concerns of a certain country but should there be disagreements or even conflicts between certain countries the only way to solve them is through dialogue in a peaceful manner," he said.
"So the NorKs might want to consider ceasing and desisting making faces and jumping up and down...
The United States is stepping up diplomatic efforts to halt North Korea's resumed nuclear program, which, it says, breaches a 1994 accord that was set up to end a similar crisis. The war of words between the United States and North Korea has sharpened since last year when U.S. officials said North Korea had acknowledged a nuclear weapons program. President Bush has branded the Stalinist country part of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and prewar Iraq. North Korea has expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors and its state media have issued conflicting statements on its nuclear status, at times accusing U.S. officials of lying but also suggesting it has reprocessed plutonium for bombs. Its foreign ministry said this month that the North would strengthen its "nuclear deterrent force," dismissing the U.S. call for multilateral talks as a tactic to isolate Pyongyang. South Korea has joined with Washington and other regional powers in seeking an end to the North's nuclear program. Zhaoxing, a former ambassador to the United States, said a first round of talks in Beijing in April between North Korea, the United States and China were positive but more needed to be done.
"We didn't give them enough Prozac the first time..."
"The Chinese government has made persistent efforts ... and the Beijing talks represented a good beginning. But they were only a good beginning," said Zhaoxing.
It's about time. As Rita (Res Ipse Loquitor) so diplomatically puts it, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step..." Nork's "Totally Insane Leader" Kim Jong Il is definitely their bastard child client - so it's good to see them publicly engage, finally. They DID inherit this disaster mess situation from the Soviet Union, who foisted Daddy (The Great Leader, Kim Il Sung) on North Korea back in post WW-II 1948. Is this an example of single parent syndrome, Becky?.
Posted by: PD || 07/01/2003 2:36:07 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front
US: America to build super weapons: US-based missiles to cover world
The Pentagon is planning a new generation of weapons, including huge hypersonic drones and bombs dropped from space, that will allow the US to strike its enemies at lightning speed from its own territory. Over the next 25 years, the new technology would free the US from dependence on forward bases and the cooperation of regional allies, part of the drive towards self-sufficiency spurred by the difficulties of gaining international cooperation for the invasion of Iraq.
Translation: Euros, you have yourselves to blame! Though I don't think Chiraq will see it that way.
The new weapons are being developed under a programme codenamed Falcon (Force Application and Launch from the Continental US).
Kewl acronym. Some bright boy/gal stayed up late in the Pentagon thinking that up.
A US defence website earlier this month invited bids from contractors to develop the technology and the current edition of Jane's Defence Weekly reports that the first flight tests are scheduled to take place within three years. According to the website run by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) the programme is aimed at fulfilling "the government's vision of an ultimate prompt global reach capability (circa 2025 and beyond)". The Falcon technology would "free the US military from reliance on forward basing to enable it to react promptly and decisively to destabilising or threatening actions by hostile countries and terrorist organisations", according to the Darpa invitation for bids.
Without saying "Mother may I" to the Euros.
The ultimate goal would be a "reusable hypersonic cruise vehicle (HCV) ... capable of taking off from a conventional military runway and striking targets 9,000 nautical miles distant in less than two hours". The unmanned HCV would carry a payload of up to 12,000 lbs and could ultimately fly at speeds of up to 10 times the speed of sound, according to Daniel Goure, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute in Washington.
All your airspace belong to us.
Propelling a warhead of that size at those speeds poses serious technological challenges and Darpa estimates it will take more than 20 years to develop.
Like, until the technology catches up to the idea...
Over the next seven years, meanwhile, the US air force and Darpa will develop a cheaper "global reach" weapons system relying on expendable rocket boosters, known as small launch vehicles (SLV) that would take a warhead into space and drop it over its target. In US defence jargon, the warhead is known as a Common Aero Vehicle (Cav), an unpowered bomb which would be guided on to its target as it plummeted to earth at high and accelerating velocity. The Cav could carry 1,000 lbs of explosives but at those speeds explosives may not be necessary. A simple titanium rod would be able to penetrate 70 feet of solid rock and the shock wave would have enormous destructive force. It could be used against deeply buried bunkers, the sort of target the air force is looking for new ways to attack.
The Acme™ Guided Anvil, version 2.0!
From those altitudes, and at those speeds, a big rock would do the job nicely...
Jane's Defence Weekly reported that the first Cav flight demonstration is provisionally scheduled by mid-2006, and the first SLV flight exercise would take place the next year. A test of the two systems combined would be carried out by late 2007. A prototype demonstrating HCV technology would be tested in 2009. SLV rockets will also give the air force a cheap and flexible means to launch military satellites at short notice, within weeks, days or even hours of a crisis developing.
Not to mention getting commercial satellites up cheaper, if they'll spin the technology to the private sector.
The SLV-Cav combination, according to the Darpa document, "will provide a near-term (approximately 2010) operational capability for prompt global strike from Conus (the continental US) while also enabling future development of a reusable HCV for the far-term (approximately 2025)". The range of this weapon is unclear.
I don't see the Euro space agency and defense industries doing anything like this soon.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/01/2003 1:50:05 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2003-07-01
  Iraq: Blast at Mosque in Fallujah Kills Five
Mon 2003-06-30
  Exiled leader to lead popular revolt in Iran
Sun 2003-06-29
  Paleos Expect Delay on Ceasefire
Sat 2003-06-28
  Paleo-Israeli 'truce'
Fri 2003-06-27
  Ayman, Sully and Sod in custody in Iran?
Thu 2003-06-26
  Ali al-Ghamdi nabbed
Wed 2003-06-25
  Rebels enter Liberia capital
Tue 2003-06-24
  Fighting opens up again around Monrovia
Mon 2003-06-23
  Hundreds jailed as Iran rounds up protesters
Sun 2003-06-22
  Aden-Abyan Islamic Army shoots up convoy in Yemen
Sat 2003-06-21
  Indonesia Arrests 10
Fri 2003-06-20
  Chuck won't step down
Thu 2003-06-19
  Truck-drivin' Qaeda man pleads guilty
Wed 2003-06-18
  Paks nab two Qaeda men
Tue 2003-06-17
  Taylor sez he'll step down

Better than the average link...



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