Al-Aska Paul sent me this last night, and I've just gotta share for the grins
FOREST, Ohio-- Damage to a church in Forest, Ohio, is estimated at $20,000 after a preacher asked God for a sign. A member of the First Baptist Church said a guest evangelist was preaching repentance and seeking a sign from God when lightning struck the steeple. Ronnie Cheney called the incident "awesome, just awesome!" Cheney said the lightning traveled through the microphone, blew out the sound system and enveloped the preacher, who wasn't hurt. Afterward, services resumed for about 20 minutes until the congregation realized the church was on fire. The building was evacuated.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2003 12:25:35 PM ||
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Ten Taliban fighters were killed on Thursday in fighting in southern Afghanistan as they tried to retreat after four days of clashes with government forces. About 60 Taliban fighters managed to slip out of the Ata Ghar mountains in Zabul province and moved into neighbouring Kandahar province where government forces confronted them, said Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for Kandaharâs governor. Pashtun said 10 Taliban were killed and 16 wounded in the fighting. âFortunately, so far we have lost no one,â Pashtun told reporters. He had no further details of the fighting in Marouf district, which is near the border with Pakistan.
Quite by coincidence, of course...
Southern Afghanistan is one of the most volatile parts of the country and some provincial officials said Taliban remnants are regrouping along the border with Pakistan. Mullah Abdul Rauf, a provincial governor during Taliban rule, told reporters on Wednesday that Hafiz Abdur Rahim, one of the most wanted senior commanders from the ousted regime, was leading more than 200 Taliban fighters at Ata Ghar. Rahim has been a constant thorn in the side of Afghan government forces and their US allies since giving the Americans the slip in the mountains in southern Afghanistan in January. A US military spokesman said US forces were not involved in the fighting.
Federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams has confirmed Australian David Hicks will be among suspected terrorists to be tried before an American military tribunal. US President George W Bush has made a military order allowing the trials of the first of more than 600 so-called "enemy combatants" being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Mr Williams has revealed the Australian Government has been consulting with US authorities over the trial process. "The Government has been in extensive discussions with the US authorities," he said. "Those discussions will continue. Our objective will be to ensure that any trial that is undertaken of an Australian before a military commission is fair and transparent." Mr Hicks's lawyer in Adelaide, Stephen Kenny, says his client is among those chosen for the first six trials in the US. No specific charges have yet been brought against the captives and no decision has been made as to which military body will try them. CBS News in the US has reported Mr Hicks is one of those about to go on trial. It says the others include suspects from Britain, Yemen, Sudan and Pakistan. "There's evidence that thay may have attended terrorist training camps, they may have been involved in the kind of activities that are consistant with terrorist activities, financing, recruiting," a Pentagon official has told Reuters. "Those are the kinds of things that would lead us to the kind of determination the President made today." Mr Hicks has been held at the camp since his capture in Aghanistan in November, 2001.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/04/2003 01:08 ||
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Deposed Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri may be in Austria, the federal office for protection of the constitution said Thursday. The office was commenting a report by the Standard newspaper quoting relatives of Sabri as saying he could be reached on an Austrian mobile phone number. The federal office, when given the number and its owner, said it was "not to be excluded" that Sabri was in Austria even if there was no proof.
"It's a mobile phone. He could actually be in Samoa..."
Austrian authorities had denied similar reports in the past. The report said there was "great political interest" in clarifying the matter. However, Sabri was not being sought in Austria on any criminal charge and could only be accused of illegal entry. In May, the standard had quoted reports that Sabri was being hidden by Austrian right-wing politician Joerg Haider, with whom he was on friendly terms while in office. After Saddam Hussein's regime was ousted, Haider said he knew where Sabri was. There was "no need to worry about him" and that he was "well cared for". Haider also said that "there's always room in my house for a friend". However, he denied he was already harbouring the ex-foreign minister in Austria's car in this province of which he is governor.
"Of course not. He's in the guest house..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/04/2003 01:33 ||
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Hat tip to WorldNetDaily.
Two Indian tribal women suspected of being witches were burnt to death by a village mob in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, police said today. Police said the mob dragged 35-year-old Bahamay Kisku and 50-year-old Nanka Hembrom out of their huts, took them to a nearby field where they poured kerosine[sic] over them before setting them ablaze. The mob accused the two women of making another villager, Anant Hansda, ill. The acts of this mob have made me ill. Can I kill them?
Women's rights groups have launched a campaign against gruesome attacks on helpless women in remote villages where the practice of sorcery is common among the tribal communities. Superstitious beliefs, black magic and demonology are integral to tribal custom in parts of eastern and north-eastern India. Most tribal communities practise indigenous religions, believed to be a mix of black magic and superstition that they believe cures ailments or can cast evil spells on adversaries. In most cases the victim's family or the villagers do not report the killings to police, and the authorities in the tribal-dominated areas ignore such reports. "Never happened. Nope. Nope. Nope."
Posted by: Dar ||
07/04/2003 3:04:40 PM ||
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QUETTA -- At least 31 people were killed and 50 injured in a suspected suicide attack at a Shiite Muslim mosque in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday, sparking riots that forced the government to impose an indefinite curfew. 'At least 31 people were killed and another 50 were wounded in the attack,' Brigadier Javed Cheema, head of the interior ministry's National Crises Management Cell, told AFP in Islamabad. President Pervez Musharraf responded to the attack by vowing to crack down on extremists.
I think that's the 741st vow he's taken to crack down on extremists. Or is it 742? I've lost count...
There are 'some elements in Pakistan that undermine whatever the vast majority stands for', President Musharraf said in Paris, where he is winding up a four-nation tour. 'We have to act very strongly against them.' kill them....that would be what we in the west call: "a good start"
Armed police and paramilitary troops spread out in Quetta with orders to shoot rioters on sight after the local administration ordered the curfew. 'Curfew has been clamped down in Quetta and paramilitary and police have been deployed to control the rioting,' Brig Cheema said, adding that shoot-on-sight orders were 'normal procedure in a curfew situation'. 'bout frigging time they got serious
The city was soon deserted as residents withdrew to their homes and thousands of employees were stranded in private and government departments. Officials said the attackers hurled grenades and fired shots at the Friday congregation at the main Shiite mosque, known as Nasirul Aza Imambargah, in the central part of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. Police said the exact number of assailants was still unclear, adding that one of them was killed inside the mosque by a grenade and another was killed at the main entrance by mosque guards. A third suspected attacker wounded in firing died later in hospital. just a typical Baluchistan prayer day
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2003 12:41:49 PM ||
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Balad, Iraq â U.S. troops killed 11 Iraqis who ambushed a convoy on a highway north of Baghdad Friday, hours after mortar rounds slammed into a U.S. base in the same area, wounding 18 soldiers, the military said.
Another U.S. soldier was shot and killed while guarding the Baghdad museum, the U.S. military said Friday.
Spokesmen said 11 men attacked the convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire near Balad, 95 kilometres north of the capital. Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division fired back, killing all the attackers; no Americans were injured. Sounds like we've decided to get tough - all were killed? Whatsamatta? No civilians to hide behind?
Late Thursday, blasts from four mortar rounds rocked a huge U.S. base near Balad, injuring 18 soldiers, said Major Edward Bryja of the Army's 3rd Corps Support Command.
Two soldiers were seriously injured, with one undergoing surgery in a hospital located on the base and another evacuated for treatment, Major Bryja said. Others suffered cuts and small punctures from shrapnel, and nine soldiers quickly went back to duty, army officials said.
Soldiers said flares and tracer bullets sliced across the night sky after the blasts.
"This is the first time the base was attacked â and the first time we've seen mortars," said Sergeant Grant Calease, who said he and other soldiers would nonetheless carry on with a July 4 barbecue. Unemployed Baathist army thugs kept their mortar hmmm?
The wounded soldiers belonged to Task Force Iron Horse, a 33,000-member unit that has been conducting raids in mainly Sunni Muslim central Iraq â the latest sweep aimed at putting down insurgents who have been staging daily attacks on U.S. troops.
On Friday, attackers detonated an explosive on a highway in Baghdad's western outskirts, injuring three passengers in a civilian car and two U.S. soldiers travelling in a Humvee convoy, an Associated Press photographer on the scene said.
On Thursday evening, a sniper shot and killed a U.S. soldier manning the gunner's hatch of a Bradley fighting vehicle outside the national museum. His name was not immediately available.
Hours before the attack, the national museum displayed several artifacts that were looted after the fall of Baghdad and later recovered. The museum also showed several items from the Treasures of Nimrud, which were found hidden in a bank vault weeks ago. Curators acknowledged that many of the museum's treasures remain unaccounted for.
I'm sure that's still our fault although that "tragedy" was debunked over a month ago...
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2003 1:06:47 PM ||
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ALLUJA, Iraq, July 1 â At the graves, dust swirled and shovels scraped, but otherwise all was still. Men heaved dirt and rocks into five newly dug holes, occupied by five newly filled coffins. A flag proclaimed, "There is no God but God," but almost no one spoke.
But if the eye was quiet, around it a storm raged. In the procession that had brought the coffins to the graveyard, and in the parking lot nearby, angry men fired AK-47's into the air in competitive bursts of outrage. One rode a bicycle, steering with one hand, shooting with the other.
They vowed revenge for the deaths of the five men, who were among as many as nine â including the imam â who local people said were killed Monday night in an explosion at a mosque here, 35 miles west of Baghdad.
They said an American aircraft had fired a missile into the building, reducing two rooms to rubble and killing the men, who had gathered for Koranic study inside. The explosion came before another day of violence in Iraq, in which six American soldiers were wounded in two separate attacks. [Page A16.]
The wounded man had mentioned nothing about an aircraft, his brother said, yet he was convinced that the Americans were responsible. The Americans are always responsible - couldn't be the bomb making class got cut short!
"More than five or six eyewitnesses saw the warplane shooting a missile at the mosque," he said. "For sure this was the Americans' action."
Capt. John Ives, head of the government support team of the Second Brigade, Third Infantry Division in Falluja, vehemently denied that, saying that blast analysis conducted by American troops suggested that it had come from within the leveled rooms. He said there were no aircraft flying in the area at the time of the explosion
Accounts from two different neighbors ...Both said that on a quiet night, there had been no sound of an aircraft before the explosion shook the block.
"All the windows were open and we heard no aircraft," the woman who did not want to be identified said. "If a missile had been shot by an aircraft, it would be obvious; everyone would know it." Expect those busy making bombs like Keebler elves in "religious" support of the Jihad
Both women had heard rumors that explosives were being stored at the mosque, and both said there were rumors it had become a locus of anti-American resistance. We definitely need to get the Iraqqi police and Army up and running again to share some of the groundless blame for exploding mosques!! But that would be our fault for not having the foresight to warn the terrorists wannbes that BOMBS BLOW UP!!!!
Posted by: Fiddler ||
07/04/2003 9:21:27 AM ||
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TOKYO (AP) - Japan's lower house of parliament agreed Friday to send ground troops to help in the reconstruction in Iraq, in what would be Tokyo's most visible international peacekeeping role yet.
Under the bill, Japanese troops would serve a non-combat role, mainly moving supplies and ammunition. The bill now goes before the less-powerful upper house, where it is all but assured of passing by the end of the current parliamentary session on July 28. The order would deliver on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's pledge to President Bush to help rebuild Iraq. Japan was a major U.S. backer during the Iraq war. Japanese media have reported that the government intends to send about 1,000 troops as early as October.
Koizumi's ruling coalition dominates the lower house and pushed the bill through despite strong resistance from the opposition parties. Critics say the plan could allow Japanese troops to get drawn into combat in violation of Japan's post-World War II pacifist constitution, which is interpreted as restricting the military to defensive missions. Peacekeeping is a good defense policy, folks.
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan submitted a revised bill Wednesday, providing for Japan to help in Iraq without dispatching the military. It was rejected by the ruling coalition.
Koizumi has made expanding Japan's peacekeeping role a top priority, seeking to avoid the criticism it faced after the Gulf War in 1991 of ``checkbook diplomacy'' for pledging money instead of manpower. His coalition pushed through legislation in 2001 that allowed Japan to send ships and troops for logistical sea support for the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan, marking some of the first such deployments. Koizumi supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but has so far limited his support to $100 million in financial aid.
Earlier Friday, Koizumi's Cabinet approved the deployment of three C-130s and one U-4 transport plane to ferry food, medicine and other supplies to the Iraqi border, where the supplies will be transferred to trucks. The planes do not have U.N. approval to land in Iraq, Japan's Air Self-Defense Forces spokesman Chiyohiro Akamine said. The planes, carrying about 150 military personnel, will leave Monday for Jordan for a three-month mission, according to a Cabinet Office statement. Thank you, Japan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2003 2:41:48 AM ||
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BBC reports at least 2 US Soldiers dead, 19 critically injured in bomb attack. Thursday 04 July 2003
A Day After Bush Assurances, 1 dead, 10 Soldiers Hurt in Iraq
By Amy Waldman
The New York Times
Thursday 03 July 2003
Just fucking great. That makes 44 casualties in less than 72 hours.
Soviet Style Communism was a severly repressive regime that kicked US ass in Vietnam. Radical Islam is a severly repressive regime that will do the same in Iraq.
Wake up.
You guys who have never served in the military sure talk a big game. You have a lot of guts.
We are here. I'm in Doha. And there ain't a one of us who doesn't want out.
Posted by: Squid ||
07/04/2003 1:26:24 AM ||
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The most high-profile defector from North Korea has said he was told in 1996 that the secretive state had already developed nuclear weapons.
Hwang Yang-jop, a former tutor to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, also said that Pyongyang signed a contract with Pakistan the same year to receive help in enriching uranium for its nuclear arsenal.
Mr Hwang's comments will add credence to United States intelligence reports that the North had developed a small number of nuclear weapons before it agreed to mothball its programme in 1994.
The collapse of that agreement last year triggered mounting concern about the North's nuclear ambitions, and speculation as to whether it would be able to increase its arsenal.
Mr Hwang was making his first public comments since he defected to South Korea in 1997.
"I heard from Kim Jong-il and others including Jun Byong-ho that nuclear weapons had been produced," Mr Hwang told a parliamentary forum in Seoul.
Mr Hwang said Jun Byong-ho was a secretary of the central committee of the ruling Korean Workers Party in charge of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development.
Mr Hwang said that that the North Korean regime - which he described as "a ring of crime opposing democracy and infringing on human rights" - must be disarmed.
However, Mr Hwang noted that a conventional military assault on North Korea would be "almost impossible".
"The North has piled up on weapons of mass destruction and turned the whole country into a fortress," he said.
Mr Hwang's naming of Pakistan is likely to be embarrassing to that country's government.
However, the US indicated earlier this year that it was no longer worried by reports that North Korea and Pakistan had collaborated on nuclear weapons technology.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in April that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had assured him there were no further contacts of the kind referred to in a newspaper report which said Islamabad provided Pyongyang with gas centrifuges and equipment to make highly-enriched uranium.
Posted by: rg117 ||
07/04/2003 8:02:09 AM ||
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Just over a month ago, the Cambodian authorities arrested three alleged members of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the organisation believed to be behind last year's bomb blasts on the resort island of Bali. The arrests were a surprise, because Cambodia's small Muslim minority has no history of militancy, despite suffering terribly at the hands of the fanatical Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. The government also closed down an Islamic school on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, saying it had links to al-Qaeda. It turned out that a wealthy organisation called Om al-Qura, from the fundamentalist Wahabi sect in Saudi Arabia, had funded the school.
Oh, I am so surprised! Oh, hold me, Ethel!
Nazy Mohammad, a young Muslim activist, said the school had accepted the funding for purely economic reasons. "Most of the Muslim community are poor, so we need the aid," he said. "And among the foreign countries, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait take care of the Muslim community, so we need their assistance. But we don't know where they earn the money from," he said.
More important is what it's spent on...
The school aroused suspicion not only because of its size and the number of foreign teachers, but also because of the huge sums of money which it is believed to have brought in from overseas. Two Thais and an Egyptian who were working there have been arrested, and a total of 28 teachers have been expelled. But Muslim community leaders, like Ahmad Yahya, say the timing of the school's closure was suspect - coming just days before the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Phnom Penh, and the arrival of US Secretary of State Colin Powell. "The government has to show evidence that these people have links to Jemaah Islamiah or al-Qaeda, that they plan to attack our government," said Ahmad Yahya. "This is how the people feel."
"They wuz all just good Muslims, mindin' their own bidnid, not hurtin' nobody. And them guns was for elk season..."
According to local Muslims, when people from wealthy Middle Eastern countries came into their community offering money to build schools and religious institutions, they were flattered â and grateful. But the story is not that straightforward. Commune Chief Him Smam said that the villagers were divided over the school at first, fearing the Wahabi brand of Islam taught there would sit uncomfortably with their own more moderate practices. It was the central government which persuaded them to accept the school, and Prime Minister Hun Sen himself who officially opened it five years ago.
"Hey, y'all! Wanna buy a pig?"
"Yeah. Where is it?"
"Right here in this poke..."
Clearly, that much financial investment was hard to resist. But Him Smam said the school was never that important to the community, as most of its students came from other provinces. "We always felt great respect for the teachers and the students, and we were very happy when some of our children started studying there," said Him Smam. "But very few got places there. Even among those who were enrolled, many were expelled because they could not keep up," he said. The village has now slipped back to its sleepy former existence. Horse-drawn carts ply the dirt roads, and fishermen mend their nets, waiting for the fishing season to begin again. The people seem bewildered by their sudden association with international terrorism, and even if they were not entirely sure what went on behind the school walls, local businessmen like Yusuf will miss the economic boost it gave the community. "It's bound to have a bad impact on incomes," said Yusuf. "The school used to be a good market for small businesses like mine, which sold rice or vegetables. I never saw any signs of terrorism going on there."
"I mean, it ain't like they blew anything up around here..."
"We can always tell who is a thief or bad person in the village â but they just came to help improve education. They weren't involved in politics as far as I could see," he said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/04/2003 01:50 ||
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The Philippine government said Thursday it will resume peace talks with communist rebels that have been stalled since 2001, following a meeting with exiled guerrilla leaders in the Netherlands.
It's probably a bad idea, but if they're lucky the casualties will be light...
The venue and date of the talks with the National Democratic Front, an umbrella group for Marxists, were not set and agenda details needed to be worked out. The two sides indicated talks would happen in coming months, with the government saying possibly within weeks. ``We agreed to resume formally the talks, hopefully by the end of July,'' chief government negotiator Silvestre Bello told reporters. The two sides have been in on-again, off-again talks since 1992, but have not met since talks in Norway two years ago. The government pulled out after guerrillas killed a former congressman they accused of human rights violations.
Killing him didn't violate his human rights?
The agreement Thursday to resume talks came a day after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered legal action against communist leaders following two rebel attacks that left 29 government soldiers and militiamen and a soldier's wife dead earlier in the week. Rebel negotiator Fidel Agcaoili, in a telephone interview from the Dutch city of Utrecht, said July might be too early for the new round of talks and that they might not happen before September or October.
"We'll get around to it. What's the hurry?"
He said the rebels proposed that talks be held in China, while the government prefers Oslo, Norway.
In a month or so they'll get around to discussing the shape of the table...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/04/2003 01:24 ||
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DUESSELDORF, Germany, July 4 â A radical Palestinian group plotted to attack Berlin's Jewish Museum and a Jewish-owned disco in Duesseldorf last year, a Jordanian terror suspect testified at his trial Friday. What would be a "non radical" Palesinian group?
Shadi Abdellah, 26, told a Duesseldorf state court the buildings were studied before his April 2002 arrest, but no decision had been made on when to carry out attack.
"We hadn't yet decided whether we would do it with a car bomb or some other way" he added. Well a car shouldn't be too hard to find in Germany but they aren't exactly selling explosives in the local hardware store
The defendant was among nine people detained by German authorities on suspicion of plotting attacks for the Al Tawhid group which, according to Abdellah, aims to topple the Jordanian government and "fight the Jews." Sorry buddy, you are 60 years late, at least in Germany
Abdellah was arrested for allegedly ordering a pistol with a silencer and a crate of hand grenades from a fellow cell member. He could face 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of membership in a terrorist organization and faking passports. Hope we can send you to a place afterwards where they give you another 150 years or so
The suspect admitted Friday that the group ordered grenades and a pistol, adding that "we were living in Germany and it's not so easy to get hold of weapons here." Al Tawhid's alleged leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, urged the German cell from his home in Afghanistan to obtain explosives, but the group decided that was too risky, Abdellah said. Yep, Big Kaboom comes early sometimes if you don't read the manual.
Suicide attacks were considered as an option, he added. While Abdellah was reluctant to become a suicide bomber himself, he said the German cell's alleged leader, Mohammed Abu Dhess, was prepared to do so. Someone must have told Abdellah that the virgins are in fact raisins and he could buy the latter for 2 Euros without blowing himself up.
Posted by: True German Ally ||
07/04/2003 2:13:21 PM ||
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Tulsa - An Alaska Air flight from Seattle was diverted to Tulsa Thursday afternoon after a passenger brought fireworks and a knife on board.
The 737 left Seattle Thursday morning at 8:45 a.m. on its way to Orlando, Florida when it was diverted to Tulsa International Airport, where it landed shortly after two o'clock.
We're told the passenger, 38-year-old William Herbert Fritz, was removed from the plane and was in the custody of the FBI. Fireworks, cherry bombs, CO-2 cartridges and a Swiss Army knife were found in the passenger's carry-on bag, strangely enough by a passenger who was going through the man's bags.
Ken Miller, Director of Operations at Tulsa International Airport, says the passenger alerted a flight attendant to the items and the flight attendant told the pilot, who immediately requested the plane be diverted to Tulsa International Airport.
The fact they were found by another passenger caught my attention. I've been on hundreds of planes and never seen anyone search someone elses luggage. Is this indicative of how vigilant people are post 9-11?
Posted by: Phil B ||
07/04/2003 3:13:48 AM ||
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United States is `gravely concerned' by Shihab-3 ground-to-ground rocket
Iran has successfully tested a Shihab-3 missile,
which has a range that can reach Israel. The
launch last week was the most successful so far of
the seven or eight tests of the missile over the
last five years, and has increased worries in
Washington - which spotted the test with its
tracking mechanisms - and in Israel.
If the assessment proves to be
true that the missile, which
was launched from east to west,
had an effective range beyond
the 1,300-kilometer red line,
meaning the range from western
Iran to Israel, the Iranians
could position the launching
pads for the rocket deeper
inside their country.
The Iranian threat will be one of the subjects
under discussion when Chief of Staff Moshe
Ya'alon visits the Pentagon and U.S. armed
forces bases next week. Ya'alon's itinerary is
supposed to include the Florida headquarters of
two key commands: Centcom and Special
Operations at MacDill air force base.
More data is now being collected and collated in
the West about the missile test and about the
progress being made in the Iranian missile
program, which is based on North Korean
missiles. In previous tests, when the rocket
was powered by a North Korean engine, the tests
were successful, but when the engines were
Iranian-made, even with North Korean know-how,
they tended to fail - despite statements by
Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shakhmani in 2002
that Iran can "develop everything" and does not
need help from foreign sources like China or
Russia.
The report of the Shihab-3 test is an incentive
for Israel equipping itself with more Arrow
missiles made by the Israel Aircrafts
Industries and soon to go into a joint
production process with Boeing.
Israel is also concerned about the growing ties
between Iran and Libya. Indeed, the Libyan
threat is now the reason for a third Arrow
battery even though the Iraqi threat is gone.
One response to the Libyan threat would be an
Arrow battery mounted on a naval vessel.
Western experts said that the 16-meter
single-stage Shihab-3, which can carry up to a
ton of explosives in its payload, is not very
accurate, with the probability of hitting
within three kilometers of any target it is
launched at. But it is possible that has been
improved over the past year. In any case, the
missile range already includes Israel, Turkey,
the Indian subcontinent and the American forces
in the Gulf. Iran has plans for two
longer-range missiles: a Shihab-4, with a
2,000-kilometer range and a Shihab-5, with a
5,500-kilometer range.
The last Shihab missile test resulted in a Bush
administration statement expressing "serious
concerns" about the Iranian missile project,
which is a "threat to the region and U.S.
interests."
The next commander of Centcom, Gen. John
Abizaid, who replaces Tommy Franks on Monday,
testified last week to a Senate committee that
"Iran has the largest ballistic missile
inventory in the Central Command region to
include long-range weapons of mass destruction
and delivery systems capable of reaching
deployed U.S. forces in the theater." And he
warned, "Iran's long-term ability to develop
nuclear weapons remains a source of serious
concern."
He told the committee that "Iran casts a shadow
on security and stability in the Gulf region.
Iran's military is second only to the United
States. U.S. allies in the Gulf acknowledge
Iran's increasingly proactive efforts to soften
its image and appear less hegemonic; however,
Iran's military poses a potential threat to
neighboring countries
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2003 11:37:27 PM ||
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JPost - reg req'd
A Lebanese newspaper reported this morning that the skeletons found in south Lebanon were those of Palestinians and not Israeli MIA's.
The paper, Al Mustaqbal , stated that the corpses discovered were of two men and a woman.
Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz and Zvi Feldman went missing in the Sultan Yakoub battle in Lebanon 21 years ago.
"I am greatly disappointed in the IDF and how they jumped to conclusions thinking that my son's body was discovered," Yona Baumel told The Jerusalem Post. "The Hizbullah never stated that the three corpses found in Lebanon were IDF soldiers, it was the IDF that gave that impression to the media." riiiggghhhttt
"Sharon has become the most depressing part of this tragic saga," Baumel said. "He has ignored the families' letters, he has ignored our requests to meet with him. If anyone has a direct responsibility, it is the Prime Minister, because he was serving as Defense Minister in 1982," Baumel said.
The IDF said Thursday it is investigating reports that a farmer in southern Lebanon had found the skeletal remains of IDF soldiers.
Baumel noted that this isn't the first time that his son's death has been reported. "I cannot get too excited unless they prove something," he said.
As American citizens, the Baumels have been able to go where the other families could not. They have logged thousands of kilometers, interviewed hundreds of witnesses and informants, and collected information from sources around the world. They have also lobbied Israeli, American, and European public figures.
Eventually, in 1994, the need to do something more led to the establishment of a non-profit society, the International Coalition for Missing Israeli Soldiers (ICMIS).
"The families of Israel's MIA's expect Prime Minister Sharon to place the full weight of his office in pressuring the Palestinians to secure valid information on the whereabouts of our sons," Baumel said. "Not one Palestinian prisoner should be released before we get our boys back home."
Just more history you won't see on the front page of the NYT
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2003 11:19:23 PM ||
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Via LGF
TEL AVIV â Palestinian insurgents are exploiting their newly-obtained freedom of movement to transport weapons and mortars in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli military sources.
The sources said Southern Command has determined that Palestinians from several insurgency groups are moving both combatants and weapons along the north-south highway through the Gaza Strip. The sources said movement of weapons and insurgents was detected on Monday, the first day after the Israeli withdrawal from the northern Gaza Strip.
"We are seeing terrorist groups using the ceasefire to reorganize, move weapons and equipment to replace those destroyed in Israeli operations," a military source said. What a surprise...tap, tap
Despite a ceasefire announcement by the three largest insurgency groups, Palestinian gunners have maintained mortar, anti-tank and automatic fire on Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. Four Israelis were injured in an anti-tank rocket attack on the Israeli community of Kfar Darom.
On Thursday, Israel's military closed the north-south road in the Gaza Strip near the Israeli settlement bloc of Gush Katif. The military said in a statement that the closure came amid renewed violence along the road, a reference to the Kfar Darom attack.
Later, Israel relayed a formal protest to the PA. Military sources said the north-south road was reopened on Thursday afternoon.
The Palestinian mortar and anti-tank fire has been attributed largely to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, dominated by the ruling Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. The sources said Al Aqsa has been splintered and cells continue to receive funds from Iran and Hizbullah to maintain insurgency operations. A state that refuses to control itself is no country
Israeli officials said the PA has come under increasing pressure from the United States to confiscate weapons from insurgency groups in the Gaza Strip. They said the PA has been urged to arrest senior operatives and raid strongholds by July 20. Mo and Abu have no death wishes..or cojones to do that
On Thursday, PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who toured the northern Gaza Strip, condemned the latest attacks on Israeli positions and pledged to arrest those who carried out the operation. PA Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan said PA security forces are seeking suspects in the rocket attack. looking hard, behind every ....jew
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has also demanded that the PA stop encouraging young Palestinians to attack Israelis. Shalom said Palestinian television incites to violence and that 40,000 Palestinian youngsters would undergo training at summer camps to help in the insurgency war against Israel.
For its, part, the PA has pressed Israel to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Officials said Israel has signaled its approval to free 2,200 detainees deemed as not having been involved in the killing of Israelis. They said 2,500 Palestinian detainees have been directly connected to the death of Israelis.
Palestinian sources said Israel plans to release a senior PA security official on late Thursday. The sources identified the official as Col. Suleiman Abu Mutlaq, regarded as the No. 3 figure in the Preventive Security Apparatus and was arrested on suspicion of helping direct insurgency attacks against Israeli civilian targets. The PA has demanded Abu Mutlaq's release to help end Palestinian insurgency attacks in the Gaza Strip.
Hokay - he's got 2 weeks to show improvement or this time we just kill him
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2003 9:53:46 PM ||
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EFL and for points of note
July 4, 2003 -- LOS ANGELES - A bigoted church arsonist beat up American Taliban John Walker Lindh inside a prison chapel, federal authorities said yesterday.
Robert Dale Morrison, 29, repeatedly slugged Lindh on March 3 inside the chapel of the federal lockup in Victorville, Calif., said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Stacy.
Lindh got a fat lip and bruises to his face but no major injuries, lawyers said. The misdemeanor assault charge could keep Morrison in prison for as long as six months beyond his time for arson. And he didn't even injure him seriously either!
**
Morrison's due to walk free at the end of this month, but prosecutors will ask a judge to extend his stay behind bars. Morrison is wrapping up a 63-month sentence for setting fire to an African-American church - the Church of Christ in Henderson, Nev. - on Sept. 19, 1996.
He tried to torch that church because of his "great distaste for an entire group of the community, that being the church's African-American parishioners," federal authorities said. The last time Qandahar Johnny got beat up, it was a neo-Nazi of similar incompetence of assault.
Posted by: Lu Baihu ||
07/04/2003 5:46:48 PM ||
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Very detailed report from MEMRI. Is it just me, or does the timing of the bulk of the funds transfers seem, well, suspicious? If this is what they're moving openly to the Palestinians, imagine what is going back channel to the madrassas and Al Qaeda.
From the Introduction: For decades the royal family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the main financial supporter of Palestinian groups fighting Israel, through the creation of two major committees. The Popular Committee for Assisting Palestinian Mujahideen and The Support Committee for the Al-Quds Intifada and The Al-Aqsa Fund have to date given over 15 billion Saudi Riyals (4 billion $U.S.) and reportedly pledged Palestinians up to 1 billion dollars to finance the continuation of the Intifada, which is also commonly referred to by Saudi officials as "Jihad" [1] and "resistance." [2]
Hat tip to Drudge.
A former projectionist at the White House has revealed which films President Bush likes to watch when he is not running the country. Definitely a fan of war films, the US President is said to love Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan. "BHD" has some important lessons--I hope he's taking those to heart.
Paul Fischer also discloses former presidents' favourites in a TV documentary. He reveals Bill Clinton thought highly of High Noon, while JFK backed Spartacus. According to Fischer, the first film Jimmy Carter watched while he was in power was All The President's Men. The movie is about the fall of his predecessor Richard Nixon. Apparently Carter watched a total of 580 films in the White House, more than any other president. I am so thankful Jimmah was watching films instead of actually trying to run the country! Let's see... 580 movies x 1.5 hours = 870 hours. Divide by 16 (24 hours in a day - 8 for sleeping) and we get 54.375 days straight of movie-watchin'.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/04/2003 9:51:29 AM ||
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Japan said on Friday it was deeply disappointed with Myanmar's response to the concerns it had raised over detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi otherwise known as Daw, (see Happy 4th of July comments)
and that it had no choice but to maintain its freeze on fresh aid. Japan, a key aid donor, said last week it has frozen fresh assistance to impoverished Myanmar to protest against the military government's detention of Suu Kyi and was considering further punitive measures unless she was freed. Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi was quoted by a Foreign Ministry official as telling Khin Maung Win, a top aide to Myanmar junta leader Than Shwe, that Myanmar's explanation of Suu Kyi's situation was ``completely unacceptable.''... Kawaguchi repeated Japan's demand that Suu Kyi and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) be swiftly freed, along with allowing the opposition group — which won a landslide election victory in 1990 but has never been allowed to govern — to freely engage in political activities.... Khin Maung Win brought with him to Tokyo a letter from Than Shwe in reply to one from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last month, but the Foreign Ministry official said it appeared to shed no new light on Suu Kyi's situation.
The trip is part of a diplomatic drive by Yangon to counter international criticism of its detention of Suu Kyi, 58, who has been held in an undisclosed location since May 30... Michel Ducreaux, the International Committee of the Red Cross representative in Myanmar, said on Thursday he had heard a rumor she had been moved to a ``more appropriate'' location from notorious Insein prison in Yangon, where Britain has said she was being held. He also said the Red Cross was optimistic that Myanmar's rulers would allow it to meet Suu Kyi. International outrage and concern about Suu Kyi's condition have risen as her detention continued, with the United States and the European Union threatening harsher sanctions. People across the globe are becoming less tolerant of repressive dictatorships. Appeasement going out of style?
Tokyo has long taken a policy of engagement toward Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Analysts say this stems from feelings among older Japanese that Japan helped the country win independence from Britain after World War II. Japan stopped large-scale loans and economic assistance to Myanmar after the military government took power in 1988, but is still one of its biggest donors through small-scale humanitarian and other assistance. It has also provided debt relief worth 11.3 billion yen ($95.6 million) in the past five years. An Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was waiting for an answer from Myanmar to ``various options'' but that things had not yet reached the point of dispatching any ASEAN delegation to Yangon. Some fashions spread more slowly in some areas.
ASEAN's more an economic cooperative than political. (Things may have changed — I've been out of touch for awhile...) Having them take is stand would be more like asking the Chamber of Commerce to do something.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
07/04/2003 7:10:50 AM ||
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I put this in Home Front, Fred, but please move it where you think it belongs. EFL.
MECCA, Saudi-controlled Arabia (AP) - Nearly two years have passed since Yaser Esam Hamdi returned to his native United States, handcuffed and classed as an ``enemy combatant'' after American forces captured him in Afghanistan. Oooooooh, scare quotes! Well ladies and germs, grabbing a foreign national on the field of battle, rifle in hand, no uniform, in support of a terrorist organization makes him an ....You, sir, name of 'Al-aska Paul', put yer hand down, we know you know the answer.
A court appeal for his right to have a lawyer and answer the allegations is pending, but the parents of the 22-year-old Saudi from Baton Rouge, La., are no closer to knowing if they will ever see him again. They say they should at least be allowed to visit him in prison. ``If they consider him an American, then why don't they try him and give him his constitutional rights as an American?'' says his mother, Nadia Hamdi. Because, Mummsy, we also consider him an enemy combatant.
Esam and Nadia Hamdi say Yaser, the eldest of their five boys, finished his sophomore year at King Fahd University, in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran, and suddenly left for Afghanistan without their knowledge in July, 2001. Less than two months later, they say, he phoned his mother saying he wanted to come home but feared his father was angry at him for having gone to Afghanistan without permission. Kids these days!
The next time they saw him was in a file photo taken in Afghanistan and shown on television when he was flown to the States in April last year. ``We were relieved. We watched the footage of the plane landing in Virginia over and over again. At least we knew where he was. And that he was alive,'' Nadia Hamdi told The Associated Press. In the photo taken in Afghanistan, ``He was very, very thin. His face was skeletal. He was dressed like an Afghan, and his hair was unkempt and long and curly,'' said his mother. It was a big change from the slightly overweight, devout young man who lived a sheltered life, prayed five times a day and liked to make his mother laugh. U.S. officials say Hamdi was one of two Americans captured when their Taliban unit was overrun in the Mazar-e-Sharif prison in November, 2001. The other is John Walker Lindh, who last October was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to supplying services to the Taliban. Hamdi was flown to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and held there for several months until it was discovered he was born in Baton Rouge. Then he was transferred to a naval brig in Norfolk, Va. ``It was the first time he'd been back to the United States. And it was in handcuffs,'' said Hamdi's father, a chemical engineer who worked in Louisiana before bringing his family back to Saudi Arabia when his son was 3. He prolly had a hood and earmuffs on as well.
He said he has written to 23 U.S. representatives pointing out that Lindh's relatives are allowed to visit him in prison. ``I said to them, is it fair, because his (Lindh's) parents and his grandparents are American he's treated differently? He can see his family. He can talk to them. I said, if my son's guilty, he should be tried. And if he's innocent, he should be set free.'' He said one congressman and one senator replied and told him there's little they can do. In January, a U.S. court of appeals reviewing Hamdi's case ruled that U.S. citizens captured overseas could be treated as enemy combatants without concern for the rights normally afforded in criminal cases. Hamdi was ``squarely within the zone of active combat'' and had an AK-47 rifle, the court said. Whereas Johnny Red, if I recall correctly, was not armed at the time he was captured.
He has not been allowed access to a lawyer or to the government's evidence supporting its claims that he fought with al-Qaida and Taliban forces against the United States. An appeal case is pending but no hearing date has been set. Hamdi has maintained contact with his family through monthly letters, usually around 10 pages long. ``I go out 15 minutes a day. I look at the sky. I see birds. I get bitten by mosquitoes,'' he wrote in one letter. Criminy, he writes like an American college freshman. Gakkkk!
``He's being treated well. But he misses us,'' says his mother. ``In his letters he asks each one of us individually to pray for his early release.'' ``He's already asked me to start looking for a bride for him,'' she adds with a laugh. ``He wants her to be very beautiful, very fair, with black or dark brown hair.'' "And he wants another 71 just like her!"
Hamdi's father thinks his son was simply unlucky, going to Afghanistan just two months before the Sept. 11 attacks. ``He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.'' No, ya think?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2003 2:55:11 AM ||
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The Algerian authorities have asked all foreign correspondents to leave the country. Even journalists who went to the country purely to cover the release on Wednesday of the founders of the Islamic Salvation Front - FIS - have been asked to leave. The order was given on Thursday morning by an official of the Algerian ministry of communication and culture. Some of the journalists have left the country already, but others are preparing to leave by Thursday's afternoon. In the meantime, they have been restricted to their hotels and banned from covering events linked to the liberation of the FIS leaders. On Wednesday afternoon, the ministry ordered resident correspondents not to write stories related to the freedom. The ministry of communication and culture ordered reporters not to say a word about the freedom of the FIS officials. It is believed that the action of the Algerian Government is intended to prevent the coverage of Friday prayers in case the released leaders decide to show up at the prayers from which they have been banned as a precondition for their release. The released leaders are banned from all social, political, cultural and humanitarian activities. At the end of his 12-year detention, Abbassi Madani, one of the two released leaders, signed a document agreeing to submit to all the orders. However, his assistant Ali Belhadj refused to sign.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it..."
He also refused protection by security agents.
"I gots me own hard boyz, coppers!"
Some believe that the government's clampdown on the media may encourage Mr Madani and Mr Belhadj to make public statements denouncing the government - which in turn, may result in them being sent back into detention.
Simple, huh? Cause -> Effect. Works every time...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/04/2003 01:39 ||
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Israel has released a top Palestinian security official who has been held in detention for several months. An Israeli military court has ruled there was insufficient evidence to hold Suleiman Abu Mutlak one of the heads of the Gaza security services. Suleiman Abu Mutlak is said to be close to Internal Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan. He was released together with another 33 detainees who were arrested last week during Israeli defence operations in the West Bank city of Hebron. Israel has also announced it is suspending moves to expel the family members of suicide bombers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.
That's very conciliatory, I'd say. And the Paleoreaction?
Meanwhile, a faction of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which consists of a number of independent cells, has threatened to end its freeze on anti-Israeli attacks after the death of an activist who was shot as he resisted arrest by Israeli troops. The political leader of Hamas, a key party to the ceasefire, has warned the truce could be short-lived. Abdul Aziz Rantissi says he believes Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will violate the agreement.
Guess who thinks Hamas will violate the agreement?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/04/2003 01:18 ||
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Morocco will put dozens of suspected Islamic militants on trial on July 21 in connection with the Casablanca suicide bombings in May, the justice minister said. About 150 suspects have been arrested after the five almost simultaneous blasts on May 16 which killed 44 people, including 12 suicide bombers and several Europeans. The trials will be conducted in the appeal courts in Casablanca and the capital Rabat, the official MAP news agency said, quoting Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa. The Moroccan Government says some of the suspects had indirect links to the Al Qaeda militant network.
"Like, jihad is our life. That and disco..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/04/2003 01:16 ||
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President Bush designated six suspected al Qaeda terrorists as eligible for trial before military tribunals yesterday, bringing the United States to the brink of its first prosecution of enemy prisoners since the aftermath of World War II. Government officials who announced the president's action declined to name the six men, to describe the timeline for moving their cases forward or to say where they might be tried, though some officials said the site almost certainly will be the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "There is evidence that the individuals designated by the president may have attended terrorist training camps and may have been involved in such activities as financing al Qaeda, providing protection for Osama bin Laden, and recruiting future terrorists," the Pentagon said in a statement released late yesterday. "The president determined that there is reason to believe that each of these enemy combatants was a member of al Qaeda or was otherwise involved in terrorism directed against the United States."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/04/2003 00:55 ||
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The U.S. Border Patrol is boosting security as it steps up the number of agents watching the border with Canada by more than half. Itâs an effort to keep drugs, terrorist weapons and illegal immigrants out. All from Canada eh?
"We were clearly understaffed on the northern border," said the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection commissioner, Robert Bonner. "This is an important step in increasing security along our northern border and is necessary given the continuing threat of terrorism."
By the end of this year, approximately 375 veteran agents will move on a voluntary basis from their current duties on the southwestern border to the northern one. That means the number of permanent agents along the line will be 1,000. And with that I wish my American cousins a happy 4th!!!
Posted by: RW ||
07/04/2003 12:06:49 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.
