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Saudis Foil Attack on British Air Jet
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Afghanistan
US and Afghan forces battle al-Qaeda near Khost
Suspected al Qaeda fighters ambushed Afghan security forces near the Pakistani border Saturday, drawing U.S. forces into the ensuing gun battle, an Afghan commander said.
Isn’t that a little bit out of style for al-Qaeda? I thought that this kind of grunt work was what the Taliban was for.
A senior Afghan intelligence official and six attackers were killed at the scene in eastern Khost province, said Khial Baz, a military commander in Khost. The Afghan officials were traveling in a pickup truck when they came under fire. The province’s deputy intelligence chief was killed and his boss, Qudratullah Madezai, was seriously hurt, Baz said by satellite telephone.
Looks like they got who they were after.
U.S. reinforcements opened fire along with the rest of the passengers, killing the six attackers. The assailants appeared to have been Arabs fighting for al Qaeda, Baz said, citing Arabic-language documents found on the bodies.
I read Russian. I can even borrow a fur hat from the Little Woman. That doesn't make me Russian.
The attacks came as debate over Afghanistan’s new constitution turned sour on Saturday. Government allies accused religious hard-liners of trying to pepper the charter with strict Islamic laws. The two sides also disagreed over how much power should be given to future presidents. President Hamid Karzai and U.S. officials hope the 502 delegates to the loya jirga, or grand tribal council, will produce a draft awarding sweeping powers to the country’s chief executive in a tolerant Islamic state. But they face opposition from leaders of the armed factions who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s under the banner of Islam and still hold sway in the provinces. A spokeswoman for the council, Safia Saddiqi, said eight of the draft’s 160 articles were hotly contested in a secretive committee drawing up possible amendments. Ashmat Ghani, a member of the reconciliation committee and brother of the country’s finance minister, said there was a solid majority for a presidential system. But he said Abdurrab Rasool Sayyaf, a deeply conservative Islamic leader, was "trying to put the word of Islam into every article."
Rasool is the Soddie's man on the scene...
Rights groups have expressed concern that Karzai may cede control of the supreme court to conservatives to win their backing, opening the door to restrictions on the rights of women and religious minorities. There were calls for a ban on alcohol for foreigners as well as Muslims, Ghani said. The draft is also under attack from representatives of the Northern Alliance faction, which helped U.S. forces drive out the Taliban two years ago. Hafiz Mansour, an alliance delegate, has accused Karzai of seeking dictatorial powers. Several Northern Alliance leaders have called for a strong parliament.
These people think Karzai’s a despot? What Afghanistan are they living in?

A strong parliament is one that's susceptible to being paralyzed by strong factions. See Pakistan, parliament. A strong presidency has its own dangers, too...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:01:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Taliban unit killed after deadly ambush
US troops have killed three Taliban fighters following a deadly ambush on an Afghan intelligence official in troubled eastern Afghanistan. The military division commander of Khost province, Khial Baz Khan, told AFP that the deputy intelligence director for the province, Qudratullah Mandozai, was shot and killed by the Taliban on Saturday morning. "The three Taliban who ambushed the deputy director have also been killed by coalition forces. Two of the three seemed to be Arabs," he said, adding that the operation was continuing. Khan did not have further details and was on his way to the site of the ambush in Nadirshahkot, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the provincial capital Khost. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the killing of the intelligence official and four other occupants of his vehicle. "A communist working as the deputy intelligence chief in Khost province was killed along with four others travelling with him in the same vehicle in Nadirshahkot district of Khost province," the spokesman who calls himself Abdul Samad told AFP by satellite phone. "On the way back after the Taliban carried out the attack, coalition forces who were travelling on the same road heard the gunfire and attacked the Taliban, killing four of them," he said.
Bad luck for the Bad Guys. My heart bleeds...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/28/2003 23:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
British MP: Saudis Foil Attack on British Air Jet
EFL
Saudi Arabia has arrested two Islamic suicide pilots who were preparing to fly two light aircraft into a packed British Airways (BA) jet. The suspected suicide pilots were arrested in the last few weeks after they were found red-handed with aircraft loaded with explosives near Saudi Arabia’s main airport in the capital Riyadh, The Mail on Sunday said. "My understanding is that they were found on the flight line and that the plan was to fly them into a passenger jet either about to land or take off," said Patrick Mercer, the opposition Conservative spokesman for Homeland Security, according to the newspaper.

Mercer, who said he had been informed of the plot by an "unimpeachable" source, intended to raise the matter at the House of Commons immediately after MPs returned from their Christmas break on January 5. Mercer claimed, according to the same source, that the Saudi authorities tried to cover up the incident near King Khalid International Airport and withheld information from authorities abroad. Both BA and the Foreign Office, which said it had checked with "relevant agencies," were unable to confirm the arrests. A BA spokesman later said the airline had no knowledge of the incident described in the paper.

"We are in regular contact with the Saudi authorities and the British government and we wouldn’t fly unless it was completely safe to do so," a spokesman said. BA suspended flights to the oil-rich Gulf kingdom in August citing a security threat, but the airline resumed flying the following month after a review. Mercer was not available to elaborate on his remarks and the British Foreign Office said it was not aware of the incident.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/28/2003 12:24:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dang, Paul beat me to it!
Posted by: Pappy || 12/28/2003 0:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Atta boy, Al Qaida. Piss off more people by inflicting another large-scale loss of innocent lives.

If and when very high-ranking Al Qaida members are found, I'm all for showing their summary execution live on national TV.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/28/2003 15:01 Comments || Top||

#3  BA, make that "inncocent non-Muslim lives"...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/28/2003 19:11 Comments || Top||


Pilots planned to fly planes into British jet: report
Saudi Arabia has arrested two Islamic suicide pilots who were preparing to fly two light aircraft into a packed British Airways (BA) jet, a British Sunday newspaper said, quoting a senior opposition politician. The suspected suicide pilots were arrested in the last few weeks after they were found red-handed with aircraft loaded with explosives near Saudi Arabia’s main airport in the capital Riyadh, The Mail on Sunday said. "My understanding is that they were found on the flight line and that the plan was to fly them into a passenger jet either about to land or take off," said Patrick Mercer, the opposition Conservative spokesman for Homeland Security, according to the newspaper. Mercer claimed, according to the same source, that the Saudi authorities tried to cover up the incident near King Khalid International Airport and withheld information from authorities abroad. Both BA and the Foreign Office, which said it had checked with "relevant agencies," were unable to confirm the arrests. A BA spokesman later said the airline had no knowledge of the incident described in the paper. Mercer was not available to elaborate on his remarks and the British Foreign Office said it was not aware of the incident.
And the Soddies don't admit to this? It's a chance to show themselves as heroes in the WoT, breaking up a very dangerous plot by the Bad Guys... Guess it happened at a moment when they were negotiating with the Bad Guys and they didn't want to disrupt things.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/28/2003 12:17:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And the Soddies don't admit to this? It's a chance to show themselves as heroes in the WoT, breaking up a very dangerous plot by the Bad Guys...

If it's true, it's most likely that the Saudis didn't want it to be known that their airports aren't secure. BA had already cancelled flights into the Magic before. Not good for the tourism industry y'know...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/28/2003 19:08 Comments || Top||


Down Under
JI wants to take over northern Australia
OCCUPATION of Australia’s Top End is a key goal of terror organisation Jemaah Islamiyah, a leading London-based academic has claimed.
Well, sure. It's one of those historically Muslim areas that the infidels moved in and took over, and now they're oppressing the original inhabitants...
Anthony Paul, from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the al-Qaida-backed terror organisation wanted to incorporate northern Australia into a Muslim state that would also include South-East Asia.

Writing in the respected Malaysian-based New Straits Times, Mr Paul said north Australia was part of Jemaah Islamiyah’s plans for regional domination. Mr Paul compared JI’s strategy to export global revolution with the former Soviet Union’s expansionary plans. "Instead of a world dominated by communist nation states, al-Qaida’s vision is of a vast new Islamic nation — a single caliphate (Muslim state) stretching from southern Spain to the Philippines. "Jemaah Islamiyah promotes a more localised manifestation of the same dream — a caliphate for South-East Asia and northern Australia."

Mr Paul described last year’s Bali bombing as a "satanic act".
Assuming "satanic" is a synonym for "grossly stupid"...
"But Westerners are obliged to confront the fact that in-your-face cosmopolitanism, especially at a seaside resort area like Bali is utterly unacceptable to a large percentage of the rubes hicks population (in Indonesia)."

The NT Government yesterday called for the Federal Government to maintain a steady security focus in northern Australia. "From our point of view the Federal Government needs to keep a firm focus on northern Australia because of its location," a spokesman said. "It can’t just think of capital cities to the south, because we’re close to the major population centres of the north."

Solomon MHR David Tollner said: "The Federal Government’s focus is very much to the north and it has shown a commitment to maintaining sound relations with our near neighbours."

Assuming there's actually any thought behind this ambition to grab off a part of Australia, I'd guess the Bad Guys would want to encourage the emigration of lots of quick breeders with turbans from Indonesia and the Moro parts of Philippines. The danger is that Australia, as a land of beer, babes and generally pleasant living, will claim a certain number of the immigrants as its own — it being more fun to be Australian than it is to be a member of the Ummah. As insidious conspiracies go, I'd rate this around a 1.5...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:26:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now I know that these jihadidiots are starking raving loony. I mean if you are going to pick a fight - why the hell would you pick one with the Aussies. These are guys who drink mega quantities of beer then go and play football in skin tight pants, beat the pee out of each other, drink more beer and then go play with crocs just for fun!
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/28/2003 3:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeap,that work piss off the Aussie's,and they big friend to the the east.
Posted by: raptor || 12/28/2003 6:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Since when is Northern Australia part of the Islamic world? Hell why not go after Antarctica too?
Posted by: Spot || 12/28/2003 10:10 Comments || Top||

#4  The Caliphate is to either take over, or subjugate, the entire world. You will either be a Muslim, or you will be a Dhimmi.

What these idiots don't understand is that all the major discoveries since the 1600's have been made by people other than Muslims. When you get people who can think MAD, they think of nasty ways to eliminate the source of that anger. It doesn't look good for Islamistan.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/28/2003 12:55 Comments || Top||

#5  The Jihadi nutcases have four methods for advancing their cause:

1. Booming
2. Infiltrating, setting up a 5th column
3. Breeding
4. Letting useful idiots rot out the host country by tearing down the national institutions.

If the Jihadis get too frisky, they will get their asses kicked. The other three methods will have to be dealt with in order for civilization to survive. It will depend upon how serious we all are about our survival.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/28/2003 13:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Time to sow dissension in the Ummah by actively promoting women's rights and birth control. Portray the turban and AK set for what they are:

a bunch of small weak men afraid their women might realize they're enslaved breeders.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/28/2003 14:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Alaska Paul, BRILLIANT!
Gee, you must see things a lot clearer up there in our 49th state!
Would you consider leaving the beauty of the Alaskan wilderness to be an adviser to the President in Washington DC and/or to form a think tank?
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/28/2003 14:45 Comments || Top||

#8  4. Letting useful idiots rot out the host country by tearing down the national institutions.

This type of tactic seems to work. One only need observe the efforts behind this sort of thing here in the U.S.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/28/2003 15:06 Comments || Top||

#9  Jennie---don't matronize me....heh heh...just kidding. Thanks for the compliment. The jihadis take our tolerance and accommodation as a sign of weakness to be exploited. And they do. It will take some more time, or another hit to clean out the jihadis and the danger that they pose to civilization (note: I did not say "Western" before civilization), I am afraid to say. I believe (and pray) that some administration types read through Rantburg regularly, sort through the chaff and offhand remarks (which are important to morale!) and use some of our ideas, if only to help to see a bigger picture. Everyone at Rantburg, even our pet trolls, contribute to the greater understanding of the Beast.

So, Jennie, in summary, we can all to this from the comfort and relative safety of our own homes and laptops. This will save the govt money, which can be better used elswhere than perdiem.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/28/2003 16:54 Comments || Top||

#10  Old Patriot

The last half important discovery made by a Muslim country dates from far longer than 1600. Consider that in one century no Muslim ship had been able to cross the Atlantic since 1492 and at Lepanto the Chritians found Muslim artillery so inferior that none of the captured guns was reused by them: the ones who weren't kept as trophies went to scrap metal yards and molten or used as ballast for ships.
Posted by: JFM || 12/28/2003 16:59 Comments || Top||

#11  Had some beer so warning....

AP says it like it is, as does OP. OP is quite right in saying that a civilization that can contemplate megadeaths and MAD is quite prepared to annihilate an outright threat.

The problem is what AP makes clear, 'we' (as in civilization - I am also making no distinction regarding "Western" civilization) have all the symptoms in front of us, it's whether 'we' recognize them as problems or not. If we decide to, the problem will be over in less than a decade (perhaps an awful lot less if AQ gets another big hit in - see Belmont Club 'The Three Conjectures' or SDB's essays on the Jacksonian way of doing things) - if we do not see the signs in front of us, then things will be more bloody and the time frame over when all this is done with is much longer.

I do not believe we will lose this war.

What may happen is that several countries that we have always thought of as being 'Western' may be lost. However, as long as the United States holds to its true ideals of freedom and liberty, then this civilization will prevail. It may mean true megadeaths, maybe even gigadeath (and there is no way of knowing what Western civilization will become after an event of that scale), but 'that' civilization will prevail - it will not be what some bearded twat in Mecca or Qom or (place your own hick town here) decides it will be.

God, this is terrible stuff to be writing just after christmas...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/28/2003 18:52 Comments || Top||

#12  As insidious conspiracies go, I'd rate this around a 1.5...

Over the past couple of years, Australia has made some changes to its defense structure with regards to the northern territory. It is a vulnerable area, and could be prone to a JI-sponsored infiltration.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/28/2003 19:18 Comments || Top||

#13  Since when is Northern Australia part of the Islamic world? Hell why not go after Antarctica too?

I think Spot has nailed it! Lemmee see, build a large mosque at the south pole; organize foot pilgrimages for the faithful.....problem solved!
Posted by: john || 12/28/2003 20:44 Comments || Top||

#14  Remember; Australia disarmed it's honest citizens. Plus, aren't they kind of lax in regards to immigration (like the U.S.)?
As a Yank, I love the Aussies; but I fear for them.
Posted by: Les Nessman || 12/28/2003 23:25 Comments || Top||

#15  Australia accepts a relatively high number of legal immigrants, but under Howard has severely cracked down on illegal immigrants. Much tothe Left's dismay.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/29/2003 0:30 Comments || Top||


Europe
Odd developments in whether or not al-Qaeda planned to hit the Vatican
Terrorists planned to use a hijacked jet for a Christmas Day attack on the Vatican, Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, was quoted as saying in an interview published yesterday. ’We had precise information about an attack from the sky on Rome with the Vatican as the objective,’ Berlusconi reportedly told the Milan daily, Libero. But his office denied he had given an interview and Berlusconi himself hinted the quotes had been invented by the reporter. ’You can’t confuse a rapid exchange of Christmas wishes with a political declaration,’ the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.

Unfortunately for Berlusconi, the right-wing newspaper, which supports his government, had turned the Christmas wishes into a huge three-page interview under a front-page headline, ’Christmas night with Berlusconi.’ The indiscretions, which have embarrassed his allies and infuriated the opposition, are reminiscent of a politically incorrect interview with the Spectator magazine last summer, which Berlusconi attributed to a glass too many of champagne. ’What a terrible day this has been,’ he is quoted as telling Libero in the Christmas Eve interview. ’The papers don’t come out tomorrow, right? Then I can tell you that the real question is not the television decree [which preserved the right of one of Berlusconi’s channels to continue terrestrial broadcasting]... but precise and verified information about an attack on Rome on Christmas Day. A hijacked plane on the Vatican - an attack from the sky, you understand? The threat of terrorism is very high at the moment. I spent Christmas Eve in Rome dealing with the situation. Now I feel more tranquil.’

Yet the gist of Berlusconi’s revelation appeared to be confirmed yesterday by the mayor of Rome. ’Many of us spent the afternoon of 24 December working, but without feeling the need to reveal things it had been agreed should remain confidential, precisely to avoid spreading alarm,’ Walter Veltroni said. There were other confidences that Berlusconi may have wanted to disown. In the interview with Libero’s political commentator Renato Farina he complained of press accusations that he had used his political power to protect his personal interests. The former Christian Democrat President, Francesco Cossiga, had advised him to retaliate by sending the finance police to investigate his opponents: ’Learn to use the legitimate weapons of power.’ Berlusconi is said to have replied: ’But I’m a liberal Prime Minister. I operate on the basis of consensus and follow transparent paths.’

It sounds like it was an operation that got broken, but Berlusconi blabbed too early. That would mean at least some of the conspirators got away. Taken with the Saudi operation that never happened, and with the Air France operation that never happened, it looks like there was supposed to be an international Big Turban Airplane Show that was tracked and broken up, but the mop-up isn't done yet. Either that or that the people trying to ward off such things are getting hysterical.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:03:45 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pretty much a paraphrase of yesterday's story. At least they're consistent.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/28/2003 1:34 Comments || Top||

#2  More like the Idiotalian Ruppert Murdoch is in charge of Italy
Posted by: NotMikeMoore || 12/28/2003 2:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Hi NMM! Havent' seen ya in awhile.

What's today's message?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/28/2003 9:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Shipman, it's apparently: "Fox bad, Murdoch bad - repeat in any article not related"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/28/2003 14:06 Comments || Top||


EU chief Prodi opens parcel bomb in Italy, unhurt
A parcel bomb exploded in the hands of EU Commission President Romano Prodi at his Bologna home on Saturday but he was unhurt, his spokesman said.
Kind of like the one Jarallah got?
“A parcel bomb arrived at his home. Prodi opened it himself, carefully. It exploded, making a big flame. He was not hurt and there was no damage,” Marco Vignudelli told Reuters by telephone. No one at Bologna police headquarters was immediately available for comment. On December 22, two small homemade bombs exploded in rubbish bins near Prodi’s home in the city in northern Italy. Prodi was not in his flat at the time. No one was hurt in those explosions and there was no property damage. Explosives experts defused a third device placed in another nearby bin. Bologna Police Chief Marcello Fulvio was quoted in several newspapers as saying initial inquiries pointed towards anarchists who had targeted policemen guarding Prodi’s home.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/28/2003 23:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, a Christmas gift just for me? What lovely paper! You shouldn't haBOOM
Posted by: john || 12/28/2003 20:53 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Hate speech double standard for our domestic commies
EFL
What was true in 1994 remains largely true today. MSNBC fired right-wing talk host Michael Savage in July, and rightly so, when he told a gay caller to "get AIDS and die, you pig." The liberal Nina Totenberg, on the other hand, suffered no ill effects for saying, during the flap over General Jerry Boykin’s views of Islam and the war on terrorism, "I hope he’s not long for this world." When the startled host asked if she were "putting a hit out on this guy," Totenberg backtracked and said she only wanted to see him expire "in his job."
Well, Nina, I hope you live to be a ripe old age, girl, and I hope you keeping shooting your mouth off because 1) We know where you are and 2) We can use you as an example to pull the rest of the country to the right.
But this isn’t the first time the NPR diva has publicly wished death on a conservative. "I think he ought to be worried about what’s going on in the Good Lord’s mind," she said of Senator Jesse Helms in 1995, "because if there is retributive justice, he’ll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will."
She probably yells at herself at home for not being old enough to have attended the 1942 Wansee Conference. Oopsies! Did I say Totenberg is a Nazi? I didn’t mean it... Honest.
Such venom should be beyond the pale. But too many liberals would still rather dismiss conservative ideas with an ugly slur than actually grapple with them on the merits. Debating the pros and cons of racial preferences or US foreign policy can be difficult; much easier to simply hiss "Racist!" or "Nazi!" or some equally poisonous insult. "What you have now" — this is left-wing activist and actress Janeane Garofalo, analyzing the Republican Party during an appearance at the 92d Street Y in New York this year — "is people that are closet racists, misogynists, homophobes, and people who love . . . the politics of exclusion identifying as conservative." That was apparently enough to win her a guest-host slot on CNN’s "Crossfire," where she offered this thoughtful critique of the Patriot Act: "It is in fact a conspiracy of the 43d Reich."
I have another name for Miss Garafalo: Miss Anthrope. Queen of the misanthropes, heterophobes and, to use her quote: the politics of exclusion identifying ’as liberal’
Ah, yes, the reductio ad Hitlerum. Why meet a conservative with facts or logic when you can simply tar him with the Nazi brush? Thus we had Nancy Giles on the "CBS Sunday Morning show" sourly tying Rush Limbaugh’s "edgy" radio manner to you-know-who’s. "Hitler would have killed in talk radio," Giles declared. "He was edgy, too." Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News struck a similar note in commenting on "The Reagans," the canceled miniseries. "If Hitler had more friends," she told The Washington Post, "CBS wouldn’t have aired [its Hitler miniseries] either."
It is truly incredible the abject ignorance people who pose as professional journalists display in public. This broad has no convincing argument against CBS’ decision to pull this Reagan fiction series from commercially supported TV, except Hitler would have had another series pulled. Hitler would have had your throat, Miss Gray, slashed without so much as flinching. I wonder where she says she was educated, because the facts HAD to have come out of her ass.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by: badanov || 12/28/2003 8:41:56 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It is truly incredible the abject ignorance people who pose as professional journalists display in public."

I've been wrestling with this a long time, badanov: is it ignorance, or is it dishonesty? I can't make up my mind on it. The best I've been able to do, is a vague hunch that for the liberal "little people", lazy lardasses who plunk themselves down in front of the tube and watch 30 minutes of CNN a day and call themselves "informed", it's simple ignorance; but for those in front of the camera, and those actually writing the editorial pages, it's rank dishonesty.

I just don't know...
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/28/2003 10:45 Comments || Top||

#2  This will fill Jacoby's inbox in a hurry. Speaking of Hate, I almost (but not quite) miss Maureen Dowd. Where is she vacationing, anyway? Did NYT in fact send her to St. Helena on assignment or something? I can dream. Instapundit (not me) notes a post on the Howard Dean campaign site forum blaming GWB for the Mad Cow scare and one on DemocraticUnderground forum blaming him for the Bam shaker. DU has been known to extirpate particularly egregious posts so apparently this isn't one of them. Personally I found the photochop of Marines raising an Arabic McDonald's standard on Suribachi offensive. What say, gang? Am I too sensitive?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/28/2003 10:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Personally I found the photochop of Marines raising an Arabic McDonald's standard on Suribachi offensive. What say, gang? Am I too sensitive?

Frankly I thank God for the DU, coz in 2004 when all this crap they have posted over the last 2 years gets reposted, and folks learn what a buncha communistically inclined pussies the left is, we can continue pushing the nation's agenda to the right with far greater ease than before.

Glenn, if you send me a link to my stavka address I will post it on my website and prepare it for the day when it can be used against the f*ckers who did post it.

No, you are not too sensitive. I think in time of war pointing out all this traitorous crap which gets posted by our political opponents needs to be brought out for all to see.
Posted by: badanov || 12/28/2003 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Someone please remind me why I have to pay for NPR? Cut off the funding NOW and use that money to provide health coverage for the very poor. That would sent the liberals into a full fledge frenzy. If Hollywood loves this show so much let them put up the money, are there enough deep pockets out there?
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/28/2003 11:57 Comments || Top||

#5  badanov #3 Links to what? Links to the the posts I ref'd right-click embedded in my comment. Dunno what else I could give you links to.

Anon #4 you can do as moi, $end to www.xlnc1.org instead. They don't do politics. All they do is play classical music. They have a flea-powered xmtr in Tijuana and streaming audio to Winamp or RealPlay
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/28/2003 12:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Among the 'Travellers', they really think that what they believe, what they say, what they do is entirely justified because it's a war against fascism. We think nuts like totenberg, dowd, gorillafalo, chomsky say the kind of whacked out things they say because they're liars or stupid. While either may be true, one moreso than the other, the real truth is that they are True Believers in international communism. Which is probably worse than if they were just stupid; it's a matter of faith which is completely resistant to logic (just like the taliban). Commie fundamentalists, IOW, and fundies are usually dangerous fools.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/28/2003 13:12 Comments || Top||

#7  Gotta agree with 4thInVet, although I think that the Lib Left's agitprop war on TV is more about their love for Communism/Socialism/Marxism than it is a war against fascism.
Strangely, for these folks, the "3rd way" of Democracy instead of Fascism or Communism is never considered or even mentioned.
In their Leftist minds, they had almost reached the perfect Soviet state with Clinton or were well on the way with BillyJeff.
Given the fact that George W. Bush and a Conservative Congress has dealt their Marxist revolution a considerable setback (Thank God and we pray an irreversible one), they must rail against he and his American principles 24/7 which is what we get in the media.
Lenin, of course, stated that it was vital to the "revolution" to control the means of propaganda which they do.
Now, using market forces, we're blasting them out of there.
Again, thank God!
(And you forgot one of my "favorite" howling Libs: Katrina van den Whore-vel.)
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/28/2003 13:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Nina Totenburg - the Helen Thomas of this century
Posted by: Frank G || 12/28/2003 14:09 Comments || Top||

#9  Then she must look like someone whose face was set on fire and put out with a brick.
Posted by: Raj || 12/28/2003 17:37 Comments || Top||

#10  LOL Raj. But don't argue with people that buy ink buy the barrel.... and put it on their hair.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/28/2003 19:00 Comments || Top||

#11  It's REAL amusing that you take exception to conservatives being described as Nazis, then in the next breath call all liberal Democrats Socialists/Communists/Marxists. Irony is truly dead....
Posted by: NotMikeMoore || 12/28/2003 20:25 Comments || Top||

#12  No NMM, it's not that all liberal Democrats are Socialists/Communists/Marxists. It's all Socialists/Communists/Marxists are liberal Democrats.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/28/2003 22:12 Comments || Top||

#13  Are there any liberal Democrats who actually feel offended at being called a Socialist?
Posted by: Les Nessman || 12/28/2003 23:34 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Kashmiri separatists condemn the hit attempt on Perv
I’ve never heard of these guys before, mayb Fred or Paul can deconstruct these folks for me.
Muslim separatists in Indian Kashmir Friday condemned an assassination attempt on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and said they hoped it would not spoil a forthcoming key regional political summit.

"It’s a senseless and shameful act. We condemn it outright," said Molvi Abbas Ansari, who heads the moderate wing of the region’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC).

Fourteen people died in twin blasts in Islamabad on Thursday intended to kill Musharraf. It was the second attempt to kill him in 11 days.

"We can’t say who has done it but it has come at a time when a congenial atmosphere was being created for the SAARC summit," Ansari told AFP. He was referring to a summit of leaders from the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC), due to be held from January 4 to 6 in Islamabad.

Ansari appealed to both countries to go ahead with the summit.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has said he will attend the summit, and there are hopes that his visit could boost peace efforts between the nuclear-armed nations. The two almost went to war last year over disputed Kashmir, where a revolt against Indian rule has left more than 40,000 dead since 1989.

Veteran separatist leader Shabir Shah also denounced the assassination bid.

"Such acts should be condemned in the strongest possible words," Shah told AFP, adding the attack was the work of those "who want to weaken Pakistan".

"Unfortunately, it has also come at a time when India and Pakistan are inching closer to a dialogue and all eyes are focussed on SAARC," said Shah, who spent more than 20 years in prison for espousing Kashmir’s secession.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:21:03 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Hurriyat is an alliance of a couple dozen non-violent political parties, unions, etc. that all support either independence for Kashmir, or it's accension to Pakistan.
It includes the front organisations for many Jihad outfits, and for the past decade it's leaders have been able to live a life of luxury due to siphoning off of funds that they were meant to pass on to the Jihadis.
Recently, the Hurriyat split, with the hardline, pro-Pakistan elements affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami split off. The moderates dominate the alliance now, although due to their obvious corruption they have little support amongst those Kashmiris who do want independance.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/28/2003 0:48 Comments || Top||


45 religious outfits with ‘terror links’ identified
Law-enforcement agencies have identified 45 religious organisations believed to have links with international jihadi networks or thought to be involved in terrorist and sectarian activities in Pakistan, sources told Daily Times on Friday.
That's all? That's only twice as many as Uganda has!
According to the sources, major groups believed to have links with Al Qaeda, like the Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami (HJI) and Jamiatul Mujahideen Al Alami have not been banned yet. They not only had roots in Pakistan, but also in Kashmir, Myanmar, Bangladesh and the Philippines, sources said. HJI chief Qari Saifullah Akhtar, who reportedly lives in some Gulf state, was allegedly former Taliban leader Mulla Umar’s advisor and believed to have a direct link with Al Qaeda. The sources said several of his organisation’s several activists who were arrested by law-enforcement agencies for terror attacks in Karachi had divulged this information. The sources said Harkatul Mujahideen Al Alami, which was accused of an attack on President Pervez Musharraf last year in Karachi and the suicide attacks on French engineers, was formed by the HJI, Harkatul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) and Jamiatul Mujahideen Al Alami. The sources said the LJ and Deobandi Jihadi organisations despite having differences with each other came closer after the Taliban’s overthrow in Afghanistan by the United States and its coalition forces, and several trained Mujahideen joined the LJ after 2001. Sources said the LJ not only changed its ideology but also its organisational structure. It does not use its previous name. Its members use new codename in different areas, like Lashkar-e-Omer, Al Farooq and Al Badr. The sources said some terrorist groups were working underground and they might have been exploited by bigger jihadi and terrorist organisations like the Al Badr, the Jhangvi Tigers and Al Farooq.
It would make sense that the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi would be the heart of a Pakistani terrorist alliance, since they have a long experience of being an underground organisation working against the state, while the Jihadi militias are used to operating in the open with the patronage of the agencies. The LJ seems to have just recruited alienated members of the Jihadi organisation who are angry at their leaders silence over Pakistan’s betrayal of the Taliban.
“The Jamiat Ishaat-e-Tauheed-wal-Sunna, influential in some areas in the NWFP and the Punjab, might have relations with the Taliban,” the sources added. According to the sources, the Tehrik-e-Taliban was actively engaged in recruiting jihadis for the Taliban in tribal areas.
More active in Pakistan than in Afghanistan, in fact...
The sources said the Imamia Students’ Organisation and the Hizbul Momineen were involved in increasing sectarianism, especially in the Northern Areas, and were under observation by law-enforcement agencies, whereas the defunct Sipah-e-Muhammad’s network had been broken in the Punjab but was still active in Balochistan.
Those last few are Shi’ite groups, the Northern Areas are Shi’ite areas of Pakistani Kashmir that have seen increasing numbers of Pashtun settlers. Sectarianism has been strong there ever since the Army used Pashtun tribesmen to put down a Shia uprising that resulted in the death of thousands in the late 80’s.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/28/2003 12:15:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Al-Qaeda is out to whack Perv
Al-Qaeda militants and religious fanatics in Pakistan are suspected to be behind an increasingly organized effort to kill President Pervez Musharraf following the second assassination attempt in 11 days.

Musharraf escaped death Thursday when suicide bombers rammed his motorcade with two bomb-laden cars at a petrol station two kilometers (1.2 miles) from his residence in Rawalpindi, adjoining Islamabad, killing 14 people and injuring 46 others.

Prime Minitser Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said that the government would revamp the security arrangments for the president. Jamali told journalists in Parliament House that the government had found some clues with regard to the attacks on the president.

The government has launched a massive probe into the attempts on the president. Senior officials said that they have made some headway in the probe.

President Musharraf resumed his normal official duties on the day of the attack, officials said. He attended a reception for foreign dignatories currently on a visit to Pakistan.

Ruling party Sen. Mushahid Hussain called the attacks a “matter of deep concern,” especially since the latest bid was made near Musharraf’s residence, in the heart of an area controlled by the military which he leads.

“It shows an organized group is chasing him,” he said, while an Interior Ministry official called the attacks a “new trend,” saying that suicide bombings were not common in Pakistan.

“The broad guess is that it could be a nexus between Al-Qaeda and extremist militant groups here,” analyst Talat Masood told AFP. “They seem to be determined — look at their audacity, boldness and precision (in carrying out) the attacks.”

Musharraf himself said late Thursday the attacks could be in response to Pakistan’s role in the US-led war against terrorism, and blamed unnamed “terrorists and extremists” for the bombings.

“There is a strong possibility of this. We are fighting a war against terrorism, but we will not lose courage,” he said on state television hours after the bombings.

Pakistani security agencies said last week they were questioning 10 Al-Qaeda suspects rounded up in Rawalpindi after the Dec. 14 attack on Musharraf.

President Musharraf yesterday announced financial assistance of 500,000 rupees (about $8,600) each for the families of those killed in the suicide attack, officials said. Officials said those who sustained injuries will be given 100,000 rupees each.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:05:18 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think that the attempt on Perv could be analogous to the hit on Masood just before 9-11 -- with all that this implies.

Posted by: Dushan || 12/28/2003 19:48 Comments || Top||


Bangla MPs want Ahmadiyyas declared non-Muslim
Anti-Ahmadiyya religious activists in Bangladesh on Friday threatened to sideline members of parliament (MPs), elected on an Islamic manifesto, if they do not table a bill declaring the Ahmadiyyas as non-Muslims in the next parliament session.
Part of the continuing low-level pogrom against them...
“Since they promised an Islamic society, Motiur Rahman Nizami, Fazlul Haq Amini, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, MPs of the Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamic parties, must place a bill in parliament,” demanded Mahmudul Hasan Mamtazi, amir of the Khatme Nabuwat Andolon Coordination Committee, an anti-Ahmadiyya alliance. “If you don’t do so, beware Nizami, Amini, Sayeedi and others, we will stage a sit down wherever we find you,” warned Mr Mamtazi in a demonstration in Dhaka.
Y'see, under the caliphate, there will be tolerance and justice in the world...
Some fifteen hundred anti-Ahmadiyyas of a conglomerate of Islamist outfits took part in the demonstration jointly organised by the Nabuwat Anodolon and Aamra Dhakabashi, a socio-cultural organisation, on the Shaheed Faruq Road after Friday prayers. “We will paralyse the whole country if the government does not evict the ‘Ahmadiyyas’ from the Nakhalpara Ahmadiyya mosque by January 9,” Mr Mamtazi threatened. “We will begin a countrywide agitation demanding declaration of the Ahmadiyyas as non-Muslims and freeing the mosques from their occupation,” he added.
Hmmm... A lot of money flows into Nakhalpara Ahmadiyya mosque, huh?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/28/2003 23:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  low-level pogrom? This Mahmudul Hasan Mamtazi dude isn't, like, a Bangladeshi Wahhabi, is he? We see what their, attitude is toward everybody else.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/28/2003 1:50 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Four Bombings Kill 13 in Iraq
Suicide attackers carried out four coordinated car bombings Saturday outside the bases of U.S.-led forces in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, killing six soldiers from Bulgaria and Thailand as well as seven Iraqis. The afternoon attacks, which wounded more than 100 people, came in rapid succession, targeting a military logistics camp near a university, a base housing a Thai-run hospital and the city government center, where U.S. military police are posted. Five American soldiers were injured in the last strike. As the assailants drove explosives-laden vehicles toward the targets, other insurgents pounded the sites with mortar and machine-gun fire, according to Maj. Gen. Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, commander of the Polish-led multinational force responsible for the area. "It was a coordinated, massive attack planned for a big scale and intended to do much harm," he said.

Tyszkiewicz called it the largest attack against foreign forces in his sector of south-central Iraq, which is patrolled by 9,500 coalition forces, including 2,400 from Poland. He said the death toll could have been significantly higher, but troops opened fire on the bombers as they rushed toward their targets, preventing the attackers from detonating their lethal loads inside the bases. Two of the dead were Thai soldiers guarding a military checkpoint who were killed when a car exploded outside the wall of their camp. Bulgaria's deputy defense minister, Ilko Dimitrov, confirmed that four troops from his country were killed and that nearly 500 others were being evacuated from their camp because the base had been destroyed. "We face an enemy which does not respect any values," he told reporters in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital.

In killing the Thais and Bulgarians, the attackers dealt the latest blow to foreign soldiers serving in the U.S-led occupation force. The most devastating such attack was a suicide bombing at the Italian military headquarters in the southern city of Nasiriyah on Nov. 12 that killed 19 Italians and 11 Iraqi bystanders. Among the fatalities Saturday were six Iraqi police officers, killed by the explosion at the city government complex, according to the mayor of Karbala, Akram Yassiri, who was slightly injured in the attack. The blast severely damaged the city hall, the police headquarters, the courthouse and offices of the U.S.-sponsored Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. The blast also carved a deep crater in the street and shattered glass for blocks. The street was littered with the charred remains of cars and pickup trucks.

They're trying to break the resolve of at least one member of the coalition, on the theory that once one pulls out, others will follow until there's nothing left but us. The process involves hitting at the Shiite areas, which isn't going to win them any friends or influence people there. Since the area is mostly calm, the hit teams were likely imported, probably from the Sunni Triangle or from Ansar al-Islam.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/28/2003 23:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi clerics call for French boycott
Iraqi Shia clerics have called for a boycott of French products in protest at France's move to ban Islamic headscarves from schools.
Why not call for a boycott in response to France's support for Sammy? Why piss away a perfectly good boycott on a notschitt issue?
Influential cleric Moqtada Sadr called for the boycot during his Friday sermon in Kufa near Najaf. "I suggest that a fatwa (religious edict) be issued by (Shia religious scholars in the Iraqi holy city of) Najaf, (the Iranian Shia religious centre of) Qom and al-Azhar (the Sunni Muslims' highest religious authority) ordering a boycott of French products," he said. "If we cannot reach such a decision, we should at least threaten to do it."
That's a cultural thing, where you threaten to do something you can't manage to bring off.
Silence would encourage other countries, such as Germany, to follow in France's footsteps, al-Sadr warned.
When did Germany say they were going to do that? When did European nations start paying attention to the opinions of 22-year-old Iraqi clerics?
A similar call was made by a Shia cleric in Baghdad on Friday. "We condemn the French government's decision prohibiting the Islamic veil and we demand the liberty that France says it embodies," Sayyid Amr al-Husseini told 10,000 worshippers in the Shia-populated Sadr City district.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/28/2003 23:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Third Law: For every stupid action, there is an equal but opposite stupid reaction.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/28/2003 7:49 Comments || Top||

#2  This is one of the few fatwas I can agree with. Everybody should boycott French goods.

Can someone tell me exactly a city becomes a holy city?
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 12/28/2003 9:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Can someone tell me exactly a city becomes a holy city?

I believe it involves a Muslim stepping into the city; at that point it becomes unacceptable for the city to ever be anything but Muslim.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/28/2003 11:42 Comments || Top||

#4  R.C. I always thought it was when a muslim pooped in the city that it became unacceptable for anything but a holy city to contain the holy poop. Now I am all confused!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/28/2003 13:44 Comments || Top||

#5  I think we're both right, and either condition applies.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/28/2003 17:59 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Renewed hostilities feared in Buliok complex
Fears of hostilities between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have cropped up as the Armed Forces of the Philippines reportedly repositioned its troops in Buliok complex, the former MILF stronghold in Central Mindanao. Nongovernment organization, led by Bantay Cease-fire, in a report dated December 9 and 10, claimed that the military moved 600 meters toward the canal connected to the Liguasan Marsh in early November this year. The Bantay Cease-fire, which monitors the implementation and observance of the existing cease-fire declared between the government and the MILF on July 19 as part of confidence building prior to the resumption of the peace talks, also reported that newly returned evacuees had spotted armed troops of both sides. “The proximity between the Marines and the MILF forces can result in a firefight from the slightest provocation or accident,” the Bantay Cease-fire report said.

But MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said Friday the military redeployment was simply a return to a status of antebellum prior to the armed hostilities. “There was no redeployment of the government troops in the strictest sense of the word,” Kabalu said.

The military launched air and ground attacks on the Buliok complex in Pagalungan and Pikit towns on February 11 during the Eid ul-Adha, an important Muslim holiday. The attack led to the taking over of the Islamic Center and the Buliok complex by the government troops and the escalation of violence in surrounding areas.

Kabalu, meanwhile, denied MILF involvement in the death of three hunters in Zamboanga del Norte. Army Southern Command spokesman Col. Fredesvindo Covarrubias earlier implicated the MILF in the death of the three hunters who were abducted and later killed. The bodies of the three fatalities, who bore hack and bullet wounds, were found on December 22.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:23:59 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said Friday the military redeployment was simply a return to a status of antebellum prior to the armed hostilities.

This seems to have lost something in translation.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/28/2003 2:44 Comments || Top||

#2  the military redeployment was simply a return to a status of antebellum prior to the armed hostilities.

Before, before the war?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/28/2003 19:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Journo-school is *so* expensive nowadays...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/28/2003 19:52 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Al-Qaida targeting cruise ships, aircraft carriers
EFL WND Article, use salt liberally

Queen Mary 2 threatened, Osama’s terror armada said carrying mines

U.S. intelligence officials say al-Qaida has turned its terror sights to a sea jihad, targeting Western luxury liners and aircraft carriers.

The Brisbane Courier-Mail reports owners of the world’s largest cruise ship – the recently launched $1.3 billion Queen Mary 2 – confirmed terror threats hang over its maiden voyage slated for early next year.

The paper reports U.S. intelligence officials also found evidence Osama bin Laden’s terror network planned to attack the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal as it passed through the Gibraltar Straits en route to the Iraq theater of war earlier this year.

Al-Qaida has purchased at least 15 ships in the last two years, creating a veritable terror armada. G2 Bulletin’s sources said potential targets of the al-Qaida armada include civilian ports, oil rigs and cruise liners.

Lloyds of London reportedly helped Britain’s MI6 and the U.S. CIA trace the sales of the "terror ships" made through a Greek shipping agent suspected of having direct contacts with bin Laden.

The ships fly the flags of Yemen and Somalia – where they are registered – and are capable of carrying cargoes of lethal chemicals, a "dirty bomb" or even a nuclear weapon, according to G2B sources.

The freighters left their home ports in the Horn of Africa in early September, some were believed destined for ports in Asia.

Earlier this year, a chemical tanker, the Dewi Madrim, was hijacked by machinegun-bearing pirates in speedboats off the coast of Sumatra. These were terrorists learning how to drive a ship. They also kidnapped officers in an effort to acquire expertise on conducting a maritime attack.

There is also evidence terrorists are learning about diving, with a view to attacking ships from below. The Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines kidnapped a maintenance engineer in a Sabah holiday resort in 2000. On his release in June this year, the engineer said his kidnappers knew he was a diving instructor – they wanted instruction. The owner of a diving school near Kuala Lumpur has recently reported a number of ethnic Malays wanting to learn about diving, but being strangely uninterested in learning about decompression.

This resembles reports that Sept. 11 hijackers who attended U.S. flight schools were only interested in learning how to fly planes, not land.

The Courier-Mail reports U.S. intelligence services believe scores of acoustic sea-mines, found to have disappeared from a naval base in North Korea by a U2 spy plane, could be aboard one or more of bin Laden’s estimated 28 "terror ships.

According to the paper, the capture of al-Qaida’s chief of naval operations, Ahmad Belai al-Neshari, helped reveal the blueprint of the group’s maritime plots.

Al-Neshari was found carrying a 180-page dossier that listed large cruise liners sailing from Western ports as "targets of opportunity."

If a maritime terror attack comes, it won’t be the first. In October 2000, the USS Cole, a heavily armed ship protected with the latest radar defenses, was hit by an al-Qaida suicide crew. Seventeen American soldiers died. Two years later, following the attacks on the Twin Towers, a similar attack was carried out against a French supertanker off the coast of Yemen.

It seems the early attempts to disable shipping by blasting in the side didn’t work well enough, so al-Qaida may be looking to run a large ship into a harbor, or near enough to a relatively undefended ship, such as a cruise liner or supercargo vessel. Getting near enough to harm a carrier will be subsequently more difficult, and more likely to result in a sunken ship. Personally, it’s almost as if Bin Laden is saying to himself, "I need to do something big, something important. I’ll try everything, hoping one of them works".
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/28/2003 7:55:18 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'twould surely have to be a large bomb to do damage to QM2, and as for an aircraft carrier - in their wet dreams!
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/28/2003 20:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, come after a carrier, boys... [evil grin]
Posted by: Chuck || 12/28/2003 20:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Something's funny with the link--its not showing up on the front page (or its anchor tag isn't there). You can't click on the story title, you have to click on the little chain/link thing.
Posted by: RussSchultz || 12/28/2003 22:34 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't think you can take much comfort that an unarmed tramp freighter couldn't get close enough to a carrier to damage it. Al-Qaeda usually has the element of surprise. The NORK mines are a minor nuisance, but suppose one of these ships was turned into a giant AMPHO bomb. Or simply run at best speed into an offshore oil platform, or rams a laden tanker, or a loaded inter island ferry somewhere in the WestPac.

The point here, lads, is that we don't have much maritime patrol available to prevent this sort of thing from happening. My estimate is that Al-Q will succeed on their first attempt at seaborne mischief, simply because, like the US before 9-11, there are no assets in place to stop them.

Of course, we could go premptive and simply sink all 15 of these ships on the high seas, and I wouldn't be surprised if such action isn't being debated at 1600 PA-Ave now. My guess is that the CINC has set rules of engagement that will pretty much allow them to make the first move. We could be surveilling them from the air/satellites, but unless we seize the ships or sink them, they will get the first shot.
Posted by: Rivrdog || 12/29/2003 1:45 Comments || Top||


More on Khalid, Hanbali, and anthrax
Two years after the anthrax letter attacks, senior administration officials say they have fresh concerns about the nation’s vulnerability to terrorist attacks with the deadly germ. The officials said their fears had intensified in part because they now recognized that anthrax spores could be more widely dispersed than previously believed. In addition, they said, terror suspects with ties to Al Qaeda have told questioners that the group has been trying to obtain anthrax for use in attacks. One indication of concern was a secret cabinet-level "tabletop" exercise conducted last month that simulated the simultaneous release of anthrax in different types of aerosols in several American cities.

Another factor fueling concern about anthrax is the questioning of senior Qaeda agents now in United States custody, administration officials said. One official said that after his arrest in March, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenants, confirmed to American officials earlier reports that Al Qaeda, and particularly its second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, a physician, had long been eager to acquire biological agents, particularly anthrax. The official noted that Qaeda agents had inquired about renting crop-dusters to spread pathogens, especially anthrax. According to an article by Milton Leitenberg, a biological warfare expert at the Center for International and Security Affairs at the University of Maryland, computer hard drives and handwritten notes seized at the home where Mr. Mohammed was arrested included an order to buy anthrax, along with other evidence of an interest in acquiring anthrax and other dangerous germs. "Nothing so far translated implies access to the most dangerous microbial strains or to any advanced processing or delivery methods," Mr. Leitenberg concluded in a survey of recent developments in bioterrorism published in the journal Politics and Life Sciences.

American officials also said in interviews that Mr. Mohammed had told questioners that until the American invasion after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Al Qaeda’s anthrax program was based in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and was led by two men: Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, and Yazid Sufaat, a Malaysian member of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Qaeda-affiliated group. Mr. Sufaat, who received a degree in biological sciences in 1987 from California State University, was a technician in the Malaysian military. In 1993, he set up a company to "test the blood and urine of foreign workers and state employees for drug use," Mr. Leitenberg wrote. Government officials say his company appears to have been involved in transferring money and buying ammonium nitrate for explosives for Qaeda groups in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Although Mr. Sufaat tried to acquire anthrax, there is no evidence that he was able to procure the appropriate strain used for attacks, officials said. Mr. Sufaat was arrested in 2001 as he tried to enter Malaysia and is being held at an undisclosed place, officials said. He has reportedly confirmed numerous details about Al Qaeda’s effort to develop anthrax and other biological agents.

So, too, has Hambali, who like Mr. Sufaat fled to neighboring Pakistan after the United States invaded Afghanistan. He was arrested last August in Thailand and has been cooperating with American officials, several officials said. CBS News reported in early October that Hambali had been trying to open a new biological weapons program for Al Qaeda in the Far East when he was arrested. Officials said recent notices from the Department of Homeland Security also reflected the concern about a bioterror attack. A Nov. 21 warning from the department to law enforcement agencies states that while Al Qaeda is not known to have executed an attack using chemical or biological agents, "the acquisition, production or theft of these materials and subsequent dissemination is a top Al Qaeda objective." Jerome Hauer, a former acting assistant secretary of health and human services for biodefense who now heads a biodefense center at George Washington University, said it was "no secret that Al Qaeda wants to use anthrax." He said, "If they get to the point where they have the technical sophistication to execute an attack, I think they would do so."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:31:12 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Your link doesn't lead to the original article.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 12/28/2003 9:28 Comments || Top||

#2  You're right, here it is:

Link.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 10:15 Comments || Top||


Islam offers possibility to adhere to modernity
I have the possibility of growing hair and becoming slender, too...
Islam offers the possibility to adhere to modernity while remaining attached to its basic principles, professor of philosophy and Islamic sciences at the university of Geneva, Tariq Ramadan, said, in Rabat Thursday, calling for the rejection of the stereotypes claiming that Islam is opposed to the West.
If it's true, it's not a stereotype.
"Modernity is the ability to be up to date with the present time and take up the challenges of the contemporary world without renouncing the basic principles of Islam," underlined Ramadan who was the honor guest of a conference held in the Moroccan capital on "Islam and Modernity." Ramadan noted nonetheless that "before thinking of how to adhere to the dynamic of modernity, Moslems should reflect on the contribution they can bring to the world." He underlined that it is important to get acquainted with the history of Islam which, he said, has tools facilitating the full adherence to this dynamic. The Swiss academic of Egyptian origin, added that Islam is capable of adapting to different conjunctures and situations thanks to the notion of Ijtihad (Jurisprudence) which allows to adapt the "text to context" through a critical effort.
On the other hand, such concepts as jihad and khilafah aren't what you might call conducive to modernity, are they?
On his part, Mohamed Layadi, professor at the university Hassan II in Casablanca, pointed out that all societies regardless of their religions, can adhere to modernity, underscoring that the changes taking place in the Islamic world are in line with this tendency.
That's true, but modernizing under Islam is akin to waltzing with a bucket on one foot. It can be done, but not gracefully, and not well.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/28/2003 23:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The last modern thing of memory in radical Islam is the stones are smaller and smoother that they throw at women.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/28/2003 3:39 Comments || Top||

#2  How hard can it really be to make the leap from the 7th century to the 12th?
Posted by: JerseyMike || 12/28/2003 8:14 Comments || Top||

#3  JiB - Guffaw!!..

and

JM - well, it took the West 5 centuries so we'll see Islam do it sometime soon, say when the Sun moves off the Main Sequence or when a woman can be an Imam - whichever comes sooner...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/28/2003 20:08 Comments || Top||


Iran
FIRST AMERICAN AIRCRAFT LANDS IN KERMAN, IRAN
Just after midnight local time, the first American aircraft landed in Kerman, Iran, with 20 pallets of humanitarian aid destined for the earthquake-stricken residents of Bam. Five pallets laden with such medical supplies as intravenous fluids, bandages, gauze, and surgical equipment, plus food and purified water comprised the first load of American relief support. American airmen and Iranian soldiers worked side-by-side forming a human chain to unload the 20,000 pounds of badly needed material into waiting trucks. The supplies were then trucked into Bam a little more than 100 miles away. In addition to the humanitarian aid, the Peoria, Ill. Air National Guard C-130 carried aerial port operations and support agency experts to assess the operational and equipment needs for follow-on aircraft. The assessments are vital because the Air Force is loading C-5 and C-17 aircraft for follow-on relief flights.

The humanitarian mission was the first American flight into Iran since the Iranian hostage crisis ended in January 1981.
Photos of the mission are available on the U.S. Central Command website at CentCom. The photos are located in the "Galleries" tab at the top of the homepage.
Posted by: Chuck || 12/28/2003 8:36:08 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This needs to publized in the "Islamic World". Not by the US but by a nonpartail third party. These people need ot see we are not monsters out to destroy their culture or their religion (if certain aspects of said were to disapear it wouldn't bother me too much). And if I recall wasn't the air strip used as Desert One originally built as an emergency relief strip for another earthquake in the early '70s?
Posted by: Cheddarhead || 12/28/2003 20:59 Comments || Top||

#2  They're going to follow up with C-5 and C-17 flights? I'll bet those'll leave an impression.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/28/2003 23:20 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Grenades thrown at IDF in Hebron
JPost Reg req’d
Palestinian sources reported a loud explosion in Hebron Sunday afternoon. Following the explosion, IDF forces were reported in pursuit of a Palestinian riding a motorbike. IDF later revealed that explossions were those of two hand-grenades thrown at an IDF post in the Harath-al-Sheikh neighborhood in Hebron. No casualties were reported.
the motorbike of Doom™ ridden by a guy who throws like a little girl
In related news, settlers in the Northern Gaza settlement of Nissanit were confined to their homes due to intelligence reports of possible terror activity in the area, reports Ynet. Palestinians opened fire at an IDF force north of Jenin, at another in Tulkarm and at another in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus. In the Gaza Strip, an IDF post near Neveh Dekalim was fired at, as was another near Gadid in Gush Katif. No casualties were reported in any of these event.
nice shooting, Paleos!
Overnight Saturday, IDF forces in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus demolished the house of Hashem abu Hamda. Hamda, a Tanzim member, was responsible for the planning and dispatching of a suicide bomber to the Rosh Ha Ayin commercial center 4 months ago, in which one Israeli was killed and nine others wounded. He was also responsible for the suicide attack on the IDF – PA liaison unit in Tulkarm 2 months ago, in which an Israeli soldier was wounded.
"rubble for rabble™"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/28/2003 5:37:11 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Germans are good with grenades, Brits are good with grenades, so it's not the kick-ball afflication. Why can't Arabs throw? Is it the extra bone in their foot? If you can't throw it.. wear it? Deliver it by foot?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/28/2003 19:13 Comments || Top||

#2  "...guy who throws like a little girl"

If they could throw like the girls on my granddaughters' (6 yrs and 10 yrs) softball teams, there would have been casualties. Nct PC, just fact. The girls' soccer teams would have scored a goal also. The quote should have referred to a "guy who throws like a Raider quarterback."

>>Arch
Posted by: Arch || 12/28/2003 20:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Arch - after watching my Chargers finally whip someone's ass (the dreaded Raiders) I acknowledge my error. BTW - that was just a throwaway line. FYI my sister was a pitcher on the Bobby Sox team that won the national championship 3 yrs running, and she got a 3 sport scholarship to Missouri (Lindenwood), so I know good female throwers LOL
Posted by: Frank G || 12/28/2003 20:37 Comments || Top||

#4  'tis true that their aim seems to be crap, but the interesting thing to my mind is that these attacks seem really low-level (I'm sure they're not if you're being targetted!), that is, they seem really, well, cheesy, half-assed even.

What with the 'B' team on 'The Motorbike of Doom (tm)' (love it) 'light-injury squads', Hamas totally bottling it recently (amazing what an attack helicopter can do to focus the mind) and splodeydopes pre-detonating due to Israeli wizard-weapons perhaps the Israelis will get a bit more peace in 2004 eh?

Lord knows they deserve it.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/28/2003 20:43 Comments || Top||

#5  I think much of the blame lies with his manager, Sheik Gra-day Lit-el Hebroni. He should have pulled him earlier.

As a result, the Curse of the Ali Ba-Bam-Bino still haunts the Hamas Red Sox.
Posted by: Penguin || 12/28/2003 20:49 Comments || Top||

#6  ... but the interesting thing to my mind is that these attacks seem really low-level (I'm sure they're not if you're being targetted!), that is, they seem really, well, cheesy, half-assed even.

Guess the ol' enthusiasm just isn't there any more...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/28/2003 21:52 Comments || Top||


Home Front
The shame: Honor abduction (and killing?) thwarted
A Grant County man has been charged with trying to kidnap his sister from her Sedro-Woolley [WA] home in what police believe was an attempt to punish her for marrying outside her Muslim faith. Khalil Nassar, 21, and a 24-year-old acquaintance, Antonio Cortez, were charged Wednesday with attempted kidnapping, said Robin Webb-Lakey, a Skagit County senior deputy prosecutor. Nassar also was charged with felony harassment. The two men told police they were simply planning to visit Nassar’s sister, according to an affidavit signed by Sedro-Woolley Police Sgt. William Tucker and filed in Skagit County Superior Court. Nassar and Cortez were arrested Monday morning after a police officer found them parked a block away from the sister’s apartment in downtown Sedro-Woolley, police Lt. Doug Wood said. The two men were in a rented van. Police found rope, gloves, coveralls and a hardhat in the vehicle, according to the affidavit. Police believe the coveralls and hardhat were to be used as a disguise, Wood said.

The 18-year-old sister called police in Sedro-Woolley in early December to complain that she and her 19-year-old husband, who is a Christian, were being harassed by her father, according to Tucker’s statement to the court. Previously, the Grant County Sheriff’s Department had investigated complaints made by both families while the couple lived in the Moses Lake area,
[of recent Mad Cow fame]
according to court documents. The couple was engaged at the time. Both families told Grant deputies that the other threatened them. The young couple relocated to Sedro-Woolley, but the woman’s family continued to call her cellular phone and ask for her to return, according to Tucker’s statement. During one of these conversations, the woman taped her brother saying he would return her to her family "dead or alive," Tucker said in his affidavit. Nassar’s father, Sadallah Nassar, told the Skagit Valley Herald that the accusations were false.
"Lies! All lies!"
"My son went to visit his sister. That’s it," Sadallah Nassar said. "He wanted to see how she’s been, how she is, nothing else."
"And he brought his costume to do his Village People act. Have you seen him do ’YMCA’? He’s very good."
Police reports also say the two men who were arrested told officers they were only in the area to visit the young woman, but officers were bothered by inconsistencies in the two men’s stories, according to court records. "We determined they made a substantial attempt to retrieve her," Wood said.
They're just not very good at being thugs.
In some conservative strains of Islam, marrying outside the faith is particularly problematic for women. Farhat J. Ziadeh, a University of Washington professor emeritus who specializes in Islamic law, said from the Muslim perspective that Islamic law exists to ensure a continuation of the faith. "The man is the head of the family and the children follow the man’s religion and they don’t want anyone to be cut off from Islam," Ziadeh said.
"Or they’ll cut off their heads."
Posted by: Dar || 12/28/2003 12:21:21 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They should make an example of Kalil Nassar to show that the laws of the United States trump Islamic law in the US. I do not know if he can be deported but he should be slammed down hard for a message to others. We do not want to have the extreme cases of killing happening here like in the UK recently.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/28/2003 13:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like a nice piece of police work. Kudos to the Skagit County cops. Let's give Mr. Nasser and his amigo, Senor Cortez, a fair trial. Afterwards a sentence of 6-8 years in prison should be imposed. Followed in due course by the usual whining and seething from the likes of CAIR, the ACLU, and (for the sake of diversity) MEChA.
Posted by: Mark || 12/28/2003 16:43 Comments || Top||

#3  I am sure CAIR anf the ACLU have lawyers standing by for just this type of 'situation.'
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/28/2003 22:01 Comments || Top||


Middle East
UK blasts PA ploy over Christmas card
Slightly edited, but otherwise quite entertaining.
A diplomatic row has erupted between the Palestinian Authority and Downing Street over a letter of greetings British Prime Minister Tony Blair is said to have sent to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat.

Last week the PA’s official news agency, Wafa, reported that Blair, like many world leaders, had extended Christmas greetings to Arafat. Blair’s purported message included the wish that Palestinians "realize their hopes in establishing an independent Palestinian state," Wafa said.

But Downing Street said it was unaware of any Christmas greetings being sent to Arafat by Blair.

A spokeswoman for Blair in London said: "We are not aware of such a message being sent, so I’m not sure what they’re reporting, to be honest. The prime minister doesn’t usually send out messages at this time of the year. It is not something that we do. I’m afraid we’re not aware of any specific message being sent."

The denial has embarrassed the Palestinian leadership, which on Saturday issued a statement retracting the original story. The statement, carried by Wafa, said: "Before we say anything, we wish to apologize for making a mistake by reporting that Mr. Blair had sent a cable of greetings to President Arafat in which he expresses his hope that the Palestinian people would realize their hopes of establishing an independent Palestinian state."
OK, we were caught out in a lie!
The statement said in its corrected version of the story that Blair had sent a "traditional greeting card" in response to a similar greeting card from Arafat on the occasion of Christmas.
I thought Blair’s office had denied sending any seasonal Greeting. This looks like the replace a big lie with a small lie and non-one will notice theory.
The statement said that the Palestinians could not understand why the British prime minister’s spokeswoman had to deny the story in such an enthusiastic manner. Sounded pretty factual to me but then what do know I’m just a westerner who can follow a logical argument which this aint!"Most probably this denial stems from the fear of being accused of anti-Semitism, an accusation which the West is usually afraid of, although the contents [of the greetings] did not include anti-Semitic [remarks] or similar things."
The palestinian press agency were quite right to point this out. It is the only factual and newsworthy item here.
Hinting that the British government’s denial was the result of pressure from Israel, the statement went on to ask, "What did Wafa say in its original story? Why all the fuss and who’s behind it?"

The statement concluded by lashing out at the position and tone of the British prime minister’s spokeswoman. "The British spokeswoman should have talked about a greeting card without going into the details of an all-out denial with a feeling of guilt," it said. "The hopes of the Palestinian people and their independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital, are legitimate. Britain is first and foremost responsible for the nakba [catastrophe; the term used by Palestinians to describe the creation of Israel in 1948]."

In Ramallah, a senior PA official described the British denial as "tasteless." Of course I see it now! The paleos are arbiters of good taste- suicide belts are going to be soooo 2004 He said Arafat was upset with the way the British prime minister chose to deal with the issue. "There was no need for such a strong denial, because we are talking about greetings, not political statements," he added. "I’m really hurt by this and this really doesn’t help my (lack of) credibility"
Posted by: phil_b || 12/28/2003 5:44:17 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Entertaining. Yes. Telegraph (only UK paper I bother to scan) Beeb, Reuters, al-Jizz are mum. Another "Saddam-OBL Gay Wedding" @ Jerusalem Post?

Or, are the Paleos smart enough to invent something like this for public consumption while dumb enough to think it won't spread out?

Now that it's out in an English-language text, there may be more amusement in watching what (if any) Newton's Third Law effects there are. Watch this space.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/28/2003 6:51 Comments || Top||

#2  we are talking about greetings

Ah how sweet. Exchanging season's greetings with a terrorist. Well here's mine: "Dear Chairman Arafat, I wish you an extremely short New Year! God Bless"
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/28/2003 8:02 Comments || Top||

#3  PA spokesperson: "Most probably this denial stems from the fear of being accused of anti-Semitism, an accusation which the West is usually afraid of, although the contents [of the greetings] did not include anti-Semitic [remarks] or similar things."

phil_b: The palestinian press agency were quite right to point this out. It is the only factual and newsworthy item here.

Don't see how that observation is factual. Does Blair currently hope that a Palestinian state is established soon? Maybe not. The denial may be an indication that he is backpedaling from what previously appears to have been the British position. The Palestinian assertion may have been a way of testing Blair's commitment to a Palestinian state, which now appears to have diminished considerably.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/28/2003 13:43 Comments || Top||

#4  It's not inconceivable that Blair's lovely wife, Cherie, snuck one of their Christmas cards out of the box and sent it to Yasser...but it's marvelous to see Tony come out publicly and disavow this, because as Zhang Fei said, he had been pretty pro-Paleostinian in the past.
Let's hope Dubya gave him a good talking to when he was Over There.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/28/2003 13:51 Comments || Top||

#5  JT's right - Cherie's a terror lover from way back. Paleo booster in particular, so it might've happened as she suggested
Posted by: Frank G || 12/28/2003 14:03 Comments || Top||

#6  She's a 'human rights' lawyer - wadja expect!?
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/28/2003 19:38 Comments || Top||


From the time is not on some people’s side file
From Debka and cut from a longer article
Middle Eastern sources report that Assad complained bitterly that his attempts to persuade Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to join him for peace talks had run into a blank wall.

”He doesn’t even bother to answer me,” Assad lamented. “I sent him at least three messages recently and he says nothing. I even offered to accept a return to the June 4, 1967 lines and drop any demand for a mutual reduction of forces. I said we could separate the Palestinian issue from the Syrian-Israel process and leave it out altogether. What else can I offer the man?” Assad asked.
Welcome to the real world! Just because a deal was on offer last year doesn’t mean its still on offer. In case you hadn’t notice some things have changed.
Our sources report that Mubarak simply held out his hands and told Assad, welcome to the club.

”I don’t know what to tell you. I sent my foreign minister to Jerusalem and even agreed to leave Arafat out of the visit. I indicated to Sharon that I endorse your proposition of bilateral talks without involving the Palestinian problem. But he made no response to Maher. The man simply says nothing.”

DEBKAfile’s political sources call Sharon the silent man. Even when vice premier Ehud Olmert practically boasts of the prime minister’s support for his own sweeping West Bank withdrawal plan, Sharon neither confirms nor gainsays the assertion.
I love this! Sharon has figured out that time is on the Israeli side. Just wait a while longer and see what happens. Of course Assad and to a lesser extent Mubarack have figured out that time is not on their side. So they get more desperate to make a deal.
Posted by: || 12/28/2003 4:43:42 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He doesn’t even bother to answer me,” Assad lamented. “I sent him at least three messages recently and he says nothing.

Oh we've all been there.
Baby Assad is losing his looks early.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/28/2003 9:39 Comments || Top||

#2  This is from Debka people, but if it's true...

<comment voice="Mr Burns">
Excellent...
</comment>
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/28/2003 19:58 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
U.N. Nuclear Inspectors Arrive in Libya
Libya said its welcoming of the world’s top nuclear watchdog was a ``strategic’’ step and urged all nations - particularly Israel - to dispose of weapons of mass destruction. Abdel-Rahman Shalqam, the foreign minister, in a press conference with U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei, said Libya’s 15-year-old weapons program did not produce any weapons. ``We don’t have weapons of mass destruction,’’ he said Saturday. ``We didn’t arrive to the point of weaponization.’’
"Please, Mr. Rumsfeld, you have to believe us!"
ElBaradei, who arrived with a team of experts earlier in the day, had said earlier that Libya appeared to be far from producing nuclear arms.
Boy, he’s good -- he knew this even before he visited.
Shalqam reiterated what Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi had surprisingly announced more than a week ago: that Libya would cooperate with full transparency with the International Atomic Energy Agency and sign a protocol allowing wide-ranging inspections on short notice. ``We are sure that this step is a strategic one, and we call up on others to follow,’’ Shalqam said. ``This is a clear message to everybody, especially the Israelis, that they must start disposing of weapons of mass destruction.’’
In your wet dreams, Shalqam.
ElBaradei praised Libya’s new openness as a step in the right direction, ``particularly in the Middle East.’’ He said his team would immediately begin technical discussions with Libyan experts and officials and would visit all the relevant sites. Gadhafi said his country’s action might pressure Israel, the only Mideast nation believed to possess nuclear arms, to disarm. Israel refuses to confirm or deny a weapons program.
"Youse guys figger it out fer yerselves!"
Shalqam said the government had started to discuss dismantling Libya’s 15-year-old weapons program about four years ago.
Got a big push after Bush smacked the Taliban, I’ll bet.
ElBaradei said Libya received its weapons equipment ``through Iran the black market and Pakistan middle people.’’ What is known, ElBaradei said on the Vienna to Amsterdam leg of his flight to the Libyan capital, is that the Libyans ``tried to develop an enrichment capability,’’ for uranium, apparently as part of a nascent weapons program that was later abandoned. He said he could not rule out that IAEA teams would find evidence of ``weaponization’’ of uranium through enrichment.
I’m sure he’ll figure it out, look at the great job they did in finding weaponized uranium in Iran.
ElBaradei’s team included Iran and Iraq experts. He said that allowed a ``multidisciplinary’’ approach.
This is just too funny. I’m sure the Iranian experts were very helpful!
Posted by: Steve White || 12/28/2003 12:48:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I have often wondered how an Egyptian becomes an expert on nuclear weapons? Does Egypt have them? I mean where did he get his experience - in Iraq,Iran, Libya??
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/28/2003 3:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Ah, so I'm not the only one who doesn't "get" the joke of an Egyptian Dummy and a Swiss Bon Bon being the UN's chosen weapons inspection teams "chiefs"...

This is a classic example from the "What's wrong with this picture?" series.
Posted by: .com || 12/28/2003 7:32 Comments || Top||

#3  The egyptian nuke program was started back when they were cozying up to the soviets(60's?). Nuke power and research with the aim of a egyptian bomb. When it became clear the soviets didn't care much for that idea, most of them went to work for the Iraqi nuclear program, just after Sammy took over. From there they took jobs with the UN, I saw one article that over half of IAEA was of Arab or Egyptian origin.
Posted by: Steve || 12/28/2003 11:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Steve---IIRC the article mentioned the nuclear engineering program at the University of Alexandria, where they crank out graduate about 40 per year. Since they have nowhere in Egypt to go for employment, they work in other countries in the Middle Earth East or wind up working for the IAEA. And with them aboard, Ladies and Gentlemen, forever on vigilant watch for WMD, you can all sleep the sleep of babes, no worries.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/28/2003 13:18 Comments || Top||

#5  A. Paul, ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!
I have almost complete insomnia now...!
In Dr. Hamir Hamza's book "Saddam's Bombmaker," he stated over and over that the hyper-vigilance of the IAEA was one of the only successful checks on Saddam's nukeyalar ambitions...
But I'm with you guys: How can we leave checking on the Islamist rogue states to a (jihadi) man named Mohammed???
The "Islam Bomb" was Nasser's idea and he made sure that lots of little Egyptian boys like ElBaradei got the appropriate training and education to make that happen.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/28/2003 15:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Jennie---Here is a link that presents a timeline for events concerning Egypt's nuclear ambitions in the sixties, just in case you are bored during insomnia.

Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/28/2003 16:43 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
U.N. Peacekeepers Secure Liberian Town
U.N. peacekeepers took up positions in a rebel-held Liberian town Saturday for the first time since arriving in this West African nation in August to secure a peace deal aimed at ending years of war. The deployment comes a day after Liberia’s interim head of state, Gyude Byrant, met with rebels and convinced them to allow peacekeepers into rebel-held territory.
"Guys? Please? Really now!"
On Thursday, Liberians United for Reconciliation rebels stopped Pakistani peacekeepers from deploying in Tubmanburg, 20 miles north of Monrovia. The rebels were demanding senior posts in key government departments, including police, immigration and port management. On Saturday, a contingent of Pakistani troops rolled into Klay, a small town 20 miles northwest of the capital. The town has been under rebel control for over six months.
Must have been the fierce reputation the Paks have as UN peacekeepers that persuaded them.
U.N. peacekeeping commander Gen. Daniel Opande continued on to Tubmanburg and said peacekeepers would also move units there soon. Saturday’s deployment ``begins the expressway to renewed civil war long road to reunite the whole country together,’’ Opande said. The Pakistani commander in Klay, Irfan Azam, told residents his troops would do their best to keep the peace. ``We can assure you that you will never feel let down,’’ Azam said.
How reassuring. When’s the balloon going up?
One small group of rebels danced, sang and burned their bras smoked marijuana after peacekeepers forced them to dismantle a checkpoint.
Are we sure Camus hasn’t come back to life to write this novel?

Kind of an African Myth of Sysiphus?
Posted by: Steve White || 12/28/2003 12:38:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "U.N. Peacekeepers" and "Secure" - now there's an oxymoron.

Come to think of it, so is "U.N." and "Peace."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/28/2003 13:16 Comments || Top||

#2  The rebels were demanding senior posts in key government departments, including police, immigration and port management.

Not the jobs so much as the bribes that go with them? They should be working on UN jobs for the perks that go along.
Posted by: john || 12/28/2003 20:30 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Basayev claims responsibility for recent round of booms
Chechen guerrilla commander Shamil Basayev said on a rebel web site that he masterminded two deadly suicide attacks that separatists had earlier condemned.
"I dunnit and I'm glad!"
Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev on Friday blamed Basayev for the attacks that killed 46 people on a train in the Stavropol region and six outside the National Hotel in Moscow. But Sergei Yastrzhembsky, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman on Chechnya, said Wednesday that authorities had no firm proof Basayev was behind the attacks. "We do not have 100 percent proof of this information, but it is one of the main lines of the inquiry," he told a news conference.
I think I'd make it the assumption I'd start with, and then see if anything disproves it...
But Basayev said in a statement posted late Tuesday on the Kavkaz Center web site: "Those were pre-planned combat operations to oppose the Russian aggression, carried out by our brigade’s fighters." On Dec. 5, two days before the State Duma elections, a bomb ripped through a packed commuter train near the town of Yessentuki, killing 46 passengers, mostly students on their way to class. Two days after Putin’s allies scored a big election win, a female suicide bomber killed herself and five others outside the National Hotel. Russian officials pointed a finger at Chechen separatists. But rebels denied responsibility and condemned "all terror acts and acts of violence ... directed against the civilian population" in a statement posted on the same web site.
Yeah. Right. They never do that sort of thing.
Basayev said in his message that he saw any Russian national as a legitimate target and vowed to pursue such attacks. "We reject all accusations regarding students who died as a result of our action. Immeasurably more young people die here, in our motherland, and the vast majority are absolutely innocent," Basayev said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:18:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: West
Ivorian coup plotters out on bail
A court in Ivory Coast has freed on bail two generals, Soumaila Diabakate and Alain Mouandou, held for three months in connection with a suspected coup bid, judicial sources said on Friday. The two men, who were released with six other soldiers by the Abidjan Court of Appeal, were arrested at the end of August while on active service. The state prosecutor then announced 18 arrests overall in the main city. "The case against them is empty because there’s no evidence at all for the accusations," Hyacinthe Sarassoro, a lawyer for the two generals, told AFP.
That's what their mouthpiece sez, anyway...
Soon after the arrests, military prosecutor Major Ange Kessy said that "sufficiently similar objects and documents" had been found in Ivorian police searches to haul in "soldiers who were to carry out an attack of state security, an assassination and subversive acts in the terrorist range". Sarassoro riposted on Friday that "these papers are tracts with no legal value". The alleged mastermind of a planned coup against President Laurent Gbagbo, whose country is already split in two by a civil war, is a self-proclaimed leader of the Ivorian rebels who lives in exile in France, Ibrahim Coulibaly. In all, 11 soldiers and seven civilians were arrested in Ivory Coast. Coulibaly himself was arrested in Paris in August for allegedly plotting another coup against the Gbagbo government. He was released on bail in September but has been banned from leaving France.
Unless he suddenly becomes president of Ivory Coast, of course...
On December 16, Coulibaly gave a Paris court a request to have proceedings against him dropped. Two of his aides, a lawyer and the suspected financier of the alleged plot, have made a similar judicial request. French prosecutors are investigating 14 people in connected with the alleged plot.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:16:37 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This should be in Africa: West, not SAST.

Sorry, Fred.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 0:21 Comments || Top||


UN Peacekeepers to deploy in Liberian rebel zones
United Nations peacekeepers in Liberia have deployed to a rebel-held area for the first time since arriving in the country several months ago. A contingent of Pakistani troops arrived Saturday in the strategic town of Klay about 35 kilometers north of the capital, Monrovia. The town is controlled by the country’s main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). A group of rebels sang songs and shook hands with the peacekeepers as they deployed. Many said they were tired of war.
Then they broke out the liquor and the Paks came down with the vapors...
The U.N.’s top peacekeeping commander, General Daniel Opande, then continued on to the nearby rebel stronghold of Tubmanburg. He said peacekeepers would soon move units to that town as well. Saturday’s deployment comes two days after the rebels blocked peacekeepers from entering their territory, saying they were not informed about their arrival. The dispute was resolved after a meeting Friday between the rebels and U.N. officials. Disarming some 40,000 fighters is seen as key to ending the civil war. While thousands of fighters loyal to former Liberian President Charles Taylor have surrendered their weapons, the rebels have yet to start disarming.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:14:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front
Congressmen want Saudi Accountability Act
The Saudi Arabia Accountability Act was introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate and is currently in committee. The bill seeks to place sanctions against the kingdom for not cooperating with the United States in the war on terror.

"The reality is the kingdom is in a daily battle against terrorism and has cooperated fully with the United States in combating terrorism," says the Saudi-American Forum.

Saudi Arabia has been praised for its efforts from President Bush and numerous high-ranking officials. This accountability bill only seeks to damage the U.S.-Saudi relationship and to impair the U.S.’s ability to effectively work with its allies, maintains the Forum in a press release.

Weakening our partnership in the war on terror will make Americans less safe, says the Forum, which asks that voters, "Please tell your Member of Congress and Senators your opinion on the continued effort to castigate a critical partner in America’s war on terrorism."

On Nov. 18, 2003, Sen. Arlen Specter. R-Pa., introduced the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2003. The bill was later introduced in the House on Nov. 21, 2003, by Rep. Anthony D. Weiner, D-N.Y.

This bill, says the Forum, seeks to place sanctions on Saudi Arabia unless the president makes a certification that Saudi Arabia is making maximum effort to fight terrorism. If a certification is not made, according to the bill, the president should take the following actions:

# Prohibit export to Saudi Arabia of any defense articles or services listed on the Arms Export Control Act.

# Prohibit export to Saudi Arabia of any items listed on the Commerce Control List (these are materials that have both economic and military uses).

# Restrict travel of Saudi diplomats to a 25-mile radius of the city in which their offices are located. (This would apply to the Saudi Embassy in D.C., the Saudi U.N. mission in New York, and the Saudi Consulates in Houston and Los Angeles).

The Saudi-American Forum believes these types of hostile legislative initiatives damage the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:11:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "damage the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. "

ANd the fact that the main whckos in the region that attacked the US are from Saudi dint already demolishit?

Or the wild-assed Wahaabi rabblerousing and funding of terror hasnt dented things a bit?

The "Saudi-American" forum had best tend to their back yard if they want to keep us helping them instead of rolling the tanks in once we are done with Iraq.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/28/2003 5:35 Comments || Top||

#2  And we know the terrain is ideal...
Posted by: .com || 12/28/2003 7:16 Comments || Top||

#3  If the Donks are smart they'll jump on this bill. Bet you could get enough votes override and thus avoid a veto.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/28/2003 9:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Meaning with 61 Senators I think Bush would actually have to sign it...
Posted by: Shipman || 12/28/2003 9:28 Comments || Top||

#5  "If the Donks are smart they'll jump on this bill..."

"Donks"... "smart"... both words in same sentence... cognitive dissonance... head hurts... OWWW!

Who know what they'll do; they probably will support this bill, out of opposition to what they perceive (or pretend to perceive) as the Bush administration's coddling of the Saudis.

It'll be interesting to watch the progress of this bill, and who's for it and who's against it, and the administration's reaction to it. Interesting, also, is that it's Arlen Specter (R-PA) sponsoring the bill. Specter is up for re-election next year, and Bush is strongly supporting him against a more conservative challenger. Would Specter jeopardize Bush's support by introducing a bill that the administration finds anathema? My hunch is, no.

I don't think we need to worry about a presidential veto of this bill. The administration may emit a few mild, pro forma public complaints about it, but it won't be vetoed.

Frankly, I suspect the Bush administration is behind this bill in the first place. I've said a number of times that I've been expecting Bush to very gradually, but relentlessly, ratchet up the pressure on the Saudis to make radical changes in their society- like aggressively reining in the Wahhabi clerics, and criminalizing all forms of support for jihadi terrorism.

I think this bill is just one more piece in that gradual ratcheting-up.
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/28/2003 10:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Civics lesson, guys: The Legislative makes laws. The Executive enforces them. Congress hands W a club. It's up to him how hard to swing it. A bill to limit Presidential authority might cause a spasmodic stab at the veto button.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/28/2003 11:10 Comments || Top||

#7  Where's the clause outlawing foreign financial support for religious establishments in the US?
Posted by: Nero || 12/28/2003 13:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Here is a link to the language of the bill.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/28/2003 13:46 Comments || Top||

#9  "Frankly, I suspect the Bush administration is behind this bill in the first place. I've said a number of times that I've been expecting Bush to very gradually, but relentlessly, ratchet up the pressure on the Saudis to make radical changes in their society- like aggressively reining in the Wahhabi clerics, and criminalizing all forms of support for jihaditerrorism. I think this bill is just one more piece in that gradual ratcheting-up."
I definitely agree with Dave D. on this: I don't think President Bush is going to give the Saudis a pass on squat and he may be "letting" Arlen McSpecter and other members of Congress do his dirty work for him.
KLo posted this excellent in-depth analysis of the Saudi problem on NRO's the Corner:
The Saudi Paradox from Foreign Affairs Magazine which I think should be a must read for every American right now.
The author, Michael Scott Doran, points out that the (Sunni) Wahhabs are engaged in a global religious war against the Shi'ites until Judgement Day and you know what that means.
Sunni or later (Ha-ha) the Sauds are going to have to give this up or get their 72 virgins trying.
2004 and beyond promises to be an interesting year.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/28/2003 14:02 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Turkish al-Qaeda planned to bomb Israeli passenger ship
The Turkish al-Qaida cell that was responsible for twin suicide bombings against two synagogues, the British consulate and the HSBC in Istanbul, had planned to bomb an Israeli passenger ship which frequently sails between Israel and Turkey. Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper reported Saturday that the Islamic terror group had originally intended to hit an Israeli ship, but changed its targets when the Israeli vessel deviated from its normal routine en route to dock at Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Alanya. No reason was given for the route deviation.

Harun Ilhan, a Turkish terrorist linked to Osama bin Laden and now under arrest, reportedly said that the group decided to strike the consulate only at the last minute after the Israeli vessel failed to dock at Alanya. The Cumhuriyet newspaper reported Friday that the target was a passenger ship. Harun Ilhan, who was arrested in the central Anatolian city of Konya, reportedly admitted that a foreign cruise liner was among planned targets. Ilhan was also taken to the site of Istanbul’s Neve Shalom synagogue to help police recreate what had happened. Ilhan admitted to being the number 2 man in al-Qaida’s Turkish cell, and told investigators that the attacks on the synagogues were planned two years ago.

Turkey announced Friday that it had successfully dismantled Istanbul’s al-Qaida cell, having charged a total of 44 people in connection with bombings in the city. Turkish Minister for Internal Affairs Abdulkadir Aksu signed Thursday a protocol with Minister of Internal Security Tzahi Hanegbi on cooperation on internal security, the fight against terror, human and drug trafficking and other problems. During talks, Hanegbi also suggested training Turkish security forces to respond to terror-related crimes and requested that Turkey mediate peace talks between Israel and Syria.

The Turkey’s newspaper Zaman reported that Israel asked Turkey to mediate with Syria. "It has been stated that Turkey and Syria are friends," Hanegbi said. "Turkey is also our friend. Then, Turkey could act as a mediator between Syria and Israel. This would bring home to Syria what the consequences of supporting terrorism would be." Aksu said tension and disagreeable incidents between Turkey and Syria were in the past after the Agana Agreement was signed and expressed his pleasure at Israeli’s request for Turkey to act as mediator. "It is a heartwarming message. We acknowledge the sincerity of this message."

Hanegbi’s visit to Ankara follows that of his Turkish counterpart, who is also responsible for emergency services. "In spite of intelligence regarding possible al-Qaida attacks, the feeling on the streets is that no one is changing their routine," Hanegbi told Israel Radio Thursday afternoon. "The Turks are a tough nation," he observed, "and nobody here would dream of changing his way of life. The Jewish community enjoys close cooperation with the police, and they feel absolutely at home."

The current agreement of principles updates a previous agreement from 1994 and focuses on the fight against terrorism. Cooperation between the two nations recently reached new levels following the November bombing of two synagogues in Istanbul. The Mossad had then warned Turkish authorities of possible attacks, and helped collect and collate intelligence information in the aftermath. The two countries will also upgrade the level of cooperation on matters of internal security. Subjects include international terrorism, arms smuggling, illegal immigration and human and drugs trafficking. The two countries will exchange information, intelligence and technology, and carry out joint exercises of their respective coast guards. And Turkish police will, for the first time, train with Israeli police.

On Thursday, Turkish authorities have found 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of explosives, prepared to be used in possible terrorist attacks, a news agency reported. The explosives, including the powerful military explosive RDX, were found during searches conducted in three districts of Istanbul, the semiofficial Anatolia agency said, citing unidentified sources. Anatolia said the explosives were prepared to be used in possible attacks but gave no details. The report did not say when the explosives were discovered.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/28/2003 12:08:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iran
Minister claims 70,000 victims in Iran quake
The devastating earthquake in Iran killed and injured up to 70,000 people in the city of Bam, said Iranian health minister on Saturday. “We estimate now that 65 to 70 percent of the Bam’s population have either been killed or injured,” Dr Ahmad Pezeshkian told AFP. He estimated Bam’s population at 100,000 people, but did not venture to give a breakdown of the casualties from Friday’s quake.
Like I said Friday, this is of biblical proportions.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/28/2003 23:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's because the people were living in biblical conditions.
Posted by: Charles || 12/28/2003 1:09 Comments || Top||

#2  This earthquake is unusual not for its power the USGS is reporting richter 6.3 to 6.5, but the fatalities being reported for an earthquake of this magnitude makes it the most destructive in terms of human lives on record.

Here is a list of earthquakes over the last 100 years - http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmajr.html
Posted by: phil_b || 12/28/2003 3:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Approximated estimates of estimated guesses... Had these numbers come from someone other than the Black Hats, I'd be more inclined to believe them, but...
Posted by: .com || 12/28/2003 7:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Time for another test of the Jew H.A.A.R.P. I hear Pakistans pretty unstable this time of year.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/28/2003 9:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Like Phil said, the strength isn't that unusual. What makes third-world quakes so deadly is a combination of poor construction materials and techniques, the prevalance of bribery to work around building code issues, and poor access to emergency services.

Compare the December 22nd quake in California: 6.5 on the Richter. Thanks to building codes, strong inspections, and real emergency services, only two died.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/28/2003 9:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Another factor is where the epicenter occurs vis a vis cities. The Coalinga quake in California back in 83 or so was deadly both because of all the old brick buildings in the town and because the center of the quake was very close by, so they took the full brunt of it.

I was doing 65 mph or so on Hwy 101 not too far from Coalinga that day. It was awe-inspiring to see the surface of the road rise and fall like an ocean wave - we suddenly found ourselves travelling one lane over.

The in-laws were the 3rd car back when a section of the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed in that 8+ quake a few years later. We had friends who lost everything when the earth on the hillsides came sliding down in that one .. their home was secured to the bedrock but it didn't stand a chance against the tons of rocks, trees and dirt. That quake went on and on, which is probably why everything loosened, as the house had withstood other large tremors with no difficulty.
Posted by: rkb || 12/28/2003 10:14 Comments || Top||

#7  It doesn't matter whether it was vertical or horizontal accelerations that did the damage. Unreinforced mud brick will disinegrate either way. That is what happens when you put your money in mullahs and not in good engineering, construction, quality control and code enforcement. If people do not want to live (and die) that way, they should consider regime change. The Turks have had the same results in with crooked contractors skimping on materials and methods, and inspectors who have looked the other way. I hope that this wakes up the Iranian people. They do not have to face tragedies of this proportion that happened in Bam.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/28/2003 13:57 Comments || Top||

#8  Well the Iranian money wasn't just in Mullahs; they also invested in nuclear bomb making.
Posted by: mhw || 12/28/2003 18:08 Comments || Top||

#9  And thus the wages of living in the 7th century are paid, tragically.
The shame is that it doesn't have to be this way.

Fuck these militant Islamists who keep their people down.
Posted by: Les Nessman || 12/28/2003 23:43 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Libyan Muslim Brotherhood criticizes decision to give up armament programs
The banned Muslim Brotherhood group in Libya considered the announcement made by Tripoli government to give up armament programs of non traditional weapons as an attempt to solve its external problems at any price.
If they're banned, why should Muammar be expected to pay any attention to their opinions?
In a statement, the group considered the Libyan decision as an evidence on miscalculation in spending billions of dollars on armament, at the expense of the prosperity of the Libyan people, and that the decision is taken under the complete absence of the Libyan people participation in such decisions.
Muammar has pissed away billions on arms and ammunition, to the detriment of the Libyan people. How does cutting some of the frivolous expenditures hurt them?
The statement said that the issue of traditional weapons is of concern of the future of the Arab region as a whole, noting that it was better for Libya to have had coordinated with the Arab states to this effect.
Why? Are the Arab states involved in the development? Have they kicked in for the purchase?
Libya had announced surprisingly last Friday, after nine months of secret negotiations with the Americans and the British, that it will engage in programs to develop nuclear or chemical weapons.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/28/2003 23:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  that it will engage in programs to develop nuclear or chemical weapons.

Use shouldn't confuse what you hope will happen with what is going to happen. Somebody should take a clue-bat to this writers head.
Posted by: Charles || 12/28/2003 0:56 Comments || Top||

#2  uh-oh...look out for seething and anger on the Arab Street™ over Mo's capitulation on WMDs
Posted by: Frank G || 12/28/2003 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  In the Zawara Declaration of April 1973 Qaddafi outlawed the Communists, Baathists and, most particularly, the Muslim Brotherhood. For thirty years Q has fought the Brotherhood's every effort to reorganize. Over the last ten years they have regained some strength (even in the military) and that has Q worried.
Posted by: Tancred || 12/28/2003 10:32 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
Rebels kill troops in Sudan
Rebels from western Sudan claim they have killed 621 government troops in a two-day battle in the Dafur region.
If those numbers aren't inflated, we'd better sign those guys up for the coalition. We need them, like maybe in southeastern Afghanistan...
A government armed forces statement issued late on Friday night confirmed that a number of soldiers were killed or wounded when they thwarted an attack by "bandits" in a "fiercesome battle", but gave no figures.
Maybe the numbers aren't exaggerated, huh?
The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), one of two main rebel groups waging a revolt in Darfur since February, said fighters ambushed a force of 4500 to 5000 government troops and militiamen known as Janjaweed. The troops were advancing towards the rebel-held town of Tina on the Chad border. "We killed 621 of them and shot down two helicopters. Many of them fled to Chad across the border," JEM Secretary-General Muhamad Bashir Ahmad told journalists by telephone from Darfur. He said 27 rebel fighters were killed in the battle which began on December 25 near Kulbus town, about 120 km north of El Geneina, capital of Western Darfur state. The battle was a joint attack by JEM and the other main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), he added. The SLA, which confirmed the attack, signed a ceasefire with Khartoum in September but peace talks in Chad between the two sides broke down earlier this month with both sides blaming each other.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/28/2003 23:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Admitting that some of your own were killed to is a strong sign that enemy KIA aren't inflated. I wouldn't be suprised, though. 5,000 troops marching together make a nice target for motars and remote controlled IED's. My biggest is about the terrain. Anybody have a map?
Posted by: Charles || 12/28/2003 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Charles - I'll bet you can find what you're looking for here: UT Library Maps Collection
Posted by: .com || 12/28/2003 7:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Great .com you sent Charles to map delight. I doubt we'll see him for a week.

I'm still figuring out what I'm gonna do with all Russian ordinance maps I downloaded.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/28/2003 9:18 Comments || Top||

#4  This region was the center of some vicious fighting in the late 1980s, early 1990s. There were extensive casualties on both sides when border Zaghawa rebels, backed by French intelligence operating from the French embassy in Khartoum, succeeded in overthrowing the Chad government of Hissene Habre. This time it is the Zaghawa, backed by other ethnic minorities in Darfur who are taking on the Government of Sudan and its regional Arab tribes.
Posted by: Tancred || 12/28/2003 10:25 Comments || Top||

#5  "Janjaweed?" Hmm. What is the quality of the weed, and how much ganja do the troops get?
Posted by: John Anderson || 12/28/2003 21:05 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2003-12-28
  Saudis Foil Attack on British Air Jet
Sat 2003-12-27
  Berlusconi Reports Vatican Terror Threat
Fri 2003-12-26
  Up to 20,000 dead in Iran quake
Thu 2003-12-25
  Another boom attack on Perv
Wed 2003-12-24
  Air France cancels U.S. bound flights
Tue 2003-12-23
  Libya invites US oil companies back
Mon 2003-12-22
  Egyptian FM attacked by Paleos in Jerusalem
Sun 2003-12-21
  Syria seizes six AQ couriers, $23 million
Sat 2003-12-20
  Train boom masterminds identified
Fri 2003-12-19
  Libya to dump WMDs
Thu 2003-12-18
  Malvo guilty!
Wed 2003-12-17
  Big-time raids in Samarra
Tue 2003-12-16
  Izzat Ibrahim hangs it up?
Mon 2003-12-15
  Sammy sings
Sun 2003-12-14
  Saddam captured

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