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Unknown group claims "attack" on Egyptian charter plane
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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A hero recognized by member of his community
Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan
Read the introduction. Then read the comments under the photos.
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 01/05/2004 7:18:07 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  awesome love from a small town - thanks for posting this
Posted by: Frank G || 01/05/2004 8:11 Comments || Top||

#2  That was an unbelievable posting! Think about all the self indulgent, narcissistic big mouths we have to put up with, and then look at the core of dedicated Americans, rich and poor, young and old, that spent a few moments of their lives honoring one of our fallen. If we keep this core of dedicated, respectful citizens, we will never lose our country. It is up to us. Again, thanks for the touching post.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/05/2004 11:26 Comments || Top||

#3  I remember as a child being ushered out of Catholic elementary school to honor the funeral procession for a Viet Nam hero who returned "on his sheild". Some 35 years later I happened to be stuck in Albany NY with an hour to kill, and I walked pass the NY Viet Nam memorial wall. I suddenly had a flashback from my childhood, and actually pulled the soldiers name from my often unreliable "way back memory machine". Thomas J Fox suddenly appeared in my mind and as I stood their searching the names of the NY fallen, I found his name.
My point is that the seeds of patriotism are planted in those schoolkids who participated in standing on the side of that Texas road. I will wager many of those children will be able to recall that afternoon for the rest of their lives.
And although through the families tear filled grief it would be hard to appreciate the moment, this Heros final legacy on this earth will be remembered for a long time.
Posted by: Capsu78 || 01/05/2004 12:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Amazing.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/05/2004 14:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Geebus... Impressive to say the very least. I've never seen such bad photography make such an impact. (not being snarky) In some ways it reminds me of Capra's ruined D-days photos. Thank God Texas joined the union.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
The Onion: Christ Converts to Islam
Oy gevalt!
JERUSALEM—In a surprise announcement with far-reaching theological implications, Jesus Christ The Nazarene, founder of Christianity and spiritual leader of nearly two billion people, revealed Monday that He has converted to "the one true religion" of Islam.

The controversial announcement has sent shockwaves through religious circles around the globe.

"Allah is the name of the One and Only God," Christ said. "Allah has 99 beautiful names: He is known as The Gracious, The Merciful, The Beneficent, The Creator, The All-Knowing, The All-Wise, The Lord Of The Universe, The First, The Last and many more. He has revealed Himself unto Me through the holy words of the blessed Qur’an, and I have put My trust and faith in Him."

As part of His conversion, Christ said He has taken a new name, Isa Ibn Maryam al-Salaam Christ Shabazz.
Sorry. This one doesn't even raise a smile, much less a giggle.
Posted by: mojo || 01/05/2004 12:22:27 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's the safe story to do. I suspect the reaction from Muslims would have been pretty violent if the Onion had done a spoof on Muhammad converting to Christianity.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/05/2004 12:47 Comments || Top||

#2  The odiferous Onion. Say it three times and it will appear.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/05/2004 13:05 Comments || Top||

#3  So f'ni I forgot to laugh.

When Lucifer offered Jesus the chance to worship false gods, Jesus told him where to go.
Posted by: Korora || 01/05/2004 13:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Ah hell... if ya can't laugh at blasphemy what can ya laugh at? I would venture to say that the real power ain't puttin on no burka.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 14:33 Comments || Top||


BBC - Siberian Girls Gone Wild
EFL - Removed all actual news content to get to the meat.
But around the iron fist there did seem to be a softer velvet glove. Some new reforms even made us smile. For example, this year’s first ever beauty pageant to select Miss Prison Guard of All Russia, (or "Miss UIS", as it is in Russian.)
Boy, that's the kind of entry that turns a resume to gold...
It turned out that the Third Penal Colony’s very own Larissa Zelentsova had got through to the finals. A tall, beautiful blonde, she was summoned to describe to us her triumph: how she’d scored high marks in shooting from a pistol, correctly answered questions on the penal code, and proved her creativity by playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on a synthesizer.
I love multi-talented women. And how many women do you know who can answer questions on the penal code off the tops of their pretty blond heads?
There was also a beauty parade. "No bikini,
Omigawd!
only evening dress," she said.
Shucks.
"A sort of steely gray. Very austere," she added hastily.
Some men like the austerity thing - as long as her boots are knee-high, black and polished like a mirror.
Hrowf! Hrowf!
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 11:25:42 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Heh. Heh heh.

She said "penal code", Bevis...
Posted by: mojo || 01/05/2004 12:09 Comments || Top||

#2  A tall, beautiful blond with a gun, and her own handcuffs! What's not to like?
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 13:27 Comments || Top||

#3  What's not to like?

Does she know how to make a vodka martini?

Shaken, not stirred, of course.

The name's Becerra. Ed Becerra.

^_^
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 01/05/2004 13:54 Comments || Top||

#4  built like a fembot with machine guns in her jumblies?

Austin Powers
Posted by: Frank G || 01/05/2004 14:01 Comments || Top||

#5 

Larissa's the one on the left... Or is it the right?
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2004 14:28 Comments || Top||

#6  On the left, according to the article.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 14:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Can she drive a tractor?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 14:35 Comments || Top||

#8  She can pull a tractor.
Posted by: Sgt.DT || 01/05/2004 15:52 Comments || Top||

#9  She can pull a tractor.

You're gonna get Ed excited again.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 16:00 Comments || Top||

#10  EFL - Removed all actual news content to get to the meat.
Meat - or cheesecake?
Seems like a very lovely young lady. I'd be willing to be guarded by her - as closely as she would want... 8^) As for the remarks about pistol accuracy, perhaps she's applying for a position with Charlie's Angels...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/05/2004 16:46 Comments || Top||

#11  The article is one in a series. Another of the articles focuses on Tatarstan, which is 50% Muslim but flourishing. Odd contrast to Chechnya.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 17:39 Comments || Top||

#12  OP way the heck OT... but can you see 3-D with out a stand? I mean the 2 color Martian Pics.. do you need glasses or are you attuned?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 17:58 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Another Aid Worker Kidnapped in Afghanistan
The man was driving a pickup truck belonging to a Christian emergency relief organization north of Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, when he was stopped by armed men, Zabul police chief Haji Mohammed Hayub said. Hayub said two local people were shot and injured when they tried in vain to stop the attackers from taking the car and the driver. One, hit in the face, was seriously hurt, he said. The other was shot in the leg. "They stole the vehicle and took the driver," Hayub said. "We’re trying to find them." Hayub claimed the men were Taliban. "They’ve tried to do this kind of thing so many times," he said. Later Monday, Mullah Abdul Hakim Latifi, a Taliban spokesman, called The Associated Press to claim responsibility. "He is in our custody. He is safe," Latifi said. Conditions for his release would be announced later, he said by satellite telephone. He said the two people shot were hit by accident when the kidnappers wanted to deter them from trying to rescue the victim.
"Yeah! We tried to shoot over their heads, but they were just too tall!"
Posted by: TS || 01/05/2004 1:40:52 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He said the two people shot were hit by accident when the kidnappers wanted to deter them from trying to rescue the victim. A head shot is a hell of a deterrent.

The two Afghanistani Samaritans are interesting.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 17:46 Comments || Top||

#2  It's downright incredible!
Posted by: Ptah || 01/05/2004 18:25 Comments || Top||


US, Afghan Forces Raid Compound In Southern Afghanistan
American and Afghan troops raided a compound in southern Afghanistan, sparking a firefight in which one suspect was injured, the U.S. military said Monday. The raid took place Sunday morning near Deh Rawood, spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty told The Associated Press. The town in Uruzgan province has been a focus of activity for suspected Taliban militants. Uruzgan officials said the raid was in response to an attack on a U.S. convoy on Saturday that injured two American soldiers. Hilferty denied such an incident, but offered no other explanation for Sunday’s operation. Troops including special forces came under small arms fire as they approached the compound. "We cleared the compound, placing under custody several personnel, including one wounded man," Hilferty said. The soldiers also seized weapons and ammunition. There were no coalition casualties. Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammed Khan told AP that the house belonged to Haji Ghulam Nabi, a tribal leader who Khan said had close ties to the former Taliban regime. Three of his relatives were detained, but Nabi appeared to have run away evaded capture, Khan said. Deh Rawood, where the U.S. military has a small base, is considered a Taliban stronghold, and shootings and rocket attacks near the base occur regularly.

In another incident to emerge Monday, the U.S. military said an airstrike destroyed an illegal drugs laboratory in the far north of the country. Several people were detained by U.S. and Afghan troops in the Friday raid on the lab, some 60 miles northeast of Kunduz, Hilferty said. An A-10 ground attack aircraft was called in to destroy the facility, which contained about 1.5 tons of opium, a half-ton of chemicals and processing equipment, he said.
"Aw, chit, man! That wuz my friggin' stash!"
Posted by: TS || 01/05/2004 1:34:32 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Deh Rawood, where the U.S. military has a small base, is considered a Taliban stronghold, and shootings and rocket attacks near the base occur regularly.

Would this base be called a 'forward firebase'? Just wondering.

An A-10 ground attack aircraft was called in to destroy the facility, which contained about 1.5 tons of opium, a half-ton of chemicals and processing equipment, he said.

This is going to hurt someone financally......
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/05/2004 13:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Hurt? Can you imagine if we were allowed to destroy meth labs with A-10's in Indiana and Kentucky? That would be cool.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||

#3  SH LOL.

BTW ever notice it's always compounds that are raided? I'm trying to work the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port into this framework. I'm thinking there's illegal SCUBA gear.

Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 14:38 Comments || Top||

#4  SH, Good idea. Would love to see an A-10 open up on someone's garage or trailer. People might think twice about starting their own lab.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/05/2004 15:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Hurt? Can you imagine if we were allowed to destroy meth labs with A-10's in Indiana and Kentucky? That would be cool.
Woah one danged minute, you crazy varmit! We woke up at 2:30 one morning last year with 20 cop cars two streets over, surrounding a suspected (later proven) meth lab. I know A-10 pilots are good. I know they're more than a tad accurate. But I don't want to be on the receiving end of some GAU-8 ricochets, or the fragments from a 1000lb bomb. Let's continue to let the cops handle in-town busts.

Now, if there's an isolated lab in the boonies somewhere, I think an A-10 strike would be awesome, and would pay good money to sit a couple of miles away to watch it. (Sheesh, next he'll be calling for ArcLight strikes on crack houses - worse than John Ashhatcroft!)
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/05/2004 16:42 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Family row behind the killing of an American in Oman
The Omani police said that the wife of the American, whose body was found last week in Muscat, was killed by his wife, rather for political motives. In a statement, the police said that the wife of the American agreed with two Omani men to carry out the killing, to get rid off her husband who works in an Omani oil company. The statement stressed that the police arrested the three persons and they confessed their crime. No mention was given to the name of killed man or the convicted persons.
Wives, why do they hate us?
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 10:18:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's that damn song from the 1970"s, Muscat Love.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/05/2004 10:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks for the Ear Worm Chuck... you'll pay.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 14:47 Comments || Top||


Saudi Security Forces Defuse Bomb, Maybe
Saudi security forces defused a bomb in a telephone booth in a Riyadh neighborhood that has seen several confrontations between police and alleged terrorists, a security official said Monday. But an Interior Ministry official who declined to be named gave a different version of the incident, saying it involved a bomb training device that did not contain any explosives. The different versions could not be immediately reconciled.
I’ll put money on the real bomb. If the Saudi Interior Mullahstry said the sun was coming up, I’d go outside to check.
The security official said on condition of anonymity that a man found the bomb in the telephone booth next to a gas station on Sultana Street, a main thoroughfare in eastern Riyadh. Sultana Street passes through the ultraconservative district, scene of several confrontations between police and alleged terrorists.
Someone put a fatwa on phone booths?
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 9:35:48 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More details: In the oil-rich Saudi kingdom, police experts have defused a bomb at an electricity distribution power station in a Riyadh suburb, according to a report by Al Arabiya TV on Monday. The report said the bomb was found at the Sultana residential district.
According to local residents, the bomb was found Sunday night at a private telephone call office next to the petrol station on Sultana St. in the southwest of the city. Saudi security forces sealed off the area at around 10:00 pm (local time) before removing the bomb, residents said.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 10:30 Comments || Top||


Europe
Hijab Blowback: Chirac’s Appeasement Strategy is a Loser
Chirac has been sucking up to Muslims and Arabs for years — support of Saddam, terrorist organizations, etc — yet as soon as he sets limits on religious activity within France he gets accused of anti-Islamic sentiments. Just goes to show, appeasment never works.
Recently, Air France grounded all planes traveling from Paris to Los Angeles due to very credible terrorist threats. Which raised the question: could France—heretofore largely unaffected by the daily anxiety that Americans have lived with every day since 9/11—be next in line as a possible target of the Islamist terrorist networks? And if so, why now? After all, France has always been a good friend to certain terrorist-sponsoring Muslim states, especially since Jacques Chirac became President in 1995.

Chirac had a thirty-year friendship with Saddam Hussein and was the only non-Arab Head of State to attend Syrian strongman Hafez Assad’s funeral in 2000. In addition to his mutual admiration society with Saddam and the Syrian Baathists, Chirac is also friendly with dangerous Islamic terrorist organizations like Hizbullah, which, prior to September 11, 2001, held the dubious distinction of having killed more Americans than any other terrorist group. Richard Armitage, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, has said that Hizbullah is "the A-team of terrorists, while Al Qaeda may actually be the B-team." Despite Hizbullah’s blood-soaked pedigree, Chirac invited Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s Secretary General, to attend the Francophone Summit in Beirut in October 2002. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that France has been fighting tooth and nail to prevent the European Union from including Hizbullah on the list of terrorist networks. Indeed, most people do not realize how popular Jacques Chirac is in the Muslim world. In the past year, "Jacques" has become a very trendy name for newborn Muslim sons. Similarly, during this past Ramadan, the most expensive dates (a fruit frequently eaten during that holiday) were named "Chiracs" in honor of the French president. In addition, Chirac has been chosen Man of the Year by many Arab newspapers and receives standing ovations whenever he travels to Muslim countries. He has even been called the "Western Saladin" by some in the Arab media, recalling the Muslim hero who defeated the Crusaders during the twelfth century.

But on December 17, Chirac’s love affair with his Islamist friends came to a bitter end. By supporting the ban of the hijab—the veil worn by Muslim women—in France’s public schools, Chirac incurred the wrath of Islamic radicals worldwide. Almost immediately, the notorious Muslim Brotherhood "strongly condemned" Chirac’s decision. Likewise, Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, Hizbullah’s founder and spiritual leader, wrote an official letter to Chirac threatening "likely complications" for France if the law banning the hijab was passed. Mohammad Khatami, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, called on the French government to "cancel this unjust law," while his Minister of Foreign Affairs said, "This extremist decision is against the citizens’ rights and will tarnish France’s image in the Islamic world." The Lebanese Sheikh Mohammed Qabbani went even further, stating the hijab’s ban showed "a hatred of Islam." Furthermore, numerous demonstrations have already occurred in front of the French embassies in Lebanon and Bahrain. In just one day, Chirac lost the lofty standing he had attained after many years of pacifying rogue Muslim states. As a result of his decision on the hijab, he has now acquired three lethal enemies: Hizbullah, the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran, meaning that France is now facing very imminent "veiled" threats from two major terrorist networks and the largest terror-sponsoring state.

France should take these warnings very seriously for a couple of reasons. First, its Muslim population is very large (estimated at anywhere between five and eight million), and very influenced by extremist organizations such as Union Des Organisations Islamiques de France, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Second, Al Manar (Hizbullah TV) and Al-Jazeera are presently broadcasting their propaganda to French Muslims, which could lead to violent actions inside the country. Third, France is home to many Al-Qaeda cells. For example, Zacarias Moussaoui, the would-be twentieth hijacker from the September 11 attacks, came from France, as did the perpetrators of the bombing of the Djerba synagogue in Tunisia in April 2002. A terrifying book, "My Assassins’ Brothers," by Mohamed Sifaoui, shows the extent of the Al-Qaeda network in Paris and their readiness to act on demand.

Lastly, according to the daily French newspaper, Le Monde, Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan Al-Banna and the unofficial voice of Islam in France, is suspected to have links with Al Qaeda. In fact, Ramadan may have organized a meeting back in 1991 between Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s number two, and Omar Abdel Rahman, plotter of the first World Trade Center bombing. As evidenced by the venomous Islamist reaction to the ban of the hijab, France is now a prime target for Islamic terrorists from around the world. The country will also likely face violent reaction from its own Muslim population. This ticking bomb must be addressed very quickly in order to prevent massive terror attacks in Paris or against French interests in the world.
Posted by: Anonmymous || 01/05/2004 5:16:54 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remove the words "Appeasement Strategy" from the title for a more accurate appraisal.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 17:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like France will need the equivalent of a Mutual Aid Agreement that neighboring cities and counties have with each other when the situation overwhelms the local public safety crews. Better watch the Eiffel Tower, folks, Islamic terrorists could be springing up like daisies if they get pissed.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/05/2004 17:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Despite Hizbullah’s blood-soaked pedigree, Chirac invited Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s Secretary General, to attend the Francophone Summit in Beirut in October 2002. Maybe Hassan will get an invite to the D-Day Commemeration. JC is inviting his entire posse.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 17:33 Comments || Top||

#4 
France is now a prime target for Islamic terrorists from around the world. The country will also likely face violent reaction from its own Muslim population.
Awwwwwww, ain't that just tooooooo bad. Welcome to the real world, Jacques baby.

Play kissy-face (and worse) with dogs, end up with fleas, and bitten.

/schadenfreude
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 01/05/2004 18:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Great post, Anon!
I'm convinced, too, that ChIRAQ is deeply in bed with the bad guys--IOW, it's not just Iraq and Saddam, but also Iran, Syria, "Palestine," and maybe Egypt.
(About the only Arab country he doesn't seem to kiss up to is Saudi Arabia...)
That's why I think that the plane crash was to send a message to Chiraq about this hijab ban and Mubarrak, also (for trying to "accomodate" the Israelis)--a "2fer."
On the day that all is revealed and France gets its comeuppance (whatever that might be), I'm sure we'll all be shocked at the degree of French complicity with the evildoers and also feel a great deal of closure that such an arrogant, greedy country finally gets its just desserts.
As they say in France, Bon Appétit, mes amis!
You did this to yourselves.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 01/05/2004 18:19 Comments || Top||

#6  If France is going to get through the upcoming terror from the Islamic fanatics, it will take some French citizens with some strong character to stay the course while s--t is hitting the fan. I sincerely hope that there are some French men and women out there that are willing to put all on the line to save their country from darkness.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/05/2004 18:30 Comments || Top||

#7  I sincerely hope that there are some French men and women out there that are willing to put all on the line to save their country from darkness.

If "some" is the best that can be hoped for, then France is in some really deep shit. And I, for one, will not support American involvement in any kind of affair involving saving their asses from their own self-inflicted problem.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 20:35 Comments || Top||


Letter Bombs Sent to Three EU Officials
Two letter bombs addressed to senior members of the European Parliament went off, bursting into flames when opened, and another was intercepted Monday, the latest in a series of explosives mailed to European Union targets. No one was injured in the two explosions. Authorities in Brussels also intercepted a suspicious package sent to a fourth parliamentarian and were investigating whether it contained a bomb. With Monday’s packages, seven letter bombs have been sent to EU-linked offices in five countries since Dec. 27. Investigators have zeroed in on an Italian anarchist group - the "Informal Anarchic Federation" - as the likely source. Security has been hiked up at European Union institutions. No one has been injured by any of the bombs.
Looks like they are small attention getters, their way of saying "Hey, look at us!"
The letters that went off Monday were sent to the Manchester, England office of British Socialist legislator Gary Titley and the Brussels office of German Hans-Gert Poettering, the head of the conservative European People’s Party. An identical package was discovered addressed to Jose Ignacio Salafranca, a Spanish member of the European People’s Party. Bomb experts neutralized the explosive. The two packages were postmarked Dec. 22 from Bologna, the Italian city from which the earlier attacks are believed to have originated. The two packages were "identical in every respect - the same size, posted on the same day and from the same place," said David Harley, a spokesman for European Parliament President Pat Cox.
One mass mailing then they crawled back under their rock. Bet they aren’t anywhere near Bologna. That’s what I’d do.
I'll bet they were. I'll bet they were dumbass Junior Anarchist Club members from the University of Bologna.
Authorities on Monday also were checking on a suspicious package sent to Jonathan Evans, another parliament member from the European People’s Party.
The one’s that didn’t go off is where they’ll find evidence, fingerprints, DNA, tool marks, componants that can be traced, etc.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 2:56:55 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Norwegian court orders Mullah Krekar’s release
An Oslo city court ordered the release on Monday of Mullah Krekar, the controversial former leader of guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam. State prosecutors had arrested him Friday on charges tied to at least two suicide bombings. Krekar was charged under several paragraphs of Norway’s criminal code linked to alleged murder attempts in Northern Iraq in the spring of 2002. Prosecutors had sought to keep Krekar in custody for at least four weeks, but the Oslo court claimed they lacked sufficient evidence.

Prosecutors earlier vowed they’d appeal any release, and Krekar remained in jail Monday evening pending that appeal. They reportedly had relied on various statements Krekar made over the Internet recently, claiming they contained coded messages to terror groups around the world. Among them were Krekar’s alleged justification of suicide bombings, which he claimed are simply a part of jihad, or holy war. In addition to arresting him, police raided Krekar’s apartment and seized his family’s computer, fax machine and several mobile telephones. Krekar’s defense attorney rejected the prosecution’s arguments, saying his client merely has given a few speeches over the Internet and responded to questions from Islamic followers. Krekar himself claims he hasn’t done anything wrong.

Krekar first came to Norway as a refugee in 1991 but later travelled back and forth to Northern Iraq several times and ultimately led the Kurdish guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam there. His guerrilla activities set off a storm of controversy both in and out of Norway, once they became known. Norwegian officials eventually claimed that he had violated the terms of his asylum status. He has managed to remain in Norway, however, at least in part because his former home territory in Northern Iraq is now subject to US bombing and because no other country will take him. US officials also singled out Ansar al-Islam for having alleged links to the terrorist group al-Qaeda, and pressured to have Krekar detained. German authorities also have Ansar al-Islam under investigation, especially after a recent alleged terrorist action in Hamburg was defused.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:04:13 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, since the government he was "fleeing" from is now defunct, doesn't his refugee status go away?

Send him back to Iraq. I guarantee he'll get a warm reception.
Posted by: mojo || 01/05/2004 12:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Welcome to the whacky world of civilian courts' rules of evidence/procedure unleashed upon acts of war by neocombatants...
Posted by: Hyper || 01/05/2004 14:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Alot of these countries have a big cow if people like Krekar in Norway and Hamza in the UK are wanted for terrorist activities in countries that have the death penalty for those crimes. Now, in effect, Norway and the UK become havens for terrorists and become albatrosses hanging on the necks of the "host" countries. Deport this trash and the "host" country's terrorist haven status starts drying up, and life is good for normal citizens. It is too easy.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/05/2004 15:11 Comments || Top||

#4  I'd dearly like to see that one-eyed hooked bastard deported - ideally to the Yemen, where I believe he's got a rope waiting. But our wonderful leftist government signed us up to the European Convention on Human Rights, and that says you can't.

Sovereignty? What Sovereignty?
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 01/05/2004 15:26 Comments || Top||

#5  So Norway has agreed to let this clown ran amok in their society. He can't travel to any other country without being seized. I guess it sucks to be them. Maybe they can increase his colesteral intake and hope he keels over. Would that be a violation of his human rights?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 18:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Norwegian blogger Bjorn Staerk has tracked the Krekar story for many months. He's a good source, if you want to learn more.
Posted by: Alan Sullivan || 01/05/2004 21:57 Comments || Top||


Will Wonders Never Cease - Moscow Times
Via Lucianne:
2003 will primarily be remembered for the war in Iraq, the fall of Baghdad and the capture of Saddam Hussein. The U.S.-led invasion was strongly opposed by millions of Europeans and by former great powers France, Germany and Russia. But they protested in vain.
SNIP - blah, blah Israel, blah blah Napoleonic SNIP
Just before Christmas, a high-ranking French delegation of generals, admirals, defense industry officials and analysts came to Moscow. The French amazed their Russian counterparts by breaking to them something that is still news in Moscow today: The United States achieved a major victory in Afghanistan in 2001 and an even greater one in Iraq this year. Russian and French predictions of possible U.S. failure were totally off the mark, and today it would be wrong to expect a U.S. fiasco in suppressing the residual resistance in Iraq.
Their grasp of the obvious is amazing...
French and German leaders congratulated President George W. Bush with the capture of Hussein, while President Vladimir Putin remained silent. Die-hard antiwar Democrats like presidential hopeful Howard Dean, together with most Russians, still hope Bush will get a bloody nose in Iraq, but the reality of the situation on the ground does not lend support to this fantasy.
Something about failure not being an option... And they haven't mentioned Libya, the third major victory, without a shot fired nor a corpse counted...
The vast majority of the Iraqi population does not support the resistance. On the contrary, as the guerrilla campaign has developed, the discretion in using force displayed by the Americans and the indiscretion in slaughtering innocent civilians of the jihadist resistance is effectively helping to win over hearts and minds. Today the United States is in a good position to achieve its ultimate goal: the installation of a pro-U.S. Iraqi authority equipped with a military, a police force and a cadre of informers that will keep the opposition down, while the United States will retain strategically important military bases in Iraq....
In other words, what we set out to do...
It has been proven that U.S. military force or the threat of force is an effective method of reversing the proliferation of WMD worldwide. Modern precision warfare also seems to be a more humane method of dealing with rogues than traditional decade-long suffocating sanctions. While the U.S. military continues to be effective, it will surely be much in use in the future.
Pavel Felgenhauer is an independent defense analyst.
Even more significant, the threat of its use will be of much use in the future...
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/05/2004 10:07:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Holy Shait! That [part about the French and Germans saying Bush achieved a major victory] pegged the suprise meter!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/05/2004 11:40 Comments || Top||

#2  What they say in public and admit in private...watching the hands, not the mouth.
Posted by: john || 01/05/2004 11:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, thanks for the improvement.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/05/2004 12:38 Comments || Top||

#4  It has been proven that U.S. military force or the threat of force is an effective method of reversing the proliferation of WMD worldwide
When used on a regular basis as part of a healthy world-wide understanding of your precious bodily fluids.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 15:19 Comments || Top||


Turkish Press Scan
These are some of the major headlines and their brief stories in Turkey’s press on January 5, 2004.

RESONANT BOMB GOES OFF IN FRONT OF AK PARTY OFFICE
A resonant bomb which was placed in front of an office of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Umraniye district of Istanbul, went off at about 10.30 local time on Sunday. Serafettin Karabulut, 60, was slightly injured in the blast. The bomb also caused some minor damage in nearby buildings.
Resonant bomb, just a loud noise maker?

SECURITY FORCES RAID A MEETING OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY
A total of 16 people including Muslum Gunduz, the leader of Aczmendi, one of the religious communities in Turkey, were detained when security forces raided the house in which the illegal meeting of the community took place. Previously, Gunduz was sentenced to imprisonment on charges of inciting people to hatred against the others and forming an illegal organization in order to change the secular order of the Republic of Turkey.

ANKARA READY TO HOST AL-ASSAD
Ankara is going to host a Syrian President for the first time. Bashar al-Assad’s visit which was expected for three years will start tomorrow. The latest gesture of Damascus was the extradition of suspects of the Istanbul bombings. Turkey is going to open a new page with Syria which it threatened to wage war due to its support to Abdullah Ocalan. Ankara which is going to host a Syrian President for the first time attaches great importance to three-day visit of Bashar al-Assad. Turkey which will give the message of ’fight with us against terrorism’ will at the same time act as a mediator for Israel.
It sounds like Turkey's going to be the voice of sweet reason with the Boy President, while we do the hollering and face-making...
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 10:04:39 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When did Turkey get the R-bomb?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 15:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Let's hope they never get the N-bomb or the F-bomb.

And I shudder to think what it will be like if they get the nude bomb.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/05/2004 15:49 Comments || Top||


Mullah Krekar linked to organizing suicide attacks in Iraq
The Norwegian authorities redetained one of the founder of the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam group in Iraq, al-Mullah Krekar, yesterday, just 6 month after the authorities dropped terrorism accusations against him because of the lack of evidence.
"Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Da witnesses are all dead!"
According to the Norwegian daily "Fe Je," it is suspected that al-Mullah Kreikar is involved in suicide attacks carried out by Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq. Monitoring telephone calls, allowed making links between Kreikar and recent activities for the said Islamic group, in which Kreikar stressed he is no longer leading it, since May 2002, as the paper explained in its site at the internet, quoting a security source close to the investigation. The Norwegian police said it will address new accusations to Kreikar, where it said he was detained in his house in Oslo. The police officer who chairs the investigations said that the police will ask a court in Oslo today to detain Kreikar for 4 weeks while the police is filing a case against him.
See subsequent article. the court said no, thanks, we'd like to commit national suicide...
Kreikar was detained for the first time in March 2003 in his house in Oslo, and was released in April, despite dropping the accusations of terrorism off him. However, Kreikar, whose real name is Fateh Najm Eddine Faraj Ahmad is still subject to an expulsion measure from Norway, as he is considered a threat to national security.
Not a threat they take very seriously, though...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:39:41 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let's see what Bjorn Staerk has to say. Those papers' policies are idiots.
Posted by: Anonymous2u || 01/05/2004 11:05 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
MoveOn.org features Bush=Hitler Ad
Chairman Calls on Democrat Candidates to Repudiate Ad Comparing Bush to Hitler
Washington, DC-Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie today called on the nine Democrat presidential candidates to repudiate an ad posted on the Moveon.org website comparing President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler.

A transcript of the ad is below. To view the ad click on the following link: http://www.rnc.org/moveon2.mov

"This is the worst and most vile form of political hate speech. These candidates have a chance to repudiate this pollution of our political process by repudiating these ads at this afternoon’s debate in Iowa," Gillespie said.

Gillespie discussed the ad this morning on Fox News Sunday. Gillespie’s comments are below:

GILLESPIE: If you look at some of these outside groups that are coming together to defeat the president, they will spend over $1 million a day next year to defeat him. One of those groups is a group called MoveOn.org, a group that, after September 11th, said we shouldn’t respond in a military fashion, that we should just take diplomatic means to address this tragic occurrence and this terrorist strike. But they have been running an ad selection campaign on their Web site, and one of the ads that was submitted that they considered viable for airing — with $7 million, by the way, in funds that we don’t know where it comes from, but we know they’ve said they’d spend $7 million to air the ad that they’ve settled on — one of them morphed President Bush into Adolf Hitler. That’s the kind of tactics we’re seeing on the left today in support of these Democratic presidential candidates.

GILLESPIE: Every Democrat in the debate tonight ought to repudiate that tactic.
Ad Script
GRAPHIC: Pictures Of Hitler
HITLER: (Speaking In German)
CHYRON: We have taken new measures to protect our homeland,

GRAPHIC: Pictures Of Hitler
HITLER: (Speaking In German)
CHYRON: I believe I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator,

GRAPHIC: Pictures Of Hitler
HITLER: (Speaking In German)
CHYRON: God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them,

GRAPHIC: Pictures of President Bush
HITLER: (Speaking In German)
CHYRON: and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did.

CHYRON: SOUND FAMILIAR?
BACKGROUND: Cheering German Crowd
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, if Bush really were comparable to Hitler, the asshelmets who produced this ad would have vanished into night and fog by now. The mere act of showing their lying faces in public will refute their comparison.

I mentioned a while back that I have been hanging on in the Democratic Party in the hope that sane elements can regain control from the mediatarians and lefty fruitbats and revive the spirit of Sam Rayburn, Harry Truman and Scoop Jackson.

It is a disgrace that an organization so influential in the Democratic Party as moveon.org would even consider such an ad. This demonizing nonsense seems to be everywhere these days. It trivializes the evil of the Third Reich and desecrates the memory of its victims.

Enough is enough. I am giving the DNC and the nine declared Presidential candidates 48 hours to repudiate this ad and denounce the entire idiotic Bush=Hitler craze, and to demand a public apology from moveon.org.

If no such repudiation is forthcoming, I will resign from the party, and issue a press release explaining my action. I have twice held public office as a Democrat, and I host a local radio show; so at least a few people might listen.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 01/05/2004 3:27:11 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Incredible. And apart from being ignominous, it's absolutely idiotic. Did they actually understand what Hitler says in German? He talks about a new rise of Germany blabla, achieved with its own work blabla etc. It has absolutely no relation with the words of Bush.

I'm not familiar with the exact status of moveon.org. But if it is endorsed by the Democratic Party they should act fast.

And of course AC, it can never hurt to state the obvious. Because there are always people who don't understand the obvious.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/05/2004 3:44 Comments || Top||

#2  These people are beyond the pale, plain and simple.

This kind of politics has NEVER been seen in this country outside of the absolute lunatic fringe...which they clearly are.

It's time to find out exactly who funds these people and contact them...

Ford Foundation?
Posted by: RMcLeod || 01/05/2004 4:31 Comments || Top||

#3  George Soros, euthanasia advocate and billionaire fatcat, is the primary donor to moveon.org. The organization was founded by a millionaire California banker.
The director is Morton Halperin, a veteran lefty activist who designed the left's successful strategy to weaken the CIA back in the 1970s.
Soros and several other moveon principals are now reported to be involved in currency speculation against the US dollar.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 01/05/2004 5:02 Comments || Top||

#4  In a bizarre footnote, the Moscow office of Soros' Open Society Institute was involved in a violent clash over unpaid rent last November.

The dispute featured late night raids by up to 50 armed men as the building owners sought to evict the Soros minions and a failed counter-attack by a pro-Soros group.
Both groups apparently consisted mostly of local thugs recruited by the principals.
At least 10 people were injured.

The original story from Moscow Times requires paid access, but it was reposted in its entirety at Free Republic.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 01/05/2004 5:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Welcome to the club, AC. I quit the Democratic Party last February in disgust, after being a Democrat my entire adult voting life- 31 years.
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/05/2004 6:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Let em keep producing dreck like this and it will poison their party all the way to the local level for voters
Posted by: Frank G || 01/05/2004 8:26 Comments || Top||

#7  TGA, your comment is invaluable, and I've posted a link at my website about it referencing this article and your comment.
Posted by: Ptah || 01/05/2004 9:38 Comments || Top||

#8  Ummm, I take it no one's seen the photoshop of Dean?????

And didn't we praise the brave soul who altered Castro on the mag cover????
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/05/2004 10:14 Comments || Top||

#9  [Hitler's words in the video have] absolutely no relation with the words of Bush.

Speaking of stating the obvious, TGA, the "words of Bush" in the video have no relation to the words of Bush in real life. I do not believe Bush has ever said that God told him to strike al Qaeda, or Saddam.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 01/05/2004 10:23 Comments || Top||

#10  ..the Moscow office of Soros' Open Society Institute was involved in a violent clash over unpaid rent last November.

Damn, what a cheapskate.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 10:28 Comments || Top||

#11  Certainly a bunch of 'idealists' appealing to the angry masses that authoritarian imposition of a collectivist ideology is for our nations 'own good'... wait a minute?

Funny how familiar that sounds?

(D)emocrats... the new National Socialist American Worker's Party.
Posted by: DANEgerus || 01/05/2004 11:17 Comments || Top||

#12  My wife quit the Dems after Shrillary held up that newspaper 'Bush Knew'. Now my wife knows how absurd the party has become.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/05/2004 11:29 Comments || Top||

#13  Just where is a jackbooted thug when you really need one? The Reich seems to be slipping quite badly!
Posted by: Craig || 01/05/2004 13:01 Comments || Top||

#14  Only Lieberman has the guts and/or integrity to denounce this prior to the primaries.
Posted by: ruprecht || 01/05/2004 13:12 Comments || Top||

#15  And didn't we praise the brave soul who altered Castro on the mag cover????

Castro actually runs concentration camps. And imprisons those who criticize him. And runs a police state.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/05/2004 14:17 Comments || Top||

#16  Thank you Ptah for your kind words.
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/05/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||

#17  Looks like they did it again (via LGF):

http://www.rnc.org/moveon-h2.mov
Posted by: True German Ally || 01/05/2004 14:45 Comments || Top||

#18  It looks like the Democratic Party is quickly becoming a Party of Low IQ population of the U.S.
Posted by: Observer || 01/05/2004 15:34 Comments || Top||

#19  Observer: Not nice. But perhaps true.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 15:41 Comments || Top||

#20  AC, I don't expect that repudiation to happen anytime soon. I'm pretty sure democrats.com is run "outside" the party, but they're calling outrage at the ad "censorship".
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/05/2004 16:04 Comments || Top||

#21  In the Tampa,Fl. area MoveOn has already been airing ads that imply Bush wouldn't give money to hire school teachers(fyi to non-US,education is local,not national govt. responsibility in US) and instead gave $87 billion to his friends.Ad ends with unflattering photo of Bush on screen and caption MIS-LEADER imposed over his face.A couple of my Democrat friends thought it was a vicious attack ad.I haven't seen ad in past week or so.Problem w/Soros and MoveON and others of left is they are too full of hatred too understand what they have unleashed.Once the Democrats pick their candidate various hard right groups will start to run their ads.(Conspiracy alert-after several months of wild attacks on Bush and just before Dem.Convention,the national media,"horrified" by attacks support sudden ACLU laswsuits asking for injunctions against third-party political ads.)This will be the harshest,most personally vicious election the US has ever had in the television era.
Posted by: Stephen || 01/05/2004 16:16 Comments || Top||

#22  This will be the harshest,most personally vicious election the US has ever had in the television era
Yes! Who sez TV ain't educational. This is gonna be good... hell it might be the nastiest election since Andrew Jackson's loss.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 16:59 Comments || Top||

#23  This will be the harshest,most personally vicious election the US has ever had in the television era.

There's only one thing then, to tell the Democrats and their lackeys.

Link (turn down the volume if you're at work)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 17:17 Comments || Top||

#24  It looks like the Democratic Party is quickly becoming a Party of Low IQ population of the U.S.

Twas always so!

Ever wonder why the Right took to the Internet like a duck to water, and the Left floundered badly in the new medium. Its because the Left has always sold its ideas to the 'don't bother me with facts and complex issues' crowd.

The Internet is a disaster for the Left.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/05/2004 17:19 Comments || Top||

#25  The lefty scum at moveon are backpedaling like mad, wolf blitzer is covering for them by reading their statement: "we had nothing to do with these ads!" - (even though they were on our servers); "they somehow got through our vetting process!" yeah right.

I hope the gop gets out with this trash there when moveon starts running their 'real' ads so people can see what kind of haters are filling the ranks of the left. This is going to come back to bite them in the ass, but that's what they get for going socialist.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/05/2004 17:48 Comments || Top||

#26  From the Fox article:
A panel of celebrity judges like actor Jack Black, Hollywood director Michael Moore, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, director and author Gus Van Sant, musician Michael Stipe, comedienne Margaret Cho, actress Janeane Garofalo and musician Moby are supposed to pick the best entries.

Wow--If that isn't the most highly qualified and intelligent political panel, I don't know what is! Why, I bet among them one could find two or even three high school diplomas and just maybe one college degree (in the fine arts)!

All eight of them together might just be a match in a debate with Condoleezza... or not.
Posted by: Dar || 01/05/2004 18:49 Comments || Top||

#27  How silly to compare Bush to Hitler. Hitler actually served in combat after all!
Posted by: JoeDoe || 01/05/2004 18:53 Comments || Top||

#28  How silly to compare Bush to Hitler. Hitler actually served in combat after all!

How cute...a troll :P
Posted by: Val || 01/05/2004 19:21 Comments || Top||

#29  I think the Hitler-Bush comparison is misleading. Bush is not a Nazi, although his family had plenty to do with Hitler and the Nazis. Generally speaking, Bush is a fascist, more of a Mussolini than a Hitler.
Posted by: hypocrit || 01/05/2004 19:46 Comments || Top||

#30  He can't be a fascist. My train was late this morning.
Posted by: Steve (another one) || 01/05/2004 20:40 Comments || Top||

#31  He can't be a fascist. My train was late this morning.

Heh! I'm going to use that one!

Does the Army of Steve (TM) have some sort of special One-Liner Boot Camp or something ?
Posted by: Carl in NH || 01/05/2004 22:04 Comments || Top||

#32 
#29
Fascism is a specific political ideology. It envisages the state binding together society's classes, each of them weak in themselves, into a powerful whole, hence the symbol of the Roman fasces. It's marked by a cult of personality around The Leader (Il Duce, in Italian, der Fuerher in German). Individual freedom is subordinated to the good of the state and "rights" are allotted by the party and/or the state. It is "socialist" in that the state directs the priorities of production toward the ends of state policy, and industries may or may not be nationalized in the overriding national interest. Like communism, fascism was predicated on mobilization of The Masses™, and both were characterized by bands of bully boys who could be counted upon to enforce party policy on a local level - the brown shirt and the black shirts.

There was a difference even in Germany and Italy, the two "textbook" fascist states, and to a lesser extent Spain, between conservatives and fascists. Fascism is a revolutionary ideology, which is what makes it attractive to tin hats like Saddam and the elder Assad. Much of fascism's thinking has gone into latter-day revolutionary ideology; try picking your way through Qadaffi's maunderings, for instance.

So my point is that Bush isn't a fascist, in fact is furthest thing from a fascist. No cult of personality, no bully boys, no subordination of the individual to the needs of the state, no "national industrial policy," no masses, not even a good marching song.

Today's American conservatism has nothing to do with fascism. In fact, the Democrats and the Greens, with their emphasis on "coalitions" of groups being bound into a whole that's greater than the parts, approach the notion of fascism much more closely. Conservatives are slow to change the status quo and tend to be more pragmatic, and we extend our respect to the individual, not to the group.

Near moribund after the Second World War, the conservative movement has grown in recent years by the injection of new ideas, which you can follow in ourline if you read even liberal journals like The New Republic. "Paleoconservatives" like Pat Buchanan are sidelined or discredited. The goofs like the John Birch Society were chased out in the very early '60s by William F. Buckley's well-directed sneer. The neo-conservatives are people who were leftists in their youth, but grew up, bringing with them many of the same techniques of argument that they learned when they were leftists. And a good part of "conservativism" today is libertarianism of one sort or another - people who demand to be left alone to make their own mistakes without a Party to "help" them.

"Conservative" ideas keep coming because we keep arguing among ourselves. Anybody can play, as long as they're willing to defend their ideas (as opposed to calling names or falling back on "Marx sez...") Someday our end of the political spectrum will run out of steam and become as silly as the Dems are today, but that's in the future. We're still growing and having fun. You're not. Thhhhpppp!
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2004 22:13 Comments || Top||

#33  Nicely done, Fred, but hypocrit will never understand: you used some three-syllable words after all, and it's all spelled and punctuated correctly.

Perhaps JoeDoe could comment on the personal integrity and courage required to fly an F-102. He undoubtedly know, after all.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/05/2004 22:39 Comments || Top||

#34  If Bush is a Fascist,how come Michael Moore is still alive?Why are Afghans writing a new constitution for their country,instead of being lead to gas chambers?How come every self-described,card-carrying Neo-Nazi claims Bush is just a Zionist tool?

If this is the new Reich,where's the action?
Posted by: El Id || 01/05/2004 23:04 Comments || Top||

#35  I'll cop. I voted for Carter. Twice, ouch!
Posted by: Lucky || 01/05/2004 23:28 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Christian minister killed in Pakistan
Gunmen shot and killed a Christian clergyman at a railway station Monday in a central city of Pakistan, police said. No one claimed responsibility for the slaying of Mukhtar Masih, a Protestant minister who was heading to the eastern city of Lahore from Khanewal, a small city about 50 km west of Multan. His body was found in Khanewal’s rail station Monday morning. ``Apparently, it seems that it an act of terrorism, but we are still investigating,’’ Mohammed Shahzad, a deputy superintend police in Khanewal, told The Associated Press by phone. There was no indication of who the killers were.
My guess is that they were Islamists. What's yours?
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:02:52 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Had it been a Christian that shot and killed a Muslim, no doubt there'd probably be riots galore.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 12:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Time for some "hate crimes" and gun control legislation in Pakistan? Right.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 14:21 Comments || Top||

#3  How'd they get the Motorcycle of Doom™ in the station?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/05/2004 20:24 Comments || Top||


Almost all rebels rounded up in Bhutan
The raids launched by the Royal Bhutan Army against three terrorist groups had "contributed to create a safe and secure environment for socio-economic development in Bhutan and the neighbouring regions of India", Bhutanese Premier Lyonpo Jigmi Y Thinley said in his address at the 12th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Islamabad on Sunday. "Almost all" terrorists were apprehended, he said, adding the rest were surrendering or "trying to find their way out of the country".
Probably more the latter than the former...
"My own country has suffered for some time by the presence of three armed extremist groups from adjoining Indian states of Assam and West Bengal. Having sneaked into Bhutan, they had established 30 camps in the dense jungles along the entire Bhutan-India border," he said. Their presence had created insecurity among the locals, impeded trade, led to the closure of many industries and educational institutions and inhibited development, he said. The outfits "threatened to create misunderstandings and undermine our excellent relations with India", he said. "I am most happy to announce that in the grave hour of need, we received full understanding and cooperation from our friend and fellow SAARC member, India." Referring to the reduction of tension between India and Pakistan, he said, "winds of rapprochement" were blowing in the region.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:55:11 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Myanmar attacks Indian rebels camps
A little more on Paul’s story, as this seems to be a fairly regional crackdown.
Myanmar has launched a military offensive against Indian separatist bases similar to the crackdown in adjoining Bhutan, Indian officials said Monday. "The offensive by the Myanmarese Army began over the weekend targeting rebel bases belonging to the S.S. Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN)," an Indian intelligence official told IANS.
The NSCN (and you have to love the name) is mainly made up of Christian nuts, IIRC. I think that it’s more of a disgruntled tribal group than anything else.
"Details of the operations are not immediately available."
"We dunno what the hell's going on! We can say no more!"
"The attack on the NSCN camps means other rebel groups staying under their protection would also be targeted by Myanmar," the intelligence official said. Indian intelligence officials say up to 1,000 militants belonging to the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) could be staying with NSCN cadres inside Myanmar. There has been no official confirmation on the military offensive from Myanmar and it is not known if the Indian Army is helping in the assaults.
I think I'd rather have the Bhutan army, was it up to me...
Fighting is on along the mountainous border that separates India’s Nagaland state from Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region, an area where dozens of separatist groups fighting against New Delhi or Yangon have been active for nearly 40 years.
'Nother words, it's in the interests of both parties to clean house...
"Myanmarese soldiers have attacked several of our camps although we managed to repulse the offensive in many areas," an NSCN (Khaplang) spokesman told journalists on telephone from an undisclosed location.
... probably not too comfy close to the fighting.
"The Myanmarese forces are advancing towards our headquarters where our leader S.S. Khaplang is currently based."
"Khaplang, we will defend you with our blood!"
Indian Army chief Gen. N.C. Vij Friday said India was training troops in Myanmar for a possible joint operation against separatist bases.
That was a quick train, wasn't it?
"The Myanmarese offensive has been launched at the behest of the Indian Army," the NSCN spokesman claimed. "We have not suffered any casualties in the attacks so far." The NSCN (Khaplang), fighting for an independent tribal homeland in Nagaland, is observing a ceasefire with New Delhi although peace talks with the group are yet to start. The NSCN (K) operates out of Myanmar and is known to provide weapons training and shelter to many of the separatist groups active in India’s northeastern region. "After the military crackdown in Bhutan, the militants are now trying to shift bases to Myanmar and so we have put our security forces on maximum alert along Nagaland’s border with Myanmar," Nagaland Home Minister T. Lotha told IANS on telephone from state capital Kohima. Myanmar in the past has launched several crackdowns on Indian separatist bases although the scale of operations were not massive and lacked the sting.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:53:10 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Nagas have been fighting against the Indian state on and off for 50 years. Of late their have been peace talks with the largest rebel faction, but the NSCN-K continues to fight and has around 1000 members.
Any independant Nagaland would include chunks of Myanmar, which probably helped persuade the Junta to act.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/05/2004 1:07 Comments || Top||


Relative of Pakistani religious scholar’s house raided
The law enforcement agencies have raided the house of the son-in-law of a noted religious scholar, Dr Israr Ahmed, in Model Town here on suspicion of links with the militant organizations. Dr Israr’s son-in-law, Dr Khalid Zaigham, told Dawn on Saturday night that personnel of police and elite force had raided his house on Tuesday last when he was out of the city. His family, he said, got harassed by the police raid. The police, however, had left a message for him to contact on a cell phone of a ’police officer’ on his return. But when he contacted, the police officer was not available, he added. He said the law enforcement agencies had taken one of their family friends Dr Inamullah into custody from Attock on suspicion of links with Al Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:45:07 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Israr Ahmed leads the Tanzeem-e-Islami, a pretty important Islamist movement. He used to be part of the Jamaat-e-Islami, but the very idea of participating in the democratic process was offensive to him, so he formed his group which stays away from politics and awaits the Mahdi.
He used to recognise Mullah Omar as the Caliph, but he has kept a low profile recently.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/05/2004 1:04 Comments || Top||

#2  So this is a probable Taliban link to the hit on Musharraf as well, then?
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 1:10 Comments || Top||

#3  I doubt Israr Ahmed would have anything to do with the hit, he is a very high profile figure and lives well on the millions of dollars he rakes in from his followers.
But he might have allowed members of his family to get close to the Jihadi outfits, and I can easily see them providing safe houses to members of al Qaeda
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/05/2004 1:25 Comments || Top||


Radical Islam in Bangladesh
I’m reposting this link to an earlier article I posted on the rise of Islamists in Bangladesh, because I’m not sure how many people got to read it due to the server outage, and I think we will be hearing more about these groups in the next few years.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/05/2004 12:42:21 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


ATTF chief escapes bid on life
All Tripura Tiger Force supremo Ranjit Debbarma escaped a bid on life in a daring late night attack by unidentified gunman in a posh locality of the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka.
That's too bad. I'm really sorry to hear it.
The incident is considered to be a part of the covert operation launched jointly by police and paramilitary forces to liquidate the rebel leader.
The Indians taking some pointers from Mossad?
According to sources, the attack took place in the safe house of ATTF, located at Shyamali within the city heart and there were reports of heavy casualties on the part of the ATTF rebels. At least nine to ten cadres were reported to have been killed and five injured in the attack. Ranjit, who was present in the safe house at the time the attack too, was also injured and reported to have been admitted to hospital in a critical condition. His deputy Bimal Tripura, who was also with him is also in the hospital.
If he's in critical condition, then he didn't really escape the attempt, did he? Critical condition implies life support, that sort of thing. I do hope it's at least very painful...
Ranjit Debbarma, close to ULFA chief Paresh Barua has been living in Dhaka since he joined the outfit in 1989. By virtue of better educated he rose to the post of Chairman in 1993 after All Tripura Tribal Force under Lalit Debbarma surrendered to join the mainstream. Since then he has been living a luxurious life in Dhaka and possess two fake passports and Toyota car. He is also running a transport business in both Dhaka and Chittagong.
I guess owning a Toyota car is a sign of luxury in Bangladesh...

They're the Bangla version of chick magnets...
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/05/2004 12:33:21 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Naga rebels claim Myanmarese raid of their camps
Two days after the Indian Army chief hinted at joint military exercises with Myanmar, a senior NSCN(K) leader said that several of the group’s camps have come under the attack of the Myanmarese army. The Myanmarese army is now advancing towards the NSCN(K)’s council headquarters in Sagaing division.
With Bhutan having acted, and Myanmar seeming to do the same, the myriad of North East Indian insurgents only have Bangladesh as their safe haven.
The outfit’s home secretary, Ngaimong, told The Telegraph over a satellite phone from one of its base camps in the Patkai hill range of Myanmar bordering Arunachal Pradesh that a large platoon of the Myanmarese army from its 7th battalion was advancing towards the outfit’s headquarters at the Tenup Tephak Joku Valley. He said the outfit’s leader, S.S. Khaplang, was now camping at the base. The rebel leader claimed the military activity against the group has been intensified at the behest of the Indian Army after the visit of Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to Yangon in the first week of November. The NSCN(K) alleged that the junta was using Naga civilians as human shields.
To say nothing of the puppies, kittens, bunnies and baby ducks...
Ngaimong said the outfit has 20-odd camps, including its general headquarters and council headquarters, in Myanmar. The outfit also shelters and trains other northeastern groups in the bases.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/05/2004 12:30:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bhutan flushout causes ripples in Bangladesh
The tremors of the Bhutan flushout have reached Bangladesh, triggering a bloody rebellion in the ranks of Tripura militants hiding there and apparently prompting Dhaka to round up Ulfa activists.
Sounds good. Sure hope the corpse counts are high on both sides... errr... all three sides...
Five National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) snuffies militants were shot dead by their comrades who were tired of being on the run and wanted to surrender. They said the six were part of a 17-member group staying at the outfit’s base camp in Dudhpatil in Bangladesh’s Habiganj district. The six rebels, led by Karnajay Debbarma, were keen to surrender. However, when the NLFT leadership came to know of their plans, the rebels shot dead those who opposed the surrender and fled the base on December 31.
The NLFT is a tribal ’militant’ outfit, which is lead by Christian extremists who often target Hindus and Muslims who live in their state.
The news of the rift in the NLFT ranks coincided with reports that the Bangladesh Rifles has detained 34 suspected United Liberation Front of Assam rebels in Dhaka. However, the reports were swiftly denied by the Bangladesh home ministry, which said they had been “fabricated to strain the friendly relations between Bangladesh and India”. Dhaka’s official position is that there are no militant camps on its soil. It has sought to portray an ongoing crackdown as one aimed at flushing out criminals. The reluctance in declaring open war on Indian insurgents hiding in Bangladesh could stem from the domestic compulsions of the Khaleda Zia government, which came to power on an anti-India platform.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/05/2004 12:26:37 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Engineer crews eliminate possible spots to stash IEDs
EFL:
While most soldiers in Iraq cringe at the thought of encountering an IED, Army engineers are making it easier for them to do just that. As part of Task Force Right of Way, Company C, 489th Engineer Battalion is clearing vegetation and debris from Iraqi Highway 1, known to troops as Main Supply Route Tampa. Enemy insurgents have attacked troops along the route with the improvised explosive devices, crude bombs detonated on command. The engineers want to give passing troops a fighting chance to spot IEDs by flattening medians and shoulders along the thoroughfare. “It makes it harder for Haji, the enemy, to come out and hide an IED because there’s nothing for him to hide it behind or under,” said Sgt. 1st Class Ed Fletcher said.
Haji, huh? I knew it would only be a matter of time before we had a nickname. So, goodbye Charlie, hello Haji!
The Arkansas-based Reserve unit began work several months ago near Bayji, north of Tikrit. Its goal is to clear the highway south to Taji, outside Baghdad. Similar teams are beginning work in other parts of Iraq. The unit falls under the 130th Engineer Brigade based in Hanau, Germany. “This war is different,” said Capt. Kirk Claunch, Company C commander, as his troops set out. “It’s being fought by terrorists. And this is the best way they’ve found to fight us.” Claunch, 37, who in civilian life practices personal injury law in Fort Worth, Texas, often is out in front of his team, peering into bushes and ditches. While the crew uses blast-resistant vehicles in their search, and bulldozers to plow the ground, someone has to look in the hard-to-get places. Most often, the bombs are found that way, Claunch said.

The crew has received occasional rifle fire, but it is mostly inaccurate shots that don’t justify a response. The more immediate dangers are Iraqi drivers zooming their cars through the work areas, says Sgt. Joshua Smith, 24, a police officer from Joplin, Mo. “There’s no traffic laws over here at all,” he says. “They do what they want.”

Up ahead, troops in the Meerkat minesweeper search for anything metal buried in the ground, followed by a Buffalo that digs up any suspicious objects. So far, enemy forces have not attacked the small engineer force, which obviously is hindering the insurgents’ plans to attack troops. Just in case, heavily armed squads of troops stand guard.
Which is why they haven’t attacked.
“If he tries to take us on while we’re here working, he’s going to die,” Claunch says of the enemy. “He can attack us, but he can never stop the mission overall. As long as the Army is committed, we’ll continue to make it hard for them.”
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 2:11:54 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Put some Bathists in orange jumpsuits and make them pick-up trash in the hard spots.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Put some Bathists in orange jumpsuits

With nice, high contrast black bulls-eye targets on chest and back. Just in case some of the Iraqis who've lost family to these thugs get itchy trigger fingers. We wouldn't want them to miss and hit a good guy by mistake now...

Posted by: Ed Becerra || 01/05/2004 14:33 Comments || Top||

#3  And Haji was such a nice boy on Johnny Quest.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/05/2004 15:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Put some Bathists in orange jumpsuits and make them pick-up trash in the hard spots.

Now that is an insult to our prison population...

From the article: At times, locals will point out potential bomb sights, for fear that an attack could harm their children, Lipe said.

Good that the locals are realizing that the 'insurgents' dont really care who they kill....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/05/2004 15:04 Comments || Top||

#5  I say let's flood the median with in Agent Grape. That'll destroy any Islamic Fundos.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 15:47 Comments || Top||

#6  The crew has received occasional rifle fire, but it is mostly inaccurate shots that don’t justify a response.
Nope. Don't wanna kill him. They may replace him with someone who can shoot straight.
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 01/05/2004 16:25 Comments || Top||


New vehicles allow GIs to find, remove hidden IEDs
EFL:
Using recently fielded mine detection vehicles, soldiers from Company C, 489th Engineer Battalion are hunting roadside bombs similar to those that have killed and maimed dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq over the past six months. Equipped with South African-designed vehicles — the Meerkat and the Buffalo — the Arkansas-based Army Reserve troops have taken an Army side project to the forefront in the military’s efforts to counter the threat of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Insurgents aiming to demoralize the U.S.-led coalition often stage ambushes with crude explosives hidden among debris along convoy routes or buried near roads. The platoon of combat engineers, who had been working odd jobs in Kuwait, are now sweeping major convoy routes in central Iraq to clear highway shoulders and medians.

Cramped in the single seat Meerkat, Spc. Stephen Fowler, 22, of Fayetteville, Ark., examined a stretch of Highway 1 last week with the tractor’s powerful winglike metal detectors. “We have certain audible tones when we find something,” Fowler said. An ink jet marks the spot. Soldiers in the heavily armored Buffalo pry suspicious objects from the ground with a remote-controlled fork. Sappers — engineers trained in explosives — can then demolish the device.
You want to meet some weird guys, hang around with EOD guys for awhile. Bring beer, though...
Both vehicles are designed to protect soldiers from a blast, said Sgt. 1st Class Ed Fletcher, an Oklahoma native supervising the operation. “It can take up to 20 pounds of TNT and everybody inside will survive,” Fletcher said. “The vehicle is down, but the passengers are all right.”

The operation caught the attention of top brass, said Lt. Col. Kent Savre, commander of the Fort Lewis Wash.-based 864th Engineer Battalion, the team’s higher headquarters. Savre, 43, of Edina, Minn., recommended that the Army supply one system to each division in Iraq. Three weeks after filing the request, a half-dozen more sets were shipped out, Savre said.
For a old hand like myself, that’s warpspeed.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my 19 years in the Army,” Savre said. “The senior leaders saw the threat and immediately bought more [systems].” Both the Fallujah-based 82nd Airborne Division and the 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit sent troops to Balad to train for clearing missions in their sectors. Another team recently deployed to southern Iraq to begin work there. “They’re figuring it out and morphing this equipment into something useful,” said Col. Gregg Martin, commander of the 130th Engineer Brigade, who oversees much of the Army’s engineers in Iraq. “This is cutting-edge stuff.”
Outstanding, there’s photos at the link.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 2:01:12 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  With the devices that the Pakistani's use that jam signals, it would be nice to deploy some devices that rapidly broadcast a signal that activates all the garage door openers in a city at once. A small incovenience to the local residents, the device might whack somebody carrying a bomb, might detonate a series of bombs at unplanned moments, and would generally make the insurgents nervous.

At a certain point radio-control technology, might make it feasible to remotely operate several of the trailing vehicles from other trucks in the convoy. If you used a buffalo as the first truck, the insurgents would not necessarily hit a manned vehicle.

If one of the lead vehicles and one of the trailing vehicles were fitted with radio direction finders, the signals could be triangulated and a fast response team might be able to surprise the bombers.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 14:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I sure hope that's phase two...
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2004 22:20 Comments || Top||

#3  They, the bad guys, use our technology. We adapt, they make crayon drawings.
Posted by: Lucky || 01/05/2004 23:15 Comments || Top||


Guardian Predicts Shia Riviera in Basra
EFL - All other portions of the article summarized by the statement: "US bad; UK much smarter, nicer, and better."
It is Basra’s latest tourist attraction: Saddam Hussein’s luxury yacht, still lying half-submerged in the city’s shabby harbour. The yacht was one of first targets in the coalition’s campaign nine months ago to get rid of Saddam. But the missile failed to sink Al-Mansour (The Victory) - which now lies half across the Shatt al-Arab waterway, together with the rusting hulks of Iraqi gunboats sunk in the war with Iran.
Derelict military equipment could make interesting decorations for a future theme park with a Mad Max taste to it.
It is a sign of how far southern Iraq has come that while Tony Blair was addressing the troops yesterday Iraqi tourists were taking a pleasure cruise past Saddam’s ruined yacht. "I left Iraq 22 years ago because of Saddam," said Mohammad Ali, a chemistry teacher on a cruise with his Iranian wife and family. "I’m so happy to be back. The British did us a favour. They got rid of the biggest dictator in the Middle East."
I find it mildly surprising that the Iranians would let a chemistry teacher leave the country for a destination other than Lebanon.
In contrast to the daily mayhem in the rest of Iraq, the British-occupied south of the country is - comparatively - a tranquil place. Locals hope it could eventually regain its reputation as Iraq’s riviera.
Benidorm look out - sunbathing in a burka.
Recently, senior Bush administration officials have admitted it will be virtually impossible to disband Iraq’s militias before sovereignty is handed over to a provisional Iraqi government in July - a decision that will leave the Badr brigade in control of Basra. "The British are not doing enough. There is a lot of killing," Mr Basri complained.
The Badr Brigade is set to be the Bay Watch of the Iraqi Riviera.
Other Basra residents expressed disgruntlement at the British military’s failure to build a bridge over the river and its new tough policy on oil smuggling. "The British captured my tanker. It was loaded with diesel for my boat. They thought I was a smuggler," said Hamid Hussein, a 29-year-old boatman offering harbour cruises from Basra’s shabby corniche.
Did he really need a tanker full of oil for his harbor cruise venture? Hamid may have to settle for the pedal boat concession.
Here, posters of martyred Shia clerics have replaced ones of Saddam. Since Saddam’s fall sales of satellite dishes and mobile phones - which use the Kuwait network - have boomed.
What does the Badr Brigade have planned for dish owners?
Pessimists be warned; good economic news follows.
Thousands of cars arrive every day by ferry from Dubai, Qatar and Oman, along with second-hand fridges, washing machines and furniture. Basra’s electricity supply, meanwhile, is better than Baghdad’s, where pylons were looted or destroyed. The city’s population of 1.2 million has 290 megawatts of the 330 it needs. The water supply is poor but improving; work has begun on a new sewage system. "Basra is economically more important than Baghdad," said Hamid Alrobai, receptionist at the Sultan Palace Hotel, one of the many new businesses that have sprung up. Given the chance, Basra would be beautiful again, Mr Alrobai added. "The problem is that Saddam stole many of the date palms and put them in his palaces. It’s going to take time."
New crime for Sadaam’s ever growing rap sheet - date palm theft.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 11:47:41 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  sunbathing in a burka.

You mean broiling?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 17:02 Comments || Top||


Three Dead Terrs
In Dibis, 173rd Airborne Brigade soldiers discovered an ammunition cache during the evening of Jan.2. The cache appeared to have been at the location since before Operation Iraqi Freedom began and consisted of 163 60-millimeter mortar rounds, 17 hand grenades and 17 flares. All the munitions were secured and are scheduled for future destruction by an explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) team.

Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment raided a building south of Balad in the early morning of Jan. 3, targeting former regime elements suspected of attacking a forward operating base with mortars. As the soldiers approached the building two men armed with AK-47 assault rifles aimed their weapons at the patrol. Soldiers took a defensive posture and responded to the threat by firing at the armed men, killing them both. The patrol continued with the mission and captured 11 individuals and located and confiscated 30 AK-47 assault rifles at the site.
Once they killed the first two, the remaining 11 were much more amendable to reason...
173rd Airborne Brigade soldiers killed a suspected criminal who was the target of a Jan. 3 dawn raid in Mastul as he came at the patrol with an AK-47 assault rifle. Soldiers took defensive positions and fired at the armed man after he attempted to fire his weapon at the soldiers. Following the confrontation soldiers continued the raid, capturing five enemy individuals and locating four AK-47 assault rifles.
"You'll never take me alive, coppers!... Gah! Rosebud!"
"Damn, Tyrone! He was right!"
"Damn, Kevin! Right through the brisket!"
Working with Iraqi National Police, soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade searched a KDP building in Kirkuk in the morning of Jan. 3 and found numerous weapons. The confiscated items included two rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, two AK-47 assault rifles, one SVD automatic weapon and two 107-millimeter rockets. A senior KDP official was detained. The soldiers and police continued their search at an adjacent PUK building. They located and confiscated one AK-47 assault rifle and five RPGs.
Searching Kurdish locations. Not playing favorites.

In another incident illustrating police and soldier cooperation, Kirkuk police Jan. 3 turned over a person targeted by the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The individual was a colonel in the former regime’s military.

Arrowhead Brigade soldiers searched a number of locations during the afternoon of Jan. 3, five kilometers northeast of Ad Duluiyah and discovered weapons and ammunition. The confiscated items included three AK-47 assault rifles, one rifle, one SKS automatic weapon and a small amount of AK-47 ammunition.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/05/2004 10:51:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How come I can't ever find any caches in Leon county? I mean hell, I helped pay for the stuff.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 18:21 Comments || Top||


Jordan Warns Saddam Daughters: Shut your pie hole!
Jordan’s foreign minister has warned the daughters of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein against making statements that "smell vaguely political" while they are guests of the government. Foreign Minister Marwan al-Muasher told the Arabic daily Asharq al-Awsat in an interview published Sunday that Jordan did not want Raghad and Rana Hussein speaking about their country’s affairs or their father, who is in U.S. custody. "We’ve always maintained that Saddam’s daughters are in Amman for humanitarian, not political reasons," Muasher said. "We do not like and do not want there to be any statements that even smell vaguely political. They were invited to Jordan for humanitarian reasons and it should remain that way."

Muasher’s comments appeared to indicate the sisters were embarrassing Jordan, a key Middle East ally for the United States which also has major trade interests in post-Saddam Iraq. Many Iraqis are angry at Amman for hosting the daughters of the dictator. In August, a truck bomb exploded outside the Jordanian embassy compound in Baghdad, killing 17 people. Jordan granted Saddam’s eldest daughter Raghad, 36, and her younger sister Rana asylum after they fled Iraq shortly after U.S. troops took control of Baghdad in April. Since arriving in Jordan, Raghad had given interviews to international and Arab media. Her latest media appearance was in December when she said her father was drugged prior to his capture and demanded an international trial for him. In 1996, Saddam ordered the killing of the husbands of both Raghad and Rana after accusing them of giving information about Iraq’s weapons to the West.
Finally! Somebody has the balls to tell these two brats that the party is OVER! I’m betting that they are sitting on some account numbers and want to proclaim that they are the right heirs to power in Iraq. I wonder what the Iraqis have uncovered about these two? If they make another STUPID statement I bet the Jordanians revoke their refugee status and send them back home (or to Kuwait).

I do have to hand it to Saddam, even in defeat he holds power over these poor delusional souls. Look for the Hussein sisters to appear soon in your downtown version of Denny’s in Amman or Hooters. The well is running dry ladies and there are NO free lunches. Maybe the Dixie chicks can do a benefit concert for them?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/05/2004 10:41:03 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fox is going to introduce a new reality series, Gucci to Goatherd, where these two are sent to live in a Bedu encampment for six months. Hilarity ensues when one of the girls mistakes a billy goat for Saddam. Pictures of the girls in typical Bedu lingerie will appear in Vanity Fair, followed by an appearance on Letterman.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/05/2004 11:08 Comments || Top||

#2  I was serious in suggesting we give them asylum in the US. Take them AND their kids out of play.
Posted by: mojo || 01/05/2004 12:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Mojo, we are an open society, they would be doing an interview a day. Dictatorships and repressive regimes don't have to worry about "free speech."
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 13:13 Comments || Top||

#4  But nobody would listen to them if they were in the US. That's the beauty of an open society - there's so many people talking at once, it's easy to get drowned out.

"Oh, them! But they're hiding in America!"

Politics is Presentation.
Posted by: mojo || 01/05/2004 13:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Gitmo time, ladies!
Posted by: Frank G || 01/05/2004 15:49 Comments || Top||

#6  These young ladies should be given a job in Harlem, working for Bill Clinton. Then they can learn what sleeze is really all about. From daughter of the big guy to blow job of the hair dye in one easy lesson.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/05/2004 17:29 Comments || Top||


Combat Heroines
Pvt. Teresa Broadwell is in the middle of the maelstrom, standing on tiptoe in the turret of a Humvee in a vain attempt, at 5 feet 4 inches tall, to see through the sight of her M-249 machine gun. American soldiers are down in the street. Iraqis are firing at her truck from the rooflines and alleyways along Highway 9 near the center of this dusty city an hour south of Baghdad.

Lt. Col. Kim Orlando, commander of the 716th Military Police Battalion, parent unit of the 194th Military Police Company, had come to Karbala that day to review intelligence indicating that tensions in the city were surging, following a shootout between religious factions four days earlier. Orlando, 43, of Nashville, was riding along on a routine patrol through Karbala when he and soldiers in three Humvees saw dozens of heavily armed guards for Sheik Mahmoud Hassani standing near the sheik’s compound on either side of Highway 9. Hassani, a Shiite religious leader who had recently moved to Karbala from Najaf and set up a headquarters there, was not enamored of the U.S. presence in Iraq. The Americans had already had run-ins with his men and told them they could not carry arms on the street. But here they were again, in open defiance of the weapons ban. The Americans, led by Orlando, stopped their vehicles, got out and started walking toward the Iraqis.

One of them motioned for the Americans to lay down their weapons before coming any closer. As the Iraqi motioned, he started to swing his AK-47 into firing position, according to 1st Sgt. Troy Wallen, and either that Iraqi or another one fired a shot. Orlando was hit almost immediately and fell to the ground. "Then all hell broke loose," says Wallen, who was standing next to Orlando. In retrospect, it seems like a well-planned ambush, given the large number of Iraqis on both sides of the highway firing from rooftops, storefronts and alleys. "That one individual decided he wanted to fight that night," Wallen said. "We outgunned them — that’s the only way we got out of there." If Broadwell and her comrades "hadn’t fired that night, none of us would have made it out." Orlando didn’t. He died on his way to the hospital, the highest-ranking officer killed by hostile fire in Iraq.

When the fighting erupted, Broadwell was part of a three-truck patrol a short distance away. Their radios crackled with a call for help, and her patrol arrived on the scene within three minutes and drove smack into the middle of the killing zone. Lt. Guerrero jumped out of his Humvee, almost into the arms of Iraqis firing AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades at his convoy. Before they could shoot him, Guerrero heard short, controlled bursts from Broadwell’s machine gun. The Iraqis ducked for cover. Since Broadwell wasn’t quite tall enough to see through the weapon’s sight, she was gauging the accuracy of her fire with tracer rounds — every fifth bullet in an M-249’s ammunition belt ignites a phosphoric compound that leaves a luminescent trail to help gunners see where they are firing. She remembers feeling terrified, but somehow fighting through it and "walking tracer rounds," she says, into her targets. Somehow, no rounds or shrapnel hit Guerrero, down on the street, or Broadwell, up in the Humvee’s turret, although she badly bruised her back after being thrown back in the turret after explosions hit the front of her vehicle. Guerrero credits Broadwell with saving his life. "She was up there doing what we trained her to do as a gunner," he said. "She kept their heads down."

"She was on top of it," adds Pfc. Jonathan Rape, who was driving their vehicle that night. "If she were two inches taller, it would have helped, but you couldn’t expect anything more. All I could hear was that SAW [squad automatic weapon] going off. She seemed so calm. It was three- to five-shot bursts, like she was taught. That told us she wasn’t freaking out and holding the trigger down and spraying. She covered the whole right side of our truck."

Tracie Sanchez, the mother of four who was a gunner on the patrol Orlando was riding with, never got off a shot. As soon as the firing started, a round cracked her Kevlar helmet; then a grenade went off a few feet away from her truck, knocking her out of the turret. She collapsed inside the vehicle and credits her driver, Spec. Woodrow Lyell, with treating her wounds and, more important, calming her down. Out on the street, a combat medic, 25-year-old Sgt. Misty Frazier of Hayden Lake, Idaho, found herself dodging bullets and running from wounded soldier to wounded soldier in a way she can hardly believe in retrospect. "That’s the first time I had ever heard gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades go off that close, knowing they were shooting at us," she said. "I was very lucky."

The final woman in action that night, Spec. Corrie Jones, 27, of Shreveport, La., pulled up as part of a three-vehicle patrol to back up Broadwell’s patrol, which she could see up ahead in the middle of the "kill zone." She began firing at the Iraqi attackers. The battle soon ended. But in a moment, she had resolved the question that haunts soldiers who have yet to experience combat: How will they react under fire? "I don’t think it’s something anybody knows," she says. Now, she adds, "I know how strong I am."

For two days afterward, Broadwell couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t eat. "All I could do," she says, "was sit back and cry." She still has dreams about the firefight, not because she froze in battle, but because she didn’t freeze. She knows she shot and killed at least one Iraqi, possibly more. Her commanders believe she and her fellow MPs killed more than 20 Iraqis during the battle. "That was something I never thought I would have to do," Broadwell says. "I never thought I would have to take somebody’s life, but I had to. It was kind of a shock. I wish there was something we could have done differently, but there was nothing we could have done." For her role in the Oct. 16 firefight, Broadwell was awarded the Bronze Star with V for Valor. Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne, pinned it on her uniform, along with the Purple Heart, in a recent memorial ceremony honoring Lt. Col. Orlando and two others killed during the firefight, Staff Sgt. Joseph P. Bellavia, 28, of Wakefield, Mass., and Cpl. Sean R. Grilley, 24, of San Bernardino, Calif. Broadwell was close friends with both men.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/05/2004 9:20:40 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The first big group of American women soldiers - the stories they will tell, the role models they will be.

Posted by: Anonymous2u || 01/05/2004 11:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Since Broadwell wasn’t quite tall enough to see through the weapon’s sight, she was gauging the accuracy of her fire with tracer rounds

So what's she doing assigned as a gunner? You'd think there'd be an ammo can to stand on or something. What's next, drivers that can't reach the pedals, blind pilots?

She collapsed inside the vehicle and credits her driver, Spec. Woodrow Lyell, with treating her wounds and, more important, calming her down.

Not sure that was the appropriate thing to do - mission, man, self and all. My vote would be to man the turret while the bullets are flying. Consider Sgt. Smith at the Baghdad Airport: http://www.sfcpaulsmith.com/seite2.htm
But then, I'm ex-Navy (man your battle station 'till the bitter end). Any input from you former grunts?

For two days afterward, Broadwell couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t eat. "All I could do," she says, "was sit back and cry."

Not sure how that goes over as a role model (sustained combat operations, anyone?).

Out on the street, a combat medic, 25-year-old Sgt. Misty Frazier of Hayden Lake, Idaho, found herself dodging bullets and running from wounded soldier to wounded soldier in a way she can hardly believe in retrospect. "That’s the first time I had ever heard gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades go off that close, knowing they were shooting at us," she said. "I was very lucky."

Gotta give credit to the medics. Just look at the number of MOH awards to medics in 'Nam. http://www.army.mil/cmh/Moh1.htm.
Posted by: not a troll || 01/05/2004 12:51 Comments || Top||

#3  not: She wouldn't be the first soldier to shake a little after a fierce engagement. As a firefighter and then an EMT, I do it myself. The "Oh, shit!' moments take a toll on everyone. Not all combat, firefighting, EMTing is like that, but when you crawl out of a 1,000 degree fire or get back to the base after working a code, it's different. This was a half hour of hell in a very small place, and she has a right to shake a little. The one's that don't, we have a name for them. We call them "dead", cause they will be, sooner or later.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/05/2004 13:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Man, we need an mp3 of "Girls With Guns" playing in the background here!

Hoo-rah, girls!
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 01/05/2004 14:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I suspect women combat veterans will be more forthright and honest about their reactions to their violent experiences than the men have been. My dad never would talk about his screaming nightmares after riding out kamikaze attacks on his troopship in 1945, and he was just a passenger. I learned about that from my mother. He was a changed man after his WWII experiences, and not for the better.
Posted by: Tresho || 01/05/2004 15:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Training kicks in for the firefight - you start fighting just as you were trained to do. "You fight like you train" is so true. That and I remember anger - I was pissed these "rag headed m*f*ers" [my words at the time] were shooting at me and my guys. I imagine that gunner was going through the same thing.

But afterwards, well, they dont have any training for that. I'll admit shaking like a leaf *after* my first time, and the second and third. I never faced a 4th, so I don't know if it gets any easier. I do know that afterward it does hit you, not bad for some people but hard for others.

Especially when after the firefight, we rolled by the guys we killed. Severed limbs, heads burst open, guts spilled on the sand. The stuff stays with you, especially when you personally were pulling the triggers. The anger drops, the adrenelin runs out, the brain starts working normally again, and you realize that you could have been killed, that you were getting shot at (somehow that doesnt sink in when you are fighting, not in the same way). And, if you were raised the way I was, you realized that you just broke one big thing that marks you out of the civilized world: you've killed other humans - and did so without a care at the time. And killed them in a pretty gruesome way.

Hindsight is always clearer. This is true for combat too - and being clearer cuts both ways. I can still clearly remember the smell of burning oil, cordite, etc. Blown up APCs have a distinct smell, as do the bodies burning in them.

But you live, you move on. My father's generation did it in WW2, my step-brother's generation manged in Vietnam despite all the crap thrown their way by politicians and the left, my generation has done it in Panama, and the Gulf I, and this current bunch will do it as well.

As the years go by, the dreams come less frequently. There is something to be said for becoming older and a bit forgetful.
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/05/2004 16:11 Comments || Top||

#7  "All I could hear was that SAW going off. She seemed so calm. It was three- to five-shot bursts, like she was taught."

Train like you fight, fight like you train. She did just fine. Well done, Soldier.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 16:12 Comments || Top||

#8  Thanks, OS, for that description. It is as elequoent as I have seen. Life layers over the bad stuff we endure, whether it is combat or some other jarring experience. You have my gratitude for your service.
Posted by: remote man || 01/05/2004 17:33 Comments || Top||

#9  There is something to be said for becoming older and a bit forgetful.

To be an absolute cynic OS, the State Department requires it to be so.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 18:27 Comments || Top||

#10  But - did she take names?
Posted by: mojo || 01/05/2004 18:28 Comments || Top||

#11  This thread about the effects of killing on a soldier reminded me of an article that TU3031 posted back in October. The Yahoo linlk no longer works ,but goggling Army Master Sgt. Tony Pryor may lead to a first hand account of how a special operator deals with a grissly task. Here is a sample:

"Whatever digging, scratching, biting, hair-pulling, ear-ripping-off whatever you got to do to get the job done, that’s what you do," Pryor says, explaining actions that night that won him the Silver Star for heroism and saved the lives of other team members in the compound. "Because, bottom line, I got a life at home. They (his comrades) got a life at home. And we’re coming home." America is lucky to have these brave mea and women.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 21:50 Comments || Top||


CJTF-7 Briefing
Select tidbits from the 01-02-2004 briefing.
Approximately 600 members of the new Iraqi army officer candidates departed for Jordan, where they will undergo 11 weeks of officer training. They departed this week. At the end of this month, more than 450 new Iraqi police officers will graduate from the Jordanian International Police Training Center, outside of Amman, as well. And then finally, next week on January 6th, the 2nd Battalion of the new Iraqi army will gradate. It will be open to the press. If you are interested, please let us know. The graduation ceremony will be presided over by the Iraqi Governing Council president, Adnan Pachachi.


In the north, a former senior Baath party member turned in 31 AK-47s to the Talifar (sp) police station. This individual has turned in weapons before to include 79 AK-47s. Additionally, other former high-ranking members of the Baath party plan to publicly denounce violence and turn in weapons during a ceremony this Monday. A media advisory for the event will be forthcoming.


In Baghdad, coalition forces conducted five offensive operations as part of Operation Iron Grip, and carried out 508 patrols and captured 42 personnel. Elsewhere in Baghdad, individuals inside a white Opel fired small arms at ICDC personnel at the Al-Amil (ph) gas station. The Civil Defense Corps soldiers returned fire, and Iraqi customers waiting for fuel also fired at the Opel. The assailants broke contact, and a search of the area met with negative results.
Note: Iraqi civilians also fired on the terrorists!


Regarding the operation at the Al-Tabul (sp) Mosque, on 1 January, coalition forces, led off by Iraqi Civil Defense Corps personnel and the Iraqi police, conducted a cordon-and-search of the Al-Tabul (sp) Mosque. The following equipment was seized from the mosque: five sticks of high-explosive PE-4; three packages of TNT; one case of blasting caps; three bags of gunpowder; eight improvised grenades; a small roll of detonation cord; one case of 155-millimeter artillery primers; improved -- improvised explosive device materials, to include nine-volt batteries and unidentified propellants; 11 AK- 47s; two SKS rifles; two RPG launchers; a 60-millimeter mortar tube; various mortar sights; a 120-millimeter mortar bipod and base plate; an SA-7 missile trainer; 20 AK-47 magazines; 3,500 7.62 rounds; and additional items of intelligence value.

During this operation, 32 personnel were detained, and based on their dialect, several of the detainees were suspected to be foreign nationals. Confirmation of the suspects’ nationalities and any possible connections to foreign terrorist organizations has not yet been established.

Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/05/2004 9:08:14 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Elsewhere in Baghdad, individuals inside a white Opel fired small arms at ICDC personnel at the Al-Amil (ph) gas station. The Civil Defense Corps soldiers returned fire, and Iraqi customers waiting for fuel also fired at the Opel. The assailants broke contact, and a search of the area met with negative results. Note: Iraqi civilians also fired on the terrorists!

We know the place reeks of small arms, but the citizens FINALLY decide to USE them? What took them so long?

Oh yeah. Saddam's capture. These gooks didn't have the good grace to fold up their tents and go away after their gang leader got nabbed, so the citizens are finally as mad as hell, and aren't going to take it any more.

Can you spell tipping point?
Posted by: Ptah || 01/05/2004 11:29 Comments || Top||

#2  The following equipment was seized from the mosque: five sticks of high-explosive PE-4; three packages of TNT; one case of blasting caps; three bags of gunpowder; eight improvised grenades; a small roll of detonation cord; one case of 155-millimeter artillery primers; improved ...

Doesn't sound as if they found the Holy Hand Grenade yet.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 13:33 Comments || Top||

#3  "Hey! That's the seventh most sacred hand grenade in all Islam! Infidel defilers! They must be killed! Hand me the... ummm... 28th most sacred grenade in all Islam!"
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2004 22:25 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Judges Get Trained for War Crimes
Judge Qasem Ayash, one of 100 Iraqi jurists fresh out of a crash course in international law, says it was a waste of time. "I have been a judge for 32 years and they are teaching me the ABCs of law? I ought to be teaching them," the head of the Appellate Court says with contempt after attending the two-week course organized by the U.S. Defense Strategy for International Studies. Has he ever tried a war criminal? No. Would he sit on a tribunal trying Saddam Hussein and others? No again. Ayash notes that several judges thought to be working with the Americans have been murdered. The fear among jurists is that Saddam’s supporters would kill them just for sitting in judgment on the ousted dictator.
Surly and a coward — just what you want in a judge.
This is exactly what worries human rights groups and international jurists. They fear that the Iraqi judiciary, after four decades under the thumb of the Baath regime, has neither the experience nor the expertise to conduct a complex trial for crimes against humanity. They say only a U.N.-led tribunal has international legitimacy and can guarantee fair trials.
Just like for Slobo. Carla del Ponte has almost single-handedly rehabilitated Slobo for the Serbians.
Ayash, 62, doesn’t see the problem. "They will bring the accused; they will bring his file. The judge reads it carefully and decides whether he ought to be charged or not," he said. "There’s nothing to it. It’s like trying any other criminal case."
Try him fair and hang him fair!
It’s not that simple, say those with experience of war crimes trials. Typically, they say, trials before Iraqi criminal courts lasted a few days - sometimes just a morning, or even an hour. And courts often handled 20 to 30 cases a day. "It just shows you the summary nature of the trials which took place and that’s the norm and that’s not being questioned by the judges," said Hania Mufti, of the New York-based Human Rights Watch. "Therefore, what kind of standards are they thinking of using in terms of these hugely complex cases?"
What exactly about Saddam’s case is complex?
Iraqi judges and lawyers, as well as U.S. officials here, insist Iraqis can handle it because they’re recovering a long tradition of independence and impartiality - sometimes even under Saddam’s repressive rule. And if they need any outside help, they say, they’ll ask for it.
So simplise!
Three days before Saddam was captured by U.S. forces on Dec. 13, the Iraqi Governing Council announced the creation of a war crimes tribunal to try former members of Saddam’s Baath regime on cases stemming from mass executions of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s, as well as the suppression of uprisings by Kurds and Shiite Muslims after the 1991 Gulf War. The Iraqi statute, drafted by Iraqi and American lawyers, emulates the International Criminal Court and provides for foreign judges to join the bench if the Governing Council so wishes. Iraqi officials say they’re determined to be in charge and to seek outside help in areas where they lack expertise, such as in pre-trial investigations and forensic data. "The presence of French and Belgian foreign judges will undermine (Iraqi) sovereignty and would undercut the value of the Iraqi judiciary," said Iraq’s justice minister, Hashim Abdul-Rahman al-Shalabi. The tribunal is headed by Dara Nouredin, a Kurd who was a judge under Saddam until he was imprisoned. He said those who criticize the Iraqi judiciary don’t know it well. "We have good judges who are capable of conducting these trials. Also, there is a training course for the judges on working with evidence of ugly crimes of such magnitude," he said.
But, but, but, don’t they know that they need the UN’s blessing?
Salem Chalabi said that under tribunal rules, prosecutors and judges together will conduct the cases and prosecutors will oversee the judges during the investigation phase. Much of the investigative work will be handled by international legal experts, Chalabi said, and international monitors will make sure appropriate decisions are made and cases aren’t rushed.
Just keep Carla del Ponte as far away as possible.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/05/2004 12:37:16 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  An Iraqi criminal,tried in an Iraqi court no problem for me.
Why is it any conceren of the U.N.?

Considering that there are probably truck loads of evidence,a trial is likley just to keep everything legit.
Posted by: raptor || 01/05/2004 7:48 Comments || Top||

#2  What exactly about Saddam’s case is complex?

The steps necessary to keep evidence of UN and French complicity in his crimes.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/05/2004 7:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Clearly, International Law is not about punishment and revenge, but rehabilitation. They have done such a great job with Milosovic that he can return to his natural capacity as a Serbian political leader.

I am looking forward to to Saddam being rehabilitated to his rightful position a benevolent leader of the Iraqi peoples. They will need occasional discipline for their own good.

And I am encouraged by Howard Duck's suggestions to send Osama to the ICC (whether he is alive or not). The Arab culture needs a properly rehabilitated hero.
Posted by: john || 01/05/2004 9:24 Comments || Top||

#4  They say only a U.N.-led tribunal has international legitimacy and can guarantee fair trials.

Uh huh. Well, here's Mark Steyn's take on this:

"Up to the moment Saddam popped out of the spider-hole, the international jet set's line was that deplorable as Saddam's rule might be -- gassing Kurds, feeding folks feet-first into industrial shredders, etc. -- it was strictly an internal matter for the Iraqi people. The minute the old boy was in U.S. custody, the international jet set's revised position was that gassing Kurds, feeding folks into industrial shredders and so forth were crimes against the whole world and certainly not a matter for the Iraqi people. Instead, we need a (drumroll, please) United Nations-mandated international tribunal."
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 10:21 Comments || Top||


Misquoted Iraq rape tales arouse Turks’ fury
The allegations can be heard almost everywhere in Turkey, from farmers’ wives in kebab shops, in influential journals and from erudite political leaders: US troops have raped thousands of Iraqi women and young girls since ousting Saddam Hussein. Articles in Turkey’s Islamic press reporting the allegations have fanned opposition here to the US invasion of Iraq to white-hot anger - and even, apparently, to murder. Nurullah Kuncak says his father, Ilyas Kuncak, was boiling with rage about the rumoured rapes just before he killed himself delivering the huge car bomb that devastated the Turkish headquarters of HSBC bank last month, killing a dozen people and wounding scores more. "Didn’t you see? The American soldiers raped Iraqi women," Nurullah said in a recent interview. "My father talked to me about it . . . Thousands of rapes are in the records. Can you imagine how many are still secret?"

The articles in the Turkish press are based in part on a column by Susan Block, a US sex therapist who denies having written or said anything about soldiers raping women. The initial reports were published in Yeni Safak, an Islamic journal. The first, a front-page article on October 22, said: "In addition to the occupation and despoliation, thousands of Iraqi women are being raped by American soldiers. There are more than 4000 rape events on the record." The article’s main source was identified as "Dr Susan Block", who was reported to have said a wave of rapes began with the occupation and was continuing. The second article, published on December 3, said 54 Iraqis killed in the city of Samarra on November 30 were shot while rioting over the kidnap and rape of 30 girls by US soldiers.

The US embassy in Ankara has strongly denounced the reports, calling them "outrageous allegations . . . based on a US ’source’ best known for her pornographic websites and erotic television program. We believe it is irresponsible for a serious newspaper to present such false claims from a clearly unreliable source on its front page as if they were fact. Dr Block is a sex therapist with a doctorate in philosophy and some cleavage. She says Yeni Safak apparently drew on an article she published on the internet titled ’Rape of Iraq’. "I did not say American troops are literally raping Iraqi women," she said. "I don’t know if Americans are raping Iraqi women. I do know they are killing them. I don’t know if that’s much better." She said it was clear she was using the term rape as a metaphor for invasion.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 01/05/2004 12:36:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She said it was clear she was using the term rape as a metaphor for invasion.

Yeah sure, Susie, Islamists understand metaphors so well! This asshat should be strung up by her thumbs -- she's literally, not metaphorically, getting innocent people killed.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/05/2004 0:39 Comments || Top||

#2  If they are so sensitive they should remember the millions raped in South Sudan or Algeria and castrate any wahabi they can catch.


But I guess that raping kafirs and negroes doesn't count.

Posted by: JFM || 01/05/2004 0:56 Comments || Top||

#3  It's pretty funny that they're quoting a female Jewish sex therapist as justification for suicide bombings. You gotta love the irony.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/05/2004 1:00 Comments || Top||

#4  The problem here is the moslem inability to separate fact from obvious fiction wrapped in a conspiracy. This results in the affinity between Left and Islam cos both share the same way of understanding the world.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/05/2004 3:18 Comments || Top||

#5  and the Baathists under Saddam actually had paid employees whose job was to rape the kin of political opponents.
Posted by: mhw || 01/05/2004 6:55 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm suprised that the U.S. news media haven't picked up on this 'story' of the rapes. I mean they can simply say 'a well placed Turk official' or 'a published sexual assult expert' to deny culpibility.

And yes, I do really think that the media would run such a story and report this false rumor as 'fact' just to get ratings.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/05/2004 9:26 Comments || Top||

#7  And yes, I do really think that the media would run such a story and report this false rumor as 'fact' just to get ratings.

Paging Peter Arnett...
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/05/2004 14:20 Comments || Top||

#8  The Seeds O'Rape in the US... yields rape seed harvest up 20 percentum. Jeeezzzus.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 18:30 Comments || Top||

#9  When we have our troops invade in trucks called hummers, then we're surprised when they hit us with the trumped up sexual harassment rap. Sheesh, we should have seen it coming.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 21:15 Comments || Top||


US Forces In Iraq Come Under Literal, not Figurative, Fire From Alleged Reporters
Hat tip: LGF
Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter west of Baghdad on Friday, killing one soldier, and U.S. forces said they came under fire with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades as they guarded the burning aircraft. The military said the attackers who fired at U.S. forces after the crash near Fallujah were posing as journalists. But there was confusion over the claim, since the Reuters news agency reported that U.S. troops fired at its journalists at the scene and later detained three.
Didn’t Kurosawa do a film like this? Rashomon, or something like that?
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said enemy fire likely downed the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior that crashed near Fallujah. Troops of the 82nd Airborne Division "are fairly convinced that it was enemy fire," said Kimmitt, who was in Baghdad. Soon after, five men "wearing black press jackets with ’press’ clearly written in English" fired on U.S. paratroopers guarding the crash site, Kimmitt said. He said it was the first time he had heard of assailants in Iraq posing as journalists.
I'd have expected al-Jizz or al-Arabiya to open fire, rather than Reuters...
Reuters said a team led by Iraqi cameraman Salem Uraiby was filming the crash scene from a checkpoint using a camera on a tripod and was wearing a flak jacket marked "press." "We were fired on and we drove away at high speed," driver Alaa Noury said. He said a second car driven by another Iraqi journalist had been fired upon in the same incident. One of the cars remained in Fallujah, Reuters said. Kimmitt said attackers in two cars fled the scene and that soldiers doing a sweep through the town, with helicopters circling overhead, tracked down one of the cars and arrested four "enemy personnel."
Read the whole thing. Some further comments, by Eric Raymond, can be found here, and the LGF thread can be found here. According to one report I read at Baen’s Bar, the deceased pilot was Captain Kimberly N. Hampton of Easley, South Carolina.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/05/2004 12:04:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm editorializing in the comments, where it will be easier for Fred to delete; I'm beginning to wonder if we're ever going to actually start holding war crimes trials of people we catch doing things like this. I'm fairly sure it would be within our rights, and I worry that by not doing so, we are lending credence to the idea that they're legitimate. I don't think they are, and I don't think putting on a jacket saying "PRESS" counts as the sort of uniform or distinctive characteristic usually used to define a lawful combatant.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/05/2004 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  The freelancers should be imbedded with troops or imbedded with lead. This is a war zone. The press have no special privelages, only what the military occupation authorities give them.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/05/2004 0:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Salem Uraiby was filming the crash scene from a checkpoint using a camera on a tripod and was wearing a flak jacket marked "press."

Hmmm, al-reuters is hiring fedayeen mutts to work their cameras, huh? Maybe we should take a good hard look at the 'press' out there. Surprising there weren't any frenchies in the 'press pool'. But then they would have surrendered when the troops started shooting back.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/05/2004 0:17 Comments || Top||

#4  3 Reuters reporters, and an AP photog, were killed in an incident in Mogadishu back in 1993. The story is that the four rushed to the scene of an American missile attack on a Somali clan meeting and were torn to pieces by an enraged mob of Somalis.
Al Reuters already had a pronounced anti-American slant even then, and I have heard rumors from GIs and Italian Carabinieri that certain reporters were suspected of serving as lookouts and moles for the clan forces.
There was a lot of this kind of speculation after the massacre of 34 Pakistani soldiers on June 25, with whispered accusations that certain reporters had advance knowledge of the planned ambushes and even that they helped set it up, in the hope that American or Italian peacekeepers would be the victims.

Certain media were well-placed enough(remarkably so, in fact) to get some very gruesome video of the aftermath, but it exceeded their apparent expectations in being too graphic to air. (I posted about the Italian accounts of this after the car-bomb attack on the Carabinieri contingent in Iraq a few weeks ago.)

The only eyewitness account of the demise of the 4 reporters a couple of months later came from their driver.
An Italian photog who had followed them got away safely, but did not actually see the attack on the other 4.
No Somali has ever come forward to claim that the 4 were actually killed by the mob.

All we really know is that the 4 went to the scene without escort, their driver bugged out, and the bodies turned up later several miles away.

The incident was regarded as a tragic anomaly, since mobs in Somalia, like crazed killers everywhere, know who is on their side and will not commonly attack reporters.
I am beginning to wonder....
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 01/05/2004 2:14 Comments || Top||

#5  "Real, not literal"?

Does a person need to be Greek in order to speak proper English? :-)
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 01/05/2004 2:14 Comments || Top||

#6  AC, there was a documentary that I saw about a photographer who was killed by a Somali mob in Mogadishu in 1993. Could be the same incident that you mention. What happened was that the photographer took a close-up picture of a dead Somali as he (or she) was being carried out from the building. A family (clan?) member took offence and all hell broke loose. I'm going to try to find the details about this documentary.
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/05/2004 2:38 Comments || Top||

#7  No, Aris. Does a person need to be European to make a bigoted generalization from a single statement by one person?
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 01/05/2004 2:46 Comments || Top||

#8  AC> Chill, dude. Notice the smiley and stuff?
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 01/05/2004 2:51 Comments || Top||

#9  The documentary was called Dying To Tell The Story (1997) and the reporter was Dan Eldon. All four were stoned to death by the mob. Ouch.
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/05/2004 2:56 Comments || Top||

#10  First, kill all the journalists.
Posted by: someone || 01/05/2004 3:22 Comments || Top||

#11  OOps, I guess I made a mistake. I didn't mean it as a joke, in fact, I rewrote the subject four or five times in hopes of making it look less like a joke. If Fred's reading this far and it's possible, could the subject be changed to "Literal, not Figurative" instead of "Real, not Literal"? Thanks.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/05/2004 10:27 Comments || Top||

#12  Mr 4thInfvet

Your comment is so stupid, arrogant, ignorant and racist (even if the French are not a race) that you could pass for a French. I am proposing you for honorary French citizenship.
Posted by: JFM || 01/05/2004 13:04 Comments || Top||

#13  Acutally, JFM, 4thIV isn't far wrong--the French journos have gotten some "scoops" in Iraq that wouldn't have been possible if they weren't virtually helping the "insurgents."

And this incident is totally believable to me after that al-Rooters photog Mazen Dana, who declared himself to be a "Palestinian" and who had a history of tangling with the IDF in the Paleostinian territories, got shot by US troops in Iraq because they "accidentally" thought he was helping the bad guys.
Al-Rooters still carries a memorial tribute to him on the webpage of every news story.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 01/05/2004 17:08 Comments || Top||

#14  Mrs (or is it Miss?) Talaferro

My grip was about the "surrendering as soon as the troops started shooting back". I would suggest to him he reads a good book about the battle of France (who was lost by the generals not by the soldiers), a couple articles about 3 july 1940 at Mers-el-Kebir, another one on the period 1789-1815, another one on WWI and, in order to unswollen his head, read something about Chatanooga, Task Force Smith, George Washington's early life and last but not least, meditate about Kasserine and what would have happenned if the US army had taken the full impact of the Blitzkrieg two years before (ie without the lessons learned in the interval).


Now let's be clear: the French society is gangrenated by leftism and pacifism so I don't believe in its capability to mass-produce heroes. However judging individuals by their nationality or race is... And this is a present (ie 2003) condition. It has nothing to do with 1940 and is not limited to France: it is still worse in Germany and Spain.

The kind of untasteful jokes he makes about surrendering French is of the same kind than the untasteful and racist hate speech in France towrds Americans. That is why I persist in nominating him a honorary French.

BTW I see nowhere in the article that the journalists or the paper employing them were French. About the apaper who filmed the crew who tried to down a DHL plane, I would have been suspicious if it had been employed by "Le Monde" (aka Al-Jazeera-on-Seine) or Liberation (aka Propaganda Staffel but my own nick-names are Occupation and Petainisation) but Paris-Match is, AFAIK but I haven't read it in years, a strictly apolitical, amoral and sensationalistic paper. The day the Americans will show a Moab impacting on bin Laden's skull Paris-Match will be the first to publish the photos

Posted by: JFM || 01/05/2004 17:48 Comments || Top||

#15  JFM, I have spent major time in Paris and spoken French since I was 6, but I still consider them an enemy now.
There may be a few instances of their "bravery" in the past and even as recently as WWII, but don't ask the British about Dunkirk, or ask about how many French Jews ended up in Nazi death camps, or even why the US ended up in Vietnam after the French pulled out (after being slaughtered at Dien Bien Thu).
The point is that France betrayed their friendship with the Anglosphere by their actions in the UN last spring, even though they needed liberating themselves in 1944.
(It's Chirac who's invited the Germans to the D-Day commemoration ceremony, for G-d's sake!)
French journalists have aligned themselves with the terrorist bad guys in Iraq supposedly to "get the story."
Several times they've succeeded in covering up stories when "Made in France" weapons were found, too.
I'm convinced that France wouldn't support us in the UN because Jacques ChIRAQ is in it up to his neck with every Muslim tyranny in the Middle East--Iraq, Iran, Syria, "Palestine," and possibly even Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 01/05/2004 18:08 Comments || Top||

#16  JFM My second YUT is spending his junior year in Paris... (In the US dorm..). He likes it, I listen to his waywardness. I laugh. He constantly wants soap.. but so what... LOL. I'm slowly changing my mind. My wife just came back with photos that were just damn stunning... Paris looks good in winter. Say Laveee yawl.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 18:37 Comments || Top||

#17  Ahhh, french pride rears it's pointy head.

I stand by it. You don't like it? Too bad, france has earned every bit of scorn that gets piled upon them. At least the Brits got up off the mat and fought back. The french have been hostile to the U.S. since the minute the ink dried on the German treaty (if not the moment Grandpa liberated them). Kicking out NATO, shouting "non!" as foreign policy, not letting the F-111s fly over to Libya, getting in bed with terrorists nd dictators. The list of french perfidies is long and shameful. You don't like it? Make changes at home.

But of course I am only an uncultured American slob, right? I can't believe a frenchie is lecturing about arrogance and racism.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/05/2004 18:43 Comments || Top||

#18  Times like this is when a Mad Greek is handy... Hey Aris you out there? Say something we can all be angry with. :)
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 19:14 Comments || Top||

#19  Guys, you're comparing apples and oranges. Chiraq and his ilk are elitist politicians scheming against everything American. JFM is proof himself that not every Frenchman subscribes to Chiraq's politics. Also, checkout the caption underneath the photo here.
Posted by: RW2004 || 01/05/2004 21:48 Comments || Top||

#20  Gay Paree isn't all of La Belle France. Not even all of Paris is. I enjoyed most of the time I spent in France, and I confess to liking most of the Frenchies I know.

I went to the 275th anniversary party of Fredericksburg, VA, a couple months ago. The guest of honor was the French deputy military attache. He read from a diary that one of his ancestors had kept, recording his participation under Rochambeau in the battle of Yorktown. We've been friends for a very long time, whether we've agreed or not. Keep in mind that a few years later it was a tossup as to whether we'd go to war with Britain or France. Lafayette barely escaped with his life from France a few years after distinguishing himself as a friend of liberty here.

France is not always right, and under people like Chirac she's usually wrong. There's much silliness that passes for sophisticated thought - but we can't point the finger too vigorously because we have Susan Sontag and Noam Chomsky. Think of France as a country governed by the first cousins of our own fifth column. They produced Zola, who had the nerve and the eloquence to defend Dreyfus; they also produced the evil Zola was defending him from; and they produced Dreyfus himself, a nonentity who would have gone unremarked, an entry in a birth registry and a name on a headstone, without his enemies and his defenders. Pretty much the same situation still remains today.
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2004 23:11 Comments || Top||

#21  Fred, the point I was trying to make--which I guess you missed, too--was that before last year, I was as big a Francophone as you'd hope to meet.
Often I was the only person defending them in a normal crowd.
I firmly believe the time for looking fondly at France, via our reverence for humanity's greats like Lafayette and Zola, is long past.
(I was in France doing my Master's thesis on Art History so I know about the best French minds, also.)
What we're discussing now is "What has France done for us lately?" (or to us, I should say.)
Big Time Perfidy.
And it's not just the government, as you should know.
Polls and recent news accounts of the French people show that they dislike Bush intensely, think Jews and the Mossad and/or Bush were responsible for 9/11, have sided with Islamists in the WOT every time, including the PA, and have tried to amass an extra-NATO force against us in Europe.
And we're not through.
This article was about their journalists following the lead of their politicians and aiding and abetting terrorism and perhaps actually trying to kill our soldiers under the guise of newsgathering.
Why can't we stay on message?
I do NOT appreciate being lectured about how fine and respected the French "if only I weren't too ignorant to realize it" are at this stage of the game and the war!
If you feel the need to denegrate my contribution ("Gay Paree isn't all of La Belle France."), perhaps I shouldn't post in your forum any more.
Posted by: JenLArt || 01/05/2004 23:32 Comments || Top||

#22  P.S. There wouldn't have needed to be an article called "J'accuse" by Zola if there hadn't been a Dreyfuss case, which was emblematic of deep-seated French Anti-Semitism.
Clearly, that hatred of Jews is still alive and well in France today, given not only their ambiguous (to put it politely) stand on our War on Terrorism, but the increased attacks on Jews in France since the start of the Intifada and the 9/11 attacks.
And I forgot to add that France has yet to pony up any money or troops for the Coalition efforts in Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere else (although James Baker did get an IOU), being too busy tending their own unilateral colonial ambitions in Ivory Coast, the Congo and Central African Republic.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 01/05/2004 23:47 Comments || Top||

#23  Jen, while I'm as unhappy with French behavior as the next rabid blogger, if not more so, I think we need to be concentrating on finding ways of deprogramming the French from their biased media (see here for more info) and propaganda rather than getting together to sink to their level and hold five minute hates of our own. I said what I said earlier about the reporters because I wanted them tried publically for their actions. I don't care if they're French, Dutch, or Americans. (Now I'm going to hit the 'post' button, as if anyone's still reading this thread...)
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/06/2004 0:10 Comments || Top||

#24  Thanks for your reasoned reply, Phil. And I agree.
My replies above were mainly for our Webmaster here whom I felt was unnecessarily taking me to task for my alleged Francophobia.
I like the French fine, but I'm not buying another Chanel bag or going back to "Gay Paree" anytime soon.
My "5-minute-hate" of France is based on lots of solid reasons, which I didn't go into in detail because our space here is limited and I assumed that most participants were fully conversant with those reasons themselves, given the tenor of newstories and comments on here (See Hijab story above for examples).
Courage, mon brave!
You're right about the collaborating journalists--aiding and abetting should be a war crime, if it gets our soldiers hurt or killed.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 01/06/2004 0:21 Comments || Top||

#25  Actually, if you're going to mention the recent regulations in France re: the hijab, I don't approve of it; I don't necessarily approve of the hijab itself either, but I am worried that it's a symbolic action they're taking to pretend they're actually doing something, when they're not. I've sent longer rants on the subject to other people, that I should probably turn into a 'blog post; if you want me to, I'll email it to you.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/06/2004 0:52 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Two held over swim
Two men have been arrested for allegedly trying to leave Singapore illegally by swimming across the kilometre-wide Johor Strait to Malaysia, police said today.
Hummm
The two men, aged 18 and 28, were arrested late yesterday after coast guard patrol vessels pulled them out of the water for trying to leave the city-state by ``unauthorised means,’’ said a statement posted on the Singapore police Web site. Both men claim to be Malaysians, it said. It was not immediately clear why the men, who used plastic drinking bottles and a piece of styrofoam as floats, were trying to leave Singapore.
Most people try to sneak into Singapore looking for work.
Police have been on alert for possible terrorists since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Singapore is one of Washington’s closest Asian allies and supported the US-led war in Iraq.
They’ve been very active jugging the bad guys.
Illegal workers flock to the wealthy South-East Asian nation in search of jobs mostly shunned by locals in the construction and services industries. Last month, police arrested 11 foreigners, mostly from Burma, who used makeshift floats or life jackets given to them by smugglers in neighbouring Johor, Malaysia.
Yup, anyone trying to swim out of Singapore raises eyebrows.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 11:21:31 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Two men have been arrested for allegedly trying to leave Singapore illegally by swimming across the kilometre-wide Johor Strait to Malaysia, police said today.

Leave Singapore "illegally"?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 12:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Leave Singapore "illegally"?

Singapore is very serious about people following their laws. You check in through customs, you check out through customs. Simple and easy, if you have your papers. Either they were there illegally and wanted to go home for a visit, or they were on the wanted list. Or both.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 13:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Many countries have checks on people leaving the country, that ensures they entered legally. Try leaving Australia without proof you entered legally and didn't over stay and you will end up in the slammer. Same for Singapore. The police regularly round up illegals who are often responsible for property crimes and prostitution.
Almost all the illegals in Singapore come to make money and then leave. Catching them on the way out is a big a deterrent as catching them on the way in.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/05/2004 18:31 Comments || Top||

#4  If they tried something like this in the USA, there would be an outcry like you wouldn't believe. Enforcing the country's laws on immigration and visas? Unheard-of.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/06/2004 2:25 Comments || Top||


Martial law for attack zone in Thailand
Thailand’s Prime Minister has harshly criticised security forces for failing to stop a string of weekend attacks in the country’s Muslim south. Thaksin Shinawatra said the four soldiers slain by suspected Islamic militants "deserved to die" for their negligence.
Well, that’s a little harsh.
The Government imposed martial law and an emergency in Narathiwat province following the daring attacks early on Sunday. The measures allow curfews and emergency detentions. In almost simultaneous night-time raids, unidentified assailants set fire to 21 schools and stormed the armory in a military camp in Narathiwat province, killing the four soldiers and stealing more than 100 weapons. Mr Thaksin blamed the attacks on Mujahideen, one of three Muslim groups accused of carrying on a low-level separatist campaign for decades in the Muslim-dominated south.
That would be my guess.
It was a rare admission of separatist trouble in the four Muslim-majority provinces in Thailand, which is predominantly Buddhist. Mr Thaksin said the raiders expected to sell the weapons to allied groups outside the country, and decried the lack of co-ordination between army and police units.
I expect them to keep the weapons, or give them to allied groups in Thailand.
"The security forces knew about the bandits looking for a big lot of weapons," he said. "But still they were negligent. They deserved to die."
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 11:05:16 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Look no further than Thailand's neighbor to the south if you want to know where this is originating from. The "original" rebels quit a long time ago. These are imported Islamofascists, courtesy of the Malay mutton-heads.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/05/2004 11:11 Comments || Top||


More Blasts in Southern Thailand
The blasts in Pattani came a day after unidentified assailants set fire to 21 schools and raided a military armory, killing four soldiers in neighboring Narathiwat province. The government blamed Islamic separatist insurgents for those attacks. On Monday, two policemen were killed when they were trying to defuse a bomb planted on a motorcycle, parked in a lot of the Diana shopping mall. Another explosion occurred at a police box in a public park, injuring one officer. The independent ITV television station said the device was a time bomb set to go off at 3 p.m. local time. A third bomb was found in a telephone kiosk and was defused without incident, the police spokesman said. He said a fourth bomb was found in a gasoline station and police were trying to disarm it. No other details were known. Four southern Thai provinces including Narathiwat and Pattani are the only Muslim dominated parts in the predominantly Buddhist Thailand.
Quite by coincidence, that's where the explosions and corpses occur...
Posted by: TS || 01/05/2004 10:19:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Malaysian state to enforce Islamic dress code
Non-Muslim Malaysian women in Opposition-run Terengganu state will not be able to wear short-sleeved blouses, tight-fitting jeans, long skirts with slits or mini-skirts to work in future.
"Alright, Margaret. That does it. We're moving!"
Assemblyman Sulaiman Abdullah says they are also barred from wearing figure-hugging or revealing dresses. "The PAS (Islamic Party) Government will not tolerate females, including those from different religions, wearing such clothes during working hours," Mr Sulaiman said. Mr Sulaiman says non-Muslims, although free to wear skirts, must wear them knee-length. He says Muslim women working in the private sector would now have to adhere to the Islamic dress code and wear headscarves and loose clothes. The council will distribute circulars on the dress code to businesses and visit premises with Islamic preachers to advise Muslim women who flout the ruling.
Employers whose workers are found to be wearing improper attire could be fined up to 250 ringgit ($US66) or lose their licences. The hardline Islamic Party controls just two of the 13 states in multicultural Malaysia, which has large non-Muslim minorities of ethnic Chinese and Indians.
Regardless of the way they dress, they have no shame.
Posted by: TS || 01/05/2004 10:12:48 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wonder how many "inspectors" there are, and how many will turn up in alleys with a busted head...
Posted by: mojo || 01/05/2004 12:41 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder if they can post pictures of the outlawed styles, so we can be sure no mistakes are made...

Or is that the quickest way to turn Rantburg into Gweilo Diaries ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 01/05/2004 13:33 Comments || Top||

#3  In Malaysia/Singapore, a white person is an 'Ang Moh' - literally 'yellow hair' in Hokkien I believe.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/05/2004 18:37 Comments || Top||

#4  LOL Carl. Please vote sober.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 19:17 Comments || Top||


Cambodia to try Egyptian and Thai JI
Cambodia is to put on trial an Egyptian and two Thais held in Cambodia since May on suspicion of links to Southeast Asian radical Muslim group Jemaah Islamiah, the judge in charge of the case said on Monday. Egyptian Esam Mohamid Khidr Ali, Hajichiming Abdul Azi and Muhammadyalludin Mading, teachers at a Saudi-backed Islamic school near the capital Phnom Penh, were picked up as part of a wider regional crackdown on suspected Muslim militancy. "The investigation is now over and we have enough evidence to charge them officially," investigating judge Oun Bunna told Reuters, although he said no trial date had yet been set.
"We'll just leave them in jug until we get around to it..."
Following the arrests, the trio were held while their case was investigated by a judge, as is customary under Cambodia’s French-based legal code. An official charge after an investigating judge’s inquiries leads directly to trial. Cambodian police raids last year led to the closure of the al-Mukara school and the expulsion of 28 foreign Muslim teachers and their families. Security sources said the raids were the result of a U.S. intelligence tip-off. The suspects’ lawyer, Khao Sopha, said his clients had done nothing wrong and had been charged with offences relating to international terrorism which were not even covered by Cambodian law.
"It ain't against the law to be an international terrorist in Cambodia!"
He demanded a trial as soon as possible and also criticised authorities for holding the three beyond the statutory six months permitted to the investigating judge. "They have detained my clients for more than they are allowed to do, and that is unacceptable," Khao Sopha said.
Shuddup. Neither is brewing jihad in somebody else's country...
Predominantly Buddhist Cambodia is home to a few hundred thousand ethnic Cham Muslims who have so far remained free of the Islamic militancy which has hit other countries in Southeast Asia. However, the United States is concerned Saudi-funded Islamic charities might be trying to radicalise the Cham, and make the deeply impoverished nation a haven for militant ’sleeper’ cells or suspects on the run.
Probably the Chams are afraid the Khmer will do hideously painful things to them if they get out of line. Given Cambodia's recent history, I'd be afraid of the same thing.
Hambali, an Indonesian preacher suspected of being Jemaah Islamiah’s brains and bin Laden’s regional lieutenant, spent around six months undetected in a Phnom Penh backpacker hostel before his arrest in Thailand in August, local security sources said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:46:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I totally misread the headline, I thought that the Thais were going to try out that old time Jamaah Islamiah way of doing things.

Glad to see it's good news!
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 01/05/2004 2:36 Comments || Top||


New Year’s Aceh boomer was a GAM rebel
The Indonesian military says one of 11 people killed in the bombing at a New Year’s Eve concert in Aceh province had been identified as a separatist rebel. A military spokesman said Syaiful Amri, 25, was believed to be the bomber and died when the bomb he was handling exploded prematurely. However, he said the attack was not a suicide operation.
"Hey, y'all! Watch what happens when I do this... [BOOM!]"
GAM has denied responsibility.
"Wudn't us."
Meanwhile, another victim injured in the blast died on Friday after surgery, bringing the death toll to 11. The explosion devastated a stage on a soccer field where a music concert was being held to welcome in the New year at Peureulak in East Aceh.
Uh huh. Happy New Year to you, too...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:30:48 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It gets better: Separatists in the troubled province of Aceh yesterday accused the Indonesian military of forcing a captured rebel to bomb a New Year's Eve concert, killing 11 people. Regional rebel commander Ishak Daud said the man accused of the bombing, Syaiful Amri, 25, was a captured militant who had become an Indonesian military puppet and was forced to take part in the attack. He said the bombing, in East Aceh's Peureulak, was a military plot to discredit the rebels. "Syaiful Amri was indeed a member of GAM (the rebel Free Aceh Movement) but he was arrested on November 28 at the Gajah river," Commander Daud said. "We believe TNI (the Indonesian military) used a GAM member in the explosion in that place, to scapegoat GAM."
Although the bomber's body initially was said to be too mutilated to be recognised, Aceh military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Yani Basuki said it was identified at the weekend by visitors to the hospital who wanted to view the corpse.


Playing the "We wuz framed" card.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 11:27 Comments || Top||

#2  That's a pretty good candidate for Least Likely Story of the Year, though we'll have to wait and see if Lipless Eddie can cap it...
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2004 13:51 Comments || Top||


TV reporter shot by Aceh rebels
A television reporter kidnapped by separatist rebels in Aceh province six months ago has been shot dead in what authorities have described as an exchange of fire between his captors and Indonesian soldiers.
"One step closer and the reporter gets it!"
Ersa Siregar, a senior reporter for Jakarta-based RCTI private television network, was apparently killed on Monday during a clash between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and state troops in Kuala Manihan village, Simpang Ulin subdistrict, East Aceh district. "He was found dead alongside the body of a GAM member," provincial military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Yani Basuki was quoted as saying by Reuters. State news agency Antara reported that Siregar’s body had been evacuated to a hospital in Lhokseumawe, the capital of North Aceh district. Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) commander General Endriartono Sutarto expressed his condolence on the death of the reporter. TNI’s Information Center issued a press release stating that Siregar’s body was found by soldiers following the shootout.
"Yeah. Sorry we iced yer guy..."
On June 29, Siregar and RCTI cameraman Ferry Santoro had been kidnapped along with their driver Rahmatsyah and two women said to be the wives of Indonesian military officials. Rebels have said the women were suspected of espionage, while the reporters were kidnapped to protest against severe restrictions on media coverage of the Aceh conflict.
Hmmm... Yasss... That worked well, didn't it?
The Indonesian government placed Aceh under martial law on May 19 and launched a massive military offensive to crush the rebel movement. Authorities in June banned journalists from reporting on GAM statements and imposed tough restrictions on foreign media workers seeking to enter the province. The RCTI crew’s driver Rahmatsyah was rescued on December 17 following an exchange of fire between marines and GAM members in Simpang Ulin subdistrict. He said he had been separated from the two television journalists about three months ago. The fate of cameraman Santoro and the female hostages is unclear, although they are believed to still be in rebel hands.
We can guess what's been happening to the ladies...
Siregar is not the first journalist to be killed during the ongoing military offensive in Aceh. On May 20, a cameraman from state-run television network TVRI, Muhammad Jamal, was abducted by unknown gunmen from his office in the Mata Ie area of Banda Aceh city. His body was found in a river on June 18. His eyes and mouth were reportedly covered with duct tape. The murder has not yet been solved. On November 26, reporter Arie Woelan from Jakarta-based Indosiar private television network was killed when an old armored vehicle he was traveling in plunged into a ravine near Jambi Baru village in Sultan Daulaut subdistrict, South Aceh district. The accident also left five soldiers injured, while Indosiar reporter Sisca T. Gurning suffered a serious head injury. The Jakarta-based Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and New York-based Human Rights Watch have documented several cases of journalists being intimidated and restricted in conducting their work in Aceh. Several journalists have been shot at by unidentified gunmen. On July 4, members of the Army’s elite Special Forces (Kopassus) attacked a local radio journalist who was reporting on civilians fleeing the military offensive. Aceh’s new military operations commander Brigadier General George Toisutta on December 18 apologized for the failure of his troops to rescue the RCTI crew and other civilians.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:29:51 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They better be careful about whacking reports; rumour has it that the Al Jezeera and Rueters crowd are packing heat.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 14:44 Comments || Top||


Indonesian coppers seize 3 bombs in Sulawesi
Security personnel confiscated three handmade bombs during a search in Poso regency, South Sulawesi, on Sunday. Spokesman of the Poso security task force Adj. Sr. Comr. Agil Assegaf said the bombs were found in a cow stable owned by Suyono, a resident of Tabalu village, Poso Pesisir district. "The bombs were discovered using a metal detector," said Agil.
"Honest, officer! I got no idea what them cows was gonna do with them bombs!"
"We also found two handmade rifles in Suyono’s house and another rifle confiscated from the house of another Tabalu village resident, Muksin." Agil said that Suyono and Muksin had left the village in 2000.
Leaving the explosives behind? Or did they come back?
About 500 police officers and soldiers took part in the search, which started at 7 a.m. local time and went on until noon.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:26:41 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  two handmade rifles in Suyono’s house
Is Suyono from Kentucky?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 19:07 Comments || Top||


18 dead in Philippines blast, Eid denies responsibility
The death toll from a powerful bomb blast in the southern Philippines at the weekend is expected to rise to 18 although 12 fatalities have been confirmed so far, police said. The number of injured in Sunday’s blast, blamed on pre-election violence, has climbed to at least 67 from 40, police officials said. "My estimate is between 15 to 18 (dead) but we only recorded 12," said Oscar Nantes, police chief of Parang town where the bomb explosion occurred near the entrance of a packed basketball court. Nantes said the mainly-Muslim residents of Parang traditionally buried their dead as soon as possible and some of the families of the fatalities might have buried them even before police could confirm their deaths. As many as 67 people, including children as young as nine, were wounded in the powerful blast.

Among the injured was Parang Mayor Vivencio Bataga, who is believed to have been the target of the bombing due to political rivalry. Bataga, 57, who underwent surgery for wounds to his face and his side, has blamed political enemies for the attack but did not identify them. It is the fourth such bomb attack in the past year against Bataga, who is running for re-election in the May 2004 polls. A former army colonel who has fought Muslim rebels, Bataga is the first Christian mayor of Parang in Maguindanao province, where political conflicts often turn violent and political clans traditionally maintain large numbers of armed followers.
Well, that explains it. You can't have a Christian govern Muslims. They need to be ruled, and only by other Muslims. Obviously he must be killed...
The bomb, hidden in a motorcycle, was made from a mortar shell triggered by a cellphone, Nantes said. Roadblocks have been set up around the town and police are trying to trace the owner of the motorcycle used in the attack. They have ruled out the involvement of local Muslim separatist guerrillas, such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), or foreign terror groups, like the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI), in the blast.
"Nope. Couldn't be them..."
MILF spokesman Eid ("Lipless Eddie") Kabalu denied his group was behind the blast even though the MILF has a history of using mortar shells to make bombs. Elections in the Philippines are considered to be among the most violent in Asia particularly in the troubled south were firearms as well as explosives are also readily available. Military statistics show that at least 98 people — including 24 government officials — were killed in election-related festivities violence in the run-up to the last congressional elections in May 2001. The toll was the highest since the fraud-tainted snap presidential elections in 1986 when 153 people were killed.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:24:24 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
Paleo NGOs Say NO-GO to U.S. anti-terror terms for aid
From World Tribune
The United States has failed to persuade Palestinian non-governmental organizations to sign a commitment that they will not aid groups deemed by the State Department as terrorist.
OK, that’s fair when we are throwing millions at them.
The result could jeopardize U.S. plans to transfer tens of millions of dollars to the Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during fiscal 2004.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. Tens of millions down a rathole, or tens of millions at home.....decisions, decisions.
Somehow I can't get worked up about my tax dollars not being donated to Yasser and Sheikh Yassin. Nope. Doesn't bother me at all...
Over the weekend, the NGOs reiterated their rejection of the terms set by the U.S. Agency for International Development for the receipt of U.S. aid. The terms were drafted after the Al Qaida suicide strikes on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001 and presented to NGOs last year.
We look at things alot differently now than we did on 9-10-01.
"It is not clear on what basis and upon which criteria the definition of ’terrorist acts’ has been determined, especially in light of Israeli attempts to portray the struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom and independence as ’violent and terrorist acts,’" a statement by NGOs said. "Palestinian NGOs are developmental organizations that aid and empower Palestinian society through service-oriented activities and awareness raising, based on the principles of democracy, social justice, and respect for human rights."
Blah blah blah. Actions, not words. You have blown up too many busses and children for us to stomach.
The U.S. pledge, entitled "Certification Regarding Terrorist Financing," lists a range of commitments required from NGOs that operate in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They include a pledge that NGOs will not engage in activity with groups deemed as terrorist, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-sponsored Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
And don’t forget the St. Pancake Brigade.
Raji Surani, director of the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights, said the U.S. demands will divide Palestinian society.
Those that want to live and those that want to die.
He says that like it's a bad thing...
Surani said U.S. AID has demanded that NGOs provide no assistance to or engage in contact with Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and Hamas’s Yusef Al Qiyadi, both of whom are in Israeli prisons.
Sounds reasonable to me...
On Monday, a coalition of NGOs was expected to announce plans for a campaign against the U.S. demands. The groups, included those linked to the Palestinian Authority, plan to lobby Washington to drop the AID conditions and hold protests throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Protest and be damned.
And who will be handling the lobbying effort on behalf of the Paleos?
Palestinian sources said the NGOs have been under pressure from Fatah and Hamas not to sign the U.S. commitment. Hamas is regarded as a leading funder of social programs in the PA areas.
The leaders of Hamas must be passing notes from under the matrasses.
Israel has sought to increase efforts to stop Palestinian insurgency financing but has failed to pass a law similar to the U.S. Patriot Act, which would grant the government wide authority to seize suspected insurgency assets. Last year, Israeli forces seized a large amount of money at the headquarters of PA Preventative Intelligence in Gaza City. On Sunday, the Cabinet decided to accept the recommendation of Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz that these funds will be used for what a government statement termed the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people. The statement said the funds will be added to the budget of Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which oversees civilian projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Anything the Israelis do there will be destroyed by the boomers and their sympathizers. Maybe they should put it in an escrow account to be used after the Arafish floats to the top of his Ramallah aquarium. Geeze, this stuff makes me cynical. Like Fred sez, the Paleos never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. They have not got to the bottoming out stage yet.

The propaganda campaign is going to center around how the money's being taken from the mouths of the starving little Paleostinian children. The tactic is always to quibble over the definition of terrorism, to cast themselves as heroic freedumb fighters and... ummm... somebody else — usually the Israelis — as terrorists. Since money is still fungible, I'm against donating a nickle. Anything we spend to finance "service-oriented activities and awareness raising, based on the principles of democracy, social justice, and respect for human rights" frees up cash to be spent on arms and ammunition. And, just like terrorism, the definitions of all those things vary widely from the ways we'd use the terms. There's enough money already going to fund mosques and their attendant Yoot Centers, and there's enough money already going to fund "awareness raising." I think it'd be better spent on beer and pretzels.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/05/2004 6:15:35 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The United States has failed to persuade Palestinian non-governmental organizations to sign a commitment that they will not aid groups deemed by the State Department as terrorist.
Stat! Ethel! Stat!
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 18:39 Comments || Top||

#2  "...plan to lobby Washington"

Anyone want to bet that the same people who opposed funding Iraq rebuilding will now demand we give the Palestinians money condition-free?Anyone?
Posted by: Stephen || 01/05/2004 18:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Gee oh my gosh! You mean you want to support terroism and not devolpment? Not on our dime brother!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/05/2004 19:10 Comments || Top||

#4  "It is not clear on what basis and upon which criteria the definition of ’terrorist acts’ has been determined, especially in light of Israeli attempts to portray the struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom and independence as ’violent and terrorist acts,’" a statement by NGOs said.

Who the hell are these people? Democrats? Deliberately targetting and murdering innocent people is a terrorist act. P-E-R-I-O-D. No IF, ANDS or BUTS dammit.

This includes targetting and blowing up BUSSES and night clubs and other CIVILIAN TARGETs.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/05/2004 19:44 Comments || Top||

#5  the same assholes that lobby on behalf of the Soddys
Posted by: Frank G || 01/05/2004 20:14 Comments || Top||

#6  The result could jeopardize U.S. plans to transfer tens of millions of dollars to the Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during fiscal 2004.

Excellent, excellent, excellent! Now if GWB would just have the balls to just not transfer the money anyway. It's practically a certainty that there's going to be further terror attacks against Israeli civilians regardless of what happens, so....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 20:40 Comments || Top||


Home Front
True Americans Honoring a Fallen Soldier in TX
Please go to this site and have a look at the amazing pictures of a funeral procession for a fallen soldier. It makes me proud to be an American. If only more people were this thankful and respectful... (You may want to mute sound as there is some bad accompanying music)

http://members.accessus.net/~tmcdonld/lighthse/Texas.htm

I apologize if this violates any of the posting rules...it’s my first time.
Posted by: mjh || 01/05/2004 4:24:20 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thank you for sharing.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/05/2004 16:56 Comments || Top||

#2  GO THERE.
Posted by: chinditz || 01/05/2004 17:03 Comments || Top||

#3  It's still a heart hammer
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 18:11 Comments || Top||

#4  And if Japan had attacked Galveston Nippon would be a memory.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 18:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Wonderful post. Thank you.
These are the Texans I know and love.
God rest the soul of this fine young man and all the other fallen in battle who gave the utimate sacrifice.
You have the thanks of a grateful, safer and still free nation.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/05/2004 18:22 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon
Syrian journalist reports Iraq’s WMD located in three Syrian sites
From DEBKA, so salt to taste. I couldn’t find any other source in english:
Nizar Najoef, a Syrian journalist who recently defected from Syria to Western Europe and is known for bravely challenging the Syrian regime, said in a letter Monday, January 5, to Dutch newspaper “Di Telegraaf,” that he knows the three sites where Iraq’s WMD are kept. The storage places are:
1. Tunnels dug under the town of al-Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria. These tunnels are an integral part of an underground factory, built by the North Koreans, for producing Syrian Scud missiles. Iraqi chemical weapons and long-range missiles are stored in these tunnels.
OK, Iragi Scuds could blend in and you would want the warheads close by.

2. The village of Tal Snan, north of the town of Salamija, where there is a big Syrian airforce camp. Vital parts of Iraq’s WMD are stored there.
Air Force base for air dropped weapons, check.

3. The city of Sjinsjar on the Syrian border with the Lebanon, south of the city Homs.Handy if you want to pass WMD to, er, somebody.
Najoef writes that the transfer of Iraqi WMD to Syria was organized by the commanders of Saddam Hussein’s Special Republican Guard, including General Shalish, with the help of Assif Shoakat, Bashar Assad’s cousin. Shoakat is the CEO of Bhaha, an import/export company owned by the Assad family. Najoef, who has won prizes for journalistic integrity, says he wrote his letter because he has terminal cancer.
On first reading, it sounds reasonable. Any one know anything about Nizar Najoef and his credentials?
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 2:29:55 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, some days I feel like I'm the last person on the planet who still believes that Iraq had WMD in the first place. I figured they had to be somewhere, Syria sounds as likely as anywhere else.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 01/05/2004 14:42 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't know that much about Syrian geography - are these town in the Bekaa Valley?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 01/05/2004 14:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Can you say bunker-buster? I knew you could...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/05/2004 17:00 Comments || Top||

#4  No, Homs, Hama and Salamiya are north of Lebanon, in a pretty compact triangle.

Posted by: buwaya || 01/05/2004 17:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Naw... I still say locker 666 at the Damascus Grau Hund station.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 19:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Nope, don't know a goddamn thing. But lets kick some ass anyways.
Posted by: Lucky || 01/05/2004 23:32 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
Niger arrests Islamic radicals over Nigeria revolt
Niger has arrested seven suspected Islamic militants over an uprising in neighbouring Nigeria last week and has offered to extradite them, a Niger official said on Monday.
"Here, you take them. We’ve got enough nuts of our own."
Militants stormed police stations and local government buildings in at least five towns in northern Nigeria last week in what state media called an attempt to set up a Taliban-style Islamic government in part of Africa’s most populous nation. The Niger official went to Nigeria’s Borno state capital Maiduguri to tell authorities of the arrests after Nigerian troops crushed the week-long uprising. "We have arrested seven of the Islamic militants who attacked Yobe and Borno states last week," the official, who asked not to be named, told reporters. He said he invited the governors of the states to Niger to take custody of the detainees, who were arrested in a hideout in Niger’s Diffa Province.
Skipped town, did they? Bet they’re important holy men, they always seem to be quick on their feet.
A Nigerian tank battalion of 500 troops has joined hundreds of police and state security officials combing the savannah region bordering Niger for members of the group, named by local media as Ahlul Sunnah Jamaa. "The militants are breaking up in small numbers to make their arrest difficult, but the whole brigade has been mobilised to search for those militants still at large," said Brigadier General Harris Musa Zarma.
That’s a pretty serious force, no wonder they took off. It’s much easier to beat up the local cops and burn down a few churches than face a tank battalion.
Yobe state government spokesman Ibrahim Jirgi said the group, also known as Hijrah, was composed mostly of students in their 20s.
Look around, there’ll be a handful of elder statesman providing guidance and funding.

I wonder if the Hijrah is Takfir wal Hijrah? Sounds like a bunch of wild-eyed Takfiri, holier'n you or I could ever think about being. What do you think, Dan? Paul?
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 12:48:19 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus
Man suspected of Turkish terrorist attacks detained in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani border guards have detained a suspect in the recent terrorist attacks in Istanbul, Turkey, reported chairman of the State Border Service Elchin Guliyev. Guliyev said the man had been detained on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border, and underlined that his citizenship is yet to be ascertained. He did not rule out the possibility that that the suspect may be a citizen of a Muslim country. Twenty-eight people were killed and more than 450 wounded as a result of two bomb explosions near the British General Consulate and the office of the British HSBC Bank on November 15. Most of the casualties were British and Turkish citizens. British Consul General Roger Short was among those killed in the suicide bombings.
I wonder which Muslim country?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/05/2004 11:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  detained on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border

Tried a end-around, did he? Several other suspects in this bombing were reported to have headed to Iran, maybe that's the route they took. Wonder if he was going to Iran or coming out for another go?
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 13:35 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Unknown group claims ’’attack’’ on Egyptian charter plane
A man claiming to represent an Islamic group in Yemen said on Monday the Egyptian charter plane that crashed Saturday was brought down in an "attack" by the group’s members, in a telephone call to AFP.
Took you two days to issue a press release?
Slow typists...
The man, who said he was an Egyptian calling from Cairo, said he spoke on behalf of a group dubbed Ansar el-Haq (the Apostles of Truth), which he said carried out an attack that brought down the plane. Ansar el-Haq is based in Yemen, he said.
Wonder if there is a automated group name generator these guys all use? Or do you just join a "Group Of The Month" club.
A Boeing 737 operated by a Cairo-based charter firm, Flash Airways, plunged into the Red Sea on Saturday shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 148 people aboard, mainly French tourists. Egypt has ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash and pointed to an unspecified technical fault. French officials said it appeared to have been a classic accident on take-off.
Most likely a accident, but it doesn’t hurt to check.
The caller also warned that his group would launch an attack "soon" against Air France "if France does not go back on its decision to prohibit the Islamic headscarf" in state schools.
If France doesn’t cave first, I’m sure something will go boom.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 11:38:03 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The commentariat at LGF noted that this "crash" could be a message to Egypt (for meeting w/ Sharon) and to Chirac for the headscarf thing.
Posted by: seafarious || 01/05/2004 12:16 Comments || Top||

#2  The Head Scarf War.. or the War of Chirac's Ear.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 14:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Then again, it could just be a accident:
Switzerland’s aviation authorities say they found serious faults in both aeroplanes owned by the Egyptian carrier Flash Airlines, more than a year before one of its planes crashed. However, the Federal office for civil aviation (FOCA) stressed it was drawing no conclusions about Saturday’s crash, which killed all 148 people on board.
The office said in a statement it had found a number of problems on both aircraft, including missing navigational documents, fuel calculations that didn’t match international standards, and unsuitable emergency exit signs. “In addition, obvious maintenance deficiencies were found in the areas of the landing gear, the engines and the aircraft steering,” the statement said.


"Other than that, they're good planes."
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 15:58 Comments || Top||

#4  That's it. The exit signs. Gotta be it. The wheels won't matter, but the engines and the steering could point to problems.

We will probably never know. Is anyone going to mount a salvage op and investigation like the NTSB does? 'Cause that is what it will take to even have a chance to find the cause.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/05/2004 16:28 Comments || Top||

#5  In addition, obvious maintenance deficiencies were found in the areas of the landing gear, the engines and the aircraft steering,” the statement said.

Racist Pigs.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 16:51 Comments || Top||


Libya accuses Pak scientists of selling N-plans
The heir son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has revealed that Libya bought plans to make a nuclear bomb from Pakistani scientists as part of the quest for weapons of mass destruction it has now promised to abandon, write Michael Sheridan and Marie Colvin in The Sunday Times.
Looking worse for Pakistan.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said Libya had spent at least $40 million trying to build the bomb - an effort that Western weapon inspectors believe came much closer to fruition than previously thought. Revelations of the extent of Pakistani involvement are expected to increase US and British pressure on President Pervez Musharraf, who already stands accused of failing to prevent the illicit sale of nuclear material to Iran. Pakistan admitted last week that “rogue scientists” might have peddled technology for individual gain. It said several had been questioned.
Wonder when their "car accidents" are scheduled?
In an interview on his farm east of Tripoli, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, 32, confirmed that Libya used a network of international middlemen to buy nuclear components, including centrifuges, on the black market. Some of the material came from Malaysia and other Asian countries while other components were bought in South Africa.
Those centrifuges that were seized by the US and Britian had phoney shipping documents from a "asian" company.
Dressed in traditional gold silk Libyan robes and a checked turban, he spoke excitedly of a “new page in Libya’s history” and revealed how he had worked as a “trouble shooter” in talks with US and British officials that culminated in Colonel Gaddafi’s pre-Christmas offer to dismantle Libya’s weapons of mass destruction programs. “I was able to take messages to my father and explain to him. By the end we had a good relationship with the CIA, MI6 and all the Americans and British,” he said.
Meet the next ruler of Libya.
And probably a more capable one than his father, despite his propensity for checked turbans...
His father had needed to be reassured that the Americans and British did not have a hidden agenda for regime change in Tripoli. “Once they assured us they did not, everything went forward.”
Our agenda wasn’t hidden, it was right out in the open.
We're flexible: reform or regime change. Take your pick...
It also emerged at the weekend that Libya appeared to have begun the process of enriching uranium, indicating Colonel Gaddafi was much closer to making a nuclear device than the UN inspectors admitted had been thought. According to one Western diplomat based in Tripoli, British and American experts who inspected Libyan weapons sites were startled to discover how advanced the nuclear program was. Libya had a “uranium enrichment program actually in progress”, the diplomat said. The experts were also taken aback to find that Colonel Gaddafi’s nuclear scientists had what one Western official described as a “full bomb dossier” from the Pakistanis.
This Libyan deal is looking better all the time.
It's a work of diplomatic genius...
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 10:44:21 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The only theory that adequately explains the actions and effectiveness of the IAEA is that they are actively covering up the nuclear programs of third-world nations. They have certainly done nothing to stop any of them, and whenever the US uncovers details about one, it turns out to be much, much larger than the IAEA admitted.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/05/2004 10:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Now that "asian/Asia" includes people of the ME, I really wonder where these ships are stopping.
Posted by: Anonymous2u || 01/05/2004 10:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Um, Malaysia and Pakistan are clearly in Asia. What makes you think "asian/Asia includes people of the ME"?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/05/2004 11:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Them Pakis are turning out to have connections with a lot of unsavory situations. This certainly can't be good news, for either Musharraf or GWB.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 12:08 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't see how it could be a bad thing for Bush, at least if people think about it rationally. Remember, one of the particular accusations made against Bush during the 2000 campaign was that he didn't even know the name of the president of Pakistan! Hard to blame Bush for something his own opponents claim he was ignorant of.

For Musharraf, I don't think it makes a big difference. The only people who might change their minds about him are the US, and I doubt we want to abandon him and roll the dice on his replacement.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/05/2004 13:29 Comments || Top||

#6  Based on Gregg Easterbrook's article in the NYT yesterday (the almost insurmountable technological problems in developing nuclear weapons), one could be forgiven for thinking Pakistan was actually running a high level Nigerian e-mail scam; lots of promises and money change hands but no functional results. Ghadaffi just discovered he has been had.
Posted by: john || 01/05/2004 14:50 Comments || Top||

#7  I don't see how it could be a bad thing for Bush, at least if people think about it rationally.

Not embarrassing, to be sure, but more along the lines of having yet another blip on the radar screen to have to watch. Pakis involved with Khadafy, with NK, and possibly Iran, is rather troubing, to say the least.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 15:38 Comments || Top||

#8  I'd be surprised if we hadn't been watching that all along.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/05/2004 15:46 Comments || Top||

#9  Insurmountable problems? Like the ones that were solved by us with 1940s technology?
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/05/2004 23:38 Comments || Top||


Libya denies opening its lands for American and British forces
Son of the Libyan leader disclosed a Libyan, British and American agreement to training Libyan military personnel, but denied that this agreement means the establishment of military bases on the Libyan territories.
"Some guy named Fred keeps calling and we keep telling him the O’club is still closed."
Seif al-Islam al-Qathafi said that this agreement was reached during the talks on the mass destruction weapons that took place in past months. In December, 2003, Seif al-Islam announced a visit to be held by the US President George W. Bush and the British prime minister Tony Blair to Libya during 2004. Al-Qathafi’s son said that Washington vowed to protect Libya against any aggression but refused to disclose the details. He also denied any current consultations to convene a joint defense agreement. It is not clear who threatens Libya of aggression.
Mexico
Seif al-Islam stressed that security and military agreements will be finalized with the US. He added that American military men will be visiting Libya shortly to be acquainted with its needs of various military equipment.
That should be a interesting TDY.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 10:12:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred you promised! I just renewed my membership so I could go to the Wheelus Club. Maybe the Sixth Fleet will get a port agreement?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/05/2004 10:44 Comments || Top||

#2  I volunteer to train the bodyguards. We'll start with my famous course in "How to Select Victoria's Secret Lingerie".
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/05/2004 10:55 Comments || Top||

#3  "From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli..."
Posted by: Anonymous2u || 01/05/2004 10:57 Comments || Top||

#4  The moron must have been semi-sombulant during the part of the negotiations when basing for inspectors was discussed. maybe he went for the liquid lunch option.

It might be best if the princeling didn't give interviews without his handlers. I wonder if he has made major yet. How come Daffy never got retired from the Libyan army for failure to make general? Up or out.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 13:20 Comments || Top||

#5  We'll start with my famous course in "How to Select Victoria's Secret Lingerie".

I'd be happy to serve as their uniform inspector.

"Girls, get those seams straight! Latisha! You didn't shave properly! Now go get a bikini wax, on the double!"

^_^
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 01/05/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||

#6  It is said that only Bush can go to Libya.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 14:45 Comments || Top||

#7  good God almighty! Al-Qathafi? How many frigging name spellings in English does he have? I would like to propose the English-speaking world pick one and stick with it!
Posted by: Frank G || 01/05/2004 15:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Why a spelling? Why not a symbol? He could be the tyrant formerly known as... and... aka.. also.. in Florida he was... to his children...
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 15:31 Comments || Top||

#9  I have volunteered to go if our squad is called upon. My father left his favorite hammer laying on the staircase in the dorm next to the chow hall.
Posted by: Rick || 01/05/2004 21:23 Comments || Top||


Caribbean
Going, going, gone
EFL:
Navy ships are vanishing from Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, ending an era when defense spending boosted Puerto Rico’s economy and the U.S. territory was seen as a strategic asset. The military has used the base for six decades to keep watch over the Caribbean, and as the outpost closes, with thousands of troops and civilians to leave by March 31, Puerto Rico is losing an economic powerhouse that employed more than 6,000 people and brought an estimated $300 million a year to the island. Some islanders who see the base as a relic of colonialism are applauding its demise, but others fear for the future now that the United States needs Puerto Rico less for military purposes.
Thank you, Reverend Al...
When Roosevelt Roads closes, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will be the only U.S. naval base left in the Caribbean. No ships had their home port at Roosevelt Roads, but destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers passed through constantly for maneuvers or refueling. It was a support base for U.S. invasions of the Dominican Republic in 1965, Grenada in 1983 and Haiti in 1994. But its main purpose was to oversee bombing exercises on Vieques. Tensions between the Navy and locals heightened when two errant bombs in 1999 killed a civilian guard on Vieques, leading the Navy to close the range this year. Opponents said the bombing harmed the environment, the health of Vieques’ 9,100 residents and its sole industries of fishing and tourism.
They wanted to grab Vieques and build condos and hotels. Bush outflanked them and turned it into a wildlife refuge.
Some Puerto Ricans say the departure could mark a realignment in U.S. relations with the territory of 4 million people, which was seized from Spain in 1898. President Bush recently named a 16-member panel to re-evaluate Puerto Rico’s status, under which islanders pay no U.S. income taxes but receive $14 billion yearly in federal funds. Martes said she fears the U.S. government has decided "if they don’t want us, then we don’t need them."
It’s that Cause/Efect thing again.
Supporters of the small independence movement, meanwhile, say the Navy’s departure is a death knell for what they call U.S. colonialism. Other politicians who support statehood or the status quo disagree, saying the territory of 4 million people retains close ties to the United States. The Army still has Fort Buchanan near San Juan, and officials say more than 1,000 troops from Puerto Rico are in the Middle East. Gov. Sila Calderon, who favors the current commonwealth status, initially sought to persuade the Navy to stay. But her delegate to Congress, Anibal Acevedo Vila, says he helped negotiate a "good deal" for Puerto Rico to get lands unclaimed by the U.S. government. "There are going to be a lot of companies interested in investing," said Acevedo Vila, a gubernatorial candidate who cites building a theme park among possibilities.
Guess we know where his campaign contributions are coming from.
A decade ago, Roosevelt Roads was the biggest American naval installation in land area outside the U.S. mainland, with more than 30,000 acres including Vieques lands. As it closes, Puerto Rico faces 12 percent unemployment island-wide, with higher jobless rates near the base. The Navy hasn’t allowed journalists to visit, but employees say the airstrip and port are vacant, and housing complexes are clearing out. One officer called it a "ghost town." The number of troops and civilians is down to 2,200, and some 1,200 contractors are to lose base jobs. Others already have. "It’s sad," said Hipolito Robles, 44, a Navy veteran who lost his contract job as a maintenance supervisor a year ago. "People in Puerto Rico still don’t realize the impact it’s going to have."
This has been a real low-profile closing, Army South HQ is also moving out of Fort Buchahan to Fort Sam Houston. One of the unspoken reasons was that they couldn’t find enough local people willing to work for them.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 9:24:55 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes, look what happened to the Philippines after they kicked out the American from Clark and Subic, they said the airport in Clark will become high-tech industrial park, it did not happen. The Philippines never recovered from the lose of the bases

Without the $$$ from the US Puerto Rico will become a large South Bronx
Posted by: Lizzel || 01/05/2004 9:53 Comments || Top||

#2  This is all well and good. If them Porta Reekins can't take the bad with the good, then they get nothing at all. Take it one step further and dismantle ALL facilities and remove ALL personnel from the island and let them carve out an existence for themselves.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 9:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Payback sucks, doesn't it?
Posted by: Ptah || 01/05/2004 9:57 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm not sure you can call it payback. We paid for a service they provided. Now they dont want to provide the service, so we leave and stop paying them.

It wouldnt be fair to us to have to keep paying right?
Posted by: flash91 || 01/05/2004 10:07 Comments || Top||

#5  The perception that Puerto Ricans were happily taking tax payer dollars while spitting on the military and the rest of the U.S. at the same time are completely wrong from my experience.

I have been to PR (including Vieques) on a couple of occasions and still remain in contact with a few friends there. I met several people from at least two dozen towns. My impression was that they did indeed have a very strong sense of being “Puerto Rican” with pride in their distinct culture and language, but no more so than my same feelings about being a Southerner. In fact, the majority I met also had a strong pride in being Americans and some related to me their frustration and even anger when someone visiting from the continental U.S. didn’t realize Puerto Ricans were Americans. The friends I made there and remain in contact with all proudly served in the U.S. Army and note their service as having a positive impact on their life.

Before I put you all to sleep, I’ll get to my point. Looking at a map of Vieques and having been on the island, you realize that it is a beautiful and very tiny strip of land. Being a resident and having 16-inch guns lobbing high explosives in your backyard cannot be fun. However comma from talking with my friends, the majority of the protest and, more importantly, unwillingness to find a compromise solution was coming from outside PR. The Left grabbed what was a legitimate concern for the residents of Vieques and turned it into a public relations war with the Navy. The Left was not concerned with a solution for Vieqeus. They wanted a political victory over the military. The citizens of PR were left holding the bag for the Left.
Posted by: Kentar || 01/05/2004 10:31 Comments || Top||

#6  12% unemployment and they couldn't find enough people to work????? Even 7-8% before base closings and they still couldn't find people to work.

And exactly how did we "seize" PR from Spain????

Hmmm, maybe we could offer it back.

And flash, we're paying $14 bill a year, we're still going to be paying.

Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/05/2004 10:31 Comments || Top||

#7  And exactly how did we "seize" PR from Spain????

It was called the Spanish-American War. Remember the Maine, Admiral Dewey, San Juan Hill, that one. Spain gave us the Phillipines and Puerto Rico when they sued for peace.
Posted by: VAMark || 01/05/2004 11:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Well, the pyroclastic flows that pretty well buried Clark might have had something to do with it.
Posted by: mojo || 01/05/2004 12:12 Comments || Top||

#9  The citizens of PR were left holding the bag for the Left.

Sleep with the dogs, wake up with fleas.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 12:24 Comments || Top||

#10  It wasn't pyroclastic flows that buried Clark, it was ashfall. The looting afterwards didn't help either.
Posted by: buwaya || 01/05/2004 12:27 Comments || Top||

#11  Actually, the US invaded Puerto Rico as well in 1898, defeated what Spanish forces there were, and siezed the island.
Posted by: buwaya || 01/05/2004 12:29 Comments || Top||

#12  Being an ignorant American, I took offense at "seized." Spoils of war, wasn't there a ship "The Maine" involved which brought the entire thing to a head?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/05/2004 12:36 Comments || Top||

#13  President Bush recently named a 16-member panel to re-evaluate Puerto Rico’s status... I did not expect this extra step by Bush. I wonder whether the result will be kicking the little bird out of the nest altogether.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 12:46 Comments || Top||

#14  From what I have heard, results of the most recent investigations of the Maine incident attribute the explosion to a magazine mishap. Things like that still can happen. I had a friend that went aboard the USS Saribachi in 1993 or so. He was planning work for our repair department on one of their ammunition storage rooms. He said that he was disconcerted when while he scoping out the work that needed to be done, he noticed that he could look through a large rust hole in the bulkhead of the storage room directly into a boiler room.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 12:54 Comments || Top||

#15  Anonymous

The explosion of the Maine was NOT a sabotage from the Spanish, but the yellow press (read Hearst) and imperialistic politicians pretended it was.
Posted by: JFM || 01/05/2004 12:55 Comments || Top||

#16  Re: the Spanish-American War:

There was no significant land combat in the Puerto Rico campaign because the inhabitants of Puerto Rico were falling all over themselves to welcome the American expedition.

As for the loss of the Maine, the cause is still an open question (see this excellent book by a descendant of a Maine sailor). It's true that the press and some imperialistic-minded politicians sensationalized the incident to serve their own ends, but Spanish sabotage was not an unreasonable explanation for what happened.
Posted by: Mike || 01/05/2004 13:30 Comments || Top||

#17  The majority of Puerto Ricans I've spoken to indicate a desire to retain their status as a Commonwealth of the United States. They don't want independence, which will make them foot all the bill for their existence, and they don't want statehood, where they'd have to pay a larger percentage of the bill. They're aided by a number of large corporations who use Puerto Rico as a tax shelter. It's a complicated situation that has no easy answers. The island itself is beautiful, and there are a couple of unique features (Arecibo, for one) that make it worthwhile to keep it in the family, so to speak.

On the same note, about half the Philippinos I've spoken to over the last 40 years think the Philippines made a bad mistake opting for independence. About a third wish the US would take over again, and a major percentage of those would like to become the 51st state. Most of the people I've spoken to either were in the US military at one time, or worked for the military at some point in their lives. It's not a scientific study, but indicative that some people see being a part of the United States as a positive thing.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/05/2004 13:31 Comments || Top||

#18  Being a resident and having 16-inch guns lobbing high explosives in your backyard cannot be fun. However comma from talking with my friends, the majority of the protest and, more importantly, unwillingness to find a compromise solution was coming from outside PR.

Kentar, I have to disagree somewhat. I lived on - not near, ON - Fort Carson, Colorado. Tanks regularly rumbled by my home, I could hear tank and artillery fire regularly, and if I went one night without hearing someone firing blanks in a field exercize, I couldn't sleep well. (Heh!)

Of COURSE it's difficult having 16 inch guns firing in your back yard, just like it's difficult living in the take-off & landing shadows of a major international airport. That's why you _move_. Ideally, in this case, you petition the courts in a hope to squeeze some funds from the Navy, then you find a nice home somewhere quiet. Either you have an emotional attachment to your land or you do not. If you don't, you move. Case closed. If you do have a deep and abiding attachment, then a little thing like naval gunfire won't bother you. The tanks didn't bother me, Carson was _home_.

That's about the way I see things. But like that Dennis whathisname on HBO, "..I could be wrong."

Ed Becerra
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 01/05/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||

#19  Btw, what happened to the "Remember the Maine!" title?
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/05/2004 14:19 Comments || Top||

#20  There wasn't major resistance in Puerto Rico in 1898, but there was some, as US forces incurred at least 50 casualties in various skirmishes with Spanish regular and irregular forces, nearly all of which were native Puerto Ricans.
Posted by: buwaya || 01/05/2004 14:20 Comments || Top||

#21  There has been a strain of pro-statehood feeling in the Philippines for a long time. I recall there was an overt movement for US statehood back in the 1960's, when it seemed like most Manila taxi drivers were sold on the idea and would work hard to persuade their passengers.

I think most of these people ended up emigrating to the US or elsewhere since then.
Posted by: buwaya || 01/05/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||

#22  If the Filipinos and Puerto Ricans want to join the US as full-fledged states, let them vote on it. Otherwise talk about who does and who doesn't support the US is just speculation.
Posted by: Tresho || 01/05/2004 14:35 Comments || Top||

#23 
They don't want independence, which will make them foot all the bill for their existence, and they don't want statehood, where they'd have to pay a larger percentage of the bill.


So lemme see if I got this right: They want the bennies, but they don't want to do anything for it. Pardon me for not finding that to be much different from any other parasitical lifeform.

We can get that kind of "allegiance" from pretty much anybody in the world.
Posted by: Emperor Misha I || 01/05/2004 14:38 Comments || Top||

#24  Egypt is a cheaper leech.
Posted by: .com || 01/05/2004 15:14 Comments || Top||

#25  USS Saribachi

SH why would anyone board a ship named after a volcano?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 15:15 Comments || Top||

#26  Closing Roosevelt Roads is a bad mistake, and another example of Bush's tactical brilliance and strategic stupidity. What if we need to invade Venezuela?
Posted by: Pete Stanley || 01/05/2004 16:06 Comments || Top||

#27  Shipman.USN ammunition ships are, or were, named after volcanoes. Who says the navy doesn't have a sense of humor?
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/05/2004 16:08 Comments || Top||

#28  Actually at the time of the Spanish-American war the Philippines were in revolt. When the S-A war ended Spain [Treaty of Paris] 'gave' the U.S. Purto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines (with their revolt thrown in for good measure) and the U.S. 'gave' Spain $20M USD as a 'gift'. But the Filipinos took it (logically) as Spain 'selling' the islands and the Filipinos to the U.S.

What followed was the American-Filipino war which lasted more then 2 years. This is part of the reason there is such anti-U.S. sentiment in the southern islands such as Jolo. It was not a very pretty war at the end.

Just before WW2 the U.S. was going to give the Philippines their independence. But not for any 'humitarian' reasons - businesses in the U.S. did not want tarrif-free trade (and cheaper goods) which the Philippines provided. Unfortunately WW2 broke out and, 7 hours after Pearl Harbor, the Philippines were invaded and taken by the Japanese.

After WW2 the Philippines gained their independance at last - after about 400 years of Spanish then American rule.

(From: The Library of Congress)

I dont know of having Purto Rico and the Philippines as states would be a good idea for the U.S. Think of what the entitlements (Welfare) would cost?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/05/2004 16:33 Comments || Top||

#29  .USN ammunition ships are, or were, named after volcanoes

Ah! So. Remind me to stay away from the Mt. Whitney. :)
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 16:55 Comments || Top||

#30  Just a correction- Jolo, etc. were not part of the same revolt as the rest of the Philippines. They were Muslim regions, which had been in a state of perpetual war with the Spanish and Christian Filipinos for hundreds of years. Actually, when the US was through with them they settled down for thirty years. The Muslim Moros were not happy about Philippine independence, as they preferred rule by the US to that of Christian Filipinos.
Posted by: buwaya || 01/05/2004 17:51 Comments || Top||

#31  I dont know of having Purto Rico and the Philippines as states would be a good idea for the U.S. Think of what the entitlements (Welfare) would cost?

Forget the entitlements. Think votes. Adding the Philippines and Puerto Rico would guarantee the Democrats a lock on the House of Representatives. The tradition has been one for the Democrats and one for the Republicans - not 2 for the Democrats. There were 76m Filipinos and 4m Puerto Ricans in 2000 - I just can't see either joining the US anytime soon - they'd swamp us demographically. Even back in the late 1940's, they'd have swamped the US - Filipinos numbered 21 m, while the US population was only 150 m. I like 'em and all, but that's just too many in one go. The US would become the Philippines, not the other way around.

The Puerto Ricans have had a century to acculturate - they haven't - end of story. The Filipinos took the path they took and there's no going back.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/05/2004 17:55 Comments || Top||

#32  Just before WW2 the U.S. was going to give the Philippines their independence. But not for any 'humitarian' reasons - businesses in the U.S. did not want tarrif-free trade (and cheaper goods) which the Philippines provided.

This argument doesn't work because even if the Philippines had remained a colony instead of choosing independence, tariff-free trade would have remained a feature of commercial relations with the US. Even post-independence, post-war tariffs on Filipino goods have been extremely low because of its underdeveloped nature. (Post-war American tariffs went south in a big way to assist in the reconstruction of allied countries' physical plants). If the Philippines had not chosen independence, it's unlikely that the US would have pushed it out.

Wretchard at Belmont Club, who is Filipino, puts it most aptly - the Filipino elites saw a chance to regain their former glory under Spanish rule and grabbed it with both hands. The Filipino elites benefitted from the consolidation of their political and economic power at the expense of the common people of the Philippines. Interestingly enough, the question of independence was never put to a direct vote by the Filipino people - although they did seal their fate by electing independence-minded representatives to power.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/05/2004 18:17 Comments || Top||

#33  Kentar, I don't think the battlewagons shot in PR; Vieques would have seen 5" inch fire only. A 5 inch 54 caliber shot is load pretty load on the bridge of the shooting it but, from the island, would probably sound like a muffled rumble. The aircraft probably made some noise, but they were dropping inert rounds that wouldn't have made an explosion.
To shoot at the range required closing a nice fishing area to commercial fisherman. Some of the excercises entailled a high speed approach to the shore while firing. High speed approaches while firing and commercial fishing are mutually exclusive. The bombing can be done on ranges anywhere - a dessert would be good. I don't know of anyplace that would be willing to allow the Atlantic fleet to interrupt fishing in order to conduct that type of firing excercise.

Shipman, I spelled the name wrong, as usual. I think it is Surabachi, but as I remeber another was named Nitro or Pyro. It's not only the name that makes a person uneasy with regards to ammo ships. They based all the floating shrapnel at a separate Homeport in Colt's Neck, NJ. To get to the ships you have to ride on bus out on a pier that is two miles long. The base commander has a chunk of ship dipslayed in front of his office. The story - myth or actual - was that that piece of ship hull was located in the exact spot where it landed that last time one of the ship's blew.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 18:18 Comments || Top||

#34  Mt. Surabachi is memorialized at Arlington.
Posted by: Fred || 01/05/2004 21:37 Comments || Top||

#35  Fred, Surabachi is the volcano on Iwo Jima, isn't it?
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/05/2004 21:54 Comments || Top||

#36  The thingy on Iwo Jima is named "Suribachi"

Here is a link to info about those particular ships (the "Nitro" class)

Posted by: Pedantic Carl in NH || 01/05/2004 21:57 Comments || Top||

#37  While Clark Field became derelict, Subic Bay is Fedex's larget Asian hub and FTZ
Posted by: War46 || 01/05/2004 23:03 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
Nigerians ’crush’ Islamic uprising
An insurrection by Islamic militants in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Yobe has been ended by the police and army, say local officials. State Governor Bukar Ibrahim said many "Taleban-oriented radicals" seeking an Islamic state had been killed.
Many killed is a good start, all killed would be better.
The other day it was a half dozen...
Reports suggest that at least one police officer also died. The uprising began early last week when militants attacked police stations in a number of towns, burned buildings and stole large quantities of weapons. At one state building they occupied, the militants pulled down the Nigerian flag and raised that of Aghanistan.
Well, isn’t that special.
The violence reportedly ended at the weekend after hundreds of Nigerian soldiers were sent to Yobe state, which borders Niger. Twelve states in the Muslim dominated north of the country, including Yobe, have introduced Islamic Sharia law since the end of military rule in 1999. More than 10,000 people have died as a result in religious and ethnic clashes since then. Not much is known about the militants which carried out the attack, but local media are linking them to radical Muslim students campaigning for an Islamic state.
"One mosque to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them"
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 8:56:06 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, this is interesting, these are people w/o a country. Keep them moving, chase them around the world. We won't tire.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/05/2004 10:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Wes: Monicagate was Overblown
Gen. Wesley Clark charged yesterday that the Republican-led impeachment of Bill Clinton was not "appropriate, and said that his opponents had failed to remove him from the White House. Clark was praising Bill Clinton, his chief political sponsor, on NBC’s "Meet the Press," when he was reminded that the House impeached him over the Lewinsky scandal. "He wasn’t convicted," Clark responded.
Well, here it is just January 5, and we might already have the headline of the year. Let the jokes begin!
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 01/05/2004 3:58:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nice to see the New York Post make an early spurt for the finish line in the Headline Of The Year contest.
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/05/2004 7:03 Comments || Top||

#2  the stain of shame (and other substances) will apply long after the attempts to rewrite his impeachment are done
Posted by: Frank G || 01/05/2004 8:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes, and I think the Clinton impeachment will come to be seen as a seminal event in the disintegration of the Democratic Party; and it will become more evident as we get down to the short strokes as the campaign moves toward its climax in November.
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/05/2004 8:42 Comments || Top||

#4  "He wasn’t convicted," Clark responded.

O.J. Simpson wasn't convicted either.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/05/2004 10:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Weasley, do you really expect us to swallow that?
Posted by: BH || 01/05/2004 10:31 Comments || Top||

#6  wow Dave! that was a mouthful!
Posted by: Frank G || 01/05/2004 11:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Hey Wes, Denial is a river in Egypt!
"I did not sleep with that woman, Miss Lewenski."
At least we know how Wes feels about interns!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 01/05/2004 11:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Yessir, we Rantburg commenters are the cream of the crop, Frank.
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/05/2004 12:09 Comments || Top||

#9  Please! No more cumments!

^_^

Posted by: Ed Becerra || 01/05/2004 14:28 Comments || Top||

#10  It's this kind of thing that will bring the dems to their knees.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 01/05/2004 14:31 Comments || Top||

#11  Hey, even Rantburg goes down occasionally...
Posted by: .com || 01/05/2004 15:28 Comments || Top||

#12  This is a stain on the body politic. Or was that a mackrel in the moonlight?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 15:37 Comments || Top||

#13  Some hair trigger gag reflexes on Rantburg today.
Posted by: Grunter || 01/05/2004 16:38 Comments || Top||

#14  That's pretty much the thrust of it, Grunter; we're milking this for all it's worth.
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/05/2004 17:26 Comments || Top||

#15  Anyone else want to take a money shot or is that enough of the oral arguments?
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/05/2004 21:45 Comments || Top||


Africa: Central
Ugandan parliament praises Museveni, sez the war ain’t over yet
Members of Parliament from the Teso sub-region have commended President Yoweri Museveni for his efforts to curb the war in the northeast.
"Oooh! Thank you, Mr. President-for-Life!"
They however say the fighting is not yet over.
That's 'cuz it ain't over 'til it's... ummm... over. Not to rely too heavily on Yogi Berra quotes...
Soroti district Woman MP, Ms Alice Alaso told The Monitor on phone yesterday that she would believe that the fighting is over when the Lords Resistance Army rebels have all been captured. She said some parts are still rebel bases and impenetrable. She cited Morangatuny sub-county, parts of Kaberamaido, Lira and Kitgum, as areas still disturbed by Joseph Kony’s rebels. "The President is entitled to what he says but I can’t jump on to what he has said that the fighting is over," Alaso said.
She sounds a sensible lass...
In his New Year’s message, Museveni said the Kony inspired terror in the northeast has been defeated decisively. This is the second time in as many months Museveni is declaring an end to the war since the UPDF launched Operation Iron Fist early last year under a bilateral protocol that allows the army to pursue the LRA rebels deep into Sudan.
I guess one man's resounding success is another's indifferent results...
But Alaso said the rebels are still active and that the fighting has not yet stopped. She said Teso has also been hit by a food and drug shortage. "[Maj. Gen. James] Kazini declared the war over and Museveni has also repeated himself on this so we don’t know which one is over," Alaso said. Maj. Gen. Kazini is former Army Commander. Dr Francis Epetait, (Ngora county) said there has been some significant peace but the scattered Kony rebels are terrorising the unarmed masses. "There is still a number of abducted children who are in rebel captivity," Epetait said. "There were no rebel incidents during Chrismas and New Year but you cannot say the war has been finished. These rebels come and go and you cannot know whether they have gone for good. What if they come back?" Mr Ben Etonu (Amuria) asked. Mr Samuel Anyolo (Soroti) said there is now some breathing space and that Chrismas and New Year’s Eve were peaceful. "We are optimistic that 2004 would be one of hope. The war has not ended yet but as of now there are no more attacks," Anyolo said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:37:22 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: East
Kony massacres 21 family members cuz it’s kewl
LRA leader Joseph Kony has killed twenty-one of his closest family members, the army has said.
I've occasionally thought about doing that, but then they do the dishes and the feeling passes...
Those killed reportedly include his eldest wife, Akwilino Akwir, whom Kony fondly referred to as Maama Fatuma ["She of the Inviting Thighs"], his second wife, Oyella ["Slender Nell"], his sons; Saddam, Achila, Obol, Orama and their sisters who had no names were yet to be identified by the army. His other son, Ali and wife Min Olik were reportedly injured and are now back in Southern Sudan as captives.
Of whom? LRA? Sudanese? Ugandan army? Gypsies?
Col. Charles Otema Awany, Chief of Intelligence under the Operation Iron Fist, revealed this at a press conference he called on yesterday.
"Youse guyz ain't gonna believe this, but..."
He said that about 26 members of Kony’s family had decided to escape and come back home because of a serious famine in Southern Sudan. However, before they could cross over to Uganda, Kony sent his loyalist troops to pursue them. Upon catching up with them they opened fire, killing 21 in the process. Otema said that this happened, December 31, in Southern Sudan - between Katire and Pajok, South of Torit. "The children and the wives saw the suffering they were going through and decided to come back home but Kony sent his loyalist troops and killed them," the Col. said.
"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome family?"
"Four of those who survived the massacre were taken back to Southern Sudan as prisoners. Kony could not allow these people to escape because he feared that they would reveal his secrets," Otema said. "We feel that members of the public should know this because it shows a lot about the brutality of Kony, killing ones own children is a taboo in Acholi."
Acholi sounds like most places in that respect. Guppies eat their young, but most of us higher orders somehow refrain from it...
Meanwhile, heavy bombing could be heard from Gulu town on Friday morning as a Mig 24 fighter engaged LRA fighters in Omot, Aswa County about 30km North-East of Gulu town.
"Charles! Fire up the plane."
"Not... the Plane?"
In a separate incident, LRA fighters Thursday night attacked Bobi, 15 km from Gulu town, and abducted an unspecified number of people. Six of those abducted were however rescued according Col. Otema. Two of the rebels who carried out the attack were killed by the UPDF.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:32:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  about 26 members of Kony’s family had decided to escape and come back home.....Kony sent his loyalist troops to pursue them. Upon catching up with them they opened fire, killing 21 in the process.

Shades of Jonestown, maybe Joe will break out the KoolAid before he's captured.
Posted by: Steve || 01/05/2004 8:41 Comments || Top||


Korea
New Round of N. Korean Nuke Talks in Limbo
Talks on ending the North Korean nuclear standoff were in limbo Monday with North Korea blaming the impasse on Washington’s demand for disarmament and South Korea saying it was unlikely a new round of negotiations would get off the ground this month.
Oh hold me, Ethel!
Meanwhile, Russian and Chinese diplomats reportedly were to meet in Moscow to discuss a compromise solution that first freezes North Korea’s atomic programs then rolls them back.
So far, so good.
The United States, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas have been trying to arrange six-nation talks for months in an effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs. Hopes for holding such talks last month were broken by differences between the United States and North Korea. The sides have since aimed for talks early this year.
We were aiming elsewhere but fine, go on.
But South Korea’s National Security Adviser Ra Jong-il said Monday that a new round was unlikely to happen this month because of scheduling conflicts with the Russian Christmas holiday and the Chinese Lunar New Year, which are both celebrated in January.
Don’t forget President’s Day. February looks bad too — certainly can’t expect 6-way talks on Valentine’s Day, can we?
We'll be getting ready for the equinox in March... April's bad, too. Arbor Day, y'know...
North Korea says it will dismantle its nuclear programs in exchange for a U.S. security guarantee and aid. But before making any concessions, Washington wants North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. North Korea on Monday blamed Washington’s stance for the delay in scheduling a new round of talks and rejected as unfair U.S. demands that it first irreversibly and verifiably disarm.
"It’s all their fault! Can’t be us!"
As a first step, North Korea again offered to freeze, not reverse, its nuclear programs. ``The actions to be taken at the first phase are for the U.S. and the neighboring countries to take measures in return for the DPRK’s complete freeze of its nuclear activities. This is a starting point and a core issue of furthering the process of talks,’’ a commentary carried by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency reported adding that ``the ball is in the U.S. court.’’
Classic commie ploy, the old something for nothing trick. We give them something, they give us a freeze — nothing.
In Moscow, Chinese diplomats were to meet Monday with Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losuykov and Director of the First Asian Department Yevgeni Afanasyev, according to Itar-Tass news agency. Russia and China are working on a compromise that assumes the liquidation of the North Korean nuclear program may take more than one year.
Strategic Air Command thinks it will take an hour, tops.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/05/2004 12:24:52 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How about we counter with nothing for nothing. You want to talk, NORKS? Let's talk till the cows come home. The only reason that the NORKS stay viable is that the ChiComs and the Skors are helping them. Well if the Chicoms want to do this, have a ball. They can foot the bill. We will quietly stalk and intercept Nork ships. Do the Chicoms really want to be seen as the intermediatary and enabler in the Nork's dirty little WMD and dope trade businesses? Do the Chicoms want to have a nuke tipped Japan?

In the meantime, we can talk up a storm with the NORKS, 6 ways if they want. We can wear them down at their own game, too. It is alot cheaper than a military operation. At least it is worth a try.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/05/2004 17:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Launching MM3's with impact points that close to China is contra-indicated.
Posted by: mojo || 01/05/2004 18:30 Comments || Top||


Security Bureau links The Hermit Kingdom North Korea with local gangs
The National Security Bureau (NSB) has been keeping a close watch on the North Korean communist regime’s welcoming of gang members from Taiwan with open arms over the past year, sources said yesterday. Intelligence showed that North Korea is attempting to build drug-trafficking links with Taiwanese gang members. Gangsters who have traveled to North Korea over the past year are being monitored for any suspected illicit activities. An intelligence source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the unusual links that are developing between Pyongyang and local gangsters have been observed for some time but did not warrant enough attention until recent months. "Pyongyang actually invited these gangsters for a visit. We believe that the links are being built for the sake of drug trafficking. The watch will continue," the source said, declining to offer any further information.

The gangsters being solicited by North Korea could belong to gangs that are comprised mainly of descendants of troops who fled with Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan in 1949. The source of the drugs that these gangsters plan to smuggle via North Korea is very likely China, which is one of the major suppliers of drugs in the Asia-Pacific region. China has been using neighboring countries under its political control to smuggle drugs into other parts of the world, including Taiwan, a defense official said.

The NSB has been exchanging information with quite a few countries about drugs trafficking. It is therefore not alone in the fight against these cross-border criminal activities. Taiwan, though lacking official ties with North Korea, has been interested in information on this self-isolated country, since the information might lead to a better understanding of China. One of the findings by the military is that North Korea has developed a very powerful anti-tank missile and that the technology has been proven to be from China. The anti-tank missile uses millimeter wave as its seeker, operating on two bands at the same time, sources said. Millimeter wave is known for pin-point accuracy and reliability in all kinds of adverse environments, including electronic attacks. The millimeter-wave seeker uses technology that only a few countries have acquired. Among these countries, the US is the best known. China is known to have developed a millimeter-wave-guided anti-tank missile, which is believed to have been the model for the missiles owned by North Korea. South Korea’s dread of the new weapon could be an indication that China’s millimeter-wave development might be quite advanced, sources said. The development poses a great threat to Taiwan, since the military does not possess any weapon of the same calibre. The AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter is the kind of weapon that the army wants to acquire to maintain a balance of power with China. The helicopter’s fire-control radar uses millimeter-wave technology. The helicopter is also armed with a millimeter-wave-guided anti-tank missile.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:21:11 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front
Attack dates pass, but alert still high
The specific dates for possible terrorist attacks against the United States have passed, and the volume of intelligence that prompted the government to raise the security threat to orange before Christmas has dropped slightly, federal law enforcement officials familiar with the intelligence said Sunday. But the officials and other U.S. security authorities said those developments do not diminish the threat posed by al-Qaeda and should not result in lowering the nation’s threat status from the "high risk" level. They said they suspect the terrorist group still seeks to launch another catastrophic assault against the USA on the scale of the 9/11 hijackings.
I haven't the slightest doubt that's true. We're in an election year now...
"We don’t know what stage a plot may be in," one of the law enforcement officials said. "We don’t have the full context of a plot." Suspicions that al-Qaeda planned another air attack, possibly using foreign carriers, led to the threat level being raised Dec. 21. All of the dates for a possible attack gathered by U.S. intelligence officials revolved around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, the official said. Although those dates have passed, the official said, the recent cancellations and delays of international flights could go on indefinitely. Intercepted communications involving suspected terrorists, combined with information obtained in interrogations of captured operatives, triggered the higher threat level and an increased focus on commercial aviation around the world. Concern for the security of passenger flights have resulted in cancellations or delays of flights originating in London, Paris and Mexico City during the past two weeks. Other suspicious flights are being escorted or shadowed by U.S. fighter jets as a precaution. Sunday, British Airways Flight 223 from London to Washington — a daily flight that has been canceled, delayed and escorted by U.S. fighter jets during the past week — was delayed again because of security concerns.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:15:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  --The specific dates for possible terrorist attacks against the United States have passed,--

Ummm, no, they moved the target date out to the end of their February holiday.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 01/05/2004 10:33 Comments || Top||

#2  We've kicked Marvins' ass, next K-9, then the Islamists. (should be easier than dealing with Marvin)
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 15:40 Comments || Top||


ChOUked
There’s gonna be a big party on Bourbon Street Sunday night. LSU dominated on defense and held on to beat OU 21-14 in the Sugar Bowl to win their first national title since 1958. Jim Donnan breaks it down on GameDay Live.
Best college football game I have seen all year. Let the arguments bgin on who number one. It sure as heck isn’t OU

Peshawar.
Posted by: badanov || 01/05/2004 12:13:51 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I still think OU should be ranked number one. It's that "strength of schedule" thing. I'm mean look at who they lost to.

Actually, we all know that OU was not the number one team and had no biz playing for the title.

As for the game, Kinda boring for me as ABC seemed to suck the life out of it. The sound was weird. Seemed like the fans were asleep. OU looked like they could care less. LSU beat them good though.

I think USC is number one and they should beat LSU. Hey thats an idea. And BTW check out the PAC-10 bowl campaigns and you'll see they did very well. Anybody see Wazzu spank #5 Texas! Ouch Texas.
Posted by: Lucky || 01/05/2004 1:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Peshawar.
What? The Victory in Bahghdad was won on the playing fields of Daytona.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 15:44 Comments || Top||

#3  USC is no more #1 than I am. LSU won following the rules agreed on at the beginning of the season.

What's needed is to use BCS computer ranking to seed a 16 team championship tournament and stop the moronic sportswriters from voting. The whole reason for the BCS was the writers were screwing it up and they screwed it up again by voting for USC.
Posted by: Rutherford || 01/05/2004 16:02 Comments || Top||

#4  they screwed it up again by voting for USC.
Damn their yankee asses... vote like we tell ya!
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 18:17 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Russia consolidates stance in South Caucasus
Following recent events staged by Chechen mujahids (religious fighters) in Dagestan, Russia, local and foreign media have reported that Russian military troops are tightening control of the Azerbaijani-Georgian border. It has been speculated that by conducting anti-terrorist operations along the border, Russia is seeking to consolidate its stand in the South Caucasus region. Commenting on the issue, political analyst Mubariz Ahmadoghlu, head of the Center of Political Innovation and Technology, told Azernews that Azerbaijan is also strengthening its borders with Russia and Georgia.
That would presumably be to the detriment of the Bad Guys...
Ahmadoghlu underlined that the recent developments in Georgia testified that as a geopolitical territory Georgia had fallen under Russian influence.
Not sure about the validity of that statement. The new guys seem even less willing than Shevardnadze to be Little Russians...
"However, it doesn’t mean that Russia is capable of competing with the United States," underlined the political analyst. Noting that the United States’ position in the South Caucasus is becoming more and more diminished, Ahmadoghlu said: "The U.S. has not paid the necessary attention to the South Caucasus in recent years, mainly due to unexpected developments in Iraq and Afghanistan." Underlining that the United States is on the threshold of presidential elections, the political analyst stressed that it was high time for the U.S. to pay more attention to its domestic problems. Russia’s influence in the South Caucasus seems stronger in the context of reduced U.S. attention to the region. "In fact, Russian-Azerbaijani relations remain at the same level. There is no sign of new pressure on Russian-Azerbaijani relations. Moreover, Russia cannot take any steps that might aggravate the United States. U.S. and Russian national interests in the South Caucasus actually coincide with each other.
That's my opinion, too, despite what the Washington Post might think...
Other processes are also underway in the region. Russia is willing to benefit from Western investments in the Caspian region and the United States is unlikely to create any obstacles for Russia."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:13:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great Russian, White Russian, Byelo Russian, Little Russian, Siberian.. damn it's not a confederation it's a bartenders guide.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/05/2004 18:06 Comments || Top||


2 Russian soldiers, 1 cop killed in Chechnya
Rebel attacks and land-mine explosions killed two soldiers and one police officer over the weekend. Russian forces bombarded suspected rebel bases and groups of rebels in the Nozhai-Yurt and Vedeno districts with heavy artillery and shot two alleged rebels when they opened fire on troops in the capital, Grozny, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:11:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Chechen krazed killers have a base in Baku
Via PanARMENIAN.net and I have no way to judge the credibility of this, given the long-standing hatred between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. So while this could be just propaganda, this could also serve as the source of some interesting information.
According to the statement of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Azerbaijani authorities are aware of this but do not take any measures to prevent financing of terrorism.
The law-enforcement bodies of Russia have revealed new facts confirming the close ties between the Chechen terrorists and Azerbaijan. The regional operative headquarters of anti-terrorist operations has spread recently information that in Baku there is a fund financing the activity of extremist groups operating in the Northern Caucasus. Immediately after, the Russian Ministry of Interior publicized a statement reading about the successful operation on reveal of the channels of financing. The Ministry of Interior of Russia assures that the trace of the sponsors reaches the capital city of Azerbaijan.
We already knew that the Chechens had a command center set up in Baku, though that was purported shut down after the nastiness at the Moscow theater. Somehow, I doubt the funding for the Chechen jihad originates in Azerbaijan ...
The employees of the operative headquarters of the anti-terrorist operation managed to find a confirmation of their information thanks to the arrest of a soldier, Rizvan.
If this is true, my guess is that he was one of the Arabs captured recently up in Dagestan.
According to him, the Islamic fund ’’Assalam’’ operating in Baku finances several criminal groups terrorizing the inhabitants of Nozhai-Yurt and Vedeno regions of the Chechen Republic.
Another front operation, no doubt, plus all the mob connections for good measure. I wonder if this is the same mob circuit that Arbi Barayev used to run?
’’The above-mentioned fund provides finance assistance to the soldiers that live in Baku or pass a course of medical treatment there,’’ the release spread by the press-service of the Ministry of Interior reads. It is stressed that according to evidences of Rizvan, ’’the Azerbaijani authorities are aware of the activity of the fund of ’Assalam’ but still do not undertake any measures for its liquidation’’.
The question then becomes whether they support it or just look the other way.
Even the officials of Aliyev administration do not deny the fact that in Baku there are structures financing the terrorists. The Minister of National Security Namik Abbasov said one of these days that he did not rule out the possibility of such information’’. However, it is difficult to understand, what can this mean, but in any case it is evident that the ’’Assalam’’ foundation is functioning not for the first year. In this sense the statement of the head of the department of registration of juridical persons of the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry Fazil Mamedov is very interesting: he confirmed the fact that in 2000 the administration of the fund has made an application for official registration. The law enforcement bodies did not undertake anything to prevent the illegal activity of the fund financing the terrorism.
In 2000 there was probably nothing to say them nay, except for a few Russian hurt feelings, and remember in this area they're still busy bearding the bear now and then...
This is not the first case when the Russian special services reveal the ties of the Chechen terrorists with Azerbaijan. A year ago the assistant to the President of Russia Sergey Yastrzhembski made a statement saying there were undeniable proofs that the Azerbaijani branch of the “Benevolence International Foundation” was accumulating money supposed for financing of the bandit groups fighting against the Federal forces and carrying out terrorist acts in Moscow and Northern Caucasus cities.
BIF was yet another al-Qaeda front designed to funnel money to the Caucasus jihadis, though it was shut down (at least in the US) and its founder arrested.
The leader of the “Benevolence International Foundation” Enaam Arnault confirmed this information.
That would be him.
However, up to now Baku remains one of the biggest points of sending arms and money for terrorist in Chechnya. The law enforcement bodies or cannot, or do not want to prevent these activity. All these cause the dissatisfaction of Russian authorities. According to the commentators, as result of the indifference of Azerbaijani Special Forces, a visa regime may be introduced by Moscow. This issue is being already raised in the State Duma.
If that’s the case, then the buck will ultimately stop with Putin the way that most things do in the Russian Federation.
I suspect that the problem on the Azeri side lies with the responsible people being on the take. Aliev and Son, Inc., don't seem to run a really tight ship, except for the mechanics of maintaining dynastic power.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/05/2004 12:10:03 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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