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Syrian security forces kill 30 people during clashes
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Arabia
Five Killed as Yemeni Police, Tribesmen Clash
Three Yemeni policemen and two armed tribesmen were killed and scores of others wounded in a shootout after an arms control incident flared up in the central province of Al-Baydha yesterday, local officials said. The shooting broke out when dozens of tribesmen gathered to protest the arrest of a fellow tribesman. They said the firefight took place outside a school hosting a meeting for a municipal board of Radaa city, some 130 kilometers south of Sanaa. The tribesman was arrested on Friday after he confronted policemen enforcing a a 10-year-old ban on carrying weapons in cities. Armed clashes are not unusual in Yemen, a largely tribal society where men carry firearms publicly and tribes often settle disputes with guns.
The word you're looking for is "primitive."
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2004 11:15:02 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What is about firefights in Yemen, they all seem to result in 5 corpses. Is there a rule that says everyone can keep shooting until we have 5 confirmed dead, then honor is satisfied and everyone can go home. One of life's mysteries I guess!
Posted by: Phil B || 03/13/2004 23:47 Comments || Top||


People Unclear on the Concept.....
From MEMRI:
KING FAHD OF SAUDI ARABIA APPROVED THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRST PUBLIC ASSOCIATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE COUNTRY. (AL-AYYAM, BAHRAIN, 3/10/04)

THE CHAIRMAN OF SAUDI ARABIA’S RECENTLY FORMED HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION, WHICH HAS RECEIVED MUCH ATTENTION AS THE FIRST SUCH ORGANIZATION IN THE COUNTRY, SAID THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT ORDER OF BUSINESS IS THE ISSUE OF OBTAINING THE RELEASE OF SAUDIS DETAINED AT GUANTANAMO BAY. (SAUDI GAZETTE, 3/12/04)
Posted by: Mercutio || 03/13/2004 2:33:06 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Moroccan detainees ID'ed
Acebes, speaking at a news conference on Saturday, said the five suspects were all arrested around Madrid. A spokesman for the Moroccan government identified the three Moroccans as as Jamal Zougam, 30; Mohamed Bekkali, 31, a mechanic; and Mohamed Chaoui, 34. All three are from northern Morocco, but the government gave no further details about them. "One might have connections with Moroccan extremist groups. But it is still very early to establish to what degree," Acebes said. He did not name any group. Asked whether the Basque separatist group ETA is still considered a suspect, Acebes said: "We must not rule anything out."
I dunno. They look kind of old to be jihadis...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 7:59:28 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  JOPS. IRA did it with Libs and now ETA does it with Islamifacists! So what, the naivete of the Spainards and Europeans that Bush is the problem will only bring on more.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 03/13/2004 21:10 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda video claims responsibility for Madrid attacks
Spain’s interior minister said Sunday a videotape has been discovered claiming al-Qaida carried out the Madrid terrorist attacks, but that he could not verify the veracity of the claim. Interior Minister Angel Acebes said a man identifying himself as the military spokesman of al-Qaida in Europe claimed the group was responsible for the attacks Thursday that killed 200 people and wounded 1,500. "We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly 21/2 years after the attacks on New York and Washington," said the man, according to a government translation of the tape, which was recorded in Arabic. "It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies."

Speaking at a hastily called post-midnight news conference at the interior ministry, Acebes said authorities could not confirm the claim was genuine. He said the videotape was discovered after an Arabic-speaking man called a Madrid TV station and said where it could be found. "It’s a claim made by a man in Arabic with a Moroccan accent. He makes the declaration in the name of someone who says he is the military spokesman of al-Qaida in Europe," he told reporters. A statement from the ministry said the speaker was identified as Abu Dujan al Afghani. Acebes said the man was not known to law enforcement authorities in Spain, and that they were checking the tape’s veracity. The man, dressed in Arab clothing in the videotape, threatened further attacks in the video, which was directed at Spanish government authorities. "This is a response to the crimes that you caused in the world, and specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there will more if God wills it," the man said, according to the Spanish government’s translation.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 7:49:52 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabs in Denial Over Madrid Attacks - Ain’t Just a River In Egypt
Caught at Powerline - posting their take:
The BBC has translated reactions to the Madrid bombings by a number of Arab newspapers. As usual, the Arab world appears to be in denial:
  • Arabs and Muslims cannot commit such an act. We therefore condemn the act and hope that the Spanish government will be able to find out the truth.
    London Al-Arab al-Alamiyah

  • What draws our attention is the fact that those who are supporting the Eta separatist movement rushed to conclude that the ’Arab opposition’ was responsible for the terrorist act in Spain. This is a clear attempt to brand Arabs with terrorism.
    Jordan’s Al-Ra’y

  • It is illogical to accuse al-Qaeda before getting accurate information... The Spanish government was aware of this and moved fast to blame Eta before anyone else. Perhaps al-Qaeda was only used to deceive Spanish and world public opinion.
    Saudi Arabia Al-Riyadh

  • A mass demonstration was staged in the streets of Madrid in protest against these attacks. However, it reflected the resentment against the Spanish government’s policy in supporting the war on Iraq... It is hoped that the Madrid bombings will open the eyes of the coalition, led by the US... so that it can look into its mistakes and find a way to rectify them.
    London Al-Quds Al-Arabi

  • Terrorist acts everywhere, the latest being two days ago in Spain, prove that containment, not confrontation, will stop bloodshed in this world... the crazy policies being applied in many places worldwide bring more losses, destruction and disaster.
    Saudi Arabia Ukaz

  • Whether the bombings were carried out by Eta or al-Qaeda, the reality is that terrorism today is a deadly threat to all human beings... What is needed is prompt action by the UN to set up an international conference to combat terrorism, as well as drafting clauses for an international and comprehensive agreement to combat it.
    Egypt’s Al-Ahram
"It must be the Joooos or ETA, anyone, cuz we’re too stoopid"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 7:33:41 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Though I don't go there much anymore, I began reading www.arabnews.com regularly after 9/11 and continued for over a year.

I came away from that year of daily "Arabism" doses with the solid conviction that these people are as different from us as if they were from another planet.

It took me a while to put my finger on it, but what it comes down to is this: for the most part, we Westerners tend to live at an empirical level. We observe; we form hypotheses and we test them against other observations we make; and we thereby refine them into an understanding of the truth (or as close as we can approximate it). Sometimes the search for understanding is difficult and painful, for not all truths are easy to accept; as M. Scott Peck pointed out in The Road Less Travelled, revising one's "map" of reality is sometimes a terribly painful thing to do. But the bottom line is, we all seem to recognize, at a very deep level, that it is our responsibility to do so.

Reading www.arabnews.com for over a year convinced me that this orientation toward reality is absolute anathema to Arabs. They appear not to feel the least obligation to seek an understanding of the world around them; rather, they seek to define, and re-cast, the world around them in terms of their religious convictions- and their apparently very deep conviction that they themselves, in all matters, are utterly blameless.

Arabs live in belief. And this places them in a profoundly irresponsible position. Literally, they see themselves as having no responsibility whatsoever for understanding the world around them and coming to terms with it; on the contrary, they see the world as having the primary responsibility: we must conform to their beliefs, we must submit to Allah.

When I read stuff like the snippets posted in this item, I despair: times like this, I am all but convinced that a few years down the road we're going to have an all-out fight to the finish with these people.

Bah.
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/13/2004 20:12 Comments || Top||

#2 
Nice Post, Dave D., and your fear of what happens down the road is mine also.
Posted by: Traveller || 03/13/2004 20:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Great post DaveD. It is a "filthy" religion and the only way to correct this is from within which is highly unlikely. Poor people brought up with this BS. Kill the religion and we are at peace.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 03/13/2004 21:14 Comments || Top||

#4  "Arabs and Muslims cannot commit such an act"

Forty years of the slaughter of innocents says 'yes they can' & 'yes they do'.

"This is a clear attempt to brand Arabs with terrorism"

Funny... with the disappearance of the 80's terror groups in Germany, Japan and Ireland terrorism is most certainly now an exclusively Arab 'brand' entering it's 4th decade.

"Spanish government" "moved fast to blame Eta before anyone else"

This is ironic comedy as it was the UN that "moved fast to blame Eta before anyone else" and the street marchers squeal "coverup" in support of terrorists.

"It is hoped that the Madrid bombings will open the eyes of the coalition, led by the US"

Because it really is Spains fault for agreeing with the USA that terrorism is bad.

"Terrorist acts everywhere"..."prove that containment, not confrontation, will stop bloodshed in this world"

Classic Orwellian NewSpeak... 'ignorance is strength'.

"prompt action by the UN to set up an international conference to combat terrorism, as well as drafting clauses for an international and comprehensive agreement to combat it"

As if the UN could act promptly except to serve the tyrannies it serves? As if there needs to be... or even could be... an 'agreement' to 'combat' 'terrorism'.
Posted by: DANEgerus || 03/13/2004 21:17 Comments || Top||

#5  "prompt action by the UN to set up an international conference to combat terrorism,

Someone call Osama... I am sure that the U.N. will need him to chair this conference.....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/14/2004 0:56 Comments || Top||


3 Morrocans and 2 Indians detained in connection with crimes
Very idiomatic translation, but better than Babelfish.
They are presumed to be implicated in the sale and falsification of cellular telephone cards found in a knapsack with explosives and that did not detonate. The bag contained Goma 2 (seems to be plastic explosive) made in Spain together with a detonator and the abovementioned cell phone. Sources(?) said that they might have connections with extremists but that no conlusion will be reached soon.
Posted by: 11A5S || 03/13/2004 5:54:39 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The suspects "could be related to Moroccan extremist groups," the minister said. "But we should not rule out anything. Police are still investigating all avenues. This opens an important avenue."
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 18:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Fox news 4PM PST says Spain has proof Al Qaeda was the culprit
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 19:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Bingo. Called that one on smell alone, didn't we?
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2004 19:10 Comments || Top||

#4  CNN: "a man appearing in a videotape claiming to be a military spokesman for Al Qaeda in Europe says the terror group is behind Thursday's bombings that killed 200 people. The tape -- which has not been independently verified -- was delivered to a broadcast station Saturday."
-----------------
El Mundo has more:

Un presunto portavoz "militar" de Al Qaeda en Europa ha asumido, en nombre del grupo terrorista, la autoría de los atentados cometidos el pasado día 11 mediante un vídeo localizado por la Policía cerca de la Mezquita de Madrid. Según ha revelado el ministro del Interior, Ángel Acebes, se trata de una "reivindicación realizada por un varón, en árabe y con acento marroquí". Horas antes, el ministro confirmó la detención en la capital de tres marroquíes y dos indios por su presunta vinculación con los hechos.
El hombre que aparece en el vídeo, vestido con ropa típicas árabes, dice: "Declaremos nuestra responsabilidad de lo ocurrido en Madrid". Además, asegura que "los ataques se cometieron en respuesta a los crímenes de Bush y sus aliados". "Habrá más si Dios quiere y no paran vuestras injusticias. Vosotros queréis la vida y nosotros la muerte".
Según ha explicado Acebes, Telemadrid recibió la llamada de un varón con acento árabe que avisaba de que había dejado una cinta de vídeo en la calle, entre la mezquita de la M-30 y el tanatorio cercano, situado a unos 300 metros.
Las Fuerzas de Seguridad hallaron efectivamente la cinta de vídeo poco después, se visionó y se tradujo, según ha señalado el ministro. La identidad facilitada por el protagonista del vídeo no ha podido ser acreditada por los servicios de inteligencia españoles, ni por otros extranjeros consultados. Acebes ha dicho que esta información es prueba de la política de "absoluta transparencia" del Gobierno en la investigación de los atentados.

Google Translation:

A presumed "military" spokesman of A the Qaeda in Europe has assumed, in name of the terrorist group, the responsibility of the attacks committed the past day 11 by means of a video located by the Police near the Mosque of Madrid. According to he has revealed the minister of the Interior, Acebes Angel, is a "vindication made by a man, in Arab and with accent marroqui '". Hours before, the minister confirmed the halting in the capital of three Moroccans and two Indians by his presumed entailment with the facts. The man who appears in the video, dress with clothes typical Arab, says: "We declare our responsibility of the happened thing in Madrid".
In addition, it assures that "the attacks committed in answer to the crimes of Bush and its allies". "There will be more if God wants and do not stop your injustices. You love the life and we it death ". According to Acebes has explained, Telemadrid received the call of a man with Arab accent that warned that it had left a videotape in the street, between the mosque of the M-30 and tanatorio near, located about 300 meters. The Forces of Security found the videotape indeed shortly after, visionó and it was translated, according to has indicated the minister. The identity facilitated by the protagonist of the video could not have been credited by the Spanish intelligence services, nor by other consulted foreigners. Acebes has said that this information is test of the policy of "absolute transparency" of the Government in the investigation of the attacks.
Posted by: True German Ally || 03/13/2004 19:27 Comments || Top||

#5  the man on the tape would be Abu Dujan Al Afghani..
Posted by: lyot || 03/13/2004 19:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Tape Claims al-Qaida Tied to Spain Blasts

MADRID, Spain - Spain's interior minister said Sunday a videotape has been discovered claiming al-Qaida carried out the Madrid terrorist attacks and threatening more, but that he could not verify the veracity of the claim. Earlier, Spain arrested three Moroccans and two Indians in connection with the attacks Thursday that killed 200 people and wounded 1,500.
Interior Minister Angel Acebes said a man identifying himself as the military spokesman of al-Qaida in Europe claimed the group was responsible for the bombings.
"We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly 2 1/2 years after the attacks on New York and Washington," said the man, according to a government translation of the tape, which was recorded in Arabic. "It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies."
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has been a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites).
A London-based Arabic newspaper had earlier received a claim of responsibility in al-Qaida's name; but the government has been reluctant to blame the Islamic group, saying the Basque separatist group ETA was also a suspect. ETA denied responsibility.
Speaking at a hastily called post-midnight news conference at the interior ministry, Acebes said authorities could not confirm the claim was genuine. He said the videotape was discovered after an Arabic-speaking man called a Madrid TV station and said where it could be found.
A statement from the ministry said the speaker was identified as Abu Dujan al Afghani. Acebes said the man was not known to law enforcement authorities in Spain, and that they were checking the tape's authenticity.
The man threatened further attacks in the video.
"This is a response to the crimes that you caused in the world, and specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites), and there will be more if God wills it," the man said, according to the Spanish government's translation.
Thursday's attacks in Madrid came just days before Sunday's general elections in Spain. At demonstrations Saturday, some protesters said they believed the ruling party was playing down the possible link between the bombings and Spain's role in Iraq, fearing it would hurt the party's chances in the election.
Acebes, speaking at a news conference on Saturday, said the five suspects were all arrested around Madrid. A spokesman for the Moroccan government identified the three Moroccans as as Jamal Zougam, 30; Mohamed Bekkali, 31, a mechanic; and Mohamed Chaoui, 34. All three are from northern Morocco, but the government gave no further details about them.
"One might have connections with Moroccan extremist groups. But it is still very early to establish to what degree," Acebes said. He did not name any group.
Asked whether the Basque separatist group ETA is still considered a suspect, Acebes said: "We must not rule anything out."
Posted by: True German Ally || 03/13/2004 19:52 Comments || Top||


5 arrested in Madrid in connection with train bombings
Reports in Spain say five people have been arrested in connection with the Madrid train bombings. The news has come after the country started burying the 200 people killed in the outrage...
First reports say 3 Morrocans and 2 Indians
Posted by: Lux || 03/13/2004 2:26:23 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where'd you get the report about it being 3 morrocans and 2 indians?
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 03/13/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||

#2  The current (2:39pm EST) front page story on Fox News says 3 Muslims and 2 Hindus were arrested.

Hindus? WTF? Reporter error is what I'm thinking because Hindus terrorists tend to kill Muslims, they don't co-operate with them.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 03/13/2004 14:41 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL, in the time it took me to post that the text has been changed to 3 Morroccans and 2 Indians.

Wish I'd gotten a screen shot.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 03/13/2004 14:42 Comments || Top||

#4  i've read a Dutch report saying they tracked one of the Marrocans after checking out the gsm phone sim-card that was still in one of the unexploded bags
Posted by: lyot || 03/13/2004 14:43 Comments || Top||

#5  I have tried to get the news at the source (Spain Interior Ministry http://www.mir.es) but there is nothing
Posted by: JFM || 03/13/2004 14:44 Comments || Top||

#6  From The Beeb:

"Early this afternoon, members of the National Police corps made five arrests, three of citizens of Moroccan nationality, two citizens of Indian nationality, and there are two other Spaniards of Indian origin from whom statements are being taken now,"

Posted by: Parabellum || 03/13/2004 14:51 Comments || Top||

#7  FWIW, here is a good link.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040313/ap_on_re_eu/spain_bombings_arrests_4

As someone says here in their Classic Style....Surprise Meter Off, the Needle not twitching at all....

Posted by: Traveller || 03/13/2004 14:55 Comments || Top||

#8  Anybody think the Indians are going to turn out to be Hindu or Sihk or Christian?

Anybody?

*crickets chirping*
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/13/2004 15:09 Comments || Top||

#9  Periodista Digital has this:

Detenidas 5 personas relacionadas con el atentado del 11-M

El ministro del Interior, Ángel Acebes, ha anunciado la detención en Madrid de tres marroquíes y dos hindúes por su vinculación con los atentados en la capital el pasado día 11. Además, hay dos españoles de origen indio a los que se les está tomando declaración. Los arrestados están relacionados con la tarjeta prepago hallada en la mochila bomba que la policía desactivó junto a la comisaría de Vallecas.
Posted by: True German Ally || 03/13/2004 15:58 Comments || Top||

#10  If you read Spanish, El Mundo has an interesting article about the way the bombs were exploded (by calling the cell phone in the rucksack).
Posted by: True German Ally || 03/13/2004 16:04 Comments || Top||

#11  9 in EGoogle nglish

Stopped 5 people related to the attack of 11-M the minister of the Interior, Acebes Angel, has announced the halting in Madrid of three Moroccans and two Hindu by his entailment with the attacks in the capital the past day 11. In addition, there are two Spaniards of Indian origin to which declaration is being taken them. The arrested ones are related to the card prepayment found in the knapsack pump that the police deactivated next to the police station of Vallecas.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 16:35 Comments || Top||

#12  Here's the Google translation of TGA's link:

Stopped three Moroccans and two Indians in Madrid

MADRID . - The minister of the Interior, Acebes Angel, has announced the halting in Madrid of three Moroccans and two Indians by his presumed entailment with the attacks in the capital the past day 11. In addition, hindu are "two Spaniards of origin '", according to the minister, to whom declaration is being taken them . The arrested ones would be related to the card prepayment found in the knapsack pump that the police deactivated next to the police station of Vallecas.

The minister has assured that two Hindus had been stopped and sources of the Department of the Interior have emphasized that Acebes talked about to the nationality of the arrested ones and not to their religion.

The operation is open and, according to the minister, it has not done more than to begin. The prisoners have been arrested in different districts from Madrid and they are in police dependencies to come to its interrogation.

A delegation of high people in charge of the services of security in Morocco will travel to Madrid to know the identity the three Moroccan citizens.

Acebes has explained that still is soon for establishing entailments between the attacks of Madrid and those that the last year took place in Casablanca , although yes has recognized that some of the prisoners could have relations with Moroccan extremist groups.

"the Police is going to continue working all the routes, although the arrests open an important one via of investigation ", has assured Acebes in reference to their declarations yesterday in which it informed into which it was shuffled that islamistas ETA or radical groups would be behind the attacks. The holder of Interior has not discarded that exists terrorist international cooperation.

Registries in districts of the capital

Also, it has assured that several immovable addresses and in the capital have been registered and has indicated that some of the prisoners could have relation with Moroccan extremist groups. The investigation has been ordered by the National Hearing.

The minister has confirmed the existence of a witness who saw three encapuchadas people or "with the hidden face with scarfs" that, according to this testimony, supposedly left the van found in Alcala de Henares.

Finally, it has added that does not fit any doubt to him that the people in charge of the "criminal terrorist attack will be stopped and will pay to their faults and their responsibility, fulfilling completely its sentences", because, in his opinion, "they have conducted a terrible battle against our democracy, our coexistence".

Important finding

The last finding of the security forces was the one of a stock market of sports that contained an explosive of Plastic explosive of the mark ECHO made in Spain , reinforced with shrapnel to multiply its effect, along with a detonator and a movable telephone. This detonator was just as found Thursdays in a van in Alcala de Henares and were made in copper and not in aluminum, that are those that usually uses ETA.

The experts in the antiterrorist fight also are looking for DNA tests in gloves, a jersey and a t-shirt that were inside the van of Alcala de Henares. In addition they are studying tens of gathered digital tracks in the vehicle.

The found movable telephone in the knapsack of Vallecas, card prepayment and the Trium mark , was programmed so that its alarm sounded to one hour certain and to activate therefore the explosive. In addition, the configuration of the options of the apparatus was in Spanish.

As far as the explosives, to the Civil Guard it does not consist no robbery months in the last to him. The Plastic explosive is dedicated to public works and mining and makes in Spain, but also in several European countries, mainly in Germany, Czech Republic and Poland. In our country, the producer is Spanish Union of Riotinto Explosives, that has registered no robbery neither in factory, nor in deposits, nor in transport, although there are other companies that concern it of the outside and they sell it here. Sources of the antiterrorist fight have needed that it is very difficult that somebody can remove a as important amount of explosives as the used one by the terrorists in Madrid.

With respect to the tape in Arab with versicles of the Corán found in the van located in Alcala de Henares, in which also were identical timers to which there were in stock-market of sports, the minister assured that "there are no new data".

Doubts on the responsibility

The doubts on the responsibility arose same Thursday. In principle, the minister of the Interior, Acebes Angel assured butcher who "did not fit any doubt to him" that ETA was behind the massacre.

Hours later, the own minister of Interior returned to appear in press conference to announce the finding in Alcala de Henares of a van that had been robbed in Madrid the 28 of February and in that were eight detonators and one tape with versicles of the Corán. The hypothesis of A the Qaeda took force.

Later, in a supposed letter of A the Qaeda sent to a published Arab newspaper in London, the Brigades of Abu Hafs To the Masri vindicated their responsibility of the attack. The organization attributed the massacre to a "adjustment of old accounts" with Spain.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 16:41 Comments || Top||

#13  The minister has assured that two Hindus had been stopped and sources of the Department of the Interior have emphasized that Acebes talked about to the nationality of the arrested ones and not to their religion.


Meaning they're Citizens of India, not necessarily Hindus.
Posted by: Parabellum || 03/13/2004 17:14 Comments || Top||

#14  Crap.If this turns out to be an Islamist operation,you Americans can kiss goodbye to any hope of Trans-Atlantic cooperation in WOT.Europe will learn its lesson:don't be friends with Uncle Sam,if you don't want to get blown up.Which is why I'm still hoping that ETA's involved somehow.
Posted by: El Id || 03/13/2004 19:02 Comments || Top||

#15  Responsibility has just been claimed by Abu Dujan Al Afghani, so called commander of the European branch of Al Qaeda..He declared this was an attack by Al Qaeda, because of the Spanish cooperation in Iraq..Al Afghani makes reference in his statement to the Prophet Muhammad.
Posted by: lyot || 03/13/2004 19:31 Comments || Top||

#16  sarcasm\Now just hold on a minute...Al Qaeda is attacking Spaniards on behalf of Saddam Hussein and the Ba'athists?

But...but...the Left has assured us that there is no connection between Al Qaeda and the Hussein Regime.

And John F'n Kerry said the Coalition is phony so surely the jihadis wouldn't attack Spain or the other 28 nations (beside the US/UK) that are 'not really involved'.//sarcasm

Posted by: JDB || 03/13/2004 19:48 Comments || Top||

#17  the article on those Syrian volunteers sheds a good light on the treatment foreign elements in Iraq exactly got..Doesn't really point into the direction of strong links between Jihadi's & Saddam's Baath party...
Posted by: lyot || 03/13/2004 19:55 Comments || Top||

#18  So what your saying,El Id,is that Europe lets other people determine who Europe's friends and allies will be.
That statement of yours does not speak well of European courage.
Posted by: Raptor || 03/13/2004 20:44 Comments || Top||

#19  Be interesting to see what happens in today's election. The BBC is spinning like crazy a backlash against Aznar and his party over their support of the Iraq coalition. Given the BBC is wrong is wrong on most issues these days, I suspect they are wrong on this.
Posted by: Phil B || 03/13/2004 20:56 Comments || Top||


8 million Spaniards take to the streets
hat tip to instapundit and drudge
Chanting "Cowards" and "Killers," millions of protestors packed rainswept streets across Spain Friday condemning the country’s worst ever guerrilla attack which killed at least 199 people. Spanish royals and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar headed the march in Madrid alongside Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi and EU President Romano Prodi demonstrating unity a day after what was also Europe’s bloodiest bomb attack in 15 years.
Rude-errs only put attendance at 2 million - Drudge at 8 million - anyway you slice it - this is the big news of the day, despite the fact that big media is ignoring it. Instapundit links say 1 out of 20 Spaniards attended

here is a link to the photos - Absolutely Amazing!!

http://homepage.mac.com/sbooneaz/iblog/C197035534/E1795242105/index.html

http://www.donaldsensing.com/2004_03_01_archive.html#107913360377853668

http://www.donaldsensing.com/2004_03_01_archive.html#107913360377853668
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 1:44:17 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't know why my links don't work. But it's easy enough to go to instapundit and drudge to see for yourselves.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 13:45 Comments || Top||

#2  B, looks like you didn't putting anything in the href of your links but "HTTP://"....

you need to put the link in the href as well as before you close the tag...
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 03/13/2004 14:04 Comments || Top||

#3  thanks
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 14:13 Comments || Top||

#4  I just turned on the TV and CNN is on the demonstrations like flys on honey. Not the 8 million (or 2 million as EVEN Reuters is willing to acknowledge) but the "thousands" who are coming out against Aznar.

Bwahaaahahhaaaaa!!!!

I view the willingness to report this news in such a Stalinist fashion as a good...make that GREAT... sign. They are in trouble and they know it.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 14:17 Comments || Top||

#5  I went out to dinner last night with a PHD in economics from Spain. She was very confident that Aznar's party would win big on Sunday. I brought up the fact that the spanish population was against the Iraq war and they make view an AQ attack as revenge for Aznar's actions in Iraq. Her reply was that this terrorist attack would without a doubt drive more people to vote for Aznar's party... we'll see on sunday.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 03/13/2004 14:28 Comments || Top||

#6  The pictures and the crowds are awesome..make no mistake, BUT...aren't they a target-rich environment?
If a bomb went off, it would kill untold numbers of people.
I remember after 9/11, maybe we wanted to do this, but we were too afraid...of the next attack.
I'm kind of chicken, but even today, I'm reluctant to go where there are going to be large crowds.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 03/13/2004 14:34 Comments || Top||

#7  be brave Jennie - when it's your time, it's your time.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 15:08 Comments || Top||

#8  The Spaniards now face their moment of Truth - the "crux of the biscuit" as Master Zappa once said: Will they get awesomely pissed off at terrorists or will they fail and nuance the issue with "Was it ETA? Yes?, Well then, support Aznar!" or "Was it Al Qaeda? Yes? Well then, blame Aznar!".

Who fucking CARES? They don't carry ID cards and it wouldn't even matter if they did. The point, the crux of the biscuit isn't the label on the can, it's the shit inside. People are capable of insane acts of barbarism. Where's all this grey area for nuancing and prevaricating and piddle-dicking around while your fellows die?

There is only one question: Are you or are you not willing to defend yourself and your fellows from them?

If yes, then you have to get medievil on their asses and wipe them off the face of the Earth.

If no, then STFU and die like a good lil dhimmi.
Posted by: .com || 03/13/2004 17:14 Comments || Top||

#9  The point, the crux of the biscuit isn't the label on the can, it's the shit inside.

Let me know when you die so's I can put this on your headstone.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 18:57 Comments || Top||

#10  Ship - Lol! So you're expecting a posthumous email, I presume? Although I DO believe there are other worldly ISPs, there's no doubt that would be a trick! 8->
Posted by: .com || 03/13/2004 21:17 Comments || Top||


Spanish intel 99% certain Osamanauts behind Madrid attack
Could just be the Socialists trying to make political capital out of all of this. My guess is that the government doesn’t have proof one way or another and won’t for several days yet but is quite happy to keep things that way (especially if the focus is on the ETA) until after the elections.
Spain’s intelligence service is "99 percent certain" that radical Muslims and not the Basque separatist group ETA are responsible for the train bombings that killed 200 people, a Spanish radio station has reported. Private radio SER, whose owners have links to the opposition Socialist Party, said the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) believes the evidence points to an Islamic group, and that 10 to 15 people left bombs on the trains and fled, the radio said on Saturday. The centre-right government, facing an election on Sunday, has said ETA is the prime suspect.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:18:49 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Are they wondering "Why do they hate us?" yet? Or are they just going to find the bastards and kill them?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/13/2004 21:29 Comments || Top||


CIA and Mossad Had a Clear Motive to Commit the Madrid Bombings
From Jihad Unspun
The question is now who is responsible for the Madrid bombings? There are three possible groups that have a clear motive; ETA (The Basque Independence Movement), Islamic Jihadi groups and the CIA with Mossad on behalf of the US and the Israeli government.
Discussion of first two possibilities
The final category is the CIA and Mossad, who have an obvious interest in mobilizing the masses in Europe and US to support further military actions and whatever carnage that results from it. This is significant as majority of the populations of US and Europe have opposed the war and thus some form of Reichstag-fire incident is needed to incite support for the next cycle of violence. In addition as the elections are approaching in the US this incident is favorable to their election campaign, as no WMD has been found, the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan has not abated, and the testimony of the released captives of Camp X-Ray has exposed the true nature of the hypocritical and criminal US regime. While many will shout conspiracy theory as a means to dismiss this viewpoint rather than address the argument, let’s face it – the CIA and Mossad are not exactly novices when it comes to covert actions. Just ask the Iraqis who was behind the recent bombing in Ashura and how it took place. You will see a startling contrast to what was reported in the media.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/13/2004 12:18:22 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Makes perfect sense. Except
majority of the populations of US and Europe have opposed the war wrong
the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan has not abated wrong
the testimony of the released captives of Camp X-Ray has exposed the true nature of the hypocritical and criminal US regime wrong
Other than that, spot on.
Posted by: NotNotMikeMoore || 03/13/2004 12:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Why the hell would we attack Spain, who has been a consistent partner in our war against terrorism? It takes some really, REALLY warped thinking to believe this crap. Nothing the United States or its allies do will change the mind-set of the French useless-ninny government of Jacques (Crapmypants) Chirac. Schroder and the current German government can't decide which way the wind's blowing.

Just ask the Iraqis who was behind the recent bombing in Ashura and how it took place.
What a useless, inane straw man. This is pathetic. Attempts to paint the United States guilty for the explosions in Ashura is so stupid to be beyond comprehension. You just blew any possible shred of credibility you might have conceived. I think you, mister poster (child of the deaf, blind and dumb) missed an excellent opportunity to keep your pie hole shut. Read this site a few weeks, and THEN tell me who was responsible for the Ashura bombings (Hint - his initial is "Z", and he's NOT an American, of any stripe).

I can see why you'd agree, NMM - birdbrains of a feather, and all that...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/13/2004 13:10 Comments || Top||

#3  wonder if NNMM has got his tin foil hat on, don't forget about the greys and bigfoot invovement too, sheesh, what a jerk
Posted by: Jon Shep U.K || 03/13/2004 13:25 Comments || Top||

#4  OP, I don't think Mike agrees with any of what's in the post, I think he's just the reporter here :-)

Jon, NNMM is not NMM. NNMM is whacking JU, and did so nicely.

Jihad Unspun has to be one of the more pathetic organizations around -- kind of like being Leonid Brezhnev's publicist, charged with making the old man look good. Who'd want that job?
Posted by: Steve White || 03/13/2004 13:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh, c'mon NMM! I thought the released captives' testimony was insightful and compelling. Especially about the prostitutes. I want to hear more about the naked hookers!
Posted by: Pappy || 03/13/2004 14:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Good heavens... I thought I was gonna agree with MidWest Mike on something.

Never Mind.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 14:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Mike "Moby" Sylwester is pushing this theory. He's posting the article while disclaiming responsibility to shield his credibility. I've caught him posting many such articles in the past, after which he disclaimed responsibility. Note that he's the one who made up the headline - there is no such header at the Jihad Unspun article.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/13/2004 15:20 Comments || Top||

#8  As American morons, Israeli Jews bastards, spaghetti twisters Italians, and Brits euro hillbilly, and for last the Spaniards masses are discovering.
The last 25 years of oil driven Zionistic inspirited financed politics of oppression and suppression and cultural and moral degradation of financial, cultural and economic WAR waged against Arabs and Middle East people for the sole benefit of the racist and unnatural state of Israel and is vociferous supporters.
Is causing is repercussions
Also supported by the masses of complacent media laborers trying to please their Jew bosses
The message is you vote for a Zionist thief bastard anti Arab politician you paid the consequences
As this is the price to paid for voting and putting in place pro or Zionist scum.
There is not difference between wage a war with trained soldiers and state of the art weapons that kill people’s civilians and or complainers in Arabs countries, and the people blow to bits in “Civilized “western world
There is not difference between the blood of Iraqi, afganistan, or Palestinian child blow by warmongers bastards, and the child killed in Haifa, Madrid or New York
Posted by: eleano || 03/13/2004 16:00 Comments || Top||

#9  Heh, deja-dickhead-vu!

Lol! Write a different mindless fucktard screech for every article, Eleano. Posting the same one over and over might give someone the impression that you're not very bright. We wouldn't want that, would we?
Posted by: .com || 03/13/2004 17:21 Comments || Top||

#10  Couldn't see this coming, could we?
Damn, but those Mossad guys are busy bastards. Must rake in a lot of overtime.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/13/2004 20:59 Comments || Top||

#11  Eleano, google up "Julius Streicher"
Follow his path, share his fate.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/13/2004 23:18 Comments || Top||

#12  "The message is you vote for a Zionist thief bastard anti Arab politician you paid the consequences"

So, nimrod, are you telling us "Do what we say and nobody gets hurt"?
Posted by: Spiny Norman || 03/13/2004 23:38 Comments || Top||

#13  The fourth possibility !
truth is, it was my jewish grandma.
She never really could forgive the Spaniards
for the expulsion of the jews from spain in the fourteenth century.
So why blame the Mossad for something my grandma did ???
Posted by: The Dodo || 03/14/2004 2:50 Comments || Top||


Madrid bombs’ MO may point to Zarqawi
Which would make him the pivot man for this particular operation ...
The bombs used in this week’s Madrid massacres were sophisticated devices that contained copper detonators and were set off by cell phones, U.S. and Spanish investigators said yesterday. The 11 bombs used in the attacks - one did not explode - were carefully placed in commonly available backpacks aboard four trains and had alarms in each set to go off precisely at 7:39 a.m., investigators added. "This was a really professional job carried out by people who clearly knew what they were doing," said a U.S. counterterrorism official who has been briefed on the details of the Spanish investigation.

According to Spanish media reports, the backpacks were each stuffed with 22 pounds of a derivative of dynamite used in some land mines and artillery shells. U.S. officials said Spanish police were able to piece these important clues together from the 11th backpack in the wreckage of one of the trains in which the bomb apparently malfunctioned. That backpack contained explosive material and a copper cable connected to the explosives, as well as a loose unattached cell phone. Some counterterrorism officials told The Post devices and tactics used in the Madrid massacre, in some ways, has the hallmarks of the more sophisticated roadside bombs used against U.S. troops in Iraq - many of which were activated by cell phones. U.S. officials said that could suggest either al Qaeda or the vicious al Qaeda-connected network headed by Abu Musab Zarqawi. Over the next few days, Spanish investigators and FBI agents will be studying this device as well as other forensics to look for what investigators call a chemical "signature" to try to determine who was responsible.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:14:59 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Spanish envoys told to blame ETA
I think we need to get Sunday’s election out of the way before we get to the truth.
The Spanish government told its ambassadors to spread the word that armed Basque separatist group ETA was to blame for the Madrid bombings within hours of the attacks, a leading newspaper has reported. The report came amid increased grumbling from government critics on Saturday that Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar’s ruling party might be pointing the finger at ETA -- and minimising suspicions Muslim militants were involved -- for political reasons. "You should use any opportunity to confirm ETA’s responsibility for these brutal attacks, thus helping to dissipate any type of doubt that certain interested parties may want to promote," El Pais quoted Foreign Minister Ana Palacio as writing in a memo. If ETA is judged to blame, the ruling centre-right Popular Party could gain support because because of its tough stance against the Basque separatists. But analysts say it could lose if al Qaeda or other radical Islamic groups were shown to be involved, as the attacks could be portrayed as retaliation for Aznar’s unpopular support for war in Iraq.
Moot point!
"The Interior Minister has confirmed ETA’s responsibility," This is confirmed by the explosive and style used, as well as other information that has not yet been made public for obvious reasons," the text said, according to the newspaper. Since then, the Spanish government has been less categorical in its public comments, affirming ETA remains its main line of investigation but saying it is also pursuing other theories. The discovery of a van with detonators and a tape in Arabic, plus a purported letter claiming responsibility for a group aligned to al Qaeda, have fed suspicions of Arab involvement.
Some stuff cut
"There are some facts that, deep down, make me think it’s ETA. As well as what I’m told, I have the moral conviction," Rajoy told the pro-government El Mundo newspaper.
As I stated earlier, the conclusion that ETA is reponsible my well be true but so far there is no compelling evidence.
Posted by: Phil B || 03/13/2004 11:13:21 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It doesn't matter - 8 million people took to the streets. Apparently AQ thought that if they blew up stuff, that Aznar would take blame for supporting the US. I bet tomorrows elections will be a landslide for Aznar.

Beware of the law of unintended consequences.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 11:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe B... What's the word from Spain? I figure this could cut in either direction.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 12:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Shipman - instapundit has the scoop. It cuts in only one direction.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 13:27 Comments || Top||

#4  this stinks..If they are so sure about ETA, why don't they show more elements..On the other hand, if it was Al Qaeda, it was probably done to force a government change. Which in turn could lead to a change of the Spanish position towards the war on terror, especially in Iraq.
Posted by: lyot || 03/13/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||


Latest Istanboomers may be Afghan alumni
Turkish police confirm that two Islamic militants who carried out Tuesday night’s suicide bomb attack on a Masonic lodge were trained overseas.
In Iran, perhaps? Or the Pankisi Gorge?
But they’re not confirming reports they got their training at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan. News reports say the two were kicked out of the former Soviet republic of Georgia in 1998 after they tried to sneak into Chechnya. Two years later, they were reportedly arrested in Turkey for raising money for Chechen rebels.
Interesting. Was he part of Lomali’s gang back in Turkey?
Police have reportedly determined that the attackers learned how to make bombs on the Internet, but experts say they weren’t very good at it. Ten of their 14 bombs were duds.
Hmmm... Sounds like Hekmatyar...
Only way to know for sure: find out if anyone threw any grenades. And missed by a mile.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:38:22 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


MIRA sez al-Qaeda claim real deal, no ties to ETA
Extracted from a longer article. The guy quoted here, named as Saad al-Fagui, is actually Saad al-Faqih, the head of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, an al-Qaeda front organization. He’s also been remarkably up-front about the group’s alliance with Iran and Saudi backing in recent interviews.
Mr Acebes yesterday cast doubt on a letter purporting to come from al-Qaeda that claimed responsibility for the train bombings. "I myself have talked today with the British interior minister [David Blunkett] and [others, and] they all call very much into question the credibility of that communique and therefore we have to be very cautious about it," he said. But some Muslims who closely follow the terrorist network said the statement was authentic.
Closely following should be understood in the literal sense in the case of al-Faqih.
"The strategy of al-Qaeda is to punish anybody who has helped America," said Saad al-Fagui, a London-based Saudi dissident who has detailed knowledge of Islamist groups. He said al-Qaeda probably launched the attacks, and that the wording of the statement suggested it was genuine and that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attacks. But he rejected the suggestion made by some US officials that al-Qaeda may have allied itself with Eta. "For ideological, tactical and security reasons al-Qaeda never works with anybody else, because they fear they might be infiltrated by security services. They don’t like to relax their ideology, which is why they never dealt with Saddam Hussein," he said. Al-Qaeda and its affiliates had become increasingly adept at concealing their intentions from security services, he added.
That's an interesting collection of half, quarter, third, and other fraction truths...
European intelligence officials also reject the idea of a link between al-Qaeda and Eta. "It’s lunacy to think along those lines. It would be the death-knell of Eta, and there is absolutely no evidence of linkage between them," said an intelligence officer with extensive knowledge of Spain. He said no evidence had emerged linking Eta in the past with the Algerian Islamic group the GIA, some of whose supporters later joined al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:20:31 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm still leaning toward the joint ETA-AQ
operation but definatly seems to early to get any conclusive proof yet that we the public may know of.If AQ cells are operating with a large degree of autonamy as is thought then why shouldn't they ally up with others, the old your enamy is my eneamy thing probably would satnd here too. Some fuckker on the BBC saying this mornig that just because they used copper detonater cord or something it HAD to be AQ- wheres the fuckin logic in that but the van with the koran versus on tape and the unexploded bomb in it is very dodgy. Perhaps ETA have converted to the religion of peace eh. Interesting side note with the USA and allies launching operation Mountin Storm to the press officially yesterday, wondering if the 'go' day for that operation has been bought forward a few weeks because of this Train Booming or is it just due to better weather/intell etc?
Posted by: Jon Shep U.K || 03/13/2004 6:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Saw piece on ABC News last night about a ETA member who got bagged last year. He had converted to islam and got bagged when he tried to fight in Checneya(?). Didn't get his name. Maybe some of the ETA youngone's converted, seems like the thing to do in Europe these days.
Posted by: Steve || 03/13/2004 12:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Would it be a good idea to add "ETA" to the list of active words/names/phrases in the database?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 03/13/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||


Balaclava-clad trio behind Madrid bombings
A MAN presented by Spanish television as a witness who led police to a suspicious van after this week’s deadly bombings said he saw three men wearing balaclavas near the vehicle shortly before powerful blasts ripped through suburban trains killing 199 people.
I always wear a balaclava when I want to be inconspicuous...
The man, whose identity was not given, told TVE’s Informe Semanal program yesterday he was surprised to see the trio wearing the winter gear in Alcala de Henares, east of the capital Madrid, even though temperatures were rather mild on Thursday morning (local time) when the attacks were carried out. Two of the young men remained near the vehicle while the third, carrying a backpack and another bag and described as rather tall, headed to the Alcala train station from where the doomed trains departed for Madrid, he said. After yesterday’s attacks the man told police about the suspicious van in which investigators later found seven detonators and an audio tape with Koranic verses. Interior Minister Angel Acebes said yesterday the van had been reported stolen. The verses in Arabic were those "usually used to teach the Koran", and that they "did not contain any threat", he added.
Note to coppers: If you see a guy wearing a balaclava on a warm day, you should probably shoot first and ask questions later. Makes it kinda hard on Anti-Globalism protesters, I know, but they're no great loss anyway.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:15:39 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you see a guy wearing a balaclava
I think only gunners in the Royal Navy should be allowed to wear 'em.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 10:13 Comments || Top||

#2  I love balaclava, it tastes so sweet!
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/13/2004 12:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Jesus, geeks everywhere.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 12:23 Comments || Top||

#4  The verses in Arabic were those "usually used to teach the Koran"

That fits in with the "new convert to Islam" theory. Guys who grew up learning the Koran from age 5 wouldn't need this. New euro converts would.
Posted by: Steve || 03/13/2004 12:24 Comments || Top||

#5  It fits still more with ETA trying to pin the thing on Al Quaida
Posted by: JFM || 03/13/2004 13:44 Comments || Top||

#6  On one hand we have tapes for teaching Koran on another hand we have a cellphone preset in Arabic.

The first clue suggests a new convert, ie an European who is still at entry level Arabic (a native Arab would know the Koran from memory since childhood), the second clue suggests someone who speaks Arab as a native language. It doesn't compute.
Posted by: JFM || 03/13/2004 13:48 Comments || Top||


Officials divided over identity of Madrid bombers
Spanish officials investigating the Madrid terror attacks provided little new information yesterday about who might have carried out the bombings, and gave conflicting interpretations of the evidence that emerged. The Spanish interior minister, Ángel Acebes, said the Basque separatist group ETA remained the government’s prime suspect in the bombings, in which at least 199 people have died. Some Spanish antiterrorism officials said, however, that they questioned the government’s seeming insistence on implicating the Basque group despite information that suggested the possible involvement of Islamic militants.

The difference of views among Spanish officials crystallized over an unexploded bomb that investigators recovered from one of the four trains blown up on Thursday morning as they carried commuters into Madrid from the working-class suburb of Alcalá de Henares. Mr. Acebes said the bomb, hidden in a gym bag, was made of a Spanish-made blasting explosive known as Goma 2-E that ETA has often used in the past. The bombers also used shrapnel to increase the impact of the bomb and a cellphone as a trigger, he said. Privately, however, another Spanish antiterrorism official said Goma 2, a gelatinous, nitroglycerin-based explosive that is typically used in mining, has been linked to ETA only rarely since the Spanish authorities began to tightly guard supplies of it in the 1980’s. After those controls were imposed, ETA began to depend mainly on explosives stolen abroad, particularly in France and Germany, including a huge cache of a dynamite-like explosive known as titadine.

Other Spanish officials said they were more intrigued by the link between the unexploded bomb and a stolen van that was found Thursday near the Alcalá station where three of the four trains originated, in which seven detonators were discovered. The detonator on the unexploded bomb, as Mr. Acebes disclosed yesterday, was the same as those found in the van. The van also contained some documents in Arabic and an audiotape of readings from the Koran that one official said referred to the education of children. Two Spanish antiterrorism officials said they expected it would take another day or two to begin to draw firmer conclusions from the forensic analysis of samples taken from the bomb sites. With Spanish national elections scheduled for Sunday, one official said he was suspicious of the government’s sudden restraint in assessing the evidence gathered so far in the Madrid bombings. "I think they may be holding back information so that it doesn’t influence the vote," the official said.
I suspect that's the reason, too. They don't know which direction the public will sway...
American counterterrorism officials were careful not to speculate about who might be responsible for the Madrid attacks, deferring to the Spanish government. One American official cautioned specifically against "leaning too far in the direction of Islamic extremist involvement," despite the apparent link between the stolen van and the recovered bomb. "It is the kind of thing that ETA certainly would have the capability to carry out," the official said.

American officials also noted that there had been no increase in the "chatter" in monitored terrorist communications that they often pick up before attacks by Al Qaeda. But officials who were more skeptical of ETA’s involvement said none of that necessarily led to the conclusion that the group would or could carry out attacks on such a scale. Before Thursday, the most victims killed in an ETA attack had been 21, in a Barcelona supermarket bombing in 1987. But public outrage at that indiscriminate attack plunged the group into a crisis that eventually led to the ascendancy of more moderate leaders. The moderate leaders, however, have since "lost control of their commandos," one Spanish official said.
The thing in favor of it being that ETA is that with the Spanish government's recent crackdowns on it, they're up against the wall. Whether this is their attack or not, they're going to be eradicated, so they have nothing to lose. Being terrs, the fact that they've got nothing to gain doesn't really make any difference.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:14:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The cellphone recovered is said to be preset in arabic.
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/13/2004 8:29 Comments || Top||


Millions protest against Madrid bombings
Millions of Spaniards united in grief and anger Friday night during solemn vigils and marches to denounce the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 200 people in the capital a day earlier. Nearly 2 million people marched in rain-drenched Madrid, according to police estimates, some chanting "Assassins!" and carrying placards and banners calling for peace and an end to terrorism. One of the banners read: "It’s Not Raining — It’s Crying." Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar led a column of the demonstrators, who marched from one of the main plazas in Madrid to the central Atocha train station. The bustling station was the site of the first series of explosions Thursday morning that also injured 1,500 people.

ETA spokesmen, in separate statements to the Basque-language newspaper Gara and to a regional Basque television station, denied any involvement in the bombings, marking the first time in its more than 30-year history that the group is believed to have openly disavowed an attack. But Spain’s interior minister, Angel Acebes, said the police reported that a sports bag salvaged from one of the demolished trains contained a timer-style detonator, a mobile telephone and explosives that he said were a Spanish-made type ETA had used in past attacks. "How is it that after 30 years of attacks, they are not going to be the prime suspects?" Acebes said.

Still, he acknowledged that other leads pointed to Islamic terrorists, including a van discovered late Thursday that contained seven detonator caps and a cassette with verses of the Koran in Arabic. "We haven’t closed off any line of investigation," Acebes said. Acebes said Spanish authorities had been in contact with security agencies around the world. "None of them has warned us that they have information that would point to a different line than ETA," he said. "None of them has given us any information that it could be an Islamic terrorist group." In a news conference just before noon Friday, Aznar angrily dismissed suggestions -- first voiced by a senior opposition Socialist Party politician in a radio interview -- that the government initially withheld evidence indicating that an Islamic terrorist group may have been responsible for the attacks. "Never was there any information relating to the investigation that was not given to the public," Aznar said. Aznar also defended Acebes, the interior minister, for saying early Thursday that ETA was behind the attacks "without doubt." Aznar related a list of recently foiled ETA attempts to stage a major strike in the capital, including a plot to bomb trains on Christmas Eve and the capture of an explosives-laden van two weeks ago. "Isn’t it reasonable to think that group would be the culprits?" the prime minister asked.

With national elections scheduled for Sunday -- Aznar confirmed Friday that the voting would go ahead -- some political analysts and other Spaniards said the prime minister’s ruling Popular Party (PP) could benefit from a wave of increased support if people deem ETA responsible for the carnage. But Aznar has aligned Spain closely with the United States, backing the Bush administration’s war in Iraq -- Spain has 1,300 troops there -- despite widespread antiwar sentiment. If al Qaeda is determined to have been responsible for the attacks, Aznar could take the blame for exposing Spain to retaliation, the analysts said.
That assumes that the Spanish people will knuckle under to terror. Ain't likely, is it?
On the streets of Madrid, residents placed flowers, candles and written slogans of support for the victims at makeshift shrines set up at the blast sites. Several people said they were worried about how the government would handle information about the investigation into the attacks. "The election will be decided by whoever was the author of this attack," said Maximo Aquilue, an engineer from Aragon who was at the Atocha station in hopes of finding an outbound train. "If it’s ETA, the election will go to the PP. If it’s al Qaeda, it will go to the Socialists."
If it's al-Q people are going to be mad as hell and vote for the government that will take al-Q on. Don't think the Sapnish Socialists have a glowing record in that regard.
"If it’s al Qaeda, the government will wait until after the elections to say it, because it will put their votes at risk," said Elena, a 22-year-old psychology student, looking at the mangled wreckage of the train at Atocha station, which is near her home. "I know people who say they’ll change their vote if it’s al Qaeda, because the government didn’t pay attention to their clamor not to go to war."

The death of a Polish infant Friday raised the death toll from the attacks to 199. Government officials said the victims included at least 15 people from 10 other countries. The government announced Friday night that a special fund of 140 million euros -- $171 million -- had been set up to assist the victims and their families. The cabinet also announced emergency measures to grant immediate citizenship to any illegal immigrants who were among the victims, as a move to help officials identify victims. The outpouring on the streets was considered unprecedented, surpassing a similar peace march that took place in 1997, after the ETA assassinated a popular Basque politician, town councilman Miguel Angel Blanco, 29. In addition to the 2 million demonstrators in Madrid, 1.2 million people took to the streets of Barcelona. Millions more turned out in Seville, Valencia and the Basque city of Bilbao. Police and news media estimated that 8 million people turned out nationwide.
How's that compare to the anti-war demonstrations last year?
Three members of the royal family -- Prince Felipe and his sisters, Princesses Elena and Cristina -- joined the demonstration in Madrid, as did the prime ministers of France and Italy, as well as the president of the European Commission. The march followed a midday vigil in which a few minutes of silence were observed in the capital in honor of the victims. Workers descended from office buildings, cars stopped, stock market trading was suspended and the entire city seemed to fall silent. The stillness was followed by rounds of applause, a traditional show of respect for the dead.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:07:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder how many of those same people were at the antiwar rallies last year. Its amazing how quickly views can change when body parts start flying around your neighborhood.
Hey guys! guess what? somethings are worth fighting against!
Except if you're a leftist apologist lunatic I suppose.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 03/13/2004 7:44 Comments || Top||

#2  2 million = 1 in 20 Spaniards - the pictures said it all. I think AQ may have awakened another tiger
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 10:27 Comments || Top||

#3  I have yet to see any of this on the TV news. Considering they gave 24/7 coverage to the bombings itself, I find this surprising. Did I just miss it (I can't stand TV news - but I watched this morning to see if they would ignore this and so far have not been disappointed.

Not a peep - not even on the ticker! Did I just miss it?
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 10:47 Comments || Top||

#4  "to the bombings itself" Hey! I don't get paid to proof read....in fact I don't get paid! So to all of you grammer gripers...tough..deal with it.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 10:49 Comments || Top||

#5  I just checked CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS and Drudge.

Only Drudge and CBS mentioned the 8 million turnout! This reminds me of the news coverage before the war. They were willing to show their true colors - Anti-American - because of the high stakes involved. They knew the consequences if America successfully invaded Afghanistan and/or Iraq and therefore they were willing to drop all pretenses and lobby outright for the opposite side. They risked alienating their viewers and exposing their allegiences - but all stops were let out to help prevent the war. They lost the battle, but it doesn't mean that they didn't think it was worth the war.

And yes, those of you who have been cheerleading for Fox - if you haven't noticed by now - as a whole the network is not on the American side. While they have hired anchors who are true Americans - check their online addition to see that it is indistinguishable from CNN.

The lack of coverage of the turn out in Spain shows tells us something we can not afford to ignore. Their silence says more than words could ever, hope to convey!
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 11:42 Comments || Top||

#6  42 million population... 200 dead.... roughtly equvalent to 1400 dead in the US... I'd be real careful dealing with Spain right now.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 12:27 Comments || Top||

#7  CNN commentators say this bodes ill for the conservatives (i.e., those in power).
Posted by: anymouse || 03/13/2004 15:26 Comments || Top||

#8  anymouse - then it must bode well for them.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 16:11 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda documents show possible link to Madrid bombings
NORWEGIAN defence researchers had come across documents that could link al-Qaeda to the Madrid train bombings that killed 199 people, Norwegian television reported today.
The teevee says the corpse count is now 200...
Researchers with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment who have specialised in digging up original al-Qaeda releases and interviews, told the NRK television channel they had discovered a document on an Arabic website last year outlining al-Qaeda strategies on how to force the United States and its allies to leave Iraq, and pointing to Spain as the "weakest link".
That's because of the large lefty population in Spain. I suspect that's a superficial evaluation. The word "cojones" is actually Spanish.
"It wasn’t until yesterday when we were going through old material to find links to Spain that we understood what we were holding in our hands," project leader Brynjar Lia told NRK. "We mainly had the impression that (the documents) referred to the situation in Iraq, but on closer examination we saw that they specifically refer to Spanish domestic politics and the elections," due on Sunday, he added.
Hokay. I've already pretty much come to the conclusion they dunnit.
According to the TV report, page 42 of the Arabic document reads: "We have to make use of the election to the maximum. The government at the most can cope with three attacks." The document also reportedly predicts that the other partners in the US-led coalition would follow like "pieces of domino" if Spain were to withdraw from Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:01:08 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dan,

"pieces of domino" Is that a colloquial expression alQueda would use?
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 0:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Like everything else, it depends on the Arabic and how it was translated. Zarqawi's letter had some noticeable non-al-Qaeda phraseology including a reference to "zero hour" and "pretext." You'd have to see the original Arabic before making any judgements one way or another, because in many cases the translator is simply seeking to keep as much of the original emotion and intent of the writer in the document as possible.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 0:09 Comments || Top||

#3  People all over the world play dominos.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/13/2004 8:26 Comments || Top||

#4  And what's really got them pissed off is we are apllying the Dominoe Theory in Reverse
Posted by: Cheddarhead || 03/13/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#5  and pointing to Spain as the "weakest link".

LOL! Thank God for our enemies.

Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 12:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
And another foundation of the Neocon Cabal theory crumbles ...
In February 2002, Christina Shelton, a career Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, was combing through old intelligence on Iraq when she stumbled upon a small paragraph in a CIA report from the mid-1990s that stopped her. It recounted a contact between some Iraqis and al Qaeda that she had not seen mentioned in current CIA analysis, according to three defense officials who work with her. She spent the next couple of months digging through 12 years of intelligence reports on Iraq and produced a briefing on alleged contacts Shelton felt had been overlooked or underplayed by the CIA. Her boss, Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy and the point man on Iraq, was so impressed that he set up a briefing for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who was so impressed he asked her to brief CIA Director George J. Tenet in August 2002. By summer’s end, Shelton had also briefed deputy national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley and Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Shelton’s analysis, and the White House briefings that resulted, are new details about a small group of Pentagon analysts whose work has cast a large shadow of suspicion and controversy as Congress investigates how the administration used intelligence before the Iraq war. Congressional Democrats contend that two Pentagon shops -- the Office of Special Plans and the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group -- were established by Rumsfeld, Feith and other defense hawks expressly to bypass the CIA and other intelligence agencies. They argue that the offices supplied the administration with information, most of it discredited by the regular intelligence community, that President Bush, Cheney and others used to exaggerate the Iraqi threat. But interviews with senior defense officials, White House and CIA officials, congressional sources and others yield a different portrait of the work done by the two Pentagon offices.

Neither the House nor Senate intelligence committees, for example, which have been investigating prewar intelligence for eight months, have found support for allegations that Pentagon analysts went out and collected their own intelligence, congressional officials from both parties say. Nor have investigators found that the Pentagon analysis about Iraq significantly shaped the case the administration made for going to war. At the same time, the Pentagon operation was created, at least in part, to provide a more hard-line alternative to the official intelligence, according to interviews with current and former defense and intelligence officials. The two offices, overseen by Feith, concluded that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and al Qaeda were much more closely and conclusively linked than the intelligence community believed. In this sense, the offices functioned as a pale version of the secret "Team B" analysis done by administration conservatives in the mid-1970s, who concluded the intelligence community was underplaying the Soviet military threat. Rumsfeld, in particular, has a history of skepticism about the intelligence community’s analysis, including assessments of the former Soviet Union’s military ability and of threats posed by ballistic missiles from North Korea and other countries.

Levin pressed Tenet on Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee: "Is it standard operating procedure for an intelligence analysis such as that to be presented at the NSC [National Security Council] and the office of the vice president without you being part of the presentation? Is that typical?"

"My experience is that people come in and may present those kinds of briefings on their views of intelligence," responded Tenet, who said he had not known about the briefings at the time. "But I have to tell you, senator, I’m the president’s chief intelligence officer; I have the definitive view about these subjects. From my perspective, it is my view that prevails."

No sooner had Bush announced that the United States was at war on terrorism than it became Feith’s job to come up with a strategy for executing such a war. "We said to ourselves, ’We are at war with an international terrorist network that includes organizations, state supporters and nonstate supporters. What does that mean to be at war with a network?’ " Feith said in an interview. But Feith felt he needed to bring on help in the Pentagon for another reason, too, said four other senior current and former Pentagon civilians: the belief that the CIA and other intelligence agencies dangerously undervalued threats to U.S. interests. "The strategic thinking was the Middle East is going down the tubes. It’s getting worse, not better," said one former senior Pentagon official who worked closely with Feith’s offices. "I don’t think we thought there was objective evidence that could be got from CIA, DIA, INR," he added, referring to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s main intelligence office, and the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Feith’s office worked not only on "how to fight Saddam Hussein but also how to fight the NSC, the State Department and the intelligence community," which were not convinced of Hussein’s involvement in terrorism, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Feith set up the first of his two shops, the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group, to "study al Qaeda worldwide suppliers, chokepoints, vulnerabilities and recommend strategies for rendering terrorist networks ineffective," according to a January 2002 document sent to DIA. The group never grew larger than two people, said Feith and William J. Luti, who was director of the Office of Special Plans and deputy undersecretary of defense for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. The evaluation group’s largest project was what one participant called a "sociometric diagram" of links between terrorist organizations and their supporters around the world, mostly focused on al Qaeda, the Islamic Resistance Movement (or Hamas), Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. It was meant to challenge the "conventional wisdom," said one senior defense official, that terrorist groups did not work together. It looked "like a college term paper," said one senior Pentagon official who saw the analysis. It was hundreds of connecting lines and dots footnoted with binders filled with signals intelligence, human source reporting and even thirdhand intelligence accounts of personal meetings between terrorists. One of its key and most controversial findings was that there was a connection between secular states and fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups such as al Qaeda.

If anything, the analysis reinforced the view of top Pentagon officials, including Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary Paul N. Wolfowitz and Feith, that Hussein’s Iraq had worrisome contacts with al Qaeda over the last decade that could only be expected to grow. The evaluation group’s other job was to read through the huge, daily stream of intelligence reporting on terrorism and "highlight things of interest to Feith," said one official involved in the process. "We were looking for connections" between terrorist groups. From time to time, senior defense officials called bits of intelligence to the attention of the White House, they said. Feith said the worldwide threat study itself never left the Pentagon. It helped inform the military strategy on the war on terrorism, but it was only one small input into that process, he said. Mainly, the work of the evaluation group, Luti said, "went into the corporate memory."

In the summer of 2002, Shelton, who had been working virtually on her own, was joined by Christopher Carney, a naval reservist and associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. Together they completed their study on the links between al Qaeda and Iraq. "It was interesting enough that I brought it to Secretary Rumsfeld because Secretary Rumsfeld is well known for being a particularly intelligent reader of intelligence," Feith said. Rumsfeld told Feith, " ’Call George and tell him we have something for him to see,’ " Feith said. On Aug. 15, 2002, a delegation from Pentagon was buzzed through the guard station at CIA headquarters for the Tenet meeting. Shelton and Carney were the briefers; Feith and DIA Director Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby accompanied them. "The feedback that I got from George right after the briefing was, ’That was very helpful, thank you,’ " Feith said.

CIA officials who sat in the briefing were nonplussed. The briefing was all "inductive analysis," according to one participant’s notes from the meeting. The data pointed to "complicity and support," nothing more. "Much of it, we had discounted already," said another participant. Tenet, according to agency officials, never incorporated any of the particulars from the briefing into his subsequent briefings to Congress. He asked some CIA analysts to get together with Shelton for further discussions. Feith also arranged for Shelton to brief deputy national security adviser Hadley and Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff. "Her work did not change [Hadley’s] thinking because his source for intelligence information are the products produced by the CIA," White House spokesman Sean McCormack said. Nor did the briefing’s content reach national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Cheney or Bush, according to McCormack and Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems. (In November 2003, a written version of her PowerPoint briefing, a version submitted to the intelligence committees investigating prewar intelligence, was published in the conservative Weekly Standard magazine.) The briefing openly challenged the prevailing CIA view that a religion-based terrorist, Osama bin Laden, would not seek to work with a secular state such as Iraq. "They were the ones who were intellectually unwilling to rethink this issue," one defense official said. "But they were not willing to shoot it down, either."

Whatever the agency really thought of Shelton’s analysis, on Oct. 7, 2002, CIA Deputy Director John E. McLaughlin sent a letter to the Senate intelligence committee which, in a general sense, supported her conclusion: "We have solid evidence of senior level contacts between Iraq and al-Qa’ida going back a decade," it said. ". . . Growing indications of a relationship with al-Qa’ida, suggest that Baghdad’s link to terrorists will increase, even absent U.S. military action." In August 2002, as the possibility of war with Iraq grew more likely, Luti’s Office of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs (NESA) was reorganized into the Office of Special Plans and NESA. Its job, according to Feith and Luti, was to propose strategies for the war on terrorism and Iraq. It was given a nondescript name to purposefully hide the fact that, although the administration was publicly emphasizing diplomacy at the United Nations, the Pentagon was actively engaged in war planning and postwar planning. The office staff never numbered more than 18, including reservists and people temporarily assigned. "There are stories that we had hundreds of people beavering away at this stuff," Feith said. ". . . They’re just not true."

The office’s job was to devise Pentagon policy recommendations for the larger interagency decision-making on every conceivable issue: troop deployment planning, coalition building, oil sector maintenance, war crimes prosecution, ministry organization, training an Iraqi police force, media strategy and "rewards, incentives and immunity" for former Baath Party supporters, according to a chart hanging in the special plans office, Room 1A939, several months ago. The insular nature of Luti’s office, and his outspoken personal conviction that the United States should remove Hussein, sparked rumors at the Pentagon that the office was collecting intelligence on its own, that it had hired its own intelligence agents. Even diehard Bush supporters, some of whom were critical of Feith’s and Luti’s management style, were repeating the rumors. Yesterday, Rumsfeld addressed the controversy, saying critics of the Office of Special Plans had a "conspiratorial view of the world." Shelton’s analysis, he emphasized, was shared with the CIA, and White House briefings were not unusual. "We brief the president. We brief the vice president. We brief the [CIA director]. We brief the secretary of state. . . . That is not only not a bad thing, it’s a good thing."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:31:58 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Spread Thin, Army Calling on Same Units
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army is spread so thin around the globe that when it needs fresh combat troops for Iraq this fall it will have little choice but to call on the same soldiers who led the charge into Baghdad last spring. The 3rd Infantry Division already has been given an official "warning order" to prepare to return to Iraq as soon as Thanksgiving. When those soldiers flew home from Iraq last summer to their bases in Georgia, few of them could have known they were, in effect, on a roundtrip ticket. They are not alone in facing back-to-back deployments to Iraq. Some of the same Marines who teamed up with the 3rd Infantry to topple Baghdad are already assembling again in Kuwait, only a matter of months after returning home, and more Marines will go next year.

Other Army units that recently returned to the United States or are preparing to come home this spring, including the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, are candidates for a quick turnaround. The Army has not announced which will join the 3rd Infantry in the next rotation, although it has notified three National Guard brigades and a National Guard division headquarters that they are likely to go in early 2005.

One 3rd Infantry soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Eric Wright, put it this way in Iraq last June: "What was told to us was that we would fight and win and go home." It's not that simple.

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently that the Marines and the Army are going to share as equally as possible the burden of keeping forces in Iraq for the foreseeable future. But it has been and will remain predominantly an Army effort.

"At some point we'll go back," said Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne. He said it also was possible his troops would be sent to Afghanistan next instead of Iraq. The 101st played a major role in the initial invasion of Iraq and has only just returned home.

Some are concerned that the Army is being squeezed so hard that soldiers will quit in droves. Statistics on reenlistments and recruiting don't show that to be the case - not yet, anyway. And some who know the Army best say its soldiers are willing to accept the hectic pace. "We've got an Army and we're using it," says retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan, a former Army chief of staff and currently president of the Association of the U.S. Army, a booster group. Yet Sullivan, who recently visited U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait, acknowledged that sending war veterans back for a second tour of duty means the Army is stretched tighter than it has been in decades. "Loosely, in a historical perspective, it's not dissimilar to what you saw in World War II in Europe," he said in an interview. "We're just going to keep using them."
It is, after all, a war today.
The Army has 10 active-duty divisions, and parts or all of each have been in Iraq or Afghanistan or are heading there this spring.

To make the challenge even greater, even as it struggles to provide enough active-duty forces for Iraq, the Army is quietly undertaking a fundamental reorganization of its combat divisions, starting with the 3rd Infantry. That infantry division will have four combat brigades, of roughly 3,800 soldiers each, instead of its traditional three, by the time it completes its training this fall and heads back to Iraq. It will get that extra firepower by acquiring some elements, such as artillery, military intelligence and military police, from its division and corps headquarters. A similar transformation is planned during the course of this year for the 101st Airborne and the 10th Mountain divisions.

The Army also is relying more heavily on the National Guard and Reserve to maintain a combat force in Iraq. Brigades from North Carolina, Arkansas and Washington state are there or soon will be en route, as part of the 2004 rotation of forces. Another three brigades, from Tennessee, Louisiana and Idaho - plus a division headquarters from the New York National Guard - have been alerted that they probably will be sent to Iraq in the next rotation, in early 2005.
Okay, I'm more convinced that the Army needs another mech infantry division. If we start today it wouldn't be ready until 2006, but we might need it then.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/13/2004 1:04:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I disagree. We need 3 more Armored Cav (light) Regiments. Essentially Stryker Brigades with more integral support (Air, Engineers, logistics). Those are oriented towards patrolling, counter insurgency, and are trained to operate with initiative and considerable elan. Add in Col Hackworth's old idea about a platoon (or better, a company) of Rangers for every brigade, and you have the force mix set up to do exactly what you need, and at just the right size to do it.

2ACR has done a bang up job - you dont hear much about them, and thats because they are winning and doing it with low casualties and good will from the locals. Thats what we need more of.

Well, that and a couple MP brigades: basically 3 battalions of Armored HMMV's equipped for mobile and dismounted patrolling and a battalion sized "Heavy Team" to back them up - heavy team consisting of 3 combined arms teams [each team = 1 or 2 tank platoon, 2 or 1 APC Mech Infantry platoons, HQ elements in tracks] for urbanized areas. And mabye a company of combat engineers for EOD and such.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/13/2004 1:56 Comments || Top||

#2  This is one of the things that ticks me off most about the administration. Whatever you think about the whys and wherefores of this war, on 9/12 army expansion should have been on the table and the new units would have been available right now.

Some one should explain to Rummy that you can blather all you want about "efficiency" but there has been no war I've ever read of that has been efficient in the accountant's sense; just win baby.
Posted by: Hiryu || 03/13/2004 9:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Meanwhile, Hiryu, Congress has offered to increace the authorization for the number of troops the Army can handle, but not the budget. The funny thing is, if the DoD and Rummy say it's a temporary increace, they can actually get the money to pay for things like ceramic inserts for the extra troops, but if they say it's a permanent increase, Congress won't fund it. So what do they do? They go ahead and say the former, because that way they actually get the money to pay for the extra troops.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 03/13/2004 10:22 Comments || Top||

#4  I've ever read of that has been efficient in the accountant's sense; just win baby.
Yep, done.

Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 10:22 Comments || Top||

#5  I am a vet so I kind of understand the 'wanting to go home' the units have when they booted Hussein. Lets remember that for 50 odd years the Army has been in Germany and Japan. If they don't form a pemanant Armed presence in Iraq, units have to rotate in and out. It won't be until the Iraqi Army is reconstituded and civil police force installed that the Army can think of permanantly leaving Iraq. Rummy understands this but how many politicians that claim to be experts on foregn policy understand this? I think we stay until the job is done right. If that means that my son (17) may have to pull a tour in Iraq in 2007 so be it.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 03/13/2004 10:31 Comments || Top||

#6  "plus a division headquarters from the New York National Guard" -- Hope it is the 77ID. Back in WWII, the 77ID fought in the Pacific, often with the Marines. It did so well that it was requested by the Marines in Guam (I believe). The Marines nicknamed it the "77th Marine Division".
Posted by: Highlander || 03/13/2004 11:28 Comments || Top||

#7  42ID Headquarters is the one going, AFAIK
Posted by: ElRealistico || 03/13/2004 11:51 Comments || Top||

#8  Hiryu: Some one should explain to Rummy that you can blather all you want about "efficiency" but there has been no war I've ever read of that has been efficient in the accountant's sense; just win baby.

The additional money won't just materialize from thin air. It carries with it a steep political price. Look at how Kerry felt he could get away with voting against the $87B appropriation for Iraq. Asking for more defense money is a loser with the voters. Should Bush risk his political capital to get a permanent appropriations increase? Not if it's going to jeopardize his chances of getting re-elected - a President Kerry would raid this appropriations increase to fund his socialized health care scheme, saying that there would be no net increase in federal spending.

This is what Clinton did repeatedly throughout the '90's. This is why the budget deficit is through the roof, as it was in the '80's. Defense spending is a mere 20% of the total federal budget today, but was 27% during the '80's. And yet we have roughly the same deficit. Why? Because in the '90's, Congress conducted repeated raids on military expenditures to pay for social spending. Instead of drawing down the Cold War military and cutting taxes, Congress left taxes the way they were and increased social spending. This is why we're at this juncture - with bloated social spending and a downsized military machine* during a time of war.

* Reporters commonly talk about the record size of the military budget, without mentioning the fact that these are not inflation-adjusted dollars - social programs have increased by much more, just to keep up with inflation. By contrast, the military equipment budget is at the lowest level it has been in a while. The 600-ship navy has been halved, the Air Force hasn't fielded a new fighter in over 2 decades, programs have been repeatedly shelved for lack of funds, et al. And concurrent with this downsizing of the equipment budget, military manpower has been cut in two.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/13/2004 12:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Efficiency - look hard at the current NG structure. If their heavy / light divisions are too broke to be used - get rid of them and use the savings to stand up active duty regiments. Efficiency and accountability are not bad things.
Posted by: JP || 03/13/2004 16:38 Comments || Top||


Drug dealer lies to FBI, flees the country
A Detroiter suspected of dealing crack cocaine who won his freedom and fled the country after promising to lead investigators to Osama bin Laden has again exposed the vulnerability of the government’s informant system. The case involves Nageeb Al-Haidari, 32, a U.S. citizen with Yemeni connections, who was paid $9,000 to serve as an FBI informant after telling agents that he could help them find bin Laden, the chief suspect in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. The Justice Department, FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit declined Thursday to comment on the case described in a recent edition of Newsweek. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had sent a letter asking that Al-Haidari be freed from jail in 2001, but a spokeswoman wouldn’t go into details.

Newsweek reported that the negotiations between Al-Haidari and the government began in early 2001, months after the USS Cole bombing, but before Sept. 11. Newsweek said Al-Haidari told agents he could contact bin Laden and his associates at any time and could provide the FBI with names, phone numbers and addresses. At the time, Al-Haidari was facing charges in Wayne County Circuit Court resulting from fleeing and eluding police in May 2000 after a shooting at a Detroit bar. He was indicted in U.S. District Court in March 2001 on cocaine distribution charges. Newsweek said the U.S. Attorney’s Office arranged for Al-Haidari’s release from jail just before he was sentenced to probation in the circuit court case, saying he was providing valuable information to the federal government. Newsweek said that he returned to drug dealing and later fled the country. "I think they are flubbing the war on terror and this is another example of it," said Debbie Schlussel, a Southfield lawyer who has criticized the FBI’s Detroit office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in columns in the New York Post.
When you deal with scummy people like this guy, statistically you're going to have a certain number who do things like this. If you don't deal with scummy people like this, you get nothing. Life's tough in an empiracal world, ain't it?
The incident is the latest in a series of foul-ups that have embarrassed the FBI’s Detroit office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The former lead prosecutor in last year’s terrorism trial in Detroit is under investigation for possible misconduct in a case the Bush administration had hailed as a victory in the war on terrorism. Three of four men were convicted in the case. The judge who presided over the trial has criticized federal prosecutors for failing to give defense lawyers documents that might have helped the defendants in the terror trial. The judge has ordered a thorough review of government files before deciding whether to grant the defendants’ request for a new trial. Last month, a paid Detroit FBI informant was charged with convincing agents that he had penetrated an international drug ring and then persuading them through alleged associates to pay $164,000 for mostly phony drugs. The informant also is accused of tricking agents into believing that the head of the FBI Detroit field office, Willie Hulon, had leaked them information to the drug ring, resulting in Hulon’s temporary reassignment.
As I was saying, scummy people. Offsetting the flops, there should be a majority of successful operations that don't make the papers, or that make the papers only when they go to trial.
Al-Haidari’s lawyer, David Steingold, defended the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office, but wouldn’t discuss what Al-Haidari pledged to do for agents. "Everything done in Mr. Al-Haidari’s case was completely above board and not at all unusual," he said, adding that the government frequently offers favorable treatment to low-level drug dealers who can lead them to more serious offenders. "It’s the cost of doing business."
Hmmm... Maybe I'm wrong. I find myself agreeing with a defense lawyer...
Steingold said Al-Haidari is a lifelong Detroiter who had attended three years of college and has three children who live with their mother. Detroit-area lawyers have complained since the Sept. 11 attacks that federal authorities have been too eager to believe the tales of untrustworthy informants -- not taking into account that some might use the system as a way to settle old scores with extended family members or former business partners. In 2002, the case involving a local Yemeni suspected of terrorism was thrown out of U.S. District Court in Detroit after the government’s key informant recanted his statements. The informant told prosecutors that the man intended to launch a terrorist attack in Michigan. The informant turned out to be the former brother-in-law of the accused man, and was angry over the man’s divorce of his sister. In another case, an Arab informant agreed to help a divorced friend strike back at his ex-wife and former brother-in-law by making up a story to the FBI, according to sealed federal court records obtained by the Free Press.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:50:16 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No offense to the Justice Department, but: DUH!
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 03/13/2004 9:52 Comments || Top||

#2  I recall a similar case in Chicago in the late '80s-early '90's.

The Feds picked up some 'barstool patriots' on the sayso of some felon, believing they were IRA financers. Basically, they were maudlin drunks who sat in a dark pub all day muttering anti-British sentiments. It took the Feds awhile to figure out they'd been had.
Posted by: JDB || 03/13/2004 20:31 Comments || Top||

#3  This guy probably saw what happened to Martha Stewart for lying to the FBI and decided he had more in common with her than Bill Clinton.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 22:33 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Indonesia willing to probe Bashir again
Indonesia is ready to investigate militant Muslim preacher Abu Bakar Bashir again if new evidence is found about any involvement in terror activities, the Foreign Minister said on Friday. The accused spiritual leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network is expected to walk next month from a Jakarta jail where he is serving time on immigration offences, after the Supreme Court announced this week it had halved his sentence.
Are they going to deport him?
Hassan Wirajuda told a news conference he was unaware of any immediate plan to investigate the 65-year-old Bashir again.
... so don't hold your breath.
``But logically if the government, in this case the legal apparatus, has evidence about the involvement of anyone including Abu Bakar Bashir in terrorist acts, obviously it will be acted on,’’ Wirajuda said.
I don't expect there'll be any, given Hamzah Haz' liking for Abu and his movement. The Indons did a great job of rounding up the Bad Guys, but when the fix is put in for the chief Bad Guy the job's not done. Every time Dr. Fu Manchu got away, you knew there was going to be another book.
Security experts have said a key factor in going after Bashir again could be getting information from another radical Indonesian preacher called Hambali, who is in U.S. custody. Wirajuda said the United States had passed on intelligence information from Hambali, but this could not be used to arrest anyone or initiate court proceedings in Indonesia under current laws. He demanded that Indonesia be allowed direct access to one of the world’s most dangerous militants. ``We demand to be given not just access to information, but direct access to that terrorist suspect himself,’’ Wirajuda said.
Probably that's something that can be done. But it probably involves taking him off giggle juice for the interview, so there's no telling what he'd say...
In sharp comments on Wednesday, visiting U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security Tom Ridge accused Bashir of being deeply involved in planning and executing terrorist acts. Ridge also said he could give Indonesia no timeframe for when it would win direct access to Hambali, whom Indonesian police have accused of funding the Bali attacks.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:41:18 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wirajuda said the United States had passed on intelligence information from Hambali

Looks like we gave Indonsesia a little "push" in their justice system.
Posted by: Charles || 03/13/2004 8:55 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Nuclear inspectors condemn Iran
The International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution Saturday criticizing Iran for hiding nuclear activities, although it acknowledged the Islamic republic’s increasing openness in the U.N. inspection process. A senior Bush administration official called the decision "very significant" and "a big win" for the United States. An Iranian official, saying his country’s nuclear program is "exclusively peaceful," issued a statement indicating that the United States was trying to impose its will on the IAEA. Iran announced a freeze for now of U.N. inspections to show its displeasure with the resolution.
This is good for calibrating the ol’ analog surprise meter... there...perfectly zeroed.
The resolution said declarations made by Iran about its program in October "did not amount to the complete and final picture of Iran’s past and present nuclear programs." The board deplored Iran’s omissions in an October letter that was to have provided "the full scope of Iranian nuclear activities" and a "complete centrifuge R&D (research and development) chronology." It also notes "with concern" that Iran and Libya’s "conversion and centrifuge programs share several common elements, including technology largely obtained from the same foreign sources."
That would be the ever-helpful Dr. A.Q. Khan, of course...
Iran’s declaration, it said, didn’t refer "to its possession of P-2 centrifuge design drawings and to associated research, manufacturing, and mechanical testing activities" and it repeats the concerns of Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei over Iran’s "activities related to experiments on the production and intended use of polonium-210." The resolution expressed concern about the omission of "two mass spectrometers used in the laser enrichment program; and designs for the construction of hot cells at the Arak heavy water research reactor -- which require further investigation, not least as they may point to nuclear activities not so far acknowledged by Iran." It notes that ElBaradei has reported that while Iran has been "actively cooperating with the agency in providing access to locations requested by the agency" and notes progress in its cooperation, it says Iran "has fallen short of what is required." The resolution comes after much negotiating. The U.S. draft was passed unanimously after the United States agreed to drop a paragraph saying the centrifuges were produced in workshops owned by Iran’s industrial industry, the senior administration official said.
industrial industry??? how industrious...
After that, ElBaradei was able to sell it to the non-aligned movement members on the board. The United States also was successful in maintaining the section that deplored the hiding of P-2 centrifuges. The official said Iran will have to explain the issues by the next board of governors meeting in June. The resolution also decided to wait until its June meeting "consideration of progress in verifying Iran’s declarations" and how to respond to the omissions. That would put off action on the matter by the U.N. Security Council.
Sounds like that's the intent...
Meanwhile, Kenneth Brill, U.S. chief delegate at the Vienna talks, issued remarks saying Iran is "continuing to pursue a policy of denial, deception and delay." Brill compared Libya and Iran in his statement, saying Libya is demonstrating commitment to "reversing course" and eliminating its weapons mass destruction programs.
The Colonel scores a goal!!!
But, "time after time, when IAEA inspectors have confronted the Iranian government with verified facts it could no longer contest, Iran has revised its story and blamed others for its duplicity," Brill said. He said the IAEA needs to "follow up" on whether Pakistani nuclear program founder and leader A.Q. Khan could have provided weapons design to Iran.
Someone once told me, if Pakistan has the bomb, that means every Islamic nation has the bomb.
"We are concerned that Iran’s February announcement -- that it will suspend centrifuge assembly and testing, as well as component manufacture ’to the furthest extent possible’ -- may represent another tactical diversion, and that Iran may intend to continue its programs in defiance of the board’s resolutions." In an apparent reference to the United States, Amir Zamaninia, the Iranian diplomat representing his country at the IAEA, said, "a solution is being imposed -- and I think I am using the expression with true definition of the word -- on the board by a single country through few associates nonetheless. There is a fervent unjustified desire to maintain undue pressure on Iran through misrepresentation of facts, overexaggeration of minor misgivings, and excessive prejudgments."
Start praying for a Kerry victory, Mr.Iranian diplomat.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/13/2004 4:03:54 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Their plan is to stand up to and delay the IAEA until the november elections. At which point if Kerry is elected they will unilaterally end cooperation and if Bush is elected they will do a 180 and start cooperating. Unfortunately they know Bush won't do anything till after the elections.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 03/13/2004 16:07 Comments || Top||

#2  "We are concerned that Iran’s February announcement -- that it will suspend centrifuge assembly and testing, as well as component manufacture ’to the furthest extent possible’ -- may represent another tactical diversion, and that Iran may intend to continue its programs in defiance of the board’s resolutions."

I believe this quote came from "DUH", the official magazine of UN diplomats.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/13/2004 21:44 Comments || Top||


Syrian security forces kill 30 people during clashes
I wil post this without comment except to express my opinion that the USA and its allies would be extremely smart to carve out a greater Kurdistan from the territory of Iraq, Syria, Iran and probably Turkey as well. Not only would a greater Kurdistan be our friend for generations, it would be an object lesson for states around the world. Treat your minorities well or loose them to independant states.
Syrian security forces on Friday killed thirty people during violent clashes which originated in a soccer game and later spread to demonstrations throughout the Kurdish regions in the country, according to reports by family members of witnesses of the incidents, that reached Haaretz on Saturday. The protests continued on Saturday, with tens of thousands of people demonstrating in the northern city of Qamishli. Security forces on the scene were firing live rounds at the crowd.

According to the reports, the clahes began on Friday during a soccer match in Qamishli, located near the Turkish border in a province populated mainly by Kurds. The local Jihad team, which has mostly Arab and Kurd players, was playing the Fituwya group from the city of Dar el-Zur, near the Syrian border with Iraq, when Fitouya fans began calling out "long live Saddam Hussein." The Jihad team responded with "long live Barazani" shouts, pertaining to one of the Kurdish leaders in Iraq. Clashes ensued between the two camps inside the stadium, which contained some 5,000 people at the time, and three children were trampled to death in the uproar. Large police forces that were called to the scene were unable to quell the large crowd, and reinforcements that later arrived opened fire, killing around 30 people and inuring dozens.

Following the incident, violent demonstrations spread on Friday to other cities in Syria’s Kurdish regions. During the protests, signs and slogans slamming Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime as well as the ruling Baath Party were displayed. A demand was also raised for an international investigation into human rights violations during he incident. Syrian loyalist forces, accompanied by tanks, were sent to the region, and a curfew was imposed in some areas. Efforts were also being made to calm the situation. Syrian opposition groups, especially Kurdish ones operating outside the country, were attempting to raise public awareness to the incident, and were planning to hold demonstrations in various European cities. Friday’s incident represents the most violent wave of protests in Syria in recent memory, and this in the backdrop of current U.S. threats to take sanctions against Damascus for its support of terror organizations, and especially due to American suspicions that Syria was not doing all it could to prevent Saddam loyalists from entering Iraq through its border.
Last night we were making fun of the team names (Jihad and Fatwah), without any detail. Berxwedan took issue with us in the comments, assuming we knew the details of the riots. I still think we're justified in making fun of the names, though American teams often have fairly violent names. They'd probably be better off with names like "Dar el-Zur United," given Islam's propensity for violence.

That being said, I'm coming more and more to the conclusion that the Kurds need their own country, run by the KDP and PUK. Barzani and Talabani seem to have caught onto the idea of a two party system, probably for reasons that wouldn't be as pretty if we had the resources to examine them closely. PKK should go out of business; Marxism's an idea whose time has gone. The Kurdish Islamic parties should also go out of business for the same reasons, the difference being that Islamism's time went 600 years ago, rather than 20. Only secular libertarian states bring productivity and long-term stability to their inhabitants. With prosperous and stable societies, the inhabitants can worry about religion on their own time.
Posted by: Phil B || 03/13/2004 8:16:17 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I agree with your comment, Phil B. We carved Poland and Czechoslovakia out after World War Two, and they are our friends forever.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/13/2004 8:54 Comments || Top||

#2  An independent Kurdistan would be nice if Turkey wouldn't go to war over it.
Posted by: Tresho || 03/13/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#3  You may think that "PKK" should go out of business, but what you see is that it´s PKK people involved in this REVOLT in Syrian Kurdistan. Check pictures in www.amude.com. We will also publish more news in DozaMe.org.

Ok, MARXISM is out of business, but when the PKK changed name to KADEK, they also got rid of the Marxism-Leninism. This was the pure reason for changing name the first time. The second time they changed from KADEK into KONGRA-GEL, was to get rid of the LENINISTIC organization structure inside KADEK (Central Committee, etc.) And now, KONGRA-GEL is a CONGRESS and not a party and if you ask me, we (Kurds that support KONGRA-GEL and Abdullah Ocalan) have done GREAT leaps toward a democratic structure WITHIN ourselves. But it doesn´t matter how WE look, the enemies are the same..

By the way, KDP and PUK media doesn´t cover the revolts in Syrian Kurdistan. It seems that they don´t want to risk their "diplomatic" ties with the Syrian Baathists.
Posted by: Berxwedan || 03/13/2004 10:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Would an independent Kuridistan which should of been created after World War One control the headwaters of the Tigris and or Euphratues. What about Lake Van. The Middle East waters wars are coming. To many parched mouths, not enough arable land and not enough water.
Posted by: Cheddarhead || 03/13/2004 10:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Is that you RC?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 10:26 Comments || Top||

#6  An independent Kurdistan would be nice if Turkey wouldn't go to war over it.

The Turks had their chance to be a player and blew it. Going to war against a US backed Kurdish state would be a mistake of truly of massive proportions. It would mean the end of Turkey as as the current geographic entity it is. Turkey would lose about half its territory.
Posted by: Phil B || 03/13/2004 10:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Kurds missed an historic opportunity during WW1, instead of rebelling against the Turks or at the very least remaining neutral they did much of the dirty work during the Armenian genocide. End result is that the allies considered them ennemy. That does not mean 2004 Kurds have to pay for the deeds of 1916 Kurds, specially since they have grow, wary of panarabism, islamism and any other form of Arab supremacism.
Posted by: JFM || 03/13/2004 10:43 Comments || Top||

#8  More detail in an e-mail from the Reform Party of Syria (an exile/dissident group) which is quoted by Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review's "The Corner."
Posted by: Mike || 03/13/2004 11:29 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Abbas’ Last Wish: Running Shorts, Track Suit, Two Boxes of Marlboro Cigarettes
From Jihad Unspun
... Two years ago, [the head of the PLF’s "political bureau", Mohamed] Sobhi said, Aboul Abbas had suffered an attack of angina and spent 12 days undergoing treatment at the Abu Nafis Hospital in Baghdad with [Abbas’ wife] Reem at his side. He had suffered no other health problems and in a last request to his family via the Red Cross, he had asked them to send him two boxes of Marlboro cigarettes, running shorts, a track suit and a dishtash robe. The Independent has seen his request and its acknowledgment by US detention authorities; it does not read like the list of a sick man.
He had an attack of angina and was hospitalized for 12 days in a Baghdad hospital. Likely he didn't look like a sick man before he had his angina attack. Nobody cares, guys. Nobody cares.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/13/2004 12:29:13 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LOL! MarbleRows and track suits! LOL again! Yes! Only with the ROP.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 12:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Speakng of MarbleRows.....

LuuuuuuuuuuuuuCKY! LuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuCKy! LuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuCKy! Send word.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 12:54 Comments || Top||

#3  " it does not read like the list of a sick man."

No, it sounds like a man with heart disease who's trying to get some exercise, but that still likes to smoke.

But nooooo...he was murdered by the jooos.
Posted by: RussSchultz || 03/13/2004 13:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Red Cross Lied! Aboul died!
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 13:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Unless it was a MASSIVE coronary, and not immediately fatal, he got off too easy. He was one sick bas$$$$ and needed to die slowly and painfully, so he'd know full well just how much we felt he BELONGED in hell.

One thing to remember: God has a sense of humor. I wouldn't be surprised to find His hand in this. I think he's beginning to get rather tired of the Wahabbi cult killing people in His name. I think a volcano in Riyadh would be a decent message for Him to send to the Saudis...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/13/2004 20:29 Comments || Top||

#6  There's nothing better for angina than smoking a couple of cartons of Marlboros while running a marathon. No wonder he died.
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/14/2004 5:05 Comments || Top||


Russia
Rooskies Want Their Special Forces Guys Back, or else...
Thanks to Aaron Weisburd
TWO Russians who are being held in Qatar in connection with the bombing that killed an exiled Chechen militant have confessed that they are members of Russia’s special security forces, according to diplomatic sources. Under interrogation, the men also told the Qataris that the bomb used to kill Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev last month was smuggled into the tiny Gulf state after being sent from Moscow through the diplomatic bag into Saudi Arabia.

Qatar has promised to put the two men on trial but has come under enormous pressure from Russia to release them instead. Moscow would be hugely embarrassed by any trial if it revealed that its agents were instructed to assassinate Mr Yandarbiyev, and even more so if it were shown that the bomb had been brought in through the diplomatic bag. Russia’s appeal for joint international action against Chechen terrorism would be severely compromised as a result. So desperate is the Kremlin to forestall any trial that it is understood to have threatened to send special forces to mount an operation to spring the men from prison and take them back to Russia.
"Pressure", Russian Style
Pressure on Qatar has also been increased by the arrest of two Qatari citizens who are being held by the FSB security service in Russia. The two men have been identified as Nasser Ibrahim Saad al-Madhihiki, an official with the Qatari greco-roman wrestling team, and Ibrahim Ahmad Nasser Ahmad. A third man, Ibad Akhmedov, is a Belarussian who apparently has Qatari citizenship and was detained at the Sheremetyevo-2 international airport in Moscow but later released. The Russians are clearly hoping to swap the two men for the detained security officials held in Qatar. The Qataris appear embarrassed by the affair, and have refused to comment further on the case. But Western diplomats say that the authorities appear determined to go ahead with a trial.
Guess we may get to see Russian special ops in action soon.
The Qataris have been outraged by the killing of Mr Yandarbiyev, whom the Russians hold responsible for masterminding the Moscow theatre siege which killed around 120 hostages and several Chechen rebels on 23 October, 2002. Most victims died after Russian special forces stormed the building to free about 800 people who had been held hostage for more than two days.
Ummm... That's a true statement, as far as it goes. But if they hadn't stormed the building, all of the 800 would have died when the hostage takers boomed.
Mr Yandarbiyev briefly took over as Chechen president in 1996 after the death of Dzhokhar Dudayev in an explosion. He was also seen as a key figure behind the 1999 incursion by Chechen rebels into the neighbouring Russian region of Dagestan. A Russian Foreign Ministry official yesterday denied that there had been an escalation of the dispute between Russia and Qatar. He told The Times: “I haven’t heard of any such threatening language.” A spokesman for the FSB, the KGB’s successor, declined to comment yesterday. But this month Sergei Ivanov, Russia’s Defence Minister, made it clear that Russia would do everything in its power to get its detained citizens back. He told reporters in Paris: “The State will use all available instruments to release the Russian citizens illegally detained in Qatar.” Mr Ivanov did not elaborate, but last October he announced that Moscow would use preventive military force in case of a “direct threat” to Russian citizens.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s new Foreign Minister, said on Wednesday that Moscow’s position remained unchanged. “We are expecting an appropriate response from Qatar. No evidence has been received so far proving the guilt of these two Russian citizens,” he said. The dispute has fanned conspiracy theories and nationalist rhetoric in the run-up to the presidential elections in Russia on Sunday. Some media reports have suggested that the security services had the tacit approval of the CIA to assassinate Mr Yandarbiyev. Others have accused the CIA of tipping off Qatari Intelligence about Russian involvement in the killing.
Spooks, this make sense?
Dmitry Rogozin, co-leader of the nationalist Rodina bloc, and deputy Speaker of parliament, has called openly for the use of military force to persuade Qatar to free the Russian agents.
Posted by: badanov || 03/13/2004 7:35:53 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Hey Vlad, I think they're holding them at the Al-Jizz HQ. I'd hit there first!"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 19:46 Comments || Top||

#2  I honestly don't see the Russian problem here. There answer should be..."Of Course we killed him, and if we can find any more acomplices, we will kill them also."

I know Moscow reasonably well, and while it is far fom my favorite city...I like Russians and the Moscow Theater take over left me very unhappy.

Russia should just kill anyone involved...(said as a true and believing liberal).

Be Good,
Posted by: Traveller || 03/13/2004 20:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Pooty has a problem now. Any hint of plausible deniability is long gone. And the last successful Russian military operation was when? April 29, 1945? They couldn't even get two submarine missle launches off properly with Pooty and TV around a year after the Kursk. Get ready for Desert One to look good.

And whose side will the U. S. be on in Russia v. Qatar?
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 20:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Qatar, unfortunately.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/13/2004 21:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Rooskies Want Their Special Forces Guys Back, or else...

more shit could blow up in Qatar.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/13/2004 21:21 Comments || Top||

#6 
"And the last successful Russian military operation was when? April 29, 1945?"

Actually, the last one with considerable blood being spilt was probably Budapest, 1956. (I discount the crushing of the Prague Sping in 1968).

I still, however, have hope for Checyna. Remember, this is the same war, just being fought on many fronts.

Not that it matters, but several people took me to task when this story first broke and I fingered the killing of Yandarbiyev to be a FSB opperation.

No matter...if it comes to an actual attack on Qatar, I would hope that after some hand wringing, the US will secretly back Russia.

Of course, with Qatar, the United States has a real problem with our main base being there.
Posted by: Traveller || 03/13/2004 21:40 Comments || Top||

#7  I was thinking of military opponents, not civilians.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 21:55 Comments || Top||

#8  I agree with Traveller that we should pressure the Gut-Tar-ees to turn these guys loose.
We would have tracked this animal to the ends of the Earth and snuffed him by any means possible, or at least we should have.
It won't make Pooty love us, but it could make us some friends in the FSB, always a handy thing to have.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/13/2004 23:00 Comments || Top||

#9  Pfft. So far (unless I've missed something) the only arguments I've heard of this so-called "animal" being a terrorist, are the ones that strive to put every Chechen separationist in the same bag. Like it or not Maskhadov is not the same as Basayev.

I've got every reason to believe that Putin is as bad as Basayev, though.

And I'm betting that the reason the Russians are so pissed off about this, is that these special agents may know about even more operations. First they start by confessing the killings of Chechen politicians, who knows if they won't then confess of the killing of *Russian* liberal politicians - two of Putin's most vocal opponents were murdered KGB-style. Or even assassination attempts in the Balkans? Who knows...
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 03/13/2004 23:17 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Arab fighters say Iraqis sold them out to US
Ahmed Abdel Razzaq went to Iraq to fight the Americans and die a martyr. He ended up in a US prison camp after the Iraqis he went to defend captured and sold him for $100. “I went to be a martyr in God’s name,” said Razzaq, from poor north Lebanon, where Sunni Muslim militancy runs deep. “I went to jihad for the Iraqis but they are all traitors; the people, the army, the Kurds. They say Saddam was bad, but the Iraqis deserve 10 Saddams.”
"My, these grapes are sour!"
Motivated by religious zeal or Arab nationalism, busloads of Arab volunteers crossed Syria to go to Iraq before and during the war. Those who got home alive describe being abandoned by Iraqi minders as US forces reached Baghdad, or escaping Iraqis hostile to interference as the Baath government crumbled into chaos. Hundreds more were captured, often by Iraqi Kurds opposed to toppled president Saddam Hussein, and spent months in US custody at Camp Bucca in the desert near the southern port of Umm Qasr. A Syrian who fought in the Kurdish-run north said he walked and hitchhiked over 120 km to get back to the border after the Iraqi officers in charge of his cell fled with his passport. “We fought Kurds. We looked for Americans but found none,” said one fighter, who was of Palestinian origin. “We only knew Baghdad fell when some Arabs told us to lay down our arms because it was over... One day they were supporting Saddam, the next they were beating his statue with their shoes.”
Inspiring, wasn't it?
Before Baghdad fell in April, Iraqi officials said more than 6,000 volunteers from across the Arab world - half of them would-be suicide bombers - were in the country. Some volunteers said they were taken to vast camps outside Baghdad for training, before being sent to the northern and southern fronts. They complained that the Iraqis armed them poorly, sending them into battle with too little ammunition or faulty guns.
What the hell? Thought you wanted to get killed?
Despite injury or incarceration, the volunteers said they would risk their lives again to defend Arabs from attack. “We will help any Arab state that faces assault,” said Mohammed. “...They are coming to Syria next. The equipment they have brought is enough to occupy the whole Arab world.”
Yes... Isn't it grand?
Posted by: TS || 03/13/2004 5:10:19 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, that certainly put a smile on my face.
Posted by: Evert Visser || 03/13/2004 17:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Why have freed them then?
Posted by: JFM || 03/13/2004 17:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Stupidity:

We looked for Americans but found none,” said one fighter, who was of Palestinian origin.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 17:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Arabs, heh.

Merriam-Webster
Main Entry: Byz·an·tine
Pronunciation: 'bi-z&n-"tEn, 'bI-, -"tIn; b&-'zan-", bI-'
Function: adjective
...
4 (often not capitalized)
a : of, relating to, or characterized by a devious and usually surreptitious manner of operation (a Byzantine power struggle)
b : intricately involved : LABYRINTHINE (rules of Byzantine complexity)
Posted by: .com || 03/13/2004 17:31 Comments || Top||

#5  "They complained that the Iraqis armed them poorly, sending them into battle with too little ammunition or faulty guns."

Har, Har / Nelson Muntz
Posted by: Evert Visser || 03/13/2004 17:31 Comments || Top||

#6 
“We will help any Arab state that faces assault,” said Mohammed. “...They are coming to Syria next. The equipment they have brought is enough to occupy the whole Arab world.”
How astute of him, to notice that...
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/13/2004 17:41 Comments || Top||

#7  “...They are coming to Syria next. The equipment they have brought is enough to occupy the whole Arab world.”

Somehow that news fails to disquiet me.
Posted by: Scott || 03/13/2004 17:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Not much to say to this thread except to say I agree with Evert, JFM, Mr. Davis, .com (obviously) Evert (again), Dave and Scott!

“We will help any Arab state that faces assault,” said Mohammed. “. and travelling by bus to the front... What a maroon.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 03/13/2004 18:43 Comments || Top||

#9  The equipment they have brought is enough to occupy the whole Arab world.
Tell that to the presumptuous Democratic candidate.
Posted by: GK || 03/13/2004 19:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Welcome to the West MotherF****r.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 20:27 Comments || Top||

#11  “They are coming to Syria next.”

Given their track record at making the right choice, this probably means we're hitting Iran next.
Posted by: BH || 03/13/2004 20:58 Comments || Top||

#12  Man, they can play these fuckers like a ten cent pinball machine. Welcome to the jihad...shithead.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/13/2004 21:35 Comments || Top||

#13 
They are coming to Syria next. The equipment they have brought is enough to occupy the whole Arab world.
From his lips to Allah's ears!

Riyadh delenda est!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/13/2004 22:10 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Mountain Storm on since March 7
U.S.-led forces have launched a sweeping new offensive in Afghanistan’s remote southern and eastern mountains aimed at crushing the Taliban and al Qaeda and snaring militant leaders including Osama bin Laden. Operation "Mountain Storm" was given additional significance by concerns al Qaeda could be behind Thursday’s bomb attacks on Madrid trains that killed 200 people. Spain’s government, however, insists the blasts were the work of Basque separatists. U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty told a Kabul news briefing on Saturday the offensive had begun on March 7 and involved troops from the 13,500-strong U.S.-led force backed by air support. Asked if it could lead to the capture of bin Laden, Hilferty said: "This operation is aimed like the rest at rebuilding and reconstructing and providing enduring security in Afghanistan, so it’s certainly about more than one person.
The headline writer missed this paragraph
"The leaders of al Qaeda and...the Taliban need to be brought to justice and will be." It is unlikely bin Laden would be directly involved in detailed planning of any specific operation in western Europe, but he is considered the key figure of authority in al Qaeda. The senior military commander for Afghanistan’s southern region, General Haji Granai, told Reuters U.S. aircraft attacked a truck carrying 12 suspected Taliban guerrillas in Maruf district of Kandahar province on Thursday, killing all of them. Hilferty said he had no information on such an attack, though he told the briefing U.S. forces had carried out a small-scale air assault in the south which he declined to detail. The campaign comes after a surge in militant attacks on aid workers and Afghan government and U.S.-led forces and ahead of presidential elections supposed to held in June.

U.S. defense officials told Reuters in Washington on Friday that "Mountain Storm" was timed to exploit improving weather in the region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where bin Laden he is believed to be. A Taliban spokesman said U.S. forces had launched offensives from the Waza Khuwa region of Paktika province to the Yakubi region of neighboring Khost province. But he said the elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who headed its government that harbored the al Qaeda network, was safe. "Mullah Omar is in a very safe place. But we don’t know about Osama bin Laden," Abdul Latif Hakimi told Reuters by telephone. U.S. officials said the secretive Task Force 121, a covert
If rooters knows about it, it ain’t covert
commando team of Special Operations troops and CIA personnel involved in the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in December, has relocated people and equipment to the border region. Pakistan has in recent weeks moved forces into the lawless tribal lands on its side of the Afghan border in the search for militants. Lieutenant-General David Barno, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, said last month the United States and Pakistan were moving toward coordinated operations along the border. In Pakistan’s South Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan, tribal elders gave 24 hours
down from 72
to anyone harboring al Qaeda and other militants to surrender, saying that if they failed to do so they would pursue them with a 600-man tribal militia. U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001 after the September 11, 2001 attacks, which are blamed on al Qaeda.
Rooters fact checkers are still diligently working to confirm that it was al Qaeda but their calls are not being returned by al Qaeda. Perhaps if Rooters would check the Yellow Pages under T for terrorist instead of M for militants, they might have more luck.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 4:11:56 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus
Arab militant vows attacks on Russia - Jazeera
Arab television channel Al Jazeera has broadcast a videotape of the man it says is the leader of Arab fighters in Chechnya, vowing to stage a new wave of attacks inside Russia. Abu al-Waleed, said by the Kremlin of being among those behind last month’s bombing on the Moscow underground, added that his campaign might depend on the outcome of Russia’s coming presidential polls. "The enemies of God drop mines in the forests and, God willing, we will return them to the Russians and they will find them on their land and in the midst of their families," said the bearded man who was standing in a forest. "But perhaps we may wait a little to see the upcoming elections. If they elect someone who declares war on Chechnya, then the Russians are declaring war against the Chechens and by God we will send them these (mines)... Not only these but also things that did not cross their minds," he said. The man, wearing military fatigues and a beret and speaking in Arabic, was shown picking up a "butterfly" mine from foliage. He said his fighters had found hundreds of them. "We will return these to you (Russians)...You will, God willing, see hundreds of people crippled," he said. Officials at Qatar-based Al Jazeera were not immediately available on Saturday to comment on when or how they received the videotape.

Security has been tightened across Russia ahead of Sunday’s elections and extra troops have been stationed along the border of Chechnya, where rebels have long been fighting Russian rule. The Kremlin blames Chechen rebels for a spate of attacks including a suicide bombing which killed close to 50 people on a train in southern Russia before last December’s parliamentary polls and the attack on the underground, which killed around 40. The Kremlin believes Abu al-Waleed was also among those behind the 1999 apartment bombings across Russia that prompted President Vladimir Putin to send troops back into Chechnya.
Posted by: TS || 03/13/2004 4:02:26 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Abu al Waleed ? That's his nom de guerre, right ? What's his real name ?
Posted by: lyot || 03/13/2004 16:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Whether you like or dislike the Russians, whether you think they're right or wrong in Chechnya, remember: The Islamists' goal is to kill us all. This is just the threat of another installment.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/13/2004 17:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes. His real name is al-Ghamdi, the same as 3 of the 9/11 hijackers and multiple other al-Qaeda operatives arrested ever since.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 18:06 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Terrorists Training Camp Uncovered near Karbala
Polish and US soldiers uncovered Saturday a training camp for terrorists near the city of Karbala. There was nobody at the site, but they found eight ton of explosives.
Posted by: TS || 03/13/2004 3:21:04 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm gonna say it was an ETA camp until I see video tape evidence to the contrary. I AWAIT THE FACTS!!!
Posted by: Scott || 03/13/2004 17:45 Comments || Top||

#2  but they found eight ton of explosives.
Is M4D moonlighting?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 20:28 Comments || Top||

#3  On second glance.... Yes, we await the FACTS!. hee hee. BUT! We will not make FUN! of posters who write like SENATOR! Robert BYRD!. NO! It would be UNKIND!
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 20:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Shipman,

Senator Daschle finds unkindness deeply troubling.
Posted by: JDB || 03/13/2004 20:39 Comments || Top||

#5  You're right Shipman. I hope I didn't offend Garrison. He was so much fun yesterday.
Posted by: Scott || 03/13/2004 22:34 Comments || Top||


Sunni Mosques Attacked in Baghdad
Four Sunni mosques were attacked in the Iraqi capital over a 24-hour period from 10-11 March, Dubai’s Al-Arabiyah television reported on 11 March. Two explosive charges were detonated at the entrance to two mosques, while worshippers were attacked with hand grenades at two other mosques in the city. "Our mosques are attacked daily with hand grenades, light machine guns, and even heavy machine guns," said Ahmad Abd al-Ghafur al-Samarra’i, spokesman for the Sunni Awqaf Office. At least two imams were also gunned down this week in Baghdad, Al-Arabiyah reported.
Done by Shi'a trying to settle old scores, or Ba'athists trying to whip things up?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/13/2004 12:12:24 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  why would these attack not stem from Foreign Elements like Al Zarqawi's force ? Given he's made a Shia/Sunni civil war a priority, I think this option is most likely ?
Posted by: lyot || 03/13/2004 13:35 Comments || Top||

#2  It could also be the Jews.
Posted by: Charles || 03/13/2004 14:39 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Two paleos deaded; Film at eleven!
Israel Defense Forces soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians in an off-limits military zone between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian security sources and the military said. Soldiers guarding the militarized border zone shot two men crawling inside the prohibited area about 100 meters from the border fence which separates Gaza from the nearby Kibbutz of Nahal Oz, the army said. The pair were carrying two Kalashnikov assault rifles, 10 hand grenades and a pipe bomb and apparently were attempting to cross the fence to attack the farming community, the military said.

In a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Gaza, the violent military wing of the radical Islamic group Hamas together with a smaller armed militant group said they dispatched the two men to the area and that they battled with soldiers before being shot dead. The two men were identified as Mohammed Haboush, 20, of Hamas and Saed Mraesh, 20, from a small Gaza militant group called the Ahmed Abu al-Resh Brigades. The Hamas statement said video footage showing a gun battle between the men and the soldiers would be released later. Palestinian militants have repeatedly approached the Gaza fence to clash with soldiers, attempt to cross into Israel and occasionally to observe and gather information on activity at military posts for future attacks.
Note the phrasing here which studiously avoids stating the truth which is that the Gaza fence works and the paleos almost never get past it.
Posted by: Phil B || 03/13/2004 8:31:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd suggest they take the weapons, cover the bodies in pig fat and leave em there in the no-man's land as a warning
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 8:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I still think they should have killed them with a "pig catapult" in the first place.
Posted by: Charles || 03/13/2004 8:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Frank and Charles you are the pigs swine to be exact. A question for the rest of you if anyone could be of any help,why do some of you spell Palestinian as Paleostinian, spelling error,alternative way,what? Have only noticed it on this site.
Posted by: Antiwar || 03/13/2004 9:39 Comments || Top||

#4  You can call me Palestinian, you can call me Paleostinian, but when the IDF catches me crossing over from Gaza, just call me f*cked!
Posted by: badanov || 03/13/2004 9:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Antiwhore, thanks for writing.
The spelling is deliberate.
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 9:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Charles, he called us a "pigs swine"! lol
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 9:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Frank you call me antiwhore which is the opposite of prostitute which is a compliment so thanks. Why is the spelling deliberate?
Posted by: Antiwar || 03/13/2004 9:57 Comments || Top||

#8  paleo = prehistoric, which is the level their society has degenerated to
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 10:00 Comments || Top||

#9  Thank you Frank for the info on that. Not very nice though is it?
Posted by: Antiwar || 03/13/2004 10:06 Comments || Top||

#10  Why is it that nobody owns a dictionary any more! Minor rant but I could forgive the Left lots of things but I will never forgive their corruption of the thing that makes communication between us all possible, words.

We use Paleos which is an abbreviation of Paleostinians, to mean with considerable precision people who are members of a society that exhibits the properties of Ancient; prehistoric; Early; primitive.
Posted by: Phil B || 03/13/2004 10:09 Comments || Top||

#11  It's balestinian, I get my spelling from H. Hasharewe's prenunciashun.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 10:23 Comments || Top||

#12  nice? a culture that ululates and hands out candy in celebration on 9/11? That day cemented my disgust for the child-killing thugs, criminals, and wanna-be martyrs. Don't talk about Paleos and nice in the same sentence
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 10:29 Comments || Top||

#13  And a reanimated Paleostinian is called a Frankenstinian.

BTW Antiwar, there's lot's of stuff you only find on Rantburg... sniff... God Bless That Fred...
Posted by: Hyper || 03/13/2004 10:30 Comments || Top||

#14  Yup, Fred has really put together a nice site. Reminds me of a family reunion, with everybody shaking their heads at the stupid cousin.

And I'm not a pigs swine. I like to eat pigs, rosted to perfection and covered in that special sweet syrup. Mmm, Miss Piglet... *drools*
Posted by: Charles || 03/13/2004 10:58 Comments || Top||

#15  we can't help it if you are too stupid to get it anti-war. We are for peace, so, unlike self-righteous sh*&^ such as yourself, we find the people who seek to blow up children to be repulsive. Just as we find idiots like you.

Your support of them makes you repulsive. Do you get that? You blast off at parties and parks thinking everyone thinks you are so cool and hip to be anti-war, when, in reality, you are just anti-peace.

At parks and parties we refrain from taking you on because you aren't worth the self-righteous verbal abuse that would ensue. Instead we just quietly think you are a callous, stupid jerk who cares more about politics than rape rooms, and the disco bombins of innocent children.

Did you see the turn out in Spain today? Get a clue - you are the one out of the 20 who didn't show up. Loser.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 11:06 Comments || Top||

#16  As Chairman Mao might have said 'Peace comes out of the barrel of a gun.'
Posted by: Phil B || 03/13/2004 11:18 Comments || Top||

#17  B Antiwar means against war therefore for peace,so you've embarrassed yourself there. Did you support the war in Iraq and if you did how are you for peace?
Posted by: Antiwar || 03/13/2004 11:49 Comments || Top||

#18  Antiwar: It doesn't matter what they call them. They themselves prefer the fiction that they are "Palestinians". There's no such thing as a Palestinian. They are Arabs, the worthless dregs of a conquering horde that has since been pushed back. Call them the Bombanians if you want. It doesn't matter, and neither do they.
Posted by: BH || 03/13/2004 11:53 Comments || Top||

#19  BH there is obviously such a thing as Palestinians whether you call them Arabs or Semites. You are Antisemitic.
Posted by: Antiwar || 03/13/2004 12:00 Comments || Top||

#20  No dear, I'm anti-Islamic.
Posted by: BH || 03/13/2004 12:01 Comments || Top||

#21  B thank you for clearing that up you are still prejudiced though being anti-islamic. A persons religion shouldnt make you dislike them Christian Jew Muslim its all the same God.
Posted by: Antiwar || 03/13/2004 12:05 Comments || Top||

#22  think so, Kufr?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 12:07 Comments || Top||

#23  Islam isn't a religion. It's a death cult. I don't respect Jim Jones. I don't respect David Koresh. And I don't respect Mohammed.
Posted by: BH || 03/13/2004 12:08 Comments || Top||

#24  Antiwar is like most liberals/socialists/communists I debate on a daily basis. Absolute truth and evil are only figments of our imaginations. We make these concepts up in order to make living bearable in our foolish and childish worldview existance.

Antiwar, I hope you fall to your knees and thank God many times a week for the US and it's current head of government (President Bush) with the moral clarity, unlike the demos Kerry, to fight evil where he finds it. One issue I take with Bush is his relunctance to name our enemy by name (Islam). As I read the other day, calling it a war on terrorism is like calling WWII a war on sneak attacks after Pearl Harbor.
Posted by: Constitutional Individualist || 03/13/2004 12:15 Comments || Top||

#25  Just about anyone who has thought about it, and almost all who have had to participate in war would prefer it if wars did not happen.

Fact is, there are some people who want to kill us because we're not their religion, don't have their political persuasions or they just hate us.

Then you have a choice, fight or be killed.

As to Iraq - I was very much for the war. I don't like the civilian casualties that occured, but they were unavoidable. Now Iraq has a chance to pull itself out of the morally bankrupt Arab mindset, and perhaps, just perhaps, be a true leader in that part of the world and act as a beacon for other people in that region.

If you're truly anti-war, you'd better hope they do manage to do that. The US is putting a lot of political and financial capital into trying to make the Iraq experiment work. If it truly comes to pass that the Arab/Islamic mindset is not able to participate in the 21st century world, then all bets are off and sooner or later (after the 2nd 9/11 type attack, or 3rd or 4th) someone is going to give up on the situation and push the button.

Guess what, it may not be the Americans who do it - the Russians and Chinese have plenty of WMDs they could use, and they're not squeamish about killing large numbers of people are they? It could even be the UK (one Trident could do it).

As for the Paleos (yes, I have spelt that right), those 'people' have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity, and everytime I hear of one (or more) of these *kof* 'freedom fighters' biting the dust I feel that there is some justice in the World.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 03/13/2004 12:19 Comments || Top||

#26  #16. Phil, so ya still have that Little Red Book do ya? :)
#17. And here're some thoughts from two other philosophers for Miss AW:
We make war that we may live in peace.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Nichomachean Ethics


Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
Baruch Spinoza (1632 - 1677)

So being against war, AW, doesn't necessarily mean that the consequence will be peace.
Posted by: GK || 03/13/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#27  Would yawl please stop picking on AntiWar? I think she's precious and lends a certain panache to Rantburg. My question to AW is who do you the is more effective the tall guys on stilts or the guys in the turtle suits?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 12:49 Comments || Top||

#28  i just wish anti war would move to north korea with people who share his ideals. He seems to think torture,maiming,rape etc is okay and now Saddams gone what other options are open for him,syria or saudi would be ideal too
Posted by: Jon Shep U.K || 03/13/2004 13:05 Comments || Top||

#29  B Antiwar means against war therefore for peace,so you've embarrassed yourself there. Did you support the war in Iraq and if you did how are you for peace?
Anti-war - you are just so stupid that I have to wonder if you drool on your keyboard.

But I will give you a hint knowing full well that it clearly above your comprehension level to understand how being against war does not mean that you are for peace?

If you are walking down the street and a woman is being raped - which of the following two people would you say promotes peace:

1. The person who walks on by and says, "she deserved it"

2. A person who, at great personal risk, fights the rapist off.

You are a coward - plain and simple. You disgust me.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 13:54 Comments || Top||

#30  What happens if the paleo-murderers get fed to the piggies....like Bricktop did in the movie "Snatch"????
Posted by: anymouse || 03/13/2004 14:01 Comments || Top||

#31  antiwar - apparently you are too stupid to notice the difference between B and BH.

duuuhhhh...I'm ANTIWAR..according to the dead and dying dinosaurs of the 60's I'm cool. Long hair, rock and roll and eternal adolescence...be cool man. I'm the anti-war dude.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 14:29 Comments || Top||

#32  BH there is obviously such a thing as Palestinians whether you call them Arabs or Semites.

They didn't exist until Isreal was established again as a nation. The area, at the time, was the British protectorate of Palestine. It wasn't until they were "kicked out" that the Paleostinians came into existence. Some have Sunni background, others have Shite, some may have Kurd, but they are NOT a nation. They considered themselves Arabs or Muslims, then the Jews came back and " We're the Paleostinians from the Bible! This is our land! "

What a bunch of BS.
Posted by: Charles || 03/13/2004 14:51 Comments || Top||

#33  I suppose we could also refer to them as Philistines. That's what it is in Arabic, isn't it? Filisti?
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2004 20:21 Comments || Top||

#34  The Roman name Palestine is derived from Phillistine, which in turn probably dates to neolithic times.
Misha at the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler calls them Paleosimians, which I regard as a slur against our noble cousins, the great apes.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/13/2004 23:12 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Ivorian Ruling Party Alleges Coup Plot
Ivory Coast's ruling party accused opposition groups on Friday of plotting with rebels to overthrow the government, and it called on militant youth supporters to "mobilize" in defense.
Here we go again!
Ruling party chief Affi N'Guessan singled out the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, which pulled out of a power-sharing government earlier this month. The party ruled the country from independence in 1960 until it was ousted in a 1999 coup. "Political parties have formed a coalition with rebel groups to destabilize the country before the arrival of the U.N. peacekeepers," N'Guessan told a crowd of cheering supporters in Abidjan.
It'd be dumb to wait til after the peacekeepers arrive, eh?
The United Nations plans to deploy 6,240 U.N. peacekeepers to Ivory Coast in early April to bolster a fragile peace deal already monitored by 4,000 French and 1,400 West African troops. Rebels were not immediately available for comment. The Democratic Party denied the allegations. "We leave them to their fears and their ramblings. These people are afraid for no reason," said party spokesman Djedje Mady. N'Guessan called on the Young Patriots - as pro-government militant youth groups are known - to "mobilize and block all attempts to carry out coups." "The Democratic Party of Ivory Coast must follow the road of peace and not form pacts with rebel movements," he warned. "The Democratic Party must not drive Ivory Coast to disaster."
It's already there.
Earlier Friday, state radio announced a ban on all demonstrations in Ivory Coast until April 30. President Laurent Gbagbo also ordered troop reinforcements to be sent to western Ivory Coast following ethnic clashes there, and for security roadblocks to be set up "everywhere possible" in Abidjan, the commercial capital. The ban came just a day all the major opposition parties and rebel groups announced plans to hold a protest march, calling for Young Patriots to be brought to justice after beating at least five judges at a demonstration on Tuesday. N'Guessan said the attack on the judges was "a normal reaction of the Young Patriots," who have been behind a series of violent protests since civil war broke out in September 2002.
"Boys will be boys!"
"The rebellion created all these problems," he said, adding that those responsible "will never be arrested."
"Nope, nope, can't do it, nope, it'd be unseemly, nope, nope."
Posted by: Steve White || 03/13/2004 1:31:48 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The Democratic Party must not drive Ivory Coast to disaster."

I can think of another country where this phrase is appropriate...
Posted by: Hyper || 03/13/2004 10:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Clever eyeballs Hyper.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 14:34 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
173rd Airborne Brigade Returns to Italy Base
Jason Avery and 1,600 of his fellow soldiers received a hero's welcome on their return to their home base in Italy on Friday, a year after parachuting into northern Iraq in the biggest U.S. airdrop since World War II. Paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade passed before their commanders in review in Vicenza, northern Italy, where they are based. Some 2,000 teary-eyed family members watched and cheered at their passage. "I'm just happy to be back, for what I do, for what I've done," said the 23-year old Avery, who's from New York. "I was so concerned, I was just trying to get back," said Avery, His wife Christina and three kids in tow, hamburgers in one of hand, hot dogs in another, trying to secure a seat at a dinner party at the base. Around him, music was playing loud, balloons were flying in the room and banners all over the walls. Avery came back earlier this month. Being away meant he missed the birth of his third child, Cheyenne, now 6 months old. "Now, I'm just trying to make the best of every moment," he said.

Some 1,000 paratroopers went in northern Iraq on March 26, 2003, and grabbed an airfield in the area. Another 500 roughly followed over the next days. The airdrop, which took place from a nearby base in Italy, Aviano, was the first large deployment of American ground troops in the region. It opened a northern front as U.S.-led forces advanced on Baghdad from the south. Over the past year, the 173rd's job was to control Kirkuk, an oil-rich city 180 miles north of Baghdad where Kurds, Arabs and other ethnic groups have been competing for domination. "The ethnic tension was always there, but we left behind a lot of things that are promising," Col. William C. Mayville, Jr., the brigade commander of the 173rd told reporters after the ceremony.
Bravo, lads! Well done!
Posted by: Steve White || 03/13/2004 1:22:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well Done - Bravo to the "Sky Soldiers".
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/13/2004 1:45 Comments || Top||

#2  My old unit, B 3/503 173rd Abn Bde. I served with them for 2+ years in RVN. The 173rd was the first US Army combat unit deployed to RVN, and the only unit to be deployed in all of the four Corps in RVN. These guys make me damned proud.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 03/13/2004 7:28 Comments || Top||

#3  I met a young soldier from Fort Carson last night while we were waiting for tables at Appleby's. He's with the 3rd BCT 4th ID and had just returned from Iraq. Thanked him for his service and complimented him on his unit's performance. All these young men and women make us damn proud.
Posted by: GK || 03/13/2004 8:02 Comments || Top||

#4  173rd Airborne Brigade, you are on the free beers list, swing by when you guys are in the neighbourhood.

Thank you very, very much.
Posted by: Evert Visser || 03/13/2004 8:25 Comments || Top||

#5  I hope anyone who can afford it will pay for the meals of an veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan should they meet at restaurants.
Posted by: Tresho || 03/13/2004 9:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Had three chances Tresho... had the dough on 2 occasions.

And thanks again WM.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 10:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Sean McCormack b*tch-slaps Knight-Ridder on Iraq/al-Qaeda ties
I am writing to address some issues raised by a March 3, Knight Ridder article by Warren Strobel, Jonathan Landay and John Walcott titled "Doubts cast on efforts to link Saddam, al-Qaida". The authors repeat assertions made by anonymous sources casting doubt on Iraq’s pre-liberation relations with al-Qaida and other terror organizations. The facts of Saddam’s ties to terror are that his regime was involved in support for those who posed a real threat to America and its interests.

Abu Musab Zarqawi has longstanding ties to al-Qaida, as well as to the terror group Ansar al-Islam, and it remains entirely accurate to describe him as a senior al-Qaida associate. Zarqawi and his men periodically have trained and fought with al-Qaida members for years, including when Zarqawi had an explosives and poisons/toxins training camp in Herat, Afghanistan, under the Taliban. Some recent attacks in Iraq have involved al-Qaida and Zarqawi associates working together. Zarqawi appears to have directed the October 2002 assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley. We also know that Zarqawi’s network received al-Qaida logistical and financial support.

Saddam Hussein’s regime was involved in the movement of resources for terrorists organizations - money, members and supplies - into and through Iraq for terrorist organizations like the Abu Nidal Organization and other Palestinian rejectionist groups up until early 2003. Saddam’s regime also had ties with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in the 1990s, which was led by Osama bin Laden’s current second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and which merged with al-Qaida in 2001. Zarqawi had nearly two dozen al-Qaida associates in Baghdad in the spring/summer of 2002. While we are still putting together the picture of Saddam’s activities with al-Qaida and other Islamic terrorist groups, we do know that in 2002 an al-Qaida associate bragged that the situation in Iraq was "good" and that Baghdad could be transited quickly.

Some claim, in this case cited as anonymous sources by Mssrs. Strobel, Landay and Walcott, that nothing emerged from these activities. Our leaders, who are charged with protecting the American people, do not have the luxury of taking comfort in a theory that just because Saddam Hussein espoused a secular tyranny his regime could not join forces with Islamic terror organizations. The evidence of just such ties was too strong for the president to ignore. President Bush chose not to depend on Saddam Hussein’s self-restraint, and America and the world is safer for that decision.

Sean McCormack

Spokesman, National Security Council
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:54:29 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Was this disseminated by the NSC? Has anyone besides readers of this site seen this?

Don't know whether to laugh or cry. After literally years of wildly distorted "reporting" on foreign policy issues including the subject of this statement, we're finally seeing some push-back by the administration? The WH could keep a staff of 15 busy full-time correcting the fiction and distortion in media coverage of several key issues. Why don't they?

It's a small miracle the American people are as sensible as they are about these things, considering the non-stop crap they're fed by most media (bolstered by the same tired unpersuasive "experts" and pathetic "anonymous officials"). Why not improve our odds and get in the game on a regular basis, guys?
Posted by: IceCold || 03/13/2004 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Ice, go to the link through the headline. The Knight Ridder article starts with: The following is a letter from Sean McCormack, spokesman for the president's National Security Council, in response to a March 3 story by Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel and John Walcott of the Knight Ridder Washington bureau. I agree the administration needs an effective, rapid response team to answer the BS from the media/DNC.
Posted by: GK || 03/13/2004 7:46 Comments || Top||

#3 
"It's a small miracle the American people are as sensible as they are about these things, considering the non-stop crap they're fed by most media..."
I'd class it as a MAJOR miracle. I don't think the administration expected, not in a million years, that the Democratic Party leadership, in collusion with our leftist media, would so readily sacrifice U.S. security for the sake of regaining political power.

These people are naive, and they'd better fix that, quick. EVERY false allegation must be countered with the facts, EVERY time it is repeated.
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/13/2004 8:07 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm kind of torn here. I want the President to pound these people with the truth. Also, I don't think he should have to defend his administration against every nnut-ball claim. Clearly the DNC latches onto every tinfoil hat statement like a tgier looking at red meat. I think that like Howling Howard the DNC will find out (too late) that people simple don't think that jounalists (and politicians) have any credibility.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 03/13/2004 10:19 Comments || Top||

#5  It's worse than not having credibility anymore - they have negative credibility. When I hear Big Media say the sky is blue, I'm beginning to reflexively think, well then, that must mean it is not blue afterall.
Posted by: B || 03/13/2004 10:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Cyber Sarge: I agree, however, there are multi ways to present information. The president needn't disseminate info framed as a defensive response to criticism. He should simply begin presenting reality in factual terms, in a positive light, over and over and over again.

The facts themselves will rebutt the tripe spewed by the American left (fucking french-licking national-security-trashing fucking punks).

Of course, lemming partisans won't be swayed. But don't forget the fence-sitting undecided voter, and the independant-still-deciding-if-this-is-the-election-where-I-will-finally-be-compelled-to-vote-for-a-major-party-candidate voter; now THAT'S a target demographic for your message!

Over and over and over again...
Posted by: Hyper || 03/13/2004 11:05 Comments || Top||

#7  In Chicago we have a saying: "never let the sun go down on a lie." Politicans here know that if an opponent says something about them, they get in front of a microphone TODAY -- not tomorrow, not next week, in time for the 6 o'clock news TODAY -- and set the record straight. The Bush team needs to get a lot better about this. They could learn something from Bill Clinton; his two presidental campaigns were masters at this.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/13/2004 13:12 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
US special forces hunting GSPC in Algeria
U.S. special forces are hunting for Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida along Algeria’s southern border with Mali in a little-known military operation aimed at destroying a key North African recruiting hub for Osama bin Laden’s global terrorist network, according to U.S. and Algerian officials. Small teams of elite U.S. soldiers have been working with local security forces in recent months in the Sahara Desert in an effort to capture or kill members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, a radical Islamic organization that has pledged its allegiance to al-Qaida and is suspected in terrorist plots in Europe and the United States. "They send troops in and out and have put up some kind of infrastructure" along the border with Mali, where members of the Algerian-based group are believed to be hiding among local Bedouins and nomadic tribes, a senior Algerian government official said of the U.S. troops, adding that "There is no permanent presence of the U.S. military in Algeria."

But U.S. government officials with access to official reports said the U.S. special forces have been working with Algeria and neighboring countries to trap members of the Salafist group, which is on the U.S. terrorism list. Many of the group’s members, estimated to be as high as 3,000 fighters, are believed to be veterans of bin Laden’s Afghanistan training camps. Most all the al Qaeda cells that have been picked up in Europe have some link to this group," said Evan Kohlmann, a terrorism specialist at the Investigative Project, a think tank in Washington. "These are the descendents of the al Qaeda training camps who have gone home."

"The United States fights against terrorist activity in Algeria and the Sahel," the U.S. Embassy in Algiers said in a recent statement, declining to offer any specific information. "The U.S. government has an ongoing program known as the Pan-Sahel Initiative which provides training and support to Chad, Niger, Mali, and Mauritania to help them control their borders, interdict smuggling, and deny use of their national territories to terrorists and other international criminals," a Defense Department official said. The flow of militants from Algeria, however, remains a rising priority for counterterrorism officials. "Conflict there has bred an extremely dangerous foe," said Kohlmann. "Dating back to 1998, there is a continuous trail of these operatives in various terrorist plots around the world."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:46:59 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In such a barren, unpopulated area, tracking vehicles and people has got to be easier. Good hunting boyz!
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Using P-3s with very sensitive MMAD (Mad Mullah Anomaly Detector) gear.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 10:06 Comments || Top||

#3  2 to 1 odds says this group is responsible for the Spain booms.
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/13/2004 12:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Using P-3s with very sensitive MMAD (Mad Mullah Anomaly Detector) gear.
Hopefully, backed up by A-10s with napalm. Screw the "World Court" and the ninnies that declared napalm an "unlawful weapon". It does the @#*&*$@#@^!%*#@$* job.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/13/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||

#5  MOAB testing anyone?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 13:16 Comments || Top||

#6  ...Just wondering - haven't the Spanish been fighting some kind of low-level insurgency in North Africa for about 40 years?...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/13/2004 13:31 Comments || Top||

#7  #6 was'nt that the french?
Posted by: Evert Visser || 03/13/2004 19:17 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
More on Boris hanging it up ...
"Colonel" Boris Aidamirov, who led the security department of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, surrendered to the police on Thursday, Chechnya’s presidential security service chief Ramzan Kadyrov told Interfax. "Aidamirov decided to surrender after negotiations, and the news that the former defense minister of Ichkeria, Magomed Khambiyev, had laid down his arms. Another 10 members of an illegal armed unit laid down their arms and came to Gudermes with him," Kadyrov said. One of the rebels was the deputy chief of Maskhadov’s security department.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:39:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: Subsaharan
UPI commentary on al-Qaeda in Africa
Fairly long but interesting primer on the current dismal state of Africa and why it’s such an appealing place for terrorists.
There are now 40,000 U.N. blue-helmeted peacekeepers in six sub-Saharan African countries. Most of them are "volunteered" by other African countries. The best troops are from South Asian countries — Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Soon Sudan, emerging from the nightmare of a 30-year civil war, will need 8,000 to 10,000 more. But before the first peacekeepers could get there, a new insurgency erupted in the west -- the Chad-based Darfar rebellion. Khartoum hit back ruthlessly with scorched-earth tactics and ethnic cleansing. About 100,000 refugees made it across the border into Chad. Another 600,000 were without shelter and the United Nations and Doctors Without Borders said they were now faced with "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world." No TV footage, no story.
Just more atrocities, day in and day out, an enduring custom. Darfur looks like it might be heading toward the Rwanda category, and I seldom see it mentioned anywhere but here.
The only sub-Saharan country with a professional army up to Western standards is South Africa, which keeps 75,000 under arms. Forty percent of the force is HIV positive. And only 3,000 men are deployable for peacekeeping duties. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with 130 million, maintains a 17,000-strong air force, but only one troop transport can fly. West Africa is a graveyard of failed nation-states. Government writs seldom extend much beyond capital-city shantytowns. In the countryside, bush and savanna, radicalized Islamist clerics and Christian missionaries battle it out in a war of words for desperate African souls.
That's what we think of as Islam's bloody border...
The Christian missions offer rudimentary medical services, T-shirts and occasional staples. The Muslim clerics get stipends from the Saudi Arabian Wahhabi clergy and train youngsters to become "jihadis," meaning "holy warriors."
"Think about it, kid. Which do you prefer? A crummy tee-shirt and your teeth fixed? Or this keen turban and an AK-47?"
"Ummm... Lemme think, now..."
Hunger stalks most west and equatorial African states. And the Supreme Allied Commander, Gen. James Jones is alarmed. He is responsible for 93 countries, including all of Africa, except the Horn -- Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti. And in a recent trip in SACEUR’s G-5, from Algeria to South Africa, Jones -- who speaks flawless, unaccented French -- saw first-hand the emerging failed and failing states that contain huge ungoverned areas that now serve as breeding grounds or sanctuary for terrorists.
I think of them as festering sores...
The 27 "least developed countries" are all African, says the United Nations Development Program. Half of the 25 "worst countries in the world" are West African. The average Sierra Leonean doesn’t live beyond 39. Nigeria, supposedly comparatively well off, pumping 2.1 million barrels of oil per day, is now on the verge of becoming a failed state. It is breaking apart along ethnic and religious fault lines. The Muslim north is terra incognita for federal authorities.
Nigeria's been doing that since it got its independence. Anybody remember Biafra?
Rwandan and Ugandan forces have reinfiltrated the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC, formerly Zaire, is the size of the United States east of the Mississippi. Some 11,000 ineffectual U.N. peacekeeping troops are lost in the vastness of Africa’s answer to "Darkness at Noon" that is costing the world body $90,000 per blue helmet per year. It is the United Nations’ most expensive operation. DRC is only a country on a map. Nineteenth-century tribalism has displaced the Western notion of a nation state. Gone are a modern highway system, a network of airports with daily air service between major cities, guest houses in national parks, plantations, water and sewage treatment plants -- in short, all the components of the former Belgian colony’s infrastructure.
Pretty sad. Belgium was nobody's dream as a colonizer, but the place is still worse off without the Belchians to run it...
There are 11,000 U.N. troops in Sierra Leone, 15,000 in Liberia, 6,200 in the Ivory Coast, all stovepipe operations with separate commands for each of these mini-states, and 4,200 in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The nations that contribute troops to the United Nations for blue-helmet assignments are now tapped out. So are contributions to peacekeeping from dues-paying U.N. member nations. U.N. stabilization has become unsustainable. No sooner are these troops withdrawn from the civil war they went in to stop than the fighting starts again.
That's because peacekeepers don't go in with the objective of killing all the bad guys in sight...
Sierra Leone, Liberia and (former French) Guinea are states in name only. Two generations of young Africans in these countries, from the ages of 10 to their early 20s, have known no other life than shooting and being shot at. Flat-earth Muslim clerics are quick to exploit opportunities by inculcating their jihadi creed. Northern Nigeria, where the Sharia law of Islam has been imposed in large swaths of the province, armed Islamist thugs descend on a village with the marabou, a sort of religious enforcer and his noisy tintinnabula. Some of the larger towns have been occupied by jihadi militants who demand more volunteers -- and government authorities kindly oblige by staying out of their way.
That particular phenomenon is called "fear."
There has been sufficient al-Qaida input in the thousands of square miles of unpoliced territory in both West and Equatorial Africa for French and U.S. intelligence to draw the conclusion terrorist networks are alive throughout the region. But there is also ample evidence that little of this is controlled by al-Qaida Central. Osama Bin Laden and his associates haven’t been using satellite and cell phones for the past two years. They know the National Security Agency can intercept mobile phone signals in a nano-second and flash global positioning system information back to Special Forces looking for them in the mountain ranges that straddle Pakistan and Afghanistan. Al-Qaida cells operate autonomously with sleeper agents among Muslim communities in most western, eastern and African countries. Bin Laden’s capture -- dead or alive -- won’t change the correlation of forces between terrorists and counter-terrorists. The growing wretchedness of West Africa’s populations -- over a million a year die of malaria in Nigeria alone -- greatly facilitates the marabou’s mission of recruiting Islamist desperadoes. The toughest among them survive the desert trek to Morocco and Algeria and from there take small craft to Spain. Their bodies wash up on Spanish beaches every day. Those who make it alive into Spain have also made it into the European Union.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:32:37 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Blinded by reporter's greed and politician's pwoerplaying...

Osama Bin Laden and his associates haven't been using satellite and cell phones for the past two years. They know the National Security Agency can intercept mobile phone signals in a nano-second and flash global positioning system information back to Special Forces looking for them in the mountain ranges that straddle Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Anyone want to say thank you to the Boston Globe reporter who printed this in 1999, and shut off our ability to see into AlQ? That asshole reporter (and the Clinton official who leaked it to him) have the blood of 9/11 on their hands, all for the price of a "scoop".

Bastards.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/13/2004 1:43 Comments || Top||

#2  well, will the Imams allow their acolytes to take an AIDS vaccine (when it's ever developed)? If not, this will be a self-fulfilling death cult. 40% of SA's troops are HIV-positive? Jeebus!
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 10:58 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Al-Qaeda escaping back into Pakistan
Despite a crackdown involving tens of thousands of troops and a pledge by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to do all he can in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Afghans say a steady stream of Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives are finding a safe haven on Pakistan’s side of the 3,200-kilometre border.
Oh, I am so surprised.
The Afghan border chief gestures toward a fresh spray of bullet holes across his pickup truck, then points toward the place he says the Taliban attackers came from: Pakistan. "See the trees? They started from that border post," said Palawan, his head shaved. Afterward, "the vehicles came from there, and took the Taliban away."
Pretty brazen, huh?
Sealing the border is vital if a promised spring offensive by American troops is to succeed in its main goal, crushing Taliban resistance and capturing al Qaeda leaders like bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, both believed in hiding somewhere along the porous frontier. But Palawan and other Afghan security officials say they aren’t convinced, insisting Pakistan’s security and intelligence services are rife with Taliban and al Qaeda sympathizers. "They are living there, they are coming to do the terror attacks, and they are going back," Palawan said, gun at his side as he drives along the barren border.

Pakistani officials scoff at the charges and say they are doing everything they can to arrest Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives. "This is nonsense," Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said in Islamabad. "We are fighting against terrorists, not sheltering them."

"Without Pakistan, the Taliban would be finished. Without the Taliban, al Qaeda would be finished," Gen. Khan Mohammed, regional commander of the Afghan militia, said in Kandahar, capital of the southern province that includes Spin Boldak. Some Afghans say Pakistan’s security and intelligence services make a distinction between turning away al Qaeda members -- many of them Arabs foreign to the region -- and turning away their former Taliban allies seeking shelter. "I don’t think there’s been a fundamental shift in the perception of the Taliban in the Pakistan military," said Vikram Parekh, an analyst with the International Crisis Group in Kabul, the Afghan capital. "That’s going to be the big problem," whether Pakistan’s military "draws a line between al Qaeda and the Taliban." Afghan intelligence officials say they have intercepted phone conversations from Taliban commanders in Quetta, the largest Pakistani city near the southern border. The bullet holes in his pickup-truck door come from a Taliban attack 10 days ago, said Palawan, whose nom de guerre means "strongman."
How often does a border chief have a nom de guerre, I ask you?
Later, he showed the graves of what he said were 15 of 45 Taliban killed in an attack in June. Burial flags - green, white or embroidered with flowers - and ceremonially broken dishes marked visits to the alleged Taliban graves by loved ones. Afghan border officials said the June battle began when alleged Taliban ambushed an Afghan official. Palawan said he watched the night of the attack as vehicles came from the Pakistani side of the border to retrieve Taliban survivors. Later, he said Afghans laid out the bodies of the Taliban dead - young- to middle-aged men in bushy beards and turbans, with old weapons - on the border. People from the Pakistan side collected all but the 15, he said.

Pakistan dismisses the Afghan account of the battle, saying there was no cross-border involvement from its side. But immediately after the battle, Pakistan began fortifying 90 miles of border stretching south and north from Spin Boldak. Over eight months, Pakistan border Col. Abdul Basit began installing berms, barbed wire, security lighting, video cameras, and far more guards along the border and checkpoints leading to it. Shoot-to-kill orders went out to Pakistan border guards for anyone seen crossing illicitly. The Spin Boldak crossing, opening to the Pakistan town of Chaman, today stands as a showcase for visiting dignitaries. On Friday, when The Associated Press made a scheduled visit, sentries armed with rifles stood astride the mud berms, staring resolutely into Afghanistan. "If not 100 percent, 99 percent we have been able to seal" Basit said of the border area, though he acknowledged "undesirable elements" have simply shifted to more remote, less policed mountains to the north.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:27:57 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  First they move into Afganistan, then they move into Pakistan, then they move into Afganistan, then they move into Pakistan . . .
Movin', movin', movin', keep those doggies movin', jihide!
Posted by: Spot || 03/13/2004 8:40 Comments || Top||

#2  hee hee Spot. Long as they're gettin 10,000 steps a day all is well. It's a lot easier to make mistakes on the move.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 9:58 Comments || Top||

#3  I get the impression that being "Taliban" in that area is like being "redneck" in West Virginia. It's more a general state of mind than a club with ID cards.
Posted by: John Kairy || 03/13/2004 10:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds almost like the US-Mexico border a hundred years ago...
Posted by: Pappy || 03/13/2004 14:18 Comments || Top||

#5  U didn't git a card JK? Mine is lanimat, lamimat, er covered in plastic.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/13/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, at least we are not playing under chess rules: if the king was forced to move back and forth two or three times (?) the game would be declared a stalemate. I am sure glad that everything is so top secret so nobody on either side knows what is going on.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/13/2004 20:13 Comments || Top||

#7  I think it's time to paint the Afghan/Pak border with a very, VERY persistent, deadly chemical agent, marked by bright orange dumped from the same C-130. Paint the entire border, about half a mile wide. Leave gaps only at recognized border crossing points. Send out a patrol once or twice a month in full hazmat suits to pick up the deaders. Repaint as needed. After a couple of years, open up the empty terrain for settlement by exquimioux or Bantus, or whoever else isn't organically color-blind.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/13/2004 20:24 Comments || Top||


Waziri tribe gives deadline to 6 al-Qaeda harborers
"A deadline a day
Keeps the army away...!"

The Zalikhel tribe in South Waziristan tribal Agency has gave a three-day deadline to the local six suspects allegedly involved in harbouring Al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects, to surrender or face a massive operation. Elders of Sheikh Bazid, Utmankhel and Kakakhel, the three sub-tribes of Zalikhel, during a search operation in Azam Warsak area warned the six locals, wanted by the government for allegedly harbouring foreign militants, to surrender in three days.
"Youse guyz are gonna get it!"
The operation was launched by the Force constituted following the talks held between the elders of Zalikhel tribe and the Political Administration to net all the foreign militants reportedly hiding in the border areas. These wanted persons, who belong to the Zalikhel tribe, including Haji Sharif, Maulvi Naik Mohammad, Maulvi Abbas, Noor Islam, are still at large and believed to have been strong supporters of the former Taliban militia. Rehmat Ullah Wazir, Assistant Political Agent of South Waziristan Agency, confirmed these developments taking place in the area while talking to this scribe by phone. He said that the deadline given to the six persons is final and if the tribe fails to net them, a proper action will be taken accordingly. However, he expressed the hope that the tribe will complete its operation successfully within the time-frame.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:23:42 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  hopefully they'll be handed it but i'm not gonna hold my breath over this, even if they do surrender they need to keep going to get the rest of em
Posted by: Jon Shep U.K || 03/13/2004 7:05 Comments || Top||


Operation Mountain Storm launched in Afghanistan
The US military will launch a spring offensive against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces along the rugged Afghanistan-Pakistan border codenamed "Operation Mountain Storm", US defence officials said on Friday. "Preparations - both intelligence and operational preparations - have begun in earnest," a defence official said. US forces have intensified intelligence gathering in the border area using a variety of surveillance aircraft to prepare for the operation, one official said. US troops have not yet begun deploying into the region in large numbers, but they are expected to ramp up quickly over coming weeks. Military commanders have said they intend to create a "hammer-and-anvil" effect by coordinating with heightened Pakistani operations in tribal areas on the other side of the border.

Pakistan has applied unusual pressure on tribal leaders to give up al-Qaeda operatives, raising US hopes for the capture of bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the United States. The officials would not comment on recent US reports that elite commandos who stalked Iraqi president Saddam Hussein have been shifted to Afghanistan to hunt down bin Laden. The defense officials said the spring offensive has been named "Operation Mountain Storm."

"One could make the argument that once there is a name for an operation, it has started," a second defence official said. But he cautioned that the activity so far has been to plan and prepare for action. US military personnel are in the region to coordinate with Afghan forces and with the Pakistanis, the officials said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 12:11:29 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Posted yesterday also with some additional links in the comments that may be of interest.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, but there's a little bit of new info in this one as to what the second defense official said about the starting of the operation.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/13/2004 0:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks for pointing that out. Maybe they're waiting for the three day deadline to expire
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/13/2004 0:30 Comments || Top||

#4  And maybe they're waiting for Cheney to surface out of his "undisclosed location" after tampering with the Supreme Court to put this administration of liars/cheats on the run--if this were France they'd be manning the barricades to get rid of this illegitimate government
Posted by: NotMike Moore || 03/13/2004 1:43 Comments || Top||

#5  The French aren't that energetic these days, NMM, they're all in the South on vacation :-)

Wonder if Jesse Jackson talks about our "illegitimate" government these days?

Hey NMM, perhaps your namesake will be Kerry's VP choice -- wouldn't that be fun!
Posted by: Steve White || 03/13/2004 1:46 Comments || Top||

#6  (sigh) I sure miss Scoop Jackson.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/13/2004 4:50 Comments || Top||

#7  If this were France we would have thrown our arms up in surrender on 9/12.
Which is what the donk's seem to want for some reason.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 03/13/2004 7:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Welcome back, NotMike. Isn't Rantburg the best?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/13/2004 8:11 Comments || Top||

#9  Not Mike Moore: muck4doo with better spelling

that's not a compliment
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 8:53 Comments || Top||

#10  So NMM paid attention in Language Art classes, big deal. He obviously didn't pay attention to Kerry's voting record on National Defense.
Posted by: Charles || 03/13/2004 9:16 Comments || Top||

#11  Hi! NMM! You spell real good. How's the Tarheels doing? Looks like they lost last nite. NC State doing okay tho, but Wake slipped a tad. March Madness make me long for my bong. My freind mr. muck knows where chainney is hiding.

Posted by: HalfEmpty || 03/13/2004 10:02 Comments || Top||


Jihad not determined by poverty
EFL
The popular perception that only unemployed youth, poor men or school dropouts are attracted by the jihadi outfits proved wrong last week when a section of country’s elite responded overwhelmingly to the jihad-call of country’s top militant donating their real estate property, cash, and sons. Hafiz Mohammad Said, the firebrand chief of the defunct Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT] addressed a select gathering in Islamabad at Ahle-Hadis mosque in the I-8 sector-the secluded enclave of country’s top civil bureaucracy, last Sunday. "General Musharraf is the lackey of George Bush-just like Tony Blair. The rulers have abandoned jihad. They have sold out the blood of mujahideen to their American masters," thundered Said before a large gathering. "Since the establishment has taken a U-turn on jihad and is toeing Washington’s line, therefore, it becomes your religious duty to dedicate your life and property to keep the jihad alive," appealed Said quoting a numerous verses from Holy Koran.
The government has no say in whether jihad is declared or not. Welcome to anarchy.
To motivate the audience, Said repeatedly quoted the largess of the First Muslim Caliph Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddique. "Do you know why Siddique was the Prophet’s most favorite companion? When he [the Prophet] gave the jihad call and appealed for funds, other companions donated half of their assets for jihad. Siddique retained nothing and donated everything for jihad. That’s why he was so dear and close to the prophet!" preached Said. "Siddique should be our model and hero. Would you follow Siddique?" Said posed a question spurring the audience’s zeal.
Of course they would. The question is whether they'd follow Hafiz Saeed. Anser: Of course they would. I guess you could say they're easily led.
The audience was charged emotionally. "I donate my two young sons for jihad in Kashmir and 500,000 cash [US $8621]," announced one among the audience. The "donor" was a merchant. A woman who was not among the audience but listening to Said’s sermon [that was made audible to miles through powerful loudspeakers] sent her jewelry worth 300,000 [US $5172] through her son for the mujahideen’s widows. The woman, Dr Rookaya Khan, was a physician. Three brothers- Asghar, Anwar and Akbar, 19, 22, and 24 respectively- enrolled themselves for jihad training. Asghar had done his A-level from Beaconhouse [probably the most expensive chain of school.] Anwar was an intern with a five-star hotel. Akbar was marketing executive with a multinational. "We have been attending Hafiz Said’s sermons and listening to his CDs. We are convinced that this world is temporary and bound to end. The eternal life is heaven. That should be our target and it could be achieved through jihad. When we will embrace martyrdom, we will be authorized to recommend our parents to heaven and Allah accepts martyrs’ recommendations," said Akbar justifying joining the jihadis.

A woman entered the assembly and gave her 2-year baby boy to Hafiz Said. "I am donating him for jihad!" publicized the woman. "We appreciate your donation. But he is too young. Keep him with you as our trust. When he would be a grown up boy, we will train him for jihad and he will earn a good name for you," responded Said. The woman was a landlord. "I am the mother of four sons. What happens if I donate one son for jihad, he embraces martyrdom and earns heaven for all of us!" said she rationalizing her decision.

Collecting money in the name of jihad had been banned by the Musharraf regime in March 2001. Making provocative and anti-state speeches is a crime under laws more than one. Use of loudspeakers is prohibited except for prayer call. But Said blatantly challenges the government’s writ flouting strict laws against disruption of public order and jihadi activities. Commenting on Said’s fundraising campaign, a peace activist maintained that rising fervor for jihad cannot be suppressed through legislation. "It is nothing radical or new. It is not the matter of class-rich or poor; educated or illiterate. People donate for jihad cause to attain immortality. They do it as part of their religious duty. It has been happening for the last 1,200 years. If you want to stop jihad, then you will have to snatch Koran from every Muslim’s hand. Jihad is important component of Islam. One could debate and argue about its form. Unfortunately, its spirit and philosophy is badly misinterpreted."

The interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said that Hafiz Said was soliciting donations for the social welfare cause under the banner of Jamat-ud-Dawa [the new name of Lashkar-e-Taiba]. "Since Jamat-ud-Dawa is not an outlawed outfit and undertakes humanitarian work, therefore, the government cannot proceed against it."

"Faisal is beating around the bush. He is evading the question. In fact, Said is establishment’s blue-eyed boy. He is making speeches depicting that government has abandoned the jihadis to convey the world that the government of Pakistan has really dumped the holy warriors. He is making the people fool in the name of Islam and jihad. He needs money to sustain his jihadi fiefdom. He is doing it perfectly- while furthering the government’s as well as his own agenda," remarked a government official whose identity cannot be disclosed.
Hafiz Saeed is the Pak canary. Regardless of what Perv says or does, keep an eye on Hafiz. If he gets thumped, Perv is serious. If he doesn't, Perv's either blowing smoke or retaining an arrow in the quiver of jihad.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 03/13/2004 12:02:29 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Such charming people.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/13/2004 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Charming in a way rabid dogs are maybe, Jihad is inspired by stupidity, hatred and fanatisism.
Remarkably similar to Nazi's.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 03/13/2004 7:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Bin Beavis: We are convinced that this world is temporary and bound to end.

Bin Butthead: The eternal life is heaven. That should be our target and it could be achieved through jihad.

Bin Beavis: When we will embrace martyrdom, we will be authorized to recommend our parents to heaven.

Bin Butthead: Allah accepts martyrs’ recommendations.

Bin Beavis: 72 virgins .... cool!!

Bin Butthead: Yea, 72 virgins ... cool!!
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/13/2004 8:21 Comments || Top||

#4  I notice they keep donating their sons, but not themselves.
Posted by: Spot || 03/13/2004 8:45 Comments || Top||

#5  On the Spot! Think Hafiz Mohammad Said's thinking of joining the frontlines? Of course not - he's too holy important
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2004 8:57 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2004-03-13
  Syrian security forces kill 30 people during clashes
Fri 2004-03-12
  Conflicting clues on Madrid booms
Thu 2004-03-11
  Over 170 dead in Madrid booms
Wed 2004-03-10
  Maskhadov may surrender soon - Kadyrov
Tue 2004-03-09
  Rigor mortis for Abu Abbas
Mon 2004-03-08
  Iraqi Council Signs Interim Constitution
Sun 2004-03-07
  Ayman's kid sings!
Sat 2004-03-06
  Hamas, Jihad botch attack on Erez Junction
Fri 2004-03-05
  Yemen extradites founder of Egyptian Islamic Jihad to Egypt; Mubarak invited to Crawford
Thu 2004-03-04
  2 Plead Guilty in Terror Arms Sale Plot
Wed 2004-03-03
  3 Hamas helizapped
Tue 2004-03-02
  200+ dead in attacks on Shiites
Mon 2004-03-01
  Spain seizes ETA boom truck
Sun 2004-02-29
  Jean-Bertrand hangs it up
Sat 2004-02-28
  Binny rumored captured

Better than the average link...



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