The Ministry of Interior would not confirm a report published on the Elaph website Wednesday night that Saudi security forces arrested two wanted terror suspects in Onaiza, Qasim. âWe cannot deny the report... nor can we confirm it,â a source at the Ministry of the Interior told Arab News yesterday. But the source did confirm that an officer belonging to the Al-Mujahedeen branch of the security forces has been killed and another injured. The Elaph website published a report late Wednesday that said security forces managed to catch two of the terror suspects involved in Tuesdayâs deadly shootout that left a captain and three other soldiers dead. The report added security forces were building up their presence in the Qasim region and in surrounding provinces in an attempt to flush out the terrorist cell.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 16:55 ||
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The United States yesterday ordered the evacuation of most U.S. diplomats and all U.S. family dependents from Saudi Arabia, and "strongly urged" all American citizens to leave because of "credible and specific" intelligence about terrorist attacks planned against U.S. and other Western targets, the State Department announced. The intelligence included the discovery of truck and pipe bombs and the apprehension of at least two suspects in recent days, U.S. officials said late yesterday. The warning noted that Saudi security forces and heavily armed extremists recently engaged in serious clashes. Some of the intelligence emerged during Saudi interrogations of the suspects. Saudi security forces are in hot pursuit of other suspected terrorists thought to be involved in the new terrorist plots, the U.S. officials added.
Soddy security forces don't really inspire much confidence in me...
The Bush administration offered few specifics. "The threat level has gone up," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told reporters when he made the surprise announcement after meeting with former Costa Rican president Miguel Angel Rodriguez. At least 200 Americans are expected to be evacuated immediately. The State Department refused to release specific numbers for security reasons. Only the ambassador and an emergency staff will be left at the Riyadh embassy and at two consulates, in Dhahran and Jeddah, a State Department official said.
Isn't it SOP to empty the embassy and consulates prior to commencing military operations? Just asking.
The new warning also recommended that all U.S. citizens contemplating travel to the kingdom defer their plans. Anyone who stays should register with the embassy, it added.
Leave a DNA sample and list of your next of kin.
Embassy services may be affected or become unavailable because of personnel shortages or security limitations, it said. Besides diplomatic posts, the housing compounds for foreigners are particularly vulnerable, the warning noted. "American citizens in Saudi Arabia should remain vigilant, particularly in public places associated with the Western community. Terrorists attacked residential housing compounds in the Riyadh area in 2003. Credible information indicates that terrorists continue to target residential compounds in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the Riyadh area, but also compounds throughout the country," the State Department said in a statement.
Despite the drastic action, the Bush administration said Saudi Arabia is gaining ground on the extremist factions responsible for three suicide attacks last May on U.S. residential compounds in Riyadh and for a November attack on another foreign compound, housing mainly Muslims. Saudi intelligence averted a "catastrophic" suicide attack on Nov. 25 when it discovered an explosives-laden truck intended for a residential compound in Riyadh, said Lou Fintor, a State Department spokesman. "We remain fully confident that Saudi authorities are doing all they can to protect their citizens and others in the kingdom against terrorist attacks. There is also a solid level of cooperation between our two governments in combating terrorism in Saudi Arabia and around the world," Fintor said.
"And they're really gung-ho on taking out the alk runners."
Another senior State Department official praised Saudi authorities for being aggressive and for having taken important steps since the Riyadh bombings. But he acknowledged that the latest threat indicates that the oil-rich Persian Gulf state "remains a battleground" for terrorism. "As the Saudis act and move to dismantle these networks, the extremists are seeking to reassert themselves," he said. "In a sense, it's a sign that the Saudis are having an impact. But the networks are not wrapped up, and there continue to be active elements that are a threat. We want to offer them as small a target as possible," the senior official added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:40:55 AM ||
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#1
Until jihadi mullas are toasted this stuff will be non stop. kill the jihadi imans, everyone, then retake command.
#4
SUNG TO THE TUNE âCAMELOTâ By Lerner & Loewe
A law was made Lawrence came and fought here:
July and August must be scorching hot.
And there's never will be any kind of freedom here
In Saudi-Land.
The martyrs train to blow themselves to pieces here
And pick desired explosives on the spot.
By order, hands are lopped for petty theft here
In Saudi-Land.
Saudi-Land! Saudi-Land!
I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
But in Saudi-Land, Saudi-Land
That's how conditions are.
Bin Laden as you know was conceived here .
And women are slaves under long black tents.
In short, there's simply not
A more violent spot
Waiting for our jihad assignments
Here in Saudi-Land.
Suspected Al Qaeda terrorists have waged a violent campaign in Saudi Arabia since last May's car bombings of a housing compound in the capital. Despite a stiff crackdown against them by authorities, the group continues to gather new recruits and enjoy logistical support from sympathizers, analysts say. Just this week, six security officers and several suspected terrorists were killed in a series of shootouts in and around Riyadh, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. Militants fought with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, and security forces dismantled several truck bombs ready to be used for attacks in Riyadh, the agency said. Because of security concerns, the State Department is expected to order all nonessential US diplomats and their families to leave the country, according to the Reuters news service. The US Embassy in Riyadh warned US residents of threats to diplomatic facilities and residential compounds. "These events make it clear that [Al Qaeda is] still capable of getting new recruits, of convincing a certain segment of society of their point of view, and of getting logistical support from sympathizers," says Abdullah Bjad al-Otaibi, a writer and expert on extremists.
Despite some government moves toward a freer and more open society - municipal elections are slated for October, for example - many young Saudis are disillusioned with the current regime and its close association with the US. As well, since the US campaign in Afghanistan, many Saudis have returned from the terrorist training camps there, bringing with them new tactical methods. "These terrorists seem to be sophisticated and well-trained. I'm not surprised given the tens of thousands of Saudis who went and fought in Afghanistan [during the Russian occupation]," says Khaled al-Dukhayel, professor of political science at King Saud University in Riyadh.
Since last May the government has instituted tougher measures to crack down on extremism. Policemen sit behind machine guns mounted on jeeps and tanks at checkpoints in major thoroughfares, opening car trunks and checking identification papers in the capital and the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah. Cinderblocks have been placed on service roads leading to American hotel chains, compounds housing foreigners, American schools, and the US Embassy. The tightened security measures have uncovered huge weapons caches and rounded up hundreds of suspects. The Interior Ministry has handed out thousands of booklets with photos of 26 men wanted in connection with the November Muhaya housing compound bombing. The booklets promise up to 7 million Saudi riyals, nearly $2 million, for help in finding and foiling terrorist plots. Twenty-two of those men remain at large.
22 of 26 still remain at large. That's not a very good success rate...
"Despite the large security presence and substantial reward money offered by the government, suspects still enjoy cover within Saudi society and continue to hide and remain in and around the capital," says Mansour al-Nogaidan, a columnist for the newspaper Al Riyadh. Many of the terrorism suspects killed in police shootouts are not on the list of wanted men issued by authorities, indicating that new faces are joining the group. "The picture the authorities had of Al Qaeda's strength in Saudi Arabia was not accurate. They have more sympathizers and fighters than they thought, and their language of violence continues to find takers here and support among a segment of Saudi society that shares the common religious ideology of Wahhabism," says Adel al-Toraifi, a columnist at the newspaper Al Watan.
Some experts say that the government is not doing enough to fix the causes of the violence. "The problem is that we're not dealing with the extremist thought that makes these men fertile ground for the call to violence; we're only dealing with the violence," says Mr. Toraifi. The absence in Saudi Arabia of means for clear and peaceful freedom of thought and expression, coupled with the violence against Arabs and Muslims in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq, makes it easier for Al Qaeda to gain recruits, says Mr. Otaibi. "With the daily television images of soldiers killing Arab women and children in cold blood in Palestine and Iraq, there is growing anti-American feelings among the man in the street, and these guys paint the Saudi government as allies of the United States," says Otaibi. "We must raise the roof on freedom of thought and expression so that these tensions and emotions are dealt with in a peaceful manner." And the situation will not improve unless reforms are implemented in Saudi Arabia, a solution is found in Palestine, and stability comes to Iraq, says Mr. Nogaidan. "We need to implement reforms. Poverty is increasing, corruption continues, there are widespread feelings of anxiety and depression compounded by the events in Palestine and Iraq. I think the situation will continue this way for a while," he says.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:22:29 AM ||
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EFL - from Washington Post
In their sharpest shift to the political left in four decades, South Korean voters on Thursday appeared to hand an overwhelming victory in legislative elections to the Uri Party, whose leadership advocates rapprochement with North Korea and greater independence from Seoulâs traditional ally, the United States.... Todayâs elections were largely seen as a referendum on the surprise impeachment of Roh last month -- an act applauded by South Koreans who still harbor memories of the Korean War, but seen by younger voters, who make up almost half the electorate... [Iâve read that these people have been spoon fed anti American propaganda in their high school and college text books]
as a political coup against Rohâs more liberal approach on North Korea, the U.S.- South Korean alliance and economic policy.
[perhaps approving a dictator while he starves and tortures millions of people qualifies a person as a liberal these days]
Posted by: mhw ||
04/16/2004 9:38:46 AM ||
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#1
Well, what they are saying is that they are all growed up now.
They don't need Uncle Sam to look after them anymore, and they are prepared to up their defence budget, by increasing their taxation by 2% of their GDP, to make up for the difference, when Uncle Sam pulls out.
Do they know this yet?
The answer is no.
But there is nothing like letting teenagers grow up and learn the reality of the real world.
#2
US out of South Korea now! Bring our troops home! My brother (USAF) was stationed there for a year about a year ago. He says it's a great place to get illegal knock-offs of merchandise, but other than that it's a smelly shit-hole.
#5
Yup....It's time to let the South Koreans stand on their own two feet. Bring our troops home and station them along our borders with mexicanistan and canadianistan, with orders to shoot to kill any wetback mexican or coward canuck caught entering the U.S.
Posted by: Halfass Pete ||
04/16/2004 11:03 Comments ||
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#6
im starting think halfass pete one of boris buddys.
#11
Now, back on subject, I can only hope that we continue withdrawing from South Korea as fast as we possibly can without unduly damaging our force profile in the area. As for Old Europe, I'd like to see us out of there yesterday.
#12
Dave D.: Let's get 'em out of Europe, too. We need them elsewhere.
Our boys can deploy a lot faster from Europe than they can from here. Our security problems aren't in the Western hemisphere - they're from places like the Middle East and East Asia. Even Europe is a lot closer to East Asia than the US is - note that Germany is only 7 time zones away from the Far East, whereas the US is 12 time zones away. There's no good alternative to having troops in Europe, where at least the locals have some values in common with us. With East Asia, it's really hard to tell how much of their cooperation is based on common values and how much is purely fear of their neighbors.
#13
I say, leave the SKORS to their just rewards! It won't be long and they will be eating tree bark and grass clippings just like their NORK cousins.
And when they whine to us, we can say tough tittie! The world needs a serious object lesson, and I can't think of a better one than SKOR.
JMNSHO!
-AR
Posted by: Analog Roam ||
04/16/2004 11:38 Comments ||
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#14
I agree about being close to the hot spots, Zhang Fei. That's why I specified "Old" Europe. Eastern European bases would aruably be even closer than Germany, and after the UN fiasco in the runup to the war I have to question how many common values remain.
#15
I agree that redepolying our troops in Korea would be a good thing. However, what are our obligations to Korea with respect to any treaties with SKor? There are actions and consequences, naturally, but we just do not move 37,000 troops around every time we get a wild hair up our ass. Other nations may do this, but we need to think this through carefully, then act.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/16/2004 11:53 Comments ||
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#16
I studied Korean culture, was stationed in Korea 88-89, and you read way too much into this âLiberalâ label. Liberal in SK doesnât equate to liberal here in the U.S. They are not for drawing down the Army or pounding their swords into plowshares. They (the Liberal party) know that the Korean War was started by NK and resulted in the almost total destruction of SK. They are also not about to âredistributeâ the wealth, giving handouts to the able bodied, or going environmental wacko on the conglomerates. FYI: The industrialists are far more powerful in SK than they are in the U.S. I venture to say that it would be a cold day in hell before you see the CEO of Daiwoo or Samsung do a perp walk. They might want to deal more with NK on a one-to-one basis but they donât trust them anymore than the Conservative party. The young in SK arenât as disillusioned as most American youths and all of them have served in the military so they have a ?dose? of patriotism âspoon fedâ into them. They also teach them how it was the U.S. (mostly) that saved their country when the north invaded (yes it is still in their text books).
#17
Docob, problem with East Europe is that it's tougher for us to get our people to for subsequent redeployment. Bases in Romania, Bulgaria and Poland are inconvenient. Whatever our feelings about Germany, the bases there are superb and the access from the U.S. is quick. I don't see us abandoning them completely, they're just too good.
AP makes a good point: we talk alot about "get our boys out of Korea" but we do have obligations there, and we don't want to send the wrong signal to Kimmie. That, after all, was how the Korean War started (we inadvertently signaled the Russians that Korea was outside our "sphere of influence"). I think the redeployment outside the DMZ area is good, and I keep thinking that bringing the infantry levels down to a brigade or so, with some AF units to help with air support, etc., is the way to go.
Half-ass Pete: knock it off, it's embarrassing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/16/2004 12:04 Comments ||
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#18
Thanks Cyber Sarge. I did not realize that SKOR 'liberals' are not the same as the USA 'liberals'. This just shows how much the american 'liberals' have changed (for the worse). And they do have mandatory military service in that country. I stand corrected :^).
#19
When saying we should withdraw from SK "as quickly as possible" I guess I should have specified "without breaking any treaties in the process" but I figured that was a given.
As to the superior accessibilty of the German bases, might that not change as the economic situation of Eastern Europe improves? An improvement that may be hastened by our moving bases there ...
#20
The Marmot's Hole http://marmot.blogs.com/korea/ has a good discussion of the Korean election results. Gist is that election turned on local issues and that feelings about US were only one of many issues. Money quote: Everything isn't always about America. The SKors are no worse than our democrats.
#21
#17 steve white, fuck you. Embarassing to whom? You? So what?
Posted by: Halfass Pete ||
04/16/2004 13:11 Comments ||
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#22
cyber sarge - thanks for your comments
I'm wondering whether things have changed since the late 80s. I've seen images of demostrations in SK recently. In some large ones there are signs in English with ANSWER, DemoUnderground, AlJaz type slogans. It could be that these people simply chose socialist insanity but it could also be that the textbooks, etc. changed since 89.
#23
mhw, no doubt SK has their LLL just like we do but they are minute to the whole populations. There was a big push by the youth (College Students/Learned Elite) ?five? years ago to unite peacefully with the North. They even had a âpeaceâ march to the truce village where they met with NK youths for a conference. The SK youths came away from that conference knowing that the LAST thing they wanted was to be reunited with NK under âDear Leader.â Kind of like all those union lefties that moved to Russia in the 1940s and 1950s to help build a âWorkers Paradise.â After a couple years in the Bread/Coffee/Shoe/Flour lines the USA was looking mighty good. Yes the text books can change but you canât change the reality of that is NK.
#26
Yes #24, I mean coward canucks fleeing to canadianistan also.
Posted by: Halfass Pete ||
04/16/2004 17:21 Comments ||
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#27
I spent a lot of time in South Korea a little over a year ago. I will agree with much of what Cyber Sarge says. Liberals in South Korea are totally different than those here. HOWEVER, most people under 30 (i.e. before they get into the military) are pretty clueless about what goes on and usually go for these âunite with the Northâ slogans. Sadly, they have become more arrogant and influential too. That is how Roh came into power.
Cyber Sarge: Not sure when you were in Korea last, but the last couple of years, the country has shifted starkly to the left and become a LOT more anti-American. And yes, while many people there do have their heads on screwed right, the younger generation does not and they are the ones who are starting to call the shots now. But thankfully, they are all subject to the Korean military to straighten them out and send them back to reality.
The US Vice-President said today that he was afraid that North Korea could supply nuclear weapons technology to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups. Dick Cheney said that Washington was confident that Pyongyang had a nuclear weapons programme and that al-Qaeda and other groups had sought to acquire the technology. He said: "We worry that... North Korea could well, for example, provide this kind of technology to someone else or possibly, say, a terrorist organisation. We know that there are terrorist organisations out there like al-Qaeda that have sought to acquire these kinds of weapons in the past." He described North Korea as "one of the most serious problems in the region today" and said that the removal of all its nuclear capabilities was essential to the peace and stability of East Asia and the world.
North Korea denies this but US reports this week quoted Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, as telling his Pakistani Government interrogators that he was shown three nuclear devices at a secret underground plant when he visited North Korea five years ago. The danger of North Korea exporting is nuclear technology added to the urgency of diplomatic efforts to stop its programme, Mr Cheney said. He expressed US gratitude for Beijingâs leading role in organising recent six-nation talks on the issue. In Beijing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that Chinese leaders appealed to Mr Cheney to be "flexible and practical" in discussions on setting up the next round of talks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:33:34 AM ||
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Australian police are investigating whether a student accused of training with terrorists was part of a Sydney-based cell being set up by French terror suspect Willie Brigitte, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Friday. Pakistani-born Izhar ul-Haque, a 21-year-old medical student, was charged on Thursday with training at camps run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Downer said Australian federal police were looking at how deep Izhar ul-Haqueâs connections were with Lashkar and Brigitte. âHe probably has some linkages I would imagine, that is for sure,â Downer told ABC Radio. âBut whether those are within Australia thatâll be something obviously the Federal Police will be investigating.â Reports said the student was a known associate of a man known by the alias Abu Hamza, who is believed to have been Brigitteâs main contact in Sydney.
Seems to me there are entirely too many Abu Hamzas in this world...
The Australian newspaper reported that three other men linked to the Brigitte investigation remained at large in Australia. It said the countryâs most secure jail the âSupermaxâ in New South Wales state, which houses some of Australiaâs most notorious serial killers and criminals had been told to prepare to receive at least two terrorists. Haque is the first person charged under tightened terrorist laws introduced after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. He faces up to 25 years jail if found guilty. Prosecutors allege he trained with the Lashkar for three weeks in January last year, where he learned to fight and use weapons. They said the Lashkar advised him he could do more for his cause by being a doctor, rather than a martyr, and he decided against offering his life to jihad. Haqueâs friends expressed surprise at the medical studentâs alleged link to terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 20:05 ||
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#1
"He was such a nice, soft spoken, kinf young man" said his neighbours and mosque friends
Portugal may withdraw its national guard contingent from Iraq if the security situation in the country continues to deteriorate, Interior Minister Antonio Figueiredo Lopes said on Friday. âIf the conflict were to deteriorate and the GNR (national guard) did not have what it required to carry out its mission, the only solution would be to withdraw,â he told Antena 1 public radio. Portugal in November dispatched 128 national guards to southern Iraq to back the US-led coalition in the war-torn country, where they operate under British command.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 20:04 ||
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#1
If the security situation in the country continues to deteriorate, you should
A. remove security forces
B. remove those who are the security problem
c. equivocate
d. call for UN leadership
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/16/2004 22:38 Comments ||
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#2
Wrong-wrong-wrong
The Portugese government just found out that Theresa Heinz Kerry was born a Portugese citizen.
Police in Germany checked the identification papers of hundreds of Muslims in the western German city of Bochum on Friday, the cityâs police chief said. Thomas Wenner said that there were no concrete suspicions against any of the 460 people stopped and questioned by the authorities after Friday prayers at two mosques in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 20:03 ||
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#1
An excellent response to Mr. Bin Laden's truce proposal.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/16/2004 23:06 Comments ||
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#2
The backlash is beginning and it's only going to get worse, and worse and worse. The good Muslims don't seem to grasp that as they sit quietly through every suicide bombing, hostage taking and every other act of barbarity, that Westerners are daily losing their patience.
We haven't even begun to fight yet. Not really. What we are capable of and what we have yet unleashed are nowhere close to being met yet. Our Iraqi brothers and sisters are going to find the welcome mat for the freedom and tolerance we provide them quickly disappearing from our doorways if they can't find their voice to support civilization, rather than barbarity.
Spanish police arrested a Saudi citizen, an Egyptian and a Moroccan over possible links to suspects in the March 11 rail bombings, the country's interior minister said Friday. The three were arrested in Madrid on Thursday and Friday. They were being held in solitary confinement on the capital's outskirts and will probably be brought to court in the next few days, a National Court official said. "The Moroccan was arrested because he had disappeared since March 11, the day of the attacks," Interior Minister Angel Acebes told a news conference. "He was known to have ties with one of those arrested for carrying out the bombings. "We'll see to what degree he knew the detained and what his possible role," the minister added.
Acebes said the Saudi and Egyptian were arrested for similar reasons. "Police knew they had links with some of those believed responsible for the attacks," he said. "The arrests were made precisely to investigate what type of relation and what hypothetical role they had, or in what way they collaborated." Their names were not immediately available. Acebes said he expected more arrests of people who may have had a role in the attacks, links with those responsible or ties with radical Islam. Earlier, the investigative magistrate handling the case, Judge Juan del Olmo, freed six suspects arrested over the past week. The judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to link them to the attacks, which killed 191 people and injured 1,800 others.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 16:43 ||
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I know, unwieldy headline. Itâs Expaticaâs, not mine.
China on Friday warned Germany about a conference of East Turkestan groups this weekend in the southern German city of Munich which Beijing described as "terrorist activities". A spokesman for the ministry of public security told the official Xinhua news agency that some "Eastern Turkestan terrorist groups" will reportedly be meeting in Munich 16 to 18 April, including two terrorist organizations that have been banned in China. East Turkestan is the name still given to the central Asian region of Xinjiang, a traditionally Moslem region bordering Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Surprise meter jumped a bit. Here is PRC Red Commie China participating in the WoT! Keeping their ears to the ground and sharing some intel with Western agencies!
Several unnamed, but we can guess organizations in Germany have been advocates for people living in Xinjiang. Last month, a spokesman for (still) unnamed German-based groups advocating independence for Xinjiangâs Uighur minority said abuses of rights were continuing in Xinjiang. Whatever. PRC abuses all itsâ citizens rights. But China is reaching out to the West and telling them of a meeting of T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-T-S.
"The Chinese ministry of public security calls on its counterparts in Germany and the state of Bavaria to be on high alert against the âEast Turkistanâ terrorist groups and terrorists in Munich, Germany," Xinhua quoted the spokesman as saying. "It would be very dangerous if âEastern Turkistanâ terrorists were allowed to operate in Germany and their activities were not stopped," it added. The spokesman called for cooperation between the Chinese and German governments and people to fight the "terrorist and separatist forces" and safeguard their "national and public interests." Presidential Daily Briefing for Gerhard Schroeder...
#2
I agree that China is worthy of skepticism, however in this case I think they have a point and some credibility. The Rantburg search for Uighur shows that at least a dozen Uighurs are being detained in GTMO and they participated heavily in the recent Waziristan festivities. I think you could make a good case that their province geopolitically is more Caucasus than China, but I don't think that we are wrong in keeping a close eye on them for links/sympathies/direct involvement in al-Queda. They are worthy of monitoring for terror activities, and good on China for pointing this meeting out.
#4
Aris, they also have splodydopes on buses coming via Pakistan or they're Pakistani. Pakistan's been warned w/in the last 18 months, IIRC. These barbarians are muslim. And they're going against the godless $)%*$()%*( commies.
We just don't hear about it too often, but it's been mentioned here occasionally.
------
Only if the Tibetians start booming.....
China's been trying to deal w/them, but seems they want to start turning up the heat.
#5
These Uighurs (pronounced like Wiggers as in whites trying to be like blacks in America) are a new cause celeb for the elite European leftists. I heard some boo-hoos recently about the Uighurs on BBC radio. They are Islamic Terrorists. But I'm sure they have legitimate complaints against the Chinese. I'm not really sure that we have time to take up another cause...We'll just concern ourselves for now with those of the Uighurs that go out of "Uighurstan" for jihadi activity against the West. We'll entertain their concerns later on when we deal with Red China (And we will deal with them eventually if they don't collapse from within before then, but we're busy with these Islamic jihadis right now.
#6
China's credibility in this is zilch. While the Uighurs are Moslem, labeling them terrorists could just as easily be a typical smokescreen for repression.
About 50 large ore deposits are to be located in the areas over the next 15 years. The region has 68 kinds of mineral resources. The probable reserves of copper and sylvine are 5 million tons and 350 million tons respectively.
Xinjiang is a resource intensive region. Displacement of indiginous tribes under the auspices of fighting "terror" is a perfect way of ramrodding through Chinese appropriation of any business interests in the area. There a consistent pattern of such misconduct by the Sino-Military-Industrial complex.
#7
So who is sponsering the Wiggers? Good money is on the Saudis, I would wager. I say we help the Chicoms when they help us, and not before. They helped Sammy and Afghanistan with phones and fiber optic lines pre invasion. If they want to cause mischief with us, don't expect any help.
BTW 5 million tons of copper is not much if it is measured in ore. Typical numbers without any units. Equivalent pure copper, equivalent 5.5% copper? I worked on the development of an orebody with the calculated reserves of 46 million tons of equivalent 5.5% copper, which is equivalent to 2.5 million tons of refined copper. Just more lazy and sloppy press reporting.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/16/2004 23:35 Comments ||
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A booby-trapped vehicle was found Friday parked close to the main Brussels-Midi railway station in the heart of the Belgian capital. Police evacuated the area around the station after the vehicle was found parked with two explosive grenades connected to its petrol tank on the rue de Merode at midday. The vehicle was safely removed after a two-hour intervention by army bomb disposal experts, the Belgian agency said. Brussels-Midi is one of the capitalâs busiest stations and houses the terminal for Eurostar trains between Belgium and Britain. There was no immediate official comment as to a possible terrorist link with the booby-trapped vehicle. Thatâs actually an improvement. Usually "the authorities" will automatically deny a terror link, then *mumble* and *evade* when one is found. âCourse, itâs kinda hard to explain away two grenades wired to a gas tank!
#4
so much for the train of thought "if you distance yourself from the United States and the WOT you will not be target".
guess belgiums criminal charges agaisnt Rumesfield did not get much support from the jihadis!
should tell europe , even more than madrid, that the jihadis fight is agaisnt the infidels regardless of politics! the whole western civilization is at stake.
Posted by: Dan ||
04/16/2004 15:13 Comments ||
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#5
hey, don't think one moment that we Belgians believe we will not be a target.. There's a very strong opinion in this country that we will be targeted one day, and that message is being spoken out by several high ranking politicians on a very regular basis.. This country isn't that naive..
#6
I guess opposing the war really helped. Now you got Binny's offer. Consider it carefully and be sure to get fitted properly for that new burka!
And you thought Bush and Rumsfeld were war criminals? Be careful of those cars with a ticking noise. It might not be engine ping.
For those Italians who were weak kneed after the butchering of their hostage. This should be instructive.
#7
In fact, the police claim it was probably a settling of scores between criminals. No terrorism here, move along...
Also, by coincidence, there is very little information about this in the Belgian state media. Check my blog for details.
#8
bourka good for the environmen in that it can also be used as camping equip not all bad also can easy conceal a bong under ifin you had one which i no longer
European leaders have rejected the apparent offer of a truce with al-Qaida in return for withdrawing their troops from Muslim countries. Speaking to reporters in Shanghai on Thursday, European Commission President Romano Prodi asked: "How could you possibly react to this statement? There is no possibility for a deal under a terrorist threat. It is completely impossible."
Even Prodi gets it. Amazing...
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dismissed the offer to European nations out of hand. "One has to treat such claims, [such] proposals by al-Qaida, with the contempt which they deserve," Straw said in London alongside visiting Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz. Cimoszewicz dismissed the offer on the tape as a "trick". Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters in Rome that discussing a peace deal with bin Ladin would be "unthinkable".
The offer of peace, if European countries withdrew troops from Muslim nations, was made on an audio tape broadcast by Aljazeera. US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday hailed Europe's quick and summary rejection of the truce offer, calling it a clear statement that "we will not be terrorised by this terrorist". Europe's rapid rejection "was a very direct and clear reaction," said Powell.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also rejected bin Laden's offer to European nations and said any attempt to divide Europe would fail. "Each attempt to divide Europe, from wherever it comes, will founder against the unity of Europe," said Schroeder in a brief interview on German television. The Madrid attacks have shown that - independently of our positions on the war in Iraq ⊠Europe as a whole is threatened and must respond with one voice to the threat," he told ZDF television during a visit to the Dutch city of Rotterdam. But Germany, a fierce opponent of the US-led war in Iraq, has repeatedly ruled out sending troops to the war-ravaged country.
Speaking from the Algerian capital on Thursday, French President Jacques Chirac made no comment on the al-Qaida offer. But he confirmed that Paris was not considering sending troops to Iraq under some sort of United Nations mandate. "France believes a conference bringing together all elements of Iraqi society will, perhaps, give the political transition the legitimacy it needs until such time as elections are held," Chirac told a news conference after meeting President Abd al-Aziz Butaflika. "The only possible solution is a political one," he said. "This means a swift, complete and visible transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis themselves and the creation of Iraqi institutions that are genuinely representative, legitimate and fully responsible."
That has nothing to do with the question, though, Jacques.
Posted by: Long Hair Republican ||
04/16/2004 00:29 ||
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The only possible solution is a political one," he said.
"This means a swift, complete and visible transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis themselves and the creation of Iraqi institutions that are genuinely representative, legitimate and fully responsible."
In other words, Iraqi "institutions" that pay kickbacks to the French.
Wotta maroon.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/16/2004 11:53 Comments ||
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How many Republics have the French gone through?
#4
Speaking from the Algerian capital on Thursday, French President Jacques Chirac made no comment on the al-Qaida offer.
Frogistani President Jacques Al-Chiraq made a tacit truce yesterday with Osama Bin Laden by not commenting on the offer made by OBL. However, the scarf issue is still at an impasses with Muslim clerics, so planing for explosions in Frogistan are assumed to be still in the active stage. More on the 11PM news. Stay tuned.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/16/2004 23:24 Comments ||
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French authorities deported an Algerian-born imam accused of preaching radical Islam after an administrative court in western France ruled he had violated the terms of his stay. Abdelkader Yahia Cherif, 34, was expelled by boat on Thursday after the court in the western city of Rennes rejected his plea that he would face danger at home, officials in the Brittany region said.
"It's the opinion of this learned court that it's better for you to face danger at home than for us, meaning all of La Belle France, to face danger with your fat ass here. Next case!"
The Interior Ministry said the imam gave a speech last month that urged jihad, or holy war, and expressed support for the March 11 railway bombings in Madrid, Spain, that killed 191 people. Regional authorities on April 5 sought to expel the imam, who had lived and preached in the Atlantic coastal city of Brest for the last several years, for "proselytizing in favor of radical Islam." However, the imam was deported because his application for political asylum was rejected last week and his residence permit had expired, the officials said. Defense lawyer David Rajjou said he would appeal, but that process wouldnât suspend the expulsion order.
Posted by: TS ||
04/16/2004 9:28:18 AM ||
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At least in the UK we manage to lock some of them up - not turn 'em loose to create hellfire elsewhere. Good on ya France - he's probably claiming asylum at Dover this weekend.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/16/2004 9:34 Comments ||
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Just read an article about imams in France. 90% are foreign born and most of them are extreme. So, one down, couple more thousand to go.
#3
A welcome reversal of very stupid, mindless asylum practices -- and not just in France. We here in the USA let Ramzi Yousef stay here as an applicant for political asylum so that he could organize the destruction of the World Trade Center. The UK's political asylum applicants constitute a major headquarters for Al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/16/2004 12:47 Comments ||
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I think Chirac personally got offended. What did this guy do? Preach radical Islam. Isn't that the constant message from these guys all the time? Probably "the Imam" advocated invading Paris fashion shows and throwing burkas over the models, or poisioning grape vines in Bordeaux.
The Italian hostage executed in Iraq tried to tear off his hood seconds before he was shot dead and screamed: "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies."
Details of the final moments of Fabrizio Quattrocchi deepened Italy's shock and outrage at the hostage crisis as it awaited further news of the three other men seized with him on Monday. The Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, yesterday hailed as a hero Mr Quattrocchi, 36, a former baker. The killers filmed the murder and Mr Frattini revealed details after Italy's ambassador to Qatar was shown the footage by the Arab television station Al-Jazeera, which has not broadcast the video.
That's because it shows Quattrocchi was a man, and the creatures who killed him were animals. Bad for Arab morale, y'know. And for Andy Rooney's...
"I have been authorised by the [victim's] family . . . to reveal the final words of this boy who died what I would call a courageous death, I would say like a hero," Mr Frattini said. "When his assassins were pointing a gun at him, this boy tried to remove the hood and shouted: 'Now I'll show you how an Italian dies.' And they killed him." Mr Quattrocchi's abductors shot him in the neck at close range. Al-Jazeera said that he had been forced to dig his own grave. Millions of Italians, including the victim's family in Genoa, learned of his death while watching a chat show on Wednesday night.
Relatives of the other hostages were in the audience. They had an agonising wait to discover which man had died after hearing that a hostage had been killed before the programme was aired. Although Mr Frattini was among the programme's guests, it was the show's host, Bruno Vespa, who made the announcement at midnight. Then Mr Frattini confirmed the grim news of Mr Quattrocchi's death. Francesco Cupertino, the brother of one of the other hostages, asked the foreign minister: "What will happen now?" Mr Frattini replied: "We have to work hard to bring them out." He said Italy would do "what is possible and impossible". But he underlined that it would not negotiate with the kidnappers, who call themselves the Green Brigade of the Prophet.
Mr Quattrocchi was born in Sicily and moved to Genoa with his family. He had become a bodyguard after doing a stint as a nightclub bouncer then signed up to work in Iraq. He was said to have accepted a job as a security guard working in Iraq for an American company, to earn enough for a home in Italy and to get married. "Fabrizio was a wonderful man, a man of iron but who had never hurt a fly," his fiancee, Alice, told Italian television yesterday. "He was supposed to come back to me and we were to be married. "The only consolation is that he died with honour."
Not a concept his killers have quite grasped, despite the amount of time they spend yapping about it...
But relatives of one of the other hostages, Salvatore Stefio, 34, reacted with despondency and despair. "He may have died a hero but he is still dead," said Mr Stefio's younger brother Christian. Mr Stefio's wife Emanuala, said: "With the murder of Fabrizio Quattrocchi, part of us has also died." Mr Stefio's father Angelo called on Italians to "take to the streets in order to stop all this". He appealed for the peacekeeping coalition to try to broker an exchange to secure the remaining hostages' release.
Al-Jazeera said a statement sent with the video had given a warning that three other Italians who were working for an American company and were kidnapped with Mr Quattrocchi near Fallujah would be killed "one by one". Most Italian politicians closed ranks around Silvio Berlusconi, the centre-Right prime minister, who has said he will not be bullied into withdrawing 3,000 Italian troops from Iraq. "They have cut short a life," Mr Berlusconi said. "They have not damaged our values and commitment to peace."
However, Mr Quattrocchi's family said he might have lived if Mr Berlusconi had not made "rash" comments after the kidnappings. "Before making declarations of force, the government would have done better to have opened talks with the kidnappers," the family said. "There is the feeling that the government wanted to make a show of strength by playing with the lives of those [Italians] in Iraq." Colleagues of Mr Quattrocchi said he had been captured while accompanying a group of clients on the road to Amman in Jordan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:19:40 AM ||
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Italians have a strong familia heritage. It's a war Italianoes. Your in it. No changing sides anymore. The guys who killed Fabrizio ( may God bless him) want a war with the west. The west vs the race of peace.
The family should be held innocent regarding this.
But they should know that there is no talking with these guys. They want the war.
#2
I think the family is still in the initial grief phase right now and that the media is going to them for much the same reason that they like to ask grieving families of our dead soldiers whether or not they still support the war in Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 0:42 Comments ||
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Remember Quattrocchi...72 hrs. to leave the city. Then B52 Fallujah into never more. They have got to learn about actions/conseq. Destroy it all.
the media is going to them for much the same reason that they like to ask grieving families of our dead soldiers whether or not they still support the war in Iraq.
Dan Darling: A long way of saying the media are scum.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/16/2004 0:47 Comments ||
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Indeed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 0:51 Comments ||
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I spent my first 60 days in Baghdad (I'm a civilian contractor) in a hotel, where Fabrizio was one of the PSDs. Although his English was only a little better than my (non-existent) Italian, I had dinner with our Italian PSD crew on a number of occasions and got to know them all fairly well. Fabrizio was a bear of a man with a rock steady disposition, and I slept well knowing my security was in his hands and the hands of the rest of his team. He will be missed.
#10
Makes me wonder, after the muslim sued to remove the cross, knowing that the Vatican is on the hit list, the truth last week about how the "innocent" women and children went in front of the barbarians so they could regroup when fighting the Italian army and this, if the Italian spine is beginning to stiffen.
#12
I do believe that the Green Brigade may have made a slight miscalculation in the choice of their target.
Vendetta is, after all, an Italian word.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
04/16/2004 8:51 Comments ||
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Anon4233, welcome to Rantburg, and thanks for your thoughts and experience. Feel free to pick a new handle and keep commenting! Also thanks to Signore Quattrocchi and his brave stand. My sympathies to his family and to all of bella Italia.
#14
Maybe Fabrizio Quattrocchi's murder will serve as a wake-up call to Italians not to lose their country to the Islamists, like Frogistan is on its way to doing. I certainly hope so for all of Europe. The wake-up of Europe will be painful. Hell, in the US, we are still letting Saudi Wahabbi money finance mosques, so we need a serious wake-up, too.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/16/2004 11:45 Comments ||
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The Green "Weenie" Brigade forgets what happened to those who killed a Roman soldier at the time of the Empire 2000 years ago. Goverments change but traditions remain. . . .
God Bless Mr Quattrocchi
#16
Anyone in the know; how's the "remove the crucifix" debacle going?
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
04/16/2004 19:34 Comments ||
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This is Italian outrage!!!.....with all the whining about negotiating...... Mr. Quattrocchi may have been the exception rather than the rule. Italy lost a real man!! Now they dishonor him by whining.
#1
"I remember sitting across from some of the most senior members of al-Qaida and looking into their cold, dead, evil eyes. Some would kill you as soon as look at you."
This was the best quote in the entire article, I immediately thought of Mohammed Atta's picture from 9/11.
Bushâs Crisis: Articulating a Strategy in Iraq and the Wider War Summary
President George W. Bushâs press conference on Tuesday evening was fascinating in its generation of a new core justification for the Iraq campaign: building a democratic Iraq. It is unclear why Bush would find this a compelling justification for the invasion, but it is more unclear why the administration continues to generate unconvincing arguments for its Iraq policy, rather than putting forward a crisp, strategic and -- above all -- real justification.
Analysis
It is clear that the current crisis in Iraq was not expected by the Bush administration. That in itself ought not to be a problem. Even the most successful war is filled with unexpected and unpleasant surprises. D-Day in Normandy was completely fouled up; the German Ardennes offensive caught the Allies by surprise. No war goes as expected. However, in order to recover from the unexpected, it is necessary to have a clear strategic framework from which you are operating. This means a clearly understood concept of how the pieces of the war fit together -- a concept that can be clearly articulated to both the military and the public. Without a framework that defines where you are going, you can never figure out where you are. It becomes impossible to place the unexpected in an understandable context, and it becomes impossible to build trust among the political leadership, the military and the nation. This is why the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam was unmanageable -- yet the Ardennes offensive of 1944- 1945 was readily managed.
In a piece entitled "Smoke and Mirrors: The United States, Iraq and Deception" which Stratfor published Jan. 21, 2003, we commented on the core of the coming Iraq campaign, which was that the public justification for the war (weapons of mass destruction) and the strategic purpose of the war (a step in redefining regional geopolitics) were at odds. We argued that: "In a war that will last for years, maintaining oneâs conceptual footing is critical. If that footing cannot be maintained -- if the requirements of the war and the requirements of strategic clarity are incompatible -- there are more serious issues involved than the future of Iraq."
During President George W. Bushâs press conference this week, that passage came to mind again. The press conference focused on what has become the new justification for the war -- bringing Western-style democracy to Iraq. A subsidiary theme was that Iraq had been a potential threat to the United States because it "coddled" terrorists. Mounting a multidivisional assault on a fairly large nation for these reasons might be superficially convincing, but they could not be the main reasons for invasion -- and they werenât. We will not repeat what we regard as the main line of reasoning (War Plan: Consequences http://www.stratfor.com/story.neo) behind the invasion, because our readers are fully familiar with our read of the situation. We will merely reassert that the real reason -- the capture of the most strategic country in the region in order to exert pressure on regimes that were in some way enablers of al Qaeda -- was more plausible, persuasive and defensible than the various public explanations, from links to al Qaeda to WMD to bringing democracy to the Iraqi masses. Such logic might work when it comes to sending a few Marines on a temporary mission to Haiti, but not for sending more than 130,000 troops to Iraq for an open-ended commitment.
Answers and Platitudes
Bushâs inability and/or unwillingness to articulate a coherent strategic justification for the Iraq campaign -- one that integrates the campaign with the general war on Islamists that began Sept. 11 -- is at the root of his political crisis right now. If the primary purpose of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was to bring democracy to Iraq, then enduring the pain of the current crisis will make little sense to the American public. Taken in isolation, bringing democracy to Iraq may be a worthy goal, but not one taking moral precedence over bringing democracy to several dozen other countries -- and certainly not a project worth the sacrifices now being made necessary.
If, on the other hand, the invasion was an integral part of the war that began Sept. 11, then Bush will generate public support for it. The problem that Bush has -- and it showed itself vividly in his press conference -- is that he and the rest of his administration are simply unable to embed Iraq in the general strategy of the broader war. Bush asserts that it is part of that war, but then uses the specific justification of bringing democracy to Iraq as his rationale. Unless you want to argue that democratizing Iraq -- assuming that is possible -- has strategic implications more significant than democratizing other countries, the explanation doesnât work. The explanation that does work -- that the invasion of Iraq was a stepping-stone toward changes in behavior in other countries of the region -- is never given.
We therefore wind up with an explanation that is only superficially plausible, and a price that appears to be excessive, given the stated goal. The president and his administration do not seem willing to provide a coherent explanation of the strategy behind the Iraq campaign. What was the United States hoping to achieve when it invaded Iraq, and what is it defending now? There are good answers to these questions, but Bush stays with platitudes.
This is not only odd, but also it has substantial political implications for Bush and the United States. First, by providing no coherent answer, he leaves himself open to critics who are ascribing motives to his policy -- everything from controlling the worldâs oil supply, to the familial passion to destroy Saddam Hussein, to a Jewish world conspiracy. The Bush administration, having created an intellectual vacuum, canât complain when others, trying to understand what the administration is doing, gin up these theories. The administration has asked for it.
There is an even more important dimension to this. The single most important thing that happened during the recent offensive in Iraq was that the United States entered into negotiations for the first time with the Sunni guerrillas in Al Fallujah. The United States has now traveled a path that began with Donald Rumsfeldâs dismissing the guerrillas as a disorganized band of dead-enders and led to the belief (shared by us) that they had been fairly defeated in December 2003 -- and now to negotiations that were initiated by the United States. The negotiations began with a simple, limited cease-fire and have extended to a longer, more open-ended truce.
The United States is facing the fact that the Sunni guerrillas have not only not been defeated, but that they are sufficiently well organized and supported by the broader Sunni population that negotiations are possible with them. There is an organized Sunni command authority that planned and executed this operation and is now weighing U.S. offers on a truce. That is a huge change in the U.S. perception of the Sunni guerrillas. Negotiations are also something that the administration would never have contemplated two weeks ago, regardless of how limited the topic might be. The idea that the United States needed to negotiate anything was unthinkable.
This is not the only negotiation going on at the moment. There are negotiations with the Muqtada al-Sadr group. Negotiations with the Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani group. Discussions with the Iranians. Iraq is swirling with negotiations, offers, bluffs, double crosses and lies. It is quite a circus at the moment, with at least three major players (the Sunnis, the Shia, the United States) who are in turn fragmented in all sorts of fascinating ways -- and this doesnât even begin to include the Kurds and other minorities.
Making Alliances
The United States is going to have to make alliances. Its core alliance with the majority Shia has to be redefined in the wake of al-Sadrâs uprising. Even if al-Sadr is destroyed with his militia, the United States and the Shia will have much to talk about. Far more important, the United States is now talking to the Sunni guerrillas. That might or might not lead anywhere, but it is vitally important to all sides, no matter what comes of it. The United States has recognized that the Sunni enemy is a competent authority in some sense -- and that changes everything.
The United States will combine military action with political maneuvering. That is logical and inevitable in this sort of war. But as deals are cut with a variety of players, how will Bushâs argument that the United States is building democracy in Iraq fly? The United States will be building coalitions. Whether it is a democracy is another matter. Indeed, it was al-Sistani demanding elections (which he knew the Shia would win) and the president putting off elections -- declaring at the press conference that he would not bend to Shiite demands on a timetable.
The problem that Bush has created is that there is no conceptual framework in which to understand these maneuvers. Building democracy in Iraq is not really compatible with the deals that are going to have to be cut. It is not that cutting deals is a bad idea. It is not that the current crisis cannot be overcome with a combination of political and military action. The problem is that no one will know how the United States is doing, because it has not defined a conceptual framework for what it is trying to accomplish in Iraq -- or how Iraq fits into the war on the jihadists.
Bush Political Crisis
This is creating a massive political crisis for Bush domestically. The public knows there is a crisis in Iraq, but there is little understanding of how to judge whether the crisis is being managed. If the only criterion is the creation of democracy, that is not only a distant goal, but also one that will be undermined by necessary U.S. deal-making. Democracy -- by any definition that the American public can recognize -- is not coming to Iraq anytime soon. If that is the mark of success, Bushâs only hope is that he wonât be kept to a tight timetable. What is worse for Bush is that, in his news conference, he framed the coming presidential election as basically a referendum on his policy in Iraq. The less that policy is understood, and the more Iraq appears uncontrollable, the more vulnerable Bush will be to charges that the Iraq war was unjustified, and that it is a distraction from the wider war -- which the American electorate better understands and widely supports.
He is facing John Kerry, who has shrewdly chosen to call neither for a withdrawal from Iraq nor for an end to the war on the Islamist world. Kerryâs enormous advantage is that he can articulate a strategy without having to take responsibility for anything in the past. He can therefore argue that Bushâs impulses were correct, but that he lacked a systematic strategy. Stratfor said in its annual forecast that the election was Bushâs to lose. We now have to say that he is making an outstanding attempt to lose it.
Obviously, the administration has a strategy in Iraq and the Islamic world. It is a strategy that is discussed inside the administration and is clearly visible outside. Obviously, there will be military and political reversals. The strategy and the reversals are far more understandable than the decisions the Bush administration has made in presenting them. It has adopted a two- tier policy: a complex and nearly hidden strategic plan and a superficial public presentation.
It could be argued that in a democratic society like the United States, it is impossible to lay bare the cold-blooded reasoning behind a war, and that the war needs to be presented in a palatable fashion. This might be true -- and there are examples of both approaches in American history -- but we tend to think that in the face of Sept. 11, only a cold-blooded plan, whose outlines are publicly presented and accepted, can work. We could be wrong, but on this we have no doubt. Even if the administration is correct in its assumption that there must be a two-tier approach to the public presentation of the war, it has done a terrible job in articulating its public justification.
The administration has held only three press conferences. Some explain this by saying that the president is too inarticulate to withstand public grilling. We donât buy that. He is not the greatest orator by any means, but he doesnât do that badly. His problem is that he will not engage on the core strategic question. Franklin Roosevelt, our best wartime president bar none -- who should be the model for any wartime president -- spoke on and off the record with reporters, continually and with shocking frankness when we look back on it. He did not hesitate to discuss strategy -- from Germany First to relations with Joseph Stalin. He filled the public space with detail and managed public expectations brilliantly, even during the terrible first six months of the war.
We are convinced that the Bush administration has a defensible strategy. It is not a simple one and not one that can be made completely public, but it is a defensible strategy. If President Bush decides not to articulate it, it will be interesting to see whether President Kerry does, because we are convinced that if Bush keeps going in the direction he is going, he will lose the election. The presidentâs public presentation of the war is designed to exploit success, not to withstand reversals and hardships. What is fascinating is that political operatives like Karl Rove, the presidentâs political adviser, canât seem to get their arms around this simple fact: The current communications strategy is not working. They seem frozen in place, seemingly hoping that something will turn up. We doubt strongly that building democracy in Iraq is the cry that will rally the American nation.
Posted by: tipper ||
04/16/2004 10:02:02 AM ||
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#3
The article is LONG and it is IDIOTIC. The WAR was initiated to enforce UNSCR 1441 passed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter which authorized the use of military force to bring target nation -- Iraq -- into compliance with international community's demand for free and unfettered inspections. Those inspections are now being conducted in the absence of Saddam and the Ba'athist Party. Could not have happened any other way. Of course, the old government must be replaced with a new government. Only a Stratfor dupe would maintain a dictator should replace a dictator. The beauty of the Iraq WMD inspections as a cause for war is it gave the USA and allies the excuse to eliminate an ISLAMIC-FASCIST TERRORIST and ally of USAMA BIN LADEN. God bless the US military for greasing half the Ba'athists, offing the male heirs of Saddam, and for putting Saddam into a cage.
Criticism for lack of a coherent strategy makes no sense to me. Bush and friends have noted that Iraq repeatedly and with impunity broke the cease fire, and the 17 UN resolution violations, but since the media ignores these things, the public debate becomes all the dumber for it. Sure Bush could do a better job of pushing his message, but to claim there isn't a coherent strategy just because Joe Six Pack doesn't know what it might be, well, that is more the fault of the media than Bush.
And the idea that Bush could have gotten away with selling a war based on a high-minded "strategic changing of the terrorist landscape" premise is a bit goofy. He would have been eaten alive by political opposition, and the press (but then that's redundant!). We don't even have the stones, as a nation, to admit that Iran runs Hezbollah. We are not a serious people.
I find the whining in the piece to be unrealistic - under what scenario in our over-politicized media would Bush's case be presented fairly anyway? There is no such scenario. As long as the real strategy is in place, and it is, and it makes sense, and it does, I'm ok with all of it. My $.02 anyway.
Posted by: Jeff Brokaw ||
04/16/2004 11:16 Comments ||
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#5
Strafor is lamer and more windy than ever. Talk to the press more.... jeez.
"Bush and friends have noted that Iraq repeatedly and with impunity broke the cease fire, and the 17 UN resolution violations"
Many countries have broken many resolutions. Nobody gives a damn about them, and nobody thinks for a minute this was the *reason* for the war -- not even Rantburgers think that the whole problem was that Iraq broke some UN resolutions.
What you are talking about are justifications -- things that might make this war a LAWFUL one to wage.
But they don't tell anything about whether the war was a RATIONAL, a GOOD, a NECESSARY, a SANE war to wage.
----- The WAR was initiated to enforce UNSCR 1441 passed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter which authorized the use of military force to bring target nation -- Iraq -- into compliance with international community's demand for free and unfettered inspections.
Then it had nothing to do with the War on Terror, nor about democratic change, nor about having a foothold in a central location of the middle east? It was all about enforcing compliance to the UN's resolutions?
Is the USA nothing but a UN puppet then, wasting American lives to enforce UN resolutions? If the UN had never existed the war on Iraq would have been immoral but now that it exists it suddenly becomes moral?
#7
"Sure Bush could do a better job of pushing his message, but to claim there isn't a coherent strategy just because Joe Six Pack doesn't know what it might be, well, that is more the fault of the media than Bush."
Amen to that. It's also the result of a political opposition that wants to make damned sure Joe Sixpack doesn't understand that strategy, because if he did he'd be far more likely to approve of it. Combine this with the administration's need to avoid "telegraphing our punches" to the enemy, and it's no surprise that very few people have the slightest idea what we're doing in the WoT.
The problem with understanding what we are doing in Iraq, and why, is not that there aren't enough good reasons for us to be doing it- it's that there are so many good and plausible reasons--literally dozens of them, by my own reckoning--that it's difficult to get a handle on which ones have been foremost in the administrations's thinking, and which are not.
I agree with JB's comment about the "whining" in Stratfor's analysis. This piece isn't what I'd call "idiotic," but it's certainly less than insightful. Sometimes, Stratfor seem to fall madly in love with their own "analytical" skills, and lose sight of what ought to be a sharp distinction between what they know, and what they can only suspect.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/16/2004 11:43 Comments ||
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#8
I agree with both #3 and #4. BUT, The battle to take out saddam is over. This is a new battle and I'm not happy about the PC explanation Bush is giving. Thats the thing I get out of the post and I agree. The idea of bringing democracy to Iraq is an ideal but thats not going to happen as long as our enemies are allowed to interfer.
Bush said that Iraq was a battle in the WoT. The new battle is underway. But damn-it, it's time to quit talking about freedom of the Iraqies and instead talk about the targeting of those responsible for the WoT. And that isn't AQ. AQ is just a bunch Quantrils Raiders. Bush needs to name names regarding Iran, SA money men, and Paki beards.
I wrote last year, right here in Rantburg 101, that the WoT isn't going to be won in the dust of Afganistan or the slums of Iraq. I was slamed as a spegetti thrower. I'm not for cutting and runn'n. We can't. But to have to clean Iraq's dirty carpet, no way.
Kill sadr, treat faluja as a pocket of resistance from the invasion, start killing SA money men and start to prepare the toppling of Iranian mullahs. And say it out loud so I don't have to read between the lines. Screw the PC crap. Thats why 43 didn't do as well as he could have in his press conference. The American people are ready for the end game. I know I am.
My point is that no new carpet in Iraq until SA money men are dead and Iran is put into a defensive position ready to fall from within (Ideally).
#11
As much as I like Stratfor, they seem to have gone down the Road of paranoia.
It seems like each report is a 3 page essay on how the sky is falling.
There are a few good points in there (ie, better communication from the Administration in terms of justification for the war), but I also think it would be BAD to telegraph our punches.
I'm still waiting on a build up of force and a hard charge into Iran, Saudi and Syria. But that's just me. :D
#13
"The single most important thing that happened during the recent offensive in Iraq was that the United States entered into negotiations for the first time with the Sunni guerrillas in Al Fallujah. The United States has now traveled a path that began with Donald Rumsfeldâs dismissing the guerrillas as a disorganized band of dead-enders and led to the belief (shared by us) that they had been fairly defeated in December 2003 -- and now to negotiations that were initiated by the United States. The negotiations began with a simple, limited cease-fire and have extended to a longer, more open-ended truce."
This is simply untrue. Several member of the IGC wanted to see if they could negotiate a peaceful end to the Fallujah hostilities. Since we are trying to instill the IGC and any future Iraqi government with legitimacy, we allowed them to pursue this approach, but always with the understanding that we expect there to be results -- militants turned over to the US or to the IP -- or the Marines would be free to pacify the city (i.e., kill or capture the militants).
Posted by: Tibor ||
04/16/2004 13:37 Comments ||
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#14
Christ, I gave up reading two-thirds through the first section. They're upset that the Bush Administration isn't justifying the war in Iraq by stating baldly that it's all a cynical bid to pressure nominal allies in the region? Well, *dur*!
Stratfor seems increasingly prone to worthless neo-realist posturing. Why the hell does anybody pay for this shit?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/16/2004 13:54 Comments ||
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#15
eLarson> If the Community of Democracies (or whatever it's called) is meaningfully established, I'll be the first to argue for the dissolution of the UN.
Until then, there's no point in dissolving the UN however.
Anonymous4021> "but I also think it would be BAD to telegraph our punches"
The problem is that America is pretending way too well to be without a long term strategy. Do you think that Syria and Iran would have dared wage their war through Sadr, had they actually believed the US was ready for them?
"Pressuring" has sure worked in their case. Except it seems that they didn't notice being pressured any, or you'd think they'd be a bit more careful.
#16
In my opinion , Stratfor is totally correct in their analysis that the Iraq invasion was Fase II in the War on Terror.. Like Den Beste writes on his webpage, there are several reasons why Iraq was the obvious target, but in the end, Bush has made poor choices in explaining the whole damn thing to the public opinion.. I think there can be little discussion about that. And that's consistent with Stratfor's analysis that if one doesn't maintain a firm conceptual footing , one will risk getting in trouble .. Your country needs a new Franklin Roosevelt , not someone who tries to fool public opinion..
#18
Bush is in almost the same position as Nixon was with regards to the Cambodian incursion. There were only two decisive military actions possible then:
* Invade and defeat NVN
* Stop the infiltration
Neither were supported by the American people at that point in the war. So Nixon went into Cambodia secretly to cut the Ho Chi Minh trail. The press tore him apart. He retreated.
Bush likewise has only two decisive courses of action (COA) available to him:
* Defeat the terror sponsor states (Iraq, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Palestine)
* Contain the terror sponsor states.
COA 1 is what he's chosen. Bush has articulated some things well:
* This is a war about human rights
* This is a war about WMD (because if AQ gets them, they'll use them and proliferation is out of control)
* This is a war on terror.
Other things he has not communicated at all
* We've been at war with Syria since the late 60's; SA since 1973; Iran since 1979
* There is a religious element to this war
* There is a civilizational/cultural element to this war.
* Sacrifices need to be made. We cannot have a LBJ-style guns and butter war.
* Warfare is changing. The Internet and CAD tools have made it trivial for someone like AQ Khan to proliferate nukes all over the world. Likewise for bio warfare. This has forced a change in the definition of pre-emptive attack. We can longer afford to look out just 30 days. We need to preempt assualts five or ten years in the future (five years was probably the planning cycle for major AQ ops like 9-11).
I think that if GWB was to get up and articulate my second five points, he'd be impeached. He'd be called a hater, a sci-fi reading loon, and a paranoid. I don't envy his position. My second five points can't be discussed except at "fringe" websites like this until the first nuke detonates or the first killer virus is released. And that's the reason why the Nazis and Bolsheviks suceeded at first -- most people can't quite force themselves to think like the bad guys until it's too late.
#19
Raj> You didn't even understand my argument and latched onto something entirely trivia, a sidepoint, the idea of lawfulness in international relationships. But I'll humour you.
Yes, if you say that you went in there to enforce UN resolutions, or because they violated some contract/agreement/treaty, then you are talking about and accepting concepts of international law -- and enforcing obedience to it. And when you bring UN resolutions into it, then you are using UN as the equivalent of the law-making body, even as the "resolutions" become the equivalent of the law to be enforced.
That wasn't *my* argument. Those were the implications of the argument of the people I had replied to.
If they had been talking about the MORALITY of war instead, then there would be little to no need to talk about Iraq violating UN "resolutions".
And if they had been talking about the lawfulness according to US law, then they wouldn't have brought *UN* resolutions into it, they'd have only refered to US law.
So, the only interpretations I have is that they were talking about lawfulness or lawlessness according to UN "law" - aka "resolutions".
Mind you, I quite understand why one wouldn't give a damn about such "lawfulness", since the UN isn't a democratic body. I even understand the counterarguments --which seems difficult for many people to do, understanding arguments both for and against an issue.
Still.
---
Now, could you please why the hell were you pissed about that, since I actually didn't dispute the fact you were lawful according to that, but confirmed it instead? And I didn't even dispute the *morality* of the war to overthrow Saddam, morality being different to lawfulness but granting you'd be morally on the right to overthrow Saddam even if Iraq hadn't violated UN law?
#20
Aris - point taken, and I maybe I misunderstood the thrust of your argument. The fact that Hussein stood in violation of 17 UN resolutions is not in dispute. However, mixed in with that are MORALITY based justifications (freeing the Iraqi people from the jackboot of Ba'athist fascism, removing a dictator who, fairly obviously, supported terrorists, etc.) which have been discussed ad nauseum by many supporters of the Iraqi liberation. One wonders, then, why we are even having this discussion. Let me clarify:
RATIONAL - to remove a threat to US /British warplanes patrolling the No-Fly zones (locking onto planes with their radar systems, etc.). In that sense, the war was never over, just reduced to low level conflicts like I just discussed. I believe it is RATIONAL to not have our planes shot down by someone we were still at war with.
GOOD / NECESSARY / SANE - I believe that's best summarized by the fact that there is a measurable segment of the Islamic population that is bent on the destruction of Western civilization which, for 'political' reasons, GWB has not quite had the courage (for lack of a better word) to state explicitly. Personally this disgusts me as it is bloody obvious. I am comfortable with the concept that non nuanced people like Jihadist thugs understand a .50 caliber shot to the head or a swift kick to the balls, and will react accordingly. Thugs and bullies do understand the application of superior violence, a concept which unfortunately eroded during the Clinton administration.
In short, there's plenty that is 'moral' about protecting ourselves from 757's crashing into people filled skyscrapers (I was in one in Boston that day, I doubt I'd have been too pleased to get dusted by these assholes), so if that's not clear, maybe I don't see the point of your argument, whatever it is.
#21
hi aris! i'm not thinking you are preposely atagaonistic but i'm hereing that nitratres getting cheap in yo hood ifin you catch my drift suggest good gtrain dogs to pervent a bad audience recdaction
#22
raj> My point was in dispute to people #3 and #4 alone -- both of whom seemed to want to claim that the reason for the war was the violated UN resolutions.
I tried to make them understand the difference between reasons for the war, and reasons for the "legality" of the war (for a given definition of "legality" that chooses to include UN resolutions in it, somehow).
As for morality, as I've said *very* often, I don't find anything wrong morally about launching a war in which you overthrow a brutal dictatorship and try to install a democracy in its place -- my opposition to the Iraqi war is because of practical reasons: in short I considered the War on Iraq a foolish, not an immoral, thing to do. My reasons for that are very long, and have been very often explained, and we don't need to go into them now.
Halfempty> If I could understand you, I might reply to you.
Indonesian police have officially declared Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir a suspect in terrorism cases, the attorney general's office said. "The Jakarta prosecutors' office has received a letter from police declaring the start of an investigation into Abu Bakar Bashir," attorney general's spokesman Kemas Yahya Rahman told AFP. He did not know what case Bashir had been implicated in or when he would be questioned.
National police chief General Da'i Bachtiar said Wednesday police would question Bashir, who is due to be freed from jail on April 30, as a suspect in terrorism cases. "There is information, there are witnesses, there is evidence which could be used for a further process regarding actions of this individual both at home and abroad," he said. Koran Tempo newspaper quoted an unidentified source at the Jakarta prosecutor's office as saying Bashir will be charged with involvement in several bombings in Indonesia along with Abu Rusdan, self-confessed JI caretaker chief. A Jakarta court in February jailed Rusdan for three-and-a-half years for shielding key Bali bomber Mukhlas from justice. The source said both men would probably be tried together. A police spokesman said earlier this month they would use testimony and statements from terrorism suspects detained in the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore in the Bashir probe. The spokesman said police would also study transcripts of US interviews with top terror suspect Hambali -- a suspected senior figure in both JI and Al-Qaeda -- who has been in US custody since his arrest last August in Thailand.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:56:31 AM ||
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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia's police chief officially declared militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir a criminal suspect on Friday, allowing authorities to keep him in jail when his current period of detention ends later [t]his month. * * *
Bachtiar did not say whether police would demand Bashir's continued detention. But his ambiguity was likely due to the political sensitivity of the case, which many people here believe is an example of foreign meddling in Indonesia's internal affairs. * * * Under Indonesia's anti-terror law, declaring someone a suspect means that authorities can apply to a magistrate for permission to keep him in prison for six months during an investigation. Earlier this week, Indonesian police said they may declare Bashir a suspect in the Bali bombings - the deadliest terror attack since Sept. 11, 2001. Bashir has predicted that authorities would hold him indefinitely for further questioning. It doesnât take a rocket scientist -- the Indonesians just need to "do it by the book," with the evidence necessary to permanently dispose of the guy.
Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said the military and the police are monitoring two mountain areas in Kidapawan, North Cotabato, now tagged as hideouts of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Piñol did not disclose the specific area where JI members are said to be holed out but volunteered that the information about JIâs presence in Kidapawan was confirmed to him by top officials of the Department of Justice (DoJ). âOur people, the military and the police have been alerted about the presence in the province of the terrorist group,â he said. The Davao City-based military contingent Task Force Davao said it would look into Piñolâs disclosure, adding terrorists planning to bomb Davao City are hiding in North Cotabato.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:54:06 AM ||
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Pakistani police arrested two suspected Islamic militants in separate raids Friday, including a man wanted in connection with the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, an official said.
Malik Tasaddaq, 28, was arrested in the eastern province of Punjab on suspicion of involvement in Pearlâs killing, the provinceâs police chief Saadatullah Khan said in a statement that didnât elaborate.
Osama bin Laden's psychological operations campaign against the United States took a surprising turn yesterday with the release of an audio message that is modern, tactical and nearly diplomatic in tone, and that addresses Europeans rather than Muslim devotees, counterterrorism experts and intelligence officials said. In doing so, experts who have analyzed his previous audiotapes and videotapes said bin Laden is employing a powerful weapon in psychological warfare: an adaptable propaganda machine that understands the nature of Western democracies, seeks to exploit political dissent and knows how to disseminate its message worldwide without being caught. The contemporary nature of the message was a new twist for bin Laden. It included references to Israel's killing on March 22 of "old, handicapped" Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, and to "the billions of dollars in profit" being made in Iraq by Halliburton and other companies. He described leaders of those corporations as people with "narrow personal interest and subservience to the White House gang."
"Clearly, he's monitoring the news and is taking advantage" of the growing debate in Europe over the U.S.-instigated war in Iraq, said one U.S. counterterrorism official. "He's watching the calendar," the official said, noting that the 90-day deadline bin Laden set for countries to meet his demands would come near the June 30 date set by the United States for handing over sovereignty to Iraqis. "Although he has shown no need in the past to give anyone one last chance, his statement had a kinder, gentler face on it."
The adaptation, said al Qaeda experts, is classic bin Laden, and a key to maintaining successful terrorist groups in the face of counterterrorism operations by the United States and other countries. "Terrorism in general is psy-ops," said Winston P. Wiley, former director of the CIA's analytical branch and counterterrorism center, using the military term for psychological operations. "The damage he's inflicting is disproportionate to the physical damage he's causing. It's all part of his campaign to destroy the United States."
Bin Laden analysts at the CIA and other counterterrorism specialists here and abroad spent much of the day poring over every word and phrase. They looked for clues embedded in the statement -- phrases and rhetoric that could indicate his mental and physical state, or the status of his finances or manpower, or code words that might trigger an operation. "It might also be a message to sleeper cells in Europe to wake up," one European intelligence official said.
The statement differed markedly from his previous messages -- he did not refer to the Koran, for example -- but U.S. intelligence officials said they based their belief in its authenticity on a technical analysis that matches voice intonation and other cues with his known voice qualities. Bin Laden and other top al Qaeda leaders have long recognized the value of a well-run communications operation. Among al Qaeda's four operational committees before Sept. 11, 2001, was one labeled "Media and Publicity," Rohan Gunaratna wrote in "Inside Al Qaeda." Part of its function was to be familiar with Western culture and politics and to construct speeches that would terrify Westerners and secular Arabs in addition to soliciting Muslim followers and potential recruits. The network also has had the capacity to stage, tape, edit and distribute audiotapes and videotapes that are unusually high in quality for such an outlawed, underground group. "All his videotapes are carefully orchestrated," said terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman, who called al Qaeda proficient in "strategic communications."
In demanding a pullout in exchange for a truce, however, bin Laden may have overreached, said another U.S. counterterrorism official. "It's almost too blatant," he said. Although the tape ostensibly offered European leaders a truce if they remove forces from Iraq, U.S. counterterrorism officials said they believe its true target is the European public. Bin Laden refers to demonstrations in Europe as "positive interaction" and mentions "opinion polls, which indicate that most European peoples want peace." The underlying threat by bin Laden remained the same as always, though: The United States, Israel, Jews and their allies will suffer their due. A foundation of this oft-repeated threat can be found in a book written in late November 2001 by Ayman Zawahiri, bin Laden's No. 2 man, while he was on the run from U.S. Army forces in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Zawahiri said jihadists should not attack U.S. armed forces who had invaded Afghanistan. Rather, they should strike "at the Americans and the Jews in our countries," meaning the secular countries where other jihadists came from -- Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. Zawahiri's message was a call to rally the Muslim populace, terrorism experts said. Yesterday's message was similarly directed at a local populace, but this time at a European one.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:37:32 AM ||
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#1
So far, the alleged Binny has been cranking out his psyop tapes on a quarterly basis. Not exactly prolific. If he was on a radio show that often, I do not think that he would have any sponsers left.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/16/2004 0:57 Comments ||
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#2
Tape shows Binny's adaptability
The only "adaptability" being displayed is that the backup bin Laden is now in use.
#3
I still think the offer of a "truce" to Europe is bizarre. Except in Spain, where have any of the Al Qaeda or affiliates had any major successes? On the contrary, most reports I've heard are of foiled plots and rolling up networks. Why would the French people (for example) accept a truce when, as far as they can tell, they're winning? If Chirac had accepted the offer he'd have looked like an utter fool. (I have no idea what the real security situation is like in France, but I doubt the ordinary French citizen knows either.)
Posted by: James ||
04/16/2004 9:43 Comments ||
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#4
Bin Laden Ver 2.0? What happened to the video cam he had before? They don't make those any more? I still think he's DNA paste in Tora Bora - it's just in everyone's interest to pretend he's alive
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/16/2004 10:00 Comments ||
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#5
Halliburton?? Bin Hiden' must be on MoveOn.org's distribution list
#6
I heard one newsie yesterday say that since he could monitor the news so effectively that meant that he was relatively safe and in no danger of getting caught. Huh? All you have to do is watch 10 minutes of CNN on a satellite TV and you'd pick up all his talking points. What crap.
Posted by: remote man ||
04/16/2004 12:44 Comments ||
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#7
but U.S. intelligence officials said they based their belief in its authenticity on a technical analysis that matches voice intonation and other cues with his known voice qualities.
Just a reminder. Rich Little dubbed David Niven's last movie because Niven's voice was so slurred by ALS as to be almost unintellegable.
The fact that he didn't spout some quatrain from the Quran as justification is dubious.
If "Binny" isn't flat DNA in Tora Bora, then he might have the sound of someone who has something hit him in the head during bombing.
As to potential moveon.org connections :
Just so there are any disclaimers that say something about a "Man in the Cave Foundation" as sponsors of pro-Kerry ads.
#8
Despite what the news will tell you the Europeans and the US have worked very closely in rolling back cells and disrupting operations throughout Europe. Europe was the main base of operations and recruitment prior to 9/11 and a lot of that has been disrupted.
Al Queda probably wants a little breathing room to regroup. Divide and conquer that sort of thing.
Intersting that he can get his show played around the world any time he wants and Air America has to buy infomercial time.
#10
Osama bin Laden's psychological operations campaign against the United States took a surprising turn yesterday with the release of an audio message that is modern, tactical and nearly diplomatic in tone, and that addresses Europeans rather than Muslim devotees, counterterrorism experts and intelligence officials said. In doing so, experts who have analyzed his previous audiotapes and videotapes said bin Laden is employing a powerful weapon in psychological warfare: an adaptable propaganda machine that understands the nature of Western democracies, seeks to exploit political dissent and knows how to disseminate its message worldwide without being caught
What a ridiculous puff piece. I'm not going to waste my time reading further than this.
It flopped...even FRANCE denounced it. Jeesh..what could be more humiliating.
puff pieces are soooo boring.
Posted by: B ||
04/16/2004 20:13 Comments ||
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If it's Jhang, we're talkin' high explosives...
Tough competition is expected in the May 12 by-election in NA-89, the National Assembly constituency in Jhang, that fell vacant with the murder of Maulana Azam Tariq in October last year. Maulana Tariqâs brother Alam Tariq, Jhang city nazimâs son Sheikh Waqas Akram and a candidate to be decided by the outlawed Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan (MIP) are the strong candidates from NA-89. A split in the MIP has made the situation more complex in the constituency where former federal minister Abida Hussain is supporting Muttahida Majlis-e-Amalâs candidate Dr Abul Hassan and her daughter and Punjab Minister for Social Welfare Sughra Imam is putting her weight behind Pakistan Muslim League-Quid-e-Azam (PML-QA) candidate Sheikh Yaqoob.
Dunno what their chances are. How many gunnies do they have available?
MIP spokesman Mujibur Rehman Inqalabi said that Ms Hussainâs traditional rival and Federal Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat might support the MIP nominee to defeat Dr Hassan. He said the interior ministerâs brother Asad Hayat might withdraw his nomination papers to ensure that the candidate supported by Ms Hussain wins. Hassan Mohiuddin, son of Tahirul Qadri, is also contesting from this constituency. Sources said Abida Hussain was engineering a patch-up between MMA and PAT candidates. âA patch-up is certain to ensure more votes for the candidate supported by Ms Hussain but Sheikh Waqas Akram is the candidate to beat in this constituency,â sources said. Sources said a strong vote bank for his family meant that Mr Akram did not need any political partyâs support to in the elections but he was contesting on a Millat Party ticket.
Just a little reminder that Pakistan's patron-client system still applies...
Mr Pehalwan, who has been the chairman of Jhang Municipal Committee for eight years and spent as many years behind bars on charges of sectarian terrorism, wants his sacrifice for Haq Nawaz Jhangviâs mission rewarded, sources said. âMr Pehalwan is probably the frontrunner for the MIP ticket in which case Mr Hakim can contest as an independent candidate,â sources said. They said a split in votes is certain to end in the MIP candidateâs election unless the party settles its differences with Alam Tariq. Chief of the International Khatam-e-Nabwat Maulana Manzoor Chanyoti and JUI-S are supporting Alam Tariq, which can split the Deobandi vote further.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 20:02 ||
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The opposition members in the NWFP Assembly expressed deep concern on Friday over the rocket attack in Peshawar and alleged that the government had turned a blind eye to the incident. âThis is the second time missiles have been fired on the provincial capital and the security agencies are silent,â said Bashir Ahmed Bilour, parliamentary leader of the Awami National Party (ANP).
Mr Bilour said that it was the duty of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), the Police Special Branch, Military Intelligence (MI) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to extract secret information and arrest criminals involved in the attacks. âBut the law enforcement agencies are silent,â alleged Mr Bilour. The ANP leader expressed fear that terrorists might attack the Frontier Assembly some day if they could attack the CID office. Mr Bilour said the chief minister talked of Japanese and Chinese investment in the province. How would anyone invest under these circumstances, he asked. The ANP leader insisted that there must be a debate on the law and order situation of the province. Mr Bilour said the chief minister and the provincial ministers often said that law and order in the NWFP was far better than the other provinces. However, he said that it was wishful thinking on their part. Mr Bilour said it was a serious matter and the government must act against those involved in terrorist activities.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 19:58 ||
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"the security agencies are silent"
silent? They were probably complicit
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/16/2004 21:38 Comments ||
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Muslim clerics have entered the besieged town of Falluja to meet with US military commanders to seek the restoration of police control and to end the almost two-weeks of bloody fighting. Senior cleric Shaikh Abd al-Salam al-Kubaisi said representatives of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), the highest Sunni authority in Iraq, were allowed to enter Falluja on Friday after being barred from doing so one day earlier. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, spokesperson for the AMS, Dr Abd al-Salam al-Kubaisi said the situation in Falluja is worsening and accused the US of using cluster bombs. More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in the last week in Falluja. "Last night and throughout yesterday, US fighters and helicopters massacred residents of Falluja by dropping banned cluster bombs. The people of Falluja were bombed because they were defending their city, land, and honour. The most horrible brutality was the targeting of ambulances which carried pregnant women who were about to give birth. There were tens of bodies which are still under debris and we could not arrive at the places as US snipers prevented people from getting them out. Via you, (addressing the international media) I call on the entire world to see what we are doing and what the US forces have been doing." Al-Kubaisi also accused US forces of detaining and torturing children.
... and puppies. And kittens. And baby ducks...
The latest 48-hour extension to the ceasefire expired on Friday and US commanders are due to meet local Iraqi leaders to discuss prospects for a permanent truce.
I guess that's the sort of thing they teach you in Islamic scholar school...
Posted by: Long Hair Republican ||
04/16/2004 18:30 ||
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Link goes to Al-Jitzz... so consider the source.
#2
The headline ought to read BS parade in Falluja amid truce talks. We are wasting our time with this truce talk crap. Get in there and clean this s**thole out.
Posted by: remote man ||
04/16/2004 19:15 Comments ||
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#3
"Hey Bill, I think there is a pregnant woman in that ambulance about to give birth! Let's blow it up!" "Hold on a sec, can't you see I'm busy torturing this child?"
#4
These "Muslim Scolars" are such a joke. Look at the s--thole they live in and how everyone treats each other, and then they come out of the woodwork to complain about inhumanty when it suits their purposes. The whole middle east is that way, it seems. We need millions of electricians to rewire all their brains back to code.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/16/2004 19:37 Comments ||
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#5
No truce, no negotiations, no quarter. Sadr surrenders or we take the place apart in pursuit of him.
No-effing-body calls 9-11 "a miracle from God" and gets a free pass. Go ahead, pour on the firey rhetoric, just remember it's your @ss that has to cash the check your mouth is writing.
#6
Religious education is the bane of the Middle East. The Koran is remarkably silent about mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, and anything else required to build and maintain a modern civilization. Since most of the educational apparatus is focused on the Koran, anyone from this part of the world who wants to learn anything useful has to study abroad. During the 80's, arab countries had designated smart guys. For example, back then the only engineer in the arab world that understood avionics was a Moroccan educated in Canada. If Egypt or Jordan needed that expertise, they would ask Morocco would send their smart guy to help out. The same was true in almost every technical discipline. I don't think technical competence (with the possible exception of the chemistry of explosives) is any more widespread today. Until they fix their educational system they will remain third rate.
This is already being spun on the Australian news as a major backdown by Bush and Blair
President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair presented a united front on Friday behind a U.N. envoyâs proposal for a caretaker government in Iraq. They also backed a controversial plan put forward by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon under which Israel will withdraw from Gaza but retain some settlements on the West Bank. The two leaders seized on a U.N. proposal for an interim Iraqi government as a welcome recommendation. Bush has been criticized this week for not having shed light on what plan he supports for Iraq once sovereignty is transferred on June 30 from a U.S.-led coalition.
The proposal was put together by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to dissolve the Iraqi Governing Council and develop a caretaker government until elections can be held early next year. The United States and Britain went around the United Nations to go to war on Iraq, but now need the organization to lay the groundwork for a political transition. Bush said Brahimi had "identified a way forward to establishing an interim government that is broadly acceptable to the Iraqi people." Blair said a new U.N. resolution would be sought on the transition to Iraqi rule. "The U.N. will have a central role, as now, in developing the program and machinery for political transition to full Iraqi democracy. And we will seek a new U.N. Security Council resolution to embody the political and security way forward," Blair said.
Iraq's top Shiite cleric warned the U.S. military against entering the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf as U.S. troops clashed with Shiite militiamen on Friday. Wanted Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr said negotiations in his standoff with the United States were near collapse.
Gee. Golly. We can't go in. And the negotiations are near collapse. Oh, what shall we do? I guess we'll just have to flatten the entire city, sell its inhabitants into slavery in Sudan, and sow the ground with salt.
Al-Sadr militiamen attacked American soldiers outside the city of Kufa, neighboring Najaf. During clashes Friday, large explosions were seen by the river in a sparsely populated area on the edge of Kufa. Five civilians caught in the crossfire were killed and 14 wounded, hospital officials said.
Golly. Wonder how they managed to get caught in the crossfire? Probably they were standing in front of the Americans to protect them, huh?
Some 2,500 U.S. soldiers are deployed outside Najaf vowing to kill or capture al-Sadr and dismantle his al-Mahdi Army militia. Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, warned of a strong Shiite response if U.S. forces enter the holy cities of Najaf or Karbala to capture al-Sadr. The two cities are a "red line," Mahdi al-Karbala'i, al-Sistani's representative in Karbala, said during a sermon. "We are calling for peaceful solutions, but if the coalition forces are to cross the red line, then will take a different stronger position." Al-Sistani, a moderate who has opposed anti-U.S. violence, holds enormous influence among Iraq's Shiite majority.
Seems like he's also burning a lot of the slack we've been cutting him...
Al-Sadr slipped out of Najaf to Kufa in the dead of night, disguised as a hooker and delivered the Friday prayer sermon at the main mosque. "I am ready to meet martyrdom for the sake of Iraq," al-Sadr said, speaking with a white wedding dress coffin shroud over his shoulders â a symbol of his sexual availability readiness to die. A crowd of worshippers chanted his name.
"Ta-ter! Ta-ter! Ta-ter!"
An al-Sadr spokesman said negotiations that Iraqi politicians have been mediating between the Americans and al-Sadr were close to collapse. "I believe that the mediation will not continue for a long. They will reach a dead end today or tomorrow. There are no results from these negotiations and these negotiations could collapse," said Sheik Fuad al-Tarafi. He said that according to the mediators, the Americans had made demands that were "impossible to fulfill," apparently that al-Sadr be handed over.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 16:46 ||
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#1
Enough of this BS. Let's get this over with and kill as many as tatters militia as we can. Sooner or later were going to have to do this!!
The politics have failed. Tatter lies more than a rug he prays on. He is inciting a riot towards our Marines with his rhetoric. It's time for this anus sphincter muscle to die at the hands of one of our Marines in a gruesomely slow death.
#2
Some of the stuff about Karbala and Najaf that the media is pushing is BS, but I am beginning to think there is a red line there somewhere. Since last year I've gotten the impression that most Iraqis have an inner lunatic just waiting to come out of the closet.
#3
Like I said in another post. Tell the clerics (including Sistani) that the city will loses its 'holiness' status in 48 hours unless the militia and Sadr surrender. Tell them that the choice is theirs and solely theirs.
#4
Seems like we are running out of choices. There can be little doubt that the Shiites are going to go nuts if we go into those cities, but what else can we do? We have to shut Al Sadr down and there is not going to be a nice way to get it done. Trying to do it surgically is only going to get a bunch of our guys killed.
Posted by: remote man ||
04/16/2004 19:33 Comments ||
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#5
The only thing respected in Iraq and Iran is power and the will to use it. Right now we have the power but seem a little weak in the will department. We need to have a Predator put a Hellfire into Sadr, order noncombatants to evacuate the city, and then kill everyone left in the city, holy or not. Only a moron would let this Mahdi army try to slip back into society as a political party. Kill them now so they can't terrorize innocent Iraqis in the night or backshoot our troops.
Insurgents fired mortars at an Iraqi police station and a U.S base, but missed their targets and killed eight Iraqi civilians in the northern city of Mosul, a top U.S. general said Friday. Seventeen Iraqis were also wounded in the attacks, which occured Thursday night, Brig. Gen Mark Kimmitt told reporters.
Hek is in Iraq?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 4:44:08 PM ||
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Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr said compromise with the US-led occupation army would not work.
I don't think it will, either. Go ahead and kill him.
Sadr appeared in public for the first time in two weeks at Kufa's grand mosque on the outskirts of Najaf warning US forces massed in a desert area nearby that they are "forbidden" to enter Shiite holy cities. "We will not allow the forces of occupation to enter Najaf and the holy sites because they are forbidden places for them," said Sadr in a spittle-spewing fiery sermon. "I say that they are here to stay and will occupy us for many years and as such compromise will not work." As Sadr spoke, scores of his banned Mehdi Army militiamen milled outside brandishing Kalashnikov assault rifles and making faces missile launchers.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 4:37:48 PM ||
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#1
Time to tell these jokers to leave in 48 hours or the city will lose its 'holy' status......
#4
We should tell Sistani that his "red lines" are about to become red smears as we grind Sadr and his cretinous followers into a fine paste. It would be a good idea for anyone not already on the list to very quickly put as much space between them and Sadr as possible.
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani the leading Shi'ite Muslim cleric in Iraq , has told the United States not to enter the holy city of Najaf in pursuit of Moqtada al-Sadr. In a show of strength of his position against the young upstart Moqtada al-Sadr, Sistani is showing he is the man the occupation forces have to deal with, and he is the person who will be involved in the political process which will see the occupation forces handing over political power to the majority Shi'ite. Moqtada al-Sadr's mini battles with the Americans have suited Sistani as they have given the occupation forces a taste of what can be unleashed should the need arise. In reality al-Sadr is a small player which Sistani can slap around and most likely a deal has been reached which will see the Americans not entering Najaf to capture al-Sadr, but rather see him being picked up in a few months time after the hand-over of power.
Posted by: Long Hair Republican ||
04/16/2004 16:31 ||
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#1
but rather see him being picked up in a few months time after the hand-over of power.
Please note the previous Rantburg article about some pre-unpleasantness elections in the marshes of southern Iraq, and my commentary on same. I doubt anyone here would want to have to choose between having Sadr or Sistani run their life. There are probably plenty of Iraqis that feel the same way.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
04/16/2004 17:11 Comments ||
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#4
And I just noticed the link for this post goes to Al Jazeera. Which may mean it's spin, as they change gears from "that Sadr boy is really teaching the Americans a lesson" to "so they could have handled Sadr, but it was really Sistani teaching the Americans a lesson..."
Bah! I reiterate! Bah!
This calls for a good Nero Wolfe quote, but I can't think of one.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
04/16/2004 17:14 Comments ||
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#5
Sistani should be told to present Sadr's head on a platter in 48 hours or watch as the US forces remove the rubbish from his holy cities. Any outcome that leaves Sadr and his "army" alive is not an acceptable solution.
Pakistani police arrested two suspected Islamic militants in separate raids Friday, including a man wanted in connection with the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, an official said. Malik Tasaddaq, 28, was arrested in the eastern province of Punjab on suspicion of involvement in Pearl's killing, the province's police chief Saadatullah Khan said. Tasaddaq and Nadir Khan, who was detained in a separate raid in Punjab, allegedly belong to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Khan, 30, was wanted for his alleged role in the killing of a police official and a Shiite Muslim leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 4:30:41 PM ||
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#2
I don't understand why we don't publicly point out that if the enemy doesn't follow the Geneva Convention, then we don't have to either.
And then not.
What are they going to do, get mad at us? And when the stupid NGO weenies start crying about it, we should just tell them we are "following the conventions of international law and not abiding by the G.C. because our enemy first violated it and under those rules, we now have no rules."
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
04/16/2004 18:43 Comments ||
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#3
I really don't think the Iraqi's understand us very well. Seeing this phot makes me feel hatred toward them...and I'm a pretty nice person. That doesn't bode well for them on how the rest of our countrymen will take it.
They are wearing out any goodwill that we have left. I'm becoming more worried about the overall backlash that is soon to be forthcoming (in their direction). If they keep this up, it's going to get very ugly, very soon.
Posted by: B ||
04/16/2004 19:15 Comments ||
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B...it needs to get ugly and it needs to do so soon, both in Iraq and in Iran.
Posted by: remote man ||
04/16/2004 19:16 Comments ||
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It's so sad.
Someone tell me again why we don't carve them up into different countries and just work with the Kurds??
Maybe Sadaam already killed all good people with a spine - making them kinda like France after the French Revolution....it's been 200 years and their gene pool still has not recovered. It's clear we underestimated their ability to act in a logical manner, consistent with the reality of their situation...and it's clear they completely underestimate our ability to tolerate their barbarism.
It's just a shame - once they finally convince us to take our gloves off, there is no doubt it will be ugly all the way around.
Posted by: B ||
04/16/2004 19:38 Comments ||
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Two Iraqi police were shot dead on Friday near a Karbala mosque controlled by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's militiamen. Two armed men leaving the al-Mokhayam mosque opened fired on an approaching police patrol at about 1:00 pm, according to the witnesses of the killings. Doctor Salih al-Husnawi of the al-Hussein hospital confirmed the two had died. Sadr has his local offices in the al-Mokhayam mosque. The outlawed nutcase firebrand cleric's Mehdi Army militia has battled coalition troops in a bloody uprising across central and southern Iraq over the past two weeks, raising fears of a broader uprising among the country's Shiite majority. US commanders have said their mission is to capture or kill Sadr but they insist they are ready to let all diplomatic options, including an ongoing effort from a senior Iranian delegation, run their course.
#1
Does the word "mosque" mean "armory" in Arabic? Perhaps a centuries old mistranslation is at fault?
______borgboy give a big "allahu akbar" shoutout to his homies...
#2
So these are IP who arent cooperating with Muqty, I take it?
Lets see.
1. Kut retaken - check
2. Fighting near Kufa - check
3. Police Patrols vs Mahdi army in Karbala - Check
4. Several thousand coalition troops around Najaf - Check
Negotiations get very interesting now. Obviously theres nothing that can stop the coalition MILITARILY from taking Najaf and Muqty. OTOH we go in force into Najaf, damage the Shrine, etc and all blows loose. Or a good approximation thereof. Better for us if Muqty ends up eating Kabob in Teheran. Or better yet if hes killed or captured by Iraqis aligned with Sistani. Muqty dont want US attack either - at least I dont think so - since hes dead meat if that happens, and so is his organization. Better to get off to Iran, maybe keep an intact organization, live to fight another day? And while Sistani doesnt want the cost of taking on Sadr himself, even with the platter set, he also doesnt want US troops in Najaf - the blowup will be bad for the US, but it wont be great for Sistani, either. So we make noises like we're just crazy enough to go into Najaf, UNLESS Sistani comes through either by convincing Muqty to go French on us, or by taking him down without obvious US assistance. One hopes, very sincerely, that Sistani has been PAYING ATTENTION to all the euros calling Dubya a mad cowboy. The more he has, the more this negotiating posture works.
"Sistani: Muqty, I luv ya, but these Americans, are like just as crazy as you are, better split"
#3
Better for us if Muqty ends up eating Kabob in Teheran.
Not so. After all of the grief this maggot has caused, in addition to his proclamation that 9-11 was "a miracle from God" we need this @sshole in custody or taking the dirt nap. Allowing Sadr's exit to Iran would be foolish in the extreme. If ever it was imperative to make an example of the rewards that await violent interference with Iraq's democratization, this is the time to do so.
#4
Personally I think we need an Iraqi version of the History channel that shows at least once an hour just what the USAAF did to the abbey of Monte Casino in WWII. I'm sure that the abbey had great historical and religous significance for both Italians and RCs in general. But consider it was just stones, timber and brick. When we decided it was worth less than the life of one Allied soldier it was knocked flat (that its destruction was a tactical error is something to keep in mind). The mosque in Najafa or this one in Karbala cease to be houses of worship if the are used for any combat purposes
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Declaring that the United States wants a robust U.N. presence in Iraq, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte urged countries Friday to contribute troops for a new force dedicated to protecting U.N. staff and facilities. Negroponte said the troops would be under overall command of the multinational force authorized by the U.N. Security Council on Oct. 16. The multinational force is led by the United States, but he stressed that the U.N. protection force would be a "discreet, separate" entity.
Let the Ghurkas run it.
The U.S. ambassador, who is widely tipped to be President Bush's choice to replace L. Paul Bremer as the top American envoy in Iraq after the June 30 handover of power, refused to confirm or deny that he would be heading to Baghdad. "I simply can't comment on those reports, and any statement on that kind of subject would obviously have to come from the White House," he told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council on Iraq.
Negroponte told council members that the United States welcomes the "highly constructive recommendations" made this week by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for a caretaker government that would assume power from the U.S.-led coalition on June 30 "and looks forward to hearing about them in greater detail." "Our thinking is very much that he's got the lead on this issue and that his recommendations will carry a great deal of weight," Negroponte said later. The coalition and the Iraqi Governing Council asked the United Nations to help come up with a transitional government acceptable to a wide range of Iraqis and to assist in preparing for elections, to be held by Jan. 31.
Negroponte made clear the United States wants the United Nations back. "I believe that I do not overstate the broad desire within the international community for the United Nations to return to Iraq to play an expansive, robust and vital role, in particular after the June 30 transition," Negroponte told the council. "In this regard, I urge member states to contribute to the future of Iraq by providing troops to carry out the function of security support for the essential United Nations role," he said.
Clever -- hoist the Security Council members on their own petard. You want a role? Contribute.
Negroponte said he expects the role of a "broad-based U.N. mission" to be defined in a new U.N. resolution. He said he doesn't expect a draft "in the very near future but I'm sure that over the next several weeks this is an issue we're going to have to address." Among the issues he envisioned in a new resolution are the political transition, possibly questions related to the multinational force, and legalities related to the transfer of power from an occupying force to a soverign Iraqi government.
And making sure the French can't co-opt the new transitional government as a way to get money and oil leases.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/16/2004 12:43:10 PM ||
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Negroponte told council members that the United States welcomes the "highly constructive recommendations" made this week by U.N.
'Constructive' and 'U.N.' seem to me mutually exclusive concepts...
#2
Spain will leave unless control is not given to the UN vice the Iraqis. Wouldn't want those Iraqis to be in charge of a democratic governemtn mapping out their own destiny would we?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/16/2004 13:24 Comments ||
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#3
Prediction, IF John Forbes Kerry (that has the sound of a "freind" of the working man) wins in November then on January 21 all of a sudden the UN and the EU will suddenly see the need for assistting the US in Iraq. I suspect a large part of the unwillingness to do so is predicated on the intense hatered of GWB in some quarters. Unfortunately I do see the need for an organization like the UN, just not nessecarily the UN we've got. Consider the spectacular successes the UN has had in the last 15 years, Rawanda, Somolia after the USMC basically was pulled out, Kosovo, Bosnia, need I go on. The UN needs to be reformed. God knows India deserves a permanent seat on the SC more than France does. The rules of floor debate and voting are asinine. That a country the population and economic power of Fuji has the same voting power as Japan or Britian much less the US is absurd. That does not mean that Fuji or other minor states deserve to run ruffshod. Perhaps the model of the US Huose of Representatives where in more populous states have more voting power would make more sense.
WASHINGTON (AP) - By putting a bigger force along Iraq's border with Syria, the U.S. Marines have been able to slow the infiltration of foreign fighters, a senior U.S. general said Friday. U.S. officials have frequently cited the Syrian border as a source of foreign extremists who make their way east to the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, and in some cases to Baghdad, and attack U.S. forces.
Maj. Gen. John Sattler, the director of operations for Central Command, said in a telephone interview with Pentagon reporters that the Marines have at least one-third more troops along the border than did the 82nd Airborne, which turned over the operation to the Marines last month. Sattler spoke from Central Command's forward headquarters near Doha, Qatar.
The Marines have managed to "shut that border region down," Sattler said, later tempering his assessment by saying some foreign fighters continue to elude detection at the border. "Is the border totally shut down? I won't make that statement because it is a large border and at nighttime there are a lot of wadis and places where individuals can work their way across," he said. The Marines' success has come at a high price, however. Sattler refused to provide specifics, but he said, "This is, as we all know, a very dangerous business and the Marines did suffer some casualties there."
As a matter of policy, the Marines since arriving in Iraq last month have withheld details about their casualties, including the location and the nature of the hostile action that caused them. One exception was an announcement on March 19 that two Marine privates were killed the day before in hostile action in Qaim, a city about six miles from the Syrian frontier.
Sattler's largely upbeat assessment of progress in sealing the Iraqi-Syrian border was in contrast to comments made Thursday by Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During a news conference in Baghdad, Myers talked about the problem of foreign fighters entering Iraq. "We know for a fact that a lot of them find their way into Iraq through Syria for sure. I mean, we know that. The ones we've captured, the ones we've detained, we know how they get here," he said, adding that "to some extent the same thing happens on the Iranian border as well."
Sattler said the Marines have focused much of their border-sealing effort in the vicinity of Qaim. He would not say how many Marines are operating along the border, but he said they are using a variety of firepower, including helicopter-borne troops and fixed-wing aircraft. "They have a substantial-size force that is dedicated out into that western region that has shut that border region down," he said, "and it is not only at the legal crossing points where we do have Iraqi border police, but it is those longtime traditional crossing points where foot traffic and some mobile traffic comes across."
He described the Marine operations as "very intense" and said they have made major progress over the past week. "We had an extreme amount of success on the front side, meaning that we did find, fix and ultimately finish a number of cells that were up there that were facilitating" the infiltration of foreign fighters, he said. He would not say how many people were in these cells or how many were captured or killed.
Hang the flypaper at the border instead of in Fallujah. I like that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/16/2004 11:53:13 AM ||
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I hope some of the the Marines on the border are from the Plains States.
Shooting prarie dogs, invading your dad's corn field, as you are growing up, would have been good practice for the assignment.
Vermin is vermin. Whether on the Syria-Iraq Border or the Nebraska-Kansas border.
PRIME Minister John Howard yesterday branded the behaviour of an Australian aid worker kidnapped in Iraq as "careless and foolhardy". A self-styled human shield, Donna Mulhearn, 34, of New South Wales, was captured by Mujahadeen fighters on Wednesday as she attempted to leave Fallujah, the scene of heavy fighting between US troops and the Iraqi militia. She was released 20 hours later, after convincing her kidnappers she was helping the Iraqi people.
Ms Mulhearn, a member of the ALP, claimed she had been shot at by US Marines. Mr Howard said Ms Mulhearn had needlessly placed her life in danger. "I think people have to understand that when they take unnecessary risks, they're not only putting their own lives at stake, but they're also putting at stake the lives of many other people and it is just not acceptable," he said. "I would be failing in my duty to the rest of the Australians who are in Iraq if I didn't say in the bluntest possible sense it is not fair on others to behave in a careless and foolhardy fashion."
#1
A self-styled human shield, Donna Mulhearn, 34, of New South Wales, was captured by Mujahadeen fighters on Wednesday as she attempted to leave Fallujah, the scene of heavy fighting between US troops and the Iraqi militia.
She was released 20 hours later, after convincing her kidnappers she was helping the Iraqi people.
A "human shield" for the jihadis expesses outrage that US forces would still try return fire at a gunman that she was shielding. Why has she ceased shielding, anyway? Wretchard has dealt with these Coincidences. Here is a sample:
The circumstances fueling the account by Lee Gordon of the London Telegraph has so many eerie similarities to the New York Times John Burns piece on the Golden Mosque that they fairly jump out. A team from a writer or newspaper respected by conservatives is captured on the road. The journalists are taken to a picturesque location where they are first greeted with hostility, then granted surprising liberty. A sense of shared danger bonds them with their captors. Scenes are provided to lend color. Due to a surprising coincidence, the captured journalists stumble on information every Western intelligence agency wants to know. The preparations to defend the Golden Mosque, the fate of the missing German counterterrorism agents. Then, as quickly as they were captured, they are released. Not for them is the long and slow incarceration of Terry Waite, but a hearty goodbye, encumbered only by the promise that they will tell the world the truth, on their word as Americans or Englishmen.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/16/2004 13:34 Comments ||
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#3
well dumbass if you put yourself in harms way - especially as a human shield expect to be shot at! what is she thinking that because she is western the marines will stop? what is slang for idiot in Australia?
where are the bulldozers!
Posted by: Dan ||
04/16/2004 15:09 Comments ||
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#4
useless idiots. Are they in, or are they out? Wish they'd make up their minds.
The German coach of the Iraqi national football team has left Iraq following the kidnappings of foreigners and said he would now have to consider his future. Bernd Stange told Deutsche Presse-Agentur he had been advised in writing by the German Foreign Ministry to leave Iraq "in view of the dramatically worsening security situation" in the country. A similar message was given to him verbally by the German ambassador in Baghdad, said Stange, who returned to Germany from Kuwait where the Iraqi Olympic team had played a friendly. "I wonât desert the people. But with a further worsening situation and lack of support I will have to think about my future in Iraq after the Asian Games in July," he said. Good work, insurgents. Feh. Soccer is probably unIslamic anyway.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
04/16/2004 11:45:25 AM ||
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A U.S. businessman was abducted from his hotel in the southern city of Basra by kidnappers disguised as policemen, the Basra police chief said Friday. Col. Khalaf al-Maleki said the abduction of the American, who was of Jordanian origin, took place Thursday night. He had no further details. Including the Basra abduction, at least 21 foreigners have been abducted over the past week in a wave of kidnappings. The abductions have coincided with intense violence around the country and most are believed to have been carried out by anti-U.S. insurgents, apparently for political reasons. The vast majority of the abducted foreigners were snatched on roads west and south of Baghdad, where gunmen have run rampant the past week, attacking convoys and battling U.S. troops. It was not immediately clear if the businessman's abduction was by insurgents or by criminals seeking ransom. For months, there have been many kidnappings of Iraqi citizens, especially wealthy ones, for extortion purposes.
Perhaps more of the same?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/16/2004 11:35:59 AM ||
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#1
This is an Al Q tactic to destroy the commerce potential in the country. It sends a signal to any non-com that is thinking about going to Iraq. The signal is STAY AWAY. That means limited economic growth and more handwringing from the media.
We need to stamp this shit out and fast.
Posted by: remote man ||
04/16/2004 12:24 Comments ||
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#2
Is an economic revivial THAT urgent that civilians need to be ushered into combat zones? Can't this wait for a while, a year or two, even?
Posted by: Seynour Paine ||
04/16/2004 12:35 Comments ||
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#3
Synour: yes. Getting the Iraqi economy going is one of the most important things to be done. Get the job market going, give average Iraqis a reason to support the new government, get some prosperity into the country. Remember the adage about idle hands and the Devil.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/16/2004 12:52 Comments ||
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#4
For about two months before the hostage-taking started, you would hear stories about the burgeoning Iraqi kidnapping business. Check Zayed's archives for some descriptions of how wide-spread and penny-ante the kidnapping business got. Apparently it got worse than Colombia, which has a national tradition of for-profit kidnapping which rivals the drug trade.
It's my opinion that this current spate of kidnapping of foreigners is just the natural extension of that earlier expansion of the kidnapping business. I wouldn't be surprised if the Russians quietly ransomed their people, for instance.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/16/2004 14:09 Comments ||
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EFL-
From the three dentists aka http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
Iâve been visiting the BBC Arabic site ... most Arabs (especially from Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria) are forming one side of the debates while Iraqis and people from the rest of the gulf countries are taking the other side... almost all the Iraqis who took part in the debates are on our side, maybe 95%...condemned the terrorists attacks on both Iraqis and the coalition...Itâs also surprising that many of those Iraqis live in areas that are recognized to have a public anti American attitude in general like Aâadhamiya, Diyala and Najaf. of course Iraqis who have internet cabability are probably higher income types -- as Sen. John Edwards would say, "there are two Iraqs, one where they like America and have internet and..."
Posted by: mhw ||
04/16/2004 9:09:49 AM ||
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#1
I saw a note on a different iraqi blog...when the iraqi would drop in on Israeli chat room, he would be greeted civilly and welcomed; they would ask him intelligent questions and treat him as a friend. When he visits the arab chat rooms, he is cursed, jeered, and called the worst kind of traitor. Go figure.
#2
#1 comment makes perfect sense to me. Any Muslim who doesn't support jihad is obviously an apostate, the worst kind of traitor, fit only to be slaughtered like a pig.
Article lengths are getting longer. With as many articles as we carry, this slows page load times. Since I read everything that's posted, I suppose it's good for my education, but it's very time consuming. Each article contains a link to the original, so all we need to do here is post the meat. The repetition, explanation, spin, and discussion will still be available at the original, which anyone can go read with a single click. Short, punchy excerpts are better than the whole thing. Someone suggested that articles over a certain length dump to the holding tank for further editing. I think that might be a good idea, though it'll delay appearance, sometimes up to a day. Comments?
Headlines
Try to keep headlines to a single display line. Please use either the original headline from the article, or reword it so it's descriptive of the article content. "What the hell?" doesn't describe the article content.
Links
Sometimes we forget to put the original link in. That means somebody's got to chase it down. I know usually it's an accident, but try to remember...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 8:35:21 AM ||
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#1
im agree. long posting give me headache. speking of long posting, where .com been all week.
#7
Isn't there some way to automate the process, where entries up to 100 words (you set the limit) are listed in full, and the excess is linked to a separate page? I see this is already being done on some blogs.
#8
For now, I've set up the page 1-page 2 split, even though new readers will probably find it confusing. I'm still thinking about how to do length control...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2004 20:01 Comments ||
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#9
Ditch the NPR business model and make people pay a (modest) fee to post.
I'm sure some of you technos could work out the details. It would not only help with the finances, it would discourage promicuous posting, lazy editing-- and maybe even the trolls!
#10
P.S. Come to think of it, Fred, you're even more socialistic then NPR. Anyone can listen to NPR, but not anyone-- not even if they pledge-- can take the mike away from Bob Edwards use NPR as a platform for his own rants.
#11
Hey Fred, with all the 'links only' posts appearing now, could you implement some sort of highlighting in the listing up top to indicate which headlines have articles attached?
EFL
The soldiers began to relax a bit as the forced stop became more prolonged. Iraqi children, curious about the American soldiers, began to swarm cautiously around the convoy. Initially, soldiers were nervous about the childrenâs presence and wanted to keep them away from the vehicles. Soon, however, the children gathered around the dismounted soldiers, chattering in Arabic and broken English. Some of them simply wanted to talk, but others attempted to sell DVDs, old Iraqi currency, and various other items to the troops. Many of the soldiers had the opportunity to try out their rudimentary Arabic phrases and have their pictures taken with the Iraqi children.
Jordanian authorities hunting Azmi Jayoussi, Palestinian from Jenin, last member of al Qaeda-Hizballah team that infiltrated from Syria three weeks ago armed for poison gas mega-strike. Rest of team and 3 trucks packed with explosives, weapons and chemicals rounded up by Jordanian security. Potential casualty toll â 20,000 within 1.5 km radius. Before you totally discount the poison gas, Debka ran with the trucks filled with explosives running aroung Jordan for a week before the Jordanians fessed up and the mainstream media got the story.
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/16/2004 7:51:07 AM ||
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#1
20,000 seems very high for a gas attack. Consider the terrible Bhopal accident, which (only) killed 3,800 people, and that was a massive gas release (40 tonnes) from a chemical plant, at night, with no (or little) alarms sounded, and with a fairly undetectable-until-it's-too-late cyanide compound.
#3
Not clear that the chemicals were supposed to be dispersed by the explosives, or were they separate modes of attack? I don't think its easy to disperse chems with explosives. Still AQ seems to be attempting to enhance the lethality of their conventional bombs.
#4
Many of the chemical warfare gases will burn, so disbursing them with explosives is a no-no.
Recall that the massive gas attacks from history all used large artillary barrages, multiple gun batteries, or large numbers of aircraft, etc. Bhopal or the Tokyo subway attack are probably the best any terr could hope for. And, handling these chemicals calls for some delicacy or the terrs will be their own victims. The United States continues to have accidents on Johnson Island and in Alabama despite our precautions.
#5
Chemical weapons are not that great a weapon in gas form. They are known to the military as "Non-persistent". They are used best for quick confusion and panic before your main force hits the enemy position. In a subway, or closed amphitheater they could do a great deal of damage, but in an open area they are fairly limited in their casualty-producing role. The "Persistent" chemical weapons are a worse threat. Think of a sticky residue that covers everything for a couple of hundred meters. It stays for weeks, or until rain-washes it away. The militaries around the world would use this to keep other troops away from areas for a while and to keep the areas intact for possible capture. Targets would be, crossroads, rail junctions, factories, ports, etc. Persistent chemical weapons would produce a hell of a lot more casualties for civilians that didn't know what it was and touched the stuff. They wouldn't want to leave their homes and livelihoods (see Cambodia and minefields). Persistent chemical weapons are deployed through airburst artillery, planes through spraying or a specially modified APC.
#6
Is someone talking about the chem weapons that Saddam sent to Assad at the start of the war?
The ones Scott Ritter said weren't there because he was too busy at Burger King?
The ones that Hans Magoo Blix couldn't figure out because his galsses were fogged by appeasement?
My oh My
MARCHING SONG OF THE REPUBLICAN GUARD?
What Chemical Weapons are for,
To wage a holy war,
Saddam has said that mustard gas is sacred.
We've used it on the Kurds,
And on the Persians too,
Look out coalition troops it's coming on through!
Suspected Taliban fighters have killed a district police chief and his nine bodyguards in southeastern Afghanistan, an official said Thursday. Yar Mohammed, police chief of Mizan district in insurgency-hit Zabul province, was traveling on Wednesday from neigbouring Kandahar province when his convoy was ambushed in Kandaharâs Chinarto district, Zabul Intelligence Director Ahmed Zia Massoud said. One of the attackers was killed in an exchange of fire following the ambush.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 1:00:13 AM ||
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#3
tu3031 - you hit the nail on the head. The majority of bodyguards aren't properly trained for close protection. Muscleheads are great for show, but unless they have the proper training/temperament, they are useless.
Do you start subtracting from the total corpse count once attackers get killed so that 1 dead police chief + 9 dead bodyguards - 1 dead attacker = 9 dead dudes instead of 11???
FORCES backing the Khartoum government have violated a four-day-old ceasefire in Sudan's western Darfur region, killing 32 civilians, a Sudanese rebel group charged today. Colonel Abdallah Abdel Karim, military spokesman of the Justice and Equality Movement (MJE), said Janjawid militiamen and government troops had torched villages north-west of the Darfur state capital Geneina near the border with Chad yesterday.
Did anybody expect anything different?
Karim, who was speaking in the Gabonese capital Libreville by satellite telephone and said he was in Darfur, added that 32 people allegedly killed in the raids were "mostly women, elderly and children". Several official sources in the Chadian capital Ndjamena said they were unaware of the alleged raids, while observers said criminal attacks may have been carried out by unruly soldiers.
Nothing official, you understand. I'm trying to figure how the colonel was speaking from Gabon and was still in Darfur, though...
Karim said the MJE's president was "taking steps to inform the mediators" of the alleged ceasefire violation. But he repeated his rebel group's misgivings over the Chadian mediators in the conflict, charging that Chadian soldiers had tried to arrest members of an MJE delegation in Chad, seizing their valuables when they went to the town of Tine-Chad near the border with Sudan to meet with Sudanese refugees. "Regarding the mediation, we have always said that the Chadian government was not impartial. We reaffirm the same thing," Karim said. "If there is no change in attitude, the MJE will have to ask the international community to transfer the negotiations to a neutral country."
That would probably be a good idea, if you can find one to take on the job. Try finding somebody without a dog in the fight, like Vietnam or Bhutan.
New talks are set for next Tuesday in the Chadian capital Ndjamena to discuss political issues and seek a "definitive settlement" to the conflict. A Chadian mediator said he hoped a parallel meeting would be held to set up the ceasefire monitoring commission.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:58:35 AM ||
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#1
How can that guy Karim speak in the Gabonese capital Libreville by satellite phone and be in Darfur at the same time?
Rebels detained in a recent operation in Chechnya said that the events in Ishkhoi-Yurt and some other areas had been planned since February "under direct orders from Chechen separatist leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov," representative of the regional headquarters for the anti-terrorist campaign in the North Caucasus Col. Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Thursday. Five police officers and a local resident died in a clash with a rebel group that raided Ishkhoi-Yurt in Chechnya's Gudermes district early on April 13. The detained rebels said that a unit of about 50 men had been formed "and instructed by the separatist leaders to carry out attacks and murders to trigger civilian panic and discontent with the federal forces." The unit had five UAZ cars and two Ural trucks, Shabalkin said. He said they murdered several civilians in Dubai-Yurt on March 27 and in Ishkhoi-Yurt on April 13.
Three rebels have been killed and seven bases designed to accommodate 5 to 15 men have been destroyed in the Shatoi and Itum-Kale districts of Chechnya, Shabalkin said. He said no aviation or artillery was used in the operation. The main target of the operation in the mountains is "to destroy the infrastructure rebels could use to attempt to cross the border from Chechnya and commit serious crimes in Chechnya," Shabalkin said. He said nine radios, a receiver, explosives, cartridges, military uniforms and rations were found at one of the bases.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:52:21 AM ||
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#1
This sounds fishy to me. There are two possibilities:
1. The state of affairs in the ranks of Chechen fighters is pretty shabby, desperate, pathetic, economically distressed, etc. You mean to tell me that these upper level Chechen commanders have been reduced to directing 50 men to attack a tiny village and burn like three trucks and shoot an old man? And they're to accomplish theses tasks with the overpowering arsenal of nine radios, a reciever, some explosives, cartridges, military uniforms and some rations? Seven bases designed to accomodate 5 to 15 men? You mean huts, right? Give me a frickin' break!
2. the Russians are stretching the truth a little to further demonize Shamil Basayev and Alsan Maskhadov. They're just making sure that their names are mentioned as bad guy bosses everytime so much as one bullet is fired in Chechenya at anything of interest to the Russians. These two are the Bin Ladens and Al-Zawahiris of Russian news.
I'll let you all infer which one is more likely. These idiots don't seem like the same idiots that bring down troop carrying Russian helos with 100+Russians inside (including Generals & upper-level officers by the way) and take groups of hundreds hostage in the HEART OF MOSCOW and truck bomb massive buildings in RUBBLE.
An official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said on condition of anonymity that 10 Russian soldiers died in rebel attacks throughout Chechnya over the past 24 hours. The official said five Russian soldiers were wounded. Russian planes and artillery today also pounded several other southern regions in a routine effort to hit suspected rebel hideouts, and at least 220 people were detained in sweeps for suspected rebels and accomplices.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:45:08 AM ||
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Unidentified terrorists fired three Russian-made rockets at different places in Peshawar on Thursday sending alarm bells ringing at the security agencies. One of the rockets injured two constables and damaged the CID police building while two others exploded in Qamardin Garhi, a suburban village of the provincial capital, without causing any damage or injuries. Police officials told The News that one of the three Russian-made ROB-107 rockets hit the Crimes Investigation Departmentâs (CID) building, near Gora Qabristan in the city centre, from a distance of 100 meters. The rockets were placed under a pushcart and connected with timer devices which went off at about 12.25 pm, the officials said.
A constable, Naik Mohammad, sustained critical injuries while his colleague, Khayal Mohammad, was slightly injured when the rocket hit a retiring room on the first floor of the CID building. The rocket, according to sources, slightly missed ammunition depot of the CID adjacent to the retiring room. The CID building is located close to the school of the Special Services Group (SSG), training centre of military commandos, and the Peshawar air base while the heavily guarded US Consulate in Peshawar is just hundreds of yards away from the spot. City police chief Tanvirul Haq Sipra said the rocket striking the CID post was fired from a pushcart standing at the opposite side, near the main University Road. "We have examined the two other shells, recovered from the outskirts of Qamardin Garhi, and it is clear that they were of the same make and might have been fired from the same pushcart," he said.
Two other rockets fell near Qamardin Garhi, located about eight kilometres southeast of the city. No injury was reported in these blasts. Just after the incident, locals rumoured that the rockets were fired by a plane. However, police officials dismissed the assumptions by saying that all the three rockets were fired from the same launcher. The distance between the two falling rockets, the police said, was about 400 meters. "I heard a deafening sound and saw a piece of metal falling on the ground," said an eyewitness, Yusuf, who was working in the nearest fields at the time the explosions took place, said the second rocket shell hit a mud-house, slightly damaging its boundary wall.
According to locals, a stranger was noticed selling fruit on the pushcart, used for rocket launching, but nobody suspected any foul play. This was the same spot where the men in uniform had seriously beaten conductor of a passenger bus for parking the vehicle just opposite the targeted police post. Though, police are still groping in the dark, some of the officials suspect that smugglers mafia could be behind the attacks after a recent crackdown on them. While others do not rule out the possibility of pro-al-Qaeda elements for launching the attacks in revenge, as the CID closely worked with the American FBI to carry out raids and search operations against suspected "foreign terrorists".
That's making the assumption there's a difference between the smugglers and the pro-al-Qaeda elements, of course...
"We are looking into all aspects of the incident. It will, however, be premature to blame anybody or any group at this stage," said city police chief Tanvirul Haq Sipra. He said that six investigation teams have been constituted and search operation has been launched in suspected areas of Regi, Nasir Bagh and Qila Shah Beg while nakabandis have been made on all entry points to the city. "No arrests have been made so far," replied the CCP in response to a query. Police have also hired foot-tracers to search for the culprits. NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani while taking serious notice of the situation has directed the law enforcing agencies to arrest the culprits and ensure perfect security to the public at all costs. Army intelligence agencies have also started investigation into the matter to search out the criminals behind the incident.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:35:48 AM ||
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#1
That sounds so funny...."nakabandis" and "foot-tracers"! I just imagine this article being read aloud with a stereotypical Pakistani/Indian accent! I can't get enough of these trippy Pakistani news articles! What strange vocabulary!
#2
Oh, and dare I forget the "retiring room!" or the "query". Using pushcarts is the same technique used in Iraq when they fired rockets from the pushcarts at the hotel where Paul Wolfowitz was staying at the time. They've used donkey carts and push carts several times from which to fire such rockets. I like how NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has demanded "Perfect security at all costs!" I guess Pakistan is the only country in the world in which the beating of the conductor of a passenger bus outside a police post wouldn't draw any police scrutiny. They could have foiled the plot right then and there. I mean, can't you just imagine the Pakistani cops standing there outside their police station talking about nakabandis and meanwhile there is a serious beating taking place right in front of them and they do NOTHING! And I got a funny picture of old Yusuf working in the field and being startled at the sound of RUSSIAN MADE ROCKETS going off in the background.
Polish military officials responsible for security in part of southern Iraq are arguing hard against taking Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr by force in Najaf, a leading Polish newspaper said late on Thursday. U.S. troops are now poised around Najaf, where Sadr's militia started an uprising earlier this month against the U.S.-led occupying forces, but America's top general said talks were under way to avoid a bloodbath in the city. "Going into Najaf will be a disaster, it will make the main Shi'ite leaders turn away from us," Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper quoted a senior diplomatic source as saying. "If Sadr gives up on violence, we should be talking with him. We want to talk with anyone in Iraq who doesn't shoot at us."
Senior diplomatic sources are supposed to talk that way...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/16/2004 12:15:44 AM ||
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#1
But you cannot show any respect to sadr. I think the Poles have a clue. But how do you put an end to this faker. He has to be taken out.
#2
I think that Sistani will use Al Sadr as a useful tool in his dealings with the US. Sadr is a threat to him, but now has been defanged. Sistani wants to make himself da man in dealings with the US. So if we go after Sadr by the Marine Method, Sistani will make his fools spittle-boys fodder minions followers go ape shiite shit and bring on another rebellion against us.
Anyone who lives his life around a martyr who lost a war and cuts up their kids on their scalps is one sick f--k.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/16/2004 0:51 Comments ||
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#3
Alaska Paul:
You must be referring to those crazy Shiites that cut themselves during Ashoura. They cut their kid's scalps and they bleed all over the place. Sickos!
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/16/2004 3:06 Comments ||
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#5
"Heeeere, little Muqty... C'mere, that's right, that's good...See? Nobody's gonna hurt you...
(get the net ready, Fred)... C'mon, that's it, just a little further..."
Posted by: Dr. Evil ||
04/16/2004 10:51 Comments ||
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#6
It occurs to me that this Sadr-sealed-off-by-a-cordon-of-US troops thing is a smaller version of what we (and the Brits) did to Saddam in the 1990's. Now that Sadr is harmless, our local allies are against finishing the job. For them, it is much better to have a bunch of Yanks sitting on their asses in the desert for godknowshowlong instead.
That crap wasn't sustainable with Saddam, and won't be here...
Posted by: Carl in N.H ||
04/16/2004 12:54 Comments ||
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#7
The Poles are adopting the good cop role
They've see our Marines take care of business (snarl).
Last night there was a high-speed chase that ended 1/2 block from my home (really). The county sheriff deputy with a megaphone (like the poles) says in a soothing voice, "There is a dog here (the Marines). He will go to where you are. You may get bit. Come out with your hands up, or the dog will go in." (Large German Shepherd growls)
Requires registration Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Al Aalmi, a splinter group of the outlawed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen of Fazlur Rehman Khalili, has been accused since 2002 of mounting various terrorist attacks. Its activists have been arrested in connection with two abortive attempts on General Pervez Musharrafâs life as well as the attack on the US consulate. It has also been accused of last weekâs car bomb blast ostensibly to disrupt the concert of Indian singer Sonu Nigam. In the last week police have arrested nine members of the alleged Al Aalmi group, including one of its most wanted militants Suhail Akhtar alias Mustafa. Officials say Mustafa was the contact who contracted and provided suicide bombers to different organisations. A few days before the recent arrest of Al Aalmi activists, some unknown militants attacked a makeshift police station in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and shot dead five policemen at point blank range. One of the cops was a Christian. Police officials suspect Al Aalmiâs hand in the attack. Similarly, Rangersâ officials believe the attack on one of their vehicles which killed a Rangersâ jawan and a passerby besides inuring three other Rangersâ personnel was also mounted by Al Aalmi members. The group is also being suspected in the major weapon catch in the outskirts of Karachi. The weapons included an 82 mm mortar which has a range of up to five kilometer. The same night the weapons cache was recovered, a car bomb near the DHA Golf Club killed one person and injured 11 others. Just two kms from the site of the blast, an Indian singer was performing for the Karachi audience.
So what is Al Aalmi? Funnily, law enforcement agencies have nothing on the organisation in terms of literature or any other propaganda material, normally a staple of such groups. Is it a real group or is it a cover name for some other group? Al Aalmiâs name appeared about two years ago when Rangers arrested five religious extremists in connection with the suicide bomb blast outside the US Consulate on June 14, 2002. One of them was a bearded man Mohammad Imran Bhai. Rangersâ officials claimed Bhai was the amir of the group. Officials also said Al Aalmi was an offshoot of Khaliliâs HM after some HM cadres developed differences with Khalili and formed their own group. A few days later when TFT met with Imran Bhai in a courtroom and asked him about Al Aalmi, he said: â I am a member of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Al Aalmi is the product of Rangers and security agencies. There is no division in HM.â
I've been thinking of it as the hit squad for another group, perhaps HM but more likely Jaish e-Mohammad...
So far, police and security agencies have not found any literature on Al Aalmi. The group also has no offices. Similarly, there is no evidence of Al Aalmiâs presence in any other part of the country. Security agencies believe Al Aalmi is an underground organisation of highly trained militants, which have targeted police and other law enforcement agencies. Interestingly, officials deny any involvement of Khaliliâs HM in the terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Three groups have been flagged by security agencies for mounting attacks inside Pakistan: Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e Jhangvi and Al Aalmi. But while there is much literature on Jaish and Lashkar, there is absolutely nothing on Al Aalmi. The group remains a mystery even as intelligence agencies continue to implicate it in various attacks in Karachi.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
04/16/2004 12:16:30 AM ||
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EFL
Far from securing the area in the South Waziristan agency, ostensibly the reason for the recent military operations there, the Al Qaeda militants and their local sympathisers have begun to paralyse the civil administration by attacking government officials. Until last year Khasadars, the tribal police, could move about in the area without fear. The situation has changed since the last operation. Government officials and journalists travelling to the area are given police escorts for security reasons and no one travels alone. What is even more disheartening is the fact that policemen have cut down on their movements and when they do go out they wear plain clothes rather than don the militia suits, their uniform. âThey [Al Qaeda elements and their tribal supporters] will kill me if I am spotted in the official dress,â a Wazir tribal cop, attired in white-coloured civilian dress, told TFT during the journey between Tank and Wana. Many cops, including the one that escorted TFT to Wana, have been told to either quit or face death. âThese people consider us American agents. Many of my colleagues and I have got messages to reconsider government service,â this Khasadar jawan told TFT. âSince that day,â he says, âIâm taking extra care to avoid getting killed.â
Having actually done something, no matter how ineffective, they're discovering that the Taliban runs things on both sides of the border and will brook no opposition...
The level of security alert has gone up following the March 22nd surprise ambush on a military convoy in Sarwakai sub-division on the main Tank-Wana highway. The ambush killed 12 soldiers and the attackers destroyed around a dozen vehicles carrying supplies to the army base in Wana. Another eight soldiers, gone missing, were later killed in cold blood by the attackers. Their dead bodies were found five days after the incident. âThat incident has put us on high alert. The Al Qaeda is certainly not playing by the rules of Geneva Conventions,â an administration official told TFT in Wana.
Oh, did you notice that?
Intelligence informers and officials face greater risk of being targeted. A secret agent Sher Nawaz was shot dead just outside his office in Wana. His death was blamed on Al Qaedaâs local supporters. A source told TFT that many intelligence officials have received threatening letters. An intelligence informer who received one such letter confirmed to TFT that the sender seemed to know much about him and his activities. âThe letter gave all the details about me and warned me against continuing with my work,â he told TFT. âWe cannot even go to Wana bazaar because of security risk,â he added. Officials in Peshawar admitted that restricted movement of intelligence informers had led to some fog about the activities of Al Qaeda and its sympathisers. While state security agents are restricted to Camp Base, an area constructed by the British that houses top political administration officials and military commanders, Al Qaeda militants and their informers are free to roam and do their own intelligence work.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
04/16/2004 12:09:54 AM ||
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#1
The whole way in which the entry-level Pakistani soldiers and policemen view their jobs is messed up. They see being a Pakistani soldier or policeman as nothing more than being in a club, or as a weekend hobby. They don't care about their jobs at all. What a bunch of cowards. They're not willing to die for the honor of their uniform. And it sounds like they're all lone operators, like they're just out there on their own, without leadership, or organization. Like they need to stay together in groups and have BIG guns and stuff. These guys sound like they were just handed a uniform randomly and told to wear it occasionally while conducting their usual business.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
