A Saudi cleric claimed on Friday that he had secured the return of a "senior Al Qaeda figure" from Pakistan. "A brother from Al Qaeda in Pakistan contacted me from there and asked that his name be included in the amnesty," Cleric Safar al-Hawali told Reuters, adding the man could arrive in the kingdom within days. Hawali said the authorities agreed on Friday to include the militant's name in the list of those pardoned, though Crown Prince Abdullah has rejected the idea of a formal extension. The amnesty expired late on Thursday. Al Hawali said he has also been in contact with Saleh al-Awfi, the presumed Al Qaeda leader in the kingdom, to persuade him to give himself up. Saudi authorities this week detained Awfi's wife and three children in a raid but he apparently escaped.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 7:56:56 PM ||
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The USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier collided with a dhow in the Arabian Gulf while running night flights in support of U.S. operations in Iraq, the Navy said Friday. The crew of the small boat was missing.
Splat, like a bug on the windshield
The Navy said none of its sailors were hurt and described the Thursday night collision as an accident. A nearby British warship, the Somerset, sent teams to search for the dhow's crew but had found nothing so far, the Navy said in a statement from its 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. Fleet spokesman Cmdr. James Graybeal said via telephone that "there is nothing to indicate that this is anything more than a maritime accident."
Maybe a accident, maybe a test to see how close they could get. Since they didn't get caught, next one could be loaded with explosives. It would take a lot to sink a carrier, but a damaged one would be out of action for a while, and would be a propaganda coup.
In October 2000, suicide attackers detonated explosives on a small boat they had brought alongside the USS Cole destroyer as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed.
Exactly how did this small boat get through the screen and get that close to a carrier? I expect somebody is going to lose his command over this.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/23/2004 8:56:16 AM ||
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#1
Anyone down in the Norfolk area this weekend, go down to the port to watch 3 carrier groups returning to port...over 13,500 sailors.
#5
This is a serious breach of security--how did this boat get anywhere NEAR the JFK? Isn't the CVN supposed to be surrounded by several dozen ships on picket duty? This strikes me as the near-equivalent of Matthias Rust landing his Cessna in Red Square.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/23/2004 10:12 Comments ||
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#6
Pardon my ignorance--as some of you know I am a learning curve.
How come large carriers such as this do not have patrol boats at the lead and rear?
#7
How come large carriers such as this do not have patrol boats at the lead and rear?
They do, in a way. A CBG also includes cruisers, destroyers, frigates and a submarine or two. That this dhow would manage to elude ALL of them is troubling, to say the least.
#9
From what I have been told by people who have served on carriers is that most of the time you can't even see the escort vessels. Plus the amount of traffic in the Gulf is guite large and I would assume that there is no traffic control at all. Plus at the speed the JFK was travelling the dhow might not of had any idea just how much trouble it was in
#10
Someone will be in trouble for letting the Dhow through the screen. Dhows are relatively small ships and might be too low for rader, if it happened at night while the fleet was conducting flight operations and was probably scattered I can see how this could happen.
The folks in the Dhow are either bad guys, or completely deaf dumb and blind to have actually smacked into a slow moving and rather large and loud ship such as a carrier. My guess is they had bad intentions but the explosives didn't go off. Either that or they are smugglers who dodged one of the screening ships and accidently went the wrong way and found themselves surrounded, and defeaned, and didn't see the black mass in front of them.
#11
My guess is that they were smugglers and running quiet, dark, and ?fast?. I suspect this happened at night because I can't imagine one getting by the screen during the day.
#12
I have no idea how a big a 'dhow' is, but how in the world could you POSSIBLY not see a freakin' carrier?! This was definitely a test. And the carrier group failed. And I would say the person in command of the picket screen will be scrubbing barnacles off the side of the carrier for a long time.
#15
A couple of observations from a guy that used to drive those things and escorts as well.
The escorts are widely dispersed for several reasons. Bunched together, 1 nuke can take them all out at once. It's for the escorts protection - the carrier is moving very rapidly and at night, with all the flight deck illumination, it is very difficult to gauge the course she is on. More than one escort has collided with carriers at night in the past. During the '60s one American destroyer was cut in half and sunk by the HMAS Melbourne.
Dhows are all wood and canvas which is pretty much invisible on radar. They also tend not to have any running lights that a lookout could spot. Also the illumination on the flight deck tends to blind the lookouts and make night vision equipment ineffective. As dhows are sail powered, they are slow and have limited maneuverability - not the kind of vessel you would attempt to use for a terrorist attack. Small boats like that frequently don't have anyone actually "on watch." Once off the California coast I almost collided with a large pleasure craft because no one was at the wheel. Finally at the last minute a guy comes running topside bare naked to change course (we know what he was doing!)
The flight deck is so long, that from the pilot house, you cannot see anything ahead of you, or on your port bow for at least a mile.
Bottom line - the only safe place near a carrier operating at night is in a submarine :-)
Posted by: Bill ||
07/23/2004 12:44 Comments ||
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#16
Sanity, sanity, please. But I see that #15 has beaten me to the punch. Law of gross tonnage applies, the CVN isn't going to dodge the dhows, which are literally everywhere at all times in the PG. They aren't even going to try during recovery cycles (when the aircraft land). But if Bill remembers, wasn't there a Soviet sub in the Sea of Japan in the 1980s that was literallly rolled under one of the older decks, Indie perhaps? Bounced a few times off the keel as the boat ran over it, eventually resurfacing in the wake, and in true Soviet fashion, refusing all offers of assistance. I'd hate to have been rolling around inside that tin can.
#18
Bill and LL - I appreciate reading your responses, but I'm still incredulous that something like this can be dismissed so nonchalantly--especially in the wake of the USS Cole attack. We aren't fighting an enemy with the technology to launch a nuclear-tipped missile or torpedo into the middle of a battle group, and they don't have any Kilos or Tangos. The low tech approach is precisely what they use and, it appears, precisely what we're not prepared to counter. It's vulnerabilities like this they seek to exploit.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/23/2004 13:28 Comments ||
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#19
There's no such thing as a free lunch -- or risk-free military operations, Dar.
In this as in all matters, there is a cost-benefit tradeoff to be made. As Bill notes, radar doesn't do much for something not much bigger than a rowboat with a canvas sail on it. At some point, trying to defend against all attacks all the time is not only too costly, it badly degrades operational capability.
I'm very confident our naval commanders have a clear risk profile they operate to and that that profile is well thought-out.
Which does not mean an attack couldn't happen, just that the only effective way to prevent any attacks would be to cease operating there. Which, of course, would mean the country runs other risks here at home.
#20
#18 Dar, I'm understand your concern, and I can assure you that 5th Fleet isn't being so nonchalant, only because now they have a lot of paperwork to fill out. If you aren't familiar with carrier ops, it may be hard to understand why a carrier underway with room to maneuver is incredibly difficult to find, much less hit, much less inflict serious damage on. A bomb the size of the one that nearly split USS Cole would be lucky to damage a CV enough to require a patch, and it wouldn't stop it from hauling ass, either. A small boat trying to run alongside in a carrier's wake would be pushed away, trying to water ski in the wake would make a great focsle follies film, and you've seen what happens when one tries to park in front of one--seriously, it's possible to run over a dhow and never know it. The time to worry for a carrier's safety is when it's parked pierside somewhere. Mt Mckinley jogging has nothing fear from muggers.
#23
LL--Thanks for your comments! I guess I'm just concerned that Al Qaeda and Co. are looking for every opportunity to give us a black eye and exploit vulnerabilities, and in our high tech world we tend to overlook the low tech aspects and threats.
I know it would take something HUGE to damage a carrier, but it's not the carrier I'm concerned about. It's the smaller ships in our navy that make better targets, and to see a carrier, which I always understood was the most protected ship in the fleet, can end up running over a dhow makes me wonder how well protected the minor ships are.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/23/2004 15:15 Comments ||
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#26
Nowadays the term dhow can mean any small cargo vessel, whether lanteen sail powered or motorized. Remember that the USS Decatur intercepted a 40-foot motorized dhow last December that was smuggling hashish - and thought possibly to be linked to Al-Qaida.
Usually the fleet steams too fast for even the motorized versions to intercept, but the bad boyz do know how to operate faster boats. After the USS Cole attack (and continuing up until a few months ago) I was heavily involved in rebuilding fast attack craft for the Navy for fleet protection. I designed and retrofit the Electric/Electronic systems. We were so short of mission capable boats that we were "borrowing" them from the SWCC school and pulling boats off of the junk pile just to get rebuildable hulls. I'm proud to say that a fleet hasn't sailed since that didn't have a part of me going with it (usually the skin from my knuckles). (I even saw one of boats in the water when the USS Reagan came into San Diego this morning.)
Long story short, if the fleet is in port or going slow, we have counter measures. But If we are at operational speed, I dunno - Does anyone else?
#28
Hey Dar, sorry it took so long to get back to you ('ya mean I gotta work?) A lot of people who haven't actually been in that kind of work don't understand the difference between being prepared and being invincible. No one or thing is invincible. Any single person, vehicle, aircraft, or ship may one day have a dissterous meeting with a "golden bullet." If you are well trained, motivated and sufficiently paranoid, your chance of buying the farm are greatly lessened, but it can still happen to anyone. To a certain extent, the oceans are a bit like the freeways. Collisions do happen. Even if you are a wary driver, you can still be hit by some bozo who is not paying attention. The main thing is to keep alert and play the odds. The ocean is a big place and our enemies would have to place an incredible amount of resources equipping large numbers of small craft with explosives and, more importantly, suicide crews to have even a relatively small chance of nailing a major combatant while at sea. They know they have a much better chance pulling off something like the Cole attack where the ship is stationary and likely to be in or near a particular place with some regularity.
Posted by: Bill ||
07/23/2004 19:40 Comments ||
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#29
Here is an excellent link to those who are unfamiliar with a Dhow from Archeology Magazine. I took a fishing trip on a dhow during one of my stops in Bahrain. It was like be on a mini-version of RA II that might have been constructed from the leavings of a residential construction site in NC (no Portolet but bad industrial carpet installed on the deck and awning.)
The JFK has a history of running into other ships - the Belknap and another frigate a year later. The Belknap collision was particularly messy as the smaller cruiser (which is really big) ruptured piping in a fueling station above the point of impact on the carrier. The result was that JP-5 or JP-4 gushed like a monsoon from the carrier down the cruiser's stacks, a cause which did not lead to a happy effect - the Belknap's superstructure melted down the to the maindeck like the wicked witch in Wizard of Oz.
Pappy would be the best reference on Dhows, but here are some thoughts within my experience why it is surprising that this type of accident doesn't happen more often:
1. A fishing area that is worthwhile to a commercial fisherman will generally be exploited by a gaggle of them simultaneously.
2. The worse case for all involved is when somewhere within a heavily trafficked navigational channel there exists a really prime fishing spot.
3. While a carrier doesn't maneuver well, neither does a fisherman with his nets extended.
4. Screening ships are looking capable of protecting against some types of threats they are no more useful chase away a fleet of dhows than a shot gun or baseball bat is useful in attacking a bee hive. You could probably task a destroyer with running over every dhow in the carriers way or zapping them with a 50 cal from the bridge-wing but screening vessels are too big for the job of chasing away fishing scows.
5. Commercial captains throughout the world monitor the same bridge-to-bridge radio frequencies and are ready to deconflict actions in English. Figure the odds of all the the dhow captains in the Persian being well out-fitted and fluent in English - although their English would be much better than my Arabic. This same problem for large vessels exists off the West coast of South America as well. I have played chicken with a several fishermen in zodiac style boats who were trying to keep me away from where they had laced their lobster traps. Although the Law of Gross Tonnage was in my favor, I yielded, having no interest in fouling my screw.
6. On a carrier (I am really weak as this is from a six-week Midshipman cruise in 87 on the Saratoga) the height of eye allows you to see farther but you are blinded in close to the vessel by the edge of the flight deck - reminiscent of trying to parallel park a Yukon.
The eyes of the ship, up close are probably a kid with binoculars at the forward lookout station.
7. On many surface ships the officer in charge of the Combat Information Center (CIC - or where the radars be) can walk out to the bridge-wing for consultation in less then 30 strides. That is not possible on a carrier.
Final Note - the JFK was designed as a nuke, but converted to conventional steam power so as not to offend the Kennedy family. This means that it probably swills gas faster than Ted can go through a shaker of martinis. It probably will be kept in service longer than it really should be for political considerations.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/23/2004 23:24 Comments ||
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#30
Very, very few people understand, either, the power of a major warship at speed. A fully-armed carrier weighs in at 55,000 tons, and travels at 35-40 knots (38-44 miles an hour). Do the math - Ke=Mv (kinetic energy equals mass times velocity). We're not talking a 70-car loaded coal train hitting a schoolbus, but more something like such a train hitting a bicycle! That's a lot of steel moving at a respectable clip through the water. When I was stationed in Panama in the 1960's there was an accident with a 600-foot dry-cargo vessel hitting another, 400-foot general-purpose cargo vessel at five knots, in a fog. The second ship had a gouge in the hull 40 feet long and 17 feet deep. Luckily both ships were virtually in port when it happened, an no one was killed. Any wooden vessel shorter than about 35 feet wouldn't have even scratched the paint on the JFK, and it would have taken something on the lines of a large Coast Guard cutter to make a dent. As far as "dry run" is concerned, there are other factors that would practically mitigate against any serious damage with anything a small vessel could carry, and hopefully a larger vessel would have been stopped. Besides, I doubt there are any survivors of THIS collision to pass on any lessons learned, other than "don't try this at home...".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/23/2004 23:28 Comments ||
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Osama bin Laden personally intervened with a Yemeni government official in 1999 to secure the release of one of his followers, a man who later assisted in both the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of the USS Cole, the Sept. 11 commission reported. The al-Qaida operative was Tawfiq bin Attash, also known as Khallad. He was arrested in early 1999 because he was driving the car of another militant who was wanted by the Yemeni government.
But in 1999, Khallad's ties to al-Qaida apparently were not known, although he was working on the plot that would eventually lead to the bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen. The Sept. 11 report called Yemen's arrest of him a case of mistaken identity. In summer 1999, bin Laden himself -- by then a wanted man for the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa -- contacted a Yemeni government official to secure Khallad's release. Khallad's father, a Yemeni associate of bin Laden who was expelled from the country for his militant views, also contacted the Yemeni government. Bin Laden's tone was threatening when he spoke to a Yemeni official. He suggested he "would not confront the Yemenis if they did not confront him." The Yemeni is not identified in the Sept. 11 report. Khallad was freed.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:45:34 AM ||
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A sixth Islamist militant has surrendered to Saudi authorities under a one-month amnesty aimed mainly at al Qaeda supporters who have attacked Westerners, government targets and energy sites. State media said on Friday that Fayez al-Khashman al-Dosari, wanted on unspecified security charges, turned himself in the western Saudi city of Taif before the amnesty expired late on Thursday.
"I quit!"
"Mahmoud, see if anybody's head's in his fridge!"
"YIPE! It's a crowd, boss!"
Only five other militants are confirmed as having surrendered since de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah made the offer on June 23. He warned militants loyal to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden to take advantage of the pardon or face a crackdown.
"Youse guyz are really gonna get it! I'm warnin' yez!"
There was no immediate word on negotiations to arrange the surrender of the presumed al Qaeda leader in the kingdom, Saleh al-Awfi. Saudi authorities this week detained Awafiâs wife and three children in a raid but he apparently escaped.
"Here, honey! Hold this gun a minute!"
"But I... Hey! Where'd you go?"
"Mom! Can I hold Daddy's gun?"
Learned Elder of Islam Cleric Safar al-Hawali has said he has been in contact with Wafi, trying to persuade him to give himself up.
"Hang it up, al-Oafy! Youse don't want to end up like al-Muqrin, do youse?"
Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz had said he expected large numbers of militants to surrender.
That worked well, didn't it?
One of the six, Fozan al-Fozan, who turned himself at the Saudi embassy in Syria, arrived in Saudi Arabia on Thursday. A security source said Fozan had suspected al Qaeda links. State television showed Fozan arriving at the airport with his wife and young daughter and being greeted by relatives. "Before this amnesty I suffered from anxiety and was drained emotionally. Thank God for this amnesty," Fozan said. "I was worried I would be too late for the amnesty. I did this (surrendered) in the last few hours. I advise others to do the same," he said. "Just leave the heads in your fridges and turn yourselves in! They won't go bad!"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:26:12 AM ||
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Just like Nek Mohammed was ...
THREE of Saudi Arabia's most wanted terrorist suspects, including the al-Qaeda leader in the country, Saleh Mohammed al-Oufi, are willing to negotiate their surrender, a mediator said today. "Mediators confirmed that Oufi is willing to negotiate and they are optimistic about the results," Sheikh Safar al-Hawali, who mediated between Saudi authorities and terror suspects, said only hours before a month-long royal amnesty was due to expire. "Negotiations with the other two suspects who are also on the 26 most-wanted list started over a month ago. They prefer to remain anonymous," Mr Hawali said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:07:43 PM ||
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#1
The dead man wants to surrender? What?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/23/2004 8:08 Comments ||
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#2
seems it would have been smarter of Oufi to stay dead. I suspect some Saudi officials are going to be very angry at him for reappearing after he had so conveniently died.
#3
Ok, is this another one of those "multiple ways to spell a arabic name" kind of things? -including the al-Qaeda leader in the country, Saleh Mohammed al-Oufi
-chief of the primary militant group in the kingdom is Saleh al-Awfi
I say al-Oufi, you say al-Awfi, let's kill the whole damm bunch.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/23/2004 9:47 Comments ||
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#5
Negotiations for the surrender of the man believed to be al-Qaida's chief in the Arabian Peninsula have begun, a Saudi cleric said Friday.
Sheik Safar al-Hawaly, speaking to The Associated Press from the southern Saudi province al-Baha, said an intermediary was sent to Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi on Thursday night. He would not say where al-Aoofi was.
Make that three ways to spell it:
Saleh al-Awfi
Saleh Mohammed al-Oufi
Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi
No wonder they can't keep the databases straight.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/23/2004 13:45 Comments ||
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Lawyers acting for the U.S. government outlined terrorism charges against a radical Muslim cleric, including an alleged attempt to establish a jihad camp in Oregon, as they sought his extradition Friday from Britain. Abu Hamza al-Masri was involved in the attempted establishment of the terrorist training camp, a hostage-taking incident in Yemen, and the funding of training for potential terrorists, said James Lewis, a lawyer acting for the U.S. government said. U.S. authorities are seeking his extradition on 10 terror charges, Lewis said. Al-Masri's defense attorney said his client wouldn't receive a fair hearing if he were sent to the United States and expressed fears some evidence against him may have been obtained from tortured witnesses. Defense lawyer Edward Fitzgerald also told Judge Timothy Workman that Al-Masri, 47, could face the death penalty in the United States.
We can dream, can't we?
The Egyptian-born cleric - who has one eye and hooks for hands, which he says were lost fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s - was arrested May 27 by British police in London after a U.S. request. "The evidence gathered by the FBI when viewed as a whole shows that Abu Hamza was a member of a conspiracy to wage global jihad," Lewis told the court. Lewis said U.S. authorities allege al-Masri conspired to establish a jihad training camp near Bly, Ore., a logging and ranching town in the high desert of southern Oregon. Al-Masri allegedly sent two supporters to view facilities there, but a camp was never developed. Lewis also said the FBI had concluded that al-Masri "knowingly and actively participated" in the hostage-taking in Yemen in 1998, when terrorists seized 16 tourists. Three British tourists and one Australian visitor were killed when Yemeni security forces were involved in a shootout with the Islamic extremist captors. He said the Finsbury Park mosque in north London where al-Masri was head preacher funded a trip to Afghanistan for two supporters, one of whom wanted to be trained for the global jihad.
Fitzgerald said his client shouldn't be extradited. "This is a situation where there's every likelihood that evidence will be deployed against the defendant that is obtained by putting panties on their heads torture or inhumane and degrading treatment," he said. Officials have said previously that al-Masri was suspected of aiding the deadly 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole. Those allegations were not mentioned in court Friday. Al-Masri has been the focus of terror suspicions for years in Britain. He formerly preached at a London mosque linked to several terrorist suspects, including Sept. 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
He is also wanted in Yemen on charges of hostage-taking and conspiracy. Workman adjourned the hearing until Aug. 20.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/23/2004 1:48:30 PM ||
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French authorities are investigating whether the Madrid train bombers hacked into the telephone exchange of a bank near Paris as they were planning their attack, say judicial sources. Prosecutors this month began a probe into a flurry of calls to Spain and Morocco from a bank in the Val-de-Marne area. The calls increased significantly in the days before the attack and stopped a few hours before the bombs ripped through a series of commuter trains on March 11, killing 191 people, according to the daily newspaper Le Parisien. Police have established that the calls were made by "phreaking" -- a practice similar to hacking that bypasses the charging system. The paper said Rabei Osman Ahmed es-Sayed, alias Mohamed the Egyptian, a suspect in the attacks who was arrested in Milan in June, spent several months in Val-de-Marne last year. The judicial sources said France's DST domestic intelligence service, which has already been ordered to investigate French connections to the attacks, was leading the latest inquiry.
#1
Ah, old-fashioned phone phreaking. Too bad it was used for such an evil purpose. Phreaking was all about learning, and making as many free calls as you wanted, and changing the class of service on your enemies' phones to a pay phone or prison phone, so when they tried to make a call, they got a recording asking them to deposit money...into a home phone. Good times...
An extreme Muslim group was today warned to abandon plans to stage a demonstration in Trafalgar Square amid fears of a race riot. Ken Livingstone and the London Assembly told the leader of Al Muhajiroun to call off the gathering planned for tomorrow or risk prosecution under London by-laws. Far-Right groups such as the British National Party and the National Front are planning a counter demonstration and the Mayor is worried that the event will descend into violence. Al Muhajiroun triggered outrage in 2001 when it praised the September 11 hijackers as "the Magnificent 17". It has been condemned by moderate Muslim groups for its extreme anti-Semitic and anti-gay views.
In his letter to Al Muhajiroun's leader Anjem Choudary, Mr Livingstone said his group did not have permission to hold a rally in Trafalgar Square and had not applied for permission. The Mayor's spokesman said: "No response has so far been received." London Assembly member Murad Qureshi issued a strong message that Al Muhajiroun is not welcome in Trafalgar Square. He has also made it clear that Far-Right extremist groups will be equally unwelcome. He said: "This illegal demonstration is the last thing we need for community relations in London. The views of this fringe organisation are extreme and offensive to other communities."
Posted by: TS(vice girl) ||
07/23/2004 11:30:30 AM ||
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With the Lashkar-e-Taiba/Jamaat ul-Dawaa, no doubt ...
The Moroccan youth — whose arrest at the end of June reportedly was a major factor leading to the Dutch terror alert issued earlier this month — is suspected of having undergone training in the making of bombs and the use of heavy calibre weapons at a terrorist camp in Pakistan, newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Friday. He was arrested for alleged involvement in a robbery at an Edah supermarket in Rotterdam, possibly in April, in which heavy calibre weapons, reportedly a Uzi submachine gun and a Kalashnikov assault rifle, were used. Such weapons are primarily used by terrorists and professional criminals.
Conflicting newspaper reports have indicated that the teen — identified in one report only as A. — was physically involved in the robbery or supplied the weapons to two robbers. Both reports appear to corroborate that authorities seized plans of important buildings and installations in a raid of the boy's house.
Police raided an apartment in Vilnius Monday, acting on intelligence information that weapons and Jihadist literature were being stored there. Three Lithuanian Muslims were arrested on terror-related charges when police raided the apartment, which was being used as a makeshift mosque. The Baltic BNC network said literature and pamphlets inciting violence and providing logistical information for terrorist attacks were discovered in the prayer room. Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, is home to 30,000 of Lithuania's 110,000 Muslims. Lithuania, a former Soviet-bloc country with a population of 3.6 million people, joined European Union in May 2004. Recent investigations into the proliferation of nuclear materials have pointed to Lithuania as a major site of nuclear smuggling.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) ||
07/23/2004 12:41:38 AM ||
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#1
I'm sorry; this story's red-lining my BS detector.
I live in the Baltics, have traveled to Lithuania on many occasions, and am pretty familiar with the country.
First, I've never heard of the "Baltic BNC" network. If they exist they leave a light Google footprint. I've checked BNS (Baltic News Service), the AP-style wire service. Nada on this.
Two, there are not 110,000 Muslims living in the country. More like 5,000. (State Dept. reference) And dollars to donuts they are mostly Muslims from central Asia that were forcibly collectivized under Stalin and forced to move, like the Tartars. The ones I've met are about as nominally post-religious as the rest of Christianized Europe.
Lithuania ain't becoming the next Netherlands.
Posted by: Baltic Blog ||
07/23/2004 3:43 Comments ||
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#2
I lived in Latvia in 1993 & 1994; what Baltic Blog writes mirrors what I saw there.
Still I can't discount the possibility this is true.
#3
I tried to find some other info on this story and was only able to find a news report at Islam Online about it. (Which it seems is the original story)
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-07/22/article01.shtml
I will keep an eye out for any additional information.
Bali bombing victims were furious last night over an Indonesian court decision that could free convicted bombers. The Constitutional Court ruled that the country's tough anti-terror laws were unconstitutional. The verdict is expected to prompt a rush of appeals among the 32 convicted terrorists and has sparked fears among families affected by the bombings in October 2002. Blast survivor Gary Nash said he was bewildered by the decision. "To be quite honest it doesn't surprise me one little bit as I've said all along I don't believe these guys will ever be prosecuted or executed," he said. "Eventually it will just drag out and drag out and the finish will be (that) in a couple of years they will be released from jail."
Kingsley Football Club coach Simon Quayle said he feared the bombers would eventually be back walking the streets which would leave the world, and particularly Australians, living in fear. "When I first heard about it I was in shock, thinking, 'No, it can't have happened, they couldn't have let this happen'," he said. "I have no doubt if in six months, a year, a week these blokes, for some obscure reason get out, the world will suffer." The court ruling came on an appeal lodged by lawyers for Masykur Abdul Kadir, who was jailed last year for 15 years for providing transport and accommodation for the bombers. Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer played down the likelihood of any bombers walking free, saying the decision related only to Masykur's case and the Bali High Court would have the final say. "It's not being extrapolated by court officials or by the Indonesian Government to other cases," Mr Downer said. "Second, it's an advisory opinion by the Constitutional Court, so it doesn't mean that the particular person, the appellant in this case, is to be released."
Mr Downer said the Indonesian Government shared Australia's concern that the convictions should stand for the people who killed 212 people, 88 of them Australians. "If they get overturned on some technicality in an appeal, well in those circumstances we'll be working with the Indonesian Government encouraging them to bring fresh charges." Associate Professor Tim Lindsey, director of Melbourne University Asian Law Centre, said he believed the decision would result in most of the Bali bombers being released but immediately rearrested and successfully convicted under other laws. He said Masykur's appeal was based on a 2000 law which made it unconstitutional to legislate retrospectively against crimes.
#1
Indonesian Constitutional Court: We looked and looked, but could find nothing in the Koran and Sharia that says it is illegal to murder infidels. Release the faithful prisoners.
Posted by: ed ||
07/23/2004 16:00 Comments ||
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#2
If these guys are released, Australia and America should set up some wetwork teams to greet them at the prison gate. They do not deserve to live. In fact, they need to die veeeeeeeery slowly. Amrozi, in particular, needs to have his smile rearranged several times with a gun butt first. Preferrably by one of the Aussie team members while someone else takes pictures for all the folks back home.
If Indonesia is so corrupt as to do this, we need to place them on our reentry vehicle targeting list.
#3
The problem is with ex post facto laws -- that's a problem under the U.S. Constitution, too. The ruling of the RI Constitutional Court may simply require re-trials (i.e., bring new charges based on the same facts, but under viable âpre-Bali Bombingâ laws), but I don't see the terrorists being set loose. If the trials were done right, there might not even be a need for re-trials. Hopefully, along with convictions under the terror law, the prosecution also got convictions for common law murder charges -- which would still merit the death penalty (probably), and wouldn't require re-trials. I wouldn't jump to conclusions, yet . . .
#4
Here is a fairly lengthy analysis of the issue from an Indonesian (English language, online) media source:
Constitutional Court Overturns Anti-Terror Law
July 23, 2004 11:27 PM, Laksamana.Net EFL
The Constitutional Court has ruled that Indonesiaâs anti-terrorism legislation, used to convict the Bali bombers and other militants, is unconstitutional because laws cannot be applied retroactively. I.e., an ex post facto law. These kinds of laws are prohibited by the U.S. Constitution, too. A panel of nine judges at the court overturned the law in a five to four majority decision on Friday (23/7/04). The split, as I see it, has to do with substance versus procedure. For example (IMHO), the Nuremberg Trials after WW II were not really ex post facto laws, because the trials simply created a process to impose penalties for violations of the common law. Here, apparently, five of the four judges were of the opinion that the law was too substantive to be classed as a simple change of procedure.
* * *
The anti-terrorism law was enacted in response to the October 12, 2002, Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. . . . Wirawan Adnan, head of the Bali bombersâ team of attorneys, said police will have to either re-charge his clients under the standard Criminal Code or release them within 30 days. My guess is, like what the Indonesian Government did with Baasyir, is that theyâll recharge these evil bastards under the Criminal Code as it existed on the day of the bombing. The thing is, the result will likely be the same at this point. By now the prosecution has all kinds of evidence built up and probably doesnât need the perks of the Indonesiaâs anti-terrorism law to get convictions that will result in the same death penalties previously entered. Remember, this is Indonesia. You can get the death penalty for drug convictions.
* * *
The ruling could seriously embarrass President Megawati, but it shouldnât. Actually, this is a major step forward in the Rule of Law in Indonesia. The Court is barring ex post facto laws, even though the great majority of the Indonesian people donât care. Thatâs the Rule of Law -- protection of all by the protection of some. Donât worry, just try them fair so you can hang them fair. who on Thursday praised state prosecutors for successfully combating terrorism in Indonesia. "The success of prosecutors to bring terror suspects in Bali and Jakarta to court is no small achievement. While in many countries the fight against terrorism is merely rhetoric, we keep bringing terror perpetrators to justice," she was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post daily.
* * *
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Friday the Constitutional Courtâs ruling would not mean the Bali bombers will walk free. "Obviously the Indonesian government officials are studying this decision very closely. They don't need a lot of egging on by us to come to the conclusion they themselves have come to, which is they want to make sure that the current sentences stand," he said.
Thailand may need at least 10 years to bring full peace to the mainly Muslim south, where nearly 300 people have been killed in a burst of violence since January, Defence Minister Chetta Thanajaro said on Friday.
The government plans to sink $300 million over the next three years into social and economic development in Thailand's three southernmost provinces, where 80 percent of the people are ethnic Malay Muslims.
But Chetta said the problems, which date back centuries, were so deeply rooted they would take a decade or longer to resolve.
"If we really want to see a sustainable solution and a very stable region, I would say it would take at least 10 years," Chetta told Reuters in the provincial town of Pattani.
"Even that may be too quick," he added.
Chetta and other government ministers said they are at a loss to pinpoint the precise roots or motives of the violence, citing a complex mix of history, corruption, crime, drugs, religion and separatism that racked the region in the 1970s and 1980s.
They say, however, the instigators appear to have used a network of unregulated Islamic schools funded by Saudi and other Middle Eastern money as recruiting grounds for embittered Muslim youths. Chetta put their number at several hundred.
He said the little intelligence available suggested secret initiation ceremonies involving oaths of blind allegiance sworn on the Koran used to brainwash recruits, although there was no evidence of links to al Qaeda or its Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiah.
"We want to know what's in their minds," he said.
In an attempt to win hearts and minds, Chetta toured the area this week with Thailand's Islamic spiritual leader, 90-year-old Sawas Sumalyasak.
One influential Muslim scholar they met, Ismail Lutfi, welcomed the government's approach and said trouble had been brewing for years.
"All these problems have piled up into a great big rubbish heap and some ill-willed people have come along and lit a fire under it which is getting more severe," he said.
Lutfi, a Saudi-educated traditionalist, is rector of the Yala Islamic College, which was built with funds from the Islamic Development Bank and has 1,300 students.
The government had no right to criticise foreign funding of Islamic institutions given that it had neglected its own Muslim population until now, he said.
"Foreign funding eased tension and resentment among the locals. The government should have been grateful to the Islamic countries that support us," he said.
He dismissed a suggestion from Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakual that rock music, soap operas and movies would win over Muslim youths by replacing fanaticism with fun.
"Such entertainment is not in accordance with Islamic culture here and I don't think the Islamic leadership here would agree to that," Lutfi said. "The government would do better to give them an education and job training."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:42:02 AM ||
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Remnants of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) are regrouping and planning more terror attacks in Southeast Asia despite the arrest of their leaders, Malaysia's police intelligence chief said on Friday.
As well as JI, the group blamed for the deadly bombings on Indonesia's Bali island in 2002, other militant groups including the little-known Indonesian Battalion Abu Bakar (BAB) could also cause trouble, said Mohamad Yusof Abdul Rahman. "Although the threat has subsided, there is a small number who want to continue their jihad struggle like Dr. Azahari Husin," Yusof told a conference on terrorism, referring to the JI's suspected master bomb maker. "However, a big group of them are preserving their strength while reorganizing themselves," he said in a rare speech outlining the work of regional militants.
Police and intelligence officials say JI, which seeks to establish an Islamic state across much of Southeast Asia, has also planned or carried out other attacks in the region. Though JI members have been arrested in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, Azahari, a Malaysian, is still at large. Yusof, director of the Special Branch at the Royal Malaysian Police, said two Indonesian madrassas or religious schools -- one in Solo and the other in Semarang -- had sent clerics to teach in other such schools throughout Indonesia. "The authorities view these people as 'sleepers' who will one day wake up and spring into action when the need arises."
"At the same time, several Darul Islam splinter groups such as Battalion Abu Bakar (BAB) are capable of stirring up trouble as evidenced by the failed attempts by three BAB members to kill former Indonesian defense minister Matori Abdul Djalil in February 2000 in southern Jakarta," he said.
Yusof said Darul Islam (DI), which originated in Indonesia, was the JI's old name. "Indonesian DI members decided to change the name to JI in 1993 after setting up base here (in Malaysia) from where they became involved in the Afghan war," he said.
Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak told the conference there was a "clear and present and immediate" terrorist threat, and it could only be countered by force. "It is futile to wear kid gloves when confronting a professional boxer in the ring."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:29:34 AM ||
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An Indonesian anti-terror law used to convict the Bali bombers violated the constitution, a top court in Jakarta has ruled. The decision could open the door for fresh appeals from extremists following an appeal by Maysur Abdul Kadir, who was jailed for 15 years for helping the bombers. Kadir claimed a subsidary law which made the anti-terror law retroactive - to cover the Bali attack - was unlawful. The constitutional court judges, by a five to four majority, agreed. Now lawyer Wirawan Adnan, who bought the test case, said it provides those found guilty of terror attacks with new grounds for an appeal. "We will also file appeals to all cases which have been decided in the district courts, by using the same argument," vowed Mr Adnan.
But a court official said the ruling does not overturn the convictions of al Qaeda-linked terrorists behind the nightclub bombing in October 2002, which killed 202 people. Within a week of the atrocity, the Indonesian Government issued an anti-terror decree, authoristing death for terrorism and the detention of suspects for upto six months without trial.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:23:37 AM ||
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Indonesian police hunting the gunman responsible for murdering a woman priest say they have found video discs of speeches by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The discs and two books on Islamic teachings were found buried behind a house in the coastal town of Donggala in Central Sulawesi province.
The house is believed to have been used for meetings by one of the four suspects in last Sunday's attack on the Effata Presbyterian church, in the provincial capital of Palu.
The attack was the latest in a series by suspected Islamic extremists on Christian targets in the religiously mixed region.
Officials believe the attackers want to provoke a new round of Muslim-Christian violence in the province.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:21:31 AM ||
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Several of the Bali bombers may launch fresh appeals following a ruling by one of Indonesia's highest courts that anti-terrorism laws used to convict them violated Indonesia's constitution. However, there was confusion over whether the landmark decision would clear the way for the overturning of Bali bombing convictions. The Indonesian Constitutional Court ruled that retrospective anti-terrorism laws introduced by the government last year, and used against all of the bombers, were "against the spirit" of the 1945 constitution. Citing United Nations and other international human rights conventions, including the US convention, the court said in a majority 5-4 decision that the use of retrospective law had violated those basic rights.
It also said the bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians, could not be categorised as an attack so brutal that it overrode human rights guarantees. "The Bali bombing cannot be categorised as an extraordinary crime," the court said. It is an ordinary crime that is very cruel." The ruling opened the door to possible appeals by the Bali bombers, including death-row inmates Imam Samudra, and brothers Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Mukhlas bin Nurhasyim. It may also complicate efforts to prosecute other jailed militants, including Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged head of Jemaah Islamiah, the al-Qaeda linked terror group blamed for the Bali bombings. Questions will now hang over Bashir's trial, as police had planned to use the anti-terror laws against him. The court's decision was a surprise given the immense political pressure from the government to shore up the Bali trial process. But the court is new and considered free of the political interference and corruption which plagues Indonesia's legal system.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/23/2004 4:11:12 AM ||
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Government troops have began pulling out from a mountain complex in Central Mindanao, where separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels are actively operating. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said about a hundred soldiers had left the so-called Buliok complex near Maguindanao province ahead of scheduled peace talks next month in Kuala Lumpur. "Government soldiers have started moving out from Buliok complex. The pullout of troops is slow and gradual, but about a hundred soldiers have already left the area," Kabalu told Arab News.
Arroyo slithers away.
The MILF has earlier demanded the pullout after troops occupied in 2003 a major rebel camp in the mountain complex that straddles Maguindanao and North Cotabato province. Thousands of soldiers were stationed in Buliok after security forces drove away the rebels in a fierce battle. "The pullout is a positive development ahead of the resumption of formal peace talks next month and we are happy about this," Kabalu said.
Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, a spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, used another term for the pullout. "There is no total pullout of government forces in Buliok. The soldiers were only re-aligned to other areas," Lucero said, without further elaborating.
Aside from the pullout of security forces in the mountain complex, the rebels also demanded the dropping of criminal charges against MILF chief Murad Ebrahim and dozens more linked by the police and military to last year's twin deadly bombing in Davao City that left 37 people dead and 170 others wounded. Kabalu said the peace negotiations are expected to resume in August and would likely discuss the MILF's second demand and the terms of reference for the deployment of international cease-fire observers. "We expect these things to be discussed during the negotiations, and probably other matters that would hasten the peace process," he said.
He said the Libyan ambassador to Manila, Salem Adam, held talks with rebel leaders in the southern Philippines last week. "The discussions were mostly on the progress of the peace negotiations and the role that Libya would play in the peace process," Kabalu said without elaborating. Libya is an influential member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and is actively supporting the peace talks.
It also played a key role in previous negotiations to free foreigners kidnapped by rebels in the southern province of Sulu, particularly during the Sipadan hostage crisis, where the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group snatched 21 mostly Asian and Western holiday-makers from the Sipadan island resort off Sabah, Malaysia in 2002.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 12:03:03 AM ||
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#1
Let me guess. The MILF threatened to take a hostage and Arroyo bends over....
#2
"The soldiers were only re-aligned to other areas by dropping their weapons and running away while crying.â Lucero said, without further elaborating.
Posted by: ed ||
07/23/2004 0:25 Comments ||
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#3
Arroyo slithers away.
Kinda makes you wonder who did more damage to themselves. Spain, who threw their national election, or the Philippines who actually paid millions in ransom. [run-on sentence alert!]
The rot of Marcos-style government finally comes home to roost in a population and government whose judicial and law enforcement systems are sufficiently corrupted to such an extent that collaboration is no longer regarded as appeasement.
Recent events have made it clear that the threat posed by Iran should be dealt with sooner rather than later. Today's 9/11 Commission report documents extensive ties between Iran and terrorism, and the mullahs' drive to create a nuclear weapon is well known. In recent days, Iranian officials and clerics have increased the incitement for violence against American and Coalition forces in Iraq. However, ending the real threat this fundamentalist Islamic theocracy poses to the United States and the West may be impossible, thanks to the Left's and the pro-Islamists non-stop assault on the president's credibility.
The case against Iran should be air-tight. The Bush administration is now armed with:
[1] The 9/11 Commission's report, documenting the logistical, operational and material support from Iran and Hezbollah (Iran's international terrorist arm) to al-Qaeda;
[2] Iran's own admission of its intention to develop nuclear weapons;
[3] Iran's increasing anti-American rhetoric; and
[4] Iran's growing support of terrorism in Iraq.
#1
We will attack Iran in support of Iraq at their request. We will not invade. We will knockout the nuclear facilities ourselves as we are a tough enough country to not wait around and hope that Israel does what needs to be done.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/23/2004 21:49 Comments ||
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Several months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it appears, the Iranian-sponsored terrorist organization Hezbollah was shadowing three of the hijackers as they flew from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon and onward to Iran.
Could Iran have had an inkling of the pending disaster?
Probably not, concludes the 9/11 commission in its final report yesterday. But it details a web of circumstantial evidence suggesting that the arrival and departure of three hijackers in November 2000 was of keen interest to Hezbollah and urges "further investigation by the U.S. Government."
"Hezbollah officials in Beirut and Iran were expecting the arrival of a group during the same time period," says the commission document, citing three intelligence reports prepared shortly after the attacks. "The travel of this group was important enough to merit the attention of senior figures in Hezbollah."
The intelligence reports apparently do not identify the group that so interested Hezbollah, but the commission concludes that it would be a "remarkable coincidence" if it was not the future hijackers.
In addition, the commission noted, an associate of a "senior Hezbollah operative" was on the same Beirut-to-Tehran flight as the three al-Qaida hijackers.
The hijackers were identified as Wail Alshehri and Waleed Alshehri, who were to become "muscle" hijackers on American Flight 11, one of the two jets to crash into the World Trade Center, and Ahmed Alnami, who flew on United Flight 93, which plowed into a Pennsylvania field after passengers tried to overwhelm the terrorists.
About the same time the trio was apparently being tracked by Hezbollah, a "senior Hezbollah operative" was on the same Beirut-bound flight as Ahmed Alghamdi, who ended up on United Flight 175, the other jetliner to fly into the Twin Towers.
While the commission noted that these bits of raw intelligence were of interest, it asserted that it "found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack."
The commission also concluded that al-Qaida did not have operational ties with Iraq or that Iraq had any foreknowledge of the Sept. 11 hijackings.
It did note intelligence reports from al-Qaida detainees claiming that Iranian officials facilitated the travel of al-Qaida members through Iran on their way to and from Afghanistan, and that Iranian border guards would not stamp visas on Saudi passports, so as to avoid possible scrutiny in Saudi Arabia.
However, two senior al-Qaida operatives in custody, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, told their interrogators that Iran's relationship with the group was limited to transiting operatives through Iran and nothing more. They also denied that there was any relationship between the hijackers and al-Qaida.
More recent events, however, suggest that some factions inside Iran, notably its intelligence service and the revolutionary guards, have allowed some al-Qaida operatives safe-haven in the country.
Newsday reported in May 2003, for instance, that al-Qaida's former security chief, Saif al-Adel, had ordered through a cell phone inside Iran the car bomb attack on residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that killed 34, including eight Americans.
A son of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, Sa'ad, who is married to an Iranian woman, lives in Iran.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 9:01:53 AM ||
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#1
OK. I call bullshit. The Iranian "shadows" were probably not watching the terrorists, as much as they were watching to see if we or any one else were watching the terrorists. That is what facilitators and handlers do I think.
Also, the claim that Iraq and al Qaida were not working together is total nonsense. Or at least let's put it this way, the situation with Saddam in Baghdad led to a flourishing atmosphere of 'qaida/'slim activity within the geography of Iraq. Even if you believe, like an idiot, that Saddamâs regime was not directly working with Qaida, he still had to be removed in order to fight Qaida in the North and the South (and the east and the west for that matter). But like I said, they were working together. My guess is the link was really Uday and Qusay, and that is why they each took a big bite of a death sandwich force fed to them by some well motivated U.S. delivery personnel.
When reports began circulating this week that the commission investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks would report that some of the hijackers passed through Iran before the attacks, Hamid Reza Asefi, the foreign ministry spokesman, compared Iran's lack of control of its remote 900km border with Afghanistan to the US's own problems with Mexico.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the influential former president, hit back at the US on Tuesday for its role in training Islamic militants in Afghanistan. "Everyone knows who made the Taliban and al-Qaeda," he said.
"Why is everyone looking at us?"
While some of the Arab press has alleged that Iranian Revolutionary Guards had a direct role in allowing al-Qaeda operatives to pass through Iran, John McLaughlin, the acting CIA chief, said there was "no evidence [of] official sanction by the government".
As a state based on Shia Islam with mainly Sunni countries to its north and east, Iran has never been comfortable with the fierce brand of Sunni Islam followed by al-Qaeda. Leaders of al-Qaeda have often attacked Shia Islam's veneration of long-dead imams - those believed by Shia to be the legitimate successors to the Prophet Mohammad - as a violation of monotheism.
Within Iran, a militant Sunni group based in Pakistan and possibly linked to the al-Qaeda network was suspected of the 1994 bombing of the shrine of the seventh Shia imam, Reza, in Mashad, killing 26 people. Iran supported the Northern Alliance against Afghanistan's Taliban government, which was allied to al-Qaeda, and in 1998 massed troops on the border after the Taliban executed 11 Iranian diplomats and journalists.
But Tehran has pursued what diplomats in Iran call "strategic ambiguity" with regard to al-Qaeda. Last year, Iranian officials announced they were holding members of the group and did nothing to dampen speculation that these included Saif al-Adel, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a former spokesman, and Saad, Ousama bin Laden's son. Iran signalled it wanted to use the detainees as part of wider negotiation with the US, possibly over members of an Iranian opposition group, the Mujahidin-e Khalq, detained by US forces in Iraq.
A conservative Iranian analyst in Tehran said it was not in Iran's interest to crack down entirely on al-Qaeda unless there was a wider rapprochement with Washington. "Al-Qaeda is like a dangerous snake," he said. "If you see it attacking someone who says he is your enemy, you will not attract the snake's attention so it attacks you. With this snake, there are no effective half measures - either you kill it or leave it free, as wounding it will make it angry and more dangerous."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 12:03:03 AM ||
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#1
John McLaughlin, the acting CIA chief, said there was "no evidence [of] official sanction by the government".
CIA continues to be stupid beyhond any hope.
What the guy was expecting! a solene declaration and a treaty between Iran and Al queda?
#3
Somethimes I think the CIA and many other government employees just sweep bad things under the carpet in hopes they can make retirement before the sh!t hits the fan.
Posted by: ed ||
07/23/2004 1:59 Comments ||
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Lebanon's militant Hezbollah denies accusations it has links to al-Qaida as charged by the U.S. commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. "We have asserted in the past and on several occasions that American claims about the existence of links between Hezbollah and al-Qaida are wrong, untrue and lacking any credibility," Hezbollah said in a statement issued Thursday. "The U.S. insistence to implicate Hezbollah in this case proves U.S. enmity and hostility against Islamic movements, especially Hezbollah."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:17:22 PM ||
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#1
"The U.S. insistence to implicate Hezbollah in this case proves U.S. enmity and hostility against Islamic movements, especially Hezbollah."
you got that right pal, you murdering, raping, pedophiliac subhuman garbage.
The Janjaweed have abducted women for use as sex slaves, in some cases breaking their limbs to prevent them escaping, as well as carrying out rapes in their home villages, the report said.
The militiamen "are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish", a 37-year-old victim, identified as A, is quoted as saying in the report, which was based onmore than 100 testimonies from women in the refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.
Posted by: an dalusian dog ||
07/23/2004 8:18 Comments ||
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#2
sorry, a bit inacurate, I meant to say: you you murdering, raping, slave trading pedophiliac subhuman garbage.
Posted by: an dalusian dog ||
07/23/2004 8:27 Comments ||
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#3
Might be true. Saudis swear the Jooooooos are behind Al Qaida, and THE PARTY OF G-D certainly wouldn't associate with that group....
The Sept. 11 commission said Thursday that it had found no evidence that Iraq, Iran or Saudi Arabia had knowingly provided operational or financial support to Al-Qaida in advance of the attacks, but it called for further investigation of the relationship between Iran and Al-Qaida.
The commission reported finding no evidence of a ``collaborative operational relationship'' between Iraq and Al-Qaida or an Iraqi role in attacking the United States.
The report stated that representatives of the two may have been in contact in 1994 or 1995, 1998, and possibly 1999, largely because of what the commission described as a shared hatred of the United States. But the commission found their interests were largely out of sync, and nothing came of the contacts.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:59:49 AM ||
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#1
From the article above:The commission also says ``the available evidence does not supportââ a claim by many top Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, that Mohamed Atta, who flew one of the jetliners into the World Trade Center, met an Iraqi agent in Prague, Czech Republic, in April 2001.
Gee - that's funny: what it really says is this (on page 229)
These findings cannot absolutely rule out the possibility that Atta was in Prague on April 9, 2001.
There is evidence both ways.
The allegation that Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in April 2001 originates from the reporting of a single source of the Czech intelligence service. Shortly after 9/11, the source reported having seen Atta meet with Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al Ani, an Iraqi diplomat, at the Iraqi Embassy in Prague on April 9, 2001, at 11:00 A.M.
and
The FBI has gathered evidence indicating that Atta was in Virginia Beach on April 4 (as evidenced by a bank surveillance camera photo), and in Coral Springs, Florida on April 11, where he and Shehhi leased an apartment. On April 6, 9, 10, and 11,Attaâs cellular telephone was used numerous times to call various lodging establishments in Florida from cell sites within Florida.
(I thought it was nice of them to call al Ani a 'diplomat' - nice touch.)
Is there anything related to the anthrax concern that isn't ambiguous? Too bad...
Al Qaeda members captured in recent weeks in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan have provided important information about a possible impending terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, according to senior American intelligence officials.
The interrogations of the Al Qaeda members have been a major factor in raising American concerns about a possible attack to a level not seen since Sept. 11, 2001, the intelligence officials said. They added that the captured Al Qaeda members had provided clues that traced planning for a major attack back to the group's central leadership, including Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.
''We don't have specificity to exact time, place or location,'' a senior intelligence official said. ''But it's more than just them saying generally that there's something coming,'' a senior intelligence official said.
American officials have warned for the last two weeks about such an attack but have refused to describe the source of their information.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:37:48 AM ||
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One senior intelligence official said there was ââno doubtââ that bin Laden and other Qaeda leaders remained very much focused on carrying out a new attack in the United States or on American targets overseas.
An overseas attack on Americans or American interests would probably be the easiest to carry out. The Olympics would fit the bill rather nicely.
#2
I don't really buy this story for the main reason that i doubt everyone associated with Al Queda would be in on such plans. Perhaps we got lucky but it sounds bogus. If I were Bin Laden I'd fill the heads of my folks with all sorts of grand plans in case they got caught, but I would keep operational security on the real stuff.
I beleave this. Al-Q would like nothing better to disrupt our election process and I bet their apologist/allies in the DNC/Media are primed and ready to blame it on Bush if something does happen. Al-Q would bet on that.
2)CIA PR trying to say we're on the ball,just ignore that nasty commission and its hurtful report
3)Al-Q borrowing Hitler's V-Weapon strategy.Late in WW2 it became obvious Germany would lose and to keep up morale(esp.young soldiers)the Nazis PR machine told everyone to hold out a little longer,our new V-Weapons will turn tide of war.With even Saudia Arabia killing foot soldiers who attack Westerners,morale has to be bad in AL-Q.So the leadership spreads rumors of big attacks coming that will cause America to quit WOT to boost morale of its members.Side benefits of getting America to waste resources chasing non-existant threats,damaging American morale,and if real attack is planned false alarms may lull security forces into missing its reality.
Posted by: Stephen ||
07/23/2004 14:25 Comments ||
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#6
We need to turn the screws on these AQ captives, see. Give me my electronic paddles -- clear!
Posted by: Capt America ||
07/23/2004 20:17 Comments ||
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#7
O.T. Sorry, I erroneously believed the headline referenced a Red Foxx story. A great entertainer, he...
The Sept. 11 commission's report touches on but won't put an end to questions about whether al-Qaida has had ties with Iran and Iraq, two countries President Bush branded as part of an ''axis of evil.'' The report released Thursday outlines details about contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida, noting that Osama bin Laden began exploring a possible alliance in the early 1990s. For example, it says an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan in July 1998 to meet with the ruling Taliban and with bin Laden. However, the report says, Saddam never had an Islamist agenda, and bin Laden had been sponsoring anti-Saddam Islamists in Iraqi Kurdistan. A collaborative relationship was never developed, the report found.
Bin Laden's alleged relationship with Iraq has been the subject of intense political debate, with critics saying Bush exaggerated the links to justify the U.S. invasion. Bush, and especially Vice President Dick Cheney, insist those links were real and dangerous. Critics also say Bush isn't paying enough attention to Iran, which is suspected of developing a nuclear program. The commission said intelligence points to contacts between Iranian security officials and senior al-Qaida figures after bin Laden's return to Afghanistan. It also found the conservative Muslim state allowed eight to 10 of the Sept. 11 hijackers to pass through Iran on their way from Afghanistan and other countries, without stamping their passports. Still, the report said, ''We have found no evidence that Iran ... was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack. At the time of their travel through Iran, the al-Qaida operatives themselves were probably not aware of the specific details of their future operation.'' ''We believe this topic requires further investigation by the U.S. government,'' the report found. Bush called Iran and Iraq members of an ''axis of evil,'' along with North Korea, in his State of the Union address in January 2002.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:05:53 PM ||
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#1
Dan, you are dead on here. Let's see...connections but no collaboration...friendly but no collaboration...such ruminations makes one dizzy.
Posted by: Capt America ||
07/23/2004 2:42 Comments ||
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#2
And how about Zarqawi, didn't he join the al Qaeda (affiliate) camp in 2002 that was set up after the delegate meeting in 1998?
Posted by: Capt America ||
07/23/2004 2:45 Comments ||
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Three Taliban fighters were killed in an armed clash with Afghan soldiers in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province yesterday night, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported. Haji Wali Mohammad, a spokesman to the provincial governor, told AIP that the clash between the Taliban and Afghan forces took place in Nawzad district, north of Helmand province, adding that no Afghan soldiers were wounded in the fighting. Mohammad confirmed that two militiamen and their commander, Mahmoud, were killed in the clash.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:03:03 PM ||
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A videotape broadcast on Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera Friday, showed a group of black-clad masked militants standing behind a man identified as diplomat Mohammed Qutb.
The group says the abduction is in response to Cairo's willingness to provide Iraq's interim government with security expertise.
The Egyptian embassy in Baghdad has confirmed the diplomat's abduction.
Meanwhile, efforts are continuing to free seven truck drivers kidnapped by another militant group in Iraq.
The militants, threatening to behead the three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian, have issued a new 48-hour deadline to the hostages' Kuwaiti employer. They have also made new demands, including compensation to the families of those killed in clashes with U.S. forces in Fallujah.
And Bulgarian officials are continuing to investigate whether a decapitated body discovered Thursday in the Tigris River is that of a second Bulgarian hostage feared killed by militants. Bulgarian officials confirmed Thursday that an earlier headless corpse was that of another missing Bulgarian.
These guys have been studying up on Dale Carnegie.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
07/23/2004 5:47:36 PM ||
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#1
Nepelese, Madascaris and Bantu tribemen beware. They're working their way down their list.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/23/2004 21:59 Comments ||
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#2
Hmmmmm. Now they're snatching diplomats in addition to ordinary worker bees. And moslems at that.
Are you paying attention, world? Appease them in Iraq, and they'll be demanding you appease them in your own countries, too.
Like in the Phillipines.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/23/2004 22:06 Comments ||
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#3
The interesting aspect here is that the terrorists are asking for ransom. My conclusion is that they're running short of cash. They're in deep financial trouble now. My suspicion is that they'll be rolled up by the second anniversary of the Iraqi campaign. It's simply amazing how quickly they're running out of cash, amounts I estimated at several billion dollars out of Saddam's treasury. And yet, if you pay 30,000 followers $10,000 a year each, on average, that's $300m a year. That's assuming no graft, of which there is plenty in every Middle Eastern grouping or society. And then you have to get them weapons and ammunition. The terrorists are doomed - they just don't know it yet.
Reacting to the kidnapping of an Egyptian diplomat in Iraq, Egypt's foreign minister Ahmad Abulghait said Friday in an official statement that his country ruled out sending any troops to Iraq. The kidnapped diplomat, the third Egyptian hostage taken in Iraq, was shown on a videotape saying that he was being treated well by his kidnappers and ßthat the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad strives to assist the Iraqi people in the reconstruction of their country. Interesting that this happens right after Iraq asks them to send troops to protect U.N. workers.
#1
To Mrs. Arroyo and the Philippines Armed Forces Track Team (Fastest sprint out of an agreement with the US, 2004 Silver Medal):
Learning what your decision to buckle to terrorist demands means yet?
Related comments about kidnapping and Islam, from Sadr (source-Fox): Also, firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led an uprising against U.S. forces, condemned militants who have beheaded foreigners in recent months â two days after a decapitated body was found on the banks of the Tigris, accompanied by a severed head in a bag.
"Anybody doing this is a criminal and we will punish him according to Islamic law," al-Sadr said.
#3
If there is a need for a coalition in the the future, can we restrict things slightly. Let's try for a Coalition of the Willing who also aren't Gutless.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/23/2004 22:05 Comments ||
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Internet users have been warned that messages about the 'suicide' of Osama Bin Laden posted on internet message boards and usenet groups are hoaxes masking an attack on their computer. The messages attempt to persuade readers to download a file which contains the Hackarmy Trojan. The infection allows hackers to gain control of a computer remotely, and lurks in a file posing as photographic evidence that Osama Bin Laden has killed himself. Thousands of messages have already been posted claiming that journalists from CNN found the terrorist leader's body earlier this week. Typically they read:
'Osama Bin Ladin [sic] was found hanged by two CNN journalists early Wedensday [sic] evening. As evidence they took several photos, some of which I have included here. 'As yet, this information has not hit the headlines due to Bush wanting confirmation of his identity, but the journalists have released some early photos over the internet.'
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at antivirus firm Sophos, said in a statement: "Hackers and virus writers will try all kinds of tricks to entice people into downloading their malicious code. "It seems this time that the hacker has focused on the public's morbid curiosity and appetite for news on the war against terror."
Consider yourself warned.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/23/2004 2:10:37 PM ||
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#1
Cheeze. I got this thing in my email about two months ago. Guess mine was the beta.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2004 15:02 Comments ||
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#2
I satisfy my morbid curiosity at Rantburg. Fred Ahkbar!
#3
Bin Laden committing suicide? That would've been a big red flag right there; it's the fanatical disciples that end up doing the suiciding, and rarely, if ever, their leaders.
FIREBRAND Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr preached a sermon at the Kufa mosque today after an absence of nearly two months, criticising Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi amid a massive showing by his supporters.
"Allawi, I tell you, what right do you have to order the reopening of the Hawza paper, if you were not the one to shut it down in the first place," Sadr told the faithful, who swarmed into the grand mosque in Kufa, 150km south of Baghdad.
Ummm, cuz when it was closed we were in charge. Now he is, does that answer your question?
"Damn him and damn the occupier."
And a hearty good morning to you
Allawi ordered Sunday the lifting of a ban on Sadr's weekly paper that had been imposed by former US administrator Paul Bremer at the end of March on charges of instigating violence. The young cleric assured his supporters that he was standing by their side and will continue the struggle for their rights.
"I will never abandon you no matter what, and I am close to you and living the same life as you," said Sadr to loud cheers. "I never fought the occupation to attain any worldly rewards, but for higher and nobler motives."
"But, I'll settle for being in charge."
The closing of Sadr's paper and the arrest of one his deputies in late March unleashed a rebellion in Baghdad and the Shi'ite centre and south that left hundreds of people dead.
Mostly his gunnies
Bowing to pressure from Shi'ite political and religious leaders, Sadr agreed to a truce in early June and since then he was largely absent from the public eye amid rumours that he may have left Iraq.
He's been in hiding for all this time and the only thing he can come up with to bitch about is that his newspaper is open for business? Looks like our plan to marginalize him has worked.
Additional: NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led an uprising against U.S. forces, condemned militants on Friday who have beheaded foreigners in Iraq in the last several months.
Really? He disapproves of cutting off heads?
Leading Friday prayers for the first time in two months at the Kufa mosque south of Baghdad, denounced militants from the rival Sunni Muslim faction who have claimed to have cut off the heads of at least three foreigners since April. "We condemn what some people are doing regarding the beheading of prisoners and it is illegal according to Islamic law," al-Sadr said. "Anybody doing this is a criminal and we will punish him according to Islamic law."
By cutting off Sunni heads. It makes perfect sense, I guess.
Al-Sadr led an uprising against U.S. forces in Shiite-dominated areas across Iraq beginning in April. He has repeatedly condemned the presence of coalition troops here, but his sermon Friday took aim instead at hard-line militants. At least three civilians from the United States, South Korea and Bulgaria have been beheaded in an effort to scare away countries in the U.S.-led coalition and foreign contractors working here.
"Damm Sunnis, cutting off infidel heads and taking the spotlight away from me!"
Posted by: Steve ||
07/23/2004 11:05:21 AM ||
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#1
I wonder if there are any new images of Muqtada 'the tater' Sadr. The last few showed him as very well fed.
#4
I wish more Westerners understood that mosques are merely buildings for political speeches/planning/weapons storage/fund-driving for jihad, and that they have little or nothing to do with religion apart from the "kill everyone except us" religion.
Sadr wants to oust Allawi and take his place. Plain and simple.
#5
Now that soverinity has been transfered, Sadr is only interesting as a potential link that can be tracked back to Iran. I wonder what he would say during a waterboarding session.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/23/2004 22:24 Comments ||
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The U.S. military says it carried out an airstrike in the city of Al-Fallujah today targeting suspected militants linked to alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. A statement said the attack targeted 10 to 12 militants and was conducted in coordination with the Iraqi authorities. The U.S. military reported no casualties.
Amoung our troops, they still don't know about enemy KIA.
But residents and doctors in a Al-Fallujah hospital said at least five civilians, some of them children, were wounded.
Don't forget the puppies and baby ducks.
In another incident, the U.S. military said two American soldiers were killed and one injured in a roadside bomb attack on their convoy yesterday near the town of Samarra north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:33:27 AM ||
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#1
long article in the WaPo the other day, indicating an imminent coalition attack on Sammara, where the town is more or less controlled by 100 to 300 insurgents, a mix of ex Spec Rep Guards, a local tribe that we've alienated, foreigners, etc. The different factions are not getting along, and are alienating the locals, who are fleeing - though WaPo says theyre fleeing in anticipation of the attack. Apparently the attempt is to do this jointly 1st ID and Iraqi forces, trying to make sure we've got good and reliable Iraqi forces this time - so time is being spent on preparation. Looks like this will be first big attack for Iraqi forces outside Baghdad (meanwhile of course USMC is apparently fighting hard in Ramadi)
#2
I haven't heard whether the local non terrorist population is giving the US intel in Sammara or Ramadi. I have heard that this is happening in Fallujah.
At least one American soldier was wounded in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar on Friday in what the Taliban said was a remote-controlled car bomb attack. "To our knowledge only one soldier has been wounded," a U.S. military spokesman said. He had no other details. Afghan police said four U.S. soldiers had been hurt. Senior police official General Salim Khan said the convoy had been heading toward Kandahar city from a nearby U.S. military air base when a car filled with explosives blew up. "American forces have cordoned off the site of the blast and are carrying out an investigation. It seems that explosive materials were packed in a car and it went off when the convoy was passing by," Khan said. He said earlier that a car filled with explosives had collided with the convoy.
Mullah Dadullah, a senior Taliban commander in the region, claimed responsibility for the attack. "It was a remote-controlled bomb and it was planted by the Taliban," he told Reuters by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:19:59 AM ||
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Al-Qaeda planned to attack the southern Israeli port city of Eilat, and an Israeli national unsuccessfully tried to stop two of the hijackers of a September 11 plane from entering the cockpit of the aircraft, the 9/11 inquiry committee report has said.
The report said that a high ranking al-Qaeda operations official, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, currently in US custody, had admitted during interrogation that the network was planning other attacks along with those on September 11, 2001. He had put a proposal before terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden to try and recruit a Saudi Air Force pilot, who would take a combat plane and use it in an air attack on the Israeli resort city of Eilat, the report said. The bipartisan report does not specify what type of attack Sheikh Mohammed intended or what came as a result of his proposal, local media reported.
The inquiry report also elaborates on the story of an Israeli flying on American Airlines flight 11 who attempted to stop the hijackers from breaking into the cockpit before the plane plunged into the World Trade Centre. According to the report, Daniel Levin, 31, seated in first class, on seeing two of the hijackers - group leader Mohammed Atta and Abdul Aziz al-Omri - getting up in order to enter the cockpit, tried to stop them. His efforts were in vain as a third hijacker sitting behind him, Satam al-Sukami, stabbed him. It is not known if Levin was killed, but according to a telephone conversation from a stewardess aboard the plane, Levin was badly injured in the stabbing.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 8:15:24 AM ||
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#1
His DNA was just recently identified. God bless him.
A powerful Afghan warlord will challenge President Hamid Karzai in the country's historic October elections, his spokesman said Thursday. Abdul Rashid Dostum decided to run after securing support across the war-riven country's deep ethnic divides, spokesman Faizullah Zaki said.
"Yar! I be Gen'ral Dostum! Vote fer me, or I'll run over yez wit' this here tank!"
Thousands of supporters feted Dostum at a rally in a northern city, Zaki said. "He didn't want to depend on his own movement, he wanted more people to support him, and today the people showed that," Zaki said. "He will run for president." There was no immediate reaction from Karzai.
Suggested reaction: welcome him and challenge him to a debate.
Debates in Afghanistan tend to involve artillery.
"And in closing, I'd like to add... ummm... Take that, yew varmint!"
Dostum, like another half dozen likely challengers, lacks the national appeal to pose a direct threat to Karzai at the ballot box.
On the other hand, he is more ferocious than most...
A former communist and commander of a feared militia during the country's civil wars, he is widely mistrusted, especially in the Pashtun-dominated south.
"Dostum! Oh, hold me, Mahmoud!"
"I can't. He pulled me arms off!"
TEL AVIV, July 22 (Reuters) Israel, furious that European states backed a U N resolution against its West Bank barrier, told top EU-diplomat Javier Solana today it was unsure it could trust the European Union as a negotiating partner. I'll take "Blinding Glimpses of the Obvious" for $500, Alex.
Rocky relations between the Jewish state and the European Union, a member of a Middle East peacemaking quartet, have touched a new low over the U.N. General Assembly resolution calling on Israel to tear down the barrier. "I find myself challenged to convince the Israeli people that the European Union is a partner we can trust," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told a news conference after meeting EU foreign policy chief Solana in Tel Aviv.
Israel says it needs the barrier, a network of razor-tipped wire and concrete walls, to keep out suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a land grab that will deny them the state they seek on land captured by Israel in a 1967 war. The General Assembly resolution followed up on an advisory decision of the U N-affiliated World Court that the barrier was illegal and should be torn down. Solana said the EU had made clear long ago its opposition to the barrier because it cuts through occupied territory. And it should also have been "clear long ago" that the Palestinians will dispute what constitutes "occupied territory" even if that property is in down town Tel Aviv.
"From the very beginning we have been against that. It is not a surprise to anybody," he said. Solana said EU nations' backing of the General Assembly resolution reflected a pervasive UN anti-Semitism position that decisions of international organisations like the World Court should be heeded.
He said the EU fully supported Israel's right to self-defence just not anything functional, like the barrier.. "We respect the right of every country to construct a fence on its own territory," but a route "through occupied territory" was not compatible with international law. Palestinians have always insisted on a European role in Middle East peacemaking. They perceive the Europeans as more cowardly sympathetic to their cause than Washington, which has long held the dominant position. But many Israelis mistrust the Europeans, fearing their main aim is sucking up to ingratiate themselves with oil-producing Arab states.
You can trust them to be antisemitic
You can trust them to deny being antisemitic
You can trust them to talk anti terrorism
You can trust them to prevent effective action
The Algerian foreign minister on Tuesday ruled out talks with a Chadian rebel movement which claims to be holding a top Algerian militant allegedly behind the kidnapping of European tourists last year. "Algeria has not negotiated the extradition of this terrorist (Amari Saifi) and will not deal with the leader of a rebel movement," Abdelaziz Belkhadem said, denying media reports that Algiers was talking to the Chadian rebels. "This affair will be taken care of among states and not between a state and a rebel movement," he told a news conference. Press reports on Sunday quoted Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni as saying that Algeria had begun discussions with a view to putting Saifi, also known as Abderrezak "the Para", on trial in Algeria. The Chadian rebel group the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT), has claimed since mid-March that they are holding activists from Algeria's top extremist group the GSPC. The MDJT on Sunday reiterated its willingness to hand over Abderrezak "the Para" to Algeria without conditions. "We have always said we were willing to hand over our prisoners unconditionally to Algeria," said spokesperson Aboubakar Radjab-Dazi, speaking by phone from Paris.
Take as long as you like, just don't feed him in the meantime.
Although Saifi's capture was confirmed by the federal prosecutor's office in the German city of Karlsruhe on May 18, Zerhouni's reported comments came after months of uncertainty over the whereabouts of the former lieutenant to GSPC founder Hassan Hattab. On July 8 Libya gave rebels in northern Chad 48 hours to hand over a group of Algerian Islamic extremists or face military action, but the rebels rejected the ultimatum.
"What action?"
"You know... Action!"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 12:02:31 PM ||
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The political administration of South Waziristan Agency on Thursday eased economic sanctions against the Ahmedzai Wazir tribe for 10 days, allowing transportation of fruit and vegetables. A senior administration official told Daily Times by phone from Wana that the relaxation followed the handover of six relatives of two wanted men, Muhammad Javed and Maulvi Abbas. The decision was taken in negotiations between NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain and a tribal delegation consisting of Maulana Mirajuddin, Maulana Abdul Maalik and former member of the National Assembly Maulana Noor Muhammad in Peshawar.
A tribal elder welcomed the administration's decision and said, "We believe economic sanctions should be lifted as soon as possible because they are affecting our lives." The blockade was imposed in the troubled district headquarters to press the wanted men to surrender. Wana citizens had been facing great hardships in getting daily provisions during the 50-day long imposition of economic sanctions. Meanwhile, guns remained silent in Shakai Valley and other parts of Waziristan where the regular army is fighting remnants of Al Qaeda and Taliban.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/23/2004 12:02:31 PM ||
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I'm still working on getting the bugs out of the server. The problems are associated with the new (Windows 2003) operating system, which is driving me nuts. Apparently, IIS6 is prone to hanging for any number of reasons. I've applied two patches so far, and reset this and that. If it's not healed in a couple days, I'll dump 2003 and go back to Win2K.
The problems with the old server at the last seem to have been associated with Hacker Boy probing for an RPC vulnerability. He couldn't set up a back door, but the attempts broke the IIS server.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2004 10:42:53 PM ||
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#1
[John Cleese] I told you once. [/John Cleese]
Fred, your explanation is more than gracious but an apology is out of place. Anyone who participates here obviously appreciates your outstandingly open forum. I for one thank you, and will gladly toss in a belated hat-tip to .com for donating the new server.
#2
Good thing it's a slow news week. I miss Fred's ascerbic wit and assorted drollery in the comments when he's gotta go tinkering around under the hood. (psst, Fred ... the arc welder is right behind you on the workbench; mind the sparks ... )
#3
Go to Apache and Chilisoft will run your ASP apps on Win platform.
IIS flat out sucks - there are no *good* reasons to use it.
They dont call it Internet Infection Server for nothing.
But my advice aside, thanks for all the work - be assured that at least one of us out here knows the pain you are working thru (I would never inflict IIS on my self ).
#10
Fred I feel your pain but ISS is a train wreck. I hate to think how much you spent on W3K.
I have been running Linux since 1999 on my desktop I have lots of trust in it.
Thanks for all your work Fred. You'll get all the bugs you can worked out at some point. When I see the error messages I just ignore them :D
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
07/23/2004 8:21 Comments ||
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#14
The problem's not so much rewriting all the pages as PHP, but changing the links. We're pushing 40,000 articles, and over 150,000 comments. I'm not going to go through each by hand!
Probably, at some point in the future, we'll just make the changeover and go without the internal links working until I replace all occurrences of ".asp" with ".php", checking each to ensure it points at a Rantburg article and not at Arab News or someplace like that.
I'll probably convert the data entry (editors, comments, guest poster, etc.) pages and maybe Thugburg this weekend. I don't write PHP code as naturally as I do ASP -- most of my customer are Microsoft-based -- but I guess practice will make perfect.
Next time I mod the server maybe I'll just put Red Hat on it and grumble at having to maintain it from Win platforms.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2004 8:34 Comments ||
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#15
A non-working, vulnerable site is worse than a site that works but has broken links in the archives. I never read old stuff, does anyone?
Maybe use the old server as something to experiment on, and leave this one running ASP?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/23/2004 8:59 Comments ||
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#17
Fred, look into "Chilisoft" - its an app that will run ASP pages under Apache (and, as I recall, under Linux as well if you wanted to go for the full ride).
This would obviate the need to rewite all the .asp linkages.
Otherwise, just get the source files in one big directory and use a unix shell:
for f in 'ls *'; do
cat $f | sed -e 's/asp/php/g' >$f.changed
done;
muahaha!
(I know - way too simplistic but its one of the geek tricks I learned. Use it to change certain words in my files at work).
#18
I haven't been able to access this site for several days. I kept getting a page saying the site is being reconfigured. I am now logged on from work and am surprised to see that the site has been operational for those days. What gives?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/23/2004 10:37 Comments ||
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#19
never read old stuff, does anyone?
What? Hell yes I read the olde stuff. It reminds me of how brilliant I was just a year or two ago! :)
Seriously, I always read the 1 year and 2 year agos.
Sounds like you got cached. We weren't down that long...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2004 11:39 Comments ||
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#22
My name is Matt, and I am a Rantburg addict.
Hellooo, Matt.
I understand that the server has to be down from time to time, but when it is, I keeping hitting the link, irrationally expecting Fred to have brought the server up in the last 5 seconds. I keep thinking, suppose the Seals lit bin Laden up like a Christmas tree just now? I might have to wait until the NYT runs the story ("Arab Man Dies As Bush Continues to Falter") or maybe watch it on Lou Dobbs ("Today the military hit a single man with 9768 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition. Halliburton's stock rose by a quarter of a point. Coincidence? We'll discuss that question with our panel blah blah blah."
Is help available?
Posted by: Matt ||
07/23/2004 11:41 Comments ||
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#23
Hello Matt too. I'm with you as the other commenters here are talkin some strange dialect. Fred have you tried hitting the refresh button. Eventually it works.
#24
Hell, Mr. Fly you should have seen me in the 7th grade! :)
Im watching close Lucky, just saw Armstrong try his cannibal immitation!
Still have hope for Basso or maybe the heavy German gent will crank up the RPMs tomorrow, he's an ugly sucker but I'm rooting for him to finish on the podium.
There is no cure, and you wouldn't want it if there was. Embrace your Rantburgness . . . become one with the 'Burg.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2004 13:16 Comments ||
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#27
Agreed: Apache/ChilisoftASP is a good pair. But if you just HAVE to run IIS, 6 is way better than 5, not that that's saying much. At least the app processing isn't in kernel space anymore - app pools in userland, where they belong...
Check out a nice ISAPI filter from eEye called SecureIIS, as well. Expensive, but worth it.
#28
I think secure and Microsoft product is an oxymoron.
Buying extra apps to toss on that steaming pile seems counter intuitive. Moving away from MS while having a learning curve seems top be a good thing if you have the time to devote to it.
#30
I can't figure out why Microsoft keeps making money
Because grandma can't use Linux.
Posted by: Rafael ||
07/23/2004 19:12 Comments ||
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#31
My name is Matt, and I am a Rantburg addict.
You aren't alone, Matt. I missed about three days needlessly because of a cache catch, and I have been totally upset.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/23/2004 20:26 Comments ||
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#32
Here's proof of how upset I was:
I missed .com, I missed Badanov, I missed Jen, I missed Zhang Fei, I missed Frank G. ....
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/23/2004 20:27 Comments ||
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#33
I missed Dog Bites TROLLS!
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/23/2004 20:36 Comments ||
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#34
"... I missed Jen..."
You? Missed Jen? Oh, wow... That's some serious withdrawal. Isn't there a hotline you can call, or something?
For me, what was traumatic was having Roger Schultz (http://www.terpsboy.com/) give up on blogging on the same day Fred's server went tits-up in the gutter.
Bad shit, man; I even started rummaging around for my old Lizard Suit, in case I might need to re-join the minion at Little Green Footballs.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/23/2004 20:45 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
