Australian intelligence has identified at least 10 more nationals as having trained in overseas terrorist camps, in addition to those already known to the authorities. The Sunday Telegraph said Sunday it had learned Australia's domestic intelligence agency ASIO had established the 10 trained with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan between 1999 and 2001. But authorities had been unable to prosecute them because they did their training before Al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba were outlawed in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States. Australia would also have been unable to prosecute two Australian terrorist suspects now held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. But David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib are being prosecuted under US laws. The latest revelations came as Hicks, who has been charged with conspiracy and aiding the enemy, prepares to appear on August 23 before a US military tribunal where his lawyers say he will plead not guilty. "Wudn't me. Besides, who sez they're the enemy?"
Most of the 10 others were believed to still live in Sydney, the Sunday Telegraph said. The paper quoted an anonymous senior government official as confirming at least 10 others were known to have been to terrorist camps. A number were said to have worshipped at an Islamic prayer hall, well known for its fundamentalist teachings and anti-western ideology, in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba. Apart from Hicks and Habib, several other Australian nationals have been prosecuted or are in the process of being prosecuted, including Lebanese-born Saleh Jamal, who is now in jail in Beirut, after jumping bail in Sydney and fleeing to Lebanon in March. The paper said documents from the Lebanese prosecutor alleged that Jamal was also linked to suspected senior Al-Qaeda member Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. Need to keep an eye on this story.
A bomb targeting a casino owner exploded under a car on a busy restaurant street in the Czech capital Sunday, injuring at least 18 people, including foreign tourists, in what authorities described as a probable gangland attack. Two Americans, as well as tourists from Britain, Ireland, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Slovakia, were among those hurt in the blast, which Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross described in a radio interview as ``a case of gangs settling accounts.'' Among those hurt was a child, but all of the injuries appeared to be slight, said Marek Uhlir, spokesman for Prague's emergency service, without giving further details.
The bomb went off just after noon outside the Casino Royal in a popular pedestrian zone in downtown Prague with many restaurants and cafes, about 100 yards from Prague's central Wenceslas Square. A man threw the explosive device under a car outside a casino shortly after several people got in, police spokeswoman Iva Knolova told The Associated Press. The incident was being investigated as an attempted murder, and authorities have ``ruled out'' terrorism, she said.
The Israeli owner of the casino, Assi Abutbul, had just gotten into his car when the blast went off but was unhurt because the vehicle was armored, his lawyer Tsion Amir told Israel radio. Abutbul was ``surprised,'' Amir said. ``There was a loud noise and a great commotion.'' Abutbul said his attackers did not wear masks and appeared to be Thai, Amir said. Three or four men ran from the scene, said a security guard from a nearby store, Andrej Cebotarev. ``I saw a white cloud and later a woman bleeding from her belly and a man lying injured on the street,'' he said.
Police at the scene said the casino owner appeared to have been the target. Police seized video cassettes from a camera monitoring the street outside the shop. Israel's national police chief, Moshe Karady, told Israeli Army Radio on Sunday that there was a connection between the attack and crime groups of interest to the Israeli police. ``Our intelligence people will collaborate with the appropriate people in the Czech police in order to get to the bottom of the incident and the connection to Israeli criminals,'' Karady said.
The Foreign Office in London said five British nationals were hurt in the explosion. The U.S. Embassy confirmed two U.S. citizens, a couple, were injured in the explosion, spokeswoman Lisa Helling said. She had no details about them. Three Irish citizens were also hurt, their country's government said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2004 3:38:46 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
New intelligence that the al-Qaida terrorist network plans to attack financial or international institutions in New York City has prompted police to urge extra security precautions at various city buildings. The warning, announced Saturday night, didn't say how the attacks might be carried out or when they would occur. But ABC News, citing anonymous sources, reported Saturday night that al-Qaida planned to send terrorists across the Mexican border into the United States, and that suicide attacks were being planned in the city, possibly using trucks. The network said attacks may be planned between now and Election Day. The Republican convention begins in New York on Aug. 30.
A woman with a South African passport was arrested near the U.S.-Mexico border last week when she tried to board a flight to New York with about $7,000 in cash. Officials told The Associated Press they were investigating whether Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed, 48, had ties to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 12:44:41 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But... but... I thought John Kerry assured us the terrorism threat was "overblown"???
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/01/2004 13:06 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I think, DD, he meant that, when he was in VN....there were values.
#6
The people I know in Newark aren't to be trifled with. I certainly wouldn't want to be a turban driving a tanker full of nitrates through the North Ward.
#7
I was listening to the news coference about this with the mayor and police commish. Some reporter had the nerve to ask if it wasn't strange in this coming out only a few days after the democrat convention implying its all a setup to draw attention away from it. The mayor was polite but said no politics involved.
Posted by: AF Lady ||
08/01/2004 18:24 Comments ||
Top||
#8
It is worth taking note no terrorist attacks took place for the Dems convention in the City of Boston, either through prevention by America's national security agencies ...or ...al-Qa'ida really wants Kerry-Edwards to win over Bush and the enemy is saving its terror for the time frame between the GOP convention and the November presidential elections.
Now more than ever the FBI & police forces must continue the non-stop counter-terrorist war against the jihadists and their proxie supporters in the radical Left.
Any leftwing 'protester' caught in NYC covering themselves with chemical agents, which the radicals have already hatched on their websites in an organized plot throw off anti-terrorist security forces, should be tried for conspiracy with the Islamic terrorist enemy. Examples need to be made.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
08/01/2004 18:53 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Speaking of protestors covering themselves with chemical agents. From the Boston Herald:
On Tuesday, police found another teen near the ``protest pen'' carrying a balloon filed with urine. The balloon burst on the teen when he was approached by police and the teen was not arrested.
Posted by: ed ||
08/01/2004 19:14 Comments ||
Top||
Government troops have captured a senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf group implicated in the kidnapping of dozens of civilians in the southern Philippines, the military said yesterday. Soldiers swooped down late Friday on a ferry boat off Tawi-Tawi province and arrested Binang Andang, tagged as one of the leaders of the group that kidnapped American Jeffrey Craig Schilling in 2001.
The 25-year old Californian was with his Filipino fiance in the island of Jolo, about 950 kms south of Manila, when the Abu Sayyf took him hostage. Officials said Andang was also involved in the kidnappings of 53 mostly students and teachers in the nearby island of Basilan in 2000. The military said assorted weapons and explosives were seized from Andang during Friday's raid by members of an anti-terrorist task force unit under Marine Col. Juancho Saban.
Andang as a one-million-peso bounty on his head and is included in the government's most wanted man. Andang was cited as a relative of detained Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang, alias Commander Robot, who was captured last year during a gunbattle in Jolo.
The military's Southern Command earlier said that it had foiled bombing attempts by the Abu Sayyaf group with the arrest of three of the extremist group's members. Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga, chief of Southern Command, said the trio, one of them Nidjal Pajiran who is believed to be a sub-leader, were also planning to resume their kidnap for ransom activities.
Pajiran was reportedly working under the group of Abu Solaiman, one of four Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by the United States for the killing of US hostage Martin Burnham in June 2002. The military identified the two others as Musar Ansar and Abrar Engliong. The duo were said to be Abu Sayyaf bombers and that their arrest had foiled an attack in Zamboanga City.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2004 3:52:09 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A woman was shot dead and five people injured in a bomb blast in the latest violence to hit Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, police said. Two men on a motorcycle shot the 39-year-old woman four times in the chest on Saturday as she went to a market in the troubled Narathiwat province where a surge of separatist violence started in January, police said Sunday. A bomb hidden underneath a bench in front of a policeman's house in the province exploded Saturday after it was set off by remote control when five people sat down. The policeman was among the five injured in the blast, none of them seriously. The attack followed the fatal shooting of another officer on Friday in the southern province of Yala.
Police have been regularly targeted in separatist violence that has simmered in Thailand south for decades but took on renewed vigour in January after a raid by Muslim militants on an army base in January. More than 250 people have since died. Bombings and murders targeting officials, security forces and Buddhist monks sparked fears the conflict could broaden into major strife between Muslims in the south and the overwhelmingly Buddhist population of Thailand. Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula said authorities would increase security in the south over Thailand's national holiday that ends Monday to try to prevent an upsurge in almost daily killings.
The violence reached a peak on April 28, when 108 suspected Muslim rebels were killed when they launched raids on police posts and checkpoints. In one of the clashes, heavily armed security forces raided a mosque and killed 32 Muslim militants armed only with machetes and a single gun. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra admitted Saturday the storming of the mosque was an overreaction and has pledged to release an independent report into the raid this week.
Thailand offered rewards of family trips to Mecca for help in finding weapons stolen by suspected Muslim separatists in an army camp raid in the kingdom's restive south in January. The Thai army was offering a trip for a family of three plus spending money of 60,000 baht (1,450 US dollars) if tip-offs led to the recovery of the missing guns from an attack in the Muslim-majority province of Narathiwat, Lieutenant Colonel Akom Pongprom said. Four soldiers were killed and more than 300 guns were stolen in the January 4 army depot raid. A Muslim MP from Thailand's ruling party appeared in court Friday accused of masterminding the attack. "We do hope the rewards will bring tips for the recovery of stolen guns which can lead us to the rest," Akom said.
A defiant Iran on Saturday said it had resumed building nuclear centrifuges, saying the move was retaliation for the failure of three European powers to get its file closed at the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. The announcement by Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi hardened the lines between Iran and the United States, which has been pushing to take Iran's nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council. Kharrazi told a press conference that Iran has not resumed enriching uranium but was manufacturing centrifuges in response to the failure in June of Britain, Germany and France to help close Iran's file of possible nuclear nonproliferation violations at the International Atomic Energy Agency. "We still continue suspension on uranium enrichment, meaning that we have not resumed enrichment," Kharrazi said. "But we are not committed to another agreement with them (Britain, Germany and France) on not building centrifuges."
Diplomats said this week that Tehran had resumed building equipment used to make uranium hexaflouride which — when processed in centrifuges — can be enriched to low levels for power generation or high levels for nuclear weapons. In Paris talks, officials from Iran and the European powers are seeking to reach a consensus on Tehran's nuclear program.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 1:50:13 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I am sure that the US and Israel have made plans for a raid on the Iranian nuclear facilities. Waiting still increases my anxiety level, though. I worry especially about the Black Turbans giving enriched U235, either raw, or or in the form of a device to proxies for their use in blackmail.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2004 14:46 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Possibly, more than any single issue, Iran serves as the perfect bellwether for Europe's complete inability to act in their own interest. This crippling degree of inaction in the face of a massive threat mandates unilateral action by those with detectable blood concentrations of testosterone.
#4
I know everyone says that we can't bomb all the nuclear targets in Iran -- too many of them, too dispersed, too well guarded by defense systems, buried too well into civilian areas. Nope, nope, can't be done.
Sounds like a challenge for some Tomahawks and VERY precision guided weapons. Lots of them. Which we happen to have. Hmmmm ......
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2004 21:34 Comments ||
Top||
By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID ROHDE August 2nd, 2004
INTELLIGENCE
The unannounced capture of a figure from Al Qaeda in Pakistan several weeks ago led the Central Intelligence Agency to the rich lode of information that prompted the terror alert on Sunday, according to senior American officials. The figure, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, was described by a Pakistani intelligence official as a 25-year-old computer engineer, arrested July 13, who had used and helped to operate a secret Qaeda communications system where information was transferred via coded messages.
A senior United States official would not confirm or deny that Mr. Khan had been the Qaeda figure whose capture led to the information. But the official said "documentary evidence" found after the capture had demonstrated in extraordinary detail that Qaeda members had for years conducted sophisticated and extensive reconnaissance of the financial institutions cited in the warnings on Sunday.
One senior American intelligence official said the information was more detailed and precise than any he had seen during his 24-year career in intelligence work. A second senior American official said it had provided a new window into the methods, content and distribution of Qaeda communications. "This, for us, is a potential treasure trove," said a third senior American official, an intelligence expert, at a briefing for reporters on Sunday afternoon.
The documentary evidence, whose contents were reported urgently to Washington on Friday afternoon, immediately elevated the significance of other intelligence information gathered in recent weeks that had already been regarded as highly troubling, senior American intelligence officials said. Much of that information had come from Qaeda detainees in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia as well as Pakistan, and some had also pointed to a possible attack on financial institutions, senior American intelligence officials said.
The American officials said the new evidence had been obtained only after the capture of the Qaeda figure. Among other things, they said, it demonstrated that Qaeda plotters had begun casing the buildings in New York, Newark and Washington even before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Among the questions the plotters sought to answer, senior American intelligence officials said, were how best to gain access to the targeted buildings; how many people might be at the sites at different hours and on different days of the week; whether a hijacked oil tanker truck could serve as an effective weapon; and how large an explosive device might be required to bring the buildings down.
The American officials would say only that the Qaeda figure whose capture had led to the discovery of the documentary evidence had been captured with the help of the C.I.A. Though Pakistan announced the arrest last week of a Qaeda member, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted in connection with the bombings of American embassies in East Africa in 1998, the American officials suggested that he had not been the source of the new threat information.
An account provided by a Pakistani intelligence official made clear that the crucial capture in recent weeks had been that of Mr. Khan, who is also known as Abu Talha. The intelligence official provided information describing Mr. Khan as having assisted in evaluating potential American and Western targets for terrorist attacks, and as being representative of a "new Al Qaeda."
The Pakistani official described Mr. Khan as a fluent English speaker who had told investigators that he had visited the United States, Britain, Germany and other countries. Mr. Khan was one of thousands of Pakistani militants who trained in Afghanistan under the Taliban in the 1990's, the Pakistani official said.
If indeed Mr. Khan was the man whose arrest led the C.I.A. to new evidence, his role as a kind of clearinghouse of Qaeda communications, as described by the Pakistani intelligence official, could have made him a vital source of information. Since his arrest, Mr. Khan has described an elaborate communications system that involves the use of high and low technology, the Pakistani official said.
The question of how much to rely on information obtained from captured foes has always weighed on the intelligence business. In recent weeks, even as they cited accounts from some captured Qaeda members as the basis for new concerns about terrorism, American intelligence officials have acknowledged that another captured Qaeda figure, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, had recanted claims that Iraq had provided training in illicit weapons to Qaeda members. Mr. Libi's earlier claims had been the primary basis for assertions by President Bush and his top advisers that Iraq had provided training in "poisons and gases" to Qaeda members.
In explaining the decision to call a new terror alert, American officials would say only that the evidence obtained by the C.I.A. after the arrest of the Qaeda figure in Pakistan had provided a richer, more credible source of intelligence than could have been provided by any single individual. They declined to say whether the "documentary evidence" included physical documents or might also include electronic information stored on computers, like copies of e-mail communications.
The Qaeda communications system that Mr. Khan used and helped operate relied on Web sites and e-mail addresses in Turkey, Nigeria and the northwestern tribal areas of Pakistan, according to the information provided by a Pakistani intelligence official. The official said Mr. Khan had told investigators that couriers carried handwritten messages or computer disks from senior Qaeda leaders hiding in isolated border areas to hard-line religious schools in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province. Other couriers then ferried them to Mr. Khan on the other side of the country in the eastern city of Lahore, and the computer expert then posted the messages in code on Web sites or relayed them electronically, the Pakistani official said.
Mr. Khan had told investigators that most of Al Qaeda's communications were now done through the Internet, the official said. After a message was sent and read by the recipient, the entire communication and related files were deleted to maintain secrecy, he said. Mr. Khan had told investigators that e-mail addresses were generally not used more than a few times.
The young computer engineer, who received a bachelor's degree from a university in Karachi, is the unemployed son of an employee of Pakistan's state airline and a college botany professor, the official said. Heavily built and 6 feet 2 inches tall, he speaks English with a British accent, and was arrested carrying a fake Pakistani identification card. The Pakistani official said Mr. Khan told investigators that he had received 25 days of training at a militant camp in Afghanistan in June 1998. By the time Mr. Khan had risen to his current position, the official said, Qaeda figures had arranged his marriage and were paying him $170 a month for rent for his house in Lahore and $90 for expenses.
Mr. Khan was in contact with the brother of the Indonesian Qaeda leader Hambali, who was studying in a religious school in Karachi, and who was deported in December 2003. Mr. Khan has told interrogators that his Qaeda handler was a Pakistani he knew as Adil or Imran, who assigned him tasks related to computer work, Web design and managing the handler's messages. His correspondents included a Saudi-based Yemeni, Egyptian and Palestinian nationals and Arabs in unknown locations, and someone described as the "in-charge" in the city of Khost in eastern Afghanistan.
Asked about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mr. Khan has told interrogators that even the top Qaeda commanders do not know, the Pakistani intelligence official said.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
08/01/2004 11:30:05 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
From Khilafah
... An Iraqi political group says more than 37,000 Iraqi civilians were killed between the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003 and October 2003. The People's Kifah, or Struggle Against Hegemony, movement said in a statement that it carried out a detailed survey of Iraqi civilian fatalities during September and October 2003. Its calculation was based on deaths among the Iraqi civilian population only, and did not count losses sustained by the Iraqi military and paramilitary forces.
The deputy general secretary and spokesperson of the movement told Aljazeera.net he could vouch for the accuracy of the figure. "We are 100% sure that 37,000 civilian deaths is a correct estimate. Our study is the result of two months of hard work which involved hundreds of Iraqi activists and academics. Of course there may be deaths that were not reported to us, but the toll in any case could not be lower than our finding," said Muhammad al-Ubaidi. "For the collation of our statistics we visited the most remote villages, spoke and coordinated with grave-diggers across Iraq, obtained information from hospitals, and spoke to thousands of witnesses who saw incidents in which Iraqi civilians were killed by US fire," he said.
Al-Ubaidi, a UK-based physiology professor, provided a detailed breakdown of the 37,000 civilian deaths for each governorate (excluding the Kurdish areas) relating to the period between March and October 2003:
The People's Kifah said the process of data gathering stopped after one of the group's workers was arrested by Kurdish militias and handed over to US forces in October 2003. The fate of the worker remains unclear. "I am taking this opportunity of talking to Aljazeera.net to request that the US occupation authorities reveal the whereabouts of the worker, who was arrested and then went missing. We are afraid he is being tortured the way Abu Ghraib prisoners were tortured," al-Ubaidi said. "His name is Ramzi Musa Ahmad. He is a 32-year-old Iraqi engineer who was on his way to the Iraqi Kurdish governorate al-Sulaimania last October to fax me the information to Britain, because telephone services had not been restored in Baghdad. ... The minibus in which Ahmad was travelling was stopped at a Kurdish checkpoint. He was arrested and handed over to US army."
As of now, there are no reliable estimates of total Iraqi civilian fatalities. The interim Iraqi government has not made available any statistics, while US occupation authorities in Iraq reportedly issued orders to the forensic medicine department not to talk to the media about the number of bodies it receives. Liqa Makki, a political analyst, said it is widely known in Baghdad that Iraqi officials are prohibited from releasing any information about body count. .... "The director of forensic medicine department said publicly some months ago that his department was receiving 70 bodies a day. But he was reprimanded and a statement was published in the Iraqi press prohibiting the announcement of any kind of body count," Makki said.
The only serious independent attempt to collate war statistics is the Iraq Body Count Project, which involves both US and British academics. The project's website currently places Iraq's civilian toll at between 11,000 and 13,000. The website has been criticised in some quarters for its tardiness in updating its figures. But Iraq Body Count Project says it is not a news portal and puts accuracy ahead of speed. According to the Arab and western media, between 15,000 and 20,000 Iraqi civilians have perished since the launch of the invasion. But some cast doubt on the figures, saying the number of Iraqi civilians who have died at the hands of the US army may never be known.
Iraq's interim government is preparing the first post-Saddam census in Iraq. It hopes that an accurate census will unearth long-buried facts about Iraq's wars. The Planning Ministry issued instructions to Iraqis not to leave their homes on 12 October when 150,000 workers will be engaged in conducting the census. The interim government says the census will be the last step before the general election scheduled for January 2005. According to the last official census - conducted in 1997 - Iraq had a population of 24 million.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/01/2004 8:47:45 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Mike, did ya notice the source of this? "Struggle against Hegemony". Hmmmm. Wonder if they have an agenda.
Also, it seems they were unable to find ANY dead combatants. Wonder how they missed those? Ot, might they be included in the "civilians". Naw. Al Jizm woudn't do that, would they?
#2
Saddam sacrificed many, many more Iraqis in his wars against Iran and Kuwait, and he didn't even win. And the current count from his mass graves is what? Furthermore, this is stale news -- most of the current fatalities are Iraqis killing Iraqis -- just like in the good ole days.
Posted by: Tom ||
08/01/2004 21:05 Comments ||
Top||
From the Pakistan Christian Post
A Muslim extremists group called Zarb-e-Momin set on fire the house of Rev. Khalid Soomro in Gulshan area. It was successful attempt to attack Rev. Khalid when he was threatened by fundamental groups in past too. Rev. Soomro, a famous scholar and director of Asia Kalimatullah Evangelism Ministry in Pakistan survived the attack and saved from the fire. Rev. Khalid Soomro has translated the New International Version (NIV) in Sindhi language. Rev. Soomro is serving Jesus Christ since 1985 in Karachi. His service includes, distribution of the Holy Bible, conducting of Bible Courses on Internet and reaching and teaching Bible in people's home. He has reprinted or saved many "Urdu" books. His services are not only recognized in Pakistan but internationally. Rev. Khalid Soomro belongs to "Shikarpur" District in Sindh Province. Lord has blessed him abundantly especially on the doctrine of "Trinity". Pope John Paul has given him award.
According to "Ummat News", very recently in a religious seminar at Peshawar he stressed the need of a Christian University in Karachi at the level of Aga Khan University Pakistan, Baqai University Karachi, and Hamdard University Pakistan. He said that we must be given the freedom to teach our religion to Christians. Rev Khalid Soomro's family has suffered two deaths recently, and now his house has been burnt that has resulted in total loss. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/01/2004 8:36:06 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
From the South Asia Analysis Group, an article by B. Raman, Director of the Institute for Topical Studies
The Punjab Police had announced on July 26, 2004, that following an exchange of fire lasting 14 hours at an area called Islamnagar in Gujrat, a town in Punjab, about 175 km (110 miles) southeast of the capital Islamabad, the previous day, they had arrested 13 persons, suspected of links with Al Qaeda, of whom three were women and six children. The names of the four men arrested were given as Abdullah, Tanveer, Feroze and Saleem. One of the arrested men was described as a Pakistani national from Okara and the others were described as nationals of Kenya, Sudan and South Africa. One of the arrested women was described as an Afghan national and a 12-year-old girl as a Saudi national.
It was stated that the police received the tip-off, which led to the raid and arrests, from an employee of a courier service through which the inmates of the house, who had been living there for 45 days, were receiving mail from abroad. The Police claimed to have recovered two Kalashnikovs, chemicals, dollars, euros and two laptop computers from the hide-out. According to another version, following the interrogation of a suspected Al Qaeda member, who had been arrested earlier, the police had picked up Tanveer from a hotel on July 24 and he had led them to the hide-out. The Police also claimed that one of the women was wearing a suicide jacket filled with explosives.
Jordan will bring official charges this week against 17 militants suspected of links to al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in connection with a plot to launch a massive chemical attack, security sources said Sunday. They said the state security court was expected in the next few days to lay out the case against ring leader Azmi Jayousi and sixteen other militants, including six Syrians.
The 17 include four militants killed in clashes with the security forces before the plot was thwarted in April. Nine of the suspects are in police custody and four will be tried in absentia, including Zarqawi himself. "The charge list will be sent very soon to the military prosecutor to be formally issued against the defendants," one security source told Reuters, saying the trial could start as early as September.
The defendants will stand trial on several charges including "conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts" against the intelligence headquarters and U.S. interests with a string of suicide bombings that could have killed thousands of civilians in Jordan, a close ally of Washington. The main charges carry the death sentence if convicted, a judicial source said.
Jayousi was shown confessing on state television in April that he first met Zarqawi at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, and that had he met him again in Iraq. The charge list will detail Jayousi's confession of how he planned the attacks with trucks laden with 80 tons of explosives, helped by key Syrian members of the group. Officials said cars carrying the explosives had been driven into Jordan from Syria. Both sides patrol the long desert border but smugglers often slip across it.
A security source said confessions had revealed the group operated under the name of Kateab al-Tawhid (Brigades of Tawhid), purportedly affiliated to Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad blamed by the U.S. army for deadly suicide bombings in Iraq.
Defense lawyers say the confessions were extracted under duress with no evidence to back up prosecution claims. Jordanian security sources said al Qaeda was incensed at the covert aid Jordan had given to the U.S. military campaign in Iraq and had tried to punish Jordan for supporting Washington's efforts to pacify post-war Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2004 3:41:59 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Some of these chemical weapons which were going to be used by al-Qa'ida may be the very same WMD Saddam was able to make $31 million on in his pre-ground war sale to Assad. In turn Assad trucked the bulk of these WMD to Lebanon hidden in the mountains and then some of these made it to Jordan to be 'tested'.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
08/01/2004 23:33 Comments ||
Top||
Suicide bombers struck the US and Israeli embassies and Uzbekistan's prosecutor general's office in simultaneous attacks in Tashkent, killing themselves and at least two other people. In a telephone interview with the New York Times, Mark Sofer, a deputy director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry said the bomb at the Israeli Embassy exploded near the entrance to the diplomatic compound, killing two Uzbek security officers. He said the evidence pointed to at least one suicide attacker, which would be a continuation of a tactic first seen in Uzbekistan this spring. One of those killed was reportedly the personal Uzbek guard of the Israeli ambassador, Zvi Cohen. It was unclear whether the attack on the American Embassy was the work of a suicide bomber. Several reports indicated that the blast was triggered by a man wearing an explosive vest and that as many as five people had been killed. However, the reportes were not confirmed by the Uzbek or American governments.
According to the New York Times, the American Embassy in Tashkent has long been identified as vulnerable, due to its proximity to a busy city thoroughfare. The State Department has already broken ground for a more modern building with higher security. A third bomb targeted the lobby of the Uzbekistan prosecutor's office and injured two guards and two officials. A spokeswoman at the Uzbek general prosecutor's office, Svetlana Artykova, said the bomb there detonated just inside the building's entrance, heavily damaging the lobby and wounding several people. Artykova said it was not clear whether the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber or whether the attacker had planted an explosive device in the building.
Uzbekistan's state-controlled television said that a total of two people were killed and nine others injured, with two of them in serious condition. However, the Russian Interfax news agency quoted an identified source as saying that eight people had been killed outside the US compound, four policemen guarding the building and four civilians. The Interfax report could not be confirmed. A nurse quoted by the AFP said that at least five bodies had been brought to her hospital. Uzbekistan is an authoritarian state without independent news media, and its government released only limited details about the attacks.
The attacks coincided with the end of the first week of the trial of 15 Uzbeks accused of taking part in guerrilla and suicide bomb attacks against the government this year that left 47 people dead. The wave of violence in March and April included the first-ever suicide attacks in Central Asia. The defendants in the trial have said the U.S. and Israeli embassies were among the targets their group planned to attack. Friday's bombing marked the first time that foreign interests were targeted, rather than local government symbols. Friday's attacks were claimed by the same group that claimed responsibility for the March-April violence. The claim was posted on an Islamic Web site that had carried messages by Islamist militants in the past. "A group of young Muslims from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan carried out martyrdom operations today against the embassies of America and Israel and the office of the prosecutor general, which started a few days ago to try several brethren from the group," the statement said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2004 4:48:25 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A London-based Islamist group that wants to create a pan-Islamic state in Central Asia has denied involvement in Friday's suicide bombings against the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Uzbekistan. Uzbek President Islam Karimov blamed Hizb ut-Tahrir on Saturday for the explosions that killed three people and also targeted the state prosecutor's office in the capital Tashkent.
In a statement delivered to Reuters in Beirut overnight Saturday, Hizb ut-Tahrir said it was committed to using only non-violent means to pursue its goals. "Hizb ut-Tahrir does not use physical actions in its calling but intellectual battle and political struggle," said the statement, which was typed in Arabic and dated July 31. "When it does not use physical actions in its calling it could not have done this out of fear of anyone."
Police have arrested several suspects and Karimov cut short his holiday in Crimea to head a government commission to probe the bombings, which drew U.S. and Russian condemnation. Hizb ut-Tahrir criticised Karimov, who has crushed any challenge to his authority since Soviet times, as an American stooge who had killed and tortured its members. "Yes, Karimov who collaborates with head infidel America, has used every criminal means to torture the young men and women of the party," the statement said. "If using physical means for revenge was our way, we would not have resorted to an explosion here and there but would have entered his palace and killed him."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2004 3:43:40 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Unidentified gunmen killed four police officers in clashes with police in Dagestan, officials said Friday. The gunmen driving a vehicle fired at police when they stopped it for a document check in the town of Kizlyar in northern Dagestan, just across the border from Chechnya. One policeman was killed on the spot and the second one died later in a hospital, the local branch of the federal Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The gunmen then ran to a nearby apartment building, broke into one of the apartments and barricaded themselves up, firing at police who tried to approach the building. The authorities evacuated the building's residents, blocked the area and launched an operation to flush the gunmen out. In the ensuing gun battle, the gunmen killed two police officers and wounded another two, police spokesman Abdul Musayev said, Interfax reported. Musayev also said all three gunmen who were in the building were killed in the storming, Itar-Tass reported. Initial reports put the gunmen's number at five or six, and it was unclear whether any of them escaped. Dagestani Interior Minister Adylgirei Magomedtagirov said the gunmen had crossed into Dagestan from Chechnya with an apparent goal to stage attacks in the region, Interfax reported. Magomedtagirov also said police had detained a local woman suspected of being linked to the gunmen.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2004 3:49:18 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Three people were killed by a bomb blast in Algeria on Sunday in an attack bearing the hallmarks of Islamist rebels, state radio said. The victims, all Algerians, belonged to a private security firm working for a power company installing high-voltage lines in the mountainous region of Jijel, about 350 km (220 miles) east of the capital Algiers, local journalists said. The explosion, in the small town of Ziama Mansouria, 40 km (25 miles) from Jijel, blew up the car they were travelling in near the power company's working site. A fourth passenger was seriously wounded, the radio said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2004 3:40:20 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
American special forces teams have been sent to Sudan to hunt down Saudi Arabian terrorists who have re-established secret al-Qa'eda training camps in remote mountain ranges in the north-eastern quarter of the country. The terrorists, who are thought to take orders from Saudi Arabia's most wanted man, Saleh Awfi, have taken refuge in at least three locations in the Jebel Kurush mountains, which run parallel to the Red Sea coast of Africa's biggest country. An American Delta Force officer, who recently spent a week in Sudan tracking the terrorists, said the camps are used to train new recruits to wage jihad, or holy war, against the West and its allies. The trainees are instructed how to handle weapons and build and transport bombs. The officer said it was proving difficult to pin the terrorists down. 'We have a read on the rat-lines and the wider camp areas, but these are shifting camps in a very spread out part of the country. Our job is to tie them down tighter and tighter. They are moving pretty easily from their base points to the Red Sea coast, and then back and forth to Saudi. The Saudis are pretty annoyed about it.'
Awfi, according to the Saudi Arabian government, is a former prison officer and a veteran of al-Qa'eda training camps in Sudan in the early 1990s. He is believed to have moved on to Afghanistan before turning up in Iraq before the war last year. Now back in his homeland, he emerged as the local al-Qa'eda leader earlier this summer. Riyadh has launched a nationwide crackdown on terrorist cells after an amnesty expired last month but Awfi has evaded capture, even though he is believed to live in a safe house in the Riyadh area.
With no telling whose head in his refrigerator...
Western diplomats in Saudi Arabia said that the new Sudanese camps, which were established in the last nine months, have become a vital staging ground for al-Qa'eda. 'There is significant traffic from these camps to the peninsula across the Red Sea,' one said. 'There is no real Sudanese government or army control over the mountains. The terrorists slip through the cracks, up into the hills where they can train, rest and build up the spirit of jihad. With things getting hot over here, they can get organised over there.' Sudan has resisted western and Saudi Arabian pressure for it to deploy an army battalion in the Jebel Kurush, to flush out the al-Qa'eda presence. It has, however, allowed small teams of American soldiers to pass into the country as part of official visits, such as last month's trip by Colin Powell. A team of five special forces soldiers broke off from the Powell entourage for a week-long mission in the Kurush mountains, where aerial surveillance had established a list of villages where suspicious activity had been detected. American forces are hunting a series of groups linked to al-Qa'eda across North Africa. Special anti-terrorist operations in Sudan and the Horn of Africa are undertaken by marines based in Camp Lemonier in Djibouti.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2004 3:54:14 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Awfi, according to the Saudi Arabian government, is a former prison officer and a veteran of al-Qa'eda training camps in Sudan in the early 1990s. He is believed to have moved on to Afghanistan before turning up in Iraq before the war last year."
** Yet another al Qaeda in prewar Iraq.**
Posted by: Capt America ||
08/01/2004 19:09 Comments ||
Top||
At least six people were injured in a blast at a Chinese-owned nightspot in Islamabad in the early hours of Saturday. The police ruled out a bomb and said they suspected a faulty air conditioner was to blame.
Yeah, that was prob'ly it. Every time I look around, air conditioners are exploding in every direction...
The blast at the Chinese Club, a private club frequented by foreign businessmen and diplomats, occurred just before 2:30am. Police said four of the wounded were foreigners: a Kenyan woman, two Tunisian men and a Chinese employee, along with two Pakistani co-workers at the club. The blast damaged the club's boundary wall and the furniture in its hall. The club, along with other Chinese businesses and institutions in Pakistan, had been alerted in May about a possible attack after a car bomb killed three Chinese workers at Gwadar in Balochistan.
And then the air conditioner coincidentally went "kablooey!"
But police said the blast at the club bore none of the characteristics of a bomb explosion and no traces of explosive material were found at the site. A police official said the blast was probably caused by a faulty air conditioner combined with built-up gases in the dance and bar room.
Yeah, blame it on the chili...
"It was not a bomb," Mohammed Nazeer, an assistant sub-inspector of police, said.
It was the jalapeños...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:20:54 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
âIt was not a bomb,â Mohammed Nazeer, an assistant sub-inspector of police, said.
Man, talk about layers of bureaucracy! Maybe the jihadis replaced the refrigerant in the a/c unit with propane. Have not tried it myself, cause I am not that crazy, even in my youth, but what the heck?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2004 14:31 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Let's do the math: Mixed gender group of foreign nationals in an after-hours Chinese run "night club" with a bar and dance floor at 02:30:00 on a Saturday morning.
HOW IS THIS NOT A PRIME TERRORIST TARGET? All that was missing were the scantily clad go-go dancers in order to piss off every single Mullah and his pet goat.
One soldier was killed and six others were injured when an army convoy hit a remote-controlled explosive device in North Waziristan Agency, witnesses said. Military spokesman Major Gen Shaukat Sultan, however, denied that a soldier had been killed, saying only three soldiers were injured when their vehicle hit an impoverished explosive device. Sources told Daily Times that Corporal Farman died instantly. They said the injured soldiers were flown to Bannu for medical treatment. The incident took place in Pash Ziarat near Shawal in North Waziristan at 11:00am. The military convoy was heading for Razmak from Gharbaz, sources said. The injured soldiers were identified as Ahmed Jan, Alif Gul, Tahir, Asghar, Gul Shah Khan and Rab Nawaz. Laddah Deputy Administrator Naveed Arshad called a tribal jirga today (Sunday) to discuss the incident and persuade tribal elders to support the army against militants. Tribal elders have failed to resolve their differences over the role of the 36-member advisory committee supervising the lashkar. A tribal elder told Daily Times on the phone that the jirga was divided over whether to support the committee or not.
Meanwhile, a senior Frontier Corps official warned tribesmen not to launch rocket attacks on the Wana camp. "My force will target those who attack the camp," a tribesman quoted Inspector General of the Frontier Corps Maj Gen Hamid Khan as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:15:57 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Tribal elders have failed to resolve their differences over the role of the 36-member advisory committee supervising the lashkar.
Parkinson's Law sez that these guys are doomed to fail. A 36 member committee is just too unwieldy. Real business will happen with small groups of individuals. Maybe if they beat on the drums a bit, something will happen, I dunno.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2004 14:35 Comments ||
Top||
#2
A good rope course may be helpful to create a team atmosphere.
Three bomb explosions rocked Gwadar on Saturday morning, causing panic in the area. However, no loss of life and property was reported. The first bomb went off at 6:45am near the Gwadar police station followed by a second blast at the Gwadar Fish Harbour at 7am while a third bomb exploded behind Gwadar mosque at 8am. According to the agency, the bomb explosion behind the Gwadar mosque has left a deep hole in the ground. After the incident, law enforcement agencies have tightened security for foreigners working in Gwadar.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:12:42 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Four people, including a police constable, were killed in a shootout between police and unidentified attackers in Chaman near the Pak-Afghan border following the arrest of tribal chief Jillani Khan Achakzai, police and witnesses said on Saturday. "A police patrol was attacked by tribesmen travelling in two cars late on Friday night," Police Officer Malik Arshad told reporters. "A policeman was killed in the firing as was one of the attackers when police returned fire," Arshad said. Two passers-by were also killed in the crossfire, witnesses said. "Four people, including a policeman, have died from bullet injuries," said civil hospital doctor Abdul Malik.
Local tribesmen protested the arrest of Jillani Khan Achakzai, tribal leader and the Awami National Party central joint secretary, who was booked in a sedition case for criticising government policies, said Balochistan Home Secretary Abdur Rauf Khan. Tribesmen loyal to Achakzai called a strike in Chaman on Saturday and blocked the highway to the southern Afghanistan town of Spin Boldak and also disrupted a rail link to Quetta, witnesses said. The protesters stopped the passenger train at gunpoint, they added. The road blockage left hundreds of vehicles and trucks laden with fruits from Kandahar, stranded on the Quetta-Chaman Road.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:09:43 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The death toll from Friday's bombing rose to nine on Saturday. Law enforcement agencies on Saturday took eight people into custody, including a prayer leader of a local mosque, suspecting that they may be involved in the suicide bombing attack on Mr Aziz.
"Soon's you're done wiith your sermon there, Mahmoud, y'r under arrest!"
The detained people were taken to an undisclosed place for investigation, sources told Daily Times.
My guess is it was the calaboose...
Sources said officials of intelligence and law enforcement agencies were questioning them. However, they did not reveal the names of the detainees. Punjab Police Inspector General Saadat Ullah Khan inspected the site of the attack and formed four investigation teams to look into the matter. Rawalpindi Deputy Inspector General of Police Chaudhry Iftikhar has been asked to monitor the investigation teams, sources said. Sources said police officials with experience in investigating the sectarian and terrorism incidents had been assigned to investigate the attack. Police have also prepared sketches of the suicide bomber. Members of the investigation teams visited the Adiala and Attock prisons and investigated those serving jail terms for sectarian violence, sources said. Meanwhile, officials of a special investigation wing of the Federal Investigation Agency inspected the site for evidence. They also sent parts of the suicide attacker's body to Lahore for DNA tests, sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:05:11 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Investigators sought on Saturday to identify the suicide bomber from his bloodied head. Police found a grenade at the scene of the attack. The body of the attacker was blown into several pieces. Police have found his head, hands, legs and mutilated parts of his torso, and say he was clearly a strong, well-built man.
That was before he became flying meat, of course...
"His face has been damaged, but it is still intact," Zafar Iqbal, senior superintendent of police, said.
"We've recovered one of his lips and an elblow..."
"The bomber was a young man in his early twenties." After his near escape, political colleagues said Mr Aziz recounted to them how a bearded man had run up against the driver's door of his car and blew himself up. "We have found an unexploded hand grenade at the site," Iqbal said. "Apparently the suicide bomber was carrying it with other explosives. The bomb disposal squad has defused it."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:01:32 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A group claiming to be linked to the Al Qaeda network said on Saturday it had tried to assassinate prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz and warned of more bloody attacks against pro-US officials, Reuters reported. The Islambouli Brigades of Al Qaeda, a previously unknown group, did not name Mr Aziz in the statement posted on an Islamist website, but said it had targeted one of the men of the "American infidel in Pakistan".
"One of our blessed battalions tried to hunt a head of one of America's infidels in Pakistan while he was returning from Fateh Jang, but God wanted him to survive," the statement said, the Associated Press reported. "With this blow, we are delivering a message to the Pakistani government and its treacherous head, Pervez Musharraf, who is still extraditing the mujahideen to America to appease it," the statement said. "Yesterday's attack will be followed by more painful blows if you do not stop blindly obeying the orders of that lowlife President Bush. If you don't stop, the mujahideen will wage a bloody war in Pakistan." The group said it was giving the government a "period of truce" to cease handing over detainees to America, failing which the militants "will behave in a different way". The statement did not say how long the truce would last, but it warned that this message was "the last warning".
"Within the coming few days, our brigades will speak with the language of blood which is the only language you understand," the message added. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the government was examining the claim. "We are looking into the Al Qaeda aspect, but it is too early to say that Al Qaeda was behind the attack on Mr Aziz at this point since investigations are underway." He said the government was trying to examine the website on which the claim had been posted. "It is the first time that an Al Qaeda-linked group has claimed responsibility for attack on a Pakistani leader," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 1:51:37 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Gunmen loyal to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat opened fire Sunday at a conference of Arafat's Fatah movement, in the latest sign of factional infighting among the Palestinian leadership. The Fatah conference was convened to discuss reform in the Palestinian Authority and to call for elections to the Fatah leadership committees, which have not been held for 15 years. The meeting of about 70 legislators and senior Fatah officials followed weeks of demonstrations against the disarray in the security services and corruption in the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank and Gaza Strip. About 20 armed men broke into the conference on the first day of the weeklong event, firing into the air and above the stage where speakers were seated. No one was injured, but the meeting broke up.
"Took care o' that little problem, didn't we, Mahmoud?"
"Yup. It's the Paleostinian way!"
Several delegates met with the gunmen to discuss whether the conference could continue. The gunmen identified themselves as members of the Al Awda Brigades, a small militant group. One member told the Associated Press they believed the meeting was part of a conspiracy against Arafat.
"That's why Yasser sent us!"
A letter to Arafat drafted by conference delegates denounced the lawlessness in the territories and corruption in the Palestinian Authority. "President Arafat, this might be the last chance for reforming our situation before reaching the end.
"... unless we're there now. I think maybe we are."
"We need a revolution within our Fatah movement," the letter said.
That would seem to involve dumping Yasser, though...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 1:20:40 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Several delegates met with the gunmen to discuss whether the conference could continue.
Isn't this the real problem here? When "gunmen" come barging into your meeting, you have some of your own "gunmen" cut them to ribbons and continue with the business at hand. Rather poor planning on their part, I'd say.
How anyone can seriously discuss Palestinian reform without a cadre of armed escorts to repel Arafat's enforcers is beyond me. You know things have gotten bad when the major threat to Arafat's life comes not from Israel, but within the Palestinian territories.
I hope any unrest results in maximum casualties among the combatants. Arafat earning himself a slow-death gutshot would be icing on the cake.
#3
It is amazing (well, maybe not) that the Paleos or at least the leaders see the obvious, and that is they will have to compromise in order to make a united front and not destroy themselves. Hell, even major crime families do it to survive. What we are witnessing here folks is Darwinism at its most intense. Survival of the fittist is not what we see. It is the culling of the mentally weak and moronic, the flotsam and jetsom of the gene pool circling the drain.
Scoot McGrute---Pass the popcorn, if you please. Would you care for an Alaskan Haute Quarter Porter? The brewmaster is a friend of mine.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2004 14:27 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Forgot to put the word CANNOT in, as in Cannot See the Obvious. My mistake.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2004 14:39 Comments ||
Top||
#5
More proof if gangs of Islamic gunmen can't enter Israel to murder Jews they turn quickly against their own 'Muslim brothers'.
The Israeli national security barrier is not only protecting Jewish lives but is thinning out the ranks of Arab terrorists as well.
The western world should be cheering for Israel not condemning her.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
08/01/2004 18:37 Comments ||
Top||
Three more militants have been arrested since April in connection with an al-Qaida-linked plot to attack the U.S. Embassy and Jordanian government offices with chemical and conventional weapons, officials said Sunday. The arrests announced Sunday bring to nine the number detained in the alleged plot. Four others were killed in a police shootout on April 20, while another four remain at large, including Jordanian militant Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi. They said the 17 militants were all affiliated with a previously unknown group called Kata'eb al-Tawhid, Arabic for the Battalions of Monotheism, which is linked to the al-Qaida terror organization.
If it's got "Tawhid" in the title it's usually Zarqawi...
Azmi al-Jayousi, the alleged mastermind of the Jordan-based terror cell who was captured in April, has confessed to military prosecutors about what would have been al-Qaida's first chemical attack, the officials added. Jordanian officials say the plot targeted the Jordanian prime minister's office, the secret service agency, the U.S. Embassy in Jordan and other sites. The suspects are expected to be charged in a military court with conspiracy to commit terror. No trial date has been set. In April, Jordan announced it had foiled a terrorist plot blamed on al-Zarqawi. Jordanian authorities said then the suspects plotted to use chemicals and explosives to blow up vital institutions, including Jordan's intelligence department — an attack officials say would have killed thousands of people. Al-Jayousi and some other suspects in detention had said in televised confessions that their terror plot was hatched and financed by al-Zarqawi. In the audiotape posted on the Internet in May, a man who identified himself al-Zarqawi acknowledged that his group was behind the plot targeting, but denied chemical weapons were to be used.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 1:16:23 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
an al-Qaida-linked plot to attack the U.S. Embassy and Jordanian government offices
That 'splains why the Jordanians are really pissed.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/01/2004 15:05 Comments ||
Top||
We have been very active since my last update. Fallujah remains a closed city but we have made real progress in targeting and destroying the enemy where we find him. We know that our efforts have been effective and have a significant effect on the extremists inside the city. At the same time, we have gotten better at communicating our desire to improve the lives of the average citizens should they elect to cooperate.
The city remains divided. It is a lawless sanctuary for all kinds of criminal and enemy elements. It has a history of being relatively incorrigible and Iraqis from outside the city regularly tell us that "the only solution is to level the city." The history of the city and the animosity of other Iraqis toward it has cultivated a level of xenophobia that results in astounding levels of paranoia and isolationism.
Today the city is dominated by three different elements. The most dangerous are the extremists who are religious ideologues. These would be your classic Islamic Terrorist who's twisted view of the world is one that cannot coexist with anyone who does not only agree with their beliefs, but who willingly submit to the severe limitations of individual freedoms that the beliefs entail. To be frank, these elements will never accept a peaceful coexistence with free people. Their rhetoric and will to enforce their extremist beliefs are mutually exclusive with anything but direct conflict. We will be fighting them until a clear winner is determined.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: ed ||
08/01/2004 1:03:30 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Great letter. Great insights. Too bad the MSM does not publish letters like these.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2004 14:08 Comments ||
Top||
An Iraqi tribal leader mediating with kidnappers for the release of seven kidnapped truck drivers denied Sunday they had been freed as was claimed by the Kenyan government. Sheik Hisham al-Dulaimi said negotiations to secure the hostages' release had broken down and there was no longer contact with the hostage-takers. A Kenyan government spokesman had said earlier Sunday the truckers — three Kenyans, three Indians and one Egyptian — had been set free. "This is not true, they've not been released," al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press. "The two sides were unable to reach an agreement, I don't know what's going to happen now."
A diplomat in Baghdad with knowledge of the negotiations also denied that the seven hostages were released. There was no immediate way to reconcile the reports. Iraq's intensifying wave of kidnappings, most carried out by small and unknown groups over the past months, has frequently seen unclear and contradicting reports over hostages' status.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 1:05:04 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
I see Lashkar e-Jhangvi's arrived in Iraq...
A series of coordinated bombings targeted churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul during evening services Sunday, wounding at least 20 people in the first attacks on Christian places of worship in Iraq's 15-month insurgency. The church attacks came amid a flurry of other bombings in and around the two cities that killed at least 10 Iraqis and an American soldier. The U.S. military confirmed two other explosions in Baghdad in the evening, but their target was not immediately clear. The church attacks in Baghdad appeared to be car bombs. The two blasts exploded just minutes apart outside two nearby churches — one Armenian and one Catholic — in the Karada neighborhood. Massive plumes of black smoke poured into the evening sky over the city as firefighters struggled to put out flames leaping from the front of the Armenian church and several blackened cars. "I saw injured women and children and men, the church's glass shattered everywhere. There's glass all over the floor," said Juliette Agob, who was inside the Armenian church during the first explosion. At nearly the same time, two blasts struck outside a church in Mosul and a third blast hit a bridge, Iraqi officials said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 12:46:19 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
OK - anyone now still doesn't believe this is an Islam ist racist war against all other cultures?
These guys want a crusade against them because they were misled as to the "glory" of the last one.
They'd best beware or they may get what they asked for, but not what they expected. Push us far enough and the Prophet's rock will be plasma and glass, hard to turn and worship that 5 times a day.
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.
