Police have arrested a second suspect in the twin blasts that struck Jeddah on Sept. 11, the Interior Ministry reported yesterday, adding that the man belonged to a deviant group. Salah Al-Najjar was arrested in the northwestern city of Tabuk late Thursday, after he escaped a raid on Monday which resulted in the arrest of fellow suspect Rida Al-Najjar, a ministry official said.
Both of them al-Najjars? Y'think they're related? Husband and wife, maybe?
A gunbattle that ensued Monday's police raid in Tabuk injured Rida and three security officers. "Security forces continued searching for Salah Al-Najjar and he was spotted in a residential apartment in Tabuk," the official said, adding the man did not resist arrest.
"Please don't kill me!"
"Investigations that followed the two blasts in Jeddah suggested Rida's involvement," Brig. Mansour Turki, the ministry's spokesman said, adding that Salah's name emerged as a result of Monday's raid. Results of preliminary investigations have proved that Rida is an expert in forging documents and IDs used for terrorist operations. The twin blasts outside two Jeddah banks associated with the United States and Britain, caused limited damage but were "undoubtedly terrorist attacks," the AFP news agency quoted Turki as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2004 8:03:21 PM ||
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SPo'D - I can never remember, is the left testicle positve or negative? Color is no clue after 5 or 6 jolts...
#2
Totally OT but one of the reasons we have to keep these wankers at Gitmo is that we don't use unreliable methods like torture (which includes the spark gap method noted above.) If you torture someone they will tell you whatever they think you want to hear to get it to stop. Using psyops they tell you what you need to hear but it takes years sometimes. These folks Saudi seem to just chat up the nutjobs and get the info they need many times. Tells you about the typical mental state of Joe Terrorist which is different than the guys running the show. If they are talking to a fellow muslim they spill their guts.
Mexico is investigating two men who were expelled from Central America and whose use of false passports led officials to suspect possible terrorism links, officials said. Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said officials wanted to determine the reason the two were in the region and whether they were trying to travel to the United States. "We still have absolutely nothing proved in this particular case," Macedo said. "We will do everything necessary to make perfectly clear the reason for the presence of these persons."
On Monday, Costa Rican officials said they had deported to El Salvador two men who tried to enter the country using well-crafted European documents. Officials discovered Jordanian passports identifying the two as Pedro MartinezIsmail Mohamad Nassar and Jose RamosFawas Ne Meh Mousa. On Tuesday, Salvadoran officials said the men had been placed on a flight to Jordan that was also scheduled to stop in Mexico and Europe. An official at Mexico's National Migration Institute, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that the men had not been detained during their layover in Mexico. On Monday, Costa Rica's immigration director said officials couldn't confirm the two were terrorists. "The eye-rolling and face-making tests were inconclusive."
"But neither can we discount the possibility that they have some link to that type of group," Marco Badilla said. Officials have long worried that terrorists would tap into illegal migrant and drug smuggling routes into the United States, although there has been no evidence of that. Still, recent events have raised concerns. A group has posted Internet threats against El Salvador for its continued military support in Iraq, and Honduran officials said in July that a suspected al-Qaida figure, Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, had been spotted there earlier in the year. Have they checked with the unspecified European airport or with Jordaian officials to see if Jose and Pedro got to the final destination?
Internationally wanted Arab terrorist Abu al-Valid has been killed, said Major-General Ilya Shabalkin, a representative of the regional operative headquarters directing the anti-terrorist operation in the Northern Caucasus. "During a special operation, the federal troops killed Abu al-Valid, an Arab mercenary and functionary of the international terrorist organizations Muslim Brothers and al-Qaeda, in mid April 2004.Operative information collected by the special services and information from other sources indicates that he has been replaced with a different Arab mercenary, Abu Khavs," Shabalkin said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:19:43 PM ||
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Make that Abu al-INvalid.
Let us invalidate your ticket for you.....
Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov says another militant chief, Shamil Basayev, should go on trial for the school siege in the southern Russian city of Beslan that killed nearly 340 people, according to a statement released Friday. Russian officials, meanwhile, said a top Saudi-born rebel commander in Chechnya had been killed by federal forces, confirming reports by his relatives.
In a statement posted on a rebel Web site, Maskhadov, who has denied any involvement in the Sept. 1-3 siege, pledged to bring his former deputy to justice once the war in Chechnya ends. "I categorically declare that after the end of the war, persons who are guilty of carrying out provocative acts will be taken to court, including Shamil Basayev," said Maskhadov, who was elected Chechnya's president in 1997 after it won de facto independence in the first war in 1994-96.
Oh. After you win the war, is it? Wossa motta? You out of drumheads? Got a cigarette and blindfold shortage?
There was no way to confirm the authenticity of Maskhadov statement, but the same rebel Web site has carried his other statements in the past. Russia's Federal Security Service has offered a reward of $10.3 million for information that could help "neutralize" both Basayev and Maskhadov, who are believed to be in Chechnya or nearby regions. Akhmed Zakayev, Maskhadov's envoy who has been granted asylum in Britain, has repeatedly denied his involvement in the school seizure. "I categorically declare that the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria under my command have nothing to do with this terrorist act," said the statement, which referred to Chechnya by its rebel name. At the same time, it said that the school seizure and other attacks were the consequence of Russia's "genocidal war" in Chechnya and called for a political solution to the conflict under international guarantees.
On Friday, Maj.-Gen. Ilya Shabalkin a spokesman for the federal headquarters in Chechnya, said that Abu Walid, a Saudi-born rebel chief, was killed by federal forces in mid-April, the Interfax news agency reported. Abu Walid's death was reported by Arab TV stations in April, but Russian officials hadn't confirmed his death until now. Shabalkin said that Abu Walid was killed in a Russian "special operation," but wouldn't give further details. Another Arab, Abu Khavs, has succeeded Abu Walid as a top al-Qaida emissary in Chechnya, he added. Between 100 and 150 Arab and other foreign militants are in Chechnya, Shabalkin said. He said that "the Arabs are calling the shots" in Chechnya by distributing money smuggled in from abroad. He said that Abu Walid and several other Arabs became acquainted with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan during the early 1990s. In 1993, bin Laden sent them to the neighboring ex-Soviet republic of Tajikistan where Islamic opposition militants were fighting a Moscow-backed secular government, and in 1995 they moved to Chechnya, Shabalkin said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:26:41 PM ||
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Trial? Any Russian who got his hands on that piece of pre-barbecued pork, would rip his terrorist heart out.
#2
I think Arselan was talking about a shariah trial. Y'd have to prove the kiddies weren't infidels and produce four witnesses with turbans before there'd be a conviction.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2004 19:49 Comments ||
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This is like one of those Taliban trials. Kind of like a reverse-kangaroo court. A kangaroo court is one where the accused gets convicted no matter what. A reverse-kangaroo court is one where - well, you can figure it out.
Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for the Beslan hostage crisis, was helped by at least 10 accomplices in the Ingush interior ministry when he led an attack on the Russian republic that left 90 dead, a report said Friday. "These crooks provided information to the terrorists on how many police were deployed and where and on the least protected sites and on the time at which it would be best to carry out the attack," an investigator told Vremia Novostei newspaper.
Ingush police officers also helped Basayev's men transport their weapons across the republic, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that interior ministry cars were not inspected at checkpoints. In coordinated raids overnight June 22, several hundred rebels attacked state targets in Ingushetia, killing mostly law enforcement officials before melting away at dawn. The Vremia Novostei daily said two Ingush policemen have been arrested for helping the rebels carry out the raids. One of the men, who were brothers, died when he set off a grenade in the deputy interior minster's offices, the paper said. The minister was seriously injured in the blast. Other policemen suspected of aiding the rebels are being hunted by the republic's security srevices.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:33:22 PM ||
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Federal forces eliminated a group of guerillas in a mountainous area of southwestern Chechnya, a spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus, Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin, told Interfax on Thursday. In the course of a reconnaissance operation, a federal unit spotted a guerilla camp near Tangi-Chu in the Urus-Martan district, Shabalkin said. As the camp was far away from the nearest community, federal forces decided to strike it with mortar fire. Following the bombardment, servicemen discovered the remains of six guerillas, weapons, ammunition, and camping gear at the scene.
Hek should take note: that's how mortars work.
The servicemen assumed that some of the guerillas might have survived the attack and fled. Measures are being taken to hunt them down, Shabalkin said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:25:32 AM ||
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In the first step toward erecting a multi-billion-dollar shield to protect the United States from foreign missiles, the U.S. Navy will begin deploying state-of-the-art destroyers to patrol the waters off North Korea as early as next week. The mission, to be conducted in the Sea of Japan by ships assigned to the Navy's 7th fleet, will help lay the foundation for a system to detect and intercept ballistic missiles launched by "rogue nations." Washington hopes to complete the network over the next several years. "We are on track," Vice Admiral Jonathan Greenert, commander of the 7th Fleet, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday aboard the USS Coronado, which is based just south of Tokyo. "We will be ready to conduct the mission when assigned."
The deployment will be the first in a controversial program that is high on President Bush's defense agenda. Bush cleared the way to build the system two years ago by withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned ship-based missile defenses. He said protecting America from ballistic missiles was "my highest priority as commander in chief, and the highest priority of my administration." The project — likened to hitting a bullet with a bullet, only at three times the speed — is exceedingly complex, prompting many critics to argue that it will never be reliable or effective. It is also expensive, with an estimated price tag of US$51 billion over the next five years.
When it comes to dollars and self-preservation, I'll usually choose self-preservation.
It's my ambition to die in bed, at home, from heart failure brought on by over-extertion, between two comely 25-year-old women who're precisely a quarter my age. So I've still got a few years to go. Unlike "many critics," I don't equate "exceedingly complex" with "impossible," so I'll work on the details of my eventual demise and the engineers can work on the details of preventing me from going out in the boom from a cheapass Juche-fuelled missile, and we'll all be happy. Except for the NKors, and they don't count. And the babes, who'll be devastated until the reading of the will.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2004 3:12:49 PM ||
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#1
skeet shooting coming up in 5....4....3...
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/24/2004 15:38 Comments ||
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If the missile defense system saves one city from nuclear destruction, it has paid for itself, and then some. As to hitting a bullet with a bullet, these guys must not be familiar with the fact that unlike bullets, ballistic missiles are pretty large things and have to travel for at least minutes before arriving at their destinations. Note also that if military lasers do come into production, that the speed of light is 50,000 times faster than that of ballistic missiles, making it theoretically possible for a single laser to destroy large numbers of missile in-flight, assuming that they can be made powerful enough to penetrate different environmental conditions.
#3
While Fred's approach is certainly not without merit, I'd also like to see our boats provide a strategic blockade of all naval traffic going to or from North Korea. All shipments should be boarded for inspection and interception of any military or dual-purpose technology.
As Frank so sagaciously notes, sea launched missile interceptors wouldn't be such a bad idea either.
#5
"But for now, tracking and monitoring are as far as the mission can go. The interceptors won't be fully deployed at the American bases until next year."
In the meantime, firing anything worth intercepting could result in exceedingly ugly retribution. Kimmie needs reminding of the firepower of just one of our subs. We need to be in his face with the "Our Nukes / His Nukes" Ratio.
Posted by: Tom ||
09/24/2004 15:49 Comments ||
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Fred,
A beautiful ambition. Brought tears to my eyes.
I always find it amusing when non-engineers tell the rest of us what is and isn't possible.
#9
I have worked on the missle track correction motors, this system does work. Like all other new complex systems and machines, it will take some time to mature. It works
Posted by: Comanche Man ||
09/24/2004 16:20 Comments ||
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#10
Fred, badanov: Excellent exit strategies. Mind if I barrow?
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
09/24/2004 16:32 Comments ||
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#11
I wonder what would happen if the North koreans decided to take out parts of the 7th fleet with a successful nuke launch? Would we totally commit to the destruction of the north or wait for a "measured" response out of our 'merciful nature'?
#14
A conservative estimate of the cost to the USA of the WTC destruction on 9/11, the murder of 3,000 highly productive people, the immediate economic slow-down, as well as increased security spending is $500b.
Spending $50b over five years to prevent a nuclear attack on American soil is peanuts compared to that. I'll gladly pay for such life-enhancing peanuts.
Further, the fact of the system's existence serves as an impediment and a threat to our enemies. There may be doubts or flaws in the shield, but the enemy had better not try it out, lest they be utterly annihilated after one of their missile is harmlessly (to us) popped in outer space.
Having said that, I'd also like to see an offensive capability developed to threaten to destroy missile bases wherever they may be (Syria, Iran, NoKo, China, Pakistan, ...).
#15
I don't think it is possible to destroy the 7th Fleet with a nuke launch. They have theater missile defense systems, and the advantage of being able to cruise at roughly 30 knots, away from wherever the missile was aimed. Besides, how would they know where the 7th Fleet was? The Chinese had no idea that 2 aircraft carriers were in the Taiwan Straits in 1996 - they learned about it on CNN. In addition, a nuclear attack would be met with the physical annihilation of North Korea.
#16
There's no such thing as a measured response to a nuke attack.
And neither should there be. The only upside would be how such a response will serve impossible-to-ignore notice to Iran and other Islamic countries of just how serious the consequences are of using nuclear weapons against Americans.
#17
A conservative estimate of the cost to the USA of the WTC destruction on 9/11, the murder of 3,000 highly productive people, the immediate economic slow-down, as well as increased security spending is $500b.
Kalle, do you have a link to where this information is cited? This is something I've been saying for some time now.
Terrorism is simply bleeding far too many resources, both financial and military, for its impact to be ignored. People in Darfur are dying due to America's burdensome committment in Iraq. And countless others are starving to death, dying of AIDS and suffering innumerable other privations that those untold billions could help to prevent. If America alone is out 500 BILLION, the world is probably out an entire ONE TRILLION dollars. Just think what that sort of money could do for other intractable global issues.
At some point, the Islamic countries will need to be read the riot act. Their support, harboring and financing of terrorists are killing far more than just the victims who perish in their hideous atrocities. Their diversion of vitally needed funding claims hundreds of lives every day. A 3-11 Madrid atrocity is collectively happening every 24 hours and it is time for Islam to pay the piper for the havoc they are wreaking upon the remaining world.
We need to consider taking the Arabian shrines by force, decapping the governments that support terrorism or something of equal deterrance. I'm f&%king sick to death of watching a tiny fraction of this earth's population gobble up the resources necessary to heal so many of its wounds.
Should this state of affairs continue much longer, I will be forced to advocate the nuclear attack of those nations and populations that promote this suffering. Terrorism claims many more victims by far than just those it murders. And there is no possible way for those who condone it to justify the massive scale of death and destruction that terrorism brings about. At some point, much more permanent solutions will need to be considered if Islam refuses to clean its vermin infested house.
#18
I second your frustration Zenster but there is no immediate solution to the WOT. This is gonna be a long drawn out affair. The enemy has been at us for 25 years and we've just gotten around to firing our 1st shots. Better buckle down for the long haul. And, I have no doubt that Islam will have the riot act read to it...eventually. We can't quibble about the cost when we're talking survival. AIDS and other privations are part of the human condition. No amount of money will cure those ills. Some may be eased true, but in no way does it warrant us abandoning our current course in the WOT. Now that's not to say there can't be a debate on effective means of fighting the WOT, by all means there needs to be - but that should be the sole focus.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
09/24/2004 19:11 Comments ||
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I wonder what would happen if the North koreans decided to take out parts of the 7th fleet with a successful nuke launch?
Pretty much anything launched in the direction of a 7th Fleet asset is going to cause a reaction. If it's nuclear, then pretty much all bets are off.
Ships have the advantage of a) being mobile, b) having pretty good sensors and data systems, c)fair to decent countering systems, and d) being at sea. It's a lot harder hitting or having an effect on a moving target that's aware of a launch in a marine environment, than hitting a city or port.
#21
I second your frustration Zenster but there is no immediate solution to the WOT. This is gonna be a long drawn out affair. The enemy has been at us for 25 years and we've just gotten around to firing our 1st shots. Better buckle down for the long haul. And, I have no doubt that Islam will have the riot act read to it...eventually. We can't quibble about the cost when we're talking survival. AIDS and other privations are part of the human condition. No amount of money will cure those ills. Some may be eased true, but in no way does it warrant us abandoning our current course in the WOT. Now that's not to say there can't be a debate on effective means of fighting the WOT, by all means there needs to be - but that should be the sole focus.
Rex, please do not think for one minute that I wish to relegate the war on terrorism to a back seat. Preventing their intended WMD attacks upon America is of primary importance.
It is exactly because of the persistent nature and easily anticipated, inevitably endless supply of jihadist terrorists which Islam will supply that I advocate investigation of some truly effective solutions into any sort of continued activity by those who pursue such nefarious ends.
Islamism must be stopped. No options and no alternatives.
We need to take those resouces currently diverted by these murderous psychopaths and redirect them towards the ends they should rightfully be intended for. At some point Islam must assume responsibility for the monstrous destruction they wreak upon our world. Why wait any longer? The evidence is clear and the results are more than disgusting. What are we waiting for, a terrorist nuclear attack upon America or any other nation?
Make Islam pay the piper now, or we shall pay him later. What other alternatives exist? Please tell.
#22
As I remember, I think the most lethal blast to surface ships is an underwater blast because it kicks up a tidal wave. I doubt that the Norks would be able to build a missile that could be programmed for sub-surface, air and contact blasts.
I am kind of baffled about why the writer is so sure that shooting down a missile with another missile is such a technically impossible challenge. I served on a Coonz class DDG and felt pretty safe from enemy missiles.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/25/2004 3:24 Comments ||
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An advertisement for the sale of weapons, bombs, and anything handy for a real and proper war, appeared on the website www.shadowerew.com, now put down by the police of Orvieto, who are investigating on a series of e-mails sent abroad. What is disquieting - apart from the items sold (plastic explosive, electrical systems, electronic guidance systems, ground-to-air missiles) - is the list of clients, which includes Al-Qaida, Al Jihad, Hamas and other terrorist groups. The website is being checked to ascertain whether it is credible. Further developments abroad may follow.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:22:37 AM ||
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Oh come on as if anybody would put al-queda on its client list!
#2
Anon1 - it may well be a hoax, but I can think of quite a few who would proudly list Al-Q as a client if they thought they could get away with it. Even in this country.
Remember there are those loonies who think terrorists are "freedom fighters."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/24/2004 8:42 Comments ||
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The emails are a spam campaign launched from Korea. The website is actually shadowcrew.com and they state on their site they are the victim of a spam campaign. I have received two emails from Korea so far, both having links to web site selling military weapons which as missiles and explosives, and another selling fake passports. The email selling military weapons claimed client with all the terrorist biggies, Al Qaeda, Hamas, etc.
I tend to think now they are hoaxes, but better safe than sorry, I guess.
#4
an engineer coworker/friend of mine (American citizen of Iranian extract) received one of these emails and was distressed. The last thing he wants is to be associated with this crap
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/24/2004 10:19 Comments ||
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What do the experts say is the risk these days of a jihadist cyber-attack?
Richard Clarke's an obnoxious self-promoter, I know, but he was right to constantly berate Silicon Valley execs throughout the late '90s for the myriad security holes in our information infrastructure. What's the view now?
#6
Sorry, I ditched the email I got from the IT dept. about this one. Yes, it is a hoax, and not the first targetting this firm. Maybe a disgruntled ex-employee?
Posted by: James ||
09/24/2004 14:29 Comments ||
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Murat might want to take a look at this - look at how Zarqawi's stormtroopers regard Turks. You think that this is going to end if they do somehow succeed the US out you're sorely mistaken.
Perhaps the words were meant to be reassuring after the blindfold and the guns at her back. But for Zeynep Tugrul, a young Turkish journalist held hostage in northern Iraq, her captor's calm statement was as comforting as bathing in ice. "Please understand why we have to make sure who you are," said the man who had seemed so friendly, the one everyone called the emir, or leader. "There have been lots of spies here, and we had to cut their heads off."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:07:50 AM ||
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Scott Taylor's account is here. It was my intention to enter the city before it was shut down, and then send reports about the civilian casualties and possible humanitarian crisis that would result from a major battle.
Dumbass almost got himself, Zeynep, and a driver killed.
Posted by: ed ||
09/24/2004 0:39 Comments ||
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#2
"I saw that around Mosul, everybody is the resistance - not terrorists, but not civilians really either," she said. "They used the small kids to bring them water, and nobody treated them like children. They'd be with the men who were talking about cutting heads, and the kids would be standing guard, like little men, so you become afraid of the children too."
A quotation from the article you sent Dan, once again this creates the question "Whom is America liberating", the whole population are against you.
Posted by: Murat ||
09/24/2004 3:56 Comments ||
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#3
We are preserving our safety and freedoms here in America. The liberation of the Iraqi people is only a possitive by-product to this, not to be confused with the original reason that we went into Iraq.
#4
We had Zarqawis family boasting on the Beeb last night re: the British hostage. They should all be snatched and held as a warning. Animals.
Murat, your ilk are once again plumbing the depths of humanity. I think sooner or later we have to drop the PC approach and go WW2 on the insurgents - an Iraqi colleague here in London is in total agreement with me.
the whole population are against you.. simply untrue.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/24/2004 6:14 Comments ||
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#5
Murat, you ever come to London?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/24/2004 6:24 Comments ||
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#6
I am planning to yes, why?
Posted by: Murat ||
09/24/2004 7:02 Comments ||
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#7
Just wondered if civilisation was a complete anathema to you. BTW are the relevant authorities informed?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/24/2004 7:12 Comments ||
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#8
You call England a civilisation? How comes that the Scots and Welsh all hate the English?
Posted by: Murat ||
09/24/2004 7:21 Comments ||
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#9
How come, Murat that Armenians and Kurds hate Turks? Arabs do too, but that does not count in my book, I think that Turks had always a good reason to loathe Arabs.
#10
'Hate' is a tad strong. Certain rivalries exist, doubtless. BTW: wondered if you fancied kneeling in front of a Templar flag in an orange jumpsuit at any time during your impending visit?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/24/2004 7:27 Comments ||
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#11
Oh, yea, Turkie is really the pinacle of civilization, that's for sure.
Well, then, Murat, stay in Turkie, you wouldn't venture into such barbaric places like UK, would'ya?
#16
Aye, with a knife when they start getting hurt.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/24/2004 8:20 Comments ||
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#17
Hmm,there are sure alot of Welsh/Scot soldiers in the British army for a people who hate the English.
Correct me if I'm wrong,but aren't the Cold Stream Gaurds(they gaurd Buckingham Palace)Scots?Isn't the Blackwatch a Welsh Regiment?
at minimum, the kurds and most of the Shia. One columnist in the Jerusalem Post says the US SHOULD withdraw from Iraq, so the Shia and Kurds can handle the Sunni Arabs with toughness that the US wont. Bring on the civil war he says - the good guys will win. Im neither so pessimistic about the Sunni Arabs (how do you know the kids in Mosul arent under compulsion of some kind - or that some Sunni arab areas arent more cooperative than the Sunni Arab parts of Mosul) nor so optimistic about a civil war - but the point is well made.
#19
I believe both are Scots regiments if memory serves me correctly... and we all kow what the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders did at Al-Amarra a few months back.
#25
From some time I have been suspecting Murat is an Arab passing for a Turk. Notice the lack of concern about bombings in Turkey or the fate of his supposed compatriots.
Anyone knowing a little Turkish so we can test him?
#26
"The last group," she said, shuddering as she recalled how they kicked her and whipped her with a spiked belt, "they just wanted to torture for nothing."
Not for nothing. They do it for a (sick) sense of power. Torturers are secretly afraid that they are worthless. How ironic that through torture they prove that their fear is true.
#27
I'm dissappointed, Howard, I was really under the impression that the only thing that the Scots and the Irish could agree on was killing the English? Not so? ;-)
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
09/24/2004 16:10 Comments ||
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#28
Well, the Irish were the last to have a go. I still haven't got my hearing straight since that twat detonated himself in The Strand. The Scots are limited to football violence, and since Gazza's goal in Euro 96 they've been fairly quiet too. As for the Welsh, one can only laugh.. Domestic violence tends to involve The Taigs aka Papist Scum.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/24/2004 17:11 Comments ||
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Osama bin Laden's alleged accountant boycotted a review hearing to evaluate his legal status, and his attorney was barred from attending the proceedings at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, 44, is one of four prisoners charged with war crimes at the U.S. naval base on Cuba's eastern tip. The United States says al Qosi, of Sudan, worked as al-Qaida's chief accountant, paymaster and supply chief. Defense attorneys have criticized the review hearings as a sham, warning their clients not to speak at any proceedings unless they have an attorney present. A decision on their status can still be rendered without the participation of the prisoners. It was unclear whether al Qosi's boycott was connected to the barring of his attorney. Although the government views the hearings as purely administrative, there is nothing that prohibits prosecutors from using testimony given at the review hearings during the military commissions, or trials. Al Qosi's trial is scheduled for December.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2004 3:04:02 PM ||
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A lecturer at a Virginia Islamic center was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on terror-related charges. Ali Al-Timimi of Fairfax, Va., is charged with counseling others to engage in a conspiracy to levy war against the United States, aid the Taliban, violate the Neutrality Act and use firearms in furtherance of crimes of violence; attempting to aid the Taliban in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and counseling others to use firearms and explosives in furtherance of crimes of violence. If convicted, he faces a possible sentence of life. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Alexandria, Va. Until Sept. 11, 2001, Al-Timimi was the primary lecturer at the Dar al Arqam Islamic Center, also known as the Center for Islamic Information and Education. Al-Timimi was considered a scholar and spiritual leader who had lectured around the world on topics related to Islam, the Justice Department said. The indictment alleges Al-Timimi helped five other men go to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2004 2:54:52 PM ||
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by John Caniglia, Cleveland Pain Plain DealerEFL, with one paragraph moved up in the story in the interests of clarity; hat tip to LGF.
A federal judge Thursday stripped the citizenship of convicted Muslim leader Imam Fawaz Damra, setting in motion what could be years of fighting over his deportation. Federal prosecutors assured Damra that they would hold off on the deportation proceedings and not detain him until after the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decides the imam's appellate case. Deportation proceedings cannot begin until the 6th Circuit decides his appeal, the judge ruled. The stay pending appeal is not unusual, nor particularly significant.
U.S. District Judge James Gwin made the citizenship ruling three days after he sentenced Damra to two months in prison and four months of home confinement for hiding his ties to terror. . . . [begin rearrangement]
Damra was convicted in June of lying on his immigration forms in 1993. Damra failed to mention his links to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Alkifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where the imam knew other radicals. He came to the Islamic Center of Greater Cleveland in 1991. In tapes of various meetings that were played at his trial, Damra screeches to a crowd about the need to raise money to kill Jews in the West Bank. Damra said in one tape that Palestinians must "direct all the rifles at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation, and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews." [end rearrangement]
U.S. Attorney Gregory White said his office may ask for an expedited appeal. "Whatever we can do to get this done quickly, we will," White said. "The main thing for us from the beginning was to get this individual out of the country. He doesn't deserve to be a U.S. citizen." . . . Damra's a lying, oleagenous ratweasel, the kind of guy who feeds the terror machine from afar but (curiously enough) lacks the fortitude to go strap on a bomb himself. Too bad the law doesn't allow us to string him up from a lamp-post on Euclid Avenue.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/24/2004 12:45:58 PM ||
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#1
Before we let him go, and after the paperwork to remove his citizenship, let's {sound of knuckles cracking} "extract" anything we can about any planning he knows of for attacks on us by any means {sound of knuckles cracking} neccessary...
Example:
They can start by using some pink lace panties to the cell where they are holding him. He can be forced to wear these as a hat. This will aid the questioners...
And, if they know anyone who has a pot-bellied pig as a pet, the pig can spend some "time" with the rag'ed Damra until he starts to talk. {oink}
No physical punishment, just psycological "no-marks" torture...
[...] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was outlining the plan Thursday to the Senate Armed Services Committee. In a report to Congress, the Pentagon offered details of the "global defense posture." The planned changes, once completed, will result in "the most profound reordering" of U.S. military forces overseas since the current global arrangements were set 50 years ago, according to the report.
[...]
The Pentagon foresees three types of overseas arrangements:
1. Main operating bases with permanently stationed forces and family support structures. Examples including Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Camp Humphreys in South Korea and Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan.
2. Forward operating sites maintained by a limited number of military personnel and possibly stored equipment. These sites will support rotational rather than permanently stationed forces. Examples are Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras and Thumrait and Masirah Island air bases in Oman.
3. Even more austere sites, which the Pentagon calls "cooperative security locations." With little or no permanent U.S. presence, these may be maintained by contractor or host nation personnel. They will allow access for U.S. forces in special circumstances and be a focal point for regional cooperation. An example is the air base in Dakar, Senegal, and Entebbe airport in Uganda.
Among locations the Pentagon is considering adding:
1. The tiny island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, off the coast of West Africa. It is among the places Gen. Charles Wald, deputy commander of U.S. European Command, has mentioned as a potential U.S. forward operating site, but not a base.
Sao Tome holds a strategic position in the Gulf of Guinea from which the U.S. military could monitor the movement of oil tankers and protect oil platforms.
2. In Bulgaria, which joined the U.S.-led NATO alliance this year, the Sarafovo and Graf Ignatievo air fields could serve as bases for U.S. troops to deploy on rotational training tours.
3. In Romania, the Americans have shown interest in the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, the Babadag training range and the Black Sea military port of Mangalia.
4. In Australia, where Pentagon officials have said they have no plans for permanent bases, U.S. forces likely will conduct joint training with Australian forces.
The terms under which U.S. forces could use these sites and facilities will have to be negotiated. Feith said the Pentagon wanted to avoid the kind of environmental or political constraints that have limited U.S. military training and deployment options in Europe in recent years.
"If countries are going to subject us to the kinds of restrictions that may mean we're not going to be able to fulfill the purpose of having troops deployed there, then we're going to have to think whether to have troops deployed there," Feith said.
Senior Bush administration officials already have held talks with many countries, including Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/24/2004 4:11:49 AM ||
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#1
...Even more austere sites, which the Pentagon calls "cooperative security locations." With little or no permanent U.S. presence, these may be maintained by contractor or host nation personnel. They will allow access for U.S. forces in special circumstances and be a focal point for regional cooperation. An example is the air base in Dakar, Senegal, and Entebbe airport in Uganda
An amusing blast from the past.
Posted by: Pat Phillips ||
09/24/2004 9:10 Comments ||
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#2
The O-club at Wheelus is looking better by the day...
#4
"If countries are going to subject us to the kinds of restrictions that may mean we’re not going to be able to fulfill the purpose of having troops deployed there, then we’re going to have to think whether to have troops deployed there," Feith said.
-I don't think there needs to be too much thinking on this.
As long overdue and welcome these changes are, who doesn't think it'll get spun against Dubya and Rummy? Look for: "Wrong changes at the wrong time in the wrong places..."
Only 5 more weeks until we can put the whiners on total disregard for awhile.
#6
It is important that the President and/or the Secretary of Defense explain to the US public the reasons and the big picture for these base changes. The better the public understands, the less effect the dim-spin will be. The administration needs to go on the offensive.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Bethel, AK ||
09/24/2004 19:22 Comments ||
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Indonesian police said on Friday they had a fifth person in custody believed to be linked to the bombing of Australia's embassy in Jakarta that killed nine people earlier this month, an officer said on Friday. The five, detained under anti-terror laws, include three arrested before the Sept. 9 blast but believed to have had knowledge of it. Police previously said four people were being held for links to the blast. "The suspects who were detained (after the blast) are AAH and IR," Suyitno Landung, head of the police's criminal investigation department, said using only the suspects' initials. He also mentioned the initials of the three other suspects.
"We are now focusing on the place where the explosives were stored before they were transported to Jakarta, and the place where they prepared the suicide bombers in West Java and Banten," Landung told reporters, referring to the two provinces that surround the capital. He said police were also questioning 14 other people over the blast. In a report on Friday, prominent local newspaper Media Indonesia named two men it said were believed to have been suicide bombers in the van that exploded outside the Australian embassy gate. It also quoted a police source who said a suspect identified by the initials AAH had helped unravel the case.
Police have said they believe the bombing was the work of Malaysian engineer Azahari Husin and fellow countryman Noordin Top, both fugitives wanted in connection with previous bombings linked to Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah. Media Indonesia said the two recruited around 10 Indonesians and used a local Jakarta courier company to support the bombing preparation. Landung confirmed that a courier firm was involved in the operation, but said the police were still collecting evidence to complete dossiers on the suspects.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:22:01 PM ||
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Two Malaysian former hostages testified in court in Taguig yesterday that a detained Abu Sayyaf commander was the man who led a group that kidnapped 21 people in the Sipadan resort off Borneo island in Malaysia. Police Cpl. Abdul Jawad Sulawat and scuba diving instructor Fong Yin Ken took the witness stand and pointed to Ghalib Andang, better known as "Commander Robot," as among the gunmen who took the captives by boat to Mindanao in April 2000. The policeman also identified four other men among the 28 defendants in the kidnapping of 21 Western tourists and Asians from Sipadan.
Andang, said by the military to be a senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf, had to have his left leg amputated after it was shattered in a firefight on the rebel stronghold of Jolo island last December that led to his capture. He sat impassively at his wheelchair with an arm handcuffed to that of a fellow defendant as a lower court heard the testimonies of the Malaysian victims at a heavily guarded police compound at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.
Sulawat, who spent 83 days in captivity before being ransomed off, described through an interpreter how the terrified captives endured the boat ride across the Celebes Sea to the Abu Sayyaf stronghold of Jolo. Sulawat said the kidnappers were met by up to 1,000 followers armed with assault rifles, mortars and pistols, who informed the captives that they were under Abu Sayyaf custody. Asked why he did not escape, the police officer said: "I was scared of the Abu Sayyaf. They had a lot of weapons and I was not conversant of the area." Fong, who said he recognized only Andang among the defendants, told Judge Erlinda Uy that he spent 119 days in captivity. He said he did not actually see any money change hands between negotiators and his captors, but said the kidnappers' ranks "grew" and they acquired more weaponry as the hostage crisis dragged on.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:16:13 PM ||
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Indonesian prosecutors are to file charges next week against detained cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the attorney-general's office has said. Ba'asyir faces charges of leading the Jemaah Islamiah militant network and involvement in the bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta last year. Ba'asyir has also been linked by police to the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings. But a spokesman for the attorney general said he would not be charged in connection with that attack. Spokesman for the attorney general's office, Kemas Yahya Rahman, told Reuters news agency that as well as being charged in connection with the Marriott Hotel attack, Ba'asyir would also be charged with possessing illegal explosives found during in a raid on a house in central Java last year. "We are sure that we have strong evidence and witnesses to charge him with terrorism," Mr Kemas said. "He could get the death penalty if found guilty."
Ba'asyir has consistently denied any links with either JI or terrorism. He was arrested shortly after the Bali attacks - and therefore was actually in custody during the Marriott bombing - but the only crime he has so far been convicted of is violating immigration laws. He was acquitted of being the spiritual leader of JI in September 2003.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/24/2004 1:10:42 PM ||
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A letter allegedly written by the leader of the Abu Sayyaf militant group discusses what appears to be plans for terrorist training with another extremist group, Jemaah Islamiyah, Philippine officials said Thursday. Jemaah Islamiyah, al-Qaeda's key ally in Southeast Asia, maintains active ties with Abu Sayyaf and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front group of Muslim separatists based in the country's south, according to a confidential terrorism threat assessment. It has been training recruits in the southern Philippines for at least seven years.
The one-page letter by Khaddafy Janjalani to another suspected Abu Sayyaf commander, Noor Mohammad Umog, was seized by police in Umog's house in southern Cotabato City shortly after his arrest in 2002. A copy was obtained by The Associated Press. Umog has told investigators that Janjalani's letter was delivered by an Indonesian militant identified only as Zulkipli, who allegedly headed Jemaah Islamiyah's Philippine cell, a government official said on condition of anonymity. Zulkipli met Janjalani on southern Jolo island sometime in 2000, police intelligence officials say. Zulkipli was arrested last year in Malaysia.
The official, who investigated Umog, said Janjalani's letter could help prove that the Abu Sayyaf has links with foreign militants, and planned or held terror training with them. It can also be used to strengthen criminal cases against Janjalani. Janjalani told Umog in the letter that he talked with Zulkipli about training, and asked Umog to discuss the costs with the Indonesian militant. Janjalani, who remains at large, was based at the time on southern Basilan island but moved with his armed followers to nearby Jolo island in 2000 to back an Abu Sayyaf faction that had just kidnapped 21 Western tourists and Asian workers from a Malaysian dive resort. Janjalani wrote that the Jolo-based Abu Sayyaf rebels reaffirmed his supremacy over them. The hostages were freed in batches after ransom payments, believed to have been financed by Libya. Some later disclosed that they saw at least two Indonesians training Abu Sayyaf recruits in bomb-making and combat skills on Jolo in 2000.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:28:47 AM ||
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FIREBRAND cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is to be charged with involvement in the 2003 JW Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesian authorities said today. Media reports also said Bashir would be linked to the recent Australian Embassy bombing in the Indonesian capital, although this could not be immediately confirmed. If found guilty, Bashir could face the death penalty.
Posted by: tipper ||
09/24/2004 12:10:09 AM ||
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#1
well i for one am tired of hearing about the death penalty which these people might face.
I have yet to see anything in that manner carried out. when will these criminals be meeting their destiny, cause i would feel alot better when the cleaver starts to fall on the Islamoids, kinda growing old that we keep them for so long so the lawyer jerks can defend thier "rights as humans" and blowing them to smithereens is not enough i want the Islamic world to see the video by al Jizz of the "warriors of Islam" meeting the same gruesome fate that they purpotrated on their victims, preferably in Sodomy Arabia, as well as Haifa Street in Iraq. Seems to me that no one has the balls to actually offend the terrorist in preventing them thier raisens
Everyone is real broken up all this news because only one jihad boy was sent to last camel drive in 'paradise'. To think camels have to near these barbarians. A member of Hezbollah's security team was shot to death at his home in Beirut's southern suburb, a stronghold for the Shiite militant group. Ali Mohanna, 31, was part of the security crew that guarded senior Hezbollah officials, sources said. He was found Thursday night in his bed, shot in the head by two bullets apparently fired from a silencer-equipped gun, the sources said. An investigation by police and Hezbollah's security apparatus was started immediately. wow, incredible maybe they will discover a 'terrorist' link ...
Last May, a senior Hezbollah commander was killed in a car bomb in the southern suburb of Beirut. The militant group accused Israeli agents of the killing. (That's right always blame Israel, never inter-Islamic power plays.)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/24/2004 12:39:31 PM ||
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#1
He is greeted by a welcoming committee upon ativing at the entrance to paradise.
#5
Hope you don't mind, I'm gonna steal that image to use for welcome but non-Fat Lady departures from the gene pool...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2004 16:11 Comments ||
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Gosh, I'll bet those senior Hizbollah officials are feeling really secure now.
I dunno, that silencer thingy -- and two bullets straight to the head -- sounds an awful lot more professional that the usual terrorist practice. You know, spray the general area with bullets from your favoritest AK-47...
One of Bangladesh's most wanted men was gunned down Thursday deep inside India in what is being described as the first joint operation by the security forces of the two countries. Manoranjan Gossain, alias Mrinal, the 46-year-old chief of the New Biplabi Communist Party (M-L) — a banned Bangladeshi outfit — was shot dead inside a house in Shantipur town of West Bengal's Nadia district.
How the hell do you get people to join the New Biplabby Communist Party?
A West Bengal government spokesman told Arab News that Manoranjan carried a reward of one million Bangladeshi taka on his head in connection with 150 criminal cases, including 100 murders committed in Bangladesh's Khulna district. But he declined to give details of the joint police operation saying that everything was coordinated by New Delhi which has issued instructions not to reveal anything to the press. The spokesman added that Bangladesh recently launched a manhunt to track down Manoranjan and sought India's cooperation to nab him. Dhaka specifically requested India's help to catch Manoranjan during the recent high-level meeting Dhirendra Singh and Omar Farook, home secretaries of India and Bangladesh, for resolving border-related problems. Last week, Manoranjan's right-hand man, Alamgir Kabir Alam, was killed in a shoot-out in North 24 Paragana's Swaroopnagar inside India not too far from the international border.
Unlike communists in India who are a widely respected lot, several Marxist outfits in Bangladesh are engaged in kidnappings and extortions. They are also suspected of killings of several journalists who exposed their criminal activities.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2004 8:05:35 PM ||
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Kinda makes you wonder about all the behind-the-scenes stuff we don't know about. Guilty? Not guilty? Persecuted? Set up? Alliance shifted? We'll find out 30 or 40 years from now, when the history books and memoirs are written, unless we're wearing turbans by then.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2004 3:01:33 PM ||
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U.S. troops and helicopter gunships killed five suspected Taliban rebels Monday, hours after militants attacked Afghan army troops in southern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said. The Taliban fighters attacked a checkpoint of Afghanistan's fledging national army at midnight in the area of Thor Nasar in Deh Rawood district, 105 miles north of Kandahar, said Jan Mohammed Khan, governor of Uruzgan province. Army forces fought back, and that the attackers fled after wounding four soldiers, he said.
"Curly-toed slippers, don't fail me now!"
"On our request, U.S. forces and helicopter gunships went to the area and killed five Taliban after tracing them," he said, adding that 20 Taliban fighters were involved in the violence and that five of them were killed. "The bodies of these five Taliban are with us," he said. Mohammed said the Taliban attacked the army checkpoint to disrupt preparations for the country's Oct. 9 presidential elections and "to create fears in the mind and hearts of the people."
Explosives tend to do that...
"We will not allow Taliban or any other anybody to do it," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:17:07 PM ||
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ah,good, five more who get to meet George Mason, James Madison et al:)
Looks like the Afghan election will go better than expected.
Nigerian security forces have killed 27 Muslim militants in a mountainous north-eastern region, officials say. Police and soldiers have been hunting armed Islamists who killed several people in Borno State on Monday. Borno's police commissioner said five militants who had crossed into Cameroon would be returned to Nigeria.
"But we don't wanna go back to Nigeria!"
"Shuddup! Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!"
The militants want to set up an Islamic government in Nigeria. Earlier this year they stormed police stations in Borno and neighbouring Yobe State. On Monday three police officers and seven civilians were killed in two attacks by the militants - locally known as Taleban. The attackers burned down the police stations and carried away large amounts of weapons and ammunition.
To Cameroun?
New breed of radical Islam
Or, as they say in the Navy, more of the same old ship?
In January the group abducted 30 men in a village in Yobe, and attacked police stations in the region. Afterwards one the released captives said the militants had tried to recruit him and were seeking to establish a new system of Sharia - or Islamic - law. Sharia is practised in 12 states across Northern Nigeria, but it is not implemented fully. Police say that at least one of the group's leaders had trained with the Taleban in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/24/2004 1:05:54 PM ||
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#1
27 x 72 = 1,944
No no we just went to Cameroon to learn how to play Soccer! We aren't escaping anything...
Our prayers go out to the Israeli victim's families of yesterday's terror attack by a female Arab, jihadist homicide bomber. Border Police Chief Cmdr. Hasin Faris has had a difficult two days. On Wednesday, two of his officers were killed after a female suicide bomber blew herself up next to a checkpoint at the entrance to the French Hill hitchhiking post in Jerusalem. On Thursday, he skipped from one funeral to the next, mourning together with his subordinates and the families of the dead. But Faris, the first Druse commander of the Border Police, says that his officers prevented with their bodies what could have been a more severe attack, and that he remains confident that his force will not lose its strength and will continue to serve as the nation's "armor and barbed wire fence."
"The Border Police sits at the tip of Israel's spear," Faris told The Jerusalem Post Thursday following the funeral of officer Mamoya Tahio in Rehovot. "We are Israel's spear and its armor. The officers work very hard and are very determined, and we will not be deterred by Wednesday's deadly attack." For Faris, this is the second suicide attack he has experienced since taking the Border Police by its reigns in June. Last month a similar attack to Wednesday's was carried out at the Kalandiya Checkpoint north of Jerusalem when an explosive device detonated next to a Border Police force. Three Border Policemen were seriously injured in the attack and one Palestinian was killed. Also then, chief of Jerusalem District Police Cmdr. Ilan Franco said that the officers prevented with their bodies a much greater attack.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/24/2004 12:56:23 PM ||
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Territories under curfew, due to major warnings of attempted terror attacks over Yom Kippur.
Amir Buhbut and Tal Yemin- Wolvowitz
Security forces are on unprecedented alert due to increased warnings of planned terror attacks over Yom Kippur, which starts around five-fifteen this evening. According to credible intelligence information, there are over 40 specific warnings of possible planned attacks. Thousands of police and IDF troops have been stationed throughout the country, and MDA stations have been reinforced. Ad hoc roadblocks have been set up, and security at public places, especially open-air markets has been beefed up. Security has also been tightened up at the country's military cemeteries, which are full, as bereaved families pay annual respects to their loved ones who fell in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
The IDF has imposed a total closure on all the territories. It is unclear whether this will end after Yom Kippur, or be extended throughout the week until Sukkot. All public transport will end at three pm, and will resume tomorrow evening after seven o' clock. Most Israelis will sit down to the pre-fast meal at around four pm, by which time the entire country will begin the traditional Yom Kippur shutdown. The fast begins between five and quarter past, depending upon one's location in the country. It will end tomorrow evening at around six o' clock.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/24/2004 12:43:46 PM ||
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By Haaretz Service Fri., September 24th, 2004 Tishrei 9, 5765
The London-based Al-Hayat paper reported Friday that the intelligence service of an Arab state has recently passed Israel extremely valuable information on the Hamas infrastructure in foreign countries. According to the report, Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, also received detailed information on two Hamas leaders, Khaled Mashal and Mussa Abu Marzuk. The infromation reportedly included details of their places of residence, their pastimes and the type of food they eat. The paper said that the information was handed over at the request of Mossad chief Meir Dagan following the August suicide attacks in which 16 people were killed and which were claimed by Hamas.
Mashal, who went underground in the wake of the Be'er Sheva attacks, this week visited Egyptian officials in Cairo. The Hamas leader arrived in Cairo as the Palestinian factions were due to begin talks on the Israeli disengagement plan. But, said Egyptian sources, the talks were rescheduled for October after Egypt did not receive from Israel the guarantees it had demanded regarding the Palestinians. Palestinian sources said that while in Egypt, Mashal discussed a document authored by the Egyptians for the Palestinian Authority and the other factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The document - the "ideas paper" - was aimed at reaching a cease-fire in Gaza ahead of the planned Israeli disengagement, as well as the creation of a new government in the Strip.
The sources also added that the Egyptians demanded Mashal cut Hamas' ties with arms smugglers in Gaza who provide the movement with weapons. But Mohamed Nazal, a close associate of Mashal, denied that he had discussed a cease-fire agreement while in Cairo. In the first half of 2004, Israel assassinated two of the Hamas movement's most senior figures. Spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in a helicopter strike as he left a Gaza mosque in March. Several weeks later, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, seen as Yassin's successor in the Gaza Strip, died in an Israeli air strike on his car.
So guess who's next...
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/24/2004 12:32:48 PM ||
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US artillery and aircraft fire pounded sectors of the Iraqi rebel city of Fallujah today, sending up clouds of smoke, residents said. The smoke shrouded the southeastern industrial zone, which houses mainly metal and mechanical workshops, as residents charged that US forces had lobbed artillery into the area. Within minutes, the artillery fire was followed by an air strike on the Shuhada district in southern Fallujah. The US military has intensified its strikes on Fallujah this month, targeting suspected hideouts of the insurgency and alleged top al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. The city, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, has been a no-go zone for US troops since a deadly offensive in April on the Muslim fundamentalist enclave ended in a stand-off.
Posted by: tipper ||
09/24/2004 11:13:18 AM ||
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#1
"knock, knock"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/24/2004 11:36 Comments ||
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The city, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, has been a no-go zone for US troops since a deadly offensive in April on the Muslim fundamentalist enclave ended in a stand-off.
So where our troops can't go, our bombs and planes will...
#5
I love the "no-go" line here. Echoing Kerry's latest phrase'o-the-day. Seems our bombs can go just fine...and the Marines will too, very, very soon.
While the US, Britain and Italy, whose citizens have been taken hostage, have refused to concede demands of hostage-takers, militant groups have sent out clear signals that they, too, mean business. Two American contractors, Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, and a British engineer, Ken Bigley, were abducted from Baghdad, with their kidnappers demanding the release of Iraqi women prisoners. Early this week, Hensley and Armstrong were beheaded, and Bigley's fate is uncertain. On Thursday, a group calling itself Jihad Organization claimed on an Islamist website that it had "slaughtered" two Italian aid workers taken hostage more than two weeks ago. The claim is yet to be confirmed. Britain and Italy are part of the US-led coalition in Iraq and have refused to pull out their troops deployed there.
Gunmen raided a building to seize two Egyptians during the night in Baghdad, in the third in a new series of audacious operations to kidnap foreigners in the capital this month. Last week, two Americans and a Briton were snatched from their home in Baghdad by armed men. A group led by Washington's top foe in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, beheaded the Americans, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, and posted video footage of the killings on the Internet. The group says it will also kill Briton Kenneth Bigley, 62, unless all Iraqi women are freed from U.S.-run jails. (All two of them, the Germ Twins)
Earlier this month, gunmen kidnapped two women Italian aid workers in broad daylight in Baghdad. Internet statements from two guerrilla groups say they have been killed, but Italy's government has dismissed the claims as unreliable. Police said on Friday the Egyptians were snatched in their office late on Thursday by gunmen who overpowered and tied up their guards. They worked for the firm that runs the Baghdad mobile phone network.
#2
People like Sally are why I remain pro-immigration.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/24/2004 4:22 Comments ||
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#3
I sense that only a small minority of Iraqis are willing to pay the price of EARNING freedom
Is it not EVER thus? How many Americans were in the Continental Army? Bruce Catton in the Army of the Potomac, speaks of the relatively small core of early volunteers who were the tough core of that army even through the campaign of 1864, surrounded by bounty jumpers, etc - not to mention the millions who avoided service altogether. Its always a few heroes who make nations (Pardon I feel myself sounding uncharecteristically "tory")
#4
Astonishing story that goes far beyond politics. Shakespearian, almost-- her father and step-family are twisted, wicked characters who would make Lear's daughters seem gentle by comparison. If I were a screenwriter or producer I'd option that story, now.
It's especially telling that this noble woman stayed in Baghdad during the war while her cowardly and vicious father and step-family hightailed it to Turkey.
The BBC Worldwide Monitoring reports that an Arabic website, www.al-watan.com, contained a report on September 22 from Paris by Abd-al-Karim Abu-al-Nasr stating that "Al-Zarqawi striving to compete with Bin-Ladin, planning big attack along the lines of 11 September." Reportedly, the Iraqi intelligence agencies have prepared a report on Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, the commander of the Tawhid wa Jihad group. The BBC Monitoring report states: "Al-Watan has learned from informed European diplomatic sources that a prominent European country concerned with the course of events in Iraq received this Iraqi intelligence service report about Jordanian Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi (whose real name is Ahmad al-Khalayilah, age 38). This report contains the following basic information and elements"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 2:19:26 AM ||
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Abu can plan all he wants but since one Marine trumps about 10 Hard Boyz his planning is not of much consequence.
I found one problem with the article however:
"* The main headquarters of Tawhid wa Jihad is surrounded and trapped in the city of Al-Fallujah."
#4
It would be good if the guerrillas mounted a Tet-style offensive, just like Sadr did twice in a row over Najaf. Saves our GI's the trouble of going to look for them.
#5
What ZF said. Especially since this time, few Americans will believe the spin that Walter Cronkite's successor tries to put on the Tet story. As Howard Fineman said on Imus, the "national press corps is crumbling" and their reputation for objectivity's shot. So this time around, no fifth media column will be able to paint victory as defeat.
#7
Time for all good Rantburgers to come to the aid of their country and create a Web-based, 24/7 streaming vid alternative to the networks. Rebut everything that comes out of their mouths, in real time.
#11
A6625 - The title is "hot" and takes you directly to the article on headland.blogspot.com. That is the style here at RB. Relax - Dan's about the most conscientious poster you'll find anywhere on the planet. BTW, welcome. Stay awhile.
THE al-Qaeda linked group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for a series of car bombings against US and Iraqi targets in Baghdad this week, according to statements posted on an Islamist website today.
As if we didn't know.
Three statements attributed to the military wing of Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), one of the most ruthless groups in Iraq which has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in the country and the beheading of foreign hostages, said suicide bombers had struck at US forces and Iraqi police recruits on Wednesday and yesterday. One of the statements, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, said a suicide operation had "targeted a group of apostates preparing to volunteer into the treacherous police and army... in Al-Rabie (Spring) street in Baghdad" yesterday. A second statement claimed responsibility for another car bomb attack yesterday in Baghdad's upmarket Mansur district, which a witness said apparently targeted two US military vehicles patrolling the area. There was no word of casualties. The third statement said a suicide bomber "targeted the wretched American forces in the capital Baghdad, on the airport road", destroying their vehicles and causing casualties among the troops.
The US military and medical sources said an Iraqi civilian was killed and 19 people, including four US soldiers, were wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on Wednesday on a US patrol on the airport road.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:14:58 AM ||
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Law enforcement agencies have arrested 31 people on suspicion of links with Al Qaeda on the basis of information provided by Mahmoud the WeaselQari Saifullah Akhtar, chief of Harkatul Jihad e Islami Alalmi, sources told Daily Times on Thursday. But sources said they were all small fry and that the police had failed to draw a blank to key players in the terrorist network.
I think the writer meant that the coppers actually did draw a blank on the head cheeses...
Qari Saifullah, a close aide to former Taliban commander Mulla Omar, was arrested in Dubai last month and handed over to Pakistan. Sources said that he had ratted out named seven important Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan after spirited questioning with truncheons, but had denied his involvement in assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
"Lies! All lies!"
Sources said intelligence officials wanted to know if had any information about Mulla Omar but he was tightlipped about the whereabouts of the Taliban leader.
"I ain't sayin' nuttin', coppers!"
An intelligence officer said that Qari Saifullah coordinated the terrorist network's activities in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Middleast and Pakistan. He said that intelligence agencies were in search of the seven Al Qaeda men named by Qari Saifullah, but he would not disclose their names, saying it could affect the investigations.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:16:23 AM ||
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A Pakistani court yesterday indicted 10 Pakistani followers of an Al Qaeda-linked extremist group with the attack on a senior army commander which killed 11 people. Judge Feroz Ahmed Bhatti charged the leader and nine members of the Jundallah, or 'Army of God', with murder, conspiracy and carrying explosives, public prosecutor lawyer Maula Bux Bhatti said.
The prosecutor and the judge have the same surname. Is Bhatti a common name in Pakiland? Not that I have any issues with them jugging terrorists, mind you...
The hearing was held in a makeshift courtroom inside Karachi's central prison for extra security. "The court read the charges before the accused persons one by one, who denied all the charges," Bhatti said.
"We din't dunnit. Nope. Nope. Not us, nosirree."
Meanwhile, two top generals, who closely worked with General Pervez Musharraf after he seized power in a coup, will retire next month, government sources said. They will quit their positions on October 7 but it was not yet clear who would replace them. Both were chosen by Musharraf when he made a series of changes in the military hierarchy as he threw Pakistan's support behind the war on terrorism. He removed some generals who were thought to be sympathetic to the Taliban regime or opposed to American-led military operations that began in Afghanistan in October 2001 to oust the regime from power.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/24/2004 12:11:24 AM ||
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U.S. warplanes pounded targets in a large Shiite Muslim slum in the eastern part of the capital early Thursday morning, part of an operation aimed at dismantling the militia loyal to the rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr. The attacks killed at least one person and injured 12, according to hospital officials. Although Shiite insurgents in the holy city of Najaf have been largely quiet since a truce between Sadr's militia and U.S. and Iraqi forces there was reached a month ago, clashes have continued in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City. U.S. authorities say they are eager to resume reconstruction projects in the neighborhood but have been hampered by the continued violence.
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.
