Yemeni intelligence captured a leading member of the al-Qaida network in Yemen after a manhunt and searches that lasted several months, reports indicate. An intelligence source quoted in daily al-Ayam said the al-Qaida operative was identified as Y. Harazi and captured last September in a suburb of Sanaa following months of searches and monitoring. "He is a leading activist in the so-called al-Qaida cell in Yemen, which was completely dismantled by the security agencies that captured or eliminated its members over the past few years," the source said. He said Harazi is suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks that targeted Yemeni officials, government installations and foreign interests.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 6:06:41 PM ||
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The government is planning to release about 112 al-Qaeda suspects and 176 Believing Youth, prisoners who have not been charged with any criminal acts, said Judge Hamoud Al-Hitar, head of the Intellectual Dialogue Committee last Tuesday. Al-Qaeda and the Believing Youth are two prohibited organizations in Yemen. The prospective released prisoners have undergone the latest dialogue round that had started at the beginning of last week. They were convinced with the arguments of the committee members and decided to come back to the right path.
President Saleh had announced that some 264 detainees were freed in previous dialogue rounds are now practicing their life as good citizens. He also promised that some 1,758 prisoners over different charges would be released soon. He said the government has paid large sums of money for those who failed to pay. The president said that there is no prisoner of opinion in Yemeni prisons, ignoring the case of Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani, who is being imprisoned for articles published in his newspaper. The president considered Al-Khaiwani as an inciter of insurgency and not a prisoner of opinion. Well-informed sources say that some prisoners the committee had ordered to be released are still imprisoned.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 5:45:18 PM ||
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Security forces in Saudi Arabia have arrested a suspected militant after a shootout in an internet cafe in the northern city of Buraida, Saudi media said today. The official Saudi Press Agency quoted an interior ministry source as saying the man opened fire on police. The suspect, armed with a grenade and pistol, and two policemen were injured in the exchange of fire, it said. Al-Watan newspaper said a total of seven people were arrested at the internet cafe in Buraida.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 3:19:45 AM ||
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I interpret this to mean the Saudis only suspect someone to be a militant when he starts shooting at police. Genius!
While the authorities claim a school in the North Ossetian town of Beslan was seized by a group of 32 rebels, the survivors of the hostage drama and other witnesses insist that in actual fact the number of hostage-takers was higher. As many as 49 rebels, not 32, were killed during the storming, 3 were taken alive and arrested and at least 13 fled, a man who introduced himself as Vassily K. told the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily. Vassily described himself as a serviceman from a special purpose commando unit in the Southern Federal District who took part in the operation to free the hostages.
According to official reports, the school was seized by 32 militants. The only rebel arrested was Nur-Pashi Kulayev, Vladimir Ustinov, Russia's top prosecutor said earlier. Ustinov said he strongly doubted that any of the hostage-takers had managed to flee. However, hostages who survived the siege told the press that most of the terrorists wore civilian clothes and clearly hoped that they would be able to merge with the crowd and escape. It is quite likely that some of them succeeded. Former hostages told a Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent in Beslan that at least four more rebels took part in the siege. Their identities were never established. "There were not 32 rebels, as official reports say, but much more," says Vassily K. The fighter asked not to reveal his real name, although he gave it to the daily. Vassily said he took part in the storming of School No.1 in Beslan on Sept. 3. "I counted 52 rebels, of which 49 were killed and 3 arrested. Apart from them, there were 13 other people, including a female suicide bomber. They managed to flee. Among those captured alive was not only Nur-Pasha Kulayev, as officially reported, but also Vladimir Khodov and a female bomber."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 6:27:35 PM ||
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A former policeman was among at least 30 militants who took more than 1,300 schoolchildren, parents and teachers hostage at a school in southern Russia in September, it was reported yesterday. Russian special forces identified Bashir Pliyev by his fingerprints from among the militants killed during the siege of the school, the daily newspaper Vremya Novosti reported, citing investigators. He was a security officer in the interior ministry of Ingushetia, the republic that borders both Chechnya and North Ossetia, where Beslan is located. The report comes a week after three senior Ingushetian policemen were charged with criminal negligence for failing to prevent the school being seized.
Officials have claimed that corrupt police officers give militants freedom of movement around the region and permitted the Beslan massacre, in which over 330 people died. The newspaper quoted Bislan Khamkhoyev, the Ingushetian interior minister, as saying that some months ago Mr Pliyev had driven the Chechen militant leader and self-proclaimed organiser of the Beslan siege, Shamil Basayev, and his aide, Doku Umarov, into Ingushetia, where they met an Arab militant named Abu Kuteib. At this meeting the militants planned a raid on the Ingushetian capital Nazran in June, during which over 100 local police officers were murdered and a weapons arsenal was reportedly plundered. Mr Khamkhoyev added that he did not agree with the investigators' conclusions reported by the newspaper and said that Mr Pliyev was on the run in Chechnya, as was the alleged leader of the militants, Ruslan Khuchbarov. Investigators have said there may have been as many as 38 militants involved in Beslan. Only 32 bodies were recovered, and there has been speculation that several key militants escaped. On Saturday, President Putin said the results of a two-month investigation by prosecutors into the massacre would be made public.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 6:25:14 PM ||
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I always surmised Stalin wasn't serious enough with these people...
New facts that emerged during the investigation into a blast that took place last night [2 November] in Makhachkala have revealed it was a failed terrorist attack. Aslanbek Askhabov, who was killed by the blast in a car park, turned out to be a separatist leader, the so-called emir of Chechnya's Gudermesskiy District. He was identified by his remains and his passport that was almost completely burnt. Specialists of the Dagestani Interior Ministry's crime and analysis directorate found out that an explosive device which was in the car in the car park went off spontaneously. The force of the explosion was equivalent to 20-25 kg of TNT. The type of the explosive used in the home-made bomb has not been established yet. According to police services the car bomb was equipped to commit a terrorist attack in Makhachkala during the November holidays [7-8 November]. Two people were injured by the blast, one of them a 10-year-old child. About 20 vehicles were burnt out.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 6:22:46 PM ||
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Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov has expressed concern about the pace at which Wahhabism is spreading in Russia. "Wahhabism has firmly taken root in most regions of the North Caucasus and the Volga region," he said in a telephone interview with Interfax on Thursday. Kadyrov is also an adviser to the presidential envoy to the South Federal District on measures aimed at suppressing banditry and religious extremism. "It is no secret that international terrorism has made its nest in Chechnya, but the roots of this pest and Wahhabism run deep in Ingushetia and Dagestan. There are its [international terrorism] cells in Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and the Astrakhan region," Kadyrov said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 6:16:02 PM ||
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A press statement issued by Russia's Counter-Terrorism Operations Center in the North Caucasus on November 4 alleged that the Russian Federal Forces arrested a citizen of Georgia in Chechnya, who is a suspected mercenary in one of the Chechen rebel groups. RIA Novosti news agency reports quoting the press statement that the Georgian citizen was arrested in January, but Russian law enforcers could identify him only recently. "He is a citizen of Georgia, a resident of a Jokolo village [in the Pankisi gorge in eastern Georgia]. According to the existing data, he has been a member of illegal armed group since 2002," the statement reads. "Along with him, another member of the group was also detained — a resident of the Urus-Martan district of Chechnya. Both bandits are members of a gang operating on the territory of the Urus-Martan region," the statement reads.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 6:13:45 PM ||
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A letter left on the body of a Dutch filmmmaker murdered in Amsterdam contained death threats against a politician and was signed by a suspected terrorist group, the justice minister said Thursday, as police pressed an investigation into radical Islamic groups.
Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said Thursday the note contained a "direct warning" to the film's screenwriter, Ayaan Hirst Ali, a Somali-born lawmaker who has outraged fellow Muslims by criticizing Islamic customs and the failure of Muslim families to adopt Dutch ways. She had been under police protection before the slaying.
Van Gogh received death threats after the film was released in August.
Donner said the way the 5-page letter "was presented indicates that it is not from one person, but a a movement."
The letter, which was addressed to Ali, said "I know definitely that you, Hirsi Ali, will go down."
It was signed "Saifu Deen al Muwahhied."
I believe that's supposed to be Saif al-Din al-Muwaheed - "Sword of Justice of the Faithful" IIRC.
The chief suspect, who has been identified only as Mohammed B., 26, holds dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality. He was arrested after being wounded in the leg during a shootout with police shortly after the slaying and was to appear before a judge Friday, when prosecutors said they would file charges.
It was not clear what charges the other eight suspects would face.
Mohammed B.'s lawyer, Jan Peter Plasman, protested the release of the letter, saying it would prejudice the case against his client. He declined to comment on whether B. was innocent.
The letter was typed in Dutch and Arabic, and threatened to bring down "nonbelievers."
"I know definitely that America will crumble," it said.
A Moroccan diplomat has traveled to the Netherlands to assist in the investigation, and more than 75 detectives have been put on the case, Dutch officials said.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, the Dutch secret service has repeatedly warned that the Netherlands could be a target. It is shadowing 150 extremists around the clock and has said that Muslim immigrant youths are being recruited.
The Dutch public has widely perceived Van Gogh's killing as an attack on free speech. Politicians have called for an emergency debate on security officials' failure to prevent it.
Despite widespread condemnation of the murder by mainstream Muslim groups, Muslims fear reprisals, and ethnic tension was evident in Dutch streets.
"This is definitely going to happen more often," said Nicolette Toering, visiting the spot where Van Gogh was killed. She rejected Muslims' concerns of being targeted by violence and said unemployed immigrants should leave the country.
Samir Alami, a Dutch-born man of Moroccan descent, said he felt uncomfortable in the Netherlands for the first time while riding the train to Amsterdam to visit the crime scene. "People were giving me angry stares, you could see it in their faces," he said. "I feel terrible."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 8:38:34 PM ||
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Samir, just go back to your Moslem country then.
Police arrested eight more suspected Islamic radicals yesterday in the slaying of a Dutch filmmaker who criticized Muslim customs, but lawmakers questioned why authorities had not kept tabs on the alleged killer, who police say had a record of violent crime and contacts with a group under surveillance.
Could it have anything to do with lawmakers biting the ankles of the coppers when they do round up such bad guyz?
The arrests were made in the 24 hours since Theo van Gogh, 47, was slain while cycling on an Amsterdam street Tuesday. Six of the detainees are of Moroccan ancestry, one is Algerian, and one has dual Spanish-Moroccan nationality, prosecution spokeswoman Dop Kruimel said. In addition, the shooting suspect, a 26-year-old Amsterdam resident of Moroccan origin, was arrested minutes after the slaying. The detainees' ethnic identities raised questions of links to the March 11 train bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid.
Whether they're affiliated or wannabes, it doesn't matter to van Gogh, does it?
Twenty-nine suspects, mostly Moroccans, have been charged in those attacks; others arrested were of Algerian, Spanish, Tunisian, and Egyptian origin. The Netherlands has arrested more than 40 terrorism suspects since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, including many accused of providing logistical support for groups linked to Al Qaeda. Muslim youths are thought to have been recruited here, and specialists say they believe a number of cells in the Netherlands provide funding to foreign terrorist cells. Kruimel said five of the suspects, whose identities were not released, were detained and released during an October 2003 investigation into a potential terrorist threat. ''They were previously known to us," Kruimel said. ''As of now, only one suspect is being held for Van Gogh's murder, but the investigation will determine if others may have been connected." The Dutch have reacted with outrage to the killing of the filmmaker, a relative of painter Vincent van Gogh, straining tense relations with the Muslim immigrant population. Mainstream Dutch Muslim groups condemned the killing. A number of mosques were closed Tuesday night because of fear of vandalism, and political figures were given additional police protection.
Hmmm... That's the sort of thing that happens in reasonable societies. When one segment of the population preys on another segment, those preyed upon eventually either leave town or fight back.
Newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported that conservative politician Ayan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the script for Van Gogh's latest provocative movie criticizing the treatment of women under Islam, received a death threat in an e-mail yesterday that read ''You're next." The Justice Ministry said the murder suspect is a Muslim radical associated with Islamic fundamentalists on a terrorist watch list.
Tap......hell, why even bother
Interior Minister Johan Remkes confirmed that the suspect was known to have associated with a group of 150 radicals who are watched day and night by the Dutch secret service for fear they may commit a terrorist act. The suspect was not on that watch list. Authorities did not release his name, and Dutch media identified him only as Mohammed B. The suspect had contacts with Samir Azzouz, an 18-year-old Moroccan immigrant accused of plotting terrorist attacks against Dutch targets, NOS Dutch television reported. Members of parliament called for an emergency debate on why the alleged killer, who police say had a record of violent crime, had not been stopped. ''Is this a murder, or is this a terrorist attack?" said Jozias van Aartsen, leader of the conservative VVD party. ''The facts must come out very, very quickly."
Still trying to treat it like a legal problem.
Where's it say in the rule book it can't be both?
Van Gogh released a fictional film in August about the mistreatment of Muslim women. In the film, women were shown naked with texts from the Koran scrawled on their bodies. Police and eyewitnesses said the attacker shot Van Gogh, stabbed him, cut his throat with one knife, and pinned a note to his chest with another. The note is said to have contained texts from the Koran in Arabic, though police would not confirm this. According to NRC Handelsblad, the note called for an Islamic holy war, or jihad.
But the police are still looking for a motive.
Van Gogh's killing stirred outrage and fears that Dutch people will no longer feel free to speak their minds.
No, you're afraid they will speak their minds and demand action.
Immigration minister Rita Verdonk told 20,000 Dutch who flocked to Amsterdam's central square for a wake Tuesday night that ''we won't take this." Verdonk called an emergency meeting with leaders of Muslim groups to discuss how to avoid confrontations, and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende appealed for calm.
Yeah, a meeting, that'll do it.
Seems to me, it should have been the leaders of the Muslim groups who called for an emergency meeting to discuss how to avoid confrontations. The Dutchies used to be mighty sea-farin' men, who were perfectly willing to string bad guyz up from the yard arm. Most European countries, with the possible exception of Luxembourg and Monte Carlo, can make similar claims. If the EuroMuslims are really unlucky, given enough years of torment the half-forgotten prototypes of today's bureaucrat-ridden social democrat Euros are going to throw off the excess weight of 50 years of prosperity and war-weariness and protect themselves from their cultural inferiors.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 3:24:15 AM ||
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These islamists have some kind of cultural 'penis envy' - I'm sure that's what's at the bottom of all this. Muslims are generally sh*t at soccer football so why should anyone else enjoy it. Let's make our national game chasing women on horseback or just beating them..
#6
but why would they attack Spain again?? Spain already gave into their demands once, even changed their gov't & pulled their troops out so the Islamo-nazis would leave them alone. You mean that wasn't enough? I'm shocked I tell you.
#7
No, they only gave in to some of the demands.
They still haven't changed their name back to Andalusia, and the mosque-building program is behind schedule.
Two Bulgarian hackers have been arrested for sending bluff messages on people's mobile phones, "urging" them to carry out attacks on public buildings in the capital Sofia, the interior ministry said in a statement. The two men sent messages from an Internet site, asking people on behalf of the Al Qaeda terror network to blow up some of the largest public buildings in downtown Sofia in return for $US10,000. The messages threatened their recipients with death if they refused to carry out the tasks. Two Bulgarians, aged 27 and 29, were arrested after recipients of the messages informed the police. Police said questioning of the men showed they were not terrorists but were playing what they thought was a practical joke.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 3:17:53 AM ||
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Police on Wednesday arrested a Moroccan and three Algerians in connection with an alleged plot by a radical Islamic cell to blow up a court and other buildings in Spain, officials said. The three Algerians, who were not immediately identified, were arrested Wednesday night in the southeastern city of Gandia. One was described as a right-hand man of Mohamed Achraf, who police suspect of masterminding a plot to ram a truck loaded with 1,100 pounds of explosives into Madrid's National Court, a hub of anti-terror investigations. Achraf is being held in Switzerland, and Spain last week requested his extradition.
"Gather yer gear, Mohamed, yer comin' wit us!"
The Moroccan, Faisal Allouch, 24, arrested earlier at his home in the outskirts of Madrid, was already a suspect in the Madrid train bombings. Allouch had been among the first of dozens of suspects arrested over the March 11 train bombings, and jailed in late March over his alleged links to key figures. The judge in the case released him on May 5, but said Allouch remained a suspect and ordered him to report to court daily. There was no immediate word on why he was sought over the new plot.
'cause he's a killer?
Judge Baltasar Garzon Tuesday filed terrorism charges against 12 North Africans in that case, accusing them of belonging to a cell that allegedly plotted to blow up the National Court and possibly other Madrid buildings. This raised to 30 the number of people charged. Garzon also issued international arrest warrants against 10 other suspects. He said the cell broken up earlier this month for allegedly plotting to blow up the court had prepared a backup team with other possible targets, including Madrid's biggest soccer stadium and the headquarters of the conservative Popular Party. The charges stop short of a formal indictment but let the judge keep suspects in jail for up to two years as he continues to investigate. Authorities say the court plot was organized by a cell of Islamic extremists known as the "Martyrs for Morocco," allegedly set up by Achraf while he served time in a Spanish prison for credit card fraud between 1999 and 2002. A Swiss delegation led by federal prosecutor Valentin Roschacher met Wednesday with Garzon to discuss the case, court officials said without elaborating. The Swiss delegation consists of lawyers and police representatives.
NEW YORK: A Pakistani man was charged on Wednesday with lying to the FBI about a bogus terrorist plot to destroy the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Tanveer Chaudhry (32), who had a pending application for asylum in the US, allegedly concocted the story to win favour from authorities. He was charged with making false statements and awaited arraignment in federal court. Court papers allege Tanveer contacted the FBI on October 1 to report a customer at the gas station where he worked tried to enlist him in an attack on the bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island. He claimed the customer and unidentified "brothers" wanted to hijack two gasoline trucks so they could "burn the bridge", and offered him $5,000 to join the plot.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 1:55:18 AM ||
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Tanveer Chaudhry (32), who had a pending application for asylum in the US, allegedly concocted the story to win favour from authorities.
Now onto Plan B for staying here, 20 years in a federal pen...
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - The U.S. military trial of an Australian cowboy accused of fighting for Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime was delayed Wednesday to allow his lawyers more time to interview witnesses and review evidence.
Army Col. Peter E. Brownback, the presiding officer for the first U.S. military commissions to be held since World War II, granted the delay to allow for "full and fair" proceedings for David Hicks. His Jan. 10 trial was delayed until March 15. Brownback also deferred decisions on several other pretrial motions for Hicks, including defense requests to drop charges of attempted murder, aiding the enemy and conspiracy to attack civilians, commit terrorism and destroy property, which could bring a life sentence. Hicks has pleaded innocent to all charges.
"One of the difficulties of this case is that it is a worldwide investigation," Maj. Michael Mori, Hicks' military-appointed defense lawyer, told The Associated Press. "We need to talk to witnesses. We'll need to travel to several places. We may need time to get translators and we'll likely move to suppress some of the information," said John Dratel, Hicks' civilian attorney.
The government has accused Hicks, 29, of taking up arms against U.S. and coalition forces, and training with the al-Qaida terror network - allegations his defense team says should not be considered war crimes or tried in a military commission. The defense has not received a complete list of government witnesses, or been shown all the evidence. The attorneys may see the classified evidence but not share it with Hicks.
Pretrial hearings in Hicks' case began Monday. His attorneys argued that charges involving conspiracy and terrorism weren't valid under international law. They also attacked the contention that U.S. laws do not apply to some 550 detainees from more than 40 countries imprisoned at the outpost in Cuba.
Run it up the pole and see if anyone salutes, I guess.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/04/2004 12:42:14 AM ||
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Cowboy? C'mon- he worked in a slaughterhouse. He passes the time in Gitmo killing mice. Wanted to be a Jihadi. Hey, anybody see a theme emerging here?
ZAMBOANGA CITY, 4 November 2004 — Fighting erupted yesterday between government forces and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, leaving seven people wounded in the southern Philippines. The military said rebels forces led by MILF leader Abdul Lahak attacked a government detachment around 3:30 a.m. in the village of Nabundas in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao province, trigering a gunbattle. The MILF said at least three policemen and three militias, including a rebel, were wounded in the fighting that has disrupted the observance of Ramadan. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu blamed government forces for provoking the clashes by attacking MILF positions. "Fighting have been reported in at least seven villages and thousands of Muslims have already fled their homes. Three policemen and three militias, including an MILF fighter, were wounded in the clashes," Kabalu told Arab News.
"They started it!"
Col. Franklin del Prado, a regional army spokesman, maintained that MILF fighters fired the first shot. "The rebels harassed our troops," he said.
"No, you started it!"
While disagreeing on who started yesterday's clashes, Del Prado and Kabalu agreed that the root was a clan feud between rebels and government militias. "This has something to do with feud, but we are trying to control the situation here," said Prado. Kabalu said militiamen and policemen kidnapped and executed MILF members Abdullah Jamil and Mohamedin Kanapia last month, and their relatives have vowed to avenge their deaths.
No doubt they vowed Dire Revenge.
The fighting was the first to disrupt a two-year-old cease-fire between the government and the MILF since the arrival of a 60-member international cease-fire monitoring team in Mindanao last month. The team is composed of representatives from Saudi Arabia, Libya, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Bahrain and Japan. Malaysia is currently brokering peace talks between the Philippines and the MILF.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/04/2004 1:25:59 PM ||
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Fighting in Southern Philippines Disrupts Truce
Yes, fighting does have a way of disrupting truces as opposed to outbursts of civility.
Nine Buddhists, including two policemen, were killed in a series of shootings in southern Thailand's bloodiest 24 hours since a government crackdown on a riot last week left 85 Muslims dead. The slayings heightened anxiety Thursday among Buddhists over apparent revenge attacks in the mainly Islamic region, including the beheading this week of a local official. "Buddhists are living in c state of fear because we find that the insurgents are now targeting us. They are exacting revenge on innocent Buddhists who have nothing to do with the ongoing violence," said Pairat Wihakarat, a teachers' association president.
You're not a muslim, that's reason enough.
The latest violence started Wednesday night 5/8 with the shooting deaths of a police sergeant in the southern province of Songkhla and two civilians in nearby Narathiwat.
On Thursday, police Maj. Kaow Kosaiyakanon was killed when a man posing as a customer entered his grocery store, shot him and fled. Kaow, 53, of Yala, was the most senior police officer to be killed recently. A gunman also shot to death a motorcycle salesman, 42-year-old Taweesak Monthong, and seriously wounded one of his co-workers elsewhere in Yala, police said. Also Thursday, two railway employees were fatally shot while inspecting tracks in Narathiwat.
In Pattani province, a district official was shot to death while driving to his fruit plantation, and in nearby Songkhla, a Buddhist monk on his way to a religious ceremony was fatally wounded by a motorcycle gunman. Police said they suspected Islamic insurgents were behind the attacks, but no arrests were made and nobody claimed responsibility.
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, meanwhile, sought to play down a U.N. e-mail warning to its local employees of a possible attack in the capital of Bangkok, saying it was merely a precaution. Noting that the world body was on edge because of fatal attacks on its personnel elsewhere, Surakiart said, "It is not a declaration that Thailand is not safe," according to the state Thai News Agency.
We don't need the UN to tell us that
Since January, more than 400 people have died in the south, many in drive-by shootings by motorcyclists. But the violence has escalated since Oct. 25, when seven people were killed when police opened fire on rioters outside a police station and another 78 died later in military custody after being stacked on top of each other in trucks.
The government blames Islamic separatists for the violence while Muslim leaders cite discrimination and heavy-handed tactics by officials against the religious minority. Outside the south, most Thais are Buddhists. On its Web site last week, the Pattani United Liberation Organization urged Buddhists to leave the south and threatened terrorist attacks in Bangkok. The separatist group, however, is not thought to be directly involved in the recent violence.
They're the political front, they leave the killing to the hard boyz.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/04/2004 12:44:48 PM ||
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I hope Thai forces destroy completely all these Islamofascist thugs and their support groups.
This could end up being an example for the rest of the world on how to pacify local Moslem insurgents.
Pirates clad in black and armed with a fleet of motorcycles speed boats staged daring raids on shipping while one crewman suffered knife wounds in a new surge in attacks off Indonesia, maritime watchdogs said Wednesday.
"Yar, we be pyrates!"
Seven reports of serious incidents on vessels in waters off Indonesia were compiled by the International Maritime Bureau for the last week of October -- a significant rise in an area which usually sees two or three attacks per week. The Bureau has repeatedly warned of attempts to hijack ships in the Malacca Strait, which runs along the coasts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and carries half the world's oil supplies and a third of global trade. Indonesian naval officials, who contribute to three-nation patrols of the Strait, have said the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah militants have plotted to target ships in the hope of using them as floating bombs.
In one incident last Tuesday, eight speedboats piloted by men in black descended on a container vessel at the northern entrance of the Strait, prompting crewmen to ward off the attackers with fire hoses. An identical raid was staged a day later by pirates, also in black, at the helm of speedboats elsewhere in the Strait, but they were again repelled by water jets. It was not clear if the same attackers were involved. Another attempt was foiled on Thursday off the coast of Indonesian Borneo, but one crewman suffered knife injuries in the attack, the Bureau said on its website.
In August, Indonesian naval commander Vice Admiral Didik Herupurnomo said the joint patrols of his fleet and the navies of Malaysia and Singapore had begun squeezing pirates out of the region since they began in July.
Guess he was wrong.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 3:21:53 AM ||
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Repelled by "fire hoses"?
Yar! And they calls theyselves pirates?! Not in my corner of the bounding main! Yar!
There is credible intel about that happening over the past few years. It's also possible that these are 'professionals' and not necessarily terrorists (tho they may be working with them).
IMNSHO, it looks like they're still doing training; trying to perfect tactics and monitor ship responses. Looks like many of the attacks are happening in the morning.
That the attacks are ocurring near Indonesia means the patrols on the north side of the Straits are working.
The U.S. Embassy in Damascus closed Thursday for security reasons, an official said. Spokesman Brian O'Rourke said he could not say whether there was a specific threat but noted such measures are taken from time to time. The embassy was closed to the public "to enable it to reassess its security posture," he told The Associated Press. A statement posted on the embassy's Web site asked visitors "to refrain from coming to the embassy on Nov. 4." "We will announce in a future message the reopening of the embassy," the statement added.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/04/2004 10:36:15 AM ||
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Pending an arrival of an MEU to provide security??
#8
No big deal, just closing for a day or two, Thanksgiving you know, yes... that is a 747-400 we got a special rate and saved a few bucks. Yes, we're Americans and always carry this much luggage.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has died. He was 75 years old.
Doorknob dead. Dancing with Himmler...
Israeli and Palestinian officials said Arafat died on Thursday in a military hospital in Paris. They said Arafat was deemed clinically dead, but is still attached to life support systems on the insistence of his wife, Suha. "He is dead, but neither Arafat's wife nor the Palestinian leadership is ready to announce this," a PA official said. "The announcement could take place on Friday."
I guess I'll take the Fat Lady down until then...
The problem is that Arafat is still the only Palestinian official who can pay the bills.
Guess they're poop out of luck, huh?
And it is unclear who, if anyone, has access to the estimated $2-3 billion in his personal Swiss bank accounts, according to a report in the current edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com. Even his wife is said to be unaware of how to access the funds.
Which means Suha's going to have to rely on the kindness of strangers, unless she's socked something away...
Arafat continues to hold the purse strings to the Palestinian finances. For the last decade, he has been the final, and often only word on payment to everybody from the suicide bomber to the janitor. Not a dime was paid without Arafat's okay. Before he left for Paris, Arafat approved a three-member emergency committee to operate the PA and PLO in his absence. Officials said Ahmed Qurei was meant to run the PA's daily affairs while Mahmoud Abbas was appointed acting chairman of the PLO. Palestine National Council chairman Salim Zaanoun, the third member of the committee, was said to be a symbolic figure. Abbas and Qurei sought to acquire Arafat's power to allocate money during the absence of the PA chairman. But as he boarded a Jordanian Air Force helicopter for Amman, Arafat refused. "I'm still alive, thank God, so don't worry," Arafat was quoted as saying.
"I'm going to a hospital in France. What could go wrong?"
Israeli officials confirmed that Arafat died on Thursday. They said Arafat was termed brain dead and physicians have stopped attending to him.
"Pack him in ice, Jean-Pierre. I'm going to dinner."
"Oui, M'sieur le Docteur!"
For Palestinians, the main question is where is Arafat's money? Issam Abu Issa knows how Arafat appropriated and concealed money. Abu Issa was the founder and chairman of the Palestine International Bank from 1996 until he fled to Qatar in 2000. "Rather than use donor funds for their intended purposes, Arafat regularly diverted money to his own accounts," Abu Issa said in a report for Middle East Quarterly. Arafat controls billions of dollars meant for the Palestinian people. In a word, he stole it, intelligence sources said, according to the Geostrategy-Direct report. His personal fortune has been estimated at between $2 and $3 billion, most of it in Swiss bank accounts. In 1997, the PA auditor's office said in its financial report that $326 million, or 43 percent of the annual budget, was "missing."
"Yasser, have you seen that $326 million?"
"Nope. Don't worry about it. It'll turn up!"
"Hokay."
Neither Israeli nor PA officials have been told much about Arafat's condition, and the only one authorized to issue information from his hospital bedside is the chairman's wife, Suha.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 6:45:31 PM ||
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#1
LOL - actually this a good turn of events: #1) the various factions get an extra day to arm up for the Fight for PowerĂ¢Â„Â¢ (kinda like anti-daylight savings) and #2) I'm all outta buttered microwave popcorn, just have the plain kind, so I have that much extra time to go to the store
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/04/2004 19:05 Comments ||
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#2
Mebbe he died like W.C. Fields: his fortune scattered in hidden bank accounts under fictitious names?
#8
Six months. No activity. Dormant Account. Money goes to the Swiss government?
This is a Swiss Bank. There is no such thing as a dorment account, the bank will just keep the money forever. Use to be no one could even see their books or get the cash. They have loosened up in the past few years, they may release it back to the PA.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/04/2004 20:47 Comments ||
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#9
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has died. He was 75 years old.
That scum-sucking slimeball lived 74 years too long.
#10
This is great news - I have this mental picture of them hoping for a Lazarus moment so he can tell them where the cash is, before he's dragged off screaming by 10,000 gibbering, drooling demons.
"I'm going to a hospital in France. What could go wrong?" - Fred, too cruel, too cruel ;)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
11/04/2004 22:25 Comments ||
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Conflicting reports from the disputed region of Sool, northern Somalia, indicate that at least 100 people were killed on Friday when forces from the self-declared republic of Somaliland, and those of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, clashed, a local source told IRIN. Both sides are accusing the other of initiating the hostilities. The Somaliland Minister of Information, Abdillahi Du'ale, told IRIN on Monday: "The fact of the matter is that it was a premeditated aggression" by Puntland forces. He accused the current Puntland leader, Muhammad Abdi Hashi, of having "orchestrated" the clashes "in consultation with Abdullahi Yusuf [the newly-elected president of Somalia and former Puntland leader]".
Du'ale claimed that Somaliland forces had killed more than 100 Puntland militiamen and destroyed an undetermined number of military hardware. He said their forces lost seven soldiers and nine were wounded. "We regret this unnecessary loss of life," he said. However, the Puntland Deputy Minister of Information Ibrahim Artan Isma'il dismissed reports that the Puntland attacked as "baseless".
"Our forces defended their position when attacked by Somaliland forces," he said. "They did not attack Somaliland". Isma'il also denied Puntland forces lost over 100 men. "The information I am receiving from our forces is that we lost 12 men and four [were] wounded," he said. "It is Somaliland that lost close to 100 men."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 6:30:49 PM ||
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#1
"Puntland?" Sounds like they are ready for a poor NFL francise to grace their doorsteps....
__And yes, I do know the historical significance of the word.
Arafat Fighting for His Life in Paris
Yasser Arafat was reportedly fighting for his life Thursday at a French military hospital after losing consciousness, as anxious Palestinian officials transferred some of their 75-year-old leader's powers to Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.
Wouldn't happen if he hadn't croaked...
Doctors at Percy Military Training Hospital outside Paris, where Arafat was airlifted last Friday after more than two years of confinement in the West Bank, quashed a swirl of reports that he had died. But the French doctors would not say much else, and confusion ruled as Palestinians issued conflicting reports about Arafat's condition and how close to death he was.
"He's dead!"
"No! He's only mostly dead! There's a difference!"
"He's starting to stink!"
"He stank when he got here!"
"Yeah, but it was a different smell!"
Outside the hospital, some 50 well-wishers held a vigil late into the evening. Some held candles, others portraits of Arafat. A large Palestinian flag hung from the hospital's outer wall. "It tears your heart up," said Mahmod Nimr, a 36-year-old unemployed Palestinian. "I can't see someone taking his place."
Me neither, but I'll betcha about a dozen try...
In an emergency meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah, the PLO executive committee empowered Qureia to deal with urgent administrative and financial matters in Arafat's absence, said committee member Qais Abdel Karim. Qureia also will meet with security chiefs in the Gaza Strip on Friday to ensure that no internal conflict erupts in the volatile area at a time of uncertainty, a Palestinian official said.
"Try not to have any shootouts until the body's cold, okay?... Duck!"
Arafat's chief of staff, Ramzi Khoury, called an Associated Press reporter to say the Palestinian leader was alive but that his condition was grave. "I am standing next to the president's bed, he is in grave condition," Khoury said.
"I can definitely tell you, he's not running that persistent fever anymore."
"What's his temp?"
"About 72 degrees right now..."
A senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that Arafat was in a coma in the intensive care unit, where he was taken after his condition worsened overnight Wednesday. In Washington, Said Hamad, deputy chief of the Palestine Liberation Office, also said Arafat was in a coma. French television station LCI quoted an anonymous French medical official as saying Arafat was in an "irreversible coma" and "intubated" — a process that usually involves threading a tube down the windpipe to the lungs. The tube is often connected to a life support machine to help the patient breathe.
Toldja so!
However, three Palestinian officials denied Arafat was in a coma.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
"He is not getting better, but not getting worse either.
"We think the rigor mortis has mostly passed, in fact..."
"He is being embalmed examined. He is not in a coma," Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said. "There is no explanation for what has happened." A Palestinian official in Gaza who is close to Arafat's wife Suha said she told him her husband fell unconscious after receiving a strong anesthetic for a biopsy. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, quoted Suha Arafat as saying her husband was recovering. Israel TV's Channel Two reported that Arafat was brain dead and remained on life support. However, Arafat's personal physician, Dr. Ashraf Kurdi, told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television that "Arafat has no type of brain death." He also said a brain scan showed that Arafat had not suffered a hemorrhage or stroke.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 6:00:17 PM ||
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A roadside bomb blast in the South Waziristan tribal region killed at least six Pakistani soldiers and injured 10 others, some seriously, army officials said. After the blast, two Pakistan army helicopters pounded suspected militant positions in surrounding hills, said area resident Nasib Khan. An army truck hit an improvised explosive device on a dirt road in the tense region near the Afghan border and fell into a ravine, an official said on condition of anonymity in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital, Islamabad. The blast happened at Salwashti village near Wana, South Waziristan's main town. The injured were taken to a military hospital in the town.
Army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said 10 soldiers were injured in the explosion. Two other army officials had earlier reported that six troops were hurt, some seriously. An army official in Wana, who also did not want to be named, said most of the casualties were caused when the truck rolled into the ravine. A Wana-based intelligence official gave a slightly different account, saying eight soldiers were killed when two blasts hit two army vehicles that were travelling together. Both army officials blamed "miscreants" - a byword for Islamic militants resisting Pakistani military efforts to flush out foreign fighters linked to al-Qaeda from the lawless region.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 5:56:01 PM ||
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A gunman killed one worshipper and wounded two clerics when he opened fire inside a mosque in the city of Karachi yesterday. The attack occurred at the Mohammedi Mosque in a low-income neighborhood in the north of the city. Police said it was unclear whether the attack was part of sectarian violence or the result of a personal enmity. City police chief Fayyaz Leghari said the attack was apparently aimed at the deputy prayer leader of the mosque, Sajid Zaman, who was critically wounded. "The gunman fired four to five bullets from a pistol, targeting the deputy prayer leader," he told Reuters. "But a stray bullet killed a worshipper." The prayer leader of the mosque, Mufti Farooq Ahmed Siddiqui, was also wounded in the leg.
Leghari said the attack could have been the result of a personal enmity rather than a sectarian rivalry. "Usually automatic weapons are used in terror attacks, but in this case a pistol was used," he said. Police said the gunman escaped with an accomplice who waited outside the mosque with a motorcycle. There were 250 worshippers in the Karachi mosque at the time of the attack. "Someone started shooting during the prayers," said Siddiqui, the prayer leader who was wounded in the leg. "I only heard gunshots on my back ... then the people started running." Security has been stepped up at the places of worship across Pakistan due to fears of more attacks during Ramadan, which ends in mid-November. Analysts believe Al-Qaeda-linked groups have been behind some of the recent violence, aiming to stir up sectarian animosity and destabilize the administration of President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terror.
In the southwestern city of Quetta on Monday, security forces arrested two men, one of them an Iraqi suspected of links to Al-Qaeda, as they tried to purchase arms, intelligence officials said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 5:51:59 PM ||
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PALESTINIAN leader Yasser Arafat has been "unconscious for the past several hours", a source close to the Palestinian delegation with Arafat in France said. The source refused to say Mr Arafat had fallen into a coma, insisting that the 75-year-old Palestinian leader - in hospital in France for nearly a week for treatment of a mysterious illness - was "unconscious".
"He's not dead, he's only sleeping"
the heads of all Palestinian security services were summoned to an emergency meeting early this morning (AEDT) after Mr Arafat fell into a coma, security sources said. Meanwhile, Israeli forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been placed on a state of alert following a deterioration in the health of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, security sources said. The decision was taken after a meeting between Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and the leaders of intelligence services in Tel Aviv. The army's chief of staff, General Moshe Yaalon, had also held a meeting with the senior commanders in charge of the Palestinian territories. The Israeli army has a contingency plan, called 'new leaf', to deal with the fallout from Mr Arafat's death, including possible Palestinian riots.
"New Leaf", possibly they plan on turning a few things over?
Three British troops have been killed in Iraq, the Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram has confirmed. The deaths, as well as a number of other casualties, happened in the area patrolled by the Black Watch, but no more details have yet been released. According to BBC radio a Warrior convoy was hit by an IED. From the BBC site it looks as though a Land Rover took the blast. Bastards. The media will fly about like panicked chickens over this.
#2
The BBC have helped the Jihadis in every way they possibly could, first the BBC break the story that are troops are going northward a full TWO weeks before they moved giving the eneamy TWO weeks to prepare for them and even going so far as to tell the Jihadis the location are troops are going, then we get to see the convoy set off almost fcking live on the TV, since weve been at the new base rockets are landing in increasing numbers every day, not the BBCs fault directly that but today they told us exactly what the troops were doing, what todays missions were gonna be, that thier expanding the area of operations. The army should kick (the fck) out any BBC journalists imbeddid with them and lock up any 'journalists' seen in the area, this BBC has become nothing more then a realtime information service for the jihadis and Baathists. Wait for the next peice of important mission info being spewed out over the airwaves. Kill any BBC camera men just like that rooters camera man the other day- they are rooting for the other side!
Posted by: Shep UK ||
11/04/2004 13:49 Comments ||
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#3
Totally agree Shep, if there is *any* evidence that these soldiers deaths were in some way attributable to the BBC reports, then heads should roll...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
11/04/2004 15:02 Comments ||
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#4
I just don't understand why the Jihadi's haven't figured this out yet...
If any Jihadi's are reading here - hear me and hear me well....if you kill sympathetic BBC or Hollywood types...you will get endless media coverage. 24/7 for as long as you can drag it out. Not that I'm condoning that or anything. But you will just get so MUCh more bang for your buck.
#5
OT: Since I've got all my UK friends in one thread, can I ask a favor? Can one of you blokes get me a copy of today's Daily Mirror? I'd love to hang it on my wall...right next to my copy of L'Express that says (in French) "GWB: The man who ruined our year"
#7
Aaagh, Seafarious - almost certainly too late for me to get one for you now. If you'd asked earlier in the day...
As for the BBC - they and all the rest of the media have got blood on their hands, as has everyone who made a fuss about the troop relocation and made it into a political issue. Idiots who don't understand the consequences of their actions, or don't pause to think. It's only now, after heads have literally rolled, that they've belatedly taken something like a responsible approach to hostage-taking.
"Show 'em you ain't dead, Yasser! Blink yer eyes!"
Israeli TV on Thursday cited sources as saying Yasser Arafat has died, but the Palestinian prime minister denied the report. Israeli TV's Channel Two cited Israeli security officials as saying they had been told by a reliable French source that Arafat had died. However, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said there has been no change in Arafat's condition.
Once you're dead, what's to change?
Palestinian officials said Arafat was in a coma in the intensive care unit of a French military hospital.
Uhuh. Brain dead, on a ventilator... No change in condition until they unplug the vent...
"Excellent work, Marvin."
"Thank you, Mr. Secretary. It was a pleasure."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 11:47:05 AM ||
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#2
latest ive seen - French hosp spokesman says hes alive. PM of Luxembourg (how the hell would HE know) says hes dead. Abbas flying to Paris, presumably to get confirmation as successor. Possibly someone is trying to delay reported date of Arafat being finally out of it (to death or final coma) in order to make the case that he actually designated a successor. This should be interesting.
#3
Upon being told Arafat had died Mr. Bush said "God bless his soul". This was a Bushism.
What he meant to say was: "May God have mercy on his soul".
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
11/04/2004 12:22 Comments ||
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#4
1. Gentlemen: I am pleased to report that the first field test of the patented Zionist Death Ray (Mk. 1A3E8bis) has been a complete success.
2. Could it have been French medical malpractice? If the belief that it was ever got traction on the "Arab street," life could get interesting for Chirac.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/04/2004 12:23 Comments ||
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#5
Could it have been French medical malpractice? If the belief that it was ever got traction on the "Arab street," life could get interesting for Chirac.
What do you mean "if"? Remember, "The Improbable Fraud" was a best-seller in France. Why shouldn't some enterprising author here in the US come up with a book explaining how -- and why -- the French kidnapped Yasser under cover of his "needing medical attention", then poisoned his IV so he would die. Their goal was to sow chaos in the PA to distract the Arab world from France's campaign to secure oil fields in the Sudan and Ivory Coast.
(Complicated enough? Moon-batty enough?)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/04/2004 12:37 Comments ||
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#6
Robert, that is an absolutely devious idea, exactly the sort of bloodthirsty ruthlessness you can't help but admire. I hope someone from the CIA or Mossad reads this thread.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/04/2004 12:49 Comments ||
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#7
luxembourg PM now says it was a misunderstanding. Arafat is definitely intubated and in coma. Imminent brain death not clear.
#8
They'll not look for French malpractice . . . They'll go back to an older tradition; that Muhammad was poisoned by a Jewish slave. Arafat's hagiographers will claim the same sort of thing for him, and blame--guess who?
Posted by: James ||
11/04/2004 13:26 Comments ||
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#9
LH - that's cold.... :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/04/2004 13:37 Comments ||
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#10
Better thing it's not August.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/04/2004 13:49 Comments ||
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#12
"rachel, keep the challah warm, put the wine away, dont light candles yet"
"you mean its not a holiday today,David, like you told me?"
"not today dear, but maybe tomorrow"
"good, that gives me time to get a new dress"
#20
Foz News just reported Paleostinian leadership council asked France not to report his death till they have worked out who's in charge. This could take awhile. Fox sez they're calling every 30 minutes to check on him.
"Is he dead yet?"
"Is he dead yet?"
"Is he dead yet?"
Posted by: Steve ||
11/04/2004 16:41 Comments ||
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#21
Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
Y'know the boys in the newsroom,
Got a running bet.
Get the widow on the set,
We need dirty laundry.
-- Don Henley
Yasser Arafat was in a coma and in critical condition Thursday in an intensive care ward of a French military hospital, as senior Palestinian Authority officials rushed to Ramallah for emergency meetings of governing bodies formally headed by the stricken leader, Palestinian sources said. According to reports from Percy Military Hospital, Arafat is in critical condition, and his days are numbered. According to estimates, Arafat is suffering from either a growth in his intestines or stomach, or from blood poisoning. A source quoted on French television said that Arafat is breathing with the help of a respirator and is not responding to medical treatment that is being administered. The source, a doctor in the hospital, claims that Arafat has no chance of coming out of the coma. The doctor, who asked to remain anonymous, said that in the past three years Arafat's health has been neglected, which led to its deterioration. In a rare flurry of activity, the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Central Committee of the Fatah movement were urgently summoned to Arafat's Muqata headquarters in the West Bank city. Former Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) also took part in the emergency meeting at the compound.
Posted by: Poison Reverse ||
11/04/2004 11:37:42 AM ||
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#1
So, using Moslem logic, the FRENCH murdered him?
#2
In just a couple days a crack team of French doctors have removed a great evil from the face of Earth. I have never been prouder of my country's medical system. :-)
#4
Waaait for it, waaait for it, he's not popped his clogs just yet. I really wish that in his final moments he sees all the faces of the innocents he has killed, feels their pain and sadness and that (for him) those final moments extend out to infinity.
Then when they're bringing his carcass back to the Paleos, his plane crashes into a pig farm.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
11/04/2004 15:09 Comments ||
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#5
Praise the French National Health Service, regularly called to care for the last days of tyrants favoured by Mitterand and Chirac.
A French-language Israeli newssite is reporting Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Authority, may have died of a heart attack. The report is based on the Guysen Israel News' sources and is ''unconfirmed.'' ''We do not have any more information on the state of Arafat,'' the latest report said. ''The news of his death is still not confirmed.'' A report earlier in the day from Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Arafat's condition was improving. Conflicting reports in recent days had him sick with everything from the flu to heart failure. The 74-year-old leader looked pale and tired during the ceremony to swear in an emergency cabinet Tuesday, and some reports say he needed prompting from his aides.
Waiting for confirmation. Fat Lady warming up, ululator being oiled...
I've pulled the Fat Lady until the inevitable official announcement comes or they bury him without saying anything. Until then, for entertainment...
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was declared clinically dead on Thursday in a French hospital, Israeli television said citing French sources. But Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie denied the report, saying: "I have just spoken to the officials in Paris and they say the situation is still as it was. He is still in the intensive care unit." Israel's Channel Two television cited unnamed sources in Paris saying that Arafat underwent a brain scan and was found to be "no longer alive." Palestinian sources earlier told Reuters that the Palestinian president, who was admitted to hospital last week with a mysterious stomach illness, had slipped into a coma.
Actually, they said he's not dead. There's a difference...
French doctors announced Thursday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who is in intensive care at a French military hospital, is still alive.
That's what the AP guy thinks he heard. But actually...
"The clinical situation of the first fews days following admission has become more complex," Christian Estripeau, head of communications for French military health services.
"Our tentative diagnosis at this point is rigor mortis, complicated by the onset of decomposition..."
"The state of health of the patient requires appropriate treatment that required his transfer on Wednesday afternoon of Nov. 3 to a unit adapted to his pathology," Estripeau said.
That'd be the morgue...
"Mr. Arafat is not dead," he said, concluding the brief statement.
"The carcass still breathes, with the aid of the appropriate machinery. The blood still moves in the major blood vessels. Nutrition is being pumped in one end, and waste is being removed from the other. But whether there's anybody home anymore — no matter how loud you knock, nobody answers."
"This statement has been drafted out of respect for the discretion demanded by his wife," he said.
"She really needs those secret account numbers..."
On her way to the bank to make a withdrawl
The statement put to rest for now reports that Arafat has died. Israeli TV's Channel Two cited Israeli security officials as saying they had been told by a reliable French source that Arafat had died. However, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said there has been no change in Arafat's condition. Palestinian officials said Arafat was in a coma in the intensive care unit of a French military hospital.
Posted by: Lux ||
11/04/2004 11:23:42 AM ||
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#1
Additional info : he's brain dead (no snickering...)
Praline: Never mind that my lad, I wish to complain about this terrorist that I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.
Shopkeeper: Oh yes, the Palestinian. What's wrong with it?
Praline: I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it.
Shopkeeper: No, no it's resting, look!
Praline: Look my lad, I know a dead terrorist when I see one and I'm looking at one right now.
Shopkeeper: No, no sir, it's not dead. It's resting.
Praline: Resting?
Shopkeeper: Yeah, remarkable terrorist the Palestinian, beautiful towel on its head too.
Praline: The towel don't enter into it -- it's stone dead.
Shopkeeper: No, no -- it's just resting.
Praline: All right then, if it's resting I'll wake it up. (shouts into cage) Hello Yassir! I've got a nice billion for you when you wake up, Yassir, Yassir!
Shopkeeper: (jogging cage) There it moved.
Praline: No he didn't. That was you pushing the cage.
Shopkeeper: I did not.
Praline: Yes, you did. (takes terrorist out of cage, shouts) Hello Yassir, Yassir (bangs it against counter) wake up. (throws it in the air and lets it fall to the floor) Now that's what I call a dead terrorist.
Shopkeeper: No, no it's stunned.
Praline: Look my lad, I've had just about enough of this. That terrorist is definitely deceased. And when I bought it not half an hour ago, you assured me that its lack of movement was due to it being tired and shagged out after a long squawk.
Shopkeeper: It's probably pining for the fjords.
Praline: Pining for the fjords, what kind of talk is that? Look, why did it fall flat on its back the moment I got it home?
Shopkeeper: The Palestinian prefers kipping on its back. Beautiful bird, lovely towel.
Praline: Look, I took the liberty of examining that terrorist, and I discovered that the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the first place was that it had been nailed there.
Shopkeeper: Well of course it was nailed there. Otherwise it would muscle up to those bars and voom.
#26
FoRGeT THe ZIoNiST DeATHRaY! Can't you folks see it? This is the shock of the landslide second term for GWB that finally put the last nail in Arafish's coffin! Upon hearing the news, Yasser just couldn't stand it anymore, and passed away, painfully, one can hope.
See, how easy it was, getting rid of him? All you had to do was put your ballot in the box :).
#28
"He is still in the intensive care unit..." ...though dead as a doornail.
I'm convinced that we Bush voters can take credit for this. Glad to do my part.
Posted by: Tom ||
11/04/2004 12:51 Comments ||
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#29
ima passin out candys here at work. no one is know why tho. they are just think ima nice guy. :)
#33
I'd be shocked if they buried him anywhere in the Middle East -- the Wahhabists would insist on an unmarked grave and the rest would insist on a shrine. Better just to shove him in the dirt somewhere in his spiritual home land, France.
Ya know, the opportunity to piss on his grave would be enough to get me to travel to Paris.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/04/2004 13:29 Comments ||
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#34
Arafart's corpse on rotten.com anyone??? I look forward to it.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/04/2004 14:55 Comments ||
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#40
Don't Forget poor ol Israel - If that dirty filthy palestinian maggot is dead - Then Israel has a hell of a road ahead of it when the palestinian monkeys are told the news of Yassars death.
Israel should lock n load - Let The Riots Begin.......
#41
What are they going to do Churt? As far as I'm aware the Israelis have locked down the 'territories' and they certainly have contingency plans for when Arafat dies.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
11/04/2004 15:18 Comments ||
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#42
Wasn't that nice of him to wait until after the election?
Fred...you amazing man you, where did you find that picture of Suha singing?
#53
Death Rays are at maximum power! Cap'n, she can't take much more of this!
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/04/2004 19:05 Comments ||
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#54
I'm sure it was the shock of the election that did it. I submitted a story that didn't make it last night, where the gist of the article was that Arafat gained consiousness long enough to ask about the election results---and then his staff sent Bush a note of congratulations "on his behalf."
I can't ululate worth a darn, but I will go blast a couple of paintballs at the local Muslim Student Union billboards!
Definitely a great week, Beau. Could get better. Streisand could choke on a hair ball, M. Moore could get terminal gout, and moveon.org could find that the "hold harmless and indemnify" clauses in their contracts could bankrupt them without Soros' backing. But still a great week!
#59
Just got in from the villages. I am at the Nome Joint Utilities project office and got on RB, pronto. I am hoping conformation of the Arafish going belly up will be until after 1030PM (0730Z). My ululator is at work. Man, what a week! Now the networks are still talking about the dems. I think that I will go down to the historic Board of Trade Saloon and have some brewskis. Life is good.
As for the Arafish, follow the money. Say hi to Quantrill for us, 'Fish. HA!
Posted by: Alaska Paul at Nome, AK ||
11/04/2004 21:31 Comments ||
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#61
If they try and fly Arafat's rotting corpse back home, I can only hope that Israel has enough sense to blow the plane out of the sky over deep water. No shrine, no martyrdom, no coffin-swarm.
Rot in flaming hell, Arafat. The death and destruction you brought into this world could never be assuaged by your puny death. A thousand slow deaths could not even begin to atone for your evil. Rot in hell, you bastard.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- The Czech parliament voted Thursday to extend the mandate for its troops in Iraq by two months, Czech Radio reports. The Czech Republic has around 100 military police in Iraq. Their mandate was originally set to expire at the end of December and has now been extended to Feb. 28, allowing them to remain in the country during elections scheduled to take place early next year. Unlike the Hungarians, the Czechs have not yet said whether the troops will be brought home after the elections have taken place.
Thanks for your help.
On Wednesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said he would pull his country's troops out of Iraq by the end of March.
That was the scheduled length of their commitment.
Hungary has around 300 troops in Iraq, the second largest contingent from central and eastern Europe. Poland has the largest with 2,400 soldiers operating in Iraq. The Poles have hinted they would like to bring their troops home before the end of 2005.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/04/2004 10:52:14 AM ||
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Where is my home, where is my home?
If, in a heavenly land, you have met
Tender souls in agile frames,
Of clear mind, vigorous and prospering,
And with a strength that frustrates all defiance,
That is the glorious race of Czechs,
Among Czechs (is) my home,
Among Czech, my home.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/04/2004 12:27 Comments ||
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#4
and another reason why blanket disparagement of " Europe" is wrong - Czechs and Poland among others have stood with us in harm's way and deserve the same.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/04/2004 12:32 Comments ||
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#5
Because they gotten the short end of the stick so often from the Europeans who oppose us, they are paying their insurance premiums now. Let's pay out on the policy next time.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/04/2004 12:42 Comments ||
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#6
Frank G, I think most of us are always careful to distinguish Old Europe from the rest.
Many thanks to our Czech, Polish, Hungarian, and Italian allies recently confirming their extended commitment for the sake of freedom.
#7
Yes, Mrs D -- although let's hope it is not required.
On the other hand, Spain France Turkey and Germany should be put on notice that we will not help them unless they change their ways and demonstrate a lasting commitment to the cause of freedom.
An unknown militant group holding an Iraqi-British woman hostage in Iraq threatened to turn her over to a group led by al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi if Britain did not quit Iraq, al-Jazeera television reported. Zarqawi's group, al-Qaeda Organisation of Holy War in Iraq, is blamed for the bloodiest suicide attacks and hostage beheadings in Iraq. Al-Jazeera said it received a video tape from the group saying it would hand over Margaret Hassan to Zarqawi's group within 48 hours "if Britain does not meet its demands, mainly for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq".
The Arab satellite channel aired a video with a masked man holding an automatic rifle and speaking, but there was no audio. It was the first time a militant from the group, which has not identified itself, appeared in a video. Al-Jazeera said it would not air the full tape which also showed Hassan making a plea. "Al-Jazeera will not air the video tape in full due to editorial and humanitarian reasons because of the state in which the hostage appears," the channel said, but did not elaborate.
Makes the hostage takers look that bad, huh?
Earlier, al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout told Reuters: "We do have a video tape of Margaret Hassan making a new appeal. We will not be broadcasting the tape because it has content which might be disturbing to some of our viewers." Al-Jazeera had on October 27 aired a video tape of Hassan, an aid worker who was seized by unknown kidnappers in Baghdad last month, urging Britain to withdraw its troops from Iraq and also to free Iraqi women prisoners.
That video had been the second such appeal by Hassan, the director of the Care International charity in Iraq. She is married to an Iraqi and has lived in the country for 30 years. Hassan was born in Dublin and holds British and Iraqi passports.
So, she's a Iraqi of British desent.
Last month, Zarqawi's group beheaded Briton Kenneth Bigley after releasing similarly desperate videos in which he pleaded for Blair to meet the demands of his captors. The British government has been even more tight-lipped over the fate of Hassan than it was with Bigley. After her kidnapping on October 19, Prime Minister Tony Blair and other senior officials repeated London's standard line - "We're doing all we can to help her".
On Tuesday, Hassan's Irish relatives said they had pleaded with Britain to meet the demands of her captors. "We are the Irish family of Margaret Hassan, and we are pleading with you to set her free," said Deirdre Fitzsimons, one of three sisters of the kidnapped woman who met Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in Dublin. "We have listened to your demands and begged (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair and the British government to release the women prisoners and also not to move the troops, but we are Irish and we have no influence on the British government."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/04/2004 3:16:39 AM ||
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#1
and humanitarian reasons because of the state in which the hostage appears,
that's heartbreaking, knowing how crue these people are and that it is happening to a woman who dedicated her life to charity.
Giving in to demands will only assure more women will be kidnapped, raped, beaten, tortured and eventually murdered. Get a clue - lefties.
Most Marines in the unit barely knew Pfc. Oscar A. Martinez; he'd been with the unit only a week before shipping off to Iraq. But on Oct. 25, I Marine Expeditionary Force Marines found out at Martinez's memorial service how disadvantaged he was as a youth, and the obstacles he overcame to become a Marine. They also learned that Martinez, killed Oct. 12 in Iraq, wasn't one to let those disadvantages get him down. On the contrary, he thrived in spite of them.
"He was (always) positive, never negative," Pfc. Erick Nez, a motor transport operator who new Martinez, said after the service, held at the South Mesa Chapel, where roughly 50 Marines in digital cammies gathered to mourn Martinez.
Martinez was a member of 3rd Material Readiness Battalion, based in Okinawa, Japan, and reported to I MEF Headquarters Group. He was an individual "augment" attached to I MEF to support Operation Iraqi Freedom II. "Allow yourself to mourn. Take the time to cry. Take the time to reflect. Allow yourself the time," Cmdr. Emilio Marrero, I MEF's deputy chaplain, said to the mourners. The somber crowd, some weeping softly, heard eulogies that shed light on Martinez.
He was born Nov. 1, 1984, in Dallas, to parents who were born in El Salvador. By age 9, both his parents were deceased, and his grandmother was raising him. Martinez's lifelong dream was to become a Marine -- and despite hurdles, he literally willed his way to the yellow footprints.
Martinez was overweight by Marine Corps standards, so "he trained to shed those extra pounds off," said Gunnery Sgt. Enrique Bernal, company gunnery sergeant for MHG. According to the Associated Press, Morena Martinez, his sister, said he began running around his block wearing garbage bags and sweat pants to lose the weight. Martinez's determination landed him on those yellow footprints on Dec. 2, 2003.
He was promoted to his rank of private first class on June 1. Martinez then deployed to Iraq in support of OIF II.
"He may not be with us, but he still wears that eagle, globe and anchor over his heart," said Capt. Jacob E. Berry, former MHG motor chief transport officer. Although not very familiar to I MHG and its Marines, his life and death has touched the hearts of those Marines. "He'll live on in our hearts and that's where I'll keep him," Nez said.
He is survived by his grandmother, Maria; sisters Morena and Marta; his brother, Ricardo; his uncle, Rene; and girlfriend, Carolina.
#1
I didn't catch how he passed on? Either way, Semper Fi brother. He has entered the hallowed halls of Corps Eternal our Valhalla, standing guard on the streets of heaven.
Iraqi Security Forces and I Marine Expeditionary Force-Multi-National Forces-West continue to degrade and disrupt anti-Iraqi forces in the Fallujah-Ramadi area, employing US Air Force aviation assets to deliver precision munitions to destroy preplanned targets in southern Fallujah. In the last 12 hours, Multi-National Forces-West conducted coordinated offensive operations in and around the Fallujah-Ramadi area. The I Marine Expeditionary Force destroyed several barricaded fighting positions.
At 12:20 a.m. Nov. 4, a U.S. Air Force aircraft, supporting a U.S. Marine Corps element, struck a preplanned target with precision weapons, striking known anti-Iraqi barricaded fighting positions in the northeastern part of the city.
At 12:50 a.m. Nov. 4, US Air Force aircraft, supporting a U.S. Marine Corps element, destroyed several known fighting barricaded positions, which were also preplanned. The mission occurred in the southeast.
In four days, since Nov. 1, Multi-National Forces-West recovered and destroyed 129 mortars, 39 artillery shells, 37 Rocket-Propelled Grenades, 12 rockets, seven mines, 126 detonators, 350 electronic timers, 16 blasting caps, three sticks of dynamite and more than a thousand rounds of ammunition.
#2
Shaping the battlefield...gonna get some real soon. God bless our marines.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
11/04/2004 12:47 Comments ||
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#3
Four more years of Bush - that's got to be having interesting effects on enemy and Iraqi national forces' morale. Arafat down, too. An image of fish stranded on a beach springs to mind. The tide of history's not moving in your favour, jihad boys.
Mehdi Achmed Moussa, a known car bomb maker in Mosul, died from burns suffered when one of his car bombs accidentally exploded in a southern Mosul market last week. Before his death, Moussa received treatment for his burns at a local hospital where three separate Iraqi citizens identified him as the notorious organizer of car bomb attacks in the Mosul area during the last few months.
#4
Can't help but wonder, did he really die of the burns or was he finished off by the Mosul doctors? After all, at least one of the doctors has a good chance of being a Kurd.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/04/2004 9:59 Comments ||
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#5
I hope he burns in the special ring of hell reserved for Bombers and Bomb makers.
#8
Lasted a week all burnt up? Wonder if he had time to contemplate his chosen profession? Wonder if he had second thoughts? Wonder how often he screamed?
Things are not looking good for the baby killing Nobel Prize winner.
PARIS (Reuters) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has been in a coma since Wednesday evening and was now in critical condition in the intensive care unit at a French military hospital, aides said on Thursday. Funeral dirge...
"He has no immunity whatsoever," another aide said. He lost physically what he had politically, how ironic.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian officials first called Baghdad Bob for advice and then said Arafat was not in a coma. "It's not true at all that Arafat went into a coma," Tayeb Abdul Rahim, a senior aide, told reporters. UPDATE: DEBKAfile reports: Arafat is sunk in coma on artificial respirator in intensive care unit of Paris hospital. Palestinian leadership assembled in Ramallah to determine order of succession. Fox News reports the same.
Posted by: Ol_Dirty_American ||
11/04/2004 7:18:26 AM ||
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#1
then his lips fell off...
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/04/2004 9:41 Comments ||
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#2
Who will Bush send to the funeral? Michael Moore?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/04/2004 9:42 Comments ||
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#3
"He has no immunity whatsoever,"
Hmmmmmmmm. Sounds like that might answer some recent speculation.
#4
Dare we to hope????" 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This Arafat is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-ARAFAT!!
Apologies to Monty Python, of course, but it just seemed so apt.
#8
crap - I handed out all my candy at Halloween - better get mor and lube up the ululator
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/04/2004 10:47 Comments ||
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#9
Sgt. Mom -
I wish I could send along a few dozen roses for the smile that brought me. My son - also a Python fan - is rolling on the floor, incapacitated by laughter.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/04/2004 10:48 Comments ||
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#10
after Arafat dies, Sgt Mom could do the dead parrot skit
Falluja - US forces have stepped up pressure on suspected rebel targets in Falluja late on Wednesday, using AC-130 aircraft and tanks to strike eastern and north-western areas of the city, witnesses said. The big push has begun?
The AC-130s, cargo aircraft equipped with cannon and machineguns, were in action over the city for at least half an hour, coinciding with continuous shelling by tanks in the east of the city, they said.
The bombardment was the heaviest inflicted on the city for several weeks, witnesses said. Go Marines!!
The US military is poised for an offensive on Falluja, some 50 km west of Baghdad, to flush out Islamic militants and Saddam Hussein loyalists it says are there.
Earlier on Wednesday, attacks by US warplanes sent up plumes of black smoke from the eastern edge of the rebel-held city, witnesses said.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/04/2004 1:48:11 AM ||
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#3
The hammer has been pulled back and the finger is twitching on the trigger. My guess is that the order has been given and the authority for execution timing has been released to the operational commanders
NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah on Wednesday asked all political agents of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to implement a ban on heavy weapons and confiscate all such weapons.
"Here, you! Gimme that howitzer! Them things's banned, y'know!"
"What'll yez do if I don't wanna turn it over to yez?"
"Ummm... I'll ask somebody else."
Presiding over a meeting on law and order situation, the NWFP governor asked the political authorities to be cautious about the presence of foreign elements in their respective agencies. The political agents briefed the governor about law and order in FATA and the measures being taken to curb smuggling, poppy cultivation, anti-social actors and other issues of the tribal areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 1:42:30 AM ||
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#1
They want to curb "anti-social actors"? I thought that was just a problem over here?
Naveed Butt, a spokesman for Hizbul Tehrir, was able to elude the police on Wednesday, sources told Daily Times.
"Feet, don't fail me now!"
A police team had raided a hotel to arrest the activists of the banned organisation, but was unsuccessful. Sources claimed that Mr Butt and some women of the Jigranvi family had arranged a secret press conference in the hotel in which they stated that Hizbul Tehrir was only continuing the campaign for the sake of Iraq and to fight US oppression. An unidentified person had then entered the room and said something to Mr Butt upon which Mr Butt left.
That would be Mahmoud the Rat.
The police arrived a few minutes later and detained the women, who were later released.
The coppers made the ladies show them their honkers, but left disappointed, since they'd come expecting to see Butt...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 1:34:42 AM ||
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#1
A secret press conference?
Just don't tell the press about it, I guess... I dunno, damme if I can make any sense out of it...
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
11/04/2004 22:14 Comments ||
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Israeli security forces Tuesday evening revealed they have smashed a huge terrorist cell that includes Palestinian Authority security officials.
Israeli security forces Tuesday evening revealed they have smashed a huge terrorist cell that includes Palestinian Authority security officials. General Security Service (Shin Bet) officials said the 16-member gang in Bethlehem planned to smuggle explosives in an ambulance and attack the French Hill and ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhoods in Jerusalem. They also revealed a direct connection between the PA security forces, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.
Among those arrested were PA policemen, including the driver for the PLO police chief in Kalkilya near Kfar Saba. Four teenagers trained to be suicide bombers also were nabbed. Shin Bet also revealed that one of the terrorists was recruited in Yasser Arafat's Mukata compound by a PLO national security agent from Rafiah, near Gush Katif.
"This proves an escalation in the cynical exploitation by terrorists in using medical vehicles," Israeli officials said. They added that the arrests again show there is no separation between the PLO security establishment and terrorist organizations.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/04/2004 1:35:59 AM ||
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Osama Bin Laden is not hiding in Pakistan, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has said, describing reports in the western press that the Al Qaeda chief was in the tribal areas as based on assumption. "Fortunately or unfortunately, high profile Al Qaeda leaders like Abu Zubaida and Khalid Sheikh Muhammad have been arrested in Pakistan in the last couple of years, after which the western media started assuming that Bin Laden was also hiding in Pakistan," the minister said while speaking at an Iftar dinner for editors and columnists on Wednesday. He said the latest Bin Laden videotape was delivered to the Al Jazeera office in Rawalpindi, which fuelled these assumptions.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 1:10:44 AM ||
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#1
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/04/2004 2:07 Comments ||
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well if he knows he is not in pakistan then he must know his whereabouts.
Indian troops killed five militants in a fierce gunbattle in held Kashmir after they barricaded themselves inside a mosque, an army official said on Wednesday. The militants fled to the mosque after fighting began when soldiers surrounded Khilangund village in southern Pulwama district in the morning, following a tipoff that militants were sheltering there. "We have killed all the five militants who barricaded themselves inside the mosque," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel VK Batra said. "The mosque is intact and now free of militants."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 1:05:44 AM ||
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SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: Security forces fired several rockets at the Sam Sarai area in Ladah on Wednesday, badly damaging a house, six shops and a hotel. Security forces also detained a few shopkeepers but freed them later. Tribal elder Malik Umar's house was completely destroyed in the attack.
Rockets can go both ways? Who knew?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 1:04:56 AM ||
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A Delhi court sentenced a Pakistani to death on Wednesday for causing a bomb explosion in 1997 in a crowded bus, killing four people and injuring 24. Additional Sessions Judge OP Saini found convict Muhammad Hussain alias Zulfiqar alias Abdul Hassan, a native of Okara's Jindrakhar village in Pakistan, guilty of the crime and handed down the capital punishment after calling it a "rarest of rare" case. The court also fined Muhammad Hussain Rs 5,000. A bomb went off on a bus in West Delhi on December 30, 1997, injuring 28 passengers. Four of the injured later died in hospital, police said. A city court had discharged accused Abdul Rehman, Azhar Ahmed and Maqsood Ahmed in the case for want of evidence. Another accused, Abdul Karim alias Tunda, was absconding, police added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 12:55:10 AM ||
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JACOBABAD: As the last American troops fly out of Shahbaz air base, the city has been gripped by rumours that some important detainees were being shifted to secret locations. A host of helicopters and planes were seen landing and taking off from the air base at night with their lights off. A white Hercules plane zoomed over the city at such low altitude that citizens feared that it would hit a building. There has been speculation, rubbished by the government, that the US military kept figures arrested in Pakistan at the base. The base commander and commanding officer of Shahbaz air base were not available for comment.
Yes. The White Hercules. It portends impending death, you know.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 12:52:29 AM ||
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A seminar in Cairo on Iraqi affairs concluded that more than 310 Iraqi scientists perished at the hands of Israeli secret agents in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad to US troops in April 2003, according to a report in the Information Clearing House. The seminar was attended by politicians, journalists and experts on current Iraqi affairs. The experts said they had detected an organised campaign aimed at "liquidating Iraqi scientists" in the past 18 months and most of them pointed the finger at the Israeli secret service, Mossad, the report said.
"Who else could it be?"
The organisers said their aim was to highlight the plight of Iraqi scientists, particularly those who were engaged in the weapons programmes under the former regime, according to the report. "There is a joint American and Israeli plan to kill as many Iraqi scientists as possible," the report quoted Abdel Raoof al-Raidi, an ambassador and assistant foreign minister. The report said the Iraqi ambassador in Cairo, Ahmad Al-Iraqi, accused Israel of sending a "commando unit" to Iraq immediately after the US invasion, which "killed Iraqi scientists".
Wouldn't it have been logical to send the commandos before the invasion, when the scientists presented a danger?
"Israel has played a prominent role in liquidating Iraqi scientists ... The campaign is part of a Zionist plan to kill Arab and Muslim scientists working in applied research which Israel sees as threatening its interests," Al-Iraqi reportedly said.
Why, sure. That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense.
Dr Imad Jad, an Israeli affairs expert at the Al-Ahram Studies Centre, said the US had already airlifted 70 Iraqi scientists out of the country and placed them in areas to make it difficult for them to "transfer information to anti-US quarters", the report said. According to the report, Dr Jad said the Ahram Centre estimated that nearly 17,000 Iraqi scientists working in various fields of knowledge have fled the country since the US-led invasion. In Baghdad, interim government officials refused to comment on the deliberations that took place in the Cairo conference, the report said, but the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology said their own figures tally with those mentioned at the seminar, particularly regarding the number of Iraqi scientists killed so far.
Though not necessarily who dunnit...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 12:47:09 AM ||
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#1
Explanation #1 on the Arab Hit Parade of excuses for "inconvenient" shit.
#7
I'm everywhere, Shipman. You should know that by now.
I've been transferred from UFOOL duty to the Death Ray Maintenance Bureau in Paris. Right now we have it on "simmer" to test the settings. Looks to be working well.
Posted by: The Mossad ||
11/04/2004 9:00 Comments ||
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#10
We dont kill all Iraqui scientists, we kill
only Iraqi MAD scientists
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
11/04/2004 15:20 Comments ||
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#11
It would not be the first time. Just finished reading that book on the Isralei raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor. Months before the actual raid a lot of Iraqi scientists were knocked off in foreign countries. Got so bad Saddam had ot ban them fro going to confrences abroad.
Posted by: scott ||
11/04/2004 21:07 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2004 12:36:45 AM ||
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#1
His only hope is that Delta or SAS can find him before Zarqawi decides to further advance his media career. If the SF types can get him, they need to leave the terrorists' heads on the mosque fence.
WITH U.S. FORCES NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - Mudhhir al Zahery, a dapper 47-year-old Iraqi in a sweater vest and dress slacks, stood in the mud and gravel and stared at the young U.S. Marines walking around with their M-16s. A reporter with a Baghdad-based newspaper, Zahery was about to take his place in the U.S. battle plan to win control of Fallujah. One of six Iraqi journalists who'll be "embedded" with American and Iraqi troops, he'll file reports that American commanders hope will persuade Iraqis that insurgents in towns such as Fallujah are anti-Iraqi terrorists, not nationalist resistance fighters. "When I left (home), I said goodbye to my wife, and she was crying because Fallujah is very dangerous," Zahery said. "My family is praying to God that the war does not happen."
He's about as safe as someone could be in Iraq, surrounded by Marines.
1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert, a spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said many of the problems American soldiers had faced in Iraq, particularly in Fallujah, were the result of a disinformation campaign waged by insurgents to drive a wedge between the population and the American presence. There've been a litany of apocryphal stories about U.S. troops using binoculars capable of seeing through women's clothing and intentionally shooting into ambulances full of wounded civilians. "If (insurgents) can get Iraqis to believe that, it will make their cause," Gilbert said. Iraqi reporters, military officials hope, will counter such tales.
The strategy comes with some risk. Zahery works for a newspaper, al Sabah, that was started with U.S. funding and is widely considered pro-American. His view of Fallujah is that it's being held hostage by foreign terrorists. But another of the journalists, Mohammed M. Mohammed, is a correspondent for al Diyar, an independently owned Iraqi news channel, and believes that Fallujah is being defended by local freedom fighters against a foreign threat. "It's the same principle as the Palestinian people," he said. "All of the people in Fallujah are fighters."
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#1
well-a guy named mohammid m. mohammid would say that--btw--do you think that his middle name is mohammid also?
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
11/04/2004 2:01 Comments ||
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#2
Lol! I knew an Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah, heh.
This sounds like another hare-brained idea... we'll see, but silly shit that has nothing to do with taking care of business always comes from some asshat waay upstream - at State or Mil Cmd HQ who's tossing out turds to see what sticks - and take credit. After they save his ass 7 or 8 times from his heroic "freedom fighters" old MMM just might have a different view of things, but credit won't go to the Marines - whomever dreamed this up doesn't know shit about Arab-think. Sigh.
Yasser Arafat, hospitalized in France with a painful mystery ailment, was rushed to intensive care after suffering a setback and was undergoing a new round of tests, Palestinian officials said early Thursday. The two officials said the 75-year-old Arafat's condition had seriously deteriorated over the past day, adding that doctors who have been examining him since Friday still don't know the cause of his illness. (AIDs)
"M'sieur le Docteur! What's wrong with him?"
"Hmmm... He looks sick to me!"
French hospital and military officials refused to comment, but more information was expected from a previously planned news conference Thursday afternoon (10 a.m. EST). Meanwhile, Arafat's top aides denied there had been any setback and accused Israel of spreading rumors. The report first aired on Israel's Channel Two television. Zionist Lies!
"C'mon, Yasser! Show 'em you ain't sick! Blink yer eyes!"
"These unfounded reports are not coming from French medical teams. These are leaks from the Israeli side," said Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian security chief. "Leaking such rumors will only complicate things and also complicate the situation within the Palestinian public," he told reporters in Paris. Haled Salem, Arafat's top aide, said early Thursday that the medical analysis was "deepening a little bit" but he remained confident Arafat would recover. "There are no setbacks." Der Fuhrer His Majesty suffers from a slight headache - nothing more!
Posted by: Sheik Abu Bin Ali Al-Yahood ||
11/04/2004 10:53:18 PM ||
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Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/04/2004 6:37 Comments ||
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#5
Mena press, aka Metula, a french jewish press agency (here for french-reading RBers : http://www.menapress.com/) has been saying from some time that Arafat has a stomach cancer, and is now in terminal phase. One can hope!
#6
Dare to hope about Hillary's fav Guy Friday CASTRO??? On a pragmatic note, Arafat had many chances to put his people on the path towards final peace, as ISRAEL is his people's best best hope for local Pals economic and national development.
US forces have stepped up pressure on suspected rebel targets in Falluja late on Wednesday, using AC-130 aircraft and tanks to strike eastern and north-western areas of the city, witnesses said. The AC-130s were in action over the city for at least half an hour, coinciding with continuous shelling by tanks in the east of the city, they said. The bombardment was the heaviest inflicted on the city for several weeks, witnesses said.
Earlier on Wednesday, attacks by US warplanes sent up plumes of black smoke from the eastern edge of the rebel-held city, witnesses said. A woman was seriously wounded and a teenage girl lost her right leg in the strikes, hospital official Issam Mohammed said. There was no information on casualties from the Wednesday night attacks, but residents said US ground troops apparently remained at the edge of the city. Residents of Falluja, most of whom are thought to have fled the city, say daily US bombardments cause heavy civilian casualties and increase resentment against the United States, which is already high in the Sunni Muslim heartland.
Space here _______ for the reaction of the vaunted Arab Street™.
#1
I want to program a bug, probably perl, that takes the casualties admitted by Islamic/Arab opponents and translates them into reality. I mean, there has got to be enough "they said / we got" pairings in the news history of recent conflicts for a decent data set.
Perhaps "a teenage girl lost her right leg" would translate to "Hassan shot from the roof and got his legs and nuts blown off."
'course, it would only be as useful as a one-time pad if we didn't keep it sooper sekrit. But it would be fun.
#2
Aw, now you've gone and done it. Attracting Spectres is definitely an option-limiting move. Not to mention life-shortening. Since they can see you, very clearly when you have no idea they are circling overhead, loaded for bear, you can keep the baby ducks BS to yourself - it ain't selling to anyone who knows their shit. Basically, you're fucked. Enjoy your fate, fools, Dubya's back in town and the shit is definitely hitting the fan now.
#3
"Dubya's back in town and the shit is definitely hitting the fan now."
Actually, the re-election of dubya may slow down the timetable a bit. Oh, it will still happen, but the motivation to "get it finished before kerry pulls the plug" is gone.
Posted by: Dave ||
11/04/2004 1:09 Comments ||
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#4
Catching all them baby ducks on infrared video as well for play back.
#5
Heh - Good point. Y'know, it prolly works both ways, depending upon the problem at hand. Political BS finally taking a back seat to dealing with realities - as and when they need dealing with.
#6
Spo'D - Look! A baby duck packin' an RPG! What will we do???? Lol! "Mr Hospital Official" is saying what the current powers in town tell him, of course, and likely that's whatever the Al Jizz fuckwit on the other end of the cell phone suggests will sound good to their gullible Arab anti-US audience. Not worth warm spit up against gun camera footage, however, lol!
I'm looking forward to the "stray" cruise missiles that wipe out the Al Jizz offices in Qatar. Or the kinetic concrete "bombs" that "hang up" during a Buff arclight run and just "happen" to release over Qatar on the return leg. Pity, that. So sorry.
Jeremiah 50:38"...There is a devastation upon her waters, and they must be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and because of [their] frightful visions they keep acting crazy."
#9
Ramadan Greetings from the sky to every jihadee in Falluja & Ramadi!
Sorry we are late but we had to vote!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/04/2004 2:38 Comments ||
Top||
#10
These guys do not understand the USAF celebration of the victory of the TANG vet instead of the squid.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/04/2004 7:11 Comments ||
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#11
.com, just a minor point. The SPECTREs (AC-130H) are working Afghanistan. The friendly skies of Iraq are being patrolled by SPOOKY (AC-130U). Same result though. The bad guys are just as dead. From what little I hear from that part of the world, it looks like the order has been given and the execution timing released to the operational commanders.
#16
I'll have to check Jihad Unspun to see how many AC-130's have been shot down today. I figure all of them, especially if there were CIA operatives on board.
#19
Howard I can't remember were I got the original jpg that I doctored up. I really should crop it too.
Don't know which variant it is.
the original picture is titled ac-130.jpg about a metric ton of those on the net. I think is is a spectre? I could be all ate up and wrong though.
#20
Thanks, and thanks to Domingo - found this interesting:
Special operators want the new gunship, or AC-X, to be much smaller than a C-130, with fewer crew members. They want it to be stealthy, with the speed and maneuverability of a long-range jet fighter. They want it equipped with directed energy weapons and non-lethal technologies, and it should be able to engage targets from any angle-above and below, front and back.
#22
SPECTRE: When it has absolutely, positively has to be DESTROYED overnight!
The Right Weapon in the Right Place at the Right Time.
"You can run. But you'll just die tired!"
Jack.
Posted by: Jack Deth ||
11/04/2004 12:45 Comments ||
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#23
#7 I'm looking forward to the "stray" cruise missiles that wipe out the Al Jizz offices in Qatar.
Since Qatar is one of our few "friends" in that part of the world, can't we just focus some "technology" that scrambles and freezes up the picture endlessly, like my DirectTV does when a thunderstorm in coming through? I mean like time it so it freezes up right near the conclusion to "Trading Burqa's" or something so they never find out Acmeds reaction to moving his prayer rug to the foyer and creating a bigger greatspace for hosting the family at Rameddan?
Posted by: Walter M ||
11/04/2004 18:05 Comments ||
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#27
I saw earlier AC-130s in action several times in Vietnam, especially during the siege of An Loc. This included one of the first TiC missions with the 105 howitzer. A platoon of NVA tanks had foolishly exposed themselves under the alleged cover of darkness, and the big plane picked them off one by one. They went up like Roman candles. One of them was just 600 meters from my grounded chopper, as close as I have ever been to hostile armor (and too DAMNED close). As it brewed up, flames torching fifty feet into the air from the blown hatches, my first thought was, "Shit, there are four guys in that thing" quickly followed by "better them than me." That's war.
These missions were very dangerous, since countermeasures against shoulder-fired SAMs were inadequate in those days, but they really swung the balance. Vietnam gunship crews went balls to the wall for the guys on the ground, American and ARVN alike, and they should have our thanks and admiration for all time.
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.
Yemeni intelligence captured a leading member of the al-Qaida network in Yemen after a manhunt and searches that lasted several months, reports indicate. An intelligence source quoted in daily al-Ayam said the al-Qaida operative was identified as 
New facts that emerged during the investigation into a blast that took place last night [2 November] in Makhachkala have revealed it was a failed terrorist attack. 
Police arrested eight more suspected Islamic radicals yesterday in the slaying of a Dutch filmmaker who criticized Muslim customs, but lawmakers questioned why authorities had not kept tabs on the alleged killer, who police say had a record of violent crime and contacts with a group under surveillance. 
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has died. He was 75 years old.
Conflicting reports from the disputed region of Sool, northern Somalia, indicate that at least 100 people were killed on Friday when forces from the self-declared republic of Somaliland, and those of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, clashed, a local source told IRIN. Both sides are accusing the other of initiating the hostilities. The Somaliland Minister of Information, Abdillahi Du'ale, told IRIN on Monday: "The fact of the matter is that it was a premeditated aggression" by Puntland forces. He accused the current Puntland leader, 
Israeli security forces Tuesday evening revealed they have smashed a huge terrorist cell that includes Palestinian Authority security officials. 
A Delhi court sentenced a Pakistani to death on Wednesday for causing a bomb explosion in 1997 in a crowded bus, killing four people and injuring 24. Additional Sessions Judge OP Saini found convict Muhammad Hussain alias Zulfiqar alias Abdul Hassan, a native of Okara's Jindrakhar village in Pakistan, guilty of the crime and handed down the capital punishment after calling it a "rarest of rare" case. The court also fined Muhammad Hussain Rs 5,000. A bomb went off on a bus in West Delhi on December 30, 1997, injuring 28 passengers. Four of the injured later died in hospital, police said. A city court had discharged accused Abdul Rehman, Azhar Ahmed and Maqsood Ahmed in the case for want of evidence. Another accused, Abdul Karim alias Tunda, was absconding, police added.
