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U.S. moves into Fallujah
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Arabia
Yemen denies arrest of al-Qaeda operative
An official source at the Yemeni Interior Ministry denied on Sunday reports over the alleged arrest of an al-Qaeda operative in Yemen in during the last few days. According to SABA, the source said in a statement that the reports about a man called Y. al-Harazi who was allegedly arrested for suspected links to plans to commit "terrorist" acts against American interests in Yemen were "baseless and fabricated." The source denied the existence of a man with such a name wanted by security forces, saying that no security official had provided such information to the media.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 3:24:07 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  C'mon, guys. Give them a break. He hasn't even escaped yet.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/08/2004 21:36 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian Troops Kill 22 Chechen Rebels
Russian troops killed at least 22 rebels in separatist Chechnya on Monday, including a man officials said was linked to the assassination of Chechnya's pro-Moscow president, media reported. Akhmad Kadyrov was killed on May 9 in a bomb attack that damaged President Vladimir Putin's peace plan for the Muslim province. Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev later claimed responsibility for the assault. Ramzan Kadyrov, the killed leader's son, said special troops had infiltrated a rebel base in Chechnya's turbulent Vedensky region and killed 22 militants in a brief gun battle. Kadyrov said one of the dead was a member of the group under Basayev's command that carried out the attack on his father. "Emir Suleiman, or Khairulla, was among the dead, the man who publicly claimed responsibility for the act of terror that took place on May 9 in (regional capital) Grozny," Kadyrov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. Officials did not disclose the man's full name. Russian media reports about rebel activity in recent months have made no mention of a fighter under the name of Emir Suleiman.

Russia's NTV channel showed pictures of scorched bodies, some clad in camouflage gear and some still clinging to their AK-47s, piled in front of a brick building, with Russian soldiers silently picking through them. "We know that Basayev's closest allies have been killed," Ruslan Alkhanov, Chechnya's acting interior minister, said in remarks shown on NTV. Putin says Chechnya, where Russian troops have fought rebels for about a decade, is returning to normal. But troops and police die daily in attacks by rebels. Basayev, Russia's most wanted man, has organized a string of assaults on Russian targets in past years, including attacks on two Russian airplanes in August, in which 90 people died, and the Beslan school siege in which more than 300 people were killed.
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 8:41:52 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  with Russian soldiers silently picking through them.

Taschendieber?
Posted by: Raj || 11/08/2004 19:09 Comments || Top||

#2  The Ruskies are pissed (and with good reason)! The Nazis learned about the Russians the hard way.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/08/2004 21:50 Comments || Top||


Maskhadov wants to surrender
Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov wants to surrender, a pro-Russian Chechen official said Sunday. Maskhadov is looking for an opportunity to surrender to the authorities on condition of being offered personal security guarantees, Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's first deputy prime minister, told Interfax by telephone. "We have serious evidence confirming earlier reports that Maskhadov, directly and indirectly, is trying to establish contacts with a leader of a North Caucasus republic in an attempt to inform the federal authorities through mediators that he is prepared to discuss his surrender," Kadyrov said. "We have learned that Maskhadov has given appropriate instructions to former deputies of the Ichkerian parliament who, according to our sources, reacted coolly to this idea." Kadyrov told Interfax that Maskhadov "needs to secure guarantees from Shamil Basayev, as well, since Basayev will never allow him to quit. Maskhadov is afraid of Basayev. However, Basayev needs Maskhadov as a stimulus, whom certain pro-Western figures still describe as 'a legitimate representative.'"
Kind of defines who works for whom, doesn't it?
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 1:08:24 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now this is an interesting development.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/08/2004 7:17 Comments || Top||

#2  He's been working up to it -- at least from what Kadyrov's been saying -- for quite awhile. I'll believe it when I see him on the teevee saying he gives up.
Posted by: Fred || 11/08/2004 9:50 Comments || Top||


Down Under
ASIO monitoring terrorist suspects
TWO accused terrorists, including a convicted al-Qaeda operative, have returned from Lebanon to live in Sydney's Islamic heartland. Police and ASIO have been closely watching Mohammed Ramez Sultan and Zuhair Mohammed Issa since they returned separately from Beirut in the past four months. Sultan, a former used-car dealer, was released in September from Lebanon's Roumieh prison after serving an 18-month sentence on a charge of having helped set up an al-Qaeda-linked terror cell. Sheikh Issa, an Islamic cleric, has been charged by Lebanese authorities on an unrelated matter, of allegedly helping Sydney fugitive Saleh Jamal plan terrorist attacks in Lebanon and abroad. Lebanese authorities had released Sheikh Issa from detention before the start of a round of trials, given his alleged minor role in what they claimed was a terror conspiracy. However, Lebanon had not been aware of Sheikh Issa's journey to Sydney, and Beirut chief military investigating magistrate Riad Talih has since issued a subpoena through the Australian embassy in Lebanon asking for his return. Sheikh Issa's Sydney lawyer, Adam Houda, declined to comment. Another Islamic cleric, Australian Muslim community leader Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali, spoke out strongly yesterday in defence of Sultan, claiming he had been "caught up in a case of mistaken identity".
"All those sheikhs look alike, y'know..."
"He was a regular at the Lakemba mosque before he left and has come back since his return," Sheikh Hilali said. "He is staying with his wife and eight children in a friend's living room and we have not been able to find accommodation for him."
Apartment wanted, quiet tenant.
Sultan denied repeated requests for an interview and did not respond to two key claims from Lebanese authorities - that he was linked to al-Qaeda and an accomplice of Saleh Jamal, who fled Sydney using a false passport while on bail for firearms offences. Sultan left Australia for Lebanon in 1998. He was arrested on October 22, 2002, and together with a Saudi man accused of inciting youths to join al-Qaeda. Sultan had been a regular traveller to Iran and Germany. He claimed his travels were necessary to help him expand his fledgling car dealership.
'cause the best cars come from Iran, ya know.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 3:33:09 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sultan, a former used-car dealer ...

That cuts it! A terrorist and a used car salesman? Kill him now!
Posted by: Zenster || 11/08/2004 0:36 Comments || Top||

#2  LOL Z.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 7:34 Comments || Top||


Europe
Explosion damages Muslim school in southern Netherlands town
Posted by: Dutchgeek || 11/08/2004 04:19 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yea? So? Yes this is a bad thing in a civil society at peace. But we are not at peace. The "ruling elites" of Europe don't understand that. They have no clue. Unlike muslims the folk who did this did it to an empty school. It's a message to the ruling elites and the islamic comunity. Act or we will. The amount of crime percieved to be caused by these Moroccan's is pretty high and the government and police are notorious for doing nothing about. Instead of arresting the moroccan street gangs they build them "youth centers." The police see their job as enforcing traffic laws in The Kingdom and can't even be bothered to take crime repotrs according to my Dutch friend.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/08/2004 8:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Blew the door off at 3:30 a.m. Yeah, I'd say that's just a message.
Posted by: Tom || 11/08/2004 8:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Expect the Moslems to seethe, rage, and claim it's worse than the Beslan attack. And that it justifies Beslan.

Notice how anything ends up justifying their murderous ways?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 11/08/2004 10:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Talk to me when the headless, bullet-ridden corpses of muslims start popping up, and then I might be able to muster the sympathy to tut-tut.
Posted by: BH || 11/08/2004 10:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Interesting how quickly the peaceful tolerant Europeans turn. One murdered politician and they're bombing schools, meanwhile there have been how many domestic bombings by the warlike redneck Americans in response to 9/11?
Posted by: AzCat || 11/08/2004 11:57 Comments || Top||

#6  What AzCat said. Neither the Euro elites nor the public grasps the basic insight at the core of US pluralism: if you want people to live together in harmony, then get the state out of the way.

Specifically, step #1 is to liberalize your economy so that you attract strivers, not resenters, from abroad. And step #2 is, when the strivers come to your country-- be they mennonites or mormons or catholics or hasidim or chaldeans or sikhs or shi'a-- respect them enough to leave them alone to build their businesses and educate their kids and raise their families in peace.

Gonna be a very rough road for all sides in Europe, methinks.
Posted by: lex || 11/08/2004 12:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Perhaps we Americans can attract yet another wave of hardworking European strivers fleeing hatred and civil war? I once again extend my offer of a transatlantic people swap: instant EU citizenship and permanent exile from the US for Hollywood and slacker idiotarians in exchange for instant US citizenship for well-educated, hardworking EU strivers.
Posted by: lex || 11/08/2004 12:57 Comments || Top||

#8  I am distinctly uneasy about this event.

I think that European tolerance, civility, and suicidal multi-cultism are a relatively fragile veneer and the limits are within sight.

Not even the power of the mass media and elitist indoctrination can fully suppress a thousand centuries of tradition and habit. When the multi-cult gloves come off, don't be surprised if there is nothing to replace them but the Crusader's mailed fist and the Cro-Magnon club.

Blood could run in the streets of Europe again, as it has so many times in the past.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 11/08/2004 15:54 Comments || Top||

#9  A friend of mine in the Netherlands left me with that impression AC. It won't be Dutch blood. They have been putting up with alot of disruption to their society for a long time caused by these people and their own political elites. The backlash may be on it's way.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/08/2004 16:08 Comments || Top||

#10  lex, I now live in the US because my wife is American (we lived in the UK until last year). There will be more coming this way. A new immigration policy is needed.

As for violence against Moslems in Europe -- it wil take a few more years and a terrorist war worse than what Israel suffered before some European majorities react.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 11/08/2004 18:01 Comments || Top||

#11  Naw, don't be such a pessimist AC, probably won't last more than 30 years or so.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:03 Comments || Top||

#12  AC, that's been my take on events since 9/11.

The West is very very good at killing, and the Islamists really ought to look at the number of Europeans who were killed by *other* Europeans just 60 years ago.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 11/08/2004 18:29 Comments || Top||

#13  Tony, it's not fair to give hints.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 18:31 Comments || Top||

#14  Yes this is a bad thing in a civil society at peace. But we are not at peace. The "ruling elites" of Europe don't understand that. They have no clue. Unlike muslims the folk who did this did it to an empty school. It's a message to the ruling elites and the islamic comunity. Act or we will.

Spot on, SPoD. Too few realize that our world is no longer at peace. The random and well-distributed (except for Israel) nature of terrorist attacks imbues most people with a relative sense of security. Few seem to realize that Islamist domination is a blanket concept that intends to cover the entire earth. We are, indeed, in a new World War. Again, too few realize it.

The "ruling elites" of Europe are so enchanted with nuanced negotiations that they cannot see how even the least delay serves whatever expedient ends of those who more efficiently pursue the demise of less aggressive opponents.

Your "empty school" comparison caught all other attributions up short. No children were targeted, merely their location (for future reference). Islamists continue to disregard how their psychotic violence focuses retribution upon all and sundry Muslims. When will Islam's followers realize this?

"Act or we will." All of us can only hope. Europe can either slide into another genocide or come to the stark realization that productive capitalistic democracy trumps royalism and socialistic structures.

Please excuse me while I play an entire uninterrupted concerto upon my "Femtoviolin of Sympathy™."

Posted by: Zenster || 11/08/2004 23:32 Comments || Top||

#15  Glad that's over with.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/08/2004 23:38 Comments || Top||


English translation of letter by Van Gogh murderer
Full translation at the link
There shall be a Day where one soul can not help another soul. A Day with terrible tortures and torments. A Day where the unjust shall force from their tongues horrible screams. Screams, Miss Hirshi Ali, that will cause shivers to roll down one's spine; that will make hairs stand up from heads. People will be seen drunk with fear while they are not drunk. FEAR shall fill the atmosphere on that Great Day
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 11/08/2004 3:01:07 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've been looking for a link to the complete translation of this insane rant. Thanks.
Posted by: growler || 11/08/2004 11:00 Comments || Top||


Dutch hard boyz were members of Takfir wal Hijra
THE man charged with the murder of a controversial Dutch artist last week has been linked to a fanatical Islamic sect whose members are said to include the al-Qaeda second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Islamic experts believe that the style and content of a five-page letter that was found pinned to Theo van Gogh's body were close to those of al-Takfir wal Hijra, a radical group that has declared war on westerners. Founded in Egypt in the 1970's, al-Takfir wal Hijra has been responsible for several acts of violence, including the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981. The sect's strict interpretation of Islam endorses the indiscriminate extermination of infidels and secular Muslims.
The perfect group: they hate everyone!
Both al-Zawahiri and al- Zarqawi, the man behind many of the spate of kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq, are thought to be members of the brutal sect. The organisation - whose name translates as "excommunication and migration" - is active in most Arab nations and has carried out attacks on both Muslims and non-Muslims in Sudan, Morocco, Algeria and Lebanon. But their views are known to be excessive even among Islamic extremists - four members even attempted to assassinate Osama bin Laden in 1995 while he was staying in Sudan. Its followers are so fanatical for a pure Islamic world that they have been known to undertake killing sprees in mosques to drive out "corrupt elements". Most worrying for westerners is the fact that the sect apparently allows its members to appear non-radical, and even non-Islamic, if the mission requires it.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 1:19:59 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Dutch note Bouyeri's al-Qaeda links
Five days after a Dutch-Moroccan man killed the outspoken filmmaker Theo van Gogh in broad daylight here, intelligence officials say they are investigating a possible international dimension to what many people see as the country's first Islamic terrorist attack. While intelligence officials caution that there is no evidence to prove that the suspect in Mr. van Gogh's killing was part of a larger organization, they have focused on his past association with people who are suspected of plotting bombings and may have links to terrorist networks abroad. "There are links to the transnational Al Qaeda network," said Vincent van Steen, a Dutch intelligence official. "But it is hard to say how extensive they are."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 12:47:34 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Dutch are blind.
When will they understand what the true face of Islam is ???
How many slit throats and exploded trains do they
need before they understand that they are basically Kuffr and Dhimmi to all believing moslems ??

How long will they keep denial ?
Till moslems become 30% of dutch population ?
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 11/08/2004 5:30 Comments || Top||


Dutch Mosques Attacked After Filmmaker Killing
Posted by: Dutchgeek || 11/08/2004 17:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tolerance is a two-way street.
Posted by: Anonymous6236 || 11/08/2004 5:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Crunch point. Are Dutch Muslims going to allow relations between them and the wider Dutch population be dictated by their own violent minority? Or are they going to speak up and denounce them? Have they protested against the murder? Are they going to behave like responsible individuals, or are they going to go tribal and claim they resent any labelling of themselves as a homogenous group harbouring terrorists, and in doing so, whilst not publicly helping national authorities weed out the whackjobs, make that very point?

If those of you who can be part of the solution, aren't, then you are all going to be part of the problem. That may suck, but it's true.
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/08/2004 6:29 Comments || Top||

#3  "One of the chief pleasures of the place is its lively contrast between pragmatic liberalism and the buttoned-up just-so primness of a culture founded on Calvinist principles. In Dutch society, ostentation is anathema and fuss of any kind is regarded as undignified."

I think they are getting undignified. I think we will see alot more of this too.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/08/2004 7:18 Comments || Top||

#4  My prediction: this will change nothing in the Moslem behaviour, apart from claiming that *they* are the victims.

They will continue to isolate themselves from the free institutions of the West, they will expand their areas of illegality (i.e. implementing sharia), they will continue to nurture in their midst Islamofascist terrorists -- and Europe is unable to kick out those who refuse local, Western values and institutions.

The end of the road will be a terrorist war in Europe, much more deadly than what Israel has experienced. Which would delight Al-Qaeda. Give it 5-10 years, tops.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 11/08/2004 9:47 Comments || Top||

#5  No assimilation unless the youth are turned completely. Blood is thicker than Hienicken.
Posted by: Lucky || 11/08/2004 13:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Phffffftt!

This unrest will go on for a few more days, maybe a week, then everybody will forget all about it.

The Dutch are not a fighting people.
Posted by: jlc || 11/08/2004 13:20 Comments || Top||


Dutch bag another Van Gogh killer
Police have detained an eighth suspect in the slaying of a Dutch filmmaker, allegedly by a group accused of threatening to kill several Dutch politicians in the name of Islam, prosecutors said yesterday. The 23-year-old suspect, who was not named in a statement issued by Amsterdam prosecutors, was detained on Friday. It was not clear if he was a Dutch citizen, but the statement specified that he was "of Moroccan origin." The suspects' ethnicity has become an issue because the government announced plans to revoke the Dutch citizenship of dual citizens suspected of terrorism.
About time.
(Grumble.) If they stretched their necks, their citizenship would cease to be an issue, wouldn't it?
Police said the main suspect, a 26-year old man with dual Dutch and Moroccan nationality who was arrested shortly after the murder, had links to Islamic extremists. The murder of Van Gogh has brought the threat of Islamic terrorism and a jihad close to home in the Netherlands. "A brutal reality presents itself: jihad warriors are among us," the centre-left Volkskrant daily writes on the front-page yesterday.
Surprise!
A combative Deputy Prime Minister Gerrit Zalm vowed on Friday to hit back at Muslim extremism. "We are declaring war back: we will step up the fight and will make radical Islamic movements disappear from the Netherlands," he said.
Killing all their adherents is the best way to get rid of them. Trust me on that...

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 3:13:26 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We will peacefully coexist with you as long as you
submit to respect us.
Posted by: Brutus || 11/08/2004 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Let's see...how many Dutch law abiding citizens live in Moroco?
Posted by: smn || 11/08/2004 1:08 Comments || Top||

#3  If it gets down to the level where Dutch vigilante squares off against Islamic terrorist (arrogant street thug), things could get very interesting. The Dutch are probably the most tolerant folks in Europe, but if you push them hard enough they will fight back very hard and without any scruples about who gets killed in the process.
Posted by: RWV || 11/08/2004 14:52 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Abu Sayyaf leader last sighted in Tabuk
A TOP Basilan military commander revealed to Sun.Star Zamboanga Friday that Abu Sayyaf over-all chieftain Kadaffy Janjalani recently visited his relatives at Barangay Tabuk, Isabela City, Basilan province. The village of Tabuk, a few kilometers away from the commercial center of Isabela City, is known as the home-place of the Janjalanis. His parents are reportedly staying there. The army officer said based on their intelligence source, Janjalani was monitored to have sneaked into Isabela last October before he returned to Central Mindanao, his present known lair where he operates with an elite group. One of his two remaining top commanders, Isnilon Hapilon, was also spotted in the area that promoted the military to conduct their hot-pursuit operation last October.

"Janjalani visited his relative in Tabuk last October," the ranking army officer who talked on condition of anonymity disclosed to Sun.Star. He was among the top military officers who attended last Thursday's turnover of command ceremony that installed Lt. General Alberto Braganza as the new Southcom commander, replacing Lt. General Generoso Senga. Senga assumed the post of the Philippine Army chief vacated by the new Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Lt. General Efren Abu last Wednesday. But the army officer described Janjalani and his security core group as desperately on the run from the military, keeping track on them closely. "They can not stay put for long in one place. They are very mobile as we have operatives tracking on them always," he said. He considered Basilan as more safe at present compared to the past years when a series of kidnappings and other major atrocities were reported.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 1:11:30 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Abu Sayyaf leader still evading Filippino troops
Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani remains slippery as ever after escaping a military dragnet in Sultan Kudarat last month and sneaking back to Basilan, a military official said yesterday. Janjalani has been spotted in Barangay Tabuk, Isabela City in Basilan — the Muslim extremist group's traditional stronghold — where he reportedly paid his parents and relatives a visit late last month, said an Armed Forces official based at the Southern Command (Southcom) in Zamboanga City who asked not to be identified. Apart from Janjalani, Isnilon Hapilon, a sub-leader of the al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf, was also sighted in the same area, which is now the focus of operations of Southcom personnel.

Newly installed Southcom chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza has assured the Armed Forces leadership under Lt. Gen. Efren Abu that they will do their best to capture Janjalani, who has successfully eluded his pursuers since his group launched high-profile kidnappings in 2001. Authorities have accounted for other top commanders of the Abu Sayyaf including its spokesman Aldam Tilao, alias Abu Sabaya, and Sulu-based leader Ghalib Andang, alias Commander Robot. Sabaya was killed in an encounter with military forces in June 2002 while Andang was captured in December last year and now languishes in jail as he faces various kidnapping charges before the courts. Hamsiraji Sali, one of Janjalani's top aides, was killed last April in a firefight with the military. Alhamser Manatad Limbong, alias Commander Kosovo, tagged as the one who beheaded American hostage Guillermo Sobero during the 2001 hostage crisis, was arrested with other Abu Sayyaf members last March.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 3:31:21 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Zarqawi tries to rally his forces
A statement in the name of al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi called on Muslims on Monday to take up arms against their U.S. enemy as American troops mounted a massive offensive against the rebel-held Iraqi city of Falluja.
Help! Help!
"Oh people, the war has begun and the call for more warm bodies jihad has been made," said the Zarqawi statement posted on an Arabic internet Web site often used by Islamists. "Despite all the agonies that we are suffering, by God, the enemies will only see us dead things that will harm them," he said. "Let us resist them with all our might and let us spend civilians all that is precious in fighting them. Be patient, it is only a matter of days before victory will come with the help of God."
Someone is gonna help you, right into a shallow grave..
Zarqawi made his appeal as Iraqi and U.S. troops began a huge operation to wrestle back Falluja from Muslim insurgents -- though his statement did not mention the city by name.
If he is squealing like this already, the Marines and Army with the help of the air force must really be doing some damage.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: mmurray821 || 11/08/2004 6:36:01 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Actually, most of the death from the air is coming from the Navy, not the air farce. Minor point.
Posted by: longtime lurker || 11/08/2004 20:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Zarqawi himself, of course, has 32 escape routes planned out.

"Awright, boys, all you got to do now is defeat the First Marine Division in battle, and if you do, you get the honor of fighting the Black Watch. Assuming the AC 130's don't pulverize you. But never fear, I will be with you in spirit. Yeah, Mahmoud, you got a question?"

"Yes. How do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?"
Posted by: Matt || 11/08/2004 20:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Anybody here remember, "Please, Mr Custer, I don't wanna go"
"Forward HO"
Posted by: longtime lurker || 11/08/2004 20:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Unfortunately, the likelihood of the Zark hanging around Falluja to get toasted are practically nil.

The "I'm just too important to the movement" copout.
Posted by: Groluck Shutle8331 || 11/08/2004 23:00 Comments || Top||


Confessions from Foreign Fighters
Iraqi government television has repeatedly broadcast confessions of what it says are foreign terrorists who allegedly infiltrated the country's porous borders to fight U.S.-led forces. The confessions, aired several times over the weekend, coincided with the massing of U.S. and Iraqi forces near Fallujah for an anticipated showdown with insurgents in the Sunni Muslim stronghold. The broadcasts were seen as a means of preparing the population for the coming attack on Fallujah, where the government says it's after foreigners and "terrorists," not city residents who are uninvolved in the insurgency. The station, Iraqiya, showed 19 men ages 20-40, dressed in blue jumpsuits and lined up against a wall while the camera panned their pale, bearded faces. An announcer read a statement accusing the prisoners "of carrying out mass killings, sabotage, inciting sectarianism and racism, destroying the economic and the social infrastructure of our people to take us back to the Dark Ages."
Yeah, that pretty much covers it.
Of the 19 — five Syrians, five Saudis, four Jordanians, two Egyptians, a Palestinian and two Iranians — most were said to have entered Iraq in October 2003, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. One, Youssef Hassan Suleiman, said he came from the same town in Jordan as terrorist mastermind Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, who has claimed responsibility for attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces and kidnappings of foreigners. "I had $2,000 on me," he said with a smile when asked whether he had brought money to help finance the insurgency. Saleh Said al-Rahmani, of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, said he crossed the Saudi border into Iraq during Ramadan last year to follow "the call," a phrase normally meaning to spread the message of Islam. A young Palestinian, Tayseer Hassan Halabi, said he entered Iraq from Syria, where he lived temporarily. "I came to Iraq when the war started to join the fighters," he said. Halabi said that he made contacts with insurgents after arriving. Others, such as Ali Hassan of Yemen, Amer al-Abbas Mohammed of Jordan and Anaas Farouq Ahmed of Syria, did not give details about their activities since arriving. Iraqiya said the 19 were among 167 people arrested recently by Iraqi police and who are now under interrogation. Iraq's interim government and the United States have been pushing Iraq's neighbors, especially Syria, to secure their borders to prevent foreign fighters from neighboring Arab states and elsewhere from entering Iraq and attacking coalition forces.

Also Sunday, Portugal announced it will extend the deployment of its police contingent in Iraq until February. Portugal has about 120 policemen stationed in the southern city of Nasiriyah. They are serving under Italian forces. The Portuguese forces were due to head out on Nov. 12, but the government said they will stay for 90 more days to help provide security during elections set for January. Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes said last week he wanted assurances the elections would go ahead before deciding whether to keep the police in Iraq. Those assurances were provided by Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi at last week's European Union summit, Sunday's statement said.
Thank you, Portugal.
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 4:00:10 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My mullah made me do it.
I was young and confused.
I am sorry.
Why can't we just be friends?
Posted by: Wheck Whemp6112 || 11/08/2004 17:20 Comments || Top||

#2  give em their raisins and execute them
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 17:30 Comments || Top||


150 Iranians detained in Basra
TEHRAN (MNA) —- An informed source in the southern city of Khorramshahr said here Monday that some 150 Iranians are currently detained under unpleasant conditions in Iraq's southern city of Basra. The arrested people are mainly pilgrims visiting the Iraqi holy shrines who have illegally passed the Iran-Iraq border, the source who wanted to remain anonymous told the Mehr News Agency. Certain Iraqi sources have also said that the detainees are treated badly. Some high-ranking Iraqi officials have been trying to label the arrested as trouble-makers or terrorists, the sources were quoted as saying.
Ya don't say? Not just innocent holy pilgrims?
The local people say some Iranian and Iraqi human traffickers take pilgrims from certain borderline areas of the Arvand River to Iraq after receiving large sums of money from them and then leave them helpless there.
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 3:51:29 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Boy, I sure hope those hot headed Iraqis don't start a war with Iran that we get sucked into against our will.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 16:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Mrs. Davis, did I detect a "wink, wink, nudge, nudge", in your comment?
Posted by: Scott R || 11/08/2004 17:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Why would so many Iranians be obsessed with pilgrimage to Iraq? don't they already have tons of "holy sites" themselves? plus they have "holy men" in charge of all branches of government?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 11/08/2004 18:03 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder if the 12 Division troop exercises are a responce (muscle flexing) to the 150 detainee episode?
Posted by: smn || 11/08/2004 20:10 Comments || Top||

#5  would be a foolish one if it was. Cross the border and dig your own graves, asshats
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 20:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Howdy pilgrim. This is the Duke speakin'
Posted by: Capt America || 11/08/2004 21:45 Comments || Top||


AMS warns Iraqi security forces
An influential Iraqi Muslim group urged Iraqi security forces not to fight with US troops preparing to storm the beseiged city of Falluja. "We call on the Iraqi forces, the National Guard and others who are mostly Muslims ... to beware of making the grave mistake of invading Iraqi cities under the banner of forces who respect no religion or human rights," the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) said in a statement on Monday. "Beware of being deceived that you are fighting terrorists from outside the country, because by God you are fighting the townspeople and targeting its men, women and children and history will record every drop of blood you spill in oppressing the people of your nation," the AMS said.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on Monday authorised US and Iraqi forces to begin an offensive against Falluja and Ramadi to root out foreign fighters and Saddam Hussein loyalists he says are entrenched there. The US and the interim Iraqi government says the offensive is intended to help stablilise the country before January elections. However, residents say they know nothing of the foreign fighters and daily US bombardments just bolster local resistance. The AMS has threatened to call for a boycott of the poll if assaults on cities in Iraq's Sunni heartland escalate. The last time US forces stormed Falluja in April, some units of Iraq's fledgling security forces refused to fight. Moreover, the Association, which has helped negotiate the release of foreign hostages in Iraq, warned security personnel not to repeat the "mistake" they made in joining US forces to quell an uprising in Najaf in August.
Keep warning, I don't think they are listening.
Meanwhile, Dr Muhammad Ayash al-Qubaisi, a Qatar-based spokesman for the AMS, told Aljazeera.net on Monday some 36 US soldiers had been captured by Falluja fighters since the US-led offensive on the city got underway. The Qatar-based spokesman said several eyewitnesses in Falluja had confirmed the capture of the soldiers. A spokesman for US-led forces in Iraq told Aljazeera.net that the reports were baseless. "I can fundamentally refute that any US soldiers were captured today," he said.
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 3:45:33 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Attention AMS: Don't you make me curse your mustaches, too!
Posted by: eLarson || 11/08/2004 15:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Another bunch of fools to add to the target list.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 11/08/2004 16:12 Comments || Top||

#3  These asswipes should have been on the target list long ago. Their religous authority is highly suspect. They were basically Saddam's rent-a-clerics who would issue fatwas for money. I wonder how much respect they have in Iraq amongst the Sunni population.
Posted by: remote man || 11/08/2004 17:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Or else the Arab street will make a loud noise against you ...
Posted by: Wheck Whemp6112 || 11/08/2004 17:13 Comments || Top||

#5  I notice that they consistantly refer to these eaters of pork as "An influential Iraqi Muslim group..." I bet their influence is limited to getting their fatwas published in other countries' news services.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/08/2004 17:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Hi just found this site and thought I'd stick my nose in. :) I don't think these idiots have a lot of sway in Iraq except among the Saddam loyalists. I do think they may have more sway as a propaganda tool outside of the country. In particular the way that the press keeps portraying them as an influential group.
Posted by: BillH || 11/08/2004 20:25 Comments || Top||

#7  welcome Bill
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 20:30 Comments || Top||

#8  "What's that big hole in the ground?"
"Oh, that used to be the Association of Muslim Scholars headquarters."
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/08/2004 22:10 Comments || Top||

#9  Nice site, Bill. Take some time and browse Fred's archives -- I think you'll discover you've found another home. I'm looking forward to reading more of your comments here in the future.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/08/2004 22:16 Comments || Top||

#10  BillH, the AMS is part of the council of the Learned Elders of Islam (TM). Their beards are longer and their turbans tighter than just about everyone else's. I do believe the jihadi nutjobs consult the AMS for Koranic justification of the murders and killings being performed in the name of Allan. They also serve as a convenient soundbite for the media types. The Blogosphere does not buy their particular brand of BS.

Welcome to Rantburg; I looked at your blog and it's a good one. Hope to see you in comments here regularly.
Posted by: Seafarious || 11/08/2004 22:26 Comments || Top||

#11  Thanks for the welcome. I plan to do some thorough looking around. From what I've read so far it look like a great site. :)
Posted by: BillH || 11/08/2004 22:27 Comments || Top||

#12  BillH---Great site, enjoyed perusing through it for the first time. Will be back again. Bookmarked it. Welcome to Rantburg. Be sure to visit the O Club if you get the thirst.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/08/2004 22:37 Comments || Top||


Major operation to retake Fallujah to begin Tuesday: minister
Large-scale operations to retake Iraqi's rebel-held Fallujah will begin Tuesday, Iraq's Defense Minister Sheikh Hazem Shaalan said after the launch of a major offensive against the city late Monday. "The assault was launched today... Fallujah is completely surrounded and under siege," he told reporters in Baghdad after US and Iraqi forces launched a ground and air attack codenamed Operation Phantom Fury. "Tomorrow is the large-scale operation to retake the city," he added. "We've called it Operation Dawn. God willing, it's going to be a new, happy dawn for the people of Fallujah." He said some insurgents have already started fleeing the rebel city, which has been ringed by thousands of US troops for weeks, and vowed to track them down. "Some of the terrorists have moved to areas southwest of the city and Baghdad," he said. "But our intelligence services are tracking them and we are going to get them and teach them a lesson that they would never forget."
Just kill them, ok?
He said thousands of leaflets were dropped on Fallujah Monday to tell people how to deal with the Iraqi forces. "We also apologised to the people of Fallujah before the start of the operation and warned them that it was going to start, and we intend to compensate them handsomely for their losses," he said. Shaalan, who accompanied Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on a visit to Iraqi forces camped outside Fallujah, would not say how many Iraqi soldiers were taking part in the operation. However, a defense official in Washington said about 12,000 US and Iraqi forces were taking part in Operation Phantom Fury. Shaalan said there would be more operations against other hotspots in Iraq like the northern city of Mosul where he said some foreign fighters from countries to the west have gathered, without mentioning Syria by name.
He's using diplospeak.
"We will launch operations in Mosul, because some groupings that came from neighbouring western countries are trying to step up terror operations there."
Nervous yet, Syria?
Mosul has seen a rash of car bombings against Iraqi and US forces in recent weeks.
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 3:01:29 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Monday must have been a small scale operation, then?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 15:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Prep work, took the bridges and hospital, softened up the battlefield.
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 15:30 Comments || Top||

#3  UPDATE: FALLUJAH (AFP) Nov 08, 2004
US marines stormed an area considered the rebel heartland of Fallujah late Monday and seized control of the Iraqi city's train station, a marine officer told AFP.A marine unit entered the Jolan district in the northwest of Fallujah, said Major Todd Desgrosseilliers, an executive officer with the marines, adding that a separate unit seized the nearby railway station.
The push forwards followed about an hour of blistering gunfire, said an AFP reporter embedded with the marines. Flashes of artillery shells lit up the night sky as the marines penetrated the hostile terrain, he said.
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 15:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Doesn't the map show the train station on the Northern end of town?
Posted by: Anon4021 || 11/08/2004 15:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Aparrently there's quite a lot of action in Baghdad at the moment

Jihadis trying to divert attention from Fallujah no doubt...
Posted by: Lux || 11/08/2004 15:55 Comments || Top||

#6  It's already tuesday there. Now the Operation is called "The Dawn."
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/08/2004 16:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Negotiations in 48 hours. Plese let me be wrong.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:12 Comments || Top||

#8  "Head shots! It's the only thing that works!"
Posted by: mojo || 11/08/2004 18:13 Comments || Top||

#9  God bless our guys. Fallujah has been a problem ever since the Blackwater guys were captured, burned, and hung up. It is about time the assholes got payback for what they did.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/08/2004 18:37 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Arafat in stable condition: French health officials
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is in "stable condition" but doctors have restricted visits to his bedside in a French military hospital, the French armed forces health department said Monday.
Stable: Resistant to change of position or condition; not easily moved or disturbed, Not subject to sudden or extreme change or fluctuation, Maintaining equilibrium.
Rigor Mortis: Muscular stiffening following death.

Arafat is still receiving treatment in an intensive care unit at the hospital in Clamart outside Paris and "his condition is stable", according to the chief surgeon of the military health department, Christain Estripeau.
"How stable? Well, he can't get any worse."
"President Arafat's medical condition forces us to restrict visits to him," said Estripeau, who read a statement to reporters in front of the hospital, the first such statement since Friday.
"We can't pull off this charade in front of witnesses."
"The present statement has been made with respect for the discretion demanded by Mrs Arafat, his wife," he said.
"She doesn't want anyone to know he's, er, stable."
Four of Arafat's top lieutenants, prime minister Ahmed Qorei, acting Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) chief Mahmud Abbas, foreign minister Nabil Shaath, and parliament speaker Rawhi Fattuh were expected in Paris later Monday to visit the ailing Palestinian leader. They had earlier shelved the visit after Arafat's wife, Suha Arafat, accused them of trying to "bury him alive".
No worry of that, anymore.
Arafat, 75, has been hospitalised near Paris since October 29.
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 2:53:16 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Any change?"

"Only in temperature..."
Posted by: mojo || 11/08/2004 15:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Cue up Weekend at Bernie's...we will fool the infidel's yet...
Posted by: Ahmed Q || 11/08/2004 15:49 Comments || Top||

#3  "That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange eons even death may die."

__H.P. Lovecraft citing Abdul Alhazred's translation of the Necronomicon
Posted by: borgboy || 11/08/2004 15:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Stable condition? Hell, I've got left over BBQ chicken "in stable condition" in the frig from last Saturday.
Posted by: Mark Z. || 11/08/2004 16:10 Comments || Top||

#5  "Rachel, didnt I tell you NOT to set up the candles and wine yet?"
"David, I HAVE to do the rituals on the day that Arafat actually dies, since THAT is the day of the holiday. If I wait, and hes alreay dead, then Im saying brochas (blessings) in vain, and thats an aveira (violation). "

"Look Rachel, if you say the brochas over wine and challah, and you then drink and eat, its not a vain brocha, so its ok. The only problem is saying shehechayanu, the prayer for reaching a happy occasion. And as Im sure you well know, you are supposed to say Shehechayanu when putting on a new garment ...."
"Lets see, Nordstroms, Macys, or Nieman Marcus?"
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/08/2004 16:29 Comments || Top||

#6  BTW, for those who are confused, the story of Rachel and David is an extended riff on the old joke about Arafat going to a fortune teller, a joke that seems about to reach its long awaited fulfillment.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/08/2004 16:31 Comments || Top||

#7  L Hawk,
Thought you might be channeling Dennis Miller...
Posted by: Capsu78 || 11/08/2004 16:39 Comments || Top||

#8  What's "stable" mean? He hasn't started to decompose yet?
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/08/2004 16:41 Comments || Top||

#9  Stable = Flatline.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 16:41 Comments || Top||

#10  is there anyone here who HASNT heard the joke?
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/08/2004 16:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Which joke?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 16:51 Comments || Top||

#12  Arafat, in a mood of anxiety about the future, goes to a fortune teller. What day will I die, he asks?
Consulting her crystal ball, the fortune teller concentrates intensely, then whispers - you shall die on a Jewish holiday.
Which one?, asks the chairman. Sukkos? Rosh HaShanah?
It doesnt matter, says the fortune teller. ANY day that you die will be a Jewish Holiday.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/08/2004 16:55 Comments || Top||

#13  Oh, that joke. Yeah, heard it.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 16:57 Comments || Top||

#14  Im surprised more people arent picking up on it this last week. Googling suggests only some more obscure blogs have headlined things like "jewish holiday on the way?" are we all too nervous these days?
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/08/2004 16:59 Comments || Top||

#15  When everyone finally agrees he's history, the Jews won't be the only ones celebrating. Maybe it'll be the first World Holiday.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 17:04 Comments || Top||

#16  Wait a second.... I haven't heard it? Is it some weird Jewish joke? Like turn on the left light Momma he want's a blue suit?
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:35 Comments || Top||

#17  Oh, that joke, they tried to kill us thing.... LOL of course.

To make offical tho a certain peculiar form of celebration to The Day of the Fish will be needed. Mullet? Every body have kosher fish sticks?
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:37 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Sounds like a plan
Allawi is a man for his time and his nation. To borrow a line from Gen George Patton, a man that eloquent just has to be saved.

"We are determined to clean Fallujah of terrorists." Before the main assault, Allawi visited the main U.S. base outside Fallujah to rally Iraqi troops. "The people of Fallujah have been taken hostage ... and you need to free them from their grip," he told the soldiers at the camp, who swarmed around him when he arrived. "Your job is to arrest the killers but if you kill them, then so be it." "May they go to hell!" the soldiers shouted, and Allawi replied: "To hell they will go."
Posted by: RWV || 11/08/2004 1:08:02 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Arafat will reject wife's statement: official
Yep. Soon as he's up and around...
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, head of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's office, said Monday the ailing president will reject his wife's statement if he hears what she claimed.
Perhaps, if we scream it at him really, really, really loud, he may hear it.
In an interview with pan-Arab al-Jazeera TV, Suha Arafat screamed that the Palestinian leaders who planned to visit Arafat in Paris wanted to bury the leader "alive" and inherit his power. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and Mahmoud Abbas, No. 2 of the Palestine Liberation Organization, had been scheduled to fly to Paris Monday but cancelled the visit after Suha's accusation.
Have you seen her nails? She could claw our eyes out.
Rahim said at a press conference that "the leaders are not Arafat's successors, but his companions."
Hope they've been tested...
"What Suha has announced does not represent the Palestinian people or the leadership," he said. "Arafat is not the private property of Suha but that of the entire Palestinian nation."
YOU CAN HAVE HIM! I JUST WANT MY MONEY! WAKE UP YOU BASTARD!!!
The 75-year-old veteran leader was transferred to the Percy Military Hospital outside Paris on Oct. 29 after his health condition deteriorated sharply. Conflicting reports emerged about Arafat's real condition, with some saying Arafat is brain-dead and on life support machines, while others saying Arafat remaining in a critical but stable condition. Suha is one of only a handful of people who have been authorized to see the Palestinian leader in the last 10 days.
I'm sorry, Mrs. Arafat, but if you keep stepping on his air hose you'll never get those numbers you want.

At first I was thinking, "Cheeze! When are they gonna admit that he's dead and get on with the planting?" Now I'm enjoying the show. Popcorn consumption is way up: decaying corpse on "life" support; the "grieving" greed-head widow; the hard boyz jockeying for power while the guys who are ostensibly in charge are afraid to make a move, for fear of Fearless Leader™ actually waking up; the charges he was poisoned or that he had AIDS or both... When the WoT's all over and I write the authoritative bad novel of the war, this is going to be my favorite chapter. All that's missing -- so far, anyway -- is Inspector Camembert and Legume, to call all the Paleostinians into the parlor and reveal that Yasser didn't die of natural causes, he was murdered, and the real killer is...?
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/08/2004 12:45:21 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps a seance will reveal all.
Posted by: ed || 11/08/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Merci, connect moi with the Sisters of Mercy at Percy.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 13:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Tayeb Abdel Rahim, head of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s office, said Monday the ailing president will reject his wife’s statement if he hears what she claimed.

suggest a Ouija board
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 13:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Paleo Official: "Dear reporters of the BBC, Yassar would like to say a few words...."

Yassar: ...............................

Paleo Official: NO Abdul! You stupid oaf, you put your left hand into that hole we cut in the back of him and rock him to and fro, then you pull the string on his right hand to make gestures! Then you throw your voice! ARRGH!!!

Paleo Official: "One moment please, he's still drowsy from his medication."

BBC Reporter: Sniff, sniff, "No, no, please by all means take your time."

Paleo Official: "Thank you. You are most gracious."

Paleo Official whispering to Abdul: "Now try to get it RIGHT this time!"

Posted by: 98zulu || 11/08/2004 13:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Enquiring minds want to know...did they cancel trip because they were afraid they would lose their power while they were gone,or were they afraid they'd catch Aids while kissing corpse?(Yes,I know that you cannot catch Aids that way,but do they?)
Posted by: Stephen || 11/08/2004 13:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Yes this is getting to be amusing. Even better it is a self mockery of both the Paleos and the Phrench.
Posted by: mhw || 11/08/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||

#7  The troka will be going to the head with each other.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm sure all will be sweetness and good will between the Paleo leadership, until the last shovel of dirt. Then, fights on!
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 14:34 Comments || Top||

#9  Three man walking with 4 legs till then.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:39 Comments || Top||

#10  her last words to him were:

"Yasser! Sign this revised will!!! YASSER!!! WAKE UP!!!!! SIGN THIS!!!!!"

;o)
Posted by: PlanetDan || 11/08/2004 20:47 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
It's On!: Operation Phantom Fury
I wonder if the name is suggestive of the approach to the battle. I have heard numerous reports that most of the really bad guys have fled to smaller towns around Fallujah. Perhaps the Phantom Fury will be directed at Fallujah while the actual fury is delivered where it's needed most. In either event, let's all say a prayer for our brave Marines and soldiers.
Posted by: Tibor || 11/08/2004 12:04:31 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Change in tactics from the first time. The road west was closed first. Then we attack the problem areas in the north. As the enemy retreats south and east, they're forced into increasingly hostile neighborhoods and into much more open country.

Meat, meet grinder.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 11/08/2004 12:19 Comments || Top||

#2  May God look out for the saftey of our soldiers and their Iraqi Army partners in this battle.

This one is long overdue.
Posted by: tbyrnes || 11/08/2004 12:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Lets get the Golden Arches set up at that hospitol ASAP. The guys will need some super size and a little Main St USA to cool down.
Posted by: Lucky || 11/08/2004 12:39 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder if the name is suggestive of the approach to the battle

Nope, that would violate OPSEC. "Phantom" most likely was just next on a list of names to be used in a operation, "Fury" part most likely just because it was a offensive operation.
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 12:47 Comments || Top||

#5  There is absolutely no reason why we should subject our troops to this type of urban warfare! Warn the women, children, bunnies, and baby ducks to flee for their lives; close the circle, 'phalanx' the perimeter and then pull back for an assualt with 10 precision targeted MOAB drops! We tax payers payed for their developement and deployment; let the troops watch from a distance; cheer (like at Nagasaki & Hiroshima) and save as many of our sons and fathers to fight another day or perhaps come home!!
Posted by: smn || 11/08/2004 12:49 Comments || Top||

#6  I kinda feel the same way about MOABing. No need to let that grid stay. It will just fill up again. Best to salt it and let a new berg take it's place. Built to spec only. Not a bedouin ghetto. Keep the rift raft out. It's a prudent move.
Posted by: Lucky || 11/08/2004 12:59 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm with you in spirit, smn & Lucky, but that's not the winning combination this time. Short of nuking the place, the only way to make sure the targets are eliminated is to go in and dig 'em out, one at a time. You use tanks, artillery, shoulder-fired weapons to break up hard points, you dig 'em out, and you kill 'em. These people have had since February to reinforce their bunkers and fighting positions. It's not going to be easy, but the Marines will get the job done. When they're through, they need to drag all the dead bodies out into a cleared field, dump some #2 diesel on 'em, and light it off. Nobody gets a "lock of hair", or a fingernail, or anything else - they're toast. No martyrdom, no funeral, no second chance to stir up emotions. If you do it once, the rest of the bunch is less likely to want to be the recipient the second time. If you catch any live ones, hang 'em from that same bridge, after you've squeezed them of every drop of information you can. We really NEED to be Genghis Kahn with this load of peanut-brains - it's the only thing they understand. Let those who still want to fight that the 'good-guy, nice way of fighting' is a thing of the past. Let the entire world know that we will do whatever it takes to win, including engaging in 'scorched earth' Mongol-style tactics. Let them - and the entire world - know that we have two sides, a good-guy side, and a 'you don't want to go there' side. That way, they have a choice.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 11/08/2004 13:46 Comments || Top||

#8  To the good guys:

Kick ass, take names (for the intel), and get back safely. Godspeed.
Posted by: Xbalanke || 11/08/2004 14:08 Comments || Top||

#9  Hey, OP, remember we've got some real Mongols lying around. Turn the cleanup over to the Mongols and Koreans, and of course, the Gurkhas.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 11/08/2004 14:40 Comments || Top||

#10  Phantoms of the night.................
Posted by: Bill Nelson || 11/08/2004 14:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Good luck, good hunting, and come home safe.
Posted by: Mike || 11/08/2004 14:52 Comments || Top||

#12  Chuck, we have a bunch of guys in uniform that can play Mongel with the best of them. Just turn them loose, tell them the rule-book was burned, and it's time to hunt rats. They'll do the rest. The biggest problem our military has in fighting wars today are all the idiotic rules the people safe at home keep heaping upon them. It makes it hard to do what HAS to be done.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 11/08/2004 16:16 Comments || Top||

#13  Thx Op. You do have a way in bitch slaping a guy back from frothing nonsense:)
Posted by: Lucky || 11/08/2004 16:57 Comments || Top||

#14  I thought Phantom Fury was an acknowledgement of the contribution of Naval Aviation to the conquest of Iraq.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 17:02 Comments || Top||

#15  No Mrs. D that would be F4 Friday.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:13 Comments || Top||

#16  And yes I forgot about Gods own Fury.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:16 Comments || Top||

#17  'Old Patriot' you deserve atleast one "Star" on your broad shoulders!
Posted by: smn || 11/08/2004 20:04 Comments || Top||

#18  From what the embedded CNN loons have been saying, the marines are coming in from the north, and the army is dug in to the south of Fallujah. There ain't nowhere to run!!! Ha!!
Posted by: Rafael || 11/08/2004 20:33 Comments || Top||


U.S.: 42 Insurgents Killed in Fallujah
Good riddence I say! Go troops!!!
Posted by: Ol_Dirty_American || 11/08/2004 11:20:44 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  U.S. commanders have avoided any public estimate on how long it may take to capture Fallujah, where insurgents fought the Marines to a standstill last April in a three-week siege.

Can you believe these lying bastards??? Fought the Marines to a standstill. As if. Where is my rubber Jimmy Carter doll. I need to strangle something.
Posted by: remote man || 11/08/2004 12:18 Comments || Top||

#2  http://apnews.myway.com/image/20041108/IRAQ.sff_BAG117_20041108092540.html?date=20041108&docid=D867Q8O80

Heh.
Posted by: Anon4021 || 11/08/2004 12:19 Comments || Top||

#3  42 "insurgents" killed. I'd call that a good start.
Posted by: Mark Z. || 11/08/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#4  nice pic Anon - I'll take "four Darwin candidates" as my caption
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 12:33 Comments || Top||

#5  'Before the main assault, Allawi visited the main U.S. base outside Fallujah to rally Iraqi troops.

"The people of Fallujah have been taken hostage ... and you need to free them from their grip," he told the soldiers at the camp, who swarmed around him when he arrived. "Your job is to arrest the killers but if you kill them, then so be it."

"May they go to hell!" the soldiers shouted, and Allawi replied: "To hell they will go." '

Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/08/2004 12:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Not religious here but I'll say it anyway: God bless our brave and exceptionally well-prepared soldiers. As Hitchens said, "the US military has never been put to a finer use than in defeating fascism in Iraq."

These troops gladden my heart. I've never been prouder to call myself American. Crush those fascists and shame the cowardly fools in Europe and San Francisco. God bless you all.
Posted by: lex || 11/08/2004 13:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Anon4021, your photographer is identified by name. And, he is clearly on the wrong side of the battlefield. Hopefully, his arrest will not be announced shortly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/08/2004 14:19 Comments || Top||

#8  CNN

"CNN's Jane Arraf, embedded with U.S. troops on the northeast edge of the Falluja, said that the forces cut power to the city before the start of the assault.

Military officials told Arraf that the Army had achieved one of its initial goals -- clearing a path through insurgent defenses in the northern part of the city. Insurgents had set up strings of homemade bombs capable of causing heavy damage.

U.S. forces destroyed the booby traps, triggering explosions and fire."

Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/08/2004 14:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Chester has notes about current practices of clearing mines/IEDs. Good blog, caught it via Wretchard
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 14:43 Comments || Top||

#10  Chester is awesome.
And if we are using the MICLIC to clear roads and thoroughfares, that's BADASS.
Posted by: Anon4021 || 11/08/2004 16:00 Comments || Top||

#11  Heard a Marine on Fox say they had Fallujah sealed off. He said the terrorists in Fallujah had been firing at them for months. He said "they don't even know what's coming." He said "Hell is coming." Love them Marines. God bless every last one of you.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/08/2004 19:04 Comments || Top||


Fallujah rules spelt out
IRAQ'S interim prime minister said today "terrorists" are not interested in a peaceful settlement. He announced that emergency measures would be imposed on the insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi beginning at 6pm (2am AEDT Tuesday). In a press conference in Baghdad, Iyad Allawi said that Iraq's borders with Syria and Jordan will also be closed off and Baghdad's international airport would be shut down for 48 hours. "Once again, we have seen more criminal acts committed by these terrorists who continue to use Fallujah as a base for their operations... We have no other option but to take the necessary measures to protect Iraqi people from these killers and liberate Fallujah," he said.

Early today, US and Iraqi troops began an offensive to take the city, seizing a hospital and two bridges over the Euphrates River in the first stage of a major assault on the insurgent stronghold. Mr Allawi said that during the raid today, "Iraqi forces entered Fallujah Hospital, capturing four foreigners and killing 38 persons. We do not know whether they are Iraqis or not. They were stationed in the hospital in order to carry out terrorist actions." Two of the foreign terrorists seized were from Morocco, he said.
Posted by: tipper || 11/08/2004 9:14:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We do not know whether they are Iraqis or not" and we don't really care.

LOL
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/08/2004 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Is that stuff made of powdered Rachel Corry?
Posted by: BH || 11/08/2004 10:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Is that stuff made of powdered Rachel Corry?

Yep. No good against caterpillars though, trust me.
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/08/2004 10:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Problem is it works well on Cats too :(
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/08/2004 10:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey, let's all say a prayer for our Marines and soldiers (and our Iraqi allies) who are about to join this fight. Without them, where would the world be now?
Posted by: Tibor || 11/08/2004 10:49 Comments || Top||

#6  I hope in a hundred years when the USMC sez we're going to be using the Falluja rules it means something.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 14:12 Comments || Top||

#7  When in doubt, empty the magazine.
Posted by: mojo || 11/08/2004 18:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Soes this mean their only route of escape is Iran?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 18:37 Comments || Top||

#9  Iran or Saudi.

And if they are headed to Iran, they have to cross a lot of Shia territory - or else face the Kurds.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/08/2004 21:38 Comments || Top||

#10  FYI - initial steps (while I can still talk about this stuff).


1) Hospitals - prevents the terrs from uising it as a hostage senter, prevents disinformation propaganda, and provides US-Iraqi forces with close-by top facility for medical care for ALL sides.

2) taking those bridges means that when the Marines drive in from the North & East and the Army comes in from the east and south - the Terrs have nowhere to go but into the river.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/08/2004 21:41 Comments || Top||

#11  Sure hope they never learned to swim.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/08/2004 21:42 Comments || Top||

#12  OldSpook---Was the hospital used for patching up terrorists in the past, IYHO? Denying the terrorists medical facilities seems to be another place to put them at a disadvantage.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/08/2004 21:47 Comments || Top||


Hillah Police Ambush Kills 25 Militants
Police launched a surprise attack on an insurgent checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing 25 militants, authorities said Monday.

Some 60 police officers from the city of Hillah, dressed in civilian clothing, ambushed the militants in the Latifiyah area early Sunday, said an officer with the Babil provincial police force, who declined to give his name. During a fierce gunbattle that lasted for several hours, 25 insurgents were killed, he said. Iraqi forces reported no casualties. Coalition and Iraqi forces have come under frequent attack in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of the capital.
Posted by: tipper || 11/08/2004 9:06:49 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  25 insurgents were killed, he said. Iraqi forces reported no casualties Training pays off. Well done, gentlemen!
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/08/2004 10:04 Comments || Top||

#2  ... wow! Ambushes against the bad guys for once! This'd never fly in an American court where the courts believe in innocent until proven guilty unless you're military (see Abu Ghraib), but good to go Iraqi Police! :O
Posted by: Cleans Angereling9543 || 11/08/2004 10:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Sounds like revenge for the 12 Iraqi National Guardsmen stopped at a fake Latifiyah checkpoint and executed yesterday.
Posted by: ed || 11/08/2004 10:57 Comments || Top||

#4  That's the kind of revenge I can get behind 100%
Posted by: Cheter Spolump1554 || 11/08/2004 11:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Sounds like the Iraqi cops are getting sick of being butchered by these pricks and have gone proactive.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/08/2004 11:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Maybe this is a phase of the Phantom part of Phantom Fury.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 12:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Ah yes, dress the police as civilians and let them run wild on these jihadi assholes...brilliant.
Posted by: Jarhead || 11/08/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Note:
This kind of action is a violation of the Geneva conventions.

Caveat:
The Geneva Conventions have been thrown out the window by the insurgency since the uprising.

Glad to see SOMEONE over there has the sense to know how to wage war effectively and not sensitively.
Posted by: Anon4021 || 11/08/2004 17:37 Comments || Top||

#9  Geneva convention does not apply to purely internal affairs. Like police work. ;-)
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/08/2004 21:42 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Photo Arafat's daughter


In this handout picture from the Palestinian Authority's archives, dated mid 1990s, Yasser Arafat is seen posing with his daughter Zahwa in Gaza City.(AFP/PPO-HO/File)In this handout picture from the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites)'s archives, dated mid 1990s, Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) is seen posing with his daughter Zahwa in Gaza City.(AFP/PPO-HO/File)



Posted by: dennisw || 11/08/2004 3:38:24 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do ya think they'll send her over to Israel with a bomb strapped to her chest? Me no think so.
Posted by: gb506 || 11/08/2004 8:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...
Oh, yeah. Is he dead yet?
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/08/2004 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  I can't believe that he and suhia actually went through what they had to do to have her.

Heck, in fact, I don't even want to THINK about it...
Posted by: Ptah || 11/08/2004 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  She looks as miserable as I would be standing next to that swine .
Posted by: MacNails || 11/08/2004 9:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Ptah - think Turkey Baster - ask Michael Jackson
Posted by: Dr. Craven Moorehead || 11/08/2004 9:46 Comments || Top||

#6  ew, Daddy's lips smell like fish!
Posted by: Thase Unomolet9553 || 11/08/2004 9:50 Comments || Top||

#7  "The money I've set aside for your college education is in The French National Bank in Bern, Switzerland. The account number is 475635921. Don't tell your mother."
Posted by: Mark Z. || 11/08/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Having a daughter is about as pointless as having no children at all, in that part of the world. Only sons count as a measure of virility, preferably in large numbers; its a good thing Arafat has the biggest gun, or he'd get no respect at all.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/08/2004 14:33 Comments || Top||

#9  It just occurred to me: I can't remember ever hearing of babies born on the wrong side of the blanket. Could it be that this girl-child is Arafat's only offspring?
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/08/2004 14:37 Comments || Top||

#10  She looks as miserable as I would be standing next to that swine .

Yep, that's what I see; the "Daddy! Daddy!" look just ain't there.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 11/08/2004 19:58 Comments || Top||

#11  How would you appear with that face explaining why you were about to get a female circumcision?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 20:03 Comments || Top||


News imitates RantBurg - The soap opera continues
Palestinian officials who gathered around Yasser Arafat in recent weeks have been anxious to extract from their ailing leader the secret codes and locations of bank accounts they believe contain more than $1 billion diverted from official Palestinian funds. "A huge scramble has been going on to get the codes he holds in his head for various bank accounts he holds in secret," says a senior Palestinian banker. "It's an uphill struggle, and we may never get the bulk of it," says the official, who declined to be identified out of fear for his safety.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/08/2004 7:08:29 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Surely his wife has access.
Posted by: crazyhorse || 11/08/2004 10:22 Comments || Top||

#2  NOT YET I DON'T!!!
WAKE UP!!! WAKE UP, YOU UGLY BASTARD!!!
Posted by: Suha Arafat || 11/08/2004 10:24 Comments || Top||

#3  It's a pal, pal, pal, pal, pal, pal, pal world
Posted by: Abu cast of thousands || 11/08/2004 10:42 Comments || Top||

#4  You'd think that the Mossad or the CIA would have those codes already, and they'd be running a few EFTs of their own. (Hint, hint!)
Posted by: Mike || 11/08/2004 12:09 Comments || Top||

#5  You'd think that the Mossad or the CIA would have those codes already

They probably do... Split 50-50, helps defray costs of "Iranian Operations" {snicker}
Posted by: BigEd || 11/08/2004 13:03 Comments || Top||

#6  irony alert: use the money to complete the wall
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 13:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh the last week has been soooperb! - Bush re-elected, Arafat doing a dodo and the Paleos doing a keystone kops impersonation...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 11/08/2004 13:30 Comments || Top||

#8  And no more Moore, Moonbat finger pointing, Terr-raa-zaa safely medicated and Zell Miller saying "I hate to say I told you so, but..."
Posted by: Capsu78 || 11/08/2004 16:43 Comments || Top||

#9  Fred. Please stop posting your pic with all your grandpa Arafat's news. You don't look good bald.
Posted by: Sir Fizzle of Arabia || 11/08/2004 18:56 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Iraqi Police Kill 25 at Rebel Checkpoint
This is a bit more like it. We can both play at the pretend we're civilians game, you cowardly fuckers.
Police have launched a surprise attack on an insurgent checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing 25 militants, Iraqi police said today. Some 60 police officers from the city of Hillah, dressed in civilian clothing, ambushed the militants in the Latifiyah area early yesterday, said an officer with the Babil provincial police force. During a fierce battle that lasted for several hours, 25 insurgents were killed, he said. Iraqi forces reported no casualties.
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/08/2004 5:50:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now this I like. It will make the "insurgent's" be afraid to trust the civilians. Pretend they are women next.
Posted by: plainslow || 11/08/2004 7:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice.
Posted by: Howard UK || 11/08/2004 7:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Pretend you are women and carry UMP-45s under your Burka and a purse full if mags and grenades. That will make the terrorist sphinter tighten.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/08/2004 7:49 Comments || Top||

#4  At-away-to-go Iraqis. Justice is beginning to shape up in Iraq. The terrorists need to be looking over their shoulders all the time. They need to feel that week-without-sleep thousand yard stare just prior to being iced.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/08/2004 7:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Beautiful. Shows that (1) someone in charge in the Iraqi police is thinking creatively and (2) that the Iraqi police are up to the task. Beautiful.
Posted by: Tom || 11/08/2004 8:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Yup,
Thats the way to go, always take the initiative
like we do with the Hamas.
If they are busy trying to hide from their fellow
iraqi's they wont have time to hatch new plots.
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 11/08/2004 9:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Another piece of good news. Well done to the Iraqi police - about time they got some serious payback.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 11/08/2004 13:27 Comments || Top||

#8  During a fierce battle that lasted for several hours, 25 insurgents were killed, he said. Iraqi forces reported no casualties.

A confidence-builder, without a doubt. They may yet get the hang of this in short order.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 11/08/2004 22:17 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Two Grenades Discovered in "Welcome to Jerusalem" Sign
Public Works Authority workers discovered two grenades yesterday hidden among the rocks and sculpted bushes making up the "Welcome to Jerusalem" sign at the main entrance to the capital.
The Public Works guys are very fortunate to be alive. They should be given a reward for saving may lives. The Israeli police sappers have a lot of unwelcome experience due to the nature of so many brutal Islamic thugs lurking about.
The workers discovered the grenades, which had been placed inside a black box, when they were making preparations for a project to widen the motorist entryway to Jerusalem. They spotted the explosives at about 1:00pm yesterday and called the police sappers, who removed the box and its contents. Police are investigating who left the grenades there.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 11/08/2004 5:30:59 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'll give you two guess.
Posted by: Scott R || 11/08/2004 13:06 Comments || Top||


Arab Youths Firebomb Ramleh Synagogue - Twice
It's like Germany, all over again.
Three Arab youths, aged 15 to 16, threw firebombs Friday night into a synagogue in Ramleh, located in the center of the country. The house of worship was set ablaze, according to a report in Maariv newspaper, but local residents managed to put out the flames. Then, Saturday night, Arab attackers returned and again threw flaming bottles at the synagogue. Police investigation confirmed that the incendiary devices in both cases were firebombs thrown into the synagogue. The statement of an eyewitness led to the capture of the three Arab youths, who admitted their crimes, saying their vandalism was out of "identification with the Palestinian people" and a desire to "take revenge" against the IDF. The three were held over for processing as the police completes its investigation.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 11/08/2004 5:03:06 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Okay... beaten to death, then questioned. Right? Jeeez... Israelis are such wimps some times.

Held over for questioning. LOL!
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:43 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
GSPC kills 2 cops
Algerian Islamic rebels killed two policemen in the latest attack during the holy month of Ramadan, official news agency APS said on Friday. One rebel was injured in the ambush on a police patrol late on Thursday in the Relizane province some 350 km (220 miles) west of the capital, Algiers, security sources told APS. Experts said diehard rebels were likely to intensify their deadly assaults as a response to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's announcement last week that favoured another general amnesty for militants willing to lay down their arms. Less than 1,000 militants are still armed and fighting authorities, most belonging to the al Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 1:14:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
US troops have taken western Fallujah
U.S. forces stormed into the western outskirts of Fallujah early Monday, seizing the main city hospital and securing two key bridges over the Euphrates river in what appeared to be the first stage of the long-expected assault on the insurgent stronghold. An AC-130 gunship raked the city with 40 mm cannon fire as explosions from U.S. artillery lit up the night sky. Intermittent artillery fire blasted southern neighborhoods of Fallujah, and orange fireballs from high explosive airbursts could be seen above the rooftops. U.S. officials said the toughest fight was yet to come when American forces enter the main part of the city on the east bank of the river, including the Jolan neighborhood where insurgent defenses are believed the strongest.

The initial attacks on Fallujah began just hours after the Iraqi government declared 60 days of emergency rule throughout most of the country as militants dramatically escalated attacks, killing at least 30 people, including two Americans. Several hundred Iraqi troops were sent into Fallujah's main hospital after U.S. forces sealed off the area. The troops detained about 50 men of military age inside the hospital, but about half were later released. The invaders used special tools, powered by .22 caliber blanks, to break open door locks. A rifle-like crackle echoed through the facility. Many patients were herded into hallways and handcuffed until troops determined whether they were insurgents hiding in the hospital.

Dr. Salih al-Issawi, head of the hospital, said he had asked U.S. officers to allow doctors and ambulances go inside the main part of the city to help the wounded but they refused. There was no confirmation from the Americans. ''The American troops' attempt to take over the hospital was not right because they thought that they would halt medical assistance to the resistance,'' he said by telephone to a reporter inside the city. ''But they did not realize that the hospital does not belong to anybody, especially the resistance.'' During the siege of Fallujah last April, doctors at the hospital were a main source of reports about civilian casualties, which U.S. officials insisted were overblown. Those reports generated strong public outage in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world, prompting the Bush administration to call off the offensive.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 1:02:34 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The MSM is back on its bloody street fighting meme again. The media evokes visions of Stalingrad or Hue, when its more likely to be the battle of Baghdad again. Irregulars in fixed positions getting slaughtered by better armed and better organized forces with air and artillery.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/08/2004 1:43 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm late to the party due to a server crash, but I love the ROE for Fallujah. Of course, phil_b, the MSM will spin it as usual. Racing cars full of pregnant women in labor under curfew, or puppies and kittens to the local equivalent of the Humane Society, all blown up by the American infantry... oh, wait, no puppies under Islam. Never mind the last.
Posted by: Asedwich || 11/08/2004 1:54 Comments || Top||

#3  I have never been prouder to be an American.

God bless, save, and protect our history-making soldiers!

Posted by: Wuzzalib || 11/08/2004 3:00 Comments || Top||

#4  The invaders good guys used special tools, powered by .22 caliber blanks, to break open door locks.

How do these work? 22 cal is a really light round for picking locks.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/08/2004 8:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Some sort of retained bolt gun? Like a slaughterhouse stun gun? Such a device could just whack the lock, without the risk of ricocheting rounds.
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/08/2004 8:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Works like this:

.22 sized charge fired into the cylinder of the lock. Pressure makes a decent seal. Cylinder (instead of a bullet) gets fired out - but since the seal is less than perfect and the cylinder is far heaver than a 22 round it doesnt go far, just out of the lock in pieces. Lock gutted, shackle can be moved, Door open.

Done right, it can be fairly quiet in the hallway, although there is no mistaking the breach in the room.

Don't ask me how I know.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/08/2004 9:05 Comments || Top||

#7  #3 - my thoughts exactly.

#6 very interesting.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/08/2004 10:13 Comments || Top||

#8  Old Spook, we all believe that you personally invented these toys, but are too modest to say so. Or at least that you've played with them once or twice. But we would never, ever ask ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/08/2004 10:14 Comments || Top||

#9  See! We really, really do!
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/08/2004 10:14 Comments || Top||

#10  LOL I saw one on TV looks like a device I have used in the past with some modifications. They are used to put fasteners through steel and concrete. They do appear to have some recoil
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/08/2004 10:34 Comments || Top||

#11  "Let's put it this way, Doctor: You can continue working, for us, or you can go join your jihadi buddies in the detention camp. Your choice."
Posted by: mojo || 11/08/2004 10:51 Comments || Top||

#12  Generally called a ramset,Sock.with the right cartridge it will drive 16-penny nail right through a 2x4.
Posted by: raptor || 11/08/2004 12:33 Comments || Top||

#13  hilti or ramset, either powder-actuated anchors will take out concrete/masonry - a steel lock is nothing
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 12:40 Comments || Top||


Zarqawi posts suicide bombing footage on the web
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group having close links with Al Qaeda posted a video clip on a website on Sunday of a suicide car bombing which killed three British troops in Iraq. The tape showed a dark-colored car driving down a road and then slowing down, allowing several other vehicles to pass, before it blew up in apparent footage of Thursday's attack. Plumes of black smoke rose as the man behind the camera, who was taping from a distance, shouted "God is greatest." A script on the video identified the bomber as Abu Suleiman and said he had waited for civilian cars to pass before blowing up his car. The three soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed when the car bomber attacked their checkpoint south of Baghdad in the first suicide attack on UK forces in Iraq. Eight other British soldiers were wounded.

The video, posted on a Web site often used by Islamists and carrying the logo of Al Qaeda Organization of Holy War in Iraq, also showed what it said were British troops removing the bodies and the injured as well as a helicopter airlifting them. An unidentified man was shown kicking a severed arm and stomping on it. The group posted another Internet video of what it said was a suicide attack on a U.S. military convoy in Ramadi. It showed a speeding white car approaching the convoy and blowing up.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 12:54:26 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does anyone know if the likely presence of a jihad propaganda squad at the scene of an attack on coalition / IP taken is into account by those engaged in cleanup and extraction? Is anything being done about it?
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/08/2004 6:17 Comments || Top||

#2  I understand they've banned al'Jazeera a couple of times, as well as al'Arabiya.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 11/08/2004 10:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Rest in peace guys. As to that fucktard kicking the body, I'd like to see his lifeless head being used as a football by the Black Watch.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 11/08/2004 13:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Time for this asshole to assume room temperature.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/08/2004 18:56 Comments || Top||


The Battle of Fallujah has begun
The assault against Falluja began here Sunday night as American Special Forces and Iraqi troops burst into Falluja General Hospital and seized it within an hour. At 10 p.m., Iraqi troops clambered off seven-ton trucks, sprinting with American Special Forces soldiers around the side of the main building of the hospital, considered a refuge for insurgents and a center of propaganda against allied forces, entering the complex to bewildered looks from patients and employees. Ear-splitting bangs rang out as troops used a gunlike tool called a doorbuster, which uses the force from firing a blank .22-caliber cartridge to thrust forward a chisel to break heavy door locks. Iraqi troops eagerly kicked the doors in, some not waiting for the locks to break. Patients and hospital employees were rushed out of rooms by armed soldiers and ordered to sit or lie on the floor while troops tied their hands behind their backs. In less than an hour, the compound was secure. Most of the Iraqis had their cuffs snipped off and were sitting up along hallways in the hospital's main building. Doctors were back to attending to the most seriously ill, watched by Iraqi and American troops. There were broken doors and windows, but little in the way of more severe damage. And there was only one injury: an Iraqi soldier who accidentally discharged his Kalashnikov rifle, injuring his lower leg.

Two companies from the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion and American Special Forces teams that have been training the Iraqi battalion for the better part of a year joined in the attack on the hospital. The operation was the latest for the 36th Battalion, with men drawn from across the country, including some from Sunni heartland cities like Ramadi and Tikrit where the insurgency is fierce. Iraqis in the unit are eager to demonstrate that they can be a credible fighting force against the insurgents. But unlike some of their past operations - most notably at a mosque courtyard in Samarra last month where they killed 4 insurgents and apprehended 24 others - the Iraqi special forces met little resistance this time.

A few hundred yards away, an important strategic as well as symbolic battle was playing out: American troops, fighting to secure the western end of the two bridges across the Euphrates River, received intense fire from fortified insurgent positions on the east side of the river. One of the bridges was the scene of the grisly episode on March 31, when Iraqis hung the charred and dismembered bodies of at least two of four American security contractors who had been killed from the bridge's spans. Both the bridges and the hospital are situated on a peninsula formed by the Euphrates as it flows past downtown Falluja, on the east side of the river - a logical area, American commanders say, for insurgents to fall back if driven from central Falluja.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 12:39:21 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ..Don't know if anybody saw the footage of Iraq's 36 CDO going into the hospital, but these guys looked SHARP - tight, disciplined, professional. I think we're about to find out in the near future what a Arab army - properly led and trained - is capable of.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/08/2004 9:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Iraqi commandos peforming well - check.
Foreign fighters found - check.

So far, so good.

Keep praying.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/08/2004 10:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Any bets on if the good Doctor was the one doing the spotting from the rooftop? I hope they keep a good sharp eye on this guy.

And it looks like the Iraqi forces are looking for some good old fashioned payback.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/08/2004 10:11 Comments || Top||

#4  38 dead badguys, 4 foreigner captured Check!
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/08/2004 10:15 Comments || Top||

#5  An added plus of capuring the hospital is that medical care there is denied to the terrorists. And reports of injured bunnies, kittens, and baby ducks is now under the strict control of military authorities.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/08/2004 11:13 Comments || Top||

#6  transfer the good baathist sunni doctor to a Shiite area hospital. He'll have a better idea what fighters we're referring to
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 11:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Kinda strange that they started by taking the bridges, though. Maybe setting up to use the river as the "anvil" in their plan?
Posted by: mojo || 11/08/2004 12:08 Comments || Top||

#8  I wonder what phone numbers our guys found in the cell phones' call logs? Not to mention the internal phone lists! Things have gotten ever more interesting since our guys landed over there last spring ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/08/2004 14:28 Comments || Top||

#9  Sniper Kitty is Back In Town!
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:29 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Four Palestinian millitants killed in Jenin
JENIN: Four Palestinian terrorists militants were shot dead in their car on Sunday by undercover Israeli forces here, Palestinian medical and security sources said. The four terrorists men, three members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and a member of the Islamic Jihad faction, died instantly in the drive-by shooting. They included Al-Aqsa Brigades terrorists fighters Maher Abu Kamel and Mohammad Masharka, whose family homes were dynamited earlier in the day by Israeli forces here.

The other terrorists victims were named as Al-Aqsa Brigades fighter Mahmud Sami and Islamic Jihad activist Fadi Iqbari. All the victims were in their 20s. Witnesses said that more than a dozen Israeli military vehicles arrived on the scene immediately after the shooting, which took place in the birthplace and stronghold of the Al-Aqsa Brigades.

Other witnesses said that the troops, who carried out the killings, had been dressed in Arab clothing. Israeli troops have carried out a number of what they term "targeted killing operations" in recent months, including the assassination of two overall terrorists leaders of the Hamas in Gaza. A military source said that an army unit had been taking part in an arrest operation here when an exchange of fire broke out. A number of terrorists Palestinians were hit but the source had no further details about casualties.
So many weapons, so many choices.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/08/2004 11:59:47 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arafat's Wife Lashes Out at Officials
The soap opera continues.
Yasser Arafat's wife lashed out at his top lieutenants Monday, accusing them of traveling to Paris with plans to "bury" her husband "alive." In a screaming telephone call from Arafat's hospital bedside, Sooeee Suha Arafat told pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television that she was issuing "an appeal to the Palestinian people." She accused his top aides, who are traveling to Paris later Monday, of conspiring to usurp her husband's four-decade long role as Palestinian leader. "Let it be known to the honest Palestinian people that a bunch of those who want to take all my money over are coming to Paris tomorrow," she screamed in Arabic over the telephone. "You have to realize the size of the conspiracy. I tell you they are trying to bury Abu Ammar alive," she said, using his nom de guerre. He is all right and he is going home. God is great."

An Al-Jazeera producer said the broadcaster was confident it was Sooeee Suha Arafat on the telephone and that she had called their Ramallah office from Arafat's bedside at a French military hospital. Despite her insistence that Arafat, 75, was fine, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier on Sunday called the Palestinian leader's condition "very complex, very serious and stable right now."
"He's dead, Jim."
Sooeee Suha Arafat, 41, who lives in Paris, has not been to the West Bank or seen her husband since the latest round of Palestinian violence began in 2000. She also is widely believed to have control of vast amounts of PLO money.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/08/2004 10:54:50 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Barbara, please pass the popcorn! This Sooeee/Arafish thing is quite a source of innocent merriment.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/08/2004 1:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Is Mrs. Arafat who is often seen in the front rows of Paris fashion shows, or shopping with the wife of the Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and the sister of the King of Morocco, is she cognizant of the reported 1 to 3 billion $$$$ her so-called husband has stashed away over the last 25 years?

Or, maybe Arafat's brother, the 67 year old Fathi Arafat has some clues, but he is reported in a Cairo hospital with 'terminal cancer'.

What about those in the top PA/PLO high command (of terrorists) all very rich. The billions never benefited the Arabs in Gaza or the 'West bank'. In addition to Saudi, E.U. assistance, U.S. tax dollars in the millions were donated to Arafat's 'people'.

Enlarge the photo of Fathi Arafat in the link.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 11/08/2004 2:54 Comments || Top||

#3  My God, these people are just a bunch of mobsters!

/sarcasm
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/08/2004 5:55 Comments || Top||

#4  All Suha fans raise your hands and repeat slowly after me:
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar !!!!

OK,
Now you can sit down grab some pretzels and
enjoy the unfolding "Comedia Del Arte".
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 11/08/2004 8:15 Comments || Top||

#5  "'Bury him alive'--what's up with that? They threatening him with a Caterpillar D9 or something? You wanna talk about 'buried alive,' now, that I know something about."

--Rachel Corrie
Posted by: Mike || 11/08/2004 8:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Have another twinkie Suha...sooeyyyy!
Posted by: jawa || 11/08/2004 9:45 Comments || Top||

#7  She's lovely - I'd give her a red second place ribbon
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 9:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Debka is reporting that this is simply a ploy to get the paleo power players to sign an agreement that says she continues to get cash.

quelle suprise, as they say in gaza france.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 11/08/2004 9:57 Comments || Top||

#9  Ugliest. Terrorist's wife. Ever.
Posted by: BH || 11/08/2004 10:14 Comments || Top||

#10  Ugliest terrorist. Fits.
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/08/2004 10:16 Comments || Top||

#11  Porky Arafat!
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/08/2004 10:17 Comments || Top||

#12  So I wonder how the Palis feel now that they see what "The Struggle" was really all about?
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/08/2004 10:17 Comments || Top||

#13  tu3031 - are you referring to Arafat's daughter and the less-than-immaculate-conception? Wrong thread. ;)
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/08/2004 10:20 Comments || Top||

#14  "Rosebud!"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 10:22 Comments || Top||

#15  SCREW WITH ME AND I WILL SCRATCH OUT YOUR EYES WITH MY WELL MANICURED NAILS!!! IT'S MINE!!! ALL MINE!!! MINE!!! MINE!!! MINE!!! WAKE UP AND TELL THEM THAT, YOU DISGUSTING PIG!!!
Posted by: Suha Arafat || 11/08/2004 10:47 Comments || Top||

#16  As I've always said, Arafat is John Gotti in a keffiyeh. Perhaps Francis Coppola could do a three-part saga on him, Mme Arafat and the crew.
Posted by: lex || 11/08/2004 10:53 Comments || Top||

#17  Suha appears to have wintered well.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/08/2004 11:28 Comments || Top||

#18  Is it "Suha" or "Sooo-eeeee?"
Posted by: Mike || 11/08/2004 11:56 Comments || Top||

#19  she'll also answer to "Miss Piggy"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 12:06 Comments || Top||

#20  Egad, Frank, you're right! There is a family resemblence.
Posted by: Mike || 11/08/2004 12:12 Comments || Top||

#21  I'm tired of people comparing Suha to a pig. My pig Elsbeth is a purty pig. Suha is not. I'm reminded of Daffy Duck when he and Bugs find the cave filled with gold. "It's mine, mine, mine!"
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/08/2004 12:22 Comments || Top||

#22  Are you sure those aren't eye lashes? On well, I am sure there are plenty more lashes for the Madam to administer to the boys (and girls).
Posted by: Capt America || 11/08/2004 21:41 Comments || Top||


Arafat may be moved to Cairo hospital
Jerusalem, Nov. 7 (PTI): Palestinian officials are considering transferring the body of their ailing leader Yasser Arafat, to a hospital in Cairo from a French military hospital where he is no longer welcome being treated for an undiagnosed problem. Aides to the Palestinan Chairman said his condition was "so bad" that he might be moved to Egypt because of their superior medical care from where he could be flown home quickly when in case he died. "One option being considered is moving him to Cairo," a Palestinian official in the West Bank who did not want to be named because he was afraid of being taken out by the hit squad the PA has sent to finish Arafish off was quoted as saying by Israeli daily 'Haaretz'.
Translation: Chirac got his photo-op and Suha's check bounced.
Former security chief Mohammad Dahlan, who was scheduled to return to Ramallah from Paris today to take over update senior officials in the PA on Arafat's health, has delayed his return to later next week.
Al Haig, call your office.
Early today, Dahlan refused to divulge details on the veteran's veteran? of what? Life? health to the media but insisted that his brain wasn't dead and that doctors have never been able to discover any brain activity in the Chariman he was not connected to life support machines, the Radio said.
Yasser being dead and all, he was only running up the 'lectricity bill.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 11/08/2004 12:41:29 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In my imaginary happyplace, I see Israeli fighters doing barrel rolls around the plane that is carting this scum's body back to whatever sh*thole country wants it.

Irony died for me the day this POS received the Nobel Peace Prize. How do you like hell Arafat?

Posted by: Doc8404 || 11/08/2004 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  AraRat's 67 year old brother is already in a Cairo hospital. They can make room for 'The Yasser' under his bed.

This is a line for the books Mrs. D. "Yasser being dead and all, he was only running up the 'lectricity bill." Thumbs Up LOL
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 11/08/2004 4:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Finally, he's going home
Posted by: Anonymous6236 || 11/08/2004 5:27 Comments || Top||

#4  URGENT CALL !!!
Will the 72 VIRGINS(TM)report immediately
at the gates of Hell.

Suha need not report.
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 11/08/2004 7:53 Comments || Top||

#5  This lingering is destroying the integrity of thousands of dead pools.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 7:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Arafat_wa has been fucking brain dead for at least 50 years.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/08/2004 8:01 Comments || Top||

#7  YES! YES! JIHAD UNSPUN SAYS THEY HAVE A VULCAN MIND MELD MACHINE THERE!!!
DOCTOR, HAVE YOU TRIED THOSE DEFIBRILLATOR PADDLES ON HIS HEAD! IF YOU WANT TO BE PAID, I NEED THOSE NUMBERS! WAKE UP, YOU BASTARD!!!
Posted by: Suha Arafat || 11/08/2004 10:29 Comments || Top||

#8  "I am sorree, mein f...I mean, Mrs. Arafat. I haff set zee device to maximum, but all zat comes out is zees pictures of goats..."
Posted by: mojo || 11/08/2004 12:13 Comments || Top||

#9  I hope the plane has a good refridgeration unit, otherwise it is going to *stink* in that plane by the time it lands. What *am* I saying, it'll stink whether the fish is alive or dead.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 11/08/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Zarqawi planning to use suicide boomers to counter-attack in Fallujah
AS at least 12,000 coalition and Iraqi forces massed in preparation for an all-out assault on Fallujah last night, insurgent commanders inside the rebel stronghold warned that hundreds of suicide bombers had been primed as part of planning for a ferocious counter-attack. With all eyes on Fallujah, west of Baghdad, insurgents struck a devastating blow in nearby Ramadi, rounding up 21 officers at two police stations and shooting them dead execution style. "A large number of attackers, estimated at about 200, ambushed the main police station in Haditha and another smaller one in Haqlaniya," said a police officer from Haditha who was not on duty during the attack. "The attackers disarmed the police, gathered them together and then shot them dead."
Police need to fight harder and not allow themselves to be taken prisoner.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 3:03:46 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There is absolutely no reason why we should subject our troops to this type of urban warfare! Warn the women, children, bunnies, and baby ducks to flee for their lives; close the circle, 'phalanx' the perimeter and then pull back for an assualt with 10 precision targeted MOAB drops! We tax payers payed for their developement and deployment; let the troops watch from a distance; cheer (like at Nagasaki & Hiroshima) and save as many of our sons and fathers to fight another day or perhaps come home!! Any Ameners?
Posted by: smn || 11/08/2004 0:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Aye.

Might there be value in capturing some of them? and getting their computers and documents?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 11/08/2004 2:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Or at least go in with heavy armor. A military expert I saw said he was worried the Marines didn't have enough heavy armor.
Posted by: V is for Victory || 11/08/2004 7:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Why would anyone surrender to these thugs,might as well kill yourself.The result is the same,suicide.
Posted by: raptor || 11/08/2004 8:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Fox News just reported that Marine tanks are lined up on the railroad berm on the northern(?) side of the town and firing on targets in the city. Reports are that terrorists are abandoning their fixed defensive positions and seeking cover.
Posted by: Steve || 11/08/2004 10:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Scattering the pickets from the sound of it.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 10:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Think Aachen. Didn't matter what the defenders did. That's what 155mm artillery was invented for.
Posted by: ed || 11/08/2004 10:45 Comments || Top||

#8  "Ours are professionals and the Americans will soon learn their lesson."

Professionals, eh? All the more reason then, to kill them instead of taking prisoners.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 11/08/2004 22:21 Comments || Top||


Zarqawi demands Hassan's release
Hopes for the kidnapped British aid worker Margaret Hassan rose yesterday after al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq called for her release. The most notorious kidnapping group operating in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and responsible for murdering Kenneth Bigley, posted a statement on the internet declaring that she would be released immediately if she was handed over to its custody. It said: "We are demanding that those who are in charge of her release her unless she is proven to be an agent. If guilty, they should show that to everybody so as not to attribute something to our religion that is alien to it. In true Islam, they don't kill women and young children. We never kill people who we are not supposed to kill."
"Especially if they make us look bad on Arab teevee."
Friends of Mrs Hassan's husband, Tahseen Ali Hassan, a retired Iraqi airline pilot, said that a prominent member of the al-Dulami tribe, a Saddam stooge powerful clan in the Sunni triangle area, came forward last week claiming to have made the first contact with the kidnapping gang that has held the charity worker since last month.
"He also offered to squeegee our car windows if we'd give him a couple of dinars..."
A dialogue had begun, a family member told The Sunday Telegraph, but the kidnappers' demands were not yet clear. A family friend said: "We haven't been told who is holding her but we know the kidnappers are talking to this man. We hope he can provide some help, especially now that Zarqawi has announced that he is not interested in her." The Jordanian has previously refused to exercise mercy and has invented found sufficient rationale to kill all the people held by his gang. The group holding Mrs Hassan is believed to have kidnapped her for ransom, not in pursuit of a political demand for the withdrawal of foreign troops. Not all of 30 foreign hostages have been killed by those pursuing political aims.
Which makes them not any less dead.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 3:26:39 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why is Zarqawi so insistent and worried over this woman, has he had a premonition or soemthing, or is SHE, the line in the sand, the "Helen Of Troy" sort of speak, for his demise?
Posted by: smn || 11/08/2004 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  She's possibly one of them. That's why.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 11/08/2004 2:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Kalle suggests a good point. It makes sense from a PR stand point for Zarqawi to call for her release. The so-called "anti-occupation" forces would never wish harm to innocent women, children, puppies, kittens, or the occasional baby duck.
Posted by: Mark Z. || 11/08/2004 9:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds like the check's cleared...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/08/2004 16:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Jeebus, now that's pretty damn cynical tu3031. Likely true, but still cynical.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:30 Comments || Top||


Zarqawi claims Samarra violence
A group led by Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for Saturday's bloodshed in the Iraqi city of Samarra. It was hit by a series of clashes and car bomb explosions, which left almost 40 people dead. A dozen of them were civilians. Al-Qaeda Organization of Holy War in Iraq posted an online statement, saying they carried out four car bombings in Samarra. Al-Zarqawi is believed to be a senior al-Qaeda operative in Iraq. He has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks against coalition forces, as well as for many hostage killings.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 3:20:25 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Test
Posted by: mojo || 11/08/2004 13:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Zarqawi's day with the virgins is coming soon...Hey shit head there are no virgins. That's a fucking myth.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/08/2004 18:48 Comments || Top||

#3  You dont think someone as cowardly important as Zarq would be in battle do you? He probably beat it back to Iran or Syria as soon as he heard that there might be some actual fighting.....

I mean those marines aren't blindfolded, tied, and defenseless.....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/08/2004 18:55 Comments || Top||

#4  We can hope the "Z" is in Fallujah. Payback will be sweet.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 11/08/2004 18:59 Comments || Top||


U.S. Seizes Part of Fallujah Rebel Area
The Iraqi government declared 60 days of emergency rule throughout most of the country Sunday, and U.S. troops seized a small section of territory in Fallujah ahead of an expected all-out assault on the guerrilla sanctuary. Militants dramatically escalated attacks, killing at least 30 people, including two Americans U.S. troops that have sealed off Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, captured part of rebel-held territory on the west bank of the Euphrates River, which includes the city's main hospital, where several people were taken prisoner. An AC-130 gunship, meanwhile, launched airstrikes after sundown as residents reported fierce exchanges of fire on the outskirts of the city. Dozens of explosions resonated from the city and the minaret-studded skyline was lit up with huge flashes of light. Flares were dropped to illuminate targets, and defenders fought back with heavy machine gunfire. Flaming red tracer rounds streaked through the night sky from guerrilla positions inside the city.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Anonymous5089 || 11/08/2004 7:19:49 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  us suckxx
Posted by: Thinese Uninetch9555 || 11/08/2004 7:39 Comments || Top||

#2  ahhh.... a belch from the troll community. How nice
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 8:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Sometimes when you take a bridge you get a troll with it. It's a package deal.
Posted by: Tom || 11/08/2004 8:07 Comments || Top||

#4  he musta spent all evening thinking that one up....
Posted by: Frank G || 11/08/2004 8:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Do you think it's actually trying to communicate with us? A troll developing some sort of thinking ability, like self-awareness. Perhaps it really does mean to say 'us suckxx', or 'we suck'? It's possible. Let me try to communicate with it.

Troll, do you think you suck?

It's worth a try.
Posted by: Bulldog || 11/08/2004 8:26 Comments || Top||

#6  xx means kisses. Maybe in troll world they suck their kisses? Or perhaps they just aren't very good at that kissing thing?
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/08/2004 10:22 Comments || Top||

#7  LOL Tom, good 'en
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 10:39 Comments || Top||

#8  The people of Iraq just want peace - The elections should happen - Why are these groups trying to prevent elections in Iraq
Let the PEOPLE DECIDE through elections
VIOLENCE IS UNDEMOCRATIC
Posted by: Ebbavith Gleart2775 || 11/08/2004 10:59 Comments || Top||

#9  Any more moronic platitudes, Ebbavith?
Posted by: mojo || 11/08/2004 12:38 Comments || Top||

#10  Ebbavith, would you like to meet an Islamofascist beheader?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 11/08/2004 17:47 Comments || Top||

#11  Free Huey!
Cheap Cobras!
Inexpensive Assault Rifles!
Posted by: Shipman || 11/08/2004 18:32 Comments || Top||

#12  I think that Ebbavith is actually being supportive. Violently opposing the elections is undemocratic. But it is simply natural that those who violently oppose the elections are going to fertilize the fields of Fallujah.
Posted by: Jame Retief || 11/08/2004 22:33 Comments || Top||

#13  I just was reading a report from Jim Krane for Fox News wherein he stated that the marines had been fought to a standstill by the terrorists in Fallujah last April!

What a load! Fought to a standstill my ass!

The marines stopped their assault (involuntarily, but due to orders) on that shithole of a city within hours (days at the most) of their complete victory due to "political concerns" for the new Iraqi interim government and its relations.

God, I hate the MSM's stupidity when it comes to the truth...

We shoulda' bombed that shithole to rubble months ago. Now, lives are going to be lost retaking it because of some dumbfuck politics.

Thanks,
LC FOTSGreg
Posted by: LC FOTSGreg || 11/08/2004 22:33 Comments || Top||

#14  LC,

Heartily agree.

It is a temptation to say that we should plow the soil with salt and leave no brick on top of another . . . but that would be effective . . . er . . . cruel, yeah that's it, cruel.

The Marines will go back in and do what they do best. Break things and kill people.
Posted by: Jame Retief || 11/08/2004 22:47 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
GSPC has killed 40 since the beginning of Ramadan
Two sisters, kidnapped by Algerian Islamic militants a week ago, have been found dead with their throats slit in west Algeria, newspapers said on Sunday, as violence intensifies during the holy month of Ramadan. The bodies were discovered on Saturday near the national highway close to Mendes, a town some 350 km (220 miles) west of the capital Algiers, security sources told newspaper El Khabar. One sister was in her mid-teens while the other was in her mid-20s, newspapers said.
Not friendly enough for their abductors, I guess. Either that, or they were done with them...
Anti-terrorist units and soldiers have intensified a crackdown in the western province of Relizane to root out rebels. At least 12 rebels have been killed in recent sweeps. Attacks on civilians and the military usually increase in Algeria during the holy Muslim month as rebels believe killing during this period will bring them closer to God.
Pretty damned sick.
A member of a local militia in Boumerdes, a province some 40 km east of Algiers was killed by rebels early on Saturday, newspaper El Watan said. Separately, a former militia member was killed in a nearby town on Friday night, also by suspected members of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). Sources told El Watan that members of the GSPC -- which has pledged allegiance to al Qaeda -- kidnapped several civilians from a village in Tizi Ouzou province, close to Algiers. About 40 people have so far been killed during Ramadan, according to newspaper reports and official statements. Authorities have tightened security across the country, and particularly in the main cities.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 11/08/2004 3:35:35 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In Fallujah scores of these death cultists got much 'closer' to their trip downstairs over the last 24 some hours. Some 'ex'-jihadees are already waiting to 'welcome' the next batch & inform them there are no rivers of honey, virgins, nada, zero, zipo!
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 11/08/2004 2:19 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2004-11-08
  U.S. moves into Fallujah
Sun 2004-11-07
  Dutch MPs taken to safe houses
Sat 2004-11-06
  Learned Elders of Islam call for jihad
Fri 2004-11-05
  Paleos won't admit Yasser's dead
Thu 2004-11-04
  Yasser Croaks!
Wed 2004-11-03
  Bush Takes It
Tue 2004-11-02
  America Votes
Mon 2004-11-01
  Arafat Aides Resume Talks With Israel, Fight Over His Fortune
Sun 2004-10-31
  Sharon prepared to negotiate with new Palestinian leadership
Sat 2004-10-30
  Arafat losing mental faculties
Fri 2004-10-29
  Binny speaks
Thu 2004-10-28
  Yasser deathwatch continues
Wed 2004-10-27
  Yasser not dead yet
Tue 2004-10-26
  Egypt announces arrests of Sinai bombers
Mon 2004-10-25
  Yasser allowed out for checkup

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