#1
""You know you never defeated us on the battlefield" said the American colonel.
The North Vietnamese colonel pondered this remark a moment. "That may be so," he replied, "but it is also irrelevant".
Conversation in Hanoi, April 1975.
- Introduction: Tactical Victory, Strategic Defeat; On Strategy: The Vietnam War in Context, Summers, Col. Harry G., Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA, 1981.
Someone is lying. Either weâre winning the battles and casualty figures are dropping, which mean the OPSEC people are out of control in their paranoia, or the senior leadership is lying about our successes and casualties on the battlefield and the OPSEC people are right.
This is a limited war regardless of how many want to nuke the enemy and flatten their cities. Its is a war that is generational. That means it must have the support of the populous. George Bush is the type of leader that doesnât worry about ratings unlike the previous occupier of the office. George Bush leaves in 2008. If the military has not won the war by 2008, the next person in the office is not as likely to support the continuation of the conflict. The Army is going to lose another one because it fails to absorb the dictum that - war is an extension of politics. You can win battles and still lose wars.
The Vietnamese won their war in the streets in the United States. The military refuses to acknowledge that the MSM is shaping the battlefield in the GWOT as any player can in conflicts. The MSM today is at best antagonistic to those conducting the GWOT on our side and at worst is an agent of the enemy, willingly carrying the message of the enemy and defending their practices in the war for the hearts and minds of the American public. The military has failed to effectively wage this portion of the conflict. Now, the one source of informational flow which the MSM does not control between the front line troops and the people back home is being killed by bureaucratic wantabees who need to justify their existence.
There is no perfect. You are going to take casualties regardless when you fight. Each life is valued and each loss is mourned. However, you have to make hard choices. In this case the fear of casualties from potential OPSEC is going to cost the military far more than they comprehend. It will in the end make all the other deaths futile. Cause theyâre going to start losing this war when the man at the top departs and one with lesser fortitude and more concern about his/her popularity takes command. The military has certainly conceded the battlefield to those in the MSM to define it and thus control it. It is a self inflicted wound.
#2
Our enemies are the terrorists (and the MSM). There are few journalists in the MSM. For the most part, they are a lazy lot that cares more about a liberal agenda than reporting what is happening. Besides war zones are dangerous places. Why not just write the story from the comfort and safety of the U.S. or other safe places-or how about just "lifting" the story from the blogging network? When all that is too hard, then why not just make up the story as the NY Times does.
#3
If the military has not won the war by 2008, the next person in the office is not as likely to support the continuation of the conflict.
On the contrary.
I agree the election of 2008 will be a referendum on the war. But it is not at all clear that the dove will win. In fact, Nixon defeated McGovern as I recall. Admittedly he was the incumbent and the nest hawk will not be. But the American people understand what is at stake here and the candidate who says we should stay at it till we win will be victorious in the end.
"Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American."
#4
On the bright side, since the MSM are playing sucker, the Pentagon and the administration are justified in using sucker punches on them.
Right now, it should be noted that with every crushing success of the US military, its brass become ever more MSM-publically pessimistic. You would think, judging from their crocodile tears, that the insurgents are winning whole sections of the country, the rest devolving into chaos, with thousands of dead and dying lying in the streets.
But the truth keeps leaking out, making the MSM look nervously over their shoulder, fearing that they will again be made to look utterly foolish as when General Schwartzkopf humiliated them in Gulf War I.
And yet, they cannot help themselves. They *want* the US, and Bush, to lose. They *crave* another Vietnam, the false-nostalgic glory days of their youth. You saw it in the face of Dan Rather, his despair when Bush won election and re-election. His gleeful joy unveiling the forged "Bush papers".
But they are just "ink-stained wretches", as they were called long ago, undereducated, ill-informed, biased and emotionally driven. It is no contest when they fight skilled tacticians and strategists, most of whom are far more educated and capable. Individuals whose very lives are at stake, and who still smart from being undermined by a fifth column in that previous war.
Soldiers who relish not only smiting their vicious and cruel enemy, but also their supporters at home. Who understand that war isn't some juvenile political dirty trick, but changes the world for generations and perhaps the course of history itself.
I am with you 100% on this one. It is unfortunate that in the past the media and the leadership was in charge of ralling the people and keeping moral and the US determination going. The problem since Vietnam is that the Media is outright Anti-american and at best nuetral, the leadership is either unable or unwilling to rally the people Bush just aint going to do it he believes as long as he keeps the war going in the background the moral dont matter wrong, the Power comes from the people not the top. Either way this is the circumstance the military finds today and Todays Battlefield is a fact that the media front is at least 40% or more of the war. In a democracy you must have the peoples support no matter what the circumstance on the battlefield. Point vietnam we won all battles no support at home we Lost, WW2 lost lots of battles many many mistakes costing thousands of lives good moral strong at home the end We Won. Simple put its all about Heart a big guy with no heart will be punked out by a little guy with lots of heart all day everyday. Todays battlefield in the 4th Gen warefare our military is preparing to fight must have PR wing. The Military must make a real plan on how to hold the support of the homefront. They should limit release of info and only give such through Officers who are sent out like emisaries to speak on the many news and talking heads shows. CNN should have to have a Officer on TV to get any tatical info on whats going on in todays or yesterdays operations. No more briefing the public never see and then watered down versions of nit picked info being released by the media to fit thier agenda. The Military should hire if nessecary advertising people to run commercials, movie shorts, and such on the war. People love the History channel military made documentories of battle A with (bring back the old military photo movie writers to do battlefield stuff from a military perspective they did in WW2 and before) these shorts would show the military prespective with some gun camera footage and comentary from a military journalist that knows what the f*ck is actually going on. The other day I saw a short on CNN it was just random shots of americans blowing stuff up a soldgier running around asking holering were the machine gun fire coming from then a shot of a tank blowing a building up with civilians running out dirt all over choas no perspective of what the hell is going on and of course then twice the footage of the reporter talking about herself and the fear and life risk the chaos, WTF not to mention the distortion of what happened but who was it about the war or the reporter?? The military must do and spend whatever it takes buy commercial spots buy time slots for movies hell make movies and give em to the tv stations to run uncut, to make these PR groups commercials showing what ifs we lose would be good pictures of Iraqis saying they need our help some good PR commericals and shorts and Reps full dress Officers giving the military side of things. If the military cant or wont do this they will never win another 4gen war ever. Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq, the list will continue to grow and grow until someone brass wakes up. The F-22 future warfigher and everything else is useless if we cant hold the hearts and minds and keep moral high at the homefront. Nobody will do it but the military, it is the brasses job to recognize todays battlefield and deal with it. Just like when the machine gun came in the generals that didnt understand the old mass formation charges were gone were useless. The Media front is real our enemies see it and are using it to great advantage our military are not even showing up to the freekin battle. I watch these recruiting commercials and wonder why arnt they showing maybe planes crashing into the towers we must win rally the freekin people I know in the past their was shorts before movies and on tv and radio all the time supporting the war showing the Jap Octupus reaching out around the Pacific the HUNs the who the enemy were, where are these rally shorts today??? We need a 4gen warefare media warefare division immediatley. this war is a amazing sucess the fact we have invaded concurred and occupied 2 nations with hostile populations with barely 2000 lost soldgiers is unthinkable unbeleivable. We lost 3000 civilians on 9-11 for gods sake. If we cant hold moral on this war we are done, WW2 today we would have surrendered before the end of the first year. Its the militaries job to adjust to whatever tommorow or todays battlefield requires, Todays battlefield must have a Media front without such it is useless. War is ugly, war is brutal, war is horrible, people die on both side, war will never be bloodless never clean never perfect all of the armour and high tech will not change that ever.And if we cant keep the moral at home all of this is stuff useless props.
I understand the brasses fear of letting regular soldgiers try to take this onto thier soldgiers and report on things. It is bound by accident or otherwise to turn out bad with intelligence slipping to our enemy. But I also understand these soldgiers trying all they can to try to do what the brass wont do recognize todays battle field 4th gen warefare has a big Media front that needs some military showing up for the fight, enemy is already thier entrenched and they are winning 40% or more of this battle by being thier.
#6
It shouldnât be a surprise the DoD is clamping down on unfiltered information emanating from within its own ranks. The war of perception has had more adversaries then on the battlefield itself. The DoD has been behind the eight-ball since the fall of Baghdad. Initially, during the invasion, independent journalists were given the opportunity to become imbedded reporters. For all the criticisms it truly was a win-win solution. For the first time the press had access to real time battlefield action. And the military controlled the prism through which the action was viewed. Most important was that the press had a genuine stake in the coalition success. Since the start of the occupation the press has reverted back to its zero sum approach. The military has had modest, at best, success in overcoming the predictable political bias. And in the end the Jessica Lynch saga wasnât pretty. They must understand the complexities that breed âstructuralâ limitations within the press. Until then they will always be playing catch up. In a world where most stories are framed as a conflict, the âDog that didnât barkâ isnât going to get much airtime.
Someone is lying. Either weâre winning the battles and casualty figures are dropping, which mean the OPSEC people are out of control in their paranoia, or the senior leadership is lying about our successes and casualties on the battlefield and the OPSEC people are right.
I think this is a false dichotomy. Even if casualties are light at the moment and all the battles are being won the military still has an interest in maintaining operational security regarding information in the theater of operations.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/07/2005 22:50 Comments ||
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#8
Furthermore, a lot of the military blogs are off the radar of the general public, as it's only the political junkies (at least in the United States) who are reading these things as an alternative to the MSM. To a large extent it's not changing people's minds, but rather preaching to the choir.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/07/2005 22:59 Comments ||
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British Prime Minister Tony Blair says evidence points to Iranian ties to bombings in Iraq, although Britain does not have definite proof.
"We cannot be sure," Blair told a news conference Thursday, but "there are certain pieces of information that lead us back either to Iranian elements or to Hezbollah."
In a news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in London, Blair repeated what a British official had told a journalists' briefing the previous day. Tehran has denied the accusations.
The official accused Iran of supplying weapons to a Shiite militia in Iraq which were then used to attack British troops, eight of whom have died.
The official said on Wednesday that "elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard" appeared to be involved in smuggling armor-piercing explosives and infrared control mechanisms into southern Iraq.
"What is clear is that there have been new explosive devices used, not just against British troops but elsewhere in Iraq," Blair told the news conference.
"The particular nature of those devices lead us either to Iranian elements or to Hezbollah, because they are similar to the devices used by Hezbollah."
Iran categorically denied this accusation. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi on Wednesday called the claims of Iran's involvement in attacks on British soldiers in southern Iraq and weapon smuggling to that country a "lie."
Hezbollah also rejected any link to the bombs. "The British accusations that the party is the source of the explosives that have targeted the British occupation are lies," the group said in a statement issued in Beirut.
Meanwhile, Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari rejected accusations that Shi'ite Muslim Iran was interfering in Iraq's internal affairs.
Asked about accusations that Iran was interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq, Jaafari told Iranian state television: "Such accusations are baseless and we do not agree with them at all," Reuters reported.
CNN's European Political Editor Robin Oakley said Blair had issued "a warning" to Tehran that the British government "would not be intimidated and it would not stop them raising their objections to an Iranian nuclear program which could lead to Iran acquiring nuclear weapons."
Tensions between London and Tehran have increased in recent weeks due to Britain's tough stance against Iran's nuclear program.
Iran says its activities are purely peaceful. But Britain has increasingly sided with Washington's view that Tehran has failed to dispel doubts that it may be building atomic bombs and should be referred to the U.N. Security Council for international action.
Britain also is embroiled in a controversy over its alleged role in ethnic disturbances in southwestern Iran this year, Reuters reported.
Iranian officials have suggested that those behind a string of bombings that killed seven people in Khuzestan province in June received training from British forces in Iraq.
The British Embassy in Tehran on Wednesday issued a statement denying involvement in the Khuzestan unrest.
"British forces have not interfered with Iranian domestic affairs, and the claimed budget for such activity does not exist," the statement said, referring to increasingly feverish allegations against the British in Tehran's hard-line media.
"British forces are not providing any form of assistance to any Khuzestan dissident group in Iraq."
During Thursday's news conference, Blair and Talabani addressed the issues of establishing democracy and providing security for the Iraqi people.
Blair told Talabani that Britain will maintain a presence in Iraq as long as the country wants it to, and Talabani said the violent insurgency requires the presence of U.S. and British forces.
Blair said Iraqis want democracy and made the point by turning out in droves last January for transitional assembly elections.
"It's so important that we stay the course and see this through," Blair said.
Talabani thanked Britain for its help in ousting Saddam Hussein's regime -- which he called a "concentration camp above ground and a mass grave beneath it."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/07/2005 00:48 ||
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#1
"although Britain does not have definite proof."
"We cannot be sure,"
"appeared to be involved"
"are similar to the devices"
Why would Blair make an announcement loaded with such qualifying statements? To put pressure on Iran? Or to simply create tommorrows Headlines? You make the call.
Blair warns Iran on Iraq bombings- UPI
Iran denies Blair charge of Iraq meddling-AP
Blair suspects Iran in Iraq Blasts- CNN
Was Tony Blair right to warn Iran not to interfere in Iraq?- BBC (opinion poll)
#4
Asked about accusations that Iran was interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq, Jaafari told Iranian state television: "Such accusations are baseless and we do not agree with them at all," Reuters reported.
The investigation into the terrorist threat to bomb city subways moved forward on several fronts Friday as a suspect was arrested in Iraq and authorities looked into whether another had traveled to New York as part of the plot, officials said.
A law-enforcement official familiar with the case said the man's trip to New York was described by an informant who had spent time in Afghanistan and proved reliable in past investigations. "He's been a source of multiple correct information in the past," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. "Does that mean a fourth person he identified is in fact in New York? We don't know that." The official added that authorities had not confirmed whether the fourth man even exists.
Alarmed by the informant's report of a plot to attack city subways with as many as 19 bombs in bags and possibly baby strollers, U.S. forces in Iraq arrested two suspected plotters who had been under close surveillance until Thursday morning, officials said. The third escaped until his arrest Friday. With the men in custody, city officials deployed thousands of additional uniformed and plainclothes officers throughout the subway system, and publicly warned New Yorkers to keep their eyes open for possible threats.
The announcement sparked behind-the-scenes jostling with security officials in Washington, who downplayed the threat and suggested that Mayor Michael Bloomberg may have overreacted. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vigorously defended their reaction Friday. "We did exactly the right thing," Kelly said.
Those arrested had received explosives training in Afghanistan, a law-enforcement official said Friday. They had planned to travel through Syria to New York, and then meet with an unspecified number of operatives to carry out the bombings. The official said the threat was "specific to place," and that the window for the attack was anywhere from Friday through at least the weekend.
A federal official said one of the suspects arrested in Iraq apparently told interrogators that more than a dozen people were involved in the plot, and that they were of various nationalities, including Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis, the official said. "There could be one or many," the official said, who had been briefed on the case and spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. "We just don't know. There may not be any."
Kelly, Bloomberg and other city officials declined to release details of the alleged plot, saying much of the information was classified. Bloomberg called the plot report the most specific terrorist threat that New York officials had received to date and said it was essential that authorities err on the side of caution when protecting the city of 8 million people. "If I'm going to make a mistake you can rest assured it is on the side of being cautious," Bloomberg said at a news conference, flanked by Kelly.
A law-enforcement official said the informant had failed parts of a polygraph test but appeared to be telling the truth in response to questions dealing with the alleged plot. But Homeland Security officials in Washington said the threat is of "doubtful credibility."
President Bush said Friday that New York City officials exercised their own prerogative in publicizing the threat. Asked if he thought New York officials had overreacted, Bush said: "I think they took the information we gave and made the judgments they thought were necessary."
Gov. George Pataki said Thursday the state would call up hundreds of National Guard troops and ask Connecticut and New Jersey to patrol commuter trains.
#1
OU ballgame, NY subways... is this the great Ramadan offensive? I heard something about a Washington Monument bomb threat too. Glad law enforcement seems to be doing a pretty good job of apprehending the mutts.
Posted by: Sheik Abu Bin Ali Al-Yahood ||
10/07/2005 17:29 Comments ||
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#2
I hope the arrests were made by the NYPD. ("Youse have da right to remain silent as long as youse can stand da pain.")
Posted by: Matt ||
10/07/2005 17:40 Comments ||
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#3
of course, the press is screaming: "Too much" "Not enough" assholes who aren't accountable to anyone are already second-guessing those who are
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/07/2005 17:41 Comments ||
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#4
Elliot Spitzer is waiting to file a lawsuit against someone. It must be confusing though.
#5
U.S. forces in Iraq arrested two suspected plotters who had been under close surveillance until Thursday morning, officials said. The third escaped until his arrest Friday.
WND, add salt, EFL:The warrant used to execute a search of Oklahoma University bomber Joel "Henry" Hinrichs III's apartment, where an undetermined amount of explosives were found, has been sealed by a federal court at the request of the Justice Department. Hinrichs blew himself up yards from Oklahoma Memorial Stadium Saturday night while tens of thousands of fans watched an OU-Kansas State football game.
Bob Troester, first assistance U.S. attorney in Oklahoma City, said the department requested the warrant be sealed, but declined to elaborate when asked why it was necessary to do so given previous media reports that a depressed Hinrichs acted alone and on a whim. "You can draw whatever assumption you like," he said. "We don't comment on any sealed indictments."
It's almost like they have something to hide
Troester also said he could not divulge details about what items were found inside Hinrichs' home, and he could not say if or when the warrant would be unsealed at some point in the future. The attorney did confirm the incident was still "currently being investigated," but again declined to provide any specifics.
"I can say no more"
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 10:58 ||
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#2
Maybe not just a depressed engineering student. From Counterterrorism Blog (via Off Wing Opinion ):
A first report states that Joel Hinrichs may have tried to enter the football stadium from two different gates. He reportedly had a ticket to the game. The most concrete piece of information in the report comes from a student who says that a security guard working gate security told him that a young man with a backpack had tried to enter the stadium. When the guard tried to search the backpack, he says that the man wearing the backpack sprinted away. This is not a usual occurrence at Oklahoma University football games; the clear implication is that it may have been Hinrichs who sprinted off.
#8
Possibily worried about any bad press before Texas-OU game tomorrow.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 16:17 Comments ||
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#9
KKTV in Hinrichs' hometown of Colorado Springs has reported that the bomb he carried was detonated via a wireless device. While certainly not dispositive, that fact suggests strongly that he did not act alone and would likely account for the sealed warrant.
#10
It also raises the question of whether he was an enthusiastic participant or either more passive (not uncommon with deeply depressed people) or even under some duress.
The White House has dismissed as "absurd" allegations made in a BBC TV series that President Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq.
"He's never made such comments," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
The comments were attributed to Mr Bush by the Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath in the upcoming TV series Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs.
Mr Shaath said that in a 2003 meeting with Mr Bush, the US president said he was "driven with a mission from God".
Holy war?
"President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq... And I did.
"'And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I'm gonna do it.'"
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who attended the meeting in June 2003 too, also appears on the documentary series to recount how Mr Bush told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state."
The TV series charts recent attempts to bring peace to the Middle East, from former US President Bill Clinton's peace talks in 1999-2000 to Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this year.
It seeks to uncover what happened behind closed doors by speaking to presidents and prime ministers, along with their generals and ministers.
Security in and around New York City's subways was sharply increased yesterday after city officials said they were notified by federal authorities in Washington of a terrorist threat that for the first time specifically named the city's transit system. The measures were announced by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, along with Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and the head of the New York F.B.I. office, Mark J. Mershon, after an American military operation with the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. in Iraq yesterday and Wednesday, according to law enforcement officials. The operation, the officials said, was aimed at disrupting the threat.
Some officials in Washington, in interviews last night, played down the nature of the threat. While not entirely dismissing it, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security described it as "specific yet noncredible," adding that the intelligence community had concluded that the information was of "doubtful credibility." Several law enforcement officials said an investigation had yet to corroborate any of the details.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the operation in Iraq resulted in two people being taken into custody. They said a third was being sought. Information about the threat, the officials said, came to light last weekend from an intelligence source who told federal authorities that the three men in Iraq had planned to meet with other operatives in New York. One official said the group would number roughly a dozen. Another official said the total was closer to 20 people involved.
ABC News reported late Thursday that both the New York Police Department and FBI have received "credible" information that "19 operatives have been deployed to the city to place bombs in the subway." The network said that the "19 operatives were to place improvised explosive devices in the subways using briefcases, according to two sources." 19. A magic number to the islamofacists.
The men planned to use strollers, briefcases and packages to hide a number of bombs that they planned to detonate on the subways. "It was a conspiracy involving more than a dozen people aimed at delivering a number of devices into the subway," one of the officials said.
One official said the information suggested an attack could happen as early as today; another pointed to the middle of the month. "This is a piece of information that came in as a result of operations that go on all the time and to corroborate that information or not we had to go after certain people," one official said.
Mr. Mershon said: "F.B.I. agents and other U.S. government personnel continue to work around the clock to fully resolve this particular threat. Thus far, there is nothing that has surfaced in that investigation or those enforcement actions which has corroborated an actual threat to the city."
Mayor Bloomberg seemed to try to inform New Yorkers without alarming them. He said that while the threat was not corroborated, it was specific enough to warrant an immediate and overwhelming response.
"It was more specific as to target; it was more specific as to timing, and some of the sources had more information that would lead one to believe that it was not the kind of thing that appears in the intelligence community every day," Mr. Bloomberg said. The mayor urged New Yorkers to continue riding the subways, as he said he would, but cautioned them to be watchful, saying several times, "If you see something, say something."
As he spoke, thousands of city police officers were swarming the transit system. An officer will be assigned to each subway station, and Commissioner Kelly said the Police Department is significantly stepping up uniformed and plainclothes patrols, increasing sweeps through subway cars and posting officers at each subway tunnel that passes beneath city waterways. The department's heavily armed "Hercules teams" and other specialized units will also focus on the transit system, he said.
Bag searches will also be significantly increased, the commissioner said, with a focus on briefcases, baby strollers, luggage and other packages and containers, and he asked subway riders to curtail their use. The searches will take place not only on the subways, but also on buses and ferries, and the Police Department has coordinated the increased scrutiny with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, New Jersey Transit, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Amtrak.
Mr. Kelly used narcotics detectives from Brooklyn and Queens and other investigators from the department's Warrant Division to increase security in the subways. Officers mobilized at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Mr. Bloomberg, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Mershon would not discuss the events in Iraq, or where they had occurred, saying that it was classified.
Counterterrorism officials in Washington said the information received this week was highly specific, including details about the possible use of suitcase bombs and explosives hidden in strollers. That information, along with the more general concern that terrorists might stage an attack modeled on the July bombings in London, prompted immediate concern, the officials said. On an average weekday, an estimated 4.7 million rides are taken on New York's subway system, which has 468 stations.
Russ Knocke, a spokesman for Homeland Security, said the credibility of the threat was still to be determined. He said Homeland Security "received intelligence information regarding a specific but noncredible threat to the New York City subway system." Mr. Knocke said Homeland Security shared the information "early on with state and local authorities in New York," adding, "There are no plans to alter the national threat level or the threat level in New York City." He would not say any more about content of the threat or the origin of the information.
Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's deputy commissioner of public information, would not discuss whether or not the source information suggested that operatives were in New York. He would only say, "We're looking at all aspects of this case."
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, city and national law enforcement authorities have at times reacted differently to similar threat information. In part, this is because of the varying roles that different agencies play. The New York Police Department, for example, is responsible for protecting the city and its subways and therefore is more likely to act quickly. The F.B.I.'s prime antiterrorism mission, on the other hand, is thwarting plots and apprehending any suspected terrorists - a task that is almost always complicated by information becoming public. But yesterday, city and F.B.I. officials in New York stood side by side and seemed to present a similar message. Officials from Homeland Security did not take part in the briefing.
Of the information from Iraq, one official said: "Suffice it to say it was credible enough for us to be working it very hard and very diligently literally around the clock and around the world. Sometimes it looks incredibly detailed, and then it washes out into nothing, and sometimes pretty vague in nature and it turns into something real - you can't know until you go through the process, and we're going through the process."
William A. Morange, the transportation authority's security director, who is a member of a citywide counterterrorism task force, was informed several days ago about the threat, said Tom Kelly, a spokesman. "We were kept well apprised of all the developments since earlier this week," Mr. Kelly said.
The Police Department also put into effect a broad range of measures aimed at stepping up security around the city that did not address the specific threat, but were aimed at tightening the city's security cordon. They included increased truck searches on East River crossings and banning trucks from the Brooklyn Bridge. The department will also increase the use of radiation detectors, and detectives from the department's Intelligence Division will check parking lots and garages in Manhattan and in other areas of the city.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/07/2005 00:46 ||
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#2
You fâ-ing can't stop us now; it's too late."
To defend: this is the pact. But when life loses its meaning and is taken for naught, then the pact is to avenge!
Heavy Metal (1981)
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 16:21 Comments ||
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#3
"You fâ-ing can't stop us now; it's too late."
The denizens of Gotham City are paying attention. This morning someone reported what turned out to be a soda can oozing green liquid (Mountain Dew? I wonder), and the station was shut down for two hours while chemical-suited investigators isolated and investigated the item. I only hope they don't catch someone in Brooklyn or the Bronx -- he wouldn't be likely to make it above ground unharmed.
IRAQ'S al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi says militants are justified under Islam in killing civilians as long as they are infidels, according to an audio tape attributed to him today.
"Islam does not differentiate between civilians and military (targets) but rather distinguishes between Muslims and infidels," said the man on the tape posted on the internet, who sounded like Zarqawi.
"Muslim blood must be spared ... but it is permissible to spill infidel blood," the speaker said.
The comments appeared a day after the Pentagon said it had obtained a letter to Zarqawi from al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, saying tactics being used such as bombing mosques and killing hostages might alienate the Muslim masses.
"In this letter, he talks about believing that the eventual governance of Iraq must include the Muslim masses, and that they are at risk of alienating those," Pentagon spokesman Brian Whitman told reporters in Washington yesterday.
Zarqawi's group has been fighting US forces and their Shi'ite allies who gained power after the 2003 US-led war ousted Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim.
Osama bin Laden's Iraq-based ally has declared all-out war against the Shi'ites, saying they were heretics who allied themselves with the enemies of Islam to seize control of Iraq.
Today's tape was posted on a website which usually carries statements and video tapes from al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq.
The speaker said the concept of Jihad (holy struggle) was coming under distorting attacks by "the enemies of Islam" trying to portray it as a tool "for spreading bloodshed and destruction".
"Many Muslims have been affected by this campaign and they began shying away from using this term (jihad) for fear of being accused of terrorism. They instead replaced it with the term resistance.
"This has tarnished Jihad and its supporters and led to the inclusion of factions that have nothing to do with Jihad such as the rejectionist (Shi'ite) Hizbollah, Fatah movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine," he said, referring to the Lebanese and Palestinian guerrilla groups.
"All this has been done under the pretext that whoever defends his country against the enemy and fights an occupier is involved in resistance. But Jihad is much deeper than that."
Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for a series of killings, hostage beheadings and most major suicide bombings in Iraq, including the bombings of the UN headquarters in Baghdad and the Shi'ite Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf in 2003.
#3
Yeah. Jihad is real deep and special. Mix it with Juche (which I think is nork for extreme self-delusion) and you're bound to go far in this world. Sounds like there are some really odd AQ family dynamics at play.
#4
I think this is tearing support away from AQ. I also think The founders know this now but are now powerless to prevent it from happening. They turned this self appointed prince loose and now are going to rue it.
Look for some attempted or successful AQ attack outside of Iraq to devert attention from what is the true face of AQ and how it will treat other allenists.
Baghdad, 7 Oct. (AKI) - The director of the Iraqi interior ministry, Adnan Hadi al-Asadi, has announced that they have dismantled a network composed of staff from the ministry itself who were supplying reserved security information to terror groups. During a news conference held at the ministry on Thursday, Asadi said that "those people provided information to terrorists regarding the movements of the police, the times and places the new recruits met and were trained, so they could carry out attacks on them."
That explains why all those boomers at recruiting stations had such a easy time.
Asadi did not reveal the number of people involved in the network, their administrative grade within the ministry or the posts they held, but admitted to "the existence of administrative corruption problems within the ministry which have led to the arrest of many of those involved, including an army general."
Anyone want to bet he was a left-over from Sammys army, included for political correctness?
Asadi explained that "all the police cars will be equipped with detectors to indicate their movements and their location while in service, so that they can be reached in case of emergency or identified if they are usd to carry out robberies or other crimes."
GPS trackers, excellent idea
The director-general of the interior ministry went on to reveal that "the ministry intends to issue new passes to its staff containing new advanced security filters which will make them harder to forge," and that they will soon use "equipment to detect from a distance the presence of explosives which could be used in crowded areas."
Iraqi police, soldiers and new recruits to the security services have borne the brunt of insurgent attacks around the country since the US-led invasion in 2003. Police recruits were among ten killed on Thursday when a suicide bomber boarded a bus near the oil ministry and the main police academy in Baghdad.
Hope they make a painful example out of these bastards
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 10:37 ||
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Sounds like the old coded documents trick. Always a favorite, it does such a nice, specific job of outing the leaks...
October 7, 2005: Arab troops are joining in the war on terror. Aside from conducting operations on their own soil (essentially âregime protectionâ missions), there are indications that some Arab countries have done more than just verbally support U.S., NATO, and Coalition forces in the war on terror. Apparently small contingents of special operations (commandoes) personnel (usually platoons or companies of 50 â150 troops) from a number of Arab states, have seen action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and perhaps elsewhere. In addition, a number of Arab countries have contributed cadres to support the training of Iraqi military and security forces, and some have even opened their own military training camps to Iraqi personnel.
These activities benefit the countries involved in a number of ways. For one thing, they cement ties with the US and the emergent governments in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, the commitments provide valuable training and experience for their own armed forces, which may prove useful for domestic internal security purposes.
News about these activities is not being widely disseminated, mainly because public opinion in many Arab countries is still pro-terrorist.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 10:19 ||
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#1
Public opinion is still pro terrorist.
Yeah, you gotta love those street thugs terrorising your parents, wife and kids.
(((((terrorists)))))
#2
i doubt there are many arab countries other than maybe KSA where public opinion is mainly pro-AQ. It would be more accurate to say its anti-US (outside of Iraq, Kuwait, and Lebanon)
October 7, 2005: Iraqi anti-government groups range from nationalistic secular Baathists, usually composed of personnel associated with Saddam Husseinâs regime, to transnational religious radicals linked to Al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups. These hold to mutually exclusive visions of what Iraqâs future ought to be. This is by no means an unusual situation in what amounts to a civil war. Historically, few revolutionary or resistance movements have had a unified base. Success in such movements is usually directly linked to their ability to create a common set of principles for which they are fighting, in effect, to form a âfrontâ uniting all resistance groups. After attaining victory, these fronts usually melt down, either into politics as usual (the American Revolution, the French Resistance during World War II, etc.) or civil war (e.g., most Latin American revolutions) or bloody purges (e.g., most Communist-led revolutions). So far, in Iraq, the various anti-government groups have not been able to forge a common front. However, recently there have been indications that Al-Qaeda has attracted the support of some former Baath officials and Saddamite military personnel. How serious this trend may be is difficult to assess. There have been clashes between various insurgent groups in the past, and just within the last week a prominent Al-Qaeda leader in al Anbar province was reportedly assassinated by Baathists.
As expected, the al Qaeda terrorists made a spectacular attacks against a Shia mosque to mark the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. A car bomb killed 25 people outside a Shia mosque in the largely Shia town of Hilla, 95 kilometers south of Baghdad. That attacks, on October 5th, was followed by another one yesterday in Baghdad, that killed ten. But those are the only two car bomb attacks in the past two days. Despite the al Qaeda call for an âall out war on Shiasâ last month, and the death of several hundred Shia civilians in suicide attacks, the Shia are not crying for revenge. Thatâs because they are already getting it. Thousands of Shia Arab police and soldiers are operating with American troops in Sunni Arab areas of central Iraq. As a result, more car bombs are being found, and seized, than are being used by terrorists. The Shia Arab security forces are operating with a purpose, and getting valuable combat experience, in these operations. The Shia Arab troops know that each terrorist bomb they capture, is one less that will be used against their own people. The Shia Arab cops have an easier time picking out the Sunni Arab terrorists from the people rounded up in the vicinity of captured car bomb workshops or weapons caches. Lots more of those workshops and caches have been seized in the last few months, because of the rapidly expanding informer network inside the Sunni Arab community. The terrorists are losing control of the population, making it possible to use more local informants for information on where the terrorists, and their weapons, are. This has apparently led to a shortage of suicide bombs, for there have been no multiple suicide car bomb attacks like there was earlier in the year.
The expanding use of Iraqi police and soldiers has also led to passing control of areas to Iraqi commands. This month, the Iraqi 6th infantry division too over military control of Baghdad. Last month, Iraqi security forces assumed control of the southern city of Karbala (the home of many Shia shrines and holy places.) More such transfers of control will take place each month. This is scaring the Sunni Arab minority like nothing else. Control of the army and police was, for generations, the cornerstone of Sunni Arab control of Iraq. With Shia Arab and Kurdish police and soldiers taking effective control of more and more of the country, and working with American troops to root out Sunni Arab terrorist operations, the Sunni Arabs see their dream of regaining control of the country fading away, and turning into a nightmare of democracy and majority rule.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 10:12 ||
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How can this be?, the teevee says there is no good news in Iraq.
British forces have detained 12 people in southern Iraq suspected of links to a surge in attacks against allied troops, the Ministry of Defence said. Maj Steven Melbourne said there were "certain individuals" the army needed to question over the assaults. Sources told the BBC some of those detained were Iraqi policemen. The raid came two weeks after UK armoured vehicles smashed down the walls of a Basra police station, sparking protests in the city.
The BBC's Caroline Hawley, in Baghdad, said sources told her the arrested officers were from the same Basra police station. Maj Stevens said in a statement: "There was a single raid last night in Basra in which 12 individuals were detained and an amount of weapons were confiscated. "This was in response to attacks on multi-national forces in the last couple of weeks."
Iraqi police and followers of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr have told our correspondent the men were detained after a raid on a private house. They said some of the detained, who are thought to be supporters of Mr Sadr, were police officers and others were civilians. British officials have expressed fears in the past that Shia militias have infiltrated the local police.
Mr Sadr and his followers, known as the Mehdi Army, have long opposed foreign troops' presence in Iraq. There were no reports of violence during Friday's raid.
The second-ranking leader of Al Qaeda has warned the top militant in Iraq that attacks on civilians and videotaped executions committed by his followers threaten to jeopardize the broader extremist cause, a senior United States official said Thursday.
The warning, from Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was spelled out in a 6,000-word letter, dated early in July, that was obtained by American forces conducting counterterrorism operations in Iraq, the official said in a briefing.
Mr. Zawahiri said that Iraq had become "the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era," but that Mr. Zarqawi's forces should keep in mind that it was only a stepping stone toward a broader victory for militant Islam across the Middle East.
"The mujahedeen must not have their mission end with the expulsion of the Americans from Iraq, and then lay down their weapons, and silence the fighting zeal," Mr. Zawahiri said in the letter, according to a partial translation provided by the official, who declined to provide verbatim translations of anything more than three sentences from the document. Under the ground rules for the briefing, the official cannot be identified.
The official said Mr. Zawahiri also warned that Mr. Zarqawi's forces should concentrate their attacks on Americans rather than on Iraqi civilians, and should refrain from the kind of gruesome beheadings and other executions that have been posted on Qaeda Web sites. Those executions have been condemned in parts of the Muslim world as violating tenets of the faith.
The official said the letter was made public on Thursday after the government learned that CBS News and NBC News were preparing broadcasts based on partial descriptions of its contents.
The official would not say when or how American forces had obtained the communication, or whether it was in electronic or printed form. But he said he had "the highest confidence of its authenticity," which he said had been verified by "multiple sources over an extended period of time."
The letter outlines what the official described as a comprehensive and chilling strategic vision for Qaeda.
It includes a four-stage battle plan, beginning with the American military's expulsion, followed by the establishment of a militant Islamic caliphate across Iraq before moving to Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. The final step would be a battle against Israel.
Confirmation of the letter's existence came on a day that President Bush delivered a major speech on terrorism, but the official said the decision to disclose the letter was made independently of the speech.
The letter provides the most significant glimpse into the relationship between Mr. Zarqawi, the self-described leader of the group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and the original leaders of the terrorist movement since a communication sent by Mr. Zarqawi was intercepted in early 2004.
Mr. Zawahiri is considered second only to Osama bin Laden in Al Qaeda's hierarchy, but the letter makes no mention of Mr. bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
Mr. Zarqawi, almost unknown to American intelligence until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has emerged as by far the most active and dangerous of the Islamic militants waging campaigns against the United States.
The letter represents the first clear indication of concern among Qaeda leaders about the tactics used by Mr. Zarqawi and his followers in Iraq, and how these violent methods might undermine popular support for Al Qaeda's cause.
The letter states that even Mr. Zarqawi's admirers among Muslim commentators had questioned the wisdom of attacks by the predominantly Sunni Arab insurgents against Iraq's majority Shiite population, and it noted that half the battle against the Americans was played out in the media.
In addition, Mr. Zawahiri reminded Mr. Zarqawi that there were other, less grisly methods of killing captives than beheadings, and said execution by gunfire would be sufficient.
Although he urged less violent tactics to establish Al Qaeda's goals in Iraq, Mr. Zawahiri reiterated the disdain previously voiced by the Sunni-dominated terrorist organization against Shiites. He accused the Shiites of cooperating with the enemies of Islam and predicted a collision between Sunnis and Shiites in the Sunni-dominated caliphate he wishes to establish. The original caliphs were secular and religious leaders of Islam who succeeded the Prophet Muhammad.
The American official said the letter's overall tone was polite, but there was no doubt that Mr. Zawahiri regarded himself as the superior in their relationship. Still, the letter sought a small sum of money as a contribution to Qaeda operations.
The official said the letter seemed to suggest that the men were not in close, regular contact. Among other things, Mr. Zawahiri expressed a desire for more detailed information about the state of the insurgency in Iraq, and of its impact on Iraqis and American forces.
The official said that he did not believe that Mr. Zawahiri had intended the letter to become public and noted that it included sentiments that had not previously appeared on Qaeda Web sites or other communications from Mr. bin Laden, Mr. Zawahiri or other top leaders.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/07/2005 00:50 ||
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#5
"The official said Mr. Zawahiri also warned that Mr. Zarqawi's forces should concentrate their attacks on Americans rather than on Iraqi civilians, and should refrain from the kind of gruesome beheadings and other executions that have been posted on Qaeda Web sites."
Unfortunately, attacks narrowed to Coalition and Iraqi forces are both tougher to execute and generate fewer headlines. First and foremost Al-Qaeda needs newsworthy hits (and lots of them) or the perception will be that they're losing. When that perception takes hold they will lose support in and out of Iraq.
Typical of a semi-literate society. Those who can read and write have to show off that ability. Amongst those who can, there is competition to show who is more literate, leading to missives full of flowery literary and historical allusion, but containing very little meat. Ayman al-Zawahiri had to take the time to write so many words, or he'd lose face to a subordinate. And I'm sure our analysts aren't complaining -- lots of information in subconscious choice of allusions, if one's inclined in that direction. ;-)
Up to 10 Iraqis were killed and 10 others were wounded on Thursday when a booby-trapped car driven by a suicide bomber exploded near the Oil Ministry in eastern Baghdad, police sources said. The sources added in a statement that this was the preliminary toll, adding that several civilian cars were damaged in the explosion.
Meanwhile, police sources said a suicide bomber attacked an SUV convoy in Baghdad, killing eight Iraqi civilians. Furthermore, a multi-national force source said in a statement that a US soldier was killed when an explosive canister planted on the side of the road blew up near his patrol vehicle in western Baghdad. In Kirkuk, a police source said militants assassinated retired police brigadier Nabeel Sharaf-Eddin and his two-year-old daughter while driving in the city center. The source added that the brigadier's wife was wounded in the attack.
Also in Kirkuk, a large fire broke out in one of the crude oil pipelines in Kirkuk after an explosive device went off. A security source said that unknown militants had attacked the pipeline in the Biggi refinery, adding that fire brigade teams were currently trying to control the fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2005 00:00 ||
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As many as 30 gunmen on Thursday attacked a number of police checkpoints in the Mohammed Al-Qassem Highway in central Baghdad. Eyewitnesses told KUNA the gunmen stepped out of their cars and opened fire at the police checkpoints. They said the clashes lasted for half an hour. No reports on casualties were available. Patrols of Iraqi army and US troops, who were rushed to the scene, cordoned off the whole area and kept civilians out of it.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Three people were wounded Thursday when a car bomb exploded in the Al-Nidal Street in central Baghdad. A police source said the car bomb targeted a convoy of jeep cars, usually used by foreign contractors and security guards. The attacks damaged one jeep car. No casualties were reported among passengers of the jeep cars.
I've read up on this, so I can state with authority that if you boom yourself and no infidels are killed, you don't get 72 virgins. They let you have a half dozen doe-eyed houris after everybody else is done with them, but only for 20 minutes, and you have to pay cash.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2005 00:00 ||
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YATTA, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian police went door-to-door early Friday in this West Bank town, arresting 30 suspected criminals in one of the biggest moves toward restoring law and order in the chaos-ridden Palestinian territories. But in a sign of ongoing lawlessness, an unknown group said it had kidnapped three leaders of the Islamic group Hamas in three West Bank towns. In a leaflet, the al-Farouk bin al-Khatab Brigades accused Hamas of putting itself above the law. Hamas, however, accused Palestinian security agents of arranging the kidnappings.
Palestinian security forces have been severely weakened by nearly five years of fighting with Israel, corruption and internal rivalries, leaving them virtually powerless to stop militants and armed gangs in the Palestinian areas. But since Israel's withdrawal last month from the Gaza Strip, where lawlessness is most severe, Palestinians have increasingly demanded a restoration of order.
Threatened by the instability, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has ordered his forces to rein in criminals and enforce a ban on public displays of weapons, leading to fierce gunbattles with Hamas militants. In the toughest fighting, three Palestinians, including a policeman, were killed in one battle this week.
More than 200 policemen participated in Friday's arrest raid in Yatta, searching for drug and arms dealers and other wanted criminals, said Ahmed Rabai, the Hebron-area police chief. Village residents said they could not recall such a heavy crackdown by Palestinian police. Police raided the village before dawn, surrounded homes and called on suspects to surrender. Homes were searched and illegal weapons were confiscated.
"This campaign was ordered by political leaders to enforce law and order and to bring justice to normal Palestinians and make the Palestinian people feel safe," Rabai said. "This campaign will continue not only in Yatta town, but also in other villages and in the city of Hebron itself."
Israel and the United States have demanded that Abbas rein in militants. Abbas has been reluctant to take such a step, fearing civil war, and has tried to co-opt the groups. But the growing chaos may be forcing Abbas to act.
In the latest unrest, three local Hamas leaders in the West Bank were taken from their homes at gunpoint late Thursday, though one of them, Riad Abdel Karim al-Raz, was freed early Friday. The other two men, Bassem Abeido of Hebron and Hassan Safi of Bethlehem, remained in custody. The Khatab Brigades claimed responsibility for the abductions.
"This is a response to Hamas' violations and disregard for law and order and their attacks on security institutions and Palestinian leaders. We warn Hamas and ask them to stop their policy and learn their lessons. This is our first response," the group said in a leaflet obtained by The Associated Press.
"This is his claim, his threatening and my message."
Hamas is in a power struggle with the ruling Fatah movement ahead of January parliamentary elections, and since Israel's pullout from Gaza, Hamas has become increasingly brazen in challenging Abbas.
Yummm, popcorn
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, accused Abbas' security forces of carrying out the kidnappings. "We denounce the kidnappings, and we hold the Palestinian Authority security apparatus responsible. They are responsible for protecting all Palestinian people, including Hamas."
But Fatah officials and militants with the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group linked to Fatah, denied involvement in the abductions.
Little is known about the Khatab Brigades, named after one of the first followers of the Prophet Mohammed.
Karim, the Hamas leader in Tulkarem, said after his release Friday that he had no idea who kidnapped him or what they wanted. "People came and took me by force. They didn't treat me well, and then they apologized and told he I would be taken home," he said. Karim, head of the engineering department at A-Najah University in Nablus, suffered a black eye and had his shirt torn by his captors.
The lawlessness is also of concern to Israel, Army Chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz said in an interview published Friday in the Jerusalem Post.
"Anarchy puts the Palestinian Authority in grave danger," Halutz told the English-language daily. "The anarchy today is a consequence of the Palestinian Authority's unpreparedness to tackle the problem when it was small. They are still doing too little, but I hope it isn't too late."
He said with a sly grin
The issue is expected to arise at a summit next week between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian negotiator, met with Dov Weisglass, Sharon's top adviser, to prepare for the summit Friday.
Erekat said the Israelis want to see progress on security matters, while the Palestinians are pushing for the release of prisoners held by Israel, full control of the Gaza-Egypt border and a resumption of peace talks. Although Israel left Gaza, it has refused to allow the Palestinians to open their own border crossing with Egypt. Erekat said progress was made during Friday's meeting, and that he and Weisglass would meet one more time before the summit, expected on Tuesday.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 09:40 ||
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#1
"But in a sign of ongoing lawlessness, an unknown group said it had kidnapped three leaders of the Islamic group Hamas in three West Bank towns. In a leaflet, the al-Farouk bin al-Khatab Brigades accused Hamas of putting itself above the law. '
#5
"A spokesman for the security forces denied the claim, but a senior security official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the involvement of the security services and members of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.
He said the abductions were meant as a warning to Hamas to lie low following a series of deadly clashes between its gunmen and police in Gaza."
S**t. now Hamas CANT lie low, or they'll lose face completely. So expect the festivities to intensify. Showdown at the OK corral time.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/07/2005 16:57 Comments ||
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#7
I'll run to the store and get some.
But you guys DO understand, this means Abbas IS doing what some have said he'd never do?
I guess im taking a tad different approach - to some of you guys this is just red on red violence - I actually take sides on this one - and Im just a tad nervous the Abbas side doesnt have the muscle to win. The statement I quoted is like waving red cloth in front of a bull - I PRESUME that Mo Dahlan wouldnt ok it (or make it) if he didnt have the troops ready to back it up - but (And sorry if this sounds bigoted) with Arabs you never know.
#8
Abbas isn't going to win, liberalhawk. He isn't vicious enough. If he were going to win, there would have been blood flowing in the gutters of both the West Bank and Gaza within a week after Arafat was put in the ground, and you wouldn't be now asking the question. We're just going to have to wait out the red-on-red stage, and see who is left standing. Maybe then the new strongman will allow democracy and rule of law... but I don't think we should spend any effort to interrupt the process, as it would only delay the inevitable. Israel could help things along by continuing the targetted assassinations, though.
#9
We''l see, LH. Methinks that this is just an 'attention-getter' to induce Hamas to enter talks with PA/Fatah. Once that happens (regardless of whether they are productive or not), the pressure will stop.
Make Mine with extra butter.
The number of Palestinians slain in vigilante killings and other internal violence has nearly quadrupled in four years, from 43 in 2002 to 151 so far in 2005, according to statistics presented Thursday, and one top security official said more Palestinians were killed in internal violence this year than by Israeli troops. Does this mean we have to start sending pizzas to the Paleos?
Nah, they turn themselves into street pizzas without our help.
The descent into lawlessness is hurting Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas politically, at a time when he is trying to beat back a tough challenge by his Islamic militant rivals. This week, a Palestinian parliament frustrated with armed gangs and corrupt police officers ordered Abbas to disband his Cabinet and make crime-fighting his top priority. "The security situation is deteriorating in a very dangerous way, with no one putting a stop to it," said Hassan Khreisheh, the deputy parliament speaker.
In the most recent incident, a Gaza taxi driver was killed Sunday by gunmen affiliated with Abbas' ruling Fatah movement. At the time, a group of drivers was blocking a junction in southern Gaza to protest rising fuel prices. The gunmen demanded the junction be cleared, then opened fire, killing 30-year-old Yasser Barakeh. Abbas promised Barakeh's family he would track down the killers, but no arrests have been made.
Late Thursday, armed men kidnapped a Palestinian professor known as a Hamas political leader from his West Bank home, his wife said. Palestinians said it was part of an internal conflict. The Israeli military said it had no part in the abduction of the professor, Riad al-Raz, 47, head of the engineering department at A-Najah University in Nablus.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
The growing chaos is, in part, an outgrowth of nearly five years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. The conflict strengthened armed gangs and weakened the Palestinian security forces, who were initially targeted by Israeli troops. With the breakdown of law, many Palestinians have returned to tribal justice to settle disputes. Some security commanders have become war lords, using the men under their command for personal gain or illegal enterprises, such as weapons deals or extortion. In many cases, policemen are moonlighting as gunmen in militias. The overlap is particularly pronounced in the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has ties to Fatah.
Abbas, meanwhile, has shied away from confronting the armed groups for fear of civil war. However, his attempt to get armed men off the streets with promises of jobs and political participation has had only limited success. Abbas' security chief, Interior Minister Nasser Yousef, argues he can't fight crime without a political decision to confront the armed groups. "When Hamas keeps its military wing, then Fatah will say, we have the right to do the same," said Yousef's spokesman, Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, referring to unauthorized armed gangs linked to the ruling party. "That's what makes it so difficult for the interior minister to fight chaos and implement the law."
Not having a spine also makes it difficult.
Abu Khoussa said that in 2005, more Palestinians were killed by fellow Palestinians than in fighting with Israel. He did not provide figures, but his claim was backed up by the Independent Commission for Human Rights, an independent Palestinian group. Someone you can trust; they're "independent."
The growing chaos is quickly turning into Abbas' biggest political headache - even more than the threat from Hamas which is poised to do well in January parliament elections. This week, angry legislators gave Abbas two weeks to present a new Cabinet and focus on battling crime, even ahead of negotiations with Israel. "KAOS Chaos is the most dangerous threat Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are facing now," ... And Maxwell Smart just died.
... said Palestinian analyst Hani al-Masri. "If the Palestinian Authority doesn't take hard steps to protect us from chaos, it will collapse."
Majed Arouri, a researcher for the group, said 151 Palestinians have been slain in internal violence or as a result of reckless behavior by militants in 2005 so far. For example, the Palestinian-on-Palestinian death toll rose sharply in September when 22 Palestinians were killed when rockets exploded inadvertently at a Hamas military parade. By comparison, 140 Palestinians were killed by Israel Defense Forces troops during the same period, Arouri said.
According to an Associated Press count, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire stands at 127 in 2005 so far, while the Palestinian Health Ministry said the total number was closer to 200. AP does not keep a count of Palestinians killed in internal violence. "We're Journalism majors; we can't count that high."
"But you should believe us anyway."
Statistics about deaths during the five years of Palestinian-Israeli violence are imprecise because of several factors, including differing methods of categorization and conflicting claims of responsibility and blame for many of the deaths. Arouri said there has been a sharp increase in vigilante killings and other slayings of Palestinians by Palestinians in recent years. In 2002, there were 43 such killings, compared to 56 in 2003 and 93 in 2004, he said. I like that trend. Better that Paleos die than, well, just about anyone else.
#1
Well no surprise. After all, barbaric murder IS the basic hallmark of Paleo-ism. They don't have any distinctive language, culture, or artistic traditions....
Posted by: Sheik Abu Bin Ali Al-Yahood ||
10/07/2005 3:52 Comments ||
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Wait, there've been claims of Palestinian culture and artistic traditions? The heck're those supposed supposed to be???
Oh, here 's something VERY interesting, sorry for the essential repost:
a couple of days ago about 40 PA policemen stormed the PA parliament, firing in the air to protest the humiliation the police are facing because of attacks by Hamas militants, a day after a fierce clash between the cops and Hamas in Gaza and nearby Shati refugee camp when Hamas gunmen attacked the local police station with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, killing the camp's deputy police chief.
They were begging for bullets to protect the citizens and themselves. Reuters, apparently, quoted one of the black-clad policemen as stating, "We want the PA to take a stand on Hamas. Our blood is flowing for the Authority and they are not doing anything."
The police-Hamas confrontation was triggered when executed Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi's son was being arrested following a fight that broke out in a line-up at a cash machine outside of a Gaza City bank.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/07/2005 4:10 Comments ||
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The descent into lawlessness...
Yeah, it really sucks when you're "descending into lawlessness". Thank God they've had a lotta practice so they're good at it...
#4
They do so deserve themselves. Institutional mass mental disease accepted as the norm has it's drawbacks it seems. Create a culture of sociopathic killers and the everyman light weapon carrying thug and life gets a little messy and chaotic.
#6
All right, here is the question no one wants to ask: Is civil war always a bad thing? I mean, people killing people is bad, and that happens in civil war, but what if those wars make lessons that should have been learned long ago finally sink in? Like the idea that homicide bombers do not leave a legacy of glorious martyrdom-they leave a legacy of grief-absorbed orphans, destitute women and stalled economies? Like the idea that starting a new leaf for your children is more valuable than avenging a humiliation? Like the idea that two states who have lived at war with each other for centuries are finally willing to accept each other's existence?
I'm curious-does anyone know what the Koran says about mercy, or the principle of live and let live? Or are those exclusively western notions?
INDONESIA said today it was reviewing a decree granting automatic remissions to prisoners following Australian outrage over news that convicted 2002 Bali bombing conspirator Abu Bakar Bashir is eligible for another sentence cut.
"The Government is reviewing the presidential decree on remissions particularly concerning serious crimes, including terrorism," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said six days after fresh attacks on Bali killed 19 people plus the three suicide bombers.
"We see there is a need to do that," he said, but denied the move was in response to Australia's protest against a sentence cut for Bashir.
Mr Wirayuda said the Government had no plans to cancel further remissions for Bashir and other convicted militants pending the review of the decree.
Sentence cuts are granted automatically to prisoners considered well-behaved to mark Independence Day and religious festivals.
On August 17 Bashir's 30-month sentence was cut by more than four months to mark Independence Day, triggering an angry response in Australia.
A Jakarta prison official said on Wednesday that Bashir may be among thousands of prisoners to receive sentence cuts to mark the main Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr in early November.
Prime Minister John Howard warned on Thursday that any further reduction for Bashir would cause "deep and lasting anger" in Australia.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer will visit Indonesia on October 12 to attend commemorations of the first Bali bombings and hold talks on counter-terrorism cooperation.
Mr Downer is expected to again raise Australia's request that Indonesia formally ban Jemaah Islamiyah, whose name means "Islamic community".
"The problem for the Government is that Jemaah Islamiyah is an organisation that doesn't formally exist. So we have to weigh the benefits of banning an organisation which doesn't formally exist," Mr Wirayuda said.
Under the remissions decree, prisoners who have served between six months and one year are eligible for a one-month sentence cut and those serving more than one year could get two months struck off.
Bashir was sentenced in March for a criminal conspiracy leading to the 2002 bombings.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
10/07/2005 10:30 ||
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Indonesia should have prosecuted him for pot. That way he'd be in jail forever.
#2
I wouldn't expect much to become of this. A review, a "determination" that it's proper under their laws, then business resumes as usual. Australia would be better off issuing a travel advisory for its citizens to avoid Indonesian travel. Causing them pain in the pocketbook area would probably be an effective response.
Indonesian police raided a house Friday where one of the suspected masterminds of last week's Bali bombings was believed to be hiding out, but the Malaysian fugitive fled three hours earlier, officials said.
I see Mahmoud the Rat has a Indonesian relative
The pre-dawn raid occurred at a house in central Java province used by Noordin Mohamed Top, police said. "We can confirm it was him," said Abdul Madjid, a police chief in the province. Noordin, 35, is one of two Malaysians accused of planning Saturday's near-simultaneous suicide bombings on three crowded restaurants on the Indonesian resort island that killed 22, including the bombers. More than 100 people were wounded. The other suspected mastermind is Azahari bin Husin. Both are believed to be key leaders of the regional al-Qaida-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah. Both men also were allegedly behind the 2002 nightclub Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people, and suicide attacks in Jakarta in 2004 and 2003 that killed 23. The pair has eluded capture for years by renting cheap houses in densely populated areas, with nearby back alleys for quick escapes.
They are very good at what they do
Madjid said police received a tip that Noordin had been staying at the house in Purwantoro for two days when they launched their raid. The operation was supposed to begin at 1 a.m., but police waited several hours because they were worried he was armed with explosives. When they got there, "it was too late," Madjid said.
"Missed him by that much!"
Azahari is known as "Demolition Man" for his knowledge of explosives, while Noordin has been dubbed "Moneyman" for his ability to raise money and recruit bombers. They are said to be motivated by anger at U.S foreign policy toward the Muslim world, but most of the victims in Saturday night's attacks were Indonesians. Jemaah Islamiyah wants to establish an Islamic state across Southeast Asia.
Indonesia's vice president said Friday that religious leaders must condemn terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation. "Suicide bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq are perhaps understandable because there is an 'opponent' there," Yusuf Kalla said after prayers in the capital Jakarta on the Muslim holy day. "But here in Indonesia, it makes no sense. Why do they kill their own people, who have done nothing wrong?" he asked, calling on Islamic leaders to condemn the practice as being "not in line with the religion we hold."
Police have announced few breaks in the investigation, but spokesman Brig. Gen. Sunarko Danu Artanto said Thursday investigators have taken DNA samples from several relatives of the suspected bombers. Photographs of the suspects' severed heads, found yards from the blast sites, have been circulated in the media and shown to several jailed Jemaah Islamiyah members. None claim to recognize them. Bali police chief Maj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said the bombers likely were recruited recently for the purpose of carrying out the weekend attacks. "There is an indication they are a new generation," he said Friday.
Cannon fodder is cheap and readily available
Ali Imron, imprisoned for his role in the 2002 bombings, told the Jawa Pos newspaper they could be "freshly recruited." Nasir Abbas, who trained scores of militants in the 1990s, told The Associated Press he had never seen them. Identifying the bombers could help police track down the masterminds.
I doubt it. These two are real "masterminds", they would never have given any information on their hideouts or future plans to lower level contacts. Once the bombers started toward their targets, they hit the road.
Police said they intended to boost security on the island - already high in the aftermath of the weekend blasts - for a memorial service next Wednesday to mark the third anniversary of the 2002 nightclub bombings. Eighty-eight of the victims were Australians. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is due to attend the event, details of which have not been released. In previous years, many relatives of those killed and survivors returned to the island for the memorial.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for Saturday night's coordinated attacks, but suspicion immediately fell on Jemaah Islamiyah. If proven, the strikes show how dangerous the group remains despite a regional security crackdown that has arrested hundreds of alleged group members. It also would show that the group apparently has changed tactics, switching to softer targets, smaller bombs and cruder methods. Most previous Jemaah Islamiyah attacks were carried out with car bombs, but Saturday's bombers wore belts or backpacks laden with explosives.
I believe I read somewhere that Bali had banned vehicles from parking in front of clubs. If they find a juicy target that they can get a big car bomb next to, they'll use one.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 09:18 ||
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Check out the sketch.
United States is offering a reward of up to $13 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a suspected mastermind in the 2002 Bali bombings.
Identified as Dulmatin, he is a member of the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiah group suspected of being behind last weekend's blasts that killed 22 people, including four Australians.
The nightclub bombings in 2002 killed 202 people, most of them foreigners and 88 of them Australians.
"A lot of time, collection of information and coordinating among various parts of the government" led to the posting of the reward, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said today.
"This is a process that takes time," he said a few days before the third anniversary of the massive attacks in which Indonesian investigators estimate up to 99 kg of fertiliser based explosives were used.
Dulmatin is an electronics specialist with training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a senior figure in the Jemaah Islamiah terror organisation, McCormack said.
A reward of up to $1.3 million has also been offered for Umar Patek, whom McCormack said was believed to have served as an assistant for the field coordinator of the 2002 Bali bombings.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/07/2005 01:13 ||
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Check out the sketch.
He looks vaguely hydrocephalic... possibly slightly brain damaged as a result?
The three young suicide bombers who killed 19 other people in Bali represent a new generation of violent militants in Indonesia, Bali police chief Made Mangku Pastika said on Friday.
Police say explosives on the bodies of the three ripped through restaurants on the tourist island last Saturday, killing 22, including the three men, and wounding 146.
Police believe the bombers had help and have launched a huge manhunt for others involved, aided by some foreign law enforcement officers and the Indonesian military.
Attention has centred on Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the al Qaeda-linked Islamic militant network blamed for past attacks in Indonesia, and two of its leaders, Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top.
But experts say much of the old Jemaah Islamiah structure has been destroyed, and the two Malaysians may have formed fresh organisations and recruited new personnel.
Asked about that and reports that the bombers might have been only recently trained, Pastika told reporters:
"They come from a new group. A new generation means that (they) are not known by the old group."
Late on Thursday a Western diplomat in Jakarta had also suggested the bombers did not necessarily come from JI, saying: "there (are) also of course a lot of other people out there trained in the camps."
But the diplomat, who declined to be identified, said the fact that relatively small bombs had been used in the Bali attacks rather than the car bombs favoured in past Indonesian blasts did not necessarily mean the Bali conspirators had different roots.
"Our concern has always been that once you really got enough pressure on these guys to make it harder for them to assemble the car bombs and do the big splashes like they like to do, that they would then go to the tried and proven method of backpacks and things like that," he told reporters.
Authorities blamed all those attacks on JI, and believed Azahari and Top had helped mastermind them. The two have remained at large despite numerous other arrests over the earlier cases.
Police have questioned at least 94 people so far over last weekend's blasts, and received many tip-offs, but no one has been arrested or charged.
The military has said it will contribute to the investigation, after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked for its help, but some analysts are concerned over whether it will try to assume police functions.
Indonesia is sensitive to that issue after decades of iron-fisted rule until authoritarian president Suharto stepped down in 1998. The military was a key element in his regime.
"We are limited by law," Major General Herry Tjahjana, chief of the Udayana military command which includes Bali, told reporters on Friday.
"Before reforms, we know that the intelligence (units) could work more freely. Our hope is that the intelligence officers can be given such room to work" on terrorism cases, he said.
So far the military has said it will concentrate on gathering and passing on information as well as alerting the public to terrorism dangers.
Aside from the suicide bombers themselves, police and hospital authorities say 14 Indonesians, four Australians and one Japanese died as a result of Saturday's blasts.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/07/2005 01:05 ||
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Indonesia's military will join a nationwide hunt for those behind the weekend suicide bombings in Bali, a senior officer said on Thursday, as police confirmed three more Australians were among the dead. Hundreds of thousands of police have already been mobilized to track down the masterminds of the attacks on three packed restaurants on the resort island. The three young bombers killed themselves and 19 others on Saturday night, and 146 were wounded.
The prime targets in the manhunt are Malaysian Islamic militants, Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top. Officials say they are the leaders of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network, blamed for a series of earlier attacks in Indonesia, including one in Bali three years ago which killed 202 people. "In this case we will coordinate with Indonesian police by sharing intelligence information (and) are instructed to re-activate the territorial command," Indonesia military spokesman Achmad Yani Basuki said. "Our personnel will be placed in villages to gain information from common people. We call on the people to share with us any information," he added.
The concept of a military territorial command structure reaching down to the village level is controversial. During the decades-long rule of autocrat president Suharto, which ended in 1998, it was seen as a tool for enforcing his iron-fisted control. But Indonesia military commander General Endriartono Sutarto has said abuse will not happen this time.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2005 00:00 ||
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yeah right..... Indonesia captures terrorists and then treats them like royals while they are in prison and then reduces their sentences on muslim holy days.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
10/07/2005 13:12 Comments ||
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Premier Saniora has ruled out a confrontation with the Palestinians in Lebanon, but rejected the presence of Palestinian arms outside the 12 refugee camps they dwell in across the country. "Self-restraint is necessary," Saniora said in Marcel Ghanem's LBCI talk show of Kalam El Nass that was aired late Thursday night, which grabbed the headlines of the Beirut press Friday.
"We are not in the mood for a confrontation with our Palestinian brethren and there is no decision in this direction," Saniora said. "But we all have to admit that there is no need for Palestinian weapons outside the camps."
The remark was portrayed by An Nahar as Saniora stretching out a "firm hand' for dialogue ahead of his scheduled meeting with a delegation of PLO Palestinian factions on Saturday, which reportedly excludes Ahmed Jibreel's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. The PFLP-GC, which is the closest Palestinian ally of Syria, was reported lately to have been bringing in reinforcements of guerrillas and arms into its bases in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and the hills of Naameh south of Beirut. The Lebanese army has ringed PFLP-GC bases in both territories. Saniora's rejection of Palestinian arms outside the camps is obviously aimed at Jibreel's radical group, which has command headquarters in Damascus.
Saniora called on the Assad regime to intervene with pro-Syrian Palestinian groups to "contain all concepts that may generate tensions," asserting "we shall not be provoked" by media publicity of the underground network of tunnels the PFLP-GC maintains in the Naameh hills above south Beirut's Mediterranean coast.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 13:09 ||
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Is there a map of wee Lebanon handy so we can follow the gunplay ?
The Lebanese army has ordered its units deployed around Palestinian refugee camps to confront what the government said was a likely Israeli assault, Aljazeera' correspondent in Lebanon said.
Well, that's one way to spin it
The deployment came after a number of members of parliament called on armed groups in the Palestinian refugee camps to disarm.
Earlier, a siege was imposed by the Lebanese army on a position for a Palestinian faction deemed to be pro-Syria.
So many factions, so little time
A number of MPs headed by opposition leader Michel Aoun accused the government of not taking the matter seriously enough. In response, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command criticised the Lebanese government over what it described as "pressing siege" imposed on a number of its military positions in Lebanon .
Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Al-Aridi has rejected demands for disarming the refugee camps and Hezb Allah in accordance with the Security Council resolution 1550. "Those two files, can only be resolved within Lebanese internal dialogue," he said at the end of a government meeting. He stressed at the same time that Lebanon would not accept to destroy itself for the sake of others. He declined to elaborate further.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 12:58 ||
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Is it time to stock up on popcorn, or is this just politics in the ME?
#2
As I recall, the Palestinian refugee camps are no-go areas for Lebanese law enforcement. With all the arms inside the camps, I can't imagine the Army would fare much better if they tried to enter. Siege is their only option, unless they want to bounce the rubble.
#3
cut off the water, power, and sewer. Weld the fence gates shut, and surround the "camps" with itchy-trigger-fingered troops. Lt nature take its' course. Consider it an homage to Darwin
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/07/2005 13:29 Comments ||
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Everybody loves to cry for the Paleos but when it comes down to it nobody wants them in the backyard and for very good reasons that go without saying most of the time.
A group calling itself Jund El Sham, threatened to slaughter German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who is heading a U.N. team investigating Rafik Hariri's assassination. The group also threatened to slaughter members of the reigning Lebanese authorities.
"Yeah. We're gonna murderize youse!"
"We will slaughter without hesitation the reigning Lebanese authority and those who make up the majority in Parliament for collaborating with the West, to impose a new tutelage over Lebanon," Al Mustaqbal quoted Jund El Sham leaflets distributed in the northern Lebanese township of Rahbeh in Akkar as saying. "We shall overthrow this authority by all means," Jund El Sham vowed in the leaflets that included Mehlis as a slaying target "because he is one of the senior-most officers of the Mossad," Israel's secret service, according to Al Mustaqbal newspaper that is owned by the Hariri family.
Mehlis is a Mossad agent? I always thought he was a Freemason...
Mehlis is currently in Vienna, writing his final report on the outcome of the probe into Hariri's murder.
Our research of the Jund al-Sham group yielded the following results:
Jund al-Sham is a terrorist group which claimed to be behind the suicidal bombing near a British school in Qatar. They also claimed responsibility for the three Bombings in Lebanon following the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri.
#2
I thought Mossad was restricted to intelligence within Israel itself, and foreign operations were done by other agencies?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/07/2005 11:04 Comments ||
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Bellicose Syrian terrorist cali-phate dreamers are not to be taken lightly. This is the new terror where public figures and everday people whose lives somehow cross paths with the interests of islamists dreaming of the good old days that never were become the subjects of death threats and attacks. The threats can be disseminated and made public knowledge quite easily these days and the handiwork and perp's prosecution provide further PR to maximize impact.
KUNA: The Lebanese cabinet decided in principle Thursday to cancel the state security apparatus within framework of activating the security institutions. Information Minister Ghazi Al-Aridhi said after the cabinet session held in Baabda Palace today that the "government decided to cancel the security apparatus" indicating that General Elyas Kuaikati was named as acting director of this apparatus until putting the decision of cancellation in action. He added that "canceling this apparatus is within context of activating role of security institutions and their development" as proposed by Ministers of Defense and the Interior and by motion of the government.
This has obvious been translated from Arabic to English, with maybe a stopover in French or Hindi or something. They seem to be saying that they're going to dismantle the state security apparatus, which I'd consider an excellent thing, since it's obviously not loyal to the government in the abstract but to specific people within it. That's assuming my translation of their translation's correct, of course. If so, there'll be a lot more on it in Beirut Daily Star, though it probably won't show until tomorrow.
... During the session, another security position was filled temporarily until the position could be abolished completely. Brigadier General Elias Keikati was appointed by the government during its session as an acting director general of the State Security apparatus. The discussion in the Cabinet focused on the possibility of abolishing the State Security apparatus and joining its personnel with the army and other security departments as part of a new plan to streamline sections of the security system.
And maybe break up hostile power centers under the control of certain foreign powers?
Aridi, who said the Cabinet did not discuss a plan to completely overhaul the security services, said the government had decided to disband the unit eventually "as part of a plan to merge the security services."
Good idea. You should do that.
Several security postings were filled during the Cabinet's unscheduled Tuesday session, where the administrative vacuum left by the arrest of former four top security chiefs, who are currently awaiting trial under suspicion of having had a hand in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The key position filled was that of the Surete Generale, which was once held by Major General Jamil Sayyed - currently being held in custody for his involvement in the former premier's murder. Three other former generals had filled the positions of head of the General Directorate of the Internal Security Forces, head of the Military Intelligence and head of the Presidential Guard and are also in custody for their suspected roles.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2005 00:00 ||
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The Lebanese government is offering "a financial reward to whoever provides information" on the terrorist bombings that have rocked Beirut and killed at least six people during the past seven months. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after the Cabinet's weekly session yesterday, which took place at the Presidential Palace that the decision was taken "for Interior Minister [Hassan Sabaa] to give a financial reward to anyone who provides information on terrorist attacks that are carried out in Lebanon and to anyone who helps track down and catch the perpetrators."
The amount of the reward has yet to be determined, but it seems clear the Cabinet stands impotent in the face of what Sabaa has described as a "terrorist phantom." He said in a news conference last month that the "terrorist bombings" are no ordinary crimes, with the customary leads, and it will be difficult to catch the perpetrators.
"I mean, we're Lebs. Everybody thinks we're pretty smart cookies, but really, we're not nearly as smart as the Indonesians, or the Egyptians, or the Brits, or the French, or the Spaniards, or the Italians or the Americans or the Samoans or the Icelanders or Lapplanders or Esquimeaux or Eggplants..."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2005 00:00 ||
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"I mean, we're Lebs. Everybody thinks we're pretty smart cookies, but really, we're not nearly as smart as....
Eggplants! suffern succotash, what a weird werd comparaison. LOL
Police in Pakistan say at least eight people were killed and 20 injured when gunmen opened fire as worshippers gathered for Friday prayers.
The attack on members of the minority Ahmadiyya sect took place near the town of Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab. The Ahmadiyya profess allegiance to Islam, but were declared heretical by a constitutional amendment 30 years ago.
Police official Mohammed Arif said the gunmen rode up on motorbikes before entering the mosque and opening fire. "So far we only know that three men riding on a motorcycle suddenly came into the village [of Mong] on Friday morning. Two of them went inside the mosque and started firing," he told the Associated Press. The head of the mosque, Sadiq Hussain Sherazi, was leading prayers when he heard gunfire and "immediately threw myself on the floor".
Which is why he's made it this far in his career
"The attackers thought I was dead and that is what saved me. After a while I got up and saw bodies all around me. There was blood and chaos all around and the wall was full of bullet holes."
Masood Ahmed Raja, a doctor belonging to the sect, said he saw three masked men escaping on a motorcycle. "I had no idea who these men were, but when I reached the mosque, I heard cries and saw blood everywhere," he said. "I don't know who attacked our mosque, but it seems to be an act of religious terrorism."
"Genius Doctor! How do you do it?"
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said: "We condemn this attack. Any act of violence in which innocent people are killed should be condemned." Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, also condemned the killings, but said the government had failed to protect minorities.
Human rights groups have constantly highlighted the persecution suffered by the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan. In August, authorities closed down the offices of 16 publications run by followers of the sect in Punjab city for "propagation of offensive material". Bangladesh has also banned publications by the Ahmadiyya movement amid demands from Islamic hardliners that it be declared non-Muslim. The Ahmadiyya were declared non-Muslims under the Pakistani constitution in 1974. The sect was founded by Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam, who was born in the town of Qadian in Punjab in 1835. The Ahmadiyya believe he was the Imam Mahdi, or the Promised Messiah.
Sectarian violence in Pakistan mostly concerns the rift between the majority Sunnis and minority Shia and has claimed around 4,000 lives in the past decade.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/07/2005 09:08 ||
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A 27-year-old woman and defiant critic of Afghanistan's powerful warlords won one of the first seats declared yesterday in provisional results from landmark parliamentary elections, a key step in the nation's transition to democracy.
"I'm very happy and thankful for Afghan men and women who voted for me," said Malalai Joya, a women's rights worker from Farah, who won one of her province's five seats in the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, the national assembly.
"My first priorities when I go to parliament will be peace, security and stability, and to collect all the guns from warlords," she said.
Miss Joya rose to prominence by denouncing powerful warlords at a post-Taliban constitutional convention two years ago. Despite concerted United Nations-backed efforts to disarm militia leaders, they remain a dominant force in much of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/07/2005 01:22 ||
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I predict she will have a short career before her rival or one of his warlord equals has her killed.
The United States has obtained a letter from Osama bin Laden's deputy to the leader of Iraq's insurgency that outlines a long-term strategic vision for a global jihad, with the next phase of the war to be taken into Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, according to U.S. officials.
But the letter, described by one senior administration official as a "treatise" from Ayman Zawahiri, also warns Abu Musab Zarqawi against alienating the Islamic world, and virtually reprimands the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda for beheading hostages and then distributing videotapes, officials said.
Zawahiri also requests financial support from his ally in Iraq and then asks for more information about the insurgency there -- so al Qaeda is as informed as the United States about the activities, the officials said.
The senior administration official said the 13-page document is dated in early July and provides a "comprehensive look at al Qaeda's strategy in Iraq and beyond" with "chilling clarity."
U.S. officials said the letter was captured during counterterrorism operations in Iraq, but they were unwilling to specify how or when, and would provide only two quotes from it. The senior official said it has been authenticated "based on multiple sources over an extended period of time." They released information about the letter to four news organizations -- saying word of its existence had started leaking out to reporters -- on the same day that President Bush delivered a speech about the war on terrorism.
The letter of instructions and requests outlines a four-stage plan, according to officials: First, expel American forces from Iraq. Second, establish a caliphate over as much of Iraq as possible. Third, extend the jihad to neighboring countries, with specific reference to Egypt and the Levant -- a term that describes Syria and Lebanon. And finally, war against Israel.
U.S. officials say they were struck by the letter's emphasis on the centrality of Iraq to al Qaeda's long-term mission. One of the two excerpts provided by officials quotes Zawahiri, a former doctor from Egypt, telling his Jordanian-born ally, "I want to be the first to congratulate you for what God has blessed you with in terms of fighting in the heart of the Islamic world, which was formerly the field for major battles in Islam's history, and what is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era."
But bin Laden's deputy also purportedly makes clear that the war would not end with an American withdrawal and that anything other than religious rule in Iraq would be dangerous.
"And it is that the Mujaheddin must not have their mission end with the expulsion of the Americans from Iraq, and then lay down their weapons, and silence the fighting zeal. We will return to having the secularists and traitors holding sway over us," the letter reportedly says.
In one indication of tensions between the al Qaeda leadership and its Iraqi division, U.S. officials said, Zawahiri writes about the need to maintain popular support. He is critical of Shiite Muslims and says a clash between the Sunni-dominated movement and the Shiite sect is inevitable, officials said, but he rebukes the leader of Iraq's insurgency for its brutal tactics -- noting that hostages can just as effectively be killed with bullets rather than by beheading, officials said.
The letter may indicate al Qaeda's recognition of Muslim public opinion, said one Middle East scholar.
"If the letter's true, it's new because they haven't shown any particular avoidance of certain ruthless tactics. It says to me they are concerned about the way they are being perceived in the Muslim world," said Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institution and the University of Maryland.
"The vast majority of people in the Arab world sympathize with al Qaeda only because it champions their issues and speaks their language and it's seemingly effective against their enemies. But most would not want al Qaeda to be the rulers. They would be repulsed to have someone like Zarqawi, who is beheading people, to head their government," he said.
Zarqawi appears not to have heeded the message, because insurgents have continued the beheadings, including two this week.
Bin Laden's deputy has spoken before about the broad plans for the al Qaeda movement. In a book smuggled out of Afghanistan in December 2001, Zawahiri said the goal of jihad is to establish a religious state throughout the Islamic world and "reinstate its fallen caliphate and regain its lost glory."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/07/2005 00:52 ||
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Al Qaeda broadcast the second episode of its newscast on Wednesday under the name âVoice of the Caliphateâ and allegedly produced by Osama bin Ladenâs supporters. An Egyptian anchorman, wearing a black ski mask and an explosives belt, believed to be an al Qaeda figure, presented the "weekly review of the state of the nationâ with news on suicide operations in Palestine and Iraq as well as the state of Muslims in Niger. He also congratulated al Qaeda for the start of the Holy month of Ramadan.
"Yay! It wouldn'ta started widdout you guys' help!"
Broadcast on the internet, broadcast began with a reading of Quranic verses urging men to fight to pictures of al Qaeda members receiving military training in Afghanistan, followed by its slogan âa cry of justice in the face of wrongâ which was accompanied by flames that melted away the slogans of western news agencies and television stations.
The drama! The excitement! My heart! [Thud!]
According to the anchor, as the official voice of al Qaeda on the internet, the broadcast was âthe word of truth in the face of erroneous.â The 91-minute newsreel featured anthems that glorified death, martyrdom and heaven which constituted a substitute to the usual soundtrack that accompanies televised programs.
Oboy. An hour and a half of corpses. The turbans must have loved it.
One of the anthems glorifying a suicide operation in Iraq said, âTeach me how to kill a man and fight non-believersâ. The voice of the Egyptian newsreader was identical to that in the earlier broadcast on 12th September 2005, indicating the same individual took part in the broadcast. In a small advertisement segment, the journalist Tayseer Alouni, the first to interview bin Laden after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and recently sentenced in Spain to seven years in prison for his involvement with al Qaeda, was pictures during his trial and behind bars. The anchor urged the viewers to mobilize public opinion in favor of the jailed journalist and offer him support.
Looks like there wasn't a mistake involved in that verdict.
The news reel also indicated that a female member of al Qaeda carried out a suicide attacked in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar against a police recruitment station but denied that Abu Azzam al Iraqi, al Qaedaâs number two, had been killed and indicated this lie was propagated by "media magiciansâ. It also attacked the Iraqi government spokesman, Laith Kibbe, who first announced this news. "Abu Azzam al Iraqi is one of many soldiers of al Qaeda and the leader of a battalion operating in occupied Baghdad and not the second in command in Abu Musab al Zarqawiâs group", the presenter said.
"He's not dead, either! Get up, Abu! Show 'em how alive you are!"
Criticizing the mediaâs silence on US actions in Iraq, the broadcast also showed fighters in actions in Iraq and praised a suicide operation that targeted an ice factory by a member of the specialist âal Baraa bin Malik Martyrs Brigadeâ adding that the âZubair bin al Awwam Brigadesâ had also pledged allegiance to al Qaeda in Iraq. Attacking Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Egyptian presenter said, âAyman al Zawahiri had warned in a previous recording about the dangers if the Palestinian resistance heeds his statements.â
"Jihad is the answer, no matter what the question."
In an indication the recording was made some time ago, the anchor notes a number of remarks by Taleban spokesman, Abdul Laitf al Hakimi, arrested by the Pakistani authorities earlier this week, but does not mention his detention.
In a preview of next weekâs broadcast, the Egyptian newscaster promised to speak out to Muslim journalists and media professionals on behalf of the secretary general of the Islamic media front.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Did the 'Egyptian' anchorman in the ski mask end his broadcast with the word 'Courage'?
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) threatened six journalists of Rajshahi on Wednesday saying they are creating obstacles to establishing Islam. Local newspaper Sonali Sangbad received a letter, claiming to be from JMB, on Wednesday that gave death threats to the journalists. The letter threatened local correspondent Jahangir Alam Akash of the Sangbad, Anisuzzaman of Janakantha, Bulbul and Tanjibul of Jugantor, Mahtab Chowdhury of Sonali Sangbad and Rajshahi correspondent Anwar Ali Himu of The Daily Star.
The letter published yesterday on Sonali Sangbad said action will be taken against these journalists who always write against JMB and the people concerned have been given directions to take necessary steps against these journalists. However, local journalists suspect Ahle Hadith of Rajshahi to be behind the death threats.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Up to 10 Iraqis were killed and 10 others were wounded on Thursday when a booby-trapped car driven by a suicide bomber exploded near the Oil Ministry in eastern Baghdad, police sources said. The sources added in a statement that this was the preliminary toll, adding that several civilian cars were damaged in the explosion.
As many as 30 gunmen on Thursday attacked a number of police checkpoints in the Mohammed Al-Qassem Highway in central Baghdad. Eyewitnesses told KUNA the gunmen stepped out of their cars and opened fire at the police checkpoints. They said the clashes lasted for half an hour. No reports on casualties were available. Patrols of Iraqi army and US troops, who were rushed to the scene, cordoned off the whole area and kept civilians out of it.
Three people were wounded Thursday when a car bomb exploded in the Al-Nidal Street in central Baghdad. A police source said the car bomb targeted a convoy of jeep cars, usually used by foreign contractors and security guards. The attacks damaged one jeep car. No casualties were reported among passengers of the jeep cars. 
YATTA, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian police went door-to-door early Friday in this West Bank town, arresting 30 suspected criminals in one of the biggest moves toward restoring law and order in the chaos-ridden Palestinian territories. But in a sign of ongoing lawlessness, an unknown group said it had kidnapped three leaders of the Islamic group Hamas in three West Bank towns. In a leaflet, the al-Farouk bin al-Khatab Brigades accused Hamas of putting itself above the law. Hamas, however, accused Palestinian security agents of arranging the kidnappings. 
Indonesian police raided a house Friday where one of the suspected masterminds of last week's Bali bombings was believed to be hiding out, but the Malaysian fugitive fled three hours earlier, officials said. 
Azahari is known as "Demolition Man" for his knowledge of explosives, while Noordin has been dubbed "Moneyman" for his ability to raise money and recruit bombers. They are said to be motivated by anger at U.S foreign policy toward the Muslim world, but most of the victims in Saturday night's attacks were Indonesians. Jemaah Islamiyah wants to establish an Islamic state across Southeast Asia. 
Indonesia's military will join a nationwide hunt for those behind the weekend suicide bombings in Bali, a senior officer said on Thursday, as police confirmed three more Australians were among the dead. Hundreds of thousands of police have already been mobilized to track down the masterminds of the attacks on three packed restaurants on the resort island. The three young bombers killed themselves and 19 others on Saturday night, and 146 were wounded.
... During the session, another security position was filled temporarily until the position could be abolished completely. Brigadier General Elias Keikati was appointed by the government during its session as an acting director general of the State Security apparatus. The discussion in the Cabinet focused on the possibility of abolishing the State Security apparatus and joining its personnel with the army and other security departments as part of a new plan to streamline sections of the security system.
The Lebanese government is offering "a financial reward to whoever provides information" on the terrorist bombings that have rocked Beirut and killed at least six people during the past seven months. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after the Cabinet's weekly session yesterday, which took place at the Presidential Palace that the decision was taken "for Interior Minister [Hassan Sabaa] to give a financial reward to anyone who provides information on terrorist attacks that are carried out in Lebanon and to anyone who helps track down and catch the perpetrators."
Police in Pakistan say at least eight people were killed and 20 injured when gunmen opened fire as worshippers gathered for Friday prayers. 
Al Qaeda broadcast the second episode of its newscast on Wednesday under the name âVoice of the Caliphateâ and allegedly produced by Osama bin Ladenâs supporters. An Egyptian anchorman, wearing a black ski mask and an explosives belt, believed to be an al Qaeda figure, presented the "weekly review of the state of the nationâ with news on suicide operations in Palestine and Iraq as well as the state of Muslims in Niger. He also congratulated al Qaeda for the start of the Holy month of Ramadan. 
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) threatened six journalists of Rajshahi on Wednesday saying they are creating obstacles to establishing Islam. Local newspaper Sonali Sangbad received a letter, claiming to be from JMB, on Wednesday that gave death threats to the journalists. The letter threatened local correspondent Jahangir Alam Akash of the Sangbad, Anisuzzaman of Janakantha, Bulbul and Tanjibul of Jugantor, Mahtab Chowdhury of Sonali Sangbad and Rajshahi correspondent Anwar Ali Himu of The Daily Star.
