Riyadh, 9 Nov. (AKI) - One of the 36 terror suspects on the Saudi interior ministry's last most wanted list has been repatriated to the kingdom. "Adnan ibn Abdullah ibn Fares Al-Amri, whose name appears on the list of wanted people, has been repatriated from abroad," a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by Saudi Press Agency. However, no details were given as to which country the 28-year-old terror suspect was repatriated from, or how he came to be caught and extradited.
Issuing its third and latest most-wanted list at the end of June the interior ministry said 21 of the suspects were abroad. Since then, at least six have been killed, at least four are known to have been arrested and one was reported to have surrendered to the authorities.
Only one man is thought to be still at large from the second most-wanted list of 26 following the death of al-Qaeda's leader in Saudi Arabia, Saleh al-Oufi, in a shootout that broke out during a police raid in the holy city of Medina. The lists were released as part of Saudi Arabia's battle against militants, who have carried out a series of attacks in the kingdom since May 2003. However, recently many have been killed in gun battles with the Saudi security forces.
This week the newly appointed Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, used a speech to the annual conference of the Middle East Institute (MEI) to condemn those who carry out terror acts and separate them from the religion in whose name they claim to act. "They violate the principle of humanity, and the teachings of their faith. They are criminals. Their twisted vision is a cancer in the body of Islam that must and will be excised and cast out," he said. He told the conference the terrorists' support networks must be cut off, and in order to do this, the "communities of the world must stand shoulder to shoulder in the fight against these terrorist organisations, against those who support them and against those who condone their actions." He held up the US and Saudi Arabia's creation of two joint task forces to combat terrorism and terror financing as an example of how nations can work together to defeat terror.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 13:05 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Dewsbury bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan in his own video
Police have launched an investigation into claims that video tapes and DVDs handed out at mosques in Dewsbury were being used to recruit terrorists. The tapes, purporting to contain readings from the Koran, were given to Muslims attending two mosques in Savile Town during the weekend's Eid festival. Local resident Safiq Patel said: "When people played them they realised they were violent jihad videos." West Yorkshire Police confirmed they were studying one of the tapes.
Mr Patel told BBC News: "These tapes were left at points of public access in the reception areas of the mosques. "People picked them up thinking they were prayers or readings from the Koran. "They were shocked to find messages of jihad. It is someone trying to drum up violence, especially among the younger members of the community.
"Somebody is trying to infiltrate their consciences, decision-making and values in the hope of perhaps recruiting the terrorists of the future from this community."
A West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: "Members of the local Asian community have brought to our attention these matters. "On Tuesday we received a copy of the video which is being looked at to establish whether it contains material which would incite violence, racial hatred or acts of terrorism." The force reiterated its "reassurance message" to the Asian community in Dewsbury, which is still reeling after it emerged that 7 July London bomber Mohammed Siddique Khan came from the town.
Anyone with information about who distributed the tapes at two mosques in South Street, Savile Town, is urged to contact police immediately.
Investigations were at an early stage and anti-terrorist officers from the Metropolitan Police had not yet been involved, the spokeswoman added.
Chinese police have warned that Islamic militants could be planning an attack on luxury hotels in Beijing in the coming week, the US embassy has said. The authorities pledged to investigate the threat and take appropriate action, the embassy said in a statement. The warning comes 10 days before US President George Bush visits Beijing.
China is often accused of exaggerating the threat of Islamic militancy to justify its crackdown on groups such as its Uighur minority.
"The embassy has learned that Chinese police advised hotels that Islamic extremist elements could be planning to attack four- and five-star hotels in China some time over the course of the next week," the statement from the US embassy in Beijing said. "American citizens visiting Chinese four- and five-star hotels should review their plans carefully, remain vigilant with regard to their personal security, and exercise caution," it added. The statement did not specify whether the threat came from extremists inside or outside China.
But Beijing has often warned of a threat from the Muslim Uighur community in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang. Many Uighurs campaign for an independent homeland in the region, which they would call East Turkestan, and resent the recent and large-scale influx into the region of Han Chinese settlers. China brands these separatists as terrorists and said in September that more than 260 terrorist acts had been committed in Xinjiang in the past two decades.
Critics say China has been using its support for the US-led war on terrorism to justify a crackdown on the Uighurs. Human rights groups cite arbitrary arrests, closed trials and the use of the death penalty against alleged militants in Xinjiang.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 10:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This time it really is all about America. Obviously designed for broadcast on US MSM.
#2
I don't trust the ChiComs to protect the president.
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/09/2005 13:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
#2: I don't trust the ChiComs to protect the president.
Wrong, he's safer there than anywhere else, their economy depends largely on the USA, something happens to our Prez over there and their economy tanks.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/09/2005 13:52 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The embassy has learned that Chinese police advised hotels that Islamic extremist elements could be planning to attack four- and five-star hotels in China some time over the course of the next week
Members of the Sydney group arrested in Australia's biggest counter-terrorism operation are alleged to have stockpiled enough chemicals to make at least 15 large bombs. Chemicals freely available at hardware stores were all that was still needed for the group to replicate the formula used to make the bombs that killed 52 people, and four suicide bombers, in the July 7 London attacks, senior police said yesterday.
They said the group had registered a series of company names to justify the purchase of industrial chemicals.
Seventeen men have been arrested and charged after raids in the early hours of Tuesday involving 400 federal, Victorian and NSW police. Two of the suspects, Abdulla Merhi, 20, and Hany Taha, 31, were denied bail in Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday and remanded with the others to appear in court next January.
During the hearing, the court heard evidence that a Melbourne office tower housing Commonwealth public servants may have been a potential target for attack. The court was told that a map of the building, Casselden Place, on the corner of Lonsdale and Spring Streets, had been found during investigations leading up to this week's arrests. The building houses hundreds of public servants from key federal agencies including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Immigration.
Brian Walters, SC, representing Taha, said there was no basis to the claim that a terrorist attack in Melbourne was imminent. Rob Stary, for Merhi, who is alleged to have volunteered to become a suicide bomber, said comments by senior police and politicians had effectively removed the presumption of innocence for the accused men.
Magistrate Reg Marron, refusing bail, said evidence of the alleged plot for violent jihad was "extremely alarming". Mr Marron also noted the ease with which the internet offered access to the bomb-making instructions allegedly seen by one of the terror cells.
The final decision to raid dozens of properties in Melbourne and Sydney on Tuesday was made at the weekend after police concluded that the Sydney men were sufficiently advanced in their planning to have produced bombs within days. There were nine arrests in Melbourne and eight in Sydney, where one suspect was shot after allegedly firing at police. The wounded man, former bit-part television actor Omar Baladjam, 28, was charged yesterday during a bedside court hearing at Liverpool Hospital. Charges against him include attempting to murder police and terrorism and firearms offences.
The other Sydney suspects, who have been charged with plotting a terrorist act, were transferred to high-security jails outside the city last night. Two high-speed police convoys headed towards prisons at Goulburn and Lithgow. The Melbourne suspects, who are being held at the maximum security Barwon Prison, are charged with knowingly belonging to a terrorist organisation. The alleged leader of both groups, Melbourne Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, also faces a charge of directing a terrorist organisation.
Victoria Police acting Deputy Commissioner Noel Ashby said the Melbourne suspects could face further charges following examination of material on seized computers. "There is an immense amount of material that we need to look at," he said. Mr Stary confirmed moves to defer the trial of another terror suspect, Joseph Terrence Thomas, of Werribee, due to this week's developments. "There will be an application to adjourn the proceedings on the basis of Mr Thomas' capacity to have a fair trial in the present environment," Mr Stary said. Sydney lawyer Adam Houda lashed out at what he called "trial by media" and irresponsible comments by politicians.
A spokeswoman for Victorian Corrections Commissioner Kelvin Anderson said prison authorities had spent $11 million to introduce new technology to prepare for high-risk prisoners such as those associated with organised crime and terrorist allegations. The arrested men, who are being held in solitary confinement, would receive a diet in keeping with Islamic beliefs, he said.
Police said they had learned that suspects in Melbourne and Sydney had recently made legal appointments, leading intelligence analysts to suspect the men may have been planning to write wills before a terrorist attack. Aldo Borgu, of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that some suicide bombers had been known to organise their affairs before acting, but it was difficult to profile them because their motives were often individual. "It's been known (for suicide bombers to make a will), but we don't know how common it is, or even if it is a majority thing," Mr Borgu said.
It is believed that Victorian police had gathered sufficient evidence as part of Operation Pendennis to arrest the Melbourne suspects at least a month ago, but waited for more information to be gathered on the Sydney cell before the co-ordinated raids were launched. Police are now using technology experts to try to break codes on the computer hard drives of some of the suspects to gather further information.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 11:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Why mention the code. Just break the code and move on. If they don't know you are on to the code, they'll keep using it.
#2
I hope our intel guys took note. You gave away how it was that we found out about the industrial chemicals and now they are registering names of companies to justify it.
Are you checking all newly registered co's that can get these chemicals? Are you doing anything about it - or is it as I suspect, that there is no one in charge of assuring that this doesn't happen here. Those of you who have some authority to get on this - might want to consider you and your families have the same chance of being blown to bits by these fanatics as the rest of us do....and put someone in charge of monitoring this.
#4
The arrested men, who are being held in solitary confinement, would receive a diet in keeping with Islamic beliefs, he said.
Isn't it time to stop pandering to convicted criminals? While the individuals in question are not yet convicted, should they be, are they really entitled to halal meals? Food allergies are another question, but kosher and halal meals are not a "right."
I think not. Once you knowingly break the law, all bets are off. Criminals cast off any bonds of the social contract and should be treated accordingly. "Equal protection under the law" does not necessarily extend to dietary restrictions. In fact, quite the reverse is true.
Catering (quite literally) to one person's dietary wishes is simply giving a prisoner preferential treatment. It costs the state untold millions of dollars to segregate food preparation and service. None of this is deserved by criminals. In order to best serve the law-abiding public, prison operation costs should be held to a bare minimum.
There is no "cruel and unusual punishment" involved here. All prisoners are subject to similar dietary treatment and even if a criminal is able to afford having alternate food served to them, it should not be permitted. If an individual is prepared to break the law, then society should see fit to hold no respect for the dietary laws of that person.
I believe that there might be a noticeable drop in crimes committed by Muslims if all of them knew that they might end up being "unclean" or starving themselves to death upon incarceration.
#5
"Isn't it time to stop pandering to convicted criminals? While the individuals in question are not yet convicted, should they be, are they really entitled to halal meals? Food allergies are another question, but kosher and halal meals are not a "right."
Chilling details of an alleged plot by Islamist radicals to carry out a "catastrophic" terrorist attack in Australia emerged yesterday.
Police arrested 17 suspects during dawn raids involving 450 heavily armed policemen backed by helicopters. Authorities alleged that the suspects were members of a terrorist cell committed to "violent jihad" on Australian soil.
Among those detained was a trainee electrician allegedly impatient to carry out a suicide bombing in retaliation for Canberra's support for the war in Iraq.
Police refused to reveal the group's alleged targets other than to rule out the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March, which will be opened by the Queen.
Terrorism suspects have previously been caught carrying out surveillance on the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge and the Melbourne stock exchange.
Eight men were arrested in Sydney and nine in Melbourne in the biggest counter-terrorism operation in Australia's history, the culmination of 16 months of surveillance.
One of the Sydney suspects was shot in the neck and critically injured after he fired at police who ordered him to stop as he walked towards a mosque.
"The police forces of this country might just have prevented a catastrophic act of terrorism," the New South Wales police minister, Carl Scully, said.
Ken Moroney, the head of the state's police force, said: "I'm satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a large-scale terrorist attack."
The nine members of the alleged Melbourne terror cell appeared in court, where prosecutors said they had carried out military training in the bush and had stockpiled chemicals capable of making bombs.
Police disclosed that they had 240 hours of secretly taped recordings in which the suspects allegedly discussed jihad and martyrdom.
The group's alleged leader, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 45, a Muslim preacher, was charged with directing the activities of a terrorist organisation and being a member of a terrorist organisation.
The remaining eight, aged between 21 and 31, were charged with being members of a terrorist organisation.
The eight Sydney suspects were charged with preparing to manufacture explosives in preparation for a terrorist act.
The arrested men had been plotting to "kill innocent women and children," Richard Maidment, QC, prosecuting, told Melbourne magistrates' court.
He said intense rivalry between the two groups meant the Melbourne cell were keen to outdo their counterparts in Sydney by fast-tracking plans for an attack.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 10:16 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A Melbourne court heard yesterday that 17 of the suspected terrorists arrested in an early morning raid had engaged in military-like training in rural Australia and that one man had expressed a desire to become a âmartyrâ in Australia.
Australian police arrested 17 people yesterday, including a Muslim cleric and a man they said wanted to become a suicide bomber, on charges of planning terrorist attacks as part of a âviolent jihad in Australiaâ.
The Melbourne court heard that police had 240 hours of telephone intercepts and recordings of the group. Police detective Chris Murray told the court that one man had âasked permission to become a martyr in Australia, he wanted to die hereâ.
Murray said the man had been told to wait, but was impatient. He had said he wanted to âgo in a similar way to a suicide bomberâ.
One of the arrested men was in a critical condition in hospital after being shot by police when he opened fire during raids in Sydney and Melbourne. Police seized chemicals, firearms, computers, backpacks and travel documents in the raids.
The group did not have a target, but it was trying to buy chemicals similar to those used in the London bombings in July for a âcatastrophicâ attack, police said.
âI am satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a terrorist attack or the launch of a terrorist attack in Australia,â said New South Wales state police commissioner Ken Moroney.
During the court appearance, police said Muslim cleric Abu Bakr, who called al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a âgreat manâ, was the spiritual leader of the group.
The court was told the men had stolen cars to raise funds to buy firearms and chemicals.
The Sydney group had tried to buy chemicals used in the London transport bombings and the Melbourne group had ordered chemical handling equipment.
More than 450 police raided houses in Sydney and Melbourne as part of the countryâs largest ever counterterrorism operation involving hundreds of police, following a 16-month investigation.
Police said eight people were arrested in Sydney and nine in Melbourne. Those arrested were charged with offences including acts in preparation of a terrorist attack, being a member of a terrorist group and conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.
Prime Minister John Howard said last week Australia had received intelligence about a âterrorist threatâ, and amended antiterror laws making it easier for police to arrest suspects. Police said the new laws aided the counter terrorism operation.
Victorian state Police Commissioner Christine Nixon told reporters the group did not have a target and specifically ruled out the Commonwealth Games, which are due to be held in Melbourne in March.
Australian media last week said that possible targets under police watch were the Sydney Opera House, the harbour bridge, oil refineries and stock exchange.
Four Australians are awaiting trial in Sydney and Melbourne on terrorism charges, linked to supporting and training with banned groups, such as al-Qaeda.
The Australia Security Intelligence Organisation said last week for the first time that Australia had home-grown extremists, some of whom had trained overseas. Muslims make up 1,5% of Australiaâs population of 20-million.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 10:03 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The gun grabbers disarmed the populace a few years ago in England and Australia. There are those such as the Hildebeast (Hillary) and Charles Schumer that would do the same in the U.S. Criminals and terrorists would be the only ones armed if these idiots had their way.
#3
Actually there are 5 million firearms in australia of which 2,5mil are registered. Firearms arnt the issue here, the issue is we have very good federal police and a prime minister who is prepared to make a stand
The owner of a chemical supply company in southwest Sydney tipped off police about a series of unusual purchases before authorities carried out early morning raids on Tuesday. Police followed up the call to the terrorist hotline two weeks ago, shortly before Prime Minister John Howard revealed intelligence had been received about a home-grown terrorist plot.
The owner of the business, which was not named at the request of Australian Federal Police, said he sold chemicals for cash to between 20 and 30 Muslim men, including small amounts of hydrochloric acid. Suspicious purchases from three other southwest Sydney businesses were also investigated by anti-terror squad officers. Their search warrants detailed a list of what to look for, including the high-flash explosive Triacetone triperoxide, detonators and terrorist manuals, when they performed 13 raids across eight Sydney suburbs.
Posted by: ed ||
11/09/2005 10:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Was this a 'sting' from the beginning? One hopes. If not, this chemical owner should join his Muslim customers in prison, and just thank his lucky stars his 'tips' to police were in time to prevent carnage.
#2
Not so Glenmore, as an example try to buy Arsenic today.
They'll ask you if you want it by the pound, or by the ton.
Why?
Because it's used in hardening metal.
Now if I went to buy a pound or so, no problem, but if I went in for a 5 pound keg a dozen times the supplier would get curious why I didn't just buy a hundred pounds in the first place, it's cheaper in bulk.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/09/2005 14:00 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Glenmore, I don't think the owner should be sent to prison for telling the cops about suspicious sales. He should be executed for "racial pofiling." Becoming suspicious about customers on the basis of their Middle Eastern appearance is racist stereotyping - don't you know?! If Aussies are suspicious of and prejudiced against Middle Easterners, then the Middle Easterners will become alienated and more likely to plan terrorist attacks. Root Causes People!!!
CLOSE links have emerged between Australia's most radical prayer halls and the alleged terror cells in Melbourne and Sydney amid calls for Islamic clerics to abandon their inflammatory rhetoric.
The Australian has learned that at least six of the nine men charged with terror-related offences in Melbourne this week are, or were, devotees of controversial Melbourne cleric Sheik Mohammed Omran and his group, the Ahlus Sunnah Wal-Jamaah Association. One of them, Adbulla Merhi, who is alleged to have been impatient to carry out Australia's first suicide bombing, has an article on the group's website in which he urges Muslims to stand up for their rights and never "compromise our religion".
The accused men have, until recently, attended prayers at Sheik Omran's Brunswick prayer hall in Melbourne's north, despite also being devotees of another radical cleric, Abdul Nacer Benbrika. The Algerian-born Mr Benbrika, 45, who was once a teacher with Sheik Omran's group but who left some years ago because it was not radical enough, is accused of being the spiritual leader of the alleged terrorist cell. He has been charged with directing a terrorist organisation, an offence carrying up to 25 years in jail. All 17 men involved in the alleged plot to carry out a massive attack on Australian soil remain behind bars today after bail was rejected for two of them, Hany Taha, 31, and the alleged would-be suicide bomber, Mr Merhi, 20.
The decision came as the president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ameer Ali, urged the nation's radical clerics not to "hijack" Islam and to tone down their inflammatory language. "I tell the clerics, please guard your language when you talk," he said. "This is a country that believes in pluralism, it's a multicultural society, we live in a plural society. Your religion does not preach intolerance and I ask them not to hijack the religion."
And then his lips fell off.
Sheik Omran was criticised by John Howard for his inflammatory rhetoric after he effectively proclaimed Osama bin Laden a good man and claimed that the US, rather than bin Laden, was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The cleric is also a good friend of jailed British-based al-Qaeda leader Abu Qatadah, whom he hosted on a speaking tour of Australia in 1994. The leader of Sheik Omran's group in Sydney, Sheik Abdul Salam Zoud, has also courted controversy, having presided over the marriage of French terror suspect Willie Brigitte and been named in French terror documents as "the recruiter in Australia for volunteers for the jihad".
Sheik Omran and Sheik Zoud's fiery prayer sessions on Fridays are hugely popular among fundamentalist communities in Melbourne and Sydney, with hundreds turning up to hear their sermons. A source familiar with the circle of friends that the eight Sydney terror suspects moved in said they prayed at the Haldon Street prayer hall in Lakemba, but belonged to a subset of Muslims there, not the mainstream followers of Sheik Zoud.
Sheik Omran said in a statement his group "considers the security of our nation with high priority. (But) we would like to express our alarm and uneasiness over the recent arrests (and) hope all those accused receive a fair trial and the presumption of innocence is preserved." A spokesman for Sheik Omran said the cleric would not comment further on the arrests. Islamic sources said Sheik Omran was currently in Jordan.
Where in Jordan? Zarka?
Sheik Zoud also declined to comment yesterday on links between his group and the accused terror suspects. Sources close to Sheik Omran's group say those accused terror suspects who have attended the cleric's sermons include Fadal Sayadi, Ahmed Raad, Shane Kent, Amer Haddara and Mr Merhi.
In his statement on the association's website, Mr Merhi tells Muslims about their right to pray at work. He says Muslims are allowed by Victorian law to pray at work and warns that "when negotiations fail we must not compromise our religion". He quotes Allah as saying that those who give up prayer "will be thrown in hell" and says "work/education will not be an excuse on the day of resurrection if we neglect our duties regarding prayer. So stand up, oh servants of Allah, and implement Allah's gift of Islam through your whole lives - do we not want to be among the dwellers of paradise?"
A newspaper run by Sheik Omran's group, Mecca News, is currently running a series of articles promoting the theory that September 11 was a giant conspiracy perpetrated by the US Government.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 09:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Prayer halls"?
You mean moskkks, doncha, news.com.au, you gutless turds?
#3
I think prayer hall is not bad term to use. Lots of these real sinister-type "mosques" are dusty storefronts in the shabby parts of town, or the rooms over the storefronts. Certainly there a few large highly visible mosques (like Finbury Park) that attract the shahids, but mainly the big mosques are show pieces for the kufr's benefit. (See? We're a religion of Peace!) The Wahhabs that are doing most of the funding for outreach do not approve of fancy architecture or any other color but white.
#5
Good catch, Ship. That one really stood out for me, too.
"I tell the clerics, please guard your language when you talk," he said.
That sure has a lot of different meanings. And most of them are not good. I'm still waiting for the opener to read as follows:
CLOSE links have emerged between Australia's most radical prayer halls and the alleged terror cells in Melbourne and Sydney amid calls for Islamic clerics to abandon their inflammatory rhetoric or be shot on sight.
Two Islamic terrorist cells were competing to become the first to stage a major bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said Tuesday after police arrested 17 suspects in a series of coordinated pre-dawn raids in two cities. About 500 police arrested nine men in the southern city of Melbourne and eight in Sydney, including one man critically injured in a gunfight with police.
Police said they expected more arrests in coming days and weeks, but Prime Minister John Howard on Wednesday assured Muslims they were not being targeted. "People who support terrorism are as much their enemies as they are my or your enemies," Howard told Sydney Radio 2GB. "There is nothing in our laws, nor will there be anything in our laws, that targets an individual group, be it Islamic or otherwise."
Ameer Ali, president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said the country's nearly 300,000-member Muslim community was shocked at the number of arrests and that all the suspects appeared to be Muslims. Some of their supporters clashed violently with news cameramen in Melbourne and Sydney on Tuesday.
One of the suspects, Abdulla Merhi, wanted to carry out attacks to avenge the war in Iraq, police said in a Melbourne court. Norm Hazzard, who heads the state's counterterrorism police unit, said the suspects were followers of the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. "I think you can go back to Osama bin Laden and those who follow his philosophy — that is what terrorism in its modern form is all about and there's no doubt that this group followed that same philosophy," he said. Police said the alleged plotters apparently had not settled on a target.
The raids came less than a week after Howard strengthened counterterrorism laws and said intelligence agencies had warned of a possible terrorist attack. He went on national TV Tuesday to say the risk was not over, despite the arrests. "This country has never been immune from a possible terrorist attack," he said. "That remains the situation today and it will be the situation tomorrow."
Ali traveled to Canberra on Wednesday to appeal to the government to abandon plans to pass additional counterterrorism laws by Christmas. Muslims were concerned that provisions preventing terror suspects from discussing their detentions and interrogations and the media from reporting it could conceal abuses in the system and lead to racial profiling. "Under the existing laws, they have averted a disaster from taking place in this country; they have arrested the people who have been conspiring ... so we don't need new laws," Ali said.
Both cells were led by one of the detainees, the 45-year-old firebrand cleric Abu Bakr, an Australian who was born in Algeria, a prosecutor said. Bakr made headlines earlier this year by calling bin Laden a "good man." The suspects were stockpiling the same kind of chemicals used in the deadly July 7 transit bombings in London, prosecutor Richard Maidment said at a hearing for the nine people arrested there. "Each of the members of the group are committed to the cause of violent jihad," he added, saying they underwent training at a camp northeast of Melbourne.
Bakr was charged with leading the terrorist group while the Melbourne suspects were charged with membership of a terror group. Two of the men were denied bail on Wednesday. The seven men arrested in Sydney were ordered jailed until another session Friday on charges of preparing a terrorist act by manufacturing explosives. The man shot by police was under guard in hospital and was not immediately charged.
Detective Sgt. Chris Murray told the court that police surveillance had picked up one suspect, 20-year-old Merhi, pleading for permission to become a martyr. Murray said Merhi appeared impatient and it was clear to police he wanted to die in a way "similar to the nature of a suicide bomber."
Maidment said the Melbourne cell appeared eager to be first to stage an attack. "There has been discussion amongst the Melbourne group that the Sydney group were further ahead of them and they were anxious to do something themselves," he said.
Adam Houda, a defense lawyer, said the Sydney suspects were innocent. "There's no evidence that terrorism was contemplated or being planned by any particular person at any particular time or at any particular place," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
the country's nearly 300,000-member Muslim community was shocked at the number of arrests and that all the suspects appeared to be Muslims
Street riots in France do not appear to be instigated by overseas terrorists, but there are growing fears that Islamic extremists are exploiting the unrest, U.S. officials and private specialists said.
"At this point, it doesn't appear to be foreign-inspired," one U.S. security official said. "But the concern in France is that Islamists might take advantage of it."
The situation is being monitored by France's Central Directorate of General Intelligence, the police intelligence agency, and Directorate for Territorial Surveillance, the counterintelligence and security service.
Many of the rioters are alienated youths, including Muslims, from immigrant families. The CIA estimates that 3 million to 6 million Muslims live in France.
One official said he thinks the riots "don't have a religious cast."
Nevertheless, the attacks have included two firebombings at synagogues in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine and Garges. About 40 rioters confronted police at a synagogue in Stains, the Internet site Jihad Watch reported. French Muslim groups issued a fatwa, or religious edict, on Sunday that condemned the riots.
Steven Emerson, a specialist on Islamic extremism, said Islamists in France are taking steps to exploit the violence.
"What started out as juvenile delinquents engaging in vandalism is being taken over by Islamists," Mr. Emerson said, noting that Jewish targets indicate the Islamist bent of the rioters.
"It has already been taken over internally in France. The question is whether it will be taken over externally," he said.
Mr. Emerson said he does not agree with those who say the violence has nothing to do with Islam.
"It certainly does," he said. "Not Islam the religion per se but the Islamists' separatist culture that is growing in France and other parts of the continent."
Mr. Emerson noted that one figure in France who is pushing for a separate identity for Muslims is Hassan Iquioussen, a cleric who thinks Islamists should be Muslims first and citizens second.
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a counterterrorism specialist, said the riots are not the result of poor immigrants opposing the system.
"It is not a directed part of the global extremist network, but it is an offshoot that is well-organized and has similar objectives in intimidating the French government, which they have done," Gen. McInerney said.
The riots will expand unless the French government moves quickly to quell the disturbances, he said.
"It is an assimilation problem that Muslims have, and it will only eventually be resolved through an Islamic reformation," he said.
Harlan K. Ullman, a security adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said one problem highlighted by the riots is the growing role of fundamentalist Islam -- not necessarily extremism -- both in Europe and the United States.
"What we're seeing in France is a harbinger of things to come in the future here," Mr. Ullman said. "It could happen here, not in five years but perhaps 10 years."
Fundamentalist Islam is growing rapidly, he said, and its communities are not being assimilated into Western societies.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 10:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
One official said he thinks the riots "don't have a religious cast."
#3
Mr. Emerson was one of the first to research Islamofascism and modern jihadism, in the '80s/90s. He made a film on the subject for PBS which was very well received... except by the CAIR types, who made so much noise that PBS and NPR have boycotted him ever since. The NPR ombudsman has been denying the boycott for years (he even has a FAQ about it), and yet Mr. Emerson somehow never is heard, although Ramsey Clarke has been.
#4
The beltway technocrats can't relate to the likes of men like Steve or Ralph Peters. Men who've actually been there, done that, written, been published, stood behind their writings, and made an honest living. The babblings of men like Clarke are more pleasing to their ears of the technocrats. To Clarke they can relate.
#5
Who is this Emerson ? Does he have a computer ?
On the net ? That's the place to be heard today, not PBS.
Let's see, it's the jobless youths in France. So, why not hire soem of them to provide security for institutions, buildings, neighborhoods, etc.
In other words, pick the good ones and bring them into the mainstream. This fight can be won one soul at a time without full scale violence. But, there is no magic pill. The state will purchase time and squander it. France must devide the rioters while strengthening their position.
#7
"But the concern in France is that Islamists might take advantage of it."
BWahhhahahahaa, best laugh I've had in a long time.
Do you mean start, organise, run, encourage, maintain, and orchestrate?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/09/2005 19:53 Comments ||
Top||
France's storm of rioting lost strength on Wednesday with a drop of nearly half in the number of car burnings, police said. But looters and vandals still defied a state of emergency with attacks on stores, a newspaper warehouse and a subway station.
The extraordinary 12-day state of emergency went into effect Tuesday at midnight, giving special powers to authorities in Paris, its suburbs and more than 30 other cities from the Mediterranean to the German border â an indication of how widespread arson, riots and other unrest have become in nearly two weeks of violence.
The emergency decree invoked a 50-year-old security law dating from France's colonial war in Algeria. It empowers officials to put troublemakers under house arrest, ban or limit the movement of people and vehicles, confiscate weapons and close public spaces where gangs gather.
Local officials could also choose to impose curfews. By midday Wednesday, only a few municipalities and regions had. Paris had not.
Seventy-three percent of respondents in a poll published Wednesday in daily Le Parisien said they agreed with the curfew.
The unrest started Oct. 27 as a localized riot in a northeast Paris suburb in anger over the accidental deaths of two teenagers, of Mauritanian and Tunisian descent, electrocuted while hiding from police in a power substation.
It has grown into a nationwide insurrection by disillusioned suburban youths, many of them French-born children of immigrants from France's former territories such as Algeria. France's suburbs have long been neglected, and their young people complain of widespread discrimination and a lack of jobs.
Overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, youths torched 617 vehicles, down from 1,173 a night earlier, police said. Incidents were reported in 116 towns, down from 226. Police made 280 arrests, raising the total to 1,830 since the violence broke out 13 nights ago.
"The arrests are bearing fruit," said Interior Ministry spokesman Franck Louvrier. "It's clear there has been a significant drop, but we must persevere."
Christian Gaillard de Lavernee, head of the national civil security brigade, told reporters that firefighters responded to 30 percent fewer calls overnight than the previous day.
In some towns, concerned residents have banded together to keep overnight watch on public buildings and to patrol their neighborhoods, armed only with fire extinguishers.
"We are not Rambos!" said Manuel Aeschliman, the mayor of Asnieres northwest of Paris, to a dozen volunteers as they set off on rounds. "No intervention â If you see something, call it in."
National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said an additional 1,000 officers were deployed overnight, bringing the total to 11,500. He attributed the drop in attacks to police sweeps and cooperation from community groups.
Riot police fired tear gas to disperse youths throwing gasoline bombs in the southwestern city of Toulouse, and rioters used Molotov cocktails to blow up an unoccupied bus powered by natural-gas in the town of Bassens, near Bordeaux. No injuries were reported.
Subway service that had been shut down in the eastern city of Lyon resumed Wednesday after a firebomb exploded in a station late Tuesday. No one was injured, but city transport officials announced that bus and subway service will be halted each evening at 7 p.m. at least until Sunday as a precaution.
Arsonists also set fire to a warehouse used by Nice-Matin newspaper in Grasse, national police spokesman Patrick Reydy said. Youths looted and set fire to a furniture and electronics store and an adjacent carpet store in Arras in the north, he said.
The northern city of Amiens, central Orleans and Savigny-sur-Orge, and the Essonne region south of the capital were putting into place curfews for minors, who must be accompanied by adults at night. Two cars burned in Amiens overnight despite the curfew, compared with six a night earlier, police said.
Curfew violators face up to two months in jail and a euro3,750 (US$4,400) fine, the Justice Ministry said. Minors face one month in jail.
The state-of-emergency law was drawn up to quell unrest in Algeria during its war of independence from France, and was last used in 1984 by President Francois Mitterrand against rioting in the French Pacific Ocean territory of New Caledonia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 09:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It is not loosing strength, it is pausing for breath.
#2
All the low-hanging fruit has been picked? Ah, no - they're still looting, I see.
I find the Car-BQ index being used to gauge the "strength" to be surreal. Somehow I don't think that's a solid indicator / predictor of "strength". Perhaps, Mr Reporter, it's far more likely that most of the god-damned cars in the neighborhoods surrounding the asshats' turf have already been torched to cinders. Think that might be a more plausible explanation for the drop in cars burned?
#3
Low hanging fruit being available cars to 'que is shrinking, and the torchers are more and more in the can. But if they turn any yoots loose before the fire is stone cold, it's likely to flare up again.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/09/2005 10:12 Comments ||
Top||
#4
There was some sort of a curfew enforced. This may have had an effect on the free-wheeling Car-B-Q (I like that phrase). I agree with mmurray, its just catching its breath (reloading).
#5
In some towns, concerned residents have banded together to keep overnight watch on public buildings and to patrol their neighborhoods, armed only with fire extinguishers.
Hummmm..... maybe Marianne startin to stir.
#6
Nice to see that fewer cars are brewing up. Those people who still have cars left must have wised up, parked them downtown, and used transit to get home.
Posted by: Dar ||
11/09/2005 13:02 Comments ||
Top||
#9
The novelty finally wore off and it became nasty WORK, too much running, and tossing stuff. Even though they say thats what they want, Muzzfits don't do WORK! Only infidels WORK. Back to the flat for some hot tea and zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz
For the first time in nearly two weeks France saw a clear fall in the number of overnight attacks Wednesday, raising cautious hopes that the worst wave of urban unrest since May 1968 might be receding.
According to interior ministry figures, there were 617 car-burnings across the country, compared to more than 1,100 the night before. "It is a very significant drop," said Claude Gueant, a senior aide to interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
...
However Gueant said that some 300 people were detained overnight across the country, bringing to around 1,800 the number of arrests since the start of the disturbances.
...
Meanwhile, in neighboring Germany 11 vehicles were were set ablaze overnight Wednesday in the cities of Berlin and Cologne, while in Belgium 10 cars were torched in three towns, but it was unclear if there was any connection with the riots sweeping France.
Posted by: ed ||
11/09/2005 08:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
When the dust settles, and the French people have the opportunity to survey the mayhem-ravaged landscape, I wonder what they will conclude. Or, more to the point, I'm afraid of what they won't conclude.
#2
I've concluded that there are only two things the French government can do that will end the strife.
The first is to spend vast sums of money and totally re-design their society, replacing ghettos with integrated homogeneous housing. Highly unlikely.
The second is either mass deportations of all of those caught rioting. Not ethnic cleansing, more like Devil's Island. And not as a penal colony, though conviction and transportation might be the criminal genesis. Just send them there to live, warehousing them outside of France, rather than in France proper.
#3
Sort of. A 53 years old is in critical condition after an object was thrown on him from fifteenth floor. There have been a number of busses torched
and a 10,000 square meter store who sold carpets and wallpaper is no more.
So in fact the pattern is less torched cars but more high value targets. Ah, and they tried to burn a protestant church.
#4
OT : JFM, could you go the "Nuit noire" thread, pleeze? I think you're needed there, and I didn't do a good job, only a long, semi-coherent rant...
As for the church, this is only the *third* to be firebombed (as well as two synagogues, note theses are protected by the police, I wonder why, perhaps the rioters have "issues" beyond their "social despair"(tm)...) .
Prediction: This will become an annual event, with Chirac and de Villepin leading throngs of chanting Arabs down the Champs? (Dominique is working on a name - Intifada a la francaise??? no, no, no, too military....) Dominique, Dominique, lets have a look at those demanDs once again, shall we?
AMNESTY for all those arrested in the disturbances in last 2 weeks;
USA must join the ICC and give up its security council veto;
EU must withdraw from WTO and develop closer ties with Arab countries;
EU must formally state that the USA must withdraw from IRaq and all military bases in the region;
redirect economy and budgets away from war and weapons production and BUILD INSTEAD a Europe and a region open to all and pursuing social equity and social harmony as equals.
#6
Btw, I still haven't gone to my "usual suspects" websites, but from what I've read in the recent days, violence against people clearly have been under-reported (but then again french msm are under-reporting this in an incredible way and push the "social" explanation, in which french society is to blame for the "justifiable anger of the youths").
From testimonies and reports of bits buried in page 6 of local press, I've read that rioters several time volontary tried to set "civilians" on fire, that a woman had a miscarriage when her bus was attacked with firebombs, that a 13 months baby was severely wounded at the head by stones, *lots* of police officers were hurt (for example one who lost his hand at the beginning of the riots, or a group of rookies, including females, who were "massacred" by a mob who trapped them,...)
If you think that French media are downplaying the extent of the actual violence and damage, you are right. Quite a bit of hard news is not being reported both by design and by the circumstances on the ground. State TV has already decided to stop repeating the number of cars burned every day and film crews (particularly white French film crews) are being chased from the suburbs after having their vehicles and equipment torched. The only journalists currently operating freely and without armed escort are from Algerian newspapers (El Watan has been cited as an example).
Callers on talk radio are starting to reveal what MSM is censuring: the racist, Islamist nature of the ongoing uprising.
State TV has already manipulated reports, albeit hamfistedly. The most notable example was the bait-and-switch reports about the handicapped woman doused with gasoline and burned by rioters. Every attempt was made to have viewers believe that race was not an issue.
On a State TV France5 talk show, an Algerian writer living in Paris expressed shock at the scenes coming in from the suburbs where jellaba clad big brothers step in to calm youths and negotiate with police. He stated that such images reminded him of the happenings in Islamist neighborhoods of Algiers circa late 80s and early 90s. These images, very common in the first days of the riots, have now vanished from French TV screens which now favor scenes involving disenfranchised youths who repeat endlessly that they are victims of unemployment and racism.
#7
French TV screens which now favor scenes involving disenfranchised youths who repeat endlessly that they are victims of unemployment and racism.
That's the same BS I saw late night on SeeBS. TV Showed a few rock throwers and then an interview with "yoots" claiming it's all French racism's fault, then an "expert" interview claiming the same thing and the solution is to shovel Euros to the perpetrators (with a cut for the bureaucrats).
Posted by: ed ||
11/09/2005 9:44 Comments ||
Top||
#8
This will not become an annual event. If France now goes to full dhimmitude, it will be the end. But there will be tons given to the little mos by the French in the meantime. It just won't be enough for the Mohammedan Jesse Jacksons who will arise in the ghettos.
Because the French efforts will probably be "insufficient", next May there will be another episode, coordinated with the socialists/unions to shut down the country a la '68 and to threaten the summer tourism influx. If the French put it down ferociously, as they still can, that might be the end and result in an exodus of Mohammadans. If it fails, there will be some political settlement that transfers power to the Mohammedans. At that point, they will start to infiltrate the establishment and lay low for years until they think things are ready for the next substantial power grab. That will probably by being the swing power in forming a parliamentary coalition. From that they will start imposing more and more sharia, at first in their own communities and later by demanding respect for Sharia even in cirucmstances in which no mohammedans are involved.
In the mean time, I expect to see more Car-B-Qs thereafter in Spain, Italy and perhaps Britain. Each will be tested for response until they cave. The Danes will be last.
#9
4485,
The Brits will put up more of a fight than the French surrender monkeys.
At least in T Blair we have a leader who has seen the danger we face and has the nuts to stand up to Islamofacism.
#10
Any country beset by violence from Mooselimb factions should put these thugs in rowboats at the ocean's shore, push them off, and tell them to find a country that will put up with their bullshit--and good wishes that their boats sink before they find another country.
#11
One might as well lump France and Spain together for their lackluster resistance to terrorist coercion. Both have effectually caved in to the demands of a tiny but highly destructive minority. Their combined surrenders have set the stage for an epidemic of similar events. Europe had better come to its senses and demonstrate a much more intense resolve when confronted with any more of this thuggery.
#12
Europeans are some of the most effective killers in world history and have shown an ability to go medieval when required. The islamic rioters are treading a dangerous line.
President Jacques Chirac has declared a state of emergency to impose curfews on riot-hit cities and towns, an extraordinary measure to halt France's worst civil unrest in decades after violence raged for a 12th night. The state-of-emergency decree allowing curfews where needed will become effective at midnight on Tuesday and has an initial 12-day limit. Police, massively reinforced as the violence has fanned out from its initial flashpoint in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, are expected to enforce the curfews. The army has not been called in.
Local officials "will be able to impose curfews on the areas where this decision applies," Chirac said at a cabinet meeting. "It is necessary to accelerate the return to calm." The recourse to a 1955 state-of-emergency law that dates back to France's war in Algeria was a measure both of the gravity of mayhem that has spread to hundreds of French towns and cities and of the determination of Chirac's sorely tested government to quash it. "I have decided ... to give the forces of order supplementary measures of action to ensure the protection of our citizens and their property," Chirac said.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said the authorities would be able to restrict the movement of people and vehicles and to set up perimeters around trouble spots. He said 1500 police and gendarme reservists would be deployed as reinforcements for 8000 officers on the ground but ruled out army intervention.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
an extraordinary measure
extraordinary only in that it took so long to implement.
#2
Dead right, 2b. :) As the opinion piece from yesterday said, France's policies are now exposed for folly and foolishness - a very polite way of saying what I think.
#3
The picadores are still goading the bull. The banderilleros are preparing. Somewhere, the matador is sharpening his sword.
I'm not saying that this is all going to be over in an afternoon. This particular bullfight might last a decade. I don't think that Chiraq and the gang have a clue about what's going on.
#4
Perhaps the real question is staying power. Yeah they're playing both games, appeasement and contemplating getting tough, but if the "disaffected youths" (Lol) don't give up for a bunch of empty promises, will Chirac & Co have the stones to take control by force -- and maintain it over an extended period?
I don't think so, though it may be the end of whatever influence he and de villepin have in French politics.
I'll bet Chirac wishes his presidency had ended about 6 months ago - he could now be a Senator for Life (Is that right a5089 / JFM?) and immune from prosecution, ankle-biting ala Skeery "I woulda done it differently! I have a plan!", from the sidelines.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch, but I feel for the average citizen who's having their cars, homes, and businesses torched for no imaginable reason other than cowardice on the part of Chirac & de Villepin. *shakes head*
#5
From what I understand Chirac's only hope of staying out of prison is for de Villepin to replace him and pardon him.
The solution they have laid out to this problem will not solve it. We are talking about French drug gangs and thugs here who just happen to be followers of Islam as well. They don't give a rats ass about what the government has offered. They want free reign to do as they please with no police of governmental interference. The government is totally out of touch with the people and clueless.
If the Phrench "authorities" can't enforce their basic laws and stop the rioters, how the hell do they intend to enforce a curfew (other than against some 90-year-old French grandmother, I mean)?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/09/2005 1:28 Comments ||
Top||
#7
BEEB>>Last Updated: Wednesday, 9 November 2005, 06:00 GMT
French riots defy emergency plan
Rioting has continued in France for a 13th consecutive night, despite emergency powers aimed at restoring order coming into force.
More than 500 cars had been torched by 0400 (0300GMT), police said. Around 200 people were arrested
But police said the levels of violence across the country were lower than the previous night...Lol, street cred? snip Linky
The poor disaffected kids are just lonely, angry, and misunderstood. They need programs and jobs and money and French wimmins.
#10
My wife and I were ROTFLOAO that Chirac's display of power was to impose a local-option 12-day curfew for 16-year-olds and under. Our local towns have had tougher curfews for years, 365 days per year. But then, we support capital punishment and the shooting of arsonist rioters too, so I guess we are just barbarians.
#11
500 Car-B-Qs is a significant reduction and means the initial pahse of Frankenfada is almost over. On to Phase II where Islamists start to infiltrate the French establishment unassimilated and implemnt Sharia.
#12
Way to punt the ball Jacques. What mayor is stupid enough to enforce a curfew when the pre-jihad homeboys live just down the road. Being Chirac means never having to say "The buck stops here."
Posted by: ed ||
11/09/2005 8:19 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Speaking of Islamist infiltration of government, I wonder what Turkey will look like in 10 years, and how much is Zapatero will be willing to bend over for the Euro-Islam Mediterranean future.
Posted by: ed ||
11/09/2005 8:23 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Red Dog: Not that I'm complaining or anything but what makes you think Islamists are interested in anything other than Allan?
The Belgian government's crisis centre confirmed on Tuesday night vandals had set cars ablaze in the cities of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels. It is the third night in succession that cars have been torched, but a spokesman for the national crisis centre said each case was an "isolated" incident."There were no injuries and there was no certainly no gathering [of youths]. The culprits cannot yet be found," spokesman Fernand Koekelberg said. "We hoped that [the initial incidents on Sunday night] were isolated cases, but apparently it's continuing," police spokesman Albert Roossens said earlier on Tuesday.
#7
For sports fans, the box scores:
617 car-burnings
some 300 people were detained overnight
Posted by: ed ||
11/09/2005 8:29 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Peugeot may cut 1,300 jobs in French plant as 307 sales dip - union
SOCHAUX, France (AFX) -Peugeot SA (Paris: FR0000121501 - news) may cut 1,300 workers at its Sochaux plant in Eastern France because of a dip in sales of its 307 medium-sized car, the CGT union said. Plant management declined to comment on the union's claim that it is planning to cut workers on fixed-term and temporary contracts.
Such workers make up 1,400 of the plant's overall 14,000 employees. 'Management have a plan which aims to eliminate one assembly team during the second quarter of 2006,' the CGT said in a statement. COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2005.
#10
Hmm - is Peugeot sponsoring the car-B-Qs in order to gin up a market for new cars? (Not a serious 'conspiracy theory', just a snarky way of pointing out an 'unintended consequence' - I think.)
#11
Peugeot/Citroen SA is a very well run business organization. It's those folks over at Renault that inherited the government developed business plan.
Posted by: john ||
11/09/2005 14:32 Comments ||
Top||
The US Central Intelligence Agency has taken the first step toward a criminal inquiry into who told the media that it runs secret jails abroad, reports say. The investigation will examine possible leak of classified information, unnamed officials are quoted as saying.
Last week the Washington Post newspaper alleged that the CIA was running detention centres for terror suspects in unnamed Eastern European countries. The Bush administration has so far refused to comment on the allegations.
On Tuesday Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice averted questions on the issue, saying only that the US was in a "different kind of war" and had an obligation to defend itself. The BBC's Fergal Parkinson in Washington says the repeated refusal by the administration to confirm or deny the reports has fuelled speculation that the secret prisons do exist.
Officials quoted by the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies on condition of anonymity said the CIA had asked the justice department to look into a possible leak. The department will decide whether to initiate criminal proceedings. Some governments have already issued denials, including Romania and Poland which were named by New York-based Human Rights Watch as possible hosts for the prisons. Republican congressional leaders, including Senator Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, had called for a congressional investigation into possible leaks.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 10:49 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
My hope is to find everyone of these bastards and hold them accountable.This is a blatant act of TREASON,subversion,and espionage directed against the President. I think they should find, prosecute,and HANG everyone of them.
#2
Amen ARMYGUY. I hated Clinton when I was in the military, but it never would even cross my mind to do things to undermine our country just to get at him. He was my commander in chief, period. Time to start killing these fuckers.
#3
But haven't you heard the latest LLL talking point? Trent Lott says the leak came from a Republican!
Of course, when you look at what he said, he says no such thing. Instead, he says that details of a meeting he and other senators had with Cheney ALSO leaked, as in A DIFFERENT LEAK.
But what does truth matter to a liberal anymore?
(Though I must say, they seem awfully desperate to scare Republicans off investigating the prison leak. Almost as if they think it might lead to one of their own.
Me, I don't care what party the leaker came from -- hang 'em.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/09/2005 12:02 Comments ||
Top||
#4
And any leaker should be probed, in a Roswell sort of way.
#5
A democratic society has the right to decide and hold its government accountable in regards to whether secret jails should be allowed to exist or not. It has the right to hold its government accountable about all major issues of policy. And this is a major issue of policy. A democratic society doesn't need to know about the exact location of every one of the jails, if security needs dictate otherwise, but it does need to know that such locations exist.
The fact you people consider such a "leak" treasonous shows your general contempt for democracy. The traitors are in fact those who held such a major strategic issue hidden from the public -- the public that you likewise hold in contempt.
The fact that people like you used to accuse the *European Union* of lacking in transparency and accountability and of holding the people in contempt is the very height of ironies.
The United States seem to be forgetting the very basics of democracy, if they believe that revealing such a thing to the public is traitorous.
#6
But what does truth matter to a liberal anymore?
Well, given how the whole issue is about how you people wanted the truth hidden, and liberals wanted it out...
... unless in fact it so happens that a certain Republican *also* wanted it out...
... I'd say you better hope that the claim about the Republican leak is true. It may show that there are still *some* people in your party that care about the truth at all, and believe the government should be held accountable for its deeds, good and bad.
#8
So, Aris, there can be no intelligence secrets on behalf of a democratic society? No prosecution for those who leak state secrets? Why don't you just try publishing some Greek Army secrets? That would knock you off your righteous pedestal and bring you down into the real world.
Your perspective remains as naive as it was for the EU "constitution" that even the French soundly trashed. Perhaps the French had a better perspective on the real dangers to democracy than you did. They certainly do now.
#10
Aris, as a democratic society we can decide whether we want secret prisons or not. We can also decide that we want our leaders to keep the existence of such places, you know, SECRET. As in, not blab about it. As in, reporters who report secrets should be punished for doing so. As in, gummint officials who blab about it should be punished.
We have a representative government, and we have a means of removing officials we don't like. In the meantime, they make decisions like this for us.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/09/2005 16:25 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Darrell at #8 you said : "So, Aris, there can be no intelligence secrets on behalf of a democratic society?"
At #5 I had already said: "A democratic society doesn't need to know about the exact location of every one of the jails, if security needs dictate otherwise,"
So, first of all: learn to read.
Your perspective remains as naive as it was for the EU "constitution" that even the French soundly trashed.
Certainly. Respect for both democracy and freedom remains ever my guiding principle, and as such my opinion on the EU Constitution which I supported, remains as naive as my opinion on gulags which I oppose.
My wanting the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights by all European nations, for example, certainly is directly connected to my hating the very concept of secret prisons.
Aris, as a democratic society we can decide whether we want secret prisons or not. We can also decide that we want our leaders to keep the existence of such places, you know, SECRET.
Except that I've never heard of the American people authorizing even the possibility of such secret jails. But you can tell me when Congress passed such a law if you will. Certainly I had thought that America lacking secret jails was one of the propaganda points in its favour during the Cold War.
We have a representative government, and we have a means of removing officials we don't like.
Whether you like or don't like officials is irrelevant when you don't actually have a clue what they are doing to make you like them or dislike them. You may just as well draw names out of a box when your judgement isn't coupled with knowledge: Knowledge, being another concept you despise, especially when shared by the proles.
Here's something from the bible: The Truth shall set you free.
Here's something from Superman: "Truth, Justice and the American Way"
The reason you hate this "leak" is not because it poses a "security risk" of whatever sort from enemy terrorists, but because the presense of such prisons may prove *unpopular* and thus detrimental to the Bush government. In sort you are afraid of the reactions of *your own people* in regards to America's own actions.
As such the American government stands pretty close to invalidating any mandate she's been given by her people.
#14
I don't think you are so stupid as to think that's a correct analogy, are you?
Your people knew you were at war back then.
Everyone knew that both sides tried to break the codes of the other.
That's the issue of *policy* -- and it was well known.
If your modern policy is to keep people you consider terrorists in secret jails, then *that* policy should also become known. Not the locations of those jails (as by definition they are secret), but the *policy* about them.
When policies aren't public, then it's not a democracy any longer.
#15
Jackal, you clearly don't value knowledge. And you hate democracy. And puppies. You probably drink shakes made from the ashes of burnt books and puppies.
And don't deny it -- I know what's in your mind because I'm a better person than you.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/09/2005 19:12 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Your people knew you were at war back then.
In contrast to today, right?
Idiot.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/09/2005 19:18 Comments ||
Top||
#17
I certainly think I'm a better person than *you*, Robert.
Though that's really not saying much at all.
"In contrast to today, right?"
What does it do for your dignity, when you pretend to be an even bigger moron than you really are, Robert? When you intentionally fail to get the point?
#18
What does it do for your dignity, when you pretend to be an even bigger moron than you really are, Robert? When you intentionally fail to get the point?
#20
We are at war now, like we were against the Japanese. Some of us appear to know it.
Then there's nothing wrong with knowing there are secret jails around, the same way there was nothing wrong back then with knowing that each side was trying to crack the codes of the other.
Right?
Oh, wait, no, it seems that currently our means of warfare are so dirty that the public can't be allowed their knowledge at all.
Fine, in the name of "war", go ahead and lose a democracy that endured more than 200 years. You'll end up feeling the pain of that loss before I do, though I'm sure that in the end the whole world will suffer because of it.
Just remember that it was you who chose to give up your once-cherished way of life, and I never did.
#21
How is this "secret detention" any different than keeping Saddam in an undisclosed location? Personally, Aris, I would prefer that these enemies be shot where they're apprehended rather than be sent to Gitmo. So it doesn't matter to me if they stop off at "secret detention" on the way to Gitmo or a firing squad. I'm disappointed that they're alive. I'm disappointed that Saddam is alive.
Look around, Aris. Airplanes are hijacked. Buildings are leveled. Nightclubs are exploded. Trains are derailed. Subway stations are wrecked. Schools and cars are burned. Today hotels are exploding. It's a war, naive one. We are targeting those who would kill us, and they are targeting everyone including women, children, and newborn babies. So either set out to win the war or start learning Arabic and the Koran.
#22
SR-71 - Valid points, cept I still don't think the French have quite figured it out. If the Paristinian Intifadeh runs for another year or so, the French might enter the proximity of neighborhood where clues could be located.
#23
our Greek punk couldn't care less about damage done to US WOT efforts or the systematic breaking of classified info laws. Bet your military takes just as lax a view, huh? Ignore
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/09/2005 20:31 Comments ||
Top||
#24
How is this "secret detention" any different than keeping Saddam in an undisclosed location?
The American people knew Saddam was being held in an undisclosed location. The American people didn't know these other secret jails existed.
In Saddam's case the policy was known, and the location was secret.
In this case the policy itself was a secret.
I would prefer that these enemies be shot where they're apprehended rather than be sent to Gitmo. So it doesn't matter to me if they stop off at "secret detention" on the way to Gitmo or a firing squad. I'm disappointed that they're alive. I'm disappointed that Saddam is alive.
And you have every right to support the policy you suggest. And the other American people have also a right to support the policy *they* prefer.
But the point Rantburgers don't seem to be getting is that all Americans should have a right to know *which* policy is actually taking place. So that they may judge it. So that they may hold their government accountable.
Look around, Aris. Airplanes are hijacked. Buildings are leveled. Nightclubs are exploded. Trains are derailed. Subway stations are wrecked. Schools and cars are burned. Today hotels are exploding. It's a war, naive one. We are targeting those who would kill us, and they are targeting everyone including women, children, and newborn babies. So either set out to win the war or start learning Arabic and the Koran.
Blah, blah, blah, was that an attempt to impress me with drama? Unlike you I've lived in a country and continent that has known more war in the 20th century than the United States has known in all its history combined. So don't try to stun me with descriptions of the commonplace, and don't you *dare* try to suggest than any external enemy is worth surrendering to internal fascisms. You call me naive? You are both naive and arrogant. External foes can be overthrown, it's the internal fascisms that stick to a nation's skin if you give way one inch to them.
#26
frankly, I hope we have dark holes in multiple places where those who would kill me and my family or damage my country are disassembled, mentally, and figuratively, if they have info of immediate use in saving American lives. No apologies. No arguments. You don't like it? Too fucking bad
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/09/2005 20:39 Comments ||
Top||
#27
Aris buddy, you're headed for a coronary. Recommed you ice down a six pack of Mythos, sit back and watch a nice soccer match.
#28
From time to time, I thought maybe I missed Aris....
Nah. I was wrong.
Goodnight, Aris!
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/09/2005 20:45 Comments ||
Top||
#29
Ah, what the hell, time for me to toss a bomblet in here (can't resist, sorry guys....)
Aris, just wondering. Precisely why must my government tell me every single thing they are doing during wartime as part of the plan to fight said war? Even in generalities, as in "we have secret prisons in an undisclosed location" kind of thing?
My knowledge, or lack thereof, of this kind of detail isn't something that in my opinion is absolutely necessary. My government, and yours too, does plenty of things that I don't know about and/or will never know about.
The so-called "right to know" is not in our Constitution. The only ones bloviating about it are journalists, and they basically use it as shorthand for "we have the right to know every blessed thing the government is up to, and we will decide what to publish....ratings and circulation uber alles."
Our journalists, and I doubt they are an exception to their kind worldwide, have determined they are the ones with the right to publicize anything they don't like. Screw any possible security concerns....I didn't vote for them, I don't feel they represent me, and I don't see the reason for them to make this public now.
Quite frankly, I ain't buying the "it lessens American prestige abroad" argument, either. There are plenty of people who believe the CIA was the one who "developed" the AIDS virus, littered the streets of our cities with crack cocaine, and heaven knows what else. Lots of people are already primed to believe the worst possible things about America. I don't think one more thing like a secret prison is going to have any measurable change in world opinion.
I don't really see the point you are arguing, and would appreciate it if you would answer that honestly.
#30
You asked me a specific question, Darrell, I answered it clearly and concisely. You should have atleast acknowledged that.
But like Robert and Frank you like to pretend that secret policies are the same thing in a supposed-democracy as secret codes or secret locations, no matter how ridiculous and unsustainable *that* position is.
Review in your minds the powers that you want your government to have, and you'll find out that the description you'll build is as far removed from any concept of democracy as can be:
-no transparency
-no need to consult the public about any action whatsoever
-no accountability
-the right of the government to imprison anyone it wants without anyone having the right to challenge that decision or even know about it
-the right of the government to *torture* anyone it wants without anyone having the right to challenge that decision or even know about it
And in everything anyone says to object to all these, you parrot-like repeat the old mantra as if you were babies who had taught one and only song: "We're in a war, we're in a war".
Yeah, you're in a war. That doesn't excuse you. What the hell makes you think it does?
#31
Aris, every one of the bullet points you have above is a strawman -- positions *YOU* invented and assigned to us.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/09/2005 20:58 Comments ||
Top||
#32
Aris, the ancient Greeks were famous for their manners (when they weren't bashing people over the head, anyway). I realize there are those who say that the citizens of modern Greece are subsequent settlers from Asia Minor, rather than lineal descendents, but that doesn't mean you need to throw away politeness altogether. Just to remind you, any statement that contains the phrase, "you people," is inherently rude, and will automatically lose the argument for you with this audience -- even with me, and I am more likely to tolerate sophomoric argument styles than many here.
You bring valuable information to this forum. But you've graduated from university, done your military service, and now you are an adult. Stop acting like the callow, chubby youth you were six months ago.
#33
The so-called "right to know" is not in our Constitution.
Amendment IX: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
The Declaration of Independence: "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,"
Consent implies knowledge. You can't give consent to something without knowing about it. It's a fundamental of democracy.
Secret jails where people are shoved without any hint due process are not a mere detail. Certainly enough people consider it a big deal that it should be up to the American people to decide *whether* it's a mere detail or not. Especially when you can't provide adequate reason for why it shouldn't become known, *other* than the fact that some people won't consider it a detail.
And as for the right of journalist to publicize stuff, that for one *is* explicit in the constitution.
Robert> "Aris, every one of the bullet points you have above is a strawman -- positions *YOU* invented and assigned to us. "
They're the positions you've consistently held, Robert. But by all means please tell me which kind of secrets you think that the US Government shouldn't be allowed to keep, which kind of powers to imprison the US Government shouldn't be allowed to have. Prove me wrong for once, by telling me what are your actual opinions on your governments' rights and obligations, rather than just mock me about my opinions on them.
#34
Just to remind you, any statement that contains the phrase, "you people," is inherently rude,
Is it? I preferred to use "y'all" to signify the second-person plural, but people used to get angry about that as well. Please do tell me another way to distinguish between plural and singular uses of "you" when the distinction needs be made
#35
we weren't angry, LOL - we ridiculed you. nite-nite
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/09/2005 21:12 Comments ||
Top||
#36
I voted for Bush. Twice. I even like what he's doing now. It's not my neighbors or even Teddy Kennedy that are going to "secret detention" -- it's a bunch of dangerous foreign whackos. Bush is not Stalin, Aris, but you *are* Jacques Chirac. I don't need an *excuse*!
#37
It's not my neighbors or even Teddy Kennedy that are going to "secret detention" -- it's a bunch of dangerous foreign whackos
Is it that they're "dangerous" or that they're
"foreign" that gives you the right to keep them in secret detention? Because there are lots of dangerous American citizens as well and *they* do get the right of a trial when they're caught.
I don't need an *excuse*!
Need is relative. Perhaps you don't need one for your conscience, you mean. But I don't care about your conscience, I care for American democracy instead.
#41
*Ofcourse* you're through with me: Anything to avoid actually stating your own positions, as I just challenged you to do.
Come on, Robert! Tell me one kind of secret that you believe a government *shouldn't* be allowed to keep. Tell me what you feel the minimum limitations on arrent and detention powers should be.
And then let us see how long till the US Government violates your minimum standards also -- if you have any, that is.
#42
Good news, Aris: American democracy is working just fine. I voted yesterday -- in secret. I had options. I'm satisfied that it was all done fairly and the results were available today. The losers do not fear being sent to "secret detention". The winners are my representatives -- I don't expect or even want them to bombard me with every detail of how they run my government. But I do expect them to keep secrets secret and prosecute anyone who leaks classified information. And I will sleep soundly tonight, knowing that most of the Americans in charge are not hysterical raving paranoids like *you*. Good night.
#43
Very clever, Aris, to use Amendment 9. However, under our commonly accepted way of interpreting the Constitution, that is more commonly interpreted as "what is not forbidden is permitted", not the "right to know" in this country.
Also, consent implies permission, not knowledge. People consent to things all the time without knowing all the details. (For a good example, see my boss....just kidding.)
Neither one of the statements you quoted has ever been used to argue the citizenry's absolute right to know what the government is up to in all circumstances.
We aren't entitled to know everything done by our government. Case in point.....the Manhattan Project. Explain to me precisely how knowing about that, even in the slightest detail, would have been worth publicizing during World War II. Or other operations we carried out against the Soviet Union during the cold war. The Soviets are gone now, but there is plenty that won't come out until you and I are getting our pension checks, if ever.
Journalists have the right to publicize anything they want. I have not argued otherwise. However, we also have the right to question their motivation for doing so, and if they do something to endanger American lives and interests abroad, they can be punished under appropriate laws.
And I know you don't want to hear this, but....foreigners overseas don't have the protection of our Constitution if they are detained. That's already been decided by our courts. Sorry. Try again.
Hell, foreigners here don't have all the rights that citizens have (as I know from personal experience). You may not like it, but that's what we have decided as a nation. If there was an outcry here to change it, we would have done so. Don't assume that Americans don't know about that policy.
#44
First, the USA does not have to justify itself to you or the rest of the world. America's success is its own justification.
Second, I doubt that you particularly care about American democracy. I would suggest that you wish to weaken America, like the rest of the EUnuches.
Third The USA is a republic and REPRESENTATIVE democracy. As was pointed out earlier, we elect people to undertake action on our behalf.
Fourth Absent some system of detention, only rough battlefield justice is left. That would be my preference, but pehaps this is more humane.
Fifth Foreign fighters do not have rights under the US Constitution. Nor would you if you were committing terrorist acts against Americans.
Finally The mere fact that a substantial portion of Americans still have strength to reject dhimmitude annoys the rest of the world greatly. The secret prisons do not reduce the stature of America. I would suggest that the carping is motivated by envy.
#47
Don't be deliberately obtuse, Aris. Any statement that generalizes to the entirety of Rantburg readers (who at moments have numbered over 9000 -- back in the old days when Fred kept a counter going) canot possibly be true, and is therefore rude. You know damned well we don't hold a monolithic viewpoint here.
You cannot possibly be serious about America becoming fascist, so please stop arguing that point. The U.S. is a federal republic,nota democracy. The difference is that we democratically elect people to represent us and do the work of government. If a majority of us don't like the job they do, we replace them. If some of us really don't like what is being done in our name, we run for office ourselves, and hopefully convince a simple majority of the community to agree. And please remember, we've been doing this, successfully and continuously (as opposed to continually, I do know the difference), since about 1780. Over time we have evolutionarily modified our practices to accomodate changes in population, land area, majority economic activity, population movements, and culture. So if this is how we are, it is because we, as a society, have chosen it.
When we, as a people, discussed the future direction of our country in 1999, a simple majority of us voted for George W. Bush, the Republican candidate. And four years later, in a referendum on the way the War on Terror (Afghani and Iraqi battles, inclusive) was being fought, a larger majority re-elected him, knowing, among other things, that he would have to replace several sitting Supreme Court judges due to old age. We also knew that George Bush's government was keeping secrets along the way. We, as a people, have long since chosen to permit this. Most of the time, it works out all right. When it doesn't, sooner or later it is discovered, and a new government is elected that fixes the problem.
You know these things, Aris -- that's why you are essentially a Euro-style liberal (that translates to Libertarian on this side of the pond, for those who are new to Aris's arguments). Please , please, please stop getting sidetracked into vicious arguments about nothing in particular. I solemnly swear to you I will not allow the U.S. government to persecute law-abiding minorities, set up concentration camps, or set up secret prisons for the mass-torture of innocents. But you cannot ask me to worry about a few terrorists, caught in the act on foreign soil, being kept on foreign soil until they reveal their further plans, whose goal in life is to murder all those of my faith, and subject the rest of my countrymen -- as well as your fellow Europeans -- to rapine, slavery and worse, all in the name of a totalitarian, fascist view of their god's will.
#49
Just once. I know you'll pull the same shit again, though, so I know this is a wasted effort.
Come on, Robert! Tell me one kind of secret that you believe a government *shouldn't* be allowed to keep. Tell me what you feel the minimum limitations on arrent and detention powers should be.
I think any information -- with reasonable cause -- should be able to be kept secret. Keep in mind we have Congressional oversight committees that can see this stuff and apply corrections in terms of budget and laws. But they're not above the laws protecting classified information, and their leaking is as illegal as it would be if I did it.
Most government activity should be open and transparent -- and guess what, Aris, it is! -- and there's certainly too much classified stuff, but I don't think classifying how we handle those who are outlaws in the truest sense is excessive. We don't need to know. The world doesn't need to know.
What about you -- should every bit of information in the hands of government be open to public view? Are there limits to the public's right to know? Should I be able to go down to the local library and see your tax documents? Your police record? Your service record, including any medical files?
Detention: US citizens and lawful combatants should be handled according the Constitution and laws (for citizens) and according to the Geneva Conventions (for lawful combatants). Unlawful combatants -- fuck 'em. They chose to take themselves outside the law.
Yep, if it's a fuzzy case, there should be some review. Military tribunals are the historically applied method. But there are some cases where they're obviously unlawful combatants, and no review is necessary. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed comes to mind.
(And now you'll claim I just restated the strawmen you listed earlier.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/09/2005 22:36 Comments ||
Top||
#50
TW, that was one of the great counter arguments I have seen in my 2+ years on Rantburg. In fact it was a smackdown, but I don't want to jump on the flame bandwagon.
Aris was way off base losing perspective totally. I don't think he understands the power of our republic to self correct. In fact, he sounds more like the loony libs or Lyndon LaRouche in the way he makes the exception seem like potential reality.
Excellent and very coherent argument. I am, as so often here at Rantburg, impressed.
#52
Nobody with a Harvard MBA is simple, Besoeker. Uncomplicated, perhaps, but not simple.
2b, remoteman, thank you. I value your judgements, especially in a case that is so heartfelt. My parents, as you and many here know, were European Jews of the Holocaust generation. Mama was a German, and spent her youth in hiding in Holland. My father was originally Latvian intellegentsia -- most of his relatives evaporated, but he and his mother made it to then-Palestine. I take accusations of fascism very seriously; to me that means a great deal more than mere torture in a few secret prisons.
And Aris knows better: he has a university education, and is exceedingly well read for his age... and he really does admire America, which is why this crap really pisses me off.
#54
You have to put little smileys or /joke thingies for me, Besoeker. I'm unsubtle, I'm afraid, as well as naive in my own little way. I do apologize.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Ambassador John Bolton clashed with one another on Tuesday over whether Syria was cooperating with the U.N. Security Council in implementing recent resolutions. The question is key as the council a little over a week ago unanimously approved a new resolution ordering Syria to cooperate fully with a U.N. investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri or face possible unspecified "further action." Following that October 31 vote, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the measure "made it clear that failure to comply with these demands will lead to serious consequences from the international community."
Tuesday's verbal clash began when Annan, in Cairo for a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, told reporters Damascus "has had a good record" in implementing Security Council resolutions. Bolton, asked in New York about Annan's statement, said Syria's performance in carrying out council resolutions had ranged from "very lacking" to "substantially lacking." Look for more tears shed by Senator George Voinovich on the Senate floor.
Asked whether Annan's words were helpful to the council, Bolton responded: "I think I will not comment on his comment."
The 15-nation council has passed a number of resolutions in the past 14 months dealing with Syria's domination of neighboring Lebanon and with Hariri's February 14 assassination. A resolution adopted September 2, 2004, demanded the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon, a disbanding of all militias in Lebanon and an end to Syrian meddling in Lebanon. A second, approved April 7, 2005, authorized an international investigation into Hariri's murder.
Following the September 2004 resolution, Syria withdrew its forces from Lebanese soil and Lebanon held parliamentary elections free of Syrian interference. Acting on the April 2005 text, Detlev Mehlis, who heads the U.N. inquiry into Hariri's death, accused the Syrian authorities last month of obstructing his work and said the killing could not have been plotted without the knowledge of Syrian security officials and their Lebanese allies. Annan, in Cairo, said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had assured him of Syria's intention to cooperate with Mehlis and praised Syrian implementation of the September 2004 measure.
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"has had a good record"
Lol, only when utterly caught with their pants down. Kofi. *spit* What a tool.
#3
If Annan isn't booted out soon, what shreds of credibility the UN has on any front will vaporize.
With him in there as S-G, it's blatantly, huge-red-flashing-neon-sign obvious that the entire organization is corrupt to the core.
Posted by: mac ||
11/09/2005 6:02 Comments ||
Top||
#4
much thanks to whoever photoshopped the wilfred brimley stash' onto lord vader causing me to choke on my pumpkin chai latte. well done
Posted by: def con juan ||
11/09/2005 10:01 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The UN building is very old and in need of considerable updating. I recommend relocating the entire operation. New digs in Harare would be ideal. Bob has the entire city all spruced up now. The per diem is much, much lower, Air Zim needs the ridership, and the UN wonks will be closer to the action.
#6
Couldn't agree more Beo. Perhaps if Harare isn't up to the task then maybe Kinshasa. There the rest of the UN wonks could participate in some gang rapes along with the rest of the Blue Helmets. The fact that regimes like Libya, DRC, Norks, Burma and Syria even have a say, clearly indicates that if Bolton can't make it work, then the org is history.
#7
After Harare or Kinshasa, the UN could continue its "Out of the Frying Pan & Into the Fire" tour by moving on to Pyongyang. Perhaps Kimmy could snatch the crown out of Kofi's hands at his King of the World coronation ceremony.
Abo-Musaab Alzarqawi groups are planning serious attacks and may be on the same time against important targets inside other Arab states like Jordan, Lebanon or Saudi Arabia so soon.
#3
Desperate measures indeed. I think all they are gonna do is piss off King Ab. It's gonna screw up his Harley Davidson week end with the wife and kids, and he'll take it all VERY personally.
Al-Qaida organization in Iraq led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatened to launch a campaign of "revenge" in west Iraq after the end of the grace period he gave to the American and Iraqi forces to stop the so-called "iron curtain" campaign they launched since Saturday on the border with Syria.
Oh, darn.
For the fourth running day, the American attacks continue in collaboration with several groups of the Iraqi forces against al-Qaem area in al-Anbar governorate. The American army announced on Tuesday that its forces killed five gunmen and detained ten when they broke into a house used by members of al-Qaida organization near Ramadi city. Earlier the American army said it killed 36 gunmen and detained 200 since the beginning of the operation.
On the other hand, the American statement stressed that the gunmen use what it described as sensitive installations to hide in and that the marines retaliate fire opened from these buildings. Witnesses confirm that the violent American bombardment target mosques and civilian houses in al-Huseibah town. News coming from al-Huseibah state that many of its people had evacuated it. Its chieftains appealed the UN and the Arab League to interfere immediately in order to halt military operations in it so as to be able to bury their dead.
Worthy mentioning that the American army announced the killing of 6 of its soldiers, one of them during the current operations in al-Qaem while other four were killed in a booby trapped car explosion in south Baghdad. The 6th was killed in a bomb explosion near Tikrit, north of Baghdad.
In other confrontations, sources in the Iraqi police and army announced the killing of 11 Iraqis most of them are from the army and police forces including three army officers and other 13 were injured in attacks in Iraq. One source in the Iraqi police said that the chairman of the criminal investigation unity in Basra colonel Mahmoud Qasem was killed with his two body guards and other four were injured when one booby trapped car targeted their vehicle went off in Abu al-Khaseib area south of the city.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 11:46 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatened to launch a campaign of "revenge" in west Iraq after the end of the grace period he gave to the American and Iraqi forces to stop the so-called "iron curtain" campaign ..."
Hmmmmm, so we start calling operations grace periods... I like that!
DEBKA - Magic 8 Ball Department:
According to intelligence data reaching the American command, the Jordanian terrorist chief, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, commander of al Qaeda Iraq, has left the Sunni-dominated Anbar province bordering on Syria after two years. In mid-October he is described as driving into Baghdad in mid-October in a convoy of six Iraqi military vehicles stolen from US-Iraqi bases in the north. All the travelers, including the boss, were clad in new uniforms of high Iraqi army officers. They breezed past the roadblocks guarding the townâs entrances without arousing suspicion. Indeed some of the Iraqi security officers manning them saluted the fake officers.
DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs intelligence sources add: the convoy rolled in to the northeastern, Sunni district known as the Seven Wells, to be greeted by the local commander Emir Abu Yashak and his men. Yashak was given the job of setting up a secret command center and several safe houses for the new arrivals to work out of, as well as escape routes and facilities should the Americans uncover the new hideouts. It is the first time that US forces and intelligence know for sure where Zarqawi is located. They know he is now in Baghdad.
A week later, the al Qaeda chief, fully aware that the Americans had pinned him down geographically, went into action. Monday, October 24, three truck bombs driven by suicide bombers exploded at two hotels housing foreign journalists and contractors in central Baghdad. At least 20 Iraqi security guards and passers-by were killed. Al Qaeda then returned to its offensive to frighten Arab and Muslim missions into exiting the Iraqi capital, by abducting and executing two Moroccan embassy employees. A Sudanese working at his countryâs Baghdad embassy was killed Wednesday, Nov. 9. A day earlier, al Qaeda gunmen targeted a another two members of the Saddam Hussein trial defense team, killing one, wounding another, after murdering the first lawyer last month. A large question mark now hovers over the resumption of the crimes against humanities trial awaiting the deposed dictator and seven senior associations on Nov. 28. The surviving defense counsel want the trial moved abroad.
Zarqawiâ plan of action for his new base was summarized by DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs al Qaeda experts:
1. Multi-weapon, multi-casualty, coordinated attacks on Americans and other foreigners working in Baghdad that are hideous enough to shut down and put to flight diplomatic missions and foreign companies, international aid organizations, journalists and the foreign technical teams employed in constructing and operating Iraqâs new infrastructure.
2. Along with large-scale coordinated attacks, al Qaeda will step up the hostage-taking and executions of foreigners.
3. The offensive will aim at crippling Iraqâs government, security and parliamentary administration by pinpoint assassinations of cabinet ministers, lawmakers, civil servants, members of the judiciary, army officers and rank-and-file police and soldiers - plus anyone seen by Zarqawi as a collaborator with the Americans.
4. American locations will be targeted - from US headquarters in the fortified Green Zone seat of Iraqi government, to American army command centers and bases and mobile patrols. The attacks will come from within the city, not its outer fringes.
But Zarqawiâs overriding goal, according to DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs counter-terror sources. It is to cast the Iraq capital into such a state of turmoil and dislocation as to make it impossible to hold parliamentary elections as scheduled on December 15. This would bring to a halt moments before its consummation the entire democratic cycle on which Iraq has been moving forward this past year.
The al Qaeda commander rates this objective so high that he has tied himself down to Baghdad and so restricted his freedom of movement, which was unfettered in the wide open spaces of Anbar province. At the center of the action instead of behind the scenes, he is also more vulnerable to capture or being killed. But the terrorist chief may not have had too many options, given three new circumstances.
One, the mounting international pressure on Bashar Assadâs regime may remove Syria as his and al Qaedaâs rear base and escape hatch under a revamped regime or even a new ruler. In Anbar near the Syrian border, he would have laid himself open to a collaborative Syrian-American turned against him.
Two, new American military tactics took heavy toll of his forces and forced them into retreat. They have no answer for the updated American military tactic of rolling large forces with massive firepower from one location to the next, after thoroughly purging each one. This tactic is workable in the desert reaches and outlying villages of Anbar, but not in a city with millions of inhabitants like Baghdad. This American tactic may have put Zarqawi and his terrorist legions to flight; but it is not applicable after they are embedded in Baghdad.
Three, this successful US tactic not only uprooted terrorist bases but inflicted heavy losses running to hundreds of fighting men. In Baghdad, Zarqawi believes he commands a fresh pool of fighting men to refill his depleted ranks, namely, the 90,000 Palestinians who are being dispossessed by the Shiite government of Ibrahim Jaafari.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 10:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yeah I have my grain of salt.
If this is true why did Zark leave Baghdad? I remember when the videos of civilians getting heads lopped off and being held were said to originate in Baghdad areas. Not to mention I dont think Sadr who basicly owns an entire side of town of and who used to quardinate with Zark has had a falling out over the Shia collaborator commnents by Zark awhile back.
#2
Zarqawi planning large-scale attacks in December seems to fit the larger Islamists plan, too. Other recent RB articles warn of an abundance of both Saudi nationals and large amounts of money from high places in the Kingdom. That means another porous southern border is being ignored as it would only divert our troops. A Fox news reporter walked across the border of Jordan and Iraq before the war and never saw anyone for some time. Syria isn't exclusively the problem, and lots of hot spots are simmering around the world. Bin Laden's longest period of silence to date make some suspect he's moving and ominously laying low. The Christmas threat to Italy, the imminent attack thwarted in Australia, and the coordinated European uprisings of militant Muslim youths against secular Muslim women driving their cars without veils and dropping off the kiddies at daycare must be all lies. They're torching their own resources and killing their own people, leaving the Elitests to stew in their own sewage, wondering how to contain it before it reaches Versailles and they put their heads on lampposts and drag them through the streets. Who gets to inspect French-run prisons when they interrogate the guy who eventually decapitates de Villepin and knows where the hidden nukes are? Of course, they need scapegoats when the superior French system fails with the whole world watching. The Leftists will somehow blame Cheney for all the forged intelligence, as he's diabolically plotting to take over the Euroweenies and the whole world and blame it on the down-trodden Muslim immigrants, and Jewish media manipulation is to take everyone's eyes off these evil capitalists responsible for all the world's ills....this must really be a communist KGB plot. But how does Halliburton predict future volcanic eruptions with blue smoke, explosions that "make the earth move under your feet", weeks in advance and even specify the date as November 9th, or 1-1-9?
#6
More proof we are winning. Terrorism is on the move and only the enablers are in eminent danger.
Keep focused, make adjustments, offer rewards, put out the nets and, in time, Zark is ours.
Oh, and don't expect to be notified, we will have to move him to a black location for endless conversations.
#7
The reason why he is so desperate to stop the Dec. 15 elections is because he knows that the new Democratic Iraq and the U.S. are winning. But honestly how can anyone think Zarqawi's can actually win with his tactics of killing everyone who isnt a Sunni Wahhabi following Muslim. The only way he could possibly win now is if the US just left Iraq immediately.
Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers are blamed for the recent killings of British troops in Basra, has emerged as the political kingmaker expected to shape the country's government for the next four years after the election on Dec 15.
In recent days a procession of Iraq's most powerful political leaders has paid homage to the 31-year-old cleric.
A year ago the US military wanted him captured dead or alive after a series of uprisings in the south. Iraqis widely consider the present government, a coalition of religious Shia groups led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a failure because of its inability to improve the security situation or guarantee a steady supply of electricity or fresh water.
Sadr, who has more than three million supporters, is likely to hold the balance of power in the new parliament.
He boycotted the January election but has announced that his supporters would contest next month's election.
At the weekend Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is the dominant partner in the present government, visited Sadr's headquarters in Kufa to try to broker a deal.
Even Sunni politicians have begun negotiations with him, based on their shared anti-Americanism and demand for the withdrawal of all coalition troops.
Hussan Bazzaz, of the Centre for Culture and Opinion, in Baghdad, said that by sending conflicting signals Sadr was managing to enter politics while maintaining the image of an outsider on which his popularity largely lies.
"Moqtada is moving in a couple of different directions," he said.
"The last election only mattered for a couple of months. This time it determines power for four years. He is wise to become involved."
It seems certain that, under whatever deal he cuts, a number of his followers will receive important cabinet posts.
The Americans are insisting that they will work with any legally elected leader in Iraq.
But the question as to how Sadr, whose rhetoric is vehemently anti-Western and who saw hundreds of his supporters killed in last summer's gun battles, would manage to work with them remains uncertain.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 10:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Sadr, who has more than three million supporters, is likely to hold the balance of power in the new parliament.
He boycotted the January election but has announced that his supporters would contest next month's election."
Does this strike anyone else as pure wild-assed speculation? How does the reporter know Sadr has 3M supporters, if they didn't vote and prove it?
#2
He did participate in the last election. There was one exclusively pro-Sadr list that got less than 1% of the popular vote, plus there were a few pro-Sadr candidates in the United Shia list which included Dawa, SCIRI and Chalabi's supporters. Sadr has maybe 5% of the Iraqis but 50% of the goons. Solution: take out the goons.
#6
I want my $300,000,000,000 back, Mr Bush. You peddled a bill of goods
Posted by: Fluque Ang ||
11/09/2005 17:36 Comments ||
Top||
#7
You should worry about getting a refund on your computer, asshat.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/09/2005 18:03 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Sadr needs to emerge as dead. Preferrably in the form of a smouldering corpse swinging from a certain bridge. His oxygen consumption license expired many moons ago.
Security - not body counts - is the true measure of success in Iraq, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Nov. 7 on PBS' "The NewsHour With Lehrer."
Marine Gen. Peter Pace said Iraqis providing security to Iraqis is the true measure of success. "This is not about killing of people," he said. "It is about providing security for people."
Pace said it would be a mistake for people to start counting bodies of insurgents and foreign fighters. He said that would send the wrong message to both American troops and Iraqi civilians. "Anyone who, in the past, has been counting bodies has been presenting the wrong measure of success," Pace said.
The general said the correct measure of coalition and Iraqi success is how much of the country is being controlled by coalition forces - especially Iraqi forces. Pace said that even as he spoke, an Iraqi division, four Iraqi brigades, and 24 Iraqi battalions were "taking over responsibility for various sectors of the country."
And they will get another opportunity as operations in and around Husaybah, near Iraq's border with Syria, continue. Some 2,500 Marines and 1,000 Iraqi troops are conducting operations in the city of 30,000. The idea is that once the coalition forces establish security in the city, the Iraqis will remain and maintain that security.
"We measure success of this operation by how quickly we are able to establish Iraqi government control of the area, and we measure success by watching as time goes on the ability of the Iraqi armed forces and the Iraqi police to continue to provide that security," Pace said.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/09/2005 10:05 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Big gap in intellect and spine composition here.
Pace has a solid intellect and a spine of steel.
Folks on PBS have jelly spines and pin head intellect.
Be careful of a Marine on mission, PBS.
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/09/2005 13:25 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Body Counts may not be a measure of our success, but it is a damn good measure of terrorist failure.
#6
Gotta be nice for the Lefties to unilaterally and unconditionally decide they are uniquely entitled to any each and all the Rights, Priveleges, Benefits, and Purviews, etc. of American citizenship + Public Citizenship despite refusing to fight for their Govt., Nation, and Society, despit4 refusing to put their lives and theirs on the line like their friends and neighbors - YOU KNOW, THE REASON WHY AMERICA WON WW1 + WW2 + COLD WAR!? America and only America must wage war while NOT punishing or making demands on that portion of its population/society that refuses to fight - YOU KNOW, HOW RUSSIA-CHINA DOES IT!? CANTONIZATION = ENCLAVIZATION = MORMONIZATION is for America and only America, but NOT and NEVER to be demanded upon Russia-China or any of World Socialism - they know it doesn't work, ergo America must adopt it anyways. be it voluntarily andor forcibly!?
Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines have found numerous weapons caches - 17 of which were "substantial in size" -- during the four days of Operation Steel Curtain in Iraq's Anbar province, military officials reported today.
Weapons, munitions and bomb-making material for the construction of roadside and car bombs have been some of the more commonly found items at the cache sites, officials said. One cache discovered in central Husaybah today consisted of large amounts of medical supplies and rocket-propelled grenades and launchers.
Also, on the southern outskirts of the Iraqi-Syrian border town today, Marines discovered a corpse of a man who had been bound, gagged and shot through the head. The identity of the man is unknown, officials said.
Iraqi scout platoons assigned to the combat units clearing the city, known as Desert Protectors, continue to assist both Iraqi and U.S. forces, officials said. Their familiarity with the region, local tribes and dialects allows these scouts to pick out suspicious individuals for further questioning, officials explained.
Coalition forces have detained about 180 men for questioning about suspected ties to the insurgency since Steel Curtain began on Nov. 5.
(From a Multinational Force Iraq news release.)
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/09/2005 10:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I read about "Operation Steel Curtain" and I keep expecting to see that it is commanded by General "Mean Joe" Green or Lt. Col. Jack Lambert.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/09/2005 13:34 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Also, on the southern outskirts of the Iraqi-Syrian border town today, Marines discovered a corpse of a man who had been bound, gagged and shot through the head
another Hariri-case suicide
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/09/2005 14:39 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Also, on the southern outskirts of the Iraqi-Syrian border town today, Marines discovered a corpse of a man who had been bound, gagged and shot through the head
Who knows?
Probably an old Baath party official who was paid a late night visit by the Badr Brigades.
Seven Iraqis were killed and four others injured Wednesday when a suicide car bomb exploded in Baquba, north of Baghdad.
Four police officers were among the dead in a bombing apparently targeting an Iraqi police patrol in the city, located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of the capital. Baquba often has been the scene of sectarian violence and attacks on Iraqi security forces.
In other deadly violence Wednesday, a driver for an Education Ministry official was gunned down in Baghdad's Shula neighborhood, Iraqi police said.
Earlier Wednesday, a U.S.-led airstrike in western Iraq destroyed what was believed to be an al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist weapons cache in a village near Qaim along the Syrian border, the military said.
Also Wednesday, a U.S. Marine died from wounds he received earlier this week in a roadside bomb attack in Anbar province west of Baghdad, a military statement said.
Meanwhile, Operation Steel Curtain, the latest in a series of U.S.-led offensives in northwest Iraq, a region that borders with Syria, enters its fifth day. On Tuesday, the U.S. military said it uncovered a bomb-making factory and a weapons store in an attempt to wrest control of the town of Husayba from insurgents.
U.S. commanders say the Syrian border region has been used by foreign fighters heading to Iraq and smuggling in weapons and add that insurgents have taken over Husayba and are using it as a command center.
With about 3,000 U.S. personnel and 550 Iraqi soldiers, the operation is one of the largest since last year's battle to retake Falluja from insurgents.
An Iraqi garrison will remain in the area to prevent the return of insurgents, as has happened after previous operations.
As of Tuesday, one Marine and 36 insurgents had been reported killed in the fighting.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, the discredited former exile leader, is scheduled to meet Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington. Chalabi also will speak to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank that backed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and meet with Treasury Secretary John Snow during his visit to the United States. Chalabi, a Pentagon favorite before the war, fell from favor with the Bush administration in 2004 when U.S. intelligence officials accused him of leaking information to Iran. He has denied any wrongdoing, but U.S. officials said that an FBI probe into those allegations remains unresolved.
A day after a lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants was killed, the chief attorney for the ex-Iraqi dictator said counsel for Hussein and his seven co-defendants would sever dealings with the tribunal in the first trial of alleged crimes against humanity by the former regime, Reuters reported. The next hearing is set for November 28, but Khalil al-Dulaimi told Reuters that defense attorneys are not able to work because of threats to their lives. Gunmen shot and killed Adil Muhammed al-Zubaidi, a lawyer for ex-Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, while he was driving Tuesday in Baghdad, Iraqi police said. Al-Zubaidi was the second lawyer involved in the trial to be assassinated within the past month.
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend for another year the U.N. authorization of U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq, which number about 180,000. The present mandate expires December 31. The adoption extends the multinational force's presence until December 31, 2006, but it will be reviewed in six months.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 09:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
U.S. and Iraqi troops battled insurgents house-to-house on Monday, the third day of a major offensive against al-Qaeda insurgents in a town near the Syrian border, and the U.S. command reported the first American death in the operation.
The U.S. commander of the joint force, Col. Stephen W. Davis, told The Associated Press late Sunday that his troops had moved "about halfway" through Husaybah, a market town along the Euphrates River about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad.
At least 36 insurgents have been killed since the assault began Saturday, and about 200 men have been detained, Davis said. He did not give a breakdown of nationalities of the detainees. Many were expected to be from a pro-insurgent Iraqi tribe.
A Marine was killed by small arms fire in Husaybah on Sunday, the military said. The New York Times, which has a journalist embedded with the U.S. forces, reported that three Marines were also wounded Sunday.
CNN, which also had a reporter accompanying the offensive, said at least one Iraqi soldier has been wounded and that as many as 80 insurgents have died in the fighting.
In a live report from the scene Monday morning, CNN said the house-to-house battles were continuing, with ground forces supported by Humvees and tanks working their way through the narrow streets of the bleak desert town.
Scores of terrified Iraqis fled the besieged town on Sunday, waving white flags and hauling their belongings.
The U.S. military announced Monday that it had killed two regional al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders operating in the Husaybah area during airstrikes that destroyed several insurgent "safe houses" on Oct. 31 near the towns of Karabilah and Obeidi.
It identified one of them as Abu Umar, who helped smuggle foreign insurgents into the region and stage deadly roadside bomb attacks against Iraqi and American forces. The other militant was identified as Abu Hamza, who commanded several al-Qaeda cells and helped launch attacks against coalition forces, including ones based at U.S. Camp Gannon in the Husaybah area, the military said.
Davis said the militants were putting up a tough fight in Husaybah because "this area is near and dear to the insurgents, particularly the foreign fighters."
Speaking by telephone, he said: "This has been the first stop for foreign fighters, and this is strategic ground for them."
The U.S. Marines said American jets struck at least 10 targets around the town Sunday and that the American-Iraqi force was "clearing the city, house by house," taking fire from insurgents holed up in homes, mosques and schools.
Residents of the area said by satellite phone that sounds of explosions diminished somewhat Sunday, although bursts of automatic weapons fire could be heard throughout the day. The residents said coalition forces warned people by loudspeakers to leave on foot because troops would fire on vehicles.
"I left everything behind â my car, my house," said Ahmed Mukhlef, 35, a teacher who fled Husaybah early Sunday with his wife and two children while carrying a white bed sheet tied to a stick. "I don't care if my house is bombed or looted, as long as I have my kids and wife safe with me."
The Marines said in a statement that about 450 people had taken refuge in a vacant housing area in Husaybah under the control of Iraqi forces. Others were believed to have fled to relatives in nearby towns and villages in the predominantly Sunni Arab area of Anbar province.
U.S. officials have described Husaybah, which used to have a population of about 30,000, as a stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which is led by Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Husaybah had long been identified as an entry point for foreign fighters, weapons and ammunition entering from Syria. From Husaybah, the fighters head down the Euphrates valley to Baghdad and other cities.
Several people identified as key al-Qaeda in Iraq officials have been killed in recent airstrikes in the Husaybah area, the U.S. military has said. Most were described as "facilitators" who helped smuggle would-be suicide bombers from Syria.
Damascus has denied helping militants sneak into Iraq, and witnesses said Syrian border guards had stepped up surveillance on their side of the border since the assault on Husaybah began.
The Americans hope the Husaybah operation, codenamed "Operation Steel Curtain," will help restore enough security in the area so the Sunni Arab population can participate in Dec. 15 national parliamentary elections.
If the Sunnis win a significant number of seats in the new parliament, Washington hopes that will persuade more members of the minority to lay down their arms and join the political process, enabling U.S. and other international troops to begin withdrawing next year.
However, a protracted battle in Husaybah with civilian casualties risks a backlash in the Sunni Arab community, which provides most of the insurgents.
On Sunday, Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, head of the largest Sunni Arab political party, Saleh al-Mutlaq, head of another Sunni faction and a member of the committee that drafted the new constitution, both sharply criticized the offensive, saying it was targeting civilians.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 09:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
All fine and dandy, but at some point, something must be done about Syria. The safe haven Syria provides to foreign fighters cannot be allowed to continue.
Colonel Ismail, the former officer in the IRG's intelligence service who fled from Iran, asserted to "Asharq al-Awsat" the validity of recent reports about the involvement of circles close to the IRG's Quds Corps in the plot to assassinate former Iraqi Prime Minister Dr. Allawi. Speaking to this newspaper, he gave details of the plan that was due to be implemented during Allawi's visit to Basra and said that the leader of a small Shiite party financed by the IRG's intelligence service was asked to announce his split from the Shiite "Unified Iraqi Coalition" and join the Iraqi list led by Allawi. This leader, who is also a member of the Iraqi National Assembly, has some popularity in Basra and Al-Zubayr and his mission was to accompany Allawi on an elections visit to these two cities. A unit of very well trained elements was moved from the IRG's Khatim al-Anbiya camp to Basra on the eve of the Shiite party's announcement of its split to wait for Allawi's arrival.
The plot was to assassinate Allawi and his colleague Hujjat al-Islam Hussein al-Sadr, whose name tops the Iranian intelligence list of "enemies" together with the names of Allawi, Iyad Jamal-al-Din, and Dr. Adnan Pacachi. Col. Ismail disclosed that one of his colleagues in the IRG leaked details of the plot to the concerned organs in the British forces in Basra, thus foiling it after Dr. Allawi was briefed on this information. He added that the Shiite party's split from the "Unified Coalition" remained secret at Dr. Allawi's request.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm sure there are just oodles of Black Hat plots, it's what they live for.
I do appreciate the list of their top targets - those are the people we should either trust or give the benefit of the doubt.
Plamegate! Lies! Fire Rove! Impeachment now! What??? Oh.
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the mandate of the nearly 180,000-strong multinational force in Iraq for a year, a move the United States called a strong signal of the international commitment to Iraq's political transition. The resolution, co-sponsored by the United States, Britain, Denmark, Japan and Romania, was adopted in response to a request from Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for the U.S.-led force to remain in the country. The resolution extends the mandate until Dec. 31, 2006, with a review after eight months. Under its terms, the council will "terminate this mandate earlier if requested by the government of Iraq." Adopting the resolution ahead of the Dec. 15 elections eliminates any possible uncertainty about the continuation of the force since "everybody knows the Iraqis want the multinational force to continue," said [Ambassador John Bolton]. Al-Jaafari requested the yearlong extension in a letter to the council last month.
Faux cover for the toolfools. I hope we didn't waste any diplomatic capital on this. Even without Jaafari's letter, UNSC extending the "mandate" etc, it wouldn't change a thing. Pretty funny, in fact.
#2
The US, Iraq and other interested parties are sovereign nations so there was absolutely no need to involve the UN in this matter. In fact, setting a precedent whereby the UN is allowed to rubber stamp agreements between sovereign nations seems very dangerous to me. It's one thing to attempt to mediate disputes but it's quite another to bless mutual agreements where the parties are not in conflict.
Explosions hit three hotels in the Jordanian capital Wednesday night, killing at least 18 people and wounding some 120. The first blast occurred at about 8:50 p.m. (1850 GMT) at the luxury Grand Hyatt hotel, popular with tourists and diplomats. Associated Press reporter Jamal Halaby, who was at the hotel, counted seven bodies being taken away. Police said there were many others injured.
A few minutes later, police reported an explosion at the Radisson SAS Hotel a short distance away. Police said five people were killed and at least 20 wounded. Another explosion was reported at the Days Inn Hotel, and police said there were casualties. Police had no word on what caused the explosions, although an American businessman at the Grand Hyatt said a bomb went off in the lobby. Witnesses saw smoke rising from the building.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 15:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Rooters: Three suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up in three hotels in Amman on Wednesday and many people were feared dead, Jordan's official news agency, Petra, reported.
The agency, quoting a police spokesman, said the three targeted hotels were the Radisson SAS, the Grand Hyatt, and the Days Inn. The three hotels are popular with Western and Israeli tourists.
#2
DEBKA: November 9, 2005, 9:12 PM (GMT+02:00)Scores of dead in explosions that struck three five-star hotels in central Amman Wednesday night. Days Inn Hotel was hit third after Grand Hyatt and US-owned Radisson Hotel.
Many injured. These hotels are frequented by tourists and foreign contractors going in and out of Iraq.
DEBKAfile: Jordan is known to be under threat of terror attack by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, himself a Jordanian Palestinian. Police report the Radisson bomb was planted in a false ceiling. A column of smoke is rising over the Jebal district. Amman goes on high terror alert and special security measures imposed for the royal palaces, government and security facilities.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 15:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
roomer has it polise are chasin em car with iraqi lisense plate.
#4
FOX also reported that diplomats and Iraqi officials also did business at these hotels, as some fear traveling to Baghdad these days. Who was staying there? Zarqawi also was just said to have moved into Baghdad with official looking high level uniforms and was also instructed to move out of Iraq to further the cause....was he personally involved, not trusting old networks as Jordan has proven to close in on many of the Islamists? Wasn't a Saudi just given command of AQ in Iraq and diplomats specifically threatened? I think Zarq is on the move.
#11
NPR had a reporter speaking from Amman this afternoon... she sounded like an ex-pat wife, rather than a professional. She said the hotels that were boomed (she mentioned 56 killed, 120 wounded) were full of contractors going to Iraq, and one of them was where the Israelis like to stay when they are in town. She also said that generally it's pretty safe over there, no need (generally) for things like car-free zones and metal detector gates, "like they need in Egypt." But, she said, when a problem is suspected [or realized, in this case], the hotels where foreigners stay are locked down with the Jordanian Army guarding the entrances, all traffic is pushed some distance away (I didn't catch the distance, sorry), and the parking lots immediately cleared of all cars.
Explosions rocked two hotels in the Jordanian capital late Wednesday, killing at least seven people and sending ambulances screaming across downtown. The cause of the explosions was unclear. The first bomb, at 8:50 local time (1:50 p.m. EST), struck the Grand Hyatt, completely shattering the stone entrance. An AP reporter saw at least seven bodies removed from the hotel, and many more wounded carried out on stretchers.
Police said a second explosion hit a wedding hall at the nearby Radisson SAS hotel, and there were believed to be casualties. Both hotels, in the commercial Jebel Amman district, are frequented by American and European businessmen and diplomats. One police official said scores of people were believed killed.
"We're evacuating people from the hotel. Some are dead and there are many wounded," he said of the first attack. An American businessman who was at the Grand Hyatt when the explosion occurred, said a "bomb that went off in the lobby." He declined to identify himself.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 14:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
An explosion shook the Grand Hyatt hotel in Jordan's capital late Wednesday, and witnesses saw smoke rising from the building. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Police said the cause of the explosion was unknown. A black cloud of smoke was seen rising from the building in the commercial Jebel Amman district following the blast at about 8:50 p.m. Ambulances were seen rushing to the hotel.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 14:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Debka sez: Additional explosion at Hyatt Hotel in Amman after Jordanian police report scores killed in blast at US-owned Radisson Hotel, in central Amman. Many injured
#2
Rooters: At least five people were killed and more than 52 others wounded on Wednesday in blasts at two international hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman, witnesses said.
A blast at the Radisson hotel killed at least five and wounded more than 12, Reuters witnesses said. The blast was caused by a bomb placed in a false ceiling, police sources at the scene told Reuters.
A separate blast shook the Hyatt Hotel in the capital, wounding at least 40, some seriously, witnesses said.
The explosion at the Radisson ripped through a banqueting room where about 250 people were attending a wedding reception. The hotel is known to be popular with Israeli tourists.
One of the most hunted terrorist suspects in Southeast Asia, Azhari Husin, a skilled bomb-maker, was killed during a shootout with police this afternoon, Indonesian officials said. Mr. Azhari, a master of disguises
He's now disguised as a dead guy...
and daring who had narrowly escaped capture several times before, had a major role, according to Indonesian and American officials, in the deadliest terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia - the bombing of the nightclubs in Bali in October 2002, the suicide bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in August 2003, the suicide bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta in September 2004, and the bombings of restaurants in Bali last month.
He won't be that busy anymore...
An elite police counterterrorism unit known as Detachment 88, which has been partially trained by the United States, received a tip this afternoon that Mr. Azhari was in Malang, about 400 miles east of Jakarta, Gen. Sutanto of the national police told reporters in Malang. When the police surrounded the house, a fierce firefight ensued,
Never a gentle firefight, not even a desultory firefight...
followed by loud explosions.
Never quiet explosions, never subdued explosions...
Mr. Azhari was known to travel with explosives on his body, and officials said he apparently blew himself up to avoid capture. "It was Azhari," the police chief said when asked whether the notorious bomb-maker was in the house.
"I'd recognize that elbow anywhere!"
Mr. Azhari was a late convert to fundamentalist Islam and life on the run as a terrorist. His earlier years were marked by an interest in sports - he had a poster of Michael Jordan in his office - women, fast cars, and the study of statistics and real estate valuations. He was born in Malaysia, and as a teenager went to Australia, where he studied mechanical engineering at Adelaide University. He spent more time exploring the Outback on his 500 cc motorcycle and partying than studying, and failed to graduate, an Australian journalist, Sally Neighbour, wrote in a book "In the Shadow of Swords: On the Trail of Terrorism from Afghanistan to Australia."
Back in Malaysia, he turned serious, and graduated at the top of his class from a technological university. He then went to England, where he earned a Ph.D. from Reading University. His thesis, written in English, was "The Construction of Regression-based Mass Appraisal Models: a Methodological Discussion and an Application to Housing Submarkets in Malaysia."
He became a professor in the Valuation and Property Management Department at the University of Technology Malaysia, where he had a reputation as "an irrepressible joker of a man," Ms. Neighbour wrote. In the mid-1990's, Mr. Azhari (whose name is sometimes spelled Azahari) fell in with a group of fundamentalist Muslims from Indonesia who had gone into exile in Malaysia to escape the repression of the Suharto dictatorship at home. They were members of a group called Jemaah Islamiyah, whose spiritual leader, also in exile, was Abu Bakar Bashir, who is now in jail in Indonesia. According to the authorities, Mr. Azhari first went for military training in the Philippines, which was, and remains, a major training ground for Jemaah Islamiyah recruits. Later, he traveled to Afghanistan, where he received advanced training in explosives at a camp run by Al Qaeda.
A few months after the attacks of Sept. 11, Mr. Azhari escaped capture, for the first time. Singaporean and Malaysian authorities had uncovered activities of Jemaah Islamiyah including plans to blow up the American Embassy in Singapore. Word reached Mr. Azhari, in Malaysia. He apologized to his wife for having to leave suddenly, without explaining why, told her to take care of the children, and fled into the night. A few months later, officials said, Mr. Azhari attended a meeting in Bangkok, which would become one of the most pivotal in the terrorism movement. It was presided over by Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, who was Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant in Southeast Asia. At the meeting, it was decided that it was getting too difficult to blow up embassies, because they were increasingly well-fortified. It was time to go after "soft-targets," Hambali is said to have instructed the group.
Eight months later, in October 2002, a van loaded with explosives was detonated in front a nightclub in Bali. The explosives had been prepared by Mr. Azhari and a colleague from university days, Noordin Top, according to officials. A few months later, the police nearly nabbed Mr. Azhari. He was riding on the back of a motorcycle stopped by the police, who suspected the driver was a member of Jemaah Islamiyah. He was. But the police let the passenger go, not recognizing who he was, or having been paid a bribe - accounts vary. During the weeks before the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, in August 2003, Mr. Azhari sat in the lobby sketching the layout, according to the Indonesian police.
The manhunt intensified. Two months later, according to the authorities, the Indonesian police, acting on the basis of intelligence and with help from the Australian police, surrounded Mr. Azhari and Mr. Top in Bandung, a town in Central Java. As the police tightened the net, the two men, with grenades in their backpacks, slipped away.
In Sept. 2004, Mr. Azhari and Mr. Top struck again, officials said, this time with the deadly attack on the Australian Embassy on a busy street in Jakarta. Mr. Azhari drove the bomb-laden vehicle within a few hundred meters of the embassy, got out, and sent the suicide bomber to complete his mission. Mr. Azhari is said to have hopped on a motorcycle, looking over his shoulder as the bomb went off.
He had been a prime suspect as the mastermind of the Bali bombings last month, in which three men wearing backpacks loaded with explosives killed diners at three restaurants. With Hambali in the hands of the C.I.A. at some secret location, and if Mr. Azhari was killed, that leaves Mr. Noordin and a man named Dulmatin as the two most wanted terrorist suspects in Southeast Asia. Add Zulkarnaean to that list, he's Hambali's replacement as the head of JI. Azahari was the bombmaker and Top's the moneyman. If they manage to get or kill Top, that'll go a long way to bringing an end to JI's financial network.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 14:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
MALANG, Indonesia (Reuters) - One of Southeast Asia's most wanted Islamic militants, Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, was killed during a shoot-out with Indonesian police in East Java province on Wednesday, the national police chief said. General Sutanto made the announcement in the city of Malang, not far from the town of Batu, where the shoot-out took place.
Dubbed the "demolition man" by Malaysian newspapers, Azahari was suspected of being the top bomb maker in Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy network seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda and which has carried out several major bombings in Indonesia.
"Tied to a chair, and the bomb is ticking
This situation was not of your picking
You say that this wasn't in your plan
And don't mess around with the demolition man
I'm a walking nightmare, an arsenal of doom
I kill conversation as I walk into the room
I'm a three line whip, I'm the sort of thing they ban
I'm a walking disaster, I'm a demolition man" Additional: Jakarta (AsiaNews) â Police Chief General Sutanto confirmed today that Malaysian-born terrorist Azahari bin Husin was dead. âIt is 99.9 per cent certain that one victim [in Batu] was Dr Azahari,â he said. Azahari is thought to have drowned whilst trying to escape from a special anti-terrorist squad of the police after a two-hour operation in Batu, a mountainous area 90 km south of Surabaya, the capital of East Java province.
I think "drowned" is a translation error.
The confirmation came from Iswandi, a suspected terrorist arrested shortly after the shootout with the police, but absolute certainty as to the identity of the body will have to wait till DNA tests are performed tomorrow, General Sutanto said.
MORE, EFL: A man suspected of being Azahari Husin, one of Asia's top terror suspects, blew himself up after being cornered by police overnight but Indonesian authorities will have to wait at least a day to identify the body, a lawmaker and police said.
Azahari, a Malaysian from the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaaah Islamiah (JI) militant network and known as the "Demolition Man", was strongly suspected of being one of three men who detonated explosives and killed themselves after a shootout with police in the town of Batu, East Java province. If confirmed, his death would be a major coup for Indonesian security services against JI - which was suspected in another deadly bombing on the resort island of Bali last month.
National police chief General Sutanto said he could not immediately say whether one of the three was Azahari, who is suspected of masterminding a string of deadly blasts in Indonesia and supplying bombs used in the 2002 Bali bombings. "Information like that we can only ascertain tomorrow (Thursday)," he said when reporters asked him to comment on reports of the death of Azahari. "We will take every effort to identify the three, including through the use of DNA and showing the bodies to witnesses who know Azahari."
However Djoko Susilo, a member of Parliament who spoke with Sutanto at the scene of the shootout, said that based on the information he was given: "I am 95 per cent convinced that Azahari is already dead there.
"But scientifically we still need to ascertain the death with a post-mortem, or more precisely through DNA testing because the bodies inside were in bits and pieces."
When police chief Sutanto was asked how he knew Azahari might be among the three, he said: "From information obtained from one of the perpetrators whom we have arrested in Semarang earlier today." He identified that suspect by the initials CH. A police source in Semarang, the capital of neighbouring Central Java province, said that three people were arrested about half an hour before the 7.30pm (AEDT) raid in Batu.
Mr Sutanto said the shootout erupted when the men refused to surrender to police after they encircled their modest house. "They shot first and it hit a police officer who was wounded," he said, adding that after the shootout there were 11 blasts, "the last one being quite strong".
"The last one appears to have been a suicide. They (the three) all died." He said the bodies remained in the house and police would not enter until any explosives remaining there were detonated by a bomb squad.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 12:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sky news:
He may have blown himself up to evade capture, it was reported
#3
Warn the low flying aircraft. Fred will be breaking out the ululator.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 13:54 Comments ||
Top||
#4
All good news. Personally, with their track record, I'd like to see independent forensic verification by reliable outside sources (i.e., Interpol, FBI, etc.) of all Indonesian "successes."
Seven militants were killed during a fierce gunbattle with Indonesian police in East Java province on Wednesday and local media said they might include one of Southeast Asia's most wanted Islamic radicals. Metro TV and other stations said Malaysian Azahari bin Husin had been killed in the shoot-out at a villa in the town of Batu. SCTV station said Azahari might have blown himself up.
Officials said they could not confirm the reports, although the president's spokesman said Azahari was believed to have used the villa as a hideout. National police spokesman Aryanto Budihardjo said the militants shot at anti-terrorism police and hurled 11 explosive devices at them after they surrounded the villa. Other officials have said the militants threw grenades.
Which are, in fact, explosive devices...
Budihardjo said police had yet to search the entire villa because it was booby-trapped with bombs. One policeman had been wounded by gunfire, he said. Batu police chief Sudijono told Reuters from the scene he had seen the bodies of seven militants he described as "terrorists", although they had not been identified. "We have seen seven bodies," Sudijono said.
Dino Patti Djalal, a spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said it was not clear if Azahari had been killed. "It was believed Azahari was hiding in this house, but there is no confirmation at the moment that Azahari was there," Djalal told Reuters, adding the president was following events closely.
48 hour rule in effect
The capture or death of Azahari would be a boost for Yudhoyono, who has been hit by a stream of bad news in recent months, including a worsening bird flu outbreak, rocketing inflation and unhappiness over his government's performance. He is believed to have been hiding in Indonesia, police say.
That'd be Azahari they're talking about in that last sentence, not Yudhoyono. Though I guess he's hiding there, too, since he's president...
East Java province lies adjacent to Bali, where three suicide bombers killed 20 people on Oct. 1 in the latest attack. Residents said the Batu gunbattle erupted without warning. "It was like a war. There were gun shots and explosions," one resident, who gave his name as Gunawan, told Metro TV.
Police spokesman Budihardjo said police had put the villa under surveillance in recent days. "This afternoon our members approached the house and were shot from the inside. We fired warning shots and then we shot at the house. Then they hurled 11 bombs at us," said Budihardjo. Major General Syamsul Mapparepa, the regional military commander, earlier told Antara the militants had waged stiff resistance, with some throwing grenades.
Police have launched a renewed effort to catch key masterminds behind bombings of the past few years, especially Azahari and another fugitive Malaysian leader of Jemaah Islamiah, Noordin M. Top.
Additional: JAKARTA (AFX) - Top terror suspect Azahari Husin blew himself up after being cornered by Indonesian police at his hideout in East Java, a journalist at the scene told Indonesian TV. 'The body was in pieces but his face could still be recognised by two members of the anti-terrorist unit from Jakarta,' Karni Ilyas, who was with the police anti-terror unit when they entered the house, told ANTV.
It's been rumored he always wore a bomb belt just for this sort of thing
Azahari and his Malaysian compatriot Noordin Mohammad Top are accused of being top members of the Jemaah Islamiyah Islamic extremist network.
They are wanted for key roles in the Oct 1 suicide bomb attacks in Bali, as well as the October 2002 attacks on the resort island that left 202 people dead, in addition to several other deadly blasts.
Journalist Ilyas told ANTV that people in the house fired shots when police ordered them to come out, wounding one officer. The fugitives then blew themselves up as well as the house, located in the resort hill town of Batu 720 kilometres east of Jakarta. Police entered the house and saw the three bodies as well as further wiring, so they retreated, fearing another explosion.
Ilyas said separately that police had trailed another man from the house to the city of Semarang in Central Java and believed the man was an envoy travelling to Noordin. 'It seems that he felt he was being followed so he tried to explode a bomb on his body, but police managed to prevent him,' Ilyas said.
Good, now they can "question" him about who was in the house and where Noordin is, or was. If he wasn't in the house amoung the deaders, he's lit out by now.
That's either a pretty brave or a pretty dumb polis who was willing to tackle a guy before he could detonate his boom belt.
A hospital worker told AFP that a member of the Brimob paramilitary police unit was admitted to hospital in the city of Malang with a bullet wound in his left leg.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 09:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Bangkok, 9 Nov. (AKI) - As the violence in Thailand's hree southernmost provinces shows no sign of abating, prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has announced an impending âD-Dayâ against the rebels. In the last 24 hours, Muslim insurgents have attacked Yala Provincial Hall and a series of other minor targets, while Bangkok has announced the killing of Hasueming Jarong, a leading member of the Pattani Mujahideen, one of the groups fighting for an independent Islamic state comprising Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said that the government has prepared a large scale offensive against the rebels to be launched in the next couple of days. âWe will launch a D-Day to solve problems in the southernmost provinces. All measures have already been planned. We will no longer be on the defensive,'' he said on Tuesday night. A source said the so-called D-Day operation in the 'Deep South', as the three provinces are collectively known, would be launched after 9 November. He did not elaborate.
"I can say no more"
However, to residents of the three mostly Muslim provinces - where the scale of violence and the boldness of the attacks have increased steadily since the first outbreak on January 4, 2004 - the prime minister's words may provide little comfort. Five separate attacks occurred in the last 24 hours, the most daring one directed against the Yala Provincial Hall, the seat of local government, according to the Thai News Agency.
Government buildings and officials, together with policemen, soldiers, state school teachers and Buddhist monks, have been on the receiving end of more than 2,500 acts of violence that have taken place in the three provinces in the last 22 months. These have left over one thousand people dead and brought the economy to a standstill.
In a separate but linked development, the government has identified one of the rebels killed in an exchange of fire Monday night as Hasueming Jarong. Jarong is considered one of the leaders of the Mujahideen Islam Pattani, one of the groups fighting for an Islamic state in southern Thailand that would be independent from Buddhist Bangkok.
Among the other Islamic-based groups believed active in the area are the Gerakan Mujahadeen Islam Pattani, the Barison Revolusi Nasional and the Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO). The latter group, although split into the New PULO and Old PULU, is considered the largest and the most active.
While the presence of a separatist struggle is undeniable, most analysts indicate the real root problem of the unrest is the economic gap between the Muslim south and the rest of Thailand and the power struggles among corrupted officials, renegade solidiers and bandits present in the area.
Yeah, yeah, heard it all before. Unemployed youths, discrimination, yada, yada, yada.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 09:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Okay. We'll see. About 22 months late. Get it on.
Jakarta, 9 Nov. (AKI) - The Malaysian terror leader, Azahari bin Husin, is believed to have been killed in a gun battle with Indonesian police at a hide-out near the East Java town of Batu in Indonesia, according to local television reports. One of Asia's most wanted men, Azahari is believed to have blown himself up after being cornered by the police. Together with another Malaysian, Noordin Mohammad Top, Azahari is thought to be connected to Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian-based terrorist network with links to al-Qaeda. The pair are also said to be behind the 1 October Bali bombings which killed 23 people as well as other attacks.
"The body was in pieces but his face could still be recognised by two members of the anti-terrorist unit from Jakarta," journalist Karni Ilyas told Indonesia's ANTV. "He blew himself up together with the house," he added. Indonesia's Metro TV also reported that Azahari, who is a bomb expert, had been killed in the raid on the house.
Azahari bin Nusin and Noordin Mohamed Top were also named as suspects in previous attacks in Indonesia - one in 2003 at the Marriot hotel in Jakarta which killed 12 people and another at the Australian embassy in 2004 which killed 11 people.
Additional:
INDONESIA'S most wanted man and the terrorist blamed for a string of attacks including the Bali bombings is believed to have blown himself up to avoid capture. Azahari Husin apparently triggered a bomb killing himself and two accomplices at his hideout in East Java yesterday.
I suppose it would be too much to hope for that one of the other deaders was Noordin Top
Shots were fired as police surrounded a villa in the hill resort town of Batu, near Malang, according to local television news stations. The area is south of Indonesia's second largest city of Surabaya. Witnesses told of at least two explosions after crack Detachment 88 anti-terror police raided the house around 3.30pm.
Last night, witnesses said the area had been cordoned off and electricity had been cut. They said the situation remained tense as police surrounded a suspected terrorist compound. A Detachment 88 source said that the police raid was linked to the October 1 triple suicide bombing on three cafes in Kuta and Jimbaran in Bali which killed 20 people, among them four Australians. The ANTV television station, citing police sources, said Husin had been hiding out in the house and blew himself up rather than be captured. Gorries Mere, Indonesia's deputy chief of detectives, said: "We suspect it is him."
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 09:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Good for the Indon coppers, they didnt let this one get away.
The Lions of Islam(tm) strike again.
The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has just become informed of a second attack on young Christian girls in Poso, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Ivon (last name unknown) (17 yrs.) and (Yuli) Siti Nuraini (17 yrs.) were shot in the head in the Gatot Subroto area of Poso near a Pentecostal church at 7:45 pm local time (11:45 GMT am).
It is reported that two armed men shot the girls point blank in the head with pistols.
These attacks follow the gruesome beheadings of 3 Christian High school students at the end of October. It is reported that 10 national-level police officials are in Central Sulawesi heading up the investigation into the beheadings. This latest attack coming right under their noses comes as a complete embarrassment to the central government.
There have been reports that the perpetrators of the beheadings are in custody but have not been formally charged. This latest attack also underscores the level of danger to Christians in the Poso area. This attack comes on the heels of 40 or more attacks against the Christian community, including shootings, killings, and major bombings. There have not been any convictions or arrests in any of these attacks.
#1
I never want to get to the point where I read aritcles like this one and think..another day, another murder/massacre of school children by Muslim fanatics. Basturds.
#3
5, including a former soldier, were arrested for the 3 girls' beheadings.
Posted by: ed ||
11/09/2005 10:15 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Murdering school girls, sheesh. No one has ever accused those brave and fearless Lions of Islam of fighting above their weight class. Islamo-pussies.
Indonesian police uncovered a recently abandoned jungle training camp where militants taught bomb-making skills to scores of extremists, security officials said Wednesday. Instructors at the camp in Maluku province — the scene of bloody fighting between Muslim and Christians from 1999 to 2002 — were graduates of terrorists academies in Afghanistan and the Philippines, said police Lt. Col. Leonidas Braksan.
There were no indications that graduates of the camp were among those who planned or carried out the Oct. 1 bombings on three crowded restaurants on Bali island that killed 23 people, including three attackers, he said. The isolated camp deep in the jungle had been running for several years and was attended by militants from all over Indonesia, he said, showing how terrorists have been able to maintain training networks despite a nationwide crackdown. Police raided the camp on Seram Island earlier this month after receiving a tip off from recently arrested militants, said Braksan. "They were teaching the tactics of war, including using weapons and making bombs," Braksan said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
The isolated camp deep in the jungle had been running for several years and was attended by militants from all over Indonesia, he said,
Imagine that, peaceful muzzies studying "the tactics of war." They must have wondered silently about those stangers in the village, that four lane foot trail beaten through the bush and those huge smoking camp fires, hooches, classrooms and mess tents.
#6
Say it isn't so! The "Religion of Peace" (or is that "Pieces?") When millions upon millions are dead...just maybe the Remnant will excise this scourge from the earth.
South Africa has offered to be a supplier of nuclear material and technology to Iran.
Iranian officials said Pretoria has offered to transfer material and technology to help Teheran's nuclear program. They said the South African offer would be restricted to activities permitted by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"We are in the process of negotiating on the modalities of this participation," Javad Vaidi, an official from Iran 's Supreme National Security Council, said.
On Nov. 5, Iran approved a resolution that would enable foreign companies to participate in the nation's uranium enrichment program. The resolution, which requires parliamentary approval, would allow the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization to invite domestic and foreign investors to the Natanz enrichment facility.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/09/2005 10:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
They'll adhere to the NPT and have it supervised by the IAEA.
#2
The Umkhonto (Spear of the Nation) is a high velocity, vertically-launched, infrared homing missile designed to provide defense against simultaneous attack of aircraft and missiles. Up to 8 Umkhonto missiles can be launched simultaneously. The Umkhonto missile can be integrated in ships and ground-based air defense systems. The Umkhonto missile has been selected by Finland for its MEKO A-200 corvettes. It will provide 360-degree coverage and high maneuverability to engage the most advanced threats thanks to its thrust vectoring control. The South African Navy has also ordered the Umkhonto missile system.
In September 2005, Denel released that the Umkhonto missile had concluded performance flight trials and live firings tests paving the way for the missile entry into service.
November 9, 2005: Iran has been complaining, for over a year, about the many reconnaissance flights American aircraft and UAVs have made over their territory, especially along the Iraqi border. The Iranians have not been able to get much traction with these complaints, but now they are trying a different approach. Iran recently revealed, and displayed, the wreckage of two American UAVs that had come down inside Iran (some 200 kilometers from the Iraqi border.) The United States says nothing, and the story will soon go away.
The two downed UAVs were an RQ-7 Shadow 200 (used heavily by the U.S. Army) and a larger (Israeli made) Hermes 450. Actually, the Hermes is also used by Britain, but apparently the United States is willing to accept the blame (by not saying anything.) The UAV flights over Iran are apparently continuing, with the Iranian air defense systems in such a state of disrepair, that the Iranians cannot shoot down the unmanned aircraft. The two UAVs crashed in July and August, apparently as a result of equipment failures.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 09:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sorry about the airplane noise Muzites, we've been monitoring bird migration fly/no fly zones in support of UN Avian flu threat initiatives. Vitally important stuff you know. Please don't shoot any more of these down, as they may contain H5N1 areosolic precursers, which can be inadvertently released upon uncontrolled impact. The stuff hasn't been linked to goats yet, but why take a chance en shala.
#2
That shadow they were showing off was one we (my unit) lost,I bet. It had a radio failure after launch, and was last seen headed toward Iran. Of course, this was 6 months ago. *giggle*
The Shadows are good aircraft, but I wish they were larger. The ability to carry a hellfire or two would have been useful on several occasions.
Has anybody seen any photos of this thing?
Posted by: N guard ||
11/09/2005 12:48 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Reminds me of when Castro was supposed to send the Sandy's Migs. The Miami Herald had a story of windows breaking due to sonic booms in Manuagua. The next night my whole house shook as one of the LOUDEST aircraft I've ever heard flew by. To mind my mind it could only have been a SR-71. You want that low altitude pass at sub or supersonic?
Posted by: bruce ||
11/09/2005 18:58 Comments ||
Top||
#4
well, they won't be surprised then when the UAV's are switched out to B-2's
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/09/2005 20:29 Comments ||
Top||
#5
It had a radio failure after launch, and was last seen headed toward Iran
Only one radio?
I'd go with triple redundancy at an absolute minimum, with independent power supplies, and different frequencies.
It wouldn't hurt to have each "Radio" activate an entirely independent servo suite as well.
Hard as hell to incapacitate that setup.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/09/2005 20:32 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The Shadows are 9' wingspan or so, video reconn capability. Usually deployed by the Army as brigade-level assets.
Don't know much about the Hermes model mentioned here.
Mumbai, 9 Nov. (AKI) - The Indian security forces in Kashmir have arrested a militant suspected of being from a militant group known as Hizbul, and wanted in connection with the series of bomb blasts that hit the Indian capital, New Delhi on 29 October. Indian military sources in Kashmir said on Wednesday that a man has confessed to have carried out the attacks which killed 62 people and injured 210.
Ghulam Mohiuddin, is reported to have been arrested on Monday in the Banihal area of Indian Kashmir, after which he is said to have "confessed" according to sources cited by local radio and television. The police in the capital New Delhi have denied any knowledge of the arrest.
According to Indian army sources, Mohiuddin admitted that he had participated in the attack on the market in Paharganj, where the explosion occured, the first in a series of three bombs detonated on 29 October. In the days following the attack, a group known as Islam Inquilabi Mahaz, a small formation within the series of Islamic rebels fighting for independence in Kashmir, claimed responsibility for the attack. The other two explosions, a few minutes apart, occured at the Sarojini Nagar market and the industrial area of Okhla. The bomb in Okhla was in a bag which was left on a public bus, but the bus driver managed to throw the bag out of the bus in time, preventing a massacre, after he was alerted by the passengers that the bag was suspicious,.
In the last few days, the police have issued an identikit sketch of the man who planted the bomb on the bus, based on the descriptions supplied by passengers.
Several of the investigators who have been tasked with examining the bomb blasts, say the readiness to make a statement on the origins of the bomb could have led the investigation astray, adding that, they suspect a link between those who carried it out and elements within foreign secret services, in particular those of Pakistan. Islamabad, for its part, has denied every accusation, condemning the attacks as "criminal acts of terrorism".
Kashmir has suffered a civil conflict for the past 14 years which has claimed more than 44,000 lives, with repercussions also in New Delhi, where the separatists have left their mark with various attacks. However, India and Pakistan seem to have found the road towards dialogue and peace in the region, which has a Muslim majority population but is under Indian control.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 09:37 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The Norwegian officers on board a luxury cruiseship were being hailed this week for their success in thwarting a pirate attack in international waters off the east coast of Africa. The drama took place on board the former Norwegian cruise ship Seabourn Spirit, which is now part of Carnival Cruises but still has Norwegian officers on board. They managed to scare off and out-maneuver two speedboats full of pirates who had fired at the cruiseship while most guests were asleep late last week.
The pirates chased after the cruiseship armed with automatic weapons and grenades. The attack took place about 160 kilometers from the coast of Somalia, an area known for piracy attacks. The cruiseship's officers and crew responded with special equipment that sounds like canons exploding, and the vessel set a zig-zag course aimed at foiling its attackers. The tactics proved successful, and the pirates eventually gave up their chase. The vessel had been on its way from Alexandria, Egypt to Kenya, but ended up dropping its planned port call at Mombasa.
Bruce Good, information chief for Seabourn, said the vessel's Norwegian captain was initially being shielded from media inquiries about the attack but Good lauded his success in fending off the pirates. Good said the vessel recently had been through an anti-piracy drill, but it was the first time a Seabourn vessel had been the target of an attack.
Posted by: DanNY ||
11/09/2005 00:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A passenger took the photo that accompanies this article, of the pirates as they reload. Unfortunately I couldn't find a bigger photo. The one in our dead-trees paper was much larger, and shows the pirate on the stern smiling. They look like they're just out messing around. You can see the faces of the two forward men, including the one with the RPG, clearly. They should be abled to be identified, assuming anyone ever bothers to look for them.
This search should turn up more photos by the passenger. If not, do a Yahoo news photos search on "Norman J. Fisher".
#3
The attack took place about 160 kilometers from the coast of Somalia
The photos by the tourist show guys in something that looks like a small whaler. Did they really sail that 160km off the coast? Wouldn't that take 3 or 4 hours or more? Perhaps there was a larger mother ship in the area?
#4
I recall reading in an article days ago that the pirates were using inflatable, Kodiak-style boats. That pic says otherwise.
We must be getting more graduates from the Dan Rather School of Journalism™.
Posted by: Dar ||
11/09/2005 12:54 Comments ||
Top||
#5
100 miles off the coast in a rubber dingy? Them's some mighty sea-farin' men. I'm not sure I'd want to take a 16-foot fiber glass boat out that far.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2005 15:56 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Well - they are local pirates. Maybe they now the shortcuts and hidey holes in case the weather kicks up.
No way they'd get that far offshore in that boat alone. If so, they're descendants of Drake and Nelson - so many al-Drakkes and ibn-N'elsons.
#7
Hard to judge from the photo, but if you take the size of the people on board and compare them to the boat, that's easy a 18 footer, maybe 20, 22. Nice and beamy with a good depth of hull. Big outboard with multiple tanks of gas, yeah, they can get out that far easy. Fishermen do it all the time. Most likely run in packs in case of trouble.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/09/2005 16:23 Comments ||
Top||
#8
It looks like the gunnels may have been modified or have an inflatable addition.
From a couple days ago:
Shedding years of animosity, army officers from India and Pakistan today shook hands and exchanged pleasantries at this frontier point as the first of the three points on the Line of Control was opened for earthquake relief work. Brigadier A K Bakshi and his Pakistani counterpart Tahir Naqvi exchanged white flags and hugged each other as hundreds of locals and scores of journalists converged on both sides of the divide for the landmark occasion. Emotional locals from both sides then took over as they rushed to talk and embrace their near and dear ones separated for half a century. Indian and Pakistani scribes were also seen hugging each other and clicking photographs. "It's a good feeling," Army officer Santanu Ghose said after shaking hands with Pakistani Colonel Ali Khan across the white ribbon marking the LoC. India and Pakistan had decided to open three points on the LoC to facilitate relief work in the wake of the October 8 quake which devestated both sides of Kashmir killing thousands of people. The crossing point at Kaman in Uri will open on November 9 while Tithwal in Tangdhar on November 10.
#3
The ceremony is at the Wagah border crossing in Punjab.
Those guys aren't regular army BTW.
Indian Border Security Forces and Pakistani Rangers.
Posted by: john ||
11/09/2005 10:56 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The extent of Pakistani misrule and neglect of its part of Kashmir is coming to light
Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia)
November 9, 2005 Wednesday Kashmir villagers fascinated, scared by diphtheria shots
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (CP) -- Villagers of a remote mountain community in quake-struck Pakistan were either alarmed or amused as a thin silver needle was administered to some who may have come in contact with a diphtheria patient.
"Most of them had never had an immunization or a needle before in their life, so it was quite an interesting draw for the whole village," said Warrant Officer Christine Styles, who led a small Canadian Forces medical team to the village of Bucchasyaedan, high in the Pakistan region of Kashmir.
Styles, a Whitby, Ont., native based at CFB Petawawa, led a four-person contingent of the Canadian Forces' Disaster Assistance Response Team -- DART -- to vaccinate a group of people Tuesday who had close contact with a diphtheria patient. The communicable disease can be fatal if not treated.
Styles said the small DART team was flown in by helicopter to the mountain village, and had to descend almost 6,000 metres by foot to the affected house, each carrying up to 32 kilograms of medical supplies.
The man diagnosed with diphtheria was evacuated to a hospital in Islamabad
"Everybody came to watch these needles go in and they were all very giggly, and some were crying," Styles chuckled. "It was very interesting to see grown adults who have never received a needle before."
Posted by: john ||
11/09/2005 10:59 Comments ||
Top||
#5
And of course Tetanus.
Pakistan had a stockpile of 4000 doses.
4000 for a population of 150 million people.
Posted by: john ||
11/09/2005 11:00 Comments ||
Top||
#6
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Two United States Black Hawk helicopters on relief missions in quake-ravaged Pakistan-administered
Kashmir strayed into the Indian zone of the divided region but were allowed to return, police said.
The two landed in Indian Kashmir close to the Line of Control, the de facto border demarcating the two zones, by mistake on Tuesday, a police officer told AFP on Wednesday.
"(The crew) was offered tea and biscuits by the army and allowed to return," he said, asking not to be named.
On Sunday a United Nations helicopter on a relief mission and carrying journalists accidentally landed on the Indian side but was allowed to return.
Posted by: john ||
11/09/2005 15:10 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Thanks again John!
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/09/2005 19:47 Comments ||
Top||
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.
Riyadh, 9 Nov. (AKI) - One of the 36 terror suspects on the Saudi interior ministry's last most wanted list has been repatriated to the kingdom. "
The owner of a chemical supply company in southwest Sydney tipped off police about a series of unusual purchases before authorities carried out early morning raids on Tuesday. Police followed up the call to the terrorist hotline two weeks ago, shortly before Prime Minister John Howard revealed intelligence had been received about a home-grown terrorist plot.
CLOSE links have emerged between Australia's most radical prayer halls and the alleged terror cells in Melbourne and Sydney amid calls for Islamic clerics to abandon their inflammatory rhetoric.
President Jacques Chirac has declared a state of emergency to impose curfews on riot-hit cities and towns, an extraordinary measure to halt France's worst civil unrest in decades after violence raged for a 12th night. The state-of-emergency decree allowing curfews where needed will become effective at midnight on Tuesday and has an initial 12-day limit. Police, massively reinforced as the violence has fanned out from its initial flashpoint in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, are expected to enforce the curfews. The army has not been called in.
The Belgian government's crisis centre confirmed on Tuesday night vandals had set cars ablaze in the cities of Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels. It is the third night in succession that cars have been torched, but a spokesman for the national crisis centre said each case was an "isolated" incident."There were no injuries and there was no certainly no gathering [of youths]. The culprits cannot yet be found," spokesman Fernand Koekelberg said. "We hoped that [the initial incidents on Sunday night] were isolated cases, but apparently it's continuing," police spokesman Albert Roossens said earlier on Tuesday.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Ambassador 
Colonel Ismail, the former officer in the IRG's intelligence service who fled from Iran, asserted to "Asharq al-Awsat" the validity of recent reports about the involvement of circles close to the IRG's Quds Corps in the plot to assassinate former Iraqi Prime Minister Dr. Allawi. Speaking to this newspaper, he gave details of the plan that was due to be implemented during Allawi's visit to Basra and said that the leader of a small Shiite party financed by the IRG's intelligence service was asked to announce his split from the Shiite "Unified Iraqi Coalition" and join the Iraqi list led by Allawi. This leader, who is also a member of the Iraqi National Assembly, has some popularity in Basra and Al-Zubayr and his mission was to accompany Allawi on an elections visit to these two cities. A unit of very well trained elements was moved from the IRG's Khatim al-Anbiya camp to Basra on the eve of the Shiite party's announcement of its split to wait for Allawi's arrival. 
Explosions hit three hotels in the Jordanian capital Wednesday night, killing at least 18 people and wounding some 120. The first blast occurred at about 8:50 p.m. (1850 GMT) at the luxury Grand Hyatt hotel, popular with tourists and diplomats. Associated Press reporter Jamal Halaby, who was at the hotel, counted seven bodies being taken away. Police said there were many others injured.
One of the most hunted terrorist suspects in Southeast Asia, 
MALANG, Indonesia (Reuters) - One of Southeast Asia's most wanted Islamic militants, Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, was killed during a shoot-out with Indonesian police in East Java province on Wednesday, the national police chief said. General Sutanto made the announcement in the city of Malang, not far from the town of Batu, where the shoot-out took place.
Seven militants were killed during a fierce gunbattle with Indonesian police in East Java province on Wednesday and local media said they might include one of Southeast Asia's most wanted Islamic radicals. Metro TV and other stations said Malaysian 
Jakarta, 9 Nov. (AKI) - The Malaysian terror leader, 
The Norwegian officers on board a luxury cruiseship were being hailed this week for their success in thwarting a pirate attack in international waters off the east coast of Africa. The drama took place on board the former Norwegian cruise ship Seabourn Spirit, which is now part of Carnival Cruises but still has Norwegian officers on board. They managed to scare off and out-maneuver two speedboats full of pirates who had fired at the cruiseship while most guests were asleep late last week.
