PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) - Survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor will join sailors, community leaders and guests on Wednesday for the 64th anniversary of the assault. The crowd will observe a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m. - the moment the attack began in 1941.
A U.S. Navy ship will honor the USS Arizona, which lies submerged in Pearl Harbor with the bodies of hundreds of sailors still aboard. The Hawaii Air National Guard will fly F-15s in formation over the harbor.
The Navy's chief uniformed officer, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, is scheduled to address the crowd along with Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, who saw and heard Japanese planes drop bombs on Oahu as a teenager in Honolulu. Navy reservists from the USS Ward, which fired the first shots of the war when its crew spotted and sank a Japanese midget submarine, will also be honored.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2005 00:01 ||
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#1
Never forget.
thanks for the posting Steve W.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/07/2005 3:40 Comments ||
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#2
...We lost two thousand at Pearl to a nation we now consider a true and solid ally.
We lost three thousand on 9/11 to nations whose governments can barely hide their hatred of us and whose people wish our mass murder and enslavement.
Anybody remember what it took to break the Imperial Japanese of that attitude?
Never, ever forget.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/07/2005 8:41 Comments ||
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#3
What it took to break the Japanese is not what needs to be remembered. What needs to be remembered is the civilian reaction to 2,000 "volunteers" in the Navy being killed vesrus the response 62 years later to 3,000 innocent civilians being killed. We're a different country. And it's not yet clear for the better.
#4
The crew of the USS Ward never got confirmation that they had sunk the midget sub until 2002 when it was discovered on the ocean floor with a nice round hole in the conning tower from the Ward's #3 gun.
Sadly the Ward itself was sunk by a suicidal Japanese pilot three years to the day later on Dec. 7, 1944, near the Phillippines.
If that weren't enough irony for you, after it was abandoned the Ward was finished off by gunfire from the USS O'Brien, commanded by William Outerbridge--the same officer who commanded the Ward on that infamous day three years prior!
Posted by: Dar ||
12/07/2005 12:34 Comments ||
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Twenty-two suspected militants were killed in two clashes with Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces this week, including 13 in an attack on a cell that was believed responsible for several bombings in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said.
Three Afghan, three U.S. and two other coalition soldiers were wounded in fighting Sunday in a small village north of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, where the bombing cell was operating, a U.S. military statement said. One of the soldiers was seriously wounded and was evacuated to Germany, where he is in stable condition. The other seven soldiers have been treated and released, the statement said.
On Tuesday, a joint Afghan-U.S. patrol was conducting offensive operations when it reported coming under fire from a nearby ridge line northwest of Tarin Kowt. Air support was called in and Afghan and U.S. forces then maneuvered on the ridge line, forcing the militants to flee, the U.S. military said in a separate statement. Nine militants were killed and six detained, it said. "Afghan and coalition forces are going to continue to bring the fight to the enemies of Afghanistan no matter where they are, no matter where they are trying to hide," said Brig. Gen. Jack Sterling Jr., the coalition's deputy commanding general.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 10:33 ||
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Several Moroccan politicians and intellectuals have received death threats from extremist Islamist groups in recent weeks while the authorities have released further information to the media on a terrorist cell with links to al Qaeda said to be on the verge carrying out attacks this December. A group calling itself âThe Moroccan Islamic Army for Shariaaâ recently threatened Mohammad al Yazghi, secretary general of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces and Minister of Territorial Development, Idriss Lashgar, Head of the socialist bloc in parliament and Fathallah Oualalou, Minister of Economy and Finance. According to Abdullah al Rami, an expert on al Qaedaâs activities in cyberspace, nothing suggests that the threats were genuine. However, he told Asharq al Awsat, militants Islamists consider secular figures and democrats as indifesl who have renounced Islam and believe murdering them is permissible. âIn theory, socialists are apostates but murdering them is unlikely because of a lack of war with this category. Nevertheless, smaller groups might seize the initiative and carry out these threats, as was the case with the murder of Jarallah Omar, the socialist leader in Yemen.â
With many militant leaders in jail, âThe control of extremist cells has passed to members of the âSalafi Jihadâ group, currently active in Iraq and Afghanistan,â al Rami indicated, adding that the network was trying to re-organize itself in line with the current situation, the war in Iraq and the emergence of Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Following the terrorist attacks in Casablanca in May 2003, the Moroccan authorities clamped down and arrested several militant leaders. This, according to al Rami, has lead to a power vacuum whereby any individual is now able to declare themselves head of an extremist cell.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Located 70km south of the Saudi capital, al Kharj is the largest governorate of the Riyadh region and the launch pad for terrorist attacks in the Kingdom. In January 2003, the first terrorist struck in al Kharj when he threatened the employee of a fast food restaurant and set the restaurant on fire, causing material damage, before bravely fleeing the scene.
In June that year, Saudi security forces discovered a bag containing 132 bars of highly explosive material at the home of an al Kharj imam. A day earlier, the Interior Ministry had published the names of suicide bombers who blew up the al Hamra compound in eastern Riyadh. On 21 July 2005, the authorities raided a militant hideout in a residential neighborhood in al Kharj which was used to launch terrorist attacks and store explosives, bomb making and communication equipment. In a statement issued at the time, the Interior Ministry indicated that militants âused the hideout to kill and destroy and to store dangerous material without nay regard to the neighborhood residents.â Security forces discovered a weapons cache four days later in which they found 96 bags of ammonium nitrate, which is mixed with other substances to make explosives. Last week, another storage facility was uncovered nearby by Saudi police.
Four terrorists on the countryâs list of 36 most- wanted were last seen in al Kharj. Zaid al Samari, whose name is third on the list, resided in the governorate before he was killed by the security forces earlier this year. The city of al Majmaah, 180km north of Riyadh, where Bedouins live side by side with city dwellers, has not witnessed any security incidents. However, Hamd al Humaydi, a senior al Qaeda ideologue in the Kingdom, arrested followed security clashes in the northern town of al Ras, in April 2005, previously lived in al Majmaah. His name had appeared on the first list of most-wanted militants published by the Saudi authorities. Al Humaydi later moved to nearby city of al Zulfi where he set up a militant base in the al Muhajireen neighborhood.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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...Wow, bad news from Al's Garage, whod'a thunk it? What I remember from that place was the drug graffitti - in amounts and quality that rivaled the best taggers of the Bronx or East LA.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/07/2005 8:38 Comments ||
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Islamic militant outfit Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in a letter Tuesday threatened to kill the Deputy Commissioner of the district and his four officials. DC Jamal A Naser Chowdhury received a parcel containing five pieces of burial cloths and the letter that reads: "Youâll be killed soon for your wrongdoing."
The DC then held an emergency meeting with senior police officials and filed a GD (general diary) with local police station. The meeting took a number of important decisions, including formation of anti-militancy committees at ward level and conducting regular raids on hostels of educational institutions and hotels. It also decided to bring out an anti-militancy procession from the central jam-e-mosque here after Friday prayers. Recently, JMB also threatened to kill Bheramara OC Masudul Alam and blow up an Islamic kindergarten school there.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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A highly placed source said that Jewel, a loopy female vocalist and commander of Gazipur district and a bomb-making expert, told the police that he had planned to carry out suicide bombings at five spots in Dhaka including Bangladesh Secretariat, High Court, Judgeâs Court, Dhaka University and in a rally at Paltan Maidan. The suicide squad of JMB, in the guise of either hawkers or students or government officials also planned to attack Mint, National University, Open University, SPâs office and MPâs office in Gazipur district. Jewel also disclosed names of about 25 bomb-making experts belonging to JMB who are now residing in Dhaka and its adjoining districts to carry out suicide attacks, the source further added.
The JMB supremo Shaikh Abdur Rahman trained Jewel on how to handle sophisticated arms and produce bomb in Chittagong, police sources said adding that Jewel joined JMB from Harkatul Jihad in 2002. Jewel held meetings with the JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his brother Ataur Rahman alias Sani at different places in Bangladesh including Dhaka and Chittagong, sources said adding that Jewel also received training in handling arms and in producing bombs from Afghanistan.
Following the statement of Jewel, a squad of Gazipur police conducted raids in a house and a hotel in Basabo to arrest Ataur Rahman alias Sani but failed to nab him. Several teams of police are conducting raids in Gazipur and its adjoining areas to nab the JMB suicide squad members who are now staying in the areas, police sources said. As part of the drives, Gazipur police arrested some 26 JMB members from different parts of the district. An eight-member explosive experts team from Singapore arrived in the city on Monday night at the invitation of Bangladesh Police. The team had already visited the spots of bomb blasts twice in Gazipur where two suicide bomb attacks occurred on November 29 and December 1 that killed 10 people including lawyers and inflicted injuries to over 90 persons.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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A highly placed source said that Jewel, commander of Gazipur district and a bomb-making expert, told the police that he had planned to carry out suicide bombings at five spots in Dhaka
didn't MGM make the musical?
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/07/2005 3:58 Comments ||
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I say we send Michael Douglas and Danny Devito on one of them there extraordinary renditions I been reading so much about.
#4
Jewel came from Homer, Alaska, about 100 miles S of Anchorage. She rose to stardom with her pop hits. There was going to be a big New Years wingding concert in Anchorage, featuring her, but they priced tickets at $100 each or so, and every said Foxtrot India, so sales were, ahem, slow. Jewel cancelled out and everyone was pi**ed.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2005 11:04 Comments ||
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#5
and she lived out of her car here in San Diego, so she knows what poverty is, seems she's lost her roots?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2005 12:57 Comments ||
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The team had already visited the spots of bomb blasts twice in Gazipur where two suicide bomb attacks occurred on November 29 and December 1 that killed 10 people including lawyers and inflicted injuries to over 90 persons.
I don't know whether to take this as a wish that all 10 would've been lawyers, or that you have to specifically state that lawyers are "persons." Both are equally humorous.
Posted by: BA ||
12/07/2005 14:54 Comments ||
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Jewel came from Homer, Alaska, about 100 miles S of Anchorage
Folks in Homer think folks who live out of a car in San Diego are rich.
Police recovered explosives weighing about 9 kg from the house of a suspected Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) cadre in Gazipur town on Monday night and arrested the JMB cadre with his father and mother. The seized explosives can be used to produce about 200 bombs, experts told The Independent yesterday. Following confessional statement of arrested JMB operation commander Enayetullah alias Jewel, police conducted raid in a house at South Chhaya Bithi and recovered nine Kg ammonium nitrate used for making explosive devices. The arrested persons are Mazharul Islam alias Masum (16), a suspected JMB cadre and his father Hemayet Uddin (54) and mother Hena (45). Immediately after his arrest Masum told police that one of his friends gave him a bag containing explosives to keep it in his possession for some day, police sources said.
"Friend left you holding the bag, Masum? That's too bad. Tell you what, let's go pick up your friend and look for his explosives cache. How about tonight at 3AM?"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Members of the banned Uzbek Islamic Movement were arrested on Monday in the city of Khudzhand in northern Tajikistan. "An Uzbek citizen, 37, and a Russian citizen from the Mordova region, 41, who are accused of being members of the Uzbek Islamic Movement, were detained on December 5 in Khudzhand," a source from the Tajik Interior Ministry told.
"Six other people from northern Tajikistan were also detained," the source said.
The men were detained while distributing leaflets calling for a coup d'etat. The town of Khudzhand is an administrative center in the Tajik Sughd region. It borders on Uzbekistan and is the second largest city in the country.
The Uzbek Islamic Movement is an extremist organization, which says it wants to establish an Islamic caliphate in the Central Asian countries. Several dozen people suspected of links with the Uzbek Islamic Movement and Hizb-ut-Tahrir have been arrested in Tajikistan since the beginning of 2005, Interfax reports.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2005 02:01 ||
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Two Russian servicemen were killed and three others wounded when their truck hit a rebel land mine in Chechnya, reports reaching here said Tuesday. The radio-controlled land mine exploded near the southern village of Dargo on Monday evening, reports quoted the Chechen branch of Russia's Interior Ministry as saying in a statement. Reports said rebels in Chechnya mount frequent raids in recent days on federal troops and their local collaborators, and stage regular land mine explosions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2005 01:17 ||
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In mid-September, Al Qaeda diverted a small but potent force from Iraq to a new mission: the opening of a new front in China. The unit was smuggled into the Chinese border town of Kushi in the Xinjiang Uygur province in November, after a meandering journey traced by DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs counter-terror sources. There, the terrorists were quickly absorbed by the al Qaeda infrastructure of local Uygur Muslim extremist cells. Their plan of campaign in the first stage was to reach Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai for strikes against US embassies and consulates, American firms operating in China and American tourists.
(This al Qaeda group was previously revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 229 on Nov. 11 [A Jihadist Airlift] as having set out from Baghdad between mid-September and early October, stopping over in Qatar and proceeding to Konduz in northern Afghanistan for special training.)
DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs sources report the terrorists slipped north from Konduz into Tajikistan and onto the Kyrgyz section of the strategic Fergana Valley which straddles Central Asia. There, they rendezvoused at two places, Osh and Jalal-Abad close to the Kyrgyz-Uzbekistan border, establishing jumping-off points for both China and Central Asia.
The Islamist terrorists were guided from Konduz into Kyrgyzstan by armed men of al Qaedaâs operational arm in Uzbekistan, the MUI, which also has tentacles in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as training camps in the Fergana Valley. The commander of these cells is Tahir Yuldashev, an old comrade of Osama bin Laden who fought alongside him in Afghanistan. In 2004, Yuldashev returned to Tashkent from the badlands of Pakistanâs South Waziristan and was ordered to prepare facilities in Osh and Jalal-Abad for the incoming terrorist unit. His payment was a section of the force to boost his campaign against Uzbek president Karimov. The unit from Konduz accordingly divided into two heads â the largest proceeding from Osh into China and fetching up in Kushi, while the second group assembled in Jalal-Abad, turned west and crossed into Uzbekistan to set up base in the Fergana town of Andijon.
American and British military and intelligence officials picked up the groupâs arrival at the Konduz training facility, but decided after consultation that the large-scale forces needed to eradicate the facility would be hard to muster. They therefore resolved to await events and meanwhile find out where the mysterious al Qaeda force was heading.
According to DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs intelligence sources, Washington reported the arrival to Moscow, hoping the counter-terror-trained Russian Motorized Rifle Division 201 stationed in Uzbekistan would step in to wipe out the al Qaeda intruders. The Russians declined to take action, but said they would not object to Beijing sending Chinese troops over the border to tackle the incoming terrorists. This was the first time Moscow had ever consented to the Chinese military stepping into Central Asian soil and joining the war on terror in that region.
I don't think so. Russians are touchy about borders
Clearly, the Kremlin, which frowns on American military bases and movements in Central Asia, was not eager to pull American chestnuts out of the fire. The skirmishing between Washington, Moscow and Beijing over who should tackle the al Qaeda menace â if anyone â had the result of opening the door for al Qaeda to move a force across half the globe from Iraq to the Far East unhindered and plant it in western China and eastern Uzbekistan.
The Chinese government was caught totally unprepared and did its best to tune out the loud alarums sounded by Chinese military and security chiefs. However, on November 9, the Chinese police alerted the US embassy in Beijing to a possible attack by Islamic rebels on luxury hotels throughout China. The US embassy accordingly advised American visitors to âreview their plansâ to stay at four- and five-star hotels in China over the coming week.
We heard about that
A sharper notice was issued in the southern Chinese town of Guangzhou relaying âcredible informationâ that a terrorist threat may exist against official US government facilities in the city. American citizens in south China were advised to remain alert to possible threats.
Chinaâs Ministry of Public Security responded to these warnings, which were obviously sourced in Chinese police circles, with anger. A statement accused an unnamed âforeign citizenâ of fabricating the so-called attack on four- and five-star hotels in China. The Chinese foreign ministry chipped in with, âChinese public security has never issued such a warning for foreigners on the hotel issue,â its spokesman told reporters. âChinese hotels are safe!â he added. US officials diplomatically withdrew their terror alert notice.
However, while Chinese officials are doing their utmost to calm fears that could affect the tourist industry, DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs counter-terror sources affirm that a terror alert is indeed in force in Chinese cities.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 10:20 ||
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#1
I don't really see what's in it for the Uighurs. They're up to their asses in alligators with the Chinese authorities. I don't see them cooperating with Al Qaeda to go after Americans unless they're getting money and/or weapons. Note that the Chinese applauded 9/11 and have no really problem with large numbers of Americans getting killed. But do it on their soil, and they will skin captured terrorists alive if they have to, to find and track down their accomplices. There's no political correctness about the morality or the effectiveness of torture in China.
#2
They'll have a hard time getting out of Xinjiang and into the rest of China. Moslem people look funny, and they stand out. I saw one the other day, and the fact that I remember it should say something.
#5
It will be supremely interesting to see whether or not al Qaeda can operate at all in communist China. If ever a country had all of the anti-terrorist safeguards in place, it would be China. Restricted movement, gun control, intense communications monitoring, heavy police presence, to name a few. Add to this (as Zhang Fei mentioned [welcome back!]) the communists' tendency to rip all internal dissent five new ones, and al Qaeda's future in China sort of loses its showroom shine. Personally, I'd love to see these Islamist loons throw a huge portion of their resources into making life miserable for the communist Chinese. Unfortunately, I'm fairly confident it will be the other way around.
Zenster: Restricted movement, gun control, intense communications monitoring, heavy police presence, to name a few.
Only one out of the four exists - gun control. First, movement in China isn't restricted - people move across the country at will - in many cases emigrating illegally to other provinces. The cops can check their papers at will, but China is very lightly-policed, relative to the size of the population - per 100,000 population, they may have 1/10 of NYC's cops.
Second, intense communications monitoring is only with regard to the internet. It's impossible to monitor phone conversations - there are simply too many phone lines to listen to in real time, and audio recordings aren't really searchable in the same way as internet e-mails and text messages. Internet monitoring only helps with suppressing political dissent.
Third, as I mentioned earlier, China doesn't spend the kind of money it used to on its secret police - much of that budget is now being diverted to building infrastructure, office and residential space, among other things. The police presence is basically non-existent. Non-homicide-related crime is probably lower than European levels, but higher than American levels.
What is the Chinese secret? Intense punishment of suspected criminals, ranging from long jail sentences to relatively low thresholds for the death penalty. Expedited trial, sentencing and appeals process. The torture of suspected criminals. A lot of innocents are probably caught up in the net, but the guilty ones definitely get what was coming to them and then some. Terrorists who are captured alive would expect to get the third degree - which is why they would probably stay away from attacks in China. The truth is that suppression by brute force doesn't build dissent - it builds fear and submission - even on the part of supposedly hardened terrorists.
#7
I'd wager there is still a significant remnant of "self-reporting" of suspicious activity by citizens in order to gain favor with officials or thwart opponents (regardless of criminal intent). This alone could be contributing to the continued functionality of a police state, even if there is no longer such a heavy official presence in public.
As in Soviet Russia, the once widespread monitoring of civilian communication still lingers today in a reticence to speak about sensitive issues aloud in public, if at all. While I was in Armenia, any discussion regarding the murder of Pogos Pogosyan was intensely discouraged, even in a moving car. My hosts, at first, tried to pretend they had never even heard of the man.
Given these concepts, I would tend to think that there is a lot of residual behavior modification still lingering in place that tends to benefit the communist government with respect to combating terrorism.
#8
So.......................given all of the **ahem** harsh methods of interrogation, punishment, etc. of the ChiComs, I would think *heh* that the LLL would be jumping all over the Chicoms about their denying of fundamental human rights to alledged criminals and terrorists.
Since I only hear crickets chirping, I hear opportunity knocking. We need to contract our interrogation work on terrorists with the Chicoms. Surely the MSM cannot object to that. If the EUniks want to sell weapons to the Chicoms, surely they cannot object to our little commercial venture.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2005 13:54 Comments ||
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#9
I've always wondered why the Morton's sent that kid out in a storm with what looks like a 20 lb. keg of salt. Was it some sort of cheap publicity stunt? Poorly clothed for what looks like a gale, she has only a golf umbrella for protection.
#10
The logo is a pictoral demonstration of the company's logo:
When it rains, it pours
This slogan refers to the manufacturer's (then revolutionary) addition of anti-caking agents which permitted their product to remain free-flowing even during wet weather.
Australiaâs parliament passed a tough new anti-terrorism package on Tuesday amid fears the laws will strip citizens of their civil rights and erode free speech. The legislation, initiated after the July 7 London bombings, allow police to hold suspects without charge for seven days, keep tabs on them with electronic tracking devices and make support for insurgents in countries such as Iraq punishable by up to seven years in jail.
Prime Minister John Howardâs conservative government used its one-seat majority in the upper house Senate - the most powerful government mandate held in nearly 25 years - to cut short debate and push through the package on Tuesday. âThese are powers and measures which are needed in the armoury for the fight against terrorism,â Justice Minister Chris Ellison told the Senate.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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(CNSNews.com) - Eight Republican members in the House of Representatives Tuesday praised the progress being made in the Iraq war and called on the American people to demonstrate the support necessary to make that conflict part of the United States' "legacy of liberty."
On the same day that Vice President Dick Cheney insisted in a speech that an early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq would be "unwise in the extreme," the GOP congressmen used a news conference to emphasize the accomplishments made by coalition troops in that Middle East country.
"I think one message that came to all Americans after 9/11 was this: If we don't change the world, the world is going to change us," said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "And we are changing the world," he stated. "We're changing the world in Iraq by giving the people freedom." Hunter added that one of the greatest areas of progress was in training soldiers for the Iraqi military, which "doesn't have to stop a large invasion from outside Iraq; it simply has to be able to protect its own government."
Acknowledging that support for the war is low in U.S. opinion polls, Hunter stated that the American people also have a part to play in the conflict. "The quality we have to show right now is endurance," he said. "We have to show the world we're not a nation that's only capable of conducting a two-month war or a one-week war. We have to show that we have the 'stick-to-it-iveness' to see this through."
Several congressmen at the news conference spoke about their experiences when traveling to Iraq. One of those was Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-Minn.), who asserted that "good things are happening" there. "In 2004, we flew into a Baghdad airport where you had to do a corkscrew landing to avoid being shot at," Kennedy stated. "This year, we flew straight into an airport controlled by civilians where three airlines have scheduled commercial service."
Along those lines, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) praised a recent special on the Fox News Channel for "getting out the truth" about what's really happening on the streets of Iraq. According to Murphy, that program "showed people shopping, showed the schools open, showed people in the restaurants and showed Iraqis saying on camera -- not covering up their faces because they're afraid -- saying 'thank you, America, for helping us. This was an awful country under Saddam Hussein, and we're thankful you're here.'" Waging war is "a terrible and difficult endeavor," Murphy conceded, adding that soldiers dying or being wounded is "an awful, awful thing." But he asserted that the situation in Iraq "will be worse if we walk away and make their deaths meaningless.
"I'm very proud of having been there to hear our soldiers say they want to finish the job, to turn the control of the government over to the Iraqi government, which will be elected on Dec. 15," he said. "That is what we owe our soldiers, and quite frankly, that is what we owe the legacy of liberty."
Rep. Mike Sodrel (R-Ind.), who recently returned from his first trip to Iraq, called it "unfortunate" that the current debate over the conflict there is taking place immediately before the Iraqi election. "Many people today are using the wrong words to communicate the wrong ideas at the wrong time," Sodrel said. "It's not that we don't have an exit strategy. The question is: Should we communicate that strategy with the enemy? I think that's a bad idea."
However, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) was much more specific in criticizing remarks from the other side of the political aisle. "A few days ago, (Democratic National Committee Chairman) Howard Dean said this: 'The idea that we're going to win a war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong.' On the contrary, Mr. Dean, it is your assessment that's just plain wrong, and it is those who doubt the commitment and the ability of our fighting men and women in Iraq who are wrong," Ros-Lehtinen said.
"Those who are serving in Iraq right now would ask Mr. Dean to take stock of just how far we've come in Iraq," she stated. "Is this not winning? The reign of terror has ended. Is that not worthy? Today, Saddam Hussein is on trial for crimes against humanity. Is that not a benchmark of progress? Next week, the Iraqi people will once again go to the polls to freely express their views and their political will. Is that not a benchmark of success? "Our mission in Iraq is noble," Ros-Lehtinen added. "This war is winnable, and we're going to see it through for freedom's sake."
Amen
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 10:00 ||
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#1
Time to start replaying F.Roosevelt's speeches right back into their faces. Then they'll howl how unfair and misleading it all is.
#2
sometimes I worry that we've already won the war in Iraq and already lost it at home. It would help if someone other than the biased MSM could get access to the public megaphone.
#3
We are now seeing the initial phase of a public relations counter-attack by the administration and its allies against the dems and the MSM.
The president and others in the administration have been giving speeches almost daily highlighting both the progress in Iraq and the importance of victory there. That both points are obvious to anyone with one eye, limited hearing and half a brain (see...this is why the dem's don't get it) helps this effort immensely.
Americans, like anyone, want to win. They want to believe their country is doing the right thing. RB'er's know that we are, but this is a communications game and the administration has been terrible about understanding and participating it. They finally seem to be getting a clue.
Next week will see another big round of positive news out of Iraq. The speeches from the administration on Iraq and the good economy will keep coming. The dems and the MSM are feeling the heat and will soon be on the run.
Now if we can just get the repubs to choke off government spending...
MIAMI - A passenger who made a threat was shot on a jetway leading to an American Airlines plane that had arrived from Colombia during a struggle with a federal air marshal at Miami International Airport, officials said. Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said after the plane had parked at the gate, a passenger indicated there was a bomb in the passenger's carryon bag.
Fox sez this is when he tried to push his way onto the plane
The passenger was confronted by air marshals but ran off the plane. A team of air marshals pursued and ordered the passenger to get on the ground. The passenger complied, then was shot when apparently reaching into a bag, Doyle said.
That'll do it, unconfirmed reports say he's a deader
The plane had just arrived from Colombia and was headed on to Orlando.
It was unclear whether the shot was fired during the course of a struggle between the marshal and the passenger or whether the marshal had fired the weapon to stop the passenger, said the officials who would not allow a name to be used because the investigation in ongoing.
Fox reporting sources say he had gotten down on ground as cops told him, then was shot reaching into bag, sounds like a good shooting
Television showed police SWAT officers surrounding the plane.
Airport and Miami-Dade County police officials said they had no immediate comment. Airline officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment. According to American Airlines' Web site, Flight 924 arrived from Medellin at 12:16 p.m. It was supposed to depart for Orlando at 2:18 p.m. The site says the flight status is delayed.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 15:11 ||
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MIAMI --A passenger who claimed to have a bomb in a carry-on bag was shot by a federal air marshal Wednesday on a jetway connected to an American Airlines plane that had arrived from Colombia, officials said.
The passenger's condition was not immediately disclosed. A witness said the man frantically ran down the aisle and a woman with him said he was mentally ill.
Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said after the plane had parked at the gate, a passenger indicated there was a bomb in the bag. The passenger was confronted by air marshals but ran off the plane, Doyle said.
A team of air marshals pursued and ordered the passenger to get on the ground. The passenger did not comply and was shot when apparently reaching into the bag, Doyle said.
Passenger Mary Gardner told WTVJ in Miami that the man ran down the aisle from the rear of the plane. "He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air," she said. She said a woman followed, shouting, "My husband! My husband!" Gardner said she heard the woman say her husband was bipolar and had not had his medication.
Airport and Miami-Dade County police officials said they had no immediate comment. American Airlines officials confirmed the shooting was on a jetway. "All I know is that it was on the jet bridge, outside the aircraft," American spokesman Tim Wagner said. "I don't know yet if the passenger had been on the plane and was getting off, or was starting to board the aircraft."
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 15:50 Comments ||
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#4
Hope it's a clean one. But 3 getz 'ya 5 a London boy replay. Illegal and maybe wanted for other stuff. Still good tho.
#6
Oops. Call to stop the Air Marshall program in 5, 4, 3, ... Lawsuit in 10, 9, 8,...
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/07/2005 16:00 Comments ||
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#7
What a mess... The markets dived when news first emerged of this incident. They've recovered some, but it certainly triggered some selling by nervous traders.
#9
Whether this was some criminal nutcase or some fool who didn't take his meds, it's heartening to know that *some* effective security measures are working since 9/11.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/07/2005 16:15 Comments ||
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#10
Natural selection, any way you look at it.
Posted by: Chuck Darwin ||
12/07/2005 16:16 Comments ||
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#11
"A woman, apparently the man's wife, said he suffered from bipolar disorder and had not taken his medication, Gardner said." While I have sympathy for the guy I can't see what the Air Marshalls were supposed to do? The wife should have made sure he was taking his meds.
#12
Agreed, Sarge. The stress of flying (and other stresses) can trigger psychotic episodes for some bipolars *especially* if they aren't on their meds at the time. I wonder if this guy worried about bombs going off on his plane, didn't take his meds, as a result obsessed even more about it => delusions => panic and internal confusion => more panic => jumping up and running away while shouting out his inner dialogue (i.e. fantasizing what a bombing attack would be like, being confused about that and external reality) .....
How deeply sad.
Posted by: too true ||
12/07/2005 16:25 Comments ||
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#19
Sorry, I can't even consider this one suicide by cop. This man's blood, like the blood of so many others, is on the hands of muslims. Were it not for them, it would be unthinkable in this world that somebody would willfully destroy himself and a plane full of innocent victims. Think of every security measure introduced over the last thirty years, every inconvenience, every indignity at the hands of airline personnel. It's all because of muslims.
#21
The wife should have made sure he was taking his meds. One small quibble Sarge.
That may be impossible. Sad to say I have extensive experience with folks with mental ailments. You can't sit on top of them stuffing their meds down their throats - I've tried. I'm big, strong, mean and know all the tricks - sometimes it just can't be done. They bite or will spit it out until the gel coatings dissolve etc.
Maybe the only thing she could have done is wrestle him to the ground and holler for help. Not very PC but it works.
If true about his ailments it's a sad situation but the marshal did the right thing.
#24
#4: Hope it's a clean one. But 3 getz 'ya 5 a London boy replay. Illegal and maybe wanted for other stuff. Still good tho.
Posted by: Shipman|| 2005-12-07 15:51
___________________
Yep Shipman, that's where I'm putting my bettin' money.
Look, next time ya board a plane, bring your freaking meds, take your friggin' meds, and by all means, DON"T DRINK! We've had a number of close calls in which some idiot decides to blow an emotional gasket and starts punching out flight attendants and such.
I'm hoping accounts of bag, screams of "I've got a bomb!" and such are true because if not, oh boy, what a mess ala London's Scotland Yard and the Boy from Brazil that they nailed *ahem* with just a tad bit overkill.
#25
"caution: dickhead maneuvers, whether purposeful or not - will get you killed - we aren't f*&king around"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2005 20:09 Comments ||
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#26
...I'm of mixed emotions on this one. My Lady is a bi-polar, and when she misses her meds (and on occasion flat out has not taken them) it's tough on her and me. I support the AMs 1000% on this - but I also feel for the man's wife right now. If a bi-polar it part of your life, it's a 24/7 struggle to one extent or another.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/07/2005 20:31 Comments ||
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#28
This man's blood, like the blood of so many others, is on the hands of muslims.
Just like the blood of so many other innocent people who die each day from starvation, AIDS, the wake of natural disasters and a host of other preventable deprivations, all because this world has been forced to divert insane amounts of money into countering the threat posed by an insignificant minority of religious maniacs. Money that would be so much better spent on solving global issues than pouring it down the rathole of security measures.
In any given 24 hours another terrorist driven 9-11 claims 3,000 more lives. The only difference is that they are spread out a little more than on that fateful day. All at the behest of Islamists who refuse to coexist in peace with their fellow man. Kill all of these jihadist sh!ts now.
#29
bipolar is tough on patients, families and friends. 24/7 is right. good news is that we do have meds that help many people. bad news is the sometime sideffects and when people stop taking them or start screwing with the dosages on their own and don't tell the doc or family.
been through a couple breaks in a loved one who did that until she finally decided she really needed the meds, if only to stay out of the hospital. long haul, even then, longer if that decision hasn't been reached yet.
#30
If a bi-polar it part of your life, it's a 24/7 struggle to one extent or another.
But you wouldn't expect some people here to understand.
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/07/2005 21:37 Comments ||
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#31
Oh, I understand, but the responsibility for the non-taking of Meds, sadly , lies upon the Bipolar person and, to some extent, relations/family.
What are the rights of the remaining passengers not to be threatened or die had it been a real bomb? What about the air marshals who have this death on their minds, for the rest of their lives? If you can't control or convince a bipolar to take the meds which allow them to function - especially on commercial flights!, then be prepared to say: "I'm sorry, shit happens, this couldn't have ended any worse than it did", and rather than SUE (as we can see coming....) - apologize to everyone else for the disruption to their lives? I doubt most want the apology, but wouldn't it be refreshing? If there were easy answers, this wouldn't be a problem, but before you cast stones, there's lot of greenhouses available
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2005 21:49 Comments ||
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#32
Zenster: Just like the blood of so many other innocent people who die each day from starvation, AIDS, the wake of natural disasters and a host of other preventable deprivations, all because this world has been forced to divert insane amounts of money into countering the threat posed by an insignificant minority of religious maniacs. Money that would be so much better spent on solving global issues than pouring it down the rathole of security measures.
Not only the re-prioritizing of resources b/c of terrorism, but I'd go further and say that Islam is the cause of many of the things you describe above, or at least do nothing to prevent/fix it. For example, see the (untalked about) horror going on in Darfur (supposedly Muslim on Muslim, but it's actually Arab on African-native in my mind). Then you have the yahoo mullahs in some African nations telling their believers not to take American vaccines, because they'll cause male infertility (and, thus, they don't take it and die of something completely avoidable, like polio or malaria or some crap like that). Then you have the completely closed societies where it's o.k. to beat your wife, keep her shackled at home and refuse to allow her to drive. There are few remaining countries left that do this due to political beliefs/systems, but there are many that do it based upon religion, and they're all Muslim. I truly believe that if we were to actually get average Joes in these countries to see what the 21st century really looks like outside the mid-east, a lot will change from within. Many of these countries are stuck in the 7th-8th century and it's all because of their belief system and it's implementation.
Posted by: BA ||
12/07/2005 22:02 Comments ||
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#33
With all due respect, Frank, unless you live with a mentally ill or disabled person, you can only grasp about 1/1000th of what it's really like.
There's nothing to cheer about here. It's a tough and regrettable situation. The air marshall is certainly not to blame (but depending on what transpired in the plane, the airline may be).
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/07/2005 22:18 Comments ||
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#34
acknowledged
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2005 22:27 Comments ||
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#35
and fair enough, Rafael
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2005 22:43 Comments ||
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Original title: "if you want good interrogation send suspects to Jordan, if you want them dead, send them to Egypt or Syria: Ex-CIA official"
LONDON â CIA agents have broken ranks to reveal the âcruel and inhumanâ interrogation techniques they are ordered to use at secret prisons around the world, including freezing and near-drowning. Amid a growing row in the US over torture, a list of âenhanced interrogation techniquesâ used by CIA agents in secret prisons â including near-drowning, freezing, sleep deprivation, shaking and slapping â has been leaked. In at least one case, a prisoner has died.
The techniques have been authorised for use at CIA âblack sitesâ abroad, at which top terror suspects are held. Last week the US-based organisation Human Rights Watch said, âghost detaineesâ were held at two military bases, in Poland and Romania. Similar sites in half a dozen other countries, including Afghanistan, Thailand and the Indian Ocean base of Diego Garcia, leased from Britain, are now said to have been closed.
Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Colin Powell when he was US secretary of state, said last week that he knew of more than 70 âquestionable deathsâ of detainees under US supervision up to the end of 2002, when he left office. That figure, he added, was now around 90. These incidents are in addition to the increasingly well-documented practice of ârenditionâ: flying suspects to Middle Eastern countries where torture and deaths in custody are routine. âIf you want a good interrogation, you send them to Jordan. If you want them dead, you send them to Egypt or Syria,â one former CIA agent is reported in the media as saying.
America's covert forces are operating in a climate of impunity, described by Cofer Black, then CIA counter-terrorism chief, who told a congressional committee in 2002: âAfter 9/11, the gloves were off.â At one point, according to âNewsweekâ, the Bush administration formally told the CIA it could not be prosecuted for any technique short of inflicting the kind of pain that accompanies organ failure or death.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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I wish the gloves were off - to include the handling of the seditious asstards in our Govt.
#2
Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Colin Powell when he was US secretary of state, said last week that he knew of more than 70 âquestionable deathsâ of detainees under US supervision up to the end of 2002, when he left office. That figure, he added, was now around 90.
sounds like bar stool agenda BS.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/07/2005 3:04 Comments ||
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#3
I can't believe they aren't arresting Wilkerson, he has to be either violating the terms of his security clearance or making false statements.
#4
If Wilerson's statements are true, and if the activities he discusses are illegal, then he may be protected by 'whistleblower' laws regardless of any oaths or secrecy laws.
#5
Washingotn Sketch - Dana Milbank
Thursday, October 20, 2005; Page A04
As Colin Powell's right-hand man at the State Department, Larry Wilkerson seethed quietly during President Bush's first term. Yesterday, Colonel Wilkerson made up for lost time. He said the vice president and the secretary of defense created a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal" that hijacked U.S. foreign policy. He said of former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith: "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man." Addressing scholars, journalists and others at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson accused Bush of "cowboyism" and said he had viewed Condoleezza Rice as "extremely weak." Of American diplomacy, he fretted, "I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore."
Notice how he "seethed" but didn't resign or retire in disgust. More convenient to wait until you retire, then throw a grenade through the door as you walk out, feed the media, and trash everybody. Right or wrong, I have no use for whores like this fellow.
#6
GW will be as effective dealing with this as he's been on getting the message of real progress in Iraq out to the public.
Hes has been a miserable failure communicating to the public and dealing with the rogues in the CIA upt o this point. Why would he change anything now?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
12/07/2005 11:34 Comments ||
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#7
These leakers should be rounded up imprisoned no bail gaged and tried for Sedition or Treason. Wether they agree with current methods or not disclosing publicly those methods knowing full well they are clasified and harmfull to those methods sucess is ciriminal treason and should be procecuted. Also the reporters who print these stories should be rounded up and forced to reveal these sources if not imprisoned gaged and held until source is revealed. National security trumps all this publbic need to know crap. Poland and Romania strong allies are paying for these leaks and by that we are paying as-well. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson wether he directley leaked classified info or not the fact of his postition makes his loose accusations sound factual and thereby he is either leaking or lying either way its Sedition or Treason.
I do agree Bush's doing what the media wont do on Iraq and the WOT making the case pointing out success but he is starting to now hopefully when he finally turns the moral back around I suspect will be back by Febuary I hope he keeps the momentum and keeps the people rallied to the point were any oposition will be a suicide mission.
#9
Catch these treasonous scumbags and break their fingers - all the way up to their collarbones.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/07/2005 15:14 Comments ||
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#10
I can see why DOD went with Able Danger. They had to get beyond the game playing and get reliable, hard intelligence, and all the BS PC games being played at the FBI and CIA was impeding national security. Someone had to get the job done. Someone had to do the real work.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/07/2005 15:30 Comments ||
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#12
IM(H)O the problems with the CIA will get worse until the new National Clandestine Service (NCS) takes over and the Negroponte/Ross team complete the "cleaning" process. Maybe all these leaks and things show that the process has started and is working.
I agree the cleaning process is working, however a few agents in jail and on trial with no bond gaged and a few reporters who run these stories in the same boat until they rat out thier sources would go along long long way real quick. It would only take a handfull of heads for everyone to get the point. no tolerance We Are At War
LAHORE - Pakistani police have arrested five members of a separatist group on suspicion of involvement in deadly bomb blasts, a senior official said on Wednesday. The five, arrested on Tuesday, were members of the Baluch Liberation Army (BLA), a rebel group seeking a separate state in gas-rich Baluchistan province in Pakistanâs southwest.
âWe have arrested five people who have confessed to involvement in six bomb blasts in Lahore over the last two years,â said police investigator Masood Aziz. âThe mastermind is a Baluch nationalist ... Abid Bugti,â he said. Bugti was still being sought, he said.
Bugti bugged out
The five were also linked to a man police say is a Baluch separatist who was arrested in the southern city of Karachi last month shortly after a car-bomb blast killed three people outside the offices of state-run Pakistan Petroleum, the countryâs biggest oil and gas company. Baluch nationalists demand more control over their provinceâs natural gas and minerals, which, they say, bring few benefits to the people of Baluchistan.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 11:51 ||
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We have arrested five people who have confessed to involvement in six bomb blasts in Lahore over the last two years
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - At least 15 people were killed in a troubled Pakistani region bordering Afghanistan in a clash between Islamic militants and bandits, a government official said on Wednesday.
The bloodshed began on Tuesday when militants attacked bandits extorting money on a road near Miranshah, the main town of the North Waziristan region, said the official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, who declined to be identified.
Turf war over who gets control of the lucrative toll concession.
Ten bandits and five militants were killed in the gunbattle, which continued on Wednesday, he said.
Sounds like a win-win situation
The militants later hung up three dead bandits from electricity poles and chanted slogans while shooting in the air, a witness said. One of the corpses hung from the electricity poles had been decapitated, a resident said.
âThe security situation there is fast deteriorating,â the government official said.
Don't you have to have security first in order for it to deteriorate?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 11:40 ||
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So how much heroin or morphine were they fighting over?
Miranshah, 7 Dec. (AKI/DAWN) - The authorities in North Waziristan, the tribal areas that lie on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, have not been able to trace the whereabouts of a local journalist who was kidnapped on Monday, but have said that the Taliban could be involved in the kidnapping of Hayatullah Khan. Hayatullah, a correspondent for an Islamabad newspaper and contributor to a German wire service, is also the nephew of Haji Mohammad Siddiq, the owner of the home in Waziristan which is believed to have been hit in a missile attack last Wednesday in which the al-Qaeda leader Hamza Rabia was allegedly killed.
Speaking to a delegation from the Tribal Union of Journalists on Tuesday, a tribal official from the North Waziristan Agency, Zaheerul Islam, said that although investigators had not yet reached any conclusions, it was possible that âTaliban elementsâ had a hand in the kidnapping of Hayatullah Khan. Islam told journalists that investigations were underway to trace the whereabouts of Hayatullah and promised them that the government would provide security to local journalists and enable them to continue their professional duties. Haji Mohammad Siddiq has been summoned for questioning by the local authorities after last Wednesday's attack.
According to Pakistani officials, the al-Qaeda leader, Hamza Rabia, and four others were killed while they were handling explosives on Wednesday night, while US news reports said he was killed by a US missile attack. According to US intelligence officials, Hamza Rabia, an Egyptian, was a close associate of al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is wanted in connection with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. Reports also suggest that Hamza Rabia had replaced Abu Faraj al Libbi, another al-Qaeda leader who was captured in Pakistan in May.
Officials and sources within the the journalist's family have said that unidentified gunmen kidnapped Hayatullah near the town of Mirali on Monday. The journalist is believed to have been kidnapped while he was on his way to the Kajori check-post when five masked men armed with assault rifles bundled him into a car and sped away. According to sources, Hayatullah had been captured sometime ago by allied forces in Angor Adda in the South Waziristan Agency. He was kept in detention for two months at the Bagram airbase.
Since it was his uncle's house that blew up, sounds reasonable to me.
The North Waziristan Union of Journalists has condemned Hayatullahâs kidnapping and appealed to the government to ensure his safe recovery. The union has asked the administration to arrest the culprits and provide security to journalists in the agency.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 11:04 ||
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On Dec.3, Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf declared his 200 percent certainty that Egyptian-born Abu Hamza Rabia was killed. Headline stories in the world media proclaimed he was in a house in Isory village, North Waziristan near the Afghan border, when it was hit by two missiles shot from CIA pilotless Hellfire planes.
DEBKAfileâs counter-terror sources report that Rabia was somewhere else at the time of the attack. A month ago, on Nov. 5, he was in a building with his family in the same region when it was struck from US drones. Rabiaâs wife and 11-year old daughter were killed. He escaped with a broken leg and has been hopping fleeing from village to village ever since.
Intelligence circles involved in counter-terror activity were skeptical from the first about the report which maintained that five al Qaeda operatives died in the attack. It later transpired that the victims were two sons of the house aged 17 and 8. Their father Haji Mohammad Siddiq claimed no âforeignersâ were living in his house or those of his neighbors. It is not Al Qaedaâs practice to confirm or deny the loss of senior operatives, but Tuesday, Dec. 6, the terror group publicly contradicted the announcement of Rabiaâs death, asserting âhe continues to carry out his war duties.â According to our sources, Abu Hamza Rabia is in charge of an operational sector in North Waziristan - but is not a member of al Qaedaâs high command and certainly not Osama bin Ladenâs Number Three. He was subordinate to Abu Faraj al-Libbi who was captured by the Pakistani security service last May and handed over to the Americans.
"I ain't no number three, nohow. Number three is bad juju, man."
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 10:25 ||
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For once something from Debka I believe more than I disbelieve.
Four Pakistani paramilitary soldiers are missing and are presumed to have been kidnapped in the South Waziristan tribal territory, an official says. In neighbouring North Waziristan there are reports of a number of people dying in fighting between suspected militants and robbers. At least 15 people have been killed in the confrontation, eyewitnesses told the BBC's Pashto service.
"Four paramilitary soldiers are missing since last evening and two of them were seen being forced into a vehicle," a security official in South Waziristan told the AFP news agency. The soldiers had been told not to leave their camp as a security measure but the four went out to a market, the official, who did not want to be identified, said.
Could have been kidnapped. Could also have just gone to a party, skipped town, joined the other side, etc..
Pakistan and Afghanistan have deployed thousands of troops in North and South Waziristan along the Afghan border to try to curb militancy.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 09:56 ||
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Suspected separatist militants blew up a railway track in Balochistan on Tuesday, delaying a train but causing no casualties. Insurgents planted explosives on the railway in Sariab area on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of restive Baluchistan province, said Ghulam Rasool, the deputy controller of Pakistan Railways. The blast held up a freight train but the damaged track was repaired in about three hours and passenger trains were not disturbed, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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When do we move them to commander Nemo's secret underwater city?
#2
Last night I posted this comment to the article "Qaeda suspects moved to Africa".
Something strange happened with it showing up on this story then I couldn't access Rantburg. It was late so I went to sleep.
Attention Fred, you might have a strange bug here.
Gunmen have burst into a hospital in Iraq to free a detainee alleged to have plotted to kill the investigating judge in the case against Saddam Hussein. The Kirkuk police chief said the attack happened shortly after 0500 local time (0200 GMT) when it was still dark. A large group of gunmen in four cars drove up to the hospital and opened fire at police and hospital guards. Then they forced their way into the wards, freed Yusif Khidr and took him away. Three guards died in the clash.
Mr Khidr had been wounded during the arrest of a gang of insurgents who the police said were plotting to kill Raed Juhi - the chief investigating judge who prepared the current case against Saddam Hussein and seven of his former associates. They are alleged to have been carrying orders from Saddam's former right-hand man, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who is still on the run and believed to be directing some of the insurgency.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 09:53 ||
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here's hoping his medical attention was only preliminary....sepsis, anyone?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2005 10:20 Comments ||
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#2
So Rusty's *not* dead of cancer after all. Drat.
AL-QAEDA in Iraq said it was responsible for a suicide overnight at Baghdad's Police Academy today, which killed at least 36 officers and students. "Two brothers targeted the police academy that continues to train dogs which feed off the blood and honour of Sunni Muslims," according to an internet statement by al-Qaeda Organisation in Iraq. It could not be immediately authenticated.
Does it need to be?
"The two brothers, may God accept them as martyrs, succeeded in penetrating security cordons surrounding the building ... the strength of the explosion destroyed a large part of the building," it said.
Iraqi police said 37 people were killed and 76 wounded in the attack, while the Interior Ministry put the death toll at 36 with 72 wounded.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2005 00:52 ||
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AN Iraqi court sentenced a nephew of deposed leader Saddam Hussein to 15 years in prison for illegally crossing the Syrian border, the US military said today. The sentence, handed down yesterday, comes on top of a six-year term given to Ayman Sabawi in September after he was found guilty of financing insurgents and making bombs, the military said. At that time, the Iraqi criminal court said Sabawi had been sentenced to life in prison.
Ayman, the son of Saddam's half-brother Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti, who also is in custody awaiting trial, first made the reference to the illegal border crossing during his September trial. He was captured in March near Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. In July, the United States froze Ayman's assets along with those of five other Saddam nephews, accusing them of funding the insurgents. The US accuses Ayman and family members of providing weapons, explosives and financial support to insurgents and using neighbouring Arab countries to plan and launch attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:02 ||
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FALLUJAH â Police said yesterday they had found the bodies of 20 people dumped in two separate locations in an area of western Iraq well-known for insurgency violence.
Eleven men in civilian clothes were found on Monday dumped next to the main highway that links Baghdad to the border with Jordan in Iraqâs west, police said. The bodies were found near the town of Rutba, 370km west of Baghdad, in the mainly Sunni desert province of Anbar. The bodies all had their hands tied and the men appeared to have been killed three days ago. Their identities were not clear.
Also yesterday, police said the bodies of nine civilians had been found a day earlier beside a road near Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad. All nine had gunshot wounds.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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damn "gunshot flu" is making the rounds
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2005 8:41 Comments ||
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TOKYO â Japan has told the United States that it will begin withdrawing its Ground Self-Defense Force troops from Iraq next June and will complete the withdrawal by the end of August, government and ruling coalition sources said Tuesday.
The pullout will follow the reported withdrawal around May of British and Australian forces in charge of security in southern Iraq where the Japanese troops are deployed to assist in Iraq's reconstruction, the sources said.
Waving a finger and pounding his desk, Saddam Hussein told the judges in his trial to "go to hell" and vowed not to return to court Wednesday.
"And I'm not going to the hanging, either! You can just do it without me!"
The outburst came at the end of a daylong session Tuesday in which a woman, speaking behind a beige curtain and with her voice disguised, told of beatings, torture and sexual humiliation at the hands of security agents when she was a teenager. The ousted Iraqi president sat stone-faced and silent while she spoke. But after hours of testimony from the woman and another two witnesses, he exploded with anger. Saddam, dressed in a dark suit and white shirt and clutching a Quran, complained that he and the seven other defendants were tired and had been deprived of opportunities to shower, have a change of clothes, exercise or go for a smoke. "This is terrorism," he declared.
That must have sounded pretty funny, coming as it did after her testimony. But what she endured wasn't terrorism, either. That was the result of brutal misrule by a tin-hat dictator.
Throughout the trial, which began Oct. 19, Saddam has repeatedly staged confrontations with the court and attempted to take control of the proceedings with dramatic rhetorical flourishes.
Since he has no defense, he's turning it into a circus in the hope that it'll drag out for years and maybe his hard boyz can spring him in the end...
The defendants are charged in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims in retaliation for an assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail in 1982. Saddam accused Iran of ordering the attempt on his life. Five witnesses â two women and three men â testified Tuesday in the fourth session of the trial, all of them hidden from the public view and with their voices disguised to protect their identities. The most compelling testimony came from the woman identified only as "Witness A," who was a 16-year-old girl at the time of the crackdown. Her voice breaking with emotion, she told the court of beatings and electric shocks by the former president's agents. "I was forced to take off my clothes, and he raised my legs up and tied my hands. He continued administering electric shocks and whipping me and telling me to speak," Witness A said of Wadah al-Sheik, an Iraqi intelligence officer who died of cancer last month while in American custody. The woman broke down several times as she struggled to maintain her composure. "God is great. Oh, my Lord!" she said, moaning.
Such treatment of a young woman is gravely offensive in traditional Arab culture, and Saddam was careful to avoid any insulting gesture in Tuesday's session, which was televised in Iraq. On Monday, he had angrily challenged male witnesses, insulting them and suggesting one needed psychiatric treatment.
"Witness A" strongly suggested she had been raped, but did not say so outright. When Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin asked her about the "assault," she said: "I was beaten up and tortured by electrical shocks" but repeated that she had been ordered to undress. "They made me put my legs up. There were more than one of them, as if I were their banquet, maybe more than five people, all of them officers," she said. "Is that what happens to the virtuous woman that Saddam speaks about?" she wept, prompting the judge to advise her to stick to the facts. She later quoted a security officer as telling her, "You should thank your God because you are here in the Intelligence Center. If you were in the directorate of security, no woman would remain a virgin." Nevertheless, she also said security guards raped many fellow female detainees. When asked by the judge which of the defendants she wanted to accuse, "Witness A" identified Saddam. "When so many people are jailed and tortured, who makes such a decision?" she said.
By the end of the day, Saddam was back to his combative style. "I will not return," he shouted after the court decided to convene again Wednesday. "I will not come to an unjust court! Go to Hell!"
Under Iraqi law, a court can force a defendant to attend a trial if he is not willing, said Iraqi lawyer Bassem al-Khalili. But it was unclear whether the court would force the issue of Saddam's attendance. The court has shown considerable deference to the former president, tolerating frequent outbursts in violation of local rules of procedure.
Measures taken to preserve the witnesses' anonymity complicated the testimony. At first, defense attorneys complained they could not hear Witness A because of the voice distortion. The judge then ordered the voice modulator shut off. However, the audience could not hear at all, so Amin ordered a recess, and the modulator was fixed, allowing all to hear. Defense attorneys insisted on face-to-face questioning of Witness A and demanded that the defendants should also see her. So, after she gave her testimony for more than an hour, Amin ordered the session closed to the public, pulled screens in front of the press and visitors' gallery, and cut the sound.
During direct testimony, Witness A said she was held and tortured at a detention facility in Baghdad before being taken to the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside the capital. Later her family was taken to a desert facility outside the southern city of Samawah. At the Baghdad facility, she said she was thrown into a room with red walls and ceiling inside an intelligence department building and that prisoners were given only bread and water to eat. "After all this torture that we went through, would anybody still have an appetite to eat?" she said.
At Abu Ghraib, the guards stripped one of her male relatives, a deaf mute, and tied a rope to his genitals, pulling him into the cells where the women were kept, she said. Insects were everywhere â in cells and on their clothes, she said, adding that inmates used prison blankets to make underwear and fashioned shoes out of cardboard and strings. She said one woman gave birth in the prison. "The baby got stuck between her legs. Another woman tried to help her, but the guards told her it was none of her business. The baby suffocated between her legs," she said. She said her sister and sister-in-law also gave birth while in detention. "I was freed at the end when I was 20," she said. "All my friends became doctors and teachers, and I am now just a housewife."
Later, a second woman took the stand, identified as "Witness B." She said she was 74 and recounted how her family was arrested in 1981 â a year before the Dujail incident. Until that point in her testimony, her voice was modulated. But again, the judge decided it wasn't working properly. The system was turned off and all of the electronic feeds from the court room cut, including to the press gallery, before the witness could explain the relevance of a 1981 arrest.
"Witness C," a man, testified that he was taken by security forces along with his parents and sister. They spent 19 days at the intelligence headquarters and 11 months in Abu Ghraib, where his father died after being beaten on the head, he said. Then they spent three years in the desert. "At the intelligence headquarters, they put two clips in my ears," the witness said, adding he was told that if he lied, he would be given an electric shock. When he answered a question, the shock was administered, he said. "In prison they used to bring men to the women's room and ask them to bark like dogs," he said. "My father died in prison and I was not able to see him." He added that his father, who was 65 and had heart problems, was kept in a room about 50 yards from him.
"How come you remember all these things?" Saddam asked. "This was a great sadness to me," the witness replied, "and I can't forget a sadness."
The testimony prompted an outburst from Saddam, who complained of his own conditions in detention. He said the court had time to listen to the witnesses' complaints "but does anyone ask Saddam Hussein whether he was tortured? Whether he was hit?" He urged the judge to investigate his conditions because "it is your duty as judges to investigate the crime at its scene."
"I live in an iron cage covered by a tent under American democratic rule. You should come see my cage," he told Amin. "The Americans and the Zionists want to execute Saddam Hussein."
Sounds like a real good idea to me. Hopefully, it'll be soon.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
No, its the Iraqi people who want to execute you Saddam. You know the very ones you claimed *loved* you so much....
#2
Under Iraqi law, a court can force a defendant to attend a trial if he is not willing
I hope they enforce this law.
Unbelievable the long lease this court has afforded him.
Posted by: Jan ||
12/07/2005 3:06 Comments ||
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#3
WTF! Saddam did not attend today. Why he was not hauled in -- cuffed, shackled, tied to a wheel chair, and mouth duct-taped -- is beyond me. What a bunch of wimps we have become!
#5
WTF! Saddam did not attend today. Why he was not hauled in -- cuffed, shackled, tied to a wheel chair, and mouth duct-taped -- is beyond me. What a bunch of wimps we have become!
Visions of Bobby Seal are dancing in my head!!!! All we need is Rosenburg (??????) to be the freaking judge.
#6
A defendant has a right to attend court and face his accusers. That doesn't mean he has to be there. If he wants to sit in his cell and pout, fine.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 9:11 Comments ||
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#7
This whole kid-glove treatment pisses me off. This trial has become a freaking circus. The SOB needs to be present--and gagged if necessary--to face his accusers.
I can't believe how easily this amateur court and its officers have let this clown turn what should be a somber investigation into only one of many atrocities he's committed into a self-promotional freakshow. An internationally-televised self-promotional freakshow, I might add.
Someone has dropped the ball here--and they better get things returned to some sense of normality and damn *soon*.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/07/2005 12:19 Comments ||
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The United States will pay no ransom for the release of American citizens reported kidnapped by Iraqi militants, President George W. Bush said on Tuesday. "We of course don't pay ransom for any hostages, what we will do of course is use our intelligence gathering to see if we can't help locate them," Bush told reporters. "We will bring these people to justice, we will hunt them down along with our Iraqi friends and at the same time spread democracy," he said.
An Iraqi militant group has threatened to kill a U.S. security consultant unless Washington frees all Iraqi prisoners, according to a video aired by Al Jazeera television. Another American is among a group of four Christian peace activists seized by gunmen in Iraq. Jazeera said the militants were demanding the U.S. government pay compensation to Iraqis affected by military offensives led by U.S. troops in Sunni Muslim-dominated Anbar province.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Two women strapped with explosives detonated themselves at Baghdad's police academy on Tuesday, killing 27 people and wounding 32 more, the U.S. military said. The women blew themselves up in a classroom filled with students, the statement from Task Force Baghdad said. No U.S. forces were killed or wounded in the attack, it added. U.S. forces rushed to the scene to provide assistance, the statement said. Iraqi police said one bomb exploded in a cafeteria, while the other detonated during roll call. Police Lt. Ali Mi'tab said the women were probably students at the academy, which is why they were not searched. Five other female police officers were among the dead, he added.
#3
They might just go back to where these 2 woman come from and kill 43 and wound 72. This kind of shit has to start soon or the bombings will never end.
GAZA CITY (CNN) -- The Israeli military killed a member of the radical Popular Resistance Committees and wounded five other Palestinians on Wednesday, Palestinian sources said. An Israeli military helicopter was seen in the air, followed by a loud explosion, indicating a missile attack, the Palestinian sources said.
Another day, another helizap
They said it occurred in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Israeli military sources acknowledged the attack and identified the target as Mahmoud Arqan, 29. They described Arqan as a senior militant of the Popular Resistance Committees and said he was involved in recent shooting attacks against Israeli military forces near the fence that surrounds Gaza. They also blame him for previous attacks against Israelis.
"Yeah, we done it!"
The Popular Resistance Committees comprises radicals from several Gaza factions.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 13:52 ||
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#1
"Activist", eh? He don't too active to me no more. Go IDF!
Israel on Tuesday clamped a closure on the West Bank and Gaza, banning virtually all Palestinians from Israel, in its first response to a suicide bombing that killed five Israelis outside a shopping mall. Israeli officials, seeking to put pressure on the Palestinians to crack down on militants, also pledged painful retaliation for Monday's suicide bombing by the Islamic Jihad group in the coastal city of Netanya. "We decided to operate in a much broader, much deeper and more intensive manner against the Islamic Jihad infrastructure, and I hope that we will be able to prevent such attacks in the future," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Army Radio on Tuesday following an urgent late-night meeting of security officials.
Israeli security officials said the army would target Islamic Jihad operatives in the West Bank, both through arrest raids and targeted killings of operatives. The army will also renew airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to any rocket attacks launched from the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Israeli occupation forces have detained the father and three brothers of a Palestinian bomber in a raid on the West Bank village of Alar. The arrests came a day after Lutfi Amine Abu Saada, 21, blew himself up at a shopping mall in the coastal town of Netanya, killing five Israelis. Israeli military sources and Palestinian security officials said that the four were detained at the family home in the village of Alar in the northern West Bank at daybreak.
Resistance group Islamic Jihad said that Abu Saada's mission had been ordered to avenge the killing of several of its senior members by Israel. The bomber's father, Amine Abu Saada, said on Monday that he had no idea about his son's links to Islamic Jihad, saying the first thing he knew about what had happened was when people began to converge on his home to offer condolences. According to Aljazeera's correspondent in Palestine, Israeli forces also detained four other Palestinians in the village. Six others, mostly Islamic Jihad members, were detained elsewhere in the West Bank.
Israel's Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz is seeking legal approval to reverse a ban on demolishing the family homes of bombers, arguing that such a measure has a substantial deterrent effect.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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#2
Israel's Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz is seeking legal approval to reverse a ban on demolishing the family homes of bombers, arguing that such a measure has a substantial deterrent effect.
The Singaporean government reportedly warned the Philippines of the presence of seven members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network out to sow terror during the 23rd Southeast Asian Games in Manila, which formally came to a close last night.
Metro Manila police chief Director Vidal Querol clarified that the report was unverified but said he raised the number of policemen guarding yesterdayâs closing ceremony from 2,000 to 3,000 as a preemptive measure. "We have not verified the report but, just the same, I raised the number of police personnel securing the closing ceremony of the games as a precautionary measure," he said. "We need to be extra vigilant on the last day of the games."
The report claimed that the Singaporean delegates and athletes were not aware of the tip by the Singaporean government, nor were they advised to pull out of the competition. "The athletes continue to participate unless instructed by their government to leave for security reasons," the report said.
However, the Singaporean government had expressed satisfaction with the strict, elaborate security measures being implemented in Cebu and Metro Manila.
"I donât know where the report came from," Querol said in Filipino. "But we should not let our guard down because they (terrorists) might put one over on us at the closing ceremony."
Querol did not raise the alert level of the Metro Manila police, who remained at heightened alert yesterday, over the fresh report. He earlier announced that at least 2,000 policemen would be assigned to secure the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park during yesterdayâs closing ceremony, but the PNP deployed an additional 1,000 at the last minute.Querol pointed out that at least 5,000 policemen were deployed to secure the SEA Games opening ceremony last Nov. 27.
Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas Jr., intelligence chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, insisted that the report could be a product of an attempt to spread disinformation. "We have not monitored such a report. We checked and cross-checked with other intelligence units, but no such report was monitored," Rojas told The STAR.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2005 01:22 ||
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#1
Friggin Flips! They will still be in denial after the bombs blow up the Pres Palace. BTW the US Embassy has been closed due to bomb threats for the last two day. This embassy holds a traditional hard line of staying open no matter what the threat is. For them to close is must have been credible.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/07/2005 15:18 Comments ||
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The Dutch public prosecutor's offices has announced that the Syrian government sent an official message to the Netherlands authorities denying the presence of the Syrian flee from Holland "Ridwan A" nicknamed Abu Khaled the spiritual leader of the terrorist organization "Hoff Stad" and who is currently under try along with 14 of his Islamists elements in a court in Amsterdam.
Spokesman for the Dutch public prosecutor's offices said that the Syrian authorities have denied that Abu Khaled is detained in Syria where the brother of the flee suspected alleged that the Syrian authorities have arrested him in a prison in Damascus during his wedding.
Earlier, Holland informed the Syrian authorities that Abu Khaled entered the Netherlands via Brussels, Greece and then Turkey on the eve of the killing of the Dutch director Theo van Gough at the hand of the Moroccan extremist Mohammad Bobri. Holland also told Syria that Abu Khaled is the spiritual leader of the terrorist organization and who made contacts from Syria after fleeing the Dutch territories in order to be briefed on latest tidings of his organization.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 11:36 ||
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Tehran, 7 Dec. (AKI) - The death of a young Kurdish man in a police station in Sanandaj, the capital of Iranian Kurdistan, has triggered new clashes between locals and police in other Kurdish-majority villages and cities. Last Sunday, Pouya Ebrahimabadi, 22, was arrested in the centre of Sanandaj, during police raids against venues frequented by nationalists. The friends and relatives of the dead man told the Iranian site Khabar that Pouya was tortured for hours during interrogation, before being transferred in critical condition to a local hospital. He died several hours later.
The Sanandaj police offers a diferent version. Commander general Rahim Khorshidvand argues that Pouya, who they say was arrested with several grams of hashish in his pocket, took his life in a holding cell before being interrogated. "The defendant died several hours later in hospital, where we had transferred him immediately" he said.
Iranian hospitals are dangerous places
The young separatists in Sanandaj are awaiting the restitution of the corpse of Pouya to hold his funeral, in what will become a new anti-regime protest.
Iranian Kurdistan is in the northwest of the country, along the borders of Iraq and Turkey. The Kurdish people say they are denied their rights as an ethnic minotiry, especially the right to be educated in their own language.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 10:57 ||
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The Kurdish people say they are denied their rights as an ethnic minotiry, especially the right to be educated in their own language I'm a big fan of the Kurds but I've never heard of this right before. Is this an Iranian thing or a fantasy thing?
#2
Is this an Iranian thing or a fantasy thing?Same thing in Turkey until recently. Turkey just passed a law allowing Kurdish to be used in schools and in the media. Guess they were trying to destroy Kurdish heritage and culture by killing the language. The United States was guilty of doing the same to native americans, even taking some children away from their parents and giving them to white families. Not one of the highlights of our history.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 15:56 Comments ||
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#3
I think the Kurds are in the right. There is a cultural "right" to perpetuate an ethnic heritage through their local school system. I don't believe that right extends to immigrants living in an unassimilated ghetto wanting to obtain education in their native language on the public dime.
The USSR made every effort to facilitate the absorption of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by discouraging the use of languages other than Russian. Gaelic is another language that is less than popular for some very un-mysterious reasons. Let's not go so far as making the local school board of Font du Lac offer algebra in Hmong dialect, though. Our city is becoming the home of many Somali transplants. I'm nit interrested in the kids learning Bantu at this point.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/07/2005 17:10 Comments ||
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Lebanon and Israel may be facing the prospect of massively increased terror attack threats. New reports claim that al-Qaida has set up an organizing center in Lebanon and that Iran has boosted its ties to West Bank Palestinian militants, especially Islamic Jihad, who have launched a new suicide bomber campaign against Israel.
The Lebanese Shiite weekly Shiraa, which opposes the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, or Party of God, is claiming this week that al-Qaida has already set up an operational command base in the country. It also claims that Imad Mughniyeh, the prominent Hezbollah leader, is representing al-Qaida in talks with potential sympathetic Palestinian leaders in the south of the country. Al-Shiraa said Mughniyeh also met with Jemal Suleiman, head of the Palestinian Ansar Allah, and with Abu Mahujayn, Shehada Jawahr and Khaled Safayn, who lead Palestinian militias in the Bureij camp. The report follows other indications of growing al-Qaida influence in Lebanon. There have been reports, as yet unsubstantiated, that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, commander of al-Qaida operations in Iraq, has been receiving an increasing number of Lebanese Sunni Muslim supporters.
Also this week the Israeli debka.com web site, which maintains a wide circle of sources within Israeli intelligence, said an FBI-CIA team was currently in Lebanon, trying to discover whether al-Qaida was planning to participate in a major terror offensive against Israel from bases in Southern Lebanon. 'The Americans are concerned lest Mughniyeh has been tasked to orchestrate simultaneous strikes against Israel from its northern and southern borders,' debka.com said. The development of a close alliance between al-Qaida and Iran-backed organizations like Hezbollah would mark a dramatic strengthening of anti-American and anti-Israeli guerrilla capabilities in the Middle East. Given Iran`s great and still growing influence among the 60 percent Shiite majority in Iraq, it could also open the way for future operational cooperation between al-Qaida and other insurgent forces in Iraq, and Iran-backed Shiite paramilitary groups there such as Moqtada al-Sadr`s Mahdi Army.
In a parallel development, The Australian newspaper reported Wednesday that Israeli security chiefs fear Hezbollah militants may have already joined forces with Islamic Jihad and other Sunni Muslim Palestinian guerrilla groups on the West Bank The report emerged after Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the suicide bomb attack on a shopping mall in the prosperous, middle class Israeli resort city of Netanya, north of Tel Aviv, Monday. Five people were killed and 40 wounded in the attack. Israeli Intelligence officials say Hezbollah has been using donations and other sponsorship to infiltrate the restive West Bank areas of Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarm, The Australian said. Two members of a second militant group, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, told the newspaper that that a man claiming to represent Hezbollah had recently asked them to join the organization.
Israeli suspicions of Hezbollah infiltration were given fresh impetus by the fact that the claim of responsibility for Monday`s attack, which killed five people and wounded 55 others at the entrance to the Netanya mall, was first aired on Hezbollah television in Syria, the paper said. 'We are looking at a proxy relationship between Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and their major terror masters, who are directly linked to the Iranian Islamic revolution,' former Israeli military intelligence chief Erin Lerman told The Australian.
The Israeli reports and claims of growing ties between Hezbollah and al-Qaida, or between Hezbollah, backed by Iran, and Islamic Jihad, may also strengthen the hands of Bush administration hawks around Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who remain eager to confront Iran. But they also may reflect the growing militancy of Iran`s hard-line President Ahmed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who in October publicly called for Israel to be 'wiped off the map.' Some U.S. security analysts believe the growing public militancy and confidence of Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders reflects the fact that they may for the first time have full access to nuclear weapons bought or stolen clandestinely from former Soviet republics. It may also reflect the Iranians observing the continuing U.S. inability to make significant progress in scaling down the level of operational violence of the still-spreading insurgency in Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2005 01:04 ||
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#1
So whadda they do when they're "strengthening ties" amongst the baddies? A little quality time playing pool and sharing a pitcher? Sharing ammo for gun sex? Swapping spit? Reach-arounds?
There's only one top dog in each pile - everybody else is baring his belly in some degree. Mebbe that's what they do - have stare-downs and figure out whose gonna be top dog over their combined piles. I get weird mixed flashbacks from the Monty Python Colosseum scene and Goodfellas when I read this stuff. So many chiefs, so few (living) injuns. Let's hope they off a few of each other's mooks in their negotiations.
#3
the fact that Hezbollah (which was considered a "social" as well as militant organization as little as a year ago) is allying themselves with AQ means they're on teh downhill slide and geting desperate. Their only reason to exist now is to dick with the Israelis whenever their Syrians or Iranian masters need a diversion
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2005 8:45 Comments ||
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#4
" ...the still-spreading insurgency in Iraq."
Umm... I would say the insurgency has been on a downward spiral for the last year and a half. They are losing badly.
#5
"The Party of God" is gradually losing its reason to exist as witnessed by anyone reading the "Daily Star". Searching around for a new purpose and etc...this group will not go down with a whimper, the iranian overlords would not readily permit the woeful collapse of such an asset...
#6
I get the whole cooperate with the devil to defeat the bigger devil but something doesn't add up here. Are AQ bigshots desparate enough to allow the "new generation" to start calling the shots? Are Mugs and the boyz willing to take the PR hit? Seems like a departure from their stylings to go mainstream.
UN investigators have grilled the former Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon, Rustom Ghazaleh, and his deputy over former Lebanese premier Rafiq Haririâs murder, Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Tuesday. Ghazaleh and Jameh Jameh were heard Monday behind closed doors at UN offices in Vienna, where three other Syrian witnesses are also due to be probed by the UN team, the London-based Arabic daily said. It said the head of the Palestinian affairs department in the Syrian intelligence services, Abdelkarim Abbas, communications chief Zaher Yussef, and retired Colonel Samih al-Kashaani would testify on Wednesday.
Mondayâs questioning focused on âdetermining the nature of the duties of the Syrian officersâ in Lebanon before Hariri was murdered in a massive bomb blast on February 14 that also killed 20 other people, Al-Hayat said, quoting unnamed sources. The UN investigators âreferred to recorded statements of phone conversations that took place between (Ghazaleh) and Lebanese political figuresâ, the sources told Al-Hayat. They likewise tried to determine any links between the Syrian officers and some suspects in the case who have said they âcontributed directly or indirectly in provoking or planning the assassinationâ, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Detlev Mehlis will step down shortly as chief UN investigator into the killing of ex-Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri but will remain available should the inquiry require his services. Mehlis' spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said on Tuesday the date for Mehlis' departure was not yet determined, but added that the German prosecutor had made it clear when he accepted the job that he would stay on for only six or seven months.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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A videotape claiming Osama Bin Laden is still "alive and fighting" dates back to September, Arab television channel al-Jazeera has admitted. Al-Jazeera's editor-in-chief, Ahmed Sheikh, said his channel had broadcast the footage by mistake. Mr Sheikh said it had received the video in September and aired "the important parts" at the time.
In the video, Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, also claimed al-Qaeda was behind the London bombings on 7 July. "We got the videotape in September, and back then we aired what we thought were the important parts," Mr Sheikh told the AFP news agency. "There was a misunderstanding today, and we aired these extracts today by mistake."
I hate it when I sit down to watch my favorite show and it turns out to be a old episode, don't you?
Zawahiri claimed in September that al-Qaeda's leader was still alive and leading a "holy war" against the West. He called for attacks on oil targets and said al-Qaeda was "spreading and expanding and strengthening".
So still no word from Zawahiri or Binny since the earthquake hit.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 09:47 ||
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I don't know if this ever happens to you, but if I only manage to see any given series two times in a season, the second time is always a rerun of the episode I saw earlier. Creepy, no?
#4
Showing an old film and claiming Bin Laden is alive is not an error. You don't say let's prove Bin Laden is alive and then accidentley get an old film, if a new one was sent to you. So obviosuly there was no new one. Therefor, they lied to make a story. Or did we pay to have the story put on thier channel?
#5
Let me tell you a story
about a man named Osama
On a tragic and fateful day.
He put ten rupees in his pocket,
kissed his camel and family,
and went to ride on the Jihad Express.
Chorus:
O did he ever return,
no he never returned;
and his fate is still unlearned.
He may rot forever
âneath the streets of Peshawar
heâs the man who never returned.
He handed in his rupees
at the Lahore Square Station
and he headed for Islamabad
When he got there
the Conductor told him:
âOne more rupee.â
Osama couldnât get off of that train.
All day long
Osama rides throught the stations thinking:
âWhat will become of me.
How can I afford to see my sister in Karachi,
and my brother in Rawalpindi?â
Osamaâs wife goes down
to the Lahore Square Station
every day at quarter past two;
and throught the open window
she hands Osama a kabab
as the train goes rumbling through.
O did he ever return,
no he never returned;
and his fate is still unlearned.
He may rot forever
âneath the streets of Peshawar
heâs the man who never returned.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 12:15 Comments ||
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#6
Oh man, Steve, now I have that Kingston Trio song running through my brain! Thanks (not) .... heh.
Before anyone says it, bin Laden was alive circa October 2004 to make his pre-election video appearance. He might have died in the Pakistani earthquake, but until we get proof that he did in the form of a body or some other verifiable evidence (the head'll do nicely), the search continues, especially given that having extra lives seems to be part of whole supervillain gig. Remember how many times the Triplanetary thought they'd taken care of Roger too ...
Al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden is still alive and leading a holy war against the West, the group's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in an internet video.
"Al-Qaeda for holy war is still, thanks to God, a base for jihad (holy war). Its prince Sheikh Osama bin Laden, may God protect him, is still leading its jihad," Zawahri said in a video posted on a website frequently used by militants.
"I bring a message of joy to all Muslims and mujahideen that al-Qaeda, thanks to God, is spreading and expanding and strengthening," he said.
"(Al-Qaeda) has transformed into a popular organisation confronting a new crusader Zionist campaign, in defence of all violated Muslim lands," said Zawahri, who was wearing a black turban and white robe.
He was speaking against a white background to an interviewer off-camera who said the interview was to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on US cities. More via DNA:
Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on mujahideen to attack oil sites in Muslim countries, according to an Internet video posted on Wednesday.
âI call on mujahideen to concentrate their attacks on Muslims' stolen oil, from which most of the revenues go to the enemies of Islam while most of what they leave is seized by the thieves who rule our countries,â Zawahri said. Yet More, this time from Rooters:
Zawahri said the new "crusader" campaign by the United States and its Western allies was failing as evident by U.S. losses in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"America and its crusader allies have not achieved anything. Its forces in the battleground are receiving blows each day."
He discredited Iraq's January elections, saying only half the population turned out to vote, and blasted what he called a weak government that was swept into power.
"The (Iraqi) government is begging Americans not to leave because they know the day Americans leave is the day they are finished."
Four years after the U.S. war on Afghanistan, only the Taliban exercised real power in the country, chaos reigned in its capital Kabul, and legislative elections held in September were fraudulent as they were monitored by a biased United Nations, he said.
"If it wasn't for the Pakistani army's continuous support to Americans, they would have left (Afghanistan) a long time ago and they will leave soon, God wiling."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/07/2005 00:44 ||
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#1
Get back in your cave old man!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
12/07/2005 6:57 Comments ||
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#2
"I bring a message of joy to all Muslims and mujahideen that al-Qaeda, thanks to God, is spreading and expanding and strengthening," he said."
Do all the secularist realize how often these guys say God. Man. If we could just get the secularist on our side, these guys would'nt stand a chance.
#3
..Triplanetary and Roger? The Terminator, I know, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, I know, but Triplanetary and Roger are new ones.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/07/2005 8:44 Comments ||
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#4
Triplanetary and Roger are new ones.
From the Lensman series by E. E. Smith. One of the first serial science fiction space operas. Triplanetary is the first book in the series.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/07/2005 9:18 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Is this the story that was Over Taken By Events?
See above?
The CIA moved 11 top Al-Qaeda suspects from two secret prisons in Eastern Europe to a new facility in the North African desert last month, ABC News said on Monday. The sources said all but one of the Al-Qaeda suspects had been submitted to the harshest interrogation techniques allowed by the CIA. They were held at one point on a former Soviet air base in one Eastern European country. Several of them were later move to a second Eastern European country. The sources, ABC said, refused to name the two Eastern European nations as well as the facility in the North African desert where the suspects are now housed. Rice, who will kick off her European tour in Romania on Tuesday, is expected to do address European concerns over media reports of secret detention centers â dubbed âblack sitesâ â and flights run by the CIA to house and transport their suspected terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Twenty-two suspected militants were killed in two clashes with Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces this week, including 13 in an attack on a cell that was believed responsible for several bombings in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. 
Several Moroccan politicians and intellectuals have received death threats from extremist Islamist groups in recent weeks while the authorities have released further information to the media on a terrorist cell with links to al Qaeda said to be on the verge carrying out attacks this December. A group calling itself âThe Moroccan Islamic Army for Shariaaâ recently threatened Mohammad al Yazghi, secretary general of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces and Minister of Territorial Development, Idriss Lashgar, Head of the socialist bloc in parliament and Fathallah Oualalou, Minister of Economy and Finance. According to Abdullah al Rami, an expert on al Qaedaâs activities in cyberspace, nothing suggests that the threats were genuine. However, he told Asharq al Awsat, militants Islamists consider secular figures and democrats as indifesl who have renounced Islam and believe murdering them is permissible. âIn theory, socialists are apostates but murdering them is unlikely because of a lack of war with this category. Nevertheless, smaller groups might seize the initiative and carry out these threats, as was the case with the murder of Jarallah Omar, the socialist leader in Yemen.â
Located 70km south of the Saudi capital, 
A highly placed source said that Jewel, 
Police recovered explosives weighing about 9 kg from the house of a suspected 
Members of the banned Uzbek Islamic Movement were arrested on Monday in the city of Khudzhand in northern Tajikistan. "An Uzbek citizen, 37, and a Russian citizen from the Mordova region, 41, who are accused of being members of the Uzbek Islamic Movement, were detained on December 5 in Khudzhand," a source from the Tajik Interior Ministry told.
Russian servicemen were killed and three others wounded when their truck hit a rebel land mine in Chechnya, reports reaching here said Tuesday. The radio-controlled land mine exploded near the southern village of Dargo on Monday evening, reports quoted the Chechen branch of Russia's Interior Ministry as saying in a statement. Reports said rebels in Chechnya mount frequent raids in recent days on federal troops and their local collaborators, and stage regular land mine explosions.
On Dec.3, Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf declared his 200 percent certainty that Egyptian-born Abu Hamza Rabia was killed. Headline stories in the world media proclaimed he was in a house in Isory village, North Waziristan near the Afghan border, when it was hit by two missiles shot from CIA pilotless Hellfire planes. 
Suspected separatist militants blew up a railway track in Balochistan on Tuesday, delaying a train but causing no casualties. Insurgents planted explosives on the railway in Sariab area on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of restive Baluchistan province, said Ghulam Rasool, the deputy controller of Pakistan Railways. The blast held up a freight train but the damaged track was repaired in about three hours and passenger trains were not disturbed, he said.
AL-QAEDA in Iraq said it was responsible for a suicide overnight at Baghdad's Police Academy today, which killed at least 36 officers and students. "Two brothers targeted the police academy that continues to train dogs which feed off the blood and honour of Sunni Muslims," according to an internet statement by al-Qaeda Organisation in Iraq. It could not be immediately authenticated.
Waving a finger and pounding his desk, Saddam Hussein told the judges in his trial to "go to hell" and vowed not to return to court Wednesday. 
The United States will pay no ransom for the release of American citizens reported kidnapped by Iraqi militants, President George W. Bush said on Tuesday. "We of course don't pay ransom for any hostages, what we will do of course is use our intelligence gathering to see if we can't help locate them," Bush told reporters. "We will bring these people to justice, we will hunt them down along with our Iraqi friends and at the same time spread democracy," he said.
Two women strapped with explosives detonated themselves at Baghdad's police academy on Tuesday, killing 27 people and wounding 32 more, the U.S. military said. The women blew themselves up in a classroom filled with students, the statement from Task Force Baghdad said. No U.S. forces were killed or wounded in the attack, it added. U.S. forces rushed to the scene to provide assistance, the statement said. Iraqi police said one bomb exploded in a cafeteria, while the other detonated during roll call. Police Lt. Ali Mi'tab said the women were probably students at the academy, which is why they were not searched. Five other female police officers were among the dead, he added.
Israel on Tuesday clamped a closure on the West Bank and Gaza, banning virtually all Palestinians from Israel, in its first response to a suicide bombing that killed five Israelis outside a shopping mall. Israeli officials, seeking to put pressure on the Palestinians to crack down on militants, also pledged painful retaliation for Monday's suicide bombing by the Islamic Jihad group in the coastal city of Netanya. "We decided to operate in a much broader, much deeper and more intensive manner against the Islamic Jihad infrastructure, and I hope that we will be able to prevent such attacks in the future," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Army Radio on Tuesday following an urgent late-night meeting of security officials.
Israeli occupation forces have detained the father and three brothers of a Palestinian bomber in a raid on the West Bank village of Alar. The arrests came a day after 
Lebanon and Israel may be facing the prospect of massively increased terror attack threats. New reports claim that al-Qaida has set up an organizing center in Lebanon and that Iran has boosted its ties to West Bank Palestinian militants, especially 
The Lebanese Shiite weekly Shiraa, which opposes the Iranian-backed 
UN investigators have grilled the former Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon, Rustom Ghazaleh, and his deputy over former Lebanese premier Rafiq Haririâs murder, Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Tuesday. Ghazaleh and Jameh Jameh were heard Monday behind closed doors at UN offices in Vienna, where three other Syrian witnesses are also due to be probed by the UN team, the London-based Arabic daily said. It said the head of the Palestinian affairs department in the Syrian intelligence services, Abdelkarim Abbas, communications chief Zaher Yussef, and retired Colonel Samih al-Kashaani would testify on Wednesday. 
A videotape claiming Osama Bin Laden is still "alive and fighting" dates back to September, Arab television channel al-Jazeera has admitted. Al-Jazeera's editor-in-chief, Ahmed Sheikh, said his channel had broadcast the footage by mistake. Mr Sheikh said it had received the video in September and aired "the important parts" at the time. 
The CIA moved 11 top Al-Qaeda suspects from two secret prisons in Eastern Europe to a new facility in the North African desert last month, ABC News said on Monday. The sources said all but one of the Al-Qaeda suspects had been submitted to the harshest interrogation techniques allowed by the CIA. They were held at one point on a former Soviet air base in one Eastern European country. Several of them were later move to a second Eastern European country. The sources, ABC said, refused to name the two Eastern European nations as well as the facility in the North African desert where the suspects are now housed. Rice, who will kick off her European tour in Romania on Tuesday, is expected to do address European concerns over media reports of secret detention centers â dubbed âblack sitesâ â and flights run by the CIA to house and transport their suspected terrorists.
