Analysts watching Iran on a daily basis were not taken by surprise by the Islamic Regime not showing up at the International Atomic Energy Agency on January 05, 2006, since reports out of Tehran have for the past weeks been mentioning President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad's office privately leaking to the Tehran newspapers that Iran already has four nuclear weapons obtained from the Ukraine. READ MORE
Back in 1991/1992 three nuclear weapon devices the Mullahs had obtained from Kazakhstan were verified on ground in Iran and intelligence further estimates that Iran has totally between eight to 12 nuclear devices from the Soviet era.
The press leaks pointed to Iran possibly not proceeding with negotiations, reassuring internal supporters and preparing to confront the West. The final decision to disdain the European meeting was apparently made with the sudden incapacitation of Israel's Ariel Sharon.
Concurrently, Iran has suddenly moved a significant number of tanks toward its southern border near Basra, Iraq; has started repositioning naval assets and intercepts show military communications have become very atypical.
Is Iran expecting an attack now that the more pragmatic Sharon is out of the picture or has U.S and Coalition information leaked to them of an impending strike to put an end to nuclear weapons falling into the hands of someone like Ahmadi-Nejad. The new regime in Iran has certainly tried to provoke the USA and Israel beyond the point of endurance.
Brigadier-General Mohammad Kossari, head of the Security Bureau of the IRGC has long stated, "Iran intends to become a superpower and will drive all foreign forces out of our region". What was previously sheer hyperbole now has a basis in serious executive policy and planning.
Alternatively, is Iran planning to set up a reactive retaliation in the Middle East by the USA from an attack through surrogates like the Hezbollah?
The huge one-day increase in fatalities in Iraq appears to be an effort to distract the Coalition Forces, while the Islamic Regime sets up its pieces on the war map. Part of this involves backing up an increasingly under pressure Syria and trying to take advantage of the power vacuum in Israel.
Palestinian confrontation at the Gaza border with Egyptian forces on January 4th, 2006, which drove the Egyptians back a good mile, allowed Iran supported and financed Hezbollah to bring in substantial quantities of high-end weaponry through the gap they had bulldozed in the concrete slab border.
Iran, Syria and the Hezbollah can now create havoc in Israel. Either as a starter for a regional conflict or in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Mullah's nuclear facilities. In addition, perhaps help ward off pressures by Saudi Arabia and Egypt on Syria that would not favor Iranian interests.
Working in Iran's favor is the disagreement between the Saudi desire for a Sunni take over in Syria and Egypt's decades of fighting the Moslem Brotherhood, who would enter the picture if the ruling Alawites of President Bashar al-Assad were overthrown.
Cairo has been trying to lobby the French government to give al-Assad another chance despite the latter recently offering asylum to al-Assad's defecting deputy, Abdul Halim Khaddam, who can lay bare all Syria's secrets. Potentially including the location of WMDs that Syria accepted from Iraq both just prior and during U.S. and Coalition Forces invading. Plus, about stockpiles moved to the Beqa'a Valley in Lebanon in anticipation of the invasion and currently guarded by the Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, back home, Ahmadi-Nejad and his spiritual mentor Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi â both fanatical adherents of the apocalyptic Hojatieh - which promotes Armageddon, pain, suffering, oppression and misery to entice their religious icon, the 12th Imam to return sooner - based on a sufficient quantity of all these for him to bother, now move into the next phase of their power grab.
From the day after he was sworn in as President in mid-August, Ahmadi-Nejad has replaced every key position â down to mid and lower levels, with his military Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) colleagues and their supporters. Despite a few hiccups with his crony choices of amazingly useless candidates for the position of Oil Minister and a couple of other posts, which the Majliss (parliament) refused to ratify, he now has his people deep inside all parts of the power structure.
Interestingly enough, the rejection of one person as Oil Minister was because the former deputy minister of Defense was independently rich and therefore unacceptable. The story behind that story was that he had confiscated enormous tracts of property and goods, ostensibly for the benefit of the country, then kept it all himself.
The internecine struggle and fissure between the old guard Mullahs and the fundamental, neo-Islamic government of Ahmadi-Nejad has also reached boiling point with him and his mentor Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi fanning the flames. Realizing that the new President controls most strings of government, on paper at least - and also the IRGC â as opposed to the less effective standing army, Mesbah Yazdi has approached the Council of Experts to elect him as Supreme Ruler to replace Ali Khamenei.
Ironically, Mesbah Yazdi and the Iraqi born Minister of Justice, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroodi, were the only two who supported designating Khamenei as a Grand Ayatollah, nobody else would, which was a prerequisite to his being elected Supreme Ruler to replace Khomeini. Incidentally, sabotaging the original Ayatollah whom Khomeini had previously selected as his religious heir.
Now Mesbah Yazdi has apparently recanted and asks the Council to elect him instead. (Khomeini found Mesbah Yazdi's lunatic fringe Hojatieh version of Islam so appalling he eventually drove it underground by refusing to acknowledge or support it). Should this power putsch succeed, Iran will not only have an incredibly strange President but also an even weirder new Supreme Ruler.
As if all this were not enough, Western financial analysts have reluctantly come to accept and write about Iran's neo-Islamic leadership, with its propensity for death and destruction built into its philosophy, to potentially cause a melt down of the world economy.
Iran has already threatened to stop oil shipments if Europe goes along with any referral to the UN Security Council and deals its oil in Euros rather than dollars.
(For more on the Hojatieh, Ahmadi-Nejad and the oil crisis he can bring about, read my article posted here.
or this and other articles can be read here.
The name âAlan Petersâ is a nom de plume for a writer who was for many years involved in intelligence and security matters in Iran. He had significant access inside Iran at high levels during the rule of the Shah, until early 1979.
If his sources are correct and Ahmadinejad is leaking that Iran has nuclear weapons, it would appear he is intent on creating a crisis now! Many believe Ahmadinejad is setting a trap for the west because western military action at this time would likely be of a limited nature since the west is unprepared for a full scale occupation of Iran. Such a confrontation would likely end in a negotiated settlement leaving the regime in power, but would also likely include internationally agreed to security arrangements with the regime, a very dangerous proposition indeed.
#3
When considering what Iran may do, the most important thing is to put yourself in their shoes--to the point of using their misconceptions as axioms.
For example, they intently watched Gulf War I, and work off the assumption that the US would use those means again to attack Iran. That is, an extended air campaign followed by a quick ground invasion.
With this as an axiom, incorrect as it may be, their obvious counter would be to neutralize, by whatever means, US air power in the region. This means our aircraft carrier fleets and our air bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The latter they figure can be neutralized with missiles, so their entire strategy is focused on how to attack and neutralize one or two carrier fleets--or just the carriers.
Their ground forces have the option of setting up a defense in depth against the US divisions in Iraq, or to penetrate in the south with intent to bog down US forces in Iraq. In either case, with the same concept--to prevent US ground forces from making significant advances into Iran.
#5
If Iran were to undertake a military adventure, then you should look to its northern border, where they have a historical claim to the south of Azerbaijan, an area called the Lenkoran lowlands. It's a narrow strip of territory about a 100 K's long and 40 Ks wide along the shore of the Caspian Sea, and would give Iran control of waters containing very large amounts of oil.
The area is largely beyond the reach of the US military. The only problem is the Russians would be unhappy, but Iran could buy them off with a deal to divide the Caspian sea between them. I believe such a deal was tabled by Iran a while back.
My online novel explores the geopolitics of an Iranian Revolutionary Guards attempt to destabilize the area.
#7
Phil_b, how about Azeris having a claim to a large NW chunk of Iran? Then Further south, the Kurds. Then further south, Arabs in Khuzestan. Switch over to east and Pashtu, Balochis would make other larger chunk claims. If someone somehow was able to bring these variablemout into the equation... Oh, yea, most of the folks mentioned above are sunnis, if I am not mistaken.
I think, though, that in the next little while, rods from [almost] outer space may be in order, underscoring the gravity of the situation.
#8
If they have devices from the soviet era, they have probably not received proper maintenance and thus they are probably radioactive paper weights by now
#9
Odds are the best they would do is produce a fizzle. The Russians and the Chinese both sold defective equipment in the region. My guess is they are baiting us, looking to be relevant to the west. If they really had them, I would bet the US would have leaked it by now and taken action.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/08/2006 18:46 Comments ||
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#10
Sounds like a bullshit smoke-screen to me. If they had nukes they'd be swinging their di*ks around and pushing people around even more than they are.
#11
Sobiesky, the Azerbaijanis have no capacity to attack Iran. Their military lost badly to Armenian irregulars. Iran could take control of the Lenkoran lowlands in a few days which BTW has a large Farsi speaking population, probably a majority in the southern part.
#13
I'd think anyone seeking help in repulsing Iranian agression would find a sympathetic ear in the White House and Pentagon, and a basing agreement under their raised pen by the next morning
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 20:25 Comments ||
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JALALABAD: A passer by was killed and a policeman injured on Saturday by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, officials said, changing their earlier statement that it was a suicide attack. The explosion caused by a remote control bomb targeted a police vehicle in the eastern city of Jalalabad, local police spokesman Ghafoor Khan said. He had earlier said a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police van. "The person whose body was torn into pieces appears to be a student," Khan said adding that police found books lying around the mutilated body.
The latest attack comes two days after a deadly suicide car bomb in southern Uruzgan, which killed 10 people and wounded dozens. A purported spokesman for ousted Taliban militia, Mohammad Anif, in a telephone call to AFP from an undisclosed location, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was a remote control bomb. Khan was unable to say who might have been behind the latest bombing, but similar attacks including Thursday's have been blamed on the remnants of the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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The Saudi security services arrested on Thursday two Saudis suspected of having connections with the armed terrorists inside the country during a security search campaign in Al-Naqa neighborhood, Unayzah Governorate, Al-Qasim, northeast of Riyadh. According to Interior Ministry Spokesman Major General Mansour al-Turki's statement to "Asharq al-Awsat", the security authorities stopped the two suspects during a security campaign they carried out in Unayzah Governorate yesterday.
This operation came eight days after Abd-al-Rahman al-Mutib and Muhammad al-Suwaylimi, who were on the list of 36 wanted persons, were killed after they had opened fire at random at five security men in Al-Qasim, killing them all. No security sources revealed whether the operation in Al-Naqa neighborhood had any connection with the previous one in Al-Midhnib Governorate in the same area. Security observers refused to make a link between the two since the Saudi security services adopt the security campaigns system in the search for wanted persons while others lean toward the possibility that this recent arrest was the result of some information derived from the high capacity storage discs, "flash memory", that were seized in the vehicle of the two wanted persons, Al-Mutib and Al-Suwaylimi.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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LONDON -Murder charges will not be brought against a British special forces soldier being investigated after the death of an Iraqi civilian, The Sunday Telegraph reported. Lawyers made the decision last week not to prosecute the corporal from the elite Special Air Service (SAS), who faced charges in connection with the death of Ghanin Gatteh Al-Roomi, the newspaper said.
Roomi was shot dead following an incident on the Shatt Al-Arab waterway in southern Iraq on January 1 2004 when a boat carrying SAS members and officers from Britainâs overseas intelligence service MI6 came under fire. He was killed after being traced to a nearby village and seen with an assault rifle going into a house. The corporal reportedly fired a number of rounds through the door because he thought he was about to be shot at himself.
The Sunday Telegraph said the decision not to prosecute followed an internal report by an SAS officer and submitted to lawyers at the British Attorney Generalâs Office that stated the corporal acted within the rules of engagement. âEveryone in the regiment is greatly relieved that no-one is going to be charged,â the newspaper quoted one senior SAS officer as saying.
âWhile most soldiers accept that investigations into incidents need to take place at certain times, what is completely unacceptable is the length of time it takes to either bring charges or close the investigation.â
Senior figures in the SAS were said to have been always against charges being brought as they believed they could damage morale. A number of the corporalâs colleagues reportedly threatened to quit if he was prosecuted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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Security forces have killed four militants in a special operation in Bamut in Chechnya's Achkhoi-Martan district, the district police department told Interfax on Saturday.
The militants put up armed resistance when the operatives were trying to detain them and were killed, it said.
The gunmen, who might have been members of a unit led by prominent warlord Doku Umarov, have yet to be identified, the police said.
None of the troops involved in the operation was injured. Measures have been taken to capture the gunmen's possible accomplices.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:30 ||
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#1
Look just because the moonbat angle grabbers for Allah let's destroy the West liberal media calls Muslime terrorist as "militants".. We sure the hell shouldn't do it here!
Posted by: Muhammad Screwed My Pig Allah ||
01/08/2006 13:52 Comments ||
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Attorneys for Sami Al-Arian and a co-defendant on Friday revealed they are negotiating with federal prosecutors to avert a new trial after jurors last month deadlocked on some terrorism-related counts while acquitting them of most charges.
"We're discussing matters to resolve it," said Assistant Federal Public Defender Kevin Beck, moments after representing defendant Hatem Fariz, 32, in federal court. "There is certainly a benefit to both parties to avoid the costs, the risks of another trial."
In court, a prosecutor said the government had not reached a final decision on whether to retry the men.
A new trial could take up to two months, and the government would need until August to prepare, said Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Zitek.
Al-Arian, who was fired as a University of South Florida professor after his arrest in February 2003, is accused of running a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist cell and using the university and nonprofits as cover to help foment and finance suicide bombings in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The computer-science instructor, a permanent U.S. resident, remains jailed without bail awaiting the government's next move. Jurors acquitted Al-Arian, 47, on eight charges, including conspiracy to maim or kill civilians abroad, and deadlocked on nine others.
Fariz, a Spring Hill office manager and former Chicago-area Muslim community leader, has been free on bail and was acquitted of 25 charges while jurors deadlocked on seven counts.
A month ago, after a six-month trial, jurors also cleared two fellow Palestinians, Chicago-area businessman Ghassan Ballut, 43, and former USF graduate student Sameeh Hammoudeh, 45, on all charges.
The failure to net a single verdict is considered a setback for prosecutors and the Department of Justice, which billed it as one of its marquee terrorism-finance prosecutions after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The case also exemplified the controversial USA Patriot Act, which allowed prosecutors to introduce intelligence and wiretaps collected by FBI agents on Al-Arian since 1991.
Outside the courthouse, dozens of supporters as well as Muslim and Christian activists braved the cold, blustery winds to demand that he be freed. They waved an American flag on a pole and held an 8-foot effigy of a white-draped Lady Justice and chanted, "What do we want? Justice. And when do we want it? Now."
Like other Muslim-American leaders who flew in from around the country to speak on Al-Arian's behalf, Nihad Awad said Al-Arian was the victim of a politically charged environment three years ago that resulted in the persecution of Muslims.
"Is this about what we did or what we are?" said Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations civil rights group in Washington. "Most of these cases are done for political reasons. . . . I think the government is abusing the system."
Signs in the crowd included "Liberty and Justice For All," "Free Al-Arian," "All Religions Believe in Justice," and "The Patriot Act is Watching You."
Speaking outside the courthouse, Al-Arian's attorney William Moffitt also confirmed discussions with prosecutors on several fronts, but he did not elaborate.
"There are things that we can't talk about," Moffitt said when asked about possible negotiations.
Earlier, in a status conference hearing before U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr., Moffitt asked for a closed hearing that lasted seven minutes.
Talks between government and defense attorneys could mean a possible plea deal or collaboration in exchange for lighter sentences.
However, Beck was adamant his client, Fariz, would not testify against Al-Arian or anyone else. Five other indicted co-defendants, including Al-Arian's brother-in-law Mazen Al-Najjar, remain at large overseas.
"There will be no cooperation. I can tell you that unabashedly," he said.
Government attorneys are not speaking publicly. "We are not going to comment beyond what was said in court," said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
During the brief public portion of the status hearing, prosecutor Zitek told Moody the government still is weighing its options. "We are inclined, at this point, to continue proceedings but we haven't made a final decision," Zitek said.
Prosecutors have until Friday to answer motions by defense attorneys seeking acquittal and dismissal of the case.
Even if the government declines to retry Al-Arian and he is released on the criminal charges, the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will hold him without bail to face deportation proceedings in immigration court.
"We have to be very careful at this moment about how we approach the bond issue," Moffit said. "Because we don't want Dr. Al-Arian whisked away to some immigration facility where we have difficulty in communicating with him."
The prospect of continued incarceration is just not acceptable, say his family and supporters.
"Respect for human rights, not in some other country . . . but right here in our own community . . . demands that the court release Dr. Al-Arian immediately," said the Rev. Warren Clark, pastor of First United Church of Tampa and a spokesman for the group Tampa Bay Friends of Human Rights.
Nahla Al-Arian, the professor's wife, said she remains hopeful and optimistic that prosecutors will not seek another trial.
"In the end, I feel comfortable that we are going to win, with or without a trial," she said on the courthouse steps.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:47 ||
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#2
"...said the Rev. Warren Clark, pastor of First United Church of Tampa and a spokesman for the group Tampa Bay Friends of Human Rights."
AND THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE VICTIMS OF TERRORISM, MR. "REV." ??? BUT THOSE ARE JEWS, AND SO THEY DON'T MATTER, DO THEY ?
FRIGGING SUBVERSIVE, NOT "REV."...
New details have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed through tubes pushed down their nasal passages into their stomachs to keep them alive. They routinely experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn statement by the camp's chief doctor, seen by The Observer.
'Experience teaches us' that such symptoms must be expected 'whenever nasogastric tubes are used,' says the affidavit of Captain John S Edmondson, commander of Guantánamo's hospital. The procedure - now standard practice at Guantánamo - 'requires that a foreign body be inserted into the body and, ideally, remain in it.' But staff always use a lubricant, and 'a nasogastric tube is never inserted and moved up and down. It is inserted down into the stomach slowly and directly, and it would be impossible to insert the wrong end of the tube.' Medical personnel do not insert nasogastric tubes in a manner 'intentionally designed to inflict pain.'
It's a minor procedure done thousands of times a day in hospitals and nursing homes. There is the occasional 'gotcha', and it has to be done by trained personnel. But -- of course -- this is being blown way out of proportion.
It is painful, Edmonson admits. Although 'non-narcotic pain relievers such as ibuprofen are usually sufficient, sometimes stronger drugs,' including opiates such as morphine, have had to be administered.
Wussies. Morphine?!?! Guess the Lions of Islam⢠have a low pain threshold.
Thick, 4.8mm diameter tubes tried previously to allow quicker feeding, so permitting guards to keep prisoners in their cells for more hours each day, have been abandoned, the affidavit says. The new 3mm tubes are 'soft and flexible'.
That would be a 'Dobhoff' tube or something similar. It has a tungsten weight at the end so as to get it to fall into the small intestine. I don't like the skinny tubes much; they clog too easily. Then you have to pull them and put in a new one, which undoubtedly leads to more pain for the Lionsâ¢.
The London solicitors Allen and Overy, who represent some of the hunger strikers, have lodged a court action to be heard next week in California, where Edmondson is registered to practise. They are asking for an order that the state medical ethics board investigate him for 'unprofessional conduct' for agreeing to the force-feeding.
Harrassment, plain and simple.
Edmonson's affidavit, in response to a lawsuit on behalf of detainees on hunger strike since last August, was obtained last week by The Observer, as a Guantánamo spokesman confirmed that the number of hunger strikers has almost doubled since Christmas, to 81 of the 550 detainees. Many have been held since the camp opened four years ago this month, although they not been charged with any crime, nor been allowed to see any evidence justifying their detention.
Other than being caught on a battlefield, of course.
Although some prisoners have had to be tied down while being force-fed, 'only one patient' has had to be immobilised with a six-point restraint, and 'only one' passed out. 'In less than 10 cases have trained medical personnel had to use four-point restraint in order to achieve insertion.' Edmondson claims the actual feeding is voluntary. During Ramadan, tube-feeding takes place before dawn.
Which puts paid to the lie that we somehow are torturing them with the feeds.
Article 5 of the 1975 World Medical Association Tokyo Declaration, which US doctors are legally bound to observe through their membership of the American Medical Association, states that doctors must not undertake force-feeding under any circumstances.
Fewer than 40% of all American docs belong to the AMA.
Dr David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist at Queen Elizabeth's hospital in Birmingham, is co-ordinating opposition to the Guantánamo doctors' actions from the international medical community. 'If I were to do what Edmondson describes in his statement, I would be referred to the General Medical Council and charged with assault,' he said.
Guess Edmondson better not practice medicine in England, then.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2006 00:12 ||
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#1
It's a minor procedure done thousands of times a day in hospitals...
brisket/belly opened up twice for infected wounds, fed thru tube for awhile, annoying somewhat but no big deal.
#2
New details have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed
And just why are they being fed against their wishes? Let them starve. I'm afraid Gitmo is becoming a pimple on the ass of the United States, all for the wrong reasons.
#6
To read the article it sounds like torture. This guy should write horror novels. We should take all these so called journalists to other prisons and detention camps to see what real horror looks like. They don't even have to leave the island, if they have even ever been to Cuba. We should take all the food, they wont eat, and put it at the gate for the Cubans. With any luck within a year the Taliban and AQ will be dead and we will have started a crisis for ol Fidel.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/08/2006 10:40 Comments ||
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#7
New details have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed.
They'll complain if we force feed the terrorists, and they'll complain if we don't.
#8
Stop the media attention of all of this crap. And stop feeding them if they truly want to die.
Any one of these guys would probably kill you if they ever have the opportunity to do so.
Posted by: Jan ||
01/08/2006 11:18 Comments ||
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#9
I would be much happier if they were fed through anal tubes, lubrificated with bacon fat, but that's just my immature poop-centered personality speaking...
#10
Were they caught with weapons in their hands? If so, there should be a simple procedure: verify they were terrorist combattants (NOT military combattants, but terrorists), and if so, hang them. Dump their bodies in the Caribbean for the sharks to eat. Once all the prisoners are no longer being held at Gitmo, close the place down, raze it to the ground, salt the earth, and give it back to Castro. All future terrorists we catch, we treat the same way WITHIN 30 DAYS. No more "detention". Do what we should have done from the first - wring 'em dry, then hang 'em.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/08/2006 15:31 Comments ||
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#11
Pass the Tabasco sauce
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/08/2006 17:57 Comments ||
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#12
OP - as long as it's a sharp stick in Fidel's and Raul's eyes, we should keep Gitmo. In fact, it could become the new Vieques :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 18:31 Comments ||
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#13
Why is this happening? Last I heard, suicide isn't illegal, so if these degenerates want to starve, let them.
SACRAMENTO: A Pakistani father and son will be tried on terrorism-related charges beginning February 14, after a federal judge set the date over the objection of prosecutors. Assistant US Attorney S Robert Tice-Raskin argued on Friday that more time is needed because some evidence against the pair from Lodi, California, was obtained using methods so secret they canât be disclosed in open court or to anyone without a security clearance.
Umer Hayat, 47, was arrested in June and charged with lying to the FBI by denying that his son attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan during 2003 and 2004. His son, 23-year-old Hamid Hayat, was arrested the same day and faces charges of supporting terrorism and lying to investigators. Defence attorneys said they have had the evidence since July and consider it favourable to their case. Neither side revealed the nature of the evidence, which is unclassified and will be made public during the trial. âIf I was concerned about what the government has revealed, I wouldnât be asking for a speedy trial date,â said Johnny Griffin III, Umer Hayatâs attorney. âWe donât care how the government obtained it; we want that piece of evidence (shown to jurors). We feel it will be helpful.â
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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Twenty-four people were killed in a day of violence in North and South Waziristan on Saturday, as local Taliban attacked a paramilitary checkpoint and helicopter gunships bombed a pro-Taliban clericâs house.
Militants armed with heavy weapons attacked a new Frontier Corps checkpoint on Khasokhel bridge near Mir Ali, the main town in North Waziristan - and near where top Al Qaeda commander Hamza Rabia was reportedly killed in December â at around 2:00am on Saturday morning and the fighting continued for some three hours, local resident Afghanullah Dawar told Daily Times. He said the Taliban had warned the government not to set up the post because it would âhamper their movementâ.
Eight FC soldiers were killed in the attack and nine went missing, though three were later found, military spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan told Daily Times.
Security forces later launched a search operation to find the six missing soldiers, hundreds of troops surrounding Khasokhel village and bridge. âThe village is completely surrounded and its inhabitants (believed to be around 10,000) have been told to leave,â witnesses said. Gen Sultan confirmed a search operation had been launched but gave no details of arrests. âThese are serious things and we are taking serious notice,â he said.
Maj Gen Muhammad Akram Sahi, operations commander in North Waziristan, gave a jirga of tribal elders in Miranshah a 24-hour ultimatum to hand over the suspected Taliban who attacked the checkpoint.
Hours after the attack, aircraft attacked pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Noor Muhammadâs house in Saidgai village, three kilometres from the Afghan border, killing eight tribesmen and wounding 19 others. Local residents suspected the involvement of the US military.
âThey (Americans) took away two tribesmen and before going back they fired two rockets from their helicopters,â said a wounded tribesman in a Miranshah hospital. Four women and four children were among the wounded, he added.
All those killed in the attack were members of Mohammadâs family, Reuters reported. The scholar was not among the dead, said the wounded man, who declined to be identified.
Gen Sultan said there had been reports of firing in Saidgai village and âsome casualtiesâ, and added that the authorities were investigating the incident.
In Ladah sub-division of South Waziristan, unidentified gunmen shot dead pro-government tribal elder Malik Essa Khan, his brother, cousin, a young child and another occupant of the vehicle they were travelling in from Tank to Kotkai. Four died on the spot while the fifth died of his wounds in a Tank hospital, local sources said. In Wana, a six-year-old Afghan refugee died in bomb explosion in which another eight-year-old child was wounded, a security official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:14 ||
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India on Saturday rejected President Pervez Musharraf's suggestion for a troop pullout from three key towns in the Indian-controlled Kashmir. "Any demilitarisation or any redeployment of security forces within the territory of India is a sovereign decision of the Government of India, and it cannot be dictated by any foreign government," Navtej Sarna, the Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman, told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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GWADAR: Suspected militants set fire to three launches of the Pakistan Navy's submarine force at the Fish Harbour in Gwadar on Saturday. No loss of life was reported. Police registered a case against the unknown militants and raided several places to arrest them. Meanwhile, fishermen staged a sit-in protest against security forces for damaging dozens of their boats. Local officials said the administration had fixed a schedule for fishermen to catch fish but they had violated the rules so "the administration took action against them".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Man, those dudes are real sticklers about their schedule.
QUETTA: Suspected militants fired more than 20 rockets at paramilitary camps in the Machh area of Bolan and Mand area of Makran division on Saturday, killing at least one person. The Machh district administrator said at least one boy was killed and two people were injured in the attack. The FC commander said three people were killed while Levies put the toll at two. A man on behalf of BLA claimed responsibility.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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All twelve passengers and crew were killed when a U.S. military helicopter crashed late last night in northern Iraq, said the U.S. military today. The cause of the crash is being investigated, it said.
A search team located the wreckage of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter at about noon today local time, 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from Tal Afar, according to a statement received by e- mail from the U.S.-led Multi-National Task Force in Iraq.
The identities of the deceased and details of their military units are being withheld until family members have been informed, the military said.
A total of 1,712 members of the U.S. military have been killed in action in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion up to Jan. 5, according to the Department of Defense. Including those who have died from other causes, such as illness and vehicle accidents, the death toll is 2,181.
U.S.-led coalition forces are fighting insurgents groups including those linked to al-Qaeda, which want to disrupt reconstruction efforts and undermine efforts to build a democratic, elected government in Iraq.
#6
May they find lots of interesting things to fly on patrol "up there." And grant peace to those they loved, whose strength allowed them to take on this last mission, too.
Villagers watched from rooftops as U.S. military bulldozers heaved a wall of sand into snaking lines around their homes Saturday in an attempt to trap insurgents believed to be hiding among them.
The drastic tactic in Siniyah came after weeks of increasingly bold insurgent attacks, including almost daily roadside bombs targeting 101st Airborne Division soldiers patrolling the village, 155 miles north of Baghdad.
"This is not in any of the courses they teach in the Army," said Maj. Shawn Daniel, who oversees operations for the 3rd Brigade's 33rd Cavalry Regiment. "But if bad people are coming to Siniyah to attack coalition forces, let's catch them at the gate."
Spanning six miles and broken by watchtowers to be manned by Iraqi security forces, the 10-foot tall crude barrier is the Army's latest tool to rout out insurgents.
Construction was expected to last several days. Once complete, all vehicles leaving or entering the village will be stopped as soldiers look for known insurgents, bomb-making materials and illegal weapons.
Dubbed "Operation Verdun," after a famous World War I battle, the 3rd Brigade decided to blockade the village after determining it had become a staging point for insurgents to plan and execute their attacks.
The village of a few thousand people in the volatile so-called Sunni triangle is less than a mile from a former Iraqi airfield that coalition forces named Forward Operating Base Summerall now home to units from the 3rd Brigade.
Roadside bombs have hit convoys and patrols around Siniyah at a rate of about one every two days since early December, officials said. Two soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, also known as the "Rakkasans," died last Sunday in roadside explosions outside Siniyah.
Mortar attacks also have become increasingly familiar inside the Summerall base, often falling just after sunset or before sunrise when locals know soldiers congregate in large numbers to eat.
One soldier died last month during an early morning mortar attack.
Insurgents also have attacked tanker trucks from the Beiji oil refinery one of the largest in Iraq about five miles outside Summerall.
The wall's purpose in Siniyah "is to separate insurgents from the population," said Capt. Christopher Judge, of Milford, N.H., as he oversaw construction on Friday. "We're trying to make it very difficult for them to enter and leave."
The Army has seen the success that restricting access to Iraqi cities can bring.
Similar "walls" built around Fallujah and Samarra in recent months have quelled restive insurgent cells. Army commanders in Samarra said the number of attacks dropped drastically after an 11-mile barrier was built around the city.
Reaction to the wall has been mixed among villagers in Siniyah.
The police chief supported the idea when U.S. Army officials met with him last week, as did Iraqi army officers and sheiks who asked for help in stopping insurgents from using their village.
Local agricultural shop owner Saad Mohammed said he backed the construction so that "no strangers or intruders can enter the town and start acts of violence ... (this) will provide us with security to open our shops and avoid the curfews imposed after every attack."
But the imam at the village mosque compared the constant watch envisaged under the new plan to a concentration camp.
The U.S. Army told the village of the operation just hours before it began and planned to broadcast Arabic messages over loudspeakers until the wall is complete.
Army officials acknowledge insurgents could safely leave in the meantime and seek refuge elsewhere. But that risk was worth taking, said Judge, a commander in the division's 187th Infantry Regiment whose company frequently patrols Siniyah. Judge said insurgents in Iraq hide in villages throughout the countryside and can disappear easily.
But if they are moving, they are losing, he said. Remember that the US invented the "concentration camp", a relatively benign thing until the name was corrupted by the Nazis.
#4
#1 Reservations? Maybe, but the British perfected the theory in SA. Worked pretty well too.
Posted by: Glemp Flineper4549 2006-01-08 10:44
True, and they were also the first to utilize
civilian concentration camps on a large scale to re-locate Boer farm families. Not a great deal to bragg about there however.
Iraq's fractious political groups could form a coalition government within weeks, the country's president said Saturday, as U.S. officials have increased post-election contacts with disaffected Sunni Arabs linked to the insurgency.
Jalal Talabani, Iraq's Kurdish president, offered a timeframe on the formation of a government after meeting with visiting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who said Iraqis remain optimistic about their future despite suffering through a violent week that saw nearly 200 people killed in two days, including 11 U.S. troops.
In an effort to help draw Sunni Arabs into the political process as a way to dampen the violence, U.S. officials for months have been communicating directly or through channels with members of the disaffected minority connected to the insurgency.
A Western diplomat on Saturday reported a recent "uptick" in those contacts.
Those insurgents "sense that the political process does protect the Sunni community's interest," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
A similar "uptick" in communication occurred after last January's parliamentary elections, he said.
A U.S. official said the coalition does not talk to foreign terrorists or supporters of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime but said it was important to isolate extremists from the broader Sunni Arab community. He also spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
Meeting with Straw in Baghdad, Talabani said Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political groups had agreed in principle on a national unity government that could be formed within a few weeks. Western diplomats in Baghdad have speculated that a government could be in place by the second half of February.
"Everyone is expecting to have it as soon as possible, but you know the devil is in the details," Talabani said.
He said it should be easier to form a new government than it was after the Jan. 30 elections last year, when it took nearly three months. "We are expecting within weeks, God willing, we will be able to form the government."
Talabani and other Kurdish leaders met over the New Year's holiday with Sunni Arab and Shiite political leaders. The meetings in northern Irbil helped shape agreement on the general outlines of a broad-based coalition government.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a member of the Shiite Alliance and head of the Dawa party, said in a separate meeting with Straw that the Shiite "alliance and the coalition of Kurdistan and the other tickets, fortunately, are keen to make a national unity government. That common feeling will make the process easier."
Earlier Straw said the situation in Iraq remained violent but its politicians were optimistic.
"I was trying to avoid any kind of pretense about the situation here in Iraq," Straw told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "It is very difficult. People are being killed by terrorism."
Violence was greatly diminished on Saturday. Four people were killed in attacks around the country, and police found the bodies of four females - blindfolded and handcuffed - who apparently had been shot to death in Baghdad, officials said.
Almost 200 people were killed in attacks on Wednesday and Thursday.
Thousands of angry Shiites also demonstrated against the wave of bloodshed and what they claimed was American backing for Sunni Arab politicians in Baghdad's Sadr City slum on Friday.
Final results from the elections could be released next week and could be fully certified by the end of the month after any appeals are heard. Some Sunni Arabs have protested that the vote was tainted by fraud.
The results are expected to show the religious Shiite United Iraqi Alliance with a strong lead. The Shiites will, however, need to form a coalition government with support from Kurdish and Sunni Arab political groups.
The rallies and threats by Iraq's largest Shiite religious party to react with force if the militant attacks do not stop renewed fears that paramilitary militias would take to the streets and carry out reprisals.
Sunni Arabs have complained that often brutal methods used by Interior Ministry forces already have pushed Iraq to the brink of sectarian war. In response, those forces were reigned in after pressure by U.S. officials to prevent abuses of Sunni Arabs.
Western officials say it's important for Iraqi forces working to establish security to be mindful of the political impact their operations can have.
Some Sunni political leaders upset over the alleged abuses by Interior Ministry security forces, which are mostly composed of Shiites, have discussed setting up neighborhood self-defense forces in response, the Western diplomat said.
A spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party, the biggest Sunni Arab political party, said neighborhood defense forces were only an idea that has been brought up during discussions over how to protect the minority.
"This occurred as a reaction to the attacks by unknown gunmen who were wearing police uniforms," said Nasir Al-A'ni. "But it's worth noting that such security forces haven't been formed" because such attacks have ceased.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 01:01 ||
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All these elections mean they've been getting concentrated practice in the games of politics... are are learning to appreciate the results (fewer people die messily, for a start!).
AN Iraqi who is one of the favourites to become the countryâs next prime minister has said that Saddam Hussein should have been summarily executed and warned that his continuing trial is having a negative effect on the country.
In an interview last week, Vice-President Adel Abdul Mahdi, 63, a moderate Shiâite, said that the former Iraqi leaderâs many crimes, from atrocities against his own people to the war with Iran, were evidence that âhe deserves to be put to death without trialâ.
âThis is no ordinary trial; itâs a trial that will judge Saddam and the members of his regimeâs vicious crimes against humanity, even though he is being given a chance that he denied others during his rule,â Mahdi said.
A member of the mostly Shiâite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), Mahdi said that he had been âecstaticâ when told by the prosecution that the first of a series of trials against Saddam could be completed in 10 sessions. âThe continuing process is unnecessary and will only hurt the Iraqi people,â he said.
Sciri is part of the United Iraqi Alliance, expected to be the most powerful force in parliament when the results of the December 15 poll is announced, probably later this month.
Mahdi, an economist by training who went into exile in France after the 1968 coup that brought Saddamâs Baâath party to power, said 2007 would be âcrucialâ in deciding whether coalition forces should remain. He praised the work of British forces in particular, saying they had done a âtremendous jobâ in the south.
He said it was ânot appropriateâ to set a precise date for troop withdrawal. The picture would be clearer once the new government had determined how best to fill the security gap that would be left by departing forces.
Mahdi, whose brother Ghalib Abdul Mahdi, a cabinet adviser, was shot dead in October, said he did not believe the large coalition presence had made the insurgency worse. But he claimed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, would not have gained such a foothold if Iraqis had been in control of their own security.
âThe biggest evidence for this is the stable security situation in Kurdistan, which is protected by the local authorities there,â he said.
Last week was one of the bloodiest of recent months in Iraq. At least 136 people â including 11 American soldiers â were killed on Thursday.
Mahdi admitted that it had been difficult for Iraq to build up its security forces and weed out people loyal to the former regime. But they were now 70% better than they were a year ago, he said.
âAt the beginning, the Iraqi troops would take one step ahead and two steps back, meaning that they would immediately retreat from battle,â he said. âNow a substantial improvement has taken place in that they would fight in combat alongside the coalition troops as back-up troops and now they have paved their skills to take the lead in combat.â
He dismissed claims that the Iraqi authorities were involved in running secret prisons and suggestions that the interior ministry had been penetrated by Iranian intelligence. Such claims have been voiced by Iyad Allawi, a former prime minister who was had been seen by the West as a future leader but whose party did badly in the elections.
âDuring Mr Iyad Allawiâs rule there were people who were tortured to death,â said Mahdi. âWhere was the US then? Where were the Arab and western media?â
Mahdi said he could not deny that certain members of the security services were behaving âin a manner that services their own personal interestsâ but added: âWe strongly believe that the violation of human rights has largely decreased.â He also defended the Badr Brigade, blamed for the mistreatment of Sunni prisoners. âThe Badr organisation has sacrificed a lot,â he said.
In an astonishing admission, Paul Bremer, who led the American civilian occupation authority after the 2003 invasion, said this weekend that the United States had not anticipated the resistance it subsequently ad faced in the country. Asked who was to blame for violence, in which thousands of Iraqis and Americans have died, he replied: âWe really didnât see the insurgency coming.â
Bremer, whose book on his experiences in the country is being published tomorrow, said there had been a tendency âby people in the Pentagon to exaggerate the capability of the Iraqi forcesâ.
In a further embarrassment for the Pentagon, it emerged that the army and marine corps were working to upgrade body armour for its troops in Iraq after classified forensic studies showed up to 80% of fatalities suffered in combat in the country could have been prevented by better protection.
In a separate development, The New York Times claimed yesterday that American officials were talking to local Iraqi insurgent leaders. A western diplomat told the newspaper the aim was to exploit rifts between local groups, whose main goal is to expel American forces, and the more radical groups, like Al-Qaeda, which have alienated many Iraqis by the mass killing of civilians.
Attempts were being made last night to locate an American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad yesterday after a meeting with a senior Sunni politician. Her Iraqi translator was killed, writes Ali Rifat.
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in a statement posted on the internet.
The car in which the journalist, her translator and their driver were travelling was stopped by another vehicle just after they had set off from a meeting with Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leading member of the largely Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front. Al-Dulaimi lives in the Adel district, one of the toughest in the Iraqi capital.
The assailants opened fire with machineguns, killing the translator. The driver fled to a police checkpoint to raise the alarm.
A spokeswoman for the American embassy in Baghdad said: âAn American journalist is missing. We are investigating.â She declined to confirm the journalistâs name.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:11 ||
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He said it was ânot appropriateâ to set a precise date for troop withdrawal. The picture would be clearer once the new government had determined how best to fill the security gap that would be left by departing forces.
Holy Crap! This guy is a right wing radical! Better have that guy examined by a trained psychiatrist.
More "sympathy demonstrations" from the Paleos. JPost - Reg req'd , so posting it all IDF artillery units shelled the "no-go" zone in northern Gaza after Palestinians fired five Kassam rockets at Israel over the weekend.
According to army estimates, the majority of the Kassams fell in Palestinian-controlled areas.
On Saturday evening, a rocket fired from the outskirts of Gaza City landed in the Palestinian-controlled area of northern Gaza. On Saturday afternoon, two Kassam rockets were fired from Beit Hanun in northern Gaza, an area located outside the army's designated "no-go" zone. Both rockets fell on the Palestinian side of the Erez terminal crossing.
On Friday, a rocket was fired from the former settlement of Dugit, located inside the restricted zone, and another was fired from central Gaza. In both instances, the IDF failed to identify where the rockets fell.
Over the weekend, soldiers found the remains of three Kassam rockets fired at Israel, but officials were unable to determine whether they were connected to the weekend rocket attacks or had been fired some time last week. The remains of two rockets were found in fields near Kibbutz Zikim and a third was found in the area of Kibbutz Netiv Ha'asara.
On Saturday night, IDF units captured an unarmed Palestinian trying to cross into Israel near the Kissufim crossing. He was handed over to security officials for questioning.
In the West Bank, soldiers manning the Nablus-area Hawara checkpoint on Saturday afternoon arrested a Palestinian carrying a large knife. He was handed over to security officials for questioning.
On Friday, shots were fired several times at an IDF post south of Nablus; no one was wounded and no damage reported.
Security forces arrested 13 Palestinian fugitives in West Bank operations on Friday. Six Islamic Jihad fugitives were arrested in Ilar, north of Tulkarm; four Fatah Tanzim fugitives were arrested in Silwad, northeast of Ramallah; and a Hamas fugitive, an Islamic Jihad fugitive and a Palestinian weapons dealer were arrested near Bethlehem.
Judea and Samaria police on Friday launched an investigation to determine who was responsible for uprooting 102 olive trees in the village of Atwana in the southern Hebron Hills. Police received a complaint on Friday from a Palestinian resident of Yata who said he had found the uprooted trees that morning.
Palestinians blamed the settlers of the nearby Maon Farm. On Friday afternoon, however, Maon Farm residents issued a statement denying the Palestinian claims. The Council for Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip called on the IDF and Israel Police to launch an in-depth investigation and bring those responsible to justice.
In preparation for the olive harvest, the army and police beefed up their presence in Palestinian areas where the harvesting was to take place to prevent confrontations between Palestinian farmers and settlers, and to allow the Palestinians to complete harvesting the crop unhindered. Despite this, there have been a number of instances in which Palestinians have found their olive trees cut down or uprooted. All attempts by police to nab the perpetrators have so far proved fruitless.
Also on Friday, an IDF officer was lightly injured by stones thrown by protesters demonstrating over the security fence being built near Bil'in, west of Ramallah. According to the army, some 200 Palestinians, along with Israeli and foreign protesters, were forced away from the construction work but violated a closed military zone and clashed with troops. Some of the protesters threw stones at soldiers, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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I'm surprised Paleos haven't build a combo kassam launching site/kindergarden in this zone yet.
Security forces overnight Wednesday arrested eight wanted militants across the West Bank. Three Islamic Jihad members were arrested in the village of Dir al-Atzun northeast to the city of Tul Karm; a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was arrested at the Jenin refugee camp. South of the city of Bethlehem the army arrested two Hamas militants, and two more Hamas members were arrested in the environs of the city of Ramallah.
On Wednesday Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched eight Qassam rockets at southern Israel, with at least one of the homemade projectiles landing in the area of south to the town of Ashkelon. Another rocket fell not far from the Erez crossing in the northern GAza Strip. There were no reports of any injuries or damage to property. The renewed rocket assault comes a day after Palestinians fired more than a dozen Qassams at the Negev, defying IDF attempts to hinder the fire by creating a buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip. Two of the rockets were aimed at Ashkelon and the rest at the western Negev.
Tuesday's shelling was in apparent retaliation for a Monday night Israel Air Force strike in the northern Gaza Strip, which killed three Islamic Jihad commanders believed to have been involved in Qassam launchings. There were no injuries or damages reported in the Qassam firings. Some of the rockets appear to have fallen short of their targets, landing within the Strip, others hit open areas of the Negev.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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Palestinians on Saturday fired two Qassam rockets at Israel from Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip. The Qassams landed near the Erez crossing on Palestinian side of the border. Gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade and Salah Al-Din militant groups claimed responsibility Saturday for a Qassam rocket fired into Israel the night before. The militants said they had fired the rocket in response to the 'crimes' the Israel Defense Forces has been carrying out against the Palestinian people.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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Two Thai police officers and a farmer have been shot dead in separate attacks by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's troubled south, police say.
It had dropped off for awhile. Somebody new arrive from Arabia?
Sergeant Raksiam Suthamwong, 42, and Corporal Panyakorn Snitpoot, 29, were killed in a food market in the Raman district of Yala, one of the three restive Muslim-majority southern provinces bordering Malaysia, police say. In a separate attack, suspected Islamic militants killed Toy Larnwong, a 47-year-old pig farmer, in a drive-by shooting in Pattani province, police say. Meanwhile, two Thai women and a Malaysian man were slightly injured early Saturday when a bomb exploded at a tea shop in Narathiwat province.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 00:00 ||
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Syria has frozen the assets of former Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam and his family after lawmakers accused him of corruption and demanded that he be charged with treason for criticizing the president.
The state-run al-Thawra newspaper ran a decree by the finance ministry, which it said was in response to parliamentary debates on Saturday. Officials were not immediately available for comment.
"The finance ministry issued a decree to freeze the assets of Abdel-Halim Khaddam, his wife, descendants male and female and their spouses and their descendants...pending judicial investigation," it said.
Syria's parliament unanimously voted on Saturday to call on the government to put Khaddam, one of the longest-serving Baath officials and a veteran aide to late President Hafez al-Assad, on trial for treason and it accused him of corruption.
On Friday, Khaddam launched from Paris an unprecedented attack on President Bashar al-Assad, saying he had threatened Rafik al-Hariri, the Lebanese ex-Prime Minister who was assassinated last February. Assad has denied the claim.
On Sunday, Syria's ruling Baath Party expelled Khaddam, one of its longest serving members, for treason.
Khaddam, who moved to Paris after resigning in June, also accused the government of making political blunders in Lebanon and of failing to deliver economic and political reforms at home, leaving millions of Syrians to go hungry.
Khaddam, in an interview with Al Arabiya television aired on Friday, would not speculate on who had ordered the killing of Hariri, saying "we must wait" for the results of an ongoing U.N. inquiry that has already implicated senior Syrian officials.
Syria has repeatedly denied any role in the murder.
Khaddam's remarks are likely to intensify pressure on Damascus mounting since the February 14 truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others near Beirut's seafront.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:38 ||
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Iran's interior minister accused the United States on Saturday of orchestrating the kidnapping of nine Iranian border guards with the help of Sunni militant groups linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda, according to a report.
"The United States, which cannot directly encounter Iran, uses such groups to carry out such acts against the country," Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi told reporters, according to state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
"Iran has launched a serious investigation into the kidnapping. The kidnappers are quite known. They have asked for ransom and release of jailed members of their group in exchange for the release of the border guards," the interior minister said. "We hope our sons can soon return to the country with the least harm."
On Wednesday the Arabic-language network Al Arabiya aired video of what it said were soldiers who were kidnapped near Iran's border with Pakistan.
The network read a statement reportedly made by a Sunni militant group, the Organization of God's Soldiers for Sunni Mujahedeen, threatening to kill the soldiers unless 16 imprisoned fellow militants are released.
The authenticity of the video and the statement cannot be independently verified by CNN.
Iran's government confirmed the soldiers were kidnapped and taken across the border into Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/08/2006 00:24 ||
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Yeah seriously right??
"Iran's interior minister accused the United States on Saturday of orchestrating the kidnapping of nine Iranian border guards with the help of Sunni militant groups linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda, according to a report."
hmmm... I mean comeon we are such good friends with the taliban and al qaeda. Iran is getting more irrational by the day, and increasingly giving new meaning to the word stupid.
The Syrian president has rejected a UN request to be interviewed as part of an inquiry into the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, last year. Damascus told the UN commission that the request to meet Bashar al-Assad violates the country's sovereignty, diplomatic sources said on Saturday.
Strange, not a word about the national dignity.
A spokeswoman for the UN investigation confirmed that Syria had replied to the request to meet President al-Assad and Farouq al-Shara, the foreign minister, among other officials, but refused to elaborate. Diplomats had said earlier this month that Syria had agreed to allow the commission to meet al-Shara. Al-Assad, in an interview with Egyptian weekly newspaper El Osboa, hinted that he was immune from questioning by UN investigators. The inquiry has implicated senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the killing of al-Hariri and 22 others in a bombing in Beirut last February.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2006 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.
JALALABAD: A passer by was killed and a policeman injured on Saturday by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, officials said, changing their earlier statement that it was a suicide attack. The explosion caused by a remote control bomb targeted a police vehicle in the eastern city of Jalalabad, local police spokesman Ghafoor Khan said. He had earlier said a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police van. "The person whose body was torn into pieces appears to be a student," Khan said adding that police found books lying around the mutilated body. 
The Saudi security services arrested on Thursday two Saudis suspected of having connections with the armed terrorists inside the country during a security search campaign in Al-Naqa neighborhood, Unayzah Governorate, 
LONDON -Murder charges will not be brought against a British special forces soldier being investigated after the death of an Iraqi civilian, The Sunday Telegraph reported. Lawyers made the decision last week not to prosecute the corporal from the elite Special Air Service (SAS), who faced charges in connection with the death of Ghanin Gatteh Al-Roomi, the newspaper said.
New details have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed through tubes pushed down their nasal passages into their stomachs to keep them alive. They routinely experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn statement by the camp's chief doctor, seen by The Observer.
SACRAMENTO: A Pakistani father and son will be tried on terrorism-related charges beginning February 14, after a federal judge set the date over the objection of prosecutors. Assistant US Attorney S Robert Tice-Raskin argued on Friday that more time is needed because some evidence against the pair from Lodi, California, was obtained using methods so secret they canât be disclosed in open court or to anyone without a security clearance. 
QUETTA: Suspected militants fired more than 20 rockets at paramilitary camps in the Machh area of Bolan and Mand area of Makran division on Saturday, killing at least one person. The Machh district administrator said at least one boy was killed and two people were injured in the attack. The FC commander said three people were killed while Levies put the toll at two. A man on behalf of BLA claimed responsibility.
IDF artillery units shelled the "no-go" zone in northern Gaza after Palestinians fired five Kassam rockets at Israel over the weekend. 
Security forces overnight Wednesday arrested eight wanted militants across the West Bank. Three Islamic Jihad members were arrested in the village of Dir al-Atzun northeast to the city of Tul Karm; a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was arrested at the Jenin refugee camp. South of the city of Bethlehem the army arrested two Hamas militants, and two more Hamas members were arrested in the environs of the city of Ramallah. 
Palestinians on Saturday fired two Qassam rockets at Israel from Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip. The Qassams landed near the Erez crossing on Palestinian side of the border. Gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade and Salah Al-Din militant groups claimed responsibility Saturday for a Qassam rocket fired into Israel the night before. The militants said they had fired the rocket in response to the 'crimes' the Israel Defense Forces has been carrying out against the Palestinian people.
Two Thai police officers and a farmer have been shot dead in separate attacks by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's troubled south, police say. 
The Syrian president has rejected a UN request to be interviewed as part of an inquiry into the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, last year. Damascus told the UN commission that the request to meet Bashar al-Assad violates the country's sovereignty, diplomatic sources said on Saturday. 
