At least 20 people were killed in a second suicide bombing on Monday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the third such attack to rock the city in the past 24 hours, DPA reported. The 20 fatalities were reported to be civilians, while another 20 civilians were injured in the blast, said the governor of Kandahar province, Asadulla Khalid.
Just a few hours earlier a suicide bombing killed four people in Kandahar city, including a civilian and three Afghan soldiers. On Sunday a suicide bomber targeting a military convoy in the city killed three people, a high-ranking Canadian diplomat and two Afghan soldiers. We knew they'd eventually get it right. Now the question is, will the Afghan troops and cops adapt to handle it?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 16:52 ||
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A suicide bomber in southern Afghanistan has killed himself and five others in an attack on an Afghan army vehicle. Among the dead were three soldiers from the country's US-trained army, and two Afghan civilians.
They're trying to do the Iraq thing, of course. We've seen the stories of the Zark boys traveling to Afghanistan to show the rubes how to do it...
Four Afghan soldiers and ten civilians were also wounded in the attack, which happened in the heart of Kandahar. The latest attack came just hours after President Hamid Karzai expressed concern about increasing use of suicide tactics by the Taliban guerrillas. "It was a suicide incident," army Captain Habibur Rahman told Reuters near the scene, where pieces of flesh and blood were seen. He said three soldiers were killed and a hospital doctor said two civilians also died in the attack.
Witness Assadullah said the bomber appeared to be a teenager. "I saw a boy of about 15 with an explosives' vest running towards the car and then heard the explosion from across the street," he said. "I ran for cover and saw the casualties when I got up.
A teeny. The grownups are too valuable to The Movement⢠to waste...
Speaking to journalists inside his heavily fortified palace, President Karzai said the increased use of suicide attacks was a sign of Taliban desperation. However, he added: "They cause insecurity, worry among people ... disrupt life. They are a matter of concern for us ... we will use all means to prevent them."
I don't see it as a sign of desperation, just as a new set of tactics. That means the Afghans are going to have to send some guys to Iraq to learn our new sets of tactics.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 12:46 ||
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#1
We've all heard about how the Afgan's outlast all attackers. Now we will see. Will they treat these people like the Russian's
Afghanistan's government said on Sunday that it recently established a 1,000-strong tribal militia force to tighten security along the border with Pakistan.
Crap. It's a tribal lashkar.
I can hear the drums ...
The force was formed a month ago to slow the flow of militants slipping back and forth across the frontier between Afghanistan's Kunar province and Pakistan's Bajaur area, Kunar Governor Assadullah Wafa told AP. "Al Qaeda, as well as the Taliban and other militants have camps over the border," he said. "They come across to launch attacks in Afghanistan and then run back."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 00:00 ||
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A suicide car bomb hit a Canadian military convoy Sunday in southern Afghanistan, killing two civilians and a senior Canadian diplomat, officials said. A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammed Yousaf, claimed responsibility for the attack, which also wounded three Canadian soldiers and 10 other people.
Our condolences go out to them. This is nothing but murder most foul by primitives whose first resort is murder most foul...
He warned that "these attacks will continue for a long time. We have many more suicide attackers ready to go."
Salafists always seem to have many more suicide boomers ready to go. It's a hallmark of the religion, isn't it?
"We will continue this strategy until all foreign forces leave Afghanistan," he said in a telephone call to The Associated Press.
"And then we'll go back to killing people like we did before."
Afghanistan has been hit by about 25 suicide bombings in the past four months â a relatively new tactic for militants here and one that has reinforced fears the country may see more assaults modeled on those in Iraq. Sunday's attack occurred as the convoy was driving near the Canadian base in Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, said Interior Ministry spokesman Dad Mohammed Rasa. At least two civilians were killed and 10 were wounded, he said. Glyn Berry, 59, who was Canada's senior diplomat in southern Afghanistan and the political director of a 250-member provincial reconstruction team, also died.
If you reconstruct things and try and make life better for people, that means you have to be killed. "Better" is not allowed in this world, only in the next.
#4
Go back to using flamethrowers to clean out caves, napalm on jihadis "fleeing" a clash with allied troops, and cluster munitions in areas mostly inaccessible by helicopter gunship. When Europe screams, tell them they will have something to say about how this war is fought when they're helping, not a minute sooner.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/16/2006 15:18 Comments ||
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Ellen Johnson Sirleaf pledged a "fundamental break" with Liberia's violent past as she was sworn in Monday as president, carving her name into history as Africa's first elected female head of state.
Who'da ever thunkit, back when we were watching Chuck ooze from office?
Wearing a traditional African headdress, Sirleaf took the oath of office in a ceremony attended by thousands of Liberians and scores of foreign dignitaries, including first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "We know that your vote was a vote for change, a vote for peace, security ... and we have heard you loudly," Sirleaf said in her inaugural speech. "We recognize this change is not a change for change's sake, but a fundamental break with the past, therefore requiring that we take a bold and decisive steps to address the problems that have for decades stunted our progress."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 13:21 ||
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#1
I hope things work out better for her than her predecessors. Liberia is perhaps the oldest mistake made by the United States still in existence.
Started as a grand idea, the restoration of slaves to Africa, introduced along with democracy. Soon it became not only a bastard child, but an abandoned and neglected one, too. It was perhaps our first, and worst, effort at "nation building", and until, someday, when Liberia can live in peace, real democracy and freedom, it will haunt us.
It remains a mystery why no US President has ever taken it upon himself to finish what we started there so long ago.
#2
because there is no "finishing". Look at the formerly s"successful" African sates, most of which inherited colonial systems/infrastructure/wealth/education ....they all seem to be backsliding into anarchy and tribal feuds (with a taste of Islamic dominion thrown in to spoil what's left).... I'm so cynical about Africa, because they continually lower the expectations
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2006 17:04 Comments ||
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#3
Moose, Liberia never was a US colony. It was founded as a colony by a private organization in the US--the American Colonization Society--but wasn't supported or endorsed by the government. Racism certainly played a role in our lack of support for the country (that's plain from the records), but I suspect that "Not Invented Here" was a factor too.
Posted by: James ||
01/16/2006 17:28 Comments ||
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The Mexican military has crossed into the United States 216 times in the past nine years, according to a Department of Homeland Security document and a map of incursions obtained by the Daily Bulletin.
U.S. officials claim the incursions are made to help foreign drug and human smugglers into the United States. The 2001 map, which shows 34 of the incursions, bears the seal of the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The document states that since 1996, Mexican military personnel have crossed into the following sectors:
San Diego County, 17 times
El Centro, Calif., 58
Yuma, Ariz., 24
Tucson, Ariz., 39
El Paso, Texas, 33
Marfa, Texas, eight
Del Rio, Texas, three
Laredo, Texas, six
Rio Grande Valley, Texas, 28.
White House officials would not comment on the map and referred questions to officials at the Department of Homeland Security. Kristi Clemons, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, would not confirm the number of incursions, but said Saturday the department is in ongoing discussion with the Mexican government about them.
"We - the Department of Homeland Security and the CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) - are determined to gain control of the border and will continue to collaborate with our partners on the border," Clemons said.
Border Patrol agents say they for several years have reported sightings and confrontations with Mexican military inside the United States, which the Daily Bulletin documented last year in its Beyond Borders series about immigration.
"We've had armed showdowns with the Mexican army," said a border agent who spoke on condition of anonymity. "These aren't just ex-military guys. These are Mexican army officials assisting drug smugglers."
In one 2000 incident, more than 16 Mexican soldiers were arrested by border agents in a small town west of El Paso, in Santa Teresa, N.M., after Mexican soldiers fired on the agents, said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council.
None of the agents was injured in the gunbattle, and U.S. State Department officials forced the border agents to release the soldiers and return them to Mexico with their weapons, Bonner added.
"If (Mexico) is going to put military across our border to threaten our guys, and if their own government can't control it, then we should be treating this as an act of war," he said.
Mexican government officials said they have neither seen the report nor map and dispute the findings, stating that at no time in recent years have military personnel crossed the border into the United States.
"I strongly deny any incursion by the Mexican military on United States soil," said Rafael Laveaga, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C.
"When it comes to Mexican military on the southern side, I have no reports of them crossing into the United States. That would mean that the patrol got lost or lack of expertise and orientation. This could be smugglers with fake uniforms as a tactic to confuse the authorities."
Laveaga added that Mexico's law enforcement agencies work closely with the FBI, Office of National Drug Control Policy and other U.S. agencies to assist in the capture of drug cartel members.
Further, Laveaga contended that wealthy smugglers can afford fake uniforms and camouflage their vehicles to resemble those of the military.
"Some incursions do occur by smugglers both on the northbound and southbound sides of the border," Laveaga said. "Whenever these incidents occur, both governments have a mechanism to communicate with each other to let each other know what's going on."
In the Tucson sector - where many border agents reported run-ins with Mexican military - the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection formally issued a card to agents with tips on how to deal with incursions by Mexican soldiers. The Daily Bulletin first reported on the card last year.
The "Military Incursion" card states that "Mexican military are trained to escape, evade and counter-ambush if it will effect their escape."
Further, the card asks agents who come across Mexican soldiers to keep a low profile and use shadows to camouflage and hide.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said the numbers show that suggestions for increasing Border Patrol resources or building a fence along the border won't do enough to secure it. "It is a military problem," said Tancredo, who supports immigration reform. "We should commit the military to the border - tomorrow. I mean, with armor and weapons."
Speaking by phone from El Paso, the congressman recalled his own confusion and disbelief when Border Patrol officials first told him of the incursions several years ago.
But the more time he spent at the border, the more he realized how serious the problem is, Tancredo said.
"Down here, there are war stories where you have Mexican military pulling up when drug traffickers are coming across, cocking their weapons, challenging our guys," he said "Shots have been fired. ... This is a problem here. I don't think anybody understands it unless they're here."
Lt. George Moreno, who has been with the Imperial County Sheriff's Department for 20 years, said he was surprised to hear about the 22 Mexican incursions reported during 2002 in the El Centro sector, just east of San Diego.
"I've heard rumors that it's been happening," Moreno said. "A lot of these types of incidents are dealt with at a federal level. It's not brought down to our level unless it really concerns us."
Border Patrol agents also are the target of the international Mara Salvatrucha street gang, whose members Mexican smugglers plan to bring across the border and pay to kill U.S. agents, according to a confidential Homeland Security alert obtained by the Daily Bulletin last week.
Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project, a civilian volunteer group that has monitored the border since April, said Congress must address the serious nature of the military incursions.
"That number is 20 times larger than even the Minuteman Project organizers are aware of," Gilchrist said, referring to the 216 documented incursions. "But I'm not surprised at that number. There are significant drug and human cargo cartels involving Mexican military threatening Americans at the border. But our Congress has turned a blind eye to it because what the American people don't know won't bother them - that's how our representatives think."
Marfa, TX is some miles from the border, probably between 50 and 100. If they are in Marfa, TX, then this is more than just a border crossing. This is an expidition by a foreign army into CONUS.
#2
Maybe we should put some special operations guys down there. (just a few would do) They could teach them all about ambushes, in fact you might even be able to call it a "crash" course.
#3
I don't think the country is ready - yet - for a repeal or modification of posse comitatus, although sadly I think things will get to that point sooner rather than later. I fear we will indeed find the North American command Rummy set up taking an increasing operational role on the ground as well as re: missile and shore defense.
In the meanwhile, more UAVs. In the hands of the Border Patrol. Armed.
At least one project I'm aware of is working the "see and avoid" issues of flying a lot of UAVs in civil airspace. We're gonna need to have that worked out shortly, I suspect.
#4
I'm no lawyer but I thought the posse comitatus laws forbid US Military from law enforcement activities. This is an armed penetration of our border by another nations military. I don't believe posse comitatus denies the United States military from defending its borders.
Second point. The 82d ABN Div was in New Orleans performing armed patrols.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/16/2006 9:34 Comments ||
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#5
Texican, it doesn't mean they made it that far. The country is broken down into sectors, and for whatever reason they named that sector after Marfa.
Here's the sector map that the Border Patrol uses. It could be that they got in 100 feet, or a couple of miles. But all the way to Marfa...or Tucson, even, probably not.
#6
49Pan, it's true that posse comitatus forbids the use of the military from law enforcement activities on US soil. But where that stops and military attacks start will be argued fiercely in this case because the Mexicans will probably try to tie their activities to hot pursuit of criminals.
Not a plausible argument, but if it is made it will have to be addressed.
Re; the 82nd, 'humanitarian' efforts are allowed under posse comitatus even using regular troops as opposed to the Guard. And IIRC that's how the post-Katrina patrols were described.
But to get back to bigjim's suggestion in #2, there's no reason that Border Patrol working with law enforcement couldn't identify intruders using UAVs and other recon methods. And law enforcement agencies include snipers. But I don't think the majority of Americans will be happy about sniping at Mexican troops until/unless they come to see them as a threat.
A lot of groundwork needs to be laid for dealing with the whole Mexican situation. It's a big and dangerous matter for us, but amorphous and therefore hard for leaders to rally the country around.
#7
If the military is smart it will make sure posse commitatus is neither modified nor repealed. It is part of what makes the military so highly held in esteem. If the people think it may be used against them, the lost term "standing armies" may come back into common parlance.
Posted by: Gen. James Mattoon Scott ||
01/16/2006 9:56 Comments ||
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#8
General, that's exactly what I hear from the military officers I know. They really really do NOT want to lose the bulwark against politicization of the professional military.
Remember folks: Hillary may be POTUS in a few years. Judge policies accordingly.
#9
LOTP - What about just plain protecting the US from another army? That sounds like what an army is for!
Not this Hillary might be Prez in some future alternate reality stuff.
#10
THanks lotp, I am in the military and I would never want to be used against Americans. But we are here to defend America. I see nothing wrong with assisting law enforcment on this issue. Oh and yes, the thought of Hillary being Prez just scares the shit out of me, I am more fearful of what she would do to DOD that I ever was in combat.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/16/2006 10:30 Comments ||
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#11
What about just plain protecting the US from another army?
When it comes to that - when the protection is against an army acting as such, they will.
#12
In one 2000 incident, more than 16 Mexican soldiers were arrested by border agents in a small town west of El Paso, in Santa Teresa, N.M., after Mexican soldiers fired on the agents, said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council.
A little geography lesson. Santa Teresa is a New Mexico burb of the Texas city of El Paso. El Paso is the location of Fort Bliss. Fort Bliss is to be the new home of three brigades of the 1st Armored Division. The 1st AD's personnel are getting a lot of training in Iraq to operate in an environment very similar to that part of the border, both in topography and social behavior.
#13
Like everything else in life, when a fav of the liberals ignors posse comitatus its OK, when someone the libs dislike then its a bunch of nazis. Didn't hear too much of a stink using federal troops in this event. Its all about who's ox is being gored.
#14
Pan,
I have to agree with LOTP on this one - look at it this way: don't give Dubya any power you don't want the Hildebeest to have.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/16/2006 12:22 Comments ||
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#15
This report seems to be a stretch. Armed uniformed members of another country's army present in the US without an invitation is a VERY BIG DEAL, Posse Comitatus notwithstanding. I have also spoken to an Air Force vet & retired law officer, they were given a lot of training on PoCom issues & he also thinks it's important that federal military not be involved with civilian law enforcement. But illegal immigration is not immigration. Willful encursions by another country's military over a border is an INVASION.
#16
I don't get the posse commitatus argument. Maybe I just don't understand. No one is talking about using the US military against US citizens. I'm sure you are not saying that the fact that foreigners manage to illegally get on our soil means that the army is off limits for enforcement. So I guess I just don't understand how posse commitatus even enters the argument.
Besides, I don't want to deny the president powers to protect me just because someone like Hillary might come into office. People in power can more often than not be counted on to abuse their power. The system was set up with that expectation well in mind. What I do want is to assure that if the president does abuse his powers - that there is a check and balance to that power that can deal with it quickly and efficently and fairly.
#17
#13 - I was around in 1962, and the use of Federal troops at Old Miss was a very big deal at the time. That was the first time I ever heard of posse comitatus. Still don't understand it, but then I'm not a lawyer. The justification was the level of civil disorder along with a court order from the federal level being ignored. This country has been turning a blind eye to all sorts of mischief, mis/non/mal/feasance along the US/Mexican border for decades, which is not likely to end even if a nuke smuggled across that same border kills thousands of Americans. Hardly anyone seems to care about the security of our borders. --- The story in the link #13 supplied needs to be much better publicized. Every document referred to in that book should be scanned and posted on the web for all to review, many more people should be interviewed to flesh out that history and that info also posted for posterity's sake. There's too much history in little-known books being ignored.
#18
If you've ever spent time on the border, and I have at Bliss, you come to realize just what a farce is being perpetrated. You have to understand that most crime in Mexico is committed by the Federal Police. In this case, the drug dealers and/or smugglers are paying them to assure a safe crossing into the U.S. And they come in no more than a couple miles at most. Usually just hundreds of yards. If we had an honest government, a short diplomatic note saying that ANY crossing would result im immediate death, we could then progress to allowing local citizens to "hunt" on the border. This crap would stop within days. Word travels fast. By the way, think back, why are Bliss and Huachuca on the border ? To stop Mexican incursions. Same thing , just a hundred years later. Our boys are up by White Sands playing war games. Can't be bothered with border anymore.
#19
The Posse Comitatus Act was passed in 1878 as part of the end of Reconstruction to remove the Army from civilian law enforcement and to return it to its role of defending the borders of the United States.
from a paper on applicability of posse commitatus to homeland security.
There is a line between law enforcement and defending the United States that is getting very blurry as a result of terrorism.
#20
I ask anyone who doesn't think there is a problem at the border - have you ever seen the border? It's not like a few Mexicans crossing here and there It's thousands of them, every single night. I remember back before they forced them to cross in Otay and Arizona, you could drive along the inside of the border in Tia Juana and for as many miles as you wished to drive, you could see hundreds and hundreds of them lined up waiting for an opportunity to cross. And that's just in TJ, where you could drive along the border and see them. This occurs all along the entire border.
#21
I suppose someone will come back and point out to me that no one here is saying that there is not a problem at the border. Ok fine. But I just don't think most people visualize the scope of numbers involved, every day of every year. And that doesn't include those stuffed into gas tanks, tunnels, cargo holds, etc.
Estimated numbers just for the Tuscon Sector:
The numbers of unauthorized immigrants smuggled across this porous border dumbfound the imagination. To date, the U.S. Border Patrol has apprehended 158,782 illegals in 2001. By the Border Patrol's own admission, it catches one alien in five, and admits that around 800,000 have slipped across the U.S. line this year. The local ranchers, who have been watching the border for several generations, strongly disagree. They contend the agency only nets one in 10, and estimate that in 2001 over 1.5 million unlawful immigrants have crossed into America in what the Border Patrol calls the Tucson Sector.
#22
Agreed with all that. However, until the general public understands the scope of the problem, use of troops to keep out these mini-incursions will cause a lot of opposition and controversy.
Keep an eye on em, push back quietly and in the meanwhile, educate the public. Quickly.
#23
Militarize the Border Patrol, put it and the Coast Guard under a separate branch of the DOD (Home Defense), build it up to three or four divisions operational, and put a stop to all illicit boundary crossings. Pass a law that they can only operate within 100 miles of the border or nearest land area to the border. Give them the ability, but don't demand they MUST follow "shoot on sight" orders. Allow it to be an individual initiative sort of thing, but BACK THEM UP when they do. Add three engineering brigades - one for the southern border, one for the northwestern border, and one for the northeastern border. Give them responsibility for building and maintaining border crossings, border fences, and armed interdiction zones.
We are in the early stages of a war against an enemy that will do anything, use any opportunity, and conduct any attrocity that will advance its cause. We cannot be complaisant about our undefended and uncontrolled borders.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/16/2006 15:52 Comments ||
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#24
The problem is not the people, it is the elites. 100 years ago, yellow journalists would have been having a field day with the border problem. Today, the yellow journalists are delighted with the border problem. all that's changed is what the yellow stands for.
#28
IIRC Kiki died after a horrific beating, torture, and being buried alive. We shut down the border politically and by EXTENSIVE inspections (I waited 15 hours in line at Mexicali and pushed our out-of-gas truck across the border, coming home from San Felipe). The killers IIRC where offered up by the Mexican gov't
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2006 17:40 Comments ||
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#29
I saw the movie and I remember the photo in the paper when they shut down the border.
Rallies around the country continued fitfully on Sunday to protest the United States airstrike on a Pakistani village that was intended to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda, but instead killed at least 18 civilians, even as American counterterrorism officials said they were not ready to rule out the prospect that Mr. Zawahiri might have been killed in the Friday strike.
Officials in Pakistan, who have examined bodies found at the scene, have said they were confident that Mr. Zawahiri was not killed in the attack. But the American officials have said they had not seen solid indications of his death or his survival.
At a minimum, the officials said they believed that other senior Qaeda officials had died in the attack.
In the port city of Karachi, some 5,000 demonstrators gathered for a political rally, but in Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore and Multan, the crowds were smaller, of only a few hundred people. Demonstrators chanted "Death to America" and "Stop bombing innocent people," and burned American flags, but they dispersed without violence. Demonstrators protested for a second day in the tribal border region of Bajaur, where the airstrike occurred.
Protesters also denounced the government of the military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, accusing him of being an American puppet and of allowing the attack. "Our rulers are traitors," and "Our rulers are cowards and surrogates of America," protesters chanted in the capital, Islamabad, Agence France-Presse reported. But a call by a coalition of religious parties for a general strike was largely ignored in Peshawar.
The Musharraf government has condemned the attack on civilians and made a formal protest to the United States ambassador in Pakistan, but Mr. Musharraf said Saturday that there were indications that foreigners had been present in the village of Damadola, the target of the strike, and he warned Pakistanis in nationally televised speech not to harbor foreign militants.
The raid is believed to have been carried out by the C.I.A., using missiles fired by a remotely piloted Predator aircraft, on the basis of information gathered in an aggressive effort to track Mr. Zawahiri. An American counterterrorism official declined to discuss details of the attack, but said: "My understanding is that it was based on pretty darned good information. A decision to do something like this is not made lightly."
The C.I.A. and the White House have declined to comment on the raid, the third airstrike in recent weeks inside Pakistani territory by American aircraft. The American counterterrorism officials who agreed to speak about it were granted anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak publicly.
They offered a defense of the attack, saying they did not believe that innocent bystanders in Pakistan had been killed. One counterterrorism official said that even if Mr. Zawahiri was not killed in the attacks, "Some very senior Al Qaeda types might have been." The official declined to identify other Qaeda members thought to have been at the scene.
In the past, failed attacks on senior Qaeda officials have been followed by triumphant statements from the group calling attention to the failure, while news about the death of Qaeda members tends to circulate in channels monitored by American intelligence. "If Zawahiri was indeed killed, it would be very hard for them to keep that under wraps for a long period of time," one official said.
For more than a year, Mr. Zawahiri has served as the principal public face of Al Qaeda, during a period in which Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, has not been seen or heard from. The last audiotapes from Mr. bin Laden were made public in December 2004; in the first three years after the 2001 attacks, he was seen and heard from more often. American intelligence agencies believe that Mr. bin Laden is still alive, but has adopted a low profile to avoid giving away clues that might allow the C.I.A. to identify his location.
In Pakistan, it has become standard for political parties to call for protest rallies after incidents of perceived American interference here, and politicians both in the government and in the opposition took the chance to criticize the Musharraf government and its policy of supporting the United States campaign against terrorism. Yet most commentators did not expect lasting trouble for Mr. Musharraf.
The pro-Taliban religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, known as M.M.A., which has wide support in the regions bordering Afghanistan, organized some of the demonstrations and called for an end to the alliance with the United States. Its leader, Ghafoor Haidri, called on the government in a speech in Karachi to "stop using Pakistani soldiers to kill Pakistanis in tribal areas."
Another member called for American forces to leave Pakistan and Afghanistan. Fewer than 100 American soldiers are present in Pakistan, assisting with the earthquake relief in Kashmir, and some 18,000 United States troops are in Afghanistan, largely fighting an insurgency in the south and east of the country, in areas bordering Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/16/2006 00:28 ||
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#1
"At a minimum, the officials said they believed that other senior Qaeda officials had died in the attack"
Thats the jewel I was looking for American prespective ahh yeah that face recognition from a couple of thousand feet in infared not quite there yet but defenatley good enough to tell the difference between some sheep herders and AQ ranking man with his escort. The Paks when they found no foriegn bodies were just guessing from nothing.
#5
Since when do thousands of Pakistanis rally to protest the deaths of poor innocent villagers, some of whom were women and children? If Zawahiri was late for dinner, who or what tipped him off? Nine missiles aren't usually just for target practice, either, when they use every incident to incite the jihadis further. I heard on FOX, I believe, that Zawahiri's wife is from that region of Pakistan and that he had just recently returned to the area from Iran....maybe dropped off the wife for safe keeping while he skipped the region by cab. What about the bodies spirited away in the dark and who are all those mourners in the streets grieving for? Maybe they made a widower out of Ayman or at least took out sympathizers. This also coincides with the recent rumor at the hadj that Binny died in December in Iran from kidney failure, or even in the earthquake, so maybe Zawahiri needed to go East to oversee some business. I'm actually pretty optimistic over all these fitful protests as the word hits the streets. Even Feinstein said "collateral damage" sometimes cannot be avoided.
#6
Mebbe the Pakistanis will finally catch on that inviting over al Qaeda's top brass is big bad mojo. Eighteen dead is nothing compared to what Ayman is planning.
MIRANSHAH: Five rockets were fired at a paramilitary check post near the Afghan border, however, no casualties were reported, a security official said on Sunday. Suspected militants fired rockets at Amin check post near Miranshah late on Saturday, the official told AFP. The soldiers responded immediately, exchanging fire with the militants for more than 90 minutes, the official said, adding that casualties among the insurgents were unknown.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
If that is what they use for rocket launchers, they should be more concerned about the rocket doing a 180 back onto them.
Posted by: ed ||
01/16/2006 0:30 Comments ||
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#2
Yep, needs a rail at least twice the airframe length. Perhaps that's for display.
#3
Umm, remember folks, the pictures are almost always sarcastic and a spoof, unless they're not.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2006 10:11 Comments ||
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#4
Steve, have you seen the Kassam launchers? Not a marvel of engineering. During the Afghan war, the muj rested 107mm rockets rocks. Apropos since that is about all they hit.
Posted by: ed ||
01/16/2006 10:22 Comments ||
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#5
Well, I guess it could be an AeroTech Astrobee, but the colors.... who does earthtones in scale rockets?
SRINAGAR, India - Indian soldiers have killed three key Pakistani members of a hardline Islamic terrorist militant group waging an insurgency in Indian-ruled Kashmir, police said on Sunday. Two of the terrorists militants from Lashkar-e-Toiba were killed during a 12-hour long gunbattle late Saturday in the southern Poonch district, a police spokesman said. He identified the pair as Abu Bilal and Abu Saqui. Two others escaped. âThe four were in a meeting when security forces launched a raid based on a tip-off,â the spokesman said.
Another Lashkar terrorist militant, Abu Maaz, was killed during a gunbattle in the neighbouring district of Doda late Saturday, police said. âAll three were Pakistani terrorists nationals and served as Lashkarâs self-styled district commanders,â the spokesman said, calling their deaths a âmajor setbackâ for the terrorists militants.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
2 of 4 killed in a 12 hour gunbattle?
Sounds like the keystone kops again.
#2
Their rules of engagement don't allow the use of heavy weapons so they can't call in an airstrike or for helicopter backup.
If the area is built up, their use of anti-tank weapons is restricted as well.
So with the terrorists holed up, it is a matter of firing, ceasefire, calling on the terrorists to surrender, bringing in the local imam to beg them to surrender, more gunfire etc.
Posted by: john ||
01/16/2006 14:23 Comments ||
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Suspected tribal militants blew up a gas pipeline in the Dera Murad Jamali on Sunday, shutting supplies to a US and British-owned power plant for the second time this month, a government official said. A blast damaged a 24-inch diameter pipeline, cutting off gas supply to the nearby Uch private power plant. "It is an act of sabotage," Abdul Samad Lasi, a senior local administration official, said.
Militants carried out a similar attack in the same region earlier this month, shutting down the plant. Lasi said that the 586-megawatt Uch power plant would remain closed until the pipeline, which is not owned by the power plant, was repaired, but could not say how long this would take.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 00:00 ||
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Unidentified men ambushed Superintendent of Police Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam's jeep at about 4:30pm on Sunday, killing two policemen. The attack took place during President Pervez Musharraf's visit to the city.
SP Aslam left his residence on Khayaban-e-Jami for Garden Police Lines and on the way tried to stop a silver Alto that was following him. The Alto manoeuvred into a lane and when the SP's jeep went after it, the Alto's occupants shot at the police vehicle. The police jeep crashed into a wall, trapping SP Aslam who was in the passenger seat. Jeep driver, Assistant Sub-Inspector Arif, was shot in the head and neck and was killed instantly. Constable Nadeem was also killed after being shot in the chest.
The assailants managed to escape. Their car was later found in Chandio village in Gizri. "According to initial investigations, the assailants appeared to be Baloch," said TPO Imran Shaukat.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 00:00 ||
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US lethal âblunderâ threatens to undermine Musharraf
I notice cnn [tube], has got their rat tails all over this story this morning. Perfect excuse to conviently line up all usual wipping boys for a sound beating.
'course I could be wrong and cnn and friends might fully develop the story and report on the terrorist madrasas and the nexus between the Pak tribal areas and terrorism. Or maybe even one of their stringers might actually report how many top echelon A-Q types collected their allotment of raisins.
..think?
Posted by: Red Dog ||
01/16/2006 8:10 Comments ||
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With Musharraf gone, would that mean we could attack the regions Al Queda lives in more often? At least we could openley back the Indian's in Kasmir.
#3
...With Musharraf gone and almost certainly replaced by an Islamonut, we could take the gloves off. Western Pakistan would no longer be a sanctuary that takes occasional strikes, it would be a free-fire zone.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/16/2006 8:59 Comments ||
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The only US "blunder" is keeping Perv afloat for the lat 5 years.
#5
I disagree. There's a strategy here that makes a lot of sense to me. Set up more or less stable governments in Iraq and Afghanistan, with troop presence in both countries. That pressures Iran and Syria. Improve relationships with India, including military ties. THEN if Perv has to go there's a good chance of containing the Islamofascists who are quite likely to replace him.
In other words, do what good military strategists always do: shape the battlefield.
THE Iranian coastguard had killed one Iraqi soldier and kidnapped nine others in a confrontation with the Iraqi coastguard, the governor of Basra told al Jazeera television.
Mohammed al-Wa'ili said the incident occurred on Saturday after Iraqi forces tried to stop a ship from smuggling oil out of Iraq.
"When they saw our boats coming closer to the ship ... the captain of this ship â who is Iranian â was able to call Iranian forces ... and Iranian boats then opened fire on our boats," he told the Arab news channel.
"This is not the first time that Iranian forces have attacked our patrols," he said.
Al Jazeera's newscaster also quoted the governor as saying Iranian forces were holding two Iraqi boats in Abadan port.
#6
I hope this is played for all its worth IN IRAQ we need to rally up as much rage as possible against Iran, so any one cough Sadr who would like to jump when the sh*t hits the fan with Iran sometime this year they are a minority flash in the pan.
#7
Actually, this is the means by which to solve the 'Iranian' problem. A series of confrontations between Iranian and Iraqi forces which escalates and subsequently 'draws' American forces backing up the Iraqi into play. American doctrine doesn't play gradual escalation anymore. Once committed, its the application of overwhelming force.
Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops have been deployed along the border with Syria in an attempt to halt the flow of Sunni insurgents into Iraq.
Makes my little heart go pitty pat.
U.S. officials said that over the last year U.S. Marines and special forces units have been patrolling the 600-kilometer Iraqi-Syrian border. They said the units have been allowed to fire into Syria as part of their effort to stop the influx of Sunni insurgents into Iraq."The troops are allowed to fire over the border to stop the insurgents from entering Iraq," an official said. "There have not been any directives that would allow ground troops to enter Syria."Most of the time, Syrian troops refused to respond to U.S. fire, officials said. The exception was in July 2005, when several Syrians were killed in a battle with U.S. Army Rangers along the border area. Later, Syria relayed a protest to the U.S. embassy in Damascus.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 11:40 ||
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Meanwhile our borders are being crossed by the Mexican Army
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/16/2006 12:53 Comments ||
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So we have troops along the border today. Khaddam's "government in exile" will, in the near future, invite us in to 'preserve order and restore democracy (heh) to Syria'. The troops on the border then will be in Damascus.
My, how I love a plan that comes together.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2006 13:56 Comments ||
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"U.S. TROOPS DEPLOY ALONG SYRIAN BORDER"
Which side?
Posted by: PC ||
01/16/2006 14:54 Comments ||
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Let's see -- we've got US Army Rangers pulling border guard duty? Sounds serious to me.
U.S. military commanders are launching an ambitious program to improve Iraq's ability to combat criminals and insurgents, assigning more than 2,000 army military police advisers to work side by side with Iraqi police officers at local stations and provincial and district headquarters in a mission that entails significant new security risks for American forces.
The effort, which is just starting in Baghdad and will expand to all 18 provinces by the end of the month, greatly increases the size and scope of the current field training by 500 international civilian police advisers and military police units, U.S. military officials say.
About 80,000 police officers across Iraq are now certified as trained and equipped, more than halfway toward the goal of 135,000 by early 2007. But senior commanders, including General George Casey, the top American officer in Iraq, have vowed to make 2006 "the year of the police" in a tacit acknowledgment that this is a sweeping new effort to straighten out the police forces because their corruption, ineptitude and infiltration stand in the way of any plan by the Americans to draw down troops this year.
For example, American commanders have complained that armed militia have infiltrated the police department in Basra, Iraq's third-largest city. Their memories are fresh of the Mosul police department's desertion in the face of insurgent attacks there in 2004.
The Pentagon has budgeted more than $1 billion this year to train, field and equip Interior Ministry forces, of which the police are by far the largest single component, said Ann Bertucci, a military spokeswoman. Senior American officers say their goal is to train Iraqi police so they can take over law enforcement duties in the coming months from Iraqi army units who are now relieving American troops.
"We're trying to develop the police capability to the point where by the end of 2006 we can begin the transfer to civil security," said Major General Joseph Peterson, the top American police trainer in Iraq, in a recent interview at his headquarters in Baghdad.
In the past year, the Pentagon has assigned more then 2,500 uniformed military advisers to work and live with Iraqi army units, in the first major step to improve the capability of Iraq's security forces. Now, the Bush administration and the fledgling Iraqi government are carrying out a similar program with the various Iraqi police forces.
Recently, American commanders announced they would significantly increase the number of soldiers advising Iraqi police commando units, partly to help curtail abuse that the units are suspected of inflicting on Sunni Arabs.
All these efforts have a common goal: to train and equip Iraqi soldiers, border guards and police forces to take over more responsibility for securing their country and allowing the United States to withdraw its 150,000 troops from Iraq.
But the new police transition team program, as it is called, is perhaps even more ambitious in scope and goals since it aims to team Americans in way or another with as many as 130,000 local Iraqi police and their supervisors.
Peterson and other senior commanders acknowledge the effort faces several steep hurdles. Insurgent suicide-bombers have targeted police stations and police recruiting drives in an attempt to intimidate Iraqis from signing up. Many police are viewed by Iraqis as corrupt. Sectarian militias have infiltrated the police in major cities.
The most feared institution in Basra, Iraq's third-largest city, is a shadowy force of more than 200 police officers known collectively as the Jameat, who dominate the local police and who are said to murder and torture at will.
The ability of the Iraqi police to tackle an increasingly sophisticated and well armed insurgency has often failed miserably.
Nowhere did the police flop quite so dramatically as in Mosul in November 2004, when a 5,000-man force deserted in the face of a militant uprising, sending Iraq's second-largest city into chaos.
"The training of the Iraqi police is an enormous task and it - frankly, it hasn't always gone smoothly," President George W. Bush acknowledged in a speech last week to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "By strengthening local police in these cities, we can help Iraqis provide security in areas cleared of enemy forces and make it harder for these thugs to return."
Currently, each Iraqi police recruit receives eight to 10 weeks of training at one of nine police academies in Iraq and Jordan. As part of that classroom training, each recruit receives 32 hours of training in human rights and the rule of law.
Graduates are assigned to police stations or headquarters, where units will be paired with American military and civilian advisers to improve their respect for the law and their professionalism. Up to now these mentors have been mainly civilian advisers, many of whom are retired American police officers. The new police transition teams will consist of 12 to 24 members each with military police, civilian police trainers and linguists involved, Bertucci said.
Soldiers from the 49th Military Police Brigade, an Army National Guard unit with headquarters in Fairfield, California, will be assigned initially to police stations in nine major Iraqi cities - Baghdad, Ramadi, Fallujah, Najaf, Babil, Kirkuk, Baqubah, Samarra, Mosul - as well as to dozens of provincial and district headquarters across the country.
Slightly more than two-thirds of the brigade's 3,000 soldiers, military police drawn from a mix of active duty, National Guard and Army Reserve units, are expected to participate in the program, said Captain Jonathan Shiroma, a brigade spokesman.
The advisers will help the Iraqi police on a range of duties, such as processing crime scenes - which includes finger print dusting - conducting joint patrols with Iraqi beat cops in their neighborhoods, handcuffing suspects and proper arrest technique, Captain Shiroma said.
Some independent police training specialists, while applauding the effort to focus more attention on Iraqi beat cops as the front-line security force, express caution that the Pentagon set the proper training priorities.
"Simply fanning out these people to cover the country isn't going to achieve substantive results," said Matt Sherman, who stepped down last month after two years as a deputy senior adviser to the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
He continued: "The priority must be given to working with the leadership corps at the provincial and city level, and ensure that their actives are coordinated with the elected representatives, other ministries, and local leaders in their respective area."
Developing the police has been uneven across the country. In Baghdad, blue-shirted officers in brand-new patrol cars are visible across the city, and have earned generally high marks from American officers.
In Sunni-dominated Al Anbar province in western Iraq, Maj. Gen. Stephen Johnson, the top Marine officer in Iraq, said in an interview that more than 1,200 trained police officers are now on duty in Falluja. But General Johnson said there are no police officers in cities and towns west of Fallujah, including Ramadi, although he added there are training programs underway.
American officials acknowledged that the new program poses increased risks to American M.P.'s, more of whom will be working more closely with Iraqi police officers. In 2005, 1,497 Iraqi police officers were killed and 3,256 were injured, said Ms. Bertucci, who is General Peterson's spokeswoman. Already this month, more than three dozen police officers have been killed, she said.
Perhaps no challenge is as vexing as the influence of militias. Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the top overall American trainer in Iraq, acknowledged last month that hundreds of militia gunmen had joined police departments around the country, while still retaining loyalties to their militia commanders.
Over the past five to six months, Iraq police officials have sought to combat this, reverifying the credentials of police officers on the payrolls in all 18 provinces by creating an automated database that took fingerprints and retinal scans. Ms. Bertucci said the presence of American military police advises in Iraqi police stations would allow American commanders a better means to assess the severity of the problem.
While local police report to the provincial governor, General Peterson said ministry officials in Baghdad can exert influence by denying financing for police officers' salaries and equipment. Critics like Mr. Sherman counter that the militias can readily find alternative financing, and that others checks must be established.
"Policies and agreements must be reached again with the various militia leaders on identification and integration through a series of initiatives such as pension plans, individual job placement in both the security and non-security ministries and vocational training," Mr. Sherman said.
Some American commanders have already pressed ahead, anticipating the new training initiative. In the northwest city of Tal Afar, soldiers from the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment have been rebuilding the police department after reclaiming the city from insurgents there last September.
More than 700 police officers are now on the streets, double the number before the battle, and hundreds more are in training, said Lt. Col. Christopher Hickey, commander of the regiment's Sabre Squadron which operates in the city.
Colonel Hickey said that six months ago, the militia influence in Tal Afar was very strong and the local police, 90 percent of whom were Shia in a Sunni-majority area, never left their headquarters. Since then, Colonel Hickey said that 200 Sunni police from Mosul were brought in and, with other Sunni recruits, the police force is now a roughly equal mix of Sunnis and Shia.
Cavalry troops, military police and civilian advisers are teaching the Iraqis how to run a police station, patrol and conduct investigations. "The ultimate goal is for the police to police," Colonel Hickey said in an e-mail message. "If the police force is not trusted or respected than you can't have effective or legitimate rule of government or law."
Iraq's election commission said Monday that ballot boxes at 227 voting centers were being thrown out because of fraud, but the decision was not expected to affect overall results of the Dec. 15 vote.
The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq released its findings into 58 serious election complaints lodged after last month's vote. There were almost 32,000 voting centers nationwide.
Twenty-five of the serious complaints came from Baghdad province, the country's largest, said Hussein Hendawi, an IECI official.
Election officials said they found that fake ballots were used at some centers. About 53 centers were annulled because too many votes were cast at that polling station, Hendawi said.
Iraq's election commission will announce results of its investigation into allegations of vote fraud on Monday, officials said, while the tribunal overseeing Saddam Hussein's trial confirmed the chief judge has asked to resign.
The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, or IECI, has worked through the 50 or so serious complaints of voter fraud lodged after the Dec. 15 election, Safwat Rashid, an official with the panel, said Sunday. About 2,000 complaints were filed overall, but the commission said only 50 had the potential to change vote totals.
The governing United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite religious bloc, has a strong lead, according to preliminary results. But it will not win enough seats in the 275-member parliament to avoid a coalition with Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties.
Final election results have been delayed by Sunni Arab complaints of fraud. Although leading politicians have expressed hopes a government could be formed in February, most experts and officials agree it could take two to three months, as it did after the January 2005 elections for an interim government.
Some 900 ballot boxes were checked for problems and a minority of those will be thrown out, Rashid said. He refused to say how many but noted the boxes hold only about 500 votes, meaning the overall effect would be minimal. About 70 percent of registered Iraqis voted, casting about 11 million votes nationwide.
The commission has not worked through the other 1,930 or so complaints, another elections official said. Those less serious charges would not change any vote totals but could result in fines, he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The international team assessing the IECI's handling of the voting process also said it would release its final report on Thursday. The IECI is expected to release uncertified final results shortly after that, perhaps as soon as this coming weekend. "The work of the team has been going fast, so we decided there is no need for a preliminary report," Mazin Shuaib of the International Mission for Iraqi Elections said.
More complaints could be lodged after that, and it could take up to two weeks to study those complaints. Certified results would then be announced - likely sometime in early February - opening the way for negotiations in earnest over a coalition government.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/16/2006 00:46 ||
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Al Qaeda in Iraq and some other militant groups have set up an umbrella body to coordinate their fight against U.S.-led forces and the Iraqi government, according to a Web statement posted on Sunday.
The Mujahideen Council aims to confront the "crusaders and their rejectionist (Shi'ite) and secularist followers who have seized Baghdad", said the statement attributed to al Qaeda, the Army of the Victorious Sect and four less known Sunni Muslim groups.
The council, which does not include leading groups such as the Army of Ansar al-Sunna and the Islamic Army in Iraq, said it "welcomes anyone desiring (Islam's) victory to join".
The statement's authenticity could not be verified. It was posted on a Web site often used by insurgents, which subsequently carried messages from the council claiming responsibility for attacks in recent days.
"The council also calls on Muslims in Iraq and across the world to join the jihad in Iraq to fight for the victory of religion and to defend the oppressed," it said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/16/2006 00:33 ||
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#1
Can I join? What are the satellite coordinates?
Sincerely,
JDAM
#4
The United States, hopefully with the permission of the Iraqi government, needs to make an example of someone. We need to find a town or village where the islamonazis are holed up and welcomed, and level it - grind it into dust and blow away the dust. We need to demonstrate just how nasty we can be. Use maximum non-nuclear force - JDAM, MOAB, ARCLIGHT - whatever it takes, a real "Shock and Awe" moment. Let the Iraqis know we've been working with kid gloves, and if we really wanted to get nasty, there wouldn't be a manmade object in their shitty little country left standing. Also let the rest of the world know just how powerful - and precise - we can be. Put the fear of the US into their "hearts and minds". Let them know we make a good friend, and a horrible enemy. We haven't done that yet, and we're taking a lot of flack from everyone because of it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/16/2006 16:08 Comments ||
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Al Qaeda in Iraq and some other militant groups have set up an umbrella body to coordinate their fight against U.S.-led forces and the Iraqi government
This sounds to me like it isn't only Al Qaeda that's had entirely too rapid turnover in the #3 spot. This is actually a really good sign, I think, that the many groups are trying to share management across "divisions", in the hope that they can cover the holes in one another's organizations. Problems come, however, when upper management isn't firmly involved in shaking down the new arrangement, to ensure that the most desired skill sets aren't stretched to thinly before they can train assistants, or concentrate on the urgent before the necessary (or get themselves killed1). Also, in such situations, unless upper management takes a very firm hand, division heads tend to be distracted by quarrels and scheming -- negative involvement with their peers that distracts from managing their areas of responsibility. Oh, yes, and this lot will make lots of cell phone calls, that can be traced.
I don't see the upper management of A.Q., et al having the skills needed to make this a success. On the plus side, I do see our guys having an excess of the skills needed to make their effort a blatant failure. ;-)
The US military released on Sunday some 500 prisoners cleared of ties to the Iraqi insurgency, including a pair of journalists, US military officials said.
They said that the journalists had been held in Iraqi prisons for months. Majed Hameed, an Iraqi reporter for the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya network and the Reuters news agency, was released on Sunday after four months in US custody, US Army Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said during a visit to Al-Arabiyaâs headquarters in Dubai. Ali al-Mashhadani, a photographer and cameraman for Reuters, was also freed in the mass release of 500 prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad, Reuters reported. Al-Mashhadani had been jailed in August last year.
In Baghdad, US military spokesman Lt Col Barry Johnson confirmed that the two journalists were among those released after being cleared by the Iraqi and US Combined Review and Release Board. Kimmitt was greeted in Dubai by protesters carrying placards decrying the US militaryâs arrest of Hameed and other reporters. Kimmitt said that Hameed had been a suspected threat and was held until he was cleared. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that US troops had detained Hameed on September 15 in Iraqâs Anbar province, and al-Mashhadani was held since being taken on August 8 by US Marines in a raid on his home.
Do you get the impression that the only important people among the 500 were journalists? Do you get the impression this was written by journalists?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Do you get the impression that the only important people among the 500 were journalists? Do you get the impression this was written by journalists?
look on the brite side, A-Q and Saddamists will get more air time.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
01/16/2006 8:33 Comments ||
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Communist guerrillas disguised as army troops rescued nine suspected rebels in a daring raid on a jail south of Manila, officials and a rebel spokesman said yesterday. At least four other inmates escaped during the attack. No shots were fired and no one was hurt, police said. Police separately captured three of the escapees a few hours after the late-Saturday raid by the New People's Army at the Batangas City provincial jail, and government forces were hunting down the rest, according to city police Chief Superintendent Nilo Anzo.
At least 20 guerrillas in black military black fatigues arrived at the jail in three vans, pretending to turn over an arrested criminal in handcuffs and an orange detainee shirt to jail officials. Once inside the jail, they disarmed and tied up five guards at gunpoint, then announced the rescue, Anzo said. The guerrillas raised their rifles and shouted, "Who are the NPAs here?" and then used crowbars to break the padlocks on three cells, Anzo said by telephone. The guerrillas and freed inmates, two of them women, left in the vans without firing a shot or hurting anybody, taking seven pistols and a shotgun from the jail and guards, Anzo said. Four inmates facing drug charges escaped during the commotion but government troops recaptured three of them near the jail and a nearby city, he said.
Communist rebel spokesman Gregorio Rosal congratulated the guerrillas for the successful mission, saying it showed the rebels' ability to launch delicate operations in a key city. The jail is located near the police headquarters in the busy port city of Batangas, about 55 miles south of Manila.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
NPA pretty much own Batangas. With the exception of the resorts, who all pay tax to the NPA. The jail there is little and poorly guarded. I got tossed in jail up North, temp diplomatic plates were against the local cops rules-read pay bribe here. The NPA are pretty good at what they do and it looks like they were just proving a point to the local police and leaders that the NPA was really in charge.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/16/2006 19:41 Comments ||
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#3
black military black fatigues
what color were they?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2006 19:49 Comments ||
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Despite its pledge to the European Union, Iran has significantly expanded its uranium enrichment facility. A Washington think tank has released a satellite photograph that showed extensive construction at the Natanz nuclear facility. Iran designed Natanz for the enrichment of uranium, a key process in the assembly of nuclear weapons.On Jan. 13, the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security [ISIS] released a satellite image that showed seven buildings under construction at Natanz. All of the buildings underwent construction in 2005 and some of them were meant to house or conceal thousands of gas centrifuges required for uranium enrichment.The photograph of Natanz, located about 200 kilometers southeast of Teheran, was taken on Jan. 2. On Jan. 10, Iran began removing seals from Natanz and resumed uranium enrichment.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2006 12:32 ||
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Thank you , Jimmah.
any news org have the guts to ask him some tough questions?
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met President Vladimir Putin on Monday for talks in which she was expected to press him to support European Union and U.S. diplomatic pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.
On her first visit to Moscow since taking over from Putin's close friend Gerhard Schroeder, Merkel met the Russian leader in the Kremlin for talks to discuss Iran, energy ties, the situation in Chechnya and other issues, German officials said.
Though German officials said Iran would be at the forefront of the talks, Merkel initially made only an oblique reference to Tehran's nuclear plans that have sparked Western suspicions that the Islamic state is secretly trying to build a nuclear weapon.
"There are a range of bilateral issues to discuss here ... There are international themes to be discussed, connected to your chairmanship of the G8 and also opinions to be exchanged about conflicts," Merkel told Putin as they met.
Merkel, who just returned from her first official trip to Washington, agreed with U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday that it was time to refer Iran to the UN Security Council over its refusal to abandon uranium enrichment technology that could enable it to get atomic weapons, officials said.
"In Washington the hope was expressed that there could be common approach by the EU, USA and Russia," said a German government official in Berlin who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The officials say Russia has also expressed displeasure at Iran's rejection of a proposal to set up a joint venture inside Russia that would enable Tehran to produce nuclear fuel for what it says is an exclusively peaceful atomic energy program.
SANCTIONS
Germany is the world's top exporter of goods to Iran and would have much to lose if Tehran faced sanctions. It exported 4 billion euros of goods to Iran last year.
Russia, which recently took over chairmanship of the G8 group of rich democracies, also has business interests there and fears sending Iran to the Security Council could escalate Tehran's standoff with West into an international crisis.
Among other projects, Moscow is building a $1 billion nuclear power plant at Bushehr in Iran and hopes to build more.
However, Alexander Rahr, an expert on German-Russian relations at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said he believed Moscow and the EU could work together on Iran.
"The signs are that Russia has no interest in seeing Iran with a nuclear bomb," Rahr said.
An EU diplomat in Berlin said Merkel hoped to get an assurance from Putin that Moscow would not vote against referring Tehran to the Security Council at an emergency meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog expected to take place next month.
"It seems that Putin will agree not to vote no, but will abstain. A yes vote would be better," the diplomat said.
Germany, France and Britain -- the EU3 -- said last week that 2-1/2 years of talks with Iran on its nuclear program had reached a dead end. But one German official said the talks could be revived if Iran re-suspended its nuclear fuel activities and reconsidered its rejection of Russia's proposal.
The chancellor, who grew up in Germany's formerly communist East and speaks fluent Russian, is under pressure from the opposition to confront Putin on reports that the development of democracy and human rights in Russia is slowing down.
Iran has allocated the equivalent of $215 million for the construction of what would be its second and third nuclear power plants, state radio reported Monday.
The report did not give the location of the new reactors, but last month Iran said it planned to build new plants in the southern Iranian provinces of Khuzestan and Bushehr.
Iran's first reactor has been built at Bushehr with Russian assistance and is due to come on stream this year.
"Some 1,940 billion rials have been allocated for the building of two nuclear power plants in the draft budget bill for the next Iranian year," the head of Iran's Management and Planning Organization, Farhad Rahbar, told Tehran radio. The US dollar trades at about 9,000 rials on the open market, and the Iranian new year begins March 21.
Iran plans to build 20 more nuclear plants, and Russia has offered to build some of them.
Iran is under increasing international pressure over its nuclear program as it insists on controlling the whole fuel cycle - from mining uranium to enriching it to the point where it can be used in reactors. The West objects to Iran's enriching uranium as the process can be used to produce material for nuclear bombs.
The United States accuses Iran of trying secretly to build nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies. Britain, France and Germany, with US backing, have been trying to persuade Iran to import nuclear fuel, but Iran has rejected this.
#1
Clearly Putin has forgotten his own country's victims to Muslim terrorist. Beslan school and the Moscow Theater just to name two attacks. What could he be thinking in helping Islamics build nuke plants?
I've never trusted Putin but I've never thought he was stupid. Until now.
#2
Let's see
Andropov was the protege of Suslov
Putin was the protege of Andropov
But... Andropov is prez of Russia not the USSR
So, is the KGB still in Putin?
and since Suslov was party...
Is the Party still in Putin?
Then Is the Cold War over in Putin's view?
The Russian 'commercial' nuclear plants aren't particularly efficient, aren't particularly safe and their byproducts aren't that easy to convert to bombs (it may even be easier to just start from scratch with uranian ore).
Russian military reactors do produce very enriched endproduct.
Iranian scientists are expected to start work this week on the highly technical task of enriching tons of uranium to a level where it could be used in the production of atomic weapons, say the latest reports received by western intelligence agencies.
The work is to be undertaken at the top-secret Natanz uranium enrichment facility 90 miles north-east of the capital, Teheran.
The very existence of the plant was concealed from the outside world until two years ago, when an Iranian exile group produced details of its work.
Intelligence sources say Iran will begin feeding converted uranium into 164 centrifuges at Natanz this week. That could enable it to create enriched uranium of sufficient quality for nuclear weapons production within three years.
Previous estimates of the minimum time required had ranged from five to 10 years.
Iran's unilateral decision to resume enrichment is by far the most critical development in its latest stand-off with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations-sponsored body responsible for enforcing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
As a signatory to the NPT, Iran is obliged to provide the IAEA with a comprehensive breakdown of all its nuclear activity, which Teheran insists is purely for the development of an indigenous nuclear power industry - despite Iran having one of the world's largest known oil reserves.
But the discrepancies that have appeared in declarations to IAEA inspectors - which included concealing the existence of the Natanz complex - have increased suspicions that Iran is well advanced in its clandestine programme to build a nuclear weapon.
Nuclear experts working for the intelligence agencies have concluded that it now has the resources necessary for developing a nuclear weapon.
"Iran has spent the past 20 years scouring the world to acquire all the means of production and materials necessary for building nuclear weapons," a senior western intelligence officer told The Daily Telegraph.
"The big intelligence debate now is not whether Iran can build a bomb, but how long it will take them to build it."
Despite concerted attempts by western intelligence to prevent them acquiring nuclear equipment, the Iranians have managed to import key components.
Latest reports suggest that Iran has at least 1,000 tons of uranium -"yellowcake", the oxide of uranium that can be enriched to create weapons-grade uranium.
It was acquired from Niger and South Africa in the late 1990s. When processed, that quantity of yellowcake could provide enough material for five nuclear bombs.
The Iranians have also obtained key components for processing the yellowcake and technical expertise from A Q Khan, the controversial scientist regarded as being the "father" of Pakistan's nuclear bomb.
By far the most alarming acquisition from Pakistan, according to western intelligence assessments, is the P2 centrifuge, the highly sophisticated device necessary for enriching uranium to weapons grade.
In order to reach the advanced stage needed for building an atomic weapon, it is necessary to connect a number of centrifuges so that they form a "cascade".
When they were finally allowed to visit Natanz two years ago, IAEA inspectors were alarmed to discover that the Iranians had managed to construct a cascade. This comprises 164 centrifuges, which are based on Pakistan's P2 design.
Any doubts about the effectiveness of the devices were banished when soil samples taken from the site by IAEA inspectors showed traces of weapons-grade uranium.
If the nuclear programme were genuinely aimed at developing nuclear power, there would be no need to process weapons-grade uranium.
Asked to explain the soil samples, the Iranians provided the rather lame excuse that the traces had inadvertently been imported from an unidentified foreign power - believed to be Pakistan - when the centrifuges were purchased.
This is only one of the many glaring inconsistencies that have appeared in the Iranians' submissions to the IAEA, which has been powerless to prevent their relentless pursuit of nuclear technology.
As a consequence Iran now has all the means of production and materials to proceed to the final weapons stage.
That process will begin this week when scientists resume work on processing uranium to weapons grade at Natanz.
Much of the preparatory work has already been done at the Isfahan nuclear conversion plant.
Work resumed there last year when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the removal of IAEA seals, unilaterally breaking the Paris Accord of November 2004.
This was negotiated with the European Union as Iran promised to suspend its nuclear activities until IAEA inspectors had satisfied themselves that Teheran's nuclear intentions were purely peaceful.
Isfahan has the capacity to process 300 tons of yellowcake a year, and before work was suspended in 2004 it was known that 37 tons had been developed to make uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas. UF6 is a key component in achieving weapons grade.
Once the UF6 is produced, it is transferred to Natanz where it is fed into the centrifuges to enrich uranium to weapons grade.
Exactly how much UF6 has been produced since the Isfahan seals were removed last August is unknown, although conservative intelligence estimates suggest there are sufficient stocks of UF6 for 30 kilos of enriched uranium. The warhead used at Hiroshima contained 25 kilos.
The only question remaining for western intelligence is to assess exactly how long it will take the Iranians to complete the process.
"We just don't know how efficient the Natanz plant is at enriching uranium," said an intelligence official.
"This is a very complex and highly sophisticated process that requires a great deal of technical ability."
IAEA officials have estimated that it will take Iran three years to produce weapons-grade uranium once the Natanz plant resumes work.
Given that its Shahab-3 ballistic missile system has the range to hit southern Europe, it is clear that the threat posed by Teheran's hard-line regime is significant and urgent.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/16/2006 00:43 ||
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#1
Given that its Shahab-3 ballistic missile system has the range to hit southern Europe
#5
Due to the simple fact that Iran has continuously concealed nearly every aspect of their nuclear program, ALL ESTIMATES OF WHERE THEY STAND ON AN ATOMIC WEAPONS BUILDUP TIMELINE ARE MEANINGLESS.
It is far better to go in and cripple them now than to find out we all were spectacularly wrong in another few months or years.
#6
They already have dirty bomb capacity. And they have a leader who believes that angels are guiding him to final jihad against Western Civilization. And we are sandbagged by alien, suicidal "values" concerning respect for sham Muslim "democracy."
Folks: Approximately 100,000,000 people died in the two World Wars. Most were civilians. Prior to Hiroshima, millions of Germans were slaughtered in the Allied bombings. In the magnesium bombing of Tokyo, 200,000 people were burned to death in one night. Annihilation of adversaries is the rule; peaceful co-existence is the exception. The Rainbow Coalition (Bush43) use of limited war in Afghanistan, Iraq and whatever monstrosity comes next, against a mortal enemy, is pure folly. Future generations will hold pilgrimages to spit on GWB's grave, if he doesn't terminate the Iran threat, by any means necessary. Ergo: let's nuke Iran, and place Sunni Iraq, Syria and the Saud terrorist entity under nuclear blackmail, without giving a second thought to either the numbers of dead or sovereignty claims of those worthless primitives.
Fred: When did we forget that enemy life is cheap?
#8
Ergo: let's nuke Iran, and place Sunni Iraq, Syria and the Saud terrorist entity under nuclear blackmail, without giving a second thought to either the numbers of dead or sovereignty claims of those worthless primitives.
For how disgusted I am with Muslims in general, I'm almost amazed that I have to do this but, you're still smoking waaaaay too much rope, CF. I try to remain unconcerned about making more enemies, especially in the Islamic world, yet your plan guarantees making the worst sort of foes. Namely, ones we didn't need to make. Iran's people are pretty well fed up with thier tyrannical government. While they may not all be pro-West, they are certainly sick of the Mullahcracy.
WERE WE TO ATTACK IRAN WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS, WE WOULD RIGHTLY MAKE INCONTROVERTIBLE ENEMIES OUT OF NOT JUST ISLAMIC NATIONS, BUT MANY ALLIES AS WELL.
You just don't seem to get this with all your "nuke 'em now" spewing. Your logic is on a par with the terrorists who want to attack America with nuclear weapons. More then anything, first use of nuclear weapons by America would justify nuclear terrorism against our nation. WHAT PART OF THAT EQUATION DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
Fred: When did we forget that enemy life is cheap?
While enemy life may be cheap, certainly cheaper than that of our own soldiers, making MILLIONS of new and utterly polarized enemies ALL AT ONCE is worse than stupid. It represents the most shortsighted and hateful thinking possible and places you on a par with Iran's own holocaust-denying president.
I certainly hope that Fred has the time to respond to your lunacy as well.
While I fully support placing all terrorist sponsors and proliferators on notice that a single nuclear attack on America will get ALL OF THEM glassed over like a museum display case, what you promote is sheer depravity and plays into the terrorists hands better than any other strategy.
#9
It's a simple message. Any attack on the US or it's allies with Nuclear Devices or other WMD will be met with instant and total retaliation. The Norks and Iran are first on the list.
Preemption isn't a realistic option at this point.
#11
Crazi: No worries--Zenster used to sound EXACTLY like you, and now he's apparently done a 180. I don't believe it, but it would be great to hear his conversion process toward political sanity. How 'bout it Zen?
Three Turkish paragliders have been kidnapped by Sunni Muslim rebels in Iranâs southeastern borderlands, officials in Tehran said yesterday.
âUnfortunately, three Turks have been kidnapped in Iran,â Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
Turkish sources said the men were probably seized late last month. A Turkish official in Iran, who requested anonymity, said the three were Husein Avni Ozan, Serdar Durna and Yurdaer Etike.
âThe ... paragliders are well,â the official told Reuters, adding Ankara was following the case closely with Iran.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/16/2006 00:38 ||
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I admit, my knowledge of world events regarding Iran is sorely lacking. But I am stumped by this one. Turks paragliding in Iran's SOUTHEASTERN borderlands kidnapped by Sunni Muslims.
I'm assuming that there isn't a travel agency that sets paragliders up to visit that area ..just for fun. Most Turks are Sunni's. Most Iranians are Shia. So......even if the kidnapped Turks were Kurds.... I'm sooooo confused. Can anyone translate?
Iran stepped up its defiance of international pressure over its nuclear programme yesterday by warning of soaring oil prices if it is subjected to economic sanctions. As diplomats from the US, Europe, Russia, and China prepared to meet today in London to discuss referring Tehran to the UN security council, Iran's economy minister, Davoud Danesh-Jafari, said the country's position as the world's fourth-largest oil producer meant such action would have grave consequences.
"Any possible sanctions from the west could possibly, by disturbing Iran's political and economic situation, raise oil prices beyond levels the west expects," he told Iranian state radio.
In a provocative move, Iran also announced plans yesterday to convene a "scientific" conference to examine the evidence supporting the Holocaust. The news comes weeks after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked a global outcry by describing the slaughter of 6 million Jews by the Nazis in the second world war as a "myth".
Mr Danesh-Jafari's comments echoed fears voiced by energy market analysts after crude oil prices last week rose above $64 (£36.50) a barrel as hopes faded of a diplomatic solution to the dispute.
Last week, Manouchehr Takin, of the Centre for Global Energy Studies, argued that crude prices could hit $100 a barrel if Iran stopped exporting. "Supply and demand are very tightly balanced," he said.
Mr Danesh-Jafari's warning added weight to veiled threats by Iran's president on Saturday. Iran had a "cheap means" of achieving its nuclear "rights", Mr Ahmadinejad said, adding: "You [the west] need us more than we need you. All of you today need the Iranian nation."
Recognising the danger, Gernot Erler, Germany's deputy foreign minister, said yesterday: "We are seeing desperate measures by Asian countries, mainly China, India and others, to get hold of energy resources, and for them Iran is a partner they can't do without." He said it was "dangerous" to put restrictions on trade relations "which could hurt one's own side more than the other side".
Iran's Islamic leaders insist that they want nuclear technology to satisfy its energy needs. The west suspects the intention is to produce a nuclear weapon.
But even amid the continuing rancour, some Iranian officials appeared to soften the bellicose stance. Calling for a return to negotiations, foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused the west of over-reacting to Tehran's decision last week to remove UN seals and resume research at a nuclear plant in Natan, when Britain, France and Germany formally abandoned 2œ years of talks and demanded Iran's referral to the UN security council.
Although Britain has ruled out military moves against Iran, two American senators yesterday said the US might undertake a strike of "last resort" to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. The Republican John McCain told CBS: "Everything else has to be exhausted, but to say under no circumstances would we exercise a military option would be crazy." Democrat Evan Bayh urged diplomacy, but said there were elements of Iran's nuclear programme which, if attacked, "would dramatically delay its development".
White House spokesman David Almacy said: "The international community is determined not to let Iran develop a nuclear weapon. How we address that regime's continued non-compliance will be decided in the days and weeks ahead."
The UN security council issue will be the centrepiece of today's meeting, when EU and US officials will attempt to persuade their Russian and Chinese counterparts of the need for a referral, which could lead to economic sanctions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/16/2006 00:32 ||
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They don't ever have to attack us. Just mouth off and prices go up because of speculator's. Stop speculation, then thier mouthing off won't matter as much.
A terrorism expert says he has seen evidence showing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is either seriously ill or dead.
Dr Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University, says documents provided by an Indian colleague suggested bin Laden died of massive organ failure in April last year.
"It does seem reasonably convincing based on the evidence that I've been provided with that he's certainly either severely incapacitated or dead at this stage," Dr Williams said.
Dr Williams said Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy who was the target of a US air strike in Pakistan last week, has been making all statements on behalf of the terror network for the past year.
Dr Williams said proving whether the terrorist leader was still alive might be impossible.
"It's hard to prove or disprove these things because there hasn't really been anything that allows you to make a judgment one way or the other," Dr Williams said.
"But it does seem strange that Dr Zawahiri has been making all of the statements since then, and nothing's been heard from bin Laden since, I think, the December of the year before."
Dr Williams said even if bin Laden was dead, those who upheld the same philosophies would continue to fight for their cause.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/16/2006 00:30 ||
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Dr Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University, says documents provided by an Indian colleague suggested bin Laden died of massive organ failure in April last year.
I can see it now .com, his color is way bad.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
01/16/2006 8:38 Comments ||
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Heh, RD. I've decided this one is better...
From SomethingAwful Photoshop Phridays
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
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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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.
A suicide bomber in southern Afghanistan has killed himself and five others in an attack on an Afghan army vehicle. Among the dead were three soldiers from the country's US-trained army, and two Afghan civilians. 
Afghanistan's government said on Sunday that it recently established a 1,000-strong tribal militia force to tighten security along the border with Pakistan.
MIRANSHAH: Five rockets were fired at a paramilitary check post near the Afghan border, however, no casualties were reported, a security official said on Sunday. Suspected militants fired rockets at Amin check post near Miranshah late on Saturday, the official told AFP. The soldiers responded immediately, exchanging fire with the militants for more than 90 minutes, the official said, adding that casualties among the insurgents were unknown.
SRINAGAR, India - Indian soldiers have killed three key Pakistani members of a hardline Islamic 
Suspected tribal militants blew up a gas pipeline in the Dera Murad Jamali on Sunday, shutting supplies to a US and British-owned power plant for the second time this month, a government official said. A blast damaged a 24-inch diameter pipeline, cutting off gas supply to the nearby Uch private power plant. "It is an act of sabotage," Abdul Samad Lasi, a senior local administration official, said.
Unidentified men ambushed Superintendent of Police Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam's jeep at about 4:30pm on Sunday, killing two policemen. The attack took place during President Pervez Musharraf's visit to the city. 
Communist guerrillas disguised as army troops rescued nine suspected rebels in a daring raid on a jail south of Manila, officials and a rebel spokesman said yesterday. At least four other inmates escaped during the attack. No shots were fired and no one was hurt, police said. Police separately captured three of the escapees a few hours after the late-Saturday raid by the New People's Army at the Batangas City provincial jail, and government forces were hunting down the rest, according to city police Chief Superintendent Nilo Anzo.
