Break-down of number of troops by country at site
A THREE-STAR British general who takes control of Nato operations in Afghanistan this week will have thousands of American combat troops under his command — the first time this has happened since General Bernard Montgomery took charge of the US 9th Army in late 1944.
Lieutenant-General David RichardsÂ’s command will cover every region of the country by September and include about 8,000 US combat troops, who are engaged in counterinsurgency and reconstruction programmes in eastern Afghanistan. They currently come under US Central Command.
Under the leadership of General Richards, who heads NatoÂ’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan is spreading its wings to encompass the southern and eastern provinces with a total of 15,000 troops.
In the south, in Helmand province, 3,300 British troops with full combat potential will be operational by the end of July. The only soldiers who will remain strictly under the control of US Central Command will be American special forces and covert operators engaged against al-Qaeda in Operation Enduring Freedom.
General Richards, 54, a keen student of military history, will not need to be reminded of what happened to Monty when he was handed overall command of the US 9th Army during the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes — the largest land battle of the Second World War.
The Americans had already suffered huge losses and did not take kindly to remarks from Monty at a press conference when he boasted that he had defeated the Germans. His command of the American troops was swiftly withdrawn.
General Richards will also be wary of any comparisons with Britain’s 19th-century role in Afghanistan during the “Great Game” against the Tsarist Russian Empire, immortalised by Rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim.
Britain, this time in its Nato role, is involved in a wholly different endeavour, seeking to spread the authority of the Afghan Government across the country by a mixture of hearts-and-minds diplomacy and robust defence against hostile opponents, and by extending troop presence to areas where drug barons and warlords have traditionally dominated. Yesterday a suicide bomber struck against US forces just outside Kandahar on the road to Helmand. One soldier was left with nails embedded in his head, but was stable. Over the weekend Canadian troops clashed with Taleban rebels in Helmand province. No Canadians were injured but up to 20 rebels were killed. On Sunday the body of an Indian telecommunications engineer was discovered beheaded after he was abducted on Friday in the southern province of Zabul.
The British mission to reconstruct southern Afghanistan will be set right in the middle of the increasing violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 14:31 Comments ||
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#4
No worries. The Britts are solid folks, though this is a major shift in US military practice. But its a good sign of the military's will to deal equally with its coalition partners. Granted, the only exception we would even consiger this would be the UK.
This is what the US in Afghanistan calls ISAF South. The technicallity is that US forces are actually under NATO.
#8
The mnemonic we taugh troops for General rnak precedence was:
Be
My
Little
General
1 star Brigadier General (brigade, major base commands)
2 stars Major General (Division Commanders)
3 stars Lt General (Corps Commanders)
4 stars General (Large Command commanders)
#10
Because it worked out so well at Kasseriene Pass
"I have never seen so bad soldiers in their first combat and who improved so fast fpr the second" (Erwin Rommel referring to American soldiers).
Kasserine pass was the first real combat for the American soldiers and they sucked at it. In fact it was basically the whiole US Armed Forces who sucked after the severe budget cuts from the Roosevelt adminstration durintg the thirties (all while going in a colllisioon course gainst Germany and Japan) it was unprepared. Just remember the obsolete air tactics in early war, the torpedos who didn't explode, the battleships only in name (most of those were sunk at Pearl Harbor but they were not even to 1918 standards), the Stuart and Lee tanks, the apalling Devastators, the Brewster Buffalos, and the fact that in 1942 America had nothing better that the P40 who was outclassed even by 194O vintage Meseserchmitts 109E and Spittfires Mark II.
Also what was in the development line (Thunderbolts and Lightnings) was not that great while the P51 Mustang (unavalaible by 12/7/41) it was rejected by the USAAF and it was the British who sponsored its development.
The only thing who was real good inn the American inventory in 1941 was the B17 bomber (and the bombers in developmebnt were also very good). Perhaps because bomber technology was in fact not that different from the one for airliners while fighters are "standalone" technology and benefit far less from advances in civilian aircraft.
#11
Well, JFM, there was one other thing in the inventory which was good: George S. Patton. He was the man who took the Kasserine Pass losers and whipped them into winners. I'm sure you already knew this - I'm just reminding you, lol.
When participating in a multinational operation, the senior commanders must agree early on the type of C2 authority that will govern the operations of the forces. In any multinational operation, the US commander retains command over all assigned US forces. The US chain of command runs from the NCA to the combatant commander. The chain of command, from the President to the lowest US commander in the field, remains inviolate. The definitions shown in this section demonstrate the complexity of multinational operations. Subtle differences in terms, especially operational control, cause confusion even among allies with a long history of multinational operations.
Although political considerations are critical, a clear point must be established where political structure ends and military structure begins. The MNF commander should report to the combatant commander or a subordinate joint force commander (JFC), who acts as a buffer between political leadership and military structures. This might mean that a US corps commander designated as the commander of the joint task force (CJTF) is the political-military buffer, and the deputy corps commander controls military operations as a joint force land component commander (JFLCC). The combatant commander determines the specific relationship.
Congress' power per Article I, Section 8, in writing the laws governing land and naval forces results in this situation.
#13
Now JFM let's be nice. How many of those A-20s did France scream for? And while the Grant and Lee were no great shakes, the British took every damn one we could ship. To be honest a lot of US R&D money was being spent on stuff that wouldn't be usable for a year or two, the B-29 and the B-36, also high energy weapons in case Europe couldn't defend itself. Luckily it worked out well. Glad we didn't have to nuke Brusells from Iceland.
#15
AlanC the rank of Major General was once know as Seargent Major General but that was rather cumbersome so the Seargent was dropped. That's why a Lt General outranks a Major General.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/02/2006 19:37 Comments ||
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#16
Deacon: "Cumbersome" generals? I've known one or two, yes.
#18
AT Kasserine US ground troops were under overall Brit command, whom had them spread out over wide fronts in vain attempt to control same; the Stuart or Jenny tank, while inferior to heavier German tanks, proved to be well-suited for the light recon role where speed was more essential than firepower; the Lees by most accounts were well-liked by the Brits - its interior was roomy and comfortable, while its main gun could stop any German tank wid one or a few shots, includ the [early]TIGER series. As for the Devastators at Midway, as were the newer modern TBF Avengers, performance aside it must be remembered that they were grossly outnumbered by the Japanese naval CAP, as much as 4:1 or 5:1 per Devastator/TBF, combat odds which only increased against the small numbers of attacking American carrier torpedo planes as the Japanese first strike againt Midway was also in process of returning to their carriers. It must also be remembered that the USN before Pearl Harbor was also already transitioning from torpedo-only or dive attack-only air to aircraft capable of cheaper [$$$ + lives] + more effective multi-role attack or flight missions - the US Army Air Corps/Air Forces did the same thing but later in the war, e.g. fighters armed with bombs-rockets, Thunderbolts armed wid two torpedoes, ....etc. While there were serious problems wid US torpedoes early in the war, enough of them worked to cause worry and heartache to many a Navy or Merchant Marine son of Nippon. As for US battleships, iff their performance in surface combat against the more modernized Japanese BB's from Guadacanal-Solomons campaigns to Leyte Gulf is any measure, US BB's could 've done very well against German or Italian Battleships. Its fair to say that, knowing the lead times in years or decades both the Germans and Japanese had in modernizing or dev their classes of warships, the US Navy would've attempted to match type of ship(s) wid the imminent or known enemy threats -in the Battle for the Atlantic, it is more likely the USN would've sent a newer NORTH CAROLINA-class, NEW MEXICO-class, or SOUTH DAKOTA-class to fight or sink the BISMARCK, NOT THE PRE-PEARL HARBOR NEVADA-CLASS, ETAL. HOWEVER POWERFUL OR ARMORED, WHICH THE PEARL HARBOR BB's WERE DESPITE THEIR ARCHAIC APEARANCES. I have no doubts a NORTH CAROLINA or SOUTH DAKOTA, or any pre- or post-Pearl Harbor BB, could've heavily damaged or even sunk the BISMARCK. As for the P40, a close look at USAAC/USAAF combat records will show they shot down many an ME109 or other Luftwaffe aircraft both in the Battle of Britain and over North Africa, as ditto for the P40 against the famed Japanese Zero. WE AMERICANS FOR SOME REASON LIKE = LOVE TO UNDER-RATE OUR WEAPONS. Despite the detriments wrought by isolationism and the Depression, we learned from our mistakes, caught up with the enemy, and won. Just remember, JOE STALIN himself > SOVIET RUSSIA + BRITAIN + EUROPE, WHETHER SEPARATELY OR TOGETHER, COULD NOT DEFEAT HITLER AND NAZI GERMANY [and by extens JAPAN]WITHOUT AMERICA. Many of Stalin's and Mao's boyz shot at Amer soldiers, units, planes and ships even as American forces was trying to help them fight and win against Adolf and Tojo.
The British commander who took formal control of Afghanistan's drug-dominated Helmand province yesterday insisted his men would "not be going out to look for trouble" despite Taliban threats to send them home in bodybags.
Brigadier Ed Butler denied there were plans for pre-emptive strikes against insurgent strongholds when the main body of the planned 3300-strong garrison arrives next month. Tribal conflicts over water, land and historical issues posed a greater threat than either the Taliban or al Qaeda, he said.
The UK force represents the first major stage of a rolling, country-wide handover of security by the US to Nato and will allow the Pentagon to withdraw more than 3000 troops as allied contingents replace them in the volatile south and east.
Canadian soldiers in neighbouring Kandahar killed up to 20 insurgents and Afghan government soldiers in Uruzgan claimed a further four in a series of gunbattles and ambushes over the weekend.
Two Canadian soldiers were slightly wounded and their vehicle destroyed by a roadside bomb east of Kandahar yesterday. A suicide bomber died without inflicting casualties when he drove his car into an Afghan army convoy in the Greiskh area of Helmand.
Control of Helmand, which is almost half the size of Belgium, was transferred in a ceremony near Lashkar Gar, the provincial capital.
The only visible change was the lowering of the US flag and the raising of the Union flag at Camp Bastion, the tented and fortified base which will be British headquarters for at least the next three years.
Taliban leaders announced last week they planned to target British soldiers, regarded as "old enemies" who had lost two major wars against Pashtun tribesmen in the 1800s and would lose again.
Brigadier Butler said the problems his troops would face were more fundamental than tackling insurgency if they were to fulfil their long-term commitment to security and reconstruction: "We are determined to make a difference to the lives of ordinary Afghans. We have a very clear mission in those respects and will not be going out to look for trouble."
British forces have, until now, been confined to the area round Kabul, the capital, and to small reconstruction projects in the north.
As reported by The Herald yesterday, local farmers have asked the Taliban to delay their expected spring campaign against the British until the poppy crop has been harvested in two to three weeks. Helmand produces 25-30% of the opium resin which is refined into the heroin sold on UK streets. Farmers can make 10 times as much growing poppies as they can from growing food crops such as wheat or maize.
Five British soldiers have been wounded, two seriously, in the build-up to the handover. Three were slightly injured by a suicide bomber and two others drove over a landmine.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:14 ||
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KUNA -- An explosion in southern Afghanistan wounded two Canadian soldiers while the Afghan military announced arresting a prominent Taliban commander during an operation, launched last week, in the same region. A senior police official on condition of anonymity said the suicide blast took place while the Canadian convoy was on its way to the Maiwand district of the Kandahar province. He said a suicide attacker exploded his car near the convoy, which injured two soldiers. Military spokesman Quentin Innis told journalists two Canadian soldiers were wounded. But he said it was a mine blast that hit the military convoy. He said one vehicle was destroyed in the attack.
Meanwhile, provincial police claimed they had arrested a senior Taliban commander in the same province on Sunday night. The arrested man has been identified as Maulvi Mohammad Ibrahim, local commander of the militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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KUNA: The US-led coalition forces stationed in southern Afghanistan said they had killed about 15 Taliban fighters during an operation in the country's restive Helmand province. A press release issued from US' Bagram base said the "enemies" were killed in the Sangeen district of the province. No coalition's casualties or damages were reported in the firefight with the insurgents, said the release.
That makes it even better.
Spokesman for the coalition's Combined Joint Task Force - 76 Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fitzpatrick said the operation was carried out in Helmand on Saturday. Giving details, the spokesman said: "A coalition patrol in the Sangeen district observed several men carrying Ak-47 assault rifles and RPG-7 grenade launchers moving with the intent to set up an ambush". After positively determining the activity as enemy operations and confirming no civilians were in the vicinity, coalition forces effectively attacked the men and killed from 15 to 20 insurgents. Taliban did not issue any statement about the coalition's fresh claim.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
It was the Canadians, probably the Princess Pat's. Contract this with the story further up where the Brits "won't be looking for trouble".
Security forces Monday fatally shot three men wanted in terrorist bombings that killed at least 18 people in a coastal Sinai Peninsula resort last week, officials said.
A policeman also died in the gunfight near Risan, about 25 miles south of el-Arish, a Mediterranean coastal city near the Egyptian border with Gaza, security and police officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
The three men fatally shot Monday brought to six the number of wanted men killed in the past three days as Egyptian authorities swept the barren, mountainous and forbidding Sinai interior.
Authorities found the remains of 21 people after the April 24 triple bombing in Dahab, a popular coastal resort, and were awaiting DNA test results to see if three of the dead were suicide bombers.
On Wednesday, two suicide bombers targeted vehicles carrying international peacekeepers and police not far from el-Arish. Only the attackers died.
Egyptian authorities have blamed the attacks on local terrorists, pointing the finger at disaffected Bedouin tribesmen who inhabit the peninsula.
Terrorism experts, however, have said the attackers more likely were from al-Qaeda-linked terrorist cells given shelter by the semi-nomadic Bedouins.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:18 ||
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Quite a bit of interesting detail in this article. The explosion occurred on Saturday.
The Nigeria Police yesterday said the bomb blast which rocked the petroleum tanker driversÂ’ park in Warri on Saturday night might have been timed to start a chain reaction of explosions. Superintendent of Police, Mr. Job Olorijolu, who led six other police bomb disposal experts told the Chief of Defence Staff, General Alex Ogomudia, who yesterday went to the scene of the incident to see things for himself.
CSI: Warri on the case...
Ogomudia was shown the deep crater on the concrete floor of the park where THISDAY gathered over 200 trucks were at the park when the explosion occurred. According to information, the bomb was placed inside a Mercedes Benz 190 Saloon car whose parts were scattered over several areas. The Police said the bomb was timed to create several explosions among the trucks which were tightly parked together. But, according to information, the ploy failed as all the trucks were without products as at the time of the incident as it was weekend and no loading of products had taken place.
However, the explosion sent several pieces of the car into different directions, shattering most of the louvres on the National Union of Petroleum and National Gas Workers (NUPENG), Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) unit office. Several trucks nearby were also badly damaged. THISDAY gathered that the devastation of the explosion would have affected the David Ejoor Barracks of the 93 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, which also serve as headquarters of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger Delta, Operation Restore Hope.
A two-fer!
Ogomudia, accompanied by the Commander of the JTF, Brig. Gen. Alfred Ilogho, the Commanding Officer of the Warri Naval Base, NNS Delta, Captain Mufutau Ajibade and the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom were surprised that there was no internal security arrangement for safeguarding properties at the park by NUPENG.
"Surprise!"
He was, however, told by the Chairman of NUPENG PTD, Mr. Matthias Ote, that the unit made up of drivers are in no financial position to undertake the huge financial burden of erecting a perimeter fence for the park. He said that they have been appealing to the Delta State Government, which donated the park to the union, to help build a fence around it.
It would be recalled that barely 10 minutes after the explosion, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, (MEND) claimed responsibility for the explosion. The militant group in a message sent to media houses said it has detonated a car bomb near the Warri refinery.
The State Security Specialized Penal Court (SSSPC) scheduled Al-QaidaÂ’s 19 suspects final session for the 21st of this month. This will be the suspectsÂ’ last chance to defend themselves before the final verdict is made. The defense lawyers will present their last and strongest evidence in the defense of their clients who face charges of involvement in an armed gang plotting to kill foreigners in Yemen as well as Yemenis, endangering the national security, and forging ID cards and passports.
This was announced in yesterdayÂ’s court session for the 19 Al-Qaeda suspects including 4 Saudi citizens, charged with connections with Al-Qaeda network and accused of plotting attacks against western interests in Yemen. The court allowed prosecution to respond to the appeal presented by defense-advocates of suspects No. 18 and 19 Jalal Al-Kadas and Aqil Al-Kuhali. At the hearing, suspects renewed their denial of the charges attributed to them, describing them as false as they claimed to know each other during their current imprisonment.
During the hearing, suspect Mohsen BalÂ’eed complained that he was subjected to beating seven times in the political security and insisted on his extradition to Saudi Arabia, claiming he is a Saudi and not a Yemeni. BalÂ’eed confessed that he forged his ID card at age 17, disguised to have the name Ammar Ahmar Saleh Al-Hazmi for the purpose of traveling to Iraq.
The other Saudi suspect Mohamed Al-Qahtani confessed that he came from Iraq in the company of an Iraqi patient, one of those injured in Iraq battles. He said he will surrender himself to the Saudi Embassy in Damascus but fears torture. Al-Qahtani denied that he does know other suspects saying it was only in prison when he recognized them.
All suspects claimed the main reason for their trial is traveling to Iraq. Confirming their sentiments they shouted from inside the dock, “Allah is the Greatest, Victory to Islam, Muslims, Usama Bin Laden, Aiman Al-Dhawahri, Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi and all militants in the Islamic countries.”
The defense-team termed the trial a drama and demanded the court judge not to play along, labeling the indictment as false, as no crime actually happened. It called for the court not to prolong the case-related procedures or withhold the case. Lawyer of Saudi suspects Abdulmalik Al-Sanabani said prolonging case procedures and trials constitutes an extra burden on the suspectsÂ’ families who attend each session.
At another session, the court discussed case of Nawaf Mohamed Behaibeh, 23, accused of harboring and hiding suspects Jamal Al-Badwi and Fahd Al-QasaÂ’a after they escaped from Aden political security prison in April 2003. The pair is charged with bombing the USS Cole.
The prosecutor read out the indictment, explaining that Nawaf Behaibeh, along with others, formed an armed gang that assaulted officials authorized to arrest Al-Badwi, Al-Qasa’a and other wanted suspects. Behaibeh denied the charge attributed to him by the prosecutor. “The charges are false and confessions were made due to psychological pressure,” he said.
The court concluded the session to enable BehaibehÂ’s lawyer to view the case file and the prosecutor to present evidence in support for the indictment.
Al-Badwi, Al-QuseiÂ’ and eight other suspects are accused of the USS Cole Attack in October 2000. They escaped Aden political security prison in April 2003 and were recaptured. In September 2005, Al-Badwi was sentenced to death, but the Appeal Court reduced the sentence to a 15-year imprisonment term. Under the preliminary verdict, Al-QuseiÂ’ was sentenced to ten years in prison. Suspect Jamal Al-Badwi escaped along with other 20 accomplices through a tunnel stretching from the political security prison in SanaÂ’a to a nearby mosque last February.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 01:33 ||
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David Hicks complained to Australian officials about flea-ridden bedding in his Guantanamo Bay cell just one day before being moved to solitary confinement as payback, his father says.
US military lawyer Major Michael Mori also says his Australian client has been forced to wear the same clothes for three weeks. In an email update on Hicks' condition, Major Mori said Hicks was locked in his cell for 22 hours a day, unable to communicate with anyone, and his clothes smelled. "When I first saw Hicks, his clothes look very dirty and smelled. He said they had not changed his clothes in three weeks," he said.
"David is living in a cement room with a steel door. He cannot communicate with anyone. He is locked in the room for 22 hours a day."
Even my digital sympathy meter doesn't register a twitch. This is no worse than a super-max prison like Marion.
Hicks' father, Terry Hicks, says his son complained of flea-ridden bed linen just a day before being transferred to solitary confinement. "It is quite strange that it was a day after the Australian consular people left him," Mr Hicks said.
Three weeks ago, it was revealed the 30-year-old Australian had been moved to an isolation cell, but Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said at the time this was to accommodate a reduction in detainee numbers at the base.
Mr Hicks says the real reason is more sinister. "It was a stupid comment because where they put him is what they call Camp 5 and that is solitary," he said. "His bedding was flea-ridden. That was part of his major concerns to the Australian consulate ... I still think it's payback."
But Guantanamo Bay commander Colonel Michael Bumgarner has hit back at claims Hicks is being mistreated and is accusing the Australian prisoner of arrogance and an "ill mood". Hicks had refused to hand in his laundry and was always looking for special privileges, he said. "He is not overly cooperative with guards," Colonel Bumgarner told ABC Radio.
"He is a bit arrogant in his demeanour with us, but beyond that he doesn't really incite any type of disturbance.
Col Bumgarner said Hicks could wash his clothes in his cell. "Mr Hicks always sees himself as quite different than any other detainees here. He is always asking for special privileges and extra items beyond that which the other detainees get.
"I'm big heat y'know!"
"It's just in his nature. He is constantly doing that. He likes to have a special menu."
But Hicks was not distressed, he said. "I don't certainly see him as despondent. He is just normally in a very ill mood."
"He's normally just a jerk," he added.
A spokeswoman for Mr Ruddock said the current condition of Hicks's incarceration did not constitute solitary confinement. "(He) is not being held in solitary confinement," the spokeswoman said. "He is being held in a general block area which enables him to continue to have access to exercise and group areas and ... he is able to communicate freely with other detainees."
She said she did not know the exact date Hicks was moved to his current cell but said officials from the Australian Embassy in Washington last visited him on March 16.
#3
Note the bit about him being able to wash his own clothes. Living in filth is his own choice, not any sort of punishment.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/02/2006 11:07 Comments ||
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#4
Owww, all he ever wanted to do was to kill unclean infidels, for he is part of the Master Religion, and revel in the Glory Of The Jihad(tm). I'm sure he didn't expect to end up like this. This is heartbroking, truly.
#5
Solitary as "payback" -- works for me! Or they could take him back to the spot where they captured him in Afghanistan and shoot him -- that works for me too. Because that's what should have happened from the start.
#6
So F$$$$$ng what? He's an "unconventional warrior" - I.E., terrorist. He deserves no special treatment, he has no "rights", and he's da$$ed lucky we just don't string him up with a barbed wire rope.
Now we need to get a 7.62mm cluebat for the father. Start with the left knee.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/02/2006 11:47 Comments ||
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#9
David Hicks complained to Australian officials about flea-ridden bedding in his Guantanamo Bay cell just one day before being moved to solitary confinement as payback, his father says.
#11
If her refuses to wash his clothes or to accept clean ones at some point they will turn the hose on him. He can be looking forward to that. If he had flea ridden linens it was because he had fleas. They don't use DDT on prisoners anymore. TFB.
SOSDD.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/02/2006 13:46 Comments ||
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#12
Dear Mr. Terry Hicks,
In response to your complaints, the United States decided today to fully follow the Geneva Convention. He was given a military tribunal, in which it was determined that he is, in fact, an illegal combatant. The sentence was carried out immediately.
#15
We tossed his body in the dump for the crows and seagulls to eat, same as he did for any infidels.
We fed his body to the hogs. Now they are sick - we'll be seeing you in court about the damages.
TAKE some cornflour, beef and animal dung and bury it in a pot underground in "some hot and dark place" for 10 days. It will apparently become a poison.
Or, to make invisible ink, "write with woman or cow's milk" or "mix a drop of blood into two-jug-full water".
These instructions are among recipes for poisons, homemade bombs and grenades found in a 15-page "terrorism manual" handwritten by accused terrorist Faheem Khalid Lodhi in his native Urdu language and translated into English, the Supreme Court in Sydney has been told. The papers, found by ASIO officers at Lodhi's desk at a Sydney architecture firm, have been labelled a "boy's own spy kit" by the defence during his trial. Along with recipes containing ingredients that could be used to make powerful explosives, the documents tendered to the court on Friday include a glossary of terms including "safe house", "live drop", "dead drop", "counter intelligence" and "sabotage".
Lodhi has pleaded not guilty to four terror-related charges. He is accused of planning in October 2003 to blow up one of three Sydney military sites or the national electricity grid.
Electricity Supply Association of Australia employee Rose Bakla yesterday told the court that a man, alleged by the prosecution to be Lodhi, said his name was M. Rasul and bought two maps on October 3, 2003, of the grid purportedly because he was starting a company called Rasul Electrics. Ms Bakla said the maps could be used as "a guideline as to what the electricity lines were within the country".
Lodhi also requested a pricelist for 10 chemicals from Deltrex Chemicals to be faxed to his workplace at Thomson Adsett Architects on October 10, 2003, the court heard. He allegedly said the information was for a detergent company he was planning to set up called Eagle Flyers. The court was closed for part of yesterday's evidence. The trial continues.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:25 ||
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#1
This is just a poor Pakistani boy doing what Paks do.. the Aussie authorities are to blame for not understanding the Pak culture.
But seriously, didn't a convicted teen pak rapist argue exactly that in an Aussie courtroom?
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 18:20 Comments ||
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KUNA: Turkish authorities arrested Monday two members of the disbanded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who were about to commit terrorist acts during festivals of the international Workers' Day at a resort near the Mediterranean Sea. Turkish "Ekhlas" News agency quoted a security statement saying that one of the arrested was going to throw Molotov bottles of flammable liquid to disrupt security and stability. The two arrested had participated in several riots in the past months, it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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A federal judge yesterday lambasted a former Florida college professor, Sami Al-Arian, as a liar and "master manipulator," before sentencing him to nearly five years in prison for providing support to a Middle Eastern terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad....You are a master manipulator. You looked your neighbors in the eyes and said you had nothing to do with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This trial exposed that as a lie," Judge Moody said. "The evidence was clear in the this case that you were a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad." [The WaPo has an editorial today saying that Arain is a piece of trash and also trashing the Dept of Justice's work in the prosecution]
Still no word from the defenders of Al-Arian at the NYTimes and the various scholarly institutions.
#1
Two other quotes deserve to be excerpted form this excellent article:
"That was shocking to hear that," a spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, Ahmed Bedier, said. "The judge's demeanor - he looked angry as he was delivering that, even his face was turning somewhat red."
Judge Moody was appointed to the federal bench in 2000 by President Clinton.
The WaPo does not say it, but this trial exposes the fatal weakness of the law enforcement model in combatting terrorism. It's just dumb for the jerks at Gitmo, but it could be really dangerous for fifth columnists like al-Arian. We are lucky that almost all of the Muslims in the US seems to want nothing to do with the terrs. When we make blanket denunciation of Islam, we should remember how loyal they are and how ill prepared we are to deal with domestic traitors like al-Arian.
#3
The prosecution was so inept they had to cut a deal with al-Arian. The judge gave the max allowable under the deal. The judge did everything but dress down the prosecution and kill the deal. But that would probably have led to the govt dropping charges, so he kept his cool there.
like you, I'm convinced the prosecution's case presentation was pretty inept.
However, is your 'weakness of the law enforcement model' comment based on your opinion that this level of ineptness is widespread; or is it based on your opinion that anything short of a perfect prosecution leaves opportunity for a jury to avoid a guilty verdict?
Also, do you have any thoughts on what would happen if there were a moslems on the jury, who, while opposed to terrorism, were vulnerable to implied threat from their co religionists?
#5
The Dept. Of Justice doesn't have any enthusiasm for these types of cases. Now, if Al-Arian were accused of anti-trust violations or an Enron-style crime, you'd see a plenty of initiative.
SACRAMENTO: A man whose son was convicted of supporting terrorism by attending an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan was released on Monday after nearly a year in federal custody. Umer Hayat, a 48-year-old ice cream vendor, had been held since he and his son, Hamid, were arrested last June. Umer Hayat was charged with two counts of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about his son's attendance at the training camp, but his case ended in a mistrial last week after the jury said that it was deadlocked. Prosecutors must decide by Friday if they will seek a new trial. Last week, a US District Court judge lowered Hayat's bail from $1.2 million to $390,000, paving the way for his release.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Last week, a US District Court judge lowered Hayat's bail from $1.2 million to $390,000, paving the way for his release.
Guess the ice cream business must be pretty good...
The Pakistani media on Tuesday condemned the abduction and killing of Indian engineer K Suryanarayana in Afghanistan, but also warned that New Delhi's "hegemonistic presence" was unwanted in that country.
Pakistani editorials cautioned India against getting embroiled in the "great game" in the region and said it should be ready to pay a heavy price if it did.
Pakistani newspapers also scoffed at Indian insinuations that Pakistan, its intelligence agency ISI and its support to the Taliban were responsible for what has been happening to Indians and workers of other nationalities engaged in Afghanistan's reconstruction.
Linking the kidnapping and killing to similar incidents in Iraq, the Pakistan Observer said: "Kidnappings and killing of abducted persons, be it in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere in the world, are condemnable. The most distressing aspect of such incidents is that innocent people, who are not directly or indirectly linked to the occupation forces, are targeted causing miseries to their families."
The editorial went on to say that it seemed "an expression of protest or indignation over increasing Indian hegemonistic presence" in Afghanistan.
"The way the Indians are strengthening their hold in every field of Afghan life is being resented by the Afghan people. Certain elements in Northern Alliance Government are playing host to the Indians supporting their efforts to advance their interests in Afghanistan and this is not liked by majority of Afghans who abhor foreign influence in their country," the Observer stated.
"The presence and activities of the Indians in Afghanistan are not only considered as interference but also anti-Taliban and hence this kind of reaction," it said.
Repeating Islamabad's accusation, the editorial said Indian consulates in Afghanistan were engaged in "blatant interference in neighbouring countries" and that they were carrying out "anti-Pakistan activities".
More such incidents were feared as President Hamid Karzai was "allowing his country to be used as a base to destabilize Pakistani areas", the paper warned.
An editorial in The News said Afghanistan had become the playground for "everyone" and this was being resented by the Afghans, particularly the Taliban.
"Though no reporting has been done as to why they are so adamant in forcing the Indians' ouster, tongues are wagging about a new strategic great game being played out in the Afghan territory, with everyone from the US to China and regional heavyweights like India, Pakistan and Iran falling upon each other's heels to have their fingers in the Afghan pie," the newspaper said.
"Given the muddle that makes up today's Afghanistan, it's important to know who opposes who and who is backed by whom. For the Taliban, it's almost natural to oppose India which in turn is supported by most people in the current administration in Kabul.
"No matter which side one takes, outsiders grinding their axes in a sovereign state's soil are as worrisome as the grisly act of beheading foreign workers," the editorial said.
PakTribune and a number of other media ran an online commentary from New Delhi that said: "The reasons for New Delhi's tenacity in the face of terror attacks are not far to seek: Afghanistan, owing to its strategic location and its history, is much too important a country to leave like that, specially after New Delhi had regained its influence in the country post 9/11."
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 21:12 ||
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Pak sends no regrets
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2006 21:35 Comments ||
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Is there any difference, except size, between Pakistan and Palistine?
#3
Pak: "Given the muddle that makes up today's Afghanistan, it's important to know who opposes who and who is backed by whom. For the Taliban, it's almost natural to oppose India which in turn is supported by most people in the current administration in Kabul.
It labeled the Sri Lankan rebels 'terrorists' to stem coerced fundraising among Tamil expatriates.
By Rebecca Cook Dube | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
TORONTO – As Sri Lanka teeters on the brink of civil war half a world away, Canada is cracking down on a rebel group that has long relied on expatriate funding to fuel its fight for an independent homeland there.
With the largest concentration of Sri Lankan Tamils living abroad, Canada has been a key revenue source for the separatist Tamil Tigers. One of the first major acts of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new Conservative government this spring was to declare the Tigers a terrorist organization, a move the previous Liberal government had resisted.
That April 10 decision makes it illegal for Canadians to support - financially or otherwise - the Tigers, also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "The decision to list the LTTE is long overdue," said Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. "Our government is clearly determined to take decisive steps to ensure the safety of Canadians against terrorism."
The United States, Britain, and India have already banned the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization. And Canada's Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) recommended that Canada ban the group in accordance with the Anti-Terrorism Act on three separate occasions, most recently a year ago.
A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released in March described how Tamils in Canada and Europe have been systematically threatened and intimidated into giving money to the Tigers. The report also said that LTTE monitors expatriates who travel in LTTE-controlled portions of Sri Lanka, restricting the movements of those who have not paid up.
One Toronto Tamil interviewed by the Monitor, who asked not to be named because he fears for his safety, says two LTTE-affiliated fundraisers threatened him when he refused to give them money.
"He told me, 'If you come back to our motherland, we'll see you,' " the man says. "It means you will be killed. It's the LTTE - it's 100 percent sure you will be killed if you were to go back."
The Tamils' reputation for violence is "well-deserved" says James Ross, a senior legal adviser for HRW in New York, adding that the group is "one of the best funded insurgencies in the world. They clearly rely heavily on foreign funding."
Some experts believe that 80 to 90 percent of the LTTE's military budget in the 1990s came from overseas donors. In 2000, CSIS reportedly estimated the Tamil Tigers raised $1 million to $2 million a year in Canada.
Of the estimated 800,000 Tamils who have fled Sri Lanka since the fighting began in 1983, about 250,000 have settled in Canada. Toronto has the greatest urban concentration of Tamils in the world, according to HRW.
Mr. Ross says he hopes the Canadian ban will ease the pressure on the Tamil diaspora, though he says the Canadian government needs to do more to educate and protect Tamil immigrants - many of whom don't speak or read English and may not even know about the ban.
"It sends a very powerful signal to the Tamil community that it is wrong to give money to this group," says Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore. Soon after the listing, Canadian federal police underscored that strong signal, raiding the Toronto and Montreal offices of the World Tamil Movement - a community group suspected of being a front for the LTTE. The search warrants were sealed, and the authorities have not commented on what they were looking for or what they might have found. The group's leaders say their organization is sympathetic to the LTTE but does not collect funds for the group.
Some in the Tamil community believe the Canadian government's ban on the Tigers is unfair. Arul Singam, a coordinator with the Tamil Youth Organization in Toronto, sees the Tigers as freedom fighters.
"The ongoing genocide in Sri Lanka is what prompted the Tigers to take up arms," says Ms. Singam, who moved to Canada as a teenager in the '90s. "We have always asked the Canadian government to take a positive role in the peace process. By barring one side, and not condemning the other side ... that just doesn't make any sense.
"It's just creating a fear among the Tamil community, and that is what we are all outraged about," adds Singam, who says she fears all Tamils will be labeled terrorists. She says she's also concerned about her aunt and uncle back in Sri Lanka now that attacks by the rebels and counter-strikes by the military are growing more frequent.
Even experts who applaud Canada's ban on the Tigers aren't optimistic the move will stop the fighting in Sri Lanka, a teardrop-shaped island off the southeast coast of India. Mr. Gunaratna says LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran "is only to a very limited extent dissuaded by public opinion or international opinion. He will also follow the political track, but he has not renounced violence."
Since the 1980s, fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan military has killed nearly 65,000. Tamil Tigers have carried out more than 200 suicide bombings - more than any other terrorist group, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The group reportedly invented the individual suicide bomber "jacket" of explosives, a tactic later adopted by Al Qaeda and Hamas.
In the last month, more than 130 people have been killed in fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan military, making it the deadliest period since a truce was signed in 2002. That cease-fire is in danger of failing now, as LTTE pulled out of peace talks scheduled for April 24-25 in Geneva and has increased attacks. Sri Lanka has responded with air strikes.
As for the Tamils back in Canada, Ross at Human Rights Watch says he hopes their lives will be improved by Canada's crackdown on the LTTE. But, he notes, "the Tigers have been banned in the U.K. for some time and there are still acts of intimidation going on."
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 18:38 ||
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Even as the Taliban attacks US, Canadian, and British forces, organization is left off terrorist list in 'political' decision.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
When the US State Department issued its annual Country Reports on Terrorism last Friday, it listed numerous state-sponsors of terrorism, like Iran, and groups it considers foreign terrorist organizations, like Hamas, Al Qaeda, and Hizbullah. Conspiciously absent from the lists, however, was the Taliban.
In an article entitled "Terrorism's Dubious 'A' List," the non-partisan Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) reports that the religious extremist organization has never been listed as a terrorist group by the US, Britain, the EU, Canada, Australia, or any of the coalition partners, despite the fact that during its six year rule in Afghanistan, it provided save haven for Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and currently is staging terrorist attacks against coalition forces and waging a national campaign of intimidation and fear.
The new report did designate the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region as a terrorist "haven," however.
In a CFR Q&A on the Taliban, Chistopher Langdon, a defense expert at the Institute for International Strategic Studies, describes the group as "an insurgent organization that will periodically use terrorism to carry out its operations."
According to Kathy Gannon, the former Associated Press bureau chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, these [Taliban] have at times aligned themselves with Al Qaeda fighters and with mujahadeen (holy warriors) led by the anti-government warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. During the Soviet occupation, Hekmatyar received more support from US and Pakistani agents than any other fighter. "The Afghan Taliban is better organized today than it was in 2001," says Gannon, "they have more recruits [and they] have been able to take advantage of the lawlessness, the criminal gangs, and the corruption in the government."
Langton says Taliban forces "have largely recovered from their initial defeat," and are proving a savvy enemy for coalition forces. Taliban fighters have become encouraged by the domestic opposition some NATO nations face as they deploy in former Taliban strongholds previously patrolled by US forces, he says. "They are very adept at reading these signals and seeing where the weaknesses lie."
Some experts, like Mr. Langdon, say the Taliban aren't terrorists. "You could never say that the Taliban themselves espoused the wholesale use of terror," Langton says. But the CFR article points out that many others, like Amin Tarzi, the Afghanistan analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, say that if the activities that the Taliban are carrying out were happening in any other country, they would be called terrorism.
He says a political motive is behind this double standard. In order to gain a broad base of support, Afghan President Karzai has reached out to Pashtuns, many of whom were members of the Taliban. "You can't call them 'terrorists' and at the same time reconcile with them," Tarzi says. In an April 2003 speech, Karzai noted a distinction between "the ordinary Taliban who are real and honest sons of this country [and those] who still use the Taliban cover to disturb peace and security in the country." Steven Simon, CFR's Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, says Tarzi's explanation is plausible, "The designation of 'Foreign Terrorist Organization' has always been highly political," he says.
Former National Public Radio reporter Sarah Chayes, who has been living and working in Afghanistan since 2002, wrote in the March/April edition of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that one only needs to look at how the traditional Afghan values of hospitality have changed to see how effective the Taliban have been in their campaign of intimidation and terror. In previous years, Ms. Chayes could freely visit local villages to buy produce and goods from local farmers for the organizations she helps run. But now she must ask them to come to her office because if she is seen talking to them publicly, they will probably be killed.
In reality, the four years since the Taliban's demise have been characterized by a steady erosion of security in distinct phases. The most recent phase, signaled by the rebuffs I received from the farmers, may represent a point of no return. These rebuffs are the consequence of a highly effective intimidation campaign that has been carried out in tightening circles around Kandahar by, for lack of a better term, resurgent Taliban. Handbills appear in village mosques threatening anyone who dares collaborate with foreigners or the Afghan government. Homes receive armed visitors, demanding provisions or other assistance. One of my farmer friends, afraid even to pronounce their name, refers to them as "fairies who come at night."
Chayes also writes that the US military obsession with Al Qaeda and "an Osama bin Laden-style, ideological confrontation" have acted like a set of blinders to the real problem with the Taliban, and that this has greatly disillusioned the average Afghan.
The steadily worsening situation in southern Afghanistan is not the work of some ineffable Al Qaeda nebula. It is the result of the real depredations of the corrupt and predatory government officials whom the United States ushered into power in 2001, supposedly to help fight Al Qaeda, and has assiduously maintained in power since, along with an "insurgency" manufactured whole cloth across the border in Pakistan – a US ally. The evidence of this connection is abundant: Taliban leaders strut openly around Quetta, Pakistan, where they are provided with offices and government-issued weapons authorization cards; Pakistani army officers are detailed to Taliban training camps; and Pakistani border guards constantly wave self-proclaimed Taliban through checkpoints into Afghanistan.
Chayes says the result is that people in Kandahar, where she lives, "have reached an astonishing conclusion: The United States must be in league with the Taliban ... In other words, in a stunning irony, much of this city, the Taliban's former stronghold, is disgusted with the Americans not because of their Western culture, but because of their apparent complicity with Islamist extremists."
The Globe and Mail of Toronto reported Tuesday how Afghanistan's new parliament is having troubles learning to function correctly, but it is still moving ahead. The new parliament is "odd mixture of Muslim fundamentalists, former Taliban commanders, ex-Communist politicians, Western-educated women and even a former United Airlines pilot." The parliament is a baby, its members say, but they are hoping to "build and institution that lasts" longer than they do.
Finally, the Associated Press reports that, in a study being released Tuesday, Afghanistan and Iraq are listed as two of the world's ten most vulnerable states. Foreign Policy magazine, in its second annual "failed states index," ranked Sudan as the country under the most severe stress. The magazine goes on to say that the situation in Iraq (No. 4) and Afghanistan (No. 10) has deteriorated since 2005, the first year the survey was taken.
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 17:45 ||
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an "insurgency" manufactured whole cloth across the border in Pakistan – a US ally. The evidence of this connection is abundant: Taliban leaders strut openly around Quetta, Pakistan, where they are provided with offices and government-issued weapons authorization cards; Pakistani army officers are detailed to Taliban training camps; and Pakistani border guards constantly wave self-proclaimed Taliban through checkpoints into Afghanistan.
Typcal Pak behavior .. this is what they have done wrt India since the early 1980s, first with 'Khalastani' terrorists then with 'Kashmiri' ones.
However the US is not India.. it does not have to accept this situation. The US can inflict serious pain on Pakistan, nation ending pain.
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 17:58 Comments ||
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And it begins by (finally) saying "No" and publicly dissing them for the two-faced terror-enablers they are. The shine is off and there is much more to follow. The Taliban being listed (or not) is, in every substantive respect, irrelevant. None of the "organizations" issue ID cards, so who really cares? Irrelevant "experts" such as the author and that idiot Langdon (Langton, LOL) and other worthless quibblers.
Dead Taliban are substance. Dead ISI would be even better. Expect hot pursuit to gain favor and become standard ROE. Expect the usual denials and protests. Now there's a "Who cares?" I can get behind.
#4
This is what a sellout of 3000 Americans' deaths smells like. How "sophisticated".
That's Foggy Bottom!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/02/2006 19:13 Comments ||
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#5
How do organizations like the State Department get filled with so many islamophiles?
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 19:23 Comments ||
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The US State Dept steeped in "broke-back" chronyism. Has been for years and years. That's why General Powell had such a difficult time up there. US State and CIA have been in a neck and neck dead heat in the race to mediocrity and irrelevance for decades.
#7
"Chayes also writes that the US military obsession with Al Qaeda and "an Osama bin Laden-style, ideological confrontation" have acted like a set of blinders to the real problem with the Taliban, and that this has greatly disillusioned the average Afghan.
I no longer give a flying shit what the average afghan thinks.
Apparently we cannot find the enemy, cannot even NAME them,
Hard News- Afghanistan is a pile of crap where you can't do ANYTHING. No industry can be profiably pursued there .
Drugs, Rugs, and thugs have been the name of the game since the Time of MArco Polo.
If These nations cannot agree that the TALIBAN is part of the enemy..........
A top al-Qaida leader whose links stretch from Afghan terror training camps to extremist networks operating throughout Europe has been detained in neighboring Pakistan and possibly handed over to American authorities, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.
Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a Syrian who also holds Spanish citizenship, was captured during a November 2005 sting in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in which a gunfight broke out and a person was killed, said the American official, who declined to be identified further because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The official, who spoke to The Associated Press late last week, said Nasar, who is also known as Abu Musab al-Suri, may now be in U.S. custody but did not specify where. He declined to comment further.
U.S. military officials aware of the detention of terror suspects at American prison facilities in Bagram, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had no immediate information Tuesday on whether Nasar had been incarcerated at either jail.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official told The AP from the capital, Islamabad, that Nasar had been flown out of Pakistan to an undisclosed destination "some time ago."
"I only know that he is not here. But, I do know that Syrian authorities had also requested to get him back," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of sensitive nature of his work.
Pakistani and American officials have long been tightlipped on the status of Nasar, who has had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head and has been described by the American Justice Department as a former trainer at Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan who helped teach extremists to use poisons and chemicals.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 05:14 ||
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The New York Times should be letting us all know where he is being held real soon. Maybe different people in the CIA will be told different places so they can figure out which one is informing the Times.
#2
But, I do know that Syrian authorities had also requested to get him back," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity....
The Syrians want him back as part of the program called " Let us release a nice terrorist today".
Give me a break !!!
#8
Please, please, no cruel and inhumane treatment (with his corpse).
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/02/2006 12:10 Comments ||
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Must be holdin' him in one of those ultra-secret, top CIA known only (i.e. non-existant) bases in Europe or somewheres. Ask Mary, I'm sure she knows.
Posted by: BA ||
05/02/2006 12:13 Comments ||
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"...possibly handed over to American authorities, according to a U.S. law enforcement official."
Typical NYT - no names, all agenda. Ooooo - Abu Ghraib! Ooooo! Secret detention! Ooooo! Double Secret Probation! Ooooo! Assholes.
FoxNews reported on this awhile ago this morning and effectively refuted it - not in US custody, but possibly in Spanish or UK custody - or still languishing in Pakistan. Who knows? I rather doubt he'll be going to Syria anytime soon.
So what is this "story" actually about? He was captured some 6 months ago and this is both old "news" and unworthy NYT fear-mongering spin. It's all agenda, all the time. Screw the NYT.
Pro-Taleban militants have shot dead a cleric they suspected of informing for Pakistani security forces fighting Al Qaeda guerrillas and their Taleban allies in the Waziristan tribal region, officials said yesterday.
The body was found in a market area near Mir Ali town, 25km east of Miranshah, the main town of the restive North Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan.
Intelligence and government officials said Maulana Janaat Mir, aged 80, was kidnapped by militants last week.
“Maulana (Mir) was also head of his tribe and his name was on a militants’ hit list circulated to people of the area five months ago,” an intelligence official, who requested anonymity, said.
He said the list contained the names of 28 tribesmen suspected of being informers or spies for either the Pakistan government or American forces hunting Al Qaeda remnants across the border in Afghanistan.
At least four suspected informers have been beheaded in North and South Waziristan in recent weeks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:17 ||
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BANNU: Mir Muhammad Khan, uncle of NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, was shot and killed by unidentified assailants in the Surani area on Monday. One of his bodyguards and two attackers received bullet injuries in the clash, police said. The 50-year-old Khan was returning home from a hunting expedition when the attackers, said to be five in number, ambushed the double-cabin pickup he was travelling in with automatic weapons. "Khan died on the spot while one of his gunmen was injured," Rahatullah Khan of Bannu Town police station told Daily Times. The attackers escaped with their two injured accomplices, who were shot by Khan's bodyguards.
According to the local police, the deceased had no known enemies. "He kept bodyguards because he was the uncle of the chief minister of the province," the police official said.
Apparently he should have kept better bodyguards.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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According to the local police, the deceased had no known enemies.
...and isn't that always the way? Especially over there...
Four people were killed Monday when police allegedly fired at mobs of Hindus and Muslims on a rampage in a western Indian city after authorities demolished a small Islamic shrine. Residents in the Fatehpur area of Vadodara (formerly known as Baroda) in Gujarat state blamed the deaths on police whom they said used bullets and tear gas. But police said firearms used by rioters hit them. A curfew was imposed in the city as the sectarian riots led to looting, police said. At least 10 other people were injured by gunfire from the police or bricks hurled by rioters, police said.
The riot was sparked after the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) began to demolish a Muslim dargah, or shrine near a landmark city gate, witnesses said. "We offered to remove it ourselves but the VMC officials chose to demolish the dargah, raze it to the ground and build a road over it."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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mobs of Hindus and Muslims
That is a load of BS from a Pak editor.
The municipal authorities have destroyed dozens of little roadside hindu temples over the past year since they encroach on the roadways and prevent widening.
The Hindus have not protested.
One little muslim building gets razed and the muslims riot. They turned down requests to relocate the structure saying this was against their religion .. the tiny structure must apparently stay in the middle of a roadway until the end of thime.
Mobs of hindus and muslims? There were no hindus there.
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 18:08 Comments ||
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An unruly mob on Tuesday night set ablaze a car burning alive a person as sporadic clashes continued in the city where two days of violence sparked by the demolition of a dargah left six dead.
One person was charred to death when a mob set on fire a car in curfew-clamped Arjuwa road at around midnight, Vadodra Police Commissioner Deepak Swaroop said.
He said police were ascertaining reasons that led to the fresh flare-up.
Earlier in the day, one person was killed when police fired at rioters in Moti Vohrawaad area in the wee hours.
With these two deaths, the toll in two days of violence in the city rose to six, three were killed in police firing, two were stabbed to death and one was burnt alive.
A total of 40 people were arrested in connection with the violence.
Police also fired warning shots in the air at Nalbandh Vada area to scatter a stone-pelting mob during the funeral procession of a person killed in police firing.
The protesters also threw acid bottles injuring five policemen.
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 20:02 Comments ||
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KUNA -- At least 22 people were killed and eight injured, including women and children, by terrorists in the Doda district of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, late Sunday night. The toll is likely to go up with three of the eight injured battling for life, news agency Indo-Asian News Service reported Monday. Terrorists in a late night attack had pulled the victims out of their homes and killed them in Doda district.
The Indos are blaming Lashkar-e-Taiba. I'd have said the same thing, had I not guessed Hizbul Mujaheddin.
These killings have assumed a political dimension as Doda is the home district of Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad and the incident is likely to mar his image, especially after his recent victory in the elections to the state Assembly. No militant outfits have so far claimed responsibility for the killings, the agency reported. Reacting to the incident, Mr Azad Monday told reporters in Jammu city, winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, that more security forces equipped with modern weaponry would be deployed in the area. He said that he has instructed the security forces to apprehend the killers at any cost, the agency reported.
More, from Pak Daily Times The gunmen killed the Hindus after dragging them out of their houses. The injured included a women and her daughter. Local journalist Haq Nawaz Nehru, who alerted journalists in Srinagar and Jammu late Sunday night, told Daily Times from Doda on the phone that gunmen wearing combat fatigues had reached the remote hamlets of Panjdobi and Thava and ordered villagers to come out of their houses. “They were herded to the house of a local village head, where the gunmen opened fire at them, killing 22 people on the spot,” he said.
Senior police officials have rushed to the twin villages. SP Vaid, the inspector general of police (Jammu), said that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) militants were responsible for the massacre. VK Duggal, the union home secretary, told reporters that leads suggested the involvement of a “particular outfit”, but refused to name the outfit. A senior security official said that Lashkar had over 350 militants operating in Doda district and 90 percent of them were foreigners.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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KUNA: Suspected nationalist militants in different attacks wounded two soldiers, blew up a railway track and fired rockets at a checkpost, said police Monday. Militants fired at Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers in Sangsella area on late Sunday, wounding two soldiers, police sources told KUNA. In a related incident, militants fired several rockets at a FC checkpost in Kohlu district on Monday, but no one was hurt, sources said. The militants, also, blew up two-feet long portion of a rail track linking the country with Iran in Naushki town, sources said, adding that there were no casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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UNITED Nations chief Kofi Annan has unveiled a global counter-terrorism strategy that puts emphasis on the need to address bioterrorism, counter terrorists' growing use of the internet and defending human rights.
The 32-page strategy, responding to a call by world leaders at their summit at UN headquarters in New York last September for enhanced UN coordination of the global fight against terrorism, sidestepped the question of defining what terrorism is.
"It is also essential that member states conclude, as soon as possible, a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism," Mr Annan said as he outlined his proposals to the 191-member General Assembly.
"However, lack of progress in building consensus on a convention cannot be a reason for delay in agreeing on a strategy," he said.
For nearly nine years, diplomats have been sweating over a draft convention that would encompass previous texts on the fight against terrorism, including bombings, financing and nuclear and biological threats.
But they have so far stumbled over an acceptable definition of terrorism, particularly in the Middle East, where groups seen by some countries as terrorists are viewed by others as freedom fighters.
Mr Annan's counter-terrorism strategy is articulated around what he called the "five Ds": Dissuading people from resorting to terrorism or supporting it; Denying terrorists the means to carry out an attack; Deterring states from supporting terrorism; Developing state capacity to defeat terrorism; Defending human rights.
Mr Annan's report underscored the need for "innovative solutions" to prevent bioterrorism.
"The approach to fighting the abuse of biotechnology for terrorist purposes will have more in common with measures against cybercrime than with the work to control nuclear proliferation," it noted.
Mr Annan also stressed that a prerequisite to an effective counter-terrorism strategy was defending the "human rights of all - of the victims of terrorism, of those, of those suspected of terrorism, of those affected by the consequences of terrorism."
"States must ensure that any measures taken to combat terrorism comply with their obligation under international law, in particular human rights law, refugee law and international humanitarian law," Mr Annan told UN member states.
"Any strategy that compromises human rights will play right into the hands of the terrorists."
The General Assembly is to hold consultations on Mr Annan's recommendations on May 11.
#5
Destined to fail. The Muslim nations will stop it cold.
However, Pakistan, then a member of the UN Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee was able to forestall a UN decision to also designate the group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Lashkar was finally added to the UNÂ’s consolidated al Qaeda designation list on May 2, 2005, after PakistanÂ’s tenure on the Al Qaeda Committee had ended.
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 19:42 Comments ||
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#6
"Annan has unveiled... sidestepped the question... lack of progress in building consensus on a convention cannot be a reason for delay..." blah blah blah
Yawn. What a useless bore.
#7
Bio-terrorism is way more dangerous than most realize. However, it takes substantial technical expertize to come up with a new killer infectious disease, as opposed to non-infectious agents like Ricin.
On a related note, the UN (predictably) seems to skirt around the issue of state sponsored terrorism which grades into asymetric warfare. It would be quite easy for a state to create a new killer bug and release it on their enemies while using vaccines to protect their own people.
#8
Anyone remember the last person to die from "bioterrorism?"
Ottilie Lundgren was the last.
Robert Stevens, Kathy Nguyen, Thomas Morris Jr. and Joseph Curseen were the others.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/02/2006 20:37 Comments ||
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#9
“Anyone remember the last person to die from "bioterrorism?"”
Or from terrorists using a nuclear weapon?
As technology advances, small groups with modest funding and moderate technical skills will gain access to nuclear and bioweapons. My guess is that will occur within two decades for bioweapons and a decade or two later for nuclear weapons. (Nanotechnology will lead to cheap isotope separation. One could probably extract the necessary isotopes from a large volume of seawater.)
The world has only a couple of decades to prepare for the time when neighborhood gangs can threaten entire cities. IÂ’m no fan of the UN and I donÂ’t expect anything the UN does to be effective. That does not mean that bioterrorism isnÂ’t a real threat.
Economic analysis of Japanese project to extract uranium from seawater.
#10
• Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the Monday deaths of two postal workers were "likely due to anthrax," and that more than 2,000 other Washington-area postal workers were undergoing an "aggressive and proactive treatment regimen" to ward off the bacterial disease. (Full story)
That was 2001. So I guess people HAVE died from Bioterrorism.
Nevertheless The UN has no plan.
Ten Terrorists, Assessed as Foreign, Killed; Three Wearing Suicide Vests. (Does this seem to be a pattern developing?)
5/2/2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition (Special?) forces killed ten terrorists, three of them wearing suicide vests, and wounded one at approximately 1:30 a.m. May 2 at a safe house located approximately 40 kilometers southwest of Balad while searching for an al-Qaida terrorist leader. Upon the troops’ arrival, one terrorist who was sleeping while on guard (oops!) outside the safe house, woke up and attempted to engage the assault troops with a pistol. The terrorist was shot before he could fire his weapon. As the wounded terrorist fell backward, he reached toward his chest and detonated a suicide vest. None of the assault troops were harmed in the explosion.
Meanwhile, the troops killed nine other terrorists, seven of whom exited the safe house during the fight and two who were killed inside. Two of the nine terrorists were wearing suicide vests, but the troops killed these bombers before either could detonate his vest.
The terrorists possessed grenades, rifles, a pistol, ammunition, explosives, a machine gun and suicide vests. The troops found $1000 in U.S. currency on one terrorist, and after the suicide bomber detonated his vest, they noticed hundreds of scattered pieces of charred U.S. bills. (as well as pieces of charred splodeydopes)
The safe house and all lethal material to include the two remaining suicide vests, grenades, weapons, explosives and blasting caps were destroyed.
The injured terrorist was medically evacuated to Balad for further medical care.
No civilians were located in or nearby this safe house.
#2
10-0. Good job, boys. Keep it up and Godspeed to all y'all.
I continue to be amazed by the compete lack of warcraft on the part of almost any muzzie soldier fighter. It is almost as if they believe that this 'allen' dude, whoever her is, will make everything good as long as they blindly believe in him and his mouthpiece"messenger".
#3
The troops found $1000 in U.S. currency on one terrorist, and after the suicide bomber detonated his vest, they noticed hundreds of scattered pieces of charred U.S. bills
US and Israeli intelligence experts traced the location where the rare tape was filmed to a former Red Crescent army base on Jabal Tanaf, 5 kilometers from the border of IraqÂ’s Anbar Province. They believe that after the US 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Syrian military handed the base over to ZarqawiÂ’s men as a hideout and haven. Of late, he has established a rear headquarters at the rugged mountain site.
DEBKAfileÂ’s Middle East sources note that proof that the al Qaeda in IraqÂ’s chief is currently operating out of Syria coincides with the easing of US, French and UN pressure on Syrian president Bashar Assad to desist from meddling in Lebanon and sponsoring terror, to cooperate with the UN Hariri investigation and to seal his border to insurgent and al Qaeda incursions of Iraq. The Syrian-Iraqi border is patently still in free use for the smuggling of manpower, arms, explosives and funds.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/02/2006 17:57 ||
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American and allied forces narrowly missed capturing the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi two weeks ago, according to a report by veteran correspondent Sean Naylor in Defense News, a leading defense publication.
A special forces raid in Yusufiyah, a sun-scorched settlement 20 miles south of Baghdad, is believed to have missed Mr. Zarqawi by a mere thousand yards on the night of April 16.
Based on an informant's tip, special operators stormed an insurgent safe house - killing five enemy fighters, and capturing another five. Later they learned by interrogating prisoners that Mr. Zarqawi himself was sleeping a few buildings away.
Yesterday American intelligence officers said that on the video released last week Mr. Zarqawi was brandishing weapons that could only have been taken from dead Americans, which is believed to be a clear sign from Mr. Zarqawi to Al Qaeda followers worldwide that he alone of the organization's leadership is directly and regularly engaging American forces.
Military spokesmen have refused to confirm or deny the account of Mr. Zarqawi's near capture. "When USSOCOM provides forces to a regional combatant commander, like Central Command, the regional combatant commander takes the queries because that is whose operations our forces are participating in," said Ken McGraw, deputy public affairs officer at U.S. Special Operations Command. "In this case neither CENTCOM nor Multi-National Forces-Iraq can provide you any more information than I can."
Intelligence and military officials, who have been scrutinizing frame-by-frame the symbol laden video, said yesterday he is pictured with two weapons, the M-249 and the M-4, deputy public affairs officer at U.S. Special Operations Command, Ken McGraw told the Sun. They could only have come from the hands of dead Americans.
The M-4 and M-249 are not issued to allied forces or used by Iraqis, he said.
In the Zarqawi video, Mr. McGraw said that over the shoulder of the terrorist leader, who is sitting in the center of a crescent of masked men, there is a gun leaning against the wall. "That is an M-4," Mr. McGraw confirmed.
In a later sequence, Mr. Zarqawi appears in the open desert leading a cadre of masked militants and firing a machine gun. That weapon is an M-249, Mr. McGraw said.
The inclusion of two weapons used exclusively by American forces is thought of significant symbolic value, but Mr. McGraw refused to speculate. "The intelligence people are certainly looking at every detail, including every type of weapon," he said.
"He's flaunting it a bit. Brandishing an American weapon is a kind of an in-your-face thing," said Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cowan, a retired marine officer who spent the bulk of his career in special operations. Colonel Cowan remains in close contact with special-forces operators.
Mr. Zarqawi "is probably not using those weapons" in combat, Colonel Cowan said. He referred to an e-mail from a non-commissioned officer serving in Iraq that circulated a few months ago in military circles complaining that nearly every type of American combat rifle tended to clog with sand and dust.
The enemy's preferred weapons, the AK-47 and SKS carbine, have wider clearances and do not jam. So Mr. Zarqawi's use of the M-249 is probably just for show, Colonel Cowan said. "It is more of a battlefield trophy."
By using American guns, "Zarqawi is demonstrating that he has the ability and the power to take them from us," a Zarqawi specialist at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, Brian Fishman, said. "He is trying to send a message that he has had success fighting Americans."
The terror leader is also using the weapons to distinguish himself from other leaders of the global Salafi movement, of which Al Qaeda is a part. "He is trying to demonstrate that he not just a guy who talks [like other terrorist leaders], but that he is the one fighting on the ground," said Mr. Fishman. "He is trying to show that he's an operational commander. He's a fighter, unlike other terrorist leaders. He is willing to stick out his neck and fight."
Mr. Fishman says his view of Mr. Zarqawi's motivations is supported by a 2005 speech in which the terrorist contrasted the early followers of Muhammad with today's terrorist leaders. "They led the masses and abandoned the transient pleasures in life," he said. "They preferred the reward of eternal life. They abandoned their palaces and houses and chose to live in caves and mountains. They did so to protect their religion and couple their words with deeds."
Mr. Zarqawi, sometimes called as al-Gharib (the Stranger) in Islamist circles, sees himself as apart from - and superior to - other terrorist leaders.
Intelligence and military officials meticulously scrutinize every Al Qaeda tape for clues about where it was made and for symbols that, in Islamic culture, are invested with special meaning and significance.
A consensus view about the firearms or their meaning has yet to emerge from American intelligence officers and it may take a few weeks before they settle on a definitive interpretation.
"Centcom isn't able to speculate on what Zarqawi may have been thinking or why he included those weapons in the video," a spokeswoman for Centcom, the command that oversees operations in Iraq, Lieutenant Corey Schultz, said.
The CIA, through a spokesman, declined to comment on the firearms featured in the Zarqawi tape or on their symbolic meaning. Mark Mansfield, at the National Counter-Terrorism Center, also declined to comment.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 04:52 ||
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#1
Any truth to the reports that a copy of the Zarq tape was seized in a safe house by MNF weeks prior to it's release? If so, did it prompt an earlier then planned release?
#2
Yeh yeh yeh. He was with Elvis.
I can make news weekley by saying " Almost caught Bin laden" "Nearly saved the world".
When he's captured, tell me. Until then, I look at it like you have nothing else to do that day.
#5
Sick and tired of reading articles about how we "almost" capture this guy. If we have to put 50,000 spies and special forcers after this guy to get him, lets do it and kill him immediately.
#7
Whilst it's a pisser that he keeps getting away, I'm reminded of something the IRA said after the Brighton bombing where they missed killing Mrs Thatcher; "We only have to be lucky once, you have to be lucky everytime".
Keep throwing those dice Zarq, sooner or later you're gonna chuck some snake-eyes...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
05/02/2006 14:50 Comments ||
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The U.S. military said on Monday it had every confidence in the new Iraqi army it is training, after hundreds of Sunni Arab recruits joined a protest at a graduation parade that bordered on mutiny.
Three years to the day since President George W. Bush stood in front of a banner reading "Mission Accomplished" to proclaim victory in the campaign to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Washington still has 133,000 troops in Iraq, suffering daily casualties.
Bush said on Monday Iraq was now at a "turning point" as Shi'ite Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki strives, after months of political deadlock, to form a government of national unity that can quell rebellion and sectarian bloodshed.
An as yet unnamed soldier killed by a roadside bomb near Baghdad on Saturday was the 2,400th American to die in uniform in Iraq, all but 140 of them since Bush declared "major combat" over on May 1, 2003. Nearly 17,500 have been wounded.
At least 73 U.S. troops were killed in April, their costliest month since November.
Key to Americans going home, U.S. leaders say, is training Iraqis to take over fighting guerrillas and keeping order -- Iraqis like the 978 young men from restive Sunni Arab Anbar province who disrupted a passing out parade on Sunday, some casting off their tunics, and rejected deployment orders.
A spokesman for the U.S. command in Baghdad overseeing a programme that has trained more than 200,000 Iraqi troops, called it an isolated incident and said there was no question of the new soldiers not obeying orders.
"It is important that they are willing and able to deploy around the country," Lieutenant Colonel Michael Negard said of the recruits' complaints that they and their families could be in danger if they were posted away from their hometowns.
"They are going to salute smartly and move out," he added.
It was unclear if any of the unarmed recruits were disciplined after the protest, which ended peacefully.
U.S. forces said they were keen to increase recruitment among the Sunni minority to broaden the sectarian and ethnic mix of the army and win it greater acceptance in places like Anbar, the heartland of the Sunni insurgency.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said he had met delegates from some insurgent groups and hoped there could be a deal to have them lay down their arms, though hardline supporters of al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein would remain enemies of the new state.
Many Sunnis, whose community was dominant under Saddam and before, took part in the U.S.-sponsored political process for the first time in December's parliamentary election.
It was followed by four months of paralysis that frustrated U.S. hopes of a rapid formation of a unity government that could stem violence. But the appointment of Shi'ite Islamist Maliki 10 days ago has raised expectations in Washington and Baghdad.
"This is a turning point for the Iraqi citizens and it's a new chapter in our partnership," Bush said of a visit last week to Iraq by his secretary of state and defence secretary.
"Obviously there's some difficult days ahead because there's still terrorists there ... But this government is more determined than ever to succeed," he added.
Maliki said last week he needed a further week to form a government that would include Sunnis, Kurds and other groups.
With mid-term congressional elections looming in November, Bush's public approval ratings are at about the low of his presidency partly due to public discontent over the Iraq war.
One of the most prominent opposition Democrats, Senate Foreign Affairs Committee member Joseph Biden, called on Monday for Iraq to be divided, Bosnia-style, into three largely autonomous Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish regions, with a weaker central government controlling the highly mixed city of Baghdad.
The article in the New York Times reflected impatience in the United States with events in Iraq, where hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands forced from their homes in sectarian violence that flared two months ago.
But many Iraqi and foreign analysts argue an attempt to divide the oil-rich nation would bring its own problems and could provoke rather than hinder a civil war.
The May Day public holiday produced a lull in Iraqi political negotiations but a senior official in Maliki's Dawa party, Hassan al-Senaid, criticised Biden's remarks, saying they reflected efforts to discredit Bush at home.
"Partitioning Iraq is rejected by all Iraqis," Senaid said.
Ahead of the next meeting of the new parliament on Wednesday, only its third session since the election, an important negotiation is taking place among the parties for the two posts of deputy prime minister to Maliki, politicians said.
Three blocs have claims on the places -- Sunnis, Kurds and the cross-sectarian secular bloc of former premier Iyad Allawi, himself a Shi'ite. The two main Kurdish parties are at odds with each other, Kurdish negotiators said.
One said the Sunni Accordance Front and Allawi's group would hold talks on Tuesday to discuss the issue.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:19 ||
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#1
Golly Gee, Dan. What a waste of time. This is a mess, a hit piece, a hash of everything Rooters could find to throw in that fits their agenda.
It requires massive editing to make it into something that follows the headline - or just throw it out. As it is, it's just shit.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/02/2006 6:53 Comments ||
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#3
Be sure to check Fred's post further down the page ('U.S.: Ramadi battle kills 100-plus insurgents') - something that seem's to have been left out of this report.
#4
Wow. That was the worse article I have seen in a long time. I dont mean that it was a hit piece or such but the simple structure and flow. I would have got a D in college if I submitted a printed tolliet paper like that.
CNN -- U.S. and Iraqi troops killed more than 100 insurgents last week in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a U.S. Army officer said Monday. Two Iraqis also died in the fighting, said Col. John Gronski, commander of the U.S. Army's 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 28th Infantry Division. No Americans were killed. Gronski said Iraqi forces "are doing very well" in the battle against insurgents in the volatile Anbar province city. "The Iraqi army is conducting aggressive operations here based on human intelligence from the people of Ramadi themselves," he said.
Gronski said the Iraqi soldiers' improved capability has bolstered the morale of U.S. troops working with them. U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi forces are trying to shut down insurgent supply routes into the area, setting up checkpoints and sometimes closing streets, he said. Gronski said an airstrike was called Sunday after coalition forces noticed insurgents removing weapons from a train station in the southeastern part of the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The only truly effective way to shut the terrorists' supply lines down in Iraq is to stop them at the source.
#2
100 to 2 kill ratio?!?! Holy crap our tactics are getting good! Good to see the Iraqis fighting well. Now if a truely democratic government forms and stays around, the terrorists have fully lost in Iraq.
#5
One thing is for certain Perf. The MSM does not use ANY indicator relating to success. At least if Americans (aka myself) think hard boyz are being whacked and there is enemy attrition, then we are eliminating our problems one neighborhood at a time.
to some extent it does. Now thats not necessarily wrong all the time. If you put the body counts into a strategic context, unlike what was done in Viet Nam.
Personally I think attrition will become meaningful when a political deal is reached that will sideline the parts of the insurgency other than the AQniks and the Saddamite leftovers. Those two groups will have a harder time getting new recruits than the insurgency does now. Thats why the political events in Baghdad are so important. Then we can attrit away the remainder. Meanwhile, big kills like this at least serve to contain the insurgency. and perhaps to make those elements of the insurgency that are negotiating, more pliable.
#7
The temptation for the insurgents is to gather and attack en masse. Your "rank" in the movement is determined partially by how many fighters you can bring to the table.
The low level IED / sniping campaign hasn't cost the insurgents a lot, and keeps their manpower hidden. But it is not the big show.
And in the big show, the United States always wins. We own the air. We own the night. Everytime the insurgents try to mass for an attack, or to make a mass attack, it turns out very badly for them.
#8
The one feeds off the other, doesn't it? Whack enough bad boys and the rest might decide to take up auto mechanics for a living. Get some to step away due to a political settlement and it becomes easier to get the remaining bad boys.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2006 13:55 Comments ||
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#9
Bad news from the outset (i.e., spring 2004) is that we've generally decided to skip the war phase and go directly to the pacification phase. We've chosen not to even try breaking the enemy's will. Many here think that many in our military have out-smarted themselves, breezily substituting civil affairs/development/kiss-up for the killing and intimidation that has settled every real war in history (MNC-I CG Chiarelli has been challenged openly in meetings on this score).
It's all RUMINT, but word is that the very poorly kept secret of a major Ramadi operation in early May has turned out to be inaccurate - pushed back, at the least.
You've just made me depressed, however. This touchy-feely approach gets good people killed. If the Iraqi forces were "there" then it would be far less depressing.
Do you attribute this foolishness to military men who don't get it and won't fight, the State Dept, or who? Obviously those who favor this don't know enough about Arabs to be in decision-making positions.
#12
Bad news from the outset (i.e., spring 2004) is that we've generally decided to skip the war phase and go directly to the pacification phase.
This has been pretty obvious for a long time now. The objective is to take the least amount of damage, rather than inflict the maximum on the terrorists.
KUNA -- Unidentified gunmen kidnapped the wife and son of former Minister of Housing of the Ayad Allawi government, an Interior Ministry security source said Monday. The source told KUNA that gunmen kidnapped the wife and son of former Minister Omar Al-Damlouji in addition to the family driver yesterday afternoon in Baghdad. No further details of the incident were given. Former Minister Al-Damlouji was previously the head of the Architectural Engineering Department at the University of Baghdad before being appointed as Minister of Housing in the Ayad Allawi interim government.
Kidnappers and armed gangs target families of current and previous political figures and officials. Victims so far include the sister and brother of Minister of Interior Baqer Jaber Soolagh and Deputy Prime Minister Abdulmotalib Al-Jabouri's brother. Moreover, the body of Iraqi Front for National Dialogue Chief MP Dr. Salih Al-Mutlaq's brother was found in the capital, and the brother and sister of Deputy President Tariq Al-Hashimi were assassinated in separate incidents.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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KUNA: Seven Iraqi civilians were injured on Monday when three bombs exploded in Howaijah, Debs, and Kirkuk north of the country. An Iraqi police source from Kirkuk said four civilians were injured in one explosion west of the city and been transferred to nearby hospital. Another explosion targeted a patrolling police car which resulted in injuring slightly one civilian, source added. The Iraqi police source also said Iraqi forces have foiled a missile attack on a northern oil station company. "Police found a Katiusha missile targeting the area and police explosive expert discharged it", source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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This is the first AP article I have read in a while that hasn't pissed me off... RAMADI, Iraq - On the roof of a ruined hotel-turned-observation post nicknamed "the Ramadi Inn," two U.S. snipers listen to Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" on an iPod and watch a firefight through holes knocked out of a penthouse wall. Marines at another sandbagged outpost up the road are firing grenades at insurgents, sending clouds of smoke rising above a hazy midday skyline of rusting water towers, minarets and an exquisite blue-domed mosque. "It's a never-ending war," says one of the snipers, 22-year-old Spc. Jarrod York of Mansfield, Pa., as explosions boom in the distance.
Ramadi, populated by Sunni Arabs 70 miles west of Baghdad, is the most dangerous city in Iraq for U.S. forces. Commanders say there are more insurgent attacks here than anywhere else in the country, with militants and American troops exchanging fire several times a day — at least. American troops seized "the Ramadi Inn," known officially as OP Hotel, in 2004 to protect a road through the heart of the city. Two years later, they are using the building and others like it to secure Route Michigan, a key supply road for U.S. forces. This four-story structure is one of the tallest in town, offering panoramic views over an urban wasteland crawling with insurgents. The troops say the militants are also watching them — casing their positions in vehicles, peeking around corners, looking from afar through binoculars and video cameras. It's difficult to imagine the hotel ever had a place in Ramadi's hospitality industry. Rocket blasts have pummeled the building, a truck bomb nearly destroyed it and human hands have stripped it bare of furnishings. The rooms on one dusty, darkened floor have been converted into sandbagged machine-gun nests manned by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
With boxes of ammunition and spent bullet casings at their feet, troops sit with binoculars 24 hours a day. They brace for attacks, watch for guerrillas and keep an eye out for battles — muzzle-flashes, explosions, plumes of smoke. "We watch for anything that's not normal. But nothing's normal around this place," said Spc. Joe Sommer, 20, of Lawrenceville, Ga., his belt-fed machine-gun poking out a hallway window. Past dreary halls draped with camouflage nets, soldiers sleep in cot-crammed quarters with no electricity, running water, phones or Internet.
Iraqi forces arrived a couple weeks ago and sleep on their own floor. A few promptly installed a satellite on the roof so they could watch TV in their rooms. Every window has been sealed with leaking sandbags. Troops joke the weight of the bags may bring down the building. Scrawled on one wall: "Ramadi Inn, aka OP Sandbag." Only a few rooms have generator-driven fluorescent lights: the command center and a kitchen stacked with military rations. A few rays of sunlight stream in during the day, but the darkness "makes you feel like you're living in a cave," said Army Lt. Nicholas Goshen, 24, of Cleveland. Ringed by trash, blast walls and razor wire, the hotel's crumbling brown balconies and boarded windows are covered by chicken-wire fencing that hangs from the roof to help deflect shoulder-fired grenades.
Exchanges of fire have wasted most surrounding buildings and forced nearby residents to flee. "It's sad, but this hotel is critical to keeping Route Michigan open," Goshen said, looking at vacant, bullet-sprayed shops across the street. The snipers are stationed in a small enclosed room called the penthouse, which is on the roof.
Sgt. 1st Class Britt Ruble, platoon commander for Charlie Company of the Army's 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, said snipers had "taken out quite a few people digging in alleys" — planting roadside bombs — in the past year. Ruble said rocket-propelled grenades struck the hotel at least 10 times in recent months, one of which hit the wall above Spc. Richard Cruz, 27, of Los Angeles. "It knocked him back off his gun, but he got right back up and kept shooting," Ruble said. Soldiers said bullets flew through the windows during that gunbattle in March, ricocheting off walls. One round hit an American soldier in the ankle; a medic found the 7.62 mm slug in his boot. After that, "we took the sandbags all the way to the ceiling, doubled 'em, made 'em so we can actually fight from 'em," Ruble said.
Black marks and chips on the walls and ceilings bear testament to such stories, but soldiers say it is quieter here now than it had been — and quieter than other Marine-manned outposts along Michigan that are attacked daily. When not on guard duty, troops read, play hand-held video games or write letters. On Sunday, a few watched "The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the 80s" on a laptop. Hot meals arrive in plastic containers once a day. Sometimes breakfast and even ice cream are thrown in. But luxury it is not. On some walls the words "never forgotten" are written beside the names of fallen soldiers. Goshen said he tries to call his girlfriend before going on a four-day stint at the hotel. This time, coming off another mission, he had no time. "She knows I'm guarding a hotel, but she probably thinks it's a nice hotel and I live in a room. She doesn't understand," he said. "My family would probably get a little scared if they saw what this place looks like." Our boys are doing an incredible job.
#2
Sniper Kitten! Great story and thanks for our defense! Iraq is turning the corner on security and new civility thanks to YOU. Down with the terrorists, one by one!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2006 10:17 Comments ||
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#4
short version
The good news- US troops are fighting bravely and effectively in Ramadi, and killing lots of insurgents.
The Bad news - despite op after op, for 3 years, there are still plenty of insurgent in Ramadi to fight. Ramadi is still war zone.
The not so bad - well Ramadi is a war zone cause Ramadi is the worst place in Anbar. This is the last place in Anbar that this bad, so weve made progress since a year ago.
The good news - there are Iraqi forces participating as well
The bad news - we obviously arent ready to hand Ramadi over to the Iraqi forces.
Two Palestinian policemen were killed in a rocket strike Tuesday on a building at the Palestinian national security compound in the northern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources said that the rocket hit the base of the Third Brigade of the Palestinian national security forces, east of the Jabaliya refugee camp.
The rocket was apparently a locally made Qassam rocket, used by Palestinians [presumably Islamic Jihad] to fire on [in this cast at] southern Israel. The blast caused the one-story building to collapse.
I've put up the double popcorn offered by TW. Thanks for whipping that up, TW!
A new Palestinian police force being set up in Gaza by the governing Islamist Hamas movement has raised fear of violence.
Tensions between Hamas and the rival Palestinian Fatah group have soared since Hamas swept to power in a January election.
Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades will be the backbone for the 3,000-member force. Fatah, which opposes its formation, has announced plans for a 2,000-strong militia of its own.
But while some Gazans predict armed clashes between Hamas and Fatah gunmen, others see the new police force as a means of fighting lawlessness in an area ruled by militia might.
"We have tens of thousands of policemen but they have no real orders to end chaos," said 60-year-old Hajj Abu Ahmed.
"We need only a few thousand with a clear mandate and the determination to do the job, and Hamas people want to do that because without security, their government will fail," he said.
Nonetheless, Abu Ahmed, a former well digger, sees "a clash coming ... because some parties do not want to lend a hand to Hamas even if they do right".
Ala Hussein, 40, a Fatah supporter, voiced opposition to the new unit, saying with 60,000 members, the existing security forces should be able to do the job.
"But I also admit that police need to take serious action against crime and chaos, so that there will be no justification for a new force," he said.
Since Hamas took office in March 29, it has been locked in a dispute with President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah over control of the security forces and foreign policy.
Hamas officials have said the new unit would provide backup for police on various missions and protect government officials if they came under attack.
Chaos that had intensified since Israel left the Gaza Strip last year has worsened in recent weeks amid verbal exchanges between Hamas and Fatah leaders.
A previously unknown group linking itself with al-Qaeda has threatened to kill Fatah officials, calling them infidels.
Eyad Mahmoud, a 26-year-old taxi driver, said economic difficulties in Gaza, where the Hamas-led government has failed to secure payments for at least 160,000 Palestinian Authority employees in March and April, has deepened frustrations.
"Lots of guns, political differences and no money can only lead to more despair and disappointment and maybe violence too," he said.
The financial crisis began after Hamas formed a government in Marc and Israel, the United States and the European Union withheld funding to pressure Hamas to recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence and accept past interim peace deals.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 01:32 ||
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#1
I just made a double batch of popcorn. Help yourselves! ;-)
#4
Too bad none of these losers want to do something useful like growing food or producing something that could be sold to earn money. As long as Hamas has money to buy ammunition and fund foolishness like this, they don't need any aid from the Christian West. Let'em starve.
A TV reporter here said she feared her life could be in danger after she got hold of a confidential military document issued to an arrested Abu Sayyaf suspect. Ronan Lomongo, a reporter of IBC-ABC 11 news, said an unidentified source gave her a copy of a safe-conduct pass supposedly issued by the Military Intelligence Group (MIG) to Sparle Amiruddin, alias Abu Omar.
Amiruddin, also known as Abu Samurai and Abu Taliban, was one of the planners of the May 2002 Dos Palmas kidnapping of at least 21 people. He was also allegedly involved in bomb attacks here. Amiruddin, an alleged conduit of the Jemaah Islamiyah in Mindanao, was arrested here on April 24.
Among the documents seized from the suspect was a safe-conduct pass signed by Maj. Romulo Quemado, commander of the MIG in Western Mindanao, Lomongo said. The MIG is a unit of the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The document, which grants an individual safe passage through military and police checkpoints, was supposedly issued on March 7 and expired on April 7.
Lomongo said the one who gave her the document suspected that the Abu Sayyaf operation in the city had the blessing of some military officers. “I am really afraid, the person who gave me the document wanted to publicize the wrongdoings of some military officers,” Lomongo told the Inquirer.
But Quemado said he did not consider the supposed safe-conduct pass an issue. “If indeed he has a copy, it may be fake and does not hold water,” Quemado said.
Senior Supt. Francisco Cristobal, city police director, said arrested suspects could always claim anything, “including the alleged issuance of a safe-conduct pass.” “If in case there is one, the Isafp is directly responsible in the investigation since the MIG-9 is one of its units,” he said.
Cristobal said a safe-conduct pass could only be issued to members of recognized rebel organizations, “whenever there’s peace negotiation or dialogue.” “But as far as we are concerned, we don’t have any idea of a military unit releasing a pass, especially to a suspected Abu Sayyaf member,” Cristobal said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 01:52 ||
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#1
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tear line
Groupe el Militarie Intelligencia Groupa (MIG) Philippino.
The holder of this genuine yellow international press get-outa-jail free card is entitled to safe passage in and around all contested areas and checkpoints, no problemos. Should the holder encounter detention, hostile gunfire, car-jacking, hold this card above your head, grab your package, bend knees slightly, wave and scream aggressively. This card may NOT be used as a toe tag unless properly signed by holder.
___________________________________
Signaturo.
MIG Form R-2D2
Reproductione Authorized.
Indonesia's anti-terror squad found a backpack containing explosives similar to those used in the October 2005 Bali bombings that killed 20 people on the resort island, including three suicide bombers, a police official said Monday.
National police spokesman Brigadier General Anton Bachrul Alam said police found the homemade bomb early Sunday in a storage unit in the Central Javanese town of Temanggung following a tip from two militants arrested in a weekend raid on their hideout.
Alam said the discovery of the bomb was the result of the interrogation of two terrorist suspects following their arrest during a police raid in the Central Java district of Wonosobo on Saturday, and added that the explosives were 'like those used in the Bali bombings.'
He said police were still searching for more explosives.
The two arrested suspects, identified as Mustafirin and Sholahuddin, are strongly believed to be close aides to most wanted Malaysian terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top.
Two other Muslim militants were killed in the pre-dawn raid Saturday, but police failed to capture Top, and claimed the country's most wanted terror suspect fled before the operation.
Alam also said during the raid police seized two rifles, several laptops, detonators and a number of documents belonging to the slain terrorist suspects.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 01:24 ||
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DESPITE lack of evidence, police claimed to have thwarted an alleged plan by communist insurgents and rebel soldiers to bomb this yearÂ’s Labor Day rallies after they arrested five suspected leftist guerrillas in Cavite province last week.
The alleged communist insurgents, identified as Aries Sarmiento or Ka Narsing, Marvin Galang or Jofel and Kelly, Axel Alejandro Pinpin or Andoy, and Riel Ramos Custodio or Gerald, and their driver, a suspected asset of the New PeopleÂ’s Army, were arrested in the vicinity of Sungay village in Tagaytay City some 56 kilometers south of Manila at around 6 p.m. Friday, said Senior Superintendent Aaron Fidel, Calabarzon police intelligence chief.
But no explosives were recovered from the suspects although receipts for the purchase of bomb components were seized from them, admitted Chief Superintendent Prospero Noble, regional police commander for Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon).
Also seized from the suspects were electronic devices containing documents, some of which allegedly showed in detail the protesters' programs during Labor Day, a map of the region, and mobile phones that also purportedly showed an exchange of text messages between those arrested and members of the right-wing Magdalo rebel group, police officials said.
The police however did not identify the messages' senders.
"There was none," Noble said, when asked if the alleged May 1 bomb plot was mentioned in the documents.
"What is significant here is that the exploitation of recovered
documents and disks, there appears to be a link between the so-called Magdalo forces together with the CPP-NPA and some sectoral
organizations," Director General Arturo Lomibao, Philippine National Police chief, told a news conference Monday.
Lomibao also noted that the evidence linking the alleged communists to the rightist elements was an alleged claim by one of the five suspects that he had met with Army First Lieutenant Lawrence San Juan, a member of the Magdalo group that staged the July 27, 2003 mutiny. San Juan was arrested February 24, 2006.
"There were plans for this May 1 celebrationÂ… They were coordinating instructions what to do during the celebration," Lomibao said but refused to elaborate.
"We have opened only two documents and we recovered many," Lomibao added.
Police pulled over the suspects who were driving a box-type Mitsubishi Lancer, as one of them was allegedly wanted for the recent killing of an Army soldier, said Fidel, Calabarzon police chief.
Receipts for the purchase of several kilos of ammonium nitrate and 8,000 pieces of metal balls, allegedly intended for use as bomb shrapnels, flash drives, and several subversive documents were seized from the suspects, Fidel confirmed.
The group was allegedly on its way to Talisay town in Batangas province for a meeting with NPA comrades, Fidel said.
Sarmiento is the alleged secretary general of the NPA in Cavite province. Galang allegedly met with San Juan while he was in hiding, Fidel said.
Metro Manila police chief Director Vidal Querol said the bomb threat on the Labor Day rallies brought to mind the leftist orchestrated attack on Plaza Miranda in September 2001.
"They have done it before, and at the right time and for the right reasons, they can do it again," he said.
In an interview with reporters, Sarmiento denied he was an NPA member. He said he worked as a researcher for Cavite Representative Crispin Remulla.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said last week that a few members of its local chapter in Cavite had gone missing. Some of them were among those arrested, a police report confirmed.
KMP spokesman Carl Ala decried what he called another attempt by government to link his group and forces under the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan to the NPA and the Magdalo rebel group.
Thousands of militants took to the streets on Monday, Labor Day, to press for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and demand a wage increase.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:23 ||
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COLOMBO - Sri LankaÂ’s navy said it came under attack from the Tamil TigersÂ’ sea wing on Monday and elsewhere at least seven were killed in violence blamed on the rebels amid rising fears of a return to civil war.
The navy said five armed Sea Tiger boats, including two suicide craft, approached one of its vessels in waters off Trincomalee on the northeastern coast. When the navy tried to investigate, it was attacked. “They have opened fire and attacked our Dvora,” said navy spokesman D.K.P. Dassanayake, referring to the Israeli-built Dvora fast-attack craft. “We retaliated in self-defence.”
Five sailors were wounded in the exchange, Dassanayake said, adding that he did not know about Tiger casualties.
Usually when you sink a rebel boat you boast about it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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KUNA -- At least six civilians and a sailor from the Sri Lankan Navy were killed in an explosion in the port city of Trincomalee in Northeast Sri Lanka Monday. In capital Colombo, all May Day gatherings were cancelled following the explosion, news agency Indo-Asian News Service reported. The Sri Lankan Army has held Tamil rebels responsible for the attack, the agency further reported.
The latest attack has further strained the already fragile ceasefire between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lanka government. Peace talks between the two scheduled for the April end in Geneva were postponed indefinitely after the LTTE pulled out. More than 300 people, at least half of them civilians, have been killed since the beginning of the year as a result of land mines or in other attacks, the agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Iran will target Israel first if the United States does anything "evil", a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday. Wait, you say we are the great satan ... so we are doing "evil" stuff now, right?
The United States says it wants Iran's nuclear standoff with the West solved diplomatically but has refused to rule out military action.
"We have announced that wherever America does something evil, the first place that we target will be Israel," Revolutionary Guards Rear Admiral Mohammad-Ebrahim Dehqani was quoted as saying by Iran's student news agency ISNA. And this is new? We fart and you target Israel and visa versa.
The Islamic Republic has never recognized Israel and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map."
Dehqani said naval wargames held in the Gulf last month "carried the warning to those countries that threaten Iran, including America and the Zionist regime".
Experts said the wargames, in which Iran said it had tested new missiles and torpedoes, were a thinly veiled threat that it could disrupt vital Gulf oil shipping lanes if it was attacked.
#3
"We have announced that wherever America does something evil, the first place that we target will be Israel,"
Bright fellow this Rear Admiral
Iran has a few inaccurate missiles with conventional warheads.
Israel has dozens of nuclear armed, accurate missiles.
Fire away Admiral...
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 20:07 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Israel is deadmeat anyways iff America fails to prevent Radical-controlled Iran from getting nuclear weapons. IRAN HAVING NUKES = IRAN CAN HAVE EMPIRE > USA NOT INTERVENING TO SAVE TAIWAN, ETAL ASIAN-PACIFIC ALLIES FROM CHICOM ATTACK > INTERPRETED BY AMER'S ENEMIES + ALLIES AS A DE FACTO DECLINE IN US REGIONAL + GEOPOLITICAL POWER-INFLUENCE. By this statement, Iran > America is to blame for any mil action/invasion against Iran as well as any Radical Islamist terror attack(s) against Israel - IOW, NO LET UP OF GUERILLA ROCKET OR SUICIDE ATTACKS AGZ ISRAEL NO MATTER WHAT.
Tehran, 2 May (AKI) - Iranian intellectual Ramin Jahanbeglu, an internationally renowned political analyst and philosopher, has been arrested, according to sources in Tehran. He has been missing for several days, according to his wife, who has not given any further details. Jahanbeglu has a double Iranian-Canadian citizenship. He had just returned to the Iranian capital after working for several months in India and was scheduled to hold a course at the House of Artists in Tehran. The analyst had recently condemned Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his anti-Israel tirades.
Jahanbeglu graduated from the Sorbonne in Paris, obtained his Phd at Harvard and later moved to Canada to teach at the Toronto University. He has written books on a range of topics, from globalisation to oriental philosophies.
Gonna do anything this time, Canada? Or ya gonna wait till he "falls down a flight of stairs"?
Posted by: Steve ||
05/02/2006 09:12 ||
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Tehran, 2 May (AKI) - An Iranian court has sentenced two Swedes to three years in jail on espionage charges, a judicial official said on Tuesday. The head of Iranian magistrates Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi also announced that an appeals court will review the position of a French and German citizen who are detained on charges of illegally entering the territorial waters of the Islamic Republic.
The two Swedes were arrested in February as they were taking photographs of the island of Ghasm. According to Rooz on line, a website considered close to the Pasdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps, the Swedes are Israeli spies. The two men, who have always denied the charges, were sentenced to three years in jail after a trial of just a few hours.
Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi announced that a previous ruling sentencing a French and German to 18 months in jail will be reviewed. The men were arrested in November for taking pictures of Pasdaran ships from a boat in international waters.
Guess that whole "international waters" thing doesn't mean anything to them
Citing a judicial source, Rooz on line said foreigners who were caught in the past taking pictures ior illegally entering Iran's territorial waters were released after just a few days.
According to the online paper, the arrests are connected to the current international crisis over Iran's nuclear programme. The four men could be used as 'hostages' to put pressure on Western governments should the UN Security Council decide to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The Security Council is scheduled to meet this week to decide possible punitive measures against Iran that could involve economic and military sanctions after Tehran refused to halt uranium enrichment. The Islamic Republic claims its nuclear programme is only for civilian use while the West fears it is aimed at building nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/02/2006 08:30 ||
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#1
From day 1 they have never understood that the whole hostage bit just ticks us off more. Animals.
Iran denounced the United States on Monday for contemplating possible nuclear strikes against Iranian targets and urged the United Nations to take urgent action against what it called a dangerous violation of international law.
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan obtained by The Associated Press, Iran's U.N. Ambassador Javad Zarif called President Bush's refusal to rule out a U.S. nuclear strike on Iran and a similar follow-up statement by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "illegal and insolent threats."
Bush was asked on April 18 whether U.S. options regarding Iran "include the possibility of a nuclear strike" if Tehran refuses to halt uranium enrichment. "All options are on the table," the president replied, but he stressed that the United States will continue to focus on diplomacy.
Iran insists it is legally entitled under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium to provide fuel for civilian power plants but the United States suspects its real aim is to produce nuclear weapons, a view backed by Britain and France.
Zarif said the use of "false pretexts" by senior U.S. officials "to make public and illegal threats of resort to force against the Islamic Republic of Iran is continuing unabated in total contempt of international law and fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter."
The "U.S. aggressive policy" of contemplating the possible use of nuclear weapons also violates the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and other U.S. multilateral agreements, he said.
Zarif's letter made no mention of recent threats by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to wipe Israel "off the map."
Instead, the Iranian ambassador honed in on statements from U.S. officials, especially from Bush, which he said "defiantly articulate the United States policies and intentions on the resort to nuclear weapons."
Zarif said past U.N. failures to respond "to these illegal and inexcusable threats have emboldened senior United States officials to go further and even consider the use of nuclear weapons as an `option on the table.'"
In a brief statement responding to the letter, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said "if Iran wants to be treated differently, then Iran should stop pursuing nuclear weapons and give up terrorism."
The secretary-general had no immediate comment on the letter, said Marie Okabe, a U.N. spokeswoman.
After lengthy negotiations, the U.N. Security Council adopted a statement a month ago demanding that Iran stop enriching uranium. A new report Friday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, confirmed what the world already knew: Iran has refused to stop enriching uranium.
The United States, Britain and France immediately announced plans to introduce a new Security Council resolution this week which would make Iran's compliance with their demands mandatory. To intensify pressure, they want the resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which means it can be enforced through sanctions or military action.
China and Russia, the two other council members with veto power, oppose sanctions and military action and want the Iran nuclear issue resolved diplomatically, with the IAEA taking the lead, not the Security Council.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, reiterated Monday that Tehran was "ready for any kind of negotiation to achieve our rights" and again called for Iran's dispute with the international community to be returned to the IAEA, rather than taken up by the Security Council.
He spoke on the eve of a meeting in Paris of political directors from the six countries that have been trying to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff - Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 01:40 ||
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#1
We always keep "all options on the table. Std boilerplate."
#5
File a counter complaint listing Mahmoud's "belligerant" statements of recent weeks and monthes.
Propose a resolution declaring Iran an "outlaw" regime.
Flatten their tires in the parking garage.
I thought John Bolton was supposed to crack the whip.
#8
I'm with NS on this one. Let's get this one on the agenda ASAP. Then the American people can truly see what a farce the UN really is. Anyone who has Syria (not to mention China) as head of the Human Rights Commission, as well as recently appointing Iran to be head of the Disarmament Commission is a freakin' waste of time. Getting this on the agenda (have Iran call for sanctions on the US) and shouting what Ahdimijad's been yelling (a'la Hitler) the last few months would be the best thing Bolton could do right now.
Posted by: BA ||
05/02/2006 12:06 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Iran insists it is legally entitled under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium to provide fuel for civilian power plants but the United States suspects its real aim is to produce nuclear weapons, a view backed by Britain and France.
Someone needs to sprout a set and make it crystal clear how nations that threaten to wipe other countries "off of the map" do not get to play with nuclear toys at any time. Play nice or get stuffed. Simple as that.
#11
Nothing could build U.S. support for taking action against Iran than doind EXACTLY what has been recommended. Get this on the floor ASAP, and let Bolton defend the U.S. postion by simply quoted what MadMouth has said in the last few months.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/02/2006 17:32 Comments ||
Top||
#12
100-plus = 3000 = 40,000 = ........@centrifuges > Its only Uranium, NOT Plutonium. NO WMDS IN IRAN.
Defective, Error-prone = wilful Imperialist Warmonger, Male Brute, Rightist-led Clintonian [Left]Socialist Americans made yet another anti-Motherly mistake. OR DID WE -BWAHAHAHAHA......!?
A top al-Qaida leader whose links stretch from Osama bin Laden's training camps to extremist networks in Europe has been captured in Pakistan, a U.S. law enforcement official confirms for the first time.
Pakistani officials also told The Associated Press that Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a dual Syrian-Spanish national with a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, had been flown out of the country to an unspecified location.
Nasar was captured in a November sting in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta that left one person dead, the American official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The official spoke to the AP late last week.
U.S. military officials aware of the detention of terror suspects at American prison facilities in Bagram, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had no immediate information Tuesday on whether Nasar had been incarcerated at either jail.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official told the AP from the capital, Islamabad, that Nasar was flown out of Pakistan to an undisclosed destination "some time ago."
"I only know that he is not here. But, I do know that Syrian authorities had also requested to get him back," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his work.
Pakistani and American officials have long been tightlipped on the status of Nasar. He has been described by the U.S. Justice Department as a former trainer at bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan who helped teach extremists to use poisons and chemicals.
Another Pakistani official confirmed the Quetta arrest but had no information on Nasar's whereabouts.
"He had been interrogated by us. He had been interrogated by our American friends," said the official, who also declined to be identified because of the secretive nature of his activities.
He added that both Syrian and U.S. authorities wanted to take Nasar into custody.
A picture and short biography of the red-haired Nasar was recently removed from the U.S. government's Rewards for Justice Web site. Justice and State Department officials declined to say why Nasar was no longer profiled.
It would not be the first time Pakistan _ a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism _ has detained al-Qaida terrorists and turned them over to the Americans.
Pakistan says it has captured more than 750 al-Qaida suspects since the Sept. 11 attacks and has handed most of them to the United States.
They include al-Qaida's former No. 3, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed _ a key planner of the attacks who was arrested in March 2003 during a raid near Islamabad _ and his purported replacement, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who was detained in May 2005 in Pakistan's northwest.
Media reports have linked Nasar, who holds Spanish citizenship, to the 2004 commuter train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people, and to the July 7 attacks in London that left 56 dead, including the four bombers.
In September 2003, Nasar was among 35 people named in a Spanish indictment for terrorist activities connected to al-Qaida. His exact role, if any, to either the Madrid or London bombings is unclear.
He is also wanted for a 1985 attack on a restaurant near a military base close to Madrid airport that left about 20 people dead _ regarded as the first international Islamic terrorist attack to take place in Spain.
Spain's ambassador to Pakistan, Jose-Maria Robles, said Spain had sought information from Pakistan about Nasar's reported arrest in November but had received no reply.
"Pakistan knows our interest but we have not had any official answer," he said in Islamabad on Tuesday.
Nasar, who lived in Spain and was married to a Spanish woman, also stayed in London during the mid-1990s before traveling to Afghanistan, where he was believed to have been part of bin Laden's network, a Western diplomat in Islamabad said.
His movements have been traced to Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and at least two European capitals.
Singapore-based terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna said Nasar's capture is a major blow to the al-Qaida movement because he was the "most prolific writer" of jihadi propaganda and held close links with extremists throughout Europe and South Asia.
"The ideologues are as equally important as the operational people and he was in close contact with very prominent figures with movements in different countries, particularly the North African region," Gunaratna said.
In 2004, Nasar released a 1,600-page book titled "The International Islamic Resistance Call," which lays out strategies for attacking Islam's enemies.
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.
KUNA -- An explosion in southern Afghanistan wounded two Canadian soldiers while the Afghan military announced arresting a prominent Taliban commander during an operation, launched last week, in the same region. A senior police official on condition of anonymity said the suicide blast took place while the Canadian convoy was on its way to the Maiwand district of the Kandahar province. He said a suicide attacker exploded his car near the convoy, which injured two soldiers. Military spokesman Quentin Innis told journalists two Canadian soldiers were wounded. But he said it was a mine blast that hit the military convoy. He said one vehicle was destroyed in the attack. 
KUNA: The US-led coalition forces stationed in southern Afghanistan said they had killed about 15 Taliban fighters during an operation in the country's restive 
David Hicks complained to Australian officials about flea-ridden bedding in his Guantanamo Bay cell just one day before being moved to solitary confinement as payback, his father says.
KUNA: Turkish authorities arrested Monday two members of the disbanded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who were about to commit terrorist acts during festivals of the international Workers' Day at a resort near the Mediterranean Sea. Turkish "Ekhlas" News agency quoted a security statement saying that one of the arrested was going to throw Molotov bottles of flammable liquid to disrupt security and stability. The two arrested had participated in several riots in the past months, it added.
A federal judge yesterday lambasted a former Florida college professor, Sami Al-Arian, as a liar and "master manipulator," before sentencing him to nearly five years in prison for providing support to a Middle Eastern terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad....You are a master manipulator. You looked your neighbors in the eyes and said you had nothing to do with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This trial exposed that as a lie," Judge Moody said. "The evidence was clear in the this case that you were a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad."
SACRAMENTO: A man whose son was convicted of supporting terrorism by attending an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan was released on Monday after nearly a year in federal custody. 
A top al-Qaida leader whose links stretch from Afghan terror training camps to extremist networks operating throughout Europe has been detained in neighboring Pakistan and possibly handed over to American authorities, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.
BANNU: Mir Muhammad Khan, uncle of NWFP Chief Minister 
Four people were killed Monday when police allegedly fired at mobs of Hindus and Muslims on a rampage in a western Indian city after authorities demolished a small Islamic shrine. Residents in the Fatehpur area of Vadodara (formerly known as Baroda) in Gujarat state blamed the deaths on police whom they said used bullets and tear gas. But police said firearms used by rioters hit them. A curfew was imposed in the city as the sectarian riots led to looting, police said. At least 10 other people were injured by gunfire from the police or bricks hurled by rioters, police said. 
KUNA -- At least 22 people were killed and eight injured, including women and children, by terrorists in the Doda district of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, late Sunday night. The toll is likely to go up with three of the eight injured battling for life, news agency Indo-Asian News Service reported Monday. Terrorists in a late night attack had pulled the victims out of their homes and killed them in Doda district.
The gunmen killed the Hindus after dragging them out of their houses. The injured included a women and her daughter. Local journalist Haq Nawaz Nehru, who alerted journalists in Srinagar and Jammu late Sunday night, told Daily Times from Doda on the phone that gunmen wearing combat fatigues had reached the remote hamlets of Panjdobi and Thava and ordered villagers to come out of their houses. “They were herded to the house of a local village head, where the gunmen opened fire at them, killing 22 people on the spot,” he said. 
KUNA: Suspected nationalist militants in different attacks wounded two soldiers, blew up a railway track and fired rockets at a checkpost, said police Monday. Militants fired at Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers in Sangsella area on late Sunday, wounding two soldiers, police sources told KUNA. In a related incident, militants fired several rockets at a FC checkpost in Kohlu district on Monday, but no one was hurt, sources said. The militants, also, blew up two-feet long portion of a rail track linking the country with Iran in Naushki town, sources said, adding that there were no casualties.
CNN -- U.S. and Iraqi troops killed more than 100 insurgents last week in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a U.S. Army officer said Monday. Two Iraqis also died in the fighting, said Col. John Gronski, commander of the U.S. Army's 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 28th Infantry Division. No Americans were killed. Gronski said Iraqi forces "are doing very well" in the battle against insurgents in the volatile Anbar province city. "The Iraqi army is conducting aggressive operations here based on human intelligence from the people of Ramadi themselves," he said. 
KUNA -- Unidentified gunmen kidnapped the wife and son of former Minister of Housing of the Ayad Allawi government, an Interior Ministry security source said Monday. The source told KUNA that gunmen kidnapped the wife and son of former Minister Omar Al-Damlouji in addition to the family driver yesterday afternoon in Baghdad. No further details of the incident were given. Former Minister Al-Damlouji was previously the head of the Architectural Engineering Department at the University of Baghdad before being appointed as Minister of Housing in the Ayad Allawi interim government.
KUNA: Seven Iraqi civilians were injured on Monday when three bombs exploded in Howaijah, Debs, and Kirkuk north of the country. An Iraqi police source from Kirkuk said four civilians were injured in one explosion west of the city and been transferred to nearby hospital. Another explosion targeted a patrolling police car which resulted in injuring slightly one civilian, source added. The Iraqi police source also said Iraqi forces have foiled a missile attack on a northern oil station company. "Police found a Katiusha missile targeting the area and police explosive expert discharged it", source added.
RAMADI, Iraq - On the roof of a ruined hotel-turned-observation post nicknamed "the Ramadi Inn," two U.S. snipers listen to Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" on an iPod and watch a firefight through holes knocked out of a penthouse wall. Marines at another sandbagged outpost up the road are firing grenades at insurgents, sending clouds of smoke rising above a hazy midday skyline of rusting water towers, minarets and an exquisite blue-domed mosque. "It's a never-ending war," says one of the snipers, 22-year-old Spc. Jarrod York of Mansfield, Pa., as explosions boom in the distance.
Sgt. 1st Class Britt Ruble, platoon commander for Charlie Company of the Army's 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, said snipers had "taken out quite a few people digging in alleys" — planting roadside bombs — in the past year. Ruble said rocket-propelled grenades struck the hotel at least 10 times in recent months, one of which hit the wall above Spc. Richard Cruz, 27, of Los Angeles. "It knocked him back off his gun, but he got right back up and kept shooting," Ruble said. Soldiers said bullets flew through the windows during that gunbattle in March, ricocheting off walls. One round hit an American soldier in the ankle; a medic found the 7.62 mm slug in his boot. After that, "we took the sandbags all the way to the ceiling, doubled 'em, made 'em so we can actually fight from 'em," Ruble said. 
Two Palestinian policemen were killed in a rocket strike Tuesday on a building at the Palestinian national security compound in the northern Gaza Strip.
COLOMBO - Sri LankaÂ’s navy said it came under attack from the Tamil TigersÂ’ sea wing on Monday and elsewhere at least seven were killed in violence blamed on the rebels amid rising fears of a return to civil war.
Iran will target Israel first if the United States does anything "evil", a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday.
A top al-Qaida leader whose links stretch from Osama bin Laden's training camps to extremist networks in Europe has been captured in Pakistan, a U.S. law enforcement official confirms for the first time.
