Building on a winter campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations and the knowledge that U.S. troops are leaving, the Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new phase, flooding the rural areas of southern Afghanistan with weapons and men.
Each spring with the arrival of warmer weather, the fighting season here starts up, but the scale of the militants' presence and their sheer brazenness have alarmed Afghans and foreign officials far more than in previous years.
"The Taliban and al-Qaida are everywhere," shopkeeper Haji Saifullah told the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, as he strolled through the bazaar of this town to talk to people. "It is all right in the city, but if you go outside the city, they are everywhere and the people have to support them. They have no choice."
The fact that U.S. troops are pulling out of southern Afghanistan in the coming months and handing matters over to NATO peacekeepers, who have repeatedly stated that they are not going to fight terrorists, has given a boost to the insurgents, and increased the fears of Afghans.
Eikenberry appealed for patience and support.
"There has not been enough attention paid to Uruzgan," he said in a speech to the elders of Uruzgan province gathered at the governor's house in Tirin Kot, the provincial capital. "There is reform coming, and this year you will see it."
The arrival of large numbers of Taliban in the villages, flush with money and weapons, has dealt a blow to public confidence in the Afghan government, already undermined by lack of tangible progress and frustration with corrupt and ineffective leaders.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 07:01 ||
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KABUL: Seven people including four militants were killed in violence across Afghanistan on Tuesday. Four suspected Taliban militants and an Afghan soldier were killed in a gun battle in southern Afghanistan, the Defence Ministry said. Four soldiers were also wounded and a suspected militant detained in the weekend clash in Uruzgan province, one of the insurgency-plagued regions of Afghanistan, the ministry said in a statement. In separate incidents in the same region, Afghan forces detained three suspected militants and seized guns and a satellite telephone, the ministry added.
On Tuesday, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a police convoy in the southern province of Ghazni and one insurgent was killed in the ensuing gun battle, Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said. No one from the police convoy was hurt but a militant was killed and his gun and ammunition seized by the security forces, Stanizai said. The police convoy was passing through a mountainous area when insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at it.
Also on Tuesday, a suicide car-bomber attacked Canadian troops travelling in a vehicle near the Afghan capital, killing himself and a man on a horse, police and a Canadian military spokesman said. A car full of explosive blew itself up near a Canadian vehicle passing on this road, said Highway Police officer Ajab Gull. A civilian on his horse passing by was killed, and you can see the head of the suicide bomber over there, he told reporters at the scene. The horse was also killed in the blast. Gull said that a Canadian had been wounded, but Canadian military spokesman Major Marc Theriault said none of the three soldiers in the vehicle were hurt.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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GHALANAI: Coalition and Afghan forces on the Pak-Afghan border have started searching vehicles in the Sahib Kohi area of Nangarhar province, bordering Mohmand Agency in Pakistan. A convoy of coalition and Afghan forces surrounded Sahib Kohi and searched vehicles going to and coming from Mohmand Agency. They also checked goods on the vehicles with electronic gadgets.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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A teenage Somali boy has stabbed to death his father's killer in a public execution ordered by an Islamic court. Large crowds gathered at a Koranic school in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, to watch Mohamed Moallim, 16, stab Omar Hussein in the head and throat.
Hussein had been convicted of killing the boy's father, Sheikh Osman Moallim, after a row about Mohamed's education. Islamic courts have brought a semblance of order to Mogadishu, imposing Sharia law after years of rule by warlords.
Rule by bloodthirsty warlords or bloodthirsty holymen
Didn't they say the same thing about the Taliban at first?
However there is some opposition to the courts. A group of warlords has been fighting a militia loyal to the Islamic courts, which they accuse of links to al-Qaeda.
Under Sharia law those who commit murder are punishable by death. Hussein was tied to a stake and had his head covered by a bag ahead of his execution. He shouted "There is no God but Allah" as Mohamed Moallim stepped up to take his revenge. Speaking afterwards, the boy said he felt satisfied that Hussein was dead. "I am happy now because I killed the man who killed my father," he told the Reuters news agency.
The execution marked the first time the local court in the Bermuda district of Mogadishu had handed down a death penalty, local media reported. Residents in the nearby area have reported a drop in robberies, murder and general lawlessness since the court began its work, Radio HornAfrik said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:22 ||
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DEBKAfile Reports: Special operations units of Egypt intelligence corps beef up troops battling al Qaeda Sinai stronghold. Mubarak puts intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in command. DEBKAfiles military sources reveal that despite comprehensive sweeps with casualties on both sides since last week, Egyptian forces have not been able to capture al Qaeda hard core leaders. The main battle has been raging three days against the fortified terrorist stronghold on Jebel Magharah, 22km SW of El Arish and west of a former al Qaeda base on Jebel Hilal (alt. 654 meters). Signals passed among the troops describe the operation as the Tora Bora of Sinai, naming it after the fierce epic US-al Qaeda engagement in Afghanistan three years ago.
Egypt launched a large-scale clean-up operation against al Qaedas various Sinai bases last week after three bomb blasts killed at least 34 people at the Sinai resort of Dahab Tuesday. They are also reported to be raiding more new al Qaeda havens around St. Catherines monastery and Wadi Paran in the south.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/03/2006 09:11 ||
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They should bomb them with copies of "Protocols: the elders of zion".
Cairo, 3 May (AKI) - Egyptian police have made public the identity of one of the terrorists they suspect took part in the 24 April attacks on the Sinai resort of Dahab, in which 19 people were killed. Pan Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that the man, Fayz Ayd Awd Abu Zina, 45, also known as Muhammad Ali Ahmad, is currently on the run. Egyptian police on Tuesday released his photo to all police patrols. Security forces are also hunting other components of the terrorist group Tawhid wa Jihad which the investigators believe is responsible for attacks in the Sinai. On Monday the police killed three wanted men, believed connected to attacks in northern Sinai last week in which several Egyptian policemen were killed.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/03/2006 09:05 ||
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An open letter from the Islamic Group of Tawhid Wal Jihad in Morocco to the scholars and callers to faith in that states was distributed amongst several jihadist forums this past weekend of April 29-30, 2006. The group chastises the Islamic scholars for seemingly posturing towards the tyrant ruler of Morocco, ignoring the call of Allah to preach for jihad and defending the sanctity of Muslims who are meeting disaster in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine and Iraq. A question is repeatedly posed, where are you in regards to all of this?, asking the scholars where they stand regarding crimes, blasphemy, and infidels, and how they will respond to Allah on the day of judgement.
Tawhid Wal Jihad was the name of Abu Musab al-Zarqawis organization before he pledged fealty to Usama bin Laden in November 2004, changing the name to al-Qaeda in Iraq in January 2005.
This message could not be authenticated.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:58 ||
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#1
"Blasts Clergy"? Let me know when this sort of headline is about a "moderate" Imam taking out some jihadist preachers with a dynamite blast. Until then, it's SSDD.
#2
if he was a real moderate, hed leave it to the state to do that, and not get involved with explosives himself. thats what these "moderate" imams seem to be doing, letting the Morrocan state do its thing.
#3
I'll put it this way, LH. Whatever the heck it is that "moderate" imams are doing essentially amounts to taking the path of least resistance against their jihadist brethern. This flaccid posture constitutes nothing more than tacit approval of more violent factions in light of how incredibly ineffectual and largely silent such "moderate" individuals remain.
Algeria's most feared militant Islamic group has pleaded for the help of Al Qaeda's chief in Iraq, Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, following painful setbacks by the army.
The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, led by Abu Mussab Abdel Wadoud Abdel Malek, sent a letter to Zarqawi hailing his activities in fighting the enemies of Islam and declaring Taliban leader Mullah Omar as the "caliphate of Muslims".
The letter urged Zarqawi to "support brothers in Algerian jihad groups by making sermons that call for defeating the tyrants".
The letter stressed that the jihad movement in Algeria "has been going through difficult phases for the past years, but the crisis got worse in the last two years following the killing of Salafi movement leader Abu Ibrahim, which caused an earthquake that could have eliminated the jihad trend altogether if it wasn't for the commitment of the mujahideen".
Abu Ibrahim, who succeeded GSPC founder Hassan Hattab, was killed two years ago in a major operation by the army against the movement, which counts at present 700 gunmen in its ranks.
The letter blamed the weakness of the jihad trend on "conspiracies weaved against the Salafi movement in Algeria", in reference to the Peace and National Reconciliation Pact proposed by President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika and approved by 97 percent of Algerians in a nationwide referendum.
Government forces have stepped up a crackdown on the GSPC that appears to be living its last days after many of its field commanders and members abandoned armed activity and accepted Bouteflika's peace pact for ending the country's crisis.
Founder Hassan Hattab, who abandoned the group a few years ago, is highly critical of its new leaders, further weakening the movement.
In a recent statement Hattab disavowed himself from the "remnants of the armed Islamic movement who rejected national reconciliation".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:32 ||
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Yemen's state security court sentenced a senior al Qaeda suspect to 37 months in prison on Wednesday for funding militants in the Arab state. Mohammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, named as al Qaeda's number two in Yemen, was charged with forming an armed gang, financing al Qaeda militants and involvement in the deaths of 18 Yemeni soldiers.
Judge Najib al-Qaderi said Ahdal was convicted of "gathering funds and distributing them to a number of people accused of belonging to al Qaeda". He did not mention the rest of the charges, and it was not clear whether Ahdal would face further sentencing later.
The 35-year-old Ahdal, also known as Abu Asem al-Macci, had denied all charges.
"Lies! All lies!"
"Praise God (but) the trial is unjust," said the convict from behind the bars of a cage at the court room after the sentence was passed.
Legal sources said Ahdal can appeal against the ruling.
And if that doesn't work, he'll start tunneling towards the nearest mosque.
Ahdal, who has been in custody for almost three years, was an aide of al Qaeda's leader in Yemen, Ali Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, who was killed by a missile fired by an unmanned CIA drone in Yemen in 2002. Both men were key suspects in the 2000 bombing of the U.S. warship Cole in Aden port.
The prosecutor told the state security court that Ahdal, who was arrested in 2003, had received around $50,000 (27,000 pounds) from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to purchase arms and explosives.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:13 ||
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#1
Legal sources said Ahdal can appeal against the ruling.
Top outlaw killed in encounter with RAB
PABNA, May 2: An outlawed party leader was killed in an encounter between his cohorts and RAB members at Tajiapara village in Ataikula thana early Monday, reports UNB. The dead was identified as Jamal Hossain alias Zia alias Ranju, second-in-command of the outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party ML (Lal Pataka).
Another "Number 2" bites the dust
He was wanted in a number of cases, including that of murder.
"Wanted on twelve systems"
Being tipped off by locals, members of the anti-crime elite force RAB arrested Ranju from Mirpur area of Dhaka Saturday, concerned sources said.
"Hi, Ranju. Long time no see, why don't you come down to the station for a talk."
Acting on his statement,
"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"
the RAB troops took him to the spot today for recovering hidden arms and ammunition and arresting his associates.
Spot being a dark, deserted alley behind a abandoned warehouse
As soon as the RAB men along with Ranju reached the spot at about 4 am,
The magic hour
his cohorts opened fire on the law enforcers in a bid to snatch him.
"Da RAB has Ranju! Open fire, boys, we've got to rescue him!"
The RAB members then returned fire, triggering a gun battle.
Apparently it takes two sides to make a "gun battle"
Ranju was caught in the "crossfire" when he tried to flee and suffered bullet wounds.
Doctors declared him dead when he was taken to General Hospital, RAB sources said.
All together now.."He's dead, Jim"
One shutter-gun, two cartridges and a sharp weapon were recovered from the spot.
Shuttergun to be carefully cleaned and placed in it's satin-lined case, ready for future use
Dacoit lynched in Jhenidah
Jhenaidah, May 2: Angry mob lynched a dacoit and detained another when a group of dacoits try to commit robbery at Balrampur village under Kaliganj upazila in Jhenidah, police said Tuesday. The identity of the deceased was not known while the detained dacoit was identified as Russel of Patbila village.
Police and the local people said the incident occurred early Monday when a gang of six dacoits looted cash, gold ornaments and valuables from the house of one Bidhan Kumar Das of Gopalpur village and tried to commit robbery at three other adjacent houses, according BD News. Sensing the presence of the dacoits, the villagers cordoned the robbers.
"Cordoned" apparently works better than "surrounded"
A villager named Bham was injured when the dacoits were trying to escape hurling a hand-grenade, police added.
Bham got bammed
Four other members of the gang, however, managed to flee. After being informed, police rushed to the spot and recovered five hand-grenades from the spot.
JMB cadre arrested, explosives seized
BOGRA, May 2: Following statement of a JMB cadre RAB today seized a substantial quantity of explosive materials hidden underground at Joynagar village of Sherpur upaziala, reports UNB. Saiful, 32, JMB cadre, was arrested by RAB from his home at Joynagar on Monday and was taken to Rajshahi for interrogation. On his confessional statement Saiful was brought back to Joynagar today and on his direction the explosives hidden in a drum were unearthed from a maize field near his home.
I guess having a 'crossfire' near cached explosives is recognized as a bad idea
The drum contained bomb making explosives, 605 detonators, six rounds of pistol and rifle bullets, capacitors, 188 grenade caps, chemicals, gunpowder, electric and cooper wires, JMB brochures and leaflets, RAB said.
Saiful told RAB that Towhidul Islam, JMB commander of Sherpur, gave him the explosives for hiding three days before the August 17/05 countrywide series of bomb blasts. All the key militant leaders of JMB including Shaikh Abdur Rahman, his brother Ataur Rahman Sunny and Bangla Bhai had already been rounded up. They had launched an underground movement last year seeking to establish Islamic. RAB have succeeded in suppressing the movement and are still looking for the remnants of JMB.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/03/2006 10:18 ||
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#1
"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Crossfires® of our Lives."
#2
I love the Crossfire Gazette. The excitement, the suspense! One thing puzzles me though. Everytime an arms cache is recovered - and one always is - they get like "six round of bullet". Is there an ammo shortage over there?
Maybe the RAB is just "living off the land" and saving their ammo expense vouchers for the annual office party?
During the night of May 1-2 Russian fighter-bomber airforce made several strikes on a forest tract in the south-western part of Ingushetia. There were no casualties or structural damage.
The strikes were reportedly carried out in an area of mountain and forest situated between the Nazranovsky and Sunzhensky districts of the republic (not far from Ingushetias administrative border with North Ossetia). Local residents say they heard the sound of jet fighters, and of bombs being dropped in the vicinity of the villages of Ali-Yurt and Surkhakhi in Ingushetias Nazranovsky district.
"At around 11.30 pm we heard the rumble of aircraft. After a while there was the sound of bombs being dropped. Its very probable that the strikes were carried out on the area of forest to the southeast of the villages of Ali-Yurt and Surkhakhi. There were only two explosions, 10-15 minutes apart. The force of the blast wave was such that the glass rattled in the windows of several houses. We were so scared that we couldnt get to sleep all night. Fortunately, no one was hurt as a result of these raids, Akhmed G., a resident of Ali-Yurt, said in a conversation with PWs correspondent.
It is not known what served as the grounds for airstrikes on the forest. In connection with the incident the Ingushetian law enforcement agencies have reported that sub-units of the 58th Army were taking part in special training exercises on the outskirts of Surkhakhi and Ali-Yurt. However, officials of the republics interior ministry refused to answer a question about whether ground support aircraft were used in the course of the exercises.
In addition, it is reported that on the same night Russian soldiers also subjected the outskirts of the village of Valerik in the Achkhoy-Martanovsky district of Chechnya to a concentrated artillery bombardment. The attack began at approximately 11 pm and went on for 10-15 minutes. According to local residents, the firing came from long-range artillery at a place in the Urus-Martanovsky district where Russian soldiers are deployed. No one was hurt as a result of the shelling.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 07:06 ||
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#3
The article certainly doesn't make it sound like they got anything more mobile than trees, Mucky. Agreed. Let's hold them personally responsible for the end of life on this planet when the global warming goes into overload because the remaining trees aren't capable of soaking up the excess CO2.
BANGKOK, Thailand - A magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck early Thursday near the South Pacific nation of Tonga, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A tsunami warning was issued for Fiji and New Zealand. The temblor, classified by the USGS as a "great" quake, struck 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga, and 1,340 miles north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued the tsunami warning but said it was not known whether the quake generated a potentially deadly giant wave.
UPDATE: Looks like no major tsunami this time...
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 003
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1736Z 03 MAY 2006
THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT
ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.
... TSUNAMI WARNING CANCELLATION ...
THE TSUNAMI WARNING IS CANCELLED FOR ALL COASTAL AREAS AND ISLANDS
IN THE PACIFIC OUTSIDE OF ALASKA - BRITISH COLOMBIA - WASHINGTON -
OREGON - CALIFORNIA. THOSE AREAS SHOULD REFER TO MESSAGES FROM THE
WEST COAST AND ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER.
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME - 1527Z 03 MAY 2006
COORDINATES - 19.9 SOUTH 174.2 WEST
LOCATION - TONGA ISLANDS
MAGNITUDE - 7.8
MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY
GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
------------------- ----- ------ ----- ------ -----
PAGO PAGO 14.3S 170.7W 1636Z 0.15M 24MIN
NIUE 19.1S 169.9W 1603Z 0.21M 10MIN
TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT
AMPL - AMPLITUDE IN METERS FROM MIDDLE TO CREST OR MIDDLE
TO TROUGH OR HALF OF THE CREST TO TROUGH
PER - PERIOD OF TIME FROM ONE WAVE CREST TO THE NEXT
EVALUATION
SEA LEVEL READINGS INDICATE A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. IT MAY HAVE
BEEN DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. FOR
THOSE AREAS - WHEN NO MAJOR WAVES ARE OBSERVED FOR TWO HOURS
AFTER THE ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL OR DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT
OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME
THE THREAT IS PASSED. DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN
CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS DUE TO RAPID CURRENTS. AS LOCAL
CONDITIONS CAN CAUSE A WIDE VARIATION IN TSUNAMI WAVE ACTION THE
ALL CLEAR DETERMINATION MUST BE MADE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES.
NO TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS FOR OTHER COASTAL AREAS IN THE PACIFIC
ALTHOUGH SOME OTHER AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL CHANGES.
THE TSUNAMI WARNING IS CANCELLED.
THIS WILL BE THE FINAL BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/03/2006 12:55 ||
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#1
"Bush didn't warn us" bleating to follow in 3... 2... 1...
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/03/2006 13:06 Comments ||
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#2
Goerge Bush Don't like Tongan people.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/03/2006 13:29 Comments ||
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#5
Secure all hunter-killer dolphins, all levee destruction teams return to base, all telethons and concerts stand down. Please ignore all inevitable UN requests for substantial disaster relief requests.
Nothin to see here, return to you homes...
A small tsunami was generated off the Pacific islands of Niue and Pago Pago following an 8.0-magnitude quake in Tonga, but the threat to New Zealand and Fiji was subsiding, United States monitors said on Wednesday.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, which issued a warning following the 8.0 temblor that struck at 4.26am local time on Thursday (3.26pm GMT on Wednesday), said a half-metre tsunami welled up in the Pacific but that it did not appear to be destructive.
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - A U.S. jury has reached a verdict in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who faces the death penalty for conspiracy in connection with the September 11 attacks, the court said on Wednesday.
"The jury in U.S. v. Moussaoui has sent a note to the judge indicating they have reached a verdict," the court said in a statement. The verdict will be read at 4:30 p.m. EDT. Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy in the only case brought in the United States in connection with the deadly hijacked airliner attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
It's life in prison without parole
Posted by: Steve ||
05/03/2006 16:10 ||
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#2
Sad thing is, even if he's charged with the death penalty, that rabid dog will spent 10 more years wrestling with the system and in fact waging his own personal mind games jihad, like at that trial, before being put down.
In some way, I'd prefer him to waste away the rest of his natural life getting fatter and more depressive each day (just like me), confined in his cell 22 hours a day in a max security jail.
I might add having him referred to as a "frenchman" all over the media was particulary enerving; like many of his compadres, he's an arab living in France who happens to have french ID, but who still thinks of himself as moroccan, algerian, tunisian,... or as "Muslim"(tm) in this case.
#5
I might add having him referred to as a "frenchman" all over the media was particulary enerving; like many of his compadres, he's an arab living in France who happens to have french ID, but who still thinks of himself as moroccan, algerian, tunisian,... or as "Muslim"(tm) in this case.
An national identity anomoly not unique to France if you watched the news in the US on Monday.
I concur with life. As I believe the IDF said about bumping off old Arafat, "the last thing we need is another arabee Mesiah figure."
#6
First off one life sentence ONE did they explain a life sentence is really 25yrs this f*cker is only 30something so he is going to get out still alive ERRRRRRRRRRR
WTF happened to this Nation our enemies are laughing at our WEAKNESS utter WEAKNESS.
WTF happened to this nation a nation that once had 12 US citizens of German decent that were smuggled back into the states to commit sabotage but were captured. These men were trailed in short order and HUNG with presidential OK in NEW YORK city yes NEW YORK. These saboteurs didnt even accomplish their mission or do one act at all. These saboteurs were full-fledged US citizens these saboteurs were treated as the enemies they were they were HUNG.
WTF happened to this nation how could we fall so far in just ONE generation. Goddam the peace-love-&-happiness generation Goddam them the destroyers of the once greatest nation on earth Goddam them.
Absolutley PITIFULL. And we wonder why the voulchers are circling.
#8
Interview with Diana Sawyer or NBC's Stone Philips coming soon. He'll become the Al-Qaeda version of Charles Manson, a cult-like hero for the hate-America crowd unless an honorable inmate, armed with a shank, does us all a favor.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2006 17:21 Comments ||
Top||
#10
I meant the jurors....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2006 17:21 Comments ||
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#11
Each and every one of those jurors should be made to sign an affidavit taking full moral and financial responsibility for anyone injured or killed or property damaged as a result of terrorist actions ment to secure his release.
See how liberal they really are.
Posted by: DanNY ||
05/03/2006 17:25 Comments ||
Top||
#13
With all due respect to the dissenters in this thread: he wanted the death penalty so he could fulfill his wet dream of martyrdumb. Why should we give him his fondest wish? (I say this being generally supportive of death for dirtballs.)
Posted by: SLO Jim ||
05/03/2006 17:35 Comments ||
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#14
SLO Jim is correct.
He ain't ever getting out either folks. This is federal prison" here. He is going to a super max.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/03/2006 17:41 Comments ||
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#15
I hope his cellmate is a very lonely man. A very large and lonely man.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/03/2006 17:42 Comments ||
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#16
I agree, the possibility he might get out after 25 yrs sucks, but let him rot in a cell 22 hrs a day. Let him become another Charlie. We all see how much influence Charlie has these days, none. If people do follow him, they will stick out like sore thumbs and we can monitor them. After say 24 1/2 years maybe someone can shank his French, Muslim, Morrocan, aw heck, wanna be, butt.
#18
Not my idea of a verdict. But it will be the Supermax prison in Colorado. Twenty-three hours in cell. One hour of lone, supervised exercise. No chance of communication with other prisoners. Only contact with prison personnel. No idea of where one is located in the prison. A life-time of that. I hope that they do not even give him the direction that is Mekka.
"having him referred to as a "frenchman" all over the media was particulary enerving"
The perhaps the French government might take the step of stripping citizenship?
#19
He was a wannabe. He didn't actually manage to do anything.
So IMO he got about the right verdict. I'm not at all sure he'll be out in 25 years, but if he is it will be in a very different world than the one he plotted in.
#20
If they'd have fried his ass, it would've been fine with me. But he'll never get out and Supermax is like being on Mars from what I've read.
The best part of this? No more of his "brave jihadi" looney tune act. He's just a number in a 6X8 hole in Colorado. He's nobody. And, chances are, we'll never hear from him again.
Which, from his perspective, is probably the worst punishment of all...
But the problem is we'll hear from others of his ilk and so, many innocent people--hostages--will die because of this inanity.
As for those that point out that he wanted to die a martyr... Simple solution: A lethal injection with an ample supply of pig's blood. In fact, it wouldn't be even necessary, just the rumors would do fine.
#22
As much as I personally would love for him to swing from the end of a rope, this actually might be a better verdict.
1) He's not a martyr. No virgins for him, and no fond remembrances by his comrades in al-Qaeda.
2) No chance of the "free Mumia" types making him a cause celebre. He's not going to attract the top-flight appeal lawyers to fight for his case, either, since life imprisonment just doesn't get them all hot and bothered like death penalty cases do.
3) No chance of any kind of Hollywood "true story" movie portraying him as the victim of the eeeevvvvilll US prosecutors, with some numbnut like Tim Robbins in the lead role or as a producer.
4) No book deals. Guys thrown into jail for life just don't rate juicy bestsellers.
5) Years of staring at the same four walls. He's not gonna get a vacation, very few if any visitors, and extremely limited opportunities to see another human being.
Don't be so sure he's going to get out in 25 years, either. He might end up with consecutive sentences instead of concurrent. If that's the case, he most likely will only leave in a pine box. (Hopefully liberally rubbed down with bacon grease.....)
#25
About time...I was scared they'd give him death and make him into a hero. Life in prison is no picnic, and he can't fulfil his awesome dream, to be a martyr.
Put him in Florence, Colorado, with the other enemies. I plan on keeping an eye on this one, and celebrate the day that he gets admitted and processed and is safe and happy in his new home.
#28
BTW, for the Islamofacists, dying gloriously in battle is martyerdom. (suicide bombings count) Being captured, humiliated and executed by the infadel is not martyerdom.
#29
OK City = death by needle - participating in 9/11 = life?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2006 22:09 Comments ||
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#30
They rationalize being a cause celebre as counting, though, because it brings attention to The Cause. After a little while in prison as described here, he won't be that anymore. If his psyche is as fragile as described during the trial, he likely won't be sane long either. It may not take an outside shank to do the deed, and real suicides go to Muslim Hell.
#31
From what I can gather, the most damning evidence/testimony showing Moussaoui met all the requirements for the death sentence in this case came from Moussaoui himself - and the jury (or at least a juror) just didn't trust him to be telling the truth.
The alternative is that they figure he's nuts and you shouldn't execute a crazy person. Unfortunately, that would exempt pretty much any Muslim from execution, wouldn't it?
#33
I'd prefer he do the meat colonoscopy (as his position on earth requires) every day by a cellmate with big hands and feet, a hyper-active sexual drive, and a dominance gene
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2006 22:55 Comments ||
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#34
From what I've heard today: Honest-to-God life with no possibility of parole, solitary confinement in a 7x12 cell, 23 hrs / day in the cell - 1 hr solo for exercise, no TV, movies, newspaper, magazines, or books. The only thing he "gets" is a prayer service piped into his cell once per week and a shower twice per week.
If he's not already "crazy", he will be within a year - and he has about 30-40 years to look forward to.
#35
If killing Moussouai made him a hero it would be insignificant. The Muslim world would not hate us for it or be roused to action any more than they are already. The message the Islamists will take away from the verdict is that Americans cannot even give a death sentence to someone who has admitted being complicit in the incineration of three thousand American men, women and children.
The message tells them that Bin Laden and Ahmedinijad and all their firebrands are right. The West is decadent and moribund, deserving nothing but conquest and death.
SRINAGAR, India -Four Islamic terrorists rebels and three Indian security men were killed in revolt-hit Kashmir, the army said on Wednesday, hours ahead of talks between key separatists and Indian Premier Manmohan Singh. Three of the terrorists militants died in a fierce gunbattle on the outskirts of Indian Kashmirs summer capital Srinagar, army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Vijay Batra told AFP.
Two Indian soldiers and a policeman were also killed in the gunbattle that lasted for several hours after troops launched a raid on a terrorist rebel hideout. The fourth terrorist militant was shot dead during another gunbattle in (northern) Bandipora town, Batra said, adding the army was checking the identity of the dead terrorists rebels.
The shootings coincided with the planned start of a second round of discussions between moderate separatists led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and the prime minister in New Delhi later Wednesday. The first high-level discussions between Singh and the separatists took place in September last year in the quest for a solution to the dispute over Kashmir. India and Pakistan, who are engaged in a slow-moving peace process aimed at settling their feud over the northern territory, hold it in part but claim it in full.
The Kashmir talks come just two days after suspected Islamic terrorists rebels carried out the regions worst massacre in six years, killing 34 Hindu villagers in what Indian officials said was an attempt to derail the talks. Officials said 30 men in one of the villages where the terrorists killers struck had been given rifles to help protect themselves in the event of a further attack.
The terrorism insurgency against Indian rule has left more than 44,000 people dead since 1989. Separatists say the death toll is at least twice as many.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/03/2006 09:22 ||
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Marwan Hadid Al-Suri, a top Al Qaeda militant who was killed last month in a shootout with security forces in the Pakistani tribal belt of Bajaur Agency, is fast attaining the status of a martyr among tribesmen.
In Duzakhshah village of Bajaur where Marwan was killed April 20, most of the tribesmen lamented the death of this militant from Saudi Arabia.
They said Marwan was trapped in the village before he was shot dead.
Some tribesmen, however, claimed that the Al Qaeda militant shot himself in the head when he discovered his escape was impossible and his arrest was imminent.
Fearing his arrest might lead to the capture of some leading Al Qaeda and Taliban figures, he killed himself after reading Kalma-e-Shahadat, or prayers of martyrdom, thrice, according to some villagers.
After his death, the tribesmen have started revering him as a hero who preferred death rather than compromising principles.
Mosques and madrassas here aired messages on loudspeakers asking all to condemn the killing of the mujahid, or holy warrior, and some clerics even warned the incident would invite god's wrath in this area soon.
Some said the place where Marwan laid down his life was emitting sweet smell and many were taking away parts of the soil.
According to the tribesmen, father of a soldier, who was killed in the gun battle that Marwan had with the security forces, did not receive the body of his son, saying he had brought a bad name to him and his family.
The soldier's funeral prayers were offered only by a few tribesmen, though some clerics advised against performing final rituals of this "sinner".
Meanwhile, a pro-government tribal elder was found dead after being kidnapped from a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said Monday.
The body of Janat Mir, 55, was found early Monday near Dharaki village, some 25 km east of Miranshah, the main town of the restive North Waziristan Agency (NWA), a local official said.
Unidentified gunmen Friday kidnapped Mir from the volatile Mir Ali town, an official said on condition of anonymity.
Mir had been shot near his chest but his body also showed signs of him being strangled, he said, adding that militants had accused him of spying for the government.
Mir was among the 28 tribal elders, prayer leaders and social workers that had received death threats in June last year.
Pro-Taliban militants have beheaded several people suspected of spying for the US and killed around 150 pro-government tribesmen in both North and South Waziristan.
According to forces, nine months of fierce clashes in NWA have claimed the lives of 324 pro-Taliban "miscreants" - including 76 foreign fighters - 56 soldiers and a "small number" of civilians.
The worst was the battle of Miranshah, four days of fighting in March in which up to 1,500 Islamic insurgents took over key buildings, during a visit to Islamabad by US President George W. Bush.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:21 ||
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Great Britain today surprised India by urging the UPA government to contribute troops for International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and do justice to its own increased role and strategic requirements in the land-locked country.
The proposal was made by British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Foreign Policy Adviser Nigel Shinwald who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here this evening for half an hour. British High Commissioner here Michael Arthur was present during Mr Shinwald's meeting with the Prime Minister.
It is not known yet what is New Delhi's response to this request from London. But as it comes close on the heels of the kidnapping and killing of an Indian in Afghanistan, it shows the ongoing political churning in Afghanistan and the resurgence of the Taliban have not gone unnoticed by the international community.
London has taken care to couch its request in a language that is rooted to ground realities from New Delhi's point of view: that India should come forward to play its larger role internationally and that it has a sizable presence and substantial strategic interests in Afghanistan.
The request from London has come at a time when special Indian team headed by Mr K B S Katoch, Joint Secretary (Personnel) in the Ministry of External Affairs, returned back home today after making an on-the-spot assessment of the situation in Afghanistan. The team had reached Afghanistan on Sunday for securing the release of Suryanarayan.
One of the important recommendations of the special Indian team, headed by Mr Katoch, is to substantially beef up India's own security apparatus in Afghanistan.
New Delhi has already made up its mind to send more para-military troops to Afghanistan for giving a better security cover to the Indian workforce engaged in construction of strategic and military infrastructure all over Afghanistan. There are 1300 listed Indians in Afghanistan, besides those who are working in Afghanistan illegally.
We are talking to them (the Karzai government) about it and are thinking of ways to beef up security for our citizens there, defence minister Pranab Mukherjee said here today on the sidelines of a navy commanders conference.
Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat are guarded by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), as is the site of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) project to link Zaranj and Delaram in south Afghanistan.
Since BRO worker Maniappan Raman Kutty was abducted and killed by the Taliban in November, India has increased its complement of ITBP personnel to 300. It is now seeking to send more.
Posted by: john ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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Posted by: ed ||
05/03/2006 0:41 Comments ||
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#2
Pakistan had a fair chance to do it's part and decided to keep playing the game instead. A robust Indian presence would a counter weight to both Iran and Pakistan plans.
India's missles can reach Terhan if I recall correctly. This turn of events will have the M² eating their headgear and the Pakistani crapping in theirs. As for the Chinese, "snork".
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/03/2006 3:38 Comments ||
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#3
If we want Binny et al then we're going to have to put the wind up Perv. Good tactics for once!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/03/2006 7:15 Comments ||
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#9
I agree with those thoughtful posters above who recognize this to be a wonderful idea. I suspect there are more than a few good men in India who'd love to visit Afghanistan.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
05/03/2006 10:49 Comments ||
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GUWAHATI: A separatist rebel leader in the northeast Indian state of Assam has been caught using hookers prostitutes to blackmail businessmen and raise funds for the revolt, police said on Tuesday. A police spokesman said the blackmail scheme was discovered in Assams main city of Guwahati at the weekend after a top leader of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was arrested along with two New Delhi-based sisters.
Oh, no! They arrested The Twins of Pleasure?
This is the latest modus operandi of the ULFA in luring businessmen with the help of call girls and then extorting money from them, Rajen Singh, a senior police officer in Guwahati said. The arrested ULFA rebel, Ajit Das, is believed to be an explosives expert and was allegedly involved in a number of extortion cases, Singh said, adding that two sisters alleged to be call girls were also arrested.
"Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!"
"OK, but if you want us to polish your truncheon again, it's gonna cost extra."
This is the first time we have come across such a tactic by the ULFA for extorting money although they failed due to our timely intervention, Singh said. An intelligence official, who declined to be named, said the cash-strapped ULFA was looking for new ways to extort money following stepped-up anti-insurgency operations. We have been able to choke their fund flow and hence the outfit was trying to resort to some clever ploy to trap unsuspecting people using call girls, the intelligence official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
GUWAHATI: A separatist rebel leader and former Washington beltway lobbyist in the northeast Indian state of Assam has been caught using hookers prostitutes to blackmail businessmen and raise funds for the revolt, police said on Tuesday.
MIRANSHAH: Suspected local Taliban on Tuesday looted Rs 910,000 meant for the salaries of employees at two government high schools, at Narak in North Waziristan, 20 kilometres east of here. The money was being carried in a local passenger van when the robbers stopped the vehicle and took the money,
"Stand and deliver!"
"'Stand and deliver'? What the hell does that mean?"
"It means gimme yer dough!"
authorities in Miranshah said, suspecting that local militants were behind the robbery. No guards accompanied the vehicle carrying the money, the sources said.
A manager of the Wana Flour Mills escaped an attempt on his life on Thursday when unidentified gunmen ambushed his vehicle in South Waziristan, security sources said. Manager Sherdad was on his way to a bank inside the Scouts Camp in Wana when the attackers opened fire at him near Karikot Chowk. His bodyguard Asmatullah was injured in the incident, but was in stable condition at a Wana hospital, the sources said. The mill is owned by General (r) Alam Jan Mehsud, who lost the 2002 general elections to a Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal-backed candidate.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Kinda funny the placment of this article with its headline worded the way it is directly following one about hookers.
jes' sayin some may be offended.
QUETTA: The police on a tip-off on Tuesday arrested three alleged terrorists linked to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) from Mach. An informer told the police that some BLA miscreants were hiding in the mountainous area to blow up the main railway track and electricity poles, acting SP Abdul Baqi Baloch told a press conference. He said that a police team raided the area and surrounded around eight to nine BLA men, but some fled and only three were arrested. The SP said that the arrested men were from Dera Bugti, adding that they had confessed to a role in the confrontation between the Frontier Constabulary and the Bugti tribe on March 17, 2005.
The criminals confessed that JWP leader Baramdagh Bugti had sent them to the Mach area to blow up the railway track and other key installations, the police officer said. However, he refused to give names of the arrested men due to security reason. Also, an oxcart carrying two farmers hit an anti-tank land mine on a dirt road in the town of Naseerabad, leaving one farmer dead and the other seriously injured, police said. The explosion occurred in the Balochistan province where tribal militants are accused of planting land mines to target security forces, said Illahi Bakhsh, a police official in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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BRITAIN, France and Germany will prepare today the text of a UN Security Council resolution aimed at forcing Iran to halt its controversial uranium enrichment programme or face sanctions.
More soft power, that's what we need by gawd!
In a not-so serious escalation of the confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions, envoys from the three European countries will prepare a draft resolution that could be voted on this month. British diplomats said that the wording of the text would be similar to the language used last month for a non-binding statement calling on Tehran to stop its enrichment work. But this time it will be presented under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which makes the demands mandatory under international law.
That'll shake the Iranians to their cockles. Mandatory, oh my!
The Iranians would probably be given a new deadline to comply or face the likelihood of sanctions in a follow-up resolution.
Unless there's an intermediate resolution that gives the Iranians another 'this time we really mean it' deadline.
We believe now is the time to move ahead on a Chapter VII resolution, Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said, adding that such a move had the force of international law to compel the regime to change its behaviour.
I can think of other ways of 'compeling' the Iranians to change their behavior, and it doesn't involve talking.
The biggest obstacle facing the Europeans and their American allies is resistance from Russia and China, both permanent members of the Security Council with the power of veto. Moscow and Beijing have important trade relations with Iran and want to avoid any move that could harm those ties. Nevertheless, the calculation in Western capitals is that neither country would dare to use its veto power to side with Iran against the rest of the international community.
No, no, certainly not! Are the EU leaders really that gullible?
Senior American, British, French and German diplomats tried yesterday to persuade their Chinese and Russian counterparts that it was time for the international community to show resolve against Iran.
Last night the US gave warning that it might take matters into its own hands if the UN Security Council failed to endorse sanctions. If for whatever reason the Council couldnt fulfil its responsibilities, then I think it would be incumbent on us, and Im sure we would press ahead to ask other countries or other groups of countries to impose those sanctions, John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the UN, said.
President Ahmadinejad has already said that Iran does not give a damn about the threat of sanctions.
Which does make the whole dance here rather pointless, doesn't it?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 07:24 ||
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#1
And for once, Ahmadinej(ih)ad is correct: Sanctions give them time to finish what they started.
It's american military action that will TERMINATE what they started.
Sanctions are being countered by talk. Military action is being countered by military exercises, infiltration of terror teams into America, increased activity by Hezbollah in Israel, and speeding up the nuclear program.
#2
Amhadinajad has been just as defiant, if not more so, about military action than about sanctions.
Military action might consolidate support for the regime. Sanctions are more likely to lead to the regimes overthrow. Military action sooner than necessary will divide the western coalition - the path to sanctions has reunited the western coalition. Military action will hurt us in the rest of the muslim world - the path to sanctions, so far, has not.
#4
LH,
"...Military action sooner than necessary ..."
There's the rub. Is Ahmadinnerjacket going to make an announcement that says "Okay West, military action is now necessary!" ?
Look to Libya, no one thought that military action would be necessary there for years and years. Luckily, Daffy Duck got scared and 'fessed up....oops, seems like sooner should have been the operative word, not later.
#5
I doubt sanctions will lead to a popular uprising. The secret police are too good and there is really no popular figure for a resistance movement to gel behind. It will take massive amounts of American aid and Special Forces work to bring a popular uprising to fruition. So far, the US support for revolutions is pitiful. The Shai, which live in Iran and southern Iraq remember well the US encouragement to rise up and when they did, the US did nothing and they were slaughtered by Saddam. The Iranian people will be incredibly hard to convince that we will help them in an uprising. Right now, we aren't even helping the Kurds against Turkey and Iran in the very country we occupy.
I sure wouldn't trust the US government to help me in a revolution. No way, no how.
I agree theres the rub. Thats why we need to focus on how far they really are from a bomb.
Darth
there have been rumbles, albeit small, in the Arab, Kurdish, Azeri, and Baluchi parts of Iran. There are clearly a good many Farsi, at least in the middle class in Teheran, who are unhappy. Ahmadinajed was a sop to the working class who are unhappy with their economic lot. He cant deliver, so hes stirring up a confrontation with the US.
As for the PKK, of course we're not going to protect them. Theyre Marxist terrorists, and we'd lose any cooperation from Turkey if we helped them. Thats got little to do with Iran.
As for leaders, theres Ayatolloh Montazeri, for example.
Lets see what leaders arise when unemployment soars in Iran,
#8
Why do so many put so much faith in the notion that Iranians aren't satisfied with their government?
If they truly weren't satisfied-if things were so horrible from their point of view-wouldn't the "masses" be rising up on their own, indifferent to whether the West wants change or not?
We heard this same tale before Iraq's fall. The Iraqis, prior to our capturing Saddam and felling the Baathist government, lacked force, courage, vision and solidarity to boot out the government themselves. Now, once again, we're supposed to believe that Iranians really want to get rid of their government. Maybe they are just holding out so that someone else does the dirty and dangerous work for them?
What I would like to see is the data to support this Iran-hates-their-government argument. Not just a few anecdotes, but substantial and overwhelming data. I'm open to suggestions...
#9
1. Its impossible to get good data like that out of an authoritarian regime
2. In any case, youre missing the point. Im not saying that theyre about to overthrow their govt NOW, and all they need is a promise of support from the West. Clearly the opposition to the govt NOW is largely confined to ethnic minorities, and to the secularist upper middle class in Teheran. The large working class seems to have been unhappy with Rafsanjani, but voted for Amadinajad. The question is what they do when ahmadinajads policies lead not to economic improvement, but to economic collapse and mass unemployment. I cant promise a revolt, but it would be foolish to minimize the prospects.
Meanwhile, the steps to achieve that, are largely the SAME steps we need to take to lessen the diplomatic/political costs to the US of any military action we may ultimately take.
And it would be very desirable to have Iraq more settled before we take on Iran.
#10
And not just solid evidence the Iranian people hate their government, but solid evidence as well that they can, and will, actually do something about it. And to top it all off, solid-- REALLY solid-- evidence that even if they were to sweep away the Mad Mullahs, that it would put an immediate, complete stop to Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Frankly, I find the notion that the Iranian people are somehow going to rise up and solve this problem for us-- a problem they themselves created, a problem intrinsic to their fanatical "religion"-- naive to the point of stupidity.
Faster, please...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/03/2006 10:28 Comments ||
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#11
While military action is the best way to deal with the Iran threat, Bush would be hampered not only by a lack of international support, but also by lack of domestic support. Chances of getting a covering resolution from Congress would be low this year. Therefore the current US strategy of passing toothless UN resolutions is not a bad one because it forces both domestic and international opinion to recognize Iran's transgressions and will make real action a bit easier (though still with huge costs born disproportionately by us)down the road. Soft power does matter -- the soft power of the head-in-the-sand Europeans and the mercantilistic Russians and Chinese does have a constraining effect on US freedom of action.
#12
The longer we wait, the worse the options, and the more awful the outcome. Care to speculate what the public will demand after we lose a city or two?
#13
Just to review the process. Its not an endless series of resolutions with no point.
Its a series of graduated steps.
First we the IAEA referal to the UNSC. Done, check.
Second was a "pretty please" statement by the UNSC. Done, check.
Now comes the "Stop or else" with or else unspecificed.
After that comes the "Stop or else A and B and C"
Now the Russians and Chinese can veto and stop the train at this step, or at the next one. Unlike some here, and like the diplos quoted, I think casting those vetoes would not be cost free to Russia and China. They may not do them. If they do, the Euros will have learned something important about Russia and China, and to me that is no small gain. And then we can proceed to the next steps.
As for the Iranians not caring, I dont believe that.
#14
And if the Russians and Chinese do cast those vetoes, it will cost the UN something. About 65% of UN funding comes from the US, Japan, Germany, France and the UK, all of whom seem to be onboard and fed up with the UN corruption (except France whose primary export is corruption). There's a couple of games going on here. We do have to go through the steps LH enumerates, but I'd prefer a polka to a minuet.
#16
"Care to speculate what the public will demand after we lose a city or two?"
Many would probably demand the impeachment of whoever's President when it happens, for not acting forcefully to remove the threat beforehand-- even though right now, half those same people want the President's head for being TOO aggressive in prosecuting the WoT.
Others, including me, would probably demand open season on the assholes who've been getting in the way of us fighting this war, with no bag limit and no permit required.
Let's hope we never have to cross that bridge.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/03/2006 13:41 Comments ||
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#17
"There's a couple of games going on here. We do have to go through the steps LH enumerates, but I'd prefer a polka to a minuet.
Faster, please."
well, thats Boltons job, and Burns', to keep things from slowing down too much.
#18
Others, including me, would probably demand open season on the assholes who've been getting in the way of us fighting this war, with no bag limit and no permit required.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/03/2006 14:01 Comments ||
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#20
"The question is what they do when ahmadinajads policies lead not to economic improvement, but to economic collapse and mass unemployment. I cant promise a revolt, but it would be foolish to minimize the prospects."
That field experiment has been happening in Palestine the last few months; guess we can wait some more and see if the people rebel. Course, then there's the question of who they rebel against; right now, it's apparent that Palestinians are rebelling against their Hamas government. (sarcasm off)
Actually, my post wasn't meant to be a personal rebuke to you, LH, but rather a restatement of a question on the minds of many. Yes, we've heard reports of Iranians being displeased with their government; does it follow that are motivated to overthrow their government? Even out-of-work Iranian youth? I admit that this isn't my area, but why should I believe in the reliability of these reports? The difficulty of getting data out of authoritarian regimes doesn't persuade me that what few reports are out there are therefore reliable.
#21
Internal overthrow of the regime might have been a viable policy and plan five years ago. Now is too late. Jules point about Hamas-stan is a good one. Don't see much evidence that the Iranians are particularly unhappy with their government. And if they are, so what? The 5% with nuclear weapons will render the other 95% irrelavant.
#22
L.H "That's why we need to focus on how far they really are from a bomb."
Where do you suggest we get this info? Please, do not insult us by saying the IAEA. I believe you answered that question when you said, "It's impossible to get good data like that out of an authoritarian regime."
I must disagree with your statement about U.N. resolutions not being toothless. You, with your interest in Darfur, know as well as anybody and better than most that the only time they are not toothless is if none of the veto holding members of the security council have conflicting interests.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/03/2006 17:31 Comments ||
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#23
Both "foreign and domestic"?
Yes and Yes.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/03/2006 17:32 Comments ||
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#24
Probability of military action prior to Nov 2006: 0%
Probability of military action prior to Nov 2008: 90%
Posted by: john ||
05/03/2006 21:21 Comments ||
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The Iraqi government is using diplomacy to try to stop Iranian forces from shelling Kurdish rebel positions in the north and does not expect an incursion by ground forces, the foreign minister said Wednesday. Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, made the comment in parliament after some Kurdish legislators demanded a strong statement against Iranian attacks against border camps operated by Iranian Kurdish rebels linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
'The Iraqi government is making necessary contacts with the countries concerned and with international sides,' Zebari said. 'There were some violations, but we do not think that there is a present threat or possibility of major incursion.'
He said there were some 'sticky issues and problems,' but the border attacks 'should be handled through diplomatic means.'
Iranian forces fired artillery across the border north of Sulaimaniyah on Sunday and Monday, causing no casualties but forcing some families to move, according to Iraqi Kurdish officials. The Iranians launched a similar barrage April 21. Rebels seeking self-rule in Kurdish areas of Iran operate from Iraqi territory and have been active recently, mounting attacks against Iranian army and Revolutionary Guard posts.
Iraqi Kurds have suggested the Iranians also fear the degree of autonomy Kurds have gained in post-Saddam Iraq. They theorize Iran also may be using the incursions by Kurdish rebels as an excuse to shoot back and to warn that Iran will not abide similar ambitions in its territory. The Kurds, who have never had a state of their own in modern history, are spread across a large region including northeast Syria, northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and some areas of the Caucusus mountain countries that were former Soviet republics.
Iran also has a large Arab population along its southern border with Iraq near Basra, and there have been a series of deadly bombings in the region's largest city, Ahvaz, for which Tehran has blamed the United States and Britain. The attacks, however, are most likely the work of Arab nationalists in the region that formerly was part of Iraq, which is predominantly Arab.
Turkey last month deployed more than 30,000 additional troops in its predominantly Kurdish southeast and along its rugged border with Iraq and Iran to fight the Kurdish guerrillas and stop them from crossing the frontier. That came after Kurdish rebels reportedly killed two Turkish soldiers and wounded a third in a grenade attack on a military outpost, raising the number of Turkish troops killed this year to at least 17. More than 40 Kurdish guerrillas also have been killed in clashes in the same period. The Turkish deployment boosted an already large garrison in the region that by some estimates tops 250,000 soldiers.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/03/2006 09:33 ||
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#1
The most effective form of diplomacy for this interaction with Iran is called counterbattery. I think we can loan the new Iraqi Army a few MLRS to file their diplomatic response with.
The new Iraqi army is "real, growing and willing to fight," but lacks basic equipment and will need up to five more years before it can wage war without U.S. military help, says a new report by a retired four-star general who toured Iraq in April.
Perhaps just as important, Sunni Muslims -- the minority sect who dominated Iraq under dictator Saddam Hussein but now find themselves at a political disadvantage -- are joining the army in large numbers, reports retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey in a seven-page memo written for his colleagues at the U.S. Military Academy.
Gen. McCaffrey also warns that "there is a rapidly growing animosity" among U.S. troops toward the press.
"The reason it bothers me is shades of Vietnam," Gen. McCaffrey said in an interview. "It took my generation 20 years to get over Vietnam, the sense that the press had been against us as soldiers."
Much of his April 25 memo focuses on the Iraqi army and police.
"The battalion-level formation are in many cases excellent. Most are adequate," Gen. McCaffrey says. "However, they are very badly equipped with only a few light vehicles, small arms, most with body armor and one or two uniforms. They have almost no mortars, heavy machine guns, decent communications equipment, artillery, armor, or [Iraqi] air transport, helicopter and strike support."
The assessment from Gen. McCaffrey -- a Vietnam combat veteran, division commander in Desert Storm and President Clinton's counterdrug czar -- is more evidence that Iraq's 250,000-strong security force, which includes the army, is much improved compared with 18 months ago.
The U.S. has sunk $8.7 billion to date into building the Iraqi force and has embedded teams of seasoned American officers and noncommissioned officers to guide newly created battalions.
"This is simply a brilliant success story," Gen. McCaffrey writes. "We need at least two to five more years of U.S. partnership and combat backup to get the Iraqi army ready to stand on its own. The interpersonal relationships between Iraqi army units and their U.S. trainers are very positive and genuine."
Gen. McCaffrey was last in Iraq a year ago as part of his duties as an adjunct professor of international affairs at West Point.
"It's likely we're going to pull this off," he said in the interview. "But it's still a great danger."
Creating the Iraqi security force (ISF) is the critical component in President Bush's strategy to create a democracy in Iraq and bring home U.S. troops, who now number about 132,000.
Gen. McCaffrey toured Iraq for seven days in mid-April, meeting with top generals such as Gen. George Casey, the overall coalition chief. The retired general also spoke with brigade and intelligence commanders.
The U.S. command has declared 2006 the year of the Iraqi police as it tries to clean up corruption and teach tactics more compatible with democratic rule. The force was so mired in corruption during Saddam's rule that U.S. administrators disbanded it and have been rebuilding it from scratch.
"The police are heavily infiltrated by both the [anti-Iraq forces] and the Shia militia," Gen. McCaffrey says, predicting a turnaround will take 10 years. "They are widely distrusted by the Sunni population. They are incapable of confronting local armed groups. They inherited a culture of inaction, passivity, human rights abuses and deep corruption."
In other findings:
Foreign fighters led by al Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Musab Zarqawi "have been defeated as a strategic and operational threat to the creation of an Iraqi government."
U.S. agency support for the Iraq operation is "grossly inadequate." "The bottom line is that only the CIA and the U.S. Armed Forces are at war." (U.S. officials have told The Washington Times that outdated personnel rules make it difficult to assign civil service workers to Iraq.)
The command has improved detainee treatment to the point where "we may be in danger of overreaching."
Gen. McCaffrey writes, "Many of the [enemy] detainees accuse U.S. soldiers of abuse under the silliest factual situations knowing it will trigger an automatic investigation."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 07:15 ||
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Gen. McCaffrey also warns that "there is a rapidly growing animosity" among U.S. troops toward the press.
...
In other findings:
Foreign fighters led by al Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Musab Zarqawi "have been defeated as a strategic and operational threat to the creation of an Iraqi government."
Wow the later is news you sure don't read in the MSM. Wonder if it has anything to do with the former?
#2
When I was in the military back in the early 90s, we already had a loathing for the press. I can only imagine it has gotten worse. How long before the press is deliberatly targeted? Wouldn't break my heart.
#5
Animosity towards the military will continue to exist until the media oligopoly has been broken up.
It is intolerable that the federal government has allowed a business situation to evolve with overt antitrust violations, even the establishment of monopolistic territories, all designed to prevent competition.
In effect, only the opinions expressed in two blue States, California and New York, utterly dominate the rest of the nations opinion; and fewer than half a dozen wire services control and restrict all widely distributed national and international news.
Book, magazine and newspaper print; television and radio, there is nothing left for independent thought other than the Internet. The amazing vitality and diversity of Internet news and opinion shows what print, television and radio could be, but aren't.
Nobody's stopping you from opeining a newspaper or magazine. I think the right has a foot in the door on radio also. What we see in the media is a reflection of the split in the country.
#7
McCaffrey has been a big critic of elements of the Iraq effort and of Rumsfeld. Therefore, his relatively positive assessment should carry weight in the media. I have heard that some in the military did not appreciate his TV appearances during the first 3 wks of OIF but otherwise I think his criticisms have been substantive. His arguments in favor of the Crusader struck me as particularly compelling.
#8
I light of our hightened sensitivity to muslim feelings, the Crusader will now be called the Jihadi.
Posted by: ed ||
05/03/2006 11:23 Comments ||
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McCaffrey sees the same thing I do - how "Vietnamization" SHOULD have been carried out, but wasn't. It's working in Iraq, because Iraqis are in charge, with American help. It may take five or ten years to develop a professional officer and NCO corps, and it may not. I believe that with US help, that can be shortened to two to five years.
I've never met General McCaffrey, but I do know a colonel that was his aide for two years, and John's highly impressed with him. I think McCaffrey's also beginning to see where Rumsfeld is heading with the restructuring of the US Army, and may have cooled some of his disagreements with the new strategy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/03/2006 12:31 Comments ||
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#10
Does anybody have a link to the original memo ?
#11
Belmont Club has links to what's publicly available of the memo plus commentary.
OS, interesting insight into General McCaffrey. He seems very intelligent. I thought he would have been a candidate to run the CIA had he not been so vociferous in his criticism of Rumsfeld and Gen. Franks in March 2003. From what I can tell he's aggressive and his drug czar experience would have been relevant as well as his military experience.
#12
Nimble, I don't see a split, or a foot in the door.
In any media, if you allow criticism of your bile, the fact based point of view will prevail. That's what we get in the internet, and talk radio. Those few outlets who remain on the left and allow criticism are camped out with Michael Moore seeking the fall guy, making up conspiracies.
Does anyone think that Fat Kennedy would make a statement about the anniversary of Bush standing in front of a 'Mission Accomplished' sign if he took questions from the audience afterwords ?
I see it now.....
'Er ah, do you have a question wxjames ?'
'Yeah, were you drunk when you killed that girl, Mary Joe ?'
#13
Mc Caffrey maybe smart but he has some major personal defects.
For one thing his early comments on OIF were self serving of the 'we need more EU support' or 'we need 100k more troops' variety (we also needed invisible green demons). Also, this General's performance in the Balkans was only 'fair' at best featuring pronouncements that were disjointed and in conflict with previous pronouncements and similar problems with battle orders. His tenure as a drug czar was basically an empty shirt role. I don't he has many fans among the brass that served under him.
#14
we did need 100,000 more troops. And we had them - it would have stressed the army to send that many at once, but not as much as the succeeding 3 years have stressed the army.
#17
As best as I can recall, McCaffery was very pessimistic during the initial weeks of OIF and drew some criticism from the serving brass for his TV appearances. He gave interviews projecting very high casualties due to not having enough troops, particularly as ground forces approached the Karbala Gap. He seemed more concerned about the straight up fight with the Republican Guard and not the number of troops needed for occupation.
Although the fighting near Karbala was extremely intense, it turned out McCaffery's worst fears were not realized. I remember thinking in the immediate aftermath that his comments seemed to be based on the calculation that the 101st Airborne was not heavy enough to be a factor in the campaign against the RG and skepticism that the air campaign could be as effective against the Iraqi formations in the area as it turned out to be. I am no military expert so I could be wrong about this approximately 3 week period when he was last on TV a lot. I know my father, who had been an Army officer, was absolutely irate at McCaffery's comments which he termed to be defeatist in nature and politically motivated.
Post invasion, his comments seem to have returned to voicing concern about the institution of the Army and the need for keeping heavy divisions and upgrading systems. He seems less political than the retired generals we've heard from recently even though he served in a politically appointed position in the Clinton administration.
#18
he's a smart guy with a lot of experience. The MSM could not get enough of him because his views where different than those of the administrations, and people listen when he speaks. He was great for ratings, and his intentions are good. He was wrong about what was going to happen that's all.
He is like countless others with his experience. Keep the risks down by having overwhelming numbers. I think the truth is somewhere between he and Rummy. Overwhelming force can lead to victory without the personnel numbers that the U.S. armed forces have had in the past, but there is still a danger in having to few boots on the ground.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/03/2006 17:44 Comments ||
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#19
No-Caff makes it sound like its the military's fault that the MSM press are such fuck heads. The animosity has been there since Vietnam, it's not a growing problem.
Let's face it, No-Caff, the press thinks the only good soldier is one that shows up as a statistic or a sadist.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/03/2006 21:52 Comments ||
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#20
Honestly we didnt need 100K more - the 4th ID coming in the back door with 30-40K more would have done the trick since they would have hit the triangle before it could dig in. Stinking Turks, we really ought to arm the Kurds in Turkey (& Iran) and let them carve out land that should be theirs.
McCaffrey is an honest man, and like any honest man he can be mistaken about things, like the 100K. I hope he is correct in this assessment, and form what I hear of people I know that have been there and have gone back, his current evaluation has the ring of truth.
One good point he brought up: the US Government and society are not involved in this - it seems tob eonly the Military and Intelligence Community. And thats it - state is sitting on their hands, and none of the other agencies is that involved.
Bush needs to push for better involvment of the whole array of USG to be available in Iraq to speed the formation of that new nation. And needs to get the public involved - what about selling War Bonds to involve the public - daily reminders that we are a nation at war even though we don't act like it.
A statement issued yesterday, April 30, 2006, by the Conquering Army [Jeish al-Fatheen] in Iraq addresses media allegations concerning the intention of the mujahideen to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. The group denies this report as a lie, and considers it an American play, in which characters are played by the converted bad people, traitors and highway gangs. Citing a perceived purpose of pitting the insurgency groups against one another, the statement indicates the falsity of the claim and as it regards al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group has love and respect. They state: the fitna is sleeping. May Allah curse who wakes it up.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:57 ||
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As the search for terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi intensifies, U.S. troops raided a suspected al Qaeda hideout Tuesday, killing 10 insurgents, and CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that investigators have learned that in another raid, forces were within 1,000 yards of al-Zarqawi.
More than 200 members of al-Zarqawi's network have been killed or captured, including many of his top lieutenants, Martin reports. In an effort to build momentum, Lt. Gen. Stan McChrystal, who is leading the effort, is asking for several hundred paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne to be thrown into the hunt.
One insurgent was wounded in the pre-dawn raid at a safehouse as American troops searched for "an al Qaeda terrorist leader" about 25 miles southwest of the U.S. air base in Balad, north of Baghdad, the military said.
Troops surprised a guard and shot him before he could fire his pistol, the statement said. As the insurgent fell, he detonated a suicide vest, the statement added. Two more insurgents were killed inside the hideout and the others outside as they tried to escape, the statement said. Two of the dead were also found wearing explosive vests, the statement said.
The statement did not say whether al-Zarqawi was the target of the raid or whether anyone escaped. It was the fourth raid reported by the U.S. command against al-Zarqawi's network since April 16, when American troops stormed a house in Youssifiyah just south of the capital, killing six people, including a woman, and arresting five people, among them an unidentified al Qaeda official.
However, CNN reported that the captives said al-Zarqawi had been in a nearby house.
Martin reports under the command of McChrystal, the hunt for al-Zarqawi has now eclipsed in size the hunt for Osama bin Laden, which has been hampered by a lack of good intelligence and Pakistan's refusal to allow U.S. troops to operate in their border area. The assault on al-Zarqawi's network is being conducted by a secret unit known as Task Force 145, which is divided into four teams three American and one British which conduct raids virtually every night.
In other developments:
Since the drop in U.S. deaths in March, American casualties have been rising. April was the deadliest month of the year for American forces with more than 70 deaths. A U.S. soldier was killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
In the latest violence, a bomb exploded inside a bus in central Baghdad, killing two people and injuring five, police said. Gunmen killed four students in an ambush in southwestern Baghdad, police said.
Four Iraqi soldiers were slain the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi two days after they graduated from basic training as part of the first all-Sunni class, according to police.
The German Foreign Ministry said two German men taken hostage in January had been released and are safe. Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich were with Germans officials in Iraq, said a ministry spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. A militant Iraqi group that identified itself in a video as the Brigade of Supporters of the Sunna and Tawhid kidnapped the pair Jan. 24.
On Monday, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed that Iraq be divided into three separate regions Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni with a central government in Baghdad. In a column in The New York Times, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., wrote that the idea "is to maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it, giving each ethno-religious group ... room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests." CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports Biden's statement is a reflection of what is happening in Iraqi neighborhoods, where people who feel they are in the minority are coalescing along ethnic lines and turning to ethnic militias rather than the state for protection.
Stepped up operations against al-Zarqawi's network are occurring as U.S. and Iraqi officials are making overtures to other Sunni Arab groups, hoping to convince them to abandon the insurgency and join the political process under a new government of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
Last weekend, President Jalal Talabani said officials from his office had met with insurgent representatives and he was hopeful they might agree to a deal. Talabani also said American officials had met with insurgents.
U.S. officials have confirmed meeting Iraqis linked to the Sunni Arab insurgency but have avoided identifying them. Last month, however, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad attributed a sharp drop in U.S. deaths in March to an ongoing dialogue with disaffected Sunnis.
On Tuesday, a leading Arabic language newspaper said Khalilzad had met with insurgent representatives in Amman, Jordan, on Jan. 16 and later in Baghdad on seven occasions. The newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, attributed the information to an unidentified insurgent official.
The official was quoted as saying the insurgents presented several demands, including halt to military operations, an end to arrests of "innocent Iraqis" and the release of prisoners "who were arrested unjustly."
According to the newspaper, the official said his group presented a memorandum to Khalilzad, who expressed interest and promised to respond. However, no response was received and the insurgents decided to break off the dialogue after the new government was announced April 22.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy on the report. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said "we have made it clear that we are interested in talking to people who know somebody who might be involved in insurgent activities in an effort to bring these people into the political process."
Khalilzad has spoken in several interviews about reaching out to the Sunnis, however U.S. officials have avoided saying publicly that they had met with representatives of insurgent groups.
In an interview with the BBC in April, the ambassador also cautioned that the dialogue was "a long way" from a deal to end the fighting.
U.S. overtures to the Sunnis appear to have slowed in recent weeks as American diplomats and Iraqi politicians focused on speeding up formation of the new government, which had been deadlocked until the Shiites agreed to replace Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari with another Shiite, Nouri al-Maliki.
Al-Maliki was officially appointed as prime minister-designate on April 22 and has pledged to complete his Cabinet this month. That is the final stage in establishing the new government. U.S. officials believe a unity government can over time calm sectarian tensions and lure many Sunnis away from the insurgency.
On Tuesday, Shiite officials reported a new snag emerged in the negotiations when Sunni politicians insisted on key posts, including deputy prime minister and a major ministry such as finance or education.
Shiites, who hold 130 of the 275 seats in parliament, offered a lesser ministry but the Sunnis refused, according to Shiite politician Bassem Sharif. Talks were to continue Wednesday, he said.
Sunni politicians are also anxious for parliament to consider amendments to the new constitution. Sunnis oppose several provisions, including one allowing formation of regional governments. Many Sunnis fear that would lead to Iraq's breakup and deprive them of a fair share of the country's vast oil wealth.
Shiites and Kurds agreed to study changes in the constitution during the first four months of the new parliament. However, Shiite officials said Tuesday they want to delay formation of the committee to study changes until the new Cabinet has been chosen.
The issue is due for discussion during a parliament session Wednesday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:41 ||
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#2
Troops surprised a guard and shot him before he could fire his pistol, the statement said. As the insurgent fell, he detonated a suicide vest, the statement added. Two more insurgents were killed inside the hideout and the others outside as they tried to escape, the statement said. Two of the dead were also found wearing explosive vests, the statement said.
Just love that colateral damage.
Posted by: john ||
05/03/2006 21:27 Comments ||
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The governor of Iraq's rebellious Anbar province has survived an assassination attempt unharmed, but 10 other civilians died, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
As Fred likes to point out, if it failed, it wasn't an assassination, was it?
A suicide bomber drove his car toward governor Maamoun Sami Rasheed's vehicle in the provincial capital of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, on Tuesday and blew himself up. At least five people were also wounded. A U.S. Marine detachment with the convoy exchanged fire with unknown gunmen during the attack, a U.S. military statement said.
It quoted Rasheed as saying it was the ninth attempt to kill him. A son was kidnapped, but returned safely, in 2005.
Hospital staff in Ramadi said three of Rasheed's bodyguards were killed in the attack. The U.S. military said Rasheed was "not injured" in the attack. A member of the governor's staff, who declined to be named, said Rasheed had been given some medical treatment. "This is a cowardly attempt and this is not in the best interests of Anbar or the country," the U.S. statement quoted Rasheed as saying. "On the same day of the attack, I am here and ready to work."
A predecessor of Rasheed was kidnapped and killed last year. Two others resigned, one after his sons were kidnapped.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:30 ||
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Iraq's president appealed for national unity and the renunciation of sectarian violence ahead of a parliament meeting set for Wednesday, saying he had met with Sunni Arab insurgent leaders and observed a "great change" in their war aims.
The insurgents "do not think that the Americans are the main enemy," President Jalal Talabani said in an interview on al-Hurra television Tuesday night. "They feel threatened by what they call the 'Iranian threat.' "
He referred to the insurgents' fear of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, which many Sunnis believe is dominated by the neighboring Shiite theocracy in Iran. Despite their worries about Iran, Talabani said, he found them "reasonable and ready for the peaceful political process," and he appealed to Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to participate together in a government.
"If the current government is formed as a national unity government which represents the entire spectrum of the Iraqi people, then I think we will be able to solve the problem of terrorism within a year," Talabani said.
The newly elected prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is ostensibly working on forming such a government. At the most recent meeting of parliament, on April 22, legislators gave Maliki 30 days to choose a cabinet. Although there has been much speculation in Baghdad over who might get what position, Maliki has not made any announcements.
In Baghdad on Tuesday, three concealed bombs killed at least six Iraqis, police Gen. Raad Mohammed said, and police found four other residents of the capital handcuffed and shot in the head.
Outside the capital, a bomb killed a police officer near Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, and insurgents attempted to assassinate the governor of Anbar province in western Iraq by detonating a bomb near his motorcade in Ramadi. The explosion killed at least two of his bodyguards, but the governor, Mamoun Sami Rasheed, survived.
A U.S. soldier was killed Monday night when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle south of Baghdad, military authorities said in a statement.
The U.S. military also announced that troops killed 10 suspected foreign insurgents in an early morning raid on a safe house about 20 miles north of Baghdad. The soldiers were searching for a leader of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to a statement, when a sleeping guard at the house awakened and drew a pistol. Only one of the insurgents survived the ensuing firefight, the military said.
The Central Criminal Court of Iraq convicted 12 Iraqis of aiding insurgent attacks on government and allied troops. Two of the men were sentenced to life in prison for belonging to al-Qaeda in Iraq; a third received a life sentence for distributing anti-government pamphlets and providing payments to the families of insurgents killed while fighting the Iraqi government.
Two German engineers kidnapped in Iraq were released Tuesday after more than three months in captivity, the German foreign minister said.
Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke appeared unharmed and in good health despite their ordeal, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement. They were expected to return to Germany on Wednesday.
The statement did not describe the circumstances of their release. Steinmeier, at a news conference in Santiago, Chile, thanked "the support of our partners in Europe and America" for helping secure their freedom, the Associated Press reported.
"I ask for your understanding that the government can give no further details about this case or about the circumstances of the release," Reinhard Silberberg, the Foreign Ministry's state secretary in charge of a hostage task force, said at a news conference, the Reuters news service reported.
The engineers, both from a company based in Leipzig, were driving to a government-owned detergent plant outside Baiji in northern Iraq on Jan. 24 when they disappeared.
Their captors, a group calling itself Ansar al-Tawhid wa-Sunna, released four videos depicting Braeunlich and Nitzschke. In the final video, released April 9, they threatened to kill the men unless all detainees held by U.S. and allied forces in Iraq were released.
Similar demands have been made in several other kidnapping cases, including that of American journalist Jill Carroll, who was set free March 30 after nearly three months in captivity. More than 425 foreigners, and several times that many Iraqis, have been taken hostage since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to U.S. officials who track abductions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:16 ||
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Iran's got a few scores to settle with some Sunnis, I imagine.
#2
The Sunnies are learning a valuable lesson attack Americans you die don't attack you live, but them Iranians they are just going to massacre you period.
U.S. troops raided a suspected al-Qaeda hideout Tuesday and killed 10 insurgents, three of them wearing suicide vests, as American forces stepped up the hunt for the group's leader, terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
American troops searched for an al-Qaeda terrorist leader in the pre-dawn raid at a safehouse about 40 kilometres southwest of the U.S. air base in Balad, north of Baghdad, the military said.
The raid unfolded when troops surprised a guard and shot him before he could fire his pistol, the military said. As the insurgent fell, he detonated a suicide vest. Two more insurgents were killed inside the hideout and the others outside as they tried to escape. Two of the dead were also found wearing explosive vests. One insurgent was wounded.
The statement did not say whether Mr. al-Zarqawi was the target of the raid or whether anyone escaped.
It was the fourth raid reported by the U.S. command against Mr. al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda-in-Iraq network since April 16, when American troops stormed a house in Youssifiyah just south of the capital, killing six people, including a woman, and arresting five people, among them an unidentified al-Qaeda official.
However, CNN reported that the captives said Mr. al-Zarqawi had been in a nearby house.
Stepped-up operations against Mr. al-Zarqawi's network are taking place as U.S. and Iraqi officials are making overtures to other Sunni Arab groups, hoping to persuade them to abandon the insurgency and join the political process under a new government of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
Last weekend, President Jalal Talabani said officials from his office had met with insurgent representatives and he was hopeful they might agree to a deal. Mr. Talabani also said American officials had met with insurgents.
U.S. officials have confirmed meeting Iraqis linked to the Sunni Arab insurgency but have avoided identifying them. Last month, however, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad attributed a sharp drop in U.S. deaths in March to an ongoing dialogue with disaffected Sunnis.
On Tuesday, a leading Arabic language newspaper said Mr. Khalilzad had met with insurgent representatives in Amman, Jordan, on Jan. 16 and later in Baghdad on seven occasions. The newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, attributed the information to an unidentified insurgent official.
The official was quoted as saying the insurgents presented several demands, including a halt to military operations, an end to arrests of innocent Iraqis and the release of prisoners who were arrested unjustly.
According to the newspaper, the official said his group presented a memorandum to Mr. Khalilzad, who expressed interest and promised to respond. However, no response was received and the insurgents decided to break off the dialogue after the new government was announced April 22.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said we have made it clear that we are interested in talking to people who know somebody who knows somebody who might be involved in insurgent activities in an effort to bring these people into the political process.
Mr. Khalilzad has spoken in several interviews about reaching out to the Sunnis, but U.S. officials have avoided saying publicly that they had met with representatives of insurgent groups.
In an interview with the BBC in April, the ambassador also cautioned that the dialogue was a long way from a deal to end the fighting.
Since the drop in U.S. deaths in March, American casualties have been rising. April was the deadliest month of the year for American forces with more than 70 fatalities.
A U.S. soldier was killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
U.S. overtures to the Sunnis appear to have slowed in recent weeks as American diplomats and Iraqi politicians focused on speeding up formation of the new government, which had been deadlocked until the Shiites agreed to replace Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari with another Shiite, Nouri al-Maliki.
Mr. Al-Maliki was officially appointed as prime minister-designate on April 22 and has pledged to complete his cabinet this month. That will be the final stage in establishing the new government.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:15 ||
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The left out some of the best stuff - the bit about the sleeping guard, and the "scattered pieces of charred U.S. bills (after the guy detonated his vest.)"
Abu Salah heard the screeching tires and gunfire outside his home in central Baghdad, and cowered. He'd feared this moment. He'd even plotted leaving the city, though he'd never followed through on his plan.
Now invaders had entered his street, and he knew that as the only Sunni on a street filled with Shiites, he was probably their target, whomever the invaders might be - insurgents, kidnappers or sectarian death squads.
"I was shaking; it was the fourth time in three days they'd invaded," he said. "I knew they were coming for me."
Then he heard another sound: the gunfire being returned.
He rushed from his house to see his neighbors - Shiite neighbors - on their roofs, in their windows, in their yards, firing at the attackers. In a trembling voice, he explained that at that moment he felt life change. He realized that his neighbors weren't going to stand by and let the bad guys win.
"I prefer now to die among my friends and neighbors rather than leave my home," he said. "I felt thrilled to see them fighting, all my neighbors standing next to each other guarding the area."
In a country shaken by violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, where it's easy to find examples of members of one sect fleeing neighborhoods dominated by the other, Abu Salah's tale is a rare, uplifting respite from stories of sectarian tension. Even so, he, like others quoted in this story, asked that only part of his name be used to ensure his security.
How many similar tales might exist in this city of 6 million is unknown. A Sunni neighborhood across town tried to implement an armed "neighborhood watch" recently but gave up after eight residents were shot to death in the first weekend.
Many Iraqis openly hope that there will be more examples of residents rising up to say they've had enough of sectarian groups trying to split apart Iraqis - Sunni and Shiite - who'd previously lived side by side in peace.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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RAMADI: A suicide car bomber attacked the motorcade of Anbar Governor Maamoun Sami Rasheed on Tuesday, killing three bodyguards, said hospital sources and local residents. A local government official said there was no word on the governor's fate after the attack in the centre of the city. Rasheed's predecessor was kidnapped and killed last year. Al Qaeda and hardline followers of Saddam Hussein have vowed to kill Sunni Arab leaders who take part in the US-sponsored political process.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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ramadi is still a hot zone, as we discussed yesterday.
Two German engineers held hostage in Iraq for more than three months have been freed and will fly home on Wednesday. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, said on Tuesday that the two men, who had been abducted on January 24 outside their workplace in the industrial town of Baiji, 180km north of Baghdad, were freed without warning and appeared to be unharmed. "I am very pleased to inform you that the two kidnapped men from Leipzig, Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, have been freed today," Steinmeier said in a statement.
He addedd the men, being looked after in Germany's embassy in Baghdad, were expected to return home on Wednesday. "After spending more than three months under inhumane conditions they are in German care," added Steinmeier, who was on an official visit to Chile.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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Jordan's military court today found 10 Terrorists guilty of conspiring to attack US forces in Jordan and neighboring Iraq, and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from two to five years, according to a report by the Associate Press. The court acquitted seven others for lack of evidence.
All 17 were in custody, charged with different counts including conspiring to commit terrorism and attempting to harm Jordan's relations with a foreign country _ a reference to Iraq, where the suspects allegedly planned suicide operations against U.S. forces but did not manage to travel there.
Alleged ringleader Motassem Suleiman was given five years of hard labour and co-defendant Ziad Nsur four years, for "conspiring to carry out terror attacks". Court papers said that Suleiman, who was arrested in 2002 in Saudi Arabia and deported a year later to Jordan for trying to preach Islamic radicalism, went to Iraq to fight US troops and actively tried to recruit fighters. In 2005 he met followers of the Jordanian-born Zarqawi in Syria and plotted the attacks which were foiled by the Jordanian authorities.
Syrian defendant Mohammad Omar Zohbi, the only non-Jordanian accused, was among the seven men cleared. He kissed the ground and praised God for his fate, in a move emulated by others who were acquitted.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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GAZA - An explosion inside a building used by Palestinian security forces in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed two people and wounded three others, Palestinian security sources said. The Israeli army said it was not involved in the incident.
"No, no! Certainly not! Hee-hee."
Palestinian sources said the explosion took place in the facilitys command centre in Jabalya refugee camp.
With any luck it's a shambles.
Palestinian security sources initially said an Israeli artillery shell slammed into the building, and that a captain was killed. At least three others were injured, the sources said. Palestinian security sources later said they were investigating whether the blast was caused by an explosion within the building.
The Al-Jizzers version...
Medical sources say three Palestinians have been hurt by Israeli artillery ordnance in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Aljazeera correspondent Hiba Akila said one of those injured, whose identity was not immediately known, was in a serious condition. "The shell has hit a building near the headquarters of the Palestinian national security in Jabalia refugee camp in northern the Gaza Strip," she said. "The casualties were from the Palestinian national security."
The building was used as a collection point for unexploded Israeli shells fired into the northern Gaza Strip. The shells were later sent to another location to be disabled. The Israeli army denied any involvement in the explosion. Israel has been firing shells into northern Gaza in recent weeks in an attempt to quell Palestinian resistance rocket fire. The cause of the blast, which destroyed a one-floor building inside the compound, was not immediately known, according to Palestinian security sources.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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Ahhh, the Israelis have finally managed to build that time-delay fuse for their artillery shells - GREAT! We did the same thing with iron bombs during the Vietnam war - drop a bomb with a 24-hour delay circuit. The NVA would dig it up, cart it to where they built explosive devices, and it went "boom". Cut down on their using recycled explosives after it happened a half-dozen times.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/03/2006 13:19 Comments ||
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Video footage seized in a raid on the hideout of Southeast Asia's terror chief gives step-by-step instructions on how to assemble bombs, police said Tuesday, raising concerns that al-Qaida linked militants were planning an attack.
Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam also said a small explosive found in a backpack - almost identical to the bombs used in last year's triple suicide blasts on Bali island - was "ready for use."
The discoveries followed a pre-dawn raid Saturday on the hideout of Noordin Top, believed to be a key leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network.
Bachrul Alam said police believe Noordin had been at the location that day, but was gone when they launched the operation, in which two of his associates were killed and two others arrested.
The video footage was recovered from a computer found at the site in the town of Wonosobo, Central Java, along with explosives, detonators, guns and ammunition.
Investigators are still "studying the content, which includes among other things, techniques on how to assemble bombs from small to large," Bachrul Alam said.
Police also are searching for a man said to be traveling with Noordin, but they declined to release his name.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 07:08 ||
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Sleeper cells belonging to the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf had moved out of the Philippine capital following last week's raid on a suspected safehouse in Marikina City, a police intelligence official said Tuesday.
"The group who owned the grenades and explosive materials in Marikina is out of Luzon at the moment. We see no specific threat from this group," said Sr. Supt. Romeo Ricardo, officer-in-charge of the PNP Intelligence Group (IG).
"Most of them have left Luzon... there are one or two members left but they cannot act by themselves," Ricardo added.
Ricardo refused to elaborate on where the sleeper cells had fled to and how they managed to elude pursuing intelligence operatives.
Police had said that there were 10 sleeper cells in the metropolis.
On Thursday, elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CI-DG) seized a cache of explosive materials from a suspected Abu Sayyaf hideout at the SSS village.
Officials had said that the explosives were intended for the crowds expected to take the streets for the Labor Day protests scheduled on Monday.
But Ricardo admitted that the supposed bomb plot was not mentioned in documents and computer files that were seized along with the explosives from the rebel lair.
"Nothing was detailed regarding targets and plans. There is nothing in the diskette," he said.
Ricardo said that two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operatives involved in the October 2002 Bali bombings - Umar Patek and Dulmatin - are still in southern Philippines tagging along with Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani.
On whether the trio could struck again, Ricardo said: "That's quite possible... what else will they do but plan."
The Abu Sayyaf and the JI last struck in the capital on February 14, 2005, when a bomb exploded inside a passenger bus in Makati City, killing four people and injuring scores others.
Four others were killed while dozens were hurt in near simultaneous attacks in the cities of Davao and General Santos in the southern Philippines.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:33 ||
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Gunmen stormed into a newspaper office in northern Sri Lanka and opened fire, killing two employees and seriously wounding another. Describing Tuesday's attack, the newspaper's editor said: "Some men dressed in black broke into our office and opened fire", killing the editorial manager and a circulation assistant and wounding another employee. "They were looking for three of our reporters but they managed to escape because our office is large," said N Vithyatharan, editor of the Tamil-language Uthayan newspaper based in the northern town of Jaffna, 300km north of Colombo.
Uthayan is an independent newspaper, but is considered to have close links to Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 00:00 ||
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U.S. and international programs to defeat al Qaeda have limited the terrorist group's ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction, the No. 2 U.S. intelligence official said.
Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, principal deputy director of national intelligence, said in a recent speech that al Qaeda remains dangerous but has grown more diffuse.
In explaining successes in the global war against terrorists in the past 4 years, Gen. Hayden noted that the United States and its allies "disrupted [al Qaeda's] efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction."
He and other intelligence officials declined to provide specifics of the disruption.
However, administration officials said operations in Afghanistan and a few recent incidents show that al Qaeda continues to seek nuclear, chemical, biological and radiological weapons.
One official said the killing of al Qaeda explosives specialist Abu Marwan in Pakistan last month was one of the successes. Marwan was thought to be linked to al Qaeda's efforts to build nuclear and other unconventional explosives.
U.S. and allied intelligence agencies have stepped up monitoring of the sale and movement of goods that could be used to produce weapons of mass destruction, including high explosives and chemical precursors, the officials said.
The surveillance has led to instances in which al Qaeda members or those linked to its affiliates were spotted making inquiries about purchases, the officials said.
Gen. Hayden also said in the little-noticed speech to the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association in Texas on Wednesday that key successes in the war on terrorism include denying al Qaeda safe haven in Afghanistan, killing or capturing large numbers of its leaders, cutting funding sources and forcing terrorists to spend more time protecting themselves.
"Most fundamentally, we have prevented any further attacks against the homeland," he said.
"The global jihadist movement is evolving in many ways," Gen. Hayden said. "The movement is spreading and adjusting to our counterterrorism efforts, and it is also exploiting the communications revolution, the Internet and media sensationalism."
A State Department report on terrorism made public last week said the connection between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction is one of the "gravest potential risks to the national security."
Al Qaeda has stated openly its goal of acquiring and using nuclear weapons, the report said. The spread of information about nuclear arms development, including data on the Internet, poses an increased risk that "a terrorist organization with the right material could develop its own nuclear weapon."
Although making nuclear weapons is likely beyond the capability of most terrorists for the immediate future, "terrorists may seek to link up with a variety of facilitators to develop their own nuclear capability," the report said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/03/2006 06:18 ||
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I hope we are planning for the fact that eventually they will have this capability.
#2
A State Department report on terrorism made public last week said the connection between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction is one of the "gravest potential risks to the national security."
Blindlingly obvious. Thank you USState for your masterful analysis.
Script kiddies hit us with a DOS on port 80 around 5.50 p.m. We've been seeing the same spam posts from, I presume, owned machines, posting dipshit Viagra ads for the past couple days, with an increase in the number of probes on port 22 — which is locked, kiddies. Hosting Matters was hit a day or two ago with a DOS, so I'd say this was pretty well certainly directed at bloggers, at least of a certain stripe. We were probed around 7 a.m. this morning from a Hostway account (66.232.129.62, if anyone from Hostway is interested.)
The O Club seems to have kept ticking along. Has everyone moved to ports :81 or :8080?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 20:13 ||
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The main site opened up nicely for me the first try just now, if that helps. I'll mail off something scrounged from my egg money tomorrow, to buy you some more coffee, and a single rose for darling Mrs. Fred. Boy, won't your various script kiddies be sorry when the CIA come knocking at their doors, some quiet night!
#3
It looks like they're still banging at the gates. I'll restart the firewall again before I hit the bunk, but I imagine it'll overload again in another few hours. I apologize in advance for the outage while I'm noddy-bye.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2006 23:06 Comments ||
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no apologies necessary for other's behavior, Fred
thx
Frank
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2006 23:08 Comments ||
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People who appear to have nothing better to do than try to impose themselves on others. Sounds familiar. Not very nice, not very smart and certainly not worthy. They're assholes. Let's kill em.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
KABUL: Seven people including four militants were killed in violence across Afghanistan on Tuesday. Four suspected Taliban militants and an Afghan soldier were killed in a gun battle in southern Afghanistan, the Defence Ministry said. Four soldiers were also wounded and a suspected militant detained in the weekend clash in Uruzgan province, one of the insurgency-plagued regions of Afghanistan, the ministry said in a statement. In separate incidents in the same region, Afghan forces detained three suspected militants and seized guns and a satellite telephone, the ministry added.
Also on Tuesday, a suicide car-bomber attacked Canadian troops travelling in a vehicle near the Afghan capital, killing himself and a man on a horse, police and a Canadian military spokesman said. A car full of explosive blew itself up near a Canadian vehicle passing on this road, said Highway Police officer Ajab Gull. A civilian on his horse passing by was killed, and you can see the head of the suicide bomber over there, he told reporters at the scene. The horse was also killed in the blast. Gull said that a Canadian had been wounded, but Canadian military spokesman Major Marc Theriault said none of the three soldiers in the vehicle were hurt.
GHALANAI: Coalition and Afghan forces on the Pak-Afghan border have started searching vehicles in the Sahib Kohi area of Nangarhar province, bordering Mohmand Agency in Pakistan. A convoy of coalition and Afghan forces surrounded Sahib Kohi and searched vehicles going to and coming from Mohmand Agency. They also checked goods on the vehicles with electronic gadgets.
DEBKAfile Reports: Special operations units of Egypt intelligence corps beef up troops battling al Qaeda Sinai stronghold. Mubarak puts intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in command. DEBKAfiles military sources reveal that despite comprehensive sweeps with casualties on both sides since last week, Egyptian forces have not been able to capture al Qaeda hard core leaders. The main battle has been raging three days against the fortified terrorist stronghold on Jebel Magharah, 22km SW of El Arish and west of a former al Qaeda base on Jebel Hilal (alt. 654 meters). Signals passed among the troops describe the operation as the Tora Bora of Sinai, naming it after the fierce epic US-al Qaeda engagement in Afghanistan three years ago. 
Top outlaw killed in encounter with RAB
BANGKOK, Thailand - A magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck early Thursday near the South Pacific nation of Tonga, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A tsunami warning was issued for Fiji and New Zealand. The temblor, classified by the USGS as a "great" quake, struck 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga, and 1,340 miles north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued the tsunami warning but said it was not known whether the quake generated a potentially deadly giant wave.
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - A U.S. jury has reached a verdict in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who faces the death penalty for conspiracy in connection with the September 11 attacks, the court said on Wednesday.
GUWAHATI: A separatist rebel leader in the northeast Indian state of Assam has been caught using 
MIRANSHAH: Suspected local Taliban on Tuesday looted Rs 910,000 meant for the salaries of employees at two government high schools, at Narak in North Waziristan, 20 kilometres east of here. The money was being carried in a local passenger van when the robbers stopped the vehicle and took the money, 
QUETTA: The police on a tip-off on Tuesday arrested three alleged terrorists linked to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) from Mach. An informer told the police that some BLA miscreants were hiding in the mountainous area to blow up the main railway track and electricity poles, acting SP Abdul Baqi Baloch told a press conference. He said that a police team raided the area and surrounded around eight to nine BLA men, but some fled and only three were arrested. The SP said that the arrested men were from Dera Bugti, adding that they had confessed to a role in the confrontation between the Frontier Constabulary and the Bugti tribe on March 17, 2005. 
BRITAIN, France and Germany will prepare today the text of a UN Security Council resolution aimed at forcing Iran to halt its controversial uranium enrichment programme or face sanctions.
The governor of Iraq's rebellious Anbar province has survived an assassination attempt unharmed, but 10 other civilians died, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
RAMADI: A suicide car bomber attacked the motorcade of Anbar Governor Maamoun Sami Rasheed on Tuesday, killing three bodyguards, said hospital sources and local residents. A local government official said there was no word on the governor's fate after the attack in the centre of the city. Rasheed's predecessor was kidnapped and killed last year. Al Qaeda and hardline followers of Saddam Hussein have vowed to kill Sunni Arab leaders who take part in the US-sponsored political process.
Two German engineers held hostage in Iraq for more than three months have been freed and will fly home on Wednesday. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, said on Tuesday that the two men, who had been abducted on January 24 outside their workplace in the industrial town of Baiji, 180km north of Baghdad, were freed without warning and appeared to be unharmed. "I am very pleased to inform you that the two kidnapped men from Leipzig, Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, have been freed today," Steinmeier said in a statement. 
Jordan's military court today found 10 Terrorists guilty of conspiring to attack US forces in Jordan and neighboring Iraq, and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from two to five years, according to a report by the Associate Press. The court acquitted seven others for lack of evidence.
GAZA - An explosion inside a building used by Palestinian security forces in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed two people and wounded three others, Palestinian security sources said. The Israeli army said it was not involved in the incident.
Gunmen stormed into a newspaper office in northern Sri Lanka and opened fire, killing two employees and seriously wounding another. Describing Tuesday's attack, the newspaper's editor said: "Some men dressed in black broke into our office and opened fire", killing the editorial manager and a circulation assistant and wounding another employee. "They were looking for three of our reporters but they managed to escape because our office is large," said N Vithyatharan, editor of the Tamil-language Uthayan newspaper based in the northern town of Jaffna, 300km north of Colombo.
