A planeload of Polish tourists got a scare Wednesday night when their Turkish pilot mistakenly landed at a NATO air base by mistake, triggering a terror alert. Officials say the pilot of the chartered aircraft ignored air traffic controllers who told her she was headed toward the wrong airport. She had initially flown over the main civilian airport at Poznan late Wednesday and begun an approach when she saw the unlit runway of the NATO airport about ten miles away and brought the plane down there. And they say men won't ask for directions?
A spokesman for the NATO facility says the unexpected landing set off an anti-terror procedure, with troops scrambling to surround the aircraft. Police checked the crew and the passengers, and after about three hours allowed the plane to fly to the correct airport. Just long enough to drink everything you bought at the duty-free store...
Posted by: Dar ||
08/17/2006 18:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sorry--this was not Page 1 intended.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/17/2006 19:14 Comments ||
Top||
KANDAHAR - A medical team of 15 people, mainly doctors and nurses, was kidnapped on Thursday while travelling to a refugee camp in Afghanistans troubled southern province of Kandahar, an official said. The medical team, employed by Kandahars refugee department, was travelling by bus to Taleban-dominated Zairai district when unidentified men hijacked their vehicle, said refugee department official Agha Jan Nazari.
We had a 15-member doctor team travelling to that district. Unknown people have kidnapped them and we dont know anything about their fates, he said. The kidnappers have not contacted us so far yet. The team, which included a driver and two women, was kidnapped in the early morning, he said.
Talibunnies perhaps in need of medical care for their wounded?
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 09:49 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
KABUL - Pakistan is the main source of Afghanistans insecurity, the countrys intelligence chief said on Thursday, adding that there could be no peace here if the war against Islamic militants was not shifted to include Pakistan. In the strongest comments by an Afghan official yet, director-general of intelligence Amruallah Saleh said enemy training sites and organisational and financial resources all lay inside Pakistan. Pakistan has not given up its interference and aggression, Saleh told parliaments lower house, which is considering his renomination as intelligence chief.
Saleh conceded there were shortcomings in the Afghan government, but said the source of insecurity lay on the other side of the Durand Line dividing Afghanistan from Pakistan. As long as the war against terrorism is not extended openly and seriously from Afghanistan, we cannot restore full security in our country, he said. The enemys organisation set-up, the enemys financial resources, the enemys training sites and all it has, lie on the other side of the Durand Line where our arms cant reach.
Both Islamabad and Kabul are major US allies in its war on terrorism, but they have exchanged harsh words in recent months over the campaign against the Taleban, once supported by Pakistan, undermining already long uneasy ties.
Saleh said his organisation had given Pakistan intelligence showing Taleban and other militants operating in Pakistan. But until today, none of the training camps has been closed, he said. New Delhi makes the same charges against Pakistan over support for militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. Pakistan denies supporting any militants.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have had a troubled relationship since Britain partitioned the subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947. Much of the trouble is over border disputes. Pakistan used to be the Talebans main supporter, but switched to become a major US ally in the war on terrorism after the Al Qaeda network, which Taleban sheltered, carried out the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States. Islamabad is battling militants, most of whom fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan, and says it does all it can to curb cross-border infiltration.
It also says there are people in President Hamid Karzais government who want to spoil relations with Pakistan. Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since the Talebans fall, has also in the past urged the world to extend the war against the militants beyond his countrys borders, but has held back from specifically naming Pakistan.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 09:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It must be rough being situated next to that cesspool.
#5
Actually, just about any Arab muslim country needs to be added to the list of nations that need to be whacked. Syria and Iran form an unholy alliance to destabilize Iraq and support hezbollocks to harass Israel. Egypt pretends to be helpful, but still smuggles arms and fighters into Gaza. Saudi Arabia funds most of the trouble. Sudan and Somalia need to be whacked just because of who they are, and how they behave. Pakistan is a cesspool of seething and spittle, and deserves a double-whack. Even Indonesia and Malaysia could be improved by a healthy smackdown now and then. All wahabbi, salafist, or deobandi muslims need to be shortened about 12 inches, starting from the crown of their heads. For imams, preachers, mullahs, and other "higher" figures, do a double-whack, one from the top and one from the bottom. I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the world's troubles would be eliminated by doing this NOW.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/17/2006 13:40 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The only path towards rehabilitating Pakistan must, perforce, lead through the rubble of all its madrassahs. Rinse and repeat for every Muslim majority country.
Cairo, 17 August (AKI) - The Egyptian pro-democracy movement Kifaya (Enough) has announced it is collecting signatures to press the central government to revoke the historic Camp David accords. "Our objective is to collect one million signatures," the movement coordinator George al-Ishaq told Adnkronos International (AKI), "to force the government to consider this option." "Ours is a form of protest for the Israeli offensive in Lebanon and for the killing by an Israeli contingent of two Egyptian soldiers on the border with Gaza three months ago. This episode is a clear violation of the peace accords between Egypt and Israel."
If this is what passes for a "reform movement", I'll just stick with the current president for life
Members will meet in the coming days with a team of lawyers to exmaine the legal measures required to revoke the peace accord, the first of its kind between the Jewish state and an Arab nation, which paved the way for diplomatic relations between Egypt and Israel. The Israeli offensive in Lebanon has fueled discontent and diffidence towards Israel, which while formally allied to Egypt through the 1978 Camp David accords, is still perceived as an enemy.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 08:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hosni really needs to be a better dictator
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2006 8:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The title should be: Egyptian Reformists welcome Israeli occupation of Cairo.
#3
Israel, which while formally allied to Egypt through the 1978 Camp David accords, is still perceived as an enemy.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold the horses! The Camp David accords are a peace treaty, not a treaty of alliance. Go to the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School to read the actual text (I always screw up links, so I won't bother).
Police searching woods for clues in an alleged plot to bomb trans-Atlantic passenger jets have found a suitcase containing components for an improvised explosive device, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Thursday.
The BBC quoted an anonymous police source as saying a suitcase holding "everything you would need to make an improvised device" had been uncovered in a stretch of woodland in High Wycombe, 30 miles northwest of London. The wood is near the home of one of two dozen suspects arrested Aug. 10 in connection with the foiled bomb plot.
The Metropolitan Police refused to comment on the BBC report, saying it could not discuss anything found during the searches, which reportedly have uncovered several firearms and other items of interest.
Police said Thursday they were searching 14 homes and businesses and had searched 49 locations since the Aug. 10 raids in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham, central England.
On Wednesday, a judge gave police several more days to question 23 people arrested on suspicion of involvement in the plot. The judge said 21 of the suspects could be detained until at least Aug. 23, and two others until at least Aug. 21, before any new request is made to a judge. Under British anti-terrorism laws, detectives can make further requests to detain suspects for up to 28 days before they must be charged or released.
Service returned almost to normal at British airports Thursday, a week after they were thrown into chaos by the terrorist alert.
In Wales, police said they had not ruled out a link between the arrest Friday of a 47-year-old man and 44-year-old woman on suspicion of terrorism at Holyhead Port terminus for ferries to Ireland and the alleged jetliner plot.
One man died and 13 people were injured after a series of blasts ripped through a home of a local prosecutor in Nazran, Ingushetia, in the early hours of Thursday morning, the RIA-Novosti news agency reports. The prosecutor himself was not hurt in the attack, but his brother Adam was killed, the republican Interior Ministry said. According to preliminary information, the criminals planted two explosive devices by the house where the prosecutor of Nazran District, Gerikhan Khazbiyev, lives, the source in the ministry told the agency. According to the source, the prosecutors brother, who was in the house at the time, was killed in the explosions.
Could be terrorists, could be local crooks
Russia TV said in a morning news bulletin that as many as 13 people were injured in the blast. Investigation into the attack has been launched. The blasts had apparently been triggered by two hand-made explosive devices planted near the house, a Rossia TV correspondent said. Investigators believe that the terrorists threw four more hand grenades across the fence into the interior yard.
The victims are mainly Khazbiyevs neighbors. After the first explosion, people went out into the street to see what was happening, and at that moment, witnesses say, another bomb went off. Interior Ministry officers and investigators from the prosecutors office are working at the scene.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 08:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A camp of gunmen was found by police units and a group of commandos of the Russian Interior Ministry in a forest tract in the southern outskirts of the village of Agachkala of Dagestans Buinaksk region. While examining the camp, about 1,000 fire arms cartridges, two grenades, a belt with explosive and hitting elements, as well as religious literature, camouflage uniforms and communication means were found there, press service of the Dagestani Interior Ministry told. Four kilometres from the camp, commandos found a cache with a lot of foodstuffs, a 10-litre container with explosive and a notebook with surnames, numbers of cars and call-signs of officers of the Dagestani Interior Ministry.
According to the preliminary information, all the findings belonged to members of the bandit group Buinaksk Jamaat, a representative of the ministry said. On August 15, one of the groups of this criminal community tried to organize shooting on the military compound of the 136th motor-rifle brigade of the Russian Defence Ministry dislocated in Buinaksk. However, police frustrated the terrorists plans. One of the terrorists, Abdulkadyr Mutashev, was killed in an exchange of fire. Another three managed to escape in a forest near the village of Agachkala.
North Korea may be preparing an underground test for a nuclear bomb, ABC News said on Thursday, citing unidentified U.S. officials.
It quoted a senior military official as saying a U.S. intelligence agency had recently observed "suspicious vehicle movement" at a suspected North Korean test site.
A senior State Department official told the network: "It is the view of the intelligence community that a test is a real possibility."
Asked about the report, a senior U.S. official told Reuters: "We have no new evidence to support that." I wonder if both Iran and the Norks plan a nuke test on the 22nd?
Suspect you are correct. I don't think we'll end the decade without one of these tin horn dicktators lighting the fuze on at least one nuke. They're just itchin to see the flash-bang and down-wind drift cloud.
#10
Iran has military excercises planned for the 20th.
NorKs doing what looks like prep for a nuke test.
All sorts of bizarre things happening on airliners. (Cosmetics setting of nitrate detectors and alerting a bomb-sniffing dog? Bull!)
Bomb parts found in a case, ready for deployment in Britain.
Muzzies buying up very specific models of cell phones all over the country, with phony stories about re-selling them.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/17/2006 21:37 Comments ||
Top||
#11
I wasn't referring to a "test." I was referring to a live fire exercise.
Ah..I see.
Frightening prospect.. and you're probably right..
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 22:02 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Question is .. will they use it directly or let one of their terrorist group proxies deliver the weapon?
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 22:04 Comments ||
Top||
#13
We will review the proposals on the basis of our legitimate right, and, God willing, we will give our opinion regarding the proposals toward the end of Mordad
I think these were his words (or the translator's). Apparently the end of Mordad is Aug 22. Interestingly I googled Mordad to check the dates and found this.
Zoroastrian MP proposes changing name of the month of Mordad to Amordad
The reason?
Most of the current Persian words have their roots in the ancient languages of Pahlavi (a form of Middle Persian) and Avestan, he added.
For example, the names of the Iranian months are very meaningful and come from ancient Iranian languages, and these names remind all Iranians of awareness, life, and striving, he noted.
Over the years, many people in Iran mispronounced the word Amordad, saying Mordad, which means death and nothingness, Niknam said in explanation of how the change came about.
"Since Iranians always cared about life, striving, development, and productivity, they named the middle month of the summer Amordad, which means life and eternity in the Avestan language."
I thought it all sounded a bit morbid. In keeping with this theme maybe we should refer to Iran as Mordor.
#14
John, Dunno. But there is one thing that is a bit puzzling. The Mahdi phantasmagoria specifies that Mahdi's return would be heralded by a bright light over Baghdad. Not Jerusalem--Baghdad.
Back to NKor. I expected mullahs doing a test a few days before 22nd, to make sure they have the goods and working. I have to admit that they are smart like foxes. If the NKor test goes through and with a bang, they know the goods are fine and have a plausible deniability before the actual attack. They may fool some people all the time and that is good enough in their book as they expect a strong 5th column objections to any preemptive action from countries that are able to project power (well, that would be US) as the test transpired in NKor and not in Iran. The test may go on about 18th-19th which would give an ample time for a repeat if the first one fizzles. The "exercise" starts on 20th, 2 days before the target date.
An emergency is unfolding at Sydney Airport, where a Pacific Blue 737 aircraft is at the centre of a bomb scare. It's understood a bomb threat was made against the plane. The threat was believed to have come from the Philippines.
The flight from Nadi in Fiji has been isolated on a runway and is being evacuated. Police have arrived at the airport to carry out a search of the plane.
The airport's east-west runway has been shut down and all other aircraft have been moved away from the area.
France will initially provide only 200 extra troops for a new United Nations force in Lebanon, President Jacques Chirac said on Thursday, disappointing some U.N. officials who had hoped for a contribution of thousands. Such a move could seriously delay the U.N. mission, seen as vital to securing peace between Israel and Hizbollah after a month-long war, or even scupper the operation. Thanks Jack. I'll be fore ever grateful. Your closest friend, Hassan.
However, Chirac left open the possibility that France might eventually provide more soldiers and said some 1,700 French troops positioned near Lebanon would be made available to the United Nations but would not be placed under U.N. control.
France's reticence follows disastrous peacekeeping operations over the past three decades, with its military losing 58 paratroopers in a 1983 bomb attack in Beirut and some 84 soldiers during a mission to Bosnia in the early 1990s.
In a statement, Chirac's office said he had discussed the situation with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. It added that Chirac was expressing the content of a proposal that France would submit to a meeting in New York on the U.N. force.
"(Chirac) said the mission, the rules of engagement and the means at the disposal of this force still have to be decided; likewise the breakdown of the contingents which have to reflect the engagement of all the international community," it said.
France already has some 200 troops in the existing, 2,000-strong U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and leads the operation.
"(Chirac) announced to (Annan) that France was prepared to maintain its naval and air force presence off Lebanon," the statement said, adding that that presence comprised 1,700 men.
The United Nations last Friday gave the go-ahead for the force numbers to rise to 15,000 troops to patrol the peace between Israel and Hizbollah. The world body wants to send up to 3,500 troops to south Lebanon within two weeks.
Many diplomats had expected France to provide at least 2,000 men. Italy has said it is ready to send between 2,000 and 3,000 troops to Lebanon but has also said it is waiting for the U.N. to clarify the new force's rules of engagement.
Chirac's office said France was willing to carry on leading an expanded UNIFIL mission and that once the "immediate emergency" had passed, the United Nations would decide the precise make-up of the force.
French reticence to commit to UNIFIL has surprised many U.N. officials, who had expected Paris's full backing for the operation after the central role French diplomats played in drawing up last week's resolution to end fighting in Lebanon.
However, the French military is clearly unhappy about rushing into the mission.
During negotiations on Friday's Security Council resolution, France insisted the force be under U.N. control as Lebanon had demanded, while the United States preferred a multinational operation separate from the United Nations.
#1
France got a threat of a repeat of it's past history with Leabanon and Troops. So of course they did the monkey act. I suspect it was from the same group who was reaponsible last time.
Hmmm... What a difference a couple of years and a terror plot make...
Airport biometric procedures to be extended after alleged terror plot
Six out of ten believe government is not exaggerating terrorism threat
Reid reaction to terror has seen his public profile soar as Blair's successor
#1
Call me nuts, but I think a DNA swab may also be useful too. Just in case, these Jihadi's decide to blow themselves up in the process. It will make it easier to identify them.
#2
Waste of effort and money. Fingerprinting babies and grandmothers aint gonna make the skys any safer. I'd start with profiling. Its a much more cost effective method of screening.
#3
Wait just one goddamned minute! Arent these the very same people who jumped all over our case when the US wanted to go biometric with passports?!? Now that it is an EU initiative it's a good idea though?
Just possible that by having the fingerprints of non-jihadis on file may enable the authorities to eliminate suspects. Thus the authorities can concentrate efforts elsewhaere.
Works both ways. Known non-involved can be eliminated.
HILO, Hawaii, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- No one Thursday was claiming ownership of a tubular flying object that buzzed a Hawaii airport this week and looked a lot like a missile.
Officials at the Pohakuloa Training Area told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that there were no military exercises involving missiles taking place when the object was spotted Tuesday over the Hilo Airport on the Big Island.
Witnesses told the newspaper the silver object was silver and emitted a vapor trail; however it had no apparent fins or markings on it.
One man told the newspaper, "The noise was super loud."
The object didn't seem to threaten any air traffic around the airport, the report said.
Hawaii officials said the FBI and Transportation Security Administration were looking into the matter.
#7
Nope--well, not yet, anyway. I built and flew Estes stuff back in the day, and I've recently taken up the hobby again because my oldest joined the school rocket club.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/17/2006 17:41 Comments ||
Top||
#8
OK, how do we know this _wasn't_ someone's UAV, launched from a container ship offshore just to see if anyone was paying attention?
Tri-State Airport in Wayne County has been evacuated. A perimeter has been set up, and evacuees are being asked to stand back 350 feet from the airport.
The Transportation Security Administration reports that a passenger's water bottle screened positive for an explosive material around 9:15 this morning. A second test was confirmed at 11:25. NBC News reports that federal screeners found four containers of liquids inside a woman's carry-on bag during the screening process this morning. Larry Salyers, Tri-State Airport Director, tells WSAZ the woman is of Pakistani origin, lived in Jackson, Michigan and most recently lived in the Huntington area. She is being detained for questioning.
The flight in which the woman was going to board was on its way to Charlotte, North Carolina with a final destination of Detroit, Michigan. FBI officials are on scene.
At least one flight has been diverted to Yeager Airport in Charleston. Salyers says it is uncertain when the airport will resume operations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2006 16:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Wayne County in Michigan. Wotta surprise. Looks like we may be nipping a lot of the build up to August 22 in the bud. I'm starting to be a believer.
#4
The BBC article I posted which was deleted had this extra detail : The containers were spotted in the woman's hand bag and subjected to swab tests and sniffer dog examinations, both of which gave positive results.
Officials say the woman is of Pakistani origin and was travelling on a one-way ticket to Charlotte, North Carolina.
She has been detained and is now being questioned by FBI officials.
According to the woman's travel documents she is from Jackson, Michigan and was born in 1978.
#6
The airport is in Huntington, Wayne County, West Virginia--yeah, I thought "Detroit" at first, too, and it's not clear from the quote or the url that it isn't.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/17/2006 16:31 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Sky news stating definite Detroit link - nearby at least.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
08/17/2006 16:35 Comments ||
Top||
#8
It is more ominous that is is in WV, the cancer of Islamofacism infests the heartland.
Pakistani woman..
Watching the streaming video is surreal, espoecially the quite with people walking around very non-chelant...
#12
No new info though the reporters just gave an update. This is the ongoing remote at the airport. The cameraman has a fixation on a brunette in tight bluejeans talking on a cell phone.
#13
Being originally from WV (The great mountains of the Monongahelia Nation Forest) and now living in Charlotte (Home of Nascar), I want to applaud our TSA personnel. Tri-State Airport is a little hole in the wall that makes jumps to larger airports like CDIA (Charlotte Douglas International Airport). I catch flights every once in a while, and she picked the wrong place to try this at. You have good ol' mountain folk just looking for something out of the ordinary. I don't want to sound too racist, but she would stick out like a sore thumb. If this is acurate, the FBI wouldn't need to talk to her. Drop her by my uncle Jeb's, he's got a few shacks in the hollows that the government doesn't know about. A little time with us and my friends. We'll get the info we need. She won't have to worry about eating pig, she'll be sqealling like one soon. Wheeee, Wheeee, oink, oink.
#15
Some airport guy brought out all the reporters a bunch of cold drinks in a box, talk about files swarming over s**t.... The temp on the streaming video says 91F/33C at 5:30 EDT....Midsummer normal
Now a paramedic truck just wennt by... No one seems concerned... Probably some evacuee got too hot...
#19
TSA says the liquids are a "residue". WTF is a "residue", and why do the mechanical detection devices and WV State police dogs get excited about residue?
#24
If she is from Detriot, or wherever for that matter, find out what mosque she attends and demolish the place. Zero notice, everyone insude leaves with their hands empty and then rev up the D-9s. This needs to be SOP.
#26
OK the proper response...
This Haji implement tomorrow's opening movie on the Haji planes from Pakiwakiland!
AHHH!!
They will wish for a bomb on the plane!
Elle Driver: The venom of a black mamba can kill a human in four hours, if, say, bitten on the ankle or the thumb. However, a bite to the face or torso can bring death from paralysis within 20 minutes. Now, you should listen to this, 'cause this concerns you. The amount of venom that can be delivered from a single bite can be gargantuan. You know, I've always liked that word..."gargantuan"... so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence. If not treated quickly with antivenom, 10 to 15 milligrams can be fatal to human beings. However, the black mamba can deliver as much as 100 to 400 milligrams of venom from a single bite.
"Here honey, don't get thirsty on the flight. Take these while I load up the red truck."
Where did the ambulance go? Was it a legit call?
An ambulance traveling thru a crowd of people evacuated from an airport..pretty natural to me. Why stop it?
DETROIT - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor(Nominated by Jimmy Carter, natch) in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. "Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution," Taylor wrote in her 43-page opinion.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs. They believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets of the program, which involves secretly listening to conversations between people in the U.S. and people in other countries.
The government argued that the program is well within the president's authority, but said proving that would require revealing state secrets. The ACLU said the state-secrets argument was irrelevant because the Bush administration already had publicly revealed enough information about the program for Taylor to rule.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 12:44 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What a surprise! A judge in the town with the most muslims is trying to prevent us from stopping terrorist attacks. Who saw that coming?
Posted by: Destro in Panama ||
08/17/2006 13:01 Comments ||
Top||
#2
And the liberals complain that we're less safe now than we were several years ago . . . well, yes, we are - thanks to them and their idiot stunts.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
08/17/2006 13:06 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Judge is a life-long very liberal Democrat.
She seems to have ignored Article III of the constitution.
Basically were her rulign to stand, it woudl be illegal to intercept Osama calling from overseas to give an attack order, without a prior warrnat - meaning you'd need to know which phone he was calling to, and from. Meaning tis impossible to do so if Osama and his group are using throw-away cell phones.
What a fucking idiot this Carter appointed judge it.
It will be overturned by the 6th circuit.
Fucking ACLU using a cherry picked judge to get a headline, and damage our security.
#4
An attorney and judge, Anna Diggs Taylor was the first African-American woman appointed to a federal judgeship in Michigan and later became the first African-American woman to be named chief federal judge in the Eastern District of Michigan. Taylor has used her positions to advance civil rights throughout the United States.
Born Anna Katherine Johnston in 1932 in Washington, D.C., Taylor grew up in a household in which politics and civil rights were highly valued. Her parents sent her to private school in Massachusetts
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in
banning.
#10
Guys, C'mon... Don't get like this...
I deplore any suggestion of violence. We can't get down to their level.
But of course citing the New Haven CT case as precident, I see need for a luxury resort right on the lot where the house is where she lives. Emminent domain proceeding should begin forthwith... Keep it legal, and non-violent!
#11
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs. They believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets of the program, which involves secretly listening to conversations between people in the U.S. and people in other countries.
The MSM believes that their ability to print the propaganda of terrorists is more important than the lives of innocent people.
#12
We don't sink to the level of the Democratic Underground here, wxjames. Let's keep it civil, please.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 14:21 Comments ||
Top||
#13
She is giving material aid and comfort to the enemy, therefore she is a traitor. Have her arrested, give her a trial and convict her. Then execute her. Everything needed is right there in the Constitution already.
#15
She is not a traitor. She's not knowingly conspiring to harm our country.
She is, however, completely wrong and seriously misguided as to what the law and Constitution says. We need to ensure that her ruling is overturned -- if not by a higher court, then by appropriate new legislation. I'd like to have that debate on new legislation in October of any even-numbered year.
The judge does not need execution or death, so let's stop that shit. She needs to be overruled.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2006 15:03 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Everything needed is right there in the Constitution already.
Quite true Silentbrick, but the portions of the Constitution dealing with treason have apparently been logically excised.
#20
What I don't get is a no nothing, barely noticable district judge can order the ENTIRE FEDERAL FUCKING GOVERNMENT AND THE MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION OF THE USA to stop.
This is bullshit and is nothing more than tyranny from the bench. Remember what we did to tyrants in 1776, ya dumb broad?
#21
Just for the record, there's only one topic with total unanimity on the bench and it is how to deal with those who make or carry out threats on a judge. And it isn't a strict construction of the first amendment. Every judge is at risk and knows some one who died that way. And the FBI will follow up on it.
#22
Darth, don't worry. Nobody's stopping anything based on what a District judge says.
Beeson predicted the government would appeal the wiretapping ruling and request that the order to halt the program be postponed while the case makes its way through the system.
#23
The stark reality of federal appointments and federal prisons. Both institutions are currently filled with folks that have quite a lot in common. When the authority delta is finally reached and the "rule of law" calapses, the prisons are emptied. As more leftest politicians are placed in office, the process is hastened.
#24
Of course this is a terrible ruling, but let's not get all homicidal just yet. Think long term. These things have a way of working themselves out. This particular ruling will wind up in the SCOTUS and considering that it's makeup is now more conservative or at least more constructionist, it will more than likely be overturned. I can vehemently disagree with liberal judges. I can despise them. I can hang photos of them on my wall and throw darts. But in the end, remember that one judge is not the only game in town. Let the ACLU cherry pick for headlines. Let the moonbat progressive judges try to reconstruct the culture and laws of the United States. Just go out and VOTE for people who are fighting that.
#25
Besoaker, why the reference to skin color? I mean, the ruling is a bad ruling regardless what color God painted the judge.
wxjames: Not funny. Not even close to funny. My father was a judge for well over twenty years, much of it on a court of general jurisdiction. I remember a couple of times when Dad had made rulings that put some mob/druggie types at a disadvantage, they sent a cop to pick me up from school (and there was a plainclothes in an unmarked car parked two houses down from dusk to dawn) because there had been death threats against me and my sister. I could also tell you about the time that some lady went berserk because her son was found guilty, and started shooting the courtroom up.
If you want to have a government based on laws, and not on crazy guys in turbans with assault rifles, you have to have judges who decide things, and one of the things you accept as the price of civil society is that judges sometimes get it wrong. The remedy for erroneous rulings is called a a Court of Appeals.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/17/2006 15:33 Comments ||
Top||
#26
I'm certain we won't stop the program due to one idiot judge. How soon can this be overturned ? This info is absolutely critical in the Muzzie war. This f**king area around Detroit is becoming an enemy camp. There's lot's of hunters up there. When does bear season start ? Hell, phesants, dear, squirrels. Any damn thing ?
#29
"At the establishment of our Constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions nevertheless become law by precedent, sapping by little and little the foundations of the Constitution and working its change by construction before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life if secured against all liability to account."
#30
Eugene Volokh, a superb constitutional lawyer at UCLA, offers his take on the issue here and in other posts on that page. Anyone who agrees with the judge has to counter his arguments. I'm not a lawyer and I didn't sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but he seems persuasive to me.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2006 16:14 Comments ||
Top||
#31
Besoeker:
Appreciate the kind words regarding my father.
I do not deny what Judge Taylor looks like; I merely point out that what she looks like has any bearing on the quality of her reasoning--or anyone else's, for that matter.
To make a larger point, do you know what color God painted me? Or Fred? Or any of the Steves, or Oldspook, Old Patriot, Pappy, Seafarious, tu 3031, or any of the other regular Ranters? Some people here have self-identified their ancestry in the comments (e.g., Liberalhawk, TW, TGA), and some have e-mailed photos to the rest of us; if you went to one of the Rantapaloozas, you'd've gotten to see Fred and some of the others in person. Otherwise, you don't know.
Now, keeping that in mind, if--oh, let's just pick someone at random--say, f'instance, you find yourself agreeing with Sock Puppet of Doom quite a bit, and you've really come to respect his reasoning (as I have), would learning that his skin is darker than yours (if it is, which I don't know 'cause I've never seen either of you, but this is a hypothetical so just work with me here OK?) really change anything? Should it?
Posted by: Mike ||
08/17/2006 16:20 Comments ||
Top||
#32
Correction:
I do not deny what Judge Taylor looks like; I merely point out that what she looks like has no bearing on the quality of her reasoning--or anyone else's, for that matter.
I will use preview. Preview is my friend, my very best friend. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
08/17/2006 16:22 Comments ||
Top||
#33
The judge actually did Bush a favor, she put this on the front page again right before an election and right after terrorist got caught using the program. Karl Rove is a genius.
#35
This ruling is setting the stage, unwillingly as well as unwittingly, for the Islamist-delivered mushroom cloud.
Rush Limbaugh and Bernard Lewis, both not known for hyping-up doom-and-gloom predictions (Rush being the eternal optimist, for example) have strongly hinted that we are going to be hit very hard, and soon.
The stage is being set. Perhaps it will occur under the watchful eyes of a Lib-Democrat dominated House (and maybe even Senate). They and the ACLU will have mucho explaining to do when the radioactive dust settles.
#40
The moonbats are going to get a lot of Americans, both conservatives and liberals killed. There has been a thread running over at Tigerhawk about what it will take to militarize America.
I wonder if order will survive in America after a large-scale strike here.
#42
"Tommy Franks says the next attack will see the constitution and bill of rights tossed out the window."
I could see martial law being put in place, and the suspension of habeas corpus for a time being. And even the formation of well regulated militias along the lines of a civilian security corp. But not the wholesale abandonment of the Constitution or Bill of Rights.
Actually, these things will have to be done if we are to purge ourselves of the disease infecting us. It would open up carte blanche to round up the muzzies and their leftist sympathizers. Could result in a much needed cleansing of the nation.
Or, I could just be whistling dixie! I'm afraid we'll find out in due time.
Lest we forget, not all the military heroes on 9/11 appear in Oliver Stone's movie.
Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, Chief, Army Reserve, will present the Soldiers Medal, the highest peacetime award for heroism, to Captain John Chovanes, an Army Reservist with the Army Medical Corps. The ceremony will be held today, 1 December 2003, at the Pentagon in Room 2B548 at 2 pm.
In the aftermath of the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001, Captain Chovanes at risk to his own life, voluntarily rendered medical aid, and assisted in the rescue of a New York Port Authority officer. The officer was buried well below the surface of the collapsed buildings. Rescue efforts involved slowly digging free the buried officer due to debris being above and around the rescue site. Captain Chovanes administered lifesaving medical treatment throughout the night to the buried officer, under the constant risk that the overhead debris, including girders, and masonry, would collapse on him, the buried officer and the rescuers. The officer was freed on the morning of 12 September 2001.
I have not seen the movie. However, Dr. Chovanes was the chief medical provider for Officer John McLoughlin, played by Nicholas Cage. If Oliver Stone left his role in the rescue out, I have a problem with the movie.
#3
When asked by a talk show host Tom Campbell, Littleton (Colorado)Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo how the country should respond if terrorists struck several U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.
"Well, what if you said something like if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites," Tancredo answered.
"You're talking about bombing Mecca," Campbell said.
"Yeah," Tancredo responded.
Tancredo sounds less and less odd now. Especially after hearing those tapes. Laura Ingraham played the one where the woman burned on the radio today...
The way things are wussing out in the last couple of weeks, we may need to have Tancredo run in 2008, if we make it that far...
#5
Wow--I'm about 1/3 through tape 69 and they're theorizing the second tower is on fire because of "collateral damage" from the first. I think most people across the nation watching TV were more aware of what was happening than the poor emergency workers.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/17/2006 17:18 Comments ||
Top||
BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) - Three Palestinian-American men who were found with nearly 1,000 cell phones were charged Wednesday with federal fraud conspiracy and money laundering after a county prosecutor backed off from terrorism charges filed earlier.
Maruan Muhareb, 18; Adham Othman, 21; and Louai Othman, 23, all of the Dallas area, were charged in Bay City with conspiracy to defraud consumers and telephone providers by trafficking in counterfeit goods. They also were charged with money laundering on suspicion that they used proceeds from the counterfeit cell phone transactions to buy more phones.
Magistrate Judge Charles Binder ordered the men held at least until a detention hearing Friday. They were arrested last Friday after buying dozens of cell phones at a Wal-Mart store in nearby Tuscola County.
The three in Michigan had been charged there with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes. Prosecutor Mark E. Reene asked a judge Wednesday to dismiss those charges.
Nabih Ayad, an attorney for the three men, called the charges ``outrageous'' and accused state and federal officials of ``scratching each other's backs'' by shifting jurisdictions. ``This is a clear indication of racial profiling: Picking someone up and holding them for days and trying to find something to charge them with. It's supposed to be the other way around,'' he said.
Just sucks for your clients when the feds and the state coordinate the charges like that.
The federal complaint contains no mention of terrorism. It alleges that the three men defrauded consumers, TracFone Wireless Inc. and Nokia Corp. Florida-based TracFone sells prepaid cell phones with a limited number of minutes at subsidized prices. It makes money when buyers purchase additional minutes.
The government alleges the men are part of a scheme to buy up phones that Nokia makes for TracFone and then remove TracFone's proprietary software, enabling use of the handsets with any cellular provider. When the phones are altered, they are no longer genuine Nokia products.
All the information in the federal complaint came from the defendants' statements to the FBI in interviews before they were charged in Tuscola County, Ayad said.
Supporters of the Texas men say they were targeted because of their ethnicity. They say that the three were hoping to resell phones for a profit and that their purchases had nothing to do with terrorism.
Which puts them in the position of admitting to the crime of defrauding the cell phone company, right?
Photos the men took of the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge, which led to the surveillance charge, were tourist snapshots, advocates contend.
"We're just simple elk hunters tourists!"
The conspiracy charge is punishable by five years in prison. The men could face 20 years in prison if convicted of money laundering.
Al Capone was convicted on tax evasion. Didn't matter in the end. Enjoy your stay in stir, boys.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Which puts them in the position of admitting to the crime of defrauding the cell phone company, right?
Wrong, Defrauding them just how?
Once I buy something, it belongs to me, not the company.
"Hoping the buyers will buy additional minutes" is a risk taken by the phone company, not a "Fraud"
If any fraud has taken place, it's the phone company putting in software that prevents you from using any other carrier, removing that software BY THE OWNER is not fraud.
Think of buying a Chevy, and finding that the Chevy will only take a special gasoline nozzle that requires you to buy Chevrolet Gasoline.
A refular gas pump nozzle (All other pumps) will not fit.
That Nozzle would be on the car about one minuite after I found this out. It's called "Restraint of Trade"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2006 6:27 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What I found peculiar, is they when they were caught, they were separating the phones in one box and the chargers into another. Who would buy a phone without the ability to recharge the battery?
I supposed it would only be neccessary to charge the phone long enough for its purpose (??Detonator).
#5
I have an alternate theory to the detonator angle. Maybe they are part of an identity theft ring. The original owners or purchasers can legally request the billing records. (Which include call records) Giving away pre-paid phone cards is a legal technique used by skip-tracers to acquire base information on people whom they suspect have connections to others that have defaulted on loans. Some, no doubt, use this completely legal technique for more nefarious reasons.
#6
"Because phones were to be sent where electrical outlets are 240 volts."
So? Very few if any electrical devices, including phone chargers are designed to work on just 110V, it is an almost universal practice that they support 110/220V. Look at one sometime.
#10
Manolo, you are correct with respect to the charger itself, but the cord, if attached to the charger, likely does not have the correct plug configuration. If that portion of the cable is removeable from the charger then I see your point.
#11
With regard to plug configuration, that's easily solved with a simple plug adapter available for purchase at all international airports, suitcase shops, Radio Shack stores in the nearby Mall, etc. And likely made up in job lots in Peshawar as needed.
#13
Why not restrict the purchase of cell phones, by non-dealers, to one each per piece of verifiable identification presented? Who needs 1,000 cell phones? Want more? Jump through all of the hoops to become a registered (and monitored) dealer.
BOSTON (AP) - Two fighter jets were scrambled Wednesday to escort a London-to-Washington flight to an emergency landing in Boston after a disturbance in which passengers said a woman in a jogging suit paced up and down the aisle, peppering her incoherent mutterings with the word ``Pakistan.''
The federal official for Boston's Logan International Airport said there was no indication of terrorism, but passengers said they were unnerved by the woman and by the military response, just a week after authorities in London said they foiled a terror plot to blow up flights to the U.S.
``It was a harrowing two hours,'' said Antony Nash, 31, who was on his way home to San Diego and was seated near the woman. ``I noticed F-15s next to the plane. I said, 'Oh my God.' And then we saw the emergency vehicles'' waiting on the tarmac, Nash said.
Gov. Mitt Romney said the 59-year-old woman was from Vermont and became so claustrophobic and upset that she needed to be restrained. The FBI in Boston said the woman, a U.S. citizen, was arrested on charges of interfering with a flight crew. Passengers said two plainclothes men on board and flight attendants ran up the aisle and tackled the petite woman, slamming her into the bathroom door, throwing her to the ground and putting her in handcuffs, passengers said.
Two plainclothes coppers on board? How interesting.
The disturbance was enough of a concern that the pilot declared an emergency, which activated two fighter jets to escort the plane into Logan, said George Naccara, security director for the Transportation Security Administration for Massachusetts' airports.
Two F-15s were sent from Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod to escort the airliner, said Master Sgt. Anthony Hill, spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colo. State police and federal agencies took control of the plane after it landed. Officials expected the passengers would be allowed onto another flight to Washington later Wednesday.
Joan Bartko, of Manassas, Va., said everyone on the plane did as they were told. ``It was sort of surreal,'' she said. ``You just know the best thing to do is stay calm.''
Nash said he noticed the woman's oversized handbag appeared to contain items such as lotion that he believed should not have been allowed on the plane since the new safety regulations were put in place after last week's terror plot revelations. Romney said a search of the woman's bag turned up matches and a gelatin-like substance, which he did not define, but there was no indication the items were related to terrorism.
An airport spokesman, Phil Orlandella, previously confirmed broadcast reports that the woman was carrying Vaseline, a screw driver and a note referring to al-Qaida, but later backed off the statement. Naccara said it was not true.
The woman was to remain in federal custody overnight and was expected to be charged in a federal criminal complaint early Thursday, the U.S. attorney and FBI said in a joint statement. The statement did not elaborate on specific charges expected, except to say there was no evidence the incident was related to terrorism.
The flight from London's Heathrow Airport to Washington's Dulles Airport had 182 passengers and 12 crew members, said Brandon Borrman, spokesman for United Airlines parent UAL Corp.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The woman was from Vermont? Hope it's not too early for the surprise meter.
#2
if you're claustrophobic, don't fly. Otherwise STFU and sit down, or expect to get the SH&T beaten outta you
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2006 8:37 Comments ||
Top||
#3
According to what I saw on the local news last night, a passenger said Ms. Vermont decide to drop her drawers and do her business in the aisle when one of the flight attendants wouldn't let her into the can. That's when she got jumped.
She was also on her way back from Pakistan...
#4
Phil Orlandella, previously confirmed broadcast reports that the woman was carrying Vaseline, a screw driver and a note referring to al-Qaida... and coming back from Pakistan???
I heard Osama had a mistress. Vaseline? Well I guess if that is your taste... Screwdriver means that somebody has a performance problem. Can't get things, "fully upright and in a locked position", as it were... Probably goes along with the kidney disease Osama reportedly has....
BOSTON - A woman on a trans-Atlantic flight diverted to Boston for security concerns passed several notes to crew members, urinated on the cabin floor and made comments the crew believed were references to al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 attacks, according to an affidavit filed Thursday.
Catherine C. Mayo, 59, of Braintree, Vt., appeared in federal court Thursday on a charge of interfering with a flight crew on United 923 as it flew from London to Washington, D.C., Wednesday.
She was dressed in a Rolling Stones T-shirt and socks without shoes for the hearing and was ordered held pending a detention and probable cause hearing next Thursday.
Her attorney, federal public defender Page Kelley, said Mayo was "just barely lucid" when they spoke. "She's got some very serious mental health problems."
Mayo's son, Josh, 31, described his mother as a peace activist and said she had been in Pakistan since March. She traveled there often since making a pen pal prior to Sept. 11, 2001, he said. The pen pal hasn't been allowed to visit the U.S., he added.
"I guess she just had a bit of a bad time on the plane, and everybody's a little paranoid," the son said.
Mayo does have clear connections to Pakistan. The Daily Times of Pakistan has published columns she has written, including one on March 18, 2003, in which she criticized President Bush.
"The folksongs of the 1960s will never be written again because of President George Bush," she wrote. "He has hampered the liberties of my country in the name of September 11. Songs now can only talk of patriotism they cannot mention peace."
Mayo's passport indicates she left Pakistan and entered the United Kingdom on Tuesday, according to the affidavit by FBI Special Agent Daniel Choldin filed in U.S. District Court in Boston.
In the affidavit, Choldin says flight attendants noticed Mayo about 90 minutes into the flight because she was pushing against the aircraft bulkhead. When the attendant told her to return to her seat, Mayo said she wanted to speak to an air marshal and made statements about knowing that people wanted to see what was in her bag.
FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz confirmed Thursday that authorities found a screwdriver and an unspecified number of cigarette lighters in her bag, items which are banned under new security regulations. Marcinkiewicz also confirmed that matches were found Mayo's bag.
She also had a bottle of water, which did not appear to be supplied by the flight crew. It wasn't clear how the items made it through airport security, which is been significantly tightened since the terror plot arrests.
Later during the flight, according to the affidavit, Mayo asked a flight attendant: "Is this a training flight for United Flight 93?" The flight attendant didn't know if she made a mistake because the flight was actually Flight 923, or if she was referring to Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.
She was "biting her fingers, rubbing her feet and in a constant state of movement. She appeared very agitated," the affidavit said.
She also wrote in a note and said to flight attendants that she had been in a country illegally, and later said she had photographs of Pakistan.
"She stated that the photographs would be awful, and she indicated that they related to the people that she had been with in the mountains of Pakistan," the affidavit said.
Flight attendants summoned the captain, who spoke to Mayo. During the conversation, she made reference to there being "six steps to building some unspecified thing."
"She made reference to being with people associated with two words. She stated that she could not say what the two words were because the last time that she had said the two words she had been kicked off of a flight in the United Arab Emirates," according to the affidavit.
The captain and purser both believed that she was referring to al-Qaida, Choldin wrote.
About 35 minutes later, when she tried to go to the bathroom, the flight attendants directed her to a different lavatory. Instead, she pulled down her pants and urinated on the floor, Choldin wrote in the affidavit, which was based on his interviews and those of other federal officials.
At that point, the captain ordered her restrained. Two male passengers helped a flight attendant tackle Mayo and restrain her in plastic cuffs.
#7
He has hampered the liberties of my country,
In the name of September the Eleventhteenth,
Songs now can only talk of patriotism,
They cannot never mention peace jizija or goats."
#8
If I have a choice between following George Bush or public urinating peace activist, I go with the President every time. These moonbats are not just weird, they are moronic and demented.
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 21:16 Comments ||
Top||
Two factions of Nepal's Maoist rebels clashed in a village in the country's south, the fiercest fighting since the rebels signed a ceasefire agreement with the government.
Maoist cadres and Janatrantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM) militants exchanged fire for about two hours in Itatar VDC in Siraha, 260 km south of Kathmandu, yesterday, police sources said. However, there were no reports of casualty on either side though hundreds of bullets were fired during the encounter.
The encounter took place when a district level meeting of the JTMM was in progress. The Siraha coordinator of JTMM Shyam claimed the clash erupted after hundreds of Maoists opened fire at JTMM cadres while they were holding the meeting.
However, Maoist district secretary, Abinash claimed the JTMM men first opened fire at Maoist cadres who were on a regular patrol near the Nepal-India border as part of their drive against dacoits in the border areas.
The Maoists declared a war against the JTMM headed by Jai Krishna Goit after its cadres killed two Maoist guerillas in Saptari. Goit left the Maoist party and formed the JTMM two years ago.
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 19:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A senior al Qaeda commander allegedly tied to the London airplane bomb plot has been arrested in Pakistan, Pakistani intelligence and law enforcement officials have told ABC News. Matiur Rehman, one of the most wanted men in Pakistan, is known to have met with the alleged plot ringleader Rashid Rauf, according to the officials.
Rehmans capture could provide the most important leads in months to the whereabouts of Al Qaedas top two leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. Rehman was believed to be in frequent contact with Zawahiri.
Rehman was taken into custody in the southern Punjab city of Bawalpur, the same town where alleged London plot ringleader Rashid Rauf was arrested last week. ABC News saw a copy of the police report on Rehman, with an attached copy of his photo.
Pakistani officials told ABC News earlier that 29-year Rehman was known to be planning a terror spectacular to mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/ll attacks, and the London plot may have been it.
ABC News consultant Alexis Debat, a terrorism expert at the Nixon Center in Washington D.C., says, "[Rehman] is the interface between al Qaeda's leadership and thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Pakistani militants who are able to provide the muscle for al Qaeda's operations not only in Pakistan but around the world."
#1
"Rehman was taken into custody in the southern Punjab city of Bawalpur, the same town where alleged London plot ringleader Rashid Rauf was arrested last week."
I am sure I am not the only one to notice that the vast majority of these Islamist terrs captured in Pakwakland have been found and apprehended in cities and towns.
Kind of blows away that nonsense about Ayman and Binny hiding out in mountainous caverns and caves.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- In the aftermath of the foiled Aug. 10 airliner bombing plot, the United States has banned direct flights from Pakistan to U.S. airports.
Parliamentary Secretary Syed Tanveer Hussain told the National Assembly on Friday that the ban is because of U.S. concerns about security arrangements at Pakistani airports.
Hussain said that although Pakistan believes that it has stringent security arrangements at its airports, U.S. authorities are "not satisfied." Hussain added that the Bush administration pledged to help Pakistan enhance security at its airports.
Dawn reported Aug. 14 that Pakistan has lifted its prohibition on hand baggage on international flights but passengers are still barred from carrying liquids.
Pakistani authorities have deployed additional armed police to airports in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore.
Pakistani intelligence was crucial in unraveling the bomb plot in Britain by ethnic Pakistanis, in which airliners heading to the United States were to be destroyed.
On Aug. 9 Pakistani security agents arrested British citizen Rashid Rauf in Pakistan, after which an associate of Rauf's in Karachi called a man in Britain, asking him to go ahead with the planned attacks on passenger jets with liquid explosives.
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 13:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
A decent start, but let's make it permanent, and extend the ban to flights from Cairo, Beirut, Riyadh, et al, and London, Frankfurt, and Paris as necessary.
Of course, I'm fairly certain that won't happen. The Homeland Security folks are more interested in keeping us "safe" by doing things like having my 3-year old daughter remove her shoes to clear security, as happened yesterday in the Portland airport, and insisting we fly liquid-and-gel-free.
Tri-State Airport in Wayne County has been evacuated. A perimeter has been set up, and evacuees are being asked to stand back 350 feet from the airport.
The Transportation Security Administration reports that a passengers water bottle screened positive for an explosive material around 9:15 this morning. A second test was confirmed at 11:25.
NBC News reports that federal screeners found four containers of liquids inside a womans carry-on bag during the screening process this morning. Larry Salyers, Tri-State Airport Director, tells WSAZ the woman is of Pakistani origin, lived in Jackson, Michigan and most recently lived in the Huntington area. She is being detained for questioning.
Bahawalpur, Pakistan, 17 August (AKI/DAWN) - Law enforcement agencies in Bahawalpur, in Pakistan's Punjab, have arrested Motiur Rahman, who carried a 10 million rupee (165,000 dollar) ransom. Source said Motiur Rahman had been named in the London terror plot foiled last week along with main accused Rashid Rauf, a British Pakistani passport holder, already in custody in Pakistan. Motiur Rahman was also wanted for an assassination attempt on President Gen Pervez Musharraf last year and involvement in several sectarian terrorism cases in the country.
Rahman was an activist of the banned al-Qaeda linked Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, and was also known as Husain Tariq and Abdul Samad. Four close relatives of Maulana Masood Azhar of the banned Jaish-i-Muhammad, who has been in hiding for the last two years, have also been arrested by different agencies here. Those arrested are; Maulana Masoods brother Maulana Rauf Azhar, father-in-law Manzoor Shah and brothers-in-law Muhammad Yousaf and Hafiz Abid Husain.
Keeping it "All In The Family"
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 08:24 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
maybe they can hang together
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/17/2006 8:31 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Or hang separately, Frank. It's all the same to me.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/17/2006 8:47 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Once you ban all flights from Pakistan it gets their attention.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/17/2006 14:55 Comments ||
Top||
BAHAWALPUR: Rashid Rauf, identified by Pakistan as a key suspect in the alleged plot to blow up airliners bound for the US, was a member of a banned Pakistani militant organisation, Jaish-e-Mohammad, before he joined Al Qaeda, said a senior member of the organisation said on Wednesday.
The father of Maulana Masood Azhar, head of the banned militant organisation fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, said that Rauf left Jaish-e-Mohammad to join rivals more interested in Al Qaeda's anti-Western message. "He was member of our group, but he left us and joined our rivals," Hafiz Allah Buksh said at Jaish's headquarters in Bahawalpur. "Our cause is Kashmir and their main cause is Afghanistan. They are anti-American, but we are not," Buksh added. Pakistani intelligence officials said Rauf was arrested in Bahawalpur on August 9, hours before British police detained 24 people suspected of being part of the alleged plot.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Our cause is Kashmir and their main cause is Afghanistan. They are anti-American, but we are not,"
Bullcrap. Pakistani propaganda to deflect attention.
JeM and LeT are part of the Islamic Front formed by Osama. They are the same as al qaeda, no matter how much Perv and the ISI try to segregate them.
From the latest TIME (notice the last line).
One of the British suspects detained in Pakistan as part of the investigation into the alleged plot to blow up planes flying from Great Britain to the U.S. is connected to the militant Islamic leader Maulana Masood Azhar, one of India's most wanted terrorists. Azhar family members told TIME that the sister-in law of Rashid Rauf, 25, who Pakistani intelligence officers fingered early on as a "key suspect," is married to Azhar's brother.
In a further link, the father of Rauf's wife and her sister runs Darul Uloom Madina, one of Pakistan's biggest and most hardline seminaries, with some 2,000 students, in Bahawalpur, Azhar's hometown. Rauf's arrest in Bahawalpur was one of the events that prompted British police to swoop in on the suspected London conspirators last Thursday, for fear they would become suspicious if they lost contact with such a central figure in their plans.
Although Azhar, in his late 30s, is now in hiding, he continues to lead the militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad, which is opposed to Indian rule of the disputed region of Kashmir and is said to have been behind the 2004 assassination attempt of President Pervez Musharraf and several other terror attacks. Azhar founded the group after he was released from an Indian prison in December 1999 in exchange for 155 passengers from a hijacked Indian airliner. Another prisoner released at the same time was Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, a militant close to Jaish-e-Muhammad who was subsequently convicted of abducting U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl and sentencing him to death. At a rally in Karachi in January 2000 Azhar exhorted the crowd that "Muslims should not rest in peace until we have destroyed America and India."
Posted by: john ||
08/17/2006 7:50 Comments ||
Top||
PESHAWAR: Ten foreign prisoners, most of them Arabs who fought against the US invasion of Afghanistan, will be released from Peshawar's central prison today (Thursday) and deported to their native countries, Javed Ibrahim Paracha, chairman of the World Prisoners' Relief Commission of Pakistan, told Daily Times on Wednesday. "I have got a no objection certificate from the Interior Ministry regarding the release of 10 foreign prisoners, mostly Arab mujahideen, from Peshawar's central prison," Paracha said.
#2
Trinidad, maybe? Maracas Beach in Trinidad is the only geographic locality of that name that comes up on google. Not much of a nobility in Trinidad, although it might be some sort of mangling of "Emir", thus islamogang-speak for "capo", and I seem to remember that there's some sort of Wahabist mosque in Trinidad.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/17/2006 7:53 Comments ||
Top||
(KUNA) -- At least four people were killed and 34, including three US nationals, were injured in a grenade explosion at a temple that was celebrating the Hindu festival of "Janmashtami" in India's Northeastern state of Manipur Wednesday evening. The explosion occured at the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple in Manipur's capital Imphal when it was packed with hundreds of devotes on the occasion of "Janmashtam" (birthday of Hindu God Krishna), Wednesday, the news agency Indo-Asian News Service reported.
...gunmen hurled a Chinese grenade at the temple killing four people including one woman and a child and injuring 34 other devotees...
Unidentified gunmen hurled a Chinese grenade at the ISKCON temple killing four people including one woman and a child and injuring 34 other devotees, the news agency said quoting local police. The injured were rushed to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal. The injured US nationals were yet to be identified. The ISKCON, a religious movement, has an international following, especially in the US and Europe. No insurgent group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Security measures were beefed up across Manipur and local police, Indian Army as well as paramilitary forces have launched a search operation to track down the rebels, the news agency said. There are more than 20 insurgent groups in Manipur with their demands ranging from secession to autonomy.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
GHARMAH, Iraq, Aug. 16, 2006 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, are demonstrating to insurgents there is no safe passage through their area of operations. Marines from the battalions Weapons Company performed mounted and dismounted patrols in Gharmah, Aug. 10, to interrupt insurgents moving in the area. The aim was to disrupt insurgent activity, interdict insurgents and weapons being transported through the area and maintain security in the region.
Vehicle checkpoints are important because, although, we dont always catch people, it shows we are out here, said Lance Cpl. Thomas A. Upton, a 20-year-old assaultman from Mooresville, N.C. Were still constricting the flow of supplies from the north to the south. Marines stopped vehicles along a road in the area, searching the drivers and passengers. At the same time, Marines checked every corner of the vehicle peeking under hood, into trunks and even in the fold in seat cushions for hidden weapons or insurgent paraphernalia.
Most times, searches went without incident. Identifications were returned. Marines thanked the Iraqis for their patience and they were sent on their way. Still there was one intense moment One Iraqi driver approached the checkpoint and stopped his car. He hesitated a moment, drove in reverse and stopped once more. Then he approached the checkpoint one more time, passing the first Marines guarding the checkpoint.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/17/2006 15:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq, Aug. 17, 2006 The 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, officially assumed responsibility for security in parts of Mahmudiyah, Yusufiyah and Lutufiyah, Iraq, earlier this week.
During the Aug. 14 transfer of authority ceremony at the Iraqi army compound in Mahmudiyah, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, transferred to the Iraqi brigade known as the Desert Lion absolute responsibility for security of a region that includes roughly 322 square kilometers in southern Iraq. Many refer to the area as the triangle of death.
Local sheiks, community leaders and senior military leaders who worked closely with the Iraqi unit throughout the past 11 months were also in attendance during the hour-long ceremony, which included a pass in review and a demonstration of combat tactics by Iraqi soldiers.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/17/2006 14:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Via JihadWatch
An array of weapons made in Iran were discovered in Iraqs southern port city of Um Qasr, the Iraqi television channel al-Zora reported on Monday.
In the weapons cache were hundreds of Katyusha rockets and mortar shells as well as several thousand light arms, the report said, adding that the weapons had all been manufactured in neighbouring Iran. The weapons were discovered in the citys al-Hora district, it said.
Um Qasr, the countrys largest deepwater port city, is close to the city of Basra which Iraqi officials say has become a hub for agents of Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
Posted by: ed ||
08/17/2006 07:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Can someone rid us off these meddlesome mullahs?
Hat tip Liberalhawk in comments yesterday; interestingly, the shooting of the italian rescuers of that commie journalist may very well have been the doing of a local Holy Man(Tm), leader of a kidnapping ring.
#2
Evidence yer ass. The only evidence I want to see is the dead tribal members scattered around because they won't tell where the kidnappers are or who they are.
Really is time for some serious decimation.
Gunfights have erupted in two Iraqi cities, while a bomb blast in central Baghdad has killed at least eight people. Police in Baghdad say at least 28 other people, including policemen, were wounded by the roadside blast in a popular street market in the Nahda district. Earlier reports said the blast was caused by a car bomb.
In Iraq's second largest city of Basra, armed gangs attacked the city council building and fought with police and British soldiers sent to help Iraqi troops guarding the building.
North of Baghdad, Iraqi police say they killed at least five insurgents in clashes in the ethnically divided city of Mosul.
And, in the Shi'ite holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, authorities imposed strict security measures following Tuesday's fighting between Iraqi troops and supporters of an anti-American Shi'ite cleric Mahmoud al-Hassani. The fighting began after police raided a mosque and the cleric's offices and detained many of his followers.
(KUNA) -- Iraqi security sweeps continue with 288 suspected militants arrested while around 25 Iraqis have been killed and 20 others injured Wednesday. Seven Iraqis were killed and 18 others wounded when a roadside bomb detonated along the Al-Nahda Bridge in central Baghdad Wednesday. Iraqi interior sources told KUNA, the bomb exploded close to an area where travelers to Iraq's southern provinces congregate. Al-Nahda bus stop underwent a similar attack a week ago. That attack killed nine Iraqis and left twenty more injured.
In Mosul, Iraqi security forces closed bridges and dispatched patrols to the streets following clashes with militants. Iraqi police sources told reporters, unidentified militants attacked a police patrol this morning in the Yarmouk and Arisala areas. Six militants were killed and seven others arrested by police personnel.
Yesterday, a booby-trapped car blasted near Patriotic Union of Kurdistan , killing nine and injuring 36 others.
A statement issued Wednesday from Iraqi security forces press offices said, ten militants were killed and 281 arrested during clashes that took place in Karbala, Tuesday. Armed militants, affiliated with Mahmoud Al-Hosni, attacked government and police buildings early Tuesday morning. Two local police officers were killed during the attack. A curfew was imposed in Karbala yesterday following the clashes.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
(KUNA) -- At least six civilians were killed and another seven were arrested by Iraqi police Wednesday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, said an Iraqi police source. The source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that police clashed today with gunmen in the districts of Yarmok and Risala to kill six gunmen and arrest another seven, some of whom were injured during the clash.
Gunmen distributed yesterday statements signed by Mujahiddin Shura Council, calling on Mosul's residents to stay at homes because gunmen would trigger a rebellion by assassinating the governor and changing police.
Gunmen distributed yesterday statements signed by Mujahiddin Shura Council, calling on Mosul's residents to stay at homes because gunmen would trigger a rebellion by assassinating the governor and changing police. Iraqi police closed all five bridges in Mosul as part of the operation to control the situation in the city, added the source.
Meanwhile, a civilian and a policeman were killed in separate incidents in Baghdad, said Iraqi police. An official police statement said an Iraqi policeman was killed in an attack in the western suburb of Baaqoba City. A civilian was killed in a similar incident in Abu-Karmah area north of Baaqoba, added the statement.
In Basra, a policeman was killed and another three were wounded when a tribal armed group attacked the headquarters of Basra Governorate, said a security source who asked for anonymity. A number of the attackers were injured and captured by the police during the attack, said the source, noting that the attacking tribe's leader was assassinated two days ago by anonymous gunmen in Basra City.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
(KUNA) -- Eleven Iraqis were killed and several others were injured Wednesday due to explosions at a market place in the Iraqi capital. A security source told KUNA that an explosive was planted on Tunis Street near victory square in Baghdad. The bomb exploded and caused the death of two civilians and the injury of nine others. Shortly after that a car, filled with explosive materials, exploded in the same location killing nine citizens and injuring 43 others. Ambulances as well as police units rushed to the scene and started to transfer civilians to the nearby bin Al-Nafees hospital.
In Basra, a Danish solider was killed by an unknown sniper...
The Iraqi capital witnessed earlier on the death of nine Iraqis and the injury of 25 others due to the bombing of Al-Nahdah bus stop.
In Basra, a Danish solider was killed by an unknown sniper in Al-Qarna area north of the province. Eyewitnesses told KUNA that the solider was with a patrol unit for the Multi National Force (MNF) in the area.
The suspect, who was an Indian national, confessed his crimes to the security forces.
On fighting terrorism, the Iraqi military announced that it capture a leader of a terrorist cell in west Kirkuk. A Military source told reporters that a military mission was conducted by the army in several villages at Shargat area. A number of nine suspects were captured during the mission. One of the suspects was accused of leading the terrorist group. The suspect, who was an Indian national, confessed his crimes to the security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
JERUSALEM - Israel wants the Turkish military to impose an air and ground embargo to prevent Iran using Turkish territory to send arms to resupply Hezbollah, a senior Israeli security source said on Thursday. Israeli intelligence believes that nearly all of the heavy weapons that Iran has provided to Hezbollah passed through Turkish ground or airspace en route to Syria and then Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, security sources said.
The sources said Turkey was key because alternative arms shipment routes through Iraq and Jordan have been blocked. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because talks with the Turkish government were just getting under way.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev declined to comment specifically on the role that might be played by Turkey, a NATO member, which maintains good ties with both Israel and Arab states. But Regev said: Successful implementation of the international arms embargo is the litmus test of the success of the U.N. effort in Lebanon. Turkish officials had no immediate comment.
Israeli sources said at least two Iranian planes have been forced to land in Turkey in recent weeks after Israel told the Turkish military that they were carrying arms for Hezbollah. The Hurriyet newspaper in Turkey said the planes were searched and no weapons were found.
Israel believes arms, including long-range rockets, have travelled across Turkish territory to Syria, before being shipped by land, sea or air to Lebanon, the sources said. We are urging Turkey to take all possible steps to prevent the transfer of arms from Iran to Syria to resupply Hezbollah, a senior Israeli security source said. The very future of the embargo rests on their (Turkeys) shoulders.
Amman has already barred Iranian shipments from passing through Jordanian airspace, Israeli security sources said. Western diplomats said US forces are preventing Iranian shipments from passing through Iraq. We may be facing in the next few days a Syrian attempt to resupply Hezbollah with rockets. What do we do? If we allow it to go in, this will be a defeat for Israel, an Israeli security source said.
Israeli officials have said the army will be entitled to use force if necessary to prevent arms convoys from entering Lebanon despite the ceasefire. Israeli officials said such operations, which could include air strikes, are defensive in nature and therefore permissible under the U.N. Security Council resolution that called for Israel to halt all offensive military operations.
That fit's with the DEBKA story
Turkey is expected to commit troops to a U.N. force in Lebanon, which Israel hopes will help enforce the arms embargo. Muslim Turkey has the second biggest army in NATO and has long experience of peacekeeping from Afghanistan to Kosovo.
Israeli officials have estimated that between 75 percent and 80 percent of Hezbollahs long-range rockets have been destroyed, though some Western diplomats were sceptical of the initial Israeli damage assessments. The Iranian-supplied ZelzAl 2 missiles have been Israels main strategic concern. They have a range of 210 km (130 miles), putting the Israeli commercial capital Tel Aviv within reach. During the recent fighting, Hezbollah fired an Iranian-supplied C-802 missile at an Israeli navy vessel off Beirut, killing four sailors.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 09:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This is another glaring example of how lame the UN is. Israel should not have to bargain with Turkey. The UN should have instructed member states to block arms shipments whenever they attempt a ceasefire in any place.
Close the UN today.
(KUNA) -- Israeli forces arrested Wednesday 11 Palestinians in the industrial area of Erez, west of the town of Bait Hanoun, during an extensive search operation executed earlier this morning, witnesses said. The witnesses told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that these operations were coupled with a curfew on residents of the area, adding that Israeli forces had stationed themselves on the rooftops of several houses in the area of Qubtaniya in the town.
Moreover, they said that Israeli forces had executed an incursion of one kilometer under heavy fire at the outskirts of eastern Bait Hanoun. "Bulldozers have begun constructing two military bases near the town and have destroyed large areas of agricultural land," they added.
Meanwhile, Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, claimed responsibility for launching an advanced Quds mid-range missile at the Israeli city of Ashkelon. The brigades threatened in a statement that it would target all Israelis, adding that it would continue to fire at Israeli settlements as long as violence in the West Bank and Gaza continued
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
(KUNA) -- Seven Palestinians were injured Wednesday after a bomb exploded at a house in Al-Zaytoon neighborhood located in Gaza city. Eyewitness said that the explosion targeted a HAMAS official's house which was devastated by the bombing. Medical teams rushed to the house to transfer the injured to nearby hospitals while security forces began their investigations of the incident.
Meanwhile, clashes between HAMAS and Fatah activists occurred today in Ibsan Alkabira village and caused the death of a child and the injury of four civilians. The village witnessed in the past couple of months several clashes between the supports of the two Palestinian groups which led to the deaths and injuries of scores of people.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
clashes between HAMAS and Fatah activists occurred today in Ibsan Alkabira village and caused the death of a child
(KUNA) -- An Israeli military spokesman said Wednesday that a Palestinian rocket exploded near the southern Israeli settlement (Yed Mrdkhai). An Israeli spokesman told Israel radio the rocket was launched north of Gaza, claiming it exploded in an open area without reports of injuries or damage.
Meanwhile, Al-Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of Fatah movement, along with the Abu-Ali Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian popular front, claimed responsibility for two advanced rocket attacks on (Nahal Ouz), an area east of Gaza. The two groups issued a joint statement asserting the rocket attack came in response to ongoing Israeli aggression and acts of assassination in Gaza strip where lately Israeli warplanes struck a Palestinian house in Khan Yonis killing two of its inhabitants.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A 14-year-old Palestinian was killed Wednesday evening in clashes between Hamas and Fatah gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip. The clashes in Khan Younis erupted during a funeral for a Palestinian operative killed by the IDF on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
An IAF aircraft fired a missile into a mettle workshop in Gaza City Wednesday, the army and Palestinian officials said, there were no injuries. The army said the building was used as a weapons storehouse. The building was completely destroyed but no one was hurt, rescue workers said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2006 6:30 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Redneck Jim: it's also a textile mill, not a metal shop, but it gets the idea across. Now, if Israel would only quit warning their targets before they fire...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/17/2006 14:15 Comments ||
Top||
#6
#3: Redneck Jim: it's also a textile mill, not a metal shop,
I know, I'm a Machinist, I'm very familiar with the insides of a "Metal Shop" whether Machine Shop, Tin Works, or Steel Mill
"Sweatshop" comes from really looking at the picture, note all the weavers (Standing at the Looms) are women, note also that the Foreman is the only male there, (He's not working at a Loom, he's just standing there)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2006 18:48 Comments ||
Top||
Israeli intelligence services planned to assassinate Khalid Mishaal, the head of the political wing of Hamas, last month sources in the group say. Israel's intelligence and special operations force, Mossad, sent a team to the Syrian capital in July to carry out the killing, Hamas sources said on Wednesday quoting "Western intelligence sources". Khalid Mishaal is living in exile in Damascus.
Israel's intelligence and special operations force, Mossad, sent a team to the Syrian capital in July to carry out the killing...
Mossad agents allegedly posed as volunteers for relief organisations visiting Syria to help refugees from the war in Lebanon, the sources added. Aljazeera has learnt that Mishaal has stepped up his personal security since the plot. Shimon Peres, the Israeli vice-prime minister, has accused the exiled Hamas leader of ordering the raid during which an Israeli army reservist was captured. The capture of Gilad Shalit on June 25 lead to Israeli forces moving back into the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think you omitted the obligatory Salt To Taste(tm).
Posted by: N guard ||
08/17/2006 3:12 Comments ||
Top||
#2
No mention of dead or captured Mossad. You'd think they'd be parading the corpses if this was on the up and up. Of course, the Syrians might want to be turning down the intensity of the situation, rather than provoking another aerial blitz, drawing fire on Damascus...
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/17/2006 7:57 Comments ||
Top||
MANILA - The Philippine military said on Thursday it arrested a man suspected of trying to smuggle 6,000 detonators from the southwestern island of Jolo, where troops are pursuing a group of Muslim rebels linked to Al Qaeda. It is highly possible that the explosives would be used by the terrorists in their bombing attacks, Brigadier-General Alexander Aleo, the commander on Jolo, told reporters.
Nonesense! I'm sure he was just going to sell them to help his brother with school expenses and his widowed mother. He's such a good boy, everyone says so.
Aleo said the suspect and an unidentified female companion carried backpacks aboard a passenger ferry that was bound for the nearby island of Tawi-tawi, adding each bag held 30 boxes of Indian-made detonators. The woman eluded arrest. The detonators were found when a Marine private, suspicious of the contents of the suspects backpack, searched it and then alerted his companions to comb the ferry, Aleo said.
Last week, government officials said the military offensive on Jolo against rebels from the Abu Sayyaf group might have foiled a plan to launch bombings in the capital, Manila. Hundreds of troops, backed by US intelligence, have been searching the hilly jungles near Indanan town for Abu Sayyaf members believed to be hiding with two key suspects in the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 09:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Great job folks. There are hundreds of people out there that will not die by these detonators.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/17/2006 12:03 Comments ||
Top||
#2
They weren't detonators, just cell phones modified to be Halal.
After the provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, neighbouring Songkhla could be the next target of a large-scale attack by pro-Islamists rebels, according to Thailand's intelligence services. Excerpts of an intelligence report, released to the media, indicate arms-trafficking towards the southern province bordering Malaysia has increased and that rebels are also carrying bombs to the area. Since January 1994, when violence between regular troops and rebels started again, Songkhla has been partially immune to the bombings that have plagued the 'Deep South', the three poor mainly-Muslim provinces. More at link
#1
If you have Muslims within your borders, you have terror. If you have Muslims on your border, you have terror. If you have Muslims on your planet, you have terror.
An Islamic militant convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings will be released from prison Thursday and 10 other minor figures in the plot are likely to have their sentences reduced to mark Indonesia's independence day, prison and justice ministry officials said. It is an Indonesian tradition to cut jail terms on holidays, but the decision is expected to anger countries that lost citizens in the twin Bali nightclub attacks that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.
Three militants serving time on Borneo island are slated to receive reductions of four months, paving the way for one, Puryanto, to walk free, said Edi, a prison official who uses a single name. Eight others in the main prison on Bali island are expected to receive sentence reductions of one to six months, said Anak Agung Mayun Mataram, a justice ministry official.
A total of 33 people were jailed over the 2002 Bali blasts the most deadly in a string of attacks in Indonesia blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah. Those who will benefit from Thursday's remissions played relatively minor roles in the suicide bombings from carrying out robberies to finance the attacks to helping shelter the main suspects. Three militants Amrozi, Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra are scheduled to be executed later this month and three others are serving life sentences.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Preparing for the 22?
/Paranoid mode.
Iran will launch a series of large-scale military maneuvers across the country and has not made plans for an end to the ongoing war games, the army said Thursday. "The maneuvers are aimed at introducing Iran's new defensive doctrine," military spokesman Gen. Mohammad Reza Ashtiani was quoted as saying by state-run television. (AP)
Additional:(Iran Focus) Tehran, Iran, Aug. 16 Iran will launch a new round of war-games later this week, putting on display new Iranian-make armaments, a top military commander announced on Wednesday. The military exercises involving land and air combat forces will begin Saturday in several border provinces where anti-government protests have been most rampant. We must show the enemies the Islamic Republics military capability, the deputy commander of the regular armed forces, Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani, told reporters.
We'll be watching
Ashtiani said that the manoeuvres, code-named Zolfaghar (Zolfaghar, the sword of Imam Ali), will be in support the policies of the government and in particular the Foreign Ministry, a possible reference to the militarys backing for the theocratic states nuclear program. He specifically mentioned the provinces of East and West Azerbaijan, Khorassan, Kurdistan, and Sistan-va-Baluchestan as regions where the manoeuvres will take place.
Among items which will be put on display in the military drills are armour-piercing bullets manufactured by the Defence Industries Organisation, affiliated to the Ministry of Defence, he said.
Gee, now who wears body armour around there? Oh, right
Ashtiani said that the armed forces were ready to thwart all plots against the Islamic Republic, adding that no army in the world could match Irans regular armed forces, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and its affiliated organs.
Heh heh heh
Iran has a dual military system with a regular armed forces as well as the IRGC. Both report directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
#2
Iran produces only 40% of the specialty fuels - including gasoline and diesel - that it uses. Most refined products are imported from Saudi Arabia. As for the "maneuvres," counter-maneuvres are in order.
#4
Amusing. They have to deploy their military away from Persia to protect their restive outer reaches; but in turn, this leaves Persia less protected.
On the heels of what it views as a Hezbollah victory against the Jewish state, Syria is forming its own Hezbollah-like guerilla organization to fight Israel in hopes of "liberating" the Golan Heights, an official from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Ba'ath party told WorldNetDaily yesterday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Syria learned from Hezbollah's military campaign against Israel the past month that "fighting" is more effective than peace negotiations with regard to gaining territory.
He said Syria's new guerilla force would be trained by Hezbollah leaders.
"Syria is very serious about establishing this new guerilla force," the official said.
In a televised address yesterday, Assad declared Hezbollah's path of "resistance" achieved results during the last four weeks of fighting against Israel.
"The region has changed because of the achievements of the resistance [Hezbollah]," said Assad, speaking to a journalists association.
Assad said members of Hezbollah used their "will, determination and faith" to counter Israeli arms, enabling the Lebanese militia to defeat Israel.
"We tell them [Israelis] that after tasting humiliation in the latest battles, your weapons are not going to protect you not your planes, or missiles or even your nuclear bombs. ... The future generations in the Arab world will find a way to defeat Israel," Assad said.
"The resistance is necessary as much as it is natural and legitimate," said the Syrian president, claiming the war in Lebanon revealed the limitations of Israel's military power.
"The result was more failure for Israel, its allies and masters," said Assad.
Hezbollah claims its goal is to liberate the Shebaa Farms, a small, 200-square-kilometer bloc situated between Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The Farms is the last post held by Israel after its withdrawal in 2000 from positions it took along the Lebanese border.
Most Western analysts agree Hezbollah uses the pretext of the Shebaa Farms to maintain its weapons to start conflicts with the Jewish state. Hezbollah is sponsored by Syria and Iran.
The cease-fire resolution accepted by Israel earlier this week calls for negotiations leading to Israel's relinquishing of the Shebaa Farms.
The Baath party official told WND the new Syrian "resistance" group is calling itself the Front for the Liberation of the Golan, and is already in the process of being formed. He said it seeks to ensure the return of the Golan Heights.
Israel captured the Heights, strategic mountainous territory, after Syria used the terrain to attack the Jewish state in 1967 and again in 1973. The Golan Heights borders Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
Israeli security officials said they had no information about the Front for the Liberation of the Golan.
The Ba'ath party official told WND the Front was formed last month and will attempt attacks against Israel. The official said the group currently consists of "hundreds" of Syrian volunteers, many from the Syrian border with Turkey. He said Syria held registration for volunteers to join the Front in June.
The official said most Front members will be Palestinian and not members of the Syrian army.
"We know from history guerilla resistance works against Israel," said the official.
He pointed not only to Israel's most recent confrontation with Hezbollah, but also to what he said was a previous Syrian "victory" against the Israeli Defense Forces using guerilla tactics.
"After a cease-fire was imposed in 1973 [following the Yom Kippur War) for 100 days Syria led guerilla attacks against Israel in the Golan Heights and they were successful. The IDF withdrew nearly 100 kilometers from the original cease-fire lines."
Indeed, after Syria accepted a United Nations cease-fire in October 1973, it waged a sporadic guerilla campaign against Israeli troops in the Golan until a disengagement agreement was reached March 31, 1974, that saw Israel withdraw from some sections of the territory. I look forward to Assad living in exile in Paris, proclaiming how Syria being conquered by Israel and the US is a great victory for the army of Islam.
#2
This is already having ill effects for Israel. The invasion was devastating, but poorly managed. I would be cautious about drawing too many conclusions from it though. Israel likely wont make the same mistake again. They moved in, destroyed the country, killed, captured, seized weapons. If Hezbollah calls that a victory for them, well then I guess they won. Have fun living in a squalor of rubble for the next ten years, and enjoy your victory, and UN troops.
#4
"The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Syria learned from Hezbollah's military campaign against Israel the past month that "fighting" is more effective than peace negotiations with regard to gaining territory.
"
We obviously don't look at this in the same way. Two months ago there were no Israeli forces in Lebanon, and a 1000 or so Unifil there, right?
Now there are 5-10000 Israeli's there, going to be (hopefully) 15,000 Lebanese and 15,000 Unfil soldiers there in a few months. How is going from no forgien soldiers in Lebanon to at least 15,000 there, a victory in anyone's book?
How many dead how many attacks how much surrendered or lost territory how much?
It is only going to get worse and worse until what is left of the strong in the west stand up and check the pansies, take the leadership and do what must be done to win. HOw much pain will it take.
#11
If Baby Assad had half a brain he'd declare peace with Israel and do everything he could to get the Golan heights back peacefully. Then do an Islam and declare victory and hike up the anti-Israel rhettoric as you fortify the high ground.
If given seemingly reasonable peace offerings from Syria a ton of idiots would push for Israel to comply.
Of course this would have worked better a couple of decades ago but better late than never.
Of course he's too stupid, too narrow minded, and too fearful of his own generals.
#12
Why spend the money on a shiny new Hezbollah? I thought with the glorious coming of August 22nd that it would be a different world. Maybe he should look to purchasing some used Hezbollahs from Lebanon instead.
#13
Last I heard, Baathism was a secular movement. And the Assad's massacred as many as 30,000 Muslim Brotherhood jihadis in Hama, Syria.
Unless the US or Israel acts now, Israel will face a total missile threat within 3 years, and Europe will be under Iran blackmail in 5. And the US Homeland will within range of Ayatollah' ICBMs within 10. If President Bush wants the next generation to build a library in his name, then he ought not to pass on an unnecessary genocide threat onto American youth. Pick a date, and launch. Public opinion will fall into place.
#15
That's another wonderful achievement of the incompetent Olmert. He denied the IDF the clear victory Israel needed to entrench its security, to inflict a major defeat to Hezboshiite and to increase its deterrence in the Arabs' mind.
Now, the stupid Islamonazis feel emboldened, Syria is creating its own Hezbofascist organization, and Hamas and Abbas' PA are planning to unify and adopt the terrorist methods used by Hezbollah.
It is necessary for Israeli people to change its leaders as soon as possible, and to launch this time a massive offensive (at an hour of their choice), with no pity at all, to eliminate totally those genocidal islamoterrorists (napalm and cluster bombs on all Lebanese towns controlled by Hezboschmuck as a first step...).
The democratic countries have to wake up, and decide once and for all to fight the war that has to be fought. It's about time.
#16
Hizbollah "victory"? Including troop rotations, at least 25,000 IDF troops passed through so-called Hizbollah defenses. Some defenders.
Why was the IDF silent on what it was doing in South Lebanon? Having forced evacuation of major Hizbollah terror centers - Aita-a-shaeb and Bint Jbeil being the largest - the IDF used massive artillery assaults to flatten all of them. When Hizbollah attempted a counter-attack at Bint Jbeil, 1-200 attackers were killed. The IDF left when there was nothing else to destroy. In its wisdom, Hizbollah suppressed coverage of the renderings of its centers, so that it could proclaim "victory," and please Muslim idiots.
Remember: magnesium bomb attacks on Tokyo, burned 200,000 Japs to death in a matter of hours. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki nukes killed 180,000 instantly, and were still killing people 20 years. Does anyone here have a problem with mass killing, to pre-empt future mortal danger?
#17
I dont see the point of a Syrian Hezbo. The Lebanese one had the advantage of actually being independent of the Leb state, which gave Israel the dilemma of how to attack Hezb while not harming, and not being seen to harm, the Leb state. A Syrian controlled Hezb IN Syria presents no such dilemma. If Hezb-in-Syria does a rocket launching or a kidnapping, the IAF just hits Damascus, and shows the world what an UNRESTRAINED air campaign looks like.
Sounds more like hes just saying fortified infantry with ATMS, surrounded by civilians, are good for stopping tanks. Well, yeah, we know that.
#19
Morons haven't yet figured out that losing less territory than expected isn't at all scalable to re-gaining lost territory. Hezbollah holds *less* Lebanese territory now than it did at the beginning of hostilities - in other words, while agitating for a few acres around the Shabaa Farms, they lost numerous square miles of formerly bunkered South-of-Litani land.
I suppose we can expect a report next fall about how Syrian Hezbollah has lost less territory than expected between Damascus and the Golan, and wasn't in fact wiped out to a man in the Syrian War of 2007. Well, assuming that said Syrian War doesn't end in a wholesale WMD exchange which irradiates the whole damned region.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/17/2006 14:18 Comments ||
Top||
#20
Syria is forming its own Hezbollah-like guerilla organization to fight Israel in hopes of "liberating" the Golan Heights
This is actually a simple plan to figure out. This plan was in the works for some time. Iranian religious fanatics, with the help of Russian strategists, is the master planner. Whats the plan? I like to call it Operation Buying Time. Time, for what? Time for Iran to build a nuclear warhead. Lebanon is an unwilling participant and Syria is a willing participant with the signing of a mutual defense agreement. Willing or not willing, both countries are guilty guinea pigs in this Iranian apocalyptic lab experiment. Lebanon and Syrias only strategic role is to create a two state buffer zone for Iranian nuclear ambitions. There is lots of thread left on this Iranian screw and they know how and when to turn it.
Phase I. Lebanon is the first buffer zone or the first screw to be turned. The only way Iran can get time to build a nuclear warhead is to create chaos. As we all have witnessed, when the world turned on the pressure towards Iran, Iran via the Hezbollah invited a massive military response from Israel. The cease fire was not accepted by the Iran Hezbollah because Israel defeated Hezbollah but because Iranian strategists concluded that they reached their goal in buying themselves many, many months without the worlds inference, concerning Iranian nuclear ambitions. There is still, quite a bit of thread left in the Lebanon screw. Lebanon is not finished, being used as a buffer zone.
Syria is the second buffer zone and the second screw to be turned. Iran knows that the U.S. and Israel is not interested in saving the government in Syria. So, Iran will exploit Lebanon as long a possible before moving to Phase II. The Lebanon option alone, will buy Iran many months if not, years of time. Phase II will include sacrificing the government of Syria, specifically Damascus. Iran will not go to Phase II until there is a credible threat to their nuclear facilities. Once Iran moves to Phase II second buffer zone, Iran will be guaranteed not months, but years to develop a nuclear weapon. Why? Because moving to Phase II will invite the complete destruction of Damascus. Once the world witnesses this mass destruction of Damascus, even the U.S. government will be forced to stand against any future Israeli military operations.
One may argue that, Israel can utilize the Sampson option. Since Lebanon and Syria is currently being used to buy time and not to destroy Israel, Israel will not use the Sampson option. Attempted destruction of Israel will come at a later and more opportune time and Iran wants the sole credit. The gamble by Iran is that, by the time that Israel is willing to use the Sampson option, one, Israel will show injury via a thousand cuts and two, more importantly, Iran, by this time, will have multiple nuclear warheads.
Morals and ethics aside and it really sickens me to say this but, in my opinion, this is a brilliant plan by the mullahs of Iran. Brilliant, because the creation of a two state buffer zone that Iran can turn and tweak the screw at will. The only way to counter this plan is for an all out Middle East war and the West does not have a stomach for this type of war on a massive scale. The war would include U.S., Israel, and possibly Australia, (combined power only, for maximum effectiveness) against Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, simultaneously. One may say, where is Britain in all this? Britain is slowly drifting toward the EU realm and will not participate. Britain will tell Israel to negotiate. The world will not agree to this and therefore Iran with a nuclear weapon is inevitable. Unfortunately, a piece meal war is not going to work, only overwhelming force, due to the enormous amount civilians that will die if overwhelming force is not used.
In the future, since both countries will have nuclear warheads, I predict that Iran with a band of Muslim nations, (with the help of Russia) will march against Israel for a conventional war. Israel will be the ultimate winner but, hundreds of thousands of Muslims will be sacrificed in this mad religious lab experiment.
#21
Snease Shaiting3550 is right with the great defenders. If the UN follows through with it's 15,000 troops, than the great defenderss defended so well that South Lebanon will have 15,000 more Lebanese troops and 15,000 more infidels on thier terrritory. Some defense.
(IsraelNN.com) The son of murdered former prime minister Rafik Hariri accused Syria on Thursday of using local and foreign battles in which Arab children were killed to incite Lebanese citizens to a possible civil war. Syria is making a cynical use of the blood of children in the village of Qana, Gaza and Baghdad, he said.
Nice to see someone in Lebanon who see's things clearly
Saad Hariri is the majority leader in the Lebanese parliament, the governmental body which includes two official Hizbullah terrorists as members, in addition to three other pro-Hizbullah legislators. Hariris coalition partner, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, joined him in charging Syrian President Bashar Assad with working to destabilize Lebanon with the goal of creating a Syrian-backed Hizbullah takeover.
The common thing between them, said Jumblatt, referring to Hizbullah and Assad, is a coup. One rose to power through his fathers military takeover and the other is conspiring to bring about a political revolution in Lebanon. Other Lebanese politicians have also accused Syria of using the war between Israel and Hizbullah to weaken the country enough to allow for a Syrian takeover.
Syrian parliament member Faisal Kulthum strongly condemned Hariris statements, calling him a small and stupid agent who is pinning his hope on foreign forces. The Syrian government has been heavily implicated in the assassination of Hariris father.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 09:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Wake me when they start talking about disarmning Hezb'Allah.
#2
I fear they have the European disease. All Talk and no action. Hizb'allah is still in the Cabinet after starting this war and all this death and damage is cause by their actions?
They still have a Syrian piced president/mouth piece. I say Shepard Smith's interview with him. 100% Syrian 100% of the time.
If you want to talk I guess thats fine. Enjoy your "shitty little" Syrian run country however.
(IsraelNN.com) Italy has become the latest country to demand that United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan be more specific about the rules of engagement that will determine the conduct of soldiers who participate in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon.
Italian Premier Romano Prodi spoke with Annan by telephone on Wednesday evening, asking him for detailed rules of engagement the international peacekeeping force will be expected to follow in the aftermath of the war between Israel and Hizbullah terrorists.
Prodis office said Thursday that Italy is willing to provide a significant number of soldiers for the peacekeeping effort; he has said he could dispatch up to 3,000 troops, quickly, as long as there is a clear picture of what the force can and can not do. The issue is one that has been raised several times by other potential participating countries in recent days.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 09:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Don't expect Kofi to let them defend themselves or too aggressively disarm Hizb'allah. This "ceasefire" is looking more and more doomed by the second.
#2
Hmmmm... this may require many luncheons and a few elegant dinners to resolve. Oh, and a conference at a posh resort too. I can't believe I almost forgot that one!
#3
The real issue is who will be shooting at who once combat resumes ? This UN force will be in the middle ? Will they side with Hezbs or Israelis ? Either way, they're going to take a lot of losses. The only way they can survive is to confront Hezbs right away after arrival. This won't happen due to Leb(Syrian) army presence.
Premier Prodi:
Thank you for your inquiry into the specifics regarding the Rules of Engagement ("Rules") for the peacekeeping troops that you have generously provided to the United Nations ("UN") for the cease-fire which we so recently were able to place upon the warring parties ("aggressive entities") in the Lebanon area. Please understand that, as the only party which can properly administer the cease-fire agreement between the aggressive entities, the UN must set an example which the aggressive entities can follow. To this end, we are investigating the potential use of rubber bullets and strict non-aggression rules. We do not wish to provoke one of the aggressive entities, namely Hezbollah ("Hezbollah"), for that could lead to a restart of the hostilities with Israel ("the Zionist entity"). The Zionist entity's conduct in the recent conflict was shameful and disproportionate, and we must remember that to Hezbollah any appearance of hostility could provoke a response in kind. We are therefore suggesting that peacekeepers in the region keep their weapons, if they feel they must carry them, holstered and with the safety catches on at all times. We feel that these Rules, in addition to the strict policies of neutrality and fairness and equality which are accorded to both sides in any conflict, will assist in keeping the region stable as it recovers from the recent conflicts.
Please let us know when your contribution will be ready to join the main UN force. Thank you for your interest in the Rules.
Sincerely,
Kofi Annan
United Nations Secretary General
Posted by: The Doctor ||
08/17/2006 10:42 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/17/2006 13:35 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Doc',
Ya' forgot that UNIFOOL troops will be allowed to return fire on Zionist forces discovered to be defending themselves against unprovoked attacks by the peaceloving, freedom-fighting forces of Hezbollah, said fire to be delivered with live rounds.
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Bush administration acts fast to bring France aboard the Lebanon multinational force, gives Israel tacit go-ahead for air strikes against arms trucks from Syria
Washington took two quiet steps to prop up the Siniora government and retrieve the vanishing multinational force ordered by Resolution 1701. The first was the promise of an air surveillance wing for UNIFIL to keep a watch over South Lebanon and the border crossings into Syria. This has brought France around to consenting to send troops to the expanded international force. UNIFIL was also promised intelligence data gathered by US satellites on military movements in Lebanon.
Some 1,700 French troops will be deployed in the first stage. This promise led French defense minister Michele Alliot-Marie to announce Wednesday night that France is willing to lead a new UN presence in Lebanon at least until February, so long as it has a clear mandate, real means and strong powers.
Well, so much for that
The second step taken by the Bush administration was a quiet go-ahead given by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to Israels Dep. PM Shimon Peres for the Israeli air force to destroy trucks suspected of carrying rockets and other arms from Syria into Lebanon. Siniora agreed to turn a blind eye to this continuing Israeli air activity over Lebanon as he has for Hizballahs continued armed presence south of the Litani River. The first elements of the Lebanese armys 2nd 3rd and 12th Battalions crossed the Qasmiyeh Bridge over the Litani into South Lebanon before midnight Wednesday, August 16.
France has given itself six months to test how the web of undercover accords and understandings between the US and Israel and the Lebanese government and Hizballah are holding up. Only then will Paris decide whether to extend the mandate of its contingent in Lebanon or even boost it.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 09:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Germany is waiting to hear precisely what the mandate of the UN force for Lebanon will be before it decides what role to play in it. Party leaders in the ruling coalition said on Wednesday they had agreed in principle on contributing to the planned international force. But sensitivities about Germany's past make some politicians uneasy about the idea of German troops facing Israelis.
Disarm Hixbollah and the Israelis will stay on their side of the border
Germany may help in humanitarian work and securing the Lebanon-Syria border. "Many questions are still open," said government spokesman Thomas Steg. "Germany is prepared to make a contribution if there is a clear definition. It depends on certain factors and these factors are still unclear," he said.
Any cabinet decision to send troops would still have to be approved by parliament. Coalition officials said they were considering providing naval patrols or police to help secure the Lebanon-Syria border.
Keeping arms from reaching the Hizzies would be a help
Germany has sent 7,700 soldiers overseas already to serve with international forces in Afghanistan, the Balkans and DR Congo.
Edmund Stoiber, head of the conservative Bavarian CSU party allied to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, firmly opposed any deployment of German combat troops. He said his Christian Social Union "will never vote for a combat operation for German soldiers in the buffer zone between Hezbollah and the Israeli border".
Lebanese troops on Thursday crossed the strategic Litani river to take up positions as Israel's army pulls back. France has confirmed it is ready to command an expanded international force working along with the Lebanese army, but only with a clear mandate and sufficient resources.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/17/2006 08:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
MARJAYOUN, Lebanon - Lebanese troops, tanks ... tanks? Who knew?
... and armored vehicles began deploying south of the strategic Litani River early Thursday after the Israeli army stepped up its withdrawal from the region and handed over some of its positions to U.N. peacekeepers.
The rapid developments aimed at ending 34 days of fighting came after Lebanon's government agreed Wednesday to deploy troops near Israel's border for the first time in 40 years.
Ten armored carriers mounted on flatbed trucks drove across a newly installed bridge over the Litani at its mouth on the Mediterranean coastline, about 18 miles north of the Israeli border. Trucks and jeeps mounted with Lebanese flags also carried soldiers south toward the port city of Tyre. Troops were expected to be brought in by sea to the Tyre port later in the deployment.
Further south, flatbed trucks carrying 20 tanks arrived in Marjayoun, a key town near the Israeli border that was briefly occupied by Israeli forces during their incursion into Lebanon. They were accompanied by a dozen trucks loaded with troops and hoisting Lebanese flags.
The army deployment will continue for a few days "to spread Lebanese government authority over all Lebanese territory, including south of the Litani River," a senior military official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Lebanese army has been preparing troops for the past few days. The U.N. cease-fire plan calls for the force to reach 15,000 and to be joined eventually by an equal number of international peacekeepers to patrol the region between the Israeli border and the Litani River.
Despite continued division over disarming Hezbollah, the Cabinet decision to deploy Lebanese troops was a major step toward meeting demands that the guerrillas be removed from Israel's northern frontier. It would also mark the extension of government sovereignty over the whole country for the first time since 1969, when the Lebanese government sanctioned Palestinian cross-border attacks on Israel. Mebbe they have learned something since 1969?
The Lebanese government, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, met for the first time since the cease-fire took hold Monday, after two postponements because of divisions over Hezbollah's arms. The guerrillas, who insist they have the right to defend Lebanon, have resisted pressure to give them up or even withdraw them from the border area.
Aridi stressed that there will be no authority or weapons in south Lebanon other than those of the state. "If any weapon is found, even the brothers in Hezbollah have said 'Let it be in the hands of the army. No problem,'" he said.
Hezbollah's top official in south Lebanon hinted that the guerrillas would not disarm or withdraw but would keep its weapons out of sight. Hezbollah will have "no visible military presence," Sheik Nabil Kaouk told reporters in the southern port city of Tyre.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said France is willing to lead the enlarged U.N. force until at least February. Lead, yes. Provide troops? Je regrete, Messeur.
Yes, I know that's spelled wrong. That's what you get from Berlitz.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/17/2006 07:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Unfortunately, 40% of the Leb army is composed of Shiite supporters of Nasrullah and his Iranian masters.
#2
I think that Israel should pull back with this statement....
"The next rock, no less bullet, shell or missle, that is fired at Israel will constitute an act of war by Lebanon and we will commence immediate operations to obliterate the government, Hezbollah and any other actors."
BRUSSELS The UN resolution over Lebanon is weaker than Belgium would have wanted, giving a convenient excuse raising doubts that Belgian troops will participate in the peacekeeping mission.
Because, you know, the Mighty Fighting BonBons do not lend their arms to just any cause!!
That's the 314th Heavy Barbershop Brigade ...
Resolution 1701 of the UN Security Council does not give the peacekeeping mission for Lebanon a mandate to restore peace because it does not refer back to Chapter VII of the UN charter.
The chapter that sez Belgian troops must never, ever, ever be put in harm's way. You could look it up.
But conscious of the 10 Belgian peacekeepers killed in Rwanda, Belgium is demanding a "clear UN mandate" as pre-condition of its participation in the Lebanon peacekeeping mission.
Mistranslation. "Mandate" does not mean "quick exit when stuff starts to fly".
"And perhaps a pony."
Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said on Tuesday he regretted the mandate does not refer to chapter VII, newspaper 'De Standaard' reported on Wednesday. The resolution states that Israel should withdraw from Lebanon and that Hezbollah be disarmed in a 20km zone along the border. But Hezbollah is refusing to be disarmed and the Lebanese government has been proven powerless for years, so there are questions about what the peacekeeping force in consultation with the Lebanese government can actually do.
NOW they notice. Oy.
Under resolution 1701, the current Unifil peacekeeping force will be increased from 2,000 to 15,000 troops, but commander General Alain Pellegrini said on Tuesday it could be a year before all the troops are in place. Minister De Gucht, however, thinks that is unacceptable, stressing that the peacekeeping force must be in place within two months. "The coming months are critical," he said. The ceasefire that took effect on Monday morning has only been broken by Hezbollah in isolated incidents in the past two days. But behind the scenes, it appeared on Tuesday that Belgium's participation in the peacekeeping mission is in doubt. The fate of the mission rests largely in the hands of Hezbollah, which is claiming victory in the short war with Israel.
It sure as hell isn't in the hands of Euros, except insofar as they keep getting in the way to trip up the US and Israel.
Hezbollah, together with allies Iran and Syria, was again critical of Israel and the US on Tuesday.
Despite the public reappearance of armed Hizbullah gunmen in southern Lebanon, senior IDF officers said Wednesday that Israel would uphold the cease-fire and begin to gradually withdraw its forces ahead of the planned deployment of the Lebanese army in the south, scheduled to begin on Thursday.
There will be no confrontation between the army and brothers in Hizbullah. That is not the army's mission. They are not going to chase and, God forbid, exact revenge...
On Wednesday, the Lebanese cabinet approved a plan to deploy troops south of the Litani River and to extend government authority over the region, a key provision of the UN cease-fire plan that ended 34 days of fighting. But the cabinet said soldiers would not "chase" or "take revenge" on Hizbullah guerrillas in a bid to disarm the fighters. "There will be no confrontation between the army and brothers in Hizbullah... That is not the army's mission...
No the mission is to prevent others from doing just that. And to keep our throats intact, we hope.
They are not going to chase and, God forbid, exact revenge," said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi after the two-hour cabinet meeting.
Senior Hizbullah official Hassan Fadlallah said that the issue of his organization's disarmament was not on the agenda. According to Fadlallah, who spoke with al-Jazeera, Hizbullah will not evacuate its operatives from southern Lebanon since they are the ones who populate the region. "Any such withdrawal means the evacuation of southern Lebanon," he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What do you call the operation when you add testicles to a coward and make him a man ?
Nutstolmert ?
#4
Get your ground troops out to clear the fire zone for heavy ordnance when the Hezb'Allah do what we all know they're going to do.
Only risk is that the H'B is smart enough to spend the next 6 mos intimidating Lebanon into accepting their total power. If they go for Israel at all, however, ....
#5
Olmert? Halutz? Why are these clowns still employed? The only discernable outcome from all this is that now the Hezbillies have a blocking force to hide behind while they rebuild and also to provide cover when they start firing again. As long as Olmert and his crew are in charge, Israel will be on it's knees.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/17/2006 11:53 Comments ||
Top||
#6
If they do withdraw they should leave behind a few books on the Punic Wars and Carthage for the Arabs to read. Help prepare them for the next time.
The Lebanese cabinet today approved a plan to deploy the army south of the Litani River to extend government authority over the region, a key provision of the UN ceasefire plan that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. But the decision left unclear what to do about Hezbollahs presence and weapons in the region bordering Israel. It was widely believed, however, that the army did not plan to actively disarm the guerrillas but to allow Hezbollah fighters to store their weapons and lock up their bunkers. The will be no confrontation between the army and brothers in Hezbollah. ... That is not the armys mission. ... They are not going to chase and, God forbid, exact revenge (on Hezbollah), said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi after the two-hour Cabinet meeting.
The Cabinet session on implementing the ceasefire was twice delayed after it became effective on Monday because to Hezbollah members of the government objected to enforcement of the key UN demand that the guerrilla force be disarmed.
The Cabinet session on implementing the ceasefire was twice delayed after it became effective on Monday because to Hezbollah members of the government objected to enforcement of the key UN demand that the guerrilla force be disarmed. The army, which had been assembling north of the Litani, was to cross the river tomorrow morning. In conjunction with UN peacekeepers already in the south, the army will gradually take over territory from which Israeli forces are withdrawing. There will be no authority or weapons other than those of the state, said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi.
Israel had threatened to halt its withdrawal if the Lebanese force did not move south. Reading from a Cabinet statement, he said the armys mission was to defend the national territory, safeguard security ... and prevent any authority of any kind outside that of the Lebanese state. The government ordered the army to insure respect for the Blue Line, the UN-demarcated border between Lebanon and Israel, and apply the existing laws with regard to any weapons outside the authority of the Lebanese state.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
I have never read a single poll in the West, where results reveals more than 30% distrust of Muslims. It should be 100% of non-Muslims. Maybe if we propagated the type of training that Muslims are getting on the internet, then we might wage the War on Islamofascism as it should be waged. We have to place our security over the lives and liberty of the Muslim enemy.
The website of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, for example, carries links to a colossal amount of data on creating explosives, part of a more extensive training document called "The Preparation EncyclopediaAll the Mujahid Needs." The training manual contains whole sections on topics such as:
- Types of explosives, mines, detonators, explosive engineering and electronics;
- Chemical and biological weapons;
- Nuclear weapons;
- How to make rockets;
- How to make silencers;
- Poisons.
The encyclopedia also includes informative topics on U.S. and British weaponry, radar jamming and regular military operations. Furthermore, some training materials are very well prepared with illustrative drawings and actual photos, especially in the explosives section.
Concerning the latest terrorist threat in London, a closer look at the chemicals section and what the terrorists are capable of and willing to do to elicit explosive substances could explain how and why this threat is very serious. In these training manuals, the jihadis are learning how to extract a wide range of explosive components from readily available material. Most of these chemicals are very hazardous, such as: hydrochloric acid, potassium permanganate, potassium cyanide, information on how to extract potassium from goat excrement, red mercury, sodium nitrite, hydrogen peroxide, ammonium nitrite, nitroglycerin and hexamine (which is a very combustible white crystalline sand-like solid or powder), in addition to other acids. In addition, the manual lists the ingredients for many types of explosives and how to mix them, in addition to diagrams that display different ways of packaging and transporting them.
#1
Yes. It is the religion of destruction, death, and mayhem. The "Islamic cookbook". Do not forget gas chambers and chemical experiments.
All in the name of Satan, mind you. Just a days work for a disgrunteled angel. My MY what a stew has been bred.
Many cooks, also. Wow, those brave "lions" sure have a way with religion.
Yup, you can do anything you want with GOD, right Muslim?
So, where do I get my copy? the local mosque?
Maybe we can "discuss" a "ceasefire". Maybe talk about how enlightened you Muslims are since you have right here Your ROE. Oh, I almost forgot... Muslim, God is starting to hate you. That is all.
P.S. Does anyone know how to eliminate Islam chat off of Yahoo?
#2
"Does anyone know how to eliminate Islam chat off of Yahoo?"
Sure. DNS Death for Yahoo.com would do it. Well-deserved, too, IMHO. Add the domains for AP, AFP, Rooters, BBC, NYT, WaPo, BoGlobe, LATimes, China, Russia, .EU, .UK, DU, Kos, etc. If only I ran the world...
Hmmmm... I wonder if we'd all fall down if the "news reporting" and "idiot dialog" from the assholes and enablers and symps and Tranzis and BDS *bats of all flavors suddenly stopped spinning...
"The Preparation EncyclopediaAll the Mujahid Needs." The training manual contains whole sections on topics such as:
- Types of explosives, mines, detonators, explosive engineering and electronics;
- Chemical and biological weapons;
- Nuclear weapons;
- How to make rockets;
- How to make silencers;
- Poisons.
Are these people really human beings or some sort of mutant of the sort Drudge says they found dead in Maine....
I see very little if any difference, except the one on the left is dead...
#9
Muslim Students Association meetings on campuses all over the country, have one topic: jihad terror. I have read 2 reports over the years of media infiltration of these groups, and they all find the same thing. The MSA and its parent - Islamic Society of North America - must be declared as terrorist organizations and banned.
What is to stop Muslims from carrying precursor chemicals that have been surgically implanted? Nothing. They are certainly sick enough to do that.
#11
They are the "Transnational Global Socialists", the one-world-governmenters, NGO, UN-embracing, smiling folk who work every day to undermine the concept of "nationhood".
#14
would be nice to hack the sites, screw the recipes up to create "work accidents"
Better yet, infect all of the Muslim terror sites with hard-drive munching viruses and worms. Have them activated by email directories that have less than 2% non-Arabic names.
What is to stop Muslims from carrying precursor chemicals that have been surgically implanted?
I suggested this would happen some three years ago. About the only thing I can imagine is the lack of easy access to properly sterile surgical suites for the implantation of such devices. Not to mention the risk of post-operative infection and other complications. Also, the cost of anesthesia and surgical theater services is quite high compared to the actual bomb materials themselves.
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 - Pakistan is the main source of Afghanistans insecurity, the countrys intelligence chief said on Thursday, adding that there could be no peace here if the war against Islamic militants was not shifted to include Pakistan. In the strongest comments by an Afghan official yet, director-general of intelligence Amruallah Saleh said enemy training sites and organisational and financial resources all lay inside Pakistan. Pakistan has not given up its interference and aggression, Saleh told parliaments lower house, which is considering his renomination as intelligence chief.
An emergency is unfolding at Sydney Airport, where a Pacific Blue 737 aircraft is at the centre of a bomb scare. It's understood a bomb threat was made against the plane. The threat was believed to have come from the Philippines.
BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) - Three Palestinian-American men who were found with nearly 1,000 cell phones were charged Wednesday with federal fraud conspiracy and money laundering after a county prosecutor backed off from terrorism charges filed earlier.
BOSTON (AP) - Two fighter jets were scrambled Wednesday to escort a London-to-Washington flight to an emergency landing in Boston after a disturbance in which passengers said a woman in a jogging suit paced up and down the aisle, peppering her incoherent mutterings with the word ``Pakistan.''
Bahawalpur, Pakistan, 17 August (AKI/DAWN) - Law enforcement agencies in Bahawalpur, in Pakistan's Punjab, have arrested 
PESHAWAR: Ten foreign prisoners, most of them Arabs who fought against the US invasion of Afghanistan, will be released from Peshawar's central prison today (Thursday) and deported to their native countries, Javed Ibrahim Paracha, chairman of the World Prisoners' Relief Commission of Pakistan, told Daily Times on Wednesday. "I have got a no objection certificate from the Interior Ministry regarding the release of 10 foreign prisoners, mostly Arab mujahideen, from Peshawar's central prison," Paracha said. 
(KUNA) -- At least four people were killed and 34, including three US nationals, were injured in a grenade explosion at a temple that was celebrating the Hindu festival of "Janmashtami" in India's Northeastern state of Manipur Wednesday evening. The explosion occured at the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple in Manipur's capital Imphal when it was packed with hundreds of devotes on the occasion of "Janmashtam" (birthday of Hindu God Krishna), Wednesday, the news agency Indo-Asian News Service reported.
Gunfights have erupted in two Iraqi cities, while a bomb blast in central Baghdad has killed at least eight people. Police in Baghdad say at least 28 other people, including policemen, were wounded by the roadside blast in a popular street market in the Nahda district. Earlier reports said the blast was caused by a car bomb.
(KUNA) -- Iraqi security sweeps continue with 288 suspected militants arrested while around 25 Iraqis have been killed and 20 others injured Wednesday. Seven Iraqis were killed and 18 others wounded when a roadside bomb detonated along the Al-Nahda Bridge in central Baghdad Wednesday. Iraqi interior sources told KUNA, the bomb exploded close to an area where travelers to Iraq's southern provinces congregate. Al-Nahda bus stop underwent a similar attack a week ago. That attack killed nine Iraqis and left twenty more injured.
(KUNA) -- At least six civilians were killed and another seven were arrested by Iraqi police Wednesday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, said an Iraqi police source. The source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that police clashed today with gunmen in the districts of Yarmok and Risala to kill six gunmen and arrest another seven, some of whom were injured during the clash. 
(KUNA) -- Eleven Iraqis were killed and several others were injured Wednesday due to explosions at a market place in the Iraqi capital. A security source told KUNA that an explosive was planted on Tunis Street near victory square in Baghdad. The bomb exploded and caused the death of two civilians and the injury of nine others. Shortly after that a car, filled with explosive materials, exploded in the same location killing nine citizens and injuring 43 others. Ambulances as well as police units rushed to the scene and started to transfer civilians to the nearby bin Al-Nafees hospital.
(KUNA) -- Israeli forces arrested Wednesday 11 Palestinians in the industrial area of Erez, west of the town of Bait Hanoun, during an extensive search operation executed earlier this morning, witnesses said. The witnesses told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that these operations were coupled with a curfew on residents of the area, adding that Israeli forces had stationed themselves on the rooftops of several houses in the area of Qubtaniya in the town.
(KUNA) -- Seven Palestinians were injured Wednesday after a bomb exploded at a house in Al-Zaytoon neighborhood located in Gaza city. Eyewitness said that the explosion targeted a HAMAS official's house which was devastated by the bombing. Medical teams rushed to the house to transfer the injured to nearby hospitals while security forces began their investigations of the incident.
(KUNA) -- An Israeli military spokesman said Wednesday that a Palestinian rocket exploded near the southern Israeli settlement (Yed Mrdkhai). An Israeli spokesman told Israel radio the rocket was launched north of Gaza, claiming it exploded in an open area without reports of injuries or damage.
A 14-year-old Palestinian was killed Wednesday evening in clashes between Hamas and Fatah gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip. The clashes in Khan Younis erupted during a funeral for a Palestinian operative killed by the IDF on Tuesday.
An IAF aircraft fired a missile into a mettle workshop in Gaza City Wednesday, the army and Palestinian officials said, there were no injuries. The army said the building was used as a weapons storehouse. The building was completely destroyed but no one was hurt, rescue workers said.
Israeli intelligence services planned to assassinate Khalid Mishaal, the head of the political wing of Hamas, last month sources in the group say. Israel's intelligence and special operations force, Mossad, sent a team to the Syrian capital in July to carry out the killing, Hamas sources said on Wednesday quoting "Western intelligence sources". Khalid Mishaal is living in exile in Damascus.
An Islamic militant convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings will be released from prison Thursday and 10 other minor figures in the plot are likely to have their sentences reduced to mark Indonesia's independence day, prison and justice ministry officials said. It is an Indonesian tradition to cut jail terms on holidays, but the decision is expected to anger countries that lost citizens in the twin Bali nightclub attacks that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Bush administration acts fast to bring France aboard the Lebanon multinational force, gives Israel tacit go-ahead for air strikes against arms trucks from Syria 
BRUSSELS The UN resolution over Lebanon is weaker than Belgium would have wanted, 
Despite the public reappearance of armed Hizbullah gunmen in southern Lebanon, senior IDF officers said Wednesday that Israel would uphold the cease-fire and begin to gradually withdraw its forces ahead of the planned deployment of the Lebanese army in the south, scheduled to begin on Thursday. 
The Lebanese cabinet today approved a plan to deploy the army south of the 
