#14
Just 1000 feet? 30,000 would seem more appropriate, give him time to think about what he's done. Either that, or if he likes Russia so much, let him swim there. Across the Bering Sea. At winter. No wetsuit. And no way to turn back to shore...
At least 17 people have been killed and many more injured in a suspected suicide bombing in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials say. The blast ripped through a crowded bazaar in the town of Lashkar Gah. A spokesman for the provincial governor told the Associated Press news agency that the bomber had blown himself up opposite a police station.
At least 47 people were wounded in the latest blast, six of them critically, Hanif Khan, a local hospital official, told the Associated Press news agency. Shattered glass and blood-soaked turbans were scattered at the site of the bomb, AP quoted security guard Hayatullah Khan as saying.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/28/2006 09:18 ||
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#1
Maybe Rantburg should start a "Blood-soaked turban" department to tally miscellaneous suicide bombings in Islamic territories. The counts vary from day to day, but the theme is the same.
#2
We know there's something in the markets which sets them off. I think it's peanuts. It all goes back to Jimmah Cahtah. Association with peanuts makes your lips big and your brain small.
A British soldier was killed and another NATO troop wounded in attacks in Afghanistan early on Sunday while police said they killed 10 Taliban who tried to capture a district headquarters.
In other violence linked to a Taliban insurgency, a roadside bomb blast struck a police vehicle in southeastern Afghanistan, killing two security officers. The ISAF soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in Helmand province, ISAF said in a statement. The Ministry of Defence in London announced the soldier was British.
Helmand police said meanwhile that about 40 Taliban fighters late on Saturday stormed the headquarters of Musa Qala district, also in the north of the province, sparking a three-hour gunfight in which 10 Taliban were killed. In a separate incident early on Sunday, a base in Kandahar came under mortar fire that wounded an ISAF soldier and six Afghans.
A remote-controlled bomb struck a police vehicle in Khost, killing a police officer and an intelligence official. Also, gunmen attacked early on Sunday a bus carrying about 30 prisoners from Kandahar to the capital, killing a guard but failing to free any of the inmates, police said.
Meanwhile, the US military insisted on Sunday that the raid earlier this week that left eight people dead in eastern Afghanistan, targeted an Al Qaeda associate who was also killed. Col Tom Collins, the chief US spokesman, said Alam Zer, described as a commander of extremist group belonging to the Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was the target of the Thursday raid in the eastern Kunar province.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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RIYADH, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has released over 700 suspected militants after clerics "corrected" their thinking in a special programme aimed at stemming a three-year-old campaign of violence by al Qaeda, officials said.
"They are sympathisers. There are many of this kind of people, who are subject to the process of an advisory committee. Hundreds of them have gone through this and been released," Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said.
We've noticed
The men have been released at different stages over the past three years, he explained. "They were arrested in the first place because they were suspicious, but there was no hard evidence against them linking them to any terrorist act or planning," he told Reuters.
Turki said the men had believed in 'takfiri' ideology, which permits branding Muslim governments or ordinary Muslims as infidels because of policies, behaviour or beliefs. Militants around the world swearing allegiance to the al Qaeda network headed by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden use this idea to justify attacks on governments, foreigners and civilians.
In Saudi Arabia, al Qaeda supporters began a campaign to bring down the U.S.-allied royal family with suicide bombings in May 2003 against Western housing compounds in Riyadh. Officials say more than 136 militants and 150 foreigners and Saudis, including security forces, have died since then, but the violence has ebbed in the face of toughened security measures against what official rhetoric calls "the deviant group".
Sheikh Mohammed al-Fifi, a member of the committee leading the dialogue with suspects, said this week that those released, accounted for over 90 percent of all detainees whose thinking clerics had tried to "correct". He put the number of those freed at around 700. "First we would deal with them in groups, then individually as they related their thoughts," he told the al-Madina newspaper in an interview published this week. "They became like this through provocative religious edicts on the Internet or in books, or via preachers who stir up young people's passions in sermons and lectures," he added. Fifi said he did not blame Saudi Arabia's controversial educational curriculum which foreign rights groups and Western governments have said promote extremism.
"No, no, we're the Religion Of Peace. Haven't you read our press release? Oh, you have..."
Most of the 19 suicide plane hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks in the United States were Saudi. Saudi authorities say they want to reform school textbooks that demonise moderate Muslims, Christians and Jews. "The curriculum is not to blame since we've had it for over 30 years. The problem is some of the teachers," Fifi said.
Observers say Arab governments' close ties with Washington and apparent inability to influence its pro-Israel foreign policy in the Arab world is another key factor behind militancy. Interior Ministry spokesman Turki said detainees believed to have clear links to militant attacks were being prepared for trial. He declined to say how many they were. But the process has been delayed because Saudi Arabia's underdeveloped justice system -- where religious scholars sit as judges ruling on the basis of Islamic Sharia law -- does not yet provide for courts competent to view such cases.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/28/2006 11:11 ||
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#1
As long as you carry out your attacks abroad we will release you!!!!
#3
An increasing number of secular students of Islam are discovering that the more knowledge the Muslim has of Islam, the more likely are they to commit terror.
Jihadism is curable by death. I have long advocated the execution of all the Guantanamo Bay Arabs who were arrested in Afghanistan. Anyone that hard core poses a mortal threat as long as they breath. Mass killing has been anathema in Western Civilization. Maybe we should get used to it.
#4
Western Civ will probably continue to avoid mass killings, unless and until a sufficient amount of mass killing has been visited on Western Civ, I'm sorry to say.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2006 14:39 Comments ||
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#6
Spank and release, as usual. Saudi Arabia will continue this program until we finally wrest control of their nation from them. Just as we did in Iraq. The House of Saud gives not one rip about Western civilization. They are the kennel masters who oversee those that breed up global terrorism. The Saudis have merely released another batch of maladjusted pups. It's time to burn down the kennel.
Western Civ will probably continue to avoid mass killings, unless and until a sufficient amount of mass killing has been visited on Western Civ, I'm sorry to say.
The moral equation you're referring to ids as follows:
Islamic terrorism will continue until it becomes more trouble to live with Muslims than to kill them.
Federal police fear that Jack Thomas could use his al-Qa'ida training to launch terrorist attacks on Australia and have placed him under a strict curfew. Despite a court throwing out terror charges against him last week, the federal police convinced a magistrate in Canberra he is an ongoing threat. Under the control order, Mr Thomas must report to police three times a week and is subject to a strict curfew. He is also banned from using any telephone that has not been approved by police.
"and we're taking away your pony!"
According to papers lodged with the court, police believe Mr Thomas, who was at the beach this morning with his family when he was issued with the order, has admitted to being trained by the terrorist outfit headed by Osama bin Laden in 2001 and is an ongoing danger to the community.
"There are good reasons to believe that given Mr Thomas has received training with al-Qaida he is now an available resource that can be tapped into to commit terrorist acts on behalf of al-Qaida or related terrorist cells. Training has provided Mr Thomas with the capability to execute or assist with the execution directly or indirectly of any terrorist acts," the court documents say.
If they've got even half a brain, they'll stay miles away from him and his police watchdogs
"Mr Thomas has admitted that he trained with al-Qaida in 2001. Al-Qaida is a listed terrorist organisation under section 4A of the Criminal Code Regulations 2002, made under the Criminal Code Act 1995. Mr Thomas also admitted that while at the al-Qaida training camp he undertook weapons training, including the use of explosives and learned how to assemble and shoot various automatic weapons.
"Mr Thomas is vulnerable. Mr Thomas may be susceptible to the views and beliefs of persons who will nurture him during his reintegration into the community. Mr Thomass links with extremists such as Abu Bakir Bashir, some of which are through his wife, may expose and exploit Mr Thomass vulnerabilities. "Furthermore, the mere fact that Mr Thomas has trained in al-Qaida training camps, and associated with senior al-Qaida figures, in Afghanistan is attractive to aspirant extremists who will seek out his skills and experiences to guide them in achieving their potentially extremist objectives."
His brother Les Thomas said the AFP and Attorney General's Department were "trying to save themselves embarrassment" by issuing his brother with a temporaray control order - the first under the Howard Government's new anti-terrorism laws. Jack Thomas was handed the order by AFP members at Cape Loch where he was holidaying with his wife and young family after the Victorian Court of Appeal overturned his convictions on terrorism charges two weeks ago.
"This will lessen peoples' faith in the Australian Federal Police,'' Mr Thomas said. "The resources, the time and money invested into this really makes you wonder about the politicisation of the AFP and the Attorney General's office. We're very sad Jack has been thrown back into this kind of situation. This was meant to be Jack's time to get away and have family time. The AFP and the Attorney General's Department are pursuing this case relentlessly.''
Posted by: Steve ||
08/28/2006 10:52 ||
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#1
If they've got even half a brain, they'll stay miles away from him and his police watchdogs
half a brain? Isn't that giving them waaaay too much credit?
A third man was charged with terrorist offences over suspected attempts to bomb passenger trains in Germany, a prosecutor said on Saturday, adding that more arrests in the case may follow. The 23-year-old Syrian, named as Fadi A.S., was charged with belonging to a terrorist group, attempted murder and trying to cause an explosion, said a statement from the federal prosecutor's office in this southwest German city. "Other members of a terrorist organization, currently unknown, may possibly" have taken part in the attempted bombing, the statement added.
The latest suspect was arrested on Friday in a dawn swoop on student residences in the southern lakeside city of Konstanz, as part of an investigation into a failed attempt to set off two bombs in July. The prosecutor said Fadi A.S. previously lived in Kiel, northern Germany, and was suspected to have helped other accomplices escape to Lebanon, Turkey and Syria. He was initially reported at the time of his arrest to have been Lebanese. The prosecutor has linked the man to Lebanese student Youssef Mohammed el-Hajdib, one of the main suspects in the plot to bomb trains heading for the western cities of Hamm, near Dortmund, and Koblenz on July 31. Hajdib is being held in preventive detention in Berlin.
On Saturday the prosecutor said Fadi A.S. had searched on the Internet to find instructions to build bombs. The instructions he found matched the type of bombs that were found unexploded on two passenger trains, it added. Four suspects -- two in Germany and two in Lebanon -- have been detained so far in connection with the plot. Apart from Fadi A.S., all the suspects are Lebanese. Comments by the secretary of state in the German interior ministry, August Hanning, published in Sunday's edition of the daily Berliner Zeitung, confirmed that more arrests may follow. German authorities are also looking to extradite a 24-year-old Lebanese suspect arrested in Lebanon on Friday. With Lebanese help, they are trying to find out whether the suspects are linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist party banned in Germany.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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Ten Britons have been injured after three explosions hit a holiday resort in Turkey, the Foreign Office has said. The blasts happened in the past few hours at the coastal resort of Marmaris. At least one appeared to be on a bus, witnesses said. All ten injured Britons are in hospital with four in a serious condition. Six people have also been injured in Istanbul after a bomb exploded late on Sunday night, the Anatolia news agency reported. The Foreign Office had no further details on the cause of explosions or the exact location.
A spokeswoman said she believed one of the explosions occured on a minibus and another by the harbour. The location of the third blasts has not yet been made clear. A spokeswoman added consular staff were on the ground in the area. She said it was likely that the 10 injured were holidaymakers but that British nationals could be living in the area. BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford said the Britons hurt are believed to have been caught up in the same explosion, which happened shortly after midnight.
Tayfun Sentop, a spokeman for the Ahu Hetman hospital, where six of the injured have been taken, said their injuries were "nothing serious". "They have general body traumas and nothing very serious - they are having treatment as inpatients," he told the BBC.
Kurdish Group Claims Marmaris Blasts
Ankara, 28 August (AKI) - The Kurdish Liberation Hawks - a group linked to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) - have claimed responsibility for three attacks on the tourist centre of Marmaris late Sunday night, which had injured more than 20 people. In a statement posted to its website, the group said it would continue to strike in the country and warned tourists against visiting Turkey. At least two people were killed and up to 20 others injured in a subsequent explosion in the resort of Antalya, 130km from Marmaris, on Monday afternoon.
As investigations into the bomb blasts began, the police and paramilitary teams blocked the entrances and exits of the town, which is located in south-west Turkey.
The Kurdish Liberation Hawks (TAK) have claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Turkey: the latest was a bomb in June that ripped through a tourist area 100 km east of Antalya, killing four and wounding 28. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which launched a separatist campaign in 1984, has attacked civillians in tourist resorts in the past.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Being an ex-pat in a Moslem country at least means being paid for your added risk, but being a tourist in a Moslem country, even one of the saner ones like Turkey, just seems stupid.
#2
Nothing like vacationing at home. At least I have a "fighting" chance.
Posted by: Art ||
08/28/2006 11:12 Comments ||
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The only non-Muslims who set foot in Muslim countries should be diplomatic and military personnel. All others should stay out. I wonder when this will sink in to the dim Kaffir mentality.
(KUNA) -- Nine people were seriously injured in a bomb attack on a coffee shop in Serb-dominated Mitrovica town in northern Kosovo late Saturday, according to the radio of Pristina on Sunday. The radio, picked up here, quoted a police statement as saying an unknown man tossed a bomb inside a coffee shop frequented by ethnic Serbs in Mitrovica injuring seven of them and two of the international mission in Kosovo. A Brit working with the international police force and a Dutch woman working in the UN in Kosovo were rushed to a military hospital operated by the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo's regional capital, Pristina.
The international police were investigating the attack, which fueled tension between the ethnic Serbs and Albanians. Hundreds of Serbs staged a mass rally after the bomb attack to protest the assault. Top officials in the Serbian government accused the Albanians in Kosovo of being behind the attack, and held the UN and international officials responsible for contributing to the provocative acts against the Serbs in Kosovo.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo goes on.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A US Airways flight en route from Philadelphia to Houston was diverted to Bristol, Tennessee, on Monday because of a bomb threat, an airport official said.
A spokeswoman for the Tri-Cities Airport, which serves eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina, said the FBI was at the airport investigating the threat.
#3
I thought the terrorism in Bristol happened this last Saturday night, at the racetrack.
What? You wouldn't be terrified driving that fast on a half-mile track?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/28/2006 16:48 Comments ||
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#4
It does get very tense there, Eric. It's a good thing the conversations in the stands aren't taped or there'd be a lot of people arrested for threats!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/28/2006 17:00 Comments ||
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#1
Oh, yes, the infrequently mentioned Osprey, happy landings
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2006 14:44 Comments ||
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#2
The answer to everyones problems, the CV22 albatross err I mean Osprey. They need to buy some CH-47 G or F models and just be done with it. But no the Navy wants to be different. They will be walking before the CV 22 is a competent combat aircraft.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/28/2006 15:02 Comments ||
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#3
WId major US companies like BELL and BOEING, etc. working on the Army's QUAD-ROTOR crafts/concepts for AirMech, the Osprey has been relegated to an interim craft whose primary utility to the USDOD is operational learning experience wid [heavy?] VTOL. The C47 = Cobra = Huey > becoming the B52's of Army air, i.e. so good and reliable will be around for generations yet.
#4
I wonder if there has been any advance of fanwing technology? A British idea, which is probably why it's been stalled for several years now, the fanwing is more efficient than helicopter, carries a heavier load, is quieter, and has less maintenance.
I also suspect that it could be scaled to carry much, much greater loads than even a Chinook could, since it doesn't have rotor blade limitations.
It needs somebody like McDonnell-Douglas backing it, though.
In a remarkably strong statement, India has slammed Pakistan for the killing of iconic Baloch rebel Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.
In the statement released by the foreign office, New Delhi called the killing a tragic loss to the people of Balochistan and Pakistan.
The description of Balochistan as a separate entity is bound to anger Islamabad.
The statement goes on to say that military operations in Balochistan underline the need for a peaceful dialogue and that military force can never solve political problems.
It further adds that Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti played a prominent role in Pakistani politics for over four decades and that his death leaves a vacuum that will be difficult to fill.
The MEA statement comes at a time when relations between the two countries are already strained.
India had accused Pakistan of having a hand in the Mumbai blasts and Pakistan has in the past accused India of backing the separatist violence in Balochistan.
Meanwhile, the opposition in Pakistan has also joined in the protests against Bugti's killing and called for a one-day nationwide strike.
However, President Pervez Musharraf has said army operations in the region will continue. Perhaps to stem the rising criticism, the Pakistani establishment is also now saying that Bugti was killed accidentally.
"It was never our intention to harm him physically. What happened yesterday was something of not government's own doing. The land mines, which exploded, caused this explosion to bring down the cave. But certainly, it was not our intention to kill him," said Tariq Azim, Pakistan Deputy Information Minister.
Balochistan has sparked off a new round of tension in the Indo-Pak relations.
By saying military force cannot solve a political issue, New Delhi is using Pakistan's rhetoric on Kashmir to beat Islamabad.
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2006 15:28 ||
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Translation - look out Perv, India is gonna make Pakistan bleed...
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2006 15:40 Comments ||
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Aside from my enemy's enemy, did India have a dog in that fight?
#3
At the time of Partition, many Balochis were pro-India and would have chosen to join.
This was not allowed according to the rules set by the Viceroy Lord Mountbatten (Territorial continuity).
The covert Indian support to the Balochis - money and arms, via both Iran and Afghanistan, is simply payback - applying pressure at the fault lines to see what cracks.
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2006 15:46 Comments ||
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It is ironic that Pakistan does not recognize the Instrument of accession for Kashmir, which was signed freely and co-signed by Lord Mountbatten, cosin of the British Queen yet the Instrument of Accession for Kalat - a nice chunk of present Balochistan is quite dubious - the Khan of Kalat was forced to sign at gunpoint after Pakistan invaded and annexed the territory.
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2006 15:51 Comments ||
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#5
Aside from my enemy's enemy, did India have a dog in that fight?
Let me put it this way... if we ascribe all blame to the 9/11 attacks to Pakistan's ISI, it's still a lot less than India's had to put up with from terrorism in Kashmir. (According to Wikipedia, it's about 29,000 Indian civilians since 1988).
And although the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates says that "The Enemy of my Enemy is my Enemy's Enemy, no more, no less," you know, sometimes that's _enough_.
#8
it's still a lot less than India's had to put up with from terrorism in Kashmir. (According to Wikipedia, it's about 29,000 Indian civilians since 1988)
This is from a 2003 interview with a former governor of Jammu and Kashmir state - Gary Saxena
According to statistics that were made available to me, 13,600 people lost their lives in the last 14 years. Of these 10,000 were killed/massacred by terrorists in various incidents of violence. Rest 3,600 lost their lives in crossfire between the security forces and the terrorists. I am telling you these figures because each body was identified.
I must tell you that the security forces lost 3,600 personnel and killed over 16,700 terrorists since 1989. Seventy per cent of these were foreigners.
The Indian Army and paramilitary forces have seized over 25,000 Kalashnikovs, 325 sniper rifles, 1,000 machines guns, 1,800 rocket propelled grenade launchers, 4,000 rocket launchers, 10,000 land mines, 50,000 hand grenades, 30 tonnes of explosives, 7.5 tonnes of RDX, 10,000 revolver pistols and 4,000 wireless sets.
This speaks about the kind of assistance terrorists groups have been getting from Inter Services Intelligence.
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2006 17:22 Comments ||
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#9
An interesting photo from 1940s - A young Nawab Bugti welcoming Mohammed Ali Jinnah
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2006 18:55 Comments ||
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#10
From B Raman
Two months ago, the Pakistan Army reached a ceasefire agreement with the remnants of the Al Qaeda and the Taliban in North Waziristan. Under this agreement, the jihadis and their local tribal supporters agreed to suspend their operations against the Pakistani security forces. In return, the latter agreed not to interfere with their raids into Afghanistan.
This ceasefire agreement enabled the Pakistan Army to shift its forces, helicopters and communication equipment to Balochistan for operations against the leaders of the Baloch freedom struggle.
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2006 20:01 Comments ||
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#11
Federal Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said on Sunday that the body of former Balochistan governor and chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti had not yet been taken out from the rubble of the bunker destroyed in the Saturday attack and that it would be buried in the presence of members of the bereaved family.
The minister made these remarks at a press conference in response to a demand by Nawab Bugtis son, Talal Bugti, that his father and other slain relatives be buried in their ancestral graveyard in Dera Bugti.
Mr Durrani said it was unclear whether Nawab Bugtis grandsons, Brahmadagh and Mirali, had also been killed in the raid which left seven security forces personnel, including three officers, dead.
He said the issue was discussed in detail at a meeting of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain with President Gen Pervez Musharraf at the summer hill resort of Murree on Sunday.
The minister evaded questions whether he was personally grieved by the killing of a seasoned politician like Nawab Bugti. He refused to respond to a query as to why recommendations of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan had not been implemented by the government.
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2006 21:49 Comments ||
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#1
Article: Contacts told Asia Times Online they expected that very soon the Taliban would announce the revival of the "Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan" in that country's southwest, from where a countrywide offensive will be staged.
For Washington, this would mean a total failure in Afghanistan - and Pakistan in large part would be held to blame. This is because the US has based much of its strategy on information fed to it by the Pakistani establishment.
Shahzad has been predicting failure since the first CIA folks were inserted into Afghanistan in fall 2001. He's starting to sound like a broken clock.
Whoops!, all the king's horses and all the king's men...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/28/2006 17:48 Comments ||
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#9
QUETTA, Aug 27: Nawabzada Baramdagh Bugti and Nawabzada Aali Bugti grandsons of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, are alive and safe.
A spokesman for Anjuman Ittehad Marri said here on Sunday that both the grandsons of Nawab Bugti were alive as they had left the area when it was under heavy attack.
Nawabzada Balaach Khan Marri, son of Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, was also alive, he said.
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2006 18:28 Comments ||
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#10
So, the next generation of the Marri and Bugti clans, the future Nawabs are alive (and obligated to extract revenge).
Posted by: john ||
08/28/2006 18:29 Comments ||
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#11
Bugti killed against Musharraf's wishes
"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome nawab?"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 22:38 Comments ||
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#12
"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome nawab?"
you would think a strong preparation of Hydrogen Peroxide and Tuck's Medicated Pads would suffice
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2006 22:54 Comments ||
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#13
A little witch hazel works too. Or so I've heard.
Violent nationwide protests flared for a second day yesterday against the Pakistan militarys killing of rebel tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti as police arrested hundreds of rioters. Local political groups said Bugtis death had sparked a never-ending war.
Enraged mobs burned dozens of shops, buses, banks and police vehicles in Quetta, capital of southwestern Balochistan province, in defiance of a round-the-clock curfew imposed yesterday by government authorities to try to quell the outpouring of anger over 79-year-old Bugtis killing on Saturday in a raid on his mountain hide-out.
Nine policemen suffered minor wounds in a clash with about 70 protesters, some firing pistols, who tried to loot a bank and several nearby shops in northern Quetta, said police Inspector Zahir Shah. Police fired tear gas to disperse the mob.
A bomb blast damaged a government building and arsonists set fire to a telephone exchange in Kalat, a town about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Quetta, said local police official Ghulam Farid Jamali. There were no casualties.
Quetta police chief Suleman Sayed said 450 people were arrested yesterday in Quetta as security forces tried to crack down on violence, which has spread to other parts of impoverished Balochistan and into neighboring Sindh provinces capital of Karachi.
All forces have been put on alert, Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani told privately run Geo TV.
An alliance of four Baloch nationalist groups announced a 15-day mourning period over Bugtis death and vowed to continue protests throughout the region. Businesses and public transport will observe a strike today. The government has pushed Balochistan into a never-ending war, said Hasil Bizinjo, a senior figure of Baloch Yakjehti, or the Baloch Solidarity alliance.
Government forces killed the silver-bearded Bugti, one of Pakistans most prominent fugitives, and at least 24 of his supporters during a raid on his cave hide-out in the Kohlu area, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) east of Quetta. Bugti went into hiding in late 2005 after an attempt was made on the Pakistani presidents life.
Bugtis son-in-law, Shahid Bugti, a senator in Pakistans Parliament, denounced the killing and demanded the government return the tribal chiefs body to his family for burial.
This is a very tragic affair for the whole family, the tribe and the people of the whole region, Shahid Bugti said from his father-in-laws family house in Quetta. We consider him a martyr. He led a very graceful life and he had a graceful death, going out while fighting for his peoples rights. Balochistan has been wracked by decades of low-level conflict, which has often flared into large-scale clashes, as ethnic-Baloch tribespeople led by Bugti pressed the government for an increased share of wealth from natural resources extracted from the province, including gas, oil and coal.
In recent months, the government has said scores of fighters loyal to Bugti have laid down their weapons and surrendered to authorities as it stepped up attacks against the tribal chief.
The government also accused Bugti of ordering attacks on government installations, including gas refineries, the electricity grid and train lines.
Hostilities escalated in December when militants fired rockets that landed about 300 feet from President Gen. Pervez Musharraf while he was visiting Kohlu. Bugti went into hiding shortly after.
The operation that killed Bugti was launched after a land mine blew up a vehicle carrying security forces in Kohlu, said a top security official, who declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic. Four security personnel were wounded.
Security forces attacked Bugti and up to 80 of his supporters in a cave hide-out following an intercept of a satellite phone call in Kohlu district, the official said. Five soldiers were also killed in the attack on Bugtis hide-out.
Bugti and his supporters were killed when the caves roof collapsed after it came under heavy fire from Pakistani military forces, said the minister of state for information, Tariq Azeem Khan. No bodies have been retrieved so far.
Bugti, a former Pakistani senator and interior minister and Balochistan governor, was an articulate spokesman for the Baloch cause. He described Pakistani Army forces as invaders and occupiers for expanding military garrisons into the region. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Bugti tribesmen fought under his leadership.
The government launched an offensive against the Bugti and Marri tribes, whose leaders control swaths of Balochistan and the army put down a tribal rebellion in 1974, reportedly leaving about 3,000 dead.
Many leaders from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) have condemned the killing of Bugti, including Secretary-General Sayed Mushahid Hussain, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, chief of PML(Q), former speaker of the National Assembly Elahi Bux Soomro and Vice Chairman of PML (Q) Kabir Ali Wasti saying, this issue should have been resolved through political dialogue and not force.
Hafiz Hussain Ahmad of JUI asked the government to return the body of Bugti.
This is a very tragic affair for the whole family, the tribe and the people of the whole region, Shahid Bugti said from his father-in-laws family house in Quetta. We consider him a martyr. He led a very graceful life and he had a graceful death, going out while fighting for his peoples rights.
Damn, the place is crawling with Bugtis.
Rind Arabs who speaky Urdû.
#5
Not my man Akbar! What's the world coming to when a simple minded Nawab can't be remembered with bombs, burning, and looting?
Now who will fill in for Foster Brooks on Bollywood Squares?
QUETTA -- A bomb blast damaged a government building and arsonists set fire to a telephone exchange in southwestern Pakistan on Sunday amid violent protests sparked by a prominent tribal chief's killing, a police official said.
The anticipated attack of the Foster Brooks Revenge Brigades...
No casualties were sustained in the blast or fire in Kalat, a town about 250 kilometers south of Quetta, police official Ghulam Farid Jamali said. The bomb destroyed several rooms in the National Database and Registration Authority's offices, while masked men opened fire on the town's telephone exchange before setting it alight. Jamali said the attacks were carried out by protesting supporters of Nawab Akbar Bugti, 79, Baluchistan province's top tribal chief, who was killed Saturday by Pakistan forces in a raid on his mountain hide-out.
We can picture with crystal clarity a berturbanned clone of Bruce Lee shouting: "You killed my sardar! I mut have Dire Revenge™!"
Local political groups said Bugti's death had sparked a "never-ending war."
Kinda like his life did...
Enraged mobs burned dozens of shops, buses, banks and police vehicles in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, in defiance of a round-the-clock curfew imposed Sunday by government authorities to try quell the outpouring of anger over Bugti's killing. Nine policemen suffered minor wounds in a clash with about 70 protesters, some firing pistols, who tried to loot a bank and several nearby shops in northern Quetta, police inspector Zahir Shah said. Police fired tear gas to disperse the mob. Quetta police chief Suleman Sayed said 450 people were arrested Sunday in Quetta as security forces tried to crack down on violence, which has spread to other parts of impoverished Baluchistan and into the neighboring Sindh province's capital of Karachi. "All forces have been put on alert," Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said on privately run Geo TV.
Iraqi and US forces will conduct operations in Baghdad's Sadr City, a bastion of Shiite militia fighters, as part of the ongoing security crackdown, a US military spokesman said.
Major General William Caldwell said operation Together Forward launched on June 14 would eventually move into Sadr City, a stronghold of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and a hotbed of anti-US fervour.
"The prime minister has stated that the operation be conducted through out the entire city of Baghdad. That is correct," Caldwell said when questioned about whether an operation will be conducted in Sadr City.
He would not, however, comment on the timing of the operation in the district whose nearly two million residents largely support Sadr but also of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shiite-led coalition government.
The district is one of the most volatile regions of Baghdad, and the alleged base of a number of death squads accused of killing Sunni Arabs in an ongoing sectarian conflict.
"There is no set time table. The prime minister is directing how rapidly the operation will continue. The prime minister is completely in charge of the operation, "Caldwell said
Maliki has in the past criticised US and Iraqi forces for carrying out nightime raids in the impoverished district.
The US military has clashed with Sadr's militia on a number of occasions, most notablly in August 2004 when a battle in the holy city of Najaf killed hundreds of militiamen and dozens of US soldiers.
Caldwell, meanwhile, said the Baghdad security plan was showing "progress" even as more than two dozen people have been killed in a spate of car bombings in the capital since Sunday.
On Monday a suicide car bomber blew himself up near the compound housing the interior ministry, killing 14 people.
"The Baghdad security operation has focussed on areas where there are the greatest number of kidnappings and murders. Focused effort continues in Baghdad and there are signs of progress," Caldwell said.
He said the level of violence had decreased from the July levels and that the plan had shown progress in reducing "kidnappings, murders and sectarian violence".
Caldwell said that in greater Baghdad, the number of daily attacks had averaged around 23 over the past week, lower than the comparable average in July.
"The average daily murder rate in Baghdad province has dropped 46 percent from July to August, while vehicle borne improvised devices decreased by 50 percent last week to a total of eight which was the lowest monthly average in eight months," he said. When they do go into Sadr City, it is going to be a masterful execution of maneuver.
Notify Human Rights Watch!
TOPPLED dictator Saddam Hussein is being tormented in jail by being forced to watch HIMSELF in South Park. The evil tyrant is portrayed in the movie version of the cult cartoon as the Devils gay lover.
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut was banned in Iraq on its launch in 1999 for showing Saddam as a homosexual. The film featured him trying to take over the world with Satan.
He is currently behind bars in Iraq as he stands trial on charges of genocide.
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone yesterday revealed Saddam is made to watch the movie repeatedly by the US Marines guarding him.Speaking at Edinburgh TV Festival, Matt said: I have it on pretty good information from the Marines on detail in Iraq that they showed him the movie. Thats really adding insult to injury. I bet that made him really happy. No doubt this will trigger an investigation. Ramsey Clark will call for Bush's impeachment.
The American animators also confirmed that Tom Cruise threatened to pull out of all publicity for Mission Impossible III unless Paramount, which also makes South Park, axed a repeat showing of an episode lampooning him. It showed a Scientologist character called Tom Cruise struggling to come out as gay. Cruise was dumped by Paramount last week. Guess Tom found out who really wields the power in Hollywood...Eric Cartman.
#3
Torture would be if Saddam were placed on a trap door over one of his sons' old industrial plastic
shredders and when the cartoons stopped, or Saddam dozed off, the door would open.
See pictures and short text at link. Most interesting tidbit-
Many of the residents were at home and were present as each room of their residence was searched. However, some homes appeared to be recently abandoned because all furniture and household items were absent.
In previous searches Company C has conducted, soldiers found notes threatening homeowners to leave, and sometimes the notes had a bullet attached, said Mousseau.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/28/2006 11:00 ||
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I'd like to see a photo of one of the note/bullet assemblies.
A series of explosions left at least 31 people dead and wounded dozens Sunday as Iraqs relentless violence remained unabated despite an appeal from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for an end to sectarian fighting.
A U.S. soldier was killed Saturday night southeast of Baghdad when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb explosion, the U.S. military said. On Sunday, a bomb planted in a small bus detonated outside the Palestine hotel in downtown Baghdad, killing at least nine people and injuring 16, police and witnesses said. In the Palestine attack in the capital, the bomb planted in a small bus detonated shortly before noon near the hotels pedestrian entry point. AP Television News showed the white vehicle stopping and detonating in front of the hotels concrete blast walls. Bodies were strewn on the road around the blast site. It was not clear how the bomb was detonated.
Another car bomb exploded in the parking lot of a government-run newspaper in the capital, killing at least three people and injuring at least 29. The attack against the al-Sabah newspaper in a largely Sunni Arab neighbourhood set at least 25 cars on fire and badly damaged the newspaper building.
Continued on Page 49
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08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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...despite an appeal from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for an end to sectarian fighting. As if that would be enough anywhere in the world.
And they've only accounted for 13 dead. Maybe they're lysdexic? Why should I believe 31? There's no independent confirmation from unbiased sources.....
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/28/2006 5:55 Comments ||
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On Saturday, the prime minister appealed to Iraqis to support his national reconciliation plan to end the bloodshed.
But the persistent killings showed that is still At the end of the AP article at Yahoo (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060828/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq) is this little nugget:
On Saturday, the prime minister appealed to Iraqis to support his national reconciliation plan to end the bloodshed.
But the persistent killings showed that is still
a distant goal, even though it was endorsed by hundreds of tribal chiefs at a conference on Saturday who signed a "pact of honor" to support the prime minister's effort.
Almost forgot that, didn't you, AP?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/28/2006 5:59 Comments ||
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#3
One wonders if Iraqi children get to write an essay "What freedom means to my dad."?
#1
Apparently, Albert Speer couldn't have built it better. Hizbullah is no guerilla force, it is an arm of the Iranian Army pure and simple. And for the oil rich Iranians, money is no object...when it comes to murdering Jews...
(KUNA) -- The Abu-Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), claimed responsibility on Sunday for firing at an Israeli Armored Personnel Carrier in central Gaza strip. A brigade's statement, which KUNA received a copy of, said the soldier was hit and the militants were unharmed. The statement affirmed the operation was a retaliation act against the Israeli military operations and to commemorate martyrs and people of Al-Shajaiyeh neighborhood eastern Gaza, who are still facing Israeli military aggression. The statement concluded by stressing that resistance was a strategic option as part of the legitimate national struggle for liberation. The statement promised to keep resisting until the Palestine territories were liberated.
Meanwhile, al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, claimed responsibility today for attacking a group of Israeli soldiers in Rafah's international airport southern Gaza strip. The soldiers were attacked whilst on board of a tank hitting at least two of them, a brigade's statement said. The statement added that this operation came as a "natural response" on the Israeli aggressions against Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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I guess this is the Palestinian equivalent of counting coup.
#2
I'm thinking the paleos suffer from terminal stupidity. What national struggle for liberation? They were offerred everything they asked for a few years back only to reject it when agreed to. Oy.
#3
Israel = USA > now in a "Vietnam" "quagmire" of its own, vv [media-centric/PC]asymmetric warfare. Israel's enemy is now Radical Iran and militant Islamist fundmentalism, notsomuch Lebanon or even Syria. IS WHAT RADICAL IRAN WANTS FOR ANY AMER OR US-LED INVASION, AND ULTIMATELY FOR EUROPE=WESTERN DEMOCRACIES AS WELL. CASUALTIES = VICTORY, NO MATTER HOW MANY MUSLIMS, ESPEC SUNNIS/NON-SHIAS, ARE HURT OR DIE. Radical Iran may be Muslim, and may hate Israel, but are NOT for any ME or Muslim state NOT being controlled from Tehran or the Mullahocracy.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday killed three Palestinians and wounded two television cameramen, Palestinian officials and residents said. A Hamas militant was killed in an air raid, hospital officials said. The army later reported another strike against a group of Palestinians carrying an anti-tank missile. Hamas said one of its men was killed in that attack.
Another Palestinian was killed late Sunday in a similar strike aimed at militants carrying a missile near the Israeli border, residents said. The man was standing near his home, and it was not known whether he was a militant. The army confirmed the airstrike.
On Sunday afternoon, a 20-year-old Palestinian man was shot in the head by a sniper in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, hospital officials said. The army said the man approached troops while he was carrying an anti-tank missile.
You'd think the Paleos would get the idea that carrying missiles around in the open is a good way to get pegged.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday killed three Palestinians and wounded two television cameramen
Nice to see a clean strike in which no innocents get hurt.
A 19-year-old Palestinian was arrested Sunday at the Lion's Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem after an improvised spike was found in his possession, police said. The suspect told police investigators that he planned to stab policemen on the scene, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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IDF forces shot and wounded a Palestinian gunman armed with an anti-tank missile on the outskirts of the Sajaya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday. No IDF casualties were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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A majority of Jordan's parliament on Sunday endorsed the country's first anti-terrorism law, despite objections by some lawmakers that the bill curtails public freedoms. Jordan's King Abdullah II, who is also expected to sign the bill into law, called for the drafting of strict legislation for combating terrorism following November's triple Amman hotel blasts, which killed 60 people and three Iraqi suicide bombers linked to al-Qaida in Iraq.
The new anti-terrorism law, passed by a vote of acclamation in the Chamber of Deputies, is the first legislation in Jordan to specifically tackle issues considered a hazard to national security. Authorities previously depended on the country's penal code to handle terrorism-related issues.
Independent lawmaker Mahmoud Kharabsheh said the legislation restricted public freedoms, because it gave the state and military prosecutors considerable powers in investigating terror cases. "The bill is a clear violation of public law and human rights," he said. "People shouldn't be detained simply because they are suspected of wrongdoing."
A coalition of 15 Islamist lawmakers who representing the Islamic Action Front - the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement - also denounced the law, saying it encouraged terrorism because its "unjust clauses and sever punishments will oppress many people and lead to the creation of more terror groups."
The terrorism law deems that relations with any terrorist group and organization is an act of terror, whether through direct action or indirectly through financing. The bill also states that recruiting people for domestic or foreign terror networks is a terrorist action, as well as possessing, manufacturing or transporting any raw material that can be used in the production of weapons for use in attacks. Suspects can be detained for up to 30 days with no access to legal counsel, but after that period, they must either be released or formally charged. Under the penal code, terror suspects could be held up to 14 days of questioning, which could be renewable.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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there is a popular mandate opposing terrorism if Jordanians are the victim but probably the majority of the population supports terrorism if infidels (especially Israelis) are the victims
Israeli security forces detained a Palestinian politician from Hamas on Sunday, witnesses and the army said, as part of a two-month dragnet against senior officials from the governing Islamist faction. Witnesses said Mahmoud Musleh was taken into custody at his home in Ramallah, the Palestinians' cultural and political hub in the occupied West Bank. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the detention but declined to say why it was ordered.
The detentions have drawn foreign censure and speculation that Israel was gathering high-level "bargaining chips" to force Corporal Gilad Shalit's return.
Israel has detained at least 35 Hamas politicians and cabinet members since Gaza Strip gunmen, some from Hamas, killed two soldiers and abducted a third in a June 25 border raid. The detentions have drawn foreign censure and speculation that Israel was gathering high-level "bargaining chips" to force Corporal Gilad Shalit's return. Palestinian officials accused Israel of trying to topple the Hamas-led government. Israeli officials called the detentions a security measure. Formally dedicated to the Jewish state's destruction, Hamas helped spearhead a Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000, though it has largely abided by a cease-fire declared last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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Israel has detained at least 35 Hamas politicians and cabinet members since Gaza Strip gunmen, some from Hamas, killed two soldiers and abducted a third in a June 25 border raid.
Pretty soon, the Palestinians will have their own government-in-exile. That is, if you call an Israeli prison, "exile".
#2
Oh sure, we call for the destruction of your state, organize to massacre your people and celebrate those who indiscriminately kill your civilians, and suddenly we're the bad guys!
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
08/28/2006 3:23 Comments ||
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The detentions have drawn foreign censure
OK, geniuses, please either provide a better option or STFU. [Note: Better == something that stands a chance of actually working.]
and speculation that Israel was gathering high-level "bargaining chips" to force Corporal Gilad Shalit's return.
If that doesn't work, you could grab their families, too! It's called "speaking their language". Known to work well. [Another note: First wives probably don't have much pull! :-) ]
#4
Pretty soon, the Palestinians will have their own government-in-exile. That is, if you call an Israeli prison, "exile".
It's better food, better medical care. It's a vocation.
#5
it's gonna be tough getting a Paleo quorum outside of prison
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/28/2006 8:49 Comments ||
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though it has largely abided by a cease-fire declared last year.
Yeah, they're "largely" just shooting rockets into Israel now. And Reuters is just "largely" a corrupt and biased news organization (propoganda mouthpiece for terrorists).
#9
The More the Better.
I would Also put a ransom on their heads
Say... 15Million Dinar for a Hamas "politician" 30 Million for a "military Arm thug" and 50 Million Dinar for a Hamas Mullah or similar religious Holy Islamic Asshole.
This may actually be a good way to pay for the damages of the lebanon war and re-Equipping the IDF.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
08/28/2006 13:51 Comments ||
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Hamas Politician : A terrorist in the middle of reloading.
August 28, 2006: Indonesia has used its computer crime laws to arrest two Islamic terrorist suspects. One man was accused of creating a web site that showed techniques for murdering infidels (non-Moslems). The other man was accused of using the Internet to raise money for terrorist attacks. Most Indonesian Moslems practice a non-violent form of Islam. But several million Indonesians have taken up the more aggressive Wahhabi form of Islam. This has been brought into the country over the last three decades by Saudi Arabian, missionaries and millions of dollars of money from Wahhabi charities based in Saudi Arabia.
Gee, what a surprise...NOT!
Indonesia has spent the last four years battling Islamic terrorists, who made their first major attack in Bali, in 2002. That one killed over 200 people. Since then, there has been at least one major attack a year (20 or more dead), and many smaller attacks, mainly directed at non-Moslem Indonesians. The only media available to Islamic radicals is the Internet, and the government is attacking that outlet for all this hate.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/28/2006 10:07 ||
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Most Indonesian Moslems practice a non-violent form of Islam.
#4
After Iran and Syria are sorted, Ebbolugum Glaiper9193. To mix metaphors criminally, too many balls of that sort in the air would put a nasty kink in oil flows, which would severely injure the economies of Europe, Asia and even the poor countries of the world far more than the US economy.
Jakarta, 28 August (AKI/Jakarta Post) - Indonesian police are questioning a prison guard accused of helping convicted Bali bomber Imam Samudra obtain a laptop inside his cell, which he may have used to plan the second Bali bombings. The suspect, identified as Beni, was working at Bali's Kerobokan Penitentiary when Imam was imprisoned there for his role in the first bombings on the resort island in 2002.
Beni was detained last week while on duty at Puwokerto Penitentiary in Central Java. He is alleged to have received a laptop from Agung Setiadi, who was recently detained on allegations of abetting terrorism through the Internet, and then passed the computer on to Imam on death row. While police are confident that Beni provided the laptop to Imam, they say they are unsure about his motive. "We are still questioning the guard to try and find out his possible role in the terrorist bombing," National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam told The Jakarta Post.
Likely he just got bribed to smuggle the laptop to Imam
Police view Beni's statements as potentially important in uncovering how terrorists may be communicating over the Internet, including possibly planning future attacks.
Imam's lawyer Mahendradatta said his client denied any involvement in the second Bali bombings in 2005. "He said he never communicated with people outside of the prison over the Internet, nor did he possess a laptop. He would be pleased, of course, if he had one because he could write books using it," the lawyer said as quoted by detik.com news portal. Mahendradatta claimed authorities were fabricating links between his client and the second Bali bombings to thwart Imam's plan to file a final appeal of his conviction with the Supreme Court.
Imam and two others sentenced to death over the first Bali bombings, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, have said they will filed appeals with the Supreme Court. The government delayed the executions of the three which had been scheduled for Aug. 22 to give the court time to hear the appeals. Imam, Amrozi and Mukhlas are currently being held on the island prison of Nusa Kambangan in Cilacap, Central Java. "This case has been fabricated to create an image that my client is dangerous and that he doesn't deserve forgiveness," Mahendradatta said.
Yes to both
The lawyer said if police wanted to question Imam about the laptop, they should do so transparently and in accordance with the law. "An investigation behind closed doors could put my client in a bad situation, where he might be pressured to admit to the allegation," he said.
Mahendradatta said Imam had been pressured to give testimony accusing Abu Bakar Ba'asyir of taking part in the bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in South Jakarta. But Imam later testified in favor of Ba'asyir during his trial session, he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/28/2006 08:47 ||
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Cotabato City, 28 August (AKI) - Security forces in the Philippines have foiled a major terror attack as three suspected members of the home grown terrorist group, Abu Sayyaf, were arrested while boarding a Super Ferry in Parang, Maguindanao (Mindanao), bound for the capital Manila. The Filipino army's Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, Army's Sixth Infantry Division spokesperson, told reporters on Monday that the three were carrying explosives and that the attack was to be carried out in Manila.
"They were about to board the Superferry on Sunday when we arrested them. Our informer knew them as the bombers. Their initial plan was to board the ferry and carry out the bombings in Manila in exchange for money, he told reporters.
"Two improvised explosive devices were found on them," he added. The arrest of the three came as a report said the police fear bombings during the upcoming fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
A recently-released intelligence report warned that two explosive experts have arrived in Manila. The two experts allegedly belong to the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM), a small group of Filipino converts to Islam that has been linked to a number of deadly assaults, including the bombing that gutted one Super Ferry and killed 116 people in February 2004. In the Super Ferry attack, the RSM is known to have collaborated with Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a regional terrorist organization aiming to unite most of Southeast Asia into an Islamic caliphate.
Ando said that the foiled bombing could be part of diversionary tactic as soldiers continue the "Oplan Ultimatum," military operations to hunt down Abu Sayyaf leaders, particularly Khadaffy Janjalani, as well as Indonesians said to be members Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist network responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings which killed over 200 people. Active in Mindanao, the Abu Sayyaf and JI are on the European Union and US lists of terrorist groups.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/28/2006 08:32 ||
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Police acting on a tip have arrested at least 17 people and seized a major cache of weapons near the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. Authorities say the weapons confiscated by police Saturday included grenades and other explosives. Officials say the suspects were planning a major attack on the capital. The find comes on the same day a bomb blast killed six soldiers and wounded several in the northern Jaffna peninsula. The improvised device exploded as soldiers cleaned up the area after a failed attempt by Tamil Tiger rebels to capture the peninsula.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Tigers released a policeman who had been held for nearly a year after he strayed into rebel territory while pursuing a pedophile. His release followed a request from Ulf Henricsson, the outgoing head of the team monitoring the 2002 ceasefire between the government and rebels.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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Officials in Sri Lanka say a ferry carrying more than 150 foreign nationals and aid workers from the troubled northern Jaffna Peninsula has arrived at an eastern port. The ferry, flying an International Committee of the Red Cross flag, docked at Trincomalee early Sunday. It is one of several ferries planned to evacuate foreign passport holders from the war-torn region. As the vessel pulled into port, artillery fire could be heard in the distance.
Many foreign aid agencies have been forced to stop work and pull staff out of Jaffna until it becomes clear whether a 2002 ceasefire will hold, or Sri Lanka returns to civil war. The United Nations says intense fighting in the north and east between Tamil rebels and government forces has forced more than 200-thousand people from their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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Tehran, 28 August (AKI) - Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on Monday criticised an incentives package offered by six world powers to convince Tehran to halt uranium enrichment work and stressed that the government will not abandon its nuclear programme, which the international community fears is aimed at building nuclear weapons. "The West cannot make fun of us by offering cooperation in the agricultural sector or the internet while we are demanding nuclear technology," said Larijani, speaking just ahead of a UN deadline on 31 August threatening Iran with economic sanctions if it fails to stop enriching uranium.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany offered on 6 June an incentives package to Tehran to convince it to abandon its programme. Tehran was referred back to the Security Council mid July after the six countries decided that Iran was not considering the proposal seriously. Details of the package have not been made public. However reports say Iran was offered among other things assistance to build a light-water nuclear reactor for civilian use.
In his address broadcast by Iranian state television on Monday, Larijani called the package a "lollypop."
Meanwhile on Monday the president of the Iranian parliament Gholam Ali Haddad Adel announced that "good nuclear news are upcoming." Iranian officials have used the term good news to describe progress in its nuclear technology.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/28/2006 16:25 ||
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The five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany offered on 6 June an incentives package .... but no gummie bears or pony.
#3
We could offer Iran everything they want inexchange for stopping their nuclear development program and still would not get results. They want atomic weapons and nothing less. Anyone who is unclear on this has a shoe-size IQ.
#6
Why do we persist with this UN sham?
We already know what Iran will say on the 31st
"P@#$ off. We'll do what we want and anyway what are you going to do about it you bunch of pansies?
I hope there's a reason we're playing for time too.
Beirut, 28 August (AKI) - UN secretary general Kofi Annan in Beirut at the start of a Middle East tour has said the fragile ceasefire is holding and urged Israel to lift its air and sea embargo on Lebanon. "I fear the risk is great of the renewal of hostilities," he told a press conference, after talks in the Lebanese capital with prime minister Fuad Siniora and other leaders. His mission will also take him to Israel, Syria and Iran.
Annan told the parties involved that the UN resolution 1701, that allowed a ceasefire to come into force on 14 August, must be implemented in its entirety. "It is a fixed menu, it is not a buffet, not a smorgasbord, not a la carte."
"And now, excuse me. It's time for my lunch"
Annan added that all nations in the region must respect the embargo on arms shipments into Lebanon. He said that during his meeting with a minister of Hezbollah he had urged the group to hand over the two ISraeli soldiers kidnapped on 12 July.
He said the planned UN led peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon UNIFIL "now has nearly 9,000 troops", adding that Muslim countries will participate.Turkey's cabinet on Monday agreed in principle to sending troops, though it must be approved by parliament.
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08/28/2006 16:14 ||
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"I fear the risk is great of the renewal of hostilities,"
What a prophetic bit of predictive analysis. Such profound insight! How did he ever escape the employment web of the CIA?
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey's Cabinet decided Monday in favor of sending peacekeepers to Lebanon and will seek parliamentary approval for the deployment, officials said. Parliament will convene to debate the deployment as early as next week, government spokesman Cemil Cicek said.
"In principle, we've decided to join the U.N. peacekeeping mission," Cicek said.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/28/2006 09:43 ||
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I'll take the wing
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/28/2006 19:58 Comments ||
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Lebanese army forces stopped a shipment of weapons from Syria on Friday at the Syrian-Lebanese border, the London-based daily Al-Hayat reported on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
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Whoa! What did they do with it after they stopped it?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/28/2006 6:23 Comments ||
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What did they do with it after they stopped it?
Told the driver to fix rear break light, and sent him on his way.
An increasingly defiant Iran, resisting pressure to halt its uranium enrichment activities by a Thursday deadline, inaugurated a heavy-water nuclear reactor Saturday and then, as if to punctuate its point, fired a long-range missile on Sunday from a submarine in the Gulf.
Brilliant. Simply brilliant.
Washington, in its own diplomatic escalation, has increasingly dropped hints that the United States might organize tougher economic sanctions against Iran, independent of the United Nations, if the Security Council fails to do so.
This is known as "shucking the bucket from the national foot."
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the reactor near Arak, southwest of Tehran, a provocative gesture coming days before the deadline set by the Security Council for Iran to halt its enrichment work. But while vowing to pursue nuclear work, Ahmadinejad insisted that "we are not a threat for any country."
"Yeah. Trust us on that."
Nuclear experts say, however, that heavy-water facilities are more useful for weapons than civilian purposes, because they produce lots of plutonium, the preferred ingredient for missile warheads.
Yeah. There is that. But really, they're not gonna do that. Really. They're gonna do... ummm... something else.
"Iran will continue its enrichment," its chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, was quoted as having told the Iranian news agency ISNA, Reuters reported from Tehran. "We will never stop it."
"Never! We're gonna enrich uranium until the day we all die!"
Iran seemed to be playing on the doubts that appear to be dividing the Security Council on whether to carry out the threatened sanctions. Russia and China, both permanent members of the council, supported the resolution that set the deadline. But since last Tuesday, when Iran sent a 21-page proposal to the five permanent members and Germany, leaving open the possibility of suspending enrichment once negotiations began, they have cooled to the sanctions talk. Britain and France have also been less insistent about sanctions than has the United States.
This is the diplotactic known as "divide and conquer." I don't think any of us had any doubts as to how the lineup was going to fall out.
Iran appears to have concluded that the United States is too bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan to want to engage in another conflict in the region
Iran, according to political analysts in Tehran, appears to have concluded that the United States is too bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan to want to engage in another conflict in the region, and it believes that the perceived victory of Hezbollah in its war with Israel has strengthened Iran's political capital in the region. Iran is a supporter of Hezbollah. The Security Council will base its next move partly on a report Thursday from the International Atomic Energy Agency on the Iranian nuclear program. It appears virtually certain that the agency will conclude that nuclear enrichment activity is continuing, according to diplomats quoted by Reuters.
I don't think even the IAEA is capable of the sort of mental convolutions that'd be required to say that it's not...
One senior diplomat said that the focus on Iran's refusing to halt enrichment should not distract attention from what he said was Iran's "thoughtful counterproposal that did not rule out suspension as part of negotiations." This, he said, was "as positive as anyone could have hoped."
Actually, "okay" would be as positive as anyone could have hoped. The "thoughtful counterproposal," followed by firing up the reactor and the missile launch, was about what we were expecting.
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, is scheduled to visit Tehran on Saturday, two days after the deadline.
Right. That'll help.
John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, reportedly has conferred with countries that include Britain and Japan on the possibility that an independent coalition of countries could impose economic sanctions if the Security Council fails to do so. The United States already subjects Iran to some trade and financial constraints. "You don't need Security Council authority to impose sanctions, just as we have," Bolton told The Los Angeles Times, in an interview.
Time to give the UN the ditch in practice, even if we continue lip servicing the organization...
France has termed the Iranian response "not satisfactory," but Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said that France wanted to avoid moving toward a "clash of civilizations."
"Y'see, if we let them roll right over us, why, it'll soon be all over and they'll be rolling over somebody else, and we'll probably still have something left. And if we move at just the right time, why, we can change sides, and then they'll let us roll with them. This is the new Eurostrategy!"
"The worst thing would be to escalate into a confrontation with Iran on the one hand - and the Muslim world with Iran - and the West," he told a French radio interviewer. "That would be the clash of civilizations that France today is practically alone in trying to avoid."
By this point, France is practically alone in failing to recognize that it's been under way for years.
Even as the Bush administration explores independent sanctions, some in Washington have expressed doubts that the United States, with its heavy military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its own political capital in the region damaged, has many attractive options. "It's a really bad situation," Senator Joseph Biden said Sunday on Fox Television. Biden, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said that the United States should continue pressing other countries to support sanctions, but that if that effort failed, there was little the United States could do. "We'll need to come up with a serious containment policy for the region," he said.
"Containment" means letting them continue to do what they've been doing, which is establishing themselves as the regional hegemons, and trying to stay out of their way while they do it. What neither Biden nor the Medes and the Persians comprehend is that the bulk of the U.S. military isn't in Iraq or Afghanistan, nor the two together. Neither do they understand that there's a difference between combined arms operations and occupation duty. When the balloon actually goes up, assuming we don't fall victim to Casualty Avoidance Syndrome, the U.S. military will roll over the Elite Revolutionary Guards and the Basij bully boyz in something under two weeks, with something on the order of 200 or fewer friendly casualties.
The details of the Iranian response presented Tuesday were not released. But Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the Iranian daily newspaper Kayhan, said that the Iranian document noted 50 "ambiguities" in the incentives package offered to Iran in exchange for halting its nuclear activities. These would require clarification, said Shariatmadari, who was appointed by Iran's Fearless supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Meaning they intend to by more time by interminable talking and occasionally walking out in a huff.
The Iranian missile fired Sunday came from a submarine involved in military exercises in the Gulf, the Iranian state television reported, Reuters said. While the missile was described as a long-range radar-evading Sagheb or Thaqeb air-defense missile, a brief video clip shown on television showed it emerging from the water before hitting a target on the surface less than a short distance away, The Associated Press reported.
That would imply it's a modification of an air defense missile, assuming the description's correct...
Iran conducted war exercises in the Gulf in April as well. Analysts said those seemed to send the message that Iran could disrupt vital oil shipping lanes if outside powers pressed it too hard.
By shutting down the Straights of Hormuz. That used to be the example the Dems used for a war they could support, up until Gulf War I.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ahmadinejad insisted that "we are not a threat for any country.
"What about your vow to wipe Israel off of the map?"
"Well, of course there's Israel."
"And what about The Great Satan, America."
"Well, yes, The United States, too."
"And what about America's lapdog Britain."
"I suppose they're on the list, too."
"And Britain's colony, Australia?"
"Look. Besides Israel, The United States of America, The United Kingdom, Australia and most of Europe, we're really not a threat for anyone at all. Is that clear?"
#2
After starting reactor, Iran fires a Gulf missile, then hangs half dozen teenage girls before the noon prayers, and stones a few women to death who were immodest enuff to be raped.
The Iranian government isn't civilized so this doesn't apply. :-)
Anyway, the reactor thingy seems like a replay of NKor's moves with their reactor five minutes before they claimed to have a bomb. Which I still mostly doubt.
#5
UN Sanctions are not going to make any difference because:
1) the Russkies, Chinese and possibly Eurabians will deal with Ahmadi under the table.
2) Ahmadibaby is willing to starve 20 million of his compatriots to death which he would consider a small sacrifice for achieving Nuclear capabilities and Hegemony in the region.
The only solution is and will remain a strong US counterstrike (possibly with some tactical nuclear weapons thrown in) to decapitate the snake.
The longer the US waits, the heavier will be the price that western civilization will pay in lost lives and economical devastation.
I know I sound like a F****ing proffet but I really believe this.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
08/28/2006 13:42 Comments ||
Top||
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At least 17 people have been killed and many more injured in a suspected suicide bombing in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials say. The blast ripped through a crowded bazaar in the town of Lashkar Gah. A spokesman for the provincial governor told the Associated Press news agency that the bomber had blown himself up opposite a police station. 
RIYADH, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has released over 700 suspected militants after clerics "corrected" their thinking in a special programme aimed at stemming a three-year-old campaign of violence by al Qaeda, officials said. 
A third man was charged with terrorist offences over suspected attempts to bomb passenger trains in Germany, a prosecutor said on Saturday, adding that more arrests in the case may follow. The 23-year-old Syrian, named as Fadi A.S., was charged with belonging to a terrorist group, attempted murder and trying to cause an explosion, said a statement from the federal prosecutor's office in this southwest German city. "Other members of a terrorist organization, currently unknown, may possibly" have taken part in the attempted bombing, the statement added.
Ten Britons have been injured after three explosions hit a holiday resort in Turkey, the Foreign Office has said. The blasts happened in the past few hours at the coastal resort of Marmaris. At least one appeared to be on a bus, witnesses said. All ten injured Britons are in hospital with four in a serious condition. Six people have also been injured in Istanbul after a bomb exploded late on Sunday night, the Anatolia news agency reported. The Foreign Office had no further details on the cause of explosions or the exact location. 
(KUNA) -- Nine people were seriously injured in a bomb attack on a coffee shop in Serb-dominated Mitrovica town in northern Kosovo late Saturday, according to the radio of Pristina on Sunday. The radio, picked up here, quoted a police statement as saying an unknown man tossed a bomb inside a coffee shop frequented by ethnic Serbs in Mitrovica injuring seven of them and two of the international mission in Kosovo. A Brit working with the international police force and a Dutch woman working in the UN in Kosovo were rushed to a military hospital operated by the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo's regional capital, Pristina.
Violent nationwide protests flared for a second day yesterday against the Pakistan militarys killing of rebel tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti as police arrested hundreds of rioters. Local political groups said Bugtis death had sparked a never-ending war. 
QUETTA -- A bomb blast damaged a government building and arsonists set fire to a telephone exchange in southwestern Pakistan on Sunday amid violent protests sparked by a prominent tribal chief's killing, a police official said. 
A series of explosions left at least 31 people dead and wounded dozens Sunday as Iraqs relentless violence remained unabated despite an appeal from Prime Minister 
(KUNA) -- The Abu-Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), claimed responsibility on Sunday for firing at an Israeli Armored Personnel Carrier in central Gaza strip. A brigade's statement, which KUNA received a copy of, said the soldier was hit and the militants were unharmed. The statement affirmed the operation was a retaliation act against the Israeli military operations and to commemorate martyrs and people of Al-Shajaiyeh neighborhood eastern Gaza, who are still facing Israeli military aggression. The statement concluded by stressing that resistance was a strategic option as part of the legitimate national struggle for liberation. The statement promised to keep resisting until the Palestine territories were liberated.
A 19-year-old Palestinian was arrested Sunday at the Lion's Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem after an improvised spike was found in his possession, police said. The suspect told police investigators that he planned to stab policemen on the scene, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.
A majority of Jordan's parliament on Sunday endorsed the country's first anti-terrorism law, despite objections by some lawmakers that the bill curtails public freedoms. Jordan's King Abdullah II, who is also expected to sign the bill into law, called for the drafting of strict legislation for combating terrorism following November's triple Amman hotel blasts, which killed 60 people and three Iraqi suicide bombers linked to al-Qaida in Iraq. 
Israeli security forces detained a Palestinian politician from Hamas on Sunday, witnesses and the army said, as part of a two-month dragnet against senior officials from the governing Islamist faction. Witnesses said Mahmoud Musleh was taken into custody at his home in Ramallah, the Palestinians' cultural and political hub in the occupied West Bank. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the detention but declined to say why it was ordered.
Police acting on a tip have arrested at least 17 people and seized a major cache of weapons near the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. Authorities say the weapons confiscated by police Saturday included grenades and other explosives. Officials say the suspects were planning a major attack on the capital. The find comes on the same day a bomb blast killed six soldiers and wounded several in the northern Jaffna peninsula. The improvised device exploded as soldiers cleaned up the area after a failed attempt by Tamil Tiger rebels to capture the peninsula.
Officials in Sri Lanka say a ferry carrying more than 150 foreign nationals and aid workers from the troubled northern Jaffna Peninsula has arrived at an eastern port. The ferry, flying an International Committee of the Red Cross flag, docked at Trincomalee early Sunday. It is one of several ferries planned to evacuate foreign passport holders from the war-torn region. As the vessel pulled into port, artillery fire could be heard in the distance.
Lebanese army forces stopped a shipment of weapons from Syria on Friday at the Syrian-Lebanese border, the London-based daily Al-Hayat reported on Sunday.
An increasingly defiant Iran, resisting pressure to halt its uranium enrichment activities by a Thursday deadline, inaugurated a heavy-water nuclear reactor Saturday and then, as if to punctuate its point, fired a long-range missile on Sunday from a submarine in the Gulf.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the reactor near Arak, southwest of Tehran, a provocative gesture coming days before the deadline set by the Security Council for Iran to halt its enrichment work. But while vowing to pursue nuclear work, Ahmadinejad insisted that "we are not a threat for any country."
"Containment" means letting them continue to do what they've been doing, which is establishing themselves as the regional hegemons, and trying to stay out of their way while they do it. What neither Biden nor the Medes and the Persians comprehend is that the bulk of the U.S. military isn't in Iraq or Afghanistan, nor the two together. Neither do they understand that there's a difference between combined arms operations and occupation duty. When the balloon actually goes up, assuming we don't fall victim to Casualty Avoidance Syndrome, the U.S. military will roll over the Elite Revolutionary Guards and the Basij bully boyz in something under two weeks, with something on the order of 200 or fewer friendly casualties.
