AP KANDAHAR A NATO plane crashed Saturday in southern Afghanistan, killing 14 British troops, according to a spokesman and the British Ministry of Defense. The International Security Assistance Force said the plane had reported a technical problem before going down and hostile fire did not appear to be the cause. The British Ministry of Defense said the dead included 12 Royal Air Force personnel, a Royal Marine and an army soldier. God rest their souls.
A SUICIDE bomb wounded three people including a foreign soldier in Afghanistan today, while officials reported that 14 people were killed in a series of Taliban attacks. The suicide blast - the latest in a rash of such attacks carried out by the Taliban - was near the eastern city of Jalalabad.
The attacker exploded a bomb-filled car near a convoy of the US-led coalition just outside the city, police said. A coalition soldier, an Afghan troop and an interpreter were hurt, they said. The coalition confirmed that one of its troops, whose nationality was not released, and an interpreter were wounded in a bomb blast near the city.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An insurgent attack killed one British soldier and seriously wounded another Friday in the latest fighting to wrack southern Afghanistan, while suspected Taliban gunmen ambushed and shot dead a district chief, officials said. Insurgents attacked the British soldiers in the southern province of Helmand at 4 p.m., according to statements from NATO and the British Ministry of Defense. One militant was killed in the fighting. The wounded soldier was evacuated for medical treatment.
Britain has nearly 4,000 troops deployed in Helmand as part of a NATO-led security force battling to bring security to turbulent southern Afghanistan. Twenty-two British soldiers have died in the country since November 2001, 17 of them in March when the NATO force moved into Helmand, the hub of Afghanistan's world-leading heroin industry. The province has seen the worst of the recent fighting, during the biggest surge in violence in nearly five years since the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime by U.S.-led forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Thank you for standing by us Great Britain. I pray we will continue to be worthy partners.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2006 10:58 Comments ||
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#3
Missing piece of information is the (surely large) number of Taliban casualties in the operation. I've no doubt the escort of enemy that preceded our lad was respectible indeed. Rest in peace, good sir, and may your fellow heal quickly and completely, and return to exact rightful punishment from those who would inflict their evil on the world.
Reliable sources informed El Khabar that joint security forces killed a terrorist originating from Saida. The operation happened in the area of Marine south of Sidi Belabbès province, known for its hard mountains. The terrorist was 40 years old. "The joint security forces, who were combing the area, shot the terrorist in a confrontation with a group of terrorists. The joint security forces could take back a machine gun from the terrorist in question", the same sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Tizi Ouzous security commission attributed abductions carried out last month in the area to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). Five businessmen were abducted for a ransom in return of their release. The fifth abduction occurred last weekend in Larbâa Nathirathen. Even if responsibility was not claimed by the Salafist Group, investigations lead to it. Most of the abducted people released after their relatives paid a ransom confirmed they dealt with terrorists.
The first abducted was the owner of a pub in Iflisene (Tizi Ouzou). His abduction occurred late December 2005. The second was an owner of a nightclub in Tigzirt. Haddad Public works Group owners brother was then kidnapped. In Draa Benkhedda, a printing business owner El Aures was released in return for a ransom of one billion centimes. The last was an entrepreneur in Larbâa Nathirathen, who was kidnapped last week to be the fifth business to be targeted in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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If Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman permits, his family will appeal against the High Court verdict that confirmed death sentence to seven JMB kingpins including the chief and his top aide Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai on August 31 in the judges killing case. "If they allow us we will file appeal for Abdur Rahman, his younger brother Ataur Rahman Sunny and son-in-law Abdul Awal," Abdur Rahman's younger sister Atika Begum said. She, however, expressed fear that the mujahids would not allow filing an appeal because they have no faith in 'man-made' law.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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A notorious robber of the Sundarbans was killed in an encounter between members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and his accomplices at West Bisharighata under Morrelganj Police Station of Bagerhat district early yesterday.
And Bagerhat's a better place for it...
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-6 arrested Mujibur Aratdar, 50, also an illegal arms trader, at Tafalbari Bazar under Swarankhola upazila of the district on Thursday night.
"Stick 'em up! Yer goin' downtown, Mujibur!"
On his confessional statement, the Rab men along with Mujibur set out for Bisharighata at about 2:40am to arrest his cohorts and recover illegal firearms.
"Wake up, Mujibur! We're goin' to Bisharighata!"
"Where? Hey! It's the middle of the night! What time is it?"
When they reached there, Mujibur's accomplices opened fire on the law enforcers, prompting them to retaliate.
"It's the RAB! Open fire, men!"
"Who said that? I don't see anyone!"
According to Rab, Mujibur received bullets during the shootout and died instantly.
"Who're you shooting at? I don't... Aaaaaiiiieeee!... Rosebud!"
One home-made gun, five live cartridges and one used bullet shell were recovered from the spot.
"Put 'em back in the plastic bag, Sergeant Mahmoud!"
Rab said Mujibar was wanted in several criminal cases, including two for murder, recorded with Swarankhola Police Station.
"Aye! He wuz a bad 'un!"
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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El Tigre The notorious Sundarban Mugger was reportedly hunted down in the Mangrove Swamps and dispatched by The Long Carbines Shutter Guns of the Rapid Action Battalion.
the exotic Sundarban + RAB + one used bullet shell, and the story writes itself.
~~
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-6 arrested Mujibur Aratdar, 50, also an illegal arms trader, at Trafalgar Bazar under Swarankhola upazila of the district on Thursday night.
Mujibur received bullets during the shootout
it's always better to give than receive..
#2
One home-made gun, five live cartridges and one used bullet shell were recovered from the spot.
AHAH, a new translator. So maybe the "Shutter Gun" translates into "Homemede" sorta like trying to explain "Zip Gun" to a Pakistani, mighty hard to explain the "Zip" part, it's slang.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/02/2006 12:29 Comments ||
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BRITISH police said today they had arrested 14 men in a major new anti-terrorism operation in the capital just three weeks after uncovering a suspected plot to bring down US-bound airliners over the Atlantic.
Officers arrested the men in raids in south and east London on Friday night and early today. "Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's Anti-Terrorist Branch have arrested 14 men under the Terrorism Act 2000 in a pre-planned, intelligence-led operation," London police said in a statement. The men were arrested on suspicion of "the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism", and were being held at a central London police station, police said.
They gave no details of what the men were suspected of doing, but said the operation was not related to the arrests of more than 20 people on August 9-10 in connection with an alleged plot by a group of British Muslims to blow up US-bound airliners using liquid explosives. Nor were they related to the July 7 attacks last year when four British Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people in rush-hour attacks on London transport, they said.
The police said the arrests followed many months of surveillance and investigation in a joint operation involving the police anti-terrorist branch and the security service. Searches were being carried out at houses in south, east and north London, they said.
The BBC said one of the raids was at a south London restaurant where about 40 police officers in riot gear entered premises packed with diners on Friday night, taking some people away in handcuffs.
#2
Damn Lutherans, no doubt, getting all torked about humiliations to lutefisk and jello salads. It has to be....can't incite them by mentioning their religion by name.
Those savage Sufis?
Those barbarous Buddhists?
Those horrendous Hindus?
Those zealous Zoroastrians?
Those craven Coptics?
Those wearisome Wiccans?
Those sneaky Shintos?
Those abominable Anglicans?
Those pestilential Pentacostals?
Those barbarous Baha'is?
Those ravening Rastafarians?
Those unprincipaled Unitarians?
Those peccant Pagans?
Those awful Animists?
Those monstrous Mormons?
Those savage Sikhs?
#6
Glomong Floluse5379 - Can you post a link to where the JI info comes from? I've looked at several other articles about this and haven't been able to locate that tidbit. Thanks.
#12
Ha! How'bout them Thetans... whatsa... Scientologists?
Those conniving Scientologists?
Catholics
Calvinists (A sad. sad bunch)
Utraquists
Adamists (granted, they were anihilated in 15th century by Utraquists, but if some remained they would hold a big motha grudge, admittedly Cathars may have one up)
#24
Czech? Trailing daughter #1 used to sing "Kola, kola mlinski" with a perfect Brrrrrno accent, twobyfour, back in the the day. ;-) Zenster, nice list. A couple of those I'll have to go look up. :-)
This new plot may well be not related to the airplane highjack plan, but clearly the people were, mmmm, connected. Even related, perhaps.
#25
In a series of dramatic anti-terror raids around London, police have arrested 14 people over Friday and Saturday. The men are suspected to have been involved in encouraging, training and recruiting for terror attacks.
The Daily Telegraph has identified the men as "mainly young British Muslims of Pakistani origin".
They have been arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 after months of surveillance involving Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch and MI5. Two others were arrested in an unrelated terror investigation in Manchester.
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2006 16:50 Comments ||
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#26
The police have declined to give details, saying only that the 14 men have been arrested on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
Officers are searching other homes around the capital, they said. The Jameah Islamiyah Secondary School, a Muslim school in East Sussex, south of London, also is being searched.
Twelve suspects were arrested at a south London halal Chinese restaurant raided by 40 officers shortly after 10 pm Friday, the BBC said. Mehdi Belyani, owner of Bridge to China Town, the halal Chinese restaurant near London South Bank University in Southwark, said police questioned about 15 men eating together.
"The police stayed for more than two hours talking to the group one by one," he said. "The men were very calm and I could not hear what was being said. But my other customers were all very shocked."
In Manchester, northern England, two people were arrested early Saturday as part of an unrelated anti-terror investigation after officers searched three houses in the Cheetham Hill area, police said.
Those actions were part of the same investigation that led to the August 23 arrest of a terror suspect in Manchester. The two suspects are relatives of the man arrested earlier, said Omar Shaukat, a family friend. Neither he nor police identified the suspects.
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2006 16:52 Comments ||
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#27
Only weeks after Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen expressed disapproval of Muslim and other faith schools in Britain, police have swooped on the Jameah Islamiyah Secondary School in Mark Cross, near Crowborough, East Sussex, an institution with only a handful of pupils but a 100-room building and set in 54 acres of grounds.
The school, which was condemned by government inspectors for its poor academic work, was being searched by police today but so far no arrests have been made.
In anti-terrorist raids overnight and early today, 14 Muslims, thought to be mainly British Pakistanis, have been arrested in London, several of them at a Chinese restaurant. Armed police swarmed into The Bridge to China Town in Borough, south London, ordered diners to stop eating, closed the kitchens and took several people away.
Another two have been arrested in Manchester by 50 policemen. These are tough times for young British Pakistanis who feel they are increasingly being demonised as the enemy within.
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2006 17:04 Comments ||
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#28
Crudites!
They were a lesser known people group from Asia Minor. They enjoyed raw vegetables before being displaced by the Hittites.
Two failed attempts to bomb trains in western Germany in July had originally been planned for the football World Cup, a newspaper reported on Friday. The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung cited security sources as saying interrogation of the suspects had established that the would-be bombers had abandoned the original plan as they had considered the implications of such an attack. One of the bombs was found in July on a train in Dortmund, which hosted some of June and July's World Cup matches. The other was found on a train in Koblenz.
Extracts of the article, released in advance of Saturday's publication, also said the suspects belonged to a "new generation of terrorists" who worked together in cells for a short time. German police have said the bombs, crude devices made of propane gas, could have killed many people had they gone off.
A series of arrests have been made in Germany and Lebanon but Focus magazine reported in its online edition that two men being held in Beirut would not be delivered to Germany. "They are Lebanese citizens, they must be tried here and be punished here," Focus quoted Lebanese Attorney General Said Mirza as saying. Lebanese authorities have said the suspects may be linked to al Qaeda.
#2
A series of arrests have been made in Germany and Lebanon but Focus magazine reported in its online edition that two men being held in Beirut would not be delivered to Germany.
Of course not. They'll be given token sentences (two weeks house arrest, maybe) then treated like kings.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/02/2006 15:31 Comments ||
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"Extracts of the article, released in advance of Saturday's publication, also said the suspects belonged to a 'new generation of terrorists' new generation of jihadis whose very existence will be blamed on the US who worked together in cells for a short time."
Militants killed two schoolteachers, and two civilians and a soldier were wounded in a day of violence in Indian held Kashmir, officials said on Friday.
In the village of Pelhipora, some 65 kilometres south of Srinagar, militants abducted two men overnight and beat them badly. One of the men, a schoolteacher, died, said police officer Imtiyaz Hussain. Hussain said the two had refused to cooperate with the militants who had been there several days before.
In the neighbouring village of Padarpora, a schoolteacher suspected of being a police informer was shot dead, Hussain said. Also on Friday, an army patrol near the village of Dogripora, 35 kilometres (south of Srinagar, spotted some alleged militants and opened fire. The gunmen returned fire, wounding a soldier and a civilian caught in the crossfire, said army spokesman Colonel Hemant Juneja. However, villagers said the army shot the civilian after he refused to cooperate in their searches. Juneja denied this.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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The authorities have released more than 100 prisoners since June 25...
North Waziristan on Friday released 13 suspected tribal militants after negotiations with a grand tribal jirga (council). A tribal elder said that the political authorities had held a meeting with the jirga before releasing the suspected militants. The authorities have released more than 100 prisoners since June 25 when local Taliban announced a unilateral ceasefire in North Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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KHAR: Suspected Islamic militants bombed two unmanned security posts
no one had claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Islamic militants had issued warnings against building the posts...
on a road in a tribal region in northwestern Pakistan early on Friday, but there were no casualties, an official said. Troops had not yet been deployed to the newly built posts in Bajaur, said Mutahir Zeb, a senior government official. He said that no one had claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Islamic militants had issued warnings against building the posts. Security forces detained eight local tribesmen for questioning.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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MULTAN: The Multan No 2 Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday sentenced one of the key accused in the Rasheedabd car bomb case to a 40-count death sentence, 10-year imprisonment and a total fine of Rs 24.1 million, including compensation for the victims' families. Public prosecutor Mahar Najaf Ali Mahay told APP that ATC-2 Judge Chaudhry Ameer Muhammad Khan had announced the sentencing in the presence of the defendant, Syed Irfan Ali. Irfan was involved in the car bomb blast that killed 40 people and wounded 76 others in Multan on the morning of October 7, 2004.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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The Multan No 2 Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday sentenced one of the key accused in the Rasheedabd car bomb case to a 40-count death sentence, 10-year imprisonment and a total fine of Rs 24.1 million, including compensation for the victims' families.
And a wonderful time was had by all, except for the dead guys and the kid who was shot in the eye.
QUETTA/KARACHI: Two rangers were killed in Karachi in a strike across Balochistan and in Karachi on the call of the ARD, the MMA and the four-party Baloch National Alliance to protest the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The strike paralysed provincial routine as business centres, shops, educational institutions and government offices remained shut and angry protesters blocked all highways connecting Balochistan to other provinces.
The protesters burnt tyres and shouted anti-government slogans and there were reports that some protesters burnt the Pakistani flag...
The protesters burnt tyres and shouted anti-government slogans and there were reports that some protesters burnt the Pakistani flag during a demonstration in Mekran.
Large police contingents patrolled the city all day long while several Baloch leaders and students were arrested for involvement in protests. While the ARD leaders claimed that the strike was successful, Raziq Bugti, spokesman for the Balochistan government, said the strike had failed as most shops were closed because of Friday prayers.
In Panjgur, protesters set ablaze the offices of union councils of Essai and Khudabadan, a public library and three shops owned by Punjabis. Men opened fire on the DPOs office and also damaged a PTV tower.
A journalist told Daily Times that the city echoed with gunshots throughout the day while protesters attacked a madrassa and injured two students...
A journalist told Daily Times that the city echoed with gunshots throughout the day while protesters attacked a madrassa and injured two students. Police also arrested a BNM leader and 70 political activists. A mob set a post office and a railway office on fire in Nokundi while a police station was burnt in Hoshab. At least 135 protesters were arrested in Khuzdar. There were complete but relatively peaceful strikes in Hub, Turbat, Gwadar, Kalat, Mastung, Noshaki and other areas.
In Karachi, two Rangers were killed and 15 people including a town police officer were injured during a successful citywide strike. Rangers SI Misri Khan and Lance Naik Ghulam Abbas were returning to Malir when they were shot dead. Keamari TPO Athar Rasheed Butt was injured in a clash in Lyari and an 8-year-old boy was shot in the eye in the same area. There were violent strikes in Landhi, Malir, Memon Goth, Chakra Goth, Jamshed Road, Old Golimar, Lasbela, Pak Colony, Dalmia and SITE. More than 60 people were detained during the course of the day.
Several couples who stayed at beach huts at Hawkesbay, Sandspit and Paradise Point on Thursday night were unable to reach home as Hawkesbay Road was closed off by protesters. When some of the couples ventured out they faced an angry mob and several of their cars were damaged. There were partial strikes in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad and Peshawar amid tight security while business was routine in Mirpur Khas and Lahore, where the business community and transporters rejected the oppositions strike call.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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QUETTA: Tribal chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, who was killed in a military operation on August 26, was laid quietly to rest amidst tight security at 10am in Dera Bugti on Friday.
A plywood box sealed by two Chinese-made locks contained Bugti's body. None of the late Nawab's family was at the burial...
A plywood box sealed by two Chinese-made locks contained Bugti's body. None of the late Nawab's family was at the burial, which was attended by Dera Bugti District Coordination Officer (DCO) Abdul Samad Lasi and a few members of the recently elected Bugti tribal jirga. According to AP, journalists at the graveyard demanded that the coffin be opened for them to see Bugti's body, but the DCO refused, saying "it is illegal to show his face".
"The funeral prayers were attended by around 20 people, and nobody was shown Bugti's face except for prayer leader Maulana Maluk Bugti and the DCO," a witness told Daily Times. "The body, which government officials claimed had been damaged, was kept in a locked coffin," he added. Bugti was laid to rest beside his younger brother Ahmed Nawaz Bugti, a former member of the National Assembly who died last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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sealed by two Chinese-made locks contained Bugti's body.
#7
In Baluchistan, the Pakistani Army is directly subverting the traditional rule of the tribal chiefs.
In Waziristan, it is being done by their proxies - the Taliban. Talibs are killing the tribal leaders at will now.
Both are for the same reason... the tribal chiefs will be far more accomodating to American and western armed forces hunting Taliban.
By replacing the tribal chiefs with mullahs, the ISI hopes to keep control over the regions and limit American activities.
It is essential for Pakistan to keep their jihad infrastruture intact and maintain the wars they fight in Afghanistan and Indian Kashmir.
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2006 16:00 Comments ||
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#8
Remember Nawab Bugti's comtemptuous dismissal of jihad - "Waht use have I for a God that needs me to fight his battles"
I'll wager that if he was running Balochistan, he would have allowed US bases for attacks on Taliban positions.
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2006 16:02 Comments ||
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that's depressing, John. Past Perv's imminent step-down is there any constraint on ISI power in sight?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/02/2006 16:51 Comments ||
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#10
There may be another General or even a civilian figurehead but the power of the Pak army and its ISI will remain intact. They are absolutely ruthless.
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2006 16:54 Comments ||
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#11
In Baluchistan, the Pakistani Army is directly subverting the traditional rule of the tribal chiefs.
In Waziristan, it is being done by their proxies - the Taliban. Talibs are killing the tribal leaders at will now.
Both are for the same reason... the tribal chiefs will be far more accomodating to American and western armed forces hunting Taliban.
By replacing the tribal chiefs with mullahs, the ISI hopes to keep control over the regions and limit American activities.
It is essential for Pakistan to keep their jihad infrastruture intact and maintain the wars they fight in Afghanistan and Indian Kashmir.
So in short, we're sitting around making snarky statements about a massive victory for the guys who did 9/11 and a massive defeat for us?
"...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..."
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2006 17:28 Comments ||
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#13
From an AKI article
"'TALIBAN' CALLS THE SHOTS IN TWO WAZIRISTANS "
A conditional ceasefire agreement was reached in June and was extended last Friday until December 2006 with the government agreeing to the demand for the release of 10 pro-Taliban militants and the reduction of the Pakistan Army presence in the tribal belt to just three ares.
Both North Waziristan and South Waziristan appear to have now begun to develop a new system to administer the tribal agency where politicians, tribal elders and clerics are in the forefront and pro-taliban militants, also known as Pakistani Taliban, appear to be in the backbenches, but are actually in charge of the situation.
"Now Mujahadeen (Pakistani Taliban), Ulemas (clerics) and the Mishran (tribal elders) are at one forum and are aiming to develop an indigenous system to run the region without the intervention of the Pakistan Army, Mehmoodul Hasan told Adnkronos International (AKI).
According to local sources, the gathering which has been called the largest-ever in the history of both North and South Waziristan, is part of a strategy to counter any moves by US-led coalitions forces to target the two Waziristans in fresh attacks as part of their war on terror.
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2006 17:33 Comments ||
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#14
I can only hope that Bugti's death emboldens the ISI in a similar fashion to the way Nasrallah and Hezbollah recently rushed the gate. It would be rather nice to see them make some sort of dog's breakfast out of things and draw an actinic spotlight upon themselves for once.
We need to wait for some mass-gathering of the ISI and lob in a few cruise missiles. They rival the Saudis for top spot as our most two-faced "ally".
He's 80 years old, but Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, a feudal lord in Pakistan's rugged Baluchistan province, wants to fight to the death. A Kalashnikov rifle strapped to his back, Bugti travels by camel through desert ravines and hobbles up cliffs to hidden caves where he plots ways for his Baluch tribesmen to ambush the Pakistani army. "It's better to dieas the Americans saywith your spurs on," says Bugti. "Instead of a slow death in bed, I'd rather death come to me while I'm fighting for a purpose."
Bugti symbolizes Baluchistan's character. He says he killed his first man when he was just 12, and his life ever since has been a series of unending blood feuds with other clans and with the Pakistani military. Bugti sees himself as a warrior fighting a noble cause. He is self-taught and an avid readeruntil March, the library in his rambling, earthen castle was lined with hundreds of books on philosophy, Western and oriental religions and the European classics. Then the castle, and the library with it, were destroyed by army cannon fire. Bugti is a vegetarian, a rarity among the meat-chomping Baluch, and sups every night on a bowl of green chili peppers, according to a frequent guest.
Unlike the Taliban and al-Qaeda operating further north along the mountainous Afghan border region, however, the Baluch are not Islamist militants. "They are secular and anti-Taliban," says Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group, "yet American guns are being used against them." (Bugti says he's an agnostic, and some clan leaders espouse socialist values and enjoy whisky.) Baluch sources say that U.S. surveillance aircraft and Cobra gunships have targeted tribesmen. The State Department official says, "We've seen no evidence that our equipment has been used to violate human rights."
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2006 19:24 Comments ||
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#17
his life ever since has been a series of unending blood feuds with other clans
john, while I'm not going to dispute the immediate usefulness that Bugti's anti-ISI role might have served, have you considered that tribalism, in and of itself, is one of the main contributors to much of the problems we are facing today?
Yes, Islam is still a (if not the) main concern, but the xenophobic nature of Arab tribalism, like that of Pakistan, remains one of the chief incubators of Muslim backwardness. A prime example is the Pashtoon men, for fear of prying eyes, leaving their women to freeze to death sooner than bring them down to the lowlands when fetching earthquake aid.
Like the Arabs, we must eventually overcome the shortsighted mentality of, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." A lesson that should have been etched into our collective mind by that, now infamous mujhadeen, Osama bin Laden.
#18
I agree that tribalism contributes to the problem.
Often it is romanticised in the media instead of being exposed for the sheer backwardness that it is.
However, I would prefer Balochi backwardness to that of Osama.
The Bugti clan doesn't have an ideology that would lead them into a war against the west or other cultures. They're basically fighting over resources.
Contrast them to the sauve, urban, clean shaven ISI officers who would have drinks in the officer club with western officers. The very opposite of primitive backwardness. Wives and daughters in the latest western fashions, shopping trips to the UK and the USA perhaps, educated in private schools.
Yet who represents a threat to the west?
The Marri tribal who wants some cash or the ISI man who plans nuclear jihad ?
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2006 21:55 Comments ||
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#19
I agree that tribalism contributes to the problem.
Often it is romanticised in the media instead of being exposed for the sheer backwardness that it is.
However, I would prefer Balochi backwardness to that of Osama.
Agreed to all of the above. Thank you for the reply.
U.S. Central Command Air Forces officials have released the airpower summary for Sept. 1.
In Afghanistan Aug. 31, Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles, HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters and a RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft provided close-air support for search and recovery missions responding to the crash of a NATO F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to support the International Security Assistance Force in the vicinity west of Ghazni.
Royal Air Force Harrier GR-7s provided close-air support for coalition troops in contact with Taliban extremists near Now Zad. The GR-7s conducted passes, expending rockets on enemy mortar positions, ending the engagement.
An Air Force B-1 Lancer provided close-air support to coalition troops in contact with Taliban extremists near Musah Qal'eh. The aircraft expended Guided Bomb Unit-38s on an enemy location, ending the engagement.
In a separate engagement near Musah Qal'eh, a B-1 provided close-air support to coalition forces in contact with Taliban extremists by expending a GBU-31 on the extremists' position. RAF GR-7s also provided close-air support near Musah Qal'eh.
A-10s provided close-air support to coalition forces in contact with Taliban extremists near Jalalabad.
Additionally, six U.S. Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, aircraft flew missions in support of operations in Afghanistan.
In total, coalition aircraft flew 24 close-air-support missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. These missions included support to coalition and Afghan troops, reconstruction activities and route patrols.
In Iraq, Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons provided close-air support to troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces near Al Hawijah.
Additionally, 16 U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force ISR aircraft flew missions in support of operations in Iraq .
In total, coalition aircraft flew 41 close-air support missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom. These missions included support to coalition troops, infrastructure protection, reconstruction activities and operations to deter and disrupt terrorist activities.
On Aug. 30, a U.S. Air Force rescue and medical crew on a HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter flew one medical evacuation mission in support of OEF. One enemy detainee with injuries requiring urgent care was evacuated as a result of this mission.
Air Force C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster IIIs provided intra-theater heavy airlift support, helping sustain operations throughout Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa. They flew 160 airlift sorties, delivered 370 tons of cargo and transported 2,770 passengers. This included more than 18,000 pounds of troop resupply airdropped in eastern Afghanistan.
Coalition C-130 crews from Australia, Canada, Japan and Korea flew in support of either OIF or OEF.
On Aug. 30, U.S., French and Royal Air Force tankers flew 36 sorties and off-loaded almost 2.3 million pounds of fuel.
#1
Lovely indeed. Yes, yes, yes USAF.... thank you so very much for your taxpayer-funded public announcement. I'm sure our "friends" (formerly referred to as Hostile Intelligence Sources or HOIS) were very eager for this news and OB update.
INSURGENTS killed at least six people, including three traffic policemen, in the restive Iraqi city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, police said today.
In a deadly attack, three gunmen ambushed a traffic police patrol and killed three policemen, including a major, in the centre of the city, police said.
In Baquba's northwestern Yarmuk neighbourhood, gunmen killed two civilians, while another civilian was shot dead in the western Mualimin neighbourhood.
Also in Yarmuk, gunmen attacked a police patrol and wounded four policemen, while a mortar attack on a house in the same neighbourhood left two women and two girls wounded.
In another attack, gunmen wounded a civilian in the centre of the city, while another Iraqi was wounded in Baquba's western Mafraq area, police said.
Two civilians were also shot and wounded in Abu Saida, northeast of Baquba.
Fourteen South Asian pilgrims were ambushed and killed on their way to Shi'ite Muslim sites in Iraq, hospital, police and army sources said on Saturday. An official at the al-Hussein hospital in the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, where the bodies were taken on Friday, said the five women and nine men were all Pakistanis and had their hands bound and had been shot in the head. "They were killed three days ago. Some were tortured. One body had been beheaded," the official said, citing a report from the hospital's mortuary.
An Interior Ministry source in Baghdad said three of the 14 were Indian citizens. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Islamabad said Pakistan's missions in Jordan and Kuwait were trying to confirm the report. Pakistan withdrew its diplomats from Baghdad after its envoy survived an attack on his convoy in 2005.
Police and the hospital source in Kerbala said the group was ambushed in a minibus heading through western Iraq from Syria, close to a well-known rest-stop on the largely empty main highway across the desert, west of the city of Ramadi. The area, Anbar province, is the heartland of Sunni Muslim minority revolt.
Shi'ite pilgrims have been frequent targets for attack. Just last week, a statement purportedly from al Qaeda's Iraqi umbrella group urged Sunnis, who form the majority among the world's Muslims but a minority in Iraq, to launch a holy war against Shi'ites. "This is something that has been happening for centuries. They (pilgrims) go regularly. We have been cautioning people but we do not stop them," Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.
#1
"...five women and nine men were all Pakistanis and had their hands bound and had been shot in the head. 'They were killed three days ago. Some were tortured. One body had been beheaded,'... ."
Another glorious accomplishment by the Lions of Islam. Allan Akbar!
BAGHDAD: Shopkeepers and homeowners in Baghdad cleared rubble and looked for bodies on Friday, a day after a series of explosions killed nearly 70 people and devastated homes and a bazaar just before nightfall. Four times as many were wounded in blasts that police blamed on a spray of rockets across mainly Shiite east Baghdad, but which army generals said were caused by large bombs planted in buildings. The attack may have involved a combination of these.
State television, which said the toll had risen to more than 67 dead and 300 wounded, called it a rocket attack but then interviewed an Iraqi army spokesman who repeated the alternative version that militants had planted explosives in buildings. Terrorists planted explosives inside the buildings, Brigadier General Kassem al-Moussawi told Iraqi television, echoing a fellow general and explosives expert who said within four hours of the blasts that they went off in apartments and shops rented recently by militants who rigged them with bombs. With little sign of forensic investigators at the blast sites, it was not clear how this conclusion was reached so soon.
Hours after the first blasts, which police said were from seven Katyusha rockets, residents heard more mortar rounds go off, part of a confusing and deadly evening in Baghdad, where US and Iraqi troops began a big security crackdown last month. Four policemen were killed in two attacks on Friday. Many deaths came as families gathered for the start of the Muslim weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi forces will expand their security operation into eastern Baghdad - including Shiite militia strongholds - the Defense Ministry said Friday.
Defense Ministry spokesman Muhammad Al-Askari said security forces planned to expand in a matter of days into an area of eastern Baghdad that includes the neighborhoods targeted Thursday. The move is part of "Operation Together Forward," a security crackdown that targets the capital's most violent districts in phases and has seen an extra 12,000 Iraqi and U.S. troops deployed in the capital. "We have prepared everything, but we are waiting to mobilize the troops and prepare the special military units that will implement the raids," he said.
Sadr City, a stronghold of firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, would also be included, al-Askari told The Associated Press.
Let's hope Tater's tots now get well and truly thumped.
The area witnessed repeated clashes in the past between U.S. troops and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, though American forces have rarely ventured into the area recently. "No neighborhood is off limits," al-Askari told the AP. "There's not a single neighborhood that's a red line for us. Any area that has terrorist activity, we will enter - there will be no stop sign."
And I think he means it.
He said no special arrangements had been made to deal with a security operation into the neighborhood. Other areas include Baghdad Jadida, Habibiyah, Waziriyah and Palestine Street, which has witnessed a surge in violence recently.
The expanded security operation will begin in a week to 10 days, he said, adding that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would decide on the exact date.
Al-Askari said the first two phases of the operation, which included Sunni Arab districts, was successful. "The terrorists will not work in these districts any more, the terrorists are moving to suburbs of Baghdad, to districts that were not included in the first and second phases, to worsen the security situation there," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
No need for an element of surprise? Sheesh
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/02/2006 0:37 Comments ||
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Captain - exactly. The telegraphing of every significant operation, and the "leaky" nature of same (see Askari's comments about the bad guys shifting to the burbs in response to Phases I and II), have been leading characteristics of the disappointing military action here for years. For contrast note the US-Iraqi operation near Kirkuk a few months ago in which deception, surprise, solid cordons and aggressive attack resulted in complete success without a shot being fired. Or McMasters' masterpiece up in Al Qaim. Even with the resources available, this job can get done - but ya gotta do it.
TWO Palestinians were killed during an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen today while a third Palestinian was shot dead by troops near a Gaza border crossing, the army and witnesses said.
In the first incident, witnesses said Israeli troops backed by helicopters entered the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun and engaged in heavy clashes with Palestinian gunmen there.
Residents said the operation targeted the house of a member of Hamas. Two Palestinians, a father and son, were killed and at least four others were wounded, medics said.
An army spokesman said Israeli special forces arrested two Hamas militants hiding in the house, naming them as Mohammed Tarabin and Younis Abdul Pita, who were wanted for firing rockets into Israel and setting explosives.
During the raid, two suspected gunmen opened fire on the Israeli forces from within the building, prompting the troops to return fire, the army said. Both men were killed.
The house was later demolished by an army bulldozer, residents said.
At the same time, Israeli air strikes in a nearby part of Beit Hanoun wounded three Palestinians, two of them children, with shrapnel, medics said.
In the second incident, the Israeli army confirmed it had shot and killed a man as he approached the Kisufim border crossing in central Gaza, but provided no other details about the circumstances.
The deaths were the latest in an eight-week Israeli offensive in Gaza that started after militants abducted an Israeli soldier in a raid. More than 200 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed during the offensive.
As well as seeking to recover the captured soldier, the operation is designed to prevent militants from firing makeshift rockets into Israel from northern Gaza. Rocket fire has resumed sporadically in recent days.
Israel pulled troops and around 8000 settlers out of Gaza in August last year after 38 years of occupation.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today said talks had started for for the release of an Israeli soldier held by militants in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian women and children held in Israel.
"Negotiations are under way between Palestinian and Israeli non-governmental organisations,'' Mr Mubarak told the leading state-owned daily Al-Ahram.
"The Israeli side is waiting for an initiative from the Palestinians regarding Corporal Gilad Shalit so that they can finalise a proposal for the release of Palestinian women and children held in Israel.''
In Israel, however, a spokeswoman for the premier's office denied any official talks were taking place.
"We do not negotiate with terrorists. We will do everything it takes to obtain the unconditional release of our abducted soldiers,'' Miri Eisin said, referring also to two Israeli troops captured on the border with Israel.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian terrorists militants fired five homemade rockets into Israel, defying the latest calls by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the attacks. The Israeli army said four of the rockets landed near the southern border town Sderot, while the fifth landed near the city Ashkelon on Thursday. There were no injuries, it said.
The barrage came a day after Abbas criticized Palestinian militants for continuing to fire rockets at Israeli border communities. "What is happening in Gaza as a result of rockets fired in vain must stop right now because there is no national interest in this continuing," Abbas said in a speech Wednesday. He said dozens of Gazans have been killed and many more injured in recent months. "For what?" Abbas asked.
Abbas has made similar appeals in the past, saying the rockets give Israel an excuse to attack, only to be laughed at rebuffed by terrorists militants. Islamic Jihad, which has launched hundreds of rockets at Israel, claimed responsibility for Thursday's barrage.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
More great moments in journalism.
"five homemade rockets"
The devices referred to may be crude or primitive or unsophisticated, but they are almost certainly not homemade. For a thing to be homemade it should be constructed in, well, a home, a place where people are living. Rockets may be made in metal shops or warehouses, but since you're dealing with explosives, industrial metal cutters and rocket fuel, they are unlikely to be cooked up in someone's kitchen. They are also far more likely to be made by organized groups with access to materials than by private individuals, of the sort we associate with things homemade.
There was a time, I want to believe, when journalists actually cared what words meant. Now, as long as the Palestinians are suggested to be plucky and innovative, whipping up rockets like the genuinely homemade Molotov cocktails in the Warsaw ghetto, words are meant mainly to supplement a narrative rather than describe facts.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
09/02/2006 2:31 Comments ||
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#2
Yep, rockets don't lend themselves much to home peacepiecework.
#3
Something I'd really like to see is Israel finally saying;
"Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Liberation Front, Fatah, The National Front for the Liberation of Palestine, The Palestinian Authority, Yo Momma or Who The F&ck Ever, it no longer matters."
"If you screw with us, all of you take the hit. We come in and snuff at least one of you from every single one of these assorted groups that we can lay hands on."
There needs to be an end to one faction signing on to some lame-@ss peace agreement or truce only to have their idle weapons shipped across the street to some other terrorist homies who launch from their rooftops instead.
Israel's new motto needs to be, "F&ck with us and you all die."
#5
Zenster, save the list. Paleos use terroristm to conduct a war to extinsion against Israel. Every Paleo who is not a terrorist her/himself is part of the terrorists' logistics.
#6
Every Paleo who is not a terrorist her/himself is part of the terrorists' logistics.
After the Palestinians knowingly voted into power a listed terrorist organization I, too, gave up all hope and now regard every last man, woman and child of them as part of their terrorist network. The Palestinians are simply amongst some of the most irredeemable human vermin on earth. I look forward to the day that they all drown in their hateful genocidal bile.
The Pentagon claimed a victory for America's missile defence system last night when a mock warhead was successfully destroyed in space in a test which cost $85m (£45m). A target missile was launched from Kodiak island, Alaska, yesterday morning. Seventeen minutes later, an interceptor missile left a silo in California, hitting the target above the Pacific Ocean at a speed of 18,000mph.
Military chiefs hailed the test as a "total success" for the defence system, originally known as Star Wars, which has been plagued by political opposition and technical troubles since it began in 1983. A real interceptor missile has never before successfully destroyed a target missile.
In the previous such attempts, in 2004 and 2005, the rockets jammed in their silos. "What we did today is a huge step in terms of our systematic approach to continuing to ... develop a missile defence system for the United States, for our allies, our friends, our deployed forces around the world," said Lieutenant General Henry Oberling, the Pentagon's missile defence chief. He said the system now had a "good chance" of shooting down a real enemy long-range missile. "I feel a lot safer and sleep a lot better at night," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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And a 100,000 lives cost?
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/02/2006 0:39 Comments ||
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hmmmm the Guardian is not our ally - guess they aren't covered. Too bad. So sad
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/02/2006 1:10 Comments ||
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In the future, America will more likely face a threat from rogue regimes armed with only a few ICBMs. That $100 billion will look like a sound investment when it successfully shoots down incoming warheads.
#4
Sucks to be the al-Gardian & the Transnational Progressive Y'urp-peon set. LOL!
They don't even bother to report on the impressive new software developments and hardware advances utilized by OUR missile defence systems. We are integrating layers of ever more tested capability to our missle defence and all the Socialist A$$Hats can do is hate America and bash GWB!!
But experts cautioned that the test lacked some real-world conditions, such as enemy efforts to defeat the missile defense system, a surprise attack and an attack involving multiple missiles. They said it does not indicate that the nation is secure from a missile attack .... Experts said, however, that the test was not decisive because it was the first time the improved interceptor was successful. It will take several such results to prove any level of reliability, they said.
Oh. So there will be more tests?
Was this test more successful than the Nork's?
All you folks who made fun of Reagan's Star Wars program over the years having any second thoughts?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/02/2006 8:37 Comments ||
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#12
But experts cautioned that the test lacked some real-world conditions, such as enemy efforts to defeat the missile defense system, a surprise attack and an attack involving multiple missiles.
Hey, idiots. They rogues haven't even gotten to the stage of getting even one dummy warhead on a workable ICBM and landing it anywhere near a supposed aiming point. Why not create even more stupid commentary like 'but it hasn't demonstrated it can intercept incoming asteroids'?
Notice - Power Curve. They are behind. We are ahead. We have better German scientists and technological minds unbound by political/religious orthodoxy and a national GDP which has more 'poor' who'd be classed as middle class if not rich in the rouge states.
Its an engineering race. We are ahead and they really dont have the resources to compete and far less than the Soviets. So bugger off old bags.
#14
In this scenario, we will also spend a few $100MM sending a handful of ICBMs back their way. I doubt Kimmie's BMD program is going as well as ours.
#15
Experts? Where would the journos be with unnamed experts
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/02/2006 11:00 Comments ||
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Another thing: $100B is less than 1% of our GDP. The spending was spread over 20 years or so. For 1/20 of 1% of GDP per year we have a fighting chance of saving a city from nuclear destruction. How can we NOT do this?
If criticism is in order it should be for pulling out of the ABM treaty too late and mismanaging some of the BMD initiatives.
#17
Trillions of dollars later, welfare programs have caused large segments of the population to opt for lives of indolence. But this is the kind of result the Guardian would applaud, since the use of public funds for expensive policy failures is fine, as long as it's for welfare state purposes.
Maybe I've become overly sensitive to media duplicity and weaseldom but I kept noticing this news pattern where a fact or event is reported followed by a big-ass BUT with some dire consequence or negative opinion from unnamed 'experts'. Like this:
Today, at his ranch in Crawford, President Bush played with the presidential dog for an hour. But animal welfare activists expressed concern that the presidential cat was not receiving sufficient attention.
Maybe this is a lame-ass shorthand attempt at being 'balanced' and presenting 'both sides' of the issue but this pattern is really starting to chap my caboose.
#19
Another thing: $100B is less than 1% of our GDP. The spending was spread over 20 years or so. For 1/20 of 1% of GDP per year we have a fighting chance of saving a city from nuclear destruction. How can we NOT do this?
#20
"Maybe this is a lame-ass shorthand attempt at being 'balanced' and presenting 'both sides' of the issue..."
No, I think it's plain old, garden-variety, manipulative leftist dishonesty. These people don't report news: they write propaganda, and their job is to shoehorn selected facts into their predetermined political narrative.
"...but this pattern is really starting to chap my caboose."
Welcome to the club.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/02/2006 12:25 Comments ||
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First hard kill by the land-based component, folks. The sea-launched component already had kills on it's record.
#24
Actually, I'd agree with the general idea that a _lot_ of the money spent on strategic defense has been spent poorly... I would think you'd need some sort of space-based kinetic-energy system would be needed, rather than a ground-based system that could be overwhelmed by more than a dozen missiles... and that Clinton moving all of the DoD's RLV work to NASA where it was quietly strangled probably set things back twenty years... but I doubt the Guardian would be interested in hearing that.
Posted by: Phil ||
09/02/2006 14:32 Comments ||
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#25
The left likes to point at wasteful defense programs and go on about how this proves defense is wasteful, but it doesn't change the basic fact that we need defense, or that a lot of _why_ the stuff has a high waste level has causes that go back to, well, left-wing presidents. Like Clinton's "Last Supper," where Aspin got all the defense contractor heads in a room and said they were all going to merge.
(Yah, turning things into a monopoly was going to make things "more efficient." And I'll tell you another thing... when I was growing up, the US's main fighter planes were the F-16 (General Dynamics), F-15 (Mcdonnel-Douglas), F-14 (Grumman), and the F-18 (McD, Northrop). All these companies that made the successful _last_ generation of fighter aircraft before this one were taken over and merged into the management structures of the companies that didn't make them. And we're standing around wondering why the planes are getting more expensive).
Posted by: Phil ||
09/02/2006 14:37 Comments ||
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#26
Notice - Power Curve. They are behind. We are ahead. We have better German scientists and technological minds unbound by political/religious orthodoxy and a national GDP which has more 'poor' who'd be classed as middle class if not rich in the rouge states.
Well put, Shinenter Angomoque2229. Our constitutional liberties, specifically including freedom of religion, are what has made America into the world's greatest superpower. Our "poor" own more televisions and cars than the rest of the world put together has had hot lunches. Our pets eat better than most third world people and that's just fine, because when they come knocking we'll have healthy critters to chase and bite their @sses!
#27
What's interesting is that this was an operational interceptor fired from a ready silo, not a developmental test. The developmental intercepts had about a 50% intercept success rate (more success latter). Crank up the numbers.
Posted by: ed ||
09/02/2006 16:11 Comments ||
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#28
Next problem: After we shoot down an Iranian or Nork missile headed for San Francisco from west bumphuck, how long of a U.N. debate will insue before we are allowed a "proportional" response (i.e."sanctions)? It could be argued that a nuked San Francisco would be no great loss.
#29
Pretty clear cut. Our German scientists have developed a hit to kill interceptor that their German scientists didn't think of because the Brits Germans scientists were keeping mum about the Argentine connection.
#30
Due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as of January 2005, insurance companies and the federal government paid out more than $38 billion dollars in claims to victims and their families. All the damage was incurred within a space of four hours, no nukes involved. The state of NY estimates that more than $100 billion in lost production resulted from the two plane attacks on the World Trade Center.
Indonesian police arrested Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Friday over suspected terror links, including to the 2002 Bali bombings, as he walked out of jail after serving time for lesser charges. "Not so fast there, smiley, the warden wants a word with you."
Bashir was detained again without incident, but earlier his supporters hurled rocks and firebombs at police. The frail Bashir, accused of leading the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network, was served a warrant as he left a central Jakarta jail after 18 months in prison for immigration offences. "What we witnessed just now was an illegal action from the police. We have not seen that warrant," said Munarman, a lawyer for Bashir. Police had tried to question Bashir earlier this week regarding attacks, including the October 2002 bomb blasts in Bali that killed 202 people. He refused to cooperate. "Vee hef our vays."
Back in detention, Bashir would now be questioned about numerous cases, said Suyitno Landung, chief criminal investigator for the national police. "Plenty of bombing cases. These are cases we have been investigating from 1999 to 2002, including the latest, the Bali bombings." In the October 2002 attack on the resort island, 202 people died, most foreign tourists. Bashir has consistently denied links to that and any terrorist acts, as well as to Jemaah Islamiah. "It wuz some other guy named Bashir!"
His re-arrest will probably further enrage his militant supporters and anger Muslim leaders and politicians who accuse authorities of bowing to U.S. pressure over Bashir's case. Washington has said it wants Bashir, 65, to stay behind bars. Hundreds of his supporters were outside the prison, and many clashed with police before the smiling cleric was taken away. The protesters tore up paving stones to hurl at police, who threw the stones back and responded with tear gas, clubs and water cannons in running battles in the early morning that left many injured on both sides.
"THERE IS NO PROBLEM"
Police had said earlier they would re-arrest Bashir over allegations he had violated various anti-terrorism statutes. Under Indonesian law he could be held for up to six months for questioning and investigation before formal charges are laid. Asked for his reaction to being re-arrested, a smiling Bashir said: "There is no problem. There is no problem. I'm fine." Nothing that some high velocity lead couldn't fix.
Police then drove him to police headquarters. According to a police warrant shown this week to reporters, allegations against him include terror conspiracy, plotting attacks, and ties to Jemaah Islamiah, believed to be responsible for violence throughout Southeast Asia. And parking overtime in a carbomb only zone.
Previous charges against Bashir of treason and of leading Jemaah Islamiah had been dismissed or overturned. "Before we investigated Abu Bakar Bashir on a limited scale, but there are perpetrators who always linked him as the leader of a closed and secretive organization," said Landung. "Someone inadvertantly showed us the secret handshake and we finally cracked this case wide open!"
National police spokesman Inspector-General Paiman told reporters: "This is not pressure from the United States. We made the arrest due to terrorism problems." In other words; "The US embassy was terrifying us with threats of aid cuts."
A U.S. Embassy spokesman said Washington welcomed the move but denied charges of intervention in Indonesia's legal system. "There is extensive evidence of Abu Bakar Bashir's leadership role and personal involvement in terrorist activities, but the decision to pursue the prosecution is the Indonesian authorities'," he said.
Arresting Bashir and the prospect of a fresh trial pose a challenge to the world's most populous Muslim nation ahead of presidential elections in July, especially with sentiment for Washington at an all-time low over the war in Iraq and U.S. policies toward the Muslim world in general. In the past two weeks, Bashir has entertained a stream of visitors at the prison, from Islamist politicians to mainstream Muslim leaders, all accusing the United States of meddling. "Clearly this is intervention from foreigners, namely the United States," said well-known Muslim leader Din Syamsuddin. Is there a flight of stairs near this guy's cell? Can we wax all the floors in his cell block and make him walk around in socks? Can we send him a Dell laptop?
#1
As in the past, Bashir will mock the Indo "justice system" and eventually walk. They wouldn't dare seek actual justice against him. He'll treat his momentary "incarceration" as a paid vacation, again. These pathetic transparent attempts to whitewash the Indos, the pretense that Bashir is somehow going to be nailed, are a farce.
#3
Additionally, this pisses me off just as much...
"...U.S. policies toward the Muslim world..."
Yeah, such as all that evil first-responder aid and assistance after the tsunami. Indostan is nature's favorite Ground Zero. We can demonstrate how we regard this enmity when next they get the shit knocked out of them - by staying home and keeping our aid dollars. Somehow I think Howard would agree this makes more sense than throwing good and generous effort and money after bad.
They have a terminal case of Islam. Fuck Indonesia, now and forever. Mr Howard, since these assholes are in your backyard and you can't avoid dealing with them, is there anything you need? Apaches or Warthogs or anything?
#4
...Was this the toothsome lad who said a few days ago that the US used a 'micro-nuclear warhead' at Bali?
"...C'mon, Bahire, you're under arrest!"
"For what??"
"Such a stupid godd*mn comment!"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/02/2006 10:55 Comments ||
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Actually, Mike, Bashir claimed the CIA had planted a micronuclear warhead on a deep ocean fault to cause the big tsunami. Needless to say (then why say it?), he also blamed the Bali bombing on some espionage cabal as well.
Indonesia has a final chance to demonstrate that it takes fighting global terrorism seriously. After routine sentence reductions for terrorists including Bashir himself, the Bali bomber Amrozi plotting round two of the Bali atrocities via WiFi laptop from his jail cell and the Keystone antics of its national security as they chased Noordin Topp from safe house to safe house, international patience has worn thinner than Indonesia's veneer of putative cooperation.
As voiced recently by others here and my own self since the first tsunami hit, come the next calamity, Indonesia had better have some good grades on its report card if they expect a red cent of aid from America. If the Bali bombers are still breathing and Bashir is walking free they might as well piss up a rope before coming to us.
#6
not ONE fucking dollar to relief in any Islamic country from my pocket. Quake relief in Pakland is diverted to training jihadis. Indonesia arrests and will execute christians while they free Islamists. FUCK em. live on the 7th century ideology, the pages of the Quran will heat your hut and feed you.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/02/2006 16:18 Comments ||
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#7
Don't hold back, Frank. Let us know what you really think.
#8
Let's face it. No matter what atrocities muslims commit against us, when the next earthquake/tsunami/fire/hangnail hits mulims, the west will be there with weeping reporters and boatloads of jizya. The best that can be hoped for is that individuals remember and next time keep their checkbooks in the drawer. If allah didn't want them to suffer, then he wouldn't have made them such assholes.
B-1s flyover. How lucky some low flight hour airframes are being deactivated from the active US inventory.
Posted by: ed ||
09/02/2006 16:42 Comments ||
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels vowed Friday to hang on to a key northeastern enclave after the military pounded the area with airstrikes and artillery for a fifth day. S. Elilan, a regional leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, said: "This is an area under our control and Tamil people live here. We will not allow the military to invade."
Military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said air force jets took out rebel positions overnight in Sampur, where rebels have been firing artillery and mortar shells at a port the military uses to send supplies to its 43,000 troops in the northern Jaffna Peninsula. The military's push to recapture the 19-square-mile area, across a lagoon from the strategic Trincomalee naval base, has opened a new front in the country's conflict with the ethnic Tamil insurgents.
Sri Lanka's top military official, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, told The Associated Press on Thursday that government troops would take the area within a few days.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
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MORE than 250 Italian troops landed in south Lebanon today, forming the advance party of Italy's contingent to an expanded U.N. force set up to keep the peace between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas. The marines, armed with automatic rifles and wearing blue U.N. berets, came ashore in the port of Tyre in helicopters and rubber dinghies from the aircraft carrier Garibaldi, the flagship of the Italian fleet.
An Italian navy spokesman said about 800 had arrived in Lebanese waters out of a total of about 3000 that Italy has pledged. The rest of the 800 will land later today and tomorrow depending on sea conditions, he added. They gathered at a beach hotel surrounded by Lebanese army soldiers, away from civilians who either welcomed the arrival of new U.N. troops or said they were indifferent.
Italian ships are simultaneously unloading military vehicles at the small U.N. port at Naqoura, about 20 km south of Tyre, the Italian spokesman said.
The Italians will make up the largest single contingent to the new force, known as UNIFIL II, which will deploy along the Israeli-Lebanese border after a one-month war between Israel and Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim guerrilla movement.
(Xinhua) -- Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops have destroyed an unspecified number of weapon depots belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah during the past 24 hours, Israel's newspaper Ha'aretz reported Friday on its website edition. During the Israeli operation around the southern Lebanese village of Ayt a-Shab near the Israeli border, the troops found rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortar shells, light arms and communications equipment in the depot, the report said.
On Thursday, the army transferred the control over a section near the Israeli-Lebanese border to the Lebanese army and the UN troops, an army spokeswoman said. Israel has said it will withdraw all the troops from Lebanon only if the UN peacekeeping troops take over the area. The 34-day-long fighting between Israel and Hezbollah ended on Aug. 14 under the UN Security Council resolution 1701 which calls for Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon and authorizes an increase of the existing UN force in Lebanon to 15,000 troops to help Lebanese troops take control of southern Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#1
Well, well. This disarming is going along right fine! Too bad the d@mned UN has nothing to do with it.
#2
So long as the weapons are destroyed, and their emplacements and bunkers and such are mapped (and possibly even bugged for later listening), I'm content to ignore the UN for as long as necessary.
#3
Indeed, tw. Completely ignoring the UN seems to make the most sense. Go about your business presuming they are reporting your movements to the Leb / Hezb and being prepared for counter-ambush. Self-defense trumps all, even for the evil Jooos.
Where found complicit, by act or omission, in arms smuggling and other Leb / Hezb shit, it would be worth its weight in gold to see the Israelis arrest, disarm, and frog-march the offending UN assholes to the nearest coastline and notify the UN to pick 'em up within 24 hours or they'll have to swim home. That, I believe, is the way to deal with this farce UN ceasefire.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/02/2006 1:09 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Where found complicit, by act or omission, in arms smuggling and other Leb / Hezb shit, it would be worth its weight in gold to see the Israelis arrest, disarm, and frog-march the offending UN assholes to the nearest coastline and notify the UN to pick 'em up within 24 hours or they'll have to swim home.
Works for me. All future UN efforts, especially any that center upon Israel and its foes, should be subjected to microscopic scrutiny. The UN's blatant anti-Semitism must be outed for once and all.
#6
Like an RB commenter noted this week, the IDF is staying right under the media-radar. If this work in S. Leb and Gaza can continue with the same intensity for another couple of months, Hamas and Hezzie might be in a bad way.
#9
I don't think it's under the media radar, but the kidnapping and subsequent forced conversion of 2 press agents that has their eyes covered.
The press is like everyone else, they desire to be respected as elite among men. Forced conversions show a total lack of respect.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/02/2006 9:34 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I'm impressed with the fact that they always wore jewelry... to take a bath, wash the dishes, everything. June Cleaver always had her pearls on. Lana seems to be from that same school of glamorous good taste. :)
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.
AP KANDAHAR A NATO plane crashed Saturday in southern Afghanistan, killing 14 British troops, according to a spokesman and the British Ministry of Defense. The International Security Assistance Force said the plane had reported a technical problem before going down and hostile fire did not appear to be the cause. The British Ministry of Defense said the dead included 12 Royal Air Force personnel, a Royal Marine and an army soldier.
A SUICIDE bomb wounded three people including a foreign soldier in Afghanistan today, while officials reported that 14 people were killed in a series of Taliban attacks. The suicide blast - the latest in a rash of such attacks carried out by the Taliban - was near the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Reliable sources informed El Khabar that joint security forces killed a terrorist originating from Saida. The operation happened in the area of Marine south of Sidi Belabbès province, known for its hard mountains. The terrorist was 40 years old. "The joint security forces, who were combing the area, shot the terrorist in a confrontation with a group of terrorists. The joint security forces could take back a machine gun from the terrorist in question", the same sources added.
Tizi Ouzous security commission attributed abductions carried out last month in the area to the 
If Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman permits, his family will appeal against the High Court verdict that confirmed death sentence to seven JMB kingpins including the chief and his top aide Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai on August 31 in the judges killing case. "If they allow us we will file appeal for Abdur Rahman, his younger brother Ataur Rahman Sunny and son-in-law Abdul Awal," Abdur Rahman's younger sister Atika Begum said. She, however, expressed fear that the mujahids would not allow filing an appeal because they have no faith in 'man-made' law.
BRITISH police said today they had arrested 14 men in a major new anti-terrorism operation in the capital just three weeks after uncovering a suspected plot to bring down US-bound airliners over the Atlantic.
Militants killed two schoolteachers, and two civilians and a soldier were wounded in a day of violence in Indian held Kashmir, officials said on Friday.
MIRANSHAH: The political authorities in 
KHAR: Suspected Islamic militants bombed two unmanned security posts 
MULTAN: The Multan No 2 Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday sentenced one of the key accused in the Rasheedabd car bomb case to a 40-count death sentence, 10-year imprisonment and a total fine of Rs 24.1 million, including compensation for the victims' families. Public prosecutor Mahar Najaf Ali Mahay told APP that ATC-2 Judge Chaudhry Ameer Muhammad Khan had announced the sentencing in the presence of the defendant, Syed Irfan Ali. Irfan was involved in the car bomb blast that killed 40 people and wounded 76 others in Multan on the morning of October 7, 2004.
QUETTA/KARACHI: Two rangers were killed in Karachi in a strike across Balochistan and in Karachi on the call of the ARD, the MMA and the four-party Baloch National Alliance to protest the killing of 
QUETTA: Tribal chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, who was killed in a military operation on August 26, was laid quietly to rest amidst tight security at 10am in Dera Bugti on Friday. 
BAGHDAD: Shopkeepers and homeowners in Baghdad cleared rubble and looked for bodies on Friday, a day after a series of explosions killed nearly 70 people and devastated homes and a bazaar just before nightfall. Four times as many were wounded in blasts that police blamed on a spray of rockets across mainly Shiite east Baghdad, but which army generals said were caused by large bombs planted in buildings. The attack may have involved a combination of these. 
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi forces will expand their security operation into eastern Baghdad - including Shiite militia strongholds - the Defense Ministry said Friday.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian 
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels vowed Friday to hang on to a key northeastern enclave after the military pounded the area with airstrikes and artillery for a fifth day. S. Elilan, a regional leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, said: "This is an area under our control and Tamil people live here. We will not allow the military to invade."
