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Leb army takes on Fatah al-Islam at Paleo camp
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Afghanistan
Kunduz bomber kills three German soldiers
Three German soldiers were among the seven people killed in a bomb attack in northern Afghanistan Saturday, officials and residents reported. The deadly attack was carried out in Kunduz province around 10 a.m. (local time). Police officials confirmed the killing of the German soldiers and civilians.

A senior official, requesting anonymity, said that he could confirm the killing of at least two German soldiers and injury of two others. He said four civilians were also perished in the attack targeting the convoy. Another official said three foreign soldiers were killed. Four civilians died in the blast and 14 people, including two German soldiers, were wounded, another official said.

The soldiers had been patrolling the city of Kunduz on foot and in a vehicle when the bomber struck.
The soldiers had been patrolling the city of Kunduz, said General Nur Mohammad, chief of the Kunduz security department. The German soldiers were patrolling on foot and in a vehicle when the bomber struck. "Suddenly we heard a big sound. We were frightened," said Aziz, a shopkeeper. "We saw very thick smoke and people rushing to escape."

A security official blamed the attack on Taliban militants, now stepping up attacks following the traditional winter lull. Kunduz security officer General Noor Muhammad confirmed the blast and casualties but would not give the exact number of foreign soldiers killed in the attack.

German soldiers are operating in the northern Kunduz province as part of the NATO's mission in Afghanistan. In separate clashes in the country's southeastern and central parts, the Afghan officials informed about the killing of at least 85 Taliban fighters in ground and air offensives by the Afghan and foreign troops.

On Thursday, roadside explosions killed 11 Afghan police officers and Afghanistan's information minister was wounded in a bombing blamed on the Taliban. The attacks followed the death of the militants' top operational commander, Mullah Dadullah, in a U.S.-led coalition raid last weekend. His death was considered the biggest blow to the Taliban since they were driven from power in 2001. The Taliban had vowed to step up attacks against foreign forces in Afghanistan and said they had trained hundreds of bombers.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Would someone explain to me the Euroweenie logic behind fighting the WoT in Afghanistan but not in Iraq. Do they really believe there is a difference? That the "arab" street is smart and discerning enough to know the difference and give them a pass on domestic terrorism? I wonder if Sarkozy and Merkel know that there is no difference only a longer trip to Ramstein to deliver the dead bodies.
Posted by: Tarzan Gleager6008 || 05/20/2007 6:18 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Ethiopia releases Swedish "terror suspects"
(Xinhua) -- Ethiopia has released three Swedish citizens detained for several months on suspicion of terrorism, Swedish news agency TT reported on Saturday. "They were released yesterday. They arrived in Sweden today at midday," press officer Cecilia Julin of Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs said on Saturday.

The three Swedish citizens were taken prisoner at the beginning of the year. A fourth prisoner, a pregnant 17-year-old, was released in March.
The group were arrested in Kenya, having fled Somalia after the invasion by Ethiopian troops which brought about an Islamist retreat. The prisoners were accused of fighting on the side of the Islamist militia against Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies.
The group were arrested in Kenya, having fled Somalia after the invasion by Ethiopian troops which brought about an Islamist retreat. The prisoners were accused of fighting on the side of the Islamist militia against Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies.

Earlier in the month, Sweden had demanded the immediate release of the three. The Foreign Ministry summoned Ethiopia's ambassador in order to hand over a formal protest. "I have no information about the details of the release. All along, we've demanded that they [the Ethiopian authorities] either give us an explanation of the legal grounds for the arrests or letthem go free," said Cecilia Julin.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And now, you can bet, it's hugs and lutefisk lollypops all around...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/20/2007 1:47 Comments || Top||

#2  I presume this one's fiancee is among the springees...
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/20/2007 2:23 Comments || Top||

#3  They're not "real" Swedish citizens, like I am not a "real" Irishman. But rather transplanted Somalis who have learned to rig the Swedish social net system for all its worth. Friends of mine in Malmo say that it is getting so bad - some shops now have signs in Swedish that read "We speak Swedish".
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 05/20/2007 6:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Every government of the West is infested with traitors. Not only to their sworn duty but to civilization itself. They have become servants of ultimate darkness, loyal only to the Void. The Berserkers would call them Good Life.
Posted by: Excalibur || 05/20/2007 7:02 Comments || Top||


Pirates attack WFP-chartered ship off Somali coast
(Xinhua) -- A WFP-chartered cargo ship escaped an attack by pirates on Saturday after delivering food aid in southern Somalia, Kenya's maritime official confirmed here. The World Food Program (WFP)-contracted ship, MV Victoria, had just delivered a cargo when the pirates struck at Merka port in Somalia's town of Kismayo, Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Mombasa-based Seafarers Assistance Program told Xinhua by telephone.

"The cargo ship was attacked by Somali Pirates off-Merka port today at around 12:05 p.m. MV Victoria sailed from Merka port for Dar-es-Salaam after its discharge operation of WFP relief food completed," said Mwangura.
While en route to Kismayo, pirates attacked her with small and heavy guns. Luckily, it escaped the attack and returned to original port of discharge.
"While en route to Kismayo, pirates attacked her with small and heavy guns. Luckily, it escaped the attack and returned to original port of discharge(Merka)," he added. The maritime official said the WFP and vessel owners are very concerned about the safety of the crew whose number and nationalities, he said, have not been established.

"Having heard its SOS signal by both MV Amina and Merka port authority, immediately the local WFP contractor send two armed boats to rescue the vessel from the pirates and at last the vessel is in safe hands. During the operation one man from the local WFP contractor was wounded and later on died in Merka hospital," Mwangura said. "There is no apparent damage at vessel and all the crew are safe and sound, as the master of the vessel is waiting for an instruction from his company. The local WFP contractor is arranging two armed boats to escort the vessel upon departure till Kismayo and receipt of instructions from its company."
That would seem prudent, wouldn't it?
Piracy has become rampant off the coast of Somalia. Pirate attacks on ships off the Somali coast have intensified since March this year along the Somali waters described by global maritime body as one of the dangerous in the world. The International Maritime Board (IMB) said more than 10 attacks have been carried out in the Somali waters since the start of this year.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why do they attack it after they drop off the food? Do they pick something else up? It wouldn't surprise me to find out that WFP was running arms or drugs. It seems charities this big are always corrupt.

Or do they just want the vessel?
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 05/20/2007 6:12 Comments || Top||

#2  All possible though I don't expect piracy attracts the brightest bulbs in the box either.
Posted by: Excalibur || 05/20/2007 7:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Mombasa-based Seafarious Assistance Program??
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2007 7:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Pirate attacks on ships off the Somali coast have intensified since March this year along the Somali waters described by global maritime body as one of the dangerous in the world

Originally, it was a 'fundraising' thing. The latest attacks appear more geared to creating FUD and to make folks wish for the good old days of the Islamic Courts (who only shot the occasional cinema-watcher, donchaknow).
Posted by: Pappy || 05/20/2007 11:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Looks to me as if they planned to hold the ship and crew for ransom, it all boils down to loot either way.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/20/2007 12:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Really need a Q-ship. Give it a crew of 80-100, including 70-80 Marines, including an AV-8B or a couple of Cobra attack helis. Give it a "real" job of delivering aid. Let it sail up and down the Somali coast, dropping off aid packets until it's attacked. Then watch the fireworks.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/20/2007 14:36 Comments || Top||

#7  I had a friend some years ago who carries a legal .30 machine gun on his yacht (Big sailboat) he asked if I knew where to get 3000 rounds in belts, since I knew he carried ammo I asked "why"?

Seems he'd been attacked by four speedboats in the gulf (Location unnamed) and had sunk all four, but he had 2000 rounds and was down to 50 when the last pirate sank, so now he was getting 3000 to "be sure next time".

Good for him.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/20/2007 15:26 Comments || Top||

#8  Give him my regards RedNeck Jim, his next round of crack is on me.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 18:23 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Outlaw killed in 'shootout' with Rab
A leader of an outlawed party was killed in an encounter with Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) at Char Laxmipur village near the district town early yesterday.
This one is short and sweet.
The dead was identified as Faruq Hossain Dablu, 42, regional commander of Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP).
A commie, not an Islamicist. The RAB has standards.
Acting on a tip-off, ...
"What's that you say? Faruq Dablu, noted communist, needs to be picked up and taken to an unnamed upazaila at 4 am today? Got it, and thanks for the tip, Boss."
... members of the elite force went to a farm at the village where Dablu and his accomplices were holding a secret meeting at about 4:00am.
Big secret, no one knew but the commies and the RAB.
Sensing the presence of the Rab men, ...
"Hark! My spider-sense is tingling! It must be the RAB!"
... the outlaws opened fire, ...
"Eat hot lead, coppers!"
... prompting the law enforcers to retaliate.
They always do.
Rab sources said Dablu received bullets during the "shootout" ...
... one behind each ear ...
... and died instantly, ...
... just as he was rolled out the back of the truck ...
... while his cohorts managed to flee.
As if they were never there.
Dablu was wanted on twelve systems in a number of criminal cases, the sources added. A two-barrel gun and two bullets were recovered from the scene.
Is that a two-barrel shutter gun?
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's just a guess, but I'm thinking the court dockets in the RAB areas of operation aren't very crowded.
Posted by: GK || 05/20/2007 0:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Is that a two-barrel shutter gun?

a two-barrel goes bang-itty-bang!
Posted by: RD || 05/20/2007 1:53 Comments || Top||

#3  #2: Is that a two-barrel shutter gun? Nah it's a Double-Barrel Shoot-Gun (Channeling the Beverly Hillbillies)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/20/2007 12:34 Comments || Top||

#4  THAT's what happened to my 10-gauge!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/20/2007 14:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Har! Inline longer than our stoooooreeeeee.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 15:07 Comments || Top||


Death of youth in Rab action sparks protests
Plainclothes Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) personnel allegedly beat a youth dead and injured his family members and neighbours triggering protests at Chhoto Bongram Purbopara in Rajshahi city suburbs yesterday. Police sources said the dead was identified as Quamrul Islam Majnu, 25, and there were no criminal records against him.

Protesting Rab's actions, angry locals brought out processions several times during the day and a large procession in the evening. They chanted slogans against Rab and the caretaker government. They demanded actions taken against those responsible. A large number of police were deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incidents.

Majnu's body was not handed over to his family members as of filing of this story, as doctors of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) declined to perform autopsy on his body after police mentioned in the inquest report that he had no torture marks. Journalists were also not allowed to take photos of Majnu's body as the RMCH authorities deployed additional police forces who prevented newsmen from entering the hospital. Doctors requesting anonymity said Majnu's body was carrying innumerable marks of torture and his entire body was smeared with blood.

Hospital sources said Rab personnel of Railway Colony camp took Majnu's body to RMCH where doctors on duty declared him dead on arrival at 1:15am, said hospital sources. Eyewitnesses claimed that Rab personnel mercilessly beat Majnu up with bamboo sticks while he was guarding his lichee orchard at Chhoto Bongram Purbopara around midnight yesterday. The elite force later dragged him 60-70 yards through cultivated lands and threw him into their vehicle.

As his mother Taslima Begum, brother, teacher Piarul Islam and neighbours Alea and Jahangir tried to save him from the onslaught, they were also assaulted. "They hit me on the shoulder, hit my legs and later kicked me in the chest, I only wanted my son back," said 50-years-old Taslima wailing at her house.

Deputy Commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police said, "The incident was inhumane and the victim had no criminal records with any Rajshahi city police stations. I talked to locals and they said he was a good person."

Police sources said pools of blood were seen at the spot. They cordoned the place off in the morning and collected bloodstained soil, sandals and parts of bamboo-sticks that broke during the alleged beating.

However, Rab in a press release last evening claimed that they reached the lichee orchard tracking down a group of kidnappers. They claimed Majnu was fatally injured during clashes between Rab and the kidnappers and the group of villagers who took sides of the kidnappers. Rab claimed they rescued kidnapped Basirul Islam of Chapainawabganj from the lichee orchard and arrested Tofizul from the scene. They also held Rojib near a mosque and Shahidul Islam, a hotel owner, at his house in connection with the kidnapping. Two cases were filed with Boalia Police Station in this regard.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A youth?

Isn't 25 in that neck of the woods middle-aged?
Posted by: Gabby Cussworth || 05/20/2007 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Brings back fond memories of the nuts in the lichee orchard...
Posted by: Tarzan Whusosing8184 || 05/20/2007 0:42 Comments || Top||

#3  So they followed the group into the orchard, and beat the holy hell out of the first person they saw hanging around. Sad, but this sort of thing happens when the police are above the law, as the RAB certainly is.
Posted by: gromky || 05/20/2007 8:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Sometime what's NOT said is more important than what IS said
Example, not a word about how the RAB picked this particular "Youth" Shouting "Slogans" (Fuck you copper, you can't do shit) is bound to focus attention.
These folks are slow learners, cop says "Disperse" the answer is "Yessir, immediately".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/20/2007 12:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Ima call Outrager!

Had too, de ritor you know
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 15:09 Comments || Top||


Europe
Clashes in Turkey kill one soldier
A Turkish soldier was killed and four others were wounded in clashes that broke out Saturday between Turkish security forces and rebels of the Kurdish Labor Party (PKK) in southeastern Anatolia, Turkish security sources said.

The sources added that clashes broke out as security forces were engaged in a military operation against PKK rebels in the village of Lice, near the city of Diyarbakr. The wounded were taken to Diyarbakr Military Hospital for treatment, the said. The security forces have launched large-scale operations against PKK since the beginning of this spring, when the harsh climate there turned to mild and was in favor of the military operations.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Bannu police seize 'suicide jackets'
Bannu police seized three jackets intended for use in suicide attacks from a Lahore-bound bus on Saturday. District Police Officer Dr Mazharul Haq Kakakhel told Daily Times that police checked the bus on a tip off, and found the jackets packed in luggage belonging to tableeghis. Each jacket was primed with explosive bars and detonators. According to the DPO, each jacket contains six rocket shells filled with plastic explosives. He said it is not clear whether the jackets were being sent to Lahore or were intended for somewhere else. According to Saddar police SHO Tahir Khan, the two people carrying the dangerous baggage managed to escape. He said they were both between 30 and 33 years old. “One of the persons jumped from the deck of the bus to escape, showing that they were well trained,” he added.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That bus must be the Paki version of Gentleman's Warehouse or Symms. In fact, I am surprised that the "artsy-fartsy" clique of the great left wing constipation haven't picked up on this new radical chic and had Alexander McQueen design sequined version we all can wear to our next chattering class cocktail party.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 05/20/2007 6:28 Comments || Top||


Fresh clashes in Hyderabad
At least two policemen were injured on Saturday when a mob pelted them with stones after a burial of victims from a mosque explosion and ensuing violent clashes in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

Eleven people died in the explosion which took place during Friday prayers at the Mecca Masjid. Police later shot dead five people in clashes with hundreds of Muslims who went on a rampage to protest against the attack. Hundreds of people were returning on Saturday after burying the dead when they started stoning the police, who had escorted them to the burial ground. Police fired eight rounds in the air and also used teargas to disperse the mob. Elsewhere in the city, an uneasy calm prevailed.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


6 women among 9 officials kidnapped in Waziristan
Suspected militants abducted nine government officials, including six women, at gunpoint on the Bannu-Miranshah highway, officials said on Saturday. Security sources said that more than 30 masked gunmen stopped the government officials’ vehicle near Nawrak, 15 kilometres east of Miranshah and near Mir Ali town, the headquarters of North Waziristan Agency. “The officials were coming from Peshawar on a special survey mission to assess development projects in the region. They were accompanied by guards who could do little to protect them,” the officials said on condition of anonymity. The militants took away wireless communication equipment and six Kalashnikov rifles from the six guards. The guards were told to leave with the warning: “Don’t look back.”

Government officials have been kidnapped in the area before, but this is the first time the hostages include women, a practice that is looked down upon in the tribal code of Pashtunwali.
Government officials have been kidnapped in the area before, but this is the first time the hostages include women, a practice that is looked down upon in the tribal code of Pashtunwali. “We are concerned for the women hostages,” the officials said.

No group has claimed responsibility but the local administration blamed “disgruntled elements” among the militant groups. An area intelligence official told AP: “We have reasons to believe that they were kidnapped by local militants.”

He said the kidnapped officials had been sent to the region to carry out a survey for building new schools, roads and hospitals. “This is what militants don’t like,” he said. The security chief for the North Waziristan tribal region, Arbab Arif, told Reuters that they had engaged tribal elders of the area for the release of the hostages.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These 'people' don't want development projects brought by civilization and civilized behavior. OK, shut them off. NOTHING goes in or out that they don't smuggle on their backs for a hundred mile mountain hike. No electric wires. No trucks, or even bicycles or wheelbarrows. Even AK-47 bullets would get hard to find.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/20/2007 10:12 Comments || Top||


Govt bows to Lal Masjid mullahs
The Lal Masjid administration on Saturday night freed two of the four policemen who were abducted on Friday in return for four men it said had been detained by the police on false charges. The government agreed to release the four men on Monday.

Sources told Daily Times that a district administration team led by City Magistrate Farasit Ali Khan told the clerics that only four people – former ISI official Khalid Khawaja, Zainullah, Mehrab Hussain and Arif Mahmood – were in police custody, while the clerics claimed that Muhammad Idrees, Abdul Baseer, Amir, Iftikhar, Anwarul Haq, Israrul Haq and Naqeebullah were also in police detention. The sources said that the government officials told the clerics that they did not know about the seven people and could not ensure their release. The sources said that Lal Masjid’s Ghazi Abdul Rashid told the officials that the other two policemen would remain in captivity until the release of the seven men also on the clerics’ list.

As an assurance to the Lal Masjid clerics that their men would be freed, Tariq Abbasi, judge of a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court, accepted the bails of three madrassa students and Khalid Khawaja, who had been booked for burning CDs and video cassettes at Bhara Kahu. The defense counsel also submitted a bail application for another madrassa student, Arif Mahmood. The court will take up the case on May 26. The four men are likely to be released from Adiala Jail tomorrow (Monday). The names of the two freed constables are Muhammad Irshad and Yasir Shah.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd pay good money to be involved directly in lancing this boil...
Posted by: Snish Shock5578 || 05/20/2007 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Is that an AQ Navy "Man-o-War", there, Fred?
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 05/20/2007 6:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Nope. Just the common Pakistani dictator.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 11:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Fred, that's much too complex an animal to represent the pakis. See if you can find a photo of one of the very small see-through jellyfish about the size of a dime. That would be much more accurate.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/20/2007 14:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Looks like the deadly southron sea biscuit to me JIB.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 18:25 Comments || Top||

#6  looks like an EU bureaucrat
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2007 18:33 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Baghdad tribes close to fighting al-Qaida
Mirroring a nationwide trend, tribes near Baghdad are on the verge of banding together against al-Qaida and have met with U.S. military officials seeking aid and guidance in fighting the terrorist network.

Acceptance of — if not outright support for — al-Qaida among the tribes eroded after the strict Islamic law imposed by insurgents clashed with the authority of the sheikhs, according to U.S. military officials.

On Saturday, a group of local chieftains met with military commanders and a representative of the State Department at Camp Taji, about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad, and tentatively agreed to form a council that would oversee the creation of a provincial security force similar to the tribal militia created in western Iraq.

“I think we all agree that our common enemy are extremists and that’s who we must defeat,” Col. Paul E. Funk II said to the roughly dozen sheikhs at the gathering. Funk, commander of the 1st “Ironhorse” Brigade Combat Tam, 1st Cavalry Division, presided over the meeting.

With the fledgling alliance still in its early stages, the gathering at times resembled a negotiation. Several sheikhs asked for improvements in water treatment and electricity service as well as for inquiries into the detention by Iraqi security forces of relatives and tribal members.

“Are you going to support us, or do we have to go knock on someone else’s door,” one sheikh asked.

But even while U.S. commanders courted tribal support, they were wary of creating a new, separate fighting force and potentially further complicating the crowded battlefield around Baghdad that includes not only al-Qaida, but also Shiite militias.

“We are not here to build another militia,” Funk said. Volunteers from the tribes must cooperate with the Iraqi government’s security forces, he said.

The fragile, emerging alliance is being handled carefully by the military. No photographs were allowed at Saturday’s meeting, a nod toward security concerns and possible retaliation against the sheikhs.

Lt. Col. Kurt Pinkerton, who commands the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment in Abu Ghraib, has been on the forefront of the military’s outreach to the tribes in the area. He said that the turning point in the struggle for the sympathies of the region came last September when al-Qaida in Iraq declared the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq.

The shadow government clashed with the centuries old tribal system, establishing Islamic sharia courts and often punishing dissention with kidnappings and death sentences.

“Throughout history the tribes have been seen as a challenge and have been targeted. At one point Saddam tried to put them down, al-Qaeda tried, and now we need to keep the coalition from making the same mistakes,” Pinkerton said. “If you understand the [tribal] culture, you can understand the country better. Why not use tribal influence to meet your goals and objectives?”

Tribes in western and northern Iraq have previously joined together to battle al-Qaida.

The al-Anbar Revolutionaries have claimed to have killed dozens of insurgents, while after a meeting in the northern city of Hawijah near Kirkuk earlier this year, tribal heads and other community leaders issued a “declaration” against al-Qaida.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/20/2007 18:32 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “Are you going to support us, or do we have to go knock on someone else’s door,” one sheikh asked.

The answer to this should be an unqualified "YES!" and I mean unqualified.

At this stage of this stupid game, we should start taking sides in this stupid, bloody, gawdawful civil war and make it loud and frakking clear that we support the "provisional" government if it can decide to get its head on straight and that, no matter what, we will support the people's efforts to get a handle on the situtation if their government cannot!

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 05/20/2007 19:49 Comments || Top||

#2  maybe premature but...

Hats off to our folks for penetrating the thick Sunni Tribal/Baathist skulls.

FACT: Our military personal is by far and away more capable, pragmatic and wise than any/every news person, professor, and/or politician put together.

Their quality of character under pressure is without peer today.
Posted by: RD || 05/20/2007 19:50 Comments || Top||

#3  amen, RD
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2007 19:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh, yeah - we should also make it really, really clear to the Maliki government that their rule is "provisional" up and until the time they frak things up - and that then we will step in and set up their government and Constitution for them, after killing a whole lot of people and blowing up a lot of stuff.

Like we should have done in the first place.

And there will not be any frakking mullahs or imams allowed in that government unless we say so.

Enough with thith BS.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 05/20/2007 19:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Actually, setting up tribal militias RESPONSIBLE TO THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT wouldn't be a bad idea. The tribes could establish militias similar to the National Guard in the United States, responding first to the local area, but ultimately to the Federal government. Incorporating them into the federal structure is a darned sight better than have them acting as loose cannons. Besides, who would be better to protect their families than those that live among them. AQ may have just signed their own death warrant, not only in Iraq, but apparently the backlash is also growing in Pakistan.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/20/2007 21:26 Comments || Top||

#6  So they shirked responsible democracy and strict Sharia law. A nation of tribes.

Thank God I don't live there. My cousins are idiots.
Posted by: Penguin || 05/20/2007 21:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Ironically, it seems the reduction of American forces from Anbar in 2006 seems to have had good consequences;

Al Q moved in and the tribes got to know them up close and personal.

No doubt this wasn't the plan and I suppose this won't work everywhere but its nice when it does/
Posted by: mhw || 05/20/2007 22:32 Comments || Top||


Gunmen Steal 1 Billion Dinars from Social Security in Baquba
Where's the outrage from the Democrats over this blatant robbery of social security funds - from a lockbox (well, a bank, anyway)!
Gunmen steal $ 860,000 from government accountants in Diala
By Aasem Taha

Baaquba, 18 May 2007 (Voices of Iraq)

Unknown gunmen on Thursday stole one billion Iraqi dinars ($ 860,000) from government accountants as they left a Diala bank with bags of cash, a security source said.

"Gunmen in four vehicles laid an ambush in central Baaquba for government accountants with one billion Iraqi dinars as a monthly social security program fund for poor families in Diala," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

He added, "the gunmen escaped with the equivalent of $ 860,000."

Baaquba, capital city of Diala province, is 57 km northeast of Baghdad.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/20/2007 13:15 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Make sure everyone shares the load equally. That way the bad guys lose even more credibility.
Posted by: gorb || 05/20/2007 13:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Not to sound stupid, although I'm sure I've shown my ignorance more than once here.
Are we supplying this social security?
Posted by: Jan from work || 05/20/2007 14:29 Comments || Top||

#3  It's a quagmire, I tell you! We can't even stop banr robbers in Iraq!
Posted by: Bobby || 05/20/2007 17:09 Comments || Top||

#4  The good news is: Dinars are worth stealing.
Posted by: mrp || 05/20/2007 18:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Jan, good question. Iraq has oil income, but you never know. Besides, if not Iraqis, Bush would gladly give it to Mexicans.
Posted by: wxjames || 05/20/2007 18:14 Comments || Top||

#6  government accountants as they left a Diala bank with bags of cash,

Looks like Donna was right, I did make a piss poor life decision about 30 years ago. Still, all in all cash isn't everything, I mean it's a lot, but jeeeebus, who knew? All I could see was the CPA exam and am Osborn Lunchpail.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 18:30 Comments || Top||

#7 
Looks like Donna was right, I did make a piss poor life decision about 30 years ago. Still, all in all cash isn't everything, I mean it's a lot, but jeeeebus, who knew? All I could see was the CPA exam and am Osborn Lunchpail.


the evil cult of the
green eyeshade,
omg a fate worser than lawyerhood
Posted by: RD || 05/20/2007 20:16 Comments || Top||


Gunmen kill 15 people northeast of Baghdad
(Xinhua) -- Gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed a village near the Iranian border and killed 15 people on Saturday, a local official said. "Some 50 militants in three trucks wearing Iraqi army uniform stormed the Hameed village, just south of the town of Mandily, some 110 km northeast of Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding a woman," Jawad Kadhim al-Bazaz, deputy mayor of Mandily in Diyala province, told Xinhua by telephone.

Residents of the village said that the gunmen claimed they were on a legitimate mission and searched the houses for weapons and wanted insurgents, but they ordered the people to leave their houses and separated men from the women and children and then they shot at the men, Bazaz said. "Most of the killed people are from Iranian origin families who returned to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion. They were forced to leave Iraq on the year 1975," he said. Bazaz blamed the attack on militants from the al-Qaida in Iraq who have a strong presence in the volatile Diyala province.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, from the description of the families, we know from which side of the border the "gunmen" came from, don't we?
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 05/20/2007 6:31 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Cabinet gives IDF green light to target Hamas politicians
Hamas political leaders in the Gaza Strip involved in terrorism became targets Sunday after the security cabinet granted the IDF a green light to strike at terror chiefs, including politicians, involved in the nonstop Kassam rocket fire on Sderot.
Expect "enlightened humanity" to start screaching in 5..4..3
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/20/2007 21:26 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Debka: Israel to turn to guerrilla tactics
Fight fire with fire. I hope it's true because it makes sense to me, espcially with the use of technology and informants. But, this is not my area of expertise. Any military types out there have an informed opinion?

As the Palestinian missile offensive enters its second week, military experts recommend dosing Hamas and its allies with their own medicine: harassment behind the lines by small undercover Israeli units on hit-and-run missions to blow up Palestinian infrastructure, weapons workshops and commands centers and around-the clock ambushes of their fighters and chiefs. Palestinian operatives must be kept on the run in fear of their lives.

They say the moment has passed for a conventional invasion, such as the 2002 Defense Wall operation that cleansed the West Bank of its effective suicide cell structures, such as some opposition leaders and ministers propose. It would have been logical after Israel’s 2005 evacuation of the Gaza Strip. But today, Gaza is swarming with a hodgepodge of Hamas, Jihad Islami, Fatah-al Aqsa Brigades, Popular Resistance Committees and al Qaeda terrorists and militias.

According to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, Iranian and Hizballah advisers are telling them how to combat a substantial Israeli ground–tank incursion. They must go underground and wage a guerrilla-terrorist war equivalent to the Iraqi insurgent campaign against US troops.

Israel is strongly advised to avoid that trap.

Unorthodox strategic and tactical thinking is needed, say the experts, not an effort to fight the Lebanon War anew in Gaza. The clock cannot be turned back to the days before 2005, when former PM Ariel Sharon supported by Olmert pulled Israel out of the Gaza Strip and the strategic Philadelphi border route - or when Olmert after becoming prime minister let Hamas win the Palestinian general election in 2006 with FM Tzipi Livni’s support.

Israelis have defeated Arab terror before. In the 1930s, The English military genius Orde Wingate taught Jewish paramilitary defenders his Special Night Squads tactics for turning Arab guerrilla methods against them. Nothing much has changed in 71 years, except for the fact that today, Israel has a strong army of its own, and does not need British or other international force to defend its sovereign territory. All that is needed is a government with resolve that lets the military do its job.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 05/20/2007 08:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The English originated the use of counter-terror operations against the Irish Republican Army that was both ruthless and effective. Eventually, it was countered by identifying and assassinating the members of the counter-terror organization.

In this case, the Paleos will probably figure out how to set up observation posts, to quickly identify bands of Israelis entering their turf, then ambush them.

In the final analysis, the Israelis will lose, because this tactic only maintains the status quo--its objective is not to *win*, but to keep the Paleos from attacking.

Which is why I advocate above all developing a tactic that will eventually force an end to the violence, one way or another--even if it is very gradual.

As I've said before, taking land away from the Paleos, in a slow and systematic process, and in response to their violence, is one such means. It gives them no choice, either they stop with the violence, or eventually they have no land left.

It forces an end. But the Israelis seem to be incapable of envisioning a tactic like this; which damns them in the long run.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/20/2007 8:50 Comments || Top||

#2  The real strategic enemy is not Phakestinian guerilla expertise, not Iranian nuclear weaponry or even Saudi Orc ideology but "Western" "popular opinion" as manufactured by academic, media and celebrity-idiot elites. Unfortunately, Anonymoose, I think any gradualist approach strengthens those enemies.

In my opinion, a better approach is the Chinese one taken in Tibet. Move in, take everything, use whatever brutality is necessary, ban all media in Gaza, Judea and Samaria and Israel proper and disappear a few along the way to make the point, and commence mass expulsions under whatever pretext is necessary. Internicine Phakestinian conflict is always handy though I could also see a "dirty bomb" coming in real handy as a public health explanation for why the land is now unihabitable. Fifty years on and a blooming green Israeli Gaza national park will result. In the meantime, there will be outrage and protests and all the rest but with no cameras on the ground and an infected boil finally lanced the leftards would pay no more mind than to their supposed causes in East Timor, Darfur, Tibet, etc. of the moment.

Get in. Finish the job. Get out. Rinse and repeat in Lebanon, the "West Bank" and the rest.
Posted by: Excalibur || 05/20/2007 10:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Roughly 3000 Caterpillar D-9s lined up abreast, pushing from the NE border of Gaza to the Egyptian border, moving at about one mph should solve the problem in about a day. Not sure how long it would take to collect the 3000 Corriedozers.
Gorilla rather than Guerrilla tactics.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/20/2007 10:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Back to the original counterterrorism plan, on Strategypage, they have an article about the US getting more RAID surveillance towers:

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htintel/articles/20070520.aspx

It seems to me that whatever ops Israel might conduct in Gaza, or defensibly against Gaza, setting up such observation towers around its perimeter would make it much harder for the bad guyz to set up their rocket launchers without detection and very accurate counter-battery fire even before they could launch.

And at 600k USD, it could be done very cheaply.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/20/2007 11:22 Comments || Top||

#5  #3: Roughly 3000 Caterpillar D-9s lined up abreast,

Add a hefty body of troops at both ends of the lines, (Think of a shape like a dumbbell) shoot those trying to go round the ends, and it'll work.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/20/2007 12:26 Comments || Top||

#6  The status quo Israel can preserve is Red on Red violence within Gaza. Debka or not, stirring that pot has a certain logic, especially if it can be done in a deniable manner. As we discussed the other day, it could be that the anarchy and internal bloodshed eventually leads to Egyptian and Jordanian control over the failed Paleo 'state' which might actually lead to improvement in the situation in the region.
Posted by: JAB || 05/20/2007 13:09 Comments || Top||

#7  that begs the question - how many 9D's have been built?
Posted by: 3dc || 05/20/2007 13:51 Comments || Top||

#8  "Israel to turn to guerrilla tactics"

Israel have been using guerrilla tactics for years. I wonder what made Israel think that they can take a vacation in the first place.

I hear that one of the side effects of the Kadima Cream spread liberally is, temporary blindness.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 05/20/2007 14:17 Comments || Top||

#9  "According to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources"

Which consist of a ouiji board, some tea leaves, chicken bones, goat guts, a stopped clock and a fortune cookie from Mr. Chau's.

Posted by: crosspatch || 05/20/2007 14:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Hey, 3dc, I googled that possibility and I got a bunch of paleo sympathetic hits on Gaza, West bank, et al. go figure.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/20/2007 14:24 Comments || Top||

#11  It won't take more than about 20 D-9s, if you use some napalm and he to clear the way. Push everything into the Med at two or three strategic points and build an "instant harbor" while you're at it. Shoot them, drive them out, crush them, eliminate them any way you can. Every time a US congresscritter or bleeding heart enters the scene, make sure they have an "accident". Screw world opinion - it's already against Israel anyway. Push the gazan arabs into Egypt, the west-bank idiots into Jordan, Syria, or Soddy aRabida. Lebanon's got enough woes, and will be a project for next spring.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/20/2007 14:53 Comments || Top||

#12  The return of bar el TW.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 15:13 Comments || Top||

#13  Whatever keeps the Palestinians killing each other is a good thing. However, merely preserving the status quo is a very bad thing. Just as the West is having to realize about Islam in general, so Israel must learn that only disproportionate retaliation has any effect upon the Muslim mind. They must be made to feel our pain. Short of Old Patriot's solution, which I heartily approve of, 'moose's land deprivation policy is the only one that will yield results. The Palestinians must be made to feel Israel's pain in a big way.

Watching their own infant nation slowly getting strangled in the crib represents one of the only ways to convince them regarding the error of their ways. Should they, as ever, prove completely immune to logic, the final result will be no Palestinian nation and forcible displacement of their population. Given the Palestinians' history of complete and total immunity to reason, Old Patriot's method or 'moose's, both have the same net result, which is why I'd just as soon see the first option put to use and be done with it. This death-of-a-thousand-papercuts grows wearisome. Which is just another lesson the West must learn as well.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/20/2007 16:16 Comments || Top||

#14  I see genocide is picking up popularity.
It's not such a bad word after all.
Posted by: wxjames || 05/20/2007 18:26 Comments || Top||

#15  As said long ago, as long as the Left + anti-US aqendists want anti-US OWG-SWO, which inevitably will also be anti-Western, the USA must be prepared to stand and fight for its interests alone. SO ALSO MUST ISRAEL, OR ANY OTHER ALLY(S), WID OUT THE US-EUROPE. The IDF's focii must be to prepare for Missle-and Nuke-armed Iran and other hostile Muslim nations. ISRAEL TO IMPROVE ITS CHANCES MUST EITHER TAKE OVER GAZA-WEST BANK, OR IN THE ALTERN SEAL OFF BOTH AREAS WID STRONG FORTIFIED WALLS. As long as the Paleos are seek war = destruction of Israel BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY and are tacitly unable to govern themselves, Israel must prioritize itself. FRENCH PLANNING, FORECASTING AND POLITIX DEFEATED THE MAGINOT LINE LONG BEFORE HITLER'S WEHRMACHT - all the Germans did was exploit weaknesses = holes that were already there.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/20/2007 19:27 Comments || Top||

#16  I see genocide is picking up popularity.

It's not "genocide", wxjames. There's happens to be some people that just plain need killin'. The Palestinians have been clamoring to be included in that category for several decades now.

With each passing day, more and more Muslims push their way into that group as well. The case against Islam is both clear cut and also does not embrace the concept of genocide. Islam is composed of Arabs, Malays, Africans, Pashtuns and a host of other ethnicities whereby it is not a specific race of people whose elimination is being sought. The sheer numbers involved make it easy to confuse with previous historical genocides, but the continuing and enduring threat that Islam presents to the civilized world make its eventual extermination literally guaranteed. I would like to think that there is some way to avoid such a vast loss of human life. Every day, its seems as though Muslims seek to prove me wrong.

Whether it is 9-11, Bali, 7-7, Madrid, throwing acid in the faces of three and five year-old girls, leaving infants inside a detonating car bomb or herding young girls back into a burning building, the laundry list of atrocities committed by Muslims grows on a daily basis, with no end in sight. Each time you think that Islam cannot outdo its own vicious brutality, it rises to the hideous challenge and devises yet another ghastly affront to all human sensibilities.

There must be and will be an end to it. Islam is wholly dedicated to placing itself at odds with the entire non-Muslim world. Like a compass needle irresistably drags itself to magnetic north, Islam's own doctrine inexorably draws it to the tipping point. Nothing indicates otherwise whatsoever and everything to date stands as irrefutable proof that Islam is determined against doing anything that would avert its resolute march towards oblivion's precipice. Genocide has absolutely nothing to do with this, simple self-preservation does.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/20/2007 19:54 Comments || Top||

#17  Civilzation has the responsibility and ability to do what it must to retain social compacts. Certain peoples and groups violate that compact. They should be removed from the gene pool. Paleos are just such a group. Can you name a Paleo contribution, besides Airline hi-jackings? That was an Arafat specialty. How about explosive vests? Another Paleo specialty, since franchised. They are a blot on the mideast, useful to the Arab supremacists while they could tweak the Jooos and keep their oppressed pops distracted...I expect them to continue to be marginalized and radicalized until they dissolve themselves from the gene pool. So much hatred, so much shameless welfare, can't continue without outside help
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2007 20:15 Comments || Top||

#18  #14
Civilization is not a suicide pact, wxjames. Right now the only choice Paleos, and Arabs in general, leave to Israel is the choice of who is going to become extinct.
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/20/2007 21:25 Comments || Top||

#19  Right now the only choice Paleos, and Arabs in general Muslims, leave to Israel the Infidel is the choice of who is going to become extinct.

There, fixed that for you, gg.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/20/2007 21:50 Comments || Top||

#20  Gracias, amigo.
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/20/2007 22:39 Comments || Top||

#21  Set-up radar controlled counter batteries. Anything comes in from Gaza or the West Bank - send something back.
Posted by: DMFD || 05/20/2007 22:48 Comments || Top||

#22  #14: "I see genocide is picking up popularity."

It has been for decades, wx.

Among the paleos and their enablers - against the Israelis.

Or did you think their motto of Kill all the Jews™ meant something else?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/20/2007 23:21 Comments || Top||

#23  Roughly 3000 Caterpillar D-9s lined up abreast, pushing from the NE border of Gaza to the Egyptian border,

Over my dead body.

[Hey! I didn't mean it!]
Posted by: Rachel Corrie || 05/20/2007 23:28 Comments || Top||

#24  SPOT-EFFING-ON, Barbara. Cut to the chase, lady!
Posted by: Zenster || 05/20/2007 23:35 Comments || Top||


IDF Attacks Again; Paleos Unite
Israeli warplanes sent missiles slamming into a car carrying Hamas militants early Sunday, then demolished arms factories belonging to two Palestinian groups, the army said, in a widening of reprisals against Gaza rocket squads.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened tougher action if the intensified rocket fire on Israeli border communities didn't cease.

The sixth straight day of airstrikes came as an uneasy truce between warring Palestinian factions set in. Masked Hamas and Fatah gunmen who had controlled the streets and taken over apartment buildings in the previous week scaled back their presence sharply, and residents who had holed up at home seeking refuge from the gunbattles ventured out to stock up on supplies at busy shops. Children went back to school in time for final exams, and adults returned to work.

Four previous truces last week quickly collapsed, but Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said he expected the cease-fire deal reached Saturday to stick because of Israel's military action. "No one would accept to fight one another while the Israelis are shelling Gaza," he said.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/20/2007 06:51 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Israeli bombing causes the Pals to reunite and end their civil war will Olmert be up for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Posted by: Penguin || 05/20/2007 9:48 Comments || Top||

#2  "No one would accept to fight one another while the Israelis are shelling Gaza."

It’s been proven that societies predicated on hate and fueled by charlatan religious dogma would always maintain a culture of paranoia and corruption. Add to that a population that for decades willingly accepts, and indeed often expects, its leaders hypocrisy on matters of collective concern preserves a denial of personal responsibility at every level of its citizenry. This witches brew of irrational beliefs and behaviors has allowed some the most morally bankrupt of leaders to consistently coerce ignorant masses of a false object for their rancor. We are witnessing in Gaza how these parasitic beliefs, without external sustenance, have the potential to eventually consume their host. Their humiliation is the vermin amongst them. They need only to look in the mirror.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 05/20/2007 11:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Damn, I've got to get my glasses checked.

I thought the headline read "IDF Attacks Again; Paleos Urinate"

The IDF retaliates and the paleos pee their pants - it's certainly believable. Fake but accurate. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/20/2007 13:24 Comments || Top||

#4  "A Palestinian shopowner disputed Israel's account that it destroyed a weapons factory in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, saying his stereo and video store had been mistakenly targeted."

Video store? Right!!! Here is a nice tip that I picked up on CNBC: Stereo and video store acquisitions and mergers are only successful in Gaza, if the acquisition does not include a BOMB making factory. Pass it on.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 05/20/2007 14:29 Comments || Top||

#5  It boggles why a country would allow terrorists to launch bombs upon Israelis. Yet This bombing has continued for months and years.

If bombs were being launched from across US borders, there would be an immediate, decisive, and swift response until the threat was eliminated.
Posted by: Captain America || 05/20/2007 15:40 Comments || Top||

#6  If bombs were being launched from across US borders, there would be an immediate, decisive, and swift response until the threat was eliminated.

And when bombs are launched from across Israel's border, US calls on Israel (with treats re millitary assistance & international backing, implied) not to hurt the Peace Process.
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/20/2007 21:56 Comments || Top||


Hamas, Fatah declare fifth truce in Gaza
Rival Palestinian factions clinched a new ceasefire deal yesterday to end a week of violence that has left more than 50 dead as Israel continued to pound targets across Gaza, killing one Palestinian.

Gunmen began to abandon rooftop positions and to remove street barricades under the eye of Egyptian mediators and representatives of different factions, accompanied by the military adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, General Abdel Razzaq Al Majaida. “The agreement has begun to be applied,” Majaida said after steps began to be taken around 1330 GMT. “The armed men are coming down from the tower blocks and the barriers are being removed.” It was the fifth such deal since violence erupted on Sunday but the first in which steps were actually taken to implement it. Witnesses saw a dozen gunmen leave one of the highest vantage points in central Gaza City and also saw barricades being removed from Jalla Street.

In announcing the truce, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah’s spokesman Ghazi Hamad said “armed men will leave (their positions in) buildings and streets, will remove road blocks and release hostages on both sides.”

The deal was struck at the Egyptian mission in Gaza in the presence of Haniyah, who had been in contact with exiled Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal as well as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Abbas. “We hope that the Palestinians will respect the ceasefire concluded under Egyptian auspices,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said. He called on Israel “not to attack the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” because that “creates tensions between the Palestinians and speeds the resumption of clashes”. He also called on Palestinian militant groups to halt rocket fire against the Jewish state, reminding them of “Israel’s military supremacy”.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Maybe somebody will honor this one!"
Posted by: mojo || 05/20/2007 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Pondering. I think this Trucefire will last.
About 12 hours.
Posted by: twobyfour || 05/20/2007 0:13 Comments || Top||

#3  I admire your optimism, 2x4.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/20/2007 0:15 Comments || Top||

#4  As the agreement was reached, clashes erupted outside the home of a senior Fatah official in Gaza City, and security officials said several people were wounded. In another incident, the convoy of a Fatah-allied colonel in the Palestinian intelligence came under fire, but no one was hurt.
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/20/2007 0:54 Comments || Top||

#5  "Striking a ceasefire deal is easy. We've done it a thousand times."
Posted by: gorb || 05/20/2007 1:19 Comments || Top||

#6  When will the AP translators realize that it is not "ceasefire". It is Cease! Fire!
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 05/20/2007 6:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Does anybody actually believe the word "Ceasefire" over there anymore? I would think after several years even the AP would stop reporting these agreements.
Posted by: Charles || 05/20/2007 9:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Heh. Took me a bit Tojo.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 15:15 Comments || Top||

#9  That hudna thingy doesn't work so well with other Muslims now, don't it?
Posted by: Zenster || 05/20/2007 15:43 Comments || Top||

#10  Maybe Chimpy Bushitler will go to Congress and ask for a Declaration of Truce with Iran.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 18:34 Comments || Top||

#11  Surprisingly the Arabic word for 'ceasefire' is the same as the word for 'reload'.
Posted by: DMFD || 05/20/2007 22:45 Comments || Top||


Israel pounds Gaza killing two Palestinians
Israeli warplanes attacked Palestinian targets in eastern Gaza Strip on Saturday killing two people, medical sources said. The sources said bodies of the two Palestinians that were brought to hospital were disfigured beyond recognition.

Bodies of the two Palestinians that were brought to hospital were disfigured beyond recognition...
The warplanes carried out four raids targeting the district of Al-Shujaiah, metal workshops in Hey Al-Zaitoun region and a building housing offices for a charity run by the mainstream Palestinian organization, Fatah. The building and two workshops were destroyed in the strikes.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz played down the immediate prospect of a massive ground invasion of Gaza. "I think the idea of taking over Gaza again is a decision that can be made at any time," he added.

The Israeli army claimed an air strike hit three militants firing rockets from northern Gaza. Local residents said the one person who was killed was a shepherd with no connection to the ruling Hamas movement. Another five people were wounded, two seriously.

Overnight, the army said it destroyed two Hamas weapons' depots in Gaza City. Palestinians said they were metal foundries not connected to Hamas.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Secondaries? What secondaries?"
Posted by: mojo || 05/20/2007 0:07 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm waiting for the announcement that Alan Johnston was having tea and crumpets with a kindergarten class, bunny hutch, and rare-bird aviary in a building that took "collateral" damage from Israeli warplanes...
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/20/2007 0:43 Comments || Top||

#3  "What's in the bucket?"

"No, it's who's in the bucket. And we don't know, that's your job."
Posted by: gorb || 05/20/2007 1:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz played down the immediate prospect of a massive ground invasion of Gaza. "I think the idea of taking over Gaza again is a decision that can be made at any time," he added

change in tone!
Posted by: Angaiger Tojo1904 || 05/20/2007 6:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz played down the immediate prospect of a massive ground invasion of Gaza. "I think the idea of taking over Gaza again is a decision that can be made at any time," he added.

Shouldn't have given it up to begin with.
Posted by: Charles || 05/20/2007 9:22 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Four dead in southern Thai violence
Militants shot dead a construction worker and set his body ablaze in another atrocity in the troubled South on Sunday. They also killed two men, a teenager, and detonated two bombs that wounded 11 people, police said.

The dead man was killed as he worked on a highway in Pattani, one of three southern provinces beset by three years of separatist insurgency in which more than 2,100 people have been killed. Officers said the man's excavator was also set alight.

A few hours later in the nearby province of Narathiwat, two remote-controlled bombs detonated 15 minutes apart near a market, wounding seven police and defence volunteers and four civilians, police said. Some of victims were caught as they rushed to the scene of the first blast caused when the small home-made bomb exploded.

A Buddhist motorcycle mechanic and a Muslim villager were killed in separate drive-by shootings late Saturday in Yala province.

On Sunday morning in the same province, gunmen opened fire on a Buddhist woman and her 16-year-old son. The teenager died later in hospital, while his 51-year-old mother was in a serious condition.

Also Sunday, police said they were investigating whether an Indonesian man arrested for firearms possession in Yala was in the region to train rebels, who are battling for a separate state in southern Thailand.

Sulaiman Abdulganee, 42, was arrested on Friday in a rented house in Yala province with his Thai Muslim wife. Both were charged with drug trafficking, while Abdulganee was also charged with illegally owning a gun, police said.

Two senior military officers said last week that extremists from Indonesia and Cambodia were training insurgents in the Muslim-majority south, where more than 2,200 people have been killed in the unrest since January 2004. However, the army has yet to produce any evidence supporting the allegations that foreign fighters are aiding the rebels.
Posted by: ryuge || 05/20/2007 10:21 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whither goes the Muzzie, there comes the fanatic to open the door for death.
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/20/2007 11:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Until the world population realizes admitting any Muslims into your society means subversion of your society by nurder and terrorism, no real progress can be made. If the realization could come about, Muslims could be either eliminated or quarantined in the desert and allowed to waste away. If civilization wants to survive and prosper, they'd better wise up rapidly because the grains of sand are draining through the hourglass with each breath they take.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter2970 || 05/20/2007 11:35 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
Fighting in northern Sri Lanka kills 3
Two Tamil guerrillas and a Sri Lankan soldier were killed in continuing clashes in the war-torn country’s north, as troops recovered weapons, explosives, and a suicide-bomber vest, the military said Saturday.

The latest fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the military occurred near Madu village, about 220 kilometers (135 miles) northwest of the capital Colombo, the Defense Ministry’s information center said in a statement. The Madu clashes were the latest in a surge of violence in the country’s north and east that have killed 5,000 people in the past 18 months, shattering a Norway-brokered cease-fire signed five-years ago with strong international backing. More than 20 rebels and two soldiers have died in the last four days in fighting around Madu, the military said.

The Tiger rebels have denied suffering major losses. Soldiers on a search operation, meanwhile, found a vest for suicide bombings, 750 grams of explosives, and assault rifles in northern Jaffna peninsula _ the cultural heartland of minority Tamils, 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital, Colombo, the Defense Ministry said. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels were the first group to employ explosive-laden vests for suicide attacks, after they launched their campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in 1983.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon army battles terrs at Paleo camp
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Lebanese troops battled militants linked to Al Qaeda at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon on Sunday, security sources and witnesses said. The sources said there were casualties on both sides in the fighting that started before dawn at the entrance of Nahr Al Bared camp near the northern port city of Tripoli. Witnesses said the rattle of assault rifles and machine guns could be heard, and thuds from explosions rocked the area.
The Israelis have had their enemies doing red-on-red in Gaza and have now extended this to Lebanon. Fiendishly clever.
A military source said the clashes began after an army post on the outskirts of the camp came under fire from Fatah Al Islam militants. The Lebanese army cannot enter Palestinian refugee camps in line with a 38-year-old agreement but it had tightened its grip around the camp since authorities charged members of the group with carrying out a twin bus bombings in a Christian area near Beirut that killed three civilians in February.

Peoples Front of Judaea Fatah Al Islam was formed last year by fighters who broke off from the pro-Syrian Judaean Peoples Front Fatah Uprising group. Lebanese officials say the group is merely a front for Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, something both the group and Syria deny. Fatah Al Islam statements have appeared on Islamist Web sites known to publish Al Qaeda statements.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Pot That Stirs Itself(tm)
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/20/2007 0:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Pop, sizzle, pop.
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/20/2007 0:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Peanut butter jelly time!
Posted by: Excalibur || 05/20/2007 7:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Why haven't the Lebonnese just sent all these people back to Gaza or whereever? Are they getting enough from the UN to keep them that they are worth all this trouble?
Posted by: sam3rd || 05/20/2007 9:19 Comments || Top||

#5  update:
Lebanese tanks pounded the headquarters of a group with suspected links to al-Qaeda in a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli Sunday after the northern city's worst clashes in two decades killed 22 soldiers and 17 militants.
The clashes between troops surrounding the Nahr el-Bared camp and Fatah Islam fighters began early in the morning shortly after police raided a militant-occupied apartment on a major thoroughfare in Tripoli and a gunbattle erupted, witnesses said.

Hundreds of Lebanese applauded at the army as its tanks shelled the camp – a sign of the long-standing tensions between some Lebanese and the tens of thousands of Palestinians who took refuge from fighting in Israel over the past decades.
“We strongly back the Lebanese army troops and what they are doing,” said Abed Attar, a resident of Tripoli who stood watching the tanks fire into the camp while others cheered.

Ten militants were killed in the building in Tripoli and seven in the refugee camp, security officials said. They said 22 soldiers had also been killed.

The violence adds one more destabilizing factor to conflict-ridden Lebanon, already in the midst of its worst political crisis between the Western-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition since the end of the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war.

It was a rare clash between the Lebanese army and militants and the first major fighting between the security forces and Palestinians since the early 90s when troops fought Palestinian guerrillas in Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2007 15:17 Comments || Top||

#6  I think a fine salad is in order.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 15:19 Comments || Top||

#7  How delightful. Deprived of their usual steady diet of Jewish blood, the Palestinians have begun to feast upon themselves and any other hosts stupid enough to shelter them. Let us all hope that the outside world finally purchases a clue as to what sort of real-life agenda and enduring legacy these Islamic cretins bring to the global community.

Sadly, I doubt that most of the non-Arab Palestinian enablers will prove unable to abandon their deep-seated anti-Semitism long enough to realize what a blight upon our world these terrorist psychopaths are. The Arab community must be punished for breeding up these misfits with their material support and propaganda. Gaza and the West Bank must be flushed out into surrounding Arab nations so that their populations can savor the bitter dregs of humanity they have succored. They deserve nothing less.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/20/2007 15:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Why haven't the Lebonnese just sent all these people back to Gaza or whereever?

Lots of reasons, sam3rd. One is that as long as there are palestinian "refugee" camps, the issue of "right of return" is still alive and well - one way to crush Israel. Another is that when these camps were first created, they had populations in the 50K range. Now there are between a quarter and a half-million in each one (about 4.5 million total). Very, very few are original "refugees". Actually, "refugees" is the wrong name - the mufti of Jerusalem urged all muslims to leave the state of Israel, so "the arab armies could crush the upstart state with impunity". None of the countries where these "refugee camps" exist will allow the paleo arabs to enter the general population, although almost all are related. The UN High Commission on Refugees has made a grand living over the "rights" of these refugees, and doesn't want the gravy train stopped. The various paleo "liberation" regimes use the refugee camps as recruiting grounds, and don't want to give up a lucrative deal. All in all, it's the typical arab muzzie mess, and won't go away without excessive force.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/20/2007 15:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Palestinians who took refuge from fighting in Israel over the past decades.

LOL. Nice ritin. Damn near sixty years of living off the collective fat. Gimme-gimme Annual income from ass sitting 10 times that of a southron Sudan farmer. (ded).
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 18:40 Comments || Top||

#10  Hey! Lebs, Paleos--I've got a GREAT idea! Let's you two fight it out to the death and I'll stand here and impartially cheer for whichever side seems to be losing at the moment. Go RED! Go RED! Go RED! Go RED!
Posted by: Graiting Pelosi5237 || 05/20/2007 18:52 Comments || Top||

#11  I thought all Pelosis were grating.....
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2007 18:53 Comments || Top||

#12  Most Paleos in Lebanon are refugees from the Paleo attempted takeover of Jordan in 1970.
Posted by: gromgoru || 05/20/2007 22:02 Comments || Top||

#13  Most Paleos in Lebanon are refugees from the Paleo attempted takeover of Jordan in 1970.

Well, alrighty then. Let's definitely give them the right of return!
Posted by: Zenster || 05/20/2007 22:21 Comments || Top||

#14  PS: Does anyone else get a feeling that the Palestinians leave a trail of mayhem and death wherever they go?
Posted by: Zenster || 05/20/2007 22:24 Comments || Top||

#15  More details on the fighting
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/20/2007 22:51 Comments || Top||


Masked gunmen rob a bank in Lebanon
Four masked gunmen robbed around 120,000 dollars from the Mediterranean Bank branch in the northern town of Amioun Saturday, police reported. A Police communiqué said the four, who have not been identified, escapade in a beige-colored car to an unknown destination.
A security source said the gunmen's escape car has been identified as one of the vehicles used by the Syrian-sponsored Fatah-Islam terrorist group.
However, a security source said the gunmen's escape car has been identified as one of the vehicles used by the Syrian-sponsored Fatah-Islam terrorist group in north Lebanon's Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.

The source who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that members of the Group had robbed two banks in the northern town of Tripoli and the southern coastal village of Gaziyeh earlier this year to finance terrorist attacks in Lebanon. Police had arrested a number of Fatah-Islam members in connection with the twin bus bombings in the village of Ein Alaq on Feb. 13 which killed and wounded at least 20 people. The police communiqué said a man hunt was underway for the four gunmen who robbed the Bank in Amioun.
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Insurgents, not robbers!

We're FREEDOM fighters, I tell ya!
Posted by: Abdul-Azziz || 05/20/2007 0:07 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Pirates attack WFP-chartered ship off Somali coastHamas, Fatah declare fifth truce in GazaEthiopia says 1,000 insurgents killed in Mogadishu clashesBara tribesmen accuse Lashkar of running parallel governmentMasked gunmen rob a bank in LebanonKunduz bomber kills three German soldiersEthiopia releases Swedish 'terror suspects'
Posted by: Fred || 05/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wowser. I remember her name, but didn't realize she looked like that.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter2970 || 05/20/2007 0:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Can I borrow a dollar, ma'am?
Posted by: gorb || 05/20/2007 1:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Who's a naughty emperor then?
Posted by: Excalibur || 05/20/2007 6:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Gentlemen prefer Blonde(ll)s.
Posted by: Mike || 05/20/2007 7:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Joan Blondell--a favorite.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/20/2007 10:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Will you take four quarters for that dollar M'am got them right here?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/20/2007 12:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Ima think that's a Half. RJ get't to hammer 'em pinball machine 10 timez.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 15:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Jeez, I only ever saw her as a blowsy '50s TV character actor.... who knew?
Posted by: Jailing Big Foot1695 || 05/20/2007 17:00 Comments || Top||

#9  rBee favorite BigFoot. Now Ima trying to remember the TeeVee series.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 18:19 Comments || Top||

#10  Here Come the Brides - 68-70? IMDB has her entire filmography - I always got the impression she was worldly with a good sense of humor - particularly the twinkle in her eye :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2007 18:32 Comments || Top||

#11  Lottie Hatfield in Here Come the Brides?
Posted by: GK || 05/20/2007 18:37 Comments || Top||

#12  Damn Frank and GK yee didn't give about a Bobby Sherman alert nor a David Soul warning. So, BANG! BANG! BANG! BAGITY BANG!
Posted by: Shipman || 05/20/2007 18:47 Comments || Top||

#13  I gotchyer rosebud right here, ya ungrateful retch
Posted by: Frank G || 05/20/2007 18:53 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2007-05-20
  Leb army takes on Fatah al-Islam at Paleo camp
Sat 2007-05-19
  White House rejects Democrats' offer on war spending bill
Fri 2007-05-18
  9 dead after bomb explodes at India's oldest Mosque
Thu 2007-05-17
  IDF tanks enter Gaza Strip
Wed 2007-05-16
  Chlorine boom kills 20 in Diyala
Tue 2007-05-15
  Paleo interior minister quits
Mon 2007-05-14
  Extra troops as Karachi death toll mounts
Sun 2007-05-13
  Mullah Dadullah reported deadullah
Sat 2007-05-12
  Poirot concludes his UN report about Hariri's murder
Fri 2007-05-11
  Madrid Bombing Defendants Start Hunger Strike
Thu 2007-05-10
  7/7 Bomber's Widow Among Four Arrested
Wed 2007-05-09
  Iran: Moussavian 'Spied For Europe'
Tue 2007-05-08
  Extra 8,000 AU troops to be sent to Somalia
Mon 2007-05-07
  Morocco breaks up Qaeda recruiting gang
Sun 2007-05-06
  Meshaal rejects U.S. timeline, threatens terrible things

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