A Syrian-born man wanted in connection with last year's Madrid train bombings appeared in a British court on Friday after Spain requested his extradition. A total of 22 people, many of them Moroccan, have been jailed following a widespread investigation by Spanish police into the Madrid attacks which killed nearly 200 people. More than 50 others have been held and released although still considered suspects, prompting protests by human rights groups who say the evidence in some of the cases amounts to little more than racial profiling.
Moutaz Almallah Dabas, 39, was arrested in Britain last March under a European warrant issued by Spanish authorities. Madrid accuses him of collaborating with an Islamist terrorist organisation and "enabling the provision of care for radical Islamists in order to transfer them abroad".
"Mr Dabas has stated his affinity to the Jihadist thesis of Osama bin Laden," prosecution lawyer John Hardy told the court. The warrant also accuses Dabas of trying to indoctrinate others to become followers of bin Laden, al Qaeda's leader.
Dabas's defence counsel said the accusations made against Dabas had yet to be proved. "In reality there is no prosecution effort in Spain," defence lawyer Mark Summers told the court. "It is not enough that -- in the traditional phrase -- Mr Dabas is wanted by the police to help them with their enquiries."
The case was adjourned until June 14. Dabas, who was born in the Syrian capital Damascus but holds Spanish citizenship, spent the first minutes of the hearing reading verses from the Koran before studying a paper detailing the case against him.
This article starring:
defence lawyer Mark Summers
MUTAZ ALMALLAH DABAS
al-Qaeda in Europe
prosecution lawyer John Hardy
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/03/2005 12:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We can promise you the 3 day exploxives course in Islamobod but you must sign today.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- A small plane smuggling more than a ton of cocaine from Colombia crashed in southeastern Mexico, killing two people on board and leaving police their biggest haul of the drug so far this year, the attorney general's office said Friday.
Dropped right into their laps, so to speak
Mexican military and police aircraft were escorting tailing the drug flight when they lost radar contact with it Wednesday night. The plane probably crashed due to bad weather, the office said in a statement.
a little snow in the cockpit
On Thursday, authorities found the crashed plane, a twin-engine turboprop, in the state of Quintana Roo with two bodies inside, one of them carrying a Colombian identification.
"Look, man, if there's one thing I know, it's how to drive while I'm stoned. You know your perception is completely fucked so you just let your hands work the controls as if you were straight."
Posted by: Steve ||
06/03/2005 16:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The Taliban, Chechen rebels and extremists from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan played a role in an insurrection last month in Uzbekistan that was put down by Uzbek authorities, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday in Vladivostok. "We have information that Islamic extremists from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the remnants of the Taliban and some Chechen terrorists had a role in events in Uzbekistan," Lavrov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.
Uzbek authorities have accused the Hizb ut Tahrir Islamic movement of being behind the insurrection in Andijan in eastern Uzbekistan. Hizbi Tahrir, which is gaining popularity in Central Asia, says it wants to topple secular leadership in the region through peaceful means. But the IMU is a violent militant group, which has claimed responsibility for shootings and kidnappings in Central Asia. The group is aimed primarily at ousting Uzbek President Islam Karimov and was thought to have been decimated by the US-led war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The development of a nuclear weapon by North Korea would put pressure on Japan and South Korea to consider building their own nuclear arsenals, the U.S. ambassador to Japan said Friday. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer told reporters at his residence in Tokyo that if North Korea were to test an atomic bomb, the strategic balance in the region would be changed.
"If you had a nuclear North Korea, it just introduces a whole different dynamic," Schieffer said. "It seems to me that that increases the pressure on both South Korea and Japan to consider going nuclear themselves."
I seem to have heard that mentioned around here
Schieffer is not the first official to suggest a kind of domino effect in Northeast Asia from any verified revelation that North Korea possesses nuclear arms. But his remarks reflect the extent to which Japan, which lost 210,000 people in two atomic bomb attacks at the end of World War II, could pursue an option long considered out of the question.
The United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea are urging the North to return to six-party talks that are intended to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons programs. The talks were last held in June 2004. Since then, the North has stayed away from the table, citing a "hostile" U.S. policy, and it claimed in February that it had nuclear weapons. Speculation has mounted that it is preparing for a nuclear test.
Schieffer, in a wide-ranging discussion with a small group of reporters, said that getting North Korea back to the six-party talks would be just the beginning of a long process of persuading the isolated nation to give up its nuclear weapons programs. "We have to be very careful that getting North Korea back to the table does not become an end in itself," he said. "The six- party talks were meant to resolve a thorny issue - they weren't meant to be just an opportunity to talk about it endlessly and achieve nothing."
"That's the UNs job"
Japan bars nuclear weapons from its territory, and talk of developing its own nuclear deterrent has long been considered among the nation's taboo subjects. The world's only atomic-bombed nation remains under a U.S. security shield. "It is possible," Shigeru Ishiba, a former Japanese minister for defense, warned in a recent television talk show, "for one country after another to follow North Korea's example in possessing nukes. Japan will never do so."
But a North Korean nuclear test could change the thinking on this question, some analysts believe. The possibility that the North is preparing a test has already begun to fuel Tokyo debate as to whether Japan should go nuclear itself. Analysts forecast that Japan would at least step up its military ties with the United States, especially the development of an antimissile system begun after North Korea's launching of a long-range missile over the main Japanese island in 1998.
As a key U.S. ally, Japan has begun to cast off its pacifist mantle by sending troops on a noncombat mission to Iraq, its first military deployment since World War II in a country at war.
Vice President Dick Cheney and other U.S. conservatives have warned that the failure to end North Korea's nuclear ambitions could trigger an arms race in East Asia involving Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. All of them might be capable of producing nuclear weapons. But for the moment, however, a nuclear-armed Japan is widely seen at home as unrealistic, so long as Tokyo maintains a 1967 policy against the production, possession or presence of nuclear weapons in its territory.
Cheney's warning "may have been used as a diplomatic card against China and belonged to the world of rhetoric," said Hideya Kurata, a professor of security affairs at Tokyo's Kyorin University.
In a May 19 report, the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee said: "A test in North Korea would certainly raise the prospect of a major public debate in Japan over whether to turn its latent nuclear capabilities in its civilian and space sectors into an overt nuclear weapons program." The policy paper called on Washington to demand that Beijing, the main patron of the North, "make a choice: either help out or face the possibility of other nuclear neighbors."
Japan has an ample stockpile of plutonium derived by reprocessing spent fuel from the country's 52 nuclear reactors with a total capacity of 45 million kilowatts. Japan has the technical capacity to produce nuclear bombs and mount them on missiles "within 90 days," said Kenichi Ohmae, a Japanese consultant on management and sociopolitical issues. In an interview with South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper in February, he estimated the stockpile at more than 50 tons, enough to make 2,000 plutonium bombs. Japan also has a space rocket that could double as an intercontinental ballistic missile. Ohmae said that 90 percent of the Japanese were opposed to nuclear armament.
"But I believe that public opinion will rapidly change if we are faced with the real threat of North Korean nuclear arms," he said.
On the other side of the debate, Hideshi Takesada,a professor at Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies, ruled out a nuclear chain reaction in East Asia. "South Korea has come to consider North Korean nuclear weapons more as a bargaining chip and less as a military means," he said.
Japan has been seeking to "strengthen the credibility of the U.S. nuclear umbrella and jointly develop a defense system," he said. Takesada said that President George W. Bush would never tolerate nuclear armament for Taiwan at a time when a cross-Strait military clash with mainland China looms as a possibility.
Scott Snyder, a senior associate at the Asia Foundation and an expert on Korean affairs, said that Japanese or South Korean commitments to remain nonnuclear would probably depend "on the quality and satisfaction that exists with the U.S. alliance system." "While there may not be an immediate chain reaction," he said, "this does mean that we need to put the alliances and their durability under greater scrutiny."
South Korea has never clarified what it would do if North Korea were to refuse to abandon its nuclear weapons development and declare itself a nuclear power by testing a bomb. In the 1970s, the then government of South Korea's military strongman, Park Chung Hee, edged the country toward a nuclear weapons program. The country has since publicly renounced any nuclear arms ambitions.
But in a revelation that prompted an international uproar, South Korea acknowledged last year that it had conducted a plutonium-based nuclear experiment more than 20 years ago and a uranium-enrichment experiment four years ago. Plutonium and enriched uranium are two key ingredients of nuclear weapons. South Korea has since denied any ambition to possess nuclear arms - a denial later accepted by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"A nuclear North Korea could trigger the worst arms race in the region," Kim Tae Woo, an analyst at Seoul's Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said in May. He said the arms race could also prompt Taiwan to go nuclear. Such a scenario is one of the biggest reasons that experts believe that China would not tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Japan's Kyodo news agency, citing U.S. government sources, reported Thursday that China had warned North Korea that it would have to consider stopping food aid if it carried out a nuclear test. In May, Dan Fata, Republican Party policy director for national security and trade, wrote: "The key to preventing a nuclear test lies primarily with China."
Posted by: Steve ||
06/03/2005 14:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Japan has the technical capacity to produce nuclear bombs and mount them on missiles "within 90 days,"
I have no doubt, though I'll wager they're tacking on at least a month.
Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- Rice transplantation, the most important farming process, is progressing apace in the rural communities of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The agricultural working people, officials of ministries and national institutions, office employees and workers throughout the country have all turned out to transplant rice seedlings in time.
"Plant or Die!"
The peasants have cultivated healthy rice seedlings in spite of unfavorable weather. As of the end of May, North and South Hanghwae and South Phyongan Provinces, granaries of the country, have carried out over 65 percent of rice transplanting.
The peasants and helpers are hastening their work after setting themselves a goal of finishing the transplantation in the main by June 5.
Nothing like office clerks working against a unreasonable deadline to ensure the rice is planted correctly.
Servicepersons are taking the lead in helping the rural communities. Soldiers of the Kim Song Dok unit and other units of the Korean People's Army have been doing labor-consuming work in Yoltusamchonri field and other fields, thus making it possible to carry out the rice-transplanting at an early date. The fields of the country are turning green day by day thanks to the devoted efforts of the peasants and helpers.
"No plant'e, no eat'e"
Posted by: Steve ||
06/03/2005 08:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
IMHO the solution to North Korea's problems woule be the transplantation of Consolezza Rice in lieu of Kim il Dement.
#2
JFM, that's exactly what I thought when I read the headline. Figured the "full swing" was into dementia of Dicktator Ill, as he's been running his mouth a lil' too much lately (especially in light of his connections to the Iranians' nuke program and the Norks' dealings w/ Syria-see the story below about the Syrian's lightin' off a few scud's). With him, it's always "Look at me, look at me" whenever another member of the Axis of Evil(tm) gets press attention!
Posted by: BA ||
06/03/2005 9:41 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Yes, now DPRK will have no difficulty meeting their goal of feeding a full 15% of their citizenry for 60% of the year.
#6
I read this as a sign of some catastrophic problems in NK land. How bad must things be in the countryside for them to have to send city clerks out to help plant. Transplanting rice is a labor intensive process, but most functioning countries that grow rice have no problems with the labor supply necessary for the planting. I could see any country, which lacked machinery and fuel resources, having trouble with the harvest, but planting? Are significant numbers of peasants sick or dead? Only the Dear Leader really knows...
Posted by: DO ||
06/03/2005 13:02 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Doesn't China do the same -- send out the Army to help with planting and harvesting? Rice is terribly labour intensive at those points, I believe, as it all has to be done manually.
#8
Servicepersons are taking the lead in helping the rural communities. Soldiers of the Kim Song Dok unit and other units of the Korean People's Army have been doing labor-consuming work in Yoltusamchonri field and other fields, thus making it possible to carry out the rice-transplanting at an early date.
Hard work from behind a gun barrel: "plant or die!"
And if the army is busy guns pointed in the wrong direction in the fields, now would be a good time engage a military solution.
Posted by: john ||
06/03/2005 14:49 Comments ||
Top||
#9
There are machines to transplant the rice. The small Japanses farmers even use a walk behind machine that looks like a roto-tiller.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2005 15:13 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Commie societies are often described as being stratified between the old and very young - the "old" folks are the ones with the knowledge, desire, and experience to farm or plant, the "young" generally want jobs and wealth in the developed cities. Once the "old" generations are gone, regardless of the reasons, society is left with few or no one to farm and engage in base, vital agriculture, i.e. to feed the masses. Even for regulation-, slave/tribute-, and government-happy Commies, national modernization and industrial dev doesn't mean anything when everyone is starving and eating grass andor other human beings. Once the Army begins eating "long pigs/cows", i.e. forced to engage in cannibalism, Kimmie and the Party is histoire' - Pyongyang will either implode or the Chicoms will invade to save it. Commies being Commies - you know, Clintonian "Good Nazis/Fascists" - before these events happen they want the USA under Socialism and OWG, ala 2015-2020. IFF THE CLINTONS FAIL, BE READY - NO MORE LIMITED WARS BUT ALL-OUT GLOBAL NUKE WAR TO DESTROY AMERICA!
The official word from the horses mouth.
Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA Thursday as regards U.S. Vice President Cheney's vituperation against the supreme headquarters of the DPRK: On May 30 Cheney has gone so imprudent as to let loose vituperation against the supreme headquarters of the DPRK, once again revealing his inveterate intention not to recognize the DPRK. KCNA Word of the Day: "vituperation". Cheney is hated as the most cruel monster and blood-thirsty beast as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood.
It is the unshakable will of the people and army of the DPRK never to pardon anyone who dares hurl slanders and calumnies at their supreme headquarters but to mete out a stern punishment to him. We know where you live, Cheney!
The DPRK has already called attention to the U.S. administration's mandarins' unabated pressurizing remarks intended to create confusion even after the May 13 New York contact at which the latter's side formally informed the former's side of its will to recognize the DPRK as a sovereign state and not to invade it. And it has since closely followed up the subsequent development. What is it with them and that "mandarin" shit?
Those remarks made by Cheney at a time when the DPRK-U.S. New York contact has kicked off in the direction of resuming the six-party talks clearly indicate his inveterate rejection of the political system in the DPRK and his intention to put the brake on the process of the six-party talks. The DPRK-U.S. New York contact? PDiddy? Steinbrenner?
The remarks of Cheney, boss of the hawkish hard-liners, revealed the true colors of this group steering the implementation of the policy of the Bush administration. We feel once again what good job we have done when we have stood in the stand-off with such hawkish hard-liners over the nuclear issue and the issue of the six-party talks. More ditch water with your tree bark? Little more barnyard grass on the side?
What Cheney uttered at a time when the issue of the six-party talks is high on the agenda is little short of telling the DPRK not to come out for the talks. The United States should clearly know that the DPRK, a dignified independent and sovereign state, has never moved under any pressure. We are strong enough to defy the pressure. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm...enriched uranium! Sprinkled with White Slag!
It was none other than the U.S. that compelled the DPRK to have access to nukes. It is, therefore, quite preposterous for the U.S. to take issue with this. Consistent is our stand to maintain the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and seek a negotiated peaceful solution to the issue. But if the U.S. persists in its wrong behavior, misjudging our magnanimity and patience as a sign of weakness, this will entail more serious consequences. Denuclearizing the peninsula by nuclearizing it. I'm sure that makes sense to somebody.
If the U.S. has a real intention to peacefully settle the nuclear issue through dialogue, it should retract its remarks such as "outpost of tyranny" and provide a justification and conditions necessary for the resumption of the talks. "Outpost of elevator shoe wearing lunatic midgets" maybe?
#2
The remarks of Cheney, boss of the hawkish hard-liners, revealed the true colors of this group steering the implementation of the policy of the Bush administration.
What, no name calling, like neo-cons or Jooooos' lapdogs? And where's all the threats of the U.S. going down in a "sea of fire?" Man, the DPRK's losing their touch.
Posted by: BA ||
06/03/2005 9:02 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Vituperation - The word is in regular use although normally as an adjective - vituperative. I come across it on a regular basis, normally as a fancy synonym for swearing.
#4
The language is the best part of it all. This type of statement from the DPRk always comes through like the under-the-breath mutterings of a paranoid schizophrenic shambling up the street talking to the sky.
North Korea on Thursday said the deployment of 15 US F-117 Stealth bombers to South Korea was part of preparations for a preemptive nuclear strike on the country. The deployment announced by Washington last week was an unpardonable act, said the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a state organization in charge of Korean affairs. It was Pyongyang's first official reaction to the deployment, which Washington described as "routine training".
Here it is in the official press release:
Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued a statement on June 1 as regards the introduction of 15 U.S. infamous F-117 Stealth fighter bombers and 250 maintenance personnel into south Korea. This is an unpardonable provocation tantamount to turning a gun mouth to the reunification fete of the Korean nation celebrating the 5th anniversary of the historical June 15 joint declaration, the spokesman says and goes on:
The United States worked out such extremely dangerous war plan against the north as "CONPLAN 8022-02" in strict secrecy and had it approved by the defense secretary and then deployed Stealth fighter bombers, means of nuclear attack, in south Korea. This proves that the U.S. scheme of preemptive nuclear attack is systematically going over from violent words to operational plan and from the plan to the stage of military action.
All the Koreans in the north, the south and overseas are aboil with reunification fervor with the 5th anniversary of the joint declaration in the offing and they are planning to gather in Pyongyang for a grand festival for national reunification. And they are now hastening its preparations in the last stage.
At this very moment, the United States and the south Korean military authorities saw eye to eye with each other in massively hurling into south Korea Stealth fighter bombers targeted against the north in a bid to spoil the atmosphere of the festival overnight and frustrate the grand reunification festival itself.
We, in the name of the whole nation, bitterly denounce the deployment of Stealth fighter bombers in south Korea by the United States as a treasure shell of the provocation of a war against the north and the worst malicious challenge to the Korean nation and June 15.
The United States would be well advised to promptly take out of south Korea the F-117 Stealth fighter bombers and other military hardware, stop its war moves against the north and withdraw its aggression forces at an early date, pondering over the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless war provocation scheme against the north.
The south Korean military authorities should bear responsibility for cooperating with the U.S. in bringing the Stealth planes into south Korea.
The United States and North Korea remain locked in a tense standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme. North Korea has boycotted China-hosted nuclear disarmament talks - which also include the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia - since June last year.
In February the regime declared it had built nuclear weapons and vowed to increase its nuclear arsenals.
#1
The F-117's are for the conventional war, silly. The part where we take down your air defences. The B-2 Stealth Bombers on Guam, now they're the signal for the nuclear war.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/03/2005 8:22 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Doesn't that dumb@ass know we probably have half a dozen nuclear subs sitting off the coast of NKor capable of showering his little dumphole of a country with multible independent warheads with little or no warning? Wouldn't it be ironic if it was the USS Jimmy Carter that did the dirty deed?
#3
The irony of it all, Big Jim! And how did he know we were deploying Stealths to S. Korea?....the NYT doing "crack" reporting again? I know, I know, it was probably over at strategypage or somewhere's!
Posted by: BA ||
06/03/2005 8:38 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The F-117's are for the conventional war, silly. The part where we take down your air defences. The B-2 Stealth Bombers on Guam, now they're the signal for the nuclear war
heh. Good to see the air force still has a major role ... ;-)
Posted by: ret USAF ||
06/03/2005 9:17 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I take it that the Kimmy boozer has not yet opened those bottles of Hennesy with the EBOLA in them yet!
#14
I wonder, since Kimmy is into all aspects of his country's 'entertainment' industry, whether he lost a part on American TV, much as Fidel Castro had a tryout for the NY Yankee baseball team, but wasn't offered a contract...
Did Herve Villechaize be him out during an audition?
#15
You know the Commie Norkies - eating grass + cannibalism = national/Socialist properity! Iff the aim is to induce Dubya and our Allied CENTCOM to invade, then as per Left-beloved dialecticism "the Bomb" is as much to commit national NK = Iran, etal. SUICIDE on domestic territory as it is to help Russia-China destabilize America unto Socialsm and OWG. The Norkies know they have no Korean-specific manifest destiny except to be a glorified propaganda unit of China, AND NEVER WILL.
North Korea's boast that it has made nuclear weapons has caused global concern, but the jitters could turn to panic if Pyongyang masters the art of miniaturisation. Most experts are keeping an open mind on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme because the country is so tightly controlled and they have too little information to work on.
Many believe that Pyongyang has one or two nuclear bombs but that they are so big they cannot effectively be loaded into planes, let alone fired by missiles. The technology to build the bomb is one thing, but in order to use them effectively, particularly on ballistic missiles, North Korea would have to acquire the tricky skill of miniaturising a nuclear warhead.
When North Korea said in February that it possessed nuclear weapons, confirming long-held suspicions in the United States, South Korea's National Intelligence Service said Pyongyang probably lacked the technology to fire them on a rocket. "North Korea might have developed one or two conventional nuclear bombs, but if it did, it may not have the technology to launch them on a missile," the NIS report said. "We believe North Korea has not acquired enough technology to miniaturize nuclear bombs which must weigh less than 500 kilograms to be mounted on a missile."
North Korea has a well-advanced missile programme and among Washington's greatest fears is that Pyongyang could breech the technical threshold of marrying its ballistic missile development with its nuclear weapons drive. In April, the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, told a Senate committee hearing in Washington that US intelligence agencies believed North Korea had mastered the technology for arming its missiles with nuclear warheads, though he did not say Pyongyang had actually done so.
The Pentagon later took a step back from Jacoby's assessment, saying it was "theoretical in nature" but US President George W. Bush said it was safer to err on the side of overstatement when dealing with North Korean capabilities. "There is concern about his capacity to deliver," he said. "We don't know if he can or not, but I think it's best when dealing with a tyrant like Kim Jong Il to assume that he can."
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb who is now under house arrest, has admitted playing an important role in North Korea's atomic development. Clandestine cooperation between Khan and the North Koreans since the 1990s has reportedly included the provision of warhead designs to North Korea. Khan has also claimed that during one of his many visit to North Korea he saw a missile carrying a nuclear warhead. "That is not impossible," said Kang Jungmin, a South Korean nuclear analyst based in Seoul.
He said that leading experts think North Korea may have developed crude nuclear weapons similar to the devices dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Nagasaki "Fat Man" bomb weighed more than four tonnes and was overloaded with chemical explosives used to trigger the plutonium blast. North Korean nuclear scientists have been working feverishly to refine their version.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, they carried out more the 100 tests of high-explosive triggers that would help them in their weaponization efforts. "We don't know for certain, but North Korean scientists may have been able to weaponize a Rodong missile," said Kang. North Korea's medium range Rodong can travel up to 1,300 kilometers, meaning it is capable of hitting targets in most areas of Japan.
Pyongyang in 1998 test-fired a Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers that overflew Japan and is said to be developing the Taepodong-2 with a range of 6,700 kilometers.
Nicholas Reader, an analyst with the International Crisis group, said the preponderance of circumstantial evidence suggested that North Korea had already weaponized its missiles. "The argument that they don't have a missile delivery system is spurious, according to most experts," he said.
#6
I think I read that the nuclear bomb plans turned over by Libya (Chinese 2nd generation, sold by Pakistan) would have made a bomb of 500 pounds. Even if it was 500 kilograms, that is well within the payload range of IRBMs. For instance, the NK No-Dong {snicker} (also known as Pakistan's Ghauri-II and Iran's Shahab-3) has a warhead of 750-1200 kilograms. The Taep-On-Dong-2 (Iran's Shahab-5) has a warhead of 700-1000 kg. and a range of 4000 km. There is plenty of payload left for shielding, radar altimeters, and even decoys.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2005 15:04 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Benzir Bhutto has all but admitted that Pakistan traded (Chinese) nuclear bomb tech for North Korean missile tech.
The Chinese 2nd gen warhead given to Pakistan is missile deliverable.
Main problem with the North Korean missiles seems to be guidance. The Pak-North Korean collaboration should eventually fix this. The Chinese may even supply help.
Posted by: john ||
06/03/2005 19:06 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I'm rapidly losing concern that all these mooks unleash burning hell on each other, as long as China suffers as well.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/03/2005 19:30 Comments ||
Top||
#9
With a little luck, we will level North Korea when the winds are blowing toward the southwest.
Posted by: Tom ||
06/03/2005 19:43 Comments ||
Top||
Bacterial powder that sparked a terror alert when it was sent to the Indonesian Embassy was probably harmless, police reported Thursday. Prime Minister John Howard said he suspects the powder was sent in retaliation over last week's conviction of an Australian woman in Indonesia on drug smuggling charges. Her 20-year prison sentence drew public outrage at home. "This is a reckless, evil act," Howard told Parliament.
Howard said Friday he did not think harm had been done to the fragile bilateral relationship between the countries. "As things settle down, I wouldn't expect there will be long-term damage but it is a difficult relationship," Howard told Melbourne radio 3AW. Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla has said he was satisfied with an apology from Howard over the incident, and did not think it would harm ties.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
European counterterrorism officials say they are facing a new, more dangerous generation of Islamic extremists, who are younger and more radical than their forebears, and in some cases trained and battle-hardened in Iraq.
Judge Balthazar Garzon, an investigating magistrate who is leading Spain's effort to prosecute Islamic terrorists, said at a conference in Florence, Italy, that this was the "second generation."
Some, he said, are as young as 16 and in many cases have no history of affiliation with al Qaeda or other established terror groups.
Judge Garzon described the group that carried out the Madrid railway bombings in March last year as "a whole network based on personal contact, where a single person was a kind of catalyst."
His comments echoed remarks from officials in other European countries, who discussed concerns over terror cells formed by grown-up children of Muslim immigrants, recruited in jails or over the Internet.
For these new networks, Judge Garzon said, "al Qaeda is an ideological reference point, not a real articulated structure with a command chain."
Because these youngsters often have no history of connection to extremist groups, intelligence and law-enforcement agencies are not aware of their existence, he said.
As citizens of European nations, they can travel to the United States without a visa.
"They are unknown people," said one senior European law-enforcement official, who asked for anonymity.
Fears about what al Qaeda and its affiliates might have "metastasized" into are included in a high-level interagency review of counterterrorism policy in Washington.
"We are looking at ways to strengthen our global counterterrorism strategy," one White House official said.
As the enemy adapted, the official said, the White House initiated the review "to improve on the progress we've already made [and make] sure we are doing everything we can to protect the American people."
Recent investigations by authorities in several European countries have discovered networks of Islamic extremists recruiting and making travel arrangements for young radicals, who want to go to fight the U.S. military in Iraq.
Cofer Black, who until recently was the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, said at the conference that despite U.S. successes in killing or capturing foreign insurgents, the capabilities the survivors are acquiring are changing the odds.
"Not many have to get past you when they are trained so well in explosives," he said, referring to skills needed to make suicide-bomb belts and car bombs.
Mr. Black said protection against such a threat might entail significant changes in the U.S. way of life.
"I predict that the quality of all our lives will change to a certain extent, as measures previously considered needed in forward areas will increasingly be ... adopted in our home countries," Mr. Black said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/03/2005 13:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I detect the usual Chicken Little meme that fighting terrorists merely breeds more terrorists. If you think about it for more than the 10-second attention span of a Moonbat or MSM "reporter", it becomes rather obvious that this is only possibly true if the pool of potential candidates is insane. Deaders don't get mulligans and people who want to get dead are, generally speaking, insane.
Removing insane people from the global gene pool is a noble service to mankind. This is where the sane people part company from the Moonbats, they stand up, wave their arms and shake their tiny fists - demanding that they receive "treatment". Okay. Noted. We'll get to you in due time.
"battle-hardened in Iraq" - No, that's rigor mortis.
Cofer, baby, STFU. Your 15 minutes are up and besides, you're starting to sound a lot like Dickie Clark. I know you need to make a living - we little people understand - so try getting a job.
Mullah Krekar, the founder of radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam who is fighting an expulsion order from Norway, took his case against the Norwegian state before an Oslo court on Thursday. Norwegian authorities decided in February 2003 to expel Krekar, whose real name is Fateh Najmeddin Faraj, due to national security concerns, but his deportation was suspended until the situation in Iraq improves.
But Krekar insists that he presents no threat to Norway, noting that Norwegian police have closed their preliminary investigation into his possible involvement in financing terrorist activities. Krekar has lived in Norway as a refugee since 1991. He has been under threat of deportation for more than two years after Norwegian media revealed that he was the founder of Ansar al-Islam, which figures on the United States' list of terrorist organizations. The Iraqi Kurd admits that he founded the group but insists that he no longer heads it. The Norwegian government last month rejected his appeal against the deportation order.
This article starring:
FATEH NAJMEDIN FARAJ
Ansar al-Islam
MULLAH KREKAR
Ansar al-Islam
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
just kill this waste of skin and get it over, puhleeeeeze!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/03/2005 0:02 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Norway seems to have even lower refugee standards thatn we do. Amazing but true. What the hell is wrong with norwegians?
#3
too cloistered and stoic. These tools provide subtle entertainment, til they gain control
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/03/2005 0:29 Comments ||
Top||
#4
...My God, Andy Kaufman really ISN'T dead...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/03/2005 7:40 Comments ||
Top||
#5
LOL, Mike! How 'bout this headline?
Andy Kaufman takes Mullah Krekar to the woodshed
Would that do it for ya?
Posted by: BA ||
06/03/2005 8:56 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The Norwegians deserve what they bring on themselves if they continue to placate the violent kurdish islamacists living in their country. Many of the rapes have come from this community ... also funding for terror, planning and a lot of nasty rhetoric. The Norse believe that their high-minded soft tactics will win them over. I think they are dangerously naive.
Posted by: too true ||
06/03/2005 9:21 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Never underestimate the Norwegian capacity for self dellusion. Wait a few years for the incidents in Norway to add up and then the reaction, albeit delayed, will finally occur.
After a year-long ordeal began by a disgruntled, third-rate sergeant, one of the finest officers in the Marines has resigned his commission. 2Lt Ilario Pantano submitted his letter of resignation on Wednesday, and is announcing it today at a fish fry in Wilmington, given to honor the volunteers of the American Legion and Congressman Walter Jones for their support during his case. Ilario emailed me this statement to pass on to you:
The support of your network has been tremendous and I hope you can help me express how much I still love the Corps to your vast readership. Leading Marines in battle has been the pinnacle of my professional life. There are so many things about being a Marine that I will miss now that I have submitted my resignation, but my priority must be taking care of my family after what can only be described as 'one hell of a year'.
Molon Labe
Ilario Pantano
Here are his remarks from the event, directed at Congressman Walter Jones, who supported Pantano faithfully throughout the investigation and Article 32 proceedings:
Congressman Jones, You once shared a verse with me:
Greater love hath no man - than to lay down his life for his friends.
That spirit of sacrifice defines the soldier and Marine. And it defines you sir. You know in your heart and your soul what is right and you are willing to fight for it. Even if it is at great risk to you and your career.
As my family and I faced our darkest hours you fought for us, and in doing soâŠYou fought for every man and woman in the uniform, past present and future - not because of the opportunity to challenge the military, but for the opportunity to protect it from itself.
Day and night you appealed to any that would listen. You were tireless in your defense of me, and for that I will be eternally grateful.
My family and I want to thank you for your courage and your leadership.
First, I present to you my innocence, known to you and many many others from the outset, but proven finally by our justice system after a yearlong investigation and prosecution.
Congressman Jones, You weren't just brave to defend me. You were RIGHT.
And finally, from one warrior to another, I present to you my most cherished possession: my sword. My love of corps and country will never be broken or diminished, but now it is my love of family that I must honor most with my decision to resign.
I have taken up arms for my country and my corps in two wars and it has been my privilege to serve beside real heroes- some of whom are here today.
Even as I step aside it is my greatest hope that young men and women continue to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before⊠To push themselvesâŠTo rise to the challenge of becoming Marines. Our country needs you and we will always be grateful to you.
The Marine Officer's sword represents the highest ideals of military excellence and professionally, one of my greatest achievements.
Honor, courage and commitment are principles by which we Marines LIVE AND DIE.
You, Congressman Jones, through your actions, have demonstrated that you live by those principles as well.
And I, for one am grateful that you do. Thank you Sir, may god bless you and your family and may God Bless America.
#3
I don't think he quit in a fit of pique. With something like this hanging over him, he would have served out his days as a lieutenant. I don't think that's fair to him or to his wife. I think he's done his bit for Uncle Sam. It's time for someone else to take up the baton. Here's what seems to be a balanced profile of Lt. Pantano from New York magazine. His wife will appreciate not having to deal with the stress of military life - he signed up after he got hitched.
#4
Military life is stressful for the family and double when we are in harms way. I can't imagine the stress that young man and his family have gone through. May success and fortune follow him whatever his next career turns out to be. Too bad they (the press) didn't consider him innocent until proven guilty.
Failed presidential candidate John Kerry said Thursday that he intends to confront Congress with a document touted by critics of President Bush as evidence that he committed impeachable crimes by falsifying evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "When I go back [to Washington] on Monday, I am going to raise the issue," Kerry said, referring to the Downing Street Memo in an interview with Massachusetts' Standard Times newspaper. "I think it's a stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises stunning issues here at home," the top Democrat added.
"Dan Rather vouched for it's authenticity!"
The Downing Street Memo, first reported on May 1 by the London Times, was drafted by a Matthew Rycroft, a foreign policy aide to Prime Minister Tony Blair. It is said to be minutes of a July 2002 meeting where Blair allegedly admitted that the Bush administration "fixed" Iraq intelligence to manufacture a rationale for war.
Citing the Downing Street Memo, former presidential candidate Ralph Nader called for an impeachment investigation on Tuesday in an op-ed piece published by the Boston Globe. "It is time for Congress to investigate the illegal Iraq war as we move toward the third year of the endless quagmire that many security experts believe jeopardizes US safety by recruiting and training more terrorists," wrote Nader with co-author Kevin Zeese. "A Resolution of Impeachment would be a first step."
The British memo, however, contains no quotes from either Bush or Blair, and is notably slim on evidence implicating Bush in a WMD cover-up.
Ah, but the charges are more important than any facts
Though largely ignored in the U.S. outside of rabid anti-Bush Web sites like MichaelMoore.com, the Downing Street Memo won Sen. Kerry's endorsement in the Standard Times interview: "It's amazing to me," the top Democrat said, "the way it escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed on the Internet, I can tell you that."
Atta boy, Johnny. Keep digging that hole.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/03/2005 12:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think failed presidential cahdiate is na nlittle too nstrong, I think strong second place finisher is nmore better.
#5
J Ford Esp. wrote: "I think failed presidential cahdiate [sic] is na [sic] nlittle [sic] too nstrong [sic], I think strong second place finisher is nmore [sic] better."
Kerry lost by 3+ million votes. Strong showing or not, he is a failed Presidential candidate.
Sign the 180, Kerry.
Posted by: Tibor ||
06/03/2005 13:58 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Wow, and I was beginning to worry that the Democrats were going to stay fixated on past issues, replaying the 2000 election and giving in to all sorts of paranoid moonbat conspiracy theories.
With this forward thinking sort of approach, I think our friends are going to mount a strong, visionary challenge in 2008.
#15
Nah. He'll just have the Gulfstream land at Nantucket and windsurf over to the mainland. I'll bet that's where the great man of the people is right now in one of the missuz bazillion dollar houses...
#19
Tbbor, he signed the 180. The thing is, he didn't release his records to a news outlet or other form o0f media but to, wait for it, The United States Navy. Now the Navy needs another form signed by him to release the records to the public. Talk about a real peace of shit! Kerry is a failed politician, soldier, and lawyer and all he has left is hatred and bile. He says the Democrats need to build a PR machine like the Republicans so their "message" can get out better. What he and the other Doinks don't understand is their message got through loud and clear but the American people rejected it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/03/2005 19:50 Comments ||
Top||
#20
aka will someone please attack and nuke Dubya and America so that Hillary can be POTUS! Good Clintonians of the USSA and the People's Soviet Waffen SS demand to let Demi Moore tell Navy SEALS how to fight.
Despite the massive federal, state and local law enforcement effort to stop terrorists from entering the United States, there is no strong evidence of how well it is working.
Many experts are concerned that there are plenty of terrorists or sympathizers already in the country who have been here for years. Some are even citizens.
The Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were the first wave and now the increasing number of arrests seems to signal a second wave of terrorism in South Florida.
Boca Raton physician Rafik Sabir is accused of conspiring to help al-Qaida. If this is true, terrorism analysts such as Walid Phares fear there is a second wave of al-Qaida terrorists operating in South Florida
"The first wave that did 9/11 had a presence here. Between 9/11 and most recently, there have been many arrests in South Florida and Florida as a whole of elements who are allegedly involved," Phares said.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Miami FBI has investigated and apprehended dozens of al-Qaida suspects up and down the Gold Coast.
"Al-Qaida has had a presence in South Florida and continues to have a presence," terrorism analyst Steve Emerson said.
In his bookAmerican Jihad, Emerson identifies longtime terrorist cells in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, where Sabir lives and was a member of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton.
Just after Sept. 11, 2001, NBC 6 discovered hate articles on its Web site attacking Jews, NBC 6's Ike Seamans reported. After our investigation, they were quickly removed.
In 1986, members of a Palestinian terrorist organization working at Broward convenience stores were arrested for selling stolen property and sending the money to the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
Could South Florida be in the midst of the second wave of international terrorism?
"The second wave will be more dangerous than the first wave because it is a piece of our society, people who've been recruited by al-Qaida and recruited themselves to al-Qaida. This model may be duplicated in many places in South Florida and around the nation," Phares said.
Experts said South Florida is so attractive to terrorists because it is international and ethnically diverse, which makes it the perfect place to blend in.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/03/2005 12:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How come it seems like wherever you
find more than a very few muslims there are radical ideas/violent plans floating around? Is it me? I mean really, do I need to double my dosage, or is it really that way?
#2
I don't think it's a 2nd "wave", I think they've been there all along! Look and see how many have been arrested down there over the years since 9/11 (and the 9/11 goons themselves). Then you have the professors up at Central FL in Tampa area. Guess they're afraid of the redneck riviera, though, in the panhandle. Must be the weather (HOT and sandy...reminds them of home?).
Posted by: BA ||
06/03/2005 14:05 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Wasn't that magazine/newspaper publisher that had they guy killed by anthrax down in Florida? The one where the building had the name "American Media" or something?
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/03/2005 16:41 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Yup. And the prof at the state university who was finally fired for his work organizing a "charitable fund". And .. and ... it goes on and on.
#5
LotR. Yes. American media publishes the National Enquirer and other tabloids. One of the speculations for the anthrax attack was the unfavorable stories published about binLaden and alQaeda (e.g. OBL and space alien have love child). I also remember reading that the wife of the AmMedia guy who was the first to be killed by anthrax, was the realtor of the apartment leased by some of the 911 terrorists.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2005 16:51 Comments ||
Top||
#6
MEMRI TV transcript: Iranian asshat,
Iranian MP: Muslims in America Are Time Bombs
Iranian MP Hamid-Reza Katoziyan was interviewed by the Iranian TV channel Jaam-E-Jam 2 and spoke about possible terror attacks by Muslims in the US. The following are excerpts:
Katoziyan: The whole group of people belonging to the Arab community and a large part of the Pakistani and Indian Muslims living in the US are currently, in my opinion, in a special situation. Perhaps they do not walk the streets with weapons in their hands or attach bombs to themselves in order to carry out a suicide operation, but the thought is there.
By the measures America is taking in Muslim countries, the US brings this segment of its population closer every day to the conclusion that this is an administration that will not compromise and that it has made up its mind to annihilate Islamic religious thought in the Islamic world. Thus, there is anger and hatred towards the entire American administration. I claim that if America continues with this policy, then these people will be like time bombs within America.
/tic tic tic tic tic allah akbar!
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/03/2005 20:27 Comments ||
Top||
#7
More Horsesh*t:
Tehran Friday Sermon: Iranians Will Punch Americans in the Mouth So Hard All Their Devouring Teeth Will Fall Out
The following are excerpts from a Friday sermon at Tehran University by Ayatollah Mohammad Ememi-Kashani The sermon was aired by Channel 1 of the Iranian TV on January 28, 2005:
Ayatollah Mohammad Ememi-Kashani: If you [Americans] behave with disrespect â even just a little bit â [the Iranian people] will punch you in the mouth so hard that all your devouring teeth will fall off.
Crowd: Allah Akbar.
Allah Akbar.
Allah Akbar.
Khamenei is the leader.
Death to those who oppose the rule of the jurisprudence.
Death to America.
Death to England.
Death to the hypocrites [Mojahedin-e Khalq] and Saddam.
Death to Israel.
Ayatollah Mohammad Ememi-Kashani: One young Iranian is worth all you [Americans]. He smiles at your weapons. Is he afraid? We hope that by the virtue of Muhammad and his household, God will give some brains to the arrogant, the enemies, and to the Zionists.
A man now charged with planning support for al-Qaida showed an undercover F-B-I agent how he could use his prayer beads to strangle someone.
An F-B-I complaint gives more details about the 2004 meeting in Plattsburgh between the undercover agent and New York City jazz musician Tarik Shah. The 42-year-old Shah was charged May 28th with conspiring to provide support to al-Qaida, along with a Florida doctor. Both are being held without bail.
The complaint says the undercover agent chose the Plattsburgh location for security reasons. It also says Shah allegedly showed an interest in training with explosives, firearms, A-K-47 assault rifles and hand grenades.
The case is still under investigation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/03/2005 12:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Prayer beads? Amateur!
I believe it was Rantburg's own Jarhead who takes off his shoelaces once he's settled into his seat on the airplane, and ties them together to make a neat garrot... just in case. Not to mention the sock-full-of-coins cosh, and the 60 mph buns. Shoot, my high school biology teacher told stories of sharpening his belt buckle, but then he'd lived in a bad neighborhood, unlike this spoiled son of a Malcom X bodyguard. Even Mr. Wife, who admittedly is not as soft-hearted as I, tells of once, in his youth, stopping himself before quite tearing out the throat of a fool who was harassing his (Mr. W's) then-girlfriend. To tell the truth, he was overtrained at the time, which is no doubt why he was able to stop. He is still pleased that I am not the type to get him in such situations... ;-) And I imagine that a great many Rantburgers can tell even more interesting stories that don't require something so obvious as prayer beads.
#3
A magazine (People will do nicely) and a few heavy rubber bands will raise no eyebrows. Then you just roll it up into a tight cylinder about a inch in diameter and fasten the rubber bands at each end. Makes a nice truncheon, or you can drive the end into someone's throat. Pop the bands off and the weapon goes away.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/03/2005 15:46 Comments ||
Top||
COLOMBO - International donors have called off a key meeting with Tamil Tiger rebels to protest the assassination of a senior military officer, officials said on Thursday. Chief representatives of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UN Development Program and the International Monetary Fund in Colombo, were to fly Friday to the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi to meet with the head of the Tigers' political wing, S.P. Thamilselvan.
The meeting has been put off indefinitely as the murder this week of Maj. Nizam Muthalif made it inappropriate to hold the talks, senior officials said on condition of anonymity.
"You going?"
"I ain't going. You going?"
"Nope."
Muthalif was killed by gunmen as he sat in his car in Colombo. The government suspects rebels in the attack.
Brilliant.
Residents in Tamil-majority areas controlled by the Tigers have complained that international aid has been slow to reach them since the devastating earthquake and tsunami of Dec. 26. International donors, who pledged nearly US$3 billion to Sri Lanka, have been reluctant to give any funds directly to the guerrillas, who are listed as terrorists by the United States, Britain and India. But the talks Friday were to discuss a proposed deal between the government and the rebels that will make them partners in distributing aid to the Tamil-dominated north and east.
Muthalif was the highest ranking intelligence officer to be killed in the 20-year-civil war. His body was riddled with bullets and he died before doctors could operate on him.
Sounds like ideological purity and mayhem were more important than getting their hands on the boodle.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/03/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It probably suits the Tigers better for their people to live in poverty. Makes cannon fodder much easier to recruit.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/03/2005 0:42 Comments ||
Top||
The U.S. stepped up its criticism of Syria following Samir Kassir's murder and called for the UN to expand its investigation into the slaying of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which is under way in Beirut, to include the Kassir murder.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said: "We strongly condemn the brutal assassination of Mr Kassir." He added: "This heinous act was clearly an attempt to intimidate the Lebanese people and undermine their efforts to build a free and democratic future. I think it reflects an environment of political repression created by Syria's long military and intelligence presence inside Lebanon." He said the United States continues to call for the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for Syria to withdraw all its intelligence operatives from Lebanon in addition to the military forces.
President Emile Lahoud met with the head of the UN investigative team, Detlev Mehlis, and also asked the team to widen its probe to include the Kassir murder. But diplomatic sources said such a measure was not possible unless Lebanon presents an official request to UN chief Kofi Annan, who must then submit the request to the Security Council for approval. Satellite network Al-Arabiyya, where Kassir's widow Giselle Khoury works, said last night she was insistent on French participation in the investigation into her husband's death. Kassir held French nationality as well as Lebanese.
In a statement, Lebanon's Maronite League said that Kassir's murder was "an attempt to silence the voice of freedom and democracy." It urged the government to exert all possible efforts to preserve national security. Opposition MP Nayla Mouawad said Kassir's death was "a great loss ... and a strike to the freedom of expression." After a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, Mouawad condemned the murder and said the Lebanese-Syrian intelligence services were responsible.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2005 22:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Syrian President Bashar Assad will define the framework and mechanism of the future implementation of the country's reform program in a speech next week. The reforms were initiated when he took over the presidency following the death of his father Hafez Assad in 2000.
According to Dr. Buthaina Shaaban, minister for Syrians overseas, the president will be addressing these issues in the opening ceremony of the 10th Congress of the ruling Baath Party due to start its debates at the Umayyad Conference Palace here on Monday. "President Assad will be addressing the congress members, drawing the framework and outlines to be discussed in details by the participants. He will then join the conferees and take part in the various debates, discussions, and recommendations to be finalized by the congress for presentation to the executive authorities later as guidelines for the future development in the country," Dr. Shaaban said yesterday.
Dr. Shaaban said that some 1,150 party cadres, who have been elected by some 2 million party members from all over the country, will be discussing behind closed doors all the issues related to the development process, reforms, and the future of the country and the party. "The participants will be divided into three committees: Political, economic, and organizational," she said. Speaking on the accusations by some US and Iraqi officials that Damascus is threatening security and stability in Iraq, Dr. Shaaban said: "Syria is trying its best to control its borders with Iraq through preventing any sort of infiltration of insurgents into the neighboring Arab country. However, accusing Syria of being responsible about what is happening in Iraq is quite unacceptable and irresponsible," she stressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Assad: "I'm going to reform"
Peasant: "In what way glorious leader?"
Assad: "I'm going to oppress your peasant @ss twice as much as before"
Peasant: (Yelling) "Death to America"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/03/2005 0:31 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Why am I getting Marathon Man flashbacks?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/03/2005 1:18 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Yeah, Frank, and he won't even be able to defend himself...what, with his missiles mis-firing and all over Turkey! However, we must not forget to blame the Joooooos somehow when he gets whacked.
Posted by: BA ||
06/03/2005 8:52 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The best reform program Assad could create would be to negotiate a nice residence with his immediate family in the soon to be established 'Dictators-R-Us' subdivision on American Somoa. Bask away in the calm and beautiful lush surroundings without a care about coups, fanatics, or unruly populations. Get a machine stamped X-mas card every year from the President of the United States rather than the uncomfortable 'Get out of Dodge before Sundown' scrawled on a 1000 pound bunker buster. Just pick up that phone now and call the American Ambassador for your free brochure. Operators are standing by.
Lebanon's anti-Syria opposition has called for the resignation of President Emile Lahoud, an ally of Damascus, after the killing of a prominent journalist. The opposition "demands by democratic means the resignation of the president as he is the effective leader of the security/intelligence regime," said Elias Atallah, a senior official in the Democratic Left movement. "Once again the hand of terrorism, under the protection of the president and the joint Lebanese-Syrian intelligence agencies and what is left of the regime, targets a symbol of the free press," Atallah said, reading a statement after an emergency meeting of the opposition on Thursday. Samir Kassir, who wrote anti-Syrian articles for Lebanon's leading An-Nahar newspaper, was killed when a bomb planted under his car exploded in a neighbourhood of mainly Christian east Beirut earlier on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Give me the one that says Bad Motherfucker on it!
Posted by: Samuel L. Jackson ||
06/03/2005 19:36 Comments ||
Top||
#4
These things are made in Piney Flats, Tennessee, about 20 miles from me. I've searched the yellow and white pages but no luck so I did some reconn. They've got this place hidden VERY well. I won't give up, though. I want a demonstration!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/03/2005 19:57 Comments ||
Top||
The news regarding Al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been somewhat confusing this week. The speculations are varied; there are reports that he has been wounded, others that he has been killed. Some state that he escaped and fled to Iran, and others believe that he continues to lead Al-Qaeda operations in Iraq against the âthunderâ operations in Baghdad. Who knows the truth? And who knows the real Al-Zarqawi?
From the days he wondered the streets of Zarqa in Jordan, as a young man, to his rise into a position of leadership within a brutal terrorist organization in Iraq, Al-Zarqawiâs life has had its ups and downs. Al-Zarqawiâs extremist activities began when he was still in Jordan, where he was indicted for his participation in an attempt on the life of an American diplomat in Amman. He was also a co-founder of Bayâat Al-Imam (The Vow of Allegiance to the Imam) organization, which was perhaps more extremist that some other Jihadist organizations. Al-Zarqawi was then imprisoned, but was released in early 1999 and traveled straight to Afghanistan.
While in prison in Jordan, Al-Zarqawi established a close relationship with Abu Mohamed Al Maqdisi (Essam Barqawi), a Palestinian-Jordanian Sheikh and theoretician of the Salafiyyah Takfiriyyah. There are reports that Al-Zarqawi had made this Sheikhâs acquaintance before being imprisoned, however he became absorbed in the extremist Salafiyyah Takfiriyyah principles, which centre round the excommunication of all Arab and Islamic governments. The Salafiyyah Takfiriyyah suggests that its followers have an incumbent duty to depose existing Arab and Islamic governments, as they combat Islam and Shariâah, and replace them with their own âIslamic Governmentâ.
It seems that Al-Zarqawiâs tendencies towards leadership began early in his life. A famous letter to Al-Zarqawi from Al Maqdisi, described how he had given up the Imrah (political Islamic leadership) to the favour of Al-Zarqawi, and described Al-Zarqawiâs Imrah tasks as most qualified. This news may not be new to many, especially since Al-Zarqawi gained a high media profile. What is new however, are the details published on fundamentalist internet sites, of a testament made by Seif Al-Ad, the leader of Al-Qaedaâs security committee.
In his testament, Al-Adl describes how he first became aware of Al-Zarqawi, through following his trial in Jordan. Al-Adl explains how Al-Zarqawi defended his views on excommunication. On leaving prison, Al-Zarqawi travelled to Qandahar, Afghanistan with his close aides, Khaled Al-Arouri and Abdel Hadi Daghlas. Al-Adl discussed how they did not approach Al-Zarqawi immediately out of caution. However after receiving a letter of recommendation from Abu Qatadah, the Palestinian Sheikh, based in London, they made contact.
Al-Adl identified a ârageâ in Al-Zarqawi, that was born of his extremism. Imagine, that Seif Al-Adl, the âSword of Al-Qaedaâ, who was overjoyed with the September 11 attacks, considers this man an extremist. He did however believe Al-Zarqawi to have integrity.
Al-Adl asked Bin Laden and Al Zawahri permission to deal with Al-Zarqawi. He wanted to find a sound method to cooperate with him, in order to ensure they gained the best of his abilities. So as to appear flexible, Al-Adl, did not even request Al-Zarqawi to pledge allegiance for Al-Qaeda.
According to Al-Adl, after laborious discussions, Al-Zarqawi moved to Heart in West Afghanistan. This was as a result of several factors, including the narrowing down of the Pakistani government on the Arab and non-Arab Afghans who were flooding Al-Qaeda, and the Turkey-Iran-Afghanistan road option. In Herat, Al-Zarqawi founded a group which was strategically based in an old camp, close the areas in Iraq, Syria and greater Syria, where Al-Zarqawi was asked to be active.
September 11 brought about a total shift in the fate of Al Zarqawi. In the internet document published, he said, "Al Zarqawi had not been informed of the attacks nor of the aims. We had, however, explained what his aims should be, and discussed important details of the next phase and targets. We also gave him a presentation on the expected response of the United States. Our estimation was that the strike of September 11 would only succeed in achieving 20 percent of what we had planned, however this rate of success was enough to make the Americans respond, which was desired". I do not need to add the detailed confession of files of other evidence that indict Al-Qaeda with the September 11 attacks, since these have become well known facts for all except those who are in denial.
The United States did not delay its response, and began bombing the camps of Afghanistan as it waged a âthird world warâ on terrorism. In response to the bombing, Al-Qaeda members decided to âmelt the landâ, however this was not before Al-Zarqawi, renown for his imprudence and passion, returned to Qandahar to participate in the symbolic combat against American mortars. During this time, Al-Zarqawi was injured, after the house he was in collapsed on him, causing his ribs to break. On his recovery, he escaped with Al-Adl and other fighters to Iran. On arriving in Iran, they stayed in the houses of Hizb Islami, a follower of the former Afghani leader, Qalb Al Din Hekmatyar. There is an unspoken understanding that the Iranians, or at least Iranian Intelligence, were aware of the situation.
Let us leave Al-Zarqawi to one side for the time being in order to discuss Al-Adl further, since he is quite clearly a controversial figure. There have been disputes with regards to Al-Adlâs true identity, since there are some who believe that he is Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Mekawy and others who allege that he is an officer in the special-forces or the army. There are also suggestions that he is the man in a famous photograph publicized by the American authorities.
If he is, as some propose Mohamed Mekawy, then it is understood by observers of the Jihadist organizations (such as Diaa Rashwan), that he broke away from the Jihad group and Al-Zawahri in 1993. This was a time when the leadership shifted from Abdel Qader Abdel Aziz to Zawahri and Ahmad Agiza, the founder of the Jihad military wing (The Armies of Conquest). Al-Adl was interviewed in August 1993 by Al Wasat magazine. When asked, âWhat is your relationship with Ayman Al-Zawahri?â he answered, âWe split from Dr Ayman Al-Zawahri approximately three months ago. We declared the Islamic Jihad Movement. The armies of conquest have no relations with Al Zawahriâ.
What were the reasons for this separation? It seems that the Egyptian Jihad Organization, under the leadership of Al Zawahri, believe in the excommunication of elite Muslims for trivial reasons and they call for the fight against Muslims. There is not a focus on the regime.
Al-Adlâs identity is actually quite confusing, since in a documentary about the Egyptian fundamentalists in Peshwar, made by the BBC in the 1990s, a photograph of Mekawy is shown, which different from the famous picture [of Mekawy] distributed by the Americans. This may be a deliberate attempt by Al-Qaeda to confuse, in order to weaken the legitimacy of American information. Whatever the truth, there surely exists an influential man called Seif Al-Adl. According to reliable Saudi information, it was Al-Adl that gave the signal for the attacks on the residential compounds in Riyadh, in May 2003. However it was Khaled Haj, the Yemeni ex-leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, that conveyed this message on behalf on Al-Adl.
Returning to Al-Zarqawi, it seems that as the Iranian government received increasing criticism from the Americans, for harbouring Al-Qaeda members, he began to lose his patience. According to Al-Adl, the Iranian government began tightened up their approach, and Al-Zarqawi lost 80 percent of his men. Consequently, he moved on to Iraq, first going to the extremist Kurdish Islamist organization, Ansar Al Islam in the North of the country. What followed is widely known.
The document published on the internet allows an insight into the mind of Al-Zarqawi, and for this they are valuable. It highlights his unwavering determination to wage fundamentalist revolution before September 11 and the American invasion of Afghanistan had even taken place. It becomes ever clearer that in founding an extremist organization that considers parliamentary experience as un-Islamic, he cannot accept other powers as partners with God. This was identifiable in his attacks on Jordanian and non-Jordanian Islamists who engaged in parliamentary acts. This reveals that the current fundamentalist crisis is essentially as crisis of concepts and rationality.
I will conclude with the following recommendation made by Al-Adl to Al-Zarqawi in his testament, he said âYou must clearly and sincerely announce that your goal is to resume Islamic Life though the establishment of the Islamic State that will solve all the problems of the nationâ.
This is the foundation of fundamentalism â there is nothing but such slogans. And may Allah execute what has been ordained.
This article starring:
Bayat Al-Imam
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/03/2005 13:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
If only all the "detained" Iranian students received the same benefits ...
Seif Al-Adl, the Egyptian military leader of Al-Qaeda, remains to be a mysterious character, who is often a subject of great controversy. It is believed by many that his role is not yet over, and an important document posted on the internet by many fundamentalist sites, sheds further light on the subject.
It seems that there is some dispute over Al-Adlâs true identity, with some saying that he is one and the same as Colonel Mohamed Mekawi, a former Egyptian Army Officer. However, a Libyan Islamist, Noman Ibn Othman, told Asharq al-Awsat yesterday that he had met both Mekawi and Al-Adl together during the years of Jihad against the Russians in Afganistan. He also stated that Mekawi is almost a decade Al-Adlâs senior.
One of the most important points made with regards to Al-Adl, is in relation to his knowledge of Al-Zarqawiâs successor. This was of particular importance when news emerged that Al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, had been shot in operations taking place in the West of the country. According to Al-Adl, Al-Zarqawiâs successor was believed to be a Syrian physician, Sulaiman Khaled Darwish (aka Abu Al-Ghadiah), who was the leader of the Arab Mujahedeen in Harat Camp. The Harat Camp was also personally supervised by Al-Zarqawi.
Noman Ibn Othman, a political asylum seeker in Britain and an expert on fundamentalist movements, stated that Al-Adlâs photograph is listed on the FBIâs most wanted list of terrorists, which is topped by that of Bin Laden. Noman Ibn Othman went on to state that there had been no news about Colonel Mekawi (aka Abu al-Munthir) since 1994. It is believed that he had been in strong disagreement with Al-Qaeda, especially with Ayman Al-Zawhri, the Jihad leader and Bin Ladenâs greatest ally.
Ibn Othman also commented that Mekawiâs great military abilities were immediately identifiable. He had entered into battle against the Russians with the rest of the Mujahedeen in Jalal, using his experience in the Egyptian army. According to some fundamentalists in London, it is thought that he participated in operations against the Russians with Bin Laden in Jalal Abad for a short time. It was during the Khurst Airport Battle, when he witnessed the chaos between the Arabs and Afghans that Mekawi made his famous statement. He declared that it was âa war of goatsâ, referring to an old Egyptian saying which describes that which is old, as belonging to the days of the war of the goats.
Mekawi considered himself distinguished amongst the other Arab Afghans, due to his military skills. He regarded those around him as amateurs, and refused to enter into the âwar of the goatsâ. Mekawi left for Peshawar, where he continued to lose confidence in the Afghans, until the war with Russia was over.
In a testament made by Al-Adl, after the news was published that Al-Zarqawi had been shot in his right lung, it is made clear how Al-Zarqawi became acquainted with Al-Qaeda. The testament, which was published by fundamentalist internet sites, highlighted that it was Al-Adl who had recommended Al-Zarqawi to Al-Qaeda. It also became clear that the link between the two men was Abu-Qutadeh, the Palestinian fundamentalist, currently residing in London under permanent electronic surveillance.
In the internet posting, Al-Adl also describes the details of his agreement with Al-Zarqawi. It seems they had decided to set up a central leadership command circle in Iran, from which further sub-circles would branch off.
Ibn Othman, the Libyan Islamist, revealed that Al-Adl is the son-in-law of Abu al Walid al Masry, another Egyptian fundamentalist. Abu al Walid al Masryâs book was serialised in Asharq al-Awsat in in December 2004. His book dealt with the Arab Afghans, from their entrance into Afghanistan until their expulsion from the country with the Taliban.
Al-Adl had five children from his marriage to Abu al Walidâs daughter, and they were all living in Kabul during the bombardment on Afghanistan. Abu al Walid was one of the most senior Arab Afghans, based in Qandhar, he was, for many years, the supervisor of The Islamic Principality, a journal which was regarded as the voice of Mullah Omar. The journal was published in Arabic, English and Pashto. Abu al Walid also wrote tens of articles on Mahrousa, a fundamentalist site run by the Egyptian fundamentalist, Osama Rushdy, who used the pen name Hashem Al-Makri. Rushdy was one of the leaders of the Jamaâah Islamiyah, the illegal Egyptian fundamentalist group.
The Islamic Observatory, London-Based Islamic human rights NGO, revealed that Mekawi used to lead a special task anti-terrorism force in the Egyptian armed forces' Commandos Unit, before he was forced to resign from the army. It is also believed that he is married to a Pakistani woman. Islamic fundamentalists based in London, have told Asharq al-Awsat that after colonel Mekawi was arrested, tried, and fired from the Egyptian army, he was contacted by AlâJihad group which invited him to return to Pakistan. It is thought that he strongly disagreed with Al-Jihad and subsequently launched a campaign, criticising Al-Zawhri. He accused Bin Ladenâs closest ally of being an agent, who received money from the Iranians, implicating the ranks of the organisation in failed and unstudied operations.
In his testament, Al-Adl said, âwe followed the military trials carried out by the Jordanian State Security Court, concerning our returned Afghan-Jordanian brothers, as well as those for several small Islamic groups that tried to wage operations against Israel with Jordan as a base. As we followed the trials of Abu Mossa'b Al Zarqawi and Abu Mohamed Al Maqdisi in the Tawhid case, or what was known as Bay'at Al Imam [the Imam's Allegiance], we realised that they were the most prominent of the Jordanian Islamists from the mediaâs perspective." Seif added, "Our brother Abu Qatadah then focused on publicizing the ideas of these two in his journal, Al Menhaj that was published in London. It was in this journal that we first read the letters of Abu Mohamed Al Maqdisi, the letters of Al Zarqawi , and their historical defense before the prosecution. Abu Qatadah always reminded us that we had active brothers in Jordan who were expected to have a promising future in the course of Da'wah. Thus we were very happy when we heard of their release in 1999 and we were not surprised when we learned that Abu Musab and some of his brothers had arrived in Pakistan." He continued, " Abu Mossa'b and Al Maqdisi did not need to be recommended to us as we had followed the trials and had witnessed the ideas they had presented in these trials. That was enough for us to welcome themâ.
Seif Al-Adl admits that he shares Al-Zarqawiâs extremist ideas, however not all aspects of Al-Zarqawiâs approach, such as silence and decisiveness, are agreed up by other Al-Qaeda brothers. He clarifies, âthis intrigued me and opened a wide door of memories that led me to recall the major milestones in my history and how my relationship with Allah had guided me to true Islam in the mid-eighties". The difference between Al-Zarqawi and Al-Adl, may also be identified in the dissimilarity between Al-Zarqawi and the rest of Al-Qaeda in relation to the formers tendency to excommunicate governments.
Al-Adl then went on to discuss September 11th, he said, âfirst of all, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi had not prior knowledge of these attacks, but knew some details after the strike took placeâ. Seif clarifies,
"we explained the aims of the September attacks to Zarqawi and provided him with some important details of phased out targets. Also, since we had speculated an American response, we had not estimated that the strikes would succeed to achieve more than 20percent of the target that was planned. This was enough, however for America to respond as we initially wanted. Then we all know what took place in the following two months, including threats to wipe out Al-Qaeda and its supporters everywhere. The Americans started getting contradictory in their statements and actions, and their supporters and dependants started emulating their master in these statements and actions. This is in fact what we had hoped would happen and what we planned. It was crowned when Bush declared war on Afghanistan".
Al-Adl reveals that Al-Zarqawi appointed himself a deputy in Afghanistan; this deputy was the Syrian physician Sulaiman Kahled Darwish. In addition, he had two aides, Khaled Arouri and Abdel Hadi Deghlas, two Jordanian young men who had accompanied him to Afghanistan in the very beginning. Al'Adl noticed that, âAbu Mossaâb [Al-Zarqawi] and his aides were very vigorous in their trainingâ. He described it further; âthey used to push themselves hard to reach higher goals all the timeâ.
The Egyptian fundamentalist statement asserted that âcontrary to what the Americans continuously claimed, Al-Qaeda did not have any connection with Saddam whatsoever. American attempts to connect Saddam to Al-Qaeda were in order to create excuses and legitimate causes to invade Iraq. So after we were trapped in Iran, after being forced out of Afghanistan, it became inevitable that we would plan to enter Iraq through the north, which was free from American control. It was then that we moved south to join our Sunni brothers".
Al-Adl then moved to the question of Iran, and said "The steps taken by Iran against us shook us and caused the failure of 75percent of our plan. Approximately 80 percent of Abu Musabâs [Al-Zarqawi] group were arrested. It was important to create a plan for Abu Musab to follow with those left with him. Where were they to go? The destination was Iraq, via the Northern Iran/Iraq border. The aim was to reach the Sunni areas in the center of Iraq and then to start preparations to combat the American invasion. It was not a random choice; it was a well studied one."
Al-Adl describes his farewell with Al-Zarqawi, âWhen Abu Mossa'b was saying goodbye before going to Iraq, there was an added dimension to him. It was the focus on taking revenge on the Americans for the crimes he had seen them commit in Afghanistan with his own eyes". The grudge and hostility Al-Zarqawi held against the Americans was enough to create new aspects to his personality. Al-Adl added, "I cannot write about this new character as I have not met him since he left Iran. But from what I have heard about him, it seems that he has become an experienced leader who is able to manage the conflict with the Americans and the Israelis".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/03/2005 13:06 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So, this confirms that Adel was (is) in Iran after the fall of the Taliban. As Mr. Ledeen says, faster, please.
Posted by: Tibor ||
06/03/2005 13:53 Comments ||
Top||
An Al Qaeda cell in Libya has threatened an attack on the north-east coastal city of Darna if one of the cell leaders was not released from prison immediately.
The statement, posted on the internet, was picked up by the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. Besides attacking the town, which is located between Bengazi and the capital, Tripoli, the group also wrote about a list of targets it had drawn up, including Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The newspaper reported that the statement was signed by the head of the local terror group, Abu Al Bara Al Libi. Whether or not Al Qaida has the means to cooridinate such attacks on a large scale is unknown.
This article starring:
ABU AL BARA AL LIBI
al-Qaeda in Libya
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/03/2005 13:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So it's down to this,huh?
al-cocka cant think of anybody else to screw with, or do they think a spineless, craven,dickhead like Gaddafi might cave in to their demands?
U.S. forces have had no good leads on the whereabouts of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi since finding his laptop computer in February but believe reports of his wounding suggest that his group may be in disarray.
U.S. troops seized the Jordanian militant's driver, an aide and his laptop computer -- which included personal photos saved under "My Pictures" -- at a roadblock near Ramadi nearly three months ago and believed they were closing in on Zarqawi.
Since then there have been reports that the militant leader, whose group claims to have carried out many of the deadliest attacks in Iraq, was wounded during fighting near Ramadi. Unconfirmed reports said he was nearing death.
But a senior U.S. military official on Friday played down any suggestion that the net was tightening on America's most-wanted man after Osama bin Laden, even if there are indications, he said, that Zarqawi's group is in turmoil.
"I can say categorically that I am not aware of anybody having a definite sighting of Zarqawi at any particular place at any particular time," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told a group of reporters at a briefing in Baghdad.
"I can't tell you that we saw him on March 27, or that we saw him in Ramadi hospital...
"There are a lot of Zarqawi sightings going on and it's a case of which one do you roll to and why is it that that tip is more valuable than the last one," he said, suggesting that many tips on Zarqawi's whereabouts prove to be non-starters.
Speculation that Zarqawi, for whom Washington is offering a $25 million bounty, may be running out of luck reached fever pitch when an Islamist Web Site reported late last month that he had been wounded in fighting.
Another Islamist Web Site then reported that the leadership of his group had met and nominated a successor to run operations until Zarqawi recovered.
That posting was immediately denied in another Internet message posted by someone who more frequently posts for Zarqawi.
Then, earlier this week, an audio tape was released on the Internet containing a message from the elusive militant.
The recording, which CIA officials have said was probably made by Zarqawi, was addressed to bin Laden and reassured the al Qaeda leader that the Jordanian was fit and well and back commanding operations in Iraq.
The flurry of rumors, denials and reassurances -- there were even reports Zarqawi had fled to Iran to receive treatment for shrapnel and bullet wounds -- has left U.S. commanders believing all may not be well within Zarqawi's group.
"When I look at these Web Sites ... I see symptoms of needing to rally the troops. I see symptoms of discord," the official said, mimicking the contradictory nature of their reports:
"'Here's his successor', 'No he's not his successor', 'He's really injured with shrapnel in his lung', 'I'm okay, bin Laden'. What does this all mean?" he asked.
"For all of their media savvy, it certainly seems like there's confusion in the ranks when I look at the volume of information that they are putting out there."
Despite the lack of hard leads on Zarqawi's whereabouts, the official said efforts to capture him remained intense.
"We're keeping pressure up across the country on the whole cell structure," he said. "His removal from the global war on terror and his removal from Iraq would be a positive development."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/03/2005 12:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Authorities see al Qaeda links in suicide attacks that killed 44 people in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the past week that appeared aimed at showing Osama bin Laden's network remains a potent force.
But officials and analysts say they have yet to find evidence the bombings were coordinated by a central figure, least of all by bin Laden himself.
On Wednesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives in a mosque in the Afghan city of Kandahar as mourners gathered to pay respects to assassinated anti-Taliban cleric Abdullah Fayaz.
It was the first ever suicide attack on a mosque in Afghanistan. It came two days after a suicide attack on a minority Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Karachi in neighbouring Pakistan and five days after a similar attack on a Muslim festival in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Pakistani editor and commentator Najam Sethi said the attacks were clearly aimed at destabilising Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, two of President George W. Bush's main allies in his global war on terrorism.
"It's a backlash against the campaign against al Qaeda and political Islam in Afghanistan and Pakistan under the aegis of the United States," he said.
"I don't think these are incidents without any relationship," he said. "But it's not that some supreme leader is coordinating all these attacks. This does not mean Osama bin Laden is orchestrating all these attacks."
The governor of Afghanistan's Kandahar province, Gul Agha Sherzai, blamed al Qaeda for the blast there and said the dead bomber appeared to be an Arab.
Pakistani intelligence officials said the attacks in Pakistan both appeared to be the work of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant groups with close links to al Qaeda.
A Pakistan intelligence official said there was suspicion al Qaeda was trying to show it it was still a threat after Musharraf said recently al Qaeda's back had been broken.
"The suicide attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan could possibly be reactions to the arrest of al Liby," said one intelligence official, who declined to be identified.
But analysts said there was a lack of hard evidence to show the attacks were jointly planned.
"It's a possibility, yes; whether it's a probability, I'm not sure," said Pakistani strategic analyst Shaukat Qadir.
A spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Colonel Jim Yonts, said the possibility of a connection was being investigated, but no link had been found.
Analysts say a crackdown on al Qaeda in Pakistan, which has resulted in hundreds of arrests, and the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan had forced militants to operate in small, isolated groups. Sophisticated U.S. eavesdropping has made communication between these cells dangerous.
More bomb attacks were a reflection of the success of the U.S. and Afghan campaign against the Taliban insurgency, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said.
"The enemies of peace and stability have been defeated in the frontline of war and now they're focusing on soft targets."
Pakistani Rahimullah Yusufzai, an expert on Afghanistan, noted that anti-Taliban cleric Abdullah Fayaz was killed the same day pro-government tribal leader Faridullah Wazir was killed in Pakistan.
"It shows targetted killings are going on here and in Afghanistan and the same is happening in Iraq. But it does not necessarily mean they are cooperating with each other," he said.
While militants might not be able to cooperate, they were getting inspiration from one another and adopting similar, increasingly brutal tactics, Yusufzai said.
"It's a dangerous trend."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/03/2005 12:45 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
(This story is not really WoT material, but for some reason it makes me so very sad. The Paleos killed US representatives who were in Paleoland to distribute Fulbright scholarships, and here is the Paleo leadership triumphantly hauling around a little boy who has memorized the Koran, and whose main job I imagine is to recruit kids his age to The Cause. It seems so wasteful. But I guess they have no real interest in moving forward, just holding on to a distant past and drowning the world in rivers of blood.)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Devout Muslims from around the Gaza Strip have been flocking in recent months to mosques to hear the religious lectures of a 13-year-old boy who has memorized much of the Quran by heart, followers said Wednesday. Wearing the red and white "imama" head covering and long robe of observant Muslims, Amjad Abu Sadio preaches weekly to dozens of worshippers. He has spoken at 40 mosques in Gaza so far. Abu Sadio said he has memorized 75 percent of the Quran, earning the honorary title of sheik. He hopes one day to study and earn a degree to qualify for the official title of sheik.
The boy stood Wednesday at the front of a mosque in Gaza City, speaking in a loud and unwavering voice and gesturing with animation. "I discovered my ability to give speeches when I was at school and present a paper in front of the students," Abu Sadio told Associated Press Television News. "After that, my family, friends and school encouraged me to present it in front of people in the mosques." It is not uncommon for boys who know portions of the Quran by heart to be called "sheik." But Muslims must study for years and receive a degree in Islamic law before they become official sheiks.Abu Sadio's teacher, Sheik Ismail Kahloot, said that the boy is determined to be one of the best sheiks in Gaza someday. Abu Sadio takes free Islamic classes offered by the Palestinian Authority. The Palestine Charitable Association sponsors the boy by driving him around to the mosques where he gives his lectures.
#2
When your recreation choices are either memorizing the Koran, or training to become a terrorist during weekends and school holidays, rote memorization is actually the saner/healthier alternative.
June 3, 2005: Without releasing too many details, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that they are building disposable sensors that use RFID technology. RFID is an electronic device that, when hit with the right electronic signal, responds with information contained in it. Right now, RFID is being used for inventory control. Cargo containers, or individual items (like a can of food) with an RFID chip (they are really cheap) attached, responds, when a hand held RFID reader nearby broadcasts a signal. More expensive RFID chips can respond to a reader farther away, say like one in a low flying UAV. The Department of Defense is building motion sensors into fake rocks, small (golf ball size) fake rocks. The rocks will be equipped with motion sensors that can detect footsteps 5-10 meters away, and various type of vehicles moving nearby at ranges up to a hundred meters. These sensors can be dropped from the air, or placed near American troops (who will then monitor what the "rocks" hear via automatic RFID interrogators placed behind the rocks.) These sensors are cheap enough that they don't have to be retrieved. Such sensors enable intelligence troops to monitor enemy movements over a wide area. With these "smart rocks", troops in Afghanistan can, for example, regularly monitor the many mountain passes used by hostile forces to sneak in from Pakistan. You could do it in real time, by dropping a large "repeater" rock to work with dozens of smaller sensor rocks. The repeater would regularly poll the small rocks, and transmit the data back, via a satellite link, to a base. The repeater rocks would have to be replaced as their batteries wore out. The smaller rocks would also have a small battery to store data, and time it was picked up. But the batteries in the small rocks would probably last for months.
Sensors like this are nothing new, they were available, in cruder form, as far back as the 1960s. The new generation of remote sensors are, however, cheap enough to use on a wide scale. Hollywood "fake rock" technology is probably being used as well. Movie makers have been producing more convincing, lightweight, fake rocks for decades. These rocks come in many shapes and textures, but are actually light weight and made of a rubbery material (so actors won't get hurt when they are hit with a bunch of them). This also makes it possible to drop the rocks from the air without damaging most of them. Dropping the "rocks," at night, in remote areas, means that they would be almost impossible to detect.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/03/2005 09:16 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This rocks!
Posted by: Mike ||
06/03/2005 11:09 Comments ||
Top||
#4
My dentist told me her Mom's garden club treasurer's first cousin (twice removed) once ate some RFID smart rocks and drank a can of Diet Pepsi...and his stomach exploded.
Former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif has convened a meeting of party leaders in Jeddah in the third week of June to discuss the party's internal affairs, Daily Times learnt on Thursday.
Last time I looked, Jeddah's in Soddy Arabia, not Pakistan. Why do they call it the Pakistan Mooselimb League and not the Soddy Mooselimb League?
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Raja Zaffarul Haq, Iqbal Zaffar Jhagra, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Memoona Hashmi, Mamnoon Hussain, Pir Sabir Shah, Mushahidullah Khan, Sir Anjam Khan, Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal, Tehmina Daultana, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Imdad Chandio and Sardar Yaqoob Nasir have been directed to reach Jeddah soon after the National Assembly's budget session. The meeting will decide about the PML-N's provincial office-bearers. Sources said that except the PML-N Balochistan, all three provincial chapters had differences over the appointments of provincial chiefs and general secretaries. Mian Nawaz Sharif had forwarded a list of the provincial office-bearers to party chairman Raja Zaffarul Haq a week ago, but the announcement was not made due to the adverse reaction from of senior party leaders.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
While Nawaz is lucky enough to lead from the Magic Kingdom, Benazir Bhutto leads the PPP from Dubai, while Altaf Hussein leads the MQM from London.
But I guess things like that can happen when the leaders of a countries largest political parties have all been accused of Murder, attempted murder or corruption.
Only the Turbans are allowed to both live and campaign in Pakland.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/03/2005 0:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
So they've basically eliminated all forms of political opposition except for the religious fanatics.
HMM.
There's a phrase in French that I keep remembering.
"Apres moi, le deluge." At least I think that's it.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/03/2005 1:17 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I do believe you're right, Phil F. Except that I think you're missing some of those accent thingies that point in various directions... but then my French is rather limited, so I can't tell which and where. Sorry ;-)
A group of Egyptian artists, public figures and activists issued a joint statement yesterday in which they vowed to seek all possible efforts to keep President Hosni Mubarak in office for a fifth term next September. The 76-year-old president and leader of the National Democratic Party (NDP) has been running Egypt since the assassination of his predecessor Anwar Sadat in 1981. Mubarak's fourth six-year term ends in September.
The newly formed "Continuity for Prosperity" group began gathering signatures on a petition to convince people to re-elect Mubarak. Some 500 actors, lawyers, doctors, activists, students, and intellectuals have signed the petition. Among the signatories were 20 members of Parliament and 15 football players, civil society groups and some politicians, including Muhammad Abdel Aal, chairman of the Social Justice Party. The group's president, veteran actor Hussein Fahmi, said he had not expected that a wide spectrum of opposition groups to oppose Mubarak since he has offered a lot for the country. "I'm calling on all the members of the Egyptian society, the NDP and the opposition groups to support the president who has spent all his life serving the country," Fahmi said. "We have to become a one force and work for the country's prosperity and to expose those who work for outside forces and aim at destroying the country's safety and security," he added. The group, which critics say is the first real pro-Mubarak group in the country, said they support Egypt's first multicandidate elections, but said that at the moment Mubarak seems to be the only one fit for the job.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
CHAKOTHI, Pakistan-administered Kashmir - Muslim separatist leaders from Indian Kashmir were given a rousing welcome when they crossed the heavily militarised ceasefire line here on Thursday on an historic visit to the Pakistani zone of the disputed Himalayan region.
The prime minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Sardar Sikandar Hayat, and other senior politicians hugged the leaders as they arrived in this town near the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir. A police band played national tunes while a crowd released pigeons and had gun sex hundreds of multi-coloured balloons.
The Indian Kashmir leaders walked across the Kaman Bridge on the Jhelum river, which forms part of the LoC, and then drove to Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistan-administered zone of Kashmir. The entire 58-kilometre (36-mile) route from Chakothi to Muzaffarabad was decorated with welcoming bunting and banners.
They looked lovely with the Claymores.
The visit of nine moderate leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), the main separatist umbrella group engaged in a 15-year-old bloody campaign against Indian rule in Kashmir, is their first to the Pakistani zone.
Delegation member Bilal Gani Lone said he happy and excited to be in the Pakistan portion of Kashmir. "There is a hope and today's journey is the first step," he said. "Let us hope this first step brings peace and best hopes for the people of India, Pakistan and specially the people of Kashmir," he said.
"The visit shows that both India and Pakistan have realised that involvement of Kashmiris is essential in resolving the dispute between the two countries," a senior Hurriyat leader Moulvi Abbas Ansari said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/03/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
Bacterial powder that sparked a terror alert when it was sent to the Indonesian Embassy was probably harmless, police reported Thursday. Prime Minister 
The U.S. stepped up its criticism of Syria following 
Syrian President 
Lebanon's anti-Syria opposition has called for the resignation of President 
Former prime minister 
A group of Egyptian artists, public figures and activists issued a joint statement yesterday in which they vowed to seek all possible efforts to keep President 
