British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who visits the Middle East on Tuesday, said his diplomats had twice met officials linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas but were still banned from contact with the leadership.
"On each of those occasions our staff have spelt out to the elected official ... our position overall in respect of no dealings with Hamas as an organisation as long as it continues to support violence," Straw told BBC radio.
"We are not dealing with Hamas leadership and won't deal with them until they have done two fundamental things, which is dropped their charter committing themselves to the destruction of Israel and given up violence as a legitimate tool," he said. Both Britain and the European Union have declared Hamas a terrorist group and rejected contacts with its leadership -- but have admitted having contacts with Hamas members who were elected in recent Palestinian municipal elections.
U.S. officials say they may be open to contacts with some Hamas political affiliates.
The Israeli government reacted with disappointment to Straw's remarks on contacts with elected town councillors linked to Hamas.
"We see Hamas as part of the problem not as part of the solution," a foreign ministry spokesman said. "We hope that the international effort will be to strengthen the moderates and to isolate the extremists".
Hamas in turn rejected international demands that it abandon its weapons.
"Hamas will never abandon its arms at any time and its legetimate resistance in defending the Palestinian people will never stop as long as occupation exists on the land of Palestine," said spokesman Mushir al-Masri.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 15:22 ||
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Bet they don't see any similarities to the IRA either.
Long a bastion of Catholicism, southern Mexico is quickly turning into a battleground for soul-savers. Islam, too, is gaining a foothold and the indigenous Mayans are converting by the hundreds. The Mexican government is worried about a culture clash in their own backyard.
Subcomandante Marcos of Chiapas entered into an alliance with a Muslim movement in the mid-1990s. violent revolutionary, now his successors are adding Islam to the mix
Anastasio Gomez, a Tzotzil Mayan from Mexico, fondly remembers his pilgrimage to Mecca. He circled around the Kaaba, the highest sanctuary of Muslims, seven times. At Mount Arafat he prayed to Allah and then he, together with 15 other Indians, sacrificed a sheep before boarding the flight back to their Mexican home.
"In Islam, race plays no role," the young man says joyously. His enthusiasm is understandable. After all, in his home state of Chiapas, Mexico's poorest, the indigenous people are viewed as second class humans, and whites and Mestizos treat the Indian majority as if they weren't there. In the southern Mexican provincial metropolis San Cristóbal de las Casas, the descendants of the Maya even have to move onto the street if a white person approaches them on the sidewalk.
Gomez, 23, converted to Islam eight years ago; ever since then, he has called himself Ibrahim. On his first pilgrimage seven years ago, the Indian was still something of an anomaly. Today, however, Muslim women in headscarves have become a common sight on the streets of San Cristobal.
About 300 Tzozil-Indians have converted to Islam in recent years and it's a development that is beginning to worry the Mexican government. Indeed, the government even suspects the new converts of subversive activity and has already set the secret service onto the track of the Mayan Muslims. Mexican President Vincente Fox has even gone so far as to say he fears the influence of the radical fundamentalists of al-Qaida.
But the Indians have no interest in political extremism. Rather, they belong to the Sunni, Murabitun sect that was founded by the Scotsman Ian Dallas and is seen as an offshoot of a Moroccan religious order. Oh well, that's all right then - the north African Islamicists are quiet peaceful folk ... uh huh The Murabitun followers represent a sort of primal Islam: Earning interest profits through money lending is a no-no and they preach a literal interpretation of the Koran. see? nothing to worry about ....
"The see themselves as restorers of Islam," says the anthropologist Gaspar Morquecho, author of a study of the Muslims of Chiapas. "Their defiance of capitalism is similar in many respects to the critique of globalization espoused by many left-wingers."
While the Mayan Muslims in Chiapas have been receiving extra attention of late, the Tzotzil conversion has been underway for some time. In the mid 1990s, a group of Spanish Muslims embarked to Latin America to spread the word; their leader was Aureliano Perez, who is now worshipped by the Maya-Muslims as Emir Nafia. He offered the Zapatista rebels fighting under Subcomandante Marcos, whom Perez supported, an ideological-religious alliance. Marcos was hesitant to enter the odd pact, but the Muslim missionaries were unperturbed: They discovered that the Tzotzil Indians made up the majority of the Zapatista rebels and were quite open to the teachings of the prophet Mohammed.
The battle for the souls of Chiapas is nothing new. In the 16th century, the Spanish conquistadors used brute force to convert the Indians to Catholicism. Half a millennium later, evangelical preachers from the US have turned Latin America into a religious battleground in their efforts to lure Catholics away from the Church. In the town of San Juan Chamula alone -- whose church is seen as something of a spiritual center by the Tzotzil Indians and attracts thousands of tourists a year -- there are 11 different congregations seeking to save the souls of the Indians.
The Catholics, however, are still, for the most part, in control. They belong to the mafia-esque former state party PRI run the town hall and the lucrative weekly market. In face of the advance of the evangelists, however, they fear that their influence may be waning and they have chased out more than 30,000 protestant Indians out of San Juan Chamula in the last three decades and hundreds have been killed or assaulted. Most of the refugees settled down in the slums on the outskirts of San Cristobal. Cut off from their cultural and religious roots, the Indians are easy prey for all manner of soul-savers.
"In Islam, the Indians rediscover their original values," claims Esteban Lopez, the Spanish secretary general of the Muslim community. "The Christians destroyed their culture." He presents the use and abuse of alcohol as proof. Alcoholism is wide-spread under Tzotzil Indians and the strict ban on spirits in Islam helps many to break the vicious circle of addiction and poverty.
In San Cristobal, the Mayan Muslims run a pizza shop and a carpenter workshop and they are seen by the whites as hard-working and diligent. In a Koran school, children learn Arabic and five times a day they pray in the backroom of a residential building. Empty congregation halls are not a problem for the new Muslims: Converted Muslims vow to witness the teachings of Mohammed among their families.
Anastasio Gomez -- aka Ibrahim -- for example, has managed to convert his entire family. He is especially proud of the conversion of his 100-year-old grandfather who was member of a Christian sect. "He was wandering from religion to religion all his live. Now he has found his peace of mind with Allah," says Ibrahim.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 12:05 ||
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Sunnis, huh? Bet they get funding for propaganda mosques and schools from our friends the Saudis.
#4
Chiapas - that's where Zach DeLaRocha was 'identifying' with Commie revoultionaries a few years ago, IIRC, eventually causing the breakup of Rage Against The Machine. Tres chic!
#5
My ex-PA, a "we don't flush pee" San Francisco, Harvard educated, left-winger is still down there working with others of her ilk from Europe. So, it is not surprising that the whiteeuropeanelitisteducationleftwingidiots continue to see Islam as a perfect fit for those that feel oppressed. Amazing and another reason to seal the borders.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/07/2005 15:52 Comments ||
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#6
What breaks down first - our southern border, or the source of the incursion (Mexico)? *dirty chuckles, in an evil kind of way*
At this rate, I'm starting to wonder if it won't be the latter...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
06/07/2005 17:46 Comments ||
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#7
Why can't the rastafarrians spread their religion with the same fervor.
#8
Why can't the rastafarrians spread their religion with the same fervor?
Schwartz, you stole my idea!
Just the other night I proposed sending Rastafarian missionaries to every islamic nation in the world. Instead of jihad, we'd have a nice mellow buzz across the (formerly) islamic ummah.
Brilliant, I thought. Then my brother pointed out how difficult it would be to find motivated Rasta zealots. Oh well...
Prosecutors in Kyrgyzstan have issued an arrest warrant on charges of abuse of power against former prime minister Nikolai Tanayev, who fled the country during protests and a coup in March. Tanayev resigned on March 24 when demonstrators protesting against a flawed parliamentary poll massed outside government offices, prompting President Askar Akayev to flee and the opposition to grab power. "Tanayev's arrest has been sanctioned, although he is not in Bishkek," Deputy Prosecutor General Nurlan Jenaliyev told Reuters on Monday. Although Tanayev flew to Moscow after the coup, police say they do not know his exact whereabouts.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Being a sub-hunter has gotten tough, lately. The new diesel subs that Iran and China are buying up are tiny, quiet, and can swim through the crannies that hug the coasts. That makes 'em really hard to find. And it's a major reason why the U.S. Navy is switching from passive sonars to Slayer-loud, active sonars that makes whales slam dance onto dry land. Australian scientists may have found a better way to find these quiet subs, The Engineer reports -- one that doesn't drive whales psycho.
The Australian development, called MAGSAFE, uses the detection of changing magnetic fields to identify and monitor a moving submarine. The method, which is unique in that it captures 12 magnetic field-related data values per reading as opposed to the single number measured by a conventional magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) magnetometer, arises from research into new minerals exploration technologies that detect magnetic fields...
The technology is basically a 'tensor gradiometer', which is a device that can measure minute changes in magnetic field gradients. It uses three independent rotating sensors, which use high-temperature superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) to monitor the magnetic field gradient.
In theory, the system means that pilots whose aircraft are fitted with MAGSAFE detectors will be able to measure the range, depth and bearing of a submarine, how fast it is going and if it is diving - all from one flyby.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/07/2005 08:47 ||
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#1
The new diesel subs that Iran and China are buying up are tiny, quiet,..
Probably because when these subs are submerged, they aren't likely to be using diesel power. Of course, a battery won't last forever without having to be charged up sooner or later...
#4
Don't see why not, Iblis. Sure, the pressure hull is titanium, but all the rest of thing (heat ex, turbines, piping, second hull, bulkheads) is steel.
Plus, if we retain the passive sonar, they are plenty loud. Multiple sensors are the way to go.
I have to wonder how effective D-E subs are. Sure, if they are in place, they are very quiet and can get in a good targetting shot. But, they have to move to the target location. That pretty much involves surface (or snorkel) travel over anything more than a few dozen miles. They might be useful in defense (Taiwan straits, Persian Gulf) if pre-positioned before we have a chance to establish air supremacy. Once we have an operating CV group in a area, though, and control the seas and air for 200 miles in all directions, I don't see how one of those guys can get close enough to do any damage.
But all I know is what I read in the Naval Institute publications (and Rantburg, of course).
MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish judge wants to question three U.S. soldiers as suspects in the death of a Spanish cameraman who was killed when a U.S. tank fired on a hotel housing foreign journalists during the 2003 assault on Baghdad.
The Pentagon has found no fault with the soldiers, but High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz wants to question the three men who were in the tank, a court official said on Tuesday.
Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso and Reuters cameraman Taras Protsiuk died and several other people were injured by a shell fired on the Palestine Hotel in the Iraqi capital on April 8, 2003, in the U.S.-led war to topple Saddam Hussein.
The Spanish court would only have jurisdiction in the death of the Spanish citizen.
The soldiers would be questioned as suspects for murder and for crimes against the international community, which carry sentences of 15 to years in jail and 10 to 15 years respectively.
Pedraz on Tuesday agreed to send a request for U.S. cooperation in the investigation, but he is still only in the initial stages of the criminal investigation and several steps away from bringing charges.
Pedraz's investigation stems from a complaint brought by the Couso family.
Legal sources say the U.S. Army is unlikely to grant access to the soldiers, and if the case ever got far enough to warrant arrests the soldiers could only be arrested in Spain.
The judge is willing to travel to the United States to take their statements, the court official said.
A Pentagon report on the incident concluded U.S.-led forces bore "no fault or negligence."
The Pentagon released a brief summary of the report in August 2003, which ruled that American forces acted "in an appropriate manner" when they fired into the hotel, but the full report was classified.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists obtained the 52-page report under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and said it strengthened its own finding that the hotel shelling could have been avoided.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman had no immediate comment.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/07/2005 10:29 ||
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#1
Sure it could have been avoided. The journalists could have stayed home. Or we could have left Saddam in power so the journalists could continue to avoid reporting on his sadistic abuses and the threat he posed.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 10:34 Comments ||
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#2
If the journalists stop working with the people trying to kill our troops, this wouldn't happen. Sorry 'ol chum, but you get killed when you with people trying to kill our boys. They shoot back. Accurately.
#4
Here we go again with the Palestine Hotel incident. The TC who ordered the gunner to fire has already been awarded the Bronze Star, so I doubt this is going anywhere.
Two other European journalists were killed a couple of days before the Palestine hotel incident. Since it was an Iraqi rocket that killed them, no inquiry has ever been suggested, AFAIK..
Posted by: Matt ||
06/07/2005 10:48 Comments ||
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#8
Rummy should tell them to come to Manila Bay to collect them for questioning.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/07/2005 11:08 Comments ||
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#9
What's Spanish for "fuck YOU"?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/07/2005 11:53 Comments ||
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#10
Hmmm almost more effort than they expended tracing the links of the madrid train bombers. Why aren't they attacking radical Islamism with the same zeal?
#11
"Pedraz's investigation stems from a complaint brought by the Couso family." Should have added: "Expecting a BIG payout by the U.S." Nice to see the Spanish legal system is full of idiots just like ours.
#14
Barbara, the proper Castilian for that is "Jodete" (HO-day-tay), but a good "tu mama" would always work, especially when accompanied by the proper hand gestures.
#15
Blondie - if the hand gestures are anything like the Italian ones, I've got those down pat. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/07/2005 15:19 Comments ||
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#16
"Tu mama" is perhaps, Mexican, but not Spanish. In Spanish the big classics are "Tu puta madre" or "Me cago en tu madre". Often they are combined en "Me cago en tu puta madre". I will not translate because this is a family blog :-)
Pronounciation:
"u" as in 'cool' not as in 'cute'
"e" as in 'pen' not as in 'me'
"a" as in 'man' not as in 'mace'
"o" as in 'Bond, James Bond' not as in 'bow'
All the multisyllab words in the sentence have the tonic accent on the next to last syllab, putting it in the last syllab would make the gut believe you are French. :)
#21
I would not blame the judge too much, he is probably forced by Spanish law to investigate the death of Spanish citizens after a complaint had been filed.
#22
That's all very well, TGA, but this is why Bush refuses to join the ICC. The U.S. Army investigated an accusation of misconduct against some of its troops, found no fault attached, and closed the case. Spain has no jurisdiction. And, especially, no right to demand a couple of American scapegoats to keep the noisy crowds content when they demand bread and circuses.
#23
I don't think the Spanish want to go there. In response, why not set up an inquiry to assign blame and compensation for Spanish complicity in the Sept. 11 atrocity. Wasn't Spain the logistics hub for al Qaeda and plans for the attacks finalized there? I can easily see $100+ billion in compensation.
Posted by: ed ||
06/08/2005 0:01 Comments ||
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EFL: Poland dealt a fresh blow to the European Union's wounded constitution on Tuesday, saying it may delay a planned referendum despite efforts by France, which voted against the charter first, to keep the treaty alive. Aleksander Kwasniewski, president of the bloc's largest new member, said he might put off the vote from his favored October date if next week's EU summit took no decision on the fate of the constitution.
Poland should not set a date until the bloc had discussed the crisis caused by the rejection of the charter by French and Dutch voters, he told public radio in an interview, noting Britain had just shelved plans to hold its own referendum. Kwasniewski raised the prospect that EU leaders might either decide on June 16-17 to call a pause in ratification, or fail to agree on any joint way forward. "(At the summit) we may decide to give ourselves a few months and meet (again) when we are better prepared," he said. "A lack of a decision is also a decision."
Opinion polls in countries such as Denmark, Poland and even Luxembourg, which plan to hold referendums, have shown a sharp swing toward the "No" camp since the French and Dutch results, threatening more governments with a humiliating defeat.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/07/2005 09:26 ||
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#1
What? The constitution isn't dead yet? Finish it off already!
#7
This is just a guess (though, knowing the Eunicrats, an educated one), but I'll take what's behind Door #4, Alex TGA. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/07/2005 18:45 Comments ||
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#8
You win a free copy, Barbara... sorry, postage not included :-)
In the German version it's over 800 words... English is just a bit shorter and don't ask me about the French...
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan departed early Tuesday for a visit to the United States aimed at further repairing ties strained after Turkey refused to allow U.S. troops in during the Iraqi invasion. During Erdogan's planned meeting Wednesday with President Bush, the Turkish leader said he also would bring up the increasingly bloody fight against Iraqi-based Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey. "The relationship between Turkey and the United States is based ... on mutual respect and strategic partnership," Erdogan said before departing. "No doubt, Turkey is the insurance of welfare and stability in the region and it will continue to do its best to contribute to security in the region."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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"No doubt, Turkey is the insurance of welfare and stability in the region... blah blah fucking blah..."
Um, scuse me Mr Yippie, but I have doubts. I call bullshit, in fact. You're worthless - no worse than worthless. You've shafted your country beyond belief, for pipedreams, for Islamic whatever, for a pat on the head from Chriac's EU, for a pocketful of mumbles, for nothing. You aren't worth warm spit as an ally and you're too pathetic to be an enemy. Why don't you go ahead and shoot yourself? Nothing will happen as long as you're around. When you're gone, we take a look at whomever fills the vacuum to see if he has the sense and gumption you lack.
"I am speaking for tens of millions, and maybe more, around the world, who know the truth about Iraq. Who know that the real criminals are in Washington. Not in the United Nations. The real criminals are in the White House, not in the Elysee Palace. The real criminals are in the Congress, not in the anti-war movement. So I have no respect for this...
"This is one of the reasons why we need Al-Jazeera in English, so that we can reach the people who, if you can reach them, you can win their hearts. They are not bad people. The American people are not bad or evil people. But they are ruled by bad people. "Bush, and Blair, and the prime minister of Japan, and Berlusconi, these people are criminals, and they are responsible for mass murder in the world, for the war, and for the occupation, through their support for Israel, and through their support for a globalized capitalist economic system, which is the biggest killer the world has ever known. It has killed far more people than Adolph Hitler. It has killed far more people than George Bush. The economic system which these people support, which leaves most of the people in the world hungry, and without clean water to drink. So we're going to put them on trial, the leaders, when they come. They think they're coming for a holiday in a beautiful country called Scotland; in fact, they're coming to their trial... Much more at link.
#3
The Galloway screed certainly ties in with Sea's post today (The Journalism of Warfare) - which rocked, BTW. The thing that fired me up to write this is the self-aggrandizing claim "I am speaking for tens of millions, and maybe more, around the world..."
I'm sorry, and please forgive my pedantic nature - I'm talking to myself to clarify things as much as to you folks - but reading something like this give me serious pause, given the source. It's one thing to hear some tribal PakiWaki, who actually knows nothing beyond his tiny world of incestuous insanity, spout this sort of nonsense. It's quite another for someone who obviously knows better, such as Galloway - I simply do not accept that he doesn't.
One, Qazi for instance, is indoctrination, pure and simple, lifelong, total, complete. That it is irrational is apparent only to those outside of the societal bubble in which it lives - due to the totalitarian doctrine of its dominant ideology: Islam. It can't be fixed in any way I can see. Total indoctrination is an unforgiving approach. One aspect is that this creature hasn't the spare capacity left to step outside itself - so any possibility of perspective is lost - and that is all that saves mankind from ruin, from my reading of history. Left to itself, it can obviously last almost indefinitely - as it has demonstrated - because the rate of killing and mayhem is puny and outstripped by the rate of reproduction. But it hasn't been left to itself - it has acquired external technology which doesn't just suggest, it guarantees, its eventual demise. AK-47's, hand grenades, etc. won't push it over the top, however, but the nukes certainly can. That they have nukes means they will use them. Mad, in this bubble, just means insane, not M.A.D. On whom will they use them, themselves or others, only matters to those others - who would surely retaliate in kind. The tech is definitely a world-ender. What remains for them is whether or not they take others down with them.
The other, Galloway and his ilk, is something else entirely. This creature demonstrates a combination of determined and willful insanity, creation of a pandering occupation - with star status it seems, and very selective irrationality / reality denial - added together these form a cocktail of demented political schizophrenia and unbelievable delusion. I'm convinced it knows its insane. I'm also convinced it is allowed to exist in this insane state because the uber-liberal society which spawned it has lost sight of why it (the society) exists.
The a priori requirements for individual survival are now a given - at least for the vast majority - which allows this critter to become insane, safely, suffering no repercussions, no penalties, no strictures. So safe is this societal bubble, there is a segment which has metasticized into a cancerous tumor which seeks the destruction of that very same society. The number of ironies that attach are vast.
The question of how this society survives begs the question of whether it should survive. The natural evolutionary model says, obviously, "No" - this branch of the tree will not and should not survive. Dead end. A societal box canyon worthy of its pending extinction. This self-destructive model is the modern equivalent of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, on the face of it. And no, I'm not inviting a shitload of wank-o-matic Roman Empire debate, lol! The here and now is more than sufficient, thanks, and possibly more than we can handle.
How many Western societal bubbles out there are infected, fatally, with this disease? Well, from Sea's article and simple observation, it's clear that most or all have some degree. It's equally clear that all of those, barring successful "treatment" (read: able to self-repair by destroying such tumors) are, and should be, doomed. Darwin & Co do not favor the irrational, the reality-deniers - eventually, even given the huge layer of social padding and the web of safety nets, they will run afoul of the odds and disintegrate. Some think this is just social entropy -- perhaps, but it is deadly to man's puny constructs and matters to those who live within it.
The tipping point, for the Western uber-liberal society model that spawns Moonbats such as Galloway, is here. That was clearly demonstrated by how close the last two US Presidential elections were -- not to mention the current socialism fatally embraced by the Europeans and others. I'm sure there are plenty of other signs that can be included here, too.
All this crap generates two questions which occupy much of my time these days:
1) Are we are sufficiently independent, as a society, to survive the fall of others (e.g. the Europeans) without being dragged down as well? I am not involving the economics, security, etc, in this question... Keeping it simple: are we Americans capable of maintaining our own vision of freedom to survive the fall of our siblings?
2) Are we capable of self-repair / self-correction? Unsimplified, do we have the stones to actually fight and destroy the internal self-destructive insanity demanded for our survival? This is no idle melodramatic question, nor is the solution easy or pretty - but the equation is, indeed, simple. The powers that seek our downfall are deadly serious - and we must be equally serious or fall. Civil war is as likely as not, IMHO.
A "No" answer to either means that Galloway, et al, have reached sufficient mass right under our noses while we were fat, happy, and dumb - and will take us down with them. Should that time come, I will take many of them with me. I'd like to start with Galloway, but will settle for Linda Ronstadt or Michael Moore if they're in town.
#4
I sure wish you'd quit with the mealy-mouthing and say WTF you really think. Damn
:-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2005 19:53 Comments ||
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#5
Galloway is not a moonbat
He's an antisemitic traitor paid by one of the bloodiest dictators of the last 50 years.
Elected by a district predominantly Muslim.
What ever happened to hanging, drawing and quartering?
#6
TGA, I obviously agree with your sentiment, but I maintain that he is of a type - and they are well and truly insane. And I do not mean he needs some sort of psych treatment - I pointed out it's conscious, voluntary, and, therefore, culpable.
He needs to feel the sharp pointy end of truth and justice... as do those of his type and ilk. All of them. Every last swinging dick.
But I have no strong opinions on the subject, of course.
;-)
#8
TGA - I think I hear a "law enforcement" view in your comment. That Galloway is a traitor, etc., from that POV. I want to work on that for a second, if you're still around...
This is something I've been struggling with since 9/11 and have finally concluded that these insane people have culpability for their state of mind. Finding a suitable charge, such as violating hate laws or sedition, etc. struck me as a losing proposition. If they successfully keep this ideological war framed as a law enforcement issue, then we've lost. The socialists, for example, know it and are the loudest voices for "tolerance" when it suits them - then they are anything but tolerant in their own actions - such as demonizing any public figure who doesn't toe their line.
Even their vote for one of their own - an equally or ideally insane candidate for a position of power - represents an offense to the sane people of the world. I imagined what the situation would have been had Gore won in 2000. I let that stew for awhile and decided that they are dangerous enough that the ruleset we currently play by (i.e. law enforcement) is rigged in their favor. Sure it's due to duplicity, disinformation, MSM collaboration, etc., but that doesn't change the equation or the outcome.
They fight for an ideology - so I've decided they're right in that one respect - and I should fight for mine.
Do you really have a law enforcement view of the situation?
I wonder about how you deal with the insane people of German politics with whom you obviously must interact. Don't the Greens (for example - assuming they have a similar agenda to America's Greens - a Naderist form of socialism) get you riled up?
#9
.com, in Galloway's case I have a very short view:
Galloway has, not just as a British citizen, but as a Member of Parliament worked against his country on behalf of a foreign dictator and was (allegedly) paid for his services, If payments can be proven, this is clearly treason. I know the word "treason" is out of fashion these days but that's what it is in my opinion. Galloway even continued his agitation after the war had started, undermining (unsuccessfully I hope) the morale of the British troops and giving aid and comfort to the enemy. And that's NOT covered by free speech. Even if payments can't be proven, it is treason, just as the acts of Hanoi Jane (who in my view should have served time for what she did (her case is absolutely clear cut).
Galloway's argument that he was entitled to do so because the war was "illegal" can't stand.
The war was not illegal at all. The war (and unfortunately that was not stated clearly enough by the US administration at that time) started with UN resolution 678 in 1991, that authorized "all necessary means" to liberate Kuwait. This is how this war started, fully legal even by the most critical UN standards.
The war never ended, the only thing that happened was a ceasefire, which had its conditions laid out in UN resolution 686 (destruction of WMD etc). These conditions were never met by Saddam and violated again and again. We didn't have to "prove" anything, Saddam had to prove that he destroyed his WMDs. He never did. It's irrelevant whether he actually destroyed them or buried them in Syria, he misled us by claiming feebly that he did not have weapons without proving his case and jeopardizing the efforts of inspectors to make sure.
This is why the US had every right to resume the war. The UN had confirmed that those violations took place, in the famous 1441. That they didn't settle on the "all necessary means" this time is irrelevant, because 678 was still valid (and the UN had affirmed that it was in fact valid).
Clinton could bomb Baghdad in 1998 (clearly an act of war) when Saddam threw out the inspectors without even asking the UN, he was covered by 678. Bush could have gone to war (or better resume the war) without even asking the UN again.
That's my view and while not being a lawyer I do have quite a knowledge of international law.
#10
No arguments with any of what you said. Indeed, it was merely a ceasefire - and then a long series of UNSC resolutions were also ignored. The fact that the inspectors who would not have gotten back in, had it not been for the buildup of forces in the gulf, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, is one of those inconvenient facts that only the bloggers seem to recall.
I think the slide into a new bona-fide ideological war has begun - less focused than the struggle against the Soviets, but no less critical. I guess it's not a slide, but a continuation. Just as ousting the Taliban didn't end the war with the Islamists, the crumbling of the Soviet Union didn't end the fight against the "isms" they represented.
Having seen the utter failure of the "winning hearts and minds" approach, at least as promulgated and applied in Vietnam - and that I believe these folks are willfully insane, thus immune to such civility, I guess I disagree. That was why I wrote all that shit - and what made the process painful and the conclusion an unhappy one. Hell, I went through the same sort of process regards Islam - and hate where that ends, as well.
Okay - tell you what - I'll see you on the other side, when the nice law enforcement approach to both of them has crashed and burned, lol!
#14
The one term you use in your argument with which I disagree is "insane." Galloway is not insane. He is quite sane, but has deliberately and consciously chosen evil. As far as I can tell, he believes that his comfortable English world is so safe that it doesn't matter that he helps those working to destroy it. Much like those French aristos who sided with the Revolutionaries, and were shocked to find themselves lined up under Madame la Guillotine, their world destroyed and their heads about to follow. In the case of Galloway, et al, they haven't even the excuse of ignorance -- just look at the behaviour of the Palestinians in the Territories and outlying camps (Ein el Hellhole, anyone?), the Taliban, or life in Pakistan these days. Just as very few who supported the Nazi extermination program were insane or those who aid the attempted genocide of non-Arabs in Sudan today, but all chose evil, whether for reasons of ideology, cowardice or personal ambition -- it doesn't matter.
BOSTON -- On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres. Then they let him into the United States.
The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton's kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.
Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect because of a history of violence between him and his neighbors, and he was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month.
At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country?
I'm html challenged, so until somebody posts it, click on the link to get a look at this beauty.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/07/2005 18:31 ||
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What? Yes! Finally! Pleases please please, black and white glossies only, tastefully done of course.
#6
As long as he declared them, the see nothing wrong with that.
On a more serious note, what were the Customs agents' major malfunction? Are they so politically sensitive that they would let into this country a man, who if seen on any street, would cause women and children to run away screaming? Here is a Customs Agency entrance exam question: A bugged out crazy guy walks (I assume) up to the border with weapons, a bloody chainsaw, and bloodstained clothes. What do you do?
A. Arrest him and call the Canadian authorities.
B. Refuse him entry.
C. Wave him through and show him the map of the nearest elementary school.
He should have been arrested for the cowlick haircut alone.
Posted by: ed ||
06/07/2005 20:24 Comments ||
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#7
The sad thing is that reading about them letting him through didn't surprise me at all.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/07/2005 22:46 Comments ||
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Medical staff checked 16 crew members from HMCS Toronto for smoke inhalation Tuesday morning after a fire broke out the previous evening on the frigate as it sat docked in Halifax.
Five other sailors were taken to hospital Monday night after breathing in smoke but were released Tuesday morning, a navy spokesman said.
Cmdr. Chris Henderson said the military takes a cautious approach with smoke inhalation injuries following two other fires aboard vessels over the past year, including the fatal blaze on the submarine HMCS Chicoutimi which led to the death of one officer.
The fire aboard HMCS Toronto started in the forward auxiliary machinery room at 7:10 p.m. local time. Crew, personnel from three other ships and a fire tug all joined in to battle the blaze, which took 45 minutes to put out.
The cause of the fire is being investigated. It is not yet known the extent of the damage.
HMCS Toronto was built in Saint John, N.B., and commissioned by the navy in 1993. The 134-metre warship has taken part in a number of operations, including enforcing embargoes of the former Yugoslavia and Iraq.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 11:39 ||
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ATLANTA - Former President Carter on Tuesday called for the United States to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison to demonstrate its commitment to human rights.
"The U.S. continues to suffer terrible embarrassment and a blow to our reputation ... because of reports concerning abuses of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo," Carter said after a two-day human rights conference at his Atlanta center.
Such reports have surfaced despite President Bush's "bold reminder that America is determined to promote freedom and democracy around the world," Carter said.
About 540 detainees are being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with a crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo Bay in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the al-Qaida terrorist network.
Carter said the United States needs to make sure no detainees are held incommunicado and that all are told the charges against them.
Despite his criticism of Guantanamo Bay, Carter said Amnesty International should not have called the prison "the gulag of our time" in a report last month. President Bush has termed the report by the human-rights group "absurd."
Carter said the alleged abuses at Guantanamo Bay could never compare with the forced labor camps operated by the former Soviet Union.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
06/07/2005 20:07 ||
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#7
Jimmuh, go visit that nutjob you put into power in Venezuela. Ask HIM to open his prisons. Then Visit your buddy Fidel. WHen Fidel lets his peopel go, we'll be glad to ship the jihadists over there to him for HIM to free (with the conditiont hat they go to YOUR place to live)
#8
If Jimmy dies and his casket rides down the road to the Capitol Building, you won't see any crowds unless they're holding "This is Bush fault" signs.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/07/2005 23:27 Comments ||
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The author, the sister of one of the 9/11 (non-terrorist) pilots, points out how the far left is coopting Ground Zero. It's powerful stuff and very well written. I hope my fellow RBers can help make a big enough stink that this PC crapola is nowhere near Ground Zero. Anybody know any NYC firefighters who can raise a stink about this? The ones that I know are dead, killed on 9/11.
Posted by: Tibor ||
06/07/2005 18:18 ||
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The political left realizes that in their perceived postmodern world there is no History, no Veritas, only competing discourses. Control the discourse and one controls the "truth".
Raymond Ritzau is sitting in the Rocky Bottom bar in the Washington DC suburb of Bethesda, and nervously stirring his drink.
"Of course I am scared," says the 23-year-old who, despite being from Landshut, Germany, looks like many young Americans with his brush cut and his blue football jersey. Ritzau is troubled because, day by day, his mission is Iraq is coming closer: as a soldier in the US National Guard, he will have to fight in Mesopotamia in three weeks.
According to the Pentagon, he is one of more than 32,000 foreigners serving in the US military. They make up 1.2 percent of the US forces, and are mostly Latinos. For the majority of them, the longing for adventure or patriotic feelings for the United States are less important when they sign up than the advantages they are promised, which include having university tuition fees paid by the military and, most importantly, US citizenship.
"I wouldn't have been able to afford it," Ritzau says of his business studies course at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland. "Get your degree tuition free," advertises Maryland's National Guard for new recruits. That sounded very attractive to Ritzau, and now the National Guard is paying his tuition of about USD 1,500 (EUR 1,190) per semester at the community college.
According to Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Ellen Krenke, the foreigners serving in the US military come from almost 190 countries around the world, and nearly 6,400 foreign soldiers in US uniforms are currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Seventy foreigners have already died in the wars and insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mexicans have seen the highest toll, with 25 having died in combat. With about 3,500 soldiers, Mexicans constitute the second-largest group of foreign nationals in the US military and are outnumbered only by 5,600 Filipinos.
"As a foreigner, you get exactly the same treatment," says Ritzau when asked about differences between foreigners and US nationals in the military. "I am already quite Americanised," he adds.
Ritzau came to the United States in 1999 with his father and brother. His father married a woman from the United States, and all three got a 'green card', a permanent residence and work permit, but none has citizenship yet. That might change for the 23-year-old after his service in Iraq.
Ritzau was recruited by the National Guard in August 2001 - one month before the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. One month after those attacks, the United States was at war in Afghanistan and the Iraq invasion followed 17 months later.
"I knew that I would possibly have to go to war," he says.
At the beginning, everything was pretty easy in the Guard, Ritzau says, more like a student's job than the army: one weekend of training per month and two weeks of military exercises in the summer.
But since December, Ritzau has known that his infantry unit was going to Iraq. After the autumn semester ended just before Christmas, he had to take a break from college. For the past four months, he has gone through intense military training in the states of Georgia and California to prepare for the deployment. He and his comrades have trained in how to set up checkpoints, raid buildings and go on patrol.
"You can never really prepare yourself for a war," he admits. "It will always be a little different from what you expect."
But unlike many of his countrymen, Ritzau says the war in Iraq was right:
"I think, since we [the US military] went to Iraq, many things have turned out well. I think that overall it was a good idea."
"I am proud to go to [Iraq] under this flag," he adds.
But for his fear, there is no cure. "When I lie in bed at night, I dream of the war," he says.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 11:03 ||
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But for his fear, there is no cure. "When I lie in bed at night, I dream of the war," he says.
Somehow, I have this suspicion that the apprehension he's feeling was inspired by none other than the Media and their frequent tales of Iraqi doom.
#2
That's the Rock Bottom Brewery, and the beer and food there are pretty good. Didn't know I could get a new SS# there. Thought I had to go to Pakistan for that.
...
Maybe we should have Rantapalooza there. Beer and fake ID's all around!
#3
somehow i suspect serving in the military will be very good training for citizenship. They'll learn english fluently, if they dont already know it, will be socially assimilated by their fellow american soldiers, will learn initiative, ability to follow orders, etc, etc. Plenty of worse ways to get new citizens.
#4
At least Mr Ritzau is fulfilling his obligation. That's more than you can say for losers like Pablo Paredes.....and this guy isn't even a citizen (yet).
#5
I certainly have more respect for Raymond than I do for the jackoff at expatica.com who came up with the obviously prejudicial title. He's smart, aware, and normal. I am happy he's here. I may go sponsor him with Operation AC when he ships out. Such worthy people make America worthy, thanks, bro.
#6
"When I lie in bed at night, I dream of the war,"
And yet, he will go. Only fools have no fear.
But what he is doing? Thats the true mark of a man. A true example of courage. Someone that I will be very glad to have as a fellow citizen and fellow veteran.
I'm putting this in WOT Background because fake identities have been and will be used against us.
Gerardo Luviano is looking for somebody to rent his Social Security number.
Mr. Luviano, 39, obtained legal residence in the United States almost 20 years ago. But these days, back in Mexico, teaching beekeeping at the local high school in this hot, dusty town in the southwestern part of the country, Mr. Luviano is not using his Social Security number. So he is looking for an illegal immigrant in the United States to use it for him - providing a little cash along the way.
Skip to next paragraph
Janet Jarman for The New York Times
Spurred by the chance to make extra money, Gerardo Luviano lent his Social Security number to his brother's friend. "I kept almost all the income tax refund," he said.
"I've almost managed to contact somebody to lend my number to," Mr. Luviano said. "My brother in California has a friend who has crops and has people that need one."
Mr. Luviano's pending transaction is merely a blip in a shadowy yet vibrant underground market. Virtually undetected by American authorities, operating below the radar in immigrant communities from coast to coast, a secondary trade in identities has emerged straddling both sides of the Mexico-United States border.
"It is seen as a normal thing to do," said Luis Magaña, an immigrant-rights activist assisting farm workers in the agriculture-rich San Joaquin Valley of California.
The number of people participating in the illegal deals is impossible to determine accurately. But it is clearly significant, flourishing despite efforts to combat identity fraud.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants who cross the border from Mexico illegally each year need to procure a legal identity that will allow them to work in the United States. Many legal immigrants, whether living in the United States or back in Mexico, are happy to provide them: as they pad their earnings by letting illegal immigrants work under their name and number, they also enhance their own unemployment and pension benefits. And sometimes they charge for the favor.
Martin Mora, a former migrant to the United States who these days is a local politician preparing to run for a seat in the state legislature in next October's elections, said that in just one town in the Tlalchapa municipality, "of about 1,000 that fixed their papers in the United States there might be 50 that are here and lending their number."
Demand for American identities has blossomed in the cracks between the nation's increasingly unwelcoming immigration laws and businesses' unremitting demand for low-wage labor.
In 1986, when the Immigration Reform and Control Act started penalizing employers who knowingly hired illegal immigrants, most employers started requiring immigrants to provide the paperwork - including a Social Security number - to prove their eligibility to work.
The new law did not stop unauthorized immigrant work. An estimated 10 million illegal immigrants live in the United States today, up from some 4 million before the law went into effect. But it did create a thriving market for fake documents.
These days, most immigrants working unlawfully buy a document combo for $100 to $200 that includes a fake green card and fake Social Security card with a nine-digit number plucked out of thin air. "They'll make it for you right there at the flea market," said David Blanco, an illegal immigrant from Costa Rica who works as an auto mechanic in Stockton, Calif.
This process has one big drawback, however. Each year, Social Security receives millions of W-2 earning statements with names or numbers that do not match its records. Nine million poured in for 2002, many of them just simple mistakes. In response the agency sends hundreds of thousands of letters asking employers to correct the information. These letters can provoke the firing of the offending worker.
Working with a name linked to a number recognized by Social Security - even if it is just borrowed or leased - avoids these pitfalls. "It's the safest way," said Mario Avalos, a Stockton accountant who every year does tax returns for dozens of illegal immigrants. "If you are going to work in a company with strict requirements, you know they won't let you in without good papers."
long article, much more at the link
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 08:56 ||
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#2
Every instance of "SSN renting" like the above that is found should result in the individual providing the number being stripped of all his/her residency privileges and deported if applicable, any monies accumulated to be forfeited, and the persons doing the "renting" to be rounded up and deported, no ifs ands or buts. These games have gone on long enough.
#4
While we're on the subject, isn't doing taxes for illegals with phony ID's and SS numbers illegal? For christ's sake !(Por Dios! for our friends from below the border) When the hell are we going to get tough on this? I saw the construction business ruined over these guys over about an 8yr period, they will be coming to an industry near you. Their kids can go to college for free on student aid and get in state tuition, so nobody is safe in the next 20yrs.
#5
If you read the article, at the end Mr Luviano got torked that his social security number was used "to get stuff he didn't want and didn't pay for."
That's one identity theft "victim" I really don't feel sorry for.....
Shut down Gitmo, top Democrat urges U.S. WASHINGTON -- A leading Senate asshatDemocrat said Sunday that the United States should shut down the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "We need good jobs in Delaware for prison guards and lawyers. We could unionize them too and get some good Democrats along with their money", added Biden, a known plagiarizer.
"This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Sunday on ABC's "This Week"with Democratic Party talking points" "The second best method is showing them close-ups of my hair", added the Senator.
"More Americans are in jeopardy as a consequence of the perception that exists worldwide with its existence," said Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Of course, the fact that the MSM and Democratic party has been undermining our national resolve to persecute this war to victory and have brayed to the world about how eeeevil the US is, they would us.
Biden also proposed an independent commission to investigate abuses at the prison camp. "Jamie Gorelick is available"
For once, just once, in your sorry pathetic worthless pointless apologist limpdick I-never-produced-anything-I-just-sucked-the-public-tit life do the right thing: lean into the strike-zone and take one for the team. Kill yourself. Do it today.
One of the FBI's most wanted fugitives was captured in El Cajon yesterday after she was profiled on "America's Most Wanted" the night before.
Authorities arrested 34-year-old Malaika Griffin at 5 p.m. yesterday in connection with the 1999 killing of her neighbor in Colorado, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She was arrested at her home on Roanoke Street near Tres Lomas in El Cajon.
The FBI started getting tips about Griffin soon after her story aired Saturday night on the popular TV program, which profiles fugitives and asks for help tracking them down.
Griffin was working at a local biotechnology firm under a fake name, according to FBI spokeswoman Jan Caldwell, who said the suspect had graduated top in her class with a chemistry degree from Jackson State University in Mississippi. "The trail had grown cold although 'America's Most Wanted' had profiled her numerous times," Caldwell said. Authorities figured she had left the country, according to the TV show's Web site.
It was unknown how Griffin had been living locally but the FBI found she had been working in two fast-food restaurants in East County in addition to her laboratory job.
In 1999, Griffin was working at a Denver pharmacy and renting a room in a house next door to 25-year-old Jason Horsley. In May of that year, Horsley was on the sidewalk in front of his house organizing his carpentry tools when authorities said Griffin came out and started yelling at him, prompting Horsley's girlfriend to come out. The two women argued intensely, authorities told "America's Most Wanted," then both stalked back into their respective homes.
Witnesses later told authorities that Griffin came out with a 9 mm gun equipped with a laser sight and fired one shot into Horsley's back at point-blank range, piercing his heart and killing him instantly. She then carjacked a friend's car, which was later found abandoned in Iowa. Denver authorities found a cache of weapons inside Griffin's room, including an assault rifle and grenades, according to "America's Most Wanted." They also found terrorist literature about a coming race war and journals in Griffin's handwriting about killing white people, according to the program. Now I feel Oppressed!
Griffin was booked into Las Colinas Jail on murder charges, officials said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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She'd be a perfect fit for the San Diego City COuncil.
#2
Heh, Pappy, absolutely agreed. In fact, she'd be a fit for every City Council in the US where the city population exceeds, say, 500,000. Look around, the racists and moonbats have gravitated to such circle-jerk power centers. That's why the "big cities" went Blue - they're owned and overrun by the likes of Griffin. And, consequently, they're dysfunctional, racist, pandering agitprop machines. It's not much of a stretch to compare Houston, Atlanta, and other "city govts" to the PA for sheer worthlessness, corruption, and agenda insanity.
#3
...I saw this one on AMW Saturday night, and she seemed to have been every bit as helter-skelter as she was made out to be. Unfortunately, I have a feeling the '400 years of opression' defense is going to play a starring role in the whole thing.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/07/2005 7:26 Comments ||
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[June 06 2005] at 1535 UTC in position 02:23N - 046:07E, off Mogadishu, Somalia. Three pirates armed with automatic guns in a white speedboat opened fire on a bulk carrier underway. USS Gonzalez , a US naval ship in the area responded to a distress call from the master and came close to assist. USS Gonzalez fired parachute flares and directed searchlights to illuminate the area and escorted the bulk carrier to a safer location away from Somali coast. No injuries to crew but gunfire by pirates caused 10 bullet holes on starboard side near bridge.
[June 01 2005] at 2000 LT in position 04:15N - 100:18E, off Pangkor Island, Malacca Straits. Eight pirates armed with automatic guns and long knives fired warning shots at a tanker underway. They boarded and kidnapped master and boatswain and left in a fishing boat with ship's documents. 2nd Officer navigated the tanker safely to a port. Pirates have demanded ransom for releasing the crew. Further news is awaited.
[May 31 2005] at 0230 LT, deep water anchorage "A", 10nm south of Basra oil terminal, Iraq. Pirates armed with AK47 rifles boarded a tanker awaiting berthing. They tried to enter bridge claiming to be policemen. Master denied them entry and pirates became violent and broke glass panels on bridge wing door and entered bridge. They assaulted the master causing him injuries and demanded money. They entered master's cabin and located the safe and stole cash and personal belongings. They dragged the master and tried to take him to main deck and left at 0240. Master sent a mayday message and activated SSAS and moved to deep water anchorage "B". Later a coalition warship arrived to investigate.
[May 22 2005] at 1500 LT, at posn 03:42N 48:16E, Eastern coast, Somalia. Pirates boarded and hijacked a general cargo ship underway. They beat up the 21 crewmembers and locked them in a room. Pirates have demanded ransom for releasing the ship and the crew. Further news is awaited.
There's a legal problem with merchant ships using weapons, even in self defense. By international law, the use of weapons then classes the merchant vessel as a warship, with all the legal baggage that entails.
That's why some ships are escorted through the Malacca Straits by a separate escort vessel, and not by an armed onboard detachment. If one thinks Malaysia goes nuts over an escort vessel, imagine what would happen if they found an armed detachment aboard a ship, or that weapons had been fired at pirates in their territorial waters. Ship owners don't want to go through that kind of headache.
Leading industrial countries are to consider tax breaks for large oil companies to stimulate refining capacity and reduce the risk of shortages. The plan follows International Monetary Fund warnings on the lack of spare refinery capacity and is expected to form part of the agenda for the Group of Eight meeting in Scotland next month, according to a senior energy official familiar with the proposal. However, as lobby groups gear up to press for a G8 commitment to global poverty relief and with oil companies earning record profits, the prospect of providing tax breaks is likely to run into political opposition. It is also likely to draw criticism from environmental groups.
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Oil prices have risen to nominal highs this year as refineries neared their limits, prompting calls from the International Energy Agency, the industrial countries' energy watchdog, for increased investment.
The shortage of capacity is most acute in the US, which imports about 15 per cent of its petroleum supplies about 20m barrels a day.
On Monday oil prices rose to a six-week high of $55.50 a barrel after supply problems at two US refineries, signs of strongerChinese demand and a sharp increase in Saudi Arabia's official selling prices.
Kevin Norrish, of Barclays Capital, said: ?gChinese oil demand is very strong at present, underpinned by the need to meet peak power demand in the summer months . . . this will also seedistillate demand climb steeply over the coming weeks.?h Chinese refineries are operating near full capacity, industry executives said. Most refineries to be built over the next five years are in Asia particularly China and the Middle East.
The draft refinery plan aims to use tax incentives and planning concessions to help overcome oil companies' reluctance to invest in new plants in the US and western Europe after two decades of low returns and large losses.
It has been 30 years since a new refinery was built in the US or western Europe. IEA figures show refineries now operate at 95 per cent of capacity, up from 75 per cent two decades ago.
Refinery revenues have helped provide bumper profits for oil companies over the past year. Margins are more than $10 a barrel in the US. Chakib Khelil, Algeria's energy minister, said: ?gRefineries are producing at full capacity. This will multiply the risk of accidents, which could obviously have an impact on prices.?h
?¡ International oil companies must learn to contend with the resurgent power of the state after a decade in which markets were thought to rule, a report by Royal Dutch/Shell, the energy company, said on Monday, outlining the challenges of the next 15 years.
Shell reports during the 1990s reflected the prevailing view that global market forces would erode the power of the state, leaving international companies largely to regulate themselves.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 10:36 ||
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G8 looks to boost oil refining capacity
Make that G7. The U.S. has too many NIMBYs in it to even consider any sort of refinery expansion or construction.
The instructive case of Ahmed Hikmat Shakir. Reg. required. Posting in full.
It's good to see that Amnesty International has had to backtrack from its comparison of Guantanamo Bay to the Soviet "gulag." Less than two weeks after making that analogy, Amnesty's U.S. boss issued what amounted to a full retraction on "Fox News Sunday" this weekend.
"Clearly, this is not an exact or a literal analogy," said William Schulz. "In size and in duration, there are not similarities between U.S. detention facilities and the gulag. . . . People are not being starved in those facilities. They're not being subjected to forced labor." Thanks for clearing that up.
And what about Mr. Schulz's description of Donald Rumsfeld and others as "apparent high-level architects of torture" who ought to be arrested and prosecuted? He was asked by host Chris Wallace, "Do you have any evidence whatsoever that he ever approved beating of prisoners, ever approved starving of prisoners, the kinds of things we normally think of as torture?" Mr. Schulz's response: "It would be fascinating to find out. I have no idea . . ."
In other words, Mr. Rumsfeld and the other U.S. officials Mr. Schulz maligned could probably now win a libel suit in many jurisdictions, were they inclined to press the issue. Natan Sharanksy--a man who actually spent time as a Soviet political prisoner--described Amnesty's gulag analogy as "typical, unfortunately," for a group that refuses to distinguish "between democracies where there are sometimes serious violations of human rights and dictatorships where no human rights exist at all."
But before leaving this episode, we'd like to remind readers of the case of Ahmed Hikmat Shakir. On November 19, 2001, Amnesty issued one of its "URGENT ACTION" reports on his behalf: "Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of Iraqi citizen Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, who is being held by the Jordanian General Intelligence Department. . . . He is held incommunicado detention and is at risk of torture or ill-treatment." Pressure from Amnesty and Saddam Hussein's Iraq worked; Mr. Shakir was released and hasn't been seen since.
Mr. Shakir is believed to be an al Qaeda operative who abetted the USS Cole bombing and 9/11 plots, among others. Along with 9/11 hijackers Khalid al Midhar and Nawaf al Hazmi, he was present at the January 2000 al Qaeda summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was working there as an airport "greeter"--a job obtained for him by the Iraqi embassy. When he was arrested in Qatar not long after 9/11, he had telephone numbers for the safe houses of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers. He was inexplicably released by the Qataris and promptly arrested again in Jordan as he attempted to return to Iraq.
There remains a dispute about whether this is the same Ahmed Hikmat Shakir that records discovered after the Iraq war list as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Saddam Fedayeen--the 9/11 Commission believes these are two different people--and whether Mr. Shakir thus represents an Iraqi government connection to 9/11. But there is no doubt that the Hussein regime, whatever its reasons, was eager to have the al Qaeda Shakir return to Iraq. It was aided and abetted to this end by Amnesty International.
We don't recount this story to suggest Amnesty was actively in league with Saddam. But it shows that, even after 9/11, Amnesty still didn't think terrorism was a big deal. In its eagerness to suggest that every detainee with a Muslim name is some kind of political prisoner, and by extension to smear America and its allies, Amnesty has given the concept of "aid and comfort" to the enemy an all-too-literal meaning.
One of South East Asia's most wanted Islamic militants used Australian dollars to fund the deadly bombing of Canberra's embassy in the Indonesian capital last year, a witness told a court. Ahmad Hasan, a witness in the trial of one of the key suspects and himself a defendant, said Malaysian fugitive Noordin M Top had given him $A9,700 for the bombing. "On the operational funds for the Australian embassy bombing, the funds were given by Khalid, alias Noordin M Top. Khalid ordered me in Surabaya to change $A9,700 to rupiah and we got 63 million rupiah," Hasan, also known as Purnomo, said in testimony.
It was not clear where the money came from or why it was in Australian dollars. Hasan said another Malaysian, Azahari bin Husin, accused by police of masterminding the blast that killed 10 people on September 9, ordered him and the defendant on trial, identified as Rois, to scout out the embassy site and drive the explosives-laden van into Jakarta. Azahari also gave them explosives to blow themselves up if they were caught, Hasan said. "The Australian embassy always helps Indonesia too much against terrorists and to capture the holy fighters," he said.
Azahari and Top are still at large. They are accused of being important members of Jemaah Islamiah, a South East Asian group seen as al-Qaeda's regional arm. The one-tonne bomb detonated just before the driver reached the embassy gate. It ripped open the blast-proof fence of the embassy and badly damaged many buildings in the area. Hassan said that those who died - all of whom were Indonesians - did so because of "Allah's will".
The dead were either passers-by, people queuing up to enter the heavily fortified mission or security guards. "When we talked about the bombing afterwards, we never felt any remorse," Hassan told the South Jakarta District Court.
Police have arrested six suspects in the attack, which was blamed on Jemaah Islamiah, the regional terror group officials say received funding from al-Qaeda. Three are already facing trial. Indonesian police said they believed Azahari was hiding on the outskirts of Jakarta. Security forces are on high alert for a fresh bombing following a US warning militants may be planning to attack hotels.
This article starring:
AHMED HASAN
Jemaah Islamiyah
AZAHARI BIN HUSIN
Jemaah Islamiyah
NURDIN M TOP
Jemaah Islamiyah
Jemaah Islamiah
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 15:25 ||
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Malaysia's government on Monday warned the fundamentalist Islamic opposition to act responsibly and not cause divisions among the nation's Muslims after it vowed to reform itself under new leadership. "It's too early to tell in terms of what the new PAS leadership will do," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said after last week's annual congress of the Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) which saw veteran party members turfed out. "I hope they will be responsible and not do something that will divide Muslims or use excessive methods which touch on faith," he told reporters.
PAS has foundered since its satisfyingly humiliating election defeat in 2004 general elections which slashed its presence in parliament from 27 seats to five and lost it the former heartland of Terengganu state. The new guard ushered in last week has urged the party to halt its alienating rhetoric and make itself more attractive to Malaysia's Chinese and Indian communities so that it can become a viable alternative government. In a sign of the times, Nasharuddin Mat Isa, the party's moderate and western-educated secretary-general, beat incumbent fundamentalist cleric Hassan Shukri for the post of deputy president, the top position up for grabs in the leadership elections.
Najib, from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which leads the ruling coalition, said PAS's hardline approach had been comprehensively rejected in multicultural Malaysia. People continue to have confidence in UMNO because of "its moderate and progressive policies, which are based on Muslim principles," he said. Muslim Malays make up some 60 percent of Malaysia's 25 million population, with Chinese accounting for 25 percent and Indians 7.5 percent.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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It's alright to divide the nm and the m - because unity of the Ummahs is deemed of utmost importance. Everytime they call for internal muslim unity it means just another "us and 'em", divissiveness for sheer power for its own sake!
A senior U.S. senator said on Monday he had no doubt Syria was behind the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri, according to intelligence he had seen. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, made the comments to reporters after meeting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on a variety of issues and offering him support. "I have seen enough of the evidence on Hariri to know that they (Syrians) were behind it," Leahy said without elaborating. "I don't think there is a single person in Lebanon and probably no one in Syria who doesn't believe they were behind it. There is no question -- no question in my mind -- that they were behind the assassination." Syria has denied involvement in the killing.
Brilliant. I kind of had this little teeny, tiny suspicion of Syrian involvement when he and Jumblatt were warned of anticipated assassination attempts prior to the boom.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Someone should Photoshop his mug onto the "Master of the Obvious" graphic...
Maybe it's the more charitable in me, but must we really be so ... uncharitable? I doubt few will remember in weeks, much less years, whence the reference.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
06/07/2005 3:18 Comments ||
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IMO it's a GOOD thing when a senior Dem. comes out and says Syria is a serious menace in the region. For one thing, we have him on record on this ... and if we end up going over the border to relieve Assad of the burden of governing, this will be one piece of the justification.
Posted by: too true ||
06/07/2005 9:34 Comments ||
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tt - I recall a whole pantheon of Dhimmidonks who publicly echoed the belief that Saddam had WMD's and was a menace to the entire world. Yet what has the meme been? That the MSM and the Dhimmidonks have kept mum about that, yet printed and speechified consistently that Bush was unjustified in attacking Saddam, despite their statements and his proper reliance on Tenet's CIA being something more than a collection of incompetent, axe-grinding, seditious boobs who told him it was a "slam dunk", indicates to me that this uber-asshole (and his MSM buddies) will conveniently forget, should that become expedient.
Only the blogosphere seems to have a memory for those inconvenient moments and, indeed, you're certainly right about us: we won't forget. ;-)
The pro-Syrian Hezbollah coalition claimed yesterday it had a clear mandate to keep its weapons in defiance of international calls for disarmament after winning round two of Lebanon's elections by a landslide. The Hezbollah and the rival Amal, campaigning on a pledge to keep up armed resistance against Israel, won all 23 seats in southern Lebanon in Sunday's vote, Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa said.
The disarmament issue could prove to be a headache for the government that emerges after the elections, with a UN resolution last year sponsored by France and the United States calling for all militias to be stripped of their weapons. In the first parliamentary poll since Syria was forced by intense global pressure to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April, the two groups maintained their grip on the volatile southern region still intermittently rocked by border clashes with Israel. "The south has declared, clearly and before international observers, its backing for the resistance as a path for the past, present and future," said Amal's influential chief Nabih Berri, also Lebanon's parliamentary speaker. "Even the rival candidates are resistance fighters," he said at a press conference, rejecting calls for the disarming of Lebanon's "resistance."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Okay, they want something to resist? Give it to them...
A top Iranian official denied allegations that leading terror suspects are hiding out in his country, saying Monday that Iran has arrested nearly 5,000 al-Qaida operatives over the past three years and handed them over to their home countries,
Which ones?
Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's primary security decision-making body, also said Iran had given the names of the detainees to the United Nations.
Okay, Kofi. Time to disgorge. Get 'em off the hook...
"I don't think any country could claim superiority over us (in combatting al-Qaida)," he told reporters on a visit to Kuwait. U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies have recently said that mounting evidence gathered over several years has them increasingly convinced that leading terror suspects have been living in Iran. Rowhani denied those allegations, saying his country has been cooperating in combatting terrorism and received praised from international bodies. Iran first said in mid-2003 that it had detained and deported hundreds of al-Qaida suspects and kept some in custody. He said a number of al-Qaida operatives are jailed in Iran for crimes they committed against national security there, but added that those in custody were not wanted internationally. U.S. officials have said Iran refuses to identify the al-Qaida operatives that are still in its custody.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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I like the overall sound of this. That this makes print means they feel the need to publically wank. Makes me believe that they are aware of a need to do so.
A top U.N. envoy was instructed Monday to travel to Syria "as soon as possible" to see President Bashar Al-Assad about Lebanon, but U.N. officials would not say why the mission was deemed urgent.
I'd guess they're back-channeling over the evidence that Syria was involved in Hariri's death. Scapegoat probably being prepared even as we speak blog...
The announcement that Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked Terje Roed-Larsen to travel to Damascus came three days after the United States said it would like the U.N. Security Council to expand an international inquiry into former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri's assassination to include the killing of an anti-Syrian journalist. Roed-Larsen stepped down as Annan's top U.N. Mideast envoy last year, but agreed to become his special envoy for implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, which was adopted in October and called for Syria to withdraw all military forces and intelligence operatives. It also called for disarmament of all Lebanese militias.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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U.N. officials would not say why the mission was deemed urgent.
They're closing their favorite restaurant in Damascus maybe?
Lebanon's staunchly pro-Syrian president said he intends to remain in office, rejecting opposition demands for him to step down in the wake of the slaying of an anti-Syrian journalist.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it."
The anti-Syrian opposition stepped up calls for President Emile Lahoud's resignation after journalist Samir Kassir was killed last week by a bomb that destroyed his car. The opposition blamed Damascus, along with the president and pro-Syrian elements in the Lebanese security services, for Kassir's death. The opposition had planned a march Monday but postponed the demonstration Sunday until parliamentary elections are over. Lahoud, who has condemned the killing of Kassir, lashed out at the accusations against him Sunday, saying the attacks were "political campaigning par excellence, part of electioneering whose perpetrators know no limits."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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The Bush administration, rebuffing the suggestions of some European officials, will continue to refuse to have contact with the militant group Hamas and its leaders even if some of those leaders win elections in Palestinian areas, a senior administration official said Monday.
The official said that a ban on contacts with Hamas was required because the group was listed by the United States as a terrorist organization, and that the United States would not follow a practice of some European countries of engaging with the group's political wing even if it also had an armed wing carrying out attacks on civilians.
"The president has said that Hamas is on the terrorism list, and it's there for a reason," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We don't recognize that you have changed your behavior just because a group is running candidates as well as suicide bombers."
The official's comments were significant in light of Mr. Bush's outspoken support for democracy in the Middle East, particularly in Palestinian areas, where Hamas has considerable political strength and is challenging the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader.
Hamas won several recent local elections in the West Bank and Gaza, and it is expected to make a strong showing against Mr. Abbas's faction, Fatah, in coming parliamentary elections. Mr. Abbas announced Sunday that he would postpone those elections, which had been scheduled for July 17, prompting protests by Hamas.
Some in the Bush administration had expressed concern in private about the possibility of Hamas's winning the parliamentary elections, especially if such a victory meant that the United States and Israel might have to engage with Hamas officials in carrying out the planned disengagement of Israeli forces and settlers from Gaza, starting in August.
A senior Israeli official recently said Israel feared that Gaza would become "Hamastan," effectively a militant state that would sponsor attacks on Israelis and make impossible any further Israeli withdrawals from parts of the West Bank.
In some ways, administration officials say, the stance on Hamas recalls the quandary for the administration over the militant group Hezbollah, a Shiite party based in Lebanon that is also believed to support attacks on Israelis.
The United States has been unable to get Europe to label Hezbollah a terrorist organization and to cut off contacts. European countries argue that a better strategy would be to encourage Hezbollah to enter the political mainstream. The senior administration official said there were signs in the last few days that Palestinian-Israeli talks on turning over infrastructure to the Palestinians in Gaza and parts of the West Bank were proceeding at a better pace than previously. Over all, he said, the disengagement talks between the sides had achieved mixed results.
Israel's release of 400 prisoners last week improved the mood among Palestinians, this official said, adding that various intermediaries would be shuttling back and forth to the region to push the process along.
James D. Wolfensohn, the former president of the World Bank, is in the Middle East this week, and officials say that two American envoys, Elliott Abrams of the White House and David Welch of the State Department, would be going to the region soon. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to go to the area later this month to put more pressure on Israelis and Palestinians to work with each other on the disengagement.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 15:24 ||
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EU: "C'mon, give them a break! They're just energetic boyz without enough to do. Who can blame them for killing Jooos? Haven't we all?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2005 18:18 Comments ||
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Some were baby-faced teenagers too young to grow facial hair. Others said they were snatched from their families and forced to work for Afghanistan's Taliban. The stories of the youngest detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, chart their journeys from childhood in the villages of Afghanistan to U.S. custody, according to military tribunal transcripts obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information lawsuit. Guantanamo officials released three Afghan boys ages 13 to 15 last year, but the transcripts of the hearings to determine whether prisoners were correctly classified as "enemy combatants" verify they weren't the only teenagers at the prison camp.
Although the U.S. government blacked out most ages from the documents, some remained, including the story of an 18-year-old who said he had been at Guantanamo for two years.
The teenager was accused of firing at U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He denied it and described how the Taliban had arrested him.
"My infant cousin was born. We had a party. We were playing the drums. We were having fun. When they came they broke the tapes, they broke the drums, they took me to jail, they beat me with a cable then they put salt in it - my wounds," he told the tribunal.
In many parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban regime prohibited music and dancing, imposing a strict form of Islam. They also forced children into religious schools to study the Quran.
Another young prisoner accused of links to an al-Qaida (website - news) explosives cell said the Taliban came to his village and forced people to work or undergo training.
"At that time I had no beard or facial hair. They told me I was too young to go to war," the detainee testified. "They wanted to train me and then work with them."
The Taliban sent him to a technical school where he received two days of training, but he said "When I returned home after the second day, my mother told me not to go back to the Taliban school because I had no father or older brothers."
The prisoner said he hid from the Taliban each day so he didn't have to go to school. The Taliban stopped looking for him after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, but he was then captured by the Americans, who he claimed abused him.
"They put a knife to my throat, tied my hands and put sandbags on my arms," he said. "At the airport in Khost I was walked around all night with the sandbags on my arms."
He said he was interrogated at the U.S. base at Bagram "and punishment increased."
"I was very young at that time, so whatever they said, I agreed to," he said. "I never admitted to being an associate of an al-Qaida explosive cell leader and when I came to Cuba I gave them the true story."
Shortly after the prison camp at Guantanamo opened in January 2002, human rights groups protested the capture and imprisonment of detainees under 18.
Guantanamo is no longer holding anyone 18 or under, said Lt. Cmdr. Chris Lounderman, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, which oversees the camp. It was unclear whether any 19-year-olds are held, or how many teenagers have been at Guantanamo.
Some 34 of about 550 prisoners have been ordered released since the tribunals ended in January. But the U.S. government doesn't publicly provide reasons for freeing detainees so it's unclear whether being forced to join the Taliban would have affected any cases.
The United States defines an enemy combatant as someone who was part of or supported the Taliban or the al-Qaida terror network. That classification provides fewer legal protections than prisoner of war status under the Geneva Conventions.
The tribunal transcripts appear to validate claims of forced Taliban recruitment.
One prisoner is asked to respond to an allegation he conscripted young men for the Taliban by grabbing them off the street. The man said after the Taliban lost 8,000 men in fighting in 1998, "they started forcing young men and boys into service."
"They would go to each village and request 100 recruits from the tribal elders," the prisoner said. "The tribal elders were forced to provide these young men, otherwise the village would be burned. All of the people in the village obeyed the tribal elders, and gave up their men as required to serve four months."
Prisoners, young and old, alleged they were abused during interrogations to force confessions, according to some 3,900 pages of tribunal transcripts reviewed by AP.
Tribunal members are supposed to send abuse allegations to the Joint Task Force running the detention mission, which forwards them to U.S. Southern Command for investigation.
Lounderman, the spokesman at U.S. Southern Command, said Tuesday it wasn't immediately clear how many abuse allegations had been tallied in the tribunals.
Fresh allegations of abuse in documents recently turned over to AP included:
- A prisoner who claimed two U.S. teams of interrogators beat him.
"In Bagram, when the investigators were interrogating me, when I told them I went there to trade and I went there to study, they hit me they tortured me," he testified. "They said, "you are a liar" and they kept hitting me and tortured me. ... They were torturing us with electricity and they made us walk on sharp objects. They hit us a lot, and because of the pain we just said anything."
- Another prisoner said he was refused medical treatment in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.
"I had metal sticking out of my leg and they would not clean the wound," he said. "They would not give me treatment so I told them whatever they wanted to hear. They just wanted anything. Any information. I just told them anything - whatever they wanted to hear because I wanted them to treat my leg. I saw other people mere whose legs hag to be cut off. I did not want my leg to be cut off."
- Another prisoner said he reported his alleged abuse to officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the only independent group with access to the prisoners in Afghanistan and Guantanamo.
"In Kandahar, they took all my clothes and the American soldiers hit me and kept me tied up in the rain for three hours," he said. "My hands and feet were tied so tight that I couldn't move my hands for a month and I couldn't move my feet for two weeks."
At Guantanamo, the prisoner claimed the abuse continued: "When I got off the airplane, the soldiers hit us. They had us shackled and had our eyes covered. They took off my clothes by the shower. The Red Cross asked them about my head wound. In the first month of detention in Cuba, the soldiers would hit me before bringing me to the interrogator."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 15:01 ||
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Afghan investigators believe last week's suicide attack on a mosque was part of a plot that included an attempt to shoot down a plane by militants bent on creating maximum shock and dismay ahead of national elections.
A mosque in the southern city of Kandahar was bombed on Wednesday during the funeral of an anti-Taliban cleric, shot dead three days earlier. Twenty people were killed including the chief of the capital's police force.
The blast and the cleric's murder were directly linked and they in turn were believed to be related to other attacks on the same day, said presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin.
"We also know that a rocket was fired on a military plane of the coalition forces," he told a news conference.
"We think that all of these were in fact related ... part of a single plot aimed at creating maximum shock among the people," he said.
"It's only logical to assume that the enemies of Afghanistan -- the remnants of the Taliban, al Qaeda elements with links to circles outside the country -- would have chosen this time to set a plot in motion," he said, referring to the September poll.
A wave of violence preceded last year's presidential election but it was brought under control before polling day through collaboration between Afghan and foreign forces in the country and Afghanistan's neighbours, Ludin said.
"We believe that a similar surge of violence may be related to the parliamentary elections.
"It may be also linked to the fact that a strengthening peace process is ongoing," he said, referring to government attempts to persuade Taliban fighters to give up.
"The enemies of Afghanistan may be deeply worried about that."
Afghan and U.S. officials have long said Taliban and other militants are able to operate from the safety of the Pakistani side of their rugged border and they partly attribute last year's peaceful vote to a concerted Pakistani effort to seal the border.
While he did not refer to Pakistan by name, Ludin said Afghanistan was again relying on its neighbours to help ensure a peaceful election.
"We expect that our neighbouring countries will also collaborate with us on this as they did with the presidential election," he said.
"Without their collaboration it may not be possible for us to have a secure election."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 14:57 ||
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Afghan security officials in the troubled south say Taliban guerrillas are finished as a threat on the battlefield but they will be able to stage ambushes and bomb blasts for some time yet.
The Taliban insurgency flared this spring after a lull over the snowbound winter, disappointing many in the government and international community who thought the rebels had been mortally starved of resources and recruits.
But in Kandahar, one of the provinces where the insurgents have been most active, officials said that, despite the recent violence, the Taliban were now a nuisance, not a military threat.
"The Taliban have lost the ability to confront us face to face," General Muslim Amid, army commander for several southern provinces including Kandahar, told Reuters in an interview.
Nearly 150 insurgents have been killed in clashes since March, according to U.S and Afghan figures. Dozens of government security men and 10 U.S. soldiers have also died in fighting.
There have also been several bombs in cities, including Kabul and Kandahar.
A suicide bomber killed 20 people in a Kandahar mosque last week as mourners paid respects to a murdered anti-Taliban cleric. The Taliban and their militant allies have been blamed.
Amid said the insurgents could still carry out small but deadly strikes.
"They can manage to plant mines and carry out small-scale attacks or ambushes, but I can say that their backbone has been broken," he said in the interview late on Monday.
The last major clash with Taliban and al Qaeda fighters took place last month in neighbouring Zabul province, he said.
Kandahar and Zabul were bastions of the Taliban regime until it was overthrown by U.S.-led forces in 2001 for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Amid said the Taliban were getting outside help which would keep them alive for some time.
"They receive foreign aid, supplies and money. They have Arab, Chechen and Pakistani fighters in their ranks," he said.
A Kandahar police official also insisted the situation was improving.
"There are concerns among the people about worsening security but the overall situation compared with last year has improved," General Salim Khan said on Tuesday.
"But we can't remove the worries and concern from people's hearts. Of course, there have been and will be small-scale attacks, planting of mines and blasts, but it has to be said these won't impact overall security."
But a Kandahar politician, the brother of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai, was less optimistic. "The situation is bad in several districts," said Ahmad Wali Karzai, the president's political envoy in the south.
"Security forces lack facilities, they have no fuel or vehicles, no salaries. Our demand of the government is to boost the security forces ... otherwise this insecurity will spread."
The Taliban were getting funds from opium traffickers, Amid said, adding that much of the violence was perpetrated by bandits and drug-runners.
Amid said his troops and U.S.-led forces would now concentrate on security for Sept. 18 parliamentary elections.
Taliban and their allies vowed to derail a presidential election last October and killed several election workers in the run-up but polling passed off smoothly.
There would be attempts to spoil the parliamentary vote but Amid said they would fail.
"There are challenges ahead but the Taliban do not have the ability to disrupt the election."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 14:55 ||
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When travelling, wear jeans and carry a walkman - try not to look like an Islamic fundamentalist - and for precise instructions on how to link up with Iraqi groups "contact the Salafite jihadist exponents in your own countries". These are just some of the travel tips and suggestions provided on an Islamist internet site for potential al-Qaeda recruits from various Arab and Western countries who have signalled their desire to go to Iraq to fight against the American troops.
"The route to Iraq for mujahadeen who want to reach the country of two rivers" is the title of a message that appears on a prominent Islamic internet forum often used by the al-Qaeda network. "To reach Iraq, you will need detailed instructions," notes the message, signed by "Doctor Islam", "not just on how to get to the country, but on how to enter one of the mujahadeen groups there."
The instruction booklet begins with the recruiting phase, which is normally used by Salafite imams in Arabic or Western countries. "The Salafite Jihadists are spread throughout various countries. Many are under surveillance or hunted by the police, but despite this they manage to send zealous young people to Iraq. They [the recruiters] are not far away but among us, though you will need Allah's help to reach them, as on making contact, we could be accused of terrorism."
The instructions confirm the crucial role of fundamentalist Imams in recruiting aspiring guerrillas for the Jihad in Iraq, but technology also plays a part. "Some of these Salafite mujahadeen participate in our forums" the message says, "and if they do not post many messages it is because they are involved and being hunted by the tyrants".
According to the report, there is the risk of fraudsters even in the recruitment of Islamist terrorists, people who take advantage of the passion of aspiring jihadists to rob them. "Brother, beware of the lies that you find on forums, of those who say they know the way of the Jihad and ask for money. Never give them cash unless they are trusted people in whom you have great faith".
After contacting the mediator via the Internet or through Salafite imams, the would-be guerrillas, bearing a letter of introduction and the exact details of the armed unit they will join, must physically get to Iraq running as few risks as possible. The only route seems to be via Syria, it notes.
"These Salafite jihadists send small groups to Iraq through Syrian territory, but be aware of the Syrian regime which has begun to make entering and leaving the country more difficult. Enter Syria through Turkey, but you will need the help of people who know the procedure," it advises.
The text also warns of potential dangers and what to do if encountered: it is possible that you may be arrested by the Syrian forces. This is most likely to happen if you are not organised, as the Syrian regime tends to turn a blind eye to mujahadeen who use secondary roads or who make their way to Iraq passing only through border towns."
For the journey, the internet forum encourages recruits to wear jeans and carry a walkman with a pop music cassette, so as not to look like a fundamentalist. They are also warned not to inform their families or friends about their plans.
"The organisation of al-Qaeda in Iraq is the group that, more than any other, welcomes mujahadeen and has links with the al-Qaeda cells present in all Arab countries and many other foreign nations," the message concludes.
It is not the first time that messages have appeared on such sites with indications on how to get to Iraq and join up with a terrorist cell, but the latest message is more detailed and possibly a response to enquiries by a growing number of aspiring suicide bombers or terrorists.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 14:53 ||
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#1
and don't forget to take your visa. because al qaeda doesn't take american express.
#2
Sounds like alot of trouble and expense to go to iraq and get manhandled or killed by U.S. Marines.
I'm sure if you give us a couple of years, we'll be coming to a country near you.
A Sunni Arab politician claimed on Tuesday that two insurgent groups were ready to open talks with the government and eventually lay down their arms and join the political process.
The disclosure by Ayham al-Samarie was the first time any Iraqi politician has publicly acknowledged contacting Iraq's militants. It also opened a new front in ongoing efforts to counter the Sunni-dominated insurgency wracking much of Iraq since 2003. They came at a time of growing complaints by Sunni Arab groups that counterinsurgency operations by US-backed Iraqi forces are unjustly targeting innocent members of the community.
It was not possible to independently verify al-Samarie's claims and the government would not comment on them.
A senior Shiite legislator, Hummam Hammoudi, said last week that Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's government has opened indirect channels of communication with some insurgent groups, exchanging messages through intermediaries to convince them to lay down their arms.
Al-Samarie, a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology who has a dual US-Iraqi citizenship, said the two groups were the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Army of Mujahedeen, or holy warriors. He said he had not met any of their field commanders but began contacting their political leaders about five months ago. He did not name them.
Speaking to The Associated Press in an interview, he said the two factions represented more than 50 percent of the "resistance," the term used by many in Iraq to exclude militant groups working with Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi of Al Qaeda in Iraq and others who target civilians as well as Iraq's security forces.
The Islamic Army in Iraq has claimed responsibility for several attacks and is believed to be responsible for the kidnapping and slaying of several of the more than 200 foreigners taken hostage over the past 18 months. Little has been heard from the Mujahedeen Army in recent months, but it claimed responsibility for scores of attacks in 2003 and early last year.
Al-Samarie, a former electricity minister in Iraq's two former postwar interim governments, said there was no agreement for the two groups to lay down their weapons or declare a cease-fire, but that a truce with a limited duration could possibly be arranged to prove their goodwill after talks get underway.
"We told them that no one knows what you want. You say you want the occupier to leave Iraq but what do you want after that? You must have a political agenda. You must come out to the political arena and make clear what you want'," said al-Samarie.
"They set no conditions and we agreed with them that the time has come for them to come out," he added, but would not disclose who else was involved. Al-Samarie also announced the news about the two groups on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite TV station, saying their representatives would be part of an umbrella group he is forming.
Several Sunni Arab organizations and political groups, like the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, have long been suspected of having links with the insurgency.
"The new thing here is that the resistance has decided to come out in person rather than have others speaking on its behalf," said al-Samarie, who spoke at his home in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood.
He said he had run the idea of bringing insurgency factions into the political fold past several US officials during a visit to Washington last month.
He claimed to have discussed it with National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and senior State Department official Richard Jones, who served as a deputy to Iraq's former US governor L. Paul Bremmer. He said he was encouraged by their reaction.
"The Americans are very practical. They don't want the loss in Iraq of their sons and daughters to continue," said al-Samarie. "I don't think we will have a problem with the multinational force either," he said, alluding to the US-dominated, 160,000-strong multinational force in Iraq.
He said he had sometime ago informally told members of al-Jaafari's Shiite-dominated government of his intentions to contact the insurgents.
"I have received various reactions from them, but none were too strong," he said. There has been no public reaction from the government to his announcement on al-Arabiya.
"I think they'll bless this move. The government must take this initiative seriously and start talking to these brothers (from the insurgency) to solve Iraq's problems," he said, adding that the government was divided over whether contacts should be made with insurgents.
Laith Kuba, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, declined to comment on the report, saying he only became aware of it through the media.
A spokesman for the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the largest Shiite political party and a key part of the governing alliance, would only say that his party was prepared to talk to any group - except terrorists and remnants of Saddam's regime.
He said representatives of the two insurgency groups would attend a meeting of his new umbrella group later this month in restive Anbar province, and that he planned to ask Iraqi and US military authorities to guarantee their safety.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 14:45 ||
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There have been six plots to kill President Musharraf since March 2002, says a report in the latest edition of Pakistani magazine, the Herald. Quoting army investigators, the report says there may also have been other "ill-planned attempts" by militant leaders who are now dead or in custody. Some of the attempts were thwarted by tight security or because parades the president was to attend were cancelled. Gen Musharraf survived twin attacks in December 2003 in which 17 people died.
The main planners included Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national convicted for the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl on 31 January, 2004, the Herald report says. Investigators also point to a possible link with Abu Faraj al-Libbi, an al-Qaeda suspect of Libyan origin arrested in Pakistan on 4 May this year.
The network established by these masterminds may have penetrated the lower cadres of the army, investigators say. Nine people - of whom eight, including a woman, are civilians - are currently facing trial for their suspected involvement in these attempts. Two of the nine suspects - Rashid Qureshi and Arshad Mahmood - preached jihad (holy war) to serving soldiers more than once within the garrison limits in Rawalpindi, says the report. The two are also reported to have urged a group of eight soldiers at the Special Services Group camp in Abbotabad, north of the capital, Islamabad, to follow the fatwa (religious decree) of a Saudi cleric who wanted President Musharraf dead.
The magazine says details of the investigations into the attempts on President Musharraf's life were made available to it recently. According to these investigations, the first attempt on the president's life dates back to 2002, when a plan was hatched to attack the 23 March Pakistan Day parade with "kalashnikovs and grenades". The Herald says the conspiracy was planned in a meeting in Islamabad in October 2001 called by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Amjad Farooqi, head of Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Rashid Qureshi. The last named is the principal accused in an attempt on the life of Shaukat Aziz, now Pakistan prime minister, last August. Omar Saeed Sheikh is said to have handled the weapons and finances for the plan. Military investigators are quoted as saying that the meeting may have been attended by 20 people. This has led them to believe that the threat to the president's life has not been entirely eliminated. The alleged plan to attack the Pakistan Day parade was abandoned when the parade was cancelled as it coincided with the Shia festival of Muharram, the report says.
The next mission is said to have been planned as a suicide attack on 6 December, 2002, when the president was supposed to offer Eid prayers at the Faisal mosque in Islamabad. But the attackers failed to get close to the president because of strict security, investigators found. The third apparent attempt was planned for 23 March, 2003. This time, the Pakistan Day parade was to have been attacked by missiles. The Herald report says four missiles were brought to Rawalpindi for the purpose. But the parade was cancelled again - this time for security reasons. Subsequent plans were hatched by Amjad Farooqi, the report says, as Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh had been arrested in connection with the murder of Daniel Pearl. Another attempt failed because jamming devices preventing an explosives-laden car from blowing up in Karachi as the president's motorcade drove past it, the authorities said.
Such a sustained campaign by the jihadis, says the report, demonstrates their resolve to eliminate President Musharraf. It also reflects their ability to penetrate the armed forces using militants disguised as preachers. The extent of such infiltration remains as yet unclear and thus a source of continuing anxiety for the authorities, the report concludes.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 14:42 ||
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An Algerian group known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a weekend attack on a Mauritanian military barracks in which at least 15 soldiers were killed, some with their throats slit.
The authenticity of the document posted late on Monday, and available on www.jihad-algerie.com could not be validated and came after the Mauritanian government already had blamed the GSPC for the attack in a press conference on Sunday.
Since mid-March, President Maaouiya Ould Taya has carried out a series of arrests against people described as Islamic militants. Over thirty remain in detention.
However, local religious leaders and the Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis Group, say Ould Taya is using Western fears of Islamic fundamentalism and global terrorism as a pretext to muzzle his political opponents.
Though originally active only in Algeria, a crackdown by increasingly better-trained and equipped security forces at home has led GSPC and its members to become increasingly active across the borders.
In previous statements issued by the group, the GSPC has outlined its intention to fully participate in attacks against the United States and its partners.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 14:41 ||
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I wrote about the Muslim American Society in "The Islamic States of America?" and how it seeks to replace the Constitution with the Koran.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross takes this further today in "MAS's Muslim Brotherhood Problem," where he looks closely at the MAS Minnesota website and notes that it calls on members to fulfill their "duties as outlined in the Message of the Teachings by Imam [Hasan] Al-Banna." Gartenstein-Ross then takes a look at The Message of the Teachings and finds that it instructs Muslims that they must work on reforming their government
so that it may become a truly Islamic government. 
By Islamic government I mean a government whose officers are Muslims who perform the obligatory duties of Islam, who do not make public their disobedience, and who enforce the rules and teachings of Islam.
Al-Banna also instructs that Muslims should
"Completely boycott non-Islamic courts and judicial systems. Also, dissociate yourself from organisations, newspapers, committees, schools, and institutions which oppose your Islamic ideology." Al-Banna also condones in this book spreading Islam with violence: "Always intend to go for Jihad and desire martyrdom. Prepare for it as much as you can."
The universality of Islamic law comes up repeatedly. MAS requires adjunct members to read To Be a Muslim by Fathi Yakun, which states that:
"Until the nations of the world have functionally Islamic governments, every individual who is careless or lazy in working for Islam is sinful." Adjunct members also must read Sayyid Qutb's Milestones, which makes jihad a central obligation of Muslims.
Comment: Those of us who watch the growth of radical Islam in the United States tend to focus on the noisy organizations like CAIR, MPAC, and ISNA. The Muslim American Society, which claims 53 chapters and 10,000 members, tends to go about its work quietly; it is none the less dangerous — and perhaps more so — for that. (May 25, 2005)
There is a problem here: islamists are aggressively pursuing their agenda by every means at their disposal including diplomatically, through the courts, the media, using every function of our open society against us. HELP!
Latest also in Australia, spokesman for Sheikh el-Hilaly in Iraq negotiating for the release of the already-executed hostage Douglas Wood came out the other day saying "Australia's close ties with the US isn't helping Douglas Wood" - again grandstanding for the goals of islamism - to drive allies Australia and America apart. But nobody can say anything against them as then we are racist or redneck.
When are we gonna be able to call a spade a freakin' spade and do something about it???? Problem could be rectified quick and simple then
#1
People in this country are learning a little more about the goals of islam every day anon1, and the more they learn the less they like it. It may take another big event to get people out to the end of their ropes and ready to say "enough is enough". On that day I shall rejoice.
The Hague: The Sudanese Government says it will not accept the jurisdiction of a newly announced International Criminal Court investigation into war crimes in the Darfur region. The court announced on Monday that it was opening an investigation that might lead to indictments and warrants for those deemed most responsible for the ethnic violence and starvation that has ravaged hundreds of villages in Darfur.
But Khartoum, blamed by a United Nations inquiry for much of the violence, is already trying to delay legal action by using some of the safeguards built into the court's rules, such as insisting it is conducting its own inquiries and that it will hold its own trials.
The Government has recently hired lawyers from Britain and Kenya to advise it and to start domestic trials. "There are a number of things they can do," said a lawyer at the ICC. "Khartoum officials cannot stop the process but they can stall and buy time, even if eventually they will have to co-operate."
The UN Security Council requested in March that the ICC take up the atrocities in Darfur, where tens of thousands have been starved to death, raped and killed over the past two years. The court's prosecutors say that now they have taken jurisdiction, they hope to move quickly. The court's investigators have been working in the region for two months. They have interviewed diplomats and witnesses in refugee camps in Chad and also have aerial photographs documenting the destruction of villages.
When the ICC was set up by the Rome Treaty of 1998, a number of safeguards and restrictions were adopted. One is that prosecutors can act only after a government shows itself unwilling or unable to conduct credible trials in its own courts. If Sudan holds its own trials, international prosecutors will be forced to show that those trials were not credible. There will be further delays if they have to prove a cover-up or that officials are shielding crucial suspects.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/07/2005 10:51 ||
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The Pentagon is discussing war-strategy changes for defeating Islamic terrorists that would place more emphasis on killing, capturing or discouraging midlevel operators who enable top al Qaeda leadership to function.
Interviews the past week with Bush administration officials show that policy-makers are thinking the only way to ultimately win the war is to take down the lower-level operators who form the networks that support Osama bin Laden and scores of other al Qaeda lieutenants around the world.
President Bush, in assessing progress in the war, often cites the statistic that 75 percent of known al Qaeda leaders have been killed or captured. The strategy has been generally that if you cut off the head of al Qaeda, the body will eventually die.
But more than three years into the war on terrorism, some officials are leaning toward a new policy that would place just as much emphasis on taking foot soldiers off the street.
"DOD is pushing a strategy of going after the al Qaeda network," a well-placed administration official told The Washington Times. "Getting the leadership alone is not going to do it."
The source said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is "putting pressure on the system" to come up with new ideas, but has not endorsed a new plan.
One official, who asked not to be named, said the recent arrests of two American al Qaeda planners are examples of how the United States can methodically disable terrorist cells, leaving chieftains with few to carry out their orders.
Another change being discussed in an ongoing interagency review by the Pentagon, State Department, CIA and White House National Security Council is a strategy that emphasizes this is a war that targets Islamic extremism, not Islam itself.
"We have to convince Muslims that al Qaeda is their mutual enemy," said the administration official.
There is a belief by some officials that the phrase "war on terror" is not specific enough, said a second official.
And a third topic is finding new ways to discourage Muslim clerics from preaching hate and encouraging violence.
The Washington Post first reported last week that the Bush team is re-evaluating its anti-terror strategy. The Times subsequently conducted interviews to learn details of some of the ideas.
Officials told The Times there is some frustration at the review's slow pace. One called it a "complicated process" and blamed the National Security Council staff at the White House for delays in pushing all sides to agree.
"The Pentagon has been trying to overcome a lot of resistance," said the second Bush official. "Anytime they make their case, they get resistance."
That official said the Pentagon wants the intelligence community to put more emphasis on signal intercepts to identify al Qaeda foot soldiers.
The United States is essentially fighting a three-front war: Iraq, Afghanistan and the global theater.
U.S. Special Operations Command, based in Tampa, Fla., was designated by Mr. Rumsfeld in 2003 as the combatant command in charge of global counterterror operations. Socom has set up a relatively new structure, the Center for Special Operations, to do the battle planning.
Two defense sources said Socom has struggled to set up the battle-planning staff and coordinate with regional commands.
"Trust me," said one of the sources. "Changing from supporting to supported and getting cooperation from the regional commands have been difficult, at best." "Supported" refers to a command, such as U.S. Central Command, that plans and carries out its own missions. Until 2003, Socom was a "supporting" command, meaning it carried out missions dictated by others.
Said Col. Samuel T. Taylor, a command spokesman, "I disagree with anyone's assertion that Socom is struggling. A major transition, such as the one we are undergoing, requires extensive planning and coordination. ... We are moving forward in the right way, at an appropriately rapid pace."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 10:58 ||
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#1
place more emphasis on killing, capturing or discouraging midlevel operators...
#2
woo hoo! They've been listening to me!! Not that they know that.
This has always been what's wrong with the drug war and mafia fighting. The powers that be think that if they can catch the big fish, that it will all fall apart. While the conduct their stings, they allow the mid level fish to flourish and multiply. They prevent local law enforcement from shutting them down so they can eventually get to the big fish.
While it's not effective just hitting the little guy, it's clearly not effective going after the big guy either.
Jet Airways Ltd.'s plans to fly to the United States have run into hurdles after a US company accused the Indian firm of having links with al Qaeda, officials at the Indian airline said on Monday.
Jet said it was contemplating legal action against Jet Airways Inc., a Maryland-based company, for claiming the Indian company had links with the militant network through a Dubai-based, India-born underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim.
"We are consulting our lawyers in the US and in India to find out what legal actions need to be taken. The allegations are baseless and an attempt to besmirch the reputation of a renowned airline," Saroj Datta, Jet's executive director, told a news conference.
Jet Airways Inc. had alleged in a filing with the US department of transportation that allowing the Indian carrier to fly over US skies would constitute a national security threat, Datta said. "We have filed our replies to the charges and are waiting to hear from DOT further," he said.
A transportation department spokesman in Washington said the filings were being reviewed. "We cannot comment on thesubstance of a pending application," he said.
Efforts to reach Jet Airways Inc. for comment were not immediately successful. A woman answering the phone said no one was in the office and invited a reporter to leave a voice mail.
Jet Airways Inc. made its security-risk allegations in a May 23 filing with the US transportation agency objecting to the Indian airline's plans.
Jet Airways Ltd., India's biggest domestic air carrier, filed its reply on May 27, saying the security allegations were"sensational, unsupported, and offensive."
Jet Airways Ltd. was planning to launch its flight between Mumbai and Newark, New Jersey, on June 23. Datta said the launch could be delayed for a "few days" as it had yet to get all the necessary approvals. "Our target is to start the services as soon as possible. We don't think this allegation will have any bearing," he said.
Peter Luethi, Jet Airways Ltd.'s chief operating officer said the carrier could still start the US service on schedule if US authorities granted it necessary clearances.It has Indian government permission to operate sevenflights a week from Mumbai to Newark via Brussels.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey filed May 31 with the US transportation department saying it"enthusiastically supports" Jet Airways Ltd.'s application.
With a 43 percent share of the domestic market already, India's Jet Airways began flying to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur recently, and added a London service in May.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 10:48 ||
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#1
Jet Airways Ltd. was planning to launch its flight between Mumbai and Newark
A bloody conflict between two criminal syndicates — Seven Star and Five Star — to rule Dhaka's underworld has gained momentum with both factions out to put their opponents in trouble by informing the RAB and police of their location and movement.
Now we know where the RAB gets it's "secret information"
Disbanded due to the strong anti-crime drive, both the syndicates are now busy using their patrons in the corridors of power for ensuring their survival. The gangsters of each faction are desperate to see their rivals caught in the law enforcers' dragnet. The dons are either hiding in Bangladesh or staying in India, said sources in the underworld. 'They are passing on information about their rivals' hide-outs and movement to Rapid Action Battalion,' said an armed operative of the Five Star gang on Sunday.
Mentioning the arrest of Arman, the third most powerful figure in the Five Star gang, he said it would further weaken the gang and strengthen the position of their rivals in the Seven Star gang. 'The arrest of Arman is a big setback for the Five Star gangsters since they lost two fighters — Pichchi Hannan and Nitel — last year,' the operative, who was recently released from the Dhaka Central Jail, told New Age.
Hannan was killed in 'crossfire' by RAB on August 6 in Savar, and Nitel was found dead in Tejgaon, a day after the fierce gunfight between the battalion and Hannan's armed men in Uttara on June 25.
In the struggle over establishing supremacy in the underworld, the Seven Star gang is in a better position since it enjoys the blessings of some influential people, including a recently emerged figure in the ruling party. Under the leadership of the infamous Subtrata Bain, none of the 10 main members of the Seven Star gang could be nabbed or 'killed in crossfire' in the yearlong drive against criminals, due to the blessings of some powerful quarters.
The country's crime world was under the absolute control of Hemayetuddin Auranga till January 1991. He then controlled the whole city with the help of his two fellow gangsters, Musfiqur Rahman Hannan and Liakat Hossain Liakat. Auranga, who was once a Chhatra League cadre, fled to India after killing a member of an intelligence agency near Sakura Bar in 1981, and Hannan and Liakat were jailed for 45 years in different cases of murder, extortion and abduction.
In the absence of these three leading figures, Dhaka's criminals used to crowd the residence of a former Awami League leader on Elephant Road. They were locked in a conflict over personal enmity and for establishing supremacy. Many of them used to visit Hannan and Liakat in jail to remain in their good books. Auranga returned to Dhaka after the fall of Ershad in 1990. Hannan and Liakat were also released on bail and they tried to regroup again. But the criminals were already split into two groups led by Hannan and Liakat.
Police arrested Liakat in 1991 on the charge of murdering Dr Milan. Auranga supported Liakat as both came from Shariyatpur, conspired against Hannan and implicated him in the Moniruzzaman Badal murder case. Badal, central organising secretary of Chhatra League, was killed at Jagannath Hall in January 1992 because of a conspiracy hatched by Auranga. The conspiracy put Hannan in a false position and he decided to leave the crime world after his marriage in 1993. His gang members came under the leadership of Subrata Bain and Golam Rasul Sagar and clashed with the Auranga-backed Liakat syndicate.
Of the then Dhaka's criminals, Pichchi Hannan, Kala Jahangir, Arman, Jisan, Roni, Bikas, Prokas, Nitel, Alauddin, Killer Abbas, Aga Shamim, Kajal and Asru joined the Liakat faction, while Murgi Milon, Joy, Golam Rasul Sagar, Imam Hossain Imam, Molla Masud, Neuton, Joseph, Tanzil, Kochi, Tikka, Asif, Kala Liakat, Jarif, Natka Babu, Murad, Manik, Chanchal, Julu and John joined hands with Subrata. Due to personal enmity with Liakat, another notorious criminal, Sweden Aslam, supported Subrata and helped his gang to rise quickly. Serving life-term imprisonment for a murder, Aslam also helped to kill three criminals at Aga Masi Lane to clear the way for Subrata. Pichchi Shamim and Tokai Mizan, two criminals of Dhaka University, joined Liakat's gang.
As the two syndicates fought against each other to consolidate their position in the crime world, numerous gunfights took place in the city, leaving dozens of hardened criminals dead. Many were also killed because of infighting in the gangs.
The feud of the two crime syndicates was first revealed by a fierce gunfight at the Dhaka City Corporation in 2000 over controlling tender documents. The fight left Tokai Sagar, now staying in USA, injured by five bullets, and the conflict between the Seven Star and Five Star gangs reached its peak. Murgi Milon of Hatirpool was gunned down in the premises of the Dhaka Metropolitan Court in 2000. His rivals, Pichchi Hannan, Kala Jahangir and Dakat Shahid, opened fire on him, killing him on the spot.
Tikka played a vital role for Subrata until he fell prey of Liakat and Arman who hatched a conspiracy and conducted a raid along with Detective Branch personnel in Kalapani of Mirpur and caught Tikka. They tortured and finally killed him by mixing poison with saline in September 2001. Tikka's family then filed a murder case against Liakat, Arman and two officers of the Detective Branch. After the killing Subrata assigned Mukul, the principal accused in the Kuril, Badda arms haul case, to tackle Liakat and Arman.
After the BNP-led government announced a list of most-wanted criminals on December 27, 2001 along with rewards for their arrest, the crime lords fled the country or hid in Bangladesh. To escape arrest, many criminals crossed the border and went to Kolkata in 2002, but returned whenever necessary by using their influence and paying huge bribes. In November 2002, Kolkata police arrested Liakat, Arman, Nitel and Kala Jahangir along with firearms, acting on information given by their rival gangsters.
Police released Nitel and Kala Jahangir the following day, having failed to ascertain their identities, but Liakat and Arman were produced at the court and the court released them on bail after 12 days.
Liakat and Arman fled Kolkata, and police arrested Liakat from Dhanmondi in 2003, and Arman hid somewhere in the capital since he could not stay in India due to the warrant of arrest. He was arrested by RAB on Friday, reportedly on information provided by his rivals.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/07/2005 09:35 ||
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June 7, 2005: The U.S. Army's new Stryker armored vehicle has gotten a lot of pad press ("costs too much," "doesn't work," "unsafe," Etc.) But the troops like it, although that isn't considered newsworthy. Troops who served with mechanized infantry units, and used the M-2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, like the fact that Stryker is faster, quieter and requires less maintenance. Troops who have traveled around Iraq in hummers, even armored ones, like the greater degree of protection provided by Stryker.
The biggest enemy in Iraq is not enemy firepower, but the heat. As a result, the troops like to travel with their heads and shoulders out of the open hatches. While providing a cool breeze, this also exposes them to enemy fire (roadside bombs, RPGs, bullets). To add additional protection, troops have put sandbags around the hatches, securing them with rope or wire. But enough sandbags (especially when laid down two rows deep) adds additional weight that can cause the wheel hubs to break. So the troops are encouraged to use 10mm metal plates instead. The driver, unfortunately, is stuck inside. Air conditioning the Strykers is an option. It costs about $90,000 a vehicle, and is done for command vehicles (because of all the extra electronics they carry) and ambulances. But for the regular combat versions, it's not worth it, particularly when you want some of the troops keeping their heads out of the hatches to watch out for trouble.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/07/2005 09:21 ||
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#1
A/C isn't worth it? No, the 'desert corrosion protection package' and the 'underbody clearcoat protection' aren't worth it.
Is there a different mode of A/C that could be considered?
#5
Those of you old enough to remember the J.C. Whitney catalogs from the 60s will remember the "air conditioners" that were evaporative coolers (like the Swamp Coolers here in Arizona) driven by the breeze as you drove along. Just a water tank, some cardboard baffles, and a long tube. How about adding one of those?
#8
thinkn that iraq is both to wetn dew point wise and to congested to get up a head of speed necessary to evaporate the water.... but hey it worth a try
#9
Evaporative air conditioners are fairly common here in Western Australia (in houses). As long as the humidity is low, the hotter it gets the better they work and they work really well. So well, that on really hot days friends of ours who have one open all the doors and some windows to stop the house getting to cold. Otherwise, $90,000 for airconditioning?
In an attempt to foment communal tension and revive militancy in Punjab, Pakistan-based Babbar Khalsa militant outfit had planned to assassinate three prominent Sikh leaders of the state, two of them in public. The revelation was made by two activists of the outfit arrested on Tuesday by Delhi Police for triggering bomb blasts at two cinema halls in the national capital on May 22 in which one person was killed and more than 70 injured, police sources said here today. The serious dimension to the threat was lent by the recovery of a uniform of a Punjab Police Head Constable from the hideout here of Jaspal Singh, mastermind in the cinema hall bomb blasts. The assassination plan was hatched in an attempt to revive militancy in Punjab which was brought under control in the 1990s, the sources said.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/07/2005 01:05 ||
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#1
He wants to "foment communal tension" with the Sikh's?
#2
Babbar Khalsa is a Sikh outfit. In this case he wanted to assasinate leaders who spoke out against cast discrimination, or who were pro-Indian, with the aim of reigniting conflict in the state and brining more recruits to the Khalistan cause.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/07/2005 1:49 Comments ||
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#3
I've already mentioned it times ago, but I'm always awed by Mr. Moloney's knowledge of the pakistani and indian political landscape, even more because it is so byzantine; at first I thought he was an expat, but that's all acquired knowledge. Really impressive. Kudos for that particular RB expert!
An Iraqi court chosen to try Saddam Hussein rejected government statements that the deposed dictator will face justice within two months, saying there was no fixed timetable.
"Any trial date depends on the judges who will consider indictments against the accused after completing their investigations," it added in reference to the trials of Saddam and 11 other former leaders currently in US detention.
On Sunday, government spokesman Leith Kubba said Saddam would be indicted on just 12 charges of crimes against humanity out of a potential 500, and would go on trial within two months.
"The position of the government is to speed up the trial," he said. Saddam, who was toppled in April 2003 and arrested the following December, is accused of committing a series of crimes against humanity during more than two decades in power.
Sources privy to the meeting told Daily Times that the HM supreme commander made it clear to Mirwaiz and Malik that if Syed Ali Shah Geelani was not included in the peace process, the Hizb would not accept any solution of the Kashmir issue. Sources said that Mirwaiz asked Syed Salahuddin to persuade Geelani to join the trilateral talks which started with the APHC leaders' visit to Pakistan. Sources added that both Kashmiri leaders called for forming a unanimous opinion reflecting the Kashmiris' wishes and they agreed with the HM leader to continue armed and political struggle until a resolution to the Kashmir was found.
Dilating upon the Pakistan-India peace process with special reference APHC leaders' visit, Syed Salahuddin, Mirwaiz and Malik decided to continue efforts to unite the APHC and bring the popular and serious Kashmiri leadership on board to make peace process more effective, sources added. Sources said that role of APHC components which did not have popular support in Kashmir were also discussed in the meetings. It is expected that Mirwaiz and Malik might hold another meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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A major US television network has obtained videos not seen so far, showing fierce fighting between Pakistani troops and Al Qaeda forces in South Waziristan last year. According to ABC, the videos made by Al Qaeda for propaganda purposes showcase the intensely violent fighting and unique difficulties that surround the hunt for Osama Bin Laden in the remote tribal areas of northwest Pakistan. "It is a view from Al Qaeda's side of the battle. The videotapes were said to be made last year, when the Pakistani army undertook a major offensive into South Waziristan ... where the fiercely independent Waziri tribe resides and where Bin Laden is believed to be in hiding," said the network.
The Pakistan Army declared the campaign in Waziristan to have been a major victory. However, states ABC, "In at least four cases, the video shows (that) Pakistani army troops were driven into ambushes. One scene shows the insurgents tracking a Pakistani convoy from the mountains above before opening fire. Another scene focuses on the fiery aftermath of an attack on an army convoy." The footage also shows what appear to be new Al Qaeda training camps inside Pakistan, similar to the ones that were dismantled in Afghanistan. The tapes show a new generation of militants, some no older than 10 or 12, carrying automatic weapons. "These are infidels and they deserve to be killed," a youngster tells the camera.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
So does ABC plan to show what it admits is AlQueda propaganda? That the terrorists won a few battles does not, after all, mean Pakistan lost the campaign. Even I, civilian that I am, know that much.
#4
Actually, the Bad Guys pretty much did win the Waziristan fighting at the end of the day. They and their tribal allies sent the Pakistani military home with a bloody nose and remained free while doing so. As a result, the region remains a terrorist nest despite all the proclamations that it's now safe.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2005 10:41 Comments ||
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#5
i don't think i will plan my vacation there anytime soon
#6
So if someone were to come in the back way - say from, oh, Afganistan - who besides the bad guys would know? And how would anyone know it was not just "tribal warfare"?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/07/2005 12:35 Comments ||
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#7
South Waziristan Agency...can you say above ground nuclear weapon test site? I knew you could.
Libyan authorities have found the body of an outspoken journalist 12 days after he went missing and are investigating his killing, a senior government official said on Monday. Daif al Ghazal, 31, was reported missing on May 22 and found dead last Thursday near the eastern city of Benghazi, the official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. "We found the body of Daif al Ghazal in bad shape. He apreared to have been killed in a criminal act. The authorities are investigating the case and will announce the result of their work as soon as they complete it," he said.
Arab media, including the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television website, quoted opponents of the Libyan government and rights activists abroad as accusing government supporters of kidnapping and torturing journalist Daif al Ghazal before shooting him dead. The official declined to comment on who might have killed Ghazal, who was a member of the pro-government Revolutionary Committees, Libya's de facto ruling party. He was widely known for his often critical writings in the Committees' mouthpiece, the newspaper Azaahf al Akdar.
The Libyan Araguib (Watchdog), a human rights group based abroad, said in a statement "Ghazal was badly tortured, his fingers were cut and he was stabbed with a knife before he was shot dead." It said it suspected hardliners among the Revolutionary Committees were behind the murder of Ghazal, who had recently published articles accusing the Libyan authorities of "widespread corruption".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2005 00:00 ||
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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.
Prime Minister 
WASHINGTON -- A leading Senate 
A senior U.S. senator said on Monday he had no doubt Syria was behind the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, 
The pro-Syrian 
A top Iranian official denied allegations that leading terror suspects are hiding out in his country, saying Monday that Iran has arrested nearly 5,000 al-Qaida operatives over the past three years and handed them over to their home countries,
A top U.N. envoy was instructed Monday to travel to Syria "as soon as possible" to see President 
Lebanon's staunchly pro-Syrian president said he intends to remain in office, rejecting opposition demands for him to step down in the wake of the slaying of an anti-Syrian journalist.
A major US television network has obtained videos not seen so far, showing fierce fighting between Pakistani troops and Al Qaeda forces in 
Libyan authorities have found the body of an outspoken journalist 12 days after he went missing and are investigating his killing, a senior government official said on Monday. Daif al Ghazal, 31, was reported missing on May 22 and found dead last Thursday near the eastern city of Benghazi, the official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. "We found the body of Daif al Ghazal in bad shape. He apreared to have been killed in a criminal act. The authorities are investigating the case and will announce the result of their work as soon as they complete it," he said.
