President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad .. paid a stealthy visit to Neyshabour in Khorassan ..
There, he inspected a project he omitted to mention in his Mashhad speech about low-level enrichment, namely, a top-secret plant under construction that is designed to run 155,000 centrifuges, enough to enrich uranium for 3-5 nuclear bombs a year.
This is Project B, or the hidden face of the enrichment plant open to inspection at Natanz.
This plant, due for completion next October, is scheduled to go on line at the end of 2007. According to our intelligence sources, running-in has begun at some sections of the Neyshabour installation, which is located 600 km northeast of Tehran.
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the Neyshabour plant has been built 150 m deep under farmland covered with mixed vegetable crops and dubbed Shahid Moradian, in the name of a war martyr as obscure as its existence.
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with 54,000 centrifuges, the Iranians could produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb in 16 days.
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since 155,000 aprox = 3x 54,000 that would be 5days per bomb.
#1
Centrifuges won't run without electricity and we can very easily make it very dark in Iran. Further, we can gut their economy by taking out the 9 refineries they have. They have oil to sell, but they have to import most of the gasoline and petroleum distillates necessary for a modern industrial state to operate. They can bury the nuke stuff, but not the infrastructure necessary to make it work.
Not to mention, we should make very certain that we arrange personal meetings with Allah for the upper layers of the regime and as many of the IRGs as we can find.
#2
with 54,000 centrifuges, the Iranians could produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb in 16 days.
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since 155,000 aprox = 3x 54,000 that would be 5days per bomb.
Is this calculation done using FAS SWU calculator?
Assuming 85% enrichment (weapons grade HEU) for an amount of about 50kg you'd need about 8000 kg-SWU per year do it. Assuming that the plant in Natanz has parts for 3000 centrifuges mean in about a year depending on when they started they'd have enough material for about a nuke, again this would be of Little Boy level and design type. Course this also means they need to mine about 13,000 metric tons of natural grade sandstone ore to get that much. That would be a significant section of known Iranian stores of U308. Thats the good news. Heres the bad news. According to the calulcations above and those are somewhat pessimistic at that we got about a year since they began enrichment before their first nuke. Its also a question of how fast are they mining the ore. The absolute low ball end of the argument is they only will have 350 odd centrifuges (including the 164 they just announced so I'm just merely adding a bit more than double that figure for the most conservative estimate). With 350 units at roughly at 3 kg-SWU rate you're probably looking at a bomb in about 7 years for the 50kg weapons grade level.
#3
Bomb will not be Little Boy type.
So HEU needed will be less - 15-20 kg.
Thanks to AQ Khan Iranians have the blueprints for a Chinese designed and tested (1966) implosion type weapon, one small enough to fit on a missile.
Mass of 500 kg, size - less than one meter in diameter.
As part of disarmament inspections, early Chinese nuclear weapons designs were handed over to IAEA inspectors by Libyan scientists, wrapped in plastic bags bearing an address in Islamabad. The possession by a third party of complete step-by-step instructions for a workable implosion-type bomb raised anew concerns over China's proliferation history with Pakistan, as notes included in the package of documents reportedly suggested that China continued to mentor Pakistani scientists on the finer points of bomb-building over several years following the technology transfers. Both China and Pakistan have refused to admit any knowledge of the transfer.
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 19:50 Comments ||
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#4
from the article there was this too:
Russian experts completed the initial plans in 2003 and construction began in early 2004. In late 2005, Bulgarian transport planes delivered tens of thousands of centrifuges from Belarus and Ukraine; they were transported directly to Neyshabour. In January 2006, 23 Ukrainian engineers arrived to start installing the equipment, joined in February by 46 Belarusian nuclear experts who are working in shifts to prepare the 155,000 P-1 and P-2 centrifuges for operation.
This compares with 60,000 in Nathanz of which 40,000 are accessible for inspection while 20,000 are hidden in closed subterranean chambers.
Neyshabour, however, still needs to undergo experimental stages, according to our Iranian sources. It is far from sure that the Ukrainian and Belarusian experts will be able to put together a well-synchronized centrifuge project that is workable in the long term.
The Natanz project was long slowed by serious malfunctions in running the centrifuges purchased from Pakistan.
and this claim:
Tehrans success in enriching uranium, announced with fanfare last Tuesday, actually happened, according to our sources, eight months ago.
The documents also included a drawing showing a cascade layout for 6 cascades of 168 machines each and a small plant of 2000 centrifuges arranged in the same hall.
Also among the documents was one related to the procedural requirements for the reduction of UF6 to metal in small quantities, and on the casting and machining of enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical form
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 20:43 Comments ||
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#6
Valentine's points are acurate within the context of a solely Iranian-produced, Iranian-managed, Iranian-controlled "indigenous" bomb - however, the parallel fear during the Cold War was for one side to quickly or covertly transfer nuclear weapons to proxy nations in times of war or crisis. Few iff any in Washington or the USDOD believe that North Korea controls its own military or warfighting assets, while the same also do not believe that Russia-China will long tolerate a Radical Iran having a large enough nuclear arsenal [of any caliber] to threaten Russia's andor China's regional or global ambitions. As long as America is the focii of Radical Iran's hate/angst, Russia-China will for now tolerate Iran having at best a minor handful of low-yield nukes, enough to humiliate Washington before the MSM-World but not enough to seriously challenge or defeat any Russo-Chinese anti-US intervention force. In any case, it is useless in LR for America to only take out Iran's nuclear capability/infrastructure but NOT induce or empower "regime change" in favor of democracy.
BAGRAM, Afghanistan A computer drive sold openly Wednesday at a bazaar outside the U.S. air base here holds what appears to be a trove of potentially sensitive American intelligence data, including the names, photographs and telephone numbers of Afghan spies informing on the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
The flash memory drive, which a teenager sold for $40, holds scores of military documents marked "secret," describing intelligence-gathering methods and information including escape routes into Pakistan and the location of a suspected safe house there, and the payment of $50 bounties for each Taliban or Al Qaeda fighter apprehended based on the source's intelligence. The documents appear to be authentic, but the accuracy of the information they contain could not be independently verified.
On its face, the information seems to jeopardize the safety of intelligence sources working secretly for U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan, which would constitute a serious breach of security. For that reason, The Times has withheld personal information and details that could compromise military operations.
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan said an investigation was underway into what shopkeepers at the bazaar describe as ongoing theft and resale of U.S. computer equipment from the Bagram air base. The facility is the center of intelligence-gathering activities and includes a detention center for suspected members of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups flown in from around the world. "Members of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command are conducting an investigation into potential criminal activity," a statement said.
The top U.S. commander here, Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, has ordered a review of policies and procedures for keeping track of computer hardware and software. "Coalition officials regularly survey bazaars across Afghanistan for the presence of contraband materials, but thus far have not uncovered sensitive or classified items," the statement added.
The credibility and reliability of some intelligence sources identified in the documents is marked as unknown. Other operatives, however, appear to be of high importance, including one whose information, the document says, led to the apprehension of seven Al Qaeda suspects in the United States. One document describes a source as having "people working for him" in 11 Afghan cities. "The potential for success with this contact is unlimited," the report says.
Even the names of people identified as the sources' wives and children are listed details that could put them at risk of retaliation by insurgents who have boasted about executing dozens of people suspected of spying for U.S. forces.
The drive includes descriptions of Taliban commanders' meetings in neighboring Pakistan and maps of militants' infiltration and escape routes along its border with Afghanistan. In another folder, there is a diagram of a mosque and madrasa, or Islamic school, where an informant said fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar had stayed in Pakistan.
Another document describes in detail how a member of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the Taliban's former mentors, tried to recruit an Afghan spying for the U.S. by promising him $500 a month.
Some of the documents can't be opened without a password, but most are neither locked nor encrypted.
Numerous files indicate the flash drive may have belonged to a member of the Army's 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), based at Ft. Bragg, N.C. The unit is operating in southern Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led coalition is battling a growing insurgency. Some of the computer files are dated as recently as this month, while others date to 2004. The clerk who sold the computer drive said an Afghan worker smuggled it out of the Bagram base Tuesday, a day after The Times first reported that military secrets were available at several stalls at the bazaar.
The 1-gigabyte flash drive sold at the bazaar Wednesday is almost full and contains personal snapshots, Special Forces training manuals, records of "direct action" training missions in South America, along with numerous computer slide presentations and documents marked "secret." There is also a detailed "Site Security Survey" describing the layout of the Special Forces unit's "Low Visibility Operating Base" in southwestern Afghanistan. Another document outlines procedures for defending the base if it comes under attack, and there are several photographs of the walls and areas inside the perimeter.
The drive holds detailed information on a handful of Afghan informants identified by name and the number of contacts with U.S. handlers. In some cases, photographs of the sources are attached. A report on a spy involved with a code-named operation says the Afghan has been used in "cross border operations." But it cautions that an American officer "has come to the conclusion that Contact may or may not be as security conscious as thought to be or expected."
The report describes a potential "low-level source" who reportedly has "brought in active and inactive Taliban and Al Qaeda associates/operators who have expressed a desire to repatriate/end conflict peacefully." The man is identified as a former ISI agent in the 1980s, during the U.S.-backed mujahedin war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. He also provided a document on Al Qaeda's cell structure to the CIA, the report adds.
The document also names the man's wife and children and lists his cellphone number. It describes the informant as very punctual, with a good sense of humor. Politically, it adds, he is "much like a Republican in the United States."
The computer files also provide a rare look at how the U.S. military contracts and pays its Afghan spies, and the commitments they make in signed contracts, written in English. In a two-page "Record of Oral Commitment," marked "secret" and dated Jan. 28, 2005, a source agreed to work for the U.S. Army by providing information on Al Qaeda, the Taliban and an allied militia, the Hizb-i-Islami, led by fugitive warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. "The source will be paid $15 USD for each mission he completes that has verified information," the agreement stipulates. "This sum will not exceed a total of $300 USD in a 1-month period," the report says. The sum rises to $500 a month for information "deemed of very high importance."
And there are serious consequences for any breaches of the commitment, such as failing to disclose information on the terrorist organizations or missing either of two meetings scheduled for each month. The penalty for "using his new skills to participate in activities that are deemed" anti-U.S. or against the Afghan government is "termination with prejudice," according to the document.
Another document describes how an Afghan informant for the U.S. military said he was contacted by an official from Pakistan's Embassy, who asked the Afghan to spy for the ISI. A high-level ISI official then offered the Afghan $500 a month and other incentives, the document says.
The report adds that the ISI official "said that he's looking for an U.S. Embassy employee to aid in the bombing of the embassy that [he] is planning." The ISI official promised he would pay the Afghan $100,000 after the destruction of the embassy in Kabul. The report concludes: "Everything that [Pakistani] told the Source could be made up or inflated as to look good and exciting to the Source; a possible ploy to get the Source to 'sign up' for the ISI . However, my 'gut' tells me otherwise, and this guy really is trying to recruit my source for the other side."
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 10:37 ||
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ISI official "said that he's looking for an U.S. Embassy employee to aid in the bombing of the embassy that [he] is planning." The ISI official promised he would pay the Afghan $100,000 after the destruction of the embassy in Kabul.
Interesting recruiting technique these ISI officers have...
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 11:33 Comments ||
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#2
And I'd be willing to bet our intrepid LA Times reporter copied everyone of them he could get his hands on...
#5
I really wonder about this. Either our troops are very, very sloppy about classified documents, or this is bogus as a $3 bill.
Why weren't these easily-stolen drives locked up at night, if they contained classified, or even sensitive - material? If this guy is "right outside the main gate at Baghram", why haven't security forces closed him down, or at least discovered who is stealing this stuff? This story just smells to me, and I wonder how much truth there is in it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2006 13:55 Comments ||
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#6
Old Patriot--I would say they got real sloppy. When we left diyala, right up to the day I got on the chopper I was running Shredit(tm) on laptops at Reg. HQ. I know we did not manage to zeroize all the classified disks. I wonder how much classified info wound up in the Hajji market.
The sucessful Comsec/Opsec mentality requires a level of instituional parinoia we simply do not posess. The attitude seems to be "Better that we make the enemy worry about what we are going to do to them, and not worry about what they are going to do to us".
WRT to the GWOT, and the Mad Mullahs--Faster please. We make more (fatal) mistakes when we slow down and let the world cach up with us.
Posted by: N guard ||
04/14/2006 14:08 Comments ||
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Two British soldiers have suffered minor injuries in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. A spokeswoman said the pair, and a local person, were hurt in an incident in Lashka Gar, the Helmand provincial capital, in the south of the country. Local authorities have confirmed that a suicide car bomber drove into a military convoy.
Meanwhile, four soldiers were injured in an incident involving an explosion in Shaibah, in southern Iraq. This incident happened near the Shaibah logistics base, just outside Basra. Squadron Leader Al Green, spokesman for British forces in Basra, said: "As far as I know they are fine, they are being treated in Shaibah British Military Hospital on Shaibah logistics base."
"That's in Shaibah, by the way"
Meanwhile, an investigation has been launched into the latest attack in Afghanistan, which reportedly took place near the provincial reconstruction team (PFT) base, run by British personnel. A spokesman for the governor of Helmand Province told the BBC that it was a suicide bomb attack. And Capt Drew Gibson, a spokesman for British forces in southern Afghanistan, said the attack was carried out "with a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device". It was the 17th attempted suicide attack on Nato forces since the beginning of the year, but the first on British soldiers. Friday's blast also comes a week after UK troops escaped another attack near the Lashka Gar base.
Helmand is known to be a centre for the opium trade and still has a Taleban presence. BBC Defence Correspondent Paul Wood said there were fears that the latest attack could stop British troops conducting foot patrols. However, he said that he had spoken to an officer serving in Afghanistan who had made it clear that "their commitment to getting out and meeting people has not been affected by this incident". On Tuesday, three British soldiers were injured in an explosion, in southern Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 09:10 ||
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A shopkeeper outside the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Afghanistan was selling computer memory drives Wednesday containing seemingly sensitive military data stolen from inside the base -- including the Social Security numbers of four American generals. This shopkeeper was apparently not the only merchant in local bazaars trying to get some cash in exchange for hardware and software containing such files. The surfacing of the stolen computer devices has sparked an urgent American military probe for the source of the embarrassing security breach, which has led to disks with the personal letters and biographies of soldiers and lists of troops who completed nuclear, chemical and biological warfare training going on sale for $20 to $50.
Five military investigators, surrounded by heavily armed plainclothes U.S. soldiers, searched many of the two-dozen rundown shops outside the sprawling base. Asked if any disks had been found, one soldier, who declined to give his name, said: "We are looking. That's all I can say."
The shopkeeper, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears he may be arrested, said he was not interested in the data stored on the memory sticks and was selling them for the value of the hardware. "They were all stolen from offices inside the base by the Afghans working there," he said. "I get them all the time." About 2,000 Afghans are employed as cleaners, office staff and laborers at the Bagram base. Though they are searched coming in and out of the base, the flash drives are the size of a finger and can easily be concealed on a body. The shopkeeper showed an Associated Press reporter a bag of about 15 and allowed them to be reviewed on a laptop computer. Only four contained data. The rest did not work or were blank.
News of the breach was first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Monday. The paper said its reporter saw files containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, names of corrupt Afghan officials and descriptions of American defenses. U.S. military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said the military "has ordered an investigation into allegations that sensitive military items are being sold in local bazaars. "Coalition officials regularly survey bazaars across Afghanistan for the presence of contraband materials, but thus far have not uncovered sensitive or classified items," he said. U.S. commander Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry has ordered a review of policies and procedures relating to the accountability of computer hardware and software, Cody said.
The shops around Bagram sprung up when U.S. forces took over the base in 2001 after ousting the Taliban for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. They sell a range of military equipment, much of which has been stolen from the base, according to several shopkeepers -- all of whom declined to give their names for fear of repercussions. One shopkeeper wanted $20 for a used U.S. soldier's uniform and said he could get more. Other items apparently were stolen from a duty-free store on the base, including range-finding binoculars and handheld global positioning systems -- items that could be useful to Taliban rebels, who have stepped up their insurgency in the past year. The computer files seen by the AP ranged from the very personal, such as a soldier's letter to the wife of a dead comrade, to confidential personnel information. Social Security numbers were listed next to the names of hundreds of soldiers, including Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, who left Afghanistan in February after serving for a year as the coalition's operational commander. One document listed the names of 20 members of a platoon who had undergone "the required Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC) training and chamber exercise." It did not elaborate. Another listed the names of 16 soldiers and the types of weapons they had been trained on. There were biographies of six soldiers, including a sergeant who had served in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Two of the drives contained several photographs, one showing a group of about 40 soldiers posing at a base, while others had troops inside a helicopter. A 502-page manual on how to operate a CH-47 Chinook chopper, a mainstay of the 18,000 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan, was also there, including photos and diagrams. Many of the other goods on sale in the stores still had stickers indicating the price at the military store. The Afghan shops were selling them for about 25 percent less.
In one store, two Afghans with long flowing black beards were haggling over the price of compasses. Nearby, two young boys were trying to sell cartons of fresh yogurt. One, who gave his name as Nazar, said a friend had stolen them from the military mess hall.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006 03:03 ||
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Ah, yes, another black market selling stolen goods from the PX and commisary. Could have been written about Vietnam, Korea, Germany or Fort Hood.
Flash drives are a new twist, but the OPSEC program got started back in the day when someone noticed that food being sold in a local Vietnamese market was wrapped in papers picked out of the base trash cans. Contained the same kinds of rosters and personnal documentaion. More things change, the more they stay the same,.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 8:12 Comments ||
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#2
The AP is just ticked that the Afghan shopkeepers got hold of this data and sold it to the enemy before the AP did. Sounds like their "stringers" are falling down on the job.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/14/2006 15:50 Comments ||
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#3
God! (forgive me)...we've been compromised!
We'd might as well put our heads between our legs and kiss our asses "Good-bye". AH-Yeeeee...Oh, the humanity (sob).
Chad's government has announced it has cut off diplomatic relations with Sudan after repelling a rebel attack on the capital, N'Djamena on Thursday. Sudan denies Chad's accusations that it backs the United Force for Change rebels, who were beaten back by troops after launching a daring dawn raid. On Friday, Chad paraded 160 captives, said to be rebels, in a public square while crowds and soldiers looked on. A minister said 300 prisoners had been captured and some 400 killed in total.
They ran pictures yesterday of government troops dumpng dead rebels on the capital steps. Looks like they did win this one, so far
"We have taken the decision to break our diplomatic relations with Sudan today and to proceed to close our frontiers," Chadian President Idriss Deby told a rally in N'Djamena. Sudan has served as a base for Chadian rebels. The BBC's Stephanie Hancock says the parading of prisoners was a carefully choreographed affair, sending a clear message that the rebels had been subdued and the capital was under control. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Thursday's attack, which was aimed at toppling President Deby.
Earlier on Friday, Chadian Defence Minister Bichara Issa Djadallah said 150 people on the rebel side had been killed in fighting in the town of Adre, near the Sudanese border. "All attackers withdrew into Sudan," the minister said in an interview with Radio France Internationale. The rebels have vowed to overthrow Mr Deby before the polls, which the opposition are boycotting. The rebels accuse Mr Deby of being a dictator and say they want to organise a national forum that will lead to a transitional government and then democratic elections. A spokesman for the rebels told the BBC they had not been defeated and would attack N'Djamena again.
"We'll be back"
Chad accuses Sudan of supporting and arming the attackers while Sudan says Chad backs rebels in its Darfur region. The UN Security Council urged both nations to resolve differences through talks and not support hostile actions. The council "condemned any attempt to seize power by force... and calls on the rebels to put an end to violence and to participate in the democratic process". UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "greatly troubled by the worsening security situation in Chad".
"And we shall look at it most carefully first thing Monday morning. It's a holiday weekend, you know."
Gunfire and shelling in the capital began at dawn on Thursday, and fighting in the city continued for more than two hours. Mr Deby said a small rebel column attempted to enter the capital but was "completely destroyed".
Wonder if those French troops have any recon drones and passed the info to Chad?
He said elections scheduled for early next month would go ahead as planned. Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, the UN envoy from France, which has some 1,350 troops in its former colony, said the rebels came from Sudan's Darfur region. Chad, which is rich in oil, has been hit by the conflict in Darfur, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing across the border.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 08:32 ||
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I thought so: The surprise strike on the capital put on full alert a 1,200-strong French military contingent in Chad. French warplanes flew reconnaissance flights to track the insurgent columns and at one point fired warning shots.
That explains the apparently easy victory, Chad was waiting for them
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 10:25 Comments ||
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#2
Hey, don't discount a few Marines or Green Beanies in the brush.
Clashes between the Sudanese army and opposition forces in the country's east saw eight people killed, the army said in a statement Wednesday. The incident saw forces loyal to the Justice and Equality Movement, from Darfur, western Sudan, team up with the Beja Congress, from the east, to attack army positions in eastern Sudan, according to an army statement run by SUNA, the official news agency. Brigadier Osman Mohammad Al Aghbash said six civilians and two people from the attacking groups died.
But no gummint troops?
The clashes are the first the army has contended that groups from the two areas teamed up to fight the central government.
They've got tentative peace in the south, rebellion in the west, rebellion in the east, and rebellion in the north. But really, it's not their fault. It's those Zionists, coming in and stirring things up in an otherwise peaceful land.
The opposition forces "attacked army positions in Wagar and Tinay, simultaneously," destroyed a truck, burnt down a police station and knocked down telecommunications equipment, the statement said. Troops, with the support of the air forces, pushed back the attackers.
And took no casualties in the process of having a truck blown up and having a cop shoppe burnt down?
The Beja Congress is a loose alliance of tribesmen and disgruntled Democratic Unionist Party elements that seeks a greater share of resources for national wealth and development for their region. JEM emerged during the conflict in Darfur.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Ya, man. It be 127 degrees here and I got da Russian tanker helmet on my head. It look good though.
Posted by: Fightin B. Hard ||
04/14/2006 15:42 Comments ||
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One person has been killed and at least 12 others injured by knife-wielding attackers at three churches in northern Egypt, police have said. The attacks happened in Coptic churches in the city of Alexandria. The simultaneous incidents took place during Friday Mass, and the attackers fled immediately afterwards. Witnesses said clashes erupted between Christians and Muslims outside the churches, the Associated Press news agency reported. Hundreds of Christians had gathered outside the churches in protest at the attacks, the agency said.
Police were reported to be searching for three assailants, one for each attack.
Witnesses said that at least one attacker had been detained, but no arrests have been confirmed. An employee at one of the churches told the AFP news agency that people inside the church had fought back with sticks, but that the attacker had tried to escape through an underground passage.
Most Christians in Egypt are Copts - Christians descended from the ancient Egyptians. Their church split from the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in 451AD because of a theological dispute over the nature of Christ, but is now, on most issues, doctrinally similar to the Eastern Orthodox church.
Copts make up an estimated 10% of the Egyptian population of about 70 million, and they complain of discrimination and harassment. They are concerned that new electoral rules are benefiting Islamist parties but not increasing Coptic political representation. Three people died in Alexandria in October 2005 after Muslim demonstrators attacked a church which had put on a play seen as offensive to Islam.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 09:03 ||
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Hundreds of people have fled their homes in central Nigeria after three days of communal clashes. The fighting in Plateau State has left at least 25 people dead, according to unconfirmed reports. State Information Commissioner Yakubu Datti would only confirm the deaths of two policemen and a soldier during efforts to restore order.
The violence was apparently triggered by a dispute over rights to take sand from a river for building.
You read that right, they're fighting over sand
Ethnic militias armed with guns, machetes and bows and arrows, attacked each other and burnt many homes. A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed on the area. Hundreds fled their homes in and around the town of Namu, carrying what they could and seeking shelter with the security forces, the BBC's Alex Last reports.
Residents say tension has been rising recently between the pan-ethnic group and other tribes over the location of a new government building which would create jobs and bring money to the area. The trigger, though, was a dispute over who had the right to take sand from a riverbed in Namu - a right which is claimed by different ethnic groups.
"That's our dirt, keep yur hands off!"
Plateau State, where these clashes occurred, has been riven by ethnic violence in the past. Two years ago, hundreds were killed in clashes which began in a land dispute but quickly escalated. Nigeria has more than 300 ethnic groups and there are often disputes, sometimes violent, over access to land and resources.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 08:48 ||
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At least two people including an elderly woman were killed and four others injured when Janajuddha faction of Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) threw bombs into a small gathering at Paka village of Jibannagar in Chuadanga last night.
I sense a shutter gun in their future
Police and witnesses said 10 outlaws led by Badal Roy hurled five homemade bombs into the gathering at a shop at around 9:30pm injuring the six people. Of them, 85-year-old Fatima Khatun and Lal Chand, 45, died on way to a Jessore hospital. Shop owner Sanwar, 34, Lutfor, 24, Arjel, 40, and Moktar were admitted to the hospital in critical condition.
Janajuddha leader Badal made phone calls to a number of local journalists and claimed the responsibility for the attack. He, however, said their target was Fatima Khatun's daughter Nasima Begum who is a Union Parishad member and BNP leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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New laws making it illegal to glorify terrorism came into force across Britain on Thursday following months of bitter political debate. The Terrorism Act 2006 allows groups or organisations to be banned for glorifying terrorism and distributing publications promoting terrorist acts.
The most controversial element of the act, allowing terror suspects to be detained for up to 28 days instead of 14, will come into force later this year. The law was drafted after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters on the London transport system last July. It was given greater urgency earlier this year when demonstrators in London condemned the publication in several European newspapers of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad (PTUI PBUH) by calling for those who insulted Islam to be beheaded. The demonstrators also praised the July 7 attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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A local official has been detained in Russias northern Murmansk province on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, security services reported Friday.
The official is suspected of being involved in preparing a terror attack on an oil tanker, a spokesperson for local FSB directorate, Yelena Golovanova, told the news agency RIA-Novosti.
The official allegedly planned to blow up the tanker with a view to causing an environmental disaster in the Kola Bay, she said. The man has been charged with preparing a terror attack, she added. An investigation is underway.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 09:14 ||
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An associate of Russia's most wanted terrorist has been arrested in the southern region of Daghestan, local police said Thursday.
A local Interior Ministry spokesman said the militant had been involved in terrorist attacks in 1999 alongside Shamil Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for a string of bloody attacks in Russia including the Beslan school tragedy, which claimed the lives of 331 people.
The spokesman said the militant, a resident of Chechnya's south-eastern Nozhai-Yurt district, which borders on Daghestan, was detained in a joint operation by regional police and Federal Security Service (FSB) officers while trying to infiltrate Daghestan from Chechnya.
The militant led police to a hidden arms cache, including a Kalashnikov automatic rifle, bullets, and an under-barrel grenade launcher with ten rounds of ammunition, police said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006 03:17 ||
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#1
Not much of an arsenal for a big time terrorist.
FORMER Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib has produced a bizarre home video to show the world his alleged mistreatment at the hands of the US military.
The homemade film - a dramatised recreation of his three-year stint in the Cuban prison - stars Mr Habib's eldest son Ahmed, who plays the role of his father.
Mr Habib himself plays one of his American captors in the video, which he plans to air publicly today.
The documentary-style film features one scene in which Ahmed, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, is dragged across the floor by his father using a rope.
Another scene demonstrates how Mr Habib was struck on the fingers with a hammer, while another segment shows Mr Habib fitting electrodes to his son's chest before subjecting him to mock electric shocks.
Yesterday, Mr Habib's wife, Maha, said her whole family had been involved in making the video, which had brought back painful memories for her husband.
"It is a film to show the experience of the torture he suffered," Mrs Habib said.
"It took us a long time to make. Mamdouh had to stop on many occasions because he became very emotional."
Mrs Habib said she welcomed all interested viewers to see the film, which will be shown today at the University of Technology, Sydney.
"We want people to be aware of what is happening to Australian people over there," she said yesterday.
Mr Habib was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, specifically of having prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks in America.
He claimed that after being detained in Egypt and sent to Guantanamo Bay, he was subjected to three years of abuse - most of which is demonstrated in the video account of his time at the prison camp.
Mr Habib claims he was not only beaten with hammers, given electric shocks and dragged across the floor by a rope, but also had dogs set on him.
In an apparent effort to fully understand his father's time in incarceration, Ahmed allegedly asked Mr Habib to subject him to the same treatment for the bizarre film.
"He told me to hurt him like they hurt me," Mr Habib said, adding that he had refused his son's request.
Mr Habib has previously expressed a desire to move his family from Australia to the Middle East to escape what he claims to be an atmosphere of constant harassment.
But first, he must win back his passport.
The Habib home video will be screened at 3pm today at the UTS campus in Broadway.
#2
nice home movies. We always just had pics of us on vacation, kids playing baseball or swimming, or of the pets...Guess there's a cultural difference
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 18:05 Comments ||
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#3
Someone needs to copy this vid, dub the appropriate snarky music & put it out on YouTube or some such site.
HT to LGF
Federal authorities have decided to deport a former Florida professor and longtime Palestinian rights activist after failing to convict him on charges he helped finance terrorist attacks in Israel. Ship his troublesome ass OUT!
Sami Al-Arian, who had met with U.S. presidents and other political leaders before his terrorism indictment in 2003, reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to a lesser charge and be deported, two lawyers familiar with the case said Friday. The arrangement requires the approval of a judge. It was not clear where Al-Arian would be sent. suggestions? hell?
Al-Arian has remained in jail since a jury in Tampa, Fla., acquitted him in December of eight of the 17 federal charges against him and deadlocked on the rest. Stung by the defeat in the high-profile case, prosecutors pondered whether to retry him on the remaining charges, including three conspiracy counts, or deport him.
Justice Department and immigration officials declined to comment on the agreement, as did Linda Moreno, a lawyer who represented Al-Arian during his trial. Moreno and William Moffitt withdrew as Al-Arian's lawyers in March and it was not clear who currently represents him.
No one answered the phone at the home of Al-Arian's wife, Nahla.
The lawyers spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not been made public by the court.
The case against Al-Arian was once hailed by authorities as a triumph of the anti-terror Patriot Act, which allowed secret wiretaps and other information gathered by intelligence agents to be used in criminal prosecutions.
Al-Arian and three co-defendants were charged with running a North American cell of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian had been under FBI surveillance at least since the mid-1990s.
But at the end of a five-month trial, jurors said the mountain of intercepted phone calls and other materials did not directly link Al-Arian and the others to violent acts, specifically a terrorist attack in 1995 that killed seven Israelis and American Alisa Flatow.
A Palestinian who was born in Kuwait, Al-Arian has lived in the United States for 30 years and holds permanent residency status. He was raised mostly in Egypt. multi-state ingrate jerk
He had been a computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida but was fired after his indictment. He has been held without bail for more than three years.
Al-Arian was a nationally known activist who organized voter registration drives, campaigned for candidates and lobbied politicians.
His attorneys have said he has been to the White House and met with Presidents Clinton and Bush on four separate occasions. Al-Arian also had contact with nearly two dozen political and government leaders, including Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Trent Lott and Dennis Hastert, his lawyers have said.
The handling of his case became an issue in the 2004 U.S. Senate election in Florida, won by Republican Mel Martinez. Betty Castor, the Democratic candidate, was the University of South Florida president when Al-Arian was on the faculty.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 19:42 ||
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AHMEDABAD - Rival Muslim groups clashed in a town in western India on Friday injuring eight people, including a police officer, and set fire to a local Islamic school, police said. The trouble began when some Shia Muslims objected to the presence of people from the Sunni community outside a mosque in Kalol town in the western state of Gujarat. Several houses and a madrasa were set ablaze before police fired teargas to disperse the rioters, a government official said. The situation is under control, but we are maintaining a strict vigil in the areas, the district administrator D.H. Brahmbhatt said, adding several people had been arrested.
Gujarat has a history of violence, mainly involving Hindus and minority Muslims.
Rights groups say that more than 2,500 people, mainly Muslims, were hacked and burned to death in the state in 2002 after 59 Hindu pilgrims and activists were burnt to death in a train.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 09:17 ||
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#1
Well gee Reuters. Thanks for your re-iteration of all the poor innocent muslims "hacked and burned to death".
Nothing to do with your story which is muzzie on muzzie violence. Stick with the story. No infidel Hindus in this display of muslim peace and tolerance.
#2
"2,500 people, mainly Muslims, were hacked and burned to death in the state in 2002 after 59 Hindu pilgrims and activists were burnt to death in a train."
While the Hindu retaliation might be a tad bit on the *ahem* excessive side, I wonder if the Muzzies learned a lesson as in don't go around murdering Hindus in the first place. Sure looks like they did in this part of India.
At least three people have been injured in two explosions inside the Jama Masjid (Grand Mosque) in the Indian capital, Delhi, police say. The chief cleric of the mosque, Imam Bukhari, told the BBC that the blasts occurred inside the complex . It is not clear what caused the blasts which came shortly after Friday prayers, mosque officials say.
I'd guess explosives, but that's just me
The 17th century mosque is one of the largest in India. A bomb disposal squad has gone to the site, police say. Police have sealed off the area.
"The blasts took place near a water tank used by worshippers," a mosque official, Mr Amanullah, told the BBC. He said that most worshippers were inside the mosque and not by the tank when the blasts took place.
The Jama Masjid is located in Delhi's old city which is mainly populated by Muslims and has a history of religious tension. Imam Bukhari has issued a public appeal asking for people to remain calm.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 09:07 ||
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#1
Gas leak?
"The blasts took place near a water tank used by worshippers,"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 17:59 Comments ||
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#3
For ritual cleansing (wudu)
Muslims perform a ritual before prayer
1. Have the intention of purifying your heart.
2. Wash your hands, front and back, up to and beyond the wrist three times, right hand first, then left.
3. Rinse your mouth three times, scooping the water up with your right hand.
4. Wash your nose three times by sniffing water up the nostrils and blowing it out.
5. Wash your face three times.
6. Wash each arm up to and beyond the elbow three times, right arm first and then the left.
7. Pass the wet palms of both hands over your head and back. Then rub the inside and outside of the ears with the thumbs and forefingers.
8. Wash your feet up to and beyond the ankle three times, right foot first and then the left. Make sure the water gets between the toes by using your fingers.
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 18:02 Comments ||
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#4
we have a senior civil engineer who's Paleo/Jordanian - he does the farmer blow in the men's restroom sink every day, despite everyone complaining
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 18:17 Comments ||
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#5
This is RantBurg Mr. G., a family blog, it not a "farmer blow" - it's a reverse nasal, digitaly enhanced, sentence fragment.
Military sources said Atwah was killed along with six other Islamic radicals in a missile attack by Pakistani Cobra helicopters on their hideout in the North Waziristan tribal region just before midnight on Wednesday.
The strike was ordered after the military received information, apparently gleaned from other radicals detained in the past month, that the Egyptian explosives expert was hiding in a walled compound in Nagar, a village about four miles south of the town of Miranshah.
[A senior U.S. intelligence official said the man the Pakistanis reported killing was "al-Qaeda's key explosives trainer," Washington Post staff writer Walter Pincus reported. Atwah is a very important figure but is not near the top of the network's hierarchy, said the official, who was unable to independently confirm the Pakistani assertion.]
Wali Mohammad Khan, a commander of local extremists in Nagar, earlier denied that any foreigners were in the compound when it was attacked. "They were all local tribesmen, and the five bodies were immediately buried," he said. The funeral of two others killed in the attack would be held later in the day, he added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006 02:56 ||
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#1
I just spoke with him this morning in fact. We talked business first and later the conversation turned to golf. Can you believe that Phil Mickleson?
The United States has refused to confirm reports of a senior al Qaeda operative being killed in Pakistan.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack deferred questions on the subject to Islamabad saying that it was in a "best position" to offer any comment on the matter. The al Qaeda operative suspected to be killed was wanted in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya.
"I am not in a position to confirm the reports for you one way or the other. I know there is a high-ranking Pakistani official who spoke to the matter. I think that they are probably in the best position to offer any comment on the matter", McCormack said yesterday.
"Certainly, fighting al Qaeda is an important priority for President Musharraf. We believe that in President Musharraf, we have a good partner in fighting the war on terrorism, fighting al Qaeda. It's not only important in the global fight against terrorism, but al-Qaeda presents a threat to Pakistan itself, so they devote quite a few resources to that fight", he added.
"In terms of an individual wanted in connection with the embassy bombing, we want to see justice be done. We want to see individuals held to account for what they have done." McCormack said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006 02:54 ||
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Pakistani villagers pulled three bodies out of the rubble of a suspected hideout of Islamist militants that was razed in an overnight attack by army helicopter gunships in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
A number of foreign militants are believed to have been killed in the attack on a compound in Nagar, six km (4 miles) south of Miranshah, the main town of restive North Waziristan region where the army has been fighting al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas and their local Pashtun sympathisers.
"Three bodies have been pulled out. A search is underway for others," a resident of Nagar told Reuters. He did not say whether bodies were of militants or tribesmen.
Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said details about the number of militants killed and their identity were still being gathered.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006 02:47 ||
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A senior member of Al Qaeda who was wanted for his part in the bombings of the United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 has been killed in an airstrike on a compound in Pakistan's restive tribal region of North Waziristan, two senior security officials said today.
The Al Qaeda member, Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwa, who has several aliases, including Abdul Rahman and Abdul Rahman al-Muhajir, appears on an F.B.I. list of most wanted terrorists with an offer of a reward of up to $5 million for his capture and conviction.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Web site, Mr. Atwa is an Egyptian, aged 41, of medium build, "believed to currently be in Afghanistan." He is named with 13 of the top Al Qaeda figures, "believed to be responsible for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzanai and Kenya on August 7, 1998."
"These terrorist attacks indiscriminately killed 224 innocent civilians and wounded over 5,000 others," the Web site says.
Mr. Atwa was killed by Pakistani helicopter attack late Wednesday in the village of Anghar, nearly four miles north of the town of Miramshah, the capital of North Waziristan, the officials said, requesting anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press. "He has been confirmed dead," one of the officials said. "The confirmation is based on multiple intelligence sources."
Villagers reached by a local reporter in Anghar for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn confirmed the death of foreign militants, including "one big man" whom they identified by an alias, Abu Turab.
The attack was carried out by a pair of Pakistani-piloted Cobra helicopters that attacked a compound in Anghar close to a religious seminary shortly before midnight Wednesday. "This was his abode for quite some time," one security official said.
Besides Mr. Atwa, four to six other foreign militants whose nationalities were not immediately known were also killed in the attack, along with four local tribesmen, the security officials said.
Militants removed the bodies immediately after the attack and buried them at a secret location, making the job of finding the remains for DNA tests very difficult, the officials said. The four tribesmen were buried in the local graveyard.
Pakistan has claimed to have killed senior Al Qaeda operatives and foreign fighters in the past in the tribal areas along Afghanistan's border, but it has often been unable to produce the bodies or evidence of the deaths.
In January, an American missile strike aimed at Al Qaeda's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, reportedly killed four or five important Al Qaeda figures, including his son-in-law, but not Mr. Zawahiri. The bodies of the foreign militants were never found, but officials said they had intelligence that the bodies were carried away for a secret burial.
The officials said that information extracted from 19 militants captured in a successful ambush by Pakistani security forces on April 5 in the Shawal region of North Waziristan led them to Mr. Atwa. The militants had attacked a Pakistani security post killing four soldiers after returning from an operation inside Afghanistan.
The captured men told their interrogators that weapons for the attack in Afghanistan had come from Mr. Atwa.
Maj. Gen Shaukat Sultan, a spokesman for the Inter Services Public Relations, the public affairs arm of the Pakistan Army, confirmed the attack on Anghar, but declined to speculate on the reported death of a senior Al Qaeda operative.
"We had information about the presence of Al Qaeda people in a compound in Anghar village," he said. "Troops launched sting operation and hit the compounds from Cobra helicopters."
General Sultan added, "I can't say about the presence or killing of any senior Al Qaeda man in the operation," noting that that security forces could not retrieve the bodies.
Residents of Anghar village told the local reporter for Dawn that the man known as Abu Turab was an Arab, who was commanding militants in North Waziristan near the Afghan border. Two vehicles laden with weapons, which were parked inside the compound, were also destroyed in the operation, they said.
"Cobra helicopters, roaring overhead fired missiles," one witness said. "Later one helicopter dropped a big bomb, which completely destroyed the compounds."
The foreigners were in one compound that was bombed. The four tribesmen, including a minor, were killed in another house. One woman was also wounded in the attack, the reporter said, quoting the local hospital.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006 02:46 ||
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In less than a week, two more tribesmen were shot dead Thursday by suspected Islamic militants on suspicions of spying on them for the US troops, said intelligence sources. Armed men in a car fired on two tribesmen in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal agency, and fled, leaving them dead, sources told KUNA. Few days back, another tribesman was killed in neighboring North Waziristan tribal agency on the same charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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KARACHI: The Sindh High Court acquitted on Thursday appellant Sabir Ali Waseem from charges of firing a rocket at Government Commerce College in the limits of Artillery Maidan police station back in 2001. Sabir Ali was awarded an aggregate of 30 years of imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court in April 2003. According to the prosecution, the appellant had confessed that he wanted to hit the Sheraton hotel in the vicinity, but missed the target and hit Government Commerce College instead.
He was awarded 10 years imprisonment each on three counts which the court had ordered to be run concurrently. Sabir challenged his conviction and sentence in the Sindh High Court. The anti-terrorism appellate bench of the SHC comprising Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi and Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo after hearing the arguments of the counsel for the appellant and state acquitted the appellant from charges through a short order the reason for which would be recorded later.
I'm sure the learned judges can think of some reason for letting him go.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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#3
Apparantly it isn't terrorism to fire a rocket at an American hotel, only at a Government College, so his crime is not terrorism, but merely poor aim.
QUETTA: Suspected tribal rebels fired at least 10 rockets at a check post in Dera Bugti and also blew up a water supply line in Pir Koh. The rockets targeted the FC Fort and the Gori Bill check post, but fell outside the fort. No loss of life or property was reported, but the army retaliated. In the second incident, suspected rebels blew up a water supply line that resulted in the suspension of water supply to the Pir Koh area. The security forces also defused two landmines in Pir Koh.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Intelligence agencies have unearthed an assassination plan targeting former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and a federal secretary. Two Afghan nationals entered Pakistan recently to kill Jamali and a federal secretary, government sources told Daily Times. The Afghan nationals are trained saboteurs and have Pakistani national identity cards issued from Khuzdar, Balochistan. They are Azhar Mahmood and Mahmood Khan according to their Pakistani identity cards, sources said.
The intelligence agencies have identified one Ghulam Baloch from Muzaffargarh in Multan area as the Pakistani contact of the alleged militants to coordinate attack. The saboteurs are trained in the use of remote controlled explosive devices, sources said, adding that the criminals planned to blow up their targets vehicles. The government has ordered security measures for the former prime minister and the federal secretary and directed the authorities to arrest the alleged criminals, sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Troops were deployed in Karachi on Thursday as trouble broke out before funerals for Sunni Muslim leaders who were among 60 people killed in a suicide blast two days ago. An estimated 50,000 people, a vast majority of them young men and teenagers, attended the funeral prayers and burial of the top religious leaders on MA Jinnah Road on Thursday evening. Ten top leaders of the Sunni Tehreek religious party, including its patron-in-chief Abbas Qadri, chief Iftikhar Bhatti, Akram Qadri and Dr Abdul Qadeer, were among those killed in the blast. Police and paramilitary soldiers were also deployed in strength around Qadris home. Regular troops paraded along major roads before taking up positions at intersections.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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A suicide car bomber attacked a police station north of Baghdad Friday, wounding at least seven people when he detonated his explosives, he said. The bomber hit about 7:15 a.m. in the city of Mosul, which is 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. Five civilians were among those wounded, police Brig. Abdul-Hamid al-Jibouri said.
The car bomb exploded in a vegetable market in Shula packed with shoppers buying food for their evening meals, police said. At least 15 people were killed and 22 were wounded. Last week, a car bomb injured 13 people in the same neighborhood.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006 03:08 ||
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U.S. troops have sharply increased patrols in Baghdad since the spike in sectarian violence, a U.S. general said Thursday, raising questions about the capabilities of Iraqi forces. A car bomb killed least 15 people in a Shiite area of the capital.
At least 21 other people, including an American soldier and seven members of a Sunni family, were killed Thursday.
With sectarian violence on the rise in Baghdad, the U.S. command boosted the number of armed patrols in the capital from 12,000 in February to 20,000 since the beginning of March, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters.
Lynch said the increase provides a "more visible presence for the security forces in the streets of Baghdad," which he said insurgents consider their "center of gravity" to stop formation of a new unity government.
"We're taking the fight to the enemy specifically in Baghdad with the presence we have on the ground," Lynch said.
In a video posted Thursday on the Internet, Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri praised insurgents in Iraq particularly Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and called on all Muslims to support them. He called on Muslims to support his "beloved brother" Al-Zarqawi, who heads the terrorist group al Qaeda in Iraq. "I have lived with him up close, and have seen nothing but good from him," al-Zawahri said.
Gunmen stormed the house of a Sunni family in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, and killed seven people a father, five of his sons and another relative, police said. A navy officer and his friend were killed by drive-by shooters while walking downtown in the largely Shiite city.
Late Thursday, insurgents ambused a convoy of Iraqi police enroute from Najaf to the U.S. base at Taji just north of the capital to pick up new vehicles, police said. Officials in Najaf said there were casualties but they had no figures.
In Baghdad, Mahmoud al-Hashimi, whose brother heads Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political party, was slain along with a companion Thursday as they drove through a mostly Shiite area, the Iraqi Islamic Party said. Tariq al-Hashimi is among the key players in negotiations over a new national unity government, which have stalled over the issue of who will be the next prime minister.
Tit-for-tat killings between Shiites and Sunnis soared after the Feb. 22 bombing of a major Shiite shrine in Samarra, triggering reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics. Violence was worse in religiously mixed areas of Baghdad, forcing the Americans to return to neighborhoods such as Shula that had been turned over to the Iraqis.
That casts doubt on the capability of Iraqi forces to deal with sectarian violence, despite assurances from American officials that the new army and police forces were gaining steadily in professional skills.
The renewed American presence has not been enough to stop the carnage. The car bomb exploded in a vegetable market in Shula packed with shoppers buying food for their evening meals, police said. At least 15 people were killed and 22 were wounded. Last week, a car bomb injured 13 people in the same neighborhood.
A roadside bomb Thursday killed a U.S. soldier southwest of Baghdad, the military said. The U.S. command also reported that a Marine died Wednesday of wounds suffered in hostile action near Baghdad.
More American troops were killed in the first two weeks of April 37 than in the entire month of March, when 31 died, according to an Associated Press count. At least 2,366 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started in 2003, according to AP.
The Shiites, the biggest bloc in the 275-member parliament, have nominated Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for a second term. But Sunni and Kurdish parties, whom the Shiites need as coalition partners, have rejected al-Jaafari and called on the Shiites to name a new candidate.
Al-Jaafari's supporters within the seven-party Shiite alliance have refused to replace him, and other groups within the bloc fear that trying to force him out will shatter the Shiite political movement.
Parliament speaker Adnan Pachachi has called for parliament to convene Monday to try to resolve the crisis, but Shiite politicians are reluctant to attend until a deal has been struck on the premiership and other top government posts that require parliamentary approval.
Khudayer al-Khuzai, who supports al-Jaafari, proposed that leaders of major Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties meet Sunday to try to reach consensus on candidates for top jobs.
"If we don't agree on the key posts, then why should we go to parliament?" al-Khuzai asked Thursday.
Voters chose the 275-member assembly on Dec. 15, but the legislature met briefly only once last month. The lack of progress has frustrated Iraqis, especially as steady violence much of it sectarian continues to claim hundreds of lives and threatens to push the country into a large-scale civil war.
Politicians echoed the discontent, chastising the top leaders' failure to agree.
"There are some political blocs who'd rather just be in power than provide security to the people," Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlaq told reporters. "We demand the political entities speed up the formation of the national government and stop the bloodshed in Iraq."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006 02:50 ||
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#1
Why do American troops have to carry the load ? I thought this was turned over to Iraqis some weeks ago. Let them handle it.
Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant has released an Internet video calling on Iraqi insurgents to remain strong in the fight against Americans and praising the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who directs Al Qaeda's operations in Iraq.
An introductory title on the video indicates that the lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, recorded the message last November, months after he is believed to have written a 6,000-word letter asking Mr. Zarqawi to refrain from slaughtering Shiites.
In recent months, perhaps in response to the letter, Mr. Zarqawi has not personally taken responsibility for any major attacks in Iraq.
"The Nation of Islam, I ask you to support your brothers, the mujahedeen in Iraq, and our brother, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, about whom I didn't see anything but good things the whole period I knew him," Mr. Zawahiri said in the video, as translated by the SITE Institute, an organization that tracks terrorists' messages. "I know him to be true, and how he is defending Islam with all his powers."
In the video, Mr. Zawahiri wears a white turban and gray robes and has a thick beard, while an automatic rifle leans against a brown backdrop. A former physician from Egypt, he is believed to be hiding in the mountainous area that straddles Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"You, my brothers in Iraq, stay firm, stay firm, be ready, be ready," he added. "Your enemy is now dizzy, and do not stop fighting until he is defeated by the grace of God."
That message came as violence continued to roil Iraq. Gunmen killed Mahmoud Ahmed al-Hashemi, the brother of a leading Sunni Arab politician, Tariq al-Hashemi. A car bomb exploded at a market on the outskirts of Baghdad on Thursday evening, killing at least 15 and wounding 22, an Interior Ministry official said.
In Hawija, in the north, insurgents killed two local contractors who delivered food to Iraqi Army units. Three men in Basra were abducted in two separate incidents; in one case, the kidnappers wore commando uniforms, officials said.
An American soldier was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad, and a marine died from "enemy action" west of Baghdad on Wednesday, the military said.
The American military said Thursday that last month Iraqi troops killed Rafid Ibrahim Fattah, also known as Abu Umar al-Kurdi, identifying him as a terrorist with ties to Mr. bin Laden and other senior Qaeda figures, in a raid near Abu Ghraib, The Associated Press reported.
The Iraqi government said a year ago that it had arrested a man with the same pseudonym and a similar background, but that report gave a different name for him, and it was unclear whether the reports referred to the same person.
The title sequence of Mr. Zawahiri's video indicates that the taping was done to honor the fourth anniversary of the American bombing of Tora Bora, the rugged area of Afghanistan scoured by American forces in December 2001 during a search for Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahiri.
Mr. Zawahiri opened the video by offering his condolences to the victims of the enormous earthquake in Kashmir last fall, which killed tens of thousands.
It is unclear why Mr. Zawahiri or Al Qaeda waited so long to release the video. Mr. Zawahiri appeared in three other videos that surfaced over the winter, after the November one was made. In the last one, dated March 4, he praised the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections.
This video appears at a time of conflicting reports about whether Mr. Zarqawi and his band of foreign fighters are closing their rift with some Iraqi insurgents who reportedly see them as interlopers. Some American officials here and sheiks from Anbar Province, the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency, say the divisions, which emerged over the winter, seem to be fading. Other officials say the split persists.
Mr. Zarqawi has adopted a lower profile in recent months. He has renamed his group the Mujahedeen Shura, or Council of Holy Warriors; it was called Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and before that, One God and Jihad. The new group supposedly includes leading Iraqi insurgents. Mr. Zarqawi also has not put out any Internet messages signed by himself and has not released any beheading videos, a staple of the war in 2004.
In his voluminous earlier letter to Mr. Zarqawi, dated July 9, Mr. Zawahiri advised him to avoid beheadings and warned him that the mass killings of Shiites would amount to "action that the masses do not understand or approve." The letter was released by Bush administration officials in October.
The Washington Post reported this week that the American military started a propaganda campaign years ago to portray Mr. Zarqawi as a towering villain in order to galvanize Iraqi opinion against him. Some military officials have said that campaign has enlarged Mr. Zarqawi's reputation, The Post reported.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a military spokesman who often attributes violence in Iraq to Mr. Zarqawi's group, released a statement in response saying Mr. Zarqawi was a substantial enemy, not a boogeyman concocted by the military.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006 02:45 ||
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The US army said Thursday that two American soldiers were killed in separate incidents in eastern Baghdad and in the City of Talafar in Mosul. The US army said in a statement that a soldier belonging to the Multi-National Forces was killed in Baghdad on Wednesday "when he was struck by an improvised explosive device during a patrol east of Baghdad." Another statement for the army said that an American soldier passed away on Tuesday from wounds he had sustained during a non-combat operation in an operations base near Talafar. The two statements did not give any further details but indicated that the two incidents are being investigated.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government said Thursday that up to 118 armed men were arrested for suspicions of their involvement in terror acts in several areas, such as Talafar and Fallujah. According to a statement issued by the Iraqi government, the army forces arrested 68 terrorists in the city of Talafar and 20 others in Fallujah. It added that 15 other terrorists were arrested and was found in their possession different kinds of weapons. Another terrorist was arrested in Al-Karada area in central Baghdad, the statement noted. In Kirkuk, three terrorists were arrested during a joint operation between the interior ministry forces and the army.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Thirteen people have been killed and eight wounded in a car bomb attack on a market located in a Shia-dominated Baghdad neighbhourhood, an Interior Ministry official said. The blast occured at 7:45pm (1545 GMT) on Thursday on the outskirts of Baghdad's western Kadhimiyah neighbhourhood, the official said.
Iraq's Shia community has been hit by a surge of attacks in recent weeks in what US officials say is a campaign by the al Qaeda leader in Iraq to draw them into a sectarian civil war. Last week, a triple suicide bombing at a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad killed up to 90 people.
In a separate attack on Thursday, armed men killed the brother of a top Sunni Arab politician in Baghdad on Thursday, members of his Iraqi Islamic Party said. Mahmoud al-Hashimi, brother of Iraqi Islamic Party leader Tariq al-Hashimi, died on Thursday, according to senior party official Ayad al-Samarei. He refused to give further details. Al-Hashimi is being tipped as the speaker of the new parliament, which is scheduled to meet on Monday. The Islamic Party is one the country's main Sunni political organisations.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Jordanian security forces stormed a high security prison outside Amman on Thursday, quashing a daylong uprising by Islamist prisoners and leaving one inmate dead and more than 35 guards and inmates wounded, government officials said.
It was the second such riot in Jordan in less than two months, adding to rising concerns that the growing Islamist population within prisons is organizing and giving Al Qaeda a new avenue for control.
Rioting broke out early on Thursday morning at the Qafqafa prison, about an hour north of Amman, the capital. The incident started when Islamist prisoners, including suspected members of Al Qaeda, refused officers' attempts to inspect their cellblock. One prisoner, who reportedly contacted the Arab news channel Al Jazeera on a contraband cellphone, said that prisoners had taken two guards hostage and that security forces had used bullets and tear gas to quell the riot. The government did not immediately confirm the claims.
Interior Minister Eid Fayez said the inspections were part of a nationwide effort to crack down on contraband in the country's prisons.
In March, prisoners at the Juweideh prison, on the outskirts of Amman, took a prison official hostage and wounded several police officers in a 14-hour standoff that erupted when officials sought to transfer two members of Al Qaeda, prisoners who were scheduled for execution. During that uprising, inmates at Swaqa prison, about 60 miles south of Amman, and at Qafqafa prison also rose in solidarity, pointing to cooperation between groups in different prisons.
Signs of a prisoner movement have been apparent in other countries. In Yemen in February, 23 prisoners linked to Al Qaeda broke out of a prison by digging a tunnel under it. Yemeni security officials believe that the men were able to win the sympathies of low-level prison guards and officials who allowed them to continue digging.
"Things no longer end in prison anymore. In fact, increasingly they begin there," said Hassan Abu Hanieh, who studies militant movements in Amman. Arab prisons have become recruitment centers, Mr. Hanieh and other analysts say, where Al Qaeda is building its ranks.
As governments in the region have cracked down on Islamists, the militants have flooded into prisons and become a much more powerful part of the population there. Wardens have had more difficulty keeping them separated from other prisoners, raising pressure on officials to give in to the Islamists' demands to keep the peace. The prisoners who rioted Thursday had been allowed to cook their own meals and received money from their families, said Shaher Bak, commissioner of the National Center for Human Rights.
"They control the world inside the prisons," Mr. Hanieh said of the Islamists. Almost every prison in Jordan is now controlled by an informal emir among the Islamist prisoners, who can decide much of the future of inmates, oversees prayers and searches for recruits, he said. "What really helps them is that the society inside has borne a sense of oppression and now view the government as the enemy," he added.
The changing prison population has left officials with a dilemma, said Faris Breizat, an analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies at Jordan University. "The authorities have a problem: if they want to put them in solitary confinement, there's not enough space; if they combine them with other prisoners they will recruit; but if they leave them together, they will only solidify their networks," Mr. Breizat said. "In many ways, their hands are tied."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006 02:57 ||
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#1
What, they can't build more prisons? They're cheaper than the alternative of getting your cities blown up.
#2
The United States was able to build the first nuclear device in 3 years from a standing start.
What is amazing is that with the amount of information freely available, funding from an economy as large as the U. S. in WWII and the knowledge the Iranians have gained from overseas study as well as A. Q. Khan they have been unable to develop a bomb in at least 6.
#3
Whenever I hear the term "prison riot" I always wonder why it isn't followed by "inmates massacred by guards." If you're in prison, by definition you're a POS who has seriously broken society's rules and is being allowed to pay the price to eventually come back into society. If you screw up while in the pen, like by rioting, for example, you've demonstrated that the decision to let you pay that price was a wrong one. Society should simply then remove you from the land of the living and stop paying for your maintenance.
Posted by: mac ||
04/14/2006 20:04 Comments ||
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#4
Jordan will have a limited tolerance of this sh*t. Next uprising, expect excessive casualties.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 20:11 Comments ||
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Hamas has intimated that the office of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, along with "familiar symbols of the previous Palestinian Authority," is emptying the coffers of the new Palestinian government.
In a statement issued Thursday in a flyer, Hamas leveled its harshest attack to date against the PA and Abbas' office, adding a veiled accusation that the previous government was working with foreign elements to bring down the new government. The Hamas statement said the government "had been stripped of all its savings and cleaned out of all income sources such as border crossings and the Palestinian investment funds and other sources." These funds, controlled in the past by the Palestinian finance ministry, have now been placed under the personal aegis of the PA chairman.
Yup, it's a real shame that Abbas has turned into a garden-variety klepto. Just think what Hamas could do with all that money.
"Hamas is surprised at the participation of Palestinian elements in the campaign against our people. Those symbols are conspiring to place responsibility for the economic crisis on the Hamas government," the statement said.
Their statements and their actions make clear that their aim, in cooperation with the occupation and America, is to bring about the failure of the government and to establish a new government contrary to the Palestinian interest," Hamas said in the statement.
Always amusing to listen to a Paleo talk about the 'Palestinian interest'.
Hamas says it has information that elements in Fatah are already organizing marches and protests against the withholding of PA salaries, which have not been paid since the beginning of the month with no payment date in sight.
That shoe on the other foot is beginning to pinch, huh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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#12
Imagine the money Isreal could save if the Paloes wiped themselves out.
The money Israel could save? How about the money WE could save? (Not to mention all that unused newspaper space that could carry OTHER news than their whining and mewling.)
RAMALLAH: Masked gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades on Thursday briefly occupied the Palestinian prime minister's West Bank offices to demand benefits from the cash-strapped Hamas government. Around two dozen militants forced their way into the downtown building in the middle of a video-conference linking senior civil servants based in the West Bank town with their counterparts in Gaza City, while storming the transport ministry at the same time, security sources and witnesses told AFP. Although Ramallah serves as the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, new prime minister Ismail Haniya has had to operate out of Gaza as a result of travel restrictions imposed on the new Hamas-led administration.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
According to Khaleej Times the gunnies stormed the Transport Ministry to demand resumption of free cab fare for the widows/kiddies of suicide bombers...
#4
Seafarious, it's not free cab fare, but free taxi licenses. The deal has always been the gunnies get several hundred taxi licenses each that they sell for a couple of thousand bucks each. It's the perks they're demanding. The ones they are used to and to which they are entitled.
One man was killed and several injured at a Jordanian prison north of Amman on Thursday when Islamist prisoners clashed with police, a security source said. The source said Islamist prisoners took two policemen hostage during the clashes, which erupted at Qafqafa jail when police tried to enter the cells to enforce solitary confinement. A government official said the disturbance had been brought under control, but gave no further details. The security source later said one dead body and a number of injured police and inmates were taken to hospital. It was not immediately clear if the dead man was an inmate or a policeman but pan-Arab Al Arabiya television identified him as a prisoner.
An Islamist prisoner told Al Jazeera satellite station that a 1,000-strong security force had entered the jail to try to kidnap two inmates and fired tear gas when some prisoners put up resistance. He said one inmate had been wounded by a gunshot. Government spokesman Naser Juda said violence erupted when some prisoners tried to stop security forces from searching their cells for drugs and sharp weapons, but made no mention of hostages or casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 00:00 ||
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IRAN has said it could defeat any American military action over its controversial nuclear drive, in one of the Islamic regime's boldest challenges yet to the United States.
"You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures.
"The Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region and in Iraq are vulnerable. I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error," he told reporters on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian conference in Tehran.
The United States accuses Iran of using an atomic energy drive as a mask for weapons development. Last weekend US news reports said President George W. Bush's administration was refining plans for preventive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"I would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said with a grin.
"We have American forces in the region under total surveillance. For the past two years, we have been ready for any scenario, whether sanctions or an attack."
Iran announced this week it had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, despite a UN Security Council demand for the sensitive work to be halted by April 28.
The Islamic regime says it only wants to generate atomic energy, but enrichment can be extended to make the fissile core of a nuclear warhead -- something the United States is convinced that "axis of evil" member Iran wants to acquire.
At a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati simply branded the US as a "decaying power" lacking the "stamina" to block Iran's ambitions.
And hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that a US push for tough United Nations sanctions was of "no importance".
"She is free to say whatever she wants," the president replied when asked to respond to comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice highlighting part of the UN charter that provides for sanctions backed up by the threat of military action.
"We give no importance to her comments," he said with a broad smile.
On Thursday, Ms Rice said that faced with Iran's intransigence, the United States "will look at the full range of options available to the United Nations".
"There is no doubt that Iran continues to defy the will of the international community," Rice said, after Iran also dismissed a personal appeal from the UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief must give a report at the end of April on Iranian compliance with the Security Council demand. In Tehran he said that after three years of investigations Iran's activities were "still hazy and not very clear".
Although the United States has been prodding the council to take a tough stand against the Islamic republic, including possible sanctions, it has run into opposition from veto-wielding members Russia and China.
Representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany are to meet in Moscow Tuesday to discuss the crisis.
In seeking to deter international action, Iran has been playing up its oil wealth, its military might in strategic Gulf waters and its influence across the region -- such as in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
#2
Mohamed ElBaradei...The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief must give a report at the end of April on Iranian compliance with the Security Council demand. In Tehran he said that after three years of investigations Iran's activities were "still hazy and not very clear".
If Mo see's his shadow, does that mean six more weeks of winter?
#5
Bush is playing his cards close to his chest. Condi is spouting out the required State pablum. The military is not saying much, and neither is Rummy. Everything is just MSM wild speculation or Iranian bluster.
I would imagine, and it is my fervent hope that most everything is prepositioned and ready to go. The sites will have to be taken out AND the MM regime decapitated. The stakes are too high for Israel (they would lose everything), for us, and like it or not, for the rest of the ME oil consuming nations, INCLUDING the Chicoms.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2006 16:31 Comments ||
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#6
My biggest fear is he is right. Our military can demolish them. But thier people are just canon fodder to them. They would extend it out, and with our press constantely pounding on the reasons for attaching we would back off. It was my biggest fear in the Iraq war, and I'm not convinced we will finnish there.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2006 17:11 Comments ||
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#10
My biggest worry: that we'll stomp all over their nuclear toys and set back their plans by a couple of years-- but without taking out the Mad Mullahs.
That would be a horrible mistake.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/14/2006 17:14 Comments ||
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#11
Goes down after November mid-term elections. Open wide AhMad, bend over and spread em.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/14/2006 17:18 Comments ||
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#12
General Yahya Rahim Safavi, what's your cross-street?
#15
and you also post under a generated name, how courageous! Showtime's ineveitable. Hopefully the Persian/Kurds/etc. people will take the chance to take back the then smouldering hole they call a country
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 18:12 Comments ||
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#18
The quoted general seems to assume the US would send in troops rather than simply bomb the snot out of everything we vet as a proper target.
I think any kind of actual invasion is very unlikely. In fact I think, the first strike might be against the Mullahs. We just need assets in country to tell us when, and planes nearby enough to hit when the call comes in.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2006 19:32 Comments ||
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#22
WIll say again the RINO, agenda-less, Lefties/Commies-for-Fascism-for-Communism Dems have nuthin' and no one for 2008, and the anti-Bush-GOP MSM and Hollyweird isn't cutting it despite all the PC anti-Bush/America rants and Left-centric Reality- and Alternatism-themed shows. WILL SAY AGAIN THAT ITS HIGHLY DOUBTFUL HILLARY WILL RUN FOR POTUS OR WILL WANT TO BE POTUS AS LONG AS THE VARIOUS ROGUE CRISES REMAIN UNRESOLVED, i.e. aren't over. wid 2-3/4 years left in Dubya's term, IRAN andor NORTH KOREA, to include TAIWAN, will prob be the last Rogues Dubya and his boyz get to effectively deal with - Africa, etal. world states will be left to Dubya's REPUBLICAN successor. NEW 9-11's AND EAST-WEST GEOPOL CONFRONTATION IS ALL THE WEAK-AND GETTIN-WEAKER DEMOLEFT HAVE RIGHT NOW, WID OR WIDOUT THE CLINTONS, and whatever the Dems desire or need to do to forcibly usurp GOP pre-eminence HAS TO OCCUR NOW, NOW LATER, espec iff they expect Hillary to win the Presidency. WITHOUT NEW 9-11's OR EAST-WEST CONFRONTATION OVER IRAN-NORTH KOREA-TAIWAN, ITS DOUBTFUL THAT EVEN GORE, KERRY, OR DEAN, wid Hillary as VEEP?, WILL WIN IN 2008. NOt just new 9-11/s/Amer Hiroshimas, but new 9-11's/Amer Hiroshimas which destroy the credibility, iff not existence, of the GOP and its major candidates as a potent organized force and Party. The DemoLefties for 2008 need catasrophic events which are violent, NPE-minimum casualty-heavy, PC/PDeniable, AND ABOVE ALL SHORT LEAD TIMES TO CAMPAIGN FOR ELEX.
#23
I'm not sure he's wrong, as mad as his comments make me. Ultimately I'm not sure we have the will for an all out bloody war. What I see is that we have a bunch of fools in this country that don't understand what a military and political achievement it's been for our troops to take control of an entire nation, begin retraining of that nation's military and rebuilding of the country, while being attacked by outside terrorists and rebels from Sadam's regime. We've only had 2367 deaths in that time period and the amount of Iraqi civilian deaths although much higher pales in comparison with past wars. History is going to look back at those figures in awe.
What concerns me is that I don't think we would see the same thing in Iran. We can't just take out the nuke sites. At the very least there would be retaliation and large increase of US casualties in Iraq which would lead to more of our cowardly politicians voting to turn tail and run. I think it could overwhelm Bush at this point in time. It's also possible it would lead to the overthrow of more or less friendly Arab leaders, an attack on Israel and a much wider war then just Iran. Even in the best case scenerio, where our only concern is Iran, it will not be an easy nut to crack. I have no doubt we could obliterate the mullahs and their military, but with the differences in terrain, the amount of money that Iran is pouring into their military, and Iran having been able to observe our military in action and get some idea of how we operate, our casualties would be a lot higher. If people in this country can't handle under 2400 deaths in 3 years how are they going to handle 10 times that amount in a much shorter period of time? All of this doesn't even take into consideration the international response which would not be particularly in our favor.
I do think it's going to have to be done, but I think it's going to take some sort of open action by Iran against Israel, or our forces, or another attack on this country by terrorists before we'll see it and by the time it actually comes to pass it'll be whole lot bloodier then it might have been.
TEHRAN, Iran - The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.
"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."
Ahmadinejad provoked a world outcry in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map." On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"
The land of Palestine, he said, referring to the British mandated territory that includes all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, "will be freed soon." He did not say how this would be achieved, but insisted to the audience of at least 900 people: "Believe that Palestine will be freed soon." "The existence of this (Israeli) regime is a permanent threat" to the Middle East, he added. "Its existence has harmed the dignity of Islamic nations."
The three-day conference on Palestine is being attended by officials of Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian territories. Iran has previously said it will give money to the Palestinian Authority to make up for the withdrawal of donations by Western nations who object to Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence. But no figure has been published.
#1
He must hate iranians cuz this is a good way to wind up with a lot of dead ones.
simple sequence:
1. Israel attacked (suitcase bomb, missile or otherwise)
2. regardless of "proof," the assumption will be that iran is behind it
3. massive, disproportionate retaliation
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/14/2006 14:14 Comments ||
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#4
Gee sounds like a rational person to me. I can't think of why Bush doesn't want him to gain access to nukes. Maybe Bush is just a racists? (end sarcasm)
#6
How would the UN/EU pussies like this speech with a few corrections changes?
"TEHRAN, Iran WASHINGTON, D.C. - The president of Iran the United States again lashed out at Israel Iran on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Bush called Israel Iran a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.
"Like it or not, the Zionist regime Iran is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad Bush said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians freedom and liberty in the Middle East. "The Zionist regime Iran is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm of Cruise missles and B-52's."
Ahmadinejad provoked a world an outcry from the U.S. and a couple of other decent nations in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map." Most, however, grinned from ear to ear and prayed it would be so."
There, how's that? At least it has a ring of truth to it - which is more than the original had.
The LLL and the Dems (but I repeat myself) will say NOTHING about this latest oral diarrhea from Iran. But if Bush had spoken my version, seething would have begun yesterday.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2006 15:28 Comments ||
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#7
Oh - forgot to mention:
I wish Bush would give that speech.
I've got dibs on the popcorn concession. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2006 15:30 Comments ||
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#10
If I was Israel and the US/West punks out on Iran I think I would just launch a first strike. I would send nearly all my nukes holding enough in reserve to burn every Arab capitol just in case. This would totally annihilated the Iranians weapons economy military hell population while at the same time showing everyone else you are not going out without taking the vast majority of your enemy with ya. And since you just hit the no limits scorched earth level might as well go for gold and have a couple launches fall short just happening to hit the Paleo population centers.
The world hates em anyway so they will still be the wiping post for the UN just short some outside threats that unlike the UN can actually back their rhetoric up.
This is a insane scenario but many would say the same thing about waiting all nice and proper in the corner while the murderer sharpens his knife telling you the whole time how he is going to cut you up first.
#11
So, is ElBaradei still in town? Will these Ahmadinejad quotes make it into his April 28 report to the U.N. Security Council? No, I thought not. The U.N. will condemn the U.S. and Israel when we do the compelling task. And Kerry and Gore and Carter and the Clintons and all the other sorry Neville Chamberlains will paint Bush to be the mad man.
#12
"Its existence has harmed the dignity of Islamic nations."
"It sneaked up behind us and hit us on the head, and then, when we woke up, we were tied over the hood of our car with our pants around our ankles. There was grease and chicken feathers all over our buttocks, and though we tried, we could not break free. Only then we saw Israel, with clown makeup and wearing lederhosen and scuba flippers, and it had broken off our car aerial and was grinning menacingly at us, the Islamic nations. And I can say no more..."
#13
There has got to be something to this. Any game theory strategist's in the house?
Scenario 1
His puppet masters know the Iranian theocracy is doomed and they put this lunatic in power knowing he can mobilize passions against a commom enemy. If we don't attack, their position strengthens. If we do attack, their position strengthens. Either way this lunacy is the only way for the theocrats to keep control.
Scenario 2
He truly is a lunatic with a deathwish believing that glory will come to him and his people if they sacrifice themselves in a glorious fight for Islamic supremacy. Not a good scenario at all - a lunatic with nuclear power that sees more glory in death is the most dangerous lunatic of all.
This is not a good thing.
Our best bet - hard, quick, hard, decisive strike, hard that minimizes collateral damage but is hard enough that the lunatic wing takes a very long nap. Did I mention it needs to be a hard hit?
We're in the midst of watching the rebirth of every lunatic from the 20th century rolled into one coming back to haunt us - and pussies at the UN are fiddling with themselves.
Posted by: Digital Patriot ||
04/14/2006 17:29 Comments ||
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#14
First night of bombing should take out him, his buddies and the mad mullahs with their major personal businesses and assets.
#15
First night of bombing should take out him, his buddies and the mad mullahs with their major personal businesses and assets.
Like we did with Saddam?
Realistically, if the Iranians want to have nut jobs run the country, they will. I don't care if they do. I only care whether they've got nukes. So we bomb and raid and Shermanize to assure that they don't and that they learn there's a penalty. If they make nukes again, we'll stomp them again. That's all that matters, not whether nutjobs run the country.
#16
Their assets especially, NS - they're common knowledge in Iran: factories, MB/BMW dealerships. Make them take an involuntary vow of poverty
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 18:04 Comments ||
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#17
This guy sounds as plausible as Baghdad Bob but it is eerily similary to the clownish and outlandish pronouncements Hitler made in the 30s. People laughed then and paid the price later. I think this boy is big trouble and needs to be stomped quick.
Now, dicks have drive and clarity of vision, but they are not clever. They smell pussy and they want a piece of the action. And you thought you smelled some good old pussy, and have brought your two small mincey faggot balls along for a good old time. But you've got your parties mangled up. There's no pussy here, just a dose that'll make you wish you were born a woman. Like a prick, you are having second thoughts. You are shrinking, and your two little balls are shrinking with ya. The fact that you've got "Replica" written down the side of your gun. (withdraws his gun) And the fact that I've got "Desert Eagle point five O" written on the side of mine, should precipitate your balls into shrinking, along with your presence. Now...
#19
MadMoud's on-going rants have already over-justified either Irael, the USA, and even the UNO-UNSC taking unilateral or joint mil action against him and the Mullahs. He and the Mullahs are going hell-bent for nukes, and at minima Iran-centric/controlled regional ME empire within our present lifetimes. Every person and Muslim in the ME is s future Iranian citizen or peon in the making. Aymmetric warfare allows a weak society to fight a militarily or technologically superior or dominant society in non-suicidal combat while preserving as much fighting manpower as possible for suture use by said weaker society - this means that, as wid the Russo-Chicom "War/Battle Zone" strategem, POLITICAL-DIPLOMATIC VICTORY is PRIORITIZED OVER MILITARY-ARMED VIOLENCE. BY definiontion this ergo means that MadMoud's, etal. ULTIMATE ACE IN THE DECK are those anti-American Americans already existing or soon to exist within the American NPE-MIC's. WHY WAGE WAR WHEN YOUR ENEMY WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT ANYWAYS!?
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
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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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.
BAGRAM, Afghanistan A computer drive sold openly Wednesday at a bazaar outside the U.S. air base here holds what appears to be a trove of potentially sensitive American intelligence data, including the names, photographs and telephone numbers of Afghan spies informing on the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Two British soldiers have suffered minor injuries in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. A spokeswoman said the pair, and a local person, were hurt in an incident in Lashka Gar, the Helmand provincial capital, in the south of the country. Local authorities have confirmed that a suicide car bomber drove into a military convoy. 
A shopkeeper outside the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Afghanistan was selling computer memory drives Wednesday containing seemingly sensitive military data stolen from inside the base -- including the Social Security numbers of four American generals. This shopkeeper was apparently not the only merchant in local bazaars trying to get some cash in exchange for hardware and software containing such files. The surfacing of the stolen computer devices has sparked an urgent American military probe for the source of the embarrassing security breach, which has led to disks with the personal letters and biographies of soldiers and lists of troops who completed nuclear, chemical and biological warfare training going on sale for $20 to $50.
Chad's government has announced it has cut off diplomatic relations with Sudan after repelling a rebel attack on the capital, N'Djamena on Thursday. Sudan denies Chad's accusations that it backs the 
Clashes between the Sudanese army and opposition forces in the country's east saw eight people killed, the army said in a statement Wednesday. The incident saw forces loyal to the 
One person has been killed and at least 12 others injured by knife-wielding attackers at three churches in northern Egypt, police have said. The attacks happened in Coptic churches in the city of Alexandria. The simultaneous incidents took place during Friday Mass, and the attackers fled immediately afterwards. Witnesses said clashes erupted between Christians and Muslims outside the churches, the Associated Press news agency reported. Hundreds of Christians had gathered outside the churches in protest at the attacks, the agency said. 
Hundreds of people have fled their homes in central Nigeria after three days of communal clashes. The fighting in Plateau State has left at least 25 people dead, according to unconfirmed reports. State Information Commissioner Yakubu Datti would only confirm the deaths of two policemen and a soldier during efforts to restore order. 
At least two people including an elderly woman were killed and four others injured when Janajuddha faction of 
New laws making it illegal to glorify terrorism came into force across Britain on Thursday following months of bitter political debate. The Terrorism Act 2006 allows groups or organisations to be banned for glorifying terrorism and distributing publications promoting terrorist acts.
FORMER Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib has produced a bizarre home video to show the world his alleged mistreatment at the hands of the US military.
AHMEDABAD - Rival Muslim groups clashed in a town in western India on Friday injuring eight people, including a police officer, and set fire to a local Islamic school, police said. The trouble began when some Shia Muslims objected to the presence of people from the Sunni community outside a mosque in Kalol town in the western state of Gujarat. Several houses and a madrasa were set ablaze before police fired teargas to disperse the rioters, a government official said. The situation is under control, but we are maintaining a strict vigil in the areas, the district administrator D.H. Brahmbhatt said, adding several people had been arrested.
At least three people have been injured in two explosions inside the Jama Masjid (Grand Mosque) in the Indian capital, Delhi, police say. The chief cleric of the mosque, Imam Bukhari, told the BBC that the blasts occurred inside the complex . It is not clear what caused the blasts which came shortly after Friday prayers, mosque officials say. 
Military sources said Atwah was killed along with six other Islamic radicals in a missile attack by Pakistani Cobra helicopters on their hideout in the North Waziristan tribal region just before midnight on Wednesday.
The United States has refused to confirm reports of a senior al Qaeda operative being killed in Pakistan.
A senior member of Al Qaeda who was wanted for his part in the bombings of the United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 has been killed in an airstrike on a compound in Pakistan's restive tribal region of North Waziristan, two senior security officials said today.
In less than a week, two more tribesmen were shot dead Thursday by suspected Islamic militants on suspicions of spying on them for the US troops, said intelligence sources. Armed men in a car fired on two tribesmen in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal agency, and fled, leaving them dead, sources told KUNA. Few days back, another tribesman was killed in neighboring North Waziristan tribal agency on the same charges.
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court acquitted on Thursday appellant Sabir Ali Waseem from charges of firing a rocket at Government Commerce College in the limits of Artillery Maidan police station back in 2001. Sabir Ali was awarded an aggregate of 30 years of imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court in April 2003. According to the prosecution, the appellant had confessed that he wanted to hit the Sheraton hotel in the vicinity, but missed the target and hit Government Commerce College instead.
QUETTA: Suspected tribal rebels fired at least 10 rockets at a check post in Dera Bugti and also blew up a water supply line in Pir Koh. The rockets targeted the FC Fort and the Gori Bill check post, but fell outside the fort. No loss of life or property was reported, but the army retaliated. In the second incident, suspected rebels blew up a water supply line that resulted in the suspension of water supply to the Pir Koh area. The security forces also defused two landmines in Pir Koh.
Intelligence agencies have unearthed an assassination plan targeting former prime minister 
Troops were deployed in Karachi on Thursday as trouble broke out before funerals for Sunni Muslim leaders who were among 60 people killed in a suicide blast two days ago. An estimated 50,000 people, a vast majority of them young men and teenagers, attended the funeral prayers and burial of the top religious leaders on MA Jinnah Road on Thursday evening. Ten top leaders of the 
A suicide car bomber attacked a police station north of Baghdad Friday, wounding at least seven people when he detonated his explosives, he said. The bomber hit about 7:15 a.m. in the city of Mosul, which is 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. Five civilians were among those wounded, police Brig. Abdul-Hamid al-Jibouri said.
The US army said Thursday that two American soldiers were killed in separate incidents in eastern Baghdad and in the City of Talafar in Mosul. The US army said in a statement that a soldier belonging to the Multi-National Forces was killed in Baghdad on Wednesday "when he was struck by an improvised explosive device during a patrol east of Baghdad." Another statement for the army said that an American soldier passed away on Tuesday from wounds he had sustained during a non-combat operation in an operations base near Talafar. The two statements did not give any further details but indicated that the two incidents are being investigated.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government said Thursday that up to 118 armed men were arrested for suspicions of their involvement in terror acts in several areas, such as Talafar and Fallujah. According to a statement issued by the Iraqi government, the army forces arrested 68 terrorists in the city of Talafar and 20 others in Fallujah. It added that 15 other terrorists were arrested and was found in their possession different kinds of weapons. Another terrorist was arrested in Al-Karada area in central Baghdad, the statement noted. In Kirkuk, three terrorists were arrested during a joint operation between the interior ministry forces and the army.
Thirteen people have been killed and eight wounded in a car bomb attack on a market located in a Shia-dominated Baghdad neighbhourhood, an Interior Ministry official said. The blast occured at 7:45pm (1545 GMT) on Thursday on the outskirts of Baghdad's western Kadhimiyah neighbhourhood, the official said.
Hamas has intimated that the office of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, along with "familiar symbols of the previous Palestinian Authority," is emptying the coffers of the new Palestinian government. 
RAMALLAH: Masked gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades on Thursday briefly occupied the Palestinian prime minister's West Bank offices to demand benefits from the cash-strapped Hamas government. Around two dozen militants forced their way into the downtown building in the middle of a video-conference linking senior civil servants based in the West Bank town with their counterparts in Gaza City, while storming the transport ministry at the same time, security sources and witnesses told AFP. Although Ramallah serves as the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, new prime minister Ismail Haniya has had to operate out of Gaza as a result of travel restrictions imposed on the new Hamas-led administration.
One man was killed and several injured at a Jordanian prison north of Amman on Thursday when Islamist prisoners clashed with police, a security source said. The source said Islamist prisoners took two policemen hostage during the clashes, which erupted at Qafqafa jail when police tried to enter the cells to enforce solitary confinement. A government official said the disturbance had been brought under control, but gave no further details. The security source later said one dead body and a number of injured police and inmates were taken to hospital. It was not immediately clear if the dead man was an inmate or a policeman but pan-Arab Al Arabiya television identified him as a prisoner. 
TEHRAN, Iran - The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time. 
