headline will be gone in moments, but the Yahoo goof was snorking funny.
Just the headline folks, not the story. and this will be temporary, til they fix it. Story at link
Fixed when I checked at 10 pm CDT, 5/17.
As of Thursday, May 18, 2006, at least 2,455 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 1,930 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers....
Karachi, 18 May (AKI) - (Syed Saleem Shahzad) - Many jihadis in Afghanistan and farther afield are convinced that by year's end Taliban leader Mullah Omar will be back in power in Afghanistan, from where he was driven by US-led forces in late 2001.
They also think Elliot Yamin is a shoe-in to win American Idol
That may be wishful thinking, yet Taliban preparations over the past eight months indicate the so-called 'spring offensive' will be bloody.
(scratches head, looks at calendar) When exactly does spring start in Afghanistan?
The gunbattles in southern Helmand province which have killed at least 70 people in the past two days are proof. And crucial to the offensive is Mullah Omar's recent decision to bring in a legendary anti-Soviet fighter, Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani as commander-at-large.
Since most of the deaders are Taliban, I approve this nominee
The winter buildup for the Taliban's ongoing attempts to destabilise the Karzai-led administration, as NATO troops move into the more restive southern provinces, has involved the mass recruitment of suicide bombers and underhand deals with local tribal elders in various Afghan provinces.
"Once again we are facing like situation like the mid-1990s when bloodshed was everywhere, the situation went from bad to worse and circumstances prompted the Taliban movement to emerge and boot our government out," warned former Afghan prime minister Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, on a telephone with Adnkronos International (AKI) from Kabul. "The Karzai administration has no writ anywhere and we are once again in a limbo," added Ahmad Shah, acting premier of Afghanistan before the Taliban seized power in 1996.
Sounds like they could also be former Clinton administration officials
However, sources across the border suggest that while recent decisions by Mullah Omar have contributed to the Taliban broadening their armed revolt in southern Afghanistan, their progress has been made possible by long months of ground work and planning.
The major decision - which sources believe dates back to April 2006 - was bringing in Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani as the key commander in Afghan resistance. Jalaluddin Haqqani was not part of Taliban movement when it emerged from Zabul in the mid-1990s, but he was the first, most powerful commander of the Afghan resistance who surrendered to Taliban, unconditionally.
So, being the first to surrender is a good career move.
Now in his 50s Haqqani is respected as a legendary commander of Mujahadeen who fought against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan and was responsible for seizing the first major city, Khost, in 1991 from the communist government.
Though Haqqani still command greatest respect all over Afghanistan and among tribal elders of Khost, Paktia Paktika and Gardez, because he did not belong to the original Taliban core, he could not acquire any central role in the Taliban-led resistance.
Yet he has always remained loyal to Mullah Omar. Proof of that was given in after 9/11, when Haqqani was invited to Islamabad by the Pakistani secret services, the ISI, who offered him the presidency if he would lead a revolt against Mullah Omar and carve out moderate Taliban. Haqqani refused and went back to the Ghulam Khan mountains to pitch intense battle against allied forces.
He continue to operate in the areas of Khost and Paktia with random attacks but Mullah Akhtar Osamani and Mullah Dadullah remained the central commanders of Taliban.
That all changed, sources believe, last month. Mullah Omar examined his forces and decided to 'promote' Jalaluddin Haqqani, giving him more funds, huge stockpiles of arms and ammunition and many hundreds of youths who had been trained with Iraqi resistance in the techniques of urban guerrilla warfare.
Mullah Omar has assigned geographic areas to each commander but now Jalaluddin Haqqani has been made commander at large. He is given control of suicide attackers to launch them through out Afghanistan and is authorized to pitch battles with his group any where on Afghan soil.
The flow of funds and human resources have boosted Haqqanis influence in the southern region and many old veterans of the Afghan resistance, like Nasrullah Mansoors commander Saifullah Masoor, who were previously sitting idle in Gardez and other areas have joined Haqqani.
Checked his credit rating, did they?
The personnel change at the top comes at the end of steady preparations throughout 2005 and in to 2006. The Taliban launched a major recruitment drive all last year. When the Pakistan government clamped down on Jihadi activities and discouraged militants from infiltrating Indian-administered Kashmir, many fighters were re-routed to the Taliban.
In Pakistan, former members of banned organizations such as Laskhar-i-Toiba and Jaish-i-Mohamed gravitated towards North and South Waziristan, in the mountainous borderlands with Afghanistan, where the Taliban have established an Islamic state on the pattern of their regime in Afghanistan. All pledge their allegiance to Mullah Omar.
Jihadi sources indicate that there may be up to 27,000 fighters gathered in North Waziristan alone, with a further 13,000 believed grouped in South Waziristan. It is from this predominantly tribal area - where Pakistan's central government has no writ despite attempts to send troops - that militants can pass into southern Afghanistan, stage their attacks, and retreat.
The local Taliban leadership is believed to have formed 100 suicide squads by February 2006. Their motto fight till the last man and last bullet though if they carry out suicide attacks there will, naturally, be no fighting at all.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/18/2006 13:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
News Flash to Mullah Omar: US and NATO forces are not the the WWII relic the USSR sent in in the 80s. Yes, it may be bloody...but I would wager the kill ratio will be closer to 50:1 (Taliwhackers:NATO). Their only hope is to continiue the semi-succesful CONOP of an endless parade of suicide bombers for the next 10 years.
#2
The NATO troops are also a lot better trained, motivated and have better equipment than the Soviets. Go ahead Mullah, attack. We dare ya, you little girl!
#5
IF there are 27,000 fighters in South Waziristan and Pak forces have not been able to secure the area... perhaps it time for a month of Arc Lighting?
#6
"It is from this predominantly tribal area - where Pakistan's central government has no writ despite attempts to send troops - that militants can pass into southern Afghanistan, stage their attacks, and retreat."
BWAHAHAHA! This sentence sums up what a load of B/S this article is. If they are on the point of storming back into Kabul, why the hell are they reduced to carrying out hit-and-run attacks from Pakistan? Why retreat after an attack? The truth is they don't control an inch of Afghan territory because as soon as they declare that they have 'liberated' some Godforsaken border town, the Afghan/NATO forced turn them into goat dung. I think it's about time the Afghan government paraded some of their Talib prisoners on TV telling the world that Mullah Omar is a faggot.
#10
"underhand deals with local tribal elders in various Afghan provinces."
This means that we should start a advertising campaign. After all, we have more mney than them.
"We will beat any bonafide offer" it's spring time in Afghanstan, and our prices will not be beat."
#11
Article: Many jihadis in Afghanistan and farther afield are convinced that by year's end Taliban leader Mullah Omar will be back in power in Afghanistan, from where he was driven by US-led forces in late 2001.
The question is what happens if the deadline passes and they're not in power. You could say that issuing arbitrary timelines isn't so smart - but I think the people they recruit don't have a lot of patience. They're willing to die for the cause, but only if there's a realistic hope of winning. So there has to be a deadline. The problem for them is that if the deadline materializes, and they're not in charge, they're a spent force. Money and new recruits will tail off sharply after that. They had better get going. Muslim financiers are probably getting tired of shelling out cash for no results. And potential Muslim recruits are getting discouraged after seeing so much sacrifice and so few results.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/18/2006 17:31 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Don't be fergitin' the 2008 US POTUS elex. As for HAQQANI, I remember him - iff Osama is an intellectual warrior, Haqqey is more hands-on. As a field commander, he's wily, pragmatic, and brutish, and has no qualms sacrificing a lot of men to wear down an enemy and achieve an objective.
Taliban militants fought fierce battles with coalition and Afghan forces in a dramatic upsurge of violence in southern Afghanistan, leaving up to 100 people -- mostly rebels -- dead, officials said.
Two suicide bombs also rocked the insurgency-hit country on Thursday. One in western Afghanistan killed a US anti-narcotics adviser while a civilian died in the other in the south.
The battles, in which 13 police and a Canadian soldier also died, were all in the volatile south and came weeks before NATO-led peacekeepers are due to take over operations in the troubled region at the end of July. It was the worst violence for months in Afghanistan, where remnants of the ultra-Islamic Taliban continue to wage a bloody insurgency more than four years after their hardline regime was ousted by US-led forces.
In an operation early Thursday in southern Kandahar province seven Taliban were confirmed killed with another 15 to 20 likely dead in an air strike, the US-led coalition said. A coalition soldier was also wounded. Three suspected Taliban hideouts were destroyed in the operation, designed to "detain individuals suspected of terrorist and anti-Afghanistan activities," it said in a statement.
Separately a battle raged in Helmand province for several hours late Wednesday after police stormed a district on a tip-off that Taliban fighters had massed there, interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said. Thirteen police were killed, seven were wounded and two are missing after the hours-long fighting in Musa Qala district, Stanizai said. "Around 40 Taliban were killed and they have left behind the bodies of 10," he said. The militants often take the bodies of their dead away with them. Ten Taliban were captured, he said.
Three to one is not a great kill ratio for the police.
"The attack was very strong," said Moheedin Khan, a spokesman for the Helmand governor. "But we resisted."
Afghan security forces backed by Canadian troops and artillery and British helicopters fought Taliban insurgents for most of the day Wednesday in neighbouring Kandahar province. "Eighteen Taliban have been killed and 35 are detained" in the fighting centering on Panjwayi district 24 kilometres (15 miles) west of Kandahar city, coalition spokesman Major Quentin Innis said Thursday.
A US anti-narcotics adviser was killed in the western city of Herat on Thursday when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into his Land Cruiser, the US embassy said. An Afghan interpreter was wounded. A second suicide bomber struck hours later in the southern city of Ghazni, killing an Afghan passer-by. The attacker tried to slam his car into an Afghan army convoy but the bombs exploded before he could reach the troops. The Taliban claimed responsibility for both bombings.
Hmmmm...sometimes I wonder...Is the Taliban really a Terrorist organization? Or merely"...individuals suspected of terrorist and anti-Afghanistan activities"
May 18, 2006: In two days of fighting in southern Afghanistan, at least 72 people died. Two major Taliban attacks failed, leaving 58 of the Taliban dead. One Canadian soldier was killed, along with a dozen Afghan security personnel and a few civilians.
The Taliban continue to have problems using roadside bomb and anti-vehicle mine tactics. Unlike Iraq, where the bombers are usually local guys, the Afghan Taliban crews usually come from Pakistan, or another part of Afghanistan (to avoid killing someone from your tribe, or even family). The population in Afghanistan is more spread out, and the number up in arms against the government is much smaller than in Iraq. The skill levels, at least with bombs and mines, is lower among the Taliban. Iraqis, in general, are better educated. Saddam specifically trained thousands of his loyalists to build explosive devices, or handle various types of mines. There is no such talent pool in Afghanistan. As a result, most of the Taliban attacks with bombs and mines fail.
The Taliban have been taking a beating. Despite having the advantage of surprise, they have encountered a largely hostile, and well armed, population that fights back. The government security forces are not as well trained and equipped as American or NATO forces, but they are more than a match for the Taliban. Desperate for a major "victory" (like capturing a town long enough to make some propaganda videos), several large attacks have been launched. All have failed.
The Afghan and Coalition forces have developed tactics that make it very difficult for the Taliban to succeed. The Afghan security forces have radios now. If the Taliban hit, one call brings in Afghan and Coalition "quick reaction forces." These units arrive via ground or air transportation, and don't give the Taliban enough time to capture a town, or do much of anything else except try to flee. Pursuit is not pleasant, not with all those UAVs, helicopters and warplanes up there.
To make matters worse, the Afghans have made deals with Pakistani forces just across the border, and often there is a Pakistani army reception committee waiting for any Taliban survivors who make it across the border. All of this is hurting Taliban recruiting. But the Taliban have a lot more money this year, and can pay what it takes to get more fighters.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/18/2006 09:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Looks like the ISI will be working on IED manufacture with their students from now on then...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/18/2006 10:26 Comments ||
Top||
#4
They may have another point there where they mentioned that the Taliban who fight are not doing so in their own neighborhood. This also probably means that when they run across the border, it is not towards Paks that know them or like their tribe. Which might explain the unfriendly greeting.
#5
You have to love islamofascism. Create a religious climate that encourages it's "best and brightest", most loyal adherents to kill themselves in hopes of glory. As far as I can tell it's a fairly novel approach, historically speaking.
#6
Despite having the advantage of surprise, they have encountered a largely hostile, and well armed, population that fights back.
"Attention, townspeople! We are the Taliban. We have come to take your tv's and force everyone into the mosque five times a day at gunpoint. Any man who trims his beard or woman without a sack on her head will be beaten for the glory of Allah. Any questions?"
<Bang. Bangety-bang.>
"Ouch. Run, Mahmoud! Run!"
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
05/18/2006 16:21 Comments ||
Top||
#7
"As far as I can tell it's a fairly novel approach, historically speaking."
Nationalism pretty much did in many of the best and brightest of U.K. and Europe during the first World War.
Here's more info about the death in combat of the Canadian female officer .
A combined joint task force of Afghan National Police, Afghan National Army and Canadian Forces from Task Force Orion conducted an intelligence-based combat operation Wednesday night in the Panjway District of Kandahar Province, killing 18 Taliban extremists and capturing 26. The operation, which targeted extremists who infiltrated a series of villages in Panjway, began before dawn and lasted well into the night.
The combined force conducted a successful, complex fight synchronizing air and ground forces to bring the fight to the enemy, said Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, commander, Combined Joint Task Force - 76. This well organized, cooperative engagement was exactly the operation needed to restore security to Panjway where extremists have been intimidating and threatening the people.
The defeat of the enemy in Panjway is a direct result of the skill, valor and commitment of Canadian and Afghan National Security Forces. Panjway residents fully supported the operation, encouraging coalition forces to continue the fight to drive the enemy out of their district. Canadian and Afghan security personnel deployed into the area (Panjway) on the morning of May 17 to conduct sweeps through the areas suspected of harboring enemy forces, Canadian Brig. Gen. David Fraser, commander, Multi-National Brigade South said. During the sweeps, Afghan and Canadian troops came into contact with insurgents, those who daily threaten the lives and the livelihood of the local Afghan people. One Canadian Army officer was killed and three Afghan National Army soldiers were wounded during the combat. Canadian forces have identified the officer as Capt. Nichola Kathleen Sarah Goddard of the 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. Capt. Goddards death was the price today of ensuring that tens of thousands of men, women and children of Afghanistan can have hope that their future will be brighter, added Fraser. We will not forget her sacrifice.
ANA soldiers suffered non-life threatening wounds and are currently receiving treatment. This successful operation clearly demonstrates the resolve of Coalition and Afghan National Security Forces and their commitment to the security and prosperity of the Afghan people, Freakley added. This dynamic, complex operation demonstrates that insurgents do not operate freely in southern Afghanistan and that Canadian and Afghan National Security Forces are fully capable of defeating this enemy wherever they operate. No sanctuary is too formidable or too remote. These extremists will be defeated at every encounter. Their aims and goals are in direct contrast to the growth and progress of the nation of Afghanistan and the Afghan people will continue to reject their presence.
Southern Afghanistan has seen a fierce battle between as Taleban fighters and police, with officials saying more than 40 people were killed. The fighting erupted in Helmand province where thousands of British troops are currently deployed. Violence also broke out earlier in Kandahar, leaving 18 militants and a female Canadian soldier dead. The attacks came as Canada's parliament narrowly voted to extend the country's combat mission until 2009.
A suicide bomber also attacked a convoy of vehicles in the western city of Herat on Thursday, police said, killing himself and an American national.
"This morning around 0930 a suicide attacker drove his car in to a passing American convoy of supply trucks in the city of Herat," police chief Gen Aayub Salangi told the BBC, adding that one vehicle had been completely destroyed.
The fighting in Helmand began on Wednesday afternoon. A senior security official told the BBC that Taleban commanders contacted the police and taunted them that they had taken control of the town of Musa Qala.
"Nah nah-nah nah nah!"
Heavy clashes followed and lasted until the early hours of Thursday. At least 13 Afghan policemen were killed, along with about 30 Taleban fighters, officials said.
"It was the biggest attack [in Helmand] since the fall of the Taleban," provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada told Reuters news agency.
I guess the Afghan cops don't take to being taunted. Good for them.
The Taleban have stepped up attacks in recent months.
UPDATE: KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Some of the fiercest violence since the Taliban's 2001 ouster erupted across Afghanistan, with coalition forces engaging in multiple firefights, two suicide car bombs and a massive rebel assault on a small village. Up to 105 people were killed. The estimates of Taliban fighters and suicide bombers killed ranged up to 87, with 14 Afghan police, an American civilian, an Afghan civilian and a Canadian soldier also killed in the multiple attacks late Wednesday and Thursday, officials said.
An assault by hundreds of enemy fighters on a small southern town was one of the largest attacks by militants since 2001 and marked another escalation in the campaign by supporters of the former Taliban regime to challenge the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. The attack late Wednesday and early Thursday on a police and government headquarters in the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province sparked eight hours of clashes with security forces. The Interior Ministry said about 40 militants were killed, though police said they had retrieved only 14 bodies. About a dozen police were killed and five wounded in the attack some 95 miles northwest of Kandahar, said deputy governor Amir Mohammed Akhunzaba.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 02:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
AP ran this story with the informative title 50 AFGHANS KILLS IN ATTACKS. I guess indicating that most were taliban would have been too informative to us lowly public plebeians
Posted by: ordu ||
05/18/2006 9:37 Comments ||
Top||
#2
A more informative title would have been: A Bunch Pakistanis Killed While Attacking Afghans
Posted by: ed ||
05/18/2006 10:01 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I had some misgivings about the Afghan govt forces but if this report is accurate they handled themselves pretty well.
#4
This kind of fighting is the death knell of the taliban. They're wasting all their experienced fighters and better officers trying to achieve a tactical, short-term victory. In the end, all that will be left will be the mullahs, too "important" to fight, and raw recruits - better described as cannon fodder. I hope they keep pushing, and I hope they keep dying like flys.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/18/2006 13:45 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Is that a Sharps that Tom S. is firing in the graphic?
#4
Unconventional "control" is fleeting. They "control" only when the government or NATO forces are not around to bitch slap them. As soon as any better offer comes around, they will be sold down the river.
We let it be known that by tipping us, a poor man can become rich by Afghan standards. And since it is known that we always pay our debts, one way or another, our credit is very good.
#5
Taliban activity in Helmand has driven daily mayonnaise production down to nominal output
I've been waiting for 3 months for that. Colloidial operations have ceased.
KABUL -Three girls schools have been attacked in Afghanistan in the past two days, officials said Wednesday, in the latest such incidents blamed on Taleban insurgents.
A girls school was torched close to midnight Tuesday in northern Badakhshan province, deputy provincial governor Mohammad Isa Atahi told AFP. Atahi did not blame the attack on any particular group.
He didn't need to.
Similar violence in the past has been blamed on the Islamic fundamentalist Taleban, which banned girls from attending school when it was in government from 1996 to 2001.
Late Monday suspected Taleban rebels tied up two watchmen at a girls school in northern Balkh province and set the building ablaze, a district police chief said. Classrooms and the deans office were set on fire. This is the work of Taleban, said Chimtal district police chief Mohammad Hashim Ahmadzai.
Also on Monday a girls school came under rocket attack in central Wardak province which adjoins the capital, said provincial spokesman Abdul Hafiz Salam. The attack caused no casualties since it occurred early in the morning but caused some damage.
The attacks were the latest in a string of strikes against educational institutes, schools, teachers and in some cases students in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been building schools with the help of the international community and persuading children to return to class. However of about 10 million school-age children, only 4.2 million attended school this year, according to a government report.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/18/2006 00:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Everytime a school of any kind id torched in Afghanistan 10 madrassas in Wakipakiland need to go up in flames. Mysterious flames. I doubt that the singular institution of Talaban/AQ/ISI can put cause and effect together but it would be a start at it.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/18/2006 2:40 Comments ||
Top||
#2
don't blame the women just because you can't get your ''lil mujaheddin'' to stand up on your wedding night
Posted by: ordu ||
05/18/2006 9:35 Comments ||
Top||
#3
They can't get them to stand at attention any night.
So they just made it illegal.
Only a suicide bomber was killed in an attempt to target some UN staffers in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, said Afghani officials. They said the UN employees remained unhurt as the bomber blew up his explosive-packed car prematurely. However, Taliban purported spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the attack was directed at a military convoy and at least half a dozen soldiers had been killed. His claim could not be confirmed by any independent source.
"Don't believe those bastards! They're dead, I tell yez!"
Afghan official Dawood Ahmadi said the explosion took place close to a UN vehicle, carrying some civilians to the coalition military base in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar this morning. Only the bomber was killed while the UN staffers remained unhurt. Witnesses said the attacker's car was blown to smithereens while the other vehicle, carrying the UN officials, was also damaged. Earlier, two local staffers of the United Nations were killed and a third injured in a rocket attack in Afghanistan western province of Herat.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Shouldn't that readTaliban Pakistan ISI purported spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi?
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/18/2006 1:00 Comments ||
Top||
Islamist gunmen overran a compound held by a United States-backed warlord alliance outside the lawless Somali capital on Wednesday, killing seven fighters and decapitating several, witnesses said.
Islamic militia targeted the base north of the city in the latest flare-up in fighting since the two sides began observing an informal truce on Sunday after eight days of pitched street battles in Mogadishu, they said.
In addition to those killed, at least nine fighters were wounded and a "battlewagon" -- a pick-up mounted with a heavy machine gun -- was seized from the compound about 20km north of the capital, they said.
"Seven people were killed and a battlewagon was taken by the Islamic court militia," said one of the fighters loyal to warlord Mohamed Omar Habeb Dheere, who were forced to abandon the compound after the attack.
"A few were killed by gunfire and the others were beheaded after they were captured," said a fighter from a non-allied militia, who was near the base when the attack took place.
Dheere -- a member of the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism -- was not at the compound at the time of the attack, they said.
The new fatalities bring the death toll from the most recent surge in violence between the alliance and the courts in and around Mogadishu to nearly 140 and came as thousands rallied for peace in the city.
More than 2 000 people attended the Islamist-sponsored demonstration in southern Mogadishu, denouncing the alliance and its foreign backers.
"The people of Mogadishu and the courts were equally attacked by the so-called alliance in the recent fighting," said Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairperson of an umbrella group that represents the city's 11 Sharia law courts.
"The alliance is not a national institution but the creation of a foreign country," he said to cheers from the crowd that gathered under tight security provided by Islamic militia in southern Mogadishu's Howlwadag neighbourhood.
Ahmed did not name the country in question, but his comments were a clear reference to the US, which has been accused of funding the alliance as part of its broader war on terrorism.
The US has declined to comment on its backing of the alliance but US officials have told Agence France-Presse the alliance has received US money and is one of several groups they are working with to contain a rise of radical Islam in Somalia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 00:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sounds like Salifism and AFP agitprop. I have yet to see any factual ties to anyone outside. I hope they love killing each other.
Remember. Somalia is synonymous with s&*t hole.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/18/2006 0:40 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"The alliance is not a national institution but the creation of a foreign country,"
The Islamic alliance and the sharia courts are a creation of a foreign country. They're Arab. so what's his point?
Interestingly, the Beeb sidebar sez that the al-Qaeda contingent is getting weapons from Eritrea. This may be due to the anti-Ethiopian orientation of al-Itihaad al-Islamiyyah (they want to gnaw off the Muslim part of Ethiopia) or the weapons may just be getting routed through there from more powerful allies like say Turabi's followers in Sudan.
At least five people have been killed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, when Islamist gunmen attacked a warlord, breaking a three-day truce. The attack coincided with a rally intended to call for peace, following the death of at least 140 people.
Yep, a peace rally with gunnies. Makes me think of ... Gaza.
Hundreds of demonstrators, guarded by Islamist gunmen, started chanting anti-US slogans, accusing the US of backing the alliance of warlords.
Some civil society groups boycotted the event, saying it had been "hijacked".
Careful with the word 'hijacked' when in Somalia.
A compound belonging to warlord Mohamed Omar Habeb Dheere north of Mogadishu was overrun by the Islamist gunmen. Reuters news agency reports that Mr Dheere had arrived from his base in Jowhar at the weekend to back up the warlords' Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism.
The US says it has not violated the arms embargo on Somalia but has said it would work with those who can help "prevent Somalia becoming a safe haven for terrorists".
British international development minister Hilary Benn, who is in Somalia on a previously unannounced visit, said he was aware of allegations the US was funding warlords. "I haven't seen any evidence myself," he said.
"And I don't intend to," he added loyally.
Reports suggest two of those warlords may soon be sacked from the interim government.
'cause taking arms from 'Merkins is ucky.
The government is based in the small town of Baidoa, three hours from the capital, Mogadishu. It has not moved to Mogadishu because they would all be killed of security concerns, and controls only a small part of the country.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 00:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Article: The attack coincided with a rally intended to call for peace, following the death of at least 140 people.
This is pretty cool. I've heard of diversionary attacks, but this is the first time I've heard of a diversionary demonstration.
Presumably thats Turabis followers without approval of the Khartoum govt (a la KSA). The last thing Khartoum needs right now is to tied to AQ, id think.
In or out of the Sudanese government, Turabi apparently exercises enough clout and/or fear to keep getting himself out of jail despite the repeated accusations that he's tried to overthrow Bashir and his known association with al-Qaeda. The fact that the Sudanese accuse him of masterminding the Darfur rebellion yet simultaneously permit him to operate as a free agent more or less implies that they don't consider him as big of a threat as their own political dissidents, thus the ability of himself and his followers to send weapons to Aweys and Co in Somalia strikes me as quite plausible.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 11:30 Comments ||
Top||
A secular alliance that is battling fundamentalist Islamic militias in Somalia charged Wednesday that its rivals are bolstered by fighters from the Middle East, Pakistan and elsewhere, and said it has the bodies to prove it.
Foreigners were fighting alongside the local terrorists and were killed, said Hussein Gutale Ragheh, a spokesman for the secular alliance. No one was caught alive, he said, but among the dead were Arabs and others who looked like Pakistanis, Sudanese and Oromo fighters from neighboring Ethiopia.
The report could not be independently verified, but the possible presence of foreign extremists has heightened fears that al-Qaeda is making Somalia a staging ground, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday.
The U.S. is widely believed to be supporting the alliance of secular warlords, but American officials refused Wednesday to confirm or deny that.
Our concerns with regard to Somalia and terrorism lie primarily in the potential presence of foreign fighters in Somalia, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. The U.S. is working with a wide spectrum of leaders, and he said he did not know if that included the warlords currently battling Islamic leaders for control of the capital, Mogadishu.
In an environment of instability, as we've seen in the past, al-Qaeda may take root, and we want to make sure that al-Qaeda does not in fact establish a beachhead in Somalia, White House Spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday.
Somalia, which has had no effective central government in 15 years, has been roiled by a surge in violence that killed more than 140 people in and around Mogadishu.
Somalia's fundamentalists portray themselves as capable of bringing order to the Horn of Africa country. Their growth in popularity and strength, and the possibility that they have outside support, is reminiscent of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
Somalia's descent into chaos began with the 1991 overthrow of longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Since then, warlords who divided the country into clan-based fiefdoms have fought one another, though some recently joined a U.N.-backed interim government trying to assert control.
The recent death toll is among the worst in the decade of near-chaos.
Most victims in more than a week of fighting have been passers-by caught in crossfire or hit by shells gone astray.
On Wednesday, hundreds marched through Mogadishu chanting, Down with the warmongers and down with their supporters! and carrying signs saying War is not a solution. But some civil groups who had helped plan the rally boycotted it after militia members showed up.
A cease-fire was signed over the weekend, but its effect was limited. Two people were killed Wednesday outside the capital.
The mayor of Mogadishu, who has ties to the Islamic militia, denied that foreigners were involved.
This is really a typical civil war, Mohamud Hassan Ali told The Associated Press. But he added that he was investigating reports that the alliance had turned over suspected al-Qaeda militants to the U.S.
We have heard the reports but we don't have any confirmation yet, Ali said.
The secular alliance, which includes members of the interim government but acts independently of it, accuses the Islamic militiamen of having ties to al-Qaeda. The Islamic group accuses the secularists of being puppets of the United States.
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, president of Somalia's near-powerless transitional national government, told The Associated Press earlier this month that he believes Washington is supporting the secular militia as a way of fighting several senior al-Qaeda operatives who are protected by radical clerics in Somalia. He called on Washington to instead work only with his government.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 00:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Score card keepers are challenged, popcorn is scarce, but blue helmets are available, any takers ?
Okay, how about a bag of popcorn and a new scorecard with every blue helmet ?
#2
I don't recall ever hearing "Wise" and "Islam" in the same sentence.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/18/2006 8:10 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Somehow I have difficulties imagining a ragtime dwindling militia like the gspc attacking hardened military bases; they couldn't do it against algerian bases, I doubt they could do it against us ones.
Still, their gia predecessors were quite good at ambushing army convoys (subsequently cutting the throats of draftees for their snuff movies proapaganda), or setting IED before it got trendy, but of course, their manpower was larger.
#4
typical bravado and aggrandizing from that set. hamas was going to send 800 suicide bombers into israel after yassin was killed by israel. that ended up amounting to one reluctant suicide bomber with down syndrome on pcp. sure
Posted by: ordu ||
05/18/2006 9:42 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Whatever. With gas a $3/gallon, he's not going any further than the end of the local bus route.
Posted by: ed ||
05/18/2006 10:06 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Talk doesn't cost anything. And if Uncle Sam backs off, he's achieved his objective. Heck, if I were him, I'd be threatening everyone under the sun. The other reason he's doing this is to paint Algeria's government as Uncle Sam's minion and to remind Algerians that there are armed infidels defiling Muslim soil. Which, given how anti-American many Muslim populations are, is a pretty good strategy.
#8
Do we have any bases left in Africa?
Just a command and control center and some Special Forces in Djibouti, between Somalia and Ethiopia. I don't think they'll be attacking THERE any time soon - not and have any soldiers left alive.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/18/2006 14:00 Comments ||
Top||
#9
I think this link deserves a seeth-o- meter. It's islamo-fascist wanking for teh "masses" of the umah.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/18/2006 15:21 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Depends on how you define a base. If you mean places with American flags, "Welcome to Fort XYZ", and MP guards at the gates, no. If you mean operational bases established in existing national army bases in the assisting country, yes. All of this is opensource, so nothing hidden about it per se. Those pre-existing bases tend to start having a lot of spare parts show up for their vehicles, new wells drilled, new barracks built, new aid stations built, proper fences built, and a truly usable firing range built. Plus the troops there undergo 4-8 weeks of refresher training, including more time at the firing range than ever before, and firing hundreds of rounds of ammo each to bring them up to acceptable marksmen levels. And they then are issued non-American uniforms, LBE, and boots to bring the unit to a standard appearance and level of functionality.
Since we have so many ex-Warsaw Pact allies now, it is easy for us to get parts for GAZ and Ural trucks, ex-Soviet ammo, and East European desert uniforms and boots. All of which builds up the locals without leaving too much of a provable American presence.
Websites yesterday published comments from a rebel commander in Ingushetia, who pledged such attacks would increase.
"One of our clear duties is targeted work against specific individuals, and also preparation for appropriate military operations to destroy certain targets as an answer to the actions of the infidel," said Magomed Yevloyev, commander or "Emir" of the Ingush rebels, on www.kavkazcenter.com.
He said he had returned from a meeting of rebel commanders with Shamil Basayev, who has led the worst attacks on civilians in the 11 years of the Chechen war and coordinates strikes across the Caucasus.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 01:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The Tuesday terror attack in Nazran which resulted in the death of Ingush deputy Interior Minister Dzhabrail Kostoyev could have been the work of militant leader Shamil Basayev, Ingush Interior Minister Beslan Khamkhoyev told Interfax.
"We are working on this theory, it has not been discarded," he said.
Law enforcement bodies are actively searching for those involved in the preparation of the terrorist attack, he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 01:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Violence flashed anew in the Caucasus area of Russia on Wednesday when a car bomb in Ingushetia killed seven people, including a senior police official, and insurgents ambushed an army convoy in Chechnya, killing five soldiers.
The surge in violence followed a battle on Tuesday in an apartment building in Dagestan, a third region in the Caucasus, and underscored the lingering instability across Russia's southwestern territory.
The car bombing in Ingushetia appeared to have been a carefully planned assassination of the senior official, Dzhabrail Kostoyev, the deputy interior minister of the small region, which is adjacent to Chechnya and whose predominantly Muslim population has supplied fighters to the Chechen separatists for years.
Mr. Kostoyev, who led counterinsurgency efforts in Ingushetia, was driving in an armored Chevrolet S.U.V. through the center of Nazran, the region's principal city, at 8:07 a.m. when a car parked along his route exploded, according to Nazir Yevloyev, the Interior Ministry spokesman. The blast shattered the armored car, killing Mr. Kostoyev, his driver and a police guard.
The force of the explosion sent the broken vehicle into the path of another car, which was crushed and then caught fire. Four civilians in the second car died, Mr. Yevloyev said by telephone.
In recent years Ingushetia has been racked by violence, including a large-scale insurgent raid in 2004 in which guerrillas, many in police uniforms, sacked law enforcement buildings and took control of much of Nazran for a night.
The terrorists who seized a public school in Beslan which is in North Ossetia, the region west of Ingushetia in 2004 rehearsed their operation in Ingushetia and set out for the attack from a base in the Ingush forest, according to government investigations of the siege, in which more than 300 people were killed.
Mr. Kostoyev survived two earlier assassination attempts, including a bombing and a strafing of his home with small-arms fire.
Insurgents also attacked a three-vehicle army convoy near the village of Nikikhita in Chechnya on Wednesday morning, killing five soldiers and wounding six others, according to prosecutors in Chechnya, who were quoted by the Interfax news agency.
Fighting in Chechnya where Moscow has been trying to suppress an armed secessionist movement since the 1990's has declined since late 2004, lessening the strain on the Russian military and its personnel. For example, of the 82 federal servicemen who died across Russia in April, according to the latest Defense Ministry statistics, only 3 died in combat in Chechnya, compared with 24 by suicide and 18 in accidents.
But even as Chechnya has fallen more tightly under the control of Russia and its pro-Kremlin Chechen proxies, intermittent fighting and acts of terror have occurred in nearby areas, and the remaining rebels claim to have set up a wide network of underground cells and units, which they call the Caucasus Front.
Officials in Dagestan battled a small group of insurgents on Tuesday. The fight culminated in a police siege of an apartment building in Kizil-Yurt that ended with the deaths of two insurgents and a police officer.
Anzhela Martirosova, a spokeswoman for Dagestan's Interior Ministry, said by telephone on Wednesday that one of the dead insurgents had been found with a crude map of a local school in one of his pockets, and that a search of the school grounds turned up six small explosive charges at the school's sports stadium. The ministry said it appeared that the gunmen had been part of a group planning to seize the school.
People arrested in the Caucasus often accuse the Russian security forces of planting evidence or forcing confessions. The official version could not immediately be confirmed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 01:03 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Four soldiers have been killed and another four wounded when their column came under fire in central Chechnya, law-enforcement agencies said Wednesday.
The incident happened in the Kurchaloyev district to the east of the capital, Grozny.
Russian Defense Ministry said earlier that 31 soldiers had been killed in the troubled North Caucasus republic of Chechnya since the start of 2006. Only three of them were killed in action and one serviceman has been reported missing.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 01:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A suicide bomber killed seven people including a top Russian policeman on Wednesday when he drove his car into a police convoy in the southern Russian region of Ingushetia. Among the dead was Dzhabrail Kostoyev, deputy head of the Ingushetia Interior Ministry, two of his guards, and four civilians, a police spokesman said.
The news came simultaneously with a report from Interfax news agency that unknown gunmen had killed the governor of a detention centre in the region of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, further from Chechnya but also increasingly prone to violence. Rebels have pledged total war against police in the North Caucasus, saying they are collaborating with Russian occupiers. Islamist Web sites on Wednesday published comments from a rebel commander in Ingushetia, who pledged such attacks would increase. This morning the deputy minister was going to work from the village of Ekazhevo to the town of Nazran. A car containing the suicide bomber drove onto the road from a side-street ... at the moment the convoy was passing, the spokesman said.
An investigating group is working at the site to find out the details, he said. Television showed scraps of twisted metal scattered along the road in the low-rise town of Nazran. The twisted wreck of a Soviet-built Zhiguli car was overshadowed by a blue advertising hoarding scarred and pitted by shrapnel. Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya and is inhabited by people closely related to the Chechens, has in recent years seen fighting that has plagued its neighbour since the end of the Soviet Union. One of our clear duties is targeted work against specific individuals, and also preparation for appropriate military operations to destroy certain targets as an answer to the actions of the infidel, said Magomed Yevloyev, commander or Amir of the Ingush rebels, on www.kavkazcenter.com. He said he had just returned from a meeting of rebel commanders with warlord Shamil Basayev, who has led the worst attacks on civilians in the 11 years of the Chechen war and tries to coordinate Islamist strikes across the Caucasus.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well we need not wonder about what religious/political group the "bomber' was from do we?
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/18/2006 0:51 Comments ||
Top||
An Australian architect testifying at his own trial on Wednesday denied charges of planning to bomb either the nation's electricity grid or defence installations. Pakistani-born Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36 has pleaded innocent to all four charges of terrorism against him. The prosecution said in its opening statements in April that Lodhi had used a false name, Eagle Flyers, in October 2003 to buy two maps of the Australian electricity supply grid and to inquire about buying chemicals capable of making explosives.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The US State Department has backed down on a controversial decision to install computers made by Chinese company Lenovo on its classified networks, officials said. But the department's purchase of about 16,000 personal computers (PCs) from Lenovo raises serious questions given accusations that China is aggressively spying on the United States, Republican lawmaker Frank Wolf said. Word of the State Department order for the desktop PCs was made public in March, 10 months after Lenovo completed its 1.75-billion-dollar acquisition of IBM's PC division. The department chose to install about 900 of the PCs on its secure network at home and at embassies around the world, according to documents released by Wolf.
*Sigh*
But after a flurry of objections from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a bipartisan panel appointed by Congress, the department opted this week to pull the computers from the network. "This decision would have had dire consequences for our national security, potentially jeopardizing our investment in a secure IT infrastructure," said Wolf, whose House appropriations subcommittee funds the State Department. "It is no secret that the United States is a principal target of Chinese intelligence services," he said.
While welcoming the department's reversal, he said the purchase of the 16,000 computers from the Chinese state-backed company was still troubling. Launching an impassioned attack on China's foreign policies and human-rights record, Wolf said that "of course you would take them (Lenovo) off the list" of companies approved to provide technology to the US government. "No American government agency should want to purchase from them," he said. Last year's acquisition vaulted Lenovo to third place among global PC makers, behind only Dell and Hewlett-Packard. The Chinese firm kept the right to use the IBM name on its PCs and the "ThinkPad" brand on laptop computers.
The takeover was cleared by the US government, despite objections from members of Congress who noted that Lenovo is controlled by Legend Holdings, which in turn is majority-owned by the state Chinese Academy of Sciences. Members of the US-China commission said even the use of Lenovo PCs on unclassified State Department networks was troubling. "It's fair to say that unclassified computer communications could be infiltrated and pose a threat," Democratic commissioner Michael Wessel said. The Lenovo row was highlighted on the same day that China denied as "groundless" allegations that it was trying to steal military and scientific intelligence from the United States. A Taiwanese man, Ko-Suen Moo, has pleaded guilty in the United States to spying for Beijing. He was accused by the US District Attorney's office in Miami of seeking illegally to export missiles and aircraft parts to China.
#8
As a systems analyst, I fail to see any security threat from Chinese made PC's or PC's made by a company owned by a Chinese interest. There is no 'magic chip' hiding inside to spy on America. A PC is a PC is a PC. Some are built better than others of course. I own a Thinkpad and find it is lighter, faster, has a longer battery life, a longer wireless range, and just looks nicer than my old Dell. Personal preference.
However, the real question is whether the US government should be doing business with firms controlled or outright owned by the Chinese government. I'll leave that one to the politicos to decide rather than the IT professionals.
#9
Don't see what the big deal is - most US telecomm and networking companies are outsourcing development to mainland China. So the State Dept. is worried about China introducing a trojan into their PC hardware and firmware, but not their networks?!
#12
Somebody needs to have a good study of the software. Finding a back door would be reason to clobber Lenovo. My guess, however, is that the Chinese are already installing back doors all over the place via Internet activity.
That said, I'm not keen on my tax dollars supporting the Chinese to the detriment of the free world. I would have bought an IBM, but I won't be buying any Lenovos. If you can't buy an American or Japanese computer, you need to ask yourself why. As for the Russians, I'm not buying any gasoline from LukOil either. Pisses me off that they're even in my neighborhood.
#17
Pretty much a symbolic move. Although I applaud the symbolism. Small potats in comparison to American corporations turning over system admin functions to red Chinese outposts. Sys admin for your 401K, sys admin for heavy hitter trading systems. I'm sure these outposts will remain loyal to the American corporation if shooting starts. Really nothing to worry about at all. Financial transactions will remain unmolested. No problem.
Posted by: It Insider ||
05/18/2006 23:33 Comments ||
Top||
#18
What is it with this coutries government and corporations handing over the keys to the kingdom to our sworn enemies???
That's a rhetorical question, by the way.
Some day there will be a bill to pay, I hope these a$$hats enjoy their money now. Oof!
A Mesa man has admitted in federal court that he tried to smuggle an illegal immigrant from Iran across the U.S.-Mexico border. FBI agents arrested Zeayadali Malhamdary and raided his tailor shop May 26 [2005?] after an undercover investigation found he tried to obtain Mexican visas for Iranians so they could fly into Mexico and then cross the border. Malhamdary has admitted to friends he crossed the Mexico border illegally in 1998 to escape religious persecution in Iran, whose official religion is the Shiite branch of Islam. He was granted refugee status in February 1999.
Hmm. This part of the story could use a little more in-depth reporting...
Under Monday's plea deal, sentencing will be up to the judge on Aug. 14 although the document does not state a particular range. Had Malhamdary been convicted at trial he could have gone to prison from five to 35 years. According to Monday's plea deal, Malhamdary admitted that around September 2004, he began negotiating with someone to bring a group of Iranian nationals to the U.S. He eventually agreed to supply authentic Iranian passports to the person, who turned out to be an undercover agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, and he would arrange to have the Mexican visas placed into the passports so the Iranians could fly into Mexico. Malhamdary admitted that he went to Iran in March 2005 and returned with three passports, which he gave to the agent.
I thought he asked for asylum on grounds he was persecuted in Iran and feared for his life? So how is he able to casually jet from Arizona to Tehran and get a handful of authentic Iranian passports? I recommend deportation immediately after serving his sentence.
#1
If he is connected with any apparatus of the Iranian government including its terrorist arms or any third party terrorist organization, I would recommend staking him out in the Arizona desert and then deporting the remains....
Posted by: DanNY ||
05/18/2006 7:00 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'm relieved to know he's got a solid traditional Arizona family name.
#4
Not everyone in AZ is an Apache, of course, since we have a giant human fondue thing going on here, but you could start with the Italian Apaches, such as Joe Arpaio. :)
#5
i've heard of smuggling cheaply-made handbags but this is ridiculous
Posted by: ordu ||
05/18/2006 9:33 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Sometime ago, they denied a KLM flight over US airspace, enroute to Mexico City, because it had suspicious Saudis on board. The plane has specialized stalls for live animal transport, and some Saudi diplomat in residence there wanted his horse. Iraqis and Pakistanis have also been intercepted. Mexico has become a staging ground. The Mexican government is at war with us, and they have the gall to threaten to sue if we protect our own borders with troops!
An undercover police officer testified yesterday that a Pakistani immigrant charged with plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station in 2004 had said two years earlier that he hoped Al Qaeda operatives would blow up New York City and "the American people."
Prosecutors called the officer as a witness in United States District Court in Brooklyn in an effort to undermine the case presented by lawyers for the immigrant, Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23. Mr. Siraj, who testified in his own defense over the last two and a half days, and his lawyers have argued that he was entrapped by a paid police informant.
The lawyers have contended that their client, whom they portrayed as an inept dupe, was not predisposed to commit an act of terrorism until he met the informant, Osama Eldawoody, 50, in late 2003. They have said the older man was the driving force behind the plot and inflamed Mr. Siraj with pictures, including some of American soldiers abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
But yesterday, the officer, a slightly built man wearing a dark gray suit, a pale blue shirt and a luminous crimson tie, testified about a series of conversations he had with Mr. Siraj between 2002 and early 2003 in which he said the young man talked supportively about terrorism.
The officer testified that Mr. Siraj had said that America would be attacked again soon. "The mission was not completed on 9/11," he reported Mr. Siraj saying, because "Wall Street was not attacked."
The officer, who is expected to continue his testimony today, identified himself only by a pseudonym, Kamil Pasha, saying that he remains involved in undercover operations.
The defendant had testified earlier that the man he knew as Kamil was of Bangladeshi descent, but the officer provided no details about his background and few about his work history. He said only that he had been an officer working undercover for about three and a half years and had never before testified in court. He said that he first met Mr. Siraj in the Islamic bookstore where the young man worked in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, in November 2002.
The officer testified that in December 2002, he and Mr. Siraj discussed news reports that warned of five Al Qaeda operatives entering the United States illegally from Canada.
"The defendant said he was happy that they were here and he hoped that they blew up the city and the American people," the officer said.
The officer also testified that Mr. Siraj had defended suicide bombings in Palestine, saying they were acts of revenge committed by people whose family members had been raped and killed. "The defendant said that if anyone did that to his family, he would do the same thing, meaning a suicide bomb," the officer said.
Mr. Siraj's lawyers, who rested their case after his testimony ended yesterday, had asked the judge to bar the officer's testimony, contending that the statements he would cite by Mr. Siraj were protected by the First Amendment, essentially as political views. But Judge Nina Gershon of United States District Court ruled that they were admissible to rebut Mr. Siraj's claim that he was induced by Mr. Eldawoody.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 00:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
GUWAHATI: The chief minister of the Indian state of Manipur survived an assassination attempt on Wednesday by separatist rebels that left one militant dead and a security officer injured, police said. Okram Ibobi Singh escaped injury when his convony was attacked outside the village of Lamjao near the Manipur capital Imphal, police officer L Haokip said. Singh, who also survived an assassination attempt in 2003, was travelling to attend a ruling Congress party meeting when the ambush took place, Haokip said. The rebels lobbed a grenade and fired indiscriminately on the security patrol accompanying Singh and a firefight ensued, he said. The commandos retaliated and in the encounter one militant was killed and one security personnel received bullet injuries.
The identity of the rebel group was not immediately known. There are some 19-odd rebel groups active in the northeastern state of Manipur with demands ranging from secession to autonomy and the right to self-determination. Police suspect rebels of the outlawed Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) were responsible. The attackers fired at Singhs car from a vehicle that was travelling in the opposite direction.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Manipur CM gave Rs. 1.5 crore to separatists, says Army chief
Do the political compulsions of a chief minister justify his giving donations to separatist groups banned by the Union government operating in India? Apparently yes, if the "evidence" forwarded by army headquarters to the Union home minister and the prime minister's office is anything to go by.
Two receipts, accessed by Outlook, and presented by chief of army staff Gen J.J. Singh to home minister Shivraj Patil and the PMO has put Manipur's Congress chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh in the dock for parting with funds.
Ibobi Singh, a Meitei himself, has often adopted a stance similar to that espoused by separatist groups belonging to Manipur's dominant ethnic group. "There are hardly any politicians in Manipur of any stature who do not have links with insurgent groups. At times, we have had good evidence to indicate politicians in Manipur paying off insurgent groups and also enlisting their help to win elections," he says. Marwah also points out that unlike insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, there is very little foreign funding for these separatists. "Extortion is the only way these groups can fund their activities. Therefore, most politicians have to pay for these private armies."
So far, a stunned silence is the only response that has come from the ministry of home affairs (MHA).
Posted by: john ||
05/18/2006 0:45 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Is the People's Liberation Army the same thing as the People's War or are they different groups? I get them confused sometimes ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 0:47 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Different groups but both maoist
Samarendra Singh founded the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) to achieve independence and establish a socialist society. In December 1968, a breakaway group of the UNLF, led by Oinam Sudhir Kumar, established a government-in-exile called Revolutionary Government of Manipur (RGM) with headquarters in Shylhet, in the then East Pakistan. The RGM was backed by Pakistan. The primary objective of the RGM was to 'liberate' Manipur through an armed struggle. The RGM maintained an elaborate underground organisation. Its administrative and civil set-up included a home minister, a finance minister, a foreign minister and an army chief of staff with Sudhir Kumar as General Secretary.
However, the Meitei secessionist movement received a serious jolt when most of its leaders were arrested during the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. The movement gradually fizzled out with rest of the leaders accepting the amnesty offered by the then Chief Minister of the State, R.K. Dorendro Singh.
Some of the Meitei rebels, including N. Bisheswar Singh, were detained in Tripura jails in the company of Naxalites-leftwing extremists. Bisheswar Singh and his associates were indoctrinated there into Maoist- thought. After his release from jail, Bisheswar, along with a team of 16 other Meitei rebels, left for Lasha in Tibet, on June 14, 1975, to seek Chinese assistance. The team returned to Manipur in 1976 after receiving extensive training in guerrilla warfare . On September 25, 1978, Bisheswar formed the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to achieve independence through armed struggle.
Posted by: john ||
05/18/2006 0:53 Comments ||
Top||
QUETTA: Suspected tribal militants shot dead two policemen when they fired upon a police checkpoint in Nasirabad on Tuesday. The assailants men attacked the Nasarullah Police check post in Dera Allah Yar, killing Abdul Fateh Khoso and Noor Ahmed Lashari. "Both policemen were on night duty when unidentified men intruded into the check post and fired. The recruits had no time to retaliate and died on the spot," sources told Daily Times. The attackers also took the dead officials' weapons, they added. Also, unidentified men kidnapped a school student Fida Sasoli, the son of Zafar Sasoli on Wednesday in Naushki. Fida was going to school when he was kidnapped. Relatives blamed members of a rival clan for the incident. The kidnappers had asked Rs 10 million as ransom for Fida's release, they added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Local militants ambushed an army convoy on Wednesday in the Dattakhel area of North Waziristan Agency leaving one security personnel dead and four others injured. The militants attacked the convoy at 3:30pm in Miser, three kilometres from Dattakhel. The local administration said the security forces retaliated and arrested 10 tribesmen. It was not clear whether the arrested people were alleged attackers or local tribesmen. Some of the arrested people were injured, said officials.
Only on Tuesday, local militants ambushed a convoy of paramilitary personnel, killing a jawan. Eight militants were also killed when the security personnel returned fire. The authorities handed over the bodies of the militants to their heirs on Wednesday. National Assembly Member Nek Zaman said all dead militants were locals. Some officials, however, said that among the dead militants, three were foreigners.
Local Taliban denied any of their companions was killed in the Tuesday attack. Local militants spokesperson Abdullah Farhad said the attackers had fled and that the security forces had targeted local tribesmen travelling in a vehicle. Army Spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan confirmed the attack, telling Daily Times that one security forces personnel was killed and four others were injured in the Dattakhel attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
The Supreme Court upheld on Wednesday an order of the Sindh High Court and dismissed leave to appeal of three activists of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi against their conviction and sentence by an anti-terrorism court on charges of murdering a director of laboratories with the ministry of defence in 2001.
Mohammad Shahid Hanif was awarded a life term while Talah Hussain and Khalil Ahmed were handed down the death sentence by Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the Anti-Terrorism Court-III on April 15, 2002. The appellants, who according to the prosecution were riding a bike, had shot dead Syed Zafar Hussain, the director laboratories of the ministry of defence, while he was in his car on the way to office from his house in the limits of Gulberg police station on July 30, 2001. Safdar Hussain Shah, the car's driver, identified the accused during the identification parade as well as during the trial. The trial court, on the evidence of Safdar Hussain Shah, who was also an eyewitness to the crime, convicted all the accused, but awarded a lesser punishment to Mohammad Shahid.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Suspected insurgents Wednesday blew up a gas pipeline in Pakistans restive Southwestern Baluchistan province killing a girl while two policemen were shot dead in a separate attack. "The seven-year-old girl, Mah Noor was on way to school with her mother when a bomb went off near the gas pipeline in Sui town, which is 240 kilometers away from the provincial capital, Quetta in Southeast," said a security official here while talking to KUNA. He said the girl died on the spot while her mother was wounded when shrapnel hit them.
In another incident of violence, suspected insurgents raided a police post in the neighboring town of Dera Bugti Wednesday morning and killed two policemen, according to official. "The assailants also took away the policemen's weapons," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
At least 17 people were injured in a grenade explosion by terrorists near Doda town of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir Wednesday. The explosion took place on the outskirts of Doda town where a group of activists of India's main Opposition -- Bharatiya Janata Party -- had assembled to discuss their strategy, news agency Indo-Asian News Service reported. The injured have been shifted to the district hospital in Doda for treatment. One of them has lost an eye. On May 1, 22 people were gunned down by terrorists in the Doda district, the agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter died Thursday when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
It had earlier said that a U.S. sailor had died Wednesday in western Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency.
The names of the soldiers and sailor were being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Details of the attack were not released. Details of the bomb attack and the fighting which killed the sailor also were not released.
Sailors often team up with U.S. Army and Marine forces in Iraq, sometimes serving as medics or in other support roles.
The service member who died Wednesday was assigned to U.S. Marine Regimental Combat Team 5.
The fourth deaths raised to at least 2,455 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
When are we going to wake up and respond to Iran as they continue to provide gas-enhanced technology for the latest IED's?
#1
"When are we going to wake up and respond to Iran as they continue to provide gas-enhanced technology for the latest IED's?"
__________
Unfortunately, the answer is probably not any time soon. Our military seems focused on developing all kinds of means of setting off IEDs and or detecting them in advance, but little attention has been given to the source: Iran.
#2
The responsability for paying attention to who made the IED's and what to do about it falls flat on our Civ leadership. Every soldier knows where the IEDs are from. Most soldiers would love to see the JDAMS heading to Iran. The waking up that needs to happen is in the halls of congress.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/18/2006 22:04 Comments ||
Top||
An Iraqi soldier was killed and three others wounded in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, when an explosive device blew up as a military convoy was passing by on Wednesday. A commander of the Iraqi Army told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the explosion had taken place on the Tikrit-Kirkuk road. Also in Kirkuk, a police source told KUNA that four employees of an oil company that had been kidnapped yesterday were released.
And in Mosul, the US Army announced that it had dismantled a booby-trapped car that had been holding large quantities of missiles and ammunition. Furthermore, Iraqi police said a militant had been killed today when the explosive device he was attempting to set up by a Mosul road blew up.
In Najaf, Secretary General of the of the Mihrab Martyr Institute, Ammar Al-Hakim, escaped an assassination attempt. A statement issued by the institute said an explosive device had been planted in the wall of his neighbor's house, but did not say if Al-Hakim had been at home at the time of the explosion. The assassination target is son of the Chairman of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Unidentified gunmen abducted on Wednesday an Iraqi Taekwondo team and two referees while they were traveling to Jordan, said a security source. The source told KUNA that communications with 17 taekwondo fighters and two referees were lost during their trip. It turned out later on that a group of gunmen abducted them in the road between Ramadi and Jordan, the sources added.
The team which consist of 17 fighters, was heading to Jordan to participate in a tournament. Ten members of the team are in the national team and two official referees of the Korean martial art in the Iraqi federation. The Iraqi security forces are conducting wide search to discover the whereabouts of the abducted sportsmen.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
They better hope they tied them up really well, or they are in for a surprise when they come back into the room.
Aside fromthat, why the hell would someone want to kidnap the Taekwondo team? They have money riding on the match witha badasss bookie?
#4
These idiots don't even know what they are doing anymore. As long as it's illegal, they figure it is subverting the formation of an Iraqi govt. The have no direction, no real goal, no cohesive plan of attack or common demands. It's been reduced to simple street crime.
The Fatah movement of the late Yasser Arafat and now headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has launched an offensive against Hamas which is expected to escalate.
Unidentified Palestinian gunmen believed to have been Fatah members shot and killed at least two Hamas military operatives and injured two others, Middle East Newsline reported. Palestinian sources said the Hamas operatives were ambushed near their homes and offices.
"The civil war has begun," a PA security source said. "We're going to see major battles in the days to come."
On Wednesday, a Hamas operative, identified as Bilal Abu Qasiya, was killed in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jabalya, Palestinian security sources said. Jabalya, north of Gaza City, has been a battleground for Fatah and Hamas.
Earlier, at least three Palestinians shot dead Hamas commander Mohammed Tatar as he was driving near the office of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City. The sources said Tuesday's shooting marked the first time a senior Hamas military operative was targeted by Fatah since the movement captured the PA in April.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack. But Palestinian sources believe the assailants were members of the Fatah military wing.
Hours earlier, two people were injured when Hamas operatives attacked the home of an officer of the PA Preventive Security Apparatus in Gaza City. Sources said PSA and Hamas fighters exchanged fire and two cars that belonged to the officer, identified as Tahir Khwaiter, were bombed.
In Khan Yunis, masked gunmen shot and critically wounded another senior Hamas operative and injured a second Hamas member. The senior operative, identified as Mohammed Musabeh, had been sitting in a barber shop near Khan Yunis, a stronghold of Hamas, on Tuesday.
"The identities of the traitors are known to us and we will chase them down and sever the hand that harms us," Hamas's military wing said in a statement on Wednesday.
Hours earlier, a bomb exploded in front of the home of PA director of border crossings Salim Abu Safiyeh. Nobody was injured.
On May 7, three Palestinian insurgency operatives were killed and a dozen people were injured in a battle between Fatah and Hamas. Three days later, the two groups agreed to establish a joint committee to defuse tensions.
#1
Typical Paleo hyperbole. Shooting two and wounding two doesn't really sound much like angry armies clsshing in the night. How do you separate a "civil war" from the normal decidedly uncivil Paleo gun sex?
#3
OK, we're opening the auction for the concession rights. Fred gets 15% of the gross receipts. There will also be a small 'security' fee assessed, and you'll need to see the appropriate officials for the proper stamps on your operating permits. I'd also like to recommend my nephew to help keep the books. He's a real up-and-comer within the organization, and a real sharp cookie.
#7
Even their "civil wars" are loosy, and marred by delusions of adequacy and illusions of Grandeur (drive-by shootings and gangland executions = WWII battles).
Face it, they simply suck.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2006 11:06 Comments ||
Top||
#10
This weekend and pay per view the new WWF Paleo Civil Raw.*
*WARNING! Contains violent images of death, including exploding people or persons including children. Possible strong sexual content. May also contain homosexuality, bestiality, pedophilia, gang raping etc. $79.95 charge applies. Will be added to your bill. Not suitable for viewers under the age of 18. Enjoy.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/18/2006 11:26 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Woo-hoo! The sooner, the better. Love the pay-per-view idea. Genuis.
I can see the t-shirt now...
"Fatah vs. Hamas: Appetite for Destruction"
(Cue GnR's "Welcome to The Jungle" during the opening credits. The viewers will love it!)
#15
I'm working on a sort of Rubik's Cube score card in which an action in one place has an effect on an adjacent area. This is for expert score keepers only, do not try this at home. Let's see, Hamas is green, al Qaeda, rad, Zionists, blue, fatah, yellow, islamic jihad, anything but yellow, and so on.
#17
damn, i knew i should have gotten some damned trademark protection!
Posted by: Jefferson Davis ||
05/18/2006 16:19 Comments ||
Top||
#18
Quick, let's start a UN Dough-for-Guns program.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/18/2006 17:35 Comments ||
Top||
#19
It's just after midnight and apparently they're off and shootin'. Friday is going to be fun! I've got to cut down on the butter on the popcorn tho', I've put on three pounds this week.
Israeli forces assassinated Wednesday activists belonging to Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Jihad movement in Nablus. Eyewitnesses told KUNA that during an incursion into Nablus, a large Israeli army force besieged a house in Rafidiyah neighborhood, and confrontations occurred with resistance fighters inside the house during which Othman Sadaqa and Mustafa Abdulghani were killed. The eyewitnesses added that another Palestinian was seriously wounded by Israeli fire, and that five were arrested, including two women.
The Israeli army radio reported the operation, quoting a military sources saying that it targeted Jihad activists. The Israeli forces had assassinated six Palestinians during a military operation conducted two days ago in Qabtiya village and Jenin.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Dalal Al-Maghribi Martyr Brigades, the military wing of Fatah Movement, announced Wednesday its responsibility for launching two medium-range "Ammar 2" missiles at the Israeli military camp of Mivtahim, east of Khan Younis. The brigades said in a statement that this came in retaliation for Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. According to the statement, the rockets are locally made.
Indeed, they launched them. Given that they're homemade, I suppose it's worth announcing that they didn't blow up on ignition or some such .... no?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Is there anybody without Martyrs' Brigades? Anyone? Bueller?
"Scorecards! Getcher scorecards right here! Can't tell the playas without a scorecard!"
The attacks came in retaliation for Israeli raids in Jenin, West Bank. Salah Al-Deen Brigades, military wing of the Popular Resistant Committees and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, military wing of Fatah claimed their responsibility for firing two rockets, Nasser 2, at Kfar Aza settlement, eastern Gaza late Tuesday. They warned in a statement that Israeli soldiers and settlers will be targeted by Palestinian militants until they leave Palestinian lands.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
DFLP and PFLP are the old "far left" Leninist and/or pro-Syrian wing of the secular PLO. IIUC they broke with Fatah after Oslo, which they rejected. That AAMB has formed a united front with them is a clear sign that AAMB is not really aligned with mainstream Fatah anymore.
and yes, it looks like you really will need a scorecard for this little to do. Youve got Hamas, the more rejectionist Islamic Jihad, the pro-"peace process" Fatah mainstream, the secular rejectionist front outlined above. and maybe Al Qaeeda. With the Israelis intervening from time to tims as their interests require.
#3
A group of Palestinian brigades claimed joint responsibility for shelling Sderot settlement...
Holy eliminationism, Batman!
Sderot is inside Israel, not a supposedly disputed territory. It's a settlement in the same sense as Dubuque or Chippewa Falls.
Of course, all of Israel is a settlement from the Arab perspective, and since aiming to kill "settlers" gets a warm, fuzzy reaction from those easily cowed into appeasement, heck, why not make them all settlers?
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
05/18/2006 16:38 Comments ||
Top||
The Palestinian Ministry of the Interior deployed Wednesday hundreds of members of a recently-formed security force across Gaza with aim as it announced of curbing the security chaos. The deployment came just hours after an announcement by Interior Minister Saeed Siam on a force consisting of 3,000 members drawn from all the Palestinian factions and that it would answer directly to his ministry.
Siam said last April 21 that he was creating a special force drawn from armed factions to supplement the work of police and security officers in clamping down on rampant chaos. The force, armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rounds of ammunition, took up positions on street corners and landmark locations such as Palestine Square. However Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the move as unconstitutional but added that he would not take action if the force acted as an auxiliary to the existing security apparatus.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So, you have Hamas (the Baxters) on one side, and Fatah (the Rojos) on the other, and Israel smack in the middle.
Now all we need is a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.
#4
didn;t he ride a horse and have one of thoese serape (manly capelike) thingies on??
"I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule serape don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it."
Posted by: Joe ||
05/18/2006 8:23 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The best thing that we could hope for is that these morons get their hands on a small nuclear device and incinerate themselves. Cause they aint worth the powder it would take to blow them to hell.
#6
MMMMmmm, you just triggered a thought, rig some explosives to go Boom prematurely, let them be "Captured", wait for the boom, repeat until either they're all gone, or they catch on, (No more IED's is a clue they got the idea)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/18/2006 14:21 Comments ||
Top||
MANILA, May 18 (Reuters) - The Philippines suspended military offensives against several Muslim rebel groups for a week on Thursday as a high-level team from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) visited the troubled south, an army general said.
The OIC, a group of 57 Muslim states, sent a five-member delegation to the Philippines this week to review the progress of a 1996 peace deal between the government of the mainly Catholic country and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Insurgencies by four Muslim groups and communist rebels have killed more than 160,000 people and stunted development of the resource-rich south since the late 1960s.
Brigadier-General Alexander Aleo, the military commander on the southwestern island of Jolo, said offensives were put on hold for seven days as the Islamic envoys viewed how Muslim villages scarred by nearly 40 years of secessionist violence were faring.
The brief cessation also applied to Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent group with its stronghold on Jolo and links to al Qaeda. But Aleo said troops were ready to react if attacked.
"We're not out to spoil the OIC trip to the south," Aleo told reporters. "We're suspending operations in response to a request from the MNLF. I want to make it clear that we're not after the MNLF -- our operations are directed against the Abu Sayyaf."
Sayed Kassem el-Masry, an Egyptian diplomat and head of the OIC mission, said the delegates would meet local Muslim leaders to look at obstacles holding up full implementation of the peace agreement.
The MNLF says the government fulfilled the first part of the accord by absorbing 10,000 former rebels into the military and police but has yet to fully deliver economic assistance to families of 50,000 ex-guerrillas.
The government -- now trying to seal a peace deal with another Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front -- has blamed technical and financial issues for the delay.
On Thursday, the OIC mission visited Muslim areas on the southern island of Mindanao before heading to Jolo by the weekend, listening to complaints from both sides.
The requests from Muslim leaders included freedom for MNLF founder Nur Misuari, who has been detained since 2002 while on trial over a failed rebellion on Jolo in late 2001.
The OIC, through Indonesia, brokered the September 1996 peace deal between Manila and the MNLF, which has had observer status in the club of Islamic states since 1974.
Aleo said the situation on Jolo had stabilised since January 2005 when 5,000 soldiers were sent to fight hundreds of Abu Sayyaf rebels and rogue MNLF members who ambushed an army convoy.
Dulmatin and Umar Patek, the two key suspects in the deadly Bali bombings in 2002, were believed to be hiding among the Abu Sayyaf on the remote island.
#1
The headline should read,"Manila stops fighting as OIC goes forth to fund terrorism". This will prove to be all bad. The requests from Muslim leaders included freedom for MNLF founder Nur Misuari, who has been detained since 2002 while on trial over a failed rebellion on Jolo in late 2001.
Not really accurate. The fighting was in Zamboanga not Jolo. Old Nur baby lost the Muzzie elections to a Muzzie Doctor who had been living with his Swiss wife in Europe. The military went in to remove Nur and place the rightfully elected doctor in place and the fighting started.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/18/2006 22:34 Comments ||
Top||
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels detonated a mine in eastern Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing two soldiers and injuring one, the military said, in continuing violence that threatens to push the island nation back into civil war. The mine exploded near soldiers patrolling on foot in a village bordering eastern Batticaloa district, 220 kilometers east of the capital, Colombo, military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday derided foes of Iran's nuclear work as mentally disturbed, ignoring a fresh plea by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for all sides in the dispute to calm their rhetoric.
Pursuing a diplomatic effort, European nations want to offer Iran security guarantees as a key incentive to freeze its uranium enrichment programme, but U.S. officials say Tehran can expect no non-aggression pledge from Washington.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is only to generate electricity for civilian use. But Western countries believe Tehran is seeking a military nuclear capacity as well.
"Those who get sad at the progress and happiness of others are suffering from mental and psychological problems, so they should find a way to cure themselves," the student news agency ISNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in a speech.
Since his election last year, the president has frequently needled critics of the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme, raising tensions with the United States and the European Union.
"We do not have a fight with anyone, but we will not step back on our absolute rights," declared Ahmadinejad, who on Wednesday rejected an expected EU incentive package as an attempt to persuade Tehran to accept "candy for gold".
Annan urged those involved in negotiations over Iran's nuclear crisis to moderate their language.
"There is also a need to lower the temperature, and refrain from actions and rhetoric that could further inflame the situation," he said in a speech to Tokyo university students.
Britain, France and Germany plan to offer Iran a package expected to include a European light-water reactor and some form of security assurances in return for a halt to enrichment.
But a senior Iranian nuclear official, Ali Hosseinitash, told Reuters on Thursday Iran's current focus was perfecting its small-scale research and development enrichment programme despite U.N. Security Council calls for it to be halted.
"Ending the dispute is valuable for everybody. But nuclear activities and capabilities are also valuable to us," said Ali Hosseinitash, head of strategic affairs at the Supreme National Security Council, which is in charge of Iran's nuclear diplomacy.
The EU trio will discuss their proposal with senior U.S., Russian and Chinese officials in London next week.
EU officials say security guarantees are the major sticking point affecting their ability to produce a credible package.
European diplomats say only the United States can guarantee Iran's security. But Washington refuses to do so.
STICKS AS WELL AS CARROTS
The United States insists that any EU incentives for Tehran must be backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution threatening possible sanctions if Iran will not halt sensitive atomic work.
Annan urged Iran to "lift the cloud of suspicion" over its nuclear programme, but said he hoped sanctions could be avoided.
"It is my strong hope that the current discussions in the Security Council will give new momentum to the quest for a negotiated solution," he said during a visit to Tokyo.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg that Moscow remained doubtful sanctions would work.
Elmar Brok, head of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, said after a closed-door hearing with Lavrov that he had also affirmed that a Russian proposal to enrich uranium on Iran's behalf was still on the table.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/18/2006 16:05 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"SNOWBOY (imitating a Judge)
Right!
Officer Krupke, youre really a square;
This boy dont need a judge, he
Needs a analysts care!
Its just his neurosis that oughta be curbed--
**Hes psychologically disturbed.
RIFF
Im distoibed!
ALL
Were distoibed, were distoibed,
Were the most distoibed,
Like were psychologically distoibed.
#7
Officer Krupkie, you've done it again,
This boy don't need a job,
He needs a year in the pen,
He's not misguided, or misunderstood,
Deep down inside he's just HO GOOD.
He's no good, he's no good, he's no earthly good,
He is definately no darn good
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/18/2006 21:00 Comments ||
Top||
Forces of the Lebanese Army engaged in armed confrontations Wednesday with Palestinian militants in a town in the Western Beqaa region, a Lebanese security source told KUNA. The source added Fatah's Abu Musa fighters opened fire on an army patrol in the town of Eita. The area was last year the scene of a similar incident in which a Lebanese was killed.
A Lebanese soldier was seriously wounded in the incident, a Lebanese security source said. The source told KUNA that while an army patrol was monitoring the area, members of the Fatah-Intifada, led by Abu Musa Al-Nar, opened fire against the patrol critically wounding one of the soldiers. The source added that the Lebanese army besieged the seven known posts of Fatah. The Lebanese dialogue conference had recently unanimously demanded Palestinian disarmament outside the camps within six months.
ADDITIONAL: One Lebanese soldier and a Palestinian militant were wounded in clashes on Wednesday between the Lebanese army and Palestinian militants in east Lebanon. The clashes broke out after an army patrol was attacked by the militants, the army said. The AFP news agency reported on Thursday that both sides sent reinforcements to the area overnight.
The militants were from Fatah-Intifada, a secular, Syrian-backed group that has opposed peace agreements with Israel. The group has a camp on Lebanese soil, about two kilometres from the border with Syria.
Lebanese police told AFP that the Palestinian group smuggled 15 military vehicles carrying fighters, arms and ammunition into Lebanon from Syria overnight on Wednesday. AFP also reported that the militants took up positions in the mountains overlooking the camps in which clashes took place yesterday.
Fatah-Intifada, led by radical Palestinian militant Abu Moussa, was established in 1983. Its headquarters are based in Damascus.
During Wednesday's clashes, a Lebanese soldier was kidnapped by the militants. He was later released, after the army threatened to break up one of the Palestinian group's camps.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
the Paleo infection spread to Lebanon
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2006 9:21 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Pals have been living in Leb since 1948, and have been exercising military power there since 1972.
What this sounds like is an attempt by the Leb Army to retake control of the Bekaa, which had previously been largely under Syria control. Apparently some Pal forces had stayed there under the Syrian shadow. Now mainstream Fatah in the territories has been following an Anti-syrian line the last few years, but it may be that this particular faction in Lebanon (like AAMB in the territories) is not under the control of Abbas-Dahlan, etc.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Taliban militants fought fierce battles with coalition and Afghan forces in a dramatic upsurge of violence in southern Afghanistan, leaving up to 100 people -- mostly rebels -- dead, officials said.
May 18, 2006: In two days of fighting in southern Afghanistan, at least 72 people died. Two major Taliban attacks failed, leaving 58 of the Taliban dead. One Canadian soldier was killed, along with a dozen Afghan security personnel and a few civilians. 
Southern Afghanistan has seen a fierce battle between as Taleban fighters and police, with officials saying more than 40 people were killed. The fighting erupted in Helmand province where thousands of British troops are currently deployed. Violence also broke out earlier in Kandahar, leaving 18 militants and a female Canadian soldier dead. The attacks came as Canada's parliament narrowly voted to extend the country's combat mission until 2009. 
Only a suicide bomber was killed in an attempt to target some UN staffers in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, said Afghani officials. They said the UN employees remained unhurt as the bomber blew up his explosive-packed car prematurely. However, Taliban purported spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the attack was directed at a military convoy and at least half a dozen soldiers had been killed. His claim could not be confirmed by any independent source. 
A suicide bomber killed seven people including a top Russian policeman on Wednesday when he drove his car into a police convoy in the southern Russian region of Ingushetia. Among the dead was Dzhabrail Kostoyev, deputy head of the Ingushetia Interior Ministry, two of his guards, and four civilians, a police spokesman said. 
An Australian architect testifying at his own trial on Wednesday denied charges of planning to bomb either the nation's electricity grid or defence installations. Pakistani-born 
The US State Department has backed down on a controversial decision to install computers made by Chinese company Lenovo on its classified networks, officials said. But the department's purchase of about 16,000 personal computers (PCs) from Lenovo raises serious questions given accusations that China is aggressively spying on the United States, Republican lawmaker Frank Wolf said. Word of the State Department order for the desktop PCs was made public in March, 10 months after Lenovo completed its 1.75-billion-dollar acquisition of IBM's PC division. The department chose to install about 900 of the PCs on its secure network at home and at embassies around the world, according to documents released by Wolf.
A Mesa man has admitted in federal court that he tried to smuggle an illegal immigrant from Iran across the U.S.-Mexico border. FBI agents arrested Zeayadali Malhamdary and raided his tailor shop May 26 [2005?] after an undercover investigation found he tried to obtain Mexican visas for Iranians so they could fly into Mexico and then cross the border. Malhamdary has admitted to friends he crossed the Mexico border illegally in 1998 to escape religious persecution in Iran, whose official religion is the Shiite branch of Islam. He was granted refugee status in February 1999.
GUWAHATI: The chief minister of the Indian state of Manipur survived an assassination attempt on Wednesday by separatist rebels that left one militant dead and a security officer injured, police said. Okram Ibobi Singh escaped injury when his convony was attacked outside the village of Lamjao near the Manipur capital Imphal, police officer L Haokip said. Singh, who also survived an assassination attempt in 2003, was travelling to attend a ruling Congress party meeting when the ambush took place, Haokip said. The rebels lobbed a grenade and fired indiscriminately on the security patrol accompanying Singh and a firefight ensued, he said. The commandos retaliated and in the encounter one militant was killed and one security personnel received bullet injuries.
QUETTA: Suspected tribal militants shot dead two policemen when they fired upon a police checkpoint in Nasirabad on Tuesday. The assailants men attacked the Nasarullah Police check post in Dera Allah Yar, killing Abdul Fateh Khoso and Noor Ahmed Lashari. "Both policemen were on night duty when unidentified men intruded into the check post and fired. The recruits had no time to retaliate and died on the spot," sources told Daily Times. The attackers also took the dead officials' weapons, they added. Also, unidentified men kidnapped a school student Fida Sasoli, the son of Zafar Sasoli on Wednesday in Naushki. Fida was going to school when he was kidnapped. Relatives blamed members of a rival clan for the incident. The kidnappers had asked Rs 10 million as ransom for Fida's release, they added.
Local militants ambushed an army convoy on Wednesday in the Dattakhel area of North Waziristan Agency leaving one security personnel dead and four others injured. The militants attacked the convoy at 3:30pm in Miser, three kilometres from Dattakhel. The local administration said the security forces retaliated and arrested 10 tribesmen. It was not clear whether the arrested people were alleged attackers or local tribesmen. Some of the arrested people were injured, said officials.
The Supreme Court upheld on Wednesday an order of the Sindh High Court and dismissed leave to appeal of three activists of the outlawed 
Suspected insurgents Wednesday blew up a gas pipeline in Pakistans restive Southwestern Baluchistan province killing a girl while two policemen were shot dead in a separate attack. "The seven-year-old girl, Mah Noor was on way to school with her mother when a bomb went off near the gas pipeline in Sui town, which is 240 kilometers away from the provincial capital, Quetta in Southeast," said a security official here while talking to KUNA. He said the girl died on the spot while her mother was wounded when shrapnel hit them.
At least 17 people were injured in a grenade explosion by terrorists near Doda town of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir Wednesday. The explosion took place on the outskirts of Doda town where a group of activists of India's main Opposition -- Bharatiya Janata Party -- had assembled to discuss their strategy, news agency Indo-Asian News Service reported. The injured have been shifted to the district hospital in Doda for treatment. One of them has lost an eye. On May 1, 22 people were gunned down by terrorists in the Doda district, the agency reported.
An Iraqi soldier was killed and three others wounded in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, when an explosive device blew up as a military convoy was passing by on Wednesday. A commander of the Iraqi Army told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the explosion had taken place on the Tikrit-Kirkuk road. Also in Kirkuk, a police source told KUNA that four employees of an oil company that had been kidnapped yesterday were released.
Unidentified gunmen abducted on Wednesday an Iraqi Taekwondo team and two referees while they were traveling to Jordan, said a security source. The source told KUNA that communications with 17 taekwondo fighters and two referees were lost during their trip. It turned out later on that a group of gunmen abducted them in the road between Ramadi and Jordan, the sources added.
Israeli forces assassinated Wednesday activists belonging to 
A group of Palestinian brigades claimed joint responsibility for shelling Sderot settlement with four local-made rockets early Wednesday. The brigades are the 
The Palestinian Ministry of the Interior deployed Wednesday hundreds of members of a recently-formed security force across Gaza with aim as it announced of curbing the security chaos. The deployment came just hours after an announcement by Interior Minister 
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels detonated a mine in eastern Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing two soldiers and injuring one, the military said, in continuing violence that threatens to push the island nation back into civil war. The mine exploded near soldiers patrolling on foot in a village bordering eastern Batticaloa district, 220 kilometers east of the capital, Colombo, military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said.
Forces of the Lebanese Army engaged in armed confrontations Wednesday with Palestinian militants in a town in the Western Beqaa region, a Lebanese security source told KUNA. The source added Fatah's Abu Musa fighters opened fire on an army patrol in the town of Eita. The area was last year the scene of a similar incident in which a Lebanese was killed.
