Nine persons were killed and an other injured when an unexploded bomb they were working on went off at Loli Faqiroon village of Saidgi, on Pak-Afghan border near here. The villagers spotted a bomb dropped by US warplanes launching an operation against Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters. They took the bomb to their village to extract gunpowder from it and sell its scrap. Well, that was their first mistake...
When they started operating, many of their relatives gathered to watch. That was their second mistake...
The bomb exploded killing all the people but one on the spot. The only surviving person was taken to Miran Shah hospital for treatment. Those who died include four cousins and their relatives. Here's a neat mathematical trick: Add up all their IQs, divide by nine, and the result is zero. Divide the same number by 11 and the result's still zero. It's uncanny...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 02:09 pm ||
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Two former high-ranking Taliban talk of reorganizing their militant religious movement and describe a recovering al-Qaida - all while they sit secretly inside Pakistan. Well outside the line of fire. Any surprise here?
In an interview with The Associated Press, they said the Afghan-Pakistan border can't be sealed to stop the movement of militants. Even more advantageous, they said, is the split within Pakistan's powerful spy agency between those who share the Taliban's ideology and those who support Pakistan's alliance with America. You heard read it here first...
One of the two, Fazul Rabi Said-Rahman, was the Taliban army corps commander for eastern Afghanistan. During the last six months of Taliban rule he was chief of police in Paktika province, an area still considered by the U.S.-led anti-terrorist coalition to be harboring fugitive Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. The other man, Obeidullah, was an assistant to the Taliban's intelligence chief Qari Ahmadullah, who was killed by a U.S. bomb in January in eastern Afghanistan. Obeidullah seems really easy for the press to find. Wonder why the Paks can't seem to pinpoint him?
Speaking in Pashtu through an interpreter, they said the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin Laden, are both alive, but offered no specifics on the Saudi dissident who leads al-Qaida. They said that they had met with Omar within the last two months "in the mountains in Afghanistan." Binny looked half dead last video they released, and al-Jazeera said it was an old tape. One way or the other, he's not long for this world; if we don't get him, his kidneys will.
They did not claim to have seen bin Laden or explain how they knew he was alive. "He is waiting for the next big attack and then he will show his body," Obeidullah said. He doesn't say it'll be animate...
Both men warned of suicide attacks on the United States and Britain in retaliation for the war in Afghanistan, but again offered no specifics. They also made faces and rolled their eyes and waved guns...
In an earlier meeting with AP, Obeidullah had made a similar vague warning about a suicide attack. He said at the second meeting that he was speaking of the May 8 bus bombing in Karachi that killed 14 people, including 11 French engineers who were in Pakistan to build an Agosta submarine for the Pakistani navy. "Before the Karachi attack I said something was being planned, something would happen in Pakistan,'' Obeidullah said. He said the attack was staged by al-Qaida and Pakistanis opposed to President Pervez Musharraf's support for the United States. I'll make a prediction, too, just to show that I'm a Tal-Qaeda insider: Something awful will happen in Pakistan in the next 30 days. Just you wait and see.
Said-Rahman said some Pakistani groups are working with al-Qaida against the coalition and against Musharraf. Well, golly and shucks. That sure is surprising...
"Everyone is working together - Harakat-ul Jihad, Harakat-ul Mujahedeen, al-Qaida,'' he said, referring to two Pakistani-based Islamic extremist groups that have been outlawed by Musharraf. "People are angry with Musharraf because he is allowing the kafirs (non-Muslims) to destroy everything in Afghanistan. Muslims everywhere are angry.'' "Destroying everything in Afghanistan" means not letting them cut people's heads off or beat women in public...
In recent days, reports have surfaced in the United States about possible targets of terrorist attacks. Said-Rahman said the reports were true, but wouldn't elaborate or say where he got his information. "We have information that there will be some big suicide attacks in the United States,'' he said. "We know it will happen. We have information. We know the situation. The Americans and the British are the big enemies. They have destroyed Afghanistan.'' When it happens — and we don't doubt that it will, whether the speaker's in on the plans or just up on barracks gossip — the country will wake up again and slap whoever dunnit just as hard as it slapped the Talibs. This time it might be the Paks, if they leave enough fingerprints.
Last Wednesday, the British Embassy in Islamabad ordered most of its staff to leave because of fears of a terrorist attack and in less than 48 hours dozens of British nationals were evacuated. During the weekend the German and Australian Embassies decided to send their non-essential staff home, again out of fears of terrorist assaults. Both the United States and Canadian missions have evacuated all but essential staff. Sounds pretty proud of the fact that they've made Pakistan into a dangerous pariah nation, doesn't he?
Both Taliban officials said Omar is overseeing a reorganization of the religious movement, which Said-Rahman said was being renamed Al Emarah Islamia Afghanistan or Islamic State of Afghanistan, which was the name previously used by the Taliban for their country. Now Said-Rahman said it will also identify their movement. The old government in exile ploy. Omar just loved being the Emir and having all those wives and the gold toilet...
He said Omar had issued orders appointing Mullah Usmani, the Taliban's former Kandahar corps commander, as his replacement should he die. Usmani was chosen "because right now, ours is a military battle and Usmani is a military man,'' Said-Rahman said. He did that last November...
He said the Taliban's former finance minister, Aga Jan Mohtasim, had been named to lead the movement's ideological revival. Money and mullahs go together, don't they?
Obeidullah said Omar has been in contact with Taliban warriors in their mountain hide-outs in Afghanistan and has addressed small shuras, or councils, in several provinces at secret locations. Without offering any details, Said-Rahman said al-Qaida also is slowly recuperating with an emphasis on a military and financial resurrection. Takes awhile to recuperate after somebody's beat hell out of you, doesn't it?
Obeidullah said Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, has a hard time tracking Taliban and al-Qaida operatives. "We know the ISI has problems of its own,'' he said. "There are some who are with us and some who are against us. Those who are with us are having a hard time.'' And those who are against them are having an equally hard time, which results in a deadlock. While they're deadlocked, the jihadis are having their way in Kashmir, which has the potential to tear the whole country down.
Musharraf has purged some Taliban supporters from the agency, intelligence sources have said. The most significant removal was Mahmood Ahmed, the agency's chief who was fired in October. Ahmed was a staunch Taliban supporter, and he was a backer of Islamic guerrillas fighting in the portion of Kashmir controlled by India, a conflict that has Pakistan and India on the edge of war. Anwar Sher, a retired Pakistan army general who worked closely with Afghan insurgents during their war with the Soviets in the 1980s, said low-level intelligence agents may be the ISI's weakness in trying to track down Taliban and al-Qaida members. "The higher-ups get their information from the lower-level operatives. There they may share ideologies, and also money may exchange hands,'' he said. So some are traitors and some are corrupt. The end result is the same.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 02:08 pm ||
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Former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah told AFP that he would accept a nomination to become the country's head of state at next month's Loya Jirga as he backed Hamid Karzai to continue leading the government. "I will accept the responsibility of head of state if that is what the Loya Jirga demands of me but I have no intention to restore the monarchy," he said. "I do not care about the title of king. The people call me Baba (the Dari for Papa) and I prefer this title. The period of royalty is past." Since he's 87 years old, this might be considered an interim measure...
The Loya Jirga is due to convene in Kabul from June 10 to select a transitional government to run Afghanistan for up to two years. The 87-year-old also said it was "essential" that interim leader Karzai retained his position as head of government at the assembly. "I think that in this situation that it is essential he remains in his post. It would be very natural if he were to lead the next government," said Zahir Shah. Dostum or Ismael Khan would probably be a better choice, but neither has the backing of the Pashtuns, who are the problem, not the solution...
Karzai has built up a close relationship with his fellow Pashtun Zahir Shah in the past few months and is known to be a frequent visitor to the ex-king's residence in the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul. "I like him very much," Zahir Shah said of Karzai. "He has many assets. He is honest and a nice man. We are good friends." In Afghanistan, being "nice" doesn't work well. Being honest doesn't help much, either. But without a national army and/or an internal security force to back him up, being nice and friendly has pretty much been the only tool he's had. We'll see what happens when there's a thicker layer of legitimacy over him and there are more guns available.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 07:47 pm ||
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Iran said Monday President Bush was acting like a sheriff in the Wild West by trying to bully other countries to end their nuclear and arms cooperation with Tehran. "Bush thinks he is still living in the age of the cowboys, and that the world is like Texas with him as its sheriff," Iran's Defense Minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani said. "He must know the time of cowboys is over. It is now the time to withdraw his gun." Seems to me it's the guys with the turbans who're shooting up the town...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 08:50 am ||
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Rumours that Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi has resigned have been denied by the foreign ministry's spokesman. "This report has no validity," ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told the centrist Entekhab paper. On Monday, Akbar Alami, a member of the pro-reform parliament's National Security Commission, told the paper that Kharazi's resignation had been discussed during a meeting of the commission. Meanwhile, the same paper quoted MP Jalal Jalayizadeh as saying that he and other members of the chamber had signed a petition for the impeachment of Kharazi because his ministry "lacks firmness in pronouncing the country's stance on foreign affairs." That means he doesn't put enough vitriol in his statements. There have been rumors Khatami's ready to hang it up, too.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 07:33 pm ||
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An influential Chechen militant Adam Saltamirzayev, better known by his alias Black Adam, was killed in Chechnya's Shali district in the course of a special operation conducted by federal forces. According to local law enforcers, Saltamirzayev was an emir, or a spiritual leader, of Wahhabis based in the village of Mesker-Yurt. The militant was killed in a clash with law enforcers. It turned out that he had been armed with an assault rifle, cartridges, and grenades. Pretty daggone well-armed for a holy man, wasn't he?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 09:30 am ||
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Hmm, another Wahhabi. Anyone surprised?
Posted by: Dean ||
05/28/2002 10:09 Comments ||
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'Cuz that's what wahhabis and tiggers do best...!
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2002 12:08 Comments ||
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Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said on Tuesday that New Delhi saw no signs of Pakistan seeing reason and that its options were narrowing. But in an interview with Star News Television, he said it would not be correct to say South Asia was on the brink of war. Okay, then. How about "Eve of destruction"? "On the brink of widespread devastation"?
"It appears that reason is still not finding any place in the leadership of Pakistan... naturally our options will become fewer and fewer. Which option will finally prevail is something on which I cannot comment." Sweet reason has never been a Pak virtue. I hope India intends to use all the RSS brownshirts in a nice frontal assault, since they enjoy killing Muslims so much...
"To say that they are on the brink of war may not be proper," he said, speaking after an address to the nation on Monday evening by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Passing gas in public isn't proper. Wishful thinking when you're responsible for over a billion people is something else.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 08:50 am ||
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General Pervez Musharraf said on Monday that Pakistan would not make any further sacrifices of the country's "honour and dignity" as the price of avoiding war with India. Honor, dignity â and revenge: These are the Islamic virtues...
In an interview with the Financial Times, Musharraf flatly denied that there was any cross-border terrorist infiltration of India's portion of Kashmir. Gen Musharraf, who earlier gave a 25-minute broadcast to the nation, also ruled out any possibility of handing over 20 alleged terrorists â India's other key demand. "India cannot be both the accusers and judges," said Gen Musharraf. "We have made it very clear that there is no activity along the Line of Control." In the face of all evidence, there's no cross-border infiltration. "Them damn' Hindoos is makin' all this up, 'cuz they don't like us." And he's not turning over any of the crazed killers the U.S. wants, either, like Omar Sheikh...
He added: "I am a military man. And while I do not want war, I am not scared of war. However the avoidance of war cannot come at the cost of compromising our honour and dignity." That's either a lie or an indication that he's stupid. I'm starting to think it's the latter. "Diplomacy is war by other means." Another tenet of Islam.
In a strong hint that Pakistan would retaliate heavily to any Indian military action, Gen Musharraf said that Pakistan was neither a "walk-over" nor weak. Pakistan is to test a third nuclear-capable missile on Tuesday, following two tests at the weekend. Pakistan has never won a war. The best he could hope for would be to make an Indian victory costly...
"We have good military deterrence," the tin-hat dictator he said. "We not only have a good defensive capability but a good offensive defensive capability. It would not be responsible for a head of state to discuss our nuclear deterrent. But the level of conventional forces that we maintain is more than adequate to implement our strategy of deterrence." Perv is the classic case of the guy who doesn't know whether to spit or go blind, so he closes one eye and drools. He's stuck between the Indian rock and the jihadi hard place with nowhere to go, the most pathetic of creatures — the ineffectual dictator. The fundos and ISI have rendered him so by the simple mechanism of ignoring his orders. The only way he could avoid war would be to exert control over the jihadis, and he doesn't have the strength to do that.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 08:50 am ||
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India ruled out any talks with Pakistan, saying diplomatic efforts to convince it to close down militants' camps in Kashmir had so far failed and that comments made by its leader were "dangerous". Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told a press conference he could not foresee a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf next week. Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed the two leaders meet on the sidelines of a regional conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan, which they are both slated to attend. "Almaty is some distance away yet," Singh said. "Personally I don't see the possibility of talks between Musharraf and Vajpayee." If Pak wanted talks they'd make moves to get India to the table. The Indians â up until recently â weren't the ones infiltrating and killing people. They still don't appear to be the ones killing people...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 07:10 pm ||
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Pakistan defied international calls for restraint and test fired a third missile, hours after British Foreign Minister Jack Straw arrived here in a bid to avert war with India. The danger, which India is acutely aware of, is that one of these "tests" could be the cover for targeted launch to lay a little devastation in support of a surprise attack. It's a game of chicken with potentially lethal results. Even if it is a test, if India doesn't believe it is, or (if they want to be duplicitous) professes to believe it's not, Pak could end up with fireballs where Islamabad, Karachi and hopefully Peshawar used to be.
Straw's mission is part of intense international efforts to calm tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals, who have a million troops massed on their border. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Safonov is also in Islamabad, pressing a proposal to arrange face-to-face talks between the Pakistani and Indian leaders, which has now been scuttled by New Delhi. And Japan dispatched an envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura, to Pakistan and India on Tuesday to bolster the mediation efforts. Perv is obviously counting on the international community to be the ones to stave off war, while he edges up as close to the line as he can for domestic purposes.
Straw said after "constructive and and forthright" talks with President Pervez Musharraf that the Pakistani leader was aware he was expected to do more to clamp down on cross-border terrorism, which has fuelled the row with India. "Forthright" in diplatic terms means the conversation started out "Are you out of your mind?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 07:26 pm ||
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The United States has fought the war on terrorism at the expense of human rights, eroding its credibility as a global leader on humanitarian issues, Amnesty International said Tuesday. There's a reason we should concern ourselves with Amnesty International?
In an annual report on human rights worldwide, the group took numerous swipes at the U.S. government for its response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including the indefinite detainment of foreigners being investigated for terrorism links. "Citizens around the world suffer the consequences when the U.S. defaults on its responsibility to promote human rights," said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA. Hey, William F. Schultz! In Afghanistan we've made this possible. The people we're "unjustly detaining" did this and this, and you didn't do a lot of bitching about it. Oh, and lest we forget, they also did this. So shut up and get out of the way, you insufferable hypocrit.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 09:11 am ||
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#1
"Bill, look at this. After we made those negative comments about the US justice system, our donations went up 45% and we only lost 5% of our membership!" "Well sure. Any time an old-school leftist gets rich, there's a new vein of liberal guilt to mine."
#2
Amnesty International's concern for human rights apparently doesn't extend to the women, children, and old men killed by Palestinian homicide bombers.
Check their 2002 report on "Israel and the Occupied Territories." See if you can spot any mentions of homicide bombers. By the way, most of the Palestinians killed in the Intifada were "unlawfully killed," according to AI, but the Israeli civilians who died last yeare where simply killed were simply killed by "Palestinian armed groups."
Posted by: R McLeod ||
05/30/2002 0:40 Comments ||
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Amnesty International's concern for human rights apparently doesn't extend to the women, children, and old men killed by Palestinian homicide bombers.
Check their 2002 report on "Israel and the Occupied Territories." See if you can spot any mentions of homicide bombers. By the way, most of the Palestinians killed in the Intifada were "unlawfully killed," according to AI, but the Israeli civilians who died last yeare were simply killed by "Palestinian armed groups."
Posted by: R McLeod ||
05/30/2002 0:45 Comments ||
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Amnesty International's concern for human rights apparently doesn't extend to the women, children, and old men killed by Palestinian homicide bombers.
Check their 2002 report on "Israel and the Occupied Territories." See if you can spot any mentions of homicide bombers. By the way, most of the Palestinians killed in the Intifada were "unlawfully killed," according to AI, but the Israeli civilians who died last yeare were simply killed by "Palestinian armed groups."
President Bush yesterday derisively challenged press claims of widespread anti-Americanism in Europe and ridiculed an American TV correspondent for suggesting as much â in English and French â to him and French President Jacques Chirac. "So you go to a protest and I drive through the streets of Berlin, seeing hundreds of people lining the road, waving," Mr. Bush said to NBC News White House correspondent David Gregory during a joint press conference with Mr. Chirac. "I don't view hostility here," Mr. Bush said in the Palais de l'Elysee. "I view the fact that we've got a lot of friends here." He's been hanging around with Rumsfeld again. I can tell...
He added: "And the fact that protesters show up â that's good. I mean, I'm in a democracy." Where everybody has a right to be stupid or not.
Mr. Bush was responding to Gregory's question about anti-American demonstrations in Germany, Russia and France during the president's visits to these nations since Wednesday. "I wonder why it is you think there are such strong sentiments in Europe against you and against this administration?" the reporter said. "Why, particularly, there's a view that you and your administration are trying to impose America's will on the rest of the world, particularly when it comes to the Middle East and where the war on terrorism goes next?" Turning to Mr. Chirac, he added in French: "And, Mr. President, would you maybe comment on that?" "Have you quit beating your wife yet? And how about you, M. le President?"
"Very good," Mr. Bush said sardonically. "The guy memorizes four words, and he plays like he's intercontinental." "Gosh, ain'tchoo erudite?"
"I can go on," Mr. Gregory offered. "Wanna see how much smarter than you I am?"
"I'm impressed â que bueno," said Mr. Bush, using the Spanish phrase for "how wonderful." He deadpanned: "Now I'm literate in two languages." The President of the United States is prohibited by law from mooning the press...
Roars of laughter filled both the press conference room and a press filing center elsewhere in the city, where many members of the White House press corps were watching the exchange on live television. "Wotta Clymer!"
Turning serious, the president spoke of the strong bond between most Europeans and Americans. "Look, the only thing I know to do is speak my mind, to talk about my values, to talk about our mutual love for freedom and the willingness to defend freedom," he said. "And, David, I think a lot of people on the continent of Europe appreciate that. "So if you don't have an opinion worth hearing, shut the hell up."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 10:49 am ||
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"Congrats, Gregory, you are now the News, not Bush..." I wonder if the producers at NBC have enough wit to realise that Gregory is now dead meat as a White House beat reporter. Perhaps a Geraldo-like tour of the Mideast and South Asia is a new career opportunity? Any future tough questions by Gregory to either GWB or Ari Fleischer will be met with the simple riposte: Que Bueno!
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
05/28/2002 14:37 Comments ||
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At least 62 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in factional fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Hussein Mohamed Aidid told AFP. Aidid, chairman of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) grouping several warlords hostile to the Transitional National Government (TNG), said the clashes between SRRC and TNG fighters killed 42 people on the side of the TNG and 20 from the SRRC. These numbers included civilians on either side of the battlelines as well as militiamen. This sort of thing breaks out every now and then. The TNG accuses the SRRC of being driven by Ethiopia, and the SRRC claims the TNG is driven by al-Qaeda.
"The TNG (forces) were assisted by religious fundamentalist fighters from Al-Itihad al-Islam," Aidid charged. This armed fundamentalist group in Somalia is suspected by the United States of having links to Al-Qaeda. If they're there at all, they're pretty weak. They don't appear to be openly active.
Aidid said the TNG had at the weekend and during the night deployed "some 1,000 fighters supported with 30 battlewagons." He said a dozen people from the SRRC side were also wounded. Local hospitals and militia sources said the violence in north Mogadishu early Tuesday claimed at least 26 lives and 43 wounded. The TNG, led by Abdulkassim Salat Hassan, was founded by an inter-clan conference sponsored and hosted by neighbouring Djibouti, but rejected by the warlords. TNG controls mostly downtown Mogadishu...
"The idea of the attack was to destroy the forces of Musa Sudi Yalahow and then attack other SRRC factions one by one. The trick was masterminded and dictated to Salat group by outsiders," Aidid charged. "The attack was overseen by Salat, his defense minister and two other military generals, as well as military experts from abroad," Aidid claimed, pointing his fingers at Libya, Eritrea, Yemen and Djibouti. That's where they keep the Bad Guys...
"The poorly trained unprofessional army fled the area they occupied early Tuesday, left their weapons and failed to collect the dead soldiers from the north Mogadishu battle grounds," Aidid said, adding that he was in constant contact with SRRC fighters in Mogadishu. Doesn't sound like much to get excited about. Either pick one side and help it wipe out the others, or wait until they're done and see if we like the result. The first option's probably the better of the two, but following the second for awhile lets them thin the field. Whichever group shows us the heads with the turbans will end up getting the assistance.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 07:03 pm ||
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Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has decided to table a judicial reform law, which he signed some 10 days ago, a Palestinian legislative source told The Jerusalem Post yesterday. Arafat's aides informed legislators yesterday that the Palestinian leader would not support the law as currently constituted. "They said that, for one, Arafat objects to age limits on judges." The judicial law which Arafat recently signed and now has decided to suspend, was prepared by the Palestinian Legislative Council several years ago and sets the standards and rules for the Palestinian judicial system. And this is surprising because...?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 09:16 am ||
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Palestinian Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat vowed to have a new government within 10 days during a meeting of the Palestinian leadership in his Ramallah headquarters, cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said. "The cabinet should change within a week, at latest in 10 days," he said. Yes, folks! It's longer, lower, leaner wider! But wait! There's more...
The move, decided on at a Monday night meeting, would aim at streamlining the government as well as making its ministries more efficient and frugal. Twenty ministerial portfolios was deemed "an appropriate number" during the meeting. That's 20 high-paying jobs for Yasser's buddies, plus jobs for all the staff they can hire, plus jobs for their bodyguards and horse-holders...
It was also proposed that "various political factions" participate in the new government as well as non-political figures, so as to "bring in new blood and vitality in governmental work and extend its popular base." Bet that means Hamas is gonna get a seat at the table...
Arafat also said the Palestinian Authority's various security services would be reorganized, without indicating any specific date, according to the report. "The sweet by and by" sounds about right...
Top Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina added that an exact date for presidential and general elections would be announced within the coming days. "We have been working night and day and a date for the elections will be delivered in a few days," he said. And then another date a few days after that one...
The Palestinian leadership recommended Monday that the elections be held in December this year. "The elections for the legislative council and the presidency can take place in December 2002," the leadership said in a statement after the Ramallah meeting chaired by Arafat. That's as far away as you can get and still be in this year...
"The leadership has formed a ministerial commission to start preparing the municipal and union elections. This commission will start its work immediately," the statement said. The statement also called on "the international community to help our people exercise its democratic rights and elect its governing bodies in total freedom ... safe from occupation, military escalation and repression." Yeah. Damn them Jews fer makin' them poor Palestinians live under a bloody-handed kleptocracy!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 12:43 pm ||
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The rising number of attacks by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a radical group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, point to growing divisions within the faction on the key issue of confronting the Israeli occupation. The Brigades have ignored ceasefire calls by Arafat but analysts said the Palestinian leader does not have the power to stop the attacks. "The Brigades may be an offshoot of Fatah but it's not regimented and under full Fatah control," noted Palestinian MP Hanan Ashrawi. "It's a homegrown phenomenon that emerged as result of Israel's deadly attacks. It is localized and divided in several branches," she added. Yasser probably has about the same amount of control over al-Aqsa as Perv has over his jihadis.
Arafat publicly called on Palestinian groups to stop all attacks against Israeli civilians on May 9, and Fatah condemned the recent spate of suicide bombings, denouncing them as "terrorist." On Friday, Arafat's faction went as far as distancing itself from its armed offshoot. "Fatah has no link with the statement published by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, nor with the parties and individuals who claim to belong to it," it said. "Wudn't me. Make them stay in the same room without a shower eating sardines for four weeks next time!"
Commenting on the growing dissension inside Fatah, political analyst Ghassan al-Khatib said: "Fatah is not a party but a movement. It's not the first time that different views are expressed." "This isn't a political party! It's an argument!"
Friday's communique came "as result of a sharp difference of views between Al-Aqsa and Fatah, so the difference had to be made public, but also because Fatah has committed itself to the West to fight terrorism," he added. And al-Aqsa has committed itself to being terrorism. Somehow that doesn't make any sense...
Ashrawi said for her part that the disagreement is indicative of the fact "a debate is taking place publicly and behind doors." She said she was confident that the Brigades would end up heeding Arafat's call. About the time all the Jews are dead, maybe...
Hours before Monday's bombing â adding to the current confusion or possibly to revive hopes for a concerted position â a Brigades spokesman told the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat that attacks would stop. The man, who identified himself as Abu Mujahid said his group "respects the decisions of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. "We respect at this juncture halting martyr operations in Israel to give a chance to political efforts undertaken by the Palestinian leadership," he said. "But as long as we have all this dynamite stockpiled, what the hell?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 01:01 pm ||
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China said on Monday that Pakistan had handed over a key leader of Chinese Muslim separatists who fought alongside the Taliban. It said another 400 suspected fighters had been captured in Afghanistan or on their return to China. I'd guess that translates into 400 deaders...
Ismail Kadir, who Beijing says helped spearhead a separatist Uighur movement in the north-western region of Xinjiang, was detained by Pakistan authorities as he attended a secret meeting in Kashmir, Xinjiang's Communist Party Secretary said. "There were 10 people in charge of the East Turkestan forces and Ismail Kadir was caught and is right now in our hands," Wang Lequan told reporters, adding that China had helped Pakistan confirm his identity. But Wang said Hasan Mahsum, who China alleges is the overseas ringleader of Chinese Muslims fighting for an independent state of East Turkestan in Xinjiang, remained at large. That's okay for now. He's probably in Kashmir, too. Maybe the Indians'll hand him over, if he's not reduced to radioactive dust.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2002 09:24 am ||
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I wonder if Mary Robinson of the UN and the wonderful folks at Human Rights Watch are going to monitor how Mr. Kadir is treated in the PRC? Wanna bet that their concerns don't exactly get put on the front page of the NYT?
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
05/28/2002 10:20 Comments ||
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MARY: Mr Secretary, us human rights watchdogs are concerned about the treatment Mr Kadir is receiving...
MR SECRETARY: Unfortunately, Mr Kadir passed away shortly after being turned over to Chinese custody. I believe the cause of death was heart failure aggravated by lead poisoning. So sorry.
MARY: Well, okay, then.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2002 12:31 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
