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Today: 106 articles and 544 comments as of 11:50.
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Troops in Iraq Free 3 Western Hostages
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Dispute Over Border Killings
Islamabad, 23 March (AKI) - Pakistan has protested against the killings of at least 15 people by Afghan army soldiers, saying that the men who the Afghan army said were Taliban fighters, were actually Pakistanis on holiday. The spokesperson for the Pakistan foreign ministry, Tasnim Aslam has said that Pakistan has lodged a "strong protest" with Afghanistan and the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan had been summoned. The ministry has also "demanded an independent investigation into the incident and punishment for those responsible'' for the killings.

On Wednesday, an Afghan army commander said a two-hour-long gun battle occured near the southern border town of Spin Boldak in the Kandahar province late on Tuesday and among the dead was a mid-level Taliban commander Mullah Shien, who allegedly led several raids across the border from secret bases in Pakistan.
Pakistan's information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed called the report "just another allegation" and other reports said that the dead were Pakistanis traveling to a religious festival in northern Afghanistan.
Innocent, heavily armed pilgrams
Is it elk-hunting season again?
Grouse, I think.
Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been tense over who is responsible for Islamic militants operating in the volatile border region between the two countries. Kabul has long called on Islamabad to do more to to deal with militants in Pakistan while Pakistan says that it has been doing all it can with some 80,000 troops deployed in the border area.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2006 08:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They were traveling to a religious festival. Considering the religion of blood, death, and decapitation, a festival could be a raid for hostages, or blowing up a mosque.
Posted by: wxjames || 03/23/2006 8:45 Comments || Top||

#2  I call Bullshit on Pakland. Quitcher whining, defend against these assholes coming across to afghanistan or STFU and let the afghans continue to thin yer herd
Posted by: Frank G || 03/23/2006 9:00 Comments || Top||

#3  What else does a self-respecting Pakiwaki do on holiday?
Posted by: SR-71 || 03/23/2006 9:30 Comments || Top||

#4  They don't spend it at the handgrenade range.
Posted by: Ulinter Elmock7099 || 03/23/2006 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  What else does a self-respecting Pakiwaki do on holiday?

Gun sex. Lots and lots of gun sex.

Speaking of which, I've finally gotten round to working on some miniatures that make me chuckle everytime I see them. They're supposed to be near-future science-fiction Islamic troops, and one of them, well:



That's right, the little bastard's firing into the air.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/23/2006 11:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Innocent, heavily armed pilgrams
No! Damnit, get it right.

Innocent, albeit heavily armed, and oddly well versed in light infantry tactics, shepherds pilgrams.
Posted by: 6 || 03/23/2006 19:42 Comments || Top||


20 Taliban killed in Afghan clashes
Afghan government forces killed 16 Taliban insurgents after surrounding them in mountains near the border with Pakistan, an Afghan army officer said on Wednesday.
Out for a walk, were they? Taking the night air?
Another four Taliban fighters were killed on Wednesday after they fired rocket-propelled grenades and rifles at a convoy of Afghan troops and foreign troops in the central province of Uruzgan, a Defence Ministry spokesman said. None of the government or foreign troops was hurt.
All four Talibs were...
Afghan forces attacked the Taliban near the southern border town of Spin Boldak late on Tuesday after getting intelligence reports the insurgents were preparing attacks, said an army commander, General Abdul Raziq. "We started an operation against them last night by surrounding them. The fighting went on for several hours. When we checked the place this morning we found 16 bodies," Raziq said. Only one Afghan soldier was wounded in the battle, 8 km (5 miles) east of Spin Boldak, he said.
"Mahmoud! Duck!... Ooooh! That hadda hurt!"
"My butt! They shot me in the butt!"
Raziq said among the dead were two Taliban commanders -- Mullah Atta Jan and Shish Noorzai -- who he said had been organising ambushes and suicide bomb attacks.
May they rest in pieces...
Separately, the governor of the north-western province of Faryab
Faryab? Something happened in Faryab? That's unique...
said he survived an assassination attempt when gunmen opened fire on his convoy on Tuesday. The governor, Abdul Latif, said he did not believe Taliban or other militants were behind the attack in which two by-standers were wounded.
My guess would be robbers or indignant neighbors that far from Pakland...
The ambush was result of a long-standing feud in the province, Latif said but he declined to elaborate.
"Family business. I can say no more"
Told you it was the neighbors. It's them dawgs he keeps...
The recent surge in violence has come as Afghanistan's NATO allies, including Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, are sending thousands more troops to the south, where the insurgency is most intense.
... and the Talibs, assuming they're all just like Spaniards, are trying to scare them off.
Commanders of the U.S. military, which is hoping to cut its troops strength in Afghanistan by several thousand to about 16,000, have said they expect an increase in violence in coming weeks.
It's spring, and a young Talib's fancy turns to rapine...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 02:08 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  killed 16 Taliban insurgents after surrounding them
Hope someone made a Surrounding Folks & Killin 'em For Dummies video for the Saudi Police.
Posted by: 6 || 03/23/2006 6:00 Comments || Top||

#2  This from Reuters??? Isn't this the same incident that was reported yesterday, with notes of 'claims' that the victims were just families of baby duck herders, or smugglers or something, rather than Taliban? And Reuters doesn't even mention the possibility? This is two article in three days from them that weren't flagrantly biased - what's going on?
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/23/2006 7:33 Comments || Top||

#3  They aren't biased against Afghanis.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/23/2006 10:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Afghan government forces killed 16 Taliban insurgents after surrounding them in mountains near the border with Pakistan

MAP: Spin Boldak, zoom-click border 'tween Kandahar and Quetta on Pak-Afghani border.


*

A-10 working on talibs! :)

http://www.militaryvideos.net/torrents/dey_chopan_cas.wmv.torrent [bit torrent]

*
Deh Chopan, a small district about 150 km north of Kandahar.

SOF article 2003 Deh Chopan
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2006 10:58 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Mogadishu festivities get more festive
HEAVY fighting in the Somalian capital Mogadishu killed at least 20 people yesterday, with an Islamic militia battling forces that have challenged the clerics' growing power.
"Challenge our growing power, will you? That's downright unIslamic. Take *that*, apostates!"
The 20 dead included civilians and combatants, killed in the fighting or in the crossfire, medical workers, militia commanders and witnesses said. More than 63 militiamen and civilians, including a three-month-old boy, were wounded in the clashes in northern Mogadishu, said doctors at the Medina and Keysaney hospitals.
Hmmm. No holy men are listed among the deaders. I'm sure that's just a coincidence, or maybe an oversight.
Islamic militiamen, wearing civilian clothing and hiding their weapons, travelled in public buses to a checkpoint in a residential neighbourhood controlled by a member of a new alliance of warlords and armed businessmen, jumped out of the vehicles and seized control of three trucks mounted with machine guns there. Both sides then brought in reinforcements. The two sides used rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft guns, machine guns, assault rifles and hand grenades. Dozens fled their homes.
The Lions of Islam® vs. The Werewolves of the Apocolypse®. May all their boils fester.
Fighters loyal to members of the alliance gradually gained the upper hand.
As if it matters.

Late breaking scores from the Somalia Sports Desk:
Two days of fierce clashes in Mogadishu between an Islamic militia and forces that have challenged clerics' growing power have killed at least 60 people, according to medical workers.

At least 20 people were killed in fighting Thursday, while the toll from Wednesday was 40, said Dr. Abdi Ibrahim, citing figures gathered from hospitals in Mogadishu by the city's doctors' association. At least 10 combatants were killed at the front line, said Abdulkadir Ahmed, who saw the dead while fleeing his home there.

A passenger bus was hit by a mortar round, killing five civilians. Gunmen shot dead two passengers in another public bus. Militiamen killed a man who denied them permission to hide behind his house. Two people were killed when a mortar shell exploded at their house, other witnesses said. Sporadic gunshots that began early Thursday escalated into heavier fighting later in the day, with the sound of exploding mortars and gunfire ringing in northeastern Mogadishu, residents said.
Ah, Mogadishu in springtime
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/23/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Lions of Islam® vs. The Werewolves of the Apocolypse®. May all their boils fester.

heY!
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2006 11:01 Comments || Top||

#2  "Islamic militiamen, wearing civilian clothing and hiding their weapons, travelled in public buses to a checkpoint in a residential neighbourhood…"

If these miscreants are captured, I wonder if the ACLU (Mogadishu chapter)will demand that their rights be respected under the Geneva Convention protocols?
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/23/2006 11:34 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Tales from the Crossfire Gazette
Two killed in 'crossfire'
A cadre of an outlawed party and a top criminal were killed in incidents of "crossfire" during shootouts between their accomplices and the law enforcers in Kushtia and Comilla early yesterday.

Our Kushtia Correspondent reported that detectives arrested Abdul Momin of Gono Mukti Fouj (GMF) at Nawapara village under Sadar upazila of Meherpur Tuesday morning. On his confession,
"Aaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!"
DB police along with Momin set out for Lahinipara in Kushtia Sadar upazila at about 3:30am
The magic hour

to arrest his accomplices and seize hidden firearms.

When they reached near Lahinipara old graveyard,
Good choice, dead men tell no tales
Momin's accomplices opened fire,
"Open reckless wildly inaccurate fire!"
forcing the law enforcers to retaliate.
Just as planned
Police said Momin was caught in the "crossfire" while trying to escape and died on the spot.
"Feet don't...KAPOW!...urp..rosebud..."
A light gun and four bullets were recovered from the scene.

Son of Khabir Uddin of Kalishangkarpur area of Kushtia town, Momin was an accused in 15 cases including seven for murder, police said.

In Comilla, a top criminal of the district was killed during a "shootout" between his cohorts and police at Salmanpur under Comilla Sadar (South) upazila, according to our correspondent. Police arrested Alamgir Hossain alias 'Dakat' Alamgir, 35, at Barapara village under the upazila Tuesday noon.
On his confessional statement, a police team along with Alamgir reached Salmanpur hill at about 2:20am yesterday to arrest his cohorts and recover firearms.
Same old story, same old results
Sensing the presence of the policemen, Alamgir's men opened fire, prompting the law enforcers to retaliate.
Only the names have been changed to protect the death squad
Alamgir was shot during the shootout. He was taken to Comilla Sadar Hospital where the doctors declared him dead.
"He's dead, Jim"
Six policemen, including three sub-inspectors, were also injured. They are SI Shahjahan Kabir, SI Abul Kashem and SI Mostafizur Rahman, and constables Abdur Rashid, Shahbuddin and Sher Ali. The injured cops are undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Police seized one single barrel gun, four bullets and one dagger from the scene. Alamgir was wanted in six criminal cases filed with different police stations of the district, police said.

One killed in bomb attack in Chuadanga
A man was killed and his associate sustained serious injuries in bomb attack at Munshiganj bazar in Alamdanga upazila Tuesday night. The deceased was identified as Asaduzzaman Asad, 50, inhabitant of Jehala village in the same upazila.

Miscreants hurled two powerful bombs at Asad and his co-villager Qutubuddin when they were taking tea at a shop at Madan Babu crossing at about 9:30pm. Asad died on the spot. Qutub whose left leg and left hand blown off in the blast was taken to the Sadar Hospital in critical condition.

Meanwhile, one Rahul Raj, on behalf of Purba Banglar Communist Party (Janajuddah faction), in a call over telephone to a local newspaper claimed that the faction was responsible for the bomb attack. He said the attack was carried out to punish the two men as they used to extort toll money in the name of Janajuddah and work as police informers.
"Yeah, we bombed them dirty stoolies! And proud of it, we are.""
The police recovered the body and sent it to morgue for autopsy. The police super, Mohammad Sarwar, visited the spot.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2006 09:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "one single barrel gun"

Another shuttergun clue?
Posted by: Ulinter Elmock7099 || 03/23/2006 10:50 Comments || Top||

#2  "Six policemen, including three sub-inspectors, were also injured..." I see the police are now using the Bangla Navy.
Posted by: Inspector Clueso || 03/23/2006 10:57 Comments || Top||

#3  "Light gun"?



Posted by: gromky || 03/23/2006 11:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Nice looking light gun. I didn't know they had that technology!

"The police super, Mohammad Sarwar, visited the spot."

Ya done good boyz! I can hardly see the spot after the application of Kaboom Crossfire cleaner.
Posted by: Inspector Clueso || 03/23/2006 12:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Searched the last year:

Results for search of "crossfire"
Displaying matches 1 through 20 of 476
Posted by: mojo || 03/23/2006 15:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Shuttergun images and results are suppresed and redirected by google.

/Urban legends for a dollar.
Posted by: 6 || 03/23/2006 19:46 Comments || Top||


Britain
UK al-Qaeda member wanted to buy dirty bomb
AN ALLEGED Islamist terrorist accused of planning attacks on targets in Britain was involved in a plot to buy a “dirty bomb” from the Russian mafia, the Old Bailey was told yesterday. Salahuddin Amin was said to have been entrusted by senior figures in a terror cell in Pakistan to act as a go-between in their planned purchase of the radioactive device.

He is standing trial alongside six alleged accomplices for conspiring to detonate explosives at key sites in Britain, causing maximum damage and fatalities. Among the intended targets were the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, the National Grid, synagogues and a nightclub in Central London, the court was told during the second day of the trial. However, the plotters did not realise that as they pondered which of many potential targets to strike, their movements were being monitored by police, David Waters, QC, for the prosecution, said. Some of their cars and homes had been bugged. One defendant, Jawad Akbar, allegedly said in a recording: “The biggest nightclub in Central London. No one can put their hands up and say they are innocent — those slags dancing around.”

Mr Amin was said in 2001 to have moved to Pakistan where he attended explosives and weapons training camps with five of the other men and supplied equipment for jihad (holy war). Mr Waters told the jury: “An indication to the trust imposed in Amin and his position in the Pakistani end of the organisation is gained from the passing of information to him in relation to a radioisotope bomb.”

Referring to alleged senior terrorists, Mr Waters said that Mr Amin was asked by Pakistan-based militants to contact a man named Abu Annis. Through Annis contact had been made via the internet with Russian mafia based in Belgium.
Mr Waters said that at least two of the defendants intended to leave Britain for Pakistan in the days before the intended attack on a UK target.

He said that Waheed Mahmood worked for Transco National Grid at its Brighton depot. Computer discs giving detailed plans of Britain’s electricity and gas systems, including pipelines, cables and sub- stations, had been found at another defendant’s house. “Anyone armed with such information would have no difficulty identifying, in the context of this case, a potential target,” Mr Waters said.

The men had bought 600kg (1,323lb) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, supposedly for an allotment, even though that amount would cover five football pitches; had hired a lorry and had taken it to a storage depot in West London. They had refused to answer questions from the curious manager about what they would do with it, and had chosen the password “pink” in reference to a character in the film Reservoir Dogs. Mr Waters said that staff at the depot eventually became suspicious and contacted police, who exchanged the fertiliser for an inert substance without alerting the men. An undercover officer started working as a receptionist at the depot. The defendants were said to have acquired other bomb ingredients: aluminium powder had been discovered in a biscuit tin behind a shed at the home of Omar Khyam and his brother, Shujah Mahmood.

Providing detonators had been the responsibility of Momin Khawaja, a computer expert from Canada, who faces trial in that country. He and Mr Khyam were said to have been in regular e-mail contact about how best to bring detonators from Canada to Britain. In one e-mail Mr Khawaja had said: “We’ve got to find a way to get it [a device] into the UK. Maybe I could courier it over?” He had also suggested sending it via the company that employed him at that time.

Mr Waters said that the internet played a vital role in the alleged plot: some of the defendants had purchased outdoor clothing and camping equipment online in preparation for trips to training camps in Pakistan. Wary of surveillance, they allegedly communicated by e-mail but without sending messages: by saving drafts and logging on using identical usernames and passwords. The men were said to have bought pay-as-you-go mobile phones and regularly disposed of them and their laptops in an attempt to evade MI5. Police had said that they appeared “surveillance sensitive”, being “extremely aware” of vehicles and pedestrians around them.

Nevertheless, Mr Waters said, security officers successfully bugged their homes and cars. In one conversation the men had been heard discussing a remote-controlled detonator that had a dipswitch to encrypt the signal, a booster chip to prevent it from being blocked and antennae that they hoped would increase its range to two kilometres. The jury was told that a recording was also made of Akbar talking to his wife in which he allegedly said: “They are going to train me up and probably send me back here, act like completely stupid, and do a big mission. When we kill the Kuf (unbelievers) this is because we know Allah hates the Kufs.”

In another recording Waheed Mahmood allegedly mentions a potential attack on Bluewater shopping centre in Kent: “A little explosion at Bluewater — tomorrow if you want. I don’t know how big it would be, we haven’t tested it, but we could tomorrow — do one tomorrow.”

Mr Amin, 31, of Luton; Mr Khyam, 24, Shujah Mahmood, 18, Waheed Mahmood, 34, Jawad Akbar, 22, all of Crawley, West Sussex; Anthony Garcia, 27, of Ilford, East London; and Nabeel Hussain, 20, from Horley, Surrey, all deny conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life between October 2003 and March 2004. Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny possessing 600kg of fertiliser for the purposes of terrorism. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood deny possessing aluminium powder, also for the purposes of terrorism.

All except Mr Amin were arrested in March 2004 and declined to answer questions. They eventually denied their guilt in short prepared statements, issued to police through their solicitors. Mr Amin was arrested in February 2005 on return from Pakistan. The prosecution said that he had become increasingly radicalised during a visit to the country in 1999, and had come under the influence of an extremist in Luton who had died fighting in Afghanistan.

When he returned to Britain he was said to have taken a year out from his university course to work as a taxi driver so that he could afford daily donations to the Kashmir cause. In 2001 he returned to Pakistan for his sister’s wedding, Mr Waters said, and took the opportunity to “check out” a training camp but was unimpressed by the standard. He had been in Pakistan during the September 11 terrorist attacks and later told police that he regretted the civilian deaths but “felt good and happy that there was such a big financial loss”. Mr Amin had eventually sold his house in Luton, returned to Pakistan for terrorism training and had begun using the name Khalid.

However, Mr Waters said, his role in providing money and equipment to groups fighting in Afghanistan, such as al-Qaeda and the Mujahidin, came through a British link and was engineered by a man with whom Mr Amin had worshipped at a mosque in Luton. Mr Amin had also allegedly met the Crawley defendants when they had decided to visit a mosque in Luton. Mr Khyam had later gone to Pakistan to join him at a training camp. Mr Waters said: “The training course included the fact that there were alternative substances to ammonium nitrate. The instruction was not restricted to explosives as a means of causing death or damage. “As you will hear they were instructed in some detail as to how ricin was prepared. Khyam and Amin took notes of the training they were given.”

When back in Britain, Mr Khyam was said to have acquired the 600kg of fertiliser and contacted Mr Amin, who had remained in Pakistan, to ask what he should mix it with to make explosives and in what ratio. Mr Amin had gone to his superior, obtained the formula, e-mailed it to Mr Khyam and destroyed his notes. He had been detained by the Pakistani authorities for ten months from April 2004 until his return to Britain, Mr Waters said. While in custody abroad, he had been interviewed by British and American security services.

Mr Waters told the jury: “He claimed he was very badly treated by the Pakistani authorities and received threats . . . He said he had even admitted things he had not done. “. . .When you hear the [police] interviews you may come to a conclusion that there came a time when Amin regretted revealing quite as much as he had . . . ”Mr Waters continued: “The charge or allegation which all defendants face is conspiracy to cause an explosion or explosions. Provided there was such an agreement, any defendant who was party to it will be guilty. The prosecution does not have to prove a specific explosion was agreed upon.”

He added that if the police had waited until the very last minute before arresting the defendants, this “would inevitably involve risks to the public which would be unacceptable”. The trial continues.

THE ACCUSED

Omar Khyam, 24, from Crawley, formerly lived in Slough. Also known as Ausman. Said by the prosecution to be “very much at the centre of operations”

Anthony Garcia, 27, from Ilford, East London. Also known as Rahman Adam, Abdul Rahman, John Lewis or Rizvan. Taught weapons training in Pakistan

Nabeel Hussain, 20, from Horley, Surrey. Lived in Uxbridge while a student at Brunel University. The only defendant not to attend training camps in Pakistan and the only one given bail

Jawad Akbar, 22, from Crawley. Also lived in Uxbridge for a time. Also known as Hamza

Waheed Mahmood, 34, from Crawley. Worked for National Grid Transco, which the prosecution said would be a significant point. Also known as Abdul, Esmail or Javed

Shujah Mahmood, 18, Omar Khyam’s younger brother. Also from Crawley. Prosecution alleges that he arrived in Pakistan with digital scales for weighing ratios of ammonium nitrate to aluminium powder

Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton. Spent a considerable period in Pakistan. Also known as Khalid

ITEMS ALLEGEDLY FOUND AT DEFENDANTS' HOMES

# Aluminium powder (key ingredient in making explosive device) in a biscuit tin behind a shed
# Long list of synagogues
# 12 CD-Roms on National Grid giving mains data, maps, areas of interest and location of hazardous plant
# Letter from Anthony Garcia in which he seemingly says goodbye to his brother and asks him not to tell anyone what he is about to do
# Outdoor “survival” clothing and camping equipment
# Book called Understanding Solid State Electronics
# Document called What to do if contacted by MI5 or Special Branch
# Computer video files with extract described as al-Qaeda weapons manual
# Money transfer documents
# Quotation for storage hire
# Pay-and-go mobile phone simcard box
# Phone number of fertiliser suppliers
# At home of Momin Khawaja (alleged accomplice awaiting trial in Canada) documents relating to jihad and home-made transmitter and receiver boards
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "V" FOR VIOLETBLUE??? - Daddy's little KILL BILL swordwoman. Not a petite finicky gun-toting Commie supermodel babe like her sister ANGELINA JOLIE whom thinks CHINA rules the [future]world.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/23/2006 1:39 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess Joe is raving about Uma Thurman. Exactly what she has to do with this story........I have no idea.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2006 7:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't worry, Steve, I don't think Joe has any idea either.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/23/2006 8:06 Comments || Top||

#4  ..I have no idea.

*ahem*
use ur 1.a1 anti-al-Taqiyya Spetzlamist code rings.

'just a suggestion.
Posted by: BettyCrockerCrat || 03/23/2006 11:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Joe nails it...AGAIN!
Posted by: Inspector Clueso || 03/23/2006 17:55 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
US indicts FARC leadership
The United States charged 50 leaders of Colombia's largest guerrilla group with sending more than $25 billion worth of cocaine around the world to finance their fight at home, a federal indictment that depicts the rebels as major narco-terrorists.

The indictment made public Wednesday in U.S. District Court said the leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, ordered the killings of Colombian farmers who did not cooperate with the group, the kidnapping and killing of U.S. citizens and the downing of U.S. planes seeking to fumigate coca crops.

U.S. officials said the indictment strikes a blow against the group because it lays out the FARC's hierarchy and details of its operations. "Members of the FARC do not want to face American justice," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

He acknowledged that 47 of those charged remain at large, probably in well-defended jungle strongholds that have so far proved beyond the reach of Colombian authorities.

The FARC supplies more than half the world's cocaine and 60 percent of the drug that enters the United States, the indictment said. "The FARC's fingerprint is on most of the cocaine sold in America's neighborhoods," said the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Karen Tandy.

Washington-based experts on Colombia said the actual numbers probably are lower, but are significant. Right-wing paramilitary groups also are heavily involved in the cocaine trade, the experts and the indictment said.

The FARC uses proceeds from the cocaine trade to purchase weapons in its four-decade fight to overthrow the Colombian government, the indictment said. A grand jury returned the indictment on March 1; it remained under seal until Wednesday.

The U.S. and the European Union have designated the FARC a terrorist organization.

Colombia President Alvaro Uribe, Washington's closest ally in South America, has waged an aggressive fight against the FARC and stepped up efforts to eradicate his country's coca crop. Uribe faces re-election in May and has been leading in the polls.

The U.S. has spent more than $3 billion since 2000 to reduce Colombia's coca crop and the flow of cocaine to this country. The results have been lackluster, said John Walsh, senior analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank.

The indictment is intended to show that U.S.-Colombian cooperation is "successfully getting at the drug-trafficking industry and attacking drug financing," Walsh said.

Phillip McLean, a former American diplomat who now is at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he expects the charges will influence the debate in Colombia between those who view the FARC as a traditional guerrilla group with a political agenda and those who see it as a criminal organization.

"This indictment clearly puts the weight on the side of those who say these guys are bandits," said McLean, who served in Colombia in the 1980s and recently returned from a trip there.

The State Department said it would pay up to $75 million in rewards for information leading to the arrest of 24 FARC leaders named in the indictment.

Three others charged in the drug conspiracy are in custody in Colombia and U.S. officials said they would seek to have them extradited. They are: Jorge Enrique Rodriguez Mendieta, Erminso Cuevas Cabrera and Juan Jose Martinez Vega, authorities said.

More than 400 Colombians have been extradited to the United States to face criminal charges, officials said. Two accused FARC leaders already are awaiting trial in Washington on narcotics charges.

The FARC is holding more than 60 hostages, including three U.S. defense contractors kidnapped in February 2003, when their small plane crashed in the jungles of southern Colombia during an anti-narcotics mission.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 02:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The U.S., doing its part to ensure that lucrative profits in the drug industry are maintained during Afghanistan's time of need, not to mention the numerous opportunities afforded American youth who aspire to rise to the top of today's gangs.
Posted by: Perfessor || 03/23/2006 9:36 Comments || Top||

#2  The Afghan product ends up in Europe.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/23/2006 11:00 Comments || Top||

#3  We like cocaine, they prefer heroin? The things I don't know!
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2006 13:43 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Chechen al-Qaeda trainee captured in Grozny
An associate of Shamil Basayev has been detained in the Chechen capital Grozny, the press service of the Interior Ministry's main department for the southern federal district told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

"A 24-year-old local resident took an active part in fighting against federal forces in Grozny, Bamut, and Alkhan-Kale under direct leadership of Basayev," a police official said, noting that the militant was apprehended on Tuesday.

Another participant in illegal armed groups was detained in the republic's Nozhai-Yurt district.

"It was ascertained that he had been drilled in sabotage and terrorism in a training camp under the guidance of Arab mercenary Abu Jafar, and went by the nickname Usman," the police official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 02:01 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
ETA hangs it up?
The Basque terrorist movement ETA on Wednesday announced a "permanent ceasefire," to go into effect on Friday, after more than 30 years of violence and bloodshed. Nearly 900 people have been killed, many more maimed and hundreds have been blackmailed by the organization; those who failed to pay protection money often saw their businesses bombed or torched or were even kidnapped and held hostage until their families paid large ransom payments. ETA has long demanded independence from Spain for the Basques, who live in the border area between France and Spain. The more militant of its members call for the integration of the French Basque provinces into an independent Basque Country.

This is not the first time that ETA has declared a truce, but it is the first time that it has used the word "permanent." But will it be? Opinion in Spain is divided.

Journalist Gorka Landáburu, who was himself maimed by an ETA parcel bomb, which cost him an eye and part of one hand, welcomed the news. "I believe this is a genuine call for peace," he said. "It is a permanent ceasefire and not merely a truce. The path ahead will be complicated and difficult. But I can't see them turning back now."

Prime minister José Luís Lopez Zapatero, who had pledged himself to working for a Basque peace process when he took office two years ago, also welcomed the news but called for patience, warning that they were embarking on a "long, difficult and arduous process." Yet the conservative Popular Party greeted the announcement with skepticism. "It is a pause, not a renunciation [of terrorism]," declared PP's leader, Mariano Rajoy, who pointed out that ETA has yet to agree to lay down its arms.

ETA has lost considerable support among the Basque people in recent years and the organization has been seriously weakened by close cooperation between the French and Spanish security forces, who have arrested many of its leaders and seized quantities of arms, explosives and ammunition as well as computer files with valuable information on the members and their activities. Although there has been a spate of bombings in recent months, most were preceded by warnings, and while they caused considerable damage to property, there have been no deaths since 2003.

Pau Ríos of the Basque peace movement Alkarri described the wording of the communique as "a very important step forward....It is the best we could have hoped for from ETA." He said it would have been unrealistic to expect the group to announce its was laying down its arms at this time "But the word 'permanent' is particularly significant as it has very strong connotations in the Basque language," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 00:35 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No they don't. We hang up but you give us all we want (independence included) or we will unhang.
Posted by: JFM || 03/23/2006 1:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Translated in American terms: it is like if bin Laden decreed a hudna on the condition that America must convert to Islam and instore Shariah. Oh and President is Jimmy Carter.
Posted by: JFM || 03/23/2006 6:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh and President is Jimmy Carter.
Given the current Spanish government, I'm not sure that is not apt analogy.
Posted by: eLarson || 03/23/2006 14:40 Comments || Top||

#4  As crazy as it sounds, I just don't see this as a positive thing for Europe.
Posted by: 11A5S || 03/23/2006 20:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Why do you think that, 11A5S?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2006 21:51 Comments || Top||

#6  as a 1/4 basque descendant - I hope it's true
Posted by: Frank G || 03/23/2006 23:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
RINO Specter: NSA Methods 'Just Plain Wrong'
A vocal Republican critic of the Bush administration's eavesdropping program will preside over Senate efforts to write the program into law, but he was pessimistic Wednesday that the White House wanted to listen.

"They want to do just as they please, for as long as they can get away with it," Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think what is going on now without congressional intervention or judicial intervention is just plain wrong."

Specter was one of the first Republicans to publicly question the National Security Agency's authority to monitor international calls - when one party is inside the United States - without first getting court approval. Under the program first disclosed last year, the NSA has been conducting the surveillance when calls and e-mails are thought to involve al-Qaida.

Earlier this month, Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., expressed interest in handling NSA legislation.

But Specter will stay in the spotlight.
The Senate Parliamentarian last week gave Specter jurisdiction over two different bills that would provide more checks on the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program.

One bill, written by Specter, would require a secretive federal intelligence court to conduct regular reviews of the program's constitutionality. A rival approach - drafted by Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine and three other Republicans - would allow the government to conduct warrantless surveillance for up to 45 days before seeking court or congressional approval.

Specter said the House and Senate intelligence committees could have had authority over the program under the 1947 National Security Act, which lays out when the spy agencies must tell Congress about intelligence activities.

But, Specter said, the committees haven't gotten full briefings on the program, instead choosing to create small subcommittees for the work.
"The intelligence committees ought to exercise their statutory authority on oversight, but they aren't," Specter said. "The Judiciary Committee has acted. We brought in the attorney general. We had a second hearing with a series of experts, and we are deeply involved in it."

Specter added that his words should not be seen as critical of Roberts, but rather the administration for not briefing the full committees.

Roberts was known to be unhappy that his committee was bypassed.

An aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue's political sensitivity, said all members of the Intelligence Committee have been briefed on the program's general outline, and seven members of an intelligence subcommittee have been fully briefed on the details.

The aide said Roberts plans to hold more sessions, and he will likely demand that Specter refer any legislation passed by Judiciary Committee to the intelligence panel for review.

Specter's bill would require the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to provide a broad constitutional review of the surveillance activities every 45 days and evaluate whether the government has followed previous authorizations that are issued.

DeWine, however, wants to give the administration as much as 45 days to operate without a court warrant. If at any point the attorney general has enough information to go to the intelligence court, he must.

Under that approach, Specter said the administration can still "roam and roam and roam, and not find anything, and keep roaming. ... I think that's wrong."

Specter plans to hold a hearing on Tuesday about the bills. He said his plan is to pass both out of the Judiciary Committee and allow the full Senate to consider them as soon as May.

"I think my position will prevail," Specter said, noting that he will have Democratic support.

Posted by: Captain America || 03/23/2006 18:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As somebody who has written software to more invasive stuff for engineering reasons... Specter has something seriously twisted in his little brain!
Posted by: 3dc || 03/23/2006 20:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Sphincter.
Posted by: twobyfour || 03/23/2006 22:38 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Cleric Killed In South Waziristan
Wana, South Waziristan, 23 March (AKI/DAWN) - In ongoing violence in the tribal area of South Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan, a pro-government cleric has been killed by gunmen and a telephone exchange blown up. Witnesses told the Pakistan daily Dawn that the car of Maulana Sibghatullah was ambushed at Laddah on Wednesday by masked men who killed the cleric and abducted the three people travelling with him. Maulana Sibghatullah had in the past been associated with the Taliban but had since dissociated himself from Taliban militants, who are seeking to rebuild their power base in the mountainous Waziristan region.




Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2006 08:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Surprise meter reading zero. Muslims killing muslims who disagree with them in spite of the prohibition in the Qoran(aka, "Mohammend's Little Book of Death").
Posted by: anymouse || 03/23/2006 13:38 Comments || Top||


Sherpao rules out amnesty for al-Qaeda in Waziristan
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has said foreign terrorists hiding in Waziristan would not be given amnesty “because the deadline has now expired”.

Sherpao said the government would use bullet for bullet to crush militants who challenged the writ of the government. “The government will hold talks unconditionally with those who want peace and development, however all should join hands to restore peace and tranquility in the region,” Sherpao told the tribal elders from Waziristan’s Miranshah, Datta Khel and Mir Ali areas at a meeting here on Tuesday.

The tribal elders demanded that the government initiate a process of dialogue and immediately withdraw troops from the tribal areas to restore permanent peace. They rejected the government’s claim about the presence of foreigners in the tribal areas saying that innocent people from their tribes were being killed on the pretext of operations against ‘miscreants’ and foreigners.

They urged the government to hold dialogue with tribal elders instead of going on with the military operations in the North and South Waziristan agencies.

Sherpao said the government wants peace in the restive area but attacks on security forces will not be tolerated. He said the government will welcome Maulana Fazlur Rehman if he uses his influence to restore peace and order in restive Waziristan.

The interior minister referred to government campaign to cleanse tribal belt of Afghan refugees and said all camps of Afghan refugees in these areas have been closed. The process of their repatriation has also been accelerated. Last year over 400,000 Afghan refugees returned to their country.

The tribal elders urged the government to form a bipartisan parliamentary committee to resolve the conflict in tribal areas. But, flanked by Aneesa Zeb Tahirkheli, the minister of state for information, Sherpao turned down the proposal.

He said that a parliamentary committee of opposition and treasury members might politicise the sensitive issue. He sought open support from opposition members to takcle the situation.

Sherpao rejected the claims of the tribal elders that security forces had only arrested Afghan refugees from their areas. “I have already said that we arrested Arabs, Chinese, Uzbeks, Turkish and Chechens from Waziristan,” he told journalists after the meeting.

He said the Al Qaeda network had been broken in the tribal areas, ‘but some of its operatives are still at large and making attempts to create a law and order situation in Pakistan”. He said Al Qaeda operatives might be present in other parts of the country.

He said the government had banned the display of arms in Miranshah, Mir Ali and adjacent areas. “Almost every home in the tribal areas has weapons. We have asked them not to display arms.”

The interior minister favoured the process of interaction with tribal leaders, saying his ministry would facilitate negotiations between the NWFP governor and the tribal elders.

Malik Attaullah and Malik Haji Muhammad Haleem, who led the delegation, told the minister that hatred of the armed forces was on the rise amongst the general public of the tribal areas.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Tajwar Naeemi gets bail in terrorism case
LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday granted bail to Tajwar Naeemi of the Tahafuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat Mahaz (TNRM) in a terrorism case after he submitted bail bonds worth Rs 30,000. A case had been registered again Tajwar, brother of Jamia Naeemia Principal Dr Sarfraz Naeemi, at Qila Gujjar Singh police station for inciting people to violence and creating law and order during the February 14 protests against Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) caricatures. Tajwar submitted an affidavit that he had nothing to do with the incidents which took place on February 14. The court had earlier granted Tajwar bail in a terrorism case registered against him at Old Anarkali police station.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


5 convicted of terrorism
An anti-terrorism court in Sibi convicted five militants on Wednesday on two counts of terrorism, a judge said. The five men, all Pakistani, had been involved in the March 2005 bombing of a Shia shrine, killing 45 people, and in the manufacturing of an explosive device. Anti-terrorism court judge Ismail Baloch sentenced Abdul Halim and Muhammad Aslam to death over their involvement in both the Gandhawa shrine blast and the manufacturing of explosives. The shrine blast had taken place as about 20,000 pilgrims, including Sunnis, had gathered at the shrine of a 19th Shia saint.

The judge sentenced Muhamamd Abdullah, Muhammad Arshad and Khalil Ahmad to life imprisonment over their involvement in the shrine attack. Bomb-making charges against them were dropped due to lack of evidence. Prosecution lawyer Deen Mohammad Marri said that the defendants had admitted to belonging to a branch of Sipah-e-Sahaba, an outlawed Sunni Muslim group charged with provoking previous sectarian violence in the country. He said that the men had the right to appeal against their sentencing.

Inspector General Police Balochistan Chaudhry Yaqub had last year said that four of the men had received militant training in Afghanistan and that two of them had fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan against US-led coalition forces. The accused were arrested at a mosque in Usta Muhammad, close to where the shrine blast took place, when a bomb they were making accidentally exploded, injuring one of them.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Phone exchange blown up
A key town in South Waziristan lost contact with rest of the country after suspected militants blew up a telephone exchange in Shakai Valley, security officials said on Wednesday. It comes two days after a similar attack on a radio transmission in Wana took Radio Pakistan off the air. "A telephone exchange of 600 lines was hit in Shakai Valley at 7:30pm on Tuesday when a bomb went off damaging its satellite dish and boosters," the officials told Daily Times wishing not to be named.

They said anti-government elements, a reference to Al Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants, were behind the attack and the aim was to disrupt government communication lines in Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some people have a thing for pipelines, some for comm gear. Everyone needs a hobby.
Posted by: Speng Grimble8270 || 03/23/2006 6:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Speng Grimble8270 -- is this yet another Spemble, but with a bit of a spelling problem? ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2006 11:14 Comments || Top||

#3  You'd have to ask Fred about the spelling issue, but I do aspire to Spembleness. Everyone needs a goal, too. :^)
Posted by: Ulinter Elmock7099 || 03/23/2006 11:18 Comments || Top||

#4  And yes, I whacked my cookies earlier.
Posted by: Ulinter Elmock7099 || 03/23/2006 11:18 Comments || Top||

#5  sounds like you need a girlfriend :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 03/23/2006 12:12 Comments || Top||

#6  hmmm lack of phones might make it harder to notify the authorites should an Afghan hit team/raiding party make an appearance. That was real smart
Posted by: Frank G || 03/23/2006 12:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Better to whack cookies than to toss them.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/23/2006 12:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Gawd amighty what kinda thread is this? Yawl's should be ashamed.
Posted by: 6 || 03/23/2006 19:50 Comments || Top||


Five soldiers injured by landmine blast
Five military personnel were injured when their vehicle struck a landmine near Dera Bugti and three children were injured when a bomb exploded in Osta Muhammad area of Jafferabad on Wednesday. Spokesman of Balochistan Government Raziq Bugti said that the vehicle struck to a landmine in Gori area situated at the border of Sibi and Dera Bugti. Locals said security forces launched another aerial attack in the Tratani, Nisao and Daho areas where a woman and a girl were injured. Unconfirmed clashes were also reported in these areas. An electricity pylon was damaged in Sibi Harnai section on Tuesday. Quetta Electricity Supply Company Spokesman Jibreel Khan said the repair work would be complete in a few days.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Interior Ministry orders action against publishers of hate material
Another step in the right direction, to be quickly reversed...
Either Julius Streicher or Uncle Fester, I'm not sure which...
Law enforcement agencies were directed by the Interior ministry on Wednesday to take punitive action against those involved in publishing and distributing sectarian material in the country. The police chiefs of the four provinces and the federal capital had been directed to take action against police officials in whose precincts the publication of hatred material was being carried out, with termination from service being the maximum penalty. They had also been asked to direct the district nazims and district police officers to contact the prominent Shia and Sunni leaders in their areas to address their security concerns, sources told Daily Times.

The orders had been made after intelligence agencies warned that the recent surge in sectarian violence in Iraq could trigger a similar backlash in Pakistan. The situation could be exploited by militants who could target laces of worship and high profile officials, the sources said The interior ministry stated that since the issue had serious implications for public order and terrorism concerns, an immediate response by the law-enforcement agencies was essential. The provincial authorities have been asked to convene joint meetings of the district peace committees and the local religious leaders of both sectarian groups to reduce any possible reactionary feelings, sources added. The authorities have also been asked to beef up security around mosques and Imambargahs and arrest under Anti-Terrorism Act, any religious leader delivering proactive speeches.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd feel more comfortable with a concrete definition for hate material. In that part of the world such terms are often defined as, "Anything I say is ok, if what you say offends me, that's hateful."
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2006 11:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Legislating speech is an obvious Pandora's Box. People are endlessly ingenious - and hateful.

Besides:

"Almost all lies are acts, and speech has no part in them."
- Mark Twain, My First Lie And How I Got Out Of It
Posted by: Ulinter Elmock7099 || 03/23/2006 11:28 Comments || Top||


Two terrs sentenced to swing in Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan - A Pakistani court on Wednesday convicted five Islamic militants in connection with a March 2005 bombing that killed 45 people at Shiite shrine, sentencing two to death and three to life in prison, a judge said. The five men, all Pakistanis, were arrested two days after the March 19, 2005, attack in Fatehpur, a town about 350 kilometers (210 miles) south of Quetta.

Judge Mohammed Ismail told The Associated Press by telephone that he issued the ruling at a court in Sibi district, where Fatehpur is located, on Wednesday. “They (the men) played a direct role in the bomb attack,” he said.

Deen Mohammed Marri, a prosecution lawyer, said the accused had confessed to their involvement in the attack and links with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an outlawed Sunni Muslim militant group blamed for previous sectarian violence in Pakistan. The bomb exploded when about 20,000 people, mostly Shiites but also some Sunnis, had gathered at the shrine of a 19th century Shiite saint.

Mohammed Aslam and Abdul Aleem got the death penalty, and Mohammed Abdullah, Mohammed Arshad and Khalil Ahmad were given life sentences. “We had a very solid case and evidence against them,” Marri said.

Marri said the five men were arrested from a home adjacent to a mosque in the same region where the shrine attack happened, after another bomb they were making accidentally went off, injuring one of them.
He'll wish the bomb finished the job off.
Pakistan has a history of sectarian violence, ...
Reeeeaaaallly? Coulda fooled me ...
... mostly blamed on rival majority Sunni and minority Shiite extremist groups.
It's not the Esquimoux.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/23/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Operation Northern Lights begins
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces, approximately 1,400 personnel, kicked off Operation Northern Lights March 22 to disrupt anti-Iraqi forces and to find and destroy terrorist caches in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad.

The joint and combined operation began with 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, moving to blocking positions by ground before Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, air assaulted onto the objective to conduct a cordon and search.

By late afternoon, approximately 400 Soldiers from the 3rd Bde., 6th Iraqi Army Div., discovered five weapons caches, containing a machinegun, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, three AK-47 assault rifles, 2,200 PKC machine gun rounds, two boxes of gunpowder, a RPG rocket, an Iraqi police jacket, 18 106 mm tank rounds, 400 blasting caps, 40 artillery rounds, 17 pressure plate initiators, 20 Motorola radio initiators, and thousands of .50 caliber machine gun rounds. They also detained a suspected terrorist near one of the caches.
At another cache site, terrorists attacked Iraqi soldiers with small-arms fire, wounding one Iraqi policeman and an Iraqi child caught in the crossfire.

Iraqi soldiers returned fire, wounding and capturing a terrorist. All of the wounded were treated by Coalition Forces personnel.
Another cache found consisted of seven RPG launchers, 12 RPG rounds, 14 82 mm mortar rounds, two 120 mm mortar rounds, ten 155 mm rounds, a mortar bipod and 2,000 small-arms rounds, some of which were armor-piercing rounds. A suspected terrorist was detained at the site.

The combined forces continue to search for terrorists and bomb-making materials. So far through the operations, Iraqi and Coalition Forces have detained two persons of high-value interest and 16 suspected terrorists.

The operation is based on intelligence, including tips from local Iraqis, that terrorists are operating in the area and are stockpiling roadside bomb and truck bomb- making materials to prepare for future attacks in Baghdad.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/23/2006 21:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Every cache means lives saved. Excellent intel, apparently. Excellent results.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 22:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Another air-assault training exercise. Air assault units are best for conventional light cavalry uses, and also as a rapid deployment force.

As rapid deployment, they would put down any serious threat of civil war quickly, something like the Mehdi Army revolt in Najaf.

In light cavalry mode, they would cut to ribbons any ground advance into Iraq by a foreign army. Not just flank attacks, but cutting their logistics and communications lines and attacking their rear elements. A small light cav unit can inflict severe hurt on a unit many times its size.

It is the epee vs the broadsword, inflicting a dozen cuts and stabs before dodging the ineffectual and slow slash.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/23/2006 22:08 Comments || Top||


Operation Swarmer concludes
TIKRIT, Iraq – The combined operation involving Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police commandos and Coalition Forces wrapped up March 22 without any casualties and all of the tactical objectives met.

The mission began with the helicopter transport of approximately 1,500 Iraqi and Coalition Soldiers and Iraqi police commandos into a 10-by-10 square mile area northeast of Samarra March 16. The initial insertion aircraft and subsequent air security provided by the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade moved the force comprised of units from the 1st Commando Brigade, the 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division and the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.
The combined force moved through the area using intelligence and planning provided primarily by the Iraqi Security Forces. The operation resulted in 104 suspected insurgents currently being detained and questioned, and 24 caches discovered.

The caches included:
- Six shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles
- Over 350 mortar rounds and three mortar systems
- 26 artillery rounds
- A variety of IED-making materials and other military items
- Over 120 rockets
- Over 3200 rounds of small-arms ammunition
- 86 rocket-propelled grenades and 28 launchers
- Six landmines
- 12 hand grenades and 40 rifle grenades
- 34 rifles and machineguns of various types

All of the detainees are currently held in secured locations undergoing questioning.

All units have safely returned to their garrison locations and forward operating bases preparing for future operations.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/23/2006 21:15 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rolling up these caches is truly good news. Good job. I hope the Iraqi forces are gaining some field confidence - and some sense of pride that derives from the nation, instead of tribe or sect.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 22:09 Comments || Top||


Insurgent doctor killed dozens of wounded soldiers
When policemen, soldiers and officials in Kirkuk who were injured in insurgent attacks arrived in the emergency room of the hospital, they hoped their chances of surviving had gone up as doctors tended their wounds.

In fact, many of the wounded were almost certain to die because one of the doctors at the Republic Hospital was a member of an insurgent cell. Pretending to treat the injured men, he killed 43 of them by secretly administering lethal injections, a police inquiry has revealed.

"He was called Dr Louay and when the terrorists had failed to kill a policeman or a soldier he would finish them off," Colonel Yadgar Shukir Abdullah Jaff, a senior Kirkuk police chief, told The Independent. "He gave them a high dosage of a medicine which increased their bleeding so they died from loss of blood."

Dr Louay carried out his murder campaign over an eight to nine-month period, say police. He appeared to be a hard working assistant doctor who selflessly made himself available for work in any part of the hospital, which is the largest in Kirkuk.

He was particularly willing to assist in the emergency room. With 272 soldiers, policemen and civilians killed and 1,220 injured in insurgent attacks in Kirkuk in 2005, the doctors were rushed off their feet and glad of any help they could get. Nobody noticed how many patients were dying soon after being tended by their enthusiastic young colleague.

Dr Louay was finally arrested only after the leader of the cell to which he belonged, named Malla Yassin, was captured and confessed. "I was really shocked that a doctor and an educated men should do such a thing," said Col Jaff.

The murderous work of Dr Louay is symbolic of the ferocity of the struggle for the oil province of Kirkuk. The dispute over its fate is the most important reason why the political parties in Baghdad have failed to create a new government three months after the election on 15 December. The Kurds, expelled from Kirkuk and replaced with Arab settlers by Saddam Hussein, captured the city on 10 April 2003. They have no intention of giving it up. "We will never leave Kirkuk," said Rizgar Ali Hamajan, the former Kurdish peshmerga (soldier) who heads the provincial council. "It is part of Kurdistan."

He recalls that when he was 18 months old, his parents fled with him from his village north of Kirkuk moments before the Iraqi army destroyed it.

But Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Prime Minister, has frustrated Kurdish demands, enshrined in the new constitution, for Kurds to be allowed to return to Kirkuk and Arabs settlers to be removed to their original homes. The Kurds expect a referendum in Kirkuk that would lead to the province joining the highly autonomous Kurdish region ruled by the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq.

For the 1.9 million Kurds, Turkomens and Arabs of Kirkuk province, oil has brought few benefits. They live on top of at least 10 billion barrels of oil which was first exploited in 1927. Despite that, people wanting to buy petrol in Kirkuk wait all day in queues of battered vehicles. "It is the most devastated city in all Iraq," said Mohammed Othman, deputy head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the most powerful Kurdish party in Kirkuk.

All Iraqi provinces were seriously damaged under Saddam Hussein but few on the scale of Kirkuk. Sinister mounds in the fields mark where Kurdish villages once stood before they were destroyed. Often the Iraqi army poured concrete into the village wells to prevent people returning. Saddam Hussein also bulldozed four districts in Kirkuk after the failed Kurdish uprising in 1991. Between then and 2003 at least 120,000 Kurds and Turkomens were expelled, in addition to those forced out in the previous 40 years.

Some Kurds have returned, but not to a land of plenty. In the old sports stadium in Kirkuk, hundreds of families are squatting amid the garbage and sewage. The guerrilla war continues at a low but persistent level and the Arabs are not going to leave or be marginalised without a fight.

Smoke was rising over Kirkuk this week as children set ablaze tyres to celebrate the Nowruz, the Kurdish spring festival.

Kirkuk is not a place where many people would like to live - but the battle to control it may yet destroy Iraq.
May the good doctor pray for death before he is dangled from the gibbet.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/23/2006 13:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is a good example of why US military personnel are treated in-house by military doctors and NOT indigenous medical help.
Posted by: Leigh || 03/23/2006 13:23 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope old Dr "Jack Kevorkian" Louay has a very interesting rest of his life commiserating with his captors.
Posted by: anymouse || 03/23/2006 13:35 Comments || Top||

#3  The death of a thousand cuts ... Preferrably with an extremely dull and corroded scalpel ... Dipped in saline solution or battery acid.

Or just hand him over so the victims' families can have a chance to "play doctor."
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2006 13:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Hang 'im high.

And leave him for the crows to pick clean.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/23/2006 13:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Salt to taste. This is Patrick Cockburn ("Counterpunch") writing in the Independent, where the sky is always falling.
Posted by: Matt || 03/23/2006 14:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Bring back the stocks in the town square.

Once again, another moral muslim displaying his concern for his fellow man.
Posted by: wxjames || 03/23/2006 15:14 Comments || Top||

#7  "Dr Louay was finally arrested only after the leader of the cell to which he belonged, named Malla Yassin, was captured and confessed. "I was really shocked that a doctor and an educated men should do such a thing," said Col Jaff."
He knows he's talking about a Muslim right? Put bombs in cadavors to blow up parents, blow themselves up around kids. And justify it to boot.
Posted by: plainslow || 03/23/2006 16:36 Comments || Top||

#8  I like the public stocks idea: let everyone have a metal spork....that oughtta take a while
Posted by: Frank G || 03/23/2006 19:46 Comments || Top||

#9  I thought Uncle Harold had shuffled off this mortal coil?
Posted by: 6 || 03/23/2006 19:54 Comments || Top||

#10  Frank sed Spork! I get to inbound.
Posted by: 6 || 03/23/2006 19:54 Comments || Top||


Troops in Iraq Free 3 Western Hostages
Britain says multinational troops in Iraq have freed three Western peace activists held hostage since November.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced in London that the hostages - Briton Norman Kember and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden - were freed during a military operation Thursday.

A fourth man seized at the same time, an American, was found shot to death in Baghdad earlier this month.

Straw said today's rescue operation followed "weeks and weeks" of planning, but he released few details. He said the British hostage is now in Baghdad in "reasonable condition," but that the two Canadians are hospitalized.

The three men, members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, were abducted in Baghdad on November fourth, along with their American colleague, Tom Fox. A little known group, the Swords of Righteousness Brigades, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

Separately, a suicide bombing at a security checkpoint in central Baghdad today killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 30 others. Most of the victims were policemen.

Officials say the bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a checkpoint outside headquarters of the main criminal unit of the Iraqi police.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/23/2006 05:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great news!!!
Posted by: Thavilet Gluger3137 || 03/23/2006 6:48 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder how they felt about being rescued by the military after Tom Fox was tortured to death.
Posted by: eLarson || 03/23/2006 6:49 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder if they will even be gracious enough to thank their rescuers...
Or am I being just too cynical?
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 03/23/2006 6:57 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder if they will even be gracious enough to thank their rescuers...
Or am I being just too cynical?


No, not cynical at all.These peacnicks shit on us every chance they get.
Posted by: ARMYGUY || 03/23/2006 7:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Cynical? I think not...

In a statement, the Christian Peacemaker Teams said the activists went to Iraq "motivated by a passion for justice and peace." The group called for coalition forces to remove their troops from the country.
"We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq," the statement said.


Any way we can give them back?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/23/2006 7:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Charge them with complicity in their own kidnapping.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/23/2006 7:25 Comments || Top||

#7  I wonder if they were really freed during a military operation, or if they their freedom was bought (I guess buying their release could qualify as a military operation if the funds came out of the military budget, right?). Italy and Germany seemed to have no problem negotiating with terrorists and there are certainly similarly-minded folks in the Canadian and British governments as well. I'm skeptical until I hear that SAS killed ___ terrorists in an assault on the hostage site, or something along those lines.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/23/2006 7:27 Comments || Top||

#8  From AP:
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said the captives were rescued in a joint U.S.-British operation in rural area northwest of Baghdad... Speaking in Toronto, Doug Pritchard, co-director of the group (Christian Peacemaker Teams), said no shots were fired during the operation and that the kidnappers were not present when the U.S.-British force freed the hostages. U.S. and British military officials did not provide details of the operation.

Sounds like a ransom was paid and the drop off location was given.
Posted by: ed || 03/23/2006 7:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Then why did the military rescue them? If they've got enough money to bribe the terrs they should hire Blackwater to pick up the trash. These assholes should be charged, just like the idiots who have to be rescued at the Grand Canyon. I'd say a billion a head.
Posted by: Ulater Sleper5543 || 03/23/2006 7:46 Comments || Top||

#10  Then why did the military rescue them?
Because the Canadian armed forces are scarce in them parts?
Posted by: ed || 03/23/2006 8:20 Comments || Top||

#11  Probably no ransom money but probably a lot of bribes were paid.

Posted by: mhw || 03/23/2006 8:25 Comments || Top||

#12  Could be the swords of righteousness/insanity were already in a cage singing like canarys...or complaining that the bagman stole their hard earned Euros?
Posted by: Inspector Clueso || 03/23/2006 9:18 Comments || Top||

#13  Should have let 'em rot.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/23/2006 10:00 Comments || Top||

#14  Looks like a real rescue. I must be getting cynical and the "hostages" must have quite cooperative not to have guards.
Three Christian Activists Rescued in Iraq
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the U.S. military spokesman, said the hostages were being held by a "kidnapping cell" in a house in western Baghdad, and the operation to free the captives was based on information from a man captured by U.S. forces only three hours earlier.

"They were bound, they were together, there were no kidnappers in the areas," Lynch told a news briefing. He also said military operations concerning other hostages were ongoing, "probably as a result of what we're finding at this time."


I'm with Darth.
Posted by: ed || 03/23/2006 10:16 Comments || Top||

#15  Separately, a suicide bombing at a security checkpoint in central Baghdad today killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 30 others."
It always seems like eveytime thereis a suicide bombing with iraq police, they lose in the ten's. Can we tell them to stand further apart.
Posted by: plainslow || 03/23/2006 10:25 Comments || Top||

#16  "Can we tell them to stand further apart."
Its because whenever a car gets stopped at a roadblock the iraqi police all rush to the car with their palms outstreched
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 03/23/2006 10:55 Comments || Top||

#17  no shots fired = tipped off we coming .. simple

Posted by: MacNails || 03/23/2006 11:05 Comments || Top||

#18  The first thing that hits me about the CPT is the overarching sanctimony, the tremendous conceit of "we love our enemies." Clearly, they do not. Their true enemies, as betrayed by their words and actions, are the US Military and it is plain that there is no love there. The second thing is how pitiful and ineffectual they as a group are. All their pandering and fawning over their friends the terrorists, under the false guise of "we love our enemies" did not stop the terrorists from killing one of them. Conversely, all their animosity toward our Military did not stop the rescue operation that saved the rest of them. They are worthless dilettantes; nothing but empty egos.
Posted by: Uneting Shiper6140 || 03/23/2006 11:32 Comments || Top||

#19  badger,you may be right. Maybe it's one way of teaching them graft dosen't work.
Posted by: plainslow || 03/23/2006 11:46 Comments || Top||

#20  They'll be back next week and we can play this game all over again.
Posted by: Jake-the-peg || 03/23/2006 12:46 Comments || Top||

#21  They have released a press statement.
WARNING the sanctimony in it is sickening And no thanks, but streams of bile for their rescuers.
Posted by: tipper || 03/23/2006 13:34 Comments || Top||

#22  If you go to the CBC website, the impression you get is that they were released, not rescued. Bastards.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/23/2006 13:40 Comments || Top||

#23  According to the CBC: There have been reports that members of Canada's top secret commando unit, Joint Task Force 2, have been working in Iraq.

Well this is news. Let me guess, it's because Harper is now the PM.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/23/2006 13:45 Comments || Top||

#24  "Released"... do you suppose the group paid off the terrs?
Posted by: eLarson || 03/23/2006 14:47 Comments || Top||

#25  Raph

BBC also says Canadian spec forces were involved. Interesting indeedy.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/23/2006 15:15 Comments || Top||

#26  Shudda left 'em ta get their heads chopped off
Posted by: kelly || 03/23/2006 15:18 Comments || Top||

#27  I heard this news in the am on fox 's daily buzz, and they clearly said the hostages were released no mention of rescue, and certainly no mention of coalition forces.

Glad to see that the military met these turds face to face. The look in those 'three' eyes must have been intresting.
Posted by: SCpatriot || 03/23/2006 16:56 Comments || Top||

#28  Thanks for saving us from beheading. Now go back to your babykilling ways.
Posted by: 6 || 03/23/2006 19:56 Comments || Top||


Maan rioters, Abu Sayyaf sentenced to hang
Jordan yesterday sentenced to death nine Islamist militants for their part in 2002 riots in the southern city of Maan in which seven people were killed.

Four of them were sentenced in absentia by a three-man military court which also handed another militant a 10-year prison sentence. Dozens of others were acquitted.

Among those sentenced to death was Abu Sayyaf, a fiery preacher and alleged Al Qaeda sympathiser who is already serving a 15-year sentence he received in 2004 for a plot to attack Westerners.

* The president of Jordan's state security court gave Jordanian-born Islamist fugitive Abu Musab Al Zarqawi 10 days to surrender and face trial in connection with triple bombings in Amman hotel late last year that killed about 60 people.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syrian captured with Zarqawi leaflets
REBELS blasted an Iraqi police station with grenade and mortar fire, killing four policemen in Madaen, south of Baghdad, police said.

They said they had detained about 70 suspects in raids in the town after the assault, which occurred a day after at least 22 people were killed and 30 prisoners released in a similar attack on a police post north-east of the capital.

Among the detainees was a Syrian found with leaflets by the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, police said.

The violence again underlined the need for Iraq's leaders to break a deadlock over a government of national unity, widely seen as the best of hope of stabilising the country and undermining support for a tenacious Sunni Arab insurgency.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday approved rare talks with Washington on Iraq, where Shiite Islamists with links to Tehran lead the interim government.

Some Iraqi officials hope US-Iranian contacts could ease the political logjam, which is due partly to rifts among Shiite parties as well as those involving Kurds and Sunni Arabs.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  interrogate, then kill him
Posted by: Frank G || 03/23/2006 11:45 Comments || Top||


US lashes back, claims Iraqi police giving out misinformation
The U.S. military hit back on Wednesday at what it called a "pattern of misinformation" following Iraqi police accusations that its troops shot dead a family of 11 in their home last week.

Responding to comments by police and residents in the town of Ishaqi, north of Baghdad, that U.S. officers had failed to attend a meeting on Wednesday about the incident, Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, a senior spokesman, told Reuters:

"There was no meeting scheduled with any Coalition investigators today. There appears to be a distinct pattern of misinformation surrounding this entire incident.

"This is another clear sign of that happening, making allegations for the sake of prompting media reporting and attempting to discredit Coalition operations. This is a pattern we‘ve seen the terrorist-backed insurgency use repeatedly."

Relations between the U.S. military and Iraqi police in the mainly Sunni area north of Baghdad -- where many including police are sympathetic to the insurgency -- are strained, with police accusing U.S. troops of killing civilians and the military questioning the credibility of the police.

The military has launched an investigation into a raid last Wednesday by U.S. forces, in which an al Qaeda suspect was arrested, because of discrepancies between the police account and that of troops, who said only four people were killed.

The Ishaqi inquiry was announced days after the launch of a criminal investigation into events in the western town of Haditha in November, when U.S. Marines shot dead 15 civilians.

In Ishaqi, police said 11 people including five children under school age were found bound and shot in their home after the U.S. raid. The military said at the time that four people, including a guerrilla fighter, were killed.

Local journalists filmed the bodies of five young children, four women and two men who police said were killed in the raid.

Johnson said: "We have said repeatedly we know of four people killed after Coalition forces came under direct fire from the house, resulting in a heavy engagement to suppress it.

"We heard a barrage of shooting for 20 minutes and then we heard bombs," said Thiya Hussein, who said his cousin was killed. "After the Americans left we went to the house and found 11 people lying in blood together in one room. Five of them were children. They were bound in plastic handcuffs and shot."

"The baby, Husam, who was six-months-old, was shot dead. A 75-year-old woman was shot in the head," he told Reuters.

Another neighbor, Abbas Abid, said: "The house was damaged and the family was shot and lying in one room.

Accusations American soldiers have killed innocent people has fueled anger at the occupation among Iraqis, who complain that little disciplinary action has resulted from inquiries.

Near Ishaqi, at Duluiya, police accused U.S. troops of killing a 13-year-old boy and his parents in their home on Sunday, as well as five other people. The military said soldiers killed seven "terrorists" who attacked a patrol with grenades.

In July, an investigation was launched into the killing of a cousin of Iraq ‘s U.N. envoy at Haditha. The results are unknown.

Military spokesman Johnson said: We do not target non-combatants in our operations, although we repeatedly find insurgents occupying homes that place innocent people in harm‘s way ... However ... if any misconduct is found, those responsible will be held fully accountable."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:41 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The wages of appeasement.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/23/2006 2:21 Comments || Top||

#2  In Ishaqi, police said 11 people including five children under school age were found bound and shot in their home after the U.S. raid.

Binding people before execution is an Arab modus operendi, not American.

We need to set up a "canary" system of information releases. Establish certain heavily armed decoy patrols with covert escorts. Only certain squads of Iraqi police are given accurate schedules for these patrols. If an attack on a patrol occurs, members of that Iraqi squad get their clock cleaned. There are numerous ways of implicating infiltrators and we need to put them in place.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2006 10:53 Comments || Top||

#3  ...Are the police making these claims the same ones that even the MSM admits is heavily infiltrated by the bad guyz?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/23/2006 12:13 Comments || Top||

#4  May also be discrepancy in what was said to be found and what actually was found.

They are learning the Media sound bite very well. There may have been 4 bodies, but much more fun for the media bite to claim the babies and puppies.
Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 || 03/23/2006 18:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Might need to apply some serious "Sunni-Be-Gone" before calm comes to River City.
Posted by: Captain America || 03/23/2006 22:50 Comments || Top||


Iraqi insurgents' attempt seize another jail foiled - 50 hard boyz captured!
Emboldened a day after a successful jailbreak, insurgents laid siege to another prison yesterday. This time, U.S. troops and a special Iraqi unit thwarted the pre-dawn attack south of Baghdad, overwhelming the gunmen and capturing 50 of them, police said.

Although the raid failed, the insurgents' ability to put together such large and well-armed bands of fighters underlined concerns about the ability of Iraqi police and military to take over the fight from U.S. troops. Sixty militants participated in the assault, which attempted to free more jailed Sunni insurgents, police said.

The attack on the prison in Ma dain, 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, began with insurgents firing 10 mortar rounds. They then stormed the facility, which is run by the Interior Ministry, a predominantly Shi'a organization and heavily infil trated by members of various Shi'a militias.

Four police officers -- including the commander of the special unit -- died in a two-hour gunbattle, which was decided only after American forces arrived. Among the 50 captured, police said, was one Syrian.

The U.S. military did not respond to a request for comment about its role in the counterattack. The raid came a day after 100 Sunni gunmen freed 33 prisoners and wrecked a jail, police station and courthouse in Muqdadiyah, a town northeast of Baghdad near the Iranian border.

Madain, the site of yesterday's attack, is at the northern tip of Iraq's Sunni-dominated "Triangle of Death," a farming region rife with sectarian violence -- retaliatory kidnappings and killings in the conflict between Sunnis and Shi'as.

Police have discovered hundreds of corpses in the past four weeks, victims of religious militants on a rampage of revenge killing.

At least 21 more bodies were found yesterday, including those of 16 Shi'a pilgrims discovered on a Baghdad highway, police said. Millions were returning home yesterday at the conclusion of an impor tant Shi'a commemoration in the holy city of Karbala this week.

In the northern town of Beiji, meanwhile, a mortar fell on a government facility that Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi was visit ing yesterday, an aide said.

Chalabi was not harmed and later returned to Baghdad, the aide said on condition of anonymity be cause he was not authorized to re lease the information. Chalabi, who is also the interim oil minister, was believed to have been visiting the refinery in Beiji, the nation's largest.

As U.S. officials step up pressure on Iraqi leaders to form a national unity government quickly, the United States' top military commander said he had underestimated the extent of Iraqi reluc tance to come together.

"I think that I certainly did not understand the depth of fear that was generated by the decades of Saddam's rule," said Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "I think a lot of Iraqis have been in the wait-and-see mode longer than I thought they would."

Pace said one solution was for the Iraqis to do a better job of recruiting more Sunnis into the army and for police forces to balance Shi'a domination.

"Units that are purely Shi'a or Kurd or Sunni are looked on by various other sectors of the community as not being representative of their needs," Pace said.

The Bush administration views formation of a broad-based government as a first step in quelling violence and allowing the start of an American troop withdrawal this summer.

While the U.S. military has touted its progress in training the Iraqi army and police, a top expert on Iraq said the forces remained poorly matched against the insurgency and al Qaeda.

"The police have almost no protected vehicles, few heavy weapons similar to those of insurgents, are often located in extremely vulnerable buildings, and have weak communications. Corruption is a major issue," Anthony H. Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a position paper released this week.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:36 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now is this the same one Frank G posted about yesterday? 50 captured is the same, round number.
Posted by: eLarson || 03/23/2006 6:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice, round number, that. And no fatalities among the attackers. Odd.
Posted by: James || 03/23/2006 17:12 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas to support terrorism against Israel
Incoming Palestinian interior minister Saeed Seyam, chosen by Hamas to oversee three security services, said on Thursday he will not order the arrest of militants carrying out attacks against Israel.

"The day will never come when any Palestinian would be arrested because of his political affiliation or because of resisting the occupation," Seyam told Reuters in an interview. "The file of political detention must be closed."
enormously clarifying, and it means two things: 1. Hamas isn't and won't be a partner, despite Jimmy Carter's protestations to the contrary (no doubt this statement by hamas won't sway him, either) and 2. if Hamas won't go after the bad guys, Israel can. And as they continue the process of disengagement, terrorism will seem more and more to be state-sponsored. War. Israel can attack without having to avoid "innocent" civilians. Turnabout is fair play.

Hamas, whose charter officially calls for Israel's destruction, swept to victory in a Jan. 25 election and plans to present its cabinet line-up to a Hamas-dominated parliament for a vote next week.

The militant group has selected Hamas loyalists like Seyam to fill almost all of the 24-member cabinet after Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and other moderate parties refused to join a coalition with Hamas.

Hamas's failure to convince rival factions to join the government could make it harder for it to rule and could cement U.S. and Israeli efforts to isolate the group.

As well as vowing not to arrest militants for carrying out attacks against Israel, Seyam said Hamas would try to coordinate militants' operations.
an act of war? a de facto army, since it's government supported?

"Talks with the factions in the future will focus on the mechanisms, the shape and the timing (of any attacks)," he said.
the first act of the new government

"But the right to defend our people and to confront the aggression is granted and is legitimate."
with the inevitable retaliation for any attacks, paleos are gonna be mighty angry they brought hamas to power.

Seyam said he had begun talks with Palestinian security chiefs in the hope of averting fighting within the security services. A majority of the 20,000-plus security personnel, who will answer to Seyam, are Fatah members.
no they won't.

Seyam said maintaining law and order would be a top priority. There were several hundred murders in Gaza and the West Bank last year, according to human rights groups.
he's gonna have to maintain law and order amongst the security force, before he can extend it to the civilian population.

Seyam said his ministry would continue to coordinate day-to-day security issues, like the number of permits given to Palestinian workers, with Israeli authorities. But Seyam said he did not plan to meet Israelis himself.

"Regarding daily issues, they will not be changed, except in the way that serves the interest of our people," he said.

Israel and the United States have said they will not have any contact with Hamas members and have urged donors to cut off direct funding to the government unless it renounces violence, abides by interim peace deals and recognises the Jewish state.

"Saeed Seyam did not come to the government to revive any security cooperation or to protect the occupation and their settlers. I came to protect our people and their fighters, to protect their trees, their properties and their capabilities," Seyam said. and to kill joooooooos
Posted by: PlanetDan || 03/23/2006 15:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That should do the trick.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 18:45 Comments || Top||

#2  You want to make war on Israel? Better stock up on potable water, generators, petrol and diesel, and batteries. Your munitions supply should be adequate. Oh, and yes. You will need to stockpile flour. Best o'luck t'ye. Yer gonna need it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/23/2006 20:06 Comments || Top||

#3  They must be sure to paint a nice big bull's eye on the back of each one of their politicians as well. Idjits.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2006 20:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Hamas leaders have such large lifespans once Israel knows they exist ... you would think that Pavlov's conditioning would be having an evolutionary effect on them.

Nah!
Posted by: 3dc || 03/23/2006 20:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Indeed. The terms "Hamas Leadership" and AGM-114 Hellfire should be hyphenated.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/23/2006 21:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Not just HAMAS but WND.com and other sources are reporting that FATAH's Motherly Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades and others are part of it, and that Iran has ordered Palestinian terror groups to begin acts of bombings in time for the upcoming elex.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/23/2006 22:00 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda cells in West Bank
Two Nablus residents suspected of heading an Al-Qaida terror cell yesterday became the first West Bank Palestinians to be indicted on charges of belonging to Osama bin Laden's worldwide terror network.

The case, in which the suspects are also accused of planning a double bombing in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem, is the most recent sign that Al-Qaida has been attempting to establish a Palestinian terror cell in the territories, security officials said.

The officials said that there have been several incidents over the past year that raised suspicions of ties between Palestinian factions and Al-Qaida, but the alleged Nablus cell is the most serious such case. In addition to the two main suspects - Azzam Abu Aladas and Balal Hafnawi, both 20-year-old residents of the Balata refugee camp - four additional people suspected of belonging to the Nablus cell have also been indicted.

In a separate incident, police and the Shin Bet security service foiled a suicide bombing yesterday that was planned for the Tel Aviv region. After a dramatic chase, police stopped a commercial vehicle carrying the suspected suicide bomber and eight other Palestinians near Kibbutz Sha'alvim, on Route 1, from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Police said that the suspect, an Islamic Jihad activist from the Jenin area, was carrying a bag containing between five and seven kilograms of explosives.

The Islamic Jihad network in the northern West Bank claimed responsibility for the planned attack. That network has been responsible for the last seven suicide bombings, which killed 26 Israelis.

In the Nablus case, the Islamic activists who allegedly recruited the defendants are also suspected of responsibility for sending Al-Qaida suicide bombers to attack three Amman hotels on November 9. Those attacks killed more than 60 people.

One of these men is being held in a Jordanian prison on suspicion of carrying out a major role in the hotel attacks. But while Israeli and Jordanian authorities are both investigating the possibility that the alleged recruiters of the Nablus cell were involved in the Jordanian hotel bombings, Amman has apparently refused an Israeli request that it be allowed to participate in the Jordanian inquiry. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaida leader in Iraq, reportedly directed the hotel bombings.

Security sources said that the two suspected Al-Qaida members from Nablus were arrested on December 10 as they returned from Jordan, where Al-Qaida activists had allegedly recruited them. They were indicted yesterday in a West Bank military tribunal.

According to the sources, Aladas and Hafnawi told their interrogators that they had spoken to their handlers about the possibility of undergoing training in military camps run by extremist Islamic organizations in Iraq, Syria or Lebanon. Another possibility raised in the meetings, the sources said, was that Al-Qaida would send a Gazan operative who specializes in preparing sophisticated car bombs to Nablus.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said recently that there is evidence indicating that Al-Qaida has infiltrated the Gaza Strip. In 2000, a Hamas operative from Gaza, Nabil Ukal, was accused of attempting to establish an Al-Qaida cell in the Strip and undergoing training at extremist Islamic camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Aladas allegedly met with three Al-Qaida activists in May, while he was studying in Jordan. The three are suspected of recruiting him and directing him to establish an Al-Qaida cell in the West Bank. He was allegedly instructed in covert terror operations and told to attack targets that would damage the Israeli economy.

When Aladas returned to Nablus, he allegedly recruited Hafnawi, a former Fatah member, and the two are accused of establishing the Nablus cell, along with the four other defendants. Aladas and Hafnawi are suspected of maintaining contact with Al-Qaida officials in Jordan and receiving a total of about 2,000 Jordanian dinars from them.

The idea of the Jerusalem terror attack was allegedly raised at the most recent meeting between Hafnawi, Aladas and the Al-Qaida operatives, in November. The cell is suspected of planning to send a suicide bomber to a French Hill pizzeria and then detonate a nearby car bomb remotely. The cell had allegedly already located a suicide bomber and prepared a bomb belt.

About two months ago, Channel 2 television reported that Israeli intelligence had identified the "fingerprints" of the global jihad network, of which Al-Qaida is part, in Nablus and Jenin. Military Intelligence officials have been saying for about a year that the global jihad network is gradually turning its attention to Israel and nearby countries. This assessment was based on messages between top Al-Qaida officials and on an analysis of recent terror attacks in the region: the attacks in Amman, two attacks in Sinai, and Katyusha rocket fire that targeted an American ship in the Red Sea (one Katyusha hit Eilat instead). In December, a Palestinian organization linked to Zarqawi fired Katyushas on the Galilee from Lebanon. In addition, the Shin Bet has previously arrested Palestinians suspected of having loose ties with Al-Qaida.

Meanwhile, an initial investigation of yesterday's attempted suicide bombing in the Tel Aviv area indicated that the vehicle in which the suspect was traveling never entered Jerusalem with the suspect aboard. Instead, it reached the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway via dirt roads.

After receiving a warning from the Shin Bet, police went on high alert around 11 A.M. yesterday and set up dozens of roadblocks in Jerusalem, bolstering its forces in public areas and examining all cars entering and leaving the capital. But it was policemen stationed at a roadblock on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, near the Harel overpass, who identified the vehicle that turned out to be carrying the bomber. They identified it as suspicious after noting that it had 10 passengers and attempted to escape when it approached the roadblock. Police forces on the scene, later joined by reinforcements from Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, chased the van for several kilometers until it had to slow down at a roadblock near Sha'alvim.

The driver of the vehicle, an East Jerusalem resident, is suspected of regularly transporting Palestinians from the territories into Israel, primarily for work purposes.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:51 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Al Qaeda is the new Hamas; unreconstructed terrorists with no real strategy except to keep on killin', no interest in or capacity for governing, unrestrained maximalist rhetoric incorporating both victimhood and triumphalism, and undoubtedly a reputation as Muslims of committment and integrity.

Now that Hamas has tainted itself by accepting institutional power, where it might have to be accountable for its results, there's an opening for the mytho-political outside avenger role to stoke the fires of barbarism and backwardness in the name of God for yet another lost generation.
Posted by: Baba Tutu || 03/23/2006 2:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Only a matter of time before the first Al Q suicide bombing of a Paleo institution.

The timing depends on which branch of Al Q is in charge of the Israel affiliate.
Posted by: mhw || 03/23/2006 11:33 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda Paleos work for Zarqawi
Signs are mounting that Al Qaeda terrorists are setting their sights on Israel and the Palestinian territories as their next jihad battleground.

Israel has indicted two West Bank militants for Al Qaeda membership, Egypt arrested operatives trying to cross into Israel and a Palestinian security official has acknowledged Al Qaeda is "organizing cells and gathering supporters."

Al Qaeda's inroads are still preliminary, but officials fear a doomsday scenario if it takes root.

Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon have established contacts with Al Qaeda followers linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, according to two Israeli officials.

Al-Zarqawi has established footholds in the countries neighboring Israel — Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan — and is interested in bringing his fight to Israel, too, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because Israel does not want to identify those involved in the issue.

Tuesday's indictment of two militants on charges of belonging to Al Qaeda and receiving funds from the group for a planned double-bombing in Jerusalem was Israel's most concrete allegation to date linking Al Qaeda to West Bank Palestinians.

The indictment described in detail how the two, Azzam Abu Aladas and Balal Hafnai, met with Al Qaeda operatives in Jordan, arranged for secret e-mail exchanges and received thousands of dollars from Al Qaeda to carry out the attack. The indictment came just three weeks after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the London-based Al Hayat newspaper that Al Qaeda had infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza.

Still, Mideast watchers warned against overstating the Al Qaeda presence because the issue is easily manipulated for political ends.

Israel has a lot to gain by portraying its local conflict with the Palestinians as part of the global war on terror, and Abbas, badly damaged by the recent political rise of Hamas militants, wants "to show that he is needed by the West," said Israeli security analyst Dan Schueftan.

Both Israeli and Palestinian security officials described Al Qaeda's activities here as incipient, involving a handful of local militants who reached out to Al Qaeda — often via the Internet — rather than the other way around. A senior Israeli military intelligence official said he believed there were no more than 20 Al Qaeda-linked activists in the Palestinian territories.

Most of them are unhappy with a year-old decision by mainstream Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, to enforce a cease-fire with Israel, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

Hamas, struggling to avert an international aid boycott in the wake of its Jan. 25 victory in parliamentary elections, is particularly sensitive about being associated with Al Qaeda, despite sharing core beliefs such as the rejection of a Jewish state in the Middle East.

When Ayman-al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, appeared in a video earlier this month urging Hamas not to renounce its violent struggle, a Hamas official in Gaza shrugged him off.

The Hamas official said the group had no links to any outside group. He spoke on condition of anonymity, saying the movement did not want to respond formally to al-Zawahri.

By all accounts, Hamas, set to form the next Palestinian government, is not likely to further harm its international standing by joining forces with Al Qaeda.

But Al Qaeda itself is making an effort "to operate both in the Palestinian territories and inside Israel proper," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. A Palestinian security official in Gaza agreed that Al Qaeda "is in the process of organizing cells and gathering supporters."

If the group succeeds in establishing a full-blown presence, predicted the Israeli military intelligence official, Israel can expect far larger terror attacks than it has seen in the past.

Another Israeli official said a major concern is Al Qaeda's activities in Israel's neighbors, especially Jordan, where al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the November 2005 bombings of three hotels that killed 60 people.

Al-Zarqawi also claimed responsibility for a Dec. 27 barrage of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel, provoking Israeli airstrikes on a Palestinian base in central Lebanon.

The Israeli official praised Egyptian security forces for their performance following two bombing sprees in Egypt's Sinai peninsula — one in October 2004 and another in July 2005 — that some have blamed on Al Qaeda.

He said Egyptian forces arrested two sets of suspected Al Qaeda operatives — one a month ago and another three months ago — who were trying to enter Israel through Sinai "most probably carrying explosives."

An Egyptian police official at the Egypt-Gaza border would not confirm or deny the Israeli's account, saying, "It's our job to halt any security violations, that's what we've been always doing, nothing less or more."

Some Israeli officials have expressed concern that Al Qaeda operatives from Egypt may have entered Gaza after Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last summer.

But Assem Rashed, a former teacher at a Gaza university, said he doubts Al Qaeda could find many backers in Gaza.

"People here are against the attacks in Iraq, Jordan and Egypt. I don't think they will survive, or find much support from the public," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:34 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Attention Iran: Stealth underwater craft targets minefields
An underwater craft that can seek out and destroy mines has been unveiled. The sub, dubbed Talisman, relies on computer software that allows it to complete its mission without being guided by an operator.

Most mine-disposal missions rely on either human divers or small explosives dropped from a ship. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that are tethered to a boat on the surface by an umbilical cord are also used, but their cables restrict how far the craft can roam. Most of these options require the people involved to be within a few hundred metres of the mined area, which can put lives at risk.

In contrast, Talisman can travel for kilometres on its own to reach a minefield. Whenever the craft is underwater, it relies on its autonomy software to navigate a course and avoid obstructions. Once it finds a target, the craft rises to the surface, communicates with an operator and waits for further instructions. It can then descend again and take out the mine with a miniature torpedo.
Posted by: Captain America || 03/23/2006 17:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  of course, mining an international waterway is an act of war IIRC
Posted by: Frank G || 03/23/2006 19:16 Comments || Top||

#2  I note they used "mine" in the singular. Instead of using a torpedo to take out the mines, having no real need for speed, they might instead carry and deploy a whole s-load of something like the guided toy submarines you would use in a backyard pool. Except packed with high explosive.

The main craft would detect the mines, then send out these probes, perhaps guided by wire to their targets. There wouldn't be any "misses" with wire guidance. And if the mines didn't detonate on contact, a large corridor could be blown through the minefield at the same time--perhaps causing sympathetic detonations.

It would also reduce the time the enemy knew their minefield had been tampered with, and try to replace the blown mines.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/23/2006 20:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Wonder if it has an alter-ego to ask, "How is itself today?". And to remind it, "Your not going to let them get away with that!"
The trouble with A.E. Van Vogt verison was they were too paranoid to return to the surface.
Posted by: bruce || 03/23/2006 20:31 Comments || Top||


Metal Storm Conducts Test Firings Of High Explosive Ammunition In The US
Metal Storm announces that it has conducted initial test firings of High Explosive ammunition at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey in conjunction with the US Army's Armament Research Development and Engineering Centre (ARDEC).
The ammunition tested was a prototype High Explosive 40mm grenade assembly which is being developed by Metal Storm and ARDEC engineers under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) which was signed in September 2005. The development work and test firings are the initial phase of a project which ultimately plans to take existing certified munitions from the US Army inventory and convert them to Metal Storm configuration. This will enable firing by electronic initiation from Metal Storm launching systems.

David Smith, Metal Storm's CEO, said "This initial test firing of High Explosive munitions developed in conjunction with ARDEC sets in place the platform from which we aim to build a range of munitions utilising existing US certified warheads and components."

"This will complement the munitions development program we are currently engaged in with ST Kinetics in Singapore which produced the successful test-firing of High Explosive, Enhanced Blast and Air Burst munitions last month." he said.

"Our strategy is to take commercially available off-the-shelf munitions that have been certified for military use and convert them to Metal Storm configuration, thereby minimising the time and cost required to have munitions certified by the military for use with our weapons. This should also ensure our products match the customers established requirements" he said.

Further test firings and the trialling of different munition designs with ARDEC are ongoing as part of the munitions development program. Demonstration firings are planned for the second quarter of 2006, with the timing dependant on the availability of demonstration range facilities and sufficient quantities of ammunition.
Posted by: DanNY || 03/23/2006 01:07 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Seems like a lot of new stuff coming out. Better stay in Iraq for a few more years to test these new toys. (shhhh, we could build a drone around that gun like the A10 is built around it's cannon, and plink all night from the dark sky)
Posted by: wxjames || 03/23/2006 8:59 Comments || Top||

#2  I definitely think Metal Storm stock is a buy.
Posted by: Juns Snong1252 || 03/23/2006 9:09 Comments || Top||

#3  ..Metal Storm is a really good 1-shot area denial weapon but for anything else it's kind of a solution in search of a problem. Having said that, it has some applications in Iraq - most notably in stopping the human wave attacks I think are coming next.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/23/2006 12:19 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder if Metal Storm is contemplating flechette loads.

Mike - in Iraq? By Iranians or who?
Posted by: phased array || 03/23/2006 12:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Metal Storm has better applications than just stopping the rare human wave attack (something that the current machine gun is more than capable of doing).

A great benefit of this technology is that you can have barrels of differing diameters packed together into a single weapon. These barrels hold different types of rounds, which are used to perform different missions. So in one box you could have some tubes of 40mm HE, some 25MM AP, some non-lethal and even some 7.62 or 9mm. Horses for courses as it were.

As far as Metal Storm stock, I wouldn't touch it. It is going to be years before these guys get any serious sales. They have already been on the edge.
Posted by: remoteman || 03/23/2006 14:23 Comments || Top||

#6  Phased Array -
I've talked to a couple of folks (on the civilian contractor side)who've been over there, and they have mentioned that there's a worry that the Bad Guyz might try to just overwhelm a base or outpost with sheer manpower. MetalStorm - or a few of 'em - would be a big help in a contingency like that.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/23/2006 14:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Yes - as they did in the police station attacks. Good point, Mike.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 14:30 Comments || Top||

#8  I've talked to a couple of folks (on the civilian contractor side)who've been over there, and they have mentioned that there's a worry that the Bad Guyz might try to just overwhelm a base or outpost with sheer manpower.

No doubt the weapons in their hands would disappear as their bodies are collected, allowing accusations of a massacre.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/23/2006 14:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Easy enough.

1. CIWS deployed to major facilities and bases to protect from incoming mortars.

then

2. Manual operation on grouped ground-level man-sized targets.

Stops "human waves" pretty quickly.

No need to collect bodies. Unless you want to use a hose, a mop and a snow shovel.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/23/2006 16:56 Comments || Top||

#10  How would Metalstorm help?

I don't understand how the machinegun is supposed to be improved by combining the magazine with the barrel and making reloading harder.
Posted by: Phil || 03/23/2006 17:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Phil, each barrel is a magazine. You reload barrels at a time for the Metal Storm effect. The grenade is another matter.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2006 20:20 Comments || Top||

#12  Sounds kind of Rube Goldbergian.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/23/2006 20:22 Comments || Top||

#13  Zenster: I understood that.

I just don't see the _point_.
Posted by: Phil || 03/23/2006 20:35 Comments || Top||

#14  The technology. I think "the point" is in there, if you're actually interested.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 20:46 Comments || Top||

#15  You keep pointing me at descriptions of the technology without telling me why it's better than a conventional firearm.
Posted by: Phil || 03/23/2006 21:31 Comments || Top||

#16  Massed fire capability / very high rates of fire, remote control, weight, wheeled terrain mobility, the remarkable flexibility described in #5 - all in one weapon, probably reliability (no / less jamming, etc), developing airborne capability...

Any of this sound interesting to you?

Re-read #5 and know that remoteman is a user of these systems - the nym is no accident. This isn't just cool / uncool - this is his real MOS gig. If he likes it, I like it.

Whatever. I'm not a MetalStorm salesman.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 21:59 Comments || Top||

#17  Massed fire capability / very high rates of fire,

Not sustained high rates of fire.

It has a very high rate of fire for a couple seconds. Then it's time to reload, which involves changing the barrel.

remote control,

You could attach a remote control to a conventional firearm. Such exist in the real world already, on many APC's like the Stryker. It doesn't require Metal Storm.

weight, wheeled terrain mobility, the remarkable flexibility described in #5 - all in one weapon, probably reliability (no / less jamming, etc), developing airborne capability...

Any of this sound interesting to you?


I do not see how 2/3 of the stuff you're describing above proceeds from Metalstorm's ammo-integrated-in-barrel concept.
Posted by: Phil || 03/23/2006 22:45 Comments || Top||

#18  Gee. Let's chill for second. Everything has to be reloaded - and I don't think you know what you're complaining about, exactly. People who know a lot more about this than you do are interested. Your complaints are probably either already addressed and you don't know the details - or the areas of application make them less relevant than you understand.

I am not a MetalStorm salesman. I don't own their stock. I have seen a demo vid of massed fire, an incredible amount of lead and HE ordnance going downrange in amazing quantity, reminded me of short-range MLRS, which would cut the shit out of anyone or anything in its path. There were times when I would've loved having something like this. But hey, go for it. Get your shorts in a bunch and go crazy, which you seem to be determined to do. I don't give a fuck.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 23:04 Comments || Top||

#19  So now you're accusing me of flying off the handle and then telling me you don't care, but in relatively angry language.

Your complaints are probably either already addressed and you don't know the details - or the areas of application make them less relevant than you understand.

If they're addressed but I don't know the details, well, I'd like to know. That's why I was asking.
Posted by: Phil || 03/23/2006 23:17 Comments || Top||

#20  What part of "I'm not a MetalStorm salesman." are you having trouble with?

You want answers, I clearly told you I don't have them, but do see probable value in the product. You want more? Go google it up for yourself.

I'm not angry, son, I'm very mildly annoyed because you obviously directed your questions to me, to my post, instead of getting off your ass and digging for yourself after I said my piece.

No big deal - go figure it out and become the RB expert on why it's a good / bad system. That'd be cool.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 23:29 Comments || Top||

#21  I wasn't directing my questions to you.

I doubt I'd even know who you are even if you weren't using Fred's random name assignment gizmo.

As for digging for myself, well, I've been seeing press releases and press-release quality news articles about the company for about the last half-decade; I've read a lot about the system, without really learning anything relevant to the questions that have been bugging me for about the last three years of that half decade.
Posted by: Phil || 03/23/2006 23:37 Comments || Top||

#22  Cool. There should be info somewhere in the mess that is, collectively, the Gov Mil sites - since they have thrown some R&D money at it, I presume.

Maybe remoteman, next time you see him post, could point you to definitive info. He seemed to imply he had more than a passing interest.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 23:44 Comments || Top||

#23  The Wiki entry has excellent info, lol. There's even a continuous feed capability - addressing the reload issue, and more about the weight advantages and potential microlight UAV application.

Fuck - it's a redhead with big tits! I'm in Love!

Lol.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 23:52 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Abu Dujana still new JI supremo
A young Indonesian militant with close links to al-Qaeda is now in charge of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, which remains dangerous despite more than 270 arrests since 2000, a top counterterrorism official said Wednesday.

Abu Dujana's rise to power within Jemaah Islamiyah is an indication the group's organizational structure remains intact, and highlights the challenges that remain for police fighting terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Dujana, who learned bomb-making skills in Afghanistan alongside Hambali, an alleged regional terror chief now in U.S. custody, is a “talented leader. He has good relations with al-Qaeda and is trusted”, said Col. Petrus Reinhard Golose of Indonesia's counterterrorism task force.

The 34-year-old, who unlike many Indonesian militants is fluent in Arabic, replaced Abu Rusdan as head of Jemaah Islamiyah when Rusdan was arrested in 2003, Golose told members of Indonesia's foreign correspondents association.

Jemaah Islamiyah is blamed for a series of bloody bombings and failed plots in Southeast Asia in recent years, including two strikes on Indonesia's resort island of Bali that killed more than 220 people, most of them foreign tourists.

Golose said arresting Dujana, who he said was a native of West Java province, was a priority.

Nasir Abbas, a former militant-turned-police informer, said he trained alongside Dujana in 1990 in Afghanistan.

“He was smart, you could tell that,” Nasir told The Associated Press.

Recruits at the camp received instruction in basic weapons handling and bomb-making.

Golose said that since 2001, Jemaah Islamiyah operatives coming to Java from elsewhere in Indonesia had to first report to Dujana, and that the perpetrators of the 2003 car bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel also came to see him immediately after the attack.

Golose repeated earlier police statements that Noordin Top, a Malaysian militant accused of a key role in all the attacks on Indonesian soil, was now working outside Jemaah Islamiyah and had declared himself al-Qaeda's representative in Southeast Asia.

Even if Top were to be arrested, the risk of more attacks would still remain, he said.

“There are others who are still more dangerous who are active,” he told journalists.

The leading international expert on Jemaah Islamiyah, Sidney Jones, confirmed that Dujana had long been a key figure in the organization, although she said it's too early to say whether he's heading the group.

“Dujana was indeed the secretary of the central command of the organization. Over the last year there have been rumors he is head of JI, but people close to JI have said they do not know how his name appeared as a leader,” said Jones, who lives and works in Jakarta and has monitored its militant fringe for decades.

“We must wait for more facts before we can make that conclusion,” Jones said.

Dujana fled Indonesia for Malaysia with other Muslim activists in the 1980s to avoid repression by then-Indonesian dictator Suharto, said Jones.

Rusdan, Dujana's alleged predecessor, was released from jail last year after serving a short prison term for hiding one of the perpetrators of the 2002 Bali bombings. He is a free man, but refuses to speak to reporters.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


JI leadership still at large
Indonesia's war on terror is not close to being won and even the capture or death of senior militant Noordin Top will make little difference to the threat of more attacks, one of the country's most senior counter-terrorist officers has warned.

Noordin, Indonesia's most wanted man, blamed for the recent Bali bombings, was just one of a number of seasoned terrorists being hunted by authorities across Asia, Colonel Petrus Reinhard Golose said.

Noordin, said to be a skilled recruiter of would-be suicide bombers, headed only a militant offshoot of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah terror network, he said.

"Noordin, he is dangerous, but we have also others who are also very dangerous," Golose said.

"Noordin is only Asykari, he does not to belong to Markazi, the JI organisation.

"Asykari is like a special force, he is not controlled right now.

"He declared himself that he is the representative of al-Qaeda but (we) have also others more dangerous."

Still at large and believed to be hiding out in the relatively lawless southern Philippines was expert JI bomb-maker Dulmatin, who has been on the run since 2002 and who has a $10 million bounty on his head posted by the US.

Dulmatin is an Indonesian explosives and electronics expert who attended terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

He is believed to be a protege of 2002 Bali bombing mastermind Azahari Husin, who was shot dead by police in East Java last year after a three-year manhunt.

Also at large, Golose warned, was the shadowy Zulkarnaen, who is suspected of being JI's new operations chief following the 2003 arrest in Thailand of top commander Hambali.

"Even now, we don't let us say smell (Zulkarnaen) since the first Bali bombing," he said.

JI also had a new and relatively young overall commander in Abu Dujana, 37, another veteran of the Afghan war against the Soviets.

Dujana, Golose said, was a skilled bomber proficient also in small arms who replaced Abu Rusdan as the "emir" of JI.

He graduated from the Afghanistan Mujahideen Military Academy in 1991.

Although relatively young, Dujana had strong leadership qualities, Golose said.

"From Australia, some of the ... observers for counter-terrorism, they say whenever I give a comment about Abu Dujana, they say he is too young," Golose said.

But both Noordin and Azahari had reported back to Dujana following the 2003 attack on the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta, which killed 11 people as well as the bomber, he said.

Golose said it was very difficult to determine who was actually in charge of various terror cells across South-East Asia because of their secretive nature and because their leaders like Noordin had learned to frequently switch tactics, confusing their police hunters.

But he warned that the various cells had several skilled bomb-makers fully trained and ready to take over from the slain Azahari.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:08 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
25 'missing' Lebanese In Damascus' Jails
Damascus, 23 March (AKI) - Despite the denial by the Syrian authorities of the presence of Lebanese political prisoners in the country's jails, a Beirut daily Thursday published a list of 'desaparecidos' whose presence in Syrian prisons has been documented. The 25 Lebanese were reportedly arrested by the Syrian secret services. The daily backs up its allegations with declarations from Syrian embassies in various countries which apparently confirm the detention of the 25 citizens, as well as with documentation given to the men's families by prison authorities. The newspaper also published a photo of one of the 'missing', saying it had been taken by a Syrian prison guard in return for a bribe.

The Lebanese government has handed the authorities in Damascus a list of 600 Lebanese who have 'disappeared' in the Syrian prison system. Damascus denies the existence of these inmates, except for some 80 people arrested on criminal not political offences.

According to Ghazi Ad, president of the Lebanese prisoners' support committee, who follows the Syrian question, Damascus' reply was "superficial", given that half the prisoners cited by the government had been out of prison for some time.
Ad went on to accuse Syria of "avoiding the issue", urging that the question be brought before the UN Security Council.

The families of the missing Lebanese men have appealed to the Egyptian and Iranian presidents and to the secretary general of the Arab League to pressure Damascus for the men's release and called for an international inquiry into the prisoners' fate.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2006 15:08 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I intended only to ask snarkily whether Amnesty International was up to anything USEFUL for a change.

Well, I decided to search for "Lebanese" over on their site. I found a vaguely worded reference to "at least two commissions" (neither named) looking into this sort of thing. They asked that appeals be sent to a Minister of Justice in Lebanon and to (and I am not making this up) President Bashar al-Assad "welcoming the creation of this new committee and urging them to ensure that: it is as independent and credible as possible..."

I'm not sure if that counts as useful, since the lastest entry was dated August 24 of last year. Maybe they are crafting a follow up. Maybe they're applying for visas to visit Damascus.

Real Soon Now.
Posted by: eLarson || 03/23/2006 15:45 Comments || Top||

#2  They're waiting for the prisoners to die to blame W for not acting sooner
Posted by: Frank G || 03/23/2006 16:22 Comments || Top||

#3  wrong, they will blame Israel, or USA, or Israel, or USA or inimimani...............
Posted by: Elmutle Sperong7998 || 03/23/2006 20:18 Comments || Top||


UN Security Council stalled on Iran
After nearly two weeks of haggling, a deadlocked Security Council put off full consideration of Iran's nuclear program on Tuesday, amid indications that Iran was close to taking a major step in its efforts to enrich uranium.

Britain and France had promoted a statement calling on Iran to abandon its uranium activities, which the West believes is part of a nuclear weapons program. With American support, Britain and France want a two-week deadline with threats of possible punishment, but have met resistance from China and Russia.

The Europeans said Tuesday that they would consult on possible revisions that could draw the unanimous support needed for the statement from all 15 Security Council members. The postponement followed a four-hour meeting on Monday of senior Foreign Ministry officials of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

"The impact on the negotiations which we are trying to do here was not as positive as we would have wished," said Emyr Jones Parry, the British ambassador. "So we're having to maintain the momentum. That is the basis problem."

The impasse generated frustration among European and American negotiators, who said within the last week that the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna had briefed officials on Iran's uranium activities at its Natanz complex.

Diplomats from different countries, who declined to be identified because they were discussing sensitive classified information, said Iran appeared on the verge of assembling 164 centrifuges, the number needed to form a "cascade" mechanism that could enrich uranium for nuclear energy or, eventually, bombs.

In effect, they said the 164 centrifuges would significantly increase Iran's ability to make weapons, in defiance of demands by the United States, Britain, France, Germany and the United States that it cease its uranium activities immediately.

"What this means is that time is not on our side," a European diplomat said. "It means that while we are negotiating, Iran is not wasting its time."

Various diplomats also expressed a sense of urgency.

France's ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sablière, said: "It seems to me we will need some time, a few days, I suppose. But we don't have much time. I guess that we will have to come to the end of discussion very soon. But I cannot tell you exactly when."

A long delay in progress could persuade the Western nations to abandon the plan for a statement and push instead toward a resolution, a much stronger action, but one that would require a vote. Resolutions need nine votes to pass but can be defeated by a veto, which China and Russia, as permanent members, each have the power to cast.

R. Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, turned aside such speculation, saying in a telephone interview from Washington that he had heard strong sentiment for a statement at the Monday meeting, at which he represented the United States.

"We believe that the members of the Security Council all have an interest in issuing this presidential statement, because the most important step we can now take is to send a common, united, clear message to Iran — that is, suspend your nuclear program and return to negotiations," he said. "It may take some time to achieve the final wording, but we believe that goal is attainable."

The step that the Council is trying to agree on is a relatively mild one, a nonbinding statement that would list Tehran's failures to comply with demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, and urge Iran to resume the suspension of its uranium enrichment.

China, while backing Russia, has proven more conciliatory in the talks, introducing a revised draft asking the director general of the nuclear agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, to report on Iran's program to his agency and the Council.

The original text, first circulated two weeks ago, called for sending the progress report to just the Council. China and Russia feared that such a move would diminish the role of the agency and put the matter in the hands of the Council, which has the power to sanction Tehran. Beijing and Moscow oppose sanctions.

China and Russia are also against a provision asking Dr. ElBaradei to submit his report in two weeks. China's ambassador, Wang Guangya, has recommended a four- to six-week time frame. Andrei Denisov, the Russian ambassador, has suggested a June deadline.

Mr. Wang said Tuesday that senior officials at the nuclear agency had told Chinese diplomats that two weeks afforded too little time. "To give them 14 days is to ask them not to do it," he said. He said the Russians were troubled by the references to Iran's activities being a threat to international peace and stability, words that he said could become a pretext for imposing sanctions. Asked whether Beijing shared this concern, he said, "I believe that the Russian concern has its logic."

The Russians also object to listing the demands on Tehran, arguing that they are included in the International Atomic Energy Agency resolution. Among the demands are that Iran suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities and put into effect the "additional protocol" to the country's nuclear agreement, which gives inspectors the right to ask for exceptional access to plants.

Mr. Wang said China favored a "brief political statement" that would reinforce the authority of the nuclear agency, call on the Iranians to cooperate and put "some pressure" on them to do so.

Mr. de la Sablière, the French ambassador, voiced doubt that much of the specific language could be dropped. "We are not in favor of a too general statement," he said. "We want a precise and strong message."

Mr. Jones Parry, the British ambassador, also expressed misgivings at the idea of wholesale changes. "What France and Britain both feel is that if this text is to be amended further, it should be amended in order to come to an agreed conclusion," he said. "And if there is no prospect of an agreed conclusion, we won't be amending the text."
Posted by: Tholuck Chomble7555 || 03/23/2006 03:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Since Russia and China, and probably France, are so willing to put their own interests above anything else, the US is forced to take the initiative across the board.

If Israel wants to attack, we will not stand in its way, nor will we allow others to either stand in their way or retaliate against them. Depending on circumstances, we will either let them, assist them, or let them assist us.

If we can prod Iran into making a foolish and ill-conceived attack against our interests, we may also be inclined to do that.

Ironically, we have to protect the other nuclear powers from attack by Iran likewise, as their response would most certainly be singularly nuclear, and far more than we prefer.

So they are rewarded for their duplicity with us protecting them, less they destroy much of the region.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/23/2006 8:08 Comments || Top||

#2  A rare UN security council stall, eh ?
Posted by: wxjames || 03/23/2006 8:48 Comments || Top||

#3  So we're having to maintain the momentum.

See. The UN considers this as "momentum".
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/23/2006 9:40 Comments || Top||

#4  See. The UN considers this as "momentum".

Objects at rest also have momentum.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/23/2006 9:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Inertia, too.
Posted by: mojo || 03/23/2006 10:21 Comments || Top||

#6  It's the density of UNium that stands out.
Posted by: Ulinter Elmock7099 || 03/23/2006 10:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Even the Russkies and Chicoms are being forced to accept the need for SOME resolution, but they want one that doesnt yet threaten sanctions. and they want more time. Theyre playing for time at this point.

And the French and the Germans, not just the US and UK, are getting pissed with the Russians.

Just a couple of years ago we saw a budding French-German-Russian alliance. Thats dead.

From the POV of global US strategy, thats probably bigger news than anything happening in Iran.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/23/2006 10:35 Comments || Top||

#8 
We should open direct discussions with Iran. The topic should be that we warn them to move civilians away from strategic sites.

Not negotiations, but we need some cover when collateral damage happens.
Posted by: Master of Obvious || 03/23/2006 10:42 Comments || Top||

#9  Keep clicking your heels, LH. Someday the UN will do something other than condemn free countries.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/23/2006 10:43 Comments || Top||

#10  The UN is beyond worthless. Now that takes a concerted effort to get that far. The M²s know this and are playing the UN like a fish.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/23/2006 11:08 Comments || Top||

#11  Hello, Mullahs? Yonder beckons the Stone Age.
Posted by: doc || 03/23/2006 13:16 Comments || Top||

#12  I agree with LH to the extent that if we act without UN sanction, having the Germans and French on our side will be huge in terms of us being able to ride out (from a PR standpoint) the setbacks that will come when we have to act militarily.

Also, I think it will matter within Iran. I suspect that the Iranian public, which does not want to be estranged from the world due to the Mullahs' foreign policy, cares a lot more about the France and Germany than they do about Russia and China.

Of course, the Frogs may be playing the same double game they did before we went into Iraq or they may be waiting for Iran to buy their support. But I wonder if maybe we have the goods on them and they know we can embarrass them if they defect to the Iranian side. For instance, the captured Iraqi documents that are only now being posted daily on the Web may contain some inconvenient information.
Posted by: JAB || 03/23/2006 13:16 Comments || Top||

#13  What's their motivation to play this straight? They've already demonstrated that money is all they truly care about. Look at Shroeder. Whatever happens down the road will be on somebody else's watch - or so they hope. Secretly, they are probably colluding with the Russkies and ChiComs - encouraging them to block any meaningful action. Lavrov has already made it clear that Russia won't support ANY sanctions of ANY kind, much less action. They haven't the sense or self-restraint to reinvest in their own oil industry. Putzes.

This UN game is so flawed and pointless it amazes me. Window dressing for the inevtiable.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 14:19 Comments || Top||

#14  China Stands With Russia - Drudge...

Big surprise. Dragging it out for their hard currency buddies, the Mullahs.
Posted by: Snuper Thramp5041 || 03/23/2006 15:08 Comments || Top||

#15  Perhaps the Iraq files contain a bit more detail on French wrongdoing than has been publicly released. If we can blackmail Chiraq we should.
Posted by: JAB || 03/23/2006 17:39 Comments || Top||

#16  Ima thinking we need to up our arms deliveries to Taiwan....week by week, while China's intransigent. Hardball
Posted by: Frank G || 03/23/2006 19:29 Comments || Top||

#17  Bet 'Mooseman's got it!

Weird, yet a slugging percentage around .750.
Posted by: 6 || 03/23/2006 20:01 Comments || Top||

#18  I like Frank's idea!
Posted by: 3dc || 03/23/2006 21:26 Comments || Top||


Iranian reformist confirms al-Qaeda in Iran, protected by IRGC
One day after a US daily reported that American intelligence officials believe the Iranian regime is hosting al-Qaeda militants and allowing senior operatives to help plan the network's operations, an Iranian source close to the reformists confirmed the report to Adnkronos International (AKI). "With the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad relations with al-Qaeda have been resumed and strengthened," said the source, who used to work for Iran's intelligence services under the government of Mohammed Khatami.

The Los Angeles Times said US intelligence officials cited evidence from highly classified satellite feeds and electronic eavesdropping as proof that the recently elected Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be forging an alliance with the terrorist network's operatives as a way to expand Iran's influence. The report said the president might also simply be looking the other way as al-Qaeda leaders in Iran cooperate with their counterparts abroad.

According to the source consulted by AKI, around 100 members of the terrorist organisation are living in Iran under the protection of the Pasdaran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Soleyman Abu Gaith, Seif al-Adel, Abdullah Mohammad Rajab, Abdulaziz al-Masri and Abu Mohammed al-Masri are men close to al-Qaeda currently in Iran, according to the United States. The former intelligence official told AKI the list also included "three children and two wives of Osama bin Laden." He also recalled that al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri recently visited the Islamic Republic "to meet with three envoys of Jordan's Abu Mussab al Zarqawi."

Ties between Iran and al-Qaeda were highlighted by the US September 11 commission, which disclosed many details on possible connections in its final report. The commission said Iran and the terrorist group had worked together sporadically in the 1990s, reportedly trading secrets on how to make explosives.

Many al-Qaeda operatives and family members, however, have reportedly lived in Iran since 2001, when they fled the US-led bombing of Afghanistan.

Iran declared four months ago that no al-Qaeda members live in the country, though officials have in the past claimed that some members of the terror network are kept under house arrest and their activities monitored.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 01:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Will say again that the WOT, among other things/precepts, is a war for control of the world, and future OWG/World Order,and what
Nation(s, ideos and -isms will dominate said world and OWG. Potentially the greatest protection the Burqua Boyz, and SpetzNorks etc., have are those anti-Americans within the Fed and NPE, whom needed to conspire, collude or scheme in 9-11 and the deaths of 000's of Amer citizens in order to enable and entrench PC/PDeniable Revolution, Anarchy, Socialism, and OWG against their own People and Country, for power, $$$ and ambition, and where in the name of the People = de facto against the People at the same time.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/23/2006 1:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Smart or good politics is not necessarily great or good leadership, or command in war - Hey, Osama, my old Afghan friend, there's still INDIA!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/23/2006 1:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Again the hounds of Hell come into play between or above the rift in the IslamicWorld/Umma/Juche or UN-inspired TRIFECTA of autocracy., war will come to an END only after BUsh, Cheney, or Blair etc. come to see the the Whole entirety of the THREAT before us or they do so, incorporating Silicon Valley, Wall-St and the Media in doing so. ###s will be the last test. DIVIDE and CONQUER.
Posted by: MendiolaBot || 03/23/2006 4:14 Comments || Top||

#4  :>
9.7

Major points for making sense with a flourish.
Posted by: 6 || 03/23/2006 6:12 Comments || Top||

#5  “One day after a US daily reported…”

You know what they say…Strike while the speculation iron is hot. Well-done LA Times!

“…close to the reformists…”

Reformists sounds so much more credible then say…Marxist Terrorist Cult… don’tcha think?

“…said the source, who used to work for Iran's intelligence services…”

He’s turned over a new leaf and is simply a “whistle-blower” wanting to get the facts out.

“…officials cited evidence from highly classified satellite feeds and electronic eavesdropping as proof…”

What more proof do you need? Sure it’s un-verifiable information from an anonymous source but look…it says highly classified right there.

Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/23/2006 10:29 Comments || Top||

#6  Reformists wouldn't be the MEK, DepotGuy, particularly if this guy worked for VEVAK under Khatami. And there are more than enough reformists pissed as to the fact that they've outlived their usefulness to start airing some of the regime's dirty laundry.

I think you're being overly cynical as to some of this stuff. Sure, a lot of it is coming from anonymous sources and the like, but that's one of the problems of working from open-source intel to begin with and this is probably the best that we're going to get. As far as why people in government aren't openly going public on this (though Burns has), I would think that the reason is simple: once you start saying that the al-Qaeda leadership is operating out of Iran, a number of things proceed from that which I don't think the US wants at this stage.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 13:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Heres something that confuses me, dan, perhaps you can help.

I had thought the Iranian explanation for NOT extraditing was these guys was that we hadnt handed to them some Taliban that were involved in a massacre of Iranian diplos in Herat pre-2001. And my further impression was that we hadnt handed them the Talibs cause we hadnt finished milking said Talibs for intell.

Lately I was an MSM story that said the reason the Iranians hadnt extradited the AQniks, was cause we hadnt turned over the MEK to them.

I wondering if you know what the current Iranian line is, and what our current response is.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/23/2006 15:48 Comments || Top||

#8  should be " lately I saw"

not "lately i was" :)
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/23/2006 15:48 Comments || Top||

#9  Point taken Dan. Even though the “Reformists” and the “Exile Groups” share some common objectives it was unfair to equate the two as the same. Because much of the intelligence gathering has been attributed to the NCRI, I made an assumption on this report. My bad.

However, given the timing of the negotiations regarding Iranian nuclear capabilities and the pending UNSC decision, it’s very difficult to temper my cynicisms. The object of my rancor is not the conjecture but the process of how it’s being reported. Between the assertions of IED technology signature, HAMAS assistance, AQ collaboration, and promoting sectarian acrimony in Iraq it’s getting almost “incubator” like. Leaked information of classified reports from anonymous sources is the definition agenda driven news. I’ll try not to openly contemplate their motivations so frequently
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/23/2006 16:16 Comments || Top||

#10  Sunnis and Shiites are mortal enemies, but put aside their squabbles in some circumstances. For example, Sunni Sauds allow Shiites to carry out Hajj/pilgrimage, even though Sunni dogma treats Shiites as apostates. Sunni proliferator Khan, the head louse of the Paki jihad-nuke program, paid a secret visit to Teheran, and came away with barrels of cash. And Mushy is shielding Khan from justice. Something's up.
Posted by: Listen to Dogs || 03/23/2006 16:28 Comments || Top||

#11  The current Iranian line, as noted by Asefi's comments, is that these people are not in Iran and that all al-Qaeda members have been extradicted back to their home countries - never you mind that Egypt has yet to receive al-Adel and Co.

And we have always been at war with Eurasia.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/23/2006 18:47 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2006-03-23
  Troops in Iraq Free 3 Western Hostages
Wed 2006-03-22
  18 Iraqi police killed in jailbreak
Tue 2006-03-21
  Pakistani Taliban now in control of North, South Waziristan
Mon 2006-03-20
  Senior al-Qaeda leader busted in Quetta
Sun 2006-03-19
  Dead Soddy al-Qaeda leader threatens princes in video
Sat 2006-03-18
  Abbas urged to quit, scrap government
Fri 2006-03-17
  Iraq parliament meets under heavy security
Thu 2006-03-16
  Largest Iraq air assault since invasion
Wed 2006-03-15
  Azam Tariq's alleged murderer caught in Greece
Tue 2006-03-14
  Israel storms Jericho prison
Mon 2006-03-13
  Mujadadi survives suicide attack, blames Pakistan
Sun 2006-03-12
  Foley Killers Hanged
Sat 2006-03-11
  Clerics announce Sharia in S Waziristan
Fri 2006-03-10
  MILF coup underway?
Thu 2006-03-09
  Qaeda fugitive surrenders in Kuwait

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