Sources in Spin Boldak said eight Afghan and two US soldiers were killed in Shin Narey area where four Taliban were injured and two vehicles destroyed. Eight Taliban and three Afghan soldiers were reportedly killed in Adi Ghar mountains while 11 Taliban were killed in Maruf area. US and Norwegian warplanes have been bombarding the barren Adi Ghar mountains north of the border town of Spin Boldak since Monday, witnesses told the Daily Times. Col. Roger King said between 250 and 300 US troops, accompanied by a small contingent of Afghan soldiers were Tuesday continuing to fight intermittently with the group. He claimed there were no coalition injuries. Khalid Pashtun, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar, told Daily Times Hekmatyarâs men were fighting alongside Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, âthough most of those captured appear to be Talibanâ. Other officials said a former Taliban police chief of Kandahar Hafiz Abdul Majeed was believed to be leading the rebels, along with another Taliban commander Hafiz Abdur Raheem. There was a report back in April that Hafiz Abdul Majid had been iced by person or persons unknown in a drive-by. Pak border cops confirmed the hit â guess they either changed their minds or it's an imposter...
Kandahar provincial security chief General Akram said 60 âTaliban or Al Qaedaâ fighters were involved. Speaking by telephone from Kandahar, Akram said the brother of a senior Taliban commander, Abdur Rahim, had been captured. Asked how long the operation might last, King said: âI would be very, very hesitant to put a deadline. There is a lot of ground to cover. Itâs a relatively large area...It is rough terrain, it could take a considerable period of time.â Afghan government officials said at least one Afghan soldier had been killed in the clashes. King said there were no coalition casualties.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/30/2003 3:51:52 PM ||
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Edited for length...
US and Afghan forces have arrested three men in Kabul said to be plotting bomb attacks there. A US military spokesman said the men, detained in an overnight raid in the capital, had explosives and bomb-making equipment. In south-eastern Afghanistan, US forces are continuing a major operation against rebel fighters believed to members of the Taleban. US military spokesman Colonel Roger King says it is not clear whether the three men arrested in Kabul belonged to any particular rebel group. But their intention was clear. "They were trying to blow up a US or coalition facility in Kabul with a bomb," Colonel King said. The arrests were carried out by Afghan intelligence agents along with US marines and special forces troops stationed at the US embassy.
There have been a number of attacks on international groups in Afghanistan in recent weeks. On Wednesday, US special forces detained two men near the eastern town of Jalalabad. They were found with bomb-making materials. In December, two US soldiers and their translator were injured when a hand grenade was thrown at their vehicle as they drove through Kabul. Earlier this week the United Nations refugee agency suspended aid work in parts of eastern Afghanistan after two of its security staff guarding a convoy were killed.
Meanwhile, hundreds of US special forces are still scouring a network of mountain caves near the town of Spin Boldak, close to the Pakistan border. Colonel King told reporters several caves had now been searched. "It's a place where [rebels] have been operating... It's a place which could have been used as a base." The rebels "may have moved to other caves to escape us or may have moved off the mountain", he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/30/2003 12:44:01 PM ||
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One of several sons of Al-Qaeda network leader Osama bin Laden has wed a Saudi bride in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported on Thursday. The simple wedding, which took place on Wednesday at the house of the groom's uncle was attended only by close relatives, the daily said. It gave the name of Bin Laden's son as Ali. Abdullah, Bin Laden's elder son, his mother and several brothers and sisters have been leading a normal life in Jeddah since arriving from Sudan in 1996. Pop gave the happy couple a nuclear toaster...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/30/2003 4:09:04 PM ||
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The incident barely caused a stir. CNN broke the story the same day, Nov. 7, 2001, with all of five sentences on its global Web site. But for the Yokota airman who saw bullets from an AK-47 rifle sail toward him in slow motion, the surreal firefight changed his life. Senior Airman Clinton Boyd killed a man. And on Thursday morning, at a ceremony here, he received the Bronze Star for valor, the nationâs fourth-highest combat award.
The act outside Al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar, was more than self-preservation: Boyd potentially saved the lives of 20 Americans, and in the eyes of one Air Force general, prevented a new terror attack from escalating the nationâs fears on the heels of Sept. 11.
For 30 seconds, it was an intense battle between two men with guns. âThe only thing I thought was I was saving my own life,â Boyd said after the medal ceremony. âIt was either me or him.â
âThe Bronze Star recognizes those everyday heroes who become uncommon heroes,â said Col. Mark E. Stearns, commander of the 374th Airlift Wing. Boyd, 22, appeared stoic while base leaders and 374th Security Forces Squadron members gave him a standing ovation. He tried to ignore the applause, he said later. The award might lead to swifter promotions or career-building assignments, but Boyd said that day in Qatar changed his life more than the piece of metal now pinned to his uniform. "The whole idea of killing someone and having to live with it, having no remorse because that man was trying to kill you,â he explained. âI was told after it happened, I would probably break down and cry. It never once crossed my mind.â
In late 2001, the U.S. military started building up Al-Udeid, about 20 miles from Qatarâs capital, Doha. Members of Yokotaâs 374th SFS deployed to Qatar in mid-October. A tent city was raised, and computer monitors, communications gear and intelligence equipment were installed. The baseâs primary mission is tanker support for KC-10 and KC-135 aircraft, said Capt. William Barron, who, along with Boyd, was in Yokotaâs Security Forces group at Qatar. Barron was working in the base defense operations center when the call came in: âThe gate was under attack.â More than 200 Security Forces personnel at the base were recalled to duty. âWe posted out around the perimeter ⊠and prepared for the worst,â Barron said. âWe had no idea what was going on.â
A mile from the base, Boyd and an unarmed Qatari guard stood at a traffic checkpoint. 12 Security Forces troops were in the so-called âsearch pitâ to look in vehicles, while eight U.S. military escorts waited to ride with contractors onto base. The search area was built a mile away due to logistic difficulties in controlling traffic inside the gate.
Boyd had been at his post since 2 in the morning. At 10:30 a.m., he noticed the muzzle of an AK-47 rifle protruding from the driverâs window of a private vehicle that approached him and the guard outside the checkpoint. The 6-foot-6-inch Boyd immediately ducked behind a concrete barrier and drew his M-9 pistol. The driver began shooting, and Boyd had returned fire when the man left the car and ran toward the Qatari guard. The guard knelt on the ground, with hands over his head, while the attacker shouted in Arabic and held him briefly at gunpoint. The guard then ran off, unharmed. Boyd said he stopped firing at that point, because he didnât want to hit the guard. âThe rules of engagement â I didnât know if he was done firing and he wanted to go,â Boyd said. But the assailant wasnât finished: He began moving out from behind the gate shack toward Boyd, all the while firing.
He was â15 feet and closingâ from Boyd before he was felled. Boyd unloaded an entire 15-round magazine from his handgun, shooting his attacker six times. The gunman, meanwhile, had reloaded his semiautomatic rifle with a second 30-round magazine during the firefight. âIt would have been better to have an M-16 out there,â Boyd said. A U.S.-Qatar agreement prohibits military members from carrying rifles off base. âThe rounds that we were using, it took six to get him down on the ground,â Boyd said. âI was getting scared. I thought, âI donât know, Iâve only got 30 rounds.â I just went through a magazine. Finally, he dropped.â
Boyd and his parents, who flew in from the United States, talked about the incident after the medal ceremony. âOne of the things that he told me was that he saw one of the rounds come out of an AK-47 and track all the way at him like it was in slow motion and hit the Jersey barrier where he was firing from,â said Maj. Stan Boyd, an active-duty reservist from Scott Air Force Base, Ill. âI didnât hear the gun going off. I just saw the rounds coming at me,â said Airman Boyd. âI just reacted. I didnât know what happened till after it happened.â
âIâm grateful he was a bad shot,â his mother, Jayne Boyd, said about the gunman. Qatar officials named the attacker as Abdullah Mubarak Tashal al-Hajiri, a Qatari. The man was said to have been mentally unstable, âbut thatâs probably just a cover-up,â Boyd said.
Boydâs parents feared retribution from other attackers after the incident, but Boyd remained in Qatar until March 2002, when his squadron returned to Yokota. Maj. Gen. Richard A. Mentemeyer, director of mobility forces for Operation Enduring Freedom, commended Boyd in a recent Air Force Times article. Mentemeyer said, as Barron noted in his speech, that âat a moment when force protection was a constant worry and threats to troops were a nagging fear, even a handful of casualties from a new terror attack could only have inflamed fears further. Instead, the incident quickly faded away.â
Barron added that Qatarâs traffic checkpoint was more fortified âby the time we left.â M-16s were stored in the area, as was an M-60, hidden in a bunker. Boyd doesnât know when heâll return to the desert. Heâs been selected for promotion to staff sergeant and soon will start a new assignment at Sembach Air Base, Germany, with the contingency-response group there. âFrom a fatherâs perspective, Iâm glad heâs alive and safe, and I hope he doesnât have to do this again,â Stan Boyd said. 9mm handgun vs AK-47 at 15 feet and our guy won. Let's not let this happen again, OK, Pentagon? Although I should blame State and the Qatar for not allowing our guys to carry rifles offbase. At least they seemed to have fixed that. And while I'm in Rant mode, now that we're on our way out of NATO, can we please get rid of that wimpy 9mm and bring back the proven manstopper 45?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/30/2003 3:05:45 PM ||
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Abdelmalek Benbara, an Algerian parliamentarian who was found dead in his car in Paris, was almost certainly murdered, police said Thursday. Benbara, a member of the National Liberation Front (FLN) party, disappeared three weeks ago and was found Wednesday with his feet bound together in the boot of his vehicle near the Arc de Triomphe in the centre of the capital.
The results of an autopsy were expected during the day.
Benbara, whose seat in the Algerian parliament was as a representative of members of the country's large expatriate community in France, has a home in the central French town of Saint-Chamond as well as a Paris apartment. The deputy "appears to have died on the day of his disappearance", January 9, according to a police source. Benbara's disappearance was reported to police by his wife and by a friend who raised the alarm after Benbara failed to meet him in Paris as planned the following day. The Algerian consul general in Paris was also informed. The investigation has so far not focused on the hypothesis of a political killing, sources said. Algerian parliamentarian + dead in car trunk = not political?
Police are understood to have questioned both Benbara's wife and the friend he was due to meet. In the course of their investigations, police discovered that Benbara also had a child, now aged around 10, by another woman - a local councillor in Paris's Nanterre suburb who was killed last March along with seven other local officials when crazed gunman Richard Durn burst into a council meeting. OK, I'd check on the wife and any other girlfriends, and their boyfriends too.
Durn later died in an apparent suicide after falling from an open window in a police interrogation room. This sounds like a bad movie plot.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/30/2003 2:47:00 PM ||
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Letters to the Editor in the London Times.
From Lieutenant-General Sir Martin Garrod
Sir, Almost every day as we open our newspapers, listen to the radio or watch television we are subjected to a stream of anti-American, anti-President George Bush and now anti-Tony Blair diatribes. Unfortunately the faint-hearted views of some in our country and those in our fellow European countries could well bring about what they profess to be against â an actual war with Iraq. Mr Blair has demonstrated fine leadership in this whole affair, and it is a matter of regret that his party, and the whole country, is not united behind him.
It is also unfortunate that many of the countries of Europe are demonstrating such a lack of support. If Saddam Hussein could see no daylight between any of the governments of the Western world, he would be further deterred and might indeed back down. But if he detects that Europe is not united, and is not standing shoulder to shoulder with the US, then he will surely take comfort and be strengthened, with an increased likelihood of conflict.
Secondly, I believe that the next few months, perhaps weeks, could prove to be a watershed in the relations between the US and Europe. If Europe, with the exception of the UK, does not stand alongside the US and Saddam Hussein is toppled by the US and the UK, then I cannot see how the relations between the US and Europe will be restored. Similarly, if things âdo not go rightâ in the confrontation with Iraq, for whatever reason, and if any blame is attributed to the countries of Europe, then again, I fear that relations between the US and Europe will be severely damaged.
Some of our own bien pensants, and our European allies, should remember that they owe their security and comfortable lifestyle to the US. For, without the military might and the determination of the US, they would now be living under a Nazi or a Stalinist regime.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
MARTIN GARROD,
From Professor Eric Moonman
Sir, Donald Rumsfeld says France and Germany still represent the âold Europeâ, and I take it he refers to the exclusive, insular attitude between the two countries with complete disregard for the rest of Europe, including the UK. Yet who in this country will disagree with Rumsfeldâs comments, particularly as we have paid a substantial price twice in the last century to rescue Europe from disaster?
Britain, mercifully, is shaking off the old European exclusiveness, preparing to act over Iraq whilst France and Germany hold back and urge no action. With Zimbabwe, France will entertain Mr Mugabe, putting its own interests above all moral and African concerns.
The arguments by your correspondents for not going to war over Iraq are not all that different from the correspondence in The Times in 1938-39 opposed to Britain confronting Nazi Germany.
But then, who learns from history?
Yours sincerely,
ERIC MOONMAN, Thank you, gentlemen.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/30/2003 9:44:41 AM ||
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ABU HAMZA AL-MASRI, the controversial imam of Finsbury Park mosque, faces possible deportation after the disclosure yesterday that his British citizenship is based upon a bigamous marriage. The Egyptian-born cleric was granted the right to remain in the UK after he married Valerie Traverso, a young Englishwoman, in May 1980. However, inquiries by The Times have established that Ms Traverso was already married, and not divorced by her first husband until July 1982. That means the marriage is void, according to family law experts, and Abu Hamza could be stripped of his citizenship. The Home Office has long been frustrated at its inability to deport the one-eyed, hook-handed imam who has spoken out in support of the September 11 attackers. Last night officials were examining the details of his bigamous marriage. Police are also expected to investigate, since bigamy is a crime punishable by up to seven yearsâ imprisonment. Scotland Yard said that officers would âcarefully investigateâ any evidence that an offence had been committed. It is unclear whether Abu Hamza, 44, is aware that his marriage was bigamous, however. He was refusing to take telephone calls yesterday, and a reporter calling at his home was turned away by a man who refused to open the door.
Abu Hamza was married under his real name, Mostafa Kamel Mostafa at Westminster Register Office to Ms Traverso, a 25-year-old window dresser from Chelsea, on May 16, 1980.
He has hinted in one interview that he was working as a bouncer at a Soho nightclub at the time. On the marriage certificate, however, he recorded his occupation as a hotel receptionist.
Ms Traverso recorded her surname as Traversa and her marital status as âspinsterâ â even though she had been married for the previous nine years to a buildersâ labourer called Michael Macias, by whom she had two children. The records at Wandsworth County Court in South London show that that marriage did not end until July 13, 1982, when Mr Macias obtained a divorce.
Under the terms of the Marriage Act 1949, Abu Hamzaâs marriage will now be considered void. Rosemary Carter, a family law specialist with London firm Hamlins, said: âIt is not a marriage at all. It is a nonsense.â The cleric has been named in a Yemeni court as the mastermind behind a bomb plot in that country, and a US grand jury is considering whether to charge him over an alleged plan to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon. Snicker, just like Al Capone got busted for tax evasion, this (alledged) terrorist may get the boot because his wife was already married.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/30/2003 8:09:40 AM ||
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Jakarta Post
The East Jakarta District Court acquitted on Thursday cleric Ja'far Umar Thalib over charges he incited hatred in Maluku islands. "The defendant has been proven not guilty and must freed of all charges," presiding judge Mansyur Nasution said before the hearing. The leader of the now-defunct Laskar Jihad was accused of inciting hatred against the government in a speech he delivered early last year in Maluku, which has been highlighted by Muslim-Christian violence. Prosecutors had sought a 12-month jail term for Ja'far for the offense, which carries the maximum penalty of seven years in jail. But since he's an Islamist cleric, the court let him walk...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/30/2003 3:40:33 PM ||
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Iraq's leader has warned those who attack the country that they will face successive lines of trenches before they are "crushed totally". President Saddam Hussein said the Americans were making a mistake if they thought Iraq would respond in a disorganised and untargeted way to any attack. He was speaking at a meeting with army commanders - with the reported focus on training and preparations for a potential war. A little late for that, isn't it?
One commander said his unit had trained walking fully equipped and had succeeded in covering nearly 50 miles in only 17 hours with two hours rest. The Iraqi president said this was not enough. Hmmm... He's right...
They would have to increase their speed because they could be asked to infiltrate enemy lines on foot at a specific place and would need to return the same night. "In the daytime," he was quoted as saying, "all eyes discover you." They will at night, too...
He also spoke of training being given to all Iraqis - from "shepherds in the desert" to farmers - in dealing with any soldiers who were airdropped on Iraqi territory. "I am not afraid of announcing all our plans on TV," the president said. "My aim is to rid ourselves of the horrors of their evil intentions." Ummm... You could leave, you know...
But if the Americans are not unnerved and do lead an attack on Iraq at some stage, the warning the Iraqi leader is giving them at his heavily publicised sessions with military and party leaders is that "Iraq is not Afghanistan". Last time around, he said it wasn't Grenada. I don't think it's Norway, either...
He has dismissed the idea that the Americans and their allies would be able to engage in battle in Iraq without, he claims, meeting the stiffest of resistance and suffering significant casualties. He has a funny definition of "significant."
At the latest meeting, he added another ingredient. He said that during the Gulf War in 1991 the US-led coalition had destroyed factories and bridges and other buildings but "they failed to destroy the Iraqi will, their faith and their brains". Everything had been rebuilt. Now it'll have to be rebuilt again...
And he maintained that American influence was weaker now than it was at the time of the Gulf War. He said Americans used to walk freely in the world - and now they could not do so. That's why we're going to attack Iraq, isn't it? Leave us alone and we don't bother anybody...
And in public, the Iraqi people tend to take their cue from such speeches and suggest similarly that an American-led attack could get bloodily bogged down. Today in Saddam City, a sprawling poorer district on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad, one retired resident thumped the air with his fist as he said he had asked the authorities for extra weapons for himself and his sons in case there was a war. "So that we can properly defend our houses and our country," he said. Yeah, they did that, last time around, too...
I asked him whether they were following the news of the crisis closely. "We listen to the good news but not the bad," he said. "My eyes are closed. You can't see me."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/30/2003 9:57:33 PM ||
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Hundreds of French nationals have left Ivory Coast on charter planes as a peace deal appears to be on the verge of collapse. Many more of the 20,000 French nationals in Ivory Coast are planning to leave after four days of anti-French protests earlier this week. French nationals queuing for tickets outside the Air France offices in Abidjan say they fear this is the calm before the storm. "I saw a sign that said 'Kill the French' - and that's worrying," said Jean-Pierre Vivet, an aid worker from Paris. Especially if you're French...
Air France suspended flights to and from Abidjan during the protests and some large French-owned companies chartered planes to fly out 264 relatives of their employees on Wednesday night. But Air France now says it will lay on extra large planes for Friday's flights. The French economic mission in Abidjan says that an estimated 500 people have left. The Frenchies may have been acting unilaterally, but their forces were doing what needed to be done. True to form, the politicos behind them were so far behind them as to be out of sight. They sold the elected government out, and now their citizens are taking the heat for it. It's nice to see the pro-American slogans, but it'd be better to see peace and stability in what was once a peaceful and stable corner of Africa â God knows there are few enough of them.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/30/2003 8:12:54 PM ||
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The United States on Thursday, January 30, sent Iraqi President Saddam Hussein the strongest message yet that exile would be the a solution to avoid a war. "Hopefully the pressure of the free world will convince Mr Saddam Hussein to relinquish power," said President George W. Bush, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. "And should he choose to leave the country along with a lot of the other henchmen who have tortured the Iraqi people, we would welcome that of course," said the president. That's a hint, Sammy...
Bush spoke during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi but ahead of talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, which reports suggest has pressed for the exile option. Saudi Arabia has denied reports it had advised Saddam to step down in order to avert a U.S.-led war and said it would not take part in war against Iraq. âContacts with Iraq by Saudi Arabia and all Arab countries have continued. We have not asked the Iraqi leadership to step down, maybe other Arab states did,â Prince Saud Al-Faisal told a press conference on December 25. "We just mentioned that he'd be more likely to live to his next birthday if he did..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
01/30/2003 7:12:20 PM ||
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A highly respected Palestinian columnist has criticized the use of home-made mortars and rockets as ineffective and harmful.
Talal Okal, who writes on a regular basis for the Palestinian Authority's daily Al-Ayyam, condemned Hamas for firing 16 Kassam rockets over the weekend. "This is an unsuccessful method in the ongoing confrontation," he argued. "The mortar shells and rockets that are fired every now and then have no impact and cause no losses. They also lack a deterrent capability." He's only condemning them because they aren't killing anyone.
Reflecting growing concern among many residents of the Gaza Strip, especially those who live close to the border fence, Okal pointed out that these attacks often result in wide-scale IDF operations during which more land is leveled and more homes are destroyed. Okal said he couldn't understand why representatives of 12 Palestinian factions who met in Cairo this week ignored this issue, which is of great significance to the Palestinian people. "Why did they ignore the Palestinian public opinion and its wishes?" he asked. "Why didn't they pay attention to the silent Palestinian majority, which is opposed to some forms of the resistance, like the firing of rockets? Everyone is paying the price indiscriminately, whether they are the activists of the resistance, the members Palestinian Authority security forces, or the people." Representatives of families from the Gaza Strip have urged the PA to intervene to halt the firing of the rockets, but to no avail. The families have also published statements in Palestinian newspapers calling on the gunmen to stop launching their attacks from populated areas. They won't stop because they don't care what the people think.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/30/2003 11:41:09 AM ||
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Iraq sent spies from Canada to New York and Washington this month to snoop and stir up anti-war demonstrations, according to a government report obtained by the Daily News. The classified document also reveals a plot by Al Qaeda-linked militants in Zimbabwe to attack American targets in that country and elsewhere if the U.S. declares war on Iraq.
It suggests the group, Tablik Ja'maat, could be a "conduit for communication" between Osama Bin Laden's terror network and Iraqi leaders. The threats, disclosed to U.S. spy agencies yesterday, are detailed in a secret report prepared by an intelligence unit in the Homeland Security Department.
It comes as the White House weighs the release of classified information to prove Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's links to Al Qaeda and efforts to evade UN weapons inspectors.
A source identified as a member of the Iraqi opposition told U.S. agents that Iraqis in Canada were ordered to recruit Arabs and other foreigners for espionage missions in the U.S., the report said. The Iraqi Embassy in Ottawa sent operatives to New York and Washington with instructions to "intensify spying activities and to carry out anti-U.S. demonstrations to stop a war against Iraq," the report said. The report said the Iraqis were willing to spend "large sums" to back the effort.
The report also describes a plot by Tablik Ja'maat to carry out "coordinated attacks" against U.S targets in Zimbabwe if war is declared on Iraq. Other attacks, revealed by the group's leader at a Jan. 18 meeting at a mosque in Harare, would take place in Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey, South Africa and Israel, the report said. An Associated Press report last week said that the FBI is looking to question as many as 50,000 Iraqis living in the U.S. to root out potential spies and terror cells. Look harder, please.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/30/2003 11:32:55 AM ||
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An American woman deported by Russia after allegations that she contacted al Qaida, offering help in attacking Hollywood targets, arrived Wednesday night at Los Angeles International Airport, where FBI agents were waiting to question her.
Local television reports showed her Aeroflot plane, Flight 321 from Moscow, landing at around 9:30 p.m. PST at LAX. The Aeroflot office in Los Angeles confirmed that the flight had landed and declined to release any information about its passengers. Megan McRee "will be interviewed by agents once she gets off the plane," Laura Bosley, a spokeswoman for the FBI office in Los Angeles, told United Press International. McRee, 35, has not been charged. "Welcome to the United States! Put yer hands up!"
Russia deported her after accusing her of establishing contact with al Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups and offering to prepare for and take part in terrorist attacks on the United States. Russia's Federal Security Service said she had entered Russia two years ago and had lived in the Moscow area for an extended period of time on an expired visa and without proper registration. The security service said McRee had used the Internet to contact a number of well-known Islamic extremist organizations and proposed several "scenarios of terrorist acts, including such acts against the United States, and offered to take part in their implementation." Russian television said McRee had contact with operatives of al Qaida and the Islamic Brotherhood using the Internet, which had been monitored by the security services.
In one message sent by McRee and intercepted by the security services, she suggested against placing attacks on heavily guarded administrative buildings and airports. She advised terrorists to attack easier targets such as "Hollywood studios and Hollywood actors." Hummmm, maybe I was wrong about her.
The FSB decided to deport McRee based on the immigration violation. The television network said McRee told the Russian authorities she had left the United States 10 years ago because of persecution by the CIA and had lived in Romania before moving to Moscow. Before being deported, McRee told officials she intended to seek political asylum in Russia. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow did not comment on the expulsion. Russia's Channel 1 network broadcast an interview with an unidentified security official, whose face was obscured, who said the expulsion took place "for the sake of the United States and the world." "We got enough nuts of our own, you take her!"
Posted by: Steve ||
01/30/2003 8:23:39 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
