The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A senior Taliban commander was quoted Saturday as saying American soldiers are too soft for the rigors of ground combat in Afghanistan and that the U.S.-led air campaign has inflicted little damage on the country's defenses. In an interview published by the Pakistani newspaper The News, Mullah Jalaluddin Haqqani said about 25 Taliban soldiers have been "martyred" in the U.S.-led air campaign, which began Oct. 7 to force the Afghans to hand over terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.
"We are eagerly awaiting the American troops to land on our soil, where we will deal with them in our own way," Haqqani was quoted as saying. "I tell you the Soviets were a brave enemy and their soldiers could withstand tough conditions. The Americans are creatures of comfort. They will not be able to sustain the harsh conditions that await them." Taliban? Compared to the Japanese, those goobers don't even start to measure up. What's the difference between a soldier and a man with a gun? Victory.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/20/2001 ||
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American ground forces mounted a helicopter and gunship assault into southern Afghanistan Friday night and early today in a risky nighttime raid that opened a new phase in America's war on terrorism, military officials said. More than 100 Army Rangers and other special forces swooped down by helicopter on at least one main military target on the outskirts of Kandahar, the spiritual headquarters of the Taliban and headquarters of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban's leader. Two American military personnel were killed in a helicopter accident related to the mission as the helicopter returned to its base in Pakistan, the Pentagon said. Two military officials said the two troops killed were crew members aboard a search-and- rescue helicopter on stand-by in support of the raids. The craft never entered Afghanistan. The United States has about 250 Marines stationed at a Pakistani base in Jacobabad, 200 miles southeast of Kandahar, for search-and-rescue missions. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the raid in Afghanistan itself, but officials cautioned that they still did not have a complete accounting of the troops involved.
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10/20/2001 ||
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Bill O'Reilly
BERKELEY -- America's most liberal city has come through again. By a vote of 5 to 4, the Berkeley City Council has approved a resolution demanding that the federal government stop bombing Afghanistan. Instead, the council endorsed a "police action" to apprehend Osama bin Laden. When asked what exactly that "action" would be, Councilwoman Dona Spring was vague. "We must follow the rule of law," she opined.
Now, we've been hearing this kind of mindless nonsense from Berkeley, Calif., for more than 40 years. But this time, something very interesting happened. Immediately after Ms. Spring appeared on my television program "The O'Reilly Factor," Americans began canceling hotel reservations they had made in Berkeley. Also, a number of business contracts were terminated, according to the mayor. It seems the political correctness that dominates the Berkeley power structure is simply not acceptable anymore to many Americans.
The same thing happened in Rocklin, Calif., a suburb of Sacramento. There, an elementary school principal put up a sign on the school grounds that said "God Bless America." There are more than 600 students in the school, and one parent objected to the sign. She contacted the ACLU, and it complained. The principal stood firm and would not remove the sign. Litigation may result. But here's the kicker: The woman who contacted the ACLU has been ostracized by her community. Her little girl is no longer able to go to school because the other kids are angry with her. That, of course, is a shame. But it demonstrates that the majority of Americans are in no mood for irrational nonsense.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/20/2001 ||
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New York Times, by Blaine Harden
In a costly and quietly insistent campaign to spread its state religion, Saudi Arabia has been trying for decades to induce American Muslims to become followers of the puritanical Islamic sect that sustains the power of the Saudi royal family. By building mosques across the country, sending Americans to the Middle East to be trained as imams and promoting pilgrimages to Mecca, the Saudis have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to stamp their austere version of Islam on the lives of Muslims in the United States. They are trying to buy what Lenin would have called "useful idiots." By the accident of oil, this intellectual and technological backwater is positioned to attempt world domination.
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10/20/2001 ||
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By LEO STANDORA NY Daily News Staff Writer
A suitcase holding military explosives powerful enough to level a building was found yesterday at Philadelphia's Greyhound bus station. Cops removed the bomb-making material without incident. "If it had gone off, it would have blown up the whole terminal," said Philadelphia police spokesman Sgt. Roland Lee. "It was very disturbing because that location is heavily traveled."
Authorities said they found five ounces of C-4 explosive â which looked like and was about the size of a bar of soap â in a black, soft-sided suitcase with about 1,000 feet of detonation cord. It had been checked in a locker at the station Sept. 29, police said. Bus station workers removed the suitcase from the locker yesterday and opened it because the time limit for the locker was long expired. And the 5th Column continues its operations within the country. It might be racial profiling, but we would expect the suspect to be an Arab between the ages of 22 and 35, clean-shaven and neatly dressed, possibly living in the Trenton area.
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10/20/2001 ||
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NY POST
October 20, 2001 -- Lisa Beamer yesterday sent an important message to Americans - and their officials: "We can't let ourselves be held captive by terrorism." The young mother, pregnant with her third child, flew to San Francisco from Newark on the same flight on which her husband, Todd, perished on Sept. 11. As the world now knows, there was a difference between that hijacked airliner and the ones that struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon: Led by Todd Beamer, passengers on his plane resisted the terrorists and forced the aircraft to crash outside Pittsburgh, far from its target in Washington, D.C. Their heroism was a shining bright spot on America's darkest day. Yesterday, his widow made clear - in a very public way - that Americans cannot let what happened six weeks ago control their lives. In the face of a direct threat - and knowing they would likely have to forfeit their lives - Todd Beamer and his fellow passengers unhesitatingly made what his wife correctly called a "courageous and moral decision."
Beamer's final words as he moved into action: "Let's roll."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/20/2001 ||
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By TERESA WATANABE, LA Times Religion Writer
American Muslim leaders who have endorsed the war on terrorism are facing a growing backlash from community members concerned about the impact on Afghan civilians and broader U.S. war aims. The concerns have led the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization with a large grass-roots base, to draft a statement calling for an end to the bombing in Afghanistan.
Other Muslim groups so far have declined to sign the statement, prompting the council to debate whether to issue it. Some Muslim leaders hesitate to sign for fear of provoking a backlash in the wider population and projecting an image of being unpatriotic. Others fear alienating the Bush administration at a time the community has made great strides in gaining political influence in Washington. Several prominent Muslim organizations in the U.S. backed George W. Bush over Al Gore in the presidential campaign last year, seeking to create a unified Muslim political position for the first time.
The debate over the antiwar statement illuminates the divisions within the American Muslim community. Leaders until now have tried to portray a united front in support of U.S. policy. But significant opposition to that policy exists in the community. "The Muslim leadership is in a real dilemma," said Aslam Abdullah, editor of the Minaret, a Muslim magazine in Los Angeles. "If they oppose the war, people will point their fingers and say they are soft on terrorism. But if they support it, they may be speaking against their conscience."
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10/20/2001 ||
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David Limbaugh
Still others think there is something inherently offensive about expressions of national unity. Their mindset arises from the postmodern concept of multiculturalism, which rejects the melting pot and its accompanying slogan, "E pluribus Unum" (Out of many, one.) They want to keep every culture and language conspicuously discrete and oppose the furtherance of a unique American culture. They regard demonstrations of nationalism as threatening to their vision of America as a culturally segregated society. I'm not exaggerating.
Recently, students from several colleges in New York joined to create a global peace flag because they wanted to avoid creating the impression that this was "a nationalistic Americans-only kind of thing." A member of the Jewish Council of Urban Affairs similarly cautioned, "We need to start thinking of ourselves as an international family." The Council is discouraging the display of American flags because they "may become a symbol for an overzealous patriotic fervor that could exclude some Americans." Instead, they are distributing window signs that say, "We Support Our Arab American and Muslim Neighbors." Actually, now that you mention it, I don't support our Arab American and Muslim neighbors. Identifying as a group as they do with those who attacked our country and killed our citizens without warning, it is incumbent upon them to support us and not the other way around. Instead, from them we've seen stunning duplicity, casual and often unthinking anti-Americanism, greasy anti-Semitism, and on the part of some even the refusal to believe that Bin Laden is the bad guy. We should support this? I don't think so.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/20/2001 ||
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By T. CHRISTIAN MILLER and PATRICK J. McDONNELL LA Times Staff Writers
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A probe of the financial backing of the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the United States has led to bank accounts held by two suspected terrorists and a gleaming silver-and-granite exchange house in a grimy neighborhood of this freewheeling Persian Gulf commercial center. The investigation of the money trail leading to the United Arab Emirates focuses on Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, two of the suspected plot leaders. Both held bank accounts here before they came to the United States, and they were among three suspected hijackers who wired about $15,000 in cash to the currency exchange on the eve of the attacks. Less than seven hours before the first doomed jetliner was commandeered, the cash transfers were claimed by a man widely suspected of being the conspiracy's paymaster, who then left for Pakistan.
The most intriguing financial records uncovered here belong to Atta, the man suspected of coordinating the Sept. 11 attacks. Atta, an Egyptian, maintained an account at a local Citibank branch, according to senior Emirates officials. Al-Shehhi, a native of the Emirates, had an account at a local branch of London-based HSBC Holdings. Though declining to release details, Sultan bin Nasser al Suweidi, head of the central bank here, said Atta's account was "busier" than normal, with frequent transfers of $10,000 to $15,000. He also said the traffic in the account would provide investigators with a money trail. "It is easy in our system to know exactly where the transfers are coming from," Al Suweidi said. "The investigators and the FBI, they have everything." Al-Shehhi's account, in contrast, never held much money, according to the banking officials. Of course, the Saudis say there's no evidence linking Atta, al-Shehhi, et al., to the WTC attacks and all of this is coincidence.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/20/2001 ||
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AP Islamabad, October 20
A bomb exploded at Islamabad international airport on Saturday sparking a terrorism alert in the Pakistan capital, police said. The blast went off in a car park near the VIP lounge at the airport about 1:00 pm but there were no casualties, police said. Kaleem Imam, police chief for the city of Rawalpindi, which includes the airport, blamed "terrorism". He said about one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosives was involved. "The bag in which the bomb was hidden was spotted by airport security staff and quickly taken to a cabin in the parking lot where it exploded a few minutes later," the police chief told AFP. "We have beefed up security at the airport and also at other public places in Islamabad and Rawalpindi," Imam added. "It appears to be an act of terrorism." "It appears to be an act of terrorism?" Kinda the understatement of the week, isn't it? Expect more and worse in the coming weeks from the 5th Column in Pakistan.
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10/20/2001 ||
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By Willis Witter THE WASHINGTON TIMES
PESHAWAR, Pakistan â Pakistan's leading Muslim cleric, moments after addressing the largest anti-American rally yet, said yesterday that an Islamic revolution had begun in Pakistan that would eclipse the 1979 revolution in Iran that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power. "It's bigger, no doubt, than in Iran. Everything is prepared," said Qazi Hussain Ahmad, leader of Pakistan's largest religious political party, Jamaat-e-Islami. The difference, he said, is that the Muslim leadership in Pakistan is divided and "we don't have the symbol of hatred the Iranians had with [Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi]." Qazi Hussain Ahmad sure would look good dangling from a rope. It's Pakland's business, but it might be a good idea to start breaking up Jamaat-e-Islami.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/20/2001 ||
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By Paul Salopek Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- A full month after the FBI accused as many as nine Saudi citizens of involvement in the Sept. 11 hijackings, there has been no official information released here regarding any of the suspects. Nor has there been any public indication that a vigorous investigation is under way. Some political experts here chalk up Saudi Arabia's silence to sheer embarrassment and a familiar survival mechanism: Eager not to offend its Muslim populace, the rich but politically weak Saudi monarchy always prefers to work with its U.S. ally behind a cloak of secrecy.
But, in recent days, as signs of tensions between Washington and Riyadh over their cooperation in the war against terrorism have bubbled into public view, the Saudis' reticence has begun hardening into something altogether different--an increasingly angry refrain of denial. Stung by American media complaints that it is not doing enough to help combat terrorism, and unhappy with the U.S.-led bombing campaign in Afghanistan, government officials have taken up a position once confined only to editorial pages here: dismissing FBI allegations that most of the 19 men involved in the attacks came from this hermetic desert kingdom. "We will stand by our innocent citizens," Prince Nayef, the minister of the interior and the official leading the Saudi investigations, said.
Earlier in the week, Nayef, one of the most powerful members of the Saudi monarchy, declared that the Saudi government had not received any solid evidence from U.S. officials that linked Saudis to the attacks. "There were more than 600 passengers on the four hijacked planes," he said. "We are still wondering why they have singled out Arabs, especially Saudis."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/20/2001 ||
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By ADNAN MALIK The Associated Press
KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Children emptied their piggybanks and a woman donated her wedding dress to a Saudi campaign that is raising millions for Afghan victims of U.S.-led attacks. With Muslims streaming into mosques Friday for weekly prayers, clerics in this Gulf nation and across the Middle East denounced the U.S. assault and called for holy war.
Criticism was not directed just at the United States for its air campaign, which targets Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and the al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden. Muslim nations -- in particular Pakistan and Turkey -- were singled out for siding with the Americans in a war that has led to the deaths of innocent Muslims. "We condemn what happened to the Americans, but what is happening to the Afghans is even worse," Sheik Mohammad bin Mubarak al-Tawwash, preacher at the Al-Kabir Mosque in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, said Friday. "We pray to God to protect the Muslims ... and we pray to God to give Muslims victory against the infidels." Yes, what's happened to Afghanistan is much worse than what happened in New York. Afghanistan fell under the control of a mercenary movement funded and controlled by Saudi Arabia; it's a movement that managed to bring even more death, destruction and poverty to the country than it had before.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/20/2001 ||
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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.
