Hamid Karzai said the killing of Abdul Rahman, the Aviation and Tourism minister, was a conspiracy and that several high officials now in Saudi Arabia were responsible. "He was killed by people who planned it," Karzai told reporters. "We are asking the Saudis to arrest them and bring them back. We will try them. We will put them behind bars."
Karzai suggested that the killing was linked to a blood feud dating back to the struggle against the Taliban. All five were part of a faction of the Northern Alliance with which Rahman had broken. Abdul Rahim Makhdoom, the Information Minister, gave journalists five names of men he said were wanted in connection with the attack. Two were them were generals, and others were members of the intelligence service and the justice ministry. Three of the five were believed to have left on flights for Saudi Arabia along with pilgrims travelling there.
Karzai said that four people had been arrested, among them two generals. Karzai said that the case against those arrested was based on "absolute, multiple eyewitness accounts." The killings "had nothing to do with the hajjs [pilgrims]," he said. Earlier officials had said Rahman was beaten to death by furious Muslim pilgrims who had waited more than two days for a flight to Mecca. Ahhhh... The plot sickens. What a sweet bunch of people.
Keep tabs on this one, as this could throw Afghanistan back into civil war if Karzai has to sack people who might not want to go quietly. Posted by Mark Byron [markbyron.blogspot.com] 2/15/2002 10:24:16 PM
Poor Karzai's got much less control in Afghanistan than Musharraf has in Pakistan. No matter how many "second chances" it gets, I think Afghanistan is determined to be a failed state. The Northern Alliance guys are loony enough, but the Pashtuns elevate nutbaggery to an art form. Probably the result of marrying close relatives for too many generations. Posted by Fred 2/15/2002 11:11:55 PM
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Security officials in Pakistan have arrested the former Taliban governor of Herat. Khairullah Kherkhawa was detained near the border town of Chaman. One report said he was caught while trying to escape over a wall in the village of Hasan Kalay. He is believed to have been hiding in the area since the collapse of the Taliban. The former governor was likely to be handed over to American forces in Kandahar for questioning. There are lots of mass graves in Herat. Presumably they can be laid at this yokel's door. String him up. He'll look good with a neck a yard long.
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Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said that all efforts were being exerted to head off a US military attack on Iraq, warning Washington that such a venture would risk destabilizing the entire Middle East. Speaking in Beirut after talks with President Emile Lahoud and other Lebanese leaders, Moussa said an American strike on Iraq would generate anger and create a âtotally new situation in the region.â He expressed hope that Arab diplomacy would succeed in avoiding what would increase tension in the Middle East, describing the situation in the region as âvery, very, very bad.â Hmmm... Yassss. That's correct. Destabilization of the Muddle East could result in any number of tin-hat dictators falling from their thrones the universal approbation of their people. That would definitely be "a totally new situation in the region." The lemmings Arab Street would no doubt erupt, as it always seems to do. Luckily, it doesn't have a very long attention span and most of the buildings damaged and autos burned belong to locals. The West, or at least the USA, by this point has discounted catering to the whims of the Arab Street.
That leaves us free to take a clear look at what our objectives might be. The foremost would be disposing of the unpleasant Sammy and replacing him and his equally unpleasant family with someone with a capacity for thinking rationally. The fallout from that single act would change the entire political and economic landscape of the Muddle East, putting a pro-American state on either side of Iran. The eventual subsequent collapse of the ayatollahs' regime would lead to a resurgent Persia, which would serve as a cultural (and religious) counterbalance to Wahhabi Arabia. It would also turn two intransigient enemies into willing receipients of US dollars in return for oil, which would mean we could stop putting money into Wahhabi pockets.
Wahhabi Arabia is already on a shaky financial footing, with the spoils income from the oil business going into the princes' pockets instead of into the economy. A bit of economic pressure and just the right covert action diplomatic push could convert "Saudi" Arabia into the Confederacy of Arabian Emirates - some run by raving nut jobs, others happily pulling in the dough and being friends with the USA, a la Dubai and Bahrain.
The disadvantage to the USA of taking action against Sammy lies in the expenditure of men and materiel it will take to dispose of him. Even though I have no illusions it would be an Adelman-style "cakewalk," it's still a foregone conclusion: when we go in, Sammy goes out.
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The Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah stated that the US administration has prepared Iraqi retired Maj. Gen. Najib al-Salehi for the presidency of an Iraqi provisional government after Saddam Hussein has been disposed of. Al-Salehi left recently for the US for a visit during which he will be meeting with American officials at the White House and with CIA director George Tenet, with the aim of briefing him on the details. Al-Salehi is seen as a candidate to play the role of Hamid Karazai in Iraq. Sources said the American plan to topple Saddam states that the American air operation will be coincidental with movements of Iraqi opposition forces from the north and the south towards the Baghdad, with a subsequent provisional government to be chaired by al-Salehi, with the consent of the coalition of the Iraqi opposition, under Lt. Gen. Nizar al-Khazraji. A fairly detailed article. Wonder how much of it's true and how much of it's diwan jabber or wishful thinking?
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Reports from Iran say European diplomats there confirm some of their citizens have been arrested for infiltrating Iran from Pakistan. Iran says it has detained 150 foreigners who have entered Iran illegally in recent weeks at the border town of Mir-Javeh. Iranian state radio said most were Arabs, but that there were also French, British, Belgian, Spanish and Dutch passport-holders among them. Most of the suspects were picked up during raids on smugglers' hideouts in the eastern border province of Sistan Baluchistan. They are believed to include low-ranking Taleban members or foreigners who went to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taleban. Yeah. But they're not there. Iran said so. And there aren't any al-Qaeda or Taliban among them.
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According to an FBI estimate cited by Conetta, al Qaeda's capacity to strike American interests has been degraded by 30 percent. Could we have accomplished that by limiting ourselves to bombing the terrorist training camps and sending U.S. Special Operations forces to capture or kill al Qaeda's leaders? The Taliban are gone, but Afghanistan is less stable than it was before the attack, riven among rival warlords. Yeah. Hell. We shoulda just stayed home. Probably woulda done more good to have the Berkeley City Council pass some sort of resolution. This guy's obviously on top of things - we shoulda just put him in charge as soon as the first plane hit. Everybody knows it's our responsibility to enforce order and ensure security in Afghanistan, as long as we don't tell anyboyd what to do.
Argh. Bullshit alert! He cites Conetta, but uses Herold's numbers. Conetta's report uses a range of 1000-1300. Posted by lakefxdan [www.lakefx.nu/] 2/16/2002 4:51:39 AM
Scratch that. He adds in the "indirect" deaths without being clear. Posted by lakefxdan 2/16/2002 5:02:52 AM
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The United States has once again raised the issue of Hizbullah with Lebanese officials, linking the resistance group to Al-Qaeda and claiming that it has âdormantâ terrorist cells that could quickly be activated. The warning was delivered last week to Lebanese Ambassador to Washington Farid Abboud, before he departed for Lebanon at the weekend.
Diplomatic sources said a letter, which was conveyed by US Deputy National Security Adviser Steven Hadley, came in response to repeated Lebanese inquiries as to Washingtonâs stand on Hizbullah, after President George W. Bush and other senior officials in his administration called on the government curb Hizbullahâs activities. Lebanon's sitting on the hard place, since its government has no real power, Hezbollah does, and Syria has even more. Being a buffer state, they're trying to please everybody (except Israel) and pleasing no one (to include Israel). There probably really isn't an al-Qaeda "involvement" with Hezbollah, but there probably is a "professional courtesy" being extended, in the form of accomodations and the loan of a few bucks and some ammunition until they're reestablished. The USA isn't going to care about the difference.
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The ruler of Bahrain proclaimed himself king and his tiny Gulf island state a constitutional monarchy, and called for legislative and local elections in line with a promise of making Bahrain a democracy. Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa gave his royal assent to constitutional amendments at a ceremony at the royal palace that was broadcast live nationwide. With the stroke of a pen, the emir became king and this state of 600,000 was declared the Kingdom of Bahrain. Sheikh Hamad said he was âfulfilling his promiseâ and immediately called national elections for a legislative body on Oct. 24 and municipal elections in May, because, he said, âWe are keen to resume democratic life as soon as possible for the glory of Bahrain, its prosperity and development.â Men and women will be allowed to vote and run for office.
The constitutional amendments were drawn by a committee Sheikh Hamad had appointed following a referendum a year ago to the day that called for a constitutional monarchy in Bahrain, which has been ruled solely by the Al Khalifa family. The referendum won 98.4 per cent of the popular vote. The constitutional changes put this small state on the road to democratic rule in the Gulf region where political freedoms are limited.
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West Bank Preventive Security Service chief Jibril Rajoub and Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat met Wednesday night in the presence of Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei, who mediated between them and settled their differences. Following the meeting, Rajoub denied Arafat slapped him and pointed a gun at him, calling these reports "Israeli propaganda." There. See? It never happened, did it?
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Mounting debts could lead to the Palestinian Authority's collapse. The PA spends $90 million a month while taking in $77m. a month - $22m. in taxes and $55m. from donor countries. The monthly deficit of $13m. is in addition to previous debts. The PA will collapse, said an Israeli security official, if Israel refuses to transfer money owed it that is currently frozen, the donor countries stop the financial assistance, and the banks refuse to grant the PA further credit. Looks like it's already collapsing, and the financial part is the least of it.
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Aftab Ansari, one of the prime suspects behind the American Center attack in Kolkata, confessed that he had given money to senior Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Omar Shiekh Saeed on several. Ansari confessed to CBI that he had masterminded the kidnapping of Kolkata shoe baron Parthapratim Roy Burman and extracted the ransom to Dubai through the hawala channel. Out of this amount, Omar Sheikh sent $100,000 through telegraphic transfer to Mohammad Atta, leader of the September 11 hijackers. So Binny didn't even bother spending his own money to attack us? He funded the operation through a wholly-owned subsidiary?
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Six of the 17 suspects listed in the FBIâs nationwide terrorism warning earlier this week already were in custody in Yemen. I never liked the Yemenis much before. My opinion's actually changing now.
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Three members of the Algerian self-defense forces and another one was wounded in a bomb explosion near Jejil. The attack was attributed to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Fighting, led by Hassan Hattab. They'll probably be busy for awhile trying to pick up the "customer base" of GIA.
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Credit for Omar Sayeed Sheikh's arrest does not go to the Pakistani police. Omar gave himself up. Before he did so, he telephoned various intelligence officers and police officials to say that he was not involved in the kidnapping, and he asked them to stop bothering his relatives. When police continued to harass and detain relatives, Omar finally sent a message saying he was in Sheikupura but would come to Lahore and inform the police of his whereabouts. He did so, and was arrested.
Immediately after the arrest, Omar was transported from Lahore to Karachi and handed over to a joint interrogation team comprising officials from the intelligence department of the police, Inter-Services Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, and Military Intelligence. Until Wednesday morning, Omar did not mention the whereabouts of Daniel Pearl and insisted that he was not involved in the case. However, Omar gave the names of his contacts in Karachi; the subsequent police raid unearthed no clue about Pearl's whereabouts.
The Pearl case is odd in that the investigation changes course in midstream, deviating toward areas not directly related to the case. For instance, initially it was said that Pearl had been in touch with the Harkat ul Mujahadeen, but suddenly investigations shifted to Jamiat ul Fuqrah. Mubarak Ali Jilani, the chief of Jamiat ul Fuqrah, appeared before police officials and was arrested. Interrogation revealed that he had no link with the Pearl kidnapping. However, he is still being interrogated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency over his links in the US and India. Many details have unfolded about Jilani's followers in Florida, mostly African-American Muslims who finance his organization with large, regular donations.
After Jilani, a former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official, Khalid Khawaja was interrogated, released, and again arrested. Khawaja retired in the late 1980s and was a close associate of Osama bin Laden. When he was picked up during the Pearl investigations, he proudly admitted that he had been a close friend of bin Laden but had nothing to do with the kidnapping. All investigating agencies, including those of the US, gave him a clean bill of health as far as the Pearl case was concerned. However, a few days ago he was arrested again for investigation into his links with bin Laden and Mullah Omar.
Aslam Khan Shirani is another example of the strange fish being netted in the Pearl investigation. Shirani has never been an ISI offiical. He is a private citizen who was involved in the Afghan war during the Soviet occupation. He was on the ISI's payroll to recruit and train volunteers for the Afghan jihad, and operated a training camp near Peshawar University until 1991. After the then director general of ISI, Lt Gen Hamid Gul, was removed, the camp was closed. But his arrest is likely to open a new Pandora's box, and many high-profile names are likely to be affected by his investigation.
Judging by the pattern of investigations into the Pearl case so far, even if Pearl's fate remains a mystery, investigations will continue for a long time - until several networks of militant groups are exposed and broken. It sounds like they're using the investigation to pull out information on the upper echelons of the jihadi groups. Hopefully this means Musharraf's serious about dismantling the state-within-a-state that's caused Pakistan to fail and to export its failure to Afghanistan and Kashmir. Maybe they're trying to get the goods on Hamid Gul as well. All this is doing nothing to get Pearl back and it's probable there's no coming back from where he is now.
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Anyone who lost a, ummm... important piece of equipment in a carwash in Hastings, Nebraska, contact VodkaPundit. Describe it, and you can have it back. Just a single point: At his age they don't fall off. At my age, you gotta check now and then. (True, normally they don't fall off, but erosion's just as bad).
If that's the case, at what age do I have to switch back to briefs? (I'm pushing 33 now.)
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.
