Pakistan investigators assisted by FBI agents have begun interrogating suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban members arrested during raids involving US law-enforcement officers last week. "The interrogation process has begun. It is being carried out by our own intelligence agencies," senior Interior Ministry official Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema said. US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents were collaborating with Pakistan intelligence officers to establish the identities of the detained foreigners, he said. Some 60 people, including 29 mostly Arab and Afghan militants linked to Al Qaeda, were arrested in the raids.
Nearly 20 US law-enforcement agents supervised the lightning raids overnight on Wednesday in Faisalabad. Later raids were carried out in Lahore. "The Americans were armed and masked. They did not go inside the houses but stood outside," a police source said. Cheema said the operation was conducted by local police on the basis of intelligence provided by US officials. The detained foreigners have been shifted to police facilities in Lahore for questioning. So the U.S. backed them into a corner by providing the intel and the men to look over their shoulders while they did the raids. And there were probably American hard boys looking over their shoulders to make sure no coincidental telephone calls were made before the raids.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher's shop in southern France - the third anti-Semitic attack over the weekend - drawing vows for increased security at Jewish sites and appeals for religious tolerance. No one was hurt in the attack Saturday evening in the town of l'Union, near Toulouse.
Early Saturday morning, vandals attacked a synagogue in Lyon, in southeastern France, causing damage to the building but no injuries. In the attack against the synagogue, hooded vandals crashed two cars through its main gate and then rammed one of the vehicles into the temple's prayer hall and set it on fire.
Le Journal du Dimanche, a Sunday newspaper, reported that a Jewish couple in their 20s suffered injuries from an attack Saturday afternoon in the town of Villeurbanne, in the Rhone region. The woman, identified as pregnant, was reportedly hospitalized overnight.
Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, speaking before the shooting, said he was "revolted" by the attack on the synagogue, which was "apparently organized and premeditated." Jospin called for "respect of religions," speaking to French television station LCI during a weekend campaign trip to Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France.
Is revolted what you become after you have been revolting for too long? Posted by Ken H 4/1/2002 7:03:54 PM
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osama Ismail heaped praise Monday on U.S. President George W. Bush's policies toward his Afro-Arab nation, saying they made it possible for the two nations to cooperate in fighting against terror, ending Sudan's civil strife and settling bilateral problems. Ismail, in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to attend an Islamic conference on terrorism, delivered a scathing attack on former U.S. President Bill Clinton, saying his administration's policies fueled a civil war in south Sudan and sought the isolation of the country. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Sudan has complied with requests from the United States and other Western nations to provide information on suspected terrorists and investigate local businesses suspected of links with al-Qaida. They seem to have worked their way off the poop list. Congratulations to them.
Does that mean that they've stopped their policy of genocide and chattel slavery? Or has Bush decided that accepting that is a small price to pay for Sudan's help? Posted by Annoying Old Guy 4/1/2002 7:26:36 PM
The Sudanese signed an agreement with the rebels early last month. The rebels seem to have broken it a day or two ago. Don't know what the results of that will be. Posted by Fred 4/1/2002 8:49:53 PM
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A reporter for a U.S. newspaper was shot and wounded in the shoulder in Ramallah on Sunday, and Israel warned that foreign journalists were at risk and should not be in the occupied West Bank city. Anthony Shadid, a Washington-based Boston Globe reporter on assignment in Ramallah, was standing in a doorway of a shop with Globe stringer Said al-Ghazali when he was shot.
Shadid, who is in his early 30s, was conscious and in stable condition in a private Arab hospital in Ramallah, Smith said. The bullet was lodged in the shoulder. Globe officials were talking with Shadid's family members about the best course of action and how to get him out of the West Bank.
Large numbers of Israeli troops control the empty streets in the area where Shadid was shot, though it was not clear who shot him. The army said it was investigating. Israeli officials, meanwhile, warned that the city was a closed military zone and journalists should not be in it. The city was declared a closed zone on Friday, but this was enforced only sporadically, and journalists and other foreigners were able to get in as late as Sunday morning. However, officials had been complaining that the reporters are getting in the way. "No foreign citizens (including members of the media) are allowed to be in the closed zone," said a statement issued by the Government Press Office. "Anyone found in the closed zone henceforth will be removed. Members of the media are advised that their presence in the closed zone is at their own risk."
The Foreign Press Association in Israel issued a protest saying that "the media must be allowed to cover this major story. We call upon the Israeli government to allow free and independent coverage of the operation in Palestinian Authority areas. What part of "stay the hell out of the line of fire" don't you understand? Bernard Fall, Ernie Pyle and Dickie Chapelle are looking down and rolling their eyes.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
An apparent car bomb rocked west Jerusalem near the Old City on Monday night and emergency services reported some injuries in the area that was not crowded. Israel's Channel 2 television said that a suicide bomber inside the car was killed and a policeman who went to inspect the car was injured. The car was stopped at a police checkpoint dividing east and west Jerusalem. Here's hoping the policeman wasn't seriously injured. Mr Boomer should be sitting between Himmler and Mohammad Atta right now, loosening his collar and saying "Is it just me or is it really hot in here?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
President Bush appealed Monday for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to order a halt to the suicide bomb attacks in Israel and the West Bank. "Suicide bombers in the name of religion is simple terror," Bush said. But the president stopped short of applying to Arafat his oft-repeated statements that those who harbor terrorists are terrorists. Oh, for Gawd's sake, George. Just go ahead and say it: Yasser's the most devoted terrorist on the face of the earth. You know it. I know it. Everybody knows it. Why go mushy now?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi led a mass march through Tripoli to show solidarity with Palestinians and urged Arab states to allow volunteer fighters to cross borders and join the Palestinian uprising. ''Arab leaders have to take to the streets and join protesters, open the borders to people who want to fight to free al Qods (Jerusalem) and Abu Ammar and incite people to fight,'' Gaddafi told a rally at Green Square in central Tripoli. Eyewitnesses said thousands marched in the Libyan capital to protest against Israel's siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Ammar. They halted in Green Square and the adjacent streets to hear Gaddafi's fiery oratory. ''Thousands of Libyans are ready to defend the Palestinian people. I challenge Arab leaders to open the borders for them to cross into Palestine,'' he said. That's all we need. So much for the Elder Statesman act. Welcome back to the poop list, Muammar.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Above and beyond the large arms caches found in Arafat's Mukata compound in Ramallah, Israeli officials say that Arafat's headquarters served as the heart of a secret Palestinian operation to flood Israel with counterfeit money. An Israeli army officer said that the phoney money operation could have had far-reaching consequences including undermining the already-weakened Israeli economy and helping Arafat pay the salaries of terrorists. "There were hundreds of thousands of shekels along with the printing plates to produce millions of more shekels," said an Israeli army officer. IDF units seized the fake Israeli bills in denominations of 50, 100 and 200. The colorful red, tan and green bank notes - bearing the portraits of late Israeli presidents Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Zalman Shazar - looked quite authentic to the untrained eye.
Israel intelligence suspects that Arafat also had printing plates for counterfeiting American currency, but these have not yet been discovered. Israeli and Western intelligence officials have long suspected that Arafat might have a counterfeit money operation, like the one he maintained in Lebanon during parts of the 1970's and early 1980's. Islamic terrorists have also used counterfeit money as an element in financing their operations. Just as dirty as we expected. Wonder when they're gonna find the dope operations?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
IDF Chief of Planning Major General Giora Eiland stated that a delegation of western leftist activists and reporters, who had entered Ramallah to show their support for the isolated PLO leader, attempted to smuggle 20 wanted terrorists out of Arafatâs headquarters. The terrorists had found sanctuary in Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, and tried to escape undetected by intermingling with the leftist activists as they departed. The entire group was taken into custody by Israeli soldiers.
The IDF Central Command had declared Ramallah a closed military zone, making the very presence of civilians in the city a violation of security measures. The reporters among the group are expected to face sanctions on their future work in Israel. The IDF Spokesmanâs office stated that the delegation endangered their own lives and the lives of IDF soldiers by their effrontery. Director of the Government Press Office Danny Seaman said that the army closed Ramallah to journalists for their own safety, and also because their presence had led soldiers, in some cases, to hesitate before shooting.
The European activists and reporters met with Arafat, posed for photographs and presented the PLO leader with a t-shirt. A tee shirt. How sweet. Now get the hell out of the country and don't come back.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Five foreign peace activists and a Palestinian television cameraman were injured by shrapnel Monday when Israeli soldiers opened fire at their feet during a march, officials and witnesses said. Firing started when about 100 demonstrators, including Palestinians and foreigners, marched near a church in the center of the West Bank town of Beit Jala, carrying a sign saying "We want peace not war," witnesses said. The director of Beit Jala hospital, Dr. Peter Qumri, confirmed five marchers had been wounded. He said one woman was undergoing an operation to remove shrapnel from her abdomen. A Palestinian cameraman working for the Associated Press was also wounded in the leg, colleagues said. He had been covering the march. The Israeli army said it was checking the report. Hmmm... Sympathy meter reading is zero. What part of "closed area" don't you understand?
"We want peace not war." I want a pony. Can I have a pony? Oy. Posted by Andrea Harris [www.spleenville.com/] 4/2/2002 1:14:23 AM
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A powerful bomb exploded inside a passenger bus in the northern tribal region Monday, killing two people and wounding 12 others. The bomb went off when the bus was parked in Spenki Raghzai, a small town in the Waziristan region. No group claimed responsibility. In recent months, there has been a series of explosions and terrorist attacks in various parts of the country in which scores of people have been killed and wounded. Police routinely accuse extremists, Muslim groups or the intelligence agency of rival India for most of the terrorist incidents. Could also be associated with the elections or, in that area, with a family feud.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/01/2002 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
