Cranky Hermit on the Bethlehem church invasion:
"They do not play by the rules and use the fact that they know that we will to their advantage. They know that cultural sensitivity and aversion to civilian casualties will limit our willingness to undertake certain operations. So they hide among civilians and in churches..." They think we're stupid for adhering to such articial constructs. Apologists like Fisk do their best to eradicate the rules' existence. I'm not sure which is the greater evil: the active Evil of the gunnies, or the refusal to confront evil, the attempts to deny its existence, to redefine it as something else, of the Fisks of the world.
Jimmy Breslin, back in the days when he could write, wrote a book called The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. To show what bad guys his Bad Guys were he said that "they shot nuns." When the Islamogunnies get around to popping a few nuns within the confines of a church the apologists - Fisk in the vanguard - will find some reason why they were driven to it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/04/2002 ||
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Glenn Reynolds has the inside scoop on the ICRC's treatment of the Islamoboomers' use of ambos for cover from a denizen of the organization:
"[T]he Red Cross knew all along that the Palestinians were using the ambulances to transport weapons, but were refusing to admit it until the recent revelations forced them to. . . . When it came time to write the final report on the operation, there were already allegations regarding the use of the ambulances to transport weapons and Palestinian fighters, but the Red Cross claimed there was no proof and ignored the complaints. The Red Cross wanted to sweep the whole thing under the carpet..."
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I'm trying to solve the problem of having too many links, even though I know there's not a real solution. I've added a Links page that's still just an alpha listing. I want to try categorizing, but that'll be even harder than writing descriptions was. See if you like what I've got, and if your link's on it and you want the description changed just e-mail me. Suggestions are welcome, because I keep coming across new blogs I like - the supply keeps growing, and nobody's increased my hours supply.
You should do what some others have done; plot a random 20/25/50 links from a larger set with the option to see a page of all of the links. Posted by Annoying Old Guy 4/5/2002 1:09:27 PM
Well, that's what I do. The separate page has descriptions of the links and not too long from now I'm going to have to have three sets to pop at random instead of two... Posted by Fred 4/5/2002 1:41:32 PM
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04/04/2002 09:45 ||
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Afghan intelligence agents have arrested some 50 people including commanders loyal to exiled warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar after reports of a plot to sabotage the government, official media said. "These people were trying to create a state of lawlessness, according to the information that we have from the interim government," said Sultan Ahmad Baheen, head of the official Bakhtar news agency. "More than 50 were arrested. According to the information we have, district commanders from Hezb-i-Islami (Hekmatyar's party) were among those detained. There were not outstanding or prominent commanders. They were arrested by the intelligence service. Twenty-five are still being interrogated. Others have been released."
"Some of Hekmatyar's men had been sent here to Kabul to sabotage the government," defence ministry official Mir Jan said, without giving the number or names of those arrested. Hekmatyar's party represents the dominant Pashtun group in Afghanistan, whereas most senior officials in the interim administration installed after the collapse of the Taliban regime last year are ethnic Tajiks. Wotta surprise. Hekmatyar sat out the war, making periodic offers to the Talibs for an alliance. Now he sees peacekeepers, some sort of order being (slowly) restored, and a Loya Jirga coming up, which lessens the likelihood of him eventually warming the Seat of All Power. His tactics have always involved dividing and conquering, so this fits right in with his modus operandi. Even the Talibs didn't like him, even though they're theological brothers.
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Coalition forces have come under fresh attack from Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in eastern Afghanistan's Shahi Kot valley. The attack in Paktia province Wednesday came more than two weeks after the end of the US-led Operation Anaconda. Captain Steven O'Connor admitted that the attack was evidence that enemy forces were still operating despite the apparent rout last month, in which US commanders claimed hundreds of extremists were killed. They're tanned and they're rested from their R&R in Pakland. Their ammo belts and their bellies are full and their turbans are clean and now they're ready to kill some infidels...
"Yesterday the coalition and Afghan forces received several impacts of hostile rocket fire near the Shahi Kot valley," O'Connor told reporters, adding that the incident occured near a heavily bombed ridgeline known to the Americans as "The Whale". "Forces are continuing to investigate the source of the attack. They observed it but it did not have any effect. But it came close enough that they felt it was directed at them." So they stood back as far as they possibly could without being in Tibet, and shot off some rockets...
Asked if the incident indicated that enemy forces were still in the area, he replied: "It's a good indication." Bet that question made him squirt coffee out his nose, too.
O'Connor said trawls of the caves in the Shahi Kot valley were still being conducted in search of intelligence on the al-Qaeda leadership. And that's what's been paying off since November. The more hard drives they pick up, the more they know about the enemy.
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Hundreds of people linked to a hardline Islamic group have been arrested in connection with a plot to overthrow the government of interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai. The plot, the most serious threat yet to Karzai's fledgling administration, included plans to set off bombs throughout the capital, said Gen. Din Muhammad Jurat, the director general for security at the Interior Ministry. He said most of those arrested were members of Hezb-e-Islami, a hard-line Islamic group headed by former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. This is an expansion of the previous entry, but it's got more detail and more thugs...
"They wanted to launch a coup d'etat against the government," said Mohammed Naseer, the security director at the Kabul governor's office. He said the plotters also wanted to disrupt the loya jirga, a political gathering planned for June to select a new Afghan government. Those Loya Jirgas can be poison when you're carrying out The Will of the People. Sometimes it can take a year for the legitimacy to wear off.
About 350 people had been arrested, most in the past three days, Naseer said. International Security Assistance Force peacekeepers were not involved in the operations, but were tipped off of the raids in advance so they could stay clear of the area, said Lt. Col. Neal Peckham, a force spokesman. Looks like either the Karzai government is starting to feel a little more secure, or that it's driven entirely by Northern Alliance elements. But it gets better...
Peckham said weapons had been found and that those arrested also included Pakistani members of another militant group, the Jamiat-e-Islami, the main supporter of Hekmatyar in Pakistan. Oh, isn't this jolly? Seems like only a day or two ago that Karzai and Perv were making kissy-face and vowing to root out terrorists. The Paks say they're not going to meddle in internal Afghan affairs. And here's a bunch of Qazi's thugs involved with Public Enemy #1. 'Course that could mean that both Perv and Karzai are more on top of things than we expect - this operation could be exactly what they were talking about, which'd mean that Perv's broken with or taken real control of the ISI, which is also a wholly-owned Qazi subsidiary. (Surprise! You thought it was the other way around, didn't you?) Now that would be significant.
Some 600 people were rounded up in the raids, and 250 released, said another Western official in Kabul. Ten were being held on suspicion of serious offenses, including terrorism. Takes a lot to get arrested for terrorism in Afghanistan.
The roundups could heighten tensions between Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, and the northern alliance, which is dominated by ethnic Tajiks and which controls the interior and other key ministries. Hekmatyar's following is largely Pashtun. And that's the spin Hekmatyar's thugs and Qazi's thugs will try and put on it. Drive that wedge wider and deeper. But even most Pashtuns consider Hekmatyar pretty ripe.
Afghan police on Monday raided the home of Hekmatyar's one-time aide, Wahidullah Sabaun, but there was some confusion Thursday over his whereabouts. Sabaun was once the military chief of Hezb-e-Islami and served as Afghanistan's defense minister in 1995 when Hekmatyar became prime minister under President Burhanuddin Rabbani. When the Taliban took over the country in 1996, Sabaun allied himself with the northern alliance resistance. Couldn't get to Iran, and the Talibs would have killed him, huh?
Hekmatyar has been a vocal opponent of Karzai and of U.S. presence on Afghan soil, but last month his deputy, Jumma Khan Hamdard, said the party was ready to cooperate with the interim administration. And everybody believed him. Whywouldhelie?
A senior leader of Hezb-e-Islami, Qutbuddin Hilal, said those arrested were former members of the group. "There is no truth in these reports that our men are being arrested," Hilal said. So we're finally down to the "wudn't me" defense.
One of the signs of a bull market is when bad news has its good points. There was a coup attempt, which is bad, but fortunately it fingers the guys we didn't want around anyway. Maybe this the beginning of good times for real? Posted by Tom Roberts 4/4/2002 8:58:11 PM
Yeah, but it's like making a rabbit stew. First you've got to catch the rabbit... Posted by Fred 4/4/2002 9:38:52 PM
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04/04/2002 09:48 ||
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North Korea gave a top South Korean peace envoy a rough time, calling off scheduled talks and hitting out at the rival South and its US ally. The presidential envoy, Lim Won-Dong, was to have held a new round of talks in Pyongyang on ways to revive dialogue between the communist state and South Korea, the United States and Japan. A Unification ministry official in Seoul said: "Lim was to meet Kim Yong-Sun this morning but it was not held and North Korea did not say when the meeting would be held." Guess we called that one right...
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Saddam Hussein has increased money for the relatives of suicide bombers from $10,000 to $25,000, drawing sharp criticism from Washington. But Palestinians say the bombers are driven not by greed, but by a priceless thirst for revenge, religious zeal and dreams of glory. Since Iraq upped its payments last month, 12 suicide bombers have successfully struck inside Israel, including one man who killed 25 Israelis, many of them elderly, as they sat down to a meal at a hotel to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover. The families of three suicide bombers said they have recently received payments of $25,000. How much glory is there in splattering yourself?
Where's your sense of culture?
This is from the Iraqi Endowment for the Humanities Performance Art Fund, inspired by the Fosters Abstract Art (Guy smashes big bug up against the wall-show the splatter) ad. Posted by Mark Byron [markbyron.blogspot.com] 4/4/2002 2:57:06 PM
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04/04/2002 09:49 ||
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Iraq planned clandestine attacks against American warships in the Persian Gulf in early 2001, according to an operative of Iranian nationality who says he was given the assignment by ranking members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle. The alleged plan involved loading at least one trade ship with half a ton of explosives, and - sailing under an Iranian flag to disguise Iraq's role - using a crew of suicide bombers to blow up a U.S. ship in the Gulf. The operative, who says he smuggled weapons for Iraq through Iran for al-Qaida during the late 1990s, says he was told that $16 million had already been set aside for the assignment - the first of "nine new operations" he says the Iraqis wanted him to carry out, which were to include missions in Kuwait. Gosh, wotta nice guy. Sammy makes Iran and North Korea look civilized.
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North Korea said on Thursday that the United States was its "most wicked sworn enemy" in a series of diatribes issued less than 24 hours after Pyongyang dropped hints it might restart frozen dialogue with Washington. "The U.S. is the most wicked sworn enemy of the Korean nation as it is not only hindering inter-Korean exchange and cooperation ... but also putting a stumbling block in the way of achieving Korea's reunification," the state media quoted the North's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee as saying. Ummm... That means you don't want to talk, right?
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Unknown assailants flung molotov cocktails into a building which includes a synagogue in the southern French city of Montpellier, but caused no damage. The firebombs were thrown through a window and started a brief blaze in local government offices next door to the synagogue. The fire was spotted by a police patrol and quickly extinguished. With all of two synagogues in the city, they could manage to keep both under surveillance.
Sources close to the investigation said three people had been arrested. Wonder what color turbans they were wearing? Or were they old fashioned brownshirts, with maybe a hakenkreuz armband or two?
Senior government officials including the mayor of Montpellier and the prefect of the Herault department were at the scene Thursday morning to condemn the attack and praise the readiness of the security services. Since the Bad Guys were caught, maybe there's a little more than pro forma piety in the condemnation. We'll see if the Bad Guys get two weeks of no teevee.
Security around the city's two synagogues had been stepped up since Sunday's attack in Marseilles in which a synagogue was destroyed. Investigators should be real interested in the recent travels and contacts of those arrested. They might just be stupid and acting on their own, or they might be gauleiters in something a little more sinister. My guess would be a junior-grade "khalifate" plot run out of somebody's mosque.
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Grasshoppa points to this, which should revive anyone's flagging hopes of eventual IDF victory: They all have the same look. Their helmets are on their heads, chin-straps are on their chins, camouflage paint in place, their body armor is tucked down, their boot laces are tucked in, they are holding their rifles in down-barrel tactical position. Most of them aren't looking at the camera, except to shoo the suicidal photographer away.
None of them look like they are posing. None of them are standing out in the middle of the street. And I can't imagine any of them firing from the hip; if they were shooting, you can bet your last doughnut it was with a good cheek-to-stock position, snugged-in rifle, a good sight picture, probably from the prone position and in carefully controlled two- and three-round bursts.
This is the difference between a soldier and a soldier wannabe. The difference between half-trained barbarians and civilized human beings. The Israelis do not make a habit of going around murdering Palestinian children. They make a profession of killing armed Palestinian terrorists. Note the head shot. Mahmud probably didn't even notice when he departed the gene pool. If you're ever in a firefight, don't stand out in the middle of the street with no cover, looking heroic. Someone will shoot you right through the brain, if any.
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04/04/2002 09:47 ||
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Security Council members adjourned private discussions of a draft resolution designed to increase pressure on Israel to end its siege of Palestinian towns in the West Bank. Diplomats said the United States asked for more time to consider the Arab-sponsored text, which it had earlier said was unacceptable, and that Syria -- acting on behalf of the Arab group -- decided not to press for a vote. Council members were expected to hold further discussions behind closed doors on Thursday morning and to reconvene in a formal session later in the day. There should be some sort of a bureaucratic countermove to pull the spike, but Bush's UN team seems to be handling it as well as possible. Probably still too subtle for Beebs and The Paper of Record, but even they might catch on soon. The conservative wannabe generals probably never will...
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European Union foreign ministers, seeking to seize the Middle East peace initiative as Washington kept a low profile, held an urgent meeting in Luxembourg to search for a solution to the crisis. The hastily-called dinner meeting was due to discuss an EU buffer force between Israelis and Palestinians, a high-level delegation to the region and a mission by the UN Human Rights Commission, according to ministers commenting as they arrived. French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine told reporters before the meeting he wanted it to formulate a "more decisive EU stand" on the Middle East. "We must speak with a firmer voice," he said. Good move. So far they've made it to a strident voice. Is that the same thing as firm?
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France suggested that the UN Security Council give "serious consideration" to the deployment of an interposition force in the Palestinian territories. Something like UNIFIL, no doubt...
"France has long been in favour of the deployment of international observers," the French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-David Levitte, told the council in a public session. That's 'cuz they make you look like you're doing something, even if you're not...
"Perhaps we should go further, and seriously consider the deployment of an interposition force to help with the implementation of the Security Council resolutions," he added. "The question deserves to be asked." Which Frenchy division did you have in mind?
He did not say what kind of force he had in mind. Wotta surprise. He was thinking, maybe, an American division. That way no Frenchies would be cannon fodder, and the French taxpayers could continue sending their money to Paris and Brussels. But putting it under Euro officers would restrain those cowboy impulses...
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Israel vowed to block an urgent European peace mission from meeting Yasser Arafat as its army battled armed Palestinians in intense fighting in the West Bank's largest city. World leaders began moving to quell the bloodshed but seemed unable to keep up with the speed of Israel's military blitz, which in seven days has brought nearly every major Palestinian town back under its control. The IDF has to move quick like a bunny to get anything of substance accomplished before the Euros can get the diploffensive put together.
Pessimism over international peace efforts was accompanied by cries for blood revenge on the streets of Arab capitals across the region, where another day of protests and mass rallies lay ahead Thursday. Ummm... They were screaming for blood revenge before the incursions, weren't they? So what else is new?
Columns of tanks and armoured vehicles smashed into Nablus from all directions late Wednesday, meeting stubborn resistance from armed Palestinian security forces. Nablus intelligence chief Talal Diwikat said Apache helicopers were bombarding the western side of Nablus as Israeli troops pushed into the centre, hindered by heavy fighting. Sounds like they have the Bad Guys pincered. Bet the Palestinians wish they had real officers instead of high-level killers.
He said the Israelis were taking over Palestinian houses to use as command posts and were preventing Palestinian ambulances from entering refugee camps that were also invaded. That's too bad. Gosh. Quartering troops. That's unconstitutional. Maybe they should take them to court. As for the ambos, maybe they shouldn't have used them to transport explosives and gunnies before. Then they'd be respected now. You know, like cause->effect?
Palestinian forces fired a home-made Qassam rocket toward Israel from Nablus, the army said, adding that it landed harmlessly on Palestinian land. How very effective of them. We won't dwell on the fact that the Qassam rockets had a little something to do with the start of this mess, will we?
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The Israeli army said it had guerrilla fighters pinned down in one of Christanity's holiest sites, as it widened an assault on the Palestinians that has drawn concern and outrage worldwide. The army said dozens of armed Palestinian militants were holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born, and were firing on Israeli troops outside. Yesterday's report that they were out of ammo was wrong. Now one side or the other has blown a door off the back of the church and they're arguing over who dunnit.
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Trying to keep the Mideast conflict from spreading, the U.N. chief called the leaders of Syria and Lebanon on Wednesday about attacks on Israel by Hezbollah guerrillas. On Tuesday, Israel said Secretary-General Kofi Annan had agreed to deliver Israel's warning to the two countries that continuing Hezbollah attacks could bring "alarming consequences" for the Middle East. Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said the secretary-general had called presidents Emile Lahoud of Lebanon and Bashar Assad of Syria about the situation along the Israeli-Lebanese border. He gave no details of the talks. Diplomats said Annan was told that both the Lebanese and Syrians will take measures to reduce tensions at their frontiers with Israel but would not specify what steps. This should be very effectual.
"What steps?"
"Diff'rent steps."
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Despite Israeli reassurances that most of the likely successors are not targeted, they are staying at home or otherwise out of sight.
Among them is Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, one of the original negotiators of the breakthrough 1993 Oslo accords. Oslo led to seven years of negotiations before the uprising erupted in September 2000. He broke new ground in the mid 1990s when he became the first leading Palestinian to accept Israeli claims to parts of Jerusalem that had been captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war - a position Arafat tentatively endorsed by the time of the Camp David talks in the summer of 2000. Such trendsetting made Abbas an early leadership contender, but a reputation for being too conciliatory to Israel - stoked partly by Arafat to deflect criticism for his own concessions - now stalks him. Still, Arafat recently named Abbas as one of two leaders of an interim government should he step down.
The other interim co-leader is Ahmed Qureia, the speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, also an Oslo veteran. Qureia, also known as Abu Ala, has an easygoing style that has won him friendships over the years with his Israeli counterparts. He is persistent about getting back to the negotiating table and recently met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to explore ways out of the impasse.
The two Palestinian security chiefs, Mohammed Dahlan in Gaza and Jibril Rajoub in the West Bank, are also frequently named as likely leaders. Their principal advantage over Qureia and Abbas is that they are younger and "locals" - many Palestinians resent the elites who assumed control after returning from exile in 1994. Both men helped lead the 1987-93 uprising and served in Israeli prisons, where they learned to speak Hebrew. Both are moderates, but now that they are directing resistance to the offensive, they are making themselves scarce. Israeli forces leveled Rajoub's headquarters in Ramallah on Tuesday. Israeli media reports suggested that the target of that operation was not Rajoub but Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the current uprising who is also sometimes mentioned as a possible Arafat successor.
Barghouti was known as a moderate before and still avoids some of the radical anti-Israel rhetoric that has flourished recently. He has earned points for leading some of the demonstrations at roadblocks and is on Israel's wanted list for allegedly masterminding attacks. It makes sense for any serious successors to Yasser to stay out of sight. Not only do they risk catching an IDF bullet by accident, they also risk Yasser's bully boys "accidentally" potting them if they seem too powerful, and Hamas snuffies hunting them down for lack of fanaticism.
Probably the strongest contender is Barghouti, who heads Tanzim. That also makes him likely to catch twice his body weight in lead from the IDF.
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President Bush on Thursday called on Israel to halt incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas as he began shifting U.S. policy to increase pressure on the Israelis to do its part to stop Middle East violence. Bush, in a White House Rose Garden speech that followed a barrage of international criticism at the U.S. role, also said Syria and Iran must "stay out" of the Middle East conflict to avoid widening it. And he called on the Palestinians to stop suicide bombings, saying "suicide bombing missions could well blow up the best and only hope for a Palestinian state." Bush repeated Israel's right to defend itself but added, "Yet, to lay the foundations of future peace, I ask Israel to halt incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas, and begin the withdrawal from those cities it has recently occupied." Held off the pressure as long as he could. Now we'll have to talk about this for a couple days and give Powell time to get over there. That buys just a little more time. I don't think it'll be enough to actually dump Arafat, though. Dammit.
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Israeli tanks rolled into the divided West Bank city of Hebron Thursday, witnesses said, in another incursion into Palestinian-ruled territory. They said scores of tanks, armored personnel carriers and military jeeps, backed by four helicopter gunships, had thrust into the city from the south, meeting only scattered resistance. Other tanks had pushed into Palestinian-ruled parts of the divided city from the Israeli-held enclave, where a few hundred Jewish settlers live alongside Hebron's 40,000 Palestinians. Hurry, guys, before the Euroweenies get their way. Your support's shaky...
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Israeli military sources said troops today seized 40 explosive belts in a factory in the West Bank town of Salfit. Israeli intelligence officials said the PA and its Islamic allies have prepared about 100 suicide bombers for attacks against the Jewish state. They said that at least 30 of them are being directed toward Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the United States was making no comment yesterday on reports Saudi Arabia finances the Palestinian suicide bombing campaign against Israel, Middle East Newsline reported. And who was it that was saying the Palestinians don't have any industries?
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Hamas, the second most popular Palestinian movement, behind Fatah, is directed by a "steering committee," as Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar put it, with five principal members. Interviews with four of them â a cleric, an engineer and two medical doctors â showed a leadership unyielding, determined and increasingly confident of achieving their goal, the eradication of Israel as a Jewish state.
The political leaders, as they call themselves, are obviously prosperous and live in large, comfortable homes in Gaza City with big families. The exception is Sheik Yassin, who uses a wheelchair and lives in a compound in the slums of the city with guards, assistants and office workers. Dr. Zahar, a surgeon, has a table tennis set in his vast living room, for his seven children.
The leaders insist that they are not involved in directing specific attacks. But they say they do decide when their followers should attack and when they should back off. Last fall, just after Sept. 11, the steering committee decided that "our resistance in Israel might be confused with what was happened in the U.S.," said Mr. Abu Shanab, the engineer. So the suicide bombing and other attacks were stopped.
"It lasted three weeks," said Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the fourth leader. But then after a particularly bloody day in Gaza during which Israelis killed several Palestinians, Dr. Rantisi added, the attacks resumed.
Dr. Rantisi, who appears in public more often than any of the others, said that, to generate attacks, he makes public statements that are heard by his followers, as he did recently when he said in a television interview: "The gates of resistance are open totally." Those statements are heard by Hamas's military wing, he says, "and they listen because we are the political leaders."
Some analysts here suggest that the leaders' roles are actually more direct. During the 45-minute interview in Sheik Yassin's compound, for example, aides twice brought him urgent news about developments in Ramallah, and he issued clear, direct orders.
The goals of Hamas are straightforward. As Sheik Yassin put it, "our equation does not focus on a cease-fire; our equation focuses on an end to the occupation." By that he means an end to the Jewish occupation of historical Palestine.
Hamas wants Israeli withdrawal from all of the West Bank and Gaza, the dismantling of all Israeli settlements and full right of return for the four million Palestinians who live in other states. After that, the Jews could remain, living "in an Islamic state with Islamic law," Dr. Zahar said. "From our ideological point of view, it is not allowed to recognize that Israel controls one square meter of historic Palestine." And there we have it. Not only the ultimate plan for an Islamic Palestinian state, but also the fat cats at the top. These boys aren't living in poverty - try putting a ping-pong table in your living room and seeing how much space is left. I don't imagine Drs. Rantisi and Zahar spend an awful lot of time in their practices, nor that Engineer Abu Shanab spends a lot of time building bridges and roads. Yet they all live very nicely, thank you, off the generous donations of the marks faithful. Sheikh Yassin lives in a slum to show his solidarity with The People, surrounded by bodyguards, gofers and staff. Revolution can be a lucrative racket passtime.
The Steering Committee would be the top, and directly under it will be found regional controllers, connected to the operational cells by runners. These will be not only boomers and gunnies, but also political activists, bean counters, procurement centers, and any number of other functions that go into making an army. At least two layers have to be taken out at once to break the organization because of the redundant lines of control. And the layout isn't real susceptible to being broken up by military operations such as are going on now. Another argument in favor of my idea for the 228th Hit Man Division. That's the only way a war against them can be won.
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U.S. spy planes in the Philippines have for the first time tracked down the possible location of two American hostages held by Muslim guerrillas linked to Osama bin Laden, a top Philippine general said on Thursday. Southern military commander Lieutenant-General Roy Cimatu told reporters the surveillance drones, coupled with other intelligence gathered, had helped locate Gracia and Martin Burnham, hostages for more than 10 months. The officer said he had ordered ground troops to step up search and pursuit operations to prevent the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas from escaping out of southern Basilan island with the Burnhams and a Filipina nurse they are also holding. Go ahead, stupid. Tell 'em how you tracked 'em. That way, next time you won't be able to.
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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.
