At least 10 Afghan tribesmen feuding over land were killed in eastern Afghanistan when U.S. planes bombed their positions after shooting erupted on the ground. The shooting and subsequent bombardment took place after dark Thursday night, Khost security chief Sur Gul said. Two tribes, the Sabari and the Balkhiel, were skirmishing over ownership of a swath of trees that sit on a mountain near their villages, a major town in eastern Afghanistan. Shooting erupted, Sur Gul said, and U.S. planes came along shortly afterward and began to drop bombs. Operation Condor was taking place in the same general area. Sur Gul said at least 10 people were killed on both sides from the American bombardment. He had no information on injuries. "We don't know why the U.S. planes fired," Sur Gul said. An intelligence official in Khost, Chenar Gul, said some tribesmen shot in the air toward at least one U.S. plane passing overhead. Y'know, that might have had something to do with it...
The Afghan Islamic Press agency, quoting unidentified officials from Khost, gave a different reason for the deaths. It said a marriage ceremony was taking place in Balkhiel on Thursday night, and men fired automatic rifles in the air as part of wedding tradition. Two U.S. helicopters were nearby, the news agency said, and U.S. planes arrived shortly thereafter and bombarded the area. If that story's true — and we have no reason to believe that it is, since it's reported by Afghan Islamic Press — it would seem that the tribesmen should immediately add ejaculating shooting their guns into the air when armed and dangerous aircraft are passing overhead to their little list of "Things Not to Do at a Wedding."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 09:29 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ROFL... give me a hand Fred... I'm on the floor laughing so hard I can't get up! Mary Lu
Posted by: Mary Wehmeier ||
05/17/2002 16:35 Comments ||
Top||
A Saudi newspaper has published what it says is an interview with Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar in which he says al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden is still alive. Mullah Omar â whose own whereabouts are unknown â is also quoted as saying that the future of the United States in Afghanistan is "fire, hell and total defeat". Oh, dear. He sounds so bloodthirsty! Should we take this seriously? Has he ever madesimilarthreats?
The London-based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat does not disclose when it conducted the interview. The newspaper said Mullah Omar had answered its questions, submitted in writing, via his information adviser, who translated the questions and answers between Arabic and Pashto. Asharq al-Awsat only said the fugitive, who has eluded US forces since the fall of the Taleban's last bastion of Kandahar last year, was hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan. Wotta surprise.
If authentic, the interview would mark the first time Mullah Omar has spoken in detail since being driven from power. First time he's popped his little turbanned head up, isn't it?
In the interview, Mullah Omar is quoted as saying that "the battle [in Afghanistan] has [just] started, its fire has been kindled and it will engulf the White House, seat of injustice and tyranny. [The United States] launched a war against Islam and Muslims without any legitimate justification, and I am confident that God [will grant Muslims] victory." Mullah Omar did not admit any responsibility for the 11 September attacks, but said: "There were reasons behind these great deeds. America should seek to remove these reasons - and it knows them well - so that such accidents do not re-occur." "Oh, why do they hate us? What are the root causes of this cycle of violence?" Hand me my pills, Martha...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 10:22 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Iran is on the verge of a social explosion, according to a leading conservative cleric. The cleric, Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini, is the deputy head of the influential and conservative Assembly of Experts - the body that has the authority to appoint or dismiss the country's supreme leader. He told a meeting in Qom, south-west of the Capital Tehran, that ordinary Iranians were extremely unhappy with the current situation, and that officials should not disregard their views. "If popular discontent increases, as is the case, society and the regime will be threatened," the ayatollah warned. He had a vision of his head on a stake...
BBC Teheran correspondent Jim Muir says such dire warnings are common among reformists - including President Mohammed Khatami. However Ayatollah Amini is a pillar of the conservative and religious establishment which still controls most of the powerful institutions of state. The objective of the Islamic revolution, he said, was not to replace one government with another without altering the behaviour of the state. The ayatollah said the Iranian revolution occurred "because the people were discontented with the injustice and discrimination of the imperial regime". No regime "can maintain itself in power by force," he warned. Wonder how soon events are going to come to a head there? I suspect that when they do, it'll be pretty bloody. I just hope they have all the Islamocrap out of their system when they're done. Iran used to be a civilized country.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 11:37 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Special operations carried out by the Federal Security Service and the Interior Ministry will increase in importance while the load carried by the Defense Ministry's units will decrease, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Friday. He stated, ''If the situation in Chechnya normalizes, which I do not rule out, the number of Defense Ministry servicemen there will be reduced somewhat. But the 42nd Motorized Division will stay there for good.'' This would imply that they're turning the Chechen insurgency from a military to a police problem, though the MVD is nearly as heavy on armor and heavy weaponry as the army. 42nd Motorized Rifle Division is garrisoned in Grozny.
The first group of peopleâs militia was formed in Chechnya on Wednesday. The event took place in Alleroi â the native village of the rebel leader Maskhadov. The initiative has been coordinated with Chief of General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin and also with the head of the Chechen administration Akhmad Kadyrov. The unit was made up of 25 volunteers who have been picked ''very thoroughly.'' The troops will receive uniforms, weapons and machinery. Apart from defending the village from separatist forces, the militia will take part in the joint operations of the Federal Forces in Chechnya. Putting it in Alleroi is an intentional thumb in Maskhadov's eye, but not particularly significant otherwise. The danger — and part of the utility — is that they present a tempting target for the Bad Guys. They're usually not very big and not very well-armed (no heavy weapons, for instance).
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 09:29 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Sulim Yamadayev has been appointed deputy military commandant of Chechnya. Sulim is known for his devotion to the Akhmad Kadyrov administration. At the beginning of the anti-terror campaign in Chechnya, Sulim Yamadayev led an armed detachment fiercely fighting on the federal side. Yamadayev had clashed with wahabbites even before Russia launched the Chechnya campaign and had been sentenced to death by them. Never hurts to have a proven loyalist helping to run things...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 09:29 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Russia will not prepare any operations against Georgia, Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Nikolai Patrushev has said. Patrushev was commenting on recent statements by Georgian officials about preparations of Abkhaz armed units supported by the Russian military to invade the Kodori Gorge. ''Russia is interested in Georgia being a strong and consolidated state, which meets the national interests of both Russia and other CIS states,'' the FSB director told a press conference in Tbilisi. Notice that he didn't say they're not going to invade the Kodori Gorge?
After comments by Chairman of the Russian State Duma international affairs committee Dmitri Rogozin that the leader of the Dagestani Wahhabite organization Rappan Khalilov and other terrorists responsible for the bombing in Kaspiisk on May 9 are currently in the Pankisi Gorge, Patrushev noted that Russian parliamentarians ''make a lot of statements'', which most often express only their personal opinion. That's Russian for "He's full of it. Don't listen to him." Interesting point, though: I hadn't known there was a Dagestani wahhabite organization independent of the Chechen thugs. Suppose it's reasonable, though. Sammy had that Kuwaiti figurehead "government" made up of "young revolutionaries" who somehow appeared, then evaporated shortly after the invasion.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 01:56 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Democratic lawmakers are insisting the White House turn over top-secret documents prepared for President Bush that indicated Osama bin Laden wanted to hijack U.S. planes. They also want to see another pre-Sept. 11 document - an FBI memo that warned headquarters that many Middle Eastern men were training at American flight schools. "Just give us something that'll make Bush look even a little bit bad. Making Cynthia McKinney look like she's not totally stoopid would help, too."
Bush officials acknowledged Thursday that the president was briefed about a possible hijacking plot in early August while he vacationed at his Texas ranch. But the officials were deeply divided over whether to release the documents. The news of Bush's August briefing set off a furor and precipitated a public relations blitz by the White House, which sent forth an extraordinary number of senior advisers to defend the president as Democrats, and a few Republicans, sought answers. "Viewing with alarm" is as old a political gimmick as kissing babies. If you believe they're after answers, I've got some prime building lots in Florida you might be interested in...
"Why did it take eight months for us to receive this information? And what specific actions were taken by the White House in response?" Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said. "I'm not going to jump to any conclusions, but it's hard to understand why the information was not released." "I'm not going to jump to any conclusions because none are needed. We already know what's wrong. So vote for me, and I'll fix it. Whatever it may be."
House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., posed a variation on the famous Watergate-era question: What did the president know and when did he know it? That's because the reptilian Mr Gephardt is utterly lacking in imagination and couldn't think of anything else to say that wasn't said thirty years ago. At least Daschle managed a variation on the theme without having to parrot the words.
Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, "There was a lot of information. I believe and others believe, if it had been acted on properly we may have had a different situation on Sept. 11." Hokay, smart boy. There's lots of information right now, at this moment. Call the next one. Go ahead. Take your time. You have until it happens, you know. But if you miss it, you have to go before a Congressional committee so they can throw darts at you...
But the administration argued there was no information about a specific threat. Vice President Dick Cheney warned Democrats to tread lightly. 'Cuz they could end up with their testicles breaded and deep fried to a golden brown.
"They need to be very cautious not to seek political advantage by making incendiary suggestions that were made by some today that the White House had advance information that would have prevented the tragic attacks of 9-11," Cheney said. "Such commentary is thoroughly irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders in a time of war." And it won't get any more polite from that point.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 02:29 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Fred: Chaney was nice this time. However I sure don't want to hear what Dick said in private. (Yow!) Venture to bet Shelby knew more than he's saying? Something about the little shit always made me want to watch my back. May be it was that hissing sound he makes? ;-)
Posted by: Mary Wehmeier ||
05/17/2002 16:55 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It's predictable. The Dems have absolutely nothing to run on this fall -- economy is getting better, terrorists in Afghan-land are being whupped, most Americans like the Israelis and don't like Yasser, the education bill passed, the domestic agenda is otherwise a yawner -- so they need something. With approval ratings near 80%, the President is near untouchable. So what to do? Wait for some nugget of info out there that suggests that the President might, maybe, coulda, shoulda known something, and pounce on him. That's the only way to bring his approval rating down, and that's the only way the Dems can avoid looking stoopid in November. As any semi-intelligent person knows, it's always possible to find nuggets after the fact. The Dems just found one, and they have to run with it. I'm guessing that this blows over after a few days, but -- this is important -- it allows the next attack on the President to work just a little better, sink in just a little deeper, and thus start moving the approval rating into the 60's. Then the high 50's. Then the mid-50's. Etc.
Regards,
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/17/2002 23:17 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Either I've been thinking real loud, Steve's been reading my mind, or the process isn't really, really subtle and lots of other people think exactly like we do.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2002 8:18 Comments ||
Top||
Fallout from the revelations this week about apparent breakdowns in communication within the various agencies responsible for monitoring suspected terrorist activity has already claimed the job of the CIA's counterterorrism chief. ABCNEWS has learned that Cofer Black, who has run the counterterrorism center for the past three years, has been moved out of the post. The counterterrorism center is the lead CIA team tasked with finding indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden. Are you surprised? I'm not surprised.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 04:57 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Several peaceful days in Gujarat after two-and-a-half months of mayhem have swung the focus on KPS Gill's seemingly remarkable efficiency — the Punjab supercop's very presence in the state appears to have sent all the rioters indoors. Knew there was a reason I liked this guy...
Off the record, police officials say they had been "held back" by the government through the worst phases of the rioting — something that Gill's arrival had changed. "We were raring to go but...," says an officer, adding that if only the state government wanted, the riots may have been controlled within days. I dunno about the "rarin' to go" part, but we knew they could have stopped the rioting because when they wanted to, they did.
"He (Gill) is acting as a cushion or shock absorber between us and the government," said another officer. Yet, he admits, the supercop might not have been effective without the Centre's full support - which, in effect, had taken law and order away from Chief Minister Narendra Modi's hands. And a damned good place to have it...
Since taking over, Gill has done basically two things.
First, he has had removed the top officers whose witting or unwitting biases during the riots had become the talk of the town. This included the Ahmedabad police commissioner and two superintendents of police. Wotta wimp. When the Muslims do it, heads really roll. They just don't do it to each other, unless there aren't any infidels handy...
Second, he has initiated the process of confidence building among the minorities by opening a dialogue with them. It was with Gill at his side that Modi had his first meeting with Muslim leaders earlier this week. "Narendra, sometimes we feel like you just don't care."
"I don't."
At Gill's behest, the Gujarat Police has now started mediating dialogue between the members of the two communities. The leaders have been kept out of this, and the talks have been left to the affected people from both sides. Officials say that until and unless a feeling of being safe and wanted is not built up among riot-affected people, no one would leave the relief camps and return home. As a step towards building this confidence, some riot victims were taken back to their homes for a visit under heavy police escort on Wednesday — the first time in two months. So Gill's secret is to simply to run interference for his men while they do their jobs, instead of indulging in mush and corruption.
On his part the supercop doesn't say anything on the role he is supposed to have played in returning Gujarat to apparent normality. âI have been advising anyone who needs my advice,â he says. I wonder if we could borrow him and a few of his hotshots next time Cincinatti or Los Angeles catches fire?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 05:22 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The United Nations Committee against Torture has criticised Saudi Arabia over the amputations and floggings it carries out under Sharia Islamic law. At a meeting in Geneva, the committee said such penalties violated international conventions against cruel and degrading treatment. It recommended that the Saudi authorities re-examine their penal code. The criticism was presented to Saudi delegates who immediately rejected it, saying Sharia law expressly forbade torture. Doesn't forbid arrogance and cupidity, though, does it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 09:48 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The Israeli army has reoccupied the West Bank town of Jenin and its refugee camp. A security source said dozens of Israeli tanks, backed by helicopter gunships, had rolled into the Palestinian town and the refugee camp, opening fire on several targets. Earlier, as Israel maintained military pressure on the Palestinians, its army also reoccupied the autonomous West Bank towns of El Bireh, near Ramallah, and Tulkarem, Palestinian security officials said. When they withdrew their forces, they didn't stop their intelligence collection. Apparently they picked a little something up. Wonder what it was?
They're gone now...
The Israel Defense Forces was withdrawing Friday from Jenin and the refugee camp of the same name. IDF's incursion earlier Friday was explained as necessary for the search for Palestinian gunnies who had not been snagged during Operation Defensive Shield. Twenty four Palestinians, two of which are wanted terrorists, were apprehended by IDF in Jenin. Israeli undercover troops killed Ahmed Ghanam, 25, a member of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service, in Beitunia, a suburb of the West Bank town of Ramallah. The military said the raid helped prevent a terror attack in Jerusalem. Toldja they hadn't quit collecting intel...
Palestinian sources said that seven-year-old boy Amid Abu Sayar was killed Friday by IDF gunfire in the Askar refugee camp, next to Nablus. The sources said that Abu Sayar was seriously injured when soldiers in a tank opened fire at a store owned by the boy's father. They also said that eight other Palestinians were injured by the gunfire. Somebody tell Kofi and Mary and Terje that they did't go in to get young Amid. They were shooting at Bad Guys... Oh, never mind. They wouldn't believe you anyway.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 02:26 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told reporters Friday that elections would only be held once Israeli occupation had ended, but his advisers later clarified that the voting is being linked to a far more modest withdrawal. "What the old lunatic Boss meant was..."
Arafat has said he was open to changes, but has not given specifics. He can't think of any. Things seem just peachy to him right now, so why the hell change?
On Thursday, Abdel Rahman, the secretary of the Palestinian Cabinet, told The Associated Press that Arafat wanted to hold elections within six months, as part of a reform package. Asked Friday when elections would be held, Arafat told reporters in English: "As soon as they (the Israelis) finish this occupation from our land, according to the agreement that was supposed to be at the beginning of 1999." In 1999, Israel and the Palestinians were to have reached a final peace deal. "As soon as they keep their end of the bargain we didn't keep our end of."
However, Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said the goal remained to have presidential and parliamentary elections within six months. Shaath told The Associated Press on Friday that work on putting together rosters of eligible voters had already begun. "But these elections need an Israeli withdrawal to the places (troops held) before September 28, 2000," Shaath said, referring to the day the fighting began. "Otherwise, we'll just have to continue as a bloody-handed autocracy whose severity is only tempered by the incompetence of the kleptocrats at the top and the fact that the Great Dictator is lapsing into senility."
Shaath said the Palestinians also insisted that residents of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem be permitted to vote, as they were in the last Palestinian election in 1996. "If that happens, then everything will be prepared. We are working on it now," he said. "We'll let you know what our further conditions are later, as the deadline comes and goes. But don't forget to ship in the dozen busloads of sex-crazed Britney Spears lookalikes who like portly, balding olive-complexioned men, otherwise that vote will never take place!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 01:24 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
On Wednesday, one of the Chechen warlords, Arab national Al-Walid issued an address to the Russian military in which he claimed he held three crew members of the Mi-24 helicopter that went missing in Chechnya on February 3. Al Walid has threatened to execute the pilots if Russian military command does not agree to release ''20 peaceful residents of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.'' To prove that he really holds the servicemen prisoner, the rebel warlord reported the board number of the missing helicopter, the names and personal details of the allegedly captured pilots. Al-Walid is probably Khattab's successor. Mighty nice of the Arab lands to export these fellows to keep the rest of the world in Wahabbi line.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 09:29 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A 56-year-old man from the Latvian town of Plyavinas was released from captivity in the Grozny district of the Chechen Republic on Friday. The regional operational headquarters have reported that information about the hostage was obtained yesterday and the military conducted an operation together with FSB operatives to free him. The name of the released hostage has not been disclosed. The name of the hostage-taker has been established and it turns out that he was on a list of wanted criminals. Hey! They didn't say whether the hostage-taker was a terrorist or a just a normal crook...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 09:31 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Three militants belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed were killed and a huge quantity of explosives, including seven kilograms of RDX, seized in two separate incidents in Surankote area of Poonch district on Friday. The three were killed in a joint operation by police and army troops. Two AK rifles with its three magazines and 25 rounds and one hand grenade were recovered from the slain militants. 15 pounds of RDX can be really hard on somebody's car, or take out several wives and kiddies with a single blast. The State Department crowd is urging India and Pak to exercise restraint, since war with possible nuclear consequences is only a boom or two away, but somebody forgot to tell the gunnies...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 11:22 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A bomb on a motor scooter exploded Friday outside the state fire department headquarters in India's portion of disputed Kashmir, killing one person and injuring 13 others, police said. Police said they began firing warning shots immediately after the homemade device exploded and sealed off the area. The fire office is next door to the main administrative building in Srinagar, the summer capital of the state. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Indian officials usually attribute such attacks to Pakistan-based Islamic militants fighting to separate the Muslim-majority Kashmir region from Hindu-majority India. That's because that's who's usually to blame...
The explosion happened as Parliament in New Delhi debated how to react to an attack Tuesday on an Indian army base in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, that killed 34 people. India's government blamed Pakistan for that attack. Pakistan denied the charge. Sure looks like the Jihadis are trying to push India and Pakland into war. Far in the background from all this are Fazlur Rehman and the JUI-F, controlling Jaish and its allied groups; and Qazi Hussein Ahmed and JI, controlling Hizbul Mujahideen and its allied groups. The question rational minds ask is, "Why would they do something that dumb?" There's no rational answer. Instead, there's a vision of a post-apocalyptic Ummah ruled by Pashtuns and stretching from Burma to Iran with Qazi as khalif and never-ending jihad for the sake of jihad.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 02:27 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A terrorist act has been committed in the village of Vedeno, Chechnya. The local prosecutors report that separatists detonated a radio-controlled bomb as a Ural truck carrying policemen passed nearby. As a result, one serviceman was killed and 10 were wounded. Prosecutors are investigating the incident and have instigated a criminal case.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 08:24 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The Azerbaijani Military Court on Friday sentenced several Azarbaijani citizens to various terms in prison for taking part in military operations in Chechnya on the side of illegal armed formations. All tried also faced charges of deserting the national army, illegal arms possession and illegal border crossing. Two convicts got 5 years of prison one got a 4 years sentence and four others received suspended sentences pf prison terms from 2 to 4 years. Investigators have proved that all convicts had undergone training in the rebel camp in Georgia and took part in armed struggle on Russian territory. They all were detained in 2001 by Azerbaijani special services.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 08:25 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A powerful explosive device was defused on the night of May 16, in Kaspiysk, a town in the North Caucasian republic of Dagestan where a terrorist explosion killed 42 people on May 9. The bomb, a powerful homemade explosive device consisting of an antipersonnel mine, an electric detonator and a remote control unit, was found in a car in the centre of Kaspiisk. The discovery was made by officers from the republican Department for Combating Extremism and Criminal Terrorism in the course of an operation codenamed ''Whirlwind''. Local law enforcers, who have opened a criminal case, reported that the car driver was a resident of Kaspiisk and that three people have already been arrested.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/17/2002 08:25 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 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.
