David Warren writes like I wish I could write. He's precise. He's systematic. He's not a smartass. We come to many of the same conclusions, but they sound better, more logical when he puts them down on screen...
On Monday, Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani dictator, made an address to his nation that could please no one outside it. While he repeated his promise to prevent Kashmiri jihadists from infiltrating Indian Jammu and Kashmir, it is a promise the Indians are tired of hearing, whenas Mr. Musharraf never acts upon it. The speech was, on balance, shockingly belligerent for the leader of a country in Pakistan's situation. Coming on the heels of Pakistan's missile tests, it seemed almost designed to trigger an Indian assault. Thinking he was calling an Indian bluff, Mr. Musharraf may have been calling his own.
I wish I'd put it that way.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 11:37 am ||
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#1
Thanx for pointing me to Davind Warren.
I can confir, being an Indian, that what he has
written certainly makes sense.
Former Afghan prime minister and chief of Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has called upon the Afghans to wage jihad against American and British forces to liberate their country. In a message sent from Kabul, Hekmatyar denied the US government claims that any member of his group had been killed in the rockets attack near Kabul. He said: "No rockets have hit the areas of our brothers, nor has any important or common person been killed in this attack. The American claims in this regard are as baseless and boastful as their fabricated propaganda about their aborted operation in Shahi Kot."
Hekmatyar said this was part of their psychological warfare to overawe the Afghans and browbeat them into submission. The operation in Shahi Kot, Hekmatyar said, was a failure despite, what he termed, the gruesome fact that they (Americans) dropped more than 2,500 bombs on such a small place. "I call upon all the sincere Afghans devoted to the cause of their religion and country to rise to the occasion in a unified manner, trust in Almighty Allah and prepare for Jihad once again to liberate their homeland from foreign occupation," Hekmatyar said. "And I promise I won't rocket Kabul to rubble again. Really. You know I always keep my promises..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 08:50 am ||
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Frustrated police in New York City had to free a suspicious group of illegal Middle Eastern aliens because the Immigration and Naturalization Service "didn't want to be bothered" on the Memorial Day weekend. Not knowing whether the men they had nabbed were the hard-working immigrants they claimed to be or a terror gang plotting to wreak havoc, the local authorities had to let them walk in the end. INS? They haven't been abolished yet?
The mystery men â some with phony IDs, and all admitted illegal immigrants â could have been held if agents from the INS had bothered to show up. "What's the point of stopping vans and risking your life when the one agency with power blows you off?" one angry lawman said. "And this is after Sept. 11." Oh, that was a long time ago. Months and months. Isn't it time to move on?
"It's frightening and disheartening," said another. "The agency that handles immigration didn't want to come down" â although every other law-enforcement agency did. "They didn't even want to be bothered." Well, hell! It was a holiday. What'd you expect?
The INS didn't seem to have anybody on duty in New York City. The agency's contact number for the weekend rang at an office in Burlington, Vt., more than 300 miles away. "The [expletive] INS has one phone working Memorial Day weekend and it's in Vermont?" said another incredulous law-enforcement official. Well, that's fairly close...
An INS spokesman said Wednesday, "Since Sept. 11, our primary focus has been on terrorist-related investigations and, contrary to belief, we are not in the business of detaining people without cause. These men posed no terrorist threat or, for that matter, any threat to the community." "I mean, if we'd actually seen them we could tell for sure. Or if we knew anything about them. But don't worry. Everything's in our hands... Well, in good hands."
But the cops had no reason to think that when they confronted the men Friday. The case began about 4 p.m., when Bridges and Tunnels officers from New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority police stopped a battered van from entering the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, which links lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, from the Manhattan side. The red-and-white 1990 cargo van had four Middle Eastern men jammed in front â one more than is legal. Officer Chris Lasalle opened the rear padlocked door and found three more men inside, a police report said. The seven men, most of whom were from Pakistan, produced a variety of paperwork, including a phony government card obtained in Times Square, a bogus passport, an identification card from Virginia, and some New York state nondriver IDs. And a ball of string. And some playing cards. Two sticks of dynamite. A vial of poison. Four AK-47s, one AK-74. A Sherman tank...
They were taken to the officers' headquarters on the Brooklyn side of the tunnel, where detectives from the New York City Police Department Intelligence Division, the Joint Terrorist Task Force, the MTA, an assistant Brooklyn district attorney and interpreters had responded. The suspects said they worked for a construction company, Gill Waterproofing and Roofing in Brooklyn, to which the van was registered. At 6 p.m., the INS was called, but no agents responded. By 10 p.m. the Brooklyn district attorney's office, without INS intervention, had to release the four men who had what appeared to be legitimate IDs. 6 p.m.'s after duty hours. Everybody knows that.
At midnight, detectives again called, but were referred to a toll-free INS number that connected them with the Vermont office, where a concerned supervisor took information and said a Manhattan supervisor would be notified by morning. At 1 p.m., INS supervisor Frank Ciringione called, promising to provide instruction later, sources said. When asked if he wanted to talk to the prosecutor handling the case, he indicated he didn't â unless he had to. "They had a horrible attitude," one cop said of the INS. "Yeah, we'll get back to you on that... Talk to them? Do they 'spikka da Engulitch'? I'm not real good with heavy accents. Had some French in high school, but that's it... I try to leave talking to them to the field officers..."
Three hours later, Ciringione called back and told ADA Jacqueline Kagan to free the other suspects, saying "INS would follow up at a future date in our own way." Ciringione declined to speak yesterday. "What way?"
"Our way."
"What way's that?"
"Ummm... Lemme have my supervisor call you on that."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 09:31 am ||
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God, this pisses me off! What is wrong with this picture???
Posted by: Kay Ford ||
05/30/2002 11:23 Comments ||
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Obviously the INS outranks the FBI in the hierarchy, if the FBI must suffer a token 'reorganization' and INS needn't.
#3
More likely they just don't care because they're being shut down.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2002 14:02 Comments ||
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Well, if they're being shut down, could we hurry the hell up and shut them down? Or does this incident prove that the Noo Yolk office already WAS shut down, and they didn't bother to tell anyone? "If you'd like to speak to a non-existent INS officer in New York, press 1 ... "
Regards,
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2002 15:39 Comments ||
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Fourteen suspected al Qaeda militants, most of them Arabs, have been arrested in Pakistan and others are under strict surveillance. The arrests were made on Wednesday night in Peshawar. "They are Sudanese, Algerians and Egyptians and a few others," he said. "We are interrogating them and will decide their future accordingly." The English-language newspaper Dawn said agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation took part in the arrests and the suspects were now in U.S. hands. "The detainees were immediately handed over to the American officials who took them to an undisclosed destination for interrogation," the paper said. Wonder how much these arrests are driven by internal Pak politics and how much they're driven by available intel? AP and Rooters seem to have an easy enough time finding Talibs and al-Qaeda to talk to.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 07:26 am ||
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Pakistan said on Thursday it was considering rushing troops from its Afghan border to bolster its army facing India in the east. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said he was considering pulling troops back from Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan, where they were deployed to help U.S.-led forces hunting al Qaeda militants, but this had not yet started. That takes some of the pressure off the Tal-Qaeda, but if the whole country's gonna be paved with radioactive glass, what's the point?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 07:27 am ||
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Two militants stormed an Indian police camp in Kashmir as tensions mount between India Pakistan, killing three policemen and wounding several others before being trapped by security forces. Indian security forces and the militants holed up in a camp building in the mountainous Doda region exchanged intermittent fire, but police said they delayed a plan to storm the place because they wanted to capture the militants alive. The latest attack comes two weeks after three men India says were Pakistan-based militants attacked an army camp in Kashmir, killing 31 soldiers and their families before being killed. Interesting, watching a war between two countries being intentionally started by a third — non-governmental — party, isn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 08:10 am ||
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Belgium is a recruiting ground for Islamic militants, with one in 10 mosques used to spread anti-Western ideas, senators privy to secret service testimony said on Thursday. A confidential Senate report based on evidence from the state security service and seen only by members of the upper house's oversight committee, said Belgium was being used to recruit anti-Western radicals. "It is the first time we have a global view of the danger, a view we did not have in the past," Senator Hugo Vandenberghe, a member of the committee, told Reuters. "The conclusion is that there are extremist groups recruiting in Brussels, that there is an influence from certain mosques to mobilize people who are not compatible with Western society and civilization," he said, adding that certain foreign nations â via their embassies â also exert influence. The assessment was that these groups could turn militant if tension worsened in the Middle East, he added.
Several Belgian men of foreign descent were arrested by U.S. forces in Afghanistan after the collapse of the Islamic purist Taliban government last November. Vandenberghe said young Arab immigrants who are not yet integrated into Belgian society were the main target of Islamist recruiters, as they were more susceptible to anti-Western views. Several hundred people were involved in radical Muslim groups in Belgium, which has a population of 10 million, he said. According to the report, about 30 of Belgium's 300 mosques are considered radical. "That is a minimum because it's just an estimate. The influence is larger than those 30 but maybe these mosques are more outspoken," he added. It's not like the activity in Belgium's really noticeable... Hey, wasn't there some guy talking about stuff like this right next door recently? Oh. Somebody shot him. Oh, well. He was prob'ly a racist or something...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 08:04 am ||
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Pakistan on Wednesday informed the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, that no Arab country, including the Palestinian Authority, was willing to accept four Palestinian hijackers of a PanAm plane in 1986 who have completed their life imprisonment. "Completed their life imprisonment" sounds vaguely like they should be dead, doesn't it?
The Palestinians, Mansoor Al Rashid, Mansur Al Khalil, Jamal Abdul Rahimi and Salaman Al El Turki, had entered Pakistan carrying Jordanian and Syrian passports. They were false papers. Maybe Syria and Jordan could make a false promise to take them in?
The FBI, whose representatives have visited them in Adiala jail, are waiting to take them to the US to try them on charges of killing Americans. So it's pretty daggone incumbent upon somebody to find them someplace to go where they won't be handed over to the mean old infidels...
On Wednesday when the petitions of the hijackers, seeking their release, was taken up, the two judges bench, comprising Justice Bashir A. Mujahid and Justice Jehangir Mir, inquired from the government lawyer, Sultan Mansoor about the arrangement made by the government for their deportation. A FO official informed the court that the Palestinian Embassy in Pakistan was of no help as they were not empowered to issue passports or any other travel documents. The official further said that none of the embassies of Arab countries (including that of Iraq and Lebanon) in Pakistan had responded positively to the FO's letter, asking them to accept the hijackers. Just dumped 'em, huh? How's that for gratitude?
Advocate Saleem Shaikh, who is representing the Palestinians, informed the court that they would like to go to Palestine for which they were struggling, or be allowed to remain in Pakistan. The FO official, however, informed the court that they would not be allowed to stay in Pakistan and get registered with the Aliens Registered Authority as they had been involved in a criminal act. "We have enough crooks and thugs in Pakistan, y'honor. They'll have to go someplace else."
Advocate Tariq Asad, a counsel representing an NGO, pleading for the release of the Palestinian requested the court to pass an order that they be handed over to the FBI, as one of them, Mustafa Boomer, had already been taken to the US. That's an alias, right? That's gotta be an alias...
The lawyers dealing with the trial say that Mustafa Boomer went to the United States under a deal. His brother, they say, who lives in America had struck a deal with the FBI that his brother would testify against the remaining hijackers if he was made approver in the case. The Palestinians are imploring Pakistani officials not to hand them over to the FBI for extradition to the United States. Can't imagine why they wouldn't want to come visit for awhile...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 12:36 pm ||
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Yasser Arafat cheese puffs are the new hit snack on the streets of Egypt's capital. A cartoon of the Palestinian leader salutes consumers from each 25-piastre ($0.05) bag of Abu Ammar chips, beckoning them to buy the snack and support a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. "Abu Ammar, hero of the struggle," the cover reads in bright red letters, referring to Arafat by his nom de guerre. Ooooh! Mom! Buy me that!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 07:27 am ||
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Two radical Palestinian organizations that opposed interim land-for-peace accords with Israel said on Thursday they had spurned an offer from President Yasser Arafat of places in a reformed Palestinian cabinet. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) continue to advocate armed struggle against Israeli occupation in much of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. If you're part of the government then you're not shooting off guns and throwing bombs. How ya gonna have armed struggle if you're not armed and struggling with somebody?
PFLP and DFLP leaders in the Gaza Strip said the offer of slots in a new cabinet came in separate meetings with Arafat at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah on Wednesday night. "Our delegation apologized. They said the PFLP cannot join the government," said Jamil Majdalawi, a senior PFLP figure. He demanded fresh legislative elections first. "Changes don't begin with the cabinet but with institutions of the Palestinian Liberation Organization," Majdalawai said, referring to the broad independence movement. "The problem is not changing names. It has to do with policymaking... Another reason for our rejection was the Authority's continued detention of comrade Ahmed Sa'adat," he said. Give him awhile. He'll think of some more reasons. If you're not in charge, you can't be blamed.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 07:45 am ||
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The revolutionary council of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement echoed his calls for an end to suicide attacks inside Israel yesterday, saying they harmed the Palestinian struggle for a state. "Military attacks inside the Green Line must stop because they reflect negatively on the image of our national struggle," the council said in a document issued after two weeks of internal discussions. The council is the second most important body of Fatah, after the central committee, which represents senior political leaders of Fatah. The document is addressed to Fatah and means that the Aksa Martyrs Brigades have clear orders to stop all terror attacks against civilians inside Israel, Bassam Abu Sharif, an advisor to Arafat told The Jerusalem Post. They've already thumbed their noses at the idea, who why bother?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 09:01 am ||
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Thauriya Hamamreh changed her mind about carrying out a suicide bombing when orders to disguise herself in provocative clothes for the attack in Jerusalem made her do some soul-searching. The petite, headscarfed 25-year-old Palestinian woman told her story to Israeli journalists from a prison cell where she has been kept since Israeli forces arrested her on May 20. Hamamreh, a devout Muslim, said her handlers in the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades wanted her to disguise herself as a modern Israeli woman so she would not raise suspicion. "They wanted me to have my hair loose, wear sun glasses and makeup and tight clothes. I said no because it's against my religion," the Maariv newspaper quoted her on Thursday as telling reporters. "Huh huh. And, like, could you be topless when you blow? I mean that rilly turns me on..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 09:13 am ||
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Eureka! The IDF simply needs to 1) stop the import of loose, baggy clothing into the PA (they'll need to compensate the Purple Hearts Society for the lost income :-), 2) replace all TV programming in the PA area with Britney and J Lo videos, and 3) get some nut-wit mullah somewhere to issue a fatwah that tight clothing is required under Islamic law.
Regards,
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2002 15:44 Comments ||
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"Thauriya, we want you to become a martyr. Go over into Israel and blow yourself up in a public place and kill a bunch of defenseless, inncocent, unarmed people."
"Yes, it will be a glorious martyrdom, and I a mighty brave warrior of Islam."
"Here, change into these Calvin Kleins so you blend in."
SLAP!
"What do you think I am, some kind of hussy! I have MORALS, you know!"
Posted by: Baby M ||
05/31/2002 3:33 Comments ||
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Vice-President Hamzah Haz yesterday met a Muslim cleric who has been linked by Singapore to a regional terrorist network. He met Abu Bakar Bashir during a visit to the Al-Mukmin Muslim boarding school, which the cleric founded. He also met local Muslim leaders and scholars as well as students of the school at Ngruki, just south of the Central Java town of Solo. A student said the meeting took place in the school's auditorium. An employee of the school earlier described the occasion as a 'brotherly visit'. Mr Vice President seems to like visiting this sort of fellow.
Singapore claims Abu Bakar is a leader of the Jemaah Islamiah regional terrorist group. Late last year, 13 suspected Jemaah Islamiah operatives were detained in the Republic for allegedly plotting to blow up US targets there. Indonesian police have questioned Abu Bakar over his alleged terror links but did not detain him, citing lack of evidence. "You a terrorist, Abu?"
"Nope. Not me."
"Well, okay then. See ya."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 07:26 am ||
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A Philippine Muslim rebel leader on the United States' most wanted list promised on Thursday to free a Filipina nurse held hostage for nearly a year but made no mention of two U.S. hostages held even longer. Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya welcomed a U.S. announcement of a $5 million reward on him and four other top rebel commanders, saying Washington's move gave them stature. Sabaya, speaking on local RMN radio, said his group would free nurse Deborah Yap any time. "We have news about Deborah," Sabaya told the radio station in a telephone call. "She has become a good Muslim. As a reward, we will release her." They've said they were going to free Deborah a couple times in the past year, and haven't come through. Since Sabaya might not be in control of her anymore, the promise is probably baseless. If the radio station can find Sabaya, it would seem the coppers and his own boys should be able to...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 07:26 am ||
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13 Muslim men detained by Singapore's Internal Security Department (ISD) in January will stay under detention at least until January 2004. The Advisory Board, a review body provided for under the Internal Security Act, has concurred with the ISD's assessment that the 13 members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) pose 'an active threat' to Singapore's security. Their detention is necessary to 'neutralise the threat and to allow investigations to continue to ferret out all others in the network,' said the board. The Board reached its conclusions after four days of hearings and examining all relevant detainee statements, confessions taken before a district court judge and 56 case exhibits including video recordings and seized documents.
The ISD assesses that there are about a dozen active JI members who fled the country following its arrests. They are likely to be in the region. Among them is the five-man group led by Mas Selamat Kastari, who had threatened to crash a plane into Changi Airport. 'This group is believed to be in Indonesia at the moment and assessed to be the most dangerous elements in the Singapore JI group,' said the ISD. Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines are taking the JI problem seriously. A pity Indonesia appears to be in the tank with the Bad Guys.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 08:25 am ||
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Suspected Islamic rebels have killed 23 civilians in western Algeria hours before a parliamentary election began on Thursday in the North African country. The victims were all nomad people killed overnight in Sendjas village in Chlef province, 112 miles west of Algiers. The bodies of three of the murdered nomads were set ablaze. The massacre was the latest in a series of killings of civilians and members of government forces in the past few weeks. This being Algeria, I'm surprised the numbers are so low.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/30/2002 08:13 am ||
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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.
