U.S. troops launched an air assault Sunday in the eastern Afghanistan mountains near the Pakistan border in an attempt to root out al Qaeda members believed to be in the region. The lightning raid was launched by 177 U.S. airborne soldiers from the Bravo Company of the 182nd Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division. The soldiers did not find any al Qaeda personnel, but they did discover a series of caves, officials said. One cave looked like it was used as a hospital for the mujahadeen rebels during the Soviet-Afghan war, but it appeared there was not much significant evidence found. I think most of what we're going to find from now on is Talibs standing around trying to look innocent. The al-Qaeda have all beat it for Pakistan, where the action is.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 03:34 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
With the leaders of 16 Asian nations headed Sunday to Kazakhstan for a regional security summit, the focus was on the seemingly remote possibility of talks between the leaders of India and Pakistan. The window of opportunity for such a meeting is small. The Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia is due to begin Monday and end Wednesday. Despite intense diplomatic pressure from several quarters, it appears unlikely that Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would hold any kind of face-to-face talks. Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said Sunday that he was hopeful the conflict could be defused after comments Saturday by Musharraf in which the Pakistan leader virtually dismissed the chances of nuclear war. "Confidence building measures" always seem to me like the third party knows something the beknighted natives don't, and that they're trying to demonstrate that there's good faith on both sides. In some cases there may be, in most I think there's not. So what if the lack of confidence is based in fact?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 03:34 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Pakistan reiterated its position on Saturday that it will not be the first to initiate a war against India but if one was thrust upon Pakistan it will respond with full might. "Nobody should have any illusions or miscalculations about it," said President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman and DG ISPR Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi. Talking to Dawn, he said Pakistan had made it amply clear to India and the world that "if our territory or airspace is violated we will defend and respond." The President's spokesman stated this in response to a report in the daily Christian Science Monitor Thursday that India was planning a 10-day "limited assault in Kashmir if infiltration does not significantly drop." According to a senior Indian military official quoted in the report, the limited military operation would be undertaken to capture territory and dismantle the militants' infrastructure. Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi categorically dismissed the report as deserving of contempt and termed it "an utterly ridiculous assertion." But if the jihadis are already striking in Kashmir and in India does that mean the war's already under way? I think so.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 03:34 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The Pakistani government has stopped funding 115 madarsas for their involvement in extremism and militancy, an official said here on Sunday.
The institutions were found to be involved in "sectarian violence and terrorism," a member of the Pakistan Madrasa Education Board, Mufti Abdul Qavi, told newspersons. The action follows President Pervez Musharrafâs decision to crackdown on extremism and curb religious militancy. According to an Islamabad report, Pakistan was sending five envoys to the US, Europe, West Asia and Asia on a diplomatic offensive. And he doesn't want people to point at the madrassahs back home spewing hatred and jihad-flavored violence? It's really pretty late in the game for him to "crack down" on them, not that such crackdowns have lasted. But anything that gets under Qazi's and Fazl's skin is probably a good move.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 03:45 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A Pakistani militant captured by secutiry forces recently, has said he along with some other ultras were pushed into Indian territory by the Pakistan Army. "I sneaked into the valley from Kupwara sector along with three others in March this year with active support of the Pakistani Army deployed in the forward posts," Mohammad Ashraf, captured by Rashtriya Rifles during an encounter here last week, told reporters on Sunday. "I was working as a labourer in my home town of Punjab in Pakistan before falling in the trap of a fellow countryman who motivated me to join the Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmir, the ultra said, adding he received arms training from a camp run by the Mujahideen with the help of Pak army in Muzaffarabad.
The captured gunny said after training, he along with five others were told to sneak into the valley to join the Mujahideen here. They were later taken to an Pakistani Army camp at Lipa, just across Kupwara in Kashmir. With the help of a guide, they reached Sopore within few days, to "built a base as told by the bosses", where they were joined by some more militants two days before the encounter. Ashraf who was captured with 20 per cent burn injuries said "Indian Army is very helpful. They provided me a wheel chair and the best treatment for saving my life. They were not my religious brothers but they have done it on the grounds of humanity." He's probably still trying to explain to him what a Punjabi has to do with events in Kashmir.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 03:54 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Looking for a new strategy in the wake of international pressure on the Pakistan government to rein in militants, some of the banned outfits held a secret meeting on May 31. The meeting, attended by representatives of all religious schools of thought and activists of Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, stressed on the need to jointly foil attempts by the government to crackdown on their activities. The participants felt that India, by using latest technology including spy cameras to detect their hideouts in Kashmir, had made it more difficult for them to carry out their tasks, a report of published in the local media said. Ceasing and desisting probably isn't one of the options they're considering.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 03:59 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Militants in Kashmir have appealed to the world not to confuse their freedom struggle with terrorism. The United Jihad Council (UJC), an umbrella group of Kashmiri militant groups, accused India on Saturday of trying to deflect attention from what it called "state terrorism" in Kashmir and the legitimate right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination. "The government of India has launched a media blitz to disinform the international community about the genuine, indigenous and home-grown struggle for freedom initiated by the Kashmiris themselves," UJC leader Syed Salahuddin said. "We appeal to all leaders believing in the principles of fair play in justice not to mix up a genuine people's struggle for self-determination with terrorism," he said in a letter faxed to embassies in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. If the Kashmir gunnies aren't terrorists, there aren't any terrorists in this world...
Western sympathy for guerrilla groups has waned after an attack on the Parliament in December and on a military camp in Kashmir in May in which suspected militants killed more than 30 people, mainly the wives and children of Indian soldiers. ... and that's why.
The UJC said Kashmiris had only taken up arms against Indian "occupation" after peaceful means of resistance had been exhausted, and appealed for international pressure on India to resolve the question of Kashmir for the sake of regional peace. "All routes to avoid this nuclear holocaust pass through Kashmir," Salahuddin said. "Our struggle will continue until the last drop of our blood to attain freedom from Indian occupation." All routes, right up to the edge of nuclear holocaust, have lain through Kashmir and the gunny organizations making up the MJC. Any country can put up with a concentrated campaign of shootings, kidnappings, arson, explosions, mutilations, beheadings, and grenades flying every which way for only so long.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 04:17 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Announcing that people of Pakistan will not cow down by Indian threats and put up stiff resistance to sinister designs of India rather than withdrawing from its jugular vein, Kashmir, Jamaat-e- Islami has warned the rulers to refrain from stabbing in the back of Kashmir freedom movement. In a resolution adopted in the concluding session of Markazi Majlis-e-Shoora held in Lahore under JI Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad, JI alleged that General Pervez Musharraf has fully surrendered to US and this has started showing its horrendous results. Hardly the first time he's alledged that...
Pointing to threats being posed by US to nuclear assets, JI said that the concocted stories being flashed in US and western media speak volumes for the rancour and grudge being harboured by US against Pakistan nuclear installations adding that US has its evil designs to bring this capability under its control on one or other pretext. More incoherent than usual... I think he means we want to grab the Islamic nukes.
Focusing on the shift in Kashmir policy of the government, JI said that US and its allies are all set to mount pressure on Pakistan to accept Indian conditions for resolution of this issue rather than supporting just stance of Pakistan and Kashmiris and condemning the massive human rights violations in Held Kashmir at the hands of Indian troops. General Musharraf has fully surrendered to US threats, JI regretted. JI remarked that UN, US and all international community has recognised Kashmir as a disputed issue and the control line dividing Azad Kashmir and Occupied Kashmir does not enjoy the status of international borders as the India wants to have this accepted by accusing Pakistan as sponsoring cross border terrorism. UK and US are supporting India in this regard, the resolution added. That's because they've been acting fairly reasonable and not sending people across the line of control to carry out sectarian cleansing and throw grenades all over the place.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 04:35 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Okay, Qazi Hussain Ahmad and his deputy, Khurshid Ahmad are terrorists of the rear base kink. So why did the State Dept pay Qazi for consultations, at State only months before 911? Why has Khurshid been attending Islamic Society (Jamaat) of North America and Muslim Students Assn, conventions for the past "twenty years"? In fact, at one ISNA convention, Qazi conducted dawah (indoctrination) sessions with ISNA chief, Muzammil Siddiqi. Why did Bush-Junior pay Siddiqi for consulation at the Whitehouse, seven days after the September massacres? On said consultation, Junior claimed that Islam is a "religion of peace". The office of Homeland Security maintains an open door policy towards both ISNA and CAIR extremists.
What has Qazi done lately, besides stir the Kashmir pot? On Nov 3, he was jailed for breaching of conditions, viz a then pending charge of incitement against the Indian PM. The breach arose after Qazi incited a mob attack on an airbase where US airmen were landing. Two persons died in the attack. On Feb 28, a judge ordered Qazi released from custody, wherein he announced the formation of a movement - MMA - that would challenge any change in Zia's Islamic constitution (1973). One member of the MMA is Jamaat-Ulama-e-Islami. The JUI is a signatory member of al-Qaeda's "jihad against Jews and crusaders" YOU HEARD IT: THERE ARE ONLY TWO DEGREES OF SEPARATION BETWEEN BUSH JUNIOR AND OSAMA BIN LADEN.
Face it: Bush Junior is a pathological evangelical who doesn't have the mental capacity to see a difference between his religiosity and that of the Jamaatis. He is a incurable gladhandler, with no ability to acquire a sense of the evil of Islam-per-se. If Junior is the best that Americans can get out of the electoral process, then the President should be picked at random, from a phone book.
Two high-ranking officers were among 25 people killed when a Russian-made military helicopter crashed due to bad weather in the Angolan province of Cuanza-Norte, state radio reported. One officer was Lieutenant-General Jose Domingos, better known as "Ngueto," and the other was a general who was only identified as "Toy", the radio reported. Domingos was commander of the northern region's military front. The Portuguese news agency Lusa had earlier reported that the helicopter was carrying a number of Angolan army officials and journalists on their way to a demobilization camp the government has set up for UNITA rebel soldiers in Mussabo, 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of Luanda. Lusa also said that the crash appeared to have been caused by bad weather. The military officers were to attend a ceremony where rebels from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) were to hand in their weapons, the agency said. Boy, if I was a Large Cheese, I wouldn'tbe settin'foot in a helicopter.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 04:43 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Soldiers arrested nine Palestinians Sunday morning in the Nablus area of the West Bank including four women who had planned to carry out a suicide bombing, Israeli security officials say. The arrests are the latest in a several day sweep of the area by IDF forces, that has netted about 200 terror suspects, sources say. The women, in their early twenties and students at An Najah University in Nablus, were detained in the Rafidiyeh neighborhood of Nablus. They come from Jericho, Tulkarm and Nablus, the officials say. The women are believed to have planned to perpetrate at least one suicide bombing attack against Israelis. Yep. They're definitely running out of men willing to explode.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 03:35 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
For the past several days soldiers have conducted widespread operations in the West Bank to confiscate weapons and arrest suspected terrorists. A 24-year-old Palestinian man was killed in an exchange of gunfire with soldiers in Nablus. Two Palestinians were wounded in gun battles in Tulkarm. One fled and the other was taken to a hospital in Israel. Troops continued to operate in Nablus, including the Balata refugee camp, and entered Tulkarm, Kalkilya, and Bethlehem. They also operated in several villages. In Balata, security forces rounded up more than 1,000 male residents for questioning. They were bused to a nearby army base, where their identity papers were examined and they were later released.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said the latest IDF operations were aimed at forcing the Palestinian people to their knees. "It is as if they are saying to the world, we do not want an agreement," he told reporters in Ramallah. Well, no. They're just trying to make them not kill people. There's a difference.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 03:35 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Islamic terrorists "have Asia in their sights," the Pentagon's No. 2 official told defense ministers from the region Saturday in an effort to rally support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a regional security conference that Asia must take seriously the threat of Muslim militants who, he said, want to impose "a medieval, intolerant and tyrannical way of life." The Bush administration is concerned that Asian countries might perceive the threat as remote and become complacent. "While New York and Washington may be thousands of miles away, the terrorists have Asia in their sights as well," Wolfowitz said.
Touching on the Sept. 11 attacks in Washington and New York, Wolfowitz said, "It would be a mistake to think that we have seen either the last or the worst of such attacks. It would be a mistake to think that, in the future, they will strike only in the United States." They'll strike wherever they see an opportunity. If there aren't any opportunities, they'll work on building them. The only way to deal with the terror networks is to build a detailed order of battle â an organization chart â and then to kill every person on the chart. But it has to include the money men and the ideologues, and they are the ones who have to go first.
The desire to target Asia is particularly sad, because a mere 25 years ago all of them with the exception of Japan were poor. Since the formation of ASEAN and the advent of globalization, there's been one economic "miracle" after another. Those "miracles" â Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and now Thailand â are as great a threat to Islamism as the U.S.A. or Israel or Europe.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 03:34 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
U.S. and Filipino forces are getting closer to finding an American couple kidnapped a year ago by Muslim militants, the second in command at the Pentagon said Sunday. ``The trail isn't cold,'' said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Martin and Gracia Burnham, missionaries from Wichita, Kan., are being held by the Abu Sayyaf. About 1,000 U.S. troops are in the Philippines to provide training and other support to the Filipino military forces fighting the militants.
Wolfowitz arrived here Sunday to discuss the operation with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He is scheduled Monday to visit some of the troops on the southern island of Basalin. Wolfowitz said U.S. forces are giving the Filipino military special advice on how to locate the Burnhams and what to do once that happens. Green Berets are training Filipino troops in counterterrorism techniques. Other U.S. troops are providing transportation, engineering and additional support functions.
He also told reporters that his boss, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, is considering whether to allow American forces to accompany Filipino troops on patrols in their fight against Abu Sayyaf. Maybe the trail hasn't gotten cold, but this is a story that's gotten old and stale. Abu Sayyaf is a lot more a bunch of bandits than they are terrorists. Just find them and kill them and then devote time to Jemaah Islamiyah, where the real danger lies.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/02/2002 03:35 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.
