Four U.S. soldiers were wounded Saturday and two Afghan militia members were killed when they came under small arms fire during a reconnaissance mission in southeastern Afghanistan. The attack took place about 7 miles east of Khost in southeastern Afghanistan. The U.S. soldiers were evacuated to the main U.S. military base at Bagram, 30 miles north of the capital Kabul, for treatment. The injuries were not life-threatening. "Afghanistan and Coalition forces continue to conduct combat operations in Afghanistan to isolate and destroy al-Qaida and Taliban forces and to deny them sanctuary, the U.S. Central Command headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base,Fla.said in a statement. Looks like they found some...
''Our forces took fire from a walled compound as they approached the area that was the objective,'' said a spokesman. Hopefully the compound is now just a hole in the ground...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 07:57 am ||
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A hard-line court Saturday outlawed Iran's leading reform-minded opposition party - the Freedom Movement - and gave its leaders jail terms of up to 10 years and fines of more than $6,000. The Tehran Revolutionary Court also banned the party's leaders and members from any political activity for 10 years. "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble..."
Thirty-three party leaders received jail terms ranging from four months to 10 years, while eight others were ordered to pay fines of up to $6,250. Eleven were acquitted. The court also dissolved parties close to the Freedom Movement. Takes care of that problem, doesn't it?
The Freedom Movement leaders were convicted of ''acting against national security for the purpose of overthrowing the establishment ... having contacts with foreigners, including diplomats of foreign countries, propagating against the Islamic republic through public speeches, collecting classified information and insulting the authorities,'' IRNA reported. "Overthrowing the establishment"? Horrors! "Contacts with foreigners"? How depraved!
The verdicts, which can be appealed within 20 days, come months after about two dozen members of the party were tried behind closed doors. Yasss... No sense in having those unpleasant disruptions that can come with a trial in public.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 07:57 am ||
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Iran's supreme leader said Saturday that if the United States decided to attack his country it would "regret it". "The Americans know that if they choose military intervention this people will give them a response that will make them regret it," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, in a speech delivered to prayer leaders from around the country. He added the US has "opted for propaganda to fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran, because they have lost hope in economic and military methods". He's right. We're going to feel really bad after it's all over. Look how we're beating ourselves up over what we did to Japan and Germany, fifty years later...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 02:26 pm ||
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Attack? who said anything about attack? Why would we put any of our guys at risk when so many of their guys are already willing to get locked up and go to jail to oppose their own government. Its not like we dont know how to overthrow an Iranian government without getting dirty ourselves.
1979 GDP of Iran was roughly that of Spain, while most western countries would consider that awful, for islamic based countries its quite outstanding. Today, Iran has a GDP about that of Gaza. For those of you who dont know what its like in Gaza, its like any inner city area of any eastern seaboard american city, without the added atmosphere and charm that the heroin trade brings. Face it, for most of the worlds islamic populations the only way for an islamic person to survive well enough to have health and wealth and to be free enough to practice their religion is to live under christians and jews. Islam might be a good faith and religion, but its sorely lacking as a method of government.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
07/27/2002 17:24 Comments ||
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I don't think they really, truly, seriously expect us to attack them, but viewing with alarm might get some of the rubes fired up.
You don't have to climb a tree to get ripe fruit. You just need to get your basket and wait for it to fall...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2002 6:51 Comments ||
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The side issue here is what happens in the Straits of Hormuz when Iraq comes down and 3 CVN TFs steam up into the Gulf. Iran could make things somewhat dicey for the US with threats of interdicting the narrows or even mining contested areas of the Gulf.
That is if they really want to be stupid.
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
07/28/2002 8:15 Comments ||
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US authorities have invited six Iraqi opposition leaders, including the head of the main, Iran-based Shiite Muslim faction, to Washington for August 9 talks on the country's future. Also invited by the US State and Defense Departments are the chiefs of the two rival factions which control mainly Kurdish northern Iraq and leaders of the opposition in exile. Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, will be joined by Ahmad Chalabi and Al-Sharif Ali bin Hussein of the Iraqi National Congress, and Ayad Alawi of the Iraqi National Accord. The reported invitation follows the abrupt cancellation by exiled opposition members meeting in London on Friday of an expected announcement of a "provisional government", amid reports of splits in their ranks. Alright! Who's being the greedhead?
A new government in Iraq is being planned as an alternative to the regime of President Saddam Hussein, according to press reports, with speculation rife that the United States is planning military action against Baghdad as the next target in its "war on terror". I'd tentatively guess that they're putting together a "government of national unity" that we can recognize. It can then ask us for assistance in ridding the nation of Saddam and his cronies. But that's only a guess...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 02:31 pm ||
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The Chosun Shinbo, a pro North Korean daily run in Japan since 1955 and considered a party mouthpiece, reported Friday, that the new economic plan being implemented by Pyongyang was a "drastic measure" that differed from market economies. The newspaper said it was a plan to provide maximum benefits, while maintaining socialist principles. The paper said the essence of the action was the rightful implementation of the principle of distributing more to those who produce more and vice versa. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his... productivity?" Did Marx say that?
The Chosun said the price of goods were raised to market values, for instance rice, which was W0.08 per kilogram has been raised to W44; the government purchases rice from farmers at W40. The change has been made to reflect the cost of production, domestic demand and supply, and international prices. That's not a market economy, though. It's, ummm... something else.
Workers wages have also been raised accordingly; those in manufacturing have had their basic salary increased from W110 to W2,000, while miners now earn W6,000, as an incentive. Money! Money everywhere! And nothin' to spend it on...
It denied Western media reports that the moves were the signs of market economy introduction, saying it was North Korea's own specific plan. The paper quoted officials from the Price Setting Department, who said, "the people could now manage their own life style within the limits of their income. The reason the government adjusted the scope of benefits for workers was so that they could properly function within the socialistic distribution system." Oh. Well that explains it. (What'd he say?)
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 02:49 pm ||
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A hand grenade exploded early Saturday in a makeshift discotheque frequented by young Balkan immigrants in Linz, wounding 27 teenager, two seriously. The grenade exploded at about 3:20 a.m. at the X-Large Disco. Bits of grenade were found near the disc jockey's booth. The wounded â most ages 15 to 19 â were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment of light shrapnel wounds, and all but two were released. Police had no motive for the attack, and the Federal Criminal Bureau, Austria's equivalent of the FBI, was sending explosives experts to the scene. About 40 people were inside the disco at the time. Authorities said the disco and a small adjoining restaurant were popular hangouts for young Serbian and Croatian immigrants. Police said they had been called to the club several months ago to investigate reports that youths were fighting with swords there. Hand grenades are easily obtained by gangs and other criminals in Western Europe. Authorities say many of the grenades originate in the Balkans, left over from the wars that followed the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. You seldom see hand grenades in American discos. On the other hand, the Eurogun control are much more stringent than the ones in the USA. Maybe they should copy our grenade control laws?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 07:57 am ||
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A suspected terrorist planner linked to al-Qaida has been flown to the United States, where he is cooperating with the FBI, U.S. officials told NBC News. Officials said Friday that the man had admitted his involvement in a plot to bomb the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Singapore and could be called to testify against Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged with direct involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The man, Mohamed Mansour Jabarah, 20, of Ontario, was arrested in Oman earlier this year. Omani officials passed along information from Jabarah to U.S. officials, who then brought him to the United States to face probable terrorism charges. He was being detained Friday at a military base in the Northeast, where he was providing important information about Osama bin Ladenâs al-Qaida terrorist network, officials said. NBC News agreed to U.S. law enforcement officialsâ requests that it not disclose Jabarahâs exact location to protect his safety. Hmmm... Hadn't heard about this one...
Officials said Jabarah was known as ''Sammy'' and was the mastermind of the Singapore bombing plot. Jabarah allegedly helped make home videotapes of potential targets in Singapore, including the U.S. and Israeli embassies. The Singapore Home Affairs Ministry said this week that âSammyâ ordered members of the cell to buy 17 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer to load onto truck bombs. That is the material Timothy McVeigh used to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. U.S. and Singaporean security officials uncovered the plot in December. They discovered Sammyâs surveillance tape and arrested 15 men alleged to be part of Jemaah Islamiya. The officials said Jabarah had knowledge of al-Qaida terrorist plans drawn up since Sept. 11 and could be called on to testify at the coming trials of other suspected al-Qaida terrorists, explaining how the organization works. Among those they said Jabarah could testify against are Moussaoui; Jose Padilla, the former Chicago gang member who was arrested in May on suspicion of plotting to detonate a radioactive âdirtyâ bomb in the United States; and Richard Reid, the British airline passenger who was arrested in December after a trans-Atlantic flight on which he allegedly tried to set off bombs in his shoes. If his testimony's only on the mechanics of the organizations, he's not that great a catch. If it's because he knows something about their actual plans because of his position as a runner, that's a different matter — he could be very valuable without being one of the organization's Bigs.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 08:31 am ||
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As Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in India to urge restraint and dialogue, seven people were killed in attacks in disputed Kashmir Saturday and Pakistani guns shelled Indian positions along the cease-fire line. No one was killed in the Pakistani shelling, the heaviest in weeks. Police said the shelling focused on the area of Machil, about 80 miles north of Srinagar. The shelling is often covering fire for infiltrators...
A police spokesman said four civilians were killed and three wounded when unidentified attackers lobbed grenades at a crowded bus station in the town of Budgam, 24 miles southwest of Srinagar. These guys just live to fling grenades into crowds...
Indian soldiers killed two suspected Islamic snuffies in a gunbattle in Kotu Village.
A civilian was shot and killed in Magam town, 24 miles south of the capital. The man was suspected to be a police informer and may have been killed by Bad Guys.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 07:57 am ||
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Expressing profound concern about the whereabouts of her missing life partner of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed Ameer (chief) of Jamaat-ud-Dawat Pakistan, Umme Talha Friday threw a warning to the government saying, " if some thing odd happens to him (Hafiz) government would be responsible for it.' "Cuz we're not responsible for our own actions..."
She sounded this concern in a joint wordy and lengthy statement along with her son Hafiz Talha Saeed and son-in-law Hafiz Khalid Walid. The last named is head of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which Hafiz Saeed used to head. Again we see a terror machine being operated as a family business...
She has termed her husbands over two months illegal confinement as injustice and barbarism saying that President Musharraf and his family has to pay the price for this cruelty. Sounds like a threat, doesn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 09:41 am ||
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Al-Omer Mujahideen has severely condemned the arrest of brothers of Supreme Commander Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar as well as severe torture on his family members terming it as Indian terrorism. Spokesman of Al-Omer Mujahideen has warned Indian security forces to immediately stop the arrests and torture of Mujahideen leaders at this moment otherwise they would have to pay a heavy prize. Al-Omer Mujahideen spokesman said that arresting of innocent people under the dreaded POTA and Public Safety Act is a matter of routine for the police. The people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir are practically at the mercy of Indian forces and the police, he said. He pointed out that two members of Jamiat Ahle Hadith Maulana Shaukat Shah and Maulana Abdul Jabbar were accused of being associates of Mujahideen and arrested a day earlier. He urged upon human rights organisations to take urgent notice of this state of affairs and take effective measures for saving the people of Jammu and Kashmir from state terrorism unleashed against them through the Indian forces and police personnel. Pretty standard procedure in South Asia. A bit hard on the brothers, especially if they're not involved. Since the preachers are used as controllers, linking the jihadi organizations with the religious front organizations, their arrest doesn't really disturb me...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 11:02 am ||
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A Saudi man was beheaded Friday for killing another man in a land dispute, the Interior Ministry said. In a statement to the official Saudi Press Agency, the ministry said the dipute was over agricultural land but gave no other details. Both men had the same family name but the statement did not say if they were related. Friday's beheading raised to at least 27 the number of people who have been executed so far this year in Saudi Arabia. At least 81 people were beheaded last year. Clash of Civilizations? Takes two to clash, doesn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 07:57 am ||
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The United Nations Security Council put off until Monday its debate over an Arab-backed resolution demanding Israel withdraw from seven Palestinian-ruled cities occupied after a wave of suicide bombings last month. The council delayed the vote after the United States said the resolution must also condemn three Palestinian groups behind a suicide bombing campaign against Israel. The U.S. also said the resolution would need to include a demand for an improvement of the security situation as a precondition for any Israeli withdrawal. Lessee, here: the Israelis occupied the cities because they're crawling with crazed killers belonging to the organizations named, who carry out attacks on Israeli civilians. The reason the groups flourish is because the Paleostinian security forces don't lift a finger to stop them and in some cases jump right in and help with the slaughter. So the Paleostinian response is...
Palestinian U.N. observer Nasser al-Kidwa called the U.S. stance an "unreasonable" one that "would not help building a consensus in the council."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 07:57 am ||
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In retaliation of the Israeli assassination policy, which has reached scores of Palestinian activists and leaders, a Palestinian group has vowed to adopt a similar policy of targeting Israeli leaders. A hit list similar to that announced by the Israeli right wing government was also released. I missed that one...
Agency France Press referred to the group, ''The Popular Army Front-Return Battalions'', as a ''a new Palestinian group'', and said that the group is believed to affiliated with the Fateh Movement, the largest resistance group in Palestine. The tactic adopted by the group is a new Palestinian strategy aimed at implementing a tit-for-tat action, and was provoked by the killing of Hamas commander and the killing and wounding of hundreds of civilians in a deadly Israeli attack on Gaza last Monday. The Jordanian embassy website says that "The Popular Army Front-Brigades of the Return made itself known when the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada erupted 10 months ago, and has since claimed responsibility for at least three anti-Israeli attacks." That was almost exactly a year ago, when they published a similar "hit list."
The Palestinian group claimed Thursday's roadside shooting of an armed militant settler in the West Bank, according to a statement released in Beirut. The statement also said that it has a list comprised of "war criminals." "In response to the massacre of our people in Gaza ... we will take the law in our own hands and will not wait for any trial, nor statements nor denunciations since Israel is an artificial state essentially founded on terrorism and assassination," the group said. Looks like the group could be either trying to move up to the Big League or spewing the same bluster it burped up a year ago. If they've moved up, that would allow Yasser and crew to "disband" Tanzim or al-Aqsa and move their assets to a "different" organization, which'd be mighty magnanimous of them and still leave the snuffies in place and available.
It listed 20 senior Israeli officials, often without their first names, and warned that its commandos would hunt them down and kill them. AFP said that the list included Sharon, his predecessor Ehud Barak; Interior Minister Uzi Landau; the new chief of staff, Moshe Yaalon; his predecessor Shaul Mofaz; Shin Bet security chief Avi Dichter; General Gershon Yitzhak, commanding officer of the West Bank division; the director-general of the Foreign Ministry, Avi Gil; and Sharon's former bureau chief, Uri Shani; as well as several other senior army officers and prominent Israelis. As a matter of strategy, this would be a horribly stupid move for the Paleos to make. When somebody on the list is killed, my guess would be that the Israelis would actually go after Sheikh Yassin and the Hamas politburo, not to mention a considerable number of PA Bigs. Since they're all Too Important to the Movement to get killed, I suspect that this announcement is either bluster or a loose cannon operation.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 08:39 am ||
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A bomb exploded in a crowded marketplace in Indonesia's Maluku province Saturday, injuring 53 people. The 9 a.m. blast ripped through a market packed with shoppers in a Christian neighborhood of Ambon. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, and no one has been arrested. Christian neighborhood... 53 injured... No one arrested... Got it.
The explosion is the latest in a series of violent incidents that is testing the strength of a peace deal signed in February between the two communities. The truce had succeeded in stemming much of the fighting, but there have been occasional outbreaks of violence since then. ''The situation was very much improving and mutual trust between Muslims and Christians was building up,'' said Cornelius Bohm, a Christian pastor in Ambon. ''This is a terrible setback.'' That's why it occurred...
The attack came two days after Jafar Umar Thalib - the leader of Laskar Jihad, which has been blamed for fueling much of the fighting - was released from a Jakarta jail. He faces charges of inciting violence in the province by delivering a speech to thousands of his followers in March 26 calling for war. He also has called for them to reject a February peace deal meant to end the fighting between Muslims and Christians in Maluku. An attack on a Christian village took place soon after that speech. No one has been arrested in the April attack, and Christian leaders suspect that Muslim hardliners were behind it. "Those Christians, with their Cause and Effect! Obviously influenced by western thinking. We should kill them."
As a result of the April attack, the provincial government has declared an emergency and banned all foreigners - including reporters - from the island. Yep. That'll make the problem go away, won't it? Best way to deal with it...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 07:57 am ||
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These last two articles should be regarded together rather than separately. The Acef revolt implies that not all Indonesian Moslems are created equal, and that there are strong regional divergences which undermine the concept of Moslem solidarity, along with Indonesian unity. The second article shows how tenuous the Indonesian polity actually remains after a nominal 2 years of political peace and continuity. Practically speaking, as the distance from Java increases, the control of Jakarta decreases.
How the East Timorese precedent weighs in these other Indonesian situations is hard to say. Neither the Acef nor any other separatist movement in Indonesia has the political history of the Timorese occupation by the Indonesian military. But the entire edifice of the Indonesian polity on the nominal foundation of Dutch East Indies colonial rule is shaky at best, like most of the rest of the decolonialization nation states in Africa whose national statuses were conceived of in similar manners to the way Sukarno took advantage of Dutch incompetence and the advent of WW II.
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
07/28/2002 8:54 Comments ||
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Violence continues to escalate in troubled Aceh province, with at least 12 separatist rebels and one Indonesian soldier being killed in two separate clashes in the territory on Friday. Eight members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and one soldier were killed during a confrontation on Friday morning in Bireun district. Later in the day, four rebels were killed in another clash in Aceh Besar district. The incident in Aceh Besar occurred when GAM members tried to stop a group of soldiers who were planning to raid a rebel stronghold in Indrapuri subdistrict. Free Aceh Movement is reputed to be Islamist, but they've recently denied that and you never see them mentioned in the prayers for the success of jihadis in Mecca. They want to break Sumatra off from Indonesia. If that happens, the country will probably break into its component parts, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/27/2002 08:02 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.
