Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov says he wants to rename the 12 months of the year in honour of national heroes and symbols, including himself and his mother. "We must have a calendar with months named after national personalities," said the leader of the isolated and largely desert central Asian state, speaking before the annual People's Council. "And I offer to call the first month of the year Turkmenbashi," added Niyazov, who is known as Turkmenbashi, or Father of all Turkmen. That is downright touching, isn't it? I've been thinking of doing that for some time now, myself. My Mum was born in November, so henceforth that month will be known as Louise.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 06:26 pm ||
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Can I name one after my cat? Can March be Fluffy?
Anti-US Afghan mujahideen fired missiles on Khost Airport and killed three Afghan mercenaries supporting the occupying US forces and destroying one helicopter parked at the base. According to the reports reaching here the missiles hit a barrack at the base which was housing the local soldiers. Three of the local soldiers killed and some others wounded in the attack. Another missile hit a helicopter located at the base and destroyed it. If it happened at all, the perps are probably back in Quetta by now, congratulating each other on their heroism...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 09:15 am ||
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From Taliban-News.com:
Quetta: Mullah Muhammad Umar Hafidthullah Ta'alaa, Amir ul Haraakat ul Talibaan has issued new directives to the Taliban activists fighting against the occupying US forces in Afghanistan. He used to be Amir al-Moumeen. Terrible, coming down in the world like that. Seems the Talibs are now just another obscure jihadi group again...
According to the reports reaching here he has prioritised the US targets and has asked his followers to attack the targets that are in their priority list. He has also directed them to stop operations in some provinces, concentrate their strength in the target areas and fight valiantly to force the ouster of US troops from Afghanistan. And get those turbans on straight...
Mullah Umar has also urged upon his Pakistani supporters to refrain from crossing over the border to Afghanistan to support Taliban. âAt this time we do need any manpower,â Mullah Umar reportedly said while adding that âsecurity of Pakistani volunteers become an issue and creates more complications.â The targets on the [list] prioritized by the Taliban could not be ascertained. "Just stay out of our way, Paks. We'll be back in charge in a month..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 09:15 am ||
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An American soldier was in stable condition Thursday after being shot in the chest in a sniper attack the day before. U.S. soldiers, including both special forces and conventional troops, were on a reconnaissance patrol Wednesday evening near the Pakistani border when they were shot at. There was no information on who fired on the soldiers near the village of Lwara, in Paktika province about 90 miles south of Kabul. Whoever was behind the attack fled before U.S. troops returned fire. That's pretty much standard tactics: Get your shot off, then get the hell out before the AC130s arrive...
The wounded paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division was wearing a bulletproof vest, but the bullet entered near the armpit, where there is little protection. He was evacuated to Urgun and operated on by a surgical team. He was then moved to Bagram and will likely be evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. As much bad luck on his part as good shootin' on the Bad Guy's part...
It was the third day in a row that U.S. troops have opened fire or been fired upon while patrolling the country for Taliban or al-Qaida. In eastern Kunar province on Monday, soldiers killed two men who fired on them from a hilltop. On Tuesday, in the same area, soldiers killed four men in a passing vehicle. The soldiers said one man had attempted to fire an AK-47 at the troops but his weapon malfunctioned. "Hey, y'all! Look what happens when I do this! Ow."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 09:15 am ||
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If he was by a bullet from a sniper rifle, a vest probably wouldn't stop it. While Israel may have put a lot of effort in developing the most non-lethal sniper rifle possible, most other countries take the other tack.
The Afghan Government has said that 13 armed men killed in a gun battle with its forces near Kabul were high-ranking al-Qaeda members who had escaped from a prison in Kabul. The clash took place early on Wednesday at an isolated police post at Binizar, which guards a road running a few kilometres south of the city in Bagrami district. The men had apparently sawn through bars on a prison window and fled southwards in the early hours of the morning. The government says that 12 of the gunmen were Pakistani nationals and the thirteenth was from Kyrgyzstan. They obviously had every reason to be in somebody else's country...
The fighting began when they were stopped on the roads on the outskirts of the city by soldiers. The gunmen, reportedly armed with semi-automatic rifles, ... They got those at which stage of sawing through the bars?...
killed two men and moved into a nearby village, where there was more fighting. Never occurred to them to steal away quietly in the night and hitchhike back to Pakistan and Kyrgyzystan...
The Kabul garrison regrouped and launched another attack against the al-Qaeda fighters, a number of whom were armed with hand-grenades. That was the stage after they got the automatic weapons while sawing through the bars...
The battle lasted several hours and all 13 men were killed. It was only after further investigation by the government that it was able to confirm that the armed men were in fact al-Qaeda prisoners. So where'd they get the shootin' arns? Where'd they get the boom balls? For that matter, where'd they get the saw?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 08:49 pm ||
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AP News headline: ANALYSIS: Saddam may be using inspection moves to avert attack Really? Who'da thunkit? That's pretty deep analysis. I'm not sure I follow the logic. It's just too complicated for me...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 09:15 am ||
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Saddam Hussein warned Thursday that anyone who attacks Iraq will die "in disgraceful failure," as thousands of armed volunteers marched through Baghdad. Kinda like what happened to Iraq in the last Gulf War. He had thousands of armed "volunteers" then, too. Matter of fact, they were the first ones to surrender...
Speaking on the anniversary of the end of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war, Saddam made no direct mention of the U.S.-British demand for the return of U.N. arms inspectors to Iraq. ... since he's trying to ignore it.
The Iraqi leader did not mention America and Britain by name, but referred to them as the "forces of evil" â a phrase the Baghdad government frequently uses after U.S. and British air strikes in the no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq. "Forces of Evil"? That's not very original, Sammy.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 09:15 am ||
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Sammy is dyslectic. The actual text was : "The forces that will attack Iraq carry my coffin on their back.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has told regional government officials that he aims to thwart any U.S. invasion by avoiding open desert fighting and massing his military in major cities where civilian and American casualties would be highest, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said. In meetings in recent weeks, the U.S. officials said, Saddam has outlined a strategy that appears to center on drawing U.S. forces into Baghdad and other urban settings where his equipment and troops would not be as exposed to warplanes and high-tech weaponry. What makes him think that?
His planning appears to be driven partly by lessons from the Persian Gulf War â in which Iraqi tanks and other equipment were easily picked off in the open desert by U.S. aircraft â and by the significant erosion of Iraq's military capability since then. Y'mean they're no longer the Fourth Largest Army in the Worldâ¢?
Pentagon officials said it might not be necessary for U.S. troops to enter Baghdad and engage in street fighting. Rather, advances in precision-guided weapons could enable the United States to hit almost any important target by air. And if Saddam holes up in one of his many bunkers, they said, U.S. forces could choke off the city and wait him out. Good idea. He tried to refight WWI last time. This time we'll try a little siege warfare. Maybe the Greeks'll even sign on for this one...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 09:15 am ||
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Controversial pro-reform journalist Hashem Aghajari, who offended the powerful Shiite clergy, was arrested Thursday on a court order issued in Hamadan, IRNA said. Aghajari had angered the clergy in mid-June when he said Muslims "should not blindly" follow religious leaders and called for a "religious renewal" of Shiite Islam, in a speech delivered in the western city of Hamedan. He was freed provisionally after posting bail following a July 14 court hearing behind closed doors in Hamadan, but was later accused of "insulting the prophets", a serious charge for which the penalty is death. He thought he was insulting the ayatollahs...
He rejected this charge, saying the "judge was not able to show me one phrase of my speech that could be considered an insult to the prophet" of Islam, Mohammed. Aghajari's remarks placed the country's conservative and reformist currents at loggerheads â and he was criticized unexpectedly by President Mohammed Khatami in early July. Thereby continuing his pattern of caving to the turbans...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 11:42 am ||
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A newspaper was banned Thursday a week after converted from being a provincial weekly to a national daily, and its reformist MP publisher is to face trial, IRNA said. Ayene-Jonoub (Mirror of the South), published by Mohammad Dadfar, was formerly published once a week in the southern Bushehr province. It was launched nationwide as a daily on August 1. "The head of the newspaper is facing 14 charges that were not specified," an employee of Ayene-Jonoub said, requesting anonymity. The judge responsible for the case, Saeed Mortazavi, said one of the reasons for suspending the paper was the previous sentencing of Dadfar for "anti-regime propaganda" in Tehran's appeals court. Legal sources said Dadfar had been sentenced to three months in prison for that offense. Dadfar, from the southern coastal city of Bushehr, is a member of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, which holds a majority in parliament and is close to President Mohammed Khatami. They keep trying to whack 'em as soon as they spring up, but they keep springing up...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 11:46 am ||
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Authorities have banned women, as well as youth under the age of 25, from smoking the Middle Eastern water pipe, or narguileh, in Tehran's restaurants and cafes, owners said Thursday. "The police have asked us to hang a notice to inform our clients of the ban", a restaurant owner in Darakeh, a northern suburb of Tehran said. The open air Kebab restaurants on the hills of Darakeh, and other areas in north Tehran, attract thousands of young people every evening, who come to dine, smoke a narguileh while sitting on low rug-covered mattresses, and enjoy the fresh mountain air. The guys over 25 aren't allowed to smile while they're doing it, either. Come to think of it, you should probably be at least 40 before you're allowed to indulge. Maybe 55...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 11:48 am ||
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The family lawyer of Dariush and Parvaneh Foruhar, a dissident Iranian couple murdered in 1998 by rogue intelligence ministry agents, has been arrested. Nasser Zarafshan had been sentenced to five years in prison and 50 lashes on charges of revealing state secrets and on weapons and alcohol offences, after being prosecuted by a military court earlier this year. Yasss... We must protect the dirty little secrets of dirty little dictatorships, especially those run by dirty little clerics...
Secular opposition leader Dariush Foruhar and his wife were stabbed to death in their Tehran apartment in 1998. Three other Iranian writers who were campaigning for freedom of expression were likewise murdered in 1998. The intelligence ministry admitted that some rogue agents were implicated in the murders, but said no top officials were aware of the plot. No, no. Certainly not. Of course not. Rogue agents, definitely. Probably influenced by foreigners...
According to the official version of events, the alleged mastermind of the crimes, a senior intelligence official named Saiid Emami, committed suicide in prison in June 1999 by drinking a bottle of hair remover. Rogue agents often do things like that. Sometimes they go for Drano, too. And sometimes they commit suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head. With a rifle.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 11:56 am ||
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The Islamic republic regime is increasing the Security forces stationed in the Iranian capital in an effort to avoid a popular rebellion in the future. The regime is intending to transfer most of the Bassidj divisions located in the center of Iran to Tehran following the last demonstrations which showed the degree of popular exasperation and their wilingness to come into the streets at each occasion. In addition, more of the Lebanese Hezbollah members will be transferred to Iran in the next days and will join the regime's Elite forces. That move should peel off another few percentage points from the regime's support and glue them firmly to the opposition's side. Vigilante groups in Iran also go by the name Hezbollah, but if we're not mixing terminology and they are talking about imported Arabs, that's all they need. The Medes and the Persians are just gonna love having uncultured Arab bully-boys strutting around and beating people up. They're just gonna love it...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 12:10 pm ||
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An Italian coalition lawmaker has called for a crackdown on mosques and Arab visitors in Italy. Federico Bricolo, the No. 2 whip in the Chamber of Deputies for the anti-immigrant Northern League party, asked Italy's interior minister on Wednesday to "close down all those Islamic centers and those mosques frequented by possible supporters of terrorism." Whatever for? Just because they're centers of subversive activity and instigation of racial hatred?
"League: 'Let's kick out the Arabs from Italy,"' was how Il Giornale, a Milan daily, headlined its report on Bricolo's appeal for a reduction in Italian entry visas for Arab citizens. According to AP, Bricolo justified his position Wednesday in a statement: "You don't host the enemy and you don't help him." Well, maybe you don't...
Bricoloâs call came after a secret services report presented to Parliament said that Italy could be a target of an attack because of Rome's support for the US-led war against al-Qaeda. "Enough of this tolerance for the intolerant. Arabs out of our country," Bricolo said. But... But... You have to be tolerant of the intolerant, because, ummm... they say so.
Quickly denouncing Bricolo's stand was another coalition party member, Luca Volonte', who made clear on state radio Thursday that the appeal was unacceptable. "Not even during the First Crusades were Arab merchants kicked out of the Veneto," region of northeast Italy, where the League is now powerful, Il Giornale quoted Volonte' as saying in other comments. So he's in favor of tolerating the intolerant? Well, at least he's honest about it...
A former Italian ambassador, Mario Scialoja, who converted from Christianity to Islam, and who is an Italian representative of an international Muslim group, said Bricolo "denotes a culture crudeness unworthy of an Italian parliamentarian." Obviously, having gone over to the enemy converted, he's an impartial observer.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 06:07 pm ||
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Three persons, whom officials suspected could be involved in the Murree terrorist attack, blew themselves up with grenades in an Azad Jammu and Kashmir village on Tuesday after being intercepted by the locals and the police because of their "suspicious movements." The three persons, who were stated to be in late twenties or early thirties, were walking on the road near a small village, Khapadar, located along the River Jhelum. Khapadar faces the town of Phagwari in Murree hills on the other side of the river. A suspension bridge over the river links the two sides with each other. The village has a small police post, where four constables and a head constable are posted. So three suspicious characters in the area of the attack, trying to find their way. Locals comes up and say something on the order of "Y'ain't from around these here parts, are yew?"...
According to DIG, Muzafarabad police, Tahir Qayyum, the villagers of Khabader saw the three in suspicious condition and surrounded them. The villagers quoted the terrorists as saying that they had hand-grenades with them and that they had already accomplished an operation in Murree Christian School (MCS) and if they were hindered they will kill them also. The villagers approached a nearby police checkpoint and narrowed their circle around the suspects. On sensing the danger, the three fastened the grenades on their bodies and blew themselves up, the DIG said. Two of them were swept away by the river while the body of the third was recovered by a local. That was pretty dramatic. They really didn't want to talk to the coppers. And Muzafarabad is where the jihadi training camps are. Y'don't suppose...
The body of the third suspect was brought to Dhirkot hospital at 9pm and a source at the hospital told this correspondent that the clean-shaven man was wearing a shirt, tracksuit pyjamas and joggers, but his face had been badly mutilated. Senior police officials were of the view that these men could have connection with the terrorist attack on the Christian school in Murree, but avoided giving any statement without completing the investigations. They said they did, but this being Pakland they coulda been lying. Maybe they were just depressed, and decided to depart this vale of tears, and were just out looking for a good place to do it...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 09:16 am ||
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Islamabad police have taken into custody five persons - one of them a suspected Al Qaeda member - in connection with Monday's terrorist attack on Murree Christian School which left six persons dead and four others injured. Iftikhar Ahmed, a spokesman for Interior Ministry, when contacted, disclosed that the Rawalpindi police have taken five persons into custody from Pirwadhi in connection with the missionary school attack and they are being questioned. The spokesman said: "None of the arrested persons are Arab nationals. However, one of them is a suspected Al Qaeda member." A joint army and police team aided by sniffer dogs and helicopters continued combing the green woods of Murree Hills on Tuesday to track down the terrorists who disappeared after the attack on the school. The spokesman said they had not asked any foreign agency to help the local law enforcement agencies in the case so far and added that the killing of three "terrorists" in an AJK village has apparently no link with Monday's terrorist attack in Murree. They just said they did, then committed suicide to avoid having to face being proven liars...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 09:16 am ||
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Call It Diplomacy, But It's Hypocrisy on Saudi Arabia
The devil's bargain the al-Saud family has made is to allow Islamic fundamentalists to focus their vitriol on the United States and Israel as long as they do not try to depose the royal family. In a sense, Washington has gone along with that bargain for its own reasons. The Saudis are hardly models of democracy, but as long as they can keep their nation out of the hands of radical Islamists - and control the oil supply they sit on - the United States will tolerate distasteful, even hostile behavior. So be it, at least for now. Creative hypocrisy is a tool of diplomacy, after all, and morality is about as welcome in foreign policy as a preacher in a bordello. But someday the contradictions may become unsustainable. Even Newsday sees it? When did they become a "right-wing rag"? Call it hypocrisy for now, but everything comes in its own time. Once the table's been set, we can begin the feast...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 09:16 am ||
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The Saudi press has launched a vitriolic attack on what it describes as Christian fundamentalism in the United States. Pass the snakes, Edgar. This should be good...
One newspaper, al-Watan, said Christian fundamentalism was no less dangerous to international peace and security than other forms of religious extremism. Damn' Christians are blowing up all over the place, ain't they?
The newspapers were responding to reports of a Pentagon briefing during which Saudi Arabia was described as the kernel of evil in the Middle East. Despite the official statements from Washington and Riyadh pretending that relations between the two countries are as good as ever, the anger in the Saudi press reflects a growing unease in Saudi Arabia about the way the kingdom has been portrayed in the United States since the attacks in September last year. You mean as intolerant, back-stabbing, perfidious bankrollers of international terrorism? Or as the Learned Elders of Islam, pushing an agenda of world domination and the subversion of entire civilizations?
The prime suspect, Osama Bin Laden, is a Saudi dissident, and so were most of the hijackers. Lest we forget...
One newspaper, Watani, said the international media had concentrated only on Muslim fundamentalism, forgetting that Christian fundamentalism was just as dangerous. Hmmm... Never thought of that... I see the light! The Dark Ages are over! Lessee, there are Christian nut cases in Northern Ireland, and in Uganda/Sudan, and in... ummmm...
The paper said the influence of Christian extremists in America had increased since the attacks on New York and the Pentagon last year. Oh, yeah. That's right. They're crawlin' all over the USA. Can't go to the bathroom anymore without some Lutheran taking a shot at you. And those Episcopalian car bombs are intolerable. We won't even talk about those United Methodists...
The paper said Christian fundamentalism in the US was particularly dangerous because it was capable of influencing American foreign policy to further its own interests which, the paper added, were identical with Israeli interests in the Middle East. That's correct. We do base our policies too much on Christian principles. This "turn the other cheek" thing â to me, that's a clear case of our national policy being hijacked taken over by Christians. And I want it to stop now, dammit!
Another newspaper, The Saudi Gazette, said Christian fundamentalists in the US were raising what it described as "dust of hatred" about Saudi Arabia, and it called on President Bush to rein in elements whose agenda was to initiate a clash of civilizations. Those daggone Presbyterians (or however the hell you spell it) have been yearning for a clash for years now. We gotta rein 'em in, just like the Soddies are reining in the wahhabis...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 06:55 pm ||
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In Gaza, Israeli tanks and armored vehicles rumbled deeper into Beit Lahia for a second night in a row, firing machine guns and at least one shell to knock out the electric transformer. Troops were going house-to-house, conducting searches, said Beit Lahiya mayor Mohammed al-Masri. There were no reports of injuries; an incursion of more than two hours in the same area early Wednesday left one Palestinian policemen dead. Hundreds of children and teenagers threw stones at four Israeli tanks blocking the main road. Soldiers fired from a tank-mounted machine gun to drive back the crowd, killing a 17-year-old boy with a shot to the head and wounding four youngsters. "Mahmoud, the tanks are coming!"
"Well, send the kiddies out to throw things. Maybe one of them will get killed."
"Good idea."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 09:16 am ||
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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, is holding talks with the central committee of his Fatah movement to decide what to do following his rejection of Israel's latest offer on security. As the BBC reports, Israel had offered to withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip and Bethelem in return for an end to attacks on Israeli targets. The Palestinians are accusing Israel of imposing new conditions they cannot implement. That sounds like an admission they can't stop the attacks. Not won't, but can't. It's a confession of ineffectiveness. Since the original idea was for the PA to police themselves, the PA itself is a failure. Dump it.
Cabinet secretary Ahmed Rahman told the BBC Israel was asking the Palestinians to begin making arrests of militants and collecting weapons before it would pull back its own forces from Gaza. That, he said, was impossible — it would provoke civil war. As opposed to the current incivil war...
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08/08/2002 06:23 pm ||
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A delegation from the Palestinian Authority has ended the first high level talks with Bush administration officials since President George W Bush called for the removal of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The longer you talk about it, the more time passes before you actually have to do something...
The meetings focused on the humanitarian plight of the Palestinian people and a new American security plan. After meetings at the White House with the President's National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice and the Secretary of State Colin Powell, Palestinian spokesman Saeb Erakat said the Palestinians would not accept reforms forced upon them. "The Palestinian reform is Palestinian reform. It's done for Palestinian interests, by Palestinian will and it's not being dictated by anybody," he said. "Least of all by a bunch of Paleostinians. We, the Authorities, will decide what reforms are needed and implements them if we get the chance. Y'know, if we're not to busy doing important stuff, stuff you wouldn't understand."
Mr Powell says the talks will continue for another two days. "We're anxious to get some specific action started especially with respect to security," Mr Powell said. To quote a cross-eyed hooker in Danang: "Nebbah hoppen, GI!"
In a sign of some progress, the CIA Chief George Tenet is expected to meet with the Palestinian Security Minister in the next few days. FoxNews quoted Erekat as saying that without Yasser there would be chaos. I'm trying to figure what there is with Yasser.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/08/2002 06:37 pm ||
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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.
