Ghulam Sakhi Bashi, deputy head of Dostum's 70th division, was shot on Thursday night during his son's wedding ceremony in Charbolak, about 30 kilometres to the west of Mazar, they said. "He had no personal enemies and we don't know why these gunmen killed him," Bashi's son, Mohammad Zahir, told Reuters. An Afghan with no personal enemies? The man musta been a saint...
However, many residents say the killing could have been linked to a continuing feud between supporters of Dostum and those of Tajik commander Usted Atta for control of the north. They said Ghulam had been considering changing sides and joining Atta, who has been gradually expanding his influence in the area this year and now largely controls Mazar. That's make him some enemies right there...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 07:37 am ||
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The 70th Division (aka The Lucky) will never be the same.
The United States gave Iraq vital battle-planning help during its war with Iran as part of a secret program under President Ronald Reagan, even though U.S. intelligence agencies knew the Iraqis would unleash chemical weapons, The New York Times reported on its Web site on Saturday. The highly classified covert program involved more than 60 officers of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency who provided detailed information on Iranian military deployments, tactical planning for battles, plans for air strikes and bomb-damage assessments for Iraq. The Times said it based its report on comments by senior U.S. military officers with direct knowledge of the program, most of whom agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. If it was highly classified, why are they reporting it? Oh, hell. Why bother asking?
In the Iran-Iraq War, the Iraqis were perceived as presenting the lesser of two evils. Iran had the advantage of population and of industrial base — Sammy never has been much on real economic development, even when it involves guns and ammunition, and the gains under the Shah hadn't yet been dissipated by the ayatollahs. We had just months before gone through the Iran hostage crisis, so had we supported Iran, even though Sammy was clearly the aggressor, the American public would have spent a lot of time asking each other "Wot the hell is this?" So at that time, in under those circumstances, a moderate amount of discreet support to Iraq made sense. If the same circumstances were in force twenty years later, it would still make sense. The Times article is a cheap shot.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 07:45 am ||
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Not only a cheap shot, but old news as well. It was pretty well understood DURING the war, and reported in several places, that we were providing Iraq with photo and satellite intelligence.
My question is, who are the "senior U.S. military officers" yapping to the Times? Is this some more "wolf meat" for Saddam? Or for the Yurp-peons?
Regards,
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/18/2002 14:42 Comments ||
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sort of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"?
Posted by: John H ||
08/19/2002 8:37 Comments ||
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If it only could have lasted for another 30 years.
A 10-year-old boy was killed Sunday in the Hamadan region of western Iran when a parcel bomb exploded. The parcel exploded in front of a house in the Ansar al-Emam village, near the city of Hamadan. The child was killed instantly and two other boys injured. Police are investigating the origins of the explosion.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 08:51 am ||
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President Mohammad Khatami said on Saturday that Iran is pursuing a policy of detente, peace, dialogue based on mutual respect and non-intervention in others' internal affairs. Ummm... With whom?
Khatami told Iran's cultural attaches abroad that the prerequisites for promoting Islam and the revolution, so that they would serve as a model for other countries, are scientific and technological progress, overcoming backwardness and building a democratic working relations among various sections of the government. He said, "Otherwise, our slogans would have a negative result." But didn't Iran not used to be backward? Didn't Iran at one time have a GDP as high as some European countries? And wasn't it growing? But then the ayatollahs... Oh. I forgot.
The president said democracy should turn into a global value and spirituality should be incorporated in dialogue among civilizations. He said the two issues (democracy and spirituality) are the backbone of the future. So put on your turban and vote...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 08:55 am ||
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Ah, spiritual democracy! Gimme that good old-time religion...like in the 7th century
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/18/2002 10:12 Comments ||
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Well I tried to read the Koran
Like some macho Muslim moron
But it's just too bloomin' borin'
It's not good enough for me.
Give me that old time religion...
Posted by: Kathy K ||
08/18/2002 13:50 Comments ||
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Kathy:
Yup. The Koran is boring. The climax is when the so-called "prophet" destroys freedom of religion in Mecca. Some hero. You can find more noble story telling in your local library.
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God ||
08/18/2002 20:40 Comments ||
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Three Iranians arrested and charged with kidnapping a Canadian national in Bangkok are also believed to be involved in a fake passport racket, Thai police said Sunday. Iranian nationals Farhad Mohammadi, 31, Farhad Ali Nejad, 27 and Madhi Mohammadi, 29, were arrested Saturday after a Canadian businessman told police he had been abducted by the men. "They are members of a fake passport gang. They are producing fake passports for people to travel with to third countries like Japan and in Europe," police Colonel Thitirach Nonghanpitak told AFP. "The three were charged with kidnapping and police are working on whether to charge them for producing fake passports." Just a bunch of footloose Iranians, in Sex City, turning out fake documents and kidnapping people. They sound a pleasant lot...
Canadian Joseph Mansouri told police the three men held him against his will after they lured him to a karaoke bar where they beat and gagged him. And hanging out in beer joints, too! What will the ayatollahs back home think?
They then demanded he pay his own 25,000-dollar ransom and told him they were holding his wife Sarah Baandish and his brother Shahrok. Mansouri told police he had already paid 18,000 dollars to the gang, who escorted him to a bank on two occasions, but he managed to escape when they took him a third time to make the final withdrawal. Thereby avoiding having his throat slit and his body dumped in a canal.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 08:59 am ||
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Throat slit? They must not have been in Thailand long enough to learn the preferred method of stabbing 50 or so times and then dumping in the canal. I'm shocked, shocked I say! These Iranians are obviously not civilized enough to observe the cultural norms in foreign countries.
Posted by: Kathy K ||
08/18/2002 13:43 Comments ||
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Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir issued an extraordinary decree Sunday extending the house arrest of his former Islamist right-hand man Hassan al-Turabi, after Constitutional Court judges bickered over the legality of his detention. But more than 20 lawyers drawn from a whole range of opposition groups immediately questioned the consitutionality of Beshir's decree and said they were considering a formal challenge. Confusion had reigned over Turabi's fate after judge Ali Yahia told journalists Saturday that the Consitutional Court had ordered his release, only to be contradicted by the court's chairman Jalal Ali Lutfi later in the day. Long considered the power behind Khartoum's Islamist-backed military regime, Turabi was detained and placed under house arrest after falling out with the president in 2001. I think Omar might have decided that the Soddies' idea of world Islamic conquest might be psychoceramic, which led to dumping Turabi. Islamists are arrogant sorts, and it probably didn't help to have him reminding Omar who was the power behind the throne. The nice thing about being a dictator is that you can dictate.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 09:07 am ||
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Uganda has extended its military operation against rebels based in southern Sudan for another month to Sept. 15. Uganda sent troops into southern Sudan in March with the agreement of the Sudanese government to root out rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army in what the army predicted would be a rapid exercise. So much for that idea...
But "Operation Iron Fist" has been renewed every month since then as the rebels moved back into northern Uganda and attacked refugee camps, schools and government posts. Since the beginning of the month, the LRA rebels have been carrying out almost daily raids in which they abduct young people to serve in their ranks. The rebels, whose elusive chief Joseph Kony is a nut once claimed to be a spirit medium, have been fighting the government of President Yoweri Museveni since 1987, a year after he took power, putting an end to the political control of Uganda by northerners, mainly from the Acholi tribe. Just get it over with and kill them, for cat's sake!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 09:27 am ||
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The president of a counterterrorism consulting firm has been charged with possessing 2,352 unregistered small military missiles worth $54 million, according to court documents. David Hudak, a Canadian national and president of High Energy Access Tools, an anti-terrorism and police training services company, was arrested Thursday, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court Friday. Frank Fish, director of security for HEAT, said after the arrest that the company had believed it was licensed to have appropriate equipment to train U.S. allies and export them to allied nations, but later found out the permit was not filed. He did not specifically mention the missiles. Fish also said the company invited agencies to inspect the Roswell and Tinnie sites because HEAT wanted to be sure it was compliant. "We've been open to every federal agency that could have anything to do with anything about what we do for a living, from the FBI, ATF, Department of State, everybody," Fish told the Roswell Daily Record. "We contacted everybody, saying please come on down." So they thought they were licensed, forgot to file an appropriate form, and the Feds jumped on them. It sounds like a non-story...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 07:28 am ||
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Police used tear gas to break up a crowd of more than 2,000 youths who ran through Ain el-Hilweh Cincinnati's downtown Black Family Reunion festival Saturday night shooting and grenading each other starting fights and overturning tables. The fighting started as the festival was letting out around 10 p.m. at Sawyer Point Park along the Ohio River. Smaller groups of 10 to 150 thugs youths, mostly 16- to 18-year-olds, moved from the park into Fountain Square in the downtown center. They continued fighting and tipped trash cans and newspaper racks. Nice family. They should get together more often...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 07:54 am ||
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How else do you expectthem to respond to repression from The Man�
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/18/2002 10:19 Comments ||
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That easy for you to say aloha man you dont be oppressed
Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was slain by an Arab after he tried to escape from kidnappers who seized him eight days earlier, police said Sunday. Two investigators said the information was gleaned from three men who led police in May to a body that was identified by DNA tests as Pearl. The three â Naeem Bukhari, Fazal Karim and Zubair Chishti â have not been charged in the Pearl case and Pakistani authorities have not even acknowledged publicly that they are in custody. They were arrested as the trial of four other alleged kidnappers was under way. Maybe they should be put on trial, too? Or aren't the coppers done hitting them yet?
Police said that on the sixth day of his captivity, Pearl tried to escape as he was being led to the toilet. However, he was seized by Karim and Chishti, who beat him and shot him in the leg. The struggle made so much noise that students at a nearby Islamic school ran out onto the roof to see what was happening, police said. But it was only some foreigner being beaten up, so they went back inside...
A day after the escape attempt, police said, Bukhari told his fellow kidnappers that they had to kill Pearl. The kidnappers waited a day while they deliberated issuing a ransom demand. On the ninth day of the kidnapping, three Arabs, whom the suspects believed to have been Yemenis, were brought to the hideout. The two officers said the Arabs were said to have been associates of Ramzi Yousef â the imprisoned mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Small world, ain't it?
Police said the kidnappers began asking Pearl a series of questions about his religion and his background as one of the Arabs filmed it with a video camera. Suddenly, Karim seized Pearl's hands and one of the Arabs slit his throat. That's because snuff videos are preferred viewing among the turban and automatic weapons set...
The actual murder was supposed to have been recorded but "the cameraman lost his nerve," one of the policemen said. Too bad for them. Think of all the barely literate Islamoteens they could have recruited with all that blood spurting...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 07:17 am ||
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So nice to see that the moral teachings of Islam made such an impression on the students.
Posted by: Joe ||
08/19/2002 7:40 Comments ||
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A woman who accused four men of raping her as tribal punishment is married to one of her alleged attackers, a defense witness said yesterday in testimony that could exonerate the accused if the court accepts it. The special prosecutor said the witness was lying to protect his son, who is accused of sodomizing the victim's brother. Truth is not an Islamic concept, is it?
The witness, Ghulam Hussain, told a court in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan that he was present the night of June 22 when a cleric formalized a marriage contract between the 30-year-old woman and Abdul Khaliq, accused in the rape. However, Hussain said, the cleric did not sign marriage documents. "Yeah, I was there. I saw the whole thing. Trust me on this. Why would I lie?"
The woman, whose family belongs to the Gujar tribe, testified this month that Khaliq and three other men dragged her into a hut and raped her. She testified that the rape was ordered by the council of a higher-class tribe, the Mastois, to shame her family after tribal members accused her brother of having sex with one of their women. The trial seems to have three separate rings, lions, tigers, elephants, jugglers, clowns...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 07:17 am ||
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Interior Minister Lt-Gen Moinuddin Haider (retired) has reiterated the government's resolve to take stern and across-the-board action against elements involved in terrorist activities. "Culprits are nabbed and apprehended on the basis of sound information and concrete evidence," he maintained. He regretted that Islam, a religion of peace, love and tolerance was being wrongly projected and misunderstood by some quarters. Dammit! There goes another keyboard...
Haider, speaking to a large number of scholars on the occasion, emphasized the need for restoring and reviving the true spirit of Islam among youth, adding that the teachings of Imam Ahmed Raza Barelvi should also be promoted at all levels. Reminding the audience that Ahmad Raza Barelvi was equally competent in worldly teachings and had solid contribution in the field of mathematics, physics and so forth, he said that: "this further supplements the government's efforts to include different subjects along with religious instructions in the curriculum of religious schools scattered across the country." That'll never work. If you go giving them hard skills, then why would they want to be cannon fodder?
The minister said he had been constantly assuring the ulema that not a minute change was being made in the courses related to religious injunctions offered at the madressahs. "Our main intention is to help these children avail equal opportunities to learn different subjects and vocations, including computers education," he added. The minister, while negating any difference of opinion among the government and a majority of religious scholars regarding modifications in the curriculum of madressahs, said the changes were being introduced after taking all the concerned sections into confidence. It's just that some of the "concerned parties" don't want to see any change, of any sort, 'cuz they're happy turning out large numbers of cannon fodder.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 08:09 am ||
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A Christian missionary school where six local people were killed in a suspected militant attack early this month will close for at least a year. Barry Lock, boarding manager at the Murree Christian School, said some families with children at the Protestant institution had already decided to leave Pakistan for security reasons. He means self-preservation...
"The school board has decided to go into mothballs for a year and a decision will be made on May 3 regarding reopening, possibly next August," Mr Lock told Reuters by telephone. "The school is looking at relocating for a year for high school students in a country in the region in which they feel comfortable." They're thinking of going someplace more stable. Like Afghanistan.
Mr Lock said the school's 146 students from various countries, including the United States, Britain, Canada, Germany and New Zealand, would benefit from studying together in the next academic year. "There are two reasons (for considering relocation) — to help them get through exams, and the advice is that after this attack and the trauma it would be very valuable if older kids could be together for the coming year." They just don't want to be shot up and grenaded. Maybe they should look for someplace where they're not surrounded by psychotic xenophobes?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 08:15 am ||
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More details of a naval team's Thursday night attack on the Faqirwali police station surfaced on Saturday. According to sources, the sailors kept the police station under their control for several hours. During their 'sojourn' they also seized the police wireless system besides disconnecting the telephone. One of the sailors, identified as Bashir, beat detained villagers Naseer and Imran and their paternal uncle Saleem with fists and kicks. Another official thrashed Shafique. Cheese! That's pretty drastic! Why'd they do that?
The navy men had taken the action in retaliation. Some villagers had beaten a navy team on a dispute of water turn. Musta thought they were infidels or something...
On the report of a senior Navy official, the Faqirwali police arrested 36 villagers. On Thursday night, Navymen from Bahawalpur reached Faqirwali and sought custody of arrested villagers. When the SHO concerned turned down their demand, they allegedly thrashed policemen present there besides the villagers. Well, that makes sense. As good Muslims, they needed their revenge. When the coppers stood in their way, what else could they do but thrash them and trash their offices?
As local newsmen learnt about the attack on Friday, some officials of the district administration tried to persuade them not to file the story. That's because nobody really wants to look stupid.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 08:43 am ||
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Israel's defense minister said Sunday he intends to extend a troop withdrawal plan in the Gaza Strip to areas in the West Bank to help ease hardships for Palestinians and pave the way toward a cease-fire. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told reporters he hoped to expand a plan under which Israel would pull troops back from the edges of Palestinian cities in the Gaza Strip once violence ebbed and Palestinian security forces took control. "I think the issue of Gaza-first, which I initiated, will include not only Gaza but also other places," Ben-Eliezer told reporters at a meeting with Catherine Bertini, a U.N. humanitarian envoy. The Palestinian cabinet gave preliminary approval on August 7 to the Gaza-first plan to ease Israel's military clampdown. But Palestinian and Israeli officials who later met to discuss the proposal failed to reach any agreement amid Palestinian demands for Israeli troop withdrawals from West Bank cities reoccupied in June after a spate of suicide bombings. "The main idea is to achieve a cease-fire and for tensions and all the violence to decrease," Ben-Eliezer said about his proposal. The Paleostinian cabinet give preliminary approval on August 7th and has since been sitting on it and arguing for more. In typical fashion, the Israelis are actually listening to the arguments, rather than standing their ground. If the Paleos actually wanted to "achieve a cease-fire and for tensions and all the violence to decrease" they'd accept the Gaza First plan and then negotiate from that point as it produced results. I predict that if it's ever implemented, there won't be any observable results — it's nothing but a negotiating ploy to get more concessions without giving anything in return. Pfui.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 07:16 am ||
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Has anyone told the Chermans that 1st Inf. is being replaced by Golani?
Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron chafed against the Israeli curfew reimposed Saturday. Palestinian residents of Hebron said the curfew was not enforced for a week. But Saturday morning, as residents shopped, visited or strolled the streets, the curfew suddenly intruded again. Just popped up for no reason, huh?
Witnesses in Hebron said Israeli troops rounded up several dozen Palestinians as shopkeepers and vegetable vendors remained open and people refused to return to homes where they have been confined virtually continuously since Israeli-Palestinian violence erupted in September 2000. Israeli military sources said a few people were detained briefly for violating the curfew. Israel said its troops imposed curfews on Hebron and six other West Bank Palestinian towns and cities to stop militants from entering Israel and launching attacks, including suicide bombings. That'd be a pretty good reason...
Palestinians trapped in their homes for days at a time complain of frustration and boredom and accuse Israel of collective punishment, while the measures have devastated the Palestinian economy. Maybe they should quit bombing and killing people?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 07:16 am ||
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Islamist groups clashed in Ain El-Hilweh refugee camp on Sunday, camp sources said, in the latest incident since skirmishes last week killed three fighters. Sources said the clash started when fighters of the Islamist Dunniyeh group fired machine guns and hurled hand grenades at members of Usbat al-Ansar, a group suspected to maintain links to the al Qaeda network. According to Reuters, no one was killed or injured in the clash. Sources said fire was exchanged for about 15 minutes before fighters dispersed. Tension has been high at the camp since last month, when Osbat al-Ansar fought with Fatah and other Palestinian factions over their role in turning over a militant wanted by Lebanon. When all the participants wear black hats turbans, it's kind of fun to just sit back and watch. I'm really disappointed there weren't any deaders...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 07:23 am ||
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The former treasurer of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Jaweed al-Ghussein has accused Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of massive corruption in remarks published in the Israeli press. "I discovered how he took money given to the Palestinian people by donor countries and put it in his own account," Ghussein, 71, told the best-selling Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot. This comes as a surprise? Only because it's from the horse's mouth...
Yediot said Ghussein, interviewed in London where he now lives, personally deposited half a billion dollars in secret bank accounts for the Palestinian leader. The daily said Ghussein had transferred between 7.5 and 8.0 million dollars each month from Palestinian public funds to Arafat's personal account. "There was never any clear demarcation between the tasks of the heads of PLO and the Palestinian Authority, so questions about the responsibility for good management went unanswered," he was quoted as saying. Arafat is the leader of both organisations. "L'etat c'est moi. And the dough, too..."
"I constantly and vainly called for reforms and transparency and when I finally quit in 1996, I warned donor countries of the situation, because I could not simply carry on being held responsible for these disappearances of money," he said. But, what the hell? It's only money, and it's in a good cause, right?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 09:39 am ||
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Hmmmm.... lookin like my Miscsuha account maybe peaked at..... trust me, no will audit Suah! Is it true that the local al aqua water brigade war cry is Suha! Suha! Suha!
Posted by: A Anderson ||
08/17/2004 18:53 Comments ||
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Communist rebels in the Philippines will attack American troops and act against U.S. business interests if U.S. forces join the local military's fight against them, a rebel spokesman said. "Revolutionary and progressive forces must act to block the aggressive war even before it is launched and thwart it the moment U.S. troops enter the Philippines," communist party spokesman Gregorio Rosal said in a statement. The statement followed moves by the U.S. government last week to put the party and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), on a terrorist blacklist under a law allowing Washington to block any of their U.S. assets. They're not the government. Check. They have guns and bombs. Check. They use them against civilians when they feel like it. Check.
They certainly seem like terrorists. I'm just not sure if it's politic at this moment to make moves against them — the present fight is against the guys with the turbans. I think, in fact, that the commie insurgencies are going to die off, albeit slowly. Why open a second front when the first one's dangerous enough?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/18/2002 07:33 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.
