If you haven't visited Joy Mott's site yet, you should do so. It's nicely laid out, thoughtful, and well-written. I expect it'll become a "must read"...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 12:05 pm ||
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Three amphibious ships with 5,000 sailors and Marines will finish an 11-day trans-Atlantic trip in Spain on Sunday before heading to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf on a six-month deployment. Oh, really?
The USS Nassau Amphibious Ready Group departed Norfolk, Va., on Aug. 26 and picked up Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit the following day. The ships planned to stop briefly at Naval Station Rota, where Mediterranean-bound U.S. warships typically go to refuel, gather supplies and give sailors a short port visit. Although amphibious ready groups usually spend a week in Rota, the Nassau is wasting little time in Spain. The group might anchor offshore and cruise out as soon as possible, Navy officials said Friday. Cheeze. Not even a little beach time? Maybe they're in a hurry 'cuz they don't want to be late for an appointment...
Thanks to Steve for this one, too!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 12:05 pm ||
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They'll probably be hitting the beach where they're going, God Bless 'em.
Posted by: G ||
09/09/2002 15:37 Comments ||
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Allied aircraft struck Iraq for the third time in a week, bombing a military facility southeast of Baghdad Monday morning. The attack came after Iraqi forces fired on one of the U.S.-British patrols in the no-fly zone, and it followed bombings on Thursday and Saturday. It brought to 37 the number of strikes reported this year by the United States and the United Kingdom coalition put together to patrol zones in the north and south of Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War. That's and average of, umm.... (... eleven, carry the seven, divide by 41...) about one a week...
"There is a price to pay when you attack U.S. and British planes," said Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Don't step on that military installation! We just waxed it!"
In Baghdad, the official Iraqi News Agency quoted an unidentified military spokesman as saying, "American and British evil warplanes violated our skies on Monday coming from Kuwait to bomb civil and service installations." Yeah. Tell 'em about the dead puppies and kittens! And the baby ducks!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 01:11 pm ||
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Don't forget the baby-milk factory! (where they turn babies into milk...)
The leaders of the two main Kurdish factions that control northern Iraq have signed a reconciliation agreement as the United States tries to forge a united front against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The two Kurdish factions run an autonomous enclave in northern Iraq and can mobilize some 75,000 fighters but have been deeply divided despite their hostility toward Saddam. Sammy's been doing his best to keep them that way, too...
"Circumstances have dictated that we work together," said Safeen Dizayee, representative of one of the factions, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in Ankara. "The rapprochement between the two sides gained momentum after Sept. 11." Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, and Massoud Barzani, head of the KDP, met this weekend in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Irbil to discuss ways of working together and resolving their differences. The meeting was the first open meeting between the two in three years. Barzani and Talabani reportedly met clandestinely in April in Germany to discuss possible plans of overthrowing Saddam. Looks like they think they've got a good chance of doing just that...
According to a joint statement, the two sides agreed this weekend to set up a committee to discuss "formulating a united political position on regional and international" issues. The two sides also agreed that a regional Kurdish assembly would meet on Oct. 4.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 01:26 pm ||
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"Circumstances have dictated that we work together."
Translation: "you kids start behaving and play nice with each other or I'll come up there and spank both of you!"
Don't you just LOVE the langauge of diplomacy?
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/09/2002 14:40 Comments ||
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President Bush Monday told world leaders it will be the responsibility of the whole international community, rather than the United States, to determine what kind of regime should replace Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if his government is toppled by U.S. military action, European diplomats told United Press International. Sounds like a lesson learned from Afghanistan...
During a call to the current head of the European Union, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Bush made it clear he felt "not his responsibility to define" who or what would replace the Iraqi president, according to one diplomat. Bush "expressed the view that any alternative is preferable" to Saddam, added the diplomat. A second official from another European country agreed that Bush had "said it was up to the international community to help set up what follows" once the government in Baghdad had been toppled. Good idea. And then when they fill Baghdad with crapbags we can point the finger at them...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 08:09 pm ||
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Any alternative is preferable? Maybe the ayatollahs from Iran and the leftover Taliban can team up and run Iraq after the US is through. Given me a break.
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I think what he's saying is, it's not our country. They can screw it up any way they want, though we'd prefer they didn't. And I assume we'll have something set up to take over from Sammy, probably not something particularly appetizing, but something.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2002 21:27 Comments ||
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Khartoum will only resume peace talks with southern rebels if they halt attacks and withdraw a demand to renegotiate some issues settled in a provisional peace deal signed in July. Talks that were broken off when rebels seized a government stronghold more than a week ago could not resume as long as there was fighting and previous agreements were ignored, First Vice President Ali Osman Taha told the official Al-Anbaa daily. "Negotiation is meaningless so long as the war is going on," Taha said. "We won't negotiate with you anymore until you stop beating us up..."
A peace blueprint reached in Machakos, Kenya in July had raised hopes that Sudan could finally end a 19-year civil war between the Arab and Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian and animist south. Under the deal, southern Sudan will enjoy six years of self-rule, free from the Islamic law applied in Khartoum and elsewhere in the north, and will then decide in a referendum if it wishes to remain part of Sudan or secede. That was the part that gave Egypt and the North the willies...
But the government withdrew from talks on September 2 that aimed to turn the plan into reality after the rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) captured the garrison town of Torit in Eastern Equatoria State. "A return to the negotiation table will be made only under a clear commitment to cessation of hostilities and refraining from raising or retracting what was agreed upon in the first round of the Machakos talks," Taha said. There's not a lot of good faith on either side, is there?
He was referring to SPLA demands to make Khartoum a secular city as well as redefine the southern Sudanese boundaries to include the Nuba Mountains and southern Blue Nile, considered areas rich with oil reserves. Since the idea is for the North to get enough peace and stability to lay hands on all that oil money, that might be a stopper...
Taha has appealed to the mediators to make of the negotiations "a genuine peace forum rather than an amusing play ... There should either be serious negotiations or no negotiations at all." Right now it looks like no negotiations at all...
Taha wondered why a ceasefire similar to one brokered by the United States in the south-central Nuba Mountains that went into effect last January could not be agreed upon in southern Sudan. Prob'ly because everyone's busy trying to figure out who shot whom. It was the government forces that attacked in the south on the day the treaty was being signed...
The government opts for peace but "has declared a mobilisation because the rebel movement has opted for war," said Taha, adding the government "is determined to retake Torit."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 02:14 pm ||
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Two ethnic Albanian men, one of them another Army and Air Force Exchange Service employee who has worked as a barber at the U.S. facility in Heidelberg for seven years, were hauled away by German police after U.S. Criminal Investigation Command agents arrested them Friday afternoon. U.S. officials have remained tight-lipped about the case, referring all questions to German authorities. While German police say the two sets of arrests are not related, they have so far not released any details on why the two ethnic Albanian men were apprehended.âThey say itâs not connected, but I donât believe it,â said one soldier who witnessed the arrest. âThey evacuated the whole building in a big hurry. They were worried something was going to happen.â The arrests could very well be unrelated. Evacuating the building would seem to imply that there was more than, say, stealing from the petty cash drawer involved. But it looks like the powers that be might be afraid of causing a panic, so they're disseminating as little info as they can â which is probably a pretty good way to cause a panic.
Thanx to Steve for the headzup!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 12:05 pm ||
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Large contingents of police brutally thwarted the train march of Muthidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of all the religious parties in Pakistan, exposing all the claims of the military government that it was providing equal opportunity to the opposition parties to run their election campaign. Dontcha hate it when that happens?
Hundreds of MMA leaders, workers and common citizens were arrested by the police who had blocked all avenues leading to the railway station Lahore since early morning. Every bearded person going to the area where the railway station is located was arrested, eye witnesses said. When the leaders of MMA, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani, Allama Sajid Naqvi and Maulana Sami-ul-Haq ... aka "The Usual Suspects" ...
reached the railway station, the police arrested them and moved to a police station. The MMA leaders had reservations from Lahore to Rohri but despite showing tickets to the police authorities, they were not allowed to enter the railway station. Instead the police took them to a police station and then released in the evening. "i have a ticket! I can go if I want to!"
"Shuddup and get in the paddy wagon!"
"Easy with that truncheon, my good man! I'm not without influence, y'know."
Enraged MMA leadership has strongly condemned the military regime for denying them the democratic right to riot run their election campaign. They also announced to hold a series of public meetings through out the country to protest against the militaryâs efforts to rig the polls by creating obstacles in the way of opposition parties.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 12:31 pm ||
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Five suspected crazed killers Islamic militants accused of a second plot to assassinate Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in April have been arrested. A senior police official told Reuters the suspects belonged to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen al-Almi, which planned two assassination attempts in April. This was a second whack at him?
Four members of the group were arrested in July and accused of plotting to assassinate Musharraf in the southern port city of Karachi. "The (recently) arrested people have hatched a plot to kill the President after the failure of an earlier attempt," a senior police official told Reuters. He said the second plot was also planned for April, when Musharraf was in Karachi to address a public rally in connection with a referendum on extending his rule. Normally, failing to assassinate a dictator's a pretty fatal thing to do. But Perv seems to have this unusual streak of mercy, which is why they could find somebody to make a second try. If the first batch had been killed slowly, with dull forks, as Saddam would have done, it would have been a long time before the second try was made. I still think Perv is operating under the illusion he's going to civilize his country and establish the rule of law, so he doesn't want to set any bad precedents. Or maybe he wants to set new precedents that aren't as bad as the previous ones...
"The arrest was made on a tip off and we have also seized weapons which were to be used in the planned attempt," the official said, adding investigations were continuing. The official said the second plot to kill Musharraf failed because he arrived late to inaugurate a highway in the city. Wonder if that was on purpose? He's merciful, for a dictator, but he's not stoopid...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 12:53 pm ||
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Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf reiterated his support Sunday for an international anti-terrorism effort and said Islamic radicals must be held in check in his nation and elsewhere. "I remain determined not to allow a fringe element to hold the entire nation hostage and hijack our agenda of reforms," he said, noting that Islam as a whole should be understood as a religion of peace and tolerance. Just oozing peace and tolerance. Yeah.
A major rally of 5,000 members of conservative Islamic parties Sunday denounced the United States and Musharraf, saying upcoming elections are a sham and calling for removing Musharraf. That means they think they're gonna lose...
Militants from Pakistan are also at the core of a military standoff with India. The nuclear rivals have a million troops along their shared border after a series of terror attacks in India, which blames the conflict on Islamic militants harbored by Pakistan. Islamabad denied the charge and said it can't control every extremist group. Maybe it should try controlling some for startsies?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 01:39 pm ||
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A military court convicted 51 men Monday in one of Egypt's biggest cases against Muslim militants in years and sentenced them to two to 15 years in prison. In all, 94 men were tried, 43 of whom were acquitted. The main defendants were charged with founding an illegal group that planned to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak and other public figures and to attack government institutions. Am I the only one who's noticed that Egypt thinks it's just jolly for Muslims to conduct war and revolution and atrocities in other countries, but doesn't like it a bit domestically?
The judge read his verdicts and sentences so quietly that none of the defendants, sitting calmly in a metal cage in the courtroom on this military base, appeared to hear. He wanted it to be a suprise...
Prosecutors dubbed the group al-Wa'ad - or "The Promise" - and said it was a new militant organization. Now it's the remnants of a new militant organization...
Charges included belonging to the group, possessing explosives and ammunition, raising funds without authorization for Muslim rebels in Chechnya and Hamas militants in the Palestinian territories and receiving overseas military training without government authorization. Besides that little thing about conspiring to bump off El Presidente...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 01:22 pm ||
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"Blast it, Mahmoud! I TOLD you we should have gotten a permit before the fund drive!!!"
Posted by: G ||
09/09/2002 15:34 Comments ||
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In a speech to the Palestinian parliament Monday, Yasser Arafat condemned terror attacks on Israeli civilians, announced elections for early January and offered â apparently in jest â to give up executive powers. Very funny. Ha ha...
The rambling speech was the Palestinian leader's first to the legislative council in 18 months. His lower lip quivering, Arafat repeatedly fumbled with the microphones and strayed from the text, launching into asides that were sometimes incomprehensible. Arafat gave an address that was both conciliatory and packed with accusations against Israel. He skipped over some passages of an earlier draft, including one that called on parliament to ban suicide attacks. We can save that one for later, no doubt. Like sometime during the next ice age...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 12:05 pm ||
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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's deputy, Mahmoud Abbas, in the coming days to try to find a way to end two years of fighting. Sharon's advisers had no immediate comment, but Sharon said recently that for the first time in months he sees an opportunity to end the violence and return to peace talks. The prime minister has also said that he is willing to hold talks with a senior Palestinian official who he said had contacted him. Perhaps the Paleos should have done this sort of thing before their March bombing campaign...
Sharon did not name the official, but said it was not Arafat. Sharon has declared Arafat an enemy of Israel and refuses to meet with him. Just hope his bolt stays shot...
A senior Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, would meet with Sharon in the coming days. The meeting was arranged by Arafat's economic adviser, Mohammed Rashid, who has close ties with Sharon's son, Omri.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 01:32 pm ||
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Israel says its has rounded up or killed nearly every known member of the military wing of Hamas operating in the West Bank. Time magazine's latest issue cited in its report Israeli intelligence officials as saying 98 percent of Hamas fighters "known to them" â or a total of 70 men â had been either killed or arrested in the area since the launch in late March of the Israel's West Bank offensive, known as Operation Defensive Shield. That's great news. Unfortunately, I consider Time to be only 1.5 tads more reliable than Debka...
With the Israeli army still in or around every West Bank town, it's no longer possible for cells to organize across different areas. Don't go getting cocky. Those bastards can surprise you...
They also claimed that many Hamas activists were calling for a temporary halt to suicide attacks, fearing their group could be wiped out as a political as well as a military force. Wouldn't that be pleasant?
However, Time said other Hamas leaders, particularly those based outside the West Bank and Gaza argued that it was now more important than ever to show Israel that the movement had not been neutralized. It's so much easier to be bloodthirsty when you don't have to face the explosives yourself. It's also usually pretty stupid: "Tell Paulus to fight to the last man, the last bullet..."
The internal debate could turn into a full-blown power struggle if the health of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin â a unifying figure for moderates and hardliners â continues to decline. Time quoted top Hamas officials as saying Yassin, a quadriplegic, had been hospitalized last week with lung and bowel problems. Now that is good news! When they can't breathe anymore and they poop themselves, death's door usually isn't far beyond...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 01:49 pm ||
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Quadriplegics typically have these problems on multiple occasions, so being in the hospital doesn't necessarily mean that the end is near for Yassin. Of course, it's not a good prognostic sign. If he has a tracheostomy and is on an assist ventilator, then it's a really bad sign.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/09/2002 14:48 Comments ||
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'Course, from our point of view, it's a dandy sign...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2002 16:33 Comments ||
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It's a sign from Allah!
Posted by: Allah ||
09/09/2002 16:54 Comments ||
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Harry emails me that the comments link is busted... Something browser-specific?
He raises a good point: 70 -- count 'em -- 70 Hamas militants! Getcher terrorists right here before they're all used up!
Is this meant to be serious? 70 guys, give or take, are terrorizing two nations and a whatever the PA is, with nearly 10 million residents? All
by themselves?
What they've been booming and rounding up have been the controllers, not the cannon fodder. As I've commented on a number of occasions, the cannon fodder's cheap and easily replaced - just find somebody stoopid, fire 'em up, and send 'em out. The controllers and the runners are the core of the organization, the "true believers." Once they've been wiped out, the organization's gone because there's no one to hold it together. The gunnies end up holding up liquor stores or working in the food service industry.
I think we'll find that all of these organizations, with the possible exception of al-Qaeda, have a core of around a hundred members. (The November 17th bunch in Greece had 14 members when I stopped counting the arrests, and they might be up to 20 now, but not much higher. They were unusual in that the controllers and the snuffies were the same.) I also suspect we'll find that most of the groups are essentially family businesses, except for the ones run by sovreign governments like Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Also not counted in the terror organization is the political front, which is larger, and which'll reconstitute the gunny wing - but they'll need time, and they'll be under the Israelis' eyes as they're doing it. But if Sheikh Yassin's at death's door that leaves only three members of the politburo to do the job...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2002 19:46 Comments ||
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At least fifteen Philippine government troops died and 20 others wounded in series of fierce encounters since last Friday, September 7 in Sulu during clashes with heavily armed men belonging to Abu Sayyaf and the Moro National Liberation Front, the Bangsamoro Islamic News Agency [BINA] reported today. The military, however, reported only eight of its men were killed in action while inflicting 14 to the enemy. More than 6,000 soldiers are in Sulu to launch all-out offensive against Abu Sayyaf but a very reliable source disputed this claim saying that what the soldiers were encountering were legitimate MNLF forces still loyal to jailed leader Nur Misuari. The source also said the Abu Sayyaf members in Sulu are very few in number and they cannot put up a fight of this magnitude without other armed groups aiding them. That would seem to imply that there's not much difference between Abu Sayyaf and the MNLF guys, wouldn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 12:05 pm ||
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Philippine authorities are on full alert because of a plot by al Qaeda-backed Islamic radicals to attack the U.S. Embassy in Manila. Philippine officials said they were given details of the plot some months ago and that it was not linked to the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States. CNN said details of the plot became known during the interrogation of an al Qaeda operative with direct access to Osama bin Laden. The operative, a Canadian of Kuwaiti origin who was arrested in Oman in March, is in U.S. custody, it said. This would be Mohamed Mansour Jabarah, 20, of Ontario, aka "Sammy." He's the one who wanted to build truck bombs using 17 tons of ammonium nitrate. Such a sweet lad...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 01:05 pm ||
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That's the interpretation Tim Blair and The Times of London put on this al-Jazeera interview with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad...
A SLIP of the tongue by one of Osama bin Ladenâs top henchmen seems to have betrayed al-Qaedaâs most potent secret: its charismatic leader is dead.
The blunder was made by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has confessed to being the operational mastermind behind the September 11 attacks. He made his mistake while disclosing many of the secrets behind the atrocities, which were plotted in Kandahar, the religious extremist Taleban movementâs Afghan spiritual home. During two days of interviews, Mr Mohammed referred to bin Laden, who has not been seen since the fall of Afghanistanâs Taleban regime, in the past tense. The reporter Yosri Fouda, London bureau chief for al-Jazeera, concluded that bin Laden is now likely to be dead. I've been considering it an 80 percent or better probability that Binny's retired to a very small farm, but I'm not sure a mere slip of the tongue actually confirms it...
Mr Mohammedâs slip of the tongue about bin Ladenâs demise was a serious lapse. Throughout their discussions with the reporter, al-Qaeda operatives persistently sought to suggest that their leader was still alive, well and keenly following events. One intermediary told the journalist that bin Laden remained an avid viewer of al-Jazeera, so much so that âwhatever he misses, he gets on tapeâ. So now we can bump it up to an 85 percent probability that he's the Late Mr Bin Laden, maybe even 90 percent. All he's got to do is make one appearance to blow all that careful interpretation away 100 percent...
Al-Qaedaâs decision to bring a reporter from al-Jazeera to meet two of bin Ladenâs generals rather than the man himself adds to the impression that their leader may be no more. The satellite channel has previously been trusted with interviewing bin Laden in person, in 1997 and 1998. Mr Fouda was also suspicious when al-Qaeda failed to send him videotapes of the interviews, as promised, although audiotapes did arrive. âI am driven to the interpretation that something is wrong with the upper reaches of al-Qaeda â some sort of disruption. I now believe it is more than likely bin Laden is dead,â he said. Yeah. I'll go along with the "more than likely" part. I still won't go so far as to say he's "certainly" dead. For one thing, they haven't interviewed Zawahiri, either, and I consider it probable that he's still alive... So, what else ya got?
The target of the fourth, thwarted hijack attack in Washington was Congress, not the White House; the original plan was to crash aircraft into atomic power stations; and the plotters used simple codes to keep in touch by internet, he disclosed. Congress, White House, the end result would have been the same. Probably if they'd hit the Capital, it would have been easier to get a declaration of war out of the survivors...
A television journalist from al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite television station that has previously broadcast exclusive footage of bin Laden, was blindfolded and taken to meet two al-Qaeda chiefs. The journalist was taken to the Pakistan city of Karachi, driven five miles into the countryside, blindfolded, then brought to a clandestine rendezvous on the fourth floor of a sparsely furnished flat. He believes that it was in Karachi. And so do I...
There he met Mr Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a former flatmate of Mohamed Atta, the hijack ringleader. Mr bin al-Shibh is a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole, when 17 sailors were killed in the port city of Aden in Yemen in October 2000. He described himself as head of al-Qaedaâs military committee. Thanks to Alicia for the headzup on this one...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 12:05 pm ||
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Remind me, but wasn't the Capitol incompletely evacuated at the time Flight 93 was crashed into the ground in Shanksville? I seem to recall some confusion and a fair number of Congresscritters still in the building.
My only point being it might have been harder to get a quick declaration of war, because we would have had to wait three months or so for a quorum. But then I think GWB would have had whatever he wanted, including a "no-fault" for whatever he had done in the meantime.
Regards,
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/09/2002 14:53 Comments ||
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Of the 24 members of Al Qaeda's leadership identified by the Central Intelligence Agency before Sept. 11, 10 have either been killed or captured, officials said. That leaves 14 head cheeses...
Four are now in custody, including Abu Zubaydah, who was Al Qaeda's chief of operations. And Binny's designated successor, we might add...
Officials identified the three others as Abu Zubair, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, and a man known by his nom de guerre, Riyadh the Facilitator. They forget Salim, the money guy. That makes eleven â 13 to go...
Abu Zubaydah has been extensively interrogated since his capture and has provided important information, American officials say. Interrogation of others in custody have provided new insights into Al Qaeda's structure and operations, they add. I love it when they sing. They have such pretty voices...
Six other Al Qaeda leaders are presumed dead, most significantly Muhammad Atef, who was Al Qaeda's military chief last Sept. 11. He is believed to have been killed in an American bombing raid in Afghanistan in November. I'm considering him a deader...
The fate of Mr. bin Laden himself remains uncertain. A debate has been raging for months inside the American government over whether he is dead or alive, but the intelligence remains so fragmentary that officials say it is difficult to reach a definitive answer. Likely he's a deader by now, but I'd sure like to see a smear or two of his DNA. Or maybe his embalmed head on a plate...
The United States military has identified the three leaders it now deems to be the most important besides Osama bin Laden, designating as "Tier One" leadership figures Mr. Zawahiri, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Saif al-Adel. I've been considering Ayman to be alive, even though he hasn't been heard from since a day or two after his wife and kiddies were wiped out. There have been a number of sightings, but then, so have there been a number of sightings of Elvis. Saif's reported hiding in Iran, which might take him out of the picture. I'm surprised that Suleiman abu Ghaith isn't included on this "tier 1" list â guess he's chopped liver, even though he's demonstrably alive and well. And Saad, Binny's kid, is also not on the list, even though he was reputed to have taken over...
Mr. Mohammed is a Kuwaiti who American officials now believe was one of the central planners of the Sept. 11 attacks. American officials said last week that they believed that he had emerged as the closest thing Al Qaeda now has to a chief of operations. We heard from Khalid today. With him was Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Mohammad Atta's former lover room-mate, described himself as the head of al-Qaeda's military shura, so he should definitely be on the list. Both seemed to be living in Karachi, which is probably al-Qaeda's GHQ now. The fastidious Kuwaitis, by the way, point out that Khalid isn't really a Kuwaiti, but a Pak who was born in Kuwait.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/09/2002 09:25 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.
