The U.N. weapons hunters, sweeping through a disused bio-warfare installation Thursday, spotted a disconnected refrigerator. They moved in, threw open the door, and recoiled in disgust. The stench that wafted out may have come from a batch of harmless material left from a long-ago veterinary experiment. But it got the full treatment â a swab, a sample, analysis to come â in the second day of the painstaking U.N. search for any Iraqi doomsday arms. Yummy...
After a four-year break, the international experts revisited two sites from Iraq's old weapons programs: a high-tech machining operation that could be key to any nuclear bomb-building, and a veterinary vaccine plant where deadly biological weapons were concocted a decade ago. They found open doors. "It is very good cooperation," the director of the al-Dawrah vaccine plant told reporters afterward. The lead inspectors seemed to agree. "It's a good start for the inspections," said Jacques Baute, team leader for the nuclear experts. So let's see how long it lasts...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/29/2002 01:08 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
On the second day of the hunt for illicit weapons in Iraq, UN inspectors again found Iraqi officials well-prepared for their "surprise" visits. In response to fears that the inspectors' Baghdad headquarters may be bugged, UN sources said yesterday that the building will be checked with sweeping devices over the weekend. "The problem is that nobody knows if the facility is compromised," the source said. OK, let's have a show of hands from everyone reading this who would have done this as soon as they moved back into Iraq. That's what I thought.
One team - which included at least six biological experts - was immediately allowed into a laboratory at al-Dawrah on the outskirts of Baghdad, while another quickly gained admission to a munitions factory at Taji, north of the capital. On Wednesday, a UN team found factory management waiting to greet them at the military-industrial Tahidi plant. "Hi, guys. You're late....I mean, we didn't expect you till..never mind."
The inspectors have been anxious to keep their destinations secret to avoid giving the Iraqis time to remove anything from the suspect sites as in previous inspections in the 1990s. Not that they have any WMD.
Iraqi officials say this time their readiness is a sign of co-operation and that sites likely to be inspected have been told to stand by for a visit. Sites that are "likely" to be visited are not going to have anything there. It's at those sites where the inspectors are not expected that they might find something.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/29/2002 01:36 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The offices bugged? I can't believe it. "Tommorrow you will visit the Bagdad Baby Milk Factory. You will see nothing. When I snap my fingers you will wake up"
Posted by: john ||
11/29/2002 20:06 Comments ||
Top||
The United Nations launched perhaps its most important weapons inspections ever Wednesday with a team that includes a 53-year-old Virginia man with no specialized scientific degree and a leadership role in sadomasochistic sex clubs. Hey Fred, here's the porn link you were expecting!
The UN acknowledged Wednesday that it did not conduct a background check on Harvey John McGeorge of Woodbridge, Va., who was in New York waiting to be sent to Iraq as a munitions analyst. McGeorge was picked for the diplomatically sensitive mission over some of the most experienced disarmament sleuths in the world. A UN spokesman said McGeorge was part of a group recommended by the State Department, which in turn said it was merely forwarding names for consideration.
The disclosures about McGeorge's qualifications come as concerns are being raised among some former UN weapons inspectors that the current team lacks experience. The former inspectors, who worked for the UN Special Commission created after the Persian Gulf War, say the new inspectors have been selected in part to avoid offending Iraq. These critics say that Hans Blix, the executive chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, is bypassing some experienced inspectors because they were opposed by Iraq as too aggressive in the earlier inspections. They don't want anyone who can find their own ass.
Former inspectors also say that rules requiring applicants to quit their government jobs meant that some of the best-qualified experts did not apply, leaving many positions to be filled by applicants, such as McGeorge, from the private sector. The former inspectors also say the current inspection team lacks the size, mobility and equipment to do its job adequately, and that the new UN policy of not sharing information with intelligence agencies could further handicap the team's ability to find weapons sites. Which is the whole idea.
UN officials defended their team of inspectors, saying that they are highly qualified and among the best in the field. But they acknowledged that they conducted no background checks.
"As the United Nations, with people applying from many countries, we do not have the capability to do that," said Ewen Buchanan, a spokesman for the inspection commission. "How would you check?" Let me say that again in case you didn't belive what you just read. THEY DIDN'T DO ANY BACKGROUND CHECKS ON THE INSPECTORS!!
McGeorge is a former Marine and Secret Service specialist who offers seminars on "weaponization of chemical and biological agents" for $595 a session. Since 1983, he has been president of his own firm, Public Safety Group Inc., which sells bioterror products to governments. One online ad promotes his role as a "certified United Nations Weapons inspector." McGeorge does not possess a degree in one of the specialized fields - such as biochemistry, bacteriology or chemical engineering - that the UN says it seeks in its inspectors.
An Internet search of open Web sites conducted by The Washington Post found that McGeorge is the co-founder and past president of Black Rose, a Washington-area pansexual S&M group, and the former chairman of the board of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. He is also a founding officer of the Leather Leadership Conference Inc., which "produces training sessions for current and potential leaders of the sadomasochism/leather/fetish community," according to its Web site. Perfectly qualified.
Several Web sites describe McGeorge's training seminars involving various acts conducted with knives and ropes. Wanted to visit Iraq to take a advanced class, they are into knives and ropes at the palace, I hear.
McGeorge said Friday that a State Department official invited him to apply for the UN team and officials at State and the UN did not ask about his S&M background. But he said he would tender his resignation to Blix if The Post printed a story about it. A State Department official said that the Bureau of Nonproliferation collected resumes from potential inspection commission candidates and then passed along, without recommendation, those who appeared to meet the general criteria of the jobs. Another act of brilliance by State.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/29/2002 02:26 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm betting (OK, Charles at LGF came up with it too) that this was deliberate, done to (add to the circus atmosphere) embarass Blix.
The US military says aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone over Iraq have dropped leaflets warning Iraqis for the first time not to repair equipment and facilities previously hit by allied planes. It was the fifth leaflet drop on southern Iraq in the last two months.
Previously leaflets warned Iraqi forces not to fire on patrolling US and British aircraft. But this time the message was different - the 360,000 leaflets used in the latest operation were dropped on unmanned communications facilities which had already been struck. Some of the leaflets warned the Iraqis not to repair the equipment there. The others said the no-fly zones are to protect the Iraqi people. "Don't make me come back!"
Posted by: Steve ||
11/29/2002 02:30 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
An Israeli army team on Friday began evacuating tourists injured in the deadly suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel. Kenyan police said they picked up 12 people for questioning in connection with the blast and a simultaneous attempted attack on an Israeli airliner. Police said 12 people were picked up for questioning in the Mombasa area, but gave no details.
The death toll in the bombing rose to 16 as rescue workers recovered the body of another Kenyan on Friday, a health official said. The blast at the Paradise Hotel killed 10 Kenyans, three Israelis and the three suicide bombers.
Gilad Millo, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said 235 tourists, including 15 injured in the blast and the bodies of the three Israelis, were flown home Friday. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent his official plane to carry some of the Israelis. It's still early in the investigation. I heard on the news that Mossad was assigned to the case. That used to be the kiss of death for perps. It'll be interesting to see if they've still got it.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/29/2002 01:08 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
One of the three suicide terrorists in the hotel bombing here was identified by Israeli Army Radio as Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah â a name that matches one of the most wanted al Qaeda terrorists sought by the FBI. The name of one of the other bombers also is similar to a wanted al Qaeda terrorist. Both of the men were indicted in absentia in connection with the deadly 1998 twin U.S. embassy bombings in Africa that killed 224 people. An Israeli Army Radio report identified Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, of Egyptian origin, and Faed Ali Sayam, a Kenyan Muslim, as two of the three suicide bombers. The third attacker was not immediately identified. That doesn't sound right. I wouldn't expect one of the Big Shots to boom himself â not when there's cannon fodder available for the job...
The name Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah is well-known to authorities and terrorism experts. Abdullah, also known as "Saleh," is the al Qaeda leader of East African cells and a member of al Qaeda's leadership group, the shura council, according to federal prosecutors. He's a .90 caliber...
Abdullah is accused of having a direct role in plotting the 1998 embassy bombings and is charged with murder of all 224 persons killed in Kenya and Tanzania. The 5-foot, 8-inch Abdullah is on the FBI's most wanted list, with a $25 million reward posted on his head. And he blew himself up in a hotel lobby? And it wasn't an accident? I don't think so...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/29/2002 02:25 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
not when there is cannon fodder available. ? Which leads to the logical conclusions that either 1) there is none available any more, or 2) wrong guy
Posted by: Ben ||
11/30/2002 5:03 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I don't think so either. I'd go with Ben's #2.
Posted by: Kathy K ||
11/30/2002 6:52 Comments ||
Top||
A powerful explosion ripped through the main government compound in the eastern Yemeni city of Maarab on Friday, causing damage but no casualties, security sources said.
The blast occurred soon after midnight when an explosive charge planted near the house of the main security official in the province of Maarab, Brig. Ali Nasser al Kawsi, went off. Message was meant for him, I expect.
The weekly al Sahwa, mouthpiece of the main Islamic opposition Yemeni Reform Party, reported in its Friday edition that "a strong explosion rocked the city and smoke was seen billowing over the well-guarded government compound which harbors the offices and houses of the main security officials in the province." There was no immediate word on the sum of material damage, but the sources reported there were no injuries. Wanted to send a message, but didn't want to piss them off too much. Yemeni's are strong believers in that old "eye for an eye" stuff.
The incident is believed to be a response to the killing of the presumed leader of Osama bin Laden's al Qaida network in Yemen. Kaed Sinan al Harithy and five other suspected members of the group were traveling in Maarab Nov. 3 when a missile fired by an American Predator unmanned airplane destroyed the vehicle and killed its occupants. The operation was carried out by the CIA. The Yemeni government acknowledged it had approved the operation, saying it lacked the resources itself to bring the men to justice for crimes that would carry the death penalty in Yemen.
The admission sparked controversy throughout the country, and lawyers in Sanaa have threatened to sue the government for breach of Yemen's constitution. Threats of revenge for al Harithy's slaying were also voiced in a letter signed by a man called Abu Shehab al Kandahari al Yamani and published in the Yemeni media. The letter vowed that Yemeni tribes would retaliate against the United States: "Yemen's youth will make the Americans pay a dear price for daring to violate the sanctity of our home (Yemen)," it said. "Al Qaida will fight till the last Yemeni!"
Maarab as well as neighboring Shabwa and al Jouf provinces, are the scene of a thorough search by Yemeni security forces for suspected al Qaida members who are believed to be hiding in the rugged mountainous regions. Look harder.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/29/2002 02:37 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
The 12 people so far held for questioning over Thursday's attacks on Israelis in Mombasa are all foreign nationals, Kenyan police say. "We have one American lady, one Spanish man ... there are six Pakistanis and four Somalis," a Kenyan police spokesman said.
The Pakistanis and the Somalis were arrested for illegally entering the country, officials said. The American woman and her husband were detained as they checked out of the Le Soleil Beach Club about 90 minutes after the attacks.
A Somali-based Islamist group and the al Qaeda network are at the top of a list of suspects in Thursday's terrorist attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya, a senior Bush administration source tells CNN. The Somali group calls itself Al-Itihad al-Islamiya, and is also known by the acronym AIAI. This official and other U.S. officials have made clear they believe AIAI, which operates in Somalia, is associated with al Qaeda.
The source did acknowledge that evidence gathered so far in the investigation is "pointing towards al Qaeda" due to the location and the circumstances of the attacks. Al Qaeda is known to operate in Kenya. In addition, this source noted the terrorists carried out two almost simultaneous attacks on Israelis -- another hallmark of al Qaeda. They like big bloody operations with a high death toll, it's good for tv ratings.
The mother of the American being questioned told CNN her daughter and her husband, a Spaniard with a resident alien card, were visiting her childhood home. The mother added that an embassy official told her the couple would be released Friday night. Picked them up because they checked out of their hotel right after the bombings, I think I would have bugged out myself.
Investigators are looking at whether al Qaeda was behind the attacks. Israel's Mossad spy agency, which has a long record of hunting terror suspects, is leading the investigation into the twin attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya.
There was no publicized evidence against the network, but analysts said the synchronized raids were a hallmark of al Qaeda's operations and speculated that as its first direct attacks on Israelis, they were intended to rally Muslim support. Nothing like killing Jews to rally Muslim support.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/29/2002 03:08 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Okay, I'm curious: is there EVER a Pakistani who's entered a country LEGALLY?
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/29/2002 15:39 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yes, but only to provide fake documents for others.
Posted by: Brian ||
11/29/2002 16:12 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Try not to go LGF on all Pakistanis, I have met a few cool engineers here in Silicon Valley.
The detained leader of an Arab group was accused Friday of inciting racial riots in Antwerp following the killing of a teacher of Moroccan descent. Dyab Abou Jahjah, head of the Arab European League, will remain in jail over the weekend and face a hearing on Tuesday. The government said Abou Jahjah, 31, had already been under an investigation before the riots, which started last Tuesday. Prosecutors charged Lebanese-born Abou Jahjah with willful resistance, obstruction of traffic and assaulting a police officer. "We have already been investigating Abou Jahjah ... prior to the Nov. 26-27 rioting," the Antwerp prosecutor's office said in a statement. "Now we have a excuse to pick him up."
Police vowed to prevent more rioting in a city which has both a sizable North African immigrant community and the country's largest right-wing party base. As part of its "zero-tolerance" policy, police detained about 160 youths of North African descent after a second night of rioting Wednesday, and 20 were still in custody. There were no major skirmishes Thursday. The Arab European League also called for calm in a statement posted on its Web site after Abou Jahjah's arrest.
Belgian politicians have increasingly called for action against the league, especially after it recently sent patrols of young men into the streets of Antwerp. It said the patrols would protect Arab youths against police racism. The league has been behind several rallies against war in Iraq, one of which turned violent three weeks ago in Brussels. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said his government was considering banning the group outright. You might think that the Belgian government has finally figured out it was not just those Americans and Jews that are in danger. We can only hope.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/29/2002 02:55 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Would-be terrorists linked to Jemaah Islamiah (JI) conducted training at properties in the Blue Mountains and Western Australia and targeted university students as prime recruits.
Investigations have revealed that a group of Perth Muslims, disciples of the radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, were convinced an Islamic superstate would emerge from the volatile political landscape of South-East Asia. Perhaps to incorporate Northern Australia..
And while much of the focus on JI in Australia has focused on suburbs heavily populated by Muslims, such as Lakemba, the West Australian cell of JI had the most dedicated religious acolytes in the country. It is understood that ASIO has been told JI carried out numerous training exercises at properties in Western Australia's south-west and the Blue Mountains, under the noses of local authorities, despite denials by landowners. Well they would deny it, wouldn't they?
A clearer picture is also emerging about the operations of JI in Australia, how it was funded and how it survived for as long as it did. While much of the initial focus since the September 11 attacks in the United States has been on Sydney, because of its many Muslims, the nucleus of JI was based in Perth. Which has very few Muslims
Five of Abu Bakar's followers living there formed a secretive circle to recruit and preach his message, including English-born convert Jack Roche, who has been charged with conspiring to blow up Israeli missions in Sydney and Canberra.
All deny being part of any terrorist network. However, Roche reportedly told ASIO that on numerous occasions a group of West Australian Muslims travelled to a property at Myalup, 150 kilometres south of Perth. There they allegedly underwent para-military training. The owner of the property denies this. It is claimed that between six and 20 men regularly shot at each other with more than 20 paint-ball guns bought by the group and taken to the property in a trailer. Somehow running around shooting each other with paintballs doesn't seem as cool as shooting Ak-47s into the air
Abdul Rahim Ayub, the alleged Australian leader of JI and a religious teacher at the al-Hidayah Islamic School in Bentley, Western Australia, spoke regularly to Curtin University students, usually after evening prayers. After he had got them riled up..
Internet chat rooms were also used to swing the young around to radical thinking. And sites like www.islam.org.au
Things changed dramatically for the group after the September 11 attacks. ASIO has been told that while the group knew "something was about to happen", they had no idea that al-Qaeda had planned the attack on the World Trade Centre. Just the cogs, not important enough to be trusted
The group then took extra precautions, such as meeting in parks and open spaces for fear of being taped. But it did not stop group members travelling extensively between Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan and, in Roche's case, Afghanistan. The usual suspects
Posted by: Paul ||
11/29/2002 05:29 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Muslim infiltrators in the West, rarely use Friday khutbah to preach jihad, as do their mother organizations abroad. It is done obliquely, in post khutbah, jumuah sessions. Western governments continue to permit public school property to be used as mosques (mosques being a corruption of an Arabic amalgam - masjid - meaning: place of prostration). Organizations such as the Muslim Students Association, a front group for Jamaat-i-Islami (Lahore, Pakistan) treat Friday Salat (prayer) facilities as Dar-Islam (house of Islam), and enforce sharia exclusion of "infidels" (kufr). Indulgence of these terror centers, integrates church and state, which in itself, is an incorporation of sharia within the Western legal framework. Keep this in mind: Medina was a Jewish village - Yethrib - until Moslem infiltrators broke a treaty with local Jewish tribes. Hell will freeze over, before Moslems recognize Dar-Yehudi.
The FBI is considering a dramatic redeployment of agents across the nation that could involve closing or consolidating some of the bureau's 56 field offices as a way to put hundreds more agents on anti-terrorism duties, senior FBI officials say. FBI officials have concluded that 520 agents shifted to anti-terror duties in May â mostly from anti-drug assignments â are not nearly enough to support counterterrorism efforts that have become the bureau's top priority since the Sept. 11 attacks. More than 2,500 of the FBI's 11,500 agents now are assigned to anti-terror duties. I'd guess it'll take three times that number to do the job right, especially with a world-wide mission...
A source familiar with an ongoing review of FBI staffing says that bureau executives have discussed shifting "several hundred" more agents to counterintelligence and anti-terrorism operations in places that have drawn the most interest in terrorism probes. FBI officials would not identify those locations, but agents seeking to uncover potential terrorist threats have been particularly active in Detroit, Seattle, Atlanta, Florida, Southern California and suburbs of New York City. Start where the smell's strongest and work out from there...
Changing the FBI's field office structure would be one of the most significant and politically provocative moves by the bureau since it began shifting its emphasis from traditional criminal probes to preventing domestic terrorism. The field office structure â which includes 56 U.S. offices, more than 400 smaller satellite branches and 40 more field offices abroad â was established by former bureau director J. Edgar Hoover and has been the backbone of the crime-fighting FBI. Actually, I'd think that it would make more sense to establish a parallel organization — not that I'm usually in favor of building new federal organizations — and to put it directly under the Homeland Security office. There is a legitimate domestic crime mission, and there's a legitimate antiterror mission. Both should be performed by specialists, with coordination where necessary. As we've noticed in the past year, most terrorists play at being crooks, too, but most crooks don't play at being terrorists.
Revising the field offices could further distance the FBI from its longtime role of assisting local and regional authorities in criminal probes. FBI officials say investigations into matters such as drug trafficking will not suffer, but some local officials who fear that a greater burden will fall on them are skeptical. Seems like those functions could be transferred to BATF and DEA, where they should have been to start. Too bad the INS is such a total loss with no insurance — that would seem to be the logical place to put a terrorism tracking organization.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/29/2002 01:08 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Police in India-controlled Kashmir raided a girls high school Thursday and found a bomb-making laboratory, seizing explosives they said killers militants planned to use in the Himalayan region. Acting on a tip, police raided the Muslim Girls Public School in Srinagar before it opened Thursday, and found at least four large bombs and sacks full of land mines and other explosive devices in an unused part of the school. There was nobody in the bomb lab at the time, and nobody was immediately arrested, although school officials were being questioned, police said. "These bombs were being manufactured in the school and nobody knew. Yeah. Right. I believe that. And I believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. I believe that when my birthday comes, the Birthday Boar Hog will come crashing through my wall and bring me presents...
"The explosive material we have found is of very high grade, and the devices were being smartly concealed inside fire extinguishers," Srinagar police Superintendent R.J. Swain said. "The explosive devices were being readied for use in Srinagar and elsewhere. It could have resulted in large scale violence and attacks. And if they had succeeded the damage would have been considerable."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/29/2002 02:10 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And they say that Islamics are against educating women.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/29/2002 14:15 Comments ||
Top||
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who won Thursday's Likud Party leadership contest against former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, apparently has done what many here thought impossible: He has gained the trust of his party and the Israeli people despite two years of intense conflict with the Palestinians. Netanyahu conceded defeat after voter polls projected a 20-percentage-point victory for Sharon. Good for him. Now Netanyahu can shut up and do his job â like he should have been doing since the day he took the job as Foreign Minister...
Mark Heller of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv said Sharon, 74, "appears to be the steady hand at the wheel, which is probably why most Israelis also prefer him. The apple cart is unstable enough as it is." Couldn't have said it better myself...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/29/2002 01:08 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was likely to have been involved in last month's deadly Bali blasts and more attacks are possible in the region, Indonesia's defence minister said on Friday. Mr Matori is the first high-ranking Indonesian official to implicate Bashir publicly in the Bali attack. Isn't that a nice development? And it's only been a month and a half...
Mr Matori Abdul Jalil said the Al-Qaeda terror group was working to establish a 'vast network' in Indonesia and South-east Asia, and noted that the Oct 12 nightclub blasts that killed more than 190 people in Bali bore all the hallmarks of an Al-Qaeda-ordered assault. Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of the regional Al-Qaeda-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiah, was closely associated with the three top suspects in the Bali blasts and therefore must be involved, he said. That's logic. It doesn't count for much with the apologists trying to protect the Bad Guys in Indonesia...
Until now, the Muslim cleric has not been officially linked to the Bali attacks, the worst act of terror since the Sept 11 attacks in the United States. He has denied involvement in the Indonesia bombings. Mr Matori said: 'We see that Hambali, Samudra and Amrozi are all students of Bashir. 'If an organisation has so many activists who are involved in bombings, then it is impossible that a leader has no knowledge of it. I am convinced that they were not acting on their own.' That's what I'd think, too, but then, I'm a decadent Westerner, and I'm influenced by those Dead White European Males...
Bashir is in custody in a police hospital in Jakarta, reportedly suffering from respiratory and cardiac ailments. So far, 20 people have been detained in connection with the Bali attacks. However, police said only Samudra and Amrozi played direct roles, while the others were accomplices. I wonder how the apologists in the Indon parliament are going to contort themselves to explain it all away.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/29/2002 01:28 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Malaysia has arrested a mid-level leader of the terror organisation Jemaah Islamiah (JI), and police hope he can provide leads to track down higher-ranking fugitives, a government official said on Friday. The suspect was arrested on Monday and was not connected to an alleged suicide bomb unit whose members were rounded up last week. The official said: 'The suspect is among the few important remnants of the JI left in the country. Key leaders are either in custody or have fled abroad, we believe to Indonesia.' Sure hope they're right...
The official added that authorities expected the suspect to give information that could help track down remaining fugitive leaders of the group's operations in Malaysia. It was unclear whether that included Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali and Al-Qaida's alleged point man in South-east Asia, and Mukhlas, who is believed to have taken over his duties as JI's chief in Malaysia and Singapore after Sept 11. Both men are radical Indonesian clerics who lived in Malaysia in exile during the 1990s, teaching at a Johor religious school. Their whereabouts are unknown. Johor religious school's probably a good place to start rounding them up. I'd guess that the Malays already have started there, though. Unlike Indonesia, they take this stuff seriously...
Malaysian police had been trailing the suspect, whose name was not disclosed and is in his mid-30s, for the past few months. The man is not being accused of being involved in plotting any particular attack. 'He's very committed to the JI cause and told investigators he envisioned dying as a martyr,' the official said. 'There's no evidence to link him to the earlier four arrested.' If he's thinking about dying for the cause he's not very high up in the food chain...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/29/2002 01:36 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
When the government advertised openings for 100 religious teachers recently, it got a sense of the powder keg it was sitting on. Some 4,000 religious scholars applied. The Mahathir administration fears this group, schooled exclusively in religious studies, will become an unstable fringe of Malaysian society. So serious is the country's leadership viewing this situation that in the past month, the government has suspended the funding of 500 religious schools and the Prime Minister and his deputy have repeatedly asked Muslim parents to send their children to national schools for a secular education. Give them hard skills? Something that would make them productive citizens? Why would they want to do that? It's easier to buy 'em guns and teach them to be cannon fodder.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad, commenting on the hordes of unemployed religious scholars, said: 'They will find it difficult to get other jobs as they are not trained in other fields. This is the problem that will create tension in our society, especially among Muslims. Frustrated, they might turn to undesirable activities.' My point, exactly...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/29/2002 01:51 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Whoa look here, I got 4000 names of people to investigate, or just lock up before the trouble starts...
Canada added six more groups to its list of banned terrorist organizations Wednesday, including the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The list, created under legislation passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, now has 13 groups that are banned from the country. Anyone belonging to them or helping them faces a possible 10-year prison sentences. About time, don't you think?
"The decision to list an entity is a very serious one and listing carries severe consequences - not only for terrorists, but also for their supporters," said Solicitor General Wayne Easter, adding that more groups would be listed. I'm sure they will be properly impressed, Wayne.
Besides Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the four other groups added to the list Wednesday are the Yemen-based Islamic Army of Aden, Lebanon-based Asbat Al-Ansar (The League of Partisans), and two Pakistani groups, Harakat ul-Mujahedeen and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
They join seven groups put on the list in July: Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network; the Armed Islamic Group and the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, both from Algeria; the Somalia-based Al-Ittihad Al-Islam; and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Egypt-based Vanguards of Conquest and al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group). Now awaiting the cries of protest and condemnation that are sure to appear from the usual suspects.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/29/2002 02:48 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Notice Hizbullah is missing? That is Canada giving you the finger.
Posted by: Brian ||
11/29/2002 16:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
No Hezbollah in Canada, according to our PM (Pathetic Moron) Jean Chretien: "Da proof is da proof, and when you has da proofs, you has da proof."
(just been dying to slip that in)
Posted by: john ||
11/29/2002 20:30 Comments ||
Top||
#3
You think Canada, or Soviet Canukistan, would be on top of this. They are whiter than we are, no? ;-)
Posted by: Brian ||
11/29/2002 22:29 Comments ||
Top||
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.
