International weapons hunters crossed a threshold Saturday, paying their first visit under the new inspection program to a military post once declared "sensitive" and restricted by the Iraqi government. On the third day of the renewed inspections, U.N. monitors arrived unannounced but received unrestricted access to the Chemical Corps base, as mandated by the U.N. Security Council when it sent them back to Iraq with greater powers to inspect anyplace, anytime. Another team, meanwhile, inspected a complex that once was the heart of Iraq's aborted effort to build nuclear bombs. In both cases, as expected, the U.N. teams did not disclose their findings, holding them for later reports. But their spokesman indicated afterward they were satisfied with Iraqi cooperation. "They were able to conduct inspections as they planned," Hiro Ueki said. It's still early. Let the game play out...
"They found nothing," said the commander of the Balad military post north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2002 08:37 pm ||
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In other news, the UN admitted to tipping the Iraqis off about a "surprise" inspection. (Link courtesy LGF)
Israel is planning cross-border military strikes as well as a long hunt by stealth once its Mossad intelligence agency delivers its verdict on who was responsible for Thursdays attacks. Intelligence sources say the most likely targets in retaliation for the attacks, which cost 16 lives but came close to killing hundreds, are in Lebanon and possibly Somalia and Yemen. But the Israeli government is waiting for confirmation from Mossad agents in Kenya that Al-Qaeda was responsible for the bombing and missile attack, and to find out whether Hezbullah or any other group was also involved. I imagine these will be pretty tightly targeted. Hitting targets in Yemen will raise the Arab hackles — I wonder if that'll be proxied to us? I doubt they'll find anything on hard links between Hezbollah and al-Qaeda — though it's entirely likely they'll find links to Usbat al-Ansar, or similar organizations, probably in Ain el-Hilweh...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2002 08:04 pm ||
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The State Department on Saturday warned Americans in the East African nation of Djibouti, where U.S. troops are posted, that terrorists may be planning attacks similar to those last week in Kenya. The government had not confirmed the credibility of information concerning the threats, which also were thought to cover other countries in the region. "Due to the preponderance of threat information, the department believes it prudent to share this information with American citizens so they can make an informed decision in deciding whether to travel to or remain in East Africa," the statement said. Yep. All those Merkin troops, just sitting there, waiting to be attacked by Bad Guys...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2002 08:07 pm ||
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A French anti-terrorist judge placed the head of a Paris mosque under formal investigation on Saturday, the latest step in a major crackdown on Islamic militants, judicial sources said. Police arrested Kamel Lakhram, a Tunisian imam or prayer leader, earlier this week for suspected links to "shoebomber" Richard Reid. France has launched several raids to hunt down Islamic militants amid fears that the al Qaeda network and other groups were planning attacks in the run up to Christmas.
Anti-terrorism unit judge Francois Ricard placed Lakhram under official inquiry on suspicion of "links to people involved in terrorist activity." A suspect cannot be kept in custody for more than four days unless he is put under formal investigation. The sources said Ricard did not directly link Lakhram to Reid, the Briton who has pleaded guilty in the United States to trying to blow up a plane bound for Miami from Paris last December with explosives packed inside the soles of his shoes. The sources said that for the moment, Ricard was focusing on whether Lakhram had any links to people suspected of recruiting for Islamic extremist groups, including one based in Kashmir. That's okay. If they can't hold him on one thing, hold him on another, and investigate both. The more bloodthirsty holy men they have behind bars, the better off they'll be.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2002 08:31 pm ||
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Another batch of 49 Pakistanis who were deported by Spanish authorities arrived at Islamabad Airport on Friday. These Pakistanis had entered Spain illegally for the quest of better future from Morocco during last six months. They say that they had paid heavy amount to different agents for entering Spain. However, Spanish authorities arrested and expelled them from the country. Tough nails, ain't it? Now they'll be stuck in Pakland until more money arrives from Soddy Arabia to pay their passage somewhere else. Poor guys won't have anything to do but go to MMA rallies and plot dire revenge on somebody.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2002 08:43 pm ||
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Tribal elders of Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) have asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to tender apology over his statement that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were a threat to peace and stability. If Putin even hears of this, I'll betcha I know what bad words he's gonna say — and where he's gonna suggest these guys go. (Hint: It's not in Siberia. In fact, it's much warmer...)
Addressing a joint press conference here on Tuesday, they strongly condemned the remarks by Russian President and asked him to apologise over it. They maintained that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were part of international coalition against terrorism. Yup. And I'm an Irishman named Murphy. Want to see my leprechaun?
The tribal elders said that President General Pervez Musharraf setting aside all fears and threats joined the international coalition formed after September 11 events against terrorism. Dragging his countrymen with him, kicking and screaming...
Armed force comprising thousands of tribesmen had been constantly monitoring the Pak-Afghan border to stop Al-Qaida fugitives entering into Pakistan for last several months, they pointed out. They said keeping in view the security measures there was no question whatsoever that Al-Qaida members might sneak through the border.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2002 08:53 pm ||
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[sarcasm on]
Yeah, and Osama's still in Tora Bora - those upstanding Tribals would NEVER let Al-Qaida members infiltrate to Pakland!
[sarcasm off]
Israeli soldiers arrested a local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades during an incursion in the West Bank town of Nablus. Majid Masri, 28, is the Al-Aqsa leader in the Rafidia neighborhood of Nablus. Masri, who also used the name Abu Mojahed, was also a spokesman for the group in the West Bank. Glad to see they picked up one of the mouthpieces. They shouldn't bother waiting until they've connected them with the 'militants.' It's all the same stew.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2002 08:37 pm ||
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The extent of the electoral âgreen tideâ that is welling up should not be overestimatedâif only because the largest of these Moroccan Islamist movements, Justice and Charity, advocates a boycott of the elections. Yet some observers foresee a new forward thrust of the fundamentalists, like the one that marked the entry of the âbearded onesâ into Parliament in 1997 and 1999. Either by violence or through the ballot box, Islamism has therefore become ascendant in the kingdom and is a worrisome trend.
As the undisputed leader, Yassine enjoys the right to veto all decisions of the seven-member General Orientation and Leadership Council that heads Justice and Charity. If he dies, his successor should, in principle, be the oldest member of this âpolitburo.â
Al-Adl wal-Ihsan, which was for a long time amateurish, has professionalized its structures. The movement has set up watch committees to flush out police informants and to improve the transmission of the latest watchwords. Even some policemen have been âturnedâ to work for the sheik. Finally, the practice of jogging and martial arts is recommended for the movementâs followers, who are supposed to be âsound of bodyââŠand ready for the Great Evening. Or the great revolution
The Party for Justice and Develop-ment (PJD) are the Mensheviks (or the social democrats) within the Moroccan Islamist nebula. Fourteen of their elected representatives serve in Parliament, and sometimes they cause a commotion there. But they advocate taking power through elections, and they do not call into question the monarchy or any of the existing institutions.
At first glance, the PJD looks like an ordinary and conservative party, which could be considered to be to the right of [the nationalist political party] Istiqlal. It is militant for the Palestinian cause, opposed to the integration of women, and against micro-credit (which they see as encouraging usury). It is religious, certainly, but not too much; it enjoys a sound organization where managerial staff, attorneys, and physicians work together.
For a long time it supported the government of Abderrahmane Youssoufi before distancing itself in October 2000, and it even has a woman, Bassima Hakkaoui, among its leaders. But in fact, those who have studied the history of the PJD, as well as the readers of Attajdid, the partyâs unofficial daily paper, know that all the above is an empty shell, a mask that conceals a reality that is much more Islamist: the Movement for Unification and Reform, the MUR.
The main craftsman of this infiltration is the director of a private school in Rabat and a PJD representative in Parliament: Abdelilah Benkirane, age 48. This former member of Istiqlalâs youth movement is quite familiar with militant fundamentalism, because he learned his lessons there. During the 1970s, Benkirane frequented the Moroccan Islamic Youth Movement (MJIM) of Abdelkrim Moutii. Taking refuge since then in Libya and then in Norway, Moutii disappeared from the Moroccan scene. Benkirane stayed. The result was a break with violence and a slow evolution toward working within legal structures. In 1981, Benkirane left the MJIM and, together with men like the attorney Mustafa Ramid or the psychiatrist Saadeddine el-Othmani, both currently PJD representatives in Parliament, founded the Jamaa Islamiya.
Some say it was for purely tactical reasons, while others, including the Salafists and Justice and Charity, claim that it was because he had wandered from the path of God, but his followers assert that he did so for sincere reasons.
Now Benkirane advocates recognition of the monarchy and participation in political institutions. In 1988, the Jamaa became the Movement for Reform and Renewal, and then, after merging with the League for an Islamic Future of Ahmed Raissouni, it took the name of Movement for Unification and Reform.
Little by little, what remained of the leadership of the original PJD was put on the sidelines by MURâs Islamistsâexcept for the symbolic figure of Khatib. All of the elected representatives of the party and 13 of the 18 members of its General Secretariat are active MUR members.
The PJD, having been âIslamicizedâ in this way, will therefore be the only party to represent the Islamic fundamentalist movement in the September legislative elections. Will it get the votes of the other religious movements? This is far from certain, even though the differences that separate them have more to do with form and strategy than with substance.
In the area of day-to-day mobilization, this party, which is rather elitist, suffers from the competition of the intrusive Sheik Yassine. As for the Salafists, they profess disdain and scorn for him. It remains to be seen whether the police, in their investigation of the Al-Qaeda network, were surprised to discover that the second Moroccan wife chosen by the Saudi Zouhair Tabiti, the head of the group, was a militant of the quite presentable MUR. And so, from the alleys of Sidi Moumen to the halls of Parliament, the Islamists make up a large family. And the only thing they agree on is that they should rule and the others should follow them
Posted by: Paul ||
11/30/2002 10:03 pm ||
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Nothing says loving like "politburo"...PURGE!
Posted by: Brian ||
11/30/2002 23:59 Comments ||
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Malaysia's Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz has blown her top at Australian security personnel for trying to use sniffer dogs to check her luggage during a visit to Sydney for a recent WTO meeting, newspapers said on Saturday. Rafidah said the Australians were insensitive in subjecting her to a screening using an animal considered haram, or "forbidden" in Islam, when they knew she was a Muslim. Dogs are what they've got. They don't have any otters or marmosets that can do the job...
The minister said she warded off two attempts by airport security to check her luggage with dogs after she arrived in Sydney on November 14 for the World Trade Organisation meeting. But on reaching her hotel, she found another canine team waiting. "This time, I blew my top," the New Straits Times quoted her as saying. "I am a bigwig! Why should I be subjected to the same security the common folk get?"
Cowed by the angry minister, whose sharp tongue has earned her the nickname "Madam Rapidfire" among some foreign media, the security officials eventually relented. Wonder if she'll be invited back again, though?
Australia has boosted security measures, particularly screening of visitors and issuance of travel visas, since the October 12 bomb attacks in Bali, Indonesia, which killed more than 180 people, mostly Australians.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2002 08:04 pm ||
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Bomb-sniffing kangaroos? I can't see it myself.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/30/2002 23:09 Comments ||
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Maybe they need to train some bomb-sniffing pigs just for the Muslims. It would make a nice movie: Babe 3: Pig in the Airport.
Indonesia's defense minister has warned the army would launch a major military offensive unless separatists in Aceh province sign a peace deal on December 9 ending one of the world's longest-running conflicts. But Matori Abdul Jalil said he was confident the planned signing in Switzerland would go ahead as planned.
International mediators from the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Center for Humanitarian Dialogue -- which is facilitating the negotiations -- announced earlier this month that the warring sides had tentatively agreed to end hostilities and hold a political dialogue. But escalating combat in the province of 4.1 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra island has threatened the peace process. Matori warned that if the agreement should collapse, "we will face them with our military." From our point of view, best thing would be a drawn-out war of attrition, with very high casualties on both sides...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
11/30/2002 08:04 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.
