A Brazilian woman, shot in crossfire between police and drug dealers, was saved by her silicone breast implants. Doctors said the silicone had slowed the bullet up enough to prevent it from causing her a serious injury. "Whattya mean, 'saved me from a serious injury'? My entire boob deflated! That's serious!"
Jane Selma Soares was caught up in shooting between police officers and drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro. She told Las Ultimas Noticias newspaper that even though she tried to hide, a bullet hit her in the chest. "I jumped behind a post, but they stuck out like sore, uhh... thumbs!"
When she got to a nearby hospital doctors realised her implants had stopped the bullet entering her body further. The doctor who treated her said: "If there was no silicone the bullet could have reached a vital organ causing serious damage." "Man! Those things are hard as rocks!"
A plastic surgeon was called in to fix the damage and took the opportunity to increase the size of Mrs Soares' breasts with more silicone. She said: "I'm twice happy, first because my prosthesis saved my life and also because now I look even more beautiful." "And these babies'll stop anything up to a 105mm tank round!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 01:47 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Dammit, Fred! Now I need a new keyboard!
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 13:59 Comments ||
Top||
#2
These would be the All-Utility Breasts Mk.II - light, durable, and bulletproof!
Onlookers at a West Side funeral home's nativity scene featuring live animals have a new attraction to ewe and awe over after Charleston firefighters helped deliver a baby sheep. "The sheep was slinging around, trying to get the baby out of her," Battalion Chief Eric Kessler said of the ewe's condition when crews arrived. They managed to deliver the lamb, but Kessler said he and the rest of the impromptu veterinary assistants were not out of the woods yet. "The baby was cold and sluggish," Kessler said. "We took her inside the funeral home and wrapped her in hot towels and heat packs." The new arrival eventually began to warm and starting taking a bottle, Kessler said. The lamb was fine when crews cleared the scene. Both the mother and baby now are part of the nativity scene. Awwwww...
The same nativity scene was in the news last week when an East Bank man was arrested after police allegedly found him having sex with one of the sheep. The man was charged with trespassing, cruelty to animals and destruction of property. I wonder if the new lamb looks like him?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 07:45 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
The attackers who shot and killed a U.S. paratrooper in eastern Afghanistan over the weekend later fired rockets at an American base in the same area, the military said Monday. The rocket attack, which caused no casualties, followed a gunbattle Saturday near Shkhin that killed one enemy fighter, wounded another and left U.S. 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper Sgt. Steven Checo dead, the U.S. military statement said.
Steven Checo, of New Jersey, was the first U.S. soldier killed in combat in Afghanistan since August, when a soldier died of wounds suffered in a July ambush. After the Shkhin skirmish, the group of seven to nine attackers carrying AK-47 assault rifles and other military equipment fled across the border into Pakistan, the U.S. military said. Need to pay a visit to these guys home base someday soon.
U.S. Special Forces troops, who were conducting an investigation of the incident in the same area, said the same group fired six rockets at the U.S. base in Shkhin several hours later. Six alarm clocks -- apparently timing devices -- were found nearby, the statement said. Rockets, many Chinese-made and connected to crude timers, have been fired frequently at U.S. troops stationed at the Khost airfield in eastern Afghanistan. The rockets, sometimes leaned against rocks, are difficult to aim and have rarely caused casualties. Harassing fire, they know if they hang around the launch point, they're gonna catch hell.
In the most recent incident, a rocket hit near the Jalalabad airport, missing an Afghan army garrison and causing no injuries, police said. The attack occurred one day after the Afghan authorities in Jalalabad seized scores of other rockets destined for Taliban and Al Qaeda fugitives. No arrests were made in the seizure near the eastern border with Pakistan. As long as these guys have a safe base of operations, these attacks are going to keep happening
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 01:50 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
At a meeting in the remote town of Dera Ismail Khan, Fazl-ur Rahman said a war in Iraq would be "part of the American agenda to spread terrorism," the Urdu-language newspaper Nawa-e-Waqt reported Sunday.
Most Pakistani tribesmen in the border regions are devout Muslims loathe to hand over a fellow Muslim to the United States.
Any attempt by the U.S. military to pursue suspects into Pakistan would likely provoke an angry and possibly violent backlash from religious hard-liners.
The babbling goof then went on to say Pakistan would be attacked next........I hope he is correct in this assumption.
Posted by: Richard ||
12/24/2002 1:08 Comments ||
Top||
Yemen has been using American money to beef up its weapons stockpile with Russian-made equipment, says President Ali Abdullah Saleh. And more purchases from Russia appear to be on the way. The undisclosed amount of American funding came from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for the arms purchases from America's former Cold War nemesis, with American knowledge, said Saleh. "They [Americans] have given us a little money from the American Intelligence, which we used to buy a few airplanes to combat terrorism, through a negotiated contract with the Russians," Saleh said on Friday, during an interview on MBC Satellite Television. Yemen now spends about $540 million (YR 96 billion) on its military every year. Russian military sources confirmed on Tuesday, that in 2002 Moscow supplied Yemen with 15 Mig-29s and more than 80 tanks. Everybody gets a little piece of the action, except for us taxpayers. But that's okay. Ultimately, it's cheaper if they kill the Bad Guys themselves. If they keep the dough, and they don't kill the Bad Guys, then we've been suckered...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 02:18 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Let them buy Mig 29s. They are relatively cheap and it will scare Psychotic Arabia. In addition, the genral shortage of parts and training for MIGs will make the stuff obsolete in two years.
Posted by: M.. H. W. ||
12/23/2002 17:46 Comments ||
Top||
#2
And of course the U.S. can be assured that Yemen will always be very grateful for the assistance in building their military.
Iraqi aircraft shot down a U.S. unmanned surveillance drone over southern Iraq Monday, American military officials said. The Predator drone was conducting a reconnaissance mission, a senior official with U.S. Central Command said. Iraqi fighter aircraft penetrated the southern no-fly zone over the country and fired on the Predator, and its controllers then lost contact with the plane, the official said. ``This action is the latest chapter in a lengthy list of hostile acts by the Iraqi regime,'' said Jim Wilkinson, a Central Command spokesman. Central Command is the U.S. military command that oversees operations in Iraq and the surrounding countries. That's interesting. Usually they can't coax the Iraqi Air Force off the ground.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 10:20 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Somebody's going to loose a airbase, real soon.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 10:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Predators are cheap and expendable. They fly low and slow to get good photos. I'm sure it was like shooting skeet, at the same time I'm sure they got a lucky shot.
Nice of them to tell us in an unambigious way which regions they don't want us looking at.
#5
Word from Kuwait last week is they ahve started to re-arm the predators with stinger missles, so that they can defend themsevles.
the 'iraqi airforce' might be in for a real shock next time they go up against a predator. Imagine the shame of being shot down by an unmanned drone.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/23/2002 11:46 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I would think AWACS would be aware as soon as it happens of anything they try to put up over there. Either this was a setup to check something out (my bet), or one of the AWACS controllers was really asleep at the switch. But I'd rather lose a model plane then a real one with a pilot.
The US today dismissed as "a stunt" an Iraqi offer to admit CIA agents to help arms inspections. As the US rebuffed Iraq's latest offer, Baghdad unleashed a fresh wave of invective against the Bush administration. An Iraqi government newspaper said the US president, George Bush, was using lies to justify a war against Iraq. "The administration of little Bush is launching a mad campaign based on lies and accusations in order to divert public attention from reality and find excuses for an aggression against Iraq," the ruling Baath party newspaper al-Thawra said in a front page editorial. Is anybody but me finding this tiresome by now?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 10:20 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Besides, why would we need Iraq to offer to admit CIA agents when there are already several hund... ow! Why'd you... er, I mean, um, what's with those Iraqis, anyway?" ;)
Posted by: Just John ||
12/23/2002 11:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I thought Iraq claimed the inspectors all worked for the CIA and Mossad already? They should really get their stories straight.
President Mohammad Khatami and his reformist camp will be "demolished" if they insist on two proposed bills seeking more presidential powers, a hardline cleric said in remarks published Monday. Mohammad Reza Faker said Khatami's proposed bills sought to bring "chaos," the government-run Persian-language daily Iran reported Monday. "Be certain that Mr. Khatami and his clique will be demolished because Islam is more powerful and God supports this revolution," Faker, of the Qom Seminary, was quoted by the paper as saying. "The president wants to impose dictatorship, albeit a decorated one." "And you know how people hate changing dictatorships..."
Iran's reformist-dominated parliament has already approved one of the bills Faker criticized, which bars the conservative Guardian Council from arbitrarily disqualifying candidates in elections. The other piece of legislation, which allows the president to check the powers of unelected institutions such as police and judiciary, is also expected to win the support of the 290-seat majlis. Oh, horrors! Those poor theocrats! How will they ever cope?
Both bills need to be approved by the Guardian Council itself to become laws. If rejected by the council, they would be sent to the Expediency Council — a conservative body that arbitrates between the Parliament and the Guardian Council — for a final decision. So figure the odds on them ever being approved.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 11:13 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
France and Russia, the two United Nations Security Council members which have led resistance to America's moves to attack Iraq, have modified their attitude in the past few days and seem to have accepted the probability of war early next year. France, which persuaded the United States to seek UN approval before trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein, has postponed a refit for the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which could sail from Toulon to the Gulf in late January. Even money says it'll break down again before it even gets close to the action.
In the meantime, after a big oil contract was cancelled, Russia has praised "very balanced" UN weapons inspectors' reports that may provide an excuse for war and is no longer insisting that the conflict can be settled only by diplomacy. Told ya they were pissed about the oil
Both countries seem nervous about the economic consequences if the US and Britain go it alone and then do a deal on oil with a new regime. And well they should
The French President, Jacques Chirac, is coming under increasing pressure from business and military leaders and the army, navy and air force have been told to review their capabilities. Such as they are
On the Russian side, a marked hardening of attitudes by Moscow in the past two weeks is believed to have contributed to an Iraqi decision to cancel a $US3.7 billion ($6.5 billion) drilling contract with the Moscow company Lukoil. The Iraqi ambassador in Moscow, Abbas Khalif, claimed the deal had been broken off for purely economic reasons, but Lukoil's chairman, Vagit Alekperov, said it was a political decision. Iraqi leaders were reported to be angry that Lukoil representatives had met opposition officials in exile to discuss post-Saddam contracts. Coming back to bite them in the ass.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 12:49 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I "read" someplace that they built this carrier, only to discover that the planes that they wanted to fly from it were too big to launch. Perhaps they can open a cafe, where weary troops can rest and be solicitedserviced waited on by beautiful French girls.
#2
The problems with the charles de gaulle are legendary here is a small sample of info on its problems: (click here)
I also know that at one time the ship suffered severe navigation problems, due the fact that the ships laundry was directly under the CCC, the effect of the dryers kept causing the GPS navigation system to fail.
If ever there was a cursed ship,its the charles de gaulle.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/23/2002 13:51 Comments ||
Top||
SOUTH OF KUWAIT-IRAQ BORDER, Dec. 21, 2002
The U.S. Army launched its biggest maneuver in the Kuwaiti desert since the Gulf War on Saturday, throwing thousands of soldiers and hundreds of armored vehicles into live-fire exercises to sharpen their skills ahead of a possible new war with Iraq. The operations got under way as the threat of war increased with declarations by U.N. arms inspectors that Iraq failed to fully account for its banned weapons, and the United States struggled for diplomatic support to declare Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in "material breach" of U.N. resolutions. News of the latest diplomatic confrontations sharpened the expectations among soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, as they rumbled forward in tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles Saturday for two days of live-fire maneuvers in the windblown sands a few miles from the Iraqi border. "This is the biggest maneuver exercise since the Gulf War," Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, commander of the 3rd Division, told The Associated Press. "It really adds focus to our soldiers. They're already one of the best trained divisions in the army, probably in the world."
It seems no accident that reporters and TV crews have been invited along for the maneuvers, and some commanders have pointed out the military show of force was a warning to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as well as a chance for soldiers to rehearse for combat. While American officials have said President Bush has not yet decided to launch a war, it appears ever more likely he'll do so soon. One Friday, an administration official said on condition of anonymity that Bush had authorized a doubling of the 50,000 U.S. troops now in the Gulf. The United States has kept a brigade-sized force in Kuwait as a deterrent against Iraqi attack since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. That mission officially has not changed, and no huge prewar buildup of forces has taken place similar to the Gulf War a decade ago. But on the ground, the soldiers are clearly aware that they would form the core of any invasion into Iraq. On their gun barrels, they have painted names that include the flight numbers of the Sept. 11 airplanes that were hijacked, as well as a threat that now seems more timely: "All the way to Baghdad."
"I kind of feel sorry for them," said 1st Lt. Ryan Kuo of Reno, Nevada. "It is not like 10 years ago. The weapons we have now don't miss." They know why they are there, and they're ready. God Bless.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 12:52 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And to our journalist friends from France, please, please, don't stand in front of the tanks.
The United Nations nuclear agency says its experts in Iraq are starting to interview key Iraqi scientists with "critical information" on the country's weapons programmes. "We are now, I think, in the process of interviewing people inside Iraq... but we are also working on the practical arrangements to take people out of Iraq," Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told CNN on Monday. "Money?"
"Check!"
"Guns?"
"Check!"
"Lawyers?"
"Check!"
"Umbrella?"
"Check!"
Mr El Baradei said the IAEA's first task was to identify Iraqi interviewees willing to co-operate, and assure them that they and their families would be safe if they spoke to the inspectors. "We don't want to talk to the ones who aren't willing to cooperate. What would they know?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 01:02 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The Sunday Telegraph reported that the Royal Navy is planning its biggest amphibious landing operation in more than 20 years as the main British effort in a war to topple Saddam Hussein . Now, the Sunday Telegraph may be getting it's war plans from the same place the New York Times does, but the plan does sound about right.
According to the report, the whole of the Royal Marines 3 Commando Brigade will join American forces to seize the strategically vital southern port of Basra, Iraq's second city.
Allied commanders regard the capture of Basra, along with its docks at the head of the Gulf and two airfields, as extremely important to the invasion. Agree
The amphibious force being assembled for the task is likely to be at least 40,000 strong. The 5,500 Royal Marines will fight alongside two expeditionary units of the US marines.
The attack will involve the naval task force which sails to the Gulf early next month, led by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal after its conversion into a commando assault ship. Hummm, adding more helicopters to her load of Harriers? Sounds like they read the after action reports from Afganistan and picked up on what we did with the USS Kitty Hawk. On course, the Brits have always been leaders in commando tactics.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 01:03 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The "kitty hawk" scenario also might explain the recent deployment of the non nuclear carrier U.S.S Constellation from San Deigo.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/23/2002 13:42 Comments ||
Top||
Six Iranian male bikers convicted of harassing families and women have been publicly flogged in the northwestern city of Tabriz, the Kayhan newspaper reported Monday. The evening paper said the gang, who had been cruising the streets of the city on their motorcycles and molesting pedestrians, were given a total of 120 lashes in a city park on Sunday. That pretty much took care of their little problem with Hell's Angels, didn't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 02:02 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That would be "Shaytan's Angels," Fred. Their logo is a skull with "kaffir" written on the forehead. Just kidding.
More secret war plans hit the papers, this in the Gulf News.
The Pentagon is drawing up plans to helicopter thousands of U.S. soldiers into Iraq from Turkey in the early days of an invasion, establishing a northern front that war planners increasingly see as a key part of any U.S. military action against Saddam Hussain's regime. Designed partly to address Turkish opposition to basing large numbers of U.S. troops on its soil, the plans call for ferrying soldiers into Turkish bases and transferring them quickly to helicopters that would deposit them in northern Iraq, senior defence officials said.
There they would secure key oil fields and stabilise provinces already controlled by ethnic Kurds, who oppose the Iraqi president's regime. The still-developing plans for a northern front would use Turkish bases as staging areas for lightly equipped, U.S. Army airborne units. The troops - most likely elements of the Army's V Corps, based in Germany, and the 101st Airborne Division, based at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky - would be flown into Turkey a few thousand at a time, only long enough to be shuttled onto combat helicopters for deployment into Iraq.
An assault on Iraq from the north, in addition to much larger invasions planned from the west and the south, "will scare the bejesus out of Saddam,'' one military officer said, and force him to devote troops and resources to repelling U.S. advances on several fronts.
The plans cannot be successful without the approval of Turkish officials, who have been the focus of intense U.S. diplomatic efforts in recent weeks. The Turks, the sole Muslim member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, have permitted small numbers of U.S. special forces soldiers to move clandestinely into the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq, but don't want a huge American military presence in their country. For months now the Pentagon has been building up forces in the Arabian Gulf nations to Iraq's south capable of mounting a major invasion of Iraq by land, sea and air. Such an invasion, including forces that would move into Iraq from Saudi Arabia to the south and west, could involve more than 100,000 U.S. troops. About 50,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines already are in the Gulf, with heavy armor and other equipment flowing in. The ability to fly warplanes out of Turkey has long been seen as essential in any campaign against Iraq. The bases are modern facilities built and outfitted to fulfill Turkey's obligations as a member of Nato, which makes them compatible with U.S. planes and far superior to many other air bases in the region. The country played a key role in the 1991 Gulf War when it opened its bases to U.S. military aircraft staging bombing raids against Iraqi targets. The decision to allow the American airstrikes from its territory was made at the last minute.
But until recently, the United States has developed its plans largely without counting on using Turkey as a major staging area for American ground troops, sensitive to the delicate economic and political situation in that country and to its worries that territorial ambitions of Kurds in Iraq might spread to its own Kurdish minority. That changed this month, when U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz flew to Turkey to press the government there to provide more support for the U.S. plan. "We're quite comfortable with what we can do from the south'' of Iraq, Wolfowitz said after meeting with Turkish officials in Ankara, the capital. "Obviously, if we are going to have significant ground forces in the north, this is the country they have to come through. There is no other option.''Senior U.S. officials said that although a campaign against Saddam's regime can succeed militarily without Turkey's involvement, the country's support is key to "keeping it short, keeping it fierce, keeping the flow of refugees small.'' Might be a false story, but tactically sound
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 02:14 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned North Korea Monday not to take advantage of America's preoccupation with Iraq, as the United States is capable of fighting and winning two wars at once. He was commenting on the reports that North Korea has dismantled seals and removed cameras placed at its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The move has triggered fears that the Kim Jong Il's government may be trying to reactivate its nuclear facilities. "I have no reason to believe that ... North Korea feels emboldened because of the world's interest in Iraq," he told a briefing at the Pentagon. "If they do, it would be a mistake," because the U.S. military was perfectly capable of fighting two major regional conflicts while continuing to engage terrorists across the world. "We are capable of winning decisively in one and swiftly defeating in the case of the other," he said. "Let there be no doubt about it." That single statement should send them into paroxisms of incoherence for at least the next 60 days...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 07:40 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Geez Rummy could you please wait until March to stir these Asian Rednecks up. By then I will have left this goofy darn 3rd world freak story.
By the way folks, it has started to snow here in S.k. At least I hope its snow...
Posted by: Richard ||
12/23/2002 23:25 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Rummy is trying to make it clear that although we are ignoring North Korea, it should not be seen as a sign of weekness. Disdain perhaps, but not weekness.
Richard, your biggest worry, in my humble opinion, is the sudden collapse of North Korea. That means waves of refugees pooring across the border to start with. Since North Korea is substantially worse off than East Germany was you can expect the South Korean economy to go into a tailspin as they pick up the slack and try to pass around the hat to help pay for uniting the penninsula.
For more than a year about 600 fighters of Ansar al-Islam have faced a Kurdish peshmerga force of 5,000, from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, lobbing mortar shells at their positions, mounting ambushes and sending terrorist cells into Kurdish cities. In the past week the fighting has intensified with reports of 100 people on both sides being killed. Some accounts suggested dozens of peshmerga fighters were killed in one battle and that when they tried to take an Ansar al-Islam fighter prisoner he blew himself up.
According to the PUK, one of the two dominant Kurdish political parties, Ansar al-Islam is supplied with weapons and money by the Iraqi Mukhabarat, Saddam's intelligence service, to destabilise the region. A Mukhabarat agent called Abu Wa-il is said to be among the group. This is confirmed by Abu Iman al-Baghdadi, an ex-Mukhabarat officer now in jail. If true, it means Ansar al-Islam could have a wider global aspect because al-Baghdadi says Saddam sent Abu Wa'il to Afghanistan in 1995 where he formed links with al-Qa'eda. Al-Baghdadi said he knew this because he was in the bodyguard of Saddam's son-in law at the time and had been in a training camp with some of the agents they sent to Afghanistan. "Saddam sent agents to Afghanistan to al-Qa'eda," said al Bahgdadi. "But they had their own agenda and orders from Baghdad."
The peshmerga commander of the area, Sheikh Jafar Mustapha, says Ansar al-Islam has killed 130 of his men and 20 local villagers have died in crossfire or by stepping on scattered land mines. A year ago the peshmerga fighters tried to drive the group out of their mountain strongholds but the Islamists massacred 42 of them by slitting their throats. Mustapha said: "Usually they don't shoot people; they like to use swords and knives. When they capture one of our peshmergas they cut him into pieces."
The original leader of Ansar al-Islam, Mullah Krekar, is in jail in Holland and the PUK said the group is now led by Abu Abdullah Ashafi, a low-born Kurd who joined the Iraqi army in the 1980s before turning to Islam and spending four years in Afghanistan. Dug into caves in the mountains, as many as 40 of Ansar al-Islam's fighters are Arabs, Iraqis and others washed up from the Afghan melee. According to the Kurdish newspaper Hawlati, Ansar al-Islam's leader, Abu Abdallah al-Shafei, was killed in the recent fighting with the PUK but there was no confirmation of the report.
The group's profile seems to be that of a band of itinerant guerillas, fighting their own ideological battles for Islam aided by other groups. There are some suggestions that Ansar al-Islam, who operate right on the Iranian border, are supplied through Iran, with Iranian complicity. But in general the Iranian relationship with the Kurdish parties remains cordial - the Iranian-Kurdish border is much more porous than borders with Turkey and Syria and in September they were instrumental in seeing Mullah Krekar caught in Holland.
The old enemies, Iraq and Iran, are on paper strange co-conspirators, but Iran, like Turkey and Syria, remains extremely wary of a strong Kurdish state bordering its own Kurdish populations. The KDP tends to play down PUK's claims that Ansar al-Islam has links to bin Laden. One senior official of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan or KDP, said: "There are links with al-Qa'eda but I cannot say that Ansar receives orders from al-Qa'eda."
They suspect the connection has been manufactured to encourage American help and involvement. The Americans have conspicuously stayed away. A Mukhabarat captain arrested by the KDP for overseeing a sabotage campaign in Erbil that saw several bombs aimed at civilian and UN targets as well as assassination attempts, said the Mukhabarat supplied Ansar al-Islam. "They co-operated now and then but secretly," he said. "But Ansar does not always carry out the operations the Muk asks them to. Sometimes they take the money and do not deliver." Ansar is a curious beast. It's tucked away in the hills of Kurdistan, and doesn't seem to have any strategic value for al-Qaeda, but it's obviously an al-Qaeda creation. At one point, it was under the direct control of Abu Zubaydah. At the same time, Iraq's Mukhabarat seems to have been involved in its birthing, though I suspect it's turning into a Frankenstein's monster for them. It wouldn't be the first time that one of Sammy's miscalculations has turned around and gnawed him in the tenders. But I can't see any point to it at all, except to torment the Kurds, which would seem to make Sammy the ultimate driver.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 08:39 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Desperate efforts began yesterday to head off the growing Korean crisis as Pyongyang and Washington continued to talk up the tension. The UN has confirmed that North Korea has carried out its threat to remove UN seals and dismantle monitoring cameras at a laboratory used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
Senator Joseph Biden, the outgoing chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, warned that North Korea's plan to restart a programme for plutonium extraction could allow it to produce bombs "within months".
A spokesman for the Vienna - based International Atomic Energy Agency said: "There isn't any legitimate purpose for the facility other than separating plutonium from spent fuel."
Pyongyang has issued a series of threats, including one to "destroy the earth" if the US resorted to nuclear war against it. South Korea's president, Kim Dae-jung, and the president-elect, Roh Moo-hyun, sought to calm the mood by saying they wanted a peaceful resolution.
While Russia expressed concern at the North's weekend announcement, the deputy foreign minister warned the US not to aggravate the crisis.
But the US state department yesterday rejected Pyongyang's insistence that the crisis can be solved if the US signs a treaty of non-aggression. "We will not bargain or offer inducements for North Korea to live up to the treaties and agreements it has signed," a spokesman said.
US intelligence sources were quoted by the BBC as saying they believe "North Korea may already have a small number of nuclear bombs and the material to make a few more".
Mr Biden said the crisis was "a greater danger immediately to US interests ... than Saddam Hussein."
Yesterday, the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, dismissed such concerns. "We are capable of fighting two major regional conflicts," he said.
"We're capable of winning decisively in one and swiftly defeating in the case of the other, and let there be no doubt about it."
He said Washington chose to pursue a diplomatic strategy against North Korea for the moment, as that crisis was still at a relatively early stage.
The North Korean media, which is never short of a fiery turn of phrase, has given Bush administration hardliners all the material they may want.
The communist party's newspaper Workers' Daily declared that "the army and people of the DPRK are fully ready to mercilessly strike the bulwark of US imperialist aggressors" - implying that they could hit targets in the US.
"There can be no earth without Korea," it said. "The army and people of the DPRK will destroy the earth if the enemies dare make a nuclear strike at it. This is their do-or-die spirit."
Great Googly Moogly!, what kind of poker are these guys playing?
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/23/2002 10:28 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Fred was expecting "paroxisms of incoherence". Right on schedule.
#3
They're will be massive, MASSIVE Chinglish incoherence in KCNA this week. And Biden's right.These people are the Looney Tunes of the planet,which is impressive considering all the potential contestants in that game show.
#4
Do you ever get the impression we're living through a very bad 1930s adventure novel? We've had Binny reprising The Insidious Dr Fu Manchu, the Learned Elders of Islam doing the Council of Boskone, or maybe SPECTRE. We've got Sammy wanting to be Il Duce. And now we have the Mad Scientist(s), who have FOUND THE ZECRET FORMULA TO BLOW UP ZA WOOOORLD!
I hope to hell Jack Armstrong, the Lensmen, the Junior G-Men, and Bond, James Bond, are all out there on the case. Otherwise, we're all in large trouble!
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2002 23:32 Comments ||
Top||
#5
These guys are nutty enough to nuke Seoul or Tokyo, just for the hell of it. In fact, I'm afraid that China will order them to do something like that in case the US attacks Iraq. The entire Axis of Evil is a Chinese strategy to distract and ultimately exhaust the US with a series of regional wars.
Posted by: Peter ||
12/24/2002 7:02 Comments ||
Top||
#6
What we have here is a madman who is falling apart and being ignored. North Korea keeps making scarier and scarier statements hoping somebody will notice them and thus validate them.
The fight against international terrorism has taken a bizarre turn in Central Asia. Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov was recently at the center of a murky assassination attempt, which led to mass arrests. It may have been a real attempt, it may have been staged
Now Niyazov is blaming neighboring Uzbekistan. A squad from Turkmenistan's National Security Ministry forcibly entered the Uzbek Embassy in Asgabat last week, allegedly searching for "assassins granted refuge." Top of the search list was opposition leader Boris Shikhmuradov, whom Turkmen authorities believe was the mastermind behind the assassination attempt. The Uzbek authorities in Tashkent promptly cut the communications and power to the Turkmen embassy as a warning, and moved military units toward the border. The Uzbek media is beating war drums, blaming Turkmen woes on "the dictatorship of a discredited politician, who has deprived the country's citizens of their constitutional rights and hopes for a free life." All true
Editorials ominously warn that the Uzbek military is at least three times stronger than Turkmenistan, and that many ethnic Uzbeks living in Turkmenistan's border provinces are badly treated. The question is, is anyone going to do anything if the Uzbek's invade Turkmenistan other than issue a strong letter of regret?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 11:45 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm working on the wording of my strong statement of regret right this moment...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2002 11:56 Comments ||
Top||
#2
If we're smart, we'll maintain a discreet silence. Uzbekistan has been a key supporter of our campaign in Afghanistan from the get-go, while if you give me a week or two, I might possibly be able to think of something Turkmenistan has done for us lately.
Posted by: Joe ||
12/23/2002 14:58 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The stans are just too difficult to keep track of (American high school students can't keep track of where the US is after all). We should let the Uzbeks take over Turkmenistan, Kyzerkistan and Trashcaninstan.Rename the whole thing Centerasiastan for simplicity sake.
#4
Anyone know why the Uzbeks, Turkmens, and others living in Afghanistan consider themselves Afghans and seem to have no desire to join the corresponding ethnic 'stan? Too much shared history as part of Afghanistan I guess but still.
Realistically it seems that if Afghanitan fragmented along ethnic lines they'd have a better long term chance for peace.The rump of what remains of Afghanistan can become Pashtunstan.
The three rebel movements in Ivory Coast say they will consider any fresh attack by French troops as "an act of war". The rebels postponed forming an alliance, saying they first needed to commit to respecting human rights and disciplining their troops. This will happen, er, never
They were meeting to consider their response after Saturday's clash between French soldiers and rebels of the Ivorian People's Movement for the Far West (MPIGO) advancing on government troops in the strategic western town of Duekoue. The French Foreign Legion destroyed three lorries and killed a number of rebels at a checkpoint - the first time in this conflict they have used force to stop an offensive. France has sent more than 1,000 troops to its former colony and will have 2,500 there within a week. The rebels, who met in the town of Bouake, the stronghold of the main rebel group, the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast ( MPCI ), said that another French attack on their positions would be send as a "declaration of war". Rule#1: Don't declare war, and then be suprised when the other guy takes you up on it.
The MPCI has described the French troops in the country as "forces of occupation". But the French army says it is neutral in the conflict. The legionnaires deny any responsibility for the clash in Duekoue, and say the rebels fired first and they acted in self-defence. Rule#2: Don't shoot at the Legion Paratroopers, they don't like it and will take offense.
The head of the French armed forces, General Henri Bentegeat, said on Sunday that Paris was ready to keep a big force for years in the former colony, in an effort to end the war. How unilateral of him. Does the U.N. know about this?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 12:50 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It also provides an excuse for not providing top line troops anywhere else. "We are committed to peace keeping duites."
#4
French Foreign Legion soldiers crouch behind logs and sandbags, training their anti-tank missiles, rocket launchers and heavy machine guns west â into rebel territory. Nearby is Ivory Coast's Sassandra River: Rebels hoping to advance on the skyscraper-lined commercial capital, Abidjan, must first make it across this silvery, natural barrier. Ivory Coast's own forces retreated Thursday when rebels took Man, a main western city with 135,000-residents. And as the dusty convoys of weary government troops pulled out, the Foreign Legion moved in. Piling up bunkers, they set up a checkpoint 55 miles south of the fallen city. "Between what we have here, and the river, they will not pass," vows Col. Emmanuel Maurin, commander of the French in the west.
"Viva le sacre Legion"
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 14:08 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Four Traits of People whom its best to avoid fighting (whenever possible):
1) all-volunteer units
2) made up entirely of people with nothing to lose
3) who get their greatest sense of honor by dying and losing.
4) whos highest holiday is a celebration of a battle that they lost ( Camerone April 30th).
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/23/2002 23:15 Comments ||
Top||
#6
People get confused by the French Foreign legion. The first instinct is they'll be pushovers. Their French, they'll surrender. Only when the bodies pile up do they start to understand that they are actually Foreign and not typical cheeze-eating surrender monkeys.
French officials and Muslim leaders have agreed to the creation of the first body to represent the country's five million Muslims - Europe's largest community. The breakthrough comes after several years of efforts to formalise relations between Muslims and the government. A final round of talks began on Thursday near Paris after Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy persuaded the country's three main Islamic organisations to settle their differences and work together. I didn't see the report on the shootout. Did you?
The new body will be called the French Council for the Muslim Religion, and will be the equivalent of the UK's Muslim Council.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 10:20 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ok. France is definitely leading the race to be the 1st European country to implement Sharia. They are leaving Holland in the dust. Vive la France.
If they win, will EU law make everybody else conform.
Posted by: John ||
12/23/2002 11:04 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Of course this had to happen... with 5 million Muslims? If it didn't, Sammy bin Laden would have to declare a new Jihad land on azzam... France.
There has been widespread criticism in the Spanish media of the escape of a suspected senior member of the Basque separatist guerrilla group, ETA, from French custody. Ibon Fernandez Iradi, who was being held in the town of Bayonne in south-western France, was due to be transferred to Paris on Sunday when he climbed through a skylight in his cell and escaped over railings and a wall. Spanish media reports say Mr Iradi's absence was not detected for at least six hours. The French Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has suspended five policemen who were on duty when the escape took place, and an extensive manhunt is under way. Mr Iradi and a woman were picked up at a police check-point on Thursday, in what was seen as an important coup. Their detention led to the arrests of seven more people whom Spain says are ETA operatives living in France. Mr Iradi and the woman were placed in separate cells at a police station in Bayonne. But Mr Iradi, who is described by police as very tall and thin, was able to squeeze though the skylight, which had no bars. I'm envisioning a X-Files episode
An investigation is under way to determine whether he may have been helped by policemen. Now there's a thought
Mr Iradi is suspected of being a logistics chief, responsible for organising back-up for teams who carry out attacks across the border in Spain. He's a big cheese
The escape comes four months after another suspected ETA detainee walked free from a prison in central Paris. His brother, who resembled him, succeeded in swapping positions during a family visit. Hope they at least kept the brother
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 12:53 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The ETa has used France as a hideout for decades. Er, just like a number of other terrorist organizations.
The new Archdruid Archbishop of Canterbury has accused politicians of putting too much emphasis on the short-term needs of voters and ignoring moral issues. In his first speech since taking up office at the start of the month, Dr Rowan Williams said church leaders instead of governments will have to form a moral basis for society. He said that without religion "our whole politics is likely to be in deep trouble." Maybe you should try getting religion back into your churches...
The speech, which forms this year's Dimbleby lecture, was delivered to church leaders, politicians and other opinion formers and will be broadcast on BBC One on Thursday evening. It shows Dr Williams is ready to challenge the government - particularly its willingness to allow the market to provide for people's needs, according to BBC religious affairs correspondent, Robert Piggott. If he "challenges the government," then he's "brave." Opposing genuine Evil isn't "brave" in his circle... Or, as al-Guardian describes him...
There are three things that everyone knows about the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams: he's sane about sex; he opposes the war in Iraq; and he is some kind of a "hairy lefty" - we know the last bit because he told us so himself. So it is astonishing to read his first major speech as archbishop and discover that he doesn't mention sex at all, war is hardly noticed, and the argument reads like the work of a deeply subversive conservative.
And he can be counted on to say all the usual things.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 10:20 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yes, these look like men to be reckoned with....
The Bishop of Bath and Wells today became the latest leading religious figure to speak out against war in Iraq, warning that it would unleash "evil" across the Middle East. We certainly wouldn't want to unleash "evil" across an area that's so conspicuously free of it, would we?
The Rt Rev Peter Price appealed to the prime minister, Tony Blair, to consider the sanctity of human life which would be threatened by US-led action. It's much more sacred than the people Sammy bumps off...
The Archdruid Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has issued similar warnings about military strikes on Baghdad, and the archbishop of York Dr David Hope said yesterday that war could be justified as a "last resort". Perhaps Sammy might consider "surrender"? That would save an awful lot of lives, wouldn't it?
But Bishop Price said today: "I think that there is very little doubt at the present time that this is not a question of last resort." "Oh, I don't think he'd do that..."
"There doesn't continue to be any serious evidence of an immediate threat of Saddam Hussein using any weapons of mass destruction that he may have." "And even if he does, he'll probably just kill a bunch of wogs. Doubt if it'll be anybody we know."
"And there is the continuing danger that if we go to war against him, he will be tempted so to use this to lead to a much wider conflict whose ends are not predictable," he told the Today programme. Perhaps His Emminence could hire a clairvoyant or something, and keep his nose out of national policy. (About as much chance of that happening as Sammy surrendering.)
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 10:21 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
When the dust settles and Iraqis are dancing in the streets and we learn of minimal causalties will this Biship of Bath stand up and say "I was wrong". Or will he remove the statments from his server and hope nobody remembers.
I bet he said the same thing about the bombing of the Taliban.
#3
These guys (the bishop) would just as well be pleased letting people suffer all over the world, just in the name of avoiding a war. I wonder if guys like this would EVER stand up to the face of evil?
Gary Farber points to this very in-depth piece of reporting from LA Times. Warning! The entire article is 8 1/2 miles long!
Pakistani intelligence officials said that in recent months they have seen persistent evidence that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed â even on the run â has been aggressively directing Al Qaeda terrorist cells. "Despite being so much in danger, he has not gone into hibernation," one senior Pakistani official said. "He is trying to protect what they have. He would like to consolidate first and then rebuild on the same edifice. And he is doing that. He remains active."
Mohammed, believed to be 37, has traveled the world as one of the chief managers of the Al Qaeda network, using Egyptian, Qatari, Saudi, British and Kuwaiti identities. He is said to speak Arabic with a Kuwaiti accent and to be fluent in Urdu, the principal language of Pakistan, and English, acquired in part as he studied for his mechanical engineering degree at a university in North Carolina. Although born in Kuwait, he is a Pakistani national whose family is from Baluchistan. He has used more than three dozen aliases, including one â Mukhtar al Baluchi â that honors this tribal heritage.
Mohammed has been operating out of Karachi on and off for a decade. He communicates with Al Qaeda cells around the world by courier, e-mail, coded telephone conversations and shortwave radio. Even during the U.S. bombing campaign against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan late last year, Mohammed continued to plan, staff and direct new terrorist attacks. Mohammed the Pakistani, as the Asian bombers knew him, housed a young Canadian recruit for weeks in his Karachi apartment, personally instructing him on communication protocols â e-mail passwords, telephone codes. He then sent him off to coordinate and finance the bomb squads. With just a few days' notice, Mohammed was able to deliver $50,000 to the recruit to pay for bomb-making materials. The money was delivered in packs of $100 bills at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. That plot was foiled, but Mohammed's intimate involvement in it underscores his leadership in building regional terrorist networks.
Al Qaeda members in custody have told their interrogators that Mohammed had operational cells in place in the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks and that he was the principal proponent within Al Qaeda of developing radioactive "dirty bombs." The FBI acknowledges that it underestimated Mohammed's significance for years, a senior agency official said. "He was under everybody's radar. We don't know how he did it. We wish we knew.... He's the guy nobody ever heard of. The others had egos. He didn't."
Pakistani and American officials say catching Mohammed now could turn the tide in the war on terrorism. The senior Pakistani intelligence official said: "If you catch Khalid Shaikh at this point, you will break the backbone of the entire network." Almost every Al Qaeda suspect whom the Pakistanis have arrested since last year has had some connection to Mohammed, authorities say. Many of those arrested have no links to one another, but they all know Mohammed. Khalid appears to be at the top of the list of Bad Guys — probably the guy who's really in charge of what's left of al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 10:21 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Saudi Arabia's national airline offered special jihad fares.
Wow, buy now, get a low rate on a trip to paradise? ;-)
Posted by: Brian ||
12/23/2002 15:51 Comments ||
Top||
Girls, as young as three to 10 years, were among those killed on the pretext of their being a Kari - a term used for those having illicit relations - during the current year in Sindh province, according to a report prepared by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). The centuries-old customary murders, popularly ... apparently very popularly ...
known as Karo-kari (honour-killing) in Sindh has already claimed more than 382 lives during the year. These are people who'll bump off a 3-year-old for... what? Showing her pee-pee?
According to the report, about 137 men and 245 women were killed either by their relatives, spouses or others in 293 Karo-kari events. At least they're even-handed about it. Not even twice as many women as men murdered...
The report reveals that out of 200 accused, arrested for their involvement in honour killing, only eight could be prosecuted and punished. The HRCP regretted that about 70 murderers, who eliminated their relatives were still at large. "I just chopped Cousin Fatimah into little pieces. I'm off for Balochistan!"
According to the commission's findings, Jacobabad topped the list of Karo-kari victims with 25 men and 66 having been killed, while in Ghotki 13 men and 54 women fell prey to honour killings and in Larkana, 57 men and women were eliminated during the year. Pakistan's such an honorable country! I wonder what they did with all those corpses, though?
Condemning the barbarism demonstrated by the culprits, the report said that 30 of the women slain under Karo-kari custom, were chopped into pieces and their body parts thrown into Indus River. "Hi, Dad! Where's Mom?"
"I used her for chum. Want some of this fish?"
Only 10 per cent of the victims, it added, appeared to be guilty of the offence they were accused of while the rest 90 per cent were killed simply to level scores with enemies and rivals in personal disputes. One way of reading that statement would be that only one in ten of them deserved death and dismemberment.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 10:43 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Will Jane and the Vagina Day crew be heading over there to check out this situation when they're done being used by the Palis?
Indian security forces killed three suspected Islamic rebel commanders in a gunbattle Monday, while a civilian was seriously burned when unidentified men set him on fire, authorities said. Three alleged separatists died in the shootout with Border Security Forces in Tral, 25 miles south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, said BSF spokesman Neeraj Sharma. Sharma said the three were top commanders of the Al-Badr group. Two were Pakistanis, whose identities were obtained by prior intelligence and documents found on their bodies, he added. I wonder if they were the same al-Badr bunch that killed the girlies last week for not wearing burkas?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 11:26 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A local leader of a banned religious outfit in Kohat was arrested for abduction and repeated gang rape of an Afghan woman and sent to jail on Saturday, police said. The victim, Peekay, 24, told the police investigation team that she was picked up by Abdul Haleem, Atiqullah and Obaidullah, sons of Fazal Karim, and Matiullah from the KDA hospital where she had gone begging on the evening of July 24. I guess that's why Muslim women need a male relative as an escort â otherwise they're abducted by Islamic sex maniacs. 'Course, now she has to worry about being stoned...
The police had registered an FIR for kidnapping. Several places had been raided during the last four months for the recovery of the girl. The accused finally left the girl at a deserted place in the jurisdiction of Jangle Kkel police station on the night of Dec 19. "Everybody done with the bitch?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Dump her here, then."
"The house where I was repeatedly gang raped by four people is located near my make-shift house in the Khattak Colony. When I was kidnapped, Abdul Haleem asked me to marry him, but when I refused he forcibly performed Nikah with me," the victim told the police. "Time fer the honeymoon, babe!"
"After a few days, he told me that the 'forced' Nikah was un-Islamic, therefore, he declared it void, which was followed by repeated sexual assaults by his three companions," she said while relating her ordeal. These apparently were Islamic...
Obaidullah used to contact her family for a compromise and had also agreed to pay compensation, she told the official in charge of the investigation, Nijjat Khan. "Five bucks okay? She's not that good..."
She also said that the accused used to beat her up, burned her with cigarettes and forcibly gave her drugs during the four months of captivity. "They all behaved like sex maniacs," she alleged. Probably because that's what they are...
The police said that the three accused, named in the FIR registered on the complaint of Peekay, were still at large and had been declared "fugitives". "Hey! She's talkin'!"
"They nabbed Abdul!"
"I'm headed for Balochistan until she's been stoned and this blows over!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 11:58 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Authorities suspended three police officers on Monday for failing to prevent or later find those responsible for a weekend bus bombing that killed two people in southern Pakistan. The bombing Saturday in Hyderabad was the second time a bus has been attacked in the city in just over a month. "Twice in a month is just too often! They could have at least waited another month or two..."
"We suspended a deputy superintendent of police as well as two other officers because they were lax in their duty to prevent the bombing and because they have gotten nowhere with the investigation into the previous bus bombing," Deputy Inspector General Police Akbar Arien told The Associated Press. "We're assuming that's because they didn't want to..."
Arien said three separate investigation teams have been established to investigate the explosion. No group claimed responsibility, and Arien refused to speculate about who might have been behind the explosion Saturday. "But we suspect the usual suspects. We're starting with relatives of the cops we suspended."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 11:46 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
the folks on the subcontinent have issues with busses. Perhaps Ralph Nader can talk to them about the wonders of mass transportation because they don't seem to appreciate it.
#3
I wonder what the current count is on bus bombs in the world of Islam? Maybe you could start a Bus Bomb ticker to tally these great strategic vehicles of Death
A woman was arrested under the Hudood Ordinance in Mailsi on Sunday after she had been raped and tortured by the rapist, who also shaved her head and eyebrows. The 30-year-old Fiaz Mai, mother of two and a resident of Mauza Khanpur, was going to her sister's house at Kumharan Wali in Fadda Union Council when one Mohammad Siddiq Mitro allegedly kidnapped her and took her to a deserted house in the area, where he drugged and raped her and subjected her to physical torture. When she woke up, she found that her head and eyebrows had been shaven. He sounds like he's very pious...
When the matter was brought to the knowledge of Mailsi police on Sunday evening, police not only registered a case against the accused but also against the victim. While Fiaz Mai was arrested and sent to a local hospital for medical check-up, the accused remains at large. The victim was booked on the complaint of her husband, Abdul Majeed, who told police that she had developed illicit relations with his friend, Mitro, with whom she eloped on Sunday. According to the hospital doctor, Ms Fiaz had been drugged. Apparently nobody had told her she was about to elope...
Fiaz Mai's father Noor Mohammad said that his daughter was innocent. The police had booked her in connivance with her in-laws, he alleged. This is the third such incident in Mailsi. Sarwar Mai was disgraced on Oct 20 and Mumtaz Mai on Dec 16. Mumtaz is also in police custody under the Hudood laws. "Maud, I think we should move to Vehari."
"Where's that, Clarence?"
"It's in Pakistan."
"You've grown tired of me, haven't you, Clarence?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 12:03 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Israel's top soldier, Chief of General Staff Moshe Yaalon, flew into Ankara to meet his Turkish counterpart, Hilmi Ozkok, Monday, talking about the building of a joint anti-missile defensive shield. This is the result of the unpublicized American offer to bring Turkey into the anti-missile club, probably the most important of the many sweeteners offered to Turkey to secure its backing for U.S. military operations against Iraq. Israel brings as its dowry to the deal its Arrow missile, co-developed with the United States. The Arrow is designed to shoot incoming short- and medium-range missiles -- like Iraq's Scuds -- at a far greater distance (up to 60 miles) and altitude (up to 20 miles) than the obsolescent Patriots. There are two hitches: First, production is slow. Israel has deployed only two batteries, and may not be able to provide any to Turkey in time to be useful against Iraq. Second, Israel is counting on exporting the Arrow, but needs U.S. approval, less for export to a NATO ally like Turkey than for the really juicy market, India. The deal seems to be that if the United States wants Israel to provide the Arrow for Turkey, it will also have to approve sales to India. Works for me. India is a much better long term partner for the U.S. than the Paks.
The prospect is ringing alarm bells in the U.S. State Department. Another point in its favor
Giving India an anti-missile capability (evidently aimed against Pakistan) would undermine President Pervez Musharraf and escalate India-Pakistan tensions to a new pitch. How dare those Indians defend themselves!
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 11:38 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Hollywood star Jane Fonda spent Saturday visiting the West Bank City of Ramallah, where she toured a rehabilitation center and met with a bereaved Palestinian family at a refugee camp, before returning to her home in the US. Her three-day visit to the region, aimed at promoting peace, came to an end in Ramallah, which she visited after having first to cross the infamous Qalandia roadblock set up by soldiers between Jerusalem and the West Bank city. Wonder if she did the Vagina Monologues for the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades? I'd have liked to have watched...
Making her way through mud and clutching a bouquet of red roses given to her by the Jerusalem Center for Women, the Palestinian womenâs group accompanying her. Hey! That's not a complete sentence...
Escorted by a Palestinian expert on settlements, the two-time Oscar winner and crack antiaircraft gunner toured Jewish colonies nearby and moved from there to a Palestinian refugee camp near Ramallah. Fonda, who had visited the West Bank in 1980, said she was surprised by the number and proximity of Jewish settlements to the Palestinian population. "They should be someplace else. Like Paraguay."
The aerobics queen known also for her anti-war campaigns during the US war on Vietnam arrived in the region last Tuesday. And she's had everybody in stitches ever since.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 10:28 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What is with the 3 day visits. Sean Penn learned everything about Iraq in 3 days, now Jane is doing the 3 day tour. What we need is a few of these people booked on a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman expressed support for Palestinian statehood during a visit to Ramallah on Monday and called conditions in the West Bank town "desperate." I wonder if he got Jane's autograph while he was there?
On his first trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories since May 2000, Lieberman, D-Conn., said he came with a message from Congress that it wants to take an active part in bringing peace to the region. "There's strong support for the aspirations of the Palestinian people for independent statehood. The question is whether there will be sufficient leadership here and in the world to bring this about sooner than later," Lieberman told reporters after meeting Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. "It's important to bring about hope in Palestinians and among Israelis because without hope there will be no progress." Ummm... Maybe there's no hope because there's no progress(cause -> effect). If there's no progress because of Paleointransigence and their unpleasant habit of killing people at random, perhaps they should stop both, and then there would be progress, which would then lead to hope. Once we have hope, we can maybe sing "Kumbaya" around the campfire and feel like we're One.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 10:53 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And now there will be no elections until the Israelis pull out, and the Israelis won't pull out until there is new leadership. Sorry, Joe. we got ourselves a Catch 22.
#3
If Lieberman wasn't a U.S. government official, there's a high likelihood that he wouldn't have made it out of the West Bank in one piece, let alone alive.
Palestinian leader-for-life Yasser Arafat said Monday he has "a lot of reservations" about a revised U.S.-backed peace plan. "No, no. That'll never work. Come up with something else."
Arafat, speaking to reporters Monday at his Ramallah headquarters, said he was studying the new proposals. "What we have received is not a final draft, and we still have a lot of reservations," he said. "Israel itself did not accept it yet." "So we don't even have to think about it..."
Arafat did not explain what he didn't like in the revised version. "It's printed on that yellow paper. Ucky."
The Palestinians have said they accept the plan in principle. "As long as we don't have to do anything..."
The "road map" to peace calls for internal Palestinian reform, a cease-fire and an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian towns in the first phase. In 2003, a Palestinian state with provisional borders is to be formed, followed by negotiations on a final peace deal that should lead to full Palestinian statehood by 2005. There will always be reasons why the Paleos can't reform, because their resident kleptocracy is the bunch that would have to implement them. As cease-fire won't come because the fundos won't let it and the Fatah thugs can't be seen as less bloodthirsty than the fundos. Israel won't withdraw because the fundo killings won't stop; in fact, they'll tighten their grip to hunt down the professional killers. In 2003 we'll be doing much the same thing we've been doing in 2002, but there'll be a plan, somewhere, that says the Paleos will have their own state by 200X.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 11:06 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Here's one for you, Yasshole. We give you a lot of money. Then you screw. Does that work for you?
#3
"Ok, Yasser, here's an alternative: We come in, shoot anybody that even looks like they *know* a terrorist, round up and shoot every lying dog of a paleo politician we can find, and then turn the whole magilla over to the Israelis to administer..."
Monday, a top Hamas fugitive, Shaman Sobih, and an accomplice were shot by Israeli troops in what Palestinian security officials said was a targeted killing. The two were riding a tractor when they were ambushed near the West Bank town of Jenin, the officials said. The army declined comment. "What's to comment? They're dead. Now they can decompose."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 11:08 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Riding a tractor? Not a very glamorous mode of transportation.
Israel has intensified its preparations for a US-led war against Baghdad in January or February, according to a military source Sunday. Israeli forces, including its air force have received orders to prepare themselves by mid-January, under the hypothesis of hostilities starting by late February at the latest, Israeli public radio reported. That's the time frame I figure as well. Air war kicks off on or about 2 Feb.
Around one thousand US soldiers from a brigade currently in Germany are expected in Israel within days, while an American frigate will position itself near Israel's Mediterranean coast.
The US troops will officially take part in an air defense exercise with Israeli army forces. However, they will remain in Israel following the maneuvers, the radio added. That's the Patriot batteries and the Ageis frigate we heard about. The 1000 troops figure seems a bit high for air defense only, wonder what else they might be doing? Heh, heh, heh.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 12:52 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A Lebanese judge has been wounded when a man burst into a courtroom and opened fire in a courtroom in the capital Beirut. Police said the man entered the city's Palace of Justice and shot Judge Fadi Nachar in the chest with a pistol. The alleged gunman, identified by court sources as 29-year-old Khalil Ali Sinno, was arrested and charged with trying to kill the judge and two other court employees who were in the room at the time. Mr Nachar was taken to hospital where he was reported to be in a serious but stable condition. "Nobody finds me guilty!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 01:09 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Keep him in the jug until the judge gets well, then put him on trial in his court. He can be the judge, victim, witness, and jury. Saves time and money.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 14:30 Comments ||
Top||
A leading Palestinian insurgency group has succeeded in obtaining multiple state sponsors and adopting Islamic rhetoric to ensure survival. A report by the Washington-based Center for Defense Information said the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command has expanded its range of sponsors from Syria to a group of countries that include Iran and Libya. This has enabled the organization to survive amid Syria's reduction of aid to groups deemed by the State Department as terrorists. Times are tough, if you're not a major player. PFLP-GC isn't in the news much anymore, so they can't expect to be at the head of the line when the cash is handed out...
"Multiple state sponsors made it much more difficult for European authorities to solidly connect the PFLP-GC's terrorist activities to any one of its supporting governments," the report, authored by Sofia Aldape, said. "In 1988, elements of Libyan intelligence were charged with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, although substantial evidence implicated the PFLP-GC." Which substantial evidence could also be taken as an indication there's not a difference between the two.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 02:09 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The Algerian army has for several days tracked an alleged al-Qaeda member thought to have come to the northern part of the country to meet with a leader of a main rebel group, according to various Algerian press reports Sunday.
Truncheons, Gentlemen!
The army has tracked the man, identified as a Yemeni, near Bouira, a town some 120 kilometers east of Algiers, according to reports in the Expression and El Khabar newspapers.
Authorities believe the man came to Bouira to meet with Hassan Hattab, the leader of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), considered by the army to be the largest of Algeria's armed extremist groups.
Islam, the religion of peace(s)...
The man is believed to be a deputy of an al-Qaeda member, Emad Abdelwahid Ahmed Alwan, another Yemeni, who was killed by security forces back in September and was thought to have been the member of Osama bin Laden's network responsible for North Africa.
Ow.
Posted by: Brian ||
12/23/2002 03:30 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I hate this kind of story. Yeah, they've been tracking him - but did they actually track him down? Is he dead? Wounded? In custody? Did he meet a nice girl named Shirley, get married and settle down?
If they're still tracking him, it'd be nice if they tracked down Hattab, too, and maybe killed him.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2002 20:45 Comments ||
Top||
The Algerian authorities say four suspected armed Islamists have been shot dead in the west of the country. Security officials say the four men were killed in a search operation in the town of Tiaret, some 300km south-west of the capital, Algiers. The officials say that the men were behind a number of massacres this year in Tiaret and Djelfa. "Hi! I'm only one of your 72 virgins! I'm Beelzebub!"
"Ummm... You've got a tail..."
"You're pretty good lookin', for an Islamist!"
"And horns..."
"Gotta good body on you, where your body used to be!"
"Is that brimstone I smell?"
"C'mon, big boy! Gimme a little cootch!"
"You've got... fangs..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 03:29 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Indonesian police on Monday announced the names of six more people, including two Malaysians, wanted for the Oct. 12 Bali bombings, bringing to 11 the number of suspects officers believe are still at large. Police have already arrested more than two dozen people linked to the attack. Three of them are senior terrorists operatives who are believed to be part of the al-Qaida-linked regional terror group, Jemaah Islamiyah. The coppers are much more diligent than I expected them to be, I'll admit that...
Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang identified the two Malaysians as Ashari, who goes by a single name, and Noor Din Muhamad Top. He described Ashari as an academic who officers believe helped prepare the explosives for the attacks. Noor Din Muhamad Top allegedly donated an unspecified amount of money to finance the blasts, Aritonang said. He did not say where the Malaysians were believed to be hiding. Probably Malaysia, I'd guess. If the heat's really put on them, they might light out for Soddy Arabia...
Aritonang said the other four new suspects were Indonesians. They include Zulkarnaen, alias Arif Sudarso, who officers believe heads a militia wing of Jemaah Islamiyah. He'd probably be up in Ngruki, budy training the troops, er, students...
The other new suspects are Saad alias Muhammad Roisham, whose house in central Java was allegedly used to host planning meetings for the group; Heri Hafidin, who allegedly recruited three suspects linked to the attack already in custody and Hutomo Pamungkas, alias Mubarok, who allegedly deposited money for the attacks in his bank account. A bunch of cogs, not much more than cannon fodder...
The new information was based on interrogations from suspects in custody and the results of a police reenactment of the planned meetings on Java held over the weekend, he said. Aritonang said photos of the six suspects had been distributed to police stations across the archipelago. The Indon coppers have real stringy moustachios, but they seem to be pretty good with either the truncheons or the giggle juice...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/23/2002 11:54 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Indonesia's General I Made Mangku Pastika has been named Time magazine's Asian Newsmaker of the Year for his investigation of the Bali bombings in October. The magazine, which hit the newsstands yesterday, said the general earned the title for his work in trying to find the culprits of the bombing which resulted in the deaths of almost 200 people. It says in the course of solving the crime, his team uncovered a frightening terrorist conspiracy with links to al-Qaeda extending throughout Southeast Asia and resulting in the apprehension of 15 suspects including the alleged field commander and mastermind. "Third World cops are reputed to be corrupt, lazy and inefficient," said Time. "From the start, pundits expected that the big breaks - if there were any - would come from Western intelligence agencies. Pastika proved them all wrong, and in doing so became Time's Asian newsmaker of the year." Congratulations
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 12:23 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Its as if they didn't know they had terrorism, what became of the terrorist on Christmas Eve 2000, a series of bombs ripped into churches across the country killing 18 people.
Indonesian police have uncovered new evidence that regional terror network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), accused of having a role in the Bali bombings, has a militia wing called Askari Islamiah to execute its terror activities. The wing is headed by Zulkarnaen, a new suspect who is still on the run, said Inspector-General Made Mangku Pastika in an interview with a local radio news station from Solo, Central Java.
Investigators had already known of the suspect's involvement, but until Saturday had not made his name public, he said.
'Our investigation reveals that the JI has a militia wing called Askari Islamiah to execute its terror activities,' said the chief investigator of the Bali bombing. Keep the gunnies and boomers in one branch so you can disown them later? Kind of like the IRA
Gen Pastika was in the town leading a police team taking eight arrested Bali bombing suspects to reconstruct meetings which were allegedly held months before the bombings. The suspects include three key figures - Amrozi; his elder brother Mukhlas, said to be the new head of JI replacing Hambali who had reportedly fled to Pakistan; and Imam Samudra, whose birthname is Abdul Aziz. It is the practice of Indonesian police to reconstruct episodes of a crime using suspects to reinforce evidence before any case is taken to court. Interesting, never heard of this before
During Saturday's re-enactment at Imam's rented house in Sanggrahan village near Solo, Gen Pastika said that it was found that Zulkarnaen, the commander of Askari Islamiah, joined the two meetings held in July and August. He said the suspect remained a fugitive and his name emerged publicly for the first time although police had known his involvement prior to this.
The suspects continued the re-enactment yesterday at Amrozi's house in Lamongan district, near Solo. 'We regard evidence on Zulkarnaen as the most important element in this reconstruction,' he said. Police spokesman Edward Aritonang said they found out new details about the flow of cash which apparently financed the bombings and the source of the chemicals used in the bombs. He refused to elaborate. We'd all like to know wher the cash came from, although we have a good idea saudi
Police believe that Mukhlas was a key planner of the bombings. They said Imam Samudra was the 'field commander' who oversaw the blasts, and Amrozi a 'foot soldier' who bought the explosive chemicals and rented the car used in the bombings. Yup, thats what we thought
Police have arrested 20 people allegedly linked to the Bali attack, believed to be the local cell of Al-Qaeda, the terror network blamed for the attacks in New York and Washington on Sept 11 last year. Police say they are amassing more evidence to support statements made by officials in neighbouring countries blaming the attack on Jemaah Islamiah. Bet a lot of local crimes are blamed on them, just to clear the books. Some of them may even be true.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 02:45 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
The man said to be chief of operations for al-Qaeda in the Persian Gulf region, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was taking flight lessons near strategic shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz when he was arrested last month by authorities of the United Arab Emirates and turned over to the CIA, officials said. So the UAE was the un-named counrty where he was bagged.
He has been identified by intelligence officials as a planner of the October 2000 attack on the United States destroyer Cole in a Yemeni harbour, and the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi. He was said by the United Arab Emirates to be planning new attack against US shipping and other interests in the Persian Gulf at the time of his capture, officials said. He's the al-Qaeda naval expert
After his arrest he was flown to a special interrogation site that the CIA had set up in Jordan to keep al-Qaeda operatives for questioning in a jurisdiction removed from the US. And Jordan is the "un-named location" where he is being questioned. I remember that was speculated as being the case on this blog. Jordanians do have world famous mustachios
The arrest was first reported to the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, on November 8 by Sheik Hamdan bin Zayed, the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates and son of the ruler, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nuhayan. A US Administration official said that Mr Powell had agreed to keep news of the arrest secret. However, it leaked to Arab newspapers two weeks later. UAE bagged him and turned him over to us. Thanks very much.
US officials thereafter confirmed that al-Nashiri had been picked up in the Persian Gulf region, but they declined to state exactly where the arrest had taken place. They also withheld details of al-Nashiri's activities, including his flight training. Kept it quiet while they questioned him at length. Wonder if he has any company in the Jordan guest house?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 10:42 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Jeepers! I got one right. I called Jordan in a prior post.
#2
"The UAE's official WAM news agency said Nashiri -- whom it said led naval operations for the militant Islamic network -- had been arrested in late October for planning to "blow up a number of vital economic targets in the country." "He had planned operations aiming at the highest number of casualties among nationals and foreigners, but shifted to alternative plans when that failed," a senior UAE official told Reuters. WAM identified the suspect as Abdul-Rahman al-Nashiri, but a UAE official said he was the same person identified as Abd-al-Rahim al-Nashiri by the United States.
"He had several passports and identity cards in his possession," the official said. Yemen asked the United States last month to hand al-Nashiri over for his alleged role in the Cole bombing.
He was also wanted for questioning about other "terrorist" operations in Yemen, official media said."
After we get all the information out of him we can, and providing he will get a "fair trial" and beheading, I have no problem letting them have him.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/23/2002 13:39 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.
The new 
