A prominent Afghan guerrilla commander announced Wednesday that he has formed an alliance with Taliban and al Qaida forces hiding in Afghanistan. Gulbadin Hekmatyar played a key role in the war against Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s and is still believed to have many supporters in Afghanistan's majority Pashtun ethnic group. A message distributed among Afghan refugees in Peshawar says, "The three forces will now jointly fight the American occupation forces in Afghanistan." "I'll fight until the last Afghan.....wait, that didn't sound right"
Peshawar borders Afghanistan and is home to hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees who settled here in the 1980s.
In early November, a joint FBI and Pakistani police team arrested several Hekmatyar supporters from an Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar for instigating people against the United States. The latest message also urges the Afghan people to "step up their struggle against the American occupiers." "How can you be free if they won't let me be in charge?"
Hekmatyar was a major player in Afghan politics in the early 1990s, when he was also elected Afghanistan's prime minister. But the Taliban leaders forced him to leave the country when they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, in the mid-1990s.
Hekmatyar fled to Iran where he stayed under government protection till late last year when Tehran expelled him for opposing the U.S. war against the Taliban. Although Iran is opposed to the U.S. presence in the region, it never approved of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and provided weapons and financial assistance to the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. It also welcomed the U.S. military action against the Taliban.
Hekmatyar disappeared somewhere in Afghanistan after his expulsion from Iran and is believed to have established contacts with the Taliban and al Qaida forces hiding in the southern and eastern parts of the country. Found a hole and pulled it over him
Diplomatic observers in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, say that despite his alliance with the Taliban and al Qaida, Hekmatyar may not prove to be very effective against the Americans. They say that he lost most of his supporters while hiding in Iran and it would be difficult for him to reassemble his force. Now that's he's come out and openly joined the Taliban and
al-Qaida, I'd say he's getting pretty desperate to find anyone to support him
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 07:58 am ||
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The guy with the yellow marker seems to be an arsehole
#4
Wasn't Hek backed by Iran, when he went into exile? And isn't Khatami in Pakistan, as I write? And wasn't the Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan, Qazi's first visitor when he was released from jail, last February? Not too many degrees of separation between the Sunnis and the Shias here.
Islam Online/Agencies
A U.S. senator said North Korea posed a greater threat than Iraq, as the United States saidit will neither bargain nor negotiate with North Korea after it announced it had removed seals at a nuclear reactor as a response to U.S. cut of fuel, a leading Australian newspaper reported Wednesday, December 25. "This is a greater danger immediately to U.S. interests at this very moment, in my view, than Saddam Hussein is," retiring chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democrat Joseph Biden said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Hmmm... That's unusual. I agree with something Joe Biden says. Guess I'll stop by the clinic and have a checkup...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/26/2002 09:00 am ||
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Bah! This is the usual "Stop the war against the current bad guy because here's a worser bad guy!" It's for idiotarians like Biden that Rumsfeld said that we could fight on two fronts at the same time.
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It sounds like Biden is desperate to get his name in the paper a few more times while he is still officially chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Apparently he did not think it necessary to have anything important to say.
#3
arent we supposed to be able to fight two wars simultaneously? Besides, if NKor is a nuke power now, first strike with nuke weapons would be the way to go.
Two massive, fast-moving Navy cargo ships carrying combat helicopters and supplies critical for any military move against Iraq left U.S. shores this week en route to a Southwest Asian port, defense officials said. The Yano sailed from Charleston, S.C., with little fanfare at noon Tuesday, carrying a Black Hawk helicopter and three OH-58 combat helicopters in its holds.
A day earlier, the Pililaau left Beaumont, Texas, loaded with combat support equipment, including trucks and Humvees, that filled almost 200,000 square feet of cargo space.
The ships are the latest in the Pentagon's "surge fleet" -- designed to deliver equipment rapidly in a crisis -- to leave U.S. shores loaded with gear to support the buildup of U.S. air, land and sea forces in the Persian Gulf region. Their deployment significantly boosts the amount of military hardware the Pentagon is positioning within striking distance of Iraq.
In addition to the Yano and the Pililaau, three other military cargo ships berthed in the U.S. have been activated since late October: the Bob Hope, the Fisher and the Bellatrix. Two ships based in the Indian Ocean, the Watkins and the Watson, also have embarked for the Gulf region in recent months. They are part of a fleet of ships positioned near the British-controlled island of Diego Garcia and loaded with military equipment and supplies to support Army fighting units. A U.S. official said Tuesday that there are plans to activate a hospital ship for duty in the Gulf, but Holtz said the Sealift Command had not been ordered to prepare either of the two hospital ships in its inventory: the Comfort, in Baltimore, or the Mercy, in San Diego. Either of those ships leaving U.S. shores would be a strong indication of imminent military action. It would take either ship four weeks to get to the Persian Gulf.
The Yano, normally berthed in Baltimore, and the Pililaau, from New Orleans, are part of a fleet of 19 ships acquired and refitted by the military during the last decade at a cost of $6 billion to improve the way the Pentagon equips U.S. troops abroad. The ships have huge ramps to allow massive artillery pieces, Humvees and trucks to roll on and off. The design allows them to be unloaded much more rapidly than the cargo ships that were used to equip troops during the Gulf War. Those ships required giant cranes to painstakingly lift tanks and other heavy gear out of their holds. With the new ships, the ramps come down and the vehicles are driven ashore.
More than 900 feet long and 100 feet wide, each of the ships has a hold capacity of 380,000 square feet -- equivalent to more than six football fields. The Yano is carrying 180,000 square feet of materiel on this voyage and the Pililaau slightly more. The ships can move at speeds up to 28 mph. Though the fastest route to their destinations would take the ships through the Suez Canal, a military official said the Yano and the Pililaau are under orders to take a slower route around Africa's Cape of Good Hope. The voyage to the Gulf region is expected to take 21 to 25 days. That would make it around Jan 15 -17 before arrival in the Gulf
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 10:47 am ||
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So much for loose lips sink ships. They better just make sure those little enemy (Al Qaeda) boats keep away from them.
#2
I am constantly amazed at just how much information on troop and ship movements is available by looking at local news reports on the internet. I get most of the material I post here from Google News. Once those ships pull out of port, though, they effectively vanish. Notice they are not going through the Suez this time.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 15:33 Comments ||
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Surely these ships will be shadowed by some force able to prevent them coming to harm?
Navy surface ships or submarines perhaps? I find it hard to believe all this materiel is not defended in some way.
Posted by: Tony ||
12/26/2002 16:09 Comments ||
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As long as they stay out of port until they get where thry are going.Be hard to strike them with a fast attack gunboat 1,000 miles from shore.
Warplanes from the U.S.-British coalition bombed Iraqi military command and communication targets Thursday near Talil in southern Iraq, the U.S. military announced. The strike, which took place about 8 a.m. Baghdad time, was a "self-defense" measure in response to the Iraqi military's downing of an American unmanned surveillance drone on Monday, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command, the military command that oversees operations in Iraq. Defense officials said the targets are believed to have directed the attack on the drone. Just like I suspected, it's payback time
The warplanes used precision bombs, the statement said. An assessment of how much damage was done to the targets was ongoing, it said. No defensive fire from the Iraqis was detected, and all the coalition warplanes returned safely, defense officials said. On Monday, an Iraqi MiG-25 fighter shot down a Predator drone conducting reconnaissance near Al Kut in eastern Iraq, U.S. military officials said. U.S. military officials said the MiG crossed into the "no-fly zone" over southern Iraq, which U.S. and British warplanes patrol to prevent Iraqi military planes from flying. However, Iraqi state-run television appeared to say that ground-based air defenses shot it down. Predators cost too much to be deliberately put in harms way just to find out who's going to be directing fighter intercepts. Unless, of course, time is running out and it was a critical need.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 01:27 pm ||
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Wonder what's in Al Kut that we're so interested in? It's a name that keeps popping up.
Iraqi officials on Thursday showed the first signs that they were unwilling to co-operate with United Nations weapons inspectors, saying they did not believe that scientists and engineers who worked on the country's nuclear, chemical and biological arms programmes should be taken out of the country to be questioned by UN officials. UN disarmament resolution 1441 requires Iraq to allow such interviews, and the US has put a high premium on what they might disclose. The US insists that inspections alone are an impractical way of discovering the true status of the weapons programme in a country as large as Iraq. Any sign Iraq is not complying fully with the UN resolution could move the US closer to war, since 1441 requires the UN to find that Iraq is both lying and not co-operating for it to be in full breach. The US believes that interviews conducted outside Iraq, and possibly taking scientists' families from the country too, are necessary to obtain truthful information without the threat of reprisals. You'd have to take every family member or risk getting them skinned alive
General Hussam Mohammed Amin, the Iraqi official in charge of relations with the UN team, told a Baghdad news conference: "We are concerned with moving scientists abroad. We don't think it's necessary." Iraq would not "support or oppose" scientists who did not want to be taken out of the country. Of course it's the ones who did want to go that they'd oppose
Gen Amin said Iraq would provide the UN with a list of scientists and engineers who were involved with the programme by the weekend. But the first such interview, with a former engineer in Iraq's nuclear programme, took place earlier this week with a government representative present. Gen Amin said the engineer, Sabah Abdel-Nour, had wanted the Iraqi representative to be present. "He wanted someone else to be present during the interview for his own protection," said Gen Amin. "A tape recorder is not legally supported because it can be manufactured or changed. I think that is what the Iraqi scientist believed." No, he believed if he talked to the U.N. in private, he'd be killed just as a example to others
UN inspectors have the power to insist on interviews without the presence of government representatives. But our good friend Hans won't do it
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 03:43 pm ||
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Unidentified gunmen shot and killed the head of a pro-Kremlin party in the Chechen capital Grozny, and two Russian occupation policemen died in a clash with rebels in a nearby village. Sayed-Amin Adizov, a construction company chief who also headed the Grozny chapter of the United Russia party, was killed as he rode in his truck on Tuesday night, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Adizov's father, who headed the Chechen council of elders under the region's first separatist leader, Dzhokhar Dudayev, was gunned down in 1995, the Interfax news agency reported. Keep in mind that Maskhadov's thugs are "freedom fighters," not "terrorists" and "assassins."
A pro-Kremlin party leader in Moscow, Vyacheslav Volodin, said the killing was an attempt to derail efforts at "normalization" in Chechnya. By this point, senseless Islamic violence has become the norm...
Four Russian occcupation servicemen were killed and 12 were wounded in rebel attacks over the past 24 hours, the official said. Two policemen were killed and two were wounded in the skirmish in Ilinsykoye, a village near Grozny. Federal forces, meanwhile, detained nearly 200 people in sweeps for rebels and their accomplices in four regions in addition to the Grozny area, the official said. Human rights organisations have criticised the much-feared mass sweeps against Chechen males as a pretext for summary executions, torture and detention. Pro-independence Chechen politicians have called it a slow genocide. Wonder if they got that term from Chomsky?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/26/2002 09:11 am ||
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French police have detained four more Islamist militant suspects near Paris after the arrests last week of four Islamists believed to have been preparing a attack, a police source said on Thursday. The source said the latest arrests were made on Tuesday in the northeast suburb of Romainville by France's DST anti-espionage unit but gave no more details.
Neither the Interior Ministry nor the Paris prosecutor's office could immediately confirm the new arrests. The source did not confirm a media report that they were linked to last week's raid by DST agents on an apartment in nearby La Courneuve, where components found in bomb-making devices were found. Found some friends of theirs, did you?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 03:52 pm ||
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Canadian intelligence experts say al Qaeda "sleeper cells" in Canada and the United States have communicated with each other as recently as this month, probably to plan attacks in the United States, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
The disclosure follows the arrest in Ottawa last Tuesday of an Algerian man who Canada's counter-intelligence agency said had links to a top al Qaeda lieutenant of Osama bin Laden and other Islamic extremists. Canadian authorities decided to arrest Mohamed Harkat, 34, shortly after he made calls to suspected al Qaeda members in the United States, the Post reported, citing a former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) who has been in contact with the spy agency on the matter. The Post said it was not clear precisely what triggered the arrest of Harkat. The nature of the phone calls to the United States with other al Qaeda members is also not known, but Canadian officials believe Harkat is a "sleeper" agent of al Qaeda, the report said. Harkat was arrested after Canada issued a rare national security certificate declaring him a threat and was being held pending a deportation hearing.
He arrived in Canada in 1995 using a fake Saudi passport -- "the document of choice for Islamic extremists wishing to enter Canada," according to CSIS -- and was granted refugee status in 1997. He has worked as a pizza delivery man and a gas station attendant in Ottawa. But CSIS claimed that Harkat was an Islamic extremist who is a member of the bin Laden network, which has been blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airline attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
In a summary of its findings released by the Federal Court of Canada, the CSIS said: "The service believes that Harkat has associated with Abu Zubaydah, one of bin Laden's closest associates since the early 1990s. Abu Zubaydah was recently captured in Pakistan and has been reported to be cooperative with the United States authorities." The Post cited Canadian intelligence officials as saying Zubaydah identified Harkat to his interrogators. According to Canadian officials, the CIA and FBI have swamped Canadian authorities with requests to conduct surveillance and investigations into suspected extremists on Canadian soil, the newspaper said. It added that both U.S. agencies believe the threats are directed at the United States.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 01:06 pm ||
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Police detained three suspected members of a banned Islamic militant group in central Pakistan on Thursday over a Christmas Day church attack that killed three girls. Shahid Iqbal, a senior police officer in the area of the attack, said the suspects belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammad, a group fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir. Police said the three came from the village where the attack took place. The Wednesday evening explosion at a church in a remote village 20 km (12 miles) from the small industrial town of Daska was the latest in a string of attacks on Christians, who are a tiny minority in Pakistan's overwhelmingly Muslim population. President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali condemned the attack in separate messages, calling it an attempt to disrupt and divide the mainly Muslim country of 140 million people.
"Such reprehensible acts are committed by those anti-Pakistan elements who wish to disrupt peace and tranquillity and create dissension among different communities in the country," the government APP news agency quoted Musharraf as saying. Peace and tranquillity get in the way of establishing a Islamic dictatorship
Iqbal said three men had been caught. "They had received armed training...at a Jaish center in Pakistan," he told Reuters by telephone. "I cannot release their names but they are being questioned right now." Police said the arrested men included a Muslim preacher and his son. Now there's a suprise
Musharraf banned Jaish-e-Mohammad and several other Islamic groups early this year as part of a campaign to stem Islamic militancy in Pakistan. Suspected Islamic militants, angered by Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terror, have been blamed for a spate of attacks on Christians and foreigners in Pakistan. The Wednesday blast, which police initially blamed on a grenade, killed two of the girls instantly -- decapitating one of them. It wounded 14 other people. About 300 Christians gathered in the central city of Multan to protest against the attack, accusing the government of failing to provide adequate security despite several attacks this year. "What is the fault of the innocent children who were just praying peacefully?" asked Bishop Andrew Francis at the protest. "Where should we go? Should Christians quit Pakistan?" I think that's the idea
About 50 people, most of them children and women, were attending special prayers in the church at the time. One witness said flying glass from smashed windows flew into people's eyes. "We were offering prayers and my eyes were shut when something fell inside," Babur Pervaiz, one of the wounded, told reporters. "When I turned back to see what it was, there was a loud explosion." Television footage showed a bloodsoaked rug and human remains scattered around the church. Bet it got good ratings
Police initially said the attackers had thrown a hand grenade, but Iqbal said no metal pieces or shrapnel had been found. "It was some kind of an explosive device," he said. Another witness, Nazeer, said worshippers saw two men, whose faces were covered, throwing a "ball-like" object that exploded immediately. "There was smoke and a strange smell, like that of chemicals," said Nazeer, who uses only one name. Sounds like a blast grenade, these guys usually go for the fragmentation type, more casualties that way.
Police officials said Jaish-e-Mohammad, or the Army of Mohammad, was active in the area and all three detained men were residents of the village. Cannon fodder, no doubt. The leaders are too well connected to get picked up for killing a few christians.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 08:33 am ||
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A Sindh-based Pashtoon nationalist leader, Amin Khattak, was arrested at the Karachi airport while allegedly carrying an unlicensed pistol. Police said the Airport Security Force, while screening the briefcase of Amin Khattak, President, National Awami Party, Sindh, found an unloaded pistol. The police said he failed to produce the licence. However, the sources said Amin Khattak expressed his ignorance about the presence of a pistol in his briefcase and said he was being implicated in a false and fabricated case. "Framed! I been framed!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/26/2002 09:55 am ||
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What? They would have let him board if he did have a 'license'? That's OK though, it was unloaded.
Posted by: Bob ||
12/26/2002 13:26 Comments ||
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Cuban President Fidel Castro says an infection from an insect bite has kept him off the public eye for week. In a letter published on the front page of Cuba's state-run newspapers, the 76-year-old leader reassured Cubans he was well and recovering.
"I am well, dear compatriots, and I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of the revolution," Mr Castro said.
Last Saturday, due to the illness, the Cuban leader missed the opening session of Cuba's National Assembly for the first time in 25 years. Mr Castro said he had developed lymphangitis - the spread of bacteria to the bloodstream that can be life-threatening - from a staphylococcal infection of the skin of his left leg. "The lesion finally became the beginnings of lymphangitis, but rest and medication have reduced it almost to zero," he said."The three or four days that they [the doctors] promised me have extended to more than a week," he said, before adding that he had to take good care of the left leg with which he had taken "the best steps" of his life.
Then he vowed: "I have sworn never to scratch a bite again." I'm hoping this turns into one of those flesh eating staph infections. Sigh, it most likely won't. This old bastard just won't die until they drive a stake through his heart.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 08:59 am ||
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The Syrian Foreign Ministry Wednesday dismissed Israeli charges that Iraq had transferred its chemical and biological weapons to Syria. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "allegations" were "baseless and ... aimed at diverting attention from the nuclear, chemical and biological arsenal in the possession of Israel." Dismissing the claim as "ridiculous," the spokesman said Syria was a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. And we know how everyone respects treaties
In an interview with Channel 2 TV Tuesday, Sharon said, "We have such information. We believe -- and have not yet finally verified -- that chemical biological weapons (Saddam Hussein) wanted to hide, were indeed transferred to Syria."
Sharon gave no further details, but added that Israel is now "acting to verify these reports."
Syria and Iraq restored ties in 1997 when their common border, which was closed in the early 1980s, was reopened. The move helped consolidate economic ties and secured some $2 billion a year for Syria as part of the U.N. oil-for-food program with Iraq. But political ties remain low-level. Western diplomats believe that Syria, which rejects striking and partitioning Iraq, does not wish to develop its political ties with Baghdad for lack of confidence in Saddam Hussein whom it has accused of trying to destabilize the Syrian regime in the early 1980s. They don't like or trust Saddam, but they are trying to keep their options open. If Saddam has asked them to hold chemical or bio weapons for him, they might just do it. If he should win, they stay on his good side. When he goes down, they have a secert stash of WMD. If we show them evidence that we know they have them, they claim they were holding them to keep Saddam from using them. They may, repeat, may have already made such a deal in secert with the U.S. which Israel is unaware of. I don't think that Syria has a death wish and would use these weapons on Israel.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 08:11 am ||
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Saddam, what bio weapons? I don't remember you giving us any WMD to store while the Americans were looking around. You gave your F-14s to Iran last Gulf war, perhaps you loaned them your WMD as well?
Posted by: Little Assad ||
12/26/2002 18:14 Comments ||
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Four Israeli soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in a gun battle outside the home of the militant leader, Hamza Abu Roub, 37, of the Islamic Jihad group. Early on Thursday, troops surrounded the two-storey home of Abu Roub, a leader of Islamic Jihad's military wing in the northern West Bank, in the town of Kabatiya, and demanded that he surrender. Abu Roub sent out his wife and children, said a neighbour. The fugitive then appeared near the wall of his house and began shooting, drawing heavy return fire. "You'll never take me alive, coppers!"
Four soldiers were wounded and troops blew up Abu Roub's home. There went the old homestead, and him with it...
Abu Roub was not in hiding even though he was a fugitive. Wanted Palestinian have found it increasingly difficult in recent weeks to find refuge in homes of supporters because troops have been demolishing homes of those who hide wanted militants. "Mind if I stay over a coupla days to..."
"Uhhhh... Can't do it, Abu. Sorry. Gotta wash my hair."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/26/2002 09:21 am ||
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I think Israel has got it right. Croak the leaders and hurt the supporters enough. No leadership (it now being a fatal disease) and no where to hide will cut down significantly on the terrorism.
Hey, Abdel, wanna be head of Hamas in Nablus? No? How about the entire West Bank? No? How about all of Hamas? No? Damn, man, where's your patriotism?
An armed Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops Thursday as he was attempting to infiltrate an illegal Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. Assam Al-Sussi, 21, a member of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas - was shot dead as he was allegedly preparing to attack the settlement of Netzarim in the northern Gaza Strip, the sources said. An army spokesman said two Palestinians were killed. Sussi's death - raising the toll to six for Thursday - brought to 2,792 the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian intifada or uprising 27 months ago, including 2,062 Palestinians and 681 Israelis. "Damn those Zionists! They didn't even let him kill anybody! It's just not fair!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/26/2002 09:32 am ||
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Two more Palestinians were killed Thursday by an undercover Israeli unit in the West Bank town of Ramallah, security sources on both sides said. Bassam Al-Ashkar, also a Hamas member, was killed when soldiers opened fire on his car, the sources said. Maadi Samir Abu Obeid, an unarmed 19-year-old, was killed on the street by three bullets to the chest when an Israeli undercover unit opened fire on the passing vehicle, Palestinian medical sources said. Israeli military sources said that Ashkar and a companion, also a Hamas member, opened fire to escape âarrestâ. Y'see, if the Hated Zionists™ hadn't shot back at them, then young Maadi wouldn't have caught a bullet, so it's all the Zionists' fault.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/26/2002 09:35 am ||
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An Israeli army spokesman said 12 Palestinians were captured overnight, three in the Gaza Strip and nine in the West Bank, which Israeli troops have almost entirely reoccupied since June. Among them was Bethlehem intelligence officer Metri Freij, the nephew of former mayor Elias Freij, who was arrested inside his home in the southern West Bank town, Palestinian security sources said. Jamal Nader, a 26-year-old member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was shot dead west of Tulkarem. I don't think he's the kind of intelligence officer that collects intelligence...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/26/2002 09:38 am ||
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Some of the equipment transferred from Iraq to Syria in recent weeks was apparently earmarked for Hezbollah in Lebanon, to be used in opening a northern front against Israel in the event of an American offensive in Iraq. Wishful thinking on Sammy's part
The shipments contained Iraqi rockets with a range of 100 to 150 kilometers, and possibly also various items that Iraq wanted to hide in Lebanon. In an interview with Channel Two television on Monday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke of the possibility that Saddam Hussein had had chemical and biological weapons smuggled to Syria in order to hide them from United Nations weapons inspectors. Syria would be treading on very thin ice if this is true
Hezbollah has received rockets from Syria before. But the previous shipments contained Fatah and Tsumud rockets, whose range is no greater than 70 kilometers. Iraq's efforts to hide weapons are focused primarily on weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical or biological weapons. The discovery of such weapons in Iraq would provide the United States with a justification for military action and toppling Saddam Hussein's regime. But at the same time that it is hiding its unconventional weapons, there are reports that Iraq has been trying to increase the number of Scud missiles at its disposal. It is known, for instance, that the missile cargo captured two weeks ago on a ship bound for Yemen from North Korea was in fact destined for Iraq. The Americans released the ship after Yemen promised to keep the missiles itself, apparently to ensure Yemen's cooperation in the struggle against Al-Qaida. Very interesting. I thought that we gave up that cargo of Scuds a little too easy. If this is true, President Bush is more devious than even I have given him credit for. Importing long range missles is a clear violation of the U.N. sanctions and would give us a go-to-war-free card. We must be on a timetable that they don't want to advance. This also would explain why N. Korea was so pissed and said we were pirates. If they had sold them to Yemen, why get so upset? If they were on the way to Iraq, and we grabbed them and gave them to Yemen, the N.K. might not be able to cash that check from Saddam.
In addition, the Syrians at one point tried to find Scud missiles for Iraq. Given the Scuds' range, they were obviously meant to be used against Israel in case of war, rather than against other states in the region like Saudi Arabia.
The Syrian aid to Iraq - in making military purchases and apparently also in hiding equipment - raises questions regarding President Bashar Assad's willingness to jeopardize his relations with the United States. On one hand, Damascus is making an effort to help Washington with information about Al-Qaida, but on the other, Baghdad is exerting economic pressure on it. In addition to helping Iraq, Assad also takes a risk by sheltering and aiding terrorist organizations like Islamic Jihad and Hamas, hiding behind the claim that they only operate information offices in his country. Must be having some sleepless nights in Syria these days.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 09:24 am ||
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Sooner or later, the Syrians are going to cut loose against Israel again. If they wait too long, their friend and ally Iraq may have already come under new management. Will Saddam and Bashar decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Israel, before the US is ready with all the troops and supplies for its assault?
Such a strike, along with a diversionary nuclear attack against a US carrier battle group, is not beyond the capability of the Syria-Iraq-Iran axis.
#3
Syria wont attack israel until Iraq is neutralized. To defeat Israel,they will need to give it all they have, and you cant do that while you have a neighbor with a penchant for invasion of weak countries (say a country with little defense, like kuwait, or syria when committed on its western frontier.
Saddam prefers power to good will, and wouldnt miss that opportunity.
#4
A diversionary nuclear attack against a US carrier battle group? As far as I know Syria, Iraq and Iran do not have nukes, yet. That is the point of the hub-bub in Iraq.
Syria does not have the ability to do anything but distract Isreal until the Isreali's destroy them and perhaps save Saddam for a short while. Exactly how does that help the House of Assad?
Won't happen, Syria will continue their proxy war through Hezzbolah hoping not to risk their own necks.
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi insisted on Wednesday, December 25, that he still planned to pull his nation out of the 22-member Arab League. Libya will keep to its decision, announced two months ago, âas long as the League charter is not re-activated and respected in a way that guarantees effective Arab action against the dangers facing the Arab world,â he said, quoted by the official Jana news agency. "To hell with you guys. I'm becoming an African."
Libyaâs minister for African Unity, Ali Abdel Salam Triki, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) earlier he had informed League chief Amr Mussa on Monday, December 23, that Tripoli would pull out âdue to the continuing situation of deterioration in the Arab world.â "You people are crazy!"
Mussa visited Tripoli briefly on Monday in a last-ditch effort to keep Libya from bolting the League. Libya announced on October 24 that it wanted to quit the organization for failing to do much to stop Israelâs aggression against the Palestinians and U.S. threats of war against Iraq. "If you'd just let Muammar be in charge, things'd be better. So we're gonna concentrate on the Central African Republic for awhile, where things are better."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/26/2002 09:50 am ||
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#1
Two chicks in the background, maybe three. You suppose Moamer has something else on his mind besides Arab solidarity?
Hey, the four citizens of the C.A.R. are apparently grateful, the ones left after their cannibal emperor got booted out.
Three members of al Qaeda delivered a message earlier this month from Osama bin Laden to a leading Algerian Islamic rebel believed to be in Niger, an Algerian daily reported on Thursday. The three emissaries, all Saudi nationals, traveled via Syria and Egypt and met Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a regional leader of Algeria's Islamic rebel Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. What a surprise, Saudi nationals belonging to al-Qaeda
The daily L'Expression, quoting reliable sources, did not say what the content of Bin Laden's reported message was. "It's hotter in Paradise than I thought, and the virgins all look like Janet Reno!"
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 10:25 am ||
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BINA/Ummahnews
A Moro Muslim leader requesting anonymity has described the southern city of Cotabato City as a "killing field", Bangsamoro Islamic News Agency (BINA) reported today. "What is the military and police doing? Why is there so much immorality or licentiousness in this city? What is the Muslim mayor doing to stop the proliferation of these evil practices like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution in the form of live shows, beauty contests, gambling, etc.?" he asked. "If we could just cut a few people's heads off, all that would stop, you betcha!"
In a span of just about a month apart, two bloody incidents involving prominent families and politicians have hit Cotabato City. Former Mayor Kling Daud of Palembang, Sultan Kudarat, and his three military escorts were killed in what appeared to be bloodbath. Daud and his escorts did not put up a fight, prompting analysts to conclude that the perpetrators were either police or military or were close to the victims. The vehicle they used was properly parked in the sideways and there was sign of struggle inside it. Well, which was it? Police? Military? Their mullahs?
Four days ago, four members of two prominent families in Maguindanao and Cotabato City, the Ampatuans and Adalins, were killed in a shootout during a live show at a club at the Pacific Heights hotel in Cotabato City. What's a live show involve? Shakespeare's performed live many times, and the opera. Or are we talking scantily clad maidens? Did the performers shoot them?
Rarely a day passed, the same analysts observed, without anyone having been shot, stabbed or killed and the assailants always almost always remained scot-free or unidentified. Sometimes, the police or military arrested innocent people to save their face. I'll bet they just pick up anybody wearing a turban...
Meanwhile, Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, in a bid to stop these senseless killings, proposed in a radio interview recently that the city be placed under military control to avoid incidents similar to the December 22 shootout inside a hotel here, from happening again. "I have been recommending in the past that the city should be under military control because the series of crimes here could not be controlled by policemen alone," Dilangalen said. Dilangalen said there are about 400 policemen, including augmentation forces from the Philippine National Police in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), but authorities are negligent in implementing security measures around the city. Sounds like Dodge City...
Mayor Muslimin Sema, however, vehemently opposed the idea. He said putting the city under military control was not the solution. He pointed out that there was no need to put the entire city under military control because rebels or terrorists did not perpetrate the shootout inside the compound of the Pacific Heights Hotel and outside the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center. "Nope. Nope. Wudn't us turbans..."
Two Army units -- the Anti-crime Task Group Cotabato and Anti-kidnapping Task Force Tugis — both under the supervision of the Army's 6th Infantry Division — are also deployed in the city to help the police maintain peace and order in the ARMM but were prevented from operating inside the city by some quarters. Wonder which quarters those might be? In noticed that in the course of this entire article there isn't anything on who actually dunnit. The solution to a shootout at a show is not to have any more shows. I suppose that might work, but there might be another solution, which would be to track down the killers and jug them until they die of old age — of dispose of them permanently, thereby doing away with the old jailbreaking trick.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/26/2002 08:56 am ||
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#1
I like the idea of scantily-clad ladies dancing on stage, suddenly pulling out big guns and shooting Islamists in the audience dead! It would make a great scene in a movie... ;-)
#3
"...proliferation of these evil practices like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution in the form of live shows, beauty contests, gambling, etc."
Not to mention laughter, smiling, thinking nice things, or having a pulse. All these are prohibited!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2002 11:11 Comments ||
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I read that it was a "bikini competition".
http://www.newsflash.org/2002/12/hl/hl017201.htm
Jakarta Post
A man claiming he carried explosive materials to Bali ahead of the Oct. 12 bombings on the resort island has turned himself in to police in Java Thursday, AP reported. The man, who identified himself only as Haryanto, surrendered to police in the central Javanese town of Klaten Wednesday, said Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, who heads the Bali bombing investigation. Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang said Haryanto had told investigators he had carried explosives from the Javanese town of Solo to Bali in the days ahead of the blasts, which killed at least 190 people, mostly foreign tourists. Pastika said Haryanto would be taken to Bali for further questioning concerning his alleged confession. Intelligence officers in Klaten said he appeared to be mentally ill when he arrived at the police station. Not that that's a disqualification, mind you...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/26/2002 09:02 am ||
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Thailand confirmed on Wednesday for the first time that three radical Islamic leaders suspected of involvement in the Bali bombings passed through the country early this year. Major General Tritot Ronnaritivichai, head of the Special Branch Police, told Reuters that Mukhlas - an Indonesian national and top member of the militant Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network - passed through Thailand in January. He said Riduan Isamuddin, a 36-year-old Indonesian preacher commonly known as Hambali, and alleged Al-Qaeda operative Mohammad Mansour Jabarah, a 20-year-old Canadian citizen currently in US custody, also visited around the same time. Mukhlas is currently being held by Indonesian authorities, while Hambali remains at large.
``They were in (the southern Thai province of) Satun around January while running away from raids by Malaysia's Special Branch police in Johor,'' Tritot said. US intelligence officials say Mukhlas and Hambali are believed to have attended a meeting in the south of Thailand in January planning attacks on ``soft targets'' around the region. They say Jabarah's wife rented a house in southern Thailand in January where top JI figures gathered. But Tritot stressed Thailand had no evidence of a meeting. ``They were in Thailand briefly while running to a third country after Malaysia,'' Tritot said. ``From Satun, Hambali might have gone to Myanmar, Bangladesh or an island around there.'' "But they didn't meet, nope, can't prove anything, because I say so!"
Thailand has consistently denied Western media reports that militant Muslim groups used its soil as a base to plot bomb attacks on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in October where at least 191 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
The Thai foreign ministry earlier this month said that Hambali had passed through the country ``sometime back'', but had never acknowledged visits by Jabarah and Mukhlas. That river in Egypt seems to still run through Thailand
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 09:54 am ||
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Indonesian police found on Wednesday 250 kilograms of ammonium nitrate - the same material used in the Bali bombings - in Central Sulawesi province that had been hit by bloody religious conflicts in recent years. The chemicals were seized from a car as the world's largest Muslim nation stepped up security on fears over a repeat of the Christmas Eve church bombings two years ago, in which 19 people were killed, and following the October bomb blasts in Bali that left almost 200 people dead, mostly foreigners. ``This fertiliser is usually used as a material to make fish bomb here but the amount is unusually quite large, that's why we will conduct further investigation,'' police spokesman Agus Sugiyanto told Reuters from Palu, capital of Central Sulawesi, a province in the east of the vast archipelago. Sugiyanto said the fertiliser, packaged in 10 sacks, was commonly used by fishermen in the province as a material to build what was known as ``fish bomb'' to catch fish. I guess this means that as well as "elk hunters", we have to add "fishermen" to the Rantburg vocabulary.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 10:02 am ||
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Iranian President Mohammed Khatami said yesterday residents of Kashmir should decide the fate of the disputed province as he wrapped up a three-day visit to Pakistan that focused largely on security, politics and business.
During his stay in Islamabad, the capital, Khatami broached a host of sensitive issues with his Pakistani counterparts, including Iranâs intention to push forward with a nuclear power plant. I would bet mostly business, He's been working like mad to get that Oil Pipe-Line laid to India. And you can bet if that Nuc. Plant gets built Iran will once again become out main problem in the Mid-East
Posted by: Richard ||
12/26/2002 12:55 am ||
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The US Central Intelligence Agency approached three senior Iraqi military officers when they were in New York last June and offered them money to defect, a newspaper reported yesterday. General Amer Al Saadi, President Saddam Husseinâs science adviser; Jaafar Zia, head of the former Iraqi nuclear programme; and an expert named Mehdi Labidi were discussing with the United Nations a resumption of arms inspections in Iraq, said the Saudi-owned Asharq Al Awsat daily. During their stay at a New York hotel, the CIA never stopped approaching them, with one saying he had been showed a âsuitcase full of dollars,â Asharq said. The newspaper, quoting sources close to the delegation, said the Iraqi government had informed the United Nations about the incident, claiming âharassmentâ. This story is being carried in several middle eastern papers. Some how I just can't take it very seriously, I mean, who deals with cash these days? Wouldn't the CIA just wire the money to their Swiss bank acounts?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 03:16 pm ||
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#1
Turkey hangover kicking in. Should be in Axis of Evil. Must consentrate......
Posted by: Steve ||
12/26/2002 15:25 Comments ||
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But if you were Saddam, who would you trust?
Posted by: john ||
12/27/2002 7:47 Comments ||
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Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If I'm Saddam, I wonder about these guys. So they reported the bribe. Why did the U.S. think they could be bribed? Wack 'em on general principal and "pour encourage les autres" {fractured French}.
Now if they CIA had offered them a hotel maid like Jennifer Lopez...
#4
If you believe Woodward's book "Bush at War", the CIA deals in suitcases of cash. That's how all the Taliban-buying was accomplished, or so it says.
Posted by: Nick ||
12/27/2002 9:25 Comments ||
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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.
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi insisted on Wednesday, December 25, that he still planned to pull his nation out of the 22-member Arab League. Libya will keep to its decision, announced two months ago, âas long as the League charter is not re-activated and respected in a way that guarantees effective Arab action against the dangers facing the Arab world,â he said, quoted by the official Jana news agency. 
