Hi there, !
Today Sat 01/11/2003 Fri 01/10/2003 Thu 01/09/2003 Wed 01/08/2003 Tue 01/07/2003 Mon 01/06/2003 Sun 01/05/2003 Archives
Rantburg
531691 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 27 articles and 73 comments as of 11:59.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area:                    
Three more sought in ricin hunt
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
1 00:00 Anonymous [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Anonymous [] 
0 [] 
3 00:00 someone [] 
5 00:00 Anonymous [1] 
1 00:00 Anonymous [] 
4 00:00 JDB [] 
4 00:00 Alaska Paul [] 
7 00:00 Frank G [1] 
2 00:00 mojo [] 
6 00:00 Steve White [] 
5 00:00 Anonymous [] 
1 00:00 Raj [] 
0 [] 
8 00:00 Bobbing4Kittens [] 
3 00:00 Anonymous [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 Anonymous [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 Alaska Paul [2] 
7 00:00 Frank Martin [] 
4 00:00 mojo [] 
4 00:00 Fred [] 
3 00:00 Bomb-a-rama [] 
Afghanistan
Mullah Raketi released from durance vile...
A former Taliban regional commander has been released from American detention, officials said Wednesday. Mullah Salam, who was allied with the Taliban, arrived home late Tuesday in southeastern Afghanistan's Zabul province, Zabul Gov. Hamidullah Khan said, speaking by telephone from the province's capital of Qalat.
"Hi, honey! I'm out of jug. What's for dinner?"
It wasn't immediately clear where Salam had been held or why was he freed. U.S. Special Forces troops captured the former Taliban commander in Kandahar in May. Salam, a warlord in Zabul, had earned the nickname "Mullah Rocketi" for his love for high-tech weapons when he was leading forces against the former Soviet troops that invaded Afghanistan in the 1980s. He joined the Taliban when the militia gained power over major parts of Afghanistan in the 1990s, serving as a commander in the eastern city of Jalalabad. People were crowding Salam's home in Zabul's Shahjoi district to greet and congratulate him on his release, but he did not say much about his detention, said Mohammed Gul, a friend of Salam.
"Tell ya what, Mullah Raketi. We're gonna let you go home for now. But if you screw with us, first, we're gonna tell what you told us. Second, we know where you live, bub."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/08/2003 06:34 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan Asks Pakistan to Do More in Terror War
Pakistan should do more to police the Afghan border and capture Taliban and al Qaeda leaders hiding in the country, Afghanistan's foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, said Wednesday.
Diplomatspeak follows. Read between the lines.
He said the Pakistani government had cooperated a great deal in the U.S.-led war on terror, but could do more. "Rogue elements" within the Pakistani intelligence network might even be helping the extremists, he said.
Hmmm... Yeah. Might be, at that...

"Some of the leaders of the Taliban are currently in Pakistan, and this is a cause of concern for us," Abdullah told Reuters in an interview, adding: "There is also a belief that some al Qaeda leaders have gone to border areas on Pakistani soil, or perhaps deeper into Pakistan itself. "Of course it is part of their (Pakistan government) policy to focus on those issues, but we expect some more actions in those fields," he said.
"Do something, damm it!"
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11, 2001 airliner attacks on the United States, is believed by many to be hiding in the rugged and remote border area between the two countries.
His DNA, maybe.
Abdullah said the border could be policed more effectively on the Pakistani side to stop militants crossing back and forth to carry out attacks. "Firstly, we have to realize that to control the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is not an easy task for any country, for any government," he said.
There's a difference between "difficult" and "impossible." The Paks could do more than they're doing, but they're walking on eggs for fear of offending Qazi — and more important than Qazi, his backers who're still in the military and the ISI.

"Secondly, yes I would say there is the need for more focus by our neighboring country on the issue of our borders. "It is a major challenge for the government of Pakistan, for the security forces there, but it is in the interests of peace and stability in the whole region to focus more on that issue."
"You gonna to lock that gate?"
Pakistan says it has stationed 60-70,000 troops on its western border with Afghanistan and captured around 400 suspected al Qaeda militants since U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan began in late 2001 and ousted the fundamentalist Taliban regime.
The way they were swarming back over the border in the wake of the fall of the Talibs, I'm surprised the number's so low. But first you have to believe they're there, before you can go catch 'em. Then, after you believe it, you have to admit it around enough people to carry out the orders to go catch 'em...

Abdullah's comments follow a similar appeal last month from U.S. Lieutenant-General Dan McNeill, commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, for Pakistan to commit more troops and use different tactics to police the mountainous border area.
"All the neighbors are talking about it..."

Asked if members of Pakistan's intelligence community might be cooperating with extremist groups, Abdullah said: "We are satisfied with the official policy of the government of Pakistan and the line President (Pervez) Musharraf has taken," adding militants had shown they could threaten peace and stability in both countries. "For its own interests as well, Pakistan is dealing with that issue -- but rogue elements perhaps, they have their own agendas," he said.
"Yup"
Abdullah said fugitive Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has called for a jihad (holy war) against Americans in Afghanistan, was probably hiding on Pakistani soil.
Half the time, anyway. He's best friends with Qazi...

But Abdullah said he did not think Hekmatyar, one of the warlords who destroyed Kabul in the 1990s, represented a significant threat. Hekmatyar used to enjoy strong support from Pakistan, and Abdullah said he had deep-rooted links with elements in the country. "But I do not believe the government of Pakistan would have any sympathy for him," he said.
"He's a dead man walking."
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 08:51 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pakistan could do something to counter the jihad indoctrination that passes for media, in Balochistan and NWFP. During to October elections, residents of the jihadi provinces were intimidated into voting for the MMA primitives. A one-man-one-vote-one-time non-choice is hardly conducive to liberty.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/08/2003 19:39 Comments || Top||


Europe
Ricin 'asylum seekers'
Two people suspected of being part of the ricin terror plot are reported to be teenage asylum seekers.
Oh, that's sweet. Now let the chorus begin: "They're only children!"
The Press Association says the pair lived in the flat where the killer toxin was found in Wood Green, north London, and were housed there by a local council while they waited for their asylum applications to be processed. They are both aged 16 or 17 - one was from Algeria and the other from Ethiopia.
"We should put them up with a family that has common interest with them."
"How about the bin Ladens?"

A seventh man was arrested on Wednesday as anti-terrorist police launched a big hunt for other suspects feared to be still at large with some of the poison. All ports and airports have been alerted, as have foreign law enforcement agencies.
"Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for crazed Algerians with vials of deadly poison! That is all!"
Meanwhile, it has been suggested that the ricin was to be used in an assassination attempt on a leading figure such as the Prime Minister or in random attacks to spread mass panic.
"Looky here, Mahmoud, if we can't get to Blair, let's just kill somebody at random."
"Cheeze, Ahmed! Y'er a criminal mastermind, aintchoo?"

As the investigation continued, Downing Street repeated calls to the public to remain alert but not alarmed.
"Nothing to see here. Move along. Nothing to be concerned about... Don't step in that, ma'am. Your foot will dissolve... Move along..."
Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "What this demonstrates is what we have been saying for months - that there is a threat from international terrorism, that there is a mass of intelligence which passes across ministers' desks which has to be analysed and acted upon. What these arrests and the finding show is the need for us to be vigilant and alert. The British public has long experience of the threat of terrorism. Its character is strong in testing times and I think people understand that there is a threat, they understand the need to be vigilant, but they also understand the need not to do the terrorists' job for them."
Too bad they don't understand the need to arrest the terrorists and their enablers in their midst and kill them doorknob dead.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/08/2003 07:23 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Translation:

Council Flat = Welfare Housing
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/08/2003 19:47 Comments || Top||


Three more sought in ricin hunt
Britain's anti-terrorism police are looking for three more people in connection with the discovery of the deadly poison ricin in a north London flat. Six men - understood to be Algerians (I was right!)- were arrested on Sunday and security experts are trying to establish if they have links to al-Qaeda.
Doesn't everyone?
Only small traces of ricin were found in the operation - launched after a tip-off - but there are concerns an amount of poison could have been made at the flat and has been moved.
Security sources said police were now looking for three more "key individuals" in connection with the case.
They caught the cannon fodder, looking for the leaders
Tony Blair said the arrests showed the continued threat of international terrorism was "present and real and with us now and its potential is huge". Castor oil beans - from which ricin is made - and equipment and containers for crushing the beans were found at the Wood Green flat where one of the men was arrested.
Followed the instructions in their al-Queda training manual, or they watched the same episode of CSI I did last week.
Doctors around the country have been alerted and told to look out for symptoms of ricin poisoning.
Dead bodies?
However, it is not believed to be an obvious choice for a weapon of mass destruction. To take effect, the toxin must enter the body by direct ingestion, inhalation or injection meaning it is more associated with assassination.
That's what I'm thinking
The most notable ricin case was the 1978 murder of the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov. The KGB were suspected to be behind the killing, initiated on London's Waterloo Bridge using a poison tipped umbrella.
I believe the Bulgarians handled this for the KGB
All of the men were arrested on Sunday morning and are in their late teens, 20s and 30s. Forensic analysis should reveal whether the ricin was made at the flat, although officers believe this to be the case. Ricin is considered a potential biowarfare or bioterrorist agent and is on the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention's "B" list of agents - considered a moderate threat. Large quantities were reportedly found in caves in Afghanistan. It is relatively easy to manufacture in small amounts but would be considered an unusual agent to use for a mass attack as it must be ingested, inhaled or injected to take effect.
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 08:17 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BBC UPDATE: "French intelligence services provided the tip that led British authorities to arrest six men and find traces of the deadly poison ricin in a London apartment, sources told CNN. The men being questioned by authorities are Algerian and have been in Britain no more than three months, the intelligence sources said on Wednesday. They added that the suspects may have been connected to others involved in earlier reconnaisance missions."
Friends of the group the French caught last month making bombs, perhaps?

Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 9:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Bulgarians were contracted to do all of the KGB's "wet work", or so people say (Tom Clancy, for one).

Maybe we should be on the lookout for sudden umbrella purchases?
Posted by: Nick || 01/08/2003 10:34 Comments || Top||

#3  History break:According to the former KGB chief archivist Vasili Mitrokhin and the historian Christopher Andrew,the Bulgarians requested the Centre's (KGB) help in killing Markov,who was a big embarrassment to the Bulgarian regime.

KGB chief Juri Andropov agreed to help,on the condition that Moscow's part in the assassination kept to technical advice and training.The actual murder was done by the Bulgarians themselves.There was also an attempt on the life of another dissident émigré,Vladimir Kostov,but that one failed due to poison pellet remaining intact.

Source:"The Mitrokhin Archive" (Andrew/Mitrokhin) (aka "The Sword and the Shield" in the U.S.)
Posted by: El Id || 01/08/2003 13:49 Comments || Top||

#4  KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev
http://www.anybook4less.com/detail/0060166053.html
Posted by: mojo || 01/08/2003 15:39 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Commentary: Pakistan's paranoid panjandrum
By Arnaud de Borchgrave
UPI Editor-at-large
The premier geopolitical thinker and writer of Pakistan, Gen. Aslam Beg, the former Chief of Army Staff after President Zia-ul-Haq, has apparently taken leave of his critical faculties. Beg, always regarded as a voice of moderation in the hothouse of Pakistani politics, runs a think tank called Friends. Its charter is to "foster a culture of peace, security and economic cooperation in the South Asia region and beyond." His latest geopolitical ruminations — a 5,000-word essay e-mailed this week to his worldwide contacts — portray President Bush as a latter-day "Dr. Goebbels" who has "reduced Afghanistan to a wasteland as a consequence of the so-called War on Terror."
Interesting interpretation. Given time, repetition, and a sympathetic audience, the calumny will stick in Pakland. It's not going to fly too far out of that particular ideosyncratic orbit, though...
"The futility of outrageous war against Afghanistan is increasingly being felt, and the implicit irony comes to light that despite more than $20 billion spent on the savagery, termed war on terror, no gain has been achieved, except the ruthless massacre of innocent people — men, women and children. The al Qaida fighters have not been apprehended in any appreciable number. They either have melted into the crowd or have found safe havens elsewhere to regroup for fresh encounters against the Coalition Forces."
We were just commenting on that fact, here in Rantburg. Y'know, we did rely on the Paks to capture the little buggers when we chased them across the border. They really could have done a better job of it. The small-minded among us — like me — think it's because they weren't trying very hard...
Beg argues that the U.S. offensive against Osama Bin Laden and Taliban was merely a pretext for long-planned U.S. strategic objectives "to consolidate its prestigious global unipolarity." He also describes — in someone else's words — how a Pakistani intelligence officer got angry about being ordered around by an American who reminded him there was "enough space for Pakistan on the (U.S.) hit list."
A bit touchy, are we?
Pakistan is one of Washington's most important allies in the war on terrorism. But when a prestigious national figure of Pakistani reasonableness like Beg quotes Ramsey Clark, America's chief self-hating American, as an authority on Washington's ulterior strategic objectives — i.e., world domination — one can measure how artificial the Pakistan-U.S. alliance really is.
That's a point we've dwelt upon several times...
Ariel Sharon, writes Beg, "bubbling with rage and venom, has even programmed the invasion of Iran, the day after Iraq is crushed."
He knows this? He's been reading Indy, I'll bet...
"Killing several birds with one stone," Beg continues, "may be the ostensible purpose of strategic sport that USA is playing in the post 9/11 era, and targeting terrorists may only be a replay of Greek tragedy, depicting pathological passion -- 'as flies to wanton boys they kill us for sport.' Under the Bush Doctrine, and its auxiliary notion of pre-emptive strike, the world is transformed into Hobsonian jungle, making any country vulnerable and legitimizing war as weapon of national policy."
There are lots of nations that aren't in the terrorist spotlight. They're countries that make reasonable efforts to keep their houses clean. It's just that Pakland isn't one of them...
Beg's diatribe was just warming up when he compared president Bush's "pre-emptive passions" to Goebbels' Nazi propaganda rantings. "Protecting their own civilization, by hurling bombs and missiles on other nations, labeled axis of evil or rogue states, is based on conceits and delusions of grandeur," Pakistan's pre-eminent geopolitical sage said. He also accused the U.S. of providing "a model to emulate to Israel, India and Russia to suppress the sacrosanct freedom struggle of people in Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya by labeling it 'terrorism.'"
He has a problem with those "labels," because they seem to fit so well. Israel's plagued by maniacs who explode in places that are croweded with civilians, non-combatants. India is subjected to a similar sort of agony in Kashmir, with the added filip of cutting people's heads off. The Chechen gangsters are fond of taking large numbers of people hostage. Labeling them "terrorists" seems pretty straightforward; it doesn't take a Goebbels to concoct a "big lie" about it, does it?
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Pakistan will be the first to make the list of unintended consequences when and if the U.S. invades Iraq. War on Iraq, Beg says, "is motivated by Bush's desire to please the arms and oil industries in the U.S." Pakistan's answer, he urges, must be "the urgent necessity" of an immediate alliance with Iran "to brave the storm gathering around us." Iranian President Mohammad Khatami paid a three-day state visit to Pakistan over Christmas.
Now that would be an interesting, albeit ultimately suicidal move. It fits with the logic of the Islamotoons running the religious parties in Pakland and the turbans in Iran. The world's in the process of choosing up sides right now. Some are reluctant — have a look at Europe. Some were rushed into it, and now don't like the side they're on because of some of the things they have to do to stay there. The war is between west and east, but it's not, at least not at the root level, between Christianity and Islam. It's between individual liberty and the regimentation imposed by the mullahs on their compatriots. Individual liberty is not something that Pakistan understands or even views as a desirable thing.
Pakistan's principal terrorist leaders have long since been released from detention where President Pervez Musharraf, a former disciple of Beg, had pledged to keep them. Taliban, which Beg now praises as the instrument that "brought peace and stability to Afghanistan," no longer has to hide in Baluchistan and the Northwest Frontier Province. These are the two Pakistani provinces that border with Afghanistan and that are now governed by a coalition of six politico-religious parties that see the U.S. as the fount of all evil and al Qaida as "freedom fighters."
The neo-Talibs are the illustration of the difference between mere democracy and individual liberty...
"Minimum cooperation with the Americans" is the word that has gone out to Pakistani military units still going through the motions of assisting U.S. Special Forces find al Qaida survivors in the unmarked, snowcapped saw-tooth mountains that straddle the border. Anyone who's anyone in al Qaida left the border area months ago and has found shelter in Pakistan's major cities or gone on to other countries.
The fundo parties were the chicken from which the Taliban egg was hatched. It's natural they'd find shelter with them...
The recent incident of a U.S. airstrike on an abandoned border village mosque where a Pakistani border patrolman has sought refuge after shooting and wounding a U.S. soldier has further soured Pakistan-U.S. relations. And in New York where Pakistan joined the U.N. Security Council this month, its U.N. ambassador, Munir Akram, hit the frontpage of the tabloids by beating up his live-in girlfriend.
Hey, that's pretty mild for Pakistan...
While the Secretary of State Colin Powell's seventh floor of the State Department was working hard to persuade Pakistan to support Washington's tough line on Iraq, another part of the building was asking Pakistan to lift the envoy's diplomatic immunity. In the blink of log on, Pakistani media reported back from New York, Akram had been set up.
Hey! So was Marion Barry! And Peewee Herman...
This week, too, Indian defense minister stoked the embers of last year's near military showdown between the subcontinent's two nuclear powers. "We can take a (nuclear) bomb or two or more, but when we respond there will be no Pakistan," said George Fernandes.
Not the most tactful thing he's said all week, was it?
Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed fired back, "India will be taught an unforgettable historic lesson if they ever launch a nuclear attack on Pakistan." Musharraf kicked off the latest round of nuclear threats in a Karachi speech last month when he said he had personally warned the Indian prime minister during last year's hostilities to "not expect a conventional war from Pakistan." Next to that, the exchanges between North Korea's Kim Jong il and President Bush seemed pretty tame.
I found them remarkably similar...
The United States and British intelligence communities believe that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the 66-year-old father of the Pakistan's "Islamic nuclear bomb" and premier national hero, is the evil genius who has passed on his knowledge to the three powers in Bush's "axis of evil" — North Korea, Iran and Iraq. Khan has journeyed to North Korea at least 13 times. In return for a dozen North Korean Nodong missiles in 1993, Pakistan supplied Pyongyang with blueprints of nuclear know-how.
We've noticed these fingerprints before...
Khan's name also appeared in an intercepted letter to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein offering to "manufacture a nuclear weapon." The International Atomic Energy Agency has a copy of a memo, dated Oct. 6, 1990, from Section B-15 of Iraqi intelligence to Section S-15 of the Nuclear Weapons Directorate that describes "a proposal from Pakistani scientist Abdel Qadeer Khan" to help Iraq "establish a project to enrich uranium and manufacture a nuclear weapon."
The Paks denied that one, too...
Khan has told interviewers that his nuclear team purchased key bomb-making components from western companies that were in it for the money. "They begged us to buy their goods," he said. So Western non-proliferators were foiled "by the greed of their own companies." If indeed Saddam has one or two nukes stashed away, won't he be tempted to emulate Kim and go public? Stay tuned.
There's a certain element of play-acting and fantasy that's inescapable when it comes to Pakistan and its stance in the world. Maybe that's why everybody has an alias and false documents are preferred over genuine. I think part of it's a national inferiority complex — if we were to categorize nations, I'd categorize Pakistan with Afghanistan, rather than with India, which has much more going for it despite its faults. They do dote on their "Islamic nukes" and if I were to bet on the next place where nuclear weapons will be employed, I'd put all my money on Pakistan. Despite their penchant for making faces and calling names, they've never managed to win a war. The Indos have beaten them up every time, and in one instance they took "East Pakistan" — now Bangladesh — away from them.

This is not to say that there aren't educated and literate Pakistanis. There are. But they're vastly outnumbered and there's always the likelihood that if they say or do the wrong thing, some Pashtun is going to kill them. The proliferation of extremist organizations, virtually all of them based on some niggling interpretation of Islam, is bewildering, even to them. And every other holy man is an eminence grise. This is a people who have taken Kipling's "great game" entirely too seriously, to the point where they're a danger not only to their neighbors, but to themselves. Given an internal civil war, over some fine point of religion, say, it's entirely likely that Karachi would nuke Rawalpindi or Lahore.

If Ms. C. Rice were to call me tomorrow and ask my opinion on U.S. relations with Pakland, I'd advise her to disengage as soon as possible. (I believe they're already on the Top Secret Poop List, along with Soddy Arabia and probably Syria.) I'd suggest assiduous counterdiplomacy to break the alliances they're attempting to form with the lunar edge of the Muslim world and such states are North Korea, and a policy of gradually increasing isolation. One of two things is going to happen to Pakistan: it's either going to start a war with India and get nuked — the Jamaat ad-Dawa is working hard to make that happen; or it will eventually implode, with the Sunnis slaughtering the Shi'ites and vice versa, the Deobandis slaughtering the Ismailis, and all of them slaughtering the Ahmadiyyas. The last Pak will be the one to kill the second-last Pak.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/08/2003 10:47 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let's not forget that Qazi's-Jihadis got only 10% of the Pak vote, mostly in backwoods' Balochistan and NWFP. Although I would classify 60% of Paks as indoctrinated Islamists, there is a minority which treats the "bearded ones" as a circus which will close soon. Majority opinion in Sindh and Punjab is reflected in an interesting website: www.thefridaytimes.com Pakistanis who access that site would do anything to prevent the jihadis from getting their hands on the nukes. There is also considerable embarassment at the Pashto's slavish deference to anything Arab, even as the Arabs themselves are recognizing the social idiocy which dominates their national lives. I agree with total disengagement, on the let-'em-roam-they'll-come-home principle. In fact, given the MMA's threats against U.S. soldiers, the Kabul-Herat Highway Reconstruction Project ($200,000,000) should be scrapped until the 600 pounds of jihad - ie. Qazi/Rehman - waste away.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/09/2003 2:16 Comments || Top||


Kashmir militia members killed
Police in Indian-administered Kashmir say they have found the bodies of three members of a pro-government militia in the village of Hasanoor, about ninety kilometres south of Srinagar. At least two of the dead men had been decapitated. The police said they suspected the killings were the work of Islamic militant separatists.
But I suppose it could be the work of some other bunch that goes around cutting people's heads off, like, ummmm...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/08/2003 08:34 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Pakistan warns of nuclear ’lesson’
Pakistan has warned that it will teach India an ''unforgettable lesson'' if Delhi were to launch a nuclear attack.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed was replying to remarks by Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes that Pakistan would be wiped out in a nuclear conflict.
Mr Ahmed called Mr Fernandes' comments the "ravings of a crazy man'' and condemned the ''racialist and communal policies pursued by the ruling Hindu nationalist clique''.Mr Ahmed said: ''We do not want war but if war is imposed on Pakistan, we have the will to give a crushing reply.'' Mr Fernandes had told a conference in Hyderabad: ''The Pakistani leadership should not get into the idea of committing suicide because we can take a bomb or two more.''
They could loose a couple million people and hardly miss them, they think. Plus the Hindu religion says when you die, you get reborn. That makes death just another part of life and makes the threat of death less of a issue to the extremists.
Mr Ahmed said: ''Pakistan is a reality and cannot be wiped out through nuclear weapons... Ah, yes you can We know how to defend ourselves and respond to the the designs of the enemy.
''Our response will be an historic lesson for them if they used the nuclear option.''
Strike first, strike hard and take out your nukes first
Mr Ahmed said the Indian nuclear threat was ''nothing but a pipe dream and a manifestation of India's deep frustration in its design to establish hegemony in the region''. He added: ''Pakistan is a responsible state which has never flaunted its nuclear muscles as India has been doing all along''.
Yah, right
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 08:49 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nuke the areas where the neo-talabani have been elected, and we'll buy drinks for the entire Indian High Command.
Posted by: Ptah || 01/08/2003 13:44 Comments || Top||

#2  The Indians will learn a terrible lesson and the Pakistanis will no longer be around to learn any lessons.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/08/2003 21:36 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Bali bomb suspect says his laptop engineered by Indonesian police
Tempo
Imam Samudra aka Abdul Azis, the main suspect in the Bali bombing case, suspects that the content of his laptop has been engineered and has therefore refused to sign the investigation report on his laptop.
"Framed! I been framed! All I had on there was some dirty pictures!"
“Abdul Azis has denied 75 percent of the report and he did not know how the data mentioned in the report could appear in his laptop,” said Samudra’s lawyer Qadhar Faisal following his meeting with Samudra at Bali police headquarters in Denpasar on Tuesday. Among the files denied by Samudra are pictures of the alleged leader of Jamaah Islamiyah organization Abu Bakar Ba’asyir [Bashir], National Police chief Gen. Da’i Bachtiar and Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. “Samudra said,” Why would I put such pictures there? This has been made up,” reported Faisal, who verified that the number of files in Samura’s laptop amounted to 9,000.
Who knows? I have a couple pictures of my wife on my laptop...
The Bali bombing investigation team opened Samudra’s laptop on Sunday. A member of the team said that the laptop contained 9,000 long files and 1,000 short files in Indonesian and Arabic languages. Most of the files are about activities and correspondence carried out by Imam Samudra during the past three years. According this police source, it requires 16 days to open 9,000 files. Therefore, the police only print the important ones, including the files on Samudra’s correspondence, to find out the network of Samudra and his friends.
That's 562 and a half files a day. I'd guess they're scanning them all, copying the ones they want to research further, and that probably some — the juicier ones — are password-protected.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/08/2003 01:06 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah, Muslims are always framed. Just like Rap Brown/al-Amin.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/08/2003 19:41 Comments || Top||

#2  "Dude, yer gettin' a cell!"...
Posted by: mojo || 01/08/2003 22:25 Comments || Top||


Axis of Evil
Iraqi ambassador to Russia says Hussein will not leave country
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will not step down and emigrate from the country, said Abbas Khalaf, Iraqi Ambassador to Russia.
I doubt if he will, too, but for different reasons than Abbas...
The ambassador made this statement in the Wednesday interview while commenting on U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's remark that a military conflict with Iraq could be avoided if the Iraqi leader were to immediately leave his country. "Saddam Hussein enjoys excellent health, he is in a determined mood, is in perfect control of the situation and believes in our victory," Khalaf said. The ambassador said Hussein recently received him along with a group of other Iraqi ambassadors. "I'd like to assure you that Hussein will continue to defend his homeland, he is one of the leaders who will never leave his country and will fight till the last drop of blood," he said.
Other people's blood, anyway. When he does beat it, it'll be when it's too late. He'll do the Mussolini tango in downtown Baghdad or Mosul. Or he may end up like one of his predecessors, with his corpse abused on live TV for a couple days...
Khalaf also dismissed a number of reports by Arab and Western media that Hussein might leave his post and emigrate to Moscow. "This is also absolute nonsense. Such canards launched as part of Washington's and London's psychological war against Iraq are intended not for the Iraqi people, but for foreign recipients, including those sympathizing with Iraq, so as to cause panic amongst them," he said.
I certainly hadn't heard a rumor about him emigrating to Moscow!
These reports "are similar to other rubbish of the kind, such as that about Hussein's older son's alleged trip to Moscow or the Iraqi president's handing over $3 billion to Libya in exchange for a promise to grant him political asylum in that country," he said.
That one I could believe — he doesn't expect to leave, but just in case, there's a soft landing arranged. There were rumors he was going to beat it for Libya in the immediate wake of Gulf War I, before some of his commanders decided to keep him.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/08/2003 07:35 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


S. Korea Calls for Closer U.S. Alliance
South Korea's Defense Ministry called for a stronger alliance with the United States, while North Korea stepped up its campaign Wednesday to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington over the nuclear standoff.
I guess he did not get the memo from Roh
The ministry advocated the continued presence of U.S. troops in South Korea, saying their withdrawal "could send foreign investors flooding out of the country in fear of instability, throw the economy into turmoil...
But at least Koreans would be free from the oppressive yoke of American Imperialism
"Long live the South Korea-U.S. solidarity!" the 400 demonstrators chanted in front of a U.S. Air Force base south of Seoul.
Four whole hundred supporters. Thanks.
Posted by: JAB || 01/08/2003 03:55 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ditto on the supporters,.... 300-700 a day pro american supporters every day till the 22nd of Jan here in Osan, south of Seoul.
Posted by: Richard || 01/08/2003 17:44 Comments || Top||

#2  They also burned a NK flag AND the Chonger in effigy!! WooWoo!!
Posted by: theSarge || 01/09/2003 7:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Are they all old men?
Posted by: someone || 01/09/2003 7:40 Comments || Top||


Saddam Says Troops Unbeatable, if Well Supplied
The American GI's 21st-century kit will count for nothing, says President Saddam Hussein, against the Iraqi infantryman armed with a rifle, God's blessing -- and local villagers ready to feed him on the battlefield. But with rations tight, supplying the troops with food could be a real concern, he was quoted as conceding Wednesday. In remarks carried by Iraqi state television, the president told militia commanders the United States had superiority in the air but it would be a different story in face to face fighting.
"In aerial combat, there is a difference in weapons. But on the ground and on foot, men fight with their rifles," he said in his latest defiant salvo against the U.S. military build-up.
Ok, it's official, he is living in a dream world.
Saddam painted a picture of combat ranging across the Iraqi countryside and his troops relying for food on the local population rather than military logistics. But since the army was evicted from Kuwait by a U.S.-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War, food has been rationed in Iraq as a result of United Nations trade sanctions that are still in place. Feeding the soldiery was now a concern, Saddam said.
"It is enough to have grenades, launchers, a loaf of bread, a drink of water and a rifle. Then, counting on God, Iraq will be safe and I don't see any difficulties in the battle -- unless the fighter says he has no bread or no water to drink.
"I have to see if he can depend on his brothers in villages round about to get from them a loaf of bread to go on fighting among them. This is the only thing that I find difficult."
"A loaf of bread, a jug of water, and thou, my white flag"
The authorities have distributed a three-month ration to every family to stock up food in their houses in case of war. More reserve rations are expected to be handed out soon.
Five weeks of bombing campaign in 1991 let the coalition drive the Iraqi ground troops from Kuwait in a matter of hours.
This time around, the Americans and their allies should be even better equipped in terms of the kind of infantry firepower, fighting vehicles, body armor, night-vision kit and so on they can bring to bear on Iraqi troops wielding familiar Kalashnikov rifles, machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Heh, heh, heh.
Saddam, however, appealed to his troops pride in traditions symbolized by the traditional Arab shemagh headdress:
"Every one of us will put on his shemagh, with his rifle in his hand, and with it the enemy will be defeated."
Up your shemagh!
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 03:33 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There must be a lot of hashish smuggling in Iraq, Saddam's gotta be stoned to say something this stupid...
Posted by: Raj || 01/08/2003 15:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Ken Pollock, in the "Threatening Storm," describes in great detail the level of delusion that Saddam has. Frankly, Saddam could be called the "Great Miscalculator." His intel sucks, no one in their right mind would ever think to give him hard truths: killing messengers is a tradition in his regime.

Ultimately, Saddam's primary calculation, all evidence to the contrary, is that Americans won't have the stomach to slug it out with Iraq and face thousands of returning body bags. Trouble is (for him), it won't work that way. The campaign will be very fast and we're not going to relent no matter what the cost, which is not likely to be horrific (though we will lose people, which sucks.)

The ONLY hope he has, militarily, is that the Iraqi people will support guerrilla warfare against us. If they do, it's going to be a lot tougher to finish this job. If they don't, and they have plenty of reasons to see Saddam and his goon regime finished, it'll be over fast. And speed is the key, along with minimizing civilian losses, which we will do. Saddam has a "traditional" army in more ways than one. If that's essentially all we have to deal with he's gone in less than two months of fighting...maybe less...
Posted by: Ramon McLeod || 01/08/2003 16:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Ramon: you're absolutely right. The key question is whether the Iraqi people will fight WITH Saddam or against him. I'll bet in the beginning they will be apprehensive, but once they see that Saddam's propaganda isn't fulfilling itself, it's game over for Sammy. Of course there will always be spoilers around after the dust settles, but something tells me the Iraqi people will do just fine. Unlike N Korea, these people are not brain-washed.
Posted by: RW || 01/08/2003 21:23 Comments || Top||

#4  They want to swamp our troops with mass Iraqi surrenders again to slow up any advance. A captured Iraqi soldier used that way could be considered an asset by a demented tactician with dillusions of granduer.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/09/2003 9:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Perfect. Why not then turn them against Sammy himself. After some de-brainwashing I'm sure many would want to be "liberators" of their own country.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/10/2003 4:22 Comments || Top||


Making a List, Checking It Twice
Arab diplomatic sources in Amman are saying the Bush administration has prepared a list of 13 Iraqi "war criminals" including Saddam, his two sons and other top Iraqi officials. The sources said the 13 were to be referred to a criminal court if arrested alive on charges of committing war crimes against thousands of Iraqi Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds during the 1991 popular uprising. The list includes Ali Hassan al Majeed, Saddam's cousin and member of the Revolutionary Command Council; Deputy President Izzat Ibrahim al Douri; Deputy Prime Minister Taha Yassin Ramadan; former Prime Minister Mohammed Hamza al Zubeidi; Saddam's private secretary Abed Hammoud al Takriti; intelligence chief Taher Jalil Habboush al Takriti; head of General Security Hani Abdel Latif Talfah al Takriti; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Military Industry Abel Tawwab Mulla Hwaish; former Oil Minister Amir Mohammed Rasheed al Obeidi (see below); and Iyad Fteih Khalifa al Rawi, chief of Staff of "Saddam's Guerrillas" unit. Some top officials were not included in the list -- notably Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
Didn't make it to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. Don't worry, we'll find room somehow.
There are interesting reshuffles taking place in Baghdad anyway. Iraq's veteran oil minister, Gen. Amir Muhammad Rasheed (who used to run Iraq's weapons programs until given the oil portfolio in 1995) has been retired by a decree signed by Saddam Hussein. His replacement is Ba'ath party official Samir Abdulaziz Al Najm. Informed sources say Saddam wanted General Rasheed out of the way before the U.N. inspectors could get to him, or to his wife, Dr. Rihab Taha, whose nickname is "Dr. Germ." The U.N. inspectors would definitely like to ask about her research work in weaponizing botulism and anthrax.
If the U.N. inspectors ask to see them, and Saddam sez "Who?", can we start bombing? Huh, can we, pretty please?
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 02:58 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sadly, or not so sadly, some people not on the list (especially kinfolk of the top brass) may be killed and tortured because Saddam suspects that the reason they are not on the list is because they are being courted by the US.
Posted by: mhw || 01/08/2003 15:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Wouldn't we intentionally leave certain names off the list to cause doubt and division?
Posted by: Pink & Fluffy || 01/08/2003 17:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, no-o-o-o-o! We'd never do that! 'Twouldn't be right...
Posted by: Fred || 01/08/2003 17:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Where's Uday and Usay Hussein? Those two gotta swing from a gallows!
Posted by: JDB || 01/08/2003 18:30 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Court: U.S. Can Hold Citizens as Enemy Combatants
A federal appeals court today ruled that the government has properly detained an American-born man captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan without an attorney and has legally declared him an enemy combatant.
Ha ha, you loose.
The 54-page ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Yaser Esam Hamdi, who is being held incognito at the Navy brig in Norfolk, has broad implications for the Bush administration's war on terror. The court ruled that as an American citizen, Hamdi had the right to a judicial review of his detention and his status as an enemy combatant. But because the Constitution affords the executive branch the responsibility to wage war, the courts must show great deference to the military in making such determinations.
One word: Andersonville...

"The constitutional allocation of war powers affords the President extraordinarily broad authority as Commander in Chief and compels courts to assume a deferential posture in reviewing exercises of this authority," said the opinion, written by Chief Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III and judges William W. Wilkins and William B. Traxler Jr. "The Constitution does not specifically contemplate any role for courts in the conduct of war, or in foreign policy generally. Indeed . . . courts are ill-positioned to police the military's distinction between those in the arena of combat who should be detained and those who should not."
"I surrender, infidels. I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!"... Somehow, that just doesn't work for me.

Hamdi was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001. He was transferred to the Navy brig in Norfolk after telling U.S. investigators that he was born in Louisiana. But while he was in Norfolk, the military declined to allow Hamdi to speak with anyone because he was deemed an enemy combatant.
Dual-citizenship Germans, Italians, and even a few Japanese were treated the same as other POWs in the Second World War. I believe the fact of a claim on American citizenship was commonly recognized as a curiosity, not as an exception to the rule.

The appeals court today was specifically ruling on the sufficiency of a two-page declaration by a Defense Department official who said Hamdi was captured with a rifle with Taliban soldiers. Doumar ruled that the statement by a special adviser to the undersecretary of defense for policy was insufficient to detain an American citizen without a lawyer. But the appeals court ruled that it is enough to say that Hamdi was "captured and detained by American allied forces in a foreign theater of war during active hostilities and determined by the United States military to have been indeed allied with enemy forces."
The burden of proof would seem to lie with him. The fact that he's being held "incognito" is merely something he'll have to deal with.

The court noted the implications of its decision in a rare acknowledgment to the underlying facts of the case. "The events of September 11 have left their indelible mark," the judges wrote. "It is not wrong even in the dry annals of judicial opinion to mourn those who lost their lives that terrible day. Yet we speak in the end not from sorrow or anger, but from the conviction that separation of powers takes on special significance when the nation itself comes under attack... Judicial review does not disappear during wartime, but the review of battlefield captures in overseas conflicts is a highly deferential one."
Bravo, judge! I heard on FoxNews tonight, of course, that Mr Lawyer will be appealing the decision to the Supremes.
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 09:26 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is Yaser Esam Hamdi really being held incognito?!?!? Do they have Groucho glasses on him - with the big nose, moustache and bushy eyebrows?

Or is he possibly being held incommunicado??? That is, being held without access to friends, TV or newspapers?

Personally, I'm guessing it's the latter. Doesn't the Washington Post have copy editors? Or do they just spend all their efforts writing slanted editorials?
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 01/08/2003 15:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Doesn't the Washington Post have copy editors?

Yeah, STEVE. ("Ha ha, you loose")

;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/08/2003 17:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Sorry, I ran out of pixel correction fluid.
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 21:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Mrs. Malaprop is the copy editor.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/08/2003 21:32 Comments || Top||


Axis of Evil
US To Use Magnetic Bombs In Invasion Of Iraq
Source: IRNA
The Saudi-Arabia based Radio Voice of Iraq (VOI), said in its Monday night news, monitored here that the US army will take advantage of "Microwise Bombs" that can generate magnetic caves in its future attack against Iraq.
"Magnetic caves," is it? Generated by "microwise bomb"? I agree. It really was brillig, and then the slithy troves did in fact the mome raths outgrabe...
The VOI added that the Microwise Bombs that will be used in attacks against Iraq for the first time are a new generation of warfare and can make useless all electronic devises, including radars, within a very wide range.
Ahah! It seems they're talking about EMP — electromagnetic pulse — rather than just spouting gibberish. They had one of those in Ocean's 11. They stole it from a research center, where it was being used for, ummm... something...
"Hi, Bob! How'd the test of your EMP bomb go?"
"Dunno, Ralph. All the measuring instruments blew out."
"Tough luck. Have to run it again, huh?"
The said radio without introducing the source of its precise information about the details of a future US attack, added, "the US air force will also use BC2 bombs, that act like cluster bombs and are each loaded with 40 small missiles that are shot in every direction, against Iraqi tanks." It said that the BC2 bombs can totally destroy objects within a 120 square meter circle's area of the place they hit and kill every three out of ten soldiers within the said range.
Sounds like the effects of a multiple rocket launcher attack...
The VOI added, "the other bombs to be used in the US attack against Iraq include the G48s, and small size nuclear bombs, similar to the ones used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan at the end of the World War II, in order to penetrate in to the underground facilities of the Iraqi army, including the shelters of Iraqi soldiers." Such bombs would inflict heaviest human casualties according to the Saudi based Arab language radio. It said that the latter two types that weigh 15 tons each, will explode after digging respectively six and ten meters, and create heavy and horrendous tremors that can destroy buildings within a wide range.
Doctrinally, unless things have changed since my days in the brontosaur corps, we'll retaliate with nuclear weapons, to include use of mininukes, only if we're first attacked using WMDs. Sounds like the announcer was having an attack of hysteria or something...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/08/2003 01:55 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lots of people in the middle east having attacks of hysteria once they realized they had angrily declared "jihad" against the worlds greatest superpower, the one with dozens of nuclear power submarines and aircraft carriers.

I think they also have figured out that americans may have come from europe, but they arent european. When attacked, americans stop negotiating and start exterminating.

This a lesson the japanese/germans/spanish/mexico/sioux/british have learned over the years. It might have been worth the long distance charges to drop a call to the japanese for example and ask and ask them "Say, we were thinking of declaring war against the american people, any thoughts?"

I'm thinking "Jihad" must mean "What the hell were we thinking".
Posted by: Frank Martin || 01/08/2003 13:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I think instead of "BC2", they meant to say CBU = Cluster Bomb Unit. Which include this beauty:
"The Sensor Fuzed Weapon [SFW] is an unpowered, top attack, wide area, cluster munition, designed to achieve multiple kills per aircraft pass against enemy armor and support vehicles. After release, the TMD opens and dispenses the ten submunitions which are parachute stabilized. Each of the 10 BLU-108/B submunitions contains four armor-penetrating projectiles with infrared sensors to detect armored targets. At a preset altitude sensed by a radar altimeter, a rocket motor fires to spin the submunition and initiate an ascent. The submunition then releases its four projectiles, which are lofted over the target area. The projectile's sensor detects a vehicle's infrared signature, and an explosively formed penetrator fires at the heat source. If no target is detected after a period of time, the projectiles automatically explode after a preset time interval, causing damage to material and personnel." There's your 40 small missles, VOI.
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 14:17 Comments || Top||

#3  And here is their "microwise bomb". Space Daily says: "Military experts say the Pentagon has developed a series of accurate and powerful new weapons, including a microwave bomb, that could be used in a war against Iraq. The electromagnetic E-bomb, designed to destroy electronic nerve centers, could already be in the US arsenal, although Washington has not announced it publicly. While it does not kill people, it is capable of causing burns. On top of that, the E-bomb "could sever communications between Saddam Hussein and troops that might be ordered to use chemical and biological weapons," said John Pike, a military affairs expert. "It could freeze weapons of mass destruction, at least that would be the hope," he added. "
EMP bomb, or more likely cruise missle will fry all unshielded electronics in its area of coverage. Some of the Russian stuff was built to handle a EMP pulse, but the shields and grounding would have to have been carefully maintained.

Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 14:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Asymmetrical warfare: The big guy has a seriously overdeveloped right arm.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/08/2003 14:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Shhhhh, don't mention the nano-bombs we have. Woops! Did I say nan^H^H^H.....uhhh, pretend you never heard anything I said....

;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/08/2003 16:48 Comments || Top||

#6  The SFW has been around since the mid 80s. When each little cannister submunition is dispensed, a little fin on it makes it wobble so the infrared detector on the bottom actually scans in a spiral pattern on its way down. If fires the instant it sees a heat souce. The penetrator is amazing, somehow changing shape from a lense shaped disk to a kind of arrowhead shape when fired from the way the explosion is controlled.
Posted by: John K || 01/08/2003 18:32 Comments || Top||

#7  The penetrator is amazing, somehow changing shape from a lense shaped disk to a kind of arrowhead shape when fired from the way the explosion is controlled

COOOOOL
Posted by: Frank G || 01/08/2003 18:40 Comments || Top||


Hizb ut-Tahrir launches petition against colonial war on Iraq
Ummahnews
The British chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir is launching a nationwide petition as part of a campaign opposing the impending military action against Iraq.
"Support your local dictator"...
The petition will be launched this Friday [10 January] at mosques throughout the UK. The group believes to secure the signatures of tens of thousands of Muslims. "The petition will reflect the fact that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Britain are opposed to military action against Iraq, whether authorised by the UN or not," said a press release by the group. "Furthermore, the Muslim community views the ‘war on terror’ as a pretext employed by Britain and America to re-colonise the Muslim world and prevent the emergence of an independent powerful Islamic state."
This is the Muslim fifth column I was talking about last night, in action. "No Muslim can be held accountable for his actions, simply due to his being a Muslim." Muslims can be judged only by other Muslims, who are, ummm... non-judgmental in these matters.
The group says that the petition will send a stern message from the Muslim community to the UK based embassies of Muslim countries "whose corrupt rulers are partners with the West in this war against Islam and who remain stooped in silent submission while terror is rained down on the Muslim peoples of the world."
Sammy's kind of the epitome of the "corrupt ruler," isn't he? And his subjects people are Muslims...
Dr Imran Waheed, a UK based doctor and a representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said, “This petition, which will be signed by tens of thousands of fifth columnists Muslims, sends a powerful message that Muslims in Britain will neither accept Western inspired solutions for Iraq nor tolerate the acquiescence of corrupt Muslim rulers in the butchery of Iraqi Muslims."
"Butchering Iraqi Muslims is Sammy's job, and you can't take it away from him..."
"Islam obliges Muslims everywhere, including those in Britain, to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Muslims of Iraq in any upcoming conflict. Western colonialist states must stop their interference in the political destiny of the Muslims. The true solution to the problems the people of the world face, Muslims and non-Muslims, is to re-establish the Islamic State [Khilafah] which will be ideologically and politically independent of the West and her agents.”
There's the crux of it: Islam obliges Muslims everywhere to support other Muslims, or at least the ones the turbans running Hizb ut-Tahrir say they should support. Through this sort of magic, the Iraqis are better off under a crummy regime run by a nominal Muslim than they would be under a good regime run by somebody whose religion didn't matter. The Northern Alliance in Afghanistan was somehow transformed from a group of armed Muslims fighting another group of armed Muslims into a group of "apostates and hypocrites", next thing to Lutherans. The Hizb adherents, or at least the big turbans, are viewing themselves as citizens of the ummah, and not as citizens of Britain.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/08/2003 12:55 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Britain has gone mad. What on earth is the difference between the Hizbis - al-Muhajiroun is a breakaway from Hizb - and the Irish Republican Army? Both the Hizbis and al-Muhs celebrated the martydom of some of their members in Afghanistan, while British troops were fighting there. That is harely an expression of loyalty. As I write, India is preparing to deport all 20,000,000 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, as a "security threat."

By the way, the Muslim Students Association of North America is spewing the same jihadi garbage in America. Check out: www.khutbah.com

Majorities should not be made hostage to these potential killers, in the name of freedom of religion. Deport them all.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/08/2003 13:48 Comments || Top||

#2  It is obvious that Hisb ut-Tahrir feel that they have the backing to start seriously challenging the government of Great Britian (Pawn to Queen Four). If the government does nothing about this, this "fifth column" will embolden itself by its tacit success and will keep pushing the envelope. It is their stated goal to create an Islamic State in the UK by hook or by crook. So now the move is in the court of the govt. and the people of the UK. We in the US should be watching this very closely, because this game may be coming to a town near you.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/08/2003 14:05 Comments || Top||

#3  "Support your local dictator"...

Or, the "Saddam International Fan Club".
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/08/2003 16:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Hmmm... Mahmoud, I notice your name is on this petition, would you care to explain that to these drunken soccer hooligans?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/08/2003 17:52 Comments || Top||

#5  "Oh, why...thanks. I was looking for some toilet paper...
Posted by: mojo || 01/08/2003 22:14 Comments || Top||

#6  "Why Clive, look at this."
"Eh, what's that, Nigel?"
"Those sods down at the local mosque have been so kind as to collect all their names on this here piece of paper."
"Bloody stroke of luck that is, think of the hours we'll save identifying them all."
"Quite right. Might I borrow your secure telephone? I really must make a call."
Posted by: Steve White || 01/08/2003 23:25 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
U.N.: Congolese Rebels Practicing Cannibalism
NAIROBI, Kenya — U.N. investigators have found credible evidence that Congolese rebel troops have killed and eaten pygmies in northeastern Congo, U.N. officials said Wednesday.
Everytime you think the human race has hit bottom...
During the past week, U.N. human rights investigators have been probing reports of cannibalism in Congo's northeastern Ituri province.

Forces of the rebel Congolese Liberation Movement, or MLC, and its allied Congolese Rally for Democracy-National, RCD-N, are accused of killing and eating pygmies living in dense tropical forests.

"The U.N. is taking these accusations very seriously and has sent a team of six officials to investigate the accusations and other human rights abuses in the region," said Manodje Mounoubai, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Congo.

Speaking by telephone from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, Mounoubai said he preferred to wait until the investigators had left the area before providing further information.

However, other U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators have established that the charges are credible.

The two rebel factions often hire Pygmies to hunt food for them in the forests as they concentrate on fighting to oust the rival rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation, or RCD-ML, from mineral-rich areas of Ituri province, a U.N. official familiar with the probe said.

If the expert hunters return empty-handed, rebel troops kill and eat them, the official said.
Heck of a motivational system.
Sudi Alimasi, an official with the rival RCD-ML, said the group began receiving reports of cannibalism more than a week ago from people displaced by fighting.

"We hear reports of MLC and RCD-N commanders feeding on sexual organs of Pygmies, apparently believing this would give them strength," Alimasi said by telephone from Kinshasa. "We also have reports of Pygmies being forced to feed on cooked remains of their colleagues."

Nearly all foreign troops involved in the war in Congo that broke out in August 1998 have withdrawn, but fighting has intensified among the country's main rebel factions, splinter groups and tribal fighters after the pullout in the east.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips || 01/08/2003 12:50 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Practice makes perfect.

The troops that intervened in the Congo just after independance reported the same thing. Most of these folks aren't even Fourth World level of civilization. These are some of the most primitive and backward people on the planet.
Posted by: Chuck || 01/08/2003 13:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Picture this: a Congolese rebel around a campfire sits back with a full belly and contented look on his face, emits a loud belch whilst licking his fingers and exclaims, "mmmmm....them pygmies is mighty fiiiine eatin!"
Posted by: Bust-a-gut || 01/08/2003 17:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Chilis - Baby back ribs
Posted by: anonymous || 01/08/2003 18:11 Comments || Top||

#4  First Congolese Rebel: "I hate pygmies!"
Second Congolese Rebel: "Then just eat the vegetables".
(Rim shot)
Thank you! Good night & drive safely!
Posted by: JDB || 01/08/2003 18:43 Comments || Top||

#5  JDB: that's priceless...
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/08/2003 19:40 Comments || Top||


Axis of Evil
Iraq renews spy charge against UN experts
Middle East Online
Iraq hit out at the UN disarmament mission for spying Wednesday for a third day in a row, with Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz accusing the inspection teams of pursuing "espionage questions".
Must have accidentally gotten close to something...
"A great deal of their work here in Iraq is not to search for weapons of mass destruction," Aziz told a delegation of South African anti-war activists. "They are searching for other information, information about the Iraqi conventional military capability, information about the Iraqi scientific and industrial capability in the civilian area, and also espionage questions."
Terrible. Just terrible. Damn them!
The deputy prime minister was echoing accusations already levelled by President Saddam Hussein on both Monday and Tuesday in a sharp downturn in the official rhetoric towards the UN mission. "The inspection teams are going around looking at army units and posing questions which have nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction," Saddam said Tuesday. "They are going into factories, questioning workers and asking for lists of scientists who have nothing to do with mass destruction weapons. They are indulging in lowly intelligence work," he charged, reprising virtually word for word accusations he had made in a keynote speech the previous day.
Guess they're using the same shouting points memo...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 01/08/2003 12:40 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Spies!! ALL SPIES!!!!
Posted by: Raj || 01/08/2003 13:44 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
Yemeni schools count on the future
Yemeni schools are going through an education of their own -- teaching more maths and science, and less religion. The government is taking back control of about 1,300 schools it has financed, but which have been run by Islamic groups. Yemeni Education Minister Dr. Fadhel Abu Ghanim told CNN the government had made the changes "to make sure religion is not used for political ends." One such school which has been transformed is Sanaa's college. Yemeni officials say the school adopted a religious doctrine that encouraged extremism.
The government says more than 3,500 students used to spend their days and nights at the college. They were taught, fed and put to bed -- all under the supervision of the biggest Islamic party in Yemen. Authorities closed down the school, and re-opened it as the new headquarters for the education ministry.
The graffiti though is still on the wall, telling students the love for Jihad and the love for life cannot be combined. But that is a different message from the one the education ministry wants to send. "Islam is the religion of tolerance and that is still being taught at the schools," the minister said.
But schools have not been the only focus of Yemeni officials.
For the last two years, the Yemeni government has been stepping up police and military efforts to fight terrorism. But officials say security measures alone are not enough.
Abu Bakr Al-Qurabi Yemeni Foreign Minister said: "I think combating terrorism involves a comprehensive approach. We have to deal with a lot of issues -- political, social, tribal and education. "If we direct our resources towards security this is actually at the cost of education and health services. All these are breeding grounds for extremism."
Yemen is a poor country with limited resources. More than half of the population is illiterate. And the Yemeni government wants help from the U.S. not only to fight terrorism, but to help develop the country -- particularly education.
Parents in Yemen pay up to $400 a year for their children to attend private schools -- more than four times the average salary. As a result most Yemeni children attend very different schools. At Al-Jozah school, a year's tuition costs less than $1. But a teacher there said this year children had received additional learning tools, and new text books with pictures.
"My students can learn much better than when I only use the blackboard," he says. More than 500 new schools were built this year, but Yemen has a long way to go to be able to provide its new generation with a good education, and the government says, a direction away from extremism.
Bravo!
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 11:38 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front
Train 93! Passengers subdue man armed with knife who threatens to kill Americans
BIG SANDY, Texas - In a terror scene reminiscent of Sept. 11, an armed man threatening to kill Americans aboard an Amtrak train had to be subdued by passengers.

"All Americans will die!" suspect Gerardo Bedia was quoted as shouting, along with a host of obscenities before being overpowered by fellow travelers Sunday.

Good job, people. Let's Roll!

According to Big Sandy police, the man spoke English, Spanish and "some kind of Middle Eastern language."

Wotta surprise!

Chief Ronnie Norman said the weapon – a black, all-plastic polymer folding knife – is typically used to defeat metal detectors, the Longview News-Journal reported.

"It could have been a lot worse," Norman told the paper. "The passengers did a fantastic job of restraining him."

. . .

Bedia "was barely conscious, not coherent, couldn't walk well and had to be assisted from the train," according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph, which said authorities believe the 21-year-old was intoxicated.

I thought adherents of the "religion of peace" didn't drink.

The assailant also reportedly grabbed for an officer's gun as he was being arrested.

Officials searched bags on the train for other weapons before the train was able to resume its journey.

Bedia is reportedly an American citizen who was carrying Army identification.

Chief Norman told the News-Journal that passengers should be commended for restraining Bedia, comparing their bravery to actions by United Flight 93 passengers, who confronted terrorist hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001.

Local authorities contacted the FBI, and Bedia was being held on charges of making a terroristic threat.

He's probably a nutcase, and not a terrorist, but the reaction of the passengers is nevertheless a worthy echo of the bravery of the Flight 93 Volunteer Infantry.
Posted by: Mike || 01/08/2003 11:04 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My vote for dumbest terrorist! First he is going to attack Texans, then fly this train into a building!

Attacking Texans is the dumber of the two actions.
Posted by: Flash91 || 01/08/2003 11:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, at least the passengers had the right responses on deck. Rat pack his ass, then kick the crap out of him.

I wonder if he planned to drive the train into some buildings?...
Posted by: mojo || 01/08/2003 11:58 Comments || Top||

#3  How long before CAIR or the ACLU files suit against AMTRAK for excessive force or similar charge?
Posted by: mhw || 01/08/2003 12:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Where is Mike Murphy when you need him?
Posted by: john || 01/08/2003 13:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Sorry, I meant Michael Moore

no stupid white guys on the train?
Posted by: john || 01/08/2003 13:31 Comments || Top||

#6  Bedia "was barely conscious, not coherent, couldn't walk well and had to be assisted from the train," according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph, which said authorities believe the 21-year-old was intoxicated.

I thought adherents of the "religion of peace" didn't drink.


True, which means the passengers really roughed the guy up. Bravo!

Next time, fellow citizens, try breaking a leg. Or two.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/08/2003 13:41 Comments || Top||

#7  "was barely conscious, not coherent, couldn't walk well..."

Was this before or after the passengers pummeled him?
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/08/2003 13:47 Comments || Top||

#8  I am horrified at the thought of these weirdo's running around with knives threatening the public.
Orenthal J. Simpson
Posted by: Bobbing4Kittens || 01/09/2003 7:42 Comments || Top||


Axis of Evil
Saddam slams inspectors, believes in his army
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the country's armed forces are stronger than in the 1991 Gulf War and Iraq is not Afghanistan. "In 1991, we lacked the experience in this kind of fighting...but now our armed forces are stronger and our soldiers understand better their duties and role," Saddam told the commanders of the elite Republican Guards, headed by his youngest son Qusay, on Monday, the Iraqi Army Day. "No army in the world has gained the experience in fighting an advanced army like the experience that we have gained from the circumstances that we went through in 1991 and what followed," Saddam was quoted as saying.
The experience of getting your ass kicked was good for you? I guess you do have the best trained surrender troops in the world
"It seems that what the enemy called the overthrow of the Taliban regime is enticing it to make an aggression against Iraq," Saddam told his officers. "Iraq is different from Afghanistan," Saddam said, adding that Iraq is a "rich, well-organized and stable country" that "produces oil and does not need to import it."
Rich, well organized countries have a better set of targets
"The Americans love to exaggerate and bully. They bring some soldiers to the desert and then take them away by planes to other places while the media show their images and movements...." Saddam said.
That's right, we only have 100 guys in uniform who we keep moving around to make people think we have more. Just keep believing that, please.
"They are hiding many goals...One of the goals is to open the chance for the (UN) inspectors to work beyond the announced goals of the (UN) Security Council," he said. "Although all the goals of UN Security Council are against Iraq, unjust and illegal, including Resolution 1441, yet spying on Iraq is not among the goals of these bad resolutions," Saddam said.
"They are doing cheap intelligence work without paying direct and daily cost as they would have if they sent spies to do their work," the Iraqi president said.
But, I thought they were spies?
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 10:42 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Iraq is different from Afghanistan," Saddam said, adding that Iraq is a "rich, well-organized and stable country" that "produces oil and does not need to import it."

Rich in that Saddam has all the wealth, well-organized in that Saddam and his sons run the show to their wishes, and stable in that his dictatorship has been around for many many years.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/08/2003 16:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I read one of Sammy's speeches once, full of flowery stuff about the "Iraqi knights" and how they'd kicked butt in the Mother of All Battles. He gave himself credit for being the one who suggested to the Mighty Republican Guard that they bury their T72s in the sand so the American Aggressors wouldn't see them, since they were bombing everything in sight. Since Sammy'd never been responsible for the care and feeding of combat vehicles, it seemed like a good idea to him. Since he was the dictator, and could have them shot, it seemed like a good idea to the RG commanders, too.

Now, the T72 was really good avertising for any "buy American military equipment" campaign somebody wanted to come up with. The Abrams popped them almost casually. Perhaps they'd have made a better showing if they hadn't been buried in sand, waiting all that while to pounce, the meanwhile not being maintained, drying out, and getting sand in the gears. But I doubt it.
Posted by: Fred || 01/08/2003 21:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Okay, when the US was ready to fight in Afghanistan the Taliban said, this will not be another Iraq. It wasn't.

Now Iraq is saying this will not be another Afghanistan. Well it won't, of course, it'll go down even quicker.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/09/2003 10:10 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Clash on Syrian- Israeli border: Israel kills infiltrator, captures Syrian soldier
Israeli troops killed an armed man, likely a Syrian soldier, who tried to infiltrate into Israel from the meeting point of the Syrian, Jordanian and Israeli borders in the southern occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday, Israeli media reports said. Israeli troops injured another man in this incident and were reported to search for at least three other infiltrators. The captured infiltrator was wearing a Syrian army uniform, Israeli reports said.
Maybe he just picked it up at a Syrian Army surplus store?
According to Israel Radio, shortly after 1:30 P.M. (11:30GMT) Israeli soldiers in an observation point spotted two men crossing into Israel from Syria. An Israeli group of soldiers was sent out to intercept the infiltrators. In the ensuing gunbattle one of the infiltrators was killed and a second was wounded and then captured. A third armed man who remained on the Syrian side of the border opened fire on the Israeli troops before fleeing into Syria. The Israeli radio said the man arrived at a Syrian post and tried to call on Syrian troops to come out, however, they remained at their posts.
"Help, help, the jews are shooting at me!" "Screw you, we're staying put. You started it, you finish it."
Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli chief of staff, said that the identity of the gunmen was unclear.
"Maybe Syrian, maybe Hizbulla, who cares? They ain't coming thru here!"
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 10:25 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


IDF suspects infiltrators were Syrian soldiers
The IDF said Wednesday afternoon that initial investigations suggest that the terrorists who tried to infiltrate Israel's northern border was a group of Syrian soldiers, Army Radio reported. IDF troops killed one of the militants that tried to enter the country from the meeting point of the Syrian, Jordanian and Israeli borders in the southern Golan Heights near Kibbutz Metzer on Wednesday. Troops injured another terrorist from the cell, who was taken for questioning.
Israeli giggle juice is world famous
No IDF troops were injured. Settlements in the area were put on alert, and large security forces were sent to conduct searches. It is the first time in many months that terrorists have tried to infiltrate Israel in this area.
IDF troops killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip early Wednesday and demolished the home of a suspected militant, the army and Palestinian witnesses said. In the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza, troops killed a Palestinian taxi driver, Iman Mohammed Hamidak, 33, who was watching Israeli tanks moving through the area when he was shot, Palestinian witnesses said. His brother Nazmi, 15, was moderately injured in the attack. The army said soldiers were removing brush used by militants as cover when firing on troops. Gunmen attacked the force with anti-tank missiles, gunfire and grenades and soldiers returned fire but did not know if they had hit anyone, the army added.
Guess you did
The IDF has been carrying out operations in Gaza and the West Bank almost every night, arresting suspected militants or destroying structures. Early Tuesday, three Palestinians were killed in a fierce exchange of fire between gunmen and Israeli forces in the same area. In the West Bank village of Seide, IDF troops demolished a two-story house belonging to a suspected militant, who is under arrest in Israel. In the morning, residents went to look at the rubble and troops in the house fired to disperse the crowd, killing 17-year-old Ahmed Ajaj, Palestinian witnesses and officials said. The troops had blown up a house belonging to Osama Ashkar, a militant with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group affiliated with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Twelve people lived in the house, Palestinian officials said. Ashkar was responsible for dispatching a gunman who killed five people, including a mother and her two young sons, in a shooting rampage on kibbutz Metzer, the army said. He also planned and provided weapons for a separate attack on the Hermesh settlement in the West Bank in which three Israelis were killed, the army added.
And now he's just another prisoner without a home
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 09:56 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  oh, no, he has a home. It's nice and cozy, concrete, well lit at all hours and secure, and visitors at all times of the day...sometimes they bring medication...heh heh
Posted by: Frank G || 01/08/2003 18:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Instapundit's thinking of making the coming Iraq invasion a twofer. That's a bit of wishful thinking; it would take more than this to make an invasion of Syria justifiable, but if the Syrians make any move to help the Iraqis, all bets are off.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/09/2003 9:28 Comments || Top||


Axis of Evil
U.S. War Staff Assembles in Persian Gulf
War may not be at Iraq's doorstep yet, but American war planners soon will be. Amid an accelerating flow of U.S. troops and weapons to the Persian Gulf region, the battle staff that would run a military campaign against Iraq is beginning to assemble at a command post in the central Gulf. Battle planners from Central Command are heading from their permanent headquarters in Tampa, Fla., to Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar to be in position to carry out any attack order from President Bush, senior officials said Tuesday. The officials stressed that the move to Qatar does not mean war is imminent or inevitable. But it is an important step in the assembling of troops, weapons, supplies and technology needed to carry out an invasion.
The same Central Command planners were at the command post last month for a weeklong exercise before returning to their headquarters in Florida, but this time it is not an exercise.
A senior official who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity said the movement of Central Command battle planners, which began this week, is part of an accelerating buildup of forces in the Gulf region. Tens of thousands more combat forces are scheduled to flow into the region over the next few weeks.
Among the forces expected to deploy from U.S. bases in the next several days are F-15E and F-15C fighters and B-1B bombers.
Also headed to the Persian Gulf is the Army's mobile biological weapons testing laboratory. The Maryland-based lab, which helps tests samples to confirm whether a biological attack has taken place, probably will be based with headquarters units in the region, said Col. Erik Henchal, the Army's top biological defense expert.
Amid the force buildup, U.S. warplanes continued to strike at Iraqi air defenses in the southern part of the country. On Wednesday they targeted air defense communication sites between the cities of Al Kut and An Nasiriyah. Central Command said the airstrikes were executed after Iraqi air defense forces fired anti-aircraft artillery at U.S. planes patrolling the southern "no fly" zone and Iraqi military aircraft entered the zone. On Monday U.S. planes targeted two Iraqi military radars near the city of Al Amarah, south of Al Kut on the Tigris River. Iraqi officials said Wednesday that two people were killed and 13 were injured in Monday's attacks.
Jim Wilkinson, the Central Command director of strategic communications, confirmed the decision to send the battle planners to Qatar, but declined to provide details on when they would arrive or when the command post would be ready to kick off a war. "Central Command continues to cycle personnel into and out of the region," Wilkinson said. "We refuse to discuss deployments in advance. However, you can expect to see continuing deployments to Qatar and elsewhere in support of ongoing diplomatic activities." Other officials said the command post at As Sayliyah will be operational before the end of the month.
In December, the commander of Central Command, Gen. Tommy Franks, oversaw an extensive computer-based exercise at As Sayliyah that many viewed as a tune-up for a war against Iraq. Franks said the exercise verified technologies that would enable him to coordinate with air, ground and naval commanders in the region. Franks and his battle staff returned to their headquarters in Tampa before Christmas. In the next several days, most of the same battle staff will be back at As Sayliyah, a desert encampment with newly designed command posts hidden inside enormous warehouses near the capital of Doha.
In the December exercise, about 1,000 battle planners participated. Wilkinson would not say how many will be returning this month, but other officials said it probably would be about the same as the December group. If there is war, Franks would run it from As Sayliyah, but he is not returning immediately with his battle staff, officials said.
The senior officer at As Sayliyah in coming days will be Army Lt. Gen. John Abizaid, a deputy commander of Central Command. The other deputy commander, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Mike DeLong, is at the Tampa headquarters. Although the officers at As Sayliyah would command the overall war, the air portion of the campaign would be run from a facility at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have not publicly confirmed that they would permit use of the facility for war against Iraq, and there have been questions about the degree of Saudi government support for the Bush administration's policy of overthrowing the Iraqi regime. In a sign of closer U.S.-Saudi military cooperation in the war on terrorism, a U.S. official said Tuesday that the Saudis for the first time have assigned a military representative to Central Command headquarters in Tampa. Forty-three other countries have representatives there; most arrived shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Saudi decision is unrelated to the prospect of war against Iraq, officials said.
Tick...tick...tick..
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 09:22 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


British Jet fighters head to Mid-East
A formation of 14 RAF jet fighters is being sent to the Middle East later this month as the stand-off with Iraq continues, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The squadron-strength group is taking part in a long-planned exercise, but the deployment will be seen as part of the build-up for possible war against Saddam Hussein's regime.
"Long-planned exercise" gets my nomination as the most overused phrase of the year
The group for the aircraft exercise in Jordan includes six Tornado F3s, four Jaguars and four Harrier GR7s.
Jordan, huh? That's handy.
The 12-day aircraft exercise will give the jets the chance to practice against Jordan's Mirage fighters, which are similar to those used by Iraq. MoD officials were keen to quell speculation about links between the exercise and possible military action against Iraq. A spokesman said: "It represents a long-standing and regular commitment. "We have taken part in these exercises for the last 10 years."
"Knew they'd come in handy someday."
A Royal Navy task force, led by HMS Ark Royal, is due to set sail on a deployment that will take it to the Gulf this month.
Royal Marines commandos are also being deployed. On Wednesday's visit to Turkey, Mr Hoon spoke of working together towards a peaceful outcome to the current crisis.
Peace through superior firepower!
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 09:02 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Turkey eyes northern Iraqi oil
Turkey is examining old international treaties to determine what rights it has over oil fields in northern Iraq.
"If we do have rights... we have to explain that to the international community and our partners and secure those rights," foreign minister Yasar Yakis said in the mass-circulation Turkish daily Hurriyet.
Secure them with the Turkish Army, in fact
But he added that Turkey had no intention of claiming the fields for itself and that Iraq should maintain control.
The comments have been interpreted as a signal to Iraqi Kurds that Turkey would not condone a bid to establish a separate state in the event of a US-led war.
Ain't gonna let that happen
"This is a sensitive issue for us. We are discussing it with the United States. They say every time that they understand our worries and share our views," Mr Yakis was quoted as saying.
We think it would be just peachy if you had those oil fields
He said treaties from the 1920s, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, were being examined to see if Turkey had a legal claim to oilfields around the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk. Iraq's oil fields are considered to be the world's second largest after Saudi Arabia. "We are having that examined now. In other words we have to examine whether there has been anything in later years that cancelled out those rights," he said. Mr Yakis added that Turkey was trying to protect its own interests as well as those of the Turkish-speaking minority in northern Iraq. Turkey maintains a heavy military presence in northern Iraq, which is covered by a US and British no-fly zone, to control Kurdish separatists. Northern Iraq has been under the control of Kurdish groups, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) which is closely allied with Ankara, since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. The state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), which produces 90% of Turkey's oil, has the right to drill 20 wells in the KDP areas.
But Baghdad has repeatedly condemned the military occupation and asked the UN to demand a withdrawal. Iraq operates oilfields near the town of Kirkuk just south of the Kurdish-held areas.
Turkey doesn't want a war because they have a lot of trade with Iraq. They also don't want the Kurds to have access to the oil money that would come if the Kurds grabbed Northern Iraq after the soon to happen war. I believe that Turkey has decided that if war is inevitable, they will seize the northern oil fields, claim historic rights and begin pumping like mad. They could keep this in the international courts for years with claims and counter claims. Plus, all that oil would make them very attractive as a future EU member.
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 08:29 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A major problem with this scenario is that it would reunite the Turkish and Iraqi Kurds into a single political entity -- part of Turkey. You can bet the Turks don't want that, since it allows the Kurds to demand more autonomy or even a separate state. Indeed, the grab would make it likely that the Kurds would agitate for this. And I don't see how the Turks could grab Mosul and Kirkuk without picking up a lot of new Kurdish, er, "citizens", unless they gerrymander the new map in ways that would make a Chicago alderman proud.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/08/2003 11:38 Comments || Top||

#2  I like turkey - if they want some oil fields they can have them. International law is just what we push onto the losers.

Hmm coffee too strong...
Posted by: flash91 || 01/08/2003 11:52 Comments || Top||

#3  I like Turkey too, but when can we tell them to shut up and accept a Kurdish state. Turkey puts so much diplomatic capital into keeping the Kurds down that I have to imagine that they'd actually be better off with a prosperous, free, and grateful Kurdistan on their border, even if part of it has to be carved out of their current territory. I'm sure there's complex political reasons, ancient ethnic hatreds, blah blah blah. Screw 'em. Let joint Turkish/Kurdish companies pump the oil and everyone can get fat and happy.
Posted by: Hermetic || 01/08/2003 12:02 Comments || Top||

#4  As Fred wrote, the Turks could claim historical rights to oil revenue without seizing Iraqi sovereign territory. Pumping stations are low tech. Even if the Iraqis destroyed every existing northern station, the Turks could have crude on trucks in a few weeks. By the way, a high percentage of Kurds recognize that separate statehood is non viable in their landlocked region. The Turks could throw money at the problem.
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/08/2003 13:56 Comments || Top||

#5  From the Kurds perspecitve, are any of the options ( turk takeover, Kurd autonomy, combination therein) worse than the conditions they have now?

From the Turk perspective, are any of the options putting them at a weaker positon than they are if nothing is done?

I dont think the Kurds are Palestinians, they will take half a loaf. The Turks live at the crossroads of the world, that makes them natural hagglers. The Turks will cut a deal, the kurds will accept it.
Posted by: Frank Martin || 01/08/2003 14:31 Comments || Top||

#6  "His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Turkey, Protector of the Kurds..." It's a stretch, but it could happen...
Posted by: Fred || 01/08/2003 18:00 Comments || Top||

#7  well, I hope the first theing they do is hire a PR agent because it wont be too long before people start wanting to put the words "Turk" and "Kurd" together, coming up with a somewhat scatalogical option that niether party would be happy with.
Posted by: Frank Martin || 01/08/2003 19:50 Comments || Top||


North Africa
Libya makes US beauty "Special Envoy"
WARNING: If your stomach gets upset easily, stop reading now!The US participant in an international beauty contest hosted by Libya has been made an honorary envoy for the country. Libyan news agency Jana reported that Tecca Zendik was given a Libyan passport and appointed honorary consul of Libya in the USA in a ceremony held in Tripoli. Ms Zendik caught the eye of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during the November 2002 web-based contest - the first international beauty pageant to be held in Libya.
We saw the pictures, it did look like Muammar was having a good time. We just didn't know how good
As the contestants were given a tour of the Gaddafi home, he explained that it had been bombed by US aircraft in 1986 and that two of his adopted children were killed in the attack.
She burst in to tears as the Libyan leader launched a verbal attack on her country. When Col Gaddafi saw the 19-year old model crying he is reported to have called her to his side to comfort her.
Euuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwwwww
The next day he asked after Ms Zendik's health and sent her a watch on which his face is surrounded by diamonds.
Today's Special Value on QVC
A Libyan Foreign Ministry official attending the Tripoli ceremony to give Ms Zendik her passport and honorary post said:
"We celebrate today the harbinger of peace which came to us from the United States to confirm that relations between the Libyan and American peoples are civilized relations." He called for "lessons to be learned" from the bombing of Gaddafi's home.
Yes, use more and bigger bombs
In Ms Zendik's acceptance speech she said she would make efforts to improve relations between the Libyan and America people. "I am not alone among the American people in wanting peace and not war. Many other Americans share the same feelings with me," she added.
Soon to be the movie of the week on Lifetime Network, "Beauty and the Beast of Libya"
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 07:58 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Come with me to the Casbah..."
Posted by: mojo || 01/08/2003 12:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Gaddafi know better than to wait for 72 virgins
Posted by: john || 01/08/2003 13:26 Comments || Top||

#3  "Ms Zendik caught the eye of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi..."

You know what.... I'm skipping this because this is just too easy...
Posted by: Anonymous || 01/08/2003 13:53 Comments || Top||

#4  "The sultry wench, with the fire in her eyes! Bring her to me!"
Posted by: Fred || 01/08/2003 21:29 Comments || Top||


Axis of Evil
Iraqi oil minister forced out
Saddam Hussein has unexpectedly removed from power his long-standing oil minister, General Amer Mohammad Rasheed.
The official reason for General Rasheed's removal was that he was beyond Iraq's mandatory retirement age of 63.
Sounds like age discrimination, to me
But experts were questioning whether the sudden departure of General Rasheed was connected to the role of his wife, Dr Rihab Taha. Dr Taha is known to be near the top of a list of biological weapons scientists the UN inspectors are trying to interview. It is also alleged that General Rasheed has himself been involved in secret weapons manufacturing in the past.
The 47-year-old Dr Taha is thought to have carried out work on germs that cause botulism poisoning and anthrax infections at the top-secret biological research laboratory al-Hakim in the late 1980s. At this time, she was reported to have ordered and received biological specimens from US companies. Later she earned the name Dr Germ from weapons inspectors who interviewed her in the mid-1990s.
I don't know if I'd like being married to anyone nicknamed "Dr Germ". I do know I wouldn't cheat on her, you might come down with a cold, or something.
General Rasheed will be replaced by a senior member of the ruling Baath party, Samir Abdulaziz. Iraq is a major oil producer but has been restricted to exporting under the UN's oil-for-food programme because of international sanctions.
The country's dilapidated oil industry, still able to pump substantial exports, could be a target for missile strikes in order to disrupt fuel supplies to Iraqi defences.
Nah, we want the oil industry intact, don't you know its all about the oil?
The decision to remove General Rasheed was announced on Iraqi state television and was said to have come by decree from President Saddam Hussein.
Most likely Saddam is pissed about General Rasheed's screwup in canceling the Russian oil contract. Sammy lost one of his few supporters when that happened. Rasheed is lucky he only lost his job.
Posted by: Steve || 01/08/2003 07:41 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, is this the gold watch kind of retirement, or the .45 kind of retirement?
Posted by: Chuck || 01/08/2003 10:35 Comments || Top||

#2  When you are married to "Dr Germ", a .45 is somewhat redundant.

Visitation hours 7-9 closed casket no flowers
Posted by: john || 01/08/2003 13:11 Comments || Top||

#3  They also make you wear this weird blue "suit" of some kind......

Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/08/2003 17:06 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
27[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2003-01-08
  Three more sought in ricin hunt
Tue 2003-01-07
  UK: Terror Suspects Arrested In Connection With Ricin Poison
Mon 2003-01-06
  Kuwait tries four for links to al-Qaeda
Sun 2003-01-05
  Double boomer attack in Tel Aviv
Sat 2003-01-04
  Bush says Iraq must be liberated
Fri 2003-01-03
  Maskhadov: martyrs will be used until Russia withdraws
Thu 2003-01-02
  Egypt Arrests 14 Suspected Islamist Activists
Wed 2003-01-01
  Blix Accepts Iraq's Invitation To Visit Baghdad
Tue 2002-12-31
  3rd ID gets orders for Gulf...
Mon 2002-12-30
  Three US Doctors Shot Dead In Yemen
Sun 2002-12-29
  Arab Leaders May Offer Saddam Exile
Sat 2002-12-28
  Yemeni pol iced by Islamist pol...
Fri 2002-12-27
  N Korea to expel UN nuclear inspectors
Thu 2002-12-26
  Hekmatyar joins al Qaida, Taliban
Wed 2002-12-25
  Seven Algerian thugs nabbed in Edinburgh...

Better than the average link...



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.
3.85.215.164
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
(0)    (0)    (0)    (0)    (0)