A landmine exploded on a stretch of road in eastern Afghanistan just minutes after a convoy from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had passed by, Afghan police said Friday. There were no injuries. An investigation was underway to determine whether the BBC convoy was the target of Thursday's explosion, said Yar Mohammed, Afghan security chief in the region. Police arrested nine men in connection with the powerful blast, which occurred about nine miles from Tora Bora - the mountainous region that came under heavy bombing in December 2001. Mohammed said the convoy of five vehicles was enroute to Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, when the land mine exploded. It was not clear whether it was exploded by remote control. Babrak Mian Khel, a BBC employee in Jalalabad, said his convoy was returning from Tora Bora where they had taken some footage when the explosion occurred. He said no one was injured and he refused to speculate on whether the BBC was the intended target. "The explosion was very intense," said Mohammed. "It is very lucky that there were no injuries." Only casualties were the BBC crew's underwear.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/14/2003 3:15:42 PM ||
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Turkey yesterday banned the country's main Kurdish party for anti-state activities and launched legal proceedings against a sister party, drawing a swift warning by the European Union that the crackdown could hurt Ankara's membership bid. The verdict against the People's Democracy Party (Hadep) "will be studied by the organs of the EU, but it is certain to influence in a negative way Turkey's European initiative," said Greek foreign ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis, whose country chairs the EU presidency.
Chief prosecutor Sabih Kanadoglu opened the case against the Democratic People's Party (Dehap), alleging that it had "become a focus for actions that contravene the principles of equality, the legal state and the democratic republic". Turkey's constitutional court earlier outlawed the Hadep, ruling that it had close links to Kurdish rebels. The judges also slapped a five-year political ban on 46 party members and ordered the party's assets to be seized. "Political party closures have become the norm but during the democratisation process this comes as a big surprise," Hadep deputy head Osman Fatih Sanli said. The Hadep verdict came at a time of already strained ties between Turkey and the EU. I don't know enough about Turkey's internal politics to have an informed opinion. If there's a basis for the closure, then it makes sense. If it's simply based on the fact that the parties purport to represent the Kurdish minority, then it's a bad move.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 8:06:43 PM ||
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The police have arrested an alleged activist of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and his accomplice, Asif Ramzi, in Garden West. I thought Asif Ramzi blew himself up last December? Or is this another Asif Ramzi?
According to the police, on March 10 a CID team, following an information, arrested Muhammad Farhan Osda alias Abu Bakar, son of Amanullah, on suspicion of his involvement in sectarian terrorism. On a lead given by him one AK-47 rifle with 20 rounds was recovered from an empty plot in Machhar Colony. Mom must be so proud!
He was booked under the Arms Ordinance. The accused also disclosed that he was given tasks to kill police officers, complainants, informers and witnesses in sectarian cases. He and his accomplices had also planned for firing on Hussania Imambargah, near Gabol Park. "Just gonna bump off a few Shiites. They're next thing to infidels, anyway."
He confessed his involvement in parcel bombs cases. Parcel bombs were sent to police officers who were dealing with sectarian cases. Five police officers were injured on October 16 & 17, 2002. He also disclosed his involvement in the Soldier Bazaar firing case on November 1, 2002 (three persons of the Shia sect were injured), the Jacob Lines firing case on December 10, 2001 (one person was injured) and the motorcycle bomb case in which two kilo explosives were recovered in the police limits of Gulzar-i-Hijri police on September 25, 2002. What a busy little fellow. I would never have time to do all that — but then, I have to work for a living.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 10:20:10 PM ||
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The law enforcement agencies have picked up an activist of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen from Quetta, his father Mohammad Hayat Lehri claimed on Wednesday night. "My 22-year-old son, Abdul Aziz Lehri, is missing for the last one month," he said and claimed that he had been taken into custody by secret agencies. Gosh. That's too bad. (snicker!)
He told reporters here that his son had gone to see one of his friends in Wahdat Colony on Feb 13 and did not return since. He said that he and his family searched him in Quetta and other places but no clue could be found despite passage of almost a month. "I am sure he is in the custody of law enforcement agencies who had also arrested Abdul Rehman, an Egyptian, the same night," Mohammad Hayat said. "My son is an activist of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and had taken part in the Kashmir Jihad," he said. He said he had lodged a report with the police station concerned about his son's disappearance, but a senior police official told him that the matter was with the ISI and he could not do anything. However, SSP Quetta, Rahmatullah Niazi, said: "I have no information about the arrest of Abdul Aziz." He added that police had not taken him into custody. My guess is that he went to see his friend, they were playing cards, and Abdul Aziz had five aces, so the friend shot him and buried him in the back yard.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 10:01:57 PM ||
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Security forces ended a terrorist siege on a hotel in the Jammu and Kashmir border town of Poonch Friday evening after the guerrillas killed six people, including three civilians. The army and police killed a terrorist and rescued six civilians who were being held in the hotel. The three civilians died when they were caught in crossfire between the guerrillas, police said.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Manjit Singh, a policeman and a Central Reserve Police Force trooper were shot dead by the terrorists when they took over the hotel in Poonch, 240 km north of here, at around 2.30 pm. "One militant has been killed and we are looking for others," Director General of Police A.K. Suri told IANS. The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the attack. Suri said security forces launched their operation against the terrorists after ensuring that civilians did not get caught in the crossfire.
The security forces had to take special precautions during the operation as several civilians were in the hotel located in the crowded main market of Poonch. Six civilians were earlier injured in crossfire that broke out after a police party raided the hotel on specific information that terrorists were hiding in it. The militants lobbed grenades and opened fire with automatic assault rifles. The army was called in to help the police but the security forces decided against storming the three-storey hotel till darkness engulfed the town. Army commandos, who entered the hotel from a rear entrance, took one of the terrorists by surprise and shot him dead. Police officials had earlier said up to four terrorists were holed up in the hotel.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 3:14:01 PM ||
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Police said they found and defused six bombs at the main railway station in India's capital on Friday, a day after a blast on a train killed 11 people and injured 64 more in Bombay, a news agency reported. A pedestrian noticed the bombs in a plastic bag near a taxi stand at the New Delhi railway station and alerted police, Deputy Commissioner of Police R.S. Gumman was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India. No timers were attached to the explosives, but they could have been detonated by high temperatures from the sun, Gumman said. New Delhi has been placed on a high alert status, with extra police on patrol, since Thursday night's explosion on a train in Bombay, India's financial hub.
WASHINGTON - In a departure from the patrols by fighter jets over Iraq in recent months, a U.S. B-1B bomber struck two anti-aircraft radar sites in western Iraq on Friday, military officials said. Interesting. B-1's. Standoff missles, long range. How close is tick, tick, tick if they're up there prowling around?
The strikes at 1420 GMT targeted a radar system near Iraq's H3 airfield and another airfield near Ruwayshid, only a few miles (kilometers) from the border with Jordan, military officials said. The strikes came after Iraqi forces moved one of the systems into the no-fly zone patrolled by U.S. and British planes over southern Iraq, the officials said.
The B-1B Lancer, a heavy bomber originally designed to carry nuclear warheads but shifted in recent years to carry conventional munitions, is one of three kinds of heavy bombers repositioned in recent months during the buildup for a possible U.S.-led war on Iraq.
As the buildup continued elsewhere, the Pentagon began moving warships on Friday out of the Mediterranean into the Red Sea, from where they could launch long-range cruise missiles on a path to Iraq that would not go over Turkey, officials said.
Of the approximately one dozen ships to be shifted, a first group of five transited the Suez Canal on Friday, harbor officials at Egypt's Port Said told The Associated Press. They identified the ships as the guided missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke of the Theodore Roosevelt battle group and the destroyer USS Deyo of the Harry S. Truman battle group.
Three submarines from the battle groups also traveled through the canal â the USS Boise, USS Toledo and USS San Juan, the officials said. The rest of the ships were to follow soon, Pentagon officials said.
In a related development, Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander who would lead any U.S. invasion of Iraq, left his Qatar command post Friday to meet with officials in the United Arab Emirates. There was no official word on when he would return to Qatar.
Also, the Air Force announced at the Pentagon that it will implement a rarely used authority to prevent a wide range of active duty and reserve officers and enlisted members from leaving the Air Force. The move reflects a growing strain on the Air Force as it prepares for war.
Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens said the order, which takes effect May 2, could affect as many as 21,000 people, ranging in rank from airman to colonel. The Army and Marine Corps have similar orders in effect, but the Navy does not.
The Truman and Roosevelt aircraft carriers are remaining in the eastern Mediterranean, at least for now, officials said. They have been operating there for weeks in anticipation of war against Iraq. Each carrier has about 80 aircraft aboard, including F/A-18 attack planes.
The shift of Tomahawk-shooting ships could be the first step in a larger redeployment of ground and naval firepower away from Turkey, which so far has refused to grant overflight rights for U.S. naval aircraft and cruise missiles like the low-flying Tomahawk.
The Pentagon had hoped to base a 60,000-strong U.S. Army force as well as additional Air Force warplanes in Turkey for use in an Iraq war, but Turkey has not approved those, either. About 50 American and British planes at Incirlik air base in south-central Turkey enforce a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, but it is not clear that the Turkish government would allow them to fly offensive missions against Iraq.
From the Red Sea, the Navy cruisers, destroyers and submarines would be able to launch their Tomahawks for flights over Saudi Arabia to targets inside Iraq.
Tomahawks are satellite-guided missiles normally used in the opening stages of war to strike high-value, fixed targets such as government buildings in areas where the risk of civilian casualties is relatively high.
The Tomahawks are 18 feet (5.4 meters) long and are designed to evade radar by skimming the land or sea surface. They carry 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) warheads. Following the Gulf War, they became one of the weapons of choice to respond to Iraqi breaches of U.N. sanctions. The Bill Clinton Doctrine I believe it was called...
The issue of overflight rights for U.S. missiles and planes has been overshadowed by the Bush administration's struggle to win Turkey's approval to base 60,000 or more U.S. troops there to open a northern front against Iraq.
The Turkish parliament rejected the U.S. request for basing rights earlier this month, and Pentagon officials said Thursday it appeared increasingly unlikely that the Army would position its 4th Infantry Division in Turkey, as originally planned. Looks like that's toast. I think Turkey misplayed this one.
About three dozen cargo ships with the 4th Infantry Division's weaponry, equipment and supplies have been waiting off the Turkish coast for weeks, and the troops are still at their base in Fort Hood, Texas.
During the 1991 Gulf War the Navy positioned carriers and Tomahawk-launching ships in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. It now has three carriers in the Gulf â the USS Kitty Hawk, the USS Constellation and the USS Abraham Lincoln. Those carrier battle groups include about 20 Tomahawk-firing ships and submarines.
The US and UK could use Jordanian and Israeli airspace to launch air strikes on Iraq if Turkey continues to refuse permission for allied bombers to operate out of its airbases to support an invasion. Officials on both sides of the Atlantic have said that Amman has tacitly agreed to overflight rights for allied aircraft.The prospect of squadrons of aircraft transiting from Israeli airspace on their way to bomb Iraq would be a sensitive issue for Jordan, where public opinion is strongly opposed to war against its neighbour. But the continued refusal of Turkey to allow aircraft to fly bombing missions over its territory has forced Pentagon planners to consider activating the contingency plan for Jordan. Two of the five US aircraft carriers in the region are in the Mediterranean and their jets would need to fly over neighbouring countries to attack Iraq. Tactical strike aircraft based in Turkey would effectively be grounded by Ankara's ban on operations unless they were redeployed to the British air force base on Cyprus to use the Israeli-Jordan air corridor. Nice to have that option, had not thought of the Brits Cyprus base. Boy, that would stick it to both the Greeks and Turks.
Some longer-range US bombers could also use the same route to launch attacks from bases in the UK. The US Air Force has begun deploying B-2 bombers from their base in Missouri. Defence officials said the B-2s began leaving on Wednesday night, but would not disclose where they were headed. Special shelters for the bat-like stealth bombers have been built on the Indian Ocean base of Diego Garcia and at RAF Fairford in western England. Last week, the first of 14 US B-52s began arriving in the UK. More than 100 British combat and support aircraft are also in place in Kuwait, Turkey, Cyprus and six other undisclosed bases in the region - a sizeably bigger UK deployment than during the last Gulf war and one which in sheer numbers has been rivalled only in recent history by the Suez deployment in the 1950s. The precise distribution of UK air power in the Middle East is not being revealed, given the acute political sensitivity of some of Iraq's neighbours over being seen to host US and ot her coalition forces. See no forces, hear no forces, speak no forces.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/14/2003 2:56:48 PM ||
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A sudden bomb explosion in Ashti district in Sulemani has caused the death of Kosrat Rassulâs assistant. Kosrat Rassul is the highest ranking PUK military official and the former Prime Minster of the united Kurdistan Government before 1994 and the former Prime Minister of the PUK government. At 8.00 pm last night in Ashti district, the senior assistant and a very close aid of Kosrat Rasul, known as Kaka Ziyad, was killed due to an explosion. Kaka Ziyadâs sister told KurdishMedia.com, "Last night Kaka Ziyad received a call to go out and received a parcel. He went out to receive it and when he opened the parcel it exploded, it was a bomb. It exploded and blew him to pieces." Her sister said that it is too early to make any accusations, "We have to wait for an investigation," she said. Kak Ziyad lived with his three sisters in the house. No formal statement has been issued by the Kurdish authorities yet.
Either Sammy or Ansar, or Sammy through Ansar...
Kosrat, in an interview with KurdSat last week, said that Kurds were the partners of the US administration, but whether they attack the Iraqi regime, "is not a matter to be discussed on TV." Kosrat confirmed that they were partners with the US in the war against terror. This is interesting because the Kurdish authorities vow to eliminate the Islamic fundamentalist group, residing on the border with Iran, known as Ansar Al-Islam. Kosrat in his interview also said that Turkey was an ally of the U.S. and so were the Kurds. "But if it came to the destruction of our democratic experience, we have power too. If they want to eliminate the Iraqi regime, the road is not via Kurdistan. There are other ways," he said. Most likely the package came from Ansar. Need to be more careful about picking up your mail, surprised he wasn't.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/14/2003 2:40:34 PM ||
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French and Russian oil and gas contracts signed with the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq "will not be honored," Kurdish Prime Minister Barhim Salih said in Washington Friday, just before a series of high-level meetings with Bush administration officials. "A new Iraqi government should not honor any of these contracts, signed against the interests of the Iraqi people. The new Iraqi government should respect those who stood by us, and not those who stood beside the dictator," Salih added. Bwahahahaha.......
Russian and French oil corporations have each signed draft contracts with Iraq, to come into force only when the United Nations sanctions are lifted, for exploration, development and exploitation of the country's energy resources — which geologists believe may be the world's second largest after Saudi Arabia. The value of the draft contracts, if fully taken up, is estimated to have a potential of more than $20 billion. Although there have been dark hints that French and Russian opposition to a second U.N. resolution in the Security Council could have economic consequences, this is the first clear threat from a leading opposition figure from inside Iraq that their oil contracts will not be honored. "France and Russia should make a decision where they stand," Barhim Salih added, speaking to U.S. policy experts and reporters at the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations Friday. "We would rather see them stand with us. They cannot have it both ways." They had their chance, Russia at least, and they blew it.
The only democratically elected political leader in Iraq, Salih is prime minister of the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq, and is expected to be one of the most powerful political figures in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, protected for a decade by British and U.S. warplanes enforcing the no-fly zone, has become an island of democratic and representative government. While there is no guarantee that Salih will be elected to a high position in whatever new government emerges after Saddam, the Iraqi Kurds as the best-organized and most cohesive group are expected to play a decisive role.
Prime Minister Salih went on for talks with senior Bush administration officials on plans for rebuilding post-war Iraq and for creating political stability. His top priority was to persuade the Bush administration from giving the Turkish military any role in the Kurdish region on northern Iraq. "Turkish military involvement will invite other neighbors to intervene, like Syria and Iran. This would open Pandora's box. It would create havoc, and compromise the real mission, which is to install representative government and democracy in a stable Iraq, at peace with its neighbors." He also said that the 70,000 Kurdish troops, mostly with light weapons, at his government's disposal would come under U.S. command in the event of war. And he confirmed intelligence reports that Iraqi troops had affixed explosives to the oil wells near Mosul and Kirkuk. "Saddam wants to instigate an environmental catastrophe. This is his Armageddon," Salih said. "We are in touch with the Iraqi military, telling them to ignore orders to destroy the wells. We think very few of them will fight. Senior officers at border crossing have asked us to let them know when the moment (for attack) comes so they can escape." Hope he's right.
Prime Minister Salih, 42, with a Ph. D in computer science from a British university, said he did "not expect to see Western-style democracy overnight, but some form of representative government will emerge, based on a federal system with wide measures of autonomy for the various regions." Sounds good to me. Turks won't like it, but they had their chance as well.
The Kurds seem to have caught on to the representative government concept almost overnight. Maybe they're just the brightest people in Iraq, though...
Posted by: Steve ||
03/14/2003 2:34:18 PM ||
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On the brink of war, President Bush will travel this weekend to the Azores Islands in the mid-Atlantic Ocean to confer with his two closes allies on Iraq. Topping the agenda at the hastily arranged summit among Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar will be strategies for salvaging the trio's troubled war resolution at the U.N., said senior U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Screw the French, on to Baghdad!"
Unless they've hired Mandrake the Magician, any 18th resolution is dead...
The leaders also are likely to discuss plans for Iraq in any scenario in which President Saddam Hussein is deposed. Billing it as a diplomatic summit, officials said the leaders will not discuss battlefield tactics and detailed military strategies, even as they acknowledged that Bush was prepared to drop his bid for a U.N. resolution and fight Iraq without U.N. consent. "Tony, your troops take the right flank into the southern oil fields, We'll swing left and push to Baghdad. Jose, you get to attack Paris."
Presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters Friday that Bush will leave Sunday. Bush has said that without the United Nations, he would form a "coalition of the willing," which U.S. officials say would include Britain and Spain. As U.N. diplomats predicted failure for Bush's resolution, the president gave aides the go-ahead for the U.S.-Britain-Spain summit. The Azores Islands are a traditional mid-Atlantic refueling stop about 900 miles west of Portugal. Portugal is among the countries that have offered Bush logistical support in any war in Iraq, and it granted U.S. permission to use Lajes Field air base in the island chain. News of the meeting first surfaced Thursday morning, but officials said planning had stopped, only to confirm hours later that talks had resumed amid tense discussions at the United Nations. The Bush administration will continue "working hard to see if we can take this to a vote," Secretary of State Colin Powell said. But he pointedly set a time frame that suggested the diplomatic effort would not extend beyond the weekend.
I think that's because we've got our own timetable set, regardless of what the UN does...
A senior administration official told The Associated Press the United States was waiting for Mexico and Chile to get off the stick decide. In a constantly shifting lineup, the two Latin American countries could ensure the nine votes required for council approval — provided there was no veto, which both France and Russia have said they would cast. France's veto threat was being taken seriously, and the administration may decide not to give France the chance by withdrawing the resolution. Bush was ready to drop the resolution, several aides said, if Blair didn't want it put to a vote. Whatever the decision, the United States will declare that Iraq has missed its final opportunity to disarm, the official said. On the verge of an embarrassing diplomatic defeat, the administration backpedaled from its statements that it was time for the 15 members of the council to stand up and be counted.
I think they've already done that...
At a news conference last week, Bush said he was prepared for a vote, win or lose. "No matter what the whip count is, we're calling for the vote. We want to see people stand up and say what their opinion is about Saddam Hussein and the utility of the United Nations," the president said. Aides said the president has pushed for a U.N. vote thus far out of respect for Blair, whose support of Bush has drawn severe criticism in Britain.
Blair's image will bounce back after a successful war. Nothing succeeds like success...
The Security Council vote wasn't Bush's only problem. The president sent a letter to incoming Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vice President Dick Cheney called the leader in hopes of securing permission to invade Iraq through Turkey or to use Turkish airspace for an attack. However, senior administration officials told The New York Times that Turkey dismissed the latest appeals. One official familiar with the conversation between Cheney and Erdogan said "the message was clear that by the time Turkey got its act together, it would be too late to do us any good." Within hours, Navy ships armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles were told to move out of the Mediterranean and into the Red Sea. There are more than 225,000 U.S. troops in the region. Too late, Turkey. See ya in Kurdistan.
Powell consulted several times Thursday with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, whose government jointly sponsored the new resolution with the United States. Powell said for the first time Thursday that the resolution might be withdrawn. "We are working hard to see if we can take this to a vote ... but we haven't excluded any of the other obvious options that are out there," he told a House Appropriations subcommittee. He said the options under consideration included "to go for a vote and not to go for a vote." Britain proffered a compromise, a series of tests or "benchmarks" to measure Iraq's sincerity about disarming. But France opposed the move and Iraq exulted it could end the political career of the British prime minister. Bush and Blair obviously "have lost the round before it starts while we, along with well-intentioned powers in the world, have won it," the popular daily Babil, owned by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's son, Odai, said in a front-page editorial. Suggesting a decision on the resolution was close at hand, Powell told the subcommittee "all the options that you can imagine are before us and we'll be examining them today, tomorrow and into the weekend." But he did not draw back from threatening Iraq with war. "The day of reckoning is fast-approaching," Powell said. Next week the 101st will have all their equipment. Tick..tick.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/14/2003 2:17:10 PM ||
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A regional trial court judge issued yesterday arrest warrants for Hashim Salamat, chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and scores of other MILF members who are wanted by the police in connection with the bombing of the Davao City International Airport that killed at least 23 people and injured 141 others. The MILF, the largest of four Muslim separatist groups, has denied any involvement in the worst terror attack in the country since a December 2000 series of blasts in Metro Manila that killed 22 people. Murder charges have already been filed against Salamat and 150 of his rebels. âThis court finds probable cause to order the arrest of the accused to stand trial for the crimes charged,â Judge Paul Arcangel ruled after reviewing evidence submitted by prosecutors. Next time somebody says "they should be arrested and brought before the International Criminal Court," tell 'em about this episode, and all the other episodes where the judge sez "round 'em up" and somehow they never quite show up in court.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 6:23:14 PM ||
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DOUBT clouded reports about the fighting between the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Buliok Complex in North Cotabato after both parties failed to back their casualty claims with actual body counts. Both the military and the MILF have claimed they were able to kill more than a hundred of their enemies in three days, even as each side denied losing that many men on the battlefield. Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division, admitted that the military has no body count of the 115 MILF rebels that it claims to have killed since Monday. He said the figure was based on intercepted radio signals from the enemy, reports from the field and from recovered bodies. Of the last, Ando said, they have âplentyââwithout elaborating further. âWe were able to recover some bodies and we were surprised about how young they were. Probably in their late teens,â Ando said. âThe exact number [of fatalities] will come out during the clearing operations after the clash.â The Vietnamese had the unpleasant habit of drafting them very young, too. Dunno if this is genuine or not, but it sounds right...
Interviewed on the radio, Mohaqher Iqbal, chief of the information bureau of the MILF, also admitted that the rebels do not know the total number of slain soldiers since the military renewed its offensive Sunday. MILF spokesman Ustadz Eid Kabalu had said they had killed more than 100 soldiers and wounded several others. Uhhh... Let's just say "heavy fighting" until it's sorted out, okay?
In Pikit the government on Friday sent about 500 more soldiers inside Buliok Complex. This developed as the military claimed 40 more rebels killed in a military air assault on the Liguasan Marsh, a known MILF sanctuary. Kabalu admitted there was a daylong encounter, but said that since the start of the conflict this week, the MILF had suffered only 12 fatalities. Sounds like they're doing this as a ground operation with air support. They still haven't caught on to the combined arms thing...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 6:18:46 PM ||
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The suspected spiritual head of Islamic terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah, implicated in the October Bali bombings, filed a lawsuit Friday against Indonesia's police chief demanding he be released and compensated for time spent in detention. In the complaint submitted to the South Jakarta District Court, Abu Bakar Bashir sought Rp 1 billion (US$112,000) in compensation from national police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar. "The police have improperly applied the criminal code against Ba'asyir," said Muhammad Assegaf, one of his mouthpieces lawyers. No charges have yet been filed against him. "This indicates that police did not have enough evidence when they arrested him in October," Assegaf was quoted byAssociated Press as saying.
Prosecutors have said Ba'asyir would be tried for treason, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years' imprisonment. Ba'asyir has repeatedly denied any connection to the Bali bombings and the church attacks, in which 19 people were killed, and has said the case against him was politically motivated. So was the bombing. Personally, I think he's in the terror game for to constant ego massage...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 5:48:10 PM ||
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In the West Bank, three Palestinians were abducted by the Israeli occupation army in the Bethlehem area overnight, including veteran PFLP member and co-founder Adnan Jaber, 60, and two young men, Palestinian security sources said.The occupation army withdrew from Beit Hanun and adjacent towns Monday after four days of re-occupation allegedly aimed at preventing Palestinian fighters firing home-made rockets into southern Israel. Just get 'em off the streets.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 9:54:19 PM ||
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Settlers in an illegal West Bank outpost refused to accept Druze IDF troops as part of the security detail at their settlement, citing "Halakhic considerations," which they said forbid the use of gentile soldiers to protect a Jewish family. Simple enough. Let 'em do themselves...
The incident occured a number of weeks ago and ended with the Israel Defense Forces brigade commander insisting that the men assigned to the security detail be allowed to carry out their orders, overruling the settlers complaint. The illegal outpost is held by a single Israeli family with a number of young men providing additional security. Even though the outpost is considered illegal, and the IDF planned on a number of occasions to dismantle the caravans and evacuate the residents, the army continues to provide the settlers with security. This is part of a policy where the security of Israeli citizens cannot be undermined, irrespective of the legal status of their place of residence in the territories. The IDF maintains a permanent security detail at the outpost, comprised of two conscripts from a rearguard unit, whose role is to supplement the security of the settlers. In this case, however, when the settlers realized the guards were Druze, they insisted they leave the settlement and return to their base. The settlers, members of the "hilltop youth," considered to be among the most extreme of settler groups, argued that the presence of gentiles in the area, providing security to a Jewish family, is forbidden by the Jewish faith. This bunch sounds too much like their Paleoneighbors for comfort. To hell with them. If Israel's not a secular state, the Paleos have a legitimate beef.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 9:34:02 PM ||
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Assailants threw a bomb at the house of a Palestinian activist inside Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp yesterday, causing material damage and no casualties. The bomb targeted the house of Jawad Shreidi, the brother of policeman Nazih Shreidi who was shot and killed earlier this month as he was returning to his home in the Ein el-Hilweh camp on the outskirts of Sidon. Nazih, a member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah group, was allegedly shot by his cousin, Abdullah Shreidi, the leader of the extremist Al Nour group. His killing raised tensions in the camp and prompted a decision by representatives of various Palestinian factions to "liquidate" Abdullah Shreidi, who has also been blamed for a spate of recent bombings and violent acts in Ein el-Hilweh. He's kind of a one-man reign of terror, evidently...
The 100-strong Al Nour group is a breakaway of the militant Asbat Al Ansar group, which is on the US list of terrorist organisations.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 8:59:13 PM ||
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A Palestinian attempting to throw a firebome was killed Friday evening after trying to flee from Israel Defense Forces troops in the West Bank village of Azun, next to Qalqilyah. Two other Palestinians were lightly wounded in the incident and arrested. The army said that troops opened fire after they say three Palestinians approaching in order to throw firebombs at vehicles on the road. One of the Palestinians tried to escape, fell, and according to the army, broke his neck and died. "Take that, Zionist oppressors! Whoops! Ow!"
An Israeli man was lightly injured Friday from shots fired by a Palestinian gunman in a roadside ambush on the trans-Samaria highway, near the West Bank settlement of Adora, some 10 kilometers west of Hebron. The man was transferred to the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem. A large number of troops is searching for the gunman, who was spotted fleeing in the direction of Hebron. "Mahmoud! I potted a Zionist!"
"Hot damn, Ahmed! Run away! Run away!"
Earlier Friday, IDF troops opened fire on a house in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank used as a hide-out by Islamic Jihad militants, killing five Palestinians. "We broke into a house containing four wanted men, who were armed," Brigadier-General Gershon Yitzhak, a regimental commander, told Israel Radio. "The (Duvdevan unit commandos) beat them to the punch and shot them. An armed guard on the roof who threatened the force was also shot. In all, five terrorists were killed." Yitzhak said a sixth Palestinian gunman was shot while trying to flee the scene but it was unclear if he was killed. "Go fer yer guns, Mahmoud!"
[Bang! Bang! Bangety bang!]
"Avner! On the roof!"
[Bang!]
"Nice shootin', Avner!"
The IDF said that the five, who were armed, were Hamas activists wanted by Israel and that one of the five was wearing an explosives belt at the time. "Careful, Moshe! I don't think he was really pregnant!"
Backed by helicopter gunships and tanks, about 10 IDF tanks and armored personnel carriers moved into the camp at the northern edge of the West Bank after daybreak Friday and surrounded the house, Islamic Jihad officials said. Men inside the house fired at the soldiers. According to military sources, four of the men were killed inside the house, one was killed on the roof and another on the street. More than four weapons were seized during the operation, as well as IDF uniforms and badges. The militants had been standing watch over the camp throughout the night and had just returned to their hideout for breakfast and sleep when Israeli forces surrounded them, said a local Islamic Jihad leader, Sheik Bassam Saedi. "Drop the coffee pot and put yer hands up, Mahmoud!"
In the Gaza Strip, the IDF arrested two armed Palestinians Friday on their way to carry out a terror attack near the Kissufim crossing. The men were carrying rifles and hand grenades and were wearing flak jackets. "That's a stunning flak jacket y'got there, Ahmed."
"Y'like it? It was a birthday present from my Mom."
Also Friday, IDF troops arrested 11 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 8:50:54 PM ||
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Embattled U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D) quit his House leadership post today for making what he called "insensitive" remarks about Jews pushing the nation into war with Iraq. Moran said he gave up his position as a regional Whip for the House Democrats "as a way to demonstrate acceptance of responsibility" for his controversial comments at a March 3 anti-war forum in Reston, when he said, "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this." Dontcha hate it when they listen when you run your mouth?
"I will continue to reach out to the Jewish community and others who were offended by my remarks," Moran said in a statement released by his office. "And I will work tirelessly for all of my constituents in Northern Virginia, as I have done throughout my 13 years in Congress. Most importantly, I will strive to learn from my mistakes and listen to the concerns of my constituents." "I'm not even sure I can get a job as a talking head on PBS. Wonder what I'll look like wearing a paper hat at work?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/14/2003 4:28:25 PM ||
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...and the award for Best in Fiction goes to... KCNA!
The independent national economy of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has steadily developed in spite of the persistent economic sanctions and blockade of the united states and its allies. Korea's is an economy that develops on the basis on its efforts and resources to meet its people's demand and that serves the people for their happy life. MMMMMMMM... tree bark.
It is also a comprehensive economy that produces by itself in the main industrial goods and agricultural products needed for economic construction, defence upbuilding and people's living. MMMMMMM... more tree bark.
The Korean people built a solid independent national economy in a short period after the Korean War and developed it as a powerful economy equipped with a consolidated economic structure and modern technologies through the fulfillment of several economic plans. Which is now why we're begging for oil and, oh yeah, food.
The abolition of taxation in 1974, the manufacture of such up-to-date machines as 10,000-ton press and large-scale oxygen plant and the successful launch of satellite Kwangmyongsong No. 1 in August 1998 are results of the country's powerful economy. Thanks to the national economy, the country's defence industry is capable of fully producing by itself sophisticated weapons and technical means and equipment necessary for the defence of the country. With the independent national economy and a strong self-defence power based on it, the Korean people have defended socialism from the imperialists' military threat and aggressive moves. The Korean economy has developed, unaffected by the imperialists' economic blockade and the changed situation of world economic markets. Any kind of their economic sanctions and blockade can never work on Korea with its own solid economic foundations. I'm confused. Are they talking about South Korea or North Korea?
Landmines are already some of the nastiest weapons there are. But they could soon become downright diabolical. Because the Defense Department is developing mines that can talk to one another, and move themselves around in order to cause maximum harm.
To neutralize a minefield, mine-clearers traditionally haven't had to pick up every last one of the explosives. They just had to clear a path to allow people and vehicles to pass through lethal areas safely.
A new group of mines renders this tactic obsolete. The munitions of the "Self-Healing Minefield Program" use tiny radios and acoustic sensors to stay in constant communication with each other. If some of the mines are removed, the ones that remain can "hop" hundreds of meters away, if needed, to rearrange themselves and to close the gaps.
"The minefield acts more like a fluid, and less like a static obstacle," said Dr. Tom Altschuler, who, until recently, oversaw the Self-Healing Minefield for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
In a recent test at Sandia National Laboratories, it took less than 20 seconds for 10 self-healing prototypes to recognize that a mine had been taken away, and to shoot up like stovetop popcorn and reorder themselves. Additional testing has been done at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. A test of 100 or more mines is planned for next month there, according to Altschuler.
Armed with a radio transmitter, each mobile mine takes a turn broadcasting a signal to its fellow munitions, telling them to listen up. The mine then sends out an acoustic "ping," which determines that mine's relative position and distance from its mates.
The ping also determines if any mines are missing. If that's the case, the mines use pre-planned algorithms to determine the best way to heal the breach. Each mine comes with a small amount of fuel and a tiny piston. When the mine needs to move, the piston is fired into a metal "foot," which causes the mine to hop a few meters away. A mine can make as many as a hundred hops before it has to be refueled.
Seems this could also make them easier to detect since they are broadcasting radio waves? I expect there would also be broadcast codes for them to self-destruct or disarm?
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
03/14/2003 9:13:56 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
