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Afghanistan
French Troops to Help U.S. in Afghanistan
In a sign of reconciliation, French President Jacques Chirac told President Bush on Monday that he will send French special forces to operate alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan. "This decision taken by France corresponds both to a wish from the United States and a wish from our country to take part in the stabilization of Afghanistan, so it's a shared interest,'' said Chirac spokeswoman Catherine Colonna. She would not say how many special forces would be sent. The new troops will be separate from several hundred French soldiers already in Afghanistan. Those troops are part of an international force operating in the war-torn country or are working as advisers training Afghan soldiers.
Why is it I don't think this is a good thing?
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 08:57 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They're going to teach the last of the Taliban how to surrender.
Posted by: Mike || 06/02/2003 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  They'll probably rat out all of the coalition plans like they did in Yugoslavia.
Posted by: 11A5S || 06/02/2003 10:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Keep Chirak as far of Afghanistan as possible. He has been a backstabber for all of his life. I don't trust the individual soldiers and officers either: the French are submitted to a such incredible barrage of anti-americanism by their press that it would take years of de-brainwashing before they could be trusted. It is not the fault of the base Frenchman but it is a sad reality.

Now about Mike's surrendering comment I think I have had enough. So Mr Mike let's me remember you that despite what happened in 1940 the French have quite a tradition of toughness at war: WWI cost them about one and half million dead and eight million casualties on a male population (children included) of sixteen million. And they didn't surrender. Contrast this with America conceding defeat in Vietnam after only fifty thousand dead (on a population over six times larger than WWI France) and of people demonstrating or fleeing to Canada because they feared to be hurt in Vietnam. Ah, and if you look at history you will see that the usual outcome has not been the French surrendering to their ennemies but the other guys surrendering to them. Take a one dollar note and you will see the picture of one guy who surrendered to the French.
Posted by: JFM || 06/02/2003 10:51 Comments || Top||

#4  JFM....your point on WWI is well taken, but you lose me on the rest of it. The French HAD a tradition of toughness if one is willing to go back a couple of centuries. Also, regarding Vietnam, just who do you think we inherited that garbage pit from anyway? I stand by Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey until the French prove otherwise.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 06/02/2003 11:48 Comments || Top||

#5  JFM, counter-balancing this of course is the near collapse of French forces in the summer of 1917, with wide-spread mutinies that were put down by force. The US army truly saved France then -- remember the German offensive of 1918 was stopped short of Paris in large part by American forces. Then of course there is 1940, when a French army superior in numbers and equipment were decisively beaten by the Germans. This was due in part to the near-revolution by the French left and the sabotage they inspired. Tack on Vietnam and 1954 (who was the genius who decided to put a French airfield in a valley floor?), and that's three in a row.

I don't doubt the bravery of the French soldier when he's competently led and equipped -- the Free French forces of 1944 did well, but they were American trained and supplied. But you'll excuse the average American for having some scorn for the French army -- it's been a while since they won one on their own.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/02/2003 11:51 Comments || Top||

#6  JFM:

As a citizen of Rantburg, it is my inalienable right to engage in the telling of French jokes and other smartassery in the public square.

On a serious note, I am well aware of WWI history, and I yield to no one in my respect for the armies of Napoleonic France. The French in 1940 had a decent army betrayed by spineless and inept leadership--but you cannot deny that after the surrender, the French people in the aggregate were more than willing to accept German occupation, if not collaberate actively with it. (I recommend you look up excellent article on this point in the military history journal MHQ from a few years ago called "The Myth of French Resisitance." Unfortunately not on line, or I'd give you a link.) As Steve writes above, it's been all downhill from there.

France today has a respectable army (at least the Legion) and builds some nice airplanes, but its political leadership is, not to put too fine a point on it, a pack of weasels. I can't respect people like that.
Posted by: Mike || 06/02/2003 12:20 Comments || Top||

#7  First of all, when the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam, they were not defending their homeland. France was when they folded in WWII.
The only thing that France could have done to make them look worse in WWII, is turn on the British.
"Hitler Pleased to see Unconditional Surrender already prepared for him"
"Welcome back!" "We kept your rooms the way you left them"
De Gaulle calls Capitulation "An example of the finest French military tradition."
Posted by: Mike N. || 06/02/2003 13:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Our best and brightest will probably be unwilling to serve next to those Benedict Arnold yellow-weasles. How could a Frenchie possibly run a Cladinstine operation with their stench???
Posted by: matinum || 06/02/2003 13:11 Comments || Top||

#9  Interesting admissions about Chira(k?) by JFM (French Canuck?) Maybe the French problem goes deeper than anyone short of Condoleezza knows.
Posted by: Scott || 06/02/2003 13:46 Comments || Top||

#10  Some points.

First: I am not a Canuck. I am a French. That is how I know of French politics and of the hate speech spilled day after day by French media both leftist or willing to build a pan-european nationalism through hate of America. (Look at http://merdeinfrance.blogspot.com for translated examples of what the French are being fed). Like Fox Mulder, I want to believe, in my case that the French will be friends of America after the lies of their press are exposed and they go through a desintoxication period. I am also a friend and an admirer of America (but see below) and author of a post entitled "My name of Jean-Francois and I am an anti-American" shaming those people who look at the straws in America's eyes and not at the beams in her ennemies eyes (or in their own)

Second: To Mike N. Vietnam: the French left in 1954. Excuse me if I don't understand why they got you into it by 1963. And the fifty thousand American dead translate into ten to twelve thousand French given the difference in population. I doubt there is any war where the French were trying to escape the draft after only twelve thousand dead. Even when it was not their homeland. BTW: in fourty days of combat in 1940 the French Army lost one hundred and twenty thousand dead. In American terms those would have been five hundred thousand dead. The problem was not about French soldiers not willing to die for their country but their uneffectiveness in making the Germans die for theirs: only thirty three thousand and this counting those who were killed by the Dutch, Belgians and British.

I highly doubt your quote about De Gaulle. I have read the "Memoires de Guerre" and I also know a bit about the guy's ego, his faith in the innate superiority of the French soldier over the German one (he believed that provided they had six armored divisions the French would make mincemeat of the ten german ones due to Frenchmen's greater adaptability and creativity), his pride (he had France refunding Allied equipment lent to the Free French and that before the end of war), his obsession about having Free French earning laurels in combat, his mysticism about France ("I imagine France like the princess of tales or the madone painted on (church)walls"). Sorry but your assertion doesn't compute. I fear your source has lied.

Third: Steve White. The French mutinied in 1917 but it was because soldiers were tired of politicians and generals who treated them as expendable. And given that only one division remained loyal I doubt the rebellion could have been put down by force. What restored loyalty was the nomination of general who had a reputation of being economical of the life of his soldiers/ Philippe Petain. Under fourty soldiers were sent to the firesquad: do you really believe so few people would have been shot if force had had to be used? While we are at it it was the British, not the US who saved France. Germany had two times the population and over three times the industrial production of France so it was British help who kept it in the war. And now after the British and French went through Marne first, Ypres, Paschendaeele, Verdun, Nivelle's offensives, suffered gas attacks for months without protectio (until gas masks were designed), designed and mass produced the decisive weapon of the war (tanks) it would be Americans who would get the credit because in the last yeaqr of war they sent a force a fraction of what the French and British were fielding and who was mostly equipped with French and British weapons? America put the straw who broke the camel's back (OK it was several pounds) but the main load were tons of French and British blood.

Fourth: Mike. About attitude of French citizens during occupation. There were two important factors tilting the balance tge wrong way. The first one was July 3, 1940 when the British attacked the French fleet at Mers el Kebir. Twelve hundred French sailors were killed on the battleship Bretagne alone. Since there was ever the danger of either by black mail ("Give me the fleet or I kill one million citizens"), ruse or Vichy switching sides the Germans could seize the French fleet it is my feeling (and De Gaulle's) that better those ships sunk than fighting for the Germans: with the French fleet on their side the Nazis wouldn't have needed air supremacy for invasion of Great Britain. But the French and specially the Armed Forces and specially the Navy were quite angry about the dead sailors and thus for most of the war they looked at Resistance people and Free French as traitors for siding with the British.

The second factor was that there was a French governement and that government had sued for peace and was calling for collaboration. So even before Mers el Kebir many officers who otherise would have gladly gone to Britain and continued the fight felt that they had to keep discipline and obey the legal governement. But people would have shrugged if it had been say, Laval, who had been calling for it. But it was Marshall Petain, the victor of Verdun, the only WWI general who seemed to care about his soldiers lives so he was an idol for all the WWI combattants. And that means that all teh people who had proven their patriotism in WWI, all the people who had got medals for heroism under fire instead of calling to resistance were calling for obedience to Marshall Petain and he was telling the French that it was the people, not the elites who wre guilty for the defeat and that in atonement for its sins the people should reject republican values and obey his governement who was collaborating with the Germans.

Fifth: "There is no such thing as bad soldiers. Only bad officers". Since begining of time some armies have found themselves in situations where rtheir sacrifice would cause grievous losses to the ennemy or could buy give valuable time to their fellows (eg El Alamo or Belfort). And there have been times where errors of high command puts troops in situations where further resistance only brings slaughtering of the defenders with minimal casualties on the enemy. The Japanese used to suicide in such situations. Others, including George Washington, surrendered.

Fifth: To all of you. I understand Americans being angry about the French. Say all what you want about 2003 French. Want to nuke France? OK, just grant asylum to my wife and daughters. But I am fed up with disparaging of French soldiers be it the 1914 ones or even the 1940 ones whose defeat was mostly not theirs but the one of incompetent or downright traitorous generals and politicians. People who have been long dead don't deserve the scorn brought by the French of 2003.
Posted by: JFM || 06/02/2003 18:21 Comments || Top||

#11  JFM: Don't get too put out by these guys. Put downs are very much part of the American sense of humor. When I was in high school, we used to call it "capping." (Example: Student one: "Your mama is like a freshly poured cup of coffee. Hot and steaming and waiting for the cream." Student two: "Well at least my mama gets out of bed to go to work." Etc., ad infinitum.) Getting back to France and Europe, there is this huge gap between the so-called elites and the regular folks in Europe that most Americans just cannot grasp. You understand it because you live it. In my opinion, the biggest failure in American foreign policy is our failure to address that gap -- indeed to exploit it, tear it open, and free all of the unused human potential. If we could succeed at this, then we would have true European allies, instead of cynical fools like Chiraq and Schroeder. At any rate, I hope you stick around. I appreciate and enjoy your sense of history and viewpoint.

Rantburgers: If you want to get some appreciation of what JFM is talking about, read William Shirer's The Collapse of the Third Republic. I highly recommend it.
Posted by: 11A5S || 06/02/2003 18:58 Comments || Top||

#12  I agree with JFM: An army can't or won't fight if their leadership, military and political, are stupid as hell.
Posted by: Ptah || 06/02/2003 19:08 Comments || Top||

#13  Historian Anthony Komjathy, a Hungarian Freedom fighter of 1956, onetime instructor in Tactics at the Hungarian Military Academy (later a history professor in two US colleges) was researching some aspects of WWI, and asked for some information from a branch of the French military archives. The archivists were so rude and so evasive--they contradicted themselves a dozen times--that Komjathy came to the conclusion that they must have had something truly embarassing to hide.

Shirers The Collapse of the 3rd Republic is indeed an excellent work.

Thanks to JFM for telling us what's happening. The regular US media don't have a clue.
Posted by: Mom || 06/02/2003 22:05 Comments || Top||

#14  I'd also recommend Bernard Fall's "Hell in a Very Small Place," if you can find a copy. It's an almost hour-by-hour dissection of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Fall was matter-of-fact in his treatment of the shortcomings and problems the Frenchies faced in Viet Nam. De Castries and Navarre weren't incompetent, but Navarre didn't inspire confidence in many of his officers and Castries was remiss in fortifying two key positions. If they'd won, nobody would have cared about either. Of the troops at Dien Bien Phu, as of March 13th, before the final reinforcement, 1400 were from the French mainland, 3000 were Legionnaires, 2600 were North Africans, and 3500 were Viets or tribal Thais, all of which presented hideous problems with coordination - something the true believers in multilateral forces tend to discount because they've never tried to communicate in three or four different languages and cultural references at once. There were some awsome examples of heroism, and there were the usual examples of not-quite-heroism and things that didn't work the way they were expected to. We had the same thing in Viet Nam, by the way - Con Thien and Khe Sanh were supposed to be replays of Dien Bien Phu, and the North Vietnamese were able to bring off either one, but neither was a cakewalk.

It's quite true about the problems with leadership. The example that pops to mind is the South Vietnamese 25th Division, which was pretty dreggy until Do Cao Tri took it over. He turned it around in a very short time, and it performed outstandingly in operation Lam Son 719, which was some tough fighting, indeed. He was killed in a helicopter crash shortly afterward and the unit returned to being nondescript.

All the Frenchie bashing is fun, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that there are some very good units in the French army. There are the usual problems associated with a conscript force (I believe they're still draftees - correct me if I'm wrong). The qualitative difference between a professional force and draftees will always show (read up on the Falklands operation), but the professional units add enough heft to give the force punch; the problem is that it won't have staying power with a draftee base. It's my opinion, and I could be wrong, that combat arms and combat support should be professionals and draftees should provide service support.

I don't know how much the French army has adopted the combined arms concept - I've been out of the business too long to be up on it, and never had much contact with them when I was in it. I don't think that standing on their own, and with their level of military spending, they're capable of it. The U.S. has put the money and the R&D and the training into making it work, and the result is as different from the rest of the world's forces as Guderian's was from the Polish or Soviet armies. It's a different class of warfare, and the tools to counter it haven't been invented yet. The only counter available now would be to mount the same kind of operation as an immovable object. 'Tain't gonna happen, not even with a Euroforce - see above, re coordinating multilateral forces.

That being said, professional French forces, under competent officers can do wonders in places like Bunia and Ivory Coast, provided they're not hamstrung by orders from on high not to kill anybody. And I think that's what they're facing today. If I was in charge, I'd call for an adequate all-French force for DRC, with orders to kill anyone waving a gun or a machete. They'd clean the place up.
Posted by: Fred || 06/02/2003 22:23 Comments || Top||

#15  And I'd add Alastaire Horne's To Lose a Battle and The Price of Glory. The first is an account of the Battles of the Frontiers and France in 1940. The second is about the Battle of Verdun. Shirer's book is more focused on politics. Horne's books are more military oriented.
Posted by: 11A5S || 06/02/2003 23:31 Comments || Top||

#16  JFM: if your rebuttal is that French political leadership in WW I caused the mutinies, no argument here. But there was a fair bit of bloodshed in putting the mutinies down. That forty men went to a firing squad tells you only that the general staff was bound and determined to create an example for everyone else.

I might also add that the Ami forces in 1918 were the straw that broke the back of the Germans: but without them, the Germans would have taken Paris, and all the French and British blood spilled to that point would have been for nought.

I'm sure there are good units in the French army. There were good units in the French army at the beginning of WW II (DeGaulle's division fought particularly well). That doesn't change the fact that the outcome was spectacularly poor. Ditto Vietnam 1954: I'm sure Fred is right about the acts of heroism, but some clear blunders were made at the beginning that doomed the French.

In one way we're all in violent agreement, as Ptah notes: bad leadership undoes an army quicker than anything. The quickest way for the French to shake the perception/meme that their army isn't up to modern warfare is to take on missions as Fred suggests: go to the DRC and fix the place. Nothing talks like success.

One more thing, JFM: nobody here wants to nuke France. Honest.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/02/2003 23:59 Comments || Top||

#17  Read a great book awhile back on WW1,been to many years to remember the details.Seems the German General Staff estimated that the Army's swing through Belium into Northern France would cost 10 German soldiers/per meter of ground seized.
In one battle the German dead were stacked so high British soldiers had to push the bodies over so they could continue firing.
Posted by: Raptor || 06/03/2003 7:07 Comments || Top||


Afghan Guerrillas Buy Rocket Attacks
Anti-government guerrillas are paying poor people small amounts of cash to fire crude rockets at U.S. bases in the country, a provincial governor said Monday.
Rocket's R'Us.
The latest reported incident took place late Saturday, when attackers fired a rocket at a U.S. base in the eastern city of Asadabad, said Kunar Gov. Sayed Fazel Akbar. The rocket fell short of the base and there were no injuries. Asadabad is near the Pakistan border.
Where else.
Akbar, a former presidential spokesman, said there are no Taliban or al-Qaida fighters in the area, but they or other anti-government forces pay poor people up to $10 to fire the rockets. "Some people will fire rockets just for money. They need the money," he said. "It's very difficult to control one man putting a rocket on his shoulder and going up into the mountains to fire it." For more than a year, attackers have fired crude rockets at U.S. bases across eastern and southern Afghanistan. Usually launched one or two at a time, the rockets rarely land closer than 500 yards from their targets.
These guys firing them don't care, they are getting paid by the launch. If they got too close to hitting a base, it would draw, shall we say, "unwanted attention" down on them.
In Paktia province, about 250 Afghan security forces launched an operation Saturday to hunt down culprits behind a series of rocket strikes there, said Gen. Atiqullah Uddin, a senior commander in Gardez. The soldiers searched the districts of Zormat, Jadran and Chamkani, as well as the Shah-i-Kot Valley. The Pakistani-based Afghan Islamic Press reported dozens of U.S. helicopters were involved in a major new sweep for Taliban fighters around Shah-i-Kot. It was not clear if the two operations were the same, however. U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis declined to comment. Uddin said only a handful of American soldiers were involved. In the eastern Afghan town of Khost, security forces arrested five men - four Afghans and one from Saudi Arabia who had no passport and crossed illegally into Afghanistan.
A Saudi with no passport? Usually they have a dozen.
Coalition troops took custody of all five men in Khost on Monday, said Gen. Khial Baz, a division commander. "Our soldiers were patrolling the area last night (Sunday), and these people opened fire on them," Baz said. The Saudi man had a pistol, while the four Afghans - two of whom were working as guides - had assault rifles.
Gee, a guy only armed with a pistol. That would indicate that he might be their fearless leader.
The group also had binoculars, a video camera and a cell or satellite phone, Baz said. It was unclear what they were doing with the equipment.
Sounds like a recon team. Need to have a long talk with the Saudi.
It's pleasant to watch the content of these stories slowly evolve over time from American forces chasing Talibs and Qaeda to Afghans doing it.
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 08:29 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "truncheons and moustachios time Abdul"
Posted by: Frank G || 06/02/2003 9:08 Comments || Top||

#2  same policy as isreal, if you fire the rocket, your family is homeless and you dissapear for a decade.
Posted by: flash91 || 06/02/2003 9:15 Comments || Top||

#3  That's an interesting article. It's similar to today's DEBKA screamer:
American emissaries discovered while seeking ceasefire that no more than 5 operatives operate Hamas- Jihad Islami terror “infrastructure” on West Bank. They hire suicide squads from Arafat’s Fatah-Tanzim militia and al Aqsa Brigades for paid terror attacks on Israelis in their name.
Posted by: Fred || 06/02/2003 16:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Fred, that means our job is a little simpler: find five guys and ah, "persuade" them to stop hiring splodydopes. Sure, they could find five more, after which they'll be persuaded.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/02/2003 17:35 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Al-Qaeda Man Killed in Shootout
Expands on yesterday's report...
Two Saudi security men and a suspected terrorist wanted by the authorities were killed on Saturday night in a shootout in the northern region of Hail, an Interior Ministry statement said yesterday. Another gunman was arrested and two more security men were injured in the clash, the ministry said.
Yesterday's report said the guy got away. Guess he didn't get too far away...
The two suspects had sped away in their car to escape an identity check by the security forces. They hurled a grenade at security men chasing them, killing two and wounding two others.
I usually consider grenades an indication the guy's intentions aren't friendly...
The security men caught up with the suspects, killing one and arresting the other. The dead man was identified as Yousuf Saleh Fahd Al-Ayeeri, one of 19 men Saudi authorities have been hunting since May 6, when they uncovered a cell belonging to the Al-Qaeda terror network. The arrested suspect identified himself as Abdullah ibn Ibrahim ibn Abdullah Al-Shabrami, the ministry statement said, adding that authorities were trying to verify his identity.
Wouldn't be surprised if his real name's not al-Ghamdi, from Assiri...
Hail Governor Prince Saud ibn Abdul Mohsen told Al-Watan newspaper that trouble erupted late Saturday at a checkpoint in Turba, 200 kilometers from Hail city.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/02/2003 02:28 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Verdict date set - 'Arms case fabricated'
KUWAIT CITY, June 2: Lawyers [for the defendants] told the Criminal Court the case against their clients - four men accused of trading in unlicensed and prohibited arms and ammunition - is a pure fabrication and the entire case should be dismissed and interrogations with his clients cancelled because their clients had tried in vain to get their lawyers to attend the interrogations sessions at the Prosecution. The Criminal Court set June 16, 2003, to issue a verdict against - Ali Abdullah Hamad Al-Hamidi (aged 42), Khalifa Hilal Hadi Al-Dihani (aged 53), Ibrahim Mubarak Fahad Al-Ghanim (aged 46) and Talal Hamad Mohamed Al-Faresi (aged 35). Attorney Al-Munawer told the court the Prosecution interrogated the suspects without allowing their lawyers to attend the sessions on the pretext the sessions were secret. Al-Munawer added the case should not have been dealt with as a SSD case. ‘It is one of the hundreds of cases of unlicensed arms that crop up in Kuwait every day," he pointed out.
"Yer honor, my client ain't no terrorist supplier! All his clients told 'im they wuz goin' huntin' elk..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/02/2003 02:13 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Twelve Terrorists Arrested : Saudi Official Press Release
In accordance with the statement of Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, the minister of interior, at the press conference in Tabuk region on Wednesday that details will be announced on security men’s chasing of wanted persons who were preparing for terrorist actions in various regions of the Kingdom, an official source at the Ministry of Interior announced that a number of persons were arrested in Madinah last Tuesday and Wednesday. They were in possession of weapons, funds, false identity cards and documents, materials and devices necessary for making explosives. The source added that the arrested people were:
  • Ali Kudhair Fahd Al-Khudhair, Saudi,
  • Ahmed Homood Al-Khaldi, Saudi,
  • Saad Abdulrazzaq Faidhi Al-Ghamdi, Saudi,
  • Turki Abdulaziz Al-Fuhaid, Saudi,
  • Mohammed Abdulfattah Mohammed Kiram, Moroccan,
  • Nasser Hamad Humain Al-Fahd, Saudi,
  • Mohammed Salim Al-Ghamdi, Saudi,
  • Hisham Mubarak Al-Hakami, Saudi,
  • Omar Mubarak Al-Hakami,
  • Majdi Ahmed Mohammed Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Khabrani, Saudi, and
  • Talib Ahmed Kareem, Moroccan.
The source pointed out that after chasing a car which fled from one of the apprehension sites, security men stopped the car and arrested its occupants led by the so-called Abdulmonim Ali Mahfouz Al-Ghamdi accompanied by three Arab women without identity cards. They were Ghaidah Ahmed Souidah, Syrian, wife of Abdulmonim; Hanan Abdullah Raqib, Moroccan, claimed to be the wife of Sultan bin Jibran al-Qahtani, wanted; and Al-Iyadyyih Ahmed Mohammed Al-Sayyad, Moroccan, claimed to be the wife of Ali Abdulrahman Al-Faqaasi Al-Ghamdi, wanted. An amount of SR709,782 was found in possession with the arrested in addition to two pistols, 34 bullets, 3 magazines, a quantity of jewels and some forged documents. Investigation showed that the arrested used to make frequent visits to a number of locations to cover up their operations. These locations were:
  • Two villas in Al-Iskan quarters in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah.
  • A villa in Al-Azhani quarters in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah.
  • A farm in Al-Naseem quarters in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah.
Upon searching the locations authorities found weapons, hand grenades, chemical materials and a hidden camera to monitor the surroundings. Weapons and materials found in the locations include:
  • 19 machine guns;
  • 3 pistols and 3 hand grenades;
  • 7 boxes full of ammunitions;
  • dangerous chemical materials;
  • computer sets, papers on instruction of the making of explosives and a quantity of items, wires and electric equipment;
  • a number of swords; and
  • a number of booby cellular phones for use in explosion.
The source concluded his statement by saying that the security bodies at the Ministry of Interior will continue to follow-up and chase those who intend to carry out such terrorists works.
We'll be watching.

I'd guess there's some significance to the fact that the non-Saudis nabbed were (with the exception of the Syrian wife, who wouldn't count, anyway) Moroccans. The timing of the attacks in Casablanca, and their similarity to the Riyadh attacks, rings the little bell.

Of even more interest is all those al-Ghamdis — at least four of them, with a couple more mentioned other places. Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi was reportedly a member of Saif al-Adel's Qaeda gang. He was turned over to the Soddies after Tora-Bora, in December, 2001, by the Medes and the Persians. The Soddies patted his hand and let him go.

In February (doesn't time fly in the Wonderful World of Terror!) Abdullah Mesfer Ali al-Ghamdi was jugged in Morocco for the Great Exploding Rubber Raft Caper, busted up last June. I believe I read a report that he was released in a general amnesty on the birth of the King's son or something along those lines — it was late, can't remember.

But the kicker is the bin Laden video from December, 2001, featuring the dinner party with the visiting Soddy cleric, named, of all things, Sheikh al-Ghamdi. Al-Ghamdi was described as "a militant cleric from a tribe of the Assir province." Another of the Rubber Raft Caper guys was Hilal Jaber Awad Al-Assiri. Wanna bet where he comes from? Wanna bet where he goes to mosque? Wanna bet who is cleric is?

Need another layer? Among the 9-11 hijackers there were three al-Ghamdis: Hamza Al-Ghamdi and Ahmed Al-Ghamdi (flight 175), and Saeed Al-Ghamdi (flight 93).

Wonder if the Soddies and the Feds are drawing the same conclusions I am? I don't think there's any doubt as to whether it's Qaeda connected, and I don't have any doubt as to the involvement of most people named al-Ghamdi who're weened, with Mr. Holy Man at the top.
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 11:35 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dang Fred! How you keep that alphabet soup straight is beyond me. My eyes glaze over ofter 2 minutes in Thugburg. From this and other of your comments, it sure seems as though terrorist blood is thicker than nationalist waters. I wonder if Ghamdi corresponds to some Saudi town, a la Tikriti. Or if they all just say, "I'm Spartacus". At any rate you should find a congressman or CIA weenie and feed em your findings. With our gov't, you can't assume they know anything.
Posted by: Scott || 06/02/2003 14:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh no, the Soddies didn't pat him in the head. What they did was to free him at MEDINA. And this has a very deep significance in the Muslim world: it is the place were you go to gain new forces before going in another attack on the non-muslims. In other words: the Sodies were sending him a message encouraging him to launch new attacks.
Posted by: JFM || 06/02/2003 14:50 Comments || Top||

#3  isnt assir the southwest near Yemen, where the Bin laden family comes from?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/02/2003 15:28 Comments || Top||

#4  As a matter of fact...
The patronymics Alghamdi and Alshehri, borne by six of the presumed terrorists, have drawn particular attention. These names are connected to the Assir region in southern Saudi Arabia, and come from two Arabian clans, the Hamedi and the Sharahni. The populations of Assir have never really accepted the dominance of the Sauds. To understand the reasons for their opposition, we need to recall certain historical facts. When the present royal family unified the country, their conquest, which started out from Kuwait in 1902, ended in the Assir region, the last stronghold of the kingdom, taken in 1929.
Posted by: Fred || 06/02/2003 15:48 Comments || Top||


Kuwaiti firms snap up contracts in Iraq
Just rewards for supporting the regime change
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait's private sector is reaping the benefits of strong support for the war in Iraq and snapping up business opportunities that economists believe will become increasingly lucrative. Some Kuwaiti companies had already gained from the war, landing contracts to provide food, water and other services to about 170,000 US and British troops stationed here in the run-up to the March 20 invasion. The prospects of possible gains in the process of rebuilding Iraq have rallied the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) for months, taking it to new records.
How's that Saudi exchange? Syrian? Nonexistent? Duh
It closed Sunday at its highest level yet, 3791.2 points, and saw capitalisation top 45 billion dollars for the first time ever in May. The emirate's support for the war - it served as the main launchpad - has given Kuwaiti companies an edge over their rivals in a country now providing a main gateway into Baghdad.
Iraq: Kuwait's 2nd Province lol
"Kuwait's position is different to others in the region, it opened its gates to the British and Americans," said Kuwaiti economist Ali al-Nimesh. Though this came at a cost to its political standing in the region, where fellow Arab states were opposed to the war, Kuwait is now profiting. "And it's the private sector getting this benefit, with a lot more potential to get more contracts," Nimesh said. American and British companies are to be awarded the main contracts, but Kuwaiti firms will profit as sub-contractors, and in telecommunications, public warehousing, storage and catering services, Nimesh said. Retailers also stand to gain, particularly those providing mobile phones, cars and clothes, while the emirate will continue to profit from being a main transit point to Iraq. Kuwait's Public Warehouses Co., listed on the KSE, on Saturday landed a five-year contract to execute logistics and purchase products, locally and from abroad, to provide US forces in Kuwait, Iraq and Qatar with food and other goods. The contract is estimated to be worth an annual minimum of 23 million dollars but economic sources said it is expected to increase to 300 million dollars per year. The Sultan Centre, Kuwait's largest privately-owned supermarket, also listed on the KSE, has signed up and is expected to be in charge of the locally supplied products.

"Many Kuwaiti companies have an advantage because of their proximity to Iraq and the capability of the private sector," said Faisal Ali al-Mutawa, a leading member of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "Kuwaitis already have property ownership in Iraq, and up to four Kuwaiti companies now have contracts in Iraq," said the prominent businessman. "Iraq is opening up a great opportunity for the private sector, which has been limited in Kuwait because of government control," he said. However economist Jassim al-Saadun took a different view saying business in Iraq itself will really pick up in three years and that in the meantime, "Kuwait will lose on so much ground." The emirate has at least 15 billion dollars in loans to Iraq and is owed about 25 billion dollars in compensation from Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Saadun said. The initial demand will be on the construction, transportation, telecommunications and hotel services, he said. "Even wholesale trade will gain because some of the Iraqis' needs will come via Kuwait. Yet it won't be that huge." Total gains by the private sector will ultimately be offset by the public sector, which has already seen increased expenditures as a result of the war, he said.
Posted by: Frank G || 06/02/2003 08:48 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  should've added EFL - lot of economic talk
Posted by: Frank G || 06/02/2003 8:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Kuwait's Public Warehouses Co., listed on the KSE, on Saturday landed a five-year contract to execute logistics and purchase products, locally and from abroad, to provide US forces in Kuwait, Iraq and Qatar with food and other goods.

Excellent news: We're in for the long haul, since we wouldn't sigh a FIVE year contract if we were planning to leave sooner.
Posted by: Ptah || 06/02/2003 19:06 Comments || Top||


Europe
France Uses Woody Allen In Ad Campaign
In an effort to win back hearts in the United States, France has commissioned a little schtick from one of America's best-known comedians: Woody Allen.
Wow. Could they have gotten someone even more outdated like Martha Raye ... or dare I say ... Jerry Lewis? Then again, he's perfect for the French. A short little nebbish whiner who cheated on his wife.
Hey! I like Martha Raye!
"I don't want to freedom kiss my daughter wife," says Allen says in a new ad spot. "I want to French kiss her."
"Actually, I want to run my tongue over her kneecaps and... Never mind."
The new charm campaign from the French Government Tourist Office aims to tug at our heartstrings and employs a trÚs français sensibility.
Is this some sort of Onion satire?
But is this lighthearted approach, set to a soundtrack of romantic French music, enough to rekindle the romance for Americans? France's staunch opposition to a war in Iraq soured many Americans on the longtime ally from across the Atlantic. But now, there is concern that French-bashing has gone way too far.
Non, non mes amis - it could never go too far.
Jean-David Levitte, France's ambassador to the United Staes, has suddenly found himself the point man for the French image makeover. He has been crisscrossing the nation trying to undo the damage, with stops in cities such as Atlanta and Houston to try to boost his homeland's image.
Yes, I am sure that Atlanta and Houston are Woody Allen hotbeds.
But it's not just regular folks he has to try to charm. He has encountered some anti-French backlash in the top levels of American government.
No! Really? Who'da thunkit!
"When I saw, for instance, the restaurants of the House printing 'freedom fries' instead of french fries, and the menu of Air Force One printing 'freedom toast' instead of 'French toast,' I said, Hey, stop,' " Levitte said.
Zut Alors, Arretez! Yes, by God, the horrors of it all. It's akin to not supporting an ally in overthrowing a despotic regime.
The backlash is serious business. By some accounts the drop in American tourism has cost France $500 million. Levitte says the issue is bigger than boycotts of champagne. Levitte is up against some uncivilized behavior, including angry Americans dumping out the best French wine, à la Boston Tea Party, to make a point. A French dry cleaner's was vandalized. Meanwhile, Americans seem to have been taking perverse pleasure in the humor of it all.
Moi? Oui. But I don't consider myself a pervert - now then, Woody Allen on the other hand.
"If the French are mad at us, we must be doing something right," David Letterman joked on Late Night with David Letterman. But Levitte isn't laughing. "It's my job to remind that these funny little jokes are not so funny,
- well actually, yes they are -
because they are taken seriously on the other side of the Atlantic," he says. "We may differ on very serious issues — war and peace, pre-emptive war, international law, but is it a good reason to have this campaign of French-bashing?"
Ummm ... yes.
It's not just an economic issue — it's a social one, he says. "It goes beyond calls for French products," Levitte said. "When you insult the French people, simply because they are French, then it's a kind of racist campaign."
We don't have to insult the French, they do a pretty damn good job all on their own.
He insists doors in Washington are still open to him — but the public rhetoric stings. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has said that the French should be punished for their lack of support over Iraq, and Secretary of State Colin Powell has suggested there will be consequences. Levitte says he doesn't know how to take such statements. "My message is that we have better things to do than punish each other because we're not in agreement on an important issue," he said.
If you don't whack the dog when it pees on the carpet, guess what it's going to do the next time it has to go?
Levitte is so frustrated he actually wrote a letter to Congress and the Bush administration accusing the government of condoning a smear campaign against the French. "I would say it is encouraged by some people in the government, especially in the Pentagon, the civilians in the Pentagon," he said. Then there's the jokes of late-night comics like Letterman and Jay Leno. "It's not funny because if fuels resentment," Levitte said. "You know, people in France see that and say, 'How can a great democracy like America be so petty, so absurd?' We may differ on war and peace, but please, french fries are french fries."
In Germany they call them pommes frites. They haven't had to reprint their menus in years.
Posted by: ColoradoConservative || 06/02/2003 04:04 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does this guy really think that anybody in the U.S. thinks the French see us as a "great democracy"?
The fact that they used a has been that married his fuckin' daughter, is proof enough to me that the French are completely out of touch with everyone in the U.S., with the exception of those in TinsleTown.
And, if they don't think French jokes are funny, that just proves that they are the big, collective group of self rightous, egomaniacal, pompous, has beens with little-man syndrome that I thought they were.
French unveil "Arc de Capitulation", A new monument that celebrates French cowardice in the face of adversity.
Posted by: Mike N. || 06/02/2003 16:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Merde in France is doing a great job of documenting all the anti-American cartoons published almost daily in Le Monde, the French "paper of record." They're sickening. Yet if any US politician were to criticize any of France's America-bashing, he would be pilloried for months for daring to intervene in French internal politics. Gallic hypocites are the very worst kind.
Posted by: 11A5S || 06/02/2003 16:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Mixing metaphors. A frog doesn't change its spots.

This latest effort should provide enough fodder for another week's worth of jokes from Lettermen and Leno.
Posted by: ColoradoConservative || 06/02/2003 17:03 Comments || Top||

#4  let me get this straight...The french think that a pedophile will help them win back our $$$.
Ne soyez pas fou! Note to France and EU: The U.S. will never look UP to you again.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC California Chapter) || 06/02/2003 17:06 Comments || Top||

#5  "OK, Ok, We now realize M. Allen was not a superb choice as the face of French ethical love for America. How about Roman Polanski? You know him, he, uh,....."
Posted by: Frank G || 06/02/2003 17:54 Comments || Top||

#6  The new charm campaign from the French Government...

My god I think I cracked a rib laughing at that phrase.

When furrin governments start charm offensives, you know that

1) They're getting worried

2) They're going to shoot themselves in both kneecaps.

...people in France see that and say, 'How can a great democracy like America be so petty, so absurd?'...

This is a case of the pot calling the pecan black.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 06/02/2003 19:30 Comments || Top||

#7  As I blogged, they picked the perfect spokeperson. He betrayed an old friend for a cheap thrill, a very French thing to do.

Gee, Frank G., I also thought of Roman, also PeeWee Herman, Ru Paul and Idi Amin.
Posted by: Chuck || 06/02/2003 19:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Notice how he is conflating Letterman and Leno jokes with an official government policy. That's the European mind-set revealed for all to see. I personally have reservations about attacks on French people and French culture, etc. as opposed to French policy myself. The Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey thing was funny the first 5 times I saw it or so but it was a definite case of overkill. Personally, who gives a damn. I hope to see Texas native Lance Armstrong riding triumphantly down the Champs Elysee once again this month. Ha ha.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro || 06/02/2003 20:19 Comments || Top||

#9  "We may differ on very serious issues — war and peace, pre-emptive war, international law, but is it a good reason to have this campaign of French-bashing?"

Actually, it wasn't that they differed -- it was that they obstructed us and spit in our faces. And now they want us forget those attitudes so that we will change ours. Kiss that tourism and wine sales goodbye, froggie. I'm as pissed off today as I was three months ago, and all the letters to Congress and tours of Atlanta and Houston aren't going to change that one bit. Dump The Worm and those strutting peacocks in the foreign ministry and I'll reconsider my position.
Posted by: Tom || 06/02/2003 20:52 Comments || Top||

#10  Bet on Lance. Bet HEAVY on Lance.
Posted by: Raj || 06/02/2003 21:19 Comments || Top||

#11  Was OJ busy?
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 21:28 Comments || Top||

#12  It isn't that Woody cheated on his wife. It's that he married his daughter.

This is the most misguided ad campaign I've ever seen. The Upper West Siders (and wannabes) who admire Allen already hate Bush -- and love Chiraq. Everyone else finds him effete and/or morally repellent.
Posted by: someone || 06/02/2003 21:34 Comments || Top||

#13  ...perhaps Woody could do a rendition of Chevalier's "Thank Heaven For Little Girls"....
Posted by: elbud || 06/02/2003 21:52 Comments || Top||

#14  Maybe they don't recognize the difference between Leno and government policy because .. they expect people here to toe the line like they do in France.
Posted by: Dishman || 06/02/2003 22:59 Comments || Top||

#15  It isn't that Woody cheated on his wife. It's that he married his daughter.

He actually did both. Cheated on Mia (his then wife) while his current wife was their adopted daughter.
Posted by: Bubblehead || 06/02/2003 23:30 Comments || Top||

#16  "but is it a good reason to have this campaign of French-bashing?"

Absolutly,just like what is happening with the"Hollywood Elite(fools)".When you piss-off the people who buy your product,you can bet your buisness is going to go in the crapper.
Posted by: Raptor || 06/03/2003 7:24 Comments || Top||


Spain drops Nato flight contract
EFL
Spain has suspended all troop transport flights chartered with a Nato agency following a fatal plane crash in Turkey last week. Defence Minister Federico Trillo said the ban on contracts with the Nato Maintenance and Supply Agency (Namsa) would last until investigations into the crash were completed.
For those who were wondering why Spain picked Ukrainian air, it's a NATO contract.
The decision follows reports of criticism by the military of the fleet of Ukrainian and Russian planes used to transport troops to conflict zones. Sixty-two Spanish servicemen returning from a peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and 13 crew died in last Monday's crash near the north-western Turkish town of Trabzon. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo has reported that Spain is planning to sue Nato to help pay compensation to the families of the victims.
Fat chance.
Last week's crash was the third by a Ukrainian-operated jet in the last six months. On 9 May, around 160 people died when the cargo-bay door on an Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft run by Ukraine's Defence Ministry and piloted by a Ukrainian crew flew open over the Democratic Republic of Congo. In December, 44 people, mainly Ukrainians, died when a Ukrainian-made Antonov An-140 crashed in Iran.
That one was a brand new plane, if I remember correctly.
Correspondents say Ukrainian charter companies have become major players in international military and commercial missions over the last 10 years. They offer lower rates and cheaper crews in the fiercely competitive market.
That's what happens when you go with the lowest bidder.
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 08:07 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Fifth Column
Anti-capitalist protesters wonder where to go next
The anti-globalisation movement, a regular if uninvited guest at world economic conferences, is wondering which way to go after its disappointing show at the Group of Eight summit in Evian. Breaking camp after a weekend of violent protests in France and neighbouring Switzerland, activists were unsure about the effect their efforts were having on the tight circle of world leaders they denounce as heartless Masters of the Universe. A defiant "We're still winning!" motto scrawled on the side of a shit house portable toilet at the movement's campsite outside this Swiss city seemed like a post-protest pep talk, after police foiled their bid to disrupt the annual G8 talks. It all seemed a far cry from Genoa 2001, where 300,000 protesters besieged the tight security cordons around the summit. Then, an Italian hoodlum protester shot dead by police became the movement's first martyr.
Sniff, longing for the good old days
"It's problematic, disappointing, because we've done other counter-summits, in Genoa for example, where there were a lot more people," said Christal, a protester who said she was a teacher from the French city of Grenoble. "We thought (people) would turn out in huge numbers to protest this globalisation, but in fact you get the impression there are divisions everywhere," she said. "There were maybe fewer people than in Genoa... partly because the strikes against pension reforms in France limited the presence of the trade unions," said Helene Ballande of Friends of the Earth, who was in Annemasse, south of Geneva at another protest camp.
Yeh, that's the ticket
The next big date on the protest calendar is June 21, when organisers say several hundred thousand demonstrators should descend on a European Union summit in northern Greece.
Mark your calendar, boys and girls.
Greece, the outgoing EU president, has shifted the summit on security grounds from the city of Thessaloniki to the nearby Halkidiki peninsula, which can be sealed off easily.
Lessons learned after each protest, hold it in remote areas, seal it off, etc. When they can't riot in front of TV cameras in a major city, they'll lose interest.
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 12:24 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We're still winning!" graffiti'd on the side of a porta-potty is a pep talk?
Anybody else out there thinking that maybe Microsoft should provide i-Loos for Halkidiki?
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 06/02/2003 12:46 Comments || Top||

#2  The anti-globalisation movement, a regular if uninvited guest at world economic conferences, is wondering which way to go after its disappointing show at the Group of Eight summit in Evian.

Suggestion: North. These wankers should go north as far as it is possible to go north, and when that point is reached, stay there.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/02/2003 12:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, I don't know... HELL?
Posted by: Celissa || 06/02/2003 13:20 Comments || Top||

#4  " ... heartless Masters of the Universe."

This sounds like the invention of the comic books. Which is appropriate given these comical figures.

They remind me of the "Rainbow" group out here in the western United States which are an itinerant band of counter-cultures that encamp for great lengths of time by squatting on land in the forest.
Posted by: ColoradoConservative || 06/02/2003 14:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I can't help wondering if some of the funding that previously helped to organize these rebels without a clue, has dried up a bit. No doubt the financial activities of "charities" and "peace foundations" are feeling a bit of heat from the war on terrorism. Could it be that the loss of subsidy checks to the George Galloways and others-less-known is putting a damper on their recruiting efforts?

Let's hope so.
Posted by: Becky || 06/02/2003 18:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Where to go? Why Bunia of course! Where globalization is absent and the food organic. Party in a non-industrialized, non-developed enviornment free of evil capitialism.
Posted by: Anonymous || 06/02/2003 18:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Sounds like they may be starting to realize that they're an international fucking joke.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 21:47 Comments || Top||

#8  "There were maybe fewer people than in Genoa... partly because the strikes against pension reforms in France limited the presence of the trade unions"

Yeah, that's right, blame the poor trade unions for messing up your well planned outing.


The next big date on the protest calendar is June 21

That's much better. Just in time for summer break.

"What to do? What to do?"
"I guess get a job for the summer?"
"You fool! Create wealth for 'heartless Masters of the Universe'? Are you a simplisme Americaine?"
"You mean we should something important? Then we need a cunning plan!"
"No, fool! A VERY CUNNING PLAN!"
Posted by: Bubblehead || 06/02/2003 23:41 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Teacher beaten to death by students
MULTAN: Students killed their teacher during a religious seminar for reprimanding a student in Duniyapur, some 70 km south of Multan, on Saturday. DSP Chaudhry Tajdin said the teacher’s parents had not yet registered a case and buried their son. The DSP said they were investigating and if murder was proved the police would seek permission to exhume the body for autopsy.
Glad we got that Homoöusian Controversy thing settled 1500 years ago. No doubt, given time, they'll get their own little points of doctrine settled. Give 'em 1500 years, I guess...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/02/2003 04:39 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Those damn Lutherans are so radical.
Posted by: Mike N. || 06/02/2003 16:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Students killed their teacher during a religious seminar for reprimanding a student...

I take it this is also considered "unIslamic"? The reprimanding not the killing.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 22:22 Comments || Top||


Hunt on for Taliban spy chief
KARACHI: Pakistan’s intelligence agencies are hunting for an Afghan national who was the head of the intelligence agency under the Taliban regime and has close contacts with Osama bin Laden. Hamdullah, popularly known as Mufti Inaam, was the intelligence chief under the Mullah Omar-led Taliban regime with a post equivalent to a cabinet member. He distanced himself from the government shortly after the September 11 attacks. Before that he was considered to be one of the six hardliners spearheaded by Mullah Omar. Soon after the US campaign began in northern Afghanistan, Hamdullah crossed borders and hid in the northwestern parts of Pakistan. He remained underground in Peshawar for quite some time and also helped many of his friends and colleagues in Afghanistan enter Pakistan through safe routes before the fall of Kandahar.
Sounds like he was Plan B...
Mr Hamdullah also assisted many Arab families to migrate to Pakistan and arranged their safe settlements in various parts of the country. Intelligence reports show that Hamdullah nicknamed himself as Mufti Inaam in Pakistan and remained in contact with certain jihadi groups and Al Qaeda operatives for many months. The investigators believe that he had functioned as a bridge between jihadis and Al Qaeda operatives and might have direct links with Osama bin Laden. Hamdullah is also said to have played a pivotal role in creating the Pakistan-Afghanistan Defence Council that arranged a number of violent demonstrations across the country and along with Sufi Mohammad’s Tanzim-e-Nifaz Shariat Mohammadi.
Just moved right in and made himself at home, didn't he? Wonder if he's an MNA from NWFP now?
The sources said the Pakistani agencies were initially not aware that Mr Hamdullah and Mufti Inaam were the names of the same person during interrogation of some members of the banned outfits. The grilling of some suspected Al Qaeda operatives by Pakistani intelligence officials and FBI personnel corroborated it and since then the country’s agencies have launched a countrywide search to find him.
"Yeah. We just didn't notice, y'know? We thought his alias was 'Bob'..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/02/2003 04:22 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Prayers made compulsory in NWFP
PESHAWAR: The Taliban Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government in the NWFP has made the offering of prayers compulsory with warnings of action against violators. The government issued a notification on Saturday asking all Muslims to leave their shops, offices, school and work and offer prayers at the time of calling.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/02/2003 04:08 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Pakistani Province May Make Quran Law
Oooh! AP's finally picked up on this. The story's only been building since last October...
PESHAWAR - A pro-Taliban provincial government passed legislation Monday that will make the area along the border with Afghanistan the first in Pakistan to be run based upon the teachings of the Quran, Islam's holy book.
Let the head-chopping commence!
The bill, passed unanimously by voice vote in the North West Frontier Province assembly, must still be signed by Gov. Sayed Iftikhar Hussain Shah to become law, but that is considered a formality. ``God is Great! God is Great!'' shouted the governing party Qazi yes-men legislators after the vote.
He is great, and what he has in mind for you jokers, you don't want to know.
Pakistan, a deeply conservative Muslim nation, has nonetheless somewhat resisted adopting a legal system based on a strict interpretation of Shariah, or Islamic law.
"Uncle Achmed, does this really mean that I can marry a six-year now?"
"Yes, boy, you can marry up to four of them."
"Oh wow! I can have a whole herd!"
"Yes, boy, you ... wait a minute!"

The six-party Islamic coalition of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum, gained a majority in the North West Frontier Assembly in October elections, on the power of a strong anti-American platform. Bringing Shariah to the mullah-infested deeply conservative province was the cornerstone of the coalition's election platform.
This is a good reason why we should be worried: here's a bunch of politicans who actually kept their word.
Opposition legislators had tried without success to amend the bill to water down its power, including over women's rights. But with little hope of standing in the way, they ultimately withdrew the amendments and voted in favor.
They see which way the wind is blowing for the moment.
Pervez Rafiq, a senior official of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, an activist group of Christian, Hindu and Sikh minorities, condemned the vote. He said Sharia has been used in the past to persecute minorities accused of blasphemy against Islam. ``Religion should not interfere with the political affairs of the country,'' he said from Lahore, where the group is based.
Start screening your mail, Pervez, hire a food-taster, and don't park next to any automobiles you don't recognize.
The bill approved by the assembly binds local courts to interpret provincial law based upon the teachings of Shariah. It also calls for the creation of committees to bring the province's education and financial systems in line with the Quran, requires that Islamic law be taught in law schools, and prohibits the display of firearms.
Can't display firearms? I thought that was Islamic to display an entire firing range of arms!
The package contains few specifics, but it comes with promises by Islamic hard-liners to ban obscenity and vulgarity, and to set up in a second piece of legislation an ``Accountability Force'' to monitor corruption and fight ``social evil.''
The "Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Protection from Vice." Yep, that's coming.
The second bill, which the Islamic coalition says it will present in the coming days, would create a parallel legal system whose decisions could not be challenged by any court. The bill is expected to face fierce resistance in parliament. The federal government can still challenge any measure of the Shariah bill passed Monday that is considered contrary to national laws, which govern the penal system and other federal areas. But the provincial legislature has wide authority to make and change local laws. Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said the government is studying the legislation to see if any of it conflicts with national laws.
Shouldn't take long. Start with paragraph one.
Even before passage of the bill, the hard-line government has begun cracking down on what it considers un-Islamic activities. Several movie houses have been shut and the remainder have been forced to paint over posters of women in Western clothes. Earlier this month, authorities banned male coaches from training female athletes in the province and barred men from watching women's sports events.
"We can't watch that. They wear that spandex stuff, you can see the outlines of their thighs, and they have these ... these things on their chests! ... oh by Allah, I've got go shoot my gun!
In addition, they have called for compulsory reading of the Quran in schools, and passed a resolution that only women doctors should carry out medical tests on female patients.
Yasss... Couldn't have a man examining, say, the urine of a woman. You know where that comes from!
After Monday's vote, Akram Khan Durrani, the chief minister of the assembly, thanked the legislators for creating ``a historic moment in the country's history.'' He said the new law will not compromise the rights of anyone, but he also said that ``there will be no room for any official who will not act according to Sharia.''
How'd he do that without his lips falling off?
Many of the lawmakers cheered and hugged and congratulated each other. Most of them had beards and wore turbans or white caps, in keeping with Muslim tradition.
Yas, a real bunch of holy men dedicated legislators.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/02/2003 12:26 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I just got a great idea for new business "Taliban Consultancy". We have expertise and technical knowledge in wipping old men and women and children too. I'll bet there is going to great demand for such experience.
Posted by: rg117 || 06/02/2003 17:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Context: NWFP gets 12% of American aid to Pigistan. If you are an American taxpayer, blame yourself for subsidizing these savages.
Posted by: Anonon || 06/02/2003 21:08 Comments || Top||


Iraq
2 Iraqis Killed, 2 US Soldiers Injured in Attack
Clarifies yesterday's report...
Two US soldiers were wounded and two Iraqis killed yesterday in a grenade attack in front of a mosque in Baghdad. “Two soldiers were hurt in a grenade attack on an armored vehicle,” said a US soldier on the scene who asked not to be named. Iraqi witnesses confirmed that a group of Iraqis threw a grenade at an American vehicle in front of the Abu Hanifa mosque in the Azamiya district of the capital.
Then they bitched when the Americans fired back. It takes Muslims to do that...
“Then the Americans opened fire. Two people were killed, named Abdel Wahab Ouweid Attiyah and Omar Abbad Sheikh Al-Zukhi, and three others were wounded. None of them took part in the attack,” claimed one witness, Jassem Mohammad Adhiyah.
Oh, certainly not! We only kill innocent bystanders. It's in the rulebook...
An apartment block across from the mosque caught fire during the incident but it was not immediately clear how.
"Mahmoud! Careful! Don't..."
[BOOM!]
"... drop it."
Hundreds of angry Iraqis then gathered outside the mosque and faced off with the US troops at the site but there were no immediate clashes.
"Yeah! What'd y'wanna do that for, you danged Merkins?"
"Something about a grenade..."
Qatar’s Al-Jazeera satellite television had earlier reported that a US soldier and two Iraqi passersby were killed in the attack.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/02/2003 02:39 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think Salam Pax reports this in the comments from On the Third Hand
actually it is very scary that with all the de-ba'athification efforts these people were asked back to their office by the coalition forces.this whole thing is spiraling down towards a very bad situation. an hour ago G. sent me a message saying that at 5pm (baghdad time) in Adhamiya district american forces were attacked and one tank burned.
i sure hope that the urban warefare chapter is not about to be opened. i heard someone today talking about something called "phase three" as in they have gone back to phase three. i hope that is not a disastoursly bad thing.
Posted by: Chuck || 06/02/2003 15:08 Comments || Top||

#2  note - azamiya is one of the Baathist leaning Sunni neighborhoods, IIUC. It was were Saddam was sighted near a Mosque during the war.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/02/2003 15:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Surround the mosques with tanks and stay there. Arrest anyone caught trying to enter a mosque with guns.
Posted by: RW || 06/02/2003 19:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Give the mosques three days to set-up their own entry security. After that, ram the tank through any door entered by attackers with guns.
Posted by: Tom || 06/02/2003 21:10 Comments || Top||


Leave Iraq, Tribesmen and Sacked Troops Tell U.S.
EFL
Thousands of sacked Iraqi soldiers threatened Monday to launch suicide attacks against U.S. troops as leaders of the country's squabbling tribes told the Americans they could face war if they did not leave soon. "All of us will become suicide bombers," said Khairi Jassim, a former warrant officer. "I will turn my six daughters into bombs to kill the Americans."
How nice of you to think about your children's future.
Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator for Iraq, dissolved Saddam's armed forces, several security bodies and the defense ministry last month, firing 400,000 people. Many protesters said they could no longer feed their families.
The bigshot Baathists have their Swiss Bank accounts and French passports. The underlings are hurting. The only skills they probably possess are mendacity, greed, and cruelty. Hmm, maybe we could ship them to the US and they could run for Congress!
U.S. plans to appoint a political council of Iraqi leaders, rather than have it selected by a national conference as previously expected, also fueled anger among some Iraqis. The tribal chieftains, members of a council of clans they say represents 80 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, criticized the United States for failing to restore law and order and essential services to Iraqis after the war. Leaders of the heavily armed clans also disagreed with a recent U.S. decision to strip Iraqis of heavy weapons.
What kind of clan leader would be seen in public without an 82mm mortar and a few RPGs? Americans are so culturally insensitive.
"We thank the coalition for liberating Iraq... but are we occupied or liberated? I swear to God, if this is occupation, all our children, women and men, young and old, will die rather than accept occupation," Sheikh Fsal al-Kaoud told Horan.
Just like they died fighting Saddam? Yawn. Enough bluster, buster.
The first distribution of food rations since the war also drew complaints from Iraqis Monday. Many said they had expected much more food and were bitterly disappointed. "I was expecting more and better things. Where is all this aid they are talking about? I will still have to go out into the market and buy food so we don't go hungry," said Nuralhuda Mohammed, heaving a sack of 21 kg (46 pounds) of rice.
If you've ever haggled in a middle eastern market, then you know most of this is just the way folks do business in this part of the world. Still bad guys will try to exploit the sentiments. I hope that the CIA and SF are doing their jobs.
Posted by: 11A5S || 06/02/2003 01:02 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Archie Bunker once said "Patience is a virgin". And that is so true. But anyway...

From my blog
We need to realize that there are now 100,000 or so Baath party members out of work, and angry that they can no longer conduct their criminal enterprise. They engage in criminal activities. No surprise, except to the news media. The media cannot seem to understand that these people aren't just civil servants; they are the criminal looters and oppressors of Iraq. Most of what they are doing now, they did before the Liberation, with the approval and support of the government.

Don't look upon the former government of Iraq as a mis-guided bunch of civil servants and a dictator. It was a criminal enterprise, better organized than any Mafia family, and from the top to the lowest member, dedicated to extracting the maximum amount of money and power from the Iraqi people.
Posted by: Chuck || 06/02/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||

#2  These yahoos do present a threat but I agree with Chuck's assessment of how they 'fought against Saddam.' We need to take all these leaders aside and tell them that Democracy is not like instant pudding. Take some time and develop something EVERYONE can latch onto. These 'Leaders' seem to think that we should just walk off and let them figure things out! Where would we be if we did that in Germany and Japan after WWII? As for the former thugs, I would put them in a camp until a new Government is in place.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC California Chapter) || 06/02/2003 14:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Next, they'll be promising us the Mother of All Battles (TM). The utter ignorance of these Middle Eastern blowhards never ceases to amaze.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 06/02/2003 16:34 Comments || Top||

#4  The first distribution of food rations since the war also drew complaints from Iraqis Monday. Many said they had expected much more food and were bitterly disappointed. "I was expecting more and better things. Where is all this aid they are talking about? I will still have to go out into the market and buy food so we don't go hungry," said Nuralhuda Mohammed, heaving a sack of 21 kg (46 pounds) of rice.

Hey! Take care of us! Are we witnessing the 21st century replacements for the Palestinians?
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 22:46 Comments || Top||


New Iraqi Military to Be Recruited Soon
Recruitment for the New Iraqi Corps, the American-installed replacement for Saddam Hussein's military, will begin by the end of the month, the U.S. civilian administrator said Monday. L. Paul Bremer also said thousands of demobilized enlisted men from Saddam's army would be hired next week to clean up sites that would be used for the training of the new military. The moves come more than a week after Bremer dissolved Saddam's military and, in the process, threw thousands of career soldiers out of work. "We expect to begin recruiting members of the New Iraqi Corps before the end of this month," Bremer said at a news conference. "We are looking at other ways to stimulate the economy." Security is a prime concern of the U.S.-led occupying force, and a new military would help that situation — both by creating a homegrown security force and by taking young, out-of-work men off the streets. Bremer repeated that officers who held the rank of colonel or above in Saddam's army would be barred from the new military.
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 10:47 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hum, which model of the military are they going to install? The US/UK volunteer model or the ole Soviet 2 year draftee model that's populiar with Russia, China, Syria, and most of the despotic states of the world.
Posted by: BigFire || 06/02/2003 11:08 Comments || Top||

#2  The Kuwaiti model is a good one...
Posted by: Brian || 06/02/2003 12:53 Comments || Top||

#3  I kind of like the Costa Rican model:

"Among many of the reforms implemented by Don Pepe was the courageous decision to abolish the country’s army. This was especially significant considering that Costa Rica bordered to the North with Somoza's Nicaragua and to the South with Panama, two heavily armed nations.

"The decision to abolish the army meant that more of the government's budget could be spent on providing education, medical care and other services to tax payers. It also thrust Costa Rica into the international spotlight as a neutral power in a war torn region. The U.S. has historically been Costa Rica's main allay [sic] and provider of foreign aid. In order to guarantee the country’s integrity and security, Costa Rican governments increased their links with the U.S. and became an important moral ally for this world power."
Posted by: 11A5S || 06/02/2003 13:28 Comments || Top||

#4  That Costa Rica thing. Good gig if you can get it. Isn't that how Japan became Japan Inc?
Posted by: Scott || 06/02/2003 14:22 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Cambodia Expels Islamic Teachers, Eyes More Arrests
PHNOM PENH — Cambodia said yesterday nearly all of the 28 Islamic teachers and their families due to be kicked out in a crackdown on militancy had already left of their own accord.
"I'm gettin' outta here, Mahmoud! Those guys in the sarongs are crazy!"
Interior Ministry information chief Sok Phal said 44 people — teachers, their wives and children — had flown out of the country. The remaining three deportees would be leaving as soon as their air tickets were sorted out. “They should be leaving today or tomorrow,” he told Reuters.
"But... But... Do I have to fly Ukraine Mediterranean?"
The teachers are mostly from Thailand, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan and Pakistan. The predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian nation last week shut down the Om Al-Qura Islamic school and charged three of its teachers — two Thais and an Egyptian — with suspected links to the militant group, Jemaah Islamiah.
The "wink-wink" routine doesn't work when the guy on the receiving end is a Buddhist, does it?
Although authorities said on Thursday they did not have any evidence linking the school’s other teachers to militancy, they were no longer welcome in the country and had 72 hours to leave, a deadline which expired on Saturday morning.
It's the scratching, you know. It's distracting. But they laid down with dogs...
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has confirmed the crackdown was ordered on the basis of intelligence operations with the United States, which has long been concerned at Cambodia’s growing number of Islamic schools, mostly funded from the Middle East.
When the Vietnamese kicked the Khmer Rouge out, with Hun Sen in their wake, I was just as suspicious of him as most everyone else (the Chomsky-Streisand set excepted, of course). The guy had been a Khmer Rouge himself, albeit in the days before Pol Pot's rule. I thought he was just a figurehead. The way he dumped Prince Ranarridh was particularly sleazy, but about typical of what I'd have expected — I knew there was going to be no co-existence and no royal family presence of any import. But he's actually turned out to be a pretty smart fellow, and for all his communist roots he's been doing a decent job running Cambodia. Dumping all the Islamist teachers is the sort of pragmatic move that strongmen can make, but the U.S. or Britain or Australia can't.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/02/2003 03:38 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cambodia? Thailand? Everywhere really. They're sticking their tootsies in and testing the waters.
How to deal with it? Show up at the madrassa some night, waste all the "teachers" preferably as grusomely as possible, and leave them there for their "students" to find the next morning.
The message: We can do insane just as well as you.Go sell your brand somewhere else or face the consequences.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 22:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Unfortunately, we don't get to play "cowboys and islamists" until they waste one of our cities or the equivalent thereof.
Posted by: 11A5S || 06/02/2003 23:19 Comments || Top||


Philippine Military Raids Rebels After Truce Declared
The Philippine army raided positions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front early today, hours after fighters from the country's largest Muslim separatist organization began a unilateral 10-day truce.
Good.
An undetermined number of armed MILF members were wounded in a ``pre-emptive operation'' near the southern town of South Upi, AFP cited the local military chief, Major General Generoso Senga, as saying. Senga said the truce, which began at midnight Manila time, won't stop the army from pursuing the MILF. President Gloria Arroyo last week rejected the cease-fire as ``a ploy'' to allow the group to ``beef up plans of attack upon civilians.'' The MILF said it is observing the truce ``in letter and spirit,'' and will return to violence only if the government doesn't agree to its own cease-fire, AFP cited a spokesman, Eid Kabalu, as saying.
They declared the truce, broke the truce, then bitch because the gummint's ignoring the truce.
The army's attacks may be an attempt to sabotage the chances of peace with the MILF, which has been fighting for 25 years to create an Islamic state in the southern third of the largely Roman Catholic country, he told AFP. The government called off peace talks with the group and began an offensive May 17, saying the MILF had engaged in terrorism and helped terrorist organizations such as the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group. The MILF says it isn't a terrorist group, disavowing Abu Sayyaf.
Abu Sayyaf is just a hobby thing for MILF members. Their true objective is to gnaw off a portion of the Philippines for their own little Islamic paradise...
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 09:07 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Unilateral truce: "Please don't shoot us!"

Glad to see they didn't fall for that crap. The "truce" would've lasted just long enough for the MILFies to regroup and resupply.
Posted by: mojo || 06/02/2003 9:42 Comments || Top||


Background on Aceh
Seems to be news surfacing daily on the situation, so here's some background on the rebel war in Aceh:
ed for length

It is here then [at the mosque], that one might expect to find support for Jakarta's offer of Islamic sharia law as a way to ease tension in the war-torn province. Instead, there is little but disdain. ''Sharia has been here for a long time. What we need is peace,'' said an old man. ''People are struggling to earn money and buy food. Our security is always under threat.'' Indeed, Jakarta missed the point when it offered sharia law to Aceh as part of an autonomy package in 2001 aimed at diluting independence demands and hostility toward the government of the world's most populous Muslim nation. Devout Muslims, Acehnese had already been formally practicing sharia law in daily life for decades in areas such as marriage, divorce, dress regulations and bans on alcohol. But they also largely reject strict punishments such as the amputation of hands for theft that sharia in theory can dispense.

To many, waving sharia like an olive branch had shown how little Jakarta understands their way of life and also their needs for not sharia law, but any law that did away with impunity and brought soldiers to justice for rights abuses. ''If there's no order, what is sharia?'' said Islamic cleric and academic Yusny Saby. The province has been placed under martial law for six months as the government tries to crush rebels of the Free Aceh Movement, who have fought for independence since 1976. Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, is often called the ''Verandah of Mecca'' in Indonesia because it was the first part of the archipelago to adopt Islam and the springboard from which it spread centuries ago.
Posted by: Anon1 || 06/02/2003 08:43 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  oops, Fred pls put in SE Asia as I'm too tired and silly
Posted by: Anon1 || 06/02/2003 8:50 Comments || Top||


Norwegians - ’salmon-eating busybodies’
Southeast Asia is as close as I can place Sri Lanka. EFL
The party of Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga has branded peace broker Norway a "nation of salmon-eaters" who have become "international busybodies". The attack came after Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik reportedly said he hoped some politicians could be more flexible in dealing with Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels. A leading aide of President Kumaratunga, Samaraweera, said Mr Bondevik had "not shown any sensitivity to the feelings of Sri Lankans". "Of course we can't expect anything better from a nation of salmon-eaters who turned into international busybodies," Mr Samaraweera said.
Them's fighting words!
He said Ms Kumaratunga's Sri Lanka Freedom Party would lodge a formal protest with the Norwegian king "in a day or two". Mr Samaraweera said the Sri Lankan Government should reconsider Norway's role in the peace process. Mr Bondevik was asked on a trip to Japan this week whether the cohabitation government in Sri Lanka should be more flexible in dealing with Tamil Tiger rebels and said. "I hope so, yes." "It is the government that is leading the negotiating process... so I hope they will move forward," he said.

It was Ms Kumaratunga who first asked Norway to help bring the Tamil Tigers to the negotiating table. However, she lost elections in December 2001 to Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and has since been seen by many as swimming upstream against the peace process. She has often sniped at Norwegian officials. They have always replied that they are happy to help, but are not mediators, merely facilitators doing what they are asked by the Sri Lankan Government. Norwegian diplomats say the country's involvement in peace negotiations is an effective form of diplomacy which promotes its image abroad. Last week, Ms Kumaratunga said Norway had exceeded its brief and turned from a facilitator to an arbitrator. Another Kumaratunga loyalist and spokesman for the opposition People's Alliance, Sarath Amunugama, also objected to Mr Bondevik's words. "He is not the imperial master of Sri Lanka," Mr Amunugama said.
Note to Norway, here's your chance to back out gracefully.
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 08:17 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Someone help out the newbies.
What's EFL ?
Posted by: Anonymous || 06/02/2003 8:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Edited For Length
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Excellent, my International Thesaurus grows apace:

"cheese-eating surrender monkeys"

"salmon-eating busybodies"

What should we add next, "sausage-munching Ordnung twats" ?
Posted by: Carl in NH || 06/02/2003 10:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey! In the interests of diversity and the true spirit of multiculturalism I demand that this thread redress the bigoted and prejudicial exclusion of the Scots from discussions about international affairs by including the phrase "sheep-fucking haggis-munchers," thereby allowing my dress-wearing ancestry inclusion in the important debate about how best to insult the national/cultural identity of a bunch of cod-twinking vikings, or, as you know them, salmon-eating busybodies!
Posted by: FormerLiberal || 06/02/2003 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, I'd jump on the bandwagon, but I'm not really sure what "loopy scots git" actually MEANS...
Posted by: mojo || 06/02/2003 12:05 Comments || Top||

#6  "loopy scots git" is Scots for "original gangsta."

Word, laddy.
Posted by: FormerLiberal || 06/02/2003 12:24 Comments || Top||


Aceh: Indonesia to offer evidence to Sweden on rebels
JAKARTA, June 2 — Indonesia said on Monday it would send a delegation to Stockholm to offer evidence against Swedish-based Aceh rebel leaders after Sweden rejected demands for their extradition. The decision was made after a cabinet meeting, chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said. Defence Minister Matori Abdul Djalil said earlier Indonesia would donwgrade relations with Sweden over the dispute. Any downgrading of ties would be largely symbolic as the two countries do not have extensive commercial relations.
"Jer Majesty, Indonesia's downgraded their diplomatic relations with us!"
"Ja, sure! That's awful. Who?"
"Indonesia, jer Majesty."
"Somewhere in the South Seas, isn't it?"
"Somewhere around there."
Sweden is home to 50 Acehnese, including the top rebel commanders and Sultan Hasan Tiro, considered by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatists to be Aceh's head of state.
How in the hell did Sweden become the safe house for Indonesian rebels??
They're into blondes. And the welfare checks are bigger than Norway's...
"(The delegation) will be comprised of foreign ministry, police and intelligence who will give evidence on Hasan Tiro and friends," Yudhoyono said. Indonesia, which declared martial law in Aceh and launched a sweeping offensive against the rebels two weeks ago after a five-month peace agreement collapsed, has been pressing Stockholm to expel GAM officials, arguing among other things that they are linked to terrorist acts. But Sweden said at the weekend it had sent a letter to Indonesia stating why it could not expel the rebel leaders, a number of them Swedish citizens.
"Ja, sure! How could we possibly extradite Ole Abdullah? Why, he even speaks Swedish, kinda..."
"We cannot react before we have any evidence that these GAM people have done anything illegal," said Swedish foreign ministry spokesman Lars-Olof Lundberg. Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh told Swedish news agency TT on Sunday there were no legal grounds to expel the rebels. ''We cannot break our own laws,'' she said.
"And it's not against Swedish law to run a military organization in somebody else's country..."

Scores of people have been killed in the latest offensive and as many as 23,000 people have fled from their homes because of the fighting.
Posted by: Frank G || 06/02/2003 07:52 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iran
U.S. Troops Captured, Let Go by Iranians
June 2, 2003 07:28 PM EDT


WASHINGTON - Four U.S. soldiers and five civilians in two boats were taken captive by Iranians, blindfolded and interrogated before being released, U.S. Central Command said Monday. Two of the civilians were still being held.

Four soldiers from the Army's 1092nd Engineer Company, a civilian Army contractor, two civilian captains and two boat drivers were sailing up the Shatt al Arab waterway in the al Faw peninsula Sunday to pick up Iraqi South Oil Co. personnel when they were taken by force by Iranians, a spokesman, Cmdr. Dan Gage, said from Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla.

The nationalities of the civilians were not available.

The boats were to take the oil company personnel to the Mini al Bakr platform to conduct a survey of the oil platform when the Iranians blindfolded them and took them to a building where they were interrogated throughout Sunday night, Gage said.

On Monday, the Iranians took the group back to their boats and released all of them except the two drivers, Gage said.

A Chinook helicopter located them near the waterway Monday, Gage said. U.S. Navy crew members drove the boats to Kuwait.

Initial medical examinations indicate there were no injuries or signs of physical abuse, Gage said.

The group may have moved into Iranian territorial waters, he said. The Mini al Bakr platform is very close to Iran's declared international water boundaries.

This isn't getting much play yet, and may be stifled due to all our "handshaking" in the new neighborhood. Nonetheless I think Somebody is due for a serious fly-by.
Posted by: Mark IV || 06/02/2003 11:02 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...The Shatt isn't exactly a stronghold of Iranian government authority..or anybody's authority, for that matter. This may have been a couple of the loncal strongboys going off on their own.
Posted by: Anonymous || 06/03/2003 0:54 Comments || Top||


Home Front
"Connie" comes home a final time
CORONADO, Calif. (AP) -

Sailors aboard the USS Constellation unfurled large "thank you" banners as the aircraft carrier returned home Monday from Iraq on its final mission before decommissioning.

The ship was greeted at North Island Naval Air Station by thousands of relatives and friends shouting "welcome home" to the 5,000 sailors who had spent seven months at sea.

Sailor Matt Acacio, 25, among the first to make it down the gangway, met his 5-month-old daughter, Jazlien, for the first time. His eyes brimmed with tears.

"I'm glad she's not crying. That's what I was most worried about," said Acacio, who was among more than 100 sailors greeting their infant children for the first time.

The Constellation left San Diego Bay on Nov. 2 and supported operations in Afghanistan before the ship's air wing was called in to attack targets in Iraq.

Constellation's planes flew more than 1,500 missions and dropped more than 1.2 million pounds of ordnance, according to the Navy.

"It was historic. Young men and women doing extremely challenging things every day," said Rear Adm. Barry Costello, who commanded the Constellation's six-ship battle group.

Cheryl Reister of Henderson, Nev., was there to greet her son Robert Postelwait, 21, and "get his feet back on U.S. soil."

"I'm anxious to get him home," she said.

In August, the Constellation will be decommissioned, with the new, $4.5 billion USS Ronald Reagan taking its place next year.

"It's very emotional. I spent two years of my life on this ship. Since I got off the ship I've always considered it a home," said Cmdr. Dave Koontz, a Navy spokesman who was once a Constellation sailor and was dockside to welcome the 41-year-old ship home for the last time.

---

On the Net:

USS Constellation: www.navy.mil/homepages/cv64
Posted by: Frank G || 06/02/2003 03:56 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bravo Zulu.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 22:18 Comments || Top||


26 holidaymakers drown in Keenjhar Lake
HYDERABAD, Pakistan: Rescuers have retrieved the bodies of 26 holidaymakers who were drowned Sunday when their overloaded canoe boat capsized in Thatta district’s Keenjhar Lake.
You can do that with a bus, usually. It doesn't work with boats...
“There could now be one or two more bodies under water, as the exact number of people who were on board is not known,” police official Ramzan Sangijo said. There were no survivors and a search is underway for more victims, he added. An official source said emergency had been declared in the district following the incident and divers had been hired to search for the remaining bodies.
Those turbans get wet, they'll drag you right down. And it's even worse with a burka. Glad I had to wash my hair that day...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/02/2003 04:07 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front
U.S. planning historic shift abroad
This one's long, but I thought it was worth posting...
In the most sweeping realignment of American military power since World War II, the United States is planning to shift most of its forces from Germany, South Korea and the Japanese island of Okinawa, U.S. and foreign military officials say. The plans, still the focus of intense negotiations and debate among America’s allies and inside the Bush administration, would reorient America’s presence in Europe eastward to Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, and shift U.S. power in the Far East toward southeast Asia, with options for new bases in northern Australia, the Philippines and even Vietnam being explored.
In other words, "Old Europe can bite it!"
BESIDES CLOSING military facilities that, in some cases, date to the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945, these officials say the moves being contemplated would have far reaching implications for America’s relationship with leading powers in Europe and Asia. There currently are some 70,000 American troops based in Germany, 38,000 in South Korea and 47,000 in Japan, about 30,000 of which are crammed onto the tiny island of Okinawa. To varying degrees, and for varying reasons, the presence of so many American troops in each place has become increasingly controversial.
“What’s going on is partly a long-overdue adjustment, and partly a reaction to what is perceived as a very ungrateful attitude toward us in some quarters,” says a senior U.S. military officer, requesting anonymity. “None of these places are ideal for American purposes anymore, and I think the time is just right to do it.”
I second that. Let our men and women either come home, or go to countries that would like their help and welcome their dollars.
The combination of new threats, the friction U.S. troops are causing domestically in these countries and a desire on the part of the Pentagon to rethink the structure of the military in general, and in particular the U.S. Army, has convinced the Bush administration that a thorough reconfiguration of America’s overseas presence is in order. While some units could be pulled back to the continental United States, officials say most currently are earmarked for redeployment abroad. Together with the recently announced decision to pullout from Saudi Arabia, the scope of the changes being contemplated are unprecedented.
Unprecedented and damn long overdue.
NEGOTIATIONS AND DEBATES
American officials publicly have denied any concrete plans to move specific units or bases from one country to another. But on Friday, Paul Wolfowitz, the influential deputy defense secretary, confirmed that a complete rethink is underway.
“We are in the process of taking a fundamental look at our military posture worldwide, including in the United States,” Wolfowitz told reporters during a visit to Singapore. “We’re facing a very different threat than any one we’ve faced historically.”
Some of that threat is coming from our supposed "allies". *cough*France*cough*
Turning American military strategy away from South Korea, Germany and Japan’s island of Okinawa, three places where American troops fought and died over territory, raises enormous questions. Among the most important, where to put the nearly 150,000 troops currently based in those countries.
How about along our own borders? God knows Canada and Mexico aren't going to look out for our best interests. How about port duty? Lots of containers coming through that need to be checked.
EUROPE: TO THE EAST, MARCH
Currently, according to a senior military officer involved in planning these moves, plans call for shifting most of the forces currently based in Germany into three newly democratic nations: Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. The fact that all three stood by the United States in the run up to the recent war in Iraq certainly doesn’t hurt, the officer says. But other officials, some of whom admitted that they favored the moves to send a message to long-time allies, also confirmed that the gist of the planned draw down in Germany dates back as far as the Clinton administration.
The European moves would likely be in phases, according to these sources, with ground forces and some air units moving first, followed by hospital, support and armored forces — all harder to move — at some later date. One officer suggested that several complex American facilities, such as the Ramstein Air Force Base, might continue to operate, perhaps under NATO auspices.
All three potential host countries already have indicated their willingness to accommodate American forces. In April, the Pentagon announced the sale of F-16 warplanes to Poland at knock down prices, ostensibly as thanks for the work Polish special forces troops did in Iraq, but officials say this is part of an ongoing effort to cement U.S.-Polish ties generally.
Damn straight. It seems that the former Eastern Bloc countries have good memory retention in regards to what living under the boot of the USSR was like. They haven't forgotten who took the risks and footed the bill for most of the Cold War.
U.S. aircraft already are using air fields in both Bulgaria and Romania to keep units in Iraq and Afghanistan supplied, and the governments of both nations — eager to win NATO membership next year — have invited the U.S. to establish permanent bases.

ASIA: REDUCING EXPOSURE
In Asia, the situation is somewhat different. Recent elections in South Korea exposed a deep strain of anti-Americanism that rankled the Bush administration. In Okinawa, the Japanese island that was site of one of World War II’s bloodiest battles, similar feelings have developed over the past decade toward the 30,000 American Marines and soldiers there.
Having led the intervention on behalf of South Korea in 1950, Washington has kept some 38,000 troops in place since the truce that ended combat in 1953. The troops are regarded as a “trip wire” force — in effect, a force large enough to slow but not win a war against the North. With political support for the U.S. presence faltering in the south, many in Washington are wondering about the long term benefits of such an exposed position.
“My reading is that the U.S. forces in Korea need to be redeployed,” says Dr. Melvin Ott, a professor of national security studies at the National War College in Washington. “It’s two things, really: the internal political sensitivities in South Korea, and secondly, a rethinking of how vulnerable you want to be.”
Initially, officials say, the idea was to address South Korean complaints and the vulnerability of forward deployed U.S. forces to North Korean artillery by redeploying them further south down the peninsula. But estimates of the costs involved, officials say, have led many to push for a much larger draw down from Korea, combined with a shift of American forces out of Okinawa, all aimed at creating a larger presence in southeast Asia and along the periphery of China.
I guess it's okay for us to die for the Koreans as long as we don't ask anything in return. Of cours, when we propose moving our troops from the potential front of a NK attack, they cry "foul"! Ingrates.
“The thinking is that, if you’re saying softly that China and Islamic terrorism are the issues in the long run, then concentrating your forces in Northeast Asia doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” says Ott.
Basing options in Asia are more limited, however. Northern Australia, a mere 200 miles from the southern islands of Indonesia, is considered the most likely site, though officials confirm that talks for various types of air, sea and ground basing rights are underway with the Philippines and Malaysia, as well. Both, however, seem unlikely hosts to American ground troops.
Too many leftists in Australia to allow a basing of US troops there.
Even Vietnam is being approached, according to Russian reports. Moscow’s own Pacific Fleet is pulling out of the big port of Can Rahm Bay on July some 25 years after Hanoi invited the Soviet Navy into what was formerly a U.S. Navy base. Now, according to the Novye Izvestia newspaper, Vietnam is in talks with the U.S. to grant landing and port rights on a fee-paying basis.

CULTURAL AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS
Uprooting decades of military infrastructure from South Korea, Germany and Okinawa will not be simple, however, either from a physical standpoint or a psychological one. Generations of American soldiers have cycled through such outposts as the sprawling Warner Barracks in Bamberg, Germany, the huge Yonsang Army Garrison in Seoul or the Marines’ Camp Courtney in Okinawa. These facilities and the “Little Americas” that grew up around them to house family members play an underrated role in the relationship between the U.S. and the host nations. Most American men over 40 know someone — a brother, an uncle, a friend — who has spoken kindly of the Germans, Koreans or Japanese they met while serving there.
More seriously, adjusting the posture of the world’s dominant military power invariably will be seen as a threat by those suddenly confronted with the hyperpower on their doorstep.

Russia repeatedly has warned that it takes a dim view of the idea of American bases in Eastern Europe, though since 9/11, when Moscow acceded to the establishment of U.S. bases in former Soviet Central Asia, some of those concerns may have diminished. Interestingly, the issue appeared absent completely from Bush’s discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend.
And we take a dim view of Russia selling arms to Iran, and Saddam's Iraq.
Asian powers traditionally are a bit more jittery about such things. Already candidates in the Indonesian presidential election next year are citing the potential U.S. presence in Australia as a provocation. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed routinely rails against American hegemony, and in the Philippines, plans for a more potent U.S. role in battling Muslim guerillas there had to be abandoned because of prohibitions in the nation’s constitution against the basing of foreign troops on its soil — a provision that reflects lingering unhappiness with the fact that U.S. troops based troops there for nearly a century until the early 1990s.
Allah knows we surely don't want to upset the Muslims. They might be driven to use terrorism.
Oh, wait...

More than any other nation, however, China has been watching the situation carefully. Ott and other experts in Asian security studies say that analysts at Chinese defense universities have been chewing over the implications of the planned American troops shifts for some time, though China’s government has been characteristically quiet.
They're quiet because they are still going through all that juicy info. the Clinton admin. handed them. Hell, they probably know more about our troop deployment than Tommy Franks.
Even in Australia, where attitudes toward the United States are broadly positive, there is concern about how the sudden appearance of large numbers of American troops on Australian soil would affect relations with the country’s neighbors.
“I don’t think it would be a good thing at all and it’s not something we ought to encourage,” Kim Beazley, a former defense minister, told the Australian Broadcasting Company on Friday.
Frankly Kim, I don't either. If I had my druthers, I would have all our troops home, close to their families, protecting our borders and spending their money at American businesses. Regardless of what most of the world thinks, Americans don't like being where they are not wanted.
Posted by: Celissa || 06/02/2003 02:15 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  left out an an 'e' on "of course"
Posted by: Celissa || 06/02/2003 14:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually, I think that a relatively small U.S. base in Australia would work well, as long as it was well known that Australian troops trained there as well. Maybe a co-basing deal of some kind. More for U.S. use the Aussie, but good for the Aussies too. No reason we can't invite the the Brits down for Tea & Crumpets from time to time either.
Posted by: Mike N. || 06/02/2003 14:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Australia's so huge, our guys could plunk down in the middle of nowhere, establish a reverse osmosis fresh water generation plant and call it home. If Australia rejects US forces, it's not going to be due to lack of space - the reason will be opposition from neighbors that want to preserve their freedom of action in resolving territorial disputes by force. A major US base in Australia would place severe constraints on any empire-building fantasies Australia's neighbors might have. Asian countries still entertain the notion that Australia is "Asian" and therefore terra nova for their imperialistic fantasies - Japan was merely the first Asian country to act on that view (during WWII).
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 06/02/2003 16:29 Comments || Top||

#4  All good things come to an end.

Fortress America is looking better and better all the time.
Posted by: Hiryu || 06/02/2003 18:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Do we really have more leftists than the US? Even on a percentage basis? You guys have Mike Moore etc?
A little known fact in Australia is that we already host a foreign military power - Singapore, which has a significant part of its Air Force here permanently. There is close to zero political concern about this.

At least please base some airplanes at RAAF Tindal. It is a popular duty station in the RAAF(lots of outdoorsy type activities and the Northern Territory has NO open road speed limits.)
I'm sure our fighter pilots will enjoy showing your fighter pilots how to do it :-)

Posted by: Aussie Mike || 06/02/2003 19:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Aussie Mike,

All I can say is that it would be one "hell of a bull session" listening to your pilots and our pilots trying to play "one up!" Fighter pilots, the good ones at least, are the same the world over. Would be great fun to hear a tape recording of THAT session!

All the Best.
Posted by: Ralph || 06/02/2003 20:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Northern Australia might not be a bad place to deploy the 2nd Infantry Division.
Posted by: badanov || 06/02/2003 20:57 Comments || Top||

#8  Come to Australia, Please COME HERE TO AUSTRALIA we really do want you

how fantastic to have a shield to fend of the Indo's to the north.

But you are right we have so many stupid dicks on the left like Beasley, Crean, Mark Latham (upset your ambassador with a filthy anti-US tirade in parliament) the Greens etc that it would be hard.

I think that's a great idea if you let it be well known that it is a joint US-Australian base, emphasise that we are skill sharing, joint training but just make sure there are 50,000 US troops here to the 5,000 Aussies!

Great for business, great for Darwin property prices ( I knew I should have bought that terrace in The Gardens for $180,000)and GREAT FOR US GIRLS.

My friend Kati and I were joking: let me at 'em! American men are so good looking and generally polite and lovely I want to have 50,000 of them so I can pick and choose.
Posted by: Anon1 || 06/02/2003 21:00 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
Rivals kill 352 near Bunia
KAMPALA: A Congolese militia accused a rival group of killing 352 civilians in a weekend attack near the embattled northeastern town of Bunia, where French-led peacekeepers are due to start deploying this week.
"The Frenchies are coming, Ngombo!"
"Well, let's get the slaughter out of the way before they get here..."
Kisembo Bitamara, spokesman of the Party for the Unity and Safeguarding of the Integrity of Congo, told Reuters the attack was carried out by Lendu fighters backed by Congolese government troops at Tchomia on the shores of Lake Albert. "They killed 352 civilians, men, women and children, 37 of whom were at the Tchomia hospital," said Bitamara, whose PUSIC party represents a segment of the rival Hema community.
Just a normal weekend's festivities in the DRC...
He said the attack at Tchomia, about 50-km (30 miles) east of Bunia, involved mortars and automatic weapons and started at 5:00 am on Saturday and lasted the whole morning. Officials in Kinshasa and Lendu commanders in Bunia could not immediately be reached for comment. UN peacekeepers in Bunia routinely say they have no hard information on events beyond its outskirts because they do not go far from the town.
"Who us? We din't see nuffin'!... Duck!"
"The attackers, about 2,500 of them, attacked the residence of our leader Chief Kawa and killed 22 of his relatives but chief Kawa was not there," Bitamara added. He said Hema fighters had fought back, killing six Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government troops. "Kinshasa is behind this attack... the Lendu did not have mortars and machine guns before they came from Kinshasa," he said.
Good point, that...
The reported attack happened only hours after the UN Security Council authorised a French-led multinational force to deploy in Bunia to try to prevent massacres in the remote area scarred by tribal killings and cannibalism.
Whoops! Too late!
Meanwhile, at least 100 Congolese were killed over the weekend in an attack by rival tribal fighters on a fishing village on the Congo-Uganda border, a senior Ugandan military commander said Monday.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 06/02/2003 02:20 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  UN peacekeepers in Bunia routinely say they have no hard information on events beyond its outskirts because they do not go far from the town.

Some "peacekeepers". But it is the UN...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 21:41 Comments || Top||


Korea
N. Korea Reportedly Plans More Nukes
EFL
North Korea acknowledged it has nuclear weapons and plans to build more while repeating its demand for direct talks with the United States, a U.S. congressman said Monday after a visit to the communist nation. Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who headed a delegation of American lawmakers on the three-day visit, said North Korean officials acknowledged they had nearly finished reprocessing spent fuel rods - a move that could yield more nuclear weapons within months.
Refinished? They previously said they hadn't started.
``They admitted to having nuclear capability and weapons at this moment,'' said Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. ``They admitted to an effort to expand their nuclear production program.''

In Washington, a State Department official expressed doubt about North Korea's claim that the reprocessing of spent fuel rods was nearly finished. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. intelligence suggests that the North Koreans have a long way to go before reprocessing is completed. North Korea acknowleded to U.S. officials last October that it had a uranium-based nuclear weapons program. In April, during talks in Beijing, the North acknowledged possession of nuclear weapons for the first time. The United States has believed that North Korea has had one and perhaps two nuclear weapons for years. U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Monday the North's claims couldn't be verified but shouldn't be ignored. ``Certainly what we know suggests that we should take what they are saying with grim humor very seriously,'' he said at the end of a two-day trip to Seoul. Wolfowitz has warned that the North was likely to sell nuclear weapons or parts to other nations or groups.
Time to start tailing their ships and planes that leave the country.
North Korea said it was developing its nuclear weapons as ``a response to what they saw happened in Iraq, with the U.S. removing Saddam Hussein from power,'' Weldon said in Seoul, a day after briefing South Korean officials about the trip. The congressional delegation plans to report their findings to Secretary of State Colin Powell and other Bush administration officials as well as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Both sides sought to emphasize the friendly nature of the visit. Weldon said the delegation - the first American officials to visit since the nuclear crisis began - had ``candid'' talks in the North, and accomplished its goal of interacting ``as friends and human beings'' with North Koreans.
"Sadly, however, with regard to the latter the North Koreans did not respond in kind."
Weldon also said his delegation, which did not meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, was convinced the dispute can be peacefully resolved. The North's state-run news agency, KCNA, quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the visit helped both sides better understand each other and expressing a desire to ``avert a confrontation.'' Weldon said the North asked for a meeting with Washington because it ``felt there were some things it could only discuss with the United States.''

On Sunday, at a summit in France of major industrial nations, President Bush said the United States continues to support only talks that also involve other regional powers. Bush also dismissed a proposal, conveyed by Chinese President Hu Jintao, from North Korea, agreeing to talks involving others if it could also meet separately with just the United States. North Korea has repeatedly accused Washington of planning to invade. Bush says he prefers a diplomatic solution, but has not ruled out a military option. U.S. and South Korean officials say that North Korea may be bluffing about its nuclear program to extract concessions from the United States.
Who better to deliver the bluff than a Congressman?
Posted by: Steve White || 06/02/2003 12:38 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's it! I'm totally fed up! I need a break from Rantburg. I've reached the point of zero tolerance for any of these idiots, be they North Korean ranters, Iranian nuclear apologists, two-faced French worms, or celebrity morons. George Bush has my blessing to kick every last one of them in the behind. The sooner the better.
Posted by: Tom || 06/02/2003 21:21 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
French-Led UN Force for Bunia Seeks to Use Ugandan Airport
EFL
A delegation of French officials was due to arrive in Uganda on Monday for discussions with President Yoweri Museveni over the possible use of Uganda's Entebbe airport as a rear base for a French-led international peacekeeping force to patrol Bunia, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). "The first question we had to ask is will the Ugandan government accept to allow us to use Entebbe?" Jean-Bernard Thiant, the French Ambassador to Uganda, told IRIN on Sunday. "To this the answer is yes."
"It'll cost you a few Euros, but it can be done..."
The move follows the unanimous decision by the UN Security Council to authorise the deployment of an international emergency force to help stabilise the situation in the embattled Ituri District of northeastern DRC. The multinational force, expected to consist of 1,400 men, of whom 700 would be French, would ensure the protection of the Bunia airport, internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the camps in Bunia and, if the situation requires it, to participate in the protection of the population, UN personnel and the humanitarian presence in the town, UN News reported.
"if the situation requires it", understatement of the year.
Thiant told IRIN that Entebbe was chosen because Bunia airport was too small to land the large aircraft needed to ferry supplies from France. "That leaves Kisangani as far as Congolese sites are concerned," he said, "but this has the problem that Kisangani's international and domestic airports are miles apart. Equipment would have to be transported between them on poor roads."
Under fire
"After studying various solutions we realised that Entebbe is the only solution," he said. "Since then we have been cooperating closely with the Ugandan government. But we still have to negotiate the conditions."
Bribes R'Us
The French-led multinational force has been constituted under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which authorises it to use military force in response to "any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression".
They're doomed
The Council said that the force is to be deployed on a strictly temporary basis - until 1 September 2003 - to reinforce the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known as MONUC. In that regard, Resolution 1484 authorised UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to deploy a reinforced UN presence in Bunia by mid-August.
For the UN, that's a rapid deployment
Resolution 1484 also called on UN member states to contribute personnel, equipment, financial and logistical resources to the multinational force, and called specifically on countries in the Great Lakes region to provide all necessary support to facilitate its swift deployment in Bunia. Speaking on Friday after the international emergency force was approved, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, said: "This is the Security Council at its best, and a demonstration that the Secretary-General and the Security Council can act swiftly, hand-in-hand, to protect the lives of the civilian population in conflict areas, a paramount human rights and humanitarian concern."
Doomed, I tell you!
Yeppers. Quicker'n the mind can follow...
However, certain humanitarian observers expressed reservations about Security Council Resolution 1484, as it does not make any reference to the disarmament of militia elements or a demilitarisation of the region.
"Just a little administrative oversight there. Nothing to worry about..."
"It should be noted that an interim force which is not equipped with a clear mandate to prevent violence against the civilian population by means of force will most likely only be able to maintain the current status quo in Bunia and Ituri, thus implying an unimpeded UPC [Union des patriotes congolais, the ethnic Hema militia that controls central Bunia] reign of terror in Bunia and areas under their control," a humanitarian observer told IRIN. "The interim force as well as MONUC and the IPC [Ituri Pacification Commission] initiating and supporting entities will have no impact whatsoever on activities of all warring factions in areas other than Bunia," the observer said. "Thus insecurity will prevail and access to beneficiaries outside Bunia will most likely not be able to be extended beyond the present limitations."
Doomed!
"Y'know, these pygmies aren't bad with a little mustard..."
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 12:03 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The UN resolution says they're going to be there by mid-August, and there temporarily until 1 September? 2 whole weeks of protection? I am.....not surprised, actually.
Isn't Entebbe the IDF's favorite African airport? ;)
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 06/02/2003 12:38 Comments || Top||

#2  The U.N. couldn't order it's own lunch in 2 weeks.
Posted by: Mike N. || 06/02/2003 13:23 Comments || Top||

#3  They could loot it from the cafeteria pretty fast, though.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 06/02/2003 14:12 Comments || Top||

#4  If you think they're good with mustard, wait till the French army gets there with their regimential saucier.
Posted by: Sgt.DT || 06/02/2003 15:16 Comments || Top||

#5  during the Rwanda crisis the Ugandans and French were on opposite sides - French supported the Hutu "genocidaires" and Uganda supported Tutsi exiles (who had become anglophone in Ugandan exile) While Uganda has since broken with Rwandan Tutsis over DRC there is still little love lost between Uganda and France - note Uganda was one of the few african countries in the "coalition of the willing" (along with Rwanda and Ethiopia)
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/02/2003 15:23 Comments || Top||

#6  Maybe they can use Le Bourget. That'll make them just about as effective. Who's giving them their ride BTW? Could it be the USAF????
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 22:14 Comments || Top||

#7  "countries in the Great Lakes region"?
Is he talking the U.S. and Canada?
Posted by: Raptor || 06/03/2003 7:09 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon
Hezbollah’s response to proposed Aussie ban
Hezbollah responds, read all about it!
That's about the slowest loading website I've seen in years. What're they using for access? A 14.4 modem?
Hezbollah has issued the following statement in response to an announcement by the Australian Government that it seeks to ban Hizbollah and claims that it has received intelligence about Hizbollah’s involvement in terrorist activities: Allegations by Australian officials that Hizbollah threatened Australian interests, because of the country’s role in the war against Iraq, are baseless and untrue.
Yess yess, untrue...
Hizbollah has never threatened any foreign community whether it was inside Lebanon or outside Lebanon.
241 dead Marines. Murdered in their sleep. They were "peacekeepers."
oh noooo we just loves to play nice with Israel yes we doess precious
Hizbollah has always emphasized that its only concern is the resistance of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon.
which happens to be all of Israel
By launching such allegations lies, all lies!, the Australian Government is proving that it has become totally subjugated to the US-Zionist political agenda
yes, and SBS, Bob Brown, Mark Latham and the Resistance agree with you
and has joined them in their continuous campaign against Hizbollah. This distorts the image of the terrorists Party which liberated most of the Lebanese occupied territories from Israeli occupation and which continues to suicide bomb, terrorise fight to invade liberate the remainder of Israeli Lebanese land from Israeli occupation.
Posted by: anon1 || 06/02/2003 10:23 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's about the slowest loading website I've seen in years. What're they using for access? A 14.4 modem?

The site is probably under constant attack, which would understandably slow things down a bit......
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/02/2003 12:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Lebanon is Israel? Since when?
Posted by: Scott || 06/02/2003 14:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Roll 'em up. If they don't roll, kill 'em. They'll get the message.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 21:59 Comments || Top||


East Asia
Chinese dam starts filling up
EFL
China has begun filling a reservoir for the world's biggest hydroelectric project, blocking the massive Yangtze River. Cascades of white water roared as sluice gates slowly drew shut yesterday on the Three Gorges Dam, China's biggest engineering project since the Great Wall was built more than 2 000 years ago. Nineteen of the 22 gates at the dam in Yichang, in the central province of Hubei, were closed, blocking the flood-prone Yangtze to form what will become a 600km reservoir. Three of the gates remained open to guarantee water flow on the Yangtze during the two weeks it takes to fill the reservoir to 135 metres. Some gates shut several days ago and water levels had already climbed to 106m by yesterday morning. Over the past decade, the project has been bedevilled by corruption and the discovery of hundreds of cracks in the dam. However, officials told the Guangzhou Daily yesterday that the cracks, some tens of metres long, were not a danger.
Two weeks to fill the reservoir, I'll set 14 days as the over/under point for dam failure. This is going to be a major disaster, place your bets.
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 09:18 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anybody interested in some high ground?
Posted by: mojo || 06/02/2003 9:37 Comments || Top||

#2  from http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=411236

"Yet many still fear the dam will be an environmental catastrophe. "Decades of accumulated trash from villages, hospitals and cemeteries, highly toxic waste material from factories and the corpses of millions of poisoned rats are all still there," said Dai Qing, an environmentalist.

The government says it has cleared four million tons of household, industrial and sewage waste, as well as the rubble from demolishing 12 million square metres of housing. It plans to invest £3bn in hundreds of sewage and waste disposal plants, but all the pollution from Chongqing and other industrial cities still goes straight into the Yangtze, making its water so poisonous that no one dares drink it or use it for agriculture.

If nothing is done, environmentalists warn, the Three Gorges could turn from an engineering marvel into a giant cesspit, filled with sediment washed down from the deforested slopes of Tibet's great mountains. "

I linked from plastic.com - lots of dam news (pun intended).

I think it'll bust sometime next year.
Posted by: FormerLiberal || 06/02/2003 10:29 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll take the over, 2 months is my guess. How can these clowns build a dam that has 'hundreds of cracks' in it? This will be on the History Channel's 'Great Disasters' (or whatever the name of it is) series soon enough.

Reminds me of my favorite line from Casino - "That guy Paulie - he could f*** up a cup of coffee".
Posted by: Raj || 06/02/2003 11:01 Comments || Top||

#4  If the ChiComs were smart, they would put up webcams on that thing. I know I'd pay to see it collapse live.
Posted by: Mike N. || 06/02/2003 11:57 Comments || Top||

#5  I believe I'll take the under. Many dam collapses have happened during initial fill. Cracks open as pressure increases, water finds its way under or around the dam through fault lines, etc. In China, no one will have the guts to stop the fill, that would admit they made a mistake. Just look at SARS. A big enough disaster killing tens of thousands might be enough to bring down the government.
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 12:49 Comments || Top||

#6  The two biggest disasters in history were floods of the Yangtze, killing some 1.75M between them. There's a lot of flood plains below Three Gorges, and much of that is actually below the level of the Yangtze. If the dam were to fail while the river were already near flood stage, the results would be absolutely catastrophic.
Posted by: Dishman || 06/02/2003 13:21 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm not so sure that tens-of-thousands is enough. With their population, it's like the U.S. government killing dozens. Now, hundreds-of-thousands, maybe. I think I'd rather see a bad government in China, than a coupled of hundred-thousand dead. However, If they could figure out a way to re-route the river, and make it flood the Korean Peninsula.....
Posted by: Mike N. || 06/02/2003 13:22 Comments || Top||

#8  As a civil engineer, I find it disturbing that it's cracking already (possibly poor concrete QC), as well as the fact (found on PBS article) that it will hold a trillion gallons of water yet it's designed for only a 7.0 Richter scale Quake.
Posted by: Frank G || 06/02/2003 13:37 Comments || Top||

#9  Nobody, but nobody, screws-up like a communist. But then again, nobody does big like a communist, either. You're just wishful thinking. Don't hold your breath till it happens.
Posted by: Scott || 06/02/2003 14:09 Comments || Top||

#10  There are cracks and then there are cracks. Frank G., is it possible that there is a concrete fascia that is cracking? A non-structural but visible portion of the dam.

Here's a decent summary of the project.
Posted by: Chuck || 06/02/2003 14:12 Comments || Top||

#11  There is also the possibility that the cracks are due to bad curing of the huge amounts of concrete poured. Internal heating from the chemical reaction as the concrete sets - or doesn't, as the case may be. They had the same problems, on a smaller scale, with the Hoover Dam.
Posted by: mojo || 06/02/2003 14:37 Comments || Top||

#12  Here's a few details from other articles:
The dam is believed to sit on stable ground, but the land that holds the reservoir is so vulnerable to landslides that tour boat operators point out famous landslide sites along the route to the Three Gorges.
Famous dam diaster in Italy (?), landslide caused by increased water pressure, tidal wave over topped dam.
Small cracks have already been discovered in the dam's structure. Officials have been arrested for providing construction companies with shoddy materials.
And how many were missed or didn't have political connections?
The closing of the sluice gates comes after a general inspection of the dam in mid-May revealed that repair work to fix large cracks on the dam's 185 meter-high concrete face was not completely successful. "We found that some of the vertical cracks on the dam that were repaired have reopened, even though we put a great deal of money and effort into the repair work," Pan Jiazheng, an engineer said in a speech following the end of the inspection.
Can't delay, would lose face.
The dam's flood control capabilities could come under scrutiny as early as this summer, with Chinese meteorologists predicting a heavier than normal rainy season along the river below the dam.
The State Meteorological Bureau says rainfall in the Dongting and Poyang lake areas downstream of the dam is likely to be 20 percent greater than normal this summer. "It's true that in the decade since we started building the dam, we have experienced many types of floods, but this year floods will be really serious," Pan said.

Worst case is coming sooner than later.
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 14:49 Comments || Top||

#13  I just can't believe the center of this things is going to hold. I feel sorry for the people who will get killed when this things busts.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono || 06/02/2003 16:15 Comments || Top||

#14  Even if it doesn't cave in today or tomorrow or ten years from now, would you want to live in front of it with the idea that it might hanging over your head? Probably do wonders for property values. Oh, that's right, they're Commies. Sorry.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 22:10 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon
Hizbullah welcomes Lebanon, Syria exclusion from Sharm summit
JPost - reg req'd
Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah welcomed the exclusion of Lebanon and Syria from the Arab summit being convened in Sharm el-Sheik on Tuesday with US President George W. Bush. According to Al-Jazeera television's Web site, Nasrallah told a crowd in the Lebanese town of Baalbek on Sunday: "Some might be saddened by this, but he who has precise calculations will be happy for the exclusion of Lebanon and Syria as a testimony to their nationalism, their adherence to their ethnicity and firm stand in defense of their rights".
And Assad wasn't gonna get invited, so he said Lebanon can't go either...."as a testimony to their nationalism"
Nasrallah alleged that the summit's objective is to improve Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's image.
I think it's actually to diminish Arafat's as the paleo symbol of nationalism
Lebanon's Prime Minister Rafik Hariri denied that Lebanon and Syria were contacted for the possibility of attending the summit, al Jazeera reports. "This summit has a clear direction and I don't see Lebanon and Syria included in it at the present moment," Hariri said
Truer words could not have been spoken - do you think he put ANY thought into that statement before he made it?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/02/2003 08:59 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  testimony to their pan-syrian nationalism, i suppose. ditto wrt to the peace process, for the Pals to cut any deal with Israel that ignores Golan shows a lack of pan-syrian "nationalism" and must be opposed.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/02/2003 15:41 Comments || Top||

#2  When Nasrallah and Hariri speak, is Assad drinking a glass of water?
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 22:02 Comments || Top||


Iran
Iran Says U.S. Should Help It Build Nuclear Plants
EFL
Iran said Monday the United States could help it build nuclear reactors as a way of ensuring that Tehran kept its word not to develop atomic weapons. "If the Americans are really worried about our nuclear ambitions they could take part in constructing our nuclear power plants," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
"Look at what a sucess this was for North Korea!"
U.S. officials have already dismissed the idea, floated last week by Russia. Sunday, the U.S. and Russian presidents said they had narrowed their differences over Iran at a meeting in St Petersburg. But Moscow has yet to heed Washington's pleas that it stop building Iran's first nuclear reactor, at Bushehr. Unlike North Korea, Iran denies seeking nuclear arms. But U.S. officials question why else the oil- and gas-rich Islamic republic would be investing in power-generating reactors.
Actually, if I was doing the planning for Iran or for a similarly oil-rich country, I'd be doing the same thing. Run the nuclear plants at home, run a government-sponsored investment plan like Kuwait has, and foster domestic development in non-oil energy-related fields at home, and you're not left with nothing when the oil runs out. But that's just me...
Asefi told a news conference Washington was simply using the reactor program as a "pretext to put pressure on Iran," with which it has been at odds since the Islamic revolution of 1979.
He said Tehran welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin's call Sunday for tighter controls on atomic weapons: "We totally agree with Putin's remarks regarding weapons of mass destruction. Iran was the first country that suggested the whole region must be void of such weapons," Asefi said. "Russia has acknowledged our nuclear activities are peaceful."
"And if you can't trust Russia, who can you trust?"
Iran's suggestion of U.S. cooperation in its civil nuclear program bears some comparison with a 1994 deal under which the United States agreed to give North Korea reactors unsuitable for developing weapons material in return for Pyongyang abandoning efforts to build an atomic bomb. North Korea has, however, now admitted it has built nuclear weapons, U.S. officials say.
That worked well, didn't it?
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 08:44 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why of course! We use the 3ID to build nuclear plants all the time.
Posted by: flash91 || 06/02/2003 9:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Flash is on to something: we'll help build the reactors but we need the 3ID -- and the 4ID and the 101st and 82nd and a Marine division -- to guard it against saboteurs. Can't be too careful.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/02/2003 12:02 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd take them up on it. Like LBJ used to say, "I'd rather be inside the tent pissing out then outside pissing in." It's not like they expect us to say yes.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 13:10 Comments || Top||

#4  The only reason I'm not all for this idea, is because the next Chickinshit administration to come down the line will pull out and give it to Iran, and the next thing you know, we don't have the Panama Canal any more.
Posted by: Mike N. || 06/02/2003 13:56 Comments || Top||

#5  re the energy economics - not so simple
first of all yes the more oil you export, the more cash you can invest, but that offset by the substantial capital costs of the nuclear plant itself. Makes more sense not to build the nuke until youre relatively close to oil running out.

And note well - oil is relatively easy to ship - natural gas, a by product is VERY difficult - if you dont have a market within pipeline distance, you have to go to the trouble of liquifying it, using specially designed ships, etc. So what you want to do is export the oil, and use the natural gas domestically - which is what Saudi, iraq, and many other oil exporters do. So theres no real good economic/energy reason for the nuclear program. I think the real reason is clear enough, though.

Posted by: liberalhawk || 06/02/2003 15:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Let's just bomb these sites back to the consistency of the surrounding rocks.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono || 06/02/2003 16:17 Comments || Top||

#7  When I was in college about 25 years ago, my best friend -- not Douglas De Bono -- seriously advocated bombing Iran back to dust. I thought he was a bit crazy. Now I'm not so sure he was wrong.
Posted by: Tom || 06/02/2003 21:03 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
Zim-Bob-We Police Arrest Tsvangirai
Authorities arrested Zimbabwe's opposition leader today and fired teargas at student protesters, vowing to crush the launch of anti-government demonstrations which the opposition hopes will mark the most significant challenge yet to President Robert Mugabe's decades-long rule. Riot police fired teargas at hundreds of students at Zimbabwe University as they tried to march from campus to downtown Harare. Teargas was also fired at a group that gathered on a street in the Harare township of Budiriro. In Mabvuku, another Harare township, army trucks packed with soldiers patrolled overnight. Morgan Tsvangirai leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested at his home, charged with contempt of court for planning an illegal demonstration, said Innocent Chagonda, his lawyer.
Nice name for a lawyer ;-)
Tsvangirai has become increasingly defiant in his calls for the people of Zimbabwe to rise up against Mugabe and his policies which the opposition blames for sinking the country into economic and political disarray. This week has been called as a week of strikes and protest against the government. Tsvangirai appeared in court today. The State says he was part of a plot to assassinate Mugabe, charges he and his fellow accused - two senior opposition officials - deny.
Trumped-up crap
One of his fellow accused, party secretary-general Welshman Ncube, said police had also tried to arrest him overnight. He was not at home, but police assaulted his staff, he said. "They beat my workers; there are broken bones," he said.
Lucky they're alive, some won't be so lucky this week
Of the launch of this week's actions against the government, he said: "It is tough and it is very tense". As part of their crackdown against demonstrations, police-manned roadblocks were set up along all the main roads leading into Harare, and military helicopters swooped over the western city of Bulawayo. Both cities are considered opposition strongholds. Over the weekend, the High Court declared the protests illegal, but the opposition planned on filing an appeal against the ruling in the Supreme Court today. State television said yesterday that planned demonstrations and strikes would be "met with the full wrath of the law". It said ruling party youths loyal to the government would break up opposition street demonstrations and quoted defence minister Sidney Sekeramayi as saying "enough measures" were being taken to stop anti-government unrest.
That's what fascism looks like. Point that out, next time one of the Not in Our Name set starts spouting off...
Government vehicles sped through Harare late yesterday throwing out printed fliers urging Zimbabweans to ignore opposition calls for the protests. It was the first time that the government had distributed political fliers that littered the streets, with few being picked up.
Guess there's no shortage of toilet paper
Posted by: Frank G || 06/02/2003 08:37 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Mr Tsvangirai was arrested early in the day for contempt of court after ignoring a court order granted to the government on Saturday banning the planned protest. He was released after several hours."
If he is out of jail, it's easier to accuse him of inciting people to riot. Plus, it makes that "accidental death" look better.
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 11:52 Comments || Top||


Sam Bockarie Is Still Dead
A body believed to be that of former Sierra Leone rebel commander Sam Bockarie has been brought home from Liberia. Seeking to confirm his alleged death, the special court demanded his body for forensic examination. But only now has the Liberian Government released it. Those who have seen the corpse and knew Mr Bockarie well say they have no doubt about his identity. But the court has said it will not withdraw the indictment against him until DNA tests are carried out
Seems like Sierra Leone doesn't trust Liberia. Wonder why?
Posted by: Steve || 06/02/2003 07:58 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DNA tests in Sierra Leone? This'll take, what, about 20 years? The disco king will be dead of old age before those results come in.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/02/2003 22:06 Comments || Top||


Demonstrators killed in Harare - Zim-Bob-We Report
And so it starts
Two opposition demonstrators were shot and killed in the Zimbabwe capital Harare today, according to unconfirmed reports. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which has organised a week of protests against President Robert Mugabe’s regime, said members of the army and police opened fire on peaceful demonstrators in the Highfields district of Harare. “There are, as yet unconfirmed, reports that two people have been killed. An MDC youth has a bullet wound in his leg,” said the MDC. “In the centre of Harare, MDC MP Edwin Mushoriwa was brutally attacked by the police and is being treated in hospital,” said a spokesman.
The big strike will be brutally put down
Unless they've finally reached the tipping point, in which Bob and Grace will end up swinging by the heels or leaving town in the dead of night, clutching the remains of the national treasury. After those events, there can be another bloodbath, this time with ZANU-PF as the targets, and Amnesia International can wring its hands and try to figure where we're to blame. Is this the tipping point? Stay tuned, for the continuing sto-o-o-o-ry of... BOB AND GRACE!
Posted by: Frank G || 06/02/2003 07:33 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is clearly the biggest news story of the day and should be one of the year, but you wouldn't know it. I checked Amnesia International's website a few minutes ago - certain that (sarcasm dripping)they would be all over this. Headlines were about G-8 not doing enough for their tastes, Security Council not doing enough for their taste and a lead story about Guantanamo prisoners suffering because their three daily, square, culturally sensitive meals aren't tasty enough. But after some searching of back pages, I was able to find out that Amnesia did indeed have a lead story about this real-time human disaster. "It was:
Guardian journalist, Andrew Meldrum discusses his illegal deportation from Zimbabwe"

Ahhhh....poooor Andrew. What an OUTRAGE! No wonder Amnesia has decided to ignore this major story. Yeah...take that Bob! Kick out a journalist and they'll show you by just ignoring the whole slaughter! No press for you Bob...take that!
Posted by: Becky || 06/02/2003 12:28 Comments || Top||



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