Great story; itâs long so just the first few paragraphs here.
The memories came ticking back for Jim Hoel as he held a watch he last remembered wearing on May 17, 1943, the day German soldiers captured him when he scrambled from a Dutch canal after his B-26 Marauder ditched in the water. "Itâs just eerie, isnât it?" Hoel said after his long-lost watch arrived this week at his Evanston home in a package from England. "That was 60 years ago. Iâve sort of got gooseflesh."
Peter Cooper, who lives in Kirton, a tiny "one-pub, one-shop" village about 75 miles northeast of London, persuaded a neighbor to give up the watch and tracked down Hoel through some amateur sleuthing. "He didnât believe it," said Cooper, 56, a truck driver who called to make sure Hoel was the right person before mailing him the watch a week ago. "He was a bit gob-smacked, as we would call it." Hoel, 82, said he had been counting the minutes until he received his old Gallet chronometer, an enlistment present from the Chicago bank where he worked before the war. It didnât bother him at all that it arrived broken and missing its chain bracelet, a minor detail for a veteran who spent two years in German prison camps after his bomber crash-landed during a doomed raid on a power plant. [ read the rest of the story at the link ]
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2003 12:18:54 AM ||
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Three coalition soldiers were injured when they came under fire in eastern Afghanistan, a U.S. military spokesman said at Bagram Air Base. The names and nationalities of the coalition soldiers were not revealed. Col. Rodney Davis said a quick reaction force was deployed from the nearby Shkihn base, in eastern Paktika province, and two A-10 Thunderbolt II jets gave air support but did not drop any ordnance. Four insurgents were killed in the clash, which lasted about 90 minutes, he said. 3 wounded, 4 snuffies killed = a good day
The U.S.-led coalition has 11,500 soldiers in Afghanistan most of them Americans to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, mainly in the south and east of the country. south and east? What country does that abut? hmmmmmm
Also Sunday, attackers in a car hurled a hand grenade at the Indian consulate in the eastern city of Jalalabad, damaging a wall and shattering windows but causing no injuries. Four Afghan men were detained and were being questioned. use that bullwhip that was posted on the other day
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 10:01 ||
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CNN is now reporting 2 were US soldiers, and are dead. :-(
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 13:04 Comments ||
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I'll believe it when someone besides Creative Non-existent News confirms it.
Posted by: Charles ||
08/31/2003 16:31 Comments ||
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Just heard it on Fox.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 16:42 Comments ||
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You just had to liquify my hopes CNN was wrong, didn't you?
Posted by: Charles ||
08/31/2003 17:00 Comments ||
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Apparently weâre determined not to let them get away like in Tora Bora. Excellent!~ (channeling Monty Burns)
U.S. fighter jets and helicopters pounded suspected Taliban positions Sunday in a fresh assault in the rugged mountain peaks of southern Afghanistan. Hundreds of reinforcements had joined the fighting on both sides in the Dai Chopan district of Zabul province, said Khalil Hotak, the provinceâs intelligence chief. A first round of U.S. airstrikes went on for three hours overnight and ended shortly before dawn, Hotak said. U.S. planes flew several more bombing sorties late Sunday morning, Gen. Haji Saifullah Khan said from the scene of the fighting. For nearly a week now, the mountainous region about 42 miles north of Qalat, the provincial capital, has been the scene of intense battles between suspected Taliban rebels, Afghan soldiers and their U.S. allies. nice of you boys to have this reunion, may we join in?
Dozens of Taliban fighters are reported to have been killed and several others arrested so far. "We are tightening the siege against them step by step. We will either capture them alive or take the life force out of them," Hotak said. Hospital officials in Qalat told The Associated Press on Sunday that the wounded were taken immediately to a U.S. base at the airport in the southern city of Kandahar. No ground battles were reported on Sunday.
That's either a good thing — they're all dead — or a bad thing — they've beat it out the back door, and are headed for the Pak border at top speed, wearing Grandmaw's burka as a brilliant disguise...
Four helicopter gunships and three U.S. jets targeted suspected Taliban hideouts in the Chinaran, Ragh and Kabai areas of Dai Chopan, Hotak told AP at an operations center in Qalat. Afghan soldiers swept through the area following the bombing and claimed to have seen 14 newly killed Taliban fighters, according to Hotak. There were no reports of casualties among government forces. newly killed = killed earlier in the week, and killed again yesterday? ewwwwww
U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said Saturday that two American soldiers had been wounded in the fighting this week. Another American soldier died in a fall during a nighttime combat operation on Friday. Khan, the Afghan commander, said Sunday that intelligence indicated more than 250 Taliban reinforcements had arrived from the neighboring district of Mizan. good! bring em all in one big target-rich area
"We have an informer among these people (Taliban)," Khan told AP. He spoke by satellite telephone from Larzab, on the front line of the battle. heh heh....even if they donât, itâs good to f&^k with their pointy little beturbanned heads by sowing paranoia
He said fighting had died down by Sunday afternoon following the last U.S. airstrikes. "There is no exchange of fire. We are quietly advancing toward where we have laid siege to the Taliban," Khan said. About 500 Afghan soldiers had been earlier reported involved in the battles with the Taliban. Hotak said reinforcements have been sent and about 800 Afghan soldiers were in the region now. On Sunday, Hotak said hundreds of American troops were in Dai Chupan, but the U.S. military did not confirm that claim. He earlier said there were 60 to 70 U.S. soldiers.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 9:29:27 AM ||
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Shouldn't it be easy to set up ambushes on the most likely egree routes?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 16:44 Comments ||
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EFL - read it all, as they say
Author Gerald Posner claims an al-Qaeda leader made explosive allegations while under interrogation.
So to speak...
By March 2002, the terrorist called Abu Zubaydah was one of the most wanted men on earth. A leading member of Osama bin Ladenâs brain trust, he is thought to have been in operational control of al-Qaedaâs millennium bomb plots as well as the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in October 2000. After the spectacular success of the airliner assaults on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, he continued to devise terrorist plans.
Seventeen months ago, the U.S. finally grabbed Zubaydah in Pakistan and has kept him locked up in a secret location ever since. His name has probably faded from most memories. Itâs about to get back in the news. A new book by Gerald Posner says Zubaydah has made startling revelations about secret connections linking Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and bin Laden. Details of that terrorism triangle form the explosive final chapter in Posnerâs examination of who did what wrong before Sept. 11. Most of his new book, Why America Slept (Random House), is a lean, lucid retelling of how the CIA, FBI and U.S. leaders missed a decadeâs worth of clues and opportunities that if heeded, Posner argues, might have forestalled the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Posner is an old hand at revisiting conspiracy theories. He wrote controversial assessments dismissing those surrounding the J.F.K. and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations. And the Berkeley-educated lawyer is adept at marshaling an unwieldy mass of informationâmost of his sources are other books and news storiesâinto a pattern made tidy and linear by hindsight. His indictment of U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies covers well-trodden ground, though sometimes the might-have-beens and could-have-seens are stretched thin. The stuff that is going to spark hot debate is Chapter 19, an accountâbased on Zubaydahâs claims as told to Posner by "two government sources" who are unnamed but "in a position to know"âof what two countries allied to the U.S. did to build up al-Qaeda and what they knew before that September day.
Sounds like Jerry hit the jackpot when he bought the beer at the O-club...
Zubaydahâs capture and interrogation, told in a gripping narrative that reads like a techno-thriller, did not just take down one of al-Qaedaâs most wanted operatives but also unexpectedly provided what one U.S. investigator told Posner was "the Rosetta stone of 9/11 ... the details of what (Zubaydah) claimed was his âworkâ for senior Saudi and Pakistani officials."
Soddies and Paks? Well! That certainly comes as, ummm... not a surprise.
The tale begins at 2 a.m. on March 28, 2002, when U.S. surveillance pinpointed Zubaydah in a two-story safe house in Pakistan.
Commandos rousted out 62 suspects, one of whom was seriously wounded while trying to flee. A Pakistani intelligence officer and hastily made voiceprints quickly identified the injured man as Zubaydah.
He was gut-shot, and also nailed in the groin. Turned his attention from escaping for awhile. (Sometime I go to the officers' club, too...)
Posner elaborates in startling detail how U.S. interrogators used drugsâan unnamed "quick-on, quick-off" painkiller and Sodium Pentothal, the old movie truth serumâin a chemical version of reward and punishment to make Zubaydah talk.
"Hurts, don't it, Abu?"
"Grssh."
"Like some pain-killer?"
When questioning stalled, according to Posner, CIA men flew Zubaydah to an Afghan complex fitted out as a fake Saudi jail chamber, where "two Arab-Americans, now with Special Forces," pretending to be Saudi inquisitors, used drugs and threats to scare him into more confessions.
I hadn't heard that part...
Yet when Zubaydah was confronted by the false Saudis, writes Posner, "his reaction was not fear, but utter relief." Happy to see them, he reeled off telephone numbers for a senior member of the royal family who would, said Zubaydah, "tell you what to do."
"Hello, prince? Hey! A friend of yours said to give you a call..."
The man at the other end would be Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, a Westernized nephew of King Fahdâs and a publisher better known as a racehorse owner. His horse War Emblem won the Kentucky Derby in 2002. To the amazement of the U.S., the numbers proved valid. When the fake inquisitors accused Zubaydah of lying, he responded with a 10-minute monologue laying out the Saudi-Pakistani-bin Laden triangle.
Oooh! They good! They very good!
Zubaydah, writes Posner, said the Saudi connection ran through Prince Turki al-Faisal bin Abdul Aziz, the kingdomâs longtime intelligence chief. Zubaydah said bin Laden "personally" told him of a 1991 meeting at which Turki agreed to let bin Laden leave Saudi Arabia and to provide him with secret funds as long as al-Qaeda refrained from promoting jihad in the kingdom.
That little agreement's been established by deduction for awhile...
The Pakistani contact, high-ranking air force officer Mushaf Ali Mir, entered the equation, Zubaydah said, at a 1996 meeting in Pakistan also attended by Zubaydah. Bin Laden struck a deal with Mir, then in the military but tied closely to Islamists in Pakistanâs Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to get protection, arms and supplies for al-Qaeda. Zubaydah told interrogators bin Laden said the arrangement was "blessed by the Saudis."
They're the ones who hold the Pakistani leash...
Zubaydah said he attended a third meeting in Kandahar in 1998 with Turki, senior ISI agents and Taliban officials. There Turki promised, writes Posner, that "more Saudi aid would flow to the Taliban, and the Saudis would never ask for bin Ladenâs extradition, so long as al-Qaeda kept its long-standing promise to direct fundamentalism away from the kingdom." In Posnerâs stark judgment, the Saudis "effectively had (bin Laden) on their payroll since the start of the decade." Zubaydah told the interrogators that the Saudis regularly sent the funds through three royal-prince intermediaries he named.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 12:37:00 PM ||
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on reflection - I should've hat tipped Drudgereport.com, since I don't read Time mag any more and would've missed this on my own. Also, should've posted it in Arabia, since this part of the post is how the rat bastard Princes have screwed us
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 12:53 Comments ||
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....Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, a Westernized nephew of King Fahdâs and a publisher better known as a racehorse owner. His horse War Emblem won the Kentucky Derby....
Now finish the story with the eradication of said Prince..... oops already happened
#4
I remember how queasy I felt watching the governor of Kentucky grinning and gladhanding and congratulating Prince Aziz when War Emblem won the Derby. If I'm not mistaken, Aziz also ran that fair and balanced publication, Arab News.
The last eight paragraphs of the book set up a final startling development. Those three Saudi princes all perished within days of one another. On July 22, 2002, Prince Ahmed was felled by a heart attack at age 43. One day later Prince Sultan bin Faisal bin Turki al-Saud, 41, was killed in what was called a high-speed car accident. The last member of the trio, Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabir, officially "died of thirst" while traveling east of Riyadh one week later. And seven months after that, Mushaf Ali Mir, by then Pakistan's Air Marshal, perished in a plane crash in clear weather over the unruly North-West Frontier province, along with his wife and closest confidants.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 14:33 Comments ||
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St Mo's massacre like. The day Michael became the Godfather, no, just keeping family business tidy.
#7
Looks like a clean-up operation to me. Probably realized letting them do this would get them bombed, so they whacked the bastards.
Unfortuneatly, we can't invade Saudi Arabia for several reasons. This will have a huge political fall-out for the Saudi Government though.
No, I doubt that will happen either. Anybody have the number of KKK fanatics? They can go over there, kill they Saudi Royal Family, and get themselves killed in the process. Two birds with one bomb!
Posted by: Charles ||
08/31/2003 16:44 Comments ||
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And the Berkeley-educated lawyer is adept at marshaling an unwieldy mass of informationâmost of his sources are other books and news storiesâinto a pattern made tidy and linear by hindsight.
I don't have that much respect for anyone who displays this sort of judgementalism: I worked on one of the first computer systems dedicated to all source analysis for in-field military intelligence analysts, and I can tell you, intelligence is a huge mass of uncorrelated data that takes a lot skill and luck to winnow out any patterns that can be acted upon: Up until then, skyjackers weren't suicide bombers, and that would have clouded anyone's interpretation.
IMHO, there was no failure of intelligence: Just a political failure to enforce a zero-tolerance policy on terrorists and terroristic acts. WTC II would not have happened if politicians had had more balls going after Bin Laden after WTC I and the Cole bombing.
Yet when Zubaydah was confronted by the false Saudis, writes Posner, "his reaction was not fear, but utter relief." Happy to see them, he reeled off telephone numbers for a senior member of the royal family who would, said Zubaydah, "tell you what to do."
#9
Interesting. Does this mean the US can get Saudi princes offed just by letting 'certain people' know we have some evidence?
Dunno about you guys, but that gives me some lovely ideas...
Posted by: Kathy K ||
08/31/2003 20:52 Comments ||
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Looks like some ad agency is about to get very rich doing the new batch of "The Saudis are our Bestest Buddies" ads.
Here's an idea for their new campaign, "Without Saudi Arabia, there'd be no war on terrorism." At least forcing them to shell out some big bucks for this shit is money they can't use to bankroll their loony tunes boomer boys.
The extremist Islamic group Al-Muhajiroun, which openly operates in Pakistan, is holding a conference on the second anniversary of September 11 to honour the 19 who hijacked commercial jets for attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
A poster celebrating the event to be held at four locations in England includes photographs of the Al Qaeda hijackers and refers to them as âThe Magnificent 19,â according to a report in the Washington Times on Saturday. Omar Bakri Muhammad, the groupâs leader, is shown on the conferenceâs poster with the 19 suicide hijackers who are broken down into four groups based on the four planes they commandeered. Mr Muhammad told the London Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat that participants will discuss the motives of the hijackers, whom he referred to as âheroesâ. The conference, being held in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leicester, will examine the root causes of the September 11 attacks, and if they still exist, Mr Muhammad warned âthe results might be similar to what happened in September but in different methodsâ. The announcement said that a message from Osama Bin Laden will also be read, drawn from earlier television messages by the Al Qaeda leader.
Golly. I wonder if they still exist?
Mr Muhammad, a Syrian-born British citizen, is seen as a key British contact of Mr Bin Laden, for whose capture, Washington has offered a reward of $25 million. Al-Muhajiroun held a similar celebration last year. A British embassy spokesman here told the Washington Times, âEveryone is allowed to express an opinion so long as it stops short of incitement and stops short of acts of terrorism.â
How about that part about âthe results might be similar to what happened in September but in different methodsâ? That's not incitement?
He said the police and security services were full aware of Mr Muhammad and his organisation. Their activities are closely monitored, adding, âAnyone breaking the law, whether provisions of the Terrorism Act, the Race Relations Act or the Public Order Act, will be prosecuted.â
I'm assuming they've got the organization wired, which is why they haven't tossed Mr Muhammad into the calaboose and thrown away the key. What're they using the Tower of London for nowadays, by the way?
Mr Muhammad told the London Arabic newspaper that the US was a legitimate target because âit represents the right-hand tool of the world Crusades led by America and its allies against Islam and Muslimsâ. He also said the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed at least 23 people, will not be the last terrorist attack.
We never thought it would be.
The Al-Muhajiroun group, according to the Washington Times, was the subject of an FBI memorandum sent by Agent Kenneth Williams in July 2001 to FBI headquarters that stated that he had identified a link between one Middle Eastern man taking flight lessons at a Phoenix-area flight school and Al-Muhajiroun. The memorandum requested that the FBI launch an investigation of Islamist radicals who were taking flight lessons. Ignored by FBI headquarters, the memorandum has been identified by a special congressional inquiry as a key intelligence failure prior to the September 11 attacks.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 11:57 ||
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The Al-Muhajiroun group will have two plenery sessions at the conference. The first will celebrate 9-11 as a Muslim victory. The second will blame Israel for 9-11. Uulating will be done at the breakout sessions.
#2
1) The Tower of London, besides being a major tourist attraction, home of some retired British Warrant Officers, and a great place to learn a lot about British history, also houses the Crown Jewels of England - very impressive display behind very thick glass.
2) I'd certainly appreciate our British friends holding a counter-display. Wish I could provide the material to do it justice - 'before' and 'after' shots, some of the police and firefighters working their butts off, trying to save even one victim, and loads of pics of the people who died, along with the photos of those left behind.
3) Considering these cowards "heros" shows just how depraved some Islamists can be. If the "moderate" Muslims don't condemn this kind of behavior, we'll just have to accept that they're part of the problem.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/31/2003 13:35 Comments ||
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And MI5 will be taking DNA samples off the delegates' toothbrushes while they're in meeting.
#4
The moderates need to do more than condemn the snakes. They need to take that shit personally and go hostile against it. Muslims-Blokes and Joes, even Fritzs and Frogs. You know who you are, you like living in a crusader's land, learn from it, and enjoy it's freedoms. Use it's laws based on crusader and zionist philosophy. Pathetic, hey Muslim-Bloke, go kick some ass at al-moosa's toilet party. Pop that scab. Take it to the streets with bad intentions and make them pay a price for their uncivility. Seems to me that it's up to Britain to bring on the new muslim revolution against the old backward caveman muslims. Imagine, a free muslim.
The port was closed to traffic for seven hours on Friday evening after weapons were found in a car arriving on a ferry from Calais. Police were keen to stress the charges they face are of a criminal and not terrorist nature. The three men are Amir Khan, a county court bailiff from Kensington; Ramin Malique, a garage manager from Clapham; and Zubiar Khan, from west London.
Posted by: Flounder ||
08/31/2003 7:11:20 AM ||
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I would stress that too if three men of Middle Eastern descent got arrested trying to smuggle weapons into the UK. It would represent a failure of the EU to effectively deal with a problem which is surely going to swallow up their cultures and their plans.
When are the gloves gonna come off with these misanthropic bastards and their enablers/supporters?
Oh, the horror of discovering that Dr. Kelly was a patriot! EFL.
The weapons scientist caught up in a storm about claims the government exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq believed war was the only way to eliminate Saddam Husseinâs weapons of mass destruction, a British newspaper reported Sunday. David Kelly, 59, apparently committed suicide after he was identified as the source for a British Broadcasting Corp. claim the government ``sexed upââ intelligence about Iraqâs weapons programs to build support for war. The Observer newspaper, in its early Sunday edition, printed what it said was an unpublished article by Kelly in which he said military action ``regrettably appears to be the only wayââ of disarming Iraq. The Observer quoted Kelly as writing that ``although the current threat presented by Iraq militarily is modest,ââ Iraq still intended to develop chemical and biological weapons ``for both military and terrorist use... After 12 unsuccessful years of U.N. supervision of disarmament, military force regrettably appears to be the only way of finally and conclusively disarming Iraq.ââ Hmmm, this fellow clearly could add 2+2+2+2 and end up with 8.
The newspaper said the article was part of a report on Iraq compiled early this year but not published. The paper said it had received the article from the reportâs editor, journalist Julie Flint. Kelly, a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, was the governmentâs leading expert on Iraqâs chemical and biological warfare programs. A senior judge, Lord Hutton, currently is holding an inquiry into the events leading up to Kellyâs death. The scientist was found with his wrist slit on July 18, days after being identified as the BBCâs source. Wonder if anyone at the BBC has the slightest twinge of conscience?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2003 12:22:45 AM ||
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Don't ask that! They might turn it into a TV special!
Posted by: Charles ||
08/31/2003 1:00 Comments ||
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BBC is too busy trying to make out that there 'may have been' a sinister element in his death, and of course implying that came from the government. Everything and anything negative, even if it's their own sins and vices they say was actually the government. And the scary thing is: people believe the crap they churn out.
#6
Being off topic I've got to add. The 'Two Towers' is magnificent. But, DUDES, that is a big screen must see. Also go see 'Open Range' today if possible. Costner is great as he gets out of the way and lets Duval glow. The Camera work is butter and so many great characters. A big screen must see! I used to love the BBC world service radio, but that was when I was voting for guys like Jimmy Carter. The old saying and all.
Four terrorists belonging to a jihadi organisation were arrested on Friday and automatic weapons were seized from them, said Jhang District Police Officer Khadim Hussain Bhatti. Mr Bhatti said the four men accused are Muhammad Safdar, Abdul Basit, Asghar Ali and Akhlaq Ahmed.
Isn't he the duck who does those commercials?
He said they confessed during their interrogation that they were trained in Afghanistan during the Taliban. They have served more than three jihadi organisations, he said. Investigation Officer Mumtaz Hussain said their organisationâs leader Amir Muhammad Farooq sent them to Garh Maharaja, 100 miles north of Multan. Their mission was to rob the residences of rich shias and those who finance their organisation. Mr Bhatti ordered police arrest Mr Farooqr and his accomplices.
Yeah. Right. That'll happen.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 11:42 ||
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Akhlaq! By golly Fred, you're right
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 20:56 Comments ||
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Britain has asked Pakistan to provide the complete details of the appeal case of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national who was convicted by a Pakistani anti-terrorist court in the Daniel Pearl murder case. Sources in the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry said the Foreign Affairs Ministry has forwarded a request from the British Embassy for consular access to Mr Sheikh who is being held at the Hyderabad Central Jail. A senior official at the ministry said they are considering the request for counsular access and a decision would be made after security clearance. He added that the ministry had asked the Sindh government to tell them about the progress of the appeal filed by Mr Sheikh. The official said the British government had also sent a letter for Mr Sheikh and it would be delivered to him.
This seems to be taking an awful long time. I'm starting to have my doubts his neck's ever going to be stretched. Actually, I've always had those doubts. He should be "escaping" any time now...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 11:39 ||
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The Brits owe us to have him taken out, and I don't mean escaping....
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 13:16 Comments ||
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With respect to military tribunals for the GITMO folks, would it be possible to include Brit and Aussies officers?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 17:00 Comments ||
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Some have claimed that Omar is the ISI's representative to Al Qaeda, or perhaps it's the other way around...anyways, I think he will have an unfortunate accident, or else he will spend year after year in a legal limbo, since he knows to much and must not be given the incentive to tell what he knows.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/31/2003 22:24 Comments ||
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The Brits owe us to have him taken out, and I don't mean escaping....
Not if the Foreign Office can help it. Britain's Foreign Office is kind of like an even more rabidly anti-American version of the State Department. Clientitis is their middle name.
Based on intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based terrorists were trying to find a fresh base "within striking distance" of the capital to target VVIPs and symbols of national importance such as India Gate and Red Fort, Delhi has been placed on extra alert with the festive season just around the corner, a top Delhi Police official said today. Last week there were inputs of a threat to Connaught Place and other areas putting the police on heightened vigil, Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Neeraj Kumar told a news conference. For the past couple of weeks, before and after Independence Day, Delhi had been the likely target of "spectacular terrorist strikes" via the Jammu and Kashmir route and the events of the past 24 hours and this morning clearly bore this out.
They're referring to the shipment of explosives and the subsequent shootout...
An arms and explosives-laden truck was intercepted leading to the encounter killing of two Jaish-e-Mohammad ultras at Millennium Park in east Delhi late last night. This also led to the arrest of another two of JeM ultras from Bulandsahar district of western Uttar Pradesh this morning. Yesterday morning, gelatine sticks were recovered from the New Delhi railway station.
That would seem to make it a pretty major bust. Hadn't heard about the second snag...
Detailing the events, the JCP said Delhi Police had received a specific input from central intelligence agencies of a truck with JK number plate carting arms, ammunition and explosives and bound for Delhi. The last three digits of the number plate were 153 and on checking the record at the Azadpur Mandi revealed that a truck bearing the number plate: JK-03-0153 had entered on August 28 at around 2300 hrs but the truck was nowhere to be found, Kumar said. Extensive searches carried out in the Mandi area and the parking lots around proved futile, Finally, at around 1400 hrs yesterday, the truck was seen parked near the Qutab Road parking with no occupants.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 10:48 ||
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Pakistan security authorities have arrested 18 Taliban militants in a raid on their hideout in south-western Baluchistan province bordering Afghanistan. During the raid carried out overnight in the Chaman border district the security forces also seized a large number of weapons, ammunition and wireless sets. "It is believed those arrested belonged to a Taliban group involved in several attacks on the Pak-Afghan border recently and were planning some new attacks," it said.
"No, no! We wuz just gonna do a little, ummm... elk huntin'. An' we needed the radios to, ummm... stay in touch with our wives. Yeah, that's it! They wuz afraid we wuz gonna get drunk instead o' huntin'..."
Investigations were continuing and further disclosures were expected, the statement added. Paramilitary colonel Abdul Basit Rana said in Chaman that the suspects put up no resistance during the raid. The arrest of the group follows a surge in violence against aid workers, soldiers and government targets, blamed largely on resurgent Taliban fighters.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 10:22 ||
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Indian police have arrested five people and questioned many more in their probe of twin car bombings in Bombay that killed 52 and injured more than 150. Kripashankar Singh, home minister of Maharashtra province of which Bombay is the capital, said: "Five people whom we believe are involved in the bomb attacks have been arrested from various parts of the state and even outside Maharashtra." He said police were trying to identify the mastermind behind the August 25 blasts, which went off within minutes of each other in a crowded market and near a landmark monument. "The police have picked up vital clues that led to these people and gave an indication as to who could be the brain behind the attacks," Singh told AFP. "Apart from the five, many more have been detained for questioning."
"Ow!... Ouch! Hey! Stop that!... O-o-o-o-o-o-w!"
"The police are working on all the investigation angles and at this stage it would not be right to speak much on it," he said. Police earlier said the attack could have been carried out by Indian Islamic extremists with the help of Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad, militant groups founded in Pakistan but banned there after being held responsible for the December 2001 raid on India's parliament.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 10:16 ||
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Two suspected Islamic militants believed to have been plotting a major attack in the Indian capital have been shot dead in the city's centre, police said on Sunday.
"Turbans?"
"Check."
"Automatic weapons?"
"Check."
"Six or more passports?"
"... 37... 38... 39... Check."
"I suspect these are Islamic militants, Mukkerjee."
"Me, too, chief!"
The two alleged members of the extremist Jaish-e-Mohammed organisation were killed late on Saturday in a gunfight with police close to an area occupied by government buildings including the president's palace and the parliament. A police spokesman said the exchange of fire occurred shortly after 11:00pm near the city's semi-developed Millennium Park as police acting on a tip-off were searching vehicles. He said three men had also been arrested during a routine search which uncovered a truck laden with arms and explosives said to be destined for Islamic militants.
That's the usual recipient of arms and explosives, isn't it?
"During interrogation they said the consignment was to be delivered to two men of the Jaish-e-Mohammed who were already in Delhi, they also revealed that the consignment was to delivered at the Millennium Park," he told AFP. "Acting on this information, a crack team of Delhi police commandos went to the area and set up a picket. In the course of checking the vehicles, one of the cars did not stop, and instead opened fire with a hail of bullets."
"You'll never take me alive, coppers!... Ow!... Ow!... O-o-o-o-w!"
Speaking later on television, a senior police officer said the men killed late on Saturday had been plotting a deadly attack on a target in the city. They were definitely planning to commit a heinous act at crowded places in Delhi, or were trying to target VIPs." Another television station quoted police sources saying one of the suspected militants was a Pakistani national.
#2
Busy little weekend for the Indians, bagging these guys and getting Ghazi Baba his raisins....well done
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 9:49 Comments ||
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Anyone notice how all this bombing shit in India kicked off just after Jihadi Pakistani ambassador was sent back to Delhi. Coincidence, I think not!! What was in that diplomatic package.
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) Vowing revenge and beating their chests, more than 300,000 Shiites marched Sunday behind the rose-strewn coffin of a beloved cleric assassinated in a car bombing. Najaf leaders asked the FBI for help investigating the blast, which killed 125 people. Great... now Stephen Hatfill will be the lead "person of interest"
Iraqi police said the bomb that exploded after noon prayers Friday at the vast Imam Ali mosque contained the equivalent of 1,650 pounds of TNT.
The call for the FBI to join the investigation represented a shift after U.S. authorities had taken a hands-off approach out of deference to the sacredness of the mosque, which houses the tomb of the Prophet Muhammadâs son-in-law, Ali. Iraqi police say 19 suspects arrested so far may have links to al-Qaida.
Many Shiites have blamed Saddam Hussein loyalists for the blast, but it has also stoked anger at the U.S. occupation forces among some faithful, who say the Americans have not provided security since Saddamâs fall.
With a 110-mile march from Baghdad to the holy city of Najaf, Shiites honored Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, a moderate cleric and once-exiled opponent of Saddam Hussein. A three-day mourning period began early Sunday with services at the al-Kadhimiya shrine in the capital.
Marchers followed a flatbed truck carrying a symbolic coffin: Authorities said they found only the clericâs hand, watch, wedding band and pen in the wreckage of the enormous blast.
Halfway along the route, at Karbala, the second-holiest Shiite city after Najaf, 3,000 mourners gathered at a shrine to await the procession. They prayed, beating drums and flagellated themselves with chains as the ayatollahâs coffin and the huge procession neared. His funeral is planned for Tuesday in Najaf, his birthplace.
ââOur revenge will be severe on the killers,ââ read one of the many banners carried by mourners. Red and white roses were laid on the coffin and a large portrait of al-Hakim placed in front of it.
The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority said Najaf Governor Haider Mehadi asked the FBI to join Iraqi police in the investigation, and that the American investigators would be traveling to Najaf shortly.
FBI agents are leading the investigations into both the Aug. 7 bombing of the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad and attack on the U.N. headquarters 12 days later.
Iraqi police told The Associated Press they have arrested 19 men many of them foreigners and all with admitted links to al-Qaida in connection with the blast.
In Najaf, Maj. Rick Hall, spokesman for the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines said the death toll now stood at 125 with 142 wounded, some seriously. He also said the Marine transfer of the south-central territory around Najaf to an international force led by Poland, set for this week, had been put on hold.
ââWe now want to stay here and assist as much as possible,ââ Hall said.
He said U.S. forces had two men in custody that were handed to them by Iraqi authorities. ââWe are questioning them, but we are leaning toward releasing them,ââ Hall said, adding that the involvement of al-Qaida members in the Friday explosion was ââan option we are looking at.ââ
Hall denied reports that the Marines would patrol around the mosque, citing Islamic sensitivities to having non-Muslims in or around the countryâs holiest Shiite shrine. He said U.S. forces had offered Marine patrols of the area to the interim Governing Council in Baghdad and religious leaders in Najaf. An answer was expected in the next day or two, he said.
Police detained two Iraqis and two Saudis shortly after the Friday bombing, and they provided information leading to the arrest of 15 other suspects, said a senior police official in Najaf, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Two Kuwaitis and six Palestinians with Jordanian passports were among the suspects, the official said. The remainder were Iraqis and Saudis, the official said, without giving a breakdown.
ââThey are all connected to al-Qaida,ââ the official said.
A Saudi Foreign Ministry official, speaking Sunday on condition of anonymity, rejected reports that Saudi citizens were involved.
ââThe Saudi government would like these sources to reveal the information they have and present it to the Saudi government instead of making statements without any proof,ââ the official told the government-operated Saudi Press Agency.
Hall said American forces had no access to those in Iraqi police custody, but said he had heard numbers ranging from nine to 19.
Police said there were similarities between the mosque bombing and the recent attacks at the Jordanian Embassy and United Nations.
Iraqi police said the bomb at the Imam Ali Shrine the burial place of the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad was made from the same type of materials used in the previous bomb attacks.
The bombing in Najaf added urgency to U.S. plans to create a 7,500-strong Iraqi militia that would eventually take over civil defense duties in the countryâs cities. Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, announced plans to create the new militia, called the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, on July 21.
A day before the bombing, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said mobilizing the Iraqi militia rather than bringing in more U.S. or coalition troops to Iraq was the key to stabilizing the security situation in the country.
A key figure in the U.S.-picked Governing Council wrote in a Washington Post op-ed column Sunday that the United States needed to include Iraqis in their own security.
ââAmerica must reach out to its friends and allies in Iraq to share the burden of defeating Saddam once and for all,ââ wrote Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress.
ââYou have the firepower and mobility, we have the local knowledge and intelligence. Only if we work as true partners will we achieve the victory that is so vital to both our countries,ââ he wrote.
Associated Press correspondents Sameer N. Yacoub and DâArcy Doran in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 9:03:41 PM ||
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Hall denied reports that the Marines would patrol around the mosque, citing Islamic sensitivities to having non-Muslims in or around the countryâs holiest Shiite shrine.
Many Shiites have blamed Saddam Hussein loyalists for the blast, but it has also stoked anger at the U.S. occupation forces among some faithful, who say the Americans have not provided security since Saddamâs fall.
Would someone please beat into these people that you cannot have one without the other?
Russia would support a decision to send a UN-sponsored international force to Iraq, even under US command, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday during an informal visit to Italy. âRegarding the possible participation of international forces in Iraq under US command, we donât see anything wrong with this,â Putin told a news conference on the island of Maddalena, near the holiday haven of Sardinia. âIt is possible, but it would require a decision from the UN Security Council.â Putin did not say whether Moscow would be willing to send its own troops to Iraq as part of such a multinational force. Earlier on Saturday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov told Interfax news agency that it would be premature to speak of a role for Russia in a possible UN contingent. âFirst of all it is necessary to clarify details and then decide,â Fedotov was quoted as saying.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 12:36 ||
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I hope people realize that the Russians have more casualties trying to pacify 250,000 people in Chechnya right now than we do occuping a country of millions of people in Iraq. And their record on winning "hearts and minds" is much worse. I suspect that bringing the Russians would be a major step towards turning Iraq into a disaster area. (And I'm not going to mention the fact that they were a major sponsor of the Ba'athist regime, which should rule them right out).
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/31/2003 16:12 Comments ||
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âFirst of all it is necessary to clarify details and then decide,â Fedotov was quoted as saying.
He want to see the size of the bribes reconstruction and oil contracts tossed their way, first...
DOWD: The Jihad All-Stars
Aug 30, 2003
By Maureen Dowd, New York Times
Yep, we've got 'em right where we want 'em. We've brought the fight to their turf, they're swarming into Iraq and blowing up our troops and other Westerners every day, and that's just where we want to be.
Actually, it is...
Our exhausted and frustrated soldiers are in a hideously difficult environment they're not familiar with, dealing with a culture America only dimly understands, where our desperation for any intelligence has reduced us to recruiting Saddam's old spies, whom we didn't trust in the first place, and where we're so strapped that soldiers may have to face back-to-back yearlong overseas tours.
"It was supposed to be easier than this!"
We don't know exactly which of our ghostly Arab enemies are which, how many there are, who's plotting with whom, what weapons they have, how they're getting into Iraq, where they're hiding, or who's financing and organizing them.
Actually, I think we know most of that, at least in the outline. Maybe someone should tell Maureen?
And we certainly don't understand the violent internecine religious battles we've set in motion. At first the Shiites were with us, and the Sunnis were giving us all the trouble. Now a new generation of radical Shiites is rising up and assassinating other Shiites aligned with us; they view us as the enemy and our quest as a chance to establish an Islamist state, which Rummy says won't be tolerated.
"I just can't understand it! It's too complicated for me! My brain! It's gonna... gonna... [BOOM!]"
In yesterday's milestones, the number of U.S. soldiers who have died since the war now exceeds the number who died during the war, and next year's deficit was estimated at a whopping $480 billion, even without all the sky-high costs of Iraq.
Pacification wouldn't be an easy task, even without the neighbors sending their ne'r do well children in to make things more difficult. Sammy got 100 percent of the vote last time they held an "election" in Iraq, remember? I think the Noo Yawk Times actually reported that...
But Republicans suggest that Iraq's turning into a terrorist magnet could be convenient â one-stop shopping against terrorism. As Rush Limbaugh observed: "We don't have to go anywhere to find them! They've fielded a Jihad All-Star Team."
Which, if they have done it, is a remarkably stupid move on their part...
The strutting, omniscient Bush administration would never address the possibility that our seizure of Iraq has left us more vulnerable to terrorists.
The whole idea was to kill terrorists, remember? It's hard to catch them if they're not doing anything. So we're giving them something to do...
So it is doing what it did during the war, when Centcom briefings routinely began with the iteration: "Coalition forces are on plan," "We remain on plan," "Our plan is working."
To me, that says that the guys running things aren't surprised at what's happening...
Even though the Middle East has become a phantasmagoria of evil spirits, and even though some Bush officials must be muttering to themselves that they should have listened to the weenies at State and nags at the C.I.A., Team Bush is sticking to its mantra that everything is going according to plan. As Condoleezza Rice put it on Monday, the war to defend the homeland "must be fought on the offense." Taking a breather from fund-raisers yesterday, Mr. Bush discreetly ignored his administration's chaotic occupation plan and declaimed, "No nation can be neutral in the struggle between civilization and chaos." Echoing remarks by other officials implying that it's better to have one big moment of truth and fight our enemies on their turf rather than ours, Mr. Bush said, "Our military is confronting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other places so our people will not have to confront terrorist violence in New York or St. Louis or Los Angeles."
To me, that sounds like a jolly idea. Maureen, with her short attention span, can't remember as far back as 9-11-01. Even if she could, she couldn't quite understand it...
So that's the latest rationale for going into Iraq? We wanted an Armageddon with our enemies, so we decided to conquer an Arab country and drive the Muslim fanatics so crazy with their jihad mentality that they'd flip out and storm in, and then we'd kill them all? Terrorism is not, as the president seems to suggest, a finite thing.
Oh, sure it is. The enemy's not all powerful, Maureen. And every time they engage in an operation, we pick up a little more information on their structure, so we have more places to look. Somebody in Iraq has a collection of passports and names and points of origin. They've got interrogation reports that detail infiltration routes and who reports to whom and where this or that little bit of funding came from. They're just not telling you.
Asked at a recent Pentagon town hall meeting how he envisioned the end state for the war on terror, Donald Rumsfeld replied, "I guess the end state in the shortest response would be to not be terrorized."
Sometimes Rumsfeld states the obvious baldly, doesn't he?
"Doctor, doctor! It hurts when I do this!"
"Don't do that."
By doing their high-risk, audacious sociological and political makeover in Iraq, Bush officials and neocons hoped to drain the terrorist swamp in the long run. But in the short run, they have created new terrorist-breeding swamps full of angry young Arabs who see America the same way Muslims saw Westerners in the Crusades: as Christian expansionist imperialists motivated by piety and greed.
If it doesn't happen now, it happens next year, or the year after. Pay me now or pay me later. It's got to be done, and it might as well be done now...
Just because the unholy alliance of Saddam loyalists, foreign fighters and Islamic terrorists has turned Iraq into a scary shooting gallery for our troops doesn't mean Americans at home are any safer. Since when did terrorists see terror as an either-or proposition?
There haven't been any major terror attacks in the U.S. since 9-11-01. So what's your beef?
"Bring 'em on" sounded like a tinny, reckless boast the first time the president said it. It doesn't sound any better when Mr. Bush says it louder with a chorus.
"Bring 'em on," to me, sounded like a statement of determination to fight the turbans. Maureen's rants, on the other hand, sound like tinny whining, coupled with ankle-biting. But I'm probably wrong, since I don't write for the Noo Yawk Times.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 11:14 ||
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Here MoDo gives us something old and something new.
The old is that, per the Seven Immutable Laws of Maureen Dowd, she bitches up a storm but never offers anything like a concrete suggestion. Don't like the way Bush is fighting terror, Mo? What's your plan? Got a way to get all those angry young Arabs to sing Kumbaya? Share it with us. Omit no detail, however slight.
The new is her apparent sympathy for "our exhausted and frustrated soldiers." Right, Mo, like you care. We're talking about men and women from places like Tuba City, Arizona, who have (gasp!) never even had breakfast at the Mayflower Hotel. If you were being honest, Mo, you'd tell us you were titillated at the thought of body bags coming home because (in your calculus) each one improves the chances of "the Bushies" not being re-elected next November-- which, after all, is what you are really about.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/31/2003 12:38 Comments ||
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Much of the frustration noted by MoDo is due to people like MoDo who get paid to emote in the big media but who apparently don't understand that was has been declared against the US.
#3
Does she ever write columns any more on the only subject she truly understands, which is shopping?
I guess she would be happier if there WERE bombs going off here. She's one sick puppy.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
08/31/2003 13:32 Comments ||
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Her thoughts and views represent a significant number of Americans. I'm doing my best to ensure that my children never join that demographic. My theory is that Americans can be nicely divided by their answer to a simple multiple choce question: Who is the best example of a patriot?
A. Martin Sheen
B. Nathan Hale
C. The guy who flies the biggest American Flag at his used car lot
D. Who is Nathan Hale?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 15:12 Comments ||
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I make it a point not to read Maureen "Moonbat" Dud's editorials. That way, I keep my blood pressure in the 120/65 range. This woman(???) knows nothing about the "average joe", and doesn't ever want to learn. The most patriotic thing she's ever done is not seek public office.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/31/2003 15:50 Comments ||
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OP, it's part of my biofeedback training. If I can refrain from going into a low-altitude earth orbit while reading one of her columns, I know I'm doing okay.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/31/2003 16:34 Comments ||
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Matt, I'm a disabled vet - bad back, bad neck, lots of neurological damage. ANYTHING that raises my blood pressure also makes me hurt. MacDud isn't worth it. Besides, between blogs, some KILLER news sites, and some of the best commentary on the planet, why should I wilfully submit myself to torture?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/31/2003 19:08 Comments ||
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OP, granted in a "news opinion" column by MoDO you'd never learn anything new (or that hadn't been on Rantburg 1st!, LGF or others weeks previously) but it never hurts to se how low MoDo can sink...like picking a scab to see how it's actually going underneath (sorry about the visual)
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 21:09 Comments ||
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US troops have arrested tribal sheikh Hatem al-Assy al-Obeidi, who presides over a million-strong clan, on suspicion of abetting sabotage of fuel pipelines. "US forces broke into Sheikh Hatem al-Obeidi's house in al-Ramal village and his nephew's house in al-Asar village where they found several weapons and four million Iraqi dinars [around $US2,700] with some gold and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher," one source said. "They charged Sheikh Obeidi with supporting terrorism and breaking the agreement with American forces to protect the oil lines and the electrical power lines and to protect the road between Kirkuk and Tikrit."
An oil pipeline linking Kirkuk oilfields with the Baiji refinery to the south was on fire Saturday afternoon local time, after a possible sabotage attack, the US military said. On August 18, Obeidi said it was possible some of his own clan members were carrying out attacks on oil pipelines. "Some of my tribe are without work - maybe they're the ones attacking the lines," the sheikh said in his family diwan [salon], where he regularly holds court with some of the 300,000 clan members in the area around Kirkuk. "When I get answers from them [the Americans] to solve my relatives' problems, then I'll talk to my tribe," Obeidi said about wayward elements who may be involved in outlaw activities.
"Meanwhile, we'll keep blowing things up..."
Obeidi had signed an agreement with the Americans in late July to guard a 90-kilometre stretch of eight oil pipelines and three power cables between Kirkuk and Baiji, site of Iraq's largest fuel refinery. Obeidi's three-month contract with the Americans was reached as the military, coping with a spate of attacks on oil facilities and the electricity grid, decided it was better to turn to the tribes for protection than go it alone. The Americans had previously rejected an offer from his tribe in April to guard the pipelines before coming back to him after a rash of sabotage, Obeidi said.
He sent Tessio to make them another offer...
Under Saddam, Obeidi said the state hired 700 of his tribesmen to guard the fuel lines, each paid a salary of 200 dollars a month. On top of that, the state would reward Obeidi himself with a bonus of between 1,000 and 2,500 dollars on the holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. In contrast, the Americans are only paying him enough to hire 100 of his relatives to watch the pipelines and power cables, at a monthly salary of 100 dollars. That leaves 600 of his tribesmen without their old jobs. "I don't think these attacks will stop until we find my relatives jobs guarding pipelines," he said.
"What do you think, Clemenza?"
Asked about Obeidi last Tuesday, US Colonel R W Nicholson, head of the Combat Engineers of the 4th Infantry Division, expressed frustration with the sheikh. "He has a responsibility to guard the pipeline as an Iraqi citizen," he said and warned Obeidi "will face the consequences" if he does not keep the pipeline secure regardless of salaries paid out by the Americans. Colonel Nicholson said Obeidi "owed him" after US troops found two unexploded Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) on the stretch of pipeline guarded by his tribe a week earlier.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 10:38 ||
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The shiek miscalculated. He thought he would get paid not to blow stuff up.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 15:13 Comments ||
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No time to be nice guys, Bring up the heavey stuff and make a point.
Yes! I got it first! Whoâs behind the Ali bombing? the Mossad/Joooooos lol, of course, it is IslamOnline. EFL
By Aws al-Sharqi, IOL Correspondent
The remnants of the ousted Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, Al-Qaeda network and the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) might be the prime suspects behind the assassination of leading Shiite scholar Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim in a deadly car bombing Friday, August 29, Iraqi analysts said on Sunday. "There is a common denominator between the assassination of Hakim, the bombings of U.N. Baghdad headquarters and the Jordanian capital, which is targeting a large number of innocent civilians," Dr. Anis al-Rawi, the dean of the faculty of science in Baghdad University told IslamOnlin.net. common denominator? yeah, muslim nutcases
Rawi, who heads the association of Muslim youths, said that the magnitude and precision of these blasts asserted that they were copycat attacks. "I do think that the Mossad, which has gained a foothold in Iraq after the downfall of Baghdad, is the prime suspect in the spate of blasts," he added. Of course, because ....um...well, just because
A car burst into flames Friday outside the Tomb of Ali Mosque compound, one of the most sacred shrines for Shiites, moments after Hakim delivered Fridayâs sermon to thousands of faithful in the Shiite city of An-Najaf. Thus far 95 others were confirmed killed and more than 200 wounded in the blast. A spate of car bombings was kicked off with a blast at the Jordanian embassy three weeks ago and culminated in the bombing of U.N. Baghdad office and Fridayâs deadly blast. Rawi did not rule out that the attacks had been carried out at the knowledge of the U.S. occupation authorities in Iraq "to ignite sectarian sedition and give the impression that a civil war is in the making... Spreading chaos and disorder serves best the interests of the occupation authorities and tightens their grip around Iraq." Is that totally stupid or what? Chaos and disorder tighten our grip? No wonder the Muslims canât run a democracy
I'm trying to figure how they can run convenience stores...
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 9:35:31 AM ||
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Hat tip to Tim Blair...
TERRORIST group Jemaah Islamiyah has drawn up plans for a suicide bombing campaign designed to transform Asia and the Pacific region into Islamic provinces. The scheme is revealed in a 40-page manifesto - the Pupji book or General Guide to the Struggle of JI - which also shows that Jemaah Islamiyah is a well-formed organisation with a constitution, rules of operation, and leadership structure.
That's not to be confused with their Poop List, which includes us and Australia, Britain, Israel, and... ummm...
The book refers to "love of Jihad in the path of God and love of dying as a martyr" as one of the group's 10 guiding principles. It shows that JI is not just a loose amalgamation of extremists which can be paralysed by the arrests of senior figures.
No. It shows they're a more tightly organized amalgamation of extremists...
Events since the Bali bombing also demonstrate that the group has moved to embrace suicide bombings as a preferred method of achieving its aims. Until Bali, JI had not adopted suicide bombings, despite its constitution approving them.
Took them awhile to recruit some people who were dumbass enough to become flying meat, huh?
It has now carried out at least two, including the bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta. The book was secretly used in the trials of the Bali bombers to draw out evidence about the organisation behind the murders of 202 people, including 89 Australians. But prosecutors did not reveal that the source of their apparent insights into JI came directly from the organisation's own manifesto. The Pupji book refers to the education and training of members in physical fitness and weapons. Written in a combination of Bahasa Indonesian and Arabic, the book was discovered by police during a raid on a Solo home in central Java last December.
Hidden under some old Playboys...
In that raid, men now known as the "Solo Group" were arrested for helping to shelter alleged JI leader and accused Bali bombing controller, Mukhlas. Prosecutors have used contents from the book to help them question Mukhlas in his ongoing trial. Information from the book also was used at the Jakarta trial of alleged JI spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir. A verdict in Bashir's treason trial will be handed down tomorrow.
We can hardly wait. Wonder if he'll get a vice-presidential pardon?
High-ranking JI members have told the court they have read the Pupji which is said to have been written by co-founder of JI, the late Abdullah Sungkar. The book includes flowcharts of the JI hierarchal structure and illustrates how the organisation works. It does not include names of any members. It reveals the group is led by an amir or supreme leader. The amir appoints leadership councils, the advisory council, edict council and legal council. Under them are regional groups known as Mantiqi. All members must swear a compulsory oath of loyalty to the amir.
Y'gotta bow down to the guy with the jewelled turban. It's an old Islamic tradition...
The Pupji says funding for JI comes from contributions, donations and acceptable sources.
Such as holding up banks and jewelry stores...
While the book does not refer specifically to bombing operations or violent campaigns to kill westerners, oblique reference is made in the section on "strength development operations". This talks about combat operations in which education and training is imperative in subjects such as physical fitness and weapons training, tactical thinking, strategic thinking, leadership and vision.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 21:58 ||
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Are the Aussies still vacationing in that part of the world? I can't see visiting a country with a significant islamic population anytime soon. Stopped in Haifa once. I thought the city and the people were nice but I was uneasy until I left. Can't immagine trying to relax there on vacation. Mybe these places will be popular with teh same idiot Erotrash that decided to motorcross through Algeria with no guide.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 22:19 Comments ||
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Thai and US authorities have arrested five Pakistani and Afghani suspects wanted in the United States on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and possible links to terrorism.
Oh, good job!
The joint investigation team on Friday nabbed the five men in two separate arrests at downtown Bangkok hotels, said Police General Surasit Sangkhaphong, commander of Thailandâs Crime Suppression Division. A sixth man, also wanted by US authorities, escaped, Surasit said.
"Feet, don't fail me now!"
âThe US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and FBI and Thai authorities conducted the arrests and a lengthy investigation leading up to the capture of these guys. The US will be seeking extradition,â said a US official in Thailand, speaking on condition of anonymity. âI think this is part of a larger network. There may have been arrests in other countries related to this gang. Itâs a very big arrest.â
Oh, good. I like big arrests. Betcha Maureen doesn't notice it, though...
The official said US Attorney General John Ashcroft was expected to make an announcement later on Saturday in the United States about the arrests. Asked about the menâs involvement with terrorism, the US official said, âI think there was some possibility â there is some question about where the laundered money ended up and whether some of it might have moved to terrorist organizations.â
'Splain to me again the difference between a terrorist and a crook? I keep forgetting...
Thai police identified three of the men, arrested at the Holiday Inn in Bangkokâs central business district, as Mohommad Khalid Azizi, Zalmai Abrahimi, and Waiz Uldin.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 11:33 ||
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Authorities in Indonesia are planning to move the convicted Bali bomber, Amrozi, to an island prison where he will be held in solitary confinement. Amrozi's lawyer says he understands a transfer will be ordered soon. Amrozi, 41, has been sentenced to death, after being found guilty of buying the chemicals and van used in the October 12 bombings last year that killed 202 people. He will be moved from a prison near Denpasar where he was tried, and will be the only inmate in a 10-cell maximum security block, isolated from the main prison on an island off the southern coast of Central Java Province.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 10:11 ||
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How do you say "Devil's Island" in Indonesian? ;)
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
08/31/2003 13:37 Comments ||
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The Federal Opposition says there are now at least half a dozen more extremist groups like Jemaah Islamiah (JI) operating in Indonesia. Labor's Foreign Affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says about 100 JI operatives have been arrested in the last year but between 200 and 2,000 suspected members of the group remain at large.
They've been decapitated, but there are lots of gunnies and lower-level controllers left. The are lots of pesanten in Indonesia...
Mr Rudd has told ABC TV's Insiders program, there are worrying signs that other terrorist groups are emerging. "In the last 12 months in addition to JI, we've had spring up some seven or eight or up to nine JI-like organisations as well, with individual memberships of maybe 100 or so," Mr Rudd said. "It's a big problem and I think the takeout message for Australia is to deal with this in the long-term. What Australia needs is a comprehensive regional strategy on terrorism of the type which we don't at present have."
Any details on what's needed, Kevin? Or are you just trying to rack up some political points?
Mr Rudd says it is worrying some extremist schools are being used to recruit potential new terrorists. "If we in Australia are serious about the long-term solution to this problem in terms of the recruitment areas, the recruitment zones, then frankly what we've got to deal with is refunding and resourcing the Indonesian public education system," Mr Rudd said. He wants Australia to help fund Indonesia's education system in a bid to prevent the spread of terrorism.
"It's up to us to solve their problems..."
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says Australia is already focusing on Indonesian schools as part of its response to the terrorism threat. He says it has also signed a series of counter-terrorism agreements with South-East Asian countries and will host of regional ministerial summit on the issue next year.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 10:09 ||
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Gray-bearded and almost toothless, Khan Kaka lives in a mud house with a weather-beaten pine door beside a little plot of corn and vegetables. But to his neighbors in this corner of Afghanistanâs remote Kunar province, the gangling, tobacco-chewing old man is one of the most respected figures in the Pech River valley.
He has his own AK-47 in addition to a Quâran ...
ITâS ALL ABOUT connections: since 1996 Kakaâs son-in-law, an Algerian named Abu Hamza al Jazeeri, has been a special bodyguard to the man Kaka calls loar sheikââbig chiefââOsama bin Laden.
A very holy man ... so put him in the jug.
Snipping through the al-Jazeeri family affairs ...
On a visit in January al Jazeeri reported that one of bin Ladenâs daughters-in-law had recently died in childbirth, and that bin Laden spoke at her funeral, blaming America for her death.
How sad, thatâs less breeding stock for the Khalifah.
Only a few dozen mourners could attend, not the thousands who would ordinarily pay their last respects. Bin Laden blamed America for that, too. âI had enough riches to enjoy myself like an Arab sheik,â bin Laden said, according to al Jazeeriâs account. âBut I decided to fight against those infidel forces that want to sever us from our Islamic roots. For that cause, Arabs, Taliban and my family have been martyred.â
Donât worry, youâll be joining them soon enough.
Kaka and his neighbors have memorized the eulogy. Asked where bin Laden is now, Kaka grins and waves without a word toward the 12,000-foot peaks surrounding the valley: up there.
Sounds like prime MOAB testing ground.
No one seems to have a better answer. Two years after the September 11 attacks, the worldâs Most Wanted terrorist remains free. âWe donât know where he is,â says U.S. Army Col. Rodney Davis, spokesman for Americaâs forces in Afghanistan. âAnd frankly, itâs not about him. Weâll continue to focus on killing, capturing and denying sanctuary to any anti-Coalition forces, whether they are influenced by bin Laden or not.â Some U.S. officials speculate that life on the run has made it impossible for bin Laden to communicate with his followers, effectively turning him into a figurehead. âBin Ladenâs operational role is not as important as it was to Al Qaeda and the Taliban,â says a senior U.S. diplomat in Kabul. âBut symbolically he is still very important.â
Heâs more than that, according to senior Taliban officials contacted by NEWSWEEK in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Hey NEWSWEEK, you wanna give their names and locations over to the CIA? Iâm sure weâd love to get our own interview with these folks ...
They say bin Laden remains directly engaged as a strategist and financier for Al Qaeda, the Taliban and related groups.
Cause heâs gonna be the Caliph one of these days, donât ya know ...
In April, shortly after the collapse of Saddam Husseinâs regime in Iraq, the Qaeda leader convened the biggest terror summit since September 11 at a mountain stronghold in Afghanistan. The participants included three top-ranking representatives from the Taliban, several senior Qaeda operatives and leaders from radical Islamic groups in Chechnya and Uzbekistan, according to a former Taliban deputy foreign minister. He got the details from a Taliban colleague who was there. Bin Laden, in a fiery mood, appointed one of his most trusted lieutenants, Saif al-Adil, to be Al Qaedaâs chief of operations in Iraq. The leader handed the Egyptian-born al-Adel a letter of introduction, asking all religious leaders, businessmen and mujahedin to give him any support possible. Al-Adel left Afghanistan immediately. A few weeks later he was reported to be in neighboring Iran, where he is said to be under house arrest. The Taliban official nevertheless insists, contrary to American intelligence assessments, that al-Adel made it to Iraq and is organizing anti-U.S. operations.
The inclusion of Chechens at the summit makes sense, as right after the Riyadh and Casablanca bombings we had a number of rather large suicide bombings in Chechnya. There have been rumors about the IMU regrouping up in the Ferghana Valley over the summer as well, so this could also have been a related development from the summit. I also tend to suspect that al-Adel is being "hosted" rather than "held" by the Iranians, in particular the big boys in VEVAK and IRGC.
At the same meeting bin Laden said he was working on âserious projects,â another ranking Taliban source tells NEWSWEEK. âHis priority is to use biological weapons,â says the source, who claims that Al Qaeda already has such weapons. The question is only how to transport and launch them, he asserts. The source insists he doesnât know any further details but brags: âOsamaâs next step will be unbelievable.â The plan was reportedly delayed and revised after the March capture of Al Qaedaâs operations chief, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. U.S. intelligence officials say no one disputes bin Ladenâs interest in germ warfare. Nevertheless, they argue, his main priority is to kill Americans by any means readily at handâand most bioweapons are harder to get and use than many of the alternatives.
This may not all be bluster and chest-thumping. Khalidâs computer had some very nasty stuff on it when he was picked up, if I recall correctly.
No one but bin Laden himself knows exactly what heâs planning. So where is he? âUp there,â says Pashtun Momand, the police major in charge of Kunar provinceâs counterterrorism office. Heâs pointing at the thickly forested mountains east of the tiny provincial capital. A few people deny that bin Laden is living there. The provinceâs governor, Said Fazel Akbar, insists that U.S. and Afghan forces are in hot pursuit. âHe may come to Kunar,â Akbar says, âbut he canât stay for long.â His opinion is not widely held.
Bin Laden seems to be in good health, according to both the former Taliban deputy foreign minister and an Afghan named Haroon, who claims to have visited the Qaeda leader in June. Three of bin Ladenâs sons are said to be with him, sworn to kill their father rather than let him be captured alive. Two of his wives are said to be living nearby in the mountains, but not with him; he visits them when security allows. Taliban sources say the Qaeda leader communicates with his friends and followers via handwritten letters and computer disks delivered by relays of messengers. Each carrier knows only where to find the next link in the chain. The system is slow, but it keeps the Americans from using electronic intercepts to find him.
Bin Laden could hardly ask for a better hiding place. Even some American officials agree that Kunar is a likely refuge. The sparsely populated province isnât bigâless than two thirds the land area of Connecticutâbut it offers more comfort and protection for bin Laden than any other part of Afghanistan. âThere is no effective central government control in the mountains beyond the capital,â says Kunarâs chief of police, Col. Abdul Saffa Momand (no relation to the major). The mountain roads are almost impassable; his men have no radios, and their families barely survive on their monthly salary of $14âwhen the paychecks come at all. âA soldier on patrol at night is risking his life for nothing,â the colonel says. âItâs impossible to access the areas where Al Qaeda is hiding,â he adds. âEven from a helicopter you only see mountains, rocks and trees.â Unlike the desert ranges that are typical in Afghanistan, Kunarâs mountains are covered with evergreens and shrubs, and the terrain is crisscrossed with smugglersâ trails leading over the border into Pakistan.
Kunarâs population is, likewise, congenial to bin Laden. In recent decades the province has become home to more than a thousand Arab men, many of whomâlike bin Ladenâs bodyguard al Jazeeriâhave intermarried with local Afghans, gaining strong family ties in the region. At the height of the war against the Soviets in the 1980s, the CIA effectively ceded Kunar to the Arab volunteers who were pouring in to join the mujahedin. âWe preferred that they operate in their own fief, and out of our way,â says Edmund McWilliams, a retired State Department officer and Congressâs special representative to the mujahedin during the late 1980s. In the last two years the mujahedin veterans have been joined by hundreds of Qaeda members and supporters uprooted from other parts of Afghanistan.
Bin Laden and his followers are living in relative comfort, officials in Kunar believe. Some may be huddled in the caves that honeycomb the mountains, but Major Momandâs intelligence sources say others live openly in stone and mud houses built against the steep slopes, hidden by the trees and underbrush. Many of the dwellings have been renovated in the last two years. The Arabs share the mountains with Afghan nomads whose flocks of sheep and goats graze there. Shali Khan, together with his wife and two children, tends a herd of 150 sheep and goats, and often encounters columns of heavily armed Arabs traveling on horseback or on foot. He says heâs glad to see them. âThese Arabs are good people fighting the jihad,â says Khan, who takes evident pride in his pointed mustache, despite his tattered clothes and mended sandals. âThey pay me well for my animals and milk.â
Bin Laden apparently feels safe enough to receive visitorsâwith precautions. In May an Afghan named Haroon asked permission to see the Qaeda leader. The young man is active in the Talibanâs anti-U.S. resistance, and he had guided bin Laden from the besieged cave complex at Tora Bora to safety in the Shahikot Valley during the U.S. bombing in late 2001 (âHow Al Qaeda Slipped Away,â Aug. 19, 2002). The month after sending his request, Haroon got a message directing him to a place in the mountains north of his home in Paktia province. From there, he was taken higher into the mountains by a series of guides, each one greeting the next with a whispered password. After three days he was turned over to a group of Arabs. They strip-searched him, placed his ring, watch and shoes in a bag and closely inspected the buttons on his shirt.
He spent the night barefoot in a nearby cave. At sunrise two armed Arabs, their faces covered by scarves, escorted him to an old mud-and-rock house and told him to sit there and wait. Haroon says he felt afraid. Suddenly bin Laden arrived and spoke in Arabic, slowly and quietly, urging the young man to keep fighting. âThe deserts of Afghanistan are being irrigated with the blood of mujahedin,â he told Haroon. âBut the jihad will never dry up.â After about 15 minutes the visit ended. âPlease donât try to see me again,â bin Laden said.
Or something ... bad might happen to you. Just ask my old mentor, Abdullah Azzam. Such a tragedy, what happened to him ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/31/2003 6:56:35 PM ||
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#1
Unlike the desert ranges that are typical in Afghanistan, Kunarâs mountains are covered with evergreens and shrubs
If it was me, there'd be one helluva forest fire in Kunar.
NEW YORK - A vial of blood is all that will be buried at firefighter Michael Ragusaâs funeral next week, nearly two years after he was killed in the World Trade Center attack.
The 29-year-old will be the last of the 343 firefighter victims to be memorialized in an official service. His family had hoped his remains would be identified, but his mother, Dee Ragusa, said Sunday that they decided they had waited long enough.
"We always knew in our hearts when it would be the right time, when we would say, âenough,â" she said.
Of the 2,792 people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the medical examiner has identified remains of just over half. Scientists expect to exhaust all available DNA technology in the attempt to identify the rest as early as next year, although unidentified remains will be stored in case new methods are developed.
Many families held memorial services before any remains were identified, but Ragusaâs family delayed an official ceremony. His parents decided to hold a funeral after the July wedding of their younger son.
Now that does not sound like a good way to spend a honeymoon to me, but they probably have their reasons.
"We got him happily married, and now it was time to take care of Michael," Dee Ragusa said.
Instead of the firefighterâs remains, his family will bury a vial of blood he had donated to a bone marrow center. The vial will be interred at a cemetery on Staten Island after the funeral Sept. 8.
Dee Ragusa said that if she could not have her sonâs intact body to bury, she was glad to have the vial of blood. "Iâd much rather have a bottle of blood that flowed through him while he was alive than parts of his body," she said.
You know when you clear away all the grandstanding and presidential campaining and political bullcrap and get right down to the bare metal. This is what counts. I dont see Gepheart or Kerry or Maureen Dowd (NY Times) honoring this victim. This person, and the 2791 like him (not to mention everyone else endangered) are the reason we are doing what we are doing.
I would like to take my hat off to this guy and say "Thank you".
#2
I would like to take my hat off to this guy and say "Thank you".
I think you just did, and I'd like to join you
Frank
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 13:45 Comments ||
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Your shift's finally over, Michael. Thank you, and rest in peace. You earned it.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
08/31/2003 13:53 Comments ||
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After a certain point I would like to see the guy who wrote Blackhawk Down take a shot at the WTC masacre. Blackhawk seems to have done justice to the heroism of the men who died in Somalia.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 14:24 Comments ||
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I would like to see the guy who wrote Blackhawk Down take a shot at the WTC masacre
I would like to see the goddam media give the 9/11 anniversary the loud, long, up-front coverage it deserves instead of trying to sweep it under the rug and hope no one notices so we can forget "move on."
Unfortunately, you'll probably get your wish a long time before I do.
Rest in peace, Michael. No matter how hard the "mainstream" media tries to make it happen, we will NEVER forget.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/31/2003 14:42 Comments ||
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You will note he'd also volunteered to be a bone-marrow donor.
Since they still had his blood in storage, it appears that he volunteered not for an afflicted family member, but for any stranger whose blood factors happened to match and who needed a bone marrow transfer in order to live.
Some guys gave all, even before The Day.
But if ya gotta go....
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/31/2003 15:34 Comments ||
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I think we can all do without Katie Couric and Matt Lauer "tribute" that turns into a "are we safer now?"
A perfect 9-11 movie would focus on the firehouse that lost its chaplain to impact with a jumper. It would show enough about the firefighters themselves to humanize their sacrifice. Movies about 9-11 would have to be for the big screen due to scale and lack of commercials.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 16:54 Comments ||
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Hmmm... I dont think you can show 9/11 in a mere movie -- the medium is simply insufficiant to express the story correctly.
One of the things the terrorst thought we (americans) would do after 9/11 would be to put our tail between our legs and hide our head in the sand. Fortunately we haven't (except for the above mentioned asshats Katie Couric and Matt Lauer) but came out swinging. They are expecting that we do the same in Iraq (run away with our tail between our legs).
#10
May God continue to keep the soul of Michael Ragusa and may He continue to comfort his family.
It sounds as if having this service may finally give them some closure.
On 9/11, some gave all and all gave some.
Michael clearly gave his all--Thank you, hero.
We will never forget.
#11
The movie's already been made: "9/11," by a pair of brothers who tagged along with a fire crew that fateful morning. They're the ones who happened to get the footage of the first impact. They were with the team who found the body of the FDNY's chaplain, who was killed by falling debris (IIRC, he got death certificate #1).
By some miracle, none of the people from that firehouse died.... though they were all smack in the middle of it -- they were rolling for the WTC before the call even went out.
That is what ALL of the networks should be showing on Thursday instead of their primetime drivel.
Tribal fighters killed at least 200 people and abducted scores more over the last month in a series of attacks that destroyed a town controlled by a rival tribe in volatile northeastern Congo. Repeated attacks by fighters from the Lendu tribe on Fataki, a town 60 kilometers northwest of Bunia that was controlled by the rival Hema tribe, forced thousands of residents to flee, said Saba Rafiki, security chief for the Union of Congolese Patriots, a militia from the Hema tribe. During the attacks, the Lendu abducted at least 137 Hema residents to use as laborers and concubines, Rafiki said. Officials from the United Nations mission in Congo, or MONUC, could not confirm those figures.
"I dunno. 137? Coulda been 125. Maybe 180. Who knows?"
Military observers who flew over Fataki in helicopter gunships on Saturday spotted a few people who appeared to be looters picking through the remains of smoldering houses, said Leo Salmeron, a MONUC spokesman.
"They ain't comin' back. They ain't gonna need these pots and pans..."
The people dropped the corrugated iron sheets they were carrying and fled for cover when the two gunships swooped lower for a closer look, Salmeron said. The last attack appeared to have taken place Thursday or Friday. The destruction of Fataki came just as soldiers from a French-led international force were handing over their positions in Bunia, capital of the restive Ituri province, to Bangladeshi troops, who assumed control of the town Sunday.
Hell of a job, guys. Hell of a job.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 12:43 ||
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Thousands of American Muslims are spending the weekend in Chicago to attend the annual conference of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a conservative group that is ideologically aligned with the Jamaat-e-Islami. To counter the hostility engendered against Muslims in general and the conservative variety in particular, ISNA invited moderate and liberal Protestant leaders to address participants at the opening on Friday. Rev Daniel Vestal of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which represents moderate Southern Baptists, told the audience that not all Baptists agree with recent statements by evangelicals âdemeaning Islam,â whereas Rev Jerry Vines, a Southern Baptist Convention leader, has enraged Muslims by making derogatory statements about Islam and its most revered figure. Others who have criticised Islam have include Rev Franklin Graham and Rev Pat Robertson. Rev Graham, Billy Grahamâs son swore in President George Bush at his presidential inauguration.
Yasss... That makes everything all ecumenical, doesn't it? By the way, have any Muslim leaders ever said anything about Christians?
ISNA Secretary General Dr Sayyid M. Syeed told the gathering that when Muslims began immigrating en masse to the United States in the 1960s, the Christian campus ministries provided Muslim college students with space to worship. Rev Bob Edgar, head of the National Council of Churches, which represents thousands of mainline Protestant and Orthodox Christian congregations, was cheered when he said his group had opposed the war in Iraq. He also derided those who used âhateâ language against Muslims.
He'd much rather have left Sammy in charge. Iraq was so much more congenial then...
This is ISNAâs 40th convention and is being attended by more than 30,000 people from all over the United States. According to the Associated Press, âThe meeting comes at a difficult time for the US Muslim community, which has felt under siege since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Estimates of the number of Muslims in the United States vary dramatically, between two million and six million.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 12:23 ||
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What about that gay Anglican bishop? He invited?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 13:07 Comments ||
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He wasn't invited because he is a pain in the ass at gatherings like this. Sorry, had to do it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/31/2003 14:33 Comments ||
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Ow! that was brutal AP
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 14:49 Comments ||
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Do ya think they might call on all the faithful to rat out the bad apples. Or how about spewing outraged spittle against the "Malignant 19"
#5
âThe meeting comes at a difficult time for the US Muslim community, which has felt under siege since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."
Yeah, imagine that. Perhaps that "difficult time" is because of the US Muslim community's nearly unanimous SILENCE about just what a moral attrocity that the September 11 attack was.
MEMO TO THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY: We're watching, and we're listening, and if you don't quickly learn to distance yourself from those who pledge to destroy us, you will find that the "infidels" around you will remove you from the equation.
Fifteen Russian soldiers and policemen were killed in attacks by Chechen rebels on Friday, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen civilian administration said on Saturday. Five of the deaths came when Russian military positions came under rebel fire, 10 others were killed in ambushes and clashes and one was killed when a soldier detonated a booby-trap. Russian artillery in return shelled suspected rebel positions in four sectors of Chechnya, said the official.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 11:25 ||
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Now we know why the Russian economy collapsed:
* Five of the deaths came when Russian military positions came under rebel fire
* 10 others were killed in ambushes and clashes
* one was killed when a soldier detonated a booby-trap
But, Fifteen Russian soldiers and policemen were killed
What nationality was the other guy?
Maybe this was how they counted their losses in Afghanistan, too.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/31/2003 13:47 Comments ||
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Like I always say, there are three kinds of people in this world: those who understand basic arithmetic, and those who don't.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2003 14:01 Comments ||
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South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan warned North Korea today not to follow through on threats to build up its nuclear program, saying such a move would only increase the North's isolation. "If North Korea aggravates the situation further by going ahead with its development program... it will see itself isolated further or face a more difficult situation," Yoon told local television.
"Yeah. We'll... ummm... be really sad."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 11:21 ||
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During our little informal one-on-one meeting with the NK envoy, I hope we requested comprehensive inventories of their national museums and quality pictures of the top 55 NK regime members.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 15:23 Comments ||
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SH: LMAO.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/31/2003 22:39 Comments ||
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The Palestinian militant group, Hamas, has joined what's becoming an established trend in the Middle East of depicting enemies in the form of playing cards.
What a marvelously original idea...
First it was the deck of cards issued by the Americans in Iraq showing the faces of the 55 most wanted members of Saddam Hussein's Government. Then, an Israeli newspaper used the same device to depict Palestinian militants with the Hamas leader as the "Ace of Hearts". Now, a Hamas affiliated website has taken up the theme by publishing pictures of Israeli leaders as playing cards. At the top is the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, as the "Joker". He is surrounded by two armed, masked men wearing green strips of cloth across their foreheads, a trademark of the Islamic Palestinian group.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 10:42 ||
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Aren't playing cards a no-no to fundementalist muslims?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 17:04 Comments ||
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Electric rugs, now playing cards. Its a technological revolution I tell ya.
The widow of Sierra Leone's late rebel leader Foday Sankoh says the grave of her late husband is intact, contrary to widespread reports the corpse is missing.
"Nope. Still there. I checked last night..."
Fatou Sankoh told a press conference at the headquarters of the Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP) in central Freetown her husband is in his grave. "Nothing has happened ... I am inviting the press to join a delegation to visit the grave," she said. Asked if she had visited the grave herself, she said "no, I have not, but family members staying in the compound where the grave is say there has not been any interference with the corpse".
"His zombie lurched by around midnight and told me he was fine..."
"Also, my son, Andrew who came back last night from the village [Malam, in the north] has supported the story," she said. "My part here is to clear the air about my late husband. I want to make it clear that I am here to pursue the cause of the RUFP - the cause will never die."
"Nor will he, unless you put a silver bullet through his heart..."
Mr Sankoh, once head of the notorious Revolutionary United Front (RUF) headed a so-called jungle army of barefoot conscripts, child soldiers and army deserters who were known for such atrocities as hacking off people's limbs. He had been indicted by the UN war crimes court for his role in Sierra Leone's 1991-2001 civil war that left 200,000 dead and many thousands mutilated. The court rejected an appeal to have Mr Sankoh's trial halted on health grounds, despite signs that his mental state had been profoundly altered by a stroke last year. At his last appearance in court on March 15, Mr Sankoh appeared incapable of speaking at all.
"All he could do was snarl and spew spittle. It was very sad. Typical, but still very sad..."
RUFP secretary-general Jonathan Kposowa said the Sierra Leone Government had still not released 49 of the party's men. "They are still in prison and the government does not want to release them," he said.
They're waiting for their victims' arms to grow back...
He urged the Special Court to "try speedily those indicted as justice delayed is justice corrupted and denied". The RUFP official also urged the UN Security Council to lift a travel ban imposed on the party.
"We've already sliced off the arms of everybody around here..."
Mr Kposowa said the death of Mr Sankoh "cannot retard or dilute the aims and objectives of the party".
That's not a comfortable thought at all...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/31/2003 10:31 ||
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Israelâs defense minister on Sunday raised the specter of an Israeli invasion in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian militants already face a deadly air campaign. Israeli military commentators say a ground offensive in the densely populated Gaza Strip, home to more than one million people under Palestinian control, would cause heavy Israeli and Palestinian casualties. "Donât make us come in there!"
"We always have the option of a ground operation in Gaza," Shaul Mofaz said. "We will exercise it when we decide it is right to do so, at the appropriate time." Israel has killed 13 Palestinians, including 10 militants, in helicopter missiles strikes since a Hamas suicide bomber killed 21 people on an Israeli bus in Jerusalem on August 19. Mofaz spoke to reporters hours after a Palestinian gunman shot and wounded an Israeli truck driver at the Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam in the southern Gaza Strip, the latest violence to batter a U.S.-backed peace "road map." The shooting, claimed by the militant Islamic group Hamas, followed an Israeli helicopter missile strike Saturday that killed Abdullah Aqel, leader of its armed wing in central Gaza, and another Hamas member. Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said the attack in the Bureij refugee camp destroyed any chance for the resumption of talks with Israel and called on the United States to intervene and halt the cycle of violence. I think Israelâs done talking, Asshat
"Israelâs continuation of such policy means that it is completely turning its back on... calm and the possibility of implementing the road map," Amr said about the plan that envisages creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. then his lips fell off.... of course, the 2005 date was predicated on actions, still not taken by the Paleos, in mid 2003.... so donât etch that number in the sand Amr
In a separate Gaza incident, an eight-year-old Palestinian girl was killed by an Israeli tank shell while riding her bicycle near her home in the city of Khan Younis Palestinian security sources and medics said. The army said troops opened fire in the area after an explosive device blew up near a patrol, damaging a military vehicle. An army spokesman could not confirm anyone was hit. Sad incident, but unlike the Paleos, it wasnât deliberate
Israeli security sources said that Akel, 37, was behind recent rocket attacks on southern Israel from northern Gaza. "Ashkelon will not become the frontline — neither Ashkelon nor any other place," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told reporters Sunday, referring to the southern city hit on Thursday by a makeshift Qassam rocket that caused no casualties or damage. Saturdayâs missile attack in the Gaza Strip came a day after Palestinian gunmen shot dead a Jewish settler in the West Bank.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 9:45:20 AM ||
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The roadmap went over a cliff and is DOA. Israel needs to finish off Hamas. Show Abbas how it is done. Then the Israelis can say, "Well, who's next?" No more boomers, keep Israelis safe. The Palestinians will be safe when they boot out or kill the gunnies hiding amongst them. It's Deficate or Decommode⢠time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/31/2003 14:39 Comments ||
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Entertainment News:
The suprise smash hit of the summer,"Israeli Eye For The Arab Guy",will air for several more episodes.The contraversial show,set in the Mid-East,has as its theme "what to do if your neighbor refuses to do his part in building a road".Reluctant advertisering companies(especially those based in Europe) are mounting heavy pressure to cancel the show,citing concerns that the program may not be appropriate for children.However,the producers of the show are thinking of expanding the show and increasing both budget and cast size.One of the production assistants told this reporter,"our targeted demographic,successful leaders of young mens' groups,enjoys the show so much they are refusing to leave the house in case they miss a single episode.No way we're going to cancel,at least not until we reach everyone of our target demos."
Past episodes include GARDENING WITH A BULLDOZER,RE-UPHOLSTERING YOUR CAR WITH HELLFIRE MISSLES,and the very contraversial IS COLLATERAL DAMAGE UNAVOIDABLE WHEN REMODELLING?.
Posted by: Stephen ||
08/31/2003 15:17 Comments ||
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"... No way we're going to cancel,at least not until we reach everyone of our target demos."
Droll, droll, droll! Love it!
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2003 15:59 Comments ||
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It's Deficate or Decommode⢠time.
Damn! I thought it was "deficate or decompose". Bettter call the printers, and cancel the billboards.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/31/2003 16:13 Comments ||
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#5
I like " Death or Liquidation: Which is more painful ".
Posted by: Charles ||
08/31/2003 16:55 Comments ||
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#6
Stephen - Ok - I give 9.6 lol
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2003 21:21 Comments ||
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A contingent of about 250 Senegalese soldiers arrived in Liberia on Saturday, increasing the size of the West African peacekeeping force to more than 2,000. West African leaders hope the force will eventually grow to 3,500 troops ... How, by copulating with Liberian sex slaves women?
... before they hand over control in coming months to a U.N. peacekeeping mission. The peace force - with about 1,500 troops from Nigeria and 250 each from Mali and Senegal - has yet to deploy far from Liberiaâs peaceful capital, Monrovia. For good reason, 2,000 poorly-trained troops will barely control Monrovia as it is.
Rural Liberians are pleading for peacekeeper help, as widespread hunger and scattered clashes persist in the countryside despite an Aug. 18 peace accord between rebels and government forces that was signed in Accra, Ghana. The soldiers from Senegal arrived at Liberiaâs international airport around sundown, said Odun Sanya, a spokesman for the peace force. Ghana also is expected to send troops at some point, after which the West African force will begin spreading into the countryside. The force is buttressed by about 30 U.S. Marines on the ground acting as liaisons and 250 aboard warships off Liberia. Peacekeeping soldiers have stepped up their presence in the city, manning checkpoints, patrolling streets and pushing fighters from the bloodied city. But turmoil has continued in the countryside. Frightened civilians still flow toward Monrovia, saying food is scarce. Humanitarian groups call aid distributions in the countryside impossible until security is reimposed. Liberiaâs defense minister, Daniel "hear no evil" Chea, had no reports of fighting Saturday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2003 12:43:28 AM ||
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#1
" After which, Minister Chea crouched down, barely avoiding a RPG.
In a related story, the UN consolate in Monrovia was hit by a erratic RPG meant for Minister Chea. The UN is blaming the US for lack of security. "
Posted by: Charles ||
08/31/2003 0:56 Comments ||
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BUNIA - French troops transferred control of the last of five key checkpoints into this troubled Congolese town to a U.N. force Saturday, three months after they moved in to stem tribal warfare that killed hundreds and forced thousands to flee. And not a croissant lost!
The handover comes two days before the French general leading the emergency force turns over command to a Bangladeshi general heading a special U.N. force for this volatile northeastern corner of Africaâs third-largest country. Three dozen French troops chatted with villagers before the French flag was lowered and replaced by U.N. and Bangladeshi flags in a ceremony marking the transfer of control of Shari checkpoint, some 5 miles northwest of Bunia, the capital of the Ituri province. "All positions around and in the town, except the one on the road to the airport, are now held by the (United Nationsâ) Ituri Brigade," said Col. Gerard Dubois, spokesman of the French-led emergency force. The 2,000-strong international force was deployed in June under European Union and U.N. mandates to secure Bunia and enable aid workers to operate after weeks of fighting between the Hema and Lendu tribes. Some 500 people were killed in the tribal conflict. Unlike the hundreds of Uruguayan troops who were cowering in their barracks in Bunia at the time and were unable to stop the tribal killings, the French-led emergency force had the mandate to shoot to kill. "The multinational force gave the U.N. sufficient time to get in touch with troop contributors and put together the force for Ituri," said Behrooz Sadry, deputy head of the U.N. mission in Congo, or MONUC. Sadry said the force is being beefed up to 4,800 soldiers. I confess some amazement, I really thought the French would screw the pooch on this one.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2003 12:34:33 AM ||
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You don't call handing this over to the UN screwing the pooch?
Posted by: Charles ||
08/31/2003 0:51 Comments ||
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Dozens of e-mail exchanges among Boeing Co, the Air Force and the Pentagon released on Saturday raised fresh questions about a controversial $22.5 billion deal to lease, then buy 100 Boeing 767 tankers. The documents were among over 8,000 provided to the Senate Commerce Committee as it investigated a deal its chairman, Sen. John McCain describes as a "military-industrial rip-off" and a government bailout of Boeing, whose commercial aircraft sales slumped after the September 2001 hijack attacks. If the lease is such a bad idea, John, why not sponsor a bill to buy them at a fair price?
The documents contain no "smoking guns," congressional sources say, but they show a close relationship between Boeing and Air Force officials, including Air Force Secretary James Roche, as well as details of a rival bid by Airbus SA. In other memos, Boeing officials say Air Force officials gave them details of the size and price of the Airbus 330 bid. Boeing has denied receiving any proprietary information from the Air Force. Air Force acquisitions chief Marvin Sambur said he did not believe the Air Force had improperly shared any proprietary data with Boeing but said it would take appropriate actions if that proved to be the case.
It's just not done, y'know... Officially.
McCainâs aides released the documents just days before the Senate commerce, budget and armed services committees are due to review the deal and before a possible vote on the deal by the Senate Armed Services Committee as early as Thursday. Ah, politics.
That vote is the last hurdle facing the deal, under which the Air Force will lease 100 Boeing 767s from a nonprofit trust for six years, with the chance to buy them for an additional $4.4 billion at the end of the lease period. "This sets the stage for some very, very interesting hearings next week," said Keith Ashdown with Taxpayers for Common Sense. He said the documents raised serious questions about the Air Forceâs role in negotiating the deal. "Instead of the Air Force acting as an independent reviewer of this nearly $30 billion deal, theyâve acted as a silent business partner of Boeing," said Ashdown. Well, duh! Letâs see, we can buy Boeings, made in America, or Airbuses, made in Europe, in a contract worth billions. At the time we make this decision, we can remember which way Mr. Chirac would go.
The Air Force acknowledges it will pay more to lease the planes than buy them, but says the lease will allow quicker replacement of its 43-year-old fleet of KC-135 tankers. Boeing says it is guaranteeing the Air Force the lowest price ever for the tankers and even agreed to give back funds if its profits exceeded 15 percent over the life of the deal. The Congressional Budget Office says a lease will cost $5.7 billion more than a purchase over time, and said the deal violated four out of six requirements for federal leases.
On the other hand, it's much easier on the cash flow. And Congress has the habit of cutting funding or moving acquisition into the out years in the course of the budget process. The out years end up getting outer and outer...
Critics say the deal is being treated as an operating lease, rather than a lease-purchase, which means the full price will not be reflected in the federal budget. The Air Force says it wants to buy the 100 tankers, but it needs congressional approval before including it in its budget. The Pentagonâs Office of Inspector General, an in-house watchdog agency, will decide by next week if it should investigate whether Air Force officials improperly disclosed proprietary information to Boeing, defense officials said. Boeing denied on Friday it might have obtained proprietary information while it negotiated the lease deal. In an internal Boeing memorandum dated April 1, 2002, Darleen Druyun, hired by Boeing after leaving her job as a top Air Force acquisition official last year, is quoted as telling the Chicago-based company "several times" that Airbusâs price was $5 million to $17 million less than Boeingâs. In a memorandum dated March 29, 2002, Boeing lobbyist Andrew Ellis, said Bill Bodie, an assistant to Roche, told him the Air Force opted against the Airbus partly because the A330 was 81 percent larger than the KC-135 without commensurate additional fuel capacity. Regardless of the lower price.
Both memos came after the Air Force decided on March 28, 2002 to reject the bid from Airbus, which is 80-percent owned by European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS) consortium, and 20 percent by Britainâs BAE Systems Plc
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2003 12:29:25 AM ||
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We better not give the deal to Airbus. The last thing I want is to pay a EU Agency for our planes. Especially if they were made in France.
Posted by: Charles ||
08/31/2003 1:05 Comments ||
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#2
A little honesty here folks... Tom Daschle(D-SD)'s wife is the lobbiest for Boeing trying to shoehorn the lease deal over an inexpensive straight purchase...
#3
Pretty amazing stuff. We get attacked in the US on 911, and instead of the INS making a concerted effort to deal with those who are trying to kill us, the federeal government goes after and wrecks the domestic aviation industry.
Now we find out that the US government all of a sudden has no problem with the domestic aviation industry as long as they can ensure it gets buried later with surplus aircaft, as these planes will surely be.
#4
Boeing and its engineering and production staff are national assets that are not readily replacable. If Boeing were to go bust and ten years down the road we need a large airframe manufacturer who are we going to go to? Lockheed who seems to have gotten out of that business? Northrup you was never really in it? If there was shinnagens going on in the contract prosecute the individuals responsible not the company as a whole. Starting up a new aircraft manufacturer from scratch ain't like opening up a freaking law office, not that most of the people in Congress or the Senate would understand that
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
08/31/2003 9:11 Comments ||
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And let's remember that until the last election cycle ending January 2003, Tom Daschle was running the Senate.
Posted by: Don ||
08/31/2003 9:20 Comments ||
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Hmm...we got a 43-year old fleet that desperately needs to be replaced, a domestic company that could use the business, and we're gonna hold it up for $5-17 million out of a $4.4 billion dollar deal?
I think Senator McCain has forgotten that he represents Arizona and not France.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
08/31/2003 13:23 Comments ||
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#7
republican congress, republican senate, republican pentagon,republican president but somehow senator tom daschles wife is to blame. where r bush's veto powers, McCain would have vetoed the deal so should bush or doesnt he have the ball. Pretty soon you rightwingers r gonna blame this on Hillary Clinton and Babra Streisand and the dixie chicks. Yes the dixie chicks are to blame for this corporate welfare deal
#8
If one of the current tankers goes down, opposition will disappear. I hope the pilots get out safely. To save money it would be more worthwhile to try to buy a common replacement airframe for the P-3.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2003 15:00 Comments ||
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#9
Ah, Stevey, you're so-o-o-o misinformed it's comical. Really, we don't laugh with you, we laugh at you!
Sen. Daschle's lovely wife has angled for the lease-buyout because it puts more money in the pockets of Boeing, for whom she's a registered lobbyist. Not her fault, it's her job and she's good at it (evidently!) but it's not the best deal for the Air Force.
[ the Air Force -- among those who defend your sorry ass even though you don't deserve it ]
Bush won't veto because this is the best deal they can get now, and those aircraft have to be replaced. Far better for Sen. McCain to sponsor a resolution to buy the planes outright. I'm waiting.
SuperHose: yep, P-3 ought to be on the list.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2003 15:53 Comments ||
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#10
I've read that a lot of the reason this deal has to go through is that the Clinton administration signed away our ability to complain about the massive subsidies Airbus recieves from the European Union. So our choices are: impose tarriffs and have our head handed to us by the WTO; not impose tarriffs and do nothing else and see Boeing go out of business, thus winding up with the French as the supplier of tanker aircraft, shutdown the WTO, or subsidize Boeing. McCain's right in that this is a bad decision, but where the heck was he when Clinton was busy making this the least bad decision available to us?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/31/2003 16:06 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
