Hi there, !
Today Wed 04/07/2004 Tue 04/06/2004 Mon 04/05/2004 Sun 04/04/2004 Sat 04/03/2004 Fri 04/02/2004 Thu 04/01/2004 Archives
Rantburg
531688 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 59 articles and 298 comments as of 10:31.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background                   
4 Salvadoran, 14 thugs dead in Sadr festivities
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 [] 
2 00:00 Zenster [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Frank G [] 
5 00:00 .com [] 
12 00:00 BH [] 
43 00:00 AF Lady TROLL [] 
8 00:00 mhw [] 
2 00:00 Anonymous2U [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Zenster [] 
5 00:00 Shipman [] 
1 00:00 Zenster [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Anonymous2U [] 
13 00:00 Alaska Paul [] 
3 00:00 Seafarious [1] 
3 00:00 Dave D. [] 
7 00:00 Frank G [1] 
4 00:00 Zenster [] 
0 [] 
10 00:00 mhw [] 
10 00:00 Zenster [] 
7 00:00 Lucky [] 
2 00:00 Phil B [] 
0 [] 
3 00:00 Zhang Fei [] 
5 00:00 Shipman [] 
3 00:00 .com [] 
14 00:00 Old Patriot [] 
8 00:00 Mike Kozlowski [] 
4 00:00 Zenster [] 
4 00:00 Phil Fraering [] 
1 00:00 .com [] 
1 00:00 Frank G [] 
Page 2: WoT Background
1 00:00 Zenster [1]
0 []
0 []
6 00:00 phil_b []
7 00:00 Rafael []
1 00:00 phil_b []
3 00:00 Seafarious []
4 00:00 Zenster [1]
5 00:00 Shipman []
6 00:00 The Doctor []
12 00:00 .com []
5 00:00 Zenster []
0 []
10 00:00 BH [1]
5 00:00 Super Hose []
18 00:00 mhw []
7 00:00 Jarhead []
3 00:00 Anonymous2U []
8 00:00 badanov []
2 00:00 PBMcL []
10 00:00 Super Hose []
5 00:00 phil_b []
5 00:00 whitecollar redneck []
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Baltimore HS Anger-management Assembly erupts in chaos
EFL from WND

A high school assembly on anger-management erupted in violent chaos while students were acting out peaceful ways to resolve conflict. The melee at Baltimore’s Woodlawn High School began when the mother of a student confronted a group of girls who had been bothering her child, the Baltimore Sun reported. Woodlawn Principal C. Anthony Thompson said screaming escalated into pushing and hitting, prompting school officials to call for police as many of the 750 students rushed toward the fighting to get a better look. Nothing like a peaceful catfight to gain the attention of a bored group of 750 teenagers.

Soon other fights broke out all over, the Sun said. Ninth-grader Melissa Parks told the paper the facilitator presenting the assembly, organized by Sheppard Pratt Health System, peacefully yelled for people to stop. The fight took 15 minutes to diffuse, said Thompson. By a very peaceful custodian armed with a firehose.

"Unfortunately, that original incident at the assembly became the catalyst for other fights," said Douglas J. Neilson, a spokesman for Baltimore County schools, according to the Sun. "It was handled quickly and effectively by the school administration." Doug, do you really think we’re going to buy that line of bull?
The anger-management program is required in all Baltimore County schools.

-snip- non-description of unnamed participants.

The Sun said the 1,900-student school recently has been trying to revamp its image. Last year, 10 people were charged with assault and disorderly conduct during an evening fashion show at the high school. Hey,you can go to two NHL games and not see that type of violence. Have they got any otehr school functions scheduled? I doubt I can afford the scalped price of a PTA ticket, but I’m betting even a meeting of the chess club might end in blood at Woodlawn.

"Something like this just puts us back to the starting point," Thompson said of the fighting at the assembly, according to the Sun. The school’s student body in 2002 included 60 gang members and 200 students from group homes, many with discipline problems, the paper said. "The whole reason we hold conflict management in schools is because young people have this angst built up in them, and it’s easy for them to go off inappropriately," the school district’s Neilson said. I wonder if this school has organized the teachers into a quick response team like they do at super-max prisons.
Posted by: Super Hose || 04/04/2004 11:32:24 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Don’t Forget to Click those [mumble-mumble] Ads!
Remember, folks, every time you read an article - check those Google links on the right-hand sidebar. If you see ads for Islamic sites, whether hardcore or apologist or "informational", click ’em at least a few times. Every time you see ’em.

Every click is a tiny $ transfer: Asshat -> Rantburg.

Clickety-click, brothers and sisters! Recover some of that oil-tick money!

If you own a gas-guzzling SUV or other such "evil" vehicle, you’re duty-bound! Click yer buns off!

This will help you sleep better at night - knowing you did the right thing! Make it a habit! And, wonder of wonders, this one won’t kill you!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 5:58:50 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How much Fred get per click?
Posted by: Shipman || 04/04/2004 18:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmmm - you sounded like Mucky on the first read...
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 18:51 Comments || Top||

#3  How much wealth does Mr. P. acquire as a result of our obession/compulsion with Google?

(hows that?_
Posted by: Shipman || 04/04/2004 19:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Thanks for the reminder, .com. For those of us who ignore internet ads to the point where they visually "disappear," it's hard to remember.

I'll try to do better and look for them. And click, of course, when I think I can earn Fred (and selected others) some bucks while screwing those who deserve to be screwed.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/04/2004 19:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Let's see how many jokes we can make about this before 0000 hrs EDST.
Posted by: badanov || 04/04/2004 19:34 Comments || Top||

#6  I dunno if the chick (from Utah) comes up every time or if they rotate, but I have to wonder WTF she would be doing advertising on a Muslim site. Either she's desparate, goldigging for an oil sheikh, looney, or a liar - from what she put on her profile. Too weird.

Did you sign up, Bad?
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 19:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Guess she's not a Mormon, unless she wants to try and convert those Muslims...although both believe in polygamy...
Posted by: Jen || 04/04/2004 20:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Did you sign up, Bad?

LOL!

No, I signed my stuff over to two women, two different times. Now that my daughter turns 18 this month, I am not interested in a third.
Posted by: badanov || 04/04/2004 20:24 Comments || Top||

#9  Ray Stevens has the right idea: "Every three years I just find a woman I don't like and buy her a house!"
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 22:01 Comments || Top||

#10  I just spit cookie all over my keyboard. LOL!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 22:05 Comments || Top||

#11  Geeze Louise, Fred. What kind of vitamins do you take? The fun never stops.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2004 22:19 Comments || Top||

#12  Be sure to right-click/open in new window, so the ad doesn't disappear on subsequent refreshes. ;)
Posted by: BH || 04/04/2004 22:33 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Most Al Qaeda cells in Yemen dismantled — prime minister
Yemen has dismantled 90 per cent of Al Qaeda cells in the country, in part by paying off tribes that once sheltered them, Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal told the Associated Press on Sunday. Bajammal credited US-Yemeni cooperation with his country's progress in the fight against terror. However, he said Yemen does not consider Sheikh Abdulmajid Zindani, a prominent Yemeni cleric the United States maintains actively recruited for Al Qaeda, as a terrorist.
"He's... ummm... something else."
The prime minister also said suspects in the 2000 USS Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors off the southern port of Aden will stand trial in the next few weeks. Yemeni security forces recently recaptured the last of 10 Cole bombing suspects who escaped from prison last year. In conquering Al Qaeda, Bajammal said the government has bought off tribes that once gave shelter to terrorists. He did not say how much it had spent. "No one hands over anyone for free," said Bajammal. "The issue turned out to be a business issue. As long as the others (terrorists) are going to pay, why shouldn't we pay? If we want to avoid a confrontation and the spilling of blood, then money has no value in this respect." Bajammal said his country has made progress in the fight against terror, adding that "Yemen can never be a refuge for Al Qaeda. During the past two years, we have managed to subdue 90 per cent of (Al Qaeda) cells here or the ones that moved to Yemen." He said only a handful of hard-core terrorists remain at large. Yemen, the ancestral home of Al Qaeda leader Osama Ben Laden, has been a fertile recruiting ground and battlefield for the terror network. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, when Washington retaliated against Afghanistan and threatened to take its war on terrorism elsewhere, Yemen agreed to work with the United States against Al Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 9:02:36 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tribute.

Wrong, try again.
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 21:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Most Al [sic] Qaeda cells in Yemen dismantled — prime minister

:: cough :: HORSE SNOT! :: cough :: hack ::

[One Total Recall rhinological style P/C nodule extraction later]

I mean, "OF COURSE NOT!"

I confess to having crowed out loud the moment I heard about a supposed "American citizen" being snuffed via drone launched ordnance on some Yemeni highway.

You saw it here first. It felt good.

Yeah, sure ... but I still can admit it was an uncomfortable experience.

It was distinctly uncomfortable seeing a recent immigrant to my country capped abroad.

I want him capped here. On air.

Posted by: Zenster || 04/05/2004 8:18 Comments || Top||


Saudi money doing suspicious things - (the surprise here is that MSNBC is reporting it)
EFL
By Michael Isikoff
A federal investigation into the bank accounts of the Saudi Embassy in Washington has identified more than $27 million in "suspicious" transactions—including hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to Muslim charities, and to clerics and Saudi students who are being scrutinized for possible links to terrorist activity, according to government documents obtained by NEWSWEEK. The probe also has uncovered large wire transfers overseas by the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
[the article has a picture with Bandar and GWBush - some of the hard left is pro Arab, but others might use this to smear Bush - not that it will fool anyone with the brains that God gave to goats]
The transactions recently prompted the Saudi Embassy’s longtime bank, the Riggs Bank of Washington, D.C., to drop the Saudis as a client after embassy...
[coincidentally I closed my account with these people in 2002 also but it was because they raised the price for a lockbox so high I decided to buy one for my house and didn’t need theirs - so I also closed the savings account I had there which qualified me for the lockbox]
Posted by: mhw || 04/04/2004 1:21:34 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I doubt they will find any big smoking guns in this, the Saudis don't need to use their embassy's accounts - they (including powerful connected Saudi individuals and their companies) have tens of thousands of other accounts to launder payoffs to whomever. I understand this is an attempt to link activity directly to the Saudi Gov't - so do the Saudis. It won't find dick.

I knew a guy in Saudi in '92 who was the security advisor for one of the significant Saudi Princes. He was planning arrangements for his Prince to visit the US with his entourage. The Prince had directed him to bring $500K in USD cash for incidentals. My friend suggested they use traveller's checks, instead - for saftey and to prevent theft by insiders(heh). The Prince refused because he did not want to sign anything - giving no reason. So My friend called CitiBank and got him a set of credit cards, with signatory rights for those designated by the Prince, against a new account and wired the half-million to fund it. Now this wouldn't be a big deal (except that they needed $500K for incidentals - us little people must understand and accept such a staggering figure) if that had been all there was to it. But it wasn't. By the time the 5 week visit was over, my friend had needed to put another $2.2M into the account.

This was for a minor vacation for a single Prince of The Magic Kingdom. The story's reference to "hundreds of thousands of dollars" is trivial to these people. Scale, people. Scale.

I'm no friend of the House of Saud, but they are smater than this - and the fact that we will never get a straight answer about any transfers which look fishy but we can't prove anything -and- the fact that we can't force them to do dick, makes this a political game - much like the 9/11 Commission - and prolly won't result in diddley-squat.

Tracing backward from the bad guys strikes me as a far more effective technique. When / if it hits the stone wall of SAMA (S.A. Monetrary Agency) then you're screwed - they don't control their system, regards accounts, closely because they don't want accounts under scrutiny, certainly not by an external agency. I've related how my banks accounts there were handled in past posts, so I won't repeat it, but the core problem is that we have to prove our case outside of SA and we have to accept that they wouldn't need to use Official Gov't accounts to do their slimy payoffs and bribes, whether to a jihadi or a UN or State Dept official.

So, there's this stolen 40km wide strip along the Eastern coast of Saudi Arabia that provides the funding for the vast majority of the terror in the world and removing it from the hands of turbans of any stripe would stop the insanity dead in its tracks in 90 days...
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 16:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Anyone who considers the Saudis to be a friend of America is flat out delusional. Their blind eye and carte blanche attitude regarding Wahhabism has bred up much of the terrorism in our world today. We should have boycotted and sanctioned them ages ago.

Let them drink oil.

Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 17:22 Comments || Top||

#3  The 9/11 lawsuit leagle beagles are investigating Riggs Bank too...
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2004 21:29 Comments || Top||


Europe
France finds Eta ’weapons cache’
French police say they have seized a large arms cache belonging to the Basque separatist group, Eta. Two Eta suspects were also detained during the operation in a village in south-western France, not far from the Spanish border, police say. French television reported explosives and weapons were found in the raid.
On Friday, French police said they had arrested two senior members of the group in a joint operation with Spanish police in the region. They said the logistics chief of the armed group, Felix Ignacio Esparza, was detained near the city of Dax. Felix Alberto Lopez, believed to be a former leader of Eta, was held near the town of Angouleme.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 04/04/2004 9:19:50 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


3 Madrid boomers kill selves, cop, rather than be captured
Three men believed to be responsible for the Madrid train bombings blew themselves up inside an apartment house here on Saturday night as the police prepared to assault the building, officials said. The blast also killed one officer and wounded at least 11 others.
I'm glad the Islamists are dead. It's too bad that good guys were injured and killed in the process.
The acting interior minister, Ángel Acebes, said the men, on spotting police special agents, shouted in Arabic and fired shots through the window of the building in Leganés, a working-class district of Madrid where many immigrants live. The police, who began the raid at about 6 p.m., according to news reports, evacuated the building the men were in and surrounding apartment buildings. When the police moved to storm the building, around 9 p.m., according to news reports, "the terrorists set off a powerful explosion, blowing themselves up," Mr. Acebes said. The blast gutted the lower floor and tore off the roof of the building, Mr. Acebes said. Among the dead, he said, were "some of the presumed authors" of the March 11 railway blasts that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,400.
That's probably just as well, though it would have been nice to get information out of them. But if that happened, they wouldn't end up dead, just jugged for a few years.
On Thursday, a Spanish High Court judge, Juan del Olmo, issued six European arrest warrants in the case: five for Moroccan men and one for a Tunisian man, Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, whom he called the "leader and coordinator" of the train attacks. Mr. Acebes refused to say whether the authorities believed that Mr. Abdelmajid had been one of the men in the apartment house.
I heard on Fox News this morning that he was...
He also said it was "too early to tell" whether there had been more than three men in the house and whether anyone had escaped before the explosion. Asked whether the raid was prompted by suspicions that the men were planning to plant a bomb in the future, Mr. Acebes did not answer directly, saying, "We came to the apartment as a consequence of the police investigation under way since the attacks."
Doesn't really matter, if they'd already planted a bomb in the past, does it? Or do we not worry about people who're already dead?
The authorities involved in the investigation, he added, were "working very intensely, meticulously and professionally and making great advances." He called the performance of the officers in the raid "brilliant," and he expressed sympathy for the family of the killed officer, a 41-year-old man who had a wife and two children. Many details of the police operation on Saturday remained unclear, including how many agents had been involved and why, after three weeks of quiet arrests and questioning, the authorities had decided to change tactics with a full-blown assault.
Maybe because they had their targets located and they didn't want them to blow anything else up?
The Spanish news media have widely reported that a man previously linked to a Qaeda cell in Spain, Jamal Zougam, was believed to be the mastermind of the train bombings. But the arrest warrants this week singled out Mr. Abdelmajid, describing him as a "catalyzing agent" who "raised awareness of jihad" among his circle. He "had manifested specifically since 2003 that he was preparing a violent act in Spain, specifically in the Madrid area," the warrant said. Spanish news media have said Mr. Abdelmajid was a resident of Madrid who worked as a real estate agent and lived in a middle-class neighborhood.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/04/2004 12:22:14 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Blowed up, blowed up good and dead.
Posted by: Lucky || 04/04/2004 1:59 Comments || Top||

#2  How that appeasement thing working out for ya', Zappy?

Not so well? Ya' think?

Quelle surprise.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/04/2004 3:30 Comments || Top||

#3  No kidding, Barbara! 2 terrorist bomb events in Spain in 2 days!
Either Zappy comes to his senses or does even more Islamo-asskissing.
Posted by: Jen || 04/04/2004 3:44 Comments || Top||

#4 
Mr. Acebes refused to say whether the authorities believed that Mr. Abdelmajid had been one of the men in the apartment house

Spain now says Abdelmajid was killed in the explosion.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/04/2004 9:37 Comments || Top||

#5  This is what happens when you don't obey the terrorist quickly enough. Spain deserved this, and the dead officer should have refused to help.

/Kos off
Posted by: Charles || 04/04/2004 9:54 Comments || Top||

#6  three less assholes.
Posted by: Jarhead || 04/04/2004 10:29 Comments || Top||

#7  For once they get it right. Kill themselves first.
Posted by: badanov || 04/04/2004 10:35 Comments || Top||

#8  3 less killers. I love great news!
Posted by: Anonymous || 04/04/2004 11:53 Comments || Top||

#9  But.....But.........this isn't the way appeasement should work. Look. I've got Hoyle's rules of games here. It sez on page 134 that after an appeasement is done.......[oops]....the threatener does some more threatening and the appeaser backs down some more.

Damn, we're in a tight spot!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2004 13:18 Comments || Top||

#10  Azcar's government is going out on some good notes. The new Socialist government will have a tough act to follow.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/04/2004 15:56 Comments || Top||

#11  FoxNews is reporting that the Spanish now believe there were 5 bad guys killed in the explosion.

Sorting through the body parts...

"How many right hands do you have, I've got two."
"Hands? You have whole hands? How mand RH thumbs would be a better question."
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 16:35 Comments || Top||

#12  "Now, I want you guys to do a thorough lip count this time!"
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 16:49 Comments || Top||

#13  "I want proof positive ID. I want to know if any of the dead were women.*Crunch*"
"I think that one's a male, Chief."
Posted by: Charles || 04/04/2004 17:04 Comments || Top||

#14  Wonder if this will affect their security deposit???
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2004 20:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Discussion of Legality of Detention of Yaser Hamdi (born in USA, captured in Afghanistan)
The Supreme Court recently agreed to review Yaser E. Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, a case in which the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the government’s detention of an enemy combatant captured on the field of battle in Afghanistan who later was discovered to be an American citizen. The Fourth Circuit’s decision is clearly correct; historically and as a matter of just plain common sense, federal courts have never had authority to interfere with the detention of combat prisoners. The fact that Yaser Hamdi is a U.S. citizen does not alter that longstanding conclusion, but it does gives us the opportunity to reconsider a profound error the Court made more than a century ago.

The principal question that the Court will consider is whether "the Constitution permits Executive officials to detain an American citizen indefinitely in military custody in the United States, hold him essentially incommunicado and deny him access to counsel, with no opportunity to question the factual basis for his detention before any impartial tribunal, on the sole ground that he was seized abroad in a theater of the War on Terrorism and declared by the Executive to be an ’enemy combatant.’" With all due respect, that is the wrong question.

The real question should be: Why is Hamdi being treated as a citizen at all? He was born in Louisiana—and has a birth certificate to prove it—to be sure. But he was born to Saudi citizens; his father, Esam Fouad Hamdi of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, was working in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at the time on a temporary worker visa for a brief stint as a chemical engineer with Exxon. His mother, Nadiah Hussen Hamdi, was born Nadia Hussen Fattah in Taif, Saudi Arabia. The entire family returned to Saudi Arabia while Yaser was still a toddler, and Yaser never set foot on U.S. soil again until after his capture in Afghanistan during a battle with U.S. forces near Konduz. Hamdi was armed with a Kalishnikov AK-47 military assault rifle at the time of his capture.

Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." The clause was clearly and expressly designed to repudiate the Supreme Court’s infamous decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford, which erroneously treated African-Americans as non-citizens, even non-persons, writing them out not only of the Constitution but of the "all men are created equal" language of the Declaration of Independence as well.

Today, the common perception of the clause is that it mandates citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. Such a reading dates to an erroneous Supreme Court decision in the 1898 case of United States v. Won Kim Ark, decided by the same Court, by nearly the same line-up, that two years earlier had decided the infamous case of Plessy v. Ferguson. It is a wrong reading.

For one thing, the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause in Won Kim Ark renders the "subject to the jurisdiction" provision of the clause completely redundant. For another, it is completely at odds with the provision of the 1866 Civil Rights Act the 14th Amendment was designed to constitutionalize. That clause provided: "All persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States." Debate on the floor of the Senate about the 14th Amendment confirmed this view: Senator Lyman Trumbull, a key figure in the drafting and adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, stated that "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States meant subject to its "complete" jurisdiction; "[n]ot owing allegiance to anybody else." Indeed, the first two cases in which the Supreme Court addressed the issue, first in dicta in The Slaughter-House Cases, and then as a holding in Elk v. Wilkins, recognized the Trumbull view of the clause.

The majority opinion in Slaughter-House correctly noted that "[t]he phrase, ’subject to its jurisdiction’ was intended to exclude from its operation children of ministers, consuls, and citizens or subjects of foreign States born within the United States." Justice Steven Field, joined by Chief Justice Chase and Justices Swayne and Bradley in dissent from the principal holding of the case, likewise acknowledged that the Clause was designed to ensure that all persons born in the United States were as a result citizens both of the United States and the state in which they resided, provided they were not at the time subjects of any foreign power.

What was dicta in Slaughter-House became holding in Elk, whether the Court held that the claimant was not a U.S. citizen despite having been born on U.S. soil because the clause "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States required that he be "not merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction, and owing them direct and immediate allegiance." The children of temporary workers (much less illegal immigrant workers) simply do not qualify as "completely subject" to U.S. jurisdiction, for they are also subject to the jurisdiction of (indeed, owe primary allegiance to) their home country. Hamdi himself, as a Saudi, remained subject to the jurisdiction of Saudi Arabia and later, apparently, of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Under the original view of the Fourteenth Amendment, then (rather than the erroneous view adopted by the Plessy-era Court), he has no constitutional claim to citizenship.

To be sure, Congress is free (under its power to establish a uniform rule on naturalization) to provide citizenship more broadly than the Fourteenth Amendment requires, and I do not mean to suggest that Hamdi is not a citizen under existing statutes. But for the past century Congress has believed it was obligated to afford citizenship to people like Hamdi. Whatever the Supreme Court does with the Hamdi case, therefore, it should at the very least make clear that Congress need not extend citizenship to terrorists like Hamdi merely because they happen to be born on U.S. soil.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/04/2004 9:32:25 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Surely anyone born in the US and caught fighting for the other side should be considered a traitor if his citizenship is brought to bear?
Posted by: Barry || 04/04/2004 12:12 Comments || Top||

#2  They should have declared John Walker Lynd a traitor. Since they didn't, it would be difficult to do it for this one.
I agree with the article that we need to re-think that amendment. Or perhaps write some laws to clarify it. He shouldn't be an American citizen simply because he was born on American soil.
Posted by: Kathy K || 04/04/2004 17:11 Comments || Top||

#3  It's insanity to give citizenship to children of non-citizens simply because they are born on US soil. No other country in the world does this. Not doing it would help cut down on the old scam by Illegals who have a kid here, then apply for residence based on the kid's citizenship.
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2004 17:48 Comments || Top||

#4  #1 Surely anyone born in the US and caught fighting for the other side should be considered a traitor if his citizenship is brought to bear?

#2 They should have declared John Walker Lynd a traitor.

Yes and yes. Enough prinking about.

Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 18:11 Comments || Top||


The odd case of Omar Shishani
Take Omar Shishani. Arrested in Detroit in July 2002 for smuggling $12 million in counterfeit cashiers' checks from Indonesia, Shishani was held without bond--deemed a danger to the community and a flight risk--because of his alleged ties to terrorists. Detroit federal prosecutor Eric Straus said Shishani, a U.S. citizen and Jordanian of Chechen ancestry, even had a business associate whose daughter was named "Al-Qaeda."
Subtle little bastard, isn't he?
Nine months later, Straus released Shishani on a personal recognizance bond as part of a plea deal. "They essentially told him, `Walk the streets freely; get out of jail,' " says Shishani's attorney, Corbett O'Meara. But six months after that, Straus, citing new intelligence from Moscow, said Shishani was a Chechen terrorist. He asked a judge to revoke Shishani's bond so he could be rearrested. O'Meara says the government is retaliating against Shishani for having the "temerity to testify" against its star witness in an unrelated terrorism trial last year. That trial has turned into a three-ring circus for the Justice Department, with the lead prosecutor, Richard Convertino, his supervisors, and their bosses slinging mud madly at each other. Detroit U.S. attorney Jeffrey Collins has alleged that Convertino improperly tried to get dirt on Shishani to discredit him. Convertino denies that, adding that his colleagues seemed to be at cross-purposes with him on the terrorism case. "In 14 years as a prosecutor," he said, "I've never seen anything like this." Collins, citing a gag order, declined to comment for this story.
Sounds like an argument in favor of keeping terrorism cases out of the courts.
The Shishani situation is perplexing for many reasons, not least because he had no ties to Convertino's terrorism case. Indicted on fraud, smuggling, and conspiracy charges, Shishani met one of the four defendants in the other case, Karim Koubriti, in the lockup just weeks before the terrorism trial was to begin. Koubriti was on his way to court for a pretrial hearing, and Shishani was headed to meet his prosecutor for a debriefing. Koubriti, recognizing Shishani from the newspapers and knowing Shishani was housed with the prosecution's star witness, Youssef Hmimssa, asked Shishani what Hmimssa was going to say to implicate him and the other defendants. "Hmimssa," Shishani is said to have replied, "is a jerk and a liar." Lawyers for Koubriti and the other three defendants sought to put Shishani on the stand to discredit Hmimssa. But they also wanted the prosecution's assurance that any such testimony unfavorable to the government would not hurt Shishani's plea deal. "Please rest assured," U.S. attorney Collins wrote to O'Meara, "that your client has every right to submit to interviews with anyone and of course, if subpoenaed, would have to testify." Shishani was released on personal recognizance after pleading guilty to two check-smuggling-conspiracy counts. Just to be sure, the defense team also asked criminal division chief Alan Gershel to create a "Chinese wall" between Shishani's plea negotiator, Straus, and the trial prosecutors, Convertino and his supervisor and trial partner, Keith Corbett. But O'Meara says Gershel refused to keep the information confidential, saying he was ethically obligated to notify his prosecutors.

Convertino says Gershel refused to divulge Shishani's name and any details of what he might say because of a "promise" he had made to the defense team. "I said, `Are you kidding me?' " Convertino said. "We need to know who it is we're going to cross-examine and what he is going to say, now." Once they learned Shishani's name--from an FBI agent--says Convertino, it was Corbett, not Straus, who first insisted that Shishani submit to a polygraph to verify his upcoming testimony, as defendants are required to do, if asked, under plea agreements. Shishani refused. Straus ripped up the plea deal, despite past assurances that the two criminal matters were unrelated. On May 7, Shishani testified that Hmimssa had told him he wanted revenge because Koubriti and his friends had given him up to the FBI. Shishani added that the government had forced him to testify, against his better judgment.

The story took another twist in October, when Straus, citing the Russian intelligence, tried to revoke Shishani's bond. Straus said the intelligence had surfaced in May, which would have been just after Shishani had been set free and around the time he testified against Hmimssa. "But we had no clue of this until I read it in October in the newspaper," says Convertino, who, along with Corbett, has been taken off the case. "That is information that should have been shared with us." The judge denied Straus's request to have Shishani detained again as a suspected terrorist. But she did give Shishani a stiff sentence on the conspiracy charges after Straus and Collins argued against any leniency. Hmimssa is now in prison awaiting sentencing. Shishani is in a medium-security federal prison in Illinois. O'Meara says Straus has told him the only way out for Shishani is if he admits he is a terrorist and cooperates fully. O'Meara says his personal appeals have fallen on deaf ears. All Straus will say is, "It's old news."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/04/2004 12:28:17 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
he did give Shishani a stiff sentence on the conspiracy charges

57-71 months in prison
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/04/2004 9:08 Comments || Top||

#2  $12 million in counterfeit cashiers' checks

It's this sort of operation which provides the backing for atrocities like 9-11. A few years in jail doesn't come close to adequately dealing with his kind of criminal. I have serious doubts this was a "for profit" type of enterprise. That money was supposed to finance something and we should really know exactly what it was before Shishani ever walks the streets again.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 16:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Absolutely agreed - and the fact that they "released Shishani on a personal recognizance bond" is astounding. Amazing SNAFU and calls into question the practice that individual local Prosecutors have total control over these cases. It strikes me that cases of this nature should be forwarded to a single point, a clearinghouse for potential terrorism-related cases at the Federal level. Breathtakingly sloppy handling that will eventually lead to real bad guys getting away. Prolly already has.
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 16:28 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Singapore to analyze JI computer data
Singapore intelligence experts plan to analyze nearly 1,000 gigabytes of information stored in computers seized from Jemaah Islamiyah suspects in a bid to prevent terrorist attacks, the Minister of Home Affairs said. The Internal Security Department has collected a total of 988 gigabytes of data during security operations since 2001, Wong Kan Seng said late Friday. "The challenge now is to develop sound analytical methods to process such vast volumes of information,'' Wong said at an event honouring the department, Singapore's secretive intelligence service. Wong said Jemaah Islamiyah - an al-Qaida linked group that plans to create an Islamic superstate in Southeast Asia - is an "IT savvy'' network that keeps encrypted computer information about its operations. "We face a threat which respects no ethical limits other than what a cruel imagination and access to capabilities can provide,'' Wong said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/04/2004 12:38:14 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Surely they haven't been sitting on some of this data for up to 3 years!??!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 1:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds to me like a couple of dozen home computers they have confiscated from suspects. I would be astonished if they haven't cracked any encrypted data by now. This is a total puff piece.
Posted by: Phil B || 04/04/2004 3:44 Comments || Top||


US forces to the Straits of Malacca
The United States plans to deploy Marines and special operations forces on high speed vessels along the Straits of Malacca to flush out terrorists in one of the world's busiest waterways. The deployment of US forces along the narrow straits straddling Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia is part of Washington's new counterterrorism initiative to help Southeast Asia, said Admiral Thomas Fargo, the top US military commander in the Asia-Pacific region.
Yar! Clean out the pirates, by Gar! Where's me letter o' marque and reprisal? 'Tis prize money, lads!
The Regional Maritime Security Initiative is being devised by the US military to combat transnational threats like proliferation, terrorism, trafficking in humans and drugs, and piracy. It allows sharing of information and intelligence that puts standing operating procedures in place with Southeast Asian countries for effective action against terrorists and other criminals, Fargo said. "There is very large, widespread support for this initiative," said Fargo, who heads the Hawaii-based US Pacific Command, directing Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force operations across the vast region. Fargo said Southeast Asia was a "crucial front" in the US war on terrorism. "Destabilisation of the governments of this region, moderate, secular, and legitimately elected, and with large Muslim populations, would result in decades of danger and chaos," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/04/2004 12:13:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yarrrrr! Y'know, to a grunt, fighting no-shit pirates sounds like a hoot! Sic 'em, SH / Ship!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  The biggie out of this would be the intel and SOP coordination. Nearly all the nations on the Straits have assets that, coordinated, would make a serious dent in piracy. Might also come in handy with the Chinese in a few years as well...
Posted by: Pappy || 04/04/2004 1:37 Comments || Top||

#3  I think they have specific intelligence about ship hijackings that has nothing to do with common or garden piracy, which are just muggings or carjackings at sea.
Posted by: Phil B || 04/04/2004 4:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Yar! Hang 'em from the yardarm! Keelhaul the lubbers! Yez can walk the plank, Mr. Pirate, or yez can be tossed over the rail! 'Tis your own choice!
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 12:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Fred---You are on step today with your pirate comments! The only thing I can add is to pour a little morton salt on the whiplashes for theatrical effect.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2004 15:06 Comments || Top||

#6  I think they have specific intelligence about ship hijackings that has nothing to do with common or garden piracy, which are just muggings or carjackings at sea.

It's quite possible that this is related to a threat. Hijackings actually went down last year, and as far as I know, there's been only one this year (a tug and barge in Indonesian waters).

However, there have been an increase in the number of attacks using multiple boats. That might be related to a threat.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/04/2004 16:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Time to park a Keyhole over the straits...
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 16:44 Comments || Top||

#8  The ghost of Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon is smiling this night.
It was the Marines - ably backed up by the infant USN - that put paid to pirates who threatened us 199 years ago. I have no doubt they'll do it once again.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/04/2004 19:02 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Damascus denies the two booby trapped car reports
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't us."
Amman was careful yesterday to deny that Syria is involved in the entry of the two booby trapped car to Jordan via the Syrian lands, by saying "this was not made at the knowledge and responsibility of the Syrian authority," at a time during which Syria expressed its strong regret "over these news and stressed care to maintain Jordan's security." The official spokesman for the Jordanian Government Asmaa al-Khuder said yesterday that Amman "highly appreciates Damascus care to preserve Jordan's security " and explained that "even it is proved that the arrested group and the explosives they have crossed the northern borders from Syria to Jordan, we are confident and sure that was made not at the knowledge of the Syrian authorities."
"Oh, certainly not! We're sure our neighbor to the north wouldn't do anything like that!"
She indicated that al-Ramtha area on the northern borders between Jordan and Syria "includes one official border check point but has a vast area," adding " we have not officially announced from where the two cars had crossed." For its part, the Syrian authorities denied these reports, one Syrian official said that the authorities express" its strong regret" over what was stated by the mass media that two cars filled with explosives entered Jordan through the Syrian borders, and stressed that "Syria is careful to maintain the security of Jordan and Arab brothers the same as its own security," considering that such news are deliberately intending to damage fraternal relations between the two states. The sources stressed that " Syria's national stances always ensures its total rejection to these terrorist acts."
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 8:27:41 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Palestinian group names successor for Abu Abbas
The Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) has elected Omar Shibli (Abu Ahmed) as secretary general of the organization, sources said on Friday. He succeeds Mohammed Abbas (Abu Abbas), who died in an American prison in Iraq early last month. Ahmed's ascension comes within the framework of internal preparations made by the front to reorganize itself in the wake of Abu Abbas' death. According to the sources, a series of consultations, contacts and meetings resulted in an agreement on electing Shibli as secretary general, as well as overseer of the Gaza sector. Nazem al-Youssef was elected deputy secretary general in charge of overseas areas, and Wassel Abu Youssef was elected deputy secretary-general responsible for the West Bank. All three are members of the front's five-member politburo. The two others are Mohammed Subhi (Abu Huda) in Iraq and Bilal Qassem in Jordan, who's in charge of political relations. The sources said the new set up would be announced on Monday in Lebanon to affirm the front's unity and its adherence to all decisions made by the new Gaza-based secretary general.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 2:35:25 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  PLF hasn't been a force for a while. Doesn't mean this yahoo shouldn't get whacked, tho'
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 14:57 Comments || Top||

#2  It's nice of the PLF to help Israel fill out their dance card like that.

Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 16:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Sure must be inconvenient to have to keep replacing your "leadership."
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2004 17:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Sea - I prefer that they see it as a growth opportunity, lol! At least they have a career path, no? I just appreciate the fact that these groups keep pointing out for us who's (pretending) to be the new "brains" of the outfit by contacting the Press! Convenient - for us!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 17:23 Comments || Top||

#5  The PLF should be immensely grateful that Israel makes such a determined effort to guarantee so much upward mobility among their ranks.

Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 18:49 Comments || Top||

#6  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: mhw TROLL || 04/04/2004 20:54 Comments || Top||

#7  mhw - Lol! I hadn't heard that juicy comeback in quite awhile! I worked for one of those companies - they tried all of the new age touchy-feely bullshit. I was a contractor - and they paid for everyone of us to attend, required it, in fact - over my objections, I might add. It had no effect, other than costing the company a shitload of "consultant" fees. Sigh.
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 20:59 Comments || Top||

#8  I wonder if the new leadership does team training stuff with the deputy secgen catching the secgen as the latter falls backward and chanting 'there's no 'I' in team'. My brother in law once had a session like that and said out loud, 'but there's an M and an E'.
Posted by: mhw || 04/04/2004 20:54 Comments || Top||


New Civil Disorders in Iran
Windows of several banks and public buildings were smashed in Esfahan during a protest demo which took place, today, in the Jey Avenue. Hundreds of residents defyied the security forces and set tires abalze in order to show their anger of the local Islamic funds’ empty promises on the restitution of millions of Tomans (Iranian currency) of their deposited assets. The rumor of the bankruptcy of the local Islamic funds has resulted on massive withdraws and is leading toward its collapse.
Posted by: mhw || 04/04/2004 9:08:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  [Troll droppings deleted]
Posted by: Man Bites Dog TROLL || 04/04/2004 9:15 Comments || Top||

#2  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: mhw TROLL || 04/04/2004 9:45 Comments || Top||

#3  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: mhw TROLL || 04/04/2004 12:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Windows of several banks and public buildings were smashed

Just a little youthful exhuberance during the, er, glass festival they are celebrating?
Posted by: eLarson || 04/04/2004 15:38 Comments || Top||

#5  MS - I have the same problem regards Turkey. When I looked elsewhere, posts on Turkey had been lumped into the "Europe" category. I find this hysterical, since they are not treated as if they are part of Europe by the Europeans! Methinks Fred is having us on, heh. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 15:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Turkey should be in the "Back-Stabbing Assholes" category
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 17:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Frank G - Lol! Great minds think alike!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 18:01 Comments || Top||

#8 
There's a section called "Syria-Lebanon-Iran."

The country I can't find a section for is Turkey.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 04/04/2004 9:15 Comments || Top||

#9  thanks - sorry about the mispostings
Posted by: mhw || 04/04/2004 9:45 Comments || Top||

#10  stupid me

I forgot to say this city is about 180 miles south of Tehran and has a prominent nuclear "reseach" faciliity.
Posted by: mhw || 04/04/2004 12:50 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Afghans held after bombs found in Kabul
Security forces arrested three people after uncovering a cache of weapons and explosives in Afghanistan's capital Kabul and foreign peacekeepers defused two bombs near the bases of foreign troops, officials said on Sunday. The three were detained by Afghan security forces with backup from the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF spokesman Commander Chris Henderson told a news briefing. Detonators were found with the explosives, he said, adding that he had no information on the affiliation of the suspects.

On Saturday, German ISAF bomb disposal specialists defused two improvised bombs with attached fuses, which a civilian found on Kabul's Jalalabad Road, where several peacekeeper bases are located. "Had they gone off, they could have indiscriminately killed innocent Afghan men women and children," Henderson said. The discoveries underscored the continuing risk of Islamic militant violence in the Afghan capital despite patrols by more than 6,000 foreign peacekeepers two and a half years after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban. Last month authorities found a bomb factory with material for up to 20 sophisticated devices in the centre of the city, which is still considered one of the safest parts of the country despite several bomb attacks since the Taliban fell in late 2001. In the worst attack, in March 2002, 26 civilians were killed and more than 150 wounded in a blast at a busy intersection.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 7:59:11 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  good catch, boyz!
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 20:27 Comments || Top||


Babar mum on police presence during arms offloading
State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar yesterday avoided commenting on unloading of a huge amount of arms and ammunitions in presence of police at the jetty of a fertiliser factory, saying a body formed by a prime ministerial directive would investigate the matter. The high-powered probe body headed by the home secretary has already started working to find out how the huge arms cache made its way into Bangladesh, Babar told the BBC Radio last night. On his pre-investigation statement that the arms and ammunitions were brought in for planned subversive activities, the minister said, "I made a clear statement. As the arms and ammunitions were found inside the country so we've enough reasons to believe that these are meant for use in the country."
Kinda seems to follow, doesn't it?
On the accusation brought by Awami League of the government's involvement, Babar said there was no reason for the government to be involved in arms trafficking and termed the opposition's accusation untenable.
Unless the gummint was planning on disposing of the opposition with them, but without doing so as the gummint. Or unless the gummint is conniving in Deep Laid Plots™ with Bad Guys within Bangla who're expected to do terrible things to India or Burma.
The government has attached the highest priority to the probe into the arms haul to ascertain the people responsible for the crime, he informed.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 7:56:02 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lutfuzzaman?
Babar?

Lol! Sheesh, how the hell am I supposed to take this seriously, Fred? Lol!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 20:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Alike minds .com...I swear
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 20:09 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm still laughing 5 minutes later. I Googled Babar cuz I knew there is some elephant comic strip popular in Europe - but I thought it was spelled "Barbar", so I was going to post, "at least it isn't 'Barbar'" - then I found it was Babar. Un-phreakin-believable! I checked the article to be sure Fred wasn't just tossing in a ringer, too. When it was clear it was all legit, I damned-near blew a gasket. Too funny...
Lutfuzzaman! I'd like to meet this guy's parents - they must be a scream!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 20:16 Comments || Top||

#4  .com---Didn't you read Babar books when you were a wee lad?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2004 22:21 Comments || Top||

#5  I, uh, didn't have a childhood *sniff* it's a long story... ;->
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 22:29 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
7 U.S. soldiers killed in fighting in Sadr city district of Baghdad
Seven U.S. soldiers were killed in clashes with supporters of a leading Shiite cleric in a Baghdad neighborhood Sunday, military officials told CNN. The killings in the Shiite majority Sadr City came on a day that saw deadly clashes between protesters and coalition forces in the holy city of Najaf, fighting in Baghdad and a car bombing in Kirkuk. The chief U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq denounced Shiite protests in Najaf Sunday, saying the lethal demonstrations had exceeded the democratic rights to protest, speak and use the media.

Sadr is a waste of perfectly good organic chemicals, who will rid us of this troublesome cleric?
Posted by: Lux || 04/04/2004 5:13:01 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tacitus thinks this is the beginning of a general Shiite rebellion against the CPA. One possibility he hasn't considered is that it may also eventually signal the beginning of the Shiite war of retribution against the Sunni. In either case, we'll see.

On the other hand, I can't help but notice how convenient the timing of this is. First Fallujah, then this.

If this is a general Shiite uprising (and it's _not_ settled that it is), I have serious doubts as to how long we'll stay in Iraq. I'm a supporter of the war, but I have little interest in fighting the people we saved from Saddam Hussein.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips || 04/04/2004 17:23 Comments || Top||

#2  "...but I have little interest in fighting the people we saved from Saddam Hussein."

And the thing we need to do about it is arrange things so that they have little interest in fighting us.

I think it's time to resume "Major Combat Operations" in Iraq.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/04/2004 17:31 Comments || Top||

#3  How typically disingenuous of CNN to fail to directly name Al Sadr.

Ideas, anyone?

Mebbe a direct approach to Sistani at this point makes sense: "We're gonna kill this fucktard Sadr. Wanna play ball?"

I know - tis extremist and evil. But the realities have the stage and Sadr must go. Sistani can pick up much of his support with a deftly handled middle-of-the-road stance delivered in conjunction with Sadr's "disappearance", no? That would leave far fewer martyrs to throw themselves under out tank tracks...
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 17:33 Comments || Top||

#4  We had better either cut our losses and run...or meet the resistance with the only thing they understand...force.

They had better either sniper the Shit-head cleric, or precision guided ordnance his apartment building. Take a lesson from Sharon.
Posted by: anymouse || 04/04/2004 17:41 Comments || Top||

#5  "I know - tis extremist and evil."

It is neither. It is a reasonable approach and it is moral. This bastard is trying to bring Iraq under theocratic rule; therefore he is a part of what gave us 9/11. Kill him, along with his henchmen.

We think of such things as "extreme" or even "evil" because we are comparatively so much more civilized than they; but they interpret our overall decency as weakness, and so long as they interpret it as weakness, it IS weakness.

We have to nip this crap in the bud. NOW. Or Iraq goes down the shitter, and us along with it.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/04/2004 17:45 Comments || Top||

#6  "Uh, yeah, Muckty's gone to "consult" with Al-Mahdi... Yeah, that's the ticket..."
Posted by: mojo || 04/04/2004 17:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Hearing the news, Kerry starts jerking off about Iraq in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2..
Posted by: badanov || 04/04/2004 18:01 Comments || Top||

#8  We will do very little. We're stuck with "Yes Men" running the show who are worried about their promotions instead of fighting and winning – they want the Iraqis to like or even love us instead of respect us. This whole "Hearts and Minds" thing is a crock. All we are doing is experimenting with warfare instead of waging it. Mankind has been fighting for over 5000 years and there is a reason he's never used the "Hearts and Minds" approach before -because it doesn't work. It’s not a hard concept, just a foolish one and we are kidding ourselves if we think we are intellectually superior because we are trying to implement it.

We have reached a point because of PC, media, and intergovernmental politics that we have retarded our ability to win. We will not win this war or any other war unless we are willing to wage a total war instead of tinkering and experimenting with it. Another perfect example is when Gen Franks let OBL get out of Tora Bora because he was afraid of casualties and didn’t want to mess up his impending retirement. What do you think Caesar or even Patton would have done with a general who did that? The boots on the ground get it - they know the risks. A leader has to be ready to take them and let his men do their job. What do you think the outcome would have been if we had approached D-Day with the same reasoning?

There is no room for peacetime generals in wartime and that’s who’s running the show. Warriors, not 'politicians' win wars - history testifies to that and our current leaders are all peacetime politicians/generals. We are doomed to every other preceding great civilization's fate if attitudes do not change. All of them before us reached a point where they forgot the basics indulged in amenities and were overrun by less advanced peoples who knew and practiced the basics. We are making the same mistakes that destroyed the Persians, Greeks, and Romans. What we are seeing here is the beginning of the end us but don’t worry, China will fill in our gap.


Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/04/2004 18:08 Comments || Top||

#9  This looks like an outright coup attempt by the Sadr forces. From UPI earlier today:

"Trucks and minibuses with license tags from all over the predominantly Shiite south of Iraq were seen streaming in to Sadr City and unloading waves of young men in the black t-shirts of the Mehdi Army, which has previously never openly displayed weapons banned by the occupation forces.

In front of Sadr's headquarters, they were seen arming themselves with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket propelled grenade launchers and organizing in military formations before deploying throughout the neighborhood in cars and pickup trucks.

The men were also seen forming roadblocks to prevent entry into the neighborhood, which has upwards of 3 million people living in one of the most densely populated urban settings east of the Gaza Strip.

As night fell, U.S. military vehicles, tanks and troops could be seen setting up roadblocks around the neighborhood themselves and reports of widespread fighting in the area have been reported by sources in the neighborhood.

One resident told UPI by phone that Sadr's militia had seized all five of Sadr City's police stations are were declaring their own form of martial law. There are also reports that U.S. infantry backed by helicopters and tanks have entered the neighborhood to reclaim the police facilities from the militia."


So, Sadr brought his militia in from all over the country to set this up.
US forces regained control but with very heavy fighting. I don't think we know the full details yet, it is still dark in Baghdad.
There is no telling what daylight might reveal.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 04/04/2004 18:08 Comments || Top||

#10  power and lights off? water off? seal this shithole off and start the block-by-block reconquista!
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 18:11 Comments || Top||

#11  Atomic Conspiracy
Thanks for the info!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/04/2004 18:13 Comments || Top||

#12  Way past time to get medieval on their asses.
We can win their hearts and minds much, much later.
Crank back up Shock and Awe and get Bremer to cancel that "handover" indefinitely!
Posted by: Jen || 04/04/2004 18:44 Comments || Top||

#13  Folks, I've just had an uncomfortably bloody visit from Ye Olde Clue Bat.

This is the Big Push. Whether just opportunistic or in common cause, this represents the final phase move to destabilize everything in Iraq prior to the July 1st Gov't handover.

Fallujah is, prolly - no one really knows yet - a pure Wahhabi-funded effort.

Sadr City is, definitely - Sadr is their biggest and best card to play in the game, the start of the Black Hats' effort.

I say that Sadr, the Mad Mullah's most powerful puppet in Iran, has now been put fully into play. They are betting big, you might even charactize it as a desperation play, that:
1) the US is spread too thin to effectively react
2) the US is too PC to take Sadr out
3) that Sadr can draw off the malcontents from others, such as Sistani and use them to inflate his effort
4) that they can generate sufficient chaos (Chaos is Islam's best buddy, Lucky!) to cause the handover to become a disaster, at best or muddled, at worst
5) they will play Sadr, a disposable if precious commodity for the Black Hats, until he's used up

This it it, folks: the beginning of the push. From Fallujah forward, we can call this the "direct action phase" of the organized effort by the external enemies of a democratic Iraq.

IMHO, this is their moment of truth. I'd say this has been planned very very well - and collusion with the Wahhabis seems reasonable, though surprising. They are playing for keeps here.

The joker in the game is our ability, or lack, to adapt to reality instead of being trapped by our civility / PCism.

The Bad Guys have just bet the farm we can't do it.


Tipping the Black Hats and taking the 40 KM strip would stop this shit dead in its tracks.
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 18:48 Comments || Top||

#14  Oh, yeah...I forgot:
Take out al-Sadr, either by killing or jail.
Make it part of the new Iraqi law that the preaching and certainly the waging of Islamist jihad by violence against "infidels" is a crime, punishable by severe penalty of incarceration up to death by execution.
We need to start considering this as a law to be adopted by countries all over the world, starting with the U.S., followed by Britain and Australia.
Posted by: Jen || 04/04/2004 18:54 Comments || Top||

#15  "The Bad Guys have just bet the farm we can't do it."

I agree. Whether we can, or not, depends entirely on whether the people in charge are capable of switching gears fast enough and come to grips with the fact that a war--a genuine, all out war--is being waged against us. It's time to send the "Chief Wiggles" types away for a while, and bring back the hard boys- and the hard methods. No more toy drives until this shit is put down, and hard.

I'm not as pessimistic as YS, but I am definitely worried about this. Do we have the nerve to do what must be done? I know our troops do, but does Bremer? Does GWB? We'll see.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/04/2004 18:59 Comments || Top||

#16  The most dramatic step we can take immediately is to blow Saddam's brains out on Al-Jazeera. We'll catch hell for it from the French lawyers and the UN etc. , but it's an attention-grabber and ought to persuade both the Sunnis and the Shia's that we're quite serious about all this.

While I was all in favor of making a well-prepared response to the Fallujah atrocity, I have to wonder now whether today would have played out the way it did if Fallujah had become a smoking hole in the sand on Friday.
Posted by: Matt || 04/04/2004 19:03 Comments || Top||

#17  Do we have the nerve to do what must be done? I know our troops do, but does Bremer? Does GWB? We'll see.

I hate to disappoint you guys but right now it's just a run to finish line. The hand-over is in sight, and the name of the game is just to get there with the least amount of casualties. I'll be very surprised if any real offensive action is taken. And if God forbid Kerry should win...might as well call it Spain Part Two.

This is 1980s Afghanistan all over again. How will it end this time?
Posted by: Rafael || 04/04/2004 19:25 Comments || Top||

#18  It should say...a run to the finish line.
Posted by: Rafael || 04/04/2004 19:27 Comments || Top||

#19  Rafael, this isn't Afghanistan (where we've also engaged in battle military successfully) and the U.S. isn't the Soviet Union.
Not even close.
This is here and now.
History doesn't repeat itself even when the parallels are strong.
Posted by: Jen || 04/04/2004 19:28 Comments || Top||

#20  Wank, wank, WANK! Sadr, & Sistani, need to go. We need to make a HUGE show of it when we kill both of them along with a few thousand of their supporters. Innocent bystanders be damned.

I'm all for the populating of some mass graves of our own. Folks, you can wring your hands and opine; "oh my, what are we going to do?" The answer is obvious. We NEED to kill about 50% of the population in various areas of Iraq.

Normally in WAR, the VICTOR, slaughters most of the male population. We didn't do that! These people do NOT realize that they have been defeated. It is well past time to correct this little oversight. Savagery is in order. Otherwise, they will continue to come for us.

I hope this helps you correctly understand the true nature of the situation.

-AR
Posted by: Analog Roam || 04/04/2004 19:39 Comments || Top||

#21  Jen, in the mind of an AK-wielding jihadi, it is like Afghanistan. If the US pulls out, especially under circumstances such that exist now in Iraq, it will be seen by them that they forced out another super-power, just like in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Rafael || 04/04/2004 19:43 Comments || Top||

#22  Yup, it's time for a smackdown. We know who the players are, and a show of force is always needed to impress the Arab/Moslem.

In Baghdad, a spokesman for Mr Sadr said he had called for an end to protests, asking his supporters instead to gather at his offices or in mosques.

"Terrorise your enemy, as we cannot remain silent over its violations," his statement said.

It is not clear from the translation of his statement whether the cleric was literally calling on his followers to resort to violence.

But there was no doubt about the militancy of some of his supporters.

"Sheikh Moqtada Sadr is our leader. He's going to lead Iraq. Today we fought the occupation troops and we will keep fighting them until we take over," said 23-year-old Mohammad Hanoun, a protester wielding a chain in Baghdad.


AC-130s and Hellfire equipped Apaches 24/7 please.
Posted by: Parabellum || 04/04/2004 19:44 Comments || Top||

#23  [Troll droppings deleted]
Posted by: Man Bites Dog TROLL || 04/04/2004 19:51 Comments || Top||

#24  Rafael the Soviets were in Afghanistan for a whole different reason than we are in Iraq and as the Evil Empire was in its final stages, there was massive troop demoralization.
We have managed to work even with the xenophobic Afghans.
We are not in Iraq to take it over as a Soviet satellite or to expand the spread of Stalinism, but to clean out the terrorist swamp and leave democracy in its place.
Plus, our soldiers are respected and loved for being there, plus it's a volunteer force, many of whom were motivated to join and fight by the 9/11 attacks on this country in which 3,000 Americans were slaughtered in the name of Islamist jihad.
The Shiites are still still pushing death in that name and that is why we're in Iraq and why we have to win this battle and all other similar battles decisively.
Posted by: Jen || 04/04/2004 19:52 Comments || Top||

#25  Rafael, I sense that you are thinking that when this "handover" occurs next June 30th, we will then leave Iraq. Nothing could possibly be further from the truth: we're in Iraq to stay, because a large part of the unspoken reason we wanted in there to begin with, was so Iraq could become a U.S. land base for future Middle Eastern operations.

All that's going to happen on June 30th is that civil administration of Iraq is going to be turned over to an Iraqi government of some sort.

I guarantee you, not one single American soldier will be leaving then; and if there's further trouble after that, we will deal with it.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/04/2004 20:07 Comments || Top||

#26  AL Sadr has just put himself at risk - he is opposing the legitimate governing power and is doing so with only the most radical supporting him.

Now a case can be made for treason, given his attacks on local Iraqi polic and regional Iraqi authority. He may not realize it, but he just signed his own death warrant, not from just the US, but from others inside Iraq.

Sadr is just another wanna-be dictator, and his action prove it - there is nothign religious at all about killing local polic and engaging armed forces that are trying to reconstruct the nation.

Glad he stuck his head out finally, so we can chop it off.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/04/2004 20:15 Comments || Top||

#27  Since they are complicit co-conspirators with Sadr and the jihadis, it makes sense to me to throw Al Jizz and every other known collabortive "news" org out of the country. This will help in numerous ways - I'm sure that's obvious to everyone keeping score.

And fuck those who don't like it.

Then...
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 20:26 Comments || Top||

#28  In theory a US land base in Iraq was a good idea, but with the status quo...it ain't happening.
My feeling is that Washington wants to cut its losses and everything is in a holding pattern until the election. We'll see shortly whether I'm right.
Posted by: Rafael || 04/04/2004 20:27 Comments || Top||

#29  This bastard is trying to bring Iraq under theocratic rule; therefore he is a part of what gave us 9/11. Kill him, along with his henchmen.

No handover.

No quarter.

No insurgents leave Fajullah alive.

No excuses.

No mercy.

Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 20:28 Comments || Top||

#30  Maybe we should have liberated greater Kurdistan. At least we could be sure who our friends are.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/04/2004 20:32 Comments || Top||

#31  You may be interested in what Zayed has to say about Sadr, today...
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 20:51 Comments || Top||

#32  Sadr City just got added to "time and place of our choosing" list. If the Marines don't restore order by killing everyone who opposes the CPA in Fallujah and Sadr City in the next day or two, Bush follows in the footsteps of those vacillating ******s Clinton and Kerry.
Posted by: RWV || 04/04/2004 21:02 Comments || Top||

#33  Rafael, President Bush and his Administration don't work that way and you have a misapprehension about what the WOT is really about and why we're waging it the way we are.
With 600 dead soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom, 3,000 dead on 9/11 and a war to win over the death cult of IslamoFascism in the Middle East that will probably take years, one doesn't talk about "cutting one's losses."
That is Clintoon-think and of the past.
And Bush is going to win the election without resorting to any cheap "wag the dog" scenarios: invading Iraq in the first place was politically risky enough without officially treating it as a "mistake" by "cutting one's losses."
This isn't a bet at the tables in Vegas, but a World War for the preservation of Civilization.
Posted by: Jen || 04/04/2004 21:03 Comments || Top||

#34  RWV - IMHO, NOW, while the asshats are out there fighting is when to do the job. Roll 'em up and kill them all while they're in the streets, armed, and obviously engaged as our enemy. NOW. It is 5:09 PM in Baghdad right now - we own the night. Don't stop the engagement until we've killed them all.
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 21:08 Comments || Top||

#35  .com from your mouth to God's ear. We can only hope.
Posted by: RWV || 04/04/2004 21:14 Comments || Top||

#36  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: mhw TROLL || 04/04/2004 21:18 Comments || Top||

#37  mhw - Step One was done hours ago, according to press reports. I suggest we skip 2 & 3.
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 21:19 Comments || Top||

#38  I know logic is beyond most islamic hard-liners but one must wonder how stupid Sadr must be to be pulling this now. If he waits two months, the Shiites gain majority and he can move about w/relative impunity. As OS said, he has now brought the attention of us to him or as I like to say the 'eye of mordor' is upon him. Same w/the assmunchs in Fallujah - they will not escape the eye either. Matter of time, be patient.
Posted by: Jarhead || 04/04/2004 21:27 Comments || Top||

#39  .com and Mhw...
Step two should be to get their attention... Droopping a MOAB or three on Sadr's compound ought to do it. After that we should get all hardcase on their ass.

I just hope we (or whoever is in charge) have the belly for it.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/04/2004 23:32 Comments || Top||

#40  CF - I see your Getting their attention to be the same as Step 4, heh. The reports I've read today said his house is even surrounded - but the twits don't say if he's in it, or not.

JH - He's marching to the orders of his masters, the Iranian Mad Mullahs. He's their boy and I'll bet this power play is their bidding - for the reasons I speculated about up in #13.
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 23:38 Comments || Top||

#41  [Troll droppings deleted]
Posted by: Man Bites Dog TROLL || 04/04/2004 19:51 Comments || Top||

#42  Well, the first thing to do is cordon off Badr City. The second this is to order them to start handing over the ringleaders. The third thing is to infiltrate the cordon with our team's spies and hitmen. You can guess the fourth.
Posted by: mhw || 04/04/2004 21:18 Comments || Top||

#43  From Iraqthemodel blog - perspective on Al-Sadr.
http://www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
Posted by: AF Lady TROLL || 04/04/2004 19:51 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Border Guards on Alert After Arms Haul
Bangladesh has put border guards on alert and ordered them to hunt down arms smugglers as the biggest ever arms haul in the southeastern port city of Chittagong has sent an alarm bell ringing in the country. The final destination of the cache remains unclear. Home (Interior) Ministry officials said yesterday the coast guard has stepped up surveillance at Chittagong and Mongla ports and the police and army at airports. “The entire Chittagong coast is now under strict vigilance of the navy and the coast guards to track down ferries with arms, “ officials said.

“The sources and destination of the arms are not clear. But this is an old story: Bangladesh is being used as a transit point for its geographical location,” said retired Gen. Syed M. Ibrahim, chief of nongovernmental organization Center for Peace and Strategic Development in Dhaka. Police were yesterday questioning five men about the haul of smuggled rocket launchers, AK-47 assault rifles and grenades. Coast guard and police agents found the weapons late Thursday on two fishing boats at Chittagong Port. The haul included nearly 2,000 weapons, 2,000 hand grenades and about 300,000 rifle bullets, Chittagong police said. The weapons included AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and anti-tank mines, police said. All were “brand new and made in China,” a police statement said.
Wonder who paid for them? Any receipts?
Police arrested and were questioning five men from the boats, said Abdullah Baki, a police officer in Chittagong. He said dozens of others involved in unloading the cargo fled under cover of darkness. Police used 10 trucks to transport the haul to a nearby police station. “We believe these modern weapons were intended to run subversive activities in Bangladesh,” Lutfozzaman Babar, junior minister for home affairs, told reporters.
Gee. Golly. Y'think?
Babar called it part of a “conspiracy to create instability.” He did not elaborate.
You don't have to conspire to create instability in Bangla. Just stand on a street corner and wait five minutes.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 2:31:14 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wonder who paid for them? Any receipts?

Gifts, most likely.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/04/2004 15:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Bangladesh has a NAVY???

And a Coast Guard????
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 04/04/2004 19:46 Comments || Top||


Africa: Horn
Turabi Charged With Offenses Against the State
Sudan’s Islamist opposition leader Hassan Turabi has been charged with a raft of offenses against the state and is to be tried before a special court, the independent Sudanese Media Center reported yesterday. Turabi, who was arrested Wednesday, is accused of “incitement to sedition, hatred of the state, sabotage and undermining the regime” and is to be tried before the state security court, it said. The opposition Popular Congress leader, who was detained amid government allegations of a coup attempt by sympathizers of a rebellion by indigenous minorities in the western region of Darfur, had only been at liberty for six months since being freed from three years of house arrest last year.

A one-time mentor of President Omar Bashir, Turabi has been increasingly critical of the scorched-earth policy adopted by the government in Darfur, where the United Nations says at least 10,000 have been killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless by clashes between the rebels and government-backed militias. Militias are conducting an organized campaign of ethnic cleansing to drive out black Africans from Darfur region and the government is doing little to stop it, the UN emergency relief coordinator said in New York on Friday. “I have no reason to believe that the government is actively planning it, but I have reason to say that little is done to stop it, and therefore it seems as if it is being condoned,” Jan Egeland, the world body’s humanitarian affairs chief, said after briefing the Security Council.
Thank you for that statement of the obvious.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 2:28:05 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: North
Security Forces Kill 4 Extremists in Algeria
Four Islamic extremist militants and a security official have been killed in unrest in Algeria, media and security officials reported yesterday Two extremists were killed on Friday by security forces in the Boumerdes region. Newspapers reported that a security official in the same region was killed Thursday by gunmen, while two armed extremists were shot dead by security forces in separate incidents in the Jijel and Skikda regions.

The reports came as the former French colony entered the final days of campaigning for the April 8 presidential election. The deaths brought the toll to 70 killed in unrest linked to Islamic extremists since the start of March. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, seeking re-election on April 8, said rebels fighting for a Taleban-style state have largely been crushed although a few die-hard elements still hold out. Authorities estimate 100,000 Algerians were slain over the past decade in violence marked by massacres of entire villages, often with simple kitchen knives. Human rights groups put the toll at over 150,000 — mostly civilians killed by rebels. “The war on terrorism is effectively won, but there are still a few pockets that make up what’s left of the terrorist groups,” Bouteflika told Reuters. “This justifies maintaining the state of emergency which, of course, will be lifted as soon as security conditions permit,” he said in written replies to questions, received yesterday.
No doubt.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 2:22:10 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Qaeda may be ploting to destabilise Jordan
Gee. Golly. Y'think?
Jordanian officials on Saturday said suspected terrorists detained this week carrying explosives may have belonged to Al Qaeda and been linked to plots to blow up vital public facilities to destabilise the US-allied Arab kingdom. In light of the fears, security forces have beefed up patrols and car searches across the capital, Amman, and issued alerts and rewards for three wanted fugitives and two cars with explosives believed associated with the men arrested earlier this week, officials said. The terror suspects in custody were arrested when their vehicle - filled with explosives, detonators and bombs - was nabbed in a Jordanian town on the Syrian border.
"Hmmm... Y'all have an explanation for those explosives, detonators and bombs in your truck?"
"Ummmm... They're wedding gifts?"
They confessed to plotting a series of deadly terror attacks in Jordan. Jordanian officials have told the AP that cars carrying the suspected terrorists and explosives entered the country from Syria, claims which Damascus denies.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
The suspects were planning to attack sensitive government institutions. But security has been significantly tightened around public offices, especially the interior and prime ministries. The officials said investigators are examining the possible link between the detained suspects and Jordanian militant Ahmed al-Khalayleh, a reputed top Al Qaeda figure better known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Zaraqawi, who is thought to be a close associate of Osama Bin Laden, has been convicted and sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan for several terror plots against American and Israeli targets in the kingdom, the officials said. US officials have offered a $10 million reward for al-Zarqawi, saying he is trying to build a network of foreign militants in neighbouring Iraq to work on Al Qaeda’s behalf.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 2:13:15 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In other late breaking news, Pope and bear. Tape at eleven.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 17:13 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Rocket fired at FC fort in North Waziristan
MIRANSHAH: Unidentified attackers fired a rocket at the Frontier Constabulary Fort in Kajori in North Waziristan Agency, hitting the outer wall of the fort. However, no loss of life was reported. Sources said the attack occurred on Friday night and the attackers fled after the Touchi Scouts fired at them. The political administration has issued a notice to the Haiderkhel tribe on the basis of territorial responsibility.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 2:08:12 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Touchi Scouts???
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 14:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Touchi Scouts???

Going for their Merit Badge in rocketry.
Posted by: Steve || 04/04/2004 16:26 Comments || Top||

#3  They're not really Touchi Scouts they are just very sensitive tender foots.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/04/2004 16:46 Comments || Top||

#4  LOL Ship - saw that one coming ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 18:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Frank G.
I onced caught a big snipe in my bag. LOL I've ever had good dogs willing to raise hell. LOL. But sweet Pups mind 'ya. Good dawgs.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/04/2004 18:40 Comments || Top||


Second day of Qazi's grand tribal jirga
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, acting chief of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), has condemned the ongoing military operation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and termed it a US conspiracy to pitch the tribesmen against the Pakistan Army to weaken the country.
Internal dissension, sectarian violence, an incompetent military, an attempt at a parliament that looks more like a side show... I guess Pakland could get weaker, but it would involve surgery.
Addressing participants on the second day of the three-day tribal jirga at Al-Markaz Islami, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s provincial secretariat, on Saturday, Mr Ahmad said that the tribesmen living in all seven tribal agencies were patriotic and sincere Pakistanis and had rendered sacrifices for the country. Despite obstacles such as the notorious black law of the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), these tribesmen have remained united and loyal to Pakistan but now the ruling military regime is trying to divide them to safeguard US interests in the region, he added. “We condemn the use of force against the innocent tribesmen and consider it a conspiracy hatched at the behest of America to defame the Pakistan Army. We also want to make it clear that it will have a negative affect on Pakistan’s stability,” said Mr Ahmad.
... who has single-handedly managed to have a negative effect on Pakland's stability himself.
The JI chief said the tribesmen were peace loving and patriotic people and would never compromise on their independent status, but the rulers wanted to keep them suppressed through laws like the FCR. However, he said that the rulers would not succeed.
If you're independent, that means you're not part of Pakland. If you have your own laws and feel free to ignore any gummint laws that don't please you, you're either not part of the country or you're in rebellion.
Mr Ahmad welcomed the delegates from all seven agencies and hoped that the discussions held at the jirga would enable them to chalk out a joint strategy in the current situation. Syed Munawar Hasan, central general secretary of the JI, highlighted various aspects of the “so-called war on terrorism”. He observed that only Muslims were being targeted in the anti-terrorism campaign and no Jew had so far been declared as a terrorist.
No Jew's hijacked an airliner recently that we've heard of. No Jews have declared jihad against all of Western civilization that we've heard of.
Mr Hasan criticised the role of the Muslim leadership and said that rulers of all Muslim countries had joined hands with the US and were acting at the behest of American interests. He said that the Muslim community had split into two visible groups due to the policies of their rulers. One group comprises of Muslim rulers who are safeguarding American interests, while the other consists of ordinary Muslims who want an end to American supremacy, he added.
"Ordinary Muslims like you and... ummm... me, Brethren and Sistern! Pious men! Men with turbans and automatic weapons!"
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 1:56:26 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He observed that only Muslims were being targeted in the anti-terrorism campaign and no Jew had so far been declared as a terrorist.

No Jew's hijacked an airliner recently that we've heard of. No Jews have declared jihad against all of Western civilization that we've heard of.

Hey, that's Arab profiling! Just because it's almost exclusively Arabs that are flying passenger jetliners into skyscrapers, blowing up commuter trains or slaughtering women and children is no reason to single them out ... oh golly gee whilikers, maybe it is.

Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 18:07 Comments || Top||


Central Asia
Uzbekistan wants to talk to Wana hard boyz
The government of Uzbekistan has asked for the extradition of Uzbek nationals detained during the Wana operation, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan during the regular Saturday briefing.He said the Pakistani government has not made a decision in reference to the request.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 1:51:34 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Jirga warns political parties not to meddle
Hmmm... They slapped Qazi. I'd call that a good sign...
Senior FATA elders on Saturday addressed a grand jirga and warned political parties, especially the MMA’s component party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), from meddling in tribal affairs. They disregarded the JI set-up jirga, calling it an abortive attempt to malign patriotic tribesmen.
JI didn't mention that it was their own pet jirga, no doubt packed with their own pet members...
Iqbal Khattak adds: The Zalikhel sub-tribe have asked Al Qaeda suspects and their tribal supporters to surrender to the government and leave South Waziristan. “Today, we decided to expel Al Qaeda from Waziristan,” Malik Bostan of the Zalikhel tribe told Daily Times from Wana after a jirga of the tribe.
"So how 'bout if all you Arabs and Chechens and Uzbeks leave, huh? Please?"
Five tribesmen accused of sheltering Al Qaeda suspects belong to the Zalikhel tribe. However, Mr Bostan said Al Qaeda’s expulsion was more important than the surrender of the five wanted men, which he called a “secondary consideration”.
That assumes there's a difference between al-Qaeda and the wanted men, which I haven't seen demonstrated...
“First, we need to get rid of Al Qaeda because by doing so we can save our areas from military operations and destruction,” the tribal leader said. “We will chase the wanted men also but first things first, we have to act against Al Qaeda,” he said and called on the Ahmedzai tribe also to join the Zalikhels to purge Waziristan of Al Qaeda. However, a tribal elder from the Ahmedzai tribe was not optimistic about Malik Bostan’s call for a larger tribal lashkar to fight Al Qaeda. “The problem is within the Zalikhels.
"Those people are crazy! Even by FATA standards, they're loop-loops!"
"If they cannot put their house in order, we cannot help them. The Zalikhels should make a move and then if we see that they need other tribes’ help then we will help them,” the Ahmedzai tribal told Daily Times on the phone from Wana. A team of Zalikhel tribesmen is likely to meet NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah in Peshawar on Monday to discuss the situation in Waziristan. “We will take up the Ahmedzai tribe’s support during our meeting with the governor,” Mr Bostan said. During the Zalikhel jirga on Saturday, a 300-man lashkar was formed and three sub-tribes of the Zalikhel – Sheikh Bazeed, Utmankhel and Kakakhel – contributed to the tribal armed group.
And that's simply done wonders...
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 1:40:24 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  --"Those people are crazy! Even by FATA standards, they're loop-loops!"--

But the 'Merkins on the other side of the border are even more crazy and more deadly.

It's personal.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 04/04/2004 19:49 Comments || Top||


70 shops burned in Azam Warsak oops
Witnesses said around 70 shops were burnt when a missile explosion caused a fire in a weapons market in Azam Warsak. There were reports of three men getting injured in the explosion.
"Whatcha got here is your basic FROG-7, with a HE warhead. Very handy if you're troubled by infidels or other hereditary enemies!"
"Does it work against Bugtis?"
"Blows 'em right up!"
"Hey! Purdy neat! How do ya fire it?"
"You just push this here red button and..."
[KABOOM!]
They said the market was the main source of weapons for Afghan mujahideen during the Russian invasion. “It’s not clear what caused the explosion but some people say it happened when weapons were being loaded in a pick-up,” people from the area told Daily Times.
"Hey! Mahmoud! Careful with that FROG-7! It'll... [KABOOM!]"
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda supporters distributed pamphlets in Wana calling on soldiers to revolt against President Pervez Musharraf for fighting a “proxy war” on behalf of the United States.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2004 1:23:30 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Quite the day at the Bazaar! Booms and pamphlets. Now all we need is some agit-prop and we've got us a happening.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2004 14:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Rock the Casbah, huh?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 14:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Lol! Geez you guys are good! 8-)
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 15:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Prolly wasn't a FROG-7 - too big for a pick-up, even the big 4x4s. More likely, a crate of RPG rounds, or maybe a box of thermite grenades, or even an old claymore left over from Vietnam. Then again, it could have been just another "work accident" - been a rash of them lately. Maybe Afghanis have a tendency to be color-blind, or something...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/04/2004 16:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Have any of you heard a groan man use the word Purdy?

Yes? I shall name them for you.

1. the muck4doo
2. Fred
3. .com

I rest my case .com is Fred.
Q.E.D.
L.S.M.F.T.

Posted by: Clues Toe || 04/04/2004 16:52 Comments || Top||

#6  CT - No, no, no. I spell it "purty" - like they pronounced it in Deliverance. Sheesh, son!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 17:00 Comments || Top||

#7  I lived in Texas for two years, Clues Toes, and I do believe that all men there use "purdy"! I'm sure that Dubya must. Anyway, "pretty" sounds purdy French, so let's drop it from the language.
Posted by: Tom || 04/04/2004 17:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Wait a minute! "Language" sounds too French too...
Posted by: Tom || 04/04/2004 17:09 Comments || Top||

#9  Lol! Here we go! Now the French have a Ministry or something that is charged with keeping anglo words out - language purity, remember? So cleaning language is French, too. I guess we're just screwed!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 17:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Bunch of cunning linguists if ya ask me.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2004 17:26 Comments || Top||

#11  AP - Lol! You're just dangerous! Wait! Is "dangerous" Danish? Oh shit! I had a danish for breakfast! I'm toast! An where does "toast" come from, huh?
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 17:37 Comments || Top||

#12  Gota use it in a senteance dot. ie.

My chicken fried steak was purty good but the salad bar sneeze guard were full.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/04/2004 18:45 Comments || Top||

#13  .com---re: your microscopic writing as to where toast comes from. It comes from the condition one becomes when one is standing behind a Frog-7 when it is lit off. So now we have come full circle in this discussion.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2004 19:21 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
No lie: Kerry’s just a wannabe
For a year or so now, I’ve woken up to a ton of e-mails each morning with the subject marked BUSH LIED! -- or, to be more precise, BUSH LIED!!!!!!! I’m not one who thinks it helpful to characterize a policy difference as a ’’lie.’’ So, when John Kerry says he supports the Kyoto Treaty even though he voted for a bill that declared the United States would never ever ratify it, that doesn’t mean he’s a ’’liar,’’ it just means that, well, to be honest, I haven’t a clue what it means, you better to take it up with him, now he’s out of the hospital after his elective surgery. ’’Elective surgery" means you vote to have the operation, and then spend the next year insisting you’ve always been strongly opposed to the operation.

Anyway, as I said, I wouldn’t call Sen. Kerry a liar. But I did get the vague feeling in the following exchange that, if it had gone on a minute or two longer, the candidate’s nose would have cracked my TV screen, extended across the coffee table and pinned me to the wall.

The time: last month; the place: MTV. The interviewer asks: ’’Well, we know that you were into rock ’n’ roll when you were in high school, and we know that you play the guitar now. Are there any trends out there in music, or even in popular culture in general, that have piqued your interest?’’

’’Oh sure. I follow and I’m interested,’’ says John Kerry. ’’I’m fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there’s a lot of poetry in it. There’s a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you’d better listen to it pretty carefully, ’cause it’s important . . . I’m still listening because I know that it’s a reflection of the street and it’s a reflection of life.’’

Really? You’re ’’fascinated’’ by rap and ’’listening’’ to hip-hop? You’re America’s first flip-flopper hip-hopper?

The best riposte to Kerry came from an encounter a few years ago between his predecessor Al Gore and Courtney Love, lead singer of the popular beat combo Hole, when they chanced to run into each other at a Democratic party night in Hollywood.

’’I’m a really big fan,’’ gushed the vice president.

’’Yeah, right. Name a song,’’ scoffed Courtney. The panicked vice panderer floundered helplessly. Fortunately, his Secret Service guys moved in before he wound up completely riddled by Hole. As wise old campaign consultants always say, the politician’s First Rule of Holes is: When you’re in one, stop digging. Al introduced us to a Second Rule: When you’re with one, stop pretending to dig her.

If only that MTV guy had said to Kerry, ’’Yeah, right. Name a song.’’ Think Kerry could’ve? Reckon if you bust into his pad and riffled through his and Teresa’s CD collection you’d find a single rap album? Of course, you wouldn’t find any in George and Laura’s CD collection either. The difference is that President Bush doesn’t feel the need to pretend.

Margaret Thatcher didn’t either. Interviewed by disc jockeys on London radio stations and invited to name her favorite pop song, she’d choose the Beverly Sisters’ British cover version of ’’How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?’’ or the Australian didgeridoo virtuoso Rolf Harris’ ’’Two Little Boys.’’ The title of ’’How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?’’ is the very definition of compassionate conservatism -- the vocalist’s compassion for the confined puppy shrewdly tempered by cost-benefit analysis. As for ’’Two Little Boys,’’ that was written in 1902 and seemed kinda hokey even then:
Two Little Boys
Had two little toys
Each had a wooden horse
Gaily they’d play
Each summer’s day
Warriors both of course
To the old taunt ’’Be there or be square,’’ Thatcher replies, ’’Go ahead, punk/hip-hopper/techno-industrial-garage-house-wraparound-porch beatnik, make my day. I’ll be there and be square.’’ That’s much cooler than a 60-year old Botoxicated Brahmin from the U.S. Senate recycling a lot of 20-year-old cliches about rap being the authentic voice of the streets.

By comparison, here’s Gov. Bush four years ago being given a ’’verbal Rorschach’’ test on American pop culture by Glamour magazine: What comes to mind, David France wanted to know, when you think of Madonna?

’’I’m not into pop music,’’ replied Bush.

Boy, that MTV special would have been a short one. Stunned by the candidate’s ignorance, Maureen Dowd, the New York Times’ elderly schoolgirl, wrote a column mocking him for never having heard of ’’Sex and the City,’’ beginning as follows:
’’W. may have gone too far this time.

’’Americans can forgive him not knowing that Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in Pakistan.

’’But can we forgive him not knowing that Sarah Jessica Parker quaffs Cosmopolitans in Manhattan?’’
Answer: Yes. Unlike Dowd, Americans are apparently willing to cut him some slack on this vital question. Some may even feel that his cheerful admission that ’’I’m not into pop music’’ is the sign of a man secure in his sense of himself.

This isn’t entirely a matter of trivialities. The fads and fashions of the world aren’t confined to the Billboard Hot 100. All over the planet, men in late middle age are pretending to like stuff just ’cause it’s what the likes of Maureen Dowd tell them people want to hear. John Kerry pretends to like gangsta rap. Russia pretends it supports the Kyoto Accord. The European Union pretends Yasser Arafat is committed to peace with Israel. The Security Council pretends its resolutions mean something. Kofi Annan pretends the Oil-for-Fraud program is a humanitarian aid effort for the Iraqi people. The International Atomic Energy Authority pretends the mullahs in Tehran are good-faith negotiators on the matter of Iranian nukes.

It’s easy to pander to fashion -- whether on pop music, the environment, the Middle East ’’peace process’’ or sentimental transnationalism. But on MTV, Kerry wasn’t done yet. After coming out for hip-hop, he managed to blame the Bush administration’s ’’behavior’’ for making terrorists become terrorists. I guess that terrorism’s just a ’’reflection of the street,’’ too. Doubtless there’s ’’a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it.’’ The MTV crowd loved the line, and no doubt Jacques Chirac and the Arab League will as well. Welcome to John Kerry’s hip-hop foreign policy: Ask the multilateral gang what’s hip, and hop to it.
Posted by: tipper || 04/04/2004 12:18:13 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The guy can write!
Posted by: phil_b || 04/04/2004 12:29 Comments || Top||

#2  "The MTV crowd loved the line"

-unfortunately for skerry but lucky for us most of those morons don't vote.
Posted by: Jarhead || 04/04/2004 12:50 Comments || Top||

#3  You know, even if I were the Democrat I was 20 years ago (i.e., usually voted for who I thought could "do the best job," Democrat or Republican), I don't see how I could have gotten very excited over Kerry.

Kerry's a lackluster featherweight in a party that's produced nothing but lightweights for a long, long time: cut from the same flimsy, diaphonous material as Clinton, he's a follower, not a leader. He looks which way the wind blows, then drifts along with it.

As far as I can tell, his only appeal is to compulsive Republican-haters.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/04/2004 13:06 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Four Salvadorean soldiers, 14 Iraqis killed, 130 wounded in shooting in front of Spanish base
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) Gunmen opened fire on the Spanish garrison in the holy city of Najaf on Sunday during a huge demonstration by followers of an anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric. Four Salvadorean soldiers and at least 14 Iraqis died, and more than 130 people were wounded.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/04/2004 11:24:21 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bremmer 'Condemned' the Iraqis - Yeah, that'll stop it.

Did you notice how organized and controlled these crowds were? Also notice there are several of these taking place at the same time throughout the country right after the mob won at Fallujah. I'm still waiting for the "Big Response" there.
If this escalates and continues like the trend is becoming (especially after June30) GW better brush up his resume.

This whole thing really ticks me off - why do civilians who know only what the news networks show get the picture better than people in theater? I think we are seeing the results of "Yes Men" being incharge instead of men with backbone and fortitude.


Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/04/2004 12:12 Comments || Top||

#2  The "time and place of our choosing" better be Falujah and damn soon!
Posted by: RWV || 04/04/2004 13:26 Comments || Top||

#3 
Gunmen opened fire on the Spanish garrison
Hey, Zappy - the jihadis what you to hurry up.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/04/2004 14:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Barbara makes THE point. Selecting the Spanish garrison was no accident. They've been perceived as cowards by the jihadis as a result of the election. Look for more of the same.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 04/04/2004 15:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Make that "want you to hurry up"

If I could type, I'd be dangerous. ;-)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/04/2004 17:02 Comments || Top||

#6  If you want to end the violence, kill the Jihad leadership. When the replacement is announced, kill him too. Keep killing them until no one wants the job. This is a war and these are the bad guys.

Sounds brutal, well I rather put these dirt bags in body bags than bury dead Marines.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono || 04/04/2004 20:31 Comments || Top||

#7  amen DDB!
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 20:32 Comments || Top||


Sadr stirring trouble - again
Coalition troops opened fire on thousands of supporters of Shiite Muslim radical leader Moqtada Sadr headed towards the headquarters of the Spanish-led Plus Ultra Brigade on the outskirts of this Shiite holy city, an AFP correspondent witnessed. There were at least five people lying wounded on the ground, amid the sound of explosions and gunfire, the correspondent said. Ambulances rushed to the scene. The Sadr supporters had been marching from Najaf to the neighbouring shrine town of Kufa, passing the Plus Ultra base on their way. Pro-Sadr demonstrations also erupted Sunday around Baghdad and in the southern port city of Basra. The Shiite radicals, who have consistently opposed the US-led coalition and the interim bodies it has set up in Iraq, have mounted daily protests for the past week over the coalition’s suspension of their newspaper, Al-Hawza.
Coincidence that they were harrassing Spanish troops? Don’t know if the Spaniards were just jumpy or the firing was warranted, but there are now reports of at least 4 killed - I doubt whether Sadr is amongst that number unfortunately
Fox News says four Salvadorans killed, a dozen Sadr thugs. The gunfire started from the Sadr thugs and the Spanish and Salvadorans responded.
Posted by: Lux || 04/04/2004 5:24:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I doubt whether Sadr is amongst that number unfortunately"

Well, hope springs eternal...lol

Best Wishes

Posted by: Traveller || 04/04/2004 5:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Not coincidence - trying to peel off the members of the coalition, one by one.
Posted by: rkb || 04/04/2004 7:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Somehow the message has to be delivered to these people, loud and clear, that this must stop; that free speech is one thing, advocating insurrection another thing entirely.

Frankly, I think it's time for this Sadr clown to disappear.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/04/2004 8:35 Comments || Top||

#4  More
At least 19 people have been killed and around 100 injured in clashes between Spanish-led troops and demonstrators in the Iraqi city of Najaf. Soldiers shot at a crowd marching on their base, witnesses said, but it was not clear who had opened fire first. One report said two Iraqi soldiers, acting alongside coalition forces, were among the casualties. One report said Spanish forces were pelted with stones, and responded by opening fire. But one of the marchers, Hussein Ali, said the first shots came from the demonstrators. "Some protesters, who were armed, fired toward the Spanish troops, who responded by firing on the crowd. It was carnage," he said. At least some of those on the march were armed members of the Moqtada Sadr's banned Mehdi Army militia.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 04/04/2004 9:25 Comments || Top||

#5  4 soldiers from El Salvador have also been killed.
Posted by: Lux || 04/04/2004 9:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Sadr better get his followers to shut up before he moves any higher up on "Bush's list".
Posted by: Charles || 04/04/2004 9:58 Comments || Top||

#7  The news this morning is depressing. The Marines need to take some visible action soon. The local bad guys are getting emboldened.
Posted by: Remote Man || 04/04/2004 12:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Why is Sadr still alive? Time for a "work accident" to send him along to Paradise.
Posted by: RWV || 04/04/2004 13:24 Comments || Top||

#9  The key of course is to bump off Sadr while placing the blame on Al-Q, Iran, Syria, or Saudi Arabia.

How to do that I leave as an exercise to the reader....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/04/2004 14:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Sadr is clawing his way to the top of our Christmas list. Let's all hope he gets a visit from Santa real soon.

Let's see. Still being bombed at home and their troops are getting snuffed abroad. That "truce" Spain got for its appeasement is really coming up roses.

Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 18:17 Comments || Top||


Iraqi police ’were too scared’ to help Americans in Fallujah
Iraqi police in the town of Fallujah defended themselves yesterday against criticism that they failed to intervene in the grisly killing of four American bodyguards last week. Officers in the fledgling force stayed inside their fortified police station as the bodyguards’ convoy came under attack and later when their mutilated bodies were paraded through the town. As the town braced itself yesterday for the Americans’ promised retaliation, Sgt Ahmed Samir, one of several officers nervously patrolling, said the fear of being hit by "friendly fire" meant that many police were too scared to rescue Americans in trouble. He cited the incident last year in which nine uniformed Iraqi police were killed by US troops in Fallujah when they tried to chase robbers towards an American checkpoint. "If we help the US when they are under attack we usually end up getting shot at as well - they don’t trust us any more than the rest of the people here," the sergeant said. "Also, you must remember that this is Fallujah - if Americans get attacked, people here don’t come running to the police station telling us to help them."

Roadside petrol sellers now occupy the spot on the town’s dual carriageway where the bodyguards’ two-car convoy burnt fiercely after coming under attack from rocket-propelled grenades, the macabre wreckage having finally been cleared away. The shops and bazaars that line Fallujah’s dirt-strewn main street were noticeably quiet yesterday, and the mood was one of contrition over the defiling of the bodies. Even so, residents vowed to meet any US show of strength with defiance. "If Americans get killed here, that’s OK by me," said a restaurateur, Abdullah Ahmed, 29. "I didn’t like the mutilation - I saw what happened and it hurt my eyes - but it was just youngsters trying to be like men. It is part of the ritual of manhood for some people now that you have to have killed an American soldier to be respected. The guys who killed the guards disappeared straight away: teenagers attacked the bodies afterwards to try and say, ’I am a man.’ Nobody will hand them over to the Americans, though: we will just give them a talking to and tell them ’not again’."

While the Americans ponder their response to the killings, it has emerged that other US security officers in Iraq who fear they will meet the same fate are planning to strengthen their weaponry with grenades and high-powered machineguns. Only coalition soldiers are allowed to carry explosives under existing regulations, leaving up to 20,000 private guards outgunned by insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades and belt-fed machineguns. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is horrified by the Americans’ plans to flout the rules, believing that such action could lead to a serious escalation in violence. Most private guards in Iraq have relied on Kalashnikovs or MP5 machine pistols and sidearms, believing that their superior military training made them a match for insurgents. Last night, however, Malcolm Nance, a former adviser to the CIA and the US National Security Agency who has spent 10 months in Iraq supervising private security, said businesses would now "go heavy" to prevent a repeat of last week’s horrific events. Mr Nance said his personnel would be using "massive firepower". "People are going into battle now. In military terms, we describe a grenade as a ’break-contact’ device used as a final option to stop any contact in an attack. Nobody I have employed out here uses them, but I would imagine that break-contact devices will get used a lot more as a result of the incident in Fallujah."

British security companies, which tend to adopt a lower-key approach, are alarmed by the prospect of US guards increasing their weaponry. "The last thing we need is loads of Americans running round grenading people," one manager said. "But I fear that a few may end up carrying grenades, and God knows what other weapons, too."
Posted by: tipper || 04/04/2004 4:18:31 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Too scared?" What crap!
Belmont Club thinks they were bribed, which is even more likely.
The Telegraph, which is the closest that the UK comes to having a "fair and balanced" newspaper, which is not saying much, just can't resist using this "story" about the IP's fear to relate what hated bad-asses the American soldiers are.
If I didn't know better, I'd think it was written by John Kerry.
Posted by: Jen || 04/04/2004 4:30 Comments || Top||

#2  To my knowledge, the event cited is the only such friendly fire incident by US troops on Iraqi police -- and it involved the policemen approaching a roadblock checkpoint at high speed in pursuit of some "bad guys." That, firing on vehicles which are obviously not going to stop - the speed alone being proof of it, is SOP in every martial law or war zone I've ever heard of. Obviously the vehicle needed markings and the occupants needed to have radioed ahead and confirmed their identities to have expected anything different. Slowing down and signalling you'll stop would've been the obvious thing to do sans radio comms. The vehicle not doing so would've been stopped for you.

Just one such event...
"'If we help the US when they are under attack we usually end up getting shot at as well - they don’t trust us any more than the rest of the people here,' the sergeant said."

Regards the first item, bullshit - one event, or even two, does not equal "usually." As for the second, too goddamned right, Ahmed.

Payoff or cowardice. The blather doesn't cut it.
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 4:56 Comments || Top||

#3  "The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is horrified by the Americans’ plans to flout the rules, believing that such action could lead to a serious escalation in violence."

This is just about the most discouraging thing I have heard yet in the WoT--even more discouraging than the Spanish election results last month. I don't know about you, but this sounds like Loony Liberal Logic to me. The jihadis are escalating the violence, and the only way to stop it is to keep escalating it right back at them--without any limits--until they give up.

I think we've become too goddamn civilized.
Posted by: Dave D. || 04/04/2004 8:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Standard American police credo:To protect and serve.

Fallugian police credo:Duck and cower.
Posted by: Raptor || 04/04/2004 9:45 Comments || Top||

#5  I think we've become too goddamn civilized.

More like "Politicaly Correct". I understand what you're saying though, Dave. We need to fight dirty if we're going to win this. It was our policy in Vietnam to be 'civilized' and some people won't even call it a war now!
Posted by: Charles || 04/04/2004 10:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Nobody will hand them over to the Americans, though: we will just give them a talking to and tell them ’not again.’"

Who says we're going to ask?????

And maybe they need a timeout at GTMO.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 04/04/2004 13:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Of course they're afraid. Their town is a mafia stronghold.
Posted by: Lucky || 04/04/2004 14:17 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Caucasus Corpse Count
A fresh spate of attacks including a landmine blast has killed seven Russian soldiers in the troubled republic of Chechnya since Friday. Officials said that troops have been fired at by Chechen fighters 19 times during the past 24 hours, leaving four soldiers dead. Another two soldiers died in a gunfight near the village of Gekhi. One more soldier was killed and two others wounded when a landmine blew up a military car in Urus-Martan. Authorities also discovered and defused a shrapnel-filled bomb left near a bus stop in the Chechen capital of Grozny.

Officials meanwhile confirmed that Friday's explosions on gas and oil pipelines in southern Russia had been carried out by the Chechen fighters. The first of the two blasts struck on the Mozdok-Kazimagomed line, which pumps natural gas to Azerbaijan. The second struck the Baku-Novorossisk oil pipeline. "Most likely it was a terrorist attack," Uvluby Erbolatov, a regional official in Dagestan, the southern Russian republic bordering Chechnya where the explosions occurred, said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/04/2004 12:35:06 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Why an SUV is now the most dangerous vehicle in Iraq
It has become clear in the past few years that four-wheel-drive SUVs are some of the most dangerous vehicles on the road. Nowhere is this more true than in Iraq. In almost every deadly attack on foreign civilians, the victims have been in Sport Utility Vehicles, almost invariably white: the occupation car of choice. The burning wreckage in Falluja last week was unmistakable. The charred bodies of the four Americans were scattered around two white SUVs. Falluja is a centre of the anti-American resistance, where even the police don't support the Americans. US soldiers don't drive through Falluja much. When they do, they have helicopter back-up and heavy armour. 'Almost every foreigner who has been killed here is an idiot,' said one ex-Navy SEAL.

Soldiers often show little sympathy for those who fail to follow the right procedure. He began listing their mistakes. To start with, they were in Falluja, in an SUV. Next, he guessed they had gone through the city before and had met no problems, but were seen leaving an American base - a routine can kill you. Later, they were followed. 'People don't realise that this is war,' he said. But last week's horrific scenes in Falluja give the wrong impression. Iraq is, in fact, a lot safer than it was last summer. There is less violence now but it is better organised, more methodical. Especially in the capital. You can tell a lot about the security situation in Baghdad by listening to the city. Last summer, there was almost constant gunfire. The city was in chaos and murders and robbery were common. Today, there are police on the streets and it is much safer. The problem is that, while the police presence reduces some kinds of crime, there is nobody in control of the city. For a careful criminal, there are no consequences. The other day, we drove by a café in which gangsters hang out. If someone wants to kill you, this is where they can go. It costs $100 to have someone shot. The killers know they will never be caught.

For all the media reports about foreign deaths, life is far more dangerous for Iraqis, especially Iraqis who work for foreigners. And while three journalists have been killed in the past month, they have all been killed by the American army. And they were Arab or Iraqi. This is what Iraqis complain about when they say ' maku amin ', no security. If you anger somebody, he can kill you with impunity. A foreign newspaper bureau here recently tried to fire one of its guards for sleeping on the job. A driver quietly explained that, if the guard were fired, he would hire someone to take revenge. The guard stayed. If you can't threaten someone with a vendetta, then you have very little leverage in negotiations. As a result, the tribeless Christian community has been one of the worst hit by kidnappers. In Baghdad, we listen to bombs exploding rather than chaotic gunfire. One woke us up last week, rattling the windows, blowing in the curtains. Five Iraqis were killed. What were they driving? An SUV.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2004 12:30:31 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Red Toyota pickups with mounted 50 cal. perhaps a better choice. Or a Citroen with blacked out windows.
Posted by: Lucky || 04/04/2004 3:07 Comments || Top||

#2  "If you anger somebody, he can kill you with impunity". Sounds a little like the lofty principals behind the practice of "Fatwah".
Posted by: Vandor || 04/04/2004 8:29 Comments || Top||

#3  It's the usual al Guardian logic - SUV's are evil, even in Iraq. This is the home of quagmire theory (in both Afghanistan and Iraq) and Robert Fisk.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 04/04/2004 12:51 Comments || Top||


Africa: Horn
Kenya arrests al-Qaeda supporters
Kenyan authorities have arrested at least a dozen people suspected of links to the al-Qaida terrorist network. Police say the suspects were arrested in a security sweep of the Eastleigh district of the capital, Nairobi. The crime-plagued district is mostly inhabited by refugees from war-torn Somalia. Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper says security forces made the arrests based on local and international intelligence reports.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/04/2004 12:32:42 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This practice smells like the Chinese payola in the Carribean. Now that the U.S. is increasingly engaged in Africa, are locals leaders looking for a piece of the GWOT pie?
Posted by: Anonymous4007 || 04/04/2004 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  If they want to collect a bounty on the heads of AlQ,thats fine by me.
Bounty hunting almost caused the extinction of the wolf in America.
Posted by: Raptor || 04/04/2004 8:30 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm waiting for the Muckmans view on this one.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/04/2004 10:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Al kayda dont like pigs. kick pigs out of kaptul. not much oil for chainey so he use pig lard heated.

That is the best I can come up so far....Mucky is a hard act to follow.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2004 16:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Got that right AP, never follow a kid act, a dog act or muck4doo.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/04/2004 16:54 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
WaPo sez Pakland's army becoming moderate. Really.
At the Pakistan Military Academy, the atmosphere fairly reeks of the British Raj: the cricket field, the polo ponies, the high-ceilinged mess hall with its turbaned waiters and white linen tablecloths. "We observe all the British traditions except the toast," Lt. Col. Saadat Saeed Bhutta says proudly. "And we say, 'Bismillah' " -- In the name of God -- at the start of every meal. But the alcohol ban and the traditional Islamic blessing aren't the only departure from British ways. The emphasis on religion, in fact, is hard to miss. At the main entrance to the academy, an Arabic-lettered sign proclaims: "Victory Awaits Those Who Have Faith in God." Fallen war heroes are honored in a "Martyrs' Gallery." The curriculum includes a six-month course in Islamic studies. "Our basic route is Islam," says Manan Abdul, 20, an army officer's son from Punjab province who will soon graduate from the academy as a second lieutenant. "When we have to command, when we have to make decisions, for that we have a role model: the prophet, peace be upon him."
That's why they've won all those wars.
At least in part, such expressions of faith are a legacy of a conscious strategy of "Islamization" of the military that began in the late 1970s and has included active support for Muslim extremist groups, including the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. Now, as Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, seeks to steer his country on a more moderate course, rolling back that legacy has emerged as one of his most challenging -- and most urgent -- priorities.
Kinda like holding back the ocean with a fork, I'd call it...
In some respects, the army would seem to be the least of Musharraf's worries. Most of its senior commanders owe their jobs to the president, who has taken pains to ensure that the military's upper ranks are filled with officers who share his moderate, pro-Western outlook. Even before Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup, the army had instituted procedures to sideline officers seen as overly sympathetic to radical groups. "The joke in Islamabad is that the drinking generals are back, which is not a bad thing," said a Western-educated academic who is close to the military establishment. The army, so steeped in British tradition that its officers take their regimental silver on peacekeeping deployments abroad, remains a disciplined organization with a strong institutional interest in preserving its perks and privileges, according to active-duty and retired officers, Western and Pakistani military experts, and Western diplomats. Far more than an instrument of national defense, the army is Pakistan's dominant political and economic power, with vast influence over important civilian institutions, such as universities, and extensive holdings in real estate and commercial industry.
It's a feudal society with a "warrior aristocracy" running things to keep themselves and their caste comfy, while the commons are allowed to attend to their own devices free from interference except where their actions impinge on the perks of the aristocrats.
Senior officers caution against reading too much into the army's embrace of religious symbols and slogans -- including its 28-year-old motto, "Faith, Piety and Jihad in the Way of Allah" -- which they describe as a "motivational tool" rather than a battle cry against the West. Two recent exhortations by al Qaeda lieutenant Ayman Zawahiri for the Pakistani army to rise up against the "traitor" Musharraf had no apparent impact. "It is not a secular army, but it is not a rabid jihadi army," said retired army Col. Abdul Qayyum, a onetime friend and adviser to Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, who instituted the Islamization program as Pakistan's military ruler from 1977 to 1988. "The basic ethos of the army is Muslim. In Zia ul-Haq's time it got more explicit, open. This external display of it has receded, and I personally don't see any possibility of a coup."
Oh, I do.
But for all the emphasis on moderation, Musharraf and the army maintain strong ties with Muslim hard-liners, having helped to engineer a strong showing by an alliance of six hard-line Islamic parties in 2002 elections for parliament and provincial legislatures. Ever the tactician, Musharraf has permitted the hard-line parties to flourish, analysts say, to blunt any potential challenge to his rule from the secular opposition parties that still command the largest following in Pakistan. There are indications, moreover, that Musharraf still faces a potential threat from extremists in the military angered by his close cooperation with the United States in the war on terrorism and his pursuit of a peaceful settlement of the conflict with India over Kashmir. An inspector from the paramilitary Rangers, for example, has been charged in connection with a plot to assassinate Musharraf by bombing his convoy in Karachi in June 2002. Two air force technicians have been arrested in connection with the nearly successful suicide bombing against Musharraf's limousine in Rawalpindi on Dec. 25. And an army major faces court martial for allegedly providing shelter to Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a top al Qaeda figure captured in Rawalpindi in March 2003; a colonel and two other officers were arrested for failing to report the major even though they allegedly knew of his activities. "Though this major was acting independently, it is not unfair to say that al Qaeda had some penetration in the army," said a senior Pakistani official.
So your statement that a coup isn't likely is mere flatulence. Unless you're referring to the tanks in the streets thing, rather than Perv being bumped off and another, more amenable, general taking over?
Such warnings have fueled concerns abroad about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal -- a worry that was underscored by the recent proliferation scandal involving scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. "Something will snap at some point," said retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, nut case a conservative Muslim who ran Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) from 1987 to 1989. "It's like bending a green stick. The cracking point comes, but when is anyone's guess."
The fact that somebody remotely like Hamid Gul could rise to a position of authority and influence in the Pak military defines it as an organization that can't be trusted, not even by its own members.
Retired Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, a former secretary of defense production, does not go quite that far. Still, he said: "The question mark is essentially the middle ranks and lower ranks. It would take some time before you are able to convince the rank and file because they had a certain indoctrination and mind-set over the years, and it's not easy to switch gears." Much of that indoctrination dates to the time of Zia, a religious conservative who sought to put an Islamic stamp on the military by enhancing the status of Muslim clerics assigned to combat units and introducing Islamic teachings at the military academy and at the army's Command and Staff College.
That, no doubt, improved the military's grasp on strategy and tactics no end. Definitely made it a better, more capable organization...
The sense of identification with a larger Islamic cause was further strengthened by the army's role in funneling arms and ammunition -- much of it supplied by the CIA -- to Islamic guerrillas battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. After the Soviets withdrew in 1989, moreover, relations between the United States and Pakistan deteriorated. Washington imposed sanctions in a response to Pakistan's nuclear program, cutting off military training programs in a move that fueled a sense of isolation and betrayal in the army, according to retired Pakistani officers and Western diplomats. Most sanctions were lifted in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, and the training programs have since resumed. But the army began to come to terms with Zia's legacy in 1995, when a handful of uniformed zealots, led by a major general, were arrested for plotting a coup with the aim of imposing Islamic rule in Pakistan.
No chance of that ever happening again, of course...
As a direct result, officers from the rank of lieutenant colonel on up were "thoroughly screened" for signs of excessive Islamic zeal by field detachments from the army's director general for military intelligence, according to retired U.S. Army Col. David Smith, who served two tours as a military attache in Pakistan, most recently from 2000 to 2003. Officers thought to have militant leanings "were not purged, but if they were in a sensitive position they were very quietly reassigned," Smith said in an interview. "That system has remained in effect to this day." Smith recalled one particular illustration of the army's alertness to signs of Islamic militancy. In December 2001, he said, he was invited to graduation ceremonies at the army staff college. He made a point of counting the number of graduates with beards -- a common practice among foreign military attaches eager for any indicators of religious trends in the army. After he had finished, Smith recalled, an ISI protocol officer approached him and asked, "How many beards did you count?" Smith replied that he had counted 30 beards out of 225 graduates, down from 45 the year before. But the Pakistani took issue with his tally, insisting that only long beards -- of which there were five -- should be counted. "Those are the ones we worry about," the ISI officer said.
"We don't worry about the ones that are only a little bit nuts..."
The cross-currents of Islam and British influence converge visibly at the military academy, whose stone buildings, freshly painted curbs and manicured grounds are nestled in a spur of the Himalayas about 70 miles northwest of Islamabad. About 1,500 cadets are enrolled and spend two years studying for the equivalent of a bachelor's degree before entering the officer corps. At a gathering of upperclassmen called together for the benefit of a foreign guest, Bhutta, the lieutenant colonel and campus administrator, listened with a look of growing exasperation as several cadets stressed the centrality of Islam to the shaping of a Pakistani officer. "Yes, but what is the percentage of Islamic teachings?" Bhutta finally interrupted, eager to make the point that cadets devote much more of their classroom time to secular studies in areas such as political science, computers, and military history and tactics. "There was a visible leaning toward religion, but over time it has faded out," said the academy commandant, Maj. Gen. Hamid Rab Nawaz, 52, a strapping special forces veteran.
Oh, yesss... That's obvious. Can't miss it, can you?
Campus life, in fact, does not seem overly saturated with religion. Cadets spend free time surfing the Internet or -- since the installation of cable television in lounge areas last year -- watching movies such as "Bruce Almighty" on HBO. "A fantastic movie," said 21-year-old Farhan Laghari, a landowner's son from Sindh province, of the comedy starring Jim Carrey as God.
"Blasphemous, but fantastic. The director and all the actors have to be killed, of course. Blasphemous, y'know? But still, a fantastic move."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/04/2004 12:08:45 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A den of Islamic snakes with cable TV that have tried repeatedly to assassinate Perv, harbored KSM, and think Bruce Almighty is a great movie - leading men who attended hardcore madrassahs. And they count beards to guesstimate their Islamist Zeal quotient. Oops, make that long beards, sorry. The only thing missing is that they Blame Bush For Everything. Sigh. I feel better. No, really, I feel better. Uh, pass me the bong again. Just not quite better enough. BTW, how's our tar ball stockpile holding out?

Thx, Dan! The Zoo is full and the keepers are insane. Poor Pervy. :^(
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 0:42 Comments || Top||

#2  One of these fine mornings the Hindoooos are going to be in a fuck-ghandi mood and the whole game will be up. I figure it'll take 6 months.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/04/2004 10:00 Comments || Top||

#3  To successfully "moderate" Pakistan's army would require clubbing each and every one of their soldiers into unconsciousness with a vitreous carbon rod.

Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 20:14 Comments || Top||

#4  It's a feudal society with a "warrior aristocracy" running things to keep themselves and their caste comfy, while the commons are allowed to attend to their own devices free from interference except where their actions impinge on the perks of the aristocrats.

Yeah, Saudi Arabia has got to go ... er, I mean Pakistan.

Posted by: Zenster || 04/04/2004 20:16 Comments || Top||


New lashkars formed to hunt al-Qaeda in Waziristan
Tribal leaders on Saturday rushed hundreds of armed men to remote villages near the Afghan border to hunt down Al Qaeda fighters as authorities set a new deadline for their surrender, local leaders said.
Is that the same deadline as yesterday or a new deadline? I'm having trouble keeping all the deadlines straight...
The tribal lashkar headed to the borderlands with a mission to conduct a house-to-house search to purge South Waziristan region of foreign terrorists, tribal leader Malik Shireen Jan said. He said the decision to raise the lashkar was agreed at a meeting of hundreds of tribal elders in Wana. The meeting was also joined by some 5,000 local tribesmen, he said. "The gathering was unanimous that the presence of Al Qaeda members is fraught with dangers for the tribal population. We have therefore decided to use force against them," he said. He said the tribal gathering also issued an ultimatum to foreigners to quit the Pakistani territory by Sunday and asked local sympathisers who played host to Al-Qaeda fugitives to surrender over the next 24 hours. "If any local provided food or shelter or extended any cooperation to the foreign terrorists, the tribal lashkar is empowered to demolish his house in addition to imposing a million-rupee fine." Elders have also asked all tribes in South Waziristan to identify Al Qaeda sympathisers so that the lashkar can arrest and hand them over to the authorities, he added.

A nice game of charades is always fun, isn't it?
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/04/2004 12:07:18 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  a deadline that keeps moving? that's called a calendar
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 18:27 Comments || Top||

#2  I googled up this map last week. All we got is Wana. We need more detail. We need some tactical maps of the area. The villages in the news do not show up on the map.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/04/2004 22:28 Comments || Top||

#3  What about these?
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 22:33 Comments || Top||

#4  OK, I managed to consolidate the links y'all pointed out with some at Global Security here, and will be adding more to the list as I find them: http://newsfromthefridge.typepad.com/nfff/2004/04/more_map_links.html. I also came up with the following isometric view, courtesy of a computer game, although I know some of it to be somewhat inaccurate: http://newsfromthefridge.typepad.com/nfff/2004/04/last_weeks_sieg.html. I plan to be trying to revise it based on what I've been seeing on the other maps. (I finally think I've got everything oriented).
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 04/04/2004 23:53 Comments || Top||


5 coppers iced in Karachi
At least 10 lunatics gunmen stormed into a police station in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi early today, killing at least five policemen and wounding one after demanding the officers recite Islamic verses, police said. One of the attackers died in the shoot-out near the airport in the city, Pakistan's largest and the home of thousands of psychoceramics scene of frequent religious violence. The rest of the assailants escaped by car, said Syad Kamal Shah, police chief in southern Sindh province. "Police are looking for who is responsible and what were the motives." Policeman Hasan Jatoi, who was wounded in the gunfight, told Reuters the clean-shaven men shot several of the officers in the head at close range.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 04/04/2004 12:06:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nothing to get excited about. This was merely a spot-check of Islamic purity. Remember the old commercial where some snob would pull out a white glove and run it over the coffee table to see if you had dusted in the last 20-30 minutes?

Same thing, Islamic-style. It's really quite simple, I mean what sort of country can you possibly have if your police aren't pure?

These Purity Inspectors were merely applying Sura 32:11 and bringing these lost souls back to Allah -
"The Angel of Death, put in charge of you, will (duly) take your souls: then shall ye be brought back to your Lord."

It doesn't pay to have a dusty soul in Karachi. I recommend New and Improved Little Mo's Magic EndDust - it's lemon scented, y'know! Buy some today!
Posted by: .com || 04/04/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Hamas claims West Bank settler shooting
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has said one of its members carried out Friday night's shooting of an Israeli settler in the West Bank. The settler was killed and his young daughter injured by the teenage gunman, whom soldiers later shot dead. Hamas said the attack was in response to Israel's assassination of the movement's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, on 22 March.
Dire Revenge™ all you want. He's still doorknob dead, isn't he?
The Israeli army subsequently made up to 30 arrests in the city of Nablus. Hamas named the gunman who attacked Avnei Hefetz settlement near the Palestinian town of Tulkarm as Ramzi Fakhri Arda, in a statement sent to AFP news agency. The 18-year-old was shooting at a house on the settlement when the Israeli man came out to confront him, reports said. He then shot the man dead and injured his 12-year-old daughter.
Best way to confront a Paleo shooting at a house is with a .30 caliber round from a fair, reachable distance.
Shortly after the incident, the Israeli army raided Nablus in an operation sources told AFP was aimed at undermining the structure of Hamas in the city. Army sources said 26 people had been arrested. Palestinian security sources put the number at 30.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2004 12:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  those 4 won't be back....
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2004 9:28 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
59[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

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

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

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

Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2004-04-04
  4 Salvadoran, 14 thugs dead in Sadr festivities
Sat 2004-04-03
  Sharon Says Israel Will Leave Gaza Strip
Fri 2004-04-02
  The trains in Spain are mined with bombs again
Thu 2004-04-01
  Hit on Jamali thwarted?
Wed 2004-03-31
  Savagery in Fallujah
Tue 2004-03-30
  Major al-Qaeda bombing foiled in the UK
Mon 2004-03-29
  Mullah Omar wounded in airstrike?
Sun 2004-03-28
  Rantissi: Bush Is 'Enemy of God'
Sat 2004-03-27
  Perv vows to eliminate al-Qaeda
Fri 2004-03-26
  Zarqawi dunnit!
Thu 2004-03-25
  Ayman sez to kill Perv
Wed 2004-03-24
  Assassination of German president foiled
Tue 2004-03-23
  Hamas under new management
Mon 2004-03-22
  Arabs warn of Dire Revenge™
Sun 2004-03-21
  Sheikh Yassin helizapped!

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.83.32.226
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Background (23)    (0)    (0)    (0)    (0)