Saudi Arabia is in a state of war with terrorism, Interior Minister Prince Nayef declared yesterday. But he also said efforts at communicating with extremists had been effective in bringing a number of them back into the fold. âWe are in a state of war and it will end only with the extermination of this deviant group,â he said, but acknowledged that there were contacts with extremists. âIt helped correct the extremist views of many deceived young Saudis who were prepared to carry out terrorist attacks.â
Those statements are mutually contradictory. I probably didn't need to point that out, did I?
A number of committees whose members include Islamic scholars have been set up to study the reasons for the spread of terrorism and find out who are financing it and inciting youth to carry out terrorist attacks, he said. He said Saudi security forces were now ahead of the terroristsâ game. âWe have paralyzed the movement of terrorists,â Yemenâs September 26 weekly quoted the minister as saying.
Yeah. We saw that in Yanbu...
When asked about the bombing of a security building in Riyadh that killed six people and wounded 145 others, he said the Kingdom was âwell prepared to confront such terrorist attacks.â Prince Naif denied a conflict between his account of who was behind the Yanbu killing spree and that of Crown Prince Abdullah. Speaking to top military and civilian officials in Jeddah last Saturday when four terrorists went on a shooting spree in Yanbu killing five Westerners and a National Guard officer, the crown prince said he believed Zionists were behind most terrorist attacks in the Kingdom. But in a press statement after the attack, Prince Naif blamed Al-Qaeda. âI donât see any contradiction in the two statements, because Al-Qaeda is backed by Israel and Zionism,â he said.
His lips move, words come out, but they make no sense...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 9:45:44 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Heh, heh..the extremists are funded by Zionists and therefore should be eliminated. Heh, heh.
Posted by: Anny Emous ||
05/08/2004 10:33 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I had no idea there were Zionists in the Saudi "Royal" family.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/08/2004 10:36 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Well, the heat must be on Nayef with Al and the Qs attacking. He cannot fight the terrorists in his own country because he would be essentially fighting himself, sooooooooooooooooooooo, he blames it on Israel and the Zionists.
It reminds me of a four year old child when he or she is caught red handed. "Johnny did it" they all say.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2004 10:53 Comments ||
Top||
#4
âI donât see any contradiction in the two statements, because Al-Qaeda is backed by Israel and Zionism,â he said.
Is there any sort of illogical conclusion that the congenital irresponsibility of Arab cultures cannot reach? Aren't people's heads supposed to explode when they engage in this sort of hypocritical flummery?
#8
Prince Nayef sez al-Qaeda is backed by the Zionists
I don't know wherther he is a liar or crazy.
Either his nose is growing so long as to be a hazard to the eyeballs of whoever he is talking to face-to-face, or, his Paxil medication has been sabotaged.
"But we all know in the end, it's them rascally Joooooesh bankers. They'll get you one way or they will get you the other."
The mastermind of a shooting rampage which killed five Westerners in Saudi Arabia had fought alongside al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and was wanted by US authorities. Mustafa Abdul Kader Abed al-Ansari took part in battles in the Tora Bora mountains in 2002 before slipping out of Afghanistan into Pakistan and fleeing to Yemen, where he was arrested last year, the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat said. Quoting informed sources at its London base, the newspaper said Ansari, who led the group of four assailants in last week's attack in the industrial city of Yanbu, fought side by side with Saudi-born bin Laden and his Egyptian right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri. It did not say precisely when, but went on to quote Muslim extremist sources in London as saying Ansari was on the US wanted list "as of 2002, when he was fighting in Tora Bora or when he was in detention in Yemen". The extremist sources said Ansari's photograph appeared along with those of wanted Yemeni al-Qaeda militants on a US intelligence website. A reproduction of the relevant page in Asharq Al-Awsat showed Ansari's photo next to that of Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, a Yemeni national who the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned in February 2002 could be planning a strike in the United States or against US interests in Yemen. Rabeei was arrested in Yemen in April 2003.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:55:48 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Mustafa Abdul Kader Abed al-Ansari took part in battles in the Tora Bora mountains in 2002 before slipping out of Afghanistan into Pakistan and fleeing to Yemen, where he was arrested last year,
I think it's interesting that they don't even bother to tell us how he planned the attacks which took place last week, if he'd been arrested last year.
Posted by: Anny Emous ||
05/08/2004 9:07 Comments ||
Top||
So what are the original rules of Muslims and non-Muslims? When speaking about security, we know that the one who is giving security is always more powerful/stronger than the one accepting to be under covenant. Where Dar ul Islam [Tyranny of Islam] is giving a covenant to non-Muslims, it means that Islam is in power and has authority, and the Muslims lay down the conditions for the covenant.
There are different forms of Covenant. ..... However, in todayâs reality it is essential to study the covenant where non-Muslims have power: AMAAN UL MUSLIM Covenant of security for a Muslim from non-Muslims. ....
Why would Muslims need covenant from the kuffar? Muslims may be facing persecution, like from the taghout rulers today, like King Fahd etc, and for this reason they may go to a non-Muslim country for protection/Asylum, .... However that does not mean that we have to accept everything that they impose on us, like their law and order....
... when the kuffar are in authority, and we (the Muslims) are weak, they look to us as people that have no sanctity, and the only way they will allow you to live with them, is via a covenant - i.e. to have an agreement not to violate the sanctity of each other. ... For us today where there is no dar ul Islam, and there is only taghout rulers oppressing the Muslims everywhere, we are in a position where we are persecuted and oppressed, and it may be necessary to live under covenant in non-Muslim countries. ....
When you enter into a country, you do not enter declaring jihad on them, rather you ask for security and protection. People that are entering into a country - speak politely and carefully asking to be permitted by them to enter into the country. They apply for âAsylumâ or a âvisaâ etc in order to be permitted by them to enter into their country without being arrested etc. This is a covenant where they (the kuffar) give you clear verbal or written permission to enter and stay in their country. This is the clearest form of covenant ...
When you enter, you state to them clearly on demand what the purpose of your entrance into the country is; whether you say "to study", "to work", "for security" or for other reasons, nobody however says, "to fight" or to "wage jihad" etc. Another reality is that, if you have entered to study/work etc, and you have stayed there, lived there and have had children, you can have a covenant even by simply getting a driving licence, or taking benefits etc.This is because by obtaining a driving licence you are getting their assurance that you can live and drive freely with the security that you will not be arrested by them and they have agreed. - This is a form of customary covenant . When a Muslim enters a non-Muslim country with a covenant of security, he/she has agreed not to violate the sanctity of the other party (i.e. the government or ruler), and that they will not violate yours. The government however represents all of the other people and so the covenant is applicable to all the people, and so you cannot kill or steal from anybody in that country, while you are under covenant.
... those Muslims abroad who are not under any covenant with the non-muslims, have every right to act and fight for sake of Allah (swt). But those Muslims living in the west must never betray the covenant ....
There are four main realities of people living in the west:
1- COVENANT BY OBTAINING A LEGITIMATE PASSPORT: Anybody who has obtained a legitimate passport is under covenant, this reality is of the one who enters or has a passport: i. In their own real name, ii. And it says that they are a Muslim, iii. If they do so, they are obliged to abide by the covenant
2- COVENANT BY OWNING AN ILLEGITIMATE PASSPORT: Anyone who has a fake or illegitimate passport: i. With a false (even a kafir) name, ii. But it says that he is a Muslim, iii. In this case, the covenant is still binding on him
3- COVENANT WITH NO DOCUMENTS: i.e. He smuggles himself in without any documents: i. However he says that he is Muslim - ii. Then in this case, the covenant is binding on him.
4- NO COVENANT: the only way to be living in the west without covenant: i. It is ONLY the one who enters with a kafir name, ii. And claims that he is kafir, iii. And does not inform them or show them at all of his reality, iv. But rather says that he is one of them
Then It is allowed, but only on the condition that he is sent by Amir ul Muâmineen to act as a Mujahid for the benefit of the Muslims, in this case there is NO sanctity for the life or wealth of the kuffar at all. We should note that ALL of the magnificent 19 MARTYRS (inshaa Allah) on 11 September entered America like this, they did not betray any covenant, however for anyone living in the west, it would not be permissible for them to do the same act because they DO have a covenant of security. ....
Regarding this Imam Shafiâi said: "If a group of Muslims, imitate the Romans, and wear their clothes, and enter saying that they are going to be one of them and fight with them against Muslims, and they accept, it is allowed for them to kill them because they are at war with Islam and Muslims." ....
Abdullah ibn Unais had gone to the enemy, saying that he is one of them and that he was going to them in order to increase their numbers, and then when he was inside with them, he killed them. And for this action, the Messenger (saw) said that he saw him in paradise, and called him Mutakhassir fil Jannah. .... These kuffar were killed in this kind of Assassination. This is the only time and way that you can do so, you cannot act like a kafir, except in war and ONLY in war, as long as you do not say ANY SHIRK. ....
HOW TO LEAVE THE COVENANT: There are three mechanisms
1- THE COVENANT IS NO LONGER VALID, WHEN THE TIME LIMIT IS FINISHED
2- DECLARE THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO STAY, AND THEN LEAVE THE COUNTRY
3- IF YOU ARE BETRAYED BY THE ONE WHO YOU HAVE COVENANT WITH
This does not mean that you can kill and steal as you like, you must leave the country first, Imam Shafiâi said: "If a group of Muslims enter Dar ul Harb [Land Free of Islam Tyranny], and the enemy from them is secure (i.e. they have covenant) until they leave or are betrayed, and if the enemy take into captivity any children or women, although I do not like the betrayal of the enemy, it is not allowed to betray them. The Muslims must go out and then return to fight and release them."
It could be asked, If you enter with covenant, must you obey the law of the land?
NO, the covenant does not oblige that, it is specifically a covenant of security of life and wealth, and nothing else. it is a contract only to maintain sanctity for life and wealth, You must always follow the Shariâah, and never follow kufr law. Regardless of what they ask of you, you cannot give up Islam or disobey Allah, nor use the covenant of security as an excuse to do so, even if they attempt to stipulate such conditions in your covenant. ....
The haram conditions here makes the contract fasid, as the weaker party in the covenant you can just ignore the condition, if you were the stronger party, you would have to fix the fasad. however as long as the subject matter of the contract is halal, then the other conditions will not invalidate it, but will only make it fasid (incomplete).
As Muslims we must obey Allah, even if it goes against âlogicâ or ârationâ, and we should not have emotions except in accordance to the shariâah, although we may feel angered at the continual betrayal of the kuffar and their murderous war on Islam and Muslims, we must respond according to that which pleases Allah (swt), ...it is not possible to fight Jihad except to please Allah (swt), if we do so for our own sake, or our own revenge or to relieve our own personal anger instead of to make Allahâs word the highest, we would merely be risking being doomed in the hellfire and would be wasting our time and disobeying Allah (swt).
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/08/2004 11:18:02 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
just plain bullshit --- go to another country respect thier laws and traditions -- regardless--end of story.....
Posted by: Dan ||
05/08/2004 12:39 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It's not bullshit. It is very cleverly exploiting the weaknesses of liberal democracies to conquer and covert them by non-violent means. It is a threat to the Republic.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
05/08/2004 12:52 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Lol! As a programmer, I can appreciate the truth table they have carefully drawn up, but it's not up to them - it's up to us whom we do or don't allow to immigrate. This presumes some modicum of control over our borders, hint, hint.
As an open liberal society, we should demand assimilation and utterly peaceful tolerance of others. Our civil & criminal laws can handle the second part. The immigrant's economic prosperity hinges upon the first. Nothing less should be accepted to get in or to stay in -- and remain free / alive, as the case demands. Just my 2 cents.
#4
It looks like a Wahhabi site of the pro-jihad type. It does not apply to most Muslims.
All Moslems, however, must be held suspect in the eyes of rational people. The reason is that some of them are terrorists or pro-terrorist religious leaders. The others are susceptible to being physically intimidated by the radical minority into doing things against liberal democracy.
No Moslem should be allowed to immigrate. Cut off all immigration from Muslim nations. For those who are already here, they must either assimilate or face social repression.
Multiculturalism = suicide.
Posted by: Old Guy ||
05/08/2004 13:28 Comments ||
Top||
#5
It could be asked, If you enter with covenant, must you obey the law of the land?
NO, the covenant does not oblige that, it is specifically a covenant of security of life and wealth, and nothing else... You must always follow the Shari?ah, and never follow kufr law.
Good enough for me. Throw 'em all out!
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
05/08/2004 14:23 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Lol! As a programmer, I can appreciate the truth table they have carefully drawn up
.com any chance of drawing up that truth table as an aid to those of us (well certainly me) who are perplexed by Islamic jurisprudence?
The former Macedonian interior minister, wanted over the killing of seven Pakistani and Indian immigrants two years ago, said he was innocent in a television interview on Friday. âI absolutely deny it, it is not true, the facts show something else,â Boskovski told Croatian national television. âThere is a CD-ROM with a taped conversation between the Pakistanis and members of Albanian militia from Al Qaeda in which they make arrangements on an attack against the US embassy in Skopje.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:12:07 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
With the White House Wednesday under heavy fire over the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, a Canadian businessman is claiming he endured daily torture by American soldiers after being seized in Baghdad. Hossam Shaltout, 57, an Egyptian-born Canadian who lives in Los Angeles, is demanding damages of 350,000 dollars, in a complaint filed with the US Army. He says his five-week ordeal which ended when he was deported to Egypt, left him suffering from depression, flashbacks, and an obsessive desire for death. Imagine that, an Islamic with a death wish.
Shaltout says he was arrested by US soldiers outside his hotel in Baghdad during a riot in April 2003, and taken to the Bucca detention facility in Umm Qasr, southern Iraq. He had traveled to Iraq on behalf of his peace group "Rights and Freedom International" in a bid to convince Iraqi leaders to step down to avoid a war with the United States. After he was taken to Bucca in an armored personnel carrier, Shaltout claims he was subjected to a daily diet of interrogation and torture. "Mr. Shaltout was accused of being both a speechwriter for Saddam Hussein as well as his âright-hand man," said Shaltoutâs Portland, Oregon-based lawyer Thomas Nelson in the complaint lodged with the US Army last week. "When Mr. Shaltout refused to confess, he was beaten in a variety of ways â he was hit with open hands, fists, shoes, and gun butts. The most alarming form of torture was when the interrogators put gun muzzles at his head or body, which put Mr. Shaltout in great fear of imminent death." He is claiming 350,000 dollars in damage, claiming he now suffers depression, post traumatic stress disorder and other physical and mental ailments. Shaltout is also claiming compensation for loss of property and the damage to his business while he was in detention.
Canadaâs Prime Minister Paul Martin meanwhile weighed into the controversy over pictures of abuse by US soldiers of Iraqi prisoners, which have sparked a political firestorm in the United States â and hammered American credibility in the Arab world. "This is an issue which has horrified civilized people around the world,â Martin said in parliament. "It is absolutely ghastly and is totally unacceptable. There is no doubt that in the fight against terrorism, weâve got to remember that our values are why weâre fighting terrorism, and that this kind of thing just must not happen." Martin met Bush at the White House last week. Why weâre fighting???
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
05/08/2004 21:01 Comments ||
Top||
#2
sure did not hear any outrage from an canadian pm when it's solders under un command frequented serbian run camps where muslim women were used as prostitutes....
Posted by: Dan ||
05/08/2004 21:12 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Depression, flashbacks, and a desire for death. Wow! Apparently, we've enhanced our torture methods far beyond what's been shown in 'the photos' from Abu Ghraib prison. We must be showing them re-runs of 'The Rosie O'Donnell Show' too. Does cruelty have no limits?
As for the useless Canadian PM... if there's one thing Trudeaupian leftists are good at it's moral posturing while doing squat to solve real problems. Memo to Paul Martin: Don't you have a sovereignty issue with the Vikings... er, I mean... the Danes over some frozen island way up north? The polar bears and the UN don't give a shit but maybe you could focus on funding your military for a change so major powers like Denmark don't think they can take advantage of you.
Posted by: Ned ||
05/08/2004 22:05 Comments ||
Top||
Investigators have linked Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer in Portland, Ore., to the Madrid terrorist bombings through a fingerprint lifted from a bag containing detonators discovered near the train station where three of the four bombed trains originated, according to sources in Spain and the United States who are familiar with the probe.
The bag, which contained cell phone detonators similar to those used in the March 11 attacks, which killed 191 people, was found in a stolen van left in the town of Alcala de Henares. It was parked near a house where police say the bombs were assembled.
Tracing another set of fingerprints found in both the van and the house, as well as the origin of the cell phones, police found a cell phone shop in Madrid owned by Moroccan Jamal Zougam, whom Spanish police describe as the plot's mastermind.
When Spanish investigators were unable to identify one of the fingerprints on the bag in the van, they distributed it to other countries, including the United States, where authorities linked it to Mayfield, said the sources, who asked for anonymity because a judge has imposed a gag order on government officials in the case. Mayfield would have been fingerprinted when he served in the military.
Mayfield, 37, a Kansas native and Army veteran who worked on Patriot missile batteries, was detained on a material-witness warrant Thursday.
Mayfield's attorney and relatives say they are baffled by the alleged connection between the mild-mannered Muslim convert and the Madrid plot, noting that Mayfield has not been out of the country in more than 10 years.
Mayfield told Thomas Nelson, the Portland lawyer who is acting as his spokesman, that he has never been to Spain, that his passport expired in October of last year and that he has never met anyone from Morocco.
"Brandon is flabbergasted," Nelson said. "He has no explanation for these charges. He thinks this is crazy." Nelson said he believes that Mayfield's only travel abroad occurred when he was in the Army and serving in Germany.
Mayfield's younger sister, Amy Sikes, said in a telephone interview from Halstead, Kan., that her brother "is no terrorist by any means" and that the family "is in shock" over his detention. Sikes said Mayfield, like many others in the family, was critical of U.S. foreign policy but "he was not a radical" and does not have violent tendencies.
Nelson said that when FBI agents searched Mayfield's home Thursday, they pulled out an "oddly shaped blue plastic bag" and asked Mayfield's wife if "there were any of these around" the house. Nelson said Mona Mayfield had the impression, although the FBI agents did not say so, that it was the kind of bag on which her husband's fingerprint was allegedly found in Spain.
"From Mona's description, it was a really weird-looking bag, oblong and in the shape of a blackberry," Nelson said. "It was the kind of thing you get if you were at a duty-free store." Nelson said there was no such bag in the Mayfield house.
But federal officials were clearly upset that their investigation was rushed to a premature close. "The plan was to sit on him longer, but it started to get out in a big way, so they had to move," said a law enforcement official who declined to be named, citing the gag order.
Roy Witt, a next-door neighbor of Mayfield's, said that for the past several weeks he had noticed men in unmarked cars parked in the neighborhood night and day, apparently watching Mayfield's house.
One official said "there are differing views" among U.S. and Spanish authorities on the quality of the match between the fingerprint on the detonator bag and Mayfield's prints, but said the FBI "believes this is a pretty good match. There is not a lot of concern about that."
Mayfield earned his law degree in 1999 from Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kan., and passed the bar in Oregon the following year.
He took a job in the seaside town of Newport but was unhappy, because there was no mosque and no Islamic community there. His former boss, lawyer Richard Diaz, said that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks Mayfield felt compelled to speak out as a Muslim.
"He spoke publicly a couple of times in Newport, saying that people shouldn't think all Muslims are terrorists."
Mayfield and his family moved to Aloha, a suburb of Portland, and regularly attended the Bilal Mosque in Beaverton. He came to Friday prayers and volunteered to teach English to immigrants, said Shahriar Ahmed, leader of the mosque.
"He was well-spoken, a quiet person, very much into civil rights and people's rights being trampled," Ahmed said.
Sikes portrayed Mayfield as having some of the family contrarian streak, like that of a late grandmother, Lydia Mayfield, who once drew federal attention for a scathing letter to a local newspaper about former president George H.W. Bush.
"She was just a little-bitty old lady, and one day a couple of FBI agents turned up on her doorstep wanting to know what she was about," Sikes said, adding that nothing came of the encounter.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:00:57 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
a next-door neighbor of Mayfield's, said that for the past several weeks he had noticed men in unmarked cars parked in the neighborhood night and day, apparently watching Mayfield's house.
#2
I hope this isn't another Richard Jewell or Steven Hatfield (or whatever his name was) I'd feel better if the fingerprint was a perfect match.
Posted by: Anny Emous ||
05/08/2004 10:29 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I hope this isn't another Richard Jewell or Steven Hatfield (or whatever his name was) I'd feel better if the fingerprint was a perfect match.
While a 15 point match is short by one the professionally recognized 16 point standard of peer accepted fingerprint verification, it seems airtight when compared to how other countries (like India) accept only an 8 point correspondence.
However remote the chance, there is a significant forensic link according to all available evidence. An atrocity like Madrid's deserves global attention, even if its home country demonstrates less than acceptable reciprocity towards this sort of crime against humanity.
[Does anyone else here have more data concerning the "berry" shaped backpack supposedly involved in this (where the print was lifted) and claimed to have been seen elsewhere? I've heard there were other copies of the same backpack found within the cell. Any cites are welcome (a Google search yielded nothing).]
In a move seen as attempting to influence the legal process, a number of legislators of Muslim-based parties submitted on Friday a letter asking the police to temporarily release terrorist suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir from detention.
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said that the police headquarters "was considering all the consequences" of honoring such a request, while a criminal law expert said the request should be ignored.
The legislators "guaranteed" that the cleric would not flee. Earlier, party leaders, including Hidayat Nurwahid of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), had also asked for Ba'asyir's temporary release.
The legislators who wrote to Da'i were Muthamiul Ula and Mashadi of the PKS, Achmad Sumargono and Hamdan Zoelfa of the Crescent Star Party (PBB), Jusuf Muhammad of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and Patrialis Akbar of the National Mandate Party (PAN).
However, a professor of criminal law, Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, said that the move could be seen as intervention in the legal process because the police would feel pressured to address the problem. "According to the law, only family members, lawyers or the detainees are allowed to request a temporary release from detention," Harkristuti said.
Jafar Assegaf, the head of Ba'asyir's team of lawyers, said as much public support was needed before the lawyers could submit a request for temporary release.
"House members are respectable citizens who have the power to influence the police," said Jafar.
When asked after Friday prayers whether he would request to be released, Ba'asyir said that it was the "Muslim community in general," not himself, who was making the request.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:35:39 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A handcuffed Abdullah was presented to reporters by Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Philippine National Police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City yesterday.
Ermita said the money trail is being operated in Southeast Asia through a JI "logistical cell"allegedly funded by an Indonesian militant identified as Zul-kifli, now detained in Malaysia. "We have a significant amount of problem of international terrorism in the country because it was being funded from the outside," he said. "There is a significant presence of international terrorists here through the Jemaah Islamiyah. About 40 foreign terrorists are operating deep in Central Mindanao."
He said Abdullah gave "valuable information" on the Jemaah Islamiyahâs presence in the Philipppines, and its financial transactions with Al-Qaeda. "His arrest established clear links between the Jemaah Islamiyah and unnamed Filipino terrorist personalities in Mindanao," he said.
Ebdane said US authorities helped the Philippine government uncover the financial network. "They also provided information from the debriefing and interrogation of Hambali and Mohammed," Ermita said.
Ricardo said some of the money was also used for Abdullahâs foreign currency exchange business, also in Cotabato City. Another chunk was used to buy a safehouse in Cotabato City, where Zulkifli stayed, he added.
Police officials have asked the Anti-Money Laundering Council to freeze the suspected terror funds remaining in the bank accounts of Zulkipli and Abdullah. The Philippines is also seeking permission from Malaysia to interrogate Zulkifli.
Military and police intelligence officials have intensified anti-terror operations in Cotabato City since last year to monitor and capture suspected JI terrorists.
Abdullah also is believed to have had dealings with Taufek Rifqi, an Indonesian JI militant arrested by troops in Cotabato City in October last year.
Police are hot on the trail of five top Jemaah Islamiyah members who have trained with the Moro Islamic and Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao, sources told The Star yesterday.
They are:
⢠Abu Fatih, alias Abdullah Ansori and Ibnu Thogib, head of the Mantiqi II, and a brother of Abdul Rochim, a teacher at Ngruki, who trained in Mindanao.
⢠Mohamad Qital, reportedly the head of Wakalah East Java for Jemaah Islamiyah, an Afghan veteran who was also monitored to have become a firearms instructor in one of the suspected MILF lairs in Mindanao.
⢠Muhajir, alias Idris, younger brother of slain Indonesian Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi and an instructor of the so-called Camp Hudaibiyah, a JI camp in Mindanao. Idris was also involved in Christmas Eve bombings in Mojokerto. The elder Al-Ghozi was killed in an encounter with the military in an outlying town in North Cotobato las Oct. 12, three months after bolting jail at Camp Crame in Quezon City.
⢠Mustakim, a member of the Central Command, who had headed and trained several recruits at Camp Hudaibiyah, a Jemaah Islamiyah military academy in Mindanao, sometime between 1997 and 2000.
⢠Dr. Azahari Husin, alias Adam from Mantiqi I, and a Mindanao-trained terrorist involved in the Christmas Eve and Bali bombings in Indonesia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:32:21 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
An employee of the Philippine National Bank (PNB) here, where an arrested suspected al-Qaeda-linked Jemaâah Islamiyah member has been depositing his money, has confirmed Friday that huge amount of funds is coming into their clientâs account since 1998.
The source, who identified herself as Mariza, said in a telephone interview that they have no idea that their client, Jordan Mamso Abdullah, 46, a Muslim and a currency trader operating in the city, was a member of J.I., an Asian terror group.
Ebrahim Taki, PNB Cotabato branch manager, refused to give more information, except for confirming that Abdullah was their client since 1998.
Mariza described Abdullah as good and a gentleman.
âI cannot say how much, but what I know is that regularly there are cash being deposited into his account,â she said.
The management of Allied Bank Cotabato branch in the city, where Abdullah also had an account on the name of Dorie Locracio, refused to comment over the matter.
Since last year, at least five people linked to J.I. had been arrested by the police and the military in separate raids in this city and nearby towns in Maguindanao province.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:12:52 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Seems like the deadline for the Iranian program is fast running out, thank fuck the Israelis are up for smashing the Iranian program and rightly so the rest of the world especially Europe just sits thier frowning and shaking thier heads at the Iranians,bet thier real scared of the IAEA to.Looks like the unavoidable and nessesarry action is coming in the not to distant future..
Posted by: Shep UK ||
05/08/2004 6:39 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I hope this planning includes tankers, not sure if the IAF has enough for the job.
#3
Mebbe we could restart the Lend / Lease program? Offer the Happy Family Pkg: say 6 F-117's, 6 B-1's, 2 B-2's, 2 AWACs (J-Stars optional), and 12 KC-135's? They can provide the F-15 aircap... You guys can come up with the Naval gear that would control the Straits of Hormuz and the Gulf. Coordinate with 50-60 TLAMs launched from the Med to decap and voila! Persians running Persia! What a concept!
#4
And just how are they going to get to Iran? Fly around SA? Iraq will soon be off limits. tick tock is right
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/08/2004 7:22 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Iran's nuclear program is probably already too far along for Israel to deal them anything other than a minor setback. There are already known facilities in Tehran, Bushehr, Esfahan, Natanz, Karaj, Lashkar Ab'ad & Arak and I'd wager at least twice as many sites that they've not acknowledged along with perhaps a dozen operating uranium mines. That's a *lot* of ordinance. But the bigger probelm for Israel is that if they're serious about crippling the program they'd have to take out the vast majority of the scientists & engineers who are involved in it. Failure to do so would allow the Iranians to reconstitute it relatively quickly. Not a pretty scenario.
#7
this is a few years too late to push them back like the iraqi's were in 82....but it is a step in the right direction
Posted by: Dan ||
05/08/2004 11:18 Comments ||
Top||
#8
The Europeans, as usual, have their collective heads up their asses. They don't do anything but talk about the Iranian's nuke program because they'd secretly like to see Israel destroyed, and they figure the Iranians could also use their nukes to blackmail, or even attack, America.
What they don't think about - typically - it that the Iranians and their Al-Qaeda surrogates will use nukes to blackmail/attack Europe. With a much better chance of success.
I hope that the Israelis, in addition to preparing to take out Iranian facilities, are also quietly letting it be known that the first nuke aimed at Israel from anyone - source unimportant - gets a couple of nukes dropped squarely on Mecca. If they let it be known that screwing with them, nuclear-wise, gets your "holy" black rock vaporized, Allah willing or not, it would be interesting to see who still thinks nuking Israel is a good idea.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/08/2004 11:54 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Right on, Barbara.
What the stupid EUro-weenies don't realize is that Europe is a lot closer to missile range than the USA.
And we're getting SDI! (Neener, neener, neener!)
Posted by: Jen ||
05/08/2004 12:18 Comments ||
Top||
#10
I'm afraid AzCat got it dead on. It's going to take a major sustained campaign to do any good.
Which is why serious consideration needs to be given concerning a decapitating strike against the Guardian Council. One well-targeted blockbuster during a full session of Iran's leadership would go a long way towards solving this problem. Yes, it would be an act of war. Aren't Iranian nukes the equivalent?
... If they let it be known that screwing with them, nuclear-wise, gets your "holy" black rock vaporized, Allah willing or not, it would be interesting to see who still thinks nuking Israel is a good idea.
Barbara has rather tersely summarized my own approach to a credible deterrent against Islamist terror. Sadly, Europe's continuing state of utter denial concerning terrorism's pervasive threat is nearly mandating unilateral action by the US and Israel.
#11
Rafael - well thier f16 and 15's can fly round trip - plus how is iraq going to be off limits?
the US military is going to be controlling those skys for a few years to come..june 30th is just a date for internal issues in iraq...we are going to be in the region for years..unless of course our troops are nuked or gassed then all bets are off...and tehran would be a radioactive dust heap..
actually the euros are starting to get the picture..they have withheld economic trade agreements from the mullas (agreements the euros wanted) because tehran thumbed their noses at them. it was actually a brilliant move by Bush to allow europe to take the lead. the iranians were duped into believing we were backing off and the euros got a strong lesson in power (they have none but economic and the iranians did not play ball). now iran will be a top issue at the upcoming IAE meeting in june. Just want the iranians thought they could avoid...things are going to get dicey for them..europe will wash thier hands and the US is in no mood to talk...
Posted by: Dan ||
05/08/2004 13:07 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Your boy John Kerry down with your "Nuke 'em all and let Allah sort them out" plan, Zipper?
Posted by: Jen ||
05/08/2004 13:14 Comments ||
Top||
#13
zentser i believe has a very good solution - yes it would be an act of war but iran has been carrying out acts of war agaisnt us for years... a major strike like this could very well save the region from a major war where nukes are used.
Posted by: Dan ||
05/08/2004 13:40 Comments ||
Top||
#14
harpi tag team
Posted by: fury three ||
05/08/2004 15:24 Comments ||
Top||
#15
I don't understand the questions on the flight path...? They've already established - it goes over the presidential palace in Damascus.... covert refueling in H3 in Iraq
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2004 15:35 Comments ||
Top||
#16
 Rafael: And just how are they going to get to Iran? Fly around SA? Iraq will soon be off limits
No more so than now. Only the US Air Force or Navy can deny access to Iraqi airspace. The new Iraqi AF has no fighters at all.
That being said, I don't think a military strike against the facilities is planned. As noted above, the cancer is a little too widespread for a surgical strike. Were I a betting man, I would place my money on sponsored regime change.
#17
Barbara: I'd hope the USA would (quietly, privately and diplomatically, of course) adopt the same policy you recommended for Israel: should a smuggled or otherwise-delivered nuclear device ever be detonated on American soil, the 'holy shrines' of the cities of both Mecca and Medina immediately become very shiny and highly radioactive glass. Bummer for the following year's Hadj, though...
Posted by: BK ||
05/08/2004 17:22 Comments ||
Top||
#18
Iraq will be off limits because allowing Israeli jets to fly over Iraq will cause even a bigger political stink for Bush than Abu Graib. And after June 30th, the Iraqi government will have more access to information, making covert ops such as this even more difficult.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/08/2004 17:47 Comments ||
Top||
#19
One way to place a financial dent in Terrorist Incorporated is cause a loss for Iranian OPEC oil exports.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/08/2004 17:56 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Man Bites Dog ||
05/08/2004 19:06 Comments ||
Top||
#21
U.S. analysts and government sources said the Bush administration has discussed the prospect of an Israeli air strike in terms of the diplomatic, military and security implications for the United States, particularly its military presence in Iraq and the Persian Gulf region
Oh? those were Isralei jets? Our radar showed they were some of those UFOs that have been talked about over Iran the past few weeks. I guess our equipment needs some adjusting. . .
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2004 19:36 Comments ||
Top||
#23
Unfortunately I really see no way to prevent the Mullahs and Ayatollahs in Iran and elsewhere from getting their grubby hands on nukes eventually. Some how, someday it will happen. Either by the fall of Pakland to the Islamofascits, blackmarket weapons out of the CIS, North Korean exports, Malaysian or Indonesian programs or any of possible means. It will happen IMO. As far as I'm concerned our best freind in the Middle East should be India. An up and coming economy and a natural ally in the potential war in the future against Islam
Pentagon officials rejected an Army plan last year to send an experienced military lawyer â who is also a Republican member of Congress â to help oversee the unit blamed for prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib complex outside Baghdad. That left the prison complex, which holds up to 7,000 Iraqis, without an onsite lawyer to guide interrogations and treatment of prisoners. The top lawyer for the 800th Military Police Brigade, the Army unit in charge of detainees at Abu Ghraib, later came under fire in an Army report about the abuse for being ineffective and "unwilling to accept responsibility for any of his actions." The rejected lawyer, Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., and other experts say having had a lawyer at the prison might have prevented or at least mitigated the beatings, sexual humiliation and other abuse detailed in photographs and the Army probe. ....
Pentagon officials confirmed there was no onsite lawyer at Abu Ghraib, but spokesmen for Army Secretary Les Brownlee and Pentagon personnel officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment Friday. Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, referred questions to the Army.
Buyer, a strong supporter of the Iraq war and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, had volunteered to go to Iraq shortly after the invasion in March 2003. In a telephone interview Friday with The Associated Press, Buyer said military officials all the way up to the Joint Chiefs of Staff had approved his assignment to the 800th Military Police Brigade, which has handled Iraqi prisoners of war since the beginning of the conflict. Pentagon personnel officials and Brownlee rejected the assignment, saying the Army could fill the requirement another way. Brownlee also wrote to Buyer that his high-profile status could bring danger to the troops around him.
Buyer said he objected to David Chu, the Pentagonâs personnel chief, and Charles Abell, Chuâs deputy. "I expressed the importance of having a (lawyer) at the camp," Buyer said. "You have to ask, when you had a qualified officer, and the civilian leaders, Dr. Chu and the secretary of the Army, said no, who did you send in his place?" ....
Buyer served as a lawyer at a prisoner of war camp run by the 800th Brigade during the first Gulf War. His duties, Buyer said, included helping the International Committee of the Red Cross monitor conditions and ensuring guards followed international law such as the Geneva Conventions. He said he also questioned some Iraqis suspected of war crimes. "The 800th MP Brigade performed exemplary service in the Gulf War," Buyer said. "There was no hint of any mistreatment or maltreatment of prisoners. It never happened. They had excellent leadership." ...
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/08/2004 11:19:36 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Detailed allegations of psychological abuse, deprivation, beatings and deaths at U.S.-run prisons in Iraq were met by public silence from the U.S. Army last October â six months before shocking photographs stirred world outrage and demands for action. ....
These early accounts by freed prisoners, reported by The Associated Press last fall, told of detainees punished by hours lying bound in the sun; being attacked by dogs; being deprived of sufficient water; spending days with hoods over their heads. One told AP of seeing an elderly Iraqi woman tied up and lying in the dust; others told of ill men dying in crowded tents. They spoke repeatedly of being humiliated by American guards. None mentioned the sexual humiliation seen in recently released photos, but Arab culture might keep an Iraqi from describing such mistreatment. In contrast to suggestions that the photos indicate isolated abuse by a few, these Iraqis told of widespread practices in several camps that would violate the Geneva Conventions and other human rights standards. On Friday, in an unusual public statement, the international Red Cross agreed, disclosing that its inspectors last year found a "broad pattern" of abuse.
On Oct. 18, AP posed specific questions about the reported abuses to the U.S. military command in Baghdad and the 800th Military Police Brigade, which was in charge of detainees at Baghdadâs Abu Ghraib prison and other facilities. The MP unit drafted responses, AP later learned, but the Baghdad command did not release them. No explanation was given. The AP report, published Nov. 1, cited a statement to Arab television by the MP commander, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, that prisoners were treated humanely.
A long series of detailed accusations about mistreatment of prisoners.
Much of what the ex-detainees told AP meshed with what delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the only outsiders allowed into the camps, were said to have found on visits last year. Those findings were confidential, but the human rights group Amnesty International said last summer it learned that the ICRC inspectors were finding serious abuses, and it charged that "torture and gross abuse of human rights" were occurring. On Friday, the Red Cross disclosed it had repeatedly demanded last year that U.S. authorities correct problems in the detention centers. The Americans took action on some issues but not others, it said. "We were dealing here with a broad pattern, not individual acts. There was a pattern and a system," Pierre Kraehenbuel, the Red Cross operations director, said in Geneva.
Inside the camps, too, appeals were made. Saad Naif said one prominent detainee, a former Iraqi provincial governor, urged U.S. military officers to halt the abuses. "He told them, `What you are doing to the Iraqi people will turn against you,â and that they must win the support of the people, not the opposite," Naif said. "They told him to mind his own business."
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/08/2004 10:58:58 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The ICRC first stumbled at Gitmo, then recovered a bit and backtracked on intemperate and inaccurate claims by a delegate (who shouldn't have been talking, anyway). During major combat, they went public with rushed and dubious comments about US use of cluster munitions, while appearing to ignore spectacular violations of the Conventions by the Iraqis, to include stunning public statements by high officials that Iraq had no obligation to comply because it had been invaded.
(rarely if ever have contracting Powers to the Conventions openly declared their contempt this way -- the norm is to lie and temporize while pursuing violations)
Now, they're violating their discretion principle to pile on and "I told you so" (almost certainly in a misleading way, helped in that of course by a gullible/conniving media). Not something that has drawn much attention, but the most important neutral organization in the world has started to show symptoms of insane anti-Americanism syndrome. Whatever the feelings of staff, officially they had not displayed the syndrome in action.
#2
The IRC isn't neutral. If they were neutral, they wouldn't reject Israel as a member, while accepting membership from every tinpot dictatorship in the world.
Like most other organizations dominated by the LLL, they're anti-military-power (except to protect themselves) and therefore anti-American.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/09/2004 1:14 Comments ||
Top||
British troops have quelled an attack in Basra by hundreds of Iraqi militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the British Ministry of Defence said today. The fighting broke out this morning in Iraqâs second city a day after a representative of al-Sadr offered money for the capture or killing of coalition soldiers.
Guess nobody collected, huh?
The British MoD confirmed three British soldiers were hurt in the clashes but said none of the injuries were life-threatening. There were still some isolated areas of fighting this afternoon but the situation across Basra was âunder controlâ, an MoD spokesman said. He said two Iraqis had been killed and one had been captured. The British MoD said crowds of demonstrators began gathering in Basra at about 7.45am local time. Some of the demonstrators were armed. A number of âcontactsâ with coalition forces had occurred during which the two Iraqi demonstrators were killed and the British servicemen injured. Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dominic DâAngelo said this morning that the situation was âfluidâ. He added: âThis is a good example of co-operation between British troops and Iraqi police.â
Are they actually cracking some heads?
Mr DâAngelo said clashes erupted after hundreds of militiamen supporting al-Sadr took to the streets of Basra. He said early reports suggested some of the militia may have arrived from outside Basra. The black-garbed militiamen reportedly moved in large numbers through the city streets, opening fire on British patrols and sparking skirmishes in several neighbourhoods. A rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the US-led coalition headquarters. A group of gunmen assaulted the governorâs building, trading fire with guards. British troops arrived to reinforce the guards and took control of the building, witnesses said.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/08/2004 21:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A view from the Arab side.
Al Qaeda leaderâs message is quite clear. The American occupation of Iraq provides a "rare opportunity" to turn the conflict into a long comprehensive war, which aims at changing Iraq and the entire region. The country of the Tigris and the Euphrates, floating on oil, provides in its location, composition, and spread, amazing opportunities not provided in the mountains of Afghanistan. Therefore, in the message attributed to him, he called to fuel the Iraqi fire and called upon the Muslim youths to engage in it.
Al Qaeda fighters no longer need to run around to find an American target. The Americans are here; army, camps, convoys, prisons, and violations. Chance of bumping into them is high, and the arena of suicide operations is open.
Iraq is the arena. However, Osama bin Ladenâs program is wider. Thus, he tries to repeat a previous experience, despite the differences and switch of roles. He wagers on the Iraqi fireâs attraction - similar to the attraction the Afghan Jihad had against the Soviets. The war zone might attract youths from different countries and nationalities and be an opportunity to deepen their loyalty and to re-export those who survive to other fires or back to their countries. Al Qaeda is dealing with the Iraqi arena as an opportunity to rejuvenate and erase the effects of the blows it received after 9/11.
The long war is required; not only to weaken the occupying army and bleed the sole superpower, but also to reproduce generations of the same characteristics as those who perpetrated the New York and Washington attacks. Any halt of the war is a missed opportunity. Every settlement stabilizing Iraq closes the doors in the face of Al Qaedaâs program. Entrenching the American forces in a long war, which infuriates Arab and Islamic anger is the objective. Therefore, safety valves have to be sabotaged. Blasting any role which helps cutting short the war and providing exits to the Americans is a must. Accordingly, the Ruling Council or any government invented by Lakhdar Al Ibrahimi; not to mention the Iraqi police and all the collaborators.
Osama bin Laden has started a new chapter in the war, which seeks to bring down June 30; the date of ending the occupation and transferring authority to the Iraqis. He has offered 10 kilograms of gold as a reward to whoever kills Paul Bremer, Kofi Annan, and Lakhdar Al Ibrahimi.
It is clear that Ibrahimi is the number one wanted man. His missionâs success means establishing a government, paving the way to hold elections, building Iraqi institutions, and keeping the Iraqis and Americans away from the Vietnamese-Afghan scenarios. Ibrahimiâs success puts an end to suicide attacks, and closes the door firmly on the fire-exporting institution, which Al Qaeda is trying to establish in Iraq on the backdrop of the war with the Americans. Bin Laden considered the United Nations a Zionist Crusades tool, and called for the death of its envoys; completing a mission initiated by Zarkawi.
The United States has offered millions of dollars to whoever brings it bin Laden, Zawahiri, and Zarkawi; dead or alive. Al Qaedaâs leader has offered 10 kilograms of gold to whoever brings him the heads of Bremer, Annan, and Ibrahimi. Poor Iraq! The coming weeks are costly. The 30 June war foretells of a long list of victims. Hopefully, Iraq would be excluded from it.
Now they can protest this, too...
One person was killed and two injured in gunfire in the Pakistani city of Karachi during a protest by Shiite Muslims over the deaths of 14 people in a suicide bomb attack on a mosque, hospital officials said. The incident occurred in the southern port cityâs central Sohrab Goth neighbourhood as the Shiite protesters forced people in the Sunni dominated area to shut up shops following Fridayâs bombing. Mohammad Dilbar, who received a bullet wound, told reporters: "The (gun)fire came from an unknown direction as I was passing by." Police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of some 150 people who were pelting officers with stones and blocking traffic, police officer Ghulam Farid Khawaja told AFP. City police chief Tariq Jamil said "there were some injuries in the firing by unknown people" but denied that it was a sectarian violence.
A follower of rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Basra has offered a £$255 reward to any Iraqi who captures a coalition woman soldier for use as a sex slave. In a sermon to thousands of worshippers at Friday prayers in the southern, British-run city, Abdul-Satar al-Bahadli said: "A 250,000 dinar reward will be given to whomever detains a female British soldier. She should be handed to the office of Sadr, the martyr, and she will be treated as a concubine."
Posted by: TS(vice girl) ||
05/08/2004 10:40:41 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"I have been well trained in the use of a bayonet
and if I disappear, I have lots of friends who have too.
So, Abdul-Satar al-Bahaldi, and Moqtada al-Sadr
would be well advised to not make offers
regarding 'Female British Soldiers'"
#2
"F'n A-right LOL - the big "catch in your fatwa", Al-Sadr is capturing and controlling a Brit Lass - and I think, sir, that you and fellows aren't up to either standard, on an individual basis.....in fact, a typical Brit military lass could pimp your ass out. I'd advise you to skedaddle, or invest in lube."
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2004 19:25 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I see Tater's $225 and raise him $250 to any Brit female soldier who goes out with me for dinner and a night on the town. Reply via: http://www.rkka.org
Sex slave part is option but I guess I can try being one. ;o)
#4
Am I missing something?
Aren't we at war?
Why is this idiot still walking around Iraq. Such speech wouldn't even be tolerated in the US during peacetime. He and his "followers" should be immediately taken prisoner or maybe shot or both.
#6
Perhaps we could persuade the dear Imam to leave the British lasses alone by offering him Maureen Dowd instead?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/08/2004 20:05 Comments ||
Top||
#7
What is with this person's obsession with british women? Did someone give him a british version of 'Playboy' or something and he can't think of anything else?
Geeeze... and I thought american teenagers were bad....
#8
Dave D - that may truly be dangerous. He would probably redouble his efforts to obtain a suitcase nuke and use it on himself there in Baghdad (humiliation you know). The collateral damage would be the sad part.
#9
All kidding aside... Abu Ghraib Scandal be damned, we are treating these asshats FAR too gently. Abdul-Satar al-Bahadli needs to have his genitals ripped off with red-hot tongs and stuffed in his mouth, then be impaled on a pike and displayed in downtown Basra. Pour encourager les autres, of course...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/08/2004 20:18 Comments ||
Top||
#10
... I'd advise you to skedaddle, or invest in lube.
By "lube" I'm sure you meant "antibiotics" or, perhaps, a "transfusion." Seems it's only the gal and her "bayonet" that has any chance of penetrating her opponent under such an embarassing mismatch of "charm school" training.
If I didn't give a rat's @rse about those who fight in my name, I'd say:
"Oh, please, let one of these Theocratic Thugs⢠try and enslave a woman less used to eternal abuse" (not to mention of military training and qualified for wartime duty).
This I cannot do because it's simply not worth risking a human being who is more determined to save many lives as opposed to one who is only concerned about a few from their own faith. Yes, drawing the line here is far from simple, in fact, it's a f&%king no-brainer.
#15
Speaking of Diana Rigg, she is today's featured Saturday Skin lady on Kim du Toit's site:
http://www.kimdutoit.com/dr/weblog.php?id=P2924
Sigh. Sure makes it hard on us old guys.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/08/2004 22:11 Comments ||
Top||
#16
You know why he put out that "slave" crap?
Because pictures like this scare the crap out of The Turban Bunch.
Little girls seeing British and American young women, proud, free & ARMED in combat gear - and in charge too (that first photo was of the Commander of the port authority - a British Lieutenant who gives orders to that whole mob in the background)!
Those little girls will never forget that they have seen that they can do the same and will not have to just sit there and take it like generations before them.
Sadr and the Islamo-fascists better realize this is one genie they cannot push back into the bottle. These girls will lead the next generation of Iraqi women - just knowing that such things are possible is a major hurdle that they cleared in chancing their expectations.
And to amplify that point: The left hates our military in nations such as Iraq, because they know young boys see how a real professional military acts and does things; these things can't be turned off. Ideas get bred that way; ideas about civility, humility, respect, rights and duty to one's country.
The mullahs can shouted, "Allah allah allah", all they want, but they can't kill the ideas.
As US troops fight radical Shiite Moqtada Sadrâs militia in Najef, Karbala and al Kufa, hundreds of Mehdi Army men armed with assault rifles and RPGs attack British forces further south and seize parts of central Basra and al Amara early Saturday. Fierce battles in progress. Friday Sadr offered $350 for capture of British soldier, $150 for killing one, and female soldier kept as slave. (What a two bit thug Sadr really is , offering $350 IF his crazed animals can capture a British soldier. Every single madman for Jihad will wish they never even pondered the thought of collecting one dime after the Brits finish off all of them!)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/08/2004 4:28:24 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
only 350 and 150? funds must be drying up from the asshats in iran....
Posted by: Dan ||
05/08/2004 20:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I hope the women soldiers were involved in this battle.
What a sweet, sweet vision I'm having seeing the jihadis looking for some sex slaves getting blown away by the same women they seek to enslave.
Now that would be justice.
U.S. tanks and armored vehicles briefly circled the offices of rebel Shiâite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdadâs Sadr City on Saturday, stepping up pressure on the militia leader. Witnesses said at least two tanks took up position near the offices in Sadrâs stronghold in the northeast of the city and gunfire crackled through the district as U.S. helicopters swept overhead. Some said troops had raided the offices, but the U.S. military had no immediate comment. U.S. forces pulled out of the area after less than an hour.
The U.S. military has stepped up operations against Sadr in recent days, putting pressure on his militia, known as the Mehdi Army, in the cities of Najaf and Kerbala, south of Baghdad, where the militia took control of the central areas. Earlier on Saturday, Mehdi militiamen fought several gunbattles with British troops in the southern port city of Basra leaving at least two militiamen dead and several British soldiers wounded. British forces also clashed with militia in the town of Amara, north of Basra. Sounds like a cat engaging in mouth play before it kills the mouse.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
05/08/2004 1:17:07 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yes! I like the sound of this - the US has been tip-toeing about with the so-called Shi'a leaders - without results. They merely say don't support Sadr but resist the occupiers. That's not good enough. Some of the best people on the planet have died to reach this moment in time. Let that not be in vain - pursue a fair and equitable end -- or else. And I'd take else before I'd accept anything less than what we came for: to install a fair and equitable representative democracy, probably in the form of a Confederation / Republic.
Regards the "else", yeah, I know about the Dire Dangers of a General Uprising of Shi'a - but keep one thing in mind: they won't do it unless told to. They will live their lives, make money, raise children, etc. unless told to do differently. How we accomplish the feat of keeping their mullahs from playing hardball games I leave to your imaginations. The triangulation game with the Sunnis strikes me as clever, but short-term. So how do you "convert" Shi'a leaders to a position supporting a clean constitution? I have my notions. One thing of which I am certain: you don't do it by obsequious hat-in-hand behavior or pandering to egos - that liberates all of the worst aspects of the Arab collective personality.
#2
you do it with the veiled threat of a reunited, refitted, and rearmed Sunni brigade... *cough*allujah*cough*
the Brits were masters of playing factions off against each other, learn their best lessons
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2004 14:12 Comments ||
Top||
#3
sorry - swallowed the F in Fallujah while hacking
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2004 14:13 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Remember the addage, "It's better to be feared than to be treated with contempt." Right now, there are several groups of Iraqis that have gotten away with treating us with contempt. That HAS to stop. If that means tearing up an Iraqi city or two, that's too bad - it's that old "cause and effect" thing again. We are willing to work with the Iraqis as equals, but we should never let them treat us with contempt. Anyone that does should IMMEDIATELY find a bullet between their eyes. They should learn to respect us. Failing that, they should learn the hard way, if necessary, to fear us. Otherwise, we'll be dealing with this mess for the next 300 years.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/08/2004 14:39 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Why is this guy still breathing? When is the U.S. going to get serious?
Posted by: A Jackson ||
05/08/2004 16:32 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Andy,
This is serious. We're going to play with him till he does something stupid and then let his countrymen do him in. Great morale builder and PR. He was dead a week ago but too few can read the brain scan properly.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
05/08/2004 16:37 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Has anyone noticed how the fighting has taken second billing behind Prison Porn? Maybe we'll have Sadr finished up before the media's attention is attracted by the next pretty light. Big media sure has a hard time multitasking.
The crackdown on Muslim League-Nawaz workers continued on Friday, with over a hundred activists and leaders so far arrested in Multan, Okara, Lahore, Sahiwal and Hyderabad, Memoona Hashmi of the PML-N said. âMore than a hundred of our leaders have so far been arrested,â Ms Hashmi said. âThe police and the Elite Force are conducting raids on their residences at midnight Printers, and publishers have been asked not to print publicity material of the PML-N while transporters are being threatened with dire consequences if they supply vehicles to Leaguers to proceed to Lahore. I have packed my bag and am ready to go to jail anytime.â She said the government planned to detain more than a thousand leaders of the PML-N and their detention orders had already been issued. She said the arrests of senior leaders were meant to scare off second-tier leaders. Ms Hashmi said PML-N leaders had not gone underground.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/08/2004 7:55:53 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
EFL
The Americans pursued Mr. Sadrâs militia forces in the warrens and alleyways of two of the holiest Shiite cities, Karbala and Najaf, where the rebels have barricaded themselves for more than a month. Mr. Sadrâs militiamen in Karbala fired rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47âs at more than 100 soldiers, who moved low along walls and inched their way down a mile-long stretch of road, returning fire as roadside bombs exploded near them. The soldiers reportedly killed at least 25 insurgents in Karbala, 12 in Najaf and at least 41 in two separate battles around Kufa. There were no United States casualties reported Friday, but a Pole and an Algerian working for a state-run Polish television network were killed by gunmen as they drove through the town of Mahmudiya on the road from Baghdad to Najaf. The firefights were the most intense since the American military started an operation here on Tuesday night to crush Mr. Sadrâs thousands-strong militia, called the Mahdi Army. The stiff resistance seems to indicate that many of the militiamen are prepared to fight to the death.
In Baghdad, Shiite followers of Mr. Sadr held a rare joint Friday Prayers service with Sunni Muslims at the hard-line Abu Hanifa Mosque in the Adhamiya neighborhood, once a stronghold of Saddam Hussein and the scene of fierce battles involving American soldiers last month. Organizers said the cooperation showed that Iraqis were united against prisoner abuse. The fighting in Karbala erupted when members of Mr. Sadrâs militia attacked an American patrol on Thursday evening and another on Friday morning, resulting in firefights that lasted for several hours. By Friday morning, the fighters had laid trunks of palm trees and boulders across the main avenue. A dozen Bradley fighting vehicles and two armored personnel carriers rolled around the obstacles as more than 100 soldiers made their way on foot along the low-slung buildings on either side. At one point, a sniper blew away the head of an insurgent looking around the corner of an alley. A rocket-propelled grenade whistled past the faces of more than a dozen soldiers crouched against a wall. At least one Bradley fighting vehicle took a direct hit from the same type of projectile, though no one inside was wounded. One soldier fainted from heat exhaustion, and two were dragged into Bradleys and given water before they collapsed. Some soldiers found a hose by a house and doused one another with it after taking off their helmets. Roadside bombs exploded along the length of the street. Soldiers had to sprint past some that had not been detonated. The Bradleys fired powerful 25-millimeter cannons at figures darting down alleyways, even as insurgents poked their AK-47âs around corners and sprayed the area. By the time the last bullet was fired, bodies lay strewn across the roads. One Iraqi crouching in a bush had been killed by shrapnel from three grenades. In the middle of the street, a man in a beige robe writhed in a pool of blood for half an hour before falling still.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/08/2004 7:49:30 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
At one point, a sniper blew away the head of an insurgent looking around the corner of an alley.
I would love to see the look on the "insurgents" behind the guy.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/08/2004 8:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The stiff resistance seems to indicate that many of the militiamen are prepared to fight to the death
That would be the best outcome all around. I just hope and pray our losses are minimal in getting there.
#3
"I think they had enough today," Captain Adcock said of the insurgents as he chewed on a cigar after the battle on Friday. "They may get ready and go back tonight. But right now they've had enough."
Even the most hardcore jihadist can't sustain loss ratios like this for long. 100 to 1 would be catastrophic, but 77 to 0 has to be disheartening. The difference between the combat death of a hero and that of a fool is whether or not it has meaning. The only result from the death of most jihadis is a sanitation problem best solved by rats, wild dogs, crows, and maggots. Perhaps a few of them are glimpsing this truth.
G.I.âs Kill Scores of Militia Forces in 3 Iraqi Cities
Well, it's a start.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/08/2004 11:55 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I think Sadr's guys are the B-team. The guys out ambushing convoys took quite a toll on GI's in April. These may have been ex-Republican Guard people (i.e. Saddam's henchmen), whereas Sadr's folks appear to be rank amateurs plucked off the street.
#6
Zhang Fei, I suspect that most of the guys who were out ambushing convoys in April are wormfood. Sadr's guys are probably the B or C team as the Army and Marines keep benching more and more of the regulars.
#7
RWV - The only result from the death of most jihadis is a sanitation problem best solved by rats, wild dogs, crows, and maggots.
What? There are no buzzards or vultures in Iraq?
The 78 killed is probably closer to 100, because some of the dead insurgents are buried under tons of rubble, and others there is not enough left to determine an exact # of dead. Those rats and maggots of yours will convert that to skeletal material by the time the rubble is cleared.
Charles - At one point, a sniper blew away the head of an insurgent looking around the corner of an alley.
#8
The ambushers were Feydaheen Saddam most likely. THey ahd laid in weapons, had the training and the organizatio to operate loosely in the manner that the IED forces did.
Unfortunately for them, time and materials are catching up, that and the US forces have learned how to counter these activities, and they Feydaheen no longer have the command and support structure in place to regenerate and retool themselves.
Sadr's guys are the derge - its been said many of them are freed convicts whom Saddam cut loose as the invasion began. Their behavior demonstrates a lack of military training and acumen, and basically means they will die quickly and in large numbers when upa gainst a well trained and equipped adversary - including the Iraqi provisionals if they are so motivate and guided by the US (i.e. the Kurds would mop the floor wih them were it politically possible to put Kurdish units into Baghdata and Najaf).
Right now the criminal element in the Mahdi Army will soon wear out its welcome - they are theives and revert to type. And pretty soon the local sheiks will get pissed enough to do something about it. And that somthing involves cold steel and nighttime visits. Or bullets thru black face masks.
from NewsObserver.com - EFL & Fair Use
Friday, May 7, 2004
By CHARLES CRAIN
MUNTHERIA, Iraq -- With photographs of himself with L. Paul Bremer and numerous other American officials peering down from the walls, Gen. Nazeem Shereef Mohammad cheerfully reached into a drawer and laid on his desk a fist-sized chunk of hashish. The contraband was evidence, he said, of the successful collaboration between the N.C. National Guard and the Iraqi Border Police. Nazeem -- who like many Iraqis is known mostly by his first name -- is the patrolâs commander in the Diyala district, overseeing about 1,400 men and 150 rugged miles of Iraqâs border with Iran.
When Capt. Sean Moser arrived from North Carolina with the 30th Heavy Separate Brigade, he assumed responsibilities ranging from combat operations to cooperation with Iraqi security agencies. That means developing relationships with locals. Moser found an eager ally in Nazeem. "He runs a pretty tight ship up here, especially in comparison to some of the other organizations," Moser said.
In March, concern rose over weapons trafficking and the infiltration of foreign fighters. The Coalition Provisional Authority, which Bremer heads, closed 16 border crossings with Iran. Three remained open, including Muntheria, which is administered by Iraqis and run by Nazeem. "Mr. Bremer has made the security of the border a top priority," Moser said. "Muntheria border crossing is the example of how we want the border to run." ...more...
And in the next sentence we find out why Nazeem is affable, competent, and a bona-fide ally: heâs a Kurd. Not all Kurds are wonderful, but...
Posted by: .com ||
05/08/2004 6:58:25 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The more I read, the more inclined I am to back the establishment of Kurdistan with longterm basing rights as part of the deal. Move the heavy armor out of Germany into Kurdistan and let the Arabs, the Turks, and the Iranians go exchange spittle.
#2
Unfortunately, any conceivable Kurdistan is land locked and an enemy with every neighboring state. That makes it an expensive proposition for heavy armour.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
05/08/2004 10:52 Comments ||
Top||
#3
MrD - At long as Syria is Cannon Fodder Central you're right. Should that change, so changes the fortunes of a possible future Kurdistan. We will see what happens after the Mad Mullahs are tipped - and that should be by the end of the 2nd Qtr 2005, if the intel on their nuke / missile pkg holds true.
#4
Mr. Davis: Unfortunately, any conceivable Kurdistan is land locked and an enemy with every neighboring state.
Well, not necessarily. As the occupying power, the US gets to decide the borders. Any American force based in Kurdistan would be responsible for its territorial integrity.
No doubt someone will portray that as Oil-For-America, and I say, yeah, so F'n what, dipshit? Drive to work or gradschool in lib arts today? STFU!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2004 15:18 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Kurdistan isn't quite so land-locked if the Syrian Kurds decide to revolt and join the Motherland. Puts the Med a whole lot closer. Wonder what the Kurdish population of Latakia is?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2004 16:56 Comments ||
Top||
FALLUJAH (AFP) -- US-trained forces have been given a key role in maintaining the peace in Fallujah, but some of the US marines who fought in the powderkeg city do not trust their local allies."Iâve heard rumors and stuff about them playing ball for the other team," said Lance Corporal Stephen Bennett, one of a few dozen marines entrenched at the Fallujah train station.
His gun is pointed at the Jolan neighborhood, which until last week was the scene of heavy battles and which now is patrolled by members of the US-trained Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.)ICDC troops and the newly formed Fallujah Brigade have been given responsibility for security in Fallujah in a deal that ended weeks of fighting and let the marines lift an almost month-long siege of the Sunni Muslim city.
The US-led coalition said Friday their numbers continued to rise, with 1,750 men from the Fallujah Brigade reporting for work the previous day, as well as some 1,100 ICDC and 750 police. Officers hail the deal as a step in the right direction, but some of the men eye the lightly armed Iraqis with mistrust. "Weâve heard some intel about them doing their job in the daytime and hanging out with the enemy at night," said Bennett. No sh!tting, Sherlock!
Navy Corpsman Juan Hernandez, who is deployed with the marines in Fallujah, was more guarded in his assessment of the ICDC. "Theyâre OK, I guess ... Itâs not my job to trust them." A rule to live by.
A few hundred meters (yards) away, a group of ICDC soldiers sat in the shade by a row of houses whose bullet-riddled facades bear witness to the ferocity of last monthâs fighting. "Thatâs all they seem to be doing, just chilling," said Private Jeremiah Layman. Coalition officials admit the Iraqi force still has its shortcomings, but they express confidence its men will shape up as they continue working alongside US troops.
"Every single day, our security cooperation with the ICDC improves," said Lieutenant Colonel Gregg Olson. "We are going from us supporting them to them supporting themselves with our assistance," said Olson who commands the 2nd Battalion 1st Marines Regiment. The coalition forces say their Iraqi allies will eventually be the ones replacing them when they leave the country. "These guys have not given us any reason to doubt them," said Lieutenant David Myers. Note how itâs a Lieutenant whoâs saying that.
Layman, on the other hand, says "they havenât given us any reason to trust them yet." Even commanding officers have admitted that the ICDCâs performance during the battle for Fallujah was dismal. Abandoned boots and uniforms along the railway tracks bear witness to the Iraqi troopsâ hasty flight at the height of the battle. Trace whoâs missing their gear and drum them out of the force. Theyâre just graft waiting to happen.
ICDC members readily admit they left Fallujah during the fighting. "I took my family outside the city during the fighting," said ICDC Private Mohammed Turki, 24. Major Ahmed Hammadi admits many of his men had left town, but said things were now different as the troops were better armed -- though his menâs ageing AK-47 assault rifles lack the firepower of the insurgentsâ big guns.
Hammadiâs men are based in the main building of the train station, but they have little contact with the marines deployed along the tracks, a few meters away. A few days ago, ICDC Lieutenant Colonel Jubair Mahlaf Hussein thanked Olson for the supplies the marines had brought his men. If the food and water keeps coming, "we can stay here," he told his American counterpart through an interpreter, adding: "and hopefully the gap between us will close. Not a lot of good news.
Posted by: Zenster ||
05/08/2004 3:55:21 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The marines should already know...they have no allies with muslims...ever.
#2
It would be good for us to study the role of the Regional/Popular Forces (I'm not endorsing this article, it's the only half-ways decent one I can find about the "Ruff-Puffs" on the web) during the Vietnam conflict in relation to Iraq. Militia can be useful if employed correctly. The best historical example of militia used as a force multiplier (as opposed to being the force detractor they usually are) would be the Battle of Cowpens during the American Revolutionary War. Morgan's brilliant use of militia troops enabled him to defeat a previously undefeated and larger British force.
#3
Adding to 11A5S' comment about Morgan using militia: use fo militia in and of itself is not a bad thing, if they are used properly. In this case, as well as in probably most other cases where they were used "successfully", Morgan counted on them breaking early and fleeing the battlefield, which they did.
But they had a place directly in the rear where they were directed to go to and reassemble, and they did so; after resting for a bit, they rejoined the battle and proved to be an important piece of the final victory over the Brit regulars.
Takes a clever commander to turn weaknesses into strengths; is the Marine commander a Morgan ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
05/08/2004 18:15 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I wonder if the Iraqi irregulars compare to the over the mountain men Morgan employed. Doubt it.
Sure, but I'm not looking for Iraqis that compare to Morgan's militia; I am rather looking for the US commander who can turn the weaknesses of the ICDC, Falluja Protection Force, etc into strengths.
By weaknesses I mean stuff like dubious "loyalty" -- we know some of them are on the other side; are we using that info to headfake the insurgents in some way ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
05/08/2004 20:33 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Oh, here's another one:
Let's say we have a bunch of insurgents trapped, as we currently supposedly do in northwest Fallujah, but don't want to go in a root them out individually due to the higher cost for us plus the negative PR effects of wrecking that part of the city.
An Iraqi "blocking force" that is really nothing of the sort would be a way to encourage insurgents that they have an escape route so they can live to fight another day. And have forces in place to channel them toward some killing zone outside of the city.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
05/08/2004 20:38 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Yep, see what you're saying and agree Carl, just wishing there were better militia available.
Hundreds of Iraqi militiamen loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr have clashed with British troops in the southern city of Basra. Members of Mr Sadrâs Mehdi Army militia attacked British patrols in various parts of the city, witnesses said. Gunmen tried to storm the governorâs building but were repelled by British reinforcements, according to reports. At least one person is said to have been wounded in the skirmishes, but the full extent of casualties is unknown
Posted by: Lux ||
05/08/2004 2:33:48 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
"U.S. officials have expressed fears that Iraqi outrage over widely published photos of Iraqis being stripped and humiliated by their guards at Abu Ghraib could fuel attacks on American or other coalition soldiers."
And of course, that is what is happening. Al-Sadr has made it his rallying cry. And more Americans and allied soldiers and Iraqis will die.
Whose fault is this? The prison guards?
NO. This is the direct result our despicable despicable media and the Democrat's feeding frenzy over Abu Ghraib.
Nice work 60 minutes. Great job Washington Post. Fine wall-to-wall coverage CNN. You've gotten exactly what you've always wanted. Your doing satan's work again Sen. Robert Byrd. More violence, more dead American and allied soldiers.
American and allied blood will be on YOUR hands.
Have the media and the Democrats ever treated the slaughters, the tortures, the degradation, and the monstrous behavior of our enemies with the same fervor? Ever? Absolutely not.
Why not? Because they fundamentally want to see the U.S. defeated and they WANT to see more American blood spilled to speed up that defeat. Why? Well, so that they can defeat ONE politician in November. They're willing to destroy this nation, tear it apart, over ONE politician.
It's worth it to them and it is despicable beyond belief.
#2
Please. Muqty and the furriners attacking us isn't "fueled" by anything except the nutty choices they made a long time ago. Now if some other groups pop up, or if these two get substantially stronger, that's news.
#3
Perhaps we're seeing yet another convergence of interests. The LLL press wants casualties and bloody stories to weaken the public's will, etc - and the nutters would love to oblige because, well because they're nutters dying for some claim of victory.
What I find interesting here, with the Brits being attacked is that there is only a vague report of one persion being injured. WTF? Perhaps we DO have a major cultural difference with the cousins' military.
There was a line in the movie Witness where Harrison Ford says that he's really good at "whacking" - well the US military is pretty good at "whacking" as evidenced in Karbala, Najaf, et al. So when the cousins get their chance to confront Sadr's "Madhi Army" what happens? Not much, according to this story. So somebody help me out here, what are the UK guys good at? I hope this is extremely preliminary and when the meat of the tale is finally told there are Madhi deaders all over the place. That is my dearest wish.
#5
This NYT story summarizes US activity in Najaf and Karbala then goes on to the Basra fighting. A decent summary of Friday's actions.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/8620047.htm
#6
QOUTE 'And his top aide in Basra, Sheikh Abdul-Sattar al-Bahadli, told worshippers at Basra's al-Hawi mosque, he would give $350 to anyone who captures a British soldier and $150 for killing one'
I'LL pay triple for his head on a stick .. and twenty times that ammount if u can deliver him to me pronto ..
The United Nationsâ top human rights official charged Friday that Sudan established, armed and supported Arab militias that allegedly expelled more than a million villagers in Sudanâs Darfur province and killed thousands. So why is Sudan on the UNâs "Human Rights" panel?
Sudanese forces and the Janjaweed militias engaged in "a reign of terror" that "may constitute war crimes and or crimes against humanity," Bertrand G. Ramcharan, the acting U.N. high commissioner for human rights, wrote in a 16-page report on Darfur. Sudanâs U.N. ambassador, Elfatih Erwa, denied that his government armed the militias, insisting that any government killings of civilians were the accidental byproduct of a civil war that flared up in Darfur last year. How in Hades is mass rape an "accidental byproduct" of anything?
"Yer Honor, she wuz askin' for it, standing there so provactively like that in her burqa!"
"We have not been targeting civilians, but as I have said, there is a war," he said. "A bomb does not differentiate between a civilian or the military. In some modern states, they call it collateral damage." The U.N. report, which was based on a two-week trip by a U.N. delegation to Sudan last month, cited "disturbing patterns of massive human rights violation in Darfur perpetrated by the government of Sudan and its proxy militia." So disturbing, that the UN has decided to ... issue another report!
But it's a strongly worded report.
It also noted that some senior Sudanese officials privately admitted for the first time that Sudan had "recruited, uniformed, armed, supported and sponsored the militias" that have carried out the worst excesses in Darfur. The U.N. report echoed some of the key findings of a report issued Wednesday by the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. That report charged the Sudanese government with committing "ethnic cleansing," but Ramcharan did not use the term in his report, citing the lack of an internationally recognized definition. Ramcharan, who briefed the U.N. Security Council on the U.N. missionâs findings, called for the deployment of human rights monitors in Darfur and the establishment of an international commission of inquiry to probe violations, a possible prelude to war crimes prosecution.
Nothing in there about deploying well-armed troops to kill the janjaweed, though, is there?
James Morris, the American executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, also called on Sudan to meet its commitment to provide access to humanitarian relief officials in Darfur. The U.N. Security Council remained silent on the crisis, resisting pressure from human rights groups to criticize Sudan. Council diplomats said the councilâs African governments — Angola, Algeria and Benin — opposed action, arguing that it would constitute interference in a member stateâs internal affairs.
"Shucks, they slaughter each other, what business is it of ours? It's not like they feel pain like we do."
"So it's not a matter of skin color or culture, it's..."
"Right. They don't feel pain like UN employees do. Just think of them as statistics."
Other governments voiced concern that a confrontational approach to the crisis could disrupt peace talks between Khartoum and Christian insurgents in southern Sudan. Instead, the United States and other council members settled on issuing their own statements behind closed doors. After the meeting, the U.S. representative, Stuart W. Holliday, declined to endorse the United Nationsâ conclusion that Sudan participated in the attacks on civilians. But he said Khartoum has responsibility for bringing them under control. The UN must take direct responsibility for legitimizing Sudanâs status in the midst of its atrocities. To empanel Sudan on a "Human Rights" commission only facilitates a sense of immunity for them and is tantamount to tacit approval for their acts. The UN should have expelled all Sudanese legates, issued formal letters of protest and initiated efforts to send peace keeping troops immediately. Instead, for yet another time, people are dying while UN wankers nibble their canapes.
Posted by: Zenster ||
05/08/2004 12:38:58 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This is all so sadly pathetic.
Posted by: Anny Emous ||
05/08/2004 8:52 Comments ||
Top||
Shamil Basayev, one of the Chechen terrorist leaders, has issued an order to prevent the voluntary surrender of another terrorist, former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, to the law-enforcement bodies, the regional operational headquarters for control of the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus has reported this Wednesday. "Almost every day, the power structures are finding and detaining the militants who tried to hide and who begin to give evidence against their accomplices as soon as they are caught by the law-enforcement bodies. Information has been received that due to the discord among the senior leaders of the illegal armed formations resulting from the refusal by a larger part of militants subordinate to Maskhadov to continue unlawful activities, Basayev has ordered his accomplices to prevent the possible surrender of Maskhadov to the law-enforcement bodies," the headquarters' representative said.
According to him, the information, which the law-enforcement bodies are receiving, suggests that the leaders of illegal armed formations constrained by the actions of the federal troops and the Chechen power structures are experiencing considerable difficulties in their efforts to keep rank-and-file militants within militant groups subordinate to them. "The militants who have been detained say that many members of illegal armed formations are under stress due to the constant fear of their arrest. Terrorist leaders are extremely hot-tempered in relation to rank-and-file militants. On the whole, the atmosphere of fear and distrust reigns in militant groups," the headquarters' representative told RIA Novosti.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:27:36 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
pretty weak propaganda, if you ask me.
Posted by: Anny Emous ||
05/08/2004 9:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Geez, with paragraph structure like the above comment by the "headquarters representative" above, *I* would be be hot-tempered, fearful and distruting, too.
A landmine blast has hit a truck transporting servicemen of the Russian Interior Ministryâs forces in the Chechen capital Grozny. âYesterday at 1245, a radio-controlled bomb exploded near checkpoint No 26 in Groznyâs Oktyabrsky District, on Krasnoflotskaya Street,â said a representative of the Chechen Interior Ministry, cited by the RIA Novosti news agency. The bomb was made out of a 152mm artillery shell, the policeman added. The agencyâs source said that the blast had killed the deputy head of the military commandantâs office, Major Guseinov, and a contract soldier, Sergeant Katsuk. The head of a communications station Warrant Officer Pisarenko and conscript soldier Karelin were wounded, the source said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:22:27 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Federal forces crushed several illegal armed groups in mountainous Chechnya, destroying field commanders who were close to separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, deputy head of interior troops Lt-Gen Nikolai Rogozhkin told reporters on Thursday. Rogozhkin said head of Aslan Maskhadov's security service Akhmad Avdorkhanov could be among the destroyed militants. His henchmen recently attacked police and agents of the security service of the Chechen president. The operation of federal forces was carried out in the Kurchaloi, Nozhai-Yurt and Gudermes districts of the republic. Leaders of illegal paramilitary formations make efforts to destabilize the situation in Chechnya, "but they all meet with adequate response from the federal forces," Rogozhkin said. When asked about the whereabouts of separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, Rogozhkin noted that "he is in Chechnya," adding that it was not possible to be more specific at present.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:21:34 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Chechen law enforcers, together with federal troops, are conducting a large-scale operation to smoke out separatist rebels in the south of the troubled republic. Two settlements have been blocked off, one of which is thought to host Akhmed Avdorkhanov, the head of security for rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov. However, the troops reportedly have a different task: they have been ordered to capture Maskhadov in time for Putinâs inauguration on May 7, the Kommersant daily writes. Chechnyaâs deputy minister of the interior, Sultan Satuyev, did not confirm those rumors, Kommersant wrote, but underscored that âNo one has given us such a task, but we would be very happy if it happened on such a significant date.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:16:59 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
that was yesterday ...looks like the big pr push failed to net him.
Posted by: Anny Emous ||
05/08/2004 9:22 Comments ||
Top||
Government officials and tribesmen sheltering foreigners were trying to hammer out differences on Friday just hours before a midnight deadline approached for the foreign militants to surrender or register. Lt Gen Safdar Hussain, Peshawar corps commander, on Friday rushed to Wana to save weeklong talks from failure. âIt is the same old story â I mean there has been no progress so far,â a senior government official told Daily Times by phone from Wana. Sources in Wana said a military helicopter brought Gen Hussain to join Kohat General Officer Commanding Maj-Gen Niaz Khattak in talks with two FATA parliamentarians â Maulana Abdul Malik and Maulana Muhammad Mirajuddin â and former Taliban commander Nek Muhammad, who surrendered to the government on April 24.
Nek, who was given amnesty after he surrendered and has since been negotiating a deal for the surrender of foreign terrorists, had sought an extension in the already extended deadline. Nek told reporters in Wana that âminor differencesâ were blocking the final agreement on foreignersâ registration but he would not elaborate. âExpiry of the deadline does not mean we will launch an operation the next morning,â Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told Daily Times. He did not comment on whether the deadline would be extended. But Nek said that such negotiations needed time and the military should extend the deadline. An unconfirmed report from Wana said the political administration had assured Nek of an extension in the deadline. An aide to Nek told Daily Times that foreign militants linked to Al Qaeda and Taliban were reluctant to be photographed. âThat is what the foreign militants said when Nek and the two tribal parliamentarians met them,â he said and asked not to be named. Nek said that he had committed himself to an agreement with the government that Pakistani soil would not be used for attacks in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:10:32 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Thats' about as surprising as finding a cream filling in an Oreo...
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shiite Muslim mosque in the city's bustling downtown business district Friday, killing 15 people and wounding more than 150 in the latest of a series of attacks against Pakistan's Shiite minority, police said. The blast at the Hyderi mosque occurred just as worshipers were assembling for midday prayers shortly after 1 p.m. Witnesses said it shattered windows and sprayed the interior of the mosque with blood and human remains. "The body parts of the bomber and the people standing right next to him hit the 30-foot-high ceiling of the mosque," said Reza Kazim, who was at the mosque but escaped injury. Among those killed were the prayer leader and workers from nearby banks and offices.
After the attack, thousands of angry Shiites took to the streets in various Karachi neighborhoods, clashing with police, attacking government properties and torching government-owned vehicles. Police and paramilitary rangers were deployed on major thoroughfares, and Shiite groups declared Saturday a day of mourning. The Hyderi mosque is situated on the grounds of a historic school, Sindh Madrassa tul Islam, in the center of Karachi's main banking and business district. Tariq Jamil, the head of police operations in Karachi, said the bomber was standing in the middle of about 300 worshipers when he triggered the blast. Crowds that gathered after the bombing prevented ambulances from reaching some victims, authorities said. "Many of the dead were brought to us in private cars too late for any treatment," said Ashfaq Soomro, a physician at Karachi's Civil Hospital. "Some bodies were so mutilated that even their relatives found them difficult to identify." Senior security officials speculated that Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, a radical Sunni group known for its ties to al Qaeda, was behind the attack. "The attack carries Lashkar-i-Jhangvi's signature," said Syed Kamal Shah, the chief of police in Sindh province. "We had solid information that a small Lashkar band of suicide bombers were looking for a potent Shiite target in the city."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:06:27 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Candygram...um.... Landshark...uh.. BOOM!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2004 14:10 Comments ||
Top||
Last year's deadly bomb attacks in Morocco's commercial hub Casablanca were carried out by Moroccan members of al-Qaeda who were financed by the extremist group, the head of Morocco's police force said in an interview. General Hamidou Laanigri added Libyan extremist groups may also have had a role in the May 13 attacks against foreign, Jewish and business targets which claimed 45 lives, including those of 12 suicide bombers. "The (attack) was carried out by Moroccan members of al-Qaeda who met with (al-Qaeda leader) Osama bin Laden, his ideologist Ayman al-Zawahiri and his operational chief Abu Mussab Zarqawi," he told French daily Le Figaro.
I think this is the first time I've seen Zarqawi referred to officially as Qaeda's operational chief. I think the U.S. press is still referring to him as "said to be linked to al-Qaeda." I've been thinking of him for quite awhile now as the successor to Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Abu Zubaydah.
"In 2002 Moroccan jihadists asked bin Laden for financial aid. Zarqawi believed in them and pulled some strings. This is how they obtained the funds to organise (the attack on) May 16, 2003, in Casablanca," he added.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco moved Laanigri from his post as domestic intelligence head to the position of national police chief shortly after the Casablanca attacks. The police chief said the majority of extremists operating in Morocco had been detained. "As far as I know, only a dozen dangerous elements are still on the loose. Of course, attacks are always possible," he said before adding "these small Islamic groups do not have the support of the population".
How many mosque preachers have been detained or met with Unfortunate Accidents?
He told the paper some 1,200 people had been brought before the courts as part of a police investigation into extremist activities in Morocco, leading to 700 judgments so far, including 17 death sentences. "Salafist structures served as a springboard and breeding ground for al-Qaeda which had a rule for these types of operations: use people who are not known to security service," he said. "This is what they did. The networks we broke up led us to the Islamic group of Libyan combatants (GCIL) who rallied north African jihadists and the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (MICG)," he added without giving further information on the "Libyan combatants." The MICG is a shadowy organisation believed to be involved in the Casablanca attacks and the deadly March 11 commuter train bombings in Madrid. Asked about the link between the Casablanca and Madrid attacks, Laanigri said: "Madrid was part of a strategy to fight against the American presence in Iraq. Casablanca was a punishment for Morocco's alliance with the West."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/08/2004 12:04:09 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Salafist structures served as a springboard and breeding ground for al-Qaeda which had a rule for these types of operations: use people who are not known to security service," he said.
Not that we don't already know this, but it's a good reminder that they exploit our freedoms and make them our weakness, instead of our strength. We have to find ways to prevent this without destroying our freedoms.
Posted by: Anny Emous ||
05/08/2004 8:59 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
