Militants killed a Kuwaiti security officer and wounded three other commandos on Sunday during a shootout in this pro-U.S. Gulf state which is facing an outbreak of al Qaeda-linked violence. Police said the men, all with the special forces, were shot during a raid on suspected militant hideouts in the capital's mainly residential Salmiya district. Witnesses said a civilian was also killed in the firefight. The raid, which targeted two buildings in Salmiya, came a day after the government of this oil-rich state and the U.S. embassy warned more militant attacks were possible. "We are searching for an armed group that is wanted by state security," a security official told Reuters.
Witnesses said police had cordoned off a block in Salmiya and were firing machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades at the gunmen. A helicopter also hovered overhead. A Syrian woman who works in one of the targeted buildings told Reuters the gunmen had knocked on her door before fleeing from their police pursuit. "I locked the door and didn't let them in. I then smelled gunpowder and heard blasts. Bullets have hit the windows in my office," she said, speaking by cellphone from the building.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 4:30:34 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Heavy gunfire erupted on Sunday in the Kuwaiti district of Salmiya, east of the capital, after police cordoned off an area in search of suspected Islamist militants, witnesses said. "The shooting began about 9.30 am (0630 GMT) after police sealed off a main street, the one with all the restaurants on it," one witness said told AFP, adding that special forces arrived on the scene to back up police.
An AFP photographer in the area said grenades and heavy gunfire could be heard as an apparent gunbattle raged on. The incident came two weeks after a shootout between militants and Kuwaiti security forces left one Saudi gunman dead in Umm al-Haiman, south of the capital near the border with Saudi Arabia. The gunbattle, near the largest US military base in Kuwait, came five days after another clash closer to Kuwait City left two security officers and a Kuwaiti suspect dead. The authorities have seized arms and explosives in subsequent raids around the tiny oil-rich emirate and, according to Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah, arrested about 15 suspected Islamist militants. However, an unspecified number, including the group's spiritual leader, are still at large. Sheikh Nawaf acknowledged that the militants belonged to an "organised group", but the country's national guard chief, Sheikh Salem al-Ali al-Sabah, said some of the group were members of Al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 2:56:35 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
Kuwaiti security forces have raided a suspected militant hideout in the capital a day after officials and the United States issued warnings of more al Qaeda-linked violence in the Gulf state.
At least two police commandos were wounded in Sunday's raid which targeted two buildings in the capital's mainly residential Salmiya district, security sources said.
"We are searching for an armed group that is wanted by state security," a security official told Reuters.
Witnesses and security sources said police had cordoned off a block in Salmiya, where intermittent gunfire and small blasts could be heard.
"They (police) were shooting at these buildings with M16s and rocket-propelled grenades," one witness told Reuters. "The shooting is coming from various locations."
Several police cars cut off access to the block and a helicopter hovered overhead. State security officers, wearing flak jackets over their traditional Arab robes, milled about among the commandos. Ambulances were seen racing into the area.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:45 Comments ||
Top||
A gunbattle has erupted in Kuwait after police raided a building where militants were believed to be hiding. Police cordoned off an area of the city, from where gunfire and small explosions were heard, reports say. Details of the incident remain limited, although one witness told the AFP news agency the shooting began at 0930 (0630 GMT) on a main street.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 2:52:34 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
sounds like they got the right bldg.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/30/2005 12:08 Comments ||
Top||
We have a law which forbids women in "abaya" from driving
In Kuwait we have a law which forbids women in "abaya" from driving. This law, which was sleeping in the drawers of the Interior Ministry for a long time, has been reactivated by the ministry because of the recent security scares. The government should implement such decisions strictly, especially since the terrorists at Umm Al-Hayman were found to have fooled the security forces by wearing this dress.
They're pretty fond of dressing up as girlies, aren't they?
As a first step in the implementation of this law the Interior Ministry should induct women in the security forces to inspect and search drivers wearing "abaya." This will help the Interior Ministry avoid invading the privacy of women motorists and offending our customs and traditions inadvertently.
The government should implement the laws of the land without fear or favour to tide over the current unstable security situation and root out its causes. On this occasion we thank Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Faisal Al-Hajji for warning various societies not to go beyond their mandate. We hope he will force all the societies to comply with his warning. "Time will reveal information which one is not aware of and provide news which one doesn't know."
Zahed Matar
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Maybe there was something more to those panties at Abu Ghraib.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:05 Comments ||
Top||
He couldn't possibly be unstable, since he's on the shariah faculty... I mean, he couldn't be. Could he?
A Kuwaiti man employed at the Islamic Studies Department of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Studies is said to have admitted during interrogations with the Hawalli Prosecution to slitting the throat of his 14-year-old daughter to "wash the shame," reports Al-Rai Al-Aam daily. Earlier, it was published the father, identified only as Adnan, after returning from Saudi Arabia last Monday where he had gone to perform the Islamic ritual Hajj, killed his daughter identified as Asma. He believed she had lost her virginity which Forensic reports proved otherwise.
The daily quoting relatives of the suspect said the man tied his daughter's hands behind her back, blindfolded her with a piece of cloth, turned her head in the direction of Kaaba in Saudi Arabia and slit her throat. The suspect's brother, identified as Adel, said his brother is mentally unstable. This claim has been refuted by one of the relatives saying if he was mentally unstable, he would have not gone to perform Hajj or joined the Faculty of Sharia at the Kuwait University. It has been reported the victim, was well-known for fasting keeping in line with the Muslim tradition. She had also been awarded several certificates of appreciation for learning by heart verses from the Holy Quran.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
This claim has been refuted by one of the relatives saying if he was mentally unstable, he would have not gone to perform Hajj or joined the Faculty of Sharia at the Kuwait University.
I think that they have it backwards. It proves that he is mentally unstable. Spending a fortune to go throw stones at something, taking the chance of getting trampled. Not to mention attending Sharia U.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/30/2005 11:59 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Damn! of course! I figure you use browned Salwar.
Correct me if I'ma rong.
Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga, Moazzam Begg and Richard Belmar finally arrived back in Britain last week after their three-year imprisonment in Guantanamo, to near-universal acclaim and sympathy. Their lawyers insist that they are totally innocent of any involvement in terrorism. The men themselves say that they have been tortured, and that the admissions made by three of them that they had been recruited by al-Qa'eda , and undergone training in terrorist camps in Afghanistan are completely false.
The horrors of what undoubtedly took place in Abu Ghraib, the prison in Iraq, have convinced many people that the Americans must also have administered hideous tortures to everyone they imprisoned at Guantanamo. In fact it is not at all clear that the Americans have tortured anyone in Guantanamo. Some of the "sexual tortures" women interrogators rubbing their breasts against the backs of those being questioned sound, to Western ears, too close to the comfy chair of Monty Python's Spanish Inquistion to be taken seriously. Surprisingly, perhaps, the US army authorities took them very seriously: they dismissed for "inappropriate conduct" a female interrogator who was found to have run her fingers through one detainee's hair and sat on his lap during an interrogation.
The detainees in Guantanamo were certainly humiliated and made to feel extremely uncomfortable. They may have been deprived of light and sleep and forced to stand for long periods. But did it constitute torture? The US Department of Defence insists that none of the Britons even alleged they had been tortured or abused until October last year and that when US officials investigated those claims, they not only found they had no foundation, but that one of the Britons had assaulted one of his interrogators.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:50:50 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
..I wish they would have used pliers,awl,skil-saw,roto-hammer,blow torch, and dull butter knife!
A Russian parliamentary commission has found two high-ranking Russian military officers helped gunmen to seize a primary school in the city of Beslan last September. The chair of the commission says two highly-ranked military officials have been arrested after allegations they provided assistance to the gunmen. He says other officials, who are ranked major and above, may also be charged. It is speculated that they could have helped the gunmen indirectly by allowing them to pass through police checkpoints. Despite the allegations, those under suspicion remain in their posts.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/30/2005 12:25:33 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Despite the allegations, those under suspicion remain in their posts.
Perish the thought that these maggots should be deemed a threat to the public weal without having first undergone due process. Where is not-so-gentle touch of RasPutin's heavy hand? Russia is so busy screwing itself, it's a wonder they even have time to make trouble abroad.
#3
Notice how this article very carefully uses the term 'gunmen' and not 'muslims' or 'terrorists', 'rapist', or 'murderers' as if it was only a local criminal gang waving some guns around and not some islamic muslim extreamist terrorists who raped children, and bayonetted innocent babies.
Russian law enforcement officials allegedly helped terrorists to carry out last September's school massacre in Beslan, Russia, that left 344 people dead, according to the head of a special parliamentary commission. Alexander Torshin, the head of the commission investigating the fatal hostage taking, told Russian media that two accomplices already have been detained, three are being sought and authorities are preparing the legal work to detain two more. Torshin said the suspects included officials ranking "higher than major."
Another Senator who is a member of the commission, Vladimir Kulakov, added that the people who aided the terrorists are not only in Beslan but "at the federal level" and "these people are still at their jobs." He did not identify the officials by name. His comments were quoted by Interfax news agency. The commission has been investigating the Beslan massacre for months. It is expected to release its report this spring. Analysts say the news is not surprising since, shortly after the hostage-taking was over, Russian officials announced that a local policeman had been arrested for "complicity" in the attack. It is not clear whether that policeman is one of those described by Alexander Torshin.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:30:31 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Rantburg called this right after the event. The Russkies had better get ahold of their corruption if they ever want to get anywhere.
#2
... the people who aided the terrorists are not only in Beslan but "at the federal level" and "these people are still at their jobs."
Indicating either that the accusations are false or that the officials were involved in an intelligence operation to penetrate the terrorits' organizations.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 8:56 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Or (3rd possibility) that the accusations are true but they were not acting on own initiative when helping the terrorists.
That is the conspiracist theory, but even conspiracist theories can occasionally turn out true.
Nine policemen were killed in Russia's war-torn republic of Chechnya when their cars hit remote-controlled landmines, local police officials were quoted late on Friday as saying by the ITAR-TASS news agency. Both cars were near the town of Alkhan-Yurt at the time of the attack, officials said without giving further details.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:26:17 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
A bomb exploded Sunday in a Mediterranean resort hotel in southeast Spain after a telephone warning from the Basque separatist group ETA, Interior Ministry officials said. The ministry office in the southeast al Andalus Alicante region said it did not know whether there were any casualties. The bomb detonated in the Hotel Port Denia around 3:15 p.m., the news agency Efe reported. The town of Denia is located in the Spanish region of Alicante on the Costa Blanca and is popular with tourists. Efe quoted police as saying the warning call was placed to police in the Basque region. The hotel was immediately evacuated and the bomb exploded about 30 minutes later.
The hotel bombing occurred two days before Spain's Parliament was scheduled to debate — and almost certainly reject — a proposal making the Basque region virtually independent. On Jan. 18, a powerful car bomb exploded in the affluent town of Gexto near the main Basque city, Bilbao. That blast also was preceded by a call from a person claiming to speak for ETA.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005 5:47:57 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As the webmaster would say..."Wotta Surprise".
ETA figures hey...if bunch of stupid Muslims can effect an election, then why not us?
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
01/30/2005 19:32 Comments ||
Top||
A suspected recruiter of young Muslims for combat in Iraq and a man identified as a volunteer allegedly plotted attacks against French or foreign interests in France, the prosecutor's office said Friday. Under questioning, the two men "evoked the possibility of actions in France without identifying precise targets," a statement by the prosecutor's office said. The statement was released shortly after the men, of North African origin, were placed under investigation - a step short of being charged - as part of a probe into alleged networks suspected of dispatching Islamic combatants from France to Iraq.
Farid Benyettoun, 23, identified as an alleged recruiter, and Thamer Bouchnak, 22, a suspected volunteer for combat, were placed under investigation for "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise," judicial officials said. The broad charge allows investigators to hold suspects while they move forward with their probe. A third man, who was not identified, was expected to be placed under investigation Saturday on the same count. The three were among a group of 10 people detained Monday and Wednesday in the investigation of alleged networks in France funneling militants to Iraq. The three were from the same Paris neighborhood as three French citizens who died while fighting as insurgents in Iraq, a French intelligence official said.
The prosecutor's office provided no details on the alleged plot, saying the network allegedly "fomented attack projects on national territory against French or foreign interests." However, investigators noted the two men under investigation so far only spoke of the possibility of "violent actions" in France without defining targets. No explosives were found when the men were detained, the investigators said. The other seven people detained this week were being released, judicial sources said. The judicial and intelligence sources had portrayed the group mounted to funnel insurgents to Iraq as mainly a project among militant neighborhood comrades. One investigator said that at least seven people, including the three French killed in Iraq, used the network to reach their destination. A police official said the arrests "broke the network." Benyettoun was the brother-in-law of a man deported to Algeria in 2004 for his alleged links to the Algerian insurgency movement, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known as the GSPC, the sources said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:41:04 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
An Iraqi arrested in Germany on suspicion of plotting an Al Qaeda suicide attack in Iraq said he was sent on his mission by Osama bin Laden himself, a German magazine reported on Saturday. German state prosecutors believe Ibrahim Mohammed K., a 29-year-old Iraqi believed to be a high-ranking Al Qaeda figure, recruited Yasser Abu S., a 31-year-old stateless Palestinian from Libya, as a future suicide bomber in Iraq. The two men were arrested last Sunday in the western city of Mainz, which US President George W Bush is due to visit next month. However, prosecutors said there was no indication the two had planned an attack in Germany.
Der Spiegel magazine said the Iraqi had told the other man he had been sent by bin Laden personally to Germany. It gave no details on the date or location of the meeting. "Yes, he sent me to work, to sell and buy," the magazine quoted him as saying, citing a conversation from their Mainz apartment that investigating authorities recorded. Authorities believe the terms refer to the recruitment and placement of volunteers for Jihad, or "holy war", the magazine said in a preview of an article due to appear on Monday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:13:37 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ibrahim Mohammed K., a 29-year-old Iraqi believed to be a high-ranking Al Qaeda figure, recruited Yasser Abu S., a 31-year-old stateless Palestinian from Libya, as a future suicide bomber
Wow, Iraq, Paleo, Al Queda, Libya all in one sentence. To me, the above quote succinctly demonstrates that these various groups are different manifestations of the same enemy and that in many cases we have indeed suceeded in luring them to Iraq to face the US military when they might otherwise be killing civilians somehwere.
Indian police said Portugal's Supreme Court has cleared the extradition of one of India's most wanted men, Abu Salem, sought for a string of blasts that killed more than 250 people in 1993. "We were informed by the Indian mission in Portugal that the Supreme Court has granted India's request for extradition of Abu Salem for all the offences," G Mohanty, a spokesman for India's Central Bureau of Investigation, said. Salem and his girlfriend, little-known Indian actress Monica Bedi, were arrested in Lisbon in September 2002 on charges of document falsification.
India has sought their extradition since they were arrested. Bedi, whose extradition was cleared by the Portuguese court last year, is wanted in India for forgery. Salem is believed to have helped orchestrate a wave of bombings in Bombay's commercial district in March 1993 that killed over 250 people and injured more than 1,000. As well as being wanted for the bombings, Salem is also sought in India in connection with more than 60 cases of murder, extortion and kidnapping that mainly targeted Bombay's film producers and stars. Salem, the subject of an international arrest warrant, has denied any involvement in the blasts or other wrongdoing. Portugal and India do not have an extradition treaty and the extradition case was complicated by a ban in the Portuguese constitution on deporting suspects to nations where they could face the death penalty.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A federal prosecutor says a Yemeni sheik and his assistant were intent on providing millions of dollars to al Qaeda and Hamas, while a defense attorney accused the government of entrapment in his opening statement. Attorneys delivered their opening arguments on Friday in the trial of Sheik Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad, 56, and Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31. Both men are charged with conspiracy to provide support to terrorist organizations. Al-Moayad also faces charges of giving money, weapons and communication equipment to al Qaeda and Hamas, which have been designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department.
Charges against al-Moayad say he boasted of meeting several times with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and that he claimed to have personally delivered $20 million to bin Laden to support terrorist activities in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Kashmir. If convicted, al-Moayad could get up to 60 years in prison; Zayad could receive up to 30 years. The charges were filed in the Eastern District of New York because al-Moayad allegedly said that some of the money he provided to al Qaeda was collected at the Al Farouq mosque in Brooklyn. The government's case rests on taped conversations in January 2003 between the defendants and FBI undercover agents. The men "talked about funneling millions of dollars to two terror organizations -- Hamas and al Qaeda," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moore said in her opening statements on Friday. One of the informants, Sheik Sharif Sa'eed, played the part of a former Black Panther who wanted to donate $2 million to terrorist groups, she said. Moore said Sa'eed made everyone present swear on the Quran that they would keep the meeting secret. According to her, al-Moayad admitted on tape that he would give the money to "everybody that we learn is fighting jihad."
Al-Moayad quietly mumbled to himself throughout Moore's comments and smiled in response to some of her remarks. Al-Moayad has denied that he gave any money to bin Laden. He contends he was only following orders from Zayed and that the money raised was for charitable causes in Yemen. "The bottom line is when you're caught admitting a crime on tape, there are no explanations that can get you out of it," Moore said. Defense attorney William Goodman portrayed al-Moayad as an "ailing, vulnerable man who's devoted his whole life to charity." He told they jury they "will hear no evidence that he sent even one nickel to Hamas." Goodman accused the government of entrapment. Al-Moayad was caught in an "unfair and coercive situation" that was "meticulously staged" by authorities, the lawyer said. It "had actors, directors, it had stage technicians."
At the center of the defense argument is the credibility of the other informant, Mohamed Alanssi, and the authenticity of his translations of the taped conversations. Alanssi was in the only one in the meetings who knew both English and Arabic. In November, Alanssi set himself on fire outside the White House to protest his treatment at the hands of the FBI. He survived the incident. Jonathan Marks, Zayed's lawyer, said the court could not rely on Alanssi's translations. "He mistranslated, he embellished, he added, he subtracted," Marks told the jury in his opening remarks. Prosecutors said they will not ask Alanssi to testify. Goodman said his decision to call Alanssi depends "on what the government comes up with." Attorneys in the case said the trial could last up to four weeks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:28:30 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The sheik will walk.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 9:09 Comments ||
Top||
Indonesia's military says it has shot dead four separatist rebels in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province while government and rebel leaders are engaged in cease-fire talks in Finland. Military spokesman Edi Sulistiadie says Army infantry shot dead the four Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas during a skirmish in the village of Tanjong Punti in the east of the region. He says the clash broke out after soldiers spotted the four trying to "disturb" residents in the village. Mr Sulistiadie says one of those killed is Amin Syarif, a 40-year-old rebel commander.
Asked why the clash had occurred despite the ongoing talks in Finland, Mr Sulistiadie said: "The current position of the Indonesian Armed Forces is defensive-active. They fired at us first, so why shouldn't we fire back?" However, rebel sources say that the four had been in the village to meet relatives. They had assumed that they would not be captured by authorities while cease-fire talks are ongoing. Upon their arrival, armed Indonesian soldiers immediately surrounded their homes. A skirmish then broke out.
That's the way hudnas usually work, isn't it?
Mr Sulistiadie also accuses the rebels of shooting dead a resident and critically wounding another in the northern Aceh district of Bireuen after they refused to donate money for the separatists' cause. The Finland talks have resulted in an agreement to work towards a lasting peace deal to help rebuild the province, which took the brunt of the December 26 tsunami. Indonesia is offering limited autonomy for the gas-rich province of 4 million people on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. The GAM has rejected that in the past but the Finnish mediators says the offer forms the basis of the talks. "We have an in-principle agreement to meet again in the near future to discuss a comprehensive peace settlement under the umbrella of self-autonomy," Indonesia's Information Minister Sofyan Djalil said.
That means they can enforce their local brand of shariah and rake off from the oil revenues. "Zakat" imposed on the oil money will support many, many pious holy men...
The Finnish mediator, former president Martti Ahtisaari who has previously brokered peace in conflict zones such as Kosovo, says the next round of Helsinki talks would happen soon. "I don't expect it to take months," he said.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/30/2005 12:03:12 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Seven bodies of suspected terrorists were recovered by government forces as the death toll in the air bombardment of an alleged terror base in Maguindanao rose to 48, the military said yesterday.
The remains found late Friday, however, could not easily be identified as "most were mutilated," said Col. Jerry Jalandoni, chief of the 604th Army Brigade based in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.
More casualties from the rebels' side are expected, Jalandoni said, as the airstrikes and artillery barrage launched Thursday hit Butilan Marsh where suspected renegade commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were meeting with Abu Sayyaf leaders and about five to six Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members.
"So far, we have received reports that there were 48 missing fighters who were believed killed in the airstrike, including a certain Commander Aguila," Jalandoni said.
The ground military commander believes the two JI militants reported killed were a certain Dulmatin and Muayha. A military intelligence report also showed that an unidentified Indonesian died in the massive air raid.
The government suffered only one fatality and one slightly wounded.
There were no civilian casualties, according to Brig. Gen. Alexander Yano, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), after an inspection of the devastated area by the joint committee on cessation of hostilities with members of the International Monitoring Team (IMT).
Military officials said the situation has returned to normal in Datu Piang. Not a single firefight was reported since yesterday morning although Jalandoni said movements from fleeing Abu Sayyaf and radical MILF rebels were monitored.
Yano said residents have made their way back into their homes from evacuation centers.
Amid renewed hostilities in Mindanao, President Arroyo has said peace talks with the mainstream MILF does not stop government forces to run after "renegade" guerrillas behind attacks such as the raid on two Army outposts in Mamasapano and Shariff Aguak towns also in Maguindanao on Jan. 9.
The Mamasapano assault was blamed on Abdul Wahid Tondok, a renegade leader of a breakaway MILF faction. The MILF heirarchy has disowned the raid, saying it was not sanctioned.
Tondok was believed to be with his men, Abu Sayyaf leaders including chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and JI members before the terrorist haven in the marshy area of barangay Butilan was bombed.
As the identities of those killed remained unclear, the military nonetheless warned Tondok that his days are numbered.
AFP Southern Command (Southcom) chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza called on Tondok to surrender, saying a relentless military offensive against him will not stop.
"With the (casualty) figure given on the ground from our intelligence unit, I better advise him (Wahid) to give up because I will not stop running after him and his cohorts," Braganza vowed.
The Southcom chief expressed belief that the Abu Sayyaf, a ragtag extremist group said to have links with the al-Qaeda, has been working with JI forces hiding in the southern Philippines amid reports that the two groups meet occasionally with some renegade members of the MILF.
Braganza said last Thursday's gathering of the band of terrorists showed that the JI was indeed training guerrillas in the South.
"We have been receiving reports on the training activities being conducted by the JI with the local fighters here," Braganza said.
He said the reported death of two JI members from the airstrike "is a big blow" to the Indonesian militants' activity in Mindanao.
The attack "was not aimed at the MILF," he clarified, but at terrorist cells "that pose a threat not only to national security but to the cause of peace itself."
"Very clearly, the objective of the military was to really run after terrorist cells," Bunye stressed.
Nonetheless, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said they have filed a protest before the Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities against the military for alleged violations of the ceasefire pact.
Palace communications director Silvestre Afable Jr., head of the government peace panel, told The STAR yesterday that they are still awaiting official notice from Malaysia as to the specific date when formal talks resume.
The Malaysian government, he said, had expressed its "wish" to see a final peace treaty reached by middle of this year.
This was impressed upon by Malaysian authorities on both the government and MILF sides during their last meeting in Kuala Lumpur last month, Afable said. He quoted statements made by Malaysian defense minister and concurrent deputy prime minister Abdul Rajak Najib.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, called on the MILF leadership to penalize those in their ranks who are coddling JI members.
Congressmen Eduardo Veloso of Leyte and Edwin Uy of Isabela said it was hard to believe that the MILF were unaware of the JI's presence in areas it controls.
The solons, however, said the government should also give the MILF the benefit of the doubt in the absence of solid proof of terrorist links for the sake of the decades-long peace process. On the other hand, they said the MILF should cooperate with the AFP to ease suspicions of JI coddling.
"It will also be a confidence-building mechanism to pursue peace talks with the government," they said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:32:15 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Misfiled. Should be under the Philippines. Otherwise interesting, though. As always, thanks for the useful information, Dan.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) spokesman Eid Kabalu Saturday dismissed claims of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that 48 rebels were killed in Thursday's encounter at the Butilan Marsh in Maguindanao.
Kabalu said there were no bodies of rebels found since Thursday. He said two people were injured after they were hit by sub-machinegun fires but could not say for sure if they were Abu Sayyaf rebels or plain civilians. Kabalu said the body of the reported Indonesian national said to be a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) could not also be located.
Colonel Jerry Jalandoni, chief of Army's 604th Brigade, meanwhile, said an estimated 48 rebels, including two alleged ranking Jemaah Islamiyah leaders, were among those killed in the military air strikes. He said his troops recovered seven mutilated bodies in the area. "Info from the locals said that most of the casualties are from the groups of Abu Sayyaf commanders Wahid, Aguila and Bagundali," Jalandoni said.
Kabalu, on the other hand, added that representatives from the International Peace Monitoring Team and the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities immediately rushed to the Butilan Marsh to investigate. However, the group is having a hard a time proceeding to the area because of its location and it is marshy, Kabalu said. The team is at the evacuation center in the area. He said everything is back to normal after Thursday's air strikes adding that no MILF rebel was killed in the latest strike.
The military on Thursday claimed that five Muslim rebels, including an Indonesian suspected to be a member of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, were believed killed in a military air strike at their hideout in Maguindanao. Major General Raul Relano, chief of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said a military intelligence report showed that the unidentified Indonesian was killed along with four Mulsim rebels after the bombing on their hideout in Butilan Marsh, Maguindanao Thursday. "The intelligence report said five were dead and three were wounded," said Relano. "The hazy report from our (intelligence) assets in the area said that one foreigner was among those dead."
He said the foreigner is presumably one of several Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah members hiding in the area with leaders of the local Abu Sayyaf group and a renegade leader of the MILF.
Colonel Franklin del Prado, Army spokesman, said when the attack took place, among those believed to be in the area were Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani and at least three Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah members, including Dulmatin, who allegedly played a key role in the Bali bombings.
Relano said a video of Thursday's operation showed the militants fleeing along the river on the marsh as their huts were hit by 250-pound bombs and rocket fire. The Philippine Air Force launched attacks after receiving intelligence information Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani and three Jemaah Islamiyah leaders were in the area.
Meanwhile, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye in a statement posted at the government website www.ops.gov.ph said the military air strikes was directed against suspected terrorist elements and not the MILF. He said the military attack will not affect the peace talks between the government and the MILF. Bunye said the Joint Monitoring Team and the International Monitoring Team before properly notified before the air strike was launched. He said the fight against terrorism is not the government's alone by the MILF's as well.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:18:30 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ignore those piles of body parts, infidel.
Posted by: ed ||
01/30/2005 1:13 Comments ||
Top||
FORTY al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels, including two suspected members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), were killed in a military airstrike over their alleged hideout on a marshland in Datu Piang town, Maguindanao province, officials said Friday. Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, military Southern Command (SouthCom) chief, told Camp Aguinaldo reporters that the death toll was based on radio signals from the rebels, intercepted by military intelligence. Major General Raul Relano, chief of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said in a separate interview that three rebels were injured based on initial reports.
Braganza and Relano said they could not determine the affiliations of the other casualties. One government soldier, flying a helicopter gunship, was slightly wounded, Relano said. Some 300 MILF rebels, led by renegade commander Wahid Kalil Tondok, were in Butilan marsh allegedly coddling some 40 Abu Sayyaf bandits and several JI members, Relano said. "They have scattered in the area. It is useless bombing them now," Relano said in a telephone interview.
Relano said checkpoints were set up around the marsh area to prevent the bandits from escaping. An Inquirer report from Cotabato City said one JI member was killed although he could not be positively identified. Colonel Gerry Jalandoni, chief of the 604th Infantry Brigade, said military agents could not say who among the Indonesians -- Dulmatin, Mohammad Ali Abdulrahiman alias Muhayiha and Saki alias Maruan -- was killed during the air strikes.
A Huey helicopter almost crashed when bullets from caliber 50 hit its tail while it was trying to insert troops in the marshland on Thursday to recover the remains of the slain suspected terrorist, Jalandoni said. This prompted the Air Force to launch a second wave of attacks in the afternoon, he added. Jalandoni said about 70 renegade Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members were monitored in the area during the air attacks. He said the manhunt against the followers of Tondok shifted to Sultan Kudarat province following reports that his group moved from the towns of Datu Piang, Mamasapano, Sultan sa Barongis, Ampatuan -- all in Maguindanao -- to Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat.
Tondok's group was allegedly behind an attack on an Army detachment in Linantangan town earlier this month, which left seven soldiers and 15 rebels killed. Tondok has refused to surrender to the government and the MILF. The MILF, while insisting that it did not sanction the assault, refused to surrender the Muslim rebel leader. Meanwhile, MILF spokesman Eid "Lipless Eddie" Kabalu said the latest military attack was a "blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement" and that it would file a protest before the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH). Kabalu however maintained that the attacks would not affect the resumption of peace talks, slated in February in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Brigadier General Alexander Yano, military spokesman, expressed a similar view. "We don't think soâŠthe operation was targeted against the same groups which the MILF says is not affiliated with them," Yano told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo. "But informally, we told them that the operation was targeted against the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah and not against the MILF," Yano added. In Malacañang, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the ongoing clashes would not get in the way of the scheduled resumption of peace negotiations between the government and the secessionist group. But while the government was willing to sit down anew with the MILF, Bunye said government forces would continue to pursue terrorist cells in the South, including the renegade members of the MILF. "We are confident this will not hinder the peace talks with the MILF, which is also forsworn to fight terror. Terrorism is our common enemy and there is no disagreement that it could be defeated," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:07:31 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The US is increasing the pressure on Iran by sending military planes into its airspace to test the country's defences and spot potential targets, according to an intelligence source in Washington.
The overflights have been reported in the Iranian press and the head of Iran's air force, Brigadier General Karim Qavami, declared recently that he had ordered his anti-aircraft batteries to shoot down any intruders, but there have been no reports of any Iranian missiles being launched.
"The idea is to get the Iranians to turn on their radar, to get an assessment of their air defences," an intelligence source in Washington said. He said the flights were part of the Pentagon's contingency planning for a possible attack on sites linked to Iran's suspected nuclear weapons programme.
"It make sense to get a look at their air defences, and it makes the mullahs nervous during the EU negotiations (over the suspension of Iranian uranium enrichment)," said John Pike, the head of GlobalSecurity.org, an independent military research group.
The flights come after reports of American special forces incursions into Iran. However, former US intelligence officials have said they believe the incursions are being carried out by Iranian rebels drawn from the anti-Tehran rebel group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, under US supervision.
The US military denied the reports. "We're not flying over frigging Iran," an official said, suggesting Tehran was making up the incidents to attract international sympathy.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 5:16:42 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ROFL!
Oops, got all dirty and linty again. Gotta stop reading stuff like this.
#3
I suspect that at the moment the mullahs are more worried about the Blue Finger Brigades assembling on the other side of the border. They'll probably ban the sale of blue ink tomorrow.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 18:11 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Wrong again!
Its not US warplanes at all.
Its just some plain old UFO's
attracted by the radiation from Iranian Uranium
purification Plants.
Little green man were actually reported to be mucking around the Centrifuges at Natanz !
#6
"we're not flying over frigging Iran",but those darn UAV's,it's amazing how often they get lost and wander all over the place,just ignoring borders as if they weren't there.
Posted by: Stephen ||
01/30/2005 19:03 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Yeah .... those software bugs, you know how it is.
(ACTUALLY, those UAVs are the ones that were struck by lightning -- Number Five IS ALIVE and monitoring Iran all by his mechanical self. You go, guys!!!)
#8
3rd straight day a very similar article's been posted. Even the mullahs have read it by now
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/30/2005 19:46 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Mad mullah options:
1) Ignore incursions, keep the radars off, and have no warning before a real first strike.
2) Turn the radars on and make them prime targets.
3) Fire missiles, waste them, and lose face (if that's possible).
4) Launch weather balloons and claim the locals' reports of UFOs are weather balloons rather than foreign military aircraft.
5) Duck and cover -- constantly.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 19:59 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Gentlemen, please. The Iranian IADS is well known and well mapped, there are few surprises waiting for us should we decide to roll it back. There are a lot of surprises waiting for their anti-shipping missiles should they be so foolish as to engage with them. We have no need to play with their international borders, on sea or in the air, to get them to reveal anything new to us. We know what is Iranian military, that is, professional and nationalist and not truly opposed to the USA; what is Islamic nutjob and dedicated to destruction (ours or theirs, whichever we can effect first); and what is gangland thug, the street mobsters and brownshirts that work directly for the Mullahs. We know how to kill the right targets and leave the rest for the children of Iran to string up from the lampposts.
American Forces Press Service
ââ¬" Multinational forces caught seven insurgents believed responsible for the rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, on Jan. 29. News reports showed video from an airborne military camera of men fleeing the scene of the rocket launch. They were tracked to a residence in southeastern Baghdad, where Task Force Baghdad ground troops detained them about an hour after the attack. Two Americans were killed and five wounded when the rocket hit a building connected to the Embassy Annex in the city's heavily secured International Zone. One fatality was a servicemember and the other a civilian, according to an Embassy spokesman, who also said none of the injuries is life threatening. "This was a great example of quick reaction on the part of some superb cavalry troopers," said Brig. Gen. Michael Jones, assistant division commander for the 1st Cavalry Division and Task Force Baghdad. "It's one more example to the insurgents that Iraqi and multinational forces will hunt down those responsible for these acts of terrorism."
In other news, three men wielding AK-47 assault rifles launched a pre-dawn attack on Iraqi army troops manning a checkpoint south of Baghdad today. When the attackers fled the scene, the Iraqi soldiers chased down and captured two of them and confiscated three AK-47s. The third man escaped, officials noted. In Kirkuk today, members of Task Force Danger and Iraqi security forces detained five men in a series of raids. The detainees were suspected of emplacing improvised explosive devices, weapons trafficking and kidnapping. The forces seized weapons, ammunition and propaganda in the raids. Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, were hit by a roadside bomb while patrolling southeast of Mosul today. However, they caught and detained nine individuals suspected of being involved with the attack. Insurgents launched mortar, grenade and machine-gun attacks Jan. 29 against police stations, polling places and checkpoints in Hilla, Abu Mustafa and Al Mashru. No multinational or Iraqi forces were killed or wounded. Whole lotta catchin goin on. Keep up the good work, guys amd gals.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005 5:14:21 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Airborne Military Cameras are great on cloudless days. Hope their are more of them real soon.
They are no doubt fighting to free Iraq from foreigners ...
TWO of the suicide bombers who staged attacks in Baghdad during the Iraqi election were Syrian and Chechen, an interior ministry source said today.
The source also said some attackers had been detained during the day.
"We have arrested some people, but I cannot give figures or nationalities."
Several suicide bomb attacks, most by individuals who carried belts packed with explosives toward polling stations and other targets, were carried out during the election.
The group of Iraq's al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed overnight it had carried out 13 suicide attacks to "spoil the party". The Internet statement could not be independently verified.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 5:08:09 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Chechens had an opportunity to enjoy enormous sympathy among US citizens as underdogs who had suffered unjustly, who had resisted Russian oppression, and who deserved independence. They have pissed it all away in the past decade. It's a nation that has been thorougly criminalized.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/30/2005 17:32 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I agree with Mike Sylwester!?! I think I need to go lie down for a while.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/30/2005 17:34 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Title clean up Aisle 7:
Correct phraseology should be: Syrian, Chechen nationals all over were behind Baghdad booms.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 18:09 Comments ||
Top||
The buses stopped a few yards away from the polling center and dozens of men and women spilled out. Carrying Iraqi flags, they started chanting: "We are proud of Iraq. . . . Kick all the evil people out and Iraq is the best place in the world."
As they marched toward the entrance of the station, the Iraqis, including a couple of turbaned clerics, started clapping. A few women were crying.
"I have never voted in 60 years, this is the happiest day in my life," said a woman who gave her name as Layal. "I've been living in Lebanon since 1986 and I hope that my vote today will bring me one step closer to going home to Iraq."
For the second time in just over a week, this group of Iraqis had traveled from neighboring Lebanon, first to register and, yesterday, to cast their ballots. One man had brought his young children with him and said he wanted them to witness this "historic day."
The scene was viewed with some apparent unease by nearby Syrian security agents, who are not used to such spontaneous, popular outbursts. Syria remains a tightly controlled country, ruled by the Ba'ath party.
Syria is one of 14 countries where Iraqis have been casting ballots since Friday. In Damascus, they did so under the watchful eyes of Syria's president, Bashar Assad, whose picture, along with that of his late father Hafez, hangs in every classroom.
But outside the schools, in neighborhoods with large Iraqi communities, hundreds of posters of Iraqi candidates from a dizzying range of political and religious backgrounds lined the walls.
The pictures illustrated the choice available to Iraqis now that the Ba'ath party no longer rules Iraq, but it made the Syrians acutely aware of the lack of variety they have in their own elections. It's perhaps to try to avoid this rare exercise in democracy on their territory, albeit by proxy, that Syrian authorities first appeared sluggish in approving the Iraqi polls in Damascus. The agreement with the International Organization for Migration, which organized the absentee vote, was only signed on Jan. 2, weeks after preparations for the polls had started in the other 13 countries.
"The Syrians expressed their political will to support the Iraqi elections, but it took them some time to understand the operational needs," said Luis Martinez-Betanzos, head of the IOM's operation in Syria. "This is a new exercise for them, but since the agreement cooperation has been excellent."
Billboards from the IOM calling on Iraqis to register were displayed on the main streets of Damascus, and lists of polling stations as well instructions to Iraqi voters were published in the state-controlled newspaper. Heavy security was deployed near the polling stations and nearby streets were closed off. But coverage by the local state-controlled media was minimal...
Syria has as much to fear from a democratic Iraq as from an unstable one. The United States has repeatedly accused Damascus of trying to stop the emergence of a stable Iraq by encouraging the insurgency against American troops. Syria denies the allegations and says that chaos in Iraq is not to its advantage, as the violence could eventually spill across the border.
Other Arab governments are also watching today's election warily. One main worry is the rise of a Shi'ite state.
Sunni Gulf rulers are worried the vote will embolden Shi'ite minorities in their own countries, from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain. King Abdullah of Jordan even openly raised the specter of a "Shi'ite crescent" from Iran to Lebanon through Iraq and Syria. The king has accused Iran, where Shi'ites are in the majority, of trying to influence elections in Iraq, an allegation denied by Tehran... It isn't Shiites you should be worrying about. Democracy can spread faster than influenza.
#1
I really want to know something.
The Iraqi expats in Syria and Iran got to vote.
Syria and Iran are our enemies. Syria and Iran are threatened by democracy in Iraq.
Whose balls got twisted how to force those two countries to cooperate in their own destruction?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/30/2005 17:24 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Depends, I think, on the veracity of the ballots which are in the hands of the Syrians and Iranians. Would anyone with 2 neurons to rub together believe they would not tamper, at the very least, or more likely replace the ballots with a set heavily favoring whichever parties are actually agents of the Mad Mullahs?
I believe all of the "expat" voting is bullshit and insane. Consider who was allowed to go abroad in large numbers... first and foremost: faithful Ba'athists, second: Sunnis. The odd exile, such as Allawi himself, were one-offs, not a large community. I worked with an Iraqi in Saudi at Aramco - he was allowed to study abroad, decided to stay abroad, and was working toward getting his family out - this was pre-Iraq War. Now he can get them out with ease, etc. His family are the proverbial faithful Ba'athist Sunnis from a tribe allied with Saddam in the Baghdad area. Even though he has acquired some Western-ish phrases (He loves to say "bloody hell", for instance...) and loves freedom - he would vote for the restoration of power to those who would favor his family. Period. Full stop.
The quickest way to find out if that Arab friend of yours, who seems so Western and modern and all gushy about freedom and rights and such, is your peer or not - just ask him about Palestine. Stand back and have a towel handy. They spittle really flies. Sorry to burst so many bubbles, for your "friends" are not rational, on average. They have been permanently indoctrinated from Day One. Their children (or grand children) might be rational, but only if you take them away and raise them sans the Islamic / Arab indoctrination.
Life's a real bitch, at times. Eventually, the West will realize the nasty fact: you have to either take their children away at birth, or fry 'em up. Otherwise, the shit will go on exactly as it has for century upon century, age upon age.
He wasn't supposed to live, and the way he tells the story today, this "suicide bomber" wasn't quite ready to die. Twenty-one-year-old Ahmed Abdullah al-Shayea had come to Iraq from Saudi Arabia to join the infamous terrorist known as Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi in a holy war against the American infidels. On Christmas morning, 2004, he got his first assignment, to park a tanker truck full of explosives near the high walls around the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad. He didn't know that four fellow terrorists in a Jeep Cherokee following a safe distance behind held the remote-control trigger. When they pushed it, an explosion thundered across the city, killing 10 Iraqi policemen. But al-Shayea, unlike scores of other bombers who've been vaporized beyond recognition, was blown through the windshield and, against all odds, survived.
Taken to a hospital with third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body, al-Shayea was thought to be just another bystander wounded in the blast. But when police got a tip the second week in January that men were willing to offer money to get him out, or kill him, the cops got interested. If terrorists wanted him, so did they. "Our intelligence agents kidnapped him from the hospital," says Brig. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, deputy minister of the Interior for intelligence affairs. Speaking to NEWSWEEK at his heavily guarded headquarters in Baghdad last week, Kamal described the scene. Al-Shayea was brought into the office swathed in bandages and propped up on a makeshift seat without a back. A pillow was put on his lap to ease the pain of his burned arms. Then the interrogators began their questioning, threatening to hand al-Shayea to the Americans, and at one point putting him on the phone with his father in Saudi Arabia...
A British military transport plane crashed northwest of Baghdad Sunday, British and U.S. officials said. A spokesman for Britain's Defense Ministry said he had no details about where the C-130 Hercules transport plane had come down, what had caused it to crash or whether there were any casualties. U.S. officials said the plane crashed near the Iraqi capital, and media reports said the aircraft was on its way to the city of Balad from Baghdad when it crashed. "I can confirm that a C-130 aircraft has crashed," the British spokesman said. "It was reported at 1725 local time but we have no details about cause, location or casualties." Developing...
#2
Bulldog, I can honestly tell you that there's no distinction in my mind between US and UK casualties. Here, I hope there are as few of both as possible.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/30/2005 17:29 Comments ||
Top||
No more 99.99 % in Iraq!
This is the figure of the Arabs' dictators except Saddam!
He used to get 100%!
Surprisingly those who voted for the master of the mass graves are abstaining now!
Our voting is:
No to the terrorists!
No to the dictatorships!
No to hate and racism!
No to the fascists!
No to the Nazis!
No to the mentally retarded tyrants!
No to the ossified, narrow-minded and intolerants!
The Iraqis are voting in few hours time for the new Iraq.
We are going to create our future by ourselves not by dictators.
We are going to say:
Yes for the freedom and democracy!
Yes for the civilized Iraq!
Yes for peace and prosperity!
Yes for coexistence!
Yes for the New Iraq!
Let them bomb and kill us. It will not deter us!
Let them send their dogs to suck our bones. We care not!
Let them bark. It will not frighten us.
Let them see how civilised to be free and democratic!
Let them die by our vote tomorrow! It is the magic bullet which will kill them!
Welcome New Iraq.
Welcome freedom and democracy.
Welcome peace and prosperity for all nations with out exception but terrorists!
Posted by: tipper ||
01/30/2005 7:53:06 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
In the Iraqis rear-view mirror as they head down the path to freedom is a crowd of left-wing American pols (Kerry, Kennedy, et al) giving them the finger!
You go, Iraqis. It aint always clean or pretty (e.g., Wisconsin, in our recent election) but it's ALWAYS better than what you had before!
#2
Good for you, Hammorabi, and congratulations to the people of Iraq!
What Mohammed of Iraq the Model wrote brought tears to my eyes:
"On Sunday, the sun will rise on the land of Mesopotamia. I can't wait, the dream is becoming true and I will stand in front of the box to put my heart in it." [emphasis added]
Beautiful!
Americans forget how precious - and fragile - freedom really is.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/30/2005 11:29 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Good job American Soldiers. Helping the Iraq's vote for the first time in a real election. They may not have cheered you as much when you got there as we had hoped, but now they are cheering you with thier bravery.
#4
When the Iraqis vote, the outcome will probably be something aligned with the Shiites. However, the Kurds have developed quite a political force of their own. There will be checks and balances different than we in the US see. The Sunnis will be shiite outa luck for a while. Whatever. The point of the election is that Iraqis have a civilized alternative to government by murder and mayhem, be it Saddam or Zarqawi. If that seed is planted, then Iraq and the Middle East have great hope.
My hats off to Iraqi forces that have worked tirelessly in securing this day, our dedicated and professional US forces that have been doing a truly altruistic duty, and to the Iraqi people, that have, despite great personal danger to themselves and their families, gone out and voted. The elections are not everything, but they are a BIG SOMETHING. Despite the spin of the LLL and traitors like Kennedy want the world to believe.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/30/2005 12:29 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Woo Hoo! Americans are celebrating with you Iraq! It's a historic day.
#6
It would be very nice if Americans would value the integrity of their own voting rights like the Iraqis do.
Iraqi voters must bring two forms of identification carrying a photograph to their local polling station. After voting, their name is crossed off the register and their thumb marked with indelible ink to prevent them from voting again.
#8
I'm reminded of the final song from Les Miserables which, ironically, was about the French back when they cared about goofy sh*t like freedom:
Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.
They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord
They will walk behind the plough-share
They will put away the sword
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Tomorrow comes!
Tomorrow comes!
AL-QAEDA'S group in Iraq said it was behind suicide attacks on several polling stations during Iraq's election today, according to an internet statement. "Lions from the martyrs' brigade of the al-Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq attacked several polling stations in Baghdad and elsewhere," said the statement by the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, posted on an Islamist website.
Defending Saddam with their blood.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/30/2005 7:48:06 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
I was skeptical until I read the article...it seems Canada did provide a lot of the technical details of the mechanics of the party and voting systems...but they did it all from Jordan and places other than Iraq. I wonder if they were more afraid of the terrorists or the scorn of the "international community?"
#1
This was reported a few weeks back. The Canadians participated in an international election group that decided to position themselves in Jordan for security reasons.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:31 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan.
#3
I wonder if they support the new goverment that they are "Playing a key role" in creating? Will the double speak end on CBC? Will the ouright lies end? With the snarky comments from the LLL pols in Ottawa? Only time will tell.
#4
Even here in heavily guarded Amman, Canadians abound, from the squadron of Elections Canada monitors to the spokesperson for the International Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE). This man is a household name to anyone who follows Canadian politics. But last night, in an interview with the Toronto Star, he insisted we refer to him only as "spokesman." He too fears for his life, and the possibility that the reach of the growing Iraqi insurgency might extend to his Jordanian hotel room.
"You can say my name when my plane lifts off the runway. Until then, I'm the IMIE spokesman. Period," he said.
Such blanket anonymity makes one wonder what fresh hell awaits Iraq.
Or, it makes one wonder when Canadians lost their balls.
Many Iraqis living near Saddam Hussein's hometown said they will vote today because the ballot not violence will end Iraq's occupation by U.S.-led coalition troops.
The small town of Alam, 10 miles northeast of Saddam's home city of Tikrit, is relatively quiet unlike other Sunni Muslim areas west and north of Baghdad that roil with militancy and fierce opposition to the national elections.
The local leader of one of Iraq's largest clans here is bidding for a seat in the 275-member National Assembly that will govern the country and draft a permanent constitution.
Mashaan al-Jbouri, who heads the 37-member Liberation and Reconciliation Front, has said the country can be freed from occupation only through peaceful means.
Hasan Mohammed Khazaal, a 24-year-old university student, backed that notion.
"We will have a new constitution and I can get rid of the occupiers through elections. This is the only way to evict the occupiers,' said Khazaal, who decorated his car with posters of al-Jbouri, the local chief of the Jbour clan.
Al-Jbouri served as the governor of Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, for a few months after the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003. He is now a member of the transitional National Council, a government oversight body.
Maj. Gen. Suleiman Youssef Ahmad, a retired officer who served in Saddam's army, has gone house to house in Alam explaining to people what elections are and why they should vote.
"I am not only going to vote. I am guiding the people how to do it,' he said.
Another official, 50-year-old Brig. Gen. Mattar Saleh, said he was voting as a means to get foreign troops out of Iraq.
"We are Iraqis who oppose sectarian division, and our aim is to liberate our country from occupation,' he said. "I can tell the government that I will elect to ask the occupiers to leave the country through peaceful means.'
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:14:37 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This story deserves the jaw-drop image. They, at least those interviewed in SunniLand, seem to get it. Stop attacking, participate in the elections, follow the rule of law - and the troops can leave them in peace. Of course the reporter didn't talk to those who don't get it, but for these people to have given their names, and a clan leader among them, is surprising - given that it's an AP story. On AP's site, this headline has apparently already dropped off the menu - one bomb, shooting, or hangnail somewhere and that would have to trump the good news, of course.
I hope the Kurds came out in droves and achieve a near 100% turnout.
#3
Raptor, please, most of these people have never experienced Democracy or real elections.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:37 Comments ||
Top||
#4
"We are Iraqis who oppose sectarian division, and our aim is to liberate our country from occupation,â he said. "I can tell the government that I will elect to ask the occupiers to leave the country through peaceful means.â
#6
The concept that the Occupier will just up and leave is not a scenario that the average iraqi or arab can get their mind around. That is not how politics is run in the Middle East. This idea that a vote process can determine the real outcome of a nation does not match reality. That Iraqis are prepared to go down this path is truly revolutionary.
Posted by: john ||
01/30/2005 13:07 Comments ||
Top||
Although he shaped almost every facet of today's elections, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani has no plans to vote, one of his representatives said yesterday. The cleric leads this nation's 15 million Shiite Muslims, 60 percent of the population, and he may be the most powerful man in Iraq. But Sistani was born in Mashhad, Iran, he is an Iranian citizen, and, according to the rules of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, he is not eligible to vote, the representative said. "I assure you Sayed Sistani won't vote in this election, because he doesn't meet all the required conditions as spelled out by the IECI," said Sayed Murtdha al Kashmiri, Sistani's representative in London. "He will not vote, but at the same time, Sayed Sistani obliges every Iraqi to vote in the elections."
Sistani's name has been invoked frequently throughout the campaign. Although he is not a candidate, his picture appears on campaign posters for the major Shiite slate, the United Iraqi Alliance. He also blessed that list, positioning it to win the majority of seats. And he issued a fatwa, a religious decree, that declared voting a religious duty. In Najaf, where the reclusive religious leader lives, many residents said they hoped he would vote, or at least leave home to visit a polling center today. They said they believed that his presence would energize the process and ensure that victory for the United Iraqi Alliance. "It is expected that Sayed Sistani will go out to the polling centers because the grand ayatollah urged and motivated this election. He supported the Iraqis to move forward," said Abdel Amir Kadhim Jawad, 51. "And whether he is an Iraqi or Iran citizen, his word is first and final." Kashmiri, however, said that Sistani didn't want his advocacy of the process to be interpreted as political maneuvering. "I know that Sistani doesn't seek any political position of any kind," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:06:14 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ooo.... now I understand.
It will be interesting to see him return to Iran...
#3
Dishman, Sistani always claimed that he won't be interferring with the political process, at least not directly. He is a part of the branch that adheres to the concept of separation of church and state, to which the grandson of Khomeini belongs to as well (that is why Khomeini has been exiled from Iran)
In a way, he can exert a great deal of influence, but he is not directly responsible for any policies. A grey eminence of sorts. He's already got all the power he needs.
There were several attempts on his life. Who do you think was behind it ... and then ask yourself why would he return to Iran?
#4
Cynicism aside, Sistani does not believe in injecting religion into politics. He has been remarkably consistent on this matter.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:26 Comments ||
Top||
#5
What Sistani says about keeping state and religion separate sounds very nice. But the reality is that Sistani's influence is considerable and will remain so in the new Iraq democratic government. The Shiite religion is already flawlessly integrated into the hearts and minds of the majority of Iraqi voters. Let's be serious here. Furthermore, the relationship between Iraqi Shiite clerics is not to be ignored. Besides Sistani's Iranian birthright, consider that many Iraqi Shiite clerics found sanctuary in the bosom of Iran during Saddam's reign of terror against Iraqi Shiites. And he issued a fatwa, a religious decree, that declared voting a religious duty.
They said they believed that his presence would energize the process and ensure that victory for the United Iraqi Alliance.
And whether he is an Iraqi or Iran citizen, his word is first and final
#6
I believe that Sistani is one of the biggest threats to the mad mullahs. If he returns to Iran, it will be under conditions they find less than pleasant.
IRAQI Kurds flocked to polling stations in northern Iraq for today's historic election, which they hope will herald a new era for their long-oppressed community.
Pina Mohammed brought her two children to cast her ballot.
"I want their future to be better than ours," she said outside the voting centre at Arbil's Rizkari school.
While many voters across Iraq were hesitant to venture outside after insurgents carried out attacks, this school in Arbil's Sidawa neighbourhood saw an early rush of voters.
Kurdish areas are expected to register the highest turnout in Iraq despite fears that Sunni Arab extremist organisations would seek to target their rival communities to discredit the elections.
A heavy police and Iraqi army presence could be seen around polling stations in Arbil, a city which saw one of the worst Islamist attacks since the US invasion when more than 100 people were killed in twin bombings last year.
Hosniya Jabbar, an 83-year-old woman, also made the effort to reach the polling station.
"My husband is dead and my children live abroad but I am voting for the children of Kurdistan, to give them a better future," she said.
Kamiran Ahmed, 19, was equally enthusiastic.
"Democracy is great. We have deprived of it for so long and now we can finally choose the people who represent us," he said. "I hope that that our lives will be changed that those who made our parents suffer will never come back to power."
Jalal Talabani, who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and is thought by some to be vying for a top position in the next government, was among the first to vote in Suleimaniyah.
The union and the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massud Barzani are running on a common slate which is expected to perform strongly and secure more than 50 seats in the assembly.
Unlike the rest of Iraq, it is not the first time Kurds in the three northern provinces have had the chance to vote in a free election. In 1992, just after the first Gulf war, they elected a regional parliament, and in 1999 they elected three provincial councils.
But today's vote is likely to be crucial to the Kurds' political ambitions as the 275-member national assembly up for grabs is charged with writing a new constitution for post-Saddam Iraq.
Kurdish leaders want that text to enshrine their hard-fought right to self-rule and want their existing autonomous region expanded to include the northern oil centre of Kirkuk and parts of two other provinces.
Kurds will also pick their provincial councils and their 111-member autonomous parliament.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 2:53:49 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The women took advantage of the national holiday declared for today's election to promenade through the center of this holy Shi'ite city. Shop owners lolled about on carpets by the shrine of Imam Ali, flicking worry beads, bouncing children on their knees, and gossiping with friends. Despite the presence of thousands of special police and Iraqi National Guardsmen, Najaf had the festive air yesterday of a country in celebration. "This is the glorious day Iraqis have been awaiting so patiently," said Raad Abdali, 26, a police officer standing guard at the al-Shekeri Mosque. "Election day will open like a flower, revealing our future."
The jovial atmosphere offered a marked counterpoint to much of the rest of Iraq, which has been plagued by anxiety and fear, with an intimidation and bombing campaign targeting voters and polling sites. Najaf is the spiritual capital of Shi'ite Islam, and one of the holiest places for Iraq's roughly 15 million Shi'ites. Yesterday also marked the Shi'ite celebration of Ghadir, which marks the designation of the first Shi'a imam prophet after the Prophet Mohammed.
Thousands of Najafis roamed the streets: Most stores were closed for the holiday, but people took advantage of a crisp sunny day and a city center suddenly free from traffic as a preelection security measure. Firemen handed out lemon taffy to the men and women strolling to the Imam Ali shrine, many of whom shared Abdali's exuberance. "The fall of Saddam [Hussein] was inevitable, but it was not inevitable that there should be elections," declared Maitha Abdullah, 44, a merchant who sells women's purses.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 2:05:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
This is what the left traitors and Fiskite media beasts worked and fought and lied to prevent. They are the true heirs of Goebbels and Streicher, monsters inciting terror and genocide. They likewise deserve to hang, and I mean that literally.
An airstrike by the Sudanese Air Force on villagers in southern Darfur killed or wounded nearly 100 people in a serious violation of a fragile cease-fire in the conflict-torn region, the United Nations said yesterday. The bombardment Wednesday of villages outside Shangil Tobaya sent thousands of people fleeing, UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said by telephone from Khartoum, Sudan's capital. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was "deeply disturbed" by the bombing, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.
"Deeply, deeply disturbed."
"This is the latest in a series of grave cease-fire violations that have resulted in a large number of civilian casualties, the displacement of thousands of people, and severe access restrictions for relief workers," Eckhard said in a statement. Achouri said African Union observers at the scene had reported "almost 100 casualties" but did not specify how many were dead and how many wounded. "But 100 casualties is 100 too many, be they wounded or dead," she said. "It is definitely one of the most serious violations of the cease-fire" signed by the government and the Darfur rebels last year.
"We're hoping the next violation doesn't have quite that many."
The United Nations' deputy chief envoy to Sudan, Taye-Brook Zerihoun, spoke to the Sudanese Foreign Ministry about the bombardment, but had not received a reply, Achouri said. Sudan's government had issued no statement about the incident by last night. The chief spokesman of the Foreign Ministry did not answer his cellphone yesterday, the Islamic sabbath.
"We gots nuttin' to say. Piss off."
Aid workers based in Shangil Tobaya, 40 miles south of El Fasher, said they saw bombs exploding on the ground Wednesday afternoon and an air force Antonov, a Soviet-built aircraft, circling overhead. Later Wednesday, the African Union, which has 1,400 cease-fire monitors and protection troops in Darfur, confirmed the aerial bombardment, calling it a "major violation" of the cease-fire. "The government of Sudan always says aerial bombardments are not government policy and that President Omar el-Bashir has issued firm instructions that there should be no use of Antonovs for aerial bombardment," Achouri said.
Couldn't have been them, then, right?
The Sudanese government often has been accused of employing its air force against civilians in Darfur, and it has usually denied the allegations. It is rare that the African Union confirms an aerial bombardment. Achouri also said that rebels were believed to be responsible for the destruction of Hamada village in southern Darfur last week. Earlier this week, the United Nations announced the attack on Hamada, singling it out as the worst case of the escalated fighting in Darfur. More than 100 people, mainly women and children, were feared killed. Hamada and Shangil Tobaya lie in the northeast part of South Darfur. Fighting has displaced more than 10,000 people there in the past two weeks, the UN said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:39:19 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I expect an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, tonight.
#6
Anyone heard of leftists staging a demo in front of the Sudan embassy? Asking for sanctions? Burning the Soudanese flag? Putting themselves in front of Soudanese bulldozers?
#7
JFM, no, no, no, of course not, but they promise to talk about it sometime ... really they do ... cross their hearts ... mutter, mutter ... natter, natter ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2005 12:52 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Sudanese airstrike in Darfur killed 100
This crap ain't gonna end until there's a nice little airstrike while Khartoum's in full session. Genocide needs to be met with annihilation for those who perpetrate it.
A suicide car bomb exploded on Saturday close to a U.S. and Iraqi security center near a polling station in the Iraqi town of Khanaqin, northeast of Baghdad, an election commission official in the province said. Abdul Jaleel Adel initially said the polling station had been targeted but later modified this to say the target may have been the security center. There was no immediate word on casualties. U.S. forces sealed off the site.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:34:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Iraqis voted Sunday in their countryâs first free election in a half-century, as insurgents made good on threats of violence with bombs and mortar attacks in at least three cities. Two Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were also wounded in the attack near the Zahraa school, used as a voting center.
More than a dozen loud blasts, believed to be mortar fire, echoed across the city shortly afterwards.
Mortar fire and explosions were also heard in the religiously mixed city of Baqouba 30 miles northeast of the capital and in Basra in southern Iraq.
MSNBC-TV's David Shuster confirmed reports of the Baghdad blasts. "In addition to what sounded like explosions, there was also the rattle of gunfire," Shuster said.
There were no signs of voting in the Sunni Muslim stronghold cities â and rebel centers â of Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Sunni extremists, fearing victory by the Shiites, have called for a boycott, claiming no vote held under U.S. military occupation is legitimate.
There were no immediate reports of violence at the polls, but an explosion was heard at the U.S. military base in Kirkuk in the north. Scattered small arms fire was heard near another U.S. base near Baghdadâs airport.
âSo far the situation is excellent in all areas,â said the chairman of Iraqâs electoral commission, Abdul-Hussein Hendawi. âAll the polling centers, their doors are open. So far we havenât heard about any problems.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 1:22 Comments ||
Top||
In Samarra, the crackle of gunfire was heard across the city minutes after polls opened. A roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol but there were no reports of casualties. An F-15 fighter jet roared over the town, which was shrouded in a chilly mist.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 1:29 Comments ||
Top||
Heavy explosions and a series of mortar attacks broke out across Baghdad, and in several other cities, including Baquoba, Basra and Mosul, less than two hours after voting began.
Two mortars hit near the Ministry of Interior on the city's eastern edge, one witness said. And there were gunfire exchanges in the New Baghdad area in the eastern part of the city.
Fighting raged late Saturday in the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk between police and insurgents. The clashes occurred in a predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood and lasted for about an hour, according to police Brig. Gen. Torhan Abdul-Rahman Youssef.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 1:37 Comments ||
Top||
Despite extraordinary security measures, several explosions echoed across Baghdad and there were multiple blasts in Mosul and Baquba. Police said a blast hit a polling station in the southern city of Basra but there was no word on casualties. A mortar attack also killed one Iraqi near Hilla, south of the capital.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 1:52 Comments ||
Top||
In restive Mosul in the north, American troops and Iraqi soldiers roamed the streets, using loudspeakers to announce the locations of polling sites and urging people to vote. But streets were deserted.
In the heavily Sunni town of Mahmoudiya in the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad, the only cars on the streets were ambulances.
The suicide attack in western Baghdad claimed the life of one policeman and wounded several other people, while mortar attacks in Khan al-Mahawil, 40 miles south of Baghdad, killed another policeman at a polling station.
Witnesses said three other people were wounded when a rocket or mortar landed near a polling station in Sadr City, the heart of Baghdad's Shiite Muslim community.
Voters nationwide began trickling past police guards and heavy security into schools and other buildings converted into polling centers. About 300,000 Iraqi and American troops are on the streets and on standby to protect voters.
"I don't have a job. I hope the new government will give me a job," said one voter, Rashi Ayash, 50, a former lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi force. "I voted for the rule of law."
"God willing, the elections will be good ... Today's voting is very important," said the head of the main Shiite cleric-endorsed ticket, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.
Under the eye of sharpshooters looking down from nearby rooftops, the three were searched first at an outer perimeter about 40 yards from the school, then they had to remove their jackets and take batteries from their cell phones before walking through coils of barbed wire.
Overhead, helicopters clattered and a jet fighter roared by. Occasional bursts of machine gun fire echoed through Baghdad's deserted streets.
Voting was brisk as expected in Kurdish-ruled areas of northern Iraq, where voters were also choosing a regional parliament.
"I can't read or write so I ticked the number" of the Kurdish ticket, said Fouad Fattah, 29, a policeman in Irbil. "I was afraid to make a mistake. I hope the Kurds get a great number of votes so that we can rule ourselves."
In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, only seven people showed up in the first two hours of voting at a school in the city center, while in the diverse city of Baquoba, jubilant voters danced and clapped outside a polling station.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, buses hired by city officials picked up people walking toward voting centers to get them there more quickly.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 2:13 Comments ||
Top||
Despite the attacks, there was brisk turnout in the poor Shiite community of Jisr Diyala in eastern Baghdad, with the number of voters increasing as the morning wore on.
A spokesman for Iraq's elections commission said nearly all the 5,200 polling stations nationwide opened on schedule.
My guess is that turn-out is likely to increase as the day goes on, since most people were wary about going to the polls for fear of becoming Zarqawi's latest victims. In many ways, he may well be a victim of his own hype - he's put so much into bringing down these elections that unless he can mount some major operations across Iraq he is going to lose a lot of the fear that he's enjoyed to date. The emperor, as it were, will have no clothes.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 2:22 Comments ||
Top||
#9
I just about swerved off the road when I heard the ABC Radio (network) news reporter state that 'the insurgents [his word] had done a good job [his term] in intimidating the voters'.
The take-home message I get from that is: ABC considers Vote Suppression to be good when it happens in Iraq.
#10
It looks like at least one of those early explosions were mortars:
Three people were killed when mortars landed near a polling station in Sadr City, the heart of Baghdad's Shiite Muslim community. Seven to eight others were wounded, police said.
In addition, two people were killed and three wounded when a mortar round missed a school serving as a polling centre and hit a nearby home in the neighborhood of Amel in southwestern Baghdad, said police Captain Mohammed Taha.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 2:59 Comments ||
Top||
#11
And the Fallujah residents have started voting as well:
In Falluja, the devastated Sunni city west of Baghdad that was an insurgent stronghold until a U.S. assault in November, a thin stream of people turned out to vote, defying expectations.
"We want to be like other Iraqis, we don't want to always be in opposition," said Ahmed Jassim, smiling after voting.
In Baquba, a rebellious city northeast of Baghdad, crowds clapped and cheered at one voting site.
In Baghdad, a small group ululated as Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein, a descendant of Iraq's last king, overthrown in the late 1950s, went to the polls in southern Baghdad. Ali heads a constitutional monarchy list standing in the election.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:01 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Hmm, this may explain why the coalition is so concerned about attacks:
There were ominous signs that today could be violent and chaotic. The police in Baghdad reported that 11 police cars had been stolen in the past 10 days, raising the possibility that insurgents could stage attacks on polling places -- as they have promised -- using one of the few types of cars that will be permitted to move freely on the streets today. Masked men have been spotted carrying away police flak jackets from the scenes of car bombings recently, and security agencies were warning journalists and others to be on the lookout for fake checkpoints that are manned by insurgents in disguise.
For all the thousands of soldiers and police officers on the streets, the security around many of the polling places appeared inadequate and improvised. Many of the barricades consisted of little more than a string of bricks, tin cans and cardboard boxes.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:09 Comments ||
Top||
Large turnout was witnessed at polling stations in the different areas of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Sunday.
Witnesses told that many cast their votes in Sadr City, east of the capital, adding that many arrived early and the electoral process is going smoothly.
Women, elderly and those with special needs had difficulty getting to polling stations where traffic is currently restricted in the capital.
Large numbers of voters also cast their votes in Al-Saadoun, Al-Dawra, New Baghdad, Al-Ameen, Al-Shaab and Awar districts.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:18 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Here comes Zarqawi's opening strike, let's hope the corpse count stays low:
Suicide bombers attacked at least three voting centers in western Baghdad on Sunday, killing a total of eight people, including three bombers, police and witnesses said.
One policeman was killed and nine people were injured in the first attack, which occurred in the Dawoudi neighborhood.
Another bomber struck the al-Quds school, killing three policeman and one civilian, officials said. Six people were wounded.
The third bomber attacked the Mutamaizen Secondary School in the Mansour district, injuring three policemen, officials said.
These could be the other unidentified explosions in Baghdad mentioned earlier. If they are, it is important to note that the Arab Times article I posted citing heavy turn-out in Baghdad post-dates these events.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:25 Comments ||
Top||
A suicide bomber strapped with explosives blew himself up at a polling centre in western Baghdad, killing at least four people and wounding nine, police sources said.
Earlier a suicide car bomb killed a policeman outside a polling station and another suicide bomber on foot blew himself up among voters queueing at another centre in western Baghdad, causing an unknown number of casualties.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:28 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Even Rooters seems to admit things are going okay with respect to the security situation:
Some smiled, some were stoic and others kept their faces hidden as Iraqis trickled to the polls Sunday, braving anti-U.S. insurgents determined to drown the historic vote in blood.
In the relatively secure Kurdish north, people flowed steadily to the polls in Sulaimaniya and Arbil.
Families arrived on foot, went through strict security checks and then approached voting booths together under the watchful eyes of electoral officials and security guards.
In Samarra, a restive city north of Baghdad that has a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite population, the crackle of gunfire was heard minutes after polls opened.
A fighter jet roared over the city, which was shrouded in a chilly mist. After three hours, only about 80 people had voted at one of two polling sites. One woman, covered head to toe in black robes, kept her face hidden, but was proud to have voted.
In nearby Baiji, some people were unable to vote because electoral officials failed to turn up. "We are waiting for the manager with the key," said an election worker, apologizing for the mix-up. At one Tikrit station, only one voter pitched up.
In Mosul, Iraq's third largest city in the north of the country, where there is a mixed Sunni and Kurdish population and where the insurgency has been strong in recent months, U.S. officials said voting stations were busy and attacks were few.
"So far it's gone very well, much better than expected," said a U.S. officer, as small arms fire echoed in the distance.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:51 Comments ||
Top||
#17
And all's quiet in Bulgarian-managed Diwaniyah:
The situation in the Iraqi city Diwaniyah, where the Bulgarian unit is located at peaceful at the movement, military officials announced.
Bulgaria's Defence Ministry once again reminded that the Bulgarian troops in Iraq won't be directly involved in guarding the polling stations in Diwaniyah, although the local Iraqi authorities have asked for that.
The soldiers will execute their everyday tasks- guarding the streets of the city and controlling the roads in the region.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 3:55 Comments ||
Top||
#18
Thanks for the updates Mr. Darling. Me and the Missus are opening a exhibition later today, we are asking all those who visit to ink their index-fingers blue to show support for the Iraqi people.
#19
Al-Jazeera, not surprisingly, has a pretty good break-down of the insurgent activities:
Meanwhile, Baghdad's al-Mansur district was hit by car bomb at a makeshift polling station in the Zahra school. Sources said six people were killed, including an Iraqi security member. Thirteen others were injured.
In northern Iraq, six explosions rocked Mosul early on Sunday, but there were no reported casualties. One polling station visited by the media was empty.
Similarly, a mortar shell landed near a polling station in the southern city of Basra, but there were no reports of causalities.
In the northern city of Balad, a mortar attack on a polling station killed one woman and wounded another and her child.
Meanwhile, mortar shells struck a polling station in Sadr City killing four voters and wounding seven others.
Also, few mortars exploded near the US military base in the northern city of Kirkuk shortly before the voting centres opened.
Further attacks were reported from voting stations in the city of al-Duluiya about 70km north of Baghdad.
In Latifiya, mortars struck two voting stations, an AFP correspondent reported. US troops killed one attacker and arrested 15 others, a US officer said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 4:12 Comments ||
Top||
#20
WaPo is finally running their main story on the elections. If the other major publications start to follow suit, it'll mean that things'll have gotten as bad as it is going to today, as Zarqawi's best advantage would be to attack early in the day:
Final deliveries of more than 7 million pounds of ballot boxes, voting forms, cardboard booths and indelible purple ink to stain voters' fingers were made Saturday to about 5,000 polling sites across the country. It remained unclear, however, how many of Iraq's estimated 14 million eligible voters would turn out in the face of daily threats by insurgents to attack polling stations and to track down and kill those who take part in the elections.
It also seems that Ramadi may well be under al-Qaeda occupation or at least contested, which may explain the absence of voters given Zarqawi's recent statements on how he feels about democracy.
"They should take part because this is the future in the making and people have to take their fate in their own hands," interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said in an interview with British television. "I ask them to participate in the elections whether they are inside or outside Iraq: Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Christians."
"We have been waiting for this moment for a month," said Malik Adan Hamid, 26, a polling worker at the Fine Arts Institute in Baghdad's Mansour district. "There is no fear at all. We were trained for this."
But half an hour after polls opened Sunday, ringed by Iraqi police and troops, only one local resident had voted. Laith Ali, 42, said he would be back later with his wife and mother.
"I don't know how to express this feeling because this is the first time I've done it," said Ali, a merchant.
Officials expected Iraqis to give polling places a wide berth in the morning hours, when attacks most often occur in Iraq and when insurgents likely would try to make an impression that would suppress turnout for the rest of the day. But a senior U.S. diplomat, speaking from the stricken embassy, said several factors, including the apparent disorganization of recent attacks, gave him hope that election day may be less violent than predicted.
"I have a certain faith in the human spirit," he said. "If we get through the morning, I think there's a very good chance it'll snowball and turnout will be much higher than anyone expects."
"It goes to the heart of the issue," said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly. "If Iraqis don't want to stand up and fight for what is right for their country, we can't do it for them.
"But if they do, and they come out, then all the naysayers ought to think a little bit about whether we ought to go home, or if we ought to stay and support that. We'll find out tomorrow."
In the capital, security around the Green Zone on Saturday was extraordinary even by Baghdad standards, giving the city the air of a combat zone. No vehicles were allowed within three blocks of the only public entrance to the fortified complex, protected by tanks at both approaches. Iraqi police cars, before being allowed to proceed to their precinct house, formed a line to be searched by barrel-chested American security contractors and bomb-sniffing dogs.
In a striking scene outside the main checkpoint, American soldiers marched several dozen Iraqi men single-file down the center of the street, like prisoners of war. Each had been frisked and had a decal of the Iraqi flag pasted on his coat. "Election officials," explained the soldier bringing up rear.
"The election returns to us our legitimate rights," said Aquil Sudani, 26, stationed outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad on Saturday, handing out campaign literature for the United Iraqi Alliance. Dubbed "the Shiite list" because it was assembled with the blessing of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most senior Shiite religious leader in Iraq, the alliance entered the six-week campaign as a heavy favorite.
"We are here to say to the world, 'By God, even if they sever our hands and legs, we shall crawl to the ballot booths to fulfill the pledge," thundered Jalaledin Saghir during Friday prayers at a Baghdad mosque favored by followers of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose clerical leader is listed first on the United Iraqi Alliance slate.
Sistani's portrait dominated the coalition's campaign posters, and mosques issued directions to polling stations. In recent days, however, the Shiite slate has appeared to back away from its overtly religious appeal, producing posters that feature not an ayatollah but a woman with luxurious brown hair.
"Where did that come from?" a senior British diplomat said. "That may mean the religious motif wasn't going over that well."
Allawi, appointed interim prime minister by the U.S.-led occupation authority before it returned political power to Iraqis in late June, was thought to be running strongly. A physician in a country where voters esteem the professional classes, and a secular Shiite, Allawi has run a well-funded campaign that quietly plays on his image of forceful leadership, not to mention fears that the Shiite list is supported by Iran.
"Of course our enemies are trying to break us and to break our world, and stop the process of our elections and the political process overall, but we are determined to move forward," Allawi said in the television interview.
Security concerns are highest in Sunni areas. Combat prevented advance voter registration in two provinces, Anbar and Nineveh, which includes Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city. Voters in both cities will be permitted to register at the polls on election day.
In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, combat flared for much of Saturday. The city was emptied of many residents and all signs of local government, including a police force that bolted in the face of insurgent threats for the second time in three months. Two Iraqi military special battalions were dispatched to Ramadi to secure the city, and insurgents distributed leaflets boasting that "a number of policemen have repented" and quit.
Another flier, signed by the al Qaeda-affiliated insurgent group led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, warned, "We will wash the streets of Ramadi by the blood of the voters."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 4:26 Comments ||
Top||
#21
Polling still hasn't opened in 3 Sunni towns that were the main escape routes for the insurgent forces that fled south towards Baghdad post-Fallujah.
POLLING stations in several towns in Iraq's so-called 'Triangle of Death' have not opened four hours after nationwide voting started today, the country's electoral commission said.
"In Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah and Yusufiyah, polling stations have not yet opened their doors," commission spokesman Farid Ayar told reporters.
"Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah and Yusufiyah are hotspots. We have allowed residents of these areas to vote in the nearest polling station" to the towns, said another member of the commission.
In Latifiyah, mortars struck two voting stations.
US troops killed one attacker and arrested 15 others, a US military officer said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 4:28 Comments ||
Top||
#22
Sunni extremists, fearing victory by the Shiites, have called for a boycott, claiming no vote held under U.S. military occupation is legitimate.
All the more reason to participate, so that the impact of the majority can be mitigated. But nooo, they want to boycott the elections.
Fine, go ahead and follow through with your silly ass boycott, but don't complain when you wake up and discover yourselves practically powerless. Damned idiots.
Looks like dozens have been killed. This is not good, but if it is the best effort Z man can muster for an event of this importance, things must not be going too well for him.
The other interesting outcome is that turnout outliers will be unambiguous indicators of which areas are still under Z man's control and in need of the Fallujah touch. Sounds like someone is working on a list.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/30/2005 7:35 Comments ||
Top||
#25
Yup, nice job Dan.
This appears to be going better than anyone could have hoped.
Not to minimize the tragic loss of life, I was expecting a whole lot worse.
Seeing how success has many fathers, I wonder how the EU and the UN will weasel their way into sharing credit.
#28
Shipman, it seems to me that it is coming from the same mindset that beheads while dancing around and singing Alahu Akbar. When you think they can get any more depraved that 'that', they show you they can.
#30
According to Fox TV, a "suicide bomber" was actually a kid with Down Syndrome wearing an explosive belt that was detonated remotely...
Depraved, yes of course. But the Palestinian groups started doing the same kind of thing when they couldn't get 'normal' people to volunteer. So it's actually a good sign when the insurgents need to use society's rejects.
#31
Dan Darling, thanks for the best news we have heard in a while!
I truly hope that Fox story is inaccurate. I grew up with a Down's Syndrome kid...he was the one that the rest of us neighborhood brats would defend (the worst thing you could have said about anyone in our neighborhood was "he's so weak he picks on a retard"...yeah, not politically correct, but it was the 70's - early 80's)
A land mine blast killed nine Afghan soldiers near the border with Pakistan on Saturday in the bloodiest attack yet on Afghanistan's army. A local army commander told Reuters an Afghan border commander was also wounded when the army vehicle hit the mine near the southern town of Spin Boldak while traveling toward the Pakistan border. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack which he said had killed four soldiers. In a separate incident, two soldiers were killed and two wounded by unidentified gunmen near the eastern town of Khost, the local police chief said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:17:17 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How do we know that it is a newly placed land mine, and not one of the entirely too many left over from Afghan's many, many wars? The Taliban are struggling to remain a factor, after all, and need to count coup often and loudly, whether they are responsible or not.
Indian intelligence agencies have found the presence of American forces in Pakistan's Northern Areas, trailing Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants. Much to the discomfiture of China, the US has set up a "secret shop" in the region as part of its covert special operations against militant outfits, claim intelligence agencies here. Intelligence sources here said that besides the US Special Force units, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has also set up "listening posts" in Northern Areas to monitor communication.
Quoting sources in India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the Tehelka weekly paper reported that the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency's satellite intercepts had given rise to "credible evidence" that some parts of Northern Areas had been infiltrated by Al Qaeda militants. Last October, Christina Rocca, the US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, and Nancy Powell, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, had visited the Northern Areas. Since then many Americans are visiting Gilgit and Baltistan to oversee development projects funded by USAID. The US Army had also conducted military exercises in Deosai, 30 kilometres from Skardu. Earlier, the Indian and US Special Forces had conducted high-altitude wafare exercise in Ladkah, just on this side of Skardu. Indian intelligence agencies also believe that US intelligence operatives might have "developed" Shia border traders in Balochistan as "intelligence assets". In their most covert operations in Northern Areas, the US Special Forces have also focused on local Shia groups to gather intelligence. They attribute Shia leader Aga Ziauddin Rizvi's killing to his siding with the US forces.
That's certainly interesting...
B Raman, the former RAW additional secretary, also maintained that the Americans had set up a chain of monitoring stations in Gilgit and Baltistan to keep track of telephones and wireless communications. These centres, he claimed, are ostensibly run by the Inter-Services Intelligence and a number of US intelligence officers are attached to them—some of them US nationals of Afghan origin. He claimed that US's National Security Agency (NSA) had already its presence in the Northern Areas. For past many years, the NSA has been collecting signals from the space establishments of Kazakhstan and the nuclear establishments of China's Xinjiang province. The NSA uses gadgets and technologies for penetrating foreign devices and telecommunication and computer networks. "Mostly, the NSA depends on the CIA, organisations, the Voice of America and academic institutions such as Carnegie Mellon for such assistance," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:11:59 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Some 40 Palestinian police officers will go to Egypt for training next week as part of Egypt's contribution to the new security arrangements in Gaza, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said on Saturday. The training for Palestinian police officers has been under discussion for months and almost took place late last year but the officers were unable to cross the border into Egypt.
Egypt will also receive delegations from the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to coax into a truce with Israel, he told Reuters by telephone after talks between Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Under an earlier plan, Egypt had offered to host a dialogue between the Palestinian Authority and the militants but Shaath said that would no longer be necessary. "We have concluded really the agreement with them but Egypt needs to support that agreement and continue to monitor and so we are happy that they are going to do that," he added.
Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has tried to end attacks on Israelis by deploying Palestinian security forces more widely in the Gaza Strip. Israel has responded by reducing its military operations in the area. Shaath said this cleared the way for Egypt to carry out its part in the Gaza security plan, including the training. "They (the Egyptians) will implement what has been agreed before. The training will start immediately, in the first week of February, with probably 42 officers," he said.
"So things are going well and President Mubarak is very pleased with our progress," he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A main al Qaeda-linked group said it was behind a suicide bombing in northeastern Iraq on Saturday, and vowed more bloody attacks during Sunday's election, according to an Internet statement. "A lion from the martyrs brigade of the Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq attacked the Americans and their agents in Khanaqin," said the statement from the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, posted on an Islamist Web site. "For the last time, we warn that tomorrow will be bloody for the Christians and Jews and their mercenaries and whoever takes part in the game (election) of America and (Interim Prime Minister Iyad) Allawi," it said.
The U.S. army said a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a U.S.-Iraqi military centre in the town of Khanaqin near the Iranian border, killing at least three Iraqi soldiers and five civilians. The army said the blast was outside the protective walls of the military centre, which was continuing to function as normal. Local officials said the bomber had walked up to the centre wearing explosives and blown himself up. Zarqawi, appointed by Osama bin Laden as his top deputy in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for some of the grisliest hostage beheadings and suicide bombings to hit the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Voters trickled into polling stations under tight security Sunday in Iraq, casting ballots despite promises by insurgents to sabotage the country's first free election in a half-century. Poll workers checked identifications at schools and other buildings serving as polling stations. Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer was one of the first to vote at election headquarters in the heavily fortified Green Zone, calling the action his country's first step "toward joining the free world." As poll workers watched, he marked two ballots - one for the 275-member National Assembly and the other for provincial legislatures - and then dropped them into boxes. A poll worker handed him an Iraqi flag as he left. "I'm very proud and happy this morning," al-Yawher told reporters. "I congratulate all the Iraqi people and call them to vote for Iraq."
This is a great moment in Iraq. Neither the Iraqis nor we will ever get the credit both deserve.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The first time Lance Cpl. Tony Stevens was bombed in Iraq, a car packed with 155 mm shells exploded next to his Humvee just as a device containing five more shells detonated beneath it. By bomb No. 9, the former baseball minor league shortstop had become a good luck-bad luck icon and the awe of his 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment patrolling the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad. With a couple of weeks remaining in his second tour of duty in Iraq, the 26-year-old might be counting the days a little more closely than most and has become a seasoned, battle-hardened veteran of the laws of physics. "When you hear the explosion, that's actually good," Stevens said, pointing out that because sound travels relatively slowly, hearing the blast means you have survived it. "It means you're still in the game."
Stevens' deployment landed him in an area known for insurgents' use of what the U.S. military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Some of those are vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, or VBIEDs -- military-speak for car bombs. It is not unusual for Marine patrols on the two-lane roads through towns and gray-and-brown fields to encounter three or four bombs a day. Sometimes, there are more -- many more. The bombs contribute to an injury rate of one-in-five Marines during their 6-month-old deployment here. The bombs also kill U.S.-allied Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guardsmen patrolling in unarmored pickups and cars. Many Marines here have been bombed two or three times, and a couple seven or eight. Stevens, at nine, appears to hold the record that no one wants to break.
Posted by: Sobiesky ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He is the on-the-ground equivalent of the WW2 US Bomber "Flak Bait."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/30/2005 2:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
That cat better get the hall outta town he has no more lives left.
This Mr. Kerry is what a hero looks like.
DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources exclusively report: Jordan on high alert, king, royal family, court exit Amman, following word of planned major al Qaeda strike in kingdom on Iraq's election-day Sunday by group called "Returnees from Fallujah." Royal vehicles disguised with ordinary number plates, extra security at government offices and hotels. Group led by al Zarqawi aide Mohammed Shalabi believed hiding out between S. Jordanian Karak and Saudi frontier. Northern Saudi Arabia on alert too after intelligence reports Fallujah terror group near military town of Tabuk.
Posted by: Sobiesky ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Seems they have to shift operations elsewhere.To hot for them in Iraq.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mowatassam Hachem al-Jebouri is determined to vote despite living in a guerrilla-infested district of Baghdad. He has devised a plan to do so. The former Iraqi Air Force fighter pilot has identified ten like-minded families from his neighbourhood. The men of those households will set off for their local polling station early in the morning, hoping that the terrorists will be deterred by their numbers. If they return unscathed, if they deem the streets and polling station safe, they will send their wives in the afternoon. Colonel al-Jebouri, 41, the father of two young girls, refuses to be cowed by the insurgents and their threats to kill those who vote. Having suffered 18 months of fear and bloodshed, he insists on his right to participate in Iraq's first free election in half a century. "This is a milestone which will lay the foundations for building a new future in Iraq," he told The Times. snip
Brigadier-General Erv Lessel, the chief US military spokesman in Iraq, predicted a surge of violence tomorrow, with some officials saying that the insurgents would probably attack early "to create the image and perception that it's unsafe to go out". But Colonel al-Jebouri was undaunted. He drew inspiration for his plan from a television advertisement produced by the Iraqi Government that shows an elderly man confronted by a group of masked and menacing youths in an alley. This ad was incredible!! If you haven't seen it, let me know and I'll send link
The old man refused to retreat and is slowly joined by more and more fellow citizens until, as a group, they move forward and the thugs disperse. The message is simple: together ordinary Iraqis are stronger than the extremists. "We held a meeting. We decided to go all together, taking the idea from the advert," the colonel said. The ten men, Sunnis and Shias, went yesterday morning to check out the polling station in Ghazaliya, a violent area on the western highway towards Fallujah where gunmen sometimes set up checkpoints to intimidate the population. Like the rest of the capital's polling centres, it had become a veritable Fort Knox, with razor wire and concrete barriers blocking the roads to thwart suicide car bombers. Police frisked everyone going in. The mere act of casting their ballots could cost this group their lives, but Colonel al-Jebouri says that fear is not an election issue. "Voting is just another risk in Iraq," he said. "But this one is worth is taking." The new Iraqi election counting game: how many BUT's will an article on the election contain? Lileks calls them the Damned Buts. Many we can have a Rantburg award for the article or TV commentator with the most Damned Buts!
Posted by: Sherry ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
My hopes and Prayers are with the Iraqi people. They deserve to be free. Look at the smiles and tears of joy on the faces of the Iraqis and you jusk know they're gonna make it work. They know this may be their last chance at freedom. God Bless 'em all.
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
01/30/2005 0:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
This isn't just Iraqi history, but a great moment in US History. What other noble cause to fight for than allow people to choose their own destiny.
#5
Fox is reporting live all night. One story was similar to the AD mentioned in Sherry's post. A group of (apparently anti-election) "toughs" had assembled not far from one of the Baghdad polling stations - presumably to intimidate voters. The Fox reporter and his crew saw them and grabbed their gear to do a spot on them - and they ran away. 3 guys with a camera and they scrammed. Heh.
#7
but, but...no WMD...says the whiners and weeners.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/30/2005 9:49 Comments ||
Top||
#8
There are no WMD's because we took the bastard who wanted them out of Baghdad in the spring and summer of 2003. No doubt in my mind that Saddam wanted WMD's and would have eventually got them again. The word IS a safer place .... right Duke ?
#9
No stockpiles of WMD? Right on! Nor are there likely to be any now.
People always said "What if Hitler had been stopped in the '30s?" My guess is that about the same proportion of carping would have been heard about how the Germans were no threat... blah-blah-blah.
Pakistani police have arrested as many as 16 Al Qaeda terrorists in various raids conducted all over the country. "Yes, we have arrested 16 suspects in different raids conducted in Pashtoonabad and Kharotabad areas of the city," The News quoted DIG Quetta Police Rafi Pervez Bhatti as saying. Police officials said that since all the suspects had earlier served in important posts in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, "the police were questioning the suspects."
Bhatti added that on being informed that Al Qaeda suspects were hiding in Pashtoonabad and Kharotabad area, police teams raided the areas and apprehended the suspects. The arrested included a former deputy governor of Helmand province of Afghanistan, identified as Mullah Khushdil Khan, former Afghan police chief Mullah Muhammad Ibrahim, former police chief of Mizar-e-Sharif Abdul Nabi and others. Police officials further added that following the arrests, police have widened their scope of investigations.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:05:22 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Iraqis voted Sunday in their country's first free election in a half-century, defying threats of violence from insurgents determined to sabotage the balloting. As he cast his vote, President Ghazi al-Yawer called it Iraq's first step "toward joining the free world." Before voting began, mortar fire boomed across Baghdad and the world awaited the results of an event that will echo from militant Islamic Web sites in the Mideast to the halls of the White House. Insurgents rocketed the U.S. Embassy in downtown Baghdad late Saturday, killing two Americans.
Al-Yawer was among the first to cast his ballot, voting alongside his wife at election headquarters in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad. As poll workers watched, he marked two ballots and dropped them into boxes, and then walked away with an Iraqi flag given to him by a poll worker. "I'm very proud and happy this morning," al-Yawer told reporters. "I congratulate all the Iraqi people and call them to vote for Iraq."
Voters nationwide began trickling past police guards and heavy security fortifications into schools and other buildings converted into polling centers. A spokesman for Iraq's elections commission said all the nearly 5,200 polling stations nationwide were opening on schedule. Turnout was expected to be low in the early hours. Most attacks occur in the morning, and many Iraqis were likely to wait to see whether rebels carry through with threats of violence. Final results will not be known for seven to 10 days but a preliminary tally was expected late Sunday.
Baghdad's streets were deserted at dawn. The only activity in one area was an American Humvee racing down an empty road in response to a burst of gunfire. In the northern city of Kirkuk, buses hired by city officials picked up people walking toward voting centers to get them there more quickly. Like al-Yawer, Iraqis will mark two ballots: one to elect the National Assembly, the other for a provincial legislature. There were no immediate reports of violence at the polls, but an explosion was heard at the U.S. military base in Kirkuk in the north. Scattered small arms fire was heard near another U.S. base near Baghdad's airport. "So far the situation is excellent in all areas," said the chairman of Iraq's electoral commission, Abdul-Hussein Hendawi. "All the polling centers, their doors are open. So far we haven't heard about any problems."
Insurgents have vowed to disrupt the vote, and threatened death to any Iraqis who show up. The country was under almost complete lockdown — across Iraq, U.S. tanks and armored vehicles blocked roads and bridges to prevent insurgent movement and the airport was closed. Iraqi National Guardsmen, wearing black ski masks to hide their faces, roamed through the capital in SUVs and pickup trucks, machine guns mounted. Police and Iraqi soldiers set up checkpoints and randomly searched cars. Iraqi officials have predicted that up to eight million of 14 million voters — just over 57 percent — will turn out for Sunday's election. Voters in the Kurdish-run north also will select a regional parliament.
It's at 74 percent as I read this...
But turnout is uncertain, especially in the Sunni Arab areas of central, northern and western Iraq where the insurgency is most deadly. About 300,000 Iraqi and American troops are on the streets and on standby to protect voters. Iraqi expatriates in 14 countries cast absentee ballots on the second of three days of voting abroad, and officials said that by late Saturday, about two-thirds of those registered had voted so far. Iraqi leaders had been disappointed that less than a quarter of the estimated 1.2 million expatriate Iraqis eligible to vote worldwide registered to do so. Government spokesman Thaer al-Naqeeb warned Iraqis to expect "sabotage operations" carried out by "the enemies of Iraq." But he encouraged Iraqis to vote nonetheless. "It is important. It will preserve the integrity of Iraq," he said. "If you vote ... the terrorists will be defeated."
Despite the strict security and a nighttime curfew, guerrillas hit the U.S. Embassy compound in the Green Zone with a rocket Saturday evening, killing a Defense Department civilian and a Navy sailor and wounding four other Americans, according to State Department spokesman Noel Clay in Washington. The Defense Department released grainy footage shot from an unmanned spy drone of what it said showed figures shooting a rocket and running away. It then showed U.S. soldiers entering a house where the suspected militants sought refuge, and said seven people were arrested. Another American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. More than 40 American troops have been killed in the past three days.
Bush said in his weekly radio address from the White House that the election "will add to the momentum of democracy. The terrorists and those who benefited from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein know that free elections will expose the emptiness of their vision." A ticket endorsed by the country's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is expected to fare best among the 111 candidate lists. However, no faction is expected to win an outright majority, meaning possibly weeks of political deal-making before a new prime minister is chosen. Sunni extremists, fearing victory by the Shiites, have called for a boycott, claiming no vote held under U.S. military occupation is legitimate. A Western election adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated Sunni turnout could run anywhere from 15 percent to 50 percent.
Throughout the Sunni heartland, there was little enthusiasm for the election. "We will not vote because our houses have been destroyed," said Alaa Hussein of the Sunni city of Fallujah, which fell to a U.S. assault against insurgents in November. "We don't have electricity or water. The Iraqi National Guard fire at us 24 hours a day. So who will we vote for?"
By contrast, enthusiasm among Shiites was high. "There's joy everywhere," said Mohammed Hussein, who lives in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Iraqis who took part in the overseas voting were also excited. A line outside a Denmark polling station snaked for 700 yards despite freezing temperatures, and people danced for joy in Nashville, Tenn. "I learned from my parents about past bitter days in my homeland and I voted in the hope of replacing that with a brighter future," said Ahmad Abai, 21, casting his ballot in the Iranian capital, Tehran, where he was born to Iraqi parents.
Fighting raged Saturday night in the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk between police and insurgents. The clashes occurred in a predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood and lasted for about an hour, according to police Brig. Gen. Torhan Abdul-Rahman Youssef. "We have one life and one God," said Mohammed Omar, 35, repeating an Arabic expression underlining the futility of trying to cheat death. "Our hearts have died. We no longer fear anything. If death is written, then there's nothing that we can do."
Amar Samir, a Christian resident of Baghdad, said it was impossible to believe that things could get worse. "We get electricity for half an hour and then it disappears for six or longer," Samir said. "These are very strange elections. They will not change a thing. Or maybe they will," he added. "But not right away."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/30/2005 12:03:39 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Sudanese police killed about 20 people and injured 40 on Saturday when they opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, a local political leader said.
"Your highness! The people are demonstating!"
"Why are you telling me? Kill them."
A U.N. spokeswoman said as-yet-unconfirmed reports put the death toll to at least 17 people and maybe as high as 30. A hospital source in the city said 17 people were killed and 20 injured when police opened fire on a protest march. An official source said the death toll was lower. Abdullah Moussa Abdullah, secretary-general of the Beja Congress in Red Sea state, told Reuters by telephone from Port Sudan that he had seen 17 bodies in the hospital morgue and had the names of three other people killed.
A witness to the unrest, Khalil Usman Khalil, told Aljazeera TV that the protest rally started Friday night. "Clashes took place between demonstrators and police, lasting for almost all Friday night. Work at Port Sudan was partially stopped and almost completely this morning after renewal of violence, so police resorted to disperse demonstrators," Khalil said on Saturday. Moussa said he was present in the morning when 300 to 400 members of the Beja ethnic group gathered to prepare for a march to demand that the Khartoum government start negotiations with the Beja on sharing power and the country's resources. "There was a special police unit that appeared and just opened fire at them before they even moved. They fired at their heads and bodies, not even in the air," he said. Three children were among those killed, he added. The source at the hospital said all of the wounds were from bullets. "About 17 were killed and around 20 injured," added the source, who declined to be named.
Three days ago members of eastern tribes, mostly the Beja, presented a list of demands to the Red Sea state governor, including wealth and power sharing. They warned they would take unspecified actions if the demands were not met within 72 hours. "This time was up today and they started a march towards the wali's (governor's) office," the hospital source said, adding the police stopped the march before it got very far. The source said seven soldiers were injured by stones, but only civilians suffered gunshot wounds.
I hope we, or maybe the Brits, are lining something up to give Bashir the little push he seems to need.
First the south, then the west, now the east, ...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Unidentified armed men kidnapped two foreigners from a highway near Kandhkot on Saturday, ARY news channel reported. Jocobabad police confirmed the incident and launched an operation to recover the hostages. The identity of the foreigners could not be confirmed, the channel said. Indus News reported that the foreigners were travelling on the Kandhkot highway under police escort when unidentified men attacked the convoy, kidnapped the two foreigners, and escaped.
How's that tourism initiative going, by the way?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
PESHAWAR: Unidentified assailants shot dead a tribal elder and his son early on Saturday in South Waziristan Agency's Wana headquarters, eyewitnesses said. Hiyatullah Mehsud and his son Pir Alam were gunned down in Wana's Rustam Bazaar and the attackers fled after the killing, the eyewitnesses said adding that it was a "personal feud" and not linked to militants targeting pro-government tribal elders.
However, some tribal elders suspected that the killing might have been carried out by Al Qaeda-linked militants who targeted people collaborating with the government against them. Mr Mehsud got a government job recently after he provided information to the government about militants, but there was no independent confirmation about his cooperation with the government. Since mid-December last year, militants have assassinated a number of pro-government tribal elders, including the brother of Pakistan's ambassador to Qatar, Ayaz Khan. A local correspondent told News Network Internatioanal (NNI) that Mehsud had four or five death threats.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Some 35 unidentified armed men attacked media office in Karachi in the early hours of Saturday, apparently in protest at an interview with the Israeli deputy prime minister. The 35 men rode up to the offices of the Jang group on II Chandigar road at around 2am, stormed the building after manhandling security personnel, and damaged furniture and smashed windows, said a press release. Seven vehicles parked outside were also damaged. The attackers, chanting 'Allah-u-Fubar Akbar', set fire to the main reception on the ground floor and ransacked newspaper and Geo TV offices on the first floor.
"Police in a nearby vehicle kept looking on and remained unmoved," said the press release. The Jang group felt the attack was the result of an interview appearing in The News and aired on Geo of Shimon Peres, the deputy prime minister of Israel, on Friday. However, a group calling itself Anjuman Tahafuz-e-Islami Aqdar issued a press release claiming responsibility for the attack, Online reported. The group claimed the attack was in response to a Geo show called 'Uljan Suljan' which, it said, had hurt religious sensitivities by "disrespecting" Islamic values. The Karachi Union of Journalists condemned the attack by "a group of religious extremists". Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqi has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
LAHORE: Qul of Hafiz Irfan, 23, the suicide attacker on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, was held on Saturday at his Sheesh Mehal Road residence under tight security. An Anti-Terrorist Court in Rawalpindi on Friday had directed the law enforcement agencies to hand over the suicide bomber's head to his father, Muhammad Mukhtar. Later, Irfan's body parts, which had been preserved by authorities for investigation were brought to his house and were buried late night on Friday in Miani Sahib graveyard, with a heavy police contingent led by Dr Usman Anwar, superintendent of police (SP) of City Division. Amid police security, nearly 60 to 70 people including a large number of fundos bearded individuals participated in Irfan's funeral and Quls.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2005 11:59:23 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So not only does Daddy get the head, but the remaining body parts are delivered separately. Joy must be reigning supreme in that household.
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.
Militants killed a Kuwaiti security officer and wounded three other commandos on Sunday during a shootout in this pro-U.S. Gulf state which is facing an outbreak of al Qaeda-linked violence. Police said the men, all with the special forces, were shot during a raid on suspected militant hideouts in the capital's mainly residential Salmiya district. Witnesses said a civilian was also killed in the firefight. The raid, which targeted two buildings in Salmiya, came a day after the government of this oil-rich state and the U.S. embassy warned more militant attacks were possible. "We are searching for an armed group that is wanted by state security," a security official told Reuters.
Heavy gunfire erupted on Sunday in the Kuwaiti district of Salmiya, east of the capital, after police cordoned off an area in search of suspected Islamist militants, witnesses said. "The shooting began about 9.30 am (0630 GMT) after police sealed off a main street, the one with all the restaurants on it," one witness said told AFP, adding that special forces arrived on the scene to back up police.
A gunbattle has erupted in Kuwait after police raided a building where militants were believed to be hiding. Police cordoned off an area of the city, from where gunfire and small explosions were heard, reports say. Details of the incident remain limited, although one witness told the AFP news agency the shooting began at 0930 (0630 GMT) on a main street.
In Kuwait we have a law which forbids women in "abaya" from driving. This law, which was sleeping in the drawers of the Interior Ministry for a long time, has been reactivated by the ministry because of the recent security scares. The government should implement such decisions strictly, especially since the terrorists at 
A Russian parliamentary commission has found two high-ranking Russian military officers helped gunmen to seize a primary school in the city of Beslan last September. The chair of the commission says two highly-ranked military officials have been arrested after allegations they provided assistance to the gunmen. He says other officials, who are ranked major and above, may also be charged. It is speculated that they could have helped the gunmen indirectly by allowing them to pass through police checkpoints. Despite the allegations, those under suspicion remain in their posts.
Russian law enforcement officials allegedly helped terrorists to carry out last September's school massacre in Beslan, Russia, that left 344 people dead, according to the head of a special parliamentary commission. 
Nine policemen were killed in Russia's war-torn republic of Chechnya when their cars hit remote-controlled landmines, local police officials were quoted late on Friday as saying by the ITAR-TASS news agency. Both cars were near the town of Alkhan-Yurt at the time of the attack, officials said without giving further details.
A bomb exploded Sunday in a Mediterranean resort hotel in southeast Spain after a telephone warning from the Basque separatist group ETA, Interior Ministry officials said. The ministry office in the southeast 
A suspected recruiter of young Muslims for combat in Iraq and a man identified as a volunteer allegedly plotted attacks against French or foreign interests in France, the prosecutor's office said Friday. Under questioning, the two men "evoked the possibility of actions in France without identifying precise targets," a statement by the prosecutor's office said. The statement was released shortly after the men, of North African origin, were placed under investigation - a step short of being charged - as part of a probe into alleged networks suspected of dispatching Islamic combatants from France to Iraq.
An Iraqi arrested in Germany on suspicion of plotting an Al Qaeda suicide attack in Iraq said he was sent on his mission by Osama bin Laden himself, a German magazine reported on Saturday. German state prosecutors believe 
Indian police said Portugal's Supreme Court has cleared the extradition of one of India's most wanted men, 
A federal prosecutor says a Yemeni sheik and his assistant were intent on providing millions of dollars to al Qaeda and Hamas, while a defense attorney accused the government of entrapment in his opening statement. Attorneys delivered their opening arguments on Friday in the trial of Sheik 
Indonesia's military says it has shot dead four separatist rebels in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province while government and rebel leaders are engaged in cease-fire talks in Finland. Military spokesman Edi Sulistiadie says Army infantry shot dead the four 
FORTY al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels, including two suspected members of the 
No more 99.99 % in Iraq!
AL-QAEDA'S group in Iraq said it was behind suicide attacks on several polling stations during Iraq's election today, according to an internet statement. "Lions from the martyrs' brigade of the al-Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq attacked several polling stations in Baghdad and elsewhere," said the statement by the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, posted on an Islamist website.
Although he shaped almost every facet of today's elections, Grand Ayatollah 
The women took advantage of the national holiday declared for today's election to promenade through the center of this holy Shi'ite city. Shop owners lolled about on carpets by the shrine of Imam Ali, flicking worry beads, bouncing children on their knees, and gossiping with friends. Despite the presence of thousands of special police and Iraqi National Guardsmen, Najaf had the festive air yesterday of a country in celebration. "This is the glorious day Iraqis have been awaiting so patiently," said Raad Abdali, 26, a police officer standing guard at the al-Shekeri Mosque. "Election day will open like a flower, revealing our future."
An airstrike by the Sudanese Air Force on villagers in southern Darfur killed or wounded nearly 100 people in a serious violation of a fragile cease-fire in the conflict-torn region, the United Nations said yesterday. The bombardment Wednesday of villages outside Shangil Tobaya sent thousands of people fleeing, UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said by telephone from Khartoum, Sudan's capital. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was "deeply disturbed" by the bombing, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.
A suicide car bomb exploded on Saturday close to a U.S. and Iraqi security center near a polling station in the Iraqi town of Khanaqin, northeast of Baghdad, an election commission official in the province said. Abdul Jaleel Adel initially said the polling station had been targeted but later modified this to say the target may have been the security center. There was no immediate word on casualties. U.S. forces sealed off the site.
A land mine blast killed nine Afghan soldiers near the border with Pakistan on Saturday in the bloodiest attack yet on Afghanistan's army. A local army commander told Reuters an Afghan border commander was also wounded when the army vehicle hit the mine near the southern town of Spin Boldak while traveling toward the Pakistan border. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack which he said had killed four soldiers. In a separate incident, two soldiers were killed and two wounded by unidentified gunmen near the eastern town of Khost, the local police chief said.
Indian intelligence agencies have found the presence of American forces in Pakistan's Northern Areas, trailing Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants. Much to the discomfiture of China, the US has set up a "secret shop" in the region as part of its covert special operations against militant outfits, claim intelligence agencies here. Intelligence sources here said that besides the US Special Force units, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has also set up "listening posts" in Northern Areas to monitor communication.
Some 40 Palestinian police officers will go to Egypt for training next week as part of Egypt's contribution to the new security arrangements in Gaza, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said on Saturday. The training for Palestinian police officers has been under discussion for months and almost took place late last year but the officers were unable to cross the border into Egypt.
Voters trickled into polling stations under tight security Sunday in Iraq, casting ballots despite promises by insurgents to sabotage the country's first free election in a half-century. Poll workers checked identifications at schools and other buildings serving as polling stations. Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer was one of the first to vote at election headquarters in the heavily fortified Green Zone, calling the action his country's first step "toward joining the free world." As poll workers watched, he marked two ballots - one for the 275-member National Assembly and the other for provincial legislatures - and then dropped them into boxes. A poll worker handed him an Iraqi flag as he left. "I'm very proud and happy this morning," al-Yawher told reporters. "I congratulate all the Iraqi people and call them to vote for Iraq."
The first time Lance Cpl. Tony Stevens was bombed in Iraq, a car packed with 155 mm shells exploded next to his Humvee just as a device containing five more shells detonated beneath it. By bomb No. 9, the former baseball minor league shortstop had become a good luck-bad luck icon and the awe of his 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment patrolling the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad. With a couple of weeks remaining in his second tour of duty in Iraq, the 26-year-old might be counting the days a little more closely than most and has become a seasoned, battle-hardened veteran of the laws of physics. "When you hear the explosion, that's actually good," Stevens said, pointing out that because sound travels relatively slowly, hearing the blast means you have survived it. "It means you're still in the game." 
Pakistani police have arrested as many as 16 Al Qaeda terrorists in various raids conducted all over the country. "Yes, we have arrested 16 suspects in different raids conducted in Pashtoonabad and Kharotabad areas of the city," The News quoted DIG Quetta Police Rafi Pervez Bhatti as saying. Police officials said that since all the suspects had earlier served in important posts in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, "the police were questioning the suspects."
Unidentified armed men kidnapped two foreigners from a highway near Kandhkot on Saturday, ARY news channel reported. Jocobabad police confirmed the incident and launched an operation to recover the hostages. The identity of the foreigners could not be confirmed, the channel said. Indus News reported that the foreigners were travelling on the Kandhkot highway under police escort when unidentified men attacked the convoy, kidnapped the two foreigners, and escaped. 
PESHAWAR: Unidentified assailants shot dead a tribal elder and his son early on Saturday in 
Some 35 unidentified armed men attacked media office in Karachi in the early hours of Saturday, apparently in protest at an interview with the Israeli deputy prime minister. The 35 men rode up to the offices of the Jang group on II Chandigar road at around 2am, stormed the building after manhandling security personnel, and damaged furniture and smashed windows, said a press release. Seven vehicles parked outside were also damaged. The attackers, chanting 'Allah-u-
LAHORE: Qul of 
