A Yemeni appeals court on Saturday upheld the death sentence against a militant convicted in the 2000 al-Qaida bombing of the USS Cole and reduced a death sentence to 15 years in prison against another defendant. The death sentence was upheld against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi suspected of being an associate of Osama bin Laden. Al-Nashiri, who was believed to have masterminded the Cole attack and thought to have directed the 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was the only defendant who was tried in absentia. He is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location.
Convenient, they don't actually have to hang him.
The court overturned a death sentence against Yemeni militant Jamal al-Badawi, sentencing him instead to 15 years in jail. "This is an un-Islamic and illegal sentence," al-Badawi shouted from inside the defendant's cage. The court also upheld a 10-year jail sentence against Fahd al-Qasaa and reduced the sentence against Maamoun al-Msoua from eight years to five. It upheld five-year sentences for Ali al-Muratab and Murad al-Serouri.
This article starring:
ABD AL RAHIM AL NASHIRI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
ALI AL MURATAB
al-Qaeda in Yemen
FAHD AL QASAA
al-Qaeda in Yemen
JAMAL AL BADAWI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
MAAMUN AL MSUA
al-Qaeda in Yemen
MURAD AL SERURI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 2:12:54 PM ||
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#1
hmmm - leverage for interrogations?
"talk or we'll let you walk free - to a flight on the 'infamous' jet back to Yemen, and a fine welcome home"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2005 14:37 Comments ||
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The Sana'a Counter-Terrorism court will commence trying 13 people next week who are suspected of links to Al-Qaeda and accused of plotting terrorist attacks, a legal source said on Monday. The new group of suspected terrorists will also be prosecuted on other charges, never before made against Al-Qaeda network members, including some linked to immoral activities. Meanwhile the same court continued Monday the tribunal of 11 other Al-Qaeda suspects accused of planning to form an armed gang to carry out "criminal acts" in Yemen and abroad as well as trying to join militants battling U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The court judge questioned the defendant Fares al-Nahdi, 35, who denied charges of the prosecution. Yet, he said he took 12 Saudi passports which Khaled Faaq asked him to give them to Amer al-Nahdi. He claimed the passports were not forged as the prosecutor said. He also admitted that he took 120,000 Saudi riyals which was collected in his region of Saudi Arabia for the Iraqi people after the US war. He said he was given the money by someone called Bakr al-Rabian and his role was to hand over to an Iraqi citizen called Yahia. He said he was tried in Saudi Arabia and served eight months in jail plus 80 beatings. However, the prosecutor said that he got a letter from the chief of intelligence and that there are documents proving that four of the suspects were tried in Saudi Arabia but not copies of the verdicts. He said Al-Nahdi was not included in this group who were tried in Saudi Arabia. The court adjourned the case after dealing with procedural questions and fixed its next hearing for Feb. 28. It ordered that the two advocates appointed to defend the defendants should be given access to the case file.
This article starring:
ABDULLAH YAHYA AL WADAI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
ABDUL RAUF ABDULLAH NASIB
al-Qaeda in Yemen
AHMED MOHAMED AL KARDAI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
AMER AL NAHDI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
BAKR AL RABIAN
al-Qaeda in Yemen
FARES AL NAHDI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
FARES MOHAMED ALI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
IBRAHIM MOHAMED AL MUKRI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
ISMAIL AL HUSAMI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
KHALED FAAQ
al-Qaeda in Yemen
MANSUR NASER AL BIHANI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
MOHAMED AHMED HATEM
al-Qaeda in Yemen
MOHAMED SALEH AL KAZMI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
SADAM HUSEIN ISMAIL
al-Qaeda in Yemen
SHAFIQ AHMED OMAR
al-Qaeda in Yemen
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 12:08:55 AM ||
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The federal government said it had banned terrorist group al-Zarqawi because of its links to assassinations, bloody ambushes and hostage takings in Iraq. The Jordanian-born terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network was the 18th organisation to be listed under Australia's counter-terrorism laws, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said in statement. The ban makes it an official criminal offence to be involved in recruitment, training funding and other forms of support for the organisation. Mr Ruddock said the organisation was added to the list on the advice of competent authorities.
"The al-Zarqawi network, also known as Tanzim Qa'idat al-Jihad fi Bilad Rafidyan (TQJBR), has been linked to a string of assassinations, bloody ambushes and hostage takings in Iraq including the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad," he said. "It has also claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Australian troops including a recent attack near the Australian embassy." He said the objective of the group was to overthrow the Iraqi Government, expel multi-national forces and establish an Islamic state under Sharia rule. "Members of listed terrorist organisations are committing a serious criminal offence and face prosecution and penalties of up to 25 years imprisonment," Mr Ruddock said. Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has assessed that TQJBR is "continuing to prepare, plan and foster the commission of acts involving threats to human life and serious damage to property," the statement said. "Such acts include actions which are to be done and threats of actions which are to be made with the ... intention of coercing or influencing by intimidation of the government and people of numerous countries, including Australia."
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/26/2005 12:22:16 AM ||
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Germany closed down on Friday a Turkish-language Islamist daily newspaper that has denied the Holocaust. Interior Minister Otto Schily put a banning order on the Yeni Akit publishing house, which brings out the European edition of Anadoluda Vakit. The title means "the times in Anatolia". Prosecutors have been collecting evidence against the newspaper for months. The Interior Ministry in Berlin said the closure was ordered because Vakit had incited to ethnic hate. The newspaper had attacked Israel, Jews in general and the fundamentals of western society. Schily said Friday officials had impounded property as well as evidence at the company's offices in a southern Frankfurt suburb.
Despite warnings, the newspaper recently ran a letter headed "Hitler was right". In December last year, a member of parliament held up an issue that claimed "There Was No Holocaust" and appealed to the government to ban the paper. Vakit's publishers have said in the past that the paper has a daily circulation of 10,000. Hesse state's office for the protection of the constitution says the paper appears to be associated with the Milli Gorus movement of Turkey and carries its advertisements. Holocaust denial and incitement to racial hatred are both crimes under the German criminal code.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Hesse gets it right! Now go after the rest of the spewers of hate.
#2
German censorship is weird. Years ago, a German friend (in Germany), got his hands on a copy of Hustler magazine. He was amazed and appalled at how something so politically outrageous could be sold.
Mustaq Ali Patel is one of the last three French detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His family members say they cannot figure out why he is there in the first place.
Something to do with explosives, was it? Or a hand saw?
Cousins of the Indian-born former imam say Patel, 45, was just a victim of bad luck and bad timing who had settled in Afghanistan in the early to mid-1990s long before the US-led invasion of the country. Patel was one of seven French citizens captured in the US-led campaign that toppled the hardline Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Four have returned to France, and all spent more than two years at Guantanamo. "As a family, we all believe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," said one cousin, Luqman Dawod, a British citizen who arrived from Manchester on Wednesday to meet one of Patel's French lawyers.
"He's a good, responsible lad. Always keeps his weapons clean, never plays with his grenades."
Haroon Patel, another cousin, who runs a convenience store in Manchester, said: "He is not a terrorist, he was a good person." They said they did not know when Patel was detained.
"He just turned up there one day. Nobody knows how he got there. But we know he's innocent, by Gum!"
French officials said this month that US authorities indicated the "possibility" that Patel and two other French nationals Ridouane Khalid and Khalid Ben Mustafa could soon be handed over to France. "They've said that time and time [again], but I don't hold my breath any more," said Dawod.
Okay, then. We won't. Will that cause you to hold your breath?
Four other French citizens once held at Guantanamo Mourad Benchellali, Imad Kanouni, Nizar Sassi and Brahim Yadel returned to France in late July and are being held as part of an investigation into suspected terror-related networks. Patel's case appears different, his lawyer said. "As for Mr Patel, from what I know, we're looking at a series of bad coincidences and slightly disastrous random events," said French lawyer William Bourdon.
"Now, they might seem unlikely, esecially the part about the gypsies and the trained bear, but..."
"He was in Afghanistan long before the Taliban" ran the country, he said. Bourdon, who also represents Sassi and Benchellali, said they had indicated "harassment, humiliation and insults" at Guantanamo but did not suffer sexual abuse that some other former detainees have recounted. Patel's cousins said he had drifted out of contact with the family about 10 years ago and no relatives knew he was in Afghanistan until they received a letter from him through the mail early last year.
"Dear Mom, How are you? Well, here I am in Guantanamo..."
Patel became a citizen of France through marriage to a French woman. The cousins said they have lost contact with her but say she is believed to live in La Reunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean. His mother, who lives in India's Gujarat state, has not heard from her son in more than 20 years but calls the British cousins about once a week to find out if they have more information, they said. Dawod, 25, said the only other letter the family had received delivered via the Red Cross indicated that "he has not been in good shape mentally", but there were no details. The cousins, who are heading the legal effort in France, said they could not confirm news reports saying that Patel had been an auto parts vendor in Afghanistan.
This article starring:
BRAHIM YADEL
IMAD KANUNI
KHALID BEN MUSTAFA
MURAD BENCHELLALI
MUSTAQ ALI PATEL
al-Qaeda
NIZAR SASI
RIDUANE KHALID
William Bourdon
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 11:48:53 PM ||
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...Patel, 45, was just a victim of bad luck and bad timing who had settled in Afghanistan in the early to mid-1990s long before the US-led invasion of the country.
Well, bad luck and bad timing did had a lot to do with it. But at the time he was in Afghanistan, the Taliban were running the show and later Binny became a very insistant house guest. Hang around with stray dawgs and ya may get fleas. As far as not being in good shape mentally, he was not in very good mental shape when he went to Afghanistan in the first place.
What a moroon....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/26/2005 0:45 Comments ||
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#2
I do wish that they would distinguish between "French", which is an ethnic group, and "French citizen", which means some wog who has become a French citizen.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/26/2005 9:43 Comments ||
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#4
...Patel, 45, was just a victim of bad luck and bad timing who had settled in Afghanistan in the early to mid-1990s long before the US-led invasion of the country.
Sounds like the poor man was trying to carve a home in the wilderness or failing that a head or two.
Posted by: abu El Engals ||
02/26/2005 11:43 Comments ||
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#5
...a French woman. The cousins said they have lost contact with her but say she is believed to live in La Reunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean.
#6
Sounds plausible, many people leave the cosmopolitan world of France and head off to the frontier that is Afghanistan. I mean hiw much running water and electricity can one man take? I would hook Mustaq's testies up to a 'special machine' and tell him that each time he lies the machine will shock his testies and he will lose incrementally the ability to deflower virgins. Ask him to tell his story again and give him a shock 10 seconds after he starts talking (regardless). Ask him to start again and I bet he will tell the truth.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2005 15:00 Comments ||
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#8
"#2 I do wish that they would distinguish between "French", which is an ethnic group, and "French citizen", which means some wog who has become a French citizen.
Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-02-26 9:34:56 AM"
I know Brits who insist that the wogs start at Calais.
A U.S. bank regulator has ordered Palestinian-managed Arab Bank Group to convert its New York branch to a federal banking agency, ending the bank's wire transfer business. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said it determined that the bank's branch had internal control weaknesses, especially in its international funds transfer activities. Arab Bank, by far the largest bank operating in the Palestinian territories, has had several lawsuits brought against it on behalf of relatives of U.S. citizens killed or injured in violence in the Middle East, accusing the bank of helping move money to families of suicide bombers.
The Jordan-based bank has denied that it helped transfer such funds and said it had made extensive investments to promote peace by financing projects in Palestinian territories. On Friday OCC said the bank agreed to convert the branch to an agency office and take steps to improve its compliance program and internal controls. A bank spokesman said the OCC order forces Arab Bank to exit the wire transfer business, but allows it to continue activities in trade and corporate finance.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Iraq's interim Government says security forces were closing in on Al Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, 24 hours after announcing the arrest of another top aide of the Jordanian militant. "We are really close to Zarqawi," national security chief Kassem Daoud told reporters in the Shiite Muslim pilgrimage city of Najaf.
"You will hear very good news soon," added the secular Shiite, who was elected a Member of Parliament on the same ticket as outgoing prime minister Iyad Allawi in the January 30 elections.
Mr Daoud was speaking after talks with Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who backed the main Shiite bloc that romped home to win 140 out of 275 seats in the new Parliament.
On Friday, the Iraqi Government said a senior Zarqawi aide had been arrested on Monday, along with a man who had acted as the militant's driver, west of Baghdad. It gave no reason for the delay in the announcement.
"Oooch! Oooch! I'll talk, I'll talk! Put the pliers down!"
Posted by: God Save The World ||
02/26/2005 4:55:34 PM ||
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Lots of senior Zarqawi aides have been picked up lately. The intelligence guys must be having a field day. I wonder how few blank spaces remain in the spreadsheets they've been working on this long while...
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite Muslim assassins are killing former members of Saddam Hussein's mostly Sunni Muslim regime at will and with impunity in a parallel conflict that some observers fear could snowball into civil war Not if everybody on one side is dead.
The war between Shiite vigilantes and former Baath Party members is seldom investigated wonder why and largely overshadowed by the mostly Sunni insurgency Good cover. The U.S. military is preoccupied with hunting down suicide bombers and foreign terrorists, and Iraq's new Shiite leaders have little interest in prosecuting those who kill their former oppressors or their enemies in the insurgency. That's a darn shame. Call Amnesty International
The killings have intensified since January's Shiite electoral victory, and U.S. and Iraqi officials worry that they could imperil progress toward a unified, democratic Iraq.
"It's the beginning, and we could go down the slippery slope very quickly," said Sabah Kadhim, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. "We've been so concerned with removing terrorists and Islamists that this other situation has reared its ugly head. Both sides are sharpening their knives. The difference is the Shiite's are dull from lack of use and the Sunni's are dull from over use"
Since the Jan. 30 elections, Shiite militants have stepped up their campaign to exact street justice from men who were part of the regime that oppressed and massacred members of their sect for decades. While Shiite politicians turn a blind eye, assassins are working their way through a hit list of Saddam's former security and intelligence personnel, according to Iraqi authorities, Sunni politicians and interviews with the families of those who've been targeted. And the problem is?
Former Baathists have responded Right, until those nasty Shiites started these wanton killings the Sunnis were just sitting in their homes knitting. in kind, this month killing several Shiites allied with major political factions. Cases under investigation include the killings of two Shiite militiamen outside a popular restaurant in Baghdad a week ago and the deaths of three Shiite militiamen who were in police custody.
In a tactic borrowed from Sunni insurgents, Shiite militants have begun distributing printed death threats. One leaflet that lists several former Baathists targeted for assassination says: "We have given you the chance to repent for your crimes against the people of this country, but we have noticed during surveillance that you are instead trying to restore the glory of the atheist, corrupt Baath Party." Fair warning. There's more.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/26/2005 3:34:26 PM ||
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#1
What about the Sunni baby Ducks? Is there no end to this quackmire?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2005 16:41 Comments ||
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#4
At the very least, don't stand downhill of him :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2005 17:39 Comments ||
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#5
I am trying to see how this is a bad thing? I know it's not good for maintaining "law and order" but there isn't much of that most places. I see this as self regulation.
Let me know when they do something I give a rat's ass about.
Ship, you are on a roll! ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/26/2005 18:59 Comments ||
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#7
Okay, let me get this straight:
Clause A: When the Sunnis (party of the first part) were supporting the terrorists (agents of the party of the first part) as they attacked the Kurds and the Shiites (parties of the second and third parts), it was NOT a civil war.
Clause B: BUT, when the Shiites (party of the third part) start attacking the Sunnis (party of the first part) in REVENGE for Sunni support of their former leaders and employees (agents of the party of the first part) while they attacked the Shiites (Actions taken by party of the third part in Clause A), NOW it's civil war?
#8
I'll tell you what...... It there was a sorry, no-good son-of-a-bitch, living in my neighborhood, who had killed my brother/sister/father/mother/uncle/......., YOU CAN BET YOUR SWEET ASS I'D KILL/TORTURE THAT MOTHERFRECKLE.....AS PART OF THE HEALING PROCESS.
The people MUST be able to "exact their pound of flesh." It is part of the circle.
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
02/26/2005 22:59 Comments ||
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After Palestinian organizations pointed finger at Lebanese Hizballah all Saturday, Palestinian Jihad Islami finally owned up to Tel Aviv suicide bombing Friday night that killed four Israelis, injured 53, outside Tel Aviv The Stage club on Tel Aviv seafront Friday night.
#4
Looks like everyone is triangulating on Syria. It's a good plan. With Syria out of Lebanon Iran will have a harder time causing mischief for Israel. That is if Syria can be persuaded to get of of Lebanon. I get the feeling Hizbollah thinks it's safe no matter what. I kinda doubt that.
#6
Actually, I'm wondering when Abbas decides to use the one weapon in his arsenal that even the Israelis fear the most: Moral sanction.
"You, Jihad Islami! May your moustaches be cursed! I told you descendants of pigs and monkeys to lay off the suicide bombings! Years of Israeli occupation has decimated the PA security forces, so we cannot capture the perpetrators ourselves. But I will use the next better thing!
"Surrender the planners in 24 hours to the nearest PA police station, or I will get on the phone To Sharon and DEMAND that he use his Apaches and Hellfires to send you, the Jihad Islami leadership, to hell!
"And the blood of any Palestinians spilled in any attack will be on YOUR HEADS, NOT THE ISRAELIS!!!"
A senior Hezbollah operative told two top Palestinian militants in the West Bank that he recruited the suicide bomber who blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv nightclub in an attack that killed four Israelis, the militants said Saturday. The militants, local leaders of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said the operative, Kais Obeid, called them after the bombing and asked them to claim responsibility for the attack.
The two militants, one speaking from Ramallah and the other from the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, said they turned down the request because they feared they would be targeted by Israeli or Palestinian security forces. Obeid told the Al Aqsa leaders he had recruited Palestinians from the West Bank town of Tulkarem to carry out the bombing, the two militant leaders said on condition of anonymity. Obeid said he paid money to the Tulkarem cell but would not say how much. Obeid was vague about whether the bomber and his local handlers had ties to Palestinian militant groups, the two Al Aqsa leaders said.
I find myself agreeing more and more with Debka on this: it's sounding more and more like a setup. Hezbollah has every reason to lie low at the moment. My guess is that it was IJ...
This article starring:
KAIS OBEID
Hezbollah
Hezbollah
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 2:09:17 PM ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 2:02:34 PM ||
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Al-Dulaymi was a top aide to the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who has described himself as al-Qaida's leader in Iraq. Al-Dulaymi was responsible for finding safe houses and transportation for members of the terrorist group As I said foster paranoia.
An official from the Syria-based leadership of the Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility Saturday for the suicide bombing that killed four Israelis in Tel Aviv. The official, reached by telephone in Lebanon, contradicted a denial issued by the militant group in the Palestinian territories shortly after the suicide attack on the Tel Aviv beachfront just before midnight Friday. The two other main militant groups — Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — also denied involvement, as has the Iranian-backed, Lebanese-based Hezbollah.
Palestinian security officials had pointed to Hezbollah, which has been trying to disrupt an informal Mideast truce agreed to Feb. 8. Palestinian police arrested two suspected militants in connection with the nightclub bombing, and local security officials in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem said the suspects had ties to Islamic Jihad.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 1:59:49 PM ||
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Palestinian police arrested two suspected militants Saturday in connection with a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis at a Tel Aviv nightclub, acting on orders from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to track down those responsible for what he called an act of sabotage. In a phone call from Lebanon, an official from the Syria-based leadership of the Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility Saturday for the suicide bombing, contradicting a denial issued by the militant group in the Palestinian territories shortly after the beachfront attack late Friday. Israeli security officials said on condition of anonymity they were convinced that Islamic Jihad carried out the attack, with orders coming from headquarters in Syria.
The two other main militant groups — Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — have denied involvement, as has the Iranian-backed, Lebanese-based Hezbollah. Palestinian security officials had pointed to Hezbollah, which has been trying to disrupt an informal Mideast truce agreed to Feb. 8. "Hezbollah is the one that armed the bomber and gave the orders to carry out the attack," a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity. He said Hezbollah asked those involved to make a tape saying they carried out the orders in the name of Islamic Jihad. He also said the bomber was an Islamic Jihad sympathizer, but not a member of the armed military wing. Palestinian police arrested two suspected militants in connection with the nightclub bombing, and local security officials in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem said the suspects had ties to Islamic Jihad. The bomber was identified as Abdullah Badran, 21, a university student from the village of Deir al-Ghusun near the West Bank town of Tulkarem. His parents said he was a devout Muslim with no history of militant activity.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 1:52:39 PM ||
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I have been trying to find another source for this story and I can't. I am suggesting 50 lbs of salt. A few APCs would be use full if the PA really wanted to crack down on competing terrorist organizations besides the PA. An main battle tank would make short work of one.
The Baghdad government's burgeoning optimism over the prospects of very soon collaring Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's man in Iraq, is fed from interim prime minister Iyad Allawi office. DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources reveal he is telling his inner circle that the special anti-terror units under his direct command are closing in on their quarry. This drive is not divorced from his campaign to keep the job and it has produced a string of successes in the last ten days. Talib al-Dulaymi, the trusted aide aka as Abu Qutaybah, who set up Zarqawi's appointments with fellow terrorist chiefs, arranged safe houses and transport, was captured on February 20 at Anah NW of Baghdad with Ahmad Ismail al-Rawi, identified as one of Zarqawi's drivers. In custody too are Mohammed Najam Ibrahim, described as leader of an al Qaeda-affiliated cell in Baqouba and responsible for a series of beheadings, and another top Zarqawi aide, Haidar Abu Bawari.
Iraqi government security services claim to have infiltrated the terrorist network with embedded policemen. Allawi's certainty that the Jordanian terror mastermind is almost within his grasp rests on certain events:
First, in the last two weeks, Iraqi security forces have quietly unearthed Zarqawi's principal ammunition and explosive caches, partly helped by information obtained in the interrogations of the captured terrorists. Allawi believes that many of the archterrorist's followers will turn themselves in when they see the wherewithal for fighting on and carrying out attacks is running out.
Second, Zarqawi has been sighted several times making his way through the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad in the direction of the Iranian frontier, indicating he is on the run.
Third, Allawi recently closed a three-way deal with the most influential Iraqi Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and the Tehran leadership for Iran to arrest him if he tries to cross the border and surrender him to Sistani in Najef. There, Zarqawi will stand trial for murdering 182 people and injuring 550 in the 2004 Ashoura massacres he orchestrated in Najef and Karbala. The Iraqi leader has not revealed how this agreement was negotiated with Tehran.
Allawi also informed his close aides he had derived encouragement from additional developments:
1. Al Qaeda's network chiefs in Iraq have their backs to the wall but are not alone; in secret talks with Allawi, several heads of the Baathist underground guerrilla insurgency, have offered to lay down arms if Baghdad sets up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the lines of the South African forum devised by Nobel peace prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. They want the chance to confess their crimes before the commission, repent publicly, obtain a pardon and walk free. The interim prime minister is willing to consider this option quite seriously.
2. Allawi believes a good basis for a breakthrough in negotiations with Iraq's Sunni leaders is already in place, embodied in understandings attained by former US ambassador John Negroponte before his abrupt departure from Baghdad to take up his new appointment as national security director in Washington. DEBKAfile's Baghdad sources reveal the three points agreed: The Sunnis will gain full partnership in the post-election government with ministerial appointments; they will sit on the commission drafting the new constitution, despite having no seats in parliament; and they will participate unreservedly in the next general elections.
3. Sunni leaders and the Baath underground recognize that a major US-Iraqi offensive on the lines of the Falujjah operation is in the works - either against Ramadi, northwest of Baghdad, where the action has begun, or Latafiya south of the capital, hotbed of a mixed bag of insurgent groups, including al Qaeda operatives.
4. According to our intelligence and counter-terror sources, Allawi has also sent a message to Syrian president Bashar Assad with a long list of top Syrian officials, politicians and army officers who are on the take in a big way from Baathist fugitives activating the insurgency in Iraq from their safe base in the country. The name of every Syrian bribe-taker is tagged with the amount he received and the payer's identity.
The message stated that the Iraqi ambassador, Hassan Allawi (no relation), would not return to Damascus until Baathist fugitives were extradited. He also made good on his threat to have television run tapes of confessions by captured Syrian agents who were sent by their government to fight the Americans in Iraq.
Our Iraqi sources note that Allawi expects his momentum for bringing an end to violence in Iraq to take him far along the road to the prime minister's office in Baghdad. He also thinks he can count on substantial Shiite support in the new national assembly and that the Kurds and Turkomen are in his pocket. The high card he is playing is the bid to prove he is the only Iraqi politician capable of drawing the Sunni factions in sharing power in the central government.
#1
Third, Allawi recently closed a three-way deal with the most influential Iraqi Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and the Tehran leadership for Iran to arrest him if he tries to cross the border and surrender him to Sistani in Najef.
#2
He also made good on his threat to have television run tapes of confessions by captured Syrian agents who were sent by their government to fight the Americans in Iraq.
Sounds kinda like an Iraqi version of the Jerry Springer Show.
#3
infiltrated the terrorist network with embedded policemen. Informers are a secret organizations biggest risk/problem. Once the police have one, the last thing they want is to alert them to the fact they have one. So you target the parts of the organization you have haven't infiltrated in order to deflect suspicion and at the same time foster paranoia. Zarqawi is a foreigner so he has a particular problem knowing who he can trust. This reads like part of the network (perhaps along the ratlines to Syria/Jordan) has been compromized/turned and they want the big fish on the run to see who they can catch in the net.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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#5
Frank---I am waiting to hear "Fish On!" when they get Zarqawi. THEN the Gaff.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/26/2005 14:30 Comments ||
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#6
They want the chance to confess their crimes before the commission, repent publicly, obtain a pardon and walk free. The interim prime minister is willing to consider this option quite seriously.
The SA commissions were held in a Christian context, where telling the truth was expected and repentance was part of the culture. Arab culture, OTOH, encourages Taqqiya (dissimulation in the name of Religion), while repentance is for Non-Muslims prior to becoming Muslims, not for REAL Muslims.
#7
Just because the government/justice system forgives these idiots does not mean the peepul will refrain from hunting them down like dogs. Nor do I feel the urge to protect the idiots from the relatives of their victims. For what it's worth.
Suspected Taliban rebels ambushed a vehicle carrying Afghan troops in southern Afghanistan, killing nine soldiers, a provincial official said. The attack occurred late on Thursday in the Chakul area of Helmand province, where Taliban often target police and troops, said Haji Wali Mohammed, a spokesman for the governor. "We lost contact with the Afghan soldiers on Thursday, and their bodies were found today," he said, adding that authorities would hunt down and arrest the "terrorists" who carried out the attack.
Taliban rebels immediately claimed responsibility. "Yes, the Taliban did this and we will launch more attacks against government and coalition forces," Mullah Latif Hakimi, who often speaks for the Taliban, said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2005 12:32:31 AM ||
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Albania will increase the number of its soldiers in Iraq to 120 from the current 70, a government spokesman said on Friday. The decision takes effect in April, when soldiers currently serving a six-month stint under U.S. command return home. Albania has been a staunch supporter of the United States since Washington led a NATO bombing campaign against Serb troops accused of killing and expelling ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo. Albanian public opinion supports its contribution to the U.S.-led force in Iraq, where two Albanian-born U.S. Marines have been killed.
Heh heh. I just heard Enver Hoxha turn over in his grave...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
two Albanian-born U.S. Marines have been killed
Whoa, that's 3 SD away from expected. Seriously, I wonder how many Albanian born Marines there are? Hmmmmm.
#4
Getting away from the political chaos in the former Yugoslavia. Greece is full of Albanians these days, so sayeth my old next-door neighbor, from when I lived in Athens. Doesn't surprise me at all.
#5
I recall reading that back during the Kosovo war, Albanians in NYC were joining up.
Not necessarily in droves of course but our guys helping out in Kosovo gave the recent immigrants a warm, fuzzy feeling towards the US military. That and the citizenship angle.
The Sindh High Court yesterday started hearing the appeals of four militants convicted of the abduction and murder of Daniel Pearl, lawyers said. The trial of the American journalist began after a delay of more than two-and-a-half-years. British-born militant Ahmad Omar Saeed Shaikh was handed a death sentence by an anti-terrorism court in July 2002 for masterminding the crime, while his three accomplices Shaikh Adil, Fahad Naseem and Salman Saqib were jailed for life. The convicts challenged the verdict and filed an appeal in the high court the same month. The government also appealed to the court asking for enhancement of their convictions. But the high-profile case had remained pending since then mostly because of the absence of defence lawyers, especially those living in other cities for personal or official reasons among others. The delay is common in Pakistan's overworked and crowded courts.
Raja Qureshi, one of the prosecutors, said the responsibility for the postponement of the appeal hearing in the past was that of the defence lawyers. "The prosecution had appealed to the court to raise the other three men's life sentences to the death penalty." Abdul Waheed Katpar, one of the defence lawyers, said sometimes the high court's agenda was so full that it hardly had time to take up all the cases earmarked for the day. "But finally formal proceedings started today," he said. "The court heard the charge-sheet against the convicts and the arguments of the defence. I have challenged a few of the prosecutors' witnesses and evidences," he said. "Our stand is that the evidences presented in the anti-terrorism [lower] court were not strong enough." The next hearing of the case is on March 2.
This article starring:
Abdul Waheed Katpar
AHMED OMAR SAID SHEIKH
al-Qaeda
Daniel Pearl
FAHAD NASIM
al-Qaeda
Raja Qureshi
SALMAN SAQIB
al-Qaeda
SHEIKH ADIL
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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At least three dozen Maoists have been killed after clashes with soldiers in western Nepal, the army has said. The latest attack is the largest since rebels called a transport blockade to protest the king's power grab earlier in the month. "At least three dozen Maoists are feared to have been killed in fierce clashes with the security forces," said a statement on Friday from the army's western divisional headquarters in Kathmandu. "Between Thursday and Friday, the two sides were engaged in fierce clashes at five different areas in Kailali district," the statement said. In the latest clashes, 400 rebels attacked forces operating in the village of Hasulia, the army statement said. Three soldiers and a policeman were killed in a separate clash in Pathariya in western Nepal on Friday and an undisclosed number of injured soldiers were airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment, it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A Yemeni appeals court on Saturday upheld the death sentence against a militant convicted in the 2000 al-Qaida bombing of the USS Cole and reduced a death sentence to 15 years in prison against another defendant. The death sentence was upheld against 
The Sana'a Counter-Terrorism court will commence trying 13 people next week who are suspected of links to Al-Qaeda and accused of plotting terrorist attacks, a legal source said on Monday. The new group of suspected terrorists will also be prosecuted on other charges, never before made against Al-Qaeda network members, including some linked to immoral activities. Meanwhile the same court continued Monday the tribunal of 11 other Al-Qaeda suspects accused of planning to form an armed gang to carry out "criminal acts" in Yemen and abroad as well as trying to join militants battling U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Germany closed down on Friday a Turkish-language Islamist daily newspaper that has denied the Holocaust. Interior Minister Otto Schily put a banning order on the Yeni Akit publishing house, which brings out the European edition of Anadoluda Vakit. The title means "the times in Anatolia". Prosecutors have been collecting evidence against the newspaper for months. The Interior Ministry in Berlin said the closure was ordered because Vakit had incited to ethnic hate. The newspaper had attacked Israel, Jews in general and the fundamentals of western society. Schily said Friday officials had impounded property as well as evidence at the company's offices in a southern Frankfurt suburb. 
A U.S. bank regulator has ordered Palestinian-managed 
An official from the Syria-based leadership of the 
Palestinian police arrested two suspected militants Saturday in connection with a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis at a Tel Aviv nightclub, acting on orders from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to track down those responsible for what he called an act of sabotage. In a phone call from Lebanon, an official from the Syria-based leadership of the 
Suspected Taliban rebels ambushed a vehicle carrying Afghan troops in southern Afghanistan, killing nine soldiers, a provincial official said. The attack occurred late on Thursday in the Chakul area of Helmand province, where Taliban often target police and troops, said Haji Wali Mohammed, a spokesman for the governor. "We lost contact with the Afghan soldiers on Thursday, and their bodies were found today," he said, adding that authorities would hunt down and arrest the "terrorists" who carried out the attack.
British-born militant 
At least three dozen Maoists have been killed after clashes with soldiers in western Nepal, the army has said. The latest attack is the largest since rebels called a transport blockade to protest the king's power grab earlier in the month. "At least three dozen Maoists are feared to have been killed in fierce clashes with the security forces," said a statement on Friday from the army's western divisional headquarters in Kathmandu. "Between Thursday and Friday, the two sides were engaged in fierce clashes at five different areas in Kailali district," the statement said. In the latest clashes, 400 rebels attacked forces operating in the village of Hasulia, the army statement said. Three soldiers and a policeman were killed in a separate clash in Pathariya in western Nepal on Friday and an undisclosed number of injured soldiers were airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment, it added.
