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Gunnies Going After Diplos in Iraq
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Arabia
Saudi terror suspect has 2 jailed brothers
The two brothers of a Saudi named on a list of 36 terror suspects reportedly are being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and in a Saudi jail.
Just one big happy family
The Daily al-Watan quoted a security source as saying Youssef, the younger brother of Saad Mohammed Mubarak al-Jabiri, is detained at Guatanamo, and his older brother, Abdullah, is imprisoned in Saudi Arabia on terrorist charges. The source also said Jabiri's sister was married to Abdullah al-Ghamdi, an al-Qaida operative who was killed by Saudi police in a clash in western Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
How's that islamic wedding sensor for the JDAM coming?
He said Jabiri traveled to Afghanistan to join the resistance against Soviet occupation in the early 1980s when he was 15. He returned home shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and stayed with his father in Riyadh before vanishing again.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 11:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Coming soon to a theater near you:
The al Ghamdi Connection
Posted by: .com || 07/06/2005 14:29 Comments || Top||


21 Saada charitable societies shut down
The Yemeni authorities last month closed 21 charitable and private societies in Saada on charge of exploiting their activities in supporting al-Houthi’s insurgency. Mirran Charitable Society, which was led by slain cleric Hussein Badraddin al-Houthi before he was killed in September last year, topped the list of the targeted societies. The Yemeni authorities accused people running these societies, some of whom were arrested, of exploiting activities of their societies to spread political and sectarian thoughts against the law. According to the government, these people practice illegal activities and collect money for supporting al-Houthi’s rebellion in the guise of charitable works. The Saada security forces stormed all the head-offices of these societies, shut them down, invalidated their permissions and froze their assets and financial accounts.
I guess the al-Houthi family was merely following the same mechanics as any other terror network. But it's different if they're Salafists...
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Chechen warlord killed
Duk Vakhi Gubashev, a Chechen warlord known as Batya ("old man") has been killed in Chechnya, according to the Interior Ministry. The provisional press center of the Interior Ministry in the North Caucasus said Gubashev was killed by federal special forces. At the site, the police found and confiscated a load of weapons, ammunition and special communications devices, and also a written manual of how to make explosive devices, a phone book with foreigners' phone numbers, and a map of the Moscow subway.

The press center said Gubashev's rebels and a group of Arab mercenaries had mined roads, prepared terrorist attacks, and recruited local residents, particularly among young people. The militants also opened new bases, kept in contact with other rebels, provided them with food and weapons, and also helped them get into mountainous regions of the republic. The band operated in the southern mountainous areas of Chechnya.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 07/06/2005 09:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Batya no more. Subway plans were for his upcoming well-earned vacation?
Posted by: Tkat || 07/06/2005 10:37 Comments || Top||


Azeris bust criminal gang linked to al-Qaeda
Azerbaijani police have busted an al-Qaida-connected criminal group, which was plotting a series of bombings in Azerbaijan and neighboring countries, the Azerbaijani Ministry of National Security said Tuesday in a statement. The group shipped electronic components bought from abroad to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku and assembled them into dozens of remote-controlled bombs, Interfax News Agency quoted the statementas saying. The group, led by Afghans, also consisted of British, Jordanian and Russian members. Besides bombs, the police also seized guns, forged passports and other military equipment in the operation conducted earlier this year. Members of the group have been sentenced to three to 15 years in prison by an Azerbaijani court, said the statement.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 07/06/2005 09:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As you can see, this war on Terror is just an American thing. They only hate Americans. Not Buddist, or Russian's or Egyptian's or Hindu's, right? Well they will only get weaker as long as they keep fighting on so many fronts.
Posted by: plainslow || 07/06/2005 12:59 Comments || Top||


Two Gunmen Killed in Dagestan
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) - An early morning shootout between police and gunmen with automatic weapons left a bystander and two of the gunmen dead in the southern Russian region of Dagestan on Wednesday, police said. The violence was the latest in a series of attacks involving police and government officials in the region bordering Chechnya, raising fears that yet another Caucasus region would be consumed by violence and chaos.
The shootout began around 7 a.m. when police went to a two-story brick building in the capital, Makhachkala, to search a building suspected of housing gunmen, said Marina Riasulova, a spokeswoman for the city's Interior Ministry. As police approached the house, at least five gunmen inside opened fire with automatic weapons and police returned fire in a shootout lasting for nearly two hours, authorities said. A witness who accompanied police was shot and killed in the crossfire.
A "witness" leading cops to a "hideout" and gets "killed" in the "crossfire". Now where have I heard that before?
One police officer and at least two of the gunmen were wounded. Two other gunmen escaped.
Russia's Deputy Interior Minister Andrei Novikov said the gunmen were responsible for an explosion Tuesday that tore through a police post in Makhachkala, killing at least two officers and wounding three. City police spokesman Khabib Magomedov said police discovered shutter guns weapons and computer software in the house, along with extremist literature, including copies of Hitler's "Mein Kampf," and material on Wahhabism, an extreme form of Islam that inspired al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Meanwhile, the regional Interior Ministry said an explosive device destroyed part of a natural gas pipeline just after midnight Tuesday, cutting off gas supplies to Makhachkala and southern parts of the region. Dagestan borders Chechnya, where separatist rebels have been fighting Russian forces since 1999, and violence that some believe is connected with the Chechen insurgency is increasing in the republic.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 08:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All part of the new improved shariat announced at kavkaz? The Mein Kampf was a nice touch guys. Real endearing to most people. A Neo-Nazi Wahabbi caliphate sounds like a good approximation of hell. 'Twas sick, 'twas passing strange, 'twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pathetic, 'twas pig-ugly, t'was the tolerant faith at it's logical extreme methinks - mere butchers mad, blind, deaf and dumb.
Posted by: Abu Ratcatcher to the Stars || 07/06/2005 9:36 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Keeping the faith
Posted by: tipper || 07/06/2005 14:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He makes the perfect case for immunizing the West from this ancient pathogen, not letting any new Muzzies in and expelling everyone like this twisted asshat. It doesn't get much clearer.
Posted by: .com || 07/06/2005 15:02 Comments || Top||

#2  These are men for whom no meaningful law has been passed in centuries.

Yeah, that sounds about right...
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/06/2005 15:13 Comments || Top||

#3  That's the mentality that we face in Iraq as well as in Wahabi mosques here in the US. These guys are a cancer on civilized society, and need to be booted out of the host country.

.com is right. These guys are pathogens and need to be dealt with as pathogens. You do not reason with them, as they will not reason with you. Dealing with them with political correctness is simply suicide on the installment plan with these chaps. At least the reporter got them to talk with perfect candor (exposing them as fanatics and dumbasses).
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 07/06/2005 15:30 Comments || Top||


Europe
Major al-Qaida Trial Concludes in Spain
The trial of 24 people — Europe's biggest court case against radical groups with alleged ties to Osama bin Laden's network — ended Tuesday and the three-panel judge prepared to begin deliberations. Seven of the accused, including the alleged leader Imad Yarkas, said they were innocent and condemned terrorism on the last day of the trial. Yarkas, a Syrian-born Spaniard, called the Spanish cell "an invention."
It all depends on your definition of "terrorism," of course...
The prosecution is seeking prison terms of more than 74,000 years each for Yarkas and two other suspects. Under Spanish law, the maximum time they could serve on a terrorism conviction is 40 years. Spain has no death penalty or life imprisonment. Last week, the chief prosecutor, Pedro Rubira, said a long sentence was the best way to fight Islamic terror, not by invading countries and setting up detention camps.
It's my opinion that standing them up against a wall and shooting them would do the trick, especially if the rest of them knew that they were going to face the very same thing. But I'm just a dumb hillbilly, not a sophisticated European...
His comments were a thinly veiled criticism of the U.S. war on terror. "The world will be watching when you issue a sentence," he told the three-judge panel on June 27. "Be aware that what you do not only affects Spain but affects the whole world."
Certainly draws my attention to the fact that Spain has neither the death penalty nor a life sentence. Nobody gets time off for good behavior when they're dead, and only in Haiti do they manage to escape from the grave. You can hold as many hostages as you want, and you're still not going to spring a corpse...
The 21 other suspects are accused of terrorism and other offenses, but not of planning for Sept. 11. They face sentences of nine to 21 years if convicted. Yarkas's attorney, Jacobo Teijelo, said Spain had presented no evidence against his client other than wiretapped conversations.
And his own words aren't enough?
Teijelo argued specifically that the prosecution had not explained how Yarkas is alleged to have arranged a July 2001 meeting in Spain for two key Sept. 11 figures — the main charge against Yarkas. A verdict is expected in September.
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anyone taking bets on how this turns out? I bet most of them walk.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 07/06/2005 2:14 Comments || Top||

#2  they won'walk--they'll flamenco out of the court with the socialist moonbat prosecutor clicking his castenets
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI || 07/06/2005 16:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Coast Guard plagued by breakdowns
The Coast Guard's ships, planes and helicopters are breaking down at record rates, which may threaten the service's ability to carry out its post-9/11 mission of protecting ports and waterways against terrorism.

Key members of Congress, maritime security experts and a former top Homeland Security Department official say that the fleet is failing and that plans to replace the Coast Guard's 88 aging cutters and 186 aircraft over the next 20 years should be accelerated."This nation must understand the dire situation in which the Coast Guard now finds itself," says Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, chairwoman of a Senate Coast Guard subcommittee. She favors replacing the Coast Guard's "deepwater" fleet - the ships and aircraft capable of operating far offshore - over 10 to 15 years.

Former Coast Guard commandant and Homeland Security deputy secretary James Loy says "the stakes are simply too high in the post-9/11 environment" to continue to allow the Coast Guard's aging equipment to continue to deteriorate. Some ships are more than 50 years old, well beyond the recommended age for replacement.

The Bush administration wants to increase the amount of time it will take to replace a fleet that's among the oldest on the globe - older even than fleets owned by nations such as Algeria and Pakistan. The "deepwater" replacement program, conceived in 1998 as a $20 billion, 20-year plan to replace the fleet, could be increased to 25 years under a White House plan.The strategy would save the government money in the short term. The White House budget office declined to comment.

Snowe calls the idea a "violation of common sense" amid mounting concern that terrorists will try to sneak weapons of mass destruction into the USA through a port. Adm. Thomas Collins, commandant of the Coast Guard, says he supports the White House plan and has enough refurbished equipment to operate the fleet. But this month, he told Congress his equipment is failing at unacceptable rates:

• In fiscal 2004, the engines on the Coast Guard's 95 HH-65 helicopters suffered power losses at a rate of 329 per 100,000 flight hours, up from 63 per 100,000 flight hours in fiscal 2003. The comparable Federal Aviation Administration standard is 1 per 100,000 flight hours.
• There have been 23 hull breaches - holes that let in water - requiring emergency dry-dock repairs in the 49 110- and 123-foot patrol boats since 2001.
• Each of the dozen 378-foot cutters, most of which operate in the Pacific, suffers a significant engine or hydraulic or refrigeration system breakdown on every patrol.
• For all major cutters and patrol boats, the number of unscheduled maintenance days was 742 in fiscal 2004, up from 267 in fiscal 1999. The loss of cutter days in fiscal 2004 equated to losing 10% of the major fleet for an entire year.
Stephen Flynn, a maritime security expert and former Coast Guard officer, says the agency is "operating at the level, in many instances, of a Third World navy."

The Coast Guard was moved into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 and given primary responsibility for maritime security in addition to its regular duties. The added responsibilities include patrolling the nation's 361 ports and 95,000 miles of coastline, boarding and inspecting tens of thousands of cargo ships and recreational boats, and reviewing security at the nation's commercial ports.
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/06/2005 09:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We only have 88 cutters?!?! Why don't we have 888? For christ's sake give them some money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 07/06/2005 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Cause they are the unwanted bastard of unending mission creep. Heck they started as a revenue enforcement service of the Treasury. Since then, all sorts of stuff have been laid on them. If you make them DoD, then they're subject to the restrictions of Posse Comitatus. Can't do law enforcement. If you stick them elsewhere their funding becomes less than high priority for the bureaucrats who don't like or understand people who carry guns [just ask the Border Patrol] and want them doing water safety programs at their favorite recreation spot.
Posted by: Clith Shaising5479 || 07/06/2005 9:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Early last century, the Coast Guard was formed by merging together several services (revenue, life-saving, lighthouses,...). Maybe we need to break the unit up again. Put one set under the Border Patrol; one under Customs; and have the rest for; rescue, icebreaking, search, and stuff like that.
Posted by: Jackal || 07/06/2005 9:53 Comments || Top||

#4  What's up with the increase in breakdowns.

"In fiscal 2004, the engines on the Coast Guard's 95 HH-65 helicopters suffered power losses at a rate of 329 per 100,000 flight hours, up from 63 per 100,000 flight hours in fiscal 2003. The comparable Federal Aviation Administration standard is 1 per 100,000 flight hours."
Posted by: some dude || 07/06/2005 10:09 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
U.N. Oil for Food Figure Benon Sevan Flees U.S.
Benon V. Sevan, former director of the scandal plagued Oil for Food Program has left his home in New York and is now in his native Cyprus, say U.N. officials. Sevan returned to his family hone in the city of Nicosia in early June and though he insists he will return to New York, he has refused to give any date.
Hope he's watching his step around elevator shafts...
The embattled former U.N. aid chief has been under intensive investigation by a "special panel" headed by former Fed chief Paul Volcker for almost a year. In a preliminary report issued in February, Volcker cast serious doubts on Sevan's leadership of the 7-year aid program. Though an allegation of criminality was not made, Volcker hinted that such allegations may be made by the time his final report is released in late summer. "If anyone knows anything about any Annan skeletons, it is Sevan, and Kofi knows it," a veteran U.N. staffer told NewsMax.
Hence the advice about elevator shafts...
Because of the growing problems involving Sevan and the aid program, U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan recently severed all connections with the former official and barred him from entering any U.N. facility, including its New York headquarters. He had been on a dollar-a-year retainer and technically on-staff for legal reasons. No longer. In fact, in April, a rare public dispute broke out between Sevan and the U.N. when Annan's Chef de Cabinet Mark Malloch Brown decided to renege on an earlier pledge to help defray his legal costs. It was not clear why the Annan staffer took that course of action despite several letters released by Sevan which apparently committed the world body to assist in paying some legal expenses. The embattled former U.N. official is reported to have run up legal bills in excess of $400,000.

Shortly after the Malloch Brown decision, sources claim that Sevan had decided to take a "vacation" back in Cyprus. Though the U.N. veteran claimed his legal bills created a "great financial strain," NewsMax has confirmed that Sevan does own several valuable real estate properties in Manhattan and Long Island worth substantially more than $500,000. It is not clear whether the U.S. government or his lawyers might move against those holdings if Sevan does not return to the U.S. Cyprus has no formal extradition agreement with the United States.
Handy, that
Annan has publicly claimed that he would not diplomatically shield any person whom the Volcker panel may accuse of wrongdoing. It is also not certain whether the U.N. chief intends to follow through on that earlier pledge. Meanwhile on Cyprus, informal investigations (by news organizations) are underway involving the death of a relative of Benon Sevan. An aunt of the U.N. veteran died in an elevator accident last year. Nicosia police report the elderly pensioner fell several stories when an elevator door in her apartment complex opened too soon. She had only recently returned home after surviving a serious automobile collision.
If at first you don't succeed, give her the shaft
She was also under investigation by Volcker for funneling payments in excess of $150,000 to her nephew as "rent" for the use of his Manhattan apartment for several summer "vacations." When the Volcker panel issues its final report, it is not clear what if anything will happen to anyone criminally implicated. Since the panel is a fact-finding body, any claims of criminality may have to be forwarded to the UN's office of legal affairs for a follow-up investigation. Or, the U.N. might create a panel of legal scholars to assess the Volcker findings, all of which could extend the Oil for Food probe for months, if not years. Annan leaves office January 1, 2007. Meaning most of the principals involved in the massive embezzlement may have more than enough time to shield themselves from any possible prosecution. "It is a mess, no doubt," expressed one U.N. retiree, "but you (the press) must be persistent if we are ever to find the truth," he exclaimed. Latest published reports claim that more than $21 billion may have been stolen from the U.N.-Iraq aid program between 1996-2003.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 13:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cyprus has no formal extradition agreement with the United States.

Wonder if Bevan has ever heard the "Tale of the Italian Imam"?
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/06/2005 14:07 Comments || Top||

#2  "...the elderly pensioner fell several stories when an elevator door in her apartment complex opened too soon. She had only recently returned home after surviving a serious automobile collision. She was also under investigation by Volcker for funneling payments in excess of $150,000 to her nephew as "rent" for the use of his Manhattan apartment..."
Ima thinkerin Benon Sevan iza Jimmy Hoffa n dizguys!
Posted by: Tom || 07/06/2005 14:21 Comments || Top||

#3  "Go on, take the money and run!" They do say that most fatal accidents happen at home with nobody around. 400K in "legal" fees already? Bet an investigation of that one would reveal some interesting tidbits.
Posted by: Tkat || 07/06/2005 14:42 Comments || Top||

#4  I think Sevan is going to have a sudden, but fatal heart attack soon. He knows too much for Kofi's comfort.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 07/06/2005 16:05 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria seen stepping up aid to Iraq-bound insurgents
Syrians are increasing assistance to foreign fighters preparing to enter Iraq and kill civilians and U.S. troops, despite months of pressure on Damascus from Washington to crack down on the jihadists.
A U.S. official said recent intelligence shows that Syria is the home to Web sites that exhort militants to come to the country for preparation to fight and die in Iraq. Syrians also are providing barracks-like housing as the recruits from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Morocco and other Muslim countries prepare for a jihad, or holy war. The fighters also receive weapons, training and money in Syria. The Syrian government denies that it is helping the terrorists. American commanders in Iraq have refrained from publicly saying the Ba'athist regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad is actively assisting the insurgency.
The Web sites and housing are why U.S. commanders, in hearings last month, referred to Syria's capital of Damascus as the "hub" for foreigners entering Iraq and carrying out daily suicide car bombings.
Previously, officials have said that terrorists receive phony identification cards and passports in Syria and that they use the papers to cross Iraq's porous border. But fresh intelligence reports show that the staging in Syria is becoming more elaborate, the official said. U.S. officials say privately that they think it is impossible for hundreds of jihadists to move in and out of Syria on a weekly basis without the government's approval.
Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the region, testified on Capitol Hill last month that the flow of foreign terrorists from Syria is increasing, despite Washington's sending high-powered delegations to Damascus to warn of serious consequences and its imposing economic sanctions. Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to Washington, has denied repeatedly that his Ba'athist government aids Iraq-bound terrorists. When U.S. officials made similar charges a month ago, Mr. Moustapha told CNN that Syria was ending anti-terrorism cooperation with Washington. He added, "We are trying to tell the United States: 'We are willing to engage with you constructively. We want a good relationship with you, but you have to stop this unfair media campaign against Syria, because we think it is unfair and it is unconstructive.'?"
Over the weekend, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported that government troops clashed with militants near Damascus and captured Jordanian Sharif Aye Saeed al Smady. The Associated Press reported that al Smady had escaped from a Jordanian courthouse, where he had been on trial on murder charges. The announcements seemed timed to counter Washington's criticisms that Syria is not doing enough to stop the Syria-to-Iraq terror route.
Yes, that was handy, wasn't it?
The Syrian border influx creates an acute problem for the coalition. Troops conduct sweeps in the area and kill scores of foreigners, only to see them replaced by new jihadists coming across the border. Administration officials have concluded in recent months that the long-term answer to defeating the foreign invasion is to bring more Iraqi Sunni leaders into the Shi'ite-dominated government. Once the Sunnis view the new Iraq as their Iraq as well, they will cease to support the foreigners who move among safe houses in their communities, a second U.S. official told The Washington Times in an interview.
At a press briefing last week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was asked whether it was time to take the fight across the border into Syria. Mr. Rumsfeld said such decisions are made at the White House. He also said it is up to the new Iraq government to pressure Damascus. "It seems to me it's up to Syria's neighbors, including Iraq, to interact with Syria in a way that helps them understand the damage they're doing to the region," he said.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 13:14 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why not put up some fake web pages. Get these insurgents going to places where we can pick them up. Do it a couple of times, and it may make them question all of the web sites. I'm sure there are some Middle East bloggers who could help with this.
Posted by: plainslow || 07/06/2005 14:21 Comments || Top||

#2  How big a crater did we put in that comet the other day?
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/06/2005 15:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Syria needs a wack where it will hurt. Just like we did for G'Daffy years ago. It got his attention and he cooled it for a long while. All we are getting now is the Syrian version of Shuck and Jive.

We do not need to level Damascus. We just need to send a protest package to the right address.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 07/06/2005 15:57 Comments || Top||

#4  "Candygram"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/06/2005 16:51 Comments || Top||

#5 
Half a gram!
Posted by: Analog Roam || 07/06/2005 17:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Surely we can give the syrians a colostemy right where where they are crapping out those islamo-cockroaches.
Posted by: anymouse || 07/06/2005 21:10 Comments || Top||

#7  I don't think the border is clearly marked...
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/06/2005 22:56 Comments || Top||

#8  Well past time for a visit from a different kind of "high powered delegation".
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 07/06/2005 23:41 Comments || Top||


N.Korea provides nuclear aid to Iran - intel reports
VIENNA, July 6 (Reuters) - Recent intelligence reports accuse North Korea of secretly helping Iran develop its nuclear programme, raising fresh concerns about Pyongyang's nuclear proliferation and Tehran's atomic intentions. The United States and the European Union fear Iran is using its nuclear energy programme as a front to develop nuclear weapons and have called on Iran to cease all sensitive atomic work. Tehran says its programme is peaceful and refuses to give up its sovereign right to a full atomic programme.
"In the late 1990s, cooperation began between the two countries, which focused on nuclear (research and development)," said an intelligence report obtained from a non-U.S. diplomat. "There has been a significant improvement in relations between Iran and North Korea over the past few months," the report said. A recent example is what the three-page report described as a "special secret course to provide technological and practical information to outstanding students." Among the lecturers are senior North Korean scientists and atomic technicians, it said.
"This nuclear cooperation between the two countries has apparently increased significantly during the past year as seen in the arrival of an academic delegation from North Korea in Iran and the existence of this special course," it said.

The secret masters level course at Tehran's Polytechnic University covered "dual use" nuclear technology that could be applied to civilian or military applications, the report said. "It seems Iran is taking another step to promote its military nuclear project by exploiting North Korea's extensive technological information in the nuclear sphere," it said. A senior Iranian official who was shown the report did not respond to several requests for a comment.

A nuclear expert who was involved in the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) investigation of Iran's atomic programme said there was no way the IAEA would get access to this kind of information but he said it was credible. "Only intelligence agencies can get this kind of information, not the IAEA," the expert told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information. "But it's credible. No one would be surprised if this was true." He added that it was not illegal for Iran to get such training from North Korean experts, though he said any nuclear cooperation between the two countries was worrying.

David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and head of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security think-tank, said North Korea was the only country that would give Iran sensitive nuclear know-how at the moment. "No legitimate country would come to Tehran and teach this stuff," Albright said. He said he was worried North Korea might even be trying take on the role that Pakistan once played in Iran. "The fear is that North Korea would replace the Khan network," Albright said. He was referring to a global black market set up by the father of Pakistan's atomic weapons programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, that supplied Iran, Libya and possibly North Korea with sensitive nuclear technology. Khan's network has largely been shut down, U.N. experts say.

U.S. President George W. Bush has listed both Iran and North Korea as members of an "axis of evil" of states seeking the world's deadliest weapons. Communist North Korea, which withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, says it already has the bomb. A diplomat from one of the three European Union states trying to persuade Iran to give up its uranium enrichment programme -- France, Britain and Germany -- agreed that the intelligence reports concerning Iranian and North Korean cooperation were plausible. "The North Koreans are willing to do everything for money," the European diplomat told Reuters. Several Asian diplomats agreed that the reports were plausible.

There have been other intelligence reports on Iranian cooperation with North Korea. Last month, Britain's Telegraph newspaper quoted a senior Western intelligence official as saying Tehran was negotiating with North Korea to build a series of underground bunkers to hide atomic equipment in Iran. Last week, the Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun said Japan was worried technology for a long-range cruise missile that can carry nuclear warheads may have been leaked to North Korea from Iran. This information was given to Japan by a U.S. intelligence agency, said Sankei, a conservative daily.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 12:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bomb them.
Posted by: Ulomort Glaimble8475 || 07/06/2005 13:07 Comments || Top||

#2  I find it fascinating that every day the evidence mounts, bit by bit, chunk by chunk, that Bush was absolutely dead right in the Axis of Evil label. Derided, ridiculed, and lambasted by the moron MSM, BDS, Big Hug, LLL, Moonbat, and Chattering Class Intelligentsia Kool Aid Krowds, vindication arrives every day. Unlike the MSM, which scrubs and / or charges for past article access, the blogosphere has free and open archives. An anti-revisionist memory.

Desperation is likely the name of this NorKie play. The MM's have money and the NorKies are starving, a small concern somewhere on the list of Things Gone Wrong In KimmieLand, so this certainly makes sense. One of the very few ways available to keep up the game without giving in to Mother China or the rest of the world. Sure would be awful if there was a series of mysterious naval disasters among both inbound and outbound NorKie shipping. Also, along that line, it sure would be awful if the US decided not to help save Kimmie by not sending food aid - or anything else. In combination, just awful. Mother China would be the only remaining resort. How inconvenient for resource-starved China. How fitting. They deserve each other.
Posted by: .com || 07/06/2005 14:17 Comments || Top||


Syria May Face Problem With Extremists
DAMASCUS, Syria -Syria's recent clashes with militants have raised the prospect that the country — under U.S. pressure to keep insurgents out of Iraq — might also be facing a resurgence of Islamic extremists within its own borders. Long-dormant Islamic-based groups that oppose the Syrian regime appear to be taking advantage of the government's tight spot to reassert themselves, some political analysts and outside experts believe.
"The more you weaken the regime, the more you give the chance for opposition groups, including Islamic extremists, to regroup," said Nizar Hamzeh, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut who is an expert on Islamic political movements.
You knew they'd find a way to blame this on Bush, didn'y you?
Syria has gone on the offensive recently, announcing measures to crack down on foreign fighters slipping into Iraq from its territory. The initiative appears to be an attempt to relieve some pressure from the United States and Iraq, who claim Syria has not done enough. But the series of recent clashes has also highlighted that the extremist groups hold longtime hostility toward the Syrian regime too.
Abdulrahman al-Rashed, the general manager of Al-Arabiya satellite channel, said the clashes show that al-Qaida "has indeed started its war against Syria." Writing in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper Monday, he noted the irony that the Syrian government and Islamists have cooperated in the past. But such cooperation was only "a marriage of convenience" to achieve certain goals such as confronting U.S. troops in Iraq, and groups such as al-Qaida consider Syria to be an "infidel" regime that needs to be changed, he noted. "They may have slept in the same bed to fight the Americans but what's important for al-Qaida is that it has entered the bedroom and secured a foothold there," he wrote. There is little question that the militants seem willing to fight the Syrian regime.

On Monday, the Syrian government said its security forces had clashed with a band of militants — including former bodyguards of toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein — on a resort mountain overlooking the Syrian capital, Damascus. During the clash, security forces captured a Jordanian suspected militant, Sharif Ayed Saeed al-Smady, and the wife of his brother, said a Syrian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, as officials here routinely insist on. In an interview with Syrian Television, the wife, Rihab Shahab, said the group was planning terror attacks in Syria and also was preparing to travel to Iraq using forged passports. The al-Smady brothers, both wanted in Jordan in connection with an armed robbery, are linked to the Jund al-Sham militant group, authorities say.
The group is a well-known organization that was set up in Afghanistan by Syrian, Palestinian and Jordanian militants and has links to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaida's branch in Iraq. The group also has claimed responsibility for an October attack on resort hotels in Sinai, Egypt, that killed 34 people, and for a March bombing at an international school in Qatar that killed a British resident.
On Sunday, the day before the mountain clash, the government claimed its forces had killed an Arab extremist near the Lebanese border and arrested 34 other foreign extremists. And last month, Syrian forces raided the hideout of a group of suspected terrorists near Damascus, killing two. Before that raid, security forces had been monitoring a Jund al-Sham cell for several months and broke it up as the group planned to launch bomb attacks in Damascus, authorities said.
The burgeoning extremism in Syria "is a natural extension" of the increasing radicalism in the region after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, said Syrian legislator Mohammed al-Habash, who also heads the Center for Islamic Studies in Damascus.
Syria, a tightly controlled country, has for decades taken a tough line against Islamic extremism: Banning, for example, the Muslim Brotherhood since the early 1980s. But Hamzeh said the crushing of the Brotherhood's leadership then does not mean that its infrastructure was totally destroyed.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 12:34 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Syria May Face Problems with Extremists"

Well, duh!
Posted by: ValleyGirl || 07/06/2005 12:59 Comments || Top||

#2  The problem is that they're running out of places to hide them.
Posted by: Shiipman || 07/06/2005 16:04 Comments || Top||

#3  This is a hoax, a Syrian ruse to diminish the pressure from Iraq and Washington.
Posted by: Captain America || 07/06/2005 17:40 Comments || Top||

#4  "Syria May Face Problems with Extremists"

One can only hope.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/06/2005 19:07 Comments || Top||


Syria arrests two more ‘terror group’ suspects
DAMASCUS - Syrian security forces have arrested two more people suspected of belonging to a “terror group” that clashed with the police earlier this week, the official Syrian news agency reported on Wednesday. The two arrested were identified as Mohammad Islam bin Abdul-Rahman Ahmad al-Semadi, a 30-year-old Jordanian who the agency said was also known as Raafat, and Rehab Shehab, a woman whose nationality was not disclosed.
I think it was his brother they nabbed yesterday
Security forces arrested two other members of the group on Monday after a clash in which an officer was killed and four other security personnel were injured. The Syrian Arab News Agency quoted an official source at the Information Ministry as saying that security forces were still pursuing other members of what it described as a “terror and armed robbery group”. Syria’s Information Ministry has said some members of the group had worked as bodyguards for former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 10:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Stung in an Afghan 'hornets' nest'
EFL.
A routine mission for a small unit of US troops based here turned into a fight for their lives when they came up against a group of suspected Taleban militants along the border with Pakistan. It did not make any headlines. It was just another incident among many in this volatile region. But it gives an insight into why the US-led coalition is having such difficulty defeating the insurgency that has affected much of eastern and southern Afghanistan for the past two years.
It was 25 June. Second Lt Louis Fernandez had led seven members of his platoon to the top of Peak 2911. A distinctive, bulging mountain straddling the frontier, it gets its name from its height in metres. The night before, a US artillery battery had shelled the peak after lights had been seen there. The suspicion was that insurgents might be using it as a launch site to fire rockets on American and Afghan troops - an almost daily occurrence for units based along the border.
Lt Fernandez and his men from the 2/504 Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, had been ordered to do a "battle damage assessment", to see if anything had been hit. An Afghan officer, Capt Mohammed Islamuddin, and two interpreters were with them.
They found nothing except a well-travelled trail. They decided to follow it. As they moved down the path, Capt Islamuddin says he spotted a man in local clothes about 200-300 metres away, carrying a Kalashnikov. Staff Sgt McKenna Miller says he saw another man near some trees raising his Kalashnikov. Sgt Miller raised his weapon. "I asked for permission to fire." "I told Sgt Miller to shoot," says 22-year-old Lt Fernandez. "He pulled the trigger and hit the guy right in the head and put him down.
"Immediately after, we started taking fire from another direction," he says.
"That's when pretty much everything unravelled," says Sgt Miller, a veteran of Iraq and the Balkans. They realised they were up against "not two, but approximately 15 to 20 individuals", with a barrage of fire coming down on the US and Afghan troops.
Where they were though, there was almost no cover. The only escape was to move back towards the summit, the soldiers taking it in turns to provide covering fire while others scrambled up the slope, fighting for breath in the thin air at this altitude. "I was starting to pray as I was running back," says Sgt Juan Carlos Coca, the unit's radio operator. "There were rounds flying everywhere."
"We were definitely fighting for our lives," says Sgt Miller.
For Sgt Coca, this is his second time in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne. In between, he was also in Iraq, in southern Baghdad."I expected this to be the easiest deployment of the three," he admits. "But so far it's been the hardest. We've basically come to a hornets' nest, here on the border with Pakistan."
The paratroopers say they were firing constantly to try to keep their assailants back. But "we were getting surrounded", says Sgt Coca. "And we had no comms at all. The mountain was blocking radio signals, so they couldn't call for back-up.
In this terrain, their pursuers had the advantage. "They move a lot faster on these mountains than we do," says Lt Fernandez.
"They know all the routes. And they're just in better shape when it comes to this. They're carrying no weight. We're carrying about 60 or 70 pounds (27kg-31kg) of equipment, so we're a lot slower."
Their lightly loaded attackers came closer and closer. "They got within 20 or 30 metres," says Lt Fernandez. "You could see those little tan hats they wear. "We were hugging the dirt, most of the time just praying to God that He was there for us. And He was definitely there for us, to just have one guy take a ricochet round, with the amount of fire they were putting down on us."
That one guy was Pte Ted Smith. A round hit him in the face, but went straight through his cheek. "Blood was just pouring out of him," says Sgt Miller, "but he just kept on firing."
Based on intelligence received afterwards, the soldiers believe they killed eight of their attackers. But talking about the fire fight to the BBC a few days later, all of them say they were lucky not to have lost anyone. When they finally reached higher ground and safety "we were totally out of breath, we could barely speak. We had almost no ammunition left," says Lt Fernandez, who was also inspired by 9/11 to join the forces. He signed up on 14 September 2001. Up here, Sgt Coca could get through on the radio, to call for air support.
A-10 aircraft arrived. But the soldiers say the pilots were not permitted to open fire with their machine gun, or drop any ordnance because the militants were in Pakistani territory."That just totally frustrates all of us," says Sgt Coca. "It's easy for the enemy to shoot at us here in Afghanistan and then they just run a couple of hundred metres into Pakistan and we can't do anything. They're untouchable. We have that problem all the time," he says.
Sgt Miller agrees: "That's their safe haven, because they know that we can't go over the border and they try to use that to their advantage." The exact rules of engagement for US forces based along the border are secret. But it is clear from reports of different American operations that they do have some leeway.
And at times during the battle at Peak 2911, this US unit did end up in Pakistani territory. But American troops are not allowed to chase attackers across the border.
Lt Fernandez says if they are "in pursuit of an enemy" they sometimes call Pakistani government forces on the other side. But asked if US forces here feel they get help from the Pakistanis, he says: "I can't say that we do. No, not really."
Capt Islamuddin is more blunt. "Pakistan is interfering in Afghanistan. They are sending the bad guys here. They say there are cooperating, but they are not." Capt Islamuddin has been based on the border with his 3rd Battalion for the past five months and says he has seen many clashes. "Many of them are foreigners," he says, "not Afghans."
It is a claim Afghan government officials often make about those behind the attacks across the south and east. But the evidence is often hard to find. Asked to give more detail, Capt Islamuddin says he has seen the bodies of many militants close up after battles he has been involved in. "There are some stupid Afghans among them," he says. "But most of them are Waziris, Chechens and Arabs. They are all coming from the madrassas in Pakistan."
Officially, the US military says Pakistan is cooperating closely with its efforts to defeat the insurgency and US generals frequently praise their counterparts across the border. That is not how it appears to those on the frontline, to the young US and Afghan troops actually doing the fighting.
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/06/2005 16:31 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Time to waste the assholes and fuck the Paks if they can't drop their limp dicks and join the fight. Enough of the 'ol Cambodia stratagy. It didn't work in Vietnam and it ain't gonna work here. Kill the terrorists. Kill them wherever they hide. And if the Paks are spineless or dickless and can't/won't help, then they had better get out of the way.
Oh, and remind them we are arming India too. If they want to keep military parity with their enemy, they need to buck up and do their part or the F-16s they ordered will be delivered to New Delhi!
Posted by: mmurray821 || 07/06/2005 16:48 Comments || Top||

#2  This made me think of the unwritten rule in Texas regards defending your property - if he's over the threshold, then he's fair game... so drag him back inside, if you have to. The blood trail, well, you can hose down the walk before you make the call...

If they're within a coupla hundred meters of the border and you've got an A-10, hey, fuck it. If the PakiWakis object, tell 'em that's just where the parts came down.

This can't be tolerated. Popeye said it best...
Posted by: .com || 07/06/2005 17:34 Comments || Top||

#3  You cannot fight the war PC. Al Q and the Taliban use the PAK side as a safe haven. They have adapted their tactics to it. A couple of hits on the border area sans publicity will straighten up this mess.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 07/06/2005 17:40 Comments || Top||

#4  well said mcmurray
Posted by: Thraing Hupoluper1864 || 07/06/2005 17:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your host!

Seriously, this PC shit has got to stop. It is killing americans. Americans who are willing to lay it all out on the line and defend this country against our sworn enemies. If the dickless asshats in the state department and pentegon can't get it through their thick skulls that we are playing for keeps and for our very exsistance, it is time to remove them from the picture. Preferably on a rail out of town.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 07/06/2005 18:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Are you sure that's the border? Maybe it is a few miles further, you must have the coordinates wrong. Go right ahead and blast em.
Posted by: Jan || 07/06/2005 18:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Pak has been playing this game (on their eastern border) of arming terrorists and denying that they provide sanctuary for two decades.
After giving India the middle finger for twenty years they feel confident in using the strategy on their western border.
Unlike India, the US has the capability to make Pak behave. They are simply not using it.
Greater considerations of geopolitics prevent it.
Posted by: john || 07/06/2005 18:22 Comments || Top||

#8  It's always easier to say you're sorry than to ask permission.
Posted by: John J. Simmins || 07/06/2005 18:48 Comments || Top||

#9  It's even easier to note that harboring attackers in a war is an act of war, right Perv? Get the ISI under control
Posted by: Frank G || 07/06/2005 18:52 Comments || Top||

#10  I recently found the Rantburg site and since have enjoyed coming back daily. However, there are some acronyms that I have not yet learned. What does EFL mean?
Posted by: Marlin || 07/06/2005 19:09 Comments || Top||

#11  Hello Marlin and welcome. EFL is "edited for length," where we chop out the redundant and/or irrelevant bits.
Posted by: Seafarious || 07/06/2005 19:27 Comments || Top||

#12  But it gives an insight into why the US-led coalition is having such difficulty defeating the insurgency that has affected much of eastern and southern Afghanistan for the past two years.

Return of the Quagmire to Afghanistan! And here I thought Nancy Pelosi declared that war over...
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 07/06/2005 20:56 Comments || Top||

#13  Here is my question, shouldn't that AT-FLIRs be able to find people, even in the terrain of Eastern Afghanistan?

I thought that stuff was suppose to be the cat's ass.
Posted by: Penguin || 07/06/2005 20:59 Comments || Top||

#14  Perspective...
Go to http://www.militaryvideos.net/
and
Download AC-130 mission in Afganistan...
Posted by: 3dc || 07/06/2005 21:24 Comments || Top||


Details Released on SEAL Mission
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The last radio contact was an urgent appeal for help. Night was falling, a rainstorm threatening, and four Navy SEAL commandos were surrounded by about a dozen militants in rugged, wooded mountains. They needed reinforcements. That hurried call set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the U.S. military's deadliest blow in Afghanistan, and the greatest loss of life ever for the elite force of SEALs. Nine days after the ambush and subsequent downing of a U.S. special forces helicopter with 16 troops aboard, U.S military officials in Kabul and Washington are starting to draw a clearer picture of what happened and have revealed some details.

The four commandos - one of whom was rescued, two killed and one who still missing - were on a reconnaissance mission on June 28 as part of Operation Red Wing, searching for Taliban-led rebels and al-Qaida fighters in Kunar province, U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts said. The eastern province has long been a hotbed of militant activity and a haven for fighters loyal to renegade former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is wanted by the United States. U.S. officials said al-Qaida fighters also were in the region. Osama bin Laden was not said to be there - though he is believed to be somewhere along the rugged Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier. The region's rugged, wooded mountains are popular with militants because they are easy to infiltrate from neighboring Pakistan and have plenty of places to hide.

The SEAL team - specially trained ``not only in the art of combat, but also in medicine and communications'' - were attacked by a ``pretty large force of enemy terrorists'' and radioed for reinforcements, Yonts said at a press conference. After the radio call for help, eight Navy SEALs and an eight-member crew from the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, flew toward the mountains in a special forces MH-47 Chinook helicopter. It was dusk as they neared the high-altitude battlefield.

Suddenly, militants hiding in the thick forest fired what is believed to have been a rocket-propelled grenade at the massive chopper, hitting it, he said. Lt. Gen. James Conway, director of operations for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the shot as ``pretty lucky.'' Though damaged, the chopper flew on for about a mile before landing badly on a small ledge on the side of the mountain, then tumbling into a steep ravine. All 16 onboard are thought to have died in the crash. Militants then swarmed over the wreckage.

The Chinook, when hit, had been flying alongside other choppers. Their pilots immediately informed U.S. commanders of the crash, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of information regarding special forces operations. U.S. warplanes, more helicopters and forces on the ground were dispatched to the site, but they were hampered by the approaching rainstorm that lashed the mountains for 24 hours. In the meantime, there was no contact from the four commandos. No one knew if they had been killed in the firefight, or had survived and escaped but were unable to radio for help, the official said.

Fears were further raised when a purported Taliban spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, claimed rebels had captured one of the men. But he gave no proof and U.S. officials were skeptical. Hakimi - who also claimed insurgents shot down the helicopter - often calls news organizations to take responsibility for attacks, and the information frequently proves exaggerated or untrue. His exact tie to the Taliban leadership is unclear. U.S. forces finally reached the wreckage of the helicopter last Thursday, 36 hours after it went down.

``We put forces on the ground, we established positions so no more enemy could enter the region. Little by little we took control of the greater area so we could reach the crash site and begin recovery operations,'' another military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, told The Associated Press. U.S. officials initially said 17 people were on the chopper, but later revised it downward when they realized that one of the service members who was listed on the flight manifest did not get on the aircraft. The bodies of the 16 - ages 21 to 40 - were recovered and flown to Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, before being transported to Dover, Del.

Then on Saturday, a breakthrough came in the desperate search for the four commandos. A friendly tribal elder living in the nearby mountains told authorities he was caring for one of them in his house, Kunar Gov. Asadullah Wafa said. It wasn't clear how the commando got there, he said. U.S. forces rushed to the site and found the commando, wounded, but in stable condition. He was flown to Bagram for treatment - and a debriefing, giving military commanders the first crucial clues about what happened to the ill-fated team. But the good news didn't last.

On Saturday, a U.S. airstrike in the region killed as many as 17 civilians, prompting a strong rebuke by the Afghan government. The next day, U.S. troops in the area spotted the bodies of two of the commandos in a deep ravine. It took another 24 hours to recover their remains and fly them to Bagram. It was the largest loss of Navy SEALs in a single incident since the force of about 2,400 was formed in 1962.

U.S. commanders refused to give up hope for the fourth missing service member. About 300 troops and numerous aircraft were still in the area Wednesday, searching for him and hunting ``a large number'' of militants, Yonts said. ``We're, of course, doing everything we can to find the last of the four SEALs. And it's a real priority, and something the president asked to get briefed on this morning,'' National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said aboard Air Force One.
The U.S. military has remained tightlipped on what the commandos were doing in the area, or what happened to the men following their urgent calls for help and the helicopter crash.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 14:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Silver Lining Dept.
A friendly tribal elder living in the nearby mountains told authorities he was caring for one of them in his house, Kunar Gov. Asadullah Wafa said
Posted by: Shiipman || 07/06/2005 15:34 Comments || Top||

#2  17 civilians bombed--er....heavy handed warning--do not fuck ith us!
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI || 07/06/2005 16:10 Comments || Top||

#3 
Imagery of Asadabad, Afghanistan.
Posted by: 3dc || 07/06/2005 21:21 Comments || Top||


Pentagon IDs Remains of Two Navy SEALs
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon on Wednesday released the identities of the two Navy SEALs whose remains were recovered Monday from a mountainous part of Afghanistan where a four-man SEAL commando team went missing June 28.
They are Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny P. Dietz, 25, of Littleton, Colo., and Lt. Michael P. Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y. Dietz was assigned to SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team Two, based at Virginia Beach, Va. Murphy was assigned to SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One, based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
A brief Pentagon statement said the two men "died while conducting counter-terrorism operations in Kunar Province, Afghanistan." It provided no other details on the circumstances of the deaths. One other member of the four-man SEAL team was recovered safely last Saturday and the fourth man is still unaccounted for. A transport helicopter sent in to rescue the four was shot down the day the team went missing, killing all 16 U.S. servicemen aboard.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 14:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Badr commander killed in Baghdad
BAGHDAD - A commander with the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Badr Shiite militia was gunned down in Baghdad Wednesday after a purported message from Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi warned the group would be targeted. Rahim Amin was gunned down around midday in Baghdad's southern Dura district, a source at the defense ministry said, adding that he carried a badge on him that identified him as a member of Badr. Yarmuk hospital confirmed Rahim's killing.
"He's dead, al-Jim"
In an Internet-posted voice message attributed to Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted fugitive who has never made secret his hatred for the country's majority Shiites said he was creating the Omar Brigade to eliminate Badr members. The Iranian-trained militia is the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Both SCIRI's head Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and Badr's chief Hadi al-Ameri are senior deputies in parliament from the dominant Shiite bloc. Badr changed its name last year to Badr Organisation from Badr Brigade and claims to be a political party now. Many Sunni Arabs accuse Badr of killing their clerics and former members of ousted leader Saddam Hussein's security apparatus allegedly according to a hit list compiled by the militia.
OK, Badr, looks like Zarqawi has made the first move. Your turn at bat.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 13:10 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the Badr people probably realize that they should have bumped off a few sunni clerics last week (or at least beat them up) after one of Sistani's assistants was killed

their delay in doing this probably emboldened the Al Q cells
Posted by: mhw || 07/06/2005 13:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey, Fat Boy! Are you gonna sit there and let him get away with this!
Hey, Sheiky! I hear Badr says you could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch and spit it back on! You gonna let him get away with that!
Where's my scorecard...
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/06/2005 13:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Er, Badr, not Sadr. That's the guys we're sort-of-allied-with. If they aren't Iranian puppets (the *OTHER* Iranian puppets). Y'think the strings from all of these puppets don't get crossed now and again? Wonder if a spokesman ever stopped in the middle of a press conference, rose two feet in the air and a foot to the left, and started spasming like an epileptic?
Posted by: Mitch H. || 07/06/2005 14:36 Comments || Top||

#4  The sweet thing about this is that we can whack slimebags on either side, as long as we make it look like the other one was the perpetrator.
Posted by: mojo || 07/06/2005 14:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Mitch: Badr, Sadr - they both end in "r." Close enough? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/06/2005 15:55 Comments || Top||

#6  To quote the great one "Im conflicted".

I know you're out there General, the far-flung divisons await orders. BTW Young Mercx looking okay.
Posted by: Shiipman || 07/06/2005 15:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Looks like Z-man is making a statement.
Posted by: anymouse || 07/06/2005 21:07 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Shi'ite fighters dismiss al Qaeda challenge
BAGHDAD, July 6 (Reuters)- The head of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite militia ridiculed on Wednesday an apparent challenge from al Qaeda that it had formed a unit to fight his group. Saying such talk from the Sunni Arab group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi only aimed at fueling sectarian strife among Muslims, Badr movement leader Hadi al-Amery said: "Saddam did not scare us. Why should Zarqawi? Let him form a 100 brigades. We will stay in Iraq and it is he and his group that will flee." "He is a criminal," Amery, whose formerly exiled movement still has thousands of paramilitary troops at its disposal, told Reuters. "Death shall be his fate."
Soon would be nice
Zarqawi said in a tape posted on the Internet on Tuesday that he would form a brigade to combat the Badr fighters. His group said on Wednesday it would kill Egypt's top envoy to Iraq, who was snatched off a Baghdad street on Saturday. "His only aim is to lure Shi'ites to a sectarian war," Amery said of Zarqawi. "We know his plans and will never be drawn into sectarian war." "Our fight is not between Sunnis and Shi'ites. It is between the Iraqi people in all its components -- Sunnis, Shi'ites, Christians and Kurds -- and terrorism."

The former Badr Brigade, which fought Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime from exile in Shi'ite Iran group now styles itself the Badr Organisation and says it is devoted to peaceful politics. Many Sunni Iraqis fear it nonetheless as a potentially strong fighting force in any civil conflict. Amery denies Sunni accusations his group runs hit squads against Sunnis.
"No, no, certainly not!"
But, though Zarqawi's followers are estimated in the hundreds rather than thousands, his comments may touch a nerve in the wider Sunni community because of widespread wariness of the Badr militia's tactics and motivations.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 12:56 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Hindu groups rage against Indian holy site attack
AYODHYA, India, (Reuters) - Indian police fired tear gas on Wednesday to disperse Hindu activists who blocked roads and closed shops in dozens of cities to protest an attack on a holy site that has been a tinderbox for Hindu-Muslim violence. Police nationwide went on alert to prevent violence and rioting a day after unidentified gunmen stormed the site, which is claimed both by India's majority Hindus and its minority Muslims, in the northern town of Ayodhya. Hindu activists smashed windshields of cars trying to evade a blockade in the eastern city of Ranchi. Another crowd shattered potted plants at the airport in the central town of Indore, delaying a departing flight.
The protests followed Tuesday's attack by five gunmen and a suicide bomber on a complex that houses a makeshift temple of the Hindu God-king Ram that was built over a 16th-century mosque torn down by a Hindu mob in 1992. Police killed the men in a two-hour gunfight.
One of the bigger protests against the attack was in New Delhi, where police fired tear gas and used water canon to disperse about one thousand Hindu activists. Some activists were armed with tridents, which have religious symbolism in India, and wore bandannas in the Hindu holy colour of saffron. Some held placards reading: "India won't tolerate an attack on the birthplace of Ram" or "Attack on Ram is attack on country". "Lord Ram we will come to you. We will build a Ram temple at the same site", they shouted.
Although no group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack, Hindu groups blamed Islamic militants they said were supported by neighbouring Pakistan, an old enemy and nuclear rival which is now engaged in peace talks with India. "Down, down Pakistan", the crowd in New Delhi chanted.
The attack in Ayodhya has raised fears of sectarian strife. Hindu groups demanded the centrist coalition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh call off the peace talks with Islamabad, which on Tuesday condemned the attack. Hindus claim the site in Ayodhya is the birthplace of Lord Ram and a temple existed there before Islamic invaders demolished it and built a mosque in its place in the 16th century. The levelling of the mosque in 1992 triggered violent nationwide riots in which 3,000 people were killed -- the worst religious clashes since the bloodletting that followed the partition of the subcontinent and the creation of Islamic Pakistan in 1947.
While the identity of the attackers is yet to be established, officials in Uttar Pradesh state, where Ayodhya is located -- about 600 km (375 miles) southeast of New Delhi -- privately said five of the six men were apparently Muslims.
On Wednesday, Ayodhya was peaceful as it has largely been since the 1992 turmoil. Security forces barred Hindu leaders from the town while nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party activists drove the streets on motorbikes and cycles ordering shops to close. The attack rattled financial markets and contributed to a 0.78 percent fall in the main Bombay stock index on Tuesday. But investors shrugged off political risks on Wednesday, pushing up shares in line with higher global markets.
Analysts said the attack was aimed at igniting sectarian violence and damaging the India-Pakistan peace process launched in 2003. "Those dark ambitions cannot be allowed to succeed," the Indian Express said in an editorial. "The day after, it is important to remind ourselves of the tragedy averted. And to find the poise that is most needed for the nation to confront a critical moment like this," it said.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 12:41 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  lord ram 6--allah 0--now if the the lord yahweh could get a few licks in
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI || 07/06/2005 16:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Lets see, LeT terrorists, most probably Pak nationals attack a site in India.

The response of the BJP is to call a nationwide strike.

So you now cause billions in lost revenue to the Indian economy, hurt those who rely on daily wages to buy their food (and there are millions of such families so millions of kids going to bed hungry that night) and all for what?

Is the strike against Perv? or the LeT?
Would they care?

This whole bandh thing is so stupid. 50 years after the british have left India politicians are using noncooperative tactics against a state they themselves rule.

Some idiot mob is going to burn down public property - buses, gov't offices etc that their own tax dollars have paid for.

No wonder Perv smiles so much.
With idiots next door
Posted by: john || 07/06/2005 16:26 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Kidnappers of Egyptian Diplomat Release Statement Threatening to Kill Him
EFL:BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Kidnappers of Egypt's top diplomat in Iraq threatened to kill him because Egypt has allied with "Jews and Christians," according to a statement posted Wednesday on an al-Qaida-linked Web site. Al-Qaida's religious court decided to hand over Ihab al-Sherif to its fighters "to carry out the punishment of apostasy against him," said the statement on the site associated with al-Qaida in Iraq. Under Islam, apostasy, or changing religion, is punishable by death. The statement was ominous because al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been responsible for beheading several foreign hostages, including American Nicholas Berg. Al-Zarqawi's group also has claimed responsibility for numerous car-bombings in Iraq - many against Iraqi civilians.
Since al-Sherif, 51, was taken captive Saturday night, two more diplomats from Muslim countries have been ambushed in suspected kidnap attempts as part of what Iraqi officials say is an effort to sow a climate of fear and discourage Arab and Islamic countries from strengthening their ties to Iraq's new government.
Earlier Wednesday, the same Web site posted pictures of the Egyptian envoy's identification cards, saying it was proof that al-Qaida in Iraq had taken the envoy. The pictures showed the front and back of five ID cards in al-Sherif's name. His Egyptian driver's license and a Foreign Ministry card showed his photograph. "These are the personal identification cards of the ambassador of the idols," the group said.

The statement which threatened to kill al-Sherif said: "The sharia court of the al-Qaida in Iraq organization has decided to transfer the apostate ambassador of Egypt, which has allied itself to the Jews and Christians, to the mujahedeen to carry out the punishment of apostasy against him." Its authenticity could not be independently verified.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 12:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You mean they are not going to give him a makeover while they remodel his Cairo townhouse and garden with a "water feature" in 48 hours? Poor guy's be given the apostate pigeonhole so things are not likely to end nicely.
Posted by: Tkat || 07/06/2005 12:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Tkat, is someone in your household watching just a tad too much HGTV*?

*The house&garden cable station, for those not up on the latest on American television.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/06/2005 16:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Better known as "House Pr0n."
Posted by: Seafarious || 07/06/2005 19:24 Comments || Top||

#4  True, Seafarious, but better than soap operas. At least my household has organized closets as a result. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/06/2005 22:48 Comments || Top||


US Military Holding 5 "Americans" for Iraq Activity
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military is holding five U.S. citizens suspected of insurgent activities in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday. They were captured separately and don't appear to have ties to one another, spokesman Bryan Whitman said. He declined to identify them, citing a Pentagon policy that prohibits identification of detainees.
Three of those being detained are Iraqi-Americans; another is an Iranian-American; the fifth is a Jordanian-American, Whitman said. The three Iraqi-Americans were captured in April, May and June, officials said. The Iranian-American was captured May 17, one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the cases.
Additional: The Jordanian-American was captured in a raid late last year and is suspected of high-level ties to Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist and leading al-Qaida ally in Iraq. Officials announced his capture in March. All five are in custody at one of the three U.S.-run prisons in Iraq — Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca or Camp Cropper, Whitman said, declining to provide their precise location. The International Committee of the Red Cross has had access to all five prisoners, Whitman said. A panel of three U.S. officers rules on whether each prisoner is properly held; that has already taken place for the Jordanian-American. Whitman did not say whether the three Iraqi-Americans or the Iranian-American have been through this process.
One of the Iraqi-Americans allegedly had knowledge of planning for an attack, and another was possibly involved in a kidnapping. The third was "engaged in suspicious activity," Whitman said, declining to be more specific. Whitman said the Iranian-American was captured with several dozen washing machine timers in his car - items that can be used as components in bombs.
Obviously he is just an innocent traveling washing machine repairman, an unjustly accused victim of profiling. Or maybe, not:


LOS ANGELES (AP) - An Iranian-born U.S. citizen who also is a Navy veteran is being held in Iraq by American forces after security officials in Baghdad reported finding a common component for improvised bombs in his taxi, according to his family. Relatives of Cyrus Kar, an aspiring filmmaker who lives in Los Angeles, said they plan to sue the government to gain his release. They say he has been cleared and there is no legal authority for his detention.
Ah, the missing "film-maker". I wondered when he'd turn up.
His family says Kar, 44, was in Iraq to film scenes for a documentary on King Cyrus the Great, founder of Persia, when he was arrested at a checkpoint in Baghdad in mid-May. He also had filmed in Iran, Tajikistan, Turkey and Afghanistan and consulted with scholars, they said.
Yes, I'll just bet he did.

They said he called them on May 24 and said he had been detained because of a misunderstanding involving a taxi driver who had been driving Kar and his cameraman around Baghdad. They last heard from him on June 28. Pentagon officials would not confirm they were holding Kar, citing a policy that prohibits the release of the identities of detainees. However, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman confirmed Wednesday that an Iranian-American is in custody in Iraq. He was captured with several dozen washing machine timers in his car - items that can be used as components in bombs, Whitman said. A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said he was captured on May 17.
Four other people - three Iraqi-Americans and a Jordanian-American - with U.S. citizenship are in custody in Iraq in connection with suspected insurgent activities, Whitman said. All have gone, or will go, before a three-officer panel that determines whether they are properly held, Whitman said. No decision has been made whether the U.S. or Iraqi government will ultimately handle their cases, Whitman said.
Kar's relatives told the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times that FBI Agent John D. Wilson in Los Angeles told them weeks ago that Kar's story had checked out, that he had passed a polygraph test and that he had been cleared of any charges. "He's cleared," one of Kar's aunts, Parvin Modarress, quoted Wilson as saying, according to The New York Times. Wilson told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that he had met the women but would not elaborate.
Kar's relatives plan to file a lawsuit challenging Kar's continued detention. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and other civil liberties lawyers are representing Kar. "Mr. Kar is now imprisoned by the United States military in Iraq without the slightest hint of legal authority," said Mark D. Rosenbaum, the ACLU's Southern California legal director. "Saddam Hussein has had more due process than Cyrus Kar," Rosenbaum said. Although Kar was born in Iran, he spent most of his childhood in California, Utah and Washington state, and served several years in the Navy, the newspapers said.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 11:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope they hope they give me fair warning before identifying them. I want to have time to duct-tape my head so as to prevent it exploding when nincompoops start clammoring for their immediate release.
Posted by: Super Hose || 07/06/2005 11:57 Comments || Top||

#2  So the Ronery Maytag guy finally found something to fill his spare time(rs).
Posted by: .com || 07/06/2005 12:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Get the information you need, then shoot them for treason. Simple, yet it won't happen.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 07/06/2005 12:08 Comments || Top||

#4  This just seems so unfair, as I'm sure anyone who is familiar with the role Cyrus the Great played in the invention of the automatic washing machine timer will agree.

Whatever happened to the principle of innocent until you commit the crime, flee the scene and engage in a standoff/shootout with the police? It's getting so you can't even hack into a website, steal credit card numbers and conspire to commit felonies without the FBI showing up on your doorstep. What a country!
Posted by: SteveS || 07/06/2005 12:12 Comments || Top||

#5  If they are jihadi then let em help sweep roadways for IED's.
Posted by: Tkat || 07/06/2005 12:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Obvious profiling going on here, another sad day for the ACLU. ;-)
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 07/06/2005 12:27 Comments || Top||

#7  LOL SteveS thank gawd we still allowed to have stutter guns, long as they're at least ...ummmm, what is the legal minimum for a stutter gun?
Posted by: Shiipman || 07/06/2005 12:43 Comments || Top||

#8  Gee...will these guys get to go to Gitmo?

And if they do, can we assume if they are killed, that they were innocent, but if they live, they must be guilty? We usta try witches that way, yes?
Posted by: Bobby || 07/06/2005 12:51 Comments || Top||

#9  What, not everybody here carries spare washing machines timers around in their car? I just can't tell you the number of times people have pulled up next to me and said, "Hey, dude, got a washing machine timer you can lend me?"

(How fast can washing machines run, anyway? What's the record for the 100-meter washing machine dash?)
Posted by: Matt || 07/06/2005 13:00 Comments || Top||

#10  Gee...will these guys get to go to Gitmo?

No. If there's a basis to detain them, more likely they'll be turned over to the Iraqis.
Posted by: Pappy || 07/06/2005 14:34 Comments || Top||

#11  US citizens? Though they should be treated in the same manner as any other foreign terr, the US MSM / Looneytoon outcry will be deafening, methinks.
Posted by: .com || 07/06/2005 15:05 Comments || Top||

#12  oooooo..... more likely they'll be turned over to the Iraqis ....

You're not gonna tell anyone, are ya Pappy?

On the other hand, maybe if the UN and AmInt and Teddy and Turban Dick visited then in some Iraqi joint, Gitmo would look even better!
Posted by: Bobby || 07/06/2005 15:06 Comments || Top||

#13  Kar...served several years in the Navy, the newspapers said.

So then he should understand the risks and the rules when wandering around a war zone, right?
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/06/2005 16:56 Comments || Top||

#14  Shoot 'em, then hang 'em
Posted by: Captain America || 07/06/2005 17:41 Comments || Top||

#15  Iraqi-Americans, Iranian-Americans and Jordanian-Americans.
They aren't American's in my book. You're one or the other. To be an American with Iraqi blood yes, but being a proud American you would support America and what we stand for.
Maybe if we insisted on having all Americans chant our love of country it would clear out or identify some of these guys.
Are these some of the folks interpreting for us? Scary thought.
Having allowed others from countries to come to America to be educated seems to be allowing some to study ways of penetrating what we stand for and attempting to break us down. I wish there was a better monitoring system to control who comes into the country.
Let's hear these guys tell us of their undying love of America, to sing a few bars, sorry for profiling here but some folks seem to be so hung up on materialistic stuff.
Posted by: Jan || 07/06/2005 17:54 Comments || Top||

#16  Why did these idiot reporters insist on calling muslims, Americans? Muslims are muslim first and a very distant second any other nationality. They behave this way everywhere around the world!!!
Posted by: TMH || 07/06/2005 21:35 Comments || Top||

#17  Agreed, Jan. Hyphenation should refer to 100% Americans who are proud of what they or their ancestors left behind. Dual citizenship is something else altogether -- and I say this as the child of a dual citizen (Israeli & American). Choose one, give up the other and live with the result; nothing less is acceptable.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/06/2005 22:53 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Fourteen Taleban surrender in Afghanistan: governor
KHOST, Afghanistan - Fourteen Taleban rebels linked to a commander who is on a US list of most wanted militants have surrendered as part of an Afghan government amnesty, a governor said on Wednesday. The group surrendered in troubled Paktika province south of Kabul on Wednesday and promised to give up a secret stash of weapons and to support the government, provincial governor Mohammed Gulab Mangal told AFP. “Fourteen Taleban who were actively fighting the government surrendered and joined us today,” the governor said.

The rebels who gave themselves up were linked to Jalaludin Haqani, a powerful Taleban commander and the regime’s former minister of frontiers and tribal affairs, officials said. Haqani has a five-million-dollar price on his head on a list of Al-Qaeda and other militants wanted by the United States since the September 11 attacks and the fall of the Taleban in late 2001. “They said they were missioned in Pakistan to torch schools, attack government institutions and coalition forces and since they did not want to destroy their country they gave up fighting,” said the governor.

Dozens of former Taleban and other militants have surrendered under the amnesty scheme since it was offered by President Hamid Karzai in November. Earlier this year 18 militant commanders linked to warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is also wanted by the US, joined the government’s side. Officials are trumpeting the amnesty program’s successes amid a renewed, post-winter Taleban campaign of violence against US and Afghan targets.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 10:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh no! That's fourteen more to head off to Gitmo. That means more clients for the ACLU and Michael Ratner's crowd. Couldn't the Afghan authorities make up a story about how the prisoners were "sadly" lost during a difficult river crossing?

A few weeks later, the bodies of the drowned Jihadis are found, strangely enough each with a 9mm bullet hole in the head.
Posted by: Omavitch Cravitch1380 || 07/06/2005 10:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Soon they will be eating noodles Jefferson.
Posted by: Shiipman || 07/06/2005 15:40 Comments || Top||


Gunmen attack Indian Kashmir minister’s car
Suspected rebels opened fire with automatic rifles on a state minister’s car in the capital of Indian Kashmir on Wednesday but he escaped unhurt, police said. Three body guards of Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Sayed Bashir were wounded. Other security personnel in the area engaged the gunmen in a firefight. “The minister escaped and we are cordoning the area to search for the militants,” a senior police officer told Reuters. Witnesses said Bashir’s car was hit by bullets.
Posted by: Steve || 07/06/2005 10:08 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Zarqawi offers proof that he's holding the Egyptian
Iraq's al Qaeda group posted Web pictures of identification cards of Egypt's top envoy to Iraq on Wednesday as proof it had kidnapped the Arab diplomat. The pictures, posted on an Islamist Web site, included Ihab el-Sherif's driving license, foreign ministry and health insurance cards. The cards bore the name, title and passport-sized pictures of the envoy. "These are the identification cards of the ambassador of tyrants," the group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said in a statement signed by its spokesman. It gave no further details.

The Egyptian mission chief, who was expected to become the first Arab ambassador in Baghdad since the fall of Saddam Hussein, was snatched by gunmen off a Baghdad street late on Saturday. Diplomats have speculated that Sherif was kidnapped by insurgents to send a political message to Arab countries not to deepen their ties to the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 07/06/2005 09:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It seems Al Q in Iraq is morphing their operating priorities again. For the past few days the suicide bombs have been down while they used their resources to kidnap.

Given the importance that Arabs put on shame, Egypts response will be interesting. Will they pull a modified France and pay blackmail while pretending not to or will they react with a 'we've always supported sunni groups, why are we being kidnapped', or will they do something more tangible.
Posted by: mhw || 07/06/2005 10:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Plenty more where he came from. Send another.
Posted by: mojo || 07/06/2005 10:34 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
US hunts for missing SEAL
US forces in Afghanistan were searching for the last member of a four-man commando unit today after they found the bodies of two of the soldiers and rescued another, officials said. The Navy SEAL commandos went missing during fighting with militants in the mountainous eastern province of Kunar more than a week ago and 16 of their colleagues were killed when a helicopter sent to rescue them was shot down.

The casualties were the heaviest for US forces in a combat incident in Afghanistan since they overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 and came amid stepped up militant violence ahead of September 18 parliamentary elections. "We are of course doing everything we can to find the last of the four SEALS, and it's a real priority," US President George W. Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley said.

The bodies of two of the soldiers were found during a combat operation in Kunar, the US military said on Monday. Another member of the team was found alive with injuries which the military said were not life-threatening.

A spokeswoman for the US military in Kabul, Lieutenant Cindy Moore, said a major anti-militant operation was continuing in Kunar,a large part of which was aimed at finding the missing commando. "We are aggressively trying to locate him," she said. The US military has said it has no information to indicate the missing commando may have been captured, as claimed by the Taliban.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said last week video of a captured soldier would be provided to news organisations and photographs posted on the Taliban Web site - www.alemarah.com - but neither appears to have happened. Hakimi also said seven US "spies" had been killed by the guerrillas before insurgents shot down the helicopter sent to rescue them.

The US search operation, which has involved hundreds of troops backed by attack helicopters and fixed-wing planes, has been hampered by rugged wooded terrain and cloudy weather.

Kunar Governor Assadullah Wafa said on Monday that 17 civilians, including women and children, were killed in a US airstrike on Friday in the effort to find the missing troops. The US military said on Monday it had killed an "unknown" number of militants and civilians in the strike on a militant compound and regretted the loss of innocent life.

Confirmation of the US deaths brought to 32 the number of US soldiers killed in militant-related violence since March, while 15 other soldiers and three civilian contractors died in a a helicopter crash caused by a dust storm in April. The deaths have made 2005 the bloodiest year for US forces in Afghanistan since the Taliban's fall, but total US casualties remain a fraction of those on Washington's other key front in Iraq.
Posted by: tipper || 07/06/2005 06:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.
Posted by: mojo || 07/06/2005 17:12 Comments || Top||


Analysis of the terrorist strike at Ayodhya
EFL
Security Guards belonging to the Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) foiled a daring attempt by a group of six terrorists to penetrate a Hindu place of worship at Ayodhya, a holy town of the Hindus in the state of Uttar Pradesh in North India, on July 5,2005. The site at which the place of worship is located has been a bone of contention between sections of the Hindus and the Muslims for many years. A mosque (the Babri Masjid) located at the place was forcibly demolished by a mob of Hindu supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in December, 1992. The supporters of the BJP contend that a historic temple dedicated to the God Ram, which was originally located at the site, had been demolished during the Muslim rule of certain parts of India and the mosque erected in its place. The forcible demolition of the mosque by a Hindu mob in December, 1992, led to widespread riots by groups of Muslims in different parts of North India immediately thereafter and the Muslim anger over the alleged excessive use of force by the Police of Mumbai in quelling the riots and their alleged negligence in protecting the Muslims led to an instance of mass casualty terrorism in Mumbai in March 1993. Nearly 250 innocent civilians were killed when a group of angry Muslims recruited by Dawood Ibrahim, the Indian leader of a notorious trans-national criminal group, and got trained in a camp of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM---then known as the Harkat-ul-Ansar)) in Pakistan organised a series of explosions directed at important economic targets such as the local Stock Exchange, a hotel run by the Air India etc.

Subsequent investigations into the explosions brought out that the training of the perpetrators had been got organised in the HUM training camp by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which also supplied them with the explosives, detonators and timers used by them. The leading perpetrators of the act of terrorism subsequently escaped to Karachi, where they were given shelter by the ISI. Dawood Ibrahim himself, who was then living in Dubai, shifted to Karachi where he was given Pakistani citizenship under a different name by the local authorities. He played an important role in financing and assisting in the clandestine procurement and transport of nuclear material from different parts of the world by A.Q.Khan, Pakistan's nuclear scientist, presently under investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, for his role in the clandestine supply of military nuclear-related material to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Different Governments of Pakistan headed successively by Mr.Nawaz Sharif , Mrs.Benazir Bhutto and Gen.Pervez Musharraf have consistently refused to arrest and hand over Dawood Ibrahim and his associates involved in the crime to the Indian authorities for prosecution and trial. Despite the US acceptance of the Indian contention that Dawood Ibrahim was living in Pakistan under a different name as a Pakistani citizen, the Musharraf Government has continued to deny his presence in Pakistani territory.

Since September 2003, when the LET organised two simultaneous explosions in a public place in Mumbai resulting in the death of over 20 innocent civilians, there was no major act of jihadi terrorism in Indian territory outside J&K. However, the Indian security agencies and the Police of different Indian States had foiled planned terrorist strikes by the LET in Dehra Dun and Bangalore. The investigations into these incidents brought out that the LET, which had previously been using mostly Pakistani nationals for its acts of jihadi terrorism in India, had been making inroads in recruiting members of the Indian Muslim community for use in future. While there have been innumerable acts of jihadi terrorism, including many involving acts of suicide or suicidal terrorism in J&K and other parts of India, committed by Pakistani jihadi organisations which support bin Laden's pan-Islamic objectives and are members of his IIF, there has till now been no instance of an act of jihadi terrorism in Indian territory by the Al Qaeda itself, which is largely an Arab organisation. This is generally attributed to the lack of support by the Indian Muslims to the Al Qaeda.

It would appear that while there was general intelligence available about the LET's plans for terrorist strikes in different parts of India, no specific intelligence of the planned attack in Ayodhya was available. The terrorists---six of them, with one of them reportedly a suicide bomber driving a commandeered vehicle filled with explosives---managed to penetrate the outer security perimeter of the heavily-guarded holy premises. The CRPF guards showed quick reflexes and foiled the attempt of the terrorists to penetrate the inner security perimeter. The alleged suicide bomber and his five associates died in the thwarted operation. The identities of the terrorists----whether Indian or Pakistani nationals--- and of the organisation or organisations to which they belonged have not so far been established. From indications available so far, it is evident that this was an instance of attempted suicidal reprisal terrorism tactically meant to avenge the destruction of the Babri Masjid in December,1992, and strategically meant to provoke Hindu-Muslim clashes. Such acts of reprisal terrorism have been the hallmark of the Al Qaeda and the Pakistani jihadi organisations, which are members of the IIF. There is, therefore, a possibility that one or more of these Pakistani organisations was partly or fully involved in the attack. It remains to be seen whether any Indian member of these organisations and Pakistan's ISI had any role in this incident.

Recently, there has been an escalation of acts of jihadi terrorism in Afgfhanistan and India. The Pakistani secuity forces have also been unsuccessful in their professed attempts to trace bin Laden and other survivors of the Al Qaeda and the leaders of the Taliban. It is also evident that the solumn commitment made by Musharraf to Mr.A.B.Vajpayee, the then Indian Prime Minister, in January, 2004, that he would not allow any territory controlled by the Government of Pakistan to be used for acts of terrorism against India has not been honoured. Is this due to the unwilligness or inability of Musharraf to act against the terrorists still operating from Pakistani territory in Afghanistan and India? It is difficult to answer this question at present. Whatever may be the ultimate truth, the continued availability of Pakistani sanctuaries to jihadi terrorists of various hues trying to destabilise Afghanistan and India should be a cause for serious concern to the international community and India's national security managers.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 07/06/2005 02:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


LeT emerging as Qaida's successor
Tuesday’s Ayodhya attack is a deadly reminder of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s core ideology — it goes well beyond opposing India’s sovereignty in Jammu and Kashmir. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the Lashkar’s agenda, as outlined in a pamphlet titled, ‘Why Are We Waging Jihad’, includes the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India.

The terrorist group started out as a wholly owned subsidiary of ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence outfit. But over the years it has grown beyond its creator and is now regarded by many terrorism analysts as the successor to the Al Qaida—not as a monolithic organisation, but as a loosely constructed federation. It wants to unite all Muslim majority regions in countries that surround Pakistan. Hence, its presence in Afghanistan, J&K, Chechnya and other parts of Central Asia. The outfit has a history of executing precision attacks outside J&K, the most prominent being its suspected role in the December 13, 2001, attack on Parliament and the 2002 strike on the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar.
Unlike the Deobandi Jihadis, which have been split and divided again and again, the ISI has kept the Lashkar strong and united, the first splinter group didn't emerge from it until more than a decade after it's creation.
Security sources say, LeT had planned a similar in Ayodhya in 2002, but it fell apart after the militants entrusted with the task were killed in an encounter with the Delhi Police in Tughlaqabad. BSF’s senior intelligence officer, K Srinivasan, believes LeT operatives are also active in UP and Gujurat besides being spread across Jammu and Kashmir. Shahzad Ahmad alias Abu Shamas of Pakistan is the supreme operational commander of the outfit in Jammu and Kashmir. Shahzad resides in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir but has a representative, Dr Zaan, stationed in Bandipora, North Kashmir, acting as operational commander these days, Srinivasan said.

The UN took the ultimate step in May of banning the LeT and all its sister concerns for its links with Al Qaida, through UN Resolution 1267 under which all states are obliged to freeze its assets, prevent its entry into or transit through their territories. The fact that this is yet to find any ground in LeT’s home base, Pakistan, has not escaped notice. Formed in 1990 in the Kunar province of Afghanistan, the Lashkar-e-Toiba is the military wing of the Markaz-ud-Dawawal-Irshad (MDI), an Islamic fundamentalist organisation of the Ahle-Hadith sect in Pakistan. Its first presence in J&K was recorded in 1993 when 12 Pakistani and Afghan mercenaries infiltrated across the Line of Control (LoC).
Ahle-Hadith = Wahabi. One of the co founders of the MDI was Abdullah Azzam, the leader of the Afghan Arabs before he was assasinated.
Compared to other terrorist outfits in J&K, LeT has commanded significant attention primarily due to two reasons. First, for its well planned and executed attacks on security forces and second, for the dramatic killings of non-Muslim civilians. But of greater concern to Indian security agencies has been the tie-up between LeT and India’s most wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim, which was used by the US to brand Dawood a global terrorist. The amount of LeT funding is unknown.
Dawood is a billionaire, I believe that much of the ISI's money for foreign adventurism comes from Dawood. Apparently the Lashkar gets much of its funding from the sale of sacrificial animals during the Eid festival, as well as the selling of the animal skins. Apparently it is quite lucrative.
It maintains ties to various religious/military groups around the world, ranging from the Philippines to West Asia and Chechnya primarily through the fraternal network of Jamaat ud Dawa, its re-named parent body. Next to Pakistan, where the headquarters of the LeT is located, the second most important base of the outfit is in Saudi Arabia.
As it's terrorist training infrastructure inside Pakistan hasn't been touched, it is probably responsible for the training of many of those Jihadis in Chechnya, the Philippines etc.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 07/06/2005 01:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks Paul. Remind me again why we support Pakiwakiland?
Posted by: Spot || 07/06/2005 8:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Because we didn't buy enough C-17s. With triple the number we could be more choosy about allies.
Posted by: Shiipman || 07/06/2005 11:14 Comments || Top||


LeT was itching to do something big
The terrorists who tried storming the site of the proposed Ram temple at Ayodhya are suspected to be affiliated to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and may have sneaked in just over a month ago with the sinister intent of triggering communal disaffection and spreading mayhem.
But only as a side effect of torpedoing the current Pak-India rapprochment. Even if Perv and the army are in favor of it, Hafiz Saeed won't be, and he doesn't really answer to the guys who think they're his owner...
Intelligence sources told TOI that they were aware of the presence of the Lashkar group since it crossed over, probably from Nepal, with the intent of targeting places of worship, military facilites and vital installations, including the Bombay Stock Exchange and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore. Sources claimed that they had anticipated the suicide attack on the temple complex, and had even alerted the police chief of UP, as well as heads of central police organisations. Besides, there had been an urgency to the LeT 'chatter' in the past few weeks, urging militants in India to do something 'big'. Sources feel that Tuesday's mastermind could be elusive LeT commander, 'Dr' Saleem Salaar, said to be in charge its operations in north India.
Fairly graphic pic of the deaders here...
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 07/06/2005 01:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Murder of women rights’ activist condemned
DIR: The murder of activist of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and lady councilor, Zubaida Baigum, has drawn widespread condemnation from various circles as her 19-year-dautgher, Shamaila, who had injured in the incident, succumbed to her injuries in LRH Peshawar Monday.

It is pertinent to mention here that some unidentified assailants had entered the house of the Manager of Aurat Foundation’s Resource Centre, Zubaida Baigum, and opened indiscriminate firing killing the lady and seriously wounding her daughter, Shamaila, who was shifted to LRH Peshawar in view of her precarious condition.
Gunning down a couple of women? Just another day's work for the Lions of Islam™.
Spending four days at the hospital in serious condition, she died of the wounds the other day.

The people of the area have expressed their sympathies with the bereaved family and condemned the incident. The District Bar Dir Upper in a special meeting condemned the killing of the sister of Mian Pervez Yousaf advocate. According to the press release issued by the Bar president, the lawyer community has demanded immediate probe into the incident and ruthless action against the culprits. They later met the District Police Officer (DPO) Dir Upper and demanded the arrest of the culprits, who are still to be identified.
And likely won't be.
Meanwhile, PPPP leader Muhammad Rashid advocate strongly criticised the government for its failure to provide protection to its citizen. He demanded an immediate probe into the incident.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/06/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Tribal elder escapes attempt on life
PESHAWAR: Another tribal elder on Monday escaped an attempt on his life in the Bajuar tribal agency, as some elements wanted to kill prominent elders who have led an armed tribal Lashkar in May and burnt two houses owned by local clerics.
"We'll teach you about that drumming!"
Malik Painda Muhammad was among a few key tribal elders who had led an armed Lashkar that brunt two houses owned by two religious figures and leaders of the defunct Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammad (TNSM), Maulana Amin and Maulana Faqir Muhammad.
Ummm... I think I might have a couple suspects...
Sources told The News from Bajuar that Malik Painda Khan’s brand new car narrowly escaped a remote-controlled bomb explosion planted by unknown culprits on his way near Nayag village.
Yup. Unknown suspects. No idea who they might be...
Besides Malik Painda Khan, his two sons — Muhammad Daud and Muhammad Farooq — and a grandson whose name could not be ascertain were also travelling in the same vehicle. They were returning home after attending funeral prayers of their relation. All of them remained unhurt. His car was however reported to have been damaged in the explosion. Later, officials rushed to the troubled spot but could not make any arrest.
"Nope. Nope. Can't begin to guess who mighta dunnit..."
Posted by: Steve White || 07/06/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Maqdisi re-arrested
In Jordan police arrested al-Zarqawi's spiritual mentor Tuesday as he was being interviewed on Al-Jazeera television, his first public appearance since his release from prison last week.
"We interrupt this program for breaking news! Tonight's special guest is being dragged off by angry policemen. Mahmoud, over to you!"
Al-Jazeera said Isam al-Barqawi, also known as Sheik Abu-Mohammed al-Maqdisi, was detained during the interview with its correspondent in Jordan, but gave no details.
"Folks, you might not want to watch this... Oooh! That hadda hurt!"
Al-Barqawi is said to have taught al-Zarqawi radical Islamic ideology while they shared a cellblock for four years between 1995 and 1999. Both were freed in an amnesty, and al-Zarqawi later went to Afghanistan, then to Iraq, where his followers have waged a campaign of car bombings, attacks and kidnappings.
Those amnesty things work well, don't they?
Al-Barqawi was put on trial again last year among a group of militants accused of conspiring to commit terror attacks against U.S. targets in Jordan. He was acquitted but not released until last week. From his cell in Jordan al-Barqawi wrote to al-Zarqawi in a message posted on the Internet in October asking al-Zarqawi to "spare the blood of fighters and Muslim money" until the time was more appropriate to wage an all-out war.
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In Jordan police arrested al-Zarqawi's spiritual mentor Tuesday as he was being interviewed on Al-Jazeera television, his first public appearance since his release from prison last week.

Ouch! I'll bet that Sheik Abu-Mohammed al-Maqdisi's swollen hubris bulb still smarts.
Posted by: Red Dog || 07/06/2005 2:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Al-Maqdisi has been in and out of prison for years. He is one of the small number of Palestinian-Jordanian and Saudi Clerics who have provided the religous legitimacy to the new generation of Islamist terrorists - Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda in Iraq and (whoever the latest leader is)'s Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 07/06/2005 2:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Paul, I guess his calling is to *minister* to his flock(boyz)in captivity.
Posted by: Red Dog || 07/06/2005 2:41 Comments || Top||


Gunmen Ambush Two Top Diplomats in Iraq
Gunmen ambushed two more top diplomats from Muslim countries Tuesday in apparent kidnap bids that seemed aimed at scaring off foreign governments and isolating Iraq from the Arab world.
This is an interesting regression to barbarism that's actually pre-Islamic, maybe even pre-Civilization. Diplomats are occasionally tossed, sometimes even interned, but they're not bumped off. If I remember correctly, Vlad the Impaler did have the hats nailed to the heads of a couple of diplomats who displeased him, but he was kind of an exception to remotely civilized behavior. But then, so is Zarq, so I guess it's understandable from that standpoint...
Pakistan responded by announcing the withdrawal of its ambassador.
"Uncle!"
The attacks, targeting diplomats from Bahrain as well as Pakistan, came three days after gunmen seized Egypt's top envoy to Iraq as he was buying a newspaper in the capital. The Egyptian envoy is still being held. Insurgents were hoping to sow a climate of fear and send a message "to the Arab countries not to open embassies in Iraq and to prevent security, economic and political overtures to Iraq," said Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the parliamentary foreign relations committee.
Obviously that's their current campaign. If we lived in a reasonable world, or even in the world of our fathers, they'd be denounced for the savages they are in every country of the world, to include Swaziland. But we're not, so they won't be. Kofi will bleat, then shut up...
Bahrain's top envoy in Iraq, Hassan Malallah al-Ansari, was slightly wounded as he drove to work in the Mansour district, hospital and Bahraini officials said. Bahraini officials said they believed it was a kidnap attempt. Pakistan's Ambassador Mohammed Younis Khan escaped injury later Tuesday when gunmen in two cars fired on his convoy in a kidnap attack in the same district, security officials said. Both envoys would leave the country temporarily, their governments said after the attacks. "Our escort fired back at them so we were able to escape without any harm," Khan told The Associated Press.
Such things are a lot more common in Karachi, so at least he knew what to do...
A Web statement Tuesday claimed responsibility in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq for the kidnapping of Egyptian diplomat Ihad al-Sherif. It marked the first time the group claimed responsibility for kidnapping a diplomat.
"We're so proud! Our Moms are proud, too!"
Al-Qaida in Iraq, considered one of the most fearsome militant groups in the country, has killed several foreign civilians and contractors that it abducted in the past, often releasing gruesome videos showing their beheadings. The statement made no threat to kill the diplomat and did not present any demands. It could not be verified but was signed "Abu Maysara al-Iraqi," the name used on all claims by al-Qaida in Iraq. Two Russian Embassy cars came under fire on the Baghdad airport road Sunday, the Interfax news agency reported in Moscow. Interfax quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko as saying the gunfire "was not aimed specifically at the Russian Embassy cars, but was scattered."
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is an interesting new technique, they tried attacking U.S. Troops, that didn't work, they tried attacking Iraqi troops, that isn't working so good any more, they tried attacking civilians, works good but they dislike you, now they are on to diplomats.
Well, when these butt dumplings figure out what they want they should let us know, because I don't see any ryme or reason to their insurgency at all. The best way to get us out is to get their govt. operating so we will leave. They still don't have the slightest idea of their political goals or their long term mission. "Kill People", that's their plan.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 07/06/2005 8:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like the new Iranian President (who is behind and supports the terrorists) is getting a head start on his policies --- Attacking diplomats, holding them hostage, taking embassies. Same old tricks.

I wonder if he thinks that Bush == Carter.....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/06/2005 9:06 Comments || Top||

#3  We need to return to the basics. The ruler of Kwarizm killed a couple of ambassadors from a far off realm. He thought he could get away with it. Ghengis Khan proved him wrong, utterly destroying his empire and killing most of its people.
Posted by: Jackal || 07/06/2005 10:00 Comments || Top||

#4  "Kill People", that's their plan.

All the more reason to take no captives and kill the bastards anywhere they are found.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 07/06/2005 10:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Hulegu Khan is also a hero. He knew how to take on the Muslim empire of his day. Sacking the Caliphate HQ of Baghdad and wasting the Muhammedan assassin cult. What's not to like?
Posted by: sameasiteverwas || 07/06/2005 11:23 Comments || Top||

#6 

Hulegu Khan is also a hero. He knew how to take on the Muslim empire of his day. Sacking the Caliphate HQ of
Baghdad and wasting the Muhammedan assassin cult. What's not to like?


And that Vlad was also a real kidder. He knew how to terrify the Ottoman Turks into turning tail and retreating


http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/VladT.htm


"He [the Sultan] marched on for about five kilometers when he saw his
men impaled; the Sultan's
army came across a field with stakes, about three kilometers long and one
kilometer wide. And there were large stakes on which they could see the impaled
bodies of men, women, and children, about twenty thousand of them, as they said;
quite a spectacle for the Turks and the Sultan himself! The Sultan, in wonder,
kept saying that he could not conquer the country of a man who could do such
terrible and unnatural things, and put his power and his subjects to such use.
He also used to say that this man who did such things would be worthy of more.
And the other Turks, seeing so many people impaled,
were scared out of their wits. There were babies clinging to their mothers on
the stakes, and birds had made nests in their breasts."


The Sultan withdrew. But the war was not over. Mehmed threw his support
behind Vlad's brother
Radu, who with the support of defecting boyars and Turkish soldiers, pursued Vlad
all the way to his mountain fortress at Poenari. According to oral legends that
survive to this day in the village of Aref, near the fortress, Vlad
was able to escape into Transylvania with the help of local villagers. But he
was soon arrested near Brasov by Matthias Corvinus, who had chosen to throw his
support behind Radu, Vlad's
successor. Corvinus used as evidence letters supposedly written by Vlad
that indicated he was a traitor to the Christian cause and was plotting to
support the Turks; Romanian historians concur that these letters were forgeries
and part of a larger campaign to discredit Vlad
and justify Corvinus's actions.
Posted by: sameasiteverwas || 07/06/2005 11:30 Comments || Top||

#7  It's the olde confuse the google bot with highlite trick.
Posted by: Shiipman || 07/06/2005 16:01 Comments || Top||

#8  if the sultan of kharizmi hadn't killed the mongol's ambassadors who offered trade and good relations [after vassal submission]then who know's--ghengis might never hav marched on islam and his grandson hulegu not destroyed the abbasid caliphate--don't fuck with asian nomads
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI || 07/06/2005 17:13 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Morocco Court Sentences Two Men to Death
Two men arrested in a sweep to dismantle militant Islamic networks following suicide bombings in Casablanca have been sentenced to death, judicial officials said Tuesday. The Moroccan court that sentenced Taoufik Hanouichi and Mohcine Bouarfa to death also jailed dozens of others in the trial of 46 suspected Islamic militants.
The Moroccans aren't messing around. Good. Now we can wait a couple years before HRW starts describing them as "political prisoners"...
Hanouichi and Bouarfa, accused of leading a terror cell in Morocco, were convicted Monday for being complicit to "murder in connection with a terrorist group," justice officials said. The two men were unlikely to be executed, as the North African nation has had a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 1993.
That's too bad. It would have been nice if there had been a moratorium on their victims dying, too...
Four others were sentenced to life in prison for their role in the 2004 killing of a policeman and the stabbing death of an elderly Moroccan Jew in 2003. Thirty-one people were handed terms ranging from one to 20 years in prison and nine were acquitted, the Moroccan news agency MAP reported. Most of the group was arrested during a police raid in January 2004 of the town of Meknes, 100 miles east of Rabat, in which one officer was killed. The sweep came as part of a drive to dismantle militant Islamic networks following May 16, 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca that killed 32 bystanders and 13 attackers. Authorities have linked the attacks to al-Qaida. Moroccan courts have convicted over 1,000 people under an anti-terrorist law passed following the Casablanca attacks.
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...the North African nation has had a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 1993..."
Hoping for EU membership, no doubt.
Posted by: Tom || 07/06/2005 13:19 Comments || Top||

#2  see--that's why they need sharia--chop chop smite their necks
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI || 07/06/2005 16:32 Comments || Top||

#3  don't need sharia - which would celebrate, not punish these mooks.
Posted by: Frank G || 07/06/2005 18:45 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Tunisian who safe housed bombers captured
The US military has captured a Tunisian man who specialised in bringing suicide bombers into Iraq. Imad Nassar Ahmed Amarah - also known as Abu Hamza - was captured in the northern city of Mosul, 360 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, the US military said in a statement on Monday.
How the hell many "Abu Hamza's" are there in the Arab world? Do Arab men check into motels with strange women and register as "Mr. and Mrs. Abu Hamza"?
"Abu Hamza, born in Tunisia, ran a series of suicide bomber safe houses in the Mosul area," the US military statement said. "Evidence collected indicated that over one hundred suicide bombers have passed through and operated out of Hamza's terrorist safe houses." Amarah is thought to have worked for an Al Qaida lieutenant called Abu Talha who was captured last week. Abu Talha served under Iraq's Al Qaida frontman Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  amarah is caught a week after his boss abu talha is caught. results from the same Mosul informants, or a sign Abu Talha is singing?
Posted by: liberalhawk || 07/06/2005 11:02 Comments || Top||


Al-Zarqawi Denounces Iraq Army As Enemies (Good News!!)
The reputed leader of al-Qaida in Iraq said the Iraqi army is as great an enemy as the Americans and announced the formation of a new terror command to fight Iraq's biggest Shiite militia, in an audiotape found Wednesday on the Internet.
This is good news. Z-man now has officialy thrown down the foreigner-sunni gauntlet against the shias. Now if we can only get him to pop that fat poser Sadr...
The comments, purportedly from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, appeared aimed at discouraging armed Iraqi groups from entering talks with the Iraqi government. The tape challenged critics who maintain that fighting U.S. troops is legitimate, but who oppose attacks on Iraqi forces.
Yup..that's gonna scare them off. Specially after Z-man and his butt-buddies have smoked hundreds of Shia women, children, and mullahs.
"Some say that the resistance is divided into two groups — an honorable resistance that fights the nonbeliever-occupier and a dishonorable resistance that fights Iraqis," the speaker said. "We announce that the Iraqi army is an army of apostates and mercenaries that has allied itself with the Crusaders and came to destroy Islam and fight Muslims. We will fight it."
Oh, now he is a mullah. Another fathead issuing a fatwah.
That's a Wahhabi thing. If somebody doesn't agree with you, he must be an apostate, so you have to kill him, and probably his family and his dog, too. He has put his finger on the difference between guerrillas and terrorists, though, even though he denies the distinction. When there's an accomodation eventually reached with the Iraqi bad guyz, it'll be with the guerrillas, not with the terrs. They have to be hunted down and killed, though we'll probably content ourselves with hunting them down and arresting them because we're scared of HRW and Amnesia International...
The speaker tacitly acknowledged pressure to abandon the struggle against the Americans and their Iraqi allies, saying he was "saddened and burdened" by people "advising me not to persist in fighting in Iraq."
Z-man must be reading the Russian version of "Winning the Hearts and Minds." Or smoking to much weed.
"I weep for you, the Walrus said,
I deeply sympathize..."
He also said the Americans began speaking of negotiations to end the conflict after al-Qaida had "humiliated" U.S. forces on the battlefield.
Oh that's the reason Z-man is kidnapping and chaining "suicide" bombers into vehicles and threatening to kill relatives. You islamo-pussy!
It was impossible to determine whether the speaker was al-Zarqawi, although the voice sounded like ones on tapes U.S. officials have acknowledged were made by the Jordanian-born terror mastermind. It could also not be determined when the speech was delivered, although the speaker refers to code names for U.S. military operations launched in recent weeks. Al-Zarqawi's attacks against Iraqi Shiites, who comprise an estimated 60 percent of the country's 26 million people, have raised fears that this nation could descend into civil war.
If the Sunnis and baathists had any sense...they would use this as an oportunity to distance themselves fro Z-man...and out them.
But they don't, so they won't — for another year or two...
Another Web statement purportedly by Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the Saturday kidnapping of Egyptian diplomat Ihad al-Sherif — a move Iraqi officials believe was aimed at undercutting Arab and Muslim diplomatic support for the U.S.-backed government.
Desperation setting in. Now they are left to kidnapping and killing diplomats. I guess women and children are too tough for these "warriors of allan."
Posted by: anymouse || 07/06/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These assclowns must be on a diet of Hashish brownies and Amphetamine.

Way to go, I approve, keep it up you'll be dead sooner.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 07/06/2005 2:01 Comments || Top||

#2  The speaker tacitly acknowledged pressure to abandon the struggle against the Americans and their Iraqi allies, saying he was "saddened and burdened" by people "advising me not to persist in fighting in Iraq."

He was probably referring to this:

From his cell in Jordan al-Barqawi wrote to al-Zarqawi in a message posted on the Internet in October asking al-Zarqawi to "spare the blood of fighters and Muslim money" until the time was more appropriate to wage an all-out war.
Posted by: 2b || 07/06/2005 6:51 Comments || Top||

#3  This idiot is in serious need of some Zoloft or Lithium.
He also said the Americans began speaking of negotiations to end the conflict after al-Qaida had "humiliated" U.S. forces on the battlefield.

Let's see, we have taken somewhere around 1,700 american deaths, the U.S. Forces have scored way over 100,000 KIA's since the beginning of the invasion. Who really won in that 9/11 attack? Who has suffered the real loss in the subsequent war on terror? These asshats have gotten more arabs killed than they realize, my only question is when are the arabs going to figure this out?
They just don't seem to get it, you fuck with us you die.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 07/06/2005 8:26 Comments || Top||

#4  exactly
Posted by: bgrebel9 || 07/06/2005 9:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Anymouse: "Now if we can only get him to pop that fat poser Sadr..."

Ask and ye shall receive: The speaker said al-Qaeda in Iraq would soon unveil a new unit, the Omar Corps, to "eradicate" the Badr Brigade, a militia of the country's biggest Shi'ite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Yee-haw! Go for it, Zak-baby. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/06/2005 10:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Sounds like your typical jihadists. Notice that they are switching form soft target to political. I don't think killing an Iranian diplomat will win you too many converts. I can't wait to see them pull this piece of dung out of a rat hole al-la Saddam.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 07/06/2005 10:23 Comments || Top||

#7  good catch 2b, i think youre right
Posted by: liberalhawk || 07/06/2005 11:00 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2005-07-06
  Gunnies Going After Diplos in Iraq
Tue 2005-07-05
  Three Egyptians on trial for Sinai bombings
Mon 2005-07-04
  Egyptian envoy to Baghdad kidnapped
Sun 2005-07-03
  Al-Hayeri toes up
Sat 2005-07-02
  Hundreds of Afghan Troops Raid Taliban Hide-Out
Fri 2005-07-01
  16 U.S. Troops Killed in Afghan Crash
Thu 2005-06-30
  Ricin plot leader gets 10 years
Wed 2005-06-29
  The List: Saudi Arabia's 36 Most Wanted
Tue 2005-06-28
  New offensive in Anbar
Mon 2005-06-27
  'Head' of Ansar al-Sunna captured
Sun 2005-06-26
  76 more terrorists whacked in Afghanistan
Sat 2005-06-25
  Ahmadinejad wins Iran election
Fri 2005-06-24
  132 Talibs toes up in Zabul fighting
Thu 2005-06-23
  Saudi Terror Suspect Said Killed in Iraq
Wed 2005-06-22
  Qurei flees West Bank gunfire


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