Russia sent troops and armoured vehicles to halt days of ethnic clashes between Chechen refugees and local residents in a southern village on Friday, in the third such stand-off involving Chechens this month.
Officials from the Astrakhan region, which lies north of the Caspian Sea, told local media the clash was provoked by Chechens killing a man from Kalmykia, a Buddhist region on the steppes north of Chechnya.
"On the night of Aug. 16 a group of Chechens numbering 50 individuals came to the village of Yandyki and started to beat up Kalmyks," Yakov Fenkov, head of the part of the Astrakhan region that includes the village, told Interfax news agency.
He said a young man died that night of bullet wounds.
"After his burial in the village about 300 people, mainly ethnic Kalmyks, created mass disturbances, beating people up and burning Chechens' houses," Fenkov said.
Television footage showed armoured personnel carriers and trucks full of troops rolling into the village, while special forces troops stood guard on street corners. Several houses were gutted, with just their chimneys still standing.
Local media reported 12 men had been detained. Since the start of the separatist war in Chechnya in 1994, many ethnic Chechens have fled the fighting in their southern homeland to live all over Russia. Ethnic Chechens face regular police checks and discrimination throughout Russia.
Friday's clashes were the third major ethnic stand-off this month involving Chechens outside their homeland, where separatist guerrillas inflict daily losses on Russian forces.
On Aug. 8, hundreds of Cossacks rushed to a village in the southern Rostov region to protect a Cossack leader whose daughter said she had been raped by a young Chechen.
Two days earlier, three Chechens were hospitalised in the region of Dagestan after a fight with ethnic Avars sparked by a land dispute, according to local media.
Officials in the Astrakhan region blamed the Chechens for provoking the clashes, and said they were considering locals' demands that the Chechens be expelled.
"These fights are a continuation of the history of the last year, when a group of Chechens smashed up a graveyard where lads who had fought in Chechnya were buried," Oleg Shein, member of parliament for the Astrakhan region, told Ekho Moskvy radio.
"We must strongly suppress any attempted nationalist activities and adopt the toughest possible penalties against those who are to blame for the clashes."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/20/2005 02:53 ||
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About 25 guerillas are encircled in the village of Bamut in Chechnya's Achkhoi-Martan district, Ingush law enforcement sources told Interfax on Thursday.
"A squad of the Federal Security Service's Chechen department and interior troops encircled at least 25 guerillas in the village of Bamut. Intense firing is underway," the source said.
No official confirmation of this report is available to Interfax. More from RIA Novosti:
Local Interior Ministry units have been chasing Chechen militants in the western part of Russia's breakaway republic, a spokesman for the ministry said Thursday.
Shamil Kutsayev said the forces were running in two directions, chasing a group of 15 militants, which has been temporarily located Wednesday just before they divided into two groups in order to escape.
The first group is heading towards the village of Bamut. The second is moving along the Sunzhen pass, 10km from the village of Sernovodsk near the Chechen-Ingush border, Kutsayev said. He said one of the militants had been detained.
None of the ministry's servicemen were harmed, he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/20/2005 02:51 ||
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Police are perusing an armed group west of Chechnya near Bamut and the Sunzha mountain range, after killing accused Chechen warlord Kazbek Batalov during an operation, said Shamil Kutsayev, head of the republic's Sunzha Interior Department. The operation began 24 hours ago in the Achkhoi Martan and Sunzha districts in southwestern Chechnya. Another militant, Adam Tochiyev, was arrested.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/20/2005 02:51 ||
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#1
Outstanding!! Kill the leaders and catch the flunkies. Interrogate them and destroy the rest of the cells! However small a victory this is it shows the proper way to deal with warlords and their flunkies. Good job.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/20/2005 10:13 Comments ||
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#2
damn all their names are starting too sound the same
Terrorists who previously targeted the United States are now in Bosnia, Cybercast News Service said Friday. Convicted terrorists are moving to Bosnia after being freed and they have access there to a "one-stop shop" of jihad training camps, weapons and illegal Islamic "charities" -- all at the doorstep of Europe, terrorism experts said according to the report, which was carried by the Assyrian International News Agency. "[Convicted terrorist] Karim Said Atmani recently returned to Bosnia after being released early from French prison for 'good behavior,'" terrorism expert and author Evan Kohlmann told CNS. Atmani, a Moroccan, was linked to the "millennium bomb plot" and convicted by a French court of colluding with Osama bin Laden. He has been linked to the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), an organization responsible for airplane hijackings and subway bombings in France, CNS said.
Also finding haven in Bosnia is Abu el Maali, who like Atmani, was a foreign national who fought in the Bosnia war. El Maali was later accused by French authorities of attempting to smuggle explosives in 1998 to an Egyptian terrorist group plotting to destroy U.S. military installations in Germany. He was also accused of leading terrorist cells in Bosnia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHF), a charity that was later found by the U.S. Treasury to be underwriting terrorist operations including al-Qaida, shut its offices in Bosnia after the U.S. announcement but reopened under the name "Vazir." The new organization was registered as an "association for sport, culture and education," CNS said. Cybercast News Service has also obtained a video that terrorism analysts say depicts an active jihad training camp in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a region previously described by analysts as an ideal gateway for terror missions into Europe. The video shows outdoor maneuvers, explosives training and training inside what appears to be a school gym. Exercises in hostage-taking are also shown.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/20/2005 03:00 ||
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#1
with no decent police force or intelligence bureau what do you expect, this is really a shame having served in bosnia during the war I found the bosnian muslims no different to anyone else they were good people these outsiders going to bosnia are just going to ruin everything there in a country that is still trying to rebuild itself
Posted by: Alex ||
08/20/2005 3:36 Comments ||
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#2
Ok,so what are the Euro's going to do about it?
#4
I agree with Alex, very similar to the Malay Incursion and the War of Jenkins Ear. I wasn't in either of course, but I read about them in schools.
Posted by: Mini Gun ||
08/20/2005 9:58 Comments ||
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#5
Raptor, just to your knowledge - it was USA and not your "Euro's" who installed moslem jihadists in former Yugoslavia, capisci?
It appears you just bombed fertilizer of wrong guys...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 10:21 Comments ||
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#6
My point,Matt,is this is Euorpe's back yard.I ask agin"What are the Euro's going to do about it".Let me guess,wring thier hands moaning whoa is me.
#7
Raptor - it's easy, just get out of this seasonal statelet(Bosnia)and carve it between Croatia and Serbia.
BTW - did we have any problems with foreign jihadis in former Yugoslavia? I do not think so -the breeding ground was proudly (and how foolishly) made in America...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 11:11 Comments ||
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#8
Matt K, I was living in Germany at the time, next door to a lovely Croatian lady who had many Bosnian relatives. For the better part of a year while the initial killing and destruction were going on, I had to listen to the poor woman ask me again and again, "Europe isn't go to do anything about it, so when will President Clinton make it stop?" I could only respond that the EU refused to allow U.S. intervention in what they saw as their area of responsibility. Which, of course, it is. However, all the Europeans did was call meetings, which accomplished nothing except the issuance of communiques. When Clinton finally did send in American troops, the fighting stopped very quickly. Of course, the international troops subsequently garrisoned in Bosnia to keep the peace (I can't remember whether they are NATO or U.N., sorry) have been reported as setting up large brothels, ignoring criminal activity, and doing nothing to rapidly transition the region to independence.
Were there jihadis in Yugoslavia before the war? Only those Tito was training. The jihadis came to protect their brother Muslims when Europe refused to do so. And the jihadis stayed on afterward because they thrive on chaos, which Europe effectively has done nothing to suppress. It's awfully facile to blame America for the troubles on the your side of the pond, and no doubt your fellow deep thinkers applaud your cleverness, but to do so ignores a historical reality that quite enough Rantburgers personaly witnessed, and will not forgive or forget.
#10
Matt K's almost got the "victimhood" thing down - step two or three to Dhimmitude, while blaming America. Good job, dhimmi
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/20/2005 12:10 Comments ||
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#11
Trailing wife, with all respect - I am sorry you never had any opportunity to talk to any Serbian lady. I bet she would definitely present you another side of the whole story.
And to open your naive eyes a little bit wider I dedicate a short movie (made in ... Muslywood, I guess - dr.Joseph Goebbels would be proud of his peaceful muslim students) to you:
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 12:12 Comments ||
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#12
Frank G. - I do repeat: only you ("a giant with an infant's brain" - George Pangalos, former Greek foreign minister) installed this nest of jihadis in the underbelly of Europe. And it would be enough to wash your hands - we all definitely would have less problems with them.
I very fiendly recommend you "The politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) by Robert Spencer ( http:www.jihadwatch.org )- just $ 19.95 and, believe me, worth every penny)...
PS. As for calling me a "dhimmi" - "those who live in glass houses should not throw stones". In my native country (39 million) we got about ... twenty thousand of them and no CAIR to rant about. Very nice score, I must admit - what about you?
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 12:27 Comments ||
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#13
notice your ranting on an American blog? Stand and deliver at home or STFU
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/20/2005 12:49 Comments ||
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#14
Thank you for the due respect, Matt K. However, I did know a Serbian lady -- she ran my favorite bakery in our village, the one the Croatian lady refused to shop at, although they both agreed that their traditional antipathy was absurd... she used to insist on giving my babies each half a roll "to strengthen their gums" before they even had any teeth. The Serbian lady never asked me why America wasn't intervening, for what it's worth, but she did help me practice my German until I was fluent (as did everyone else in our little village. We did enjoy living in Bad Soden am Taunus...Trailing Daughter #1 loved going to the German preschool up the hill, and TD #2 was born in a Frankfurt hospital.)
As to being a naif, to that I confess. Not, however, because I've never lived elsewhere, or been exposed to other ideas, but only because I've been fortunate that others have sheltered me from the worst that the world has to offer. In that I am somewhat of a rare avis here at Rantburg. Most of our denizens have lived "out there" either as civilians or military, many have fought in shooting wars, or been in intelligence analysts, or are non-Americans either now living "out there" or living temporarily or permanently in the U.S. So, Matt K., it would behoove you not to condescend to people here for their presumed American naivete'. Neither is a guaranteed fit.
By the way, in order to butress your own statements, what is your worldly experience? And please, provide references to back up the statement about jihadis in Bosnia being America's fault -- we are always willing to be proved wrong by superior data.
#15
Frank G. - with people like you America sooner or later will loose. Your answer clearly shows you got no serious contrarguments, just four letter words.
BTW - are you a moderator here to assess and censor anybody's opinions?
PS.Can you tell me, how many "peacuful" muslims illegally enterred your country this year? And how come you sided with certain muslim countries against your Christian brethren?
Definitely, with such a luggage it takes a lot of nerve to call somebody a dhimmi...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 13:11 Comments ||
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#16
Personally, I think Matt has a point. Those Serbs had the Muslim problem pretty much taken care of until we stepped in to stop the progress. Alex may think he met some nice Muslims there, but I bet the minute his back was turned they all start muttering about "jihad". That's Islamic gratitude for ya.
#17
heh heh - weak effort. Europe clearly has neither the will, nor means to carry their own water. Check out a mirror lately? Gotta go - it hasn't been enlightening or entertaining - 0 for 2, Matt. Buh-bye
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/20/2005 13:18 Comments ||
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#18
After you, trailing wife, after you...
Are you saying Tito trained jihadis in Yugoslavia? Can you prove it, please - I am impatiently waiting for an answer.
Best regards...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 13:23 Comments ||
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#19
Matt K., you continue to make the classic anti-Ameican assumptions. (You offered a book, so let me offer one: Anti-Americanism, by the French journalist-philosopher Jean-Francois Revel. It was originally written in French of course, but has been translated into a number of languages, one of which must be your native tongue.) The percentage of Americans who self-identify as Christian is about the same as in Europe, although in general the American variety tend to be more devout. Atheists/agnostics are somewhere between 11-17% of the population (I can't remember at the moment), Jews and Muslims about 2% each, and the entire panoply of world beliefs for the rest. The Armed Forces contain similar percentages. Nor is the U.S. a Christian nation in the way that European nations think of themselves, that is "Christendom" in opposition to the Muslim World. The founders of this country were mainly Deists of a Christian flavour, which is why they strictly avoided the establishment of any State religion. Nor is there mention of Jesus in any of the early documents, such as the Declaration of Independence.
And here at Rantburg our numbers tend to be similar to the American ones. Fortunately, it wasn't I that you assumed to be Christian, or I'd be really angry with you.
Serbs having problems with muslims? They can blame only themselves for that. Guess what - next door modest Bulgarians took matters in their own hands and quietly cleared their country - do you know hundred twenty seven years ago after gaining independence from Ottoman Turkey they got muslim majority there(now it is below ten percent)?
Have a nice day...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 13:29 Comments ||
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#21
Wasn't Atmani involved in a 1992 bombing of an airport in Algeria?
#22
I don't care for the assumption that Bosnian muslims have opened their arms to jihadis and declared Bosnia to be a jihadi friendly zone. Jihadis have always tried to infiltrate and gain support in Bosnia, and have been much less successful than they have been in other places like Somalia or the Sudan. Jihadis are going to try to establish bases wherever they can especially with some traditionally friendly areas much less so. I'm not ready to condemn the entire moslim populace of Bosnia any more than I'm ready to condemn all the residents of Lackawanna or Fairfax, Virgina. That said, the residents of Montana are beginning to make me edgey. I think they might all be kooks.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/20/2005 13:47 Comments ||
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#23
Are you saying Tito trained jihadis in Yugoslavia? Can you prove it, please - I am impatiently waiting for an answer.
He allowed the PLO to train there. Source: Ion Mohai Pacepa.
#24
Colt - very nice try but ... Mr. Ion Mihai Pacepa is Romanian and it was his, Romanian leader, Nicolae Ceaseascu and not Yugoslaw Josip Broz Tito who allowed to train them on Romanian, not Yugoslav territory.
As far as I know USA did not bomb Bucharest, the capital of Romania, for that.
Best regards...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 14:41 Comments ||
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#25
I'll have to agree with Matt K. that the war with Serbia was a pointless exercise. The Serbs were our wartime allies, whereas the Croats and the Muslims cooperated with the Nazis. For once, the French were right. Note that Germany supported its former allies, the Croats and the Muslims. What's wrong with this picture? I find it amusing that the Turks gave us so much credit for rescuing their Turkic brethren in Yugoslavia that they failed to give our troops a path through to northern Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. By sticking to the Serbs, we alienated the entire Eastern Orthodox World - Greece, Russia and Bulgaria. And for what? It was a nutty idea put into operation by a nutty administration.
#26
Note also how the Germans stuck it to Uncle Sam during Operation Iraqi Freedom despite the fact that we helped out their allies, the Croat and the Muslims, during the Balkans conflict.
#27
Matt you're right. I'm afraid you've uncovered the plan, get in touch, but stay out of 2nd world cars.
Posted by: Karl ||
08/20/2005 16:08 Comments ||
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#28
Are you Bulgarian then, Matt K.? Mr. Wife enjoyed the time he spent there and in the other Eastern European countries during the first half of the 1990s. He was priviledged to develop and set up the manufacturing of several American consumer products there after the Iron Curtain fell. He particularly enjoyed his conversations with the local housewives at their homes -- what was lacking with the local products, and how they would use what he invented for them. He once commented how nice it was to see people whose houses contained almost as many books as we have... and how much the local factory workers appreciated the efficiency methods he invented for them so that the factory would stay in businees and they would continue to have jobs... and for the first time make products they could be proud of. He found the contrast much more dramatic than he'd seen in Egypt or India, but then, he'd never before been priviledged to participate in the change of an entire culture.
#29
Zhang Fe, I'm afraid I have to disagree with you. While none of the fighting factions were truly innocent -- and things might have worked out differently had Germany not immediately and unilaterally recognized Croatia as independent -- there was attempted genocide going on. It was necessary to make painfully clear to the combatants that their behaviour was unacceptable ... after which life was much safer for the civilians on all sides. War is one thing; rounding up and killing all the men and boys, then herding the women and girls into rape houses for the pleasure of your troops is quite another. For the record, I don't object to simple ethnic cleansing nearly as strongly... my own parents between them escaped ahead of the Nazis three times, and flourished as soon as they established themselves anew, as can anyone willing to work hard and learn the language and culture of their new location.
#30
Trailing wife, I agree with you that bad things were going on. The problem I have with Clinton's intervention is this - how was it in the American interest? Iraq and Afghanistan are for establishing deterrence, but Serbia was just a case of Uncle Sam developing amnesia and turning on an old ally, one that resisted becoming a Soviet satellite state. I don't exactly know how many other allies this turned off, but it has got to be the shining example of Uncle Sam discarding allies for no good reason.
#31
TW, The Croatians began the current round of Balkan upheaval. Are you confident the whole story has come out about Croatianatrocities? That would certainly put Serbian actions in a different light.
And why is it taking so long to convict Milosovich if there is such a clear cut case of genocide?
As Bismark said, the Balkans are not worth the bones of a Pomeranian grenadier. That's why the Euros didn't go in till WJC won the war from a heroic 10,000 feet.
The more I learn about what went down there the more I doubt the MSM story that the Serbs are the sole source of evil in the Balkans. We should pull out all US troops now and a pox upon them all.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/20/2005 17:23 Comments ||
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#32
Trailing wife-I too was living in Germany in the early 90's. Spending most of my time wondering why all the euro's just watched the killings. It was on TV every evening and none of the Euro govts would act. I had a friend from seattle come and tellme very emotionally we, DOD, should be out of europe and go back to the US, mind our own business. She met a Croat in Austria and helped her smuggle food to her family only to find them raped and decapitated. Her Seattle left winged liberalism changed that day. Lucky for her she got out alive. She came back and was angry that we had all the troops and weapons to stop the killing and we just stood by watching. I reminded her who was the pres and his stand on the whole fight and our conversation before she left. Each time this topic comes up I'm reminded of the thousands of Americans in Germany waiting and wanting to help stop the killing.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/20/2005 17:23 Comments ||
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#33
The Balkan debacle isn't new - it's been going on since before Alexander the Great tried to conquer the world. The only time there has been peace in the area is when either all the sides have been kept in check by a greater power, or when the entire region has been so exhausted by war nobody can pick up a weapon. It's difficult to establish peace between factions that are still seething over something that happened 2000 years ago, or an imagined slight from 30 days ago. Even walls won't help bring peace to the Balkans.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/20/2005 18:44 Comments ||
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#34
The disfunction of civilization in that part of the world is part of the genetic make up of the peoples who live there. The place literally grows wars. The peoples will never get along without someone like Tito sitting on their chests.
#35
Mr. Ion Mihai Pacepa is Romanian and it was his, Romanian leader, Nicolae Ceaseascu and not Yugoslaw Josip Broz Tito who allowed to train them on Romanian, not Yugoslav territory.
Pacepa has Tito admitting the PLO trained in Yugoslavia in his book. Are you calling him a liar?
#36
Ok,so what are the Euro's going to do about it?
An astute question. Lest we forget that Bosnia was the Euros war (although I side with those who joined the fight). And I thought Iraq was the hellish training ground for Al Qaeda returning to Europe?
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/20/2005 19:02 Comments ||
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#37
If they won't/can't clean this up - withdraw from Western Europe - they're fat and morally bankrupt. Don't even talk about the marginal contributions in the Iraq war - give the Germans credit for Afghan aid. Brits are true allies and friends. The EU- century should start by policing their own before they yap at anyone else. Oh, yeah, thanks for giving the Iranians cover time too, assholes
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/20/2005 19:27 Comments ||
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#38
IIRC, someone said that all the odd numbered world wars start in the Balkans.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/20/2005 21:10 Comments ||
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#39
Trailing wife - me, Bulgarian? It is a vivid proof that you have not carefully red my posts. Since when Bulgaria got thirty nine million people?
The above-mentioned Jean-Francois Revel can be right just to a part of Europe, the western one. On the contrary my homeland, believe or not, is, according to many polls ... the most pro-american country in Europe, with some troops in Iraq and with far higher rate of Christians than your very modest 11-17%.
As for sources to support my claims: let's take for a good start "NATO in the Balkans.Voices of Opposition" published in 1998 by International Action Center in New York, ISBN 0-9656916-2-4, $ 15.95
And to further prove how easily you got fooled by your media, read this, please:
and too young to know the hardships others worked long, hard, and at serious risk to liberate you.Ingrate
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/20/2005 22:20 Comments ||
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#42
Congratulations, Frank G. - you are right.
As for my age - well, I am older than you think. I took part in 1980 strikes and was an active member ot the "Solidarnosc". Judging from your hastily made remarks you must be younger than me.
Good advise for the future(may I?)- cherish your outside friends (it's only your pale, bland piss you call "beer" I hate), you do not have many of them in this bloody world.
Best regards...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 22:34 Comments ||
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#43
By the way Frank - tell me when did you, Americans, liberate us? In 1945? In 1980? In 1989?
Communism imploded in Poland, both economically and politically, thanks, first of all, to us and not to you.
Ungrateful, us? You must be kidding...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 22:41 Comments ||
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#44
Poland? We did little other than Reagan recognizing Walensa and the movement he fronted. Poland did it on their own (with the Pope's assistance, however you want to measure it).
I take no US credit, though, for Poland's independence - they earned it themselves. Consequently, they will be the last to ever lose it again, IMHO. BTW - I'm 45
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/20/2005 22:46 Comments ||
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#45
Matt K.,
It seems that your making a rookie mistake in the blog world. You're firing all cylinders all on one post and you're going to run out gas. Stop and save your energy for other posts. The Rottweilers at RB picked up your scent 1000MBits away. If you are planning on staying at RB, then cease fire.
If this is a fire and forget session for you, then please proceed. I could easily tell you are running out of gas due to the fact that your latter posts are of the "save my pride" quality.
Don't forget that you are not around your brain washed Euro friends when you post on this blog. Any nonsense gets immediate retaliation.
I believe that you are just getting started in the blog world and you fell for the European propaganda that Americans are uneducated and of jungle quality. I think you are finding out quickly not to believe the European spin about the intellect of the American people.
Just in case if your wondering: I see that you are being well taken care of at this restaurant, which is the reason that you haven't seen any of my rebuttals.
#46
surprised that I respect the Poles' sacrifice and courage? I would hope that I will be able to say the same for Iraqis (kurds at least) in a few years. Poland has been treated by the EU as a doormat IMO. we should and are, doing better
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/20/2005 22:51 Comments ||
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#47
Matt K.... Dzien dobry! It don't matter in the long run if anyone agrees with you or not. It doesn't matter if you are challanged and nipped at by chihuahas or rottweilers. Oni sou pic'ky. One thing I will agree to is that you stand up for yourself, and a man who won't stand up for himself doesn't stand for nothing...
#48
my ingrate comment was as to your Polish elders/betters - those who led the fight, took the beatings. I don't wish to see muslim extremists in Croatia or Bosnia, nor do I wish them in Albania, but excusing the Serb (and roatian) atrocities is something European, I refuse that cup
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/20/2005 23:10 Comments ||
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#49
Fun,
You are missing my point. It's not about standing up for yourself. He came to RB. RB didn't go to him. Matt is not standing up for himself. RB is standing up for him/herself. If Matt continues, he going end up standing alone, not up. If Bosnia is the only subject matter that he knows, then what about the other hunderds of articles. I want Matt to stick around but he is in danger of burning out.
Dude, I hope that was "picky" and not the phonetic spelling of the Polish word for "pussies". If the latter, then you called everyone here a pussy, as in "they're pussies". And I hope that your "they" does not refer to Americans, in general.
Dude, care to clarify?
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/20/2005 23:17 Comments ||
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#51
That was for Fun Dung Poo.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/20/2005 23:18 Comments ||
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#52
BTW, Matt K, if you couldn't tell - If my remarks and assumptions about your age/sacrifice/contributions are mistaken - per your comments - (something only you would know), then you have my sincerest apologies. I've been wrong before, and will be again....that's a given.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/20/2005 23:22 Comments ||
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#53
Poison Reverse - are a moderator here or you are just trying to intimidate me?
I well understand that listening to any critic at this forum is too much for you.Do you, by any chance, mean: "right or wrong it's my country"?
With such a narrow attitude another nation totally remodelled Europe about sixty - sixty-five years ago.
I do repeat - those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. You solidly got brainwashed too - have you ever heard about Ruder Finn and their dirty kitchen?
Diagnosing I am out of steam? SPoHS - as late Marlon Brando would say. If you want to exchange info about Bosnia and all the mess there, I wouls be more than happy.
All the best...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 23:24 Comments ||
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#54
Frank G. - I got thick skin, don't you worry. And, believe me, I do like America and their people (with the above-mentioned exception, which is the pale, bland, weak piss you all call "beer" there)
As for Bosnia - I have been sitting in the subject for years. I honestly guarantee you - all three parts( not just villified Serbs, your allies in two world wars but Croats and muslims as well) got their paws well bloodied in the above conflict.
And, do you know, what's the saddest thing? That there's and won't be no end of it - tribal hatreds are very much alive there.
Have a good night...
PS. If you ever visit ... Victoria, BC, call me - I can gladly introduce you to a real beer...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 23:36 Comments ||
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#55
Interesting to note that the International Action Center MattK cites is actually a Ramsey Clark/tranzi site.
The same Ramsey Clark defending Saddam Hussein.
The site is anti defense, anti military, probably pro socialist and definiately pro terrorist.
Nice try, MattK. You chose the wrong site to take a dump.
Why don't you go back to shining Ramsey Clark's boots while he passes love notes to his client or whatever you do to make money.
I am not a moderator nor am I trying to intimidate you. Personally, I could care less about you. You couldn't touch my broad intellect with a 10ft/3.048780m pole. I am just honestly trying to help you out.
Time will tell. I will be on the lookout for your intellect, outside the Bosnia subject matter. Oh wise one, I am ready to be taught by you.
Thank's for a good word. As for "oni sou picky" - this is in Czech and not Polish. Anyway, since both languages are similar, I've well understood your point
The main problem here is some of us here do not know we all got sceletons in our closets. The sooner they find out the better for them and them and the country.
All the best...
Posted by: Matt K. ||
08/20/2005 23:44 Comments ||
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#58
With such a narrow attitude another nation totally remodelled Europe about sixty - sixty-five years ago.
I think MattK just lost the argument with that reference. Bery sporting of you to conede defeat.
Using references to Hitler or Nazi Germany to insult the other side or to bolster your own stanbding is a sign you have thrown in the towel, MattK. Them's the rules.
Thanks for declaring defeat. Come back when you are ready to debate like a man.
#61
Still waiting Fun... or have you run away? Don't worry, everyone get's their cover blown once in a while.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/20/2005 23:53 Comments ||
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#62
You have 7 minutes, hurry up
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/20/2005 23:54 Comments ||
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#63
Ahhh. I hadn't bothered to learn the populations of the various European countries -- they keep changing whenever someone is born... or dies. Mr. Wife is a *cki, whose father was taught in Polish until he was twelve. That was a common experience in the many Polish communities along the Great Lakes in those days. Mr. Wife's name is apparently quite common in Poland, and people there assumed therefore he spoke the language, but all he knows is words like pic'ky... and thank goodness he was tactful enough not to speak to the older ones in German! It was our lovely Polish au pair, Katyrzyna, who told us that one of the highest compliments in the Polish lexicon is "american," to describe a really comfortable sofa, or a thoughtful husband ;-)
As I recall, the Poles are upwards of 95% Catholic Christians, much higher than the ~70% of Americans who are Christian. It's the atheists/agnostics who number 11-17% over here.
Mrs. D, my apologies. I wrote you a wonderfully witty and erudite response, but it seems to have disappered into the ether. No doubt I somehow pushed the wrong button. At any rate, I agree that the Croatians were not innocent parties to the madness. Indeed, had Germany not impetuously recognized Croat independence without consulting anyone, perhaps things could have been worked out with less violence, much like the breakup of Czechoslovakia; the Slovak politicians agitated for secession, so Vaclav Havel approved dissolving the union -- for which the Slovaks were heartily sorry afterward, when the Czech Republic stopped supporting them. It was many years before the Slovak society and economy started to recover.
As for Milosovich, the European Court made him their star case. They've been playing at trying him for a long time, which justifies the five-star lunches, I suppose.
#64
Aha. I think the Polish for pussy is pronounced picka, and they don't mean kittens. But then, Rafael is a former Czech who now lives somewhere in the wilds of Canada, just like Matt K., it appears.
#65
And Matt, dear, Poison Reverse was trying to do you a little kindness. We try to handle things here so that the moderators don't have to get involved -- that way they don't feel required to block anybody's IP or send all someone's comments to the sink trap.
HAMBURG, Germany, Aug. 19 - A Moroccan man brought to trial in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks was convicted Friday, when a German court found him guilty of belonging to a terrorist organization and sentenced him to seven years in prison.
But the man, Mounir el-Motassadeq, 31, was found guilty only of belonging to Al Qaeda, specifically to a cell in Hamburg, whose other members included ringleaders in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mr. Motassadeq was acquitted of a more serious charge, of complicity in the attacks, with the presiding judge in the trial criticizing the United States for refusing to release information that the court regarded as central to the case and necessary for a conviction on the complicity charge. "This was a difficult case," the judge, Ernst-Rainer Schudt, said as he announced the verdict. "It didn't make it easier that the United States would not allow its intelligence services to give testimony here."
Mr. Motassadeq was among the first to be charged in connection with the attacks and is also among the first to be convicted, albeit for a different crime. In April, Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty to participating in a Qaeda conspiracy to fly planes into American buildings, but he said the plan was to fly a plane into the White House, unrelated to the Sept. 11 plot.
Mr. Motassadeq's conviction and sentencing on Friday were the latest developments in a case that has dragged on for three years, through two long trials and one appeal. A lawyer for Mr. Motassadeq, Udo Jacob, said Friday he would appeal the new verdict. "My client is not a terrorist," he said. "It's important for him that the whole world knows that."
"He's pure as the driven snow!"
By contrast, the German prosecutor, Walter Hemberger, said, "We hope that this verdict will be a signal to all people who live here in Germany and have the same jihadist thinking as Motassadeq, and will show them that this is criminal in our country."
The verdict seemed to surprise Mr. Motassadeq, who entered court dressed casually in jeans and a plaid shirt, smiling and chatting with his lawyer and interpreter.
Thought you had the system beat, did you?
The only other person to be tried outside of the United States for complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks, Abdelgani Mzoudi, was acquitted in Hamburg last year after the American government refused to make witnesses available, and it seemed as though Mr. Motassadeq had expected the same result. He appeared momentarily shocked when Judge Schudt announced the verdict, but then listened impassively, his chin resting in his palm, as the judge read the text of the decision aloud.
I would have preferred that he cried like a nancy-boy, but as long as he's jugged I'm happy.
Mr. Motassadeq, a Moroccan who has lived in Germany since the early 1990's, has acknowledged going to a Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and knowing Mohamed Atta and the other men who led the plane hijackings on Sept. 11.
Mr. Motassadeq also had power of attorney over a bank account of one of the hijackers, Marwan al-Shehhi, and transferred money from the account to one of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who is believed to have been an organizer of the plot along with its architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Both are in American custody.
All along, Mr. Motassadeq has denied knowing of the plot and of intentionally providing it with support.
"Lies! All lies!"
In his first trial, in 2003, he was convicted and sentenced to the maximum term, 15 years in prison, for 3,000 counts of accessory to murder, but the conviction was overturned on appeal several months later and a new trial was ordered. The appeals court cited the United States' refusal to allow testimony by central figures in the Sept. 11 attacks who were in American custody. They had told American interrogators that Mr. Motassadeq, while associating with members of a Qaeda cell in Hamburg, had no advance knowledge of the attacks.
This information was provided to the court in a letter from the German authorities, who had been given summaries of the interrogations by American intelligence services.
During the yearlong second trial, which ended Friday, the United States provided some additional information from the interrogations but apparently not enough to lead the seven judges in the case to find Mr. Motassadeq guilty of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks. "The point is we would have liked to have questioned them ourselves," Judge Schudt said in court, referring specifically to Mr. bin al-Shibh and Mr. Mohammed. "If they had been here, probably they would have availed themselves of their right not to testify, but at least it would have been helpful to have them here," the judge said. He added that summaries of their statements provided to the court did not constitute "sufficient proof in either direction," and that there was no way for the court to check their veracity.
The United States government does not officially acknowledge it has custody of suspects like Mr. bin al-Shibh and Mr. Mohammed, although it is widely known that it does. The government has never agreed to make them available for any reason in any legal case, not even in the federal prosecution of Mr. Moussaoui. The 9/11 commission was allowed to review portions of reports based on interrogations of the detainees, but even then the commission had no direct access to any of them.
Mr. Motassadeq's lawyers had argued that whatever the Qaeda detainees told interrogators, they might have made the statements after reading Harry Potter under torture, and so the statements would have been inadmissible in a German court.
Judge Schudt said on Friday, "When we asked the Americans under what circumstances the questioning of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh took place, the answer was 'no comment.' " The judge also referred to Matthew Walsh, an F.B.I. agent who came to Hamburg to testify in the Motassadeq trial, but who, Judge Schudt said, answered most questions with the phrases "not available" or "not authorized to answer such questions."
While the court rejected the prosecution's claim that Mr. Motassadeq was a knowing member of the Sept. 11 conspiracy, Judge Schudt said there was little doubt that he was a member of Al Qaeda and shared its goal of carrying out jihad against Americans and Jews. "Nine-eleven was carried out by fanatics, and you, Mr. Motassadeq, had the same way of thinking as these men," the judge said. "It is not important what exactly you did in Afghanistan, but what is important is that you were there in a training camp of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/20/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
My thanks to the German courts for doing what they could.
What keeps occurring to me is how grossly ill-equipped the justice and law enforcement systems of the West are in dealing with the practices of the Muzzy jihadis. In cell-based conspiracies, seldom are there cut 'n dried evidenciary trails connecting all of the parties involved. With this crowd, that's further complicated by the near-congenital taqiya thingy these clowns have practiced to perfection. And, of course, that they refuse to get like tattoos or carry their ID cards, complicates the difficulties.
I'm for hunter / killer teams, myself. Someday, barring some cataclysmic event within Islam, like discovering a "lost" haddith which declares that all Muzzies must play nice, tell the truth, and stop seeking world dominion or they will burn in one of the fires Little Mo was so fond of, this will be unofficial policy wherever the Will to Survive Quotient is positive.
Tourists visiting Rome's ancient Colosseum will first make their way through metal detectors, X-ray machines, closed-circuit cameras and barriers because of a heightened threat of terrorism, officials said Friday. Most of the measures were added to the Colosseum about two weeks ago, said Liliana Ferraro, who oversees security for Rome's city council. The metal barriers are expected to go up next week around the monument's entrances and will help keep lines orderly and the illegal vendors away, Ferraro said. The extra security was not a response to a specific threat at the monument, which is Italy's most popular tourist destination and receives about 16,000 visitors a day, she said. "It's an appropriate precaution," she said.
On the other hand, the Colosseum's seen barbarians before, hasn't it?
When they come for the Colosseum, I predict a return of the lions/Christians afternoon entertaiments...with Uday Hussein the Caliph regally ensconced in the skybox...
The Romans didn't have metal detectors, but they seemed to know how to deal with people who brought in a hidden weapon ...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Yep, you automatically joined the game. Streakers were very rare at the Colosseum.
U.S. military sources tell Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin that American Civil Liberties Union attorneys have been permitted to advise Guantanamo Bay prisoners, including Taliban and al-Qaida operatives, that they have the right not to answer the questions of interrogators.
In addition, the Pentagon has brought in a veteran staff attorney from the ACLU to serve as chief defense counsel in future military tribunals.
#1
Fucking ACLU, they should be shot as traitors. Those
muslim asshole would just as soon blow up their kids as look at them, and they flock to give them free legal coucil. These guys are simply out of touch with society. They go to the mat for 600 animals, and the other 280 million of us can eat shit as far as they are concerned. I'm sure they are working on a class action law suit against the federal govt. in which they will want at least 300 million apiece for the detainees. I wish to god- "If you are a good and mercifull god, please let their plane crash into a mountain".
If there is a nuke set off in an American city courtesy of the R.o.P., ACLU members and the "Dennis" Raimondo crowd at Anti-war.com along with Cindy and all the others, will find themselves inside internment camps after Congress re-authoritizes a newly minted Sedition Act.
ACLU members et al. will come to appreciate that these camps are for their own personal safety given that well-armed private citizens, looking at the figure of 400,000 murdered Americans from the Jihadi nuke attack, will have lost patience for the Michael Moores of this country.
So the Left had better hope and pray that such an attack never occurs because they along with the R.o.R will be in the bull's eye. And yet, the ACLU is doing everything in its power to make such a nightmare unfold.
#3
I am just afraid that it will take a serious hit on us before we collectively wake up. I hope not. The MSM ACLU et al keep shooting off their mouths become nobody stands up to them. So they fill the vacuum. They are the fifth column and their actions are designed to bring down American society. Unintended consequences be damned. They have only the one goal, suicidal as it is.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/20/2005 12:13 Comments ||
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#6
I don't think most AQ members need the ACLU to advise them not to talk to US interrogators. What the ACLU does and says is strictly for domestic consumption.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/20/2005 13:16 Comments ||
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#7
First off, the inmates are NOT americans and do NOT have the rights we do. Second, the ACLU has NO rights or legality to stick their noses into international affairs. Third, these inmates are terrorists, not prisoners of war and do not get the rights a soldier under the Geneva code do. They could be hung from streetlamps after they were caught, and it would all be legal.
The erosion of solidly American rights by the ACLU is causing more damage to our society than any terrorist could do. The ACLU better watch out, or they will find themselves on the wrong end of a rope from a streetlamp.
#8
If there is a nuke set off in an American city courtesy of the R.o.P., ACLU members and the "Dennis" Raimondo crowd at Anti-war.com along with Cindy and all the others, will find themselves inside internment camps after Congress re-authoritizes a newly minted Sedition Act.
At least, those that survive.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/20/2005 15:47 Comments ||
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#9
Those who harbor and support the terrorists, are with the terrorists --- sound familar?
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/20/2005 18:53 Comments ||
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#10
The ACLU are acting like traitors. They should tread VERY carefully. One more attack and they may find themselves in detention camps.
#13
They do have the right to be silent while the die.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/20/2005 23:22 Comments ||
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#14
Really, why are any of you shocked, when they refuse to sign a piece of paper saying that they won't assist terrorist organizations, and are one of Lynne Stewart's biggest fans?
Newly trained Jemaah Islamiyah operatives have been tasked with rescuing three jailed comrades here as part of their test mission, police authorities said. Chief Supt. Danilo Mangila, Central Mindanao police director, told reporters that because of this report, he has sent more policemen to reinforce security within the General Santos City Reformatory Center in Lanton in Apopong Village here.
Last month, the police and the military arrested alleged JI member Norodin Mangelen alias Nords from his safehouse in Maguindanao. His arrest led to the capture of his two other colleagues Pedro Hamsa and Ali Salipada. They were tagged as suspects in the Dec. 12, 2004 public market bombing here and in the March 4, 2003 Davao City airport bomb attack. Mangelen and the two other suspects are detained at the reformatory center.
Mangila said the police have also intensified its intelligence monitoring to avert any attempt by the JI to rescue Mangelen and his companions. Mangila said the police could not allow a repeat of the Nov. 2002 jailbreak here, when about 50 gunmen sprang Pentagon kidnap gang leader Tahir Alonto out of the detention facility.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/20/2005 02:56 ||
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Police said Friday that a man detained earlier this month was not an al-Qaida operative who allegedly brought European Islamic militants to Indonesia for military training. The man has been released.
"Go on! Beat it!"
National Police spokesman Maj. Gen. Aryanto Budiharjo's comments followed a report in The Asian Wall Street Journal that Parlindungan Siregar, 38, was arrested in Indonesia two weeks ago and was being interrogated by intelligence officials. Earlier Friday, Maj. Gen. Police Ansyaad Mbai, who heads the terrorism desk at the Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, said he had been informed by Indonesia's intelligence agency that Siregar was in the country. But Budiharjo said the 30-year-old man arrested on Aug. 1 was not Siregar and has since returned to his family in Solo, a town on Indonesia's main island of Java. He said that Indonesian police, acting on a tip from Spanish Interpol, detained an Islamic teacher for questioning early this month but released him days later after deciding he was innocent. Siregar, a suspected member of Southeast Asia's Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network, allegedly brought hundreds of members of a Spanish al-Qaida cell to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in 2001 for secret training.
Oh, I'll bet they fit right in...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2005 00:00 ||
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British soldiers in Iraq are being killed by advanced "infra-red" bombs supplied by Iran that defeat jamming equipment, according to military intelligence officials.
The "passive infra-red" devices, whose use in Iraq is revealed for the first time by The Sunday Telegraph, are detonated when the beam is broken, as when an intruder triggers a burglar alarm. They were used by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group against Israel in Lebanon from 1995.
Just as the "shaped bombs" are supplied by Hezbollah
A radio signal is used to arm the bomb as a target vehicle approaches. The next object to break the infra-red beam - the target vehicle - detonates the device.
Coalition officials see the disturbing development as a key part of an aggressive new campaign by Teheran to drive coalition forces out of Iraq so that an Islamic theocracy can be established.
Now that we have made multiple discoveries, the real question is how will we respond to it.
American and British intelligence officials believe that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is training, supplying and funding part of Iraq's insurgent Shia network and that its activities have been stepped up since the spring.
Links between Shia and Sunni Muslim groups, usually via trading by criminal arms dealers, means that expertise quickly spreads across Iraq.
"These guys have picked up in two years what it took the IRA a quarter-century to learn," said an Army bomb disposal officer in Iraq.
Four British soldiers are believed to have been killed by infra-red devices made in the town of Majar-al-Kabir. The bombmaker, in his early forties, was one of the agitators behind the mob killing of six Red Caps there in June, 2003. The man, whose name is known by this newspaper but has not been published for security reasons, has connections to Iran, and has reportedly been seen with agents from Teheran. His arrest has been ordered, and two of his lieutenants were detained in June.
After the arrests, however, three soldiers from the Staffordshire Regiment were killed when their armoured Land Rover was blown up by a roadside bomb in al-Amara, last month as they were lured into a trap.
Second Lt Richard Shearer, Pte Leon Spicer and Pte Phillip Hewett died instantly as they investigated gunfire.
Guardsman Anthony Wakefield of the Coldstream Guards died from wounds inflicted by a similar infra-red device in al-Amara in May. As the "top cover" gunner, his head and shoulders were exposed in an armoured Land Rover. The bomb was set at a precise height and directed towards the road so it would hit a soldier in this position.
"This was something completely new," said one military intelligence officer. "Before, they used to keep bashing away with the same crude devices again and again. The Iranian influence has shown itself in the sophistication of their bombs and a new ability to innovate."
British intelligence reports indicate that complete infra-red devices, carefully machined in military workshops, are being delivered to Shia militants in Iraq.
British officials said Iran had also been providing Shia insurgents with "shaped charges", which use a directional explosive force to fire a metal projectile that penetrates heavy armour.
Iran's interference threatens to inflame sectarian tensions in Iraq and hasten what coalition officials dread most - civil war between the Shias and the Sunni minority.
Iran's recent elections, in which the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president gave fresh impetus to its "meddling" in Iraq, according to Mohammad Mohaddessin, an Iranian opposition leader in exile in Paris.
"The regime in Teheran is very concerned about a democracy being created right next to Iran," he said. "They also believe that the more chaos there is in Iraq, the less attention will be paid by America and Britain to Iran's nuclear ambitions."
Iranian policy had already been boosted by Iraq's elections. They returned a Shia-dominated government led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who lived in exile in Iran, rather than the secular Iyad Allawi, the candidate preferred by Washington.
Before the introduction of infra-red devices, bombs in Iraq were usually set off by an electronic remote control signal found in a mobile telephone, car locking device, garage door opener or even a child's toy.
They could be blocked by electronic countermeasures developed by the Army in Northern Ireland.
These are powerless, however, against infra-red beams, which can be modified from burglar alarm systems. Military commanders have briefed soldiers to be more cautious and avoid rushing into potential attacks. Patrol routes are varied so that no pattern is set.
Infra-red beams have been used by the IRA, and by the Red Army Faction to kill Alfred Herrhausen, the chairman of the Deutsche Bank, in 1989.
"There has always been cross fertilisation of terrorist technology across the terror diaspora," said a former Army bomb disposal officer. "Infra-red is virtually impossible to jam whereas radio control and cell phone systems are jammable."
Maj Gen Ali Hamadi, who commands Iraq's border defence force, was wounded in the stomach and accused American troops of opening fire on his vehicle in Baghdad, local police reported. A US military official denied that any of their soldiers had been in the area at the time. Iraqis often accuse US troops of opening fire on motorists, sometimes killing them.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/20/2005 20:35 ||
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Ledeen is right. This is a regional conflict, not Iraq only.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/20/2005 20:41 Comments ||
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Like G'daffy, Iran's MMs will not back off until they are hurt one way or another. If they succeed in this endeavor, it will embolden them to do more. They respect power only. Reason and compromise by their adversaries equals weakness in their eyes.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/20/2005 21:07 Comments ||
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Agree, AP. But what level of response will be needed to get their attention?
Every so often, the NYT comes out with a decent article that isnt't all leftist opinion, all the time:
The Five West police station, erected over four days in July on a gravel-covered hill in the most violent part of this violent city, is little more than concertina wire, concrete barriers, gun towers and portable sheds. Police officers mill about, some in street clothes or gym shorts, sorting through Glock pistols and machine-gun belts.
It may not look like much, but garrisoning police so deep inside the insurgency's home turf would have been inconceivable a few months ago, say American officers, who credit the police with gathering intelligence leading to the capture of terror suspects even as attacks against police officers have soared.
With the Bush administration and military leaders eventually planning to draw down troops, the training of Iraqi security forces is a critical element of American strategy. Most attention has focused on the military, but the police will be at least as important.
And nowhere did the police fail quite so spectacularly as in Mosul last November, when a 5,000-man force deserted in the face of an insurgent uprising, sending the city, Iraq's second largest, into chaos.
Under heavy protection of U.S. troops, the Mosul police are rebuilding. Compared with some nastier hot spots - like Anbar Province and Tal Afar - they are further along. But the effort to resurrect the police has encountered significant sectarian, cultural and even tribal obstacles and now exemplifies a central question for American planners: Have the police force's improvements been contingent on careful and continual handholding by large numbers of American soldiers and will they evaporate when U.S. forces begin pulling out?
Many soldiers believe the police could crumble unless the American troops stay for years.
"Without that security blanket, the Iraqi police will be scared, and a scared Iraqi is a useless Iraqi," said First Sergeant Keith Utley of the First Battalion of the 24th Infantry Regiment, which patrols western Mosul.
The executive officer of one company in the battalion, First Lieutenant Dan Kearney, said Mosul could see gang-style civil war no matter when troops leave. "While we're here, it's like they have Big Brother looking over them," he says of the police. "I don't think the police are the kind of people who will stick it out."
Quite a few Iraqi officers also fear an early pullout.
"The situation would blow up again," said the Mosul police chief, Major General Ahmed Muhammad Khalif al-Jibouri, who says American forces need to stay at least five years.
One problem is that Iraqi Army units - dominated by Kurds and Shiite Arabs - believe that insurgents have widely infiltrated the police, who are mostly Sunni Arabs and largely from one tribe, the Jibouri. Many insurgents are Jibouri, according to the police and American officers.
In theory, Iraqi police officers and army leaders are supposed to work hand in hand to fight insurgents. But they speak of one another with contempt, and the army refuses to share sensitive information with the police, believing it will be leaked to terrorists.
"Their houses are next to the terrorists' houses, and they are afraid," said Colonel Nur al-Deen, commander of an Iraqi Army battalion in western Mosul.
In addition, the Iraqi police suffer from widespread corruption. A $5,000 to $10,000 bribe can spring a prisoner from jail, says the American battalion's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Erik Kurilla. Many police officers terrify residents, shooting automatic weapons wildly to clear traffic or intimidate bystanders.
The police are also known to "arrest" people to serve as day laborers and to steal money during searches, say American officers.
And much of the intelligence the police gather comes from beating information out of detainees, Iraqi and American officers say - tactics some fear could hurt Mosul in the long run.
Kurilla said the police might be ready to replace U.S. troops next year - if their improvement continues and the flow of foreign fighters is stopped.
The police now shoot back at attackers instead of fleeing, and undercover officers are arresting insurgents, he said. "There are lots of issues," he said. "But where they are now versus where they were in November is night and day."
Early in the occupation, Mosul enjoyed relative peace despite its volatile ethnic mix of two million people, mostly Sunni Arabs on the west side of the Tigris River and Kurds on the east. At the outset, the American military based an oversized division of 30,000 here, but it cut the number of troops last year by two-thirds.
As the Marines invaded Falluja in November, Mosul was seized by an insurgent revolt. More than 200 Iraqi corpses, many of them soldiers and policemen, turned up along side streets or traffic circles, their heads sawed off or riddled with bullets.
For months Mosul had no police. Then, on March 23, five dozen men showed up at a police station near the Tigris called Four West, named for its status as one of the principal stations on the west side. Kurilla e-mailed his boss with the heading: "The west Mosul police are backâŠ..for now."
Arriving in October, Kurilla's battalion endured some of the most violent urban warfare of the war. In 10 months, the 700-soldier unit has been awarded 153 Purple Hearts and seen a dozen men die, including one killed Aug. 4 by a sniper near Four West.
It is calmer now: Attacks against troops in western Mosul fell in July to their lowest level of the year. Commerce has returned, and vegetable and finished-goods markets bustle. But attacks against the police have risen as fast as attacks against Americans have declined, doubling in two months, Kurilla said.
About two of three insurgent attacks are now directed at Iraqi police officers or soldiers, he said. Even so, violence against American troops probably will never decline much further, he said.
"It's foolish to think there will be a nirvana where American soldiers can carry flowers down the street," he says. "There will always be somebody willing to pick up an AK-47 and shoot Americans."
Much of the police force's routine is still guided by American troops, who visit western Mosul's 10 police stations up to a half-dozen times a day and supply guns, barriers, computers and other needs, while inundating the police with constant direction on tactics and strategy.
Many crucial police decisions remain with Americans. Over a few days in late July and early August, American officers engineered the promotion of a new commander at Five West, moving aside an ineffective officer. They conducted a sting operation - without the police - that captured insurgents planning to ambush police officers. They captured a mortar team that attacked Four West, again without police help. And they removed the police from a highway checkpoint into Mosul and replaced them with Kurdish Iraqi Army troops after it became obvious that the police were allowing suspicious loads into the city.
Asked for a best-case example of police effectiveness, Kurilla cited an operation one week ago: Police officers arrested two men handing out insurgent literature. One told police interrogators where to find other insurgent suspects, who were arrested by the police in a raid planned in part and backed by U.S. troops. (The police killed one man during the raid and claimed he had had a grenade. An American U.S. commander on the scene, First Lieutenant David Webb, said he was not certain the man had been armed.)
One suspect arrested identified another, who was arrested by the police and later revealed a weapons stockpile.
Almost every day Kurilla and a squad venture into the city to counsel the police. On Aug. 6 they arrived at Five West, where Major Khaled Mahmoud Mutab eagerly explained how he beat a policeman who fired his belt-fed machine gun in the air. Kurilla praised him for training men not to fire wildly but suggested it was not necessary to abuse transgressors physically .
Khaled waved a judge's order to arrest a fuel smuggler. But the suspect lived in a bad area.
"I need support and protection," he said. Kurilla said he would arrange something.
Minutes after the Americans departed, insurgents fired mortars at an Iraqi Army barracks. The Americans rushed to a mosque where the projectiles had been launched, next to the busiest market in western Mosul. But no Iraqi police officers had responded, and the mortar team had vanished.
Next the troops went to Four West, a ramshackle building pockmarked by shrapnel and bullet fire, where they met a commander, Colonel Hassan Yaseen al-Jibouri. Kurilla asked about a terror suspect who was arrested and taken to another station. "They're not going to get bribed and release him, are they?" he said jokingly.
"Maybe," responded Hassan, who did not seem to be joking.
Hassan says 90 percent of the police are Jibouris, mostly from outside Mosul, because men from other tribes "get threatened and quit."
"Don't forget, many of the terrorists are Jibouri," he said. It is "only the cowards" within the police who aid insurgents, he said.
The Americans left and discovered the corpse of a man shot in the head and dumped on the asphalt of Yarmouk traffic circle, one of the busiest intersections. No police officers had responded.
The troops demanded answers from men at a watermelon stand about 70 meters, or 240 feet, away, but they said they knew nothing. "These people live in fear," Kurilla said, clearly frustrated. "They saw something."
But frustration is common. One night in late July, American soldiers arrived at Five West to join in a raid. They found the station commander dozing. As troops went over details of the operation, a policeman who was supposed to operate a heavy machine gun walked in; he seemed to be drunk.
"Whiskey, whiskey!" he said, bringing his fingers to his mouth. The Americans suggested he stay behind.
At the target house, none of the men found were the right suspects. The police were unsure what to do, but after a few confusing minutes they arrested the brother of one suspect. Grabbing the man, a few police officers started to kick him. But the Iraqis realized that no one had brought handcuffs.
Captain Scott Cheney, a U.S. company commander, interceded to bring the operation to a close. The Iraqis decided to load a few detainees into a truck found at the home and drove back to the station.
Cheney says he believes the police will be ready to take over next year, but concedes his disappointment over that night.
"We're starting at ground zero with the police," he says.
Stacking the police force with Jibouris was an early necessity in ensuring confidence in the chain of command. Now, though, some American commanders view it as a major liability to have the police dominated not just by one ethnicity, but by one tribe - and one with so many insurgents in its ranks.
The deep and scornful sectarian divide between the Sunni Arab police and the army suggests that the two may always have trouble working together against insurgents. Many American officers also believe that the Kurds may someday attempt to seize Mosul and force many Arabs out.
The Mosul police chief is an ambitious man, formerly a general under Saddam Hussein, who has turned his force into a rare example of institutionalized Sunni Arab power in a country where almost all official levers of authority are controlled by Shiites and Kurds.
Interviewed at his well-appointed office, the chief argued that the Iraqi Army should be dismantled because it is actually controlled by Kurdistan and by Shiite-dominated Iran, where Shiites control the government.
"Half of them are Kurds and half of them are Shiites, and their loyalty is to their political parties," he said. "The real Iraqi Army - all of them are unemployed."
Grabbing hold of the Iraqi flag next to his desk, he declared that he should be president of Iraq. "I will not allow Massoud to plant another flag," he said, a reference to the Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani. "I will not let Iran lead the Iraqi Army."
A few kilometers west, Colonel Nur al-Deen, whose unit patrols the most insurgent-ridden parts of Mosul, said the police - those who aren't insurgents - are largely frightened men. Most of his troops are members of the feared Kurdish militia, the pesh merga.
"We are from Kurdistan, and we can't let them know what we're doing," he said. He also said he sees little police presence. "They are sitting inside," he said. "No one is out on patrol."
But he does agree with the police chief that a large U.S. pullout could send the city into chaos. "Every neighborhood would be fighting with each other," he said.
#1
Where was the expectation created that a local police force was supposed to duke it out with a large number of armed insurgents? I lived in a town in NC where the local police didn't even make many traffic stops for fear that drivers might be well armed.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/20/2005 13:01 Comments ||
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#2
Good article from an unreliable source. It's refreshing to see facts sans opinion from the NY Slimes.
Really tough work being done in Mosul by brave men and women.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/20/2005 13:40 Comments ||
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#3
SH: I lived in a town in NC where the local police didn't even make many traffic stops for fear that drivers might be well armed.
That's not exceptional - I've read that one of the organizers of the London bombings was stopped by a Washington cop - possibly while he was in possession of something illegal. The cop did not search the car because he thought the occupants were very tense, and potentially lethally violent. I guess it also depends on the type of small town. A small town in a blue state probably wouldn't have much in the way of hunting enthusiasts, and not much reason for the cops to be very gung-ho about weapons training.
#4
ZF - I believe most police are significantly braver than I would be in their shoes. I'm sure the Mosul police force was derelict, but some of the criticism is a bit ridiculous. I am reminded of the LA shootout between what looked to be 60 police officers against two armed robbers with assault rifles and dressed in full body armour. Police cannot be expected to perform as a USMC fire team.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/20/2005 14:20 Comments ||
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#5
SH: I am reminded of the LA shootout between what looked to be 60 police officers against two armed robbers with assault rifles and dressed in full body armour. Police cannot be expected to perform as a USMC fire team.
Iraqi police carry AK's and RPG's. I think the problem has to do with mixed loyalties and the fact that their families are targeted. Between the two things, I'm surprised that the terrorists bother targeting them. But the fact that the terrorists do go after Iraqi cops is a sign that the police were not just sitting around doing nothing, even back when the police stations were getting overrun.
#6
I see a problem here. As a rule of thumb you *do not* want local people as police in an unstable area. You want out-of-towners. Since it's a Sunni area, they should use Shiite and Kurd policemen as the backbone of the police force, with Sunnis in non-critical positions for the time being. Of course, you pay them premium wages for a while, but you get what you pay for.
Only once the area is very stable do you migrate out your Shia and Kurds, who also get promotions to better jobs for having done hard time.
#7
Anonymoose: I see a problem here. As a rule of thumb you *do not* want local people as police in an unstable area. You want out-of-towners.
Well, our troops knocked out many of the bad guys before standing up the locally-recruited cops. We also have the Iraqi army in town to keep the cops honest. Eventually, though, the cops will have to take over. Traditionally, in counter-guerrilla actions, the cops stay local, whereas the troops are brought in from elsewhere, since out-of-area troops don't really know local conditions and traditions well enough to act as referees.
#10
One night in late July, American soldiers arrived at Five West to join in a raid. They found the station commander dozing. As troops went over details of the operation, a policeman who was supposed to operate a heavy machine gun walked in; he seemed to be drunk.
Sometimes I wonder if they deserve our help after all. Allah seems to have sort changed them a bit in the world's greatest civilization department.
#1
http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/
Don't know why I can't get the link button to work.I first tried to link using "post a news link" and that didn't work either.
#2
The Commander of Deuce Four, LTC Erik Kurilla, was shot three times in combat yesterday in front of my eyes. Despite being seriously wounded, LTC Kurilla immediately rejoined the intense and close-quarter fight that ended in hand-to-hand combat. LTC Kurilla continued to direct his men until a medic gave him morphine and the men took him away.
#3
Michael Yon: "Commander of Deuce Four, LTC Erik Kurilla, was shot three times in combat yesterday in front of my eyes."
Crap, another hero down... hope he's ok. Read past dispatches, if you don't know who he is.
Posted by: DO ||
08/20/2005 11:08 Comments ||
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#4
Yon said it before - he couldn't believe Kurilla had not been shot already. The guy leads from the front. I am still struck by the picture of Kurilla dragging a prisoner to safety while under fire. I hope he comes out ok.
#5
According to an emailing detail about the firefight might be out around monday in a dispatch. Sounds like it was some very serious firefighting. I hope LTC Kurrilla is ok.
I can say that the two leaders of Deuce Four--LTC Kurilla and CSM Prosser - fought hard and close. For CSM Prosser, after LTC Kurilla was shot three times, it became brutal hand-to-hand combat. I was up close, and saw the entire fight. These men have once again earned their
reputations.
#7
Article: The Commander of Deuce Four, LTC Erik Kurilla, was shot three times in combat yesterday in front of my eyes.
This is nuts. Good battalion commanders do not grow on trees. What is this guy trying to prove? Alexander *died* from leading from the front a little too often. Well - I hope he's not too beat up to stay in the military, and his replacement is just as good as he is.
#8
What LTC Kurilla is trying to prove is that the "perfumed princes" (RIP and thanks Hack)in the pentagon need to get off their cans and fight a war. Hackworth did in Vietnam, Kurill is Hack's kind of fighter. My prayers are with him. Where is the MSM.
Posted by: Art ||
08/20/2005 11:46 Comments ||
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#9
The MSM is back in Baghdad reading military press releases and each other's dispatches.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/20/2005 12:02 Comments ||
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#10
Alexander *died* from leading from the front a little too often
Posted by: Matt ||
08/20/2005 17:17 Comments ||
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#17
I like the sound of that idea, Matt. A lot. It may be obvious, but I have no doubt our future political leadership is being forged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kurilla could, indeed, have my vote.
Kurilla... Gawd, what a great name, lol! Imagine what the PR-meisters could do with that in a campaign...
Authorities in Bajaur Agency on Friday arrested a leader of the defunct Tanzeem Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi (TSNM) and handed him over to security agencies for interrogation. A source in the Bajaur Agency administration told Daily Times that Maulvi Inayatur Rehman was arrested after his alleged involvement in training jihadis in the area. âHe was accused of running a training camp in Kohimoor Mountain Range near the border with Dir district,â the source said. He did not give details whether Rehman had any links with Al Qaeda or Taliban. âHe was picked up by paramilitary forces and tribal police from Loyeysam area in Nawagay sub-division of Bajaur Agency during an operation,â the source said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/20/2005 02:48 ||
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MULTAN: Muhammad Islam Siddiqui, a member of the Pakistan Army, will be hanged today (Saturday) in New Central Jail Multan. Siddiqui, who belongs to a poor Hari family from Jacobabad, was tried in court martial and was sentenced to death for plotting to kill Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Pervez Musharraf. He made a mercy petition to the president and the vice chief of army staff, but the petition was turned down. He was moved to Multan prison from Sialkot last month. His parents, who met him in prison on Friday, requested the jail superintendent to provide them with an ambulance to take his body to Jacobabad for burial. Jail authorities declined to give information about when the attack was planned and who Siddiqui's accomplices were.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2005 00:20 ||
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#1
(To the tune of 'Tom Dooley')
Hang down your head Ab'dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head Ab'dooley
Poor haj about to die
At this time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Down in New Central Jail
Hangin' from a white oak tree
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/20/2005 0:34 Comments ||
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#2
I hear getting your neck stretched does wonders for your back problems.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/20/2005 2:37 Comments ||
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#6
Man behind Musharrafâs assassination bid executed
(Updated at 1140 PST)
MULTAN: A Pakistani army man accused of involvement in a plot to kill President General Pervez Musharraf two years ago was executed early on Saturday, jail authorities said.
Islam Siddiqui, 35, was hanged before dawn in central Pakistan's Multan prison, said jail superintendent Malik Ataullah.
Siddiqui, a former soldier, was sentenced to death by a military court for involvement in a plot to kill Musharraf, who is also chief of the army staff, Ataullah said.
Musharraf survived two attempts on his life in December 2003 in Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad when suspects with alleged links to Al-Qaeda tried to kill him with explosives for supporting the US-led 'war on terror'.
The president had rejected a mercy petition by Siddiqui, who came from the Jacobabad district of southern Sindh province. Siddiqui's body was handed over to his family members for burial in his home town, Ataullah said.
Posted by: john ||
08/20/2005 7:05 Comments ||
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#7
Some background
Siddiqui was arrested in South Waziristan after he refused to fight against tribal insurgent helping al-Qaida and Taliban suspects. Waziristan is part of the long and porous tribal belt bordering Afghanistan where U.S. officials believe several key al-Qaida leaders are hiding. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri are also believed to be hiding in this region.
Shahzad said there were other soldiers who also refused to fight "their Muslim brothers" and were arrested with Siddiqui.
Later, investigators found that Siddiqui was also involved with a group within the armed forces that was assisting al-Qaida suspects who made two attempts on Musharraf in December last year.
Siddiqui, the soldier sentenced to death for the Dec. 14 attempt on Musharraf, is from the Defense Services Guard Company attached to the Punjab regiment.
Charges against him include "abetting mutiny" against Musharraf and attempting to persuade "a person in the military" to rebel against the government.
Siddiqui is also accused of entering Afghanistan without a passport and having links to a group in the Pakistan air force which was plotting to eliminate Musharraf.
Posted by: john ||
08/20/2005 7:18 Comments ||
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#8
"Hangman is comin down from the gallows and I don't have very long.YAWWWOW the jig is up they finally found me...."(not exact quote but who knows where that came from?)
Attackers firing Katyusha rockets narrowly missed a U.S. amphibious assault ship docked at this Red Sea resort Friday, but killed a Jordanian soldier in the most serious strike at the Navy since the USS Cole bombing nearly five years ago. Two more rockets were shot toward nearby Israel without causing serious damage. Jordanian security forces hunted for at least six Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi suspects, and an al-Qaida-linked group that previously claimed responsibility for terror bombings in three Egyptian resorts said it staged the attack here.
The string of attacks over 10 months has raised fears Islamic extremists are opening a new arena of combat in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the Gulf of Aqaba, an area bordered by Israel, Egypt and Jordan that is known for carefree tourist resorts and Arab-Israeli peace talks. In addition to striking U.S. targets, some extremist Muslims would like to topple the governments of Jordan and Egypt, which are longtime allies of Washington and also have peace treaties with Israel. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a militant group that claimed to be behind bombings which killed at least 64 people at Sharm el-Sheik in July and 34 people at two other Egyptian resorts last October, posted a statement on the Internet saying its fighters fired the rockets Friday. "A group of our holy warriors ... targeted a gathering of American military ships docking in Aqaba port," said the statement, which also threatened to bring down King Abdullah II of Jordan.
One rocket sailed over the bow of the USS Ashland about 8:44 a.m., Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, a spokesman for the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain, told The Associated Press. The missile hit a nearby Jordanian military warehouse that U.S. forces use to store goods bound for Iraq, Jordanian officials said. The blast killed one Jordanian soldier and wounded another, the state Petra news agency reported. No Americans were injured. Brown said the Ashland had docked on Aug. 13 with the helicopter carrier USS Kearsarge at Aqaba's port, south of the city, for joint exercises with Jordan's military. Both vessels left after the attack as a precaution, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
The headline should be "Jordan jerks off for suspects". Jordan talks the talk but they do not walk the walk.
Egyptian police have detained a suspected mastermind behind last month's deadly attacks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, and Interior Ministry said Friday. Hassan el-Arishi was arrested late Thursday at a house in the northern Sinai Peninsula, the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Other suspects detained since the three July 23 bombings that killed at least 64 people have identified el-Arishi as one of the men who helped carry out the attacks, the official said. El-Arishi had been using identity documents belonging to a Nile Delta farmer, the official added. The suspect's family is being questioned. No other details were provided. The detainee's name had not previously surfaced as a suspect in the Sharm attacks, which Egyptian investigators believe may have been carried out by homegrown Islamic militant cells based in the Sinai, possibly with international links. The attacks included two car bombs and a bomb in a knapsack that ripped through a luxury hotel, a neighborhood full of Egyptians and the entrance to a beach promenade.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Didn't they wack a mastermind and his wife couple weeks ago? Or is this another case of 2 masterminds for each minon?
Posted by: Steve ||
08/20/2005 0:55 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON - US forces have killed or captured 170 foreign fighters in northwestern Iraq, most of whom are believed to have infiltrated the country from Syria, a US general said on Friday.
An excellent start.
Major General David Rodriguez, commander of US forces in northwestern Iraq, concurred with Iraqi reports that some 150 foreign fighters a month are slipping into Iraq from neighboring countries. âI can tell you the people that we have caught were involved in some of the suicide bombings over the last several months,â he told reporters here via video link from his base of operations in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
Rodriguez said that about 70 foreign fighters have been captured in his area of operations over the past three months, and about 100 more have been killed in suicide attacks or engagements with US forces.
The general said his forces have made progress in disrupting the leadership of insurgent groups in his area since the January 30 elections. He said 62 number threes mid-to-higher-ranked insurgent leaders have been killed or captured since the elections, 44 of them since May.
The incidence and effectiveness of roadside explosions has decreased by 20 percent, he said. Unlike trends elsewhere in Iraq, US forces are finding that the sophistication of the bombs has also declined, he said. Rodriguez attributed the decline in part to the disruption of the leadership of the insurgency as well as to the greater willingness of Iraqis to tip off coalition forces to the presence of bombs.
Every time I visit the leftie blogs I read the same nonsense about how we're doomed, Irag is a quagmire and a failure, the people hate us, our presence triggers more attacks -- y'all know the drill. Then I read from the horses mouths, as it were, our soldiers, Iraqi bloggers, embedded reporters, and I realize (again) that the lefties have no clue. There's a willful ignorance about what's actually going on in Iraq on their part. I'd point them to Chrenkoff's good news but they wouldn't believe it. General Rodriguez makes the point again without meaning to -- the 'greater willingness of Iraqis to tip off coalition forces to the presence of bombs'. Why would the locals do that if they all hate our guts?
Umm, maybe they don't all hate our guts? Over to you, Kos.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/20/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Dittos Steve, The Leftys, Paleos, and America's homegrown haters all sound the same. it's useless but but I give 'em the biznith at every opportunity.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/20/2005 0:15 Comments ||
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#2
I hope Michael Yon is OK. He hasn't posted in 4 days and I'm hoping that he's in the field, busy covering the above events.
Posted by: Dave ||
08/20/2005 0:22 Comments ||
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#3
and...Good news, 170 foreign killed or captured! Not to mention the thousands of Iraqi terrorists killed or captured this year.
forgot to add..there are many good blogs and internet outlets for first hand accounts of the war/politics in Iraq.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/20/2005 0:29 Comments ||
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#4
me three Dave, just a guess on my part, he's ok his "day job" keeps him from writing up his notes and blogging. He's had much longer breaks than this in the past.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/20/2005 0:34 Comments ||
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#5
lefties have no clue
It's not about having or not having a clue. It's about beat Bush and sore losers. They want to win even if it kills them (or us all).
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/20/2005 2:40 Comments ||
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#6
This doesn't prove that Iraqis don't hate us. When the leading religious figure in Iraq likens unbelievers to shit and piss, it seems probable that most Iraqis won't like us much. (Ditto most Muslims.) The General's comments merely indicate that increasing numbers of Iraqis are getting tired of having their friends and families blown up by foreign jihadis and ex-Baathists.
YES! And he seems to have developed a bit-o-attitude too. :) My first guess is that LTC Kurila getting shot has caused Mike to 2 block the Bravo Sierra flag.
Posted by: Dave ||
08/20/2005 11:55 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD - Seven Iraqis were killed in insurgent violence on Friday, including three members of the countryâs main Sunni party who were kidnapped and shot dead in the northern city of Mosul.
The three members of the Iraqi Islamic Party were kidnapped in a western neighbourhood of Mosul, as they were putting up posters to call for participation in Decemberâs scheduled elections, party spokesman Noureddine Hayali said. âThey were later executed by gunfire in front of a mosque east of the town, in the presence of many people, none of whom tried to interfere,â he added. âThe killers, who arrived in several cars and were heavily armed, shouted before shooting our members that they considered them as non-Muslims,â he added without being able to identify the gunmen.
The fellas from the 'Islamic Party' weren't Islamic enough, I guess.
After quitting the race for the last January general elections, the Islamic Party decided to call upon its followers to participate in a referendum on a new constitution, slated for October 15, and subsequent elections.
In a separate attack, gunmen shot dead Aswad al-Ali, an Arab member of a local council, near the Kurdish-dominated city of Kirkuk, 255 kilometers (160 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. An Iraqi contractor who worked with the US army was also shot dead by gunmen near Kirkuk, police said. And a roadside bomb killed two Iraqis and wounded a third as they travelled on a main road near Tikrit, the hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, 180 kilometers (110 miles) north of the capital, police said.
An Internet statement in the name of Abu Musab Al Zarqawiâs Al Qaeda Organization in the Land of Two Rivers denied responsibility for Wednesdayâs bombings in the Al-Nahda district of Baghdad that killed at least 43 people. âWe, the Al Qaeda Organization in the Land of Two Rivers, declare we are not responsible for the Al-Nahda bombings. We had no hand in them, from near or far,â it said, while vowing to continue the âjihadâ against âGodâs enemies.â
"So please don't kill us!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/20/2005 00:00 ||
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DHAKA - Two people were killed when bombs they were making exploded in Bangladesh on Friday as authorities interrogated dozens of suspects over this weekâs barrage of bombings across the country, police said.
The bombs went off prematurely in western Meherpur district, 330 km (206 miles) from the capital Dhaka, a police officer said. âThey were making bombs on a rooftop. We are investigating the incident,â said the officer, who was unable to give their names or identities.
"We'll see if we can scrape up enough for DNA, but don't hold yer breath."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/20/2005 00:00 ||
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A wanted criminal was killed in a 'shootout' between Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and his accomplices at Tongi in the early hours yesterday. The criminal, Panu Howladar alias Kanu alias Russell, 24, was a close accomplice of Kala Jahangir, one of the 23 top criminals in the city, and notorious criminal Taj, a Rab press release said.
"I'm the notorious T-A-J, boyieeeeee...I got me a shutter gun, 3 or 4 bullets, and a possecohort cadre!
You're not good enough to have three aliases, 'Russell'.
Rab-4 nabbed Panu, accused in 13 cases filed with Kafrul Police Station for murder, extortion and rape, and his accomplice Shah Alam from Kamarpara under Turag Police Station at about 2:00am on July 27. They were handed over to Kafrul police the following day and Rab-4 took charge of quizzing them in an arms case.
"Into the isolation booth, Panu! You're the next contestant on the popular new game show, RAB Quiz Time. And now for your first question: What color is my lucky truncheon?"
Panu told Rab that his accomplices Tuhin, Razzak, Haji Shah Alam have huge arms in their possession.
"They wear 36 inch sleeves, I tell ya!"
They have a hideout near Biswa Ijtema ground where they take liquor, marijuana and phensidyl and plan criminal activities.
"It's a neat hideout, we even have a mirror disco ball!"
Hmmm. Guess ol' Panu there didn't score very high on the quiz. He must've been too busy planning his criminal activities.
Acting on his statement, a Rab team rushed to raid the hideout at about 3:00am yesterday but Panu's accomplices attacked the team near the spot and Rab then opened fire in self defence, the press release said.
"It's the RAB, boys! Open random, ineffectual fire!"
Panu tried to flee during the firing ...
... foolish, foolish Panu ...
and was bullet-hit in his accomplices' firing.
"Feets don't fail ...[THWIP] ..."
The gang members then retreated and Rab recovered a revolver, a shutter gun and three bullets left by them, it added.
The RAB boys know the serial number for that shutter gun by heart ...
The body was sent to Gazipur Sadar Hospital.
"Fresh one for you, Dr. Quincy!"
"Okay, umm, what name do we file this one under?"
"I like 'Russell', how 'bout you?"
"Some lovely parting gifts from our contestant. Panu, you should have studied a little harder for the test. Better luck next time, and thanks for playing RAB Quiz Time!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/20/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I thinhk they need to train some officers from Sri Lanka and get them up to speed.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Police said Friday that a man detained earlier this month was not an al-Qaida operative who allegedly brought European Islamic militants to Indonesia for military training. The man has been released.
MULTAN: 
Attackers firing Katyusha rockets narrowly missed a U.S. amphibious assault ship docked at this Red Sea resort Friday, but killed a Jordanian soldier in the most serious strike at the Navy since the USS Cole bombing nearly five years ago. Two more rockets were shot toward nearby Israel without causing serious damage. Jordanian security forces hunted for at least six Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi suspects, and an al-Qaida-linked group that previously claimed responsibility for terror bombings in three Egyptian resorts said it staged the attack here.
Egyptian police have detained a suspected mastermind behind last month's deadly attacks in the Red Sea resort of 
WASHINGTON - US forces have killed or captured 170 foreign fighters in northwestern Iraq, most of whom are believed to have infiltrated the country from Syria, a US general said on Friday.
BAGHDAD - Seven Iraqis were killed in insurgent violence on Friday, including three members of the countryâs main Sunni party who were kidnapped and shot dead in the northern city of Mosul. 
DHAKA - Two people were killed when bombs they were making exploded in Bangladesh on Friday as authorities interrogated dozens of suspects over this weekâs barrage of bombings across the country, police said.
A wanted criminal was killed in a 'shootout' between Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and his accomplices at Tongi in the early hours yesterday. The criminal, Panu Howladar alias Kanu alias Russell, 24, was a close accomplice of Kala Jahangir, one of the 23 top criminals in the city, and notorious criminal Taj, a Rab press release said.
