AUSTRALIA'S most radical Islamic group has defied John Howard by launching a provocative public campaign to persuade Muslims the 9/11 terror attacks were a massive US-inspired conspiracy.
Even though Binny's long since taken credit for them...
The contentious move by the group, led by fundamentalist Melbourne cleric Sheik Mohammed Omran, comes despite the Prime Minister calling for the nation's Islamic leaders to avoid making inflammatory comments about terrorism.
Or maybe because of it...
Sheik Omran was last month snubbed by Mr Howard, who did not invite him to the summit with Muslim leaders in Canberra.
So his tender little Islamic feelings are hurt and he needs Dire Revenge™ to retrieve his Dignity and Honor™...
The unprecedented public campaign by Sheik Omran's group comes on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, which killed almost 3000 people.
What better time to either deny that it happened at all or to claim that they all deserved it?...
The latest edition of a new Islamic newspaper launched by Sheik Omran's Ahlus Sunnah Wal-Jamaah Association argues that a plane did not crash into the Pentagon in Washington in the September 11 attacks and that the story was instead a major hoax. The newspaper, called Mecca News, then promises that "in future editions we will uncover the rest of the questions which surround 9/11". Using pictures to support its arguments, which include claims that there were no remains of a plane found inside the Pentagon, the paper accuses Australia of only now "catching up with the debate" about what really happened on September 11, 2001.
You see, we actually bombed the Pentagon ourselves, as part of a fiendishly clever plan to... ummm... do something.
"It is not seen as 'patriotic' to challenge the widely accepted theory, however things are changing," the newspaper states.
Not as quickly as Sheikhy seems to think...
The newspaper credits its editor-in-chief and founder, Sheik Omran, with "breaking the ice" by raising questions in Australia about who was responsible for 9/11. Sheik Omran recently angered the Government and moderate Muslims by effectively proclaiming that Osama bin Laden was a good man and by questioning whether the London bombings in July were carried out by Muslims.
I guess it depends on your definition of "good." And your definition of "Muslims," since one of the boomers appeared on tape with Ayman. But it probably depends on your defintion of "Ayman," as well...
Sheik Omran has also angered moderate Muslim leaders by saying he believed the US, rather than bin Laden, were behind the 9/11 attacks. This opinion - shared by many radical Muslims - comes despite bin Laden himself admitting involvement in 9/11 attacks in a video broadcast late in 2001, during which the al-Qaeda leader expressed delight that the death toll had far exceeded his own expectations. "We calculated in advance the number of casualties," bin Laden said in the video. Sheik Omran, who yesterday said he was not aware of bin Laden's comments, told The Australian he wanted to spark "healthy debate" with the newspaper. "If all society agrees on something, that is very unhealthy," he said.
That's a patently stoopid statement. There are lots of things all of society can agree on, to include the teeny-tiny, infinitesimal size of Sheikh Omran's soul...
Sheik Omran launched his monthly newspaper last month, saying it would be "educational" and "a breath of fresh air in the field of media and journalism for Muslims in Australia". Accusing the media of being anti-Muslim, Sheik Omran wrote: "Some issues, if left in the hands of a misinformed journalist, may lead to the spread of disease in our society, causing fear, Islamaphobia, suspicion and hatred amongst the Australian society as a whole."
"So don't show it to no infidels, okay?"
The newspaper claims a circulation of 10,000. But Sheik Omran's decision to use the paper's September edition to convince Australian Muslims that 9/11 was a US-inspired conspiracy is likely to further anger moderate Muslims, who last month urged the cleric to tone down his rhetoric.
I haven't seen the tar and feathers come out yet...
The newspaper devotes a feature to supporting claims made by a US author, David Ray Griffin, that a plane never crashed into the Pentagon and that the story was an elaborate US Government hoax. The feature asks: "The hole created in the (Pentagon) facade was not big enough to fit the nose of a plane let alone an entire (Boeing) 757 - the question is how could such a big airplane have created such a small hole?" In accompanying commentary, the paper said Australian Muslims sceptical of the official version of 9/11 are subjected to "ideological attacks".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:22 ||
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#1
Of all the stupid conspiracy theories, this has got to take the cake. The whole danged world saw planes go into the twin towers so why waste your energy trying to say it was a missile that hit the pentagon? If you're gonna weave dark tales of fiendish plots, at least show a little creativity and respect for narrative consistency and say that the planes were remotely guided or that the hijackers were in cohoots with Halliburton or whatever.
Thank Allah people like Sheik Omran are stupid, otherwise they might pose more of a threat.
#2
Out of misplaced national pride, I might add that IIRC the "pentagon missile" theory was first given by our dear Thierry Meyssan in his book "Le Pentagate" (which I didn't read), after some skeptics debunked his truckbomb theory in "L'effroyable mensonge" (the grand matrix of 9/11 conspiracy theories, which I read, and found very light and unconvincing, being for example in part an internet-based "research").
#3
Sheikh Omran will find it difficult to convince John Howard that a plane did not crash into the Pentagon on 9-11-01. John Howard was in Washington at the time.
#4
"If all society agrees on something, that is very unhealthy," he said.
That whole "sun rises in the east" thing is a cancer on society, don'tchaknow.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/09/2005 9:14 Comments ||
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#5
Who was responsible for 9/11? You mean, you think it wasn't the genocidal Saudis that crashed the planes into civilian targets? How do you figure that?
Wow, I'm ashamed to be living in the same country as a nutjob like this.
Posted by: Nicholas ||
09/09/2005 9:26 Comments ||
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#6
Another great moment in islamic thought brought to you by yet another Sheikh McNutjob. If he was going to cook up a lie to believe for the ummah at least he could make half an effort to be creative. Then again the target audience is easy to please.
Can somebody hook this guy up with the one claiming Katrina was punishment for Gaza? Lock 'em in a room together with a soup spoon and a plastic knife for each of 'em?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/09/2005 13:20 Comments ||
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#10
Hey, Munkarkat, leave the Scots out of it. We've already got our own home-grown Jihadi appologist in Galloway.
Posted by: The Royal Stewart ||
09/09/2005 13:27 Comments ||
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#11
Apologies extended generously and generally inarticulate, I was actually thinking McDonald's (big yellow arches) McShake rather than Scots. Galloway's an accomplished apologist I'll grant you but the lack of a zz top beard makes him a second rater at best though he's got a little flourish of the muddlebrain poetic prose in him.
Posted by: MunkarKat (Kin of King Abner Stolfus) ||
09/09/2005 16:28 Comments ||
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#12
I guess it depends on your definition of "good." And your definition of "Muslims," since one of the boomers appeared on tape with Ayman. But it probably depends on your defintion of "Ayman," as well...
Uh, yes, and don't forget it depends on your definition of "is," too. I mean, what is is?
Posted by: William Jefferson Clinton (no kin to George Clinton of the P-funk All stars) ||
09/09/2005 18:39 Comments ||
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The Dutch authorities have raised the terror level from "normal" to "elevated" for Dutch Public Transport. The Dutch Justice department has increased its surveilance on Dutch public transport. Local authorities in the main cities have tightend the security procedures.
A Spanish judge has filed preliminary charges of Islamic terrorist activity against a French woman of North African descent who already was serving time in Spanish prison for drug trafficking, a Spanish prison official told CNN. The woman, identified only by her initials, M.H., is linked to the case of a man, Redouan Ben Fraima, arrested last March on suspicion of terrorism in an apparent failed plot to blow up a passenger ferry that crosses the Strait of Gibraltar, connecting Spain and North Africa, the official said Thursday.
Spanish authorities face several major terrorism cases -- including the Madrid train bombings last year -- and have increased surveillance in prisons, including regular sweeps of jail cells. The effort aims in part to stymie any attempts to recruit terrorists in jail among prisoners serving time for common crimes, such as drug trafficking. Both the woman and Ben Fraima, also of North African descent, were in Spanish jails for common crimes when authorities arrested them, separately, on the more serious charges of terrorist activity, the official said. The woman was arrested Wednesday. The woman was born in 1981 in Paris. Last year she started serving a 3.5-year term for drug trafficking, and last Monday she was questioned in prison as a witness -- not a suspect -- in the Ben Fraima ferry-plot case, the official said. But after "a series of contradictions" in her statements during the interrogation, the Spanish Civil Guard sent the details to the National Court, which handles terrorism cases, the Interior Ministry said Thursday in the statement that announced the woman's arrest.
On Thursday, Civil Guards and a court-appointed attorney went to the Zuera prison in northern Zaragoza province, where the woman is serving time, to inform her of the preliminary charges placing her under official investigation in the terrorism case, the prison official said.
The woman initially was arrested last year in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on Morocco's north coast. It was also in Ceuta where Ben Fraima was in jail for a common crime -- which the prison official could not specify -- when last March, during a routine sweep of his jail cell, authorities found documentation about the ferry that sails between Ceuta and the Spanish mainland town of Algeciras, and about a substance that could be used to make explosives. A judge then filed preliminary charges of terrorism against him, the prison official said.
The biggest terrorism case in Spain concerns the Madrid train bombings last year that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500. Authorities blame Islamic terrorists. More than 100 people have been charged and indictments are expected soon, with a trial to follow. Separately, a verdict is expected soon in the trial, which concluded last July, of 24 al Qaeda suspects, including three men charged with a planning role in the September 11 attacks. A third major case involves more than a dozen suspects in a failed plot to attack other targets in Spain, including the National Court with a truck bomb. Some of the suspects in that case were allegedly recruited in prison. Spanish police have arrested 50 people this year alone on suspicion of Islamic terrorist activity, the Interior Ministry said.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/09/2005 10:01 ||
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"When you fly over the Gulf, it looks like a WMD exploded," Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul McHale told me this week. "Katrina very nearly approached the operational requirements of a WMD event; this was the first test of the high-end capability envisioned by the strategy."
The "strategy" is a three-month-old document called "Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support." It describes the Defense Department's plans to defend the U.S. from a WMD attack or deal with the rubble and mass casualties of such an attack. (more at link)
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/09/2005 16:12 ||
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#1
Whoever calls it should conform to Constitutional and legal requirements. If teh new media and Democrats don't understand those the DOD's fault.
#2
The US (via the constitution) has chosen a decentralized model for dealing with emergencies. Not all emergencies are as severe as Katrina. Not all local and state governments are as incompetent as New Orleans and Louisiana. There are plenty of examples from Europe, and from the former USSR which amply demonstrate the down-side of trying to handle emergencies out of a nations capital (for example Chernobyl).
file under WOT because this gang has been running some bad dudes across our border, killing cops and making alliances we really don't want made, especially inside our country
A massive international sweep targeting violent MS-13 gang members in the United States and Central America produced about 660 arrests, law enforcement authorities announced Thursday.
The two-day operation, which ended early Thursday, involved more than 6,400 government agents in five countries: the United States, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. Top officials from each country coordinated from a joint command post at FBI headquarters in Washington.
"I haven't seen anything like this in 23 years," said veteran FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker, who oversaw the operation.
Alejandro Diaz de Leon, of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, said, "There is no precedent in our law enforcement effort."
An estimated 10,000 members are in the United States, and while they have been most active in Los Angeles, New York and northern Virginia, other regions are gaining members.
almost 800 were arrested here last month
Officials say Central America has about 50,000 MS-13 members, and that the operation is an important step in their common goal of eradicating the MS-13 gang in the next 18 months.
Taking the gang members off the street is only a first step in solving El Salvador's gang problem, said Douglas Omar Garcia Fumes, assistant director of investigations there.
"They continue to operate even after they're arrested. Orders to kill are coming out of our prisons. We have only one maximum security prison," he said.
The operation's scope and collaborative effort "sent a message to MS-13 and other like gangs that their criminal enterprise and the violence they perpetrate will not be tolerated," Swecker said.
The Mara Salvatrucha (MS) gang was first formed in Los Angeles by young men from El Salvador. Most of the members have family ties to that country or to Honduras.
The largest number of arrests -- 237 -- was in El Salvador, where the brutal gang is entrenched. Other arrests included 162 in Honduras, 98 in Guatemala, 90 in Mexico and 73 in the United States.
U.S. cities with the highest number of arrests were: Los Angeles, with 20; San Francisco, with 12; Atlanta, six; and Charlotte, five.
Carrying out the raids in 13 states were agents from the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement; and local police.
Last month 19 suspected MS-13 gang members were charged in a federal racketeering indictment accusing them of killings and other violent crimes. (Full story)
In May two MS-13 members were convicted for the murder of pregnant federal witness Brenda Paz. (Full story)
#3
Big deal. What are you going to do with them once you've caught them? 50,000 members in Central America, 10,000 members in the US. Arresting them won't do dick. Gonna have to make them disappear.
#4
These birds have hit on an organized crime recipe that has serious potential for villainy.
Looking at their sheer numbers alone, they have incredible talent at recruiting new members. They are indifferent to the law wherever they are, and are utterly ruthless in their activities.
They may actually transcend that wall between "criminal" and "terrorist", the former being subdued by the law, the latter by force of arms. That being said, with the stroke of a pen, the President could make them as expendable as al-Qaeda or Taliban. Shoot on sight.
Granted, our central American neighbors wouldn't be too thrilled about a death penalty, but they may no longer have a choice in these matters--kill or be killed.
U.S. President George W. Bush has the power to detain Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who has been held in a South Carolina military brig for more than three years as a suspected enemy combatant without any charges, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
"The exceedingly important question before us is whether the president of the United States possesses the authority to detain militarily a citizen of this country who is closely associated with al Qaeda," wrote appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig for the three-judge panel.
"We conclude that the president does possess such authority," wrote Luttig, a conservative whom the Bush administration has been considering for a possible Supreme Court nomination.
The ruling by the court based in Richmond, Virginia, was a major victory for the Bush administration, but the decision can be appealed to the full appeals court or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Padilla, a former Chicago gang member and convert to Islam, initially was suspected by U.S. officials of plotting with al Qaeda to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States.
On May 8, 2002, Padilla was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after returning from Pakistan. Bush then declared him an enemy combatant, and Padilla was placed in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in South Carolina -- where he remains.
The appeals court reversed a decision by a federal judge in South Carolina who ruled in February that Bush had no authority to have Padilla held as an enemy combatant. The judge said Padilla must be released if he is not charged with a crime.
Luttig said that Bush had the power to detain Padilla, based on the joint resolution authorizing military force that Congress approved after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
He also cited a Supreme Court ruling in June 2004 in a similar case involving American-born and Saudi-raised Yaser Hamdi, who also was held by the military in this country as an enemy combatant.
Luttig said the resolution applied even more clearly and unmistakably to Padilla than to Hamdi.
"Padilla, after all, in addition to supporting hostile forces in Afghanistan and taking up arms against our troops on a battlefield in that country like Hamdi, also came to the United States in order to commit future acts of terrorism against American citizens and targets," Luttig wrote.
"Because, like Hamdi, Padilla is an enemy combatant, and because his detention is no less necessary than was Hamdi's in order to prevent his return to the battlefield, the president is authorized by the (resolution) to detain Padilla as a fundamental incident to the conduct of war," he said.
U.S. officials last year backed off their claim that Padilla was plotting to set off a dirty bomb. They said Padilla had plotted with al Qaeda leaders to blow up apartment buildings by using natural gas. None of the plots was carried out.
Richard Samp, general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation, a conservative legal group that had supported the Bush administration in the case, hailed the ruling.
"The courts are ill-equipped to second-guess the president when, acting in his capacity as commander in chief, he makes decisions implicating sensitive matters of foreign policy, national security, or military affairs," Samp said.
#3
If Nancy Pelosi had one more face-lift she'd be wearing a goatee.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/09/2005 18:13 Comments ||
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#4
Finally a reason to stop hating judges. Why do people want to waste money and time over this low life? How can the CLU (no longer standing for 'A'merica) lawyers sleep at night knowing that they might spring the next hijacker or homicisde bomber? But then I forget that many lawyers have no souls.
RICHMOND, Va.
A federal appeals court Friday sided with the Bush administration and reversed a judge's order that the government charge or free "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla. wannna guess who appointed that judge?
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the president has the authority to detain a U.S. citizen closely associated with al Qaida. A federal judge in South Carolina had ruled in March that the government cannot hold Padilla indefinitely as an "enemy combatant," a designation President Bush gave him in 2002. The government views Padilla as a militant who planned attacks on the United States, including with a "dirty bomb" radiological device.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/09/2005 11:19 ||
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#1
thank god it wasn't the 9th circuit in charge of this
I've got to say I disagre with this without hearing more. The guy was an American citizen arrested in America. He's not like Johnnie Walker Lindh that they found on the battlefield in Afghanistan. Book him or let him walk.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/09/2005 12:20 Comments ||
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#3
If you can make a case to a judge that he's dangerous enough to be held, I've got no problem with enemy combatant status. We're going to have cases where going the full criminal process/trial route would be somewhere between impractical and suicidal, but a hearing process with proper provisions about rules of evidence, secrecy and even presumption of innocence can be devised. I can't get behind the idea that DoD or Justice can make the declaration with no possible oversight from anybody.
An American student was charged yesterday in an al Qaeda plot to kill President Bush, with prosecutors alleging that Ahmed Omar Abu Ali and his confederates planned to use multiple snipers to shoot Bush or to blow him up in a suicide bombing.
The expanded indictment of Abu Ali, returned by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, also claimed for the first time that he proposed a plan to bring members of an al Qaeda cell into the United States through Mexico. They would then link up with Abu Ali to conduct terrorist operations in this country, the indictment said.
Abu Ali, 24, of Falls Church was first charged in February with terrorism counts that included trying to establish an al Qaeda cell in the United States. That indictment referred to the plot to kill Bush, but Abu Ali was not charged with conspiring to assassinate the president until yesterday. The case is among the highest-profile terrorism prosecutions in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The new nine-count indictment also adds charges of conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy and destroy aircraft, part of the Justice Department's allegations that Abu Ali was plotting with al Qaeda to conduct a Sept. 11-style attack in the United States that would include hijacking planes.
If convicted on the assassination count alone, Abu Ali faces up to life in prison. Earlier, his maximum penalty on all counts had been 80 years in prison.
An attorney for Abu Ali, who has pleaded not guilty, did not return telephone calls late yesterday, and a White House spokesman referred calls to the Justice Department. Prosecutors would not comment beyond the indictment.
Abu Ali was arrested by security officials in June 2003 while studying at a university in Saudi Arabia. His family mounted a highly public campaign in the United States for his release. He was held until he was flown back to the United States in February to face charges.
Defense attorneys and Abu Ali's family have contended that any statements he made in Saudi custody were obtained through torture. Two doctors who examined Abu Ali found evidence that he was tortured in Saudi Arabia, including scars on his back consistent with having been whipped, defense lawyers have said in court papers.
Prosecutors have denied that Abu Ali was tortured. But if a federal judge concludes that he was, much of the evidence against him could be thrown out because it was obtained under duress. The torture allegations are expected to play a key role in a hearing scheduled to start Sept. 19.
Law enforcement sources have said the plot against Bush, allegedly hatched while Abu Ali was studying in Saudi Arabia and after he joined an al Qaeda cell there, never advanced beyond the talking stage. The new indictment says two options were considered: multiple snipers shooting the president or a suicide operation.
The earlier indictment said nothing about snipers, only that Abu Ali would get close enough to Bush to "shoot him on the street" or would detonate a car bomb.
Several other allegations emerged yesterday about Abu Ali's alleged relationship with Osama bin Laden's organization. The indictment says he performed guard duty in 2003 for an al Qaeda cell at one of its locations in the Medina area of Saudi Arabia. It also says that in response to a request from an al Qaeda co-conspirator, Abu Ali translated from English into Arabic the audio portions of a video concerning operations by U.S. military aircraft in Afghanistan.
Abu Ali's case has generated strong interest among Muslims in Northern Virginia. The government says he confessed to the assassination plot while being detained in Saudi Arabia and admitted discussing with al Qaeda his plans to conduct attacks in the United States that included crashing hijacked planes into buildings.
Abu Ali will be arraigned on the charges in the new indictment on Wednesday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:03 ||
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#2
Whats up with Muslims in Northern Virginia? I keep reading about Muslim schools/madrasses, Mosques and Abu Ali types there.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/09/2005 3:01 Comments ||
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#3
By any stretch of the imagination, one Achmed Ali is in no way a Virginian. Let's just be clear on this OK?
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
09/09/2005 3:21 Comments ||
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#4
Whats up with Muslims in Northern Virginia?
Start with the Islamic Saudi Academy (AKA Al Qaeda High) and work your way to the Islamic Centers and masjids.
Posted by: ed ||
09/09/2005 8:46 Comments ||
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#5
Whats up with Muslims in Northern Virginia?
Close to the Saudi embassy.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/09/2005 9:02 Comments ||
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#6
And all the "outreach" programs it supports as well as the increased political protests and whining that directly or indirectly advocates hatred and violence toward the perceived source of all troubles, munkar, and bad things. Makes em feel a sense of violent urgency and importance out of any reasonable proportion. Easily excited with alot of political stimuli to trigger.
My comments in salmon, Jackel in yellow -- he posted a duplicate; great comments though!
More than 200 detainees in Guantánamo Bay are in their fifth week of a hunger strike, the Guardian has been told. Send the food to Biloxi.
Statements from prisoners in the camp which were declassified by the US government on Wednesday reveal that the men are starving themselves in protest at the conditions in the camp and at their alleged maltreatment - including desecration of the Qur'an - by American guards.
The statements, written on August 11, have just been given to the British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith. They show that prisoners are determined to starve them selves to death. In one, Binyam Mohammed, a former London schoolboy, said: "I do not plan to stop until I either die or we are respected. I'll go with option "A."
Wonder if he's ever seen a 36-French silastic nasgoastric feeding tube?
"People will definitely die. Bobby Sands petitioned the British government to stop the illegitimate internment of Irishmen without trial. He had the courage of his convictions and he starved himself to death. Nobody should believe for one moment that my brothers here have less courage." I'm cheering you on.
Yesterday, Mr Stafford Smith, who represents 40 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, eight of whom are British residents, said many men had been starving themselves for more than four weeks and the situation was becoming desperate. Unlike that of the people trapped on top of the World Trade Center...
He said: "I am worried about the lives of my guys because they are a pretty obstinate lot and they are going to go through with this and I think they are going to end up killing themselves. The American military doesn't want anyone to know about this."
He pointed to an American army claim that only 76 prisoners at the base were refusing food, saying that they were attempting to play down what could be a political scandal if a prisoner were to die.
Why would it be a political scandal? If they don't want to eat, no problem. We put the food on a tray in front of them.
The hunger strike is the second since late June. The first ended after the authorities made a number of promises, including better access to books, and bottled drinking water. The men claim that they were tricked into eating again.
In his statement, Mr Mohammed described how during the first strike men were placed on intravenous drips after refusing food for 20 days. He said: "The administration promised that if we gave them 10 days, they would bring the prison into compliance with the Geneva conventions. They said this had been approved by Donald Rumsfeld himself in Washington DC. As a result of these promises, we agreed to end the strike on July 28. OK. We'll go in compliance with the convention, sure. Lessee, [flip][flip], ah! Unlawful combatants. Sez here we can give you a summary court and execute you. Well, that's what you wanted, so...
Even if they promised that, these mooks aren't covered by the GC.
"It is now August 11. They have betrayed our trust (again). Hisham from Tunisia was savagely beaten in his interrogation and they publicly desecrated the Qur'an (again). Turns over cue card and reads from other side Saad from Kuwait was ERF'd [visited by the Extreme Reaction Force] for refusing to go (again) to interrogation because the female interrogator had sexually humiliated him (again) for 5 hours _ Therefore, the strike must begin again." Five hours of sexual humiliation? That would run into some serious money in Nevada.
We had a lap-dancing post recently, as I recall, with talk of serious coinage ...
In another declassified statement, Omar Deghayes, from Brighton, said: "In July, some people took no water for many days. I was part of the strike and I am again this time. Some people were taken to hospital, and put on drip feeds, but they pulled the needles out, as they preferred to die. There were two doctors. One wanted to force feed the men, but they got legal advice saying that they could not if the men refused.
"In the end the military agreed to negotiate. We came off the strike [on July 28 2005], but we gave them two weeks, and if the changes were not implemented we would go back on strike."
Next time, no negotiations.
Yesterday, Mr Deghayes's brother, Abubaker, pleaded with the British government to intervene on his brother's behalf. "I'm really worried. Something really needs to be done. We can't just allow people to be oppressed and tortured," he said. Well, we can, as long as they are infidels or women.
Another prisoner, Jamal Kiyemba, from Battersea, south London, said in an account of the July hunger strike: "Many of the prisoners collapsed, as they would not drink water. More than 30 were hospitalised. I am in Camp IV and we joined in." He added: "Eventually, because people were near death, the military caved and let us set up a prisoner welfare council of six prisoners."
Jamil el Banna, another British resident, described how the guards were again searching the Qur'an by hand, which they had agreed to stop.
"Yeah, when we defile a Qur'an it's ... different ... somehow."
Last night a Pentagon spokesman denied that there were more than 200 hunger strikers: "There are 76 detainees doing a voluntary fast at present. There are nine detainees in hospital as a result of their hunger strike. But do you believe the Pentagon or a lawyer for terrorists?
"They are listed as being in a stable condition and they are recieving nutrition." Asked if they were being force fed, he said: "They are being held in the same standards as US prison standards... they don't allow people to kill themselves via starvation."
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/09/2005 00:00 ||
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#2
hunger strikes only matter if someone cares. Otehrwise, it's just the same as if they decided to slowly make room for another mook. I have no problem with that. Starve em and BBQ outside their cells - Pork ribs and beer for the troops!
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/09/2005 0:45 Comments ||
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#3
Starve em and BBQ outside their cells - Pork ribs and beer for the troops!
#4
I feel the problem may be us being seen in a bad light for allowing them to die. To stir up more aggitation toward us is something that we don't need now. Maybe if we have someone overseeing (not that I like this idea) the situation to enable us to prove that no wrong doing is going on, in the event that they do die.
Like don't show the guys enjoying the BBQ pork ribs downwind from the inmates.
Posted by: Jan ||
09/09/2005 1:49 Comments ||
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#5
my bad I meant the inmates downwind of the delicious ribs but you knew that right
Posted by: Jan ||
09/09/2005 1:59 Comments ||
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#6
Hunger strikers pledge to die in Guantánamo
promises promises...
my bad I meant the inmates downwind of the delicious ribs but you knew that right
/double probation. >:
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/09/2005 2:35 Comments ||
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#7
How much money does it save the USA if this slime dies? It's always the matter of bottom line right ;-)
#8
It seems to me that their are many, many involuntarily starving people in the world who could use the grub. Next...
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/09/2005 5:12 Comments ||
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#9
2points:1)If they starve themselves then they have comitted suicide and go to hell,2)asking wether I believe the terrs or the Pentagon only matters if I care wether they live or die.And I don't.
#10
Y'all missed the last two lines - "They are listed as being in a stable condition and they are recieving nutrition." Asked if they were being force fed, he said: "They are being held in the same standards as US prison standards... they don't allow people to kill themselves via starvation."
Sounds like when they're too weak to resist, they plop 'em in a rack and hook 'em up to a tube. But I'm sure they don't let 'em get too healthy!
BTW, just what sort of implement of torture is the "36-French silastic nasgoastric feeding tube"?
Naso-gastric?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/09/2005 7:51 Comments ||
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#11
ok they bitchin about conditions? Weren't they captured in Afghanistan? aka shithole of the earth
Judging from the base words, I'd say it goes through the nose and into the stomach.
If they starve themselves then they have comitted suicide and go to hell
Except they're jihadis. Which means their deaths are in the cause of Allah, and starving to death ends with them getting their raisins and young boys.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/09/2005 8:59 Comments ||
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#13
Inserting a NG tube is rather slow and most uncomfortable. Might I suggest off the shelf water hose? Vastly increased volume and they come in some lovely colors.
Posted by: Steven ||
09/09/2005 9:18 Comments ||
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#19
Why the hell should the American guards have to give in to these terrorist demands?
My life will march foward regardless if these vile creatures live or not.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/09/2005 12:27 Comments ||
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#20
The morons on in our detention centres pull the same stunt, quite regularly, and they always win.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/09/2005 12:28 Comments ||
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#21
So, they won't stop their hunger strike untill they are either respected or dead?
How can anyone respect individuals who give praise and credit to people who carry out the mass murder of innocent civilians world wide?
I'll show you some respect, step a little bit closer so i can spit on that overgrown flea infested beard of yours, you dirty maggot.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/09/2005 12:32 Comments ||
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#22
if my post seems a little over the top, im sorry... im drunk... not that thats anny excuse, but when i read that that loose-limb muslim wanted to be respected, that made my blood boil... I'm no troll, i'm trying to be civilized, and that's part of the reason i don't post many comments, is because my views stem from my anger, and i usually post nasty insults to my number #1 enemy....... the Muslims
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/09/2005 12:42 Comments ||
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#23
We know you're not a troll Oz.
"I'll show you some respect, step a little bit closer so i can spit on that overgrown flea infested beard of yours, you dirty maggot."
You forgot, "after I drench your sorry ass in pig guts."
Well, ya' know they'd LOVE to do worse to us.
BTW--the "respect" these guys want is NOT going to come no matter what we do (outside therapy and cultural revolution), since the issue is tied to personal sexual maladjustment problems. They'll always feel disrespected at the deepest level. No amount of booming is gonna do it either. I feel kind of sorry for 'em. Just a teensie bit -- but it's mostly on an abstract, academic level.
Also, I doubt any of them have the fortitude to starve themselves to death, UNLESS they've rerouted their need for male respect (from other males) into the "see me -- I'm so cool, and strong and worthy, blah, blah, blah -- admire me and my "manhood" because I'm going to starve" to which the others go "Ahhhhh . . . good job . . . allah is great, blah, blah, blah." Other than that, I don't see it happening.
Get a lamb roasting on a spit, and serve it up with some fresh-baked flatbread, some bakalave and fruit, and they'll break their "commitment" to jihad in 10 seconds.
#26
Well, post the recipe my good man. I've got an opened roll of filo dough that needs to be used this weekend.
Posted by: ed ||
09/09/2005 17:47 Comments ||
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#27
Connie the Short Bus Lady's Unkle Melvin has 80 behives so I've got the honey. Anybody need some?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/09/2005 18:10 Comments ||
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#28
I guess it's time for a little shark-trolling in the waters south of Cuba.
These people are nothing. They count for nothing. They and their idiot-stick lawyer(s) should be bound together with half-inch steel cable and forced to swim to Venezuela. We as a nation have got to learn that there is such a thing as being too nice, especially to scum like islamofascist fruitcakes. Shackle them to the under-wing drop-racks of a few B-52's, let the birds fly at altitude until the jihadis are frozen solid, and drop them in the center of the Sargasso Sea.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/09/2005 20:40 Comments ||
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#29
the men are starving themselves in protest at the conditions in the camp and at their alleged maltreatment
That's not really why they went on a hunger strike. They missed being tortured straddled by the female interrogators. They discovered that they actually liked it. But they can't get anymore "action" since these tactics were stopped due to the public outcry. And wanking in view of the guards has lost its thrill. Soooo....hunger strike! The Guardian put its own spin on this of course.
Posted by: Rafael ||
09/09/2005 22:34 Comments ||
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#30
#16 RC, I busted a (pig) gut with this one. Touche
Posted by: Jan ||
09/09/2005 23:35 Comments ||
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Authorities have identified two of the 10 Indonesian suicide bombers who went to Mindanao middle of this year and are now scrambling to arrest them before they can carry out their missions. The bombers are members of the Indonesia-based Komite Penanggulungan Krisis (Kompak) which is allied with the Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. JI is linked to Osama bin Ladenâs Al Qaida terrorist network. National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said the information was confirmed by Enceng Kurnia, alias Arham, a member of the extremist Negara Islam Indonesia, who was arrested by police intelligence agents in Mindanao last June. âWe have, based on reports by Indonesian and local police intelligence agents, two Indonesian suicide bombers loose in the country. Of the 10 dispatched to carry out terror missions in Mindanao, six have been arrested, two are still on the loose while it is not known if two others are still in the country or have left for other places,â Gonzales said.
Kurnia, Gonzales said, confirmed that he arranged the passage to the Philippines of Indonesian suicide bombers alias Ahmad Qildan and one Abu Nida. Both remained unaccounted for by the Indonesian and local police authorities. Both Ahman and Abu Nida have linked up with the Abu Sayyaf group in Mindanao. The Indonesians who had gone to Mindanao, aside from Ahmad, Nida and Kurnia, include Abdullah Sunata, head of Kompak, Igbal Husaini and alias Ramly/Adrian and Purnama Putra, both leading members of Kompak.
Sunata, who was arrested in Jakarta last July 16, is a suspect in the Kuningan bombing and had been sent there by JI leader Umar Patek. Patek, who is believed to be based in Mindanao, sent 10 people to undergo terrorist training in the Philippines. Patek is a senior member of the JI regional terror group and one of the top suspects in the October 2002 Bali, Indonesia bombings which killed 202 people. He is believed to be still in the Philippines. The Indonesian National Police (Polri) arrested in June and July this year 24 Indonesian Islamic militants in various locations in Indonesia, seven of whom were later released. Among the 15 still in detention, at least four â Sunata, Kurnia, Husaini and Putra â admitted to have gone to Mindanao to undergo training or to escort new recruits for training.
Gonzales said Sunata was arrested by the Polri for allegedly hiding Malaysian bomb experts Noordin Mohammad Top and Azahari Husin, both prime suspects in a series of bloody attacks in Indonesia. Noordin and Azahari are suspected of playing major roles in the Bali bombings, the August 2003 bomb blast at the Marriot Hotel in Jakarta and the suicide van bomb blast at the Australian embassy in that city in September.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:32 ||
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TWO government soldiers were injured when a landmine, planted by suspected communist insurgents, exploded on a village in the southern Philippines, the military said.
The military said the soldiers, onboard a jeep, was returning to their base on Wednesday when their hit a landmine near the village of Danlas in South Cotabato's Tampakan town.
It tagged the New People's Army (NPA) as behind the explosion. The two soldiers were rushed to hospital.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), is fighting the past three decades to overthrow the government and install a Maoist state in the country.
The government and the CPP-NDF are trying to revive a stalled peace talks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:24 ||
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This pisses me off to no end. Rohan identified all the principles in the Bali bombing nearly a year before the blast, yet Indonesia deports him and Jones but cuts Bashir's jail sentence because of his back pains? My guess is he started finding or it looked like he was going to find ties between the Indonesian government or military and the various Islamist groups fighting in the Moluccas.
Indonesia will deport a prominent Singapore-based counter-terrorism expert and author of a book on al Qaeda who was detained in the Moluccas for doing research while holding a tourist visa, a police official said on Friday.
Moluccas police spokesman Artstianto Darmawan said police arrested Rohan Gunaratna earlier this week in the region, where vicious communal fighting between Muslims and Christians from 1999 to 2002 killed more than 5,000 people.
A peace agreement in early 2002 halted the fighting in the Moluccas, which at its height had attracted militants linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
Gunaratna, a Sri Lankan, is the author of "Inside al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror", and is a frequent commentator on Islamic militancy and terrorism in Asia. "We arrested him a few days ago ... because of visa violations. He was using a tourist visa while doing research here," said Darmawan.
"He's going to be transferred to the immigration office and be deported soon."
Gunaratna's detention follows the June 2004 expulsion from Indonesia of Sidney Jones, the Southeast Asia director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group thinktank.
Jones, who had been based in Jakarta, was expelled under a different administration after a series of hard-hitting reports on terrorism in Indonesia. She was recently allowed to return and live in Jakarta.
Indonesia also barred Australian academic Edward Aspinall, an expert on the civil conflict in Aceh province, from entering the country earlier this year.
In both cases, the government defended its right to admit whom it chose but officials had been vague about precisely what either had done to cause the expulsions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:09 ||
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#1
I find it amusing that the democracy that Bill Clinton imposed on Indonesia has seen Islamist terrorist attacks on Westerners, the return of al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists to Indonesia, the closure of churches and the persecution of Sunday school teachers. All so that Clinton could carry out his pastime of screwing America's long-time allies (Indonesia, for one) and sucking up to its long-time enemies (China, for one). In time, Clinton's reign will be seen to have far more negative and far-reaching consequences than Carter's.
Do you want to be a suicide bomber? There is one country that allows open recruiting for such adventurers. The Iranian armed forces has established an organization called the "Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison," which will recruit, screen and train suicide bombers, "for attacks on Western targets." The application form, and an English translation, can be seen here. This offer is apparently only open to Iranian citizens.
The effort, which has less than two months old, has already attracted over 50,000 applicants. Openly using these fanatics in attacks against Western targets could result in some unpleasant counterattacks against Iran. The Iranians know that if they turn a lot of these volunteers loose outside the country, their origins will be found out. Some of the volunteers will be captured alive, and the Iranians are now aware of how effective Western forensic capabilities are (you can identify an Iranian from DNA analysis body parts.) It's more likely that these fanatical volunteers will be used against internal enemies. Not necessarily as suicide bombers, but as true believers who will do anything for the cause.
The Iranians are not the only ones recruiting suicide bombers. In Sri Lanka, the Hindu Tamil Tigers (also known as the LTTE) recruit suicide bombers from among their existing troops (many of whom are kidnapped and brainwashed teenagers). The LTTE were the first to use suicide bombers, and were the most active users until the Palestinian terrorists and al Qaeda began using the tactic more widely after September 11, 2001. The Palestinian terrorists and al Qaeda also recruit suicide bombers, via a network of recruiters. Arab media, in general, tends to speak highly of suicide bombers (calling them martyrs), thus making it easier to recruit more.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:21 ||
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#1
Proper response for this is "an eye for an eye." Every time an Iranian boomer kills a Westerner, a B-2 should deposit a 2,000 pound JDAM on a mullah or ayatollah. Even though people from that part of the world aren't well versed in cause and effect, the message should begin to seep through after the fourth or fifth vaporized mullah.
Posted by: Random thoughts ||
09/09/2005 1:22 Comments ||
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#2
cause and effect. training MOAB training MOAB training MOAB..and who cares if they're slow learners.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/09/2005 3:42 Comments ||
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#3
People are dying to become suicide bombers. Applications accepted at the employment office on Grim Reaper Drive.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/09/2005 5:17 Comments ||
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#4
it's amazing that these ppl's lives are this meaningless and useless
#5
That suicide training must be hard on the HR dept. "Ali, next time pull the ripcord a little slower, ok? Ali? oops. Next in line please."
Posted by: Steven ||
09/09/2005 9:45 Comments ||
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#6
Y'all miss the good points of this "Recruiting"
All we have to do is locate and vaporize the "Training Camp"
Even the name is appropriate, "The Lovers Of Martyrdom" surely can't complain about being successfully "Martyred"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/09/2005 12:47 Comments ||
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#7
This is nothing new. MEMI has been reporting open suicide bomber recruitment for at least since March '03.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/09/2005 14:36 Comments ||
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#8
It's more likely that these fanatical volunteers will be used against internal enemies. Not necessarily as suicide bombers, but as true believers who will do anything for the cause.
Likely they'll be integrated into the Baseej (volunteers) that are technically under the control of the Revolutionary Guards. Both the Iranian armed forces and the IRGC have drawn the line at quelling civil disorder and uprisings. So the clerics are looking to the ultra-fanatics in the Baseej.
#9
Never mind that several of the Islam's greatest kings of antiquity, includ Osama's fav Saladin, forbade or frowned on suicide, espec amongst their armies. Radical Islam's "Army of God/Lions of Jihad" will never be anything more than a bloody nuisance because the army's warriors blow themselves to bits. Radical Islam = Communism = wastes or its available or potential manpower - they have to dev or acquire WMDS/Nukes in order to compensate for the self-destruction of warfighting males, regardless of any war ags America. Radical Islam = Communists' "war/battle zone" strategems emphasis on POLITICAL VICTORY = getting America, etal. to justify their own existence and actions, as oppos to justification caused in and for themselves. WE SHOULD ASK LIBERAL ACADEMIA WHETHER THERE IS SUCH A THING AS "THIRD PARTY-BASED MANIFEST DESTINY" IN THE 21st CENTURY, ala "HELP ME SAVE OR JUSTIFY MYSELF, BUT I STILL GET TO KILL YOU NOW = LATER!?
Security forces clashed with Islamic militants in northeastern Syria on Thursday, killing one and arresting three others in the country's latest move against a group accused of planning bomb attacks, the official news agency said. One security member was also wounded.
The clash with members of Jund al-Sham militant group occurred in Khashman area on the outskirts of the city of Hasaka, 440 miles northeast of Damascus, said a Syrian official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was giving details not in the official release.
A human rights activist in Hasaka, Nidal Darwish, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that "heavy exchange of fire took place in Khashman quarter, a poor area northeast of Hasakah, led to the killing of one person and wounding two others who were detained."
The Syrian official said security forces surrounded the gunmen's hideout and asked them to surrender but instead they threw grenades and opened fire at the force. The force then stormed the hideout killing one and detaining two gunmen, he said.
The official news agency SANA later said one of the gunmen was killed and three were captured "with their weapons and are being interrogated."
The incident occurred a week after security forces killed five Jund al-Sham members near the city of Hama about 120 miles north of Damascus.
Jund al-Sham, whose name in Arabic means Soldiers of Syria, is a well-known organization that was set up in Afghanistan by Syrian, Palestinian and Jordanian militants and has links to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Syrian authorities have been monitoring the group for months and had previously clashed with its members, who were believed to be planning to launch bomb attacks in Damascus.
Terrorist attacks are rare in this tightly controlled country. Last April, police raided a militant hide-out hours after a mysterious attack in the Syrian capital's diplomatic quarter that killed four people and targeted a building once occupied by the United Nations.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:13 ||
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UN chief Investigator Detlev Mehlis was set to be granted a six week extension to his investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A New York-based UN source told The Daily Star Mehlis was due to meet with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last night when he would be given until the end of October to finish his work in Lebanon and Syria. Mehlis is scheduled to visit Damascus on Saturday to interview Syrian officials who "played security roles" in Lebanon in the past 15 years.
That'll be some interesting conversations. He might also want to check their bank accounts...
A Lebanese diplomatic source said Mehlis would ask Annan to exert more pressure on Syria to allow him to interrogate highly ranked Syrian security and political officials. It is understood that Mehlis wants to question Syria's current interior minister Ghazi Kanaan, who formerly served as Damascus' military intelligence chief in Lebanon from 1982 to 2002. Kanaan's successor in Lebanon, Rustom Ghazali, and two key aides in Beirut, Mohammad Makhlouf and Jamaa Jamaa, are also on the list of people he wishes to interview.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
The fix is in.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/09/2005 23:44 Comments ||
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Investigator Detlev Mehlis' UN team has questioned Nasser Qandil, a former pro-Syrian MP, for a second time. Qandil was questioned last month on the same day the four former security chiefs who are now charged with Hariri's murder were detained. Early last week Mehlis had said that Qandil remained a suspect even though he was not held in custody.
Wonder how much Qandil has in the bank, and where it came from...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2005 00:00 ||
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A judiciary source said the UN team interrogated a "security officer" about possible links between the four men accused of Hariri's assassination and Al-Madina Bank executive secretary, Rana Qoleilat. Al-Madina bank was closed by a court ruling last year after a scandal involving Syrian and Lebanese officials and money laundering. Local television, citing a financial source, said around $500 million was found in the bank accounts of the officers accused of Hariri's murder.
Usually, professional soldiers, even generals, aren't paid quite that well...
The source said that each of the four officers possessed around $150 million and that most of the money had been paid into their accounts during the last two years. According to the source, one of the suspected officers possessed only $30 million in Lebanon as he had wired most of his money to accounts abroad a few months before Hariri's assassination. Lebanon's strict banking secrecy laws were "lifted" from the accounts following a request from the UN investigation team in the past few days.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
perhaps they had Hillary's cattle futures advisor help out?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/09/2005 0:06 Comments ||
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GS9143 -- disturbing, this is the second piece on this topic in recent days, particularly as it relates to ChiCom advances.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/09/2005 17:34 Comments ||
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Fred Brooks in the Mythical Man Month first described the diseconomies of scale in software development fourty years ago. Despite what the author assumes, more SW engineers does not equal more software. I have worked with many software engineers from both India and China and they are years behind the West in understanding the key to software development which is process. And BTW both have very significant cultural problems to overcome in getting there.
#5
The DOD has SIPRNET (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network) that is used for classified transmissions and is not physically connected to the internet.
Posted by: ed ||
09/09/2005 18:21 Comments ||
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#6
The articles are based on two unproved premises:
1) That China is outprodicing scientists
2) and that China is making better use of more women.
China is a closed society. Where are the numbers? I doubt there are numbers, just a lot of interviewees the writer was lucky enough to get to say we are behind.
My main concern in military computing is being able to detect and to counteract low tech attempts by the Chinese to defeat high tech. That is where China will far more likely cause damage.
#9
China already produces 4 times the number of science and engraduates as the US, and the gap is widening. While US graduates are steady or slightly decreasing at 60,000/year, China is at about 240,000 and increasing as they get richer. The same trend applies wrt India.
In addition, many experienced US engineers move to different jobs where the money is better and/or the stress less. Where the US makes up is by importing large numbers of foreign technical talent (many Indian and Chinese, but also European, esp. in the sciences). I have worked with many companies where the engineers and scientists were over 50% foreign (at 80-130K salaries for worker bees). Not only are these well paying jobs, but the amount of technical and design leakage to overseas competitors is incredible. This even applies (to a lesser extent) to the military weapons companies/labs.
Posted by: ed ||
09/09/2005 18:45 Comments ||
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#10
Fact is that China is buying Russian S300 systems. They cannot develop anything comparable.
Likewise for India. They have bought a few S300s, wish to buy the Israeli Arrow and are now looking at a US Patriot PAC3 purchase.
Posted by: john ||
09/09/2005 18:54 Comments ||
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#11
FG, there is a long answer and a short answer to your question. I'll give you the short answer. Scaling up SW development is an extremely hard problem, but a large part of the answer is a culture of cooperative independence. People have to work in loosely coupled groups with high levels of personal responsibility and group commitment. That is they must work to solve problems as individuals, and within and between groups. Getting the right balance is hard.
At the risk of a gross simplification, Chinese and Indians have the opposite problem. You have to tell the Chinese everything, whereas you can't tell the Indians shit, especially the men (Indian women are much better at working cooperatively). The Chinese are averse to taking personal responsibility and shift problems onto the group or other groups whereas the Indian men have trouble facing up to problems they are unable to fix themselves and need to be shared with the group.
#12
Someone seems to forget that the US makes up in engineers by immigration. The number of 1HB visas is now over 200k a year. I remember when it as around 10K a year. Do you see the worlds best minds immigrating to China? to India? Gee, I wonder why. Just remember all the foreign minds who migrated to the US just before and during WWII [and yes after, thank you Mr. Von Braun].
#13
The visa issue?
That's why skilled US born engineers like myself and others I know can't find work in the US.
ITS BS. The visa guys are scab labor!
#14
I know a lot of great software engineers in the US - I also know a lot that are unemployed or switched to other fields, because their job was sent offshore. All that education and training - down the drain.
One day we may find ourselves facing a crisis with mainland China. And when the phones suddenly stop working, the power goes out, and the software in the US military vessels and C&C centers 'malfunctions' - we may regret outsourcing our country's software industry.
#15
Like I said before, wiggins, the nation ought to come before the idols of "free trade" mammon.
The gentleman is correct that native American engineers are being deliberately unemployed by American corporations, not just with H1B, but with "offshore" arrangements that pump up foreign mind muscle, at the expense of an atrophied domestic one. This is all being done for short term shareholder happy news.
American corporations such as IBM are selling "enabling" technologies like "MultiSite," which allows US companies to gradually shift their code base to foreign shores, while veiling the activity as necessary for mere "supplemental" development work to the handful of Americans needed to keep applications alive during the transition.
Senior IT execs in most of America's big firms do not give a rat's ass about the impact on American national security, they only care about doing what they have always done cheaper than yesterday.
My experience of H1B s/w developers is that very few of the 35 - 45 year old Chinese can be viewed as potential converts to America. If you share a few beers, you soon learn that the attitude is pretty much "we are going to fuck you up." Senior IT execs know that this attitude is prevalent, and don't care.
The younger Chinese developers seem to have a different attitude. A great many of them appear to be happy to be on these shores, and have no desire to go back. Perhaps there is some hope in that, but I am not sanguine.
The Indians are another kettle of fish. They are often as homebound as their ChiCom counterparts, but are rather direct about their attitudes, and while posing a threat to America's long term engineering capacity, they generally do not have a hard on for the Great Satan.
I am a pathological despiser of the dhimmicrat party, but the GOP is doing our nation no favors in its idiotic embrace of so-called "free trade," while intellectual capital, as well as equity, drains out to places that are an existential threat : red China.
Hell, we've seen this crap before, as when IBM sold Hollerith equipment to the Nazis, and Ford made trucks for the Wehrmacht.
Posted by: IT Insider ||
09/09/2005 23:37 Comments ||
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#16
Thuger
Its already been done. Years ago. And I am not talking SIPRNET. This is far more secure. Got some really hairy detection cybernetics stuff on it straight out of the Terminator movies.
This is not a space blog. Military/WoT uses of space are okay. General space topics are not, unless it's really hot on the news. We had news on the Mars explorers when they first landed because it was in the news and really cool, but we don't have that now.
This is not a hurricane blog. We've blogged on the Katrina disaster because it was the #1 item in the news, but as NO/Mississippi clean up we'll be cutting back on that. I certainly have. Many times a natural disaster somewhere in the world, especially the Islamic world, gets two sentences under the rubric of 'Signs and Portents, part xxx'. That's okay, but we don't need ten paragraphs and nine posts on it.
This is not a domestic news blog. We blog WoT related items, and some politics always creeps into that. But we don't cover the usual 'inside baseball' stuff on health care policy or the highway bill. There are other good blogs for that.
An extension to that is that we're not a domestic news blog for Britain, Australia or Liberia. We want to hear about Tony when it matters to the WoT (his survival in parliament is included in that). We hear about the German election and Chirac's stroke because it matters, in some way, to the WoT. But what Dominique DeVillepin (who is alleged to be a man) does with domestic policy in France is something we generally don't cover.
Health and tech stories that don't relate to the WoT generally shouldn't be posted. The flu story was fine, because a flu pandemic is germane to the WoT.
Stupid animal stories, of course, are always welcome.
When news is slow, the moderators tend to let more stuff through. When we have 100+ posts staring at us, it gets tough for Fred, me, Steve, Emily, Robin, Dan, etc to keep up, let alone filter and snark away. So we start lopping off stuff that isn't central to the WoT. I don't have enough hours in the day to wade through 200+ posts.
Don't take it personal.
(Gonna get in trouble for this, I just know it...)
Page 1 is for hardcore WoT stories. They'll usually include dead bodies, guns, lawyers, large amounts of money, major breakthroughs, major setbacks, and major investigations.
Page 2 is what you might call background noise WoT stories. That's the place for negotiations, maneuvering, diplomatic initiatives, Arab and Muslim lies and perfidy, elections on Islam's bloody borders, regime change, efforts of the moonbats to impede the war effort, military technological developments, economic warfare — including oil and other forms energy, the peculiar people who ally themselves with international Islamism, like David Duke and the neo-Nazis. There are occasional dead bodies on Page 2, usually associated with whoever's rioting that day in Karachi or Quetta.
Page 3 is for non-WoT stories that are of interest to us all, or at least to a large number of us. That's fire, flood, earthquakes, people doing terrible things to each other that aren't associated with terrorism or international Islamism (Congo, Burundi, death cults in whatever country), and, of course, stoopid animal stories and Darwin award candidates. Many Fifth Column stories will also fit on Page 3, because they have the habit of creeping onto Page 2 as they grow — think Michael Moore, George Soros and Code Pink — even though their immediate target might not be the war effort. Page 3 is the background noise to the WoT, what would be of interest if there were no Islamists. That does include the occasional space story, but only when it's something big, like arriving on Mars, discovering a new planet, or the occasional asteroid on a collision course with the earth.
Page 4 is available for opinion, your own or somebody else's, preferably on Page 1 or 2 topics, but occasionally on Big Story Page 3 topics.
I remind everyone periodically to keep stories short where possible. My original intention when I started Rantburg was to have a series of easily digestible nuggets that would summarize the day's WoT. When the AP or Rooters starts to repeat themselves, or to tell you things you learned in nursery school, cut it there or chop that paragraph if there's actually more news to follow. If a single story covers multiple topics, take each topic and make it a post, putting it on the appropriate page. See today's Leb stories, for example, three of which lead back to a single Beirut Daily Star article. You can cut the original text as long as you don't change its meaning — Maureen Dowd doesn't post here. Anything you add goes into hilited comments.
You can also post just a headline if it's descriptive, or you can post just a headline with your comments. If you're on the spot and the news is breaking, feel free to write it up and post it.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/09/2005 12:43 ||
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#1
I have a strange feeling this post may be directed towards me, as i have posted quite a few articles relating to space topics...
I promise not to post anymore topics, unless they are directly connected to WOT.
I didn't realize that posting these articles was a problem as i have posted a few others, but i do understand, and i do respect your wish. And i will obey and abide by your rules.
Again, i am sorry - if this post is directed towards me.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
09/09/2005 13:43 Comments ||
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#2
I have also posted way more in the "tech" category than is just WoT tech. No more flu info, major science discoveries, or other stuff then. Sorry about crossing the line.
#4
Hmmm. Space is off-topic? Okaaaay. Good thing the US Military is the friggin' Gold Standard in any venue in which they are fielded -- or the whole shitload of Hurricane Katrina stories would be off-topic, too. Despite the blather about this being a dry run for a major asshat attack, extremely few stories reflect that angle - they're all over the map.
I understand the focus on WoT is primary. But is this really a way of reducing the number of posted stories, perhaps? Is that the real issue being addressed? If so, then I get it - it is a jungle, nowadays. If not, well, I guess I don't really get it.
Posted by: Rafael ||
09/09/2005 15:06 Comments ||
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#6
Well, I'm going to keep posting stories on my little green froggie if I want to, and I don't care WHAT you say, Steve. "There once was a little green frog, and one day he hopped to the post office and blew it up because he was a secret Al Queda operative . . . " There. Is that okay? WOT and stupid animal story! :) Oh--and can I still complain about Hilary? I think she fits the category of stupid animal story.
Just being weird. Good idea to set limits, or things can get going in all kinds of directions . . . forever and ever . . . and you probably won't get any sleep. I do hope you won't limit troll bashing responses. It's the only fun I got.
#7
A thought, that might help? Is shorter, better? I mean, if I really want to share my green froggy story, is it more likely to pass thru you hard-pressed Moderators if it's edited down to less than 50 words - sort of a teaser?
Come to think of it, I was guilty of a post like that....
But I'd really hate it if there were only four articles on Monday!
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/09/2005 15:54 Comments ||
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#8
Interesting dilemna.
Hurricane preparedness as it relates to WMD on Homeland preparedness (or lack thereof)?
Now, where's my Rubic Cube?
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/09/2005 16:04 Comments ||
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#9
The registration thing gets tired after a while. Lots of sites use it, to little or no effect except to drive away posters.
Instead of trusting to my own judgement of what is appropriate or not, I'd put more faith on positive follow-ups. If someone posts something that is questionable, give it an hour or two to see if others chip in with good commentary. If it just sits there, as an empty thread, either the article "says it all", or nobody else cares.
#12
No registration.If there had been registration I probably wouldn't be here.When I run across a new sight that I like I invite them over(don't know if anybody ever took me up)registration may just put them off.
#13
Registration would have kept the likes of me from posting. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing in the end. In any event you need to understand that it would deter alot of folks from getting involved.
#14
We regularly revisit this topic. Arguably what makes RB is the number of people who get to choose what is 'interesting' news. inevitably this leads to stuff that many are not interested in. The reality is that many of us are interested in tech/space/natural phenomena stories as the volume and quality of comments shows. I found Phil Fraeling's comments yesterday on the comet story very interesting. Best thread of the day IMO.
So, what to do? I sympathize with the editors need to keep the volume of posts under control and I also understand WoT is the primary focus. However, the cause of increasing posts is increasing traffic and this is a problem that is not going away unless RB deteriorates. I won't bore you with a 'tradegy of the commons' analysis, but this problem (like many problems) has been solved before. Eventually will you have to 'fence' RB, that is restrict who can post or have somekind of 2 tier system e.g. regulars and others. I am sure we can find innovative ways to do this that allows newcomers to continue to post articles.
Before posting articles anywhere, spend a week or two just lurking so you can get a feel for the personality of the place. There's certain things that belong on Rantburg that wouldn't fit on other sites, and vice versa. You need to spend time to get a feel for the personality of a place before you can judge the "fit" of a posting.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/09/2005 17:16 Comments ||
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#18
I take the "Rant" part of Rantburg seriously. I will confess that lots of WoT stories are as dry as corn starch, involving Shiek Yabooti in Fructistan and his dancing terrorist goats meeting a sorry fate with the business end of a pointed stick after his brother-in-law mistook him for Shiek N'baik from the next village over.
I mean, that's all well and good, but what's there to rant about? Even if you get a mouth full, eventually all you have is saliva ooblek.
Along with "stupid animal stories", there should be a tag for "Moonbats", maybe even a "Darwin" tag, and/or a "Dumbass" tag. They may or may not be WoT related, but they certainly have stuff you can rant about.
#20
How about a Casual Friday/Post What You Want one day a week?
Posted by: ed ||
09/09/2005 17:50 Comments ||
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#21
Phil B. wrote: I found Phil Fraering's comments yesterday on the comet story very interesting.
Phil, I don't intend to repeat that. The moderators are probably right.
I sorta got sucked into the topic drift in that thread because large segments of the official moonbat belief system appear to depend on taking a "bring your own rules" attitude towards physics. This would irritate me even if it didn't appear to be part of a larger effort to undermine the country.
I'm still trying to figure out if there's really anything that can help counteract the trend. But I understand how the editors feel if they'd rather the discussion happened somewhere else. I will attempt not to get carried away in the future.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/09/2005 18:10 Comments ||
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#22
'Moose wrote:
Along with "stupid animal stories", there should be a tag for "Moonbats", maybe even a "Darwin" tag, and/or a "Dumbass" tag. They may or may not be WoT related, but they certainly have stuff you can rant about.
Well, "Short Attention Span Theater" pretty much functions for describing all fo the above. And really, if you want to read a lot of "dumbass" news items, fark's usually there the furstest with the mostest.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/09/2005 18:15 Comments ||
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#23
Partially in response to Phil F: One of things that makes RB is that is not an echo chamber and the variety of stuff that gets aired here, and debunked as well, is RB's major attraction. I come here precisely because I know I'll get to hear interesting stuff I didn't know or I'm prompted to go off and educate myself on something because of what I read. Not posting the stuff you did yesterday, would have made RB less of what it is. I didn't think you needed to apologize for the comments yesterday and I don't think you need to today.
.com's right, If the volume of posts is the problem then lets address that problem and not try to solve it indirectly by restricting the scope of what can be posted. (No implied cricism of the moderators there)
#24
I disagree strongly with you Ship, if it weren't for drunken posting - I for one would no longer be heard from (no loss to most I'm sure).
Some of the most entertaining posts I've read here, I'm convinced the poster has been hammered.
#29
Perhaps a revision of the posting categories is in order...
I often have a hard time figuring which category to file stuff under.
Maybe a Page 1, 2, 3, ...
The subcategories certainly need some work.
Iran should be by itself as should Syria, Pakistan, Mexico and Canada.
Other than that Rantburg is an excellently run operation and kudos to all of you who make it so, moderators, posters and commentators alike.
Posted by: DanNY ||
09/09/2005 22:36 Comments ||
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#30
Thanks for the guidelines. Any guidelines or info on some of the links such as WOT Futures or the O club? I often enjoy visiting several of the links but don't know the protocol and don't want to intrude if it's not invited. Is the O club named after the obstacle course in Coronado? Also I've had problems posting pictures sometimes with my posts. I guess I need tips from Big Ed on that part. I do love this site and thank you for it.
Posted by: Jan ||
09/09/2005 23:28 Comments ||
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This page [http://www.zombietime.com/flight_93_memorial_project/]
is about the controversy surrounding the design of the Flight 93 Memorial Project.
As already pointed out at Real Clear Politics and Little Green Footballs, the winning design chosen to memorialize the heroes and victims of 9/11's Flight 93 is in the shape of a red crescent that looks -- either accidentally or intentionally -- remarkably like an Islamic crescent.
To prove this point, I have taken a high-resolution map of the winning design (a pdf of which can be downloaded at this site (alt-click or option-click to download the pdf file); and a prototypical rendition of the Islamic crescent moon (taken from the Tunisian flag, the original image of which can be found at this site).
Within a short time, the cyber Jihadis will publish triumphalist calls for more suicide bombers using the work of the clueless bozos on this memorial project. But zombie has given some links to get a message to a supervisor bunch of bozos
#1
WTF? Can it be more obvious? Luckily the islamist cresent will be made of wood and not stone. A little midnight Minute Man action would be appropriate.
#7
I'm more inclined to give the families the benefit of the doubt. Most Americans don't know or care about the symbols of Islam and this only becomes reasily apparent from an aerial view. That said, perhaps the should have an unbroken circle instead of an embracing crescent.
Bomb blasts minutes apart damaged a KFC and a crowded McDonald's restaurant in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi late Thursday, injuring at least three people, police and witnesses said. The first bomb went off inside the KFC Karachi's upscale Defense district as three families were dining, said witness Mohammed Akhtar. He said the explosion shattered windows and three people, including a girl, were cut by flying glass. Three cars outside were damaged. Police said the explosive caused considerable damage to the restaurant, including the destruction of a brick wall. Eight minutes later, a bomb went off outside the McDonald's on Karachi's beach front, causing panic but no injuries, police said. There were about 80 people inside the McDonald's at the time.
Tariq Jamil, the city police chief, said both bombs were homemade and of low intensity. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Jamil speculated that the attacks were possibly linked to a nationwide strike called for Friday â by a hardline Islamic coalition opposed to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
U.S. fast food outlets in Karachi have been targeted before. On May 30, a KFC restaurant was burned and six workers inside were killed during an outbreak of religious sectarian violence in the city.
Posted by: ed ||
09/09/2005 08:31 ||
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Thousands of heavily armed private security contractors could be expelled from Iraq in a government crackdown.
For more than two years such contractors have roamed with impunity. But now the interior ministry has imposed rules requiring all their firms to be registered and weapons to be carried only by guards holding an official licence.
If any of the companies is considered to be a threat or if it angers a government official its official permit could be revoked and the business ordered to depart.
About 25,000 security contractors, many of them British, American and South African ex-servicemen, lured to Iraq by wages of up to £750 a day, are estimated to be in the country providing protection for official buildings, supply convoys or visiting businessmen.
They are highly unpopular with locals. Convoys of contractors have become a common sight on a journey through Baghdad since the March 2003 US-led invasion.
Adorned in sunglasses and bullet-proof vests, they travel in white four-wheel-drive vehicles with gun barrels protruding from the windows.
Many refuse to obey road signs and consider traffic jams a security risk so barge through the lines of vehicles which are often forced to pull over rapidly on to pavements.
Their lack of official status has long been a concern and those operating on US department of defence contracts are free from risk of legal penalty under the Iraqi judicial system if they killed anyone in a firefight.
But under the new rules confirmed yesterday all such firms will be brought under the authority of the Baghdad government.
All companies will have to provide details of their number of employees, jobs undertaken and office addresses.
Most significantly their employees will no longer be allowed to possess a weapon without approval. Many of the firms have considerable firepower. As well as AK-47s and assault rifles some have heavy machineguns and anti-tank rocket launchers.
One company, Blackwater, even has its own fleet of helicopters which criss-cross Baghdad with machine guns poking out from the side.
When the deadline for registration is reached next month anyone unofficially holding a gun will face arrest and a prison term.
An interior ministry official said the rules were intended as the first step towards creating a regulatory environment that would dictate the companies' work practices.
The initiative has been largely welcomed by established firms in Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:44 ||
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#1
This probably means government officials will have their hand out - and security costs will go up.
#5
If your office address is in New York never Raj.
I don't think this is a bad thing. I sure as hell needed a permit from the state I live in to run around armed "with a bullet proof vest on." It's part of establishing a state with law an order.
Jordanian King Abdullah II told Israeli TV viewers Thursday that al-Qaida is sure to have set up terror cells in their country.
In an excerpt from an interview recorded in Amman with Israel TV, Abdullah said the terror group had established a global presence, which had tarnished the image of Islam.
"I think al-Qaida has planted cells all over the place," Abdullah said. "If they've been able to do it in countries all over the world, then I'm sure it has happened in Israel."
In February 2003, an IDF court jailed a Gaza man for 27 years for training with al-Qaida.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in the same year that al-Qaida members had infiltrated the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and were working to target Israel. He did not provide details.
"The main thing is that the international community works together to stop these extremists," the king said. "Unfortunately for us (they) are taking terrorism in the name of Islam, which is a religion such as Christianity and Judaism that are religions of tolerance, acceptance and of being good to your fellow man."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:29 ||
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#1
Right. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PLO etc... are not enough.
A leading Iraqi insurgent group said on Thursday Hurricane Katrina had hurt the U.S. war effort and helped cut helicopter sorties over Baghdad, according to an Internet posting.
"There is a noticeable decrease in the number of helicopters hovering over Baghdad after the American government withdrew many of the airmen," said a statement from the Army of Ansar al-Sunna, posted on an Islamist Web site.
The statement could not be authenticated, but it was posted on a Web site that often carries messages from al Qaeda and other insurgent groups fighting U.S.-led forces and the American-backed Iraqi government.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:23 ||
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#1
Could not be authenticated? Did the military get a chance to "authenticate" it? Comment? Say, "No comment."
What kinda newsperson are you, anyway?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/09/2005 7:42 Comments ||
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#2
Oh, all right. Some of it was at the link.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/09/2005 7:43 Comments ||
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#3
hurricane is gone, choppers will be raining death down upon you momentarily.
Islamic militants have threatened to kill nine journalists in southern Bangladesh unless they stop reporting on the activities of three groups calling for the establishment of an Islamic state through "armed revolution." Pieces of white cloth symbolizing a funeral shroud were mailed to the journalists in the city of Satkhira on September 4 along with letters signed by the outlawed Islamic militant group Bangla Bhai, the radical movement Ahle Hadith, and the Islamic political party Jamaat-i-Islami, a partner of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in parliament. Local press reports said the letter warned the journalists not to write about the militants' activities and threatened to kill Hindus reporting on Islamic groups. The BNP has not commented publicly on the involvement of its coalition partner, Jamaat-i-Islami. "We urge the authorities to take these threats seriously and to bring those responsible for them to justice," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "We are alarmed by this growing pattern of intimidation of journalists by Islamic groups in Bangladesh," she added.
Bangla Bhai and Ahle Hadith are accused by authorities of masterminding a wave of more than 400 simultaneous bombings across the country on August 17. The explosions were small and caused few injuries but the scale of the planning and coordination behind the blasts dealt a major psychological blow to the country, journalists told CPJ. The bombers targeted government offices, airports, universities and at least seven press clubs. The journalists who received the death threats in Sathkira are Abu Ahmed of The Daily Star, Kalyan Banerjee of Prothom Alo, Ramkrishna Chakraborty of Samakal, Mizanur Rahman of Janakantha, Subas Chowdhury of Jugantor, Yarab Hossain of Runner, Kali Das Karmakar of Janata, Abul Kalam Azad of Patradut, and Raghunath Kha of Janmabhumi.
Leaflets distributed to coincide with the August 17 explosions called the bombs a warning from the banned Islamic militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to Western leaders to leave Islamic countries. The leaflets also called for the establishment of Islamic sharia law. Despite long standing denials from government officials, Islamic militant activity in Bangladesh is on the rise, and journalists reporting on the trend are increasingly at risk. The government has previously accused journalists of inventing stories about militant groups, but newspapers investigations over the last two years have uncovered connections between outlawed groups and al-Qaeda, according to The Daily Star.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:19 ||
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CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper.
A non-standard Bangla moniker to be sure.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
09/09/2005 12:11 Comments ||
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The U.S. military said Thursday that it and Iraqi forces had encircled an insurgent stronghold at Tal Afar and the Iraqi military announced the arrest of 200 suspected insurgents, most of them foreign fighters.
The Iraqi military said 150 of those arrested Wednesday in the town near the Syrian border were Arabs from Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan.
The United States is considering an all-out attack in the coming weeks against the town, which it sees as a stronghold of rebellion, a U.S. general said on Thursday.
"In Tal Afar, coalition forces and members of the Iraqi security forces are preparing a possible military operation to rid that city of insurgents," Major General Rick Lynch said at a news briefing in Baghdad.
"As we speak, operations are ongoing to evacuate civilians from neighborhoods targeted by the insurgents."
The joint forces have reported heavy battles on the outskirts of the city and several bombings that have mainly killed civilians.
Iraqi authorities reported most of the civilian population had fled the city, which is 420 kilometers, or 260 miles, north of Baghdad and about 55 kilometers from the Syrian border.
"Our forces arrested 150 non-Iraqi Arabs yesterday in addition to 50 Iraqi terrorists with fake documents as they were trying to flee the city" with the civilian families, said an Iraqi Army captain, Mohammed Ahmed.
"We ordered the families to evacuate the Sunni neighborhood of Sarai, which is believed to be the main stronghold of the insurgents," Ahmed said
Eight civilians were killed in the city Wednesday by a suicide car bomber at an Iraqi checkpoint, he said. On Thursday, the U.S. military said the American-Iraqi force had killed seven insurgents in the past two days.
Tal Afar's populace is mainly Sunnis. After the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the United States installed a largely Shiite leadership in the city, including the mayor and much of the police force.
The Sunnis have complained of oppression by the government and have turned to the insurgents - who are mainly fellow Sunnis - for protection.
Early Thursday, a militant Web site broadcast a videotape showing the destruction of a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Tal Afar.
The video, emblazoned with the logo of Al Qaeda in Iraq, said the armored vehicle had been struck by a roadside bomb. A U.S. military official said two Bradleys had been hit by roadside bombs in recent days and a soldier killed.
Also Thursday, the police reported finding 17 unidentified bodies - 15 near the farming town of Mahmoudiya and 2 on Baghdad's outskirts.
The bodies found by soldiers and police near Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, were in civilian clothes, with no identification documents. The victims had been shot, said Lieutenant Adnan Abdulla of the police.
The two bodies found near a sewage plant on the outskirts of Baghdad were blindfolded and handcuffed, police said.
In central Baghdad, a suicide car bomber targeted a passing convoy of private U.S. security agents, wounding three passers-by.
The blast near the heavily fortified Sadir Hotel sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky in the busy Karradah neighborhood.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:17 ||
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The number of foreign fighters (a.k.a., terrorists) differs considerably from Gen. Demsey's interview yesterday. Demsey said only 20 perc. where outside terrorists.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/09/2005 7:59 Comments ||
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The Iraqi military said 150 of those arrested Wednesday in the town near the Syrian border were Arabs from Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan.
What? No Saudis?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/09/2005 9:05 Comments ||
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A Pakistani studying in Britain has been picked up by intelligence agency personnel here for suspected links with Al Qaeda. Shoaib Siddiqui had come to Karachi in early August and was staying with his maternal uncle in the Defence Housing Authority, family sources said on Thursday. Security sources said Mr Siddiqui collected his travel documents and told his hosts that he was going out for dinner with his friends. He did not return that night and the following day he informed his uncleâs family on phone that he was in Hyderabad and would be back in the evening, but he never returned.
The sources said that Mr Siddiqui, studying for a degree in engineering, had said he was going for sightseeing to the Northern Areas, but he went to some areas in the NWFP where his movements and meetings with some people arrosed suspicion. On his return to Karachi, he was picked up for having links with Al Qaeda, the sources added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:14 ||
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Not arrested in Britain, sir. Siddiqui was apprehended in Karachi; he was studying in Britain.
A coalition air strike has demolished what authorities believe was an al Qaeda-linked terrorist safe house in the western Iraqi city of al-Jaramil and a man believed to be a foreign fighter facilitator was killed, Multi-National Forces officials said early Thursday.
Abu Ali, described by the military as a "senior al Qaeda foreign fighter facilitator," was believed to be in the house at the time of the strike on Wednesday, authorities said.
They added Ali has been linked to other al Qaeda terrorists and facilitators in Hit, al Qaim, Karabila and Husayba. He also had al Qaeda connections in the Mosul area, officials said, including one man captured in June and another man killed in August.
Ali was also thought to have al Qaeda connections in Syria and Saudi Arabia where most of his foreign fighters were recruited, the military said in a written statement.
He was believed to have funneled the foreign fighters into Iraq and sent them to various terrorist groups, where they participated in attacks against Iraqi citizens along with Iraqi Security Forces and Coalition Forces, authorities said.
After the air strike, coalition forces saw large secondary explosions, indicating that a large weapons cache was destroyed, the military said.
Meanwhile, a car bomb detonated in a popular Basra neighborhood Wednesday evening, killing 16 civilians and wounding 21 others, authorities said.
Two women and two children were among the dead, according to an Iraqi army official said.
U.S. authorities also reported they had freed Roy Hallums, a U.S. contractor kidnapped in Baghdad 10 months ago.
Earlier Wednesday, four American private security contractors were killed when their vehicle, part of a U.S. diplomatic convoy, struck a roadside bomb in southern Basra, a western official in Baghdad told CNN.
The improvised explosive device detonated at the foot of the Ghazyza bridge about 8:30 a.m. (0430 GMT).
Three contractors were killed on the spot, the official said. One was flown to a hospital and later died of injuries.
The diplomats were attached to the U.S. consulate in Basra. No details are known about the convoy's mission.
A car bomb also exploded near a western convoy in central Baghdad Wednesday, injuring five bystanders, Iraqi police said. The convoy continued unharmed.
The parked car detonated around 9 a.m. in the capital's Karrada neighborhood.
Less than three hours later, an official with the Ministry of Defense was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in southern Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, police said. Killed in the attack was Hassan Umran. His driver was wounded.
At about the same time, police found the bullet-riddled bodies of three men near a water purification plant in the Rustumiye section of southeastern Baghdad. Police said the bodies were dumped without identification.
Iraqi police Wednesday said a U.S. Army Humvee was seen burning along the Mohammed al-Qasim highway in eastern Baghdad. A spokeswoman with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division said three U.S. soldiers were wounded when their convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device. At least one of the injured was in critical condition and medevaced to a field hospital.
Around midday, a top officer with Iraqi police commandos was killed after gunmen fired on his convoy in western Baghdad.
According to Baghdad police, Col. Imad Ismail Thyab was shot and killed in the Ghazaliya neighborhood when the attackers in two cars opened fire. Three other police commandos were wounded in the attack.
Amid the carnage Wednesday was some good news: Roy Hallums, an American hostage snatched off the Baghdad streets in November, has been rescued and freed.
The U.S. military said it freed Hallums and an Iraqi from a farmhouse south of Baghdad after getting information about their whereabouts from an Iraqi detainee.
The military said Hallums released this statement after his release: "I want to thank all of those who were involved in my rescue -- to those who continuously tracked my captors and location, and to those who physically brought me freedom today. To all of you, I will be forever grateful.
"Both of us are in good health and look forward to returning to our respective families. Thank you to all who kept me and my family in their thoughts and prayers."
Hallums' ex-wife, Susan, also told CNN of his release.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:06 ||
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Roy Hallums, an American hostage snatched off the Baghdad streets in November, has been rescued and freed.
The U.S. military said it freed Hallums and an Iraqi from a farmhouse south of Baghdad after getting information about their whereabouts from an Iraqi detainee.
One lucky sob, talk about hard time..10 months with those animals, that be stress. God bless him and his family and thanks to our military folks.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/09/2005 3:29 Comments ||
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#3
Occupational hazard. These boomers have got to be flinching when they hear any unusual noises.
Two women and two children among the dead, but, bless Allah, no baby ducks or ass clowns.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/09/2005 5:24 Comments ||
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#4
Gonna have to come up with another name for those things.
Israeli military prosecutors charged a Palestinian on Thursday with undergoing training at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, but said the defendant later declined an offer to join Osama bin Laden's global network. While al Qaeda has often attacked Israelis abroad and champions the Palestinian cause, security experts believe its presence in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is negligible due to doctrinal differences with dominant local Islamist groups.
The indictment filed at Judea Military Court alleged that Mahmoud Waridat, a 26-year-old West Bank man arrested in July, received training in small-arms and bombmaking at "al-Farouq", an al Qaeda camp outside Kandahar, in the summer of 2001. "Upon conclusion of the training, those who had participated were given the chance to join the ranks of al Qaeda, but the defendant decided not to do so," said the indictment, which did not cite specific evidence.
Recent Islamist bombings in Britain and the Egyptian Sinai have stirred speculation the Jewish state, which bin Laden has long vilified, could be high on the group's hit list. But Danny Arditi, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's top counter-terrorism advisor, said in July Israel had no information indicating that such an attack was imminent.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/09/2005 00:05 ||
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A woman passenger was killed and dozens were injured yesterday following a stampede on board a Jeddah-bound Saudi Arabian Airlines jumbo jet after a bomb scare. The bomb alert proved a hoax. Saudi Arabian Airlines said in a statement that the pilot of Boeing 747-300 Flight SV781 from Colombo to Jeddah via Riyadh received a call from the control tower at 10 a.m. while taxiing for takeoff that there was a bomb on the plane. He immediately decided to evacuate the plane that carried 424 passengers and 19 crewmembers. The tower and airport authorities directed the pilot to take the plane to a secluded area of the airport and evacuate the plane. The captain then ordered the opening of the emergency exits and rolling out of the slides. The Sri Lankan woman who died was wearing an abaya. She hit her head on the tarmac after sliding down the escape chute, said D. Atthanayake, airport duty manager, citing preliminary inquiries. âIt was a chaotic situation,â he added.
So she was wearing a sack, so she couldn't see where she was putting her feet, and ended up being dropped on her head. Important safety tip here, ladies, assuming you're fond of wearing sacks...
âOnly tomorrow morning we will be doing the post-mortem,â said Dr. SC Wickramasinghe, who runs Negombo Hospital north of the capital where four other injured were being treated. At least 19 people were admitted to nearby hospitals while 75 others suffered bruises and other minor injuries, according to air force spokesman Ajantha de Silva. Police said bomb squad officers were checking the plane, but had found nothing and believed the bomb alert was a hoax. Security authorities at the airport said they were trying to trace the caller.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2005 00:00 ||
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I'm surprised they didn't force the womenfolk to stay on the plane until their owners could come claim them.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas canceled a trip to United States for the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly next week, following the brutal murder of a former high-ranking security official. Israeli officials are concerned by a growing power struggle between the PA and militants groups in the Strip, which peaked with the assassination of former security chief Moussa Arafat early Wednesday morning. Arafat, a cousin of the late Palestinian president, was shot in the back of the head at point blank range after about 80 men stormed his Gaza city house and dragged him outside. Abbas vowed to find the perpetrators and the Palestinian Authority has launched an investigation into the killing. The group which initially said it had carried out the killing withdrew its claim of responsibility yesterday. âAfter a thorough investigation into the issue of assassinating General Arafat we announce that we are not responsible for the assassination or kidnapping his son,â said a leaflet signed by the group and sent to reporters yesterday.
"We've changed our minds. It wasn't us. That was somebody else we bumped off, and that young fellow in the basement is somebody else's kid...
Officials at Abbasâ headquarters in Gaza City said yesterday that a second reason for canceling the journey was that the Palestinian leader wanted to be present in the Gaza Strip next week to oversee the transfer of control of Israelâs evacuated settlements to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The Israeli cabinet is expected to approve the start of the military pullout from the Gaza Strip on Monday. The army hopes to complete the withdrawal within 24 hours.
The Israeli Army launched a clean-up operation yesterday, with 1,500 soldiers sent to the evacuated settlements to collect waste. The soldiers combed public buildings and synagogues â the only buildings that have not been demolished â for any equipment or items of value left behind, an army spokeswoman said. The army also closed the Rafah border passage between Gaza and Egypt, ahead of transferring control of the terminal to the Egyptians and the deployment of Egyptian troops along the so-called Philadelphi route along the Gaza-Egypt border. Under an Egyptian compromise proposal, the Rafah terminal will remain closed for six months of repairs, and people and goods will leave and enter the Gaza Strip to and from Egypt via the Israeli terminals at Kerem Shalom and Nitzana.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Suspect he doesn't wanna leave because he may not find a home to return to.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/09/2005 14:26 Comments ||
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#2
and Suha ain't taking him in
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/09/2005 15:53 Comments ||
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#3
Any more of Arafart's blood relatives left to kill?
KARACHI, Pakistan - A suspected Islamic militant, wanted in connection with a suicide attack three years ago that left 11 French engineers dead, was arrested on Thursday after a shootout, police said.
The man, identified as Mufti Mohammed Sabir, was arrested near a bus terminal after arriving from Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad, Karachi police chief Tariq Jameel told a news conference. Sabir tried to run away flee and fired a pistol at police before he was arrested. Police returned fire but no one was hurt in the shootout, Jameel said.
No surprise there. Where's the RAB when you need them?
Police seized explosives, other bomb-making materials, several rounds of AK-47 ammunition and two rocket shells from a bag that Sabir was allegedly carrying.
Sabir is believed to be a bomb maker and is suspected to have packed a car with explosives which was blown up in front of Karachiâs Sheraton hotel May 8, 2002, killing the French nationals and four other people. The Frenchmen were here to help build a submarine for Pakistanâs navy. A month later, another suicide bomber blew up a truck outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, killing 14 Pakistanis.
Sabir, in his 30s, is allegedly a member of the outlawed Harkat Jihad-e-Islami militant group. A court in Karachi has sentenced to death three other suspected group members for the French bombing. At least two more suspects remain at large, Jameel said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/09/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
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cal Islamic group has defied 
A Spanish judge has filed preliminary charges of Islamic terrorist activity against a French woman of North African descent who already was serving time in Spanish prison for drug trafficking, a Spanish prison official told CNN. The woman, identified only by her initials, M.H., is linked to the case of a man, 
UN chief Investigator 
Investigator 
A judiciary source said the UN team interrogated a "security officer" about possible links between the four men accused of Hariri's assassination and 
Bomb blasts minutes apart damaged a KFC and a crowded McDonald's restaurant in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi late Thursday, injuring at least three people, police and witnesses said. The first bomb went off inside the KFC Karachi's upscale Defense district as three families were dining, said witness Mohammed Akhtar. He said the explosion shattered windows and three people, including a girl, were cut by flying glass. Three cars outside were damaged. Police said the explosive caused considerable damage to the restaurant, including the destruction of a brick wall. Eight minutes later, a bomb went off outside the McDonald's on Karachi's beach front, causing panic but no injuries, police said. There were about 80 people inside the McDonald's at the time.
Islamic militants have threatened to kill nine journalists in southern Bangladesh unless they stop reporting on the activities of three groups calling for the establishment of an Islamic state through "armed revolution." Pieces of white cloth symbolizing a funeral shroud were mailed to the journalists in the city of Satkhira on September 4 along with letters signed by the outlawed Islamic militant group Bangla Bhai, the radical movement Ahle Hadith, and the Islamic political party Jamaat-i-Islami, a partner of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in parliament. Local press reports said the letter warned the journalists not to write about the militants' activities and threatened to kill Hindus reporting on Islamic groups. The BNP has not commented publicly on the involvement of its coalition partner, Jamaat-i-Islami. "We urge the authorities to take these threats seriously and to bring those responsible for them to justice," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "We are alarmed by this growing pattern of intimidation of journalists by Islamic groups in Bangladesh," she added.
Israeli military prosecutors charged a Palestinian on Thursday with undergoing training at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, but said the defendant later declined an offer to join Osama bin Laden's global network. While al Qaeda has often attacked Israelis abroad and champions the Palestinian cause, security experts believe its presence in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is negligible due to doctrinal differences with dominant local Islamist groups.
A woman passenger was killed and dozens were injured yesterday following a stampede on board a Jeddah-bound Saudi Arabian Airlines jumbo jet after a bomb scare. The bomb alert proved a hoax. Saudi Arabian Airlines said in a statement that the pilot of Boeing 747-300 Flight SV781 from Colombo to Jeddah via Riyadh received a call from the control tower at 10 a.m. while taxiing for takeoff that there was a bomb on the plane. He immediately decided to evacuate the plane that carried 424 passengers and 19 crewmembers. The tower and airport authorities directed the pilot to take the plane to a secluded area of the airport and evacuate the plane. The captain then ordered the opening of the emergency exits and rolling out of the slides. The Sri Lankan woman who died was wearing an abaya. She hit her head on the tarmac after sliding down the escape chute, said D. Atthanayake, airport duty manager, citing preliminary inquiries. âIt was a chaotic situation,â he added.
Palestinian President 
KARACHI, Pakistan - A suspected Islamic militant, wanted in connection with a suicide attack three years ago that left 11 French engineers dead, was arrested on Thursday after a shootout, police said.
