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Zark calls for all-out war against Shiites
Today's Headlines
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To War
Blogger Donald Sensing's son has deployed to the Middle East. There's a moving essay, with many photos, at the link. Go read it all.

. . .Some people reach the end of their lives still wondering whether they ever made a positive difference in their country or the world. Marines don’t have that problem, and neither, of course, do soldiers, sailors, airmen or Coast Guardsmen.

My son and his fellows are producers of freedom, not mere consumers of it. And those who only consumed freedom will one night lie in their beds and think themselves accursed that they didn’t serve with them.

Good luck, good hunting, and get home safe.
Posted by: Mike || 09/15/2005 06:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
"Dead" Saudi al-Qaeda member posts audiotape online
Always remember to cut off the head. A stake through the heart never hurt anyone either ...
An Al Qaeda militant on a Saudi most wanted list denied in an audiotape posted on the Internet on Thursday that he had been killed in a shootout with Saudi forces last week. “The interior ministry claimed to have killed me. God have mercy, I am still alive,” said the voice on the tape attributed to Mohammed al-Suwailmi.
"You're dead. Shuddup and lie down!"
“It is proof of the impotence of the apostate government,” he said in the recording that could not be authenticated.
"No, really! See? I'm breathing... in... out... in... out... in... out..."
"Shuddup. Embalm him, Mahmoud."
Saudi authorities had initially said Suwailmi was one of most wanted five militants killed in gunbattles in the eastern town of Damman last week, but later said it was his brother Ahmed.
... thereby showing that, while the apostate gummint might be impotence, it has an available stash of little blue pills.
Four security men were also killed in the three-day battle in Dammam, the main city of the oil-rich Eastern Province, which ended on September 6 with the storming of a militant hideout.
This proves yet again that we can't trust Prince Nayef's interior ministry. Wonder if al-Oufi also made out intact?
They admitted a day after the initial identification was made that it was his brother, not him. You know how that DNA stuff works — it did prove that Mohammed and Ahmed both had the same father and mother. But they were probably hoping that.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 03:34 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I'm not dead. I'm getting better."
Posted by: Mike || 09/15/2005 6:08 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess they missed the symbiote again...
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 09/15/2005 17:36 Comments || Top||


Britain
Seven foreign nationals detained in UK security swoop
Seven foreign nationals were detained by Britain’s Immigration Service on Thursday under the home secretary’s powers to deport individuals for reasons of national security.

The Home Office said the men were held in an operation supported by officers from London’s Metropolitan Police and the Greater Manchester Police.
ah, yes Manchester. busy place, that.
It declined to identify those arrested, and said they will be held in prison pending deportation.

The arrests came shortly before Charles Clarke, the home secretary, was to present a set of draft clauses from the upcoming Counter-Terrorism Bill that would back to police demands for terror suspects to be held for up to three months for questioning without charge.

The proposed extension to the current 14-day detention period was one of the most contentious proposals when new counter-terrorism laws were discussed in the wake of the July 7 bombings.

The Association of Chief Police Officers says the extension will give officers the time they need to establish a case against suspects, often involving time-consuming investigation of computer files and CCTV records.

The clauses are being made available separately several weeks ahead of the expected publication of the full Bill in the middle of October, to allow for consultation with opposition parties.

It is understood that Thursday’s detentions, on national security grounds, were not directly linked with recent changes to the Home Secretary’s deportation powers. In addition to reasons of national security, he can now order a person’s detention and deportation on grounds of “unacceptable behaviour”, such as preaching in support of terrorism.

But, according to a report by the Press Association, some of those held in the swoops were thought to be among eight co-defendants acquitted at a court in April of involvement in a plot to poison Londoners with ricin.

Mr Clarke said earlier this week that hundreds of terror suspects wre under close surveillance by MI5, the Security Service, with secret intelligence still unable to help pinpoint the precise nature of the terrorist threat facing Britain.

The home secretary gave MPs the broad estimate - similar to the one given by Tony Blair in February - as he was questioned by the cross-party Commons home affairs committee about the security measures the government was taking in the aftermath of the London bombings.

He told MPs: "There are certainly hundreds of individuals we have been watching very closely and continue to watch extremely closely."

While the statement suggested that MI5 and police could be examining new information, Mr Clarke was unable to reassure MPs that a breakthrough in the London bombings investigation was imminent. "We don't have knowledge of a specific threat . . . We have intelligence but we don't have knowledge," he said.

While the "foreign link" to the bombings was important enough to continue to be the subject of investigation, the extent to which any wider terrorist organisation had been behind the London bombings remained unclear.

Mr Clarke identified Pakistan as an area that continued to be of potential interest because of the links to it of some of the bombers. But he appeared to play down suggestions that the video message left by one of the suicide bombers, Mohamad Sidique Khan, had established a clear logistical link with al-Qaeda.

More than two weeks after the video's appearance on Al-Jazeera, the Arab TV station, investigators were still unsure where it was produced and by whom, and how it was distributed.

In written evidence to the MPs, the home secretary confirmed his intention to use existing powers to deport foreign individuals who were "not conducive to the public good".

But he admitted that while 11 of these people had been subject to control orders, plans for their deportation were not based on any specific threat assessment.

In evidence to the same parliamentary committee, Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, apologised to the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, while defending the shoot-to-kill guidelines behind the Brazilian's death at Stockwell Tube station.

Describing the controversial tactics as the "least worst option" for saving the public from attack by suicide terrorists, Sir Ian acknowledged the issue was one that now required public debate.

Sir Ian also revealed he was in detailed negotiations with ministers over the funding of the Metropolitan police's counter-terrorist operations, which had cost bout £60m above budget in the aftermath of the bombings.

In Rome, Italy's highest appeals court upheld the extradition to Britain of Hamdi Issac, the Ethiopian-born Briton suspected of involvement in an attempted attack on July 21 on Shepherd's Bush Tube station.

Legal experts expect him to be transferred to the UK in the next 10 days.
Posted by: lotp || 09/15/2005 07:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Additional: Seven Algerian nationals have been detained under powers allowing deportations for national security reasons, the Home Office has said. Six were held in London and one in Greater Manchester in an Immigration Service and police operation.
Sources said most of those held were among the eight men cleared in April of involvement in a ricin poison plot. The home secretary said he ordered the raids following "detailed submissions" from the police and security services. But Charles Clarke refused to comment on the individual cases of those detained on Thursday. The Metropolitan Police said no-one had been arrested on criminal charges. The Home Office said the seven people detained were being held in "secure prison service accommodation" under the 1971 Immigration Act.
Posted by: Steve || 09/15/2005 9:38 Comments || Top||

#2  How many of these deportations have actually taken place (not these guys in particular, but anybody)?
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 09/15/2005 11:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Why can't we have swoops in America? It sounds so exciting!
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/15/2005 14:11 Comments || Top||

#4  LOTR - None. Because European/UK law makes it impossible to deport someone if there's a risk of them being tortured back home.
Posted by: Pheth Phesh2763 || 09/15/2005 17:46 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
5 hard boyz, including Saidullayev's "main ideologist" bagged
Five militants, including Shamil-Khadzhi Muskiyev, a guerrilla close to the alleged successor to late Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, were killed in the town of Argun, Chechnya's First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov told Interfax on Wednesday. "An armed clash erupted between law enforcement officers and illegal armed group members in the town of Argun. Shamil-Khadzhi Muskiyev, Maskhadov's deputy successor, was killed. Another four guerrillas were eliminated as well," he said.

Kadyrov described Muskiyev as "the main ideologist of illegal armed groups and Maskhadov's successor Abdul-Khalim Saidullayev's right hand." The official also accused the guerrilla of involvement in the murder of nearly 90 people in the village of Tsatsan-Yurt in the Kurchaloi district.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 00:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  successor to late Chechen separatist

As it is said "Better late than never."
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 09/15/2005 7:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Too bad. Argun always did have an overpopulation of murderous thugs.
Posted by: MunkarKat || 09/15/2005 16:18 Comments || Top||


Europe
Man detained on military exercise grounds
AMSTERDAM — Dutch military police arrested an intruder on a military training ground last week, it was reported on Wednesday. Police found a large quantity of munitions during a search of the man's home in the town of Oss. The search turned up 45 training grenades in an ammunition box, smoke grenades and a heavier type of training grenade. Police discovered a self-made bomb made out of one of the heavy training grenades on the balcony of the apartment.
All you'd have to do would be to tape a bunch of nails to one.
The 29-year-old native Dutchman was arrested last week after he was spotted by a sergeant on De Oirschotse Heide training ground, which is closed to the public. He told investigators he is a convert to Islam and that he has links to the Hofstadgroep. He also claimed he had stolen the grenades on an earlier occasion from the training ground, a police spokesperson for the public prosecutor told the media.
Either they store grenades on the grounds or he was picking up stuff that had been "misplaced". Friends in National Guard have told me stories about burying training munitions that they had signed out but never used. Didn't want to go through all the paperwork of turning it back in. Might be the same here.
The Hofstadgroep is described as an Muslim terror group by the authorities. Several young Muslim men are awaiting trial for alleged membership of the group. Mohammed B., the man jailed for life for the murdering filmmaker Theo van Gogh, is charged with membership of the group.
Prosecutors said on Tuesday that the number of charges faced by Mohammed B. and the other suspects has been reduced. Specific allegations of plotting to kill politicians have been dropped.
Posted by: Steve || 09/15/2005 10:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Euros in NATO: we will not fight Taliban in Afghanistan - you're on your own
NATO and the Euros are worthless.
European allies rejected a U.S. suggestion Wednesday that NATO take on counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.

Germany, France and Spain made clear they would not allow the 11,000 NATO peacekeepers in the Central Asian nation to become embroiled in the military effort to quell a Taliban-led insurgency. They also opposed talk of merging the NATO mission with a U.S.-led coalition force, although NATO officials said they expected agreement on a proposal to bring the two missions under a single commander.
So they won't work with us, even though we're "allies".
The suggestion for a combat role for NATO troops came from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who told the U.S. allies that Washington would maintain a strong military presence in Afghanistan despite pressure to free up forces for combat in Iraq. "U.S. forces will of course continue to play a strong role," he said after a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

Rumsfeld said he was satisfied with plans by NATO allies to expand the Afghan peacekeeping mission next year with more European and Canadian troops. He spoke amid speculation about U.S. plans to cut its 18,000-soldier contingent in Afghanistan as the NATO force expands. The New York Times and Washington Post reported the Bush administration was considering a reduction of as much as 20 percent by early 2006. Rumsfeld declined to discuss specifics. "If and when there's any decision to decrease forces, I will announce it," he said.
Sounds like we're headed there. 'If and when'?
Rumsfeld suggested Tuesday that NATO could eventually take over combat operations against Afghan insurgents, but he acknowledged that would be a difficult step and did not offer any timetable.

Along with other nations, Germany and France have sent combat troops to serve with the U.S.-led coalition force since Afghanistan's Taliban regime was toppled after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. But they do not want the separate NATO force involved in that mission, fearing it would undermine peacekeeping and make its soldiers more likely to face attack. "I would not like to expose our soldiers to an additional risk by joining these two mandates together," German Defense Minister Peter Struck said in a radio interview.

The issue has been sensitive in Germany, where the Social Democratic government faces parliamentary elections Sunday.

Spain's Socialist government, which withdrew troops from Iraq after winning elections last year, also cautioned against linking NATO peacekeepers with the combat operation. "They should coordinate their forces, but I'm not in favor of fusing the two missions," Defense Minister Jose Bono said.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the allies were close to agreement on putting the two forces under a single NATO commander. "There is a shared view among NATO defense ministers that we need a greater synergy between the two missions," de Hoop Scheffer told reporters.

Under NATO's planned expansion in Afghanistan next year, the alliance will take over peacekeeping in the southern sector, with Britain taking a lead role, backed by Canada and the Netherlands. U.S. troops will retain responsibility for eastern Afghanistan — considered the most dangerous region — under NATO command. Germany will take a lead role in the north and Italy in the west.
Posted by: too true || 09/15/2005 08:55 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As expected. Ask Germany again if Merkel takes over. If she says no, then write them off.

Someone once posted a bit here about people being in one of three categories: assholes, pussies, and dicks. Using that as a guide, NATO doesn't mean dick, anymore - the majority are aren't.
Posted by: .com || 09/15/2005 9:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice to know all their Kyoto talk about "developing nations" is just that - talk.
Posted by: Chris W. || 09/15/2005 9:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Can someone please explain again why we defend these parasites with bases in europe?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/15/2005 9:30 Comments || Top||

#4  NATO is dead. The UN is dead. Get out of both of those organizations and make our own new alliance with Japan, Taiwan, England (if they stay out of the damn EU), Australia, India and Iraq.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 09/15/2005 9:37 Comments || Top||

#5  this was disapointment, and not a good sign about the Euros. But they still have 11,000 troops in the "safer" parts of Afghanistan, doing things that would otherwise take US troops.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 09/15/2005 9:39 Comments || Top||

#6  "doing things that would otherwise take US troops."


Naturally, they won't be fighting....
Posted by: Mark E. || 09/15/2005 10:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Just being in Afghanistan is a lot. The US is probably subsidizing a hell of a lot of their operations, just so that there will be boots on the ground in the tamer areas.

Another big question mark is the Afghan army itself, and why there is so little obvious attention given to it, compared to the Iraqi army.

However, in that situation, my best recommendation would be a massive, one-shot influx of carefully managed small business creation money. The Afghan economy, more than anything else, will keep out those who prey on poverty and despair. At their level of development, which is minimal, we could easily turn them into a sustainable breakbasket, which would satisfy 98% of the population.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/15/2005 10:48 Comments || Top||

#8  took the words right out of my mouth mcmurray
Posted by: Uninetle Hupating2229 || 09/15/2005 11:01 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm thinkin' it's time to move all personel out of Eurabia. I know I'm wrong. But, FOAD.
Posted by: macofromoc || 09/15/2005 11:05 Comments || Top||

#10  But they still have 11,000 troops in the "safer" parts of Afghanistan, doing things that would otherwise take US troops.

So Europe's military is the modern equivalent to the WAC.

Sounds about right.

(And, again, they went into Afghanistan because we invoked the NATO common defense provisions. That they now refuse to fight is repudiation of the NATO treaty.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/15/2005 11:31 Comments || Top||

#11  those who prey on poverty and despair

Oh no, the root causes that led 19 Saudis to crash airplanes into building.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 09/15/2005 12:02 Comments || Top||

#12  What do you call a peacekeeper who's afraid to keep the peace? Perhaps we can just sell Nato to the UN and go it alone.
Posted by: Greating Omater1112 || 09/15/2005 13:46 Comments || Top||

#13  Time for the US to create a US Foreign Legion along the French model. Offer US citizenship to anyone who serves and we'd have an endless supply of recruits. Close bases and stop subsidizing the Europeans and use the money saved to pay for the whole thing.

Light infantry and peacekeepers designed to work independantly but under the US command structure.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/15/2005 14:11 Comments || Top||

#14  I think your onto something there with that legion. It would be nice to grow a big unit that has teh only job to fight and none of the other bullshit. But if they created this unit the LLL would go nuts and call them the SS or something like that.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 09/15/2005 14:45 Comments || Top||

#15  Sounds fair. They stay out of US ops and the US stays out of Europe's Caliphate War. 2 World Wars and 400,000 dead American is more than enough.
Posted by: ed || 09/15/2005 15:15 Comments || Top||

#16  2 World Wars and 400,000 dead American is more than enough.

Yeah, like two world wars and 400,000 American lives more than enough.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/15/2005 15:49 Comments || Top||

#17  Sad. I don't know who said it, but "The only time Europe tends to notice danger is when they are peeking out of the rubble at their new flag".
Posted by: SteveS || 09/15/2005 20:52 Comments || Top||

#18  I pity Europe. They are a pathetic lot. It's sad that after all we have done they are still a basket case going down further. On the other hand, their problems are their problems. If they don't want to take a stand to make the world a better place it's their loss. Farewell Europe.
Posted by: Spomoque Cralet6289 || 09/15/2005 21:50 Comments || Top||

#19  The EU is also dead - its intent was at best a confederatist alliance whose only manifest destiny is to be either a glorified, larger Belgium or larger Switzerland. Cut back on international aid, and give every American citizen one helluva tax- or personal rebate - iff Americans and American warriors are gonnas save the Euros from themselves, Western DemoSocialism from itself, and from Osama's Global Islamist/Jihadist State, i.e Faith=God-based Communism and Totalitarianism, then we "Amis" should get the money, besides it being [mostly]our monies to begin with.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/16/2005 0:00 Comments || Top||


Germans say al-Qaeda Balkans network intact
Al-Qaida may have an intact terror network operating in the Balkans, German security officials say.

Sources within Germany's Bundesnachrichsiendienst, or Federal Intelligence Service (BND) told the German news agency DDP that both the Madrid terrorists, and some of those who perpetrated the London bombings, had "contacts with Bosnia," DDP reported Monday.

The BND sources told DDP that European intelligence services had "vague indications that another terror cell controlled from Bosnia is preparing a new attack on London".

The King Fahd Mosque in Dobrinja, a suburb of Sarajevo, was described by the BND sources as "a hotbed" of violent extremists, DDP said.

The "Balkans, particularly Bosnia and Kosovo" are now "a dangerous breeding-ground, presently under scarcely any observation, for Islamist terrorists," a BND source told DDP. Muslims from Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Britain are reportedly traveling there to be "fanaticized," he said.

Other Western security sources told BND that two young Muslims accidentally blew themselves up in Kosovo recently when they were trying to test a mobile phone converted into a remote-controlled bomb. The men were said to have been attending a seminar organized by the Revival of Islamic Heritage.
That's the same group that bankrolled the Bangladesh booms.
One of the most well-known mujahidin leaders in the Balkans, Abdelkader Mokhtari, also known by the name of Abu El-Maali [names as published], who was said to be implicated in a failed bomb attack on U.S. soldiers in Germany at the end of the 1990s, has now reportedly returned to Bosnia, and found a safe bolt hole there, BND said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 00:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We need to crack down, especially since we saved their sorry ass from genocide!
Posted by: Glong Sheng9325 || 09/15/2005 1:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Need to land on this like a ton of bricks.Let them know we can always turn Kardejic and crew loose.
Posted by: raptor || 09/15/2005 8:27 Comments || Top||

#3  We kept Iraq out of Saudi in '91 and got Osama for our pains; we fed the Somalis and had Marines dragged thru the streets of Mogadishu;we bombed the Serbs to save the Balkan Muslims and got Iranian and Al Quaeda footholds as our reward.

You'd think there would be a lesson here.

Makes me we wonder how we'll be punished for our post-tsunami aid to Indonesia.
Posted by: dushan || 09/15/2005 10:17 Comments || Top||


Italian soldier killed, another wounded in mysterious blast at military camp
A mysterious blast at the Carabinieri paramilitary police killed a member of the police Wednesday and wounded another in Latonia city's camp, south of the Italian capital. A statement by the police, affiliated to the armed forces, said that Alberto Andrioli died as a result of the explosion at Vittoriano Cimmarusti camp's communications room. Initial reports suggested that the blast was a result of a bomb hidden in an envelope in the mail room.

The police's statement, however, said that an explosion took place in another site, raising possibilities that a bomb might have been dropped from outside the camp's fence on "Nasiriah Martyrs" yard. The statement said the blast slightly wounded another soldier, who is currently in the city's hospital. There are ongoing investigations over the incident, it added.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just got down to reading this. Anyone have any additional info?
Posted by: lotp || 09/15/2005 18:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Three More Detainees Hospitalized at Gitmo
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Three more detainees have been hospitalized after refusing meals at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, bringing to 21 the number being treated from a hunger strike that involves a quarter of the camp's prisoners, an official said Wednesday.

All 21 detainees are being tube-fed through a really large honking tube rammed up their nose, up from 13 a day ago, said Sgt. Justin Behrens, a spokesman at Guantanamo. The military has said it views a hunger strike as a form of suicide and will take steps to prevent it.
Spoilsports.
All striking detainees were in stable condition, Behrens said.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Now see here, son. Either you eat a slice of that pie or I'll...I'll put my infidel hands on that there Koran. Do we understand one another? Good."
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/15/2005 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  should read "3 succumb to idiocy. Darwin was Right"
Posted by: Frank G || 09/15/2005 0:12 Comments || Top||

#3  All striking detainees were in stable condition, Behrens said.

Alright!!!

Oh, wait. That's meant in the American sense, isn't it?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/15/2005 7:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Any way we can get some unemployed New Orleans nursing home owner down there to run the hospital?
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/15/2005 8:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh, these Arab guys absolutely LOVE the attention from this, and that's all.
Posted by: ex-lib || 09/15/2005 11:05 Comments || Top||

#6  I hope that the condition of the 21 datainees will upgrade to "stable" real soon.
Posted by: radrh8r || 09/15/2005 12:39 Comments || Top||

#7  D-Con Soup for Evvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvrybody!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/15/2005 21:58 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Pentagon Gang leader busted
Security forces arrested the alleged leader of a kidnap gang that abducted an Italian missionary and a group of Chinese engineers four years ago in the southern Philippines, the military said Wednesday.

Nurham Amill, alias Commander Ramsey, leader of the notorious kidnap group "Pentagon Gang," which is on Washington's list of terrorist organizations, was arrested late Tuesday at a military checkpoint in Leon Postigo town in southern Zamboanga del Norte Province, Army Chief Hermogenes Esperon said.

"He is currently undergoing tactical interrogation," said Major General Gabriel Habacon, commander of the Army's 1st Infantry Division, when asked about the suspect's whereabouts.

Habacon said the operation against the Pentagon Gang and the Abu Sayyaf are going on in the southern Philippines. "There is an ongoing operation to neutralize kidnappers and terrorists," Habacon said.

Lieutenant General Esperon said members of the Army's Special Forces have been pursuing Amil in the past weeks until they tracked him down in Leon Postigo town.

"The arrest of Amil is the result of a long surveillance operation. Let this be a warning to other terrorists that there is no escape, they should surrender peacefully," Esperon said.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is currently negotiating peace with the government, praised the arrest of Amil.

"The MILF welcomes the news of Amil's arrest and we hope this would put an end to the series of kidnappings perpetrated by criminals," a rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said.

Amil's group kidnapped four Chinese men, including three who were helping build an irrigation project, and their Filipino guide in June 2001 in North Cotabato province. Four months later, they abducted Italian missionary Giuseppe "Beppe" Pierantoni in Zamboanga del Sur.

Two of the Chinese were killed by the kidnappers as they tried to escape during a clash with soldiers in August 2001. Pierantoni was rescued unharmed in April 2002.

Amil, a former Muslim separatist guerrilla, carried a P500,000 reward for his arrest.

Pierantoni, who is from Bologna in central Italy, belonged to the Sacred Heart of Jesus missionary order.

He was seized Oct. 18, 2001 after saying Mass in his parish in Dimataling town, Zamboanga del Sur province.

Several Filipino and foreign Catholic priests have been targeted by Muslim extremists and bandits in the southern Philippines, home to the country's Muslim minority.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 01:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  tactical interrogation

lordy, thatum's the worstust kind.
Posted by: Omomorong Glasing5794 || 09/15/2005 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  So when are they gonna arrest the REAL leader of the Pentagon Gang, Don Rumsfeld?!?!

/LLL
Posted by: Chris W. || 09/15/2005 9:25 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian forces gun down three Pakistanis
At least three Pakistanis were gunned down and two other suffered severe injuries on Wednesday when Iranian border forces opened fire on a group of Pakistanis entering into the Iranian territory without valid travel documents. One of the slain was said to be a close relative of NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani.

Earlier, on September 8, the group of 21 Pakistanis entered the Iranian territory via Mandbalo and reached Iranian village Chahara Bahar, where Iranian forces considered them to be smugglers and opened reckless firing on their vehicle killing Khan Muhammad, Gul Muhammad and another Pakistani who could not be identified. Two of them were seriously injured.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tried to save the bribe money, eh? Bad move.
Posted by: PBMcL || 09/15/2005 1:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Tribal cousins coming over for a wedding?
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/15/2005 9:22 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Tales from the Crossfire Gazette
Three killed in ‘crossfire’ in Barisal, N’ganj
Sept 14: Three alleged extremists were killed in 'crossfire' with the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Barisal and Narayanganj in the early hours of Wednesday.
RAB nightshift is on duty
All the three persons were the members of the Zia group of outlawed Sharbahara party. In Barisal, Ruhul Amin, chief of the Zia group and Golam Dastagir Farid, his accomplice, were killed during an alleged encounter with the RAB team and members off the Ruhul Amin's group at Morakathi village under Uzirpur upazila.

Sources in the RAB said that acting on a secret information, RAB–10 conducted a drive and arrested Ruhul Amin and Farid on Sept 12 night from Mundupasha village under Uzirpur upazila and Maheskhola village under Babuganj upazila.
"Stick'em up, a-holes! Youse coming wid us!"
Later, following their statement,
after discrete use of power tools
RAB carried out another raid along with the extremists on Wednesday at about 4:30 am to recover their hidden arms and arrest their accomplices.
"It was a dark and stormy night....."
RAB said as they reached near the Morakathi village,
"..when suddenly..."
the accomplices of Ruhul Amin as well as Farid opened fire on them.
"....a shot rang out!.."
RAB retaliated and at one stage of firing,
while lying bound hand and foot in the police van
the two extremists tried to flee and were hit by bullets and died on the spot.
"Ouch..ouch...rosebud! .."
However, the accomplices of the extremists managed to escape the scene..
Gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Like they were never there.
leaving one revolver, a gun, a sharp knife and four rounds of bullets. RAB said the two extremists were accused in several cases including murder, Dacoity, kidnap and snatching.

In another incident, a worker of an outlawed political party was killed in `crossfire' with RAB in Godnail village under Siddhirganj upazila in Narayanganj district early Wednesday. The `crossfire' victim has been identified as Aminul Islam alias Mamun an activist of the Zia group of Sarbahara Party. Mamun hails from Babuganj upazila in Barisal.
Well, he used to.
RAB said they recovered a country made gun and some ammunition from the spot, where Mamun was caught in the crossfire and died instantly.
Poor Mamun, only rates a pitiful 4 sentences

Two alleged extortionists lynched in Khulna
Sept 14: Two alleged extortionists were lynched by an irate mob in Khulna city this morning.
That's what irate mobs do
One of the extortionists was identified by the police as Babul alias Ripon, 24, son of Abdul Halim Howlader of village Baunia under Betagi thana of Borguna district. Police identified the other one only as Badal, 25, but could not give further information about him till this afternoon.
"If we can't find anything, we'll just make it up after lunch"
According to sources, both Babul and Badal went to the chamber of Dr Shaikh Anisur Rahman at 14 Iqbalnagar Masjid road of the city at about 11 in the morning today in the guise of patients and demanded Taka 50 thousand from him after identifying themselves as the leaders of the outlawed Janajuddha group.
"Fork over the cash, doc! We're wanted men!"
The alleged extortionists threatened the doctor that they would kill him and also his family members and would blow off his chamber by bombing if he would refuse to make the payment.
That sounds....painful

Dr Anis raised a hue and cry and managed to pass information to some people over mobile phone about the presence of the extortionists at his chamber.
"Excuse me for a moment, I need to make a quick call"
On hearing his cry for help, local people rushed to his chamber, caught and beat them black and blue. On receipt of information, police rushed to the scene, rescued the seriously injured criminals and took them to Khulna Medical College Hospital where the attending doctors pronounced them dead.
"They're dead, Jim"

The doctor had earlier paid Taka 20 thousand to the outlaws from time to time during the last 2 to 3 years out of fear of his life and that of his family members. Dr Anis has filed a case with Khulna thana under section-4 of the Speedy Trial Act in connection with today’s incident.
Posted by: Steve || 09/15/2005 10:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It's a man's life in the RAB!"
Posted by: mojo || 09/15/2005 10:33 Comments || Top||

#2  ...Babul alias Ripon, 24, son of Abdul Halim Howlader of village Baunia under Betagi thana of Borguna district.

Sounds like something out of The Lord of the Rings. "Stomper alias Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt..." No, wait, that's Bored of the Rings.

Dr Anis raised a hue and cry...

You don't see a literal hue and cry much these days.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 09/15/2005 11:00 Comments || Top||

#3  I loooove the Crossfire Gazette.

Has anyone kept a tally of how many people have been killed in 'crossfires' with the RAB?

Posted by: Thaviter Hupavirt2830 || 09/15/2005 11:02 Comments || Top||

#4  I think "hue and cry" is the Bangla version of the Amber Alert.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/15/2005 11:04 Comments || Top||

#5  I was wondering if RAB got dispatched to Katrina relief duty.
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/15/2005 11:06 Comments || Top||

#6  TH - I believe the number is somewhere around 375 this years and prolly at least half that number in mob lynchings. The system has it's merits. At least Mr. Ripon won't be around to commit anymore extortions.
Posted by: Rightwing || 09/15/2005 15:36 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
DEBKA: Arms moved from Sinai to Gaza
DEBKAfile: The Palestinians poured their entire Sinai arms dumps into Gaza, taking advantage of four days of unrestricted border transit.
With them came a fresh influx of terrorists, including arrivals from Lebanon.
Welcome to the target area, take a number and wait your turn.
According to DEBKAfile’s Exclusive’s military sources, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Jihad Islami and other Palestinian groups have poured many tons of explosives, rockets, RPGs and missiles into Gaza. An Israeli officer estimated the quantity would have kept three large Sinai-Rafah arms tunnels busy around the clock for a year.
Thursday, September 15, thousands of Palestinians continued to flock unchecked by Egyptian or Palestinian police across the Gaza-Egyptian border through the Rafah Sultan refugee camp. All the Egyptians are doing is replacing the damaged patches of barbed wire along the Philadelphi route and resealing the holes in the border wall.
Posted by: Steve || 09/15/2005 09:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  patching the cage? What will the Paleos do with those weapons? The Israelis are obliged by the propmises to tehir citizens to have massive retaliation to any rocket or mortar barrage. Hope someone gets the video capture
Posted by: Frank G || 09/15/2005 10:07 Comments || Top||

#2  The Israelis are obliged by the promises...Do you really believe that the Israelis will do anything to defend themselves?. I have to tell you are dreaming. They did not do anything for years to defend the Jewish Communities in Gaza. Israel is becoming a big Guetto/Self-Extermitation Camp. It is very sad thinking that this country was established to defend the Jews of the world and can not even defend themselves, while Uncle Sam taking from both side so his mouth about fighting the war of terror and pressure the Jews to sit down and get killed!
Posted by: Claimble Angomotle5042 || 09/15/2005 10:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Gee, did they happen to store it in large lots? Any chance of secondaries in the near future?
Posted by: mojo || 09/15/2005 10:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Israel to Paleos:

Use them once, regret it for (your shortened) life.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 09/15/2005 10:56 Comments || Top||

#5  I'll admit I'm wrong when it doesn't happen, whiner
Posted by: Frank G || 09/15/2005 11:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Frank,
If they use it against each other (Hamas Versus Fatah) we win.
If they use it against Israel, we are gonna butcher them large scale, so we win again.
smart move, I take my hat off for Mr. Sharon.
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 09/15/2005 12:23 Comments || Top||

#7  EOZ - that's what I'm thinking
Posted by: Frank G || 09/15/2005 12:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Ah, I love it when a plan comes together...
Posted by: The Mossad || 09/15/2005 15:14 Comments || Top||

#9  Sharon did a strategic withdrawl from Gaza to provide more defendable borders for Israel. The Paleos have in effect inherited an Israeli free-fire zone. I hope that Sharon sticks to his plan. He CANNOT allow the Paleos to start using Gaza as a base for attacks on Israel. The die is cast. The ball is in the Paleos' court, and the trigger to counterbattery fire is in Sharon's hand.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/15/2005 21:35 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Weapons cache bound for Sindh seized
In other news, a coal truck bound for Newcastle was also siezed...
GHALANAI: The political administration of Mohmand Agency seized a large cache of weapons and ammunition from Afghanistan destined for Sindh on Wednesday. The authorities cordoned off Yakaghund Road in Mohmand Agency on a tip-off and found hundreds of mortar guns and rocket shells, 6,000 Kalashnikov bullets and 400 Kalakov bullets. A senior administration official told Daily Times that truck driver Aqeel Khan had told investigators that the ammunition was to be handed over to a gang of inter-provincial weapons smugglers in Sindh. He did not say which city in Sindh.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 09:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Anti-terror experts grilling Al-Qaeda suspects
My prediction: The number will drop from 21 (it was 22) to 16 or 17 before the names are released.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani counter-terrorism experts are questioning 21 suspects captured at an Al-Qaeda hideout for clues about remnants of the terror network and the Taliban, an intelligence official said on Wednesday. The suspects, who intelligence official said include Afghans, were captured this week during the biggest-ever military operation in North Waziristan.

Lt Gen Safdar Hussain, the top army commander responsible for anti-terrorism operations in northwestern Pakistan, said Tuesday that troops had destroyed a major Al-Qaeda hideout and caught “some important men”. He would not identify them. The hideout appeared sophisticated, Hussain said, with communications equipment to contact militants in Afghanistan, a cache of bombs, detonators and rockets, and a tiny Chinese-made drone aircraft used for surveillance. On Wednesday, an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity that “four or five important people” were among the detainees. He gave no other details.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao would only say that security agencies had nabbed five suspects in recent operations against terrorists. This week’s operation coincided with a visit by President Gen Pervez Musharraf to the United States, where he said Pakistan was winning the war on terror. “We are on the winning side because Al-Qaeda has been neutralized,” Musharraf told CNN. “They cease to exist as a homogeneous body. We have broken their vertical and horizontal communication linkages. They are on the run.” Musharraf’s government has faced criticism from US, Afghan and UN officials over cross-border militant attacks at targets inside Afghanistan, where violence has escalated ahead of Sunday’s elections for a new legislature.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 09:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is that a pic of the marinade?
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/15/2005 10:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Nah, that's the mustache wax for the crack Pakistani Truncheon Team
Posted by: Steve || 09/15/2005 10:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Can't you just see a PakiWaki trying to read the instruction manual for the chinese drone. LOL.
Posted by: Brett || 09/15/2005 11:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Charcoal or Gas?
Posted by: dorf || 09/15/2005 11:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Why do I think of KC Masterpiece sauce when I see that title?
Posted by: mmurray821 || 09/15/2005 14:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Interesting how Perv goes to the US and ad guys et rounded up. He expecting another donation to his War on Terror by producing timely results?
Posted by: Rightwing || 09/15/2005 15:44 Comments || Top||


Five top leaders of banned outfits arrested: Sherpao
Either Leslie Neilsen or Aftab Khan Sherpao, I'm not sure which... And don't call me 'Shirley'...
Law enforcement agencies have arrested five top leaders of outlawed organisations from Punjab, Sindh and NWFP, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told journalists after opening the western carriageway of Islamabad Highway on Wednesday. Sherpao said all five leaders were wanted in cases like spreading terrorism, sectarianism and inter-faith disharmony. He however did not disclose the names of the arrested leaders or their patron organisations.

Since 2002, Pakistan banned over 10 jihadi outfits for their involvement in Afghan and Kashmir jihad. Intelligence agencies recently reported that most outlawed outfits were continuing their activities undercover and some of them with changed names. They re-launched the operation against the banned outfits after the July 7 London bombings. Sherpao said that 190 members of the banned outfits and groups had been arrested by the law enforcement agencies so far. He said the operation against the banned outfits, which was re-launched on the orders of President General Pervez Musharraf, would continue till the achievement of objectives.

The interior minister said that Nek Zaman, a Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal MNA, harboured terrorists and assisted them in continuing sabotage in the country. A brother of the MNA, who belongs to North Waziristan, also assists foreign terrorists, the minister said, adding that investigations against the MNA and his brother were underway. He said that law enforcement agencies arrested 22 militants, some of them foreign, during a recent operation in Waziristan Agency. He said that government policies against the misuse of loudspeakers and distribution of hate literature were successful. He said the Al Qaeda network in the country had been broken.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 09:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


3 American copters intrude into Pakistan
GHALANAI: Three US helicopters intruded 40 kilometres into Pakistani tribal area in Mohmand Agency on Wednesday. Witnesses told local reporters that the helicopters entered at the Khuwazai border area and advanced towards the Khanch check post at low altitude. The helicopters then returned to Afghanistan. However, no official confirmation of the intrusion of American helicopters was available.
I wonder if they dropped somebody off?
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 08:51 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gotta give the GPS unit an occasional tap. It gets stuck on "Cool, threat board is clear, go for it!" sometimes.
Posted by: .com || 09/15/2005 8:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Need recalibrated too sometimes. They can be off as much as 40 kliks.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 09/15/2005 10:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Or picked somebody up?
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/15/2005 10:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Is't that about 25 miles?

Glad to see someone is doing what needs to be done.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 09/15/2005 11:34 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm waiting for the 4thID and 1st Marine Division to "intrude" into Syria...all the way to Damascus.

Then the capper will be John Bolton at the U.N. shrugging his shoulders and saying: "Oops!"
Posted by: Justrand || 09/15/2005 12:31 Comments || Top||

#6  Even better, denying it. Maybe we can hire Baghdad Bob? I'm sure we can outbid al-Jizz...
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 16:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Maybe they were using Loran C. Yeah, that's it. They were on the fringe of a Loran C net. The GPS nav system was in the shop. Or maybe that was the group on the lost proceedures navigation field problem. Our heartfelt apologies if anyone was inconvenienced. We meant no harm.
Posted by: Al-Aska Paul || 09/15/2005 20:51 Comments || Top||

#8  Is Pakistan really a country ? I mean all that I hear about are these "tribal" areas that Pakistan doesn't really have any control over. So I am not sure I truly beleive that the copters really intruded into a space that is part of a country that doesn't really have any control over it in the first place? Talk about shades of grey....
Posted by: Spomoque Cralet6289 || 09/15/2005 21:55 Comments || Top||

#9  So our special Special Forces guys inconvenience people? Kewl. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/15/2005 21:58 Comments || Top||

#10  Dropping folks off? How about picking folks up, even more better.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/15/2005 23:23 Comments || Top||


Key suspect in Shamzai murder case arrested
Police on Wednesday arrested a Shia Muslim suspected in the shooting death last year of a prominent, pro-Taliban Sunni Muslim cleric in Karachi, an investigator said. Nafees Khan, 30, was nabbed in a police raid on a house in an eastern neighborhood of Karachi, said senior police investigator Farooq Awan. The raid came after a witness had earlier identified Khan from a picture in a police database of militant suspects as one of the six gunmen who shot the cleric Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai in May 2004, Awan said.

Shamzai was gunned down as he was driving to an Islamic school that he headed. His son, nephew and his driver were wounded in the attack. Awan described Khan as a "prime suspect for us" but would not say whether Khan was linked with any militant group.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 08:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
High Court: reroute part of it, but West Bank barrier legal
Israel's top court ordered the government on Thursday to reroute part of its West Bank barrier to reduce Palestinian hardship, a ruling that could force Israel to remove a section already built on occupied land.

But Israel's Supreme Court justices angered Palestinians when, in the same ruling, they rejected a World Court decision last year that the project was illegal and should be dismantled.

The West Bank barrier remains a source of tension following Israel's completion of its pullout from the Gaza Strip this week after 38 years of occupation.

Israel calls the structure a bulwark against suicide bombers. Palestinians brand it a land grab.

The planned 600 km (370 mile) network of fences and walls, now more than half completed, is seen as evidence of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's strategy of keeping a permanent hold on large areas of the West Bank.

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision of nine justices, told the government to find a way to reroute a 13-km (8 mile) segment of the barrier already built near the northern West Bank settlement of Alfei Menashe, home to 5,500 settlers.

A petition had been filed with the court on behalf of residents of five Palestinian villages who had complained that they were being cut off from the rest of the West Bank.

"It has been ruled that the state must, within a reasonable period, reconsider various fence route alternatives at Alfei Menashe while examining security options which cause less injury to the lives of the residents of the villagers," the court said.

"CERTAIN EXTINCTION"

Michael Sfard, an Israeli lawyer representing the Palestinians, hailed the decision, saying: "This ruling saves five villages from certain extinction."

The Defence Ministry said it was studying the ruling.

Israel rerouted large barrier segments near Jerusalem last year under court order after Palestinians complained of land confiscation and being cut off from jobs, schools and hospitals.

The new path cuts into eight percent of the West Bank, less than half of what was originally planned. About 245,000 settlers live in the West Bank, home to 2.4 million Palestinians.

In Thursday's decision, the Israeli court also ruled that the Jewish state had a right to build the barrier on occupied land but only where the army had established security reasons for its construction.

The Israeli court said the World Court's advisory ruling of blanket illegality was flawed because it did not consider Israel's security needs.

Israel has faced a campaign of Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks during a 5-year-old Palestinian uprising that has also been marked by fierce Israeli army raids in Palestinian areas.

Diana Buttu, legal adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called the Israeli court decision "very misguided".

"It is the same court that continues to legitimise the continuation of Israeli military occupation," she said.

Israel already had said it would not abide by the World Court ruling and has gone on erecting the barrier, which hugs the boundary between Israel and the West Bank in many places but snakes into occupied territory in others.

Israel had boycotted the World Court hearings at the Hague, accusing the U.N.'s highest tribunal of bias.
Posted by: lotp || 09/15/2005 08:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But are the Israelis also building a bunch of anti-mortar/rocket laser systems? It is not enough just to ignore the Paleos, they must send a firm message that "we don't want to play with you anymore."

The worst possible thing the Israelis could ever do to them is force them to look at themselves in a mirror.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/15/2005 11:03 Comments || Top||

#2  "The worst possible thing the Israelis could ever do to them is force them to look at themselves in a mirror."

I don't see how, 'moose. There wouldn't be a reflection.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 09/15/2005 14:02 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
15 truckloads of ammo found at al-Qaeda madrassa in North Waziristan
PAKISTAN has busted the biggest al-Qaeda base in the tribal zone of North Waziristan and recovered 15 truckloads of arms and ammunition in a swoop that will cut violence in neighbouring Afghanistan before key elections, a general said today.

The militant den was in a madrassa, or Islamic school, and a nearby compound owned by the son of a former minister of the hardline Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan until late 2001, Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain said.

He said the owner, Sirajuddin Haqqani, whom he described as a senior al-Qaeda insurgent, managed to escape from a nearby hideout which was also raided.

"The raid on the Haqqani madrassa and compound is still going on but we can say we have busted the biggest Al-Qaeda terrorist den in North Waziristan," Lt-Gen Hussain, who commands troops in northwestern Pakistan, said.

The general first gave details about the raid, during which 21 militants were arrested, on Tuesday, but this was first time he revealed the scale of the suspected hideout.

"We have recovered 15 truckloads of ammunition and weapons from there and arms and ammunition are still being recovered," he said.

He said 11 of those arrested were foreigners.

"Naturally it will reduce violence in Afghanistan," he said. "We also busted a communications centre which was used to coordinate operations in Afghanistan."

Lt-Gen Hussain said the border between the countries had been completely sealed and 763 guard posts had been established to prevent militants moving from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

On the day of the elections, Pakistan would conduct "extensive air surveillance with helicopters", he said.

However Afghanistan had only set up 120 posts on the border, he said. "They need to do more to stop infiltration," he said.

Lt-Gen Hussain said Pakistani forces had killed 353 militants in the tribal areas since March 2004, including 175 foreigners such as Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmens, Chechens and a few Arabs.

Nearly 270 Pakistani troops have also died and more than 670 have been wounded, some losing limbs.

Haqqani's father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was a former anti-Soviet fighter who later served as the Taliban's minister for frontier regions. He has not been found since the Taliban fled.

Lt-Gen Hussain said an official who tipped off Sirajuddin Haqqani and allowed him to escape had been arrested.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 03:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pshaw. Just stocking up for the PakiWakiLand Wedding Season. The furriner's are wedding planners and gift registry consultants.
Posted by: .com || 09/15/2005 8:13 Comments || Top||

#2  There's no al-Qaeda in Pakistan! And when I say none, it means there's more than I care to admit...
Gen. Musharref
Posted by: Spot || 09/15/2005 8:29 Comments || Top||

#3  no peace till the infidels are out of the Philipines and Thailand!
Posted by: macofromoc || 09/15/2005 11:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Lt-Gen Hussain said the border between the countries had been completely sealed

In other news, a Pakistani Lieutenant General has reported his lips to have completely fallen off! An investigation is pending.
Posted by: Baba Tutu || 09/15/2005 21:26 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Baghdad car bomb kills 16
Authorities say a suicide car-bomb attack in southern Baghdad today has killed at least 16 Iraqis, 10 of them police officers.

An Interior Ministry official says the attack in the Dura district on a police patrol also injured 13 police officers and eight civilians.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 03:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  NO-DRIVE ZONE CONSIDERED?

A PAINFUL CASE OF PERHAPS TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE, AND TOO SLOW BEHIND THE LEARNING CURVE


By Michael Lopez-Calderon | January 17, 2005

Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen || 09/15/2005 8:20 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda reeling in Mosul
A U.S. Army brigade commander in Mosul, Iraq, says al-Qaida is reeling from a combination of effective military operations and a local population that actively helps to root them out.

Colonel Robert Brown commands the 1st Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, operating in Mosul and the surrounding region in the northwest part of Iraq. He told journalists at a Pentagon briefing September 14 that 80 percent of the al-Qaida network in northern Iraq "has been devastated. And those are not our figures, those came from the last six leaders in Mosul -- al-Qaida leaders -- that we captured; they informed us of that," he said.

Brown said that in the year he has been in the Mosul region, there have been two dramatic changes, and the dividing line was the January 30 national elections:

• Before the elections, the enemy consisted of "very well-trained foreign fighters," he said. Now the foreign fighters are fewer in number, increasingly young (15-to-17 years old) and poorly trained.

• Prior to the election, civilians in Mosul were neutral but have since come to realize "that their government, their Iraqi security forces support them, and the terrorists offer no hope for the future," he said.

The people of Mosul, Brown said, are "absolutely sick and tired of the terrorists, the brutal acts against innocent civilians, and they want a brighter future for their children." A telephone "hotline" for civilians to pass information about the terrorists to the coalition forces and/or Iraqi police received an average of just 40 calls per month before the elections but for the past six months has averaged 400 calls a month.

"Every day the citizens are stopping us on the street, telling us where a potential suspicious individual is who may be a terrorist, and telling us where they tried to plant IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and those types of devices. So the population is clearly very confident," Brown said.

Furthermore, Brown said, Iraqi police and soldiers, with more training, are now performing well. The Iraqi police "recently found one of the largest [weapons and materiel] caches -- certainly in the north -- and maybe all of Iraq. And they're doing a very good job," he said.
The lengthy but very informative transcript is as follows:

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 00:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The MSM will bury new like this. Going info from a reliable source.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/15/2005 2:04 Comments || Top||

#2  The MSM is the enemy.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 09/15/2005 7:33 Comments || Top||

#3  For perhaps the best on-the-spot coverage of our guys in Mosul, go read Michael Yon.

MICHAEL YON

Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen || 09/15/2005 8:17 Comments || Top||

#4  "...do not make me ride in a Humvee."Can't say it any better than that.
Posted by: raptor || 09/15/2005 9:07 Comments || Top||


Zark calls for all-out war against Shi'ites
AL-QAEDA'S leader in Iraq declared all-out war on Shiite Muslims, Iraqi troops and the country's government in a statement last night, as more than 160 people were killed and hundreds wounded in the country's bloodiest day since the United States-led invasion in March 2003.

The speaker on a tape released on the internet, introduced as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said his militant forces would attack any Iraqi it believes has co-operated with an ongoing US-led offensive in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar.

"If proven that any of [Iraq's] national guards, police or army are agents of the Crusaders, they will be killed and his house will be demolished or burnt - after evacuating all women and children - as a punishment," the voice said in the tape that surfaced on a site known for carrying extremist Islamist content.

The speaker announced "all-out war against Shiites everywhere. Beware, there will be no mercy."

The speaker called on Sunni Muslims in Iraq "to wake up from their slumber and rise up because the war waged to eradicate them won't stop".

He said: "Crusaders and Shiites share a common goal to wage war against Sunnis," adding that attacks on Sunni-dominated cities such as Tal Afar prove this.

Iraqi politicians, meanwhile, agreed last-minute revisions to the constitution in an effort to appease the disgruntled Sunni minority, which forms the core support for the country's virulent insurgency.

In the worst attack yesterday, at least 114 civilians were killed and 160 injured by a suicide car bomber in a Shia district at 6:30am. Many of the dead were labourers who had gathered to find work. Twisted hulks of vehicles were strewn throughout a square in the Kadhimiyah district after the attack.

The bomber drove a van into an area where men were looking for jobs. After attracting their attention by offering employment, he detonated his device, causing carnage. At a nearby hospital later, dozens of wounded men lay on stretchers, their bandages and clothes soaked in blood.

The bombing followed a pre-dawn shooting when gunmen in military uniforms killed 17 men in the town of Taji, ten miles north of Baghdad, after dragging them from their homes.

Police said the victims were handcuffed, blindfolded and shot. The dead included a police officer as well as drivers and construction workers employed by the US military.

Two hours later, two soldiers were wounded when a car bomb hit a US military convoy near Shaad Stadium in eastern Baghdad.

At 9:40am, another suicide car bomber hit an Iraqi army convoy, killing three soldiers.

Then in central Baghdad - just a few hundred yards from the Rashid Hotel, which houses diplomats and western workers - a suicide car bomber attacked a US convoy. Fourteen Iraqi police officers were injured.

After that, another car bomb exploded alongside an Iraqi National Guard convoy in the northern district of Shula, killing at least two people.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 00:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Beware, there will be no mercy.

Ya mean like you have shown in the past? Sounds like you're desperate!
Posted by: Bobby || 09/15/2005 8:01 Comments || Top||

#2  School of charms graduate? Destroying homes after women and men evacuated ... sounds like just what they damn the IDF for doing but the IDF doesn't kill indiscriminately as zman's thugs do does it. I like the "no mercy" notice. Since when did they exhibit much on a concern for mercy and people beyond their own? Sounds as though they are getting a bit desperate and very foolish far beyond the usual sociopathic routine. Zman's a bit full of himself and it appears, fully unhinged. Being involved in repeated brutal slaughters can do that to an animal.
Posted by: MunkarKat || 09/15/2005 8:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Does that warrant two exclamation points rather than the usual one?

Zark has been at all out war v. Shites, nothing new here.

Posted by: Captain America || 09/15/2005 17:59 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
GSPC kills 4 Algerian soldiers
Al Qaeda-aligned militants have killed four members of Algeria's security forces in separate ambushes two weeks ahead of a referendum on a limited amnesty aimed at rebels, newspapers reported on Wednesday.

A military convoy was heading for a billet when a homemade bomb buried in the ground exploded, killing three soldiers and injuring two others on Tuesday in the Boumerdes province, some 50 km (30 miles) east of the capital Algiers, national newspapers Liberte and El Watan said.

The newspapers, citing unnamed sources, said the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) -- Algeria's main outlawed militant group -- exploded the device by remote control.

Hours later militants walked into a cafe in Oued Khdache and shot dead a military police officer, newspapers said.

Authorities were not immediately available for comment.

The attacks come ahead of a Sept. 29 national referendum on a partial amnesty targeted at hundreds of rebels which President Abdelaziz Bouteflika hopes will end more than a decade of conflict.

Human rights groups doubt an amnesty will end the violence, which has declined sharply in recent years, but has cost up to 200,000 lives.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 00:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Zark consolidates control over Iraqi insurgency
A TERRORIST mastermind has united insurgent groups in Baghdad to target the Iraqi Shia Muslim community with the aim of bringing civil war to Iraq, The Times has learnt.

According to US military intelligence sources, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man responsible for the bloodiest acts of terror in Iraq over the past two years, now commands thousands of fighters from various rival groups and is set to order further waves of bombings.

Yesterday the self-styled “emir” of Iraq was blamed for a dozen co-ordinated bombings in Baghdad that killed 152 people, the single worst death toll in the city since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Most of the dead were poor Shia labourers killed by a huge car bomb in a busy square.

“The al-Qaeda organisation in Mesopotamia is declaring all-out war on the Rafidha [a pejorative term for Shias], wherever they are in Iraq,” said the 38-year-old in an audio message released on an Islamic website. He urged Sunni Muslims to “wake up from your slumber” and joint the fight.

Last night the threat was being taken seriously by US and Iraqi officials, who have offered a $25 million reward for his capture. “We have got reason to believe that al-Zarqawi has now been given tactical command in the city over groups that have had to merge under him for the sake of survival,” an American intelligence officer in Baghdad told The Times yesterday.

An intelligence summary, citing the conglomeration of insurgent groups under the al-Qaeda banner to be the result of rebel turf wars, money, weaponry and fear, concluded that of the estimated 16,000 Sunni Muslim insurgents, 6,700 were hardcore Islamic fundamentalists who were now supplemented by a possible further 4,000 members after an amalgamation with Jaysh Muhammad, previously an insurgent group loyal to the former Baathist regime.

Al-Zarqawi’s rise to supremacy will cast a long shadow in the run up to the October 15 referendum on Iraq’s new constitution and general elections due in December.

His organisation is believed already to have gained domination of smaller resistance groups in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in western Iraq and a centre of gravity for the Sunni insurgency. An Iraqi resistance insider there last week told The Times that al-Zarqawi’s men had already caused thousands of Shia to flee the city over the past six weeks.

“His men announced through leaflets that all Shia should leave Ramadi or face ‘the iron fist’,” the Ramadi resident said. “At first local Sunnis didn’t want anything to do with it. But they know how powerful Zarqawi’s group is, that it doesn’t hesitate to kill and is not afraid to die.”

“They control Ramadi now. They have the best weapons and the most money, and more and more men. They walk openly on the streets when the Americans aren’t around. So the Shias left, by their thousands.”

The man, himself a supporter of the insurgency, claimed that public executions of coalition informers were a regular occurrence, and happened during daylight in the street. Such is the breakdown of any official authority in Ramadi that it was impossible to stop.

Coalition intelligence sources said that a culmination of signal, image and human intelligence had alerted the coalition to a huge al-Qaeda attack planned for Baghdad in August, which had been aborted at the last minute.

They said the yesterday’s attack was likely a rescheduling of the original operation, and broadcast for propaganda purposes as retaliation for recent government successes in Tal Afar, northern Iraq.

In Tal Afar itself yesterday, where some 10,000 US and Iraqi troops have been engaged in a massive offensive to recapture the ethnically divided town from Sunni insurgents, commanders spoke of the “horrible” abuses they had uncovered. The details were prophetic reminder of what al-Qaeda’s supremacy may bode.

“The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine, in one case murdering a child, placing a booby trap within the child’s body and waiting for the parent to come recover the body of their child and exploding it to kill the parents,” said Colonel H R McMaster, a senior American commander in the town.

Yesterday commanders said they were in full control of the town after the insurgents melted away, but their victory appears quickly overshadowed by al-Zarqawi’s subsequent gore-splattered stamp acoss the very centre of Baghdad.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 00:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Five suspected militants including three Paks arrested
KABUL: Afghan forces arrested five suspected militants including three Pakistanis in the eastern province of Nangahar, as authorities stepped up security to prevent rebel attacks ahead of landmark elections over the weekend, officials said on Wednesday. The army and police gave conflicting accounts of Tuesday's arrests at a checkpoint as the suspects were travelling by car through the Khogyani district of Nangahar. Defence Ministry spokesman Gen Mohammed Saher Azimi said the men were posing as journalists and had remote-controlled explosives hidden inside cameras.
We've seen that trick before...
However, Nangahar Police chief Khalil Ziay said the men - two Afghans and three Pakistanis - had claimed to be businessmen selling chewing gum.
"Honey! It's the chewing gum men! Do we need any gum today?"
"We're almost out of Teaberry, sweety!"
He said the men had three cameras, but denied explosives were found inside. There was no comment on the discrepancy in the officials' accounts. The suspects are under investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Truckloads of ammo, hard boyz arrested; yesterday a report these hard boyz had a drone ... troubles reforming Madrassa system ...what else? And it all seems to occur in Paki-skankland.

Wow ... what an ally! We should only be so lucky and honored to have more friends like the Pakis. Wait a minute, we do! There's always our good friends, the ever-so loving ally: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen || 09/15/2005 8:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Darn! Messed up on URL to my ignoble site!
Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen || 09/15/2005 8:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Messed up again ... I knew that early morning drinking was going to eventually kick my ass.

BTW: Here's an interesting piece from AP:

Pakistan Falters in Madrassa Reform
Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen || 09/15/2005 8:04 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Car explosion targets Iraqi officials' convoy in Baghdad
A booby-trapped vehicle exploded Wednesday targeting a convoy for officials at the ministry of interior in Al-Waziriyah area in Baghdad. Iraqi police source said that an officer was killed and four others were injured, including two policemen in the car explosion that occurred near the Administration and Economy College. The source did not reveal the identity of the officials.

Meanwhile, a mortar shell fell on the house of former member of the Iraqi Governing Council Naseer Al-Jaderji in Al-Ahdamiyah area but no casualties have been reported. Another two mortar shells also targeted today Al-Rasheed Hotel in the Green Zone but no casualties or damages have been reported yet. A fourth mortar shell fell today in Al-Rabeiee Street injuring two civilians.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi judge survives assassination attempt
An investigation judge survived Wednesday an assassination attempt in Al-Madaen village in southern Iraq. Iraqi police sources said that unidentified gunmen opened fire against Judge Hassan Taher Hadi upon his return to Baghdad. According to the sources, the judge suffered serious injuries and was rushed to Baghdad Hospital for treatment. The sources did not give any further details on the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Another Shia shot dead in Quetta
QUETTA: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Shia man on Wednesday in the third targeted killing of members of the minority community in the past week, police said. Two attackers sprayed bullets at Ejazul Hasan, an employee of Pakistan Railways, as he went to work in the morning. An angry crowd then took the body to the provincial governor's residence but police using tear gas shells dispersed them, witnesses said.

Quetta SSP Parvez Zahoor said that the latest murder appeared to be sectarian and was the third in a week, and the fifth in the last two months. He said it appeared that sectarian militants had changed their tactics, selecting specific targets rather than attempting mass killings.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Taliban killed seven with vote cards, says Afghan governor
Taliban insurgents killed seven people in Afghanistan after finding them with voter cards for Sunday’s elections, a provincial governor said on Wednesday. Speaking of the seven killed on Tuesday in Uruzgan province, governor Jan Mohammad Khan said, “They were killed because they were carrying voting cards.” He said the seven had been travelling in a remote district when the attack took place. He gave no further details.

A Taliban spokesman said the insurgents had carried out the latest killings, saying the seven were policemen and included a commander. He denied that they had been targeted because they were carrying voting cards. “We killed seven policemen in Gezaab, not voters,” said spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi. Violence has surged in the run-up to the elections, with more than 1,000 people killed, most of them militants but including 49 US troops. About 20,000 US troops and 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers are providing security for the elections along with tens of thousands of government police and troops.

Hakimi said that Taliban fighters had also killed a man in neighbouring Zabul province because he was a spy for the Americans. Police confirmed the killing but said the victim was an ordinary civilian, not a spy. In another attack in Zabul, three Taliban and a policeman were killed in a clash after insurgents opened fire on a joint US-Afghan patrol. No American soldiers were hurt, a provincial official said. In the northern province of Balkh, an explosion destroyed a newly built school, a provincial official said. It was not known who was behind the blast but the official said he believed the school had been a target because it was to have been used as a polling station on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh Man, that's an easy one.
Go out to the killing location, set up the largest perimeter you possibly can and move inwards in a circle, search EVERYWHERE and arrest everyone WITHOUT a voter card, ID and and question every single person, "Why No Card" and "Whodunit" and issue them a card on the spot, do it again in a week, anyone issued a card that cannot produce it is jailed.

Now you have a file (Fingerprints, DNA, Photographs) of the holdouts, should make future arrests and convictions much easier.

Get their vital stats on file, question them severly, and someone will rat on the killers.

(Arrest the usual suspects)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 09/15/2005 0:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Taliban killed seven with vote cards

Bullets are too damn expensive.
Posted by: JFM || 09/15/2005 10:50 Comments || Top||


Thugburg, pop. 8301...
Thugburg now has its own address — www.thugburg.com — complete with a home page and links to all the bad guyz you can imagine. Still not done with the ancient history, and I expected to be by now. Maybe another month's worth...

I've split the orgs list into al-Qaeda regional and other, with the "other" list pretty long, though a lot of it's due to variations in the spellings of the organizations.
Very nice work, Fred, but I have one small quibble. You seem to have left out the column with the GPS coordinates...
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It says connection refused when you try to access it, but still, thanks for all the hard work!
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/15/2005 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Very nice, Fred. Thanks.
Posted by: Pappy || 09/15/2005 0:18 Comments || Top||

#3  that's just for those not allowed access to the "secure" RB files Sandy Dan
Posted by: Frank G || 09/15/2005 0:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Ask Mike for the combination, Dan :-)
Posted by: Steve White || 09/15/2005 0:46 Comments || Top||

#5  I dunno about that, Steve. Is Dan on Shipman's list? Ship's fairly picky...
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/15/2005 0:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Fred FYI, the Google blog search for 'Rantburg' brings up links to an old blogspot account you set up when RB was down.
Posted by: phil_b || 09/15/2005 2:09 Comments || Top||

#7  This one, http://www.harble.blogspot.com/ ?
Still have it in my favorites, badly needs an update, though, hé hé...
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/15/2005 6:08 Comments || Top||

#8  I don't have the combination.
Posted by: Mike || 09/15/2005 6:14 Comments || Top||

#9  all I get is a blank page.
Posted by: raptor || 09/15/2005 8:12 Comments || Top||

#10  Try this as an alternative (it hasn't moved), but I haven't had any trouble.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 8:21 Comments || Top||

#11  "Salafi Scientific Movement" - now there's an oxymoron!
Posted by: Spot || 09/15/2005 8:27 Comments || Top||

#12  I just tried it with Netscape 7.0, Opera 7.1, and Firefox 1.0, and it worked. I refuse to use Internet Exploder. There may have been a rush when Fred first posted the article, and that may account for some of you not getting through.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/15/2005 13:13 Comments || Top||

#13  not to sound too silly, but while looking at this list, I harbored thoughts of being able to just push the delete button and they would all be deleted.
DELETE
Wouldn't that be wonderful
Posted by: Jan || 09/15/2005 20:17 Comments || Top||

#14  Once I've got it mostly up to date you'll be able to view all the deaders. Almost as good.
Posted by: Fred || 09/15/2005 23:54 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Jordan court sentences terr to life for 2002 terror bombing
AMMAN - Jordan’s military court on Wednesday convicted an alleged Islamic terrorist militant in a 2002 bombing that killed two people and sentenced him to life in jail with hard labour. Mustafa Siyam, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, was found guilty beyond any doubt of the terrorist attack, the three-man military tribunal said. The bomb was placed under the car of the wife of a senior Jordanian intelligence officer, Lt. Col. Ali Burjaq. Burjaq had left the area minutes earlier, and the blast killed two passers-by. Siyam was also charged with the possession and manufacturing of explosives.

Siyam stood quietly in the dock throughout the hearing. “There’s no God but one God and he has to help me 'cause I really screwed the pooch big-time,” he told his lawyer, who tried to comfort him after the verdict was pronounced. The court initially sentenced Siyam to death, but quickly commuted that to life in jail, saying it sought to give him another chance to repent. It did not specify the number of years he will spend in jail. Under Jordanian law, a life imprisonment is at least 25 years. Siyam, who pleaded not guilty, told the court during the trial that his earlier confession to interrogators was extracted forcefully.
Can't be, he still has his teeth.
Younis Arab, Siyam’s lawyer, said he planned to appeal the verdict. In April 2003, the same court sentenced Siyam to death in absentia. He was later captured in Iraq and extradited to Jordan, where he was retried. Under Jordanian law, people convicted in absentia have the right to a retrial if they are later arrested. The military prosecution has said Mohammed Shabaneh, who was earlier convicted in the attack, confessed that Siyam and another convict, Mohammed Arabiyat, convinced him to carry out the attack because Burjaq was “was fighting the Islamists.” Arab, the lawyer, has argued that Siyam left Jordan on Feb. 16, 2002, while the crime was carried out later in the month and the explosives were manufactured after his departure. But military prosecutors countered that the defendant planned the attack before he left.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Two Saudi terror suspects arrested in Iraq
RIYADH - Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq have arrested two Saudi terrorist suspects whose names are on a June list of terrorists issued by Saudi Arabia, the daily Okaz newspaper said on Wednesday. The paper said Abdullah Mohammad Saleh Al Ramyan, 27, and Mohammad Saleh Sulaiman Al Rashoodi, 24, were reportedly arrested as they were trying to enter Iraqi territories. It was not clear when the arrests were made but the paper said they could confirm that it was Kurdish security forces who made the arrest. Al Ramyan and Al Rashoodi’s names are on a list issued by Saudi Interior Ministry in late June. Their names appear under the category of “those known to have been involved in domestic incidents and are presumed to be outside the kingdom.”
Posted by: Steve White || 09/15/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2005-09-15
  Zark calls for all-out war against Shiites
Wed 2005-09-14
  At least 57 killed in Iraq violence
Tue 2005-09-13
  Gaza "Celebrations" Turn Ugly
Mon 2005-09-12
  Palestinians Taking Control in Gaza Strip
Sun 2005-09-11
  Tal Afar: 400 terrorists dead or captured
Sat 2005-09-10
  Iraq Tal Afar offensive
Fri 2005-09-09
  Federal Appeals Court: 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect Can Be Held
Thu 2005-09-08
  200 Hard Boyz Arrested in Iraq
Wed 2005-09-07
  Moussa Arafat is no more
Tue 2005-09-06
  Mehlis Uncovers High-Level Links in Plot to Kill Hariri
Mon 2005-09-05
  Shootout in Dammam
Sun 2005-09-04
  Bangla booms funded by Kuwaiti NGO, ordered by UK holy man
Sat 2005-09-03
  MMA seethes over Pak talks with Israel
Fri 2005-09-02
  Syria Arrests 70 Arabs Attempting to Infiltrate Iraq
Thu 2005-09-01
  Leb: More Hariri Arrests

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