A lot of people are claiming that WP is a chemical and a weapon therefore it is a chemical weapon. My desire is to clear up this misconception by analyzing the differences between WP as it was used in Fallujah and a chemical weapon. It is not an attempt to dehumanize the event or pass morale judgment either way. I leave that to the reader. But I think it is important for people to have easy to understand, informal analysis to make judgments.
Compare and contrast the use of WP in Fallujah to a generic chemical weapon.
A chemical weapon when deployed will retain its toxicity in vapor or liquid form for a variable length of time usually measurable in hours, depending on the agent. This is to create wide and indiscriminate dispersal.
WP oxidizes spontaneously and does not exist in a residual form when exposed to oxygen other than smoke, which is no more harmful than any smoke because it is no longer "white phosphorous" having oxidized. In addition, the military application in question uses WP embedded on felt wedges to allow a more controlled dispersion versus indiscriminate.
Chemical weapons require protective equipment and decontamination to operate in the affected area.
WP requires none after it oxidizes.
Chemical weapons attack the body in a variety of ways including inhalation and absorption through the skin to produce a toxic effect.
Though you can replicate a scenario in a controlled environment that may demonstrate this for WP, such as forced ingestion, the practical application of WP weapons causes injury by the heat generated by oxidation. The injury is localized to the exposed area and does spread through the body, but it would take massive amounts of exposure to become toxic, which is impractical to this application. It continues until the WP is removed, oxidized, or removed from oxygen. This is a burn, not a toxic reaction.
If you are in a location attacked with a chemical weapon, there is no way to avoid it without protective equipment.
Falling WP can be avoided easily with cover. The WP may cause secondary fires and associated smoke, but fire and smoke are not chemical weapons.
The lethality is what really shows the difference:
If you deployed a chemical weapon against a building containing 20 enemy soldiers, they would probably all die and any one near the building, down the street, around the cornerâŠ.
If you deployed this application (base-ejecting, artillery 155mm projectile with WP embedded on 116 felt wedges with a total payload about the size of a coffee can) against a building you would have a very low probability of killing any of the soldiers. You would even have a low probability of injury, since in this scenario the enemy has cover. You may get secondary effects from fire and concentrated smoke, but this is not a chemical attack.
Chemical weapons have one function: kill everything in the affected area.
WP has other functionality such as obscuration, incendiary, and marking a target.
Note: Since writing this I learned that WP mortars were used in Fallujah though not shown in the RAI documentary. The net effect would be more dispersion over a much smaller area of about 20 meters. The mortars were used when HE or bullets could not penetrate in order to drive the enemy out with smoke and fire, the secondary effects. Since HE could not penetrate it is unlikely WP could penetrate and unlikely it made direct contact with combatants or "civilians" who might be inside.
-Ray Robison is a Sr. Military Operations Research Analyst with Scientific Applications International Corporation at the Aviation and Missile, Research, Development, Engineering Command in Huntsville Alabama. His background includes over ten years of military service as an officer and enlisted soldier in the Medical Branch, Field Artillery and Signal Corp including the Gulf War and Kosovo operations. Most recently he worked as a contractor for DIA with the Iraqi Survey Group.
P.S. to Lone Ranger who posted on my analysis of the RAI video:
You are correct, it was magnesium not WP (although many arty guys are still argueing over that one and although WP is used for illumination in older applications but I wrote it in an hour, give me a beak).
WP is used for 3 reasons by U.S. Army doctrine: obscuration, smoke, and to burn equipment and fortifications. Not only is that not "crap" that is doctrine as I learned in Field Artillery Officer Basic Course. Also, if you think my analysis helped the bad guys, go to the big time liberal website www.needlenose.com and read the comments. You wouldn't believe how many eyes I opened my friend. What did you do to help stop this nonsense other than attack my essay that totally debunked the fakeumentary? Sorry but you pissed me off. I am trying o help sldiers and you are fucking attacking me...FUCK YOU!!! Whew, I feel better now, thanks....
#1
I meant: WP is used for obscuration, marking targets, and burning things. Sorry, I get really pissed about what the lone ranger said.
Posted by: Ray Robison ||
11/18/2005 19:26 Comments ||
Top||
#2
A lot of people are claiming that WP is a chemical and a weapon therefore it is a chemical weapon
And chemical weapons are WMDs. Saddam's army like all the armies of significant size had WP artillery. Therefore Saddam had WMDs. So watch the moonbats try to rationalize how WP is chemical but Bush Lied[tm] about Iraqi WMDs. Watch true BDS in action as two fundamentally contradictory positions are held at the same time. Heh.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/18/2005 21:26 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I personally entered a destroyed ordnance room at a former Republican Guard barracks, now within the confines of a part of Camp Slayer, in Baghdad in 2003. American troops had previously spray painted outside the smashed-in door " WP ". Indeed, when entering the blackened and terribly smelly room, a buddy and I could just barely make out the jumbled charred mess within the room. How the room structure managed to survive the conflagaration that had taken place is beyond me. All sorts of expended ordanace littered the floor and spilled out of charcoled crates, hand tossable grenade canisters on charred shelving appeared ready for the taking but were somehow untoppled and yet visibly expended of their unknown contents. My buddy who had great knowledge of munitions agreed with the " WP " sprayed marking that indeed there had been WP in the room and he was familiar with the smell. I couldn't vouch for the smell, but I could vouch for the damage from earlier sights of " WP " damage at other sites. It seems that WP is indeed quite wide-spread and truely it would be a horrific way to get hurt or killed. But then so are a million other ways of dying. Why are they focusing so tightly on WP anyways?
#5
Nuthin' new about the WP controversy - the Commies whined far and wide about America using WP in combat but had no probs themselves using it profusely in Korea, Vietnam, local Revolutionary movements, and Afghanistan during the Cold War. Its about their soldiers winning and American boys losing AND dying - every advantage they can get.
Lawyers yesterday boycotted courts across the country putting a halt to the judicial activities in protest against the assassination of two judges in Jhalakathi in a suicide bomb attack by the outlawed Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
Makes sense, in an Islamic kind of way, I guess...
The Supreme Court (SC) and lower courts in the capital as well as the district courts wore a deserted look due to the boycott enforced by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). The agitating lawyers wearing black badges staged demonstration around the courts throughout the country. Black flags were hoisted on the court premises.
However, the pro-government lawyers termed the court boycott politically motivated. They brought out processions and staged rallies against the move. According to reports from our district correspondents, the SCBA court boycott programme was observed peacefully by the protesting lawyers in the districts. In many districts, the pro-government lawyers held rallies against the boycott.
Sounds like politix as usual. I guess they don't figure they're in any danger, or maybe they didn't like the judges who were bumped off.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The BDR has beefed up security along the Indian border in Thakurgaon, following rumours that seven members of the JMB suicide squad were holed up in the district town with a plan to strike again, reports UNB. A senior official of BDR's Battalion 20 said the measures have been taken in response to the overall security situation of the district. The police and other security forces have also stepped up efforts to ensure security in the district reportedly following an intelligence report from the capita, said sources. According to the unconfirmed report, a 10-member suicide squad of JMB had recently been dispatched to Dinajpur. Seven members of the squad had already entered Thakurgaon, a district police official said, requesting anonymity.
Sources also claimed the JMB squad is likely to strike within a week, but they did not specify the targets. Acting on the intelligence, police teams have carried out raids on several possible hideouts of JMB men across the districts but to no effect. Acting OC of Thakurgaon Police Station Mazhar Hossain said police on Tuesday night raided in vain Lakshmipur-Debadangi village under Sadar upazila for three people suspected to have a direct role in the August 17 blasts. Imam Abdul Gafur of Thakurgaon Ahle Hadith Mosque and Rezwan alias Razzak, a student of Ranisangkoil Kuwaity Madrasa, were among the suspects.
Earlier, a bomb-like device was recovered on Tuesday from a paddy field in Singia village under Sadar upazila. The recovery caused panic among the locals. The device, wrapped in red tape and electric wire, has been taken for examination by the army's explosives experts. Deputy Commissioner of Thakurgaon Gazi Mizanur Rahman said security had been further tightened on the court premises and other important installations while gunmen were assigned to be with the judges in line with government directives.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
An operative of JMB arrested in city's Uttara on Wednesday confessed to a magistrate yesterday that he blasted a bomb near Zia International Airport on August 17. Twenty-five-year old Rezaul Karim Raju, who hails from Jamalpur, also admitted that he and seven others took training on how to operate a bomb at a mosque in Moynertek of Uttara a day before the countrywide blasts. A teacher of Taragachhi Kindergarten in Gazipur, Rezaul said JMB leader Habib had been the trainer while another leader Jahid got him involved in 'jihad', by promising him heaven after death.
Rezaul also told the magistrate that Habib had supplied him with a time bomb in a gift box early in the morning of August 17 at a house in Abdullahpur. Later the same day he blasted the bomb in the airport area while Jahid exploded his bomb at Gulshan-1 intersection. Metropolitan Magistrate Nani Gopal Biswas recorded the statement under 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Sources in Detective Branch of police said they arrested Rezaul, following up the provided by Masud, who was arrested on August 22 during a raid to arrest Habib, the man alleged to have been in charge of staging the blasts in Gulshan area.
Meanwhile in Kurigram, police yesterday arrested JMB member Saidur in Kodalkati Bazar of Rajibpur upazila, reports BDNEWS. Son of Sadu Molla, Saidur hails from remote Char Kharubhaz in the district.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Militants yesterday threatened to bury the law minister alive in Companiganj of Noakhali while in Rajshahi, Jamaatul Mujahideen threatened to blow up the prison if its detained cadres are not freed within 12 days starting from November 20. The militants in hand-written letters sent to different offices across Companiganj upazila also said, "Inshallah [god willing] within December 16, the land office, offices of Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) and AG (accountant general), and the police station in Companiganj will be blown up and all officials and employees will be killed."
Duty officer of Companiganj Police Station Zahurul Islam last night told The Daily Star about the letters containing the threat to bury Law Minister Moudud Ahmed alive within a few days. He also said name of no organisation or person is mentioned in the letter as issuing the threats. The law enforcers suspect the letters were from the 'suicide squad' members of banned Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
As the news of the letter spread, panic through the local administration. Security measures have been stepped up in Companiganj following the receipt of the letters. Zafar Alam, UNO of Companiganj, yesterday admitted to have received the letter and said the police has been directed to take necessary steps. The higher authorities have also been informed of the matter.
Our staff correspondent from Rajshahi reports: Besides the Rajshahi Central Jail, JMB yesterday threatened to blow up the office of the Deputy Inspector General (prison). Sources in the jail and police said computer-composed letters sent to DIG (prison), police department and the superintendent of jail yesterday carried the threat In the letters militants claimed that their militants have been staying somewhere near the central jail and the attack is imminent. Security measures have been heightened in and around the jail compound. The higher authorities of the prison administration have been informed of the threats.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Militants yesterday threatened to bury the law minister alive
Have we had a buried alive threat before?
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/18/2005 2:18 Comments ||
Top||
An alleged al-Qaeda ringleader may have to be freed after the Home Office accepted the blame for bungling his extradition to Italy. MPs are demanding that Charles Clarke explain how the Government took so long to deal with Farj Hassan Faraj that time ran out for the Italians to put the 24-year-old Libyan on trial for plotting bomb attacks in Europe. Mr Faraj is now being held here under immigration rules, but officials admit that they do not know what to do with him. Under EU rules he should be sent back to Milan, where he escaped arrest, but the Italians say that Britainâs failure to meet their three-year deadline means that they would have to free him. Change the law. Remove any statute of limitations for terrorism and charge him.
Mr Farajâs lawyers will fight any attempt to deport him to Libya, claiming that he would face torture.
By this point in the WoT, I regard that as a feature, not a bug...
This embarrassing episode comes as the Governmentâs extradition record is again under scrutiny after court rulings yesterday on two other terrorist suspects wanted by France and Spain. Judges ordered that both men be extradited, but the two are likely to appeal, which could cause a long delay. European leaders have condemned Britainâs handling of the extradition of terrorist suspects as âchaotic and clumsyâ.
This is the elephant in the living room of the "apprehend the miscreants and bring them to justice" approach to the WoT. Not only has the beast pooped all over the living room, but it's gone pesth and it's goring people. To me it makes much more sense to turn the bastards over to the military for internment until the end of the WoT â "Two, three, many Gitmos"...
Ben Wallace, the Tory MP who forced ministers into accepting their mistake over Mr Faraj, said yesterday: âThis Home Office blunder shows that we are failing in our war on terror because of incompetence at the highest level.â
I'd call it poor system design, myself...
The mix-up over Mr Faraj was disclosed in The Times last month. He has been described as the âEuropean envoyâ for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is blamed for many attacks on British and US targets in Iraq. He is alleged to be one of the first âsleepersâ sent to Europe by al-Qaeda after being trained at a camp by Zarqawi. Six of his alleged gang were arrested in Milan but he fled to England in 2002 and claimed asylum. One of his group is said to have been heard discussing a plan that would lead to â400 people dead in a subwayâ. Mr Wallace, MP for Lancaster and Wyre, said: âThe fact that one of the most important terror suspects in Europe with links to the bloody Abu al-Zarqawi could now go free makes a mockery of the Prime Ministerâs entire strategy and could ultimately put lives at risk.â Massimo Meroni, a senior Italian prosecutor, said: âThe whole thing has been a waste and Iâm surprised at Britain. This man is a big player in international terrorism.â
In a separate case a judge ordered that Moutaz Almallah Dabas, 39, a Spaniard wanted for the bombings of Madrid commuter trains in March last year, should be extradited to Spain within ten days under Britainâs new fast-track extradition laws. The deadline is unlikely to be met as Señor Dabasâs lawyers are expected to appeal. He was arrested at his home in Slough, Berkshire, in March on a European extradition warrant 24 hours after Spanish police seized his brother, Mohannad, a Syrian, in Madrid. Britain has failed to extradite a major terrorist suspect since the September 11 attacks. Legal battles have cost the taxpayer an estimated £10 million.
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2005 09:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Return him to Italian airspace and release him.
#2
Britain has failed to extradite a major terrorist suspect since the September 11 attacks. Legal battles have cost the taxpayer an estimated £10 million.
Bungled is probably not the word for this situation.
#4
The restrictions on where people are deported because other nations have different laws - how long has this been an accepted "international norm"? Can anyone say?
I don't recall hearing this in "the good old days" (lol) before Europe was actually allied with the US.
It's a rather remarkable notion, when you ponder it, that defies sovereignty - and seems bizarre / PC amok, especially among "allied" democracies.
Just wondering if anyone can shed light on when this began...
#6
I put this all down to Socialist individuals with ine the Home Office that refuse to extradite regardless of the facts.
This is why the Law nad Order apporoach to Terrorists can't and will not work. This is a war. Wars do not slow down for the molasified wheels of justice to turn.
Chairman of the Shovkhal-Berd village elections commission Isa Temirgirayev has been killed in Chechnya in a first attack against organizers of the Chechen parliamentary elections, officials with the republic elections commission told Interfax.
The Chechen Interior Ministry and head of the Nozhai-Yurt district authorities Vakha Magamgadziyev have confirmed this information.
Magamgadziyev said, citing reports from Shovkhal-Berd, that unidentified assailants shot Temirgirayev dead on Wednesday evening.
An investigative team set out to this mountainous village at dawn.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/18/2005 14:12 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Russian special services and Ministry of Internal Affairs are concerned with invigoration of the Islamistsâ activities in the country.
Federal forces in Chechnya killed an al-Qaeda emissary nicknamed Jaber who trained mercenaries and transferred them to the republic. After al-Qaeda representative Abu al-Walidâs death, Jaberâs task force took over the financing of illegal armed groups.
âThis confirms the intention of radical Islamic terrorist groups to intensify subversive activities in Russia. All this concerns and alarms the Interior Ministry and special servicesâ, Colonel General Arkady Yedelev, head of the regional headquarters for the antiterrorist operation in the North Caucasus told journalists on Friday.
Jaber led a group of foreign mercenaries from December 2001. His group organized terrorist acts of illegal armed groups in Chechnya from the territory of Georgia.
Documents were find on him testifying to the payment made for a series of terrorist attacks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/18/2005 14:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The Russian Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service eliminated a group of international terrorists led in Chechnya by Jofer, a Saudi mercenary who was an Al Qaeda representative in the North Caucasus, the operative HQ of the United Group of Forces said Friday. Jofer had led foreign mercenaries who commanded illegal militant units from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge since 2001.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/18/2005 13:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The Swedish teenager being held in Sarajevo on suspicion of terrorist offences visited the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to the British newspaper The Times.
In an investigation into al-Zarqawi, one of the world's most wanted terrorists, the paper stated that "there are signs that al-Zarqawi wants to mobilise cells in Europe".
An example given by the paper is the arrest of the 18 year old Bosnian-born Swede with a Turkish man in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on October 19th. Police found 30 kilos of explosive materials, weapons and a so-called "suicide vest" in the man's apartment.
On a video the men are seen "praying to Allah for forgiveness", according to a local journalist, and stored on their computer were pictures of the White House.
The Swedish man, reported The Times, is alleged to have spent time in Iraq with al-Zarqawi and run one of his web sites.
The Times cited police and intelligence sources, and said that British detectives are also investigating the Swede.
"His defence lawyer has told us that British, American and Danish police have interrogated him," said a journalist on the weekly paper Slobodna Bosna to TT.
According to earlier Bosnian reports, the Swede was identified as an Islamist who, under the codename Maximus and from a computer in Sweden, is said to have recruited fighters to Iraq.
Sweden has also begun an investigation into the man.
Representatives of the Swedish embassy in Sarajevo have visited the man in prison on two occasions, most recently on October 28th. He has been in jail for almost a month and the next court hearing must be held on Monday at the latest.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/18/2005 14:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
AMSTERDAM â An appeal court in The Hague has acquitted Samir A., 19, of charges he was planning to terrorist attacks on key locations in the Netherlands in 2004. A. was among a group of Dutch Muslims arrested in October this year when police allegedly found a 'video testament" in which A. referred to an act he had carried out. This is a separate case that has yet to be finalised.
Dealing with the 2004 case, the judges indicated on Friday they were convinced A, a Dutch-Moroccan, had "terrorist intentions" but not the means to carry out his plans. The intention to carry out a criminal act is not sufficient grounds for a conviction and therefore A. was acquitted on the charges of plotting attacks and being an accessory to an armed robbery at the supermarket where he worked in Rotterdam in 2004. The Appeal Court said A.'s plans were "so inept and primitive" that they did not pose a real threat. "The suspect was left with practically empty hands,'' the judges said.
So you're going to let him go, make better plans, get organized and kill people. Then you can arrest him. Brilliant
Back in April the trial court acquitted A. on the similar grounds. Prosecutors appealed in the hope the higher court would accept materials found in A.'s home in Rotterdam would be sufficient to prove the case against him. Among the items found were sketches and self-made plans of several potential targets, including the Dutch Parliament, the Borssele nuclear power plant and the headquarters of the security service AIVD.
Police also found a silencer and an empty ammunition clip for an automatic weapon, videos and books about Jihad. Fertiliser found in the house indicated A. was trying to make a bomb but the fertiliser being used was unsuitable, the prosecution claimed. The trial court jailed him for three months for possession of the silencer and ammunition clip. The judges said there had to be suspicions he was planning terror attacks, the evidence was insufficient. In January 2003 A. was arrested in Russia. He and a school friend were allegedly on their way to Chechnya to fight for the jihad. However, the pair of 17-year olds lacked proper passports and clothing and had to return to the Netherlands.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 11:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
⢠Maps and/or pictures and/or drawings of several government buildings, including Parliament, nuclear power plant Borssele, the ministry of Defence, Schiphol Airport, Dutch Intelligence Agency (AIVD), Dutch Special Forces HQ
⢠Notes describing necessities which would be needed to carry out these (terrorist attacks, AD) crime/crimes
⢠Notes describing routes to these buildings and/or circumvention of the security facilities around these buildings.
⢠Document entitled 'Advice for those who refrain from strife on the way to Allah', encompassing an explanation of the call for Jihad and martyrhood
⢠A memorandum containing the address of a website, namely www.geocities.com/m_13dad, which contained a 'Manual for preparation' for the Jihadi ranks, illustrating the use of (amongst others) weapons and/or night vision goggles and/or silencers and/or the fabrication of such and/or guerrila warfare and/or military operations.
⢠A diary containing the address of a website, www.geocities.com/sluitjeaan (sluitjeaan is Dutch for 'join up with us', AD)
⢠Notes describing the chemical formula of RDX, an explosive compound
⢠Discs containing 'video testaments' which rally for the Jihad, the murder of Americans, Jews and non-Arabs
⢠Files explaing how a Muslim should enter the battlefield
⢠Two clip holders for automatic firearms
⢠A silencer for an automatic firearm
⢠One or more soldered electrical circuits
⢠A bulletproof vest
⢠Night vision goggles
⢠Ammonia
⢠Hydrochloric acid
On the bright side, this kid seems to be spending a lot of time in court and explaining himself to authorities, which leaves less time for jihad. Hopefully, whenever he is in jug they keep him away from the general population, I think he's highly contagious.
#5
The euro elites don't get it. Guys like this pionhead want us converted and/or dead. What is so hard about understanding that and doing something about it?
The three Algerians detained on Tuesday in the Italian cities of Brescia and Naples were planning a massive terror attack - "on a ship as big as the Titanic, packed with explosives" - that aimed to kill "at least 10,000 people", as well as an attack on "Italian citizens and interests" in Tunisia, according phone conversations between the three men, which Italian anti-terror police say they intercepted after al-Qaeda's deadly 7 July attacks on London and on the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
In their tapped phone conversations, Yamine Bouhrama, Mohamed Larbi and Khaled Serai described the 7 July London subway and bus bombings that killed over 50 and injured 700, and the 23 July Sharm El-Sheikh terror attacks that killed 90 people and injured over 150 as "highdays and holidays", according to police. The three also spoke of having "documents ready", "war on the infidel", and "a bigger party" than the London attacks. They are suspected of being members of the al-Qaeda-linked Algerian militant formation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). Investigators allege they were not just in Italy to provide logistical support such as false passports and residency permits, but were actually "potential operatives" who were "ready to attack".
Serai and Larbi are being detained in Brescia, where they were living when arrested, while Bouhrama is being held in Naples, where he was living at the time of his arrest. three were detained on suspicion of association with the aim of international terrorism, a charge introduced in Italy following the September 11, 2001 attacks in America. Italy's interior minister, Giuseppe Pisanu on Friday played down the case, saying "too much fuss" was being made about it. However, he said that Italy remains on "high alert" over possible terrorist attacks.
Naples magistrates on Friday approved Bouhrama's arrest warrant for suspected intent to carry out international terrorism, as well as minor offences. Brescia judge Roberto Spanò ruled Sarei and Larbi were to remain in jail on minor charges of receiving stolen goods, assisting illegal immigration and falsifying documents. He announced he would be referring their cases to magistrates in Naples.
The men's arrest in Brescia and Naples came as they were allegedly about to flee Italy and followed a complex three-year surveillance operation of a GSPC cell by the Italian intelligence service SISMI. The three were flush with cash, and moved around constantly between the northern cities of Brescia and Vicenza, the Italian capital, Rome, and the southern city of Naples, police allege. They were also in contact with other terror cells in the northern cities of Venice, Cesena and Milan, as well as the central Italian city of Florence, according to the investigators. They say they also have evidence of the three men being in contact with extremist groups in Norway, France and Britain.
Bourhama is thought to have undergone training at terrorist camps in Chechnya and Georgia and may be capable of making explosive belts used by suicide bombers. He allegedly had in his possession a bottle of "perfume" containing toxic substances, police said. While under surveillance, Serai is believed to have been followed to Norway, where Mullah Krekar, an Iraqi Kurd who heads the radical Islamic militia group Ansar al-Islam, has lived since requesting political asylum in 1991, despite being wanted around the world. The US has accused Ansar al-Islam of offering sanctuary to al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan, including the now leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Zark displaced Mullah Krekar as the head of Ansar al-Islam. I'm not aware of the U.S. accusing Ansar of "offering sanctuary to al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan." We've stated that part of the organization is made up of same. There probably remains a rump Ansar, but the reconstituted body of the organization was folded into al-Tawhid when it became al-Tawhid and Jihad, subsequently al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 10:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Pristina, 18 Nov. (AKI) - The self-proclaimed Army for Independence of Kosovo (AIK) on Friday issued fresh threats to the international peackeeping institutions in Pristina, saying that Kosovo's capital was the seat of a âmodern occupierâ. The mysterious paramilitary group had previously issued similar threats, saying it would declare a âstate of warâ if Kosovo's parliament didnât proclaim the independence of the province, which has been under United Nations administration since 1999.
Kosovo's parliament, under pressure from the international community, at a session on Thursday stopped short of directly proclaiming independence, but adopted a resolution confirming "the political will of the people of Kosovo for an independent and sovereign stateâ. The parliament said it would âguarantee the confirmation of the political will of the Kosovo people for independence at a referendumâ.
The talks on the final status of the province, whose Muslim-majority ethnic Albanians demand independence, are expected to get underway next week, when the chief UN negotiator, former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, is due in Pristina and Belgrade on the first leg of his âshuttle diplomacyâ tour.
As the talks neared, international observers confirmed the presency of shady paramilitary groups in Kosovo, applying pressure on the local leaders and the international community to grant Kosovo independence, despite Belgrade's opposition. A police car was blown up in the centre of Pristina on Wednesday evening, and a truck full of construction material exploded at a market place in the town of Strpce on Thursday, injuring two people. Many more potential victims had a "miraculous escape" said local officials. The international police chief in Kosovo, Kai Vitrup, described the incidents as âterrorist actsâ committed by those who seek to obstruct the status talks and to âimpose their own solution for the future status of Kosovoâ.
The latest AIK threat, carried by Pristina's Albanian language media today, seemed to be directed primarily at the representatives of the United Nations administration (Unmik) and other international organisations. "Very likely, the city of Pristina, in which all institutions under the control of a modernâ occupier are located, will be the target of our liberation forces starting from Wednesday, 23 November,â an AIK statement said.
The operations would be carried out under the command of General Ozoni (obviously an assumed name), said the AIK, calling on members of the Kosovo police and Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), to join in the struggle. The police and KPC were recruited from the former Kosovo Liberation Army, which started a rebellion against Belgrade rule in 1998 that had led to NATO bombing and the withdrawal of Serbian forces from the province.
The statement appealed to Pristina inhabitants to âremain calm, because AIK forces are well preparedâ. Unmik âwonât be able to put up a resistance to our operations, but will have to ask our forces for a corridor to escape in shame,â it said.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 10:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
BUCHAREST, Romania - Romania and the United States have agreed to a deal to establish American military bases on the Black Sea, Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may travel to Romania next month to sign the agreement, Basescu told Euronews television in an interview posted on the presidency's Web site. "We finalized negotiations regarding the U.S. military facilities on the Black Sea coast and maybe in other areas of Romania," Basescu said. He did not give an exact location for the new facilities.
Basescu said last month that possible sites for U.S. bases included Babadag, close to the Danube delta, Constanta on the Black Sea, and Fetesti, 125 miles east of Bucharest. Washington aims to pull about 70,000 troops out of Europe and Asia in the next decade and is shifting its European focus eastwards, closing Cold War bases in favor of small, flexible facilities closer to likely hot spots such as the Middle East.
The bases are seen as important in Romania's drive to secure more foreign investment to close the enormous wealth gap separating it from the European Union, which it is due to join as early as 2007. Romania has been a NATO member since 2004.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 10:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Bases probably located on/near sites of old soviet bases which in turn were located on/near sites of old nazi bases...the 'ol client state merry go round methinks...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As per FNC, the French claim that 98 or 100 cars being burned a day is "NORMAL", albeit I missed that part on whether for Paris or for France in general.
#2
Yeah but in all fairness burning two Peugeot 107's or two Citroen C1's is like burning one car in North America. You have to make the conversion. Nevertheless, 50 cars is a lot.
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/18/2005 1:21 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Fred, I couldn't access your link to that Pakistani paper. could be that they don't accept hits from Israel?
This is the message I got:
Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a000d'
Type mismatch: 'CDate'
/default.asp, line 105
Anyway, back to the subject, when discussing the riots someone - I think it was a French MP or policeman - said, "The rioters are not burning the cars of the rich, they are burning the cars of the poor."
Right. In that case I wouldn't mind being poor in France.
#6
The question remains: the the rioters have "riot fatigue", so things will settle down for quite a while; or are they getting more organized and perhaps planning some more enterprising attacks?
Certainly they will be discussing tactics, and those in jail will be exchanging all sorts of useful information.
#7
Yeah but in all fairness burning two Peugeot 107's or two Citroen C1's is like burning one car in North America. You have to make the conversion. Nevertheless, 50 cars is a lot.
My fault. Pak Daily Times' web designer decided to use backslashes (\) in links, rather than the normal forward slashes (/). Most systems take the as an escape character. I've applied a fix in the mods' poster, but forgot to do so in the guest poster. I'll try and fix it today.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 13:23 Comments ||
Top||
#11
My fault. Pak Daily Times' web designer decided to use backslashes () in links, rather than the normal forward slashes (/). Most systems take the as an escape character. I've applied a fix in the mods' poster, but forgot to do so in the guest poster. I'll try and fix it today.
It's agin the law in Paki'O Waki to use the vertical>> (|)
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/18/2005 14:52 Comments ||
Top||
#12
nice toe
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/18/2005 15:01 Comments ||
Top||
#3
They have to get it through the Senate too, to be law. But donks who vote for it will have to defend their vote next November when it will look really stupid. BWAHAHAHAHAHA.
#4
They have to get it through the Senate too, to be law. But donks who vote for it will have to defend their vote next November when it will look really stupid. BWAHAHAHAHAHA.
#5
Sorry for the double post. The other great thing about this is that it makes the topic of the Sunday shows the vote, not Murtha. This guy will deflate a lot faster than Cindy. I sense the presence of Karl. He's baaack!
#6
It presents a real problem for Liberal Representatives who have a mixed constituency for their primaries. Do you vote to appeal to your radical left? Or, do you vote to appeal to your Dems in the center? Because you could get picked off in the primaries by not voting to appeal to your radical left...
#8
I have a feeling that the Dems just heard a shoe drop.
Time to call them on their seditious horse dung. Time for them to stand up and be counted see how the reality of the rubber hitting the road and syncing your piehole to reality strikes them.
#10
The more I think aobut this, the happier I get. These idiots have painted themselves into such a corner. This will only make the donks move farther to the left as TomAnon points out, ceding more of the middle to the trunks. I hope they make it a roll call vote.
House Republicans, sensing an opportunity for political advantage, maneuvered for a quick vote and swift rejection Friday of a Democratic lawmaker's call for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq.
"We want to make sure that we support our troops that are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "We will not retreat."
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi had no immediate reaction to the planned vote.
#12
this is stupid I want to know when the freekin Sedition Act is going to actually be enforced again in this nation. I mean at what point are we allowed to question the LLL's patriotism? got the LLL's are giving the enemy huge recruiting and moral support daily with thier over obcesion with a few wrongs done by the US in this war, and thier constant quotes and such on Aljizz that eats up the LLL partisan retoric even momre than thier own Imans and Mullahs crap. You got Rokefellar dropping heads up to Syria pre-Iraq invasion admitting such on Foxnews then he says "oh he didnt give any classified info" well if you sit on the Intellegence committee and you tell someone the US is going to invade and you know wink wink dammit that is intel, that would be like a audit accountant at GM saying sell your stock its going down wink wink then trying to claim they didnt give away any privlaged info huh, another example would be rokefellar outing a US "stealth satelite" becuase he was mad at losing a vote on crushing the program. Todays LLL's are out of control and embolden by Vietnam are openly doing even bragging on things that in WW2 we would have tried covicted then gave a cigarettee and blind fold tied to a poll and shot for. Hell man the other day Clinton gave a speech in Duabia in the Middle East that the Bush and the Iraq war was a mistake, that would be like going to Switzerland making anti-WW2 speech by Theodore in the middle of WW2.
I would like to see a vote on bringing nationlist pride back into american history classes and making it a requirement for education. Ya know making american history to concentrate on the good things america did and not just the bad. Sure admit the mistakes but wahington for example is the founder of this nation and if not for him giving up kingdom and royalty at the end of his 2nd term the US and hell the whole world would be different. But in todays PC world that is outweighed by the fact he owned a few slaves something 95% of the well to do people had back in those days. WTF This would put the LLL's in a rock and a hard place stuck between openly debating how the US is a evil peice of crap and everyone in school must learn all the evils while at the same time not letting the American Public see that face of pure hatred for our nation and its way of life and systems. While the Repubs would be left defending the good parts of america. This would destroy their argument about everything by forcing them to pull off thier mask of loving this nation and show thier real faces as the anti-american enemies they are. Their only alternative would be to go along then watch thier special interest groups get beat to death as the anti-american groups they are then it would just be a matter of tying the Egg to the Chicken. To win a war you need to control the battle field same with politics you need to control the subject of argument
#13
The only thing I regret in this -- the ONLY thing -- is that the vote is on a Friday night, which means a Saturday newspaper lede. It'll be buried by the MSM.
Vote on a Monday night and let the Tuesday morning commuters read about it on the train.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/18/2005 16:41 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Nope. Deny the donks the Sunday shows, even if you lose the headline on a weekday. Murtha who?
#15
I take back my "its stupid" I spoke before thinking and reading what others think. I missed the angle that this will have later down the road by forcing the Dem's to make a decision now Y/N and no Nueance. It will be great in 08' when things in Iraq are really lookin good and phase 3 is high on the agenda having a Dem canadite trying to look tuff with a "retreat yes" vote hangin in the closet or they can suffer now with a No vote and show everyone thier cry babyin is nothin more than partisan opportunist politics and thier crys of get out now never were real just finger in the wind crapola and money pandering to the LLL radicals.
#16
actually I must say this is brilliant. I mean i understand what the dems were trying to do - take advantage of Murtha an embarrasment to the admin, without actually having to support his policy proposal, which the vast majority of them want nothing to do with. Forcing them on record is brilliant - large numbers of moderates, reps from swing districts or with broader aspirations, will have to vote against the Murtha resolution. Which probably effectively kills the story.
#18
I bet Nancy went into a coma and maybe her face lift dropped when she heard the news. Can't wait to hear the spin from her camp pre and post vote. I doubt they will say much until after the vote.
#19
I have a feeling a lot of Reps will be taking the 6PM flight out of Washington to tend to their constituents.
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2005 17:13 Comments ||
Top||
#20
Looks like this one blew up in your face, Nancy. Looks like Murtha wasn't as bulletproof as you thought and the Republicans might just have more balls then you thought.
Put up or shutup time, lady.
#21
Now, let's see. Do I fly home for Thanksgiving, or do I do the job I was elected to do, like vote on this? What's a Dem to do? To vote or not, that is the question.
#22
If they leave, Dennis has plenty of other items he can bring to the floor if he's got a quorum. And if he wants to table it for now, they've still got the bill in the hopper and they can just keep the vote alive till after the recess. The story this week will be about how the donks chickened out. In two weeks the vote is on. Donks can't win. They should do like Pelosi, shut up and vote. The sooner it's over the better for them. Least worse alternative.
#26
Hey, ya know, it's a good thing this is "Swear Loyalty to al'Qaeda Month" -- the Donks will be able to get their oath in on time!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/18/2005 18:07 Comments ||
Top||
#27
Whatever is talked about on the political talk shows on Sunday Morning sets the tone for the entire week. The Dems drug up the Murtha deal trying to change the tone from Bush's counter-attack about their flip-flops and this vote ensures the bluff is called and they have to defend themselves again.
This move is brilliant and as stated already it puts the Dems in the position of defending a recent vote, with no ability to claim they were mislead by intelligence date. Shit or get off the pot, and Americans may not be overly happy with the war but I'd be really, really surprised if there are more than a handful that really want us to cut and run.
#30
This vote is great. But none of these assholes should leave for Thanksgiving. The friggin Defense Appropriations bill for FY06 is not even done! I don't know how many other major bills are out there for FY06 that also haven't been completed.
The spending drunks on the hill need to quite with all the bullshit they spend their time on and do their freakin jobs. About 80% of em should lose their jobs. /rant
#32
From AP: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent word to rank-and-file Democrats to vote â with the Republicans â against immediate withdrawal of American troops.
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2005 19:33 Comments ||
Top||
#33
Sounds like the Dems are squealing big time for being called on their idiocy. Hey, it sucks when you are caught being a douchebag doesn't it. You know the MSM is going to spin this as the Repubs pulling a stunt and being mean, mean, mean. Traitors, the lot of them.
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2005 23:44 Comments ||
Top||
#40
No apologies .com. You were forecasting the future and was only off by one. Too bad it's the Democratic strongholds that will be attacked by the Islamists. If it is horrible enough to chase out the dhimmis, the cities will turn Republican by default, as did New Orleans post flood.
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2005 23:49 Comments ||
Top||
#42
Argh, I just made the same mistake as .com. Roll Call 607 was a vote to vote on HR 571. I hate lawyerese.
Glad to know the vote was 3-403. I was thinking a 202-210 vote was such shortsighted stupidity that is presages the fall of a great civilization. Who are the 3 wankers that voted yes and why did 29 not vote (gutless, out of town,...)?
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2005 23:59 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The really funny part is - nobody has to listen to them. Congress does not give orders to the DOD or the President. Thay control the funding, and that's all.
House Leadership In Meeting Making Final Decision on Vote...
GOP to Dems: Pull Troops Now? Okay, then let's vote?
Troop resolution Tonight. 7 p.m. in House, is plan...
Ultimate showdown...
A Pakistani accused of supporting an al Qaeda plot to attack the United States testified at his trial on Thursday that he knew of no such scheme and was forced into a false confession by FBI agents.
Uzair Paracha, 25, is accused of agreeing to smuggle travel documents and pose as another man, purported al Qaeda member Majid Khan, who prosecutors believe was planning to blow up gas stations in America.
Paracha told jurors in Manhattan federal court that he eventually confessed to FBI agents that he helped Khan during three days of questioning in FBI offices and Manhattan hotel rooms in March 2003.
"I was scared, and I wanted to go home. Every time I told them the truth, they told me I was lying," Paracha said. "So I told them what I thought they wanted to hear."
Paracha, who said he was strip searched and told he would be arrested if he requested a lawyer, said he agreed to help Khan with his travel documents "as a fellow Pakistani Muslim" and did not know he was a member of al Qaeda, which masterminded the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"I am not a supporter of taking innocent lives," said Paracha, who if convicted faces a maximum of 15 years in prison on each of the five counts he faces, including document fraud and supporting al Qaeda.
"The truth is I did not know these people were al Qaeda," he testified. "The truth is if I knew that, I would not have agreed to help them."
Prosecutors allege Paracha attended a series of meetings in Pakistan in 2003 with his father Saifullah Paracha and al Qaeda members Khan and Ammar al-Baluchi and agreed to mail travel documents to Khan in Pakistan, knowing he was planning to carry out an attack.
Both Khan and al-Baluchi are being held in U.S. custody in undisclosed locations, and Saifullah Paracha has been held for two years in the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Sworn statements made to U.S. authorities by Khan and al-Baluchi read aloud in court on Thursday said neither Paracha nor his father knew either of the men was an al Qaeda member or knew of a chemical attack plot.
Khan said in the statement he gave Paracha only a 5 to 10 percent "recruitment suitability assessment" because "Uzair Paracha has no extremist views and was not really a practicing Muslim."
Under cross examination by prosecutor Karl Metzner, Paracha admitted that during the FBI questioning he was granted sleep and food.
Also under cross examination, Paracha testified that he told FBI agents on the third day of questioning he wanted to help Khan as a favor to al Qaeda.
Paracha's trial began on November 9.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/18/2005 14:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Uzair Paracha, 25, is accused of agreeing to smuggle travel documents and pose as another man, purported al Qaeda member Majid Khan, who prosecutors believe was planning to blow up gas stations in America.
I find this interesting. There seems to me to be two things consistent with an AQ plot. Part of the recipe, so to speak. One is that though they are watched by the FBI/Security Services, Mr. Big always manages to disappear/drop off the radar shortly before the main event. Second, there is always someone who is left behind that gets caught. Ramzi Yousef, Zacharias Moussaoui, Hamdi Issac, the Jordan bomber chic.
So, I just find it interesting that this guy was supposed to pose as an AQ member because it gives insight into how the players may manage to disappear just before the big event.
It's kind of like running through water and circling back. It tricks the blood hounds every time.
A Bahraini man being held at the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay attempted suicide this week for the ninth time and has begun a hunger strike, according to newly released court documents. Jumaa Mohammed al-Dossary tried to kill himself Monday by pulling out sutures on an arm wound he inflicted on himself a month earlier, the chief medical officer at Guantanamo, Dr. John Edmondson, said in an affidavit filed in federal court in Washington.
Al-Dossary, who has been held since February 2002, also began a hunger strike in the first week of November to protest not being included in a group of Bahrainis released from the jail at the U.S. Navy station in eastern Cuba, Edmondson, a Navy captain, said. It was the fourth suicide attempt in 20 months at Guantanamo, where the U.S. military holds about 500 terrorism suspects, said Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, a detention center spokesman. No detainees have died at the prison since it opened, officials say.
The doctor's affidavit, filed late Wednesday, came in response to a request from al-Dossary's lawyers that a judge order conditions be eased for the 32-year-old detainee. "He's living under conditions that he finds unbearable and he's been told that he'll live that way for the rest of his life," said Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, one of the attorneys. The lawyers contend al-Dossary has been kept in isolation for about two years and denied sufficient time to exercise and adequate reading material. They also say lights are kept on in his cell all night and he is not allowed regular access to other detainees.
Col. Michael Bumgarner, who manages the jail, said in an affidavit that al-Dossary has not been kept in isolation and that for the past six months he has been housed in an area where detainees are offered two hours of exercise per day, can freely talk to each other and have access to a library. Lights are dimmed at night, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nine times and he's still breathing? What an absolute failure. Put him in a padded room with rubber utensils. He's sure to f*ck up and off himself somehow.
Col. Michael Bumgarner, who manages the jail, said in an affidavit that al-Dossary has not been kept in isolation and that for the past six months he has been housed in an area where detainees are offered two hours of exercise per day, can freely talk to each other and have access to a library. Lights are dimmed at night, he said.
A lot of working stiffs wish they had such amenities. What is an Arab's definition of inhumane conditions? Tabouli only with 2 meals a day? No goats to boff? Truss up liar lawyer Colangelo-Bryan like a Ramadan goat and let al-Dossary have his way with him.
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2005 0:49 Comments ||
Top||
Baghdad, 18 Nov. (AKI) - An armed militia group has kidnapped a politician running in Iraq's upcoming parliamentary elections on 15 December. The information website Elaph reports that Tawfiq Yasari, a candidate for the 'Sun of Iraq' election list was abducted by a group of armed men wearing police uniforms, who raided his home in Baghdad on Thursday night. He was taken from the Yormuk district of the capital, not far from the heavily protected Green Zone, where various government buildings and embassies are located.
Yasari is a former officer from the Iraqi army and was a well-known opponent of Saddam Hussein's regime. In 1991 he led a Shiite uprising against the Baathist regime in the city of Diwaniya, around 180 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. The 'Sun of Iraq' is a coalition of Sunnis and Shiites.
In the run-up to the 30 January elections many candidates were forced to remain anonymous, hiding behind their party list, out of fear for their safety. One female candidate who decided to campaign openly, Wijdan al-Khuzai, a 40-year-old mother of five, was abducted, tortured and killed more than a month before the vote. Three male candidates - two of whom belonged to then interim prime minister Iyad Allawi's Shiite election coalition - were killed on 18 January alone.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 10:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Suicide bombers killed 65 worshippers at two Shiite mosques near the Iranian border Friday while in Baghdad two car bombs destroyed the blast wall protecting a hotel housing international journalists and killed eight Iraqis. Is it against their religion to put up barriers and reroute traffic around Shiite mosques? Just asking, cause their learning curve seems to have a slope of zero.
The suicide attackers targeted the Sheik Murad mosque and the Khaniqin Grand Mosque in Khanaqin, 90 miles northeast of Baghdad, as dozens of people were attending Friday prayers, police said. Seventy-five people were wounded in addition to the 65 killed, the police command said.
The blasts near the Hamra hotel in Baghdad knocked down the concrete walls protecting the hotel and blew out windows but did no structural damage to the hotel. However they brought down several other buildings and left a large crater in the road. Firefighters and U.S. troops joined residents in digging through the debris for victims.
The attack would be the first against a hotel housing international journalists since the Oct. 24 triple vehicle bomb attack against the Palestine Hotel, where The Associated Press, Fox News and other organizations live and work. "What we have here appears to be two suicide car bombs (that) attempted to breach the security wall in the vicinity of the hotel complex, and I think the target was the Hamra Hotel," U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl Horst told reporters at the scene. Gunfire followed the blasts, which came less than a minute apart and echoed throughout downtown Baghdad.
Saad al-Ezi, an Iraqi journalist with The Boston Globe, was inside the hotel. "They were trying to penetrate by displacing the blast barriers behind the hotel and then get to the hotel," he said. "I woke up to a huge explosion which broke all the glass and displaced all the window and doors frames."
At first the target appeared to be an interior ministry building where U.S. troops on Sunday found about 170 detainees, some of whom appeared to have been tortured. "The investigation is under way, but the initial reports indicate so far the first car bomber was trying to pave the way for the second one, not on the main road, but on a secondary road to get in and hit the Hamra hotel, not the interior ministry," said Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, the deputy interior minister.
The United Nations' top rights official on Friday called for an international investigation into the conditions of detainees in
Iraq. "In light of the apparently systemic nature and magnitude of that problem, and the importance of public confidence in any inquiry, I urge authorities to consider calling for an international inquiry," said Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Prominent Sunni Arabs have complained for months about abuse by interior ministry forces, whom they claim have been infiltrated by Shiite militias. The Sunnis called for an international investigation after the Jadriyah detainees were found.
The government denies the militia allegations. "I reject torture and I will punish those who perform torture," said Interior Minister Bayn Jabr, a Shiite. "No one was beheaded, no one was killed" â a clear reference to the beheadings of foreign and Iraqi hostages by insurgents including al-Qaida's Iraq wing. He also said "those who are supporting terrorism are making the exaggerations" about torture and that only seven detainees showed signs of abuse.
In a statement Thursday, the U.S. Embassy said Iraqi authorities had given assurances that they will investigate the conditions of detainees found Sunday night and that the abuse of prisoners "will not be tolerated by either the Iraqi government" or U.S.-led forces anywhere in the country. U.S. officials have refused to say how many detainees showed signs of torture and whether most were Sunnis, pending completion of an Iraqi investigation.
Also on Friday, insurgents attacked U.S. and Iraqi troops in western Iraq, setting off gunbattles that left 32 dumbasses insurgents dead, a U.S. military statement said. One Marine and an Iraqi soldier suffered minor injuries during the attack, the U.S. forces said. Most of the fighting took place around the a mosque in the center of the town.
"Marines reported that they received sustained small arms fire originating from the islamic ammo dump mosque," the statement said. "A nearby U.S. Army outpost also reported receiving enemy fire from the area surrounding the mosque." The U.S. forces estimated that at least 50 insurgents took part in the coordinated attack, which quickly dissipated when the Iraqi and U.S. forces returned fire, the military said. Iraqi troops entered the mosque and found spent ammunition.
America's death toll rose Thursday as the U.S. military reported a U.S. Marine killed the day before in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad. An Army soldier died Thursday in a traffic accident near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad and a second soldier died in another accident near Balad, the command said.
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2005 08:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But the key question remains in effect:
WHERE ANY QU'RANS (KORANS) (QUR'ANS) DESTROYED, DAMAGED, OR IN ANYWAY DESCREATED???
#2
The United Nations' top rights official on Friday called for an international investigation into the conditions of detainees in Iraq.
Decades of silence in the face of Saddam's murder of hundreds of thousands. Continued silence in the face of the Kims' starvation of the people of North Korea. Putting Syria on the "Human Rights" commission. Silence in the face of genocide in Sudan. Silence in the face of genocide in Zimbabwe. Oil-for-food skimming, bribery, and corruption ignored, condoned, and promoted. Supposed "peacekeepers" running slavery and child prostitution rings treated "with sensitivity" -- meaning they're ignored.
But if they can smear the US, even by proxy, they stumble over each other in their rush to condemnation.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/18/2005 9:10 Comments ||
Top||
#3
These bombings of Shia mosques certainly seem to be aimed at fomenting a civil war. Previously I would have assumed a Baath/Sunni/AQ source for the bombings because the chaos of a civil war was their best (though slim) chance of gaining or regaining power over the majority Shia.
Now however, I am starting to wonder about the possibility it is a faction of Shia behind it. At this point it seems to me that the beneficiaries of prevention of civil war are the Sunni - if the Shia get p**ed of enough to be released to retaliate the result will be essentially the extermination of Iraqi Sunni. Losers of a civil war are essentially ALL Iraqis. The 'winner' would be the party with the most outside support and the least inside investment - IRAN. Iran has the cadres inside Iraq to do it, and most likely the ability to 'win' a civil war. Iran has internal problems and needs a 'diversion'. Iran is ruthless enough to sacrifice its own to get the war going - they used their own kids as mine detectors, so surely they'd kill a few Iraqi Shia in order to kick off a war that would end up putting Iranian Shia in charge of the Shia holy places.
#4
Baghdad, 18 Nov. (AKI) - The death toll from the two suicide attacks on mosques in the eastern Iraqi town of Khanaqin on Friday may be more than 100, according to a member of the local council, Ibrahim Ahmed, who made his assessment after seeing the destruction caused by the blasts and the bodies that were trapped in the rubble of the damaged structures. The blasts occurred when the two Shiite Muslim mosques were packed with people who were there for Friday prayers. A French news agency quoted a provincial council leader as saying "two suicide bombers wearing explosive belts walked into the Greater and the Smaller Khanaqin mosques and blew themselves up, killing and injuring dozens of people." The police have put the death toll at 41, but warn that the figure could rise.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 10:52 Comments ||
Top||
The discovery of a secret Iraqi Interior Ministry torture chamber confirms what has been an open secret in Baghdad for months: Pro-Iranian militia have deeply infiltrated the ministry and are acting as a law unto themselves.
Iraqis have reported seeing men in Interior Ministry uniforms and vehicles at the sites of extrajudicial killings of Sunnis, and at least one reporter has been warned to keep his movements secret from the ministry for fear of being kidnapped.
It is widely thought that the ministry also is infiltrated by criminal networks linked to the insurgency.
Civilians and police in Baghdad have known about secret detention centers run by the ministry but have been too frightened of reprisals to say anything about them, one police officer said yesterday.
"I am more scared of the Ministry of Interior than I am of the insurgents," said the young police officer, who was reached by telephone in Baghdad and spoke strictly on the condition of anonymity.
U.S. forces raided the ministry-run basement detention center in Baghdad's upmarket Jadriyah neighborhood on Sunday, finding more than 160 malnourished prisoners, several bearing signs of torture. Most of them were Sunnis.
Asked whether there were other such prisons in Baghdad, the frightened police officer said it was "a very sensitive issue and would make big problems" if he spoke about them.
The Interior Ministry is headed by Bayan Jabr, a member of the pro-Iranian Shi'ite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The party's military branch, the Badr Brigade, has been accused of running anti-Sunni hit squads out of the ministry.
Attorneys for Saddam Hussein, for example, have blamed the ministry's security forces for the killing last month of defense attorney Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi. The ministry denied any connection to the slaying.
Witnesses to the killing said about 10 armed men dressed in business suits identified themselves as Interior Ministry officials when they stormed Mr. al-Janabi's Baghdad office and kidnapped him. His body was found on the sidewalk hours later.
Mr. Jabr has said that reports of torture in the detention center were exaggerated and that the prisoners were suspected of participating in a Sunni-led insurgency that routinely kills and maims civilians and security forces.
"I reject torture, and I will punish those who perform torture," he said at a press conference yesterday. "No one was beheaded, no one was killed."
Mr. Jabr added that "those who are supporting terrorism are making the exaggerations" about torture and that only seven detainees showed signs of abuse.
However, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued its toughest statement yet on the incident, saying the government "has assured us that it will take immediate action to investigate ... and to undertake measures to ensure that no Ministry of Interior detainees would be subject to abuse anywhere in Iraq."
The embassy also said, "There must not be militia or sectarian control or direction or Iraqi Security Forces, facilities or ministries."
Detainee abuse would not be tolerated by either the Iraqi government or coalition forces, the statement said. Gen. Rick Lynch announced yesterday that five U.S. soldiers had been charged with beating and kicking Iraqi detainees last week and were awaiting judgment.
An Iraqi man described to the Reuters news agency how he was tortured with hundreds of other detainees in an Interior Ministry building similar to the bunker revealed this week.
"They had lists of people and lists of charges, and they tortured people to get confessions," said the Sunni man, who wanted to be identified only by the initials H.H.
"I was not tortured as badly as others. I was hung by a ceiling hook by my hands, which were tied behind my back during three days, and they told me to confess to killing Shi'ites," he said.
He told Reuters that the prisoners were under the control of the Interior Ministry special forces group known as the Wolf Brigade.
U.S. analysts with experience in Iraq said ordinary Iraqis have long been complaining about the Interior Ministry's extrajudicial tactics.
"Iraqis were telling me that you had to be careful about the special police commandos and that they were Badr -- these were Sunni and Shi'ite telling me," said Paul Hughes, the Iraq program officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace and a retired army colonel who recently returned from Baghdad.
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/18/2005 01:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Torture site backs fears of pro-Iran infiltrators
Look up in the sky
It's a bird
no, It's a plane
no, " THE SKY IS FALLINGâ¢"
#2
It appears more of Paul Bremenrs screw ups are comming home to roost. If the Iranians are rooting themselves this deeply we may have to tear it down and start over. Perhaps some targeted extrajudical killings of some other folks need to take place.
#3
Why not just put an atomic truck bomb in the heart of Tehran and detonate it??????? give em a taste of thier own medicine and whats to come in the future. Might sound silly at first but think about it - they would,n't try interfring again ifthey knew there was a very real punishment for meddling. This is why they do this sht because they KNOW 100% that we are scared of them, essentially they (Iran) have called our bluff in every way and remain the only threat to peace in Iraq my eyes (not enought AQ and AQ are sht with nothing to offer the people) watch as six monthes or a year down the line and the Iranians will still be up to no good but twice as many of them, don't get me wrong though i dont think for a minute this is an Iranian teritory grab - they simply know they have free access to attack and kill members of our armed forces and are quite confidant we will do nothing or next to nothing in response because our hands are fairly tied, one mother of a blunder this letting them call our bluff, i dont believe all the other media and so called sxpert hype i've seen about Iraq becoming a 'quagmire' and a no-win situation but you can rest assurred that if we keep letiing the Iranians get away with sht then we are on a very steep losing slope! make me bloody angry this seemingly sheer incompitance!
Posted by: Shep UK ||
11/18/2005 4:59 Comments ||
Top||
#4
There should certainly be a huge and impromptu action against their nuclear facility. I think we need to be more proactive in Basra - a string of targeted assassinations amongst Iranian stooges could be a start.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
11/18/2005 5:21 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The frontier with Iran is extremely loose. During "martyr" pilgrimages over 15,000 Iranians pass every day. Infiltration would not be a problem.
#6
It makes sense to me to have dealt with the Sunni wackos first. Get them under control and we can turn to the Shiites without having to worry about our rear. Taking on the Shiites will ultimately involve the Iranians. Better to do so when they cannot instigate problems in the rear.
Finally this problem results from undermanning the invasion. The Brits were given the Shia section. But the don't have what it takes to really pacify the area as we have the west. They are more go along to get along. If we'd had enough troops we might have done both simultaneously. But a big mistake was made not expanding the size of the Army after 9/11. It just means everything will take longer. Part of the evidence that no one, including the administration, really takes this war seriously.
#7
"Strike at the heart and the limbs will die." Douglas MacArthur. In this case there are two hearts...in Iran and in Saudi Arabia. BOTH support this terrorism and extremism in spades. Yes, we really could get their attention...and probably save hundreds of millions of lives to boot. Two nukes...about 10 MT each. Too radical? Not compared to a "Caliphate" butchering non-Moslems the world over. A brief look at history illustrates: The country of Georgia had a population of about 5 million when Islam attacked in about 784. OVER 4/5ths of the population was butchered. Think it can't happen again? Dream on.
Posted by: Old Marine ||
11/18/2005 7:51 Comments ||
Top||
#8
"I reject torture, and I will torture punish those who perform torture," he said at a press conference yesterday. "No one was beheaded, no one was killed. What's the big problem? We're on it."
#9
Paul Bremer actions were a seed which was planeted but right now he doesn't deserve blame. We need to remove the Badr/Sadr elements from power now, or we'll just be blamed for creating a new Saddam like government and may not see it until 5 yrs down the road.
#10
Let the Badr kill as many Sunni as possible, and then we can come in and save the day for the sake of the political process in a hearts and minds fashion.
This toture/death squad shit ain't new or unknown to our boys they're just too busy killing Sunni insurgents to worry about fighting the Badr, which is the heart of the Wolf Brigade and most other effective policing untis in Iraq.
#11
The frontier with Iran is extremely loose. During "martyr" pilgrimages over 15,000 Iranians pass every day. Infiltration would not be a problem.
The infiltration of borders is a wholly different concept to the infiltration of a ministry.
Let the Badr kill as many Sunni as possible,
If you want the army of the Islamic Revolution to increase its position in relation to secular tyrants, then does that mean you also supported the Islamic overthrow of the Shah in Iran? Probably not, but I do wonder how you justify that discrepancy.
The funny thing is the way that the philo-Iranian Shiite Islamofascists are now depending on the US Army's presence in Iraq in order to maintain and strengthen their position against the Sunni (both secular and Islamo-) fascists.
Given *that* nasty little irony, I do have to wonder indeed whether immediate withdrawal from Iraq could indeed be the worst thing you could do to Iran and its followers in the region. After all your presence there was the best thing you could have done to them.
UPDATED: An audiotape in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq threatened on Friday to chop off King Abdullah II's head and bomb more hotels and tourist sites. The speaker on the tape, identified as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also said the group's suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week, killing about 30 people.
'Your star is fading. You will not escape your fate, you descendant of traitors. We will be able to reach your head and chop it off,' al-Zarqawi said, referring to the king.
Al-Zarqawi told Jordanians to stay away from bases used by U.S. forces in Jordan, hotels and tourist sites in Amman, the Dead Sea and the southern resort of Aqaba and embassies of governments participating in the war in Iraq, saying they would be targeted. He underlined that al-Qaida in Iraq is not targeting fellow Muslims. 'We want to assure you that ... you are more beloved to us than ourselves,' he said, addressing Jordanians. The authenticity of the audiotape, posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, could not be confirmed independently, but the voice resembled that of al-Zarqawi on previous tapes.
The tape was posted following widespread outrage over the Nov. 9 bombings against three Amman hotels that killed 59 people, 30 of them in a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding party held in a ballroom. Even contributors to militant Web forums _ who lionize al-Zarqawi and praise his attacks _ criticized the bombings, saying he should avoid civilians.
Al-Zarqawi insisted that the striking of the wedding party at the Radisson SAS hotel was a 'lie' and a 'forgery' by Jordanian security officials. The Radisson bomber struck a hall where Israeli intelligence officials were meeting at the time, al-Zarqawi claimed. But part of the roof fell in on the wedding hall, either from the blast or even _ he said _ from a separate bomb placed in the roof, though not by al-Qaida.
'We didn't target them. Our target was halls being used by Zionist intelligence who were meeting there at the time,' he said. 'Our brothers knew their targets with great precision.' 'God knows we chose these hotels only after more than two months of close observation (that proved) that these hotels had become headquarters for the Israeli and American intelligence,' he said.
Al-Zarqawi accused the Jordanian government of hiding casualties among Israeli agents. 'I defy the renegade government to show us the losses among the Jews,' he said.
The Radisson attack involved two bombers _ an Iraqi husband and wife. Witnesses told Jordanian security officials that the couple talked their way into the wedding, telling hotel employees they wanted to watch, then went to different sides of the hall. When the woman's explosives belt failed to go off, her husband told her to leave, then he jumped on a table in the ballroom and set off his blast, Jordanian officials have said.
In the tape, the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi listed the reasons his group _ which has led a fearsome campaign of suicide bombings and other attacks against U.S. forces and Shiites in Iraq for two years _ is now targeting Jordan. He said Jordan has served as a protector for Israel and has allowed Israeli companies to take over its economy; allows the presence of 'secret American prisons' on its territory where 'dozens of mujahideen' are being held; and has become a 'swamp of obscenity' allowing alcohol and prostitution at tourist sites.
Earlier Friday, thousands of flag-waving Jordanians thronged downtown Amman in the 'March of the Nation,' a noisy, emphatic demonstration against the hotel attacks. 'Al-Zarqawi, you coward, what brought you here?' the angry crowd shouted.
'Cease, cease, al-Zarqawi, you are a villain!' the throng chanted. 'Cease, Cease, you terrorist, you are a coward!'
Jordanian television reported that 100,000 people took part in the march; however, that estimate could not be independently verified. The size of the crowd appeared to be much larger than protests last week in the days right after the bombings. Friday's marchers came from across Jordan in a show of solidarity in the demonstration organized by the Municipality of Amman.
'I came specifically to say to those terrorists and al-Zarqawi that we are all united against them. We do not want them on our land,' said Ghazi al-Hajjaj, 43, who traveled from Tafila, 115 miles south of Amman, to attend the rally. Palestinians from Jordan's 13 refugee camps also took part in the protest.
The crowd of mostly men, many wearing Jordan's distinct red-checkered keffiyeh around their necks, marched from the downtown Al-Husseini mosque following Friday prayers. Soldiers stood watch along the streets as the marchers passed. Some men brought their families with them. Aya Abu-Ghosh, 9, came with her father and siblings. 'I came here to say to terror: Get out of our home. We don't want you. You scare us.'
Many demonstrators lifted photos of King Abdullah II and carried banners denouncing the attacks in general and al-Zarqawi in particular.
'Al-Zarqawi, you are the enemy of God,' one read.
The two-hour march concluded with a rally at a downtown square, where many dignitaries and Muslim and Christian clergymen addressed the crowd.
'The bombings of Amman proved that the bones of Jordan are harder and our unity is stronger,' said Monsignor Nabil Haddad, head of the Melkite Catholic community. One speaker, who did not give his name but told the audience that he was a member of Bani Hassan, al-Zarqawi's tribe, recited a poem condemning terrorism.
'You terrorist, you are a traitor and whoever follows your ideology is also a traitor, too. Go to hell, you son of Satan,' he read.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 13:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
PR problems Zarky?
I'm imagining Zark with his new jihadi marketing director direct from France.
"Seriously though, this is no way to run a jihad Ahman, we need returns on investment. You are not reaching the target audience. Let's kill some Jews, or I know, claim to have killed Jews that the Jordanian king is covering up. Oh, and some CIA guys. You know everyone loves a conspiracy, and we really need to deal with the fallout from your stupid hotel bombing. Yes CIA and Jews and something about infidels.
OK we'll go with that.
Now get serious, I'm turning the tape on, damnit Abu quit farting. You son of bitch, get serious. Come on now, You're angry, you're a jihadi, you love Allah. You feel it? OK remember you are Zarqawi the Imam of Iraq, and 3, 2,
Ok I'm turning the tape on. I'm serious Abu, if you don't stop the farting we'll cut your head off!
Amateurs, I should have kept my day job selling Puegot's in Paris."
#4
The authenticity of the audiotape, posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, could not be verified, but the voice resembled that of al- Zarqawi on previous tapes.
Well, I'll be. But...tapes that began when, before or after ol Sparky Zarky was rumored to have bit the dust?
#5
See, we knew it all along. The JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS were really responsible. Zarq would never intentionally target other muslims ( "you are more beloved to us than ourselves"). The fact that his butt-brothers have killed 1000s of innocent muslims is, is, a JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOish lie!!!
#6
'You terrorist, you are a traitor and whoever follows your ideology is also a traitor, too. Go to hell, you son of Satan.'
Well that about sums it up. (sounds like a bunch of Rantburgers . . . ) And it proves that, however inconsistent the religion of Islam is, the followers have the ability to define it for themselves.
Photos of the demonstration against terrorism were pretty impressive. The US MSM stayed on moonbat Sheehan for days with her sorry little itsy-bitsy crowd, but I doubt this will get much play.
And this is why you don't "hold Mecca and Medina" hostage, Zenster. The big group ain't with the (by comparison) little group of Moslems involved in terrorist gangsterism. You don't offend everyone and thus support the cause of the terrorists by enflaming people that aren't "down wid" the bad boys. Get it?
#7
Whatever allah wants to happen, happens. So why is he apologizing? it was allah's will.
Perhaps allah wants him to convert?
on another note, despite his rantings, does anyone know how many Israelis/Jews or Americans were killed, if any? All I remember hearing was that one Israeli -- an arab Israeli -- was killed. Any more?
#9
King Abdullah's mother was British and his father dealt with both Israel and the US, particularly irritating the Palestinians. Wasn't Zark a native born Jordanian hood? What's with the "descendent of traitors" beef?
#10
The present King of Jordan's dad gave the PLO terrorists their taste of Hell in Black September : 30-40 thousand of the PLO-affliated terrorists were killed by the Jordanian Army, after the Paleos threatened the life of the old King.
#11
Zarqawi is known by the words he speaks and the friends he keeps. He is a polytheist, satan worshipper and a child molester. he preys upon captive boys and girls and then disposes of them with a allahu ahkbar with their demise. Zarqawi misreads and misuses the words of the prophet Mohammed to posture himself as a great leader and elevate himself to the level of Allah. His arrogance is used to hide his ignorance and lack of communication skills. Zarqawi is a man-boy hiding as a woman amongst pigs and eating from their trough. Zarqawi is a simpleton who craves sex with children and is a serial killer. Zarqawi perverts Islam and has damaged Islam globally even more than princess Osama bin Mohammed Laden, aka Shaiton Abdullah, and his girlfriend Zawahiri and her freaky little cousin Omar the one-eyed wonder. Zarqawi will be received in hell by the other corrupt agents of Satan as his reward. Zarqawi... your time comes as surely as the sun rises and sets. You will die soon.
Two Palestinian resistance fighters have been shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian security and medical sources say. The two men were shot by Israeli troops in broad daylight on Thursday in Haifa Street, in downtown Jenin, the sources said. According to an AP report, the two men were driving through Jenin when four armed men jumped out of a car that had been parked for several hours and shot the men, the witnesses said. Their vehicle was riddled with gunfire. Palestinian security sources identified the men as Mohammed Zaid and Ahmed Abahri, both 18 and members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with the ruling Fatah party.
Sounds like the Israelis wanted them pretty definitely dead. [Wipes tear] Their Moms must be so proud!
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Two Palestinian resistance fighters ..."
Resistance fighters? Is that what they're called now? Oh and note how they were shot dead in broad daylight! That thar's some gutter stuff! Rather than gunnin' dem darn crims in the dark, them Izzies shot dar dudes in broad daylight!
Lt. Gen. Generoso Senga has ordered the [Philippines] military to step up assault on Abu Sayyaf strongholds on Jolo Island as fighting entered its seventh day on Friday. The offensive targets the members of the Abu Sayyaf on the island and the Moro National Liberation Front rebels, who are supporting the terrorists. âWe will pursue relentlessly the Abu Sayyaf and the groups that are supporting them,â he said.
Good. Now back to work, enough with the press conferences, General.
Jolo military chief, Brig. Gen. Alexander Aleo, briefed Senga of the progress of the antiterror campaign. Four soldiers and dozens of Abu Sayyaf gunmen were killed, and at least 22 soldiers were also wounded in fierce fighting since last week, he said. A group of US troops were also spotted at a military base in Jolo, but Filipino officials said the Americans were part of a humanitarian mission.
Command, control, communications and GPS coordinates are all very humanitarian, in my book.
American military officials previously said that US troops were deployed in the South to assist, give advice and train Filipino forces against terrorists.
Separatist violence has killed more than 1,000 people in Thailandâs Muslim south and the number of dead in the second half of this year almost doubled from the first half, police figures showed on Thursday. By Wednesday, 1,016 people had been killed in the three provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat and four districts of nearby Songkhla province since violence erupted on Jan 4 last year, a Reuters calculation based on a police record showed. Of the total, 511 people were killed between Jan 1 and Nov. 16 this year, according to a police record read to Reuters by telephone. The monthly toll in the first five months of 2005 varied between 34 and 38, but jumped to between 53 and 67 from June to October. The record showed 38 people had been killed so far in November. One of the most brutal attacks on civilians occurred early on Wednesday morning, when assailants killed nine members of one family, including an 8-month-old baby, shooting some of them at point-blank range.
Yeah, that sounds like Muslim unrest, alright.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Who knew? The international muzzie is a consistent plaguelike entity.
#2
Executing a 8-month baby at point blank range? The Lions of Islam(tm) are really getting braver with each following attack. I mean, this baby could have waved his tiny hands in direction of the shooter, taking such a risk truly is the mark of hardened insurgents.
Beirut, 18 Nov. (AKI) - Syrian president Basher al-Assad has told a UN comission of inquiry into the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri that he is willing to collaborate with it on condition that he and his family receive protection, an investigator working for the commission revealed on Friday. The investigator who works for the UN probe headed by German judge, Detlev Mehlis, made the revelation in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI). He spoke on condition of anonymity.
"Please don't let them kill me!"
"The Syrian president asked if the commission is in a position to set up a (witness) protection programme for himself and his family," the investigator told AKI, without indicating when Assad made the request. "He was told that the commission has not been granted such powers and only a national state or the United Nations can take such a measure," the investigator said.
It's time to play, "Let's Make A Deal!" I'm sure Phoenix could always use another eye doctor
Assad's name appears on a list of people the commission is seeking to question in connection with Hariri's murder, he added. According to the investigator, the commission has granted Assad the possibility to choose the venue in which he would eventually be questioned - unlike six other top Syrian officials who Mehlis wants to interrogate at the commission's Beirut headquarters.
Better hurry, Basher.
Choose the venue? A safe house in rural Virginia would work well.
If true, this would be the drop of another domino. If Baby Assad needs a witness protection program, that means he's not going to be warming the Seat of All Power in Damascus.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 10:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Give 'em a house in the Virginia 'burbs on the condition that he come clean on where he stashed Saddam's WMD program.
#6
Lenscrafters of Ryhad. First pair are always free.
Posted by: john ||
11/18/2005 11:05 Comments ||
Top||
#7
WTF to get witness protection you have to give up someone bigger, baby Assad is the pres is he saying that he is not in charge of his own nation? What the hell is he tryin to claim that he is a figure head who is a puppet of others or even other foriegn powers?? Who is he going to rat out Iran or the old Saddam bathist to blame. I dont know sounds like BS to me but who knows.
#9
Could this be disinformation to hasten Zippy's untimely demise? No one likes a squealer. In an institutionally corrupt regime which trades in deceit, the powers that be would likely send him to join Hariri.
It seems this is acase where the statement, whether true or not, will become reality in short order. Even if not true, Assad may have to seek protection now that he is suspected of turning.
#17
AZCat. I live in the VA burbs and there is a house for sale just down the street. He better bring his protection though. I'd hate to see a freak gardening accident befall him.
This is too good to be true. At best it's a plant to further weaken him. In the dictator biz, asking for protection is akin to quitting.
SYDNEY - Four Australian-Iraqi women have been detained at Damascus airport for allegedly trying to take gun parts hidden in a childâs toy onto a plane bound for Australia, officials said on Thursday.
Australian-Iraqi?
The foreign ministry said the four Iraqi-born Australians plus a son of one of the women and two Iraqi women were held by Syrian authorities as they tried to board a flight to Bahrain, where they were to transfer onto an Australia-bound airliner.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said little was known about the arrests but that Australia was trying to get consular officials to Damascus to learn more. The identities of the Australian women and boy were not given. âAll I know is that they were detained in Syria and were believed to have in their possession a disassembled gun, so they have been detained,â he said.
Someone was awake at the X-ray scanner. Good.
Yeah, but did they search her bag of fluffy li'l baby duck chow?
âWeâre sending a consular officer from our embassy in Cairo, which is accredited to Syria, to follow up.â
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) quoted Syrian police and diplomatic sources as saying that Iraqi women carrying Australian passports were detained when parts of a dismantled hand gun were found in a toy held by a child accompanying them. Syrian authorities were hunting for a man who dropped the women off at the airport, ABC said.
Planted it on the kid, eh? Rat bastards.
Syria was investigating whether the women were plotting to hijack the Gulf Air flight they were ticketed to board, it said.
A Gulf Air spokesman in Australia, David Baker, told the Australian news agency AAP that the dismantled gun was found inside hand luggage carried by the group. âI understand that the pieces of weapon were in hand luggage, but there were bullets in the (aircraftâs baggage) hold,â Baker said. âGulf Air security and the Syrian authoritiesâ security pulled up the group and they were stopped from boarding the plane,â he said.
The incident came a week after Australian police and security agents arrested 18 Muslim men in Sydney and Melbourne on charges of planning a major terrorist bombing in the country. Police alleged the 18 men were members of a terrorist group motivated in part by anger over Australiaâs military involvement alongside US troops in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/18/2005 00:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I recall the Australians did the gun confiscation thing, but I had no idea the gun grabbers were so thorough folk are having to go to significant hoop jumping to smuggle gun parts into the country.
Way to go Congress!! About the time the Republicans started busting these people. Democrats KNOW they can't go on record voting for a pull out!
***********************
"Furious Democrats accused the GOP of orchestrating a political stunt, leaving little time for debate and changing the meaning of a withdrawal resolution offered by Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania.
For those reasons, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent word to rank-and-file Democrats to vote with the Republicans against immediate withdrawal of American troops."
#3
So the first vote, which was almost party-line, was to limit "debate" to one hour. Okaaay. Lol.
And now the actual vote is in progress - Immediate Withdrawal? - and it does appear the majority of the Dhimmis are going to vote Nay with the Pubs.
I apologize to ed for not understanding the first vote was not the resolution, lol. Everything was so clearly described by the "$64M Question" reporter (She seems to love that bit of tripe), lol, how could I have missed it? When I tuned in they were having the "debate" - posing and posturing, actually.
#6
But, but, but... I thought the Dimmies were saying that the majority of the American people were for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. So why did they vote against the wishes of their constituents? Or were they lying about the what they know about the American sentiment on the matter. NAH... not the Dims.
#8
Pelosi and The MSM were spinning Murtha's staterments as a call for a broad public support of an immeadiate withdrawal. Pelosi will castrate any one who votes yea, she has to win at any cost you see.
Murtha's still full of shit. He was pulling letters from Sheian types out and reading them. That he is Pelosi's militiary affairs advisor tells you all you need to know about him. He has gone over to the dark side.
#10
403-3 against should be a smashing political victory for the trunks but this is the point at which they always fail, namely the point at which they need to press *hard* following the big victory to really land the hook.. They won't, they never do. They'll snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again and in a week this will poll as a mean stunt by the evil 'pubs rather than what it actually is, a massive defeat for the dems that clearly exposes their cynical political maneuvering over the war.
Iran has admitted obtaining designs that could help it make a nuclear bomb, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said yesterday in a confidential report.
After more than two years of investigations, it is the closest that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have come to linking Teheran's electricity generation project with an alleged weapons programme.
The discovery will raise tensions before next week's meeting of the IAEA board of governors, which will debate whether to report Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
The IAEA report said documents bought by Iran on the black market included designs "on the casting and machining of enriched, natural and depleted uranium into hemispherical forms". Experts said the casts are used in atomic weapons.
The IAEA said Iran had insisted it had not used the designs. But Gregory Schulte, the chief United States delegate to the IAEA, said the find "opens new concerns about weaponisation that Iran has failed to address".
The IAEA chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, said Iran should give inspectors greater access to military sites.
Posted by: Captain America ||
11/18/2005 21:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Geeze, we knew that the day they popped AQ Khan.
MEMRI: Recently, an announcement of the beginning of a month-long campaign appeared on the Islamic Internet forums. During this campaign, an online opportunity is being offered to Muslims to sign a b'ayah, a Muslim's oath of loyalty to Muslim leaders. Until December 13, 2005, supporters can sign an oath of loyalty to Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Mullah Muhammad Omar, and Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi online.
The initiative was posted on the Alhesbah site, known to be an authentic Islamic site. The individual behind the initiative was identified only by his nickname, Al-'Aashek Liljihad ("lover of Jihad"). It should be noted that so far, the response to this initiative has been minimal; furthermore, the oath-takers are identifying themselves only by nickname. At the bottom of the oath forms appears the name of the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF).
The following are the main points of the announcement as they appear on these forms: [1]
"I invite you to the first day of the month of the great swearing of an oath of loyalty to the commander of the Muslim armies, Sheikh Osama bin Laden, and to the commanders of the global jihad: Sheikh Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar, and Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, and to all the jihad fighters.
"Oh God, you need this oath of loyalty, the oath of death for Allah that will terrorize the infidels and earn the jihad fighters in particular, and the Muslims in general, reward in the world to come...
"Moreover, for this oath of loyalty to death it is not necessary for you to die now - but in the near future, the very near future, Allah willing, we must all join this blessed convoy, particularly since we have sworn an oath of loyalty.
"This [signing of this] oath of loyalty will continue for one month, and will be posted in all the forums so that the number of oath-takers will be [as] great [as possible], and so that Osama bin Laden will have an army in Afghanistan, an army in Iraq, and a massive army in the waiting list on the Internet pages.
"This is the Internet that Allah operates in the service of jihad and of the mujahedoun, and that has become [a tool in service of] your interest - such that half the mujahedoun's battle is waged on the pages of the Internet, which is the only outlet for passing announcements to the mujahedoun.
"Anyone who has already sworn an oath of loyalty is asked not to do so again, because at the end of the month there will be a count of all those who took the oath..."
"We swear loyalty to Sheikh Osama bin Laden, may Allah preserve him, and to the commanders of the global jihad, Sheikh Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Emir of the Believers Mullah Muhammad Omar, and Sheikh Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, and all the Jihad fighters. [This is] an oath of death for Allah.
"Signed:"________________"
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 14:16 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
yeah I hope they are tracking those IP addreses and following that with entering those quardinates into our GPS JDAM target list. For example every IP addresses in say Syria/Iran should be bombed when the strikes on which ever one turns out to be the winner of the phase 3 WOT battle front is chosen and starts. This will get alot of screams of civilians civilians blah blah blah oh the humanity but we will in the fist days eliminate a huge chunk of our future problems for that campain. I would like to see the stradegy across the board but that may not fly. I doubt this will be used thou unfortunatley our leadership dont think war is supposed to be war anymore just a punishment like you would do to a bad child. Like the protest that go on regularly with anit-us slogans and such it seems like common sense would say that when your enemy masses in the street take advantage of that situation.
#5
"Moreover, for this oath of loyalty to death it is not necessary for you to die now - but in the near future, the very near future, Allah willing, we must all join this blessed convoy, particularly since we have sworn an oath of loyalty.
KALAIKUNDA, NOV 17 As the Cope India 2005 Indo-US air force exercises wound down today after two weeks of feverish action in the eastern skies, the US Air Force were left with a stark, double-edged realization. One â that it is no longer the unchallenged leader in the skies, and twoâfor all future joint operations in South Asia, the IAF would, without doubt, be its natural partner.
Vice Commander of the US Pacific Air Forces Lt Gen Dave Deptula said: ââI have never seen a better executed exercise in my 29 years with the USAF. This will go a long way towards establishing peace and stability in the region. Every single objective of this exercise has been met. It was not the US against India. It was an exercise on how to operate together.ââ Admittedly, the two forces still have much to learn from each other, especially in procedures and operational routines. Both sides said that given an immediate security threat, the two forces now had the capability to fly together in response. ââWe will now be prepared if called upon in the future for a contingency, unnamed and unknown. We will be in a position to respond. We can get onto the task of resolving crisis situations together without wasting time,ââ Lt Gen Deptula said.
Today, the two sides flew a rare high value airborne asset (HVAA) attack simulation over Kalaikunda, which principally illustrated the cohesive nature of this round of war games. In the mission, the USAFâs E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft was escorted by American F-16s and Indian Su-30s in a scenario where the AWACS was attacked by a hybrid mix of American F-16s, Indian Mirage-2000s and Su-30s. In the words of one of Mirage pilots, this, more than any of the other maneuvers in the last weeks, epitomized what Cope India was about. Air Marshal Fali Major, Eastern Commander, said: ââThis exercise simulated a hot war scenario in a conventional setting. It was not about terror.ââ
During the last Cope India exercise in February 2004, American F-15 pilots had admitted finding it bizarre that their Indian counterparts had routed them in many maneuvers. This time round, the buzzword was a studied âjointnessâ, though pilots told this newspaper off the record that the IAF had maintained its ââone-upââ.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 10:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
During the last Cope India exercise in February 2004, American F-15 pilots had admitted finding it bizarre that their Indian counterparts had routed them in many maneuvers.
As I recall, our side didn't leverage all its strengths. But no matter, it's only an exercise. Were it to be a real-life scenario, I seriously doubt that hobbling ourselves like that would even be considered.
#5
Sounds like the scenario was vs. China, no? I know they've been working an AWACs killer.
There was some blog speculation the USAF sandbagged the last Cope India just to show how badly they needed the F-22. From what I know, I agree we need the F-22 and JSF pretty badly.
Still, the pilots, ground crews and aircraft the IAF brought to Cope are probably very good in terms of training and avionics. They're modernizing and we should not judge them on their old MiG 21 issues.
Fortunately the biggest geopolitical gain for the Bush admin is that we now consider India an 'ally.' This is a huge turnaround from the cold war days. They are a largely english speaking nuclear power with a billion people, growing tech industry and a military that's not afraid to fight and they're located next to both Pakland and China. Not a bad ally to pickup when we're losing them in Europe.
This relationship is bearing immediate benefits in the GWOT and will come in handy when Korea wigs out, China starts to use the military capabilities it's building and Japan dies of old age.
#6
That's one hell of a song-and-dance. Hope the Indians buy heavily-slathered flattery.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/18/2005 12:37 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I dont think I would call Japan a dying nation. The Japaneese have woken up and are on a path back to when they were powerful Asian nation. Its amazing how having a acient enemy from literaly the begining of time showing up on your door step snooping around and claiming things, can do that to a nation. EU now that is a dying nation if not already dead. India is a growing power that has strong ties to the west speaks english and is a strong economic ties to the US. They will make a good ally although they do have a strong Socialist movement that by the way we have here aswell and the EU is just as bad or worse than India in this aspect. Either way socialism is not enemy number one today it is Radical Islam and the possiblity of a Expansionist Communist China, both of these two senerios puts India as a ally.
#8
It seems that all we ever do is hobble ourselves with hyper-legalistic ROEs and absurd PC niceties.
True enough, but since any actual aerial combat raises the possibility of losing a very expensive aircraft, the brass, if they're smart, won't even entertain the idea of not using all the tools in the toolbox.
#9
Su-30's are planes from end of 80's and with thrust vectoring F-15s are from end of 70's no surprising at all that they were beaten. Adding to helmet mounted sights and other gadgets in Indian planes.
In US the name of the game is pork. Lots of money in military goes to pork and programs that last 20-30 years and show not much results.
#11
From an Indian journalist present at the exercise
The basic point here is that we may all need to have a small rethink on our jingo-baba ways ... While the performance of Indian pilots was exemplary ... both American and Indian exercise commanders repeatedly told me that so far no one had collected numbers on the individual kills of pilots. What was collected and analysed were the mission objectives and whether they were met. Remember, not all missions were run with the objective of pilots targeting one another ... Many of the 300 missions which were flown were meant for joint training, working out engagement procedures ... partially simulating attack runs etc.
Also, please note ... the majority of missions were joint missions ... not missions where Indians targeted Americans ... So there were missions where formations of Sukhois, Mirages and F-16s took on F-16s, Bisons and Sukhois ... so while it is true that Indian pilots were engaging Americans flying F-16s ... its also true that they were engaging Indian pilots as well. Also, Americans were engaging American aircraft as well.
The bottom line here ... in terms of what Indian pilots did which was impressive ... According to my sources, Indian pilots were extremely impressive in the Large Fighter Engagement exercise where 15 plus aircraft were in the air. Both sides were being given targeting data by the AWACS ... and Indian pilots were apparently much quicker off the mark than their American counterparts in attacking targets which they had been assigned. In other words, they worked well in an AWACS environment.
As far as the WVR Su-30 MKI engagement was concerned ... there were at least two engagements ... one where the MKI was offensive and one where it was defensive. Though I suspect the MKI won the one on one when it was in an offensive position ... I am not sure what happened when it was defensive.
Thats pretty much what I figured out in the little time I was there.
To be absolutely certain, the US Air Force was glowing in its remarks on the pilot skills of Indian pilots. The US General who was around also said ... repeatedly ... I might add ... that the exercise organised in Kalaikunda was the single most impressive exercise of its type which he had seen in decades of being with the USAF.
As far as showmanship was concerned ... There were two F-16s which took off ... the first flew level gaining height steadily ... and then pulled big time ... to go into a Vertical Charlie ... very impressive. The second F-16 I saw also did a vertical jig ... This was done in plain view of the MiG 29U driver who was next to take off ... and he didn't spare the Americans ... the big smoking Tumanskiis announcing his take off run ... and in about half the take off distance of the Americans he pulled ... went vertical immediately ... but not before he pointed his tail squarely at us journos ... the noise was predictably increadible ... and the message of that young jock seemed clear ...
Three other small points ... an An-32 pilot who was tasked to be a high value target had a huge smile on his face ... Though he refused to tell me all the details ... he did say that try as they did ... the opposition F-16s and Indian jets just couldn't lock him up ... He did of course have a fighter escort of his own ...
An AWACS radar operator reportedly told another journalist that the aircraft he loved vectoring the most was the Bison.
and finally ... a Qualis taxi driver paid no attention to instructions ... and passed directly in front of an F-16 which was taxying ... The American had to break sharply ... and looked distinctly irritated ...
At one level ... the Americans are clearly amazed at the Bison ... which was capable of successfully engaging the F-16s ... the radar signature of the Bison is also quite small ...
I suppose the AWACS operator could have been impressed at how it may have been for him to get a track on the Bison ... though this is just me speculating. I don't know more.
There were obviously lots of variables in each exercises ... but like in the past .. there were fly zones, no fly zones and neutral zones .... where the awacs was deployed ... Each exercise had very specific objectives ... and there was no free for all at all.
Posted by: john ||
11/18/2005 16:49 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Meanwhile, in the Thar desert...
Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday joined military officials from 40 countries, including China and the US, to watch Indian armed forces showcase their firepower and strike capabilities here.
It is the first time that India has invited military observers from foreign countries to witness one of its wargames. Exercise Desert Strike in the deserts of Pokhran featured tank and artillery units of the army and frontline combat jets of the air force.
"It is a novel idea that observers have been invited to witness the exercise. The basic objective of India's foreign and security policy is based on two no's - no territorial ambition and no export of ideology," said the minister.
He added that the exercise would help foreigners "see the professionalism of our armed forces".
Senior Colonel Li Zhao of China spoke in fluent Hindi and said: "My impression is the armies of both countries are almost equal in terms of capabilities. The fact that we have been invited shows Indian and Chinese relations are becoming better.
"This will allow us to understand each other and cooperate," he said.
Pakistan, however, was not among the nations invited to send observers, with the top brass of the armed forces deciding to throw open the manoeuvres only to "friendly countries in the immediate and strategic neighbourhood".
Exercise Desert Strike, a 10-day exercise that began Nov 11, is meant to fine-tune doctrines for joint operations by a strike corps - or almost 25,000 troops - of the Indian Army and combat squadrons of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
"The army and air force will test their new equipment, like the T-90 missile-firing tanks, Tungushka air defence systems, unmanned aerial vehicles and communication and surveillance equipment," Brigadier Gurpal Bal had told reporters in New Delhi Wednesday.
Bal and Group Captain B. Suresh of the air force said the exercise would prepare troops for fast-paced manoeuvres in the desert with electronic and information warfare playing a key role.
Posted by: john ||
11/18/2005 16:50 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Something quite odd about that last article.
An Indian Armor Strike Corps consists of several divisions , much, much more than 25,000 men but under the new Cold Start doctrine of the Indian Army, they are moving away from their Strike/Holding Corps formations and into smaller integrated battle groups.
25,0000 is larger than a division and seems excessive for a battle group
Posted by: john ||
11/18/2005 16:58 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Interesting news - enhanced interaction between the special forces of the US and Indian Navies
ENHANCED INTERACTION BETWEEN SPECIAL FORCES DISCUSSED AT NINTH IN-USN ESG
16:45 IST
The Ninth Meeting of the Executive Steering Group (ESG) was held at Naval Headquarters, New Delhi on 16 and 17 Nov 05. The meeting was co-chaired by Vice Admiral JS Bedi, the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff and Vice Admiral Jonathan W Greenert, Commander of the US Navy's 7th Fleet based at Yokosuka, Japan. The two flag officers were assisted at the ESG by their respective staff. The US delegation included Rear Admiral Victor Guillory, Commander Task Force 76 and 25 other officers. The ninth ESG addressed issues such as the 3-year Operational Co-operation Plan between IN and USN, the need and methods to increase the complexity of the IN-USN MALABAR series of exercises and measures to increase the interaction between the special forces of both navies.
In addition, the ESG meeting also addressed the important issue of Common Operational Plot for enhanced interoperability between the two navies and measures to facilitate speedy communication and transfer of operational information. Various options were also discussed to improve the situational awareness in the Indian Ocean with special emphasis on combating terrorism and piracy at sea.
The Executive Steering Group (ESG) is an institutionalised mechanism designed to further service-to-service interaction between the two navies within the ambit of Indo-US defence co-operation. The ESG has a high level Navy-to-Navy component, known as the Naval ESG. The Naval ESG meets annually and is chaired jointly by Indian Naval and US Naval Officers of the rank of Vice Admiral. The main function of the Naval ESG is to define the path along which both navies need to engage each other, so as to ensure mutual benefit. The ongoing interaction between the navies of India and USA stems from a three-year roll on plan, which is determined and reviewed in successive meetings of the ESG.
Posted by: john ||
11/18/2005 17:06 Comments ||
Top||
#15
More on the Desert Strike Exercise
The exercise, the first of its kind, showcased the Army's concept of 'Network Centric Warfare', revolving around the "key elements of synergisation and co-ordination of a vast array of sensors like radars, electro optical devices, thermal images and UAV's through the Battlefield Surveillance System (BSS)".
The system serves to increase battlefield transparency as also optimize ' sensors to shooter' links, thereby generating higher precision in weapons delivery and lethal degradation of the enemy.
...
The exercise was also witnessed by 24 observers of 16 friendly countries from the immediate and strategic neighbourhood and 39 Defence Attaches posted in India, another first of its kind.
Lt. Colonel Philip Turner, the Assistant Army Attachi, USA, said that relations between India and the US were growing steadily and getting stronger by the day.
"India and the US recently held 'Malabar 05', and 'Cope India 05' is still going on. Military ties between the two countries are growing steadily," said Lt. Col Turner.
He also praised the professionalism of the Indian Armed Forces and said that the exercise brought out the best in the troops.
"In today's world, every country has access to sophisticated technology, but the manner in which the Indian armed forces executed the plan with precision, does speak volumes of its professional expertise," he added.
Col. Li Zhao, a senior Colonel of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) who attended the exercise as an observer said that it was good that India had extended invitation to China to watch the live exercise.
"Relations between India and China are improving, and these type of interactions can throw open the possibility of future joint exercises between the Indian and Chinese armed forces," said Col. Zhao.
...
The exercise involved mechanized corps, artillery, air defence, special forces, reconnaissance and air support by the IAF.
The platforms included the T-90 Main Battle tanks (MBTs- Bhishma) capable of firing missiles, Infantry Combat Vehicles, (ICVs) all weather Defence Gun Missile System, Searcher UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), Bofors guns, Grad and Tunguska Air Defence Systems, Chetak and MI-17 helicopters from Army Aviation for para forces.
The platforms also included OSA-all weather Surface to Air Missiles (SAM), Konkurs Anti Tank and Schilka Air Defence Missiles.
The IAF's hardware included the Mirage-2000 fighter jets, MiG-27s, MiG-21 Bisons, Jaguars, Mi-35 Attack helicopters and An-32 for logistics and para dropping. The IAF also used a plethora of ammunition in its armoury in the exercise, like Precision Guided Munitions (PGMs), cluster bombs, Anti-Tank Missiles (Strum) and rockets for decimating enemy positions in the war exercise.
The exercise also saw the insertion of special para forces by Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) and para dropping of armour and para forces by An 32 transport aircraft from the IAF.
Posted by: john ||
11/18/2005 20:05 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Indian army soldiers drive T-90 tanks during an army exercise 'Desert Strike' at Pokharan in India's desert state of Rajasthan November 18, 2005. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Posted by: john ||
11/18/2005 20:06 Comments ||
Top||
November 18, 2005: Peace in Somalia is stalled because the warlords cannot agree on who will have what power in the new government. Most warlords were reluctant to give up any power. Since the warlords usually base their power on clan or tribe support, any peacekeeping operation would face civil war from the various tribal militias. There may, however, be some foreign intervention along the coast, because of the increasing number of pirate attacks along the coast. Some believe that the growing power of the Islamic Courts militias might bring peace. But the Islamic Courts are not unified. They are all led by different groups of religious leaders, and don't agree with each other.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/18/2005 09:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Cut it up, and give half to Ethiopia and half to Kenya. If the locals can't get organized, then they should lose everything.
#2
The last Democratic president's strategy appears in hindsight to have been to crush the one major clan obstructing development and then run like hell. Snatching defeat from the Jaws of Victory! Still the only war* plan of the Democratic Party. * Running without fighting is not war.
#6
Islam in it's truest form. Refined.
Who holds the caliphate is like chasing a fumbled ball that never stops. "Citizens" of these "Holy states" never know who is in charge until they are either beaten, raped, sold into slavery, or killed. Ahhh, nice to see some holy things coming out of the religion of "Peace".
I fatwah you, no... I fatwa you. Noooo, Jihad your fatwa, nooo, in the surah... but in the etc etc etc.
Why not see how bas Somalia gets instead of trying to fix it? Maybe that should be policy. Let the DEVIL take over as intended and watch the future in action.
An explosion on the outskirts of the Afghan capital killed a Portuguese peackeeper with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and wounded three others.
"One ISAF soldier was killed and three injured, one of them seriously, by an explosion in Bagrami district of Kabul," ISAF spokesman Major Andy Elmes told AFP on Friday. "We are still trying to determine whether it's a mine, an IED (improvised explosive device) or something else," he said, confirming the soldiers were Portuguese nationals. The blast was in Da Yaqoob village on the outskirts of the capital, he said.
The Portuguese defence ministry in Lisbon said the four soldiers were in a vehicle that exploded while on patrol. Portuguese soldiers in a second vehicle, which was part of the same patrol, were not hurt, it said.
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2005 08:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Three men from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) have confessed to involvement in a car bomb blast near a US fast food chain outlet that killed three people, a court official said. An anti-terrorism court had remanded the men in custody for seven days while investigations continued into Tuesdayâs bombing of a branch of the KFC chain in Karachi, said public prosecutor Habib Ahmed.
Police said the trio belong to the BLA, which is engaged in a low-level insurgency in Balochistan. A purported representative of the group had claimed responsibility hours after the blast, which killed two security guards and a passer-by, saying the attack had been targeted at Pakistan Petroleum Limited offices near the KFC. The state-run company operates a large natural gas field in impoverished Balochistan, whose tribes believe they should be getting a greater share of profits from the provinceâs natural wealth. âThe accused during interrogation confessed their role in the bombing,â Ahmed said, adding that âmany of their accomplices are still in hidingâ.
Chief police investigator Manzoor Mughal said the trio, all aged in their 30s, were arrested while trying to escape in a car. They included the âgang leaderâ, identified as Aziz Khan. Police recovered two Kalashnikovs, two grenades and three kilogrammes of explosive material from a building they used as a hideout, he said. âThey were working for the so-called BLA,â he said. âSeveral of their accomplices, who are hiding in Karachi, will also be arrested shortly,â he said, stressing the âBLA was behind the blastâ.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A District and Sessions judge in Peshawar has dismissed the bail applications of two Algerian men, who are wanted by intelligence agencies for interrogation in President Musharraf assassination attempt case. The two Algerians Abul Ghayas and Abu Safyan had moved their bail applications before District and Sessions Judge Shah Jehan after Trial Court Judge Mohammad Tufail had cancelled their bail after receiving bail cancellation applications from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Shah Jehan, upholding the trial court decision, refused to grant bail to the two Algerians.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Suspected separatist rebels tossed grenades into a mosque during morning prayers Friday, killing at least four Muslim worshippers, police said. The attack came a day after Sri Lanka held its presidential election, which was boycotted by the Tamil Tiger rebels. "Two grenades were thrown at the mosque that killed four people and wounded 10 others," said Nimal Lewke, deputy inspector general of police. There were no other immediate details of the attack in the city of Akkaraipattu, 140 miles east of the capital, Colombo.
During the two decades of civil war, the mainly Hindu rebels have occasionally carried out attacks against Muslims â the majority religion in Sri Lanka â including an August 1990 massacre of 130 Muslims at two mosques on the same day.
Since I get my news from AP, I now know that Muslims have replaced Lesser Vehicle Buddhists as the majority in Sri Lanka.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
lol Fred.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
11/18/2005 2:14 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The BDR has beefed up security along the Indian border in Thakurgaon, following rumours that seven members of the JMB suicide squad were holed up in the district town with a plan to strike again, reports UNB. A senior official of BDR's Battalion 20 said the measures have been taken in response to the overall security situation of the district. The police and other security forces have also stepped up efforts to ensure security in the district reportedly following an intelligence report from the capita, said sources. According to the unconfirmed report, a 10-member suicide squad of JMB had recently been dispatched to Dinajpur. Seven members of the squad had already entered Thakurgaon, a district police official said, requesting anonymity.
An operative of JMB arrested in city's Uttara on Wednesday confessed to a magistrate yesterday that he blasted a bomb near Zia International Airport on August 17. Twenty-five-year old 
Militants yesterday threatened to bury the law minister alive in Companiganj of Noakhali while in Rajshahi, Jamaatul Mujahideen threatened to blow up the prison if its detained cadres are not freed within 12 days starting from November 20. The militants in hand-written letters sent to different offices across Companiganj upazila also said, "Inshallah [god willing] within December 16, the land office, offices of Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) and AG (accountant general), and the police station in Companiganj will be blown up and all officials and employees will be killed."
MPs are demanding that Charles Clarke explain how the Government took so long to deal with 
The Russian Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service eliminated a group of international terrorists led in Chechnya by Jofer, a Saudi mercenary who was an Al Qaeda representative in the North Caucasus, the operative HQ of the United Group of Forces said Friday. Jofer had led foreign mercenaries who commanded illegal militant units from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge since 2001.
AMSTERDAM â An appeal court in The Hague has acquitted Samir A., 19, of charges he was planning to terrorist attacks on key locations in the Netherlands in 2004. A. was among a group of Dutch Muslims arrested in October this year when police allegedly found a 'video testament" in which A. referred to an act he had carried out. This is a separate case that has yet to be finalised.
The three Algerians detained on Tuesday in the Italian cities of Brescia and Naples were planning a massive terror attack - "on a ship as big as the Titanic, packed with explosives" - that aimed to kill "at least 10,000 people", as well as an attack on "Italian citizens and interests" in Tunisia, according phone conversations between the three men, which Italian anti-terror police say they intercepted after al-Qaeda's deadly 7 July attacks on London and on the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. 
A Bahraini man being held at the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay attempted suicide this week for the ninth time and has begun a hunger strike, according to newly released court documents. 
Two Palestinian resistance fighters have been shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian security and medical sources say. The two men were shot by Israeli troops in broad daylight on Thursday in Haifa Street, in downtown Jenin, the sources said. According to an AP report, the two men were driving through Jenin when four armed men jumped out of a car that had been parked for several hours and shot the men, the witnesses said. Their vehicle was riddled with gunfire. Palestinian security sources identified the men as 
Lt. Gen. Generoso Senga has ordered the [Philippines] military to step up assault on Abu Sayyaf strongholds on Jolo Island as fighting entered its seventh day on Friday. The offensive targets the members of the Abu Sayyaf on the island and the Moro National Liberation Front rebels, who are supporting the terrorists. âWe will pursue relentlessly the Abu Sayyaf and the groups that are supporting them,â he said. 
Beirut, 18 Nov. (AKI) - Syrian president Basher al-Assad has told a UN comission of inquiry into the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri that he is willing to collaborate with it on condition that he and his family receive protection, an investigator working for the commission revealed on Friday. The investigator who works for the UN probe headed by German judge, Detlev Mehlis, made the revelation in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI). He spoke on condition of anonymity. 
November 18, 2005: Peace in Somalia is stalled because the warlords cannot agree on who will have what power in the new government. Most warlords were reluctant to give up any power. Since the warlords usually base their power on clan or tribe support, any peacekeeping operation would face civil war from the various tribal militias. There may, however, be some foreign intervention along the coast, because of the increasing number of pirate attacks along the coast. Some believe that the growing power of the Islamic Courts militias might bring peace. But the Islamic Courts are not unified. They are all led by different groups of religious leaders, and don't agree with each other.
Three men from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) have confessed to involvement in a car bomb blast near a US fast food chain outlet that killed three people, a court official said. An anti-terrorism court had remanded the men in custody for seven days while investigations continued into Tuesdayâs bombing of a branch of the KFC chain in Karachi, said public prosecutor Habib Ahmed.
A District and Sessions judge in Peshawar has dismissed the bail applications of two Algerian men, who are wanted by intelligence agencies for interrogation in President Musharraf assassination attempt case. The two Algerians 
Suspected separatist rebels tossed grenades into a mosque during morning prayers Friday, killing at least four Muslim worshippers, police said. The attack came a day after Sri Lanka held its presidential election, which was boycotted by the Tamil Tiger rebels. "Two grenades were thrown at the mosque that killed four people and wounded 10 others," said Nimal Lewke, deputy inspector general of police. There were no other immediate details of the attack in the city of Akkaraipattu, 140 miles east of the capital, Colombo.
