Four and a half years after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Kandahar-based correspondent Sarah Chayes tells of the "steady erosion of security" that has left Afghans fearing for their lives. A resurgent Taliban is engaged in a campaign of terror and intimidation, carrying out judiciously executed murders and threatening retaliation against anyone seen collaborating with foreigners or the Afghan government. And there is abundant evidence that this resurgent Taliban is supported by U.S. ally Pakistan, Chayes reports.
Posted by: john ||
03/26/2006 17:25 ||
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A closed circuit of shortsighted policies has brought the United States to this pass: All other goals, such as democracy and reconstruction, have been consistently subordinated to the obsession with Al Qaeda,
Spot on, and the way it should be and not short sighted at all. AQ attacked the United States of America, they are our number one enemy, period! Afghanistan harbored AQ, they fall and the government that supported them was destroyed, good job. This is the price they paid for supporting the attack on America. Afghanistan will never get out of the 13th century, they are no real threat to America, why should I care if they cant get past tribal fears. Our only real concern is if they are able to help rebuild AQ, otherwise so what?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/26/2006 18:09 Comments ||
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49pan: Our only real concern is if they are able to help rebuild AQ, otherwise so what?
You have to remember - this article is from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists - whose doomsday clock is set at 7 minutes to midnight today. Having a sense of perspective isn't one of their more obvious qualities.
#3
Zhang Fei, your right, there I go again joustng wind mills.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/26/2006 19:35 Comments ||
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Little more to add to this exchange, only that to focus on anything other than AQ would advance the day that it has nuclear weaponry to inflict even greater harm on innocence.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/26/2006 20:31 Comments ||
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I'd like to disagree.
Al Qaeda isn't _the_ problem.
It's _a_ problem.
In a way, it's just another brand name.
_The_ problem is larger than Al Qaeda.
Posted by: Phil ||
03/26/2006 21:03 Comments ||
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The senior Taliban commander in Afghanistan's lawless Helmand province has vowed to unleash a brigade of 600 suicide bombers against the British Army when it arrives in the area this summer.
In a rare interview given at a hideout on the Pakistani border, Mullah Razayar Noorzai said the chance to take on British troops was a "great honour". Taliban commanders had already recruited hundreds of willing martyrs for suicide operations, he claimed, aiming to repeat the notorious defeats inflicted on British troops in Afghanistan during Victorian times.
A price of $2,000 (£1,150) has also been put on the head of any captured Westerner - a bounty that threatens a re-run of the Iraq-style kidnappings and beheadings.
"We are happy that they are coming to Helmand," said Mullah Razayar, who lost a leg while fighting the Russians in the 1980s. "It is both a trial and a great honour for all Muslims. We will now get a fair chance to kill them.
"We have already prepared 600 suicide bombers alone for the Helmand, and you'll see that we will turn it into their graveyard."
Mullah Razayar's threats will fuel concerns for the safety of the 3,300 troops who will arrive in Helmand over the coming months to hunt Taliban remnants and help Afghan forces to tackle drugs barons. A regiment of 600 Royal Engineers, protected by 150 Royal Marines, arrived last month to begin building a base for the troops in the Helmand capital, Lashkar Gah.
The province, in southern Afghanistan, is close to the site where more than 900 British soldiers were slaughtered by 25,000 Afghan tribesmen at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880 - a humiliation Mullah Razayar is keen to inflict again. "They are children of the same army who were killed and buried in Helmand, and they will soon be reunited with their grandparents," he said.
Mullah Razayar, 48, has been assigned to lead the Taliban's operations in Helmand by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the movement's one-eyed spiritual leader. Although now a fugitive himself, with a $10 million price on his head, Mullah Omar is believed to be the mastermind behind the resurgence of the Taliban after it all but petered out in 2004.
The Sunday Telegraph came face to face with Mullah Razayar after weeks of lengthy negotiations with intermediaries aimed at securing an interview with the Taliban's senior ranks. So security conscious were his aides that they would not even reveal in advance which commander it would be.
After meeting at a rendezvous at 11pm, a reporter was driven for almost three hours to a modest, mud-built homestead in a remote valley. The vehicle took a deliberately circuitous route in order to avoid being followed and to confuse the reporter.
Inside the hut, Mullah Razayar sat cross-legged, surrounded by guards wearing traditional baggy trousers and carrying AK47 assault rifles. Others quietly positioned themselves on the rooftops of nearby houses and on the dusty track, ready to hustle the mullah away at the slightest alarm.
Mullah Razayar said that, contrary to the British insistence that the Taliban had no popular support, locals were queuing to join its ranks.
"Men are coming to sign up to fight at the frontline," he claimed. "Women are bringing their sons, and giving us their jewellery to sell and buy weapons to enable us to fight these infidel invaders. We have so much support here from the locals - more, probably, than the British soldiers have back in London."
There has already been a marked increase in suicide attacks across Afghanistan, where once they were almost unheard of. There have been 19 across the country since last November, killing more than 80 people, including a Canadian diplomat and American and Afghan soldiers.
Volunteers for suicide operations were being schooled in how to maximise the impact of their attacks, said Mullah Razayar. In addition to car bombs, they were being given explosive-laden vests, which can enable attackers to get much closer to their victims. A determined campaign using suicide vests would hamper any British "hearts-and-minds" strategy, which involves mingling with locals in shops and streets.
A filmed report on Mullah Razayar Noorzai and the Taliban in Helmand can be seen on ITV News this week.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2006 03:17 ||
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thats him fooked then... and 600 less fruitcakes to worry about
#6
US to Taliban commander: We have 50,000 girl pole dancers who can kick your ass.
And that's just in Fort Lauderdale.
Semi-OT I wuz thinking (hush) prepaid 900# phonecards. Dumped like juche over the barren Afghan plains, like love Manna.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2006 12:25 Comments ||
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"900 British soldiers were slaughtered by 25,000 Afghan tribesmen at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880"
So they won with a 28-to-1 advantage on the field.
Of course the Brits didn't have cluster bombs in those days. Looks like the Taliban has forgotten the lessons of 2001.
#11
A reliable estimate of Afghan casualties in the 1880 battle is 3,000. If Mullah Razayar reads the following account, he may not want to repeat the battle on modern terms, even without air power involved:
http://www.britishbattles.com/second-afghan-war/maiwand.htm
#13
Funny thing about dime store thugs, they are all bluster and no balls. I suspect the Brits are well capable of dealing with these dead enders. They have learned a great deal from their experience in So. Iraq.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/26/2006 20:35 Comments ||
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US forces were involved in heavy fighting with Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan on Saturday but there was no immediate word on casualties, provincial officials said.
Afghanistan has seen a surge in attacks by Taliban insurgents and their militant allies in recent months and the Taliban have vowed to launch a spring offensive against US-led foreign forces and the Western-backed government.
The clash erupted after US troops backed by helicopter gunships and jets launched an operation in the Sangin district of the southern province of Helmand, after being tipped-off about the presence of Taliban in a village, police said.
"There was bombing by jets and helicopters," Matiuallah, police chief of Sangin who uses only one name, told Reuters. Given the "very intense" fighting, Matiuallah said he assumed their would be casualties but he had no confirmation.
Afghan forces had been sent to join the US forces battling the insurgents, another official said. US and Afghan forces fought the biggest battle in months against Taliban fighters in the same district at the beginning of February.
A US military spokesman said he had no information about a clash. A Taliban commander, Mullah Zainullah, said by telephone from the area Taliban fighters had killed five Afghan troops.
Several villagers from Sangin said by telephone some Taliban had been staying a house that got bombed. Helmand has been a bastion of Taliban insurgents since US and Afghan opposition forces ousted their government in late 2001.
The province is also Afghanistan's main opium-growing region and the insurgents are in league with drug gangs, complicating efforts to bring security and stamp out drugs, security officials say. British troops have been arriving in the province in recent weeks as part of an expansion of a NATO-led peacekeeping force into the Afghan south. In all, 3,300 British troops will soon be based in Helmand.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2006 03:03 ||
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You do not want to kiss the ass of stupid islamists. You do anhilate them. This is the best way to tell those stupids to behave. This the way it works there.
Tehran is also investing in constructing a military-intelligence network in Afghanistan on the Iraq model, the same Iranian officer disclosed. It will penetrate and work through local Afghan anti-American groups and seek to isolate the Karzai regime in preparation for its eventual downfall.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/26/2006 14:30 Comments ||
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A US soldier was killed and another was wounded in a clash with militants which left seven Taliban fighters dead in southern Afghanistan, the American-led coalition said. US and Afghan forces exchanged fire with 20 militants in Helmand province, before calling in aerial support that resulted in the dropping of 11 guided-bombs, the coalition said in a statement.
An Afghan soldier was also wounded. A purported spokesman for the Taliban, Yousuf Ahmadi, said by telephone that the movement's fighters had been involved in the battle in Sangin district, confirming that one of its men had been wounded in the clash. Authorities in Sangin, a hotbed for Taliban activities, confirmed details of the clash.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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God bless him and his family.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/26/2006 8:23 Comments ||
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Seven Taliban isn't a bad escort to take to Heaven. That six hundred the Mullah claims is already shrinking, thanks to Soldiers like him. Thank you, sir.
Warring factions clashed for the fourth day Saturday in the north of Somali capital Mogadishu as heavy gunbattles claimed five more lives, bringing the death toll to 52 and more than 200 injured, medical and militia sources said. Warring militamen in the capital are fighting heavily for the fourth day and there is no sign of calm, said Ahmed Mohamed Jumale, a resident in Galagalato, a neighbourhood of Karan district in northern Mogadishu where the rival fighters are engaged in battle. Jumale said that the gunmen intensified fighting in order to inflict more casualties on either side before darkness. The serious fighting erupted at noon, Jumale said.
A nurse at Kaisaney Surgical Hospital said that the main medical facility near the battle ground had received 139 casualties since Wednesday when the fighting began, some of whom were treated and discharged. Five died in our hospital of the injuries they sustained. The rest were treated and left, while some stayed for further treatment, said the nurse, who asked not to be named. Kaisaney is the largest war hospital in Somalia, funded by the International Committee of the Red Cross and run by the Somali Red Crescent Society.
The fighting was sparked by a row over land ownership in which one militia leader, Abukar Omar Adan, a staunch supporter of the Islamic courts, attempted to grab the piece of land attached to the Aisaley airport north of the capital and which is controlled by rival warlord Bashir Raghe Shirar. The two men belong to the Warsangale sub-clan of Abgal within the larger Hawiye which is dominant in Mogadishu and its surroundings, but they have different political affiliations. Adan is allied to the Islamic courts of Mogadishu, which control pockets of the lawless capital, while Shirar is a co-founder of the newly formed Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) which is opposed to the growing influence of the Islamic courts.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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Egypt was believed to have foiled an Al Qaida strike.
The Jamestown Foundation said Egypt could have thwarted a major Al Qaida attack in early March. The Washington-based foundation said Al Qaida appeared to have targeted one of the largest gasoline terminals in Egypt.
In a report, analyst Stephen Ulph cited a March 7 message posted on an Islamist forum that indicated an Al Qaida plot against Egypt's energy sector. Ulph said the plot, termed the Al Kinana Buqayq operation, appeared to have been inspired by Al Qaida's attempt to destroy the Abqiq oil refinery in Saudi Arabia.
"It appeared to indicate that Egyptian security had foiled an attempt, perhaps inspired by the recent Abqaiq operation in Saudi Arabia, on petroleum supplies in Egypt," the report, which cited http://tajdeed.org.uk/forums, said. "According to the text, there was 'trustworthy news from special sources in the Land of Kinana [a poetic term for Egypt]."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2006 02:49 ||
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Anyone ever figure out that British aviation-fuel tank farm fire from December?
ALGERIAN militants killed five civilians, including a mayor, stepping up attacks days after the start of an amnesty for rebels aimed at ending more than a decade of strife, residents and newspapers said overnight.
Suspected members of al Qaeda-linked group the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) shot dead mayor Brahim Jellab outside his house on Friday night in Boumerdes province, 50 km east of the capital Algiers, residents said.
GSPC is the only armed group operating in Boumerdes and the neighbouring province of Tizi Ouzou, Interior Minister Noureddine Zerhouni said last week.
Mr Jellab is the fifth mayor to be assassinated by Islamist gunmen in Bourmedes in the past four years, residents said.
Government forces killed a bombmaker for GSPC during an operation on Thursday in Boumerdes, newspapers said.
Mohamed Mayouz, 38, was shot dead in an ambush, part of an offensive on rebel strongholds.
In a separate attack, two rebels armed with Kalashnikov rifles shot dead four farmers on Thursday near Blida, 50 km south of Algiers, El Watan and Liberte dailies said.
Six government soldiers were injured on Friday in a separate attack when a home-made bomb exploded in Jijel province, 350 km east of Algiers, El Watan added.
Officials were not immediately available for comment.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2006 02:45 ||
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Algerian Islamic rebels killed four civilians in the worst attack since the government started carrying out an amnesty for rebels intended to end more than a decade of strife.
Two rebels armed with machineguns surprised four farmers and shot them dead on Thursday near Blida, 50km south of the capital Algiers, El Watan and Liberte dailies said, citing survivors.
Six government soldiers were injured on Friday in a separate attack when a home-made bomb exploded in Jijel province, 350km east of Algiers, El Watan added.
Meanwhile, government forces killed a bombmaker for al-Qaeda-linked group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), during an operation on Thursday in Boumerdes, 50km east of Algiers, newspapers said.
Mohamed Mayouz, 38, was shot dead in an ambush, part of a large-scale offensive on rebel strongholds.
Officials were not immediately available for comment.
Algeria began implementing an amnesty this month as part of efforts to end violence that broke out when the authorities cancelled legislative elections in 1992 that a now-banned Islamic party was poised to win. An estimated 200,000 people have been killed since.
The peace drive includes mass release of jailed Islamic militants as well as compensation for victims, including the families of about 8,000 missing people.
The amnesty gave rebels still fighting six months to surrender, provided they were not involved in massacres, rapes or bombings of public places.
The authorities have killed 17,000 militants since 1992. About 800 rebels are still active, the government said last week.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2006 02:43 ||
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Outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP-Janajuddho) has allegedly threatened to blow up the police headquarters in retaliation for the recent 'crossfire.'
"Aaaar! Ventilate our guy, will they? We'll show them!"
On Thursday midnight, a caller identifying himself as a PBCP operative threatened to blow up the Khulna Metropolitan Police (KMP) Headquarters over cellphone to take revenge for the recent killings of the PBCP men by DB police on the pretext of crossfire incidents.
The DB police arrested Shafiqul Islam, 25, from Morolpara under Phultala upazila of Khulna on Friday afternoon in this connection and seized from his possession the cellphone from which the threat call was made.
During interrogation, Shafiqul told the police that he had given the cellphone to a man named Shohag to sell off the set, but Shohag returned the cellphone a few days ago saying that he could not find a buyer.
"Yeah, really! It ain't mine! Well, it's mine, but I give it to somebody else. It musta been him! Yeah! Dat's it! I been framed!"
Police suspect Shohag to be another cadre of PBCP and a close associate of Mukul Bhuiyan, who was killed in 'crossfire' on March 18 in the city. The seized cellphone contains contact numbers of many other outlaws, police said.
"Well, Shafiqul! What have we here?"
"Ummm... Gee, officer! I dunno none o' them guyz!"
Police could not arrest Shohag up to 4:30pm yesterday.
That's assuming Shohag exists, of course...
Following the threat, KMP police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have been asked to remain on high alert. The law enforcers are also raiding different areas in the city to nab the criminals.
New sign at the entrance to town: "Welcome to Khulna! Duck!"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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The JMB suicide bomber killed in the November 29 bombing on Gazipur Bar Association office premises has been identified by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as Asadul Islam, 19, of Gaibandha. Seven persons including lawyers Amjad Hossain and Golam Faruk were killed on the spot 60 people were injured in the bombing.
Gaibandha police confirmed Asadul's identity yesterday, about four months after the carnage. Asadul who used four nicknames as Zafar, Nasir, Jahid and Ziaur hailed from Tindaha village in Ramchandrapur union in Gaibandha Sadar Upazila. His identity has been confirmed after interrogating some JMB (Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) cadres and his parents, police said.
During investigation, Asadul's father bicycle mechanic Abdur Rahim and mother Ayatunessa and relatives identified his photograph. Police also recovered copies of JMB monthly journal Al-Magazi, other papers and Jihadi (militancy) books from the house of Asadul. Quoting family sources, police said Asadul read up to class eight at Trimohoni High School and later went to Bogra for studying in a madrasa. Since than, he did not keep any contact with the family. CID investigation officer Shamol Kumar during investigation quizzed Adnan alias Abbas, arrested 'regional commander' of JMB for Bogra and Joypurhat districts. Adnan unidentified that the Gazipur suicide bomber was Asadul Islam. Asadul was assigned to do the suicide bombing by JMB chief Shahikh Abdur Rahman through two 'regional commanders' Adnan and Reaz, both now in custody, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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Suicide boomer's final comment: That's me all over.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/26/2006 0:07 Comments ||
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"Adnan unidentified that the Gazipur suicide bomber was Asadul Islam."
That's pretty certain that one of the four alias' was him.
The intelligence officials enquiring into militancy and bomb attacks suspect that militant groups other than Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) might have been behind some major bomb attacks since 1999. JMB top brass Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai, Ataur Rahman Sunny and others have admitted to carrying out all the blasts since August 17 last year, attacks on writer Humayun Azad and Prof Yunus in Rajshahi, blasts at cinemas in Mymensingh, circus and cinema in Satkhira and Failya Paglar Majar in Tangail, said sources.
But the investigators have yet to extract information from them about the groups and persons responsible for the other major attacks that include the blasts in 1999 at Udichi conference in Jessore, Ahmadiyya mosque in Khulna, and in 2001, Pahela Boishakh celebration at Ramna Batamul, CPB conference at Paltan, Awami League (AL) leader Shamim Osman's meeting in Narayanganj, AL leader Sheikh Helal's meeting in Mollahat upazila of Bagerhat and Baniachang church in Gopalganj. They have not got clues also to Sylhet cinema blast in 2004, and the poisoning of fish at a Sylhet shrine in 2003 and at a Chittagong shrine in 2004. No groups have claimed responsibility for any of those attacks.
Other militant groups including now banned Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJi) that were active in the late 90s might have had hands in the attacks and their role needs to be investigated, an intelligence official told The Daily Star, seeking anonymity. Mufti Hannan, the detained operations commander of HuJi, has only admitted planting the 86kg bomb at the meeting venue of the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina at Kotalipara in Gopalganj. Another investigator said the HuJi might also have had roles in some other bomb attacks and stressed the need for taking Hannan into further remand for interrogation in this regard. "He may hold some significant clues to those incidents even if he maintains that his group did not make those attacks," said a well-placed source.
Sources, meantime, yesterday said the JMB kingpins have admitted in last two days to their involvement in slaughtering five people at the shrine of Khwaja Abdul Gafur Chisti at Begungram village in Kalai upazila of Joypurhat on January 20, 2003 and the attempt on life of AL leader Tarapada Poddar at Mollahat in Bagerhat on August 16, 2002. Earlier some investigators had told the media that they would be able to unravel all the mystery behind the blasts and other militant attacks since 1999 once JMB chief Abdur Rahman and his deputy Bangla Bhai are rounded up. But the JMB heavyweights are yet to provide information about their links with the other attacks. "It seems likely other militant groups might be responsible for the attacks that took place before August 17 last year," said an intelligence official.
The source, however, said different groups were behind the attacks made with grenades. "The bomber groups and the grenade attackers are not the same," he added. Grenades were used in attacks on British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury at Shahjalal Shrine in Sylhet, Sheikh Hasina's rally at Bangabandhu Avenue, Sylhet Mayor Badruddin Ahmed Kamran and Urs again at the Shahjalal Shrine.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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For almost two years, intelligence services around the world tried to uncover the identity of an Internet hacker who had become a key conduit for al-Qaeda. The savvy, English-speaking, presumably young webmaster taunted his pursuers, calling himself Irhabi -- Terrorist -- 007. He hacked into American university computers, propagandized for the Iraq insurgents led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and taught other online jihadists how to wield their computers for the cause.
Suddenly last fall, Irhabi 007 disappeared from the message boards. The postings ended after Scotland Yard arrested a 22-year-old West Londoner, Younis Tsouli, suspected of participating in an alleged bomb plot. In November, British authorities brought a range of charges against him related to that plot. Only later, according to our sources familiar with the British probe, was Tsouli's other suspected identity revealed. British investigators eventually confirmed to us that they believe he is Irhabi 007.
The unwitting end of the hunt comes at a time when al-Qaeda sympathizers like Irhabi 007 are making explosive new use of the Internet. Countless Web sites and password-protected forums -- most of which have sprung up in the last several years -- now cater to would-be jihadists like Irhabi 007. The terrorists who congregate in those cybercommunities are rapidly becoming skilled in hacking, programming, executing online attacks and mastering digital and media design -- and Irhabi was a master of all those arts.
But the manner of his arrest demonstrates how challenging it is to combat such online activities and to prevent others from following Irhabi's example: After pursuing an investigation into a European terrorism suspect, British investigators raided Tsouli's house, where they found stolen credit card information, according to an American source familiar with the probe. Looking further, they found that the cards were used to pay American Internet providers on whose servers he had posted jihadi propaganda. Only then did investigators come to believe that they had netted the infamous hacker. And that element of luck is a problem. The Internet has presented investigators with an extraordinary challenge. But our future security is going to depend increasingly on identifying and catching the shadowy figures who exist primarily in the elusive online world.
The short career of Irhabi 007 offers a case study in the evolving nature of the threat that we at the SITE Institute track every day by monitoring and then joining the password-protected forums and communicating with the online jihadi community. Celebrated for his computer expertise, Irhabi 007 had propelled the jihadists into a 21st-century offensive through his ability to covertly and securely disseminate manuals of weaponry, videos of insurgent feats such as beheadings and other inflammatory material. It is by analyzing the trail of information left by such postings that we are able to distinguish the patterns of communication used by individual terrorists.
Irhabi's success stemmed from a combination of skill and timing. In early 2004, he joined the password-protected message forum known as Muntada al-Ansar al-Islami (Islam Supporters Forum) and, soon after, al-Ekhlas (Sincerity) -- two of the password-protected forums with thousands of members that al-Qaeda had been using for military instructions, propaganda and recruitment. (These two forums have since been taken down.) This was around the time that Zarqawi began using the Internet as his primary means of disseminating propaganda for his insurgency in Iraq. Zarqawi needed computer-savvy associates, and Irhabi proved to be a standout among the volunteers, many of whom were based in Europe.
Irhabi's central role became apparent to outsiders in April of that year, when Zarqawi's group, later renamed al-Qaeda in Iraq, began releasing its communiqués through its official spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, on the Ansar forum. In his first posting, al-Iraqi wrote in Arabic about "the good news" that "a group of proud and brave men" intended to "strike the economic interests of the countries of blasphemy and atheism, that came to raise the banner of the Cross in the country of the Muslims."
At the time, some doubted that posting's authenticity, but Irhabi, who was the first to post a response, offered words of support. Before long, al-Iraqi answered in like fashion, establishing their relationship -- and Irhabi's central role.
Over the following year and a half, Irhabi established himself as the top jihadi expert on all things Internet-related. He became a very active member of many jihadi forums in Arabic and English. He worked on both defeating and enhancing online security, linking to multimedia and providing online seminars on the use of the Internet. He seemed to be online night and day, ready to answer questions about how to post a video, for example -- and often willing to take over and do the posting himself. Irhabi focused on hacking into Web sites as well as educating Internet surfers in the secrets to anonymous browsing.
In one instance, Irhabi posted a 20-page message titled "Seminar on Hacking Websites," to the Ekhlas forum. It provided detailed information on the art of hacking, listing dozens of vulnerable Web sites to which one could upload shared media. Irhabi used this strategy himself, uploading data to a Web site run by the state of Arkansas, and then to another run by George Washington University. This stunt led many experts to believe -- erroneously -- that Irhabi was based in the United States.
Irhabi used countless other Web sites as free hosts for material that the jihadists needed to upload and share. In addition to these sites, Irhabi provided techniques for discovering server vulnerabilities, in the event that his suggested sites became secure. In this way, jihadists could use third-party hosts to disseminate propaganda so that they did not have to risk using their own web space and, more importantly, their own money.
As he provided seemingly limitless space captured from vulnerable servers throughout the Internet, Irhabi was celebrated by his online followers. A mark of that appreciation was the following memorandum of praise offered by a member of Ansar in August 2004:
"To Our Brother Irhabi 007. Our brother Irhabi 007, you have shown very good efforts in serving this message board, as I can see, and in serving jihad for the sake of God. By God, we do not like to hear what hurts you, so we ask God to keep you in his care.
You are one of the top people who care about serving your brothers. May God add all of that on the side of your good work, and may you go careful and successful.
We say carry on with God's blessing.
Carry on, may God protect you.
Carry on serving jihad and its supporters.
And I ask the mighty, gracious and merciful God to keep for us everyone who wants to support his faith.
Amen."
Irhabi's hacking ability was useful not only in the exchange of media, but also in the distribution of large-scale al-Qaeda productions. In one instance, a film produced by Zarqawi's al-Qaeda, titled "All Is for Allah's Religion," was distributed from a page at www.alaflam.net/wdkl .
The links, uploaded in June 2005, provided numerous outlets where visitors could find the video. In the event that one of the sites was disabled, many other sources were available as backups. Several were based on domains such as www.irhabi007.ca or www.irhabi007.tv , indicating a strong involvement by Irhabi himself. The film, a major release by al-Qaeda in Iraq, showed many of the insurgents' recent exploits compiled with footage of Osama bin Laden, commentary on the Abu Ghraib prison, and political statements about the rule of then-Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Tsouli has been charged with eight offenses including conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion, conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, conspiracy to obtain money by deception and offences relating to the possession of articles for terrorist purposes and fundraising. So far there are no charges directly related to his alleged activities as Irhabi on the Internet, but given the charges already mounted against him, it will probably be a long time before the 22-year-old is able to go online again.
But Irhabi's absence from the Internet may not be as noticeable as many hope. Indeed, the hacker had anticipated his own disappearance. In the months beforehand, Irhabi released his will on the Internet. In it, he provided links to help visitors with their own Internet security and hacking skills in the event of his absence -- a rubric for jihadists seeking the means to continue to serve their nefarious ends. Irhabi may have been caught, but his online legacy may be the creation of many thousands of 007s.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2006 02:47 ||
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#1
It makes so little sense to pay half a trillion dollars to fight counter-terror, while we indulge terror recruitment in our own backyard. The UK website operator could have reported the hacker-terrorist's PC identity at any time but chose to conceal same. Why? Because the leaders of Western Civilization believe they are upholding some peculiar notion of integral values, by facilitating terror speech. Jihadis need to be arrested on the slightest pretext - including simple verbal advocacy - and self-proclaimed civil-rights groups like CAIR and the ISNA, must be treated as the criminal organizations that they are. CAIR spokesmen claim to oppose terror, against which they take no initiative, while they wage knee-jerk assaults on every single counter-terror action. George Orwell would have fits if he saw how our depraved generation subsidizes terror while fighting terror. The air of irresolution that encompasses our use of force debates, could be cut with a knife.
#7
Churchill's Parrot:
NewSpeak indoctrination would disable comprehension of the following: it is unconscionable to fight terrorists and breed them at the same time. Sue your college for non-performance.
#8
Try harder. The e-jihadists are having a big laugh reading this website. If the front line of the Western civilization is represented by you guys at Rantburg and you "civil","well-reasoned" solutions, these are really dire times.
Crackpots.
Posted by: Now You Will Call Me Eurabian ||
03/26/2006 17:53 Comments ||
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#9
"Crackpots"
As opposed to your smoking pot, EUnich Eurojerk?
Welcome to Rantburg. Come for the info, stay for the insults. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/26/2006 18:23 Comments ||
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#10
Pops in at the Rantburg Bus Station and thinks he knows the whole town.
You're not "Eurabian", you're a troll. And an idiot, of course.
We need a cop on the beat to, well, beat this troll and put him on the next bus. A short one would be most suitable.
#12
The secular left would be the first to die under a global Khalif. Check out the website of this Nazi-to-Muslim convert: http://www.dwmyatt.info/conversionsite.html
These sick f#@&$ belong in Gitmo. If any moonbat wants to jump off a bridge, I will give him the taxi fare to get there.
The Chechen Interior Ministry has categorically denied reports by a number of media outlets alleging that dozens of local police officers have defected to illegal armed units.
"An analysis of these reports shows that certain media outlets inspired have in fact launched a provocative ideological campaign against Chechnya's law enforcement agencies," Chechen Interior Ministry press secretary Ruslan Atsayev told Interfax on Saturday.
"Not a single instance of treachery by Chechen law enforcement officers, not a single instance of defection to illegal armed groups has been recorded in the past year," Atsayev said.
During the past week a number of media outlets have published "fictional reports claiming that over forty armed policemen defected to militant groups in the Vedeno district," he said.
"We would like to know the names of these people, as the entire personnel of the Vedeno district police department are accounted for and are performing their duties," Atsayev said.
"Speculation that an operation in the mountains was designed to catch the deserters are also unfounded," he said.
"This operation is preventative in nature and is designed to uncover militant bases, hideouts and weapons caches an the operatives engaged in the operation are looking for Basayev, Umarov, Khalilov and other leaders of militant groups," Atsayev said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2006 02:57 ||
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Imam Ahmed Akkari has issued death threats against Naser Khader of the Social Liberals. Naser Khader founded the organisation Democratic Moslems in February, as an organisation for moderate, Democracy-minded Moslems to join. See this article for biography and background on the enmity between Naser Khader and the Imams in Denmark.
Today Jyllands-Posten reports that Imam Ahmed Akkari was recorded on a hidden camera by journalist Mohamed Sifaoui of the French TV-Station France 2 which will show a documentary tonight detailing the doings of the Danish Imams. The documentary also reveals that the Danish Imams have been using the affair as a lever to go against their political opponents in Denmark.
Ahmed Akkari is quoted as saying:
If [Naser Khader] becomes the Minister of Foreigners or Integration, why dont we send out two guys to blow up him and his ministry?
The Danish reaction to this has been consternation and revulsion.
Peter Skaarup of the Danish Peoples Party:
Its pure threats and it only goes to show how crazy these Imams have been acting. I will at once ask the Minister what punishment can be given for making such statements and whether it is a punishable offense
Jens Rohde of the Liberals:
This is certainly very disturbing and it shows what were up against. Thats also why I am worried about what is happening at that conference in Bahrain which Ahmed Akkari is a delegate to
John Jay Ray at Agora is all over this story. A second story is breaking here as well: Danish imam Abu Laban apparently knew about a planned Martyr action on February 21st. Danish political leaders are not happy.
A WOMAN allegedly conspired to bomb a Sydney location using deadly explosives, a Sydney court has heard.
Jill Courtney, 26, a Muslim convert, was arrested in a joint NSW and Australian Federal Police counter-terrorist operation on Friday.
She appeared in Parramatta Local Court yesterday charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiring to plant explosives in or near a building, vehicle or public place.
The court was told both conspiracies are alleged to have occurred between July last year and last Friday.
Police will allege Courtney had a relationship with convicted killer Hussan Kalache and agreed to the bomb plot at his request.
Kalache allegedly told Courtney he was angry over the Cronulla riots and if she carried out her mission to bomb a public place in Sydney, he would marry her.
No target had been selected for the attack and no explosives had been obtained.
Kalache is serving a 22-year sentence for the shooting murder of a rival drug dealer in 2002. It is understood Courtney first met him during a jail visit and has been a regular visitor since.
Police will also allege Courtney, who faces court tomorrow, had accessed material on how to carry out the attack.
Her lawyer, Adam Houda, told the court his client needed psychiatric treatment and did not apply for bail.
He asked the court to ensure she was assessed by a psychiatrist while in custody.
Courtney was charged on Friday night after Federal and State Police swooped on two properties at Casula and Hoxton Park, in Sydney's south-west.
A neighbour, Elaine Smith, 71, said she was shocked when dozens of police and forensic officers descended on the sleepy Casula estate.
"It was incredible there were just so many of them I thought it might have been a drug raid," she said.
Ms Smith said Ms Courtney lived with her father, John, whom she described as "a lovely man".
She said she often saw Ms Courtney coming and going, sometimes dressed in traditional Muslim outfits and sometimes in Western clothes.
"I hadn't seen her for about two months, until police came to take her away (on Friday).
"When they brought her back a few hours later, I thought all of it had been a misunderstanding.
"But then they took away boxes and computers and I heard someone say they would check her bed."
It is the first major arrest by counter-terrorist police since 18 men were arrested in simultaneous raids in Sydney and Melbourne in November.
#1
Damn, guess the unholy nuptials are off! Sure hope I can return the electric skillet....
Is is just me, or are more and more of these "converts" keeping their names instead of changing them to things like Fatima al-Boomeri? They've long recruited in prisons, are they going to psych wards now, too?
#2
It was for something, all right - but not love.
Here's a clue, loser: If you have so little respect and regard for yourself that you have to take up with a clown like this to feel "loved," just kill yourself and leave everyone else out of it.
Wotta useless, pathetic maroon.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/26/2006 12:43 Comments ||
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An Australian woman charged at the weekend with plotting to bomb Sydney was a convert to Islam who planned the attack at the behest of a jailed murderer angered over anti-Muslim race riots here late last year, newspapers reported on Sunday.
Jill Courtney, 26, was arrested at her suburban Sydney home on Friday in a swoop by federal and local police operating under anti-terrorism laws.
She was charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosives to be placed in or near a public place.
The court granted a request by Courtney's lawyer that the woman be assessed by a psychiatrist.
Police were not required to detail the allegations against Courtney during a brief court hearing on Saturday, but Sunday newspapers quoted police sources saying they believed she was acting out of love for a jailed murderer, Hassan Kalache.
Kalache, 28, is serving a 22-year sentence for killing a rival drug dealer in 2002 and allegedly told Courtney he was angry over race riots in Sydney last December and that he would marry her if she carried out a retaliatory bombing, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
A police detective told the Sun Herald newspaper Courtney converted to Islam after becoming "besotted" with Kalache. "It's a pretty sad case, she's a bit of a candle in the wind," he was quoted as saying.
Courtney was due to appear in court again on Monday.
Last year's riots began when a white mob shouting racist chants assaulted people of Middle Eastern appearance in the blue collar beachside suburb of Cronulla.
The riot prompted a wave of retaliatory attacks, mainly by ethnic-Lebanese men, in which churches, shops and cars were trashed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2006 02:34 ||
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RAIPUR: Eleven people were killed and four wounded when Maoists detonated a landmine under a vehicle in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police said on Saturday. The incident took place late on Friday in the Bastar region, about 250 km (150 miles) south of the state capital Raipur, senior police officer Pradeep Gupta told Reuters.
He said the Maoists probably mistook the vehicle for a police jeep. "The Maoists exploded a jeep carrying 15 people around 9 pm (1530 GMT Friday)," Gupta said. "Six died on the spot while five succumbed to their injuries on Saturday morning in a hospital."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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MIRANSHAH: Suspected militants ambushed vehicles carrying police officers in a remote northwestern region of Pakistan near the Afghan border on Saturday, injuring four of them, a security official said. The attack happened on a road between Mir Ali and Miran Shah in the North Waziristan tribal region, a day after the military said it had killed between 15 to 20 militants. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the injured officers had been transported to a hospital, where two of them were in critical condition.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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President General Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday his government has introduced "real democracy" in Pakistan by empowering people politically and economically.
I'm a really slender young guy, with a head full of wavy blond hair. I can touch my toes without anything breaking, too...
"Democracy essentially means empowerment of people, progress of the county and freedom of expression... What else does democracy mean?" the president said at public gathering after he inaugurated a one-kilometre bridge linking the tehsils of Jhelum and Pind Dadan Khan.
Individual liberty? Freedom from being bossed around by any holy man who decides you're not hairy enough? The freedom to become a Unitarian?
or even (gasp) an unveiled femalian????
When was the last time anybody in Pakland saw a titty?
It was Monday last, when Mahmoud and Chaudry sneaked into a Bollywood double-feature in Lahore's low rent district. The movie was barely into the first big dance number when Mahmoud and Chaudry were set upon by djinns, and had to leave to go make wudu. By the time both of them completed ghusl, the djinns had gone, but when they went back to their seats, the djinns were waiting for them again.
"The local government system has taken root with the completion of the first term, the Senate elections have taken place and the next general elections will be held in 2007 on completion of the assemblies' five-year term," he said, adding that this would be the first time that the assemblies have completed their five-year term. Having achieved economic stability, Musharraf said, the government is now focusing on reducing reduction, creating employment and controlling inflation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
In your dreams Pakman
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/26/2006 0:10 Comments ||
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There is any thing but the democracy in Pakistan. Any rational reasoning that favored support of Pakistan could be attributed to the false concept that Pakistan is fighting against the terrorism. Pakistan will be the damn stupid to give up the state sponsored terrorism in Kashmir and in Afghanistan. I do not understand why our own US government is too eager to kiss the ass of Pakistan when the majority of the Pakistanies in USA were too happy to see the destruction of USA on 9-11. If you can think straight, Pakistan has to be a target of the nuclear inhalation by US and the West. Folks I am too old but my USA citizenship allows me to bear arms. I will waste no time to come out with my bare chest and blazing guns to protect my grand daughter from the stupid Islamic laws. I hope you do the same. I trust that the love to your grand daughters could never be less than mine.
#4
The Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal, which holds or shares power in 2 Paki provinces, participates in democratic elections with the caveat: only the Muslim deity ("allah") has sovereign power to make laws. The constitution of the Islamic Republic contains a provision which obliges non-god, law makers to conform legislation to the "injunctions of allah." Mushy couldn't outlaw jihad or implement true popular sovereignty even if he wanted to.
What about Paki support for counter-terror in Afghanistan? That's the punchline of a sick joke. Post 9-11, I would have given the Russians a free hand in Chechnya including support for hot-pursuit cross-border raids, with the quid pro quo being: Russian support for US Air Force basing in at least one of the former Soviet republics. Then I would have hit Pashto sections of the Taliban/al-Qaeda terror entity with heavy bombers, 24-7. By then region-oriented Norther Alliance forces would have established semi-sovereign warlord areas, and given anti-Taliban elements freedom of exercise against the terrorists. Mined no go zones would have been established along the border with the Pakistan terrorist entity, backed by napalm armed fighters. As for Pakistan, which was under US sanctions on 9-11 and under crippling debt, it would have collapsed under Sindh separation forces. Seculars would blame those fat Jamaat-i-Islami pigs for the partition, and a secular republic would have been established in the Punjab. By that time US would have turkey-shoot privileges in Peshawar and in Waziristan. A pro-west regime would have soon formed in the remnants of Pakistan. What have we got now? A US welfare dependency that takes US aid as a jihad subsidy, and delivers zero security to Americans. Even the occasional Paki arrest of a nominal senior terrorists, begs the argument that al-Qaeda has no command structure, and was always little more than an ideological "base" of Salifist terror.
Why the Monday morning quarter-backing? A second look at what we have, might cause us to end the farcical perma-war in Afghanistan. It has been repeatedly proven that Muslim terrorists will get and receive popular support, except where retalation against same is disproportionate. A neighborhood whose residents did nothing to prevent planting of IEDs should be punished by 500 pounder drops on the terror spot. That can't happen until the reason dictates that Muslims do not - and cannot want - the same freedoms that Westerners want. Their Koran labels them "slaves of allah" and that is all they can be. And if allah's clerics wants nuclear-jihad, then that is exactly what our subsidized Muslim enemy will deliver if the current madness continues.
People, you need to get hostile when you hear 20 year No-Win predictions. On 9-11, we were delivered a pretext to win a victory over the terrorists; post 9-11 we snatched defeat from the arms of that essential victory. Some of you think you are defending the fighters, by defending this mis-handled war. You are not. You are endorsing unnecessary holes in family trees.
#5
Pakistan may not be a democracy and may not be free, but when one considers who Musharraf's main opponents are one tends to conclude that what the Pakis have right now is as close as they are likely to get to freedom and democracy for the forseeable future.
#7
Why does anyone give press to this man's ravings anymore? 1/3 of his country isn't even under his rule. The "lawless frontiers". The country's a joke. And Perv's an ass.
#8
Thinemp Whimble2412:
Only the Punjabi majority accept a Pakistan identity. Otherwise there are: Pashtos, Sindhis (2nd largest group; Sindh is an MQM - pro-US - hotbed), Balochis, Waziris, and a couple of other groups. Afghanistan's President is a Pashto, which makes him a one of the worst Arab wannabes in the world. Taliban was the wannabe wing of Arab supremacist Al-Qaeda. Balochis and Sindhis deserve our sympathy and support; the rest can go to hell.
Re. my pessimistic post above, remember: there are 140,000 US troops near the Iran border (plus 8000 UK troops). That is a cause for optimism that I should have mentioned.
Check out this Hindu nationalist post, on the Balochi Partition movement. Biased? Hell yes!
#9
his government has introduced "real democracy" in Pakistan by empowering people politically and economically.
I'm confused. Didn't Ghadaffi just inform us that Lybia was "the only true democracy in the world" since "everything [in Lybia] is open to discussion"?
ISLAMABAD: Security was tightened around a five-star hotel on Saturday after the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) threatened to attack it in retaliation to the ongoing "military operation" in Balochistan. Police sources said an unidentified person called the Marriott Hotel management, threatening that the BLA would attack the hotel. The hotel management informed the police of the threat. SHO Secretariat police confirmed that the hotel security had been beefed up.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Five-star hotel in PakiWakiLand? Must have running water and a pot to shit in.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/26/2006 0:12 Comments ||
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Nope. No running water. But two pots and complimentary "DaisyFresh" Pot-pourris.
Pakistani Police Saturday arrested nearly 60 tribesmen suspected of involvement in attacks on security forces and government installations in Balochistan, police said. The police detained some 57 suspects including 24 arrested in a raid on a camp run by rebels from the Marri tribe near the provincial capital Quetta, city police officer Mujibur Rehman said. The 33 other men were picked up during raids at different neighbourhoods just outside Quetta, Rehman said. On Friday two people were killed when their motorbike struck a landmine, which authorities said was planted by insurgents near the town of Sui, 280 kilometres southeast of Quetta. Also on Friday rebels fired several rockets at security forces deployed in the town of Loti near Dera Bugti, without causing any casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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Extremists know extremism will hurt
Columnist Nazeer Naji wrote in Jang that Muslim extremists all over the Islamic world were aware that if they succeeded, then religious extremists will come to power in many Muslim states and will soon begin to damage the country they are ruling while damaging the economic and social fibre of their societies with their extremist programmes. While the religious parties hurt their own populations, the West will still get away with achieving its objectives. The Islamist governments will provide the West with a new enemy and will promote the idea of the clash of civilisations. But they will clash with themselves on the question of doctrine and buy weapons from the West to fight with one another, thus squandering their scarce resources.
This Nazeer Naji should get a blog. He should also get out of Pakistan. He can see clearly and isn't afraid to write what he sees.
Why army got rid of Bhutto
Ex-speaker of the National Assembly and PPP leader Sahibzada Farooq Ali Khan wrote in the daily Pakistan that the army generals got rid of Bhutto because he kept repeating his resolve publicly to settle old scores with India and avenge the defeat of 1970. He said it on coming to power in a public meeting in Rawalpindi. In his last address to the National Assembly, Bhutto once again said that he wanted to do two things before going: to make the atom bomb and seek revenge against India. The generals were upset that he might start another war with India and toppled him.
Taliban in Tank
As reported in Naya Zamana (March 2006), the city Tank in DI Khan was half in control of the Taliban because of its close proximity to South Waziristan where the army was playing a dubious role. Foreigners and local Taliban have made the Christian missionaries run away and closed down all the music shops. Beardless men are stopped and warned and women are not allowed out without veil. Men of free thinking are being murdered. Qari Khaleel Ahmad is preparing more Taliban in his madrassa and teaching the population that Islam without jihad is not sustainable. He had put a price on the head of General Musharraf but was let off after he came on TV and praised him. The Taliban of Tank attacked a meeting singing mystical poetry. The intellectual of the area Jamshed Nayab was target-killed on 30 January, 2006, after he was told that an Islamic court of Tank had sentenced him to death. Jamshed was the author of 16 books.
The thoughtful pigeons of Kaaba
Columnist Irfan Siddiqi wrote in the Nawa-e-Waqt that when he went to Makka just after hajj, he saw a strange spectacle. During hajj, the pigeons of Kaaba had simply vanished as if to spare all the space for devoted Muslims. But after the season of hajj was over, the pigeons were back in Makkah. This was indeed a miracle!
Quranising the sciences!
Writing in Jang Khursheed Nadeem stated that the Higher Education Commission in its latest budget had set aside half a billion rupees for a project to Quranise the science courses at the level of MSc. He asserted that such a project was meaningless as trying to insert religion into neutral subjects like chemistry was meaningless. It was beyond ones comprehension how the MSc courses could be Quranised!
Cartoons and trade
Columnist Nazeer Naji wrote in Jang that the insulting cartoons had been published in 66 countries by 143 newspapers; and the offending countries included Algeria, Bosnia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Morocco. The demand in Pakistan was that Pakistan break diplomatic relations with all these countries. The country was poised to speak to President Bush about giving it a better trade deal and it was possible this could happen but not if Islamabad were to snap relations with Washington.
Edhi refuses money for mosque
Reported in Khabrain, Pakistans foremost philanthropist Abdus Sattar Edhi refused to accept Rs 2.10 crore for the building of a mosque inside Edhi centre in Karachi. The money was offered by a gentleman from Islamabad. Edhi told him that he was not in favour of building mosques with public welfare money as mosques inclined people to fight on the basis of quarrels started by the clergy. The donor from Islamabad agreed, on which Edhi gave him the account number of his Foundation.
Imam Taqi and Imam Askari tombs destroyed by America!
Reported in Jang, the Imamia Student Organisation took out a rally in Islampura, Lahore, protesting the destruction of the mausoleums of Imam Askari and Imam Taqi in Iraq. Leader Mubarak Ali Musawi said that the desecration in Samarra was not a result of Shia-Sunni conflict in Iraq but was the plot of America and its agents. In a conference the same day, a group of Shia leaders made speeches that the tombs were actually destroyed by America and Israel, as stated by Iranian president Ahmadinejad earlier.
Asad Yuldashev killed in South Waziristan
According to Khabrain, Pakistans military attack on Sadgai Danday accounted for Uzbek terrorist commander Asad Yuldashev who also happened to be a relative of Tahir Yuldashev who is heading the Al Qaeda in the region. Also killed was an unnamed Chechen commander along with his guards. Al Qaeda hit back by attacking the headquarters in Miranshah.
India Today insults Kaaba
According to the daily Pakistan riots broke out all over Held Kashmir when India Today magazine allegedly printed photographs of the Holy Kaaba which the Kashmiri Muslims found insulting. In Srinagar and Baramula, shops were closed and some buildings were set on fire; the police was beaten up and rioters too were wounded. Copies of the magazine were also burned in large numbers.
Bush the Muslim-Kush
Sarerahe wrote in the Nawa-e-Waqt that President Bush had brought 65 specially trained dogs to India and Pakistan to keep himself safe. The dogs were obviously protectors of Bush the Muslim Kush (Muslim-killer) and were all thirsty for Muslim blood and were sniffing around for Muslims to kill. But when the people of the Islamic world came to power no dogs would be able to save Bush.
If Dubya ever decides he needs one of those swanky sashes all the other beauty queens wear at state dinners, "Bush the Muslim-Kush" would be a swell slogan.
Abdali and Ghauri spread Islams fear
Daily Pakistan editorialised that Afghanistans objection to Pakistan naming its missiles with Afghan names was absurd. Abdali and Ghauri were war Islamic warriors and they did not belong to Afghanistan. They were heroes of Islam who spread the fear (dhaak) of Islam in India. Pakistans nuclear delivery system was therefore correctly named.
Cursed Danish tubewells break down
According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, a curse fell on Denmark when its tubewells, bought by WASA, Lahore, broke down within one year of their operation. Costing Rs 2.25 crores, 22 high-speed tubewells were to last more than two years but lasted only weeks.
Lahores processionists turned out to be criminals
According to the daily Din, many youths captured during the 14 February rally in Lahore turned out to be criminals with records in many police stations of Lahore. They were either under trial or on bail or had been convicted earlier. Many of them were former members of jihadi militias too.
Gilgit belongs to whom?
Writing in the Jang magazine, Akbar Shah stated that in 1993, the Azad Kashmir high court ruled that the Northern Areas belonged to Azad Kashmir but the supreme court in AJ&K said that it was not a part of Kashmir; but when the case went in appeal to another bench it was decided that Northern Areas were indeed a part of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Today, the Northern Areas are run by the federal government, not AJK.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The dogs were obviously protectors of Bush the Muslim Kush.. The Arabic term, "kush" is frequently used to mean: slaughter. For example, a mountain range across Afghanistan and Pakistan was named "Hindu Kush" (Slaughter of Hindus) in memory of the genocidal aggressors who murdered 100,000,000 Hindus during the Muslim invasions of greater India. If the Brits hadn't deliberately used mostly Muslim officers during the Raj, it is doubtful that Muslims would ever have had the numbers to form their own state. The Reconquista like mass reversion to Hinduism in the 18th and 19th centuries, would have smothered the Arabist' slaves-of-allah.
Pardon the tangent, but similarly, post independence, Nigerians suffered 60% Muslim participation in the armed forces, while they formed less than 40% of the population. They used that majority to engineer 350,000 forced conversions of Christians from independence to 1965. The Christian reaction led to the Biafran (Christian) Secession War. The UK supported the Muslim dominated central state, while the US favored the Christians. Now both slavishly jump hoops for the mortal Muslim enemy.
#2
But after the season of hajj was over, the pigeons were back in Makkah. This was indeed a miracle!
No big deal, pigeons are noted for sensitive noses.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency on Saturday called for the reform and expansion of the UN Security Council, saying its engagement in maintaining world peace and security is often inadequate, selective or after the fact.
... and it was originally designed to be that way...
Mohamed ElBaradei said the Security Councils efforts to control arms have not been systematic or successful in the case of Iraq, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. When dealing with threats of nuclear proliferation and arms control, the Security Council has too often fallen short. It has made little effort to address nuclear proliferation in context, said ElBaradei, head of the Vienna, Austria-based International Agency for Atomic Energy. It has not responded or followed up effectively to the emergence of new countries with nuclear weapons. It is clearly time for the Security Council to be reformed, expanded and strengthened, he said in a speech.
The UNSC is rendered ineffective because of the veto power retained by the major powers. None is going to give it up, because they don't want their interests threatened, which would happen regularly given a simple majority rule. Adding numbers does nothing to make the council more effective. All the non-veto members are mere window dressing, for one thing. For another thing, adding members to a committe has the net effect of lowering its effectiveness. See Parkinson, C. Northcote, just about anything he ever wrote. The man was a saint.
He also said: the case of Darfur ... continues to suffer from the inability of the Security Council to muster sufficient peacekeeping troops. ElBaradei noted that in the civil war in Rwanda in 1994, the Security Council was unable to move much beyond hand-wringing, with the result that 800,000 people lost their lives in the span of a few months.
In virtually every crisis the League of Nations UN as a whole has been unable to move much beyond hand-wringing. That's why it should be abolished and replaced with a series of regional alliances.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Given the Kofi succession plan, El Baradei must be the next incompetent in line for the job.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/26/2006 0:18 Comments ||
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#2
When I was Manager of a completely dysfunctional Department, known mainly as a serious drain on the company, I always found it effective to lecture the Board, too.
#3
Great observation about Parkenson's Law, Fred. I learned about it when I was a kid. It's a fundamental law of the Universe. And when committees get to 21 members, the committee is doomed, doomed, I tell ya, doomed!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2006 1:31 Comments ||
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#4
Paul, No that's the Peter Principle, i.e. rising to the level of one's incompetence.
Parkinson's Law says that the capacity of a system (think computer memory or hard drive capacity, for example) will be overloaded by growing demand which was enabled by the increased capcity and that the capcity will need increasing which leads to a new cycle of overloading, etc.
#5
Mohamed ElBaradei said the Security Councils efforts to control arms have not been systematic or successful in the case of Iraq, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but some of those aren't signatories to the NPT.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/26/2006 12:00 Comments ||
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#6
Was Parkinsons Law first applied to office opace, closet space or static memory?
#7
Actually, it was to the British Colonial Office, which had a small number of people and many colonies in 1850, and a large number of employees for a much smaller number of colonies in 1950.
Parkinson pointed out the tendency of organizations to grow at a rate that's totally divorced from the actual amount of work done.
One of his corollaries was that small committees are more effective than large ones (take the total IQ of a committee, divide by membership, and the average IQ drifts closer and closer to average or even subnormal, a kind of reversal of synergy -- Pruitt's corollary to Parkinson's corollary. I believe you can also subtract a set number of IQ points for each member over a dozen to get the exact figure...) These committees, including the cabinet, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the UN, and the boards of major corporations, tend naturally to become larger, both through the addition of members and through the expansion of member's staffs, which gets them prestige points whether productivity increases or not.
The Peter Principle (people rise to their level of incompetence) came several years after Parkinson.
I love management theory. If you can pick up a copy of In Search of Excellence, do so, and read it from cover to cover. Virtually all the examples of effective companies used in the middle 80s (Fluor, People Express, Delta) are now out of business or also-rans, with the single exception of IBM, which ain't what it used to be.
What would we do without experts?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 19:45 Comments ||
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#10
El Baradei has gone FAR BEYOND THE SCOPE of the Peter Principle. We need some kind of equivalent of the Unified Field Theory to explain the UN and the IAEA.
Maybe I will contact the Rantburg RAND Corporation tomorrow morning and we can slap a study on it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2006 23:23 Comments ||
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Iraqi police say Sadrs militiamen tried to stop US troops from entering the Mustafa Mosque to make arrests. Witnesses say the dead were unarmed worshippers. The US military has not commented on that incident. At the same time American sources report US troops arrested in Baghdad Iraqi soldiers holding 40 hostages. No details provided of this incident.
In the Mull Eed village near Baquba, 30 mostly headless bodies were found on the main street, many of them shot. Another 13 bodies were found earlier Sunday in Baghdad. These episodes fit with the sectarian violence raging in Iraq since last months blast at the Shiite Golden Dome mosque in Samarrah.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/26/2006 14:31 ||
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#1
Arabs invented the zero to explain Mullah Mookies I.Q.
#3
Looks like collaborative reporting from a different source:
US troops today arrested at least 40 Iraqi Interior Ministry forces who were holding 17 foreigners in a secret bunker complex, political sources said.
A Reuters reporter who approached the bunker complex today was turned away by Shiite militiamen.
It was not clear who the foreigners were but the Shiite-led Iraqi government has launched a crackdown on Sunni foreign fighters from Arab states it accuses of carrying out suicide bombings which have killed thousands of mostly Shiite Iraqis.
US troops last year found 173 mostly Sunni Arab prisoners held in a secret Interior Ministry bunker.
They showed signs of torture and malnourishment in a scandal that embarrassed the government.
Sunni Arab leaders accuse Interior Ministry forces of working alongside Shiite militias who run death squads, a charge the ministry denies.
#5
By now one might think Tatars'Tots would understand there is a huge difference between drawing down on unarmed Sunni a**holes, women and children and the US military.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
03/26/2006 18:48 Comments ||
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#6
I look at the a**hat's teeth and it makes think of the Marathon Man...and how I wish Dr. Hess (Sir Laurence Olivier) could get a hold of his mouth for a few hours.
Sadr trying to stir up violence against US troops.
Police and a top aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Sunday that 18 people were killed in a clash involving U.S. and Iraqi army forces at a mosque in eastern Baghdad. The U.S. military said it had no information on the reported violence.
The announcement came hours after a mortar round slammed to earth near al-Sadr's home in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. The popular anti-American cleric home but was not hurt, an aide said.
Iraqi authorities also said late Sunday that U.S. forces raided an Interior Ministry building and arrested 40 policemen after discovering 17 non-Iraqi prisoners in the facility.
Interior is Shiite territory and they've been running death squads pretty openly
Police 1st Lt. Thayer Mahmoud said the arrested police were being held for investigation, but the reason was not known. Mahmoud said the U.S. forces remained at the building and were guarding the 17 foreigners.
Abdul-Zahra al-Suaidi, head of al-Sadr's office in Baghdad, said U.S. forces and Iraqi soldiers opened fire at the al-Moustafa Shiite mosque in the Ur neighborhood, killing 18 people in what he called an unprovoked attack. Separately, Iraqi police Lt. Hassan Hmoud said 18 people were killed in the mosque. He said he had no other details.
U.S. Sgt. 1st Class Keith Robinson, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division that has responsibility for Baghdad, said late Sunday his office had no information on the reported mosque clash.
Greg Fazho, a spokesman for the U.S. command, also said the press center had not received any "releasable information" about any incident in that area. "We're still trying to find out what is going on," he said.
A child and at least one guard were wounded in the mortar attack earlier Sunday that hit some 165 feet from al-Sadr's home, according to police and al-Sadr aide Sheik Sahib al-Amiri.
Iraqi troops sealed the area and the cleric's Mahdi Army militia surrounded the home after the attack, al-Amiri said. Al-Sadr lives near the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, about 90 miles south of Baghdad.
Shortly after the attack, the cleric issued a statement calling for calm. "I call upon all brothers to stay calm, and I call upon Iraqi army to protect the pilgrims as the Nawasib (militants) are aiming to attack Shiites everyday," he said ahead of Wednesday's commemoration marking the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
Najaf police chief called the assault a "cowardly attack" by those still loyal to Saddam Hussein aimed at dividing the Iraqi people.
"But this will not happen," Maj. Gen. Abbas Mi'adal told reporters near al-Sadr's home. "We are ready to confront any terrorist schemes and protect the pilgrims."
At least 10 Iraqis were killed in violence elsewhere, including a 13-year-old boy killed by a bomb as he walked to school in the southern city of Basra. Police also found 11 handcuffed and bullet-riddled bodies dumped in Baghdad and two in the city of Baqouba.
The Iraqi army said it also had dispatched troops to investigate a report of 30 beheaded corpses in a village north of Baghdad, but the soldiers turned back before reaching the site, apparently fearing an insurgent ambush.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, said the U.S. could withdraw a significant number of troops from Iraq this year if Iraqi forces are able to assume greater control of the country's security.
"I think it's entirely probable that we will see a significant drawdown of American forces over the next year. ... It's all dependent on events on the ground," the chief American diplomat said Sunday, echoing military commanders.
Just this past week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declined to predict when U.S. forces would be out of Iraq. President Bush has said that decision would be up to a future U.S. president and a future Iraqi government.
Rice, on NBC's "Meet the Press," noted that Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, "has talked about a significant reduction of American forces over the next year. And that significant reduction is because Iraqi forces are taking and holding territory now."
There were conflicting reports about Sunday's attack in Najaf, which came a day after the cleric's Mahdi Army militia forces battled with Sunni insurgents near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of the capital. Seven people most civilians killed in their homes by mortar fire died in the gunbattle and several others were wounded.
Al-Sadr's aide said two mortar rounds fell near the home Sunday, wounding two guards and the child, while the police chief said it was just one mortar round that wounded one guard and the child.
Al-Sadr, who routinely blames the United States for the violence that has beset the country, said American troops were trying to drag Iraqis into "sectarian wars."
"I call upon my brothers not to be trapped by the Westerners' plots," he said.
#1
Foxnews has footage but says it is too graphic to put on the air...
Posted by: Mark E. ||
03/26/2006 14:56 Comments ||
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#2
The US military says they never entered a mosque. Looks like the Sadrists moved their bodies. Can't get a battlefield victory? Then settle for a propaganda victory.
Posted by: ed ||
03/26/2006 18:08 Comments ||
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#3
"U.S. forces remained at the building and were guarding the 17 foreigners."
Seems like they were Sudanese without proper immigration docs (US Border Patrol, take note). US forces determined no mistreatment, no improper detention, and withdrew, leaving the prisoners to the Iraqis.
A mortar attack hit the compound of Moqtada al-Sadr, the powerful Shiite cleric and militia leader on Sunday, injuring one guard and a child, a top Sadr aide said. Sadr was inside his house at the time of the attack but escaped injury, aide Mostafa Yacoubi said.
Two 82mm mortar rounds hit the Shiite cleric's compound, which is in a neighborhood controlled by Sadr's forces in the northeast of the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
One round struck by the front gate, injuring the guard and a neighborhood child, Yacoubi said. Yacoubi gave no details of any casualties inside Sadr's house, except to say Sadr was not wounded.
Yacoubi said the strike appeared to have been fired at close-range from another house in the neighborhood. Angry followers of the young Shiite cleric surrounded Sadr's compound after the barrage.
Shortly after the attack, the cleric issued a statement calling for calm among his followers.
"I call upon all brothers to stay calm and I call upon the Iraqi army to protect the pilgrims as the Nawasib (militants) are aiming to attack Shiites everyday," the statement said, according to the Associated Press.
In other violence, a 13-year-old boy was killed by a roadside bomb as he arrived at school in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, news agencies reported. The bomb outside the school went off at 7:30 a.m., just as children were arriving for classes in Basra's city center, police Capt. Mushtaq Kadim said, according to the Associated Press. In Iraq, the school week runs Sunday to Thursday, with Friday a rest day for the Muslim day of prayers.
Yacoubi, al-Sadr's aide, refused to call the mortar attack on al-Sadr's compound an assassination attempt, but rather called it a threat to al-Sadr's life.
Al-Sadr, Yacoubi said, "is calling on his followers and the Iraqi people to remain calm, and not to be dragged into sectarian strife."
In the past two months, attacks on two Shiite targets -- a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra, and Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, a stronghold of Sadr support -- have unleashed the greatest sectarian bloodletting since U.S. forces overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003. Sadr issued similar appeals for calm after both attacks.
However, Sadr's thousands-strong Mahdi Army militia is accused by many U.S. officials and others in the violent retaliation to the mosque bombing and Sadr City attack. Sadr inherited the house from his father, and uses it as his house and as his main office, where he meets with dignitaries and others.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2006 12:31 Comments ||
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#5
"fired at close-range from another house in the neighborhood"
Yeah, I considered that myself when my neighbor's dog was yapping at midnight. Note to self: use more than two rounds.
As violence continued to plague Iraq on Saturday, two U.S. senators visited the country and asked leaders to overcome political obstacles and form a long-awaited national unity government.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, was joined by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, as he said that he was "guardedly optimistic" that Iraqi leaders could form a government "within weeks."
"I come away with the impression that the Iraqi leaders understand the sense of urgency that we have conveyed to them," McCain said. "We all know the polls show declining support amongst the American people, and we feel that it would be important to have a government, not only for American public opinion, but for the Iraqi people to have a government they can identify with and rely on."
Earlier in the day, nine people were killed in a trio of attacks that included the fatal shooting of a Sunni imam who was driving in Baghdad, police said.
Sheikh Abed Farhan was imam of the Aqtab Arba'a mosque in the Bayaa neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad.
South of Baghdad, in the Babil province town of Mahmoudiya, four people were killed and 13 others were wounded when six mortar rounds crashed into a residential neighborhood.
In southeast Baghdad's al-Waziriya neighborhood, a bomb hidden inside a booth used by traffic police killed four people when it exploded as a minibus passed, police said. Two others were wounded in the blast.
On Friday night, six bodies were found -- apparently tortured and strangled -- inside a parked car in the al-Khadraa section of western Baghdad, city police said.
A seventh unidentified body was found Saturday morning in the Saydiya neighborhood of southwest Baghdad, police said. The victim appeared to have been tortured and shot in the head.
Saturday's violence came a day after a bombing outside a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad. Worshippers were leaving midday prayers when the blast went off, killing five people and wounding 17, police said.
# U.S. and Iraqi soldiers on Friday detained 52 suspected insurgents in eight villages in and around Hawiya as part of Operation Scorpion, the U.S. military said Saturday. The city is near Kirkuk. Iraqi soldiers said that "24 out of the 52 detainees were on their target list, built from their own intelligence gathering." The other detainees were being held for questioning. The operation has since ended.
# In a supporting operation, U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted raids for suspected terrorists in Kirkuk, They detained six and discovered a weapons cache, the military said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2006 03:02 ||
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AN IRAQI militant group which killed an Italian reporter in 2004 said it was watching foreign journalists but would only kill those it considers to be spies for its U.S.-led enemies.
Al Jazeera television broadcast an interview overnight with a man it described as the spokesman of the Islamic Army in Iraq, who accused the United States of responsibility for the car bombs that have killed thousands of civilians since 2003.
"The security bodies of the Islamic Army ... follow them constantly or at least keep watch and occasionally a journalist or another falls into their hands," said the man, who was identified as Ibrahim al-Shemmari.
He said the group's interrogators questioned those captured and a court-like body issued its verdict and sentence.
"If he was found innocent he would be freed and if he was caught red-handed in a certain situation with the occupation then he would be handled in a manner that is in line with the interests of Jihad (holy war) in Iraq," added the man, whose face was blurred.
The man described Enzo Baldoni, the Italian journalist killed by his group in 2004, as a spy, adding that journalists and other non-military foreigners were not targets "so long as they were committed to their professions".
"The Italian? He was a spy. It was clear to us from the beginning that he was a spy. Evidence were abundant but the French journalists were freed," he said of two French journalists his group released after abducting them in 2004.
More than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been abducted in the anarchy that followed the U.S.-led invasion. Most foreign hostages have been released, but 54 are known to have been killed and more than 50 are believed to be held.
The Islamic Army in Iraq has claimed several kidnappings and attacks on foreign and Iraqi government forces.
But, "It is not within our targets to kill innocent civilians," said the figure, who was wearing a chequered headdress and Arab robes.
"There is information that many of the car bombs are the work of the Americans ... they have long been working to distort the reputation of the resistance so that the Iraqi people would reject it," he said.
Thousands of people have been killed by car bombs in Iraq since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Mr Shemmari dismissed the Iraqi government as a group of "sectarian gangs at whose hands the Sunnis tasted bitterness" and said his faction would not negotiate with Iraqi officials.
The Islamic Army would however negotiate with the United States if it recognised the resistance and set a timetable for its withdrawal from Iraq.
"We do not reject negotiations (with Americans) in principle as these would be negotiations for the exit of the occupiers," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/26/2006 02:56 ||
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Six suspected Tamil Tigers were killed and eight Sri Lankan sailors were missing after rebels blew themselves up Saturday and sank a navy gunboat that had approached their trawler, the military said. A search was under way for the eight sailors missing in the incident off the coast of Mannar in the northwest of the island, a defence official here said, adding that 11 sailors had been rescued by local fishermen. The navy suspected that the trawler was involved in gun running and got near it to carry out a search, a defence official told AFP. As the FAC (Fast Attack Craft) got near, the six people aboard the trawler blew themselves up.
In January, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels blew up a similar gunboat, killing 15 sailors, in a suicide attack outside the northeastern port of Trincomalee. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) deployed a woman cadre to ram an explosives-laden vessel into an Israeli-built gunboat, the navy said at the time.
The navy this week detained a fishing trawler operated by suspected Tamil rebels off the islands troubled northern waters while troops and guerrillas exchanged fire in the Jaffna peninsula. The crew of the trawler are still being held by security forces after they were arrested while operating in a restricted zone off the islands north. Sri Lanka has repeatedly accused the Tigers of using the cover of fishermen to launch attacks against the navy.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2006 00:00 ||
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Brushing aside Western threats to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear activities, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that his country would soon master nuclear technology in the new Iranian year, which starts on Monday AFP reported Sunday.
Speaking during a meeting with Syria's visiting First Vice President Farouq Al Shara, President Nejad noted that "enemies intend to stop our progress by broad propaganda. But God willing, the Islamic republic will fully gain access to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in this (Iranian) year," Mr Ahmadinejad, said. Coincidentally, this is the same time frame which the Israelis said would be when they would have their first nuclear weapons. I guess it just depends on what your definition of "peaceful" is.
#1
Ahmadinejad is confident that he will survive the year. He thinks that we will strike his missiles and naval forces first and that will give him a chance to get into a deep bunker. He is wrong. Missile and leadership targets will be struck simultaneously. There are cruise missiles with his name on them.
#2
There are cruise missiles with his name on them.
Spot on!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/26/2006 17:50 Comments ||
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#3
After some of Saddam's leadership was able to play cat and mouse, avoiding such things, this time I would suspect we will be very sure of our targets.
#7
Festivities commence shortly have US elections in November. Seasons Greetings, ahMAD
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/26/2006 20:56 Comments ||
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#8
Well, the Israelis cannot let the M²s get a nuke for blackmail. And President Bush said that Iran will not be allowed to have a nuke, so I have to take them on their words. The world cannot allow the M²s to have a nuke, which will get into the hands of a proxy. Even the EUniks, whether they like it or not. We are all playing for all the marbles now.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/26/2006 23:14 Comments ||
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#9
Will say again that the Mullahs and MadMoud are willing enough to risk mutually/world-destroying, geopol/nuclear confrontation between the US-West and Russia-China - they know both sides, espec the weak Chicoms and Russian Half-a-Commie, are not ready for limited nuke war at this time, but they Iran also know they cannot unilater stop or prevent any US-led invasion andor occupation of Iran, even iff they had [primitive]nukes. The question for Dubya and Admin is not iff the US-Allies will prevail in invading Iran only, but what will be the Russo-Chicom response afterwards, immediate or long-term.
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.
A US soldier was killed and another was wounded in a clash with militants which left seven Taliban fighters dead in southern Afghanistan, the American-led coalition said. US and Afghan forces exchanged fire with 20 militants in Helmand province, before calling in aerial support that resulted in the dropping of 11 guided-bombs, the coalition said in a statement.
Warring factions clashed for the fourth day Saturday in the north of Somali capital Mogadishu as heavy gunbattles claimed five more lives, bringing the death toll to 52 and more than 200 injured, medical and militia sources said. Warring militamen in the capital are fighting heavily for the fourth day and there is no sign of calm, said Ahmed Mohamed Jumale, a resident in Galagalato, a neighbourhood of Karan district in northern Mogadishu where the rival fighters are engaged in battle. Jumale said that the gunmen intensified fighting in order to inflict more casualties on either side before darkness. The serious fighting erupted at noon, Jumale said. 
Outlawed 
The JMB suicide bomber killed in the November 29 bombing on Gazipur Bar Association office premises has been identified by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as Asadul Islam, 19, of Gaibandha. Seven persons including lawyers Amjad Hossain and Golam Faruk were killed on the spot 60 people were injured in the bombing.
The intelligence officials enquiring into militancy and bomb attacks suspect that militant groups other than 
RAIPUR: Eleven people were killed and four wounded when Maoists detonated a landmine under a vehicle in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police said on Saturday. The incident took place late on Friday in the Bastar region, about 250 km (150 miles) south of the state capital Raipur, senior police officer Pradeep Gupta told Reuters. 
MIRANSHAH: Suspected militants ambushed vehicles carrying police officers in a remote northwestern region of Pakistan near the Afghan border on Saturday, injuring four of them, a security official said. The attack happened on a road between Mir Ali and Miran Shah in the North Waziristan tribal region, a day after the military said it had killed between 15 to 20 militants. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the injured officers had been transported to a hospital, where two of them were in critical condition.
President General Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday his government has introduced "real democracy" in Pakistan by empowering people politically and economically.
ISLAMABAD: Security was tightened around a five-star hotel on Saturday after the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) threatened to attack it in retaliation to the ongoing "military operation" in Balochistan. Police sources said an unidentified person called the Marriott Hotel management, threatening that the BLA would attack the hotel. The hotel management informed the police of the threat. SHO Secretariat police confirmed that the hotel security had been beefed up.
Pakistani Police Saturday arrested nearly 60 tribesmen suspected of involvement in attacks on security forces and government installations in Balochistan, police said. The police detained some 57 suspects including 24 arrested in a raid on a camp run by rebels from the Marri tribe near the provincial capital Quetta, city police officer Mujibur Rehman said. The 33 other men were picked up during raids at different neighbourhoods just outside Quetta, Rehman said. On Friday two people were killed when their motorbike struck a landmine, which authorities said was planted by insurgents near the town of Sui, 280 kilometres southeast of Quetta. Also on Friday rebels fired several rockets at security forces deployed in the town of Loti near Dera Bugti, without causing any casualties.
Extremists know extremism will hurt
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency on Saturday called for the reform and expansion of the UN Security Council, saying its engagement in maintaining world peace and security is often inadequate, selective or after the fact. 
Six suspected Tamil Tigers were killed and eight Sri Lankan sailors were missing after rebels blew themselves up Saturday and sank a navy gunboat that had approached their trawler, the military said. A search was under way for the eight sailors missing in the incident off the coast of Mannar in the northwest of the island, a defence official here said, adding that 11 sailors had been rescued by local fishermen. The navy suspected that the trawler was involved in gun running and got near it to carry out a search, a defence official told AFP. As the FAC (Fast Attack Craft) got near, the six people aboard the trawler blew themselves up.
