An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity quickly vanished Tuesday after he was released from prison, apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding his death. Italy's Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said he would ask his government to grant Abdul Rahman asylum. Fini was among the first to speak out on the man's behalf. Rahman, 41, was released from the high-security Policharki prison on the outskirts of Kabul late Monday, Afghan Justice Minister Mohammed Sarwar Danish told The Associated Press. "We released him last night because the prosecutors told us to," he said. "His family was there when he was freed, but I don't know where he was taken."
Deputy Attorney-General Mohammed Eshak Aloko said prosecutors had issued a letter calling for Rahman's release because "he was mentally unfit to stand trial." He also said he did not know where Rahman had gone after being released. He said Rahman may be sent overseas for medical treatment.
On Monday, hundreds of clerics, students and others chanting "Death to Christians!" marched through the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif to protest the court decision Sunday to dismiss the case. Several Muslim clerics threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed, saying that he is clearly guilty of apostasy and deserves to die. "Abdul Rahman must be killed. Islam demands it," said senior Cleric Faiez Mohammed, from the nearby northern city of Kunduz. "The Christian foreigners occupying Afghanistan are attacking our religion."
#2
perhaps the Christian Crusader Snipers can send a .50 caliber message to senior Cleric Faiez Mohammed to tone it down? Or at least to his successor
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/28/2006 10:18 Comments ||
Top||
#3
hundreds of clerics, students and others chanting "Death to Christians!"
There are no real "believers" in Islam. They cannot exist with Islam in its current form.
Because belief cannot be coerced or it ceases to be belief. It must be given willingly and must be a moral choice of the individual. And for a true choice to exist, there must be the ability to choose without threat from artificially imposed consequences. Your immortal soul is at risk, but your physical life should not be at risk unless you do something that is physically risky.
Right now, there is no Muslim that can truly say "I choose to be an unbeleiver (an Atheist), I choose to have doubts about wether ther is anything to beleive in (Agnostic), I choose to be a Christian, or a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Zoroastrian", without coming under death threats and Fatwahs - i.e. the ultimate coercion.
They have no freedom to choose, and so cannot freely believe. Islamist's faith is so small as to not survive exposure to any doubts (real or imagined), and their belief is as credible as the confession of a man with a gun to his head.
The Hadiths are the source of this - the writings of Muhammed, not the divinely sanctioned parts of the Qu'ran itsef. They are a perversion of religion, not a true religion based on belief freely given and faith, maintained in the heart, not by the scimitar.
Until Islam changes and allows people to freely LEAVE, and learns co-exist and compete openly and honestly with other beliefs (or no belief at all), it is a cult of the coercer and the coerced. There will exist no REAL believers in Islam, only slaves who are threatened into compliance by threats of physical abuse and death.
All the other major religions of the world allow for this open-ness. All except Islam.
I have come to the opinion that in its current form, Islam is an abomination that must either be reformed or eradicated.
Ironically, the Islamists have a choice on this. But they must be made aware of the consequences of their choice: stay with the coercion and face eradication of their cult and its culture, or reform and join the modern world in the marketplace of ideas.
We in the west will provide the wipeout or the welcome, once enough of us awaken.
#5
Eradicate ! I fear reform will provide a front for the radical element to go underground, only to rise again.
All of their madrasses must be closed and raised to the ground. All of the 'teachers' silenced.
#6
by that definition, OS, there werent any christians in europe from at least 1000 AD or so down to the enlightenment. Converting from Christianity could get you killed too, and the people who converted you. Thats historically why Judaism became so reluctant to accept converts - in Jewish law someone who seeks to convert is supposed to be turned away three times, and can be accepted only if they persist. If they had been less resistant to converts, the Christian authorities would have destroyed them.
#7
Islam has always been a heavy-handed "religion" from the top down. I really do not care what they do, as long as they confine it to their own little sh*tty domains. However, with the phenomenon of large fortunes in oil money into the picture, Islamists can export their psycho-babble system to places where other religions are tolerated. Our toleration is seen as our weakness to be exploited.
I'm with Old Spook, Islam will be reformed or eradicated. They reform it or we will eradicate it. The values of each system are imcompatable with each other.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/28/2006 11:27 Comments ||
Top||
#8
OldSpook,
I've "appropriated" passages from your comment, Thanks.
And in SOME sense, liberalhawk is right as well: Catholicism could not rightly claim to have won converts by virtue of its nature during a time when force was seen as a legitimate way to enforce faith. But in THAT SAME SENSE, every Protestant, by converting from Catholicism, COULD be credited as being a true christian. Care to cite the dates for the Reformation versus the Enlightenment? Care to comment on why you ignore the differences between Catholics and Protestants, other than admitting that acknowledging those differences would shoot gaping holes in your implied argument that the Enlightenment was the Beginning of Truth and Light? (and ignoring the Terror during the French Revolution?)
#10
We are talking about the modern world and Islam, not pre-protestant pre-enlightenment Christianity 1000 years ago. Nice try at changing the context.
Furthermore, it was never dogma that those who left the faith be executed. Show me a Papal proclamation and a biblical passage (with adequate context) to support your claim (and good luck as there really isnt anything like that in the new testament ro Christ's). I can show you Hadiths and Fatwas that show Islam's death threats to be in consonance, with a bit of cursory research on the internet.
#12
I can show you Hadiths and Fatwas that show Islam's death threats to be in consonance, with a bit of cursory research on the internet.
A bit more research would turn up a pattern of executing apostates that runs right back to ol' Mo' himself. Not to mention Mo's habit of ordering the assassination of critics who displeased him.
Hard to make the comparison, though I'm not shocked when people do it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 12:33 Comments ||
Top||
#13
OS-
VERY well put. I have only heard words that genuinely chilling once before - regarding a Certain Politician who kept trying to subvert the will of the people.
Preach it, brother.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/28/2006 12:35 Comments ||
Top||
#14
So what your implying is that because someone wrote something down and it was preserved through time, that makes it a valid reason for murder. Certainly the catholics did persecute and wipe out the cathars but that doesn't mean it's justifiable does it?
#15
yes, Old Spook, you are very correct. All anyone has to do is actually read the Koran and they will find sura upon sura that justifies and actually orders to kill the infidel (the Christian, the Jew, the unbeliever) for these people will face "grievous chastisement". LiberalHawk has brought up a good point however it is trumped by the reforms that Christianity has undergone and the depraved, psychotic state Islam is in today. My advice is to read the Koran and pick out the small amount of verses that focus on peace between the 3 major religions, for example the verse in which it says that if a Muslim meets a Christian or Jew who is faithful to his religion and is not a hypocrite then he is your brother, and when you get into a theological discussion with any Muslim you can point out the positive. And if he doesn't listen to you, then just kill the bastard.
Probably not. Today's CIA (that's Cover Institutional Ass) doesn't give any appearance of giving a rat's ass about Christians. If anything, most of them appear to be Christian- Bush-hating Lefties. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/28/2006 14:05 Comments ||
Top||
#19
There are two major differences between what Islam does and what the Catholic Church did a thousand years ago: one is based on, and firmly rooted in, the faith itself, while the other was an abberation reflecting the growing power of the "divine right of kings", another abomination brought about by the lust for power, not by the words of God.
Great summation, OS! I wrote something similar on my blog a few days ago. The scales are beginning to drop from the eyes of the world, and Islam is getting a very close scrutiny by more and more people. Each day, more intelligent people see it as the blood cult it is, instead of a true "religion".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 14:08 Comments ||
Top||
#20
Ordinarily I find OldSpook to be very clear and as accurate as I have the background to understand. But I'm afraid he overstates the case rather dramaticly here.
In a sense I have a gun to my head, or at any rate a prison cell waiting for me, if I choose to murder somebody. In OldSpook's sense I don't have the freedom to chose that crime. But in reality, I do choose, and I would choose the same whether or not there were a human law about it. And so, I think, would he. The penalty does not interfere with our freedom.
I grant you that it is a subtle point--but it is possible to choose necessity. (I could go further and quote Paul about freedom and being slaves to sin, but that would only be of interest to the Christians.)
The only reason I want to belabor this is because the conclusion you naturally draw from OldSpook's analysis is that nobody would be a Muslim if they weren't threatened to stay. That's not true. There are plenty of reasons for the average Muslim to stay Muslim: he's comfortable with it, it is part of his familiar culture, part of the way his family lives, and so on. And for the devout (who seem a minority in every religion), Islam is a religion teaching the power and glory of God and that He expects men to live rightly. That's a message that resonates now as much as it did when Muhammad (may the Lord have mercy on his miserable soul) taught it to the pagans in Medina.
It won't occur to the average Muslim that there is anything sensible to convert to. He's already got something more sophisticated than paganism, and since preaching anything besides Islam is usually prohibited, all he will know about any other religions is the impressions he gets from the media. And if Brittany Spears and Sean Penn represent the Christian West--he's already got a system of ethics better than theirs. At least to his mind. After all, he's required to give a good-sized chunk of his money to the poor, right? (Magnifying your own virtues and the other guy's vices is always comforting.) We all know that Islam has some deadly problems with it, not least of which is rulings from these schools that claim that apostates have to be killed. I could find quite a list myself, and I'm not an expert on sharia(s). The religion is a mix of appeals to the nobility within us and appeals to greed.
But we fool ourselves if we think that Islam doesn't have serious attractions to hundreds of millions of people who don't really care about the penalties for apostasy. Enforcing a freedom of religon law or dropping Playboys over the villages--it won't make much of a difference. We're not going to change people's minds that easily. Most will still keep on with the religion of their fathers.
Posted by: James ||
03/28/2006 14:14 Comments ||
Top||
#21
Good job of putting words in someone's mouth that never came out of it. Great way to kill a strawman.
#22
So James surrenders, but the rest of us are preparing for the Mother of all Awakenings.
Modern society cannot co-exists with burka wearing, megaphone praying, slave holding, dhimmitude enforcing, 8th century behavior, which defends itself via decapitation, stoning and mutilation.
If you try a little role reversal, you will soon understand how they are able to create such unrest and insecurity within societies in which they are present. When your mind is atuned to the 8th century, all things modern seem frail and unfit for survival. A shovel of dust can stop a machine forever. How great are they ? How stupid are they ? How stupid are we not to put an end to this terror ? We have allowed them to hide under the cover of religion, and now we must perform surgery to save face ? Maybe not.
#23
The example you use of constraint against murder is specious at best. The use of the power of the state to possibly kill you when you commit violence against someone else is not morally equivalent to the initiaion of force to impose a religious belief, and then maintained said "belief" under penalty of violence and execution. To declaim it as a "subtle point" is to expose a glaring error in your grasp of morality and ethics.
Your thought process is foggy at best when it comes to the morality you are discussing, at least from that poorly drawn example you introduced.
I never said there were not people who probably believed truly, but it is also true that they had little, if any, choice in the matter. As opposed to western, and asian, societies; where the freedom to leave or change is well established, except in Islamic nations.
But it is true that for true belief and faith, it best and strongest when tested. For some, they may be able to test it inside the constratints of the threat of physical coercion that currently penultimately binds them to Islam. But have they truly believed? Its impossible to say, compared to Buddhists, Hindus, Protestants, Jews and Cathlics in the free world. They, who are exposed to and must come to terms with other beleif systems, including atheism, must preserve their beleif and faith almost daily.
Yet Islam sees such tests and truths as an attack on their entire religious structure's foundation, and respond as described in their hadiths - with violence and death, rather than passion and faith.
And exposure of Muslims in the controlled countries to the other faiths will result in a fair amount of defections from Islam to the other faiths, and to agnosticism and atheism. Probably a much more significant number than anyone estimates. After all, take a look at what happened during the enlightement and reformation to the Catholic Church, with all its defects and errors, and rampant worldliness - at a minimum it was decimated, and did not fully recover until it did much reformign of the Church and its internal and external activities. The formation of the individual Catholic/Christian involves them makking choices on their own, individually, and the Church as a corrective, not punative entity. Indeed the worst punishment today in Christianity is exclusion - being told not to come back if you are protestant or excommunicated if you are Catholic, or being "shed" from the peopel if of certain orthodos Jewish belief. But no violence initiated against the individual, and they are free to come back without any coercion exerted.
Add to that the deep and long tradition of the study of the Bible and well developed set of hermeneutics in the Catholic church as well as extensive protestant biblican scholarship - and this was built on the long tadtiion of rabbinical study in Judiasm.
Islam is almost the antitheses in that only an Imam is allowed to do this reading or research with any degree of freedom, and even then is not allowed to differ at all from the text.
Islam has no provisions for freedom to change. Islam is not a changeable relgion- the Qu'ran is considered to be the literal word of Allah, which prevents any interpretation other than sheer bloody-minded literallness, down to the last jot and ink blot. Another notable difference is that Islam is very dependant upon the local Imam, and very little an individual can say opposing him and his reading of the Qu'ran.
Such utter dependence upon authority, and utter submission to worldy power as its manifestation is nearly a polar opposite to what open societies require.
The bottom line is that Islam is apparently incapable of reform from within - few Muslims are willing to dispoute the central hadiths of thier beleif in the mandated literal forms. And as evidenced in the world today, Islam as it now exists, when given power, does not allow any dissent nor exposure to such. Check Saudi Arabia as a prime example - try taking your Bible there or wearing a crucifix, or carryign a rosary openly.
As I said in another post, its a sad indictment of Islam that they have so little faith in their "faithful".
#24
Old Spook, you know I adore you, and I always read your posts several times to make sure I got everything. I recently spent several happily frustrated hours trying to find the post you wrote after the contractors were hung from the bridge in Fallujah, when you wrote (#16), Like it or not, there comes a time when you have to have hard men doing hard jobs. It must be done cold, not in the heat of anger. It must be systematic. It must be deliberate. And you cannot flinch. Words I have written on my heart, to keep me strong when I weaken -- as I too often do.
But you are wrong about the history of the religion you have chosen, and to which you are such a credit. From the third century of the Common Era until the Enlightenment, Christianity was as much coerced for those who would have preferred something else as is Islam today. The religious wars that swept across Western Europe -- sometimes local affairs such as the Catholics against the Heugonots in France, or against schismatic/heretic groups in England, in Prague, and elsewhere, ended in the massacres of the dissenters, in most cases, until the time of Martin Luther when, after all of Western Europe was convulsed by decades of religious wars (and in spots German peasants were reduced to cannibalism to survive) it was concluded that the common people were to be compelled to take the religion chosen by the local ruler. Which is why even today there are Catholic and Protestant States in Germany, why the Dutch Netherlands are mainly Protestant and Belgium is Catholic. And for those who clung to a semi-recognized faith, such as the Jews, the dhimmitude, as difficult as under Islam, was real, and legal, and enforced, and sometimes deadly.
Christianity has grown up, thank God. And I would not dream of comparing any of Rantburg's Christians to the beasts of expansionist Islam, whom we are all here are fighting -- some overtly, some just by participating in this forum. Y'all are good people, open to the clash of ideas, and accept that others can believe differently without that making them (and me) evil. But it is important that those of you who are Christian accept that your religion has matured over the centuries, and taken along the way some twists that are not now comfortable to look back upon. It is a credit to Christianity's current believers that this point has been reached; y'all should be proud, not ashamed. But like it or not, and despite being an aberration from Christ's message, Old Patriot, this was a major, even the majority of the history of your religion.
But nowadays those who are Christian are so by choice, and are free to leave at will, and thus know their faith to be true. Islam remains compulsory for those born to it, and chooses by force and dhimmitude to force non-members within its societies toward it; and thus none of its members can be said to believers whose faith they know to be true because it has been tested.
#25
But the discussion moved on while I was still writing, darn it! Old Spook, I agree with every word of your last post -- except that I could not test Saudi Arabia by taking my bible there; as I understand it, it remains illegal for Jews to even so much as enter the country. ;-)
I do hope Mr. Rahman has safely made his escape from Afghanistan, albeit without the children he'd come back for. And I do also hope (hopefully not in vain) that the events of these last few years are the beginning of the end for hermetic Islam, able to violently repel all others, and the beginning of Islam's evolution to a citizen religion of the world. I'm not keen on being forced into a war of complete eradication of the carriers of a faith, although at this point a large number of noisy Muslims seem enthousiastic on forcing the point.
But I am grateful that we have a society strong enough to produce hard men capable and willing to make hard decisions and, coldly, deliberately and unflinchingly follow through.
Christianity spread for its first 400 years through the blood of its martyrs alone.
Islam's first 400 years of expansion was through the blood of those unfortunate to be in its way.
The Early Christian Fathers condemned the execution of non-believers.
Muhammed sanctioned it.
Nuff said.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
03/28/2006 19:47 Comments ||
Top||
#28
Ernest, Christianity spread for the first three hundred years through the force of its ideas and the sure promise of Heaven. Martyrdom isn't attractive to most people, and generally isn't a pursuasive selling point for the unconvinced, which is why Islam spread so quickly by conquest.
I do not equate the two religions, and feel comfortable with religious Christians, which I do not with religious Muslims. Ptah wrote something interesting in a discussion at another site (scroll down) which I think sums things up nicely. Go take a look, if you'd like.
Five people, including one Britain soldier and four civilians, were killed and as many wounded in two separate incidents in southern Afghanistan on Monday. In the first incident, one British soldier was killed and three others wounded in a head-on collision between their car and a truck in the insurgency-plagued Helmand province. Local officials said the soldiers were driving on the wrong side and this was why the other vehicle collided with it. However, the foreign troopers did not issue any comment. The injured soldiers were rushed to a hospital by their colleagues.
Separately, a civilian vehicle flipped over a roadside landmine in the same province that resulted in killing of four people. Two others wounded in the blast. Spokesman for the provincial governor Mohyuddin said the vehicle was hit by a landmine planted by Taliban. Three days back, one US soldier and six Taliban were killed in a fierce battle in the same province. The Afghan officials believe the recent mine was planted to attack the government forces; however, it hit the civilians. Besides, many areas of Afghanistan are still infested with war-era landmines.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Algerian government forces found a large weapons cache in an area that saw repeated massacres of civilians during rebel attacks in strife that lasted more than a decade, a newspaper reported on Monday.
The find in Ain Defla province, 150 km (93 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers, was found on Saturday, three weeks after the launch of an amnesty for rebels aimed at ending a conflict that cost the lives of 200,000 people since 1992.
The hiding place of weapons contained a significant quantity of ammunition, Kalashnikov rifles, some 30 rockets, automatic guns, more than 30 detonators and about 100 home-made bombs, said El Watan, which is well-informed on security matters.
Government soldiers also seized huge quantities of medical drugs and electricity cables, the newspaper added, citing a security source.
Officials were not immediately available for comment. They rarely comment on security-linked questions.
The newspaper said it believed the arms cache belonged to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has been on a U.S. list of terrorist organisations.
Hundreds of people were massacred in attacks in Ain Defla by Islamist militants between 1994 and 1998.
The latest security sweep in Ain Defla is part of an offensive on rebel strongholds throughout the country. Government soldiers shot dead a bombmaker for GSPC on Thursday in Boumerdes province, some 50 km (30 miles) east of Algiers.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006 01:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Government soldiers also seized huge quantities of medical drugs and electricity cables
Curious. What benfit would terrorists get from cables? Surely not to sell them for scrap to raise funds. I assume the drugs are to heal the wounded... or create the modern version of Assassin dreams...
'Tain't Sinktrap material, RD. It will soon be disappeared.
#3
The electric cables could either be to control detonators or stolen from poles. Depends on the size; big stuff would be sold for "salvage" to finance their jihad.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/28/2006 7:38 Comments ||
Top||
The State Security Specialized Penal Court postponed the trial of 17 suspects accused of forming an armed band and plotting to attack U.S. citizens in Yemen. Last Saturdays session was devoted to final appeals, upon request of the prosecutor, who said he had evidence revealing names of new suspects. The court allowed Prosecution to speak with jail officials concerning prison law application and transferring suspects to the Central Prison. At the session, the prosecutor told the court he has a list of new suspects, which he will show court staff this Saturday after investigating them. He also discussed the courts previous decision to refer two suspects to a legitimate physician and allow their families to visit them.
The prosecutor presented a medical report on health conditions of suspects No. 10 and 13, Ahmad Al-Zahiri and Musaed Al-Berairi, after being transferred to a legitimate physician. He said he allowed suspects families to visit their relatives and denied statements by defense lawyers that they were prevented from meeting their clients.
The defense team asked the court to transfer their clients to the Central Prison and demanded investigating political security officials, alleging they prevented them from meeting their clients. They claimed their clients have been jailed in isolated cells for more than a year, although the law stipulates prisoners must not be kept in detention centers more than 24 hours.
Presenting new evidence, the prosecutor explained that the new suspects will be investigated and referred to the court to try according to Penal Procedure Article 223. The defense team opposed Prosecutions request to adjourn final appeals and prolong case procedures, demanding their clients be released on bail. Abdulmalik Al-Sanabani, the five Saudi suspects defense lawyer, pointed out that three of his clients have been jailed since they arrived in Yemen in 2005 and the other two since 2004. He demanded the court allow the inmates families to visit them and release them on bail.
The father of suspect No. 1 Ali Hayyan Al-Harithi said he handed metals free of explosives to the political security organization chairman and representatives. He pointed out that he signed a paper which he did not know its content, as he is illiterate, while his son was detained at political security. The father of suspect Mohamed Al-Qabsh, a Yemeni expatriate, said, I notified Yemens political security that my son wanted to travel to Iraq for jihad and therefore, he faced a false charge. The defense lawyer for suspects No. 4 and 16 responded to the four-page lawsuit and presented documents stating that his client, suspect No. 16 Mohamed Arafj, has suffered mental disorders for 10 years. He claimed Arafjs health deteriorated much more after entering political security detention and he still is taking medicine.
The 17 suspects, including five Saudi nationals, face charges of forming an armed band in 2004 and 2005 to launch offensives against U.S. citizens in Yemen and senior government officials. The band was accused of belonging to Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawis cell.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
ISLAMIST terrorists wanted to trick young Muslims into attacking Britain, by training them to fight in Afghanistan for al-Qaeda and then telling them that the country was inaccessible, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.
The British extremists allegedly intended to set up a private terrorist training camp in Pakistan, teaching hijacking and use of explosives and firearms. One also discussed poisoning water supplies with ricin. Another said that Britain needed to be targeted in the same way as America had been in the September 11 attacks.
The claims were made by Mohammed Babar, an American terrorist turned supergrass who is giving evidence against the men that he claims were his former accomplices. The seven defendants, all from southeast England, are charged with conspiring to bomb a British target, such as a shopping centre, nightclub or train. Six allegedly attended training camps in Pakistan.
Babar said that he discussed setting up a camp with Waheed Mahmood, 34, of Crawley, who insisted that those who attended had to be prepared to fight jihad (holy war) in Afghanistan. He attempted to recruit through British contacts.
But the key prosecution witness added: From conversations I had with them [the group] I dont think they had any intention of sending people into Afghanistan. They would tell [those at camps] later that it was difficult to go and would then give the only other option: working for them on operations in the UK and Pakistan.
While living in Pakistan, Babar offered to set up a camp for the group. He was also involved in storing bomb ingredients; at one stage he held detonators, ammonium nitrate, aluminium powder, other explosives paraphernalia and ricin in his flat in Lahore. The castor beans, from which ricin is made, were allegedly brought from Islamabad by Omar Khyam, 24, also from Crawley.
Babar said: He said it was a poison [and talked] about poisoning water supplies or people. He went into detail how to make it.
He said that the detonators were sourced by Salahuddin Amin, 31, of Luton, with the help of a man who worked for Abdul Hadi, No 3 in command for al-Qaeda. Mr Amin argued with Mr Khyam because he allegedly asked Mr Amin to transport the detonators to Europe or Britain.
The court was told that the men had ordered survival equipment for the training camp from outdoor shops in Britain, and had special clothing made. These included shalwar kameez with zippered pockets for ammunition. A British relative of one defendant posted hiking boots, sleeping bags and solar panels to the men while they were in Pakistan.
They posed as Western tourists to travel within Pakistan and collect thousands of pounds from contacts, to fund the camp. Mr Mahmoods brother-in-law allegedly gave about £4,000 and another contact provided £3,500, which was sent to him from Britain.
When asked for the source of the rest of the money, Babar said that each of the defendants who travelled to Pakistan months earlier had brought between £5,000 and £7,000 and entrusted this to Mr Khyam.
During discussions, some of the defendants allegedly said that they disliked al-Muhajiroun, the radical group that the Government wanted to ban, because it was all talk.
Some of the defendants also had leadership squabbles with other British Muslims in Pakistan when offering to provide training in exchange for Mr Khyam and Mr Mahmood becoming the emirs of another group. This offer was rejected.
Mr Amin, Mr Mahmood, Mr Khyam, his brother Shujah Mahmood, 18, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, West Sussex; Anthony Garcia, 24, from Ilford, East London; and Nabeel Hussain, 20, from Horley, Surrey; all deny conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life between October 2003 and March 2004.
Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny possessing 600kg of fertiliser for the purposes of terrorism. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood deny possessing aluminium powder, also for the purposes of terrorism. The trial continues.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006 00:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Al-Qaeda or Ci-Cada? I am confused. They are both types of insects.
The deployment of federal troops along the U.S.-Mexico border in October netted a 60 percent increase in apprehensions of illegal aliens by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, a congressional report says. The report given this month to the Senate Armed Services Committee says a Texas-based Stryker-armored reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition squadron helped CBP agents capture 2,000 illegal border crossers in New Mexico and Arizona.
You mean guarding the border really works?
The squadron, part of Joint Task Force North (JTF-N), based at Biggs Army Airfield in Fort Bliss, Texas, was used to "detect and report" the movement of "transnational threats" to the U.S. Border Patrol during the 30-day Operation Western Vigilance.
"Transnational Threats" is such a ugly term. I'm sure he meant to say "pre-legal migrants".
Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told the committee that the operation also detected three tunnels at the U.S.-Mexico border and one from Canada. "Our homeland defense and civil support plans are the foundation of our ability to deter, prevent and defeat threats to our nation and assist civil authorities when called upon by the president or secretary of defense," Adm. Keating said. JTF-N, a joint service command of active duty and reserve soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Defense Department civilian employees, is a part of NORTHCOM, which is headquartered in Colorado Springs and monitors air, land and sea approaches and encompasses the entire North American continent. The unclassified report noted that unmanned aerial systems and National Guard helicopters were used in addition to the squadron's combat vehicles.
Adm. Keating said NORTHCOM initiated coordination with multiple federal agencies for further development of tunnel detection technology, which will benefit not only JTF-N and its law-enforcement agency partners, but also U.S. Central Command in Southwest Asia. NORTHCOM is engaged with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop airspace procedures for unmanned aerial system support to border control lead agencies and disaster response operations, he said.
Stryker squadrons like the one used in Operation Western Vigilance consist of combat vehicles that combine the capacity for rapid deployment with survivability and tactical mobility. They enable combat teams to maneuver in close and urban areas, provide protection in open terrain and transport infantry quickly to critical positions.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 15:33 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#7
I'm guessing that Canadian tunnel was for Hollywood types exiting the fascist state created by Chimpy McHitlerburton.
Posted by: Scott R ||
03/28/2006 17:51 Comments ||
Top||
#8
If this works so well..surprise, surprise..why are we expanding the effort ? This is exactly why Bliss was put there more than 100 years ago. To control the border with Army troops. Let's get back to it. We know it works well.
#9
From 1990 to 1995 I was the TF Commander for the deployment of Active Duty National Guard Troops on the U.S. Mexico Border to conduct counterdrug missions. We supported the US Customs Service at the Ports of Entry doing secondary cargo inspections, and deployed up to ten four-man LP/OP teams conducting clandestine surveillance of trafficking routes to alert the US BP to crossings. We used aircraft and FLIR, and used NVGs and optics to enhance our ability to surveil in stand-off positions. In the latter stages of the operations we were conducted mounted overt patrolling in remote desert areas of the border, as well as overt and clandestine radar surveillance. After five years and literally hundreds of support missions, I can claim a fair understanding of the effect of troops in the border! It works extremely well, especially in a mix of overt and covert operations. The blather that it doesn't comes from people who either have no direct experience, or who have a motive that prefers political expedience to protecting national security.
Posted by: Just About Enough! ||
03/28/2006 20:30 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Thanks for helping keep us safe, Just About Enough. We here appreciate you. :-)
#11
Face it, the citizens of this country have no choice when it comes to accepting illegal immigration. We are absolutely addicted to it and our economy is totally dependent upon it. Business loves the cheap labor, the housing industry loves the increased demand for housing, the retail industy peddles all kinds of goodies to immigrants, policticians salivate over all the campaign contributions from business and votes from immigrant groups. The US is about the only western country that has a positive nonmuslim population growth rate (thanks to immigrants).
I do wonder what will happen if we have a huge recession or the dollar collapses. Will the immigrants merely be marching on Washington if they aren't getting paid, or will they riot (like in LA after R. King)?
Do we want to continue to add people until we have a population the size of India's? Can we stop immigration without causing serious damage to the economy?
#12
SS.. We are absolutely addicted to it and our economy is totally dependent upon it.
thats a lie.
Can we stop immigration without causing serious damage to the economy?
you got that backasswards SS, illegal immigration is causing tremendous damage to the econmy.
Not to mention the respect for our laws, national security, flood of illegal drugs, voting rights, phony ID rackets, or the corrosive nature of a massive invasion of non-citizens on our body politic.
TANK, Pakistan, March 28 (Reuters) - Pakistani police arrested three Kashmir militants carrying explosives and ammunition in a northwestern town near a restive tribal region on Tuesday, a senior police officer said.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SP), Dar Ali Khattak, said the militants were on their way from South Waziristan tribal agency in a four-wheel-drive vehicle when they were apprehended at a checkpoint in Tank, a town in North West Frontier Province bordering the semi-autonomous tribal area. He said the militants belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen, a group engaged in fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, though they were caught some 360 km (225 miles) southwest of the frontier with Indian Kashmir. "We recovered explosives, arms and ammunition, and some manuals for making bombs," Khattak said.
Militancy in Waziristan is more often linked al Qaeda and the Taliban, than groups operating in Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of supporting fighters in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Islamabad denies this, saying it offers only diplomatic and moral support. India is still pressing Pakistan to do more to stamp out militancy, although cross-border infiltration into Indian-held Kashmir has tailed off since the two countries began a peace process at the start of 2004. South Asia's nuclear rivals have fought two of their three wars, since their partition in 1947, over Kashmir.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 14:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
The Indian Government Monday said it was developing transgenic tomatos which could grow in cold environment of Himalayas, for its soldiers posted at Siachen, world's highest battlefield. "One of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation laboratories at high altitude in Himalayas has undertaken the development of transgenic tomato which can grow in the cold environment of Himalayas to provide fresh vegetable to our soldiers guarding our borders," Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Delhi Monday. He said the country needed a second green revolution to meet the challenges of feeding the growing population not only in India but also at the global level. "This could be achieved by developing transgenic plants through biotechnology procedures and tools which can be accomplished by identifying the plants genes responsible for drought resistance, past resistance, saline tolerance and cold tolerance and then develop genetically engineered transgenic plants for our specific needs," Mr Mukherjee said at a conference on Biotechnology and Nanotechnology in the capital city. In view of limited sources of conventional energy and availability of vast resource of biomass in the country, the Defence Minister said India needed to focus its research and development to commercial extraction of energy from biomass. "Bio fuel using plant sources or ethanol and also the blue green algae, which can produce hydrogen gas for use in fuel cell, can contribute to meet the energy needs," he said. Indian soldiers and their Pakistani counterpart are placed at Siachen under difficult circumstances since 1980s.
#2
The Siachen glacier lies in the extreme north-central part of Jammu and Kashmir near the border of India and Tibet. With a length of about 72-km, Siachen is known as the largest glacier in the world outside the Polar Regions. Located on the north-facing slopes of the Karakoram Range, Siachen feeds the Mutzgah or Shaksgam River that flows parallel to the Karakoram Range before entering into Tibet.
Large tributary glaciers like the Shelkar Chorten and Mamostang open into the main glacier from both sides of its trough. The trunk glacier and its tributaries are in the form of a vast ice field, particularly during the winter season when there is continuous snowfall for several weeks at a stretch
Five Islamic militants were shot dead by Indian troops during gunbattles in revolt-hit Kashmir on Monday, a police spokesman said. He said four were killed in three separate gunbattles in the northern district of Kupwara, which borders Pakistan-administered Kashmir. A key member of hardline Lashkar-e-Taiba was killed in another shootout in the southern Doda district, he said.
Isn't it a little early for the Spring Offensive(tm)? Globalwarming comes to the mountain passes of Kashmir.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
MIRANSHAH: Sixty-nine Afghans detained in a crackdown against suspected militants in North Waziristan were freed on Monday and returned home, an official said. Authorities detained 150 Afghans in North Waziristan on suspicion of fighting alongside local militants in battles earlier this month against security forces in the region, a local government official said.
Afghans had been ordered to return home or face punishment following the violence, which killed scores of militants and at least eight soldiers. On Monday, the 69 refugees among those arrested were released after they were cleared of involvement in the fighting by the government, the local government official said. They were driven by security forces in several pickup trucks to Ghulam Khan, a border crossing with Afghanistan and released inside Afghan territory, he said. They were told not to return, the Afghan official said. Also on Monday, 13 more Afghans were detained and their shops sealed for disregarding orders to return, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
Followers of Mufti Munir Shakir and Pir Saifur Rehman were involved in a gunfight in the Sur Dhand area of Bara in Khyber Agency on Monday, in which at least five people were killed and 25 injured. Sources told Daily Times that the gunfight was still underway till the filing of this report. Reports from Bara suggest that the group of Muftis supporters asked Badshah Jee, an Afghan refugee and follower of the Pir, to vacate his house at Sur Dhand and hand over weapons to them. Badshah Jee, however, did not comply and the Mufti Group moved to occupy his house by force. Both the groups used heavy weapons against each other, which led to considerable bloodshed on both sides. Those killed have been identified as Nama Jan, Gul wali, Shango, Rahim and Feroz Khan.
Meanwhile, a press note released from the Governors Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat said that the situation in Bara was normal on Monday after an armed clash between two rival religious groups that left four-five people injured. The clash occurred when followers of Mufti Munir Shakir tried to set Badshahs house in Malik Din Khel on fire. The owner of the house, in retaliation, opened fire on the attackers, who were headed by Mangal Bagh. The political administration exercised maximum restraint, but finally ordered security personnel to open artillery fire to bring the situation under control, the release said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
From BBC: Hundreds of supporters of Mufti Munir Shakir are reported to have attacked the stronghold of rival Afghan cleric, Pir Saifur Rehman, killing at least 16 people late on Monday, officials say. Mullah Rehman's supporters are said to have retaliated on Tuesday, attacking their opponents in the nearby town of Bara. Our correspondent says Mufti Shakir is said to be a hardline fundamentalist who strongly opposes Mullah Rehman's secular Sufi interpretation of Islam. He says some of the dead are believed to be supporters of the Sufi cleric from Afghanistan.
Bara is the main trade route between Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an important town in Khyber agency which borders Afghanistan. The town is also said to be a hub for smuggled goods. Both clerics have been operating illegal FM stations to broadcast their religious beliefs and denounce the rival group as heretics. The two groups have also accused each one another of taking women and children hostage.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 8:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I think newspapers are prejudiced. They constantly have articles about Mulim-against-Muslim violence, but never similar reportng about Lutheran, Episcopalian, Catholic, Jewish, or Bhuddist violence. What? Oh, never mind....
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 15:37 Comments ||
Top||
Four civilians who were sentenced to death by a military court for involvement in an assassination bid on President Gen Pervez Musharraf appealed to the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday. Zubair Ahmed, Rashid Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti and Ikhlas Ahmed, who are presently confined in Attock district jail, were arrested in December 2003 and January 2004 for involvement in the assassination attempt on Gen Musharraf on December 25, 2003. Army intelligence authorities investigated them and then presented a joint summary of evidence in October-November 2004. The accused were challaned and jointly tendered for trial before a Field General Court Martial. The trial was conducted from March 29 to July 21, 2005. The court sentenced the four to death while two others, Rana Naveed and Aamir Sohail, were sentenced to life imprisonment and 20 years in jail respectively.
The appeals of the death convicts were rejected by the military court of appeals. Now they have invoked the jurisdiction of the high court. The defence secretary and federal government have been made respondents in the case. The joint petition, filed by advocate Hashmat Habib and Colonel (r) Muhammad Akram, contends that civilians cannot be tried by a military court under the Pakistan Army Act. The accused also contend that the maximum punishment under the framed charges is life imprisonment and not death sentence under the Pakistan Penal Code.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
ISLAMABAD: The United States consulate in Peshawar has been temporarily closed following bomb threats by unidentified militant groups. Sources in the US consulate said that unidentified militants had threatened to blow the consulate up. The consulate administration contacted the police following the threats and increased security in the area. The consulate would be shifted elsewhere in the city, sources said. According to another report, US Consulate General Michele Supernager decided to close the consulate but refused to share information about its shifting the consulate staff.
Guess they were right:
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb blast killed at least one man and wounded 15 others in Peshawar on Tuesday hours after the United States said it had temporarily closed its consulate in the northwestern Pakistani city after receiving a threat. The blast was caused by explosives planted on a motorcycle parked in a crowded bazaar in the city center, according to the city's Senior Superintendent of Police Operations, Saeed Wazir.
Earlier on Tuesday, a spokeswoman at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad said its consulate in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, had been temporarily closed after receiving a threat. "They received a specific and credible threat," spokeswoman Nida Emmons told Reuters, without elaborating.
Emmons said the consulate had been closed "until further notice", while U.S. and Pakistani authorities coordinated on security measures.
"They may have received bomb threats, but the threat was not so great for them to take such a drastic step," said Malik Zafar Azam, a Law Minister in the Islamist-led provincial government.
NWFP's provincial government is led by an anti-American Islamist alliance, and anti-American sentiments have been further stirred by the conflict in adjoining tribal regions straddling the Afghan-Pakistan border, where Pakistan, Afghan and U.S. troops are fighting Taliban and al Qaeda-inspired insurgents. The United States has maintained its consulate in Peshawar since the 1950s mainly because of the strategic importance of the region during the Cold War and because it lies on the main overland route to Afghanistan. The consulate was particularly busy during the 1980s when the United States covertly funded a guerrilla war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So the US has a consulate in Peshawar? Talk about hardship post. That is jihad central. I would offer those who do it, either Bermuda or Bahamas for their next post.
#3
Peshawar must be a haven for intelligence types, or the diplomatic equivalent of Butte, Montana, for the FBI.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/28/2006 11:31 Comments ||
Top||
#4
A bright spot for the posting - maybe you could slide down to the souk and put in an order for 50,000 Kalishnakovs - get back to your computer and watch the futures market.
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Local Taliban have threatened residents of a Dera Ismail Khan village to give up their annual spring fair with a religious group saying it will hold a conference to eulogise Mujahideen in its place, Daily Times has learnt. The fair is an annual event in Shah Alam village in Durabin that begin from April 1. "People compete in games such as archery and kabaddi and young and old alike participate in the three-day fair," one resident said.
However, Taliban have told the people the fair is "un-Islamic". Ahl-e-Sunnat-wal-Jamaat has announced that it would hold "Azmat-e-Muajhid Conference" at the place where the fair is held every year and leaders of Sipah-e-Sahaba have been invited on the occasion.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
WANA: Six schoolchildren were injured when their bus hit a landmine in Shakai Valley of South Waziristan on Monday, an official and residents said. Two students, between six and nine, were reported in serious condition in hospital, administration officials said in Wana, the regional headquarters of South Waziristan. The incident took place 35 kilometres northwest of Wana in Shakai Valley, which was a stronghold of militants before army operation in June 2004. "The injured students were from a school in Shakai," the officials said. "Two of them are serious," they added.
Meanwhile, militants attacked the airport in North Waziristan causing some damage to runway, security sources in Miranshah said. A rocket landed on the runway at 1.30am on Monday, damaging it mildly.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Local Taliban executed a 25-year-old man for killing a taxi driver in South Waziristan under Islamic law (Sharia), said residents on Monday. The execution is the first case tried under Sharia in the tribal areas.
Hayat Gul was executed on Sunday at an undisclosed location in Ladah sub-division of South Waziristan after a Taliban shura (council) found him guilty. "The accused was buried on Monday," Inayatullah Mehsud, a shopkeeper in Ladah bazaar told Daily Times. "He was a professional car-snatcher - a bad guy."
Gul was accused of killing Bilal, a taxi driver, in Wana a month ago. Bilal's family had appealed to the shura for justice. "Gul pleaded guilty and was allowed to ask for forgiveness from the deceased's family, which rejected his plea," said the shura.
Clerics announced Sharia in South Waziristan on March 10. A NWFP Governor's FATA Secretariat spokesman denied on March 17 that the area had been taken over by the Taliban but added that a peace committee was formed to maintain peace in Waziristan. The execution comes two days after Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao denied the Taliban presence in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sharia - even a stopped clock is right twice a day (or once, depending on format).
#3
Yep. That Tallyban sure is good for getting the trains to run on time.
At least until the Talib Scholars' Association determines that trains are unIslamic and that railway engineers and passengers have humiliated the Profit.
I am not impressed with the Taliban justice system, in any form.
#4
sometimes i wish our justice system worked as fast
I don't. I want every trial to be fair and just, not speedy. At the same time, I think any lawyer that stretched a trial out longer than necessary should get the same sentence as his client. The same goes for those sponsoring constant appeals when there's little or no doubt of the defendant's guilt.
On the other hand, Sharia works too speedily, and there's too much religious bigotry and passioned involvement in what should be a thoughtful, well-reasoned activity.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/28/2006 15:44 Comments ||
Top||
WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. authorities have arrested a translator working in Iraq, charging him with offering a bribe to entice a police official to buy armored vests and other equipment for $1 million.
Faheem Mousa Salam, 27, of Livonia, Mich., was arrested Thursday at Dulles International Airport in suburban Virginia, the Justice Department said. Salam is an employee of the Titan Corp., a government contractor working in Iraq.
He was released from custody after a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington. He is due back in court on April 5.
Salam was charged under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for offering $60,000 to an Iraqi police official who Salam believed could help arrange the purchase of the goods by a police training organization, according to a criminal complaint. Salam said he wanted to sell the group 1,000 vests and a sophisticated map printer, the court papers said.
Salam, described in court papers as a naturalized U.S. citizen, later made similar offers to an undercover investigator who was posing as a purchasing officer for the police group, the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, the complaint said.
If convicted, Salam faces up to five years in prison and a fine of at least $100,000.
The bribery charge is the latest case to emerge from investigations begun by Inspector General Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who was appointed to look into Iraqi reconstruction contracts.
At least seven Americans have been implicated in a separate bribery and kickback scheme involving the award of millions of dollars in reconstruction contracts. Robert J. Stein, a former contracting official in Iraq, pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to steal more than $2 million in reconstruction money and steer contracts to a businessman in exchange for more than $1 million in cash, cars and jewelry.
More on the issue we reported yesterday:
March 28, 2006: The new, heavier, body armor arriving in Iraq is creating a potential public relations problem. Many of the troops don't want to wear the new stuff. Why? Because the heavier new armor could get them killed. The new protective vests includes side armor.
Side armor, which adds about ten pounds to the 16 pound weight of the Interceptor Protective Vest, has been available since 2003 (when 250 sets were sent to Iraq.) About a thousand sets were delivered in 2004, and more last year. Side armor is obviously not new, but its availability has not been widespread. While the side armor provided useful protection, the added weight (for a trooper already carrying over fifty pounds), and material, restricts movement. The new armor is most popular with those guarding convoys. These troops spend most of their time sitting down, and the side armor provides additional protection from roadside bombs, which throw out a lot of fragments, at troops sitting facing forward. The bombs are often accompanied by an ambush force armed with machine-guns and assault rifles. Sometimes, the troops have to get out of their vehicles and battle the ambushers. This is often intense and disorganized combat, with fire coming from all directions. Again, the side armor can be very useful. But the troops won't be running around so long that the additional weight and movement restriction will become a major problem. For the same reason, combat troops that are spending most of their time in their vehicles, don't mind the disadvantages of the side armor. But infantry that are out running around most of the time, going up stairs, through windows and battling the enemy in an urban environment, nimbleness is more important. Some of these guys have been known to leave the back plate, or even the front plate, out, just to save a few pounds. Not being able to scramble through a window in time can get you killed, as can many battlefield maneuvers that put a premium on speed and maneuverability. American commandoes, including Special Forces, often go into action without the body armor, because the consider mobility more important.
These different attitudes towards how much armor to wear are similar to those found in police forces. That's why the police have both lightweight armor (worn by most cops, most of the time) and heavier rigs for SWAT teams or anyone out on a raid, and even heavier getup for bomb disposal personnel.
The senior commanders are under a lot of pressure to "protect the troops." Many people back home have invested a lot of themselves in efforts to get better armor for the troops. Hearing that the troops value lightness and speed, over armor and more weight, will upset some politicians and pundits. But if the opinions of the troops counts for anything, weight matters, often more than anything else.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 08:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
let those who do the fightin' and dyin' do the final decidin'
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/28/2006 9:16 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The fight goes to the swift when it comes to infantry.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/28/2006 11:09 Comments ||
Top||
A militant coalition led by Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch claimed it was begin attack against an Iraqi army center Monday that killed at least 40 people and said the suicide bomber was a Saudi, according to an Internet statement.
"A brother... from Mohammed's Peninsula (Saudi Arabia)... wearing an explosives belt plunged this morning into the crusaders' base northeast of Tal Afar and infiltrated among hundreds of recruits before blowing himself up," said the statement by the Mujahedeen Consultative Council.
"The blessed operation left hundreds killed or wounded," according to the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
At least 40 people were killed and 20 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of people waiting at an army recruitment center near Tal Afar.
The Mujahedeen Consultative Council, established in January, groups seven Sunni Muslim armed factions and is dominated by Al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Saudi Arabia itself has been battling Al-Qaeda militants, and an undetermined number of Saudis are among Arab fighters taking part in the insurgency against US-led and local government forces in Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006 02:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Why do people say that when AQ blows up a bunch of people it makes the people fearful and cooperative, but when the US kills a bunch of AQ it makes the people angry and more likely to join the jihad?
#2
you really got to hand it to this new Iraqi Army though. When they get killed, it's always 20 at a time, 40 at a time. Numbers like that would have the average American citizen's panties in a knot.
#3
Call me disjointed, but is there a contradiction in this?:
"Saudi Arabia itself has been battling Al-Qaeda militants, and an undetermined number of Saudis are among Arab fighters taking part in the insurgency against US-led and local government forces in Iraq."
Seems to me the way the Soddies have been "fighting" these Wahhabi-home grown Islamist terrorists militants is by letting them slipped across the ol' Soddy-Iraq border into Iraq itself.
IRAQ'S ruling parties have demanded US forces cede control of security as the government investigated a raid on a Shiite mosque complex that ministers said involved "cold blooded" killings by US-led troops.
US commanders rejected the charges and said their accusers faked evidence by moving bodies of gunmen killed fighting Iraqi troops in an office compound. It was not a mosque, they said.
As Shiite militiamen fulminated over Sunday's deaths of at least 16 people in Baghdad, an al-Qaeda led group said it staged one of the bloodiest Sunni insurgent attacks in months. A suicide bomber killed 40 Iraqi army recruits in northern Iraq.
The Iraqi Defence Ministry said a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt also wounded 30 at a base near Mosul.
After 24 hours of limited communication, US commanders mounted a media offensive to deny Shiite accounts of a mosque massacre and portray instead a bold and disciplined operation by US-trained Iraqi special forces that killed 16 fighters and freed a hapless Iraqi hostage being held to ransom for $US20,000 ($28,400).
Three gunmen were wounded and 18 people detained.
"After the fact, someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was," Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli said of footage aired extensively on state television showing the bodies of apparently unarmed civilians in a mosque.
"There's been huge misinformation," he said. He insisted he did not know the religious affiliation of the group targeted, although the raid was the fruit of lengthy intelligence work.
He did not spell out his criticism of the Shiite political groups who made the massacre accusations.
Confrontation between the Iranian-linked Shiite leaders and US forces comes at a sensitive time when Washington is pressing them to forge a unity government with minority Sunnis to avert civil war.
Iraq's security minister accused US and Iraqi forces of killing 37 unarmed civilians in the mosque after tying them up.
Residents and police, who put the death toll among the troops' opponents about 20, spoke of a fierce battle between the soldiers and gunmen from the Mehdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers ran the mosque.
Though Lt Gen Chiarelli stressed his forces did not view the site targeted as a mosque, neighbours and clerics insisted it was.
It was not, however, a typical religious building but a compound of former Baath party offices converted by Sadr followers.
Despite confusions, one thing was certain: Shiite leaders are up in arms against the US forces who brought them to power by ousting Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated Baathist regime.
"The Alliance calls for a rapid restoration of (control of) security matters to the Iraqi government," Jawad al-Maliki, a senior spokesman of the Shiite Islamist Alliance and ally of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, told a news conference.
The US handed over formal sovereignty in 2004 but 133,000 troops in the country give it the main say in security.
Baghdad provincial governor Hussein al-Tahan said he would halt all co-operation with US forces.
Aides to Sadr denied any Mehdi Army fighters were present.
But witnesses spoke of a lengthy gun battle: "The shooting lasted for more than an hour," shopkeeper Ali Abdul Jabbar said.
The fiery young cleric's militia was ordered to disband after US forces crushed uprisings in 2004. But it remains a force in southern Iraq and eastern Baghdad, and is accused by US officials of some of the violence that killed hundreds of Sunnis after last month's bombing of a Shiite shrine.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, at the centre of urgent US efforts to stem violence by creating a unity government, has said in recent days that the militias must be brought to heel and accused Iran of funding and training some armed groups. He said militias were now killing more Iraqis than the insurgents.
Mr Khalilzad plans ground-breaking talks with Iran to try to break the deadlock over the formation of a unity government.
Iranian backing seems to have been critical in pushing Sadr to kingmaker status within the Alliance and to securing the nomination of Dawa party leader Jaafari to a second term. Sunni and Kurdish opposition to Mr Jaafari is blocking a government deal.
Alliance leaders stayed away from the daily round of talks on the government, saying the mosque incident kept them busy.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, who has been hosting the negotiations said: "We have to know the truth about what happened, and we must not be driven by rumours. This is a very dangerous incident which we must investigate."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006 00:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Tater and the Iranians need a message. A dead Tater would be a good one.
Posted by: SPoD ||
03/28/2006 3:11 Comments ||
Top||
#2
What would you expect, given that the prime minister was hand-picked by Sadr?
#4
really ZF? I know SCIRI voted against Jaafari, Dawa and and the Sadrists voted in favor. I hadnt heard that Sistani had his hand on the scales. Any source?
#5
Sadr (as might be expected from a student of Ayatollah Haeri) is opposed to Sistani on numerous points of theology as well as politics. The latter has endorsed the UIA, but that's a Shi'ite bloc with like 118 parties of which Dawaa and SCIRI are the largest. SCIRI breaking with Jaafari is one of the reasons why he is increasingly dependent on Sadr and his supporters to stay in power and is thus under enormous pressure to tow their line.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006 12:11 Comments ||
Top||
The death toll from the suicide attack against an Iraqi army base in the city of Mosul has risen to 40 with 30 more injured, a military source said Monday. It added that the attack, which took place in the "Kisk recruitment center, " was mounted by a "suicide terrorist, who detonated an explosive belt near a crowd of volunteer recruits at the center's gate." The number of dead is likely to rise again, given that several of the injured had sustained grave injuries, the source said.
In December 2004, a similar kamikase attack took place in a tent that was used as a mess for US servicemen in Mosul. The attack left 22 dead, including 14 US soldiers and 4 US civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If these guys could get over their dislike of dogs, one wonders if this type of event might be less likely.
#2
Why do they still line up at the gates ?
Have these people so little smarts that they can't figure how to spread out to avoid such catsasstrophies ?
At least seven people died and 30 others suffered injuries when a three-storey building collapsed in southern sector of the Iraqi capital on Monday, a source of the interior ministry said. The source indicated that it was not yet determined whether the building was hit with shells or was blown up with explosives. Rescuers are sifting through the rubble to try locate survivors.
In the Baghdad suburban region of Al-Sadr, a bomb blew up on a bus killing two civilians and wounding six others, a source of the interior ministry reported. Elsewhere, American troops stormed a building occupied by Iraqi interior ministry personnel and detained 40 of the regulars after locating 17 prisoners in the building, a security source told KUNA. The American troops surrounded the building, located in the center of the capital, at dawn before storming it at noon time.
Police in southern city of Basra said Shatt Al-Arab Hotel, occupied by British troops, was attacked with Katyusha rockets, causing some damage.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
A long-range Katyusha rocket was for the first time fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Tuesday, raising fears that Palestinian terror groups had obtained additional weaponry that the IDF has yet to face in its war against Gaza-based terror. The Katyusha rocket, the army said, was a "clear escalation" on the Gaza battlefield and demanded a quick and harsh response. Unlike the homemade short-range Kassam rockets frequently launched at Israel, Katyushas have a range of over 20 kilometers and can carry over 20 kilograms of explosives. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing the Katyusha, which landed south of Ashkelon.
Since the disengagement from the Gaza Strip this past summer, the defense establishment has raised concerns that Palestinians would succeed in smuggling Katyusha rockets into Gaza from Egypt. The Rafah terminal, officials have said, was left "wide open" by European observers and the Palestinians, allowing for the entry of senior Iranian and Syrian terror suspects. The Katyusha fired Tuesday, military officials estimated, was smuggled into Gaza over the Egyptian border.
Egyptian soldiers have taken up positions along the border since Israel pulled out of the Philadelphia Corridor, but to Israel's dismay they have not clamped down on weapons smuggling into Gaza. "With Global Jihad camps based around the corner in Egypt," one senior officer said, "it was only a matter of time before the Palestinians got their hands on Katyusha rockets and other new weaponry."
The Katyusha fired on Tuesday, the army said, had a 122mm diameter and was larger than the rockets fired by the Hizbullah at communities along the northern border in December. The army first believed the projectile fired Tuesday morning was a Kassam rocket but shortly after inspecting the rocket police sappers determined that it was a Katyusha. Palestinian terror groups have for years tried smuggling Katyusha rockets into the Gaza Strip. In 2002, several dozen rockets were seized aboard the Karine A weapons ship intercepted by IDF troops as it made its way to Gaza.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 13:31 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
On Election Day, even. Way to go Paleos. Another opportunity not missed.
Secretary-General Amr Moussa called on Arab leaders Tuesday to move toward a goal of ''entering the nuclear club'' and making use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
Gee, that sounds familar, doesn't it?
The absence of at least 10 heads of state, including President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, raised concerns of a lackluster summit in a year where many had hoped to see serious efforts at dealing with regional troubles.
The 22-member Arab League is contending with complex issues involving Iraq's future and how to deal with a Hamas-led government in the Palestinian territories.
The U.S. State Department has urged Arab leaders to ''be as supportive as possible of the new Iraqi government'' by sending ambassadors and providing economic assistance to Baghdad.
For their part, Arab governments -- already suspicious of non-Arab Iran -- have been irritated by plans for talks on Iraq between Iranian and U.S. officials.
Moussa was particularly emphatic about Iraq in his address.
''Any solution for the Iraqi problem cannot be reached without Arabs, and Arab participation,'' he said. ''Any result of consultations without Arab participation will be considered insufficient and will not lead to a solution.''
Moussa called on Arabs ''to enter into the nuclear club and make use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,'' a plea that comes as the world is wary about nearby Iran's nuclear ambitions.
In his opening speech, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, host of last year's summit, called on Iraqis to close ranks to avoid a sectarian conflict pitting the country's Shiite majority against the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority.
Iraq's neighbors, he said, should ''honestly cooperate with the Iraqi people to preserve the country's integrity and unity.''
The host, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, used his opening speech to praise Palestinian elections and denounce Israel and Western countries that have threatened to cut off aid in response to the victory of the militant Hamas.
''We say no to robbing the Palestinian people of their democratic choice, no to punishing the Palestinian people for exercising their right to choose who rules, and no to succumbing to Israel's violations of all the promises it made,'' he said, winning the applause of the audience of heads of state and delegates.
Hamas' landslide election victory in January has raised fears of a halt in the Mideast peace process. The United States and European Union have threatened to cut direct financial aid vital to keeping the Palestinian Authority running, and Washington has pressed its Arab allies to follow suit.
However, a resolution to be adopted by the leaders meeting in Khartoum will pledge continued Arab funding for the Palestinian Authority.
Al-Bashir also condemned ''terrorism in all its forms'' and called for the use of all means to fight it. But he asked for an international conference to ''agree on an objective definition of terrorism'' -- a long-standing demand by several Arab nations.
Sudan is also hoping to win Arab backing for its position on the conflict in its Darfur region, where it is resisting Western pressure -- and a U.N. resolution -- for the African Union peacekeeping force there to be replaced by a bigger U.N. force.
Two Palestinian terrorists spotted crawling near Gaza's Erez Crossing were shot and killed by IDF troops on Monday, as security forces deployed throughout the country to prevent terror groups from launching attacks which could influence the outcome of Tuesday's elections.
Officials raised the level of alert to a state of emergency, and 22,000 policemen, backing up thousands of IDF troops, were set to deploy throughout the country on Tuesday. They were to be deployed with an emphasis on guarding entrances to cities, major entertainment spots and the seam line with the West Bank. On Monday, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) recorded close to 90 terror threats. In light of the increase in terror threats, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz decided Monday night to bolster the closure on the territories and to close all crossings into Israel from both the West Bank and Gaza. They are due to be reopened Wednesday.
Early Monday, IDF troops from the Givati Brigade's Shaked Battalion spotted a cell of three armed Palestinians crawling between bushes some 250 meters from the northern Gaza Strip security fence. Backed by tank fire and IAF missiles, the troops opened fire and killed two members of the cell. The third, the army said, was wounded but succeeded in fleeing the scene.
Deputy commander of the battalion Maj. Golan Wach said the army had spotted the same cell in the past trying to test the soldiers' alertness along the border. He said the decision to use tank and air fire in addition to the light weapons was part of a new tactic the army has implemented in countering terror attacks from its positions outside the Gaza Strip. The terrorists were identified as members of Islamic Jihad and the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades - the armed branch of the Fatah movement.
Earlier in the day, the IAF fired two missiles at a car in Gaza City wounding two members of the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades. The army said that the two were on their way to fire Kassam rockets at Israel.
Two Palestinian security personnel were injured Monday morning when an Israeli Army aircraft attacked three members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Palestinian security sources said an Israeli reconnaissance plane unleashed two missiles towards the car transporting Mohammad Hijazi, a leader of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and two members of the Brigades in the Al-Sheikh Radhwan town in northern Gaza Strip.
The sources added that all three individuals were unharmed; however two security personnel close to the vehicle were injured. Emergency teams arrived at the site shortly afterwards, while explosive experts defused an Israeli missile that landed in the area but didn't explode. Mohammad Hijazi is one of the individuals on the top of the Israeli wanted list accused of masterminding the missile attacks on Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. Hijazi previously survived two assassination attempts.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"but didn't explode" Are the Israelis having quality control issues with their missiles, or is this an acceptable failure rate?
Posted by: James ||
03/28/2006 0:44 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Isn't that an oxymoron? "Martyrs Brigades leader survives"
I thought martyrs by definition...are, well, martyred? Maybe he should be called Al-Aqsa Cowards Brigades leader.
#3
"Hijazi previously survived two assassination attempts. "
Sounds like he's just extremely lucky.
Mind you to paraprase the IRA, Israel only has to be lucky once.
#4
IIRC, the Israelis disable the warhead and go for a kinetic kill to limit the damage to the occupants of the car. The pilot can divert the missile since he has a live video feed. Most likely they survived because the pilot saw all the baby ducks and puppies and aborted the attack.
Posted by: bruce ||
03/28/2006 6:30 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Sounds like the old joke about the Kamakazi Pilot who flew 37 missions.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/28/2006 8:37 Comments ||
Top||
#6
RJ-
Trouble is, that wasn't a joke. There were more than a few kamikaze who flew several missions - early on in the program they were under orders not to go in unless they could find a target and be sure of destroying it. Many of them literally walked out on the program when it started being no more than throwing bodies at the US Navy.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/28/2006 12:38 Comments ||
Top||
Israeli authorities have closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque Monday morning, allegedly following warnings by Jewish extremists to attack the holy shrines and disrupt the Israeli elections due on Tuesday. Israeli police warned of more than 70 alerts of planned terror attacks to coincide with this week's elections, reported the Haaretz newspaper.
Israeli Police also alleged that Palestinian militants "are planning to use the politically charged time to cause provocations." Israeli police forces were put on high alert status Sunday, 48 hours before the opening of polling stations. A Police spokesman was quoted by Haaretz as saying 22,000 uniformed and undercover officers would deploy at city entrances and at shopping malls and other public places deemed possible targets.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Today is Israel's election day. Who they choose has nothing to do with what will happen next, but everything to do with how Israel responds to what happens next.
Faster please.
Kadima first, with 29 to 32 seats
Labour, 20 to 21 seats.
Israel Beitenu, (a hawkish party largely of Russian immigrants) 12-14 seats (big surprise)
Likud - a disastrous fourth place, 11 to 12 seats.
Shas 10 -11 seats
Pensioners party 6 to 8 seats - huge surprise.
Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip. Local radio stations said an Israeli reconnaissance plane unleashed a missile towards a group of Palestinian resistance members killing Housam Abu Ayada (25 years), and two others. The radio stations added that Abu Ayada from Al-Shate' camp is a member of Al-Quds Brigades, adding that the targeted group included members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades that launched RPG shells towards an Iraqi jeep in the Gaza border area. The Israeli reconnaissance plane attacked the Palestinian group on their way back after executing their attack on the Israeli jeep.
Furthermore, Israeli army sources said that the attack on a car by army planes and two missiles failed to assassinate four Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members in Al-Sheikh Radhwan town northern Gaza. The Israeli sources said that the two missiles failed to hit the car, however two passers-by were injured, adding that Israeli attacks are targeting leaders of Palestinian factions responsible for daily missile attacks on Israel. Meanwhile, an Israeli army spokesman said that Israeli tanks unleashed several shells and opened fire towards a group of armed Palestinian gunmen near the Irza barrier.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
The military on Tuesday blamed the Abu Sayyaf Group for the latest bombing in Jolo, Sulu, which killed at least five people and injured 17.
Brig. Gen. Jose Angel Honrado, Armed Forces spokesman, said the bombing is consistent with previous Abu Sayyaf attacks.
He said five people were confirmed killed in the blast with 17 more injured. Wires reports earlier counted nine people killed and more than 20 injured.
Tho bomb blast occurred at around 1:15 p.m., Monday, at the two-story Sulu Consumers Cooperative near the Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo Town Plaza. Authorities said the bomb was planted on the ground floor of the building.
Initial military reports suggested that the bomb was made from a combination of chemicals, possibly ammonium nitrate and shrapnel.
"It was probably ammonium nitrate, but we are still investigating the blast," Army Brig. Gen. Alexander Aleo said.
Air Force Maj. Gamal Hayudini, a spokesman for the Southern Command, said troops sent to the blast site searched the area for explosives but so far have found nothing. "The situation is under control and authorities have tightened security in Jolo," Hayudini said in a separate interview.
Two weeks ago in Jolo, Abu Sayyaf weapons courier Julkaram Hadjail was captured, and several militants killed in a separate clash.
Security forces also recovered early this month a cache of Abu Sayyaf explosives and homemade bombs near a highway in Indanan, Jolo, where troops regularly pass.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006 01:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
MANILA: At least nine people were killed and more than 20 seriously wounded Monday in a bomb blast on the restive southern Philippine island of Jolo, police and witnesses said. "As of the moment, we have an initial nine dead on the spot," Jolo provincial police chief Ahiron Ajirin told reporters. The bomb was planted on the ground floor of a two-storey building along a busy street in the centre of Jolo town. Those killed were mostly employees working in a cooperative there, he said.
Police set up road blocks around the town and many businesses closed early following the blast. An AFP reporter said he saw more than 20 people with severe burns taken to Jolo's provincial hospital. Part of the building's facade fell to the ground after the explosion, the second deadly bomb attack to hit the area this year. No group has claimed responsibility. Ajirin said one man had been taken in for questioning but would not say if he was a suspect.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Irans Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is dying of cancer. But he is convinced that his legacy will be glorious. He believes that thousands of his Revolutionary Guards intelligence officers effectively control southern Iraq, and that the rest of the country is at his mercy, since we present no challenge to them even along the Iraq/Iran border, where they operate with impunity. They calmly plan their next major assault without having to worry about American retribution. The mullahs have thousands of intelligence officers all over Iraq, as well as a hard core of Hezbollah terrorists including the infamous Imadh Mughniyah, arguably the regions most dangerous killer and they control the major actors, from Zarqawi to Sadr to the Badr Brigades.
Think DOD needs to hire a publistist or media agency? How about Rantburg News Divison
#4
Control is a funny thing. The US has been aware of this infiltration from the get-go. Funny how we have done absolutely nothing about it, even though we have a huge number of SOCOM personnel in country who job it is exactly to do something about situations like this.
That's the problem with the Pentagon, they never plan for things like armed conflict.
Iran appears to favor the "Made in Germany" brand in its controversial quest for a nuclear program. Customs officers are probing suspected illegal exports of specialized German equipment to Iran's nuclear reactor in Bushehr via Russia.
German prosecutors said on Monday they had uncovered a procurement network that has been illegally supplying equipment to Iran's nuclear industry via Russia.
The state prosecutor's office in Potsdam near Berlin said customs officers had raided 41 firms across Germany, one of which was under suspicion of having knowingly delivered material to Iran in contravention of German export restrictions. No arrests have been made.
"Five or six firms delivered goods to Iran. We suspect that one of the companies knew where the equipment was headed," Potsdam prosecutor Benedikt Welfens told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "The other firms thought the equipment they were supplying was destined for Russia, for which no export restrictions apply."
Welfens declined to name the firms but said they were all small to medium-sized rather than multinational. He said the only company accused of breaking the law was based near Frankfurt in western Germany.
The West suspects Iran is covertly seeking to build an atomic weapon. Iran denies this, saying it is pursuing nuclear programs purely for civilian use.
Russia, which has a $1 billion stake in Iran's Bushehr nuclear-reactor project, has put up the toughest resistance among major powers to the US-led push for the United Nations Security Council to order Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activity that could produce fuel for an atomic bomb.
Welfens said the investigation had been underway since September 2004 but that customs authorities had only recently received information that material shipments had arrived in Iran. The goods were supplied to the Bushehr reactor, he said.
Peripheral materials, Russian middlemen
The German firms delivered so-called "dual use" equipment -- material with both civilian and military applications -- such as pumps, electronic components, transformers and steel cables.
"The material was not of crucial significance for the nuclear industry, it was peripheral rather than core. It did not include centrifuges," the prosecutor said.
Welfens said goods worth a total of 3 million are believed to have been exported illegally. Apart from specialized cable, no equipment has been confiscated. "We have been following a paper trail," he said.
He said a front company based in Berlin and staffed by seven people, mainly Russians, had contacted firms throughout Germany in their search for equipment. The material was transported overland to Russia via the German-Polish border town of Frankfurt/Oder and then shipped to Iran over the Caspian Sea. The company no longer exists.
"There are no signs that the Russian authorities knew anything about this," said Welfens. "We can't rule out that the Iranians approached Russian middlemen directly. It doesn't appear to have been handled very professionally. The middlemen would go around offering cash." None of the men is in custody.
Welfens said he hoped the raids would act as a deterrent to firms. Last month German authorities jailed two men suspected of buying weapons and missile technology on behalf of Iranian intelligence services.
Prosecutors said the two men had been shopping for control components for projectiles, equipment for the production of European Ariane IV launch vehicle rockets, military radio and night-vision equipment.
Although customs officials were able to stop one shipment of items out of Germany, authorities are investigating whether other shipments could have successfully left the country.
German prosecutors are also in contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna as they investigate German involvement in a nuclear black market that supplied Iran, Libya and North Korea with uranium enrichment technology that can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants or weapons.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/28/2006 9:18 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Why is this such a common thing from Germany?
Seems to me its like asking the question; Why are Belgium front companies always breaking arms embargos? Location, location, location. Much of the contraband material itself is manufactured in certain European countries. Those countries have, or are in close proximity to other countries, with less then rigid transit requirements. Inability, or in some cases refusal, to enforce laws necessary to mitigate the flow of contraband make these attractive transit hubs. By design, nefarious groups such as the Russian syndicate have set up shop in close proximity to these hubs. Governments should be held accountable for enforcement, but make no mistake, these soulless Profiteers have no sincere allegiance to any god or government.
#4
Not the first time. Iran has gotten Dutch night vision equipment, Swedish patrol craft, Italian munitions, US computers, medical gear, jet parts, and other equipment. Lots of places to get stuff. Lots of folks liking to make a buck.
I've turned the detail page back on for Thugburg. I'll expect us to go down again in the next 24 hours when the site in Germany starts mining it again. When that happens, I'll ban their IP. So, if you're reading, rather than mining, you've been warned. If you're not reading, I don't care.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Are you sure they're data miners and not trying to mount a DDoS attack?
Posted by: Phil ||
03/28/2006 1:06 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/28/2006 2:52 Comments ||
Top||
#4
OT : I liked the GWI pages and thought this was a good addition; will the esteemed site boss and owner ever put it back on line, perhaps even taking the time and effort to give us his thoughts on the GWII/removal of the baasist entity, in a similar format?
#8
I'm a spoiled waste of skin, that's my problem. And I would probably have killed the pony sitting on it, anyway.
"Hair Through the Ages", didn't notice that until now, is it a recent feature? And was it carefully crafted by the RB Supremo or an accomplice? It's neat and fun, good job : "let's waste more time on the internet, reading a snarky review of hairdos through History, yeah!"
#11
Sad thing is, I have just nothing to back that egomania, except for the stuff I buy. But, even if I have no qualities, haven't never done anything in my life, and is a black hole of negativity, powerlessness, and bitterness, well, I'm mostly harmless. That's nice, I think.
#12
To continue in the same vein, I've browsed the QRM sites, wasn't aware of them (only remembered the alternate RB url) : Mr. Pruitt, do you still have your pages about the leftists websites, complete with color-codes, snarky comments, and the like?
IIRC, you did this before RB, which has taken precedence over it, I think you quit for following the WOT, but I'm sure people who didn't know that leftist sites guide would enjoy it, even if it's not up to date anymore.
A kind of "discover the network", only sillier and funnier.
#13
a5089, you have a delightful mind. If you can wait long enough, trailing daughter #2 plans to need a trailing husband to handle the homefront and charm guests with his intelligence and obscure knowledge, allowing her career to take the family around the world. Of course she's not yet in high school, but it's always important to have a backup plan. ;-)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The State Security Specialized Penal Court postponed the trial of 17 suspects accused of forming an armed band and plotting to attack U.S. citizens in Yemen. Last Saturdays session was devoted to final appeals, upon request of the prosecutor, who said he had evidence revealing names of new suspects. The court allowed Prosecution to speak with jail officials concerning prison law application and transferring suspects to the Central Prison. At the session, the prosecutor told the court he has a list of new suspects, which he will show court staff this Saturday after investigating them. He also discussed the courts previous decision to refer two suspects to a legitimate physician and allow their families to visit them.
The Indian Government Monday said it was developing transgenic tomatos which could grow in cold environment of Himalayas, for its soldiers posted at Siachen, world's highest battlefield. "One of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation laboratories at high altitude in Himalayas has undertaken the development of transgenic tomato which can grow in the cold environment of Himalayas to provide fresh vegetable to our soldiers guarding our borders," Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Delhi Monday. He said the country needed a second green revolution to meet the challenges of feeding the growing population not only in India but also at the global level. "This could be achieved by developing transgenic plants through biotechnology procedures and tools which can be accomplished by identifying the plants genes responsible for drought resistance, past resistance, saline tolerance and cold tolerance and then develop genetically engineered transgenic plants for our specific needs," Mr Mukherjee said at a conference on Biotechnology and Nanotechnology in the capital city. In view of limited sources of conventional energy and availability of vast resource of biomass in the country, the Defence Minister said India needed to focus its research and development to commercial extraction of energy from biomass. "Bio fuel using plant sources or ethanol and also the blue green algae, which can produce hydrogen gas for use in fuel cell, can contribute to meet the energy needs," he said. Indian soldiers and their Pakistani counterpart are 
Five Islamic militants were shot dead by Indian troops during gunbattles in revolt-hit Kashmir on Monday, a police spokesman said. He said four were killed in three separate gunbattles in the northern district of Kupwara, which borders Pakistan-administered Kashmir. A key member of hardline Lashkar-e-Taiba was killed in another shootout in the southern Doda district, he said.
MIRANSHAH: Sixty-nine Afghans detained in a crackdown against suspected militants in North Waziristan were freed on Monday and returned home, an official said. Authorities detained 150 Afghans in North Waziristan on suspicion of fighting alongside local militants in battles earlier this month against security forces in the region, a local government official said.
Followers of Mufti Munir Shakir and Pir Saifur Rehman were involved in a gunfight in the Sur Dhand area of Bara in Khyber Agency on Monday, in which at least five people were killed and 25 injured. Sources told Daily Times that the gunfight was still underway till the filing of this report. Reports from Bara suggest that the group of Muftis supporters asked Badshah Jee, an Afghan refugee and follower of the Pir, to vacate his house at Sur Dhand and hand over weapons to them. Badshah Jee, however, did not comply and the Mufti Group moved to occupy his house by force. Both the groups used heavy weapons against each other, which led to considerable bloodshed on both sides. Those killed have been identified as Nama Jan, Gul wali, Shango, Rahim and Feroz Khan.
Four civilians who were sentenced to death by a military court for involvement in an assassination bid on President Gen Pervez Musharraf appealed to the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday. Zubair Ahmed, Rashid Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti and Ikhlas Ahmed, who are presently confined in Attock district jail, were arrested in December 2003 and January 2004 for involvement in the assassination attempt on Gen Musharraf on December 25, 2003. Army intelligence authorities investigated them and then presented a joint summary of evidence in October-November 2004. The accused were challaned and jointly tendered for trial before a Field General Court Martial. The trial was conducted from March 29 to July 21, 2005. The court sentenced the four to death while two others, Rana Naveed and Aamir Sohail, were sentenced to life imprisonment and 20 years in jail respectively.
ISLAMABAD: The United States consulate in Peshawar has been temporarily closed following bomb threats by unidentified militant groups. Sources in the US consulate said that unidentified militants had threatened to blow the consulate up. The consulate administration contacted the police following the threats and increased security in the area. The consulate would be shifted elsewhere in the city, sources said. According to another report, US Consulate General Michele Supernager decided to close the consulate but refused to share information about its shifting the consulate staff. 
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Local Taliban have threatened residents of a Dera Ismail Khan village to give up their annual spring fair with a religious group saying it will hold a conference to eulogise Mujahideen in its place, Daily Times has learnt. The fair is an annual event in Shah Alam village in Durabin that begin from April 1. "People compete in games such as archery and kabaddi and young and old alike participate in the three-day fair," one resident said. 
WANA: Six schoolchildren were injured when their bus hit a landmine in Shakai Valley of South Waziristan on Monday, an official and residents said. Two students, between six and nine, were reported in serious condition in hospital, administration officials said in Wana, the regional headquarters of South Waziristan. The incident took place 35 kilometres northwest of Wana in Shakai Valley, which was a stronghold of militants before army operation in June 2004. "The injured students were from a school in Shakai," the officials said. "Two of them are serious," they added. 
Local Taliban executed a 25-year-old man for killing a taxi driver in South Waziristan under Islamic law (Sharia), said residents on Monday. The execution is the first case tried under Sharia in the tribal areas.
WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. authorities have arrested a translator working in Iraq, charging him with offering a bribe to entice a police official to buy armored vests and other equipment for $1 million.
The death toll from the suicide attack against an Iraqi army base in the city of Mosul has risen to 40 with 30 more injured, a military source said Monday. It added that the attack, which took place in the "Kisk recruitment center, " was mounted by a "suicide terrorist, who detonated an explosive belt near a crowd of volunteer recruits at the center's gate." The number of dead is likely to rise again, given that several of the injured had sustained grave injuries, the source said.
Two Palestinian security personnel were injured Monday morning when an Israeli Army aircraft attacked three members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Palestinian security sources said an Israeli reconnaissance plane unleashed two missiles towards the car transporting Mohammad Hijazi, a leader of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and two members of the Brigades in the Al-Sheikh Radhwan town in northern Gaza Strip.
MANILA: At least nine people were killed and more than 20 seriously wounded Monday in a bomb blast on the restive southern Philippine island of Jolo, police and witnesses said. "As of the moment, we have an initial nine dead on the spot," Jolo provincial police chief Ahiron Ajirin told reporters. The bomb was planted on the ground floor of a two-storey building along a busy street in the centre of Jolo town. Those killed were mostly employees working in a cooperative there, he said. 
![PM Manmohan Singh cranks off a few [.51] on Siachen Glacier](http://www.siachen.ch/upload/Immagini/RETRO-16.jpg){kind=link}
