The U.S. military plans to introduce direct energy weapons in Iraq later this year.
As part of Project Sheriff, the Army also plans to introduce directed energy weapons in Afghanistan. Officials said the weapons would employ short-range and millimeter waves.
The Defense Department has accelerated development of energy beam weapons for non-lethal missions in Iraq. The weapons would be supplied to the U.S. Army to help control hostile crowds without the use of gunfire.
The Pentagon has granted a contract to Raytheon to development the weapons. The company has already delivered a prototype vehicle and conducted demonstrations.
"This system will protect U.S. and allied war fighters operating in dangerous urban settings while reducing the number of civilian casualties," Mike Booen of Raytheon said.
The weapons have been integrated into the Stryker combat vehicle. Other platforms would also receive the energy beam systems, officials said.
The first prototype with energy weapons was delivered earlier this year. Officials said three prototypes would be produced and sent to Iraq in mid-2006. Sounds like we are expecting large rent-a-mob riots. In both countries would seem to imply a single, causitive factor, read "Iran".
#1
gonna be a big bullet magnet though if not used discreetly or heavily protected area - maybe greenzone gate gaurd and police station overwatch type set ups i'd think - very interesting stuff indeed.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - At 10 p.m. Tuesday, on a cool, cloudless night in Afghanistan, Private Robert Costall and 30 fellow members of Canada's Quick Reaction Force were scrambled into helicopters at Kandahar Airfield and whisked to the lawless wastes of Sangin district, a difficult corner of a dangerous land.
Five hours later, Pte. Costall was dead, and his fellow soldiers were in the midst of the most serious and deadly battle faced by Canadian soldiers in 32 years.
A U.S. soldier and an unspecified number of Afghan army troops also died in the battle -- as did a reported 33 Taliban insurgents.
Not since the death of three Canadian peacekeepers in 1974 -- killed defending Nicosia airport in Cyprus -- has a Canadian soldier been killed during a firefight with enemy troops.
The Battle of Sangin began on Tuesday afternoon in Helmand province in south-central Afghanistan, outside the normal operating area for Canadian soldiers based in the neighbouring province of Kandahar.
An Afghan National Army convoy -- on a resupply mission to a forward operating base (FOB) in Sangin district, a remote area in the northern reaches of the Helmand desert -- was ambushed by Taliban insurgents.
The Taliban first hit the convoy with small-arms fire and then with a remotely detonated roadside bomb.
Eight Afghan soldiers died in the ambush, according to military officials. While the Taliban were temporarily driven off, the disabled convoy became stranded on a lonely road eight kilometres from the FOB -- a collection of tents and dug-in defensive positions surrounded by razor wire and manned by Afghan soldiers and a handful of American troops.
On Tuesday night, as troops from the Sangin FOB struggled to get help to the stranded convoy, the base itself came under attack from Taliban forces around its perimeter.
Decisions were made in Kandahar to send air support, and British Harrier fighter-bombers were launched, as were American Apache attack helicopters and B-52 heavy bombers.
By 10 p.m., Canadian Brigadier-General David Fraser, commander of all coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, also ordered his Quick Reaction Force to support the Afghan and U.S. soldiers under attack at the FOB.
A Canadian combat platoon, on special duty this month for rapid deployment anywhere in southern Afghanistan, boarded helicopters for the hour-long flight to Sangin.
The Canadians landed in a tight situation; the Sangin FOB was already under siege, but worse was still to come.
At around 2 a.m., a "significant force" of Taliban launched their main assault on the base, "during which a pretty fierce firefight ensued," according to British Colonel Chris Vernon, chief of staff to Brig.-Gen. Fraser.
Details of the firefight itself remain unclear, yet it appears the coalition troops, firing rifles, machine guns and mortars from inside the FOB, fought off a sustained assault on the base.
Col. Vernon also suggested yesterday that many of the Taliban casualties likely came from the air -- from rockets fired by helicopters and the Harrier jets and from bombs dropped by the B-52 bombers.
Col. Vernon said that after the main attack was repulsed, coalition air forces destroyed a local compound where insurgents were believed to have taken refuge.
Yet Col. Vernon also said the situation remained "a little bit unclear" yesterday, as coalition forces assessed the fallout of the battle from the ground and from the air.
What was clear, he said, was that the size and intensity of the Taliban attack had taken coalition army commanders by surprise.
"The size and tenacity may have slightly exceeded our estimates," he said.
"The Taliban generally operate in small groups of eight to 10 and they will generally avoid confrontation against larger numbers. Their coherence as a fighting unit in Western military terms is not great. Their co-ordination measures are not great ... but the only thing I will say is they are brave.
"However, there is always a fine line between bravery and stupidity."
Army officials have not yet explained how Pte. Costall and his American and Afghan counterparts were killed or how three other Canadians were wounded before being evacuated by helicopter to Kandahar.
Afghan radio reporter Humayon Shaieb, a correspondent for Voice of America, told Col. Vernon he had received reports yesterday that a number of civilians had been killed and homes destroyed when bombs fell on their town during the battle.
"I find that very unlikely," Col. Vernon said. "I've seen aerial photographs of the forward operating base. It's in the middle of nowhere, and the Taliban attack came over open ground.
"There is not a lot of Afghan habitation in that area at all. So I cannot see in any way how any degree of civilian damage could have been done."
Sangin is a clear line of communication for the Taliban because it is part of the Helmand River valley, where several roads converge and then move northward.
It sits in the heart of a major poppy-growing area for the opium trade, which helps fuel the Afghan insurgency.
The Sangin FOB is meant to give the Afghan army and its coalition allies a military presence in the area, in the hopes of bringing law and order to the district.
#1
It sits in the heart of a major poppy-growing area for the opium trade, which helps fuel the Afghan insurgency.
And that is why the "Taliban" group was bigger than 8-10. Maybe a few "taliban" sprinkled in, but for the most part drug smugglers and hired guns trying to drive off outsiders.
#4
Oops, on second glance, I see 33 dead applicants.
Applications are being accepted for reward virgins. When the new shipment of baby pigs virgins comes in, they will be assigned on a first come, first served basis.
#9
I loved that quote too, RD! A very fine line, indeed for many!
Posted by: BA ||
03/30/2006 12:22 Comments ||
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Don't be surprised to read the Canadian Left Press (which is basically all of Canadian media) calling this Canada's modern-day Dieppe! Quagmire, Bush's War, blah, blah, balh , blah...
Posted by: john ||
03/30/2006 20:15 Comments ||
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Why do I get the impression that the whole FOB concept and operating principle is similar in concept and operating principle to the Firebase concept and operating principle used in Viet Nam?
It failed there (overall, although on the whole it did appear to be successful for awhile) so why are we using it here?
Doesn't anyone learn from history? This isn't cowboys and indians and forts on the friggin' frontier.
Kenyan police were on red alert Tuesday after two people were arrested in the capital with 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of ammonium nitrate and a variety of bomb detonators and fuses, a top police official said.
The two Kenyans were arrested in the eastern part of Nairobi with the ammonium nitrate, which can be used to make bombs, and 500 long-range bomb detonators, 150 detonation short-range detonators, 45 pieces of connectors and 52 rolls of detonating material for both and long- and short-range bomb detonators, Criminal Investigations Department Director Joseph Kamau told the privately owned Capital FM radio station.
Kamau said that investigators suspect sabotage and conspiracy with suspects from other countries that he did not identify, the station reported.
Kenya's entire security system is on red alert, Kamau told the station.
Kamau did not give any other details.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:45 ||
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A U.N. official wounded in a raid two weeks ago on a United Nations compound in southern Sudan has died, the world body's refugee agency said Wednesday. Nabil Bahjat Abdulla, a 48-year-old Iraqi, died Tuesday night in a hospital in Nairobi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. Abdulla was shot three times in the stomach when gunmen attacked the UNHCR compound in the town of Yei on March 15, also killing a Sudanese guard.
"Once again, the humanitarian community is mourning a friend and colleague who died trying to help others in a place that has already seen far too much sadness and violence," U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement. "All of us at UNHCR mourn Nabil's death and we extend our deepest condolences to his family. We pay tribute to his life, and his sacrifice will never be forgotten."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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What a hell hole.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/30/2006 0:10 Comments ||
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#2
condolences - a waste for a wasteful cause/institution, but done for all the right reasons. A bombing raid of Khartoum would've done more good and saved this poor man's life
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2006 0:20 Comments ||
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Agreed, frank. However, I do find it interesting that an Iraqi would go there to try and work on humanitarian issues. I'd like to know a lil' more about his background and his reasons for doing so. Could be because he got a taste of freedom post-Saddam and decided to spread the word. Or, just a convenient UN position. Either way, I applaud him as an individual. The corporate body of the UN on the other hand is a waste. We could do more arming and training the southern Sudanese to rise up against the janjaweed than any UN Humanitarian "mission" could do.
Posted by: BA ||
03/30/2006 12:08 Comments ||
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One of Algerias most prominent militant has criticised an Al Qaeda-linked guerrilla group for continuing its fight for an Islamic state, according to a statement faxed to journalists yesterday.
Hassan Hattab, a founder of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), called on its members to accept a government amnesty under which they can lay down their guns in return for immunity from prosecution.
Hattab, also known as Abu Hamza, said in the statement that he no longer regarded those guerrillas still fighting to be members of the organisation he founded, because their actions would harm Muslims.
The GSPC dissociates itself from this small group ... a group that still refuses to lay down arms ... Any statement that is not signed by Hassan Hattab should not be taken into consideration, the statement said. There was no way of confirming the authenticity of the statement. But the wording and method of distribution was similar to Hattabs previous messages.
Algeria plunged into conflict when militants unleashed a holy war or jihad after the army cancelled elections in 1992, which the radical Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was set to win. Authorities then feared an Iranian style revolution and an estimated 200,000 people were killed during the Islamic uprising.
It is not known whether Hattab himself has accepted amnesty. But speculation he had reached some sort of accommodation with the government arose last year when he gave an interview in Algeria to the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper supporting the amnesty.
The GSPC was formed in 1998 when Hattab broke away from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in protest at its many massacres of civilians. He said the GSPC would focus its attacks on police and soldiers. Algeria has already freed hundreds of jailed Islamist fighters including a founder of the GIA, Abdelhak Layada.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:25 ||
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Saudi security forces have thwarted a terrorist attack on Saudi Arabia's largest oil refinery Abqaiq, the second in two months, according to media reports. The Kuwaiti news agency KUNA and the Iraqi Radio Nawa report that police discovered two car bombs in the area. Local daily al-Riyadh reports that Saudi police on Tuesday carried out house searches in the al-Mantar area of Abqaib, where some employees of Saudi oil giant Aramco live, arms and explosive were discovered in one of the homes and one man was arrested. Reports say that the vehicles to be used in the attack bore the company logo.
On 24 February Saudi Arabian security forces opened fire on at least two cars apparently commandeered by would-be suicide bombers, thwarting an attack on the Abqaiq oil processing plant in the east of the country. The cars exploded near gates leading to the facility, Saudi officials said.
The oil output at the plant, the largest of its kind in the world, was not affected by the incident, Saudi state television reported.
Saudi security adviser Nawaf Obaid was quoted as saying that Saudi security forces fired on three cars packed with explosives as they rammed the outer gates of the facility, 1.5 kilometres from the main entrance. He said the three cars exploded.
"Three cars rammed the first of the three sets of gates protecting Abqaiq, and when security shot at them, all three cars exploded," Obaid said.
Pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya said the attackers had been killed. It added the cars they used had the logo of Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:07 ||
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#1
I'm still saving popcorn for the princeling on rinceling civil war
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2006 0:17 Comments ||
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Four Yemenis accused of kidnapping five Italian tourists in a lawless area of Yemen in January were each sentenced to 20 years in jail Wednesday. The men, from the Al-Zaidi clan, were jailed by a Sanaa court for planning and carrying out the kidnapping. Two others, from the Al-Ameri clan, received five- and 10- year sentences for abetting the crime. The Italians, three women and two men, were freed after a five-day ordeal in the Maarib region following a standoff between security forces and the kidnappers.
One defense lawyer said the court ruling was unfair and vowed to press ahead with an appeal. "It is an unjust ruling and did not take into account the defense case which is that the defendants did not kidnap the tourists with the intent to hurt them but to pressure the government to release relatives imprisoned by authorities without a trial," said Mohammad Tuaiman.
Interesting line of defense. They said they were going to kill them. What else were they gonna do? Put them up in the guest room for the next 60 years?
The heavily guarded courtroom was packed with the defendants' relatives, most of them in traditional tribal dress.
... alternating between making faces and uttering threats and chewing qat...
"Kidnapping is a peaceful way of diffusing the tension between tribesmen and the army," said the brother of Merai al-Ameri, who received the 10-year prison term.
Ummm... Right. I love the incisive reasoning of the Arab mind.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Saudi Arabian security forces discovered and disarmed two explosive devices planted in two separate vehicles Tuesday in the province of Bafeeq east Saudi Arabia, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported Wednesday. Security forces broke into a house in Al-Muntaar town where Saudi Arabian Oil Company Aramco employees live, to find two booby trapped cars with the company's logo on them. The daily said that several bombs, machine guns and explosive materials were found, adding that the owner of the house was arrested and is currently being interrogated.
Security forces were able to stop a terrorist attack Feb 24th that targeted an Aramco oil site in Bafeeq province, considered one of the major oil refinery facilities in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB) ehsar (full-time) member Tarikul Islam in his confessional statement before a First Class Magistrate in Sirajganj yesterday said he along with six other cadres took part in the August 17 bomb blasts in the town. The six are Shahi, Rashid, Bashir, Manik, Ahsan and Jewel. He gave the statement before Magistrate Monira Begum under Section 164, police said. Tarikul was placed on three days fresh remand when he was produced before the court on expiry of his seven day's remand.
In Gaibandha, JMB commander Lutfur Rahman, arrested on Tuesday, was placed on seven days' remand. Lutfur was arrested by Shaghata police from Barokora village. According to our Sirajganj Correspondent, Tarikul, son of Abu Bakkar of Jamua village in Kamar Kanda upazila, was arrested by Detective Branch police from Shial Khol bus stand in Sirajganj town on March 19. Tarikul said he was recruited by JMJB chief Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and become an Ehsar member when he was a student of Rani Bazar Qwami Madrasa in Rajshahi. Earlier, he studied at Koyra Fazil Senior Madrasa. Three years ago, he took part in three days' arms training conducted by Bangla Bhai in Comilla, he told the magistrate. The August 17 bombing in Sirajganj was ordered by JMB chief Abdur Rahman, he said.
Prior to the bombing, JMB cadres held a secret meeting at his house in Jamua village, where JMB chief Abdur Rahman's son-in-law Abdul Awal and JMB 'operations commander' Ataur Rahman Sunny were also present, Tarikul said. The bombs used on August 17 in Sirajganj town were made at Abdul Awal's house in Bogra and brought to Sirajganj by JMB cadre Jewel in a bus. Police said they will soon submit charge sheet in the August 17 incident, in which Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai will be included.
Our Gaibandha Correspondent reports: Police said Lutfur Rahman's younger brother Mamunur Rashid Mamun, an alleged JMB commander, is also wanted by police for his involvement in the August 17 serial bomb blast in Gaibandha. He is also accused in several cases filed against him in Bogra and Sherpur. Lutfar was hiding since the August 17 bomb blasts.
Meanwhile, according to reports received from Naogaon, a team of army explosives expert led by Capt. Tanveer Tuesday defused seven grenades recovered from the house of JMB cadre Sekander Ali at Parkasurida village in Atrai upazila is the district last month. Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) recovered the grenades during a raid but Sekander managed to flee. Rab filed a case against Sekander and another JMB cadre in Gaibandha, but the two are yet to be arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Wonder if it's tough getting henna in the joint?
Four men have been arrested at a Staffordshire hospital under the Terrorism Act. Staffordshire Police arrested the men after a police unit, which included firearms officers, was called to the Stafford District General Hospital. The four are being held at a police station in the county. A fifth man who was being treated at the hospital was transferred to another hospital for specialist treatment, police said. Got the Ricin under his nails did he?A Staffordshire Police spokeswoman said the men were arrested "under the Terrorism Act 2000 as a result of information received".
"They were arrested by officers from the force's incident management unit which included some specialist firearms officers," she said. "The men are now in custody at police stations in Staffordshire."
Two sections of the hospital car park are still cordoned off with police tape, with two police cars parked nearby. Armed officers arrived at the car park at 2145 BST on Wednesday after being alerted by staff at the hospital. Martin Yeates, chief executive of the Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals Trust, said access was restricted for a "short period" and ambulances diverted to other hospitals.
"From this morning the hospital has been operating as normal and patients should attend their appointments as normal," he said. "The hospital operated as normal throughout the night. Hospital patients were unaffected by the police operation."
Buckingham Palace has confirmed a scheduled visit of the Queen to Stafford on Friday will be going ahead as planned. A spokeswoman said: "As it stands, there is no change to the royal visit and the Queen will be arriving in Stafford tomorrow morning." Stafford's Labour MP David Kidney said he thought there was "no substance" in the incident and thought it was probably members of hospital staff being over zealous in reporting something suspicious ahead of the Queen's visit.
Better safe than sorry. Linkey fixed
.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/30/2006 06:35 ||
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#1
Link to the original story? Or is there one? I'd like to look for names, because I suspect the reporting lacks any.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/30/2006 7:11 Comments ||
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Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/30/2006 7:45 Comments ||
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#3
Buckingham Palace has confirmed a scheduled visit of the Queen to Stafford on Friday will be going ahead as planned.
Bingo - not printed in original piece.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/30/2006 7:48 Comments ||
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#4
Praytell, is "Firearms Officer" English for bobbies who are authorized to carry firearms in Tony Blair's kinder, gentler police force? I had read, I believe, that not all officers in the UK can carry weapons...
#5
Yes 'Firearms Officers' are bobbies with the extra-special responsibility of carrying a loaded weapon. You also correctly assert that most bobbies are unarmed.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
03/30/2006 10:10 Comments ||
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A wave of simultaneous blasts in Britain was called for by a senior group figure, a court is told A SENIOR al-Qaeda figure told Islamist terrorists to unleash a wave of multiple, simultaneous bombings in Britain, the Old Bailey was told yesterday. One associate also allegedly suggested using a remote-controlled model aeroplane packed with explosives.
Mohammed Babar, an American terrorist with links to al-Qaeda, is giving evidence against his alleged former accomplices. The seven men, all from southeast England, are charged with conspiring to attack a British target.
Babar told the court that one defendant, Omar Khyam, 24, travelled with another man to a remote tribal area of Pakistan to meet Abu Munthir, who reported directly to al-Qaedas No 3. Babar said that Mr Khyam wanted to discuss with him [Abu Munthir] what they were planning in the UK.
Babar alleged that the men said that Abu Munthir wanted them to do multiple bombings . . . either simultaneously or one after the other on the same day.
Abu Munthir was said to have wanted to meet everyone who would be involved in the plot, asking in particular for another defendant, Anthony Garcia, 24, who had left Pakistan for Britain hours before the message came through.
Momin Khawaja, a Canadian facing trial in his own country, acted as a mule for al-Qaeda, returning to Pakistan in October 2003, via Britain, and allegedly bringing supplies for the terror group from Mr Khyam. These included a medical kit, money and invisible-ink pens. They were for another defendant, Salahuddin Amin, 31, to give to Abu Munthir.
Babar told the court that Mr Amin wanted to ask Mr Khawaja, a computer expert, how to send a computer virus.
He added: Momin Khawaja and his brother were working on a GPS-navigated model aeroplane which could be fitted with explosives. David Waters, QC, for the prosecution, read out an e-mail in which Mr Khawaja said that he could obtain remote-controlled detonation devices, with a range of about 2km, for £4 each.
Mr Khawaja also mentioned Imran, a London Underground worker allegedly asked by Mr Khyam to carry out a suicide mission.
Babar said that he arranged a bribe for immigration services so that Mr Garcia, whose visa had expired, could leave Pakistan and return to Britain.
He claimed that a senior al-Qaeda operative known as Q, who lived in Luton and also reported directly to Abdul Hadi, No 3 in the terrorist organisation, also visited Pakistan in August 2003.
Babar successfully tested an explosive substance in his back garden in Lahore, allegedly on the instruction of Mr Khyam. They hid behind a wall while the device was detonated.
Babar also said that he met Mr Amin, who gave him detonators to transport to Europe, and asked him for equipment allegedly used by some of the defendants at a terrorist training camp, allegedly to send over the border to al-Qaeda.
Mr Amin, of Luton; Waheed Mahmood, 34, Mr Khyam, Shujah Mahmood, 18, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, West Sussex; Mr Garcia, from Ilford, East London; and Nabeel Hussain, 20, from Horley, Surrey, deny conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life between October 2003 and March 2004.
Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain deny possessing 600kg (1,320lb) 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 ||
03/30/2006 00:05 ||
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#1
I'm awfully glad the British police caught these youths, but the plans mentioned in the article feel a bit like airy fairy daydreams rather than actionable plans in the hand of competent executors. Am I being overly optimistic in this case?
#2
That's why actionable intel is so hard to come by...the jihadis deliberately fill their websites and phone calls with these 'plans' to obscure which ones are being implemented.
#4
I'm sure that Ken Livingston and George Galloway will tell us how the difficulty of sifting that "chaff" makes it permissable for us to ignore whatever kernels it actually may contain.
A series of explosions in Chechnya have left three people wounded, local law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
The first explosion occurred on a road in the southeast of the troubled North Caucasus region, wounding a military serviceman from a reconnaissance group.
Two other explosions occurred in the Gudermes district, about 20 miles east of the regional capital, Grozny. The first blast, at a railway bridge, wounded a policeman, while the second injured a local female resident.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:32 ||
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A French court has convicted an Algerian man for his role in a series of deadly terror attacks in Paris in 1995, sentencing him to the maximum 10 years in prison. Rachid Ramda, 36, was convicted on Wednesday for his role as the banker for Algerian fighters who carried out bombings of the Paris metro system that claimed eight lives and injured hundreds. Ramda was found guilty of giving logistical support to the attackers. The bombings were the worst seen in France since the second world war.
At the start of the trial last month, Ramda proclaimed his innocence and expressed sympathy for victims of the attacks. Originally arrested by British detectives in November 1995 on a French warrant, Ramda was the subject of a 10-year extradition battle with Britain, which finally handed him over in December. Relatives of victims attended the trial in Paris He was convicted for "criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise" for three of the attacks. The charges related only to the preparation of the attacks, which were blamed on the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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DETROIT, March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- A Federal Grand Jury in Detroit charged nineteen individuals with operating a global racketeering conspiracy in an indictment unsealed today, announced United States Attorney Stephen J. Murphy. The indictment alleges that portions of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were given to Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization. Nine of the individuals were arrested this morning. Put the word out they ratted on their buddies and dump them off in Gaza.
U.S. Attorney Murphy was joined in the announcement by Daniel D. Roberts, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit FBI; Valerie J. Goddard, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Brian M. Moskowitz, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Maurice Aouate, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation; and Michael Cleary, Special Agent in Charge, FDA Office of Criminal Investigation. Good job. Now go get the rest of the 1000s of the treasonous, islamofascists left.
The indictment charges that between 1996 and 2004, a group of individuals worked together in a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes, counterfeit Zig Zag rolling papers and counterfeit Viagra, to produce counterfeit cigarette tax stamps, to transport stolen property, and to launder money. The enterprise operated from Lebanon, Canada, China, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States. The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on April 14, 2004, was sealed pursuant to a court order until today. More indictments and arrests to follow I am sure. But it's just the tip of the iceberg.
Arrested this morning by members of the Detroit Joint Terrorism Task Force ("JTTF") were: Karim Hassan Nasser, 37, of Windsor, Ontario; Fadi Mohamad- Musbah Hammoud, 33, of Dearborn; Majid Mohamad Hammoud, 39, of Dearborn Heights; Jihad Hammoud, 47, of Dearborn; Youssef Aoun Bakri, 36, of Dearborn Heights; Ali Najib Berjaoui, 39, of Dearborn; Mohammed Fawzi Zeidan, 41, of Canton; Imad Majed Hamadeh, 51, of Dearborn Heights; Adel Isak, 37, of Sterling Heights. Note that there are no Koe Smith's or Jimmy Johnson's in this bunch. Hmmmm.
Also named in the Indictment, but not arrested today because they currently reside outside of the United States were: Imad Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 37 of Lebanon, formerly of Dearborn; Hassan Ali Al-Mosawi, 49, of Lebanon; Hassan Hassan Nasser, 36, of Windsor, Ontario; Ali Ahmad Hammoud, 64, of Lebanon; Karim Hassan Abbas, 37, formerly of Dearborn; Hassan Mohamad Srour, 30, of Montreal, Quebec; Naji Hassan Alawie, 44, of Windsor, Ontario; and Abdel-Hamid Sinno, 52, of Montreal, Quebec. Scum-bags. How many people are dead becasue of these clowns?
Theodore Schenk, 73, of Miami Beach, Florida was not arrested today but will be voluntarily surrendering himself for arraignment on April 10, 2006. A non-arabic name? Hmmm.
The indictment alleges that Imad Hammoud, along with his partner, Hassan Makki, ran a multi-million dollar a year contraband cigarette trafficking organization headquartered in the Dearborn, Michigan, area between 1996 and 2002. Makki pleaded guilty in 2003 in federal district court in Detroit to racketeering and providing material support to Hizballah. Some of the cigarettes were supplied to the organization by Mohamad Hammoud, who was convicted in 2002 in federal district court in Charlotte, North Carolina, of, among other crimes, racketeering and providing material support to Hizballah. Makki and Mohamad Hammoud, who were not charged in the indictment unsealed today, were identified as unindicted co-conspirators. They both are currently serving prison sentences relating to their activities in this matter. Read the rest...It'll make you sick knowing this is the tip of the iceberg.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Gunmen on Wednesday attacked and seriously injured a longtime ally of Osama bin Laden whom U.S. authorities have linked to an alleged terrorist sleeper cell in California. The fact they left him alive leads me to beleive someone is trying to make a point. I just don't know who is trying to make the point.
Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a signatory to Bin Laden's 1998 declaration of war on the United States and its allies, was severely beaten by eight armed men, supporters said. 8 banditos...and he's still alive? Interesting.
The assailants dragged Khalil and his driver from a mosque in Tarnol, about three miles northwest of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, as they attended evening prayers, said his spokesman, Sultan Zia. His spokesman? He's got a spokesman?
Khalil is a current former leader of Harkat Mujahedin, a militant group linked to Al Qaeda that he founded as Harkat Ansar to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The U.S. labeled Khalil's group a terrorist organization in 1997, but it has continued its anti-Western jihad, or holy war, under the new name, Jamiat ul Ansar. I guess it's kinda like Coke and Coke Classic.
Khalil's attackers held him for five hours, tying a rope around his neck and beating him with rifle butts before dumping him in front of a mosque on Islamabad's outskirts, his spokesman said. "He was left in a very serious condition with a severe head injury. However, he has survived with the grace of allan God," Zia said. Khalil was taken to a hospital in Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital.
In June, the FBI arrested Lodi, Calif., ice cream truck driver Umer Hayat, 48, and his son Hamid, 23, and charged them with training in one of Khalil's camps in Pakistan for attacks in the U.S. The men are on trial in a Sacramento court. The prosecution rested its case Tuesday. No mercy.
Khalil co-signed Bin Laden's 1998 fatwa, or religious edict, that declared it "an individual duty" for Muslims to kill American civilians and troops, or their allies, anywhere they could be found in the world. There has to be a reason he hasn't taken a dirt nap. I just don't know what it is.
Bin Laden's deputy, Egyptian physician Ayman Zawahiri, and two other Egyptian and Pakistani extremists also signed the declaration by the so-called World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders.
That same year, then-President Clinton ordered an attack with Tomahawk cruise missiles on targets in Afghanistan to kill Bin Laden after Al Qaeda attacks on two U.S. embassies in East Africa left at least 224 people dead. The strikes also targeted Khalil's camps near the eastern Afghan town of Khowst. Known enemy of the US. We know where he is at. The Pakistan government knows where he is at.
Intelligence assessments concluded that the missile strikes missed Bin Laden by a few hours, but Khalil claimed several of his fighters were killed in the airstrikes. Living on borrowed time.
In testimony before the 9/11 Commission in 2004, Clinton's national security advisor, Samuel R. "Sandy,Don't Look Under my Coat or in My Pants" Berger, said an undisclosed number of agents from the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence agency also died in the strikes on the camps. The powerful ISI was long associated with Khalil and other militant groups.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf banned Khalil's militant group in 2001, after he ended support for the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan and joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks. But do not have him in custody.
Pakistani authorities arrested Khalil in 2004 when he was accused of aiding militants crossing into Afghanistan to attack U.S.-led forces.
He was detained at least two more times but was released each time under what Pakistan's government insisted was close supervision to ensure he didn't engage in militant activities.
As late as 2004, Khalil continued to raise funds and rally militants to wage jihad against the U.S. in a magazine called Al Hilal, published from his headquarters, in a mosque next to a school and across from an army base in Rawalpindi.
A November 2003 edition of the magazine featured an advertisement on the back page, announcing the "All-Pakistan Training Convention of Jamiat ul Ansar Activists," at Khalil's headquarters.
The violence anticipated in the Khyber Agency for the last year and a half has broken out into a war. Two armies have clashed and left behind 24 dead in Bara, while the federal government, which looks after the area, has practically looked on to see which brand of Islam wins in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Supporters of one faction have been attacking the supporters of their rival, putting everything to sack and killing anyone who resists. Both the armies are led by outsiders, one from Afghanistan and the other from sectarian Hangu in the NWFP. Several Afghans too have been killed in the latest upsurge of fighting. There has also been Taliban-fashion hostage taking.
The NWFP governor, Khalil ur Rehman, who is in charge of the area on behalf of the federal government, has finally sent in security forces numbering 8,000 to restore order. Was the government waiting for the two warring factions to kill each other before it would act to mop up the debris? If that was the strategy it has been at the cost of the average citizen. Like anywhere else in Pakistans buffer areas, the population of Bara has been fleeing in the face of escalating violence in the last five months. During this waiting period the factions have built their militias and armed and entrenched themselves in castle-like strongholds. There is even an FM radio rousing the population to sectarian passions.
Everybody knew what was happening. As one tribesman put it: The government did not take the rivalry between the two groups seriously. The leaders of both groups held big public meetings to rally support. The two men at the heart of the problem are Pir Saif ur Rehmanwho arrived in the area some time ago to set up his mystical order among the predominantly Deobandi local populationand Mufti Munir Shakir, a tough Deobandi who hates the Shias and raised hell in Hangu before he was made to flee from there. Some people say the war in Bara is a Deobandi-Barelvi war. Even if the two orders are not directly involved, it is clearly a conflict between two approaches to Islam. That Peshawar and Islamabad took so long to grasp this fact is quite shocking.
What did the government do when Mufti Shakir set up his FM radio and organised his Lashkar-e-Islami? Nothing. What did it do when foreigner Pir Saif ur Rehman began converting the local population and becoming rich with the gold ornaments that the believing women of Bara gave him in return for his miracles? Nothing. Now Bara is divided between the two warring men of God. They have set up their opposed jurisdictions in the area. Mufti Shakir is pursuing a system of punishments on the order of the Taliban under the doctrine of amr and nahi and enjoys the support of the majority. If the government takes needful action now, it is going to come up against the obstacles created by its negligence over the past months.
The Taliban have already set up government in some areas of Waziristan and are handing out arbitrary Islamic punishments because the government has been absent from FATA (along the 2,400 kilometre Afghan border) under the fig leaf of the special Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR). Pakistan inherited the badlands from the British Raj, called the buffer region against invasion from the west. Today there is disorder in the seven agencies (Bajaur, Khyber, Kurram, Mohmand, Orakzai, North Waziristan and South Waziristan). And it is catching on in other parts of Pakistan too. Shockingly, only 30 percent of Pakistan appears to be under normal law and order, if you add Balochistan, where only five percent of the province is policed, and the katcha of Sindh, stretching for 850 kilometres from Kashmore to the sea, where dacoits rule.
The outsiders problem is related directly to the question of jurisdiction of state. For far too long the state has allowed a vast territory to remain in a kind of administrative limbo. There is a whole series of negative fallouts from this extraterritoriality. Pakistans industry cannot survive because of smuggling in these areas: the custom duty alone thus lost comes to $5 billion annually, almost equal to Pakistans trade gap in recent years.
The people in these areas have become dependent on sources of income outside Pakistan that the state law doesnt recognise. Unsatisfied by the FCR administered on the basis of jirgas of dubious reputation, the people have looked to the Taliban-like Muslim puritans to give them reprieve from crime through a savage system of reprisals. The government says it wants to re-establish the states jurisdiction in these areas. But the bitter truth is that the lawlessness of Pakistans badlands has spread to the settled areas and people in urban Pakistan are increasingly resorting to violence while the police and the lower courts, allowed to deteriorate in performance, simply stand aside and watch.
The bomb explosion in Khyber Bazaar, Peshawar, on Tuesday killed one person and injured 16. The bomb, fixed to a motorbike, was big enough to indicate that its source was no amateur bomb-maker. It has actually been identified as being of the same make as those found in North Waziristan after the foreigners fled from there. Awami National Party (ANP) leader Lateef Afridi, who narrowly escaped death, has registered an FIR against two of his known enemies.
Mr Afridi should consider another angle. He is the only leader in his party who has been outspoken about the presence of foreign terrorists in the tribal areas. In some of his statements he has been more revealing than might be considered healthy by anyone living in the NWFP. (Consider this: Uzbek Al Qaeda leader Tahir Yuldashev held a meeting in a forest in North Waziristan which was attended by some cabinet members of the MMA government from Peshawar.) The bomb incident should be looked at from all possible angles because it could be the beginning of another desperate period of assertion from elements that have made Pakistan their home.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:22 ||
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Is it really true that only 30% of the country is under 'normal law and order?" We all know about Waziristan, the NWF Province, Azad Kashmir, and Baluchistan -- but even much of Sind? Pakistan sounds like a failing state -- Congo on the Indus -- but with nukes. And its another one of our supposed alllies -- even though the vast majority of its people want to kill us. What options do we have here? I would love to hear the considered opinions of the Rantburg community.
The leader of a Pakistan-based terror outfit active in Jammu and Kashmir was battling for life in a hopsital today after unidentified men severely tortured and dumped him near a mosque, the group's spokesperson said.
Harkat-ul- Mujahideen's leader Fazal-ur-Rehman Khalil was kidnapped yesterday by a group of men after he offered prayers in a mosque here, Sultan Zia told reporters here.
He was thrown outside the same mosque in the night after being subjected to "severe torture", Zia said.
Khalil was battling for life in a hospital and doctors described his condition as "very serious", Zia said adding he had no idea about the identity of the assailants.
Khalil's group had very close ties with Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and is actively involved in militancy in Kashmir.
Many of his supporters also crossed into Afghanistan to support Taliban when the US-led forces launched attacks in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Khalil was earlier leading 'Harkat-ul-Ansar' group but changed its name after the US State Department put the group on the list of terrorist outfits in 1994.
President Musharraf outlawed the group in 2000 and it has been working with a new name 'Jamiat-ul-Ansar' since then.
He was detained on several occasions by the security agencies since 2001 after the government changed its Afghan policy but was freed later.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:11 ||
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Unidentified militants attacked security force check-posts at various places in Balochistan and one was killed in a landmine explosion near Dera Murad Jamali on Wednesday. The militants attacked security check-posts in Kohlu, Dera Bugti, Machh and Dera Murad Jamali with sophisticated weapons. They managed to escape while one was killed in the landmine explosion.
... so he didn't quite make his escape. But the rest did.
Meanwhile, security agencies recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from various cells of the abandoned Bugti Fort in Dera Bugti and from a militant den in Pirkoh. Security officials said on Wednesday that the illegal arms and ammunition were seized in recent search operations. The recovered arms and ammunition include anti-tank rockets, missiles and missile launchers, bombs, rockets, recoil-less launchers, rocket propelled grenades, detonators, rifles, machine guns, Kalashnikovs, sniper rifles and thousands of bullets. Security agencies also seized 47 stolen vehicles, 70 motorcycles and machinery to tamper with the original engine and chassis numbers of stolen vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Six people on Tuesday evening picked up Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, the former chief of banned militant group Harkatul Mujahideen, from Tarnol, thrashed him and dumped him on Fateh Jang road. They also severely beat up Abdur Rehman, Khalils driver, said Sultan Zia, the information secretary of the banned organisation.
I like the idea of a hearty thumping, but really, they should have done him in...
Golra police have registered an FIR against unidentified men. Six unidentified people badly thrashed Maulana Khalil and his driver with rifle butts inflicting serious head injuries to them, Zia said.
Rifle butts... Serious head injuries... Be still, my beating heart!
Maulana Kahlil left his residence along with his driver on Tuesday evening to attend a congregation at Tarnol, sources said. He made a stopover to offer Maghrib prayers near Tarnol railway crossing, where unidentified men put cloth over the heads of Khalil and his driver, tied them up with rope and took them to Fateh Jang road in a vehicle. Later, the men started beating them. Khalil was severely injured and received wounds on his head and other parts of his body, the sources added. They said at midnight on Tuesday, when Khalil returned to his senses, he made a phone call to his home.
Pray for aneurism.
With a nice deep vein thrombosis, after which a clot works its way loose, gets stuck in the brain, and he drops dead in mid-Friday sermon. Insh'allah.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Karachi Anti Terrorism Court Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch on Wednesday ordered the property of two proclaimed offenders forfeited in the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation bombing case. Brahamdagh Bugti and Abdul Hameed Bugti were declared proclaimed offenders in the PIDC blast that killed three people, injured dozens and destroyed a large number of vehicles. MR Syed, counsel of arrested co-accused Aziz Khan and Mengla Khan, was present when the court put off proceedings till April 11 and ordered the prosecution to produce witnesses.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Is that a bust of Foster Brooks Bugti in his younger days?
For others, anyway. For himself in his latter years, he was fond of swimming naked with little slave boys... but the Romans were odd like that. Another reason why Judaism, and later Christianity, were appealing to so many in those years. ;-)
Paramilitary forces on Wednesday launched an operation against cleric Mufti Munir Shakir's supporters in Khyber Agency after a tribal jirga (council) failed to convince the latter to shut down an illegal FM radio station, security sources told Daily Times. Soldiers fired mortar shells on the radio station to shut it down, sources added.
Earlier, more than 50 families left Khyber Agency on Wednesday after the government warned that action against Shakir was imminent. Bara Administrator Shafirullah served notice asking 750 families to leave their homes for safer places because "action against the renegade cleric will take place soon". A security official told Daily Times that the government had identified two sites to attack. However, he declined to say whether Shakir or his rival cleric Shafiullah Rehman's group would be targeted first.
Nala and Makik Deenkhel residents said that more than 50 families had left the area after the government warning. "Women and children were sent to safer places because the artillery might bomb residences," said resident Lal Muhammad.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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"This is Khyber Pirate Radio , coming up next after traffic and weather, the Ramones, with "Beat on the jirga brat"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2006 19:41 Comments ||
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Baghdad, 30 March (AKI) - US freelance journalist Jill Carroll has been released in Iraq after being held hostage since 7 January. Carroll's release came a day after an appeal made by her twin sister Katie on pan Arab network al-Arabiya. Carroll was working for the Christian Science Monitor in Iraq. "She was released this morning, she's talked to her father and she's fine," confirmed David Cook, a Monitor editor in Washington. Details of how and when she was released have not been provided. In her message broadcast Wednesday Katie Caroll said: "There is no one I hold closer to my heart than my sister, and I am deeply worried wondering how she is being treated"
The journalist was pulled from her car on 7 January and her interpreter was killed. She had been due that day to interview Adnan al-Dulaimi, the leader of a Sunni political grouping. Jill Carroll's captors had demanded the release of all women detainees in Iraq by Feb. 26 and said Carroll would be killed if that didn't happen. However that date passed with no further word about her welfare.
I'll be dammed, she got out alive.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2006 08:03 ||
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Very good news. I would not have given her any chance for survival. I hope there was no pay off involved.
Posted by: Screaming Nun ||
03/30/2006 9:19 Comments ||
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#3
This whole thing doesn't smell right. I think there might be more to it.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/30/2006 9:20 Comments ||
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Whiskey, I couldn't agree more. The journalists in Iraq are fawns for the insurgents and Zarq.
Their decision is simple: report the truth, which is pro-USA, and face death threats from Zarq; or, slant the news in the insurgents and terrorists favor and face little to no threat.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/30/2006 9:50 Comments ||
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#5
If she was in cahoots with these these people as some here suggest, it is really troubling, as the driver was killed. I pray that if she was in cahoots with them, that she now realizes what kind of people they are to kill the driver. And if it dosen't bother her, than I pray for her family, because she has them duped.
#7
She claims that "they treated her well", yet the videos show her on her knees crying and pleading for her life. Sounds like she'd make a good muslim wife.
#10
Was the sister giving a coded message, indicating that someone agreed to the terms of the ransom?
Posted by: Kalle ||
03/30/2006 12:45 Comments ||
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#11
Latest
Concurrent with the release from capture today of Jill Carroll, an American reporter for the Christian Science Monitor who was captured in Baghdad on January 7, 2006, her captors, the Revenge Brigade issued on March 30, 2006, an 8:50 minute video interview with Ms. Carroll. Both the questions asked by the interviewer and Jill Carrolls responses are in the English language, as she is asked of her conditions during her captivity and her opinions on the American-led War in Iraq and the mujahideen. Her answers are lauding towards the mujahideen, stating that she was treated as a guest and they are clever and very familiar with the Iraqi terrain, as opposed to the American Army that could not locate her with all the technology and manpower at their disposal.
Concerning her release, the interview asks Ms. Carroll how she feels that she will be granted freedom, while women are continuing to be held in Abu Ghraib. Though she is relieved that she is being released, she states that she feels guilt, and her condition juxtaposed with that of the women in prison shows the dichotomy in terms of human respect shown by the mujahideen and American Army. She asks President Bush to cease the war and end the aggression upon the Iraqi people who are continuously living in abject condition.
Near the close of the interview, a statement is read in Arabic announcing Jill Carrolls release, and noting that the Americans forces and CIA did not assist in her freedom. It was the American government agreeing to some of their conditions that brokered her release. The mujahid states: Jill Carol, go back in peace to your family and to your country, to tell them and to the American people what you saw and heard during these three months. You are a witness of the events here and we have full confidence in you that you will tell the truth without any falsification.
#13
so basically they realized they werent going to get a ransom, theyd seen evidence that other hostages HAD been freed, they decided holding on to her longer wastn worth it, and they made a propaganda video to try to salvage something from the operation.
and shes keeping quiet for now. Is she out of the country yet? You suppose they threatend to go after other CSM reporters if she blabs? Or perhaps Centcom is busy debriefing her?
#14
Add one to the list of useful idiots. I guess I'd have done the same thing. If she really feels guilty, she can go back to being a hostage, if ever she really was a hostage.
#15
She has such a strange insistance that they didn't hit her. She mentions this several times in various articles. They "never hit me, never even threatened to hit me. (from the Yahoo news stories).
Over and over - it's the hitting thing.
Something really stinks in her story. And she still won't take off the scarf. Such a good dhimmie.
#18
Local newscasst is on with this item (Citypulse in Toronto).
Folowing the "They didn't hit me" clip, the newscaster commented. Well, they certainly did threaten to kill you, didn't they?
Knock me over with a feather! This is MSM and a channel quite left in most positions. Grain of salt for Carroll's sotry. Mind you, the constant tucking of hair back under the veil begs the Helsinki syndrome speculation.
#21
Indeed, #20, its smells fishy. They aren't(selectively) reporting some important details. #2, that rag on her head signifies cover-up. It means plenty to 'em mossies and is a giveaway esp. after being released.
#22
There's a reason why we used to flexi-cuff both the bad guys and good guys when practicing hostage rescue missions. She may have been tortured or repeatedly raped while in captivity. Or put on the conveyor until she recited the shahada. Or all three. Give her a few weeks to unfuck her mind, then let's see what she says.
The Iraqi commander during a controversial raid by American and Iraq forces is backing the U.S. version of a battle that left 16 Iraqis dead, CBS News correspondent Lara Logan reports.
In an exclusive interview with CBS News, the Iraqi commander says accusations that U.S. forces killed innocent civilians in Sunday's raid on a mosque in Baghdad were "not true."
Accounts of the Baghdad raid varied. Aides to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said 18 men were killed in the joint U.S.-Iraqi raid on a mosque. Police said 22 people were killed in the incident at the al-Mustafa mosque. The Americans said Iraqi special forces backed by U.S. troops killed 16 "insurgents" in a raid on a community meeting hall after gunmen opened fire on approaching troops.
The commander insisted his Iraqi Special Operations troops had to fight their way into the target building where they killed gunmen guarding a hostage and found various weapons including rocket launchers and heavy machine guns.
"We know this, the building, is used for to capture the civilians, the civilian people, by bad guys and they need money," the commander tells Logan.
A man who claims he was held hostage in the mosque, says of his captors, "They beat me, they kicked me and they used an electric drill on me. I thought I was going to die."
At one point during the emotional interview, he broke down and had to be comforted, Logan notes. When asked about the militia men who were holding him, he said he was too terrified to say anything about them.
"If you go to the streets and see all the people who have left their houses and if you go to the morgue and see all the bodies then you will understand," he says.
For security reasons, neither the Iraqi commander or alleged hostage would reveal their names or if they were Sunni or Shiite.
President George W. Bush said Wednesday that Saddam Hussein, not continued U.S. involvement in Iraq, is responsible for ongoing sectarian violence that is threatening the formation of a democratic government. In his third speech this month to bolster public support for the war, Mr. Bush worked to counter critics who say the U.S. presence in the war-torn nation is fueling the insurgency.
Another mass abduction took place Tuesday, when masked gunmen, many in military uniform, stormed into a currency exchange and two electronic stores in broad daylight, seized 24 Iraqis and took tens of thousands of dollars. The kidnappings occurred within a half-hour, and police were investigating whether they were linked.
Elsewhere, gunmen killed three staffers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in a drive-by shooting in west Baghdad, Abdul-Razzaq said. A mortar round struck just outside al-Sadr's home in the holy city of Najaf earlier in the week. The firebrand anti-American leader, who holds great sway among poor Shiites in Baghdad, was at home but not hurt in the Sunday attack, according to an aide.
Nearly 20 others, including a 6-year-old girl, were wounded in the capital in roadside bombings, mortar attacks, gunfire and an explosion on a minibus, police said. Gunmen also wounded an official from the Iraqi Central Bank, then later chased a car carrying five of the official's guards and wounded them as well, police said.
There were several attacks Wednesday in Diyala province north of Baghdad. Gunmen killed two civilians and wounded another in a drive-by shooting in the town of Khalis, 50 miles north of the capital, police said. A roadside bomb in front of an Iraqi soldier's home outside the provincial capital of Baqouba wounded the soldier's 7-year-old son, and another bomb targeted the house of a tribal sheik in Baqouba but caused no casualties, police said.
Also Wednesday, gunmen lined up 14 employees of an electronics trading company in Baghdad on Wednesday and shot them all, killing eight and wounding six, police said.
Politicians working on forming a national unity government postponed talks scheduled for Wednesday, saying they needed more time to consult their political blocs about what the security powers of the prime minister should be.
The motive of the attack at the al-Ibtikar trading company in the upscale Mansour neighborhood was not immediately clear. According to survivors' accounts to police, the assailants first asked for the company's manager, who was not there, before shooting.
The survivors said the assailants, some of whom wore police uniforms, identified themselves as intelligence agents from the Interior Ministry.
Hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in sectarian violence and by death squads operating inside the Shiite-dominated ministry since the Feb. 22 bombing of an important Shiite shrine in Samarra set off a wave of revenge attacks. Usually, the victims are killed in secret, their bodies discovered hours or days later.
The assault Wednesday was the second to target a trading company in Mansour this week. On Monday, gunmen wearing military uniforms and masks kidnapped 16 employees from the headquarters of the Saeed Import and Export Co. Police said the assailants went through papers and computer files before leaving with their captives.
In Wednesday's attack, the gunmen arrived at the al-Ibtikar offices in five black BMWs about 8:15 a.m., police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said. They burned parts of the facility, but didn't appear to have taken any money, he said. The dead included five men and three women.
"All these operations have one aim: to freeze life in Iraq and sabotage the democratic process. They want to take us back to the dictatorship," said Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Khafaji, a deputy interior minister. He blamed al Qaeda and said, "We will work day and night to arrest them.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:19 ||
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Sadr? A sucking liar? Whoda thunk it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2006 0:26 Comments ||
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gunmen killed three staffers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in a drive-by shooting in west Baghdad, Abdul-Razzaq said. A mortar round struck just outside al-Sadr's home in the holy city of Najaf earlier in the week
Now there's a good idea. Tater next?
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/30/2006 0:30 Comments ||
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cBS headline: Iraq Soldier Backs U.S. On Mosque Raid..NOT
*It was an annex, being used as a kidnap/torture/slaughter room, and Taters Fuckwit Tots fired up the Iraqi Special FGorces & American advisors from the annex* ]
cBS) The Iraqi commander during a controversial raid by American and Iraq forces is backing the U.S. version of a battle that left 16 Iraqis dead, CBS News correspondent Lara Logan reports.
#4
Note to MSM: If you really want to know why I wouldn't piss in your mouth if you were dying in the desert..it's things like this. US forces are tainted at best, and guilty at worst as typified by the spin on the interview.
Did it not ever occur to you, Lara, that Tater and his iranian puppetmasters are using you like a two-bit whore? Did it never occur to you that what the US said was true?
#5
No, no mouse. The MSM never ever questions the stories or reports or actions of the enemy. They'll devote five nights of the talking heads in NY or Washington and pages and pages of verbage anal-izing and monday morning quarterbacking of any US action. However, any criticism of the the 'enemy' is never to be done. Cause they're on the same side. Have to be. If they were unbiased they'd have similar coverage of their allies.
#9
Of course the MSM would never bring themselves to address one simple question. Mosque or no mosque, wasn't the place was an insurgent stronghold full of weapons and torturing hostiles that needed cleaning out worse than a bus station toilet? If these f&ckwits bring weapons and materiel into their places of worship, those locations immediately become enemy territory and deserve only to be treated as such.
Shiite or Sunni it matters not, they all think they can have it both ways. Their religion must be respected by outsiders regardless of how badly they desecrate it themselves. This is exactly like the cartoons. We are not allowed to poke even a smidgen of fun at the least part of their belief structure while they malign any and all comers with the most abusive and derogatory filth.
So often, Islam involves such a brute force combination of cognitive dissonance and moral hypocrisy that there is ever-diminishing hope for any sort of peaceful coexistence. Toss in a few more of their typical Islamist atrocities and any hope for peaceful coexistence will shift over to a desire for hostile confrontation in all parts.
I have never seen a culture so actively harvest the benefits of gobal religious tolerance while simultaneously taxing the patience of all whom their continued existence depends upon.
Like a Phoenix, such a leader will probably arise from the ashes of a nuclear atrocity wreaked upon our shores. And as before, with unrelenting determination, our nation will be forced to subjugate yet another threat to democracy, and likely it will be with a redeux of Sherman's march. Only this time, the swath of destruction shall be through the Middle East and all Islam will put paid to price of terrorism.
All this from the man who last week was calling for the indiscriminate bombing of children in "kiddieswarms..."
In even extreme circles, that makes you an extremist, no?
Since you are so desperate for death and destruction Why dont you go to Iraq and kill as many muslims as you can. Maybe that will get it out your system.... Then you can come back and tell us all about it. ;-)
Another point. Just because there are bad muslims does not make all muslims bad. Just the same as a few bad US soldiers does not mean all US soldiers are bad. I think you are getting a little mixed up.
#13
Bravo...I think the point is unless the Arabic and Persian speaking countries clean up their collective islamo-cesspools quickly, somebody else is going to do it for them. And like Sherman's march through Georgia there will innocent bloodshed and collateral damage.
The sad part is that though the number of actual murdering, terrorists is small...the number who secretly and actively sympathize with them is quite large. I do not think it is absurd to believe that maybe 20% of the islamic world fall in this catagory. That's ballpark 200 million people. They are almost as dangerous as the bomb throwers because they provide support and money for the killers.
I say again...unless someone in the islamic world steps to plate and reigns this group into "the mainstream"...there will be massive bloodshed...and it's going to be disproportionately non-Western.
#14
In even extreme circles, that makes you an extremist, no?
Ever consider the fact that maybe you are extremely stuck on stupid?
You neglect to observe how in that particular thread your @ss was thoroughly kicked by other people, including someone who actually has fought in Iraq.
Quite obviously, you also neglect to read any of my other posts. Otherwise, you would note how often I have to take issue with those who advocate first use of nuclear weapons against Iran and other Muslim countries. If you read my posts you would also understand that I do not relish any blind slaughtering of the Muslim world.
However, I also happen to be sufficiently schooled in world politics to know that Islam, in its current state, is positioned for a head-to-head confrontation with the West. Due to the incessant perfidy that Islam so readily employs, the outcome of this confrontation is less than optimistic.
I would prefer that Islam make a genuine and authentic rejection of violent jihad. To date, there has been absolutely ZERO indication of this happening. That being the case, what awaits is the West reaching a tipping point whereby the cost of coexisting with Muslims outweighs the moral or financial cost of simply exterminating them.
I do not relish or hungrily await such a catastrophe. I also happen to have the wits to know that such a tipping point is the most likely scenario. Peaceful coexistence is a ridiculous longshot, or did you get some other message from the cartoon jihad?
On the other side of that tipping point is blowing away car swarms that seek to disfigure the remains of our soldiers. Other measures might include taking possession of the shrines at Mecca and Medina and holding them hostage or simply making a list of rogue nations and informing them that they all will be subject to immediate annihilation if there is a single nuclear terrorist attack on American soil.
Sooner or later, the gloves will have to come off in the fight against Islamism. The very nature of Islam demands it. If you are sufficiently blind to where you cannot foresee this, that is your problem and not mine.
Gunmen attacked the offices of a construction company in western Baghdad on Wednesday, killing eight people, the third consecutive day a private business has been assaulted. Separately, police said they found the bodies of 17 men, who had been blindfolded, bound and shot, at two locations in the capital.
In all, at least 41 people were reported killed in violence throughout the country.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said a group of masked gunmen in civilian clothes came to the Al Ibtikar Construction Co. in western Baghdad's Dawoodi neighborhood at about noon. According to witness accounts, he said, guards at the company opened fire on the men, who responded with a furious barrage, killing eight of the company's employees, including three women.
Five other employees were injured in the attack, according to the spokesman, who declined to be quoted by name. He said the manager was abducted by the attackers, who fled in two sedans and a pickup truck.
The Associated Press, quoting unnamed police sources, said some of the attackers wore police uniforms and identified themselves as intelligence agents from the Interior Ministry. By this account, the assailants asked for the manager of the firm, and when told he was not there, lined up 14 employees and shot them, killing eight, the AP reported.
The different versions of events could not be reconciled late Wednesday.
The attack followed three assaults on businesses in the capital on Tuesday. Gunmen, many of them in military uniforms and wearing masks and helmets, kidnapped 24 people from two electronics stores and a currency exchange. They also reportedly fled with thousands of dollars.
On Monday, gunmen in military uniforms and masks abducted 16 people from the Saeed Import and Export Co. in central Baghdad.
The incidents were reminiscent of a March 8 attack on a Baghdad security company in which 50 people were abducted.
Although the rash of kidnappings had the hallmarks of an extortion racket or abductions for ransom, police said they did not know the assailants' motives. Police say as many as 30 people a day are reported kidnapped in Iraq, although they believe that figure to be lower than the actual number of people abducted because many families prefer to pay for the release of their loved ones rather than contact police.
The Interior Ministry spokesman said the attacks were straining resources because "the ministry cannot place police units at each and every shop or company." But he said the ministry was developing "a new security plan" for commercial establishments. He did not elaborate.
Military uniforms are easy to purchase in the capital's markets. But there have been allegations for months that the Interior Ministry is harboring members of Shiite Muslim militias or units acting as Shiite death squads that attack Sunni mosques and kill Sunni Arabs execution-style.
The number of such attacks has surged since the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad. In some analysts' view, the resulting cycle of sectarian revenge killings is pushing Iraq toward civil war.
The government, which is controlled by Shiites, denies that the Interior Ministry is behind any of the killings.
The epidemic of execution-like killings continued Wednesday with the discovery of 17 male bodies, 14 of them in one location and three in another. All of the victims appeared to be between the ages of 20 and 40. Many bore signs of torture, the Interior Ministry spokesman said, and all had been bound, blindfolded and shot.
Seventeen bodies were found in a similar state on Tuesday.
Interior Ministry forces conducting a raid Wednesday in Baghdad's mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhood of Hai al-Amil fired on a Sunni mosque, injuring a guard and smashing windows and doors, according to a statement from the Muslim Scholars Association, an influential Sunni group.
The group blamed the government and U.S. forces for the attack on the Madina Monawara mosque, saying that "even though they are claiming to build the so-called New Iraq," such incidents had never occurred before.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that three people employed by Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric and militia leader, were killed Wednesday in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad.
Elsewhere, the U.S. military said, three insurgents were killed when an unmanned Predator drone shot a Hellfire missile at them while they were planting a roadside bomb near the Balad air base north of Baghdad.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday, one by small-arms fire south of Baghdad, the other when his Humvee struck a roadside bomb near Habbaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, in a region that is considered a stronghold for Sunni Arab insurgents from al-Qaeda in Iraq, the military said in a statement. Three soldiers were injured in the blast, which hit a convoy that was returning to Baghdad.
Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and one was wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Hawijah, about 30 miles southwest of the northern town of Kirkuk, according to Capt. Emad Mohammed of the local police. He said the soldiers were traveling in a convoy that included U.S. troops, none of whom was injured in the blast.
The U.S. military was investigating the death of a 25-year-old Iraqi detainee Sunday at the military's Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq, according to the Reuters news agency. The man died of apparent head injuries inflicted during a fight with another inmate, the report said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:13 ||
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#1
three insurgents were killed when an unmanned Predator drone shot a Hellfire missile at them while they were planting a roadside bomb near the Balad air base north of Baghdad
What fun!
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/30/2006 0:27 Comments ||
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Wish we could do a better job at tracking down people who attack the Iraqi's like this. Too bad they are probably hiding in Sadr City or we might have already tracked down and killed them.
Posted by: Charles ||
03/30/2006 4:24 Comments ||
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For the third time in as many days, gunmen stormed a Baghdad business Wednesday, this time lining 14 employees against the wall and shooting them all. Eight were killed, and at least 26 others were reported dead in violence elsewhere.
The attack on the al-Ibtikar electronics trading company began when gunmen drove up in five black BMWs shortly after 8 a.m., said police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq. The attackers set a fire in the office but took no money.
Survivors told police some of the attackers wore police uniforms and said they were intelligence agents of the Interior Ministry, which oversees police. Survivors said the gunmen asked for the company manager, who wasn't there, and then opened fire on the 14 workers. Six were wounded but survived.
The motive for the attack, the second on a firm in the upscale Mansour neighborhood this week, was unclear. A key lawmaker blamed militants.
"These are concentrated efforts to paralyze the country. They are either from al Qaeda or the remnants of Saddam's regime. They want to tell the people that there is no government," said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman.
Politicians working to form a new Iraqi government, meanwhile, canceled their multiparty talks for the day, saying they needed time to consult with their political blocs over the critical issue of what powers the next prime minister would have over security issues.
It was the second time this week political leaders shunned a session meant to overcome a stalemate that is in its sixth week. The Kurdish, Sunni Arab and secular blocs in the parliament oppose the main Shiite bloc's push for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to remain prime minister. Shiite politicians said that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has told the leader of the Shiite bloc that President Bush doesn't want Jaafari as prime minister.
Jaafari on Wednesday asserted his right to stay in office and warned the Americans against undue interference in Iraq's political process. "Some American figures have made statements that interfere with the results of the democratic process," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:09 ||
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Three Iraqi soldiers were killed, 12 others wounded, on Wednesday in a number of blasts in the province of Kirkuk in northern Iraq. A Kirkuk Police source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that three Iraqi soliders were killed when an explosive device targeted a joint US-Iraqi military patrol on a road nearby Nasser town west of Kirkuk.
A similar attack took place on a road between Riyadh and Baiji, wounding six Iraqi soldiers, including one officer. Another bomb went off late Tuesday night, wounding five oil facility guards in southern Kirkuk.
Meanwhile, a sound bomb went off outside a store on a road leading to Baghdad in Kirkuk, wounding one of the workers in the store. The police source said another timed bomb exploded nearby the residence of Chief of Police Rahim Awah, but no property or life losses were recorded in the attack. Meanwhile, a Katyusha rocket landed in a vacant area nearby the Kirkuk Police Academy in southern Kirkuk. No property damages were recorded in the blast. In a separate incident, unknown gunmen opened fire on Iraqi citizen Arfan Ali Rostom while in his store in Kirkuk, killing him instantly.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Attackers wearing Iraqi police commando uniforms have killed at least eight people and wounded three in a raid on an electronics store in western Baghdad, police sources say. A hospital source put the toll at nine - three women and six men - from Wednesday's raid on al-Ibtikar Trade Contracting Company in the relatively affluent Mansour neighbourhood.
The attackers arrived at the store in five black BMWs in the morning, police Lieutenant Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said. The motive of the attack was not known. The assailants burned part of the building and appeared to have taken no money, Abdul-Razzaq said. The past week has seen a spate of attacks and robberies by uniformed raiders on electronics stores and other businesses in the city. On Monday and Tuesday, 35 people were abducted in four attacks, two of them on electronics dealers. The fate of those kidnapped is unknown.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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DEBKAfile Exclusive: Palestinians are manufacturing new multiple-rocket launchers with Palestinian Authority funding. The broad program involving all the armed Palestinian organizations is close to producing a facsimile of the Russian-made Grad, renamed Quds-3, supplied by Iran, which can simultaneously fire 10 rockets from a truck to a distance of 18-30 km. The system weighs 13 tons and enables a crew of 7-10 Palestinians firing from the Gaza Strip to hit not only the Israeli port of Ashkelon, but Ashdod to the north too, as well as the towns of Netivot and Ofakim to the east.
No word on how far the pieces will fly when the IDF takes this monster out.
The system was proudly displayed to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas when he visited the Gaza Strip last week.
DEBKAfiles military sources: The new 122mm rocket, test-fired against Ashkelon on Israels election-day, Tuesday, March 28, weighs 66 kilos and carries 17 kilos of explosives. It was developed in Palestinian workshops in the Gaza Strip on instructions from Iranian instructors using the Russian-Made Grad and BM21 Katyusha as their model. Several dozen rockets are already in stock, substantially upgrading the Palestinian war arsenal with a heavy artillery system and extending its long-range assault capability. The product currently produce is wire-operated. The crew pulls back some 60 meters from the launcher and releases the rockets by pulling the wire.
What, they're out of long fuses to light with a match?
A ten-rocket volley has a far better chance of hitting an Israeli target than the hit-or-miss, primitive Qassam missiles fired daily from the Gaza Strip.
Our military experts point out that, as the Americans discovered in Iraq, sophisticated weaponry, including drones and electronic surveillance, offers no solution to countering roadside bombs and rockets fired on the ground. The Palestinians have concluded that, even if the Israeli air force knocks out some of their Quds-3 rocket systems, they will still be left with enough launchers to cause heavy Israeli casualties and damage in the towns within range of Gaza.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/30/2006 08:10 ||
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Palestinians are manufacturing new multiple-rocket launchers with Palestinian Authority funding.
Yeah, so let's make sure that foreign funding keeps rolling in. It's for the children you know...
#2
The Palestinians have concluded that, even if the Israeli air force knocks out some of their Quds-3 rocket systems, they will still be left with enough launchers to cause heavy Israeli casualties and damage in the towns within range of Gaza.
So the Israelis are left with the option of overrunning and annihilating them. Sounds about right.
These savages need to be removed from the gene pool, STAT.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/30/2006 9:31 Comments ||
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#5
The crew pulls back some 60 meters from the launcher and releases the rockets by pulling the wire.
NB: mechanical, not electrical.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/30/2006 9:42 Comments ||
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Push is going to turn to shove, as in the Paleos being shoved into the sea. Enough of the defensive measures by Israel, innocent Israelis are the targets.
Time for the Israelis to take serious pre-emptive action, a la the Bush Doctrine.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/30/2006 9:46 Comments ||
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now that they are an effective state, the Paleos will find no skirts to hide behind. Demolish them and their stupid dreams, agreed, STAT
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2006 9:52 Comments ||
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#8
Okay, artillerymen, you will now be firing a TOT on a circle with a 60m radius.
3.14(pi)*120m(diameter) = ~380m circumference.
Coverage of a 155mm HE round, 50m. Ergo, with 8 rounds, over the circumference of the circle, you will most likely take out the firing crew. Throw in 2 more for the launcher and problem solved.
#10
What a fine excuse for the Israelis to simply blast each and every large multi-ton vehicle in the entire Palestinian Terrortories to he|| and back again. Seeking ever-larger toys of destruction should carry with it ever-increasing penalties. Blowing the snot out of all Palestinian commercial cargo carrying capacity sounds like just the place to start. F&ck knows that if there were such things as 13 ton ambulances, the Palestinians would have camouflaged this launch system as one. As Robert Crawford so aptly observed, never has such a hapless collection of f&ckwits trodden the face of this earth.
#14
Only 13 tons? The paleo-pterrs have quite the ambitious program going there. I've always been envious of their glut of smelly, swarthy, stupid Aerospace engineers. Be afraid ISR. Be very afraid! (C'mon, Lets re-grow those grapes and just- "Git 'er Done". How 'bout it?
A man claiming to be a spokesman of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group warned Wednesday of impending terror attacks in Zamboanga City and Basilan islands in the southern Philippines, a local radio network reported.
"The next bombings will be in Zamboanga City and Basilan," said Abu Sayyaf self-proclaimed spokesman Abu Omar in a text message to a radio station.
The warning came two days after a powerful Abu Sayyaf bomb ripped through a two-storey convenience store in Jolo island, killing nine people and wounding two dozen others.
Security officials appealed to the public to stay calm and be vigilant, saying authorities were hunting down members of the Abu Sayyaf group, blamed for the series of terrorism and kidnappings for ransom in the southern region.
"We urge the public to cooperate with authorities and report to us any suspicious persons or abandoned package. Do not listen to rumors, but stay vigilant," said Air Force Major Gamal Hayudini, spokesman for the military's Southern Command.
He said Omar had been sending threat letters in the past to different radio and television stations in Zamboanga City, but his real identity remains unknown. Omar also previously threatened to kidnap and kill local journalists who criticized the Abu Sayyaf.
It was not immediately known if Omar also claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Southern Command tagged Abu Sayyaf militant Ismin Sahiron as behind the bombing in Jolo.
Sahiron is the son of Radulan Sahiron, a senior Abu Sayyaf leader in Jolo who is wanted by the United States for terrorism, said Hayudini.
The US Department of Treasury has recently included the elder Sahiron and Abu Sayyaf leaders Jainal Antel Sali Jr. and Isnilon Totoni Hapilon in its list of terrorists.
"The Abu Sayyaf Group instills terror throughout Southeast Asia through kidnappings, bombings, and brutal killings. This action financially isolates senior members of the Abu Sayyaf, who have planned and carried out vicious attacks on Americans, Filipinos and innocent citizens from around the world," said Patrick O'Brien, the Treasury's assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crime.
The US government, through the Department of State's Rewards for Justice Campaign, has offered to pay up to P5 million for the capture of individuals belonging to the Abu Sayyaf. In addition, the Department of Defense's US Pacific Command (Uspacom) has added the three terrorists to its Rewards Program offering up to $200,000 for information leading to their capture.
Southern Command chief Major General Gabriel Habacon has ordered a tightened security in the region following the bombing in Jolo. "We are pursuing the terrorists and have tightened security in key areas in Mindanao," Habacon said.
The US had deplored the bombing in Jolo and said it will continue to work closely with the Philippines to fight the threats of terrorism.
Jolo military chief Brigadier General Alexander Aleo said the bomb used in the attack was made from ammonium nitrate and was so powerful that it destroyed the facade of the building.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Mindanao Senator Aquilino Pimentel condemned the latest attack.
"I condemn in the strongest terms this most recent attack in Sulu. The Armed Forces and police shall leave no stone unturned in the hunt for the perpetrators and I ask our people to remain calm and vigilant," Arroyo said, as she urged the immediate passage of the proposed anti-terrorism law.
The senator feared the bombing was aimed at sabotaging the peace process in Mindanao. "Saboteurs of peace in Sulu are killing innocent people to promote their own ends. It's very unusual incidence that it's budget time and the desire for more appropriations money could be a motive," he said.
Pimentel said the timing of the bombing was "very unusual" as it happened while the Senate is set to take up the budget of the Department of National Defense and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He did not elaborate.
Brigadier General Francisco Callelero, an army spokesman, said the Southern Command was investigating reports the attack was connected to a failed extortion by the Abu Sayyaf group.
"Our investigators found a letter demanding money from the managers of the Sulu Cooperative Store days before the attack," he told reporters in Zamboanga City.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:43 ||
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The Abu Sayyaf terrorist group had initially targeted the Jolo Cathedral in its Monday bombing attack that left five people dead and 20 others wounded but was forced to alter its plans, police investigators revealed yesterday.
Owing to strict security measures around the Jolo Cathedral, the bombers diverted their attack to the Sulu multi-purpose cooperative, a store owned and managed by priests and Notre Dame of Jolo college administration, police said.
A police investigator revealed the Abu Sayyaf had targeted the store since "it serves both as a religious and commercial target."
The initial investigation into last Mondays blast by military investigators also revealed the handiwork of the Abu Sayyaf.
Armed Forces Southern Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Francisco Callelero said the military is now tracking down a certain Abu Abdulgawey who claimed to have led a group of Abu Sayyaf bandits in the bombing attack.
"That was a clear act of terrorism and the Southern Command is pursuing the lead that the Abu Sayyaf demolition team was behind the bombing under Abu Abdulgawey," Callelero said.
A day before, Abdulgawey reportedly called up the management of the Sulu cooperative warning of a bombing attack.
Abdulgawey earlier sent a letter in Tausog dialect demanding money from the cooperative but this was turned down.
"We are informing the management of the coop to negotiate with us through the cell phone numbers that we are providing. If you will not negotiate we will explode the bomb," a part of the supposed extortion letter read.
Southern Command information chief Maj. Gamal Hayudini added the investigators believed that the bomb was already planted inside the store.
"And the suspect in fact called up a day (Sunday) prior to the explosion, but the management turned down any demand," Hayudini said.
The military said the supposed extortion letter made no mention of an amount but left two cellular phone numbers in case the store management decided to "negotiate."
The letter was left with a pharmacy clerk but it did not reach the cooperative management which had earlier closed for a one-hour lunch break. When the store reopened an hour later, the bomb went off.
The blast occurred around 1:15 p.m. at the ground floor of a two-story commercial building along busy Serrantes street in downtown Jolo, the capital of Sulu.
Police said a portion of the buildings facade was blown off due to the impact of the explosion.
The investigation revealed a cell phone was used as a triggering device for a pack of ammonium nitrate. Some traces of the fertilizer have been recovered at the blast site.
Security officials pointed out the method of using a cell phone as a triggering device is a known signature of the Abu Sayyaf.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Angel Honrado said the initial report of military investigators revealed the attack was carried out by the Abu Sayyaf.
Honrado also confirmed five people were killed in the bombing attack with 20 others wounded.
The fatalities were identified as Nasser Hadjinul, Masser Saipuddin, Jesus Cabrera, Marivic Manuel and 18-year-old Mukarsa Abduharim.
The report made by the Disaster Response Operation and Information Center of the Department of Social Welfare and Development also revealed 20 people were wounded in the blast. The youngest of the victims is five-year-old Nurfasa Kasim.
Honrado added the report by military investigators at the site concluded the bomb was planted at the ground floor of the establishment.
Meanwhile, other sources suggested the bombing attack might have been carried out by rival business groups.
Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police director Senior Superintendent Akmad Mamalinta pointed out the cooperative grocery store might have earned the ire of other business establishments since it sells products cheaper than other outfits in Jolo.
The bombing attack prompted Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao to place all police forces under heightened alert.
Lomibao directed all the 16 regional police directors nationwide to strengthen security measures of vital installations and other probable terrorist targets.
"Checkpoints in strategic locations should be conducted to negate criminal and terrorist acts," he told his men.
Lomibao ordered Mamalinta to tighten security measures in Jolo following the bombing.
Last Mondays blast was the second deadly bomb attack to hit the area this year. On Feb. 18, a bomb exploded at a bar outside an Army camp which left one civilian killed and 20 others wounded in that attack which was blamed on the Abu Sayyaf.
The island province of Sulu is a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, notorious for kidnappings and terror attacks.
It was also the venue of a counterterrorism exercise last month between Philippine and US troops.
Dozens of US soldiers who took part in the exercises on the island quickly responded to the blast, sending ordnance experts and medical personnel to help transport the wounded to the hospital.
President Arroyo strongly condemned the bomb attack and ordered the police and military to hunt down the perpetrators.
"I sympathize with the families of the victims and direct the treatment of the wounded be given priority by our health services," Mrs. Arroyo said.
The President called on the public to remain calm and vigilant and took the opportunity to reiterate her call on Congress to approve the mothballed anti-terrorism bill.
"Indeed, terror never sleeps and we need to consistently carry out our comprehensive action plan to rid our country and the world of this grave threat," she stressed.
"Once more and with a deep sense of urgency, I ask Congress to pass the anti-terrorism law that will enable our nation to constrict, contain and control this threat more effectively," the President said.
Congressmen, for their part, noted last Mondays bombing attack highlighted the urgency of passing the anti-terrorism bill.
Eastern Samar Rep. Marcelino Libanan said the Jolo bombing provided another compelling reason for the passage of the anti-terror bill.
"We condemn the attack as we work to ensure the passage of the anti-terror bill so perpetrators of attacks like this will be meted with the death penalty," he said.
Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Rep. Gerry Salapuddin (Basilan) said the enactment of the anti-terror bill was "a matter of necessity and a call of the time" in the light of the Jolo bombing attack.
Salapuddin said, however, that the measure must ensure that civil liberties and human rights will be respected in its implementation.
Anak Mindanao Rep. Mujiv Hataman condemned the bombing and claimed that in most cases of violence in his region and other areas, the casualties were innocent civilians.
"Unleashing terror against innocent civilians is deplorable and condemnable to the highest degree. Those behind the Jolo attack are enemies of the state and the people. This is unforgivable in a civilized society like ours," Hataman said.
Hataman urged the authorities to act fast and apprehend those responsible for the bombing.
But he warned the police and the military not to use last Mondays attack as an excuse to launch indiscriminate crackdown on Muslims.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:35 ||
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"...the cooperative grocery store might have earned the ire of other business establishments since it sells products cheaper than other outfits in Jolo."
An Islamist terror group linked to al-Qaida has been blamed for the bombing of a cooperative store on the Philippine island of Jolo that killed nine people.
A senior police official in Jolo City said the attack on the store Monday had the hallmarks of Abu Sayyaf, which uses cell phones to trigger improvised explosive devices composed mainly of ammonium nitrate.
The device that exploded at a cooperative store was apparently left in an area for the checked bags of shoppers.
The Manila Times said Wednesday authorities believe the store was targeted because it is operated by an order of Roman Catholic priests who also run the city's cathedral.
In addition to the nine shoppers killed, 24 others were injured.
The Philippine military has stepped up operations to hunt down Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the southern Philippines, where Muslim separatists have been battling the government for years. The government and the main Muslim organization are currently holding negotiations in Malaysia over questions of autonomy and/or independence.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/30/2006 00:35 ||
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Informed sources have revealed told Asharq al-Awsat that the international commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri received the transcript of a phone call conversation between a Lebanese official and his Syrian counterpart in which the former confirmed to the latter that the assassination had taken place.
Sounds like a smoking gun, if it's true, though intel's not judicial evidence in most cases...
The sources alluded to what was mentioned in commission chief Judge Serge Brammertz's report on achieving a major breakthrough, and cited sources in the international commission that "the breakthrough came about by finding solid proof that periodic meetings were held between Lebanese and Syrian security officials and officials in a Lebanese group known for its allegiance to Syria, in addition to analyzing scores of phone calls held between security officials in that group, the Syrian intelligence center in Beirut, and an important official head office which German Judge Detlev Mehlis referred to in his first report.
Wonder which Leb group that could be that's "known for its allegiance to Syria"?
The sources confirmed that "analysis of the phone calls, which began on the evening of Sunday 13 February 2005 and continued until 4 pm the following day--in other words, four hours after the crime took place--showed that most of the conversation revolved around the crime. In addition, the commission received the text of a very important phone call held between a high-ranking Lebanese official and his Syrian counterpart in which the former confirmed to the latter that the assassination had taken place and Al-Hariri had in fact been killed."
Cheeze. Not only murderers, but dumbass murderers.
The same sources pointed out that the international commission received the transcript of the phone call held between the two high-ranking officials from the British intelligence and that the content was the reason behind British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's statements one week after the crime that he believed Syrian sides are involved in Al-Hariri's assassination. The Lebanese sources noted that the commission stepped up its activities upon the return of its chief Brammertz from New York after he presented his report to the Security Council.
I was wondering why Mehlis made such rapid progress. That kind of investigation is usually pretty slow and painstaking. I'd guess he knew where to start, and which direction to go.
They explained that Brammertz is trying to complete the biggest part of the investigations on the Lebanese level before setting a date for his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Vice President Farooq al-Shara in Damascus. The sources foresaw difficulties in Brammertz's ability to complete the investigation before mid-June. The sources cited members of the international investigations commission saying that Brammertz does not want to extend his mission. The sources did not rule out the return of former commission chief Judge Detlev Mehlis to resume the investigations, particularly since the latter praised Brammertz's report, describing it as professional and noting that it was on the same track and did not ignore any of the existing evidence in the file.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Sounds like Echelon recorded the call. So they will have the call itself as well as a transcript.
#5
Informed sources have revealed told Asharq al-Awsat that the international commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri received the transcript of a phone call conversation between a Lebanese official and his Syrian counterpart in which the former confirmed to the latter that the assassination had taken place.
2 sudden medical developments either unreported or 'bout to happen.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A U.N. official wounded in a raid two weeks ago on a United Nations compound in southern Sudan has died, the world body's refugee agency said Wednesday. Nabil Bahjat Abdulla, a 48-year-old Iraqi, died Tuesday night in a hospital in Nairobi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. Abdulla was shot three times in the stomach when gunmen attacked the UNHCR compound in the town of Yei on March 15, also killing a Sudanese guard.
Four Yemenis accused of kidnapping five Italian tourists in a lawless area of Yemen in January were each sentenced to 20 years in jail Wednesday. The men, from the 
Saudi Arabian security forces discovered and disarmed two explosive devices planted in two separate vehicles Tuesday in the province of Bafeeq east Saudi Arabia, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported Wednesday. Security forces broke into a house in Al-Muntaar town where Saudi Arabian Oil Company Aramco employees live, to find two booby trapped cars with the company's logo on them. The daily said that several bombs, machine guns and explosive materials were found, adding that the owner of the house was arrested and is currently being interrogated.
Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB) ehsar (full-time) member Tarikul Islam in his confessional statement before a First Class Magistrate in Sirajganj yesterday said he along with six other cadres took part in the August 17 bomb blasts in the town. The six are Shahi, Rashid, Bashir, Manik, Ahsan and Jewel. He gave the statement before Magistrate Monira Begum under Section 164, police said. Tarikul was placed on three days fresh remand when he was produced before the court on expiry of his seven day's remand.
A French court has convicted an Algerian man for his role in a series of deadly terror attacks in Paris in 1995, sentencing him to the maximum 10 years in prison. Rachid Ramda, 36, was convicted on Wednesday for his role as the banker for Algerian fighters who carried out bombings of the Paris metro system that claimed eight lives and injured hundreds. Ramda was found guilty of giving logistical support to the attackers. The bombings were the worst seen in France since the second world war.
Unidentified militants attacked security force check-posts at various places in Balochistan and one was killed in a landmine explosion near Dera Murad Jamali on Wednesday. The militants attacked security check-posts in Kohlu, Dera Bugti, Machh and Dera Murad Jamali with sophisticated weapons. They managed to escape while one was killed in the landmine explosion. 
Six people on Tuesday evening picked up Maulana 
Karachi Anti Terrorism Court Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch on Wednesday ordered the property of two proclaimed offenders forfeited in the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation bombing case. Brahamdagh Bugti and Abdul Hameed Bugti were declared proclaimed offenders in the PIDC blast that killed three people, injured dozens and destroyed a large number of vehicles. MR Syed, counsel of arrested co-accused Aziz Khan and Mengla Khan, was present when the court put off proceedings till April 11 and ordered the prosecution to produce witnesses.
Paramilitary forces on Wednesday launched an operation against cleric Mufti Munir Shakir's supporters in Khyber Agency after a tribal jirga (council) failed to convince the latter to shut down an illegal FM radio station, security sources told Daily Times. Soldiers fired mortar shells on the radio station to shut it down, sources added.
Three Iraqi soldiers were killed, 12 others wounded, on Wednesday in a number of blasts in the province of Kirkuk in northern Iraq. A Kirkuk Police source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that three Iraqi soliders were killed when an explosive device targeted a joint US-Iraqi military patrol on a road nearby Nasser town west of Kirkuk.
Attackers wearing Iraqi police commando uniforms have killed at least eight people and wounded three in a raid on an electronics store in western Baghdad, police sources say. A hospital source put the toll at nine - three women and six men - from Wednesday's raid on al-Ibtikar Trade Contracting Company in the relatively affluent Mansour neighbourhood.
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Palestinians are manufacturing new multiple-rocket launchers with Palestinian Authority funding. The broad program involving all the armed Palestinian organizations is close to producing a facsimile of the Russian-made Grad, renamed Quds-3, supplied by Iran, which can simultaneously fire 10 rockets from a truck to a distance of 18-30 km. The system weighs 13 tons and enables a crew of 7-10 Palestinians firing from the Gaza Strip to hit not only the Israeli port of Ashkelon, but Ashdod to the north too, as well as the towns of Netivot and Ofakim to the east. 
Informed sources have revealed told Asharq al-Awsat that the international commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister 
