SMALL>SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- U.S. Central Command Air Forces officials have released the airpower summary for Dec. 17.
In Afghanistan Dec. 16, Royal Air Force Harrier GR-7s provided close-air support for International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, troops in contact with Taliban extremists near Now Zad. The GR-7s expended a general-purpose, 500-pound bomb on an enemy position.
An Air Force B-1 Lancer provided close-air support to ISAF troops in contact with enemy forces near Asadabad. The B-1 expended GBU-31s on enemy positions. GBU-31=2000 lb JDAM
In total, 45 close-air-support missions were flown in support of ISAF and Afghan troops, reconstruction activities and route patrols.
Additionally, 11 U.S. Air Force and Royal Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, aircraft flew missions in support of operations in Afghanistan.
Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons and Navy F/A-18s provided close-air support to troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces near Basrah.
Navy F/A-18s provided close-air support to troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces near Miqdidyah and Baghdad.
In total, coalition aircraft flew 16 close air support missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom. These missions included support to coalition troops, infrastructure protection, reconstruction activities and operations to deter and disrupt terrorist activities.
Additionally, 9 Air Force and Navy ISR aircraft flew missions in support of operations in Iraq. Navy and Air Force fighter aircraft performed in non-traditional ISR roles with their electro-optical and infrared sensors. "Non-traditional" ISR refers to the use of targeting FLIR or other combat aircraft imaging systems in a surveillance role. There has been a major increase in this type of mission in recent weeks.
On Dec. 15, Air Force rescue and medical crews on HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters flew two medical evacuation missions in support of OEF. Two Army Soldiers and one Afghan National Army Soldier with injuries requiring urgent care were evacuated as a result of these missions.
Air Force C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globmaster IIIs provided intra-theater heavy airlift support, helping sustain operations throughout Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa. More than 120 airlift sorties were flown; more than 455 tons of cargo was delivered, and close to 1,880 passengers were transported. This included more than 19,000 pounds of troop re-supply air-dropped in eastern Afghanistan.
Coalition C-130 crews from Australia and Canada flew in support of OIF or OEF.
On Dec. 15, U.S. and RAF tankers flew 28 sorties and off-loaded almost 2 million pounds of fuel.
#2
Nice photo of the shock wave as a B-1 goes supersonic. I understand that these aircraft are used in that mode to send a "wake-up call" to talibunnies.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2006 14:10 Comments ||
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#3
They grow tutus when they go supersonic? How very odd.
When a key strategic town in Afghanistan's Helmand Province fell to the Taliban, British commanders ordered that it must be retaken as a top priority. But with the UK's main fighting units locked in bloody battles further north, it was left to a ragtag band of 12 British soldiers, including TA reservists and medics, to lead a force of barely-trained Afghan soldiers and police across Taliban-held the desert. They hoped to retake the town of Garmisir within 24 hours. In fact they faced an astonishing 14 day close-quarter battle - isolated, heavily outnumbered and fighting for their lives in an action reminiscent of Rorke's Drift.
After a summer of intense fighting by British troops in Northern Helmand, attention was focussed on 16 Air Assault Brigade's epic defence of the besieged 'platoon house' garrisons in Sangin, Musa Qala and Nowzad.
But hundreds of miles to the south and largely ignored, the frontier town of Garmisir was also under siege and had already fallen once to the Taliban - for whom it is a key transport hub for fighters crossing the nearby border from Pakistan.
Helmand's provincial governor, an Afghan trusted by the British, was warning that if Garmisir fell again he would have to resign.
On September 8 the town was overrun, presenting UK commanders with a crisis. Garmisir must be saved, but there were no British troops available.
#1
Doug Beattie recalls an Afghan police officer, Major Showali, as "the bravest man I ever met."
"He refused to take cover under fire. Every time he saw us in trouble he would run over and pick me up and throw me into cover, shouting 'It's not your fight, Captain Doug, it's my fight!'
"Some of our guys didn't trust the Afghans, and I didn't always. But I trusted that man with my life. When he was shot dead on the last day, I was so sad."
Rest in peace, Major Showali. Well done, Captain Beattie. Thank you both for your service.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/18/2006 9:13 Comments ||
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#2
Doug Beattie said: "It's nobody's fault. The Taliban were too strong, with endless supplies of men and ammunition coming in from Pakistan."
Huh.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/18/2006 9:29 Comments ||
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#3
The Danish soldiers were soon interpreting their rules of engagement loosely, helping to clear enemy-held buildings with grenades and machine guns.
#7
My wife's cousin, Paddy Williams, is an officer in the Household Cavalry. I have to find out if this is him. I know he recently returned from Afghanistan. He's a great guy. In 2005, he flew in to NYC from the UK on Saturday, ran the NYC Marathon on Sunday, and flew back to his base on Monday.
Posted by: Tibor ||
12/18/2006 11:47 Comments ||
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#8
Isn't it way past time for an Arc Light strike on Garmisir, being held by the Taliban & a key transport hub from Pakland? Why is this being held back?
#9
Article: The Danish soldiers were soon interpreting their rules of engagement loosely, helping to clear enemy-held buildings with grenades and machine guns.
It may have occurred to the Danes that if they were overrun, the Taliban weren't exactly going to keep them alive simply because Danish rules of engagement did not involve fighting them.
#12
This reminds me of that little event a while back in which the Talibs thought they had a ready massacre in their hands by attacking a fort defended by just some little brown men.
But they know who the Gurkhas are, now. It is a lesson they will never forget.
#13
Maybe one of these days the administration will get big enough balls to do what needs to be done...so that brave men in harm's way will not die needlessly.
Turn the Waziristan valleys into glass and kill every goat-buggering, boy-raping taliwhacker.
#14
After eight days a Danish reconnaissance squadron arrived, but their rules of engagement prevented them from actually fighting the Taliban.
WTF is this? I realize the Danes eventually "interpreted" the ROE's a lil' more loosely, but this gets people killed. Or, it leads to just sittin' back and dropping 500 pounders all day long and killin' more innocent fluffy bunnies. Jeebus, what's wrong with the command over there (I'm assuming the Danes were there in a "military" role, not some mamby-pamby "police" or "training" role, but I guess I'm wrong).
Posted by: BA ||
12/18/2006 15:49 Comments ||
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#15
Why so few men in such an important area? Why not more air support? When I hear stories like this I'm pained that I supported going into Iraq. We needed to clear house in Afghanistan first. We can now thank our Mexican President for this cluster fuck.
Wish we knew the KIA numbers regarding the diaper heads...
Had to look up Rorker's Drift. Knew what it was but didn't place the name.
Danes's another reason to buy their beer and enjoy the Muhamhead cartoons!
#16
Icerigger, early on it became obvious to the Pentagon that the NATO work in Afghanistan was less than satisfactory. Thus, when it came time to free Iraq, they sought allies in a different manner.
Much of the mess in Afghanistan is due to UN and NATO. We tried to make the operation an alliance and discovered we have few real allies.
#17
It's also from the Daily Mail. There's a certain Breathless sort of war reporting done in the UK. Note the UK causality list in this near hopeless battle.
#18
I had a British tourist customer the other day. His son is due to start his second tour in Afghanistan.
He said that the two best things about the Gurkhas is they really love killing bad guys and they make some of the best currys.
Posted by: bruce ||
12/18/2006 18:02 Comments ||
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#11 Proof positive that battles are not equations from strategy, but battles won by men in the field. Way to go Royal Marines and Danes!
#21
NATO, what a joke. I am embarrassed that America is a proud member and founder of NATO. I am also embarrassed for the Danes who were there as NATO members, but not allowed to participate.
How much longer do we function under this cloak of lunacy ?
#22
Actually, the historical battle was at Rourke's Drift, where 140 redcoats held off 3 to 4 thousand Zulus which were armed with assegais and muskets.
Afghanistans government Sunday warned farmers that it would spray chemicals to destroy poppy fields if the illegal crops are not eradicated in other ways. Yes, weve accepted in principle to use ground spray when its needed, Habibullah Qaderi, the minister for counter narcotics, told a news conference in Kabul. The minister did not say when the spraying will begin.
However, he made it clear that the government had rejected an aerial spray of poppy crops. We however oppose aerial spray, he said. Afghanistan this year produced 6,100 tons of opium - the raw ingredient for making heroin - which is enough for more than 90 percent of the worlds illegal drugs. Qaderi, along with interior minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbel, chaired a conference attended by the governors of 11 provinces where poppy cultivation is high. The conference was convened to discuss plans for poppy eradication in 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The flip side is , and has been argued on here before , that once you take away a peasants main and only income , then what do they do and how do we fill the vacuum left .. Invariably they will side with the persons opposed to the government' creating a bigger divide than what was already there .. Something the Talib know only too welll , and will exploit . Destroying the opium fields is not going to win hearts and minds unfortunatly
#4
Those who were growing opium poppies were already on the other side, whether or not they wanted to be. Their hearts and minds were not ours to win or lose.
A couple more statements like that, Anonymoose, and we'll start to suspect you of being an Englishman! ;-)
A NATO-led airstrike in southern Afghanistan this week killed up to 30 Taliban fighters including two commanders, the governor of the troubled Kandahar province said on Sunday.
Counted right thumbs, I'll bet. The commanders were prolly identified by these.
Beats counting noses ...
So the Lung guys got it in for the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat guys, eh? Lol.
Warplanes from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) bombed a compound serving as a Taliban command post in the Panjwayi district of the volatile Kandahar province on Wednesday. The alliance at the time did not provide information on casualties, saying that toll was being assessed.
According to intelligence reports, weve killed 30 Taliban including some of their commanders, Kandahar governor Asadullah Khalid told a news conference on Sunday, four days after the raid.
Hundreds of ISAF troops backed by Afghan security forces this week launched a major operation in Panjwayi, a known Taliban stronghold where in mid-September troops fought a major battle with insurgents. ISAF on Friday dropped leaflets on insurgent positions warning them to leave the area before troops force them to quit. The governor, citing security reasons, did not provide details on the latest operation, named Baaz Tsuka.
A senior provincial official said that the former religious police minister in the ousted Taliban government had been killed in a NATO air strike in southern Afghanistan. Taliban sources confirmed the raid but said the man, Abdul Wali, the radical Islamic movements one-time minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, was not killed. Wali along with 30 other militants, was killed three days ago in the NATO raid in Panjwai district of Kandahar, Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid said.
We have credible information that Abdul Wali has been killed in the operation, Khalid told a news conference in Kandahar. Authorities have not recovered Walis body, he added.
Several Taliban sources in Kandahar said 13 militants died in the attack, but added Wali was not one. NATO said it was not aware of Walis reported killing.
Meanwhile, an Afghan civilian was killed and three others injured on Sunday in a suicide car bombing targeting a NATO convoy in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said. A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the bomb attack on the American convoy. There were no victims among the ISAF forces, added the spokesman. The attack took place in the Nadir Shah Kot district, according to a spokesman for the governor of the province, which borders Afghanistan and where there are frequent attacks on foreign troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
It's a quagmire, don't you see. A QUAGMIRE!!
Posted by: John Murth, COL USMC (Ret) ||
12/18/2006 0:18 Comments ||
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Police say a Bangladeshi man held for five years at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay has been flown back home after investigators there found no evidence he was a terrorist. Witnesses are all dead, y'see...
They say Mubarak Hussain Bin Abul Hashem, 32, has been flown to Dhaka on a special flight by US officials and handed over to local law enforcement officials for more interrogation. Airport police chief Abdul Malek says the man has protested his innocence and complained of being given a "hard time" at Guantanamo. "He was picked up by plain-clothes intelligence officers from the Pakistani city of Peshawar while he was saying prayers at a mosque in late 2001," he said. "He was a madrassa student from the capital, Dhaka, and his father is a chief cleric at a city mosque. He told us that he went to Pakistan to do higher studies in a madrassa there. "So you see, it was all perfectly innocent..."
"But while studying at a madrassa, he travelled to Kabul with his friend and fellow student, who was from Afghanistan. He was picked up days after he returned to Peshwar from Kabul." "Honest. We met these two chicks at the market, an' they said come over to Kabul for the weekend, the 'rents are outta town, so we party hearty all weekend, and then we get back to Peshawar and what happens? It's 'stick 'em up, yer goin' to Gitmo!' Now, how righteous is that?"
The police chief says Mr Abul Hashem is being interrogated to know whether he belongs to any Islamic militant group and the "actual reason" for his visit to Pakistan. "I tol' you, man! These two chicks, Fatimah and Miryam, like, they had these really slinky burkas, y'know?"
"He could be released tomorrow provided his answers satisfy us," the police chief said. "Those ain't the answers that'll do it, but he should be able to come up with something."
But the former detainee's father, Abul Hashem, says his son's life has been "destroyed". "His career as a holy man has been ruined! Now he'll have to become a CPA. Oh, the shame!"
"My son is innocent," he said. "He is neither a Taliban, nor a militant. He is a victim of the American war on terror. Why did they arrest him? His life is finished. They destroyed his life for nothing. In the name of fighting terror, Americans are in fact fighting Muslims like my son. I want justice. But where shall I get justice?" Go to your nearest shariah court and take a number. So, how much weight did he gain? Prolly literate, now, too. I agree Pops: his life is forfeit.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
... followed by a short drive to a nameless upazaila at 4 am ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2006 0:38 Comments ||
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#3
isn't a bullet cheaper and more permanently rehabilitating? Behind the ear, please
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2006 0:41 Comments ||
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#4
Foreigners who entered Afghanistan prior to 9-11 were there to commit terror.
During the Battle of the Bulge, German soldiers who tried to infiltrate US forces by wearing the US uniform, were shot by impromptu firing squads. After streneous interrogation, the Gitmo terrorists should have met the similar justice. Why are they being released? Arab and Subcontinent governments are pressuring release. I would say they are "with the terrorists."
(Interfax) - A suspected member of an illegal armed group, previously controlled by separatist militant leader Shamil Basayev, has been arrested in Grozny. "A local resident, suspected of fighting against federal forces with criminal armed groups, led by Basayev and field commander Batayev between 1998 and 2006, was arrested in Grozny's Oktyabrsky district," a source in law enforcement services told Interfax on Sunday.
In other episode, two residents of the village of Alkhan-Kala turned themselves in to a district police station in Grozny and confessed to collaborating with militants in 2005-06. "They supplied food and medicines to the criminal armed group led by Arbi Barayev," the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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A Spanish court jailed seven of 11 suspected Islamic militants arrested in Spains North African enclave of Ceuta last week, while freeing the other four, the court said on Sunday. The seven jailed, pending charges, are not allowed bail. The other four have to keep the court informed of their whereabouts. The jailed suspects belong to an armed group called Salafia Jihad, affiliate of Al Qaeda in North Africa, judge Baltasar Garzon said in a document.
The focus of this group is the Darkawia mosque where they recruited men for Jihad. the document read. The group, in 2006 began planning violent acts and also plotted to steal weapons from the military arsenal. Hundreds of police took part in last weeks arrests in the largely Muslim Principe Alfonso neighbourhood of Ceuta. They seized forged documents, a flak jacket and an air pistol as well as cash, computers and mobile phones, officials said. Jailed men include two brothers Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed, known as Spanish Taliban who spent two years in US detention in Guantanamo Bay but were freed earlier this year after terrorism charges against them in Spain were overturned.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
But... but... aren't these the sort of guys commie front man zapatero was elected to serve tea and lollipops to?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/18/2006 11:05 Comments ||
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#2
The focus of this group is the Darkawia mosque where they recruited men for Jihad
(PTI): The Jammu and Kashmir police today busted a Lashkar-e-Taiba module by arresting four members of the outfit wanted in many killings and other militancy-related incidents, a police spokesman said here. The four -- Shamasuddin Rather, Latief Ahmed Bhat, Mohammad Waseem Bhat and Mohammad Yasin Mir -- were arrested from Sopore area of Baramulla district and a Chinese pistol, its one magazine and combat uniforms were recovered from their possession, the spokesman said.
Terming the arrest of the four as a "major breakthrough", he said, the militants were involved in the October 8 killing of a dentist Dr Mushtaq of Zachaldara. They had also set his car afire and looted cash from him. The captured militants were also allegedly involved in an attack on Sopore police camp and setting on fire a beauty parlour in the area, the spokesman said. He said, the ultras were indoctrinating young boys into militancy on the behest of LeT commander Showkat Ahmed Najar alias Munna Janwari of Bhatpora-Sopore.
Of late, the ultras have started "outsourcing" militant actions to school dropouts, juvenile delinquents or those addicted to drugs or liquor, the spokesman said. Two days ago, the police had recovered a large consignment of arms and ammunition of LeT from river Jhelum which included 37 grenades, ten magazines and 300 rounds of ammunition, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Somebody update their english style manual. It's "cell" not "module"...
#2
The 'outsourcing' comment is hilarious: I can hardly wait till they start practicing 'Just In Time' IED placement; should make for some equally funny reading (assuming JIT = wait till the good guys are in sight. No thought to the fact that if I can see good guys, good guys can see me)
IRAQI ARMY COORDINATES FOR AIR SUPPORT TO KILL TERRORISTS NEAR BALAD
TIKRIT, Iraq Iraqi Army soldiers from 1st Battalion, 5th Iraqi Army Division, with support from Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, called in an air strike on a house harboring eight terrorists after receiving small-arms fire from the house Thursday while they were on patrol east of Balad.
Coalition Forces called for air support after small-arms fire from the house wounded three Iraqi soldiers.
After receiving clearance, an F-15E dropped a guided bomb on the house, partially demolishing it. However, IA continued to receive small-arms fire. Terrorists were observed going into the house. An air weapons team was called to assist ground forces.
Terrorists engaged the IA and CF Soldiers from a second house. Ground forces engaged the second house killing eight terrorists.
The Iraqi soldiers secured the site after the house had been destroyed, discovering the bodies of the eight terrorists with AK47 semi-automatic machine guns.
#1
Most excellent. Iraqi army showing some level of competence in the art of combined arms warfare (with assistance from the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division I am certain).
In any case, 8 or more fewer islamo-cockroaches stealing perfectly good oxygen.
#5
This is the modern version of calling in artillery.
Would have been better to designate it and call in a battery of copperheads (or GPS arty) TOT.
We have damn good artillery and should be using it - and teaching the Iraqis how to use it. They have a lot of old D-30's that can be highly accurate once emplaced, and if we supply them with good FO gear and guided rounds, they can provide their own support. Training and equipping the Iraqi AF will be a lot longer and harder - train and equip their arty will be quicker and cheaper (and more effective).
#6
One other thing, there is a laser guided warhead for these 122mm gun-howitzers. Buying them from the Russians and Indians would be a political play as well.
#7
There has been zero mention of any US effort to set up a field artillery or armor school in Iraq, and this has perplexed me for a long time.
They have set up officers' schools, basic, advanced, command and staff and even a command and general staff school; an NCO academy; and Military Intelligence, Signal, Bomb Disposal, "Combat Arms", Engineer and Military Police schools.
A grave containing more than 30 bodies, apparently from Saddams regime was found in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, police said. A local Iraqi made the discovery on Saturday when he uncovered bones and old clothes while he was digging a foundation for a house. He informed the police, who found more than 30 bodies of men and women believed to have been killed in 1991 when Saddams forces brutally crushed a Shiite uprising following the Gulf War. Television news footage showed people standing around piles of bones that had been wrapped in blankets.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Ick. But I'm glad they were found. May their relatives get a full measure of vengeance when Saddam Hussein is finally hanged.
Gunmen in police uniforms have kidnapped dozens of people at a Baghdad branch of the Red Crescent, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in the capital to meet Iraq's embattled leaders. Witnesses and a Red Crescent official say the gunmen stormed the office in central Karrada in pick-up trucks, separated men from women and then took off with about 25 male employees, visitors and private security guards. Police say between 10 and 20 people have been kidnapped.
Baghdad is plagued by daily kidnappings, both political and criminal. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Government is struggling to contain soaring sectarian tension and daily violence that the United Nations estimates kills more than 100 people a day. Mr Blair has arrived in Baghdad to lend support to the Iraqi Government, which is under pressure from Washington to do more to stem violence between Shiites and Sunni Arabs.
The Iraq stop-over forms part of a Middle East tour aimed at helping to break a deadlock between Palestinian factions and nudge forward the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Mr Blair sees progress in that conflict as key to defusing regional tensions and helping to stem the Iraqi insurgency. In turn, progress in Iraq is vital to Mr Blair's legacy that looks set to be overshadowed by the war. He will step down next year after a decade as Britain's Prime Minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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EXTRA GIT UR POP CORN! CIVIL WAR READ ALL ABOUT IT!
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Palestinian gunmen waged a street battle outside the residence of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas around dawn Monday, dashing hopes that an overnight truce would bring quiet to the Gaza Strip. Hot Buttered Pop Corn and Beer @ RB sideboard
Elsewhere, the bullet-riddled body of a top security officer affiliated with Fatah, Col. Adnan Rahmi, was discovered in northern Gaza several hours after he disappeared, Palestinian medical officials and his family said. No group took responsibility, but Rahmi's family blamed Hamas for the killing. heh no one blamed it on Bush....yet.
The violence persisted throughout the night, with Hamas and Fatah gunmen waging battles in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya, near the home of a Fatah strongman in Gaza, and outside the Gaza parliament building. Hamas militants also clashed with Abbas' bodyguard unit outside his Gaza home. warms the cockles don't it
A French reporter, 46-year-old Didier Francois of the newspaper Liberation, was shot in the leg during the day's violence, according to his newspaper. heh bonus warmth!
Egyptian mediators and small Palestinian factions worked all day to broker an agreement between the two sides, and a truce was announced at a press conference in Gaza City after midnight. LOL, experts
Tawfik Abu Khoussa, a Fatah official, said earlier that his group had agreed to the deal and was working to rein in its forces. Fatah issued a statement calling on its fighters not to fire unless there is a serious threat on their lives. However, the statement also accused Hamas of trying to overthrow Abbas. It's true, spread the werd.
#5
Like I said, who wants to bet that this isn't one of the final showdowns over which faction is finally recognized as the genuinereceptacle valid recipient of foreign aid?
Let's all hope that this will settle their hash (as it were). A final degeneration of the enduring Palestinian conflict into a classic internecine bit of Muslim bloodshed would go a long way towards making the outside world understand where so much of the blame lies.
#7
Looks like they obey cease-fires with each other about as well as the ones with Israel.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/18/2006 6:11 Comments ||
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#8
Habitual gun sex leads to itchy trigger finger syndrome . Weening this lot off guns is an impossible task . Lock down all border crossings and let them 'boil in a bag'.
#13
why should anyone be surprised? if they believe violence will solve problems with Israel, it's a short jump to believing violence is the solution for any problem.
#14
At this point it's almost as good as when Iran and Iraq went to war. Ah warm smiles and extra melted butter.
No real MSM coverage because the Joos and Bush aren't in the picture. After all the porKoranimals never shed other Mooselimb blood, Allen would not be pleased. Nor for that matter CBS, NYT, CNN, ABC, NBC...
Basically it's the worthless Gazanians fufilling Muhamhead's promises of killing to instill a Caliph? I don't know and at this time I don't care. Pass the salt I'm getting up for a beer and an extra VCR tape. I don't want to miss this one!
#18
The MSM does not cover the Gaza Festivities because they are considered intermural sports. They only cover big leage sports, like the Paleostinians vs. the Israelies, or Al Qaeda vs. The Great Satan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/18/2006 11:21 Comments ||
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#19
a perfect fit for the gangs of Gaza and their supporters in the media. Gee Officer Krupke!
#20
I hope you guys have a lot of popcorn because this is gonna take a while. Even though they don't know anything but fighting, I'm afraid they don't even know that very well and are really just no good at it. My prediction is a long, low level war comprised mostly of inconclusive shoot outs and the occaisional assasination. They may get down to committing suicide bombings against each other but I seriously doubt if either side has what it takes for the kind of organized, all out, pitched battles that will actually decide anything. Ugly and messy, yes. Decisive, no. Just a prolonged blood feud between uncivilized barbarians.
Egyptian mediators? This could go on for a long, long time.
#21
I think Fred has a popcorn farm behind the O Club, Ebbang Uluque6305. We can pop it as long as they have tools with which to harm one another. Oh, and I put a traditional vegetable & dip platter on the sideboard for those who prefer crudites to cholesterol. ;-)
#22
Hey, we *love* crudities, tw. Although, we usually dress them up with a little lipstick and try to pass them off as rants. Or are you talking about those little arty vegetables?
#26
I believe West Virginia has a target shooting team that is co-ed.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/18/2006 20:28 Comments ||
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#27
I'd no idea you had such a lovely voice, Barbara -- so well fitted to the lyrics! ;-)
No artistically carved vegetables, SteveS, just carrot sticks and such with homemade blue cheese dip. I made radish roses once, but they never opened properly in the bowl of ice water, so I gave up on the whole idea. I do hope you will forgive me. ;-)
GAZA CITY (CNN) -- The leading Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed to a cease-fire after street battles left at least two people dead, leaders of other parties involved in the talks announced early Monday. "We've fired off something like 40,000 rounds. We got two people dead. Maybe we oughta have a ceasefire before somebody notices we're lousy shots."
Clashes between gunmen loyal to Fatah, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, which controls the Palestinian government, escalated Sunday after Abbas called for new elections in the Palestinian territories. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya on Sunday rejected Abbas' call for early elections. "Early elections? You can't call early elections! We reject your call for early elections!"
The cease-fire took effect shortly after midnight Sunday, according to representatives of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Democratic Action, two parties that helped negotiate the deal. The streets of Gaza City were quiet after the proclamation.
"Psssst. Hamas called Abbas a poopyhead!"
"And Fatah sez Haniyeh secretly sees a Dominatrix!"
"We got pictures!"
Officials from Hamas and Fatah confirmed their factions had signed onto the plan, but neither party sent officials to the news conference where the deal was announced.
#3
Aw come'on Silentbrick, you gotta know that someone prolly got offed while the pen was still in motion.
Ima thimkin' that this one is getting close to whatever it is that counts for "all the marbles" over in the land of gunsex and the morons who love it.
For Fatah, it's now or never to regain control. If Hamas trots off with the roses after all this post-election squabbling al Aqsa might just as easily cross over. Fatah knows damn well that American and Israeli support for them will evaporate like a snowball in hell if they don't deliver their usual pig-in-a-poke of worthless promises and diplomatic treachery.
It's hard not to believe that these idjits won't continue with their holiday festivities. Short paychecks make for low blood sugar. Let's all hope this proves to be a formula for success.
Prime example of when Paleo incompetence is lamentable.
Hamas gunmen clashed with security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Gaza Strip leaving two people dead while four others were injured in a mortar attack on the presidential compound.
Prime Minister Ismael Hania, a leader of the Islamic Hamas movement, called for a boycott of early elections.
The clashes came as Prime Minister Ismael Hania, a leader of the Islamic Hamas movement, called for a boycott of early elections that Abbas, who leads the rival Fatah movement, yesterday announced he plans to hold.
The attack on Abbas's beachside presidential compound hit a building used by the presidential guard and also a nearby house, a Palestinian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said by telephone. Abbas was at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah at the time of the attack.
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Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
BOTH sides could be rolled up by a dozen Boy Scout troops from the rural south. What a pathetic bunch of losers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2006 14:46 Comments ||
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#2
Takes so much to try to build a government and yet so little to watch it evaporate like water from the desert sands. They cannot run 4,000,000 - much less Jerusalem. BAH!
GAZA - Forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas overran a Hamas ministry and sealed off the area around his compound on Sunday as the threat of violence hung over Gaza following the presidents call for new elections.
Members of Abbass elite presidential guard, a near 4,000-strong, U.S.-backed force, took over the Hamas-run Agriculture Ministry and sent employees home, part of a move to secure a large area of downtown Gaza City where Abbas lives.
Hundreds of heavily armed men patrolled the streets and turned cars back. They were joined by masked members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group loyal to Abbass Fatah movement. Some carried rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
The security clampdown followed a dawn raid by masked gunmen on a training camp used by the presidential guard in which one guard officer was killed and at least five others were wounded, security sources said. The raid involved dozens of gunmen in uniforms similar to those worn by Hamas militants, a senior member of the presidential guard said, but Hamas denied any involvement.
"No, no, certainly not!"
Hamas, which controls the government, has accused Abbas of launching a coup after he announced plans on Saturday for early presidential and parliamentary elections in a bid to break months of deadlock and get international sanctions lifted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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GAZA CITY - A veteran French journalist working for the Liberation daily, Didier Francois, was wounded Sunday during heavy gunbattles between rival Palestinian factions in Gaza City.
Francois, 46, a veteran reporter who has covered numerous conflicts around the world during more than two decades with the paper, received a bullet to his leg, he told AFP at a Gaza hospital. He was in satisfactory condition at Gazas Shifa hospital and was due to be transferred to Jerusalem later in the day.
Francois was reporting on heavy exchanges of gunfire between supporters of president Mahmud Abbass Fatah faction and the ruling Hamas movement around the presidential compound and was about to leave the area when he was shot. So which side is he on?
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#3
Libération = collaboration, liberal-limousine rag founded by maoists with the approval seal of jean-paul sartre after mai 1968 "student revolution". On life-support from the State, and the rotschild family (conspiracy theory fans, here is your cue), only read by high-school teachers and parisian bobos... al guardian, only leftier.
In a nutshell : too bad they aimed too low.
#2
She goes back to pre-Depression times. In those days, fashionable women would replace their bras with thick cloth that would squash the breasts. It was called: "the flat look." Maybe it caused the Depression.
#3
It certainly would have depressed the hell out of me. "Flat look" indeed (spit)!
Posted by: mac ||
12/18/2006 9:07 Comments ||
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Not too sure what the diffo is between the "flat look" and today's anorexic ideal.
Clara was not flat-chested. She was the inspiration for Betty Boop's looks (her voice was Helen Kane). She was also reputed to have "laid everything but linoleum," to include the entire USC football team.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 10:55 Comments ||
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It is not true, however, that Clara Bow was the inventor of the tie of the same name.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2006 11:01 Comments ||
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#13
It wasn't bras they replaced, it was boned corsets. Bras weren't actually invented until later, if I recall my undergarment history correctly. Then, once they could breathe and didn't have to worry about bits popping out, they could dance the quickstep and the charleston with enthusiasm and aplomb. The first round of women's liberation, dontchaknow. ;-)
#14
As for the flat beer, the hair was rinsed in it as a setting lotion. Very effective, if a bit sticky, whether for pin curls or on rollers. Probably attracted things, though, if not rinsed out again at reasonable intervals.
#15
surely one doesn't actually drink flat beer?
TW, you've obviously never been to a back-country English pub...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2006 19:30 Comments ||
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#16
Sure I have, Old Patriot! Down in the Cotswalds in 1987, arrived after the restaurant had closed for the evening. Got a cheese sandwhich on stale white bread -- barely a step up from Wonderbread, I might add, except that Wonderbread is never stale -- and a club soda, because their kitchen was closed, too. Thank goodness for cream teas, else I wouldn't have survived the next few days! But Mr. Wife didn't mention that the beer was flat... (I never developed a taste for the stuff, I'm afraid, which seems to leave more for him)
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.
An Air Force B-1 Lancer provided close-air support to ISAF troops in contact with enemy forces near Asadabad. The B-1 expended GBU-31s on enemy positions. 
Air Force C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globmaster IIIs provided intra-theater heavy airlift support, helping sustain operations throughout Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa. More than 120 airlift sorties were flown; more than 455 tons of cargo was delivered, and close to 1,880 passengers were transported. This included more than 19,000 pounds of troop re-supply air-dropped in eastern Afghanistan. 
Afghanistans government Sunday warned farmers that it would spray chemicals to destroy poppy fields if the illegal crops are not eradicated in other ways. Yes, weve accepted in principle to use ground spray when its needed, Habibullah Qaderi, the minister for counter narcotics, told a news conference in Kabul. The minister did not say when the spraying will begin. 
A NATO-led airstrike in southern Afghanistan this week killed up to 30 Taliban fighters including two commanders, the governor of the troubled Kandahar province said on Sunday.
He said Taliban regional commanders 
We have credible information that Abdul Wali has been killed in the operation, Khalid told a news conference in Kandahar. Authorities have not recovered Walis body, he added.
Police say a Bangladeshi man held for five years at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay has been flown back home after investigators there found no evidence he was a terrorist.
(Interfax) - A suspected member of an illegal armed group, previously controlled by separatist militant leader Shamil Basayev, has been arrested in Grozny. "A local resident, suspected of fighting against federal forces with criminal armed groups, led by Basayev and field commander Batayev between 1998 and 2006, was arrested in Grozny's Oktyabrsky district," a source in law enforcement services told Interfax on Sunday. 
A Spanish court jailed seven of 11 suspected Islamic militants arrested in Spains North African enclave of Ceuta last week, while freeing the other four, the court said on Sunday. The seven jailed, pending charges, are not allowed bail. The other four have to keep the court informed of their whereabouts. The jailed suspects belong to an armed group called 
(PTI): The Jammu and Kashmir police today busted a 
A grave containing more than 30 bodies, apparently from Saddams regime was found in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, police said. A local Iraqi made the discovery on Saturday when he uncovered bones and old clothes while he was digging a foundation for a house. He informed the police, who found more than 30 bodies of men and women believed to have been killed in 1991 when Saddams forces brutally crushed a Shiite uprising following the Gulf War. Television news footage showed people standing around piles of bones that had been wrapped in blankets.
GAZA CITY - A veteran French journalist working for the Liberation daily, Didier Francois, was wounded Sunday during heavy gunbattles between rival Palestinian factions in Gaza City.
