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LEBANON: 200 KG BOMB FOUND AT UNIVERSITY
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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Afghanistan
Top general in Afghanistan expels Marines
The top American general in Afghanistan has expelled a U.S. Marine special operations company for the way the men responded to an ambush March 4, Marine sources said.

Maj. Cliff Gilmore, a spokesman for Marine Special Operations Command, confirmed to The Examiner that the company of 120 Marines is redeploying.

He said the decision followed an ambush on the company's convoy by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. A second Marine source said the Marines retaliated and some civilians were killed.

The action brought an abrupt end to what promised to be a historic deployment. The unit sailed in January from Camp Lejuene, N.C., as the first Marine Corps special operations company sent overseas. The Corps joined U.S. Special Operations Command a year ago.

The company is now redeploying to Kuwait after just a few weeks in Afghanistan in what was supposed to be a six-month tour.

A Marine officer assigned to special operations said Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the top U.S. commander, took the extraordinary step of expelling the unit after he consulted with Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.

A spokesman for Eikenberry could not be reached today.

Gilmore said, "The unit responded to the ambush and the local population perceptions of that response have damaged the relationship between the local population and the Marine special operations company."
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/23/2007 12:59 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No doubt Talibunnies were hurt too.
Posted by: Icerigger || 03/23/2007 13:04 Comments || Top||

#2  ROE violation. Cannot return fire unless you have a clear target and no risk of harming non-combatants. Or that's how it sounds. If those are the rules and the Marines can't/won't follow them, then ....
Of course it all could be a political sop to help Karzai deflect internal dissent.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/23/2007 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  The only incdent I can find reported at the time is this one.

I believe this is the ambush where many civilian casulties were claimed. Regardless, it is a most unusual step for command to take.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/23/2007 13:15 Comments || Top||

#4  "The unit responded to the ambush and the local population perceptions of that response have damaged the relationship between the local population and the Marine special operations company."

Okaaaaaay - the local population's perceptions are now important. I know, things have changed over the years but for me it is simple.

I think our foray into Iraq has shown that war can't be effectively fought by nuance and degree. If we are going to adequately protect our guys in the field it has to be made simple.

Such as "Is this a threat?"

"Yes" - kill it.

"Maybe" - stand ready to kill it.

"No" - try to not kill it.

Maybe MARHQ will be pissed about the redeployment but I can just about guarantee the grunts are happy to be out of that PC Operation.
Posted by: GORT || 03/23/2007 13:16 Comments || Top||

#5  It looks like maybe they responded with a Camp Lejuene Death Blossom. This was the first deployment of a Marine Special Ops unit. Was it also the first combat deployment for the individual Marines?
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/23/2007 13:27 Comments || Top||

#6  My guess is it was more than ROEs .... grunts refusing to merge into a joint services framework, plus inexperience at spec ops.
Posted by: Wheating Angereper3174 || 03/23/2007 13:48 Comments || Top||

#7  My guess is there responded appropriately according to their ROE, however some cilvian got whacked and now they are being offered as the sacrificial lambs....

I CAN tell you that this wasn't their first combat deployment.
Posted by: 0369_Grunt || 03/23/2007 14:21 Comments || Top||

#8  they killed the enemy was the problem. you know that is a no no in islamic countries . we must detain them so they can escape and kill more of our troops. (sarcasm)
Posted by: sinse || 03/23/2007 16:30 Comments || Top||

#9  The Marines in SOCOM are not your regular grunts, not that there is anything wrong with that. They are all Force Recon and other Spec. Op. trained individuals. Many in the Marine Corps didn't want Marines to be attached to SOCOM in the first place for many reasons. This could be one of them. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Posted by: Sgt. D.T. || 03/23/2007 17:01 Comments || Top||

#10  Perhaps Happy Gilmore will get reassigned by the real top dog.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 03/23/2007 17:03 Comments || Top||

#11  Perhaps they're needed someplace else.
Posted by: mrp || 03/23/2007 18:16 Comments || Top||

#12  Perhaps we're about a half decade overdue from telling Islamic countries "We're here because you didn't do your own damn job--we're now going to do what needs to be done and you can just sit back and shut the fuck up about it."
Posted by: Crusader || 03/23/2007 18:40 Comments || Top||

#13  Notice that the examiner has this article under POLITICS. Seems appropriate to me.
Posted by: GK || 03/23/2007 19:41 Comments || Top||

#14  What Crusader said. Fighting this war bullet by bullet is totally insane, as in suicidally insane. This is the death of a thousand paper cuts. Enough already!

Any moral capital that Bush accrued by being bold enough to identify The Axis of Evil is now being squandered fighting a Vietnam-style Politically Correct war.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 22:36 Comments || Top||

#15  ROE violation. Cannot return fire unless you have a clear target and no risk of harming non-combatants.

Great rules: for an F-16C pilot at 30,000 feet; not very workable when you've just sprung an ambush on the ground.

Posted by: badanov || 03/23/2007 23:05 Comments || Top||


Militants under pressure from Afghan forces, Pakistani tribesmen
Local forces on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border have killed as many as 200 militants without the active backing of Western soldiers, reports said Friday. Afghan security forces killed at least 49 militants in Helmand province without the participation of NATO troops, Afghan officials said. Pakistani villagers had killed up to 160 foreign fighters in the lawless border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, a Pakistani provincial governor said. There were smaller number of casualties among the Afghan forces and Pakistani villagers.
Simple, yet heavily armed villagers
Both reports Friday bode well for NATO's fight against the Taliban militants in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the fighting in Pakistan could hurt the militants. The Pakistani tribesmen are pressuring the Taliban by fighting its foreign supporters. The Taliban and foreign fighters have been using Pakistan's border area as a base to launch attacks on Afghanistan.

The operation launched Thursday by Afghan security forces included army and police units in Helmand province, adjacent to Kandahar province where Canada's soldiers are based. Afghan officials said their attack is the single biggest operation they have undertaken without NATO support. As well as the militants, seven police officers were reported killed. NATO spokeswoman Lt.-Col. Angela Billings said it's becoming more common for Afghan forces to run their own operations. NATO forces have been training the Afghan army and police.

In Pakistan, tribesmen in South Waziristan have been fighting foreign militants since Monday. The Pakistani government, which is under Western pressure to stop the Taliban attacks on Afghanistan, has been trying to enlist the tribesmen in its campaign. The governor of North West Frontier Province, Ali Mohammed Jan Aurakzai, said Friday that the casualties — up to 160 militants, including Uzbek and Chechen fighters — showed the policy was working.

"Local tribesmen are not allowing foreigners to live in their areas," he told reporters in Peshawar. As many as 30 tribesmen also died, he said.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2007 09:37 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Afghan clash toll 'rises to 69'
The number of militants killed in clashes with foreign and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan has risen to at least 69, Afghan officials say. Troops attacked rebel positions in two separate operations in Helmand province. Seven policemen were killed in the fighting, officials said.

In recent weeks, Helmand has seen heavy fighting between Nato and Afghan forces and the Taleban and their allies. There has been no independent confirmation of the latest deaths. Nato confirmed on Friday that its forces were supporting Afghan troops in fighting around Babaji, along the Helmand River, north of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. Helmand is a major centre for opium production.

Defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters "69 enemy elements" had been killed in the fighting. The operations were launched from the town of Gereshk and Lashkar Gah, 40km (25 miles) to the south-west. "Forty-nine bodies of the enemy were left at the battleground. Seventeen enemy elements were arrested, including three wounded," he said. As well as seven police killed, another 19 members of the Afghan security forces had been injured, he said.

A statement from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said its troops were providing "flank protection, close air support and medical support".
Sounds like the Afghans are stepping up their game
Bloodshed in Afghanistan last year returned to levels not seen since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, with the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar and areas in the east of the country particularly hard-hit. Some 4,000 people are believed to have died last year in the insurgency - about a quarter of them civilians.
Yeah, yeah, we know. And the other 3000 were bad guys
Nato and Afghan forces began what they said was their largest offensive to date against the Taleban in the south of the country earlier in March. Operation Achilles will eventually involve more than 4,500 Nato troops and nearly 1,000 Afghan soldiers in Helmand province, the alliance says.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2007 07:46 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They should market Helmand for hunting trips for hippies. All the hash you can smoke - all the jihadis you can kill.
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/23/2007 8:52 Comments || Top||

#2  heh heh..
Bag a jihadi and score some hash.
Posted by: Abu do you love || 03/23/2007 11:33 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Cargo plane is shot down in Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia - A cargo plane that had delivered equipment for Ugandan peacekeepers in the Somali capital was shot down by a missile during takeoff Friday, the owner of the plane said, and a witness said he saw the aircraft crash in flames. The fate of the 11-member crew was unknown.

Egi Azarian, the acting head of Belarus-based Transaviaexport, confirmed that the company's plane was shot down Friday. Transaviaexport, based in Minsk, Belarus, operates only Ilyushin-76s, one of the largest cargo planes in the world. The aircraft requires a crew of six, is 153 feet long and can carry nearly 50 tons of cargo.
Being an Ilyushin, I wouldn't be surprised if it crashed on it's own.
I wondered about the plane; didn't think the Ugs had anything like that in their inventory. But this looks like a charter. Wonder if the Daily Kos will condemn these 'mercenaries'?
Muse Sheik Osman, who lives in the north of the city, said he saw the burning plane come down and heard the sound of an anti-aircraft missile being fired shortly before the crash.
How does a AA missile sound any different than the other missiles flying around Mog?
This one actually hit something.
Capt. Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia, confirmed a crash. Ankunda said he did not know the nationalities of the crew or whether they had survived. Another plane had made an emergency landing on March 9. An Islamic group claimed it had hit that plane with a missile, but Somali and peacekeeping officials said a mechanical failure likely let to the plane's emergency landing.

The plane crash came at the end of a particularly violent week in Mogadishu that killed dozens of people, most of them civilians.

Much of the violence halted Friday as a truce took effect between military officials from Ethiopia, which sent troops to neighboring Somalia last year to help overthrow the Islamic movement that had overtaken much of the country, and elders of the dominant clan in Somalia's capital. Still, sporadic gunfire could be heard around the former defense ministry building in southern Mogadishu, which has been one of the front lines in the two days of fighting.

One civilian was killed early Friday, possibly by a stray bullet, said Mohamed Barre Olad, who lives near the former defense ministry headquarters. Olad saw the body as he walked home. He said he saw also a wounded man being taken to a hospital in a wheelchair.

An elder, Mohammed Ibrahim Aden, told The Associated Press that 25 Hawiye clan elders met with "several Ethiopian (military) officials" late Thursday and agreed to stop hostilities and begin talks. "We have asked the Ethiopian officials to pull their troops back from front line areas and force government troops to do the same," Aden said. "We have also promised on our part to pull our fighters back from the battle fronts."

Meanwhile, Kenya deported more than 100 people from 19 countries to Somalia after they illegally crossed the border between the two countries during fighting earlier this year. The deportees were subsequently arrested by Ethiopian troops, a human rights group said Friday. The Kenyan government denied refugee status to the group - which included a U.S. citizen - and even sent its own citizens back to face an uncertain future in a country with no functioning legal system, said the chairman of Muslim Human Rights, Al-Amin Kimathi. Ethiopian forces fighting inside Somalia then took the suspects and flew them to two detention centers inside Ethiopia, he added. Kimathi said he had received unconfirmed information that three of the deportees had died while in Ethiopian custody.

Government officials had vowed Thursday to continue fighting the insurgents in Mogadishu who they said are led by the newly chosen head of Somalia's al-Qaida cell, Aden Hashi Ayro. He is one of the people the U.S. targeted in a January airstrike in Somalia. Ayro is a top leader of the ousted Islamic courts and the government had reports he was in Mogadishu, said Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle. The Council of Islamic Courts that Ayro served as military commander and was driven from the capital in December after six months in power. The group has promised to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, and mortar attacks pound the capital nearly every day.

On Wednesday, Somali intelligence officials ordered the satellite television station Al-Jazeera to close its Mogadishu office, said Abshir Mohamed, the channel's head of administration. Information Minister Madobe Nunow Mohamed told The Associated Press that "Al-Jazeera has conveyed the wrong messages to the world." "We will shut down additional radio stations and channels if they distort facts," he said.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991. The current administration has failed to assert control throughout the country, and the African Union has deployed a small peacekeeping force to defend it.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2007 12:43 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd think it would be pretty hard to bring down an Il-76 with just one missile. Those things are huge! Of course, I don't have any experience in this kind of thing, so my knee-jerk reaction could be totally wrong.
Posted by: WhitecollarRedneck || 03/23/2007 13:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Sitting on the ground, it would be damaged only a little. But, in flight, everything is under dynamic stress, so breaking a small portion can have a big effect.

When missiles are tested, the warhead is replaced by instrumentation and telemetry. Still, even without any warhead at all, a direct hit by an AIM-120, say, will bring a QF-4 down in pieces. So, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Posted by: Jackal || 03/23/2007 20:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Breaking it on landing is difficult, but on takeoff, when the system is under maximum stress, the loss of one engine could criple the aircraft and cause a crash. The other possibility is that the warhead struck the rear of an engine, and it started shedding turbine blades. That can be fatal to an aircraft regardless of what else is happening.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/23/2007 21:30 Comments || Top||


Puntland soldiers slain in central Somalia
Not sure if this is ICU-related or just the usual warlord skirmishing.
(SomaliNet) Authorities in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia said that at least 10 soldiers of its troops have been killed and 6 others were wounded in an ambush attack that took place in Adado town of Galgadud region in central Somalia. But independent sources say that the number of killed soldiers reached 12 as the local clan militia seized four of the vehicles owned by the Puntland troops.

Dahir Artan, the commander of seventh division of Puntland army told the local media that local armed militia has launched a ambush attack on positions of the Puntland forces supporting the government killing 10 and wounding 6 others. “They also confiscated four war vehicles, two of them loaded with military supply,” he said.

Witnesses told Somalinet that the fighting started early this morning when heavily armed clan militiamen attacked a compound based by government forces from Puntland. Adado town is 500km north of the capital. Some reports say todayÂ’s ambush attack in Adado town follows yesterdayÂ’s gun battle in the capital in which the government forces clashed with supporters of the ousted Islamists in south of the capital.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Somali govt names Qaeda leader as fighting rages
The Somali government said yesterday that al Qaeda had made a young militant Islamist commander its leader in Mogadishu as fighting raged for a second day in the coastal capital. Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle told a news conference Aden Hashi Ayro -- an Afghanistan-trained commander in his 30s who runs the Islamists' feared Shabab, or military wing -- was personally directing a growing insurgency. "The government is being targeted by those who used to work with terrorists, the so-called Islamic Courts," Jelle said. "And after they had a long consultation with al Qaeda, they named Aden Hashi Ayro as head of (al Qaeda) operations in Mogadishu."

The United States and the Somali government have long accused Ayro, and other Islamist leaders, of links to al Qaeda. But some critics say the government paints its political rivals as terrorists to secure more backing from Washington.

Thursday's accusation came as insurgents again battled Somali government forces and their Ethiopian military allies, forcing hundreds of families to flee. After heavy clashes on Wednesday that killed at least 16 and saw soldiers' bodies dragged through the streets and burned, fighting reignited in the city when Ethiopian tanks guarding a Somali government base opened fire on unidentified attackers. Witnesses said the cannons thundered repeatedly over a 10-minute period, followed by the clatter of machine guns around the base, situated in a former defense department headquarters.
This article starring:
ADEN HASHI AIROal-Qaeda in Somalia
ADEN HASHI AIROIslamic Courts
Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Heavy Fighting Erupts in Somali Capital Mogadishu
Reuters reports that a suspicious coalition of warlords and Islamic groups, are able to occasionally conduct hit and run attacks against Somali troops of the Transitional Government, now based in the capital, and its Ethiopian allies. Yesterday, some Ethiopian and Somali government units were fired upon and the Ethiopians responded with tank fire. They then fired rockets at Mogadishu stadium where it was believed the anti-government forces withdrew to. Eighty-year-old Faduma Elmi stated, "I have never seen or experienced the kind of fighting that I saw today. People were running in all directions. I saw an old man die in front of me." A representative for the African Union Mission, responding to the question if Ugandan troops were caught up in the fighting said, "It has not affected the three areas we are in." [ASHARQALAWSAT]

I suspect what Tehran, and with the full support of Khartoum, have done is to arm some of the warlords and whatever remains of Islamic organizations for the sole purpose of attacking and harassing the new Somali government as often as possible, in order to prevent the Allies, and their economies from having access to raw materials in the region. This has long been the standard operational procedure of Tehran, which specializes in establishing crisis and chaos against any government Iran is opposed to. It is not that difficult. With so many sources and supplies of all kinds of weaponry and technology available, either officially or through underground weapon trafficking networks, all Tehran has to do is to arm a unit, whether Islamic or not, that is opposed to a government Iran is also opposed to and Tehran can easily find a group inside the country and with perhaps support from a neighboring or regional government, but the financing and the networking is organized by Tehran.

As long as Tehran's current government remains in power, they will continue to do so on any theatre-front of this war and proudly deny it.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
'Lucky accident' foils mass bombings in Morocco
At least 12 would-be suicide bombers planned to blow up foreign ships at the Casablanca port and other Moroccan landmarks, top security officials were quoted as saying on Thursday. They said at least six of the suspected bombers were still on the run, but others were arrested after their presumed leader blew himself up on March 11 to stop police taking him alive.

Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa, his deputy Fouad Al Himma and Benabdallah Oumzazi, a top ministry official, briefed local newspaper editors on Tuesday night on what the media called a "lucky accident" that helped foil a mass bombing plot.

Abdelfattah Raydi, the 23-year suspected leader of the group of bombers, walked into an Internet cafe in Casablanca's Sidi Moumen slum on March 11 with another suspected bomber. Raydi, who had worn an explosives belt for four days to avoid police catching him alive, detonated the device when the cafe owner shut the door and called authorities after he saw him consulting a jihadist Web site, newspapers said.

The papers quoted officials as saying the attacks were not scheduled for March 11, but gave no more details. Youssef Khoudri, a 18-year-old mint seller who was accompanying Raydi, was wounded and arrested by police. Both lived in Douar Escuela, Casablanca's poorest slum. "Investigations showed that 12 suicide bombers among 30 terrorists linked to March 11's Casablanca plot were prepared to attack economic and security targets including blowing up foreign ships at Casablanca port and tourism facilities in Marrakesh, Essaouira and Agadir," wrote al Ahdath al Maghribia daily. The three cities are Morocco's main tourist destinations.

The Arabic-language newspaper cited among other targets unspecified security facilities in Casablanca, where suicide bombers killed 45 people in 2003. The papers also quoted officials as saying the would-be bombers planned to use "poison" in their planned attacks, showing a change in the country's home-grown terror. Al Ahdath said the "poison" was a byproduct of tetanus pathogenic bacteria and quoted Himma as saying: "That is an indication of the shift in the terrorist plans." He did not elaborate.

Raydi, who was sentenced to five years' jail in 2003 under anti-terrorism legislation and was granted a royal pardon in 2005, had built up a network of 30 people, most of them his neighbors, for the plot since last November, the papers said. The main business daily L'Economiste said authorities were hunting "six suicide bombers", but Annahar daily said "12 suicide bombers are in the run". Officials said at least 24 people suspected of links to Raydi's ring were detained after the arrests of 223 people for questioning since March 11.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Will the Moroccan dictator reconsider his habit of regularly freeing criminals and terrorists?

Raydi, who was sentenced to five years' jail in 2003 under anti-terrorism legislation and was granted a royal pardon in 2005...
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/23/2007 4:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Not a dictator.

From Wikipedia

King Mohammed VI was the 18th king in the Alaouite dynasty, which has reigned in Morocco since 1666.

The young King soon became known as a moderniser who brought about a constitutional monarchy.

Shortly after he took the throne, he addressed his nation via television, promising to take on poverty and corruption, while creating jobs and improving Morocco's human rights record. Mohammed VI is generally opposed by Islamist conservatives. His support for political pluralism has angered some fundamentalists. He also created a new family code, or Mudawana, which granted women more power. The law came into effect in February, 2004.

He is the recipient of an honorary degree by The George Washington University awarded in June 22, 2000, for the efforts he has been exerting to expand the scope of democracy in Morocco.




Posted by: Bobby || 03/23/2007 6:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Most certainly a dictator.

Does he get elected every few years? are there term limits? can Moroccans freely criticize him in the street?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/23/2007 17:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah, he's zackly the same as Imanutjob.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/23/2007 19:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Yikes!
Lucky? The very word makes me want to enter a 12-Step Program...especially in P.C. America today. I don't care about trying to stay "healthy" any more, with the attendant avoidance of pleasurable habits. Lucky.
MMmmm..."Lucky Strikes" (L.S.M.F.T., SOooo much more pleasurable than a harsh Camel) -at-
Posted by: Asymmetrical T || 03/23/2007 21:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Rantburgers should know that Morocco (under the Alaouite dynasty) was the first nation to establish diplomatic relations with the newly-independent United States, and has had warm relations with this nation ever since. It's a kingdom, but the most liberal kingdom anywhere in Islam or in Africa. It has a more functional government than most of Africa, and greater protections of freedom. The general amnesty in 2005 was in response to the birth of a royal heir, and isn't uncommon among reigning monarchies.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/23/2007 21:38 Comments || Top||

#7  O.P.

Very interesting. I wish Morocco had more influence over ME events TODAY.
Thanks, -AT-
Posted by: Asymmetrical T || 03/23/2007 21:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Most certainly a dictator. Does he get elected every few years? are there term limits? can Moroccans freely criticize him in the street?

Could be worse. He could be a Democrat.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/23/2007 22:42 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Outlaw, robber killed in 'shootouts'
An underground operative and a robber were killed during "shootouts" between their cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in Pabna and Bhola districts on Wednesday night and early yesterday. The dead were identified as Ainal Haque, 35, an activist of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP-Lal Pataka), in Chatmoher upazila of Pabna, and Miraj, 30, of Joynagar village in Sadar upazila of Bhola.
Another commie bites the dust
According to our Pabna correspondent, a team of Rab-12 cordoned off Khotbari Primary School premise in Chatmoher upazila where Ainal and his accomplices were holding a meeting at around 10:00pm.
Threw a perimeter around the school and sent in Jack Baur
Sensing the presence of the Rab men,
"Hark!"
the outlaws opened fire on the law enforcers, prompting them to retaliate.
That's their story and they're sticking to it
Rab sources said Ainal received bullets during the "shootout"
Right behind the ear at close range
and died instantly,
"Urp.....rose..bud...gasp..."
while his accomplices managed to flee.
Vanished into the night
He was an accused on twelve systems in seven cases including four for murder, the sources added. Rab recovered a rifle, and two bullets from the spot.
The spot on Ainal's skull
In Pabna, notorious robber Miraj was killed in an encounter with Rab at Bangla Bazar in Sadar upazila early yesterday, according to the UNB. Acting on a tip-off,
Thank you Mahamoud The Rat
the members of the elite force set out for Bangla Bazar where Miraz and his cohorts were assembling firearms.
I hate those "some assembly required" kits
When the Rab men reached there at about 3:00am,
The witching hour
the robbers opened fire.
Got the shooting irons together did they?
The law enforcers returned fire.
And don't we love them for it
Rab sources said Miraj was shot during the gunfight and died on the spot.
Same spot as old Ainal got his
He was wanted on twelve systems in a number of cases, the sources added. A shutter gun and three bullets were recovered from the scene.
Shutter gun makes a welcome guest appearance
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  *happy sigh*
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2007 11:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Shutter Gun a shoot in for best suporting actor without an operating part.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/23/2007 13:48 Comments || Top||


Murder case filed against Dulu
A murder case was filed against former deputy minister for land and BNP leader Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu with a court at Natore yesterday. One Maznur Rahman filed the case with the cognizance court, accusing Dulu and 12 others of killing his brother on March 14, 2004, reports BSS. In the case, Maznur alleged that his brother Saiful was murdered by Dulu's men, as he did not join the outlawed JMB as asked by the former deputy minister.

UNB adds: A court in Chittagong yesterday rejected the bail petition of Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, adviser to former prime minister Khaleda Zia, in an extortion case. Judge ANM Bashirullah of the District and Sessions Judge's Court rejected the bail petition of Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury accused of demanding Tk 2 lakh in toll from Rangunia UP member Mahmudur Rahman Chowdhury on March 15, 2006.

Joint forces arrested the BNP leader during the drive against suspected corrupt politicians following the present caretaker government took over on January 11. He was given detention for 30 days under the Special Powers Act.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


6 JMB militants walk gallows Apr 13-19
Six condemned Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants including its supremo Abdur Rahman and his second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai will be executed between April 13 and 19.

The jail authorities yesterday received a copy of the president's rejection of the militants' mercy petitions and as per the jail code the execution will take place between 21st and 28th days from the date of receipt of the president's decision. Inspector General of Police Noor Mohammad told The Daily Star last night that they are apprehending sporadic attacks by the militants as the day for the militants' execution nears. Since the president's rejection of the militant convicts' mercy petition on March 5, police, Rab and intelligence agencies have taken adequate measures to prevent any attempted retaliation by the militants' followers, he added.

Meanwhile, the jail authorities have beefed up security in and Around the jails where the militants are confined to avert any untoward incident that may erupt following the latest decision on the condemned. The six JMB militants were convicted for killing two judges in Jhalakathi in a suicide bomb attack in November 2005. "We have received the copy of the president's rejection of the six militants' mercy petitions today [Thursday] afternoon," Inspector General (Prisons) Brig Gen Zakir Hasan told The Daily Star yesterday evening. "We are yet to decide the date of execution," he said. "As per the rules the six militants will be executed anytime not before 21 days and not after 28 days and the countdown will start from the date of receipt of the president's decision on the militants' petition for clemency. Thus the execution date will fall between April 13 and 19," said Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Maj Shamsul Haider Siddique.

The exact date, time and place for the execution of the militants are yet to be fixed, he said, adding, "We will remain busy up to March 26 and then we will decide when, where and how the execution will be carried out." The executions are usually carried out at one minute past zero hour on the night of 27th day, sources said, adding that it is done on the last day to allow the condemned live as along as the law permits.
This article starring:
ABDUR RAHMANJamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
BANGLA BHAIJamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Maj Shamsul Haider Siddique
Inspector General of Police Noor Mohammad
Inspector General (Prisons) Brig Gen Zakir Hasan
SIDIQUL ISLAMJamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One a day; is it Sweeps Week over there?
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 03/23/2007 17:13 Comments || Top||


Europe
The REAL reason the Phrench deployed their Carrier
Six are being sent to Afghanistan. Three French Air Force Rafale F2s were sent to a base in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Three navy Rafale F2s arrived on the carrier Charles de Gaulle operating off the Pakistani coast.
France would like to demonstrate the plane's prowess in a war situation because its export sales are zero. Without exports, France will continue to fund development of the plane alone, something Paris prefers not to do. These Rafales have are fitted with a laser designator, a function that will be provided by Mirage 2000Ds, which are also based in Tajikistan.
Money. FFrancs. Moolah. Green. Cash. What whores.
Posted by: Brett || 03/23/2007 14:30 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This was mentioned a while back; however, just because one reason has been given does not mean that other reasons do not exist.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/23/2007 17:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Until MAy 6 it is friend of Saddam Chirack who decides where the French ships go and for what purpose.
Posted by: JFM || 03/23/2007 18:20 Comments || Top||

#3  A good reason the French Dodo I mean F2 is is not selling is 1) price shock well over 100mill a pop then things like also mentioned in the article they are not even equiped with everything to allow self targeting so they are going to require old Mirages so light the target while the F-2 cargo planes the bomb in.
Posted by: C-Low || 03/23/2007 19:34 Comments || Top||

#4 
Convert the A380 into a Spectre Gunship and they could sell a few.
Posted by: Master of Obvious || 03/23/2007 19:37 Comments || Top||

#5  So they want to show this thing off in combat.... I can understand that. What I can't understand is where they are going to find combat in that region. I don't see them firing at anything in the area.
Posted by: Mike N. || 03/23/2007 20:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Rafale still can't use its 30mm cannon for strafing ground targets, until a vibration problem is cleared up. The Rafale has not yet been fitted with a laser designator, so that function will have to be provided by Mirage 2000Ds, which are also based in Tajikistan.

Makes you wonder when they can't use the gun due to vibration. See the full article at Srategy Page

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/20070321.aspx
Posted by: Throger Thains8048 || 03/23/2007 20:40 Comments || Top||

#7  The Rafale, like the Eurofighter, is a big 'ol piece of shit. That is the only reason the countries selling jets are the US, Russia and Sweden.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/23/2007 21:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Darth

Ouch that maybe a little harsh. I would agree with the Rafale which sounds more like corporate welfare project but for the Euro fighter I have read some pretty decent stuff. I believe the Euro fighter is rated a shade better than F-15/F-16 on par with the Super Hornet and a sight less than a F-35 (which explains why most of the EU is buying F-35's as thier high side of the high/low mix), F-22 hehe not even in the same realm.
Posted by: C-Low || 03/23/2007 23:14 Comments || Top||


Great White North
2 liberal Muslim leaders receive death threat
Two progressive Canadian Muslim community leaders and activists, both of Pakistani origin, have been threatened by an anonymous caller with “slaughter” because of their liberal views about Islam.

Farzana Hassan-Shahed and Tarek Fatah, the former the current head of the liberal Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), and the latter its founder, have openly criticised the politicisation of Islam and the hold of orthodox clerics on most Canadian mosques and their congregations. Toronto police have launched a hate crime investigation into the phone call from a person who vowed to “slaughter” MCC members unless they stop speaking publicly about Islam.

A message left on Monday on the voice mail of the MCC secretary general warned that its members must “cease from your campaign of smearing Islam” or “I will slaughter you”. The message mentioned Tarek Fatah and Farzana Hassan-Shahid by name. Both have openly criticised the politicisation of Islam and alleged influence of Iran and Saudi Arabia on Canadian mosques.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMHO, Taquia is a capital offense.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/23/2007 8:51 Comments || Top||

#2  If caught, the slaughterer will face stiff community service after he explains his calls were a joke meant as a protest. Meanwhile, the rest of these evil moon cultists will remain silent for fear of the knife.

Until we make them fear us more than they fear their cult-leaders we will all continue to walk toward the cliff's edge.
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/23/2007 10:00 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Detainee Pleads Ignorance in Bomb Plot
WASHINGTON (AP) - Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, indicted for his role in the attack on the American embassy in Tanzania, says he unknowingly delivered the explosives used in the bombing, according to a Pentagon transcript of his hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"I know nothing! Tell them, Hogan."
Ghailani said he did not know about the assault and was sorry for the role he played, according to the transcript. ``It was without my knowledge what they were doing, but I helped them,'' he said. ``So I apologize to the United States government for what I did. And I'm sorry for what happened to those families who lost, who lost their friends and their beloved ones.''
"Can I go now?"
Ghailani, speaking through a military representative, said he was first told the TNT he carried was soap for washing horses, then later - after he delivered it - was told it was explosives ``for mining for diamonds in Somalia'' and also for a Somali training camp.
"How would I know? I'd never seen soap before."
Ghailani is one of 14 high-profile detainees that were moved to Guantanamo in September from a secret CIA prison network. Secret hearings for five of them have been conducted so far to determine whether they should be declared ``enemy combatants'' who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted by military tribunals. If they are declared enemy combatants, they could then be charged and tried under the new military commissions law signed by President Bush in October.

Also on Friday, a federal judge said she would not delay a military terrorism trial against another Guantanamo detainee, David Hicks of Australia. Lawyers for Hicks asked that his military commission be suspended until the Supreme Court decides whether the Guantanamo detainees have the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. An appeals court ruled last month that they do not. Hicks was captured in Afghanistan and faces charges of providing material support for terrorism. He allegedly fought with the Taliban against U.S.-led forces. He is scheduled to appear before a military commission Monday.

In the law that set up those commissions, Congress stripped federal courts of jurisdiction to get involved in cases involving detainees. The Supreme Court has not said whether it will take up the question. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she has no jurisdiction in Hick's case.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2007 12:53 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No habla...INFIDEL!
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/23/2007 14:10 Comments || Top||

#2  From CIA Factbook. Somalia natural resources: uranium and largely unexploited reserves of iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt, natural gas, likely oil reserves. Sorry, no diamonds. Shudda stuck with the soap story or told them it was for farming in Somalia.
Posted by: GK || 03/23/2007 14:47 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Two rockets fired in Quetta
Two rockets were fired in the provincial capital’s cantonment area on Thursday night. One of the rockets hit the Radio Pakistan building, disrupting the supply of electricity to the entire locality. “The first rocket was fired at around 9:20pm, and the other was fired some five minutes after that,” Mahmood Raza, a witness, told Daily Times. Sources said the first rocket hit the residence of former federal information minister Tahir Mohammad Khan, damaging the roof of a room. However, it was believed that the actual target of the attack was the Radio Pakistan building or other government offices located a few meters away from Khan’s house. “The second rocket hit the boundary wall of the radio station and then landed in a river. This attack disrupted the supply of electricity,” said Akhtar Hussain, another witness. The windows of some of the station’s offices were damaged. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'cantonment' area? wtf?
Posted by: Unique Battle || 03/23/2007 11:00 Comments || Top||

#2  I think the writer meant "landed in the cantonment," where the Pakistani troops are barracked, Unique Battle. They inherited their military vocabulary from the British; had they spoken proper American, they'd have called it a base, just like we do. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2007 12:09 Comments || Top||

#3  From Wiki: A cantonment is a temporary or semi-permanent military quarters, typically in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Many cities in the Indian subcontinent, such as Ahmedabad, Belgaum, Bangalore, Ambala,Bathinda, Delhi, Pune and Rawalpindi, contained large cantonments of the former colonial British army. The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton meaning corner or district [1]. While in the 18th and 19th Century cantonments were viewed as semi-permanent, by the turn of the 20th Century they became permanent garrisons, and were further entrenched as such via the military reforms of Lord Kitchener in 1903 and the Cantonments Act of 1924.[2]
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2007 14:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Thought it was a typo. Thanks Trailing Wife and Steve.
Posted by: Unique Battle || 03/23/2007 23:33 Comments || Top||


Mardan barbers warned not to shave beards
MARDAN: After Dir and Bajaur, barbers in Mardan have also received letters from a purported jihadi outfit to stop shaving beards. Sana hairdresser, a barbershop in the Par Hoti area, has received a letter from an organisation called Tanzeemul Mujahideen NWFP, warning barbers that they should stop shaving beards, otherwise their shops would be set on fire or bombed. The letter reads:
“Our beloved Muslim brothers, listen and listen attentively and then think over it that shaving off beards is a great sin. This (beard) is the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet (PBUH), but regretfully we have been shaving it off and throwing these blessed hairs at dirty places, which is a shame.”
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DRUDGEREPORT > AL GORE > Global Warming - "We need to ban new cars and PEOPLE"??? Not quite sure how to read/interprete what Goresy meant. OTOH, MADONNA > may vote for GORE over Hillary. And another NOSTRADAMUS quatrain comes true - D ***nged 1960's TEXAS-SIZED ASTEROIDS!? Angelina Jolie = Lara Kroft wants her kids to represent "the World", only forgot to mention that "world" of the future is ruled by the Chicoms, NOT the USA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/23/2007 2:00 Comments || Top||

#2  According to Frank G, this rules out no one!!! Inch Allah!!!
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 2:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Gillet's sales department in action?
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/23/2007 8:52 Comments || Top||


Three LeT militants arrested in Srinagar
Three hardcore militants of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba have been arrested here, official sources said on Thursday. Faisal alias Salahuddin, Ahtisham Malik and Zahoor Ahmad alias Abu Umer, all residents of Sopore, were arrested on a specific information by the special operations group of local police in Batmaloo area of central Srinagar on Wednesday, the sources said.

They said the three militants were active in Sopore and its periphery over the past several years and had shifted to Srinagar after security forces launched a successful drive against militants in the north Kashmir town. The arrest of the trio comes close on the heels of the arrest of three other militants of the LeT from Srinagar and busting of a module in Sopore town earlier this week. Assadullah Parray, Tariq Ahmad Baba alias Kamil and Manzoor Ahamd Dar alias Umer were arrested by the SOG from Srinagar on Monday and claimed to have pre-empted their plan to carry out a major attack in the city. On the same day, police busted a module of LeT in Sopore and arrested six local boys.

Earlier on March 5, police arrested 19-year-old Mohammad Mansoor Manhas alias Abu Umer of Killa-deedar Singh village of Gujranwala (Pakistan) and his six local associates including a woman from Sopore. Manhas had got injured in a gunfight with army at Gund-jehangir village of Sumbal and was fleeing when he along with his associates was arrested by the police party.
This article starring:
ABU UMERLashkar-e-Taiba
AHTISHAM MALIKLashkar-e-Taiba
ASADULLAH PARRAILashkar-e-Taiba
FAISAL ALIAS SALAHUDINLashkar-e-Taiba
MANSUR AHAMD DAR ALIAS UMERLashkar-e-Taiba
MOHAMAD MANSUR MANHAS ALIAS ABU UMERLashkar-e-Taiba
TARIQ AHMED BABA ALIAS KAMILLashkar-e-Taiba
ZAHUR AHMEDLashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Pakistani al-Qaeda camps destroyed
A week of fighting between al-Qaeda loyalists and tribal militants in a remote Pakistani border region has almost completely destroyed camps used by a leading terrorist from Uzbekistan, Pakistani intelligence officials claimed on Thursday. The claim, if true, could mark not only a success in PakistanÂ’s war against militants hiding on its soil, but could also vindicate PakistanÂ’s position on two controversial agreements signed by the government with tribal elders in the region bordering Afghanistan.

General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s military ruler, last year ordered his troops home from the North Waziristan border region after deals that would see local tribal elders policing the region themselves. The move has been widely criticised as giving freer rein for militants to launch cross-border attacks into Afghanistan on US and Nato forces. Pakistani intelligence officials, however, claimed on Thursday, after a week of fighting that left more than 100 people dead, the infrastructure used by loyalists of Tahir Yuldashev, the pro al-Qaeda militant, had been wiped out. More than half the people killed so far were said to be Uzbek Islamists who took refuge on the Pakistani side of the border after US-led forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. “There’s no way to confirm if Yuldashev himself may be dead. But what I know for certain is that his group has suffered heavy casualties,” said one Pakistani intelligence official. “It’s hard to imagine if the Uzbeks have any firepower remaining to carry on in the tribal areas”.

Western diplomats warned that there was no way of independently confirming the claim. “Since the Pakistanis do not let anyone from the outside to freely venture around the tribal areas, it’s impossible to know what is happening,” said one. Abdul Sattar, Pakistan’s former foreign minister, said the challenge of militancy in the tribal areas was too complex to be resolved quickly. “The people of the tribal area are fed up of militants present among them. But the militants have had a long-term presence in the tribal areas. You can’t get rid of them in one go.”
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Plowshare? Dang didn't realize it got that far. Lookit the little craters in the background.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/23/2007 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  “Since the Pakistanis do not let anyone from the outside to freely venture around the tribal areas, itÂ’s impossible to know what is happening,”

Says it all to me re Pakistan Govt/ISI!!!!
Posted by: Ebbolump Glomotle9608 || 03/23/2007 6:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Yup, that's one of them, Ship.

a proof-of-concept 104 kiloton (435 terajoule) cratering blast was conducted on July 6, 1962 at the north end of Yucca Flats, within the Atomic Energy Commission's Nevada Test Site (NTS) in southern Nevada. The shot, "Sedan", displaced more than 12 million short tons (11 teragrams) of soil and resulted in a radioactive cloud that rose to an altitude of 12,000 ft (3.7 km).
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2007 7:31 Comments || Top||

#4  crap! I thought that was one of those Mars Rover pictures.
Posted by: Captain Lewis || 03/23/2007 8:01 Comments || Top||

#5  What's this Pakistan keeps saying 'there are absolutely no Al-Qaida in Pakistan!'
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 03/23/2007 9:49 Comments || Top||

#6  For the 1497th time.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/23/2007 9:50 Comments || Top||


Ceasefire brokered in Wazoo
A Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazlur Rehman) -dominated tribal jirga on Thursday brokered a temporary ceasefire between foreign militants and Wazir tribes in South Waziristan, who have been fighting since Monday. “Both sides have agreed to the jirga demand for a ceasefire,” said Niaz Muhammad Qureshi, JUI-F information secretary for South Waziristan. “We are glad that the two sides conceded to the tribal elders and clerics’ plea for silencing their guns in order to solve their issues through peaceful means,” he added.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said that the toll in four days of fighting likely crossed 135 on Thursday. The dead include some 100 foreigners, 25 fighters of local tribes. Senior militant leaders like Baitullah Mehsud, Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of senior Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, and Mullah Dadullah an unnamed Taliban commander from across the Afghan border reached undisclosed locations in South Waziristan to take part in the ceasefire negotiations. “They are all monitoring the situation and discussing with key local militant commanders how things can be cooled down,” said tribal sources.

Tribal sources said that Maulvi Nazir, commander of pro-Taliban tribal militants in Wazir areas, at one point was unwilling to negotiate a ceasefire with foreign militants and their local harbourers. “The jirga members convinced him after hours-long parleys,” said sources in Dera Ismail Khan city, 200 miles south of Peshawar.

Security officials in Tank city said that pro-Maulvi Nazir militants on Thursday ambushed two vehicles carrying 12 Uzbek militants, killing six of them in Zarmilan, 35 kilometres south of Wana. “Other foreign militants fled in the second vehicle while local militants lost two comrades in the ambush,” the security officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Otherwise, the clashes on the fourth day of the conflict were less intense, a military spokesman said. “The clashes continued but their intensity was low,” Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad told Daily Times by phone from Rawalpindi. Wana residents reaching Dera Ismail Khan city said that both sides were manning check-points in Azam Warsak and Kaloosha. “Both sides search you when you pass through areas they control area,” Nazar Muhammad, a general merchant in Wana, told Daily Times by phone from Dera Ismail Khan.

Maulvi Nazir was quoted as saying that the foreign militants would be provided shelter as refugees only after they “disarmed” themselves. “There can be no other arrangement as far as the foreigners’ stay in (South) Waziristan is concerned,” he told a group of elders who visited him near Wana on Wednesday.
This article starring:
BAITULLAH MEHSUDTaliban
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao
JALALUDIN HAQQANITaliban
Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad
MAULVI NAZIRTaliban
NIAZ MUHAMAD QURESHIJamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazlur Rehman)
SIRAJUDIN HAQQANITaliban
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazlur Rehman)
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The image of a yo-yo going up and down comes to mind...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/23/2007 10:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Then, in a day, or two, the revised title:

Ceasefire brokered broken in Wazoo
Posted by: Jackal || 03/23/2007 20:36 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq deputy PM hurt in suicide bombing
BAGHDAD - Iraq's deputy prime minister, a Sunni who crossed the country's sectarian divide to join the Shiite-led government, was wounded Friday in a suicide bombing at a mosque in the courtyard of his home. Eight people were killed, including one of his advisers, police said.

The bomber blew himself up as Salam al-Zubaie, one of two deputies to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and other worshippers were leaving the mosque near the heavily fortified Green Zone, according to police and a Sunni politician. It came after a statement purportedly by al-Qaida in Iraq singled out the Sunni deputy prime minister as a stooge "to the crusader occupiers."

Police said a car parked nearby exploded at about the same time.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said al-Zubaie was in a hospital run by the U.S. in the Green Zone but would not comment on his condition. Brig. Qassim al-Mousawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, said al-Zubaie was undergoing surgery, while Ziad al-Ani, a top official of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said al-Zubaie was slightly wounded in the leg.

Police said eight people were killed in the attack, including an adviser, and 11 were wounded, including five of al-Zubaie's bodyguards. The adviser, Mufeed Abdul-Zahra, was wounded in the attack and died later at the hospital.

Police said the attack occurred as worshippers were leaving, while al-Ani said the bomber blew himself up inside the mosque during the traditional weekly prayer service. The mosque was built inside the courtyard of al-Zubaie's compound in a residential area behind the Foreign Ministry, but worshippers can access it from the street outside, al-Ani said. The compound is near the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government headquarters.

Baghdad authorities have imposed a weekly four-hour vehicle ban on Fridays to protect the services from suicide car bombers.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/23/2007 09:39 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can't we all just get along?

Please excuse me while I go laugh hysterically.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 11:59 Comments || Top||

#2  In another venue, UN SG Ban Ki Moon ducks on hearing a nearby mortar round explodes while no one else did - shown clearly on CNN. So emblematic of the UN. Lost all 'face'......but then the UN is already 100% thick skin.
Posted by: Duh! || 03/23/2007 15:14 Comments || Top||


Iran Nabs British Sailors in Iraq Waters
LONDON (AP) - Iranian naval vessels seized 15 British sailors in Iraqi waters on Friday, the Ministry of Defense said. The British Navy personnel were ``engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters,'' and had completed their inspection of a merchant ship when they were accosted by Iranian vessels, the ministry said.

``We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and ... the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office,'' the ministry said.

A Pentagon official said the Britons were in two inflatable boats from the frigate H.M.S. Cornwall during a routine smuggling investigation, said the official, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the incident. He said the confrontation happened as the British contingent was traveling along the boundary of territorial waters between Iran and Iraq. They were detained by the Revolutionary Guard's navy, he said.
One could ask where the H.M.S. Cornwall was when her crewmen were grabbed. But I'll wait till we get more details, they could have been on detached duty or so far away she couldn't respond in time.
A fisherman who said he was with a group of Iraqis from the southern city of Basra fishing in Iraqi waters in the northern area of the Gulf said he saw the Iranian seizure. The fisherman declined to be identified because of security concerns.

``Two boats, each with a crew of six to eight multinational forces, were searching Iraqi and Iranian boats Friday morning in Ras al-Beesha area in the northern entrance of the Arab Gulf, but big Iranian boats came and took the two boats with their crews to the Iranian waters.''

The Britain government said it had demanded ``the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment.''
SkyNews has more.

It's the Dreaded Summoning of charge d'affaires! TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran summoned the British charge d'affaires to Tehran on Friday to protest over what it said was the illegal entry of British naval personnel into Iranian waters, state television reported. Britain said 15 British naval personnel were seized by Iran in the Gulf but that they were in Iraqi waters.

"The Iranian Foreign Ministry has seriously objected following the illegal entry of British naval military forces into our country's waters," state television reported, adding that they were detained by Iranian border guards for further investigation.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2007 08:59 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  1 iranian navy vessel should be destroyed every hour until the Limeys are released. Sink iranian ships even if they are in iranian ports. Oh, and deploy some mines...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/23/2007 10:26 Comments || Top||

#2  From a Reuters wire:

"Hopefully there has been a mistake that has been made and we will see early clarification and an early release of my people," Commodore Nick Lambert, commander of the British fleet in the area, said in a television interview aboard HMS Cornwall.

Nelson would be so proud ...
Posted by: mrp || 03/23/2007 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  My feeling is that British ROE's were to let their people get snatched - it's part of the softly-softly approach. This is why Iranians have seized exactly zero Americans (since attempts probably get reported as firefights), whereas Brits have been snatched three or more times.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/23/2007 11:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Can these asinine Iranian sods possibly beg any harder to get their arses kicked? What will it finally take? A personal address by Ahmadinejad before the UN assembly requesting any and all to open up a six pack of whoop-@ss at the earliest opportunity?
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 12:07 Comments || Top||

#5  Is this Iran's response to the recent spate of their senior military staff who've "diappeared"?
Posted by: WhitecollarRedneck || 03/23/2007 12:35 Comments || Top||

#6  "British ROE's were to let their people get snatched .."

Just so as to make the likes of Magaret Beckett relevant.....summon the Iraniam ambassador,haha. She's got a giant hole in her bucket, a worse idiotarian FM than the previous man of Straw.

Utterly disgusting and simply unbelievable this time around. Witnessed by HMS Cornwall's helicopter and as if out of range of its radar!
Posted by: Duh! || 03/23/2007 13:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Fact Card - HMS Cornwall:

Armaments:

Eight Harpoon anti-ship missiles; GWS 25 MOD3 Seawof anti-missile, anti-aircraft system; 2(4) x 30mm single-barrel guns; 4.5 inch Mk8 shore bombardment, anti-aircraft and anti ship gun; CIWS3 Goalkeeper anti-missile system; two triple STWS torpedo tubes

Will to use them:

Zero
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/23/2007 13:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Anyone got any figures on what kind of tonnage the UK/ US has in the area?
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/23/2007 15:31 Comments || Top||

#9  The Iranian régime keeps pushing themselves into a Saddam solution. The sooner the better for our Coalition troops combating the jihadist enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 03/23/2007 18:47 Comments || Top||

#10  The following ROE's ought to be in place immediately (and should have been in place here),

1) Any vessel suspected to be partaking in elicit activities is subject to boarding without notice and, in such cases as the suspect vessel does not immediately heave to and submit, to being sunk,

2) Anyone interfering with the capture and or sinking of suspect vessels is also subject to immediate countermeasures against them including offensive military action,

3) The kidnapping of any personnel partaking in actions sanctioned by the UN or the USA in international waters is and will be considered an act of war which will bring immediate action upon the perpetrators as needed by the situation in question,

4) The entirety of the Presian Gulf including those areas included by territorial waters and all areas included and agreed to be international waters is declared to be a war zone and to be completely covered by the terms of this declaration,

5) Any and all attacks upon any vessel operating under UN flag conditions or any vessel operating under the US flag, shall be considered an act of war upon the USA and shall be responded to with the maximum force with which the appropriate military forces can deliver as per the orders of the President.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 03/23/2007 20:26 Comments || Top||

#11  Start with a shot across the bow, and proceed from there, FOTSGreg?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2007 20:28 Comments || Top||

#12  Start with a shot THROUGH the bows. If they don't stop, put a dozen or so into the bridge. If they STILL don't stop, sink them.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/23/2007 21:51 Comments || Top||


15 UK Navy personnel held by Iran
LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - Iran captured fifteen British Royal Navy personnel during a "routine boarding operation" in Iraqi waters on Friday, Britain's Ministry of Defence said.

The Foreign Office said Iran's ambassador in London had been summoned and Britain was demanding their immediate safe release.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/23/2007 08:16 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is Iran just begging to get bombed into the stone age?
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/23/2007 8:21 Comments || Top||

#2  The Foreign Office said Iran's ambassador in London had been summoned and Britain was demanding their immediate safe release.

Yeah, that'll happen.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 03/23/2007 8:23 Comments || Top||

#3  And Tony Blair is said to be very cross indeed... they'll show us up for the pussies they know we are.
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/23/2007 8:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Ahmadinejad just told his people last week to kidnap some Americans in retaliation for the kidnapped/defected Iranians that have been turning up missing. I guess he found these Brits more vulnerable.

Maybe when Ahmadinejad shows up at the UN he should be detained - no, can't do that, diplomatic immunity, and we all know how strongly Iran feels about that concept.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/23/2007 8:32 Comments || Top||

#5  always a chance, a miscalculation. Like to see the Brits hammer them, but they'll probably jaw jaw and talk talk instead.

Snatching folks seems to be Iran's choice more often than not.
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2007 8:32 Comments || Top||

#6  In a totally unrelated piece of news, Tel Aviv's municipality ordered the check on the fitness of bomb shelters.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/23/2007 8:47 Comments || Top||

#7  they'll probably jaw jaw and talk talk instead.

You are wrong; they will Haw-Haw.
Posted by: JFM || 03/23/2007 8:47 Comments || Top||

#8  If the current leadership were in power during WWII, Germany would have been handed the keys to 10 Downing Street.
Posted by: Perfesser || 03/23/2007 8:47 Comments || Top||

#9  Isn't the French aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf right now? I can't believe that didn't deter the Iranians from this action.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/23/2007 8:49 Comments || Top||

#10  15 UK Navy personnel held by Iran

I hope we have a mountain of MLRS, ATACMS, BUFFs, B1, B2, the whole family of Cruise Missiles, anti-ship, surface to surface and extra ammo, IN THEATER.
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2007 8:49 Comments || Top||

#11  Didn't the same happen a while ago?
Does anybody remember?
Posted by: Unavick Thinesh5145 || 03/23/2007 8:52 Comments || Top||

#12  I like Glenmore's idea.

Anyone else see this as "Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Part Duo"? Those Iranians are quick on the uptake.
Posted by: Jules || 03/23/2007 9:01 Comments || Top||

#13  As a Brit myself I know Tony is a pussy, Problem is George Bush was not awake when it happened , hopefully after he's had his breakfast he will send some B-52's in tehrans direction, better would be an ICBM
Posted by: Alex || 03/23/2007 9:06 Comments || Top||

#14  From a Sky News wire:

The forces, who were from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall...

Assuming that the Cornwall was within visual range of the boarding party and was tracking the Iranian naval elements, I think it's safe to presume that the ROE imposed on RN vessels in the area are extremely restrictive.

It must have been a bit troubling standing on the bridge watching Persian warships cross into Iraqi national waters and then observe them calmly abscond with fifteen of your crewmen.
Posted by: mrp || 03/23/2007 9:16 Comments || Top||

#15  I told ya' weeks ago, that the 'tit for tat' was comin!! Watch for the 'private swap', no news please!
Posted by: smn || 03/23/2007 9:20 Comments || Top||

#16  We are all going to get exactly what we deserve unless and until we elect representative who will do their damned jobs. The Prime Minister should be dismissed over this as incompetent in his duty. If Her Majesty's ministers will not protect the realm it will be left to the citizenry to do so. When that happens the results will not be pretty.
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/23/2007 9:21 Comments || Top||

#17  JFM, You are wrong; they will Haw-Haw.

As in this HAW HAW? real player

;-)
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2007 9:22 Comments || Top||

#18  I wonder how that Iraq war vote thingy will go today in Congress...
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/23/2007 9:24 Comments || Top||

#19  Of course, my question is why did the crew let 15 of their fellow Englishmen get taken?
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/23/2007 9:26 Comments || Top||

#20  you'd would have hoped that all personal in theater would have been on alert for exactly this kind '0' krap.
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2007 9:29 Comments || Top||

#21  Yes, RD that Haw-Haw.
Posted by: JFM || 03/23/2007 9:30 Comments || Top||

#22  bastid [haw haw] was born in Brooklyn.
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2007 9:38 Comments || Top||

#23  How in the hell did this Type-22 Broadsword-class frigate, bristling with weaponry, get boarded and without any Naval or Air backup from the UK or US?
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 03/23/2007 9:42 Comments || Top||

#24  JE
It wasn't the frigate itself that got boarded, but two small boats that carried a boarding party to check a suspected smuggling ship. Apparently the Iranian vessels intercepted the boats on their way back to the frigate. It is still an open question how, and why, the frigate allowed them to get so close to its boats.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/23/2007 9:48 Comments || Top||

#25  Operation Praying Mantis (1988)
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/23/2007 9:50 Comments || Top||

#26  Thanks for the info, yeah good open question.
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 03/23/2007 9:50 Comments || Top||

#27  It might be prudent to adhere to the “First Report” rule on this one. Iranian logic is an oxymoron but this isnÂ’t a time when Tehran needs another “International incident” where theyÂ’re proven to be in the wrong. This report says they were captured in Iraqi waters but maybeÂ…just maybe the Brits were indeed in Iranian territory prior to that event.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/23/2007 9:58 Comments || Top||

#28  this did happen not that long ago.

Script goes like this. Iranians will claim the were in Iran territorial waters. Will loudly claim this is no different from US seizures of Al Quds operatives in Iraq. UK will start dragging in technical stuff, GPS, etc to show they were in Iraqi waters. They will be quietly let go. Iran will have achieved its main purpose, propaganda.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/23/2007 10:11 Comments || Top||

#29  It wasn't the frigate itself that got boarded, but two small boats that carried a boarding party to check a suspected smuggling ship.

I think the Iranians just confirmed it WAS a smuggling ship.
Posted by: Danielle || 03/23/2007 10:23 Comments || Top||

#30  Laden with centrifuges.
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/23/2007 10:32 Comments || Top||

#31  You may be right, LH. If so, what propaganda gain would you say this gets them?
Posted by: Jules || 03/23/2007 10:40 Comments || Top||

#32  and predictably, our friends at DU . . .

(preview: This is a Chimpy McHaliBu$hitler setup)
Posted by: spiffo || 03/23/2007 11:10 Comments || Top||

#33  Give them 2 hours to turn over the sialors then bomb a refinery. Should be within the UK's capabilities. Rinse and repeat. Things escalate and the US has it's causus belli (again)
Posted by: jds || 03/23/2007 11:11 Comments || Top||

#34  31.

The locals will here how tough they were, arresting the EEVIL brit spies who were invading their territorial waters. the release wont be publicized domestically.

In the muslim world, it will be see, we're only defending ourselves, if they can arrest our guys in Iraq, why cant we arrest their guys in Iran? Typical hypocritical westerners. The release will be spun as Iranian moderation - "now why dont they release OUR guys?" At least some fence sitters in the muslim world will buy that. Not too many will be outraged. All the outrage will be in UK, but theyve already discounted that. Wisely or not, we shall see.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/23/2007 11:14 Comments || Top||

#35  The question in my mind is, what was on the vessel the Brits were attempting to board and inspect?

It seems as if the Insanians were acting in an effort to prevent discovery of something (or someone?).
Posted by: eltoroverde || 03/23/2007 11:33 Comments || Top||

#36  I suspect the Iranians weren't responding to the ship inspection, but to the opportunity presented by two small boats full of British sailors. This is a jihadist regime, they follow the old fashioned dictate: anything can be defined afterwards as an opportunity.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2007 11:49 Comments || Top||

#37  Iranians could be looking for bargaining chips to try to get back their missing General, General Ali Reza Asgari.

Posted by: RadiatorUK || 03/23/2007 11:56 Comments || Top||

#38  Let's all hope that:

A.) The Iranian assets are in American hands.

B.) Our leadership will have the spine not to release them into British custody.

C.) This incident finally serves as a more than ample casus belli for a decades overdue massive retaliation against Iran.

Iran couldn't beg for an @sskicking any harder if it was the beggingest day of their lives and they had an electric begging machine.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 12:18 Comments || Top||

#39  Anyone for a naval blockade? The Iranians would become the Irate-ians once the flow of all that imported gasoline stopped.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/23/2007 12:26 Comments || Top||

#40  You're right Zen. These guys couldn't beg any harder. They have been giving us the finger on the nuke thing, sending bombs and parts into Iraq, sending infiltrators in to destabilize Iraq and talking a whole lot of sh*t the entire time. Now this. I've always thought they've got something up their sleeve. Nobody in their right mind would beg sooo hard for some whoopass.
Posted by: Intrinsicpilot || 03/23/2007 12:33 Comments || Top||

#41  Maybe when Ahmadinejad shows up at the UN he should be detained - no, can't do that, diplomatic immunity

And announces the release of the prisoners.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/23/2007 13:56 Comments || Top||

#42  I'm guessing 15 Brits are being held in the centrifuge rooms by now. Of course, centrifuges are useless without electricity.

On a related note, wouldn't it be nice if Ahmanutjob's plane mysteriously disappeared over the Atlantic today. Iranian aircraft maintenance not too good.
Posted by: Darrell || 03/23/2007 13:56 Comments || Top||

#43  I wonder how that Iraq war vote thingy will go today in Congress...

In a stunning victory for Big Spinach, the bill to put an end to Chimpy McBushitlerBurton's smirky rodeo ride through the Middle East passed the House 218-212. (I wonder who the 5 were who didn't vote.)

I expect the Senate to be bogged down for a good while unless the President wants it to pass so he can pointedly veto it.
Posted by: eLarson || 03/23/2007 13:58 Comments || Top||

#44  Maybe when Ahmadinejad shows up at the UN he should be detained - no, can't do that, diplomatic immunity

Howsabout we detain him for 444 days and call it even?
Posted by: SteveS || 03/23/2007 14:24 Comments || Top||

#45  Shipman-yep.

Anything we can do to out-propaganda that?
Posted by: Jules || 03/23/2007 14:25 Comments || Top||

#46  From Time, via CNN:

"The Iranian president's trip may be delayed because Washington says it has yet to process the visa applications and security checks of his large entourage."

Hmmm...
Posted by: Jules || 03/23/2007 14:58 Comments || Top||

#47  "Is Iran just begging to get bombed into the stone age?"

They would be, if any of us in the West still had balls enough to do the bombing.

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/23/2007 15:00 Comments || Top||

#48  Video: 1988 USS Samuel B Roberts Persian Gulf
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2007 15:24 Comments || Top||

#49  All I want is for them to come home, but if they ain't home soon (1 week) then... in fact we should just bomb them now, it's ridiculous. Of course the RAF is capable of bombing Iran!
Posted by: Devilstoenail || 03/23/2007 15:26 Comments || Top||

#50  "Of course the RAF is capable of bombing Iran!"

Capability isn't the issue; either the UK or the USA could reduce nearly all of Iran to smoking ruin inside of a week if they chose to, without even resorting to nuclear weapons. And probably without losing a single airplane or ship, for that matter. It would be like clubbing baby seals.

We have the power, but we also have a nearly complete failure of will to use that power. Why do the Iranians pull this crap? Because they KNOW that the rot within the West has penetrated so deep that there's almost zero chance they'll have to endure any consequences.

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/23/2007 15:49 Comments || Top||

#51  Why do the Iranians pull this crap? Because they KNOW that the rot within the West has penetrated so deep that there's almost zero chance they'll have to endure any consequences.

I'm finally beginning to think that the West's failure of will is a far greater threat to our civilization than Islamic terrorism. This is far worse than Political Correctness or Multiculturalism. I'm damned if I can figure out what causes this sort of spontaneous moral paralysis. Hell, the way it stands, an angry boy scout with a slingshot could take over this entire country unopposed.

Worst of all is how the West's spinelessness not only emboldens our foes but lends artificial creedence to the notion that a guilt-stricken collective conscience or some such self-hating nonsense is responsible for our inaction.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 16:38 Comments || Top||

#52  "Worst of all is how the West's spinelessness not only emboldens our foes but lends artificial creedence to the notion that a guilt-stricken collective conscience or some such self-hating nonsense is responsible for our inaction."

Spinelessness and guilt-stricken collective conscience/self-hating are not mutually exclusive. I would argue that it's a set of traits that are the problem.
Posted by: Jules || 03/23/2007 16:48 Comments || Top||

#53  Maybe he's defecting.
Posted by: plainslow || 03/23/2007 16:50 Comments || Top||

#54  Folks seem to be enjoying wallowing in defeatism even before any defeat.
Posted by: JSU || 03/23/2007 16:52 Comments || Top||

#55  Let me correct your mistaken impression, then: we're not "wallowing in defeatism"; we're railing AGAINST defeatism (e.g., the nonstop talk of withdrawal coming from our Democrats).
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/23/2007 16:59 Comments || Top||

#56  Moral self-doubt in the West goes back to the 19th century. We're witnessing the agony of counter-Enlightenment. WW II and the Cold War were the culmination of that movement as a political/military force.

Moslems think they have one more shot at destroying the fruits of Enlightenment. They may be right, unless the West finds in itself sufficient numbers of people willing to kill whoever wants to murder or enslave us.

Western indecision facing Rhineland, Munich, Dachau and so on was not an accident. Sadly, it's far from over. Go listen to lectures at a University near you if you're not yet convinced our civilization is rotting from the intellectual inside.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/23/2007 17:02 Comments || Top||

#57  No, I don't quite think that is the case. There are a lot of people quietly arming to be prepared for when the word goes out that the gloves are coming off. The U.S. has never been under martial law before but I can see it coming with the muzzies and a few of their fellow travelers as the reason. At that point they become targets of opportunity for the population as a whole. That will be the end of Islam in America. The problem is that it will take something pretty ugly to bring that about but given the muzzy death wish, I'm sure they will manufacture the necessary incident.
Posted by: Mac || 03/23/2007 17:12 Comments || Top||

#58  My, my. So much of what was once ridiculed as hand-wringing and defeatism has now become mainstream here. Loss of will, loss of faith, loss of patience.

This topic (Iran's nukes) has been in play for quite awhile and it seems that the estimates of when Iran would actually be a nuke threat (i.e. years, not months, as of the time when the Iranian exiles alerted the West to their program) are proving true. I guess waiting, and playing the pointless intermediate games as the timespan allows and politics demands, has ground everyone down, rubbed enough people raw, that they've substituted their frustration for the observable facts. I can sympathize, but I must disagree with the conclusion.

Certainly the current Democrap games for defunding Iraq, troop withdrawal "dates certain," etc. as well as the Tranzi attempts to undermine support for acting against Iran are disheartening and appear to indicate some unstoppable slide downwards. But Bush has not withdrawn his absolute opposition to their acquiring nukes, he's just mouthed the requisite "support" for each pointless intermediate measure as it came up... and passed into oblivion. Everyone knows the Mullahs aren't actually smart enough to stop. They've invested the fate of their "nation" in the quest and it has been obvious for several years that nothing would dissuade them from their moment of gory glory.

That Bush isn't everyone's cup of tea on every issue is understandable - he's his own man. That he won't keep his word (e.g. Iran must not be allowed to have nukes...) is something rather different. Either the US or Israel, or both together, will stop the Mullahs. Everone must play the politics, especially given the long lag between discovery and the actual emergence of the threat, but Bush will act when necessary - exactly as the Constitution allows. The Iranians have done some things "right" to succeed, but certainly not enough. In fact, this has exposed the UN's IAEA as a toothless farce. What is to come, and Gen McInerny's 1500 aimpoints are the most obvious case available, will be more than sufficient to send the Persians back to the dustbin of history.
Posted by: Glavique Brown1742 || 03/23/2007 17:18 Comments || Top||

#59  it will take something pretty ugly to bring that about but given the muzzy death wish, I'm sure they will manufacture the necessary incident.

You can bet the farm on it, Mac. The only difference in my case is that I get accused of advocating genocide for saying the exact same thing. Islam can no more make rivers run uphill than change the fact that one of their radical factions will someday commit such an astounding atrocity.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 17:28 Comments || Top||

#60  "I'm finally beginning to think that the West's failure of will is a far greater threat to our civilization than Islamic terrorism."

It is. If we had the will to actually wage WAR against this menace-- starting by naming the enemy bluntly and directly-- then defeating it would be a rather straightforward exercise in the projection of force and the imposition of national will. Not trivial, not easy, and hardly a "piece of cake"; but straightforward nonetheless.

Can you imagine British or American society, as currently constituted, summoning the grim sense of purpose it would require to do to Tehran or Islamabad or Riyadh what we did to Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII? I sure can't-- yet that is what we're going to have to do someday, if we're ever to win this struggle against Islamic totalitarianism.

"This is far worse than Political Correctness or Multiculturalism."

Political Correctness and Multiculturalism are part of the central problem, not ancillary phenomena. They are parts of the "progressive" rot that has infected the Anglosphere.

"I'm damned if I can figure out what causes this sort of spontaneous moral paralysis."

See above.

Our people no longer believe in the basic goodness of our culture, because "progressives" have been telling them-- in our public schools and our universities, and in our "news" media and the entertainment industry-- that it is riven with racism, bigotry, unfairness, discrimination, inequity blah, blah, blah ad nauseum and they have been doing it now for several generations. This self-hatred is now so ingrained that most people are simply incapable of opening their goddamned eyes and observing how people around the world are voting with their feet: people don't flock to escape America, they risk life and limb to come here to live-- and have for generations.

"Worst of all is how the West's spinelessness not only emboldens our foes but lends artificial creedence to the notion that a guilt-stricken collective conscience or some such self-hating nonsense is responsible for our inaction."

I don't think the credence is artificial. We're rich. They're poor. Standard "progressive" dogma has it that this disparity is a result of either us doing something "to" them, or us not doing enough "for" them, or both. And that dogma pervades our culture at every level. The reality is, they're poor not because we're doing anything to them or not doing enough for them, but rather because of what THEY do to themselves and one another, and what THEY refuse to do for themselves or one another.

We're going to have to show a lot more spine than we have so far, if we're ever going to convince the head-bangers to leave us the fuck alone.

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/23/2007 17:28 Comments || Top||

#61  As far as I can tell, most of the comments don't center on lack of American will or George Bush's will to act-they question whether Europeans have the will to act. There is a lot of context for that point; this isn't the only incident that calls their will into question. In their defense, among all the Europeans, the UK has at least some fighting spirit left.

It is not defeatism to recognize a problem in sending a philosopher in to fight with a jihadi, if the side of the philosopher is to have a chance of coming out on top.
Posted by: Jules || 03/23/2007 17:32 Comments || Top||

#62  It is. If we had the will to actually wage WAR against this menace-- starting by naming the enemy bluntly and directly-- then defeating it would be a rather straightforward exercise in the projection of force and the imposition of national will.

Agreed, and I can only suppose that this is where the camelÂ’s nose of Political Correctness intrudes with devastating effect. Our governmentÂ’s stupefying inability to name Islam as the precise enemy confounds all other mechanisms to defeat it. This is where I applaud Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch for explicitly identifying the Koran, not the hadith or surahs, but the Koran itself as the prime mover of Islamic terrorism and hostility towards all other cultures.

As an example, at another discussion board, a soldier on active duty in Iraq described how our ROE (Rules of Engagement) obliges our forces to stop returning fire if a hostile runs out of ammunition. This means that these maggots can hose down our troops with automatic fire then merely throw down their emptied weapons and surrender without being harmed. Our soldiers are required to arrest them and turn their prisoners over to Iraqi police who then release these combatants several hours later. This sort of lunatic shit really needs to stop. Fire on our troops and you will be hunted down and killed. No exceptions save by our choice alone.

Â… summoning the grim sense of purpose it would require to do to Tehran or Islamabad or Riyadh what we did to Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII? I sure can't-- yet that is what we're going to have to do someday, if we're ever to win this struggle against Islamic totalitarianism.

Whatever less violent alternatives there were to this scenario went over the event horizon years ago. How our leadership thinks we can continue to fight this war one bullet at a time is nothing short of insane, suicidally insane.

Political Correctness and Multiculturalism are part of the central problem, not ancillary phenomena. They are parts of the "progressive" rot that has infected the Anglosphere.

Agreed. You saw my post of Diana WestÂ’s searing indictment of Multiculturalism. You know I comprehend this. I maintain that lack of will is far more deadly than its amalgam with Political Correctness and Multiculturalism. The latter two cripple, the former paralyses. A slight distinction to be sure but one that remains nonetheless.

I don't think the credence is artificial. We're rich. They're poor. Standard "progressive" dogma has it that this disparity is a result of either us doing something "to" them, or us not doing enough "for" them, or both.

I maintain that it is. The real mechanism involves how an undereducated and dumbed down America has turned upon itself by buying into the zero sum equation. The notion that in order for someone to win, another must lose. IÂ’d wager that this filthy concept is responsible for over 90% of office and corporate politics. Politics that can drain all profitability from otherwise perfectly viable companies.

Military combat is one of a very few appropriate examples of the zero sum equation. In almost all other situations it is usually possible to find a win-win solution. Our population has become so stupid, lazy and over-entitled that they no longer bother to do their homework. Once this sort of resourcefulness has been lost, the camel is swallowed and all that awaits is choking on gnats.

The reality is, they're poor not because we're doing anything to them or not doing enough for them, but rather because of what THEY do to themselves and one another, and what THEY refuse to do for themselves or one another.

No better example of this exists than Islam itself. How people can ignore this elephant in the living room and continue praising it as the Religion of Peace [spit] simply astounds me.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 18:16 Comments || Top||

#63  Yeah, I think overall we're in violent, raucous agreement here...
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/23/2007 18:29 Comments || Top||

#64  Back at'cha, Dave. We desperately need a few Churchill clones right now. I respect the old curmudgeon if only for how he had enough testicular endowment to call the Nazis and Italian fascists "guttersnipes and thugs".
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 18:57 Comments || Top||

#65  "We desperately need a few Churchill clones right now."

I wish we had one waiting in the wings.

More likely, I fear, is that we'll bring forth a Chamberlain, a Pétain or two, a bevy of minor Quislings and then finally, after all seems lost forever, a Vlad Tepes or a Ghengis Khan.

Right after 9/11 and for a while afterward while we were beating the snot out of the Taliban and Saddam, I had hoped we'd finally learned our lesson about the futility of both appeasement and "limited warfare". Clearly we did not.

Pfeh. I'm figuring things are going to get a LOT worse before they begin to get better...

Posted by: Dave D. || 03/23/2007 19:22 Comments || Top||

#66  More likely, I fear, is that we'll bring forth a Chamberlain, a Pétain or two, a bevy of minor Quislings and then finally, after all seems lost forever, a Vlad Tepes or a Ghengis Khan.

If victory will only be obtained by the likes of a Ghengis Khan or Vlad Tepes, then skip the milquetoasts and bloody well get on with it. I'm fed up with putting this entire planet's progress on hold just because a cult of ultra-violent thin-skinned whingeing fanatics require treatment that our leaders are too squeamish to provide.

I want there to be no doubt that the world our children inherit will be no longer be loomed over by the specter of Islamic fascism. Nothing less is satisfactory and I am ready to bear just about any imaginable guilt or blame to ensure it.
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 23:04 Comments || Top||


Soldiers Free Kidnap Victim
BAGHDAD – Nearly 1,600 partnered Iraqi security forces and coalition Soldiers continued clearing operations today in the Iraqi capital’s Mansour Security District. This was the second day of clearing in the southern Ghazaliya and Ameriya neighborhoods.

During clearing operations coalition Soldiers from A Co, 1-23 Infantry Battalion, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division rescued a kidnap victim in an empty house handcuffed to a chair. The victim had three gunshot wounds in his leg and was evacuated to a coalition forces medical treatment facility. After a more extensive search of the house, Soldiers found a weapons cache consisting of one rocket propelled grenade launcher with 10 rounds; three AK-47 assault rifles; nine 60mm mortar rounds; seven hand grenades; plastic explosives; containers of ferric nitrate, sodium hydrogen and chromic oxide; and numerous explosive making materials.
Sodium hydrogen is a chemical? Sodium hydrogen carbonate is baking soda. Chromic oxide? A pigment? Ferric nitrate used for metal etching? Sounds like a chemistry experiment!
Posted by: Bobby || 03/23/2007 06:51 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps they meant Sodium Hydride (NaH)?
Posted by: Jackal || 03/23/2007 8:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) which is a very common base.
Posted by: Abu do you love || 03/23/2007 12:28 Comments || Top||

#3  The damned writer doesn't know basic, I mean basic chemistry. More ignorance, and sh*tty proof readeers. The woild is goin to the dawgs.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK || 03/23/2007 13:16 Comments || Top||


Insurgents Who Killed Five GIs in Brazen Karbala Attack Captured
BAGHDAD — The U.S. military said Thursday it had captured the leaders of a Shiite insurgent network responsible for one of the boldest and most sophisticated attacks on American troops since the Iraq conflict began four years ago. The statement said the arrests took place over the past three days in the cities of Basra and Hillah south of Baghdad. The military said the network was led by Qais Khazaali and his brother Laith Khazaali. Several other members of the network also were captured.

The network was "directly connected" to the killing in January of five American soldiers in the holy city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, the military said. In the Jan. 20 attack, gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted four U.S. soldiers at Karbala's provincial headquarters and later shot them to death. A fifth soldier was killed during the attack.
Making the bad guyz liable to execution on the spot for violation of the laws of war.
In an AP report Wednesday, two senior commanders from the Mahdi Army Shiite militia identified Qais al-Khazaali as the leader of up to 3,000 fighters who defected from the Mahdi Army militia and were now financed directly by Iran and no longer loyal to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
"Yeah. Nebber hoid of 'em!"
Al-Khaazli is a cleric in his early 30s. The tall and slender man was a close al-Sadr aide in 2003 and 2004. He was al-Sadr's receptacle catamite lover chief spokesman for most of 2004 and made nearly daily appearances on Arabic satellite news channels. He has not been seen in public since late that year. Outspoken and uncompromisingly anti-American, al-Khazaali was a savvy spokesman, who went out of his way to accommodate the scores of Western and Arab reporters that covered the fighting in the summer of 2004 in the holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad. When al-Sadr stood to deliver the Friday sermon in a mosque in Kufa, Najaf's twin city, in the months leading up to the Najaf battles, a stern faced al-Khazaali stood motionless to the right of his leader. Both wore white shrouds over their clerical robes, suggesting their readiness for martyrdom.

In the days after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, al-Khazaali led groups of young clerics loyal to al-Sadr who protected his native Sadr City, the teeming Shiite district in eastern Baghdad, against looters and worked to restore basic services.

In Washington Wednesday, a Pentagon official who declined to be identified because of the information's sensitivity, confirmed that some gunmen had gone to Iran for training and that al-Khazaali has a following. However, the official could not confirm the number of his followers or whether Iran was financing them. The two Mahdi Army commanders blamed several recent attacks on U.S. forces in eastern Baghdad on the splinter group they said was led by al-Khazaali. They also said they believed the breakaway force had organized the attempt last week to kill Rahim al-Darraji, Sadr City's mayor.

Al-Darraji, who is close to the Sadrist movement, was involved in talks with the U.S. military about extending the five-week-old Baghdad security sweep into Sadr City, the Mahdi Army stronghold in eastern Baghdad that was a no-go zone for American forces until about three weeks ago. Al-Darraji was seriously wounded and two of his bodyguards were killed
This article starring:
LAITH KHAZAALIMahdi Army
MUQTADA AL SADRMahdi Army
QAIS KHAZAALIMahdi Army
Rahim al-Darraji, Sadr City's mayor
Posted by: Sherry || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the days after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, al-Khazaali led groups of young clerics loyal to al-Sadr who protected his native Sadr City, the teeming Shiite district in eastern Baghdad, against looters and worked to restore basic services.

Protecting the AQ DayCare Centres and Clinics.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/23/2007 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Doesn't "teeming" usually go with "slum"?

And I'm so glad to know he's tall and slender.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/23/2007 5:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Shiite insurgent network

Interesting
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/23/2007 8:49 Comments || Top||

#4  WaPo had a story this morning about how 3000 mahdi breakaways under the command of al-Khazaali were training in iran. Guess he won't be showing up to take command after all...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/23/2007 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  And I'm so glad to know he's tall and slender.

I'm sure he has the sort of dreamy eyes that a multi-culti could just get lost in. His hands, strong yet supple...umm...anyway...glad we caught him.
Posted by: Dreadnought || 03/23/2007 13:15 Comments || Top||

#6  These guys, along with anyone else we can catch that was involved in that Karbala operation, should be summarily shot.
Posted by: Mac || 03/23/2007 17:03 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Unidentified gunmen kill Fatah security force officer
Unidentified gunmen shot dead an officer from a security force loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza on Friday, security sources said. Members of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security force had earlier accused Hamas gunmen of abducting the officer during a third straight day of factional violence since the formation of a unity government.
I love the smell of factional violence in the afternoon. Smells like.....popcorn!
Hamas declined immediate comment on the incident, but said the security officer had been responsible for the killing of a senior commander from the armed wing of Hamas last week.
It's the Cycle of Dire Revenge
Residents said gunmen from the Preventative Security have been deployed throughout the streets of Gaza.
"Git yer program! Can't tell the gunmen apart without yer program!"
On Thursday, a Palestinian toddler and a Palestinian man were killed by gunfire during clashes between Fatah and Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip. Aiming to quell the tensions, Fatah's Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas agreed to step up contacts between both sides, a Haniyeh aide said. The toddler, 2, was killed Thursday evening as Fatah and Hamas gunmen exchanged gunfire in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said. They said that a female relative of the boy was wounded also by the gunshots.

Earlier Thursday, Samir Hilles, a 48-year-old Palestinian civilian, was shot to death during a showdown between his Fatah-affiliated family and members of a Hamas militia in the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials said. At least three Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas agreed to form a unity government last Saturday.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2007 14:56 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Members of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security force had earlier accused Hamas gunmen of abducting the office

So earlier this week he was kidnapped, and today he was shot? That dude had a bad week.
Posted by: WhitecollarRedneck || 03/23/2007 15:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Members of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security force had earlier accused Hamas gunmen of abducting the officer

So earlier this week he was kidnapped, and today he was shot? That dude had a bad week.
Posted by: WhitecollarRedneck || 03/23/2007 15:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Members of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security force had earlier accused Hamas gunmen of abducting the officer

So earlier this week he was kidnapped, and today he was shot? That dude had a bad week.
Posted by: WhitecollarRedneck || 03/23/2007 15:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, I thought it was an interesting observation, but not so interesting that it deserved to be posted three times. Apologies for the itchy trigger-finger.
Posted by: WhitecollarRedneck || 03/23/2007 15:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Does no member of the Dinosaur Press have any photos of the dead innocent Paleo? Oops the "right" side of the Intafarter killed him. My bad.
Posted by: Steven || 03/23/2007 15:28 Comments || Top||

#6  "...third straight day of factional violence since the formation of a unity government. "

And they can say this with a straight face! Love that unity.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/23/2007 15:57 Comments || Top||

#7  3rd day? i would be counting about 3000 yrs now myself
Posted by: sinse || 03/23/2007 16:27 Comments || Top||

#8  The 'unidentified gunmen' .... are ..... Swedes? MS13? The ghost of Al Capone?
Posted by: Brett || 03/23/2007 17:18 Comments || Top||

#9  And they can say this with a straight face! Love that unity.

One of the best oxymorons I've ever coined is: "Arab unity". Rates right up there with my favorite redundancy, "French dip".
Posted by: Zenster || 03/23/2007 17:33 Comments || Top||

#10  Just celebrating the new peace initiative.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/23/2007 18:54 Comments || Top||

#11  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology hopes to mobilize the world's brainpower to solve one of its most troubling problems: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Have you considered the consequences grom, WHAT IF? what if MIT teams up with this POWERHOUSE?
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2007 20:50 Comments || Top||

#12  "unidentified?" I suspect the hook nosed dude with the checked towel head, who has an unholy quran in one hand and a Kalashnakov in the other.
Posted by: Sneaze || 03/23/2007 21:59 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Top Thai security adviser claims politicians paid jihadis to bomb Bangkok
Muslim insurgents from southern Thailand were paid to carry out deadly New Year's Eve bombings in Bangkok by politicians toppled in last year's coup, a top security official said. The nine bombings in the Thai capital killed three people and wounded more than 40.

"The evidence from two bombs that did not go off told us that they were assembled in the south and were made by the same group of people who caused trouble in southern Thailand" where an Islamic insurgency has left more than 2,000 people dead in the past three years, said Gen. Wattanachai Chaimuenwong in an interview on FM98 Business Radio Thursday.

However, he said the perpetrators were not driven by their separatist ideology but were paid by a group of politicians who lost their power in order "to discredit the current government." The reference was apparently to supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a coup d'etat last September.

Wattanachai did not say what he based his claim on, but he is the top security adviser to military-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont. Police, who are in charge of the bombing investigation, have not yet officially released their version of the motive in the bombings.

National Police Chief Gen. Seriphisut Temiyawej on Wednesday acknowledged that southern insurgents may have been behind the bombings, but refused to elaborate, saying that if he revealed more information, "it will affect the case."

On Thursday, arrest warrants were issued for two more suspects, but neither were identified by name, said Seriphisut. A court had issued arrest warrants for two other people earlier this month but police have not yet said what their motives or affiliations were. All suspects remain at large.

The warrants were issued on the basis of evidence obtained from grainy video surveillance cameras. Police claim to know the names and addresses of at least some of the suspects, but have not released them.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/23/2007 00:21 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Haw about the "Smells like bullshit" picture?
Posted by: twobyfour || 03/23/2007 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  They've been saying the same thing since it happened. They deserves getting bombed for their lack of brains. If anything, I think the Jihadist are working for the new muslims thai junta government.
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 03/23/2007 9:45 Comments || Top||


Thai jihadis ambush police patrol, wound 7
Insurgents ambushed a police patrol on Thursday night in Pattani province, and wounded seven officers in the bombing and ensuring firefight.

The officers were patroling by armoured vehicle on a local road in Yaring district, about two kilometres away from their station, when their vehicle was blasted. After the car was hit, police came out of the vehicle to see the damage. Insurgents who were hiding beside the road then started firing at them. The insurgents exchanged gunfire with the police for about five minutes before fleeing the scene.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/23/2007 00:18 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
LEBANON: 200 KG BOMB FOUND AT UNIVERSITY
(AKI) - Lebanese explosives experts have defused a bomb found on the premises of the American University in Beirut, the Al-Jazeera satellite network reported Thursday citing police. The device had been placed in a conference centre scheduled to host a labour union meeting on Thursday, the report said. The bomb which contained 200 kilograms of the explosive substance TNT was hidden inside a padded paper bag.
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hold it....

200kg works out to be 445 POUNDS. One hell of a 'padded paper bag'..

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/23/2007 8:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Some people just can't take being refused tenure calmly.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/23/2007 8:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Coffee alert!! gromgoru, you've got to give fair warning when you post things like that.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2007 11:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Mea culpa, mea ultima, maxima culpa.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/23/2007 19:01 Comments || Top||


G'mornin'...
Ncube urges Zimbabwe protestCeasefire brokered in WazooHeavy Fighting Erupts in Somali Capital Mogadishu6 JMB militants walk gallows Apr 13-19LEBANON: 200 KG BOMB FOUND AT UNIVERSITY2 liberal Muslim leaders receive death threatYemen on brink of sectarian war
Posted by: Fred || 03/23/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "My name is Bond. Lilian Bond. "
Posted by: twobyfour || 03/23/2007 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Fred with these pictures you're making me forget about this whole damned WoT thing. What does that stand for again?
Posted by: garbagecowboy || 03/23/2007 2:44 Comments || Top||

#3 
W omen
O n
T itle
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/23/2007 6:00 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder if Lilian would Bond with me.
Posted by: gorb || 03/23/2007 6:06 Comments || Top||

#5  That's a woman who'd make you suffer and enjoy it.
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2007 7:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Oh my.

I'd be so proud of that one I'd tell my wife.
Posted by: GORT || 03/23/2007 7:15 Comments || Top||

#7  the sweet meat is next to the other sweet meat.
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2007 8:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Wow, she's actually looking at ME!!
Posted by: smn || 03/23/2007 8:41 Comments || Top||

#9  Love the "Unwrap me if you dare" look.
I going to trust that is silk she is wearing.

Ala Homer Simpson.
Ahrggg.
Posted by: delphi2005 || 03/23/2007 9:08 Comments || Top||

#10  Satin or Silk, she's going to get a chill; I love that sassy earring!
Posted by: smn || 03/23/2007 9:26 Comments || Top||

#11  "My name is Bond. Lilian Bond. "

Double-Oh-Wow. Licensed to thrill.
Posted by: mrp || 03/23/2007 10:15 Comments || Top||

#12  Shiny garments, why do they hate us? (Somebody had to.)
Posted by: Jonathan || 03/23/2007 10:35 Comments || Top||

#13  In the olden days satin was woven from silk thread. So that's ok.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2007 11:26 Comments || Top||

#14  Is it just me or does anyone alse notice a bit of left areola? A very nice one too.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 03/23/2007 12:21 Comments || Top||

#15  I'd say that's a little too high and to the left. Off center as well. Now, if Lilian would just lower her robe a bit more...
Posted by: Steve || 03/23/2007 13:16 Comments || Top||

#16  I believe that's a shadow, BrerRabbit.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/23/2007 14:43 Comments || Top||

#17  Why you areola craving dirty rabbit. Let me have another look.
Posted by: wxjames || 03/23/2007 14:58 Comments || Top||

#18  No doubt where the term "bondage" came from....
Posted by: Sloluns the Elder3209 || 03/23/2007 15:13 Comments || Top||

#19  After a close look, I believe BrerRabbit is right. I had to be certain, though.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/23/2007 16:23 Comments || Top||

#20  I don't see no earring...
And that ain't no shadow on the port side......
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 03/23/2007 17:01 Comments || Top||

#21  OT, whilst digging around on Wikipedia, I found that our old friend Aris Katsaris is a frequent contributor. He's done some excellent work on the EU -- but he's also authored pages on gay rights/same-sex marriage and the Klingon Civil War. LOL.
Posted by: exJAG || 03/23/2007 19:33 Comments || Top||

#22  Well, if you're of a mind to, you can have a look at the girls unfettered! But I know that none of you gentlemen will dare to gaze at the perky ta-ta's of Lillian.

Perish the thought!
Posted by: Chiper Threreger8956 || 03/23/2007 19:38 Comments || Top||

#23  A.K. is very proud of his contributions, exJAG. He's a firm believer in the Wikipedia philosophy. He also has a blog, although I don't remember the name of it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/23/2007 20:12 Comments || Top||

#24  He also has a blog, although I don't remember the name of it.
here's his e-mail TW

SelfAbsorbedAsshat@Y'urp-peons.com
Posted by: RD || 03/23/2007 21:40 Comments || Top||

#25  when he kept saying "y'all" like a Ukrainian refugee visiting a Dude Ranch, I lost it...
Posted by: Frank G || 03/23/2007 22:57 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2007-03-23
  LEBANON: 200 KG BOMB FOUND AT UNIVERSITY
Thu 2007-03-22
  110 killed as Waziristan festivities enter third day
Wed 2007-03-21
  40 killed in Wazoo clashes
Tue 2007-03-20
  Taha Yassin Ramadan escorted from gene pool
Mon 2007-03-19
  5000+ kilos of explosives seized in Mazar-e-Sharif
Sun 2007-03-18
  PA unity govt to meet officially on Sunday
Sat 2007-03-17
  Gaza gunnies try to snatch UNRWA head
Fri 2007-03-16
  Syrians confess to Leb twin bus bombings
Thu 2007-03-15
  9 held in Morocco after suicide blast
Wed 2007-03-14
  Mortar shells hit Somali presidential residence
Tue 2007-03-13
  Lebanese Police arrest a Palestinian carrying a bomb
Mon 2007-03-12
  Talibs threaten Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Mexico, Samoa
Sun 2007-03-11
  U.S. calls Iran, Syria talks cordial
Sat 2007-03-10
  Captured big turban wasn't al-Baghdadi. We guessed that.
Fri 2007-03-09
  Ug troops arrive in Mog

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