(Some) operations April 13:
In Afghanistan, U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles received notice that Coalition forces were taking mortar and small arms fire while trying to make their way to the District Center of Now Zad.
A Joint Terminal Attack Controller passed coordinates for a building used as an enemy fighting position and the F-15Es dropped a Guided Bomb Unit-38 on the target. The JTAC confirmed the building was destroyed. Another GBU-38 was dropped successfully on a second target at the request of the Coalition ground commander. Gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
The F-15Es were then assigned to make strafing passes into a wooded area that was a known enemy firing position and where enemy forces were attempting to maneuver around Coalition forces. After the jets strafed the wooded area, anti-aircraft artillery was heard. AAA? Should be kind of hard to hide. And highly desirable to destroy. Kind of the ideal target. Surprisingly, it was not discussed further in the press release. Maybe tomorrow?
US and Afghan troops backed by warplanes killed more than 35 Taliban militants during a five-hour battle in a bitterly contested area of southern Afghanistan, the US-led coalition said on Friday. Meanwhile a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier was killed in a separate gunbattle with rebels on Friday, becoming the 12th foreign soldier to die in Afghanistan in a week. US special forces and Afghan troops also killed three Taliban who pinned down a group of civilian contractors after their helicopter came down in another area.
The fighting on Thursday in which most of the rebels were killed took place in the Sangin district of Helmand province, which around 1,000 Afghan and international troops wrested from insurgent control at the weekend. More than 35 Taliban fighters were killed by ANA (Afghan National Army) and coalition forces during the five-hour afternoon battle, the coalition said in a statement. The NATO soldier, whose name and nationality were not revealed, was killed in a firefight with rebels in an unnamed part of southern Afghanistan on Friday, ISAF said in another statement. Two other NATO troops were injured.
Separately on Thursday five civilian contractors had to be rescued after their helicopter made a forced landing in southeastern Ghazni province late on Thursday. The Taliban earlier said it had hit a NATO helicopter there. Three extremists were killed in the engagement, a coalition statement said. Oh, that worked well, didn't it?
Two French aid workers were apparently kidnapped by the Taliban in southwestern Nimroz province on April 3. French President Jacques Chirac called his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai late on Thursday to demand his support for efforts to free them, according to Karzais office. Separately, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Quebec City on Thursday that NATO commanders had asked for 3,400 additional police and army trainers for Afghanistan, a need the US wants European allies to fill. NATO has asked for about 3,400 training positions, and quite frankly were having trouble, Gates said after meeting with defence ministers from countries with troops in Afghanistans volatile southern region.
Gates said the group, including ministers from Canada, Britain, Australia and other countries, talked about approaching European allies that do not have troops engaged in combat in Afghanistan to fill the training requirement. He said the US could provide some of the trainers, but he could not say how many.
This article starring:
Tom Koenigs
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
RIP, soldier. May your country learn from your sacrifice.
While 3800000000:0 would be better, 38:1 isn't bad.
KABUL - Two NATO soldiers have been killed in separate roadside bomb blasts in eastern Afghanistan, bringing the number of foreign troop casualties this week to 11.
The deaths came the same day as a helicopter chartered by the U.S.-led coalition crash-landed due to technical problems southwest of Kabul, a US military spokesman said on Friday. Rescuers came under fire from suspected Taleban fighters at the site in Ghazni province after Thursday nights crash. Three Taleban were killed in the resulting gunbattle but there were no casualties among the rescuing troops or the five contractors aboard the aircraft.
Earlier on Thursday, two NATO convoys about 8 km (5 miles) apart on separate operations supporting Afghan security forces were attacked within 30 minutes of each other on Thursday, the alliance said in a statement. One soldier was also wounded. As part of a new NATO policy the alliance refuses to detail where attacks occur, saying that could identify the nationalities of the dead before families have been notified.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
(SomaliNet) Short battle involving heavy weaponry has renewed in the Somalia capital Mogadishu between the Ethiopian forces and the local insurgents late Friday as peace efforts continue to ease the tension in the city.
The latest gun battle is shattering the fragile ceasefire already reached by the Hawiye clan leaders and the Ethiopian military officials. It is not yet clear who in fact started the fighting.
Aethiops will prob'ly end it, however.
The new fighting which lasted 30 minutes began around 7:32pm tonight local time near the former defense ministry compound where based by the Ethiopian forces. There is no immediate casualty report on the latest clashes but sources confirmed to Somalinet that a camp next to the Ethiopian base caught fire.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
battle is shattering the fragile ceasefire
Must be a local phenomenon, maybe itn a miracle or something.
RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- Two brothers strapped with explosives blew themselves up near an American cultural center in Casablanca Saturday, and police arrested another three suspects - including one wearing an explosives belt - hours later, an official said.
The attacks came just days after three suspected militants blew themselves up as they were cornered by police in Casablanca, and al-Qaida claimed suicide car bombings in neighboring Algeria that killed 33 people. The attacks have stoked new fears of Islamic terrorism in North Africa - especially in Morocco, long known for its stability.
The Moroccan and Algerian governments have not addressed an al-Qaida link or inspiration in the bombings earlier this week. Both countries have allied themselves with the United States in its fight against terrorism. Saturday's two bombers detonated their explosives in the middle of a boulevard that runs behind the American cultural center, killing themselves and wounding a woman, the official said, adding that the three suspects were arrested in the neighborhood, which is also home to the American Consulate and a synagogue.
After the arrests, a second explosives belt was found beside an upscale hotel in the same neighborhood struck by the bombings, the Interior Ministry official said on condition of anonymity, citing ministry policy. The official said the belts linked the bombers with three men who blew themselves up in Casablanca on Tuesday after being cornered by police. A police sniper shot and killed a fourth man who authorities said appeared to be preparing to detonate a bomb. Rest at Link
In the single-room shack in Casablanca that has been her home for 27 years, Rachida Raydi laments the loss of two of her seven children, who both ended their lives as suicide bombers. Ayoub Raydi was one of three militants who blew themselves up on Tuesday in the Moroccan port city, less than a month after his brother, Abdelfettah, killed himself and injured four when he blew up an internet café. "I hadn't seen Ayoub for 10 months and Abdelfettah for nine months. I'm against terrorism," their 46-year-old mother said. Apparently they weren't. Either that or we're running into another, competing, definition of terrorism.
Rachida, who was abandoned by her husband and now sells clothes to survive, lives in one room that serves as a bedroom, dining room, kitchen and even toilet. It is lit by a single light bulb. "If Ayoub would have continued to live with me, I would have kept him from committing the irreparable," she said. But he didn't. My heart bleeds.
The attacks earlier this week saw three militants blow themselves up as they were being chased by police, killing one police inspector and injuring seven others. On March 11, Abdelfettah Raydi blew himself up, injuring four others, including a suspected accomplice, in one of the city's internet cafés. Moroccan officials have said they do not believe the two incidents are linked to Wednesday's two suicide bombings in the Algerian capital, Algiers, which killed at least 33 people. Same idea, different location. At least one of the Algerian boomers' Moms has the grace to be ashamed of him.
In the township where the Casablanca bombers' families live, few are willing to talk to reporters and most insist they have no links to the attacks. "No, no! Certainly not!"
"I've got nothing to do with the person who blew himself up; I know nothing, I don't have a mad son," shouted Wardia Mentala from behind her door. "Never heard of him! And I'm not home, so don't call again!" But her neighbours confirmed she was the mother of Mohamed, who was shot dead by police on Tuesday before he could blow himself up. They said she has been questioned by police several times. "Yeah. It's her. She's nutz, y'know."
A bit further along Douar Skouila, the township that is home to 2 300 families, the relatives of Mohamed Rachidi are no more forthcoming. "Keep your condolences to yourself and leave if you want to stay alive," shouted the sister of the first suicide bomber to explode himself on Tuesday. "You go callin' us terrorists we'll kill you!"
Mohamed (37) was also implicated in the murder of a police officer in Casablanca in 2003. Many of the area's residents say they have had enough of the suspicions that have surrounded them since local youths carried out suicide attacks across Casablanca in May 2003, killing 45 people including the 12 bombers. "Our life is already precarious and it infuriates me to hear that our neighbourhood is a nest of terrorists," said 24-year-old Mohamed Harchi.
He is working, but noted that having the township's address on their identity cards leave residents with little chance of finding work. The falling rain gives the area an even more sinister air. The alleys are muddy, the sewers discharge black, foul-smelling water, and the children wade through it apparently regardless. "It's drugs that force these young people to act, not religion," commented Rachid (28). "They are desperate people who take psychotropic drugs."
But Ahmed Mouchid, a 40-year-old maths teacher, does not share that view. "It's true we have here a reservoir of terrorists, but the causes lie in the lack of prospects, the idleness that is killing these young people," he said.
This article starring:
ABDELFETTAH RAIDI
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
Ahmed Mouchid
AIUB RAIDI
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
Mohamed Harchi
MOHAMED RACHIDI
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
Rachida Raydi
Wardia Mentala
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
They are poorer peoples on earth who have never resorted to killing themselves. If you commit suicide and look to take people down with you, that's about you, not society. The drugs guy is on to something...
Posted by: ordu ||
04/14/2007 6:49 Comments ||
Top||
#4
but the causes lie in the lack of prospects
There is truth to that. When you examine all of your options and you believe you have none, it must be a scary place to be. Militant Islam is recruiting the hopless and providing them only with death as a means to live. We should, at the very least, provide the Palestinians the same comfort that we allow for our own down and out who have lost hope for tomorrow: mind altering drugs and alcohol.
#8
"It's true we have here a reservoir of terrorists, but the causes lie in the lack of prospects, the idleness that is killing these young people," he said.
So now the "root cause" of terrorism is poverty, eh? So perhaps if the Saudis would spread their oil wealth to the Arabic masses, terrorism would cease to exist... oh, wait, the wealthy Saudi sheiks and bin Laden types are the ones bankrolling terrorism.
More "root cause" bullshit on a stick. Careful profiling of many bomb vest murderers reveals that they come from the middle class, if not well-to-do families. Look at al Qaeda's leadership. Engineers, doctors and the like.
We should, at the very least, provide the Palestinians the same comfort that we allow for our own down and out who have lost hope for tomorrow: mind altering drugs and alcohol.
Ain't gonna work, AT1904. Drugs and alcohol are prohibited by the Koran. Any mind altering is done by Islam's programmers, the imams. Start killing them if you want things to improve. Notice how you NEVER hear about the children of an imam strapping on bomb vests? Notice how you NEVER read about an imam who martyrs himself? Islam is a form of murderous eliteism that ensconces a select group of thugs while thousands of others are made to believe it is Allah's will that they should live in abject poverty. Islam's religious leaders actually fear material success. They view the comforts of financial security as mitigating any sense of struggle and thereby diverting Muslim attention from jihad.
Moreover, Islam proscribes the collection of interest on loans as usury. This stifles any local or foreign investment and crushes enterprenural ventures before they start. If you want to blame terrorism on "lack of prospects", be sure to understand why Islam assures there will be none. Colonial Spain's rigid Catholic doctrine likewise prohibited interest on loans and look what sort of a European economic powerhouse it is today.
If you want to trace any role that poverty plays as a "root cause" of terrorism, be sure to track its bloody paw prints all the way back to the real source: Namely, the local mosque.
The ROOT CAUSE of Muslim terrorism is ISLAM. Period. End of story. Anyone who says otherwise is deluding themselves or trying to mislead others. The Koran specifically exhorts its followers to commit terrorist acts against Infidels. What more needs to be said?
In a poor area southern Algiers, Merouane Boudina lived with his ten brothers, one among them had joined the terrorist groups in their beginnings in 1994. Merouane is the kamikaze bomber Mouâd Ibn Djabel real name. El Khabar met his relatives and talked to them on his travel to death.
When my mother watched pictures aired on Arab TV channels after the bombings she cracked down! She has been deeply shocked, she never expected that Merouane was going to end his life to kill other people, she is very ill, his older brother Nourredine told us. Angry, he stated Merouanes act disgraces us, he killed himself and took other innocent lives Is it a Jihadist act? Jihad begins by oneself!
El Khabar has been told that the 28-year old Mourad Boudina was a drug consumer and has often been arrested. He has nothing to do with religion, some told us, and others stated that he appeared to be interested in religion before he disappeared since seven months. His brother Nourredine denied the fact that Merouanes act reflects a Jihadist thought pointing out I know him very well, he has never been interested in religion, and further added These people exploit some persons ignorance I will never forgive those who planned for the attacks!
On the difficult social conditions impact on Merouanes suicide behaviour, the elderly grand-father refused to justify suicide and killing the others by insurmountable conditions stating you see all the poor houses all over there inside there are young people as Merouane and younger than him, they are enduring the same conditions, but they have not perpetrated terrorist acts. Some of them are still studying and the others are fighting to survive as most of Algerians do.
This article starring:
MERUANE BUDINA
al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
MUâD IBN DJABEL
al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Is it a Jihadist act? Jihad begins by oneself!
Unfortunately, all too often it does not end with only oneself.
El Khabar has been told that the 28-year old Mourad Boudina was a drug consumer and has often been arrested.
Gotta love the drug angle. Anyone ever heard of a junkie so desperate for a fix that they'd go all 'splodey? Makes it kinda hard to enjoy the next rush and all that.
... the elderly grand-father refused to justify suicide and killing the others by insurmountable conditions stating you see all the poor houses all over there inside there are young people as Merouane and younger than him, they are enduring the same conditions, but they have not perpetrated terrorist acts.
Which very nicely puts the lie to that drug angle. My bet's on a Koran thumping imam, but what do I know?
There's part of the problem; unsustainable population growth. Is excess population generated to allow for war, or is it generated to allow for disease with war resulting when 'enough' disease does not?
A number of recent bombings have been claimed as the result of drug use; perhaps there's more connection between Islam and the Afghanistan poppy fields than just cash flow. Are they diverting some of the stuff to create new potential suicide bombers?
#4
He could be a Berber, his name doesn't seem Arab. In Algeria most "Arabs" are in fact Arab-speaking Berbers. However my guess is that Berbers who clinged to their language mixed less with the invaders than the "Arab" Berbers.
Some Berberic tribes resisted conversion for centuries. In fact they didn't succumb until after the French occupation when IIIrd Republic's policy of fighting the Church led the authorities to discourage missionaries and to enciourage islamization.
Such late-xcomers have probably zero Arab blood and from hear-say, such pure Berbers can even be blond-haired.
#5
Also Algiers was the greatest harbour of Muslim piratry inthe Mediterranean (a such Miguel de Cervantes was captive there), thousands of European women wre brought there. That is another possible explanation for his faire skin and blue eyes (but offspring would be mixed blood and blue eyes are recessive).
Anyway I like the recation of his family. The complete opposite of the usaul reaction in Mulim/Arab families who sounds more like Takiyah than anything else.
#7
That Picture, What a loser, no intelligence in that face whatsoever.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/14/2007 12:13 Comments ||
Top||
#8
OK, wait a minute. This kid had ten brothers and the two in the previous post were from a litter of seven? These people are gonna continue to live in poverty and despair until they can get a grip on their birth rate and they won't do that until they become well enough educated to break the grip that Islam has on their lives. I'm guessing education and birth control are unIslamic because Mo wants more babies to swell the ranks of his army. Muslim mothers, you are bomb factories, nothing more. When you got that many people in a family some of them are bound to go off the rails. Jesus could help but then Mo doesn't like Him either. Drugs? I might prescribe LSD but if you're full on batshit crazy to begin with it might only make you worse. Opium might slow them down a bit. Mix it with marijuana and the Beatles and they'll be too lazy to make jihad. No, I think whiskey, sexy and democracy are the best bet. But please use a condom.
#9
And Mo allowed polygamy and that means that many males, at least between the poor, cannot have sex. And we are programmed to try to get it at ny price since no sex means you will die entirely.
And then Islam tells those sex-starved males to go to Jihad: if you succeed you will get capture infidel women, if you fail you will get your 72 virgins.
El Khabar was told that security authorities issued strict communiqués to airports and harbours security services to tighten control after Algiers suicide bombings. Air flights and other road and maritime travels noticed a delay owing to careful control undertaken by security services in airports and harbours. Even if the measures are ordinary after the suicide attacks, yet they underscore some European countries fears to be targeted mainly France, as the latters home affairs minister stated after Algiers bombings Attacks taking place in Algiers yesterday unveil the extent of the imminent threat over our country.
Moreover military check points strengthening in roads leading to airports and harbours, air and maritime travels from Algeria are expected to be submitted to the same extent of control measures by their arrival to the European territories, especially that Qaeda organization in the Islamic Maghreb has already threatened to undertake assaults on European states at the forefront France. In the same connection, the capital witnessed the reappearance of personal object control which almost disappeared; security also has been strengthened in principal entrances of official institutions while Algiers security services reinforced control over highways.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Wednesday to Thursday night witnessed the explosion by an unknown terrorist group of a gas pipe providing Jijel Wilaya with natural gas from Skikda industrial zone gas refinery. According to local sources, the criminal attack has damaged the pipe crossing the forest area in Ain Sebih heights on the borders between Skikda and Jijel Wilayas. The explosion resulted in the leak of considerable natural gas quantities in addition to fear and panic of the neighbouring areas citizens who wondered about the explosion source.
Just after the explosion, Army forces rushed to the area and besieged it allowing Skikda and Jijel civil protection brigades to get into it. According to civil protection sources, the situation has been controlled after all risk lifting, while Sonelgaz teams are still repairing the pipe under the tight control of Army forces and civil protection. It is worth noting that the terrorist explosion of the gas pipe which is likely to be perpetrated by the Salafist Group of Preaching and Combat, GSPC, adopting recently the name of al Qaeda organization in the Islamic Maghreb. This coincides with Army forces led operations to make secure the sensitive points of gas and oil pipes from Skikda Wilaya.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Bugti migration route?
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/14/2007 15:14 Comments ||
Top||
#1
I find this article to be an interesting summation of changing winds. The Islamists entire plan for victory requires that the western world surrender to it. However, it is a flawed battle plan because that isn't going to happen. So far, the Islamist fanatics have been able to take advantage of our own differences between conservative and liberal. Liberals (whose entire philosophy consists in identifying a problem and "resolving" it by assigning blame to conservative, white, American, Christians) were only too happy to join forces with cohorts that seemed to be on board with their goal of redemption through blame. That the Islamists also hated Jews, Chinese, Buddhists, atheists, women, gays, etc, etc. etc, ... was unfortunate, but the liberals were willing to overlook it to advance their own agenda.
But despite the power grabs from Nancy Pelosi, George Galloway, Jacques Chirac and all the other power hungry suspects, the people themselves are beginning to understand the true seriousness of the threat that we are facing. And while the media has provided a shield for Islam to advance its cause almost unnoticed, the western world is beginning to understand that this is a battle of survival. As time goes on, that realization will only increase and we will continue to strip away restrictive rules of engagement until war becomes what war has always been - a battle for survival.
And so what we see now is slow but steady changes in our attitudes and culture. As western society begins to get a clue, we are beginning to unite and change our attitudes slowly but surely against them. Islamists know they need bigger weapons they can use while we are still divided, but the irony is that as soon as use them, they will untie our hands in this fight.
In the end, this will be a bloody battle, but the western world will unite and square off against the idea of returning to caves with no music or mirth. I find it only a shame that once again, the westerners who doth protest to much that they are for "peace" will be the ones responsible for allowing this conflict to reach a critical mass where it can no longer be solved with minimal effort - but instead will result in the slaughter of millions.
In the end this will be a Darwin finish. Militant Islam is a pathology that kills its host organism. The question we don't know the answer to is western civiliation strong enough to kill it before it kills us first.
#2
AT1904, I wish I could be so optimistic but this is just a glimmer of light in an otherwise unrelieved darkness. People in the West have tolerated so much and done so little that they are incapable of defending their civilization now. I think the best we can do is preserve the best aspects of Western civilization and prepare for a new dark ages.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
04/14/2007 11:17 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Not to be pessimistic or anything.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
04/14/2007 11:18 Comments ||
Top||
#4
AT 1904,
The thing we have to watch out for is that these power hungry opportunists (AKA liberals) might not wake up in time to prevent a Muslim takeover.
This is how Islam conquered Persia and Spain: by playing off the internal politics of the two counties and then taking over. They started off being the "muscle" for one of the factions that thought they were smarter than the Jihadis. This is exactly what the left thinks today.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
04/14/2007 12:02 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Jonathan, there are no guarantees we will win it. I don't know if you read the rantburg story about the killer frogs in the SF pond that were eating all of the gentle frogs, but I thought that it was a good metaphor for militant Islam. Or look at the African honey bees killing our domestic ones. Darwin favors the strong and it remains to be seen which culture is stronger.
However, militant Islam makes a mistake in believing we are weak. Right now, thanks to the media and PC attitudes, it is easy for them to believe that we will just go quietly into the night. While it sometimes seems that way, when the pedal starts hitting the medal - that is not how it is going to happen. A look at history probably gives us a pretty good picture of how this sequel will end.
#6
Al - They started off being the "muscle" for one of the factions that thought they were smarter than the Jihadis.
I agree that is the biggest threat we face. I just think that when it gets down to one on one survival, western culture with its 2000+ year old ideals, morals and spirit of cooperation is stronger than the dog eat dog culture of Islam. But in a global culture - who knows?
#7
In real terms, the muzzies haven't done that much to the west...yet. So a big percentage of the population does not feel threatened, at least not in the way they need to in order to fight a total war.
Once there is an overt example of the danger, and by this I mean something that kills tens of thousands in one attack or multiple simultaneous attacks, then the backbone will stiffen. And if they blow off a nuke in the west then all rules are out the window.
The question is whether the muzzies are patient enough to let their high birth rates and PC-based seperate rules to enable them to take over some western countries before they do something stupid to really arouse our anger.
#8
The question is whether the muzzies are patient enough to let their high birth rates and PC-based seperate rules to enable them to take over some western countries before they do something stupid to really arouse our anger.
Now that's a damn fine summation. I posit they'll fuck up their birth rate somehow, yes, your muzz can even screw up screwing.
#10
If ISAF coalition forces discover a house with two Taliban high-value targets, and four other Taliban fighters who are not on the list of ISAF approved targets, it cannot attack the house. This is not a scenario of protecting civilians but of protecting Taliban targets who are just not specifically on the list.
Ummm ... no. It is a scenario of slowly committing suicide. You kill your enemy, not play duck, duck, goose with them.
The question is whether the muzzies are patient enough to let their high birth rates and PC-based seperate rules to enable them to take over some western countries before they do something stupid to really arouse our anger.
I have long maintained how a signal hallmark of Islam is that of overreaching itself. Note Wretchard's observations regarding when push finally comes to shove:
At this point, a United States choked with corpses could still not negotiate an end to hostilities or deter further attacks. There would be no one to call on the Red Telephone, even to surrender to. In fact, there exists no competent Islamic authority, no supreme imam who could stop a jihad on behalf of the whole Muslim world. Even if the terror chiefs could somehow be contacted in this apocalyptic scenario and persuaded to bury the hatchet, the lack of command and control imposed by the cell structure would prevent them from reining in their minions. Due to the fixity of intent, attacks would continue for as long as capability remained. Under these circumstances, any American government would eventually be compelled by public desperation to finish the exchange by entering -1 x 10^9 in the final right hand column: total retaliatory extermination.
[emphasis added]
Due to its decentralized nature, Islam can no more make rivers run uphill than avoid having one of its splinter groups finally manage to commit an atrocity of such stupendous magnitude that total war, in the form of nuclear retaliation, will commence.
The lethal combination of Islam's terrorist doctrine and how ineffective any form of deterrence is against such a universal obssession with martyrdom literally assures this. Finally, the fanatical aspects of personal jihad supercede such overall strategies as demographic displacement. Nowhere can such grand plans be imposed with sufficient compulsion so as to restrain the more individualistic and psychotic elements within Islam.
We are confronted with absolute madmen who, in their pursuit of globnal jihad, would not flinch at destroying the very nations which they themselves rule. I leave you with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's speech given in 1980 at Qom:
"We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah; For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world."
The Indian Army on Saturday claims to have killed 48 guerrillas of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) since a massive military attack began in Assam in September, also choking their supplies and communication network.
"The ULFA has suffered heavy casualties in the ongoing operations losing 48 rebels in separate encounters since September, with as many as 14 of them gunned down in the past two weeks alone," Army spokesman Lt Col Narender Singh said.
The military operations began on Sep 24 after New Delhi called off a six-week ceasefire with the ULFA blaming the group for stepping up violence and extortions. In continuing raids by soldiers of a mountain division based in eastern Assam since the offensive began, 64 ULFA rebels were detained and 32 more surrendered before the authorities.
The ULFA, which is fighting for an independent Assamese homeland since 1979, is blamed for a string of bombings and attacks in January, killing about 80 people, 61 of them being Hindi-speaking migrant workers.
The Army claims its stepped-up offensive and vigil have choked the supply routes of the ULFA with the rebels under pressure.
"The supply lines of the ULFA for carrying rations, medicines and weapons have been literally blocked with continuous patrol and pressure mounted on the outfit," the army commander said. The Army also claimed to have cracked the ULFA's communication signals by using sophisticated jamming devices.
"The ULFA is on the run and their backbone is almost broken with continuous pressure from our troops. We have broken their communication signals with the ULFA in total disarray now," Singh said.
Intelligence reports earlier said the ULFA had shifted its base from Assam to the jungles in adjoining Arunachal Pradesh, while many have sneaked into camps located in neighbouring Myanmar after the army offensive.
"Even the Myanmarese junta have stepped up the heat against the ULFA by launching a crackdown in selected areas," an intelligence official said requesting anonymity.
On Tuesday, eight ULFA rebels, including two women guerrilla fighters, were killed in a raid inside a densely forested area in Arunachal Pradesh.
The ULFA in a statement on Wednesday said there could not be a military solution to the conflict. "Only a political dialogue can resolve the problem," ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa said.
However, the ULFA last month had rejected the Assam government's offer for unconditional talks and warned of stepped up violence, including using human bombs to attack selected targets.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had offered unconditional peace talks with the ULFA, aimed at ending close to three decades of insurgency in the region.
The ULFA said direct talks could be possible only if New Delhi agreed to discuss its core demand of sovereignty or independence, and release five of its jailed leaders.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/14/2007 14:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Local Taliban have released seven people who had been taken hostage on Thursday night in the Doda area of Lakki Marwat, police said. The Taliban have released seven people Fazal Ahmed, Akhtar Zaman, Sirajuddin, Gul Rahman, Zarin, Din Mohammad and Saeed of Doda village, Muhammad Usman from the Lakki police station told Daily Times on the telephone. Usman said that local Taliban had stopped a wedding party in Doda and shaved the heads and moustaches of three singers of Shah Hasan Khel village who were accompanying them. He added that some people of the wedding party later clashed with the Taliban and two villagers were injured while the Taliban took hostage seven people. District Police Officer Abdul Rashid Khan told Daily Times that the police had registered a case, but no one had been arrested so far. The DPO added that the police had rescued the hostages after an operation in the area. We will arrest the Taliban once we settle a dispute that has emerged between two villages on the issue, he said. Lakki Marwat District Nazim Humayun Saifullah Khan said that he did not know about the recent clash.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's the last of the hostages, if I recall correctly. No doubt the argument between the two villages is over who gets to use the testicle crushers on the Taliban idiots, and who only gets to shave and tattoo them afterward.
At least five militants of Lashker-e-Taiba, including three of its senior commanders, were killed when a joint party of army and police raided a hideout where militants had gathered for a meeting in remote area of mountainous Kishtwar district, about 270 kilometers from here. The operation was launched by 11 Rashtriya Rifles and Special Operation Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police after specific information about presence of a group of militants at Tatapani area of Nowpachi, Marwah late last night.
The gun battle started at around wee hours and lasted till this afternoon, official sources said. Deputy Inspector General of Police Udhampur-Doda Range L Mohanty said that five militants have been killed so far, while the operation was still in progress. The slain militants reportedly include three top commanders but their identity could not be ascertained immediately. Sources claimed that a top level meeting of LeT was in progress when security forces raided the hideout.
Details of the encounter revealed that the army intelligence and police had received specific inputs that LeT militants commander from North Kashmir and Marwah area of Kishtwar will gather at Tatapani, Nowapachi for a meeting. Based on the inputs a massive operation was launched and troops were reportedly deputed from two different directions to the area. The well planned operation was carried out under the direct supervision of senior army commanders and Manhor Singh Senior Superintendent of Police Doda, who is considered to be a specialist in anti-insurgency operations.
Huge quantities of arms and ammunition were also recovered from the site of the encounter, sources said adding, troops were clearing the debris of the hideout which was completely damaged in the operation so as to dug out the bodies. The area is completely inaccessible by road and is thus said to be hot bed of hard core militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
In the name of all that's decent, Fred, lose the picture!
Security agencies have claimed to have foiled a fidayeen attack on the chief minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, saying that the timely detection of the Lashkar-e-Taiba plot to assassinate Azad had averted a major tragedy. A Congress worker and his wife, allegedly deputed to conduct the attacker to the dais, have been arrested in Ramban, where the attack was supposed to have taken place during Azad's rally.
According to security sources, a Pakistani fidayee had entered Ramban on the night of April 11, and gone underground with an AK 47 rifle and a grenade, right at the time the police and intelligence agencies unraveled a plot to attack Azad during a rally in the Ramban town. Though the chief minister ultimately attended his first rally at the headquarters of the newly created Ramban district, his security was personally supervised by the IGP Jammu, DIG Udhampur-Doda range, and the SSP Ramban.
The police have declared a red alert from Banihal to Ramban on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway, and have launched a hunt for the elusive fidayee. Official sources said that following intelligence reports that the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba was planning to target Azad during the Ramban rally, the police picked up a Congress worker and his wife minutes before the function started. The suspects, Farooq Ahmad Wani and his wife, Haseena Begum, were arrested when they were roaming in the vicinity of the venue. A Congress party I-card has been recovered from Wani, but the police have not yet established whether it is genuine or fake, the sources said.
Following the couple's interrogation late into yesterday night, the police arrested two more persons, Akhtar Malik, and Abd-ur-Rasheed, both from Banihal. They are reported have told the police that Wani and his wife had been entrusted with the task of conducting the attacker to the dais where Azad would be speaking. According to the police, Wani was given the responsibility because he carried an identity card of the Congress party. Policemen in plain clothes had already been stalking Wani and his wife, but delayed their arrest because they wanted to lay hands on the fidayee attacker as well, sources said. But finally the concerns about the security of the VIP (Azad) forced the police to move in on the couple without further delay.
The news about the arrest spread like wildfire, and the fidayee aborted his mission, the police said. According to security sources, Wani has told his interrogators that the fidayee had been given the deadly assignment by the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba's divisional commander for Banihal and Ramban, Abu Uqasa. The police said that during questioning, the arrested foursome had divulged that Akhtar and Abd-ur-Rasheed were to accompany the fidayee from Banihal to Ramban, and Wani and his wife had to take him to the dais.
It further said that immediately after learning about Azad's proposed Ramban rally last week, the Lashkar commander had contacted Wani and Akhtar, and ordered them to make the necessary arrangements with regard to the fidayee attack. Police sources say that the planned attack could have several strands linking other players and places, and that further arrests were expected. The security forces and the police have fanned out into several villages around Ramban, but no trace of the fidayee has been found.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Following the couple's interrogation late into yesterday night, the police arrested two more persons, Akhtar Malik, and Abd-ur-Rasheed, both from Banihal
that should've triggered the pliars and blowtorch pic. Bet Hope it was painful
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2007 8:33 Comments ||
Top||
A car bomb blasted through a busy bus station near one of Iraq's holiest shrines Saturday and killed at least 56 people, police and hospital officials said. Separately, a suicide car bomb killed 10 people on a major bridge in downtown Baghdad the second attack on a span over the Tigris river this week, police said. The Jadriyah bridge suffered little damage.
The bus station bombing occurred about 200 yards from the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, where the grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad is buried one of the most important sites for Shiites.
Hundreds of people swarmed around ambulances, crying out and pounding their chests in grief. Police fired into the air to disperse crowds and clear roads for emergency vehicles, but angry mobs attacked them and set two police vehicles on fire.
Rioters surrounded the Karbala governor's office and demanded his and provincial council members' resignations blaming them for lax security. Mobs threw stones at the governor's office and set fire to the building. Sorry, folks; 'they' are not responsible for your security - YOU have to help.
At least a little good news:
Police said four would-be suicide attackers were killed Saturday in the northern city of Kirkuk when one of them detonated his explosives belt prematurely.
All four men were killed but no civilians were hurt, said police Brig. Adil Zain-Alabideen. He said all four were insurgents embarking on an attack mission, but did not elaborate.
#3
I've seen the same reaction here in Tennessee. A murder is committed in full view of 20 people but nobody saw anything. One woman interviewed was emphatic the she saw nothing, just heard the shots but in her next breath said, "The Police gotta do something to protect us. They fallin down on they job".
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/14/2007 9:58 Comments ||
Top||
#4
How come their is no information on the identities of these suicide bombers? I'm not saying the ones today, but what about from over the year? Unfortunately there is enough data for damning evidence. If these guys are coming from the West, their families need to feel the shame of their murders. If they rejoice, we need to know that too.
After more than 20 years in development at a cost of billions of dollars, the long-troubled V-22 Osprey will head to Iraq in September for its first combat missions, the Marine Corps said yesterday. The tilt-rotor Osprey, a helicopter-airplane hybrid, has survived attempts by the Pentagon leadership to cancel it, criticism of its rising cost and unique design, and three fatal accidents since 1992. The aircraft, made by Bell Helicopter and Boeing, can take off, land and hover like a helicopter, then turn its rotors to fly straight ahead like a conventional plane. It will operate out of al-Asad air base in central Iraq for seven months.
"The story of how we got here is a long one," Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, said at a morning news conference at the Pentagon. "I'll just say that the quantum leap in technology that this aircraft will bring to the fight has been a road marked by some setbacks, lots of sacrifices and the success of these Marines standing before you today." A report in 1983 by the Pentagon's office of program analysis and evaluation concluded that the plane's concept was flawed. In the late 1980s and early '90s, Dick Cheney, the Defense secretary at the time, tried to cancel it. The aircraft's three fatal crashes -- one in 1992 and two in 2000 -- killed 26 Marines and four civilians. In 2001, allegations emerged that maintenance records for the aircraft had been falsified, which the commander of the Osprey's maintenance squadron later admitted was done to make the aircraft appear more serviceable than it was. The Osprey fleet was briefly grounded this year after the military found a glitch in a computer chip that could cause the aircraft to lose control. Intel Inside?
Despite the project's problems, the Marine Corps has stayed loyal to the aircraft, arguing that the Osprey was now safe and needed in combat. "The Marine Corps has built its entire future concept of warfare around the V-22," said Loren Thompson, a defense industry analyst. The Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, which is based in Jacksonville, N.C., will deploy to Iraq with 10 Ospreys after more training, including time in the desert in Yuma, Ariz. The Osprey's main mission in Iraq will be to transport troops and perform rescue missions. Marine Corps officials promote its ability to go farther and carry a bigger load than any of the helicopters it will replace, including the CH-46 Sea Knight, a Vietnam-era chopper that has crashed several times in Iraq. Lt. Gen. John Castellaw, the deputy Marine commandant for aviation, said the CH-46 "is old in the tooth, and its capability in terms of range and payload is not what we want." The V-22 would be able to survive the kind of attacks that have brought down helicopters in Iraq, I've always been concerned about the tremendous stresses that the moveable wingtip engine mounts must go through. How ruggedized are the rotors themselves? The loss of even a single blade would be likely to totally destabilize the entire craft and an autogyro landing doesn't appear to be an option.
Marine Corps officials said. "By the time you see us and we're past you, the best you're going to do is one of those revenge shoots," Lt. Col. Paul Rock, commander of Squadron 263, said yesterday in a clearing near Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, where two dozen reporters had been flown to watch the Ospreys in action. As Rock spoke, two Ospreys kicked up wind for about 100 yards around. Bell Helicopter and Boeing have produced 54 Ospreys -- 46 for the Marines and eight for the Air Force. About $20 billion has been spent on the program, and the military is expected to ultimately pay $50.5 billion for the 458 aircraft it wants, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
In March, the Government Accountability Office estimated the cost of each aircraft at about $109 million, up from the $40 million that each was projected to cost when development started in the 1980s. Skeptics argue that the Osprey is too expensive to be used widely or put in risky situations. It may be suitable for specialty missions such as long-range rescue or special-operations deployments, but "those relatively few missions don't justify putting all of the Marines' chips behind the V-22," said Jennifer Gore, spokeswoman for the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group. The Marine Corps could buy fewer Ospreys -- 50 or so -- and make a larger purchase of a cheaper helicopter, she said. I suppose it's time to give these exspensive birds some real time battle testing, but their seeming fragility remains a concern. Obviously, their forward speed makes them superior to the old Chinook class helicopters. The article also seems to infer that the Osprey is better armored. While this craft may not have the rotor interference problems of the old Chinooks, I still consider the tilt-rotor concept to have many issues of its own. Any in-house folk with better knowledge of this bird?
#1
At last check the Army-DOD were still proceeding wid dev of larger, multi-rotor, follow-on versions of the Osprey capable of delivering armored fighting vehix.
#2
wapo aside, I have some of the the same 'concerns' as ZEN does. solution, adopting Missouri as my home state visa vi V-22.
Risks & Accidents: comparatively the V-22 is replacing >>Shit-hooks and >>CH53s, which will help its comparative stats..
The MV-22 replaces the current Marine Corps assault helicopters in the medium lift category (CH-46E and CH-53D), contributing to the dominant maneuver of the Marine landing force, as well as supporting focused logistics in the days following commencement of an amphibious operation. The Air Force variant, the CV-22, replaces the MH-53J and MH-60G and augment the MC-130 fleet in the USSOCOM Special Operations mission. [plus speculation of even more variants.]
I've read that it is flying soon in part due to *restrictions* ie. original flight envelope was restricted in order to make the flight risks acceptable. Very Good V-22 Linky
V-22 Design
V-22 Missions/Requirements
MV-22 Marine Corps Variant
CV-22 Air Force Variant
HV-22 Navy Variant
UV-22 Army Variant
V-22 Flight Control
V-22 Propulsion System
V-22 Conversion
V-22 Blade Fold/Wing Stow
V-22 Fuel System
V-22 Cockpit
V-22 Payload
V-22 Survivability
V-22 Maintainability
V-22 Testing
V-22 Vortex Ring State (VRS)
V-22 Losses
V-22 History - HXM
V-22 History - JVX
V-22 History
V-22 Cost
V-22 Specifications
V-22 Performance
V-22 Production
V-22 Delivery Schedule
V-22 Pictures
V-22 References
#4
My understanding is not that it is particularly fragile, (but of course I am probably wrong about this), but that there is a problem with the flight envelope, and that when transitioning from forward flight to landing, if you descend too quickly, there is some airflow problems to the rotors which causes an uncontrollable descent. Their solution was to limit the rate of descent during transition. iirc. I am sure someone here knows more about this than me...
Posted by: Mark E. ||
04/14/2007 8:15 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Their solution was to limit the rate of descent during transition. iirc.
So what happens when a pilot has to descend quickly to get out of a bad situation? This is a disaster waiting to happen.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
04/14/2007 11:08 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The only advantage I see is you can always cut the engines and glide, you'll ruin the props landing that way, but in an emergency, screw the props.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/14/2007 12:21 Comments ||
Top||
#7
... but that there is a problem with the flight envelope, and that when transitioning from forward flight to landing, if you descend too quickly
Can't they avoid all these problems by reorienting only one rotor at a time?
#8
I had read some time ago that the main problem leading to the earlier crashes was faulty hydraulics, presumably connected with the tilt rotor systems. One hopes that has been checked off the punch list
#9
I've been to the factory and understand how it's made. It has good construction and is one of the most sophisticated aircraft we've ever designed and built. In exchange for a temperamental flight envelope, we have combined a helicopter's vertical take-off and landing capability with the long range of a fixed wing plane. We will lose some of these planes and their crews and passengers; however, with it the commander has hundreds of miles of additional reach beyond the coast. The deterrent effect of that prospect is huge. We will probably never know how many potential situations were avoided simply because there was a battalion of Marines with V-22's just off shore, but I guarantee that our enemies will fear them.
#10
The place where the Osprey is built is about two miles down the road from where I work; I'm glad to see it finally getting put into service.
As I recall, there were early problems with the transverse driveshaft that links the two engines, and allows either engine to drive both props in the event the other engine fails. The design problems with the driveshaft were fixed, as I understand it, and it's no longer a major concern.
Nice to see this bird take to the air; let's see what she can do.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/14/2007 19:10 Comments ||
Top||
#11
In exchange for a temperamental flight envelope
DUBAI - An alliance of Sunni groups headed by Al Qaeda in Iraq said in an Internet statement on Friday that it carried out a deadly suicide bomb attack inside the Iraqi parliament building. After studying the area... a hero from the Islamic state of Iraq wearing an explosive belt infiltrated the apostates of the parliament. Allah used his hand to destroy the group of infidels, the self-styled Islamic Nation of Iraq said in the Internet statement.
The right to legislate belongs to God alone, and whoever disputes that is an apostate. The members of parliament deserve only death, the Internet statement said. We delayed the announcement (claiming the bombing) to enable our men to withdraw, it added, also threatening to launch more violent attacks.
Iraq's parliament met in an extraordinary session of "defiance" Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, and declared it would not bow to terrorism. A bouquet of red roses and a white lily sat in the place of Mohammed Awad, the lawmaker killed in the parliament dining hall suicide bombing claimed by al-Qaida. Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani opened the session and asked lawmakers to recite verses from the Quran in honor of Awad, whom he called a "hero."
The unprecedented Friday meeting was called to send "a clear message to all the terrorists and all those who dare try to stop this (political) process, that we will sacrifice in order for it to continue," said al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Muslim. "We feel today that we are stronger than yesterday. The parliament, government and the people are all the samethey are all in the same ship which, if it sinks, will make everyone sink."
An al-Qaida-led amalgam of Sunni insurgents claimed one of its "knights" carried out Thursday's suicide bombing in Baghdad's Green Zone and warned the "monkeys in parliament" to brace for more attacks. The U.S. military revised the death toll sharply downward, saying one civilian was killed. Late into Thursday the military had said eight people were killed and 23 wounded.
While the attack was widely believed to have been an al-Qaida mission, investigators said Friday they were focusing on security guards inside and outside the parliament building. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation. Iraq's Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry, which runs the police and national paramilitary force, on Friday took over security for parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani opened the session and asked lawmakers to recite verses from the Quran in honor of Awad, whom he called a "hero."
Soothe grieving colleagues, inspire mass murder, promote abject gender apartheid, drive global jihad ... is there nothing the Quran can't do? Well ... besides bring peace on earth.
#2
I dunno. A lot of US politicians, especially Democrats recently, like to throw around religious references, WWJDs, and half-assed bible quotes.
It's notable that the Parliment did meet, and met without rancor. It's even possible that, for a little while, they might even agree to cooperate. And I suspect security might improve.
But why am I bothering to point all that out? You and the rest of your claque got your cut-and-paste mindsets. Like teaching a chicken to tap-dance.
#3
It's notable that the Parliment did meet, and met without rancor. It's even possible that, for a little while, they might even agree to cooperate. And I suspect security might improve.
Isn't it remarkable how amenable even the most fractious and corrupt politicians can become when their self-preservation is suddenly put on the line?
#4
Isn't it remarkable how amenable even the most fractious and corrupt politicians can become when their self-preservation is suddenly put on the line?
It's remarkable all right. Nothing like a twitch 'eh?
#5
Yup, Ship, nothing like a twitch to get a lot of co-operation.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/14/2007 19:25 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Isn't it remarkable how amenable even the most fractious and corrupt politicians can become when their self-preservation is suddenly put on the line?
I suspect that's the case with anyone. I notice even you behave yourself when a moderator mentions you being outta line...
#7
I suspect that's the case with anyone. I notice even you behave yourself when a moderator mentions you being outta line...
That's because this is a private enterprise and Fred, deserves some real respect for his efforts. I've done without this place for over a year at a time without breaking a sweat. I could do without it entirely if I had to. I happen to like what I read here and whenever I can, do my best to share in a relatively civilized manner what I consider to be worthwhile information.
The Iraqi politicians are so consumed in raising their own personal militias and maneuvering for positions of sectarian power that they're selling their entire nation down the river. Just because they straighten up and fly right after being given their richly deserved comeuppance means absolutely zero. They do so under coercion, not out of any actual respect for their nation.
These same power-grubbing bastards are directly responsible for the bombing that took one of their own in the first place. They demand special considerations and rail against their vehicles being searched upon entering the Green Zone. Average Iraqis be damned, they continue to die in droves unless the Coalition troops take protective measures like placing VBIED barriers around the souks.
Iraq's politicians continue to get not just Iraqi citizens killed, but also cause Coalition troop fatalities as well. This is ingratitude on a monstrous scale and the sooner more of these eliteist bastards start going titzup, the better.
Gunmen kidnapped on Friday the chief prosecutor in the Gaza Strip, Wahal Zakut. The motive for the kidnapping was unknown. It's Gaza. Who needs a motive?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Hundreds of Muslims blocked a main road in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand on Saturday to protest the killing of three youths in a confrontation with soldiers, officials said.
Troops had shot dead three Muslim boys ages 13 to 15, and wounded two others Friday night in clash in Pattani province, said police Col. Somjit Nasomyon. The circumstances of the shooting were unclear, with officials differing on whether the soldiers had been fired upon.
A unit of 12 soldiers had been dispatched to a village in Muang district on Friday to investigate arson attacks on four mobile phone transmission towers, Somjit said. When the soldiers reached the scene, gunshots were fired from where a group of youths was standing, and the soldiers fired back in self-defense, said army Col. Wanchai Paungkhumsa, the local military commander. "They could not just sit idly in that situation," Wanchai said.
Somjit gave a slightly different account of the incident, indicating that the soldiers opened fire because the youths rushed toward them as they inspected a burned telephone relay tower. "The soldiers admitted that they shot at them when the group of young men ran at them," he said. "It was dark at night, and the soldiers had to fire to defend themselves since they did not know who was approaching them."
A similar event a week earlier when government-backed village militia opened fire on a pickup truck in nearby Yala province, killing four Muslim youths also ignited protests.
On Saturday morning about 300 protesters, mostly young men, gathered on a main road near a major mosque in Muang and blocked the main road linking Pattani to neighboring Narathiwat province, forcing motorists to use alternate routes, Somjit said. The protesters dispersed by late afternoon after Pattani's governor agreed to investigate the incident and promised them justice.
Buddhist civilians have also been holding protests, calling for the government to increase security. They are still rallying in Yala around the body of a young Buddhist women who was killed and burned by suspected Muslim insurgents.
In separate violence on Saturday, suspected Islamic insurgents shot at a passenger train in Narathiwat province, injuring an engineer and a female passenger, said police Capt. Samahae Sanya. The injured were taken to a hospital and the train continued on its journey, he said.
Southern gangs burned down a school in Pattani province as most of the country celebrated the traditional Thai New Year on Friday, then set off an improvised explosive device when a ranger patrol passed by in Narathiwat.
Two Thai Army rangers were wounded Friday after a bomb suspected set by insurgents exploded, and a school was burned in a separate attack in the restive southern region, officials said. A patrol vehicle filled with Army rangers in Ruso district of Narathiwat province Friday afternoon when a bomb detonated by not less than three insurgents who were hiding on the roadside, exploded. The impact injured two rangers. Found in the area was a 150-metre long wire and a fire extinguisher cylinder.
About half-an-hour later, insurgents burned a one-storey school in Pattani's Mayo district. Firefighters took more than an hour to contain the fire. Four classrooms were damaged.
Meanwhile, some 200 local residents gathered outside a mosque in Pattani municipality denouncing the killing of 25-year-old Patcharapon Boonmat on Wednesday. The protestors submitted a letter to the government through the deputy governor, saying that the Pattani public wished to express condolences to the victim's family and denounced the killing as inhumane. Angry villagers in nearby Yala were also rallying at Yala provincial hall for the third day, demanding that both Council for National Security (CNS) chairman Sonthi Boonyaratkalin and Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont met them and received their demands.
An accused terrorist accomplice held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, denied any involvement with al Qaeda, as well as possessing knowledge that money he had wired from overseas to the United States was used to finance the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a transcript from his March 30 tribunal hearing. Ammar al Baluchi is the nephew of confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who is also being detained at Guantanamo. Baluchi denied under questioning during the hour-and-a-half tribunal that his uncle had introduced him to al Qaeda operatives prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. When he introduce a person, he would never say he is from al Qaeda, Baluchi responded through a translator. He would introduce him and mention what kind of business he want. And the business is normal, very normal trading business.
The tribunal was held to determine if Baluchi could be designated as an enemy combatant. The U.S. government believes Baluchi was an al Qaeda intermediary, who, during the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, had wired thousands of dollars from the Middle East to terrorists in the United States. Evidence supporting one of several government charges cites Baluchi as the recipient of 16 phone calls made between June 28 and 30, 2000, from Sept. 11 attack team leader Mohammed Atta, who perished along with his accomplices and the air crew and passengers aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first terrorist-hijacked plane that crashed into the World Trade Center.
Baluchi was arrested on April 29, 2003, in Karachi, Pakistan. He was carrying a compact disk that contained photo images of the World Trade Center when United Airlines Flight 175, the second plane involved during the New York attacks, crashed into the south tower, and a letter addressed to al Qaeda chieftain Osama bin Laden. Baluchi also carried a small vial containing a low dose of cyanide chemical when he was captured.
Baluchi testified that the chemical he carried was used in Pakistan as a bleach to remove coloring from clothes, while the large amount of money hed wired was just part of his role as a businessman. Government evidence also links Baluchi to a series of money-wire transfers totaling $150,000 from the United Arab Emirates to the United States, including locations in Florida where some of the Sept. 11 hijackers had undergone pilot training. That, for me, is a very small amount, Baluchi said of the thousands of U.S. dollars he sent stateside. He recalled the actions of a wealthy, fellow Middle Eastern friend who was going to America to study English for six months. He took money to buy a Ferrari car in America. So, you can imagine (a) Ferrari is 300,000 (dollars), Baluchi said during the hearing. In comparison, he said, his transfer of more than $100,000 in U.S. currency was not that big (of a) question.
Baluchi also testified through an interpreter that hed never known that his uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or any other people hed met or contacted, were al Qaeda operatives.
This article starring:
AMAR AL BALUCHI
al-Qaeda
KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMAD
al-Qaeda
MOHAMED ATTA
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Is this guy Ramzi Yousef's brother, or is he on another portion of the KSM family tree?
An alleged al Qaeda leader being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, denied involvement in bombings in both Indonesia and Singapore, according to a transcript of his hearing released yesterday. Riduan bin Isomuddin, known as "Hambali," either declined to answer or said he had no involvement with the operations brought forth during his April 4 combatant status review tribunal hearing at the detention facility.
The tribunal was an administrative hearing to determine only if the detainee could be designated as an enemy combatant. Hambali said that while he was a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant Islamic organization, he had no interaction with al Qaeda.
Evidence presented during the hearing showed that he had been the operations chief of Jemaah Islamiyah and served as its main contact for al Qaeda in Southeast Asia. He also helped recruit members for al Ghuraba, the foreign student organization that helped develop Jemaah Islamiyah organization in Pakistan. He also had served as the leader of the Malaysia Mujahedin group, according to U.S. government information presented in the hearing. That group's mission is to topple the Indonesian government. During the hearing, a Federal Bureau of Investigation source was cited as having contact with Hambali when he orchestrated and funded the December 2000 bombing of a church in Indonesia that killed 18 people.
An FBI source also stated that in January 2002 the detainee discussed carrying out attacks in bars, cafes and night clubs frequented by westerners in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia. The source said the detainee claimed to have 1 ton of explosives within Indonesia.
After Hambali allegedly discussed bombing such places and having large amounts of explosives, at least 187 people were killed and more than 300 foreign tourists were injured in October 2002 when an explosion destroyed a nightclub on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. In his hearing, Hambali denied having supervised the plan to bomb the U.S., Australian and British embassies in Singapore. However, an FBI source stated that the detainee served as the point man between al Qaeda operatives and the mastermind in this plan, which government officials called the "Singapore plot."
Other evidence presented during the hearing showed that a document seized during Hambali's arrest provided instructions for manufacturing vest bombs used by suicide bombers. However, Hambali said he had "no answer" when he was asking during the hearing what his involvement was in making explosives.
The hearing came to a close when the hearing president said an assessment would be made as to whether the detainee continued to pose a threat to the United States or coalition partners in the ongoing conflict against terrorist organizations. The detainee was told that he would have the opportunity to be heard and to present relevant information later to an administrative review board.
The government implemented the CSRTs in July 2004 in response to a June 28, 2004, Supreme Court ruling in the case of Rasul v. Bush. The court ruled that enemy combatants held by the U.S. government had the right to contest their status before a judge or other neutral decision maker. Between July 2004 and March 2005, DoD conducted 558 CSRTs at Guantanamo Bay. At the time, 38 detainees were determined to no longer meet the definition of enemy combatant, and 520 detainees were found to be enemy combatants.
This article starring:
HAMBALI
al Ghuraba
HAMBALI
Jemaah Islamiyah
HAMBALI
Malaysia Mujahedin group
RIDUAN BIN ISOMUDIN
al Ghuraba
RIDUAN BIN ISOMUDIN
Jemaah Islamiyah
RIDUAN BIN ISOMUDIN
Malaysia Mujahedin group
al Ghuraba
Jemaah Islamiyah
Malaysia Mujahedin group
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
SPACEWAR > ASIA A CENTRAL FRONT IN A LONG WAR ON TERROR. Whatever the USA is doing, however imperfectly ITS PAYING OFF/WORKING FOR AMERICA - D ***ng it, we can't have that, Dubya supposed to be "failing" in Iraq + WOT. CANADA > WOT IS A POSSIBLE FRAUD.
#4
Wring some proof of Bashir's executive terrorist position out of this maggot and then execute him swiftly thereafter. Hambali is living proof that evil exists.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(SomaliNet) Short battle involving heavy weaponry has renewed in the Somalia capital Mogadishu between the Ethiopian forces and the local insurgents late Friday as peace efforts continue to ease the tension in the city. 
RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- Two brothers strapped with explosives blew themselves up near an American cultural center in Casablanca Saturday, and police arrested another three suspects - including one wearing an explosives belt - hours later, an official said.
"I hadn't seen Ayoub for 10 months and Abdelfettah for nine months. I'm against terrorism," their 46-year-old mother said.
But her neighbours confirmed she was the mother of Mohamed, who was shot dead by police on Tuesday before he could blow himself up. They said she has been questioned by police several times.
In a poor area southern Algiers, 
At least five militants of Lashker-e-Taiba, including three of its senior commanders, were killed when a joint party of army and police raided a hideout where militants had gathered for a meeting in remote area of mountainous Kishtwar district, about 270 kilometers from here. The operation was launched by 11 Rashtriya Rifles and Special Operation Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police after specific information about presence of a group of militants at Tatapani area of Nowpachi, Marwah late last night.
DUBAI - An alliance of Sunni groups headed by Al Qaeda in Iraq said in an Internet statement on Friday that it carried out a deadly suicide bomb attack inside the Iraqi parliament building. After studying the area... a hero from the Islamic state of Iraq wearing an explosive belt infiltrated the apostates of the parliament. Allah used his hand to destroy the group of infidels, the self-styled Islamic Nation of Iraq said in the Internet statement.
An accused terrorist accomplice held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, denied any involvement with al Qaeda, as well as possessing knowledge that money he had wired from overseas to the United States was used to finance the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a transcript from his March 30 tribunal hearing. 
An alleged al Qaeda leader being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, denied involvement in bombings in both Indonesia and Singapore, according to a transcript of his hearing released yesterday. 
