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Today: 84 articles and 179 comments as of 13:36.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion    Local News    Politix   
Pak air force on alert for Indian strike
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/23/2008 2:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey! What's that in teh r
Posted by: .5MT || 12/23/2008 2:27 Comments || Top||


#4  Seeing the word "Decapitated" beneath the picture of Miss Mansfield gives rise to a bad memory.
Posted by: MarkZ || 12/23/2008 7:07 Comments || Top||

#5  [On this spot at 08:27, OlgaMINI had a vowel movement. Rantburg software has cleaned and disinfected the site of the accident. Have a nice day.]
Posted by: OlgaMINI || 12/23/2008 8:27 Comments || Top||

#6  [On this spot at 08:45, sarexcura had a vowel movement. Rantburg software has cleaned and disinfected the site of the accident. Have a nice day.]
Posted by: sarexcura || 12/23/2008 8:45 Comments || Top||

#7  [cackle!]
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 10:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Ok Gulf - I opened it...
Posted by: 3dc || 12/23/2008 10:25 Comments || Top||

#9  I suddenly feel the need to stand up and salute.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/23/2008 10:26 Comments || Top||

#10  I can't stand
Posted by: Beavis || 12/23/2008 11:05 Comments || Top||

#11  Ah yes, Miss 44-D my kinda gal.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/23/2008 12:17 Comments || Top||

#12  Rumors that Mansfield was decapitated are untrue, though she did suffer severe head trauma. This urban legend was spawned by the appearance in police photographs of a crashed automobile with its top virtually sheared off, and what resembles a blonde-haired head tangled in the car's smashed windshield. It is believed that this was either a wig that Mansfield was wearing or was her actual hair and scalp.[35] The death certificate stated that the immediate cause of Mansfield's death was a "crushed skull with avulsion of cranium and brain." Following her death, the NHTSA began requiring an underride guard, a strong bar made of steel tubing, to be installed on all tractor-trailers. This bar is also known as a Mansfield bar.


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/23/2008 13:01 Comments || Top||

#13  During the 50s it was customary for a man wearing a brimmed hat to place it on his lap during the screening of a movie. After a Mansfield movie some men were know to walk up to three blocks before the hat fell off their lap.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/23/2008 13:12 Comments || Top||

#14  I've modified the comments page again. Let me know when it doesn't work right.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 15:07 Comments || Top||

#15  On second thought, maybe I won't leave the changes for now...
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 15:08 Comments || Top||

#16  GolfBravo: appreciate the second opinion you provided on the issue of Miss Manfield's demise. Bottom line: My Mom told me she was decapitated. whether true or not, I go to the grave believing same.

Merry Christmas. I like how it is you comment here at Rantburg (and other places if I'm not mistaken) without words but with pictures. Much enjoyed.
Posted by: MarkZ || 12/23/2008 15:09 Comments || Top||

#17  I'm trying to fix the return function that takes users back to the referring page. That always hangs under other than IE.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 15:10 Comments || Top||

#18  I've put the comments back the way they were, since it looks like there's a bug in there someplace. The new version's on the DSTP page still. I'll leave it there until they're working right.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 22:59 Comments || Top||


Europe
Turkish police detain five over mosque fires
Turkish police detained five people allegedly connected to last week's series of arson attacks on mosques in Istanbul, where one mosque was destroyed and seven others damaged, state-run Anatolian news agency reported on Monday.

Media in overwhelmingly Muslim but secular Turkey reported an unprecedented spate of fires in mosques this month, starting on Dec. 8 with Kartal's Yunus Emre Mosque and ending recently with six mosques set ablaze on Saturday and Sunday.
" The easiest way to provoke the public is to attack its religious values. "
Halil Ibrahim Bahar, criminal sociologist

There has been persistent uncertainty over the cause of the fires. According to a report on the website of Milliyet newspaper, as many as 19 mosques have been targeted in the wave of apparent arson attacks.

Police carried out an operation on the Asian side of Turkey's largest city, in the district of Kadikoy and the surrounding area where several conservative neighborhoods exist. Anatolian said that police were questioning the five suspects, however, police officials declined to comment on the report.

"It is very difficult to comment on these attacks, but they are obviously organized. It can be no coincidence that eight mosques were attacked in such a short time," criminal sociologist Halil Ibrahim Bahar was quoted by Today's Zaman as saying.

The fires caused limited damage, save Medine Mosque which burned to the ground. No casualties were reported.

It was unclear what motives there might be for the fires in Turkey, where the Islamist-rooted government has long been at odds with the secularist establishment. But Bahar expressed concern over the nature of the attacks, saying that they aim to provoke people's religious sentiments.

"The easiest way to provoke the public is to attack its religious values," he explained.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Reichstag fire?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/23/2008 2:17 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder what "brand" of Islam was being preached in those mosques. I'm also curious about what brand will be preached after they're rebuilt/repaired. I'd suspect it wasn't Wahabbi Islam that was preached, but may very well be the brand after repairs.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/23/2008 11:55 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Mumbai attack: US backs Indian proof of Pak hand
NEW DELHI: The US has endorsed the evidence gathered by Indian agencies about the complicity of Pakistan's state actors in the terrorist attack on Mumbai, in what can result in stepped up international pressure on the Zardari regime to take action against the mentors of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Top US intelligence official John Michel McConell is learnt to have expressed complete satisfaction with the strength of India's case against Pakistan, based on FBI's examination of call records of satellite and cellular phones used by Mumbai attackers and their Pakistan-based handlers.

McConell confirmed that one of the numbers logged on the satellite phone the terrorists used while navigating their way to Mumbai belonged to known Lashkar terrorist Abu Al Qama. Indian intelligence officials are familiar with the satellite phone that Qama uses. The US, using its leverage with Sharjah where Thuraya is headquartered, corroborated this fact, and also the fact that Qama was passing instructions to the attackers from Pakistani soil.

India's case about the Pakistan hand has also been borne out by the data the Americans retrieved, using their superior technology, from the damaged mobile phones used by terrorists while they were carrying out the massacres in Taj and Trident hotels. The phones had got severely damaged in the fire that broke out during the gunfight.

"We are committed to get to the bottom of this case," US officials are learnt to have told their Indian counterparts during their interaction spread over 48 hours.

The Americans are planning to confront the Pakistanis, still in denial mode, with the evidence that their own investigation has thrown up. Sources said the UK has also passed on electronic intercepts, described by a senior source as "one clinching piece of evidence", to India.

McConell, along with FBI officials who have been camping in India in connection with the probe into 26/11, has held meetings with home minister P Chidambaram, national security advisor M K Narayanan and senior Indian intelligence officials.

Indian experience with the US intelligence agencies has so far not been satisfactory, with the latter winking at evidence against Pakistan because of its dependence on Islamabad for success in Afghanistan. Indian agencies, however, feel that the response could be different this time because of the fact that Mumbai casualties included US nationals.

The FBI is mandated to take the probe to the logical culmination, which will include charging the names of Lashkar leaders and their collaborators in ISI that come up in the probe.
Posted by: john frum || 12/23/2008 15:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Three Jaish terrorists nabbed in Jammu
JAMMU: Three terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) have been arrested in Jammu. One of them is a Pakistani army regular, police said on Tuesday.

"Three terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammad went from Karachi to Dhaka and to Kolkata and from there they came to Jammu. On specific information, we arrested them from hotel Samrat in Jammu on Sunday," state Director General of Police Kuldeep Khuda said at a press conference here.

"One of the three has been identified as Ghulam Farid alias Gulshan Kumar, a sepoy in 10 Azad Kashmir regiment of Pakistan Army. His service number is 4319184," Khuda said.
"We got no record of him. Yer thinkin' of somebody else."
The police officer said that Farid joined Pakistan Army in 2001 and was detailed for terrorist activities in 2005. He was arrested along with other terrorists, namely Mohammad Abdullah belonging to Harpur in North West Frontier Province and Mohammed Imran, who hails from Dera Nawab in Bawalpur. "These three had come to Jammu and they were to meet a guide, who was to come from the Kashmir Valley to Jammu and provide them weapons for specific targetting, which would be known after interrogation," Khuda said.

He added that preliminary interrogations have revealed they have received specialised training in suicide attacks and driving exlposive-laden vehicles.
Posted by: john frum || 12/23/2008 11:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There's no proof they're Paks, of course...
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 13:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Not an iota.
Ghulam Farid's parents should be expecting a knock on the door soon...
Posted by: john frum || 12/23/2008 13:40 Comments || Top||

#3  It's time for India to crank up the napalm assembly line and the cluster-bomb factory.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/23/2008 20:16 Comments || Top||


India wants Pakistan action, not "war hysteria" says PM Singh
India asked Pakistan on Tuesday to avoid "war hysteria" and simply act to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure operating in its country.
Manmohan Singh finds this 'simple'. Indeed, dismantling terrorist training camps would seem to be logical to most of us but for Pakistan things are never so simple. To do this is to accept that Islam will not dominate the Indian subcontinent, that India will not be broken up, that the Pak state will not be supreme amongst the remnants. Pakistan by design has a strong center, with diffuse borders ever ready to expand with the help of mujahidden. To shut down jihad is to truncate the Pak state, to make it normal. Pakistan was never meant to be a normal state.
"The issue is not war, the issue is terror and territory in Pakistan being used to promote, aid and abet this terror," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters. "Nobody wants war."

India has blamed Pakistani militants for last month's attacks on Mumbai that killed 179 people and says Pakistan is not fulfilling a promise to crack down on extremists and prevent them using its soil to attack other countries.

As tension between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours simmered, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani warned on Monday that the armed forces were fully capable of defending the country and the people would be united if war was imposed.

But Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Pakistan should focus on the issues. "The issue is not creating war hysteria or raising accusing finger against others".

"(The) question is there has been a sinister, heinous terrorist attack on Mumbai from the elements in Pakistan. India has requested Pakistan to take action against the perpetrators," he told reporters.

Mukherjee has previously said "all options" were open to India to pressure Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks, but analysts said a military strike remains very unlikely, as it would strengthen the hand of hawks and extremists in Pakistan.

Instead India is trying to build an international diplomatic consensus to put pressure on Pakistan, and has received support from the United States and the United Nations. Pakistan strenuously denies any state links to the Mumbai attack.
Posted by: john frum || 12/23/2008 11:34 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Pakistani journalist Ayaz Amir on
What, then, was partition all about?
So what was the compelling reason for the Muslims to insist on a separate homeland especially when there was no going around the uncomfortable fact that, no matter how generously the frontiers of the new state were drawn, an uncomfortably large number of Muslims would remain in India?

The purpose of Pakistan, transcending anything to do with safeguarding Islam or promoting democracy, was to create conditions for the Muslims of India, or those who found themselves in the new state, to recreate the days of their lost glory.

Posted by: john frum || 12/23/2008 14:53 Comments || Top||


Pakistan claims Ajmal doesn't exist in official records
Islamabad (PTI): Pakistan on Tuesday claimed that official records do not reveal the existence of a Pakistani national by name Ajmal Amir Iman, the lone terrorist captured during the Mumbai attacks, but promised to respond by Wednesday on his letter seeking legal assistance from it.

An examination of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Pakistan's national database, had provided no records on any national named Ajmal Amir Iman alias Ajmal Kasab, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters. "As far as Ajmal Kasab is concerned, NADRA authorities do not have any records of his," he said after a meeting with visiting Interpol chief Ronald K Noble here. "Pakistan's High Commission (in New Delhi) has received a letter said to be written by Kasab and we will get it examined by our experts. We will give a detailed response today or tomorrow," Malik said.

In the letter, a copy of which was sent to Malik yesterday by the Pakistan High Commission, Ajmal had detailed the circumstances of his arrest and sought legal assistance from the Pakistan government. Malik claimed that the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the banned terrorist group blamed for the Mumbai attacks, did not "exist now" and the government would decide on proscribing its front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) if investigations proved it was involved in terrorist activities.
The organization that doesn't "exist now" has a spokesman, a command structure, and offices in Pak Kashmir.
Pakistan had cracked down on JuD in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution which designated it as a terrorist group and its leaders had been detained and its offices closed, Malik said. "Pakistan is a sovereign state. Whatever action we take, we will take in the interest of the country (and) we will not get dictation from anywhere," he said.
This article starring:
AJMAL AMIR IMANLashkar-e-Taiba
AJMAL KASABLashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: john frum || 12/23/2008 07:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, if reports are accurate, Pakistan has 'disappeared/relocated' his family, and records of his existence in his home town / vill. Nothing to see here, move along. Heavy handed and stupid.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/23/2008 8:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Kinda sums up Pak domestic and foreign policy, dunnit?
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 8:46 Comments || Top||

#3  "Hmmmm, lessee here: we've gotta Ajmaal Amir Iman, 2 Ajmall Amir Imans, a Aajmal Amir Iman, but no Ajmal Amir Iman, k? sorry, gotta go"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/23/2008 9:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Does Pakistan exist or is it just the world's nightmare?
Posted by: 3dc || 12/23/2008 10:28 Comments || Top||

#5  "Never hoid o' da guy. NEXT!"
Posted by: mojo || 12/23/2008 12:23 Comments || Top||


Four injured in bomb attack on Peshawar school
At least four people were injured when the Taliban detonated a private school building after torching four buses in the limits of Mathra police station on Monday, police and witnesses told Daily Times.

Samiullah, a guard at Peshawar Model School's boys campus, who was present at the time of the attack, told Daily Times that around 12 armed men scaled the school walls and torched the four buses.

The Taliban later planted a bomb in the school's administration block and the subsequent explosion severely damaged the school building. Four school employees - Naveed, Sher Muhammad, Muhammadullah and Aurangzeb -- were injured.

The Taliban also torched two classrooms and a deep freezer and also detonated explosives at the gate of Frontier Model School (boys campus), located opposite to Peshawar Model School, but there were no casualties.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  The heroism of the turban and automatic weapons set never ceases to amaze.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 15:13 Comments || Top||


15 Taliban killed in Swat
The Pakistan Army on Monday claimed killing 15 Taliban in Shakar Dara area of Swat district. An army press release said two soldiers were killed and two injured in the operation.

It said the operation in Shakar Dara area of Matta tehsil was successful as the command, control and communication centres of the Taliban had been destroyed. The release said troops were advancing carefully to avoid collateral damage but the fleeing Taliban were using residents as human shield and firing at security forces from civilian houses.

At least four bodies were found from various areas of Swat, while unidentified armed men kidnapped five people in Khawazakhela area, Online reported. Three bodies were recovered in Kabal tehsil, while another was recovered from Faizabad area in Mingora. Meanwhile, officials told Daily Times that unidentified men slaughtered two men, including a security official in Orakzai Agency on Monday.

Political administration officials said they found two bodies, including that of a militia official Salim, in a sack in Sambag Mountains of the agency. The identity of the second body could not be ascertained so far, they said.

The Taliban also blew up a girls' school in Lower Orakzai Agency, but no casualty was reported. The Taliban fired rockets on a girls primary school in Firoz Khel area late on Sunday, destroying the building completely.

Five people, including two women, were injured in Hangu district when the Taliban opened fire at a car in Dalan area, police said. The injured were identified as Rahim Shah, Shakir, Norul Haq and two women, who were moved to a local private hospital for treatment.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Taliban positions targeted in Bajaur
Security forces targeted Taliban positions in Mamoond tehsil of Bajaur Agency using mortars and artillery guns, but no casualties were reported. Official sources said the troops pounded Taliban hideouts in various areas of the tehsil, adding the latest operation forced a majority of the residents to move to safer areas. Unidentified men fired three rockets on the headquarters of Bajaur Scouts in Khar late on Sunday. No casualty was reported, officials said. Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar claimed that no Taliban was killed or injured in the jet aircraft attack on their hideouts in Mamoond on Sunday. Talking to journalists over telephone, Omar said those killed and injured were civilians.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  All civilians: wimmin, kiddies, puppies, kittens, the usual...
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 15:16 Comments || Top||


Eight killed, seven injured in jirga clash in Tirah
At least eight people were killed and seven others injured when two groups clashed during a jirga in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Monday.

The incident occurred in Bhutan Sharif area of the valley during a jirga to resolve a monetary dispute between the Aslam Khan and Ajar Khan groups.

The two groups opened fire on each other after a verbal brawl, which killed eight men and injured seven others. Meanwhile, Khyber Political Agent Tariq Hayat said those opposing education for females aimed to push the people back to the Stone Age, adding Islam did not prohibit females from receiving education. Addressing a scholarship distribution ceremony for female teachers and students of Khyber, he said the tribesmen have to foil the designs of such anti-Islam elements.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Pakistan blames banned group for Marriott hotel attack
(Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Monday blamed a banned extremist group for September's Marriott hotel suicide attack, which killed 53 people. "Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group was behind the suicide truck bombing," Interior Adviser to Prime Minister Rehman Malik told parliament.

Two suicide bombers rammed an explosive-laden dumper into the gate of Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, killing 53 people and injuring 266 others on Sept. 20. Malik said that the explosive-laden dumper was brought from the city of Jhang in eastern Pakistan's Punjab province. The two persons who facilitated the attacks have been arrested from the city of Toba Tek Singh in Punjab, Malik said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi

#1  How could it be? After all, they were . . . BANNED!
Posted by: gorb || 12/23/2008 1:22 Comments || Top||


Twin drone strikes kill 5 Punjabi Taliban
Another version of yesterday's story. Carried forward for the hilarity factor...
Five Taliban from the Punjab were killed in a missile attack from an unmanned US spy plane in South Waziristan, local residents said on Monday. "A total of five Punjabi Taliban were killed in two different attacks," tribal elders and administration officials said on condition of anonymity. The local residents said the Taliban were patrolling the area in pickup trucks mounted with heavy guns and had been firing at drones wherever they spotted them. The vehicles were camouflaged with mud and grass.

The first Taliban pickup was struck while on patrol in Ghawakhawa, seven kilometres south of Wana. Three Taliban were killed.

The second missile struck a stationary vehicle in Azam Warsak. The two Taliban sitting in the truck were killed. A local resident said a gun was mounted on the pickup, which the Taliban were using to target drones.

AFP reported an official as saying, "Two vehicles fitted with guns were destroyed." The official said eight Taliban were killed.

The strikes caused huge fires in both villages, sending panicked residents running into the streets, the security official said, adding that one house was damaged.

Hundreds of Taliban later gathered in the two villages to offer funeral prayers for those killed, local residents told AFP.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  Gotta love it. Computerized flying machines controlled from the other side of the world running Wild Weasel missions against cave men.
Posted by: ed || 12/23/2008 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  How are things in Ghawakhawa?
Is that little goat still leaping there?
Posted by: .5MT || 12/23/2008 7:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Rather expensive in terms of R & D, training, & mission cost for victories like this. Can we maintain such a cost/benefit ratio for as long as it would take to win? It's all a matter of Will.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/23/2008 10:18 Comments || Top||

#4  It's all a matter of Will.

Right now, Will's highly peeved. He needs to start adding a second/third drone to attack the funeral processions of dead Taliban with napalm. Things would get rather quiet very quickly. Smelly, too, with all those corpses that don't get buried.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/23/2008 12:03 Comments || Top||

#5  My patience with Pakistan and its tribal areas is running a bit thin. I am feeling less and less humanitarian, less and less compassionate. Each day we see evidence that they are either complete f**ktards or just plain evil. The area needs to be cleansed of this filth. Pronto.
Posted by: remoteman || 12/23/2008 13:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Last time i saw a pick up 'camouflaged' with mud and grass it took 2 wreckers to pull it from its swamp of concealment. it was 'camouflaged' up to its axles, so it was....
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 12/23/2008 13:43 Comments || Top||

#7  This seems to be a recurring event. I am surprised that these taliban soldiers were out in the open. I'm even more surprised that they could fight off the taliban without killing innocent civilians.
Posted by: Herman Sholunter9941 || 12/23/2008 15:16 Comments || Top||


India gives Kasab's 'letter' to Pakistan
India on Monday handed over to Pakistan's acting high commissioner a letter written allegedly by Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks. An External Affairs Ministry spokemsan said Kasab had written he and the terrorists killed in the attack were Pakistanis and he sought a meeting with Pakistani diplomats and legal aid. He also allegedly asks Islamabad to claim the body of his fellow terrorist Ismail Khan and to give him a decent burial. AFP quoted an official as saying only a photocopy of the original letter had been given. The Foreign Office in Islamabad acknowledged the Pakistan High Commission had got the letter. "The contents of the letter are being examined," a statement by the FO said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Who?
Posted by: Pakistan || 12/23/2008 1:11 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq: Key witness 'fled' from inquiry into chemical attack
(AKI) - An Iraqi court has been told that a pilot allegedly responsible for poisoning Iraqi Kurds in the north of the country in 1988 has disappeared. The pilot, Tareq Ramadan, is accused of dropping toxic chemical bombs on the city of Halabja in an attack that occurred on 16 March 1988.

Ramadan had been detained in a hospital in the region but apparently fled from the area over a year ago. "The pilot is one of those accused of this crime and not a simple witness," said an unnamed Kurdish source who confirmed the news.

Ramadan was to have been tried in the controversial case involving Ali Hassan al-Majid, cousin of former dictator Saddam Hussein, better known as 'Chemical Ali'.

Al-Majid has already been sentenced to death twice for crimes against humanity and one of those sentences was in relation to the genocide of up to 5,000 Iraqi Kurds allegedly targeted in a vicious campaign under Saddam's regime. Al-Majid was sentenced to death for the second time on 2 December for brutally repressing a Shia revolt after the 1991 Gulf War. But he earned his notorious nickname for his role in using poison gas against Kurdish villages.

The three other defendants are former Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim and former Baath regime officials Farhan Saleh and Saber Al-Douri.

The source stressed that "the presence of this pilot at the court hearing was necessary and very important", particularly because the confessions that he made during the investigations.

He also said many former Iraqi leaders had denied their involvement in the execution of this crime. "We do not know where these things will go now that it has been confirmed that the accused has fled," he said.

Local media quoted a source for the Kurdish Minister for the Victims of al-Anfal - the genocidal campaign against the Kurds - saying he had expressed his "shock" at the pilot's disappearance. "His appearance would have really helped the cause very much," said the source.

The first session of the court hearing began on Sunday with testimony from one of the survivors who lost six children from the chemical attack. The case continued on Tuesday with evidence from another eight survivors.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party

#1  Out of the fat and into the fire, as it were.
Posted by: .5MT || 12/23/2008 7:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Wonder where they'll find his body - without his head.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/23/2008 12:06 Comments || Top||


Criminal suspects arrested near Diwaniya
(AKI) - Iraqi police on Monday arrested 89 criminal suspects near Diwaniya, south of Baghdad. The men are suspected of involvement in a number of crimes ranging from murder to kidnapping.

The arrests, reported by the news agency Voices of Iraq, followed a large-scale security operation that lasted for six months in the al-Shanafiya district west of Diwaniya.

Diwaniya, a Shia province, lies 180 kilometres south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. It has been the scene of many intense clashes between militias and security forces since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

In July this year, the US military formally handed security control of surrounding Qadisiya province to the Iraqi armed forces.

After the fall of former dictator Saddam Hussein, supporters of radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, were accused of terrorising residents in Diwaniya, and killing many people who were said to have offended their interpretation of Islamic morality.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency


Gang in Basra confesses to killing more than 30 civilians
Aswat al-Iraq: A gang, arrested in separate areas of Basra last week, confessed to killing more than 30 civilians, including several women, a security source said on Monday. "Security forces arrested around 11 wanted men in al-Qibla and al-Hussein neighborhoods who form an armed gang to kill civilians," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The gang confessed to killing more than 30 civilians, including women, barbers and beverages sellers," he added. "Investigations are still underway with the gang's elements." He noted.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Mahdi Army


Police detain Iranian infiltrator in Diala
Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces on Monday arrested an infiltrator carrying Iranian nationality on the border region near Iran, the chief of the Diala police said. "Policemen managed to arrest an Iranian infiltrator in the border region in Khaniqeen district, northeast of Baaquba," General Abdul Hussein al-Shimri told Aswat al-Iraq. "He was carrying a bag including a map of Iraq, a tent and a sharp tool," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: IRGC


UN endorses end of intl force mandate in Iraq
The U.N. Security Council on Monday formally recognized the expiration of the U.S.-led multinational force's mandate in Iraq on Dec. 31 as requested by the Baghdad government
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So if there was a 'mandate', where do they come up with 'illegal war'? /rhetorical question highlighting the self imposed ignorance of the left.
Posted by: P2k on holiday || 12/23/2008 7:37 Comments || Top||

#2  I've had the pleasure a few times of exploring this topic with non-hysterical "anti-war" types. They're shocked to learn that the Coalition has been acting under UNSC authorization. In one case the situation was right for me to exploit that break in the lines to ask how little most people really know about the war, if they don't know this basic fact, and to make the obvious point about media distortion. Blank looks are the normal response to this or any other of a 1,000 things these folks don't know or understand. A wonder we got this far as a country, or can even generate electricity ....
Posted by: Verlaine || 12/23/2008 11:06 Comments || Top||

#3  non-hysterical "anti-war" types

Where do you find them?
Posted by: Abu Uluque on Linux || 12/23/2008 11:43 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas Spokesmen Issues Mixed Signals
Three Qassam rockets slammed into the western Negev on Tuesday, ending Monday's brief respite

Earlier Tuesday, Israel Radio quoted an Islamic Jihad official as saying the Palestinian militant group had only agreed to the respite to allow the entry of humanitarian goods into Gaza, and would shortly renew rocket fire against Israel.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, meanwhile, has said that his Palestinian militant group is willing to renew the recently ended truce in Gaza with Israel.

Zahar made the comments in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram that was published on Tuesday. He told the paper that Hamas would agree to renew the cease-fire under its previous conditions.
Posted by: mhw || 12/23/2008 07:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Hamas operative killed in Gaza 'work accident'
Hamas on Tuesday announced that one of its gunmen had been killed in a "work accident" near the village of Khan Yunis in the central Gaza Strip.

Jasser Kadikh "was killed while carrying out a Jihad mission," Hamas's military wing said in a statement. Hamas routinely puts out such euphemistic statements when operatives are killed while handling explosives.

This article starring:
JASER KADIKHHamas
Posted by: ryuge || 12/23/2008 05:10 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Big time Hamas orc arrested by Palestinian forces
(AKI) - Palestinian Authority forces on Monday arrested a prominent leader from the Islamist Hamas movement who was thought to have been killed in 2002. Rajab Awni Tawfiq Al-Sharif was arrested in the Palestinian city of Nablus, considered a Hamas stronghold in the West Bank. PA forces said they had been hunting al-Sharif since 2004, said Palestinian news agency Maan. In 2002, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades claimed Al-Sharif was killed by the Israeli Army during an incursion in Nablus' Old City. However, his body was never found.

Meanwhile in Gaza, Palestinian factions have decided to observe a 24-hour ceasefire and refrain from launching Qassam rockets against Israel at Egypt's request. However, a senior Hamas official said the movement might consider a longer truce if Israel were to reciprocate and refrain from military attacks in Gaza and the lifting of the economic blockade. There was heightened tension in the region after Hamas declared an end to the ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip last Thursday. The intense exchanges of fire between Israeli Forces and Gaza militants began last Monday with the assassination of one of the leaders of the al-Quds Brigades, allegedly by Israeli undercover forces in the West Bank.
This article starring:
RAJAB AWNI TAWFIQ AL SHARIFHamas
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  See also STRATEGYPAGE > GAZA MOVES CLOSER TO DOOMSDAY.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/23/2008 1:36 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Thai soldier gunned down, eight others wounded by bomb
One solder was shot dead in the southernmost province of Pattani as he was travelling to his post, while at least seven persons were wounded and one man died in a bomb blast in the nearby province of Narathiwat.

The first victim, indentified as Second Lieutenant Nanoon Wae-ali, 51, was shot at around 7.30 am Tuesday while driving his motorcycle to work at the hospital in the Ingkhayuth Borihan military base in Pattani. He sustained body wounds from a nine millimetre weapon on the Donyang -Nong Jik road in Nong Jik district, in front of the Bothong municipality office. The slain officer was pronounced dead en route to the hospital where he was a member of the staff.

At 8.50 am, a bomb exploded near the Bukit Tambon Administrative Office in Joh Ai Rong district of Narathiwat. Seven soldiers and one local administrative official wounded. Police said a five kilogramme bomb was planted at the base of the roadside tree and was triggered by s mobile phone signal.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/23/2008 05:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Sri Lanka
66 more killed in Lanka fighting
At least 56 Tamil Tiger rebels and 10 government soldiers were killed in fresh fighting in northern Sri Lanka yesterday, the army said.

About 40 soldiers and 90 rebels were wounded in the battles outside Kilinochchi, the besieged political capital of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the military statement said.

The latest clashes came a day after the Tigers said they killed 60 soldiers and wounded 150 in a counter attack on the outskirts of Kilinochchi over the weekend.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they had re-taken positions from government forces who have been closing in on the northern town of Kilinochchi, the Tigers' political capital.

The pro-rebel Tamilnet website quoted Tiger officials saying that they had killed 60 soldiers and wounded another 150 in Saturday's fighting. The rebels also claimed they had captured the bodies of 12 soldiers.

The Tigers did not give details of their own casualties, but the defence ministry said the guerrillas suffered "heavy damages" when troops hit back.

The defence ministry rejected rebel claims of high military losses and placed security force casualties at 13 soldiers killed and 40 wounded.

Both sides are known to make exaggerated claims about the casualties they have inflicted on each other, and independent verification is virtually impossible as journalists and aid workers are barred from the conflict area.

Sri Lanka's military also carried out air attacks against suspected Tamil Tiger targets earlier on Monday to support ground troops, the statement said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/23/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
journalists and aid workers are barred from the conflict area


I have a suspicion that this is a major factor in the Gov forces having as much success as they are.
Posted by: Abu do you love || 12/23/2008 10:52 Comments || Top||



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Tue 2008-12-23
  Pak air force on alert for Indian strike
Mon 2008-12-22
  Israel threatens major offensive against Gaza
Sun 2008-12-21
  Truce ends with airstrike on Gaza
Sat 2008-12-20
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Fri 2008-12-19
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Thu 2008-12-18
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Wed 2008-12-17
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Tue 2008-12-16
  Bomb Found at Paris Department Store
Mon 2008-12-15
  Somali president fires PM, who refuses to go
Sun 2008-12-14
  Frontier Corps refuses security to NATO terminals
Sat 2008-12-13
  Indian Navy repulses attack on ship off Somalia, captures 23 pirates
Fri 2008-12-12
  Captured terrorist Kasab my son, admits Pop
Thu 2008-12-11
  14 alleged Islamic extremists detained in Belgium
Wed 2008-12-10
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Tue 2008-12-09
  Masood Azhar confined to his headquarters

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