Just for grins - from Best of the Web today The Ace of Clubs
When we were in college, we belonged to the campus Solipsist Club. We were the only member!
We made up this joke years ago, and we'll admit it was rather esoteric, but it's pretty funny if you know what solipsism is. We were reminded of this joke when we discovered that Yahoo! has a "group" called "The Adel al-Jubeir Fan Club":
This is a fan club to honor the Foreign policy Advisor to the Crown Prince Abdullah, Adel al-Jubeir. Anybody who has a great admiration for Mr. al-Jubeir is welcomed to join in to talk about this great man and the great job that he is doing for Saudi Arabia. This group could also serve as an Activist group for Adel al-Jubeir, as the American media tries to put him down.
The club was started by someone with the screen name libertysoldier2000, and as we write, it has exactly one member. Someone must've told LS2K he needed a hobby, and he misheard it as "Wahhabi."
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/19/2003 7:52:16 PM ||
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VOA
Protests against French arrests of Iranian opposition members continued for a third day Thursday, with three more demonstrators setting themselves on fire in Italy and Switzerland. Demonstrations also continued in the French Capital. Two Iranian men set themselves on fire during a protest outside the French embassy in Rome, and another did the same in the Swiss capital of Berne. Protesters also demonstrated at the Eiffel Tower in Paris against a French crackdown on an Iranian opposition group known as People's Mujahedeen [Mujahedeen e-Khalq].
As long as it's themselves they're burning to the ground, I don't feel a thing...
The latest acts of self-immolation come despite an appeal by Maryam Rajavi, a top Mujahedeen figure, for her supporters to stop setting themselves ablaze. At least five people set themselves on fire earlier this week, and one remains in life-threatening condition. Mrs. Rajavi is wife of Massoud Rajavi, the military commander of the armed wing of the Mujahedeen, the Mujahedeen Khalq. Mrs. Rajavi is among some 22 people still being detained in Paris, after a Tuesday morning police sweep of the group's suburban Paris sites. The People's Mujahedeen calls itself a political opposition group, aimed at overthrowing the clerical regime in Iran. But French and international authorities claim it has terrorist ties, through its relation with the Mujahedeen Khalq movement. Before the Iraq war, the Mujahedeen Khalq was based near Baghdad. But experts fear it may have shifted its operations to France, although the whereabouts of its leader, Massoud Rajavi, are not known.
Last seen headed toward the nearest horizon at top speed, hollering "Curly-toed shoes, don't fail me now!"...
Late Wednesday, the head of France's counter-espionage service, Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, defended the arrests by claiming the Mujahedeen was plotting attacks against Iranian interests in Europe.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/19/2003 9:52:26 PM ||
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Other topics on the agenda at three-day meeting include illegal immigration, the Middle East and ties with Washington
PORTO CARRAS (Greece) - European leaders arrived at a heavily guarded Greek coastal resort yesterday to debate illegal immigration, the Middle East, their tattered ties with Washington and a contentious draft of a European Union Constitution.
An unprecedented land, air and sea operation by Greek security forces has turned the Chalkidiki peninsula into an impenetrable fortress for the three-day meeting.
The summit is the last major event of Greece's six-month presidency but will be the first serious test of the country's security apparatus ahead of the 2004 Olympics.
It is also set to determine the structure of an enlarged European Union (EU).
Preparations for the EU's biggest expansion to take in 10 members from central and eastern Europe are looming large, as are attempts to patch up rocky ties with the United States over the war in Iraq.
Post-Iraq, divisions are resurfacing - particularly between 'old' and 'new' Europe over the new International Criminal Court in The Hague and US efforts to secure immunity for its citizens from any war-crimes prosecution.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been forced on the back foot over claims that he exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to justify war, while his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi - set to assume the EU presidency in two weeks - has also taken aim at French President Jacques Chirac over their different approaches to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On the eve of the summit, Finland's Prime Minister Anneli Jaeaetteenmaeki resigned amid allegations that she lied to Parliament about leaked secret government documents in the run-up to the Iraq war.
There is also dispute over the EU agriculture budget, with heavyweight member France on Wednesday rejecting a new compromise offer designed to reform lavish subsidies paid to farmers.
The European Commission is trying to reform the costly Common Agricultural Policy by severing the link between farmers' production levels and subsidies that eat up nearly half the EU's annual budget of 90 billion euros (S$186 billion).
Immigration is another thorny subject, as the EU has been trying for four years to flesh out a joint asylum and immigration policy but has so far failed to inject enough funds to make any common initiatives credible.
At Porto Carras, the Greek presidency wants to discuss keeping out illegal immigrants while also taking into account Europe's need for cheap labour and more people to boost its ageing population.
Tomorrow, the summit will focus on the Balkans, with Athens keen to highlight the EU prospects of its neighbours from the former Yugoslavia despite concerns over graft and lack of reforms.
But at the heart of the summit is the struggle to craft the final text of the Constitution which sets up the legal framework for the upcoming 25-member political and economic union.
Greek Prime Minister and summit host Costas Simitis said he hoped the talks would 'not restart...the work which has already been done' by the convention. -- AFP, AP So many things on their to-do list....
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/19/2003 7:41:17 PM ||
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Spanish police have arrested a Moroccan man suspected of involved in bombings in the city of Casablanca last month that killed 43 people, including 12 suicide bombers, police said on Thursday. The arrest of the 32 year old in the northern city of Vitoria, follows last week's detention in the southern town of Algeciras of another man linked to the May 16 bombings, Spain's Civil Guard said in a statement. That one was a Moroccan-born French citizen
Morocco has so far charged around 100 people on suspicion of participating in the attacks, which killed eight foreigners including four Spaniards at a Spanish restaurant in the north African city. A five-star hotel and a Jewish community were also targeted.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/19/2003 3:07:15 PM ||
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An armed Iraqi Shi'ite group which has strained relations with Washington distanced itself on Wednesday from recent attacks against US forces in Iraq, saying they would only escalate the war-torn country's problems. Abdelaziz Hakim, deputy head of the Iran-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), also said the group did not share Tehran's enmity toward the United States, which has accused Iran of meddling in Iraq.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't us."
US forces trying to police Iraq have come under a series of deadly attacks. The military has blamed them on supporters of ousted president Saddam Hussein and is trying to hunt them down. "We do not approve of such acts. There are no fatwas (religious edicts) from Iraqi scholars for these kinds of acts because they cause more problems," Hakim told the pan-Arab al-Hayat daily. "We must seek to end the occupation peacefully." SCIRI enjoys widespread respect among the Shi'ite majority in Iraq which was long oppressed by Saddam and is now keen to get its share of power. Earlier this month, US forces raided a Baghdad office of the group, which has said it would not join an interim political council envisaged by Iraq's US-British occupying powers unless it was elected. It has also not responded to a disarmament call.
That's a good way to get yourself shot up, especially if the Sunnis get us all fired up...
Its fighters and military leaders, who were mostly based in Iran, have been returning to Iraq since Saddam was toppled. Iraqi Shi'ite leaders have said they want to shape their own future, not set up an Iranian-style Islamic republic. Shi'ites make up two-thirds of Iraq's 26 million people, who include Sunni Muslims, Kurds and Christians. "Iran does not interfere in our affairs," Hakim said. "Our decisions are independent and we differ with (Iran) sometimes and the clearest of these differences is ties with Americans."
Somebody's been doing some diplomacy.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/19/2003 8:31:26 PM ||
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Saddam Hussein's top aide managed to evade U.S. forces for a time by sleeping on a mat in the home of an Iraqi family who refused to turn him in because of the tradition in Arab and Muslim countries of protecting guests. But Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti surrendered quietly Tuesday morning after informants' tips led U.S. forces to the home of Kafi Awad and her husband. Al-Tikriti was Saddam's personal secretary and No. 4 on America's list of 55 most-wanted former regime figures. "We couldn't tell him to leave our house," said Awad, whose husband, two sons and two brothers also were arrested in the raid. "We are Arabs. We always respect visitors to our house." "Especially those that can have us killed"
Al-Tikriti was on the roof of the modest house around 12:45 a.m. Tuesday, wearing a traditional Arab robe and sporting a long beard, when U.S. Army helicopters approached, Awad said. There were explosions. Soldiers stormed the house, shooting a hole through a kitchen door, firing tear gas and detaining all the family members, including four children age 6 to 17, Awad said. "We were terrified. They didn't know who they were looking for," she said. "They kept asking, 'Is Saddam here? Is Odai here? Is Qusai here?'"
"Dictators? What dictators?... [BOOM!] ...Oh, you mean them dictators! No, they ain't here..."
Awad said her husband, a former airplane technician, had been running a grocery shop in Tikrit - Saddam's hometown - when an old army friend asked him to put up a guest for a few nights. The man arrived Sunday and slept on a mat in the living room.
Why am I thinking "ALF"? I hope they kept a close eye on the cat...
On Monday morning, Awad said, her husband had figured out the identity of their quiet house guest. "My husband was scared," she said. "But we couldn't just tell him to leave our house." "Are you nuts?"
That night, Awad said she served al-Tikriti broiled chicken, but he would only eat yogurt.
Toldja so. He was already full...
"He was a little arrogant," said Mohammad Ahmad Rija, Awad's 13-year-old son. Awad still awaits word of her husband, brothers and two adult sons, but said she was confident they would be released. "We're just thankful to God everyone's safe and sound," she said. U.S. officials hope al-Tikriti can lead them to Saddam and his two sons, and give them leads to Baghdad's banned weapons programs.
That's why they didn't wake up to a livingroom full of high explosives...
In a raid just south of Tikrit early Wednesday, a detachment from the 4th Infantry Division found over $8.3 million in U.S. currency and over 500 pieces of jewelry buried near a farmhouse.
Aside from money and guns, is there anything else in Iraq? Next week they're gonna find a huge cache of lawyers...
U.S. forces also arrested four men and seized night-vision goggles and weapons. Capt. Brad Boyd of the 4th Infantry said the Army got a tip that "possible bad guys" were there. As about seven dozen soldiers approached, two men tried to reach for weapons while another pair tried to escape in a pickup truck.
Some 11B got to say "Go ahead, punk! Make my day!" Someday he'll tell his grandkids the story and they won't believe him, the little brats.
All four were arrested. Boyd said the soldiers were about to leave when one stepped on a soft patch of soil that felt like it had just been dug up. Bet he had to change his undies, thinking he stepped on a mine
Or the slit trench...
Beneath less than a foot of dirt, soldiers found a box containing a few thousand dollars. Energized by the find, the soldiers brought out mine detectors and shovels and began finding treasure buried all over the lot. They eventually found two boxes, each counting $4 million in bundled hundred-dollar bills, along with hundreds of pieces of jewelry, a sniper rifle and two pounds of plastic explosive. The unit fund just got beer money.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/19/2003 4:01:42 PM ||
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Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader arrested earlier this month, is being held in the "notorious" Insein jail outside Rangoon, according to the Foreign Office. There's another kind in Burma?
Miss Suu Kyi was arrested nearly three weeks ago after clashes between a pro-junta mob and supporters from her National League for Democracy left at least four dead. The Burmese military government said she was being held in "protective custody" and last week Razali Ismail, the United Nations envoy, visited her in a defence ministry guesthouse. But Mike O'Brien, the Foreign Office minister, has said that Miss Suu Kyi, who is 58 today, has been moved to the Insein jail which has been criticised by human rights groups for its regime of beatings and filthy conditions. "Show and Tell is over, throw her in the jug!"
Mr O'Brien said Miss Suu Kyi had not been given a change of clothes since her arrest and that he was "particularly disturbed" that she is being held under the 1975 State Protection Act. The law allows the military to detain prisoners for 180 days at a time for a total of five years without charge or appeal. It also stops prisoners' access to lawyers and relatives. That's, err, handy. Guess the hardliners won.
Mr O'Brien said: "This completely discredits the regime's claim that she is being held in 'protective custody'. Not that we believed them.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/19/2003 3:15:48 PM ||
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THE Harare City Council has adopted a $59.5 billion supplementary budget that officials yesterday said had forced the municipality to hike tariffs for services by between 100 and 600 percent with effect from 1 July. Falls Nhari, the chairman of the councilâs finance committee, said the Harare municipality had no choice but to pass on the cost of the supplementary budget to ratepayers because central government had not responded to a request to subsidise the budget. The Harare City Council submitted a request to the Local Government Ministry requesting central government to subsidise its supplementary budget because it was responsible for the economic conditions that had put the municipality in the position of having to come up with the supplementary budget.
The response was "What economic conditions?"
At the time it submitted its request, the city council pointed out that its original budget was drafted at a time the government had indicated that it had no plans to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar, which it however subsequently did.
Somewhat... Just a little...
The local currency was devalued from $55 against the American greenback to $824 in February, pushing up the Harare City Councilâs operating costs and forcing it to resort to a supplementary budget that it could not fund without significantly hiking rates. Nhari said: âThe governmentâs reluctance to give us borrowing powers has worsened our plight and our delivery of service has deteriorated.â Council officials announced that rates for low and high-density residential areas would increase from $530 to $1 430 a month with effect from 1 July.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/19/2003 9:11:19 PM ||
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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is a "terrorist boss" who could still be sent into exile, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said in an interview to appear Wednesday. "For us Arafat no longer exists as Palestinian leader. We should have exiled him a long time ago. Besides, it is perhaps not too late," Mofaz told the French daily Le Figaro. Mofaz's comments come at a critical time in the Middle East peace process, with talks between Israelis and Palestinians on a ceasefire stalling after one of the bloodiest periods of violence in the 32-month-old Palestinian uprising. Mofaz also spoke out against sending a international peacekeeping force to end the bloodshed in the Middle East, as proposed by French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in recent days. "Bringing in a military force from the outside is excluded. Whether this force is American or European," Mofaz said.
The Paleos have enough targets. They've whined for the road map for the past year, now let them try to adhere to it.
Mofaz called on the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas to move strongly against the radical Palestinian group Hamas, which is still refusing to renounce the use of suicide bombers in the conflict. Abbas has "the means to act since he has security services which comprise 50,000 armed men", Mofaz said. "We are not demanding 100 per cent results (against Hamas) as even the Israeli army is not succeeding. What we want is 100 per cent of effort," he said. "Abu Mazen must not only look to neutralise the terrorist organisations. It is also necessary to confiscate the arms and destroy the workshops producing the Palestinian bombs," he added.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/19/2003 8:38:10 PM ||
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MITZPEH YITZHAR, West Bank, June 19 â In repeated scuffles that often resembled a huge rugby scrum, hundreds of Israeli security force members wrestled today with Jewish settlers trying to prevent the dismantling of the first populated settlement targeted under a Mideast peace plan. Notice the difference? IDF troops are actually doing something for peace, Abbas and the PA talk, but do nothing
The day's turmoil also included a Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up at daybreak and killed an Israeli shop owner in a farming community, 25 miles to the north of the confrontation at the Jewish settlement.
With peace efforts sputtering, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was due in the region on Friday for separate talks with the Israelis and Palestinians. The two sides have been attempting to work out a cease-fire arrangement, but have yet to strike a deal. Great, every time Colin or his State Arab-licking minions are in the region, the boomers get frantic. Count the dead....
At the settlement of Mitzpeh Yitzhar, the young, bearded settlers set up large rock barricades, lit hillside brush fires and threw themselves in front of army vehicles to prevent soldiers and police from taking down the tents and a cinder-block hut.
For the past year, up to 10 settlers have been living at the hilltop site, just south of Nablus, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank.
Many settlers believe God promised the land to the Jews and reject any talk of territorial concessions to the Palestinians, who want the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a future state.
"In the Bible, it says this land is for us," said Moshe Cohen, 27, a university student who arrived from Tel Aviv to take part in the protest. "This land belongs to Israel just as much as Tel Aviv."
About 30 security force members and settlers suffered mostly minor injuries, and police made 15 arrests, Israel radio reported.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel has supported building settlements for decades, but the Mideast peace plan, known as the road map, requires him to take down dozens of small settlements that have cropped up since he came to power in March 2001.
"I'm telling the young men to hold strong to the land of Israel and not let anybody take it away from them," said Rabbi Eliyakim Levanon, who came from a nearby settlement.
"The government of Israeli gave the soldiers an order which is immoral," said the white-bearded rabbi, dressed in a black suit and a white dress shirt on a sun-scorched day. "We will try to keep the soldiers from fulfilling the order."
Young men kept watch overnight Wednesday and were ready this morning when the Israeli army and the police to came up a winding road to the rocky, windswept outpost.
The settlers tossed buckets of purple and orange paint on the windshields of army vehicles. After blocking earth movers with their bodies and forcing them to stop, the settlers sat inside the jaws and remained for hours.
The brush fires covered the hillside and quickly spread to nearby olive groves.
Many soldiers and police did not carry weapons, and they sought to avoid using force. But every time they moved toward the outpost, clusters of settlers jumped in their path, and pushing, shoving, shouting and wrestling quickly ensued.
Dozens were often involved in the brawls, but hundreds took part in a melee as soldiers pulled down the main tent amid a cloud of dust.
The tense atmosphere would calm briefly between battles. Soldiers would share snacks with the settlers. In one instance, a soldier gave his water bottle to a settler who was dripping with sweat as he tossed wood on a fire that was blocking the road to the settlement.
One protester, Yossi, encountered his brother, Moshe, a soldier, Israel radio reported, without giving their last name.
"We greeted each other and embraced, and continued with our business," Yossi said. "We know many soldiers in the area, and they know us. We cry, and they cry with us, and we are all equally pained."
By sundown, soldiers had removed the tents and demolished the cinderblock hut and an outhouse with sledgehammers. Only a guard post was left standing, but the settlers remained.
"This government is crazy," said Shilo, a student at a Jewish seminary who declined to give his last name. "We can come back tomorrow and rebuild this."
Mr. Sharon's government said it took down 10 uninhabited settlements last week. It also listed five populated ones that were to be dismantled, and Mitzpeh Yitzhar was the first.
Peace Now, an Israeli group that monitors settlements, says that more than 60 have gone up in the West Bank since Mr. Sharon came to power. The government has not said how many will be dismantled, but it has suggested it will be far fewer than 60.
The Palestinians say the road map is clear on the settlements: all must come down.
Mitzpeh Yitzhar is typical of many outposts. It has just a few residents and is less than a mile from the formal settlement of Yitzhar, home to some of the most ideologically hard-line Israeli settlers.
More than 200,000 Israelis live in nearly 150 formal settlements that have been built in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Adi Mintz, general manager of the Settlers Council, an umbrella group that represents all the settlements, said the protesters would make every evacuation difficult.
"Wherever Mr. Sharon tries to move Jews from their homes, we will be there to protest," he said. "Every place that Mr. Sharon destroys, we will rebuild."
The rabid settlers will have to realize they either live "safely" behind the fence, or are abandoned as willful security risks costing Israel money and lives. Sharon is right to tear down indefensible settlements and defend Israel proper to the death.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/19/2003 6:35:32 PM ||
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EFLA suspected al-Qaida operative has pleaded guilty to two terrorism-related charges after he was identified by a top leader of Osama bin Ladenâs terror network. Iyman Faris, a U.S. citizen from Columbus, Ohio, also known as Mohammed Rauf, was personally identified by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Mohammed, who was captured March 1 in Pakistan, told U.S. authorities that Faris, 34, had been assigned to look into ways to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge and derail trains, among other potential attacks. So Khalid has been singing.
A U.S. official told NBC News that the plea was a âhighly significantâ development in the war on terrorism and that Faris had been cooperating with interrogators since his arrest. He pleaded guilty May 1, but Judge Leonie Brinkema unsealed the case record in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., after his plea was first reported Thursday morning by NBC News. Faris pleaded guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization and conspiracy to provide such support, Attorney General John Ashcroft said at a news briefing Thursday afternoon. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 1. Ashcroft would not discuss where or when Faris, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan who drove trucks for a living, was arrested.
From Pakistan, huh? Will wonders never cease?
Faris provided cash, âthousands of sleeping bags,â airplane tickets and cellular telephones to al-Qaida operatives, Ashcroft said. From late 2000 to March of this year, he spent much of his time âscouting sites for acts of terrorism in the United States,â Ashcroft said. âFaris led a secret double life,â Ashcroft said, seeking flight training, traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan and meeting with bin Laden in late 2000. He met with two âsenior al-Qaida figuresâ â one of whom officials told NBC News was Mohammed â in 2000, 2001 and early 2002 in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ashcroft said. Ashcroft said Faris was involved in a new al-Qaida plot to launch simultaneous strikes in New York and Washington, a scenario similar to the organizationâs attacks in those two cities on Sept. 11, 2001. Ashcroft said the New York target was âa bridge in New York City,â which other officials said was the Brooklyn Bridge. He would not discuss the target in the Washington attack, citing concern âfor the national interest.â The case against Faris was kept tightly under wraps, but details emerged in an article in the current issue of Newsweek magazine. Citing intelligence documents, Newsweek reported that Faris was personally ordered to study ultralight aircraft by Mohammed, who told interrogators that he told Faris to case the Brooklyn Bridge. He also instructed Faris to obtain gas cutters or torches that could be used to cut the bridgeâs suspension wires. Geeze, have these guys never seen a big suspension bridge?
A statement of fact filed in court by the Justice Department said Faris researched the bridge on the World Wide Web and traveled to New York in late 2002 to examine it. Faris concluded that âthe plot to destroy the bridge by severing the cables was very unlikely to succeedâ because of its security and structure and sent a coded message back to al-Qaida leaders: âThe weather is too hot.â "Are you guys nuts?" Newsweek reported that Mohammed also instructed Faris to obtain âtorque toolsâ to bend railroad tracks in order to send a passenger train hurtling off the rails. Washington is home to a major train station that serves the Northeast corridor, as well as the nationâs second-busiest subway system. Faris himself recommended driving a small truck with explosives beneath a commercial airliner as it sat on the tarmac. As a licensed truck driver, Faris could have more easily penetrated airport security than others. Remember that warning on truck drivers? Looks like they were right about that one.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/19/2003 2:52:29 PM ||
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Today's episode of "As The Boeing Turns".EFL
The family of a man believed to have been piloting a Boeing 727 that mysteriously took off and disappeared from an Angolan runway last month today told of their anguish as international authorities fear the jetliner could be used for a terrorist act. The man the U.S. government suspects of piloting the 727 is Benjamin Padilla â a U.S. citizen from Florida. Padilla, too, has vanished, and his family is worried. "I am concerned that he might have been hijacked," Padilla's brother, Joseph, said in an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS. "It's very painful," said Padilla's sister, Benita Kirkland Padilla. "The whole family is in anguish, not knowing what happened to our brother." The last time the family heard from Padilla was on May 14, when Benita received an e-mail from her brother informing her that he was on his way to Africa and would get in touch with his ailing mother as soon as he returned home. But more than a month since their last communication, Padilla has not yet returned home. And with international authorities concerned that the missing jetliner could be used for terrorist purposes, the family maintains that he would never be involved in such a plan. "Personally, I do not believe he has done anything criminal or terrorist-related," Benita told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America today. They always say that, don't they?
The family believes Padilla, a licensed mechanic and pilot, flew to Angola on behalf of Aerospace Sales and Leasing, a Florida-based company that bought the 727 from American Airlines two years ago. The plane had not been moved for more than a year, and his family believes Padilla went to see whether it was fit to fly. Neither Padilla's family nor ABCNEWS has been able to reach anyone at Aerospace Sales and Leasing. No one was at the office when ABCNEWS visited Wednesday and phone calls were not answered. Flew the coop?
Despite the use of satellites to scour the African landscape, and a request to all African embassies for information, U.S. officials said they still have no clue about the plane's location. "We don't have any reliable assessments about what this portends, what it could be, who may be behind it," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Joseph fears that his brother may have lost control of the plane's hydraulics after taking off and is concerned for his safety. "If the plane has gone into the water, satellites can't make it out," he told Good Morning America today. Couldn't see it if it was a hole in the jungle floor either.
Sitting on the runway for a year with no maintenance, that's a good possibility...
Most intelligence officials believe the plane was stolen to run drugs or guns, or as part of an insurance scam. However, they have not ruled out the possibility the plane is in the hands of terrorists â perhaps plotting to target U.S. embassies in Africa. But Benita said she was sure her brother, whom she described as a man with "a sort of nomadic nature," would never voluntarily get involved in any plot against his country's interests. "He was a patriot, he loved his country, he loved to fly," she said. Padilla, from Florida, humm. Name ring a bell?
Posted by: Steve ||
06/19/2003 2:27:03 PM ||
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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.
